Tomato Sauce

In the ongoing effort to organize the freezers, it was time to get the bags of quartered tomatoes out from last summer. Usually I end up with about 5 gallons of tomatoes but this year it was only 3. They take up so much space, because they're bulky and heavy. It is amazing to me that each gallon, once run through the food mill and cooked down to a reasonable sauce texture, yields one pint of sauce. Makes one wonder about the sheer amount of tomatoes those big companies use to make all those cans of sauce!

These three pints are plain, not spiced in any way.

Also, I just finished baking this week's batch of bread; I added even more milk instead of water to see how soft I can make the bread and still have it be sturdy enough for sandwiches. I've been trying to get flour where I can; I have enough bread flour for 2 more batches, and I bought some spelt flour just to try something different when the bread flour runs out. I am starting to see more flour in the grocery store, but it's all purpose, not bread flour, and so I'll keep an eye out for bread flour. 

Bee Check

Yesterday the weather was good and so I did a quick inspection of the hive. I didn't add any new syrup to the feeders as it's been warm and the flowers are out so I'm hoping to allow them to take advantage of all that nectar. I did fix a little of the cross-combing that was happening, saw Alcibee, and found evidence of new brood. I'll give them a few weeks before I inspect again, and hopefully they will continue to do well. 

Things in Little Pots

Today I took a break from work and made things.

Since yesterday was our anniversary and I had to work, I decided to do something special for dinner tonight. So I made flan. I've never made flan before and I have a healthy respect for caramel after getting burned trying to make caramel sauce in culinary school. That stuff is HOT. So I have always thought about making flan and then dismissed it as Too Hard. Really, it's not.

Caramel: 2 ounces sugar, 1/2 ounce water, 1/4 ounce corn syrup. Boil without stirring until it is just turning golden brown then remove from heat.

Once I had the caramel made and distributed into little ramekins, I made a simple egg custard, poured it over the caramel, and baked them in a water bath for 45 minutes at 350˚F.  They chilled in the fridge until dessert, when they were inverted over saucers. I was pleasantly surprised that they came out intact and that the sauce worked perfectly!

The other thing made in little pots today were candles. I had more of those tins I'd bought to make the moustache wax for my husband and, after a trial run in which it was clear that one wick per tin was not enough, I melted a whole lot of wax and filled the tins with lavender-lemon scented beeswax and 3 wicks per candle. I had some left over so I also made a few tea lights and one last one in an empty jar. It took a long time to melt the wax as I was using a plastic pitcher which doesn't conduct heat as well as metal or glass, and it took very little time for the wax to solidify once poured. The only other downside to the metal tins for candles is that the candles have a tendency to crack and I think it is because the metal and the wax expand at different rates when heated. Glass doesn't seem to have that problem.

Regardless, it's back to work tomorrow so no plans to do any cooking for a few days at least!

Things in Things

We had been planning for a while to make dumplings, as we all like them and they aren't easy to get right now. We discussed take out, but then decided that we could make them ourselves.

But first, breakfast! I haven't made crepes in a long time, as evidenced by the fact that my crepe mix had expired 2 years ago. I made them from scratch instead. Filled with peaches and/or nutella they were a lovely way to start the day.

This afternoon, I got to work on the dumplings. I ended up making 2 different kinds: sesame rice balls and pork and cabbage dumplings. Both recipes were from when I was assisting in a dumpling class at culinary school. I will never forget that class, especially as I had the unfortunate experience of lifting the steamer off the pot and having the bottom fall out of it, dropping all the dumplings into the boiling water or onto the floor! For the sesame ones, I made the filling by toasting sesame seeds and then grinding them with sugar and mixing them with melted bacon fat, then chilling the filling so I could handle it. The rice balls were made with glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour, and water. These were boiled and then served with a sesame dipping sauce. They were really awesome!

For the pork and cabbage dumplings, I made WAY too much filling. The wrapper recipe (2 cups flour and 6 ounces of boiling water) only made 16 dumplings. So, while those were steaming, I stir fried the rest of the filling, added turkey stock and water, and then added udon noodles so they could cook in the wok and absorb all the liquid. This, for something I just made up, worked very well. Lastly, I whipped up a dipping sauce for the pork dumplings: equal parts soy sauce and water, ginger, scallions, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil.

I probably should have pan fried the pork dumplings rather than steam them, as it would have rounded out the flavor better. But I have 8 left that I can pan fry as a way to reheat them. This ended up being more food than I intended to make but at least we have leftovers!

Misplaced

It's pretty cold this morning; there is ice in my flowerpots. However, it was also the best morning for me to check and feed the bees. I'm glad I did. Last time I went in, I checked the queen cage, thought that Alcibee wasn't in it, and moved it above the queen excluder so the rest of the bees would eventually get off it and I could throw it away. What I apparently didn't realize was that she was actually still in there, I guess? It didn't look like her at the time. Regardless, I saw her with the rest of the bees near the feeder, above the queen excluder. She needs to be below it, so she can lay her eggs in the newly formed comb. So I very carefully nudged her into the frames below and hopefully she will settle in quickly.

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about the excluder. Every time I put it back down it crushes some bees and gets the colony upset. (Understandable.) I might not need it if I can be sure the feeders won't hurt the frames by being directly on them. I'll try that next time. 

Birthday Chocolate Bliss

About a month ago, my mother sent me a link to a recipe for Ebinger's Blackout Cake. Apparently, this was a thing she used to get when my parents lived in NY in the 60's. I read the recipe and decided it was the perfect thing for the youngerchild's birthday. I made plans.

This used: 4 of my 5 mixing bowls, both my stand mixer bowls, 3 spatulas, every measuring spoon and cup I had except for the 1/3 cup measure, several pots, 4 different kinds of chocolate, almost a pound of butter and very little flour. Which is good, because I can't find flour in the store and I'm saving as much of it as possible to make bread. Oh, and about 3 hours. And one full dishwasher load for all the bowls/pans/utensils. This is definitely a cake in which you can understand that making it in bulk quantities is easier than making just one.

I'm not really sure if there were technical difficulties. The filling wasn't completely gelled when I got it out of the fridge, but it was close, even though it leaked out a little between the layers. The frosting was also really runny, but also firmed up once it was in the fridge for a while. I moved it from a cake round to a plate, to another plate, and finally to the cake stand, all in an effort to have the edges of the plate not be drowned in chocolate.

It was a success: rich and dense and overwhelmingly filling but not overly sweet. You really can't each much at one time, though. Which is good because there is more for tomorrow!

Snow?

It snowed 2 days ago. And not just a dusting! We got 3-4 inches. Everyone was asking after the bees, so I checked them yesterday and they are just fine. I fed them, and checked that Alcibee was out of her cage (she was). I looked briefly at the frames and saw the bees were starting to make comb. I'll probably feed again on Wednesday and then check next Monday for evidence that Alcibee is laying. Meanwhile, they have definitely started to forage; I saw bees with pollen coming into the hive. All good signs, hopefully!