The Food

Once again it is time to throw on my party dress and head out to the blog party. This month’s theme is Kid’s Party and luckily for me one of the ideas I had in my head before this ever came about fit into this category perfectly.

Growing up my mother always made homemade cookies. There were only two types of cookies that she would usually buy from the store. Those were Oreo’s and Circus Animals. Oh how I loved those little pink and white sprinkled blobs that were suppose to be animals. I spend half my time eating them and the other half trying to figure out what animal I was eating. And since when is a hippo a circus animal? So in my quest to find circus animal cut outs that were small, all of them came with an Ark, and well I didn’t want that. So I stumbled across some mini farm animal cookie cutters and quickly snatched them up knowing that I had wanted to give it a go. I have actually been working on this idea for the last couple of weeks, and boy it has stumped me…mostly the frosting that is. Circus animal frosting has caranuba wax and that is what makes the frosting so unique. Well getting my hands on some was going to require me to buy a lot of it in bulk. And though I am dedicated to my blog….I just don’t need that much caranuba wax. So I pretty much gave up on the idea of replicating the taste of the cookie and went for trying to match the asthetics of the cookies.

Small cookies lead to big problems. Tiny little cookie cutters leave room for lots of things like beaks to be ripped off when not being careful in tranfering them out of the cutter. I lost many a tail, leg and head today(moment of silence please). Small cookies also lead to standing in the kitchen for hours cutting them out.

I originally had more of an actual animal cracker in mind for my “circus” animals but changed to a sugar cookie when I figured I could not match the flavor of the icing. Both my husband and dog love a good sugar cookie, so I knew I would have no problems unloading them.

Sugar Cookie Dough:                                                                   

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 lb, 8 oz  unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

1 TBSP vanilla extract

7 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 TBSP baking soda

1 TBSP cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 375F.

1. Cream the powdered sugar and butter for at least 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and scrape down the bowl after each egg. Add vanilla and mix for 2 more minutes.

2. Mix in the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar while mixer is on slow speed. Mix till you have a smooth dough. Chill for at least 4 hours before rolling out.

3. Roll out dough and cut using whatever shapes you would like(doesn’t really matter once you throw icing on them, it’s anyone’s guess as to what they are)

*This recipe has been passed around my family for awhile and it has never said how many cookies it will make. I got 4 very large balls of dough out of this batch. And about 180 farm animals.

Icing for “Circus Cookies”

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 TBSP vanilla

pink food coloring

Whisk the sugar, milk and vanilla together until smooth. Set 1/2 of the icing to the side to remain white. Add pink food coloring to the second half of icing.

To make the ‘Circus” Animals:

Dip on side of cookie into icing. Before icing sets up sprinkle on multi-colored decoration balls. Let sit for about an hour to set up. Once done, enjoy trying to figure out what it is you are eating….that is a cow by the way in the photo below.

The Beverage:

I never have a problem coming up with the food for Blog Party but the drink recipe always throws me for a loop. I never usually drink mixed drinks( a wine girl myself) and even worse was trying to think of a non-alcoholic drink for the “kiddies” to enjoy. I usually have milk with my sugar cookies, the one exception being Christmas in which I have my sugar cookies with hot chocolate on Christmas morning. So hot chocolate it was, but I didn’t want it to be hot, so I made it frozen, kind of like a shake.

Hot Chocolate(that caught a cold)

6 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder

6 TBSP sugar

2 1/2 cups milk

2 1/2 cups light cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ice

Marshmallows(if the mood strikes you)

Preperation:

Add sugar and cocoa to milk and heat in a sauce pan unitl dissolved. Add the cream and vanilla. Heat until almost boiling. Mix well and let cool. When completely cooled, place “hot” chocolate and some ice cubes in a blender and put on liquify. Pour into a glass or mug of your choice. Sprinkle on some marshmallows….after all this is suppose to be for kids.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

Okay, well usually life hands you lemons and you make lemonade…but it is in the 60’s now and hopefully raining all week, so lemonade is not really on my mind. And since I have leftover puff pastry from Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day I decided to drown my sorrows in puff pastry. I only had a little bit left so I decided to make mini Napoleons, since I haven’t made them for over a year. Many people cower at the idea of making pastry cream, and I’m not really sure why…other than the fact that you are the slave to the stove top for a little bit. I chose to just make a basic pasrty cream spiked with a little bit of Grand Marnier and cover with some dark chocolate sauce(because my jeans were actually fitting this week, and well, we can’t have that).

Grand Marnier Napoleons with Dark Chocolate Sauce

1 box of Puff Pastry

chocolate sauce*

Pastry Cream:

4 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 cup egg yolks

6 TBSP cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 TBSP Grand Marnier

Prepare the Pastry Cream:

Bring milk and 1/2 the sugar to a boil in saucepan. In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks with the other half of the sugar. Add the cornstarch. Add boiling milk slowly into the egg yolk mixture, stirring well to avoid curdling. Return to sacuepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. When slightly cooled add liquor. Cover directly with plastic wrap to avoid film from forming. May be prepared up to 2 days in advanced.

For the Puff Pastry:

Thaw puff pastry. Cut dough into strips, as large as you would like and bake according to the directions on the box. Sometimes I like flat Napoleons and to get that effect you would roll out the dough as thin as possible(put on baking sheet) and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove baking sheet from fridge. Cover with another baking sheet to weight down the dough. Place in oven and bake until pastry turns light brown, about 10 minutes. Remove baking sheet and bake, uncovered for about 5 more minutes or until golden brown. While the pastry is still hot, cut into equal size rectangles.

To Assemble Napoleons:

If you just made the regular puff pastry and did not flatten it then you will need to get a bread knife and cut down the middle of your rectange(the length of it…see photos). Pipe or spread pastry cream on top of each rectangle. Place the top of your puff pastry on top of the cream. Drizzle chocolate sauce on top. Clog arteries.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

Well Donna Day is rapdily approaching once again and this time around savory tarts is the theme. I chose to make a tart that helps to welcome the upcoming Fall. My local Farmer’s Market is slowly weeding out the fruits of summer to make way for the apples, pears and pumpkins that make up the Fall I know and love. I almost always bake with Granny Smiths(perhaps a rut I should get out of) and today was no exception to that rule. The dried cherries were added as my nod goodbye to the Summer fruits(they were the last of some ones from the Farmers Market and they are no longer carrying them till next Summer). To learn more about this event, visit Running with Tweezers, this month’s host for more information.

Caramelized Apple, Onion and Roquefort Tart

2 TBSP unsalted butter

1 cup thinly sliced sweet onions

2 cups sliced apples, skins left on

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 ground black pepper

1/3 cup toasted walnuts

4 ounces dried cherries

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large, heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until caramelized. Add the apples and continue to caramelize. Add the wine and cook untl dry, about 2 minutes. Add the salt and pepper, stir well and remove from heat. Add the walnuts and dried cherries and stir well to combine. Let cool.

On a lightly floured surface, 1 at a time, roll out the pastry sheets. You can cut them into rounds, rectangles or press them into tart pans…I did all three. Make sure to grease your pans.

Place the apple/onion mixture into or on top of(depending on which tart style you chose) your tart. Sprinkle blue cheese on top of each tart. Bake until golden and puffed, 20-25 minutes.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

Getting back into the swing of things after vacation(no matter how small) always takes me a little bit of time to adjust. Luckily for me I made soup and froze it before I left so I don’t need to worry about really making anything extra today. Which is great because I still have much to unpack and dreaded laundry to do. This soup is partially a copy cat recipe from a chain restaurant that I used to go to when living in Phoenix. I change it up a bit by not just adding basil to the soup but actually pesto.

 La Madeleine Tomato Basil Soup
4 cups tomatoes (8 to 10), peeled, cored and chopped,
    or 4 cups whole tomatoes, crushed
4 cups unsalted tomato juice
12 to 14 fresh basil leaves(I chose to use a 1/2 cup of pesto, recipe follows)*
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sweet unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Salt, to taste

Combine tomatoes and juice in saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes over medium low heat. Cool slightly, then place in blender. Add basil and process to purée. This will have to be done in batches. Return mixture to saucepan. Add butter and cream. Stir over low heat until butter and cream are incorporated. Stir in salt and pepper before serving.

Pesto for soup:

Basil pesto:
½ cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped
1 ½ teaspoons garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoons Parmigiano

2 TBSP butter

2 TBSP olive oil

Combine all pesto ingredients except butter and oil in a food processor. Pulse until ingredients are finely chopped but not pureed. Add butter and oil and process to a thick paste. Reserve.
 

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.