TWD: My lack of attention to detail strikes again!

I had a really wonderful weekend. I drove down to London (Ontario) to say goodbye to my boyfriend, who left for Italy very early Saturday morning. Then I headed over to my oldest brother's house to meet up with my family, who I have seen pretty infrequently since I moved to Toronto for my internship. My second oldest brother brought his two children, two year old Julia and almost-six month old Noah, who are, I'm pretty sure, the sweetest kids in the history of the world. No exaggeration. As a group, we all went to a farmer's market on the outskirts of London Saturday morning, where Julia flirted her way into a free plum from a mesmerized vendor. Then she grabbed a sweet potato from a different vendor and hugged it like it was a teddy bear, posing for the camera like she was squeezing her new best friend. Adorable. I'll be turning that sweet potato into sweet potato corn chowder later in the week. Hopefully my niece will forgive me!

That night I barely slept at all -- no more than 2 hours at a time, and no more than 4 hours in total. Sharing a basement with a baby will do that to you. So I've been having a hard time thinking clearly and rationally today, to say the least. The simplest concepts at work were well beyond me.

Which brings me to this week's Tuesdays With Dorie.

After last week's forgetfulness, you would think that I would have learned my lesson and paid a bit more attention to this week's recipe, Granola Grabbers. Uh, not so much. I bought rolled oats thinking that, since the recipe called for granola, it was perhaps an American way of saying oats. Had I known that Dorie actually meant granola, I could have made some, but since I only discovered that yesterday afternoon at work, I didn't end up having time to make the granola for the cookies. I blame my lack of sleep. Rather than risk wasting the ingredients by using the plain oats, I decided to make the cookies later. Hopefully I can make and post them tomorrow! In the meantime, here are photos of last week's ice cream, finally, blissfully frozen.


I had read some complaints that the ice cream tasted too strongly of sour cream. I love sour cream, so maybe I'm biased, but to me it tasted like blueberry cheesecake. Definitely a unique and delicious ice cream, and it was a nice (dare I say healthier?) change from typical custard based ice cream.

A very soupy Tuesday With Dorie: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Dear Dorie:

I really tried to make you a part of my life this week. My ice cream maker was still at my boyfriend's house (new readers: we lived together until this May when I left town for a 16 month internship over 200km away), so I asked him to bring it to me this weekend. But we were leaving for a wedding, Dorie, so I couldn't make the ice cream on the weekend after all.


I thought it would be ok. I thought I could make your delicious-sounding Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream on Monday after work, instead. And I did Dorie, I really did. You have to believe me. But then there was one teensy, tiny mistake that I made: I forgot to freeze the ice cream maker's canister. Yep. And I only realized it after I made the custard.


Oh, and Dorie? It gets worse: I couldn't even take good pictures of the custardy mess I made because my boyfriend's leaving for Italy for two weeks, and he needed his camera back to take great pictures of his vacation and the food he eats abroad (that bit is on my behalf, of course). But I used my crappy Canon PowerShot anyway, and I promise I'll freeze the custard and post the pictures of actual ice cream next week, ok?

In the mean time, you can visit Dolores, who chose this week's selection, and the rest of the lovely Tuesdays With Dorie bakers.

Lots of love and a million apologies,

Kaitlin

(More soupy photos after the jump)

Breakfast on the Barbecue: Baked Apple Pancake

Despite my profound love of cooking and baking, there is one essential culinary task that I absolutely detest: peeling. I'm painfully slow at it -- we're talking 3-5 minutes for one potato. The good news is, I bought myself a peeler which rests in the palm of my hand and shaves at least a minute off of each potato, apple, carrot, whatever. The bad news? My boyfriend and his roommates only own a dollar store quality peeler--and we were planning on making a baked apple pancake for breakfast two weekends ago.


There's something else: I'm not the most patient person in the world. So when it took me 20 minutes to peel three apples, I was on the verge of tears. We slept in, so my hunger wasn't helping, either. Irrationally frustrated, I was relieved when I finished the apples and walked over to the oven. I was about to preheat the oven when I remembered -- my boyfriend's oven is broken.


Oi. Luckily, I thought to use a cast iron dutch oven and try to barbecue breakfast instead. I am happy to say that my barbecued breakfast turned out beautifully.

The brown sugar forms a bit of caramel on the bottom, while the batter is like clafoutis -- firm, but custard-like. Served with a drizzle of maple syrup, it's a very decadent breakfast that's also perfect for brunch.

I've included oven instructions for the recipe, because for most of you it's probably easier to pop it into the oven than to stick it on the grill. But the barbecue modifications are very simple, and you can find those at the very bottom of the post.

INGREDIENTS

Apples
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter (or margarine, if you're at your non-baking boyfriend's house)
3 medium baking apples (I used McIntosh), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp. maple syrup

Batter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Melt butter over medium-high heat in an ovenproof frying pan or dutch oven. Add apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples begin to brown and most of the juices have evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove pan from heat.

2. Whisk together eggs, milk, flour, and salt until smooth.

3. Spread apples evenly across the bottom of the pan or dutch oven. Pour the batter over the apples. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the pancake is golden and puffed, 18 to 20 minutes.You can also put a knife into the centre of the pancake; if the knife comes out clean, it's done.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and cut into wedges. Serve immediately with a drizzle...or a big splash...of maple syrup.

Serves 4... or 2 really hungry people.

Note: if you do want to barbecue the pancake--say, if you're camping, or your oven's on the fritz--heat the barbecue to 425F as well, and just watch it closely after 15 minutes. Just as with the oven method, when a knife or toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, you'll know it's done.

Winning Wednesday: August 6, 2008

Before I dive into this week's contest roundup, I have a question: would you prefer a list of interesting food related links instead of a list of contests every week? Contests can always be incorporated into a link list, but not so much the other way around. Please let me know what you think in the comments.

Alright, on with the show:

Food Network Canada is giving away a slew of cooking related books, including a book by one of my favourites, Chocolate & Zucchini's Clotilde.

Diets in Review is giving away a copy of Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry. It looks like that Canadian cookbook's publisher is making a push into the States.

The Crispy Cook is giving away a copy of a 1989 relic, Light and Spicy.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Black and White Banana Loaf

I'm back from a holiday weekend away in time for the latest round of Tuesdays With Dorie.

This week's recipe is Black and White Banana Loaf, chosen by Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen.

Although I love the fruity recipes we've been trying lately, I definitely welcomed the chance to make something a little more basic and less expensive, and a banana loaf sounded perfect when Ashlee's decision was revealed.

And other than my dismal marbling effort, the loaf pretty much was perfect.

My black and white banana loaf was more like a brown smudgy mess, but the taste was wonderful. I've never had chocolate in banana bread before, but I loved the combination. I even went against my disdain for rum in baked goods and added it anyway, and liked it.

But I do wish Dorie's marbling instructions were a little more clear. I used the spoonful at a time technique she discussed, but maybe I was supposed to use huge spoons? I'm not sure. I do know that it took me forever to load up my loaf pan, and by the time I finished the six short zigzags she recommended, I kind of had a bad feeling about just how "black and white" my black and white loaf was going to be. Here's what it looked like before I popped it into the oven:


I think that I should have followed my instincts and used my normal, plain Jane marbling technique. But I can always try it next time. If you have any marbling tips you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them in the comments.


As always, you can head over to TWD to check out the rest of the bloggers. Thanks for stopping by!