Sunday, August 1, 2010

News From The Kitchen


My new drill.... er, beater!  Bad ass, right?  It was either "murdered out" matte black or a cheap-looking "chrome".  I made the right choice, don't you think?  She works like a champ--even has interchangeable bread hooks and a whipping attachment.  

Considering that Kitchen-Aid stand mixers go for over 599 euro around here, I think this was 75 euros well-spent.  (Can you imagine?!  Almost $800 for a Kitchen-Aid mixer?  They are not cheap in the states, but they're a steal compared to what they cost here.)  I have my eyes on a "robot" for the kitchen, but that will probably have to wait until I get back.  Um, yeah.  They call those food processor-type choppers "robots".  I just *have* to get a robot.  

Nice, right?





Doesn't look like much, but this is roasted cauliflower with tomatoes, onions, olives, parsley and homemade breadcrumbs over pasta.  It was good.


So, let's talk about baking for a moment.  It's got me all in a tizzy over here.  Everything is just more... involved.  I need the computer around when I'm baking so I can do conversions (grams to oz, Fahrenheit  to Celsius).  Baking is a relatively precise endeavor anyway... you have to make sure your measurements are pretty spot-on, lest you end up with something that doesn't rise or is too dry, etc.  So now I've got to work off the cookbook *and* a computer.  Boo.  

And then there's the issue of the products on offer here.  I am still perplexed by the flours.  I'm pretty sure I bought pastry flour last time... but is it the same as our "pastry" flour (i.e., finer) or is it just that is doesn't have a self-rising element, as the all-purpose flours (which are often dubbed as bread flours here) do?  And the baking power comes in pre-measured packets of, like, 3 tbs at a time.  Which is dumb, because when do you ever use 3 tbs of baking power in one bake unless you're in a commercial kitchen?  And the butter!  How I took for granted that butter is easily measured in tablespoons on the wrapper so as to correspond with a recipe's request?  Butter here comes in big squares, so I've got to force it into my measuring spoons and scrape off the excess, making a mess of the butter in the process.  This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's a pain and I just miss having butter that was sorta measured out for me.  

Oh!  And my regular-sized cookie sheet doesn't fit in my oven.  So I have to use the mini cookie sheet, which only bakes about 8 cookies at a time.  So if I'm gonna bake cookies, I've got to have an afternoon to spare.  Hurumph.

But I will not give up!  At least my cupcake/muffin pan fits in the oven.  And my first batch of strawberry and peach muffins was pretty good.  A little dry, but pretty good.  Hey, Fran and the cat liked them!  :)