FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

An Early Friendsgiving

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Oh how I put Cooking Planit through the ultimate test!  Prior to last night, I had only used this kitchen app to make a single dish.  And typically, I have the bulk of a meal prepared before guests arrive.  But last night…  I invited Ginnean and Juliette (FoodFash Junior in the making) over for dinner and a slumber party.  I left it up to Cooking Planit to keep me on track preparing multiple dishes while in the company of a good friend and her little munchkin.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’m out of this world organized.  But give me a little outside distraction, like say company, and I lose things, drop things, maybe even burn things.  Give me a lot of distraction, like the most adorable baby ever, and who knows what could happen.

This is where Cooking Planit had the opportunity to save my world, and it did.  This app allowed me to make an entire meal AND spend time with my current company.  I could chat with Ginnean while following each step, because I didn’t have to think about what came next.  And I could clean up dishes chase Juliette around the house when there was dead time before the next step.

The Menu:

Quinoa with Butternut Squash & Pine Nuts

Pomegranate Kale

Sweet Potato Hash

Cranberry Sauce (made earlier in the day)

Homemade Bread (made earlier in the day)

We filled our plates with modern-day Thanksgiving sides, filled up our glasses with red, red wine, and sat on the back porch enjoying the almost-fall-feeling weather.  Since Ginnean and I both favored the quinoa with butternut squash and pine nuts it acted as the main dish.  And the pomegranate kale and sweet potato hash did a wonderful job acting as supporting sides.  We even paired the leftover hash with an egg the next morning for a mighty delicious start to our day!

Read So Good

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“Instagram is Twitter for people who can’t read” is, embarrassingly, a primetime comedy quote that, taken out of context, totally applies to my life right now.  Lately, I haven’t had much time for blog reading, Twitter reading, email reading, Pinterest posting.  Fortunately/unfortunately, what  I do have time for is an occasional scroll through my Instagram feed.

If I see something delish on Instagram, I’m 100 times more likely to make it.  Like this slow cooker cranberry sauce recipe from Liz of The Lemon Bowl.  I saw it, liked it, obsessed about it, found it on her site, made it, and then Instagrammed it.  It was food blogging social media at its finest.

I took heed to her warning that this recipe catered to a lemon-loving, tart-tolerant girl, so I used brown sugar in place of white sugar.  And then took it a step further by doubling the brown sugar, using a total of 4 tablespoons.

Not only do I think this sauce should be a staple at my family’s holiday table from this point forward, but I also think this sauce should be used to garnish meals all fall long.  It could be used in place of jelly, on top of salads, in sandwiches, on desserts.  The possibilities for this mellow, tart, sweet goodness are infinite.

Homemade Crusty Bread

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When I first bought a KitchenAid mixer, I was all over bread baking.  Totally addicted.  But my inability to make a super crusty bread with a super squishy inside caused a brief bread baking hiatus.  And then I re-discovered the ever-popular New York Times bread recipe and figured it was high time to bake some bread again.

But this time around, it was going to be different.  You see…  I’ve learned some new tricks, some new cheats, and I’m less afraid than ever to use them.  Like “helping out” rising dough.  I heated my oven to 170 degrees (the lowest it would go) and then turned it off.  When it lowered to about 100 degrees, I set my covered dough bowl in there for two hours.

When I removed the dough from the oven, I knew there was a possibility that I messed something up, big time.  But when I saw that the small, sticky dough turned into a huge dough monster, it was oh so apparent that assisting the dough was totally ok.

This recipe yielded 4 loaves, which was a perfect way to fit a little experimenting in.  I made one large traditional loaf, one round loaf in a ceramic cast iron, and another loaf brushed with egg whites in a ceramic cast iron.  The most beautiful loaf, which I have yet to cut in to because it’s that beautiful, was the traditional loaf.  And the loaf with the best crust was the egg white loaf.

Next time, I plan on coating the traditional loaf with egg whites halfway through the baking process.  And next time… I’ll be adding fresh herbs and cutting the recipe in half.  Because nobody, and I mean nobody, needs multiple loaves of crusty, squishy bread in their kitchen at one time.

KV On TV

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A couple weeks ago, another blogger from the Austin Food Bloggers Alliance posted a casting call ad for a food show.  I read the brief description and applied, why not?  I’m so graceful in front of a camera, it seemed like the natural thing to do.  I baked a few mini pies in cute little ceramic dishes, put on a sunshiney dress to rebel against daylight savings time, and posed for a picture of me and my pies.

For some reason, the flash was on when my mom took the picture.  I set the pies on the counter to show her how to turn the flash off and, well…  I didn’t set the pies fully on the counter because the box kerplunked onto the ground.  I re-assembled one of the broken pies, giggled to block the tears, and headed to the audition.  And broken pies and all, I was given a call back.

Needless to say, I’m the opposite of graceful in front of cameras.  But even though I know this, I went back to the second audition – an hour slot in front of the camera.  I baked a new pie, got covered in microphone wires, and gave the casting staff my all.  All of the anxiety was worth it, because I left the audition knowing that I took a chance.  A chance that Tampa Kristin would have never taken.

Check out the deets on Supermarket Superstars and keep your fingers crossed for me!