AAFP Conference


It was a truly enjoyable meeting, what with discussing the language regarding women's health visits, adolescent annuals, and clinical decision-making, but really, you don't want to hear about that so much as you want to know what was served. I only bring the best to you. Getting past the salad, rolls, and pasta to bring you DESSERT! I haven't names for anything, but this was all on the buffet line. Include some fruit pies, but they didn't have this gorgeous presentation. So, these are some the products from meeting in Hershey, PA, home of the Hershey company.  

OTT Cookies

I have been making these cookies for longer than I can remember right now. But this time, in my hurry, I failed to look closely at the measuring spoons. And thus dumped in far more baking soda and baking powder than required. A 1/2 TBSP instead of 1/2 tsp. Disaster loomed. I scooped what i could, mixed it up, and hoped for the best. They browned rather quickly, and spread pretty nicely. There are too many other variables to give a solid analyses of how the cookies turned out the way they did. One, I used margarine instead of butter. Two, I used shopping center maple syrup mixed in with the true blue Vermont syrup. So who knows, except that making them bigger rather than smaller was the best way to bake 'em. And they disappeared rather quickly, so I guess there are no complaints. 

This is one of my favorite brunch places in Burlington, VT. Sneakers has a sweet history, and even sweeter meals. On this visit, I was delighted to find that one of the specials was a pumpkin butter waffle. Heavenly. I love their waffles. It gives the true Belgian crunch. No comparison. For a little bit of a meal, we also ordered the tuna melt sandwich. Deliciously artery-clogging but nothing as good as the waffle. I think sticking to brunch next time is the best way to go.  

Sourdough Chocolate Cake
an utterly delectable oxymoron
This recipe originated from the King Arthur website. I didn't anticipate the adjustments, but they were made nonetheless...

1 cup starter (fed and rested)
1 cup of milk
2 cups flour

This seemed like a good start, until I realized that I didn't have a full 2 cups of flour, just 1.5, and a whole lot of whole wheat. So I thought, ok, I guess we'll just supplement the rest with whole wheat. So, off we went to church, and let the concoction bubble away for a couple of hours...

1.5 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup natural cocoa
2 eggs

So we get back and I start going down the list and putting things into a bowl. "cream" everything together and then dump in the eggs: check. Then I remember, the cocoa! So I search high and low in this kitchen that I've been gettin' acquainted with on Sundays, and realize that I can't find the baking cocoa. So I use what I can find: hot cocoa mix. Luckily, some of it is some delicious raspberry hot cocoa mix by Lake Champlain Chocolates. And some of it, less luckily, perhaps, is Swiss Mix. With this second adjustment, I'm just hoping this turns out be edible.

Into the oven it goes: 350 for 40-45 minutes in greased 9-inch cake pans. Ok, we didn't have any of those, so I just used a pair of round Pyrexes. Wouldn't I love to be able to work with a springform pan, but these worked fine. Granted it's not gonna pop right out like a loaf of bread, but they were utterly delicious. Light, and the middle didn't fall into a miserable sinkhole. Next time, we'll use baking cocoa and all-purpose flour and perhaps, we'll attain a new level of eating pleasure. Until then, we're pretty happy with where we're at.

Sourdough Banana Pancakes


as inspired by Jack Johnson and a cowboy.


once you've revved up the starter, it's easy as pie and ready in a blink of an eye...




1 cup starter
1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1 TBSP sugar
1/2 TBSP baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

TECHNIQUE: Except for the starter and the egg, i eyed everything else. so i dunno if these can be perfectly replicated. but i'd just mix everything together and let it sit around for about 15 minutes so the baking soda can get everyone fired up. if you think your batter isn't thick enough, add more flour. if you've made it too thick, add some milk or water. Then, just follow the pictures. Heat up the pan or griddle...and dinner is ON the table. of course you can eat these for breakfast, too, but we had these for dinner. Pre-exam, these make pretty good brain-food. certainly healthier than monster brownies.

SUPPLEMENTS: chocolate chips, cinnamon, nutmeg (meebe even marshmellows!)
SUGGESTIONS: slather w/ peanut butter and douse liberally with maple syrup. ahhhh...utterly divine. and if you're a drinker, i think a strong cup of black coffee would do nicely as an accompaniment.

so simple, so tasty, so edible 

so, since we weren't going to study at the Great Harvest, we broke out a box of brownie mix to fuel the study session. Instead of oil, we used butter, and instead of a proper pan we used this interesting small rectangular glass pan. and of course, we couldn't resist dumping into chocolate chips and marshmellow bits. and this is what came out of the oven... 

brownie cake? monster brownie? 

brain food 

probably better w/ vanilla bean ice cream, but you gotta work with what you've got 

Jumbleberry Grunt
according to Ms. Nigella Lawson, and modified to the budget and whims of a student.

4 cups of blueberries
2 cups of raspberries
2 cups of blackberries
3/4 cup of sugar
3 TBSP cornstarch

without a farmer's market around the corner, 3 bags of frozen fruit were snagged at the local grocery store. 2 bags of mixed berries, and 1 bag of raspberries. This brought the total cups of berries up to 8.5. I thought a little extra couldn't hurt. Perhaps we ought to have let it thaw a bit, or tossed in some extra spoonfuls of flour to soak up the water, but we didn't pause for a moment. We threw that all together, and put it into a large rectangular glass baking pan.

1 cup of heavy cream
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 cup of flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup of sugar (and 2 TBSP)

Whip the cream with the vanilla til it's stiff and peaks. Add the flour, salt, soda, and 1/4 cup of sugar. Don't overmix this stuff. Then you flatten the topping over the berries as best as you can. Don't bother too hard with the whole flattening business. Sprinkle the 2 TBSP of sugar on top and pop it into a preheated oven at 375 for 45 minutes, or until the topping is lightly colored and the berries are soft and pulpy (doesn't THAT sound appetizing). If you think the juices might spill outta your pan, put it on top of a baking sheet. we let it cool a bit, but meebe next time, just serve it hot. who knows. goes well w/ ice cream, etc. you know the drill.

next sunday: sourdough chocolate cake. 

Sourdough English Muffins...have FINALLY hit the scene. Prepping them was easy. I woke up Emilio, my starter, and we were on the road...

1/2 cup starter
1 cup milk
2 cups flour

After they mixed, I left them to party all night b/c I really am much more of a homebody. When I woke up this morning, the gang was all bubbly and raring to go. So we started the partying again, adding some more fun and games...

3/4 cup flour
1 TBSP sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

I mixed it all together and tried to roll it out, but i think the best deal is to let them do their own thing. So they did, for about two hours til I came back from breakfast at the Great Harvest. Then I just scooped out 1/4 cups onto a dry pan and let them fry til the wet side dried out enough to flip over. Cornmeal could've been sprinkled onto the pan, but I didn't have any. O well. At any rate, this made a little over a dozen english muffins, which are supposed to taste even BETTER after they've dried out. (I was instructed to leave them slightly undercook, so you could toast them to perfection). 

works well w/ peanut butter and jam, or applesauce, or honey. my favorite: butter. anything hot from the oven/pan deserves butter. 

english muffins chillin' on a rainy Saturday morning. hot from the pan. 

my favorite thing about baking this bread is how it crackles as it cools. the only thing is that baking it at night doesn't really tempt me to cut it open to taste it warm w/ butter. i have to revert to baking in the morning. SO good. i love it... 

the Green Goddess Sandwich.
four stars. 

i made a new friend today on the way to the Great Harvest. this is J's gray elephant. we sampled several tasty breads together: the Vermont Cheddar Garlic, a sliver of Rosemary Garlic, a piece of High Fiber, and later on, as we were on our way out, several bites of Pumpkin Spice. YUM. 

ok...so, my roomie thought that she'd whip together chocolate cake. (albeit, it was mix from a box) but on the way out of the oven...she DROPPED it. horrors. it was salvaged, and though it looks kinda funny, it's still rather tasty... 

and we appeased our souls by scraping up the bottom of the pan while it was still warm. and of course warm chocolate cake calls for one thing: vanilla ice cream. :D 

a pie with a view... 

a split personality: pesto tomatoes and mozzerella on one side, and corn, "veggie burger" and mozzerella on the other 

finally, the pizza suggestion i've been eyeing all summer: salsa, pan fried corn, topped w/ mozzerrella, and some fresh cilantro. LOVE it. 

for dessert: apple with gorgonzola, almonds, raisins, and drizzled w/ honey. GORGEOUS. though next time i think slices of brie might be better. 

My first attempt with toppings of shiitake mushrooms on top of pesto and sprinkled w/ mozzerella. Some green pimento olives were added, but they did little. no olives next time. otherwise, I am totally pleased w/ shiitake mushrooms on top of pizza. only since they are rehydrated, i would try to squish more water out of the them next time. or leave them out overnight to dry a little...

a closer look at shiitake pesto and mozzerella... 

so today, i had a hankering for fresh apple pie. fortunately, there are always appetites at the table at Hedgemeer, so we made four pies. Apple pie recipes run amuck everywhere, so pick and choose, we went w/ the one in the Joy of Cooking and simply bought the shells in the frozen section. and i think that the real touch was buying whipping cream that you whip up yourself. really, cool whip doesn't cut the cake at all.add some powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla and you're all set. next week, a jumbleberry grump, perhaps. ;) 

the second version: apple pie w/ a nut crust. a Nut Crust is easy enough, I thought, when I looked at the Joy of Cooking. especially when i have so many manly helpers. 2 cups of pecans or walnuts, 4 Tbsps of butter, 3 Tbsp of sugar, 1/3 tsp of salt. so we whip this up, spread it out on top and bake. tasty, except when they said nut crust, they meant for the pie to be baked IN, not on top. oops...so much for my reading skillz... 

and my prof who supplies me with the most wonderful desem starter (wonderful, cuz i don't make any of my own...), also supplied me with some marvelously hearty pesto. and thus i created a pesto pepper pizza. i think i'll have pizza for dinner tonight, tomorrow night, and so forth. :D 

this is why i need to purchase flour in 50 lb bags...it is SO yummy, i LOVE it. white bread doesn't stand a chance. i abhor it. i don't even concede to eat those stupid little tea sandwiches. they're such teasers. 

Breakfast Pizza: pizza dough. hot salsa (or mild, if you can't take it), mozzerella. bake at 450 for 15 minutes, dump an egg on top, whirl it around...and then put it back into the oven for another 1-2 minutes. what do YOU think it looks like?  

this is what I ate when everyone else ate chicken gumbo soup. looks ambiguous, non? i've never cooked tofu like this either. 

and before you think this blog is ALL about food. this is the gross spider that my roommate helped remove from my abode. phew. 

so I saw this recipe on www.orangette.blogspot.com: Pappa al Pomodoro. And of course, I having all that stale focaccia lying around, thought, EXCELLENT, this is how i'll use it up. Fortunately, my prof hooked me up with some fresh basil and I was all set to go. I didn't quite make it as elaborately as ms. orangette did. This is the poor student's version. I took a can of chicken broth (b/c my roommate has been trying to get it used, but to no avail.) and dump in another can or so of water w/ a vegetable bouillion cube, and several leaves of fresh basil. Pan-fried fresh tomatoes ( i used three, that's all we had) garlic, a quarter of a red onion, and dump in some more basil w/ that. I added a can of diced tomatoes to the soup. This was way more water than I wanted, so i boiled some of it off. Then I added the pan-fried stuff, and boiled it until it was less watery. (sorry, folks, can't give you any ideas of how much, that's why you have PICTURES...) and then I tore up the focaccia into soup and this is what you see. I've just added the focaccia and given it a quick stir. Then I fished out the large basil leaves, cut up some more fresh basil and ... ta-da...soup is served. (o yeah, season to taste w/ salt, pepper, and even red pepper flakes, if you're so inclined.) 

ta-da! Pappa al Pomodoro 

Finally, we went to get a pie from the American Flatbread, and it was SO good. This one was sundried tomato with mushrooms. And I don't see why anyone bothers to go to Dominoes around here. meebe cuz they don't deliver? But the pricing is not the deciding factor clearly. SO good, i do think I need some baking stones. 

in preparation for Rosh Hashanah, challah. except that for the High Holidays you're supposed to make it round. hey, one step at a time... 

slightly denser than the challah from Great Harvest, but this is one of the best breads that Emilio (the sourdough starter, in case you forgot) has begat 

a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Lake Champlain, the large body of water which makes up for the lack of an ocean next door... 

press it into cider, of course! 

it's apple picking season in VT, so what does one do with a gajillion apples? (besides apple pie and such...) 

you gotta make sure that the apples all get down into the "grinder" 

then you squish it all down so that it gets pressed into a bucket 

ta-da! apple cider, fresh from the press. YUM. 

some jugs waitin' to be filled. a skeleton waitin' for Halloween 

and of course, when you get here, what else can you do, but dine well, and often. no pics of the grilled pizzas b/c the little camera phone ran outta energy (it's not the energizer bunny, too bad). 

this really rocked the day for amazingly stupendous dessert. there's no name for it, but it actually came from the back of a box. a sort of cheesecake-y, chocolate-y, to die for dessert. 

and an AMAZING apple dip made out of cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla, maple syrup, it was really amazing, especially with slices of granny smiths... 

a beautiful day for cider pressing, non? 

Pregame: sourdough waiting to become pizzas. 

a unique masterpiece: Tomato, Provolone, and Pesto Pizza (remind anyone of a sandwich from earlier this week?) the gaping hole is a result of a portion of the crust that turned out slightly too thin. no worries, folks, i succesfully scraped it off the sheet and ate it. no losses. 

and how could we fail to include a slice of salmon, cream cheese, onion pizza... 

From fresh picked apples in Vermont, we get...(this is the prebake, in case you couldn't tell...) 

an Apple Cinnamon Almond Pizza for dessert