Curing A Little Writer's Block

As you can probably guess from the title I am having a little writer's block......major writer's block really.  In fact I have been questioning just all together how interesting writing about food can really be?  It's not like I am traveling to exotic places, or doing something cool like eating my way through Italy while telling you about the meaning of life. 

No, I am just another boring home cook telling you about my boring life!  Ok, maybe I should take a deep breath and get off that subject.  Whew!  Anyway, I have been doing so much cooking lately I think the source of my writer's block might be from a little cooking fatigue (how is this possible?).  The sad state of my personal physique is not helping things at all as well, because I am literally growing by the minute, as a result of all this cooking.
So today I attempted to remove my mental block by engaging in an afternoon of classic brainstorming, but in the end I quite literally sat on my butt most of the day, watching Harry Potter way too many times, drinking too much tea, and not coming up with any ideas on the following: what recipe to post, what to write, and how to demonstrate, in some small measure, that I am interesting enough to risk reading this silly blog on a regular basis. I think it was about after my third run through Harry Potter that I looked over at my dark kitchen and decided get up off my big butt and cook something, anything, in the hopes of restoring some inspiration to my blogging life.  Because the best way to ride the bull is to get back on after you fall, right? 

Now I know I am suppose to try to be inventive and interesting and I know I have already posted something involving blood oranges before but I just have too many of them in my refrigerator to ignore and damn it, it's my blog so I will use them again as a last ditch effort to bring me back from the brink of writers purgatory.  So to end this useless story I whipped, I stirred and I baked, and in the end made something delicious.  And even though I still feel like I am facing a writing wall I feel like I have taken a few steps back, back enough to blog another day.  Now hopefully for the next post I can find a way to be interesting.

Blood Orange Pound Cake With Blueberries
And Cardamom Scented Whip Cream

Cook Time: 1-1/2 hours

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 eggs at room temperature

3/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon blood orange zest

1/3 cup blood orange juice

2 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon blood orange juice

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cardamom Whip Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar

Fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place baking rack in the middle of the oven.  Butter and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.  In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.  Set aside.  Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment whip the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 4 minutes. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Add the vanilla bean paste and zest, and mix well.  Add the sour cream, then half of the flour mixture, the juice, then the remaining flour.  Mix well between each addition of the wet and dry ingredients. 

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  If the cake starts to get too brown cover with a piece of foil.  Remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack and cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  After 10 minutes invert the loaf pan and remove the cake from pan. 

For the glaze combine the powdered sugar, orange juice and vanilla.  Drizzle the glaze over the cake while still warm and allow to cool completely.  While the cake is cooling in a medium bowl beat the whip cream until soft peaks form. 

Add the spices, vanilla and sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  To serve, once the cake is cooled, slice the cake and spoon some of the cream over the cake.  Top with the blueberries.

A Little Curd To Mend A Wound

It's funny where you find inspiration.  It might be a memory of a loved one, a picture on your wall, a song on the radio, a sunny day....or a sad little Christmas tree naked in your front yard.  I know that this sounds strange but I found myself this weekend feeling very sad, since we took all evidence of Christmas out of our house.

Down came all the decorations, the ornaments, and the Christmas tree, and I'm always traumatized by the sight of it sitting in the front yard waiting for a swift burial.  So how does one mend this post-holiday wound?  With curd, and in this case blood orange curd.  I am a very big fan of classic lemon curd....how can you go wrong with that much melted butter?  And while I know I should be focusing on cooking waist friendly dishes like everyone else, I just can't help myself.   Especially when I know that all I needed was the healing power of luscious melted butter and citrus, lopped over a shortbread crust......a perfect companion for a nice cup of tea on a wintry sad day. 

So since I just so happened to have left over blood oranges from my blood orange champagne cocktails, I figured why not give it a go, shake up classic lemon curd with the yummy floral citrus flavor of blood oranges.  But I have to say that I did give it a moment's pause, because curds can be somewhat labor intensive and well I don't know if my fragile emotional state could handle lumpy curd so I decided to do an adaptation of a recipe I found in Fine Cooking, which is ridiculously easy, although the initial steps in this recipe results in an off-putting curdled nasty looking concoction.  However, after this curdled mess is heated the butter melts into an amazing velvety smooth curd.  In the end my mission was achieved, and the curd was the perfect bandage for my emotional wound, and helped me say goodbye to my Christmas tree friend.

Blood Orange Curd Tart

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Curd: Adapted from the recipe

Lemon Curd For Scottish Shortbread by Elinor Klivans in Fine Cooking Magazine.

For the curd simply follow the recipe in the link but substitute in the following:

2/3 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice for the lemon juice
1 tablespoon blood orange zest for the lemon zest

3 whole eggs instead of 2

Crust:

1-1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup ground almonds

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment mix butter and sugar until smooth.  Add vanilla and mix until combined.  Add the flour, salt, and almonds and mix until the dough starts to come together. 

 Press dough into a 9-inch tart pan and chill for 30 minutes.  Once the crust has chilled poke crust with a fork and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. 

Remove crust from oven and cool completely.  While the crust is cooling make the curd according to the recipe provided in the link.  Pour the hot curd into the crust and allow the curd to set at room temperature.  When the curd is set the tart is ready to serve.  You can also chill the tart until serving.

Happy New Year!

I thought I would send a quick happy new year to my dear readers with a little New Year's Eve treat!

Blood Orange And Pomegranate
Champagne Cocktail

Pomegranate Juice
Freshly squeezed blood orange juice
Simple syrup (1 part sugar plus 1 part water-cook until
the sugar dissolves and chill until ready to serve)
Champagne (although I like Prosecco)

In a champagne glass slowly pour the champagne till about half up the glass.  Add a splash of the simple syrup, then the pomegranate and blood orange juice.

AND

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

10-12 medium sized jalapenos split
down the middle and seeds removed
1 8oz package cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a sharp white cheddar, but a jack or Manchego would be yummy)
1/4 cup diced green onion
6 strips of bacon, split in half
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a small bowl combine the cream cheese, shredded cheese, green onions and salt and pepper.  Stuff each pepper with about 1 tablespoon of the cheese mixture.  Wrap each pepper in one half strip of bacon.  Place wrapped peppers on a cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until the bacon looks cooked through.

Happy New Year everyone!