It was one of those challenges where everything went wrong, but still tasted fine in the end. I had dealt much with meringues or mousses much before this challenge so it was a great learning experience.

Here is a link to the PDF of the Daring Baker’s June challenge. I would post it here, but it’s too long this post and I am truly unmotivated to format it to my specifications.

I ended up using Nigella’s recipe for her Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova because I was keen to discover how the balsamic vinegar affected the meringue. (It was amazing - FYI).

Besides spreading out a bit too much whilst pouring onto the baking sheet, I have to say, this meringue made me change my mind about this style of dessert. Double yum. I now know what to do with my whites from making ice cream.

Unfortuantly, I began to run into some when I began making the chocolate mousse. We had invited our friends over to enjoy the dessert with us. It was at this point when I began to feel a bit rush and I don’t think I looked closely enough at the directions. In the ingredients it says to use 1-1/2 cups cream, but it doesn’t specify separated. The first instruction was to heat the cream (but only 1/2 cup). Obviously, after realizing this (but not until I attempted to whip it together) I discovered that it was a lost cause.

Furthermore, I ran into a problem when I realized (1) I didn’t have enough time to make mascarpone from scratch nor (2) could I find it at Woodman’s (a major fail on their part). I sent Robb out in the downpour to find me some mascarpone, but because it cost so much at the Co-op, I only had half the amount the recipe called for. I should have just halved the Mascarpone Cream, but by this point I had already made the full Crème Anglaise.

As you can see, it went from good to bad in a matter of one hour. Thankfully, Eric and Ruthie came over shortly after the catastrophe and soothed my nerves by complementing the finished product. We all agreed that the mousse-turned-ganache would make an excellent ice cream. I think Robb must have secretly planned this because several days prior, he had gifted me a brand new ice cream maker for my birthday. What a guy.

The next day we had plans to play games with some friends so I quickly churned the leftover “mousse” and cream. The leftover meringue was crumbled on top… And once again I received rave reviews from my connoisseurs.

The moral of this story is: when faced with a custard-based disaster … turn it into ice cream.

It must be spring in Madison as we have a continual 40 — 90% chance of rain every day. Thankfully, the sun was out (abet, setting) for my walk from work to State Street where I met up with Sean and Robb. We enjoyed a Nepali dinner [Chautara] and took a stroll along Lake Mendota aid in digestion. After coming home, I started working on a rendition of Sean’s favourite ice cream from Molly Moon’s Handmade Ice Cream: salted butter caramel ice cream. [Yummmm].

While, I don’t have photographs of both recipes, I wanted to share with you our favourite ways to prepare a chicken.

Roast Chicken: Two Ways

Split, Broiled Chicken
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

A quick way to a juicy, flavorful chicken is by cutting the bird in half, removing the backbone and broiling the bird.

Ingredients

1 3-1/2 pound chicken
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 — 4 (we like a lot) garlic cloves, minced
2 — 3 teaspoons rosemary, crumbled
juice from 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat the broiler. Move the rack to the center of the oven, at least so the top of the chicken will be 8 inches beneath the broiler. Prepare a broiling sheet with some heavy duty aluminum foil (to make clean up a bit easier for yourself).

Brush (or get messy and use your hands) the butter over the bird. Also, rub in the garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. Finish with salt and pepper. Place the bird skin side down on your prepared pan.

Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for ~15 minutes. Very, very carefully, flip the bird over so it is skin side up. Cook until the thigh registers 170ºF. If the bird begins to burn, you can tent it with foil until it is finished cooking. Remove from the oven and allow to rest under tented foil for 10 — 15 minutes.

The Perfect Roasted Chicken

When we have an extra hour, we like to roast the chicken whole, kind of like our turkey recipe.

Ingredients

1 roasting chicken (4-6 lbs), giblets removed, rinse and pat dry
2 tablespoons softened butter
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 small yellow onion
1 small lemon
1 small carrot, cut into 2” pieces
1 small rib celery, cut into 2” pieces
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme (you can substitute 2 tsp dried)

Method

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Rub the outside of the chicken with the butter and season the inside and out with salt, pepper and juice of the lemon. Tuck the vegetables and lemon inside the cavity. Tie up the legs to prevent the stuffings from coming out.

Transfer the chicken to a baking dish and rest on its side. Roast for 25-30 minutes. Turn the bird onto its other side and roast for an additional 25-30 minutes. Finally, flip the bird onto its back and roast for a remaining 35-45 minutes or until the the thigh registers 170ºF. The total cooking time will be between 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours.

Let the bird rest, covering with aluminum, for 10-15 minutes before carving.

Easy as cake chicken stock

What I love about this method is that you can prepare your stock while you are sleeping. Well, almost. It’s wonderful because it uses the crockpot. I discovered this after Thanksgiving last year and I haven’t looked back since.

Ingredients

1 small to medium carcass of a chicken (typically from a 4 lb bird) — either fresh or frozen (I sometimes freeze 1 or 2 if I don’t have time to prepare the stock)
2–3 small carrots, trimmed, washed and cut into 2” pieces
2-3 small ribs celery, trimmed, washed and cut into 2” pieces
1 medium onion, skin removed and cut into fourths
Water, just boiled on the kettle

Makes 5-6 cups

Method

Plug in your slow cooker and place all ingredients into the bowl (excluding the water).

Pour hot water over the bones and mirepoix (carrots, celery and onion). I use boiled water because it requires a shorter amount of time to heat up in the slow cooker.

Turn the slow cooker on “High” until your water begins to boil again. (If you are using frozen carcasses, it will take a bit longer to heat). Turn the slow cooker to “Low” and let cook either overnight or while you are at work (about 8 — 9 hours).

When you wake up or return from work turn off the slow cooker and remove the lid to let the excess steam escape while you putter around making dinner or breakfast. When the slow cooker is cool enough to handle (30 minutes or so; but I have heat resistant hands) place a sieve over a large bowl or pot (preferably not plastic) and drain stock into the bowl. Toss the mirepoix and chicken bones in the garbage. Allow the hot stock to cool on the counter top before covering and transferring to the fridge.

Let the stock cool in the fridge either overnight or while you are at work (about 8 hours) to let the fat solidify. (It doesn’t actually require 8 hours, but it fits my schedule better). Using a fine mesh sieve transfer the stock into quart sized freezer bags. (The sieve should prevent the solidified fat from entering the bag. If this doesn’t work for you, you might try using a coffee filter apparatus.) Label your bags and lay them in the freezer. When they have frozen you can stack them vertically.

And store:

Anyway. It has been several years since my love affair with bread and Amélie began. I am now moving onto trying some new techniques. Well, new for me. Sourdough bread baking (or at least using a natural starter) has been around since the Egyptian times in 1500 BC. Using a starter of naturally occurring bacteria gives breads regional distinction. [Of course we all know about the famous San Francisco sourdough breads (yum!)] After several failed attempts when we first moved to Madison (the bread just never rose) I put the project on hiatus. Thankfully, Clotilde*, of Chocolate and Zucchini, has been writing several posts about sourdough bread products and her little starter named Philémon. Her triumphs in the kitchen inspired me to resume our little fermentation project. Afterall, we should be good at this since Robb has been brewing beer with Eric, of late… and I am getting my Masters in Cheese. One of the easiest and sure-fire ways to have a happy, healthy stater is to procre some from a friend or a bakery. Since the Madison Sourdough Company seems to have their starter on lockdown [aside: they have the most amazing croissants!], I looked elsewhere. After some perusing on the internets, I discovered a nonprofit organization whose entire business is giving away a starter that has a very long history.

For the price of a stamp, Carl Griffith’s Oregon Trail will mail you a 150+-year-old sourdough starter culture that was brought west by a pioneer ancestor:

All I know is that it started west in 1847 from Missouri. I would guess with the family of Dr. John Savage as one of his daughters (my great grandmother) was the cook. It came on west and settled near Salem Or. Doc. Savage’s daughter met and married my great grand father on the trail and they had 10 children. It was passed on to me though my parents when they passed away. I am 76 years old so that was some time ago. I first learned to use the starter in a basque sheep camp when I was 10 years old as we were setting up a homestead on the Steens Mountains in southeastern Oregon. A campfire has no oven, so the bread was baked in a Dutch Oven in a hole in the ground in which we had built a fire, placed the oven, scraped in the coals from around the rim, and covered with dirt for several hours. I used it later making bread in a chuck wagon on several cattle drives - again in southeastern Oregon.

(via BoingBoing)

I sent away for my starter several weeks ago and it arrived just before my birthday (what a great little gift!) Following the set of instructions, I revived my little zombies (see Alton Brown) and now they are happily procreating in my fridge in a little applesauce jar. Here is a photo-log of their revival.

Meet Nino, the starter:

Nino, the starter, in its hibernating (aka-dried) state and its awaiting bowl.

Dissolving Nino, the starter, in 3/4 cup 90ºF water. (This took a bit of time…)

Preparing the ingredients for Nino’s first feeding: 3/4 cup bread flour and 1 tsp. sugar.

Mixing…

Ah, finished mixing. (It’s OK if there are a few lumps.)

An oven with the pilot light on is supposed to be a good incubating space, but my oven doesn’t have that luxury. Instead, our spare room and a desk lamp proved a suitable spot for it. I let Nino ferment for ~48 hours. The room smelled delightful!

Post-fermentation. Look at all that alcohol on the surface. Stir it back in a feed Nino again.

Getting Nino ready for its transition into the fridge.

It now lives in my fridge and I’ve made one loaf using the directions for the Alaskan sourdough bread which can be found here. But, as tasty as it was, it was not sour enough for Robb or myself. This weekend, I am planning to start another batch but this time using the recipe from the King Arthur Flour Blog for Extra-Tangy Sourdough Bread. I love that the basis for the lack-of-sourness goes back to simple microbiology:

What makes the sour in sourdough bread? It’s a combination of lactic and acetic acids, created as the dough rises and ferments. Refrigerating the dough encourages the production of more acetic than lactic acid; and acetic acid is much the tangier of the two. Thus, sourdough that’s refrigerated before baking will have a more assertive sour flavor.

(Via King Arthur Flour)

It looks like our dough will be spending more time in the fridge than on the counter. Hopefully this loaf is more to our tasetbuds’ liking. Otherwise, our freezer won’t be able to hold much more bread!! (Or we will be having a French toast party pretty soon…)

Ah, and if you are in the market for your own, already thriving starter… let me know! If you live in the Madison-area I would be more than happy to give you some of Nino’s offspring.

I suppose while the yeast is doing its work, I will go skip stones like Amélie…

* Did I tell you that I once saw her at a book signing in Seattle? That is me in the maroon shirt… har har.

I am longing to be here.

Hiking amongst the tall trees,
valleys and hills,
secluded lakes,
crisp morning air, and
roaring rivers.

Sleeping under the stars
in my green tent.

Where can I find this in Wisconsin?

I posted photos on Flickr from our trip and the wedding

Rachael and Jonathan’s beautiful wedding cake:

Celebrating my 24th birthday in rainy Duluth:

And now for the Stankey Road Trip Recap …

• I felt like my mom, in a good way, when we left. Packing a tasty lunch and bringing a roll of paper towels and extra water bottles. All of which were needed.
• We listened to half of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise. At one point, I was laughing so hard (while drinking water) and I ended up spitting it out…quite a wet pants situation. (This is where the paper towels came in handy.)
• We watched the gas prices increase from $3.80 to $4.05 as we drove north and spent $175 in gas over 900 miles.
• We were adopted into the Cushing family as Rachael’s long lost Cottey College sister and were invited to the yummy rehearsal dinner.
• We took advantage of our hotel (Polynesian Water Park theme) and acted like kids, sliding down the huge water slides and screaming during each turn.
• We took around 300 photographs during our trip, only the good ones made it onto Flickr.
• We, once again, were adopted into the Cushing family as they invited us over after the wedding for pizza and beer with the whole family.
• We helped set up and tear down for the wedding. We liked this much better than actually being in the wedding.
• We celebrated my 24th birthday in Duluth and then driving home to Madison.
• We bought some tasty dark roasted coffee beans from the Whole Foods Co-Op, as recommended by Jonathan and Rachael.
• Robb majorly stubbed his big toe when we were packing up the car to go home. Tore off about a million layers of skin. Emergency trip to the grocery store where I stocked up on Band-Aids, ibuprofen, and cookies.
• Enjoyed 9 hours of thunder and lightening and rain storms (apparently most of Wisconsin was on Tornado Watch when we were driving home).
• We found a quaint indoor mall near the water in Duluth and spent a while walking around, enjoying being warm and dry.
• Treated ourselves to some coffee after being severly under-caffeinated (Jessie, mainly).
• Robb provided breakfast in bed at the hotel (via the contential breakfast in the hotel) consisting of cereal, homemade waffles and hot chocolate. Yum! And we watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend and decided it was better than the reviews claimed.
• And we went to Robb’s favourite for lunch: Famous Daves. Not half bad. And my birthday cake was a big serving of Bread Pudding.

I hope you have enjoyed our little recap. Quite an eventful road trip, especially for our first one.

The damage it caused to my tire cost $30.

Pretty crazy … it went through my entire tire in two places and resulted in a nice flat tire. Not to mention an awesome clicking noise that reminded me of putting a baseball card in the spokes.

Thankfully, I was right out side my friend’s apartment when it happened and close to the bike shop.

I forgot to take a photograph, but I would much rather not remember my bike’s first injury.

Meanwhile, we went to the Dane County Farmer’s Market. So crowded and fully of amazing produce. I can’t wait to go with an empty bag and return with a bagful of goodies!

This week is finals. Thursday afternoon has never looked so good.

Novara Carema

Yes! That is right. My first road bike ever. We celebrated the first day of Spring with a new bike. When the gentleman at REI asked me where I liked to bike, I told him “Seattle”… and then explained I just moved here in January. So silly!

As some of you know, I had biked to work most of the year last year until I had a painful accident that left me bruised (black eye and really hurt arm) and my (dad’s) bike broken.

But I am getting back in the saddle. This spring and summer, Robb and I are looking forward to biking all around Madison. We hear there are some excellent trails close to us. After all, they do host an Iron Man here!

Unfortunately, Madison itself was not quite ready to welcome in Spring. Yes, that is right, as I write this post… there is a fresh layer of snow on the ground and the flakes are still falling. We got a lovely teaser the past few weeks … temperatures in the 40’s … snow melting everywhere! Birds returning, the lake starting to defrost… I even went running with just some lightweight pants and a long sleeved tee. Alas!

We are now waiting for the first big rain to wash away all of the salt and sand on the roads that like to rust bikes. I didn’t even think about it when we bought the bike. I mean, who puts salt on the road in Seattle?

It seems like all of our loose ends from the fire were tied up:

• Painting in our apartment (walls, ceilings etc.) is finished
• Robb’s younger brother bought us a wedding/Robb’s birthday/Robb’s Christmas gift that arrived: A brand spanking new Calphalon Tri-Ply Stainless-Steel 8-Quart Stockpot to replace the one we lost in the fire
• The house is clean
• Our replacement ink cartridge arrived (we found that if you buy from HP directly, it’s cheaper!)
• Robb printed out our Eagle Heights Gardening Manual so we can start reading up on how to garden organically in Madison
• We got to video chat with Robb’s parents and wish his dad a happy birthday!
• Our landlord dropped off our new drip drays for our electric stovetop (the other ones were falling apart well before we acquired the apartment!)
• Our landlord also told us to expect the new cabinets in the next week (remeber, the other ones were burnt and the paint was peeling off from the fire… they were not very good quality to begin with)

Well, that sums it up. While not everything had to do with fire-related stuff… it feels like winter is over and spring is here. The sunny weather really helps with that, too!

And Robb is off on the set for “Public Enemies” being a hard working extra. He got up at 4 am this morning and left at 4:15 am to drive to the set! He’ll be home around dinner (hopefully!)

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV

Probably only a few of you have heard that we lived through a fire at the beginning of the month (just before our marriage was 2 months old).

It was a rather shocking event. Robb was cooking us beer battered fried fish dinner (it would have been amazing) but the oil got too hot so that when he lifted the lid off of the pot, a foot tall flame erupted. We realized quickly that we didn’t have a fire extinguisher and we didn’t know where our buildings was located (we live in a four-unit complex).

The fire got larger and we realized we couldn’t put it out. The house was filled with smoke and, thankfully, our smoke detector started making it’s horrible, loud beeping noise… sure to alert the neighbors! As it happened, it was one of our neighbors who helped us. A young man from the next building heard our smoke detector and rushed over with a fire extinguisher and helped Robb (who eventually found the building’s fire extinguisher) to put out the flame. Meanwhile Robb called 911 and a fire truck was sent on its way.

I hardly could move … I stood outside crying and shaking uncontrollably. How pathetic. Now that I am on this side of the fire, I can see myself rushing around the building and finding a fire extinguisher and saving the day! Ah, but alas. I was a ninny at that moment.

The firemen showed up just after our neighbor and Robb were able to put out the fire. Still, our house was filled with smoke. Our upstairs neighbors were fine, we checked on them… thankfully, the smoke damage etc was confined to our house. The firemen checked out the house, got a detailed description of the fire, and used a huge fan to blow out all of the smoke.

The house was safe, they told us, but they recommended staying with friends until the house was properly cleaned. If we didn’t have anyone to stay with, the would contact the Red Cross. Oh this was a horrible predicament. We had not even been living in Madison for two months and of course we didn’t have any idea of a family we could stay with. So, we turned to our church’s pastor. Their family was so amazing and took us in for two nights. What a blessing. Praise God for a community.

A funny aside to the 911 call. While Robb was on the phone outside running back with a fire extinguisher (mind you snow and ice were on the ground and he wasn’t wearing shoes) he slipped and fell on the ice and his phone went flying! He told me to go find his phone and talk to 911. When I found it I was wondering why he had thrown it on the ground not realizing he had just slipped. I spoke to 911 telling them that it was Robb’s wife and that he was OK. They must have thought he had died or been hurt … it had been several minutes since the fall. Whew. Good thing I found it.

And we now, in our brand new kitchen (almost) sits our very own fire extinguisher.