Interesting Homemade Stuff

Discovery has a great series of information pages on things you can make from home instead of buying. I find this useful for doing substitutions while cooking (since I nearly always forget at least one ingredient), saving money, or just using the fewest number of ingredients in something to keep it pure.

45 Homemade Foods You Can Make Yourself (But Never Thought You Could)

Condiments and Ingredients

1. Baking Powder
2. Vanilla Extract
3. Homemade Vinegar and Flavored Vinegars
4. Mustard
5. Catsup or Ketchup
6. Mayonnaise
7. Grape Jelly
8. Dill Pickles
9. French Dressing
10. Peanut Butter
11. Nutella
12. Sweetened Condensed Milk

Meat and Proteins

13. Bacon
14. Tofu
15. Tempeh
16. Sausage

Dairy

17. Goat Milk Ricotta
18. Mascarpone
19. Mozzarella
20. Yogurt
21. Kefir

Spices and Herb Blends

22. Smoke Your Own Chipotle Peppers
23. Marinated Roasted Red Peppers
24. Harrissa
25. Herbes de Provence

Breads and Cereals

26. Sour Dough Starter
27. Brown and Serve Rolls
28. Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns
29. Homemade Corn Flakes
30. Pita Bread
31. Graham Crackers, Animal Crackers and Saltines
32. Whole Wheat Pasta Dough

Snacks

33. Homemade Thin Mints
34. Sea Salt Caramels
35. Chocolate Covered Cherries
36. Tie Dyed Tortilla Chips
37. Fudgesicles
38. Butterfingers
39. Peanut Butter Cups
40. Homemade Candy Corn
41. Fruit Roll Ups

Beverages

42. Flavored Vodka
43. Hard Cider
44. Roast Coffee Beans
45. Chai Mix

Cherry Custard Tart

This is my first Julia-Inspired experience, and it was fun :). It's funny, but following instructions is very much in my nature, but when it comes to cooking or baking, I am just not capable. I have to spin it my own way. This is especially the case when I do the grocery shopping because I never seem to remember to get everything I need - so improvising is a necessity.

This is fairly close to Julia's recipe for "Tarte aux Cerises, Flambee" (page 643 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking), but my improvisation would probably not be in high approval by Madame Childs. Here's to a modern cook :)

Ingredients:

• Julia's Vanilla Custard (separate recipe)
• 12 frozen pastry puff shells (Julia would not approve, I know)
• 12 oz frozen cherries
• 3 tblsp Grand Marnier (Julia said kirsch or cognac)
• 1 c full-bodied red wine (Julia says Bordeaux, but I used Syrah)
• 2 tblsp orange juice (Julia said lemon)
• 6 tblsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Thaw the frozen cherries as they sit in the Grand Marnier. I cut the cherries in 1/2 for easier eating because we are using small pastry shells. If you used the 8 inch tart shell that Julia recommended it wouldn't feel so large, but in small shells this just makes more sense.
2. While those thaw, cook the pastry shells according to package instructions and let cool when they are ready.
3. In medium sauce pan, combine wine, orange juice and sugar and bring to a boil. Add thawed and soaked cherries and return to a boil. Let simmer for 5 or 6 minutes and then remove from heat. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan and then drain. You can discard the syrup.
4. While the cherries are cooling, make the custard.
5. Fold the drained cherries into the custard.
6. Remove the top and inside of the pastry shells, and then spoon the cherry custard into each shell.
7. Top with a pinch of sugar and put in oven at 500 F or in broiler just for a few minutes to caramelize the sugar.

Vanilla Custard

This custard is the base for many different tarts that Julia Childs includes in her MAFC cookbook. It's not tough to make, but the information that Julia provides in her cookbook on proper measurement of flour as well as how to know when beaten egg yolks are at the right stage is invaluable in getting in right. My instructions below assume a more modern kitchen than Julia was using :).

Ingredients:

• 1 c sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 c flour
• 2 c boiling whole milk
• 1 tblsp butter
• 1 1/2 tblsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Beat the sugar into the egg yolks using an electric mixer and whisk attachment for a few minutes until it's light yellow and thick.
2. Beat in the flour.
3. Still beating, very slowly add the boiled milk. It will get a bit of foam on top and that's fine.
4. Transfer mixture to a saucepan on medium-high heat and start whisking. Once it starts to boil, reduce heat to low and keep whisking. The texture becomes lumpy and sticky and as you keep whisking it starts to even out and become smooth... just keep whisking.

Mastering the Art of... understanding Julia Childs

My parents-in-law gave me Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs for my birthday! I was so excited to open it and comb over every detail... and details were there for me, boy oh boy. This woman is so difficult to understand! haha. She is so particular and irregular in her instructions, it just cracks me up. And on top of that, it is so very 1960s in America in how she talks about the size of meat in the states. It's really a fantastic cookbook with so much information, but I think I'm likely to take it as generalized instruction and great background information which will lead to my own method of cooking similar dishes. So, I am starting a new tag for future recipies: "JuliaInspired" :) I can't wait to cook more!