My First Grilled Cheese Sandwich was made of Goat Cheese

Tonight was a night of firsts.  I’d like to say something more dramatic, something like tonight was the night that changed everything, tonight was the night it all began, but I really don’t have anything more than tonight was a night of firsts.

First, I had my very first grilled cheese sandwich.  Of course, I couldn’t have a normal grilled cheese sandwich made out of American cheese and white Wonder bread.  Oh no, I couldn’t be that normal – that would be boring.  Instead, my very first grilled cheese sandwich was a Grilled Goat Cheese and Plum Jam Sandwich with a side of Endive and Marinated Cucumber Salad courtesy of Blue Apron.

The second first of the night – we lost the shallot!  We had pulled all of the ingredients out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter before we started cooking.  We looked and looked for the shallot.  I was looking for an onion looking kind of thing, but I had it in my head that a shallot looked more like green onions – probably because I never actually have a real shallot and instead substitute green onions in any recipe that calls for it.  So, naturally, I overlooked the small onion like bulb that sat on the cutting board.  The husband forgot that a shallot was an onion, so I’m not sure what he was looking for.    I even pulled out some green onions to use instead.  This is not the first time that I have felt dumb, but it was the first time that I so completely overlooked something that was literally right in front of me.  Anyway, the shallot was discovered, chopped, and used in the jam and in the salad.

This leads me to my third first of the night - and brace yourself for this – the husband made jam!  Not only did he make jam, but he seemed to enjoy making the jam.  He pitted a plum and then “roughly” (as was stated in the recipe’s instructions) chopped it into pieces.  I dumped all the ingredients into a sauce pan and he patiently watched it boil and then rigorously stirred it until it turned thick.  Then he prepared the sandwiches by spreading goat cheese on both sides of sourdough bread, spreading the jam on top of the cheese, and then placing the sandwiches in hot melted butter.  I must say that the smell of the bread toasting in the butter was absolutely amazing!

Also amazing?  The taste of that very toasted bread and its creamy contents! I was afraid that the goat cheese would have a bitter aftertaste, but the jam nicely balanced the bitter with a subtle sweetness and the crispy buttered bread finished it off with a slightly salty flavor.  

While we may not have had a dramatic evening and tonight was really not the night that changed everything, perhaps tonight was the night that something new began.  The husband and I are cooking meals together and I am hoping the husband enjoyed making jam enough to recreate this recipe in the future.  I’m glad that my very first grilled cheese sandwich wasn’t “normal,” but I think I would still like to try a “normal” grilled cheese sandwich – whatever “normal” means!

Pound Cake

Pound cake may be one of the most delicious cakes that I have ever eaten.  What does it taste like? Heaven?  You can practically hear the angels singing as that first buttery, sweetness hits your taste buds.  If the cake is warm, those angels may stop in the middle of their chorus to appreciate their own glory just as  you may stop in mid bite to appreciate the moistness and smoothness that is found in few other cakes. This cake in its flavor and texture somehow make me think of hospitality – a delightful and charming comfort that welcomes me to stay and eat for as long as I like.

Where does pound cake come from?  Contrary to my imagination it isn’t actually heaven.  In my reality, it comes from my mother-in-law’s kitchen, which is appropriate because she and her kitchen embody that sense of hospitality, that same delightful and charming comfort that her cake does.  Before the recipe made it to my mother-in-law’s kitchen, the cake was created and concocted somewhere in England during the 1700’s.  For more information about the history of the pound cake, take a look at Cooks Info.

But why does “pound” separate it from all of the other cakes out there?  And no, it has nothing to do with any pounds you might gain if you really do stay and eat as long as you like.  It actually has to do with the measurement of ingredients. The people of the 1700’s were not as lucky as we are today; many of them couldn’t read let alone write down a recipe and so “pound” cake referred to the pound of butter, the pound of flour, the pound of sugar, and the pound of eggs that went into the cake.  “Pound” cake was really a way to remember the recipe.  You can imagine that this recipe would create a very large cake that would feed a lot of people.  No wonder it tastes like hospitality.

It's also no wonder that I had never really enjoyed pound cake until recently.  Over the years the recipe has changed, yet the name has stayed the same.  Some have added ingredients like leavening agents, fruit, and even sour cream have been added.  The amounts have also been reduced so that we can have smaller cakes.  Even though a pound of each ingredient is no longer used, eggs and butter are still important ingredients that make the cake what it is.  I'm so glad that I'm no longer allergic to them! 

I will conclude with a conversation that my husband and I had over the last piece of pound cake that my mother-in-law so kindly brought to us:

Me:  Want to share the last piece of pound cake?

Husband: No, that’s your piece.  I ate mine last night.

Me: But I love you so much that I’m willing to share!

Husband: It’s up to you.  How about you eat what you want and I will eat the rest?

I gave him exactly one bite.  Although it was a big bite, I guess hospitality (generosity?) is not a side effect of eating the cake.  I think I should eat more of it to really find out.

A Yellow Cake and Chocolate Frosting Attempt

OK, so I’m not Martha Stewart. I decided to make a cake for my dad's birthday. I asked him what his favorite kind of cake was and he responded with "ummmm…. " My sister, the Cake/Pie Goddess, quickly jumped in with “Don’t you like carrot cake?”  If my mind really had gears, I would have felt them whirring – carrots, I’d have to shred them, does it have pineapple in it, should I make it gluten free, what about the frosting – cream cheese, buttercream?  Obviously, I’ve never made a carrot cake before and obviously for some unknown reason I’m afraid to make a carrot cake.  But as my dad does, he saved me from my own thoughts and said, “I like yellow cake with chocolate frosting!”

That I felt I could do.  So for my dad’s birthday I concocted my very first yellow cake and my very first chocolate frosting.  Of course, I had eaten both of these things before and even made the cake from a boxed cake mix, but I had never made my own from scratch.

The Cake/Pie Goddess was out of town, so I was on my own for this creation.  I found two great recipes on Martha Stewart’s website for yellow cake.  One was for Yellow Butter Cake and the other for a Simple Layer Cake.  I decided to go with the simple one for a few reasons: 1. Because it said it was simple and I figured I could handle that and 2. It called for less butter and less eggs, which I figured was a good way to lower fat and cholesterol intake.  And, yes, I know I probably just ruined cake for everyone.

Making the cake was actually pretty easy, especially using an electric mixer. I’m rather new to the electric mixer. Before I got married I never had one and just mixed everything by hand. What a work out! Now that I know how easy it is to mix things together with the electric mixer, I may be baking more!  As you probably know by now, I can’t follow a recipe.  I just can’t.  That’s all there is to it.  I substituted whole milk with almond/coconut milk.

All was well until the two 9 inch cakes were baked and cooled.  Getting them out of the pan was a real challenge.  I didn’t use parchment paper to line the pans as the recipe instructed.  (Maybe I should learn to follow a recipe after all!) Instead, I greased and floured the bottoms of the pans.  Oops!  The cakes stuck to the bottom of the pans and I had to reconstruct them by pushing the cake pieces together into giant cake blobs. (No pictures for this because it was way too messy!)

Enter Chocolate Frosting.  I made a half recipe of Martha Stewart’s Ultimate Chocolate Frosting, again using almond/coconut milk instead of real milk.  This frosting was surprisingly good!  I don’t usually like a strong chocolate flavor, but this recipe has changed my mind.  It had just the right combination of chocolate and vanilla to cause a perfect chocolate frosting addiction.  Not only was it delicious, but it became the perfect edible binding to hold the yellow cake together. 

The cake itself definitely needed the frosting's flavor.  It was missing something that I can't quite place.  Maybe it needed the extra butter and eggs in the other recipe or maybe I should have doubled the vanilla.  I'm not sure, so I guess I will have to make more cake to figure it out!

Martha Stewart, I am not.  My cake looked terrible, but it actually tasted great!  It was made with love, creativity, and happy birthday wishes for my dad.  Happy Birthday, Dad!  

Bangers and Mash

The husband is a huge fan of Bangers and Mash.  If we go to an Irish Pub, I don’t even have to ask what he is ordering.  Because he orders this dish whenever he has the opportunity, I consider him somewhat of an expert.  (In fact, he should probably be the one writing this post.)

Even though the husband loves this dish and adores St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to avoid the crowds and craziness the holiday can bring and stayed in to concoct our own version of Bangers and Mash.  We both have a bit of Irish blood in the veins and hoped that we could channel some of our ancestry into our culinary experiment.  I can’t speak for the husband or his expert taste buds, but I wasn’t disappointed.

We found a recipe for Bangers of Mash, but didn’t follow it exactly.  (It’s rare that I actually follow a recipe!) Keep in mind that I used my own recipe for the mashed potatoes and for the gravy I substituted half water and half beef broth and didn't use any type of browning sauce.

We started with the mashed potatoes by cutting the potatoes into cubes and boiling them in water just like my mom taught me to do all those years ago making Thanksgiving dinner.   Of course, back then I was allergic to potatoes and couldn’t taste the progress of the dish.  It’s always been a mystery how I got to be in charge of making the mashed potatoes when I had no idea how they turned out.  All of that practice paid off though.  We used chicken broth instead of milk, which added a bit of a savory, salty flavor.  We splurged and used real butter though and I think this is the key to smooth mashed potatoes.  I’ve never used real butter in mashed potatoes before and so they had never come out quite so smooth before.  They even tasted smooth.

While the potatoes were cooking, we grilled Sweet Italian Sausages in a skillet.  I wish that I could have found English Sausages, but they were not in any of the stores that I went to.  I think the Italian Sausages were a good substitute, but according to the husband and expert Bangers and Mash orderer, they were a bit spicier and sweeter than English Sausages.  I don’t believe I have ever tried an English Sausage, so I wouldn’t know the difference.  Maybe next year I can find the right ingredient.

Although, in my opinion, the type of sausage wasn’t crucial to the dish.  We made a Brown Butter Onion

Gravy that added just enough salt and savory to the already delicious mashed potatoes.  The gravy was so surprisingly delicious that I honestly forgot about the sausage. Of course, the was also made out of butter, so I guess it shouldn’t have been so surprising. This was also my first attempt at a butter based gravy – rich, creamy, and smooth.

If there is a moral to this culinary experiment, it would have to be that butter creates a smooth delicious flavor whether in mashed potatoes or in gravy.  While the dish was relatively easy to make, I think I will reserve that delicious smooth richness (and all of those fat grams from sausage and butter) for St. Patrick’s Day.

To be continued next year with English Sausage….