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Labor Day Party

Humans are social creatures. Each one of us is an individual with our own particular preferences and peculiarities, but I believe for all our differences, we share far more similarities. One of these similarities is that we enjoy being around other people. So we look forward to the occasions that offer opportunities for us to gather together with our family, friends, and neighbors.

Many of these opportunities come during holidays, such as Labor Day. This is one of those days that many people traditionally have off from work. Just type into your favorite search engine the words ‘labor day events’ and you will likely find lists of activities planned for your part of the country (if you live in the U. S. anyway). For instance, I live in Houston, Texas and I found sites for events in Houston as well as in other parts of Texas.

For Labor Day this year at our home we have invited family and friends over for a cookout. For the food, here are our plans so far:

Since it has been so hot and dry this season in our part of the country, our plans are for cooking outside and to provide plenty of refreshing foods. You need to have something for your guests to munch on until everyone arrives and the meal is ready, so I recommend having them prepared and ready before people start to arrive. The starters for this party will include chips, dips, with cold drinks such as beer for the adults and lemonade.

One of my favorite dips is Onion Dip, and here is my recipe:

ONION DIP

Ingredients
1 T Instant Beef Bouillon
2 T Minced onions
¼ t Garlic powder
½ t Chives, dried
½ t Parsley, dried
¼ t Onion, powdered
1 c Sour cream

Instructions
Combine ingredients and let sit in refrigerator for one hour before serving.

This, along with fresh homemade salsa, will be served with chips.

For lemonade I make it using simple syrup, lemon juice and water. I make simple syrup ahead of time by heating 1 part water and 1 part sugar until the sugar completely dissolves. (2 cups sugar plus 2 cups water heated yields 3 cups simple syrup.) This I keep in the refrigerator until need. Then to make lemonade I add 2 parts simple syrup to 2 parts lemon juice and 12 parts cold water (hint: 2 oz. (1/4 cup) simple syrup + 2 oz. (1/4 cup) lemon juice + 12 oz. (1 1/2 cups) water = 1 pint). Simple syrup is easy to make and use because it mixes so well with the other ingredients (much better than plain sugar). Plus it can be used for making Mint Juleps.

For the meal I am planning on smoking a brisket. This year I will be using a dry rub and mop sauce and cooking the brisket in a smoker I have used for years, primarily for smoking turkey for our family’s Thanksgiving meal. I will be trying a method I recently found at a site called The Smoker King which advertises itself as a site for ‘BBQing Recipes and Techniques, Texas Style!!’ At this site are instructions for preparing the brisket (between the rub and smoking, this will be a 24+ hour commitment) with recipes for the rub and mop sauce. Along with the brisket we will be serving potato salad and BBQ beans.

For dessert we will be enjoying Blue Bell Ice Cream (this is a Texas brand, which we think is the best anywhere, but other regions of the country may think otherwise) sundaes. I am always on the lookout for good discounts on items I can reasonably add to my pantry to have on hand for special occasions. For the sundaes I have M&Ms and Heath Bars (that I either got on sale or had a coupon for) hidden away that will be among the options for toppings. Also will be freshly whipped cream.

The secret to successful whipped cream is to start with everything cold. This helps the stiffening of the milkfat thus enabling the incorporation of air. Before whipping I put everything in the freezer to chill: bowl, beater, and even the cream itself (be careful not to let the cream freeze). Here is my recipe for whipped topping:

WHIPPED CREAM

Ingredients
1 c Heavy cream
2 T Ice, finely crushed or shaved
2 T sugar

Instructions
Place bowl and beaters in freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to chill well. Place the cream in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill. Pour the cream into the chilled bowl. Add the ice to the cream and whip to soft peaks.

Gently fold in the sugar and whip until the cream forms firm peaks.

Do not over whip, or you will have butter.

Keeping everything cold is essential to keep the fat droplets firm around the air bubbles to produce firm whipped topping.

Keep covered in the refrigerator. Fats are great holders and carriers of flavor and will easily pick up tastes and odors from other items in the refrigerator.

Check back with us and I will let you know how everything went for our party. We at Lukewarm Legumes would love to hear about your party plans for Labor Day. Please let us know about it either on our website, Facebook or through Twitter and remember to ‘Like’ us and follow us as well. Links to our Facebook and Twitter accounts can be found on our website at www.lukewarmlegumes.com.

Cream of Tartar – Versatile Kitchen Chemical

CREAM OF TARTAR

Cream of Tartar is a very useful and versatile chemical for your kitchen. My hope is that through this article you will gain a greater appreciation of it and how its presence in your kitchen ads value to your efforts and the products you make with it.

ORIGINS

Records of the use of Cream of Tarter extend as far back as 7,000 years. The Archaeological Instutute of America reported in the September/October 1996 edition of its Journal that “Patrick E. McGovern and a team from the University of Pennsylvania Museum found calcium salt from tartaric acid, which occurs naturally in large amounts only in grapes,” at a Neolithic village site in Iran, indicating that wine was being produced in that region of the world at that early date. You can read the full article here.

CHEMISTRY

Cream of Tartar is obtained as a by product of wine manufacture by extracting it from a crystal that is deposited on the inside of wine barrels as the wine ferments. The chemical names for it are: potassium tartrate, potassium hydrogen tartrate, and potassium bitartrate. Its molecular formula is KHC₄H₅O₆.

COOKING
Cream of Tartar has many uses in the kitchen, including:

Baking Powder – Cream of tartar can be used to make baking powder by combing 2 parts Cream of Tartar with 1 part Baking Soda and 1 part Cornstarch.

Meringue – Cream of Tartar, due to its acidity, can be used to stabilize and add volume to beaten egg whites such as are used in angel food cake, pie meringue and meringue cookies. As egg whites are beaten, they expand in volume. The beating of the egg whites causes the strands of egg protein to partially unfold and connect with each other. These interconnected strands wrap around air bubbles which leads to foam development. Cream of tartar lowers the pH of egg whites and helps neutralize the tendency of proteins to repel each other; encouraging their connection. This helps support the air bubbles formed by beating. The result is a much more stable foam.

Snickerdoodles – This famous cookie has the characteristics it does because of the use of Cream of Tartar. See recipe below.*

Icing and Candy – Cream of Tartar is used in icing and candy recipes because it helps produce a product that is smoother and creamier.

Syrup – Adding Cream of Tartar helps prevent crystallization of syrup and honey.

Color Preservation in Vegetables – Boiling vegetables causes them to lose their pigmentation and therefore lose much of their visual appeal. Adding Cream of Tartar to the water helps prevent this. Because of its acidity, Cream of Tartar also helps retard browning of vegetables and cut fruit. However, care must be taken so that the amount of Cream of Tartar used does not affect the flavor of the produce.

However, I tried an experiment comparing boiling broccoli in a Cream of Tartar solution with my standard steam method. I’ll let you be the judge of which method produces the most appealing results:

Broccoli - Raw

Broccoli - Boiled

Broccoli - Steamed

CLEANING

Cream of Tartar can be used to clean your pots and pans as well, particularly aluminum and copper. It can also help take stains out of fabrics such as kitchen towels & aprons, and aid in cleaning your porcelain sink.

TOOTH WHITENING

Although I have not tried it (yet), there are articles about how Cream of Tartar can be used even to whiten teeth. If true, this is of particular help to cooks after years of drinking hot coffee & tea and sipping wine.

PLAY CLAY

Cream of Tartar can be used along with other items from your kitchen to make modeling clay.

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
3-5 drops of food dye (various colors)

* Snickerdoodles

This recipe comes from the McCormick website.

Ingredients
2 3/4 c Flour, all purpose
2 t Cream of Tartar
1 t Baking Soda

1 1/2 c Sugar, divided
1/2 c Butter, softened
1/2 c Shortening

2 Eggs
2 t Vanilla

1/4 c Sugar
1 T Cinnamon, Ground

Instructions
1. Mix flour, cream of tartar and baking soda in large bowl. Set aside. Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter and shortening in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

3. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks;
cool completely.

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If you are looking for a place to purchase Cream of Tartar in bulk you might want to check Penzey’s

Betty Crocker Warm Delights Review

By now I’m sure you’ve seen these in your grocery store, the Betty Crocker Warm Delights. The first time I saw them I literally laughed, a microwaveable cake mix in a little plastic cup, hilarious I know! For those of you who haven’t paid attention this is what they look like in the store:

We Purchased the mini’s and figured we would appease the purist sense of chocolate eating and went with the Molten Chocolate Cake (the one on the right). There are other flavors, including the caramel that is on the left of the above image and then they make the full size versions in additional flavors, including a Fudge Brownie, a Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie and a Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie – there are additional flavors listed on Betty Crocker’s site but I’ve never been to a store that carries all of them.

I was very apprehensive before trying this, like I said I thought they were something of a joke, so I had the bar set really low. After reading the directions I was even more discouraged but we proceeded cautiously. When you open the package you’ll see two ingredient packets, one with the cake mix and the other with the fudge topping. You are instructed to mix the cake mix with “1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of water” which is an odd measurement, I used 4 teaspoons to keep it simple. Then you stir the water in with the mix and knead the fudge packet approximately 10 times and apply on top of the raw batter. We tried to be artful with our decoration but they both turned into fudgy train wrecks. Finally microwave for 30 seconds, I found ours needed 35-40 seconds but they still “cook” remarkably fast and cook time will vary slightly from one microwave to another. During this lengthy cook time I read “Finnegans Wake.” When we opened the microwave we were pleasantly surprised to see that it rose, cooked and smelled like a chocolate dessert! Please note, we cooked them individually, not both at the same time.

We let them sit for a minute or two and proceeded to consume.

We had a number of tiny ice creams we were sampling at the same time, but the focus of this post are the warm delights.

I have to admit I was remarkably impressed with these things! It is not a gourmet dessert, but it has no right being as good as it is for something that costs so little and cooks so quickly. It’s a very light chocolate cake, a touch spongy but by some miracle not rubbery. The fudge is gooey and rich, the kind that practically welds itself onto your spoon and you have to feverishly lick clean.

We will likely try them again and maybe modify it slightly, I like a denser cake, in particular with fudge when it’s labeled as a “molten chocolate cake” I picture a rich, dense, glistening chocolate cake with a gooey fudge center that oozes all over your plate as soon as you cut into it with your eating utensil. Experiment 1 will include using some sort of fat in the cake mix, either canola oil or more than likely butter to add a little richness and flavor – either way I suspect that will add to the cake density but may impact it’s cook time and rising. The other thing I am toying with is saving the fudge packet for after it’s cooked and stuffing the center of it like a jelly donut with the fudge, then I would have a real mini-molten chocolate cake. Then again it may require dual stage cooking, 20 seconds with no fudge, add the fudge to the center and then microwave for another 15 seconds. Either way I think these have promise and are worth trying. They are fast, simple and really not even terrible for you as far as desserts go.

I’m not a dessert guy and I try to avoid using microwaves as much as possible but think these are worth keeping around if you ever get that delicious chocolate dessert craving and are pressed for time. As we experiment with them more I will follow up with our results. Let us know if you’ve tried them and what you think!

How to make big muffins

Have you ever baked muffins using your traditional 12 cup muffin pan, pulled one out when it was nice and hot, and placed a pad of butter on it to only have the first muffin gone in a few bites? Then, you go back for a second one, thinking you needed just a little more, and before you know it, you feel like you ate too many and think “If the muffin was just a little bit bigger, I wouldn’t have just eaten all of these.”

Well, now you can make the large muffins you see at Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, or your local bakery in your own kitchen. The best thing is you don’t even have to buy a special baking pan to make them. In fact, you probably already have these in your kitchen, or something similar that would work. A simple trick that I learned when I was younger, from my Dad, was to use custard cups. Yes, custard cups.

You simply make your regular muffin recipe, nothing fancy, and place them into greased custard cups. I tend to grease mine using a butter flavored cooking spray. I think it does a nice job of making them non-stick as well as adding a nice buttery flavor and not adding calories.

Using the custard cup as your baking vessel, usually yields half the amount of muffins as your regular recipe. For example, if your recipe normally produces 24 muffins, you will get 12 large muffins. So, if you really wanted 24 large muffins, you will need to double your recipe.

The baking temperature should be the same for your recipe as it normally is, but it will take a little longer to cook. I leave them at the same temperature because I like mine to have a little crisp on the edges of the tops and have a nice golden brown colo r. I usually bake the muffins 15-20 minutes and I check on them. When you insert a cake tester or toothpick in the center and it comes out clean, then you know they are done. Enjoy your big muffins!

Another tip: I like to place my custard cups on a cookie sheet when I place them in the oven. It makes it easier to put them in and take them out.

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