Recipe Writing: Crab Cakes

 For various restaurants, I have helped develop menu items as well as flesh out recipes for company wide use. This is one such recipe I spent a bit of time with, which makes a very tasty crab cake! If you make one of these guys at home, let me know how it comes out.

Crab Cakes

Tools Needed -         Ingredients - 

. Large Metal Mixing Bowl . White Onion (1, diced)

. Teaspoon measure . Onion Powder (3 tbsp)

. Large Metal Spoon . Dill (1 tbsp)

. White Spatula          . Granulated Garlic (3 tsp)

. Grinder                  . Parsley (1 bunch, diced)

. Metal Scale          . Mayo (2 cups)

. Knife          . Hot Sauce (1 tsp)

. Can Opener          . Capers (1 ¼ cup diced)

. Metal 1/2 deep pan . Dijon Mustard (3 tbsp)

. Wax paper liners          . Crab Meat Lump (3 8oz cans, thawed)

. 1 Cup measure          . Crab Meat Claw (1 8oz can, thawed)

. ¼ cup measure         . Panko (2 Cups full)

. Tablespoon measure

. Cutting Board

Instructions - 

1. On your cutting board, carefully dice one white onion. Once finished, place into the metal mixing bowl.
2. On your cutting board carefully chop and dice the parsley, making sure to remove the long stems first and just chop/dice the parsley leaves. Once finished, place into the metal mixing bowl.
3. Using your Tablespoon measure add 3 tablespoons of Onion Powder, Granulated Garlic and Dijon Mustard into the large metal mixing bowl. Then add 1 tablespoon of the Dill into the large metal mixing bowl.
4. Using your Teaspoon measure add 1 teaspoon of hot sauce into the large metal mixing bowl.
5. Using your cup measurement, put 1 and ¼ cup of caper in the dicer. Gently dice till broken down, then add the mixture to the large metal mixing bowl.
6. Using your cup measurement, add 2 cups of mayo into the large metal mixing bowl. Now use your large metal spoon to mix all the ingredients until an even and constant mixture is achieved with all the items evenly mixed together.
7. Use your can opener to open up the crab meat. Add in your 3 lump crab meat cans first, then your claw meat. Using the white spatula, gently fold the crab into the cake mixture. Be careful not to mix too hard or aggressively, gently fold the meat together so as to not break it up too much or damage the crab meat until everything was evenly mixed.
8. Using your Cup measure, carefully add the Panko into the large metal mixing bowl to the crab cake mixture. Using your white spatula, carefully continue to fold and mix the panko into the crab cake mixture. Mix until the panko is fully incorporated into the cake mixture, you may need to use your gloved hands to finish it if needed.
9. Once your crab cake mixture is finished, set aside. Take your metal ½ deep pan and line the bottom with a sheet of wax paper. Grab a piece of the crab cake mixture and form it into a ball. Using your scale, weigh each ball out to 4oz for the weight of the crab cake. Once you’ve ensured the patty weighs 4oz, gently pat with your gloved hands to make it into a patty shape and place into your metal pan on the wax paper. Each layer should be 5 crab cakes, once you’ve finished a layer then lay a wax paper down and start another layer. Once finished, wrap and label correctly then store on the make line in the appropriate spot.

Chicken Recipe

I love to cook, for myself and for others. Tonight for dinner I decided to be a little adventurous and try some new things with the chicken.

I started out with a 5oz chicken breast, cleaned up with minimal fat. I let it soak in lemon juice, marinating it to give it a nice flavor. While that was marinating, I started up a nice pot of rice. I boiled it with chicken broth and saffron to give it a lovely flavor, and went back to the chicken.

Once the chicken was finished marinating, I tossed it into a skillet and medium-high heat. Seasoned with marjoram, garlic, ginger, pink salt and a fringe of rosemary and these cooked up nicely. The rice finished just in time, a little light fluffing and it was a delight. I topped it with a bit of fresh butter, because why not ya know?

It was a delightful meal, something I need to make again sometime soon.

Recipe: Miso Soup

This recipe posted here is the one i used to make my miso soup served in my Fall Coronation 2015 feast. It got many rave reviews and asks about a recipe, so I figured as I am working on more regular blogging I will share it here! The recipe is broken down to serve 5-10 people.

Miso soup

Ingredients:

3 quarts water - I use standard tap water here, nothing fancy

1 quart of fish stock - This one is a bit tricky, and will depend on how crazy you wanna go. For the stock, I made it from lightly boiling tuna. You can of course buy fish stock in Asian grocery stores (or the odd Publix wth a large international selection), but I made it fresh.

1/4 cup dashi granules - Can be purchased in any Asian grocery store

1/4 cup miso paste - Can be purchased in any Asian grocery store, but I have seen at Publix and Whole Foods!

Salt to taste - I used sea salt, but use your favorite salt here!

1/2 pound fresh cold wakame - I have only found this is Asian grocery stores, but I've heard this can be found in Whole Foods as well.

Instructions

1) In a large pot with a well fitting lid, add in water and fish stock. Bring to a rolling boil.

2) Once water and fish stock have reached a rolling boil, add in dashi granules. Stir for one minute, until granules are fully mixed in.

3) Once granules have been mixed in, add in wakame. Stir vigorously, until the wakame is broken up and softened.

4) Whisk in miso paste, until water has turned one solid color. Drop heat to a simmer, fit tight with a lid and let simmer for 25 minutes.

5) Remove lid, stir to mix up wakame that may have settled. Sprinkle salt to taste, serve hot.

Enjoy!

Random Cookery - Yuletide Soup

So today, instead of posting more about Mayanmas like I had planned I will be posting this amazing recipe I made up today while bored.

Julie's baby shower is today, and one of the dishes I'm bringing in a proper 12th night English meat pie. I had about a pound and a half left over ground beef so I decided to test cook one of my dishes for the Chalice Feast (another blog post on the meatballs later).

I had 9 cups of leftover beef broth when I was done, and still itched to cook more. Ever suggested I use barley with the broth to make a nice soup. Loving the idea (also because I had a half-empty box of barley that needed to be used), I decided to go a little hog wild and make myself a soup. Its amazing, delicious and will post the recipe here for you to enjoy on your own!

Yuletide Soup

. 9 cups of beef broth
. 2 1/2 cups barley ( I used medium quaker oat variety)
. 1 small onion, chopped
. 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
. 2/3 cup of feta cheese, crumbled and not packed
. Salt and pepper to taste

1) The beef broth was still warm, so for me it was simple. Bring the beef broth back up to a soft boil and add in the barley, onion and garlic.
2) Let stay at a soft boil for a few moments. Sprinkle the feta cheese in the soup, 1/3 cup at a time in 5 minute intervals.
3) After the barley has been cooked, pull the soup off the burner and stir rapidly to make sure all the feta is melted and blended in.
4) Sprinkle the salt and pepper in and give one last stir, season to taste.

This is a really great taste, the feta cheese has a nice soothing taste over the bite that I typically find in barley. A nice roll of bread to dip really completes this meal, it coats my throat and has a warmth that stays all the way down to my tummy. A nice and hearty soup for a cold Yule season, perhaps I will leave some out on Krampus Night to ensure I'm not beaten by sticks this year!

Adventures in film making: Lots Caste

For those of you unaware, I am a huge supporter of the Not 1 Zombie film project, being organized and directed by my friends Haley and Kyle. I've advertized for them, boosted the signal on their production blog ( which can be found here ) and I've even helped them by filming my own short video clip to build on the universe ( which can be found here ). Last weekend I took another big step forward, not just in helping them out but also pushing forward with the job goals I'm hoping to achieve. For the Lots Caste film, I got to do catering for the cast and crew.

For everyone involved, this was a big step-up in film production. For the N1Z crew, this was the first time having a whole crew to take care of every issue. Haley directed, Kyle was cam-ops, Bailey was the clapper, Gogas was audio and photography, Andrew was PA, Andrew Valentine was make-up, Les was script editor, Eric (on top of acting) will be editing the footage and I was catering. With four actors involved as well, this was the largest shoot to date for the N1Z team. Of course large shoots come with its own set of challenges and rewards.

The biggest challenge of the day was getting the timing done right. Two things needed to happen in order to make this shoot a success, we needed to get the outside shots done with mid morning light and we needed to shoot around one actresses time constraints. The outside shot was a simple enough fix, the timing had to be precise and the acting spot on for the hour and a half time they had available to them for the shoot. Eric was spot on great, and this challenge sailed with ease. The issue with the actress took a bit more work, but Haley and Kyle were able to pull it off spectacularly. They shot out of order, taking care of all her close-ups and lines of dialog while others were arriving/getting prepped, and even did the final scene first to ensure that film continuity could be maintained. It was a nearly 4 hour process that ate a lot of time, but hey sometimes that's film work!

I was in charge of catering, and managing the food for the shoot. I had a lot of fun with it, because as you may have guessed I enjoy cooking, but also for the unique challenge it put for me. I had to organize 2 meals for a decent sized cast, the food had to meet the dietary restrictions/appetites of the cast and crew, had to be affordable enough to fit on the budget AND had to be simple enough to eat that people could grab and go while the shoot went on. Lunch in itself was pretty simple I feel, sandwiches people could assemble as they wished to eat when they wished. In the photo above you can see the spread I laid out: on the left were ham sandwiches, on the right turkey sandwiches and on the tiny plate far right I did PB&J (for the vegetarians). Cheddar and provolone cheese was also provided, and condiments available were mayo and mustard. The snack garden behind provided light and sweet dessert items, and for my vegan on shoot a salad was prepared with a ginger dressing.

Dinner was a bit more complex, but still yummy! I prepared Pullum paroptum, a roasted chicken recipe from Apicus that I will also be cooking for the Michaelmas Moot fundraiser lunch (oh yeah, using catering to test prep a period chicken dish), ashed potatoes with rosemary and salad. The chicken came out great, a little cooking issues with the number but it worked out fine. I really loved the spice blend on this chicken, and the parsley had such a wonderful smell and taste on the flesh. I shredded it and made it into a sandwich for myself, a little smear of honey mustard really made the day with this and I'm excited to serve it next weekend.

This was a really great shoot, and I recommend heading over to the N1Z blog linked above for more information. I learned a lot about kitchen organization and timing when it came to feeding people (especially when I cannot control the schedule) and am appy and eager to elp them again on any future projects.

Cooking Time - Who Doesn't Love Cake?!

I'm a big fan of inspiration, often I'll find a blog or cookbook that has an item which I cannot HELP but make. I've been playing around with a good number of various food items that I haven't blogged about, but I couldn't help but include this recipe onto my blog for future uses.

I found the recipe after viewing a link posted up by Mistress Madhavi, it's a fun cooking blog and the direct link can be found here: (http://adventurescooking.blogspot.com/2012/08/cardamom-brown-sugar-cake-with-fresh.html). The dish is called Cardamom Brown Sugar Cake with Fresh Cherries and Rose Cream, I've decided to give it the nickname of Fresh Cake for short. Everything about this dish just tastes fresh and clean, the cake has a dense but creamy texture to the tongue and the rose cream serves to heighten the feeling of refreshment and enjoyment. The fresh cherries are just the topping of it, I loved the taste but will be experimenting with various other fresh fruit berries to see if I can get a similar taste.

I did some minor ingredient changes from the original, here's my list and instructions for baking this yummy Fresh Cake!

Ingredients:

Cardamom Brown Sugar Cake

Fresh Cherries, pitted and cut in half (except for two for a garnish)

4 Large Eggs

2 and 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 and 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar, packed

1 Cup Butter, softened

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

3/4 Cup Whole Milk

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Cardamom

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Rose Whipped Cream

2 Cups Cream

2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar

1/2 to 1 Tablespoon Rose Water

Directions:

1)  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure your oven is clean, unless you wan a strange smell on your cake!

2) Beat the cream and rose water until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Cover and refrigerate until use.

3) In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cardamom until blended then set it aside.

4)  Cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar and the butter in a large bowl. Make sure no patches of bare sugar remain.

5) Add the eggs, one at a time, until completely combined into the sugar and butter mixture.

6) Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk until both are fully incorporated and a smooth batter forms.

7)  Evenly distribute the batter between 2 well-greased and lightly floured 8-inch and 2 well-greased and lightly floured 5-inch cake pans. I used 2 9-inch and 2 4-inch myself, and it distributed just fine :)

8) Place the pans in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the pans and allow it to cool.

9) Cut and pit your cherries, cherry juice can stain easily so be careful! I used the cooled cakes to measure out the number of cherries needed, placing them on top in the circular pattern to ensure te right amount was covered.

10) Once the cake has completely cooled, ice the cake layers with the whipping cream and layer the halved cherries between each layer. You can also ice the outside of the cake with the whipped cream, or leave the sides bare. Garnish the top with the two remaining whole cherries.

Some of the changes I made to the recipe changed the cake a bit on how it came out:

. By adding more rosewater than originally suggested, I got a stronger (but better imo) flavor of rose from the cream. It also made the cream a bit thinner, which was a bit frustrating so spread thinly!
. I used extra cherries....because. They were yummy, and a great addition ;)
. The freshly ground cardamom had a fresher taste, nicer smell and gave the cake an additional fresh taste! Go for it over the pre-ground whenever you can.

Mmm, dinner...

Sometimes, a simple meal is what you need to make yourself feel better.

Angel hair pasta with a homemade sauce; spiced with farmer market onions, sea salt, black peppercorn, garlic and thyme. Fresh snow peas. White chicken breast; spiced with ginger, salt, rosemary and a little paprika for color.

Yum!

My first SCA meal: a review

This is another of (most likely) several more blog posts in result of TMT and everything that occurred there.

Let's start with a brief overview of what happened and how it went down -

Lunches sold:

The theme of the lunches for the weekend was cool and refreshing. On Saturday for 3 dollars you got a boxed lunch which contained half a banana, a dill pickle spear and a chicken caesar salad wrap (inside the wrap was chicken, salt, pepper, caesar dressing, spring mix greens, freshly shredded cheese and sprouts). The food could all be eaten chilled or cold, which was a plus for serving it in the hot Trimaris heat.

On Sunday the lunch was half a banana, a dill pickle spear or hard boiled egg (we were outselling far faster than we thought and had to use eggs to supplement the lack of pickles) and a BBQ pulled pork wrap (BBQ sauce, bacon, pulled rump pork, pork loin, fresh spinach leaves and freshly grated cheese).

Budget details:

Baroness Bebhin and I were given a budget of 75 per day for the fund-raising lunches, with a total of 150 to spend for the entire weekend. The chicken from Saturdays lunch was donated by Their Excellencies Darkwater as they had no need of it, and Baroness Bebhin herself donated the cost of the boxes for the lunch. These two donations really kept the price down, I would have been roughly 46 dollars over my budget had I had to pay the cost for both those items. The entirety of the over-budget would have been the box cost, something that I feel really drove the sale of the lunches.

On Saturday, of the 75 dollars set aside for me I only spent 70. On Sunday, of the 75 dollars set aside for me I only spent 52. In total I came in 28 dollars under budget. Since we used Kingdom funds to provide the starter for the lunch, the Kingdom asked us to pay back the cost for the lunch (which was totally fair). After paying back the 122 dollars spent, we generated a profit of 310 dollars in our fundraising lunch.




So with the start of the meal, we had done really good. The food cost was down, we were able to repay the Kingdom and we made a wonderful profit :)

Things that went well:

1) Providing the lunch in multiple locations really helped. By having the lunch down where the fighting was, I was able to sell meals to those who where at either side of the camp. This was a fantastic idea that was really only available to me because I had packed the lunches in box form. As well, having it down next to water point allowed me to not have to invest in specific drinks because they were provided a mere 6 feet away. I later moved the lunch to the next area of fighting on Sunday, I did a bit worse than Saturday but that was due to weather and not interest.

2) The boxes were the gang-buster hit of the lunch, and I cannot state that enough. The portability and lack of needed feast gear made this lunch a big hit, people could eat it on the go and were not nailed down to one specific spot just to eat. All the trash fit nicely into the boxes, and the boxes were cardboard so there was no guilt about just throwing them in the trash. It was also great advertzing, I would see people eating the lunch from the box while standing in merchants row/artisans row and people asked where to get it.

3) Working with the Feast crew to build the lunches was a great idea. Using the chicken Baron Herman wasn't planning on using saved cost, as well as the pork and spinach on Sunday with Sasha. This was a great save of money, and a great use of food product from both the feast teams. Baron Herman had a bulk of extra chicken, pork and spinach leaves and being able to use them instead of having them go to waste is just good news for everyone.

4) The price was cheaper than anything else on site, at 3 dollars I was able to attract my buyers simply because I was more affordable to those on a tight budget. The cheapest food item beyond that was 2 hot dogs at My Island Food Cart at 4 dollars, and for three dollars I was the budget price point for an entire meal.

5) The food choices seemed well aimed at the audience, cool foods to help settle the stomach against the heat of the day was a big win/win. No complaints against the noms, with the random exception of those with food allergies.

6) Wrapping each item individually was also a big win/win. People with allergy concerns were happy when I informed them that certain food items were wrapped to prevent any food-born allergy issues. The few food allergy concerns I had were mostly brushed away once I had told them about the individual wrap.

Things that went poorly:

1) I did not calculate those who would need lunch for "free" in my planning. I gave lunches to Their Majesty's both days and Their Highness's on Sunday, but reservations and gate also came and took lunches as well. I'd say I lost 15 lunches to freebies, which put me under the 75 lunches a day I had planned to sell. To improve next time, I need to count in the number of lunches I'll need to give away as a part of my lunch planning.

2) I did not doublecheck with the Autocrat on lunch times for Saturday. I was thankfully way ahead of the game that day, but because of Crown Lyst issues the lunches were requested to be sold an hour earlier. I was able to get the lunches sold at the time requested, but had I checked in earlier with him I could have been less frazzled in those last moments on Saturday. To improve next time, I sould keep a better check in with both the site Herald and the Autocrat.

3) I did not follow-up with a few people who volunteered to help as much as I should have. I ended up having to do a number of things myself before the event that others had promised to figure out, if I had checked in with them more regularly I could have noticed the problem earlier and been far less rushed the day of. To improve next time, I need to make sure to follow-up with people who have volunteered to help and assist. If they are unable/forget to to something to help I need to be ready to handle it myself if needed.

4) I need to relax a bit, yeesh! I had drawn maps and diagrams of the kitchen, organized my entire lunch set-up on 15 minute increments. Doing such (and being forced to do a large amout by msyelf in advance that i wasn't expecting to) made me a bit clingy, and I micro-managed a bit too much. Thankfully I had both Baroness Jehannette and Baroness Bebhin as well as Lady Squeaky to remind me of things I had forgotten/not thought of in my intense focus of the moment. To improve for next time, I need to relax more and let things go with the flow and trust my allies and volunteer helpers. I have a feeling that will get easier with time, as I become more comfortable with cooking.

All in all, this was an amazing experience! Something that really juiced up my desires to work on cooking in the SCA, and ramped up my interest in it all over again :)

Lent Meal #1 - Surprisingly filling!

So, I'v made my first Lent meal tonight following the traditions of the 14th Century. These include the following:

~No Meat save for fish
~No Hard shelled fruits
~No animal products (such as cheese)
~1 Meal a day
~Fast on Friday

I was pretty good about following it during the day, and when I finally got home I was craving food. I wanted to try stay in period as well, avoiding things like potatoes/corn/food that wasn't known to Germany in the 14th century. What I came up with I was pretty happy with overall! Take a look below ;)

On the main plate I have a main dish of wild rice, broccoli and octopi bits seasoned to taste (salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder and olive oil). I have two rolls, simple bread rolls of yumminess to nom on between scoops of rice. In the bowl to the right is oatmeal with some peach pieces finely chopped, cooked with almond milk (which is pretty awesome, I'm just sayin'). To drink is a sweet tea and for dessert I have fresh blueberries and three pizzelle pieces!

The meal wasn't as satisfying as I would have wanted, but it was very filling. I am a meat eater at my core, lacking that taste of slightly undercooked flesh between my jaws means I failed to get as much pleasure from the meal as I would have liked. But, I still was full and feel comfortable and relaxed. So far meal #1 was a success!

Recipe: Poached Peaches

A yummy dish, an old work from 2010 that I can see now was a sampler for cooking experience I'll be doing this year!

Ingredients -

Meal:
. 4 Peaches
. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
. 1/4 cinnamon stick
. cinnamon powder
. 1/4 cup sugar
. 3 cups Cranberry juice
. Vanilla Ice Cream
. 1 cup water

Syrup:

. 2 cups Cranberry juice
. 4 cups sugar
. 1/4 cup water

Instructions -

1) Make the syrup first, it takes longer. Bring water and cranberry juice to boil in syrup recipe.
2) Dissolve the sugar into the boiling juice, stirring constantly.
3) Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat immediately!
4) Allow to cool completely and thicken.
5) Now, onto the peaches! Wash then peel the skin off the peaches, cutting them in half and removing the pit.
6) Combine the cranberry sauce, water, vanilla extract and cinnamon stick in a medium sauce pan, bring to a gentle boil.
7) stir in sugar into the sauce, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.
8) Lightly cover the peaches in cinnamon, making sure an even spread is across the peach.
9) Submerge the peaches in the medium sauce, bring to a simmer and cover.
10) Poach peaches until tender, 20-30 minutes.

Plating -

1) Place two peach halfs on a small plate
2). In the left pit, fill with the sauce used to poach the peaches.
3) in the right pit, one scoop of vanilla ice cream.
4) Drizzle with the cranberry syrup

Enjoy!

Five Minute Cake

Ingredients needed:

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well..
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous)..

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from cake at any time of the day or night!

Mmm, Bacon Chocolate Fudge...

So, not exactly a period recipe by any shape of the means...but I found this amazing link for Bacon Chocolate Fudge today. The following video has the instructions on it, but I'll go ahead and write them out for you as well: http://presurfer.blogspot.com/2011/12/see-how-its-done-candied-bacon-fudge.html

To start, you're gonna wanna have the following items prepared in advance (the cooking/mixing process happens fast, so pre-measuring your ingredients will be key here) -

Food:
. 10-15 Strips of bacon (I used a hickory-smoked variety myself)
. 1 cup brown sugar
. 3/4 cup butter
. 3 cups White Sugar
. 2/3 cup evaporated milk
. 1 tbp vanilla extract
. semi-sweet baking chocolate (12 squares)
. 7 oz. Marshmellow creme

Cookware:
. 2 Cookie sheets, one covered in wax paper the other in foil
. 1 medium size pot
. 1 bread loaf or cake pan covered in wax paper
. Mixing wisk
. measuring cups
. thermometer

Step-by-Step -

Step 1) Coat your strips of bacon in the brown sugar, place each strip on a cookie sheet covered in parchment wax paper. Make sure both sides are coated evenly.
Step 2) Slide the bacon into a COLD oven, turning it on and setting it to 350 degrees. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until your desired style of bacon is ready (chewier bacon cooks less, crispier bacon cooks longer).
Step 3) Remove bacon from cookie sheet and transport to another surface covered with foil to cool, make sure to keep laid out in strips.
Step 4) Set your burner on high and in a separate pot mix in the butter, evaporated milk and sugar. Stir till it fully melts and blends together, it is critical that the temperature meets 234 degree's of your fudge mixture or else the other added ingredients later will not melt and blend properly.
Step 5) Take off heat and add the vanilla, chocolate and marshmellow creme. Stir together till all ingredients are melted and you have a standard blend of chocolate. The fudge should all be one color and uniform in texture.
Step 6) Layer your bacon in the cake pan prepped, then cover in fudge. Make this like a lasagna, starting with bacon then adding fudge then adding bacon.
Step 7) Chill in fridge for at least 1 hour, I left mine sit overnight.

Mine was still very sticky and mushy, not as solid as most fudges but this is my first attempt! It was still very yummy and so very rich, the bacon makes a unique contrast in flavor to the fudge.

Food fun!

Hello folks, today's recipe and cooking experiments is making homemade pasta and ravioli's from period recipes :) I am cooking with my own Baroness today in her lovely home, and playing with her brand new pasta machine in the effort of creation.

We are using two different book in our pasta creation today, The Art of Cooking; The First Modern Cookery Book (original text from The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como and translated and annotated/redacted by Jeremy Parzan) for our period recipe and Good Eats Volume 2 for our modern interpretation of the pasta by Alton Brown. The reason we are using Good Eats Vol.2 is because the period recipe for pasta is, well..not there. The cookbook assumes you know how to make and craft your own pasta from scratch and is thus teaching you a new method of cooking with it and fillings. Most cook books that have survived to the modern day are not so much instruction manuals as we would see them today, they're a listing of what each dish was and what went into it. It was assumed that if you could read you were already an intelligent man/woman, and by the time you were working in a royal or noble house you have already learned how to do the basics like making pasta or breads and baked goods or know ow to measure and cut without instruction. This can on occasion make cooking difficult for these medieval recipes, but its a challenge I always love to handle.

We are attempting to make Ravioli for Non-Lenton Times, and using the Sicilian Macaroni recipe of pasta for the ravioli's. The idea will be to make 3 batches, one directly from Good Eats step-by-step and one each for myself and my Baroness to do our best and mix the period ingredients with to make our own blend of pasta. The recipe for the Sicilian Macaroni Pasta that we are using is as follows:

Take some very white flour and make a dough using egg whites and rose water, common water if you wish can substitute as well. Make sure the pasta is very firm.

From there the recipe for Ravioli for non-lenten times follows as such:

To make 10 servings: take a half a libra of aged cheese, and a little fatty cheese and a libra of fatty pork belly or veal teat and boil until it comes apart easily; then chop well and take some good, well-chopped herbs, and pepper, cloves, and ginger; and it would be even better if you added some ground capon breast; incorporate all these things together.Then make a thing sheet of pasta and encase the mixture in the pasta, a for other ravioli. These ravioli should not be any larger than half a chestnut, cook them in a capon broth or good meat broth that you have made yellow with saffron when it boils. Let the Ravioli simmer for the time it takes you to say the Lord's Prayer twice.
Serve in bowls, topped with grated cheese and sweet spices mixed together.

* * * *

OK, the first step is to make the good eats Pasta blend. We're simply following the instructions from Good eats Vol.2, page 12 for those following along at home :). The dough we make is pretty simple, our standard ravioli that I'm pretty happy with. We made two batches of that and have moved onto the rosewater based dough. 2 eggs, teaspoon of olive oil, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of water was the liquid blend, then 10 ounces of flour was the solid blend.

Oh man...this is very very naughty. The rosewater and egg white combo is an amazing flavor, and its very rich and silky on the tongue. Mmm...I think we're gonna make many more batches... 3 egg whites, 3 pinches of salt, eough rosewater to cover the eggwhites (just a couple teaspoons) were the liquids for this and 11.5 unces of flour (give or take) was our solid blend.

The pasta machine was actually super easy to work with, I was surprised at how well it all worked out. The pasta was rolled out and we added a chicken/bacon/basil/cheese/rosemary spice blend to make the filling for the Ravioli. A small amount was placed inside the center line, we then used an egg wash to bond the two sections of Ravioli out and cut them into squares (nothing fancy today, this is an extperiment day!). The boiling of the pasta was pretty borning actually, put alas. I boiled until the pasta floated to the top and I did in fact say the Lord's Prayer twice as my counting measure.

I'm afraid I don't have any photo's...because I ate them already. They tasted amazing, the ravioli's were spot on and the filling made it oh so yum. Makes me wanna buy a pasta maker now!

Butter!!

I made butter!!!

Not much to say about it all, lol. It was a terribly simple recipe, thanks to help from my friends Kristy and Ever I quickly assembled the butter-making ingredient: heavy whipping cream. I poured the heavy whipping cream into a tupperware dish and shook for...gods, forever I think. It hit whip cream (I sampled, twas yummy) and I kept shaking till I hard a splashing around. The butter and buttermilk had separated, yayayaya!

Now I have butter, and will be baking late tonight when I make shortbread with it for tomorrow's meeting.

Weee!