4 Cheese Lasagna and new, old-roomates!

At the beginning of November, my friend Nessa moved into the spare room of my apartment. This is not the first time that Nessa and I have had the awesome chance to be roommates, 7 years ago we lived in a 6 bedroom duplex with about 15 of our highschool friends.

No- not all 15 lived there, but over the course of 3 years living in that house we sure saw a lot of squatters!

When we moved in together way back then, Nessa had just been diagnosed with a Gluten Allergy; Celiac Disease. This gave us a really great opportunity to cook together, and explore some of the new challenges that her diet would have on her life. The first thing gone was wheat based pasta; there are many options available on the market but the more cost effective options to us were corn and rice. Corn pasta is not something I like to cook with, its finicky about being over cooked, and does not taste very nice. Rice pasta however seems to replicate the same sorts of textures as regular pasta, and also was not as easy to over cook. (and important thing for lasagna noodles...) Helping my friend in her path to learning how to cook for her new set of needs started to teach me the grass roots lessons I have had to show me the benefits of whole cooking. It was not long after reading the backs of boxes and packages and plastic labels for any hint of gluten or it's by-products (of which there are countless!) that I realized I would not have to worry about the ingredients list if I happen to be the one writing it.

Instead of opting for the many pr-emade gluten free prepared food choices; we invested in things like Cornstarch, Xantham Gums, and Rice Flour blends. We taught ourselves how to make gravy thick and rich without starting off with a traditional cooked flour base. Sought out the ability to build up our flavour base without the use of Soupstarting packages, or premade seasoning blends. These are often full of gluten in one form or another like a thickener, or a reconstituted vegetable protein that has been dusted in gluten.

That is why my Lasagna Sauce is starting off with one full diced onion, 5 diced cloves of garlic and one sliced shallot. Along with a tablespoon of grapeseed oil this will carry my sauce flavour wise all the way to the end. Its a great idea to season at this point too. I used Bay leaf, red hot chilli peppers ;) and some fennel. I slowly Sauteed these till the onions got a little caramel colour and they had a chance to merry with the spices.

A few months ago my boyfriend and I decided to try and cut back on the amount of meat we were eating on a weekly basis. Neither of us had ambitions to be full vegetarians, but cutting back was important to us both which made the process much easier. This meant introducing more protein to our diet in creative ways; but also finding ways to eat meals that usually have meat in them but just opting out. Lasagna turned out to be a great veggie choice. Instead of sausage and ground turkey, which is what i would normally use, this time I have 2 different kinds of mushrooms.


This plethora of Fungi really helps to "flesh out" the sauce and even gives a wonderful meaty, earthy flavor to the sauce that I find is often missing in a vegetarian lasagna. Couple those with some Zucchini, and two tins of sodium free whole tomatoes and you got yourself a wonderful tasting lasagna sauce.

I used my Immersion Blender to puree some of the tomatoes but I also left some bigger chunks through out, cause I like a chunky sauce ^_^ and if you dont like it... well make your own lasagna! ;) Dont forget when you are building your pasta in the casserole dish, put a layer of sauce down before anything or your noodles will bake to the pan.

THE BEST PART!

For some reason Blogger wants to upload this one particular picture sideways. So there you have it.... till I figure out how to fix it. I decided to tone it down from the 7 cheese lasagna last time, and leave out the ricotta layer. Dont worry, i left the spinach in. =)

Sauce, noodles, Sauce, cheese, Sauce, noodles, Sauce, cheese, Spinach, cheese, noodles, Sauce, cheese, Sauce, noodles, Sauce, cheese.

Brown rice noodles need a lot of sauce! All must be covered as well to make sure that no noodle is left behind in the cooking process. Press down your layers gently with each addition, dont over pack it either or your oven will look like mine! ...need a serious cleaning.

Finally, the important part to a Spectacular Lasagna: you have to do it Biscotti Style.

Have you ever wondered to yourself, MY! this chili is even better the next day! Or Ya know I love beef stew, but i love beef stew leftovers even more! Maybe you even sneak off to the kitchen and pick away at the Curry leftovers in the container in your fridge the morning after a night of indian feasting. There is a simple explaination for this strange occurrence and that is: the longer your flavors have to merry and mellow together, the better your food is going to take. This is the defining characteristic of most comfort foods as well, warm, and cohesive; every flavor about this classic lasagna is going to come together 10 fold once you bake it the second time around.

What this means for you, the lasagna maker is this. You will either have to make your lasagna the night or day before you want to eat it; or alternatively, like I do, start your day off early, get that sucker in the oven and baking before 1 pm, let it rest for a while (3 hours min) and then bake it again. You wont get the over night fridged effect, but you can make your lasagna a whole day project that helps to keep your "snowed-in" apartment warm. =)

350 degrees for a good 60-75 minutes at first, then another bake about that long for a fridge cold lasagna. Or about half that for just a counter cooled all day lasagna.

I think I have rambled on enough here about supper, its time to put mine in for the second bake, and get to eating!

Now I just need to find a good way to deliver pieces to far away friends. =)

4 cheese lasagna..... Done.

Coconut Shrimp Salad

Coconut Shrimp Salad

12 Large Shrimp, tails on.

1 Large Egg

1/2 cup coconut (I used half sweetened half unsweetened to ensure i got a great toasted look)

1/2 cup flour (or corn starch, or Whole wheat, or well pretty much anything)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (mine are whole wheat, made from my bread ends)

1/2 tsp Sea Salt (optional of course)

1 tsp Paprika (smoked or non, your preference)

7-12 leaves of lettuce (mine was romaine and green)

1/4 red onion, sliced thin

1/2 red pepper sliced thin

4 inches of a diced up cucumber

2 oz of crumbled goats milk feta

1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 tsp cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil(mmm extra virgins)

1/4 tsp agave syrup (or a PINCH of sugar, Maple syrup or something to cut the lemon zing)

1/4 cup coconut flakes for garnish


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Wash, peel and butterfly your shrimp. :eave the tails intact if you like, they make a good finger hold coming up.

In separate dishes prepare your breading.

Dish one: Flour and paprika, and salt (alternatively this can be done in a zip top baggie or Tupperware container with a lid)

Dish two: One large egg, well broken up with a fork.

Dish Three: Bread crumbs and coconut.

Line a small pan (i used an old cake round) with tinfoil or parchment PREHEAT your oven to 500 degrees F. I did not spray the foil, oil it, butter it or anything of the sort, just plain tinfoil.

Dip your shrimp (or toss them all in a bag and shake!)in the flour first, this will soak up its moisture and help build your breading base. Also, by seasoning with your paprika here you will ensure that the flavor of your spice is not lost in the high heat baking process.

Coat the floured shrimp with the egg scramble and then lay it in the breadcrumbs and coconut, pressing the shrimp gently into the final coating to get it covered. Space them all evenly around your lined pan trying to keep them from touching so that they are easy to separate once they are cooked.

My oven is tiny... and so are its heating elements, so I have a hard time getting my oven to the proper temperature needed to cook the breading and shrimp fast and thoroughly enough without overcooking the shrimp. To compensate, when I put my shrimp in, it is on the highest rack setting, and I turn the oven up to broil. While this process worked well for me to get brown shrimp, you might be alright at a mere 500 Degrees. If they are not brown enough for your tastes after 10 minutes, turn your oven up to broil and keep and eye on it while you get the colour you are looking for. Also, if you decide to use only unsweetened coconut in your breading this may also effect your browning, so be aware.

They should only take about as long as the salad does to throw together.

In the bottom of your salad bowl, squeeze half a lemon, and add your olive oil, and agave syrup or whatever sweet taste you would like to cut the lemon juice. Whisk thoroughly and build the salad on top of this dressing. Layering first with lettuce, then your chopped veggies and adding the feta last.

Check your shrimp, if the tails are pink and the meat is turning from opaque to white you are nearly done.If you have butterflied the meat before cooking this will help it cook faster, and more evenly. Toss your salad up with the dressing and by the time you have your dinner mate called to the table those shrimp will be perfect.

I have yet to figure out how to accurately gauge this meals calorie count, but with these figures I fed my boyfriend and I.
If you would like to try and sort it out on Spark people or something like that, keep in mind I had nearly half of my breading material left over after the breading process. This shouldn't count towards the meals over all numbers.

I hope this recipe is easy enough to follow, please feel free to leave me a comment here, or on the facebook group about any of the procedures to make this salad happen. Including Butterflying shrimp,I didn't go into it here, but I can give you a little email tutorial if you are not familiar with the shrimp cleaning and cutting process.


(EDIT) In the original post I had misjudged my olive oil use by quite a bit. I went back to the kitchen, used the same dish and remade the dressing to taste, this time using my kitchen scale to check my numbers. 2 tsps is the correct amount. (unless you like a really oily salad I guess...) Hopefully that will help to bring the fat content numbers down in the details Mel is able to get from all of the ingredients. Sorry about that folks! Lesson in using your kitchen scale!

Long awaited; now updated!

Its been a busy month now that the snow is gone and all the trees are blossoming here in my city. I just cant find the motivation to tie myself to this computer like I used to when there is warm sun to soak up and lots of fresh farmers markets to visit!

A couple of weeks ago I did just that and ended up stumbling upon a great deal for blackberries and raspberries. Why so cheap? well they needed to be used that day, but they were still beautiful and not at all mushy. So I snatched them up and took em home with all sorts of ideas on what to do with them.

Spring Tarts and Trifles are always really pretty but I was also planning to feed a friend of mine who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth; and I happen to be a big big fan of the savory and sweet combonation. That is where I got the idea for some gingerspice piecrust tarts, filled with whipped up creamcheese icing and crowned with a berry. They were so, so simple and very very yum. Even got the thumbs up from my friend who usually politely passes on cakes that I make.

That night I also (feeling very ambitious if I remember correctly) decided to make some home made pot stickers for the first time. I am not a big red meat fan, and pork has become more of a special occasion BLT, or pork roast; so I needed a filling replacement. Pork is chosen in the first place for its fat levels, it helps to hold all the yummy dumpling filling together; so keeping that in mind I decided on a 50/50 split of Lamb(for fat) and white ground chicken. The rest of the filling was just like any other pork dumpling, Napa cabbage, ginger, soy, done. (please done sue me Gordon Ramsey!)

Lets just say the potstickers held true to their name, and i sacrificed the tasty kinda crispy bottom of a tradition dumpling for a somewhat softer finish, that way I could actually coax them off of the frypan. Lets take a look!

I accidentally got square wrappers at the store, so my dumplings are a little non-traditionally wrapped, but they still tasted like yum!

Finally, whats been keeping me busy for the last couple days is perfecting my chocolate cupcake recipe. I was asked by a friend who's daughter I babysit sometimes (Hi Emily!) to do up a 24 severing cupcake cake (or CCC) for her 5th birthday. Of course I was more than happy to do it and I had A LOT of fun dreaming up the pinkest, princess-y of cakes for my favorite 5 year old.

After a few changes of mind here and there I finally decided on a chocolate cupcake base with pink vanilla buttercream icing. Buttercream can sometimes cause a little tension when it comes to icing, first of all it usually means "rawish" egg whites, and it cannot stand up to the heat or sun of a summer birthday at the park. With some careful planning (and cooling) the cupcakes made it to consumption with no problems and absolutely none of the horrible events I imagined occurring, didn't! (like me tripping and spilling 24 cupcakes into the park, believe me, it could happen)

Here's a finally pic of the cake all set up for Miss Emily:

This was so much fun, I hope I can seek out more opportunity to share my baking skills with others on such special days.

Mi Familia

Most of us, when finally leaving the nest, have a chance to branch out into food realms never explored before; determined to try the food our parents didn't have the time or knack to prepare. Not me though, when I was a kid eating out was a luxury that we afforded only once and a while, (might also have something to do with getting 4 kids organized for a meal out somewhere cannot be an easy task) but also my mother has wonderful cooking skills coupled with the creativity that can only be gathered by years of stretching a thin budget. So, when I finally had my own food freedom I went straight for the things I had been denied all this time: Pizza, Chinese take-out, Indian Buffets, Wendy's Midnight Drive-Thru, no, it was not a very proud few years for me but it did not take long for my own inner cooking skills began to really shine through.

I spent a few years shacked up in a house with some of the best friends a girl could ask for coming out of high school. It was for all of its worth, a party haven for all who lived within the area and so there were always plenty of mouths around to feed. However, when beer is and partying is a bit more important than a high paying job, the food budget can suffer and I found myself forced into a very familiar situation when it came to the kitchen.
I know some of you might be rolling your eyes at me, comparing a pair of adults trying to make a budget and 4 kids work and a house full of able-bodied high school graduates, how hard must we have had it? The motivations may have been different, but the desperation is very similar. To top it all off, one of the house residents was diagnosed with Celiac Disease within the first year of us all living there, so there were sever food allergies to take into consideration.



I come from a Biiig, big family. Not only in waist line ( ;) ) but in numbers as well and we all love to eat. My grandmother was on "cook for an army mode" pretty much all summer long as the families full of grand kids sped in between the house and the lake; cooking for a crowd was nothing new for me. What to cook was the bigger, more important answer, the regular cheap food staples were out, Ichiban, Kraft Dinner (MacnCheese for all you non western Canadians out there) and most pre-packaged foods all were contaminated with some form of gluten or another. In my own repertoire of dishes I knew how to cook and from my mom and the English side of my family I had all your normal British style cooking: Beef Stew with Curried Dumplings (dumplings that I still cannot get right, to this day.) Yorkshire Puddings along with a full out roast meal, Poached eggs, Hamburgers and fries, Spaghetti. All of these were really quite easy to adapt to suit our dietary and monetary needs.

I want to state for the record that I don't have a bad thing to say about English style food, but when it's all you know for about 10 years of your life, you welcome just about any spicy change. When my mom asked her boyfriend to move in with us when I was about 11 there were big changes in what choices we had for supper. My Step-father 's family is from Trinidad which is located in The Caribbean(I stand corrected) giving us a whole new world of food to explore. So I also prepared a lot of Burritos, Fajitas, Paella, Tabbouleh, Baklava and Chicken Roti.

Truly those years cooking in the kitchen of our big house for all my friends is where the bud of passionate food making finally blossomed. I did not want to make a career of out it, but I loved it as strongly as any head chef and I still jump at any chance to feed guests. I am very thankful for the base of knowledge and ability that my family gave to me to get this far, the hungry mouths of drunken friends are pretty thankful as well. My grandmother taught me not to be so worried about the details in the kitchen, if you food tastes great then the looks and preparation work all usually comes out in the wash at the end. This is a lesson that I still hold dear as I try to hone my skills, I never want my cooking and baking to become a chore; my grandmothers wisdom will forever be my patience in the kitchen. I have been watching my mom cook for as long as I could remember and she never hid it from me, or discouraged me from the kitchen. It was like a free 20 year apprenticeship under the master chef of my own childhood comfort foods: Lasagna, Mashed Potatoes, Beef Stronganoff. My Stepfather opened my eyes to all new things I never even heard of before on my plate, Guacamole, Saffron, and Italian Sausage; but more importantly this instilled in me a comfort in trying new things like chili powder in chocolate cupcakes (mole sauce anyone?) or deep fried octopus. This ability has done me plenty of favors in my life because its given me courage to branch out into bold and strange new flavors and tastes.

I hope that I can do justice to all the great dishes I have learned over the years and that my broad taste horizons come through in my entries.

I promise more posts this week, as you can see, I have been busy with gimp, and templates. =)

Photography, Phyllo, and Photoshop?

This whole blogging excitement has lead down a slippery slope of many many new things software wise in my life. Since the first MsAnthropologist entry I have made the 75% jump to Ubuntu as an operating system on my computer. It is kind of scary for me because all I have ever known is Windows, and maybe a little Mac, enough to play The Incredible Machine on the library computers in High School at least. For those of you who are even less familiar with different operating systems, the long and the short of it is, Ubuntu and most of what is included when talking about "linux" type things, is an open source(read: optionally free) answer to common software that requires payment to use.
'But I did not pay for windows, it came installed on the machine I purchased.' You might say, well, you didn't pay specifically for a copy of windows off the shelf, but the cost of that software is absorbed into the cost of that machine, unless ye be of the pirrraaaatin' types, Microsoft will get you in the end no matter which way you look at it. (Yes...that is an Xbox 360 on my desk. What's your point?) I digress, my point here is, I want to learn how to use Ubuntu, so that I can make choices on the software I use, who I support, and where my money goes. So, I made the partitioned plunge.

It has been 2 days and there are already a few programs on my list of "soon to be officially supported"; First being Flickr Uploader, Flickr users out there, this program allows for a much easier, and more efficient way to upload and add initial details to your files.
Another program I have wasted a few sunny spring hours exploring is GIMP. Now, I have had some experience on the windows side with Photoshop, my forehead and the top of my desk still have the scars to prove it. But after looking at some of the fantastically photographed images on my favorite foodporn site www.foodgawker.com I really felt incensed in my quest to learn the "photo-enhancing" powers in that program. Not only for the sake of my readers but also to maybe land myself in the line up at foodgawkers.

I am really lucky, something that will become more apparent as this blog goes on. I have a great family, and really great friends as well, spread out all over the world. Recently the father of one of my great friends happened to just have an extra kodak easy share digital camera that he gave me for helping to paint his new house. It is not as fancy as some of the food bloggers cameras out there, but it is the best I have had, with buttons and settings I don't know much about. So I set in for a few hours yesterday and today fooling around with GIMP and the pictures I have collected since getting this new camera, but I felt that I needed something new to work with, some new pretty, tasty things to take pictures of. What a coincidence! I just so happen to have a package of Phyllo dough in my fridge. >_> I love it when a plan comes together.

This humble three dollar purchase had big things planned for it when i bought it at a great Mediterranean deli in my city. "When I get this Phyllo home, I am going to make Spinakopita (I really cant find a for sure spelling of this, but if you know what I am talking about maybe you can help me out?) and Baklava, and all sorts of flaky amazing goodness!" Off I scurried home to start on my project with a little on-line research on my subject. I like to learn from other peoples mistakes as often as I can, saves me from making them myself. The Internet and fellow foodie blogs are a great resource for kitchen testing, trouble shooting, and also, grave warnings. Grave warnings were exactly what I got when it came to working with this fragile dough. Don't let it dry out! Don't be rough at all! Too much butter between the layers and your dough will be soggy, too little, and it will be dry! Beware! Turn Back! Abandon all hope...and all that jazz. Needless to say, the frightening little tube of dough stayed in the back of my freezer for a month at least. Now seemed like a great time to bust it out, its been a week of new things, challenges, and changes. If I could master a new operating system on my computer, then I could handle a little flimsy dough, right?

I didn't have ALL the necessary ingredients for proper spinach dip like water chestnuts, or cups of mayo so "spinach dip" is kind of a loose interpretation of the term (no less tasty though).

Flaky Spinach Dip Bites

Half a box of Phyllo dough

4 large white mushrooms

1 large sized Shallot

2 cloves of garlic

2 frozen bricks of Spinach

1/4 cup sourcream (full fat in this recipe)

1/4 cup cream cheese

1/4 cup diced Feta cheese

1/4 cup salted butter, melted. (marg is not a good substitute in this case)

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

4-6 leaves of Mint (1 Tbsp dried flakes)

First, dice up your garlic, shallot and mushrooms, I used my processor, cause I was feeling a little rushed, but just a hand chop would work too. Fry them up in a little olive oil with the smoked paprika and once it starts to smell nice and fragrant, drop in your spinach bricks (mine just happen to be still frozen, forethought can reduce your cooking time here) and add a little water to help produce some steam, which is much hotter than just boiling water, and will help to thaw your frozen spinach bricks if you happen to be in the same boat as I was.

Once the spinach has separated, boiled down, and there isn't much moisture left in your mixture now is the time to add your sour cream and cream cheese. I found I had a little too much moisture in mine, so I tossed in a few tablespoons of plain whole wheat breadcrumbs which fixed the problem. Once all the new ingredients are melted and incorporated, put the pot in the fridge to wait. For now it is time to Phace your Phinal destiny...Phyllo!

Don't try to do this task first and do try and plan ahead, because some of the hype IS true, and phyllo does dry out fairly easy. Once your pot is in the fridge, now is the time to clear some working space and get to it.

The best advice I can give were given by Douglas Adams, "Don't Panic" and also, "Don't forget to bring a towel" or two. Grab a couple clean teatowels, or even a clean hand towel and get it damp with luke warm water. Run the tap over the dry surface a little, and rub the wetness around with your hands. You really don't want it to be very wet at all, but enough to give the dough some moisture to take. Lay down one wet tea towel, or the bigger hand towel and lay the dough flat out on it, folding or laying the second towel over it. Set a cutting board next to the towel covered dough, get your melted butter, and brush in a handy spot near the cutting board as well. Lift the top towel off and grab your first Phyllo sheet, try not to pull to fast or too hard because it is a fragile dough, but its forgivable too. You can just take the torn part, lay it over the rest of the dough and keep going, this dough is layered in nature, so it is easy to cover up mistakes. once you have a sheet on your cutting board, brush it gingerly with butter. I alternated focus on the middle of the dough, then on the next sheet I buttered the edges. This thin dough soaks up a lot of butter through the layers, so be thorough, but do not over do it. Repeat this for 5-6 layers then cut the dough into squares about the size of a wonton wrapper (or your palm).

I used this size so that they would fit into the cups on my mini cupcake pan. If you want to make bigger ones, by all means, just cut your dough squares bigger.

At this point, set your oven to 350 degrees F and fetch your spinach out of the fridge. To this slightly chilled mixture, add your diced feta, and the chopped up mint, and give it a quick stir to distribute. The reason you want to do this after it has been in the fridge for a little while, is so that the cubes of feta will melt together and form pockets of warm feta goodness rather then melting into the whole hot mixture to give you an all around feta flavor through the whole mixture. With a teaspoon, start to drop a healthy sized heap into the middle of the dough resting in the cupcake hole and then pinch the dough around it closed. Do this till the tray is full and put it into the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until they are nice and golden brown.

I thought these turned out really fantastic. they were crunchy, creamy and just a little smoky thanks to the Hungarian paprika.

and I must say, they are terribly photogenic.

Luscious Lemon Cake

Originally uploaded by MsAnthropologist

Looking back at my original post, I am happy with the general ground I have covered. Though it seemed to come up a little short in the way of giving you some concrete detail of the type of person you are going to be faced with here on this particular blog.

If you are a weirdo like me and spend far too much time studying the telling details in peoples photos, you may have already figured a few things about me: I don't wash windows.... ^_^ At least the ones in this apartment. I am sure the outside of my building has been peed on once or twice and I am just not interested in getting hot water all over that slurry. Also, I am not a disposable J-Cloth user either, I have a preference for the homemade knit type. Finally, I enjoy cake! Eating it, baking it, covering it in sugary goo, you name it and I will do it with cake! Well, alright maybe not everything. (Besides, its already been done with a pie, old hat)

Above there is a very yummy, not so photoshopped picture of the Luscious Lemon Cake I made for afternoon tea this week and I was lucky enough to have a couple friends over to help bear the burden. I found the recipe after going through many different candidates in my various books and other foodie blog sites online, settling for a well reviewed Recipezaar version of a classic.

One thing you will be able to tell by the end of this post is, I bake like most cook. I have learned some hard lessons with this practice, but I have also experimented where most bakers fear to experiment only to find some very successful (and delicious) deviations from the norm. So when I outline my recipe, I will tell you what I put in, then in some fancy italics I will tell ya what the recipe called for. Most of my changes are for the sake of higher fiber contents, and lower sugar contents.

Luscious Lemon Cake

1 cup white flour (2 cups white, no whole-wheat)

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/8 tsp Salt (Called for 1/4 tsp)

1 grated lemon zest (2 grated lemons no orange)

1 grated orange zest

1 cup sugar (calls for an additional 1/4 cup)

1 cup 1% yogurt (calls for 2%)

1/4 cup melted salted butter (unsalted; this is why there is a change to salt content)

1/4 cup lemon juice squeezed from zested lemon

2 eggs

1/2 tsp Baking soda

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and dust a couple of 9 inch round, or a 5 inch round (should be deeper than normal) This recipe yields about 3 cups of mix, and should come up about 2/3rds of the way up whatever pan you use.

In a big measuring cup measure your flour(s), Baking powder, salt and zest

In your mixing bow add the sugar, yogurt, melted butter, lemon juice and whip them with a whisk, hand blender, or stand mixer on medium till they are combined, then add the eggs, one at a time, giving them a chance to mix in to the rest of the batter. Finally mix in the baking soda to this wet mixture.

You need to add your dry ingredients in 3 separate additions, this task may seem redundant but it will make sure that your cake is mixed thoroughly, and that no cake tunnels form while baking. (there are even some rules I have to follow) Once the mix has come together, transfer it to the prepared pan and throw it into your pre-heated oven.

Depending on what sort of pan you use, you may want to -- I can't do it... I have to say something...

If you are one of those mis-informed kitchen folk out there who think preheating the oven is an unnecessary step, or even as I have seen it argued "environmentally unfriendly" please heed my warning well. Without proper preheating, the eggs in your baking can make you sick, also, your final product will not be as awesome as it should be. I know this is probably something that does not need to be said to most people out there, but this is a public blog, so who knows who may be reading. Anyways, as I was saying

Depending on what sort of pan you use, you may want to adjust your baking times. If you have a couple of 9 inch rounds the standard 35 minutes should work. Last time I was out bargain shoppi--erm I mean picking up the latest if baking technology from my local... french kitchen supply shop, Value Village (come on, try and say it will a french accent...) I found a perfect 5 inch wide 3 inch deep copper cake pan and $1.25 later, it was on its way home with me. So my cake went into the oven for 50 minutes to account for the thickness and added height. This is no where near an exact science so my advice is to either become alright with the idea of losing a few dessert attempts in the name of experimentation, or use the proper pan sizes.

If you choose the experimentation route there are a couple of other pieces of advice I can give on how to tell when your cake is at its optimum done-ness. The top will be golden brown, and even developing a little bit of a crust. If you removed too much sugar from your recipe this could effect how brown the top gets before you enter into the realm of over baking. If you gently press your finger in the middle of the cake, it should spring back immediately. Also the edges will start to gently pull away from the sides of the pan you are using. This is a sign of good things to come when it comes time to pop that puppy out of there.

After the cake has had time to hang out in the pan, outside of the ovens heat. (about 15 minutes should do, any more and the cake may re-grab the sides of your pan) Slide the edge of a butter knife around the edge and lay your cooling rack on top of the pan. Using your oven mitts, flip the whole thing over so that you can gently lift the pan off of your cake without mishap (hopefully!)

Letting the cake cool before attempting to cut your own layer or applying icing is also another of those cardinal baking rules that I respectfully follow. To make sure that you follow that rule too, I am not going to tell you how I did either one until tomorrow. Wrap it up in plastic, then some tinfoil and leave it in your fridge (not on the counter) over night (or for a couple hours). You wont be sorry.

The Battle of the SmallSpace begins here...

The first step is usually the hardest and coming up with The First topic on my shiny new Blog. I wonder, is it Blog, or just blog? I am so new to this, its important to iron out the nuances of the Blogging culture. If you couldn't tell by the Blog's title, cultural nuances are an interest of mine; I have been a people watcher for as long as I can remember but only recently have I found out that there is an academic focus that caters to my creepy "mall-lurker" hobby.

First things first, I suppose; The Nickle Tour of Me.

I was a full time student up until a few months ago, to date I am about half way through to a degree in Anthropology. But, as you will see in future entries here, big changes are on the horizon, and leaving the college I was once attending is just the start.
Honestly, I am glad to have left, 2 years of attended college rebooted my brain, taught me some tools of learning I can apply to my life, and leaving college has given me a lot more time to educate myself. Yes, I know, that is what I was doing at College but it was nowhere as productive as I have been on my own. You see, now I don't have to guess if my classes are happening on any given day, I dont worry about getting up at dawn, suffering city transit to campus, only to sit down in a class where 75% of the 19 year old rich-kids that make up your student body have not bothered to do the readings and the teacher opts to cancel the class. So yeah, that's why I am not at the college anymore....

I live with my boyfriend and cat in a tiny basement apartment and my latest obstacle has been adapting my small space to meet my big house needs. Above you can see the picture of the small window sill herb garden I put together last week. Not only is it thriving in the bright sun as we speak, but it helps remind me that even though I do not have a patio, or a big sleek kitchen, or even fancy copper pots, the things that I want are attainable in the space I have.

Fresh basil goes on everything... yes.. even ice cream.

That is all for now, I have a heck of a cake mess to clean up in the kitchen. Cake pics to follow! ^_^