Thanks to Oddmonster at Hooray for Dogs!
The worst part about being broke, for me, has always been when you feel broke. When you let the bank balance and bare cupboards get you down, to the point where you start to feel like that wee one digit before the decimal point's some kind of judgment on your eternal sooooooooooooooul.
What can I say? When I get down, I get dramatic.
So I try to find some small indulgence I can give myself until things get better. It's gotta be small and it's gotta be worthy of the splurge, and let's face it, I am hella food-motivated. It's gotta be edible. For me, every time, basil does the trick. Fresh basil, in the summertime, is spectacular. It's fragrant and vivid and tastes amazing. As I have a black thumb, though, I have to buy it at the shop. If you're lucky enough to be able to grow it, it can still be an indulgence, and a clever one at that. Let me introduce: Frankenpesto!
(I feel like he should have some music or something)
The canonical ingredients of pesto are as follows: fresh basil, sweetest most virgin olive oil, aged parmesan, pine nuts picked by hand by retired left-handed nuns, and garlic.
Now, some of those things are perilously expensive, and are not, more importantly, threatening to expire in my fridge.
(Sidenote: it's true, I am possibly over-thrifty in using up everything in my fridge. This is genetic; my grandmother lived through The War, and we've caught her scraping mold off things that she really shouldn't have way too many times. On the other side of the coin, though, CHEESE IS ALREADY MOLD. Sigh. Where was I? Oh! My fridge.)
So, having gotten, out of the blue, a very large bunch of basil that needed to be used up before the heat got it, I canvassed the fridge, and found absolutely none of the above ingredients. Except I did have:
--cheddar
--suspect heel of cambozola
--spinach attempting wiltiness
--plain old canola oil
--cashews and almonds
Seriously, cooking should be fun, and I really can't taste the difference between my pesto and the store-bought pine-nutted version. Right! If you've never made pesto before, it's dead simple. Wash your basil leaves. I personally swear by my salad spinner, which I found at a garage sale for $1. Why? Because every single garage sale ever has a salad spinner. Don't believe me? Hit the pavement this weekend and check for yourself. They're super-useful little critters.
Wash your basil, and assemble the food processor. Or if you're cheap and broke, your blender, the same one your husband mixes margaritas in. Tequila forgives a multitude of sins.
Puree your basil in small batches, while adding tiny (tiny!) splashes of oil to keep things moving. Once you've got a nice base going, toss in some salt and some minced garlic. Puree puree. More basil. Puree. Now some shredded cheese (puree) or some roughly sliced cambozola (purrrrrree). Maybe a dash more oil and another thick handful of basil. Puree. I added spinach too, for undetectable bulk. Puree. Once you have a nice goopy base. Toss in your nuts.
(Now now, peanut gallery)
Puree. Thunkathunkathunka puree-under-protest. Puree.
Keep going until it tastes right. Seriously that's the whole process right there. Then you can freeze some, or mix some with pasta, or you can be me and suck it out of the blender with crackers before your husband detaches from You!Tube and wanders in looking for dinner.
Do not puree. That's punishable with a jail sentence. Instead, simply sit on the back stoop in the sun and have another cracker loaded down with garlicky, cheesy basil goodness, and feel like at least for the moment, you might be the richest person in the world.
Showing posts with label snacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snacks. Show all posts
Great Lunchbox Recipe - Creme de Menthe Cake (Arsenic Cake!)
Creme de Menthe cake (or Arsenic Cake, which is what we affectionately called this tasty treat :)) was one of my favourite childhood recipes - and simple enough to make that it was one of the first cakes I learned to bake alone.
Basically, it's a chocolate peppermint cake - a plain cake, flavoured with peppermint and tinted with green food colouring; and iced with rich chocolate icing (frosting). It tastes wonderful, and it's startling colour makes it a lunchbox or party favourite - as well as making it perfect for birthday cakes, St Patrick's Day or halloween!
Creme De Menthe Cake
4 oz (115g) butter
6 oz (170g) caster sugar (Don't buy it specially if you don't have it to hand: use plain white!)
2 eggs
6 oz (170g) flour
1/4 c milk
1/2 baking soda
1 t cream of tartar*
1 t peppermint essence
1 t green food colouring (optional of course)**
Cream the butter and sugar (Check out a post later in the week for directions if you're not sure what this means!) Add the eggs and stir gently. NOTE: Never beat a cake mix, unless the recipe specifically calls for it. Stir gently :)
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Add it alternately with your remaining dry ingredients (flour, cream of tartar). NOTE: this means, stir in some of the dry ingredients, then an equivalent proportion of milk, and repeat until all have been added. It's to help you achieve a smooth cake batter :)
Your cake batter should be a nice gold, and reasonably thick. add your peppermint essence and green colour, and stir through until mixed. The batter will turn a pale grass green - don't get it too bright, it always looks brighter when it's cooked!
Grease your cake pan, or line it with baking paper, and pour in your cake batter. I prefer to make this cake in a square pan, so as to have lovely squares with four green sides when it's cut, but use your favorite cake pan for the occasion. Round is usually better for birthdays!
Bake the cake at 180 deg C (350F) until done - it takes around 40 minutes in a standard oven. A fan oven will be faster.
The edges of the cake will brown, but when you cut it you'll find the cake is quite a virulent green. if it's for a birthday or St Patrick's Day, you might like to trim the edges off to make a nice bright green edge - you can serve these offcuts as desserts with icecream.
Ice with your favorite chocolate icing/frosting recipe - I'll bring you mine tomorrow, but this cake will take your own favorite.
*Unfortunately, there's not really a good substitute for cream of tartar, if you don't happen to have it. You could try popping in a teaspoon of baking powder instead. You'll find recommendations to leave out the baking soda if you do that, but I wouldn't recommend that course for this particular recipe.
Serving suggestions
Basically, it's a chocolate peppermint cake - a plain cake, flavoured with peppermint and tinted with green food colouring; and iced with rich chocolate icing (frosting). It tastes wonderful, and it's startling colour makes it a lunchbox or party favourite - as well as making it perfect for birthday cakes, St Patrick's Day or halloween!
Creme De Menthe Cake
4 oz (115g) butter
6 oz (170g) caster sugar (Don't buy it specially if you don't have it to hand: use plain white!)
2 eggs
6 oz (170g) flour
1/4 c milk
1/2 baking soda
1 t cream of tartar*
1 t peppermint essence
1 t green food colouring (optional of course)**
Cream the butter and sugar (Check out a post later in the week for directions if you're not sure what this means!) Add the eggs and stir gently. NOTE: Never beat a cake mix, unless the recipe specifically calls for it. Stir gently :)
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Add it alternately with your remaining dry ingredients (flour, cream of tartar). NOTE: this means, stir in some of the dry ingredients, then an equivalent proportion of milk, and repeat until all have been added. It's to help you achieve a smooth cake batter :)
Your cake batter should be a nice gold, and reasonably thick. add your peppermint essence and green colour, and stir through until mixed. The batter will turn a pale grass green - don't get it too bright, it always looks brighter when it's cooked!
Grease your cake pan, or line it with baking paper, and pour in your cake batter. I prefer to make this cake in a square pan, so as to have lovely squares with four green sides when it's cut, but use your favorite cake pan for the occasion. Round is usually better for birthdays!
Bake the cake at 180 deg C (350F) until done - it takes around 40 minutes in a standard oven. A fan oven will be faster.
The edges of the cake will brown, but when you cut it you'll find the cake is quite a virulent green. if it's for a birthday or St Patrick's Day, you might like to trim the edges off to make a nice bright green edge - you can serve these offcuts as desserts with icecream.
Ice with your favorite chocolate icing/frosting recipe - I'll bring you mine tomorrow, but this cake will take your own favorite.
*Unfortunately, there's not really a good substitute for cream of tartar, if you don't happen to have it. You could try popping in a teaspoon of baking powder instead. You'll find recommendations to leave out the baking soda if you do that, but I wouldn't recommend that course for this particular recipe.
Serving suggestions
- This cake is a lunchbox favorite - very tasty, and great looking!
- Un-iced, sliced thinly and topped with chocolate sauce as a dessert
- Birthday party - either as the birthday cake or sliced into fingers
- St Patrick's Day or Hallowe'en party fare
Second hand shopping for the kitchen - even the celebrities are doing it!
Last Night on Campbell Live, celebrity chef Richard Till talked about "retro" baking utensils.
He had a lot of items that many of us still have and use at home, but he also made a key point - the young presenter didn't even *recognise* a lot of the items that our mothers and grandmothers used every day.
Two of the items discussed last night:
These are a flour sifter (left) and a Gem iron (right). (Watch this space - next week LastPenny will bring you Mum's wonderful Gem recipe. It's not exactly healthy eating, mind, but we all need comfort food, right? *vbg*)
Baking at Home
The point of today's post is twofold. The first key point is that baking at home provides a more cost-effective and often healthier alternative to buying snacks.
By looking out those old recipes (or following LastPenny!) you can keep the family in cakes, biscuits, desserts and many other tasty treats, all without spending a fortune.
Here's the SECOND key point. With the busy, instant focus of life in this new millennium, many of us simply aren't set up to bake at home. We're missing a number of the key items we need to get going. But don't despair! Don't put home baking in the too hard basket, or think it will take a lot of expensive equipment to get going.
So what utensils I need to bake at home?
While you're there, pick up the other items you'dd need. These vary depending on what you're intending to cook, but will likely include:
**TIP: You can buy muffin and cupcake papers at the supermarket, and if you don't have a muffin pan, many muffin or cake doughs will hold their shape in a paper receptacle. The key here is not to overfill the muffin or cake paper.
We'll bring you some top baking recipes and tips over the next week :) Look out for them, and if you've got an old favorite, drop us a line in comments or by using the form on our webpage here, and we'll find your favorite recipe for you! Or, if you have a recipe to share, send it in - we'll include it, with a link to your website or blog.
He had a lot of items that many of us still have and use at home, but he also made a key point - the young presenter didn't even *recognise* a lot of the items that our mothers and grandmothers used every day.
Two of the items discussed last night:
These are a flour sifter (left) and a Gem iron (right). (Watch this space - next week LastPenny will bring you Mum's wonderful Gem recipe. It's not exactly healthy eating, mind, but we all need comfort food, right? *vbg*)
Baking at Home
The point of today's post is twofold. The first key point is that baking at home provides a more cost-effective and often healthier alternative to buying snacks.
By looking out those old recipes (or following LastPenny!) you can keep the family in cakes, biscuits, desserts and many other tasty treats, all without spending a fortune.
Here's the SECOND key point. With the busy, instant focus of life in this new millennium, many of us simply aren't set up to bake at home. We're missing a number of the key items we need to get going. But don't despair! Don't put home baking in the too hard basket, or think it will take a lot of expensive equipment to get going.
So what utensils I need to bake at home?
- First up, you don't need a food processor, blender, or any other fancy electronic equipment. While those are nice to haves, your gran didn't have them, and quite likely your mother started without them too - and they all baked, very successfully.
- What you do need are a couple of good heavy tablespoons, a set of measuring spoons, a set of measuring cups, a fork, an egg-whisk, a rolling pin and a measuring cup or bottle with a fitting lid (that you can shake liquid ingredients in).
- If you don't have a rolling pin, a wine bottle or something similar-shaped and reasonably heavy will do the trick.
- A sieve or sifter for flour is desirable, but you can live without it.
- A rubber spatula for scraping out bowls is a nice to have.
- A set of kitchen scales is helpful, but you CAN do without it - many recipe books including the Edmonds Cook Book have conversion charts at the front, listing the conversions from weight to volume for common ingredients.
- The final key thing you need, especially if you're a new baker, is a RECIPE BOOK. And I don't mean Jamie Oliver's newest coffee table masterpiece, either. Find your mum's favourite old recipe book - I have one of my mother's grandmothers, that gives the method for regulating the temperature in a wood-burning stove. That's the kind of recipe book you need. In the front of those books are a whole lot of lovely tips for the first-time baker - all about what terms such as "cream the butter and sugar" mean, and advice on really how to rub the butter into the flour. (LastPenny will bring you those in due course, too - but having them at your fingertips is a great idea)
While you're there, pick up the other items you'dd need. These vary depending on what you're intending to cook, but will likely include:
- Cake pans*
- Muffin trays**
- Cookie sheets
- Loaf tins
**TIP: You can buy muffin and cupcake papers at the supermarket, and if you don't have a muffin pan, many muffin or cake doughs will hold their shape in a paper receptacle. The key here is not to overfill the muffin or cake paper.
We'll bring you some top baking recipes and tips over the next week :) Look out for them, and if you've got an old favorite, drop us a line in comments or by using the form on our webpage here, and we'll find your favorite recipe for you! Or, if you have a recipe to share, send it in - we'll include it, with a link to your website or blog.
