Daily prompt: Pour some sugar on me.

Tags

baking, chocolate, pies, postaday2014

What is your favorite sweet thing to eat? Bread pudding? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies? A smooth and creamy piece of cheesecake? Tell us all about the anticipation and delight of eating your favorite dessert. Not into sweets? Tell us all about your weakness for that certain salty snack.

The title of the daily prompt brought back some nice memories of my teenage years, hanging out with my friends on the bench at 23rd avenue and listening to DEF LEPPARD’s Pour some Sugar on Me

I do have a sweet tooth, I have always had one. Chocolate is the flavor that calls to me, but what I find interesting is that as I get older, the flavor of chocolate that I prefer changes and evolves. I used to only like milk chocolate anything, but it had to be milk chocolate only; be it ice cream, frosting or cake, I wasn’t interested in add-ons. This was when I was pretty young.

As I got older, I moved on from that simple, basic, chocolate love affair to learning how to appreciate a good cheesecake and vanilla custard. Slowly I grew to really appreciate the whole wonderful world of the fresh fruit tart. From there it was hello to the nut universe, and then I finally broke out of the milk chocolate only rut and graduated to dark chocolate; I was rapidly expanding my horizons. Basically, it has come down to this: if the dessert has the perfect marriage of butter, sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, nuts and/or flour, there’s a strong chance that I won’t say no to it.

I am fairly sure that my culinary curiosity came about because I fell madly in love with baking. Baking isn’t a lot of fun if you only bake two or three types of desserts, at least in my opinion. The challenge to perfect the pastry dough, the pastry cream and the variety of techniques and baking methods pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me willing to try other types of sweets.

I have said it before; I know that I am only a amateur baker and that is good enough for me. Baking makes me happy, it fulfills and feeds my creative side, it challenges me to try harder and be more patient and aware of what I am doing, to be more precise in my measurements and keeping track of the clock. Baking requires me to challenge myself and to be disciplined with myself. These things are good for me, at least I think that they are.

Sweet things aren’t good for the waistline or for you in terms of healthy eating, but all things in moderation is a good way to live one’s life and an occasional slice of pie or cheesecake is a moderate way to eat sweets. At least that is what I am telling myself the next time I make a cheesecake. Anyhow, I do manage to give most of the goodies that I make away to family and friends, it’s mostly about the baking rather than the eating.

People to cook for, how exciting!

Tags

chicken, company, cooking, dinner, food, pies, postaday2012

Hooray, I have people to cook for! This weekend, my hubby’s cousins are coming for the entire weekend and bringing their appetites with them. John is my hubby’s cousin and he is bringing his old children Steven and Carly to hang out with us and our old children. Since the baby girl has been away at college and we have been getting her almost every weekend, I haven’t had the time to cook anything really interesting. So now that I have a proper gathering arriving intent on eating, I am going to take advantage of the opportunity.

Since it is apple season, I want to make a tarte tatin, an upside down apple tarte. Easy and provides a nice ooh when you serve it with home-made whipped cream. All that needs to be done, is peel and slice apples, nothing fancy, it’s a rustic tart, and sauté them in melted butter and sugar until they get a nice caramel color. Before hand, I’ll have made a flaky pastry dough in my cuisinart and put it to rest in the fridge. After I roll the dough out, I butter the pie dish, pour the caramelized apples in the dish and lay the dough on top of the apples, tucking the dough around the edges of the dish. It goes right in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes. As soon as you take it out of the oven, you flip it on a plate and voila, your caramelized upside down apple tarte.

Dessert is taken care of and now to one main dish. I am planning to make a wonderful comfort dish, a chicken pot pie. Normally I am not a chicken fan, but I have always liked the chicken pot pie. The chicken loses its blandness when it is combined with peas, carrots, a seasoned chicken stock béchamel sauce and the flaky pastry dough. It’s the whole textural and flavor contrast and complimentary aspects of the pot pie that makes it one of my favorite chilly day meals. I always use Ina Garten’s recipes for this, she is more commonly known as the Barefoot Countessa and her recipes are spot on, I have never been disappointed. What I really like about her recipe is that the chicken breasts, bone in and skin on, are roasted beforehand and seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper so you are already imbuing your pot pie with great roasted flavor.

This bunch are also huge fans of my whole wheat thin crust pizza. I am probably going to make at least four pies and they won’t be wasted, those youngins sure can put food away. We bought a bunch of ice cream (oh dear for me) and we also have steaks and pork chops to put on the grill if anyone is in the mood for meat. I haven’t decided on any supplemental vegetables, I am leaning towards green beans, my favorite, sautéed with garlic.

In terms of fruit, I’ll pick up some bananas and navel oranges. Breakfast will be cereal, yogurt or maybe pancakes. This weekend will be so much fun!