Finally, a current post! It was a bit difficult thinking back to the process and learnings of each prior post, so I’m glad to be up-to-date at last.

So my sister has recently come in to having a blender (very exciting stuff) and, naturally, the first thing I ran to do was make a smoothie. After a less-than-stellar first attempt, the second was rather delicious! Thanks to some tips from the boyfriend’s best friend, I added honey- which did wonders for the texture.

• Check to see if your blender can handle ice (particularly large chunks) prior to blending. Reading the directions may also be helpful (I say this from (lack of) experience)
• Liquid on bottom! And make sure there’s enough of it!

That said, this smoothie had the following marvellous ingredients!

Blueberry-Raspberry-Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup raspberry sorbet
• 1/4 cup strawberries and cream ice cream
• 3/4 tablespoon honey

Process:

• Assemble ingredients into blender- make sure to put liquids in first so that it is at the bottom near the blade
• Blend on ’salsa’ or similar setting (low) until nearly blended
• Pulse a few more times after completing the ‘low’ setting (wait a second or two for it to let air out) to homogenize the mixture
• Pour into a glass (you may have to tap the blender as you pour to coax out the thick mixture)
• Top with freshly-cut fruit if desired

Mmmh, it was delicious, and enjoyably thick (not a fan of thin smoothies). I hope to experiment with more fruit juices and different frozen friut (strawberries and peaches in particular) in the near-future!

Backpost: The thought occured to me the other day, why do I always bake apples with other things? They’re either baked inside of something, or on top of something, but never on their own. Well, being in the mood to experiment a bit, I decided to try the following:

• cut apples thinly as if for a tarte
• sprinkle with some sugar and cinnamon
• bake until browned on top

I know, revolutionary, right? :) All right, so it’s hardly original, but it was my first attempt at this, and all things considered, it was fairly yummy. What else do you need?

Backpost: Today I had the lovely company of my friend Saloni who is far more versed in baking than I. Being the French-loving people we are, in searching about for recipes, I suggested she check out Tartelette (brilliant blog, one of two that convinced me I had to start one myself), from whose collection she narrowed it down to a possible 3. We decided on the chocolate truffle tarte (despite my terrible white chocolate truffle cake attempt this summer… it somehow became cookie-dough ice cream. (It’s best not to ask questions))

Due to Tartelette’s recipes being gluten-free, it called for some rather interesting flours- which, had we not blindly followed it, may have yielded a better crust (it was, prior to baking, very sticky and broke so often that I eventually balled it and pushed it out once inside the tarte pan, after consulting with Saloni on this). The recipe called for coffee, which we went without- as we used bittersweet chocolate, it had enough bitterness as it was!- and was originally meant for small tartelettes, whereas we made one large one (the tartellete tins my mother gave me are 3 inchers, and as the recipe called for 4 inchers, Saloni was skeptical and suggested the larger tarte).

The result was a very, very- did I say very?- rich, thick (it really reminded me of my mother’s chocolate mousse, thick and bittersweet) tarte with an enjoyable crust (when we first baked the crust, Saloni tried a piece, exclaimed that it had the taste and texture of sand, and needless to say, we were rather worried) that interacts nicely with the filling. And there’s a neat distinction between the two chocolates- the truffle filling and the ganache topping.

Some things we learned in the process of this one:

• If you see odd or eclectic flours/ingredients being used, look into why the recipe calls for them- if, like in this case, the recipe maker requires it to be gluten-free but you don’t, think about perhaps adjusting (gluten-free recipes make concessions in texture for the sake of the gluten removal, so you may get a richer or better feel without those flours)
• Let the truffle filling sit in the tarte shell for quite some time before adding the ganache topping- the truffle may break or fall. This could perhaps be saved into a marbled tarte, but it would be tricky, and you would probably have to add more ganache on top to have an even look from the top-down. Luckily for us, Saloni has a steady hand and is far less freaking-out-ish than I, so she calmly spread the ganache on top with our bread knife (for lack of a metal spatula…) and saved the day :)

Backpost: Snickerdoodles…

They seemed like they would be fairly simple. And, of course, I thought, surely I could substitute out some of the butter for apple sauce, and leave out perhaps a third of it. Who needs butter? All these silly people online going on about how you *need* butter, well, I was going to show them…

I have a terrific dessert book “I <3 Sugar” which had a very respectable snickerdoodle recipe, so it seemed like a sign. It seemed to be going well… the smell was enjoyable… the hour-long minimum suggested wait for the dough to chill seemed excessive, but I thought it best not to argue.

…then I realized the extra egg I accidentally put in.

the result, once the whole thing was completed? well, between the lack of butter and the extra egg, they at first came out like cute little cinnamon breads. however, they hardened quickly overnight, becoming cinnamon-flavoured bread-roll-looking biscotti. hence, despite the lack of their being cooked twice and therefore undeserving of the name, I decided upon “cinnascotti”. unfortunately, no one was particularly fond of them, although as he’s a terrific vaccuum (<3), the boyfriend finished the lot:

Backpost: The boyfriend was over for dinner last week and, naturally, was in the mood for meat. A coworker of mine recently told me a rather incredulous story: he somehow convinced his formerly-vegan wife to become an eater of pork. Not too sure how he did it… and rather certain the boyfriend will not succeed in a similar stunt with me.

That said, I did concede to a lightly-meaty pasta dish. A sale on bertolli tortelloni was an excellent opportunity to try this delectable pasta out, and their “chicken and prosciutto” tortelloni and light four-cheese tortelloni seemed far more healthy than I would have imagined. Tossed with olive oil, shredded mozarella, pan-seared zucchini pieces and some roasted red bell pepper slivers, it made for a rather tasty meal:

Backpost: It’s perhaps, next to muffins, the thing I’ve made most often or most of over the years: the classic tarte aux pommes. The sad part is that despite the numerous attemps, I still haven’t quite gotten it- but the last attempt was certainly much closer!

Some things I’ve discovered with this attempt, and in general:

• if your crust is not too sweet (or generally just lacking flavour), the make-it-or-break it element of your tarte will be the glazing on top of the apples. I’ve found the most effective (and tasty) to be brushing on some organic apricot spread (Cascadian Farms) before and after baking- before, so that it will interact with the cinnamon sprinkled on top; after, to lock in moisture.
• This is an instance in which substituting butter for applesauce can work out rather nicely, depending on how you like your crust to be. I’ve also found whole wheat flour- but don’t use pastry flour, it will be too airy and light- to be a healthy substitute as well. If you’re wary of going too dark, King Arthur’s organic white whole wheat flour is a nice compromise.
• If you are going to use butter, substitute some for Earth Balance (unless you have an issue with soy). Since the butter is not quite as crucial as it would be in, say, cookies (I can say from experience, unfortunately), using the soy-based butter for a fair portion won’t disrupt your tarte (the issue usually is that if you need to cream in the butter, logically, a butter that is not cream-based won’t be too effective- but if your recipe doesn’t call for creaming, then let in the soy!)
• The thickness of your apple slices should be determined on how you like your tarte- although if you’re going to go traditional, be as thin as possible. I’ve found that I like arranging them as a flower with petals :) but I’ve seem diagonally across done very nicely, or even just straight rows (I tend to not make those quite so straight, so flowers are easier)
• Extra apples that you didn’t mean to cut, but did, or over-estimated your space? Stick them underneath inside! Who on Earth would complain about having too many apples in their tarte?

 Backpost: Today H came to visit. As per usual we had plans for cooking dinner then continuing the sewing of our dresses- which we have now been in progress on for about 6 months- and naturally didn’t get around to sewing. But when you’ve got excellent company and fun Greek food to be playing with, how can you be thinking of dress patterns?

I had picked up a Greek recipe book at Half-Price Books recently (their coupons are terrific)  and as I had seen Ina Garten skew some meat a few days prior, suggested chicken skewers with a Greek sauce. H brought over the cucumber, zucchini, and bell pepper, I got out the chicken, lemon, and yogurt, and thus began Greek Night.

A few interesting things I learned in the process: a little garam masala + olive oil coating kept the chicken nicely moist and flavourful during the grilling process; half a lemon is plenty for the yogurt sauce; my grater and the cucumber were not friends by the end of their evening date; perhaps a thicker yogurt would have yielded a better consistency (I skipped on the Greek yogurt and went with European-style in its stead).

I had recently visited Sago in the Triangle (very nice place, if you enjoy cilantro as much as I and the boyfriend do) and they sport some very yummy honey rice. Deciding that this could surely be recreated, rather than let the rice fluff on its own, I tossed the jasmine rice with honey every 3-5 minutes (H took over this after the first few times and is now a honey expert) and it was a delicious result. I highly recommend adding honey to jasmine rice. Mmmh.

That said, it was a wonderful evening and a lovely first Greek experience. H and I try to cook sew once a week (or every other week, if it’s a busy time) and will surely be continuing the Greek trend in the future, as we’re both avid Mediterranean cuisine enthusiasts. For now, some pictures from the evening: