Sunday, October 30, 2011

Daring Kitchen -- Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!


This months challenge is done and posted by Locke "The Boy" Parrish. I thought this was a great recipe and truly worthy of being called Daring. I made two loaves, one with the traditional filling and another with just a basic cinnamon sugar filling, using the posted recipe and as you see, they came out great, although the traditional lacked the integrity to be cut thinly. All in all it was fun to roll and bake.


The Traditional on the right and the Cinnamon-Sugar on the left.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Daring Kitchen - Moo Shu Pork

This months challenge was done without "The Boy" due to schedule issues but I had guest sous chef Nancy over to assist.

The October Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

To be honest, I was not all that excited about this challenge. I like Moo Shu pork but really had no desire to make it. Which is a good think about the Daring Kitchen website, it definitely makes you get out of your box.

Making the dough is really easy with the only hiccup on the first pancake which wasn't rolled thin enough. I found you had to almost make them see through to get a decent pancake. Just eating the pancake was not all that exciting but could get a sense of potential.




Sous Chef Nancy did all of the chopping of the vegetables and pork while I made the sauce. I did not put any hot sauce into it to begin with. A couple of taste tests indicated the need. Probably could have put in a little more but it tasted okay. Still wasn't getting a sense that the whole thing was going to come out and was seriously thinking about getting a pizza on the way.




Stir frying everything was incredibly easy and didn't take long. I don't own a wok but a heavy cast iron shallow pot worked very well. Taste test were showing the need for some garlic which was added. Either hunger was getting to us or this stuff was starting to taste pretty darn good. Plated and took pictures than dug into a dish that really works well together. The combination was really better than the sum of the parts.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Asbury St,Houston,United States

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Wicked awesome salad

So the previous dinner was not all that but the starter salad was crazy good. Made some home made dressing that better than anything store bought and then made the salad with fresh greens, cherry tomatoes, manchego cheese and my favorite, bacon. Some cauliflower should up a little later as an impulse. I will definitely be making this again.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston, Texas

The Daring Kitchen -- Croissants


Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

"The Boy" did the croissants on his own and we served with a meal for his grandparents. They took alot of time to rise but the taste was very good. I would have liked them to be fluffier but over all a very good bread.

My part however was a disaster. Cornish hen with roasted vegetables was terrible. One of the worst things I ever cooked. I hope it was just a bad day for me.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston, Texas