kerewin's whine cellar

Poppy Seed Lemon Cake

Everything the lady at Smitten Kitchen cooks looks delicious. Usually I can't eat it because there's either flour or milk. Last night there was a cake up there that I just couldn't resist. All it had was 1/2 cup of flour. I don't like to use gluten-free swap outs as a rule but that seemed like a low enough amount I could use half buckwheat flour and half gluten-free flour and not have it taste too different.

One problem. I don't have a bundt pan/tube cake. This is so typical of how I cook, I see something shiny and new and must cook it NOW and that requires running around town looking for what is missing.

There's so few ingredients!

So, I got up Sunday morning with two things on my mind. Find leg of lamb for the Mrs. Beeton's project and buy a tube pan so I can eat gluten-free poppy seed cake. I wasn't looking for a bundt pan because, well, I don't know, bundt cakes seem ghetto. Plus, the recipe calls for generously buttering the pan and all those nooks and crannies in a bundt pan, I am sure I would miss a couple making the cake stick.

The batter whips so creamy from the yolk/sugar mixture, this was one of the easiest, most fun cakes to make.

So I went to Mrs. Cooks in University Village and they had PLENTY of tube pans and bundt pans. However, every single one of them was non-stick. While I suspect it isn't good to cook with stuff that flakes off into your food, I am not militant about it. However, my husband is. I suppose that means I am as well. I spoke to one of the salespeople where I learned that they keep a small stock of non-non-stick tube pans but they were out due to the holiday season. The only baking pans they had were regular 8" round cake pans. She them turned to a chart and showed me that if you use one bundt pan, it equals two 8" rounds. I knew this was a pretty thin cake and figured just one pan would work but I bought two, just in case.

Just ready for you to finish your computer surfing before you devour me.

The cooking time was a little bit longer due to the difference in cake pans. I went an hour, which I would say was about 3-5 minutes too long as the cake is a little dry. But who cares? The poppy seeds have such a great crunch, texture and flavor to them. The cake smells of lemon essence. It has a lightness that I wouldn't have thought. Next time I have a party this is my go-to dessert. AND I get to eat it!

Whenever I see "All Purpose GF Baking Flour" it looks like "Girlfriend Baking Powder." I mean, what would one use that for? Weird.

Promises, Promises

This was dinner tonight, chicken salad stuffed tomatoes. Too bad we only had three tomatoes or I would have stuffed a lot more. Yum. We were also missing tarragon and red grapes. I subbed apples for the fruit and capers for the tarragon. Nothing can make up for no tarragon.

I decided tonight that tomorrow I will make 2 recipes. Both will require me finding specialized ingredients/cooking utensils. First, Mrs Beeton's Braised Leg of Mutton and second, Smitten Kitchen's Poppy Seed Cake. Now, all I need to find is a leg of mutton and an 8-inch tube pan. And bacon, stock, poppy seeds, lemons, and cornstarch. Easy Peasy.

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

SJ started a blog revolving around the Victorian era and a series of pamphlets about household management between 1859 and 1861 and then later published together as a book. She asked for contributors and it seemed like something exciting and new, so you can now find me here, as well:

The Queen's Scullery

There are lots of different takes on the era. I am excited!

All The Hungry Ladies

Top Chef: Hungry Ladies - watch more funny videos

Richness of Embarrasment

Today was very messed up.

I woke up early and got some work done before doing stairs with a friend. I got home and showered and was trying to get out of the house. I had some things to get from the warehouse and then many customers to visit. So I was surprised when a supplier called me, hair dripping, no makeup, just dressed. "Hey, I am at ________, are you on your way?"

Last week I was with this supplier at a major account and ran into the buyer. We made an appointment for this morning, which I forgot to write down. So, hair wet, I tossed everything in my bag and got out the door. When I started the car I realized I was out of gas. I stopped to put in $5 and raced to the account. Just 25 minutes late. Wet hair and only the makeup I could put on in the car.

So, I was back on the way to the warehouse, running behind. I had some issues to talk about with my boss so I called him. We covered work issues and then some funny personal back and forth, as we were getting off the phone he said, "See you in a bit."

I replied, "You mean tomorrow, right?"

"No, we have our team lunch in 15 minutes."

"No, it is tomorrow," I said.

Nope. So I turned around and headed back to Seattle. I got to lunch about 5 minutes late, only to have most of the team roll in later and later. When just two people were missing I decided to get my work computer out and put in some orders.

Oops. I left the computer at home. When lunch was finally over (hello, one person was over an hour late!) I raced home and grabbed it. I barely got my orders in on time today, including two no-miss appointments. Today, I showed my clients a bottle of wine from Greece. It reminded me of our recent vacation.

When I finally got home tonight, I decided I deserved a glass of wine and lo and behold, there was a partial bottle of wine that reminded me of my vacation. So I grabbed the bottle and walked to the house. As I was walking up the stairs to my back door the bottle slipped and broke in about eight million pieces. In the middle of winter. Describing how I took the anti-freeze thing off the hose and still didn't get the steps cleaned off would require too much work. Suffice it to say, this is not my day and by the end it just got funny.

All I hope is that tomorrow is a lot more organized than today.

Full Moon

I took the digital camera with me to work yesterday because one of my accounts bought a lot of wine and I wanted to get a picture of the display to send on to my boss. Hours later, near sunset, I was at a restaurant, upon leaving I looked towards the Seattle skyline and I could see the full moon just coming up, hanging over the horizon. The setting sun lit everything up. I thought to myself, "Damn, I wish I had a camera!"

Pause, pause. Oh! So I pulled over and took this picture. Then the battery died. At least I got one photo.

Terrine Finale

The final result of all that work:

This is it right after I coaxed it out of its mold. I LOVE how the bay leaves and thyme turned out.

My friend Moni took these pictures (she was the only one with enough sense to bring a camera to Thanksgiving). Moni has macro down pat. I am seriously in love with this picture.

Up close and personal with all that great duck, pork, and chicken. The pistachios look especially good here.

Some very serious food here - three kinds of cheese (pierre robert, an aged gouda, and some sort of ash rubbed goat cheese if I remember right), marcona almonds, orange peel-marinated olives, tarragon mustard, blueberry ketchup, pickled cherries, drunken fig jam, rice crackers, crackers, bread and cornichons. How did we have room later for actual dinner? I will say it again, Thanksgiving was AWESOME.

Duck Terrine, Part 1
Duck Terrine, Part 2
Duck Terrine, Part 3

Pomegranates

We saw these pomegranate trees in Greece. I haven't ever seen a pomegranate tree before. Since it is such a staple of winter menus, I thought I would highlight its beautiful color.

Blindsided

I really thought everything was ok this weekend with my food issues. It didn't bother me on Thanksgiving to skip the cheese everyone got to have, because I got to have amazing terrine. They had pie, I had sorbet with coconut milk. Friday with the family I wasn't too bothered that everyone got to have mashed potatoes and I didn't. Saturday at a friend's party it wasn't too big of a deal that every appetizer, minus one, had wheat and/or dairy in it. Why then did I get put in such a spiral when Kevin ordered pizza today from our favorite delivery place? And then, why did all that other stuff bother me in hindsight? What is this trick my brain plays on me?

Also, why am I so blindsided by this feeling? It seriously comes out of nowhere and it is such a dark, black place. I have a much clearer understanding of what people who have depression have to deal with. All I want is pizza and beer. I do plan on having a day where I get to eat things I can't have (café sua da, anyone?) but this is too close upon an accidental wheat incident and I don't think I can take being ill for 4 days. URGH!

I am definitely doing something for my birthday. Fresh pasta at Tavolàta, perhaps. Amazing ice cream, Korean BBQ, or beer-battered fish and chips. Hell, just beer. For now, I will make due with some British Cider.

Paté Leftovers

Today we had brunch with friends and then some personal errands. Then I had a party to go to and Kevin had work to get done. When I got home both of us hadn't eaten a real dinner. We could have gone out, we could have cooked something but I realized that we had some leftover paté and extra ramekins of terrine. So I put together some of those leftovers, salad, capers, cornichons, marinated olives, apple slices, and some rice crackers. It was easy and low key, making it the perfect meal.

Thanksgiving Celebrations, Part 2

Round two this evening with my sister and her husband's family. We are going chill-style with an almost all leftover meal. I am bringing sorbet, paté (the smooth kind), and a surprise -- deviled eggs! I am wandering out and adding some horseradish and capers. We'll see how that goes.

This the final product of the tea-smoked duck from yesterday. There was a real depth of flavor and the meat had that slight duck gaminess. Unfortunately, the cooling off and then reheating period took some of the moisture out, I was a little disappointed.

In other news, my husband, self-titled Amigaboy, has started his own blog: The Glass Chicken. I think it will be an exploration of what he deems pop culture. He'll have to get his nicknames straight because he calls himself "candybowl" there.

I Am Thankful For Duck

Tea-smoked duck takes some time to make. Now I understand why Chinese restaurants have it on their menu with the admonition that you have to order it 24 hours in advance. I got up this morning at 6:30 and made a huge batch of black tea.

Then I strained out the leaves and got the duck steaming over the tea. That takes an hour and a half so I went back to bed to catch a little more sleep and pretty much just stared at the ceiling.

Raw duck is not very pretty so I skipped the up close picture.

Care to read my tea leaves?

Interestingly, while the duck smokes (for FIVE hours!) it also gets steamed by the tea leaves, orange peel, peppercorns, star anise, and cinnamon sticks.

Duck Day Coming!

Two fresh ducks and a paste (orange peel, ginger, chinese 5 spice, cinnamon, salt, and szechuan peppercorns).

I love how they call it a paste, it isn't super pasty and I had trouble getting it to stick to the bird.

So I put them in plastic bags and put a bunch more rub in there and rubbed it around. Now they are sitting in the fridge waiting for the morning when they get steamed over tea.

Bring this Thanksgiving ON!

Quick and Dirty

Tonight I was running a little low on steam so I needed a quick dinner. Turns out if you make some rice (20 minutes on burner, 10 minutes to steam), roast some broccoli (30 minutes at 350, flip at the 20 minute mark), and sauté onion and garlic and then a quick pan fry of steak cut up, add a little soy sauce at the end, you get dinner in about 35 minutes. Twenty of which you spend on your butt in front of the computer. Also, the meal was cheap, about $6 for two people.

Duck Terrine, Part 3

Day three, take the bay leaves out of the duck and mix the two mixtures together along with pistachios, and green peppercorns. I think the pictures can tell the next steps better than I can.

Bake in a water bath at 325 degrees until the center reaches 185 degrees with a quick read thermometer, about two hours.

After cooking weigh down with some canned food for an hour. Then refrigerate for up to four days.