The Adventurous Barista presents "Macchiato in the Making"

macchiato: italian for marked or stained

The true way to start off, is to brew a couple shots of espresso in a genuine espresso maker. Ya know, that fancy contraption that drips life juice? But we don't own one of those beauts, so I make do with a strong brew of espresso grind in our French press pot. 

If you happen to be the lucky duck with the espresso maker, go ahead and heat/steam your milk. (For a 12 oz. drink, use about a cup of milk) 

Prepare your mug or cup with a Tbs of the flavoring of your choice. (I use this vanilla flavoring, or if I want a healthier version, just a tsp or so of pure vanilla extract) 

If you are in the same position as me, and don't have a machine to do the work for you ;), just heat up some milk on the stove and whisk it until it's nice and frothy. 

works like so ;) 

Now it's time to start building your masterpiece. Go ahead and either pour or ladle your milk into the cup. You need to make sure that there's a good amount of foam in there, so if needed, just skim some extra in. 

Wait for a moment (about 30-60 seconds) until you can clearly see the milk settling into two layers: 

Beautiful, ain't it? 

Ok, now you want to measure out a shot of your hot espresso (don't let it cool any) 

Here's where the magic of the drink comes into play. But it's a very fragile beauty, and can only be done with a good deal of patience and steadiness. You are going to take a spoon and angle it so that the tip is pointing down towards the edge of the glass. SLOWLY pour your shot of espresso onto the back of the spoon, letting the coffee make a SLOW entrance into the foaminess. If performed correctly, you will begin to see a neat separation of the elements, as the coffee settles beneath the foam, but above the milk. I use at least 1 shot per drink....depending on the day, 2 may be more appropriate. ;) Like I said, the slow and smooth factor is VITAL to this layered drink. But I tell you, it is worth it.....

....when you behold the full glory of your creation! 

And the look don't take all the cake.----this has been a HUGE hit in our house, and I get custom orders from my mom and sisters every day. ;) You can do so many variations of this drink: caramel, hazelnut, mocha, almond, irish cream, etc. I didn't put a topping on this one, but feel free to use your creative juices, and sprinkle with cinnamon, garnish with chocolate shavings, or whatever your little barista heart desires. 

Ladies, and Gents. I give you the

MACCHIATO

You're very welcome,

Sarah

Mythology: Tzatziki

"Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth." -Homer, The Iliad

Paleo triple-berry sorbet!

For my contribution to the theme of Mythology, I chose to make a cucumber-yogurt dip called tzatziki. I had never even heard of it until we went to Romania, where we had it quite often on schnitzel and later on shaorma. Tzatziki is one of those things that you make and then think, "Now what?" And since it's a versatile sauce, that question is fairly easily answered. In Romania we had it on meat and sandwiches, here we dipped vegetables in the flavorful sauce. Also, I made a few alterations to the original recipe so it was extremely light and sour and a little more modern than your general serving of this Greek favorite. Below is the recipe as I made it--next time I would replace the lime juice with lemon, and add some fresh dill-weed:

Tzatziki (cucumber-yogurt) Sauce

and do forgive the poor image quality. this was done with my tablet-camera

what you'll likely need:

2 large cucumbers, peeled and seeded

2 cups Greek yogurt

3 Tbs. olive oil

Juice and zest of one lime

1 Tbs. minced garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1.) Grate your cucumbers and mix in medium-size bowl with yogurt and olive oil.

2.) Zest and squeeze lime and add with remaining spices to the cucumber-yogurt mixture

3.) Cover and chill in fridge until ready to use. Serve on pita-sandwiches or with fresh cut veggies.

In a fortuitous turn of events, we also had a lot of unused goat's milk in the fridge so I tried my hand at making homemade feta cheese. It wasn't until much later that I realized that too will fit into this week's theme, since feta cheese is an essential part of Mediterranean cuisine! The cheese requires salt-curing for 4-5 days so I won't be able to taste it and tell you how it turned out till next week. However, so far it looks perfectly edible! I also was set the task of pickling our overabundance of cucumbers--one of my favorite summer jobs. The results are, according to Daniel and one of his colleagues, "Unbelievable." Let us hope this is true, and not just a recommendation from starving bachelors. ;)

The tzatziki was fresh, delicious, and something we'll definitely make again! I'm hoping to use the rest in sandwiches or on a salad with the feta cheese next week--in the fridge I'm positive it will last that long. So now I'm wondering, what did you make? Don't forget to link up in the post below! I can't wait to look at all of the recipes you submit. :)

New Blog Series: Culinary Cabaret! :)

Okay guys! I am thrilled and excited to introduce to you to the new blog series starting here on Two's Company! This series will be called "Culinary Cabaret" after the line in Disney's "Be Our Guest" which runs: "Beef ragout, cheese souffle, pies and puddings en flambe! We'll prepare and serve with flair a culinary cabaret!" Essentially, this series is a challenge you all will be able to link up with any week you'd like! It will run for 52 weeks (hopefully 52 adjacent weeks...we'll see how that works out) which is a year. The idea is that each week I'll post a theme, and you will have a chance to make one new recipe (or a variation of an old one) that fits the theme. Themes could be as simple as "Indian", "Greek", "Italian" or as complex as "Pixar Movies", "Downton Abbey", "Autumn", or, hey, something as crazy as "Oxford don". Sarah and I will chose one new recipe a week and blog about it--and you'll do the same!

And for those of you who are sitting there looking at this post thinking, "Aw, gee, I don't think I can be that creative," all I'm saying is that it is one recipe a week. Not a whole meal. It won't be expensive because, hey, people in India don't always have a ton of money and if you've got some watermelon and some milk and ice you can make a melon lassi that would fit that theme and not cost a dime. And besides--a challenge isn't supposed to be terribly easy. It's meant to be doable though, and I thoroughly believe that one new recipe a week is doable. I will be posting the theme for the week on Mondays and you will have until the following Monday to link up with your post and recipe. Not only will Culinary Cabaret improve your own creativity, but we can serve as inspirations for each other! And remember, linking up once does not mean that you have to do all 52 weeks! I would love to see you anytime throughout the course of the challenge. So please spread the word, and if any of you are wizards with blog buttons, feel free to make and share a button about the challenge. I want to get as many people involved as possible. :)

Looking forward to breaking out my skillz,
                                                          Rachel

Damsons in Distress....or at least, in a pot.

This is me....in case you had any doubts about that. ;)

Ehh...you're right. ;)

Moving on! I must have some home-maker cell in my body that won't let me rest, even on my birthday. Because yesterday afternoon I went for a walk to see if a neighbor's peaches were ready. This neighbor, who passed away recently, was our beloved Miss Virginia. Her nephew told us that whatever fruit comes into season in her yard we are welcome too!

"It has the odor of grave-robbing about it!"

-Miss Pole, of Cranford

Ahem. As I was saying.... It is such a blessing because I've always wanted an orchard! Anyway, we were too late for the sour cherries, and my wisdom teeth mess put me on the too-late side for the wild cherries, but I was just in time for some lovely white-flesh peaches yesterday. Naturally me, being a bit bulkier than what tender, bendy fruit trees enjoy, and Gracie, being too small to climb higher than me, we only picked the fruit on ground level. But then I saw It.

The It.

The It I've been waiting for ever since I heard Miss Virginia mention having s

uch an It the first year or two we moved here....

This It is rare in our county. For heaven's sake! It's rare in America!

Because this It, is a beautiful damson plum tree! :)

Photo courtesy of Google images.

I didn't get any pictures of this gorgeous tree of my own, because that self-same homemaker cell went into over-drive and I commandeered Benjamin to help me strip the tree bare without a second thought. Truly though. Who could resist such a beautiful crop of fruit! The tree, though it's been neglected in recent years and not sprayed or pruned or anything was absolutely dripping with smokey purple plums about the size of large marbles. The tree branches looked precisely like this:

Photo courtesy of Google images.

Isn't It a beauty? Benji and I picked every swingin' damson we could lay our hands down, then shook the tree violently to get the rest. They just *wouldn't* come off the top of the tree despite our efforts with a rake, so I decided to let the birds have those ones. Benjamin and I carted our peach-basket home, two-thirds full of the purple damsons. I had tried the fruits but they were very acidic while still being sweet. Like a plum that dries out your mouth in the same way green apples do. That was when I did some research and found they are cooking plums. Very well.

Homemaker cell went into over-drive again. I'd preserve them. I picked through my loot, taking out any damsons that weren't good, and then measured out the fruit. I ended up with....12 pounds, I believe. The recipe for damson jam stated that since the damsons are cling-stone plums, you must boil the plums in the water first, then skim out the pits. Fair enough. I set the damsons to boiling and a couple of hours later began trying to "skim" out the pits. Ahem. I decided I had better do what one site suggested and let the mixture cool.

This morning I gave in to the job of dredging up damson-stones and I washed my hands really well, then plunged them into the vat of pinky-purpley fruit, squeezing all the damsons until the stones came out, then fished them out. I really needed something like this:

That being done, I reverted to my original recipe.

But what do you know? They wanted me to put 12 pounds of sugar in my jam! No sirree!

I cut the sugar in half at least, but then began wondering if it would jell that way. Thankfully, we had some packets of fruit pectin left in the pantry from strawberry season, so I put those in

and boiled the mixture a long time before finally ladling it into hot jars and putting the lids on. It made exactly 14 pints of delicious jam.

I do hope it jells right....

But if not I already have plans. Damson sauce (yes, that's what I'll call it if it doesn't jell) might be delicious on gingerbread or spice cakes. :) And it wouldn't be bad over vanilla icecream either. I've even heard-tell you can put it on game...think turkey and cranberries. :) I'm not too worried about the end product...we didn't pay for the fruit and so a mistake won't be the end of the world.

Oh yes! I have a book of Victorian-era jam and relish recipes, and so I took the remaining few damsons, packed them in a jar, and per the recipe in that book, made "spiced plums". Only I jerry-rigged the recipe to fit my tastes.

I started with packing the damsons in a clean jar after pricking them all over with a hairpin. Then I made a syrup out of a cup of vinegar, two cups brown sugar, a heaping spoonful ground cloves, and a heaping spoonful of ground cinnamon, boiled together on the stove. When that was syrupy, I poured it into the jar over the damsons and capped it and voila! Another experiment! :)

The only thing left was to clean up. And yes....I looked that glamorous the whole time. ;)

When it Comes to the Kitchen...

...I'm a heavy-metal girl. Cast-iron style! :) This post has absolutely nothing to do with heavy-metal music (I despise that sort) but everything to do with my love-affair with the ironmongery trade! ;)
Nothing cooks like my cast-iron skillet. Please don't bother me with raptures over non-stick pans. They won't last fifty years like my baby. ;) I'd love to get one of these:It would be perfect for making our beef stew in while we are camping! :)Everything cooks perfectly in cast iron, provided you don't let it burn...pancakes...eggs....stir-fry....
Deep dish apple pie... :) It's stove worthy, fire-worthy, oven-worthy....the perfect tool. Hey *whispers* I've also heard it makes a pretty great weapon ;)


Ahhh....I love my skillet! :) Now ya'll know what to get my for my wedding present someday! <3

The Tale Of The Turnip (that sounds scary)

I was sent on a mission today: figure out how to make something with turnips. Something that actually tastes good. Something that we can type out on recipe cards and hand to customers who buy them at the Wilson's on Saturday. They have very generously allowed us to sell our loose-leaf lettuce, turnips, and spinach at their farm pick-up day on Sat. So what is a girl to do who only has a vague idea of what a turnip is used for? I recollected (somewhere in the files of my brain) that you cooked the leafy tops and ate them like regular greens. So far so good. But everyone knows that. The only other inkling I had was that in some AmericanGirl book, the heroine refused to eat her "orange mashed turnips". I am wondering why her's were orange: ours are purple on the outside and white inside! :) So I did a Google search, and I came up with some interesting facts: you can use turnips in any recipe in which potatoes are called for, you can use it instead of cabbage in coleslaw, and it has cancer-fighting nutriets! Yay for that strange vegetable! So I set out to make two recipes, for better or for worse....."Turnip Oven-Fries", and "Mashed Turnips". Sound good? Here's what I did:

Washed, peeled, and cut up the turnips: some I chunked, (to boil) the others I sliced thinly like potatoes. I tossed the thin ones in olive oil, and laid them out on a tray. The others went into a pot of boiling water. Here's a picture of the chunked ones:

The oven-turnips baked at 425 F. for 20 minutes or so, and the stove ones just got the dickens boiled out of them. I like to boil my potatoes to mash until they are nearly falling apart, so I did the turnips the same way.
Back to the oven-turnips: When they were done, I salted them, and had everyone try the finished product: it tasted sort of like sweet potato fry, if you have ever had those. Sort of sweet and mild at the same time. Here is a picture!

Here they are. Aunt Christy added the spinach to the side in lieu of curly kale. :)

Then for the mashed turnips---I strained the water away from them, smushed them up with a pastry-cutter, (I did NOT feel like taking out our whole Bosch thing and doing it the right way! :) and added salt, pepper, butter, and our goat-milk. Yum! They tasted pretty good, if not exactly like real mashed potatoes. I found that they were a bit more wet than potatoes, and a tad bit stringy-ish and lumpy. But that could have been because I didn't use a mixer! Here are a couple pictures of those! :)

Here is a far-away-ish picture. I am dealing once again with our addle-pated camera, so bear with me. We'll call the darkness of the picture "Art" and leave it at that!

And once again, my hand stars in the post. I believe that is all ya'll have seen of me! :) hee-hee. Well, hope this turnip-y post is not too dull! If I were anything like Winnie-the-Pooh, I would have made up a "hum" by now, because "turnip' is a promising sort of word that deserves a rhyme or something! ;) -Rachel

Help me! My Head Shall Explode! For Real! :(

Oh my stars and stockings. That is all I can say, and grasp my head with both hands to hold it on. I had written quite a long post detailing how nothing was going right AT ALLLLLL in the kitchen today, and then lo and behold, the internet disconnected, and the post was lost. Hadn't been saved. Hadn't been anything. Gone! I should make up some new word that expressly describes the frustration I am feeling. Rats! Grrrrr!!! Or, to be cheerful, and give you an idea, maybe the most appropriate word, for when you can't think of anything to say: (And I give a murderous glance kitchenward as I type in bold capslock: SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!!!!!! There. That seriously relieved me. Now to go deal with dinner. -Rachel

Recipe For Foccacia Bread

Hey guys! I was making foccacia bread yesterday, and I thought I'd share the recipe with you guys! (I don't know if anyone pays attention to recipes anyway, but I'll try this time! ;)
Okay. So here is the basic recipe:

Rachel's Focaccia (foe-cotch-a) Bread Recipe:
4 1/2 tsp. yeast
4 cups warm water
4 tsp. natural cane sugar
5 tbs. plus 1 tsp. olive oil
4 tsp. sea salt
8-10 cups white-wheat flour
By the way, this makes enough focaccia bread that our family of 11 ate it for dinner last night with left-overs, and there is still a pan for lunch with my grandparents today. If you are a small family, just cut the recipe in half or so! :)

Okay. So I started by grinding out white spring wheat in our Whisper Mill. There's nothing like freshly ground wheat!

Then I combined the yeast and the sugar in one cup of the warm water. I let this proof for about 5 minutes. Think it's puffy enough? :)

I added the yeast mixture, along to the remaining water, oil, and salt in our mixer. Then I slowly added the flour until it formed a nice ball of dough. At this point I turned it out on the floured counter, and kneaded it till it was... well as we say, "smooth as a baby's bottom". :) I made a nice, smooth ball and put it in a greased bowl to rise on the warm front porch for an hour or so. Meanwhile, I crammed some more of Ivanhoe. (Still trying to finish it! :)

When the dough is done rising, you grease two pizza pans, and dust them with cornmeal. I didn't have any, so I used flour. It works the same way.

Here is the dough after it has risen!

You then divide the dough in half, and roll each piece out to roughly the size of your pan. Plop that in the pans, and cover it. Let rise again for about 1/2 hour or so. After that is done, comes the fun part! You get to poke a bunch of holes all over the top and dimple it. Brush the surface with olive oil.

Here's where I go off the recipe: I like making a mixture of dried herbs to go on the top. So I just grab whatever is in the cabinet, and make up a mixture that is spicy and tasty enough to suit Daniel and Dad! :) I think I used basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder this time. Sprinkle whatever you decide to use on the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

So here it is when I took it out of the oven!

And here is a piece after it is cut! This has become a favorite recipe in our family! Hope you enjoy it! :) -Rachel

Here's a Recipe!!!!!!

Hey everyone!I thought I'd share this recipe with ya'll. We tried making it once and it umm.... well, let's just say that they use odd ingredients in the Bible. (does anyone know what coriander is?) So here it is and I'll just let you know that it's not one of those love, joy, peace kind of cakes! :)

A Scriptural Cake

1 c. Judges 5:25
2 c. Jeremiah 6:20
3 1/2 c. 1 Kings 4:22
2 c. 1 Samuel 30:12
1 c. Numbers 17:8
1 c. Genesis 24:20
6 Isaiah 10:14
1 Tbs. Exodus 16:31
pinch Leviticus 2:14
2 tsp. 1 Corinthians 5:6
sweets in 1 Kings 10:2
Mix in order given and follow Solomon's advice in Proverbs 23:14.
I hope some of you try this out, and Enjoy!!!!
Note: You'll have to guess on the cooking time and temperature; we did it on 350 for I don't know, maybe 15 minutes or so.

-Sarah

"Tomorrow is a New Day With No Mistakes in it" (Yet! :)

Hi Everybody! I guess it would be no use to post about Advent since Daniel is doing such a good job! So anyway, today the younger ones are still down with what we are affectionately calling The Black Plague. But never fear! We are learned in the art of bleaching everything anyone could touch. I think I have wiped down the entire downstairs and upstairs in the space of about 15 minutes after people leave, or after we have had sickness! That is one area in the many undiscovered talents of our family! (Oh! The Black Plague I'm talking about is a cough/cold sort of thing. Thankfully it is not a stomach bug! :)
Anyway, today we were supposed to have that cooking day that I described and was in charge of planning! Well, anyone that would have come to help was sick too, or else busy! (Like the Walkers who are showing a house today- actually almost this very minute!) How did it go Matthew?
Anyway, Sarah made Norwegian crunch! Yum! And I was in charge of making Mrs. Chandra Christmas's really good macaroni. At least, um.... her's was really good. Here's what happened:
Among the many other things I had on my mind, was making the macaroni, which has a saucy sort of thing that must be made on the stove.
Well, I think we were using every burner- one was occupied by a tea kettle, the other by a makeshift double-boiler that was holding a strange-smelling garlic and olive-oil tincture we were brewing for Daniel's sinus infection he has. Then one pot was boiling my noodles, and the other one I was gleefully stirring while Sarah read Pride and Prejudice to me.
Believe what you will, but I was not that absorbed in Mr. Darcy's letter to Elizabeth, but I was listening, and saw that my noodles were boiling over. So I stopped stirring the macaroni brew, and dumped the noodles in a colander, only to come back and find that my mixture had started sticking a little. It kind of smelled funny, but as I had never made this recipe before, I hoped against hope that it was just me, and I proceeded with the recipe. Despite my cold I could smell it, but I finished baking some in the oven and let Mama taste it. Whereupon she informed me that it was scorched. I wished I could have sunk into the floor- wasting perfectly good ingredients?!? Now, I pride myself on knowing how to cook and being good at it. I am confident that I shall be a wife that her husband is proud of when she brings a meal to the table, so this scorching of a project, (especially since it was scorching two huge pans full of macaroni) was unacceptable to me. Mama was not worried about it, but still, I couldn't watch as she scraped the bad-smelling mixture into the trashcan. (Why did we have to go and butcher our pigs before this incident? I would have felt better feeding it to an animal) I despise wasting almost perfectly good food, and nearly had Mama convinced that we could bring it to the Wilsons and tell them what had happened, and since most of them have the Black Plague too, they could eat one pan, and we could eat the other. No one would notice the odd flavor since they all have stuffed-up noses! But we tossed that idea and I started over. Boo-hoo-hoo. Oh well. I'll chalk that one up as the first mistake in the graduation-preparations. Please pray for Mama and Dad that they keep healthy as we all get well, because I know they don't need a head-cold on top of plans! -Rachel (Now it is the long-lost-Sarah's turn!)

Hello to All Our Faithful Followers!!!!
This is me, Sarah who hasn't written for 4 whole days!!! (Oh,la!) Sorry I haven't posted much recently, but I've been sick, busy, and I think it's a little much for a blog to have 2 new posts in one day, and since Rachel's been posting almost daily, I haven't.
Anyhow, today, as was mentioned above, we were cooking some. The Norwegian crunch turned out well, although the insides of the Heath bars didn't melt so I had to remove them and chop them up. But, Hey!:) We've gotten the boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic already and probably tomorrow or something, we'll decorate. We're waiting to put up our tree til after "The Graduation" so we can have as much room as we can inside. Our Christmas tree isn't what some might call traditional, in one sense, but I have and always will admire it for it's warmth and cheeriness! We don't put tinsel on ours and we usually use colored lights, along with a mixture of handmade ornaments or special ones that we've had for a long time. I enjoy reminiscing every Christmas season as we decorate the tree and see familiar ornaments that we've known since we were little! Last night was the first night of Advent and with Mom reading the story by the candle's light you would think it a pretty picture, but sadly I was busied in trying to unclog our vacuum's tube and changing overflowing filters,etc. while all this was going on! Hopefully tonight we'll all be able to keep a fine tune while we sing carols, as last night only a few of us could, due to our stuffy noses or tickley throats!!
I'll look forward to posting something more soonish, but for now I must bid you adieu!
-Sarah