An Evening At Home

 El Dorado on Audiobook   /   Ice Cream   /   Pu Er Tea

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream with a homemade raspberry/peach/strawberry sauce

 The tools to make tea the right way

 

 Place dry loose tea leaves in little cup. Fill with boiling water, and use the tea made from that first pouring to rinse the teapot and cup and strainer. After discarding the first pouring, fill with water again, cover, and let steep for a few minutes.

 Use the lid to keep the tea leaves in, and pour through the strainer into the teapot. Most chinese tea's can stand up to 10-12 pourings before becoming too weak. 

Enjoy! 

Crepes

The more I cook, the more I realize that simple food is amazing. Having few ingredients allow you to actually taste and enjoy those ingredients individually; I feel like palate over-stimulation is sometimes just as much of a danger as sensory over-stimulation of our current entertainment industry (okay, maybe not nearly as bad, but you get my point).
Anyways. Here is a quick and easy recipe from Tyler's family:

Batter Up:
- 4 eggs
- 1 and 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup flour (half wheat/half white if you feel healthy)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix:
Beat eggs together then add milk. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth.
Grease a frying pan with butter, and heat it over medium heat until a drop of water dances.
Pour 1/4-1/2 cup batter into the pan, and tilt the pan till the batter is evenly (thinly) spread.
Flip when center is dry, and/or the first side is browned.

Serve:
Roll up with fruit, applesauce, powdered sugar and lemon juice, sauted spinach and bacon, whatever fits your fancy.
Yesterday I heated up about a cup of frozen peaches and a cup of frozen raspberries with about two tablespoons of honey till they formed a nice sauce. It was wonderful.

(Photo credit: somewhere online) 

Challah Bread

"Man cannot live by bread alone." The fact that Jesus said that makes me think that maybe, just maybe, it actually is possible to physically survive on bread and water. That would be very good news to my carb-hungry appetite! But it's easy to fall into the belief that having a "healthy" life is one where you work out consistently, eat wholesome food, and get the sleep and rest that you need. It's much easier to neglect our social, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being, especially when taking care of our bodies (making money for food, cleaning the house to stay clean and healthy, running or going to the gym) takes up most of our free time anyway. But Jesus went on to say that we cannot possibly survive from just bread, but rather "by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” What does that even mean? I'd encourage you to do some digging and find out. How can someone live on words? Do words really have any significance anyway? 

How do God's words make us truly live?  

Now to some bread making, since man can live by eating some bread as a part of a full and healthy balanced diet.

Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 1/2 warm water
- 1 package yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 6-9 cups of flour, as needed
Glaze:
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon sugar

Mix:
Dissolve the honey and the water in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top, and let sit for about ten minutes, or until a foamy/creamy layer forms on top. Gently stir in the salt, olive oil, and eggs (beaten). Begin mixing in the flour one or two cups at a time with a wooden spoon. Add flour until it is still tacky, but not wet; it should be a consistency that you can knead with your hands.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and bounces slightly back.
Place in an oiled bowl and let rise in a warm area until doubled, for about 70-90 minutes.
Gently deflate the dough and turn out onto counter top again. Divide into two pieces, and cut the first half into four pieces.
Roll each piece into a 14-inch rope, beginning in the middle and stretching it outwards. Keep the center of the rope slightly larger than the ends. 
To braid, pinch the tops of the strands together and give yourself plenty of space to work. Make an "under-2, over-1 braid," by taking the left-most rope, and move it to the right to cross underneath the next 2 ropes, then move it left to cross back over the strand immediately to its left. Take the far right strand, and move it to the left and cross it under the two strands to its left (they are already crossed from the previous braid); then move it right to cross back over the strand immediately to its right. Repeat until the 4 strands are braided together all the way to the end, and pinch the ends tightly together and fold slightly under. 
Repeat the steps to braid the second loaf, and let the braided loaves rise for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350* and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
Whisk together the glaze ingredients, brush the braided loaves with the glaze to make a shiny crust, and bake the loaves on the prepared baking sheets in the preheated oven until they are light golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Share by breaking bread together. Tearing pieces off by hand is highly recommended.

I'm Back!

My apologies for being absent this past week! I was out of the state for a good bit with no internet access, then came back to help a dear friend prepare for her wedding. I think I spent more time in my car than I did in my own house, so needless to say, not much cooking went on. But hopefully this next week will be much more normal. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Triple Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I think the pictures can speak for themselves, so I'll cut to the chaste.

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 3/4 all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup EACH white chocolate chips/semi sweet chips/chocolate chunks

Create:
Preheat oven to 375*.
Cream together butter, sugar, and maple syrup.
Beat in eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and mix.
Stir together flour, soda, cinnamon, salt, and oats. Add and mix on a low mixer speed into butter.
Add chocolate chips and mix together thoroughly.
Drop by teaspoons, or use one of these again.
Bake for 8-9 minutes or until golden brown, but still soft in the middle. I usually let them sit and cool on the cookie tray for a couple minutes to let them set before putting them on cooling trays.

Eat and be merry.

Steak Fried Rice

Today's lesson is all about re-using and recycling. If you are an ardent follower of my blog (all three of you!), you will recall steak from Monday and asparagus from yesterday. Below is one of the easiest ways to spruce up old leftovers and make it into something gourmet and wonderful. 

I'm not going to give you measurements, but rather stick to broad and basic principles, and general ideas which will hopefully inspire you to create your own goodness as well. 

We'll start with three principles:
1. Fried rice is tasty.
2. Fried rice can be made with just about anything.
3. Seek simplicity. One meat and one veggie usually does the trick.

Now let's get into what happened to create that.
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First of all, I put about a cup of uncooked rice on the stove to cook. If you don't know how to cook rice, there should be instructions on the bag you bought it in.

Secondly, I sliced the leftover steak in long pieces, then crosswise to get small chunks. Then I took 5 asparagus stems, cut about an inch off the bottom (threw that part away), sliced them down the center, then into about 3/4 inch-long pieces. Saute the steak and asparagus in about a tablespoon of oil with a shy tablespoon of crushed/minced garlic in a large frying pan. I added about a 1/4 cup of the Dipping Sauce from my spring roll recipe after a while (but you don't have to; salt, pepper, and sesame oil work great too), and keep it covered till the asparagus is tender and the steak is warmed through. Once the rice is done, add to the frying pan and mix together with the beef and veggie. Fry on high for a couple minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Serve with a dash of soy sauce.

And drink more water! It's good for you. I am realizing that I really don't drink as much as I should, and you probably don't either. Our body is made up of 60%-75% water and it is in charge of all sorts of good things in our bodies, like transporting oxygen to our organs, removing waste, and protects our joints and organs. Without water our bodies (while still having the technical ability to function) cannot do it's job of maintaining health. We need the means of transport and the life of moisture that water brings in order for all our organs and joints and muscles to do their job well.

Go forth and be hydrated!

Asparagus-Parmesan Cheese Puffs

I found the recipe for these little guys on the Williams-Sonoma website. I had no clue that they posted recipes, but apparently they do! I love asparagus and I love cheese, so I figured they couldn't go wrong. 

Ingredients: 
- 1 1/2 cups crosswise-diagonally-sliced asparagus spears (about 1/8 inch long)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese





Puffify:
Preheat oven to 400*. Fill a pan with about 3/4 inch of water and a teaspoon of salt and bring it to a boil. Add the asparagus and simmer for about a minute, until tender. Drain and set aside, being careful to not overcook them to mush.
In a saucepan, mix the milk and butter together over medium heat.
Sift together flour, salt, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl.
Remove milk from heat, and add flour mixture. Beat with a wooden spoon about 1 minute. The texture will look really funky, but it should thicken and pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl, and add eggs one at a time, beating with a fork after each addition. This will continue to look really funky. Let it sit and cool for at least 5 minutes.
Add the asparagus and cheeses to the dough and mix well. Use a teaspoon or a teaspoon scoop to place small dollups about 1 inch apart on a cookie tray.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, till puffy and golden brown. Serve immediately.