Corn Tostada Bowls

The problem with my enchilada recipe is that I end up with over half a bag of corn tortillas left over.  I really wish they were sold by the dozen.  So I decided to turn them into appetizer-sized bowls.

There are tortilla bowl molds out there, but those are kind of uni-taskers.  Odds are you have other equipment in your cabinets that can do the job just as well.  All they need to be is oven-safe.

The procedure and ingredients for this makes the project far easier than I thought it would be.  After the initial experiment to find out what molds I preferred, I made a batch with cinnamon sugar for ice cream.

Side note, I bought frozen diced avocados instead of the expensive and not actually ripe ones at the store.  There was a coupon that made them cheaper than fresh.  They were a touch on the crunchy side, but that may be because they were still slightly frozen when I put them on my tostada.  They're in the fruit part of the freezer section, after exhausting myself looking in the vegetables.  For those who tend to end up in the ER from avocado injuries, this is a decent option.

6" white corn tortillas
vegetable oil
cinnamon sugar for dessert bowls, if desired

1.  Warm tortillas in the microwave.  I did 4 at a time between damp paper towels, at 30 seconds per stack.  This is to soften them so they don't tear while being shaped.

2.  Preheat oven to 375º.  Brush oil to lightly coat both sides.  For sweet bowls, dust inside with cinnamon sugar.  Either drape over an inverted oven-safe ramekin or fold into the crevices of an upside-down muffin pan.  I found that to be a more attractive shape, and the nonstick coating of the pan led to a much easier release.  I had a lot of trouble getting the ceramic ones off, and chipped one.

3.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden.  Allow to rest on mold until they stop sizzling and the shape is set, then remove to a cooling rack.  Fill and serve.  The shells can be stored in a sealed container or plastic zipper bag for up to a few days.

Difficulty rating  π

Parmesan Cauliflower Steaks

I still have issues with people on specific diets calling foods something that applies to a different diet.  There is no such thing as a vegetable "tartare" any more than you would call raw meat a "crudité".  Yam toasts are fun and yummy, but they are in no way bread.  And cauliflower or mushroom "steaks" will never convince you you're eating meat.  However, in order to find something on a Google search, you need to call it whatever the common term is.  The texture of these is closer to a slightly overdone piece of white fish.  You don't need a knife to cut it.

I'm still trying to learn to like cauliflower.  It's good for you.  And I'm trying to do it without pouring tons of Velveeta on it.  That's the cheater way of making a vegetable taste good.  A strategic dusting of Parmesan, however, merely enhances the existing taste.

Bon Appetit's version of the recipe states that you only get two good slices out of a cauliflower.  That really depends on the size of the cauliflower and how thick you cut the steaks.  I selected a small one, and the two outside slices did fall apart.  The big ones later on in the spring might have thick enough stems to hold together two outside slices.  Either way, you're going to have edge trimmings.  Those can get tossed into soup or the broth bag.  I was having these with a batch of mushroom farroto, and simply added it to that.

1 large cauliflower
*2 Tb grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 Tb olive oil
salt and pepper

1.  Preheat oven to 400º.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat.

2.  Trim leaves off head of cauliflower, leaving as much of the stem intact as possible.  Cut in half down the middle, then cut a 1/2" slab off each hemisphere.  If there's enough stem to hold it together, make another 1/2" cut on each outside piece.

3.  Lay slices on sheet pan.  Brush with 1 Tb of the oil.  Dust lightly with salt and pepper.  Bake for 15 minutes, until starting to get browned.

4.  While steaks are baking, stir together parmesan and chili powder.  Remove from oven after the first 15 minutes.  Flip slices, and you'll see a nice darkened bottom.  Brush with remaining tablespoon of oil and sprinkle with cheese mixture.  Bake another 15 minutes, until cheese is browned and crispy.

Difficulty rating  π

Fried Egg Sandwich

Blame this one on the new Doctor Who.  It was mentioned in the first episode of the most recent season, so I looked it up.

Really, a fried-egg sandwich is anything you want to put between two pieces of bread, plus an egg.  I chose to make a grilled cheese on wheat.  You could add ham to make it like the Denny's breakfast sandwich, or bacon, or salsa, or whatever.  It could be avocado toast with egg.  This is completely flexible.

2 slices bread of choice
1 oz cheddar cheese (or whatever other fillings you like)
1 egg
butter or margarine

1.  Butter the outsides of the bread slices and place butter-side down in a skillet over medium heat.  Add cheese slices.  When they start to melt, make the egg.

2.  In a separate pan, melt enough butter to coat the bottom over medium-low heat.  I love my little single-egg skillet.  Crack the egg in the pan, then break the yolk.  This will help it to cook more evenly in the pan.  You want a little oozing in the sandwich, but not all over the place.

3.  When the egg starts to set, flip it and cook another minute.  By now, the cheese should be mostly soft and you can transfer the egg to one of the bread slices.  Close the sandwich and continue to cook until the bread is as toasted as you like.

4.  Cut in half if desired and serve hot.

Makes 1 sandwich

Difficulty rating  π

Piñata Cake

I found a reason to decorate another cake.  The outside of one of these party cakes can be any decoration you can imagine.  I was considering doing a Unicorn Cake, but I was still getting over the cold, and a trip to Michaels for colored fondant was more activity than I had in mind.  I'll get around to one of those eventually.

I chose to fill a confetti cake with mini M&Ms.  Recipes I've seen online show all sorts of fillings.  Reese's Pieces in a chocolate cake with peanut-butter frosting, sparkly sprinkles inside aforementioned Unicorn cake, sour candies or gummi bears in a fruity cake, even wrapped hard candies inside pretty much any flavor.  You can do small plastic toys, like party-favor pacifiers for a gender-reveal party.  Someone suggested money, but even new coins have tons of germs on them and I'm not even going into what's on paper cash.  It's all about the fun of that first slice, when the cake upchucks an extra surprise.

1.  Bake a cake.  You need a minimum of 3 layers.  Most photos I found showed four.

2.  Using a glass or cookie cutter, cut a hole in the center of all but the top layer.  I suppose I made the hole in mine a bit big, but I wanted to make a single-serving cakelet out of the middles.  I dug the last of the frosting from the pumpkin cakes out of the freezer and beat the orange and green together.  It makes a milk chocolate brown, in case anyone was wondering.

3.  I found it easiest to freeze the layers before proceeding.  Flip the bottom ring upside-down and put a bit of frosting on it, then upright it and center on a cake circle or final serving plate.  Top with filling, then with next cake layer.  Repeat if there's a third ring, making sure to put on the filling that will be below the top layer.  Crumb coat the open rings and freeze before proceeding.

4.  Fill the hole with candy.  I got about a cup of mini M&Ms in mine.  This will depend entirely upon the size of your cake, size of the hole, and how many layers you used.  Fill all the way to the top, and even slightly higher.  This needs to support the middle of the top layer of cake.  Put the top layer on and finish crumb coating the whole cake.  Chill to set crumb coat.

5.  Decorate your cake.  I had fun with colored sanding sugar on a store-bought white base.  You can set a cookie cutter on your cake, fill with a thin layer of sprinkles or colored sugar, and lift.  Most of it stays where it's supposed to.  For the side sprinkles, I just dried my hands very well and pushed them against the edge.

6.  DON'T TELL ANYONE WHAT'S INSIDE!  It's so tempting.  Do put the cake on a wide cake board or serving platter, maybe with a rim, and place it farther from the edge of the table than you normally would.  Depending on the filling, this might get messy.

7.  Make sure there's an audience when you cut the cake.  This is pretty easy at most parties, but when I do dinner parties I generally show off the cake, then go into the kitchen to hack it apart.  People seem under the impression that bakers are good at cutting cakes and pies.  Not always.

Difficulty rating :-0

Confetti Cake

I don't monetize, but I still don't want to run the risk of infringing on the Funfetti trademark, so we're calling it Confetti.

I haven't made a cake in a while, and started to miss the process.  Everyone at work wanted to know why I'd stopped bringing them, and I had to remind them that the Wedding Cake was done.  I had no reason to practice.  I also didn't have any new decorating ideas.

Then I found a cake I wanted to make.  More about that in the next post.  I could have used a previous recipe, and almost did it with a marble cake, but I wanted to try something new.  Considering the entire box of sprinkles I have, confetti made sense.

The first step is admitting you have a problem

In my recipe search, the common denominator seemed to be not to use nonpareils in the cake batter.  Those are the little beads, and half of the sprinkles in my box.  Fine, I bought more sprinkles.  At least this recipe uses an entire small container.

The batter recipe is a modified one from Preppy Kitchen, primarily because it's for 6" pans and doesn't use an indivisible 5 eggs.  He uses AP flour in all his cakes, and I swapped out half for cake flour because I have a lot of it and some of the YouTube comments talked about the cake being tough, but it still needed to be sturdy for the decoration I had in mind.  The butter turned into margarine because I prefer that in cakes.  I opted for whole eggs instead of egg whites, so used 1/4 C unflavored Greek yogurt instead of 1/2 C sour cream.  Similar acidity and swaps the volume.  As stated in the recipe, omitting the yolks is only about the color of the cake, and one of the recipes I had been considering was a yellow cake anyway.  All these changes did allow the batter to dome a little, which doesn't happen if you do it as written and use cake strips.  One layer was flat enough not to trim, and the other two had minor doming.  Snacks.

This post is only the cake itself.  Confetti frosting is just a basic buttercream with rainbow jimmies in it.  Honestly, it's cheaper to buy a can of Funfetti® frosting than to get the sprinkles separately, if you only need enough for decorating.

1 C All Purpose flour
2/3 C Cake flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 C margarine, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
1 C sugar
*1/2 C milk
1/4 C sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 C rainbow sprinkles (flat rounds or jimmies)

1.  Grease three 6" cake pans or two 8", line bottoms with wax paper, and grease again.  Preheat oven to 340º.  Adjust cake bands to fit, if using, and start soaking.

2.  Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

3.  In mixer with paddle, cream together margarine and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time until smooth and fluffy, scraping the bowl between additions.  Beat in sour cream and it's going to start getting a little soupy.

4.  Stir in half of flour mixture on low speed.  Add milk and vanilla and stir to combine.  Add remaining flour and stir until just evenly moist.  Remove from mixer stand and fold in sprinkles, making sure to scrape sides of bowl.  Only mix until evenly distributed, or they'll start to melt.

5.  Divide batter evenly between pans, preferably using a kitchen scale.  That works a whole lot better if your pans are identical, so I did it by volume.  If you have cake pan strips, they will help reduce doming and eliminate the crust around the edges.  Bake until cakes test done, about 30 minutes.

6.  Cool cakes in pan 5 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack.  Remove wax paper.  Cool completely before trimming and frosting.  These are very moist cakes, and I broke one by trimming it too soon.  Once cool, they can also be wrapped in plastic and foil and frozen to finish another day.

Makes one 3-layer 6" cake, about 8-10 servings

Difficulty rating  :)

The Cold Got Worse

So much for my minor sore throat and sniffles.  I spent a whole day sneezing, followed by a night of low-grade fever.  I actually took a sick day off of work, and I can't remember the last time I did that.  Mainly because I don't get sick often.  My energy level recovered first, but I had too many symptoms to be preparing food for others.  Yesterday and today are my regular days off, but I'm largely treating them as extra sick days to get over this thing.

I still had to eat something.  The downside of shopping at Sprouts is it's very hard to find reasonably priced junk food, which is all you really want when you're sick.  The closest I got was herbed goat-cheese mashed potatoes, with a side of steak and fresh green beans.  I baked off all the Linzer cookie dough in the freezer, mainly to keep me from eating ice cream.  (Most of the baked cookies went back in the freezer for a future teatime.)  Once the fever went away, I got really hungry.

On the upside, if you have to be sick, staying in on a rainy day drinking tea and napping with the cat is a pretty decent way to do it.

Sick Day Soup

I caught the Office Cold.  It actually wasn't all that bad, just tiring.  Half a dose of DayQuil and a lot of herbal tea knocked it down to an acceptable level of discomfort, but there was one day with a whole lot of sneezing.  I also went to bed at 6pm for a week.  I think where everyone else at work went wrong (and got a lot sicker than I did) was not getting enough rest.

This recipe is mostly like Wor Wonton Soup, just without the wontons and adding red lentils.  If you don't like lentils, you could sub quinoa, chickpeas, or just about any legume.  The soup was just low in fiber for my liking and the only soba noodles at the market had a crazy amount of salt in them.  I did not want to add water retention to my list of woes.

*2 cloves garlic, minced
2" fresh ginger, grated
4 stalks green onion, sliced
1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
*1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
*1/2 bunch radishes, thinly sliced
1 qt low-salt chicken broth
1 package firm tofu, diced
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail off
*1/2 C dry red lentils
salt, pepper, and soy sauce to taste

1.  Pour broth into a large pot and start heating on medium.  Add garlic, ginger, and onion first, then start slicing everything else.  Add in mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, and radishes and let everything come to a low boil.  Cover, lower heat to a simmer, and cook until vegetables are softened, about 30 minutes.

2.  While that's simmering, rinse the lentils well to reduce any starch.  Cover with water 1/2" deep and bring to a low boil.  Lower heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain and rinse.

3.  Add diced tofu and shrimp to the main pot and cook until the shrimp is done, about 5 minutes.  Add in lentils and taste.  Add salt, pepper, and soy sauce as needed.  Serve hot.

Makes 4 servings as a main course, or 8 smaller bowls

Difficulty rating  :)

Emergency Salad

The day I was originally going to make the cauliflower pizzas, I got stuck at work late.  Knowing that the recipe was going to take longer than I had and not wanting to go to a drive-thru, I went foraging at home.

I mean foraging literally.  I picked some romaine lettuce, arugula, and a radish out of the garden.  There was a pear in the fridge next to leftover gorgonzola.  Walnuts, dates, olive oil, and vinegar in the pantry completed the salad.  And a bit of French bread defrosted for the side.  Pretty soon, it looked like I meant to do that.

This "recipe" goes to the core of what this blog originally did.  It made me look at what I had on hand and get creative to make a balanced meal.  If one of your New Year's resolutions is to improve your budgeting skills, a first step may be to look through your pantry and freezer before heading to the market.

Cauliflower & Quinoa Pizza Crust

Relax, I haven't gone gluten-free, vegan, or low-carb.  As usual, my dietary lifestyle is based on portion control and good choices that include a decent amount of fiber and low salt.

That said, this trendy recipe is GF, lower in carbs than regular pizza crust, and can easily be turned vegan.  What it is not is a faster recipe than yeast-raised pizza crust.  I was going at a pretty good clip, and it took close to an hour and a half.  That's before putting on the toppings and baking it another 10-15 minutes.  It also produces an unfortunate number of dishes to wash and a bit of laundry, too.  But you do feel better about yourself than if you've eaten a bread pizza.  Too bad it's past holiday party season.  These can be made into bases for canapés.  Not so much for dipping.  It's really hard to get them stiff.  You'll probably have to eat them with a knife and fork.  I can't stress enough how important it is to get out as much liquid as possible.

So why make this at home instead of buying a frozen cauliflower crust?  Control of salt and fat, my frequent mantra.  I'm also trying to find recipes my boss can eat.  Since his angioplasty, he feels like he can't eat anything delicious.  I even had to teach him how to make oatmeal not awful.  When you're used to eating whatever is available, having to look at labels is discouraging.  I seriously doubt he's willing to spend 90 minutes cooking anything, but I learned something new.

As for the taste, it definitely does not taste like bread.  It's closer to a potato pancake vibe, which made me realize these are KLP if you eat quinoa during Passover.  I ended up having sides of garlic toast to round out the meal so I wouldn't feel deprived.  For someone GF, this would seem like a normal recipe and you wouldn't miss a thing.

2 lbs frozen cauliflower florets, thawed overnight in the fridge
*1/2 C dry quinoa
*1 tsp oregano
2 eggs or egg substitute (chia egg acceptable)
*2 Tb parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast flakes

1.  Start cooking the quinoa according to package directions.  Process cauliflower in the food processor until just past the riced stage.  I did it in two batches.  Microwave for 5 minutes, stirring halfway through.  Pre-cooking, in addition to using frozen cauliflower, will help to release as much water from the veggie as possible.

2.  Get a thin kitchen towel or a nut-milk bag.  Place the riced cauliflower in the towel, probably in batches, and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.  My goal was 2 cups.  I got pretty close.  Place dried clump of cauliflower in a large bowl.

3.  Add the cooked quinoa (try to get it on the dry side) to the bowl.  Stir together with cauliflower, oregano, and parmesan.  Separately, beat eggs lightly and then add to the mix.  Stir until evenly combined.  At this point, you have 24 hours before you have to bake it if you want to do it in advance.  48 hours if you wait to put in the eggs.

4.  Preheat oven to 400º, or 375º with the convection fan on.  Spray parchment with pan spray after cutting to whatever size pizza you want to make.  I made four ovals, like focaccias, on two sheet pans.  Spread "dough" thinly on parchment, less than 1/2".  I probably would have gotten them smoother if I'd used another piece of parchment or wax paper on top and run a rolling pin over it.  We're calling these "rustic".

5.  Bake for 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.  The tops should be lightly browned and firm to the touch.

6.  Here's where it comes in handy to have two extra sheet pans and two Silpats.  You're going to have to flip these.  They don't have to go onto parchment for the second bake.  I used the Silpats to make cleanup easier.  Pick up the parchment and commit to the flip.  Don't hesitate.  The one on the right was patched together because I flipped it just a smidge too slow.  The other three, I took a breath and flipped them as fast as I could.

7.  Bake crusts again for 10 minutes to brown the other side.  At this point, they can either be finished with toppings and put back in the oven long enough to heat everything through, or cooled and placed between pieces of wax paper for storage.  Refrigerated, use within a few days.  Frozen, you can defrost as needed, top, and bake.

Makes 4 individual-sized crusts

Difficulty rating  :-0

Christmas Dinner Recap

So now that everyone's on a diet, here's a menu post of a decadent meal.  To be fair, it gives you three months to bookmark the recipes before Easter.  Some of it is fine for Passover too.

I had a last minute change in the dessert menu.  The watermelon I had been saving on the vine for a bit of a showstopper dessert had rotten spots that were a little too big to cut around.  Fortunately, I still had Linzer dough in the freezer and half of a peanut butter cream pie that the folks at work had not finished.  If you plate something in the kitchen, no one knows it was leftovers.

Starter:  Cheese Platter

French Onion Soup (With the cheesy croutons I didn't do in the original post)

Roast Leg of Lamb
Steamed Green Beans
Maple-Glazed Spiced Butternut Squash
Individual Yorkshire Puddings

Plum Linzer Cookies
Magic Cookie Bars
Peanut Butter Cream Pie

You know you made enough food when bites of dessert are left on the plate.