Cranberries- a recipe from my mom

Tis the season for Cranberries! My mom always makes a cranberry relish dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It takes a day or two for the flavors to come together, so do it today for Thanksgiving, which is in two days. It can sit for longer than that in the refrigerator- I actually prefer it after 4 or 5 days of the flavors melding. This recipe is super easy and flexible but you do need a food processor.

Ingredients:
1 bag of cranberries (I used 340 grams but any size bag is fine, just adjust the rest of the ingredients)
1 orange
1 apple
1/2 cup to 1 cup of sugar (you decide! Taste it before serving and make sure it isn't too sour.)

Method:
Rinse and sort the cranberries. They should be red, firm and feel hard like an apple. You wouldn't eat a soft apple, would you? Ditch the bad ones and keep the best for the recipe. Place the sorted cranberries, zest of the orange(only the dark orange part, the white bit is bitter- don't use it!), the juice from half the orange, and the apple, peeled and cut into chunks in a food processor.

Process until you are satisfied with the size of the chunks. Here are two examples (I prefer the second one- it has been processed a bit longer and therefore is finer.)

Add 1/2 cup of sugar (or less) and stir to combine. Let sit in the refrigerator at least overnight and preferably for a few days. Taste. Add more sugar if it is too sour.

I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving!

Sunflower Cake: Dina's 4th Birthday

When my daughter born in March explained that she wanted to have a sunflower theme for her 4th birthday I was a little bit worried. Sunflowers? In March? Is that even possible here in NL?

I immediately began planning the cake and even had her make a drawing of what she wanted her cake design to look like.

My drawing of the cake.

Dina's drawing of her cake.

My decision to paint the wall to match the theme was perhaps a bit over the top, since I was 9 months pregnant at the time.

The color yellow we choose made me so happy, however, and I have not regretted it.

The luckiest part of the preparations happened a week before the party. I was at local outdoor market, getting flowers for a friend when I saw SUNFLOWERS for sale, totally out of season. I asked the guy where they were from, "Israel," he said, and his next question was, "Will you buy them? Great deal!" I asked if they would last a week and he suggested I place them in a cold place, in water, then cut them as short as I could manage just before the party. It worked beautifully. I was thrilled to have real sunflowers in March!

Using a 9x13" pan for the base cake and a couple of 6" pans and cupcakes for the flowers, I made her sunflower cake happen.

 (Does it look a bit like Mickey Mouse here? I thought so.)

I made a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling, and basic butter cream frosting. The sunflowers were made with a leaf tip (#68) and a star tip for the top, using a cocoa frosting. The grass and the writing were made with a round tip (#10 and #7). I did not put a base coat on the sunflowers, so you see the chocolate cake through the yellow petals, which I felt made it look more true to life.
The favors were sunflowers, grown from seed in the months before her birthday. I had her take a similar favor to school to give out but in that case it was just seeds, dirt, and a tiny painted pot with a stick holding the center of the invitation design(thanks, Uncle Danny!) and "Dina is 4" on the back.

We also covered our normal framed photos with my photographer husband's best sunflower ones.

We played pin the bee on the sunflower. Thanks, Uncle Danny for the giant sunflower, and Thanks, Samantha for the bees!

Much of the food served looked like sunflowers:

For her school party I made cupcakes- using Oreos as the center of each sunflower and also using round chocolate crunchy sprinkle-type things as well.

 It was a great party and we enjoyed celebrating Dina's fourth birthday! I'm over a year delayed in posting about this- but it was a blast.

Flower Cupcake Bouquet and a Bit of Math

Next week on Tuesday evening at 7:30pm I'm offering a Flower Cupcake Workshop. At the moment there is one spot left- contact me if you'd like to join us. During the workshop, besides learning how to make five different kinds of flowers, everyone will also enjoy snacking on cupcakes. Recently I found this example of a cupcake bouquet and had to try to make my own for the workshop snacking purpose. First, I made a bunch of mini-cupcakes and frosted with buttercream, tip 104 in a carnation style. I experimented with different sized pots and ultimately decided on a mug to hold my bouquet because it was the right size. I needed a nine centimeter foam ball but did not have time to get to a craft store so I cut a florist's block and covered it with two layers of heavy duty tissue paper.

Next, to add to the stability, I filled my Dutch mug with smooth stones because I couldn't find my daughter's glass marbles I was hoping to use.

I cut bar-b-q sticks to size and jammed three into the ball and the other end down into the rocks in the mug. I was worried one stick would not be strong enough.

I cut a stick for each cupcake and, starting with the very top, placed each cupcake by jamming one end of the stick into the green ball and the other (pointy) end into the cupcake.

 I had to reposition some cupcakes after I realized I placed them too far apart. The key to the placement is measuring the diameter of the bottom of the cupcake (for my mini-cupcakes it was 3.5cm) and using half that distance away from the nearest cupcake for the next stick. It feels too close when placing the stick but it works. Incidentally, this cupcake bouquet is not for Tuesday- it is just a test bouquet. I'll make a fresh one the day before the workshop.

 

For the finishing touch I added some leaves using tip 68.

But what about the math, you ask? In determining how big of a foam ball to use, I had to decide how many cupcakes I wanted to display. Since I had made 24, I thought perhaps around 20 or 22 would work (always have extra for the hungry mouths around here.) I only wanted to do about 2/3 of the sphere because 1/3 would be underneath of course, so a 32 faced polyhedron seemed about right. Google gave me this equation:
r=2.48*a
where r is the radius of the sphere and a is side of a six sided polygon (okay it isn't a circle but its close) packed on that sphere(polyhedron- we're being a little fuzzy here).
Pretending for a moment that this polygon is the bottom of the cupcake I used circumfrence = 6*a and then:
rc= 6a/2Pi
Where rc is the radius of the circle or cupcake.
Solving for a yields:
a=rc*Pi/3
Substituting this into the above equation:
r=2.48*rc*Pi/3
My rc (radius of the cupcake) was 1.75cm. Solving for r gave me 4.5cm or a 9cm diameter ball to give me enough room for 22 cupcakes.

I did not have a 9cm ball, however.

Not to be deterred, I had a piece of floral foam which was 7cm on the shortest side so I cut a 7cm block and kept shaving off the corners until it was a ball. I used a total of 16 mini-cupcakes on the 7cm ball. If you feel like doing more math to calculate the equation for a 7cm ball feel free. I'm going to bed.

 There you have it: math and cupcakes.

Samantha's Bridal Shower

 Our dear friends here in The Netherlands, Samantha and Bart, got married last year and I threw Sam a bridal shower. It was a daytime event, on a Sunday, giving me ample cooking/decorating time on Saturday. Sam, herself, created the wedding banner of gold, silver, cream, and white tassels.

The menu plan included several varieties of quiche, tea sandwiches, a cheese board with olives, peppers and crackers, salad, berry cobbler, cannolies, mini-cupcakes, and Prosecco with peach juice and sliced frozen peach garnishes.

I developed this quiche recipe because I had tried many recipes that resulted in soggy centers. It is enough for one 9" normal pie plate, or with extra filling it can be stretched to a deep dish 9" pie. For the shower I made 1.5 times the recipe to fill 8 mini quiches.

Broccoli, Feta, and Leek Quiche
(makes enough for a 9" pie-  3 cups of liquid)
(Other combinations of veggies follow below:)

Ingredients:
1 pre-baked crust (recipe follows)
5 large eggs, beaten
300 ml  heavy cream (1 1/4 cups)
125 g cooked chopped leeks (about 1 cup, I use 2 leeks, white part only, saute in oil)
200 g feta cheese, crumbled (7.5 oz)
188 g chopped broccoli, parboiled (6.5 oz)
salt to taste (1/4 tsp?)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400F/200C. Beat eggs with cream. Place cheese on the bottom of the pre-baked crust, then leeks and broccoli. Cover with beaten egg/cream mixture. Salt to taste.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until barely jiggles in the middle. After 10 minutes of baking, use a crust shield to prevent burning of the crust.
Serve warm, or refrigerate and serve next day, warm each piece on a plate in oven for 5 to 8 min.

Crust Recipe (modified from Joy of Cooking) Makes one 9" pie crust.

Ingredients:
150 g all purpose flour (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
250 g butter, cut into small pieces, cold (best to be in freezer but refrigerator is fine if you are fast)
75-120 ml cold water (1/3 to 1/2 cup)

Directions:
I keep my flour in the freezer and it works great for this recipe, because the ingredients should be as cold as possible. In a food processor, process flour, salt, and sugar until combined. Add butter and process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water, minimum amount and process in five 1 second intervals. Pinch mixture in fingers and see if it sticks together. If not, add more water, a little at a time, until crust sticks together. Place cling-film on counter and place crust crumbs onto cling film. Using edges of film, shape into a disc and wrap tightly with the film. Place in fridge for 1 hour or overnight and then bring out of fridge for about 5 minutes to bring temperature up. Roll into a disc, place into pie plate and trim overhang. Line with foil and place pie weights or dried beans into foil. Bake at 425F/218C for 22 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10' before removing pie weights/foil. Pre-baked crust is now ready for quiche recipe above.

For the quiche fillings at the shower I opted for the following combinations:
Tomato, Basil, & Feta
Shallots(cooked), Bell Peppers, & Dutch cheese
Bacon, Cheddar, & Chives
Bacon, Cheddar, & Thyme

Sam also provided the gorgeous Anthropologie plates for the setting.

The sandwiches served were classic crusts-cut-off and included:
Cucumber
Turkey, Cheddar, & Tomato Pesto
BLTs
Dutch cheese - I use Jong Belegen, which is ripened 8-10 weeks. While this is typically not available in the USA, the Oud, or Old version, Old Amsterdam (or something similar) can be found at my favorite grocery store, Wegmans. The difference is the older cheese is more flavorful, saltier and harder- better for eating with crackers, for example. The younger version of this cheese is perfect for a sandwich. We can't find Muenster or Colby Jack or Provolone cheese here but the Jong Belegen is fabulous for our typical lunch.

 I made berry cobblers and cannolies for dessert along with mini cupcakes in both gold and white wrappers.

The cannoli-filling recipe was from my Godmother and included a brilliant tip to remove the excess water in the creamy-mixture. Poke holes in a plastic lid and place it in the bottom of the bowl. Add your mixture and then let it sit overnight in the fridge. The excess water drains out under the lid!

The filling for these was amazing. Due to time constraints I decided to buy pre-made cannoli shells (imported from Italy!) but I was disappointed with the quality. Next time, I make my own and once I've got a good one, I'll share the recipe.

Once Sam had opened her gifts we made a 'bow-quet' from the bows on the gifts, using a paper plate as the base. She used this on her rehearsal day to walk down the aisle. I had never heard of this tradition until I got married and my friends did this for me.

 Mini-orchids in white candle-holders were the favors for the attendees. And we made a 'quiz-night' style set of pictures of Sam and Bart (and things related to them) for people to guess where or when the photos were taken as one of the games.

Congratulations to Samantha and Bart! Up next: their wedding cake!