Happy anniversary to us!
Thursday was the 15th wedding anniversary for Russet and I. And it was largely indistinguishable from any other day in lockdown except for one heck of a meal that I made.
Very buttery green beans
Glazed carrots cooked in gingerale
Alton Brown's City Ham (lightly cooked to loosen the fat and skin, which is peeled off and dried, it's then painted with deli mustard, packed with brown sugar, misted with bourbon, packed with powdered gingersnap cookies, then baked to completion)
and for dessert: a flourless chocolate cake surrounded by chocolate mousse!
Everything came out wonderful. The chocolate mousse/cake is a two-day process that I started on Tuesday with baking the cake, I then made the mousse and completed it on Wednesday so it would be ready Thursday. I made the carrots Wednesday, and did the green beans and reheated the carrots while the ham was resting after it baked.
Russet said the first time that I made the AB City Ham, it was absolute aces. Subsequent times it was good, but not quite as good. She said this time was every bit as good as the first time! That was nice.
I had to do the shopping via remote control, i.e. dictating the list to Dave to get everything. He was able to get everything that I needed, the only real problem was I didn't have him get an orange. The green beans were supposed to be orange-scented: you slice the rind of the orange off with a vegetable peeler, being careful to avoid the white pith, so you're getting the scented oil. Cook with the beans, and they're now orange-scented!
And we've been eating oranges for the last three months.
Last week Russet got 'raspberry oranges'. They don't smell quite the same, they don't taste or look quite the same either, so I didn't use them. I'd intended to use some Penzey's Minced Orange Peel, but I forgot to throw a tablespoon into the boil. I barely remembered to throw in some salt! Still, throw in enough butter and they were good.
But the flourless chocolate cake/mousse? Man, that was really worth the effort! Very cook. And it's cool seeing the clear demarcation between the 6" flourless cake in the middle and the lighter additional inch of chocolate mousse surrounding it: it almost looks like frosting! I really need to take a photo and post it.
I have two special pans that I bought just for this project, granted, I bought them a couple years ago. Most people don't have a 6" cake pan, I also bought what's called a Push-Pan, the bottom is removable and has a silicone gasket. I put a piece of parchment paper on it, then a crushed-up Oreo chocolate cookie pie crust, then centered the cake after pouring a dollop of mousse on it to hold it in place. Poured the rest of the mousse in, smoothed it out a bit, and it sat in the fridge for a solid 24 hours. Set a short broad can on the kitchen table, put the pan on top of it, gently pulled down the sides. Came off perfectly. Slid the whole thing onto a cake plate.
I'd considered lubing the sides of the pan, but since this wasn't going to be baked, I decided there was too much risk of flavor transfer to the mousse, and that there was a pretty good chance that the side part of the pan should come away cleanly, and it came off just fine.
That pan is probably one of the best kitchen gadgets that I have! I'm going to have to see if I can get a 6" one, it's not easy getting the flourless chocolate cake out of its cake pan, regardless of how well I lube it. It just likes sitting in its pan too much.
So that's 15 years we've been married, and 11 years since I was diagnosed with my immune disorder. My parents have been married about 63 years now, I'll be ecstatic if we make another 10 or 15 considering my age and health problems.
I guess we'll see what happens! This entry was originally posted at https://thewayne.dreamwidth.org/1191344.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Very buttery green beans
Glazed carrots cooked in gingerale
Alton Brown's City Ham (lightly cooked to loosen the fat and skin, which is peeled off and dried, it's then painted with deli mustard, packed with brown sugar, misted with bourbon, packed with powdered gingersnap cookies, then baked to completion)
and for dessert: a flourless chocolate cake surrounded by chocolate mousse!
Everything came out wonderful. The chocolate mousse/cake is a two-day process that I started on Tuesday with baking the cake, I then made the mousse and completed it on Wednesday so it would be ready Thursday. I made the carrots Wednesday, and did the green beans and reheated the carrots while the ham was resting after it baked.
Russet said the first time that I made the AB City Ham, it was absolute aces. Subsequent times it was good, but not quite as good. She said this time was every bit as good as the first time! That was nice.
I had to do the shopping via remote control, i.e. dictating the list to Dave to get everything. He was able to get everything that I needed, the only real problem was I didn't have him get an orange. The green beans were supposed to be orange-scented: you slice the rind of the orange off with a vegetable peeler, being careful to avoid the white pith, so you're getting the scented oil. Cook with the beans, and they're now orange-scented!
And we've been eating oranges for the last three months.
Last week Russet got 'raspberry oranges'. They don't smell quite the same, they don't taste or look quite the same either, so I didn't use them. I'd intended to use some Penzey's Minced Orange Peel, but I forgot to throw a tablespoon into the boil. I barely remembered to throw in some salt! Still, throw in enough butter and they were good.
But the flourless chocolate cake/mousse? Man, that was really worth the effort! Very cook. And it's cool seeing the clear demarcation between the 6" flourless cake in the middle and the lighter additional inch of chocolate mousse surrounding it: it almost looks like frosting! I really need to take a photo and post it.
I have two special pans that I bought just for this project, granted, I bought them a couple years ago. Most people don't have a 6" cake pan, I also bought what's called a Push-Pan, the bottom is removable and has a silicone gasket. I put a piece of parchment paper on it, then a crushed-up Oreo chocolate cookie pie crust, then centered the cake after pouring a dollop of mousse on it to hold it in place. Poured the rest of the mousse in, smoothed it out a bit, and it sat in the fridge for a solid 24 hours. Set a short broad can on the kitchen table, put the pan on top of it, gently pulled down the sides. Came off perfectly. Slid the whole thing onto a cake plate.
I'd considered lubing the sides of the pan, but since this wasn't going to be baked, I decided there was too much risk of flavor transfer to the mousse, and that there was a pretty good chance that the side part of the pan should come away cleanly, and it came off just fine.
That pan is probably one of the best kitchen gadgets that I have! I'm going to have to see if I can get a 6" one, it's not easy getting the flourless chocolate cake out of its cake pan, regardless of how well I lube it. It just likes sitting in its pan too much.
So that's 15 years we've been married, and 11 years since I was diagnosed with my immune disorder. My parents have been married about 63 years now, I'll be ecstatic if we make another 10 or 15 considering my age and health problems.
I guess we'll see what happens! This entry was originally posted at https://thewayne.dreamwidth.org/1191344.html. Please comment there using OpenID.