A Hofdingi of a Good Cheese

I found this cheese at Whole Foods via one of the recommendation cards they occasionally put on cheeses to describe them so that cheese adventurers like myself will know what to expect when we nibble. The description of this one was something along the lines of, similar in texture and flavor to Camembert or Brie. That description was good enough for me.

This cheese was indeed smooth and mild and had a thin bit of rind similar to that of Brie. Though the outer surface of Brie and Hofdingi are perfectly edible, I prefer to remove the rind and have just the pure essence of cheese without the tangy, mouldy rind muddling things up.

Hofdingi comes from Iceland (any Nordic country reminds me of my homeland of Wisconsin, yah). It was delicious with slices of fresh baguette and a few olives and spicy marinated peppers from Whole Foods' olive bar.

Hay, Hay It's Donna Day#3: Cookie Challenge

Elderberry-Lemon Cookie

Donna Hay Challenge #3

Brought to us by eatstuff, a challenge and contest to take a simple recipe and make it more difficult(?), at least that's how it always seems to work in my case.

First, the background.
So who is Donna Hay? She is a cookbook authoress who also has her own magazine. She is beloved because of her great sense of style and her easy to make recipes… her peanutbutter self frosting cupcakes spawned a recipe making chain reaction in the food blog scene last year, they were so popular they triggered Barbara to initiate the Hay Hay it’s Donna Day Food Event, where we take one Donna Hay Recipe and compete to see who’s version reigns supreme!

The Rules
Who can enter? ANYONE! Have a blog? Make the cookies!
Entries must be emailed by 1st June 2006
Cookies MUST HAVE ATLEAST 2 FLAVOURS
Cookies MUST HAVE ATLEAST 2 COLOURS
Winning Cookie will be chosen by a poll … which will either be by email or some polling system I make casey build….. he owes me……. But I will let you know the method at the round up.

Official RECIPE — ALL MEASUREMENTS ARE METRIC
Here is the official Donna Hay Conversion Chart
185 gms butter (6 1/2 ounces)
1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract2 1/2 cups plain flr (all purpose)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup cocoapowder
(eatstuff added cinnamon and Indonesian Chilli powder to hers, she says it was really good!)
1 tbsp milk
preheat oven to 180 C (355F).
Place the buter, sugar and vanilla ina food processor and process til smooth. Add the flour egg and egg yolk and continue til a smooth dough forms.
Remove half the dough and set aside. Add the cocoa and milk to the processor and process for 1-2 mins or until just combined. Remove the dough and roll betweern 2 sheets of bakingpaper until 5 mm or 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with plain vanilla dough. Use a square cookie cutter* to cut out squares arrange on baking sheet lined with baking paperto for cheqerboards. Repeat
Bake for 10 - 12 mins until crisp and golden. — You just lay the squares right next to each other they will stick together when they bake.
*Alt method 1) Use a ruler and a knife and cut small squares, can be fun and fiddly, esp if you want to make small squares*Alt method 2) Divide the 2 doughs and make long thin logs, join the together and then cut 1 cm thick slices. You will need a sharp knife.
Most Important thing to remember HAVE FUN!!!


And have fun I did!
Here's how my recipe varied from the original: I wasn't sure if the butter called for here was salted or unsalted so I used 1/2 cup unsalted and 5 Tablespoons salted. Upon tasting the dough before adding flavorings it was clear the butter should have been salted. I added a pinch of salt and divided the dough into two portions. To one half of the dough I added 3 Tablespoons of Elderberry Jam that I bought at the local Farmer's Market. To the other half, I added 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice and Zest (I have been in the habit of keeping a few cups on hand at all times. I buy lemons on sale then zest and juice them all and freeze the entire works until I need it for a recipe.) Both doughs received a small amount of food coloring just to brighten the colors a bit. The additions of jam and juice made the dough extremely sticky. I rolled each dough into a log using waxed paper and let it refrigerate overnight. By the recipe, I thought this might make the dough too cold and tough to handle but in the morning it was still quite soft. I molded the two halves of dough together carefully and found that freezing it for a couple of minutes was my best bet for getting the cookies cut and into the oven without becoming a gooey mess.

After baking and cooling these cookies are still quite soft which is fine with me as I occasionally like a softer cookie. The flavors are a fantastic match.

Time To Get Back In The Swing With USNA Cake Pictures

My blog posts are seriously lacking these days, I know. I have potential entries stacked up like cord wood and it's getting on my nerves. So let's start with picture time.

The workload at the bakery has been ridiculous. I don't think we've had a single weekend that wasn't busy since maybe the second week of January. This month, for example we've had large parties for the Kentucky Derby, then was Mother's Day, then Preakness. This past week we had a Navy picnic which required a 4,000 cookie order and then Naval Academy graduations. As a side note may I just say to everyone who traveled to Annapolis for USNA graduations, we're glad to have you but please DO NOT stop on the route 50 bridge to look at the Blue Angels as they fly over. Our traffic congestion is bad enough without you stopping in the middle of the highway to gape at the airplanes. Please have courtesy enough to pull part-way onto the shoulder of the road like the police do. That way, only one lane of traffic has to slow to a crawl. Thank you for your consideration.

I recall last years' attempt at recreating the Naval Academy seal cost me 3 hours of worktime for one cake. This year my USNA cake took 25 minutes from start to finish. That's some improvement! I think the result of this years' decoration is just as good as last year, if not better. Judge for yourself.
2006
2005

Ready For A Good Long Nap

Flower Pot Detail
Originally uploaded by Grommie CheeseBabe.

You wanted to know what's been keeping me away from my dear Bloggity? These little darlings. I'm decorating Flower Pot Cakes in my sleep these days. What little sleep there is. Once Mother's Day decorating is over, I'll be glad to not see another Flower Pot Cake for a whole year!

You can check out more cakes via Flickr.

Candy To Make You Lose Your Lunch -- Ear Wax, Toilet Bowl

Ear Wax Candy

Yes, it's a plastic ear filled with candy ear wax. Though it looks like the real thing, it's actually fruit-flavored gel. Attached to the package is an edible "Q-Tip". You eat the candy by dipping the swab into the ear and scooping out some ear wax.



Toilet Candy
Someone thought the world was their toilet bowl and to prove it, they made this little treat for the bravest of kiddies. Lick and then swirl the lollipop wand into the sour powder inside the toilet. There are apparently two lollipops for each toilet so I guess if you want, let your best friend share in your germy grossness.



More Ear Wax Candy
If one type of ear wax candy wasn't enough, I found another! This one has the option of a strawberry or green apple paste that is squeezed through ear holes of a plastic head. Those silly candy inventors.


I have never seen these in stores and have only found them in bulk packaging. Would you or anyone you know buy these candies? Would you try it if you won it in a contest? I'm extremely curious about these little gems and have to admit that I may be willing to buy them by the case if that's what it takes to give them a try. However, I certainly am not willing to eat an entire case of them. So tell me if you would eat this or know someone you'd love to give it to. If I get enough interest, I'll have a gross candy give-away contest.

Sweetie, Eat Your Quorn

Quorn

Quorn was introduced to me by a co-worker some time ago. She told me that at a dinner party she fed her guests Quorn in place of chicken and no one was the wiser. I'm not easily fooled into enjoying meat substitutes so of course I was skeptical. Tofu has a tiny corner of my heart, true, but tofu is not meat. It doesn't look like meat and it doesn't taste exactly like meat even though it has a bit of meaty undertone. I have enjoyed a number of meat substitutes that were mainly TVP (textured vegetable protein) but sometimes they can have a grainy texture (no pun intended, though it is funny).

Quorn is extremely easy to cook. On a plate with a splash of water, covered with wax paper it takes 2 minutes to microwave from frozen. That's my kind of food! It's loaded with protein and has a small amount of fiber. I tried Quorn before I read anything about it. I think that may have been to my advantage. I have found that if I microwaved it slightly longer, say... 2 minutes 10 seconds it had a firmer, more chicken-like texture and less of the tangy fermented-yeast flavor than when I microwaved it for only 1 minute 50 seconds. And that was the only drawback I saw.

So, you ask, why does it have a tangy fermented-yeast flavor at all? I'll give you one guess. Yep, Quorn is made (in their words) with mycoprotein, from the fungi family - and a relative of mushrooms, truffles, and morel, that offers a strong nutritional profile and an authentic meat-like texture. But that's not all. On Wikipedia, I found this history, During the 1950s, a shortage of protein-rich foods was predicted by the 1980s. In response to this, many research programmes were undertaken to utilise single-cell biomass as an animal feed. Contrary to the trend, Lord Rank instructed the Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) Research Centre to investigate converting starch (the waste product of cereal manufacturing undertaken by RHM) into a protein-rich food for human consumption. As I said, I'm glad I tasted it before I knew any of this as it sounds a tiny bit like Soylent Green.

So, is it tasty enough to replace all of my chicken meals? Almost
Is it something I would feed to my family? I doubt they'd go for it but they are the pickiest.
Should you try it? Absolutely! It's excellent with BBQ sauce.

Update: For those who are sensitive, it does contain egg protein and wheat ingredients.

Ebay Gems -- Magic Meat, Last Supper Mints, Pancake Necklace

Canned Meat Magic A recipe book for those days when all you have in the cupboard is Spam, Mother Hubbard.




Want your guests to feel really special at your next dinner party?

Last Supper Dinner Mints
I guess if they complain about only being served bread and wine you can always crucify them. Happy Easter, kiddies!





Pancake Necklace that smells like maple syrup for when you're looking to attract that special someone... someone who really loves pancakes.