Recipe #9: Linguini with Peas and Butter

This recipe was so simple that if we hadn't made the pasta ourselves, I would feel a little silly writing a post about it. The three ingredients are peas, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and butter.

Mix them together in a warm bowl, and there you have it!

The simplicity of the dish was part of the reason I liked it so much. And we both thought it was surprisingly delicious, even though it did remind us of a meal you might make for a young child on a busy week night.

You really can't go wrong with noodles, cheese, and butter. The peas add great color and balance out the heavier dairy ingredients.

Oh! And these noodles, made from the same batch as our first pasta dish, tasted so much better, which gives me hope for future attempts.

Behold! Fettuccini with Dried Porcini Mushroom Sauce

We had pasta of two different thicknesses since we had cut some by hand and the rest in the pasta cutter. Fresh pasta needs to be boiled for only 2 minutes, and Peterson suggests testing for doneness every 30 seconds. It got complicated when the machine-cut pasta was ready, but the hand cut pasta was not. I erred on the side of caution and drained the water from all the pasta, but after I combined the noodles with the sauce we realized much of it was undercooked, so I turned up the heat and cooked the noodles again, in the sauce--not a traditional method but it did the job.

The sauce was simple: heavy cream, parmigiano-reggiano cheese, and porcini mushrooms which added signature earthiness to an otherwise rich and creamy base. This dish is perfect for eating in the authentic style of Italy or Tuscany, as a second course before the entree--a small helping is just the right amount.

If I could get past the shape and texture of our homemade noodles, I would say this was a hit.

Recipe #8: Fresh Egg Pasta (in pictures)

I admit to skipping around some because I'm finding it difficult to cook while entertaining Roscoe, and deflecting his curious little paws from dipping into and tasting everything in sight. Lately I've resorted to cooking while Roscoe sleeps, but even recipes that seem easy, like Waffles--which were next on the list--call for stiff egg whites whipped in the stand mixer.

So, I've happily moved on from quickbreads to pasta, rice, couscous and polenta. I promise to return and make those waffles and blinis later!

With Roscoe sleeping soundly, Andy and I escaped to the kitchen and made like we were in Italy.

We decided to do it the old fashioned way and make our pasta by hand, at least for this first try (and we will have PLENTY of opportunities in this chapter to hone our skills), but it can also be done in a food processor. Instead of mixing directly on the counter-top, which would have felt more organic, I mixed it in a bowl to save Andy from having to scrape little bits of dried egg dough off the counter for the next week. Unfortunately, when all was said and done, every surface was covered in flour of one form or another.

Step #1: 6 eggs and two tablespoons of olive oil in a well dug into 4 cups of flour


Step #2: Mix the egg mixture, slowly adding flour until you have a nice shaggy ball


Step #3: Use the pasta maker to knead the dough

Step #4: Cut the pasta

I opted to hand cut the dough, which turned out ok for some of the sheets, but not so much for the others. We ended up using the pasta cutter to cut the other half into Fettuccine and Linguine.



When we first started to knead the dough, it was sticky, breaking, and rolling out with a lot of holes. We just added more flour and kept trying. In the end, we decided we didn't really care what the pasta looked like since we really just need something over which to pour the cream, porcini mushrooms, and cheese that we'll be using to make the sauce. We may have over kneaded the dough, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow night to find out!

FYI: Fresh pasta is made with low gluten flour and eggs--egg pasta becomes brittle when dried--so dried pasta is made with high gluten flour (durum) and water, which is perfect for storing in your pantry.

Recipe # 7 Pancakes, 2nd time's a charm

I first attempted Peterson's pancake recipe last week. To be honest, I thought they were awful. I couldn't figure it out and I was convinced I had taken a misstep somewhere along the way, so I decided to give the recipe another try.

I used All-Purpose flour, but instead of 2 cups milk, I added only 1 1/2 because I wanted the pancakes to be thicker than they were the last time I made them. I added 3 tablespoons butter, 1 ripe banana, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, because I had them on hand.

The resulting lumber jack stack of pancakes tasted so much better than my first batch, and they looked better too. Knowing that a pancake always tastes best hot off the griddle, I was bummed when I had to pause mid-way through my baking session to help Roscoe back to sleep; by the time we got around to eating the pancakes, they were cold and limp, having soaked up all the syrup. I imagine they might have been more impressive had we eaten them at the right time.

I've been dreaming of the perfect pancake ever since I watched Blueberry Pancake Throwdown with Bobby Flay (seriously, you should watch this clip, it's only 4 minutes), and while this recipe produced a nice pancake, they were not amazing.

I hadn't before considered experimenting with different flour types (i.e., cake flour, all-purpose, etc.), but logically, this can influence the tenderness of the final pancake. Low-gluten flours produce more tender results, as does adding butter to the batter. Oh, and the difference between pancakes and crepes? Pancakes are made with baking powder (or other leavening agent), less egg, and less liquid.

Other variations offered by Peterson but not fully explained: leavening with egg white, yeast, or both; adding a sourdough starter to the mix; adding sour cream or buttermilk to add a "tangy" flavor.

I've almost completed the section on quickbreads which is a good thing. I have only waffles and blini's left.

Oops. I did it again.

I have become a careless internet shopper, checking out of my online shopping carts without first double checking their contents. It began with a double order of the Winkel. Then it was one mysterious book among a shipment of toys from Amazon. Most recently, to my dismay, Baking was delivered via UPS.

After deliberating over which book to choose for my little cooking challenge I opted for Baking's brother book Cooking. I was torn, but in the end decided I had much more to learn in the cooking domain.

I was stunned then, with the hemming and hawing behind me, when I tore through the packing (with an expectation that one of Roscoe's Christmas presents was held within), and found myself staring at the front cover of Baking. Knowingly, Andy offered to hide the book away so that I would not be tempted by it. I handed it over without even so much as one little peek inside.

Under any other circumstance I would be thrilled with such a fortunate mistake. The trouble is that I still have 594 recipes from Cooking to complete before I can even consider dabbling in another volume of recipes.

I promise myself that Baking will be next on my list.

Recipes #4, 5, and 6

It has been a busy couple of weeks and the quick bread recipes are pretty basic so I thought I'd lump a few of them into one post. I've been slow to turn out these recipes in part because 75% of my satisfaction in cooking lies in watching someone eat what I've baked. When these buttery, carb heavy recipes are presented, Andy's presence is required.

First, the scones. While the idea of scones always appeals to me, I'm usually left feeling disappointed; they're too hard, they're too dense, they're not sweet enough, there's not enough fruit... not the case with these crumbly, pastry-like, apricot scones. I'm reluctant to admit that we made eight and they were gone in less than 12 hours. I can already tell that all my fun in the kitchen is going to take its toll if I don't make up for it with more exercise.


Then there's the french toast. Oh. Sweet, Heaven. The best I've ever had, it practically melts in your mouth. The ratio of eggs to milk surprised me ( 6 eggs: 1 cup of milk), as did the absence of both vanilla and cinnamon. I did not miss either because they were that good. The recipe lends itself to personalization. A few splashes of bourbon or grand marnier, a dollop of whipped cream, some powdered sugar and strawberries, or a compote of bananas and walnuts, you could really make this your own.

I also want to add that Peterson does a superb job instructing on the temperature of the stove. He doesn't just bark "medium" or "high" heat, he offers concrete indicators that are helpful in troubleshooting, and make all the difference in recipes like french toast, and pancakes.


And tonight I made Crepes, delicious crepes. One of our favorite Richmond pastimes was to indulge in dessert crepes at Baker's Crust in Carytown. This recipe is amazingly simple with only three ingredients: flour, eggs, and milk. In spite of my assumption that crepes must be cooked in a crepe pan, my experience tells me this is completely unnecessary; I used a nonstick skillet and it worked just fine.

With heat on medium and a bowl of butter at my side I poured, flipped, and stacked over 25 golden crepes. Then I whipped my cream, making both a vanilla and chocolate version (which was insanely good, and put us both in a sugar coma) and cut up some strawberries and bananas. Then we mixed and matched until our stomachs hurt.

The result: a thin, rubbery, egg pancake great for dessert but equally suited for a more savory version.

I have 20 crepes left, nestled between wax paper, and stored in the freezer for another night.

That's right, I poured, flipped, and stacked crepes while breastfeeding ... if I can do it, you can do it!

As an aside, Roscoe has become quite interested in the food we eat. He eyes our plates intently, and tips his whole head back to follow our forks as we shovel the food in. He made a particularly cute spectator tonight!

Recipe #3 Buttermilk Biscuits

This no frills biscuit recipe takes all of 10 minutes to prepare. For minimal effort you get a brunch-worthy basket of flaky, buttery biscuits perfect for slathering on more butter and blackberry jam.

The recipe calls for flour, salt, butter, buttermilk, and baking soda. I was curious why baking soda and not baking powder was used in this recipe, and in my research, I learned the following:

1. Baking powder and baking soda act as leavening agents to help dough rise
2. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate
3. Fast acting baking soda releases carbon dioxide gas when mixed with a liquid, slow acting baking soda releases carbon dioxide gas when heated, double acting baking soda (the kind most commonly found at the grocery store) reacts once when it's added to the wet ingredients, and again when it's heated
4. Baking soda is used when there is already an acidic ingredient in the recipe; in this case, the acid is buttermilk
5. Baking powder is actually baking soda + an acid salt (like cream of tarter) + cornstarch (to absorb moisture and prevent the first reaction from occurring)

To sum it all up, I could have used baking powder in this recipe, but it would have been redundant to add the acid salt to the already acidic buttermilk batter.

Man, I feel like Alton Brown!

Recipe #2 Apple Pie

I used a combination of Golden Delicious and McIntosh from Stribling Orchard to bake my first apple pie of the season. While this recipe is out of order as far as my plan for going through Peterson's book, with fresh picked apples on hand, I couldn't help myself!

The traditional apple pie calls for an unsweetened double crust. I was craving something else, so I decided to make the pie with a sweet Classic French dough.

With Roscoe napping sporadically, I had to work the pie in fits and starts. During his morning nap I made the crust and put it in the fridge to chill. The sweet crust is best made in a mixer, which was fine with me, because I didn't have time to hand mix the dough. With only a few ingredients, it tasted like a sugar cookie.

Later, I put Roscoe in the Moby and we peeled, cored, and sliced all the apples. I rolled out the dough an hour or two later. It was pretty soft, and kept breaking, a sign that it was too warm. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to re-refrigerate it, so I just pieced it together in the bottom of the pie pan, added sugar to the apples and piled them high, sliced the butter into little pats, and rolled out the second crust.


By this time, Roscoe was screaming so I really didn't take much care in beautifying my creation. Last, I brushed the top with an egg white wash, sprinkled it with sugar, and then cut five little slits in the top. In light of the time crunch, I still think it looked pretty!


I later realized that I forgot to add cornstarch to the apple mixture, and I doubled up on the salt. Oops. It's hard to keep everything straight when also juggling Roscoe! I'll blame it also on the fact that I had to double the crust recipe in my head, which just never works out anyway.

While the pie was baking, apple juices began to seep over the edge and pool at the bottom of the oven. This produced a lot of smoke, set off the fire alarms, and filled the house with the smell of burnt apples. Peterson said that if the pie was browning within the first hour of baking, to turn the heat from 375 to 300. My crust was browning fast, so I followed his instruction.

About halfway through baking, a girlfriend of mine came over to visit. With 20 minutes left on the timer we decided to take a short walk around the neighborhood. We moseyed around trying to be mindful of the time, but when we returned the buzzer had already gone off, and I have no idea how long past 1.5 hours the pie actually baked.

Either way, only the edges were a little dark. I took the pie out to cool, and planned to wait for after dinner to dig into it, but later decided that I had to taste it right then. The crust of my slice broke apart when I cut into it (which was kind of disappointing because I was looking forward to the presentation), but the apples were still nice and warm. The crust really was perfect though, like tender layers of of sweet bread. The top crust was crunchy and shiny from the egg white, while the bottom crust was soaked in sweet buttery apple goodness.


I don't think the salt impacted the pie in a bad way, although the cornstarch would have been an improvement. I do wish I had more time to focus on the art of constructing the crust of the pie. But there are many more pies in Peterson's book so I know I will get more practice. All but one quarter of the pie was gone by the next morning and I had to ask Andy to take what was left with him to work, because I definitely would have devoured it before noon.

Just like with applesauce, I think a pie made with two apple varieties makes for a more complex and tasty dessert. The tart McIntosh paired well with the sweeter Golden Delicious.

Recipe #1: Blueberry muffins

I found a few minutes on Sunday night while Andy and Roscoe caught up with Jon out front, and decided to whip up my first Peterson recipe.

The recipe is simple and uncomplicated, requiring only one bowl and no flour sifting. It would make a great base for any combination of fruit and/or nuts. Coating the berries in flour before combining them with the batter was something I hadn't tried before, but it served its purpose well and prevented them from sinking to the bottom of the pan while baking. The batter was sweet and buttery, in fact I licked the bowl clean!

After 25 minutes at 375, emerged 12 perfect dome topped muffins that fell straight from the pan after cooling. They looked amazing with their shiny yellow tops and marbled blueberry cracks. On Peterson's suggestion I dusted each one with confectioner's sugar.

These are what I imagine when I think of a classic blueberry muffin. The tangy berries combined well with the cakey bread of the muffin. I liked their shape (they rose really nicely), and the fact that they were moist on the inside, but not sticky or wet on the outside.

Add a pat of unsalted butter, and they are divine! Next time I make these I would love to substitute strawberries or peaches for the blueberries.

Bake Off!

I felt inspired when Ernie shared with me this article from the Washington Post. Similar to the well known book club,"cooking club" members choose a cookbook and bake their way through, blogging about their experience, and reading and learning from one another as they go.

A spin off of Julie and Julia, I suppose.

I read the article, checked out a few of the websites and blogrolls, and contemplated how best to join in on the fun.

The Bread Baker's Challenge already exists, and the effort is in full swing. Despite a great book selection on a very tasty subject, I thought I might like to begin my own little baking challenge. I looked through my collection of cookbooks but none seemed worthy.

As a huge fan of California Cuisine, I was tempted to begin Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Cooking. However, we are heading into the dreary winter months, and in consideration for her premise to use local, in-season produce, I didn't feel it was a good match. After deliberating over several selections (there are so many fantastic cookbooks out there, and thankfully a long life ahead of me to cook 'till my heart's content) I finally settled on one titled "Cooking", in which James Peterson presents 600 recipes with step by step instruction and over 1500 photographs. It is a James Beard Foundation Book Award winner and I've read that if you cook your way through this book, you will learn how to cook.

On September 29th Peterson's sequel, "Baking", will be released. I was tempted to wait for "Baking" instead of beginning "Cooking". But the truth is, I just had a baby and I need not eat 600 recipes of cookies, tarts, custards, pies, and creams. Plus, I feel more confident in baking than I do cooking, so I think I will enjoy learning more about something I know very little.

Over the past 7 years, cooking has become a serious hobby of mine. Every week I try out a handful of new recipes, but lately I've had a desire to take my passion for cooking to the next level. I would love to master the basics and eventually create my own recipes. I suppose in lieu of going to cooking school I can just enjoy the art of cooking and the pleasure of eating in my own home, on my own terms.

I also really hope that Roscoe enjoys baking with his momma, so this will be fun for us to do together when we can. I'm not sure how long it will take me, but I will more or less follow the order of the recipes. I have already spotted several that I'm not so sure about--anything with Foi Gras in the title is a turn off. In fact, I reserve the right not to bake anything I have a moral aversion to! And I will be sure to blog a report on my adventures.

So here goes! I think I'm going to begin with the section on Breads.