Tips: The Food Explorer Helps This Rusty Cook Bake a Birthday Cake
What do Rusty Cooks have in common? We flounder, we fluster easily, sometimes we’re in over our heads. Are you a Regular Cook? If seeing a grown woman flounder in the kitchen makes you laugh, you should have been in our kitchen a couple days ago when I baked a birthday cake for youngest daughter Heather. She’s our designated cook and baker here—but on her birthday, I love donning an apron and cracking open my trusty egg-and-flour-spattered cookbook to whip up a delightful treat for her. For the past two years, the cake of choice was a fresh peach cake cuz Heather loves fresh peaches, so that made it a worthy choice. Delicious! I dream about that cake. (I love peaches, too!)
But three years in a row? Couldn’t do it. I narrowed the selection down to three cakes I knew she’d love, and picked the orange lemon layer cake. It sounded very special. Had to be, to both celebrate a joyous occasion and to soothe news she’d been dreading—the announcement that her favorite NHL player, Mike Modano, is retiring from the game. Sniffles all around. (I liked watching him play, too.)
Once I got into it, I felt the orange lemon layer cake was out of my league, being rusty and all. But I gave it my best shot—did everything it called for, from zesting a whole orange and a whole lemon (both organic), to a task I really detest—greasing and flouring the cake pans. (Sprays work better.)
Heather was just a room away while I tried working magic in the kitchen. She untangled a couple snags I ran into, and maybe they’re ones that you Rusty Cook sisters might run into, as well. Let me share a couple of them:
- The recipe told me to alternately add dry ingredients and wet ones. Heather said to start and end with dry ingredients, three dry, two wet.
- Measure the flour. Seems like a no-brainer, but Heather says to always, always, always spoon the flour into the measuring cup. Scooping flour directly into the measuring cup packs it in, and you can end up with more flour than the recipe calls for—-and that can throw off the results.
Heather says she felt bossy giving me these tips, but I’m so glad she spoke up! She’s amassed a lot of know-how in the seven years she’s been cooking/baking, and, for three of those years, she’s put her talents to work as the Food Explorer for the Central Minnesota Women Magazine. (Shouldn’t she write a book for newby cooks and bakers and Rusty Cooks?)
When it came out of the oven, the cake smelled pretty darned good. I hoped it would please the birthday girl.
Happy Birthday Heather cake. It's orangey and lemony, and edible! Heart-shaped sprinkles came from daughter Robin.
Mission accomplished! The cake was edible, brought a smile to Heather’s face. The Rusty Cook can now retire for another 364 days.
If you’ve got a cooking or baking question, why not ask Heather ? Maybe she can help. Leave a question in the comment section.
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Sheesh, it’s quiche—Quiche Lorrain!
Pretty, isn't it? Quiche Lorrain shortly after it came out of the oven. It had to sit for 15 minutes before we could dive in.
Daughter Heather is our household’s designated cook and baker. Extraordinaire, I might add! So far, I’ve never known her to back away from a cooking or baking challenge. That’s not to say she hasn’t had her share of failures; she has. But it’s the hard stuff that she tackles. Quiche Lorrain, for instance. That’s a time-consuming, many-step dish, but she has now made it her latest conquest. Before I hung up my apron and spatula, I’d never have attempted this dish. Even its French name sounds like a a dish Julia Childs would (undoubtedly did) try, and a built-in disaster for someone with my lowly skills.
So, why did Heather choose to take on Quiche Lorrain, of all things? It has everything to do with America’s Test Kitchens. Besides regularly performing culinary feats in our home kitchen, and before she took on the title of “Food Explorer” for Central Minnesota Women Magazine, Heather signed up to test recipes, from time-to-time, for America’s Test Kitchen (not for pay). This week, they asked their testers to prepare their recipe for the quiche. It’s what we ate for dinner last night.
The terms of agreement with ATK don’t allow her to reveal the actual recipes she tests. They’re eventually printed in Cook’s Country Magazine. While I can’t share the recipe with you, I can talk freely about the experience of eating the quiche—rave about it, actually—and recommend that you watch for the recipe when it comes out in CC Magazine.
The texture? Creamy, silky, smooth. The flavor? Packed with favorite tastes, bacon, cheese, and just the right amount of salt. I’m a crust-lover, the flakier, the better. But the quiche’s crust was not that traditional, flaky kind. And whoops! I just about went too far; the secret ingredient almost slipped out of my typing fingers. Nevertheless, it’s a tasty, flavorful crust, and doesn’t distract the tastebuds from the main event, the quiche filling. Since I’ve never eaten quiche, I can’t compare last night’s to others. This one will, in fact, be my benchmark for future quiches.
Will we have quiche again? Already, Heather is thinking about what she’ll change in the next one she makes, so the answer is yes!
True to our commitment to stocking our pantry with organic foods, Heather used mostly organic ingredients, roughly 95% of them, in the dish.
What’s your experience with quiche? Do you have it often? Ever tried Quiche Lorrain?
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Herbs: Cilantro—more than a just pretty face!
The herb cilantro is new to our organic pantry as of a few months ago. I’d read in one of the health newsletters and digests I rely on for accurate, up-to-the-minute information that cilantro helps rid the body of heavy metals. Those toxins are pretty hard to dodge these days. It’s a good bet we’re all dealing with heavy metal’s effects in one way or another. Daughter Heather and I headed to our organic food co-op to pick up our first bunch of cilantro.
Pretty, isn't it? But cilantro is an herb with more than a pretty face!
Wish I could say I love the taste, or even like it. I don’t. Neither does Heather. Nevertheless, for the sake of good health, she adds it to salads, in the hope that the other ingredients swallow up cilantro’s unwelcome taste. Hasn’t worked so far. So, in my thinking, it comes down to this: Cilantro has a lot going for it. Forget the taste, and go for the healthy profile it offers. I’ve already mentioned the work it does on heavy metals. In addition, it aids digestion (including preventing intestinal gas), and it’s richly packed with flavonoids and phytonutrients, iron and magnesium. You’ve just gotta love those benefits–even if enjoying them means lying to your tastebuds!
If you’re thinking of adding cilantro to your pantry, here are a couple more things to know:
- It comes from the leaves and stems of the coriander plant.
- Cilantro belongs to the carrot family.
- It’s available year-round (sorry, Heather!).
- Cilantro’s a/k/a (also known as) is Chinese parsley.
- It’s used liberally in Asian, Caribbean, and Mexican cooking.
- It takes great in pesto!
- As an essential oil, it bears antibacterial, even fungicidal, properties.
If you’re already thinking ahead to Garden 2012 as we are, cilantro will fit right in. This site gives straightforward, easy gardening instructions for planting the herb.
And finally, eating the herb isn’t the only way to grab onto its benefits. It’s available in liquid supplement form from one of my favorite sources, Herb ‘n Essences. While you’re at their website, sign up for their newsletter.
Cilantro may not be the queen of all herbs, but it has so many health benefits, I plan to keep a bunch of it on hand in our Organic Pantry.
Natalie M. Rotunda's Organic Pantry Blog 
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