Tasty Tools Round Up: Food Processor!

For February we highlighted the mighty Food Processor and it was perfect timing since my husband surprised me with one for Valentine's Day! If you haven't used your food processor recently (or are looking for reasons to buy one), check out what fellow bloggers have made. This tasty tool is definitely versatile and is definitely a great investment in your kitchen! Thanks to all that participated and if you missed this month, come join us for March where we're highlighting woks!

Greg of Sippitysup: Serious Fun Food
from California
Homemade Butter & Anchovy Aioli
Here's a treat for everyone! If you've ever wanted to attempt making butter from scratch, let Greg show you how with the video he shares for the event! It's fun to watch and who knew butter would be so easy to make with the help of a food processor? Check out Greg's butter video link here! If you enjoyed Greg's butter video, you might like his anchovy aioli, also using his food processor! Check out Greg's anchovy aoili video link here!




Jennifer of Savor the Thyme
from Rhode Island
Salmon Cakes & Cauliflower Puree
Jennifer reminds us that homemade breadcrumbs are just as easy to make as they are to buy from the store. Using her food processor, she processed bread to make breadcrumbs, which were used in her recipe for Salmon Cakes. Check out Jennifer's blog for this delicious recipe! And if you're looking for a different vinaigrette recipe for your next salad, check out another food processor recipe Jennifer shares with us. She's got a great recipe using grapeseed oil - Grapeseed Oil Red Wine Vinaigrette.





Sarina of TriniGourmet
from Trinidad
Raw Vegan Brownies
Who said brownies have to be baked? Sarina shares with us a raw foodie favorite, which are raw vegan brownies. These are made with dates, chocolate and avocado... a unique combination but one that Sarina enjoys making! If you've been interested in the raw food movement, this would be a great recipe to try out. Check out Sarina's blog for the recipe!





Beth of Domestic Pursuits
from Massachusetts
Quick & Easy Homemade Salsa
Beth whizzes up a fresh and tasty salsa in her food processor which makes is super convenient for her and her husband to enjoy! Beth says, "The resulting salsa isn’t chunky, but it has noticeable bits of vegetables. It’s is fresh and spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. After serving this to company last night, we have plenty of tasty salsa left over. It’s out mission to finish consuming the batch this week!" Check out the recipe she uses and give this a try soon!




Nancy of Gaga in the Kitchen
from California
White Bean Dip
In an attempt to make hummus, Nancy found herself with white beans instead of garbanzo beans. So what do you when life hands you the wrong kind of beans? Make a bean dip! Nancy used her food processor to whiz everything together. Check out her blog for the recipe!




Sara of Imafoodblog.com
from Washington DC
Caesar Salad Dressing & Homemade Croutons
Can you tell the difference between a homemade Caesar salad dressing and a bottled version? Well Sara has given me a reason to believe that the homemade version is way better than anything you'll find bottled. She used her food processor to make her salad dressing from scratch! Be sure to check out her blog for the dressing recipe and croutons too!




Branny of Branny Boils Over
from North Carolina
Bean & Zucchini Enchiladas
Some folks like salsa out of the jar... but Branny takes salsa for a ride in her food processor! She used this pureed salsa to make a vegetarian friendly bean and zucchini enchiladas. Aside from salsa, Branny has a few other tips on using your food processor. Be sure to check out her blog for the enchilada recipe and for her tips!




Suzanne of My Adventures in Food
from Florida
Chocolate Pear Torte with Chocolate Ganache
Being that February is such a romantic month, Suzanne joins us to share how her food processor helped make her Valentine's Day dessert. This is one special cake complete with gold flakes... a truly decadent dessert worth every bite when shared with a loved one! Check out Suzanne's blog for the delicious recipe!




Elly of Elly Says Opa!
from Illinois
White Bean Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Elly shares with us a great appetizer perfect with pita chips and fresh cut veggies. Even better is that its a healthy dip recipe! Check out how Elly uses her food processor for this dip in her blog and grab the recipe too!




Cathy of Cathy's Kitchen Journey
from New York
Cumin Lentil Soup
These days soup is a comforting meal to beat the cold weather. For some soup recipes, chopping ingredients to add can be a tedious chore, but Cathy made it easy by using her food processor to make chopping a breeze. Check out Cathy's blog for the recipe!




Karen of Loves to Eat Weblog
from Florida
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
These days we're all probably watching how we spend and I've found that a block of cheese is more affordable than cheese that's already shredded. Why pay for convenience when you can use your trust food processor to shred cheese? That's exactly what Karen did and as a result, a tasty pizza was for dinner Check out her pizza dough recipe and how she used her food processor in her blog!

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Chocolate Armagnac Cake

I'm sorry to report that I didn't participate in this week's Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge. It's been a hectic weekend! Aside from my usual entertaining, I've been slowly packing and sorting belongings for our move at the end of the month.

However this week's baking challenge was Dorie's Chocolate Armagnac Cake - The Cake That Got [Her] Fired. I was hoping to squeeze in some baking time to make this cake, because how unique it was. Dorie's Chocolate Armagnac Cake is unlike no other chocolate cake recipe I've ever seen. This recipe involves prunes soaked and flambeed in Armagnac, a specific type of Cognac, which is then stirred into the chocolate cake batter. It's an intriguing recipe that I hope to try sometime in the future.

As for how this specific cake got her fired, Dorie took a creative and bold move while in her first real professional kitchen job. She was responsible for making a chocolate cake using whisky and raisins. When Dorie got bored with the recipe, she switched up the cake by using Armagnac and prunes... without informing anyone. As a result, she was fired for this change to the cake. I find it a blessing in disguise for her because Dorie has talent and deserved to be in a position that showcased and appreciated that!

Please be sure to check out fellow Tuesdays With Dorie Bakers for how their Chocolate Armagnac Cake turned out. For recipe, check out Lyb's blog - And then I do the dishes. I will be back with next week's baking challenge with Lemon Cup Custard!

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An Open Autism Challenge To MP Mike Lake, Canada's Official Autism Dad

Mike Lake
Conservative Member of Parliament
Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont

March 3, 2009

Mike Lake
Conservative Member of Parliament
Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont

Dear Mr. Lake

I am the father of a 13 year old boy diagnosed with Autistic Disorder, assessed with profound developmental delays. I have in all candor been disappointed, very disappointed, with the positions you have taken in support of your party's refusal as Canada's governing party to take serious steps to address Canada's national autism crisis. I have read your statements in particular on treatment and funding of autism treatment for autism in Canada. I know that you do not need to be convinced of the benefits of ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) for the treatment of autism disorders. There have been several serious, credible reviews of the hundreds of studies which have examined the evidence basis in support of the effectiveness in treating autism. Apart from the ideological positions of a very small minority of professionals and autism advocates there has for some time been an overwhelming consensus endorsing ABA as an autism intervention. Yet you, as an autism father, and Member of Parliament, a member of the governing party in Canada, have taken no steps to ensure that funding mechanisms are put in place in conjunction with the federal and provincial governments to ensure provision of ABA for autistic children regardless of where their parents happen to live in Canada. I challenge you, as a fellow autism dad, one that has actually fought with some success to ensure the provision of autism services, to take steps while your party forms the government to ensure that all Canadian children with autism in need of ABA services are able to obtain them regardless of what province their parents live in.

As an autism advocate I have advocated with other parents for many years to obtain ABA interventions here in New Brunswick yet my name, although put forth, was twice rejected as a participant in the national autism symposium, along with many other serious parent autism advocates for ABA services for autistic children in Canada. You participated as a keynote speaker at that staged symposium. Although the symposium was obviously designed to cast doubt on the consensus of professional and parent support for ABA as an autism intervention the effort was undermined by the release just days prior to that event of the American Academy of Pediatrics Report, November 1, 2007, Management of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders which reviewed the professional literature and concluded much as the US Surgeon General, the New York State Department of Health, the MADSEC (Maine) Autism Task Force and the Association for Science in Autism Treatment that:

The effectiveness of ABA-based intervention in ASDs has been well documented through 5 decades of research by using single-subject methodology21,25,27,28 and in controlled studies of comprehensive early intensive behavioral intervention programs in university and community settings.29–40 Children who receive early intensive behavioral treatment have been shown to make substantial, sustained gains in IQ, language, academic performance, and adaptive behavior as well as some measures of social behavior, and their outcomes have been significantly better than those of children in control groups.31–4

American Academy of Pediatrics, Management of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Your party has used you, as an autism father, to help quiet the voices of those who were seeking to amend the Canada Health Act to ensure that all autistic children would be able to receive ABA intervention in Canada. You faithfully quoted the party line that this could not be done for legal and constitutional reasons. Fine. Leave that argument aside.

You also voted on December 5, 2006, along with your party, in support of Andy Scott's private members' motion M-172, seconded by Peter Stoffer which called for the development of a National Autism Strategy on the following terms:

“(a) the development, in cooperation with provincial/territorial governments, of evidence based standards for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder; (b) the development, in cooperation with provincial governments, of innovative funding methods for the care of those with autism spectrum disorder; (c) consulting with provincial/territorial governments and other stakeholders on the requirements of implementing a national surveillance program for autism spectrum disorder; and (d) the provision of additional federal funding for health research into autism spectrum disorder.”

Your name was clearly recorded on the yea side right between MP's Kramp and Lapierre:

YEAS -- POUR
...

Khan
Komarnicki
Kramp (Prince Edward—Hastings)
Lake
Lapierre
Lauzon

While some money has been spent on research, with unknown objectives, no steps have been taken in 2 1/2 years to to develop, in cooperation with provincial and territorial governments, innovative funding methods for the care of those with autism spectrum disorder. In other words no steps have been taken to actually help autistic children and adults now living in Canada. Perhaps in 30 years the additional research dollars offered to Canadian researchers might play some role in offering some help to autistic persons not yet born. But here and now, in Canada nothing has been done by your government to help living autistic Canadians.

I know that you, as a Conservative MP from an Edmonton, Alberta riding have little to worry about politically. You could spend your time advocating for the protection of Bigfoot and other mythological creatures and still win landslide re-election for years to come. But I challenge you as an autism father who has actually advocated with some success for autism services for my son and other autistic children in New Brunswick, as one autism dad to another, to actually do something on behalf of Canada's autistic children and adults. You are a member of the governing Conservative Party. You have allowed your status as an autism parent to be used to support your government's refusal to act to include autism treatment in the Canada Health Act.

I ask simply that you use your standing in the party on autism issues to ensure that Prime Minister Harper and Health Minister Aglukkaq call a meeting of provincial health ministers to discuss funding of autism treatment and services for autistic children and adults living in Canada. This much you have already promised. This much you can do.

I challenge you as one "autism dad" to another, as one that has gotten some things done here in New Brunswick, to use your position in the governing party to actually do something for autistic Canadian children and adults.

Respectfully,


Harold L Doherty
Fredericton NB

cc. Facing Autism in New Brunswick

autism

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VANILLA PANNA COTTA & CHOCOLATE CREAM

SONO INVITATA A UNA FESTA!

I love partying with Italians. They know how to do it right! The music! The vino! The laughter! The vino! And, of course, the food!

And after having the great good luck of living and eating in Italy for 7 years, I have come to love cooking and baking Italian, and my 2 Italians – Simon and Clément – are sure to love whatever I do make. Easy. Facile!

And now I have been invited to a virtual party – Una Festa Italiana – hosted by our Italian-American Hostesses with the Mostess, my friend Maryann of Finding la Dolce Vita and her friend Marie of Proud Italian Cook, two food blogs truly worth the visit for all lovers of Italian cooking and baking.

This is their 2nd Annual Festa Italiana. Maryann has already made her Struffoli and is setting the table while Marie is preparing a huge pan of Country-Style Rigatoni. Yummy! Bellissimo! Non posso aspettare!

I have decided to make – and bring – Panna Cotta. Easy, you say. Maybe, but JP loves Panna Cotta. Ever since we discovered it in Italy, it has become his absolute favorite dessert. Whenever he sees it on a menu, he is sure to order it. So the expectations are high and that has always made me just a little bit nervous. Divento molta agitata – and that’s when accidents happen. Well, take a deep breath and andiamo!

Two tries. It only took me two tries! And my Cigarettes Russes au Chocolat turned into, thanks to just a little baker’s ingenuity (read: panic) Lingue di Gatto al Cioccolato.


PANNA COTTA AL CIOCCOLATO (Crema di cioccolato)
From Laura Zavan’s book panna cotta

Serves 4/5

1 cup (250 ml) whole fresh cream
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
4.2 oz (125 g) good quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt dessert 70%)
1 ½ Tbs vanilla flan powder *


Break or chop the chocolate into pieces.

In a medium-sized heavy-bottom pot over low heat, gently heat the cream and the milk together until just warm. Whisk in the flan powder and continue to heat, and whisk, the liquid gently until it just comes to the boil. Remove from the heat.


Add the chopped chocolate to the hot cream/milk and stir with a wooden spoon or whisk until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.


Pour the cream into your prepared glasses or ramekins.

I put chopped candied orange peel and cherries in one glass for JP

Cover with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or, preferably, over night, until set.


* I did not end up with panna cotta, but a luscious chocolate cream, cold, smooth and very chocolate-y. I think if I try this recipe again, I’ll add up to 2 tablespoons vanilla flan powder and when it comes to the boil, I’ll let it simmer gently for a few minutes to cook the flan. And hopefully this will cause the cream to set into a firmer panna cotta.


PANNA COTTA ALLA VANIGLIA
From Mark Bitten’s New York Times on-line blog bitten.blogs.nytimes.com

Truly fool-proof (not saying I’m a fool or anything….)

3 cups (750 ml) cream, or 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) cream and 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) half-and-half *
2 tsps (1 package,1/4 ounce, about 8 g)) unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or to taste) or 1 vanilla bean
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar

* I used 1 cup (250 ml) each heavy cream, light cream and whole milk


Put 1 cup cream in a medium-sized, heavy-bottom saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin over it; let sit for 5 minutes. Turn heat to low and cook, stirring, until gelatin dissolves completely.

If using vanilla extract, add remaining cream or cream and milk and sugar to gelatin mixture and heat gently, just until sugar dissolves; add vanilla. This should take a few minutes. (If using vanilla bean, cut it in two, lengthwise. Scrape out seeds; add seeds and bean pod to pot, along with the sugar and remaining cream. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until steam arises. Turn off heat, cover, and let steep for 15 to 30 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean before pouring into glasses.)

Pour mixture into 4 large or 6 small custard cups, pretty serving glasses or ramekins. Chill until set, at least 4 hours or up to, preferably, over night. Serve in cups or glasses, or dip ramekins in hot water for about 10 seconds, then invert onto plates. Serve within 24 hours.

I liked using different size and shape serving glasses

These set perfectly! The panna cotta was smooth, light (yes!) and so creamy and just the perfect sweetness.

A truly gorgeous, velvety smooth and creamy texture

I tried different ways of decorating, from a squiggle of melted chocolate, sprinkled with beautiful violet sugar and topped with a candied violet and mimosa, and even dotted with tiny pink hearts saved over from Valentine’s Day.





And Mr. Panna Cotta Lover himself came home for lunch today. For dessert, I handed him a Vanilla Panna Cotta and a spoon. And watched. And waited. First mouthful. Second. “Well?” No answer, just another mouthful. And a third. Then “Extraordinary! Excellent! Perfect!”

And I served them with these Lingue di Gatto al cioccolato (don’t tell Marty!)

LINGUE DI GATTO which began life as Cigarettes Russes but never made it
From Chocolat by Felicity Barnum-Bobb and translated by Marabout

1 egg white
¼ cup (50 g) sugar
2 Tbs flour
1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbs fresh heavy cream
1 ¾ Tbs (25 g) unsweetened butter, melted
5 oz (150 g) good quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt dessert 70%)


Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) – although after the first round I lowered the temperature to 400°F (200°C) to bake the rest.

Whisk or beat the egg white together with the sugar until thick and foamy.


Add the flour, the cocoa powder, the cream and the melted butter. Whisk to blend well until smooth and creamy.


Line baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Plop 4 or 5 teaspoonfuls of the batter on the parchment-lined sheet, spacing them well apart.


With the back of a clean table- or soupspoon, smear and spread the batter out flat into a long “tongue” as evenly as possible.


Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 4 minutes or until the cookies just start to brown around the edges.

Remove from the oven and carefully slide a spatula under the cookies to loosen and lift them off the paper and onto a cooling rack to cool completely.


I realized later that my big problem was that I spread the batter out too thinly, thus when I tried to roll a flattened cookie around the handle of a wooden spoon to make cigarettes, they dried and crumbled. The cookies came out delicate and flavorful, really delicious, so I will try the recipe again. When I do, I’ll spread them into thicker circles and, as soon as they are removed from the oven, roll them quickly around the wooden spoon handles to form cigarettes.

If at first you don't succeed...

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