Food for Thought (and Discussion)

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Not I, fk.

I haven't had much time for culinary adventures the past couple of months, but three observations...

1. You can make a pretty tasty flourless chocolate cake from a very starchy purple sweet potato. I'd had one sitting around for a couple months and didn't know what to do with it because the other one I bought was so dense and starchy it wasn't much good for eating. Perfect for baking, though! I need to keep experimenting with this idea and get a written recipe hammered out.

2. You can substitute at least 1/3 of the powdered sugar in chocolate frosting with unflavored whey protein, so long as the whey protein tastes good on its own (i.e. undenatured). One of these days I'm going to open a bakery for bodybuilders if I keep this up. Obviously, I'm not sure how long it's safe at room temp since the sugar content is lower.

3. 1 boxed brownie mix + 1 boxed chocolate cake mix = 1 happy brother on his birthday. I wanted to make something for him from scratch (preferably this, which looks delicious), but I ran out of time last month. Interestingly, the combined boxed mixes (which I halved, or else we would have had way too much cake) separated slightly when baking, resulting in a fudgier layer and a neat look when the cake was cut. It reminded me of some magic cake recipes that I ran across about a month ago. Has anyone ever tried a recipe like that?

[mm1991]

Has anyone else tried the "Cloud Egg" trend?

My boyfriend and I decided to try it the other night. You separate the yolks from the white, then whip the whites with a mixer until you get stiff peaks. Then you put the whites in mounds on a pan with parchment paper and make little "nests" so that you can safely put the yokes back in them later. You bake for 3 minutes, put the yoke back in with seasonings, and bake another 3 minutes. And voila!

Now, when we did it, we don't have a mixer, so we hand whisked. That took SO LONG. We took turns. We also didn't have parchment paper. We just put it on the pan and hoped for the best. Honestly, it was fine, so I don't think you NEED parchment paper.

With all that being said, it was just okay. I prefer my pan friend eggs. We came to the conclusion it's a cool thing to bring to a party to show off or something, but not for everyday. It's very light so it feels much less filling and satisfying.

[fantasia]

I've missed out on the cloud egg trend mm1991, and thanks to your trying it already, I will probably pass as it doesn't sound like it's worth the effort. Though I do at least have a stand mixer I can whip an egg with.

I thought I'd share a link for one of my latest addictions that I discovered thanks to gestational diabetes while pregnant.
Buddha Bowls!
They're a lot of prep work, I will admit, so I have to wait to the weekend to make/eat it as there's no way I can do it now with three kiddos on a weekday. But it's worth it.
Honestly, just the chicken part of this recipe is worth making by itself, and then you can do whatever you want with it.

[ValiantArcher]

mm1991, I haven't tried cloud eggs before, but my mom actually mentioned it this morning. I think she would like to give them a try, so if we make some, I'll report back with our thoughts.

Oooh, fk, those Buddha bowls look good!

I think my latest culinary adventure was a batch of oatmeal muffins with apples and walnuts. They turned out a bit moist (which was a common comment about the recipe), but pretty tasty.

[SnowAngel]

Now that summer is here, our kefir grains are working really well. It's only taking about 24 hours for a new batch of kefir to be ready to drink/eat. Yesterday I made kefir cheese for the first time. I used it to make a cinnamon and honey dip that we had with apples for a snack. Yesterday it was room temperature and good, but it was even better chilled today. I really wanted to just eat it right out of the container with a spoon.

My sisters have been trying different recipes that use kombucha. The most recent recipe was for kombucha jello. My littlest sister was in a hurry for it to set up and put the jello in the freezer, but she forgot and left it overnight. It is tastes like tangy jello, I think it would be better with some fruit chunks in it. And some freshly whipped cream.

Scarlet stumbled across Alton Brown EveryDayCook at the library, so I have been making his cold brew coffee recipe with Black Rifle Coffee. Wow, it's good. I wish I could afford to drink cold brew coffee everyday.

SnowAngel

[Puddleglum]

The Mrs. and I were in New York City a little bit ago. While there I was hoping to sample a genuine New York pizza, and Rubin sandwich. We found pizza a plenty, and ate at two excellent establishments. Sadly the directions for a Rubin were wrong
But we did happen upon an Irish Pub wherein we discovered the grand delicacy of Shepherds Pie. Being part Irish I found this a perfect chance to enjoy some of my heritage that is normally denied. It is a good thing we decided to split it between the two of us, to say it was filling
Now we have to try making it at home

[fantasia]

I really like Alton Brown's recipe for Shepherd's Pie. It's the one I use when I make it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... e2-1942900

When my son is in preschool, every Wednesday they make a dessert in class. I've been trying to carry on the tradition throughout the summer, though it tends to happen on Thursday instead of Wednesday. We've made quite a few good things this summer, particularly some giant, soft, ginger cookies...
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/big- ... er-cookies
...which are incredibly addictive. Right shastastwin?
But what's really funny is when the kids pick out a box mix to make. I'm so used to baking from scratch that a box mix goes soooo fast. I'm trying to find things to keep them busy, a box mix does not cut it. We're making box brownies tomorrow or Thursday and I suspect that will be our last box mix.

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Those "cloud eggs" look really cute, mm91, but I can see how they'd seem less filling than regular ol' fried eggs. (Which I love, as long as I pay attention to what I'm doing and don't overcook the yolks. Or break the yolks when I'm cracking the eggs. ) At first I thought you were talking about low carb cloud bread, which is made by whipping egg whites and folding back in the yolks with some cream cheese or cottage cheese. I remember making those a few years ago when I was just starting out on the Primal diet, and they're pretty good. I'd like to try to make them again sometime to use as hamburger buns. *wonders if sour cream would work instead of cream cheese*

Maybe one of these twelve creative ways to use boxed brownie mix will help you in your quest to keep the kids busy, fantasia. That fruit-topped brownie pizza looks fun, although I imagine you'd want to do little individual dessert pizzas to decorate if it's an activity for kids. Don't want them fighting over which artistic vision will prevail.

Ooh, how long have you been culturing kefir, SnowAngel? Your kefir cheese sounds great! I used to make "greek" kefir a lot and used the Euro Cuisine greek yogurt maker for that; you can strain two quarts at a time with it. These days, it's being used as way to convert my computer desk to a standing desk, after having a back problem last summer and cutting back on dairy over winter. My laptop sits very securely on top of it. I still make kefir every week for other family members, but I haven't really been eating milk products aside from butter, cream and whey protein since January. I cut it out for other reasons, but interestingly, a lot of people report that dairy has an affect on their mood and I would say that my spirits have been higher in general since the beginning of the year. Whenever I have things containing casein now, I find that I get irritable. Who knew that eating a bowl of cereal could ruin your day! Sometime I'll have to try to ferment some kefir extra long (since that makes the proteins more digestible) and see how it affects me, though.

I've been doing the butter coffee thing lately; just a tablespoon of butter in my morning coffee where I would've used milk or creamer before. I also add some whey protein and gelatin to it... I remember seeing a trick for healthy skin on Twitter saying to add gelatin to your coffee, and I thought, "Yep, way ahead of you."

[Puddleglum]

Thank you fantasia_kitty for the recipee. I will have to practice at home in the regular oven before doing It "Dutch" at the rendezvous.

[SnowAngel]

I love Alton Brown's recipes, especially his recipe for Shepherd's Pie. There is a french fries recipe in his new cookbook that I really want to try, the potatoes are baked the day before and then fried once. All the other french fries recipes I have tried in the past the potatoes had be fried twice which is so much work and mess.

We have had kefir grains for several years now, but during the winter it was taking a long time to culture the milk. Now it's warm enough we have to strain them at least once a day. Which is great because we have been trying different recipes with kefir and using it in bread in our breadmaker. I really love using the kefir in pancakes, it makes them so fluffy.

I have a problem with my ears (aches and ringing) so I have cut back on a lots of foods (no store bought bread, ice cream, candy, etc.). My go to snacks right now are homemade granola with kefir or a cup of kefir with flavored stevia.

Scarlet has been using the whey protein for the kefir to make kefir whey lemonade. It's not quite the same as regular lemonade, but it is very good. It probably helps that I haven't had store bought lemonade for a while and this kind is fizzy.

Milk as the opposite effect on several of my siblings. If they don't get their milk with meals or snacks, they are so cranky.

I have tried the butter in coffee, but it doesn't seem to be my thing. It's cool that you are enjoying it, Rose.

I have, however, cut back on putting even stevia in my coffee, I won't drink it black, but I can enjoy it unsweetened. Totally going to shock my grandparents on their next visit.

SnowAngel

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

I love kefir sweetened with stevia, SnowAngel! (Or at least I did before I got stuck on a never-ending carousel of half-hearted elimination diets. )

My birthday cake was interesting this year. I'm always up for a recipe that has a healthy secret ingredient, and the few times over the summer that I've eaten baked beans, I've marveled over how the beans themselves seem to have no flavor and could probably be used in baking. So after combining my own intuition with some white bean cake recipes that Google served up, I experimented a couple of times and ended up with a very tasty birthday cake. You'd never, ever know that there were beans in it, and I doubt you'd notice that it's not made with grains, either. Turned out really nice, especially after slathering it in cream cheese frosting.

[aileth]

Turned out really nice, especially after slathering it in cream cheese frosting.

Yes, but isn't everything better with cream cheese frosting?

I presume that your beans are cooked and ground up? A friend of mine once made split pea soup: her husband didn't like it, so she put it into a chocolate cake. Cake tasted great, but the rest of them did wonder what all the hard little bits were.

[fantasia]

Rose, you inspired me, I decided to try making black bean brownies yesterday. I'm not much of a healthy nut, but my husband and I are rather desperate and willing to try unusual recipes in the hopes of getting different nutrients into our kids.
The brownies were definitely interesting. i couldn't taste the black beans, but the texture was there. My husband said the black beans were the first thing he could taste, but we both liked them quite a bit. I think the only thing I would change would be to leave the extra chocolate chips off the top (don't care about it looking pretty and I had a major sugar rush) and I'm not the biggest fan of coconut, but I used coconut oil both in the recipe and also to coat the pan, so they tasted a little to strongly of coconut for me.
I'm really glad I tried them though, and I'll be saving this recipe in the future.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that my son liked them, but my daughter doesn't even know they exist yet. I'll offer her some today to see what she thinks (she's far pickier than my son).

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

True, aileth @cream cheese frosting... it seems a little bit like cheating. Although the cake was good on its own, too. And yes, the beans were cooked and ground up thoroughly. I love that story about the split pea soup!! Talk about sweet revenge.

Ooh, glad that you and your family liked the black bean brownie recipe, fk! I'm curious what your daughter thought of them. I've known about that recipe for years and have never gotten around to trying them yet. And yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of coconut either. I used butter in my cake.

I'd love to test out a bean dessert recipe with adzuki beans sometime... they're very mildly flavored and they are often used in East Asian cuisine as a filling in sweets and pastries and even paired with ice cream. I've read that Asians actually think American chili is really weird because they're so accustomed to beans being a "sweet" food!

[fantasia]

I'm not officially jumping on one of those popular food bandwagons...at least not yet But I've been reading a lot of interesting stuff about the new craze in Europe about starting babies off on liver and other finely pureed meat for their first foods, and I like what I'm reading. And so because of this new craze, I'm making my first ever batch of bone broth this weekend. I got a big fat 3lb beef bone from the local Amish community and it's been boiling for about 20 hours now.

I've never done this before so it's a really interesting process. I ALMOST messed it up because the vast majority of the water cooked out. Oops. But following three different recipes online, I think I'll end up with a product I'm really happy with.

I admit I can't wrap my mind around this as being something people put in a mug and drink as a hot drink though. That to me is bizarre. I told myself to get over it as that's the same thing as giving it to my daughter as a first food.

I plan to cook it the rest of the day today and then do a rapid cool down of it before I go to bed. I'll probably freeze the majority of it in measured ice cubes (so I know how many cubes = 1 cup) and then use it either for cooking or feeding my kid if she eats it.

I've read you can save the fat too and use that as a cooking medium, and I think I will because it SHOULD be a very nice fat to use to add extra flavor to a meal.

ETA 9/19 @ 9:40am: Two days later, I'm very pleased with the results. I ended up with 8.5 cups of bone broth. I added very little salt to it because babies aren't supposed to have salty foods, but it still tastes very good. It's also very heavy. I skimmed the fat off and froze a bunch of it in ice cube trays and the rest in tupperware containers. I had a small amount left over to put in the fridge for the little.

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Yum, fk! I've had store-bought bone broth before, but I've never gotten around to making it myself yet. If you end up making it regularly, you might want to try this method for making bone broth "bouillion"... you have to keep a close eye on it as the water is cooking out, but it saves a lot of space in the freezer! That's also how they made "portable soup" in centuries past.

I was looking up recipes on YouTube yesterday and did a double-take when I saw bone broth cookies, of all things... turns out they're essentially peanut butter cookies with some (probably super expensive) bone broth protein powder added in. I think of myself as a pioneer in the kitchen and even I'm a bit weirded out by this one.