Snack Procrastinaire: Coffee&Cream Custard

So now that I'm done butchering the French and English language, let’s get down to it :)

Ever had one of those days when you just don't feel like working? If you're lucky, these days will fall on the weekend when you don't actually need to work. Today is one of those. It's a Sunday and I felt like staying in bed and reading or watching some TV. But what is rest without snacks?

This is something very quick and very yummy. The idea originates from the fact that my mum doesn't like chocolate and I wanted to make a dessert that she could enjoy as well. Went off without a hitch! :)

Coffee and Cream Custard

Metric	Standard	Ingredient
8	8	Eggs (separated)
50g	1/3 cup	Cocoa powder
200g	1 cup	Sugar
300ml	1 1/3 cup	Whipping cream
300ml	1 1/3 cup	Whole milk
2tbsp	2tbsp	Instant coffee
200ml	1 cup	Whipping cream
5 tsp	5tsp	Powdered sugar

In a bowl, mix in the egg yolks, cocoa powder and sugar. Don’t worry if it’s a bit chunky. It won’t be that way for long. In a medium pot, bring the whipping cream and milk to a simmer, then pour it over the yolk mix and add the coffee. I used NesCafe Classic, because it’s yummy, but my point is that you should use granulated coffee and not regular coffee because it won’t dissolve and if you add a cup of prepared coffee, the custard will be too runny. Stir it all in and return to the pot in which you heated the milk. Return to the stove and let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring the whole time. You don’t have to dislocate your shoulder stirring, that is to say, you shouldn’t put too much effort into it. So light but insistent will do :) When the ten minutes pass, remove the custard from the stove and let it cool off a bit while you prepare the cream.

Now this part is completely voluntary and if you don’t want to, you don’t have to use the egg whites, but to me, it seemed a waste to just chuck them. So here goes: With a mixer, beat the living daylights out of the egg whites, until stiff peaks form. The best way to check if they’re done is to turn your bowl upside down (slowly) and if the eggs don’t drip or fall out, you’re done. My dad suggests doing this over your head, so you’ll make double sure you’ve done a good job, so you don’t get egg in your hair. When the egg whites are finished, add the powdered sugar and stir it in gently. In another bowl, mix the cream until it’s firm and then add to the egg whites. Fold in and you’ll get a nice fluffy topping for your custard.

Pour the custard into cups (or one big bowl, if you’re greedy like me :)) and cover with the cream. Now you can get back to watching TV or reading a book and have a nice dessert along with it.

Enjoy!

Canning for Dummies

Canning is usually done in the autumn so I'm starting a bit out of season. This means that getting the right gear is not an option. My mum always used the oven method when processing preserves and explaining to her that a water kettle is needed was…. Meh, who am I kidding? I couldn't convince we need one if my life depended on it. And thus the obscure canning ritual was performed under the cover of darkness, while the mother slept, blissfully unaware of the grim deeds being done a floor below her slumbering form. Mwahahahahahahaha! You'd think I was preserving human brains with the amount of sneaking I had to do.

Anyway, the first thing I made was radish relish. I love radishes and am very sad to see them go when they do, so I thought this would be a good way to keep them. I would like to thank gardenlad of GardenWeb forums for posting the recipe I used. It's pretty straight forward. The major thing was figuring out how to DIY a water bath for my jars. Since the main thing about it was to keep the jars from touching the bottom of the pot, I put in some dish rags in, filled the pot with water and hopefully, it all worked out. Too soon to tell. If the relish spoils I will be sure to make a note of it so that nobody repeats my mistakes!

Also, I got a copy of Canning And Preserving for Dummies. It's a really helpful book, like all for Dummies books. Here is a link to the cheat sheet made for that book. Of course, I can't get my grubby little mits on half of the stuff mentioned in the book. From the water kettles and zesters, to the dehidrators, I can't afford any of this stuff. The idea is to try and make my own spin on it. I know, I know, these methods have been tested and tried and shouldn't be messed with, but what can I say? I'm a gal on a tight (almost non-existant) budget.

I have, however, discovered something that hasn't crossed my mind up until now: DRYING! Drying fruit! I love my muesli, but I hate the raisins inside. If I dried my own fruit, I could make any type of muesli I like! Since the book provides alternatives for cheapskates like myself, case In point, sun drying, I'm also able to pull it off without having to guess my way through it. The first item on the drying menu will probably be blueberries, since they're in season and lovely and big at the local market. I just have to wait for the weather to clear up. It's been shitty all week long. Much like my mood.

And last but not least: For all my efforts in covert canning, I have been banned from the kitchen! Yes, you read it here first, ladies and gents. I have been banned from making any sort of preserves until I pass my exams. Screw you, family, for wanting to take away the one fun thing in my life! Well, I simply won't have it. I'll just sundry stuff on my windowsill so there! :)

White cake

This is a quick little fruit cake that my entire family (consisting of 3 to 8 people) loves and makes me make for every holiday, birthday, big occasion, small occasion. They just, sneakily, leave a bag of raspberries on the kitchen counter. "Hey, mum, so you want cake or what?", I ask, feigning ignorance. "Are you making cake? Really? That would be great, hon, thanks!".

The cake itself is very simple and quick. Takes a half hour to make, tastes great, keeps for days! The photo really doesn't do justice to the yumminess it holds. Read on!

WHITE CAKE RECIPE

Metric	Standard	Ingredient
900 ml	30 oz	Sour cream
1 l	33 oz	Vegetable whipping cream
200 g	7 oz	Sugar
1 kg	2.2 lbs	Raspberries
3	3	Store-bought cake layers

0) If you're using frozen raspberries (or any other berries you like), leave them in a sieve over a bowl and let them thaw and drip. Stir and turn them over from time to time. This will prevent any ice staying in the middle of the bunch of berries, causing them to leak in the cake

1) I can't stress this enough: get a really large bowl (this will be bowl A)! You will need it. In said bowl, whip the cream until it's nice and stiff. The stiffer, the better, actually. Try not to overdo it, though, because you might end up beating the liquid right out of all that milk fat and there's no way to put it back together. If this happens, however, the stuff that remains is great for coffee.

2) In another bowl (aka bowl B), mix in the sugar and sour cream. There is very little sugar in this recipe because the vegetable cream is already sweet, but if you come by whipping cream that is not sweetened, add sugar to taste.

3) Add the contents of bowl B to bowl A. Take a spatula or spoon and carefully fold it all in. Then take a mixer and mix it until it evens out. The sour cream mix has a nasty habit of dropping to the bottom of the bowl. Make sure it evens out.

4) You can use ladyfingers (soaked in a bit of milk), but I'm lazy and the cake layers we have here don't suck, so that is what I use. If you do go with ladyfingers, I would suggest using a pan of some sort with high edges, or a pot or something. So lay down your cake layer (or ladyfinger layer), put some cream mix on it and cover the cream with raspberries. Lay another cake layer over the raspberries and repeat until you run out of ingredients. What I like to do is separate the cream mix into three parts: two for between the cake layers and one for decorating.

5) Stuff the cake into the fridge to settle over night (some 6h should do the trick).

I live in a household of dieters (yeah, right), so I can't tell you the exact number of pieces of cake you can get from this recipe, but it is enough for an entire day of guests coming and going for dad's 80^th birthday.

If you like this recipe, let me know :)

Symphonie in a jar

This is my newest blog. And to think I used to make fun of one of my friend for having multiple blogs. Shame on me! I've started this one out of... desperation. A few weeks ago I decided to stop being friends with a person who had started making my life increasingly uncomfortable. And since he knows my old blogs, I felt a bit wonky about him reading about what I do, even though we parted ways in a not-so-nice way. So I started Voodoo Jammer.

EXPLAINING THE VOODOO

Three months ago my dad (encouraged by my mum) bought me a sewing machine. It's a tiny thing, not complicated, does basic stuff. For those of you who know your machines, it's a Singer 2250 Symphonie. The next logical step was to enroll into a sewing class, which I gladly did. First thing you do in sewing class is a bag. The second thing you do is a pincushion. Once mine was done and all the pins placed in it at strategic point, it reminded me of a tiny voodoo head. Thus the voodoo cushion was born! Could have gone with "acupuncture", but this sounds cooler

EXPLAINING THE JAMMER

I would like to make preserves. There's something about a cupboard full of colorful jars that makes me smile. And every year it's the same: it's too expensive, it's too much work (again, mum), no time, no space. I've decided to start my preserving coup this year. Slowly, I shall sneak stuff in, jar by jar. Pickle by pickle and jam by jam. I know a jammer is not a person who makes jam, but, again, sounded good to me :)

EXPLAINING EVERYTHING ELSE

So this is my getaway blog, my little corner of the internet where no sadness can find me. Sewing and cooking are two things that make me very happy and relaxed. If I discover something along the way, I'll be sure to post it too. There should be recipes, advice, general ignorance (as the good folks of QI would say) and anything I might feel is important. As the welcome message says: Kick back, relax, stay a while. You might like it.

MAKING FRIENDS

I hope this little thing picks up. I would love to hear back from anybody and everybody, so don't be shy. Any questions, comments, just type and send. Also, I could use a beta, if somebody's willing :)