Life Lessons with Bubbles

I spent a good two hours outside with Ollie riding his tricycle, bicycle with training wheels, talking to the neighbors, playing hopscotch… and then he said, “Let’s blow some bubbles!” This was an exciting thing for him: I’m blowing bubbles until I nearly pass out and he’s chasing them all over the yard and driveway. There’s just something so innocent and lovely about watching your kid screeching with happiness as little round glass-like spheres float all around. Tell you what… you quickly learn how good or bad your lung capacity is!

You can find a ton of homemade bubble solutions online, but here’s a nice quick start.

• 1/2 c. dishwashing liquid
• 2 c. water
• 2 tsp. glycerin or corn syurp

Mix in a shallow pan. You can also refill your old bubble jars.

Don't eat the bubble liquid!

My “lessons learned” from bubbles that day:

• The most simplest of things are temporary
• Chase after your goal, big or small
• Time is fleeting, enjoy it while its here…

and, maybe a bubble machine would be a worthwhile purchase. *whew*

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Tags: bubbles, outside, summer

Midsummer’s Night Eve and Irish Soda Bread

I love Irish Soda Bread. Of course, it tends to get a lot of press at St. Patrick’s Day, but why not make it or eat it any time? Need an excuse? June 20 marks the eve of summer solstice, or longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere, where lots of festivals, fairs and concerts occur in Ireland (leftover from Pagan days) and Europe, for that matter. The dates change yearly, but is usually around June 20-22.

The recipe I make at home turns out all rustic looking, which is very different from a lot of Asian baked goods I’ve had. At the bakery the Chinese baked buns (bao or pao) and Filipino buns are typically these beautiful golden brown, rounded hills lined up on a tray.

from centurycafe.com

But, I love me a rustic bread anytime… the displays at Corner Bakery and Panera Bread are enough to make me want to carbo-load.

Irish Soda Bread recipe

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 c melted butter
• 3/4 c milk with 3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (let this mixture sit for a few minutes) OR 3/4 c buttermilk
• 1/2 c raisins or currants

Preheat oven to 425. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients. Mix until ingredients are just combined; don’t overmix. It’s okay to look lumpy. Fold in the raisins or currants. Transfer dough to baking sheet. Dough should hold its shape, but you can form your bread loaf how you want. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, turn down to 375 for 20-25 minutes (or until toothpick inserted at center comes out clean). Remove and cool completely.

My daughter told me it tasted store-bought. I guess that meant she liked it! Maybe next year, I can make a corresponding craft? Anyone out there make or bake anything to celebrate summer?

Happy Father’s Day to all tomorrow! I’ll be back next week with crafty tales!

Tags: baking, cooking, Irish, Irish Soda Bread, recipe

Lemon-Ricotta Cheese Cookies

Since we don’t typically eat or cook ricotta cheese in our home, and we had some ricotta cheese left in the refrigerator after our dinner party last weekend, I looked up a friend’s recipe for ricotta cheese cookies.

I just don’t like wasting food, you know? Here’s my twist on it… taken from the lemon-ricotta cheese blinis we made for our dinner party, I added lemon to the cookie recipe. And, it was lemon-y delicious!

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 15 oz. ricotta cheese
• zest of three lemons
• 6 tsp. fresh lemon juice (juice taken from the lemons – save the extra juice)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, extra lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, sugar and cheese. Add zest and 6 teaspoons of lemon juice to butter and sugar mixture, blend well. In separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda and flour. Incorporate the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Dough will be very sticky. Using a small teaspoon scoop (or just two teaspoons), drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until bottoms turn golden brown. After removing from oven, cool for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling racks.

Make glaze by slowly adding juice to the powdered sugar. Thin consistency will probably only need a couple of tablespoons of juice. Spread over cooled cookies.

Yields about 84

Tags: baking, cookies, lemon, ricotta cheese

Salt and Caramel Brownies

Having never made brownies from scratch (unthinkable to some), I was really on the lookout for a good recipe. I think I always made “box” brownies because I thought melting chocolate was always part of the deal. I was just unsure of, you know… double boiler, making sure not to overheat the chocolate, yada, yada, yada. I never thought to look for easy recipes. So, when my husband and I saw a few recipes using cocoa powder, it was like the clouds opened up and rays of sunshine shone onto the mixing bowls. Alright, it wasn’t that dramatic, but we thought, “HEY! We can DO THIS!”

Actually, we were going to bake together since my husband is more like the “McGyver” in the kitchen and doesn’t follow recipes. He ended up doing most, if not all, of it alone because I ran out of the house at the wrong time to run an errand. What we ended up with was a nice small batch of the most fudgy brownies I’ve had in a long time. The pan was quartered into sections: plain brownie, brownie with caramel, salted brownie, brownie with salt and caramel.

He even made the caramel from scratch (took two tries)!

Not so good caramel attempt

Leftover "good" caramel

For an 8 x 8 pan, you might be surprised how long it lasted. We cut the brownies into 1-inch squares. That’s all you need for a taste – it’s so rich!

The recipe we used is from Smitten Kitchen, and can be found here. I’ll be trying this recipe out again with some Scharffen Berger cocoa…mmm.

Other cocoa brownie recipes:

• Alton Brown’s cocoa brownies
• Hershey’s best brownies

Tags: baking, brownies, chocolate, Smitten Kitchen

Catching Up and Homemade Pasta

It’s back to the kitchen and catching up on chores this week. The weather has been so nice that I’ve neglected the decluttering and  mini-mountains of clothes that need folding, and instead have been riding my bike with Ollie and hanging out at various parks. The kids have also had a little education in local and federal government as the whole family applied for passports. Abby laughed as we posed for our pictures, “Mom, it’s like we’re in jail?!” Yes, but would we by smiling?

I like Ollie’s first attempt:

Last weekend we hosted a House Party sponsored by Calphalon and Williams-Sonoma and while we weren’t selected as the hosts to have Chef Michael Symon visit, we had a fantastic time with our guests. The easiest part about this dinner party: the menu, along with recipes and a grocery list, was supplied by Calphalon and Williams-Sonoma. We were so busy cooking up dinner, I had my brother-in-law and cousin take some pictures and I hope to post some soon.

Friends came over a few months ago and taught us how to make homemade pasta. We tried homemade potstickers so I thought, homemade noodles shouldn’t be too difficult.

Basic recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups semolina flour
• 6 large eggs (at room temperature)
• pinch of salt

We combined the dry ingredients in a large bowl, made a well in the middle then cracked the eggs into the flour. Using a fork, begin beating the eggs lightly as if scrambling them, and the flour will start “falling” into the egg mixture. Continue beating the eggs to incorporate the flour slowly. The mixture will begin forming into dough, and then once the dough begins to stiffen and all the flour is incorporated, you can take it out of the bowl to knead. It wasn’t very pretty, pulling and pushing the dough, squishing it around. Our friend made it look all nice and rectangular. Mine sort of looked amoeba-shaped until I folded it over again to knead some more. I think we did this for a few minutes before running it through the pasta machine. And when we did, it took a few passes to get to the thickness we wanted. We hung the noodles up as we finished the rest of the dough and got a big pot of water and salt to a rolling boil. The noodles cooked quickly in less than 5 minutes.

Tags: Friends and Family, homemade, noodles, passport pictures, pasta

Filipino Style Pressed Sandwich

Honestly, I don’t know that Filipinos (well, old school ones) like sandwiches all that much. Rice trumps bread…always. Bread is mainly reserved for breakfast or snacktime, and it’s dunked in coffee nonetheless.

Growing up, sandwiches were not a staple in my home and were made really thin: too little meat, thin bread, thin layer of chicken salad or (and I even hate admitting this) it was just sandwich spread. We had road trips with thin sandwich spread sandwiches, like eating mayonnaise on white bread. Imagine the look on my face when I actually saw a well-made deli sandwich for the first time? I remember my mom taking my brother and me to Wag’s (Late 1970′s Walgreen’s had a little restaurant) for lunch and we ordered a BLT. It was delicious, but I remember I had a torn-up upper palate from the toasted bread. Thirty years later, BLT’s are still a favorite, and my mouth still gets raw.

It wasn’t long after that I started making my own sandwiches for school lunches. No more Miracle Whip sandwiches for me. Had a big love affair with Philly steak sandwiches in college, and my brother introduced me to Bahn Mi, Vietnamese sandwiches, a few years ago. But, I really like paninis; it’s like a grown-up grilled cheese sandwich but bigger and with more fixin’s. The crispy, toasted bread with fluted ridges did me in – Pretty and tasty at the same time.

So, why not a Filipino version? Is there one? A good one? Mine are a bit like bahn mi in the respect I used cilantro and matchstick carrots. I couldn’t think of vegetables that represented Filipino cuisine, would taste good with sweet, seasoned sausages and wouldn’t necessarily have to be cooked. And I definitely wanted to keep an Asian flavor. Maybe next time, I could try a Napa cabbage slaw? I don’t own a panini maker, either. I did this all on the range with our cast-iron grill.

• 1 pkg. (typically 9-10 pcs.) of Longanisa (Filipino pork sausage: sweet, garlicky, peppery)
• Pan de Sal (Filipino rolls: soft, airy bread)
• Sauteed onions (optional)
• Cilantro
• Carrots (cut into small matchsticks)

Butterfly cut the sausages so they will lay flat for the sandwich. Place on grill at medium-high heat. Cover with foil, heavy cookie sheet and then a weight (filled tea kettle) so the sausages won’t curl while cooking. Cook for 4 min. Remove weight, flip over the sausages and cover up again. Cook for another 3-4 min. When done, remove from grill and set aside.

While sausages are cooking, prepare the bread by cutting open and brushing olive oil on both sides. Place cooked sausage on prepped bread, then layer cilantro, carrots and onions. Top with bread. Return to grill,cooking the sandwiches on medium heat. Again, cover with foil, cookie sheet and weigh down. This will press the sandwiches. Cook for 2 min. or until toasted to your liking. Remove weight, flip sandwiches and weigh down again. Cook until toasted. Enjoy with a San Miguel (or your beer of choice).

Will be back next week with lots of art project updates!

Tags: Filipino food, grill, pan de sal, pannini, sandwich, sausage