Evening of Ancient Greece!

Greek Patatas: 4 # Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered. Place in large deep pan and add, 1/2 to one cup chicken stock, 1/2 c oilve oil, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 T kosher salt, fshgrnd pepper, 1 T tomato sauce, 1 t chopped fresh oregano and 1 t dried, about one clove garlic, pureed. Mix all and pour over potatoes. Roast at 500 oven, turning once, for about 40 minutes or until lusciously browned all over. Keep basting with juices, esp when you turn, and add more midway if necessary.

Greek Cod: Place 6-8 cod filets (3 oz each- roll thinner ones under) in deep baking dish. Pour over, 1/2 c fresh lemon juice, 1 stick of butter, melted, salt and pepper and oregano. place lemon slice on each filet, bake 350 for about 20 min, covered with foil.....til fork easily inserts

Spanokopita: Dough- 1 c warm water (bit more if needed), 1 T red wine vinegar, 1/2 c olive oil, t salt,250 g wheat flour, 250 g unbleached white flour. Mix til dough comes together, wrap in saran and rest for about 1/2 hour before rolling out. Dough should be smooth, soft,pliable.
Filling (on this night)
2 10 oz pkgs frozen spinach, well drained and thawed
2 heads fresh broccoli, chopped finely
1 small vidalia onion, diced
3 oz sharp cheddar cheese
10 oz feta
2 eggs
3 t dried dill weed
2 T olive oil
Saute diced onion in olive oil. Add salt, pepper and dill. Add broccoli and spinach. Cool. In large bowl, stir broc and spinmixture with cheeses and eggs, beaten.
Roll out filo til see thru, place in oiled pan. Fill with filling, Roll up filo around. bake, 350, until beautiful and browned.

Xmas Morn

the xmas baked french toast!

the xmas sox!

the xmas blouse! THe xmas twee!!

Xmas eve 2012

The world didn't end....all calm and lovely......ravioli making nite.....about 1/2 c spinach very well drained, blend in cuisinart with 1 cup wheat and 1 cup unbleached white four, about 1/2 c warm water and 2 T olive oil, blend til dough. Let rest, roll superthin. We filled with a pint of Ricotta mixed w one egg, s and p, and about a 1/4 cup mozarella and some parmy beat in. Then I threw in about 2 cups of arugula. Funny thing, when we ate it, with the tomato cream pesto sauce we made, we realized it was green and red, unwittingly. Merry Xmas! It's a Wonderful Life on channel 5.

Good loaf

Multi-stuffs loaf:
(I like to toss all in cuisinart....but can do by hand in bowl or kitchen aid)

Pour in 1 1/2 c warm water.
add:

3/4 T yeast
3/4 T honey
3/4 T kosher salt
let sit a few minutes til foamy.

add:
1/4 c ground flaxmeal
1/4 c sunflower seeds
2 c whole wheat flour
1 - 11/2 c unbleached white flour

mix for a minute til dough pulls to one side, remove,
knead, adding more flour if needed, until a smooth ball of dough.
grease a stainless bowl with butter or olive oil, coat dough on all sides, cover with towel
or plastic and let rise in a warm place (on top of a low oven is good) for 1 hour.

on sheet pan sprinkled with corn meal, shape loaves.
brush with melted butter.

let rise another 1/2 hour or so....
preheat oven to 425
(recipe will make 2 slender french loaves)
slash tops if you want

bake loaves about 25 mins, or until brown and hollow sounding when thumped. Let cool a bit, slice and slather w butter

Fall in Love! Part !!!

Gorgeous October night, beautiful bride and groom, in tones of orange and with maskies!And, pierogi!

Fall in Love Wedding Cake, Part deux!

 spent week before making lillies in shades of oranges yellows and whites, Marcia's invite was orange and wanted to match it. Decided to keep the leaves orange, as well, for blending in to the orange fabric fondant that would be draped on the cake.

The sheet cake, below, would not be on display, just portioned and cut by the caterers in back after the ceremonial cake cutting.

Fall in love wedding cake! part 1, construction!

The filling to this cake is my favorite, and I think one of the best cakes ever. Sort of an Italian wedding cake, the first layer is of a creamy cannoli filling with flakes of Scharffen berger bittersweet chocolate throughout......the second layer is filled with organic whipped cream and Mascarpone cheese, with fresh strawberries. The whole cake is encased in Italian meringue buttercream, then wrapped in rolled fondant that has been tinted orange to match invite. I had thisvision of a deep orange cake. Reminds me of the bride - shes bold, fun, sexy and classy!

After covering each layer in the fondant, put the bottom layer on the marble. Then insert wooden rods for support, and glue on the top layer....

get it on, right in the right spot......it's cool about wedding cakes, at each step something could go horribly wrong, and then you almost have to regroup and begin again. The pastry gods were with me on this day.....after i got the layers together and the fondant on smoothly I breathed some heavy relief.

Fabric swaths out of fondant, pink dragees border....and then gluing on the flowers with more buttercream tinted orange.....see next post!

For M Kapa, Friday Oct. 26th