eG Foodblog: Kerry Beal and Anna N (2012) - Mixing it up in Manitoulin

[Kerry Beal]

Bastida Rosa from Jeffery Morganthaler's site - very satisfactory with our home made grenadine.

The fridge contained the last of the sous-ved steaks - of course one must have vegetables with meat - hence the parsley. (I'll confess - I didn't eat my parsley).

[KatieLoeb]

Ladies! So excited for your blogging and combined tour de force of cooking/baking/cocktailing talents. Such fun! Great blog so far. Carry on, please...

[SylviaLovegren]

Need some help. I've got about a litre and a half of whipping cream and would like to find a way to use it up before I go. I've considered creme brule and creme caramel - but it's not quite cutting it. Any ideas?

Ice cream? Or a nice old-fashioned Bavarian cream?

[Kerry Beal]

Clotted cream under construction - there appear to now be 3 (count'm 3) slow cookers in this house. I brought up one the first time I started to bring stuff for the condo - and it seems to have multiplied. I know that the condo owner's mother and mother in law have died in the years I've been coming up here and I think stuff appears that belonged to them and no one can quite bring themselves to get rid of. I did do a vicious purge of stuff last summer - I left it all on the spare bedroom floor and told the owner that it should find a new home - and walla (as Lior would say) it was gone!

So I took the slow cooker with the biggest container - this one actually has a stirring mechanism in it - and put some water in it to make it a bain marie. The cream temperature seems to be around 50º C - so hopefully overnight it will do it's thing and give me clotted cream in the am.

In the morning I'll make some bakeshop muffins and another batch of scones - need goodies for rounds and goodies for the clinic.

We had thought we'd stop this evening - but there is still a bit of food in the house and it wasn't a spectacular sunset so we'll continue and finish up tomorrow night (if that's OK with you).

[Kerry Beal]

Need some help. I've got about a litre and a half of whipping cream and would like to find a way to use it up before I go. I've considered creme brule and creme caramel - but it's not quite cutting it. Any ideas?

Ice cream? Or a nice old-fashioned Bavarian cream?

No ice cream maker up here right now - I have brought it up in the past though. There were a number of recipes for ice creams in the Milk Bar Cookbook that would have been fun to try had I had one.

[catdaddy]

Yes, please continue. Something about the crazy hours in a place I've never heard of with assorted creative cocktails and cooking appeals to me.

Can't remember if you have addressed this but I'll ask anyway. How often are you both in the kitchen at the same time? Is there room for one to be washing dishes while the other cooks? Think I might start a thread about companion cooking habits.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to blog. I've enjoyed it muchly.

[andiesenji]

Clotted cream under construction - there appear to now be 3 (count'm 3) slow cookers in this house. I brought up one the first time I started to bring stuff for the condo - and it seems to have multiplied. I know that the condo owner's mother and mother in law have died in the years I've been coming up here and I think stuff appears that belonged to them and no one can quite bring themselves to get rid of. I did do a vicious purge of stuff last summer - I left it all on the spare bedroom floor and told the owner that it should find a new home - and walla (as Lior would say) it was gone!

So I took the slow cooker with the biggest container - this one actually has a stirring mechanism in it - and put some water in it to make it a bain marie. The cream temperature seems to be around 50º C - so hopefully overnight it will do it's thing and give me clotted cream in the am.

In the morning I'll make some bakeshop muffins and another batch of scones - need goodies for rounds and goodies for the clinic.

We had thought we'd stop this evening - but there is still a bit of food in the house and it wasn't a spectacular sunset so we'll continue and finish up tomorrow night (if that's OK with you).

Looks good to me.

[Pierogi]

Now I really need to get some of that corn. The corn and chocolate combo is right up my alley.

Heidi, I used to be able to find that freeze-dried corn at Bristol Farms, under the "Melissa's" label. Haven't checked recently, but it used to be a staple item there. Great to toss into salads, too !

Edit to add---They're usually in the produce section, along with the dried mushrooms and chiles, in a little plastic bag.

Edited May 22, 2012 by Pierogi (log)

[Anna N]

Yes, please continue. Something about the crazy hours in a place I've never heard of with assorted creative cocktails and cooking appeals to me.

Can't remember if you have addressed this but I'll ask anyway. How often are you both in the kitchen at the same time? Is there room for one to be washing dishes while the other cooks? Think I might start a thread about companion cooking habits.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to blog. I've enjoyed it muchly.

Neither the kitchen layout nor our cooking habits are conducive to both cooking at the same time! Since Kerry has to work and I don't we try to arrange things such that when Kerry is home she has the kitchen and when she works it is my time. Works well. We do have a dishwasher and we both are clean as you go people so dishwashing is rarely an issue.

[Kerry Beal]

What Anna is really saying - if we had to try to physically share the kitchen for any serious period of time - there would be a knock down, drag out fight with fur flying.

I occasionally think it would be nice if my husband liked to cook and we could cook in the kitchen together (cue the music - scenes from The Big Chill playing in the background) - but I am aware that it would probably drive me out of my ever lovin' mind if he did! I don't share well.

Speaking of which - it's time I dragged my sorry behind out of bed and started my baking.

[Kerry Beal]

Scones - will take clotted cream and apricot preserves to accompany.

Fine Cooking bakeshop muffins with orange puree and almond.

The doves nesting in the tree outside - I don't picture doves as tree nesters.

[Darienne]

1. Keep all extra slow cookers. I have 4 and could use another or two. They are so good for keeping things warm at a gathering.

2. Never heard if this freeze-dried corn but will try to find it in Peterpatch.

3. Don't start cooking with your DH. You might well live to regret it as it will turn out to be one more area of life in which the partner feels free to interfere. (This could have a personal element in it. )

[Anna N]

Traditionally scrambled eggs this morning: 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons cream scrambled in 1 teaspoon butter with a few chopped scallions folded in. Side of steak leftover (deliberately!) last night.

[rotuts]

those Fine Cooking bakeshop muffins look delicious and are exactly what Id like to try

do you have a reference? were they in the magazine?

many thanks!

[Darienne]

Trying to track down "bakeshop" muffins and can't find a definitive answer. It appears that the "bakeshop" designation means those overfilled muffin cups which spread over the top into huge muffin tops.

Kerry: are your muffins simply tops with no bottoms?

[Anna N]

The big clean up begins! Tomorrow we leave the Island and head home so much of today will be spent packing, using up or properly storing food and generally trying to return the Townhouse to its pre Kerry and Anna state.

I found some shrimp in the freezer which obviously won't travel or survive long so I cooked them in Old Bay for Kerry to snack on at her leisure.

Currently vacuum sealing flours and other dry goods which will remain here. Kerry will be back at the end of June.

[Kerry Beal]

those Fine Cooking bakeshop muffins look delicious and are exactly what Id like to try

do you have a reference? were they in the magazine?

many thanks!

I found it online - it's a little odd - you 'build' the recipe based on what you put in it. But the proportions look right - but I cut back the sugar consideraby.

http://www.finecooki...or/muffins.aspx

Edited May 22, 2012 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Darienne - they indeed have bottoms - and quite nice bottoms I might add!

[andiesenji]

In various regions these muffins have different names. As a child I knew them as "stuffed muffins" and a friend from Montana calls them "sinkers" but most of the recipes I have seen simply call them "filled" muffins. In my experience the batter seems a bit thicker than with plain muffins.

- Here's a recipe that is simple and very good and works with any kind of preserves and the batter can be flavored to complement the filling - such as almond flavoring with apricot preserves.

(3 tablespoons of sugar is more than enough - in my opinion most recipes use too much)

Cooks.Com has a bunch.

And here's a recipe with cream cheese added to the filling.

Many years ago I was visiting in Charleston, So. Carolina and was taken to a restaurant/bakery where a specialty of the house was a peach and cream cheese filled muffin that was enormous. Two of us split one. That was long before "jumbo" muffins or muffin tins were available ready-made.

That particular muffin had an interesting, slightly chewy texture so I asked and was told it was made with "flaked wheat" not wheat flakes but no other information about the recipe was forthcoming.

Edited May 22, 2012 by andiesenji (log)

[Anna N]

Lunch today was light, simple but very satisfactory:

Hardened goat cheese, crackers and Branston pickle. It was washed down with a small glass of white wine from a cask - hey I'm tasked with trying to finish things up.

[rotuts]

many thanks for the ref. to the muffins. I was unable to get the FC site to work for me, issues with Java and Script, but I have the issue and will look into it. ( aside Fine Cooking has become for me the Go To Mag. in the last few years: they have adopted the 'pick from here 2, and from there 3 ... and discussed the method involved)

Id like to ask: are those muffins the same as if you made top of the line muffins and just used the tops? I ask as in the past I had an inexpensive pan from Bed&Bath (not theirs but of medium quality) that was for Muffin Tops. it has a shallow space about 1/4" circular that you put your muffin batter in and then baked.

It worked fairly well for just the tops. Which some of us think are the best parts. These Tops were not quite as good as true muffins 'topped' but worth more experimentation. They were not as 'fluffy'

I hope to return to this study soon.

many thanks again.

[CaliPoutine]

Can you find Old Bay in Ontario?

[Kerry Beal]

many thanks for the ref. to the muffins. I was unable to get the FC site to work for me, issues with Java and Script, but I have the issue and will look into it. ( aside Fine Cooking has become for me the Go To Mag. in the last few years: they have adopted the 'pick from here 2, and from there 3 ... and discussed the method involved)

Id like to ask: are those muffins the same as if you made top of the line muffins and just used the tops? I ask as in the past I had an inexpensive pan from Bed&Bath (not theirs but of medium quality) that was for Muffin Tops. it has a shallow space about 1/4" circular that you put your muffin batter in and then baked.

It worked fairly well for just the tops. Which some of us think are the best parts. These Tops were not quite as good as true muffins 'topped' but worth more experimentation. They were not as 'fluffy'

I hope to return to this study soon.

many thanks again.

These are actual whole muffins - not just muffin tops - they are from Fine Cooking 77 page 48-51.

[Kerry Beal]

Can you find Old Bay in Ontario?

Yup - not in every store - but Sobey's typically has it. Saw it in one of the stores here in Little Current the other day. Last year I had to have it sent up!

[judiu]

Remarkably these eggs worked although draining them well is a challenge. They were soft, fluffy and quite similar to scrambled eggs without that fear of over- or undercooking them.

Maybe you could use a spatter screen to drain them on?

I dunno. Maybe a brand new one but mine is a bit too grotty!

Hmmm; maybe a nail brush, or a prep brush (given their ready availibility for Kerry) and Dawn grease cutting detergent? Or just find a new one at a thrift store...