Bedynky Box #2: Fresh Bedynky

I received my second bedynky box last night.  How exciting!

This one looked more promising than the first one from last week.  Last night’s box had a lot of apples, two red peppers, some onions and red potatoes, a lot of dirty carrots, one big beet, one big other root vegetable that I cannot identify, some fresh bread, delicious dates, walnuts (I do not have a nut cracker), goat cheese, tofu and buttermilk.

I tried a new company called Fresh Bedynky.com, an online bio/farmer retailer that delivers to your house (a bonus).  It seems like there are more customization options when you order on Freshbedynky.com than the company I used last week.  I am still contemplating testing out a third company just to see what the difference is, but so far, I think I would use Freshbedynky.com again.

I received a text message Monday morning to let me know that my delivery window was between 6 and 8pm, and sure enough, the guy showed up at 7:30 with the box.  We unpacked it on our kitchen table as we asked ourselves what we were going to cook with our random mix of ingredients.

We wasted no time and got to work on turning all the apples in our box into an apple crisp.

As for the rest, I’m still scratching my head, but I will figure something out.  It is kind of like being on that reality, cooking game-show, Master Chef, where the chefs do not know which ingredients they are going to cook with until the host does the big reveal.

The Belated Birthday Cake

There are a lot of Libras and Virgos in mine and my husband’s families.  Between September 10th and October 21st there are seven birthdays that I can think of off the top of my head.  That is a lot of birthday cake to eat in the span of five weeks.  Could you imagine eating seven birthday cakes in less than one month? That is at least a cake a week and sometimes two per week.

Since moving abroad, we only get to eat “virtual” cake with our family members who celebrate in September and October- not a bad thing on the waist line- but of course it doesn’t beat the real thing!

This year, it turns out that my husband and I were out of the city travelling over both of our birthdays so no one got to bake or eat a “proper” birthday cake.  To rectify this birthday “injustice”, we made a belated birthday cake and celebrated with a few friends in Prague.

I set out to make a chocolate buttercream.  I went to the grocery store to find the appropriate baking chocolate but whatever I purchased was not what I thought it was and when I tried to make the chocolate buttercream the day before, it did not taste right, so I threw it out and started again.

Fortunately I had a bag of white chocolate chips sitting in my baking drawer on hand from an earlier out-of-Prague adventure that I’ve been meaning to use up.  I consulted my trusty “More from Magnolia” cookbook and decided to try Magnolia Bakery’s white chocolate buttercream frosting recipe which I paired with the vanilla butter cake recipe in Amy Atlas‘ “Sweet Designs” book.

Mix-mix-the Amy Atlas vanilla butter cake was simple, quick and a delight to work with. Love this cake, it is my new go to vanilla cake recipe!

30 minutes later, I had two beautiful 8″ cakes cooling on the wire rack making my kitchen smell amazing.

Next, the white chocolate buttercream.  I ran out of vanilla (liquid form) so I used vanilla bean paste instead which worked out quite well.  The bottle in the picture below is my LAST bottle of vanilla in Prague, so I have to reserve it for extra special baking going forward, or find a way to order Neilsen Massey online!

My white chocolate chips from Jane Asher, melt nicely in a double boiler on the stove top.

And poof! It magically turns into a double layer sprinkle covered belated vanilla birthday cake 🙂

We sliced into it after dinner and it was pretty sweet (tasting and deliciousness).

While I was assembling the cake, I thought to make four layers and perhaps put a layer of lemon curd or jam in between to cut down on the overly sweet white chocolate buttercream, but I was having trouble evenly cutting my layers so I nixed that idea and left it as a sweet, sweet cake.

Vanilla Butter Cake (from Amy Atlas’s book: Sweet Designs)

NOTE: I doubled her recipe and used two 8″ cake pans for taller cakes.  Her recipe indicates it makes enough for one 9-inch cake or 12 cupcakes.

1 stick of butter at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/2 tsp of salt (I omitted salt because I hate the salt I currently have- it makes things taste too salty)
3/4 cup whole milk (I used whatever milk I had in the fridge)

Heat oven to 350F.   Line your cake pan with parchment paper.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and continue beating while you add one egg at a time and then the vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in two parts alternating with the milk.  Beat for 1-2 minutes until the batter is smooth.  Transfer to your cake pan.

Bake for approximately 17-20 minutes (mine took longer because of my small oven and the need to cook a double recipe for longer)- Watch your cakes and test to make sure the centre comes out clean.  Let the cake cool in the pan for five minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

What type of icing do you like to pair with a simple vanilla cake?  Do you have the Amy Atlas book? Have you tried making this cake recipe before?  I wish there was a chocolate version.

Pumpkins

I had a super productive kitchen afternoon. Not only did I bake and ice a belated-birthday cake, I also I finally got around to using the pumpkin that I received in last week’s bedynky box (farmer box).  After browsing several recipes, I settled on trying out a roasted pumpkin and pear soup.  It’s still cooking downstairs so I will post the recipe and some pictures after I taste test it.

In the mean time, here are a couple pumpkin ideas/inspirations, should you happen to receive a pumpkin in your farmer box this coming week!

Have a wonderful weekend.

A Bagel Discovery in Poland

I am back from spending 36 hours in Poland and the trip was both productive and a blast. I tried borscht, perogies and surprisingly found the equivalent of a bagel in a grocery store.  The bagel find was quite significant in my books.

 Photo Source: Simply Recipes

My Bagel Story: On our way back to Prague, we stopped into Carrefour to pick up up some groceries and grab a quick snack.  If you are a consistent reader of Lamb411, you have hopefully caught on to the fact that I have a thing for grocery stores in foreign cities and tend to frequent at least one grocery store per trip.

Now, the last time I set foot in a Carrefour must have been when I was living in China in 2007, so my memory of my in-store experience may be a bit fuzzy.  I would describe my Carrefour experience in Poland as the following:  Imagine that Nestle, Gillette, Proctor and Gamble, Unilever and a couple random Polish brands got together to create a grocery store.  At least 75% of the packaged goods in the store were from multinational CPG brands.  It was like I was in a bizzaro world or something.   I was dumbfounded that the experience of shopping in Carrefour was no different than walking into an American grocery store- well except it was a little more disorganized and disheveled looking when it comes to merchandise- and it had smaller aisles.

In the baked goods section, I select what looks like a series of dinner rolls stuck together in the shape of a flower (six rolls with one in the centre), for my snack.  It was the kind of roll where each ball is a different flavour.  I had zero expectations that this would be remotely satisfying and wait until I am back in the car to dig in.  I tear off a ball and take a bite…

What do I discover?  I swear I had a bagel in my mouth from Toronto’s What a Bagel.  It was soft, doughy, chewy and had poppy seeds.  The taste profile was an identical match to a North American bagel.  It was then after eating another roll that I was convinced the recipe must have come from Poland.

Photo Source: 1 

All this time, I thought bagels were a New York invention, although some Montrealers may argue otherwise.

My curiosity led me to do a quick fact check, (there is even a book on the history of the bagel) and low and behold my suspicions were confirmed.  Bagels came to North America by way of Poland!!  They are a Polish invention.

If I had cream cheese and lox on me I would have turned my flower shaped dinner roll-bagel-in-hiding-snack into a mini brunch in the car.

Happy Thanksgiving (or long weekend) to Canada.  You would be proud, we made a turkey breast for two.  Actually, my husband made the turkey breast and found a neat beer-spiced rubbed recipe, which we will feast on tomorrow night.  Who said you could not combine Canadian and Czech culinary traditions!

Vins i Licors Grau Could Just Be the Greatest Wine Store in the World

I spent about four days in Girona province, about an hour and a half north of Barcelona during my honeymoon in September.  We had a car, so we covered lots of little towns from La Bisbal d’Emporda (the home of porcelain manufacturers), Palamos (where we finally found some decent gelato), Begur, Pals, Regencos, Fornells and Aiguafreda.  However, it was Palafrugell, where we stumbled across Vins i Licors Grau that blew us away.

Coming from Ontario where we are stuck with the LCBO (love hate relationship with this monopoly), I thought I died and went to heaven when I set foot in this family run wine and liquor business, which dates back to 1951 and apparently carries 9000 products.  How could something so modern, with so much choice and so well organized (on the inside) exist in this tiny little area in Spain?  Was I missing something?  Why are we being punished in Ontario when something so magical can exist? I live in Prague for goodness sake where the entire city seems to revolve around alcohol and beer and I can’t think of one store that is as impressive as this.

Vins i Licors is so large that it posts its own maps on signs around the store so you can navigate your way around and find what you are looking for and has special zones dedicated to each geographic origin of wine, with boards providing information and explanations of what you are looking at.

Not only did they have the largest selection of Spanish wine and cava that I have ever seen (of course) in full and half bottles, they also had a great international wine section, plus interesting liquors, plus olive oil, plus wine glasses, plus coffee table and cook books, plus a tasting bar, plus sommeliers, plus, plus, plus!

Photo Source: 2

I hope you don’t read this thinking I am an alcoholic.  I guess I am just easily impressed by modern, well organized, retail environments that bring together selection, education and pleasure together.

To tell you the truth, I was so overwhelmed and sick of drinking wine by the time I arrived to Spain after just over a week in France that I purchased a small, half bottle of cava at Vins i Licors Grau and didn’t even drink it!  However, I could only imaging, living within close proximity to a place like that, you could learn and taste some interesting wines from that store.

Just in case you happen to find yourself in that part of the world….

Vins i Licors Grau can be found at Torroella, 163 · 17200 Palafrugell · Girona Spain

Creme Caramel LA

Monday!  How did you arrive so fast? I have been entertaining for two weekends straight.  I love having guests come to visit me in Prague because I get to spend quality time with people I don’t often see.  It gives me a good excuse to cook, and menu plan and bake.  While thinking about things to make… I stumbled upon Creme Caramel LA, a tab I’ve had open on my browser for one week!

I don’t know why, but creme caramel and bread pudding are two polarized desserts when it comes to people’s opinions.  People either love it or hate it.   While both have a “mushy” texture, to me, bread pudding has more substance than creme caramel and for that reason I am quick to pass over a custardy-cream dessert when I am presented with the choice.  I much prefer bread pudding to creme caramel.

Creme caramel is not so unusual and often pops up on restaurant menus from time to time.  Bread pudding, on the other hand, is not so easy to find.  My first taste of bread pudding occurred in London at Ottolenghi in 2010.  I was in love with this new dessert. What’s not to like about a sweet, sticky, warm bread like dessert? Sold!

I typically associate both desserts with winter, so don’t ask me what got me searching for creme caramel or how I discovered Creme Caramel LA, but I am glad I did.  Creme Caramel LA is a Los Angeles based dessert company who is “cutting through the clutter” of all the cupcakes and fro-yo that seems to be saturating the market.  Why not do two thing very well?!  I love it.

Photo Source: Creme Caramel LA Blog

I have not tried any of Creme Caramel’s products as I my location puts me slightly out of reach of the farmers markets and festivals they sell at but they are on my list!

If you are into either dessert, you can find the traditional flavours of creme caramel and bread pudding from Creme Caramel LA, but its their progressive and interesting flavour combinations that piqued my curiosity.  Just take a gander…..

Creme caramel: Green Tea White Chocolate, Ube (Purple Yam), Buko Pandan (Young Coconut Pandan), Thai Tea, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Lemon Blueberry, Rootbeer Float, and Mint Chocolate

Bread pudding: Pumpkin White Chocolate, White Chocolate Cookie Butter, Apple Cobbler, Crackberry (Blackberries (when in season) & White Chocolate), Upside Down Pineapple, Chocolate Caramel Cup and Caramel Bacon (YES BACON!).

This is serious dessert we are talking about!  Sadly, I am also out of their shipping boundaries (only US) but next time I am in California, I am finding their market and treating myself to a bread pudding.  Sorry, I’m still not a creme caramel convert.

For more information on where to find Creme Caramel LA, check out their blog, Google Map, FB page or Twitter feed.

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