French Toast (pg 644) with Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (pg 599)

One of the things you still can't find in the grocery stores around here is bread, so I've been baking ours myself. 

This is great for my mental health and bicep strength but it does have a tendency to dry out quickly.  So we're always looking for something to do with stale bread, and what's more classic than French Toast?

The basic recipe in Joy is pretty simple...make a batter with eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla (rum is also given as a variation), soak the bread, and fry it up.  I also added some nutmeg (because evidently we Piepers are incapable of actually just following a recipe as written).

Joy recommends using a non-stick skillet with a tablespoon of butter to fry your toast, but I was taught to deep fry the stuff in vegetable oil (let's hear it for seventh grade Home Ec at King's Canyon Junior High!) and some things can't be unlearned.

It was perfect if I do say so myself.

The white stuff is powdered sugar which is how any sensible person dresses their French Toast.

Julie:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mike:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (even though he sort of ruined his with syrup)

Jamoncillo de Leche (Mexican Milk Fudge Pg. 863)

UPDATE: My mom was mad I threw this out so looked up the recipe herself. Turns out I was supposed to remove the cinnamon stick after the initial steeping. No wonder it tasted like burnt cinnamon. 

I had some extra whole milk so decided to try this "milk fudge." The recipe called for 4 cups which I only had a little over 2 cups of... then used a cup of 1/2 and 1/2 and a cup of 2%. I'm not doing great at following these recipes to a T.  

Ok, so you dump all the milk into a pot with sugar (you are supposed to use granulated white, I used a blend of brown, white, organic, and raw.) You're also supposed to use canela cinnamon which is allegedly the creme de la creme of cinnamon originating from Sri Lanka. Our cinnamon was subpar Vietnamese. 

After boiling for 40 minutes to 240 degrees you beat with a hand mixer until thick.  I'm not totally sure if I got to 240 degrees because my hand kept getting too hot and my glass thermometer kept steaming up. 

Here it is in a pan for cooling with toasted nuts. I would say it ended up being more of a caramel consistency. I actually really hate the flavor. The cinnamon is very strong, so it's like that beautiful caramel flavor ruined by cinnamon. It's still in the fridge and I don't know what to do with it.

Beth: 0 stars 

Sean: 2 stars

Steven: 0 stars

Pancakes (Pg. 640)

This recipe is pretty standard but the ratios must be just right because these pancakes were perfect. There's no weird bullshit about integrating the butter and the eggs gradually. I cut the sugar in half. 

Sean: 5 out of 5 stars 

Beth: 5 stars 

Apple Cake (pg. 736)

Jess is watching a really long coffee episode of BA test kitchen, and it's boring, so I'll blog about the apple cake I made a couple weeks ago. We had a lot of mushy apples from back in the day when we thought we would need to pack lunches. I looked up "apples" in the index and stumbled upon one of the best, easiest cakes I've ever had.

Jess granted cinnamon permission, which might be why the cake was so delicious. I probably haven't eaten cinnamon in five years... in solidarity. At least, that's what Jess thinks. Anyway, the cinnamon is necessary so don't skip it. I might have cut the amount in half. It's hard to remember. But you still need some cinnamon.

Jess' biggest critique was that "the apples were diced too big" and they "sunk to the bottom." I thought they were evenly dispersed. The picture doesn't lie:

That is an apple chunk at the TOP. Totally didn't sink. Jess changed her tune after her second piece.

The cake was moist and stayed that way until we finished it. No icing necessary.

Em's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for evenly-dispersed apples and forbidden cinnamon
Jess' rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for the chance to critique Em's baking then being pleasantly surprised

(Posted by Em)

Asparagus and Cauliflower

My roommate (Lori) panic bought produce last week so we had two heads of cauliflower and two bundles of asparagus to use up. Sean and I have been busy digging a giant hole in the backyard so I was specifically looking for recipes that wouldn’t take much effort today. 

For the asparagus: Asparagus-Sesame Salad (Pg. 125) 

The “Salads” section of the book is the best for lazy people because for the most part it just involves mixing a list of ingredients together. This recipe starts with steamed asparagus (Pg. 208)

While that’s happening (only takes 5 minutes) you mix your wet ingredients for a dressing. Toasted sesame oil, rice or white wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and toasted sesame seeds. 

Realized I didn’t have toasted sesame oil, so I…. oh dang just realized I have tahini. Ok well what I did was toast my sesame seeds lightly and then added 2 tablespoons of olive oil to finish the job and try to infuse some sesame flavor. I also added way less than a tablespoon of sugar. Didn’t really have issues with either of these alterations, I’d definitely make this dish again the same way. 

Beth: 5 stars

Sean: 5 stars

Lori: “best asparagus I’ve ever had” (may have been exaggerating)

The next recipe was just as easy. Creamy Mashed Cauliflower (Pg. 230)

                                 

Basically you steam a chopped up head of cauliflower with the liquid of your choice (I used chicken broth) add some garlic cloves and salt. Once soft you blend with an immersion blender. Definitely does need to be blended rather than just squashed. Then you add ½ c. of cream. I used half and half. The flavor and texture were really satisfying. The only criticism is that the cauliflower doesn’t absorb the liquid completely so you get this embarrassing separation of half and half. But, I’d definitely make this again especially because I wouldn’t need to reference the cookbook to do it. 

Beth: 4.25

Sean: 4

Steven: 5 stars

Turkey Burgers (pg 430), Hamburger Buns (pg 619), Quick Cucumber Pickles (pg 929) and a Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie (pg 770)

We started on our burgers the day before by seasoning our cast iron skillet with a giant chocolate chip cookie yesterday.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Both Em and Jess agree that this was a perfect cookie in taste and texture. Plus smashing dough into a skillet is way faster than measuring out individual balls)

Em had already baked the buns
⭐⭐⭐⭐  (from Jess who thinks they were a little too small for burgers and storing them hot steamed them up to bao texture)

and had quick pickled the cucumbers
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Seriously we're going to pickle EVERYTHING now. These are crunchy with A+ dill and garlic flavor)

So next up was patty making and if you're worried about turkey burgers being dry, fear not...

because Joy includes an option for butter cubes 😍 to be added into the burger mix! A recipe option we, of course, opted into along with the recommended measures of salt, pepper and some yellow onion we had to sub in for green. We also opted-in for chili powder and took the liberty of cooking our patties in the fat left from frying our burger bacon (I am my mother's daughter. Please see her US Senate Bean Soup post)

We topped these guys up with some sharp white cheddar, a little romaine (the only green thing left at the grocery store), that bacon, those pickles and Em's toasted buns. Turned out to be pretty dang decadent but it's quarantine and we deserve it.

Overall Turkey Burger Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (from Jess who could have used a flavor other than bacon in there somewhere. Maybe more pickles next time...)

??? (from Em who is in a butter coma on the couch 🙄

US Senate Bean Soup (page 89)

Wednesday Mike decided he wanted beans, so rather than just cook up a pot and figure out what to do with them later I went looking in Joy for a recipe.  It was cold and gloomy, so what better to fix than soup?

This recipe calls for any small white bean but I just happened to have a bag of Yellow Eye beans from Rancho Gordo, which right there on the label said it was perfect for Senate Bean soup.  Did an overnight soak and drained them.

I didn't have the ham hock called for but I did have a package of salt pork that I had bought last winter for clam chowder and promptly forgot about (don't worry!  it was still good--that stuff could outlast us all).  Fried it and added it to the beans along with the rest of the ingredients.  I did fry up the onions in the fat from the pork for extra flavor.

Because the beans were very fresh, they didn't take more than a couple of hours of simmering to be perfect.  Time for dinner!

I forgot the parsley garnish, which would have helped with the overall whiteness of this soup.  It was delicious...smooth and garlicky but really salty (next time I would skip using the pork fat for the onions and either just toss them in or fry them up in fresh neutral oil).

Rating:  Mike ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (because he likes to be difficult)
              Julie ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (because anything with beans that I can make myself eat gets an automatic 5 star rating)