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Today's new recipe? Gluten-free sun-dried tomato bread.

 

A Focaccia To Love

Moving season is upon us. Yes, Los Angeles has a moving season. Southern Californians do not like to move in cold weather- in other words, when the mercury dips below the 60º mark. 58 degrees? It's time for UGGs and cocoa and ordering in. Not for hoisting sofas up or down a flight of stairs. Are you crazy?

And yes. We are moving. Come June 1st or thereabouts we are joining the migrating, apartment swapping masses. We are weeding through the promises that bloom on Craigslist (a veritable bouquet of alluring superlatives). Amazing! Gorgeous! Light and bright! And the ever popular- HUGE! This whole searching (and so far, not finding) process inevitably makes me insanely hungry for bread. Not store bought bread. Freshly baked warm from the oven bread. The kind of rustic, crusty loaf that conjures the word hearth. And home.

Because when you're searching for a place to live, nothing whispers home to your soul like the yeasty sweet aroma of baking bread.


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If you like Pay Day candy bars, you will love this recipe. It tastes very similar, but SO much fresher and better. This recipe makes a 9 x 13 pan of candy, which would be an excellent addition to your childrens birthday party menu! They take just a few minutes to put together and then an hour or so in the fridge, to "set".


 4 cups honey roasted peanuts
(1) 10½ ounce bag miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup butter (melted)
(1) 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
(1) 10 ounce bag peanut butter chips
1/2 cup peanut butter

Line a 9 x 13 dish with foil and spray it with cooking spray (I spray my foil with cooking spray then blot it with a paper towel so it doesnt make the candy greasy). Set aside.

In a large (heavy bottomed) saucepan, mix the marshmallows and melted butter. Heat over medium-low heat until completely melted (you do not want the marshmallows to boil, but you want to see a little bubble now and then). Keep it at this temperature for about a minute.

Stir in the sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter chips and peanut butter. Stir until everything is melted and smooth.

Pour this mixture over the peanuts in the pan and spread out evenly. Sprinkle the other half of the peanuts over the hot mixture and press the nuts into the surface of the hot mixture (with your hand). Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours or until firm. Cut into pieces and serve. Store covered in fridge. Makes 60 pieces of candy.

Cod roe should be available in fish shops now, and I usually treat myself to some once or twice during the season. (I really must check tomorrow). The traditional way of serving it is to cook the "bags" of roe in salted water, along with the liver from the fish and some fish, either cod or haddock. Everything then becomes greasy and slightly liver-flavoured, which I do not like at all. (Just take a sip of cod liver oil and then tell me if you honestly like the taste). But it is not the taste that I dislike the most about cod liver, it is the nematodes. I dont think I will say more on the subject, as I dont want to put anyone off their food. Just dont look up the word if you are going to eat soon.

I usually cook roe in salted water with some fish but without the liver. While leafing through one of my cookbooks looking for recipes, I came across this, which I really should try – it sound delicious:

1/2 kg cooked cod roe (use canned if you cant get fresh). If you can get fresh roe, clean well under cold running water. Dont remove the membrane that holds the roe together. Cook in salted water for 15-45 minutes, depending on size.
70-100 g butter
Salt and pepper
1 onion
4 eggs
3 tbs cheese, grated (I would use Gouda)

Slice roe and onion and brown in a frying pan. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Mix eggs with salt and pepper and cheese. Pour into a hot frying pan and cook until the omelet is nearly done. Top with onions and roe slices, close the omelet and serve immediately.

Ive had a really fun day today, decorating cupcakes!  When Jac from Tinned Tomatoes spied this class at 3D Cakes in Edinburgh, being offered on Groupon, she contacted me to see if I wanted to go too.  We finally found a date which suited us and Claire of A Kiss of Cookies joined us too.

Its a good two hours drive to Edinburgh for me,  I had planned on getting the train which is only an hour but with the Bank Holiday, the trains were disrupted by work on the line.  Luckily my SIL lives just outside Edinburgh, so Brian drove up and took his Mum over to see her after dropping me off at Roseburn Terrace.

Our Cupcake decorating tutor was called Sue and she started by telling us about 3D cakes and some of the unusual cakes they have made, like a lion and lioness for a wedding anniversary cake.

Sue started us off with flowerpaste which we learned to roll very thinly and use cutters to cut out butterflies and daisies.


The dusting and decorating came later, but I was surprised how easy it was to make an effective flower with the cutters.  We then moved on to the trickier rose, again helped by a special cutter for the petals.



Mine is slightly dodgy but it looks rose-like enough for a first try.  The leaf is cut from green flower paste,  the veining is part of the cutter.


We left our flowerpaste efforts to dry and moved on to working with fondant.  I love the little parcels with fondant bows and can see that I will be using these quite a lot.




Again I could probably do this better with more practice, but learning the technique by show and tell followed by making them yourself and getting personal attention from Sue, really made the difference.


We also made some chunky hearts, I didnt use mine on my cakes as I had enough other things to use, they also look a bit rude ;-)


Here are few of the decorations before they were dusted and glittered.  I think I like the parcels better without the glitter.




We then learned how to make ladybirds.  They are rather large but that was how we were shown.  Id like to try making them smaller, now I  know how.




I also cut out some little hearts with some cutters that were at our work stations.


We then made fondant roses, they took a bit of getting the hang of, but I think I may be making more of them. 




Now it was time to dust and glitter, dry brush for dust, so all that had to be done first, then damp edges and dip in glitter.

Here is Claire, working hard making something, look how fast her hands are moving!!!

And here is Jac, relaxing with her finished decorations.

The next step was to pipe the butter cream onto the 12 cupcakes provided for us to decorate and then place our fondant and flowerpaste on top of the swirls.
I havent actually eaten any of the cupcakes yet, but  they do look pretty and I am definitely going to have a go at making more. 

Many thanks to Jac for organising the day out and to Sue for creating such a relaxed atmosphere.