A Lesson in Baking

I made a cake for Carl's thesis defense. Actually, I tend to make cakes fairly regularly, and one of the problems I frequently have is that the cake sticks to the pan after it's baked, even if I butter and flour the pan. This was particularly frustrating with Carl's cake, because I wanted it to be perfect. So, there were two lessons here. The first is to butter the pan, and then cut a round (or whatever the shape of your pan is) piece of parchment paper for the bottom. The cake will just slide right out. If you forget that step, lesson two is that copious amounts of frosting can fix anything. Well, almost anything. If it comes out in crumbs there's probably no saving it. I also wanted to show you pictures of my pretty cake.

Improvisation

As I've become more experienced in the kitchen, I've been more willing to experiment with cooking sans recipe. Generally I keep it pretty simple, combining flavors that I already know will work. This usually means some sort of stir-fry, or as is the case here, pasta with vegetables.

This is a simple spaghetti dish, made with shrimp, tomatoes, and spinach, which were sautéed in olive oil. I think there were also some fresh english peas in there, but it's hard to tell in the picture and I made it so long ago. They would be a natural addition, though, and frozen english peas are just as good. The finished product is sprinkled with parmesan cheese. I think it was a little heavy on the oil, frankly. I'm really looking for an easy, light cream sauce or white sauce to go with it. Similar to an alfredo, but not necessarily as heavy. I haven't been able to find one yet, but if you know of any let me know!

Garden

Our tomato and pepper seedlings are growing nicely. We planted them about a month ago (a bit late, since the packet said to plant a few weeks before the last frost, which for Irvine this year occured in approximately January 2006). It's been a bit cooler and cloudier this year than would be best for them, but c'est la vie. Growing my own vegetables is something I haven't really done lately (what with my current lack of arable land), but I've found it to be quite rewarding in the past. You put in some effort and actually get results (i.e. edible, tasty things), plus homegrown vegetable are usually cheaper and taste much better than what you buy in the store. This year there will be tomatoes and peppers, plus spinach from the winter. I'll try to keep this updated as the season progresses. Hopefully there will be edible tomatoes and peppers within a few months.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday which shouldn't surprise anyone, since it is all about food! But in actuality, for me, it is more than that. It is the one holiday that is about getting together to celebrate with each other. There are no expectations about gift-giving, which so many other holidays include. There is no place that you need to go to see anything. And it is a time for me to reflect about how privileged and blessed my life is. As a physician I see so many people whose lives are difficult; whose families have devastating illnesses, who have financial troubles, emotional troubles and so many stresses. I do have my problems, but I always feel that they are solvable and I often say to myself, "there, but for the Grace of God, go I". So every year at Thanksgiving, I give thanks for my many blessings and plan to try to give to others throughout the year who are less fortunate than I. For what goes around, comes around!

And at my house this year, what is going around is a heritage turkey. Everyone has their own recipe for turkey. I have been tweeking mine for years, and have been lifting from many recipes that I have read from a variety of sources over the years. But this is what I have been doing the last few years, and I have no plans to change it.

HERITAGE TURKEY
First you have to buy a heritage turkey(www.heritagefoodsusa.com). This may mean that you have to sell your first born, or at least rent him out as they average $12/lb including shipping. And yes, I know, you can get a turkey for free this time of year. This was pointed out to me by my husband when he saw the charge on our credit card. But I'd rather spend my money on delicious food than other forms of entertainment. And you do have to figure in the amount of time you will spend with this bird. With stuffing, cooking, eating, cleaning, and eating leftovers, it really comes down to less than a $1/person/hour. And really, what else can you do for entertainment at that price????

STUFFING
Ingredients

seasoned corn bread stuffing (I use Mrs. Cubbison's)
Broth (see below)
Butter (NOT margarine)
1 onion/bag
1/2 cup celery/bag
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage/bag
1-2 eggs/bag

Broth
Take the neck, gizzard and heart. (I throw out the liver because I hate liver.) Throw it in a pot with the tops of the celery, an onion and a couple of carrots, a few garlic cloves and some salt. Put in some water and cook for about an hour to make some broth. You will also use this for gravy, so make sure you don't boil it all away.

Cook the celery and the onion in the butter. Don't brown it, but cook it until it is soft. Add the sausage. Discard the excess grease and then when it is cool enough to handle, add it to the corn bread. Add 1 cup melted butter, broth and mix together. When not too hot, add the eggs until fairly moist.

STUFFING THE TURKEY
This is when it is helpful to know a surgeon. I learned the proper technique to separate layers from going to a lot of Cesarean sections. When you are a pediatrician, there really isn't much to do until the baby is born. So you watch the ob's technique. Now, I've watched quite a few over the years, and I've got to say, Dr. Laurie is the one who is responsible for my expertise with a turkey. She really cares about her patients and tries to minimize trauma to their bodies during surgical procedures. She gently blunts dissects between tissue layers and I always try to emulate her technique. Clearly, it is not nearly as important to do this as well when cooking as during surgery, but why not imitate the best? So Laurie is one more person I give thanks to!
Anyway, I put my stuffing underneath the skin and above the breast meat. This accomplishes 2 things - it keeps the turkey very moist and imparts a delicious flavor to it. I do take incredible care in the separation of the layers and since I make a lot of stuffing I extend the separation and put it in the spaces between the legs and the wings and any where that I can.
I then put celery, onions, carrots, salt, sage, parsley and peppercorns loosely in the cavity.
I grease the turkey completely with olive oil, put it in a roaster with a cover and into an oven at 400 degrees

COOKING
I cook this turkey much faster than recommended for turkeys. It usually takes about 2 to 3 hours for a 20 pound turkey.

I hope that your Thanksgiving is wonderful and that you find much in your life to give thanks for.

Modified Caprese Salad

When I was in Italy four years ago, I ate well. One of the things that I really enjoyed were the Caprese salads with tuna. Italian tuna is packed in olive oil, and oh-so-delicious. Nowadays, you can find oil packed tuna in most markets. When I make this salad, I tend to use spinach as the base for added nutrition. Here is my version of this salad.



Tuna packed in olive oil
Basil
Tomatoes
Fresh mozzarella or burrata cheese
Spinach
Additional olive oil, if desired

The amounts of each ingredient can be varied to suit your needs. I don't really care about the amount of spinach, since it has very few calories. However, the cheese and tuna do, so I like to put in one serving of tuna per person, and whatever is easiest in terms of the cheese. If I'm buying burrata from Trader Joe's, I'll usually put in one large ball, which is four servings. For two people, this is fine. If I'm using tomatoes from my yard, I'll put in as many as I can and supplement if necessary, until it looks like there's the right amount of tomato in there.

Slice tomatoes, slice cheese, chop basil, and break up the tuna. Toss all ingredients in a bowl. Enjoy!

Persimmon

It's fall in the rest of North America, which means that tomatoes and fresh vegetable are out. Unless you live in California, where due to a mistake by God we ended up with no weather, no seasons and a long annual growing period. Fortunately the long, dry growing season also means certain fruits grow well almost exclusively in California, such as pomegranates and persimmons. Growing up we had a persimmon tree and more persimmons every year than could be reasonably eaten fresh by five people. So persimmon inevitably went into everything - oatmeal, pancakes, smoothies, desserts, to name a few. (Picture: Hachiya persimmon)

So here is a recipe for persimmon bars, from my mom. This works best with the soft persimmons (Hachiya variety, can be found in the farmer's market, shaped like an acorn) as opposed to the hard persimmons (Fuyu, better for fresh eating because they are not messy, shaped like a squat tomato). The soft persimmon need to be very soft - almost liquid - in order not to be astringent. This also means the pulp does not need to be processed much before baking with it.



Persimmon bars:
1 cup persimmon puree (or soft pulp)
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp each: salt, cinammon, nutmeg
1/4 tsp groud cloves

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon peel

In large mixing bowl, stir baking soda into persimmon puree. Beat in egg, sugar, oil and molasses. Stir in salt, spices, then flour. Beat well. Spread into 9"x12" pan. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until dough springs back to touch.

Mix powdered sugar with lemon juice and peel. Spread over cookies while still hot. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

Dorm Food

This is a quick post to go with a quick recipe. I visited a college student friend this evening. We were discussing the blog and he offered me a recipe. Here it is:

1 box of cake mix
12 ozs of soda
Mix, put in a greased 13 by 8 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins (less if you want it less cakelike and more pudding like)
Cool
Serve by itself, or with ice cream or whipped cream.

I stopped on the way home, spent $4 at a convenience store and bought a Devil's food cake mix and black cherry soda. 35 min after I got home, I had finished baking the cake. 15 min later, while still warm, I served it.

Serves 12; each serving cost 35 cents and was 195 calories.

My friend likes the combination of Sprite and yellow cake mix.

THANKS, E!!!!!!!!!!!