Sponge Cake for Petit Fours!

I have been planning a Bridal Shower for my daughter.  Yes, some may think this is inappropriate for the mother of the bride to plan a shower for her daughter.  My mother planned one for me in my home town.  She had put an open invite in the local paper, the Maple Leaf and then prepared an awesome lunch along with all her home baking dainties.  My fiancé was told to not tell me as it was a surprise for me.  My dear husband who can not tell a lie, just went along with what I wanted to do, so that he would not blow the surprise.  We arrived late with a storm developing to see white tablecloths flapping in the wind with everyone inside.  My Mom had converted the backyard to a beautiful setting with circular picnic tables covered with white tablecloths and vases filled with lavender Lilacs.   Inside the house was packed as I was greeted by those that had known me all my life, included some of my elementary school teachers.  How flattering that was!

I think of this beautiful shower as I plan one for my daughter.
I enjoy the planning aspect as I look through my cookbook collection and surf the net for the last couple of weeks.
My list has enlarged as I look for recipes I can freeze. My theme will be a modern version of High Tea celebrated with Bubbly and Strawberries in Hats, Pearls, Gloves and Lace.

I have studied some of the videos on making Petit Fours as I want to do a sponge cake version.  I have made a sponge cake a couple of times but was not pleased with the volume or height of the cake. I made a chocolate jelly roll stuffed with strawberries and whipping cream for my husband's birthday, a Canadian Living recipe.

As I looked at the videos, memories of my Mom came to mind as she made jelly rolls filled with lemon filling often on the farm.  I imagine the ready supply of eggs was the reason for the sponge cake, but also her skill in making this beautiful full jelly roll!  I remember her delicately transferring the cake to a dusted tea towel with icing sugar and rolling the cake to rest.

I studied two sponge cake recipes, the recipes were similar using 6 eggs, one cup of flour and sugar each with added vanilla extract.  One recipe separated the eggs, where as the other used the whole egg.. The eggs needed to be at room temperature and the secret seemed to be beat the egg mixture for 5 minutes.  The eggs can be soaked in hot tap water so that they are room temperature before using

Folding in the stiffen egg whites in to the egg yolk mixture carefully so the mixture does not deflate.

I decided to separate the egg and whip the egg white first, then whipped the egg yolk until fluffy and a lemon color.  This step my Mom always did.

Not being a baker, this made two extra steps of gradually folding in the yolk mixture into the whipped egg whites. then  folding in the flour into the mixture.  Mom would fold this in with very strong folds using a spatula.  I must say I was nervous doing this but the mixture did not deflate before spreading the batter into the prepared cookie sheet or as my Mom called it the jelly roll pan.

The cake cooked quicker than the suggested20 minutes, I took it out in 15 minutes.

The next step was to cut it in thirds, layer with two different jams that had been strained to get rid of the seeds or rind.

I cut the strips into thirds but the pieces could have been smaller yet.

The chocolate glaze was done twice as the first time I added cream to the mixture as it was too thick and when heated it did separate.  I did remake the chocolate glaze, but still found the mixture was too thick and did not pour easily, needed to be spread with a knife, so thicker than I would have liked.  The recipe was looking for a glaze but as in the picture below the glaze was more an icing.. Perhaps using icing sugar and adding lemon juice to make a glaze that is thick, yet pourable would have achieved the desired look. 

Basic Sponge Cake recipe

6  eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
baking sheet,non stick spray, parchment

• Preheat the oven to 375 F 
• Prepare cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, spray and line with parchment paper.
• Separate the egg whites from egg yolks
• Beat the egg whites with a mixer or whisk the whites until fluffy and stiff
• Sift  flour, baking powder and salt together
•  Add the sugar and butter (optional) to the yolks, whisk until thick and creamy
• Fold egg yolk mixture into stiffen egg whites.
• Fold flour using 1//3 c each time until well mixed.
• Do not overmix
•  Spread this mixture evenly 
• Bake it in the oven for 22 to 25 min until done

Yakisoba, Japanese street food

Yakisoba is a classic Japanese Street Food that makes for a quick supper using up leftovers and vegetables that are readily available.

First cook your noodles, drain and toss in tablespoon of oil to prevent them sticking together.

I used Traditional Shirataki white yam noodle substitute which has 0 calories and Hungry Girl Approved.

 Fry in olive oil, thinly sliced cabbage and julienned cut carrots with thinly sliced onions until cooked.
I also added sliced cooked pork loin to the vegetables

Mix 1-2  tablespoon of Ketchup, 1 T Worcestershire sauce and 1 T of Oyster sauce in a small bowl, then add to vegetables

Toss in the noodles and heat until everything is hot!

Garnish with thin slices of Nori, pickled ginger and hot sauce.

This couldn't be any easier and so delicious! My thought was as I plated the noodles, how do they serve this dish on the street of Japan?

Spicy Curried Coconut Peanut Soup with Seafood

While in Halifax last week, Peanut soup was the "Soup of the Day" in two restaurants.  In fact one of the servers rolled his eyes on mentioning this special, which got my curiosity up even more.

Today being a rainy day and the need for soup, I decided to research this recipe and make it as although I need to make a run for groceries before the long weekend, I did have makings for this soup.

I started by sautéing a chopped onion with a couple of chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil in a stock/soup pot.  I added a tablespoon of hot curry powder and a teaspoon of cumin to the hot oil.  I then added chopped carrots, about a half a tin of diced tomatoes, grated ginger, peanut butter and then covered everything in water, brought it to boil then reduced the heat to simmer.

On checking my cupboard I found I did not have a tin of coconut milk, so leaving this pot on simmer (not suggested), I quickly drove to a store in my neighbourhood, but had to drive further for coconut milk.  Yes, there were a few panic calls to my husband who thought I was phoning my

self to find my cell phone! Oh dear, I have to stop doing this!  On returning home, thankfully everything was fine.  I pulsed the mixture with a hand blender.  On tasting the mixture, it was thick and full of flavor, but since I had run out for the coconut milk, I added it in.  One of my pet peeves with coconut milk is that it seems to lose it's flavor once it is cooked!   Now the soup was too thin, which I thickened with cornstarch and water.   I think I would just use more carrots next time then I would not need to thicken it.

I did added shrimp and fish to the soup after it was blended.   I simmer the soup until the seafood was cooked.

Garnishing the soup with Plantain chips and peanuts was certainly welcomed by my husband.

Egg in Scone, Breakfast on the run!

Once again, I am on a mission, to find a way to cook soft runny yolk inside a muffin or scone! My husband makes awesome scones, he follows his recipe exactly and the results are amazing.  To get my husband to make scones other than ham and cheese has been a challenge!  For his batter, he precisely chops and measures very accurately 1 cup of ham and the same for cheese.

 I had seen a recipe for breakfast muffin with an egg in side the muffin, but after the 10th step, I thought this recipe was not for me, plus the yolk was cooked not runny!

A  couple of weeks ago, I saw a recipe for egg in the biscuit, again the egg yolk was cooked.

No matter, how many ways I've seen posted  about how to peel egg shell, this seems to be such a challenge nowadays. Every Easter, I try different methods and different eggs and all seem to result in badly peeled eggs!

Egg in a Cheese and Ham Scone 

Last week when my husband was making scones for Sunday Brunch, I convinced him to experiment with making two egg in biscuits.  I quickly soft boiled the eggs as is suggested by others, only to find myself resorting to using a spoon to dig out the egg out of the shell and deciding to pouch  the eggs for the next test.

This Sunday, my husband decided that we should add sausage patties to the biscuit along with the egg.

Adding the bottom layer to the muffin tin

Husband rolling out the dough

His recipe for Scones made 6 large muffins.   To four of the muffins, I added pre-cooked breakfast patties that I had made and 4 minute pouched eggs. Two of the scones, had uncooked breakfast patty and an uncooked egg.

Pouched eggs

Sausage Patties

Using my large muffin tin, I formed a bottom shell with  the dough, add the patties on the bottom and then the egg and a top of dough.

Breakfast Patties

Apply the top!

The main task is to make sure that the dough can be sealed.

The raw egg did leak out and in fact in one of the scones the yolk actually pop out!

I was surprised that in spite of the very hot oven and cooking time of 15 minutes the eggs that had not been cooked had a runny yolk. I also was pleased that my house did not reck of burned egg!

Breakfast Scones 

The meat and the egg were cooked perfectly

The above picture is of the pre-cooked egg and meat.

The next challenge is to better encase the uncooked egg!

Broccoli Bites

 In planning the St Patrick's menu, I decide to use the Broccoli I had in my refrigerator to make what I called Broccoli bites using broccoli, onion, flour, egg and parmesan cheese.  

Since my Granddaughter does not eat vegetables, I decided to make them into small balls.  However, she developed pink eye and the celebration meal was cancelled.   I had placed the broccoli balls on parchment for baking, so I froze them.  

Last night, I pulled them out for supper.  I baked them at 400 until golden brown, about 30 to 40 mins  as they were frozen. 

2 stocks of broccoli, grated
1 egg
1/2 white onion finely chopped
1/2 c Parmesan Cheese (one could use other shredded cheese)
1/4 cup flour, add more if needed to form a ball

Roll balls in panko or bread crumbs, then dusted them with smoky paprika. 

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden at 375 degrees.

 I watched my granddaughter dipping the bites in a Ranch dressing and eating the appetizer without a complaint!   I think a cheesy dip would be awesome! 

Gnocchi

Gnocchi

The best gnocchi my daughter and I tasted was in a restaurant called "Wanted" (Birreria Moretti), a few blocks from the Colosseum  in Rome.  The tender and light Gnocchi were in a rich cream sauce, tiny bite size, about 1/2 inch in diameter and about 1 1/2 inches long.  The Gnocchi was not fried. We had this twice while in Rome and were not disappointed!

The recipe made by Gord Ramsay appealed to me as it spoke to a recipe that was developed to use leftover potatoes.

I decided to make Gnocchi when babysitting my granddaughter and for my son who picks her up at the end of his day.

After microwaving 4 small red potatoes, I spooned out the potato and mashed it with a fork.  Since I didn't have ricotta cheese as suggested and too lazy to blend the cottage cheese that I had, I added two tablespoons of Plain Greek yogurt, freshly ground pepper and one egg.  Then enough flour to make a soft dough, about 1/2 cup but probably could have added a bit more as red potatoes have a higher water content than yellow ones.  Working with floured hands, divide the dough into half, then roll out the dough into long strip.  Cut the strip into bite size pieces and press with a floured finger an indentation in the middle.  Drop into boiling water and lift out when the gnocchi rises to the top. 

The gnocchi will puff up when boiled.  Have a hot skillet ready with Olive Oil to brown the gnocchi.  Add butter and green peas to the pan.  

I used frozen peas and had to brown the gnocchi in the oven to get that rich golden color.   

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A reflection about a girl (and her puppet)

By Fr. Bo in Community Announcements, Marilyn's Blog on February 10, 2015

I miss Marilyn, but I am in love with  another beautiful girl. 

No, Marilyn the Catechetical puppet has not been replaced, nor has she been found. The sad reality is that she has been missing from our church since some time around New Years. However I have found a new beautiful girl who warms my soul.

This past Sunday after Divine Liturgy one of our youngest parishioners, a child of 2 or 3 years (who’s name I treasure, but did not ask if I could print) together with her dad handed me a orange muppet wearing a pink Disney princess dress. “She knows you miss Marilyn…” conveys the dad, “…so she decided to give you her puppet.”  Her eyes looked into mine to see my reaction as I lifted her precious princess.

Wow! What precious love and concern from a child. Giving her own loved possession to someone else because he is sad, and realizing that she may never get it back. (I will return the puppet today). If this is the state of our youngest people, I know we are in great hands.

As a parent I often forget that God put kids into our world to teach us and to show us what His Kingdom is all about.  To help us grow up. Too often we adults think we need to show “those kids” how to behave properly, when in actuality we need to learn how to pray and play from our kids. Children do things with great sincerely; with their whole hearts. They even trust that their precious puppet friends can serve a greater purpose such as making another person happy.

Over the past week I have spent a ton of time thinking about, and talking about, how we as a church need to focus more on serving our youth. We discussed programs to teach, others for prayer, some to serve with, and others to fundraise with… we talked about how we need more volunteer help (perhaps even hired help) to implement events, evangelize others, work closer with our Catholic Schools. There was a lot of very good and necessary discussion on a very good and necessary topic.

But is our attitude the right one?  Are we hoping to bolster our youth so that we can continue in the future? Or do we recognize our need to be surrounded by young people because they are the teachers and preachers of the present?

“At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” Matthew 11:25-26

It is time for us pay due attention to our little teachers. Let us pour forth our love and our energy into them. For if we do not we will never learn the ways of God.

To my new little sweet-heart: Your beautiful orange princess puppet is in the sacristy waiting for you.  Thank you for letting me have her for a week.

To whom ever may know where Marilyn is: please help us find her.  She has a lot of history.  If she is gone (gasp), let us know (anonymously if need be) and we shall move on.

In Christ,

Fr. Bo