Tormented Kitchen

As many of my close friends and family members know, I don't drink coffee. Ever. At all. I tried it, and after a long while, I decided it sucked. Now, on the other hand, I LOVE tea. Hot tea. Cold tea. Tea latte. Chai tea. Tea in food. Green tea ice cream. Tea, tea, tea! One of my favorites is Thai iced tea. It seems like a very complicated concoction, but it really isn't that difficult to make. The key is finding good loose Thai tea leaves. I have a hard time finding loose Thai tea locally, so you can either buy it online at Adagio's Gourmet Teas or go to San Francisco's Chinatown. I personally buy Thai tea whenever we go to the bay area at Red Blossom Tea Co. in San Francisco. It's part of our after-Thanksgiving tradition. Ingredients 8 cups water (2 quarts) 3/4 to 1 cup loose Thai tea leaves 1 cup sugar (or more or less to taste) cream, whole milk, half and half, evaporated milk, or other milk-like substitute (some people like coconut milk or soy milk...

A.K.A. Justin's birthday cake. He asked for it. He got it! There is a little Italian deli not too far from home that makes a really good coconut cake. We go there to eat and make sure we save room for dessert. And sometimes we don't save room so we get a slice of cake to go. Since we like that cake so much, it was time for me to make one myself. I followed the recipe, then deviated when it came to the frosting. After each taste-test lick from the beaters, I knew this one was a keeper. The cake was nice and tender, spongy, light. The coconut frosting was very mild. The chocolate frosting was rich. It was a great combination. Ingredients For the cake 2 3/4 cups cake flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 3/4 cups sugar 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter (room temperature) 1 cup canned Coco Lopez sweetened cream of coconut 4 large eggs, separated 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup buttermilk For the frosting 1/2 cup shorteni...

YEP. I made it for dinner. I took pictures. I remembered the camera. I'm posting it AAALLLLLL. Thank you Gordon Ramsay. It was good. I had pretty high expectations and the meat definitely held up those expectations. I was wary of the salad. I'm not a fan of raddichio (or Belgian endive by another name). The combination with apples and fresh thyme was refreshing.  I used tempura mix from a box so I didn't have to slave over it from scratch. Little timesavers like that kept me moving so dinner took altogether only about 30 minutes to prepare. And now for what I actually did. Ingredients For the pork 3 pork chops, center loin cut with bone, about 1.2 lbs for all 2 Tablespoons olive oil red salt and black pepper 1 large crushed garlic clove 4 fresh sage leaves 2 Tablespoons butter 3/4 cup marsala wine For the salad 2 Tablespoons olive oil 2 Gala apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1 head raddichio 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme 3 Tablespoons cider vinegar ...

OK OK I forgot to take pictures again , but there are leftovers so I could. If I remember... Anyhow, who loves Italian food? Who loves cheese? And marinara sauce? And MEAT? And and and...(wiping drool) it makes a whole pan-full. So this is certainly not a top-secret, high class recipe. It's mine. It's pretty basic. It's in the style of good ol' Sandra Lee of "Semi-homemade" fame. Ingredients 1 box manicotti 1 jar marinara sauce 1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese(16 oz. or 4 cups) 1 15-oz. tub ricotta cheese 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon basil 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1 lb. ground beef 1 cup water parmesan or romano cheese (optional) Method 1. Boil manicotti according to package directions. This takes usually about 7 minutes to get to. Also, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 2. Meanwhile, brown meat until cooked through. Drain excess fat. Set aside. 3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg. Add mozzarella, ricotta, basil, and oregano and blend well. 4. ...

I survived the weekend. Friday night I was busy baking and decorating the cake for Eric's party on Saturday. Since his party theme was Disney Cars, I took a real normal racetrack idea based on other pictures I've seen on the Internet. I put die-cast cars on the cake. Sorry the pictures are somewhat obstructed. I was so busy being Supermom, I forgot to take pictures of the finished cake before consumption. Since I was aiming for cute and kid-friendly, I used a box of Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix instead of my usual yellow cake. It was kind of dry and weird. I don't recommend using that flavor. Decorating the cake went well enough. I divided up the frosting. I used plain white on the sides. I used about 1 cup for the asphalt, 1 1/2 cups for the green grass, and about 1/2 cup for the writing. I noticed while decorating the cake, my hands were hot, so piping the green "grass" with a star tip got messy. I had to clean the tip often and the stars were a bit messy ...

As promised in the previous post, here is my recipe for Strawberry Mousse. It can be used as a cake filling (before you chill it too much and it gets firm) or on top of shortcake, inside dessert crepes, or even in a simple chocolate dessert cup as shown here. Ingredients: 2 cups hulled strawberries 1/2 cup sugar 1 packet unflavored gelatin (about 1 Tablespoon) 2 Tablespoons cold water 3 Tablespoons boiling water 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream Method: 1. Mash strawberries. Add sugar and mix. Let stand. 2. Bring water to a boil. Dissolve gelatin in the cold water. Add the boiling water and stir until gelatin has dissolved. 3. Add gelatin to strawberries. 4. Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. When the strawberry-gelatin mixture has reached the consistency of heavy syrup, fold the whipped cream into the berry mixture. 5. Allow mixture to set. While still spreadable, use as a cake filling. If using for crepes, shortcake, or another use, let set in the fridge. ...

Welcome! Today Chef Jen-o-wa Kowski-Browski presents for your enjoyment...pictures! Pictures of my attempts at cake decorating. They are not professional. I am not a professional. Hence the variation in the script and squigliness. So first is a cake I made for my parents. It was for their 40th anniverary. I think it was yellow cake. It definitely had homemade buttercream frosting and strawberry mousse filling . Next is a birthday cake from Eric's first birthday. I used a shaped Wilton cake pan and followed the instructions to decorate it using Wilton supplies. It turned out pretty good. It was yellow cake, no filling, homemade buttercream frosting . Then third, this was Eric's cake from his second birthday. I was a tad rushed for time, so I used store-bought vanilla and chocolate frosting in a tub. I colored the vanilla frosting using my Wilton coloring. I spread the frosting instead of piping the whole thing. The train is a Thomas candle. I used pretzels as ...