a taste of home: california benedict

ha! eat your heart out, golden harvest!



mhmm, that's right. one california benedict with tofu bacon.

and roasted asparagus.

oh, golden harvest, lo for many moons you provided me with sustenance and joy. thank you for the inspiration.

i do have a goal to make my own english muffins. but we need to eat more tuna first. even though the mister thinks im batty, i am starting a collection of tuna cans to make my own crumpet rings. or i might try tin foil. at any rate, i have a plan.

i found some dark bread at the market to use for our base and built our dinner upon that. avocado, tomato, poached egg, tofu bacon, and, of course, hollandaise.

for the hollandaise sauce, i didnt use butter but yogurt.

i whipped the ever daylights out of two egg yolks, until they were thick, and added one pot of yogurt (about 1/2 cup conveniently enough). then i plunked my bowl on top of a pot with boiling water and kept whisking. i added lemon juice (roughly half a lemon) and a blob of mustard towards the end.

it was, indeed, a treat.

happy new year! we'll take a cake o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

for new year's, the mister and i headed over to the warm home of our friends for dinner and revelry. the mister made GF french onion soup, his own recipe that he's been making for years, and i made a layered GF chocolate cake to share. after spending the christmas holiday at my in-laws house, and watching my mother-in-law make two yule logs, i decided i needed to make a light and fluffy sponge cake. with booze. and chocolate. and brown butter.

egg yolks and sugar 

6 eggs were separated, 120 g of dark chocolate was melted (i used callier's baking chocolate), and the oven was warmed to 175C.

with the trusty kitchen aid, i paddled the egg yolk and 1/4 cup sugar until thick and ribbony. i added a drop of almond extract, and then the melted and cooled chocolate.

i took a baking sheet, olive oiled it, then put down a layer of parchment paper and olive oiled and GF floured it.

the yokes were transported to a new bowl and then i worked on the egg whites. they were beat until foamy, and then i added a pinch of salt. i continued to beat until i got soft peaks, then added sugar, and beat some more.


so fluffy.

the whites were gently folded into the chocolate, and then i poured the batter into the prepared pan. i dropped it on the counter to pop the air bubbles.

folding in whites

6 large eggs, separated
200 grams chocolate (divided--120g and 80g)
1 pinch of salt
1/4 cup + 1 generous spoonful of sugar
almond extract


for good measure, i sprinkled the batter with edible glitter.

i knew i would be making a ganache, but i was hoping the glitter might peek through now and again. these days i am resisting the urge to sprinkle edible glitter on everything. want to make that pasta dish seem more festive? GLITTER! oh, is that a plain bowl of oatmeal? GLITTER. im glad the mister loves me no matter what.

the cake baked for roughly 15 minutes. i covered it with a damp towel to keep it moist. then i made some cream for the filling.

i whipped some heavy cream until just so, and then added some cointreau. and then a little more cointreau.

and you know what goes with chocolate and orange? cinnamon. for the ganache, i made browned butter and combined it with the remaining chocolate. i added just a pinch of cinnamon. the ganache was stashed in the fridge to cool, and then i layered the cake with the cream and frosted it when the time came.

and yum.

Ode on a Kitchen Aid (with apologies to keats)
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever baking, and for ever young;

salad, sammies, and something tasty for dinner

the bounty this week from christian's parent's garden was frisée lettuce and chard!

i love salad. this one, in particular, was delightful.
i used:
a nectarine
2 carrots
a bunch of frisée lettuce
some dried cranberry
2 boiled eggs

and for the dressing, i combined mustard, vinegar, honey, and olive oil.



these days, it's like switzerland remembered there wasn't much of a summer, so it better get down to business and provide one.  it has been quite warm! lausanne is on a huge hill (the elevation ranges from 372 m at the lake to 929.4 m at the top of the hill), with lots of small hills, so walking around town these days makes one hot and sweaty and ready for something cool an crunchy.

this salad beautifully combined the sweet of the fruit with the bite of the lettuce. plus it was pretty.  i love the colours.

the plan was to sprinkle some pistachio nut on top, but truth be told, i forgot.  until i was halfway through.  and by then, i was not going to run into the kitchen and shell a handfull of nuts to crush to enjoy.

while we were in the airport in madrid, the unthinkable happened--i ate something.... tasty!! can you believe it?! i still cant.   it was a lovely tuney fish sandwich with raisins in it.  and that got me thinking.  know what goes with raisins? apple.  know what goes with apple? curry.  and my lunch was born.

ive always been a bit of a monotonous tuney fish maker.  mustard, dill, fish, yogurt (or occasionally mayo).  my routine changed a little after living in china because adam always made tuney melts, so that became a standard for me.   but still, it was pretty routine.  not saying it's not delicious, but still.  so when i bit into the sandwich in spain and there were raisins, i was surprised and delighted.  this sandwich, inspired by that sandwich, did not disappoint.

the bread here is awesome, but the "toast" isnt. "toast" is sandwich bread. it doesnt matter how many times i've protested that "toast" isnt toast until it's toasted to no avail. if you want a big sandwich, you have to buy the american "XL" toast. it's white processed junk. i am happy to know there are whole grain sandwich breads here. because yuk.


i am a sucker for something crunchy with this kind of sandwich so i munched on some dijon potato chips the mister bought and, i think, forgot about.

after mixing the shredded apple, raisins, drained fish, yogurt, and curry, i let it all hang out before i assembled the sandwich. i wanted the flavours to get a chance to know each other.

i'm glad i did.

i'm also glad i had some swiss chard!! or, as it's called here, chard.  since we had some big healthy leaves, i decided to stuff and bake them.


i used:

5 mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
lovage
goat cheese
1/4 cup uncooked red quinoa
lemon slices


i cooked and fluffed some red chard (i used a mushroom stock instead of water), chopped the mushrooms and garlic and chard stems, minced a handful of lovage, and combined that all with fresh goat cheese.

a lemon was sliced and the bottom layer of my roasting pan lined with the fruit.  these slices serced as a way to keep the rolls from hanging out on the bottom.  lemon stilts.

i chopped off the chard stems earlier, when i was preparing the mixture, and cut the leaves into a lily pad shape.  basically, i cut a v out of the bottom, removing the stem.

to make the rolls, i lay out the leaf and crossed one side over the other, to get rid of the V , plunked down some of the mixture towards the top, and rolled it, folding the sides in.


each roll was balanced on the lemons.  once the pan was full, i added enough mushroom stock to cover the lemons, but not saturate the rolls.

these were incredibly filling.  i was so stuffed after one, i wrapped my other one in plastic wrap and ate it for lunch later in the week.



i had a tomato that needed to be used and some room in th pan, so i gutted and filled the tomato with some leftover quinoa.

the mister made himself a seared steak to have with the chard

next up: the mojo experiments have begun!!

Bon Appétit