Been on a sweet potato kick lately. I have 3 potatoes waiting to get roasted up. I really love the sweetness that roasting them brings out.
I made this pie a couple weeks ago for the restaurant, it seems like people liked it [got a note from a customer asking me to make more].
I used my mom's pumpkin pie recipe and tweaked it a bit. My mom's pumpkin pie is a favorite of our family and friends. It's very creamy and custard-y. I used alway have it as my breakfast the morning after Thanksgiving if there was any leftover. It makes a giant pie--9x13 pan. Lots to share.
I cut the crust amount in half to make it thinner but kept the same amount of filling. So thinner crust, thicker filling. Switched out the pumpkin with oven roasted sweet potatoes, that I mashed with potato masher so not too smooth. If you look at the picture you can see little chunks of potato.
I thought I'd share it with everyone. It's a big pie, should feed 12 to 14 or 10 big slices like we do at the restaurant.
I thought I'd post some of the finish products of my weekend of cooking/baking. This is my zucchini caramelized onion tart.
I got called away yesterday when I was about to start my tart and pie [it was pretty good timing, I had just made the crust and put it in the refrig to rest]. Some friends stopped by the restaurant and went over to have a visit. By the time, I got back home too tired to start up again [stayed a bit at the restaurant, it was busy. Yah!]
Got these beautiful carrots [red, orange and yellow, I'm a sucker for these kinds of veggies] from the farmers market, with some red and orange beets, swiss chard [my favorite)] and a delicata squash and decide to make up some savory goodies for my lunch this week.
Starting out roasting the some of the carrot and beets with olive oil, Herb de Provence, salt and pepper.
I used only 1/3 of the bunch of carrots, so I decide to try making a carrot salad asian-style with the rest.
While the carrots and beets are roasting, I'm caramelizing onions for a zucchini and caramelized onion tart. Someone from work gave me a giant zucchini that I need to use and I found this recipe from One Perfect Bite.
I found my way to One Perfect Bite while I was looking for instructions to make dried apricot jam in crock pot. I bought a big container of dried apricots a while back and I thought I better use it up soon. And loved the apricot jam made this summer. So that's also cooking away at the moment.
The onions are done now and I'm off to make some crust, making up 2 crust, one for the tart and one for an apple sour cream crumb pie from Martha Stewart. Yes, I got some apples from the farmers market. [my eyes are bigger than my stomach]
My kitchen smell amazing at the moment. I'll post some pics of the finish products later.
I'm thinking of trying a stuffed delicata squash with swiss chard [and probably the leftovers of the giant zucchini] and cheese. But that's tomorrow's project. I have a ton of baking and cooking on my list for tomorrow. It's perfect weather for all this cooking. I'm taking advantage when I can.
I know this all sound way too much for one person. But I have all of this great veggies and fruits from the farmers markets and friends that I need to use up. I guess I'll make someone happy when I surprise them with a sampling.
To get some books on CDs for my long commute. I can't remember the last time borrowed something from the library.
Been wanting to get some audiobook for my ride because my commute is getting very old, too long, too much crazy delays, just too much time in the car. And listening to the radio is cutting it these day, with all the political talk on npr and the same roundup on the "new" alternative station [although I'm happy it's back on the air but with my long commute it seems as if their playlist is very limited]
Got two book: Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad [which I started this morning on my ride into work] and The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
These look like they will keep me busy till they are due back. Crazy for the Storm the author story of surviving a plane crash in the mountains. I do like non-fiction so hope this story keeps my interest for the next 4 days [my prediction on how long it will take to go through the 8 disks. Faster if we get a bunch of rainy/stormy days, brings out the slow drivers]. The Calligrapher's Daughter is a very long, [I think 32 disks]. Been on a roll with Asian historical fiction from the bunch of cd my sister past on to me. Thought I'd give this a try. I'll probably find out a lot about Korea that I didn't know.
I hope this borrowing from the library works out for me. Next on my list to borrow: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I know I would never finish reading it [too slow reader/always falling a sleep while I'm reading/would have to re-read too much/my reading list is too long to add another book] but this might just work with my commute. Wish me luck on my new tactic to making my ride a more pleasant.
Sweet Potato Rice Flour Doughnuts to exact. Doughnuts was one of my favorite things until WG said "it's the worst thing you can eat!" These days, I usually just look and wish I could eat one. On a real bad day, if there is a munkin around I'll have that without feeling too guilty of having eaten he worst thing I could eat. But after I saw this recipe I just had to try it. It has so many of my favorite things, doughnuts, sweet potatoes [I had a batch of potatoes in my freezer, a pat on my thrifty self shoulder], the color orange and rice flour [I'm thinking it will have the mochi-chew quality--yummmm].
While doing some research on korean fried chicken, found my way to Beyond Kimchee. I thought I was there to check out her fried chicken recipe but how could I help myself from not stopping to read about sweet potato doughnuts. Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.beyondkimchee.com/sweet-potato-rice-donuts/
The recipe is pretty easy, especially if you already have the potatoes ready. And the frying up is pretty easy as you don't have to cook it as hot as regular deep fried item. See the Beyond Kimchee's comments about oil temp. Got some pictures of my recipe test [yes, I remembered this time].
Pre-doughnuts
I love the color from the potatoes.
Made with rainbow swiss chard and comte cheese. I was so impressed at how it looked and smelled right out of the oven. I used smittenkitchen's leek and mushroom quiche recipe. I sauteed some 1/2 onion, sliced in olive oil and butter. Added the stems first to soften up [the onions turned pink from the red stems], then the leaves, covered to wilt down the leaves. Seasoned with salt and pepper and a dash of fish sauce [the crazy thai influence]. Continued to cook evaporate the some of liquid.
Followed the quiche part recipe pretty close, my dairy was half milk and half heavy cream, use grated comte cheese, about a 1/4 cup and I didn't add the additional butter.
I just had it for my lunch, not too heavy but creamy and just the right amount of saltiness and chard gives a great texture to the quiche. And the crust is flaky and light [I'm glad because I'm still working on my crust]. Maybe if I can find the time [haha], I can make a quiche for the weekend brunch specials.
And I just didn't like it and I have gone back to the simple template minus all the orange. I guess I have to come up with my own design. I've thinking about for a while. And since I've trying to get better at html and css, I guess this is my chance. Stay tune for more rounds of changes [ha ha, just like work].
Since I have your attention I wanted share what I've up to. Nothing earth-shattering, just my normal stuff I've been fitting in between work and the restaurant. The hardest part is to remember to take the pictures [and figuring out the new camera. not liking how the images look].
Knitting
I've trying to make a few things for me [haven't finished anything yet this summer]. Love colors of Koigu PPPM and bought some this earlier this summer in green/orange/pink combination, kind of neon. Making a shawlette, in a kind of simple lace pattern. Thought it was complicated enough to keep my interest and easier enough that I would be lost if [always] put down for a while. I already ripped the whole thing apart once. Second try, I'm using stitch marker to keep track better [yes, I'm using paper clips as markers--at least they're the color ones]. I hope it works.
Cooking
Jam! Been making it all summer for the restaurant, family, friends and a little bit for me. I've been using it in my breakfast yogurt. Luckily I still enjoy doing it. Although this last batch of peach jam, was a bit labor intensive [no more non-freestone peaches for me]. Got 5 half pints and 3 minis. It was really good. I think the combination of the slight tartness of the non-freestone peaches from my friend's tree and the super sweetness of the yellow peaches from the farmers market is what made it so delicious. Just finished a batch of strawberry--customers favorite. And will make another batch of plum this weekend. The last batch of plum I made was so sweet and good. The plums were at the perfect moment to make the jam. I just got some italian plums, I hope this batch turns our just a good or better.
This is a picture of the special dessert we been serving at the restaurant. Strawberry sorbet and Orange "Guri Guri" with fresh fruit. One of the many things that I've been using my ice cream maker for this summer: Ice cream, sorbets and "Guri Guri" [hawaiian-style sherbet]. I think this hot and humid summer had a lot of influence for that. Most of it has been for the restaurant, but I made raspberry ice cream for home with some farmers market raspberries. Been trying to find the time again to make some ice cream for home. Yummmm!
Not to much baking since my family left in the beginning of the summer. Just the staples for the restaurant. I been dying to try out some recipes. Since the weather is getting cooler, it probably a good time to try it. On my list, a chocolate chip cookie that's been calling me, a cinnamon cake with gooey chocolate frosting [which I made this weekend and is sooo delicious] and blueberry cake that I hope taste as good as it looks [I know off season but just found the recipe and it looks so good].
Watching
With all this food making there is a lot of time spent waiting for thing to be done and I've been using that time knitting and catching up on movies and TV that I've missed out on [late joiners to netflix--streaming]. Currently watching Breaking Bad. Once I catch up with that, I'm going to start Downton Abbey.
Monday is a early night, no dinner [yah!] and that's movie night for us. Don't remember what was the last thing we saw in a theater [I think it was Avatar]. So far we've seen: Drive, Mao's Last Ballet Dancer, Captain America, and Super 8. I know they're so old movies but remember what I last movie we saw.
Reading
Like my knitting, I have many books and magazine articles going at the same time. This is the reason why it takes me so long to finish reading a book. But this is what been keeping my interest these days. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, to inspire me to get moving. Just started Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, thought it would be fun summer reading but been slow out the gate. Hope I it gets going soon. And sitting on my night table next to the bed is Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern [End of night reading in bed is bad for me. Always fall asleep and need to re-read the same paragraph over and over].
What I've been really reading is my collection of NYT magazines. Brought a bunch with me on vacation and I'm almost caught up--just 2 more left in the house. Then all them get sent off to my Mom who really enjoys them. The Sunday NYT goes to the restaurant and there must be a fan of the magazine there because for the past several weeks there is no magazine to be found. :(
Well that's it for now. Not bad for a post I started about the design of my blog. One day, I'll tackle that but for now, why fix something that's not broke--sort of.
