Hitaus over.

So now that school is over, and I am over the new job learning curve as well as proposal and other grant request documentation. Let's just say it's a whole new world to paperwork. After the Hill you think you've seen it all, and as for someone who cleaned up an operation from an assistant who would have been fantastic in the 70s/80s, so I've seen paper. But this wow. I'm beginning to plan the next round of foodings.

The list so far is as is as follows:


-French Onion soup and Chocolate souffle with new soup bowls for baking and a new souffle dish.
- Ring braided challah
- A honey cake
-Brisket and scratch gravy from drippings (eek!) that will probably feed me for days.
-Vegetarian chili
I'm also looking to try something new with vegetables


** edit** Photos should be fixed

Blueberry Peach Muffins

These turned out great, but could benefit from a little more peach punch. They have this flavor that you can't quite tell what it is, but it's really good. That would be the peach puree. They are super moist and have a great flavor. Part are the blueberries were just perfect, but I think the peach puree adds a little something. The hardest part of this was making the peach puree. Cooking time was like 15m so, pretty much if you have the ingredients there is no excuse for making muffins from mix. Well, never mind, I could probably think of one or two... but you get the point.

Another first in Reckless Cook history. Muffins departed today on a cross country journey to Seattle, to the friend who ingeniously came up with the flavor combination. We'll see if these little guys can hack a trip. They are due to arrive on Wednesday, so we'll see! And I'm pretty sure the UPS guy thought I was absolutely nuts, but that's another point.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup fine-grind cornmeal
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (subtract about 2 tsp worth)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pureed peaches
• 6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 Tbs. granulated sugar mixed with 1 tsp.
    ground cinnamon, 2 tsp vanilla sugar

Preheat an oven to 400°F. Butter 12 standard muffin cups or line them with paper liners. In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Whisk in the milk and butter. Pour the egg mixture over the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each one about three-fourths full. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove and let cool. Makes about 12. I got a full baker's dozen. I sprinkled with turbinado sugar at the end.

Peach Cake with Strawberry Peach Marscapone filling

So I was really excited about this and it didn't turn out as planned. One of the things I needed was peach extract and none was around to find. I have it coming in my King Arthur Flour really big order.  So the cake was a little heavier than I generally like, but turned out very moist with a faint peach flavor and a lovely color. I need to figure out why it's so heavy, but that's a problem for another day.

I did find out that if you can't find super fine sugar or run out while baking, just put some regular sugar in a coffee grinder and grind for about 20 seconds and you're good.

I'll be excited to try this again, with the extract. And a better buttercream. My buttercream was a disaster. In part to it being 92 outside and I was baking with no AC to try and save on electricity. It was fine until the buttercream, it started separating and just wouldn't hang together, I put it in the fridge but it only helped temporarily. The damage was done. Lesson learned, buttercream is cranky.

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 3/4 cups superfine sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 large egg whites
2 3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pureed peaches

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F, Grease and flour 2 8-inch pans OR butter and line with parchment paper.

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, baking powder, sugar, salt and extracts until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg whites to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir 1/3 of the flour into the creamed mixture, then half the milk and peach puree. Repeat process, ending with flour. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl down after each addition. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for about 23 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool completely in pans on wire racks

For filling:

1 cup cold marscapone cheese

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup peach and strawberry puree

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix thoroughly. (I use a hand mixer) 

Beef. It's what's for dinner.

Slow cooked, pulled barbecue beef. So unexpectedly good. And oh so easy. It just falls apart and has a great kick. But not burn your mouth off. And the flavor was great.


So... because you are combining garlic with an acid, the garlic will turn blue, like lovely aquamarine color. Not even close to kidding. Don't worry its safe to eat, the good news is because you are cooking the mixture for so long, it breaks down the garlic and the color goes away. Just an FYI. I saw it and was all... my garlic is blue. What. The. hell. WHY is my garlic BLUE?!?! Google saved the day with science. Yep. Science.


I tried to turn this sucker over with tongs with three hours left and it fell apart. Literally just chunks falling.

• 1 large piece of beef, chuck roast ( Used about a 2 to 3 lb piece of meat)
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup hot sauce
• 1+ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1  - 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon all spice
• 1/2 tablespoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 finely diced clove elephant garlic
• 1/2 finely diced yellow onion

Combine in a crock pot/slow cooker. Put on low leave for 10 hours. Take the meat out and put it in a bowl. Spoon some sauce over. Take two forks and shred. I saved some of the sauce in a tupperware. When reheating, pour some of the sauce on the meat and put the top of the meat's tupperware back on and nuke. And you then have meat as moist as it was coming out of the pot for more meals to come.

I was going to make my own buns, but I had the errands trip form hell and didn't have time.