Our Busiest Day

A plate of oven roasted lamb.

Today we served more meals during one service at the Wednesday Community Meal than ever before - 392!

There was a constant line of guests to get in the door until the last half hour of our service.

The large number of guests reflects that this is the fifth and last Wednesday of the month  - the end of the month tends to always be the busiest for us.

Thankfully, we had lots of great food and volunteers and everything worked out.

We served marinated lamb steaks, a side of pasta, rice or potatoes, and soup, salad and dessert.

We marinated the lamb in a mixture of oil, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. The result was tender and flavorful.

During the busy service the tired volunteers were energized by a kind guest who poked his head into the kitchen and applauded loud and hard for a minute or two. "Thank you," he said "for everything you do." In that moment, he fed us. 

Valentine Color Combinations

A Valentine Card: Dusty Rose, Bright Red and Pearl

A High Heel Shoe: Fuchsia, Red and Light Khaki

A Valentine Card: Deep Pink, Red and Cream

A Valentine Card: Seafoam, Ivory and Hot Pink

A Decorative Ribbon: Red, Baby Pink and Deep Green

A Roll Of Baker's Twine: Bright White and Red

Shades Of Pink: Raspberry, Bubblegum, Cotton Candy and Rosewater

I'm in the process of designing Valentine Sugar Cookies and have been searching for color inspiration.

The cookies will be sold at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Sunday, Feb. 10 as a benefit for the Wednesday Community Meal and I want them to be beautiful.

My goal is to come up with a pleasing color palette that I can use for three or four designs. Right now I'm leaning towards fuchsia, red, light khaki and cotton candy.

I try to take my time when it comes to choosing my cookie decorating colors because it seems to pay off in the end. Also, having a visual when it comes time to mix colors is so helpful.

Try to enjoy the cookie planning process - take your time, research, be creative and most importantly, have fun.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

 Just one of these cookies and a cup of hot tea is the perfect pick-me-up. These peanut butter cookies are chewy, dense and very satisfying.

The must have ingredient to make them is old-fashioned crunchy peanut butter. Creamy peanut butter just won't do when it comes to making chewy peanut butter cookies.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
(makes 40 cookies)
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup old-fashioned crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt.

In a large bowl, whip together the peanut butter and shortening. Add the sugars and beat until light and creamy. Add the egg and mix well. Finally, stir in flour mixture.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and space them apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten the cookies with a fork, pressing down twice in a crosshatch pattern.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Alphabet Cookies

Lower and upper case Getty-Dubay Alphabet Cookies.

This was the second year I've been asked to make cookies for Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay's free handwriting workshop here in Portland. In addition to peanut butter, oatmeal raisin and dark chocolate chip, I wanted to make some cute and appropriate decorated sugar cookies.

After a bit of brainstorming I decided to make Alphabet Cookies, trying my best to mimic the Getty-Dubay style. Making and flooding the small square cookies was a breeze but I must admit the letter piping went slow and steady. I really had to focus since I piped the letters on free-hand.

Well, the concentration paid off because the cookies turned out great. It also helped that I took the writing workshop last year and had the Getty-Dubay Basic Italic guide right next to me while I piped.

For the letters I used piping consistency black icing and a #1 pastry tip. Practice piping on a plate until you get the icing consistency just right.

Thank you Barbara and Inga - you are inspiring teachers and lots of fun!

Super Salads

A super salad topped with crispy prosciutto.

Salads usually aren't the hot item of the day at the Wednesday Community Meal but today's salads were because they were topped with crispy prosciutto!

We wanted every guest to have a taste of the expensive treat that was donated to us but knew that serving it as is might not be appealing. Proscuitto has a raw look to it and we knew some guest might be afraid to try it.

So, we chopped the prosciutto into bits and fried them until they were brown and crispy. They looked just like bacon bits and tasted delicious.

And, it got our guests to eat their healthy salads on a very busy day - we served 330 meals.

Super volunteer Martha with the gourmet prosciutto.

Chopping the prosciutto.

MMMM....Crispy prosciutto ready to top our salads.

Cherry Macarons

Your Valentine would love these bright Cherry Macarons.

The filling is made with both Morello and Maraschino cherries because the tartness of the former balances out the sweetness of the latter. Also in the filling is cream cheese, unsalted butter, a small amount of sugar and just 1/4 of a teaspoon of almond extract.

Almond flavoring is very similar to cherry and just a bit does wonders.

The result is a very cherry filling that's lightly sweet and the perfect partner for the crisp and chewy macaron shells.

Cherry Macarons
180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
 Red food coloring

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts. Add the coloring.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper.  Mix well. 
Fold the mixture with the rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

Transfer the mixture into the two piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.
While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable.  Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.
Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Cherry Filling.


Cherry Filling
1/3 cup Morello cherries, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons of the juice
*Note: I buy my Morello cherries at Trader Joe's
1/3 cup Maraschino cherries, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons of the juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar

In a saucepan, heat the cherries and juice over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes until most of the juice has evaporated.

Cook the cherries until most of the juice has evaporated.

Remove the mixture from the heat and let cool. Then, transfer to a food processor and add the almond extract. Process until the cherries form a thick paste.

The cherry mixture after being put through a food processor.

Whip the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and whip again. Finally, add the cherry paste and whip until well combined.

Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag to fill the macarons.

The Fastest Way To Chop Walnuts

The fastest way to chop walnuts for a recipe is to put them into a plastic bag and whack and roll them with a rolling pin.

Besides yielding perfect chopped walnuts, this method has been known to relieve stress and cause fun.

Bar Cookie Tip

I admit it. I used to be terrible at cutting bar cookies into uniform squares until I discovered this tip that changed everything.

What made cutting bar cookies so difficult for me was having the sides of the pan in the way of my knife. It's so hard to get clean cuts when your knife is at an awkward angle. And, lifting the cookies out of the pan was an equally messy task.

So here's my tip:

Line your pan with a strip of parchment paper that covers the bottom and extends over the sides so that you can easily lift the baked cookies out of your pan. You won't believe the difference when you are able to cut on a flat and stable surface. It changes everything.

Line your greased pan with a strip of parchment paper.

Fill your pan with your batter.

After letting the baked cookies cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, simply lift the whole thing out for easy cutting.

Patterns On Sugar Cookies

Icing different patterns onto sugar cookies and then mixing them together on a tray can make for a striking display. It's also fun to choose unexpected color combinations.

Usually I outline and fill with the same color of icing but this time I chose to outline the cookies with a soft yellow and then flood them with lavender. Bright red icing added in dots, stripes and a honeycomb pattern add brightness and interest.

Outline with icing that is the consistency of yogurt. Let that dry for at least 10 minutes and then flood the cookie with another color. Use a skewer to fill in all the gaps.

Gently shake the cookie to help the icing settle and remove air bubbles. Let the cookies dry before adding patterns in another color.

Use piping consistency icing and a #1 pastry tip when you add your patterns.

Dots

Honeycomb

Horizontal Stripes

Diagonal Stripes

Red Velvet Sheet Cake With Peppermint Buttercream

Chocolate and peppermint go so well together.

Peppermint chocolate chip ice cream is one of my favorite flavor combinations and recently I had a slice of chocolate peppermint cake from Baker & Spice Bakery (6330 Southwest Capitol Highway  Portland, OR 97239) that was ooh soo good. The cake was rich and chocolatey but the light peppermint buttercream also made it refreshing.

So with the Baker & Spice cake as my inspiration, I decided to make this Red Velvet sheet cake with a light pink peppermint buttercream icing for my God daughter GraceLin's 4th birthday celebration.

Traditionally Red Velvet cake is topped with cream cheese frosting but the peppermint works well too since a Red Velvet cake is just chocolate cake with red food coloring added.

And, what little girl wouldn't like a bright red cake topped with pink icing? — Especially a cake decorated with buttercream roses. The roses are easy to pipe - I promise. You just fit your pastry bag with a large star tip, start in the center and go around a few times.

These roses are so easy to make. A few candied pearls and green leaves complete the look.

Red Velvet Sheet Cake With Peppermint Buttercream

Cake:
(makes two 9x13 cakes)

3/4 cup cocoa powder
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 ounces red food coloring

Grease and flour two 9 x 13 cake pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Be sure to grease and flour your cake pans so that the cakes don't stick.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whip together the butter and sugar until light, add the eggs, sour cream and buttermilk and mix well. Add the vanilla and food coloring and mix again.

Add the flour mixture and mix just until well combined. Divide the batter among the cake pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a cooling rack. Cool the cakes completely before icing.

Cool the cakes in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack. Be sure the cakes are completely cool before icing.

Peppermint Buttercream

6 large egg whites
1 1/4  cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
pink food coloring (optional)

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, salt and peppermint and whip on high speed until fluffy. Color as desired and whip again.

A Colorful Meal

Roasted chicken on a bed of our rice/vegetable medley.

Today at the Wednesday Community Meal, a small assortment of fresh produce made a huge impact.

From The Oregon Food Bank we had a small box of grape tomatoes, a few containers of diced red onion, one bunch of celery, a few carrots and a bag of chopped cauliflower and broccoli.

It wasn't enough to serve alone as a side dish — If we did that, we might have served 20 to 25 people.

So instead we roasted and sauteed the vegetables and divided them among 10 trays of cooked rice to add color and fairly share the healthy produce.

Those vegetables went a surprisingly long way today — we served 292 meals.

Just a few roasted and sauteed vegetables can make a huge difference in the look of a meal.

 Much better than plain rice. Our guests deserve a colorful meal.

Basic Brownies

My sister received a clever "edges only" brownie pan for Christmas and kindly offered to let me use it first. But I needed to find a good recipe.

In my search for  brownie recipes, I was discouraged to discover that many of them called for twice the amount of sugar as flour and expensive specialty chocolate.

I wanted a brownie that could be made with everyday ingredients, wouldn't be sickly sweet and was still rich, moist and chocolatey.

One recipe absolutely shocked me by calling for three different kinds of chocolate, 8 eggs, 3 cups of sugar and only 1 1/2 cups of flour. Yikes! That's too rich for my blood.

In the past, I've splurged on high end chocolate for baking and have come to the conclusion that it's rarely worth the extra cost. Actually one of the best tasting brands I've found that also happens to be inexpensive is the Fred Meyer Private Selection dark chocolate chunks.

The result of my brownie research is this simple recipe. The batter can be made in under 10 minutes and the ingredients are basic and inexpensive.

Brownies
(makes one 9-inch pan)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
7 oz. chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease and flour a 9-inch baking pan.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and water and bring just to a boil. Remove the pan from heat and add the chocolate chips and vanilla.

Add the eggs, one at a time to the chocolate mixture, whisking well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and blend until just combined. Don't over mix the batter. Stir in the nuts if desired.

Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan.

My brownies in the special "edges only" baking pan. If you use a pan like this, reduce the baking time by 10 minutes.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the brownies are just done. Be careful not to over bake them.

Let the brownies cool in the pan before cutting into squares.

Note: If you use a special "no edge" brownie pan, reduce the baking time to 20 to 25 minutes.

Blueberry Macarons

Sometimes simplicity is what makes something special.

These pretty macarons are filled with just blueberries and buttercream. I even omitted the vanilla in the buttercream recipe so that the flavor of blueberries would be front and center.


The shells are colored with a few drops of royal blue food coloring.  The color of the macaron shells always lightens after baking so be sure to color your batter a bit darker than you'd like them to turn out.

Blueberry Macarons
180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
royal blue food coloring

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts.  Towards the end of mixing, add the food coloring.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper.  Mix well. 
Fold the mixture with the rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

Transfer the mixture into the two piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.

Macarons resting before baking.

While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. 

Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.
Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Blueberry Buttercream. 
 

Blueberry Buttercream
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping teaspoon cornstarch
3 egg whites
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of fine sea salt

Combine the blueberries, sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Over medium heat, stirring constantly, cook the berries until they are bubbling and begin to thicken (7 to 10 minutes). With a potato masher, smash the berries as much as possible and keep cooking for 5 to 7 minutes. You want the berries to resemble a very thick jam.

Transfer the berries to a bowl and let cool completely.

The blueberry mixture cooling.

The finished blueberry buttercream.

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in the salt and whip on high speed until fluffy. Add the blueberry mixture and whip again until thoroughly combined.

Rosemary Apple Tarts

These Rosemary Apple Tarts are elegant comfort food. The earthy flavor of the rosemary compliments the apples and is a pleasant and unexpected change from the usual cinnamon flavored apple dessert.

These tarts are also easy to eat. You can pick them up and eat them with your hands or serve them on a pretty plate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Rosemary Apple Tarts
(makes 6 individual tarts)

Crust
2 cups flour
2/3 cups shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
cold water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add the shortening and using your hands, break it up into small pea sized pieces.

Add the cold water, a few tablespoons at a time, until a soft dough forms. Try to handle the dough as little as possible.

Roll the dough on a floured board until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Using a cutter or a knife, cut into 6 6-inch rounds. Crimp the edges and set them on a parchment lined baking sheet.

I used a small baking pan to cut 6-inch rounds.

After crimping the edges, set the rounds on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Rosemary Sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2/3 cup sugar
In a bowl, combine the sugar and rosemary. Divide the sugar into three parts.

After mixing the fresh rosemary with the sugar, divide it into three equal parts.

To assemble:
2 medium sized apples, thinly sliced with the skin still on

Toss the apples with 1/3 of the sugar and set aside.

Toss 1/3 of the sugar with your thinly sliced apples.

Evenly sprinkle each pastry round with another 1/3 of the sugar.

Sprinkle 1/3 of the sugar evenly onto the pastry rounds.

Assemble a mound of sliced apples on each pastry round, 6 to 8 slices on each.

Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of sugar on top of the tarts.

Sprinkle the final 1/3 of the sugar evenly over the apple topped pastry rounds.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tarts are golden brown and the apples are soft. Immediately transfer the tarts to a cooling rack and let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Note: A scoop of vanilla ice cream would take these over the top!