Promotions, pie and politics… oh, yeah, and Bacon Salt.
Bacon Salt!
In case anyone reading this has not tried this fabulous new product, let me please be the first to introduce you to the wonders of Bacon Salt. I like to think of it as “sprinkle-on kosher pork without the guilty conscience, raised cholesterol or niggling leftover snouts and ankles from which we must manufacture things like doggie treats and Ballpark Franks”. To quote the website, www.baconsalt.com, “Bacon Salt is a zero calorie, zero fat, vegetarian and kosher seasoning that makes everything taste like bacon.” Yeah. If there’s a downside here I don’t see it. So toddle down to your nearest retail location and pick some up. We had ours on scrambled eggs this morning with a sprinkling of sharp cheddar cheese. And can I just say… damn.
New kitchen experiments…
So Chad has continued trying new recipes since his first week making hamburgers and I thought I would share his successes again. I should comment before I go on that most of the recipes we are trying lately are have come from the magazine “Cook’s Country”. We’ve discovered that the recipes are unfailingly simple and unfailingly GOOD. Even Chad, a 15 year old boy, now looks for the magazine in the mail every month and comments on how much he likes what we’ve made from there so far. High praise indeed when you consider his usual idea of a good magazine usually involves gaming or centerfolds. But I digress. Since I last blogged about food this is what we’ve tried:
All I can say about this one is WOW. Chad was rather hesitant to try this as it was described as a sort of quiche but he did a total about-face once he tasted it. For those of you who might be hesitant to include the jalapenos, you can purchase .Mezzetta: Deli Sliced Tamed Jalapeño Peppers. They rock. All the great taste of pickled jalapeno without the runny nose and wish to die. For, you know, the wimps among you. Me, I like the runny nose.
Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie
1 10-inch flour tortilla (burrito size)
3 cups of cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup drained, jarred, pickled jalapenos, chopped
Salt and pepper
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Grease 9-inch pie plate (We used a 10-inch pie plate and misted the surface with olive-oil and it work just fine). Press tortilla into prepared pie plate and spray lightly with cooking spray (We didn’t have buritto size tortillas so we used smaller homemade ones and cut them into pieces that fit the pie plate nicely and that worked perfectly in the final product, it didn’t cause the “crust” to come up in weird pieces). Toss chicken, cilantro, jalapenos, 1 cup cheese, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in large bowl until combined. Spread filling over tortilla(s).
2. Whisk eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt in bowl until smooth. Slowly pour over filling, then sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake until surface is golden brown, about 20 minutes. let cool 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve. (We recommend providing sour cream, avocado and green chile sauce as accompaniements because that’s what we did.)
For dessert that night he set his sights on cake. I had commented earlier that while I love cake, and appreciate the ease of an boxed cake mix, nothing from Betty Crocker holds a candle to a homemade cake. I’m not sure if he saw that as a challenge or was simply curious to see if it was true, but his response was:
New York-Style Crumb Cake
Don’t be tempted to substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour, as doing so will make a dry, tough cake. If you can’t find buttermilk, you can substitute an equal amount of plain, low-fat yogurt. When topping the cake, take care to not push the crumbs into the batter. This recipe can be easily doubled and baked in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. If doubling, increase the baking time to about 45 minutes. Cooled leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
| Crumb Topping | |
| 1/3 | cup granulated sugar (2 2/3 ounces) |
| 1/3 | cup dark brown sugar (2 2/3 ounces) |
| 3/4 | teaspoon ground cinnamon |
| 1/8 | teaspoon table salt |
| 8 | tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and still warm |
| 1 3/4 | cups cake flour (7 ounces) |
| Cake | |
| 1 1/4 | cups cake flour (5 ounces) |
| 1/2 | cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces) |
| 1/4 | teaspoon baking soda |
| 1/4 | teaspoon table salt |
| 6 | tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool |
| 1 | large egg |
| 1 | large egg yolk |
| 1 | teaspoon vanilla extract |
| 1/3 | cup buttermilk |
| Confectioners’ sugar for dusting | |
1. FOR THE TOPPING: Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 16-inch length parchment paper or aluminum foil and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.
3. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine. With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.
4. Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer. Following photos below, break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center. Bake until crumbs are golden and wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang. Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.
Step-by-Step: Don’t Be Tempted
 Sunken Cake: If you use powdered buttermilk instead of the real thing, your crumb cake may sink as the batter will be thinner. I should note we did used powdered buttermilk, Organic Valley brand , and did NOT have this problem. |
 Dry Cake: Using all-purpose flour in place of cake flour will make the crumb cake dry. |
Step-by-Step: Secrets to Bigger Crumbs
 Using both hands, break apart the crumb dough, rolling the broken dough between your thumb and forefinger to form crumbs about the size of large peas. Continue until all the dough has been broken down into crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over the cake batter, breaking apart any larger chunks. |
 Perfect-Sized Crumbs |
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Don’t we all teach our kids to finish what they start?
As tempting as it is to expound once again on my feelings regarding Sarah Palin and her politics, I don’t really want my blog to become quite as drama-ridden as my Facebook account, and so biting my internet tongue, I will refrain. However, I MUST comment on her recent resignation and what it says to me about 
someone who seems intent on presenting and marketing their personal brand of ethics to an entire county. If you cannot hold to a committment that you have made, to an oath you have taken, because you feel you’re being picked on, or you can’t get what you want, or you you see no point in trying because you have a gubenatorial case of “senioritis”, this does not say much for your ethics, or your character. How are we to trust you with something bigger if you cannot follow through on something smaller? You made a promise to the people of Alaska and you’ve chosen to break that promise. Do you believe that on the larger international stage you’ll be called on to compromise less? You’ll be under less scrutiny? Comedians will take fewer potshots? What will you do then, if you find as we all know you would, that those things are increased hundredfold… will you stomp off down Pennsyvania Avenue in a huff with your party knickers and your soccer hair in a twist?
Oh! And then there is one last issue about all of this that just twists the all-mightly hell out of MY underpants. We just spent what felt like a decade listening to candidates, pundits, current politicians, old politicians, newscasters, bloggers, comedians, action committees and everyone else go on and on and on about what the other guy is doing wrong and about how their candidate is going to fix “all that”. Enough already. Give us all time to breathe between elections. There should be a law passed forbiding any politician or would be politician from campaigning, advertising or fund-raising for the first 3 of the 4 years a president is in office. Perhaps if everyone devoted that time to actually working to improve the lives of the people they represent instead of running around talking about what they WOULD do if only they were elected we might actually make some meaningful progress.
