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Two Ways to Enjoy Beets…Baked Beet Chips and Wilted Beet Greens

Sheila — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:07:57 +0000

A few weeks ago, I made a resolution to try eating beets. It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution, but I just decided one day a few weeks ago that it was something I wanted to do. I don’t think I’ve eaten a beet since I was a kid, and since I’m pushin’ 50…well…it’s been a long time.

My tastes have changed a lot since I was kid. I was such a picky eater as kid, but my taste buds changed a lot and now I eat almost everything I used to hate.

Anyway, beets are so healthy and pretty, and I just wanted to see if perhaps my taste buds would appreciate them now.

The first thing I did was tasted a raw beet. It was okay and I could tolerate it, but my nose was all crinkled the whole time I was eating it. It wasn’t such a bad taste, but it wasn’t all that enjoyable either.

I read somewhere a long time ago that most of taste preferences have a lot to do with our sense of smell. And the thing is, I don’t like how beets smell. And I’m not fond of the strong, earthy taste either. But I was determined to push on…to give beets a try.

I decided to start by making baked beet chips. I love chips, so I thought maybe beet chips would be something I’d like. Turns out I was right!!!

They’re wonderful!!!!! They strong, earthy,woodsy taste of the beets is reduced after they’re in the oven. And with the olive oil, sea salt, and pepper on them, they’re absolutely fantastic!!

I found myself going back to the pan every so often to munch on some, and I can tell you without a doubt that I’ll be making these again.

Then I decided I wanted to try the beet greens. My first impression about them was that they stink. They have a really strong smell, but when I tasted them raw, I really liked the flavor. So I saved some of the leaves for a salad (you’ll seem them in a different post) and then cooked the rest.

Yep…they kind of stink when you’re cooking them, but while the aroma isn’t all that appetizing, once you drizzle olive oil on them and season them with sea salt and pepper, the greens are actually quite good. You’ll notice I used a lot of salt and pepper. Yeah, yeah…I know…that’s probably excessive, but it made the greens tastier.

They’d be even better with some boiled new potatoes mixed in with them, but maybe I’ll do that a different day.

I think the next time I cook beets though, I’m gonna make a chocolate cake with beets in it. I’ve seen that recipe floatin’ around the web, and everyone says the cake is fantastic, so I want to try it and see for myself.

Anyway, I’m quite proud of myself. I ate beets. *pats self on back.* I really gave them a chance. And I’m so glad I did.

Two Ways to Enjoy Beets…Baked Beet Chips and Wilted Beet Greens

Recipe Source for the Beet Chips: Erin at Naturally Ella

Ingredients for the Wilted Beet Greens:

greens from 4 beets
1 tbsp. olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions for Making the Wilted Beet Greens:

Cut the most of the stems off the beet greens. I left some of them, but discarded the majority of them.
Wash the greens thoroughly under hot water.
Place the greens in large pot with 2 quarts of water.
Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook on medium until the greens have softened to your liking.
Drain the water off the greens.
Drizzle olive oil over the greens.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve warm.

Kale Chips

Sheila — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 02:06:40 +0000

They’re crunchy.

They’re tasty.

They’re healthy.

Did I say how great they taste? I believe I did.

It’s worth repeating a second time though.

Season your chips however you want. Experiment.

Bet ya can’t eat just one!

By the way, they didn’t look this green when I pulled them out of the oven. I adjusted the colors some. I just wanted you to know.

Kale Chips

Recipe Source: a thought for food

Queen Cake

Sheila — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:19:04 +0000

I wanted to make a very special cake for my very special friend, Vesna. It’s her birthday today (March 16th), and I made her favorite cake, which is called Queen Cake, in honor of her birthday. It’s a meringue cake, but it’s quite different from any meringue cake I’ve ever had. The pastry part of the cake is a meringue base that’s been dried out in the oven. It’s very crunchy, and that crunchy texture makes a nice contrast with the cream layers. The result is a dessert that’s divinely delicious!! Here’s a picture Kemal took of the cake after Vesna cut it for us:

Vesna loves how when she bites into the cake there’s a crunch, followed by a dissolving of the meringue on her tongue, and then a creamy, dreamy yumminess!!! When she told me how much she loves this cake, I knew I had to make it for her. Well, all I can say is that it’s a good thing I started making this cake early (around 11 p.m.) because I ended up having to throw away the first meringue cake and start over. Here’s what happened.

When Vesna told me how to make the cake several weeks ago, I was kind of sleepy while I was taking notes. I accidentally wrote down 8 eggs instead of 4. Oops!! That’s a big difference. So anyway, last night I made this cake with 8 egg whites and poured all it into one large Springform pan. Big mistake!!!! It was way too many eggs, and my meringue base turned out to be huge. It was too big to dry out in the center, so the outside was perfect while the inside was still wet.

Well, lucky for me I still had time to try again. So Kemal and I nibbled on the crunchy part of the meringue and then threw the rest of it away. I started over, and this time I used less eggs. I also decided to have two layers of crunchy meringue, so I divided my meringue into two pans. Well, I got that right, but I forgot to process my sugar in the blender to make it super-fine in texture. It didn’t ruin my meringue base, but it wasn’t perfect the way I wanted. I wanted the meringue to totally dissolve on the tongue, but it was just a little stickier than I would have liked. That wasn’t such a big deal though.

A bigger deal is that when I made my creams, I didn’t add the milk gradually like I was supposed to, and I ended up with lumps. It took me an hour to try to get all the lumps out. And all night I was dropping everything and making a huge mess. I normally clean up all my messes, and while I did clean up after the first cake flopped, I eventually got so sleepy (around 4 or 4:30 a.m.) that I couldn’t stand up anymore. I dropped everything, cleaned my hands, and collapsed on the sofa. I left everything. I woke up in the morning to a sparkling, clean kitchen. Kemal put everything away, cleaned everything up, and put me to bed…something I don’t even remember. In the morning, I finished the cake in time to get it to Vesna for her birthday.

The good news is that the cake tasted pretty good. We all enjoyed it for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Here’s a picture Kemal took of Vesna getting ready to enjoy hers:

I can’t wait to make it again because I learned from my mistakes. But for now, I get to have fun using all my egg yolks. Time to go make some homemade ice cream and egg noodles.

Queen Cake (Adapted from Vesna’s recipe)

Ingredients for Meringue Cake:

4 egg whites
4 egg yolks
1 cups sugar

Ingredients for the vanilla and chocolate cream:

7 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 pkg. vanilla sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Ingredients for the whipped cream topping:

4 pkgs. Dream Whip
4 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups milk
Optional: 2 oz. grated bittersweet chocolate for garnishing the top of the cake

Note: Vesna makes her whipped cream topping more dense by using less milk. I think it’s better with less milk, but silly me, I forgot and used more milk. So if you want your whipped cream fluffier, use two cups of milk. If you want it to be more dense, use 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups.

Instructions for making the meringue cake:

Put the sugar in a blender and press the “processor” button. If you don’t have a processor button, just press puree. You only need to process the sugar for about 1-2 minutes. This will make the sugar become very fine, airy, and powdery, and when your sugar is very fine like this, it will make for a much better meringue.
Set the sugar aside when it’s done.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Now you want to get your baking pan(s) ready.

Note: Before you prepare your pans, you need to decide how many layers of meringue you want. If you want two layers of meringue (that’s how I made mine), you’ll need to line two 8-inch Springform pans with parchment paper. If you want only one layer of meringue, then you’ll need to use one less egg for the cake, and then line one 10-inch pan with parchment paper.

The meringue is very sticky, and if you just cut a circular shape from the parchment paper so it fits in the bottom of the pan(s), it will keep the meringue cake from sticking to the bottom.

Separate the eggs, putting the yolks in the refrigerator for later use.
Leave the egg whites on the counter for about 30 minutes, letting them come to room temperature.
Place your two sticks on butter on the counter top also so it can get soft. You’ll be using the butter later when you make the creams.
With an electric mixer, beat the eggs on high speed in a large stainless steel or glass bowl for about 3 minutes until the eggs start to get foamy. Don’t use a plastic bowl; they don’t work as well.
Add the sugar to the eggs a little at a time, beating continuously on high speed until all the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are glossy and have peaks that stand straight up. To test your egg whites to see if they’re done, take put some egg whites in a spoon. Turn the spoon upside down. The egg whites shouldn’t drip or fall. They should stay on the spoon. If they stay on the spoon, then your egg whites have been beaten enough.
Pour the meringue into your lined baking pan(s), and then put your pan(s) in the oven.
Reduce the heat to 250 degrees and bake until the meringue totally dries out and browns some. That will take about 2 hours or so. I was baking late at night and I was kind of sleepy when I pulled the merginue cake out of the oven and forgot to check to see what time I finished. You can check it after about 1 hour if you like, but I don’t think it will be browned enough. It all depends on how hot your oven runs. I think mine took a little over 2 hours. Just make sure you don’t open the oven door during the first 30 minutes of baking.
When the meringue cake is done, it will be browned and totally dried out on the inside and outside. It will be a crunchy cake base.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool about 10 minutes or so.
Then you can remove the outside of the Springform pan.

Instructions for making vanilla and chocolate cream:

Beat the egg yolks.
Measure out 1/2 cup milk and set it aside.
Add the 7 tbsp. flour to the yolks, and beat it with a fork until there are no lumps. Add a little milk to the egg/flour mixture, beating it with a fork until there are no lumps. Then add a little more of the 1/2 cup of milk that’s left, beating well. Continue until you’ve added all of the 1/2 cup of milk to the flour, beating it by hand until there are no lumps.
Put 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 cup of sugar, and vanilla sugar in a sauce pan and heat it on med. well heat until it boils, stirring constantly.
After it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and then add the egg yolk/flour/milk mixture that you just whisked together, stirring it in with the warm milk/sugar very quickly.
Keep stirring it on low heat until it has the consistency of a pudding.
Transfer half of the vanilla cream to a medium-sized glass or stainless steel bowl and refrigerate it.
Add the chocolate chips to the remaining vanilla cream that’s still in your sauce pan, stirring constantly and melting over low heat.
After the chocolate chips have melted and have been incorporated into the cream, transfer it to a medium-sized glass or stainless steel bowl and refrigerate it.
When the vanilla and chocolate creams have cooled down, remove the bowls from the refrigerator.
Add one stick of the softened butter to the vanilla cream. Beat the butter into the cream with an electric mixer until the butter is incorporated into the vanilla cream.
Now clean your beaters.
Add the other stick of softened butter to the chocolate cream. Beat the butter into the cream with an electric mixer until the butter is incorporated into the chocolate cream.

Instructions for making the whipped cream topping:

Mix together in a large bowl the 4 packages of Dream Whip, 10 tsp. vanilla, and 1 3/4 cups milk.
Beat with an electric beater until the whipped cream is thick and fluffy.
Refrigerate the whipped cream topping while you’re assembling your cake.

Assembling your cake:

Put your meringue cake on your serving dish (or you can leave it on the bottom of your Springform pan).
Spread the vanilla cream on top of the meringue base.
Now refrigerate until the vanilla cream hardens some.
Then spread the chocolate cream on top of the vanilla cream.
If you’re making two layers of meringue like I did, then you’ll take your other meringue base and place it on top of the chocolate cream.
Now you will spread the whipped cream topping all around the sides and top.

Note: If you’re using just one layer of meringue, the whipped topping will be spread on top of the chocolate cream and around the sides. If you’re using two layers of meringue like I did, you’ll spread the whipped topping over the second layer of meringue and around the sides.

If you would like to garnish the outside of your cake, just grate some bittersweet chocolate and then sprinkle it over the outside of the cake.
Refrigerate about 1 hour so it can harden up some.

Baked Banana Chips Dipped in Chocolate

Sheila — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:41:50 +0000

One of Kemal’s favorite snacks (and mine too) is chocolate covered banana chips. They’re sinfully delicious and super easy to make.

Baked Banana Chips Dipped in Chocolate (Recipe Source: Spark Recipes)

They’re hard to resist, but really…why would you want to?

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Sheila — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:49:34 +0000

Is there anything better than chocolate covered strawberries? I think they’re just heavenly, and I got a big surprise at work the other day when I received some homemade chocolate dipped strawberries as a Valentine gift from Gaby, who’s a really sweet and lovely young woman I work with.

She attached a note to the package with a pretty red ribbon, and the note said, “Sheila, Hope you and Kemal enjoy these. It’s my first time making them. I heard they were your fave. Happy Early Valentine’s Day, Gaby.”

She did a wonderful job on dipping the strawberries. They turned out beautifully, and the taste was just exquisite!! Here’s a close-up of one of berries she dipped:

Awwwwww…isn’t she so sweet!!!! I’m not sure who told her they were my favorite…if it was Kemal or Tina (another sweetie I work with who made some for me for my birthday several years ago), but it made me feel great that she made some for me! Aren’t they gorgeous!! She really did a great job! Look at these beauties she made!

It reminds me that it’s been awhile since I made some for myself. Hmmmm…I will have to remedy that!

If you’ve never made chocolate dipped strawberries before they’re really easy to make. Wanna try it? Ready to get started?

Try this recipe: www.bettycrocker.com)

Here’s another photo of some of Gaby’s chocolate dipped strawberries that she made. Do you believe I ate this whole plate? Yep…I sure did. Kemal ate five of them too. They were so incredibly delicious! And I was dreamin’ of strawberry fields all night long!