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

gaggles of calla lillies

for Marcia's orange wedding cake.....will be shades of orange, fondant draping and calla lillies.....if all goes to plan! TBC

Garden Veg Crostata

 

Perfect crostata dough 

for any summer garden vegetable

1 c flour

1/2 c cornmeal

1 t baking powder

1 t salt

mix in bowl

rub in one stick (4oz) butter til tiny crumbles all throughout

(or, put in food processor, process til fine crumbly)

put back in bowl

pour in 1/2 c ice water, or ice water and a splish of cream, or sour cream

and mix til dough comes together (do this step by hand)

wrap dough in plastic and place in fridge for a few hours before rolling out.

to make: roll out crust thinly, fill with garden veg tossed w some salt pepper olive oil, cheese herbs whatnot

and bake 375 til brown or bubbly or both

serve over bed of mixed greens or arugula lightly dressed w your fav vinaigrette

Below, w a variety of tomatoes, corn, feta, herbs

meanwhile were also getting excited for the kimono ride

Slice tomatoes!!!

Lovely Vegetable Terrine

Oven roasted some eggplant slices in olive oil, s and p - sauteed mushrooms and spinach, sliced a tomato thinly, layered the entire thing all pretty with cheese in between for a pretty terrine. baked, weighed it down, chilled and cut out rounds, stacking 2 on each other. heated it up and topped w parmy. Good cold, too.

Fascinating nature

Neglected to eat this sweet potato in a timely fashion and noticed it had sprouted....a week later it's like a tiny forest. Now leaving it alone to see how big it will grow. Sweet potato tree!

Caramels

painting Japanese style flowers on pink tinted white choc dipped caramels

Love Productions

Love Collection Truffles and  Heart Petit Fours