Petit Fours

What are petit fours? The ones I made were two layers of dainty cake, topped with home-made buttercream and raspberry jelly. Then, they were covered in a chocolate glaze. The above picture showed what I had in mind what they would look like when finished.
This took me all day to make. There are 4 recipes involved, plus the work of assembling them. Instead of posting the recipes, I will refer you to the Joy of Cooking 75th anniversary edition for the recipes I followed.

Petit Four recipe (pg 738)

For cake batter: Lady Cake (pg 713)

For chocolate glaze: Buttersweet Chocolate Glaze (pg 796)

Buttercream recipe: Classic Buttercream (pg 792)

The trickiest part of this was making the buttercream. You're supposed to boil sugar and water until it turns into a syrup and then pour into an egg mix while blending before you add the butter.
So here is a picture of my first attempt at Petit Fours. They're not as pretty as the pic above, but they are delicious!

Shopping List for the above recipes:
Sugar
Cream of Tartar
Eggs
Unsalted butter (6 sticks)
Jam
Cake flour
Baking Powder
Salt
Milk
Almond Extract
Zest of 1 lemon (I did 1/2 tsp lemon juice)
Semi-sweet baking chocolate
1-2 tbsp liqueur

As you can see, it's likely you have all the ingredients already if you're into baking. The challenge is in all the work.

Sprouted Wheat Berries

A whole grain like wheat berry is made of 3 main parts: The Bran, the Germ, and the Endosperm. The bran contains most of the vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The germ, contains most of the protein, and all of the fat, the Endosperm is mostly starch and some protein.
Most of the nutritional content is contained in the germ and the bran. Alot of processed flour has removed the bran and the germ to increase shelf life. This means that most store-bought flour is just made out of the Endosperm. I got this info in The Joy of Cooking, under 'Grains'.

This is what one website said about the benefits of eating sprouted grains:
Sprouted grain breads are significantly higher in protein, vitamins and enzymes, and the complex starches are converted into natural sugars. They are also low GI, so they are digested more slowly by the body, keeping the blood sugar levels stable for longer, making people feel more satisfied. This leads to snacking less. It is interesting to note that the more highly processed a food is, the higher GI it is. A loaf of white bread is significantly higher GI than a loaf of sprouted grain bread.

The site is: http://www.naturaltherapypages.com.au/article/Benefits_Sprouted_Grains

Sprouting Wheat Berries:
Fill a stocking with about 2 cups of seed.
Soak it really well, and hang it up over the sink to drain.
Rinse the seed 3 times a day for 2-3 days, until the seeds sprout little tails.
When the tails are about 1/4" long, dump them on a pan to dry out.

When they're wet, you can eat them as is on salad, etc. I dried mine thoroughly, and ground it up in my vitamix using their special grain-grinding container. I ended up with about 3 cups of flour that I used for my beer bread.

Beer Bread

MAKES ONE 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-INCH LOAF

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 1 12-ounce bottle beer
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375° F. Generously butter 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inch loaf pan. Mix together the flour and salt; add beer and mix well. Pour into loaf pan. Top the batter with the egg; do not mix in. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, until top is golden brown. Remove from oven and spread top with 1 tablespoon of butter. Cool slightly before removing from pan and serve warm.

Notes: Salted butter or margarine may be substituted for unsalted butter, but omit the salt in the recipe.

Lamb Stew/Roast

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb lamb stew meat (or roast)
1 lb sliced potatoes
1 large onion
1 lb baby carrots (or sliced adults)
1-2 beers
Fresh Thyme (handful)
Salt & Pepper
Garlic powder
Balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Brown lamb meat and season. Throw in crock pot.
Add potatoes, sliced onion, carrots and beers (2 beers for it to be more 'stewy')
Season everything to taste.
Slow cook 8-10 hours.
Add fresh thyme in the last hour as well.

Domestic Updates

None of these are worth their own post, but I figure they are if they're all put together.

Just got my Melaleuca order. Their tub & tile cleaner made my bathroom beautiful. And there are no abrasive chemicals as it is biodegradable. If anyone local wants a catalogue I have one. Or you can visit www.melaleuca.com If you decide to join, make sure you join under me so I get credit.

We finally had a plumber out to snake out our septic line and kitchen sink. I totally recommend Walter W. King plumbing 301 473 4330. Their price was more than fair, about $100 less than I expected. So for the first time in 3 months, I washed dishes in my kitchen sink. That is, after polishing it per Fly Lady's laws. (www.flylady.org)

I also have Bed Bath & Beyond coupons if anyone wants them. Don't ever shop there without a bunch of coupons! They are usually 20% off coupons, and you can use one per item with no limit to how many you use. You can even bring back coupons with a receipt that says you paid full price, and they'll issue store credit. Also, the store dosen't care if the coupons are expired.

I'm about to freecycle a bag of baby/toddler toys. It contains plastic links, some small stuffed animals, a few happy meal toys, a mat for imagination play, etc... Let me know quickly if you want to come over and pick them up. Freecycle.org puts you in touch with a local Yahoo group where you can post offer and wanted ads for free stuff you don't use any more.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

A spaghetti squash strings up like spaghetti when it's cooked. So instead of spaghetti noodles in my meat sauce, I put spaghetti squash in it. Totally eliminates the carbs.

The only complaints I have heard about this recipe is that people expect it to have the same texture as regular spaghetti, and keep comparing it to the more familiar dish. It's not going to be even a close replacement for noodles. If you can get past that, and view it more as some kind of thick stew, you'll love it.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375
Puncture squash all over with a knife. Put in baking dish
Bake about an hour

Cook 1 lb ground beef in a medium-large pot
Add one onion, finely chopped and saute'
Season to taste
Add 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
Heat up

Take squash from oven, and cool until you can handle.
Slice squash in half, spoon out seeds and center pulp, discard.
Take a fork and run it longways thru the rest of the squash. It should shread up like spaghetti.
Add to the meat sauce and stir in well.

Pot Roast

It was cold and rainy today. I thought it was a perfect day to make pot roast. Even though I would have made pot roast no matter what the weather was.

I always use my crock pot. I throw in potatoes on the bottom, then the veggies, then the meat. Usually, I use carrots and celery, but I had other stuff in my fridge.

Here's what I did:

Brown 1 lb beef cut into quarters. Salt, pepper and garlic powder. Set aside.
Fry sliced potatoes (2 potatoes) Throw in crock pot
Fry eggplant slices. Throw in crock pot
Fry one onion, sliced. Throw in crock pot.
Put meat on top. Close the lid. Cook on high 4-5 hours.

Make sure you season every thing you add to taste.

Also, with a crock pot, try not to open the lid and peek. Each time you open it adds 15 more minutes of cook time. Plus, opening the lid helps the juices and flavor escape. You wouldn't want that.

If you don't like how your pot roast turned out, you can save it. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar to each serving and mix it up. That will fix anything. Or ketchup, but that's a little too obvious.