Ermine Frosting

Here's the roux based frosting I promised to share with you. It's also known as butter roux or boiled milk frosting. It's so delicious. There's a bakery around here that is known for it's delicious cupcakes topped with this frosting.

It's light and smooth as you eat it, not cloyingly sweet as some buttercreams and don't get me going about the "bettercream" that is foisted upon us by some of the grocery store bakeries. I've been in the back room and I'll tell you that it's shipped to the store in HUGE buckets.

A couple of weeks ago I hosted our neighborhood Bunco game. This is the inspiration for the cake I made. It's from a past issue of Better Homes and Gardens.




 I didn't have a copy of the magazine but was simply going off my memory of what it looked like. I made a batch of white cake batter and tinted it two shades of pink. Instead of four layers, I went with two.



I remembered that they also showed a ribbon type frosting treatment. Here's the inspiration.


Since my cake was pink I did the frosting in white. It's very easy, just a back and forth motion with a bag and frosting tip.



Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the outside of my cake before it got eaten, but it looked fairly similar to the Better Homes and Gardens version.

Here's the recipe. Please try and it let me know what you think.

ERMINE FROSTING

1 cup whole milk
3 TBSP. all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Whisk the flour into the milk in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Cook mixture until thickened, whisking constantly to prevent lumps.

Remove from heat and add salt. Pour the mixutre into a clean bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap. This will stop the cooking and prevent a skin for forming. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a stand mixer, begin creaming the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. When milk mixture is slightly cooled, add 1 TBSP. at a time to the creamed butter mixture while the mixer is running on medium speed.

Keep beating..... slowly the gluten will pull the butter into a pseudo emulsion. You should have a very fluffy, light and buttery frosting.

NOTE: Do not let the milk mixture cool completely as you need some heat to melt and emulsify the butter. Also, if it's a hot and humid day you may have to refrigerate the finished product to keep it from sliding off the cake or cupcake.

Made from scratch cake is so delicious and head and shoulders above any box mix. It doesn't take that much more time or steps for a wonderful result. This cake was moist and dense and so yummy.

Let me know if you love Ermine frosting as much as I do.

Let's Celebrate!

What shall we celebrate? Waking up to a beautiful day is celebration enough but this morning we're going to celebrate baby Sal's birthday. She's not so much a baby anymore because she's one! Sal is my sister's grandchild. My baby sister. This should not continue to be shocking to me because my sister also has a grandchild that is almost 20 years old.  Twenty years later I still cannot wrap my mind around this fact.

The party was held on Saturday afternoon, after I left the farmer's market. It was a nice day but about noon things started to heat up and the humidity kicked in a bit. Not as outrageous as it can get in Illinois but still a bit uncomfortable. After loading up all my stuff and driving the hour to their home I was not in the best mode to take alot of photos but I did manage a few.

My sister was holding Sal and doing her darndest to lean backwards to remove herself from the frame.

"Leave grandma out of this," she said.

"OK, OK..." I replied.

But I didn't comply. It was a perfect moment. Sal was happily enjoying the festivities in her honor and my sister just looked peaceful and happy, a kind of Mona Lisa moment. Believe me, rarely is her daily life peaceful so this was particularly lovely to me. Here's Sal in her crocheted birthday crown headband and my sister-the-grandmother.




They just aren't making grandmothers like the used to. Ours had a fully white head of hair for all the time she was in our life.

Sal was this happy the entire day and in general she is a super contended and happy baby. Did I mention she's never had sugar? Not on this day either as my sister baked some cupcakes that were made with black beans.

My son has always told my sister and I that we should have been party planners because we love to put elements together for a party. We always try to coordinate food and decorations to make a celebration fun. Sal is holding her pinwheel, one of many that my sister put together for the party. My niece Heaether found colorful tie-dye kites from Oriental Trading Company and my sister made banners that draped across the porch. Sorry, no pictures of those as I was slacking in the heat.

I did get pictures of the cupcakes though. My niece is a cupcake lover of the highest degree. She had cupcakes at her wedding instead of a traditional wedding cake. My sister is a cupcake baker of the highest degree which became somewhat of a problem. The previous day was cupcake baking day and my sister was covered head to toe in flour. We are not know to be neat when we cook. The heat and humidity was playing havoc with her frosting but even though one of the frostings degraded a bit, they were all delicious.

When I say cupcakes I don't mean many cupcakes of one variety. Oh no...... that would not do as her creative juices get going big time. Here are a few of the varieties. I think there was at least one more that I missed.




Lemon White Chocolate

These were the lemon cupcakes with white chocolate frosting. They are filled with homemade lemon curd and dusted with sanding sugar. They were absolutely delicious.



Red Velvet


Sorry for the fuzzy image on this one. You will notice that all the cupcakes had little banners, or in this case little kites. These red velvet cupcakes are topped with the most wonderful roux based frosting. Yes, you read that correctly, you make a roux and beat it with butter and sugar to make a most wonderful emulsion that is smooth, creamy and not overpoweringly sweet. I dig out the recipe and post it another day.



Cupcake surprises


These two cupcakes were surprises to me. Omigosh, beyond the pale.



French toast cupcake


What is this you ask? A french toast cupcake. My head is swirling just looking at this photo. I wish to heaven I hadn't eaten a large pulled pork sandwich earlier because I'd have room to eat several more of these. They were terrific. Yes, that's bacon on the top! It's a vanilla bean cake topped with maple frosting (superb) and sprinkled with bacon. Keep in mind my sister is a vegetarian so she didn't get to enjoy this combo. It tasted all the world like a piece of french toast with a side of bacon. I'll try and squeeze the recipe out of her, especially the frosting.



Strawberry basalmic 


This was the number one cupcake of the day in my book. The heat caused the frosting to go into meltdown but I did not care. I'd scoop the frosting up off the plate or off the ground, no matter to me. The cake was dense and most, like a good carrot cake. She had steeped strawberries in vanilla basalmic vinegar and mashed them into the frosting.  This is the basalmic that she'd purchased from a chef at the farmer's market and she was anxious to put it to good use. The plan was to drizzle a little basalmic reduction over the top but in her haste she'd left it at home.

People eating this cupcake were raving. One woman kept telling her husband, "This is the BEST strawberry cupcake I've ever eaten."

"No kidding, this strawberry cupcake is fabulous. You've got to try it. This is seriously delicious."

The woman went on and on, raving between each bite. Her husband finally turned to her and said, "How many strawberry cupcakes have you eaten in your life?"

Thanks for celebrating with us. I'll be lobbying my sister for a few of the recipes to share with you, especially the strawberry cupcake.

What's the most unusual cupcake you've ever eaten? Have you had one with bacon?

Remedy, Rant and thankfulness for the internet

First of all, let me say that I'm going to kill Blogger. Seriously, I'm going to invent some evil code that will  either desroy it or send it back to it's original form. I just spend the better part of a half an hour composing a post and I couldnot get it to publish. When I attempted to copy and paste and try again I lost the entire thing.
And what's with this annoying little pop-up box on the compose screen..... "Go to link: - Change - Remove". Get this OFF my screen. No matter how many times you close the box it pops back up.

Has anyone mentioned the term "Beta tapes" or "dinosaur" to the people at Blogger? You know, those things that failed.


Oh look, my signature sign off is in the middle of the post. To fix it is going to cause me a nightmare because all kinds of wierd code will be added to the HTML screen if I fiddle with it. I'm going to leave it right there where it will hint
End Rant...... for now.

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Yesterday I decided to tackle the round brick patio behind the house. It's been a lovely little space but has suffered from benign neglect over the last few years. It's started to look very, very scary. Think a Tim Burton movie on steroids. Very scary.


I started early in the morning at the bottom of the circle and worked around, clearing weeds and tangle from the border, working clockwise. After a couple hours of concerted hacking, whacking and cutting I'd reached the 3 o"clock position. This is where things got really hairy. The surrounding border opens up to a wide area and the tangle took on epic proportions. It was becoming a Brothers Grimm story, the Farmer's Wife enters the dark undergrowth, never to be seen again!


At this point I'll mention that I do not wear gardening gloves. I just find them to be unwieldy and I've never really needed them. The neighbors complain bitterly about poison ivy and garlic mustard but we've never encountered either on our property. Perhaps it's because all the neighbors border large forested spaces but we are up on a hill on a space that was once a horse pasture.


But now I have a dense space that could pass for a mini-forest. As I hacked away at some wild thorny bramble bush I came upon something I couldn't identify but which immediately raised some red flags in my mind. Sure enough my hands and arms started to tingle and burn.


I ran into the house to my computer where the wonder of the internet allowed me to identify the fact that, in fact, I'd gotten myself into some poison ivy. A further search provided an idea for a treatment. Now think about what would have happened in the past. I would have had to jump in my car and drive to the latest library to research the information, all th while enduring the pain.


What article suggested was to douse the affected area with rubbing alcohol. I tore through cabinets only to find that we had no rubbing alcohol. I did have some expensive vodka on hand but quickly nixed that idea, feeling it was better to mix myself a stiff martini and endure the pain.


I thought about what might be equally effective and came up with the idea of pouring nail polish remover over my arms. It stung and burned like hell but I figured that meant it was working and sure enough, when I rinsed off my arms the burning totally stopped.

Have you ever encountered poison ivy? How about garlic mustard? Around here it's an invasive plant that threatens to take over, kind of a northern version of kudzu.

OK, I'm going to hit the publish button again and woe be to Blogger if anything goes wrong.

Who forgot to mention this?

Yesterday I had to run an errand for the Farmer. It seems that his Ipod quit working and I had to pick up the replacement at the nearest Apple store. The store is in the largest shopping in the Chicago area. It's 29 miles as the crow flies but takes me 50-60 minutes to get there depending on traffic. I dread this trip because of the traffic and the crush of humanity and development. Fifty years ago Schaumburg was a rural farming community with lots of dairy farmers. They moved west to our area when development started.

The only saving grace of this trip is that I knew I could visit a great costume jewelry and accessory store, Forever 21. They have a store in Woodfield that sells only accessories, no clothing as in their other stores. I'm am crazy for their fun jewelry that allows you to be playful without going broke. The store design is fun also.



Those are LAMPS on the tables and those are huge lampshades. I'm not quite sure how they stand up but they are not suspended from the ceiling. You'll see just a peek of the plastic "crystal" chandeliers on each side. I love the display tables and also the lighted display alcoves that are framed with picture frames.

Yes, I bought something but I haven't taken a photo of it yet. Stay tuned.

On the drive down the crazy busy highway leading to the mall I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Now keep in mind that this highway is a crazy jumble of businesses, all stacked on top of one another. I was trying to pay attention to the heavy traffic but my radar caught something.


This was tucked behind some trees so it's a wonder I spotted it at all. The sight of it almost got me into an accident. (This photo was taken later when I returned after my errand).

Do you recognize it? If you live outside the American south, probably not. This place hold memories for me. It's.......



Chick-fil-A! This is a fast food restaurant that serves wonderful chicken sandwiches every day of the week except Sundays. At least I think they still close on Sundays.

In the mid-1970's my dad had retired to Florida and I made a trip down at least once a year to celebrate his birthday. On one of these trips my dad introduced me to Chick-fil-A and I was hooked. I'd eat there everyday and on the last day of my trip I'd stop and get a bag full to carry on the plane. The Farmer would pick me up at the airport and we'd chow down on the sandwiches.

After my father died my visits to Florida were infrequent. The last time I had a Chick-fil-A was when the Farmer participated in a golf tournament in Orlando. (Can you believe I stayed in Orlando and never once visited Disneyworld? It's true.



So what's so special about this sandwich besides the fact that it was unobtainable here in northern Illinois?

Number one - it's a REAL chicken breast. Not some chopped up, reconstitued chicken patty. And it comes with their terrific sauce, a combination of honey mustard and barbecue sauce.



If you order the meal, it comes with waffle fries. (Sorry, no picture of those)

Beware if you're allergic because the chicken is fried in peanut oil. My father was from a long line of peanut and cotton farmers so everything, especially chicken, was fried in peanut oil.





Crispy goodness. As you can see I went through the drive-through and ate in my car, not wanting to share the experience with anyone. No music, no talking, no ambient noise, just me and my Chick-fil-A.

I visit this area infrequently, so I have no clue how long it's been here. I could have been missing out for years? Who forgot to mention this to me? Heads are gonna roll, I tell you.

How about you? Have you ever had a Chick-fil-A? How about some local specialty that you crave when you're far from home?

Monday Morning Market Report

Let's do something different this Monday morning. Instead of sitting around the meeting table, let's get out and go to the market. I know some of you have said you'd love to visit someday but let's not wait till then. Let's go.First thing is to scope out the lay of the land. I went back to the farm the week before the first market date and checked out where I might want to set up the tent.



I decided to set up the tent behind that apple tree, next to the silos. My hope was that this would block the wind should it decide to kick up.

Weddings are held here every weekend during the summer. The wedding tent is huge.



It's HUGE.


I'm thinking a couple hundred guests easy. The sides can be removed in good weather to take in the views of the fields and the sunset. In inclement weather the sides come down. I've been in a tent just like this during a rainstorm and we were quiet cozy inside eating brunch.

Here's the resident peacock. Did you know that peacocks are incredibly loud?

This is Katie, the farm market store manager. She's lovely and helpful.



As I mentioned the weather was foggy and chilly but no wind early in the day. My tent is not as impressive as the wedding tent but certainly easier to put up.




It's a 10 foot by 10 foot pop-up tent which is quite ingenious. That's my sister in the red shirt on the right behind the tree. She was a great help because she's set up these tents before. Don't you love the stars attached to the silo? That black thing on the left hand front leg of the tent is a weight bag. The tent must be weighted down or it's going airborne!


Here's the people from the Sugar Path. This woman makes the best pie - salted honey pie. Delicious.

 

I found this easel chalkboard at IKEA for $14.99. Perfect.

 

I love that apron pattern that's in the front. It's got deep pockets all across the front.

My sister and I are going to do a different tablescape each week. This is called spring luncheon.



One week we're going to do Mad Men, with vintage barware.



Here's the table.




There are vintage cookbooks, canisters and other things.

This apron sold right away. Flemenco apron!



Here's the dishcloths, coasters and vintage tablecloths.



Thanks so much for coming along the to market with me. I hope you enjoyed yiour visit. Now I'm off to sew more aprons!

 

Market Day Weather

Do you know the old saying about the weather in Illinois? If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.


This morning we are looking at fog. I'll gladly take a little fog because there is NO wind. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. It's also a bit chilly so I'll take my pink cardigan with me.


I just wanted to tell me how much I appreciate your support and encouragement. I just wish you were all in Illinois and then I could take a break and have some woodfired pizza that will be served at the market.


Have a great day. Wish me NO wind, otherwise my pop-up tent will be doing a Wizard of Oz thing.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Friday

Welcome to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting ....... today's it's being held on Friday.

Sorry, I've been working and organizing for the Farmer's Market tomorrow. My sister and I are excited. We make a good working pair I think.

The older I get the more important organization becomes to me. Years ago a friend of mine who was an incredible hostess shared with me that the secret to having a great party is organization. This allows you to enjoy the party with your friends.

Today I'll be loading up the car and I'm amazed at all the stuff that's required to fill up a booth.

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This morning we're going to be munching on scones. How do you pronounce it. Our friend Renae in Australia said that if we want to be posh we should pronouce it "scone" as in "tone".



Lately I've been wanting something sweet in the evening. Scones seem to do the trick and I've become a late night scone baker! In the past I've made them with a recipe that calls for one container of yogurt. This recipe calls for sour cream and when you try the method of cutting in the butter you'll pack away your pastry cutter.

You can add raisins, currants, dried cranberries or my favorite, dried wild blueberries. I've added some chopped almonds on top.

Sour Cream Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
8 TBSP. unsalted butter, frozen
1/2 cup raisins, currants or other dried fruit
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate frozen butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in the butter (mixture should resemble coarse cornmeal), then stir in raisins.

In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth.

Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form into a ball. Press until dough comes together.

Put dough on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 8 inch circle, about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and chopped nuts, if desired. Cut into 8 wedges and place on a baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 o 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

Thanks to USA Weekend columnist Pam Anderson for this recipe.

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I was wondering if Blogger and Photobucket are related somehow because in addition to Blogger giving me fits, Photobucket has jumped on the bandwagon. I was getting all kinds of e-mails saying that my account was going to be cancelled because my method of payment was no longer valid.

What the heck? All the pictures on the blog were repaced with an "over bandwidth" message. They required me to sign up again and voila', magically my account was reinstated using the same Paypal account they said was invalid. Go figure.

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The next order of business is the giveaway. You remember, the Emergency Room Dishcloths.

Here they are:



I agree with Vee - the yarns used to make these are lovely colors.

Drawings around here are strictly low tech. I'm not a Luddite but I just like to do things the simplest low tech way.

Paper and pen.




Folded in the wingnut fashion.

Drawn by the Farmer.



Dorothy, you are the winner. Please contact me via e-mail with your address and I'll get these off to you.

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Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I appreciate the fact that you've taken time out of your busy day to visit with me and eat some scones!