Looking for the review of Seven Sister's Coffee House?

For Orlando Foodie & Foodettes, if you might be on the hunt for my recent review of Seven Sisters Coffee House located in ViMi on Mills Ave., well then you have to mosey a bit further to the article's home at examiner.com/orlando. And if you haven't had a cup at Seven Sisters, you must walk, pedal, or ride there as soon as need a caffienatted pick me up.

(Mrs. Kathy Triolo truly enjoying her Queen Bee latte.)

Looking for the Cajun Cakery Tasting Recap?

Hello Foodies & Foodettes - are you possibly looking for my interview with Sarah Mason of Cajun Cakery about her recent partnering with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Floria for last week's cake tasting event at The Vixen Lounge in downtown Orlando? If so, please visit the the following link-Captivated by Cajun Cakery's Charity-at www.examiner.com/orlando.

See you back here at L&S for more cookery very soon!

How bout Them Apples? Perfectly Roasted Chicken

In a recent episode of Top Chef Masters, the Master Cheftestants were strapped with the challenge to re-make another Cheftestants signature dish, of course signing the dish with their personal style in the end result. Chef Art Smith was charged with re-tooling Suzanne Tracht's steak and egg dish. His result of a ground lamb scotch egg did not fair well with the judges, but he knows it and stops their criticisms short with this snarky remark, "I've got issues with eggs, ok. I've had so many issues with eggs, I could lay an egg!"

Well, the perfectly roasted whole chicken is my egg.

I've been able to cutup a whole chicken and roast the parts of the whole successfully; yet the whole bird crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside alluded me time and time again. Hell, I've even made a giant 16lb turkey for Thanksgiving successfully (love those popup timers). I've tried glazes, marinades, simultaneously roasting with fresh vegetables, and none of my hackneyed methods yielded the roasted chicken of my dreams. To my utter joy, this period of failure came to an end over the weekend.

Of course, I get by with a little help from my friends. Them Apples, a UK cook and foodie blogger, recently released his tried and true method for roasting a chicken. Post reading his post I purchased a young 5lb chicken and dedicated my Saturday night to Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken, homemade jalapeno cornbread muffins (inspired by Seven Second Rhapsody), and steamed broccoli.

After thawing and washing my little bird, I compared the cooking notes on the package to the cooking notes from Them Apples to inform my preheating. My bird's package says 350 degrees and 20-23 minutes per pound. Them Apples recommends, "200c, twenty minutes per 500g and an extra thirty minutes on top of that. This is one of those times when you need to know your own oven." Using my hand iPhone unit converter app, I found out 200c = 396 f and 500g = 1.1lbs. While my two sources agree on timing per pound, the heat was 50 degrees off. What do you do in a situation when you want to learn the 'proper' technique? Split the difference. Finally, the summary of this whole paragraph ends with preheating the oven to 375 degrees.

Now my heat is ready, I turned back to Them Apples for simple steps of flavoring using my own cupboard's components:

• Brush the inside and out of the bird with olive oil.
• Rub the inside and out of the bird with salt and pepper.
• Line the inside with lemon slices; de-seeded.
• Roughly chop 4 large garlic cloves and fill the bottom inside of the bird with the pieces.
• Fill the rest of the cavity with fresh herbs; whatever you have on hand. I had flat parsley, mint, and basil.
• Let that puppy, I mean chicken, roast for 20-23 minutes per pound at 375. I roasted mine just about 10 minute less than the recommended time.

EUREKA! It worked. By Jobe, I've got it! Dreams do come true! And other such triumphant sayings. The skin was crispy and delish, the meat was tender and flavorful-and the smell! My god, the aroma filled the house and almost our stomachs because it was so heavy. Thanks to Them Apples and all my other foodie friends whom continue to educate, motivate, and inspire me and my food.

Peaches-n-Cream with Sesame Cookies

I love a good rivalry. Rivalries are different from a feud in that rivalries are normally friendly and inspire creative competition among friend,s where as feuds are detrimental and destructive to relationships. I have an on-going cooking and baking rivalry with my good friend Becky [first appearing on L&S in May 2008 in the 'Life is Super Lame Without Friends' post.]

Each time she visits it is our standing date to cook and/or bake a meal much too large for us to actually consume. During her last visit to Orlando she was gushing about her version of Chicken Bryan with a pesto pasta. I had just conquered making Sesame Semolina Bread [post coming soon], so of course I made the bread available but I could not just bring bread to the table alone. I had to do something-something summery, sesame-y, and overall spectacular. After my job, I got to work right away in my kitchen on a dazzling dessert of a home made large sesame cookie in a peaches-n-cream dish garnished with almonds and fresh mint. Yes, Becky hit a home run for dinner but I wanted to finish with a grand slam so may I present Roasted Peaches & Almond Cream Cheese Whipped Cream with Sesame Cookie...

The dish really was born out of a survey. Surveying the pantry and wanting to use more of the 2lb bag of sesame seeds purchased for the bread, I also had cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, peaches, mint, and almonds. Carefully the pieces of the puzzle fell together. First I baked the sesame cookies. The sesame cookies I found at inmamaskitchen.com were very similar to the other recipes I found online, but not at all like the Italian sesame seed cookies I remember as a child sampling wares from the bakeries. The sesame cookies of my youth were very sweet, thin, and snapped when you bit into them. The sesame cookies I just made are more biscuit like, thick, and have an excellent crumble.

I followed the recipe accordingly but I added some anise extract as suggested by other recipes and I also dipped the cookies in milk before rolling in the sesame seeds. I tried for crescent shapes and while you will notice the shape and size variation [ still practicing the fine art of presentation], I hope you will also notice the gradation of 'toastiness' from left to right. The cookies to the far left are 'toasted' while the cookies to the far right are 'lightly toasted.' Levels of toastiness are important so I wanted to illustrate the differences in color albeit the photo is quite not 'good'.


Once the cookies were baked, I started on the cream cheese whipped cream. Using a thekitchn recipe for a base, my tweaks worked out very well and in my favor because the flavor was bold yet subtle-it was so good, it was a paradox. Here is combo recipe of L&S and TheKitchn:

Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
yields about 5 cups

1. 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened at room temperature for an hour
2. 2 cups whipping cream
3. 7 tablespoons powdered sugar
4. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5. 2-3 teaspoons almond extract

Whip the cream cheese in a small bowl until soft and aerated. In a larger bowl whip the cream until it forms soft peaks that collapse. Scrape in the cream cheese and continue whipping on high speed until it forms stiff peaks. Beat in the sugar and vanilla.

Keep refrigerated. This will stay stable and stiff but still have the soft look of whipped cream.

After we ate the Chicken Bryan, I started prepping the dessert to serve. With the cookies and cream ready, I began on the peaches and they could not be simpler.

1. Heat over to 405 degrees.
2. Halve 2 peaches and remove seed.
   
3. Melt 1-2 tblsp of butter in a small bowl.
4. Using a brush, brush butter all over peach halves and place buttered half on pan.
   
5. Sprinkle surface area of each half with brown sugar and cinnamon.
6. Place cut-side down when ready for the oven.Bake for 20-24 minutes. Note, peaches below are not cut-side down.
   

Now for the assembly!

1. Put one peach half in the bottom of a latte cup or a large wine glass on top of a spoon.
   
2. Place one sesame cookie on top of the peach.
   
3. Spoon 2-3 heaping tblsp of the whipped cream on top.
4. Sprinkle freshly chopped mint and sliced almonds on top, and VOILA!, the grand slam of summer desserts is served.
   

All were delighted with the multitude of flavors and textures. The taste of the peach, cinnamon, almond, cream cheese, mint, and sesame romanced their taste buds. The textures of the crunch, crumbly cookie, the velvety kiss of the cream, and the sweet flesh of the peach elevated the peaches and cream concept to gourmet. I recommend it one and all when you really want to WOW your crowd and win your rivalry.

Eating Philly, my iPhone Photo Travel Journal

A few weeks back I was honored with a request to write a guest post for Eat, Live, Travel, Write while Mardi is away on an exotic adventure to Laos. Being the dedicated Aussie food blogger she is, she wanted her blog watched over in her absence. Inspired by her protective nature, of course I accepted. Wanting to stay true to ELTW's themes, I supplied Mardi with Eating Philly, my iPhone Photo Travel Journal.

(TastyKake Row: TastyKakes have been produced in Pennsylvania for many years and everybody has their favorite TastyKake snack.)

My ELTW post is an iPhone photo showcase and history lesson chronicling my recent trip to the Philadelphia area and my daily indulgences of Southeastern Pennsylvania/New Jersey foods that aren't the cheesesteak. If you are curious about the regional specialities of pork roll, hoagies, peanut chews, water ice and more please follow this like, Eating Philly, to my guest post on ELTW. Mardi, thanks so much for my chance to share my childhood foods with the otherside of this world. Cheers!

Stuffed Green Peppers, light, right, and you'll be full all night!

"Oh my god, it's almost dinner time! What am I going to make? I don't even know what's in the fridge-crap!"

When you find yourself in this very moment (and you will), might I suggest adding this super-easy supper of Stuffed Green Peppers to your emergency arsenal? Or stuffed peppers of your choosing. I happened to be holding on to a few Green Bell Peppers when I realized they were on their way out if I did not utilize all of the pepper mass as soon as possible. Plus I had two two leftover proteins: roasted chicken legs and raspberry chipotle kielbasa, and in my world 2 green peppers plus two leftover proteins plus yellow rice and some extras equals the light, right and full all-night meal of Stuffed Green Peppers.

Recipe
Ingredients

• 2 medium green bell peppers
• 8 ounces protein of choice ( I have the roasted chicken and raspberry chipotle kielbasa)
• 3/4 cups chopped onions
• 3/4 cup chopped green peppers
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 cup uncooked yellow rice
• 2-3 marinated artichoke hearts
• 1 cup grated Parmesan & shredded cheese in mixture (I had white cheddar, but use whatevs)
• 4 teaspoons unsalted butter
• red pepper flakes
  

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare yellow rice. Takes about 15-20 minutes.
While rice is simmering, chop veggies and proteins, clean and core green bell peppers trying to reserve as much of the pepper as possible.
When rice is done, set aside off heat.
Heat olive oil or whatever oil you have. Add onions, garlic, green peppers, and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 4-5 minutes.
Add your protein. I used 2 pans. One for the chicken stuffing and one for the kielbasa stuffing. Pete really did not like the raspberry chipotle kielbasa so I wanted to make sure it did not encroach at all in his roasted chicken stuffing.


Add 1/2-3/4 rice, salt to taste and cook all together another 3-5 mintes more. Reserve the leftover rice for the side.
Transfer hot mixture to a bowl(s).
Add chopped artichoke hearts and half the parmesan/shredded cheese mixture. Just mix slightly. Spoon the stuffing mixture into the prepared green pepper shells.


Cover the peppers with the rest of the cheese mixture.
In a deep-ish baking dish, add 1-2 tablespoons of water.
Stand up stuffed peppers in the baking dish and roast for 25 minutes.
Take out and serve it up with a fork and knife because although this meal is elegantly contained, it is a monstrous amount of food.

Milanos at Home - July Daring Bakers Challenge

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.


Thankfully this month we DBers can be counted as a participant by completing either the Milans challenge or the Chocolate Covered Mashallow Cookies challenge, of course both were fair game too. July very unexpectedly picked in pace for me in addition to being away from L&S to visit home, mom, friends, and family for five days in PA. Regardless, I'm back and ready to release all the dishes I've been stockpiling since my last appearance. Also, look for my iPhone Photo Diary article at Eat, Live, Travel, Write as a guest blogger this August 2nd, 2009 featuring the lesser-known, yet none-the-lesser delicious foods of the Philadelphia area (Thanks Mardi!). I'm excited to showoff my childhood foods in the upcoming article, but without further ado-THE MILANs!

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website. I didn't change nearly anything at all, but truly enjoyed executing this recipe for an amazing homemade cookie version of a brand favorite.

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour

Cookie filling:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested (omitted this, but added peppermint extract later for about 1/2 the batch).

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.

4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.

5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.

10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Tex Mex Med Chicken Burritos with Cilantro Lemon Dressing

Want an alternative as easy to make as burgers and hot dogs without the heart-burn and calorie-guilt? Want to re-define a summer staple you eat with your hands that is fresh, full of flavor, and low-in-fat? Than I have the dish for you-Tex Mex Med Chicken Burritos with Cilantro-Lime Dressing. This dish is my attempt at pairing my native flavor-base of the Mediterranean by preparing the chicken in olive oil with fresh garlic and roasted red pepper and combining it with the popular Tex Mex and Latin cuisines of my current community highlighting cilantro and fresh peppers and onions for texture, flavor, and health. The lemon of the dressing bridges the gap of these regional fares making for a light yet filling dish that both is familiar and different.


Tex Mex Med Burrito Recipe, Serves: 4
1 lb. ground chicken
4 garlic cloves
2 large roasted red peppers
shredded iceberg lettuce
shredded Monterey jack cheese or any cheddar mix
diced red onions
diced orange peppers
diced tomatoes
4 large tortillas


Pre-chop all vegetables and prepare dressing ingredients. Heat 3 tblsp. of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add fresh garlic and cook 2-3 minutes. Add chicken meat. Season with salt and pepper and continue to cook for about 8 minutes. Add roasted red peppers for another 2-4 minutes or until chicken is lightly browned and cooked through.


Cilantro Lemon Vinaigrette from Food&Wine.com
2/3 cup cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot: I used fresh garlic instead.
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons honey: I used white sugar instead.
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a blender, combine the cilantro leaves, shallot (garlic), lemon juice, red wine vinegar and honey (sugar) and pulse until the cilantro is finely chopped. With the machine on, add the olive oil in a steady stream and blend until smooth. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.


Assemble the burrito about 1/3 up on the shell and be sure to keep all components in the middle leaving enough room to fold-in on both sides. Drizzle about 1-2 tsp. of dressing on top, fold, and ta-da! You've got a hearty, healthy, burrito sure to make everyone in the family happy and full with a new summer favorite.

Orlando’s own craft beer, orange blossom pilsner

Dear Fantastic Blog Followers:

Looking for my recent post, "Orlando’s own craft beer, orange blossom pilsner" ? Well, for that you will have to venture to my second online home for food blogging, Examiner.com/Orlando (post is directly linked).


Thanks for stopping by LaptopsandStovetops and I hope you visit examiner.com/orlando soon!

Ciao~
Rachel 'Tha Pizza Cutta' Joyce

Daring Bakers June Challenge - Bakewell Tarts

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annamarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

My Complete Bakewell Tarts

Is it me, or do the Daring Baker challenges come about just when you need an old friend to hang out the most? A few weeks back Pete my partner-in-everything was away for a tattoo convention leaving me to my devices. Idle hands are the devil's playground so thank goodness I had the Bakewell Tart challenge to keep me company and keep me busy. I spent my entire Saturday making my tarts from start to finish and capped the whole wonderful day lingering in the kitchen with an outdoor photo shoot for my tart beauties.


Like most of the DB challenges the recipes are susceptible to interpretation. See my adptations in orange to the 3-part recipe:

1. Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional) - lemon extract
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 min.

Rachel's Notes

I definitely overworked this dough compared to all the directions from the DBers. My crust was more of a dense shortbread, and while I was I executed this better, there were no complaints about the lemon-butter flavor or the texture.

2. Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bow

l and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

3. Raspberry-Watermelon Filling

Part number 3, the filling, was left entirely up to the challengers. You were able to use store bought jellies, jams, and curds or you could make your own. Some folks even used chocolate or caramel instead of a fruit filling. When I was just a gal, after my family would go strawberry picking in June we would make and jar strawberry perserves with my mom. For this challenge, I thought I could just reach into the memory bank and pull a curd out on my first try. In the fridge I complied fresh raspberries and watermelon. Although an abnormal pair, I guessed these fruits would be knockout, summery flavor combo. In the end the flavor was great, but my curd didn't quite take shape even after chilling it for a few hours. It was watery so I added whole raspberries just in the hopes to give the final curd-ish product some weight.

My base curd recipe comes from Annie's Eats post on a Lemon Poppy Seed Cakes with Raspberry Curd Filling
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 pint ripe raspberries or 1 12-oz. package frozen raspberries, thawed
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2-3 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Here is what I did to it:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter - tried to be healthy, but will use more butter n e xt time.
1 pint ripe raspberries or 1 12-oz. package frozen raspberries, thawed
1 cup of chopped, de-seeded watermelon
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten - I only had 2 eggs left so I only ha d 2 yolks. This was my biggest folly because the curd did not quite coagulate.
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2-3 tsp. fresh orange juice - since my shortbread was lemon flavored, I choose the orange for citrus.

To make the raspberry curd, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the raspberries, watermelon, egg yolks, sugar and salt, and cook, mashing the berries. Stir frequently at first and then constantly at the end, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Pour the mixture through a coarse strainer set over a bowl, pressing hard on the so lids to extract as much liquid as possible. Cool to room temperature; the curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in orange juice to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

4. Assembling the Bakewell Tart

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)

Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges)-I don't have one of these so I just used a muffin pan, rolling pin

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam ontothe pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.