Including the use of salt in all baked goods, pickles, ham, and cheese.

Because, as you must know, the economy is booming, the world is at peace, and cancer is cured.  That is why legislators have the time and energy to focus on The Great Salt Menace.

Assemblyman seeking to ban all salt in restaurant cooking

A new bill in the state Assembly would ruin restaurant food and baked goods as we know them.

In a deeply misguided gesture that is also an abuse of the legislative process, a New York City Assemblyman is pushing a nanny-state bill that would ban the use of all forms of salt in the preparation and cooking of all restaurant food.

Read the whole thing.

Life, as usual, is busy.  I’m learning a lot in my EMT course, which gives me peace of mind.  In a previous post, I mentioned that I had signed up for a 12 week EMT training class, and I’m also looking into CERT training, which is available in a lot of jurisdictions.  CERT responders are citizens who go through special training to assist in the case of a major disaster.  After 9/11, and after seeing what happens when a natural disaster strikes (the 2004 tsunami, Katrina, Haiti, Chile), I decided to do something about a fact of life:  bad things happen to good people in places they thought were safe.

Needless to say, the 14-hour per week time commitment, plus LIFE, have interfered with a lot of the baking and cooking that I like to do.  I did, however, manage to bake these Rustic Walnut Horns from one of my favorite cookbooks, Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More: 200 Anytime Treats and Special Sweets for Morning to Midnight.  These pastries call for a versatile dough that you can whip up and freeze, to be pulled out the night before you want something freshly baked for breakfast.

After you make the dough and let it rise overnight, divide it in half, freeze one half, and use the remaining half for these horns.

The recipe for the dough is below, and I’ll post the rest of my adapted recipe by tomorrow, ’cause I forgot where I left my cookbook.  May be in the car because, you see, sometimes I cart cookbooks with me to my EMT class.  Just because.  To see what others have made in their kitchens this week, be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting!

continue reading "Rustic Walnut Horns"

Then check out this website:  StillTasty.

Even though my husband dislikes coconut, I thought I’d give this a try, and we were both glad that I did.  The custard and the whipped cream are fantastic, with a subtle rum-like-but-not-boozy-at-all flavor.  My husband LOVED the whipped cream on this, did not like the coconut texture but really liked the custard, and brightened up considerably when I told him that I’d make it again.  WITH BANANAS instead of coconut.

Fantastic recipe, even though I forgot to add the bits of butter to the custard, and it was a bit too stiff as a result.  Definitely on the repeat list!

Gang, I have a test tonight, so my chicken mole poblano post will go up tomorrow.  Thanks for your patience!

Rushing around today, folks, but the cookies were made and photo and review should be up soon

This week, Michelle of Flourchild decided on Honey-Wheat Cookies, page 81.  Sorry for the short post, but I’m studying for our first test in the EMT class I’m taking.

These little cookies were quick and easy to make, needing only a few hours rest in the refrigerator to firm up the dough.  This is a honey-lemon-wheat germ cookie, and the feedback I got ranged from fantastic, to ok.  Nobody disliked the cookies, but the people who loved them REALLY loved them.

Definitely give these a try if you like lemon and honey.  If I make them again, I’m going to cut back on the sugar because they were a tad too sweet for me.

I’ll cut to the chase here:  TASTE – very good.  LOOKS – what the?!

In my latest entry to the BBA, I baked Peter Reinhart’s kaiser rolls from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.  My thoughts on the recipe are that it produces tasty rolls, especially if you sprinkle them with sesame seeds, but the texture is not as soft and fluffy as those that are commercially available.  And the shaping instructions are uncharacteristically poor.

Like most of the recipes in the book, you make a preferment that you refrigerate overnight, then use the next day to make the rolls.  No problem there.  When it came to actually using the kaiser roll cutter, however, Reinhart’s instructions, such as they are, do not result in the characteristic kaiser roll pattern.  Another failing:  the picture in the book shows glossy, well-shaped rolls.  Well, you can’t get that glossy look without using an egg wash (which I did), but that does not show up anywhere in the instructions that I could see.

So, while the recipe is very good, you are going to have to look elsewhere for better shaping and baking instructions.  I have to say that this is my first big disappointment in the book; in other instances, poor visual results were the consequence of my learning a technique.  In this case, the instructions for using the kaiser roll cutter just weren’t there.

And, as always, you can see what everyone is making this week at our Flickr group, on Twitter (#BBA), or check out the challenge page. To see what others have made in their kitchens this week, be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting!

This week, Kait of Kait’s Plate selected My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 68.

I have to admit, straight out of the oven, I wasn’t thrilled about these.  I had cut up a bunch of chocolate chunks to use, and added walnuts, and the chocolate flavor was overwhelming to me.

But then, a new day dawned.  And the overnight rest melded the flavors into an awesomeness that is hard to describe.  My husband loved the bit fat chunks of Trader Joe’s 70% Belgian chocolate.  I loved the buttery cookie studded with walnuts. I think I got 36 cookies out of the recipe, and if I’m honest, about 30 of those went down my gullet.  Not my husband’s, MINE.

Thank heavens I’ve been hitting the gym.  That’s all I have to say.  Oh, and be sure to check out the TWD blog to see how many cookies everybody else ate!

After months of trying, I finally took part in my first Daring Kitchen event!  The 2010 February Daring cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

I was eager to make pita, a first for me.  I used a 50-50 combo of whole wheat and white flour. I was rewarded with some puffy pitas, but my baking stone split in two.

According to Michelle, “Mezze is a bunch of small dishes served all at once—sort of like the Middle Eastern version of Spanish Tapas. It can be served as appetizers before a meal, or as the meal itself.”  We had to make pita and hummus, but could make other dishes in addition to those, so I made falafel as well as a beet salad that my Spanish grandmother made.

Well, the meal was a hit, even with my carnivorous husband!  I served the falafel in the  pita, along with red bell peppers, the hummus, and a kefir-lemon juice sauce.  I made the falafel from Michele’s recipe and used dried garbanzos instead of canned, added an egg to help the whole thing stick together, and cut back on the salt and cayenne.  On the other hand, I used canned beans for the hummus.

The beet salad is incredibly simple:  bake or boil some beets and waxy potatoes.  Hard boil some eggs.  Mix together, GENTLY, with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper, maybe a dash of red wine vinegar. That’s it.

The whole meal was very filling and very tasty.  You can find more wonderful mezze from other Daring Cooks at the link.  Recipes after the jump.
continue reading "Mezze for the Daring Kitchen"

Snow in all 50 states by Friday!

Most winters, the DC area gets about 6-7 inches of snow, with an “average” of 15. Total. So far this year, we have over 50 inches, with 90 inches in some areas.  In that context, a storm that drops 3 inches usually is a big deal.  To show you how we are adapting, a new storm is expected to deposit a “mere” 5 inches on Monday.

The road leading up to my house re-defines the word “plowed.”  Some state rep in Richmond is going to be hearing from me (in Virginia, the state is responsible for all road plowing).

Record snow in Dallas. And a Texas-sized snowman!

ROME has heaviest snowfall in 25 years.

Another fire station roof collapses, and the station catches fire.

Another roof collapse, stranded motorists, eight foot drifts, and five feet of snow in Frederick, Maryland (30 minutes north of D.C.).

And to show you that some folks haven’t lost their sense of humor, I leave you with this: