Almost Chef

Christmas Dinner Buffet

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:52:00 +0000

Christmas dinner this year was a fabulous potluck of deliciousness. We had 13 people for dinner so it was imperative that we divide and conquer the meal otherwise I would have jumped off the bridge by noon. On the menu was...

Appetizers: Clam Dip, Deviled Eggs, Baked Brie (Chelsea)
Salad: Spinach, Arugula, Radish and Orange
Main: Prime Rib with Horseradish Crust
Sides: Mashed Potato, Brussel Sprouts, Glazed Carrots
Dessert: Cran-Blueberry pie, Pear-Apple pie, Ginger-Pear-Custard Pie, Gingerbread Cake, Assorted Cookies.

If you left our house hungry, there was a problem because we had so much food! Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the dessert table so there is no documentation of the fabulousness that was the pie-bonanza.

Merry Christmas Brunch

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Let the feasting begin! Yesterday was Christmas and the day started off with breakfast for 7 adults and 1 baby so that we may have enough strength to forge on to open presents. On the menu for breakfast was...

- Green Eggs & Ham (a homage to Rose's Cafe)
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Fruit Salad

Green Eggs & Ham
This is really just soft, slow scrambled eggs with spinach served on top of a crusty italian bread toast with a side of bacon. I served mine with caviar for a little special something

Orange on Orange Cupcakes

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:31:00 +0000

It was Forrest's holiday party - not the big dress up event but his Director's annual potluck holiday dinner that they host in the east bay at another coworker's house. Last year we brought appetizers and folks almost seemed disappointed that I did not bring a baked good so this year I made cupcakes. Standard yellow cake recipe but replace the milk with OJ.

Leann's Potato Cinnamon Rolls

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:25:00 +0000

While in Kansas for Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to try Leann's cinnamon rolls (they were tasty) which have potato in them. Leann is Jana's mother in law and we went to her house a couple of nights so the adults could get in on a poker game. She even has a dedicated table that looks like a real poker table! Anyhoo the real purpose of this post is to talk about the wonderful cinnamon rolls that I got to sample at her house. Holy smokes they were tasty!

I got the recipe from Jana and tried to make a batch the minute I got home. They turned out pretty good - the only issue was that I didn't make enough of the caramel sauce. And the recipe was very loosey goosey as in a list of ingredients and about 4 sentences of instructions - I am still amazed I was able to pull this together.

yeasty goodness above....while the caramel simmers on the stovetop below...

the dough is rising!

Thanksgiving Pies...

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:31:00 +0000

(blueberry pie pictured above)

This thanksgiving was spent with Forrest's family (we rotate every year) and we decided to go out to Kansas to spend it with Jana and family. My in laws rented a house nearby to stay at during the week and we ended up hosting the dinner at this house.

Tamra (middle niece) and I were responsible for the desserts, so we spent the day before Thanksgiving baking three pies for the family dinner. We only used a recipe for the pumpkin pie - right off the Libby's can! The others we just kind of winged it and thankfully they turned out delicious!

Above - pumpkin pie...traditional recipe off of the Libby's pumpkin can. Below is an apple pie with a oatmeal struesel topping. TASTY. For the day before, I also baked a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting that we basically just snacked on for the next few days.

Red Pear Crostada

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:41:00 +0000

Just out of the oven and mmmm mmm tasty. Actually I didn't get to eat any of this dessert because I was so full from our sushi dinner then didn't have enough time to digest before heading out to the airport for my red eye to NYC.

Pears all prepped and ready to go. Just an easy sprinkling of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:21:00 +0000

whipped up a batch for a halloween party in the neigborhood. Recipe is a repeat of last year's halloween cupcakes for Trish's birthday! Here it is....

Peach Crostata

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:21:00 +0000

Our fat butts ate this ENTIRE thing in one sitting! And this was after we ate our dinner..geez louiseus were we fatty mcfattersons that day. So this was supposed to be a fruit pie as requested by the hubbs...but after realizing that I only had 1 bag of frozen peaches equaling 2 cups of fruit, there really wasn't going to be a pie. So I turned the fruit poor pie into a crostada.

Not sure what I did differently here but this was my best pie crust EVER - so light and flaky!

Toss frozen peaches (or fresh ones) in some sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Pour onto uncooked pie shell and spread evenly. Fold pie shell over the contents, don't worry about making clean edges, etc. Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top.

ENJOY

Pasta, Peas and Shrimp

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Damnit Molly...I am now hooked on Rao's pasta sauce and that shiz is EXPENSIVE - ACK. So to make up for the price of sauce I am using frozen peas as the greens...just kidding. But in case you haven't tried it, please do...that Rao's shit is GOOD. Add peas at the very end so they are not over cooked.

Shrimp done scampi style.

French Toast - cinnamon raisin style!

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Forrest had to work the other weekend...and my work I mean literally lock himself in the office and not come out for hours on end. So to help make his day start off better, we had a little french toast + bacon and fruit for breakfast.

So the tasty tasty goodness behind the french toast is the Greenlee's bakery raisin cinnamon bread - oh yummy! It's a local bakery down in San Jose and they happen to sell these delicious morsels at Whole Foods Markets in San Francisco. It is so packed with delicious goodness that it is almost like a bread pudding when made into french toast.

Almond Cake with Cherry Filling and Almond Frosting

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:34:00 +0000

Thursday was Chelsea's birthday and she and my bro were heading out to Yosemite for a group camping trip on Thursday AM. So Wednesday night after work, I whipped up a 2 layer almond birthday cake + cherry filling for them to take to Yosemite to celebrate. So take a standard yellow cake recipe but substitute almond flavoring and same with the frosting. For filling, I found this RAD french cherry preserve that was more tart than sweet which was a nice compliment to the cake and frosting.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:41:00 +0000

I've made this fresh glazed strawberry pie before shortly after I had the baby...when Soo brought over the most amazing box of strawberries. Recipe located here...

pie crust :) it did come out beautifully this time...especially the fluted edges!

Beef Enchiladas

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:39:00 +0000

These are basically easy peasy enchiladas...I'm not so authentic but they are tasty enough for my family.
Usually I make these with chicken, chiles and the tomatillo sauce but this time Forrest requested beef and red enchilada sauce so away we went!

Ground Beef
Shredded Cheese
Red Enchilada Sauce
Corn Tortillas
Yellow Onions Diced
Diced Tomatoes
Sliced Green Onions

Saute ground beef with diced onions. Warm the tortillas, spoon filling, sprinkle cheese and roll. Place into baking dish in a row with. Pour the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle cheese diced tomatoes and green onions. Bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

ENJOY!

Spicy Shrimp Dip

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:06:00 +0000

It's kinda like a deconstructed jalepeno shrimp popper... As you can see below, be careful when working with chilis...I have made the mistake of cutting all sorts of spicy peppers with bare hands and then later finding that the oils were burning my skin - that shiz hurts!

Recipe
Softened cream cheese
Mayonnaise
Bay Shrimp, roughly chopped
Japenos, seeded and diced
Bell Peppers, seeded and diced
Lime or lemon juice
Salt and Pepper
Old Bay Seasoning

Basically just mix everything together to taste. The only I don't like about this dip is that the cream cheese is so thick so everything just looks white. I tried to add some color by putting in different color peppers but it didn't really help. But it tasted good!

Hooray it's fig season!

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:54:00 +0000

Although autumn usually means the end of the summer bounty, there are some things that the later part of the year brings that makes me happy. Figs for example are one of those things. We had a small family dinner with Hiroko +1 and for apps I had figs, blue cheese and prosciutto that I had Chelsea help me with. Cut the fig in half, spoon some blue cheese into the center and wrap with prosciutto for a tasty, tangy treat.

For a variation, wrap fig in bacon and broil.

Coconut cupcakes!

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Closeup of the coconut cupcake (the hairy white ones...lol) Coconut cakes/cupcakes always crack me up because when covered with the shredded coconut, they tend to look all hairy. I made these for Brad and Jamie's engagement party which was a fabu beach bbq at Paradise Beach Park in Tiburon. We've cycled by the beach numerous times when riding Paradise Loop but have never been to the beach before and I have no idea why not because it is a really well kept beach/park/picnic ground.

As for the "white hairy" comment, I was going to write something about how Brad is old, white and hairy just like the cupcakes in the card but refrained as this was a family function - G rated please :)
As for the recipe, I used a different cake base recipe this time around. After many weeks of Magnolia's Vanilla cake base, I decided to go the American Cake Decorating route and used a recipe that has all of the same basic ingredients, it just has you work them in a different order. Instead of creaming together the butter and sugar with eggs and then adding the flour, this recipe has you mixing the butter and dry ingredients together then adding the milk/eggs....It creates a light crumb on the cake and I find it to be a little lighter in density than the Magnolia's method. And I used lots of coconut extract...in the batter and in the frosting.

Recipe
4 eggs at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoons coconut extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 sticks softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl mix eggs, 1/4 cup milk and coconut extract.

In a large mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk to the dry ingredients and beat on low speed, just to combine.

Pour half of the egg/milk mixture into bowl, mixing well. Add the last half of the egg/milk mixture and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat an another minute. Pour half full into prepared cake pans or cupcake cups and bake for 25-35 minutes.

Coconut Buttercream
2 sticks softened butter
1/8 cup whipping cream
6-8 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons coconut extract

Put all ingredients into a stand mixer and mix on low speed until incorporated. Then increase speed and beat at med/high for 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy.

Fresh Cherry Pie (revisiting cherry soup)

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:42:00 +0000

This is the repeat of the failed cherry pie/cherry soup from back in July. I was thinking of ways to make it less soupy and I needed another try at the lattice work.

So the key is to cook the filling on the stovetop until the juices are bubbling and it starts to thicken BEFORE you put everything into the pie shell and bake it. Otherwise it seems that it is not enough time for the cornstarch to "activate"and thicken..

Recipe

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

3 drops almond extract

4 cups pitted tart cherries

Add pitted cherries, sugar, salt and almond extract to a saucepan. Simmer on low/medium until there is a lot of juice in the pan from the berries. Add cornstarch and increase heat to med/high and bring to a quick boil...then stir constantly until the "whiteness" or the cornstarch disappears and the filling thickens.

Pour into an uncooked pie shell and top with another pie crust or lattice and bake at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes or until golden brown on top.

ENJOY!

"Watermelon Slice" Birthday Cake

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:00:00 +0000

I should have taken more pictures of the construction but alas, I forgot and it's probably better for my camera that I didn't since my hands were covered in food coloring and pieces of fondant. Regardless, it was so much fun! The cake is the standard Magnolia's vanilla cake with some blueberry frosting and fresh blueberries in the middle. What's rad is that you only need one cake pan since you cut the cake in half and stack it. For the seeds, I used chocolate chips.

Aria's Birthday Cupcakes

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:56:00 +0000

Good old fashioned vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting...I used the Magnolia's recipe for both.

Brunchtime Crustless Quiche

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:56:00 +0000

We had family in town all weekend and lots of people = lots of cooking and eating! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT when we have people over so I can cook up a storm. I truly am happiest in the kitchen...it is my favorite room in the house. It's a place where I can relax, exercise my creative brain muscles and create something that can provide happiness and sustenance for the people I love. (insert sappy moment here) I know, I know. Anyhoo.. for brunch with both parents I decided to make quiche, blueberry muffins and fruit salad. Here goes for the quiche - I was winging it so I do not have exact measurements.

Bacon
Onion
Green Onion
Mushrooms
Grated Cheese (whatever flavor you like)
Eggs + Milk (2 eggs to 1 cup milk ratio)
Butter
Breadcrumbs
Assorted Heirloom Tomatoes, sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a baking dish and then cover with breadcrumbs.

Saute the first four ingredients separately and mix together. You should not need any additional salt as the bacon has enough salt on it's own to flavor the entire dish. Evenly spread mixture in the baking dish. Sprinkle on a generous amount of cheese.

Beat together eggs and milk (you will need anywhere from 2-8 eggs depending on the size of your baking dish) and gently pour over the meat, veggies and cheese in the baking dish.

Gently lay the sliced tomatoes on top of the egg mixture and bake the entire thing anywhere from 20 minutes for a small baking dish to 45 minutes for a large baking dish. It should still jiggle when you shake it but not be liquidy.

ENJOY!

Blueberry Muffins

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:54:00 +0000

These muffins were part of the family brunch from the weekend. It is the Magnolia's recipe and there are a few changes that I would make to it... one is bake it a couple of minutes longer than they recommend and two is to add some lemon zest to the batter. The recipe used buttermilk instead of regular milk so it added a nice tang to the muffin itself.

Blah I don't want to post the recipe because I didn't love it... if you have the Magnolia's cookbook, it's that one but I am going to try and find a different one.

Bars of Experimentation...

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:53:00 +0000

Above: Passionfruit Bars
Below: Lime Bars

Recently I made a batch of lemon bars and had been noodling on the idea of branching out into bars of other flavors. Primarily flavored with other citrus fruits then on to others as well...

So this Sunday was a girls potluck dinner at Vanessa's house and I decided to make lime and passionfruit bars...with my fingers crossed that it would turn out ok. And much to my relief they were delicious! So same recipe as the lemon, just make substitutions as follows:

Passionfruit bars
Use orange zest wherever lemon zest is called for
Replace lemon juice with passionfruit juice (I get mine from the Perfect Puree of Napa Valley)
Top with powdered sugar and sweetened coconut shavings

Lime bars
Use lime zest and juice in place of lemon
If I could, I would have used key lime juice as that would have given a different flavor and I would have added a little green food coloring since the natural lime juice isn't that colorful. This would have been fun with a little candied pineapple chopped on top.

Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:31:00 +0000

This weekend included two batches of cupcakes! Sunday was a Pig Roast BBQ at Carly and Charles' casa in the Inner Richmond. They are former co-workers of Molly and Mike's who have recently started a monthly BBQ featuring a whole roasted beast/animal/creature.

I missed last month's lamb because we already had a BBQ that day and really, we can only manage about one event per day with Donut. I really aim to keep her on a schedule so that she can have some consistency as she learns to sleep, etc...

So I bought a huge clamshell of blueberries with the intention of trying to incorporate them into cupcakes but they turned out to be more like muffins...bleh. But again, take the base yellow cake recipe and augment with fruit, etc... but be sure to adjust cooktimes for added moisture from the fruit.

Forrest thought these looked a bit too "healthy and organic" because of the earthy color and the visible bits of blueberry skin. And I was overcompensating for the extra moisture in the batter from the fruit so I cooked it a bit longer and well, they were admittedly a tiny bit dry - arg. But I thought the frosting was a really pretty shade of blue/purple...

Recipe

3/4 cups self-rising flour
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1/4 lemon juice
1/2 cup crushed blueberries (in blender with lemon juice)

Frosting
1 sticks butter
1 Tablespoons Vanilla
3-4 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup crushed blueberries in lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk, lemon juice and blueberries. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Put softened butter, vanilla, cream and powdered sugar and blueberries into a mixer and blend on slow until incorporated...then whip on medium to high speed for 5-6 minutes until light and fluffy.

Strawberry Cupcakes

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:08:00 +0000

It's Annelise's first birthday is this weekend and the invitation specifically said "no gifts please" but it didn't say anything about cupcakes :) so here goes...

All prepped and ready to go! woot woot....

I wanted to make strawberry cupcakes so in keeping with the pink theme for the little one's birthday but I needed to find a way to not increase the liquid too much otherwise it would mess up my cook time. So lo and behold I found these rad dehydrated strawberries at Whole Foods to smash up and mix into the batter and frosting. They were perfectly tangy so as to not add too much sweetness to what was already an inordinate amount of powdered and granulated sugar used in the confection.

All packed up and ready to be delivered to the birthday girl. What's great is that you can take a standard yellow cake recipe that you like and play around with the liquid and flavoring portion to make different cakes. For example you can substitute juice for milk and use different extracts besides vanilla to adjust the flavors. In this instance, I just added about 1 cup of powdered dehydrated strawberries to both the batter and the frosting.

Recipe

3/4 cups self-rising flour
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered dehydrated strawberries (crush with a meat tenderizer in a bag)

Strawberry Frosting
1 sticks butter
1 Tablespoons Vanilla
3-4 cups Powdered Sugar
1/8 cup cream
1 cup powdered dehydrated strawberries (crush with a meat tenderizer in a bag)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Put softened butter, vanilla, cream and powdered sugar and strawberries into a mixer and blend on slow until incorporated...then whip on medium to high speed for 5-6 minutes until light and fluffy.

Lemon Squares

bettyjunod@gmail.com (Malibu Betty) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Always a goodie, I made some lemon bars/squares whatever you want to call them for our dessert on Sunday night. This time I didn't press the crust into the pan too hard and it made for a light and flaky crust. I'm going to experiment with the filling recipe a bit and try other fruits like passionfruit and lime...oooo maybe a key lime!

Any suggestions? I am running out of ideas for cooking...

For the crust.....

2 sticks softened butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon zest

Mix on low speed until well incorporated. press into the bottom of a square cake pan. I think mine are 8" but a 9" square would be just fine. Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Take out of oven and cool for 10-15 minutes.

For the filling....

3 large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice
6 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup sugar

Mix all the ingredients together until well incorporated. Pour into the slightly cooled shell. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the filling is set. Remove from oven, dust with powdered sugar and cool completely before cutting.