If it wasn’t already clear, I been taking a bit of an (unintentional) break from the blog. Work has been super-busy, I’m taking another graphic design class, and, well, I don’t know, I just haven’t been posting.

I’ve got a few good recipes waiting in the wings, and lots more ideas floating around in my head, so I’ll be back.

See you soon.

Seriously worth the few minutes. In fact, I’m going to watch it again. As my husband just said, “Oh, that’s why you don’t want to use tables.” Plus a whole bunch of other insights.

Thanks Neatorama!

…and without a KitchenAid mixer, electric beater, or even a mechanical eggbeater. Yep, it is possible to whip up egg whites by hand, just be prepared to put in a little elbow grease.

After making lemon-lime curd with 5 egg yolks, I couldn’t let those egg whites go to waste, and meringues sounded lovely. So I pulled out the whisk, and started to work. Let me tell you, it is quite a bit of work to beat egg whites by hand, but I think it was worth it. The meringues turned out light and airy and a mere five egg whites turned into two full cookie sheets of meringues. My oven temperature needs a little perfecting, as they browned just a little more than I would have liked (se picture below), but they got eaten up quickly anyway. My husband was a big fan, especially since gluten-free cookies like meringues are the only cookies can eat.

As usual, I pulled together a recipe from various sources around food blogs. Instead of the usual vanilla, I opted for a little almond extract, which turned out to be a good choice. And you know, there’s all sorts of fancy techniques out there, like straining the egg whites, aging the egg whites in a bowl in the fridge, rubbing the bowl with a lemon, squirting the meringues out of a pastry bag, and I skipped all of them, and these turned out just fine. (And to tell you the truth, I even just eyeballed the sugar, so I’m estimating the measurement here. I really recommend just using your judgment, especially when it’s not crucial to the chemistry of the recipe, as there’s no better way to hone your skills in the kitchen, or at least to end up with food YOU want to eat.)

Meringues

• 6 Egg Whites
• 1/2 C. Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Almond or Vanilla extract

Start by whipping the egg whites. If you do this by hand, be prepared to whisk for about 20-30 minutes. I’m not sure how long it will take in a mixer, but whip until they are stiff. I found that if I stopped whisking, the egg whites began to separate out again, so I really had to keep going. Add the sugar and flavoring and keep beating or whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Spoon (or pipe) onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat (or parchment paper), and bake in a low oven (220 degrees) for an hour and a half or more, until the meringues have dried out.

For more traditional, pure white meringues, this recipe looks good. Let me know if you try it!

Lemon curd is a fantastic idea. Sweet, tart, and a beautiful rich yellow color make it highly appealing, and I figured homemade could only surpass expectations. Well it did, and it’s sure tasty. The only problem is, I don’t really have a good use for it. It’s wildy delicious when licked off the end of a spoon, but spread it on bread? No thanks, too sweet. Perhaps I need to find a good shortbread recipe or cake to use it as the filling for. As it is, I made it a couple weeks ago and have barely touched the stuff. And they say to only keep it for three weeks or so, so I better figure it out quick.

The basic ingredients, eggs, butter, sugar, lemon, will spoil without the preservatives added to supermarket-bound varieties.

When choosing a recipe, I came across several that asked for whole eggs, and several just egg yolks. All used plenty of butter and sugar, and both juice and zest of lemons. As I had lemons, limes, AND and orange on my counter, I went with the zest from all three, and juice from the first two only. The orange juice didn’t seem tart enough. Also, as lemon curd is a British phenomenon, most of the recipes out there are in metric measurements. Mostly out of the sheer laziness of not wanting to convert from metric, I went with Alton Brown’s recipe, with some variations from various other sources.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it!

Lemon-Lime (and Orange) Curd

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/3 C. sour citrus juice, plus zest
• 1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Mix egg yolks, sugar, and citrus juice and zest in a blender. When combined, pour mixture into a small pan and heat over low heat, whisking constantly, until it turns light yellow and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and whisk in the pats of butter one at a time. Throw it in a clean jar and cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap directly touching the curd.

Voila! Delicious stuff that I don’t know what to do with!

I teased you a few days a week and a half ago with promises of dishes I would make and post, and then did no such thing. I’ve been lazy about posting, but I wanted to let you know that there are good things to be written about, and there are pictures of them in my camera!

Coming soon are recipes for lemon-lime curd, almond meringues, and best of all, homemade mozzarella!

In the meantime, be entertained with a funny food fight. (It goes on a little long, but it’s worth a few moments for a chuckle at least.)

As if you (dear Internet) really wanted an update. But I want to talk about me, so here goes.

I haven’t posted a new recipe in a couple weeks, but it’s not for lack of cooking. Jeremy and I have been resetting our metabolisms (I don’t think that’s a word that’s usually plural) by doing Phase 1 of the South Beach diet, and while we’ve eaten well, I haven’t really cooked anything new. I’ve repeated some favorite recipes, and generally made very simple food, like last night’s sauteed Brussels Sprouts, with a little butter, a little garlic, and not much else. (They’re delicious like that, by the way.)

I’ve called off the diet a few days early, it was impacting my training for The Relay. The thing about a diet of vegetables, lean meats, and low fat cheeses, is that while my energy level over the course of the day was quite good, my energy for running was not so hot. When on Day 9 I still hadn’t kicked the feeling that my muscles had been soaking in lead after the first, oh, 60 seconds or so of running, I decided it was time for some more carbs. Oh yeah, baby, gimme some sugar. So we’ll see how that first run goes tomorrow with the store of glycogen in my muscles somewhat replenished.

The other thing that’s happened recently is that I’ve just gotten lazy with the camera. And it’s so unrewarding to post a recipe without a picture. It makes me feel like a total half-ass. I know I don’t read blogs without pictures, so why should I expect you to? And, I already have it on my to-do list (my mental to-do list, at least) to go back and make the recipes I posted before we got the camera, and add an image or two to those posts, so the last thing I want to do is to post yet another recipe of something I haven’t taken a picture of.

So you see? Many reasons for the lack of recipe posting. But I promise that will all end this weekend. I have big plans. I may not get to them all, but I promise to make something delicious, and show it to you for your reading (and viewing) pleasure.

In the meantime, here’s one of my favorite photos. (I still haven’t eaten much refined sugar lately, so I’m drooling a bit over chocolate.)

xkcd published a fantastic little drawing today. Be sure to click on the link to read alternate text.

As if they weren’t already obvious.

Anyways, I thought this was hilarious. You have to have seen the original “Yes, We Can” video, so if you haven’t seen it yet, click here first.

Thanks Neatorama!

Walnut baguette from Bay Bread, with Gorgonzola Cremificato and Olallieberry Honey.

For those of you who know me, I’ve been pretty public about my severe lactose intolerance for quite some now. A few years ago, I just completely gave up dairy products (except butter), deciding they were just not for me.

Recently, however, I’ve found some new sources of information, and have been looking into lactose contents of different dairy products, and found out that many cheeses really don’t have much lactose in them, as the cheesemaking process by definition separates the curds (milk proteins), from the whey (milk sugars, a.k.a. lactose), and discards the latter portion.

Well, HALLELUJAH!!

I feel as though I have been reborn back into the world of cheese!

At first I experimented cautiously, a little at a time, particularly keeping on the lookout for cheeses with zero carbohydrates listed in the nutrition facts (0 carbs = 0 sugar = 0 lactose). And as I’ve continued to try more variety, I’ve been fine.

Now, I don’t know if cheese is a big deal for you, but it was VERY difficult for me to give it up when I did, and I’d always cheat here and there in the beginning, so I never could tell what was causing my stomach upset. Now that I’ve been able to reincorporate cheese into my diet, well, it’s just great. That’s all I can say about it. Really fantastically deliciously mouth-wateringly great.

Case in point: This completely divine combination of a slice of a fresh walnut baguette, with a bit of creamy, smelly, and wonderful Gorgonzola Cremificato (it’s like a very creamy and not crumbly blue cheese, with even more depth of flavor) and a drizzle of olallieberry honey that’s crystallized a bit from being in my cupboard for a while.

and…

And, yes, I even licked the plate.

I’ve been dreaming of country-living, growing vegetables, and putting up food for the winter, so when I read Molly of Orangette’s description of all the pickles she and her husband made to serve at their wedding, I couldn’t resist.

There are lots of different types of pickles, from fresh pickles that stay in the fridge, the vinegared type that will stay good in your pantry for years. (Just this Christmas, we got to enjoy a last jar of my Grandmother’s famous sweet pickles. My Grandmother passed away several years ago, and it was lovely remember her with a taste of something she made herself. That’s not too morbid, is it?)

Anyways, I got in the mood to make some pickles, put up food for the winter, prepare for the cold season, and all of that. Then I realized it’s already the middle of winter, and I live in California, where we can get fresh vegetables all year, right down the street at the best Farmer’s Market in the area… but I still love the IDEA of putting up food to last the winter, or at least to last while things are out of season, which does happen even here in California. And besides, that sweet/sour pickley taste sounded awfully good!

Deb at Smitten Kitchen had recently posted a recipe for pickled carrot sticks. And then, the day I was pickle-obsessed, Elise at Simply Recipes posted a recipe for pickled red onions, so the fates were conspiring towards pickles, and I listened.

They’re both quite lovely. Not to be eaten in large quantities, but to add a little zing to the side of a meal, or quick bit right out of the fridge, these are both fantastic. We’ve enjoyed both in numerous salads, and the pickled onion made a tasty addition to a bowl of hummus.

Here they are…

Deb’s pickled carrot sticks call for dill seed, but also list dill weed as a subsititute, so not having the seed on hand, I used a healthy dose of the dill we dried from our CSA in the fall.

Pickled Carrot Sticks
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Some carrots, a pound would be good, cut into sticks
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup cider or plain vinegar (the former makes a sweeter, milder brine)
1/4 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
1 1/2 tablespoons dried dill weed
1 1/2 tablespoons salt

Place carrots in a heatproof bowl. Bring remaining ingredients to a boil in saucepan, then reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Pour pickling liquid over carrots and cool, uncovered. Chill carrots, covered, at least 1 day for flavors to develop.

Carrots keep, chilled in an airtight container, 1 month.

The brine makes such a lovely vinegary aroma in the house, although it can make you cough if you breath in too deeply.

On to the onions…
Some other recipes I found called for blanching and rinsing the red onions several times. This one doesn’t, and while I’m sure that technique is worth the effort, I was interested in trying a quicker recipe, and it turned out quite well I think, without all that extra boiling and cooling and such.

Also, Elise’s pickled red onions call for cloves, and bay leaves, which I didn’t have on hand, so I went with a star anise, and some ground cinnamon, which I thought worked just fine. She also lists a variety of other spices which will work well, such as “fresh ginger slices, allspice berries, oregano, garlic, cumin seeds, mustard seeds,” so feel free to experiment.

Pickled Red Onions
adapted from Simply Recipes

2 medium or 1 large red onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 C. white vinegar
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 T. ground cinnamon
1 star anise
a few peppercorns

Blanch red onions in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in colander.
While the water is heating in step 1, in a separate saucepan combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add blanched, drained onions to the vinegar mixture. Simmer for 1 minute.
Transfer to a glass jar. Allow to stand until cooled. Will keep several weeks refrigerated.

This picture, by the way, is both jars after we’ve been eating from them for a couple weeks.
(You can also see that we like to reuse our jars, AND that I haven’t put that Christmas pine cone away yet.)