Maine blueberry pudding(it ain’t) aka it’s not pudding part two

First off: next week is staycation week for me. Yeah, I have a callback, yeah I’ll still go on auditions, or jobs, if they pop up, but otherwise I have an out-of-town guest and we have hikes and wine classes, and Big Lebowski/White Russian nights planned.
And I’m going to relax if it is the last thing I do.
Y’all will have to do without me but I’ll be back in blogland a week from Wednesday.
Food:
Sometimes molding something sounds intimidating. Sometimes you want layers. Sometimes you don’t want to wait overnight with weights atop your pudding-only-in-name-cause-Brits-call-all-desserts-puddings creation.

But Mainely you are intrigued by the cinnamon and lemon juice.

This Fannie Farmer recipe was so very similar to the Summer Berry Pudding
I told you about Wednesday. Except it only involved 4 hours in the fridge and was substantially easier to make because you didn’t have to make the pieces of bread fit your mold like a carbohydrate jigsaw puzzle.

Think of this as a dessert knife and fork pudding if you so please.

Or a berry sammich.

And don’t leave out the cinnamon and lemon, they make magic.

Maine Blueberry Pudding(adapted ever so slightly from the 1965 Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
3 slices of bread(gluten-frees, use your bread of choice, I believe me mum swears by Udi’s)
Butter
1/4 cup H2O
Cinnamon
1 1/2 cups blueberries
3 Tbsp. sugar give or take-see how sweet your fruit is and adjust accordingly
A squeeze of lemon
Cook the blueberries, agua, and sugar on stove. First you bring the it to a boil then let it burble. Simmer. Whichever. Take about ten minutes all total. You want it starting to thicken but you still want lots of juice. Add the squeeze of lemon.
Whilst you burble the berries:

Take a square Tupperware container that fits a slice of bread and line it with nonstick foil. Butter that bread and sprinkle cinnamon on it.

I am a cinnamonster and sprinkle lots. Come now, it’s good for you.

There is a reason it is not called sin-namon.

Layer the bread and berries in the container, two layers of berries between the bread. If you are smarter than I you will save more of the juice to pour atop the last piece of bread. Last slice should go cinnamon side down. Cover, and refrigerate about quatro horas.
Take out of the fridge, lift foil out and unwrap. Slice if you desire. Please consider being like me: put reddi-whip on top and devour.

You can make homemade whip if you like but please don’t compare the two. Reddi-whip and homemade whip, in my mind, are two completely different things. Apples and oranges. Each has their own time and place and both are delightful in the proper setting.

Cheez whiz and Brie.

That’s my stand.

It is not pudding: part one

It is not pudding. It is a pudding. In the British pudding-as-generic-word-for-dessert way.
Pudding is to British as coke is to some areas of the USA. The South?

If you say “coke” for all soda types tell me and let me know where you are from. Seriously lurkers. Do.

Anthropologist, linguist, and actor. That’s me.

I first made this for a very important reason:
Because it is pretty. And I like soggy bread.

Really.

I make it a lot now every summer because it’s friggin’ Delicious.

No, I am not against the word “Delicious” in my writing.
I know blogsnobs shun Delicious as unoriginal.
I, however have no huge need to prove my vocabular worth here. At least in this blog entry. Please excuse the fact that The Gruel page has a section devoted to Brain Food.

I tried really hard to pimp out the cute factor on this pretty pudding but had some difficulty. I’m really not a very good photographer. Still, the image at the top of the post is better than my first shot:

No?
For those of you nervous about a molded dessert, this is not hard. But there will be an easier version of this coming at you this weekend. Hold yer horses.

Berry Pudding(adapted from this Bon Appetit recipe)

1 cup blueberries
2 cups raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
About 6 slices bread(gluten-free folks use your bread of choice)
2 tbsp. butter

Line a bowl with plastic wrap leaving enough overhang to be able to fold over the top. I used my 4-cup measuring cup. Why use a rounded bowl, I like an architectural dessert.
Butter your bread.
Cook and stir the berries, sugar, and a tablespoon or so of water over medium heat, letting sugar dissolve.
Stir and mash berries a little bit whilst heating. Then bring to a boil and let cook until thickened, between 5 and 10 minutes.
Use bread to line the measuring cup, butter side up. Pour in berry mixture, then top that with any remaining bread, butter side down.
Fold overhanging plastic over bread. Put a plate on top and a can on that to weight it.
Chill at least 12 hours until your bread is good and purple, then un-mold.
Delight in the splendor of purple buttery bread.

I can please them all

How smashing that something on my to-make list was already gluten-free.
As I mentioned here a great deal of my fellow thespians in a Midsummer Night’s Dream(next Saturday the 7th is the last show-get your ticket and come see it!!!) are gluten-intolerant. So I made the chocolate cookie bars in a gluten-free manner and they were killed.

By the actors. In the green room. With their mouths.

Except for Demetrius, poor Demetrius, couldeth not been truer foul fortune for him. He eateth gluten, but is lactose-intolerantenty and thusly could not indulge in ye cookies.

This recipe was already on my to-make list and already gluten-free. I had to use almond milk and vinegar instead of buttermilk but it all worked out.

Normally I am a “northern” cornbread person. I prefer sweet and buttery to drier and cornier. This cornbread strikes a pretty good balance. The bean purée helps maintain a slightly softer texture, but it is not terribly sweet and the corn flavor stands out. I don’t think a piece should be eaten naked(you or the bread) but t’would hold up covered in butter and honey or dunked in spicy chili.
Then again, pretty much everything works well with butter.

Eateth up.

Corn and Bean Bread(adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman)
1 c. Almond milk mixed with
1 Tbsp. Of vinegar and allowed to sit while you get everything else ready OR 1 c. Buttermilk
1 1/2 c. Cooked white Beans(drained, puréed, then strained)
1 1/2 c. Cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Sugar
2 eggs
Heat your oven to 375. Spray an 8×8 pan with nonstick spray. Mix beans, milk and eggs. Mix cornmeal, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir together. Put in your pan and bake until top is starting to brown a just a bit, 30-ish minutes. The clean toothpick test applies as well. Feed a starving actor.

And for your Madame?

Apparently women have eggs.
Yeah we do.
That’s what we are good for. That and housecleaning.

I don’t plan on using my womanly eggs, but I do like to have my way with those of the chicken variety(provided they are the cruelty-free type and yes I want picture-proof that those are happy chicks).

Madame Croque apparently felt similarly, for she took her hubby, Monsieur Croque’s favorite sandwich and doctored it up for herself with an egg.

Eggs make most things better, and the boring old’ Croque Monsieur was in desperate need of a tune-up.

Madame Croque knew what she was doing! Leave it to the woman to fix it.

Croque Madame(adapted ever so slightly from the Joy of Cooking)
2 pieces of whole wheat bread
Butter
Dijon mustard
Vegetarian “ham”
Swiss cheese
Egg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat your broiler. Spread one slice of bread with butter and Dijon, add veg ham, then second slice of bread. Put in broiler just a little, it will starting to get toasty fast so watch it. Top with cheese and broil a bit more. And a bit I mean don’t walk away from that oven. This is not the time to tweet what you are making. Cut a hole in top slice of bread, crack an egg into it and broil a minute or so longer.
If, like me, you see your bread browning at an alarming rate and the egg is nowhere near done, remove from oven and microwave until done. Who were we before Dr. Percy Spencer? A bunch of bungling fools with burned bread, that’s who.
Grind on the salt and pepper.
Nifty.
Tweet this:

You get a B

I don’t get B’s. I’m anal, dammit.
That’s anal with an A.
I get A’s.

In high school, the teacher of my A-earning, type-A calculus class gave us all “mid-semester grades” supposedly to tell us how we were doing. I think it was B+’s he gave us.

We all flipped the fuck out for the next 24 hours. Next day in class he told us he did that because we were all so neurotic and stressed and he hoped we would realize there are more important things in life.

Weirdo.

It didn’t work. We just badgered him to assure us we were not in fact getting B+’s.

I will give you B’s you want. Four B’s in fact, because I am a generous soul.

I giving you Banana Bread and Beer Bread.

But this blog entry BETTER get an A.

I made the banana bread for a friend’s birthday. Lucky him.
Banana bread(slightly adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)
1 1/2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Wheat bran
10 Tbsp. Sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 mashed bananas
1/4 c. Plain yogurt(I used Greek)
2 eggs beaten a little
3 Tbsp. melted butter, cooled
3 heaping Tbsp. applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 oz. dark chocolate, grated(I used a Dove bar)
Put oven rack in lower-middle and preheat to 350. Line a 9×5 pan with nonstick foil and spray.
Mix flour, bran, baking soda and salt. Mix in chocolate.
In another bowl mix everything else. Fold mixtures together but don’t over-mix! Lest thy bread be squat and whatever the opposite of tender is. Blanking on the word I want.
Put it in yer pan and bake until the venerable kitchen toothpick comes out clean. Depending in your oven this may take more or less time.

Now loaf deux:

I made Beer Bread because my improv amigos left a ton of beer in my fridge. I hate beer. No one brought wine, alas. So bread seemed like a good way to get rid of at least one bottle…at least there were no PBR’s.

I didn’t love this, honestly because it was a bit too beer-y. I put butter on it and it grew on me. And if you do like beer, you’ll like this…
Beer Bread(from 75th Anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking by Irma S Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups beer( I used Sam Adams Octoberfest-Joy specifies not using a stout), room temp(Joy says cold or room temp, just not flat)
Heat up yer oven. 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix everything but the beer. If you like beer sneak a sip or two first. If you don’t, hold your nose and hope the nasty beery-ness cooks off. Sip wine instead.
Fold in beer until moistened but don’t overstir. Put in a greased 8×4 pan and bake until you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean, 30-ish minutes.

What’s your favorite quick bread?

Simple food, simple clothes

Ham n swiss on rye. Classic.
Except when it’s vegetarian ham and Swiss on a rye crispbread(I won quite the assortment from Lynn’s lovely blog giveaway) with Dijon.

Not exactly an original recipe. That’s ok, I have something else original for y’all this week.
I took me forever to do, seeing as I was sewing by hand.
Behold, the stocking skirt:

Because I aspire to not have to go clothes shopping and only have to buy stockings. Plus I hate throwing things away.
Also behold the cool fountain my girl Sabrina and I happened upon on our way back to the car from the Museum of Contemporary Art:

I love downtown LA.

Questions for the readers!
What simple foods do you love? Do you make your own clothing?
And LA-ites, what part of LA is your favorite? Or tell me something about where you live that you love. I beg of you, leave a comment and tell me!
It gets lonely here on ye olde interwebs

Waffle Week Day 4: housewife waffles

Today we are waffling French toast! It’s like the ultimate lazy person’s way to waffle.
Or the harried housewife’s genius, clever way to impress her husband. Her children who will compliment her cooking then go brush their teeth without having to be told to, whilst the hubby tells her she’s perfect and he’s going to give her a little extra pin money this week. Go out with the girls and have a malted, honey.
At least, this is the sort of scenario I imagine reading vintage cookbooks.
Sounds goddawful.

I made this from the General Foods Kitchens Cookbook

Written by The Women of General Foods Kitchens.

Because the Men of the Kitchens were busy dicking off.

This cookbook is a 1959 treasure, it is. A 50’s housewife cookbook. I love these because occasionally when stressed I have the fantasy that I’d be perfectly content to stay home and look pretty and cook meals for a man. But really, I wouldn’t. I’d get bored.

Although I do like to cook for the men in my life.

Incidentally, that is a bit of limoncello in the shot glass in the picture. To be sipped, not shot.

I’m ladeeeee!

Mad Men waffles, anyone? Good lord, if only I was making these for Jon Hamm. Not even as his wife, but as his fellow St. Louis native turned actor buddy. That sounds good…

Bread n’ Butter Waffles(adapted from The General Food’s Kitchens Cookbook)bread(duh)
Butter(ditto that)
3/4 cup almond milk
dash of salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
Butter your bread and mix the remaining ingredients. Dip bread in mixture then cook on waffle iron. Awesomeness abounds.

I’m a joiner

Usually I’m not.

I think I moved to LA because I hate sun and everyone told me I was such a New York person.

“You’ll fit in so well there!” they said.

I’m not used to fitting in.

But when it comes to the food blog world, I really just wanna be loved.

Next thing you know I’ll be using mason jars.

But for now I’ll stick with the used vons brand salsa jars I have oodles of.

Also, I needed a quick recipe cause acting is being busy. I was awoken with a text for a goth-y audition and the day started with a black eye-liner bang as I slapped this look together:

I have now seen the microwave muffin a lot of places. It was created by Deb of Smoothie Girl Eats Too and has been made by loads of other food bloggies who I wish were my friends. Fo’ rizzle. Cause they make tasty stuff and are witty and funny and everything I aspire to be if not as a person at least as a food blogger. Hmm.

So I joined in the fun and made some microwave muffins too. And I liked em.
A Lot.

And I asked Deb if I could print my renditions on her recipe and she took the time to write back and say ok and so I love her. Hope that doesn’t creep you out Deb. But you rock. As do your muffins of which I made a chocolate-peanut butter version using Fitnutz which is awsome powdered peanut butter I initially bought to add PB flava to ma smoothies. Ya.
And I made a plain version.
Both I used my free NuNaturals liquid stevia to sweeten because I won both the vanilla and the cocoa flavors and this seemed like a good application for them.
What I’m saying is this recipe is highly adaptable.
Play, cook and do what you like but make sure you give maddddddd props to Deb.

And much like Deb I felt the need to make a couple of versions of this.

Macro because they are big. Micro because you make them with waves of the micro variety.

Protein Micro-Macro Muffin(adapted from Deb’s recipe on Smoothie Girl Eats Too)
2 Tbsp. whole wheat flour(for version 2 use 1 Tbsp. whole wheat flour, 1 Tbsp. FitNutz-its a powdered peanut butter, and one Tbsp. cocoa powder)
3 heaping Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
2 egg whites(normally I’m all about eating yolks cause they are good for you but the whites will give your muffin epic volume)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
A few drops NuNaturals vanilla stevia(version 2 use NuNaturals cocoa bean extract)
A spoonful of sweetener to your taste(I used Splenda for both varieties)
Spray a large ramekin. In small bowl beat all ingredients like you a a mean kid. Beat em’ up. Add to greased ramekin and microwave on high 2 1/2 to 4 minutes. Know your microwave kids.

Bittman time

In honor of Valentine’s Day I had to visit the cookbook of my true author-love, Mark Bittman:

It’s another simple dish.

Can I bore you with another acting tale? Cause acting is the reason I’ve been resorting to the quick and simple.

I am busy this week trying to find a shot from my last headshot shoot in which I have “ice in my eyes”. My agent’s words.
Ummmm, yeah.

Here is what my agent picked out of the options I gave him:

Am I icy? I dunno.

In between actual jobs, auditions, mailings and class, finding an appopriate photo out of the hundreds taken that day took the rest of my time. My eyes are rarely icy, apparently.

Woe is me, having to look at myself all day. That’s enough of that.

On to food.

Again with the dishes with nationalities. This one is “Swiss-style”, according to my love, Mark Bittman. At least, the original recipe made with potatoes and other vegetables was. I made the variation on this bake.

Bake means casserole. But sounds fancier.

This is so simple it seems silly to post it, almost. It’s basically a mound of cheese and some peppers on bread.
In the future I want to make a version with cheddar and pimientos.
That would no longer Swiss.
More Southern like pimiento cheese?
Pimiento cheese is the shiz-nit, incidentally.

What are your favorite cheese/veggie combos? I want to know!

Swiss-style Bake(based on Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)
Several slices of whole wheat bread
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly ground sea salt
2 cups reduced-fat mozzarella, shredded(but really I’d use full-fat in the future as this was a bit dry)
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
I cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers
Preheat oven to 375.
Layer bread, salt and pepper, then cheese, then peppers in an 8×8 pan. So hard. Cover with foil and bake around 15 minutes, then uncover and bake til cheese is browned n bubbly. Kind of how you want your champagne to be minus the brown part.

Is there anything cuter than a muffin? Un-pizza week day 4

Yes:

A muffin being eaten by a Totoro. And not just any muffin. A pizza muffin. Take that cuteness and add a Totoro and you may need to call in back-up.

Cuteness kills.

According to my friend I fed these to, if Hot Pockets are your thing, these would rock your world.
I’m not sure if Hot Pockets were his thing, but he ate two of these. The only two I had left.

Between hungry males and Totoros I ran out of muffins fast.

Kidding, Totoro left that muffin for me. He’s a good friend like that.

Hot Pockets, yes or no? I’ve never eaten one.

Pizza Muffins(just barely altered from allrecipes.com posted by Kathy Henson)
1(14.5) can diced tomatoes
3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. wheat bran
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/4 c. melted smart balance light
1/2 c. shredded reduced fat mozzerella
Drain tomatoes, reserving 1/4 c. fluid.
Sift together flour, powder, salt, sugar and oregano and whisk in wheat bran. Combine egg, smart balance, tomatoes and tomato liquid. Add to dry ingredients. Stir in cheese. Scoop into 6 jumbo muffin cups(I imagine you could use 12 regular sized ones too). Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.
Feed to hungry males who like Hot Pockets.