time well spent

So after an angst-ridden jobless-driven post, I am happy to say I am employed! Which means less time for cooking in the interim between moving to my new locale (New York!).  Previously, with quite a bit of time on my hands, I made these delicious pici or pinci which is a type of eggless tuscan pasta.

 

Simply put, they are hand-rolled pasta made from just flour (all purpose will do), a few Tablespoons of oil, and water, oh and a pinch of salt.  The recipe is from a cookbook I bought at an Italian/English bookstore in Florence.  After sifting the salt and flour, add the oil and water to a well in the center of the flour mixture.  Combine with a fork until a dough ball forms, knead, cut in half, roll one half until almost flat like a pie crust.  Then strips are cut and rolled between your hands, or between a hand and a cutting board.  These strands should be smaller in diameter than a pencil.

 I watched carefully while they cooked (bring pot to boil, add pasta, bring back to boil, wait until they float).  They were DELICIOUS and a great vehicle for sauce!!!

So, probably not more of that hand-rolling for a few weeks until I am settled, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this handmade recipe was to execute. I am excited to pursue more handmade pastas!

you are only as imposing and powerful as your tallest cake

Maybe it is the dull ache of unemployment nagging at my insides, or perhaps I was attempting to compensate for cake-less months past when, uninspired but pressed to create confections, I sloppily scooped spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a sheet and choked them down with tearful milk.

In any case, I haphazardly chose the most difficult cake recipe in the book and applied an afternoon to its inception.  Devil's Food. Gah! And I was much too indulgent to restrain myself and make 7 Minute Meringue Icing... I sprang for the chocolate buttercream!

 This cake. This cake! Actually I over-baked the poor thing into three dry discs.  The difficulty of the recipe (any Devil's Food recipe), is first creaming butter and sugar (in a stand mixer), then adding blended egg yolks (which is much easier to do in a mixer, though I did it by hand), and then (after adding milk and flour in intervals) adding whipped egg whites.  So, if you keep the developing batter (beginning with butter and sugar) in your stand mixer, you need to devise other ways to whip the yolks and whites, or buy another mixer!

I whipped the yolks by hand, but dangerously held a bowl under the paddle of the mixer for the whites. Concentrating fully on not launching the bowl onto a wall, I over-beat the poor whites until the peaks were crumbling (peaks should be stiff but not crumbling mountain tops!!).  This error would not solely doom the cake, but it did contribute to my next fatal move.  The over-beaten egg whites deflated during the last portion of baking time, making the cake appear to have "fallen" (the middle of cake is slightly depressed instead of being the highest point).  Fallen cake syndrome is usually a symptom of being under-cooked or deflating because of erratic oven temperatures. Therefore, I left the cake in for the later time in the cooking range (ie: 30-35 minutes, I left it in for 35) which is rare for me because we have an excellent convection oven which typically reduces cooking time.

For the first day, the rich buttercream seemed to trap moisture inside resulting in a palatable vehicle for ice cream.  The second day, I found myself shaving icing off the three-tiered visual-masterpiece. Oops?  I've learned my lesson - cakes take time, practice and attention to the most finite of details.

This blog...

Clearly has been ages in the making. I have reluctantly stored little nuggets of cultural wisdom, foodie tricks, divine wines, style snips, and more.  Things too important and fundamental to text or call about; they need announcing!  Though this blog is far from completion (regarding layout, colour scheme, and narrative thematic elements), it is a highly-anticipated start (anticipated by me).

Grapes in the Sunset (a la my backyard)