11.29.2008
I've moved!
posted by a teacher at 8:38 PM
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11.25.2008
cranberry, caramel and pecan tart
| After seeing the almond version at smittenkitchen, I knew I'd have to try this. We went to Fredericksburg this weekend, a charming German town in the heart of Texas and bought plenty of new harvest pecans, so I switched out the type of nut. (Fredericksburg was very cute--it was a great place to celebrate six months of marriage!) It was a lot easier to make caramel than I thought it would be. One of the wedding  pans was perfect--it was deep and came with a splatter guard that I poured the cream/butter combo through, then I used it to strain the caramel into a bowl. I used the great unshrinkable sweet tart shell, which I did not love. It was really hard to get it together and I had to press it in bits into the tart pan. I made America's Test Kitchen's sweet tart dough right after this dough (I'm experimenting and knew I'd need a second one for pecan tart on Thursday), and that came together far more easily. This is the great unshrinkable dough on the left. Do you see the cracks in it? I couldn't get rid of them and didn't want to risk handling the dough for too long.  I can't wait for my husband to get home so we can try it. We're having grilled chicken salad for dinner to make up for the calories in this one. With 560 calories for a tenth of the tart, it's definitely an indulgence! I hope it's yummy. Labels: cooking |
posted by a teacher at 6:07 PM
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11.17.2008
just a week until break
I can't wait for Thanksgiving break--this year has been so stressful. The hurricane, losing our classrooms and materials to the flooding, setting up in a temporary classroom, losing professional development days . . . it's all resulted in feeling even more than ever that I can't catch up. I'm less sure that I want to catch up, to be honest. Highlights from dinner last week were America's Test Kitchen's Greek Salad (I love ATK--they never steer me wrong), Vegetable Curry (from the aforementioned), and yummy cinnamon apple crisp. I topped it with freshly whipped cream mixed with a little maple syrup. |
posted by a teacher at 6:23 PM
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11.02.2008
not quite ina garten
| I've been baking up a storm lately and making all kinds of yummy things for work (mostly his work). On Sunday last week I made my famous reduced-fat pumpkin bars. Don't let it fool you, though, these still have a lot of sugar. Oh well. Then I made a chocolate-orange bundt cake for my husband's work on Friday. He was sick, so I ended up taking it to my work instead. It was good, but I was disappointed that the sugar syrup didn't make the cake a little crunchy. I wonder if I put it in the cake container too soon. Now I'm making banana bread with streusel topping. I'll slice it up later today and freeze it so we can grab a piece for breakfast in the morning this week. Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars: Reduced fat version (the type we made for the office party). In order to reduce the amount of oil in the original recipe (1 cup!), you need to replace the oil with applesauce, increase the amount of spices, and add more baking soda in order to keep it tasting good. You can also replace all the spices with pumpkin pie spice for a slightly different flavor. For the Batter 1 3/4 cup mashed pumpkin (the smaller sized cans of pumpkin are exactly this much) 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce 2 tbs canola oil 4 large eggs 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup all purpose flour 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I prefer Guittard) For the frosting 8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened 4 tablespoons butter, softened 2 teaspoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted - optional To make the batter Preheat oven to 350 In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, applesauce, oil, eggs, and sugars until combined. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves. Toss in mini chocolate chips and stir to combine. Add dry ingredients to the wet and stir until moistened. Scoop batter into a 10 x 15" baking pan coated with nonstick spray. Bake until the center springs back when lightly pressed in the center - about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely. To make the frosting In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla. Slowly add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix until smooth. Frost bars and sprinkle half with walnuts and grate some chocolate over the other half if desired. (Can also top with freshly grated nutmeg for a spicier bar.) Makes about 42 bars. |
posted by a teacher at 10:39 AM
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