Heartbreaking

© 2009 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA

Nick’s culinary arts school burned down Tuesday.

Gone.

Demolished.

Nothing left.

His teacher, Chef Becky, lost her knives, her notes and her cookbooks. I’m going to donate the three America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks to her. I’ll miss them, but they’re going to a good cause.

Apparently the other cookbooks she really likes are Jacques Pepin’s. I just can’t give mine up, though, they were a Mother’s Day present years ago.

Also in the same building was the Nursing Assistant, Medical Assistant, Dental Assistant and Computer classes. And everything is just gone. All the kids’ work that they’ve done over the year. It’s just so sad.

The culinary class will share the school district’s kitchen through the end of the year, and they’re hoping to have the facility rebuilt by next fall.

My heart hurts for Chef Becky.

Austin’s Chocolate Cake

Like most families, we offer the kids their choice of dinner and dessert for their birthdays. And for the past six years or so, Austin’s birthday cake has always been the one that I created in response to his indecision. His two favorite desserts are chocolate cake and french silk pie. And trying to choose between the two for his birthday dessert was causing him to totally stress out.

So I combined the two. Made a chocolate cake with french silk pie filling between the layers. It became an instant classic in our home, and ever since, the combination is known as Austin Chocolate Cake.

The only thing I have struggled with over the years is the icing. Because of the filling, it needs to be kept in the fridge. Which meant that the traditional buttercream frosting just didn’t work. Buttercream is best at room temp.

So last year I experimented with a ganache, and that was the answer. The cake I use is a chocolate wacky cake (otherwise known as a crazy cake or vinegar cake). It isn’t too sweet, has a good chocolate flavor, and is fairly substantial. You could use whatever your favorite chocolate cake recipe or mix is.

My recipe for french silk pie uses raw eggs. I know where my eggs come from, so I have no problem with it, but if you would rather not use raw eggs yourself, you can either use the liquid egg whites that are sold in the little milk-type cartons, or there are even eggs that are pasturized in the shell.

Happy Birthday, Austin!

Austin’s Chocolate Cake Cake:
Cake:
3 c flour
4 T cocoa
1 t salt
2 c sugar
2 t baking soda
3/4 c salad oil
2 c water
2 t vinegar
2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Butter & flour 2 round cake pans. Mix all ingredients together with mixer.
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
Bake 35-45 minutes until done according to the toothpick test.

French Silk Filling
Mix until light and fluffy:
1/2 c Butter
3/4 c Sugar
Melt & cool slightly
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
Add chocolate to butter & sugar mixture. Mix to combine.
Add:
1 t vanilla
1 egg
Beat until smooth & silky.
Add:
1 egg
Continue beating until smooth, light and silky.
Fold in:
4 oz Cool Whip or equivalent of whipped cream, beaten with 1 tsp gelatin powder to stabilize.

Chill to firm before using for filling.

Traditions and Resolutions

The first Christmas Paul and I were married, we had just moved to a new apartment, so we didn’t really have a Christmas tree. However, I did insist on buying a tree-top angel to bring a little bit of home to the place, since when I was growing up, this angel was always on the top of the tree:

At some point during the following year, our puppy found its way into the box of Christmas decorations and tore everything up, including the angel. That meant, of course, that we had to get a new angel. But that was the year we were broke (we had a little baby by then), and so we just got a little, very inexpensive angel. She’s pretty enough, but I wanted something more for my annual tree. So the next year we bought another, and a tradition was started. The picture at the top is a few of our angels. My absolute favorite is the Texas angel in red. At this point, we’re at 18 angels…or we would be except for the crappy weather that has kept UPS from delivering my angel to me for TWO WEEKS!!! I’m trying to be patient, however, it’s getting a bit old. (New Year’s Resolution #1—Patience.) Eggnog. is one of those love it or hate it kind of things. Me? I love it. If it was available year-round, I’d buy it year-round. I guess it’s a good thing it’s a limited-time only, get it while you can thing then. Or as Dad says, we’d all be the shape of weeble-wobbles. Eggnog is a major part of our Christmas tradition. It is what makes Christmas morning extra special for us. Come Christmas morning, after presents are opened and I’ve had my first cup of coffee, I move into the kitchen, thickly slice the bread (this year we bought cinnamon swirl bread – yum!) and quickly dip it into a bowl of eggnog mixed with a little extra cinnamon and nutmeg. They must be cooked slowly, over a medium-low heat otherwise the sugar burns. When served with a side of sausage and drenched in warm maple syrup, nothing else says Merry Christmas quite like it. (Resolution #2—eat healthier) On this day, 17 years ago, I was holding my day-old baby and enjoying a New Year’s Day steak dinner compliments of the hospital. Yesterday, to celebrate Nick’s birthday, we went out for Mexican food (delicious!) then came home and had a cherry/pineapple dump cake with ice cream. Because the cake was hot from the oven, we stuck the candles in a bowl of ice cream (that’s what’s on fire in the picture of Nick and Austin above). We’ll have a big birthday dinner for him this weekend when I have more time to spend cooking it. Hopefully I’ll remember to take pictures! (Resolution #3—make fun family time a bigger priority. The kids are growing up so fast!)

Proof that my son loves me…

He’s only heard about it, never tasted it for himself, but when Nick’s culinary teacher passed out the recipe for French Onion Soup, Nick decided he would make it for me cause he knows how much I love it.

Whoever created the combination of the perfectly warming-to-the-bottom-of-your-toes soup, with the crunchy bread and the ooey-gooey cheese on top, was a genius. And I thank him or her.

In preparation for the soup, I made some homemade beef broth a couple of weekends ago, using soup bones saved from the last time we filled our freezer with beef.

Nick couldn’t believe how long it took for the onions to carmelize and was very impatient during the process. The only change we made, was that we deglazed the pan with sherry, which is not an ingredient that was included in his high school recipe.

It is so much fun to see (and taste) Nick’s kitchen skills developing. He’s such a great kid.

French Onion Soup

2 1/2 pounds onions, sliced thin (we used 3 medium onions)
2 oz butter
6 cups beef stock
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 t Worcestershire Sauce
salt & pepper to taste
Hearty bread, grated swiss, parmesan or other good melting cheese

In a heavy pan, over medium-low heat, melt butter and add onions, turning so they are all coated with butter. Carefully carmelize the onions without burning. This is a long, slow process and may take as long as 45 minutes. Cook them until VERY brown.

Deglaze the pan using some of the beef stock (we used a splash of sherry).

Add stock, thyme, pepper and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil, then simmer 20-30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with bread and melted cheese.

Yum!

Snow Ice Cream

It has been snowing for the last couple of days. Snowing a lot!

Yesterday I braved the elements and went into the office, but was smart enough to bring my work laptop home with me so I didn’t have to worry about it today…I’m up against a Friday deadline, so a non-working snowday was NOT an option.

It snowed almost all day long. The boys went out and pelted each other with snowballs for a while, and Paul got a hankering for some ice cream. Really – ice cream! It’s snowing big, fluffy white flakes. I think hot chocolate and Paul thinks ice cream. He apparently has always been fascinated with the idea of snow ice cream and today was the day!

We carefully filled a bowl with clean snow, made the base and folded in the snow.

Wanna know something funny? It tasted JUST LIKE REAL ICE CREAM!

Who knew? (Besides Laura Ingalls, of course)

Snow Ice Cream Recipe #1
source: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art38570.asp
Ingredients:

1/2 c. sugar
1 c. cream
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
Pinch of salt

Place the above ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix with an electric mixer. Add fresh snow..approx 5 – 6 cups and mix in to blended mixture.
Eat immediately.

NOTE: Always make sure you’ve had snow falling a while before you collect snow for ice cream so you know it will be clean and free from contaminates.