Gingerbread House Inspiration

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We visited a gingerbread house competition at Conner Prairie Interactive History Museum in Fishers, IN. today. We saw some really creative ginger bread houses that I wanted to share on here for inspiration for others. We hope to make our own ginger bread house this year, so we will be using some of these wonderful houses as our inspiration. Congratulations to all of the winners of the ginger bread contest!

 A cute snowman:

Beautiful white ginger bread house:

Roller coaster ginger bread house:

Traditional ginger bread house:

Barn yard ginger bread house:

Candy filled ginger bread house:

Pink ginger bread house:

Detailed ginger bread house:

Headless horseman ginger bread house:

Ship ginger bread:

Whimsical ginger bread house:

Ginger bread Christmas tree:

Hot air balloon ginger bread:

Interior of a ginger bread house:

Large ginger bread house:

I hope you found some of these amazing structures inspiring! I know I was amazed at the creativity and artistic talent of the participants.

Chocolate M&M Sans Rival and Chocolate Custard

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This month was a very special month at our house because Little BBQ turned 5 years old! Little BBQ's favorite candy is M&Ms, so he requested a M&M cake for his birthday. When I went to check what the Daring Bakers challenge was for this month, I saw that the challenge was sans rival which is a Filipino cake made with layers of meringue and butter cream. I thought that this would be the perfect birthday cake for Little BBQ with M&Ms.

Catherine from Munchie Musings challenged us to make a sans rival. My sans rival is not traditional. A traditional sans rival is not chocolate and certainly does not have M&Ms crushed up inside. However, for me the purpose of this challenge was to give Little BBQ a great birthday cake. Little BBQ loved his cake. He tells me that I am now a real cake baker because I made an M&M cake. I guess before I only pretended to make cakes.

I served the chocolate M&M sans rival with a homemade chocolate custard that we served still in the soft serve stage. This is the best custard that I have ever made. I decided to just wing it with the recipe. I wanted to use up all the leftover egg yolks from the sans rival, and I wanted a very creamy custard that would not freeze very hard in the freezer. Fat does not freeze so I used more cream than most custard recipes to produce a creamier and softer frozen homemade chocolate custard. The homemade chocolate custard is very rich, so you only need a small amount of custard to feel satisfied. Little BBQ also loved his homemade chocolate custard that he topped with M&Ms. I think this was his favorite birthday cake that he has ever had.

Ingredients for Sans Rival (serves 12) from Catherine's kitchen

10 large egg whites, room temp
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) cream of tartar
¼ cup (60 ml) (20 gm) (2/3 oz) Dutch processed cocoa (optional and not traditional)
1 cup (240 ml) (120 gm) (8½ oz) chopped, M&Ms
1 cup (240 ml) (120 gm) whole M&Ms (to decorate the sans rival)

Directions:
Note: You will need four layers which will mean that you might have to bake in two batches. Be sure to use fresh parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch.

1. Preheat oven to moderate 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3.

2. Line cake pan bottoms with parchment paper and butter and flour the sides really well.

3. In a large clean, dry glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium until foamy (2 mins.). Sprinkle with cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, continuing to beat now at high speed until stiff shiny peaks form. (about 7-10 mins.)

4. Fold in chopped M&Ms.

5. Divide meringue into four equal parts. Spread in pans, evenly to edges. If doing batches, use fresh
parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch.


6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the meringue from the baking pans while still hot; allow to cool slightly. Peel off the parchment paper while it is still warm, it is difficult to remove sometimes when they have completely cooled.


7. When cool, trim edges so that all 4 meringue layers are uniformly shaped. Set aside.


Ingredients for Chocolate French Buttercream (makes enough for 1 sans rival) from Catherine's kitchen (her blog is located here)


5 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) white granulated sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1¼ cup (300 ml) (2½ sticks) (285 gm) (10 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 oz (55 gm) unsweetened chocolate, melted
Directions:

1. Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed until the yolks have doubled in volume and are a lemon yellow.

2. Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring the sides down only until all the sugar is dissolved and the syrup reaches 235°F/112°C (or thread stage).

3. With the mixer on high, very slowly pour the syrup down the sides of the bowl, until all has been added. Be careful as the very hot syrup could burn you if it splashes from the beaters. Continue beating on high until the mixture is ROOM TEMPERATURE (about 15 mins). Still on high, beat in the soft, room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time. Add chocolate after you beat in the butter. Refrigerate the buttercream for at least an hour, and whip it smooth just before you use it.

Assembly:

Set bottom meringue on cake board with a dab of butter cream to hold it in place. Spread a thin layer of buttercream and then place another meringue on top. Repeat with a thin layer of buttercream, meringue, thin layer of buttercream, meringue, and finally buttercream the top and sides. Decorate with M & Ms.

Chocolate Custard from my kitchen

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup powder sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 egg yolks, whisked
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Mix the melted chocolate, milk, and cream in a saucepot over medium heat.

2. Mix in the sugar, cocoa, and salt to the warm mixture. Stir frequently. The mixture should be smooth and small bubbles should be rising to the top of the chocolate mixture.

3. Scoop out 2 tbsp of the chocolate base into a small bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks. You do not want to add the egg yolks to the entire chocolate base at one time because the eggs will curdle.

4. Mix the egg mixture back into the chocolate base.

5. Stir in the chocolate base frequently over medium heat until the chocolate base becomes thick and reaches 170 degrees F.

6. Cool the hot chocolate base by placing the mixture in the refrigerator until fully cool.

7. Mix the vanilla into the chocolate base.

8. Place the chocolate base in an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions. Or place the mixture in a freezer safe bowl and freeze. Every 20 minutes remove the custard from the freezer and stir. Continue to stir the custard every 20 minutes until the custard is fully frozen.

9. Store in a freezer safe container and serve with M&Ms.











Fall Spice Play Dough

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At our Halloween/El Dia De Los Muertos party we had fall spiced play dough on the toddler table. This soft dough smelled amazing. This is a great sensory project for young children. Playing with play dough will help young children build their finger strength and the wonderful fall scents will permeate the room leaving your house smelling fabulous while the kids play. This play dough was originally called pumpkin spice play dough on the blog, Adventures of a DIY Mom, but there is no pumpkin in the recipe, so I changed the name to fall spiced play dough since I have seen several recipes that use pumpkin puree in their play dough recipe.

This dough will last several weeks in an air tight container. We have been playing with the fall spiced play dough in our house almost every day. The dough is still soft and fragrant. One mom at our party joked that she should put the playdough on her kitchen stove to make her house smell amazing. This dough would be great anytime during the fall season including Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Fall Spiced Play Dough from Adventures of a DIY Mom

1 c all purpose flour
1/2 c salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1c warm water
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized saucepot.
2. Heat the mixture over medium heat while stirring constantly until a ball is formed.
3. Allow the dough to cool for 2-3 minutes.
4. Knead the dough until soft.
5. Enjoy!

Butter Free Cajun Injected Fried Turkey with a Cajun Dry Rub

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At 9 am this morning there was someone pounding at my front door. I look to see whom is pounding on the door. I do not recognize the person, so I carefully open the front door. The man in a t-shirt and jeans with a jacket does not introduce himself. He looks like an undercover FBI agent that you would see in a movie that just sits outside of your house watching to see if someone deserves security ...clearance. He just asks where Michael is located. I tell him he is at work. He tells me that Michael is supposed to be frying a turkey right now. I ask the man at the door what is his name. As it turns out he is a VP of another department at Mike's work. I ask him if he checked Mike's office. He gives me a blank stare. I told him that he is probably helping a coworker with an instrument before he leaves to fry the turkey. As the VP nervously stares from my front porch looking for Mike I call Mike's office. I talk to Mike's tech. He informs me that Mike is on the way home to fry the turkey. The VP informs me that it does not take that long to get to our house. After 20 minutes of the VP calling and e-mailing every single person in his department to go find Mike, Mike shows up at the door. Where had the man of the hour been located all morning when the VP went on a man hunt to go look for him? In his office working!


Dr. Lazy Palate and I made an awesome fried turkey! Dr. Lazy Palate was very weary of injecting the turkey with anything. He was worried because one his coworkers told him that he has never made a good fried turkey that was injected because the flavoring was always in pockets inside the turkey and not actually infused throughout the turkey. I had to do a lot of convincing to Dr. Lazy Palate to let me inject the turkey with my homemade Cajun seasoning. Dr. Lazy Palate had told me that his coworker suggested that I only inject half the turkey and leave the other half of the turkey plain. However, after my odd incident with the VP from another department, Dr. Lazy Palate told me that I could do whatever I wanted to the turkey.

In the end, everyone was glad that I was stubborn and injected the whole turkey with flavoring. I also did a dry rub on the outside of the turkey to produce a very flavorful skin that was crispy, slightly spicy, and delicious. The meat of the turkey was moist and full of flavor. This turkey was for Dr. Lazy Palate’s work. I asked Dr. Lazy Palate to sneak me a small piece of turkey home for me to try since I helped make the turkey. Dr. Lazy Palate was barely able to bring me home a small piece of turkey because everyone loved the turkey. There was not much left of the 16 pound turkey for me to sample the leftovers. I was delighted that the turkey went over so well. Dr. Lazy Palate said that three people shook his hand and told him that he did well on the turkey which is rare feat at his work since there is a very diverse range of tastes at his work.

To make an awesome fried turkey, I used a syringe and the largest needle that I could find to inject the flavoring directly into the bird. For needles, there is a number called a gauge. The larger the number the smaller the needle, so a 35 gauge needle is smaller than a 20 gauge needle. You want the smallest gauge number that you find to inject your turkey. I decided not to use a butter sauce to inject inside the bird because I did not want a greasy bird. Instead I used a lighter broth based infusion that produced a moist but not greasy fried turkey. To prevent pockets of flavor, I massaged the turkey gently in between each injection. Additionally, I gently peeled the back skin and injected the flesh of the meat directly instead of puncturing the skin. I did not want to break into the skin. Instead I left the skin whole so the skin would get nice and crunchy. I made it a point to inject all the different parts of the flesh of the turkey including the breast, legs, and wings. Lastly, I made sure that the turkey was perfectly dry before adding the dry rub. You want a dry turkey to prevent oil from splattering everywhere when you gently place the turkey inside the fryer. I was very liberal in coating the turkey with the dry rub. I made sure to get the entire skin covered in the dry rub. Ideally you should do all this the night before, but we did not get our turkey until the morning of the event so we lost a little potential flavor, but if you find yourself with an unprepared turkey the morning of your event, don’t worry about it. You can still enjoy a moist and flavorful fried turkey.

Now that the turkey is prepped the easy party comes, cooking the turkey. The oil should be preheated to 350 degrees. In the fryer that we used, the peanut oil took 20 minutes to heat up. You want to use oil that is neutral tasting with a high flash and smoking point like peanut oil. Olive Oil has a low smoking point and flash point, so olive oil is a terrible choice to fry a turkey and not to mention terribly expensive. Oils with a low flash point can set on fire. I would recommend having a fire extinguisher handy just in case your fryer goes up in flames which is rare, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Keep the fryer on a flat surface. We fried the turkey on our flat driveway. Many people fry their turkey on the grass, but you want to make sure that the ground is very level if you chose to fry your turkey on grass.

Very gently and slowly lower the turkey into the oil. You do not want to just toss your turkey into the fryer. You want to be gentle and coax the turkey into the oil slowly to prevent the oil from splattering everywhere. Dr. Lazy Palate wore some very heavy duty heat resistant gloves to handle the hot turkey. You want to keep kids and pets away from the hot oil. Pets in particular maybe attracted to the wonderful smelling turkey, but hot oil can seriously harm them so this would be a good time to keep the family pet inside the house. Once you lower your turkey into the oil, you do not start your cooking time until the temperature of the oil has increased back to 350 degrees F. In the fryer that we used the oil took about 8 minutes to increase back in temperature. As a side note, our fryer had a timer that did not allow your gas to be on for more than 15 minutes so we constantly had to turn the gas back on to keep the temperature steady. To fry a turkey up to 12 pounds, fry for 3 minutes per pound. To fry a turkey large than 12 pounds, fry for 3.5 minutes per pound. Our turkey was 16 pounds so we fried the turkey for 56 minutes. After the turkey is done frying gently lift the turkey out of the fryer and let the oil drip off of the turkey before you place it on your platter. Once you place your turkey on the platter resist the urge to dig in right now. Instead you should cover the turkey for 20 minutes and let the turkey rest. This will produce a full cooked and juicy turkey that is ready to eat.

After you oil has cooled, you can filter the oil and reuse the oil again a few more times. The oil will remain good for 6 months inside a sealed container.

Ingredients for Butter Free Cajun Turkey Injection Solution

2 cups of chicken or pork broth (you want a neutral tasting broth; I used homemade pork broth)
2 tbsp Worchester sauce
2 tbsp hot sauce
2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp smoked paprika

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well. You want to make sure that there are no spicy clumps that can clog your needle.

2. Inject your turkey.

Ingredients for Cajun Dry Rub

3 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp fine grain salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
½ tsp file powder
½ tsp celery seed
Pinch ground all spice

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl, and mix well.

2. Generously rub the spices all over the turkey.

Want to see some step by step instructions? Here are some tutorials from around the web:
 
Brian's Belly: Long step by step tutorial with pictures
You Tube Video on How to Deep Fry a Turkey (about 30 minutes long)
How to Fry a Turkey including charts on the moisture loss in deep fried vs roasted turkeys
Another You Tube Video on How to Fry a Turkey (short about 4 minutes long)
Long picture less tutorial on how to fry a turkey

Posted on Your Recipe, My Kitchen, Made By You Monday, Mouth Watering Monday, Market Yourself Monday, Melt in your mouth Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Mangia Monday, This Week's Cravings

Cajun Spiced Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

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I love pumpkin seeds. I adore the earthy, nutty taste of pumpkin seeds. I am usually really basic with my pumpkin seed roasting and just use salt to season my pumpkin seeds, but this I decided to make some flavored pumpkin seeds. I adore Cajun seasoning, and there is not a single Cajun restaurant in my town, so if I want Cajun food, then I need to make it myself.

I thought Cajun flavored pumpkin seeds sounded really good. I liked the idea of a very mildly spicy pumpkin seed that I could serve at our Halloween party. I thought that the thyme complimented the earthy flavor of the pumpkin seeds well and the filé powder added a fun kick to the seeds and transformed them from ordinary to extra ordinary.

Ingredients

2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp thyme
pinch filé powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
pinch all spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp sweet paprika
Seeds from 1 pumpkin, washed

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, mix the oil and spices.
3. Coat the pumpkin seeds with the spice mixture. You can do this by simply stirring in a few seeds at a time in the bowl or you can place the seeds and spiced in a sealed plastic bag and toss the bag a few times to coat the seeds.
4. Spread the seeds on to a cookie sheet in a single layer.
5. Bake the pumpkin seeds for 10-15 minutes or until brown.

Posted on Midnight Maniac Meatless Monday

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Coated Apples

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I took a little break from blogging about the Halloween party food to post my exploration on cooking with tea in Daring Cooks. Now I will resume my blogging about the vegan Halloween party food. Another popular item that I made for the party was vegan chocolate peanut butter coated apples. Like the vegan peanut butter apples, these apples were very simple to make and do not require a thermometer.

Also like the vegan peanut butter coated apples, the chocolate peanut butter shell does not dry hard on the apples. The coating is soft but not mushy. I did not have any trouble with the vegan chocolate peanut butter shell falling off the apples. These apples were popular with vegans and nonvegans at the party. Both kids and adults could not resist the allure of chocolate plus peanut butter and apples. I really liked these too. They were not as sweet tasting as the caramel apples because chocolate is inherently bitter. I would recommend these apples for anyone whom does not want to go through the large amount of work to make caramel coated apples.

Ingredients (makes 8-10 apples)


8-10 tart apples, I used Winesap
8-10 popsicle sticks
parchment paper
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Directions

1. Insert the popsicle sticks into the tops of the apples.

2. Heat the corn syrup, peanut butter, and cocoa powder in a pot over medium heat. Stir frequently until the solution becomes smooth and silky.

3. Remove the peanut butter from the heat.

4. Dip the apples in the peanut butter and rotate.

5. Place the apples on parchment paper in the refrigerator to set.

6. Serve within a few days.

Posted on Whatever Goes Wednesday, What's Cooking Wednesday, Penny Pinching Party, These Chicks Cook,Slightly Indulgent Tuesday,  Tasty Tuesday,

Peurh Tea Infused Crockpot Pot Roast and Chai Tea Infused Sprouted Chickpeas

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This month Daring Cooks decided to venture into the world of tea! This is one of my favorite topics. I adore teas of all classes. Fine tea is like fine wine. There is a method to drinking and appreciating tea that goes beyond buying little bags and throwing it in hot water. Below I am going out line tea drinking basics, and then I will go into detail about one class of tea, Puerh tea, that is relatively unknown to most Americans. Lastly, I will end the post with two recipes using tea. (Sarah from Simply cooked challenged us to make a recipe using tea. I have already made Chinese tea eggs here, so I made two new recipes in this challenge.)


There are six different classes of tea: green, oolong, yellow, black, white, and peurh tea (also called “Dark Tea”.) China produces all six classes of tea and Yunnan providence is the birth place of tea. Locally, in the United States there is one tea plantation located outside of Charleston, SC (to read about my experience there click here.) There are a few other regions of the world where tea is produce, but on the whole tea is a gift from the Chinese.

To fully appreciate tea, you must take your time and follow these simple steps to develop your own personal tea profile. First, look at the color of the tea. Some teas will be dark and others will be pale. Some teas will have a red tint and others will be almost colorless. Take in the rainbow of tea colors. Second, close your eyes and take a large whiff of the aroma of tea. Some words that you may use to describe your tea are earthy, bitter, sweet, strong, powerful, and organic. Many other words might come to mind as you take in the aroma of the tea. Next after you tea has cooled enough for you to hold it on your tongue, take a healthy sip. Hold the tea in your mouth on top of your tongue and let your taste buds enjoy the complex flavors of tea. Some words that you may use to describe the taste of tea include smooth, rich, bitter, rich, sweet, and bold. Lastly, swallow your tea and enjoy the after taste of the tea. Some teas will leave you with a lingering sweet aroma. Like wine, I may find one tea amazing and you may think it is awful. Tea drinking is very individual like drinking wine. Follow your own tastes and drink tea that tastes great to you and not what an “expert” tells you should enjoy.

Now that you know how to taste the tea you are probably wondering how to make the perfect tea at home. Many people and restaurants alike use water that is the improper temperature to brew tea. Using water that is too hot will produce bitter tea and using water that too cool will not extract out the entire flavor from the tea leaves. Below is a list on the proper brewing temperature and steeping times of different types of tea:

1. Green: 150-160 degrees F steeped for 2-4 minutes

2. Oolong: 190 degrees F steeped for 5-8 minutes

3. Yellow: 150-160 degrees F steeped for 2-4 minutes

4. Black: 212 degrees F steeped for 3-5 minutes

5. White: 180 degrees F steeped for 4-6 minutes

6. Peurh: 212 degrees F steeped for 30 seconds*

*Peurh tea can be steeped many times if high quality leaves are used. I have steeped some Peurh tea leaves up to 17 times. I gave the first steeping time in the list above. Each steep requires a long amount of time. The last steep is usually a few minutes long.

The tea that I want to focus on this blog post is Peurh tea which is my favorite type of tea. Peurh tea is earthy, bold, slightly sweet, and full of body. One of our Chinese friend’s introduced us to Peurh tea a few years ago. Our friend owned a tea shop in China, and this was his favorite tea as well. The first time that we had Peurh tea, our friend went through a long tea ceremony using his ceramic tea kit. Our friend took the Puerh tea and rinsed it twice with boiling water. He poured the rinse into a wood box under the tea set. Then he started the actual steeping process. The amazing part about the Peurh tea was that it steeped within seconds. The first steep was very strong and earthy. The tea was dark brown. The second steep was lighter and the sweetness of tea came forward more. The third steep was my favorite. I felt that the earthiness was balanced with a nice meaty flavor and a hint of sweetness. Our first experience with Puerh tea lasted 17 steeps. The tea was so high quality that both Dr. Lazy Palate and I got a euphoric feeling after drinking the tea. The euphoria was not a drunk euphoria experienced with alcohol. Instead this euphoria was very pleasant and relaxing. Both Dr. Lazy Palate and I were in love with the elusive Peurh tea.

Peurh tea can also be referred to as Pu-erh or Pu erh in the English translations. Peurh tea comes the Yunnan providence which is in southwest China. The Yunnan is a sub-tropical plateau region that harbors these special tress (p 21). The unique climate of Yunnan allows for drastic changes in daily temperature yet not distinguishable seasonal temperature changes paired with heavy rains during the wet season make this an idea climate for Peurh trees (p 21). Peurh trees like a loose soil with a pH of 4.5-5.5 with a high mineral content (p 22). Most Puerh is grown on the six famous tea mountains that include Mount Youle, Gedenge, Yibang, Mangzhi, Manzhuan, and Mansa (p 23). Puerh tea produced from these six mountains is the most highly regarded by collectors. There are another four lesser known mountains where peurh tea can be grown as well known as Nannuo, Bulang, Xiding, and Bada (p 24). Some “peurh” tea can be grown in Vietnam, but most collectors do not recognize “peurh tea” from this region as real peurh tea (p 29). I have never had tea from this region, so I am not sure how the taste differs from true peurh tea. Some vendors will also mix tea leaves from other regions and charge the high prices that authentic peurh tea can command, so care needs to be taken when purchasing peurh tea.

To try and help peurh tea drinkers, the Bureau of Standard Measurement of Yunnan Province established the official definition of peurh tea as, “products fermented from green tea of big tea leaves picked within Yunnan province” (p 29). To make matters more complicated Peurh tea can be naturally fermented or “raw” or the tea can be artificially fermented which is called “ripe” or “Shou tea” (pp34-40). The raw version takes 20-30 years to reach maturity and can fetch a very high price on the market. For people with a slimmer pocket book, the artificially fermented teas produce excellent tasting results that are close but not identical to the naturally aged products and only take a few months. Peurh tea can be sold either loose or packed into cakes. Collectors will often collect naturally fermented cakes and there is an entire book written for beginning Peurh tea collectors called, First Step to Chinese Peurh Tea by Chan Kam Pong. I high recommend this book for anyone interested in Peurh tea. This book is one our favorite books on our book shelf. We find ourselves frequently thumbing through the book to admire the beautiful tea cakes and when they were manufactured. If you want to see a private collection of a Peurh tea collector, then please visit Cloud’s tea collection.

Most of our tea is artificially fermented and packed into small cakes suitable for small servings. We adore our Peurh tea collection, but we are very careful to buy our Peurh tea from trusted sources. I recommend finding a Chinese friend whom can give you a personal recommendation of a good vendor in your area.

As much as I love Peurh tea, I have never cooked with Peurh tea. Dr. Lazy Palate and I wanted to see if cooking with Peurh tea could produce the wonderful euphoric effect that we experience by drinking Peurh tea, so we decided to combine two of Dr. Lazy Palate’s favorite things: meat and Peurh tea into a single pot roast. We took Peurh tea and slow cooked a chuck roast, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots in a five quart crockpot to produce an excellent dinner with awesome earthy flavor. We decided to forgo lots of seasoning in order to fully appreciate the flavor of Peurh tea infused in the meat. We are glad that we let the Peurh tea shine. The meat came out earthy, rich, and slightly sweet with a hint of a honey flavor coming through. We did experience a very mild euphoric feeling from eating the meat that lasted a mere few minutes (compared to hours that we have experienced by drinking high quality peurh tea).

For my second tea dish, I decided to make sprouted chickpeas infused with chai tea. I decided to sprout the beans to increase the digestibility of the beans and to reduce the flatulence produced after eating beans. The chai beans were earthy and spicy. I loved all the wonderful flavors of the chickpeas. I was under the weather when I made these beans, and these beans helped to clear my runny nose. I ate these spicy beans with a small dollup of yogurt to get a nice cooling effect too balance the spicy beans. Also, I experienced no flatulence after eating these beans, so this is an excellent recipe for those who work in a cubical and want to eat beans during lunch. My kitchen smelled wonderful while cooking these beans. My kitchen smelled like an Indian restaurant which was great.

For chai tea infused sprouted chickpeas: Pin It

I loved both of these recipes. Dr. Lazy Palate loved the pot roast recipe, but he found the beans too spicy.

For more information on peurh tea please visit:
Cloud's Tea Collection 
First Step to Chinese Puerh Tea by Chan Kam Pong

For more information on sprouting beans please visit:
Free Nutrition Guides and Articles
Primal Seeds

Peurh Tea Infused Crockpot Pot Roast (serves 6)

2 tbsp canola oil
5 lbs Chuck Roast
2 sweet potatoes, sliced
4 fingerling potatoes
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, chopped
1 onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups Peurh tea (I used the first and second steeps)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in large skillet.

2. Sear the chuck roast on all sides. Do not cook the meat all the way through.

3. Place all the ingredients in a 5 quart crockpot.

4. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or on low for 8-10 hours.

5. Serve warm.

Chai Tea Infused Sprouted Chickpeas (serves e 4 side servings)inspired by We Gotta Eat

½ pound dried chickpeas
4 tbsp black tea leaves
5 star of anise
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, minced
¼” piece of ginger, minced
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 hot peppers, finely sliced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground turmeric
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp of yogurt to garnish

Directions

1. Soak the chickpeas in 4 cups of cold water over night.

2. Drain the water from the beans and rinse under cold water.

3. Place the beans in a linen bag. Hang the bag to allow any excess water to drain out of the bag.

4. Rinse the beans every 12 hours and place them back in the bag until sprouted. The sprouts should not be bigger than your bean, but I let mine go too long and got crazy sprouts in about 16 hours.

5. Boil 2 cups of water and brew the tea for 5 minutes.

6. Remove the tea leaves from the water.

7. Add the beans and the rest of the ingredients except for the lime juice and yogurt to the pot.

8. Simmer the beans for 1 hour.

9. Using a slotted spoon, place the beans in a bowl and splash with lime juice. Garnish with yogurt and fresh green onions. Serve warm.

All refrences from First Step to Chinese Puerh Tea by Chan Kam Pong.

Posted on These Chicks Cook, Whatever Goes Wednesday, What's Cooking Wednesday, Penny Pinching Party

Vegan Peanut Butter Coated Apples

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After my successful but stressful attempt at making vegan caramel apples, I decided to make my life easy and go for a simple coating for my next round of apples. This vegan peanut butter coating is very simple. Just heat until the peanut butter solution is smooth and silky and coat the apples. No thermometer needed. No viscous stirring or begging your stove to cooperate.

The vegan peanut butter coating does not dry hard. Instead it drys soft, and it does not run off the apple. If you are a fan of apples with peanut butter, then this vegan peanut butter coated apple will hit the spot. This apple is sweeter than your apple with peanut butter snack, but it is not store bought candy apple sweet (I find the red store bought candy apples too sweet.)

These apples were also a big hit at the party with both the young kids and adults. I think peanut butter and apples is one flavor combination that most people tend to enjoy, so this is a good bet for parties if no one has a nut allergy.

Ingredients (makes 8-10 apples)

8-10 tart apples, I used Winesap
8-10 popsicle sticks
parchment paper
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup smooth peanut butter

Directions

1. Insert the popsicle sticks into the tops of the apples.
2. Heat the corn syrup and peanut butter in a pot over medium heat. Stir frequently until the solution becomes smooth and silky.
3. Remove the peanut butter from the heat.
4. Dip the apples in the peanut butter and rotate.
5. Place the apples on parchment paper in the refrigerator to set.
6. Serve within a few days.

Posted on These Chicks Cook, Whatever Goes Wednesday,Penny Pintching Party

Vegan Caramel Apples

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In my adventure into vegan cooking I decided to try my hand at vegan caramel apples which is funny because caramel and I are not best friends. I can begrudgingly make caramel. I am always envious of people who make these fabulous caramel sculptures. I have never been one of these people, so it is kind of counter intuitive that I would make vegan caramel apples. Talk about a double whammy: caramel and vegan.


Despite my reservations about vegan caramel apples I trudged on and gave the apples my best shot. My stove barely made it to the needed temperature for the solution to turn from white to the pretty caramel color needed to coat the apples. I found myself saying, “Come on increase in temperature! Please?” Finally my stove cooperated and the temperature of the candy rose and the caramel turned a nice brown color. I had to put my stove on full blast to get this recipe to work. My stove is nothing special. It is a baseline model in a rental unit, so I am pretty sure that most stoves will work for this recipe if you are patient.

As skeptical as I was about this vegan caramel apples recipe, I have to admit that this was the best caramel that I have ever tasted. The coconut milk adds a hint of sweet coconut flavor and a nice subtle scent of coconut. The vegan caramel does not dry hard instead it dries soft and chewy. The only problem that I had with the caramel was that it slid down the apples after I dipped them in the caramel. I tried putting them in the refrigerator, but some of the apples still experienced a lot of sliding. For the worst offenders, I just peeled off the vegan caramel and reheated the vegan caramel until it was soft and ready to be re-dipped. After two tries I could all the apples to cooperate.

These vegan caramel apples did not last long on the table. The youngest kids in the group gobbled these apples up quickly. The joke between Dr. Lazy Palate and I was that one toddler had a new vegan caramel apple every time we saw her.

If you plan to make these for a party, I would not get too carried away with making these really far in advance because I am not sure how long they will last. I made mine one day in advance and that seemed like an ideal make a head time. Any longer and I worried the apples would not have looked as fresh.

Vegan Caramel Apples (makes about 8 apples) modified from The Weekly Adventures of an Ordinary Girl

8 tart apples (I used Winesap apples)
8 popsicle sticks
1 sheet of parchment paper
3 tbsp margarine like Earth Balance Butter
2 cups sugar
800 mL full fat coconut milk (two cans)
1 cup corn syrup
Thermometer (this will increase the accuracy of your caramel making but you could probably eye ball it if you are good at making caramel)
Large bowl of ice water

Directions

1. Insert the popsicle sticks into the apples and place the apples on the parchment paper.

2. Heat the margarine, corn syrup, and coconut milk over high heat.

3. Stir the mixture constantly. If you stop stirring the vegan caramel, then the vegan caramel will likely burn.

4. Continue to heat the vegan caramel until the temperature reaches 248 degrees F. It took about 30 minutes for my caramel to become hot enough.

5. Remove the caramel from the heat as soon as your thermometer reads 248 degrees F. Place the pot in the ice bath and quickly begin to dip and rotate your apples to coat them completely. Place the finished apples on the parchment paper. Placing the caramel in an ice bath will prevent your vegan caramel from burning, and I find that slightly cooling the caramel just a bit makes it easier to coat the apples. You can always reheat the caramel if you find that you waited too long to coat your apples.

6. Enjoy your apples within a day.

Posted on Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Delectable Tuesday,These Chicks Cook

Whole Wheat Vegan Pumpkin Bread

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Being in a homeschooling group with lots of vegans has pushed me to expand my culinary boundaries. This time I attempted whole wheat vegan pumpkin bread. Making this vegan pumpkin bread was surprisingly easy. The bread was very moist and a big hit at the party. I had several guests who could not stop eating the vegan pumpkin bread. Vegans and nonvegans alike enjoyed this very moist whole wheat vegan pumpkin bread.

I think this was my favorite dish at the party. I could see myself making this whole wheat vegan pumpkin bread even for a nonvegan celebration or just to have around our house. The whole wheat vegan pumpkin bread was sweet, moist, and flavorful. The fresh ginger root did not overwhelm the pumpkin bread and the addition of walnuts gave the bread a nice crunch sprinkled through out.

The only trouble that I incurred while making the bread was that the center of the bread never seemed to be fully cooked. When I inserted a toothpick in the middle, the toothpick always came out wet. I cooked the bread an hour and 10 minutes which is 20 minutes longer than the recommended amount. My toothpick never came out clean. However, when the bread cooled, the center was fully cooked and the bread was wonderful. I asked one of my vegan friends whom bakes a lot, and she told me that she found this to be common with vegan baked goods. She told me that she particularly has trouble with her brownies never having a fully cooked center when hot but then they turn out fine when cooled. She told me she routinely bakes her vegan goodies for longer than recommended on recipes, so I am guessing that this could be a pitfall of vegan baking.

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf) modified from Prevention RD

1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
1/4" piece of ginger root, minced

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup of water
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used fresh pumpkin puree but you can used canned)
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

3. In a small bowl, mix the ginger root, canola oil, pumpkin puree, applesauce, and water.

4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients in the large bowl. Mix well.

5. Add the flax seed and walnuts to the batter, and mix well.

6. Grease a loaf pan and pour the batter in the pan.

7. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the center is cooked all the way through. (I baked my bread an hour and ten minutes and my toothpick never came out clean. The bread began to get brown around the edges so I pulled the bread out of the oven and the bread was fine after it cooled. The bread turned out to be fully cooked in the center after I allowed the bread to cool.)

Posted on Your Recipe, My Kitchen, Made By You Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Market Yourself Monday, Melt In Your Mouth Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, These Chicks Cook, Ingredient Spotlight: Baking Spices, Perfectly Pumpkin Contest

Vegan Friendly Halloween and El Dia De Los Muertos Party

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We very rarely throw parties in our family, but this year we decided to host our homeschool group for a Halloween party. To add my own twist I decided to make the party an El Dia De Los Muertos party as well because I loved the Mexican holiday The Day of the Dead when I lived in Texas. El Dia De Los Muertos is a Mexican holiday that commemorates those that have passed. On November 1st people all over Mexico remember children who have passed away and on November 2nd Mexicans remember adults who have passed away. The holiday is a time to remember those whom have passed away and to keep the ancestors alive. Indigenous people of Mexico believe that their loved ones join them here on Earth on this special day. Families make elaborate altars (called ofrendas in Spanish) in their homes for their loved ones. People decorate their alters with flowers (usually marigolds called cempasuchil in Spanish), sugar skulls, el pan de muerto (a bread shaped like a little boy or girl), fruit and trinkets that represent things that the deceased may have enjoyed. For example, a loved on that played soccer (called fútbol in Spanish) may have a soccer ball placed on their alter. Alters for deceased children (called angelitos in Spanish) may contain toys and chocolate. Offerings for adults may include shots of tequila and cigarettes. Families go all out for this celebration. Some families will spend approximately 2 months worth of income on El Dia De Los Muertos celebration; in return for a big celebration and a revitalization of the spirit through gifts and a party the spirits are supposed to bring good luck to the family.*

For our celebration I made a plethora of vegan friendly foods including a bean free vegan chili to accommodate all the dietary needs of everyone in the group. Additionally, I asked each family to bring a side dish to go along with the chili. I also provided activities for the kids. Our group has toddlers to high school students in the group since the entire family joins our homeschooling group and not individual kids, so the challenge for me as the party planner was to have activities for all levels. For the older kids we made necklaces made of marigolds from my garden and we decorated sugar skulls. For the younger kids, I made pumpkin spice play dough and had a Q-tip skeleton craft project ready for any little hands that wanted to participate. Over the next few weeks I plan to blog about the recipes and activities from our party. I hope you come back to view all the wonderful food and activities that we enjoyed. For now here is a peak at our party food and activities.The pot luck table minus the chili, cornbread, and apple cider before the other pot luck items came in:

Vegan pumpkin bread:

Vegan caramel apples:

Vegan chocolate peanut butter apples:

Vegan peanut butter apples:

Cajun spiced roasted pumpkin seeds:

Vegan pumpkin chili with corn husk corn bread:

What was left of the apple cider at the end the party:

Fall leaf candles for decoration:

The kids decorated sugar skulls:

The kids made marigold necklaces fresh from my garden:

I set up a toddler table with activities for the youngest members of the group:

Q-tip skeletons:

Pumpkin Spice Playdough:

*For more information on El Dia De Los Muertos please visit:

Reign Trading Co: Mexican Sugar Skulls

Day of the Dead History

Teacher packet for El Dia De Los Muertos

Day of the Dead Food

Day of the Dead History and Orgins including a short video clip

Video on the Day of the Dead in Spanish (great for a Spanish class)

Posted on Friday Flair, I'm Loving it, Foodie Friday, Flaunt it Friday, Simple Lives Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday,

As an added bonus this week, Chef Jeff author of the book Dinner Revolution has sent me a link for my readers to get a free e-copy of his newest cookbook. This is a sneak peak or as he calls it a version 2.0 that is previewing right now in select venues before he publishes version 3.0. The 3.0 version will sell for $27, so it is worth it to get your free copy now. Chef Jeff's recipes are made with less than 10 ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to prepare. All the recipes are healthy and do not require processed foods like canned cream of chicken soup. I can not wait to try the linguine with sun dried tomato sauce. So stop on by and pick up a free sneak peak now.