Sweet things

A meal is not over until desert has been had. That is a mantra I live by. I need something sweet to finish dinner. Lately, I have been on a baking kick making cookies and cinnamon buns.

Back in the fall I went on my first trip to pick some apples. As a Bermudian the only opportunity I have ever had to pick apples was the one apple that grew to be 2 inches in diameter in my father's garden. Even then I was forbidden to pick it with the hopes it would get bigger. Alas, I guess Bermuda weather/soil is not the ideal for apple growing so I approached the apple picking with gusto. By the time I was done I had a bag full of more apples than I could use. I went to cooking.

One of the things I decided to make were mini apple pies. Using a recipe from SmittenKitchen.com I cut large circles of dough and filled them with sliced apple that I had coated in brown sugar and cinnamon. Then using an egg wash I brushed the tops of the dough that folded around the sides and sprinkled with white sugar, slipping a tiny cut of butter into the apples to help them cook beautifully.

One of my favorite goodies as a child were the Austrian walnut horseshoe cookies my mother would make for us. As we rolled them out I would try and sneak the raw cookie dough without my mother seeing.

I can't share the recipe as it is a family secret but the main ingredients are butter and chopped walnuts.

Leading up to Valentines day I made cinnamon buns that were so rich and delicious I had to send them into the office with Paul so I would not eat them all. Despite his office being in a weight loss competition I think they enjoyed them.

One of my favorite food blogs is Smitten Kitchen and she made some Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies (http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/12/nutmeg-maple-butter-cookies/). I used that recipe and a heart cookie cutter to make little hearts for Valentines Day. Then, because they were delicious but a little plain looking I made a simple sugar cookie icing that I MacGyvered some pink dye using Pomegranate Juice.

Icing sugar: 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 2 tsps milk, 2 tsps light corn syrup

Mix well and add food dye until it is at the consistency you want.

Food beginnings

Following the amazing array of food blogs such as Serious Eats, Smitten Kitchen, Umamimart, and Not Without Salt one can easily get jealous and antsy to cook. That has been me lately. Thankfully, I have had plenty of reason to. So, even if nobody reads this, I need an outlet to express my passion for cooking and the results of my labors.

For Christmas Paul and I were gifted our own Beer Brewing Kit. While I am extremely excited by this opportunity, I am more intrigued with the produce than the process. So, while Paul and his lova-lova-beer-brewer-extraordinaire, Jon, boiled, steeped, mixed, etc. I took pictures and provided an endless supply of snacks.

Steeping the bag of brew

One of my must-haves in the kitchen is fresh bread. Using the no knead recipe from 'Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day' by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, I always have a large container of bread fermenting nicely in my fridge. On the day of the beer brewing party I decided to make some focaccia.

Focaccia - Olive Oil, Cayenne Pepper, Coarse Salt,

Dried Thyme and Oregano

Take a good grapefruit size lump of bread out of your container

and press into the corners of a small cast iron pan with about 1/4-1/2 cup

of extra virgin olive oil. Make some divots in the top of the

dough and allow to rise for 40 mins to an hour.

Preheat your oven to 375 and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown on bottom.

Depending on how cold your bread is and how long you have allowed it to rise it may take longer

than 25 minutes.

Popcorn with smoky olive oil and pepper, salami,

cheese, cornichons, fresh green olives,

Paul's lamb sausage cooked in beer and caramelized onions

Beer in the Carboy - first step complete.

In two weeks that 5 gallons of beer will, fingers crossed, be 4 cases of beer. And there will be beer for days!