Thursday, September 24, 2009

What's Fizzing?

More so than cooking, my real passion lies in baking. It's probably linked to my overall obsession with dessert, but nonetheless, given the choice, I would prefer to bake. Having said that, I have had my share of baking triumphs and disasters, but one of my most recent predicatments took me by surprise!

One of my favorite breakfast things to make is coffee cake. It's cake for breakfast, how can you not love it?! And one of my favorite recipes is a Blueberry Buckle one that has been in my family as long as I can remember. My mom used to make it for me when I came home from college and the smell of it coming out of the oven was too good to resist. Honestly, if you make this recipe, there is no way you're going to be able to wait to later to have a piece! Fresh out of the oven, hot, warm, and melt-in-your-mouth is the only way to go!

Anyway, the last time I made this recipe, I made it in the late summer when the blueberries were still in season but it was still incredibly warm and humid. The recipe goes together easily and has to bake in the oven for 35 minutes and of course, once I took it out, I immediately had a piece (burnt my mouth in process, but it was worth it). Now the recipe never says that it needs to be refrigerated and it really doesn't. I never had refrigerated it in the past, so why would I now? Unfortunately, I failed to add into account the extremely humid temperatures occurring at the moment. So I went along with my original plan, let the Blueberry Buckle cool completely, covered it, and left it on the counter.

Now, pop quiz, what happens when you have fresh berries, air tight containers, and extremely humid temperatures? That's right, instant fermentation. The next time I took the lid off to have some I heard this weird fizzing sound and could not figure out where it was coming from. That's when I noticed that it was the coffee cake that was fizzing. It still looked like Blueberry Buckle, but WHOA, it did NOT smell like it anymore! That alcohol, bitter smell filled the kitchen and sad to say, I had to dump the whole thing. Sad.

My word of advice, if you make anything with fresh berries and you're in a humid location, just be safe and refrigerate it. Unless you like that fermentation taste and alcohol smell, then my dish turned out perfect!

If you want the recipe, let me know and I'll post it. Because it really is irresistible!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Cheeseburger + Taco = Yum!

My latest cooking attempt was making Cheeseburger Tacos, found at pillsbury.com (I posted the link to the recipe below too, if you want to check it out). I initially chose this recipe since it was easy and quick, and let's face it, I'm just too tired after working all day to put a whole lot of effort into dinner (even though I love cooking). My thought process also proceeded along the lines of: Cheeseburger = good, Tacos = good, Cheeseburger Tacos = very good!

First of all, the meal goes amazingly fast if you cook the ground beef ahead of time (I always use the leanest ground sirloin I can get too). In addition to the meat, the recipe mostly consists of cheese and salsa sauce (I used medium to get an extra kick), taco shells, cheese slices (2% American Kraft is my choice), and any extra toppings your heart desires. For my toppings, I added additional salsa to my taco. But you could choose to add lettuce, tomato, onions, etc, however, my husband is anti-vegetable so we tend to leave them out in some recipes per his request.

Overall, the tacos end up being a shell of cheesy goodness. Cheese in the sauce, cheese in the taco shell, what more could you ask for. And further more, how could that taste bad?! I was incredibly happy with the simple and delicious recipe that I'm sure I will be making it again in the future.

This recipe is definitely a keeper.

http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/ShowRecipe.aspx?rid=18699

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

French Toast Tartar

French toast. One of my all-time favorite breakfast foods. Delicious with just about anything (strawberries, whipped cream, maple syrup, strawberry jam, butter), but overall, pretty easy to make. Unfortunately yesterday was not my day.

I had been planning to make my delicious french toast recipe (passed down from my mom) on Labor Day for days! I had been craving it, drooling over it, and probably dreaming about it in my sleep...So when I woke up on Monday I got right into the kitchen and started cooking. Mixed up my batter, heated my griddle, and got my spatula (pink of course). Now, you think the batter would be the part where I screwed up, but nope. I dipped my bread wrong (if that even seems possible). Having mixed my batter in a batter bowl, I had to push the bread all the way into the batter to soak both sides (rather than just flipping it in the mixture). This made my toast extremely soggy. You also might think I might have noticed there was a problem before I threw it on the griddle, but you would be wrong again. I placed my toast on the griddle, let it cook, flipped it, and removed it once it was perfectly golden brown on both sides. My husband and I sit down to eat and dive into our first bites. Finding out all too soon that the centers of my toast are eggy, soggy, and not at all cooked.

The toast may have been salvageable, but I was not sure what would have been the next step. Do I put it back on the griddle? Bake it in the oven? Just pop it in the microwave? I was lost, frustrated, and hungry. I was unable to trouble-shoot my french toast fiasco.

If you plan to make french toast in the near future, I would recommend not soaking your bread as heavily as I did, or, just simply check that first piece of toast to make sure it is indeed...done.

F.Y.I My favorite way to eat french toast is with strawberry jam, made with the freezer jam recipe on the Sure-Jell box. It is amazing and I could eat that stuff by the jar-full! Highly recommend trying it yourself if you like jam!