Last year, Lynette and I had a memorable afternoon tea experience at the Gatsby Mansion – unfortunately, memorable only in how bad it was. However, after seeing several very positive reviews about their new menu and new chef, we decided to give the Gatsby another chance. I am very happy to report that the difference between this visit and our last was like night and day, and that the afternoon tea at the Gatsby is now quite lovely and totally worth checking out….
Archives for July 2012
Daring Bakers: Going Crackers!
Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.
Homemade crackers are one of those things I’ve seen recipes for and thought, “I should make those!” but never got around to actually doing it. Maybe because they’re not loaded with sugar or chocolate? (That seems to be what attracts me these days…) Or maybe because I don’t eat a lot of crackers on a regular basis? Whatever the reason, it’s now moot, because Dana’s challenge was to make not one, but two kinds of crackers, by two different methods: rolled by hand, by pasta machine, or by the slice-and-bake/icebox method….
Sourdough Pasta (with a Pasta Machine)
Recently I was lucky enough to receive a pasta machine from a relative (thanks Cecilia!), and I’ve been giving it a pretty good workout lately – it definitely makes homemade pasta easier to churn out than rolling it by hand. This particular pasta machine was made in Italy but comes under the name “NUDELMASCHINE”, which sounds more German than Italian and prompts me and Nate to put on our best/worst German accents whenever it comes out of the cupboard for a pasta-making session.
A little while ago I came across a recipe for sourdough pasta on The Gingered Whisk (one of my Sourdough Surprises buddies), and as recipes for using up excess sourdough starter are always useful, I gave it a whirl. …
Shaping and Baking a Neapolitan-style Pizza
Now that we’ve covered making the dough, it’s time to turn it into a pizza! This is the fun part. 🙂 (And if you haven’t already, you should read my previous post on Neapolitan-style pizza dough.)…
No-Knead Neapolitan-style (Sourdough) Pizza Dough
A little while ago I posted a pizza I’d made, and promised to report back with the details on the process once I’d worked out the kinks. I’ve been working with Jim Lahey’s no-knead pizza dough and a few methods for baking it in a home oven that are supposed to mimic the effects of a commercial wood-fired pizza oven. The Sourdough Surprises project this month was pizza, so I took the opportunity to make a sourdough version of the dough.
To clarify, when I say “pizza”, I’m talking Neapolitan–style pizzas: thin-crispy-chewy-airy crust and a few carefully chosen toppings, baked in a wood-fired oven at a zillion degrees so they come out minutes later, smoking hot and slightly charred and delicious. …
Tea Party!
This year is Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.
Crab pâté and smoked salmon are delicious.
I love tea parties.
Head over to the SeaChange blog to see how I combined these three facts into something worth raising your pinky for. 😀
Lemon & Olive Oil Sugar Cookies
These cookies were born of necessity; the kind that is born at 8:30 on a Wednesday night after you’ve eaten dinner and watched a movie (Fantastic Mr. Fox, so great!) and are feeling the need for something sweet. Of course there’s nothing readily available and you don’t feel like leaving the house. Someone suggests baking cookies, but alas, there is no butter. There is, however, a litre of olive oil. Cookies made with olive oil? A challenge! (Thank goodness for the Google machine.)
These are an adaptation of a recipe that originally included black pepper, rosemary, and red wine – I can’t quite imagine what those ones must taste like (I think I might need to find out), but these ones are really quite good. …
Raspberry-Lemon-Poppyseed Muffin Cakes
Seeing local strawberries in the store is a sure sign that summer is here, but to me, it is the raspberries that signal its true arrival. Last summer I got nostalgic about blackberries, but really, it’s all about the raspberries. My mum used to grow reapberries in her garden and I loved eating them straight off the bush, still warm from the sun, sweet and tangy and so good, and now, they taste like summer to me. BC raspberries are finally in stores and I have been shelling out the $4 or $5 per pint to get me some summery goodness. The only problem is that they don’t keep and I needed to find something to do with them besides eating them by the handful. Enter: Raspberry-Lemon-Poppyseed Muffin Cakes….
Strawberries & Cream Birthday Cake
A birthday definitely deserves a cake, so for my 29th birthday this weekend, I made myself one. Some people might think that it’s sad to make your own birthday cake, but quite honestly it is one of the best birthday presents I could get. Not only to I get to bake all day (which I love, obviously!), but I get to make the cake exactly the way I want it, AND I get to eat it. Totally a win-win situation for me. Because I’m a planner (at least when it comes to cakes, anyway), I’ve been thinking about my birthday cake for a while. At first I really wanted to make this Mexican hot chocolate-inspired cake, but then I came across Julia Child’s French strawberry cake, which seemed more seasonally appropriate. I also had my eye on this hazelnut cake, so I added some hazelnuts to Julia’s cake. And then I really wanted to make Swiss meringue buttercream, and this custard buttercream frosting caught my eye. So much for following one recipe as written, right? This time, anyway, it seems to have worked out and this cake was awesome!…
Strawberry Rhubarb Skillet Clafoutis
The move is over and we have settled into our temporary new home – temporary because (fingers crossed!) we have plans in the works for bigger, better things. I have not really taken the new kitchen for a spin yet, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s bigger and better laid-out than the kitchen in our last place, which was a galley-style layout that could only accommodate one person and had barely any usable counter space:
Not that I’m knocking small kitchens – I know you can do a lot in them and I’ve survived in an even smaller one – but a little extra space is so nice. …