Panna Cotta and the tree that fell in my yard

So you would think after all the baking, cooking, shopping, etc that I have done over the last 4 weeks, the last thing I would want to do this week is cook, right?  Fat chance.  Today I made another batch of marshmallows and some sweet delicious panna cotta...mmmmm.  Panna cotta is what I like to call "milk jello", and for someone who despises milk -me-I am obsessed with the stuff and with New Years' Eve just around the corner, which also happens to be my wedding anniversary AND my dogs' birthday, it had to be made.

Panna Cotta

4 cups half and half- you can also use all heavy cream, but come on, really?  Do you need heavy cream right now?  Do you possibly think you haven't had enough fat already this holiday season?
1 cup sugar - I like my milk jello SWEET
1/4 tsp salt
2 packets of gelatin
1/3 cup water
1 vanilla bean- this of course can be substituted using any flavor that strikes your fancy.

Pour the 4 cups of half and half into a saucepan, add in the sugar salt and vanilla bean. Heat until warm and the sugar is dissolved.  Turn off the heat and let the vanilla bean steam in the sweet, sweet milk mixture for about 30 minutes.

Milk mixture steeping

5 minutes before you are ready to strain the milk mixture- to get rid of the bean and all the nasties left by it- add the water to the 2 packets of gelatin and 'bloom'.

Add the gelatin to the milk mixture and whisk until the gelatin is dissolved.  Strain into a 4 cup Pyrex and pour into your prepared little glasses.  I like to use clear plastic bar glasses.  First you spray with cooking spray and then when they are set, turn upside down and your fabulous little milk jello should pop right out.

Finished mixture

Let set up in the fridge for at least 4 hours.  Tomorrow I will be serving mine with a touch of pomegranate molasses and some fresh pomegranate seeds.

Ready to pop in the fridge

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Other stuff that has happened this week......

Stupid tree that fell in my yard.

My dog not giving a crap. 

-Jenny

Gingerbread Man Results!

We decorated the gingerbread cookies on Christmas Eve. Everyone got into the act, including my mom, my sister-in-law, my two nieces, and even my brother. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a picture of the cookie my brother frosted using his pioneering Good 'N Plenty techniques. Too bad for you.

Pretty cookies by my eight-year-old niece

  

I made one big bowl of frosting, left a portion white, and then colored a batch of red and a batch of green. Instead of pastry bags, we applied the icing with squeeze bottles to make it easier for the kids. I think bottles are the way to go, but I am still looking for the perfect frosting recipe for these cookies. The frosting needs to firm up, but I want it to have that buttery goodness that pairs so well with the gingerbread. I’ll have to keep looking and experimenting.

Can you guess the age of this decorator?

Everyone did a great job and the colorful little guys added a festive touch around the house for a several days…until I gobbled them all up.  

Not my best work, but I like the ballgown ladies

Abstract Impressionism from the four-year-old

This gingerbread recipe came from a newspaper clipping that my mom gave me about 12 years ago.  The author is Caryl Krueger.

1 cup molasses

½ cup butter

¼ cup milk

4 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ginger

Melt the molasses and butter together. (this works well in the microwave) and when the mixture is cool, add the remaining ingredients. With your hands, form the dough into two balls and then chill in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roll out the chilled dough to about ¼ inch thickness on floured surface. Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes. Cool cookies completely on wire rack and then frost. You can dress up these cookies by adding goodies to the icing before it dries: red hots, gum drops, sanding sugar, dragees etc.

- Jenn

Merry Christmas Eve!

Cookie party on Monday was mostly a success, although a few lessons were learned. (Post coming soon!) I am going to blame the crazy rain for any of our less-than-stellar results, but untried recipes might have also had something to do with it. Also, we are definitely not Team Meringue Powder at the Strawberry Tree Cookery.

I have a bunch of things to do before this afternoon's Christmas Eve festivities, so this is just a quick post to send holiday wishes to our four loyal followers.

Blank canvases

I baked these gingerbread men and ladies (gingerpeople?) last night out of the same ingredients I have used to make a sturdy and pretty tasty gingerbread house in the past. We will decorate them today with my nieces using a buttercream frosting, red hots, and gumdrops. I should have some good pictures to share later.

I hope everyone has a merry and delicious Christmas!

- Jenn

Marshmallows and blah blah blah

So I just spent 45 minutes writing a very witty blog- you will have to take my word for it- I hit the publish button and nothing, it's disappeared.  The blog is asking me to sign in again and my masterpiece is gone.  Tears are welling up and I am about to throw oranges at the dog.  Not really, but I was pissed, the oranges were close and he was taunting me. This is also the point and I can hear my graphic design II professor saying "Remember to save your work every 5 minutes- just in case".  It wasn't just in case either, the damn Macs we were on -G4's?- crashed about every 6 minutes.  Argh, I am so frustrated and I haven't even told you about my thumb yet! 

This week I had a totally horrible, freak thumb accident, and having to retype this is horribly ironic to me. I almost cut my thumb off washing a very sharp knife.  Well, cut it off may be a bit dramatic, but 'tis the season, right?  Anyway, lost of lot of blood and went through a lot of band aids the last few days.  And it hurts.  Now let's talk marshmallows!

I am obsessed with homemade marshmallows and why wouldn't I be?  They are soft, squishy and taste like a little bit of heaven, not anything like their jet-puffed twice-removed cousins from the grocery store.  Come join me in marshmallow heaven.........

Note to Jenn- Don't worry, I don't think this counts as plagiarism, it has been modified.

Marshmallows

2 cups sugar, you can use superfine or regular
1 cup water divided
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
3 packets of gelatin
1 tsp extract.  Want to impress your friends?  Use Vanilla Bean paste for the incredible specks of vanilla beans that will be in your finished marshmallows.

2 beaten egg whites

In a large saucepan, bring the 2 cups of sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup of the water to a boil and continue boiling until the temp reaches 240.  Soft crack, soft ball, crack is whack stage, something like that, I forget what it's called.  240 just remember that.

In a Kitchen Aid mixer (hello product placement) add the 3 packets of gelatin and the other 1/2 cup water.  Let bloom.  The gelatin will suck up the water and be easier to mix in the with the sugar mixture. 5 minutes should be good.

Add the 240 degree sugar mixture to the gelatin mixture and mix until the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved.  Now you can start mixing and start mixing on high!  You want to incorporate as much air into this as possible and it is not possible on a low setting.  You want to mix this until it is about tripled in size and you just want to stick your finger in and taste.  It is very important that you don't stick your finger in as the mixture is still very, very hot.  Self restraint is what's called for here.

When it's about done, put your 1 tsp of extract in the mixture and beat for another 45 to 60 seconds.  You can also add coloring at the point as well.  This is now the point you want to add in the beaten egg whites (I like to beat mine pretty firm, firm enough so you can tip the bowl upside down over your head and you don't bat an eyelash.  I also am not very careful when mixing this in, I don't fold, rather I mix like mad until it is all incorporated.)

Pour out into an 8 x 8 greased nonstick baking pan (my favorite size- you can use whatever you like, but for all that is holy- grease the pan!)  Slam the pan on the counter a few times to get rid of the annoying air bubbles, cover with plastic wrap, or don't, and wait.  I usually wait til the next day to get these out, but you are probably OK after about 6-8 hours.  Most people like to dust the pan and thr top of the marshmallows with sifted potato starch or powdered sugar at this point- I find it just makes them a bit 'crusty'.  I prefer just to use the non-stick spray, but it's your call.

Blooming gelatin

When the time is right, get a large cutting board covered in powdered sugar, a serrated knife and all the patience you can muster.  Slowly pull the marshmallow mixture from the sides of the pan- it will come out- but you need to do this slowly so it doesn't tear.  Put this big hunk on the cutting board, cover both sides with the powdered sugar and start cutting. 

Maple Marshmallows
Same as above, but substitute 1/2 cup maple syrup for the corn syrup in the first step.  If you like maple, you will die they are so good.

To see some awesome marshmallow pictures, please see Jenn's previous blog post as I didn't have anything recent to post.

-Jenny

Marsh Madness

As Jenny already explained, cooking and baking have long been creative outlets for both of us, but they have become especially meaningful during this period of extended unemployment. When we pour our time and energy into a batch of persnickety cookies or an obscene amount of pickled jalapeno peppers, we can step back to check out our results and declare, “We kicked these cookies’ asses,” or, “My throat is still burning, but these peppers are a-m-a-z-i-n-g!” We delight in these culinary accomplishments—whether they are simply delicious or delicious simply, or even first-time failures yielding useful lessons for future endeavors.

It’s the perfect time of the year to use holiday gifts as an excuse for cooking and baking everything that strikes our fancy. I am already looking forward to my next project day with Jenny, and I am sure we will have to deal with our usual problem: not enough hours in the day to make all the things we would like. 

Last week was a busy one. In addition to our pickling project, we had a large marshmallow project to tackle for a baby shower. Jenny has become a bit of a marshmallow-making expert since her first experiments with them last winter. I had committed myself (and Jenny!) to making enough marshmallows to bag up and give to fifty baby shower attendees as favors. The marshmallows were to accompany packets of hot cocoa, so they didn’t constitute the entire favor, but there were still a lot of marshmallows needed.  Jenny showed up at my house with her trusty saucier pan, some extra casserole pans, and an impressively large bottle of red food coloring. We made four pans of speckled vanilla bean marshmallows and three pans of swirled red and white peppermint marshmallows.  Jenny ended up doing most of the work on these marshmallows because she was in the zone and I had some family drop by for lunch.

Now they have to set up overnight

I owe her big time, but look how cute they turned out! They taste even better than they look.

Still life with vanilla bean marshmallows

Peppermint swirls

The Final product

- Jenn

We have a follower!

Since I just noticed that Jenn and I officially have our first follower- hi Rob!- I thought it appropriate to celebrate the occasion.  I made ginger cookies.  And actually I made the cookies before I found out about the fact we were being  "read", and lately I make cookies everyday.  Well, almost every day, yesterday I made almond brittle and ate half the batch for breakfast this morning.  Ugh, no more brittle, if I don't become a raging diabetic before the holidays are over, it will be a true Christmas miracle.  Anyway, back to celebrating....

Jenn and I canned on Monday, a yearly occasion for me since learning how from my Grandma Green, but the first time for Jenn.  We made pickled jalapenos, carrots, dilled green beans and cocktail onions.  I'm not a huge fan of the cocktail onions until I painstakingly made them myself, aren't they gorgeous?

I swear I am obsessed with dill right now.  How can you not be?  This obsession is also due to the fact that I have a crapload of leftover dill in fridge from canning and now I have to figure out something to do with it besides smelling it and sighing every time I open the refrigerator.  I looked up a lot of dill recipes today, there isn't a lot out there that calls for more than 1/4 cup.  What am supposed to do with the other 2 cups?

-Jenny

The joy of Christmas and job hunting, Second Edition

Hello all!  I am the second Jen in this new adventure called "The Strawberry Tree" blog.  Jenn and I decided to share our collective love of cooking and other random things with the world, or at least the each other since we are the only ones reading this right now....

Cooking is my prozac, I can't say it any simpler than that.  It nourishes my soul and makes me a good person.  Whenever I am down, anxious, excited, bored or any other emotion really, I cook.  I cook so I can give it away mostly because there is no way in hell my husband and I could eat everything I make and not become obese.  And the dog is not immune either, I like to bake him doggy friendly treats as well, which he normally turns his nose up at and they go to his very appreciative doggy friends, Weezy and Sampson.  He's kind of a jerk. Back to Jenn and I.....

We have recently discovered the joys of "macaron days" in which she taught me how to make the most sublime little cookie I had ever tasted!  They are tricky little buggers, but after our first day, we were most successful:

When you can make something like this, who cares if you don't have a job, right?

-Jenny

First Blog Post (But more of a test really)

After wrestling with my copyediting final for a few weeks, I am now ready to start cooking again. This works out well since the high holiday of eating is upon us.


Here is a picture of a strawberry tree in Del Mar. I love the way these little balls catch the light.


- Jenn