It was more of a PITA than I anticipated, but I think I rocked my first attempt at apple babka. 
I made “The Best Lemon Bars” last week. We have a lemon tree and I didn’t want the lemons to go to waste. Unfortunately, they were actually the worst lemon bars. I probably needed to bake the shortbread longer in the first step so it would be more cookie-like. It was actually mush, and it absorbed all the lemon mixture so I had a big pan of lemon mush.
No one in the household would eat more than a bite, except for one of the goats, and I think he was just trying to be nice. I threw it away.
I don’t cook often, so I usually follow a cookbook. Just after the section on cooking roasts, there’s a recipe for Yorkshire pudding that uses the pan drippings from the roast. I decided to try it one time.
I’d never had Yorkshire pudding. I didn’t have the faintest idea what it was supposed to taste, or even look like. And I still don’t know. I’m pretty sure mine was wrong, somehow.
Is it very pretty?
I second adding some extra seasoning if the sausage you are using is kind of bland on its own.
When I make sausage rolls I just buy a 1-lb brick of breakfast sausage (I like the kind with extra sage), cut it into 2 pieces and then roll each piece out into a rope that’s about 12 inches long.
Roll out one sheet of puff pastry so it’s just a titch more than 12 inches long and 10 inches wide. Cut in half lengthwise, and then roll one piece around each sausage rope. Cut each roll into 6 pieces, place on lined baking sheet seam side down, bake at 375 F for 30-35 minutes. Easy and really good.
But the fruit is impossible to eat!
The scratch-made brownies turned out very well. I used more baking powder than called for, and they were still nice and gooey. I’ll have to get more cocoa powder in case the urge to make brownies again suddenly happens.
Far too little flour to make the filling thick enough. The recipe I use now was similar, wound up adding 3 Tbsp. cornstarch(which has the thickening power of 6 Tbsp. of flour)
The bars now slice very cleanly, not mushy or ooze-y. btw, there’s no lemon zest in that recipe, grate the rind of 2 lemons and add to the liquid ingredients(it’s the zest rather than the liquid that’ll give you that nice tart flavor these bars are supposed to have) 
Bake the crust to a light golden color at the edges, and pour on the filling while the crust is still hot( I don’t even take the pan out of the oven) Also, try baking the bars a bit longer.
I ordered the makings for madeleines this past week, included a madeleine pan, some caramel sugar and lemon sugar for rolling them. I’ll let you know how they come out.
Ever use your lemons to make limoncello?
Zest all your lemons. Add zest to everclear.
Everclear? Jeeeeebus wouldn’t vodka be enough?
I made King Ranch Chicken casserole the other week having never so much as tasted or laid eyes on it before. Apparently I was successful since I was immediately requested to add it to the regular rotation. 
OK, mom.
Yeah, some people make it with vodka. Using grain alcohol adds a layer of epic though, since you have to drive out of PA to buy it.
When you sip it you’d never guess it was everclear.
Coconut Rockfish with Mango Salsa
There was a big piece of rockfish in the freezer, so I decided to look for recipes. I found the one linked above, and I remembered we had about half a bag of shredded coconut in the cupboard. We also had a jar of Trader Joe’s Island Salsa. (I used that instead of making it from the recipe.) There was one little problem, though. The fish recipe calls for unsweetened shredded coconut, and the stuff in the cupboard was sweetened. But the salsa’s sweet, so I’ll just roll with it. Per the recipe, I pan-fried the fish in olive oil and butter. The coating was getting dark, but the fish was still not cooked. I put the fish on a rack over the frying pan, and put it in a 350ºF oven for a bit.
The result was tasty. The coconut was not too sweet. (Or the salsa was so sweet, it masked the coconut’s sweetness.) I thought the rockfish was a bit on the ‘fishy’ side. Now, I like a little fishiness in my fish. But it was just a mite too strong to be ‘perfect’. I think this recipe would be good with mahi mahi. Mrs. L.A. liked it, Tonka liked it, and I liked it. Creamsicle missed out. It might go into the rotation – but with a different fish.
For the side, we had black beans with some shredded cheddar on top.
I just cooked for the quarterly event held be our medieval reenactment group. It was the first since I’d become a full member so I’d volunteered to cook the main portions of the meal. I was cooking for 30-50 people but without a firm count or set menu preference, so I had to allow for some wiggle room. It was a potluck for sides and deserts, so I was off the hook as far as that went but I was still likely to try to throw something together if I could…
I decided on a beef bourguignon served over mashed potatoes (choice of raw garlic and parm/asiago, sauteed garlic/parm, and plain) or Gołąbki a.k.a. cabbage rolls stuffed with beef, barley and rice normally baked in a tomato sauce but considering our time period focus I decided on a modified version baked in a beef broth (I did make a half tray with tomato sauce for the few vegetarians/vegans in our group. I could have done it in a veggie stock but I was running out of time and energy at this point, having only slept 2 hrs the night before)Lots of leftover cabbage
I’d also made a couple batches of russian garlic salad, to marinate in the fridge for a week and I wanted to do a cut veggie platter with the celery and carrots I Didn’t use, but again, time
The enntire meal won rave reviews from everyone who
To up the lemon bite, juice the lemons after and make your simple syrup with the juice. Pour into the zest/everclear mixture after a few weeks.
It’ll have some pectin floating in it, but that adds a great mouth-feel.
This sounds like me versus my cousins. I make apple pie with vodka. Theirs is still flammable.
Sorry my PC ate my post, I honestly thought the whole thing was trashed and I was falling asleep at my keyboard…
Continuing
Rave reviews from everyone who was there. The stew was demolished, with less than 2 quarts of the roughly 6 gallons I made making it into the fridge.
People didn’t quite get the idea of the potatoes as a base for the stew which I caught as I was in the last stages of cooking and that’s why I decided on the three varieties in case people decided to eat them as a side dish. As they mostly did.
The Cabbage rolls were popular but over shadowed, 1 1/4 of 3 tray of beef getting eaten, 3/4 taken home in “doggie” bags, and the last full tray being claimed by the hosts 17yr old son who fell in love with them!
The vegetarian ones were very good and appreciated. The only Vegan members were no-shows for the event so I didn’t get their opinion but all the leftovers were taken home, so I’ll take it as a compliment.
The Garlic Salad was good, if a little overpowering. The issue was the size of the garlic cloves, which were freaking huge! So even marinated for a week they still had more of a bite than I’d have liked. But now I know better and people did like the smaller bites/first couple bites. I did 2 kinds 1 in white wine vinaigrette and 1 in balsamic. I was a major pain in the ass to peel that much (more than a quart of raw garlic) but my “shopper” didn’t have a chance to grab bulk jars of whole peeled garlic(when you can find them) but I will be making it again. Probably blanching it a minute or two longer if they’re that large again.
I had a few bits and scraps left over so I did a quick saute of shredded cabbage, garlic and onions as a side. I did a half-assed risotto-like dish of rice, barley and beef in a creamy parm sauce using leftover dumpling filling. I wanted to chop my unused celery and carrots but someone had brought a veggie platter so they weren’t needed. I completely forgot to dice chives to garnish the potatoes, so they’re still up in the fridge.
I wanted to do some fresh bread but time and space limits as well as the official helper for the meal living 2 hrs away and not showing up until 2 hrs before the meal was to start.(Personal issues, not just poor timing) Thankfully a couple of the other citizens dove right in to help me, otherwise everything but the stew would’ve been late to the table.
I slept 5 hrs between Friday and Sunday but I pulled it off without a major hitch and everyone went home with a happy belly.
Which is all the thanks a cook needs.
OK, it’s not actually cookery. But tonight I made my first daiquiris and a mojito. (I’ve had them before, but this is the first time I’ve made them.) After 9 ounces of rum, dinner was half a Tombstone pepperoni pizza.
Made an omlette this morning, never tried to do that before. Had parmesan cheese in it. Was quite edible.
I love madeleines! After buying the expensive ones at the store for ages I finally made my own recently too. I found the classic shell pans and also one that looks like scallop shells. Used a great recipe from King Arthur Flour. They came out perfectly with the hump and all. I was going to dip one end in chocolate but they were so tasty I ate them all plain. Terrific with tea.
My next day off I’m going to try gnocchi for the first time.