Raspberry Almond Layer Cake

This weekend we celebrated Chris's dad's birthday with a delicious dinner of leg of lamb from our lamb, and fresh asparagus straight from Chris's parents garden. I offered to make the dessert thinking I would use the opportunity to practice my cupcake recipe for the wedding, but then I decided I wanted to use all of the new tools I recently received at my bridal shower.

The Kitchen-Aid was actually a birthday gift from Chris and I love any excuse to bring it out!

To look for a recipe for a cake, I went to cooksillustrated.com, which is related to one of my favorite shows "America's Test Kitchen" and the magazine Cooks Illustrated. One quick little search brought me to the "Classic White Layer Cake with Butter Frosting and Raspberry Almond Filling - An All-Purpose Birthday Cake". Since my only guidence for this cake was "Anything But Chocolate", this seemed perfect.

The cake was delicious, it had a great almond flavor, with sweetness from the raspberry and frosting. The only thing I would do differently for next time is cut back slightly on the Almond Extract.

Recipe:

Cake-

2 1/4 Cups flour, plus more for dusting the pans (I used cooking spray with flour, so no dusting)

1 Cup whole milk, at room temperature

6 Large Egg Whites, at room temperature

2 teaspoons almond extract (slightly less for me next time)

1 teashpoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 Cups Granulated Sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Frosting -

16 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool

4 Cups confectioner's sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon whole milk (I ended up needing more to get right consistancy)

pich table salt

Filling -

1/2 Cup blanched slivered almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

1/3 Cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions:

1. Set oven rack in middle position and pre-heat to 350.

2. Spray 2 9-inch cake pans with non-stick spray, place parchment rounds on bottom of pans, spray parchment rounds, and dust whole pans with flour, tapping out excess (I used non-stick spray with flour)

3. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts in 2-cup measure, mix with fork until blended

4. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs.

5. Add all but 1/2 Cup of milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 Cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Scrape down sides and beat another 20 seconds on medium.

6. Divide batter evenly between 2 pans, making sure batter is spread to sides and top is smooth. Arrange pans at least 3 inches apart and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 23-25 minutes

7. Let the cakes rest 3 minutes, loosen cake from sides of pan if necessary and invert onto wire racks. Reinvert and let cool completely, about 1 1/2 hour.

8. For the Frosting: Beat butter confectioners' sugar, vanilla, milk, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed until sugar is moistened. Increase speed to medium-high, beat, stopping twice to scrape down bowl, until creamy and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Avoid overbeating

9. For the Filling: Combine 1/2 cup of frosting with the toasted chopped almonds and spread over the first layer. Carefully spread the jam on top, then cover with second cake layer. Spread frosting over top and sides of assembled cake. If enough frosting left over, pipe around perimeter of cake at base and top.

10. I added fresh raspberries and sliced almonds around the cake and a few on top for presentation.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it!

Ernie's Chicken & Broccoli

A couple of nights ago we attempted a new-to-us recipe. Chris had eaten this dish several times before when his dad had made it and he always talked about making it himself. Finally, after a special trip to the asian market for salted black beans, the recipe came out of the binder.



There are many steps in this recipe, everything is cooked in stages and then melded together at the end. We prepped all of the ingredients before getting the Wok hot since there is no slowing down once you start the stir-frying.



Chris said it came close, but didn't come out exactly the same as his dad's...
But we both agreed it was delicious and I'm sure we will be making it again soon!

Ernie's Chicken & Broccoli

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 thin slices of fresh garlic root

2 T salted black beans

corn starch

peanut oil

2 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into bite size pieces

1 container of extra-firm Tofu, drained & cubed

2 Cups broccoli, flowerets cut and stems sliced on the diagonal

Sherry, white wine or vermouth

1 can chicken broth

Directions:

1. Soak black beans in warm water (just enough to cover) for about 10 minutes

2. Marinate chicken in sherry (enough to cover) and mix in 1-2 T corn starch to coat for about 20 minutes

3. Drain, then mince black beans

4. Combine black beans and garlic

5. Heat Wok as hot as can be

6. Add 1 T peanut oil

7. When oil is hot, add 1/2 of the bean & garlic mixture

8. Stir Vigorously

9.Add chicken (already drained)

10. Stir briskly until chicken is well browned, about 4 minutes

11. Remove contents of pan and set aside on a plate

12. Add 1 T of peanut oil (do not clean pan in between)

13. Add the other 1/2 bean & garlic mixture

14. Heat until smoking, stir to avoid fire

15. Add tofu and stir briskly for about 2 minutes

16. Remove tofu, add to chicken set aside

17. Add 1 T peanut oil and heat

18. Add ginger slices, cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove ginger from oil (keep oil in pan)

19. Add broccoli and stir vigorously

20. Add chicken broth and simmer for about 2 minutes

21. Add chicken, tofu, and garlic/black bean combo back to broccoli in pan

22. Cook (simmer on HI) until chicken is done

23. Mix 2T of corn starch and 1/4 cup water

24. Add corn start mixture to thicken if needed

Flavor with soy sauce & serve over rice.

An Eclectic Dinner

A couple of months ago Chris & I bought a lamb. We try to eat as much locally grown/raised food as possible so we jumped at the chance to have meat that we knew exactly where and how it was raised. We are lucky enough to know a couple in Connecticut who raise a few lambs each year and this past February we received about 40lbs of lamb to fill our freezer. Tonight, we grilled two of the delicious Loin Chops and paired it with Asian Greens & Spring Vegetables and Gazpacho, all very unique flavors that seemed to work well with each other.

I started off making the Gazpacho, working from a recipe we received recently from Chris's brother and his girlfriend. With temperatures finally in the 70's it seemed like the perfect day for a cold soup. I roughly chopped up 8 tomatoes, 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, 1 red onion, 2 seeded/peeled cucumbers, 1 jalepeno, and 1 clove of garlic, dumped it all into the food processor and processed until it was all mixed together. I placed this mixture into a large glass bowl and added 32 ounces of Spicy V8 Juice, 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, and 1/4 cup lemon juice, stirred all together and and placed into the refrigerator to chill.

While I was finishing up the Gazpacho, Chris started working on a Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Recipe for Asian Greens & Spring Vegetables

The lamb chops were the quickest and easiest part of the meal. I made a rub of rosemary and garlic and coated both sides of each chop.

Chris then put the chops on hot grill for about 5 minutes each side.

The tastes of each dish were all completely different, there was the savory lamb, the spicy, tangy gazpacho and the sweet, yet salty, greens & vegetables.

We completely forgot to slice up the avacado to serve with the gazpacho, but luckily we still have plenty of the soup left over and will definitely add the avacado for lunch tomorrow!

Braised Chicken Thighs

Tonight we broke in one of our first wedding presents, a new Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot! We worked off a Mario Batali recipe for Chicken Thighs with Saffron, Green Olives and Mint, but have tweaked it a bit the past couple of times we've made it. We used just 6 chicken thighs instead of 12 and cut the skin off since, in the past, it has just caused us problems by sticking to the pot and falling off anyway. We seasoned the skinless thighs with salt & pepper, did not dredge in flour as the recipe calls for, and browned in our heavy-bottomed pot.

Once the thighs were browned we transferred them to a plate, leaving all those glorious brown bits on the bottom of the pot. We added 1 red onion, thinly sliced, to the pot and let the water cooking off of the onions deglaze the pot.

Once the onions had softened a bit, we added about a cup of white wine to aid in the deglazing process. We then added the olives and carrots, cooked a bit and added our own homemade chicken stock. This was brought to a boil and the browned chicken thighs were added back into the pot. Since there seemed to be a little too much liquid we boiled it down just a bit before covering the pot and placing in a 250 degree oven for about an hour to hour and half. When the chicken came out of the oven we stirred in a handful of fresh, chopped mint. The chicken was served over cous-cous, with a side of broccoli sauteed with garlic and finished with Balsamic Vinegar.

Braising on a week night means a late meal, but this is so tasty and makes great left-overs for lunch!

Spring is Here!

We've had a busy week and haven't been cooking much, probably not the best week to start the cooking blog! But tonight, inspired by the thermometer finally nearing 60, we grilled salmon & asparagus for a great summery meal.





Chris put a coat of mayo, salt & pepper on the salmon and grilled it using our fish griller, which works well except the plastic handle melted off the first time we used it (genius design, plastic handle on a grill tool). The aspargus was tossed with olive oil & salt and put on the grill for just a few minutes. It's a very quick, simple, and delicious meal!

And just for you "Homer".... we paired it with a nice Fume Blanc.

Homemade Pizza

We have recently instituted "pizza night" in the Reaton household, experimenting each week with different toppings. Tonight, on our 5th pizza night, we went traditional with red sauce & cheese.

The dough recipe came from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook. The recipe makes 2 pizzas, so last week when we made our dough, we split it in half and froze some for this week. For my first attempt at this recipe I did not have bread flour, just all purpose flour. I have since used bread flour (like the recipe calls for) and definitely noticed a difference for the better. I have made the dough both in a food processor and most recently in my new Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, both did the job, but the Kitchen-Aid with the dough hook is far superior!

The red sauce is Mario Batali's Basic Tomato Sauce recipe, this recipe comes out fairly chunky, which is great for pasta dishes, but for the pizza tonight we gave it a spin in the food processor to thin it out a bit. The cheese was a blend of Asiago, Parmigiano- Reggiano, and Mozzerella.

The Moosewood recipe calls for a baking time of 20-30 minutes in a 425 degree oven. After our first attempt resulted in a hard, dry crust, we did some research into pizza making and altered the recipe to about 10-12 minutes in a 550 degree oven. Much better.

It may not be perfect looking, but it was delicious....

Entering the Blogging World...

In just a few short years I have gone from vowing never to read a blog to frequently visiting my friends' cooking and family blogs, and since getting engaged, pouring over wedding planning blogs. A couple of weeks ago while my soon-to-be husband, Chris was cooking and I was making our wedding invitations, I started taking pictures and thought that perhaps, I too, would actually create a blog. With less than 2 months to the wedding, a planning blog would be pretty pointless and frankly, not very interesting. Cooking, however, is something Chris & I do daily and we love finding and trying new recipes, looking for fresh, local ingredients (including growing our own on Reaton Farm). We also love sharing recipes and food with friends, hence this blog. For those of you reading this who knew me back in the day, you may be saying "Kate Cooks?" Shockingly, I do. A few years ago I lived in an apartment that had a kitchen smaller than most coat closets, and I could probably count on one hand the number of meals I made myself over the 3 years living there. Then I met Chris and he introduced me to the crazy world of knives that actually slice through tomatoes, chopping techniques, and a huge library of cookbooks. I never thought I liked cooking or was any good at it, but really I was just clueless, and since moving into a house with a kitchen about the size of my entire old apartment, I have come to love this new hobby and have learned an incredible amount about ingredients, flavors, and equipment. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so hopefully you will enjoy some of our creations...