Daring Bakers: Piece Montie

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Wow..ok, so I'm really glad that I don't bake for a living. While the group I'm in is called the "Daring Bakers", I'm really quite a timid baker. I love the idea of baking, but the execution just scares the hell out of me. Luckily, I have a great sense of humor and find most things funny.

This challenge started off badly, with me being so scared to do this that I stalled so long I'm 2 days late in posting, b/c I just now made the darn thing. The creme patisserie was easy peasy and I got a little cocky. The choux batter/dough was relatively simple, but when it came to piping it, it was kind of runny and they flattened out instead of staying perky and round. As I bent over to put the cookie sheet filled with the uncooked choux, the parchment paper made a break for it and slid off into the bottom of my oven, accordioning itself. I grabbed the edge of it and tried to unfold it and place it back on the cookie sheet. Some of it was still wadded up and some was not. I did have a second sheet with about 6 or 7 choux on it, so that went in the oven as well.

I lost about a 3rd of them, and most of the rest were dramatically deformed. But once you fill an ugly puff with delicious creme and then dip it in melted chocolate and stack them in an interpretive pile and glob the rest of the melted chocolate on top, if you can stop laughing long enough to give one a try, you will be quite pleased with the results. We (hubby and daughter and I) all thought they were quite tasty and I'll certainly try making this again. I learned a lot from this experience. The best thing I learned is that even if I mess it up, the earth is not going to come to a standstill. AND...it doesn't matter what it looks like if it tastes good.

sooooo.... ready for the picture? You have my permission to laugh. It's ok, I did.

We took 2 photos in the hopes that it might have a "good" side. It did not. I did, however, use a lovely vintage cake plate. That's gotta count for something, right? lol

Can't wait til next month....

peace (and chocolate cream puffs)

Deb

Toning up mind and body

Lately I've been allowing God to take control of my life. (A very dear friend gave me a book called "Breaking Free" by Beth Moore) That pretty much means I'm giving him all my baggage, and let me tell ya, there's a TON of it. It seems like such a simple and logical thing to do...giving away all of that stuff. It's much like de-cluttering your home. You attach too much meaning to an item, but once you break through that and get rid of it, you feel so much better and want to clear out more and more. You see the structure underneath. It's so....liberating! And as the saying goes, where your mind goes, so goes the body. I've noticed it's a ripple effect, actually. I started clearing my mind and making space for all the good things God has for me, mentally and emotionally. I start to feel good about myself and that motivates me to feel good about my physical form and take better care of it. So I've been getting up every morning and walking/running about 3 miles. When I get home, I'm full of energy and good feelings and that motivates me to want to feel good about my yard, so I spend much more time in the yard trying to get it back into shape and of course, the logical progression is that I wanna spend some time getting the house back into shape to go with the yard....It's one of those "give a moose a muffin" things.

Now, I know that I won't always wanna get up and run, and that the yard maintenance will sometimes be overwhelming and that tool I need to replace the gutters on the house will cost too much and that there's gonna be days when the anxiety takes a hold and tries to cripple me. But now I feel that I know how to fight it and push through it and maybe lose, but mostly win. And at the end of the day, I will know that I fought the good fight and that I didn't just sit there and do nothing which is the biggest defeat of all.

ps: for those folks who might be visiting this summer and feel like they're going to show up and the house/yard are gonna look like I have a professional landscape/home care service, be aware that it didn't get like this overnight, and it won't necessarily be cleaned up overnight. I'm just saying...

peace,

Deb

Being a Daring Cook

So, my daughter-in-law, M, has this food blog. She posts recipes and ideas a couple of times a week including hits, suggestions and photos of what she's made. I really enjoy reading it and it inspires me to pull out some new recipes and maybe not just have the same old thing over and over. Keep in mind that I love to cook and really enjoy new recipes. In the sidebar of her blog was this cute little button that said "The Daring Kitchen" so I clicked on it and was whisked away to a wonderful world of cooks and bakers that post a challenge monthly. Typically, it features a technique or an ingredient a lot of us would be unfamiliar with. I joined and got a little scared, but then, they posted the May challenge.

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

Having lived in New Mexico and learning to roast and can my own green chiles was quite a boon for this meal. The sauce had to be made from scratch and featured roasted green chiles and tomatillos. Oh my goodness, it was delicious!

Here is the sauce recipe:

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) 24 ounces 678 grams - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely. Other green chiles (NOT bell peppers) could probably be substituted but be conscious of heat and size!)
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium)212 grams - peel, remove stems
4 cups Chicken broth (32 ounces/920 grams)
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)

Green Chile Sauce

1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft.
2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor.
3. Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped roasted green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.
6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

I saved a little of the sauce out so I can fix Huevos Rancheros for C, now that she's home from school. It's one of her favorite meals.

I had the option of baking the stacked enchiladas in one big dish or in smaller dishes, but I chose the big dish. Here's a photo:

I know it doesn't look like much, but it sure was tasty!

I'm really glad I joined in the fun and I'm looking forward to next month's challenge and also that of the Daring Bakers.

Peace,

Deb