Black Bean Sequel

I didn't forget about my promise to elaborate about the Southwestern Turkey Burgers that I made last week. These originated from my mom's kitchen several years ago as an alternative to the traditional burger (my mom, sister, and I all steer clear of red meat). My mom makes hers with lean ground turkey, rotel tomatoes, and black beans. I love black beans, so anything with them in it is almost always delicious to me! These turkey burgers are perfect for freezing. In fact, I always freeze the entire batch first - even if I'm grilling some the same day. I think the freezing process helps to hold together the robust burgers. In addition to turkey burgers, I recently made my famous fresh and zesty salsa, and a pot of mexican chicken + tortilla soup. Yum! Usually the turkey burgers last a month or so in the freezer, but this time Vincent had eaten all of them by the time my shift was over :) If that's not incentive to try these, I don't know what is!

Southwestern Turkey Burgers
1 package of lean ground turkey (about 1 lb)
1 can reduced sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup minced purple onion
2 scallions, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 head of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 - 1 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used Crystal)
1 tsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano

This is simple. Get ready! Mix together all of the ingredients except the turkey. Break up the ground turkey and incorporate it into the vegetable and spice blend just until mixed - do not over mix or the meat will be tough when grilled. Line a sheet pan that will fit into your freezer with parchment paper. Use a 1/3 cup measure to portion out the turkey burgers. Fill the measuring cup, lightly packing in the burger mix with your fingers. If you dip your fingers into cold water it will help to prevent the meat from sticking. Turn out the 1/3 cup portion into your hand and roll the burger into a ball, place it onto the parchment lined baking sheet, and press out into a burger shape. Once all of the burgers have been formed, cover with saran wrap and freeze for about 2 hours. Wrap each burger individually in saran wrap and store in a ziplock bag for up to 2 months. When you are ready to eat them, defrost the burgers in their saran wrap in a dish filled with a little cool water for about 2 hours. Heat a griddle pan on medium heat and grill on each side about 3-4 minutes. Top with a slice of cheese at the end if you desire! Serve with sliced avocado, spicy mustard, and a hefty serving of baby lettuces on a whole wheat bun, or eat it with a small portion of brown rice with a side salad!

Turkey Burger with Slightly Singed Sweet Potato Fries

Okay - forgive the sweet potato fries. I wasn't paying enough attention. Now... for the next thing! I have been making this fresh salsa since last spring. Vincent's mom was coming over and I wanted a snack but wasn't really sure what to make. My mom makes a similar salsa for pool snacking, so I followed through with creating another rendition of her black bean use. Fresh and Zesty Salsa, yum yum! Vincent loves this salsa and it's perfect to make on the weekend and have as a light snack throughout the week. We like to eat it with blue corn chips, but it's great on anything!

Fresh and Zesty Salsa
1 can reduced sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
5-7 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 scallions
1 head of cilantro
1 large or 2 small Anaheim peppers with seeds, diced
1 tsp Cumin
Mexican Hot Sauce
Zest and juice of 1 lime
Salt and Pepper


Chop it up, throw it in a bowl, mix it and enjoy! If you plan on serving this at a party, you can dice an avocado too! I try not to do that every time so that the avocado doesn't brown. 

It's so good - you won't be able to stop eating it!

If you think that all of the ingredients of the past two recipes are entirely too similar, think again. How many times have you been to a mexican restaurant and deliberated over which special to order before deciding? They all have the same ingredients - but they are oh so different. Anything with black beans and/or cilantro usually tastes amazing, so if you agree I would definitely suggest theses recipes. The burgers are flavorful and healthy - packing much needed protein with a low fat to protein ratio, along with many veggies that are incredibly nutritious! The salsa is fresh and cooling - a perfect snack! And now, a hot and comforting mexican chicken soup!

The last few times that I have eaten at Newks, a fresh sandwich/salad place in Shreveport (my soon to be new home), I have ordered the pesto chicken sandwich and tortilla soup half and half combo. The mexican tortilla soup has a base of onion, celery, carrot, tomatoes in their juice and chicken stock. It is bulked up by black beans and corn, a mexican staple, and shredded chicken adds a healthy touch. a dab of sour cream, crunchy tortilla strips, and a few slices of cool and creamy avocado are perfect toppers for this yummy bowl of soup!

Mexican Chicken Soup

Blissful Bagels

Something very simple, like a bagel, can be transformed into a variety of delicacies ranging from pizza to blueberry muffin crumble. I have been sampling bagels from many different bakeries for years. Panera is one of my favorite places to go... when I can find one. There are not any Panera locations in Louisiana, but there is one near Sandestin, FL - where my family vacations each summer. Also, there is one in Boulder - where Vincent is about to move. (Little does he know, there will probably be a regular request for him to ship bagels to me via priority mail while I'm in PA school!) Panera has a cinnamon crumble bagel that has an eruption of crunchy pecan cinnamon crumble on top and also a cinnamon swirl throughout the bagel dough. It's perfection!!!!

In an effort to stay true to the non-processed concept of the Paleo diet, I decided to bake a batch of bagels for Vin and I to snack on while I am at work this 72 hour weekend. I opted for a whole grain, oatmeal, white bagel mix and adapted half of the dough into a lemon zest - wild blueberry bagel. I love the whole process of making bagels. It is actually very simple. The dough is an egg dough - similar to King Cake. The thing that gives the bagels that characteristic shiny crust and chewy inside is a step between rising and baking - boiling. This is an unusual step to baking breads, but soft pretzels are also boiled to give them a unique texture. Bagel boil is just made of water flavored with a scant amount of salt or sugar, depending on the flavor that you want to impart on your crust. I was going for the blueberry theme here, so I sugared my water. If you are looking for a poppy or sesame bagel, or perhaps an onion bagel, you will want to salt the water instead.

Bagel Dough

Whole Grain + Oat Bagels

1 cup oat bran

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 cups all purpose flour

4 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 T. salt

2 Tablespoons (or 2 packets) yeast

1 potato

2 1/2 cups water 

Bagels! To give them a unique texture, you will need the starchy water that is produced from boiling a potato. Fill a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups water and add to that 1-2 peeled and cubed potatoes. Boil the potato until soft, and remove the potato, reserving 2 cups of the starched water. Use the potato for another recipe! Allow this water to col to 120 degrees so that it does not kill the yeast. While the water cools, mix together the first four dry ingredients. Then, combine the potato water, yeast, salt, sugar, and 2 cups of the dry mixture. Mix this for 2-3 minutes to proof the yeast. Add in the lightly beaten eggs and the oil. Mix again for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and continue to mix the dough, adding the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time until a sticky dough has formed. I also added about 2 tablespoons of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon just to add a little love to them. If you are kneading by hand, lightly flour your work surface and knead until you have a smooth and springy dough ball. Avoid adding too much flour.... or you will have tough bagels (who wants that?!). If you have an amazing Kitchen Aid stand mixer, you can switch to the dough hook and allow the mixer to knead for 4-5 minutes, finishing the kneading by hand at the end. At this point, I divided the dough in half so that I could make blueberry bagels out of half of the dough. If you want all whole grain bagels, lightly grease a deep bowl and place the dough into it + cover with a clean kitchen towel to rise. For the blueberry bagels, take half of the plain bagel dough, zest one lemon and pat the dough out until about 2 inches thick. Sprinkle the dough with the lemon zest, along with 1 cup of defrosted frozen or fresh blueberries. Roll the dough up and knead it a few more times to incorporate the blueberries. Place the blueberry bagel dough in its own bowl to rise. I like to place my bread dough into an unheated oven so that it is slightly warmer and draft free! 

Allow the dough to rise 1 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Put a soup pot of water on the stove and sprinkle 2 tablespoons or salt or sugar, depending on what flavor of bagel you are making. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat it down. Divide the dough into quarters and each quarter into 16 pieces. Roll each piece into a round ball. I had previously divided the dough in half  in order to make half of the bagels blueberry. So, I got 16 of each kind of bagel total. To form the dough balls into bagel, place a floured finger into the center of one dough ball until your finger makes contact with the counter beneath. Spin your finger around for about 30 seconds until the dough ball begins to look like a bagel with a hole that is about 1 inch in diameter. Repeat this step until all of your bagels are formed and prepare them for the boiling process. Before you begin boiling them, line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Boiling Bagels

When the water is at a rumbling boil, lower the heat slightly so that you have a steady gently boiling pot of water. Drop 3-4 bagels into the water. They will sink and then rise to the top. Once they have risen to the top, use two chop sticks or other utentils to turn each bagel over and allow it to cook for 3 minutes. Remove the bagels from the water and place on the baking sheet. Repeat until all of your bagels have been boiled. Make an egg glaze by beating one egg with 1 Tablespoon of water. Brush the tops of each bagel heavily with this egg wash to give the bagels a golden color and a "bagel - like" crust. Bake for 23 minutes or until golden brown and you have a house full of bagel smells!!!! 

-------------------Enjoy Your Blissful Blueberry Bagels!------------------

Lemon Zest + Blueberry Bagels

Plain Whole Grain + Oat Bagels

Nom. Nom. Nom

It's a Celebration!

Celebrate good times, common! It's a celebration! Ok, so I'm extremely enthusiastic... but for good cause! I have officially been accepted to the Physician Assistant program at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. This 2 year program will give me the opportunity to learn how to diagnose and treat patients in the medical model. I will be capable of surgical procedures, ordering and interpreting diagnostic testing such as x-rays and MRI scans, writing prescription medications, and formulating treatment plans for my patients, among other things! I am so excited, especially as this has been a challenging journey - one which I have been happy to embark on, and I am glad that my hard work is paying off.

Mini Italian Cream Cake

My friend Meg had a birthday recently and I always make her an Italian Cream Cake for her birthday. (Well, I have for the last 2 years at least). The cake always turns out fluffy, moist, and delicious. This year she requested cupcakes due to my recent obsession of the swirled frosty top of a cupcake. After having made the cupcakes for Meg, I personally do not think that italian cream cake is intended for cupcakes. However, I also made a small cake and it turned out nicely. Meg thinks they all taste delicious - but shes not going to tell me otherwise! She is a first year student in the PA program that I will be starting this May, so I had a lot of questions for her and she has been very helpful in that aspect!

For the cake, buttercream and separation of the egg whites from the yolks allow the cake to be sooooo fluffy! yum. Something about folding in whipped egg whites is exciting, too. It's like having a secret ingredient - except really you are just transforming a traditional cake ingredient into something fancy. What's more delicious is the cream cheese icing that is usually slathered between the 3 layers and also on the top and sides of the cake. Toasted and chopped pecans finish the cake with a perfect texture variation and a little nut love is always good!

For the cupcakes, I think the lack of cream cheese on the inside made them less likable than the big cake. Oh well! I piped some tiny flowers using royal icing that I dyed with gel color - purple for LSU!!!!

My celebration weekend included several restaurant meals, which were delicious. Among them was Greek food Saturday night - yum! (Although nothing ever comes close enough to Lebanon Cafe in New Orleans!) Needless to say, I don't have anything else delicious to blog about. I did make a big batch of southwestern turkey burgers that I froze for easy defrosting/grilling during the work week. I will elaborate more on those later :) Also, I was craving some more of those shishkebabs because they are so delicious - so we grilled some up for a great Sunday night dinner. 

Also, my back is feeling slightly better from swimming last week and the bike ride that I went on yesterday rather than running. Hopefully I can keep up the low impact exercise and bring down the inflammation more! Looking forward to my 48 off Wednesday... more to come!

Colorado Chicken

Here I am, less than two weeks after my interview for the Physician Assistant program at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. I'm terrified, and in dire need of comfort - preferably in the form of an acceptance letter. Being an italian, what do I do best in stressful times? Cook delicious food... This time, I spent my 48 hours off resting and embarking on savory cooking missions only to fulfill my mealtime dining needs. (Rather than transforming my house into a bakery for 2 days straight).

I have been craving some mussels and linguine in a white wine sauce for several months. Of course, I can't find any decent mussels around here - so I decided to make a nice bowl of linguine sans mussels and serve it with a fillet of salmon, instead. To make the sauce - I melted a few tablespoons of earth balance and butter and sauteed a small handful of diced spanish onion. Shallot would be preferable, but I used what I had. When the onions have sweated down, add a couple of turns of the pan worth of crisp white wine. Now, keep in mind that Ruston isn't exactly wine country. I did the best that I could this time with Clos du bois Chardonnay, and it came out delicious! Let the butter and wine sauce reduce a bit, and take the pasta out of the water when it is still quite al dente (undercooked). You see, pasta does not have a lot of flavor on its own. Taking the pasta out of the cooking water early and finishing it in the pan with sauce is essential to having a pasta dish versus having pasta with a sauce on it. Top this with a good measure of fresh parsley and some sharp cheese. For the salmon, I take the filet and place it on aluminum foil and top it with pesto, salt, and pepper, and bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes on 350 degrees. ( I know dad, pesto is supposed to be a fresh sauce but it makes a great crust on this salmon!) Along side of the fish and pasta were some thick spears of roasted asparagus. This is as simple as any roasted vegetable - clean it, chop off the ends, drizzle it with olive oil, salt, and coarsely cracked black pepper and throw it in the oven for 30- 45 minutes at 350 until it is browned and yummy!

The next morning when I woke up, later than I intended to (thanks to my always interesting job that rarely allows a full night of sleep for an exhausting 72 hours straight) might I add, it occurred to me that there were few options for breakfast. Yes, our house is semi-paleo friendly these days - so the pantry isn't really stocked with go to breakfast items. Fear not! I am a procido, a baker, and when in need of comfort ... refer to the bread bible. Yes! The words crawled out of the page and spoke to me like the most soothing morning phrase as I sipped my dark roast with a splash of soy... "wild blueberry biscuits." Without realizing I had reacted to this not so subtle calling from my bread cookbook - Vincent asked me "what is going down?" haha. I looked at him, realizing that I had spoken and I replied that I was going to be making blueberry biscuits for breakfast. Yum! Nothing enlivens the spirit like gluttony first thing in the morning. Nothing about these was paleo friendly, but they were well worth it once I drizzled the wildflower honey that Katie gave me at Christmas over the tops of these golden and fluffy purple blueberry studded beauties. Ok, I liked them.

Wild Blueberry Biscuits

Having indulged for breakfast, I thought that a nice healthy meal would be ideal for dinner that night. Usually, I cook in bulk the night before I leave for work so that Vincent and I can split the leftovers to have as dinner while I'm gone. I found a recipe for something called Colorado Chicken in my Paleo Diet Cookbook. The idea was to brown chicken breasts in a cast iron skillet and then finish cooking them in the oven with mushrooms and onion in chicken broth. However, when I went to the store I found a great 3lb turkey breast on sale and I thought that it would be a good substitute for the chicken because it is lower in fat to protein ratio and it would supply us with plenty of food for the next few days. So, I defrosted the turkey breast and removed the skin. I then cut it into 4 equal pieces and browned them in a few tablespoons of olive oil with salt and pepper and followed the recipe, for the most part, from there:

Colorado Chicken (or Turkey)
3 lbs poultry of your choice
1 cup quartered baby portobello mushrooms
1 cup diced onion
1 sprig rosemary
3 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken stock (reduced sodium)
2 tblsp. flour

Using an enameled cast iron dutch oven or other pan that can go from the stove to the oven, heat enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. On medium high heat, place each piece of meat in the oil and brown on all sides until golden. Remove the meat from the pan, and allow it to rest on a plate while you prepare the sauce. Reduce the heat to medium and toss the mushrooms and onion into the dutch oven. Saute this mixture until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms have reduced in size. Add the garlic and the whole sprig of rosemary and continue to cook for a minute. To this, add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. I like to season lightly with salt and pepper each step of the way so that all of the layers have flavor and together they can be delightful. When this mixture is bubbling, place the meat down into the sauce, drop the lid on it and into the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the poultry is more than 165. Mine got up to 190 because the sauce was so hot, but the turkey was falling apart it was so tender!

Now... the non paleo part of the recipe. I realize that the paleo diet doesn't go for grain and all of that nonsense, but I'm italian. Take the turkey out of the sauce. Place the sauce over medium heat on the stove and whisk together a few tablespoons of flour with a splash of water. Then, whisk this slurry into the mushroom sauce to thicken it - like a gravy. (this is an unusual occurrence in my kitchen, but it was delicious!) You can't just toss the flour into the already hot mushroom sauce because it will form little flour pods - sort of like dumplings. Be sure to whisk it with water, first.

While all of this was going on, I highly anticipated the arrival of my mail. I was fully expecting a letter of some sort - indicating the future 2 years of my life... but no news. Naturally, comfort was definitely a must. Screw the paleo diet, I made baked macaroni and cheese. Okay, it was with whole wheat shells and spinach, but it still had enough gouda in it to kill you!

Béchamel Sauce for Baked Macaroni
3 tblsp. butter and/or earth balance
3 tblsp. flour
2 cups warm milk
A Variety of grated cheese
Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper

Heat the butter in a large pan until melted. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in the flour until it is golden in color. You are NOT making a roux. Just cook it long enough to get the "flour" taste out. Then, slowly stir in the milk until all of this is incorporated. Using whatever melty cheeses you have on hand, add 1 1/2 - 2 cups until the sauce is slightly thickened, but still somewhat runny. You are going to bake this in the oven, where it will thicken, so don't add too much. I like to use a handful of italian blend cheese, havarti, gouda, provolone, mozzarella, among others. Whatever you do, under any circumstances, do not use swiss. I once bought Jarlsberg on sale and it ruined my entire day when this sauce seized up and became a block of yuck. Just stick with the yummy, pricy, melty cheeses and use a little hard italian cheese such as parmesan or pecorino, too. To this sauce, add two sprinkles of nutmeg, salt, and coarsely ground black pepper. I like to microwave 10 oz of frozen spinach until defrosted. Place the defrosted spinach into 3 or 4 paper towels, wrap it up, and squeeze all of the excess water out of the spinach. Using your hands, flake out the spinach over the cheese sauce and mix it in with the wooden spoon. Oh yeah!

For Baked Macaroni, cook the full box of pasta until al dente (about 2 minutes less than the directions on the box recommend). Strain in a colander and add to the Béchamel sauce. Stir until incorporated, pour it into a baking dish, sprinkle a couple of handfuls of panko bread crumbs on top and stud with butter if you want to feel extra naughty. Then, bake it in the oven at 350 until golden and bubbly, about 20 minutes (30 if you have patience).

There was very little talking at the dinner table last night. It was more like occasional grunting and yum. You can ask vincent - this is the ultimate comfort food, and really - it wasn't that unhealthy!

Until next time... wait patiently like pepper:

Sh-Sh-Sh-ShishKebab!

I'm not sure what got into me, but I managed to make an insane amount of food on Wednesday. From the time that I got off at 7am until around 8 or 9pm I made 3 king cakes, 4 home made fillings, vanilla cupcakes frosted with buttercream, a pot of white beans, marinated chicken for shishkebabs and roasted potatoes for dinner (yum!) Lately I have been making a lot of king cakes - because I offered to sell them, and people took me seriously... who would have thought!? Haha, I'm having fun! The concept of making delicious baked goods and selling them has occurred to me several times, because I love baking - but I can only afford to buy/eat so much of my products. There is a wonderful little farmers market in Ruston that is starting back up soon and I am considering trying to get some fresh bread and a few sweet treats into the mix there on Saturdays. In New Orleans, where I'm from - there are several artisan bread makers and I always enjoy buying a bagel or a yummy breakfast pastry to munch on while I'm prancing around trying to figure out which veggies I want to buy. I would really like to see some of that here in Ruston, so I guess I'm going to be the one to start it! I'll say more about that when I get more details.

So... King Cakes! I made the awesome cinnamon cream cheese filling that I want in the center of every king cake that I eat, and then blueberry, strawberry, plus lemon filling. The blueberry filling had fresh lemon zest and juice to give it a little brightness, and I resisted from adding too much sugar so that it was not overly sweet. To make a fruit filling, I basically made a simple syrup and added frozen berries. Once that came to a boil, turn it down and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the fruit has broken down, and strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds and fruit skins. (At that point, I actually saved the fruit mulch in a mason jar for my toast the next morning). I took the strained blueberry syrup and placed it back into a saucepan and dissolved about 5 tablespoons of corn starch in 1/2 c. water and whisked that slurry into my blueberry sauce. Simmering this for about 2-3 minutes will yield a thick and fruitful filling. Honestly, Blueberry filling and cream cheese filling should both be in the middle of every king cake - but maybe that's just me!

All a king cake basically is - is a sweet egg dough (sort of like challah) with nutmeg and lemon zest in the dough. Egg yolks and yeast are key to making the dough rich and flaky, and the nutmeg really gives it that "king cake" taste. I find that lemon zest usually gives any dish something special that isn't really the star, but it just emphasizes the other flavors. I make the dough and allow it to rise for over 2 hours in the oven, where it is slightly warm. Then, I roll out the dough into a large rectangle and lather it up with filling. Once filled, I roll the dough into a large rope and flip the tail around to join the ends - forming an oval shaped cake.

The cream cheese filling is a low fat neufchatel cheese at room temperature, mixed with a small amount of powdered sugar, cinnamon, and a splash of real vanilla. To make the pecan praline filling - all I do is add butter and pecans + more vanilla to that cream cheese base. It's essential to have at least a thin layer of the cream cheese on any king cake because as I roll the king cake dough, the cream cheese keeps the cake moist throughout for days (not that it ever lasts that long). So, once I have a filled and rolled king cake, it rises for another 45 minutes with a clean kitchen towel over it and then it bakes in the oven about 30-45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the whole house smells like fresh baked bread.

With this hot baby on the counter, wait a while to let it cool completely (I know... it's hard!). At that point, you can dye some white course sprinkles into the colors of Mardi Gras! Don't freak out... when you make the purple, all you have to do is one drop of blue and one drop of red, comes out perfect every time. I put the sprinkles in old clean spice bottles for easy sprinkling because when I ice the king cake, the glaze dries quickly, so I have to ice and sprinkle in sections rather than icing the whole cake first. The glaze is made with powdered sugar, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and a tiny splash of vanilla. Make it to the consistency that you think is best.

Ok, enough about king cakes. Laura and Kevin came over in the afternoon to talk about wedding cake ideas again. I made blueberry filling for the king cakes...and well, I'm a Procido, so why not make some vanilla cupcakes very quickly, stuff them with the blueberry and swirl a tuft of buttercream on top? While I was at it, I piped some buttercream roses in a flash so that Laura could see them. The result... yum. (Alpine liked the smell, but he had to settle for a milkbone instead)

Alpine and Cupcake

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sugar. Coma.Now, onto the savory! Dinner was almost Paleo Diet acceptable, except for those delicious roasted potatoes :) I marinated some chicken breast tenderloins for shish-kebabs. The marinade was primarily garlic and fresh rosemary, which I crushed with a mortar and pestle with a little olive oil. Then, I added rice wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice for a little acidity. As a good italian, I shook a heavy hand of crushed red pepper and cracked black pepper into the mix, plus spicy mustard, and I let the chicken marinate for about 5 hours. I then cut up some fresh veggies and tossed them in a light olive oil, salt, and pepper coating and skewered them with the chicken. Thanks to Katie for the new griddle on my stove! I was able to grill these inside instead of bundling up in the 30 degree weather and enduring the cold outside. The remaining marinade was not going to go to waste. It smelled too good. I diced up some red potatoes with their skins intact (very important) and poured the marinade over them. A little addition of more fresh rosemary and they were on a sheet pan and in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden and DELICIOUS!

Best Potatoes Ever.

Needless to say, Thursday night after I made an additional king cake + shipped a king cake to my cousin Anna and my relatives in New Jersey, I was pooped! 

So, Vincent and I grabbed some Mahi Mahi sandwiches at Portico. Perfect! Afterwards, we made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some veggies and other necessities before I left for work this morning. Upon looking at my basket, I though that it was relatively Paleo friendly... except the dairy. I bought bell pepper, celery, carrots, and broccoli to cut up and eat with a spicy greek yogurt dip - made with plain greek yogurt and the spicy southwestern hidden valley dip mix. Also, bananas, pears, and apples for fruit in my diet other than king cake filling, haha. Then, blueberry yogurt makes a tasty snack... and of course, the puppies needed some chow also!

Speaking of puppies - they got a bath yesterday and were fluffy and ready for action!

Pepoose the Moose and Alpine - Fresh and Clean!

Blue Cake, White Cake, King Cake

I have a lot of techniques to practice prior to my first wedding cake construction due March 5. Obviously, I'm going to make at least one full scale cake before the big day (Burton-Perkins Wedding) so that I know that I am, in fact, capable of making this 3 tiered cake. I don't have doubts about my ability, but I am a big fan of organized practice and I think that this process is super fun, also.

Never before have I made buttercream decorations, so I obtained the necessary supplies at Michael's craft store and watched countless youtube videos on buttercream decorations. The result -

This was a white wedding cake split into 3 layers, filled with blueberry filling and iced with buttercream. The cake was dense and mild in flavor and the blueberry filling paired nicely without adding much sweetness. Making the buttercream roses was the hardest part, and it took me 5 or 6 tries before it actually looked like a rose, but I had fun in the process! The icing came out very smooth, which I was more than happy with. I wanted to work on my cake icing skills because I am using buttercream on the wedding cake - but I like the look of fondant. Hence, smoothed out buttercream. To do this, I crumb coated the cake the night before and let the cake chill in the refrigerator. I then made a fresh batch of smooth buttercream and iced the cake; then, I allowed the iced cake to chill for an additional 30 minutes. I was constantly dipping my spatula into steaming hot water and wiping it off to help the initial icing process return a somewhat smoothy iced cake. But here is the big trick! Once the iced cake was chilled, I took a viva paper towel with no print on it and placed it directly onto the iced cake. Using a fondant smoother, I smoothed over the paper towel in circular motions both on top and on the sides of the cake - making a very smooth finished product. Yay!

Well, is enough cake enough? No! January 5 marks the beginning of Mardi Gras!!!!!!! And, because I was staying with my friend Meg that evening before my PA School interview, I decided to make a king cake to bring to her as a thank you for letting me stay with her. I had some leftover blueberry filling from the white cake and I thought that it would go perfectly with the traditional cinnamon cream cheese filling.

For those of you who live in North Louisiana and who can't get a good King Cake, I am making these Carnival Treats for close friends and family. I'm not rich, so you'll have to cough up a little cash for the ingredients and love put into them, but not too much... The large (shown above) is a 15" x 19" cake for $30 and the small is a 12" round cake for $15. The fillings are all made to order from scratch and include a choice of cinnamon cream cheese, blueberry, raspberry, a combination of any 2 of those, lemon, or pecan praline. All king cakes are filled lightly (as in... it's not going to gush out at you like a nasty doughnut.) unless requested otherwise. Also, I can make a low fat whole wheat version of this that tastes just as moist and delicious - you'll never know it's good for you!!!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!!!

Dolphin for Dinner

In my last post, I talked about all of my lovely creations with my new stand mixer! I wanted to share a few more pictures of the bread that I baked. This bread was a gift in itself because I was able to use the dough hook of my mixer to knead the dough and a hand made clay crock that Vincent's mom gave me for Christmas. This bread was light a moist, with a sweetness that made it pair perfectly with the wild honey that Katie gave me as a stocking stuffer for Christmas!

In addition to my stand mixer, my dad gave both Katie and I a very interesting cookbook that follows the Paleo Diet. This is slightly comical because for years my dad has been advocating how healthy it is to eat salmon or a bowl of lentils for breakfast rather than the sugary/starchy things Americans are notorious for consuming on a daily basis. I found the introduction to this cookbook very interesting, although somewhat radical. The Paleo Diet is a book with supported research that explains how the symptoms of many autoimmune diseases can be virtually removed simply from changing your diet. Such autoimmune diseases as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes type 1, and lupus can become symptom free by following the Paleo Diet according to the research of Loren Cordain, PhD. For more information on the Paleo Diet visit www.thepaleodiet.com . Like I mentioned before, this is interesting research - but to actually follow this diet the way it is intended would be very difficult. The concept is that our bodies are made to consume food much like a hunter - gatherer society. Basically, if you remain on the outer perimeter of the grocery store and refrain from buying processed foods, you are closer to following this diet. I think that the fresh concept is a great idea! However, the diet suggests that our ancestors who followed a traditional Paleo diet did not eat dairy, wheat, corn, legumes or potatoes. This means no milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, no soy milk or soy products, no bread, rice, crackers, chips, or potatoes of any sort. Furthermore, cutting out corn from a modern diet would include anything with corn syrup or corn in any form (which is basically everything). What is most surprising to me is cutting legumes out of my diet. Black beans, lentils, and peanuts/ peanut butter all fall into the legume category - which comprise a large percentage of my diet. I can understand removing the processed foods, but legumes are natural substances high in protein and fiber... not going to happen. 

All things considered, I became aware of the fact that my diet lacked enough fruit and vegetable consumption in my last quarter of college when I took a sports nutrition class and did a diet analysis using www.mypyramid.gov. This was rather shocking, seeing as to how I incorporate a fairly large amount of vegetables in my meals, daily. However, upon a closer look - you really do have to eat several pieces of fruit a day and eat vegetables virtually at every meal in order to get the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables daily. The Paleo Diet follows through with this thought process and recommends that your diet be composed of lean meats, fish, crisp vegetables and sweet fruits. I would suggest considering incorporating some of this concept into your meal planning because it really is important and you will find yourself feeling full longer and becoming more satisfied by fewer calories if they are fresh fruits and vegetables rather than sugary processed foods. So, my dad gave me this cookbook at the right time - because I have been recently over-thinking ways to incorporate a concentrated amount of these nutrients into my meals (although it may not appear that way due to my recent cupcake obsession).  Take a look at it!

Luckily, I picked up some wild caught Mahi Mahi filets at Whole Foods on my Christmas trip to south Louisiana. We don't have a fresh seafood source in Ruston, and I absolutely refuse to buy farm raised seafood after learning what really goes on in a Parasitology course. Just trust me on this one, wild caught fish is best. Mahi Mahi is a type of "dolphin" fish that is tropical and pairs nicely with fruit and vegetables alike. Now, remember - I'm not trying to be heroic and follow the Paleo diet or anything, but I took some of it's suggestions into play. For dinner, I marinated the Mahi Mahi in fresh lemon juice, soy sauce, and a drizzle of olive oil. Vincent later grilled the filets outside on our gas grill until flaky and white. I topped the fish off with a fresh salsa that I made containing tomatoes, cilantro, green onion, apricot jam, fresh lemon juice, and siracha (asian chili sauce). For the side dishes - fresh steamed broccoli and baked sweet potatoes with chipotle, brown sugar, and fresh cracked black pepper - yum! 

I have to admit, this meal was just as satisfying (if not more) than baked macaroni or any other comfort food and my palate appreciated the fresh bright flavors of the salsa on that piece of fish. Granted, this is a more expensive meal than some easy processed food - but your body and health care providers will thank you later if you can incorporate a few more of these types of meals into your diet! Yum Yum.