Experiment in the Kitchen - Fudge

Originally, I was going to make a batch of truffles for Con, but as I'm leaving tomorrow morning I opted instead to go ahead and make fudge (which is significantly quicker). The husband has offered for me to take some of the truffles I made for him so we'll see if that's what I end up doing in addition to the fudge.
This batch of fudge I wanted to do something off the wall. I kicked around the idea of making mint fudge again (which would not be baby-poop green like the last batch - an unfortunate color for edibles, regardless of how good they taste - since I now had colorless mint flavoring) or of making cherry but nothing really struck me. Just before I made the batch I thought I might add banana to it - bananas and chocolate go really well together as I know from my truffle endeavors.

So, as I'm heating the butter, sugar and evaporated milk over the stove and I reach up to get the 99 bananas to add flavor to the mix I look up and see the Kahlua bottle. Eureka! I shall make mudslide fudge! I added a generous amount of Kahlua to the pot and proceeded with the directions for making fudge.
The fudge is now in a dish cooling. Both my husband and I have tasted the uncooled chocolate from the spoon and it is tasty, with just a hint of coffee to it. It's not as strong as I could have hoped, but seems to have added a certain depth to the fudge. We'll have to see how it comes out after it has cooled and hardened!

Update: Fudge was taken to con and consumed - everyone who had some said it was very tasty. I think the Kahlua flavor didn't come through quite as strongly as I had wanted it to, but it was still really good. The votes are in: this experiment was a Success!

Experiment in Sewing and in Crafting - KoL Con Costume

This has been an on-going experiment. I was keeping it pretty hush-hush because it's for a contest, but now that the contest is only a couple day away I suppose that it is safe to talk about it - and I'm super excited about it!

What contest is this, do you ask? Why, none other than the KoL Con 6 Costume Contest! I may also wear my gear to the LARP (which is actually what inspired the costume idea in the first place) but as of right now I know for sure that I'll be wearing it to the costume contest. My idea was to do an entire KoL costume from the game. This consists of a hat, a shirt, a two-handed weapon (or a one-handed weapon and an off hand, or 2 one-handed weapons), a pair of pants and three accessories.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Tomato Cream Pasta Sauce

I am a blog failure. I haven't updated in a long time due to working on actually getting settled here in Ohio - not that I haven't been doing quite a few things in the kitchen and in sewing but I just haven't had the time to blog them. Expect a few back posts to follow this one.

Tonight is not so much an experiment as a revision of a previous recipe with a few tweaks. I am making spaghetti in a tomato-cream sauce this evening. The tweaks come in to the sauce and the ingredients I used in it.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Pesto Success!

Post from the past

Pesto, Take Two!

I have once again attempted to make homemade pesto. This time, I managed to find really fresh basil (and the Kroger, go figure). I also had a bit of red wine vinegar to add to it.

I made the pesto in the blender with two of the blister packs of basil, a goodly amount of olive oil, some Parmesan cheese, a splash of red wine vinegar and a clove of diced garlic. I blended it together until it was an even consistency throughout and was liquidy enough to be a sauce. I then poured it over some tortellini and tossed them together.

It was delicious! The pesto was everything I could have hoped. Fresh ingredients was the key, I think, as well as that bit of vinegar to really bring the flavors together in what I think of as pesto. Super tasty and I will be sure to make it again. This was a Success!

Experiment in the Kitchen - Butterscotch Honor Cake

Post from the past!

Today is my husband's birthday. In addition to a handful of practical presents, the girls and I all decided that what he really needed for his birthday was a cake! How could we have a birthday with no cake?!?
Husband had the car today, so that meant that I could only bake with what ingredients I had in the house. Normally this wouldn't be a terribly difficult task - I keep my pantry and cupboards pretty well stocked - but (as I discovered) apparently while moving I had decided to get rid of a couple staples (read: vanilla, baking soda, baking powder) that would make most cakes impossible with the ingredients in the house. We also didn't have any frosting nor any powdered sugar for me to make some. Dilemma!

Experiment in the Kitchen - Caramel Apple and Bananas Foster Truffles

Post from the past!

Caramel truffles sounded like a very good idea. As a matter of fact, I fixated on these for quite some time (since August 14th, to be specific, when I had the idea after we went out for our anniversary dinner). I first came up with the idea for Bananas Foster truffles - white chocolate or vanilla shells, flavored with banana and rum, encasing caramel. This expanded slightly to include the idea for candy apple truffles - in which the shell would be apple flavored.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Pesto

Tonight I have managed the seemingly impossible! After many months of longingly wishing to make home-made Pesto (and not getting off my ass to get the ingredients for it) I have gone forth and done so!
This is not as easy as it sounds - or, at least, it wasn't for me. The biggest set back? Acquiring fresh basil here in Ohio. In California, fresh herbs are in every supermarket. So I never thought about the potential difficulties in acquiring fresh herbs with which to cook with. I'd just go to the supermarket and pick some up, right?
Wrong! Apparently here in Ohio it is a monumental task to track down and purchase some fresh basil. Luckily, after calling a couple stores (and one abortive attempt to visit the grocery store we frequent) I found a store that carried some. I went there (in the pouring rain... wtf with the weather here?!?) and located their little plastic blister packs of fresh herbs. Wary because I couldn't view the contents easily, I got all the packs they had - 4 - in the hopes that between them there would be enough basil that wasn't bad which I could use to make the sauce.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Beef Stew / Biscuits / Salad / Strawberry and Raspberry Shortcake

Tonight, for the first time since we moved in, we had people over! Yay! So, of course, me being the crazy person I was, I was determined that the dinner be as awesome as I could manage.

I started with stew - which is a staple of mine. I make my stew with the following:

• 1 Can Beef Broth
• 1 Can Golden Mushroom (Campbell's)
• 1 sm pkg Baby Carrots
• Approx. 4 Stalks of Celery (sliced small)
• 3 lg (or 6 sm) Red Potatoes (sliced into bite-sized chunks)
• Approx. 2# Beef Stew Meat
• 1 pkg (or equiv) Instant Mashed Potatoes

Experiment in Life - Moving to Ohio

This week's experiment? Driving cross-country with two young children! Sounds kinda crazy, huh? We are actually currently on day 3 (everyone is still asleep - I, for some reason, woke up at 6:30am). Day one saw us driving from the North Bay area of California down to San Luis Obispo, CA. We got a hotel there, saw some friends, did some rather necessary shopping for things (books on cd, drinks for the car, etc) and then headed out at around 1:00 pm. This set us back a bit - we were actually suppose to drive down to SLO, visit, and then head on to Bakersfield with the intention of making Flagstaff, AZ on day 2. But, que sera sera, we are taking this trip as it comes. Day 2 saw us make it to Kingman, AZ - which is where I blog to you from now. We got a hotel at about 9 at night and thank goodness we did! I don't think the kids could have survived in the car another minute at that point!

For the most part, the kids have been well behaved. We got an in-the-car dvd player with a split screen so they can watch movies. Our eldest just had her birthday (as previously blogged about) and we bought her a Leapster handheld game thing and her Grandmother got her an mp3 player. They also have lap trays and coloring things and soe stuffed animals to keep them company. We have a cd player and got them some books on cd as well. So, you know, we have a large pool of items back there to keep them from going stir crazy.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Pesto Parmesan Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Experiment for today is Pesto-Parmesan Stuffed Chicken Breasts. I blended some Pesto from Costco, a bit of Kraft Parmesan Cheese and some garlic salt in a bowl. I then took the chicken breasts (with skin and bones - I wanted skin but no bones, but have yet to find it) and defrosted them.

I was a bit miffed to find that what I thought were 4 chicken breast halves were actually 6 - a bit much for our family, even with my Mother staying with us - but decided to just go with it. I laid each chicken breast down on a cookie sheet and carefully pulled up on the skins until they separated from the meat below. I then stuffed the pesto-parmesan mixture into the pocket created. Turns out I had just exactly the right amount to do 6 breasts - yay! I also smeared some of the mixture on the bits of chicken where there was no skin.

After that was accomplished, I cut a sliver of butter for each breast, laying them gently on top of the skin. I stuck my awesome in-the-oven-but-outside-reading digital meat thermometer into the meatiest part of the biggest breast, popped them in the oven at 375F and that was that. They should be out of the oven in a little while (I'm guessing about 45 minutes or so). At that time I'll update to say how things turned out.

Update: Sorry for the delay in the update (see crazy life mentioned in previous blog for excuse)! The chicken turned out wonderfully moist and delicious. The skin was crispy, the pesto-parmesan became slightly crunchy and the flavor it added to the chicken was sublime. I will definitely be trying this again! This experiment was a Success!

Experiment in Sewing - Capes!

Last night, I finally bit the bullet. Yes, I finally got started on getting all the party things ready for my eldest's (and her cousin's) 6th birthday party. The theme? Superheroes. The goal? To have an awesome party (and possibly top last year's Princess theme). The Mom? Freaking crazy, apparently.

My tasks started simply enough. I was originally just suppose to make 15 capes, handle cake arrangements for our cake (I demanded that each child get their own cake - and their own candles! - due to hang-ups from my own childhood's shared birthdays) and invite 15 kids. Of course, I couldn't have it be that simple!

Let's start by saying that the birthday party happens to be two days before we are leaving for Ohio. Oh, and that my daughter has a dance recital the day before, the day of and the day after the party. So, amidst packing and organizing and arranging our lives so that they can be shipped most of the way across the country, I also have to make sure that my daughter makes her dress rehearsal and all 3 show days. And I need to make things for the party, get invites out and get all of us to the park on time. Did I say freaking crazy? Let's up that to "where are the nice men in their clean white coats?"

Experiments in the Kitchen and Life - Blogging / Raspberry Almond Truffles

So, today amidst the chaos of packing the house to move across the country, I have decided to start a blog. Yay, right? The idea came to me while I was in the beginning process of making truffles (the latest in what will probably eventually be a long line of "hey, I could do that!" experiments for me).

Now, normally I would just twitter about any random daily revelations. Yet as I was sitting at my dining room table, methodically filling in the molds with what will become the outer shells of my truffles while at the same time trying to figure out how to reduce my revelations to a 140-character tidbit, I realized the futility of the exercise.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love twitter and think that it has an excellent place (especially when the thoughts are truly random) but for something like this that 140-character limit was just too... limiting! So the idea for a blog was born. A place to record various experiments (either in the kitchen our outside of them as I go about other activities in my life) and whether or not they were successes. A place to note down observations - why I think something did or did not work - and perhaps (once I get some readers) get some feedback from others out there who have had similar experiments/experiences in their own life.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Chicken Adobo

Posts from the past!

On this day I attempted to make chicken adobo (a recipe from my husband's childhood - we have had it a couple times previously and once when his mother was visiting and made it for us). Normally, this is a dish cooked for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in the oven at 350F. It is one whole chicken, cut up; a cup and a half of soy sauce; a half cup of water; and 3/4 cup of vinegar served over rice.

Now, I thought that this would be a recipe that would lend itself well to being in the crockpot - a recipe that needs to cook for a decent length of time, has a goodly amount of liquid and where the meat would taste good the more tender you managed to get it. Unfortunately, due to some quirk of physics, this was not to be the case. The chicken came out strangely dry and stringy after it's time spent in the food sauna and the flavor did not penetrate well. All in all, this experiment was a Failure.