Cooking: A Tale of Croissants and Cronuts

My husband has long wished that I would try my hand at making cronuts ever since he heard about the extra-rich-cousin-of-the-donut.  So finally for Valentine's day I decided to fulfill his wish - and I'll admit I was a bit curious.  I decided to kill two birds with one stone by making a double batch of croissant dough and using a little for cronuts, and the rest for croissants at Sunday dinner.  The result?  Awfully rich, but quite tasty.  Will I make them again?  Maybe, but probably no more frequently that once a year.  I'm not a big deep-fat-frying fan, but occasionally I'll make apple fritters, donuts, or funnel cake.  But deep fat-frying is just to heavy and greasy for me to do more than 4 times a year or so.  At any rate, here's the recipe that began my cronut adventure:

Croissants (Trish’s Aunt Nina’s Recipe)

3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

Mix, place on plastic wrap.  Cover and roll out to be 4”x 10”. Chill.

1 pkg. Yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 Tbsp. Sugar

Mix together and let stand 5 minutes.

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

2 Tbsp. Sugar

1 tsp. Salt

Beat and add to yeast mixture. 
3 (approx.) cups flour.  Mix in until dough leaves sides of bowl.

Roll out to 12” square.  Place butter in center, fold both sides over.  Roll out, turn 90 degrees, fold over in thirds again.  Repeat rolling and turning process 2 more times.  Wrap in plastic and chill overnight or 6-8 hours.  Cut in half and roll into a 12” circle.  Cut into 8 wedges and roll up into crescents.  Repeat with other half of dough. Let raise 30-45 minutes.  Bake at 375 for 15-20 min.

I rolled the dough out about 1/3 inch thick, cut them out (using two sizes of heart cookie cutters)  then let them raise in a slightly warm oven for about 20 minutes.

Fried them in canola oil that was heated to 375 degrees F.  A minute or so each side.

Let them drain on paper towel.

Once slightly cooled, dipped them in maple glaze (powdered sugar, evaporated milk, a little water and some maple flavoring)

Strung them on a metal skewer to drain.

Let them dry on a baking rack.

Final product.

Entertaining: Valentine's Day Jello Adventures

Ok, so I'm not a huge gelatin fan, but on holiday it makes for a festive edible-craft that kids love. I saw an idea for Jell-o valentine "envelopes" and then took it a step further. (The white layer is 1 pkg. gelatin+1/4 cup water mixed into 3/4 cup boiling water + 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk)

I ended up with heart-shaped holes in my raspberry Jello.

So I decided to whip up some more creamy gelatin (you could easily mix in yogurt instead of sweetened condensed milk) and carefully fill my heart-shaped holes.  I used a kitchen syringe.

If you spill, no worries - just blot with a paper towel.  Now I have a festive addition to our Valentine's day dinner meal, while still enjoying some festive food earlier in the week. 

I truly believe that making an effort to have a little culinary fun will inspire your kids later on to express their creativity in the kitchen. 

Cleaning: Eating the Elephant of Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is a daunting task and seems a bit overwhelming when contemplating deep cleaning the entire house.  So don't think of it that way!  Don't stress over "eating the whole elephant", but rather think of it in small, doable parts.  Starting in January, we (and by we, I mean I) like to start our spring cleaning, so that when spring really does come, we aren't trapped inside cleaning.  A room each Saturday is the goal, but with birthdays, basketball games and cold and flu season, it is hard get through every inch of an entire room every Saturday.  So during the week when I have a few minutes here or there, I start to chip away at some parts of the room.  For example: we'll be doing the master bedroom first this year, so this week I've started to attack some "trouble spots" in advance so that after an hour or two of cleaning, my kids can get on with other Saturday activities. 
I went through all my jewelry and repaired broken pieces, and thinned out unused earrings:

A lot to go through.

Using ice cube trays helps keep them organized.

Still ended up with more than I need (a tray for seasonal and kid-made, a tray for colorful and a tray for neutral/metallic)

They stack nicely next to my vintage jewelry boxes on a shelf in my closet.

I also went through some drawers in the master bathroom and did a clean-out/reorganize. 

I use ziploc bags to organize rarely used hair items by type, and then when they look ratty, I just replace them and it's new and tidy again! Also, the tic-tac containers are a great pinterest idea for storing bobby pins.  

That way today when I clean the house, I'll take another few minutes and finish up the walls, cabinets and baseboards and the master bath will be done.  Then tomorrow we'll be ready to attack the master bedroom.  Piece by piece is the way to not only eat an elephant, but in my opinion, the only way to spring clean a house. 

Cooking: Rosettes - The Most Fragile (& Easy) Delicacy

Rosettes are a Scandinavian pastry that I was raised with.  I remember back in the days when you could bring homemade treats to school on your birthday, my mother made enough rosettes for my entire second grade class.  Yes, she was quite the domestic artist.  You can find the recipe either included with your rosette iron or online.  It is a simple recipe that is very similar to crepe batter. 
The key is to keep your oil at 375 degrees F and to get your rosette iron hot before dipping it into the batter.  They cook in a matter of seconds and the whole matter is rather simple.

Dip the hot iron into the batter being sure to not let the batter cover the top side of the iron.

Dip the battered iron into hot oil (375 degrees F)

Keep submerged in the oil for 10 seconds or so until bubbling starts to subside and the rosette is nicely bowned.

Using a fork, gently remove the rosette from the iron and let drain on paper towel.

When cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Just make sure to lean over a napkin as these light, crispy delights shatter easily.  I'm thinking that they would be the perfect treat for a party featuring the movie Frozen.  The rosette irons come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  I actually have one in the shape of a spider - luckily the tastiness overcomes the creepy idea of eating a crispy spider shape.  Rosette irons are found at kitchen stores, online and often at many second-hand stores as well.  Hope you enjoy this exotic and easy treat.

Organizing/Cleaning: Pre-holiday Room Prep

Every year before Christmas (or right after if I'm not that on-the-ball), I help my kids do a deep room de-junking.  The reasoning behind this torture is this - if they plan on receiving gifts (translate to more stuff) they had better make room for the new by thinning out the old.  For example, I know that my daughter loves clothes and inevitably receives something in that category for Christmas.  So we apply the set-hanger rule when going through her closet.  This means you have a set number of hangers and if you get something new, you get rid of something old.  Same applies to drawer space.  The kids end up filling a bag of things to donate, and at least a large garbage bag full of trash.  (Why is it my kids seem incapable of throwing trash away?  It baffles me.)  So here are the tips we use to ready their rooms for Christmas:

• Clothing: 

1. Donate all "too-small" items.
2. Mend or throw out torn, or things with holes.
3. Leave a little space in drawers - if you can't close it without packing it down, there's too much.
4. Employ the set-hanger rule and keep a couple empty hangers.

• Toys:

1. If it is in current use and good condition, keep it.
2. If it is broken beyond repair, toss it.
3. If it has immense sentimental value but you don't use it anymore, it goes in the childhood box in the storage room (this rule has to be used sparingly so you don't end up a hoarder in your storage room).
4. If you're ambivalent, donate it.
5. If you don't have space for it, donate it.

• Desk/School Items:

1. Toss all broken pencils, scraps of paper and disemboweled pens.
2. Keep only assignments that are needed for current grades or grading period.
3.  One or two masterpieces may be kept.
4. Art projects get digitally captured, then tossed.  

This also happens before birthdays as well as before school starts etc.  Unfortunately, neat and clean kid rooms have a very short shelf-life at my house.  But in this way we at least keep the pits-of-despair at bay on a fairly regular basis. 

Cooking: Well Planned Dinner = Better Breakfast

This summer my teenage boy discovered he loves breakfast burritos.  I'm pleased as punch with this culinary revelation since a breakfast burrito is a great way to get grain, protein and veggies in one convenient hand-held meal.  So when I mentioned that they keep well in the freezer, my son requested that I make some to have on hand for a quick breakfast before school.  Nice idea, but since he's the main consumer - I flipped the request back around to him and suggested he make it for dinner one night.  So on his night to cook, he made a really big batch of breakfast burrito components.

Since we only made a small dent with what we ate at dinner, we cleared the table and set the leftovers up on the kitchen counter - ready for some assembly-line action.  Here's how it went:

1. Grab a tortilla
2. Add some scrambled eggs
3. Add some hashbrowns
4. Add some sausage crumbles
5. Add some cheese
6. Salsa is an optional ingredient as well
7. Roll up burrito style (tucking in edges as you roll up)
8. Wrap in aluminum foil

As you can see - he ended up with a grundle of breakfast burritos.  We placed them in freezer-ziptop bags and he pulls one out once or twice a week for breakfast or even for an after-school or late-night snack.  Preparing one dinner ended up feeding him for a long time.  Hopefully he'll remember that when he's off on his own. 

Canning: I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I was helping a neighbor pick grapes, and since they grow on a fence between yards, the neighbor in back wasn't going to use any of the grapes on their side.  So I enlisted the aid of my daughter and we picked and picked and picked. 

Those vines were loaded - mother nature's abundance never ceases to amaze me!  I ended up juicing six or seven batches and burned through an entire tank of propane (I always can outside using the burner on the side of my grill).  I made lots of quarts of grape juice, then the rest as grape jelly - using the reduced sugar pectin (so you get more fruit flavor instead of colorful sweet).

I ended up layering the last little bit of the white and concord grape jelly that didn't fit into jars.  Homemade tastes so much better!

Although it takes a long time to juice - it is easy as pie and requires very little work and attention.  I tossed all the grape mash onto the garden to be tilled in later. 
Now for my real canning epiphany.  I don't have a water softener, and my water-bath canner always has that hard-water residue. 

The residue doesn't show up that well here - but trust me - it's an unsightly pain!

This doesn't pose any real problem with quality, but my jars always come out with a chalky coating and you have to wipe down every jar and polish it off.  So, I decided to add a couple "glugs" of vinegar to the water this time - and viola! - no residue. 

Just a couple "glugs" (maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup) to the water solved any hard-water residue problems.

I'm sure everyone else knew this trick already - but it was welcome news to me.  Now my jars come out sparkling clean on the outside so you can see the gorgeous fruit on the inside!

I know I've said it two or three times this fall, but I really think that I'm done canning for sure this year.  Now I've just got to find a place to store it all. . . off to organize!

Gardening: Cultivating an appreciation for the unusual

The beauty of gardening is that Mother Nature is full of curve-balls.  That may be part of what frustrates those with green thumbs, but it is also what keeps us coming back.  Pointing out some of natures spectacular displays may just help awaken the green thumb in our kids as well.  If not, your kids will at least think you are a garden-geek and that is pretty amusing as well.  Here are some of the latest garden oddities that I chose to bring to my kids attention:

Ok, you may not think that a dying house-plant leaf isn't a spectacular display, but really - who can deny it is has a gorgeous way of dying?  Nature may just be trying to teach us that aging can be beautiful in itself.

My parent discovered a planter covered in alien-looking vines.  Turns out it was a dodder, or a parasitic plant.

Although it may be a real blight in some areas of the country, it's pretty rare around here and I found it fascinating.  No connection to the soil, but it was thriving like no other.

Here's what it looks like after we untangled it all from the poor planter-victims. 

Ok - this is one of my favorite gardens ever!  On Crockett Avenue in Logan, Utah, a man named Bruce Bugbee creates a stunning garden display. 

This year's theme was the Wizard of Oz - complete with a yellow brick road.

I love the tin man!

The whimsical sign that describes the garden quotes the book/movie: "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto."  Love it!

Eating Autumnal Blooms

Ok, so I am not a huge plain cake with shortening-based frosting fan.  They are fun to make whimsical and pretty, but not always so tasty.  However, there are a few homemade recipes for frosted layer cakes that really get my taste-buds excited.  This time of year chrysanthemums are blooming their hardy, little hearts out.  Did you know that they are edible?  So here's my version of a sunflower cake using chrysanthemum (pesticide-free) petals and mint leaves.  Chocolate chips make up the seeds in the flower's center.  It is a fun and tasty way to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall.  I really love the liniment cake recipe from the Anne of Green Gables cookbook and I found this link to it online: http://www.food.com/recipe/annes-liniment-cake-anne-of-green-gables-362236 and my favorite frosting comes from the same cookbook: http://www.food.com/recipe/annes-chocolate-fudge-frosting-61886

While you're at it, you might as well make some raspberry cordial and call it a tea party! 

Cleaning: The Dreaded Defrosting of a Chest Freezer

Since October is the month for all things scary, I decided to attack the chest freezer in our garage.  Ideally I like to get it defrosted every year, but I'll admit it's been having a 2-year ice age in there.  Not only is it an enlightening experience to see what exactly we've got in there, but it can also be a great way to work out some aggression as you chip away the ice.  Here's the anatomy of my scary, cleaning adventure:

Choose a nice cool day  so that you can empty all of your frozen food and work without it defrosting too much.

Yes, here is the chest freezer with the ice-sheets-of-shame.

I like using a plastic putty-knife to chip the ice off.  You can use hot water to help remove all the ice, but I don't like that system.  I'd rather chip it off and then only have to scoop up the ice-bits in the bottom of the freezer with a dust-pan instead of dealing with a soupy nasty mess that you have to completely dry out so it doesn't form a veritable ice-rink in the bottom of your freezer.  This is where the aggression gets worked out as well as some upper body musculature as you lean over and scrape.

When it is all clean and clear inside (and all inevitable popsicle stickiness is cleaned up), then comes the fun part.  Organizing!  I have some plastic bins in the bottom of the freezer that I use to organize food by groups as well as utilizing the baskets above.  For example:                          

• One basket is completely full of freezer jam.  
• Another contains baking items such as brown sugar, chocolate chips, yeast, butter, coconut, nuts etc.  
• Another basket holds frozen vegetables, 
• The 4th basket holds frozen juice, fruits and cheese (yes I know that doesn't go together, but it was the only basket with space leftover). 
•  I always keep my meats in the very bottom of the freezer for food safety reasons - I don't want any juices dripping on things before the meat freezes completely. 

 

Here's the anatomy of my scary, cleaning adventure:

Domestic Arts Teach Confidence

The whole purpose to my teaching my kids domestic skills is to teach them that they can do new and possibly hard things.  I am hoping that by teaching them to cook, clean, sew, entertain, garden, etc. they will learn that they can be stretched outside their comfort zone and not only survive, but thrive.  I came across a quote in the Ensign magazine this past month that really encapsulated what I want my kids to learn in my home:

Here is a link to the full article which was actually on hope: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/09/the-healing-balm-of-hope?lang=eng&query=healing+balm+of+hope

I hope that whether it be a new attempt at canning, building that bookshelf, trying that new recipe, or planning a dinner party, you will attack it with true confidence.  Definitely a reminder I need myself from time to time.

Baking: Pizza Fixings & Hot Cocoa Mix = Tasty Creations

This summer's baking day had my kids making dough.  They practiced making my grandmother's refrigerator roll dough recipe which is very versatile and fool-proof.  Find the recipe here: http://teach12homeskills.blogspot.com/2012/04/baking-refrigerator-roll-dough.html  We fit baking day into the same day as canning day and so the kids had friends over.  I divided up the dough so that each kid could make 2 mini loaves of their own creations.  My son came up with some creative additions and my daughter decided to go for the savory as well as the sweet.  Here's how it turned out:

Here's the group attacking their dough.

My son decided to fill one loaf with Stephen's Candy Cane Cocoa.

I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out rather tasty.  It would make great holiday rolls.

The pizza roll contigent with their pizza sauce, pepperoni, Italian seasoning, cheese and garlic.

My boy wanted to put food coloring on his, and I thought it would be a great way to distinguish everyone's loaves.

Hot out of the oven!  Color-coded loaves ready to eat.

My girl with her cinnamon bread and pizza bread.

My boy with his peppermint-cocoa loaf!

 A fun time was had by all, and we've now found a new use for any leftover Stephen's cocoa!