Cobbler recipes

All are adapted (with some changes) from The New Best Recipe from the Editors of Cook’s Illustrated, ISBN-13 978-0-936184-74-6.

Tart Cherry Cobbler

• Cobbler:
  • 6 cans Montmorency sour cherries
  • 1 cup demerara sugar
  • 1-3 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 cups dry red wine (preferably chianti)
  • 3-6 Tbls corn starch
  • small amount of cold water
  • 1/4 tspn almond extract
• Topping:
  • 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup whole grains - 1-minute oatmeal, barley flour, etc.
  • 4 Tbls demerara sugar
  • 1/2 tspn baking soda
  • 1/2 tspn baking powder
  • 6 Tbls unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
  • optional - small amount of finely chopped nuts
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 425. Open all cans of cherries, drain juice into saucepan, put cherries into cobbler pan / pie dish.

Add 2 cups red wine and cinnamon stick(s) to cherry juice, put on oven at medium to medium-high heat. Stir occasionally.

Put parchment on a baking sheet, or grease an insulated baking sheet. Mix together all dry topping ingredients. Cut in chilled butter with pastry blender until mixture is crumb like. Mix in buttermilk and drop small biscuits on baking sheet. Bake in oven for approx. 10 minutes or until just underdone. Check often. Remove from oven but do not turn oven off.

Let cherry juice simmer as long as need be to reduce by desired amount. Remove and discard cinnamon stick(s). Mix 1 cup demerara sugar with cornstarch. Mix in just enough cold water to form paste or slurry. Add mixture to cherry / wine mixture while stirring briskly. Let cherry / wine mixture come to boil again, remove from stove. Stir in almond extract. Pour thickened cherry / wine mixture over cherries in cobbler pan(s), stir until just mixed.

Put pans with cobbler filling in oven. Wait until they are just bubbling around edges. Set biscuits on top of cobbler filling, return to oven just long enough to lightly brown biscuit tops. Remove and cool.

Entire cobbler may be sprinkled with very light dusting of cinnamon sugar prior to serving, if desired.

Note: The cookbook this recipe came out of says Montmorency are a type of amarelle sour cherry, and griotte sour cherries (Morello being a common type) are much tastier.

Blueberry Cobbler

• Filling:
  • 1/2 c dark brown sugar
  • 3-4 Tbsp minute Tapioca
  • 1 - 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 - 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 6 c fresh blueberries, rinsed and picked over; or 6 cups frozen blueberries, thawed and drained with juice reserved.
  • 1-1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Topping:
  • 3/4 c all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 c plu 2 Tbsp stone-ground cornmeal
  • 1/8 c demerara sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/3 c buttermilk
  • 1/2 tspn vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375.

If frozen blueberries are used, put reserved juice on stove and simmer until it is syrupy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Mix blueberries, sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, allspice, lemon juice, and lemon zest in large bowl. Mix thoroughly. Add blueberry syrup from above if using frozen blueberries. Mix thoroughly, pour out into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Put in oven, bake until hot and bubbling around edges, approx. 25 minutes.

For topping, mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda together in bowl. Whisk melted butter, buttermilk, and vanilla together in small bowl. Add liquid mixture to dry mixture until just combined.

When berries have just started bubbling, remove from oven. Increase oven to 425. Pinch off pieces of topping dough (divide into 8 roughly equal sections if possible) and put on hot berry mixture. Return pie plate to oven until biscuits are cooked through and just barely beginning to brown on top.

Note: Variations include more or less cinnamon in filling; cinnamon sugar on top of topping; finely chopped nuts such as pecans in topping; more or less lemon juice in filling; no allspice in filling; addition of small amounts of liqueurs to filling, such as Amaretto (almond / cherry flavor) or Drambuie (has nutmeg flavor, among others); addition of ginger — either fresh ground, dried and powdered, or candied — to either topping or filling.

Peach Cobbler

• Filling:
  • 2-1/2 pounds ripe but firm fresh peaches, or 2 - 2-1/2 pounds thawed frozen peaches
  • 1/4 c brown sugar
  • 3-4 Tbsp minute tapioca
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
• Topping:
  • 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup 1-minute oatmeal
  • 2 Tbsp demerara sugar
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
  • 1/3 c plain whole-milk yogurt

Heat oven to 425.

If peaches are fresh, peel and slice. For both frozen and fresh peach slices, remove dark red flesh (if any) that would have been around seed. (This tends to make the cobbler bitter if left in.)

Mix peaches, sugar, tapioca, and cinnamon. Put in large sauce pan, cook until just bubbling. Stir in lemon juice, pour into 9-inch pie plate, and put in oven until hot and bubbling around edges.

Mix all dry biscuit ingredients together. Cut in butter until mixture is crumblike. Mix in yogurt until just forms cohesive dough (don’t overmix or the topping will be tough.) Break into about 6 equally sized chunks.

When filling is just bubbling around edges, remove from oven and place topping on dough on filling. Return to oven and cook until biscuits are done and just beginning to brown on top.

Note: Variations are similar to those described for other cobblers.

News story about persistent herbicides damaging crops in UK

This post is about Caroline Davies’ article “Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser“, published in The Observer by guardian.co.uk on June 29, 2008 [1]. I stumbled across the article after stumbling across posts about it on a couple of other blogs [2][3] (further information at end of this post).

To briefly summarize the article in guardian.co.uk (all quotes below are from the article):

1. Dow AgriSciences makes a number of herbicides, some of which use aminopyralids. One of the formulations goes by the brand name Forefront in the U.K. “Aminopyralid is popular with farmers, who spray it on grassland because it controls weeds such as docks, thistles and nettles without affecting the grass around them. It binds itself to the woody tissue in the grass and only breaks down when exposed to bacteria in the soil.”
2. “Aminopyralid, which is found in several Dow products, the most popular being Forefront, a herbicide, is not licensed to be used on food crops and carries a label warning farmers using it not to sell manure that might contain residue to gardeners.”
3. Despite the existing label warning, and also despite Dow’s “campaign within the agriculture industry to ensure that farmers were aware of how the products should be used”, some of the herbicides have gotten into the food chain. “It appears that the contamination came from grass treated 12 months ago. Experts say the grass was probably made into silage, then fed to cattle during the winter months. The herbicide remained present in the silage, passed through the animal and into manure that was later sold. Horses fed on hay that had been treated could also be a channel.”
4. Gardens that have been treated with the contaminated compost have seen pretty severe effects on many plants.
5. It is unknown at this time how dangerous it is to consume vegetables that were treated with contaminated compost. Although most government agencies have said that the exposure to humans is probalby minimal, Dow is still recommending that possibly exposed food not be eaten. They suggest that ground treated with contaminated compost should be safe to plant in again after one year.
6. There is already talk of numerous lawsuits, bans, etc. In general, it is going to be difficult to establish who was the guilty party in lawsuits, as most compost providers bought silage from multiple sources, and some of those sources may have in turn bought from even more sources and intermixed everything before selling it.

One of the things NOT pointed out in the article is what repercussions (if any) there will be for farmers who sold contaminated silage without telling their customers, and/or farmers and livestock owners who bought the silage without asking if it was safe for manure production. Even if the herbicides in question are eventually banned, we are still left with the issue the products carry labels for A REASON. It’s not possible to make the world completely foolproof, nor is it possible to produce chemicals or goods that are impossible to misuse. There does come a point where users, especially COMMERCIAL users, have to be expected to read the freaking labels and instructions for the products they use.

Also from Davies’ article:

How to deal with the problem
Do you have contaminated manure?
Tell-tale symptoms of crop damage include distorted foliage, with cupping of leaves and fern-like growth. There are no remedies once damage has occurred. Susceptible crops include potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots and lettuce.

How should you deal with the affected area?
Experts say rotavation is the best practice, or forking over several times as soon as possible. This incorporates the plant tissue into the soil, where it will decompose and the chemicals will eventually be degraded by soil microbes. Repeat the rotavation in late summer/early autumn.

Should you replant this season?
No. The plant residues need to be given time to break down. The advice is not to replant for a year.

Why has the chemical lasted so long?
Aminopyralid, like other herbicides, works by binding strongly to plant tissues. Once the plant’s tissues decay, the chemical breaks down in the soil. If manure is stacked it takes far longer.

Regarding the blogs whereby I found this article — I found this article after seeing posts on it at LeisureGuy’s Later On blog and Kirk James Murphy’s post on Firedoglake. While Davies’ news article for guardian.co.uk is quite interesting and does a good job of presenting multiple sides of the story (in my opinion), Murphy’s post on Firedoglake is mainly an editorial about the evils of corporations and the chemicals produced by corporations. The damage from persistent herbicides as described in Davies’ article was used as an example of this evil, along with biosolids gproduced from treated sewage which are not safe for use as fertilizer although labeled as such, and the prevalence of hormone-mimicking compounds in the food chain. For Firedoglake, Murphy very briefly and very selectively quoted Davies’ guardian.com.uk article such that the warning labels on the herbicide were not mentioned, nor was Dow’s attempts to educate farmers about not using the herbicide on food crops or silage that might go into the food chain. In turn, Later On by LeisureGuy only quoted parts of Murphy’s Firedoglake post.

In all fairness, Murphy did check to see if aminopyralid herbicides are used in the U.S. He said yes, they are, Cleanwave is registered for use on wheat, Milestone is registered for use on pastures, and Forefront is registered for use on pastures and rangeland.

Yet, this also brings up the question — if the problem is the inherent evil of aminopyralid herbicides being anywhere near the food chain, why are we not seeing this problem in the U.S.? (Although true believers will say this is only a further sign of the insidious influence of chemical companies in the U.S. and their control of the media and government.)

Reading through the comments on Murphy’s Firedoglake post, there was a commenter who said properly composted material should reach an internal temperature high enough to decompose most agricultural chemicals. I thought this comment was very interesting.

Sources:

1. Primary - Davies, Caroline; “Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser”, The Observer, guardian.co.uk; article dated June 29, 2008; article accessed by internet July 1, 2008; http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture; copyright Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
2. Secondary - blog Later On, author LeisureGuy. Post titled “Persistent herbicide destroying crops in UK”, dated June 29, 2008; article accessed by internet July 1, 2008. http://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/persistent-herbicide-destroying-crops-in-uk/
3. Secondary - blog Firedoglake, author Kirk James Murphy M.D. Post titled “Persistent Herbicide in Compost Destroys U.K. gardens - Can It Happen Here?”, dated June 29, 2008; article accessed by internet July 1, 2008.

Last night’s dinner (fourth week of Feb 2008)

Also cross-posted on my MySpace blog.

Yesterday was my sister’s birthday, so I made her a dish that has become one of her favorites. It’s similar to a dish I had at a pasta restaurant last time I was in Portland, I think the dish was called “carbonara”. Simply put, it’s pasta with peas, bacon and black pepper in a white sauce. The bacon is any bacon I have that’s already cooked, drained, and cut into small bits. It doesn’t take very much, just enough to flavor the sauce and provide a little something to chew on. To make the white sauce, I usually make a pretty thick roux with unsalted butter and flour, then I stir in some whole milk and just a little bit of heavy cream (if there’s any in the house) and bring it to a simmer before pouring it on some already-cooked pasta. For the peas I use frozen green peas that have been heated up in a separate pan. Just mix that all together and add some cracked black pepper and you’re done!

My sister liked it so much she thanked me profusely last night and sent me an e-mail today saying how good it was.

We also had some nice steaks that my brother cooked, and some salad at the beginning of the meal.

For dessert, my sister said she wanted something “appley and cinnamony”, so I made her an apple upside down cake that I’ve made before, and which turns out . . . well, very appley and very cinnamony. The recipe is below.

So, all in all, it was a good meal and my sister said she had a really nice birthday. Yay!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is adapted from the “upside-down toffee apple brownies” recipe in the book Blissful Brownies.

Bake time: 35-40 minutes at 350 C, 9-inch square or similar sized pan

Ingredients:

• Topping
  • generous 1/3 c dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 stick or 1/4 c unsalted butter
  • 1 apple, cored and thinly sliced (I’ve had good luck with Braeburns and Fujis, but you can use pretty much anything depending on the taste and texture you want)
• Cake
  • 1 stick or 1/2 c unsalted butter
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 c all-purpose flour (you can also use oat flour here, but the cake will be much crumblier if you use that)
  • 1 c 1-minute instant oatmeal
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 2 apples coarsely grated (if you don’t peel them, the cake will be noticeably chewier, but also have more apple flavor; apple variety is the same as mentioned above)
  • 3/4 cup chopped nuts (can be hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, whatever)

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease your pan.

For the topping, heat the sugar and butter in a small pan over medium or medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is melted. Pour into pan bottom and arrange apples on top.

For the cake, mix butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. It can be mixed just until blended, or can be beaten until fluffy. If beaten until fluffy, cake will be fluffier. Mix in eggs, then mix in grated apples.

In second mixing bowl, mix together all remaining ingredients. Mix together wet and dry ingredients (it will be a relatively stiff dough at this point) and pour into cake pan over apples and molten sugar. Smooth down cake dough and place in oven.

Cook until firm and golden brown. Cake is moist enough that a knife inserted into the cake will always come out moist, so check for firmness instead.

Once done, take out of oven and let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes. Turn out only plate or platter, slice and serve.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for a couple of random notes:

- I didn’t actually do this, but I did think about making some D’Vine Joy Rooibos tea to go with the apple cake. D’Vine Joy is a really good cinnamon and spice rooibos tea available from The Carnelian Rose Tea Company. There are other tea companies that have tried to make similar blends, but there’s nothing like D’Vine Joy.

- Speaking of bacon, I found the site Grateful Palate recently, they have a bacon-of-the-month club!?  I’d be almost tempted to sign up, except that it’s a lot more expensive than I’m willing to pay. But still . . . interesting concept.

Monster cookie recipe

I really thought I had already posted this recipe, but I can’t find it here, so I’m posting (or maybe reposting???) it.
Monster Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 lb unsalted butter
• 2 lb brown sugar
• 2 c white sugar
• 12 eggs
• 1 Tbs vanilla
• 1 Tbs karo syrup
• 2 Tbs baking soda
• 3 lb crunchy peanut butter (we usually use Jif)
• 1 pkg mini chips 12 oz (see note)
• 18 c oatmeal (1-minute, see note)

Instructions: Mix first 9 ingredients in order listed. I don’t know of any mixer besides a Cuisinart that has the bowl capacity or mixing power to do a full size batch, so be warned.

Measure oatmeal into a (very large) separate bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture on oats and mix thoroughly. Shape into whatever size cookie you want and bake in a 350 F oven for 8-14 minutes. Cookies are done when golden brown on edges and in the middle, and cooking time depends largely on whether you are using an insulated cookie sheet (or not) and how large the cookies are. Since there is no flour in these, they don’t dry out the same as flour cookies do if overcooked; that said, they’ll get progressively darker and darker and will probably start to burn if cooked for way too long. Also, it sometimes seems like I have decreased cooking time by about 30 seconds by the end of a batch of dough, I think the oatmeal in the uncooked dough may absorb moisture and decrease the cooking time slightly as time goes on.

Note for chocolate: The original recipe from Mom called for a 1 12-oz package of Nestle’s minichips. The last couple batches, I have changed that to 16 oz of Ghirardelli’s bittersweet chocolate chips. The minichips have a higher sugar to chocolate ratio, so a 12 oz package of minichips adds a lot of sweetness but not as much chocolate as I’d like. The bittersweet chips have more chocolate and less sugar, so I can get more chocolate flavor without adding as much sweet by using them. There are other bittersweet chocolate chips in the grocery stores besides Ghirardelli’s, I just used them because I picked up a 3-lb bag of Ghirardell bittersweet chocolate chips in Sam’s Club.

Note for oatmeal: The last time I measured it out, I found that one full-size canister of Quaker 1-minute oatmeal had 15 cups in it, which means I can dump in one whole canister and then add another 3 cups and be done with the measuring. However, for years Mom said that a canister held 13 cups. It probably comes down to how high you heap the measuring cup and how loosely the oatmeal packs in the cup, but it is something to keep in mind. More oatmeal makes for drier firmer cookies; less oatmeal makes for chewier moister cookies.

Upside-Down Apple Cake

This is adapted from the “upside-down toffee apple brownies” recipe in the book Blissful Brownies, ISBN 978-1-4054-9127-3.

Bake time: 35-40 minutes at 350 C, 9-inch square or similar sized pan

Ingredients:

• Topping
  • generous 1/3 c dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 stick or 1/4 c unsalted butter
  • 1 apple, cored and thinly sliced (I’ve had good luck with Braeburns and Fujis, but you can use pretty much anything depending on the taste and texture you want)
• Cake
  • 1 stick or 1/2 c unsalted butter
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 c all-purpose flour (you can also use oat flour here, but the cake will be much crumblier if you use that)
  • 1 c 1-minute instant oatmeal
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 2 apples coarsely grated (if you don’t peel them, the cake will be noticeably chewier, but also have more apple flavor; apple variety is the same as mentioned above)
  • 3/4 cup chopped nuts (can be hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, whatever)

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease your pan.

For the topping, heat the sugar and butter in a small pan over medium or medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is melted. Pour into pan bottom and arrange apples on top.

For the cake, mix butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. It can be mixed just until blended, or can be beaten until fluffy. If beaten until fluffy, cake will be fluffier. Mix in eggs, then mix in grated apples.

In second mixing bowl, mix together all remaining ingredients. Mix together wet and dry ingredients (it will be a relatively stiff dough at this point) and pour into cake pan over apples and molten sugar. Smooth down cake dough and place in oven.

Cook until firm and golden brown. Cake is moist enough that a knife inserted into the cake will always come out moist, so check for firmness instead.

Once done, take out of oven and let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes. Turn out only plate or platter, slice and serve.

Butterscotch sauce recipe

The butterscotch sauce comes from a recipe I saw on Food Network from the show Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

For the Butterscotch Sauce:

• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split [I used vanilla extract]
• 2 to 4 tablespoons good quality Scotch (depending on your taste)
• 1 teaspoon salt [I omitted this]
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, heated

I didn’t even look at the directions, I just cooked the sugar and butter over medium heat until it was thick and bubbly and the sugar had all melted. I took it off the heat, and poured in the rest one at a time while still stirring. I then let it cool a bit before putting it on ice cream.

Last night’s menu, Third Thursday of February 2008

NOTE: Also crossposted to the Nightowl Camille blog on Myspace.

So, I’ve decided I’m going to try posting more regularly on this blog. No guarantees that I’ll stick with it, but I do feel like I need to back to writing more often.

That said, I’m also going to start posting more about the Thursday night dinners. As some of you know, since I moved back to Montana my brother (who lives only about a mile away) and I have started getting together with three or four friends and family members every Thursday night at his place to cook up a nice dinner. We’ve been doing that weekly for about three months now, and it’s pretty fun. My brother usually takes care of any meat cooking that needs to be done (he’s really good with the grill and also the oven) and also the bartending and general entertaining, while I take care of the rest. I am posting the menus here so I can keep track of what I’ve been cooking recently, and so any of my friends can write me and ask for a recipe if they see something that looks good.

(Note: I am ALL ABOUT food with a lot of flavor that doesn’t take incredible amounts of work to prepare. The recipes where you start hand-grinding and steeping the spices three days beforehand so you can baste and knead the very rare and expensive goat’s-milk-cheese every three hours for the next two days prior to starting on the very delicate and easy-to-screw-up light souffle six hours before your dinner are NOT the types of recipes I go for.)

So here (in no particular order) is what we made last night, the third Thursday of February 2008:

• Green salad,
• Steamed broccoli,
• Farfalle pasta with a sage butter sauce I found in a fancy cooking magazine (maybe Bon Appetit?) a couple months ago. It’s absurdly simple but surprisingly tasty - melt a little bit of unsalted butter in a saucepan (for a whole box of farfalle I used only half a stick of butter) and once it starts to bubble a little bit, throw in some fresh sage leaves and continue cooking and stirring until the butter starts to brown a little bit. Take out the sage leaves, toss the pasta with the flavored butter and there you go!
• Leftover pork steak, cut up into small pieces and cooked with some reduced and thickened chicken stock, a little bit of dried oregano and some garlic pepper, and a whole bunch of fresh shittake mushrooms. Wow, that was good, especially on the pasta! My sister said it was like a pork stroganoff.
• Ice cream (store-bought) with butterscotch sauce (homemade) and some fresh bananas. The butterscotch sauce comes from a recipe I saw on Food Network from the show Throwdown with Bobby Flay. It was the first time I saw a butterscotch recipe that used real scotch, and WOW!!! was it good. We all agreed that none of us could go back to store-bought butterscotch sauce after this. Which on the one hand is a great compliment, but on the other hand only reinforces something I’ve found with these Thursday night dinners - once you have really good homemade, it’s HARD to go back to storebought.

Intense chocolate cookies

Adapted from “Chocolate Almond Sparkles” in A Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies by Dede Wilson, ISBN 1-55832-295-7.

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 70-80% chocolate
• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, 70-80% chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 Tbsp softened unsalted butter
• 2-3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup demerara sugar
• 1 Tbsp light-colored honey
• 1/3 cup ground almonds
• 1 Tbsp Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp amaretto
• 2-3 Tbsp (or more) dark rum (such as Pusser’s)
• 1/2 cup 1-minute oatmeal

Melt 8 ounces chocolate in double boiler. When melted, stir in 3 Tbsp butter, mix thoroughly, and set aside to cool.

In mixing bowl, beat 2-3 eggs with sugar until they form a thick ribbon. This will take A WHILE.  While still mixing, mix in honey.

Add egg mixture to chocolate mixture, folding by hand. Then add cocoa powder, ground almonds, remaining 1 ounce chopped chocolate and oatmeal, and fold by hand. Last, mix in alcohol.

Chill overnight in refrigerator.

Roll into small balls, flatten slightly on greased cookie sheet or parchment-paper covered cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes at 325 F.  Cookies are done when they are no longer shiny and have small cracks across surface. Cool briefly and store. Will store for 2-3 days in plastic bag or covered jar, will store longer in freezer.

Grapefruit cake

This recipe is the “Citrus Surprise Cake” in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book by The King Arthur Flour Company, Inc.; ISBN-13 978-0-88150-719-5; ISBN-10 0-88150-719-9.

I have just been making this as a flat rectangular cake and using 1/2 the frosting called for in the recipe, and it’s GREAT!! I am curious to see how it would taste as a regular 9-inch 2-layer cake.

• Cake
  • 2 c (8 ounces) white whole wheat flour (regular whole wheat works fine too)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt (I usually omit this)
  • 5 large (2-1/2 ounces) egg yolks
  • 1/2 c (3-1/2 ounces) vegetable oil
  • 1-1/2 c (10-1/2 ounces) granulated sugar (I used demerara for this)
  • 1/3 c (2-5/8 ounces) water
  • 1/4 c (2 ounces) fresh grapefruit juice
  • 1 Tbsp freshly grated grapefruit zest
  • 5 large (6-1/4 ounces) egg whites
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• Frosting
  • 2 packages (16 oounces) cream cheese, softened (light cream cheese works well too)
  • 3 c (12 ounces) sifted confectioner’s sugar (demerara makes this a crunchier but tastier frosting)
  • 2 tsp freshly grated grapefruit zest
  • 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
  • 1 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• Can use 1 grapefruit for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Lightly grease two 9-inch cake pans, line with parchment or wax paper, then grease the paper.

Cake

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in bowl 1. Set aside.

Combine egg yolks and oil in large mixing bowl (bowl 2) and mix at low speed while you pour in the sugar. Add the water and grapefruit juice. Beat for 3 minutes at medium sped, then stop to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the grapefruit zest.

Gently fold in the flour mixture (from bowl 1) into the mixing bowl (bowl 2) with rubber spatula or whisk.

In a separate bowl (bowl 3) with clean beaters, beat egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, and continue beating until soft peaks form.

Carefully fold the beaten egg whites (bowl 3) into the other mixture (bowl 2).

Divide the batter evenly between pans. Bake until the top of the cake pulls away from the edges of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and run a dull knife around the edge of the cake to free the edges. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and peel off parchment paper. Cool completely on wire racks, then refrigerate or freeze before frosting.

Frosting

Blend together the cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add grated zests and juices, beat until smooth.

Yogurt Cornbread

From The Best Quickbreads by Beth Hensperger, ISBN 1-55832-171-3

Amazingly enough, I use this recipe pretty much as-is, without much modification, except that I almost always throw in some kind of meat (bacon, sausage, salami, etc.)

Yogurt Cornbread

• 1 c fine-grind yellow or white cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
• 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I usually omit this)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• grated zest of 1 large orange
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 c buttermilk
• 1-1/4 c plain yogurt
• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted; or 1/4 cup corn oil

Preheat oven to 425 F. Grease an 8-inch springform or deep cake pan or spray it with cooking spray, or do the same to a 9-inch pie pan.

Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and zest in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk, and yogurt with a whisk.

Add to the dry ingredients and pour the melted butter over the top of the batter.  Stir just until all ingredients are moistened and thoroughly blended.

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden around the edges and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting into wedges.

Book recommendations about Russia and the Cold War

From today’s OpinionJournal Five Best column, here are recommendations for five books about Russia and the Cold War:

1. The Twenty Years’ Crisis: 1919-1939 by E.H. Carr (Macmillan, 1939). — Never heard of it, but it sounds interesting.
2. Darkness at Noon” by Arthur Koestler (Macmillan, 1941) — Another one I’ve never heard of, although I have heard the author’s name before. The book itself sounds interesting.
3. The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness” by Reinhold Niebuhr (Scribner, 1944) — Never heard of this book or the author, but it does sound interesting.
4. The Super-Powers” by William T.R. Fox (Harcourt, 1944) — Another one I’ve never heard of, but I had heard that there was a specific book which coined (or at least popularized) the term “superpower”, and this book is supposed to be it. Sounds like it would be interesting, but dry.
5. The True Believer” by Erich Hoffer (Harper & Row, 1951) — I’ve heard of this book and this author, and even tried reading it once. However, there was something about it that turned me off. I can’t remember what it was that I found objectionable, but I do remember I couldn’t get past the beginning. On the other hand, I’ve seen this book recommended so many times it sounds like I should try it again.

A pretty cool holiday feature, and a shirt

The WordPress.Com blog had a note about putting snow on your WordPress blog. It’s a pretty cool feature that’s only available until Jan. 2nd, 2008. Neat!!!

And on a side note, they also mentioned WordPress hoodies available through their store. At $32, they’re cheaper than most hoodies, and actually look pretty good.

Recipe for Cheesy Italian Oatmeal Pan Bread

I haven’t tried this yet. It’s off of the the back of a Pillsbury BEST(R) Flour bag.

• 2 c water
• 1 c rolled oats
• 3 Tbsp butter or margarine
• 4-5 c flour
• 1/4 c sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 (1/4 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Topping:
  • 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano leaves
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 4 Tbsp butter or margarine, softened.

Spray 13×9 baking pan with no-stick spray. Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan; stir in rolled oats and butter. Cool to 100-110 F. Combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, sault, and yeast in a large mixing bowl; blend well. Add rolled oats mixtures and egg. Blend at low speed with an electric mixer until moistened. Beat 3 minuts at medium speed. By hand, stir in 1 3/4 - 2 1/2 cups flour and cheese to form stiff dough.

Knead in 1/2-3/4 cup flour on a floured surface, until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Shape dough into ball; cover in large bowl. Let rest 15 minutes. Punch down dough; press into greased pan. With a very sharp knife, cut diagonal lines 1 1-2 inches apart, cutting completely through dough. Repeat in opposite direction creating diamond pattern. Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80-85 F) until light and doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 F. Uncover dough; redefine diamond pattern by cutting in an up and down motion through to the bottom of the pan with a sharp knife. Combine Parmesan cheese, basile, oregano and garlic powder. Set aside. Spoon 4 (2??) Tbsp of butter over cut dough. Bake for 15 minutes. Brush remaining 2 Tbsp of butter over partially baked bread. Sprinkle with Parmesan mixture. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool.

Recipes for leftover mashed potatoes

I’ve tried all these recipes and they all work well.

Mashed Potato Biscuits 

Adapted from the Mashed Potato Biscuits recipe, posted on Recipezaar by Bunlady.

Recipezaar page says this produces 16 biscuits, but I’m usually only getting 8 per batch if rolled out 1/2 inch thick. Original recipe had less mashed potatoes, more salt.

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup mashed potatoes
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 2-5 tablespoons milk

Mix in a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. With a pastry blender cut in shortening and mashed potatoes until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in enough milk to moisten mixture. Turn dough out on floured board and knead 6 to 8 times. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter. Place on baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown

Two versions of Mashed Potato Pancakes

From MedicineNet.Com, summarizing the Mini Potato Cakes recipe.

• 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
• 1 tablespoon of fat-free half-and-half or low-fat milk (if needed)

From the Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes recipe, posted on Recipezaar by Thomas Danler.

• 2 cups mashed potatoes (approximately)
• 1-2 eggs
• 1/4 cup flour
• salt
• pepper
• garlic
• onions (optional)
• chives (optional)
• cheese (optional)
• oil or Crisco, for frying
• sour cream (optional) or applesauce, for garnish (optional)

Food recipes — Cooking beans

I found some good recipes for cooking dry beans!!! These are both off of Albertson’s brand 1 lb dry bean packages.

Chalupa (Pink Beans):

• 1 lb Albertson’s pink beans, rinsed and soaked
• 3 lb pork roast
• 7 cups water
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp salt (which I omitted)
• 2 Tbsp Chili powder
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano (which I upped to 2 Tbsp).
• 1 chopped Green Chiles (which I omitted)

Kidney Beans - Kidney Bean Delight

• 2 cups Albertson’s red kidney beans, soaked
• 1/4 lb salt pork or bacon, diced
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, minced
• 2 celery sticks, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp prepared mustard
• 1 small red chili pepper, minced (which I omitted)

Browsing on Salon.com part I

While browsing on Salon.com recently, I came across a really interesting (and well-written) piece by Michael Scherer, titled ‘What you missed while watching “Project Runway” ‘ (article dated Nov 16, 2007, site accessed Nov 16, 2007).

Scherer’s article is a minute-by-minute review of the moderated debate among Democratic presidential candidates that took place that same day. (The debate was held in Las Vegas and was moderated by Wolf Blitzer, in case anyone is interested.)

The article is unsparing and brutal regarding everyone involved, including Blitzer and the staff at CNN, who among other brillant ideas (see below) decided to start out the debate with a photo-op. Because, you know, us backward village idiots out here in the fly-over states have never seen a photo-op.

Here are some highlights from the article, which has to be read in its entirety to be fully appreciated.

2 to 6 minutes. A photo op happens. While the candidates pose onstage, the Blitz blows hot air with some of his correspondents about what America can expect — if the debate ever begins. On average, less than 1 percent of Americans watch these things. Now we know why.

Scherer makes a particularly good point about these debates in general when he writes (italics added):

11 minutes. Obama tries to explain why his plan does not mandate universal coverage. Then Clinton rebuts. But in this format neither is making much sense. The issue is too complex.

And while I’m not real fond of Joe Biden, I have to say his statement here is dead on.

17 minutes. Biden offers the most concise and eloquent explanation of his candidacy to date. “Let’s get to it, folks. The American people don’t give a darn about any of this stuff that’s going on up here,” he says. “This is not about experience. It’s not about change. It’s about action.” He continues, “Who among us is going to be able to, on Day One, step in and end the war? Who among us understands what to do about Pakistan? Who among us is going to pick up the phone and immediately interface with Putin and lay off Georgia because Saakashvili is in real trouble? Who among us knows what they’re doing? I have 35 years of experience.”

(On a side note, what has Biden done so far with his 35 years of experience? I don’t know off the top of my head, and if everyone else is like me, that doesn’t bode well for him.)

CNN gets savaged (and rightfully so, if Scherer’s reporting is correct):

73 to 79 minutes. The Blitz announces a commercial break to arrange chairs onstage. After the commercial break, Blitz announces a second consecutive commercial break, because CNN does not mind torturing its audience. Nearly seven minutes pass.

80 minutes. From here on in, the questions primarily come from the audience. CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux walks around with the mic, but her bright blue suit is the same color as the bright blue carpet, making her head look disembodied on the television.

In general, the debate sounded like everything I’ve read about the other debates: Clinton is still ahead, and the other candidates are trying to differentiate themselves from her and beat her on policy issues, which is hard to do since it’s really hard to get a straight answer out of Hillary Clinton about policy issues. Immigration and national security are still some of the hottest topics, with a lot of differences in opinion among candidates.

And then there was the oddball factor. Anything I’ve ever read about Kucinich makes him sound like one of those intellectual types who believes that the rest of us can see the way to light and harmony if someone just asks us the right questions that get us to think about the right things. I’d say that image is still pretty accurate, based on Scherer’s reporting:

24 minutes. The Blitz asks all the candidates if they will pledge to support the Democratic nominee, no matter what. Everyone agrees, except for Kucinich, who still looks pissed. “Only if they oppose war as an instrument of policy,” Kucinich says. This is sort of a fortune-cookie answer, but Kucinich may be saying he won’t support any of the other Democratic candidates, who all endorse the idea of using the military to pursue U.S. interests. The Blitz does not ask for clarification.

and then there’s this:

25 to 31 minutes. A conversation about immigration . . . And Kucinich just gets mad at Blitz all over again. “I take issue with your description of there being illegal immigrants,” Kucinich says. “There aren’t any illegal human beings.” This is another fortune cookie that the Blitz does not want to open.

And I’m with Blitzer on not opening that fortune cookie. No, Dennis, there aren’t any illegal human beings. But we’re not saying they’re illegal people, we’re saying that regardless of your feelings on whether they should be allowed to be here, right now they are people in a place they’re legally not supposed to be.

And here’s another Kucinich proverb:

112 to 125 minutes. . . . Kucinich says, “A president has to be a healer.”

All in all, a fascinating article about a debate that sounds like a real snoozer.

Happy Veteran’s Day!!!!

The comic for “Over the Hedge” for Nov 11 does a better job celebrating Veteran’s Day than anything I could write, so I am just going to post it here:

Reading up about the history of Veteran’s Day, I found that it was originally called “Armistice Day” and celebrated the end of World War I. It was declared a holiday by many countries who fought in that war. After World War II, the date stayed the same but it became a holiday to celebrate and thank veterans of all wars.

Thanks, veterans!!!

(woo-hoo!)

Interesting website, not sure if the organization does that much . . . .

http://www.nascocorridor.com/

“Tri-National Advocacy for Efficient, Secure, and Environmentally Conscious Trade & Transportation”

(Probably vastly over-simplified) Summary: A group which recognizes that trade between Canada, the U.S.A., and Mexico, and between all three countries and the rest of the world, is crucial to the economy of all three countries and is steadily growing in volume. Which is a REALLY BIG problem, as infrastructure for the ports, railway systems, and roads for all three countries is a bit stretched right now, ESPECIALLY along the coasts. So the NASCO corridor is a beefed-up shipping lane and rail system that runs along the I-35 corridor from Canada, through the U.S. and down to Mexico. There will be inland ports along the way, and there are also plans to build up transportation routes from coastal ports to the NASCO corridor.

But the big overall goal is get a bunch of shipping traffic off the coasts, off the Mississippi river, and onto someplace (middle of the continent) where there is more room to physically expand and less population and environmental pressures.

Fascinating concept, and I hope it works out like they plan. But looking all over their website, I can’t see that they’ve actually ACCOMPLISHED that much, except for lobbying the government for money and facilitating meetings between interested public and private parties.

Anyway, I thought I would note it . . . .

C|NET’s interview with Martin Illsey, Accenture Technology Labs’ director of research

c|net (or is it “C|NET”??) has posted a really interesting interview with Martin Illsey, who is the director of research for Accenture Technology Labs, which is Accenture’s R&D branch.

(Article by Tom Espiner, special to CNET News.com, Published: October 30, 2007, 1:28 PM PDT, site accessed 10/30/07.)

I’m not going to into a whole lot of detail about this article, but I will say there’s quite a bit of interesting stuff there.

Two things that caught my eye:

Illsey’s response to a request to expand on a previous answer about challenges in finding practical applications for technology –

Amara’s Law, which also goes by other names, is that people overestimate the short-term effects of an action or technology, while underestimating the long-term effects. Evel Knievel is a case in point of overestimating the short term: he thought he could jump 27 buses and couldn’t.We do the same with respect to new technologies; we think we’ve done it all and that it’s going to happen tomorrow. We also underestimate the long term, like Evel Knievel. I’ll bet he’d never have guessed that by now, he would have given up riding motorcycles and become very religious. He’s now riding pillion with God.

and Illsey’s response to a question about convergence in communications –

In some organizations, you have videoconferencing rooms that lie empty, then some conference calls with 20 or 30 people, and nothing gets done. There’s nothing wrong with the tools; there’s just no formalization of the process of inviting the right people to be integrated into systems. If the objective of a meeting is to make certain decisions, tools should make sure that the right people are there.

To the second quote above, I can only say “AMEN TO THAT!!!”

————-

Interesting trivia bit: The link for “pillion” in the first quote was in the original article. It leads to the Wikipedia page for pillion, which said (among other things):

During the Second World War, the British Army introduced a requirement following the debacle in France in 1940 requiring all officers up to the rank of colonel to be proficient in the use of the motorcycle, and all officers holding the rank of brigadier were required to be able to ride pillion. These requirements came about as a result of the large number of motor cars that were lost in action. The requirement for riding pillion was quietly dropped as large numbers of jeeps came into service in the middle of the war.

Ironic - A state report saying that the state writes too many reports

From the Austin American Statesman, (October 29, 2007 - 10:49 a.m. Copyright 2007, The Associated Press, site accessed 10/30/07) “State report says Texas has too many reports“

(I got the link off the OpinionJournal’s Best of Web for today.)

The report comes from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, who I guess would be a good group to do this report since “The Library and Archives Commission runs the state’s publications depository system, which warehouses untold tons of paper reports and keeps an electronic records and information locator to search and sort that data.” A lot of bureaucrats and middle-managers will try to create more work for themselves to justify their jobs, but that’s apparently not going on here. (Although it is telling that state records administrator Michael Heskett says the report just issues shouldn’t be one of the ones eliminated.)

I also notice the report took 18 months to complete and was 668 pages long. Sounds like a bit much, but maybe they were just trying to be thorough?

Some highlights from the article:

In the past, the state regularly compiled a list of about 400 reports that agencies were required by the Legislature to produce. But the commission found more than 1,600, and state records administrator Michael Heskett is pretty sure his team hasn’t found them all.

Heskett’s initial findings indicate more than 400 report requirements are obsolete, duplicative or not needed as frequently as currently required.

“At first, we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of reporting requirements,” Heskett said.

In a typical legislative session, lawmakers call for about a dozen new reports to meet the requirements for a new law. Another 20 or so reports are attached to appropriations bills as a way of making sure allocated money is properly spent.

Unless these reports are repealed by the Legislature, agencies are required to prepare them, even if the need for the report — or the agency — no longer exists.

Heskett’s team found was a huge backlog of reporting requirements, the volume of which has increased in the past 20 years with added emphasis on transparency and open records in state government.

The Library and Archives Commission has only just begun assessing the report requirements one by one, which Heskett expects will take at least another year.

Let’s just hope that they come up with a list of reports to be eliminated and that those reports actually do get eliminated!

And no, I don’t live in Texas, so the whole affair is really none of my business. But I hope other states have similare commissions examining things like this. And I still think it would be a good idea for all laws and requirement to have sunset provisions, so someone somewhere has to review the requirements every so often and (hopefully) axe those things which no longer make sense.

Update on the Beer Bread Recipe

This is the latest variation of the Southwestern Beer Bread recipe I posted last month. Both my parents like the previous versions, but to me they were just okay.

I am much happier with this version.

Southwestern Beer Bread - 2nd draft:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1 cup corn flour
• 2 Tbsp demerara or turbinado sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt (or less)
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, either shredded (if from a block) or finely diced (if from individual slices (for Tillamook cheese, I get 1 cup out of 6 slices)
• 3 slices bacon, finely diced
• 1 cup corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
• 3/4 cup finely diced onion; for this version, I used small pickling onions
• 1-1/2 cup finely diced bell peppers. Mix bell pepper colors according to your own tastes; I used about a 2:1 ratio of green to red peppers for this recipe.
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chipotle red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (NOT ground cumin)
• 12-ounce bottle pale ale beer. This time around, I used Widmer’s Pale Ale.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly coat a 9″ pie dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the cheese and mix well.

If you want the vegetables a little bit browned (like I did), use a pan that can store a lot of heat, like cast iron or stainless steel. Saute the bacon in a small frying pan until well-done but not blackened. Pour off any excess fat, and add the onions, bell peppers and corn to the frying pan with the bacon. Continue to saute until onions and bell peppers have softened, about 5-8 minutes. Add in the chipotle red pepper flakes, dried oregano, and cumin seeds. Continue to cook, constantly stirring, until spices are fragrant and vegetables have begun to brown.

Add the bacon and vegetable mixture to the flour mixture and start stirring immediately. Mix well. Add the beer and mix well. Transfer the batter to the prepared pie plate, smooth the top and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. If left in the pan too long after the 10 minute cooling period, the bottom of the loaf may become soggy.

Hello world!

I am a new Blogger escapee. Whee! My blog here is cgoodsthings at WordPress.com. While there are a number of posts below, they have all been imported from my old Blogger account.

XHTML and frames

I am trying to figure out how to do two things:

1. I want to be able to create a web page with frames. Specifically, it will have a small column on the right with links to a bunch of other pages, and when I click on those links, the large column on the left will display that other page.
2. I want this web page to be at least MARGINALLY compliant with XHMTL.

Here is a list of sites I have found so far that have been useful:

• The index page for W3schools.com, which is a really awesome web page with all types of web tutorials.
• The W3schools page discussing frame tags, and the W3schools page discussing how to make sure your XHTML page can be checked for validation.
• A frames tutorial on htmlcodetutorial.com, a site which I have checked out before but which looks like it could be quite useful.
• The XHTML page on Wikipedia, which mentions frames in XHTML, among other things.

UPDATE-09/14/07. Wheee!!!! I got it to work!! Still a lot of work to do on it yet, like add backgrounds to the different frames, check it for xhtml compliance, etc., but it seems to work!!! yay!! I’ll post the link later, but for now I’ll just say I wanted to put together a page where I could view all my favorite web comics without opening a bazillion windows.

Southwestern Beer Bread - Original and modified

From the Great Falls Tribune, September 17, 2007.

Southwestern Beer Bread - Original:

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese with jalapeno or other peppers
• 12-ounce bottle pale ale beer

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly coat a standard loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, and salt. Add the corn and cheese and mix. Add the beer and mix well. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for 50 minutes.

Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Southwestern Beer Bread - Modified by C Good:

• 2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 2 Tbsp demerara or turbinado sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
• 1 cup pepperjack cheese, either shredded (if from a block) or finely diced (if from individual slices
• 6 slices bacon, finely diced
• 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
• 12-ounce bottle pale ale beer. Stella Artois works well, although it is a bit bitter compared to most pale ales.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly coat a standard loaf pan with cooking spray.

Saute the bacon in a small frying pan until well-done but not blackened. Pour off any excess fat, and add the onions to the frying pan with the bacon. Continue to saute until onions are soft and sweet, about 5-8 minutes. Once cooked, take off the heat and place in a separate bowl or plate to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the corn and cheese and mix well. Add the bacon and onion mixture and mix well. Add the beer and mix well. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for 50 minutes.

Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. If left in the pan too long after the 10 minute cooling period, the bottom of the loaf may become soggy.

Baking sweets: how to know if you’ve got a good batter

If the batter for a cake or cookies tastes so good that after the first taste test you can’t resist taking another 3 or 4, then you know you have a good batter and it will come out with good cookies or a cake.

Same for the sauce for ribs.