Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Soon after one is married, almost everyone starts to ask the dreaded question, “when are you having kids?” You gain a little weight and people jump with excitement because they think you are WITH child…nope, just WITH cheeseburger. Every time you say you are nauseous every person tells you, “must be pregnant” or maybe I just don’t feel good?
My husband and I fall into the non-breeding category. We are child free by choice. Which is something many a person can not get a handle on. When I tell people I am not having children they give me a sad look and usually tell me, “there’s always adoption”. There is, just not for me. It’s not that I can’t have them, I don’t want to have them. I’m all for everyone else having them, don’t get me wrong. Have as many as you like. I’m just not of me having them is all.
One of the greatest things my mother ever said to me was that though she loved me dearly she was quite sure that her and my father could have lived a full and happy life without kids and so could I. Some people would cringe that their mother would dare say that. I didn’t take that as a bad thing, but as a very freeing thing. I never had the produce us a grand child thing hanging over my head.
It was worse when I was a teacher. Fellow teachers could not believe I didn’t want to have kids. But you love kids. No, I love teaching kids, there is a difference. Plus, I taught junior high. You want to talk about fantastic birth control…try a 13 year old(or more like try 120 of em a day). I was never maternal to begin with. I don’t coo over babies. There are some down right ugly ones(there I said it…and yes, I mean it). There are some darn cute ones too. When my friends have babies I’m the one standing in the corner not huddling around the baby.
A few years back Ann Lander’s wrote her now famous “The Childless Couple” which is pretty much what I refer people to when they get on my case about not wanting to have children.

“There is nothing sadder than a childless couple. It breaks my heart to see them relaxing around swimming pools in Florida, sitting all suntanned and miserable on the decks of their boats — trotting off to Europe like lonesome fools. It’s an empty life. Nothing but money to spend, more time to enjoy and a whole lot less to worry about.
The poor childless couple are so wrapped up in themselves, you have to feel sorry for them. They don’t fight over the child’s discipline, don’t blame each other for the child’s most obnoxious characteristics, and they miss all the fun of doing without for the child’s sake. They just go along, doing whatever they want, buying what they want and liking each other. It’s a pretty pathetic picture.
Everyone should have children. No one should be allowed to escape the wonderful experience that accompanies each stage in the development of the young — the happy memories of sleepless nights, coughing spells, tantrums, diaper rash, debts, “dipso” baby sitters, saturated mattresses, emergencies and never-ending crises.
How dismal is the peaceful home without the constant childish problems that make a well-rounded life and an early breakdown; the tender, thoughtful discussions when the report card reveals the progeny to be one step below a moron; the end-of-the-day reunions with all the joyful happenings recited like well-placed blows to the temples.
Children are worth it. Every moment of anxiety, every sacrifice, every complete collapse pays off as a fine, sturdy adolescent is reached. The feeling of reward the first time you took the boy hunting — he didn’t mean to shoot you, the lad was excited. Remember how he cried? How sorry he was? And how much better you felt after the blood transfusion? These are the times a man with a growing son treasures — memories that are captured forever in the heart and the limp.
Think back to the night of romantic adventure when your budding daughter eloped with the village idiot. What childless couple ever shared in the stark realism of that drama? Aren’t you a better man for having lived richly, fully, acquiring that tic in your left eye? Could a woman without children touch the strength and heroism of your wife as she tried to fling herself out of the bedroom window?
The childless couple live in a vacuum. They fill their lonely days with golf, vacation trips, dinner dates, civic affairs, tranquility, leisure and entertainment. There is a terrifying emptiness without children, but the childless couple are too comfortable to know it.
You just have to look at them to see what the years have done: He looks boyish, unlined and rested; she’s slim, well-groomed and youthful. It isn’t natural. If they had had kids, they’d look like the rest of us — worn out, wrinkled and exhausted.”

What on Earth can any of this do with Tahitian vanilla beans? Well, see those Tahitian vanilla beans were brought to me from Tahiti. From one of my many other child free by choicer friends. Out enjoying what would be their child’s college fund by going to Tahiti. Rough eh?
I chose to use just a simple sugar cookie to show off the flavor of the beans. I felt if I went to complicated the flavor would just get lost and then what is the point of having Tahitian vanilla beans. And whatever you do, don’t discard your beans pods when you are done with them. Use them to make vanilla sugar. It is wonderful stuff.
Oh and if you are feeling sorry for my parents for me not producing them a grandchild, no worries, my brothers have given them 5. So thanks to my brothers for covering that for me.

Tahitian Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies

1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
3 Tahitian vanilla beans, split and seeds scraped out
1 egg
½ tsp cream of tarter
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
coarse sugar for decoration

In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add in the vanilla bean seeds and beat for another 30 seconds.
Add in egg and beat until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 30 seconds.
Sift together flour, cream of tarter and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until incorporated.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass(you may want to grease it to avoid sticking) press down to make cookie flat. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake at 350F for 8-9 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and them move to wire rack to completely cool.

Adapted from Caprial’s Desserts by Caprial Pence

Vanilla Sugar

1 vanilla bean, whole or scraped
2 cups granulated sugar

If vanilla bean is whole, slice down side of bean with back of knife and scrape seeds into airtight container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. Use as regular, granulated sugar.

First off let’s set the mood. My background theme music is “We are the Champions” ala Revenge of the Nerds(1984) when Louis is giving his speech about being a nerd, being a loser.
Lately I have been noticing a trend in posts  around the food blogging world. Rejects. Yes, many, many of us, myself included are being rejected by the new Tastespotting. I will be honest and say that I personally had only posted one photo on Tastespotting when it was ran by the previous hosts. I only had to do it once because some person named gingerbreadgirl always posted my photos for me. And though I sometimes didn’t agree with the photo she went with(meaning I thought others from the post were better) I never had to worry about posting. It was a great situation for me. All the traffic but none of the work. ;P Well, let me tell you, I need the gingerbreadgirl back. For I do not have the magic touch to make it on to Tastespotting. Now, that is not entirely true. I do have 9 photos(including my original one from back in the day). I’m just not sure what I have to do to get on, especially my Northwest Noshing photos. Which is funny because one of the ones that didn’t make the cut was actually purchased by someone last week. Yes, paid for photography is not making it. Sigh. I realize they say they are trying to only put up the best but I will be honest in saying that many of the rejected food bloggers I have chatted with have just as good of photos as the ones that are on there.
But there is hope! While Tastespotting was down, those of us addicted to food porn, had to look elsewhere to fill the hole. Many of us found Food Gawker. It is basically the same format with I find quicker turn around and a lot less rejection. Then I found Photograzing which was created by Serious Eats. Only been up for a little bit but looks promising. And lastly the newest one I have been checking out is Foodie Views. Only out for about a week. I am not quite sure how the submission process works since they only seem to select a few a day.
Now, all of this is not to say that I will quit submitting to Tastespotting. It’s like a challenge to me. I feel like I am the nerd girl desperately trying to get to sit at the cool table in junior high. Tastespotting is my cool table. So what sites are my fellow rejects having success getting on? Or if you are just a food porn lover are there any sites you check out that I am missing(Flickr of course but that is a whole other place).
Speaking of the cool table, I will be trying to bring this here pound cake to it. We shall see if I wore the right brand of jeans that day and make it. This brown beauty comes to us via the poncho wearing diva herself, Martha Stewart. Martha and I have a love/hate relationship that is leaning more towards love as of late. For awhile I felt that Martha was cranking out too many cookbooks and wasn’t really getting quality. But her last few, the baking and the cookie one, have her back on my good side. This Brown Sugar Pound Cake is easy to make and although very tasty, a little on the boring side. So I made a little warm cherry compote and some brown sugar whipped cream to really make it sing. And sing it does.

P.S. Sarah from Tastespotting has responded to this post. Go and read the info in the comment section, she’s #42.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Warm Cherry Compote

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups packed light-brown sugar
5 large eggs
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325F.
In a medium bowl sift together, flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and beat another 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.
Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans(either two 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch or six mini loaves). Smooth with a spatula.
Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until cakes are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the center, about 1 hour(if you are making mini they are 45 minutes). Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cakes onto rack to cool completely.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Warm Cherry Compote

1 ½  cups sliced, pitted fresh cherries
1/3 cup orange juice
2 TBSP honey

Put all ingredients into a small saucepan. Cook on high heat until brought to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes until fruit has thickened up.
Serve over pound cake while still warm.

I grew up not really liking chocolate pudding. The only kind I ever had was instant and the texture just always seemed weird to me. Then I went on a diet(one of many in my life before realizing that extra cushing for the pushing was better than starving). I was introduced to the world of fat free pudding cups. Not terribly exciting but in those days it was that or diet Jello. So I just got used to it. At  no point in my life would I ever call it good. What I would have called it was tolerable. And when I gave up sugar for a year the sugar free kind was a God send I will not lie. But again, I wouldn’t call it good.
Not until I was in a pastry class and I had to make a cake with a chocolate pudding filling did I come to realize what all the fuss over chocolate pudding was. Thick and chocolate velvety goodness, this was like no pudding I had ever put in my mouth.

When I saw the recipe and saw that it called for using a food processor I decided to pretty much stay the course and not do something out of the ordinary this week. I like the use of the food processor, all be it a little odd, since it produces such a smooth pudding. I saw some people discussing that they were going to use skim milk. Just don’t. Seriously. If you are going to use skim milk just save the time and buy the Jello fat free kind. Same thing. Yes, I had to go buy whole milk, we drink skim. But whole milk has many other uses in the baking world and you can surely use it up!(jumps off of milk soap box)

The changes I did make to the recipe were the following:
I used no vanilla extract, I added 4 TBSP of Bailey’s Irish Cream instead.
I used 65% cocoa Madagascar chocolate.
I used ¼ cup more sugar due to the type of chocolate I used.
I added Bailey’s Irish Cream Caramel(recipe can be found here), this was either layered or placed at the bottom of each dish so that you got a surprise at the end.
It’s an easy recipe and I was more than happy not to have to turn on my oven this week. So thanks to Melissa of It’s Melissa’s Kitchen for picking it. If you want the recipe for it you can go to her site or go to Dorie’s own website and get it.

I must confess that I am one of those people who watches the Bachelor/Bachelorette. I don’t really like it but some how get sucked in. I really haven’t like a Bachelor since Andrew Firestone and I did like Trista the first Bachelorette. Though Trista’s pink extravaganza wedding on TV did give my husband a slight heart attack as pink is my favorite color. I think he envisioned that I would want that too. I did not. But more power to her and very sweet of Ryan to go along with it.
If you watch the show(and even if you don’t) most of you probably know that things don’t work out on that show. They work out on the show but usually a few weeks(sometimes months) after the show ends they somehow are not together. Some speculate that no one can fall in love that fast. I can’t jump on that bandwagon as I was engaged to be married after 5 weeks of knowing my husband. The difference is though that we didn’t go on group dates with people or see each other once a week. We pretty much spent the majority of our time together. Some speculate it is doomed because now the only people who go on there are the ones who want to launch a career in television and what not. This could have some validity but even actors and actresses need love too.
I think the down fall of the show are the dates themselves. You often will catch the girls going on and on about what a fun time it is with the guy…how it’s always an adventure. Of course it is an adventure, you just got back from skiing in the Swiss Alps. And the Bachelor didn’t plan the dates…ABC did(oh yeah, they paid for it too). He is not the romantic one that set up a table for two in the meadow. In reality you would have to haul all that out yourself. Clean up after your ate. Then take it all back to the car. Then someone would have to go and clean the dishes afterwards. If  guy who planned the date went home and washed them…then that would be romantic.
I think for the program to be successful it should be in an everyday setting. Make them go to work instead of living in a mansion getting to sun tan by the pool all day. Let the other person see how you handle work stress. Actually live somewhere comparable to where you live now(like a two bedroom apartment instead of the 10,000 square foot home they have you in). I want to see them have the kind of dates you have when you are in a long term relationship. You know the ones where you planned to go home and make a romantic dinner but you are just too tired from work. So instead the two of you swing by Taco Bell and end up sitting on the couch(together though) watching 80’s movies on TBS(the kind that have more commercials that actual movie). Real life action. I would pay to see some of these girls(who are always dressed in ball gowns??) putting on used shoes and throwing back beer and neon orange nachos down at the local bowling lanes on $0.99 game night. Let’s put some reality into these reality shows shall we!
Speaking of the real deal…this crumb cake is where it is at. An experiment of sorts as it was a throw it all together and hope it all comes out kind of deal. I have a small addiction to either caramelizing pineapple or bananas and putting them over vanilla ice cream. While watching my bananas bubble away in brown sugar and butter the other day I got to thinking wouldn’t it be yummy to make it into a cake. So I did. You can make them with or without the flambe part and you don’t need the splash of liquor if you aren’t going to set those babies on fire. Though not a true bananas fosters, the flavor is definitely there. Oh and the caramel in the picture is just some Fran’s caramel sauce…no need to make your own when you can buy quality like that.

P.S. This is a good follow up to Three Cheese Hazelnut Pasta.

Banana Fosters Crumb Cake

For the Crumbs:
 5 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
½ cup chopped walnuts

For the Bananas:

2 TBSP unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP banana liqueur
2 TBSP dark rum
2 large bananas, sliced in rounds

For the Cake:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½  tsp ground cinnamon
¼  tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
6 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
banana fosters mixture

 
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter an 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.

For the Crumb: Put all the ingredients except the nuts in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps and curd and holds together when pressed. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir r the nits and press a piece of plastic against the surface. Refrigerate until needed.

For the Bananas:

Combine the butter and sugar in a flambé pan or skillet.
Place the pan over low heat either on an alcohol burner or on top of the stove, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.
Stir in the banana liqueur, then place the bananas in the pan.(if not using liqueur, just add bananas)
When the banana slices soften and begin to brown, carefully add the rum. (again, if not using rum, simply take bananas out at this time)
Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot, then tip the pan slightly to ignite the rum.
When the flames subside, lift the bananas out of the pan and place aside to cool until needed.

To make the cake: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beat for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Don’t be concerned if the batter looks curdled-it will soon smooth out. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2(begin with the dry ingredients). You will have a thick, cream batter. Add the banana fosters mixture and mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds. You don’t really want chunks of bananas, you want them integrated like you would in  banana bread.
Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the refrigerator and, with your fingertips, break it into pieces. There’s no need to try to get even pieces-these are crumbs, they’re supposed to be lumpy and bumpy and every shape and size. Scatter the crumbs over the batter,. Pressing them down ever so slightly.
Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool just until it is warm or until it reaches room temperature.

Cake recipe adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin 2006
Banana Fosters recipe adapted from Brennan’s Resturant