Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Step Four: Comfort Food

Food Network is a problem.

For the past year, I have been living without cable, and for the two years before that, I was hardly home enough to watch anything at all, much less several hours of Food TV per day. Unfortunately, with unemployment comes mind numbing boredom, that I have chosen to fill with cooking shows and baking. This channel seems to have an abundance of comfort food -- Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives frequently features barbeque and Southern cooking, Paula Deen buries everything tablespoons deep in lard and butter, even "the Best Thing I Ever Ate" is constantly dripping with homestyle goodness.

In response, I've made biscuits. The kind with no shortening in them, and lots of butter. The kind that flake apart and taste delicious when smothered in, yes, I'll say it, more butter. And honey.

I'm such a Southern Belle. If by Southern Belle we mean a liberal feminist hippie who rarely shaves her legs and always votes Democrat.

I may not be the best Southern girl, but I will say these biscuits were generally a success. They were light and fluffy and flaky, with that slight crisp and crunch that gives the biscuit texture and weight. The secret in this case is the grated butter (which yes, I saw on Food Network). The reason biscuits, and pie crust for that matter, gets that amazing delicate flaky texture is that cold butter is not completely integrated into the batter, but is instead left in pieces throughout to leave pockets of airy, buttery goodness during the baking process.



(Lightly adapted from joyofbaking.com)

2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar (optional)
1/2 cup (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, frozen and grated
3/4 cup milk (180 ml) 
1 large egg, lightly beaten


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add in the frozen, grated butter. To do this, I left a stick of butter in the freezer, and then ran it along my cheese grater. On top of giving you a great texture, this will be quicker than using a pastry blender or knives. Stir mixture together, taking care not to over mix. Add the milk and slightly beaten egg just to combine.

Place mixture on a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until the dough becomes smooth.


Roll or press dough until it is even throughout, and approximately half an inch thick. Cut out biscuits with slightly floured round cookie cutter. Or, if like me, you don't HAVE a cookie cutter, use a glass, or anything else you may have in your kitchen that is approximately the right size and is round. Like perhaps the lid to a small mason jar.

Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet and brush with butter. Bake for 10-15 minutes, brushing with butter again in the last few minutes of baking.

I never said this was healthy, did I?

Serve warm with butter and honey, or butter and jam. Or just butter. Again, not a healthy one, but a delicious one.



Not my finest photography, but my kitchen doesn't really get much light that time of evening, and also, sticky gooey honey deliciousness on flaky biscuits is meant to be eaten immediately. I believe I may have previously mentioned my lack of patience...

Today was an adventure day, but was also a bit of a failed adventure day. J and I recently discovered the wonder and majesty that is Ikea. This, like the Food Network, is a bit of a problem. We have come to the conclusion that all of our furniture is likely to come from there, and while we don't take issue with that, we do have to drive 45 minutes to get there, and if we're driving 45 minutes, we're not likely to walk in, get our item, and walk out. That would be cheating ourselves of the experience of it all. Well today, our beloved Ikea failed us. Our mission was to purchase the small white bookshelf that will hold all of my cherished cookbooks in order that I can have the shelf in the butcher block cart back for cooking utensils and cereal. It is beyond my imagining that Ikea could ever be out of something, in their zeppelin-sized warehouse, with shelves going up into the stratosphere, and their airplane propeller sized ceiling fans, and so we didn't think to call ahead. When we finally wandered down into the area intended for purchasing furniture, we looked up our item, walked over to row 1, bin 17, and found ourselves without the lovely, ridiculously cheap but sturdy white bookshelf that we needed.

Alas, we'll have to venture once again into the land of inexpensive-recent-college-graduate-do-it-yourself furniture. In the meantime, because it is apparently impossible to go to Ikea without buying at least something, we now have a new wine rack, and new potholders, as well as (finally) mousepads.

Tomorrow I have a second interview with the Traveling Theatre company. Think about me at 10 am.

Til next time,


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Step Three: Hurricane Preparedness and Backlog Recipes

We're hunkering down in Rhode Island this weekend, as Irene threatens to bring damage and general mayhem.

Let me say this about the last week: If you're a student, stay in school. I don't just mean don't drop out, I mean stay in as long as possible. Pick up a second major. Get a masters degree. Stay for a doctorate. Maybe by the time you're done the economy will have recovered a tisch and you'll be able to find a job with your English/Theatre/Film Studies/Liberal Arts degrees. In the meantime, I'll be out here crossing my fingers and toes and eyes and whatever else you can cross in hopes that an opportunity will arise soon in the Non-Rhode-Island-Licensed educational theatre world that will allow me to live at least without concern for where rent and utilities payments are coming from, and will save me from asking the dreaded "Do you want fries with that?"

A few contacts have popped up. A friend of mine sent me a list of several theatres in the area and two of them resulted in interviews, one of which may be a way into several other contacts as well. Sometimes providence smiles. Heh.

In the meantime, we've been getting our home settled in. I finally finished the bedroom and we finished the living room and kitchen together. We only have one box left in the kitchen, and it's books, which we unfortunately don't have space for at the moment. We need at least two more bookshelves, if not three in order to comfortably fit all of our favorite friends and leave room for the growth that is sure to come. The Red Room, however, has become a source of great frustration as we literally cannot unpack it at the moment. It is dependent on the aforementioned bookshelves, as well as the shift from library/cat room/music room to office space, and so for the moment, it is the magical boxland in which all of our stuff seems to disappear. We're still missing a few things vital to the settling in process and while I know they're in there, I'm loath to spend any real time due to the daunting nature of that space.

It'll happen eventually.

I also had somehow missed the boat on craftgawker, which is where I've spent the last few days, bookmarking links into a few folder for crafts, gathering ideas on how to spruce up some bare walls, turn the multitude of extra mason jars we have lying around into something beautiful and useable, and how to spend my unemployed hours utilizing items already in the house, since I clearly can't spend any money. Current plans for book-based shelves, mason jar soap dispensers, and repurposed wine bottles will be posed as they come, and I would welcome any craft ideas you all might have!

For the moment, however, I've been baking. Still on the trend of "let's use what we already have in the house" but with some great results. Roasted chickpeas you can eat like potato chips, gooey delicious chocolate chip cookies, pasta with pecorino romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper, and unfortunately, a flop of peach scones.

Roasted chickpeas are a great, quick snack, perfect for putting out in a bowl at a party, or hunkering down for a weekend of hurricane Irene. Also, they're ridiculously easy to make.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Drain and rinse a can (or two) of chickpeas. Pour onto a baking sheet lined with paper towel and dry with another paper towel, taking care to remove skins as they come off. Which they will, as you wipe them dry.


Pour chickpeas into a bowl and coat with one to two tablespoons olive oil. Spread evenly across baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment because it's a bit messed up. Seriously, we need new bakeware!)



Toss it in the oven for 30-40 minutes. And when I say toss, I mean place. Don't want chickpeas lining the underside of your oven. Mine took on the higher end of the time frame to get super crunchy, which I determined by skewering one with a sharp knife, waiting for it to cool, and then eating to check for texture. And  by waiting for it to cool I mean sticking it in the freezer for I am impatient and despise waiting. I was met with chewy on my first one, so they went in for another 10 minutes.

When the little suckers are crispy, crunchy, and delicious, pour them into a bowl and toss with whatever spices you like. I used salt, cumin, a little granulated garlic, and curry powder, the last of which surprises no one who knows me as I have been known to put curry powder in my mac and cheese and am currently searching for a way to mix it into chocolate, I love it that much.

Eat, crunch, and be merry folks.

Unfortunately, in the midst of all of this delectable snacking, a flop sneaked in.

It should be mentioned that I love scones. I think they're the perfect breakfast, hearty without being heavy, perfect when savory and equally perfect when sweet, easy to make for any occasion, made to the taste of the creator, and just all around delightful. And so when my Mom and I talked about creating peach scones I was excited. I imagined a perfect balance of cinnamon, whole wheat, ricotta, peaches, and brown sugar. I imagined moist but still chewy and with a little heft. I imagined little pockets of peachy goodness and delicious flavor.

I did not, however, imagine whatever it was I made. Because scones they were not. I used the wrong peaches (white flesh peaches, while delicious, do not give enough flavor, as it turns out, regardless of the fact that they were local, organic, and a perfect stand-alone snack) and didn't balance my fruit to grain ratio in such a way that they were at all substantial.


Even if the peaches were delicious.

In other words, that recipe to come. As I re-do it. Completely. If you're hungry for the homey-goodness that is the perfect scone, however, head on over to Smitten Kitchen and check out her raspberry ricotta scone recipe, for it is divine. And easy. Seriously, what more could you want?

Keep us in your thoughts this weekend as we hunker down. We have our hurricane preparedness kit -- J. owns about two dozen flashlights, so we're good on batteries and light, we have candles, we have books, we have gallons of water, we have snacks that require neither refrigeration nor cooking, we have chocolate, we have granola bars, we have bananagrams, we have fruit and veggies, and we have hard cider and wine.

Yep. I said it. Our hurricane preparedness kit includes hard cider and a nice red wine.



See you on the other end of this folks. My computer turns off when the 45 mph winds start...


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Step Two: Moving In, ingredients you forgot

After the panic that you'll be denied approval of your application to live in your choice apartment due to one truly terrible credit score, a pile of student loans, unemployment, and fear of karma in general, recedes, the excitement sets in.

We moved into our new apartment last weekend, and after an exhausting few days of goodbyes, and also a job interview (seriously folks, fingers crossed) we're beginning the process of settling in. The living room is unpacked, though we don't yet have a couch. The "Red Room" which will eventually be my office has become the breeding ground for boxes we look at and say "later". Our bedroom is... getting there. Slowly but surely. J's office was finished before anything else in the house because he seems to be more motivated than I when it comes to getting settled.

Not, however, more motivated that Edgar, who seems to ignore the mess around him and simply be.



I am, however, settled enough to want to cook. Steak our first night, pasta tonight, and Snickerdoodles were my first baking venture in the new kitchen. I woke up this morning with an insatiable need to utilize my new space. Regardless of the fact that it currently looks like this:


Our thought was that if we put boxes in the middle of the floor in the room I use most, we'd be motivated more quickly to put them away.

I don't think it's working.

We've only barely gone to the grocery store, and have yet to purchase the kinds of ingredients needed to bake anything terribly fanciful or worthy of experimentation, but we nearly always have the needed materials to make bread, snickerdoodles, and brownies. Walking out of the bedroom, I turned to J. and jokingly said, "This is probably a silly question, but Snickerdoodles or brownies?" The answer is almost always the same, and the answer is almost always Snickerdoodles. And I can understand why -- there's something beautiful and familiar about the chewy yet soft interior, the crunchy, flavorful cinnamon sugar crust, and the burst of warmth when you begin consuming these cookies.

And so I began baking... and realized that the full bag of flour I unpacked was bread flour, not all purpose, and that the baking soda didn't make it to Providence. I moved forward, however, desperate to create something, to make this apartment smell like a home, to taste something familiar. Surprisingly enough, I was rewarded with cookies that are somewhat denser, more biscuit-like than my usual, with a lovely flavor, and certainly worth another batch.

They're already half gone.


I'm going to post the recipe just as I made it, flaws and all, because they turned into some delicious cookies.

Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Sift flours, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In the bowl of a standmixer using the paddle attachment, or in a mixing bowl, cream together butter and 1 and a half cups sugar on medium speed for two minutes, until smooth. When smooth, add eggs, one at a time, on low speed, until combined. Slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon. Roll dough into 2-inch balls, and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until surface has just crackled and the cookies lose their shine.

Tonight we're having one of those delicious and impressive pasta dishes that can be cooked with virtually no food in the house, and with inexpensive ingredients, recipe courtesy of my friend and ever-roommate, the very crafty Becky Katona.

More to come!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Step One: Moving

I have heard that a woman's body releases chemicals to aid in the process of forgetting the pain of childbirth, lest we decide never to have children again.

I think the human brain must likewise help us to forget the sheer agony of moving across the country, or else, as a species, we'd all be living in our parents' households forever, never to explore, and permanently to eradicate moving truck companies and their policies of not giving you the complete price quote in your first step

I move from Ohio to Rhode Island in T-Minus 6 days and I am exhausted. I spent the weekend crazily and haphazardly shoving items in boxes, scrubbing a dingy bathtub until my eyes watered from bleach fumes, listening to my overweight cat yowl over the sound of my cheesy mystery audiobook as I sped down the highway in my boyfriend's air-conditionless Jeep, and realizing that no matter how hard you try, cat litter does not like to come out of carpeting. 

So my first adventure in post-graduate adulthood is moving. My partner J. got an amazing job in Rhode Island, and as I have a few employment prospects in the area, we've made the decision to uproot our midwestern lives and settle on the East coast. We can't say we mind, and I think we're both excited about the newness of our upcoming life, but the process of getting there.... Whew. In the past month, we've gotten the notice about the job, traveled back and forth twice, looked at six apartments, chosen an apartment, panicked and crossed fingers in hopes that we'd get the apartment, gotten the approval, moved out of my current apartment, attended a wedding in Seattle, and realized that our welcome into adulthood is both expensive and a hassle.

Never. Graduate. College. Just stay in school as long as you possibly can.

I kid. My advice however? Tell yourself that moving across the country is going to be $4000, and if it's less, be seriously pleased at the added savings. Also, when renting a moving truck in your recent-post-graduate-life, ALWAYS click past the first price estimate. They'll get you with things like being under 24 (if you are) and the dolly you'll have to rent because both you and your partner are taking cars, etc.

On the SERIOUS upside, beautiful kitchen in the new place! And another upside? THIS is our new downtown playground!


More moving info to come. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy the fact that you're not moving right now. Or if you are, take a break and have a drink.