Gutsy cooks week 27

I am behind in posting about my cooking adventures.  I'm also behind in cooking them, if you must know.  If you haven't figured it out, I'm a tad of a procrastinator.  My mother told me that I come by it honestly, so it's nice to know she takes responsibility for that... or at some point she will.
Week 27's menu was Spanish Lentils - page 214 and Sachertorte - page 416.  I didn't make the lentils.  Last week when I said that the family hadn't yet revolted over my Gutsy Cooking, I spoke a little too soon.  So, I'm cooling my gutsy heels just a little.  But, I had a party and so I made the Sachertorte, because, well it's chocolate cake.  Who doesn't like that?
The cake recipe called to separate the eggs, mix the yolks in with the batter and then whip the whites.   

It's like a chocolate cloud!

 It turned out pretty well.  I thought the coating was going to be like ganache, but it was more like a glaze.  It was not the funnest stuff to work with, but the final product turned out well.

You're supposed to write 'sachertorte' on the top of the cake, but I totally chickened out at the last minute and just made some lovely waves.

Our newest additons

Last week we added three new members to our little farmette-ette.  Three baby ducks!

     We've never had ducks before.  We have chickens and rabbits right now.  Jim would like to get something bigger - a goat or cow.  I'm pulling for a pig, mostly just because I love baccon.  Is that so wrong?  Anyway, someone gave us these ducks, and so we've got a new adventure on our hands.
     I thought a chick would be a chick, but no.  They're different then the chickens.  They have a quieter little peep, they stick together in a little flock all the time, and these ones are super scared of us.  They huddle in the corner of their cage when we come near and run evasive maneuvers when we try and pick them up.
     Random duck fact:  Ducklings don't make their own oil for waterproofing.  They rub on their mama to get it and so, if they're mother isn't around, you need to be careful with your ducklings around water, because they can get tired and drown!  Who knew!  Don't worry, we're very careful with our little flock.
   We took them outside the other day, Life got such a kick out of it!

She almost caught one!

On an unrelated note, the iris' have bloomed!

Menu 26

So here we are at week number 26 of the Gutsy Cooks Challenge.  Who knew my family would put up with it for so long?  ;-)  They haven't asked me to quit yet, so I'll keep plugging along.  This week's menu was Roasted Beet and Feta Salad (pg. 221); Cassoulet (pg. 338); and Baked Pears in Marsala (pg. 457).  Eww beets.  I didn't make that.  And I didn't attempt the Pears in Marsala.  The kids nearly swallowed their tongues when they found out there was wine in the Cassoulet they would have just fainted dead away if dessert would have had alcohol in it too!  Ha!  They're funny.  Plus, they don't like pears.  Anyway... to the Cassoulet!
I love to just say the word... "Cassoulet"  Did you say it?  Isn't it fun?  It makes me feel fancy.  This dish contains all things meat .  We like meat here.  The recipe called for Italian sausage, pancetta and duck.  Wait.  Seriously?  Duck?  Shockingly, I couldn't find duck in my local super market.  I used chicken thighs (they were on sale, as was the sausage, WINNING!)  Are you familiar with a cassoulet?  I was not.  The cookbook says it's "A hearty bean and meat dish from southwest France."  I followed the directions and made my layers of beans then the various meats and then topped with more beans and then crushed tomatoes and wine.

See that?  Lots of meat.

Then I slow roasted it and topped it with the tasty bread crumb topping

I like this picture of my bread crumbs.  I added cheese to them.  mmmm cheese.

And then I had a pot filled with meat and beans and topped with these bread crumbs.  I just didn't get it.  I made dinner and then a put it in a big pot and cooked it again and covered it with breadcrumbs.  Honestly, I didn't get it.   I brought it to the table and Jim said "Now what"  I said "I don't know.  The cookbook says how to make it, not how to eat it." 

It was like... did you ever play that game as a kid when the grownups hid a bunch of change in a big pile of sawdust... this was like that only you were hunting for sausage links and chicken thighs.

So we each just heaped our plates with meat and beans all coated with breadcrumbs.  It was not attractive at all.  It tasted good, like meat.  But.... yea... I don't get it.

Gutsy Cooks menu 25

The whole family loves Chinese food.  A favorite place to eat lately is the local Chinese Buffet, everyone eats their fill and there is a fortune cookie at the end.  But, Jim and I have realized that it's just too expensive to take our brood out to eat anymore.  I can sometimes talk him into some fast food when we're out shopping, but other than that, there is an embargo on restaurant eating around here.  So I was very excited to see this weeks menu.  Appetizer: Sesame Shrimp Toasts (pg. 50); Dinner: Sweet and Sour Chicken (pg. 303); and Thai Noodle Stir-Fry (pg. 200).  I knew that it would be a crowed pleaser!
When I showed the menu to Jim, he made the worst face when I showed him the Shrimp toasts, so I didn't make them.  I look forward to reading some of the other gutsy blogs to see if it was good.  It may show up on our table another time.
I don't usually have very good luck with Chinese food, so I'm always looking for new recipes. 

I usually have poor luck with batter dipped anything.  But I really liked this batter.  It used beer and I don't know if that was the key or what, but I will use this recipe again when I need to batter-dip and fry something.

Someone recently told me that the key to good Chinese is Asian fish sauce.  As is the case for most good things, my local Wal Mart doesn't carry that, so I didn't get to use it in my noodles.  But I'll keep my eyes open and pick it up next time I'm in a bigger store.

My local Wal Mart, also, did not have cellophane noodles, so I just used some angel hair pasta I had.  It worked out alright.  This recipe made quite a bit, as you can see it filled up my wok.   I did make more pasta than the recipe called for because noodles are usually a big hit around here.  These were no exception.

I thought both recipes were alright.  Not too exciting, though.  They were not at all rejected by the family.  I will for sure make the sweet and sour chicken again.  Perhaps more sauce next time.

Life finished hers and is eating off her dad's plate.

Gutsy menu 24... most of it

Our menu for week 24 was Ficelles (pg.79); Irish Stew (pg. 342); and French Apple Tart (pg. 454).  Once again, a new food for our family.  I've never had or made Irish Stew so it was a culinary adventure for us.  Mostly, the fam are not big fans of potatoes, so I didn't plan on it going over really well.  It was well received by those who like or tolerate potatoes and was not gagged on by the picky-set.  So, not a flop by any means.  I thought it was yummy and would totally eat it again.  Although I will say, that I wish that I had dipped the meat into a flour mixture before making this.  It was pretty soupy and not really stewy.  But the flavor was good.

Once again, we made the stew in the oven.  I love this method.

The Ficelles.  This bread was so easy and so awesome.  It had a salt water wash on the top which I thought might be weird, but ended up being very tasty.  It was a big hit at our house. 

Not much beats a bowl of stew and warm fresh bread!

I bought all the stuff to make the apple tart, but never got around to it.  We love apples here so one of these days, I'll bust out this new recipe and give it a try.

Just wasting some time

I have 2 Gutsy Cooks meals to blog about, but I'm just not in the mood to do it.  Maybe because my belly is still full from the most recent.  Or maybe because the dishes are still on the table.  (They don't seem to be clearing themselves.  Strange.)  But, I'm trying to be better about blogging, so I thought that instead of food, I would share a cute picture of Life with you.

In my opinion, there are very few things cuter than a little girl wearing a dress and barn boots.

Our newest toy

Jim and I love second hand stores.  We love to save a dollar and we love random things.  It's really a win win.  And the best part is that it's something we like to do together.  Where we live now, there are mostly Goodwill stores.   The great part about Goodwill is that the money they make from the store goes into job training programs.  So we also like to take our gently used items and donate them.  So really, we clean out our closets, donate the items, go shopping and fill our closets.  It's a cycle that we enjoy.  Anyway, on a recient trip to the Goodwill we found this:

It's a go cart!

Asked taking it for a spin.

Joy was the speedy one. 

Asked and the neighbor's grandson.  They were actually pushing Joy right before this because the battery was almost dead.

Treasure taking a leisurely jaunt.

Life absolutely LOVES to ride on it.  The battery was just about dead and Jim helped her take it for a spin.  She was glowing she was so happy.  I'm afraid that she will be my daredevil.  Only time will tell.

Today I came home from work to find all the kids outside sweeping the road, so they could drive it.  It has such low ground clearance that it gets can get stuck pretty easily.  So they were getting rid of any debris so they would get in a good ride.   What must the neighbors think?  I will tell them that my house is SO very spotless, that I just had to get the road tidied up.  Unless they come over, they will never know the truth.