Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Moo Shu!

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood.  They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

Okay, I’m days late with this challenge, but wanted to complete it because 1) I’ve missed a couple of recent ones, and 2) I can’t pass up Asian recipes.  I’m glad I did it because it is SO good!!!

Traditionally moo shu is made with pork, so being vegetarian, I went with a different stir fry recipe than what was provided for the challenge.  Otherwise, I used the hoisin and pancake recipes from Shelley and Ruth!

This is an easy dinner to make, but the prep can be pretty time-consuming.  If you chop the veggies and make the sauce the day before you want to eat it, I would approve of that (it’s what I did)!  The pancakes are a little high-maintenance as most doughy things can be, but aren’t complicated.  

Basler Brunsli (Chocolate-Almond Spice Cookies)

Remember when I mentioned how I like baking cookies for backstage orchestra concert treats?  Musicians love to chow down on sugar during intermission, so it’s a good way to get rid of share a bunch of cookies.  This past weekend provided this opportunity, which I’m grateful for because it was also when my aunt’s funeral took place.  Baking can be very therapeutic, so I got to working on this batch of cookies when I got home.

The mighty viola section. (Photo from facebook, edited but not taken by me.)

When Victoria posted these brunsli cookies last December, they headed straight to my mental to-bake list.  (’tis the season to make her cookie recipes from that month, apparently.)   Technically they’re a type of Swiss Christmas cookie, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed at any time of the year.  I had kept in mind that they were gluten-free as there are a few musicians in this orchestra with Celiac disease, one happening to be my stand partner for the week.  Before I made these, she even asked if I had known of a cookie that sounded really similar to these, but couldn’t remember the name.

Vegan Ginger Cookies

Do you have a friend who you can always count on to show up late?  Like they don’t even have to try, they’re just gifted with the skill of tardiness?

Hi, that’s totally me.

I really don’t like being like this, though.  In fact, I’ve checked out a time management book for people like me, as lame as that sounds.  And in an effort to be less high maintenance, I’m attempting to accept my hair in its natural state, meaning no blow drying or flat ironing.  (Ever wondered how Ron and Hermione’s offspring would look?  Now you know.)

I made these cookies a long time ago, as in a week before the Easter bunny made his rounds.  They’ve been on my mental to-bake list and I finally had a party to go to, and therefore a reason to make and share them. 

Almond Ginger Granola

I’ve been having a problem lately with the freezer being crowded up with too many concoctions resulting from this blog.  For example, these cookies which I made last month were finally finished off.  (The frozen dough balls never did make it to the oven.  Oops.)  And I’m pretty sure there are still slices of Stollen in the deep freeze, too.  Grody.

While I’ve always got ideas in my head, not to mention a list with things needing to be crossed off, I just haven’t wanted to make even more things.  After all, I’m usually just cooking for myself.  But then I realized I could make something that I hadn’t made before, but have been eating pretty regularly lately: Granola!  ’bout time, right?

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies!

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen.  She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I completed this challenge on three separate days, beginning with the cookies.

I’ve had florentines before, but hadn’t ever made them.  They were always filed away in my brainbox as fancy cookies, so I was really surprised by just how easy they were to make!

Since I was planning to make two different kinds of panna cottas, I divided the dough in half for two different kinds of florentines.  To the first half, I added 2 tablespoons of smashed crystallized ginger.  Then I added 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the other half.  Mmm, yep.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Stollen!

Merry (belated) Christmas, you guys!  I meant to post this yesterday, but better late than never.  Despite the lack of posts, there was a lot of holiday baking and dish washing going on over here, as I’m sure was the case for everyone else.

The end of the month brings another Daring Bakers Challenge, and for December it was appropriately something Christmas-related: Stollen!  If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a German treat that is pretty much like fruit cake in yeast bread form.  Even though I’m half German, I had never had it, so it was yet another adventure for me.

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking.  She chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make Stollen.  She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book………and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Lemon Ginger Cranberry Cream Scones

After Thanksgiving, I was left with cranberries, cream, and crystallized ginger, and then my friend Jill gave me a lemon from the tree in her backyard.  Seriously…a real, live lemon tree!

When life gives me cranberries, cream, crystallized ginger, and a lemon, I make scones….a few weeks later!  Nothing had gone bad because I froze the cranberries, the cream was unopened, and I put the lemon in the fridge.  Still, I meant to make these at an earlier point.

Originally, I was going to use this recipe from Joy of Baking, but add in the lemon/ginger/cranberriness.  Then while I was looking up how to freeze scones, I found that there was already a lemon cranberry cream scone recipe on Smitten Kitchen.  Figured I couldn’t go wrong with Deb!  

Ginger and Vanilla Pear Tarte Tatin with Chocolate Puff Pastry

I ain’t gonna lie.  I lost a little sleep over this thing.

That’s part of the challenge with desserts like cakes, pies, and tarts: you can’t sample them to make sure they taste okay!  Wahhh.  It’s probably a good idea to do a test run on them, but when you don’t have much money to spare, that’s not always an option.

That was definitely the case with this tarte tatin, especially because puff pastry is so expensive!  (I am well aware that it’s definitely worth it, though!)  I noticed a few weeks ago that Dufour now makes chocolate (!!!) puff pastry.  Having only heard rave reviews about their original puff pastry, I was very intrigued.  So intrigued, in fact, that I just skipped over the regular stuff and went straight for the chocolate!

Fresh Ginger Ale!

If you can boil water, you can make your own ginger ale!   I bet that all you’d need to buy would be some fresh ginger and sparkling water, too.  My friend and I made some last night and it cost about $3.  If you go by the serving suggestion, that’s about 18 glasses of ginger ale for approximately 16 cents each!

And if that’s not enough to excite you, there isn’t any corn syrup or food coloring in this, plus you can control just how gingery you want it.

Take that, ___________!  (insert your favorite brand of ginger ale)

Said friend forced me into getting a library card the other day while Hermine was blowing through.  The lights went out while we were perusing the cookbook section(!), but I managed to walk away with one of Mark Bittman’s giant books. He sure does have a lot to say!