Pale Ale Fondue

The flavor on this was so good but I've come to the conclusion that I can't melt cheese to save my life...

Use a box grater to shred half a white onion and sauté that with in a little olive oil and some chopped thyme.

Add some ale to the sauce pan and bring to a simmer.  I used Sierra Nevada pale ale.  If you've never had this and you like beer, this is a must try!

Put a bowl on top of another sauce pan with simmering water in the bottom.  Pour the onion/beer mixture into the bowl and slowly add shredded cheese.  I used Havarti and  sharp cheddar.  I'm not sure if the cheddar I used wasn't good quality or what but the cheese separated on me and it was just gloppy.  The Havarti melted great but that cheddar... I think it ruined it for me.  The flavor was great but I just couldn't get over the texture.  I have tried to melt cheese before into something smooth and it just hasn't worked for me.  Ever.  I think I'm just cheese challenged!

mmmm Beer

So tomorrow I'll be making Pub Grub: Pale Ale Fondue and I was thinking of getting some Rolling Rock beer for it but I'm wondering if anyone has any other pale ale suggestions??

Earl Grey Tea Loaf

This was my first attempt at homemade bread of any kind.  It was surprisingly way less complicated than I had anticipated.  Note:  for those of you who hate raisins, you might make an exception!

Soak a bunch of raisins and dried cranberries in Earl Grey tea and the zest of an orange overnight.  Use 3 tea bags and 3/4 cup of water to get that tea really potent.  I've never tried to rehydrated dried fruit but that's really a genius idea for packing extra flavor into whatever you're soaking the fruit in.

When I read the ingredient "mixed spice" I knew some research was needed.  Turns out this is a blend of allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom, coriander and nutmeg.  After I followed the recipe I found online I tasted the blend.  It did weird things to my tongue but it tasted really good!  I read the reviews on this recipe and everyone said it sounded authentic so I just went with it. To make this spice blend at home:  2 teaspoons each of allspice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger; 1 teaspoon each of cardamom and coriander. 

I drained the fruit because there was still some tea in the bottom and the recipe didn't specify whether or not to use that juice.  Get a mixing  bowl out and combine the fruit with one whisked egg, sugar, self-raising flour, 1tsp of the mixed spice, a couple more dashes of nutmeg and the juice of the orange you zested the day before. Combine this until everything is mostly wet.  If it looks a little dry that's alright.


Line a loaf pan with waxed paper and spoon the batter in the pan.  Whack that in a 350 Fahrenheit oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

When the bread has about 15 minutes left on it put 2 more tea bags into some boiling water in a pan on the stove.  Add the zest and juice of a lemon and boil for a few minutes and then remove the bags.  Add some sugar and let it boil without stirring until it has reduced by half.  There you go!  Tea lemon syrup.  This smelled so yummy and I was very excited to find out this would be poured on top of the loaf!






Once the loaf pokes clean with a skewer in the middle pull it out and put it on a wire rack still in the pan.  Poke a bunch of holes in the top with the skewer and pour the tea syrup over top.

Allow the loaf to cool a little in the pan before taking it out to place directly on the rack.

I called up my friend Becca and we had tea time with her pretty tea cups and this bread.  It was so yummy!  She said, "The tea in the bread is a really great undertone.  Not overwhelming at all but really good."  She is a raisin-hater to the core and told me not to tell anyone she loved this because she's got an image to uphold.  Haha, well Bec... I think the secret's out!  Luckily I don't think anyone from your family reads my blog.

These last two pictures were taken with Instragram.... love that app!  Just wanted to play around with it a little :)  By the way, the syrup soaked into the bread a lot on the top so it made it gooey.  If you're not a fan of that use less syrup.  We thought it was great as is!

My Nan's St. Clement's Cake

Have you ever been so busy you don't know whether you're coming or going?  Welcome to my life the last few weeks!  I've decided to cut myself a break and just keep going forward with my goal.  I don't want to stop now!


This cake turned out so yummy!  I've never attempted any sort of sponge cake, much less ever eaten one so I really didn't know what to expect.  The ground up almonds really made this cake extra good!

This recipe called for caster sugar.  Caster sugar?  Caster oil I've heard of but never caster sugar.  ochef.com's answer: Castor or caster sugar is the name of a very fine sugar in Britain, so named because the grains are small enough to fit though a sugar "caster" or sprinkler. It is sold as "superfine" sugar in the United States.  I did wind up finding some super fine baker's sugar at the store so I figured I should be all set.


Cream together the butter and white sugar until totally smooth.  This was a cinch with the super fine sugar!  Add 4 eggs one at a time and beat really well in between each.  Add some of the orange zest and lemon zest to the bowl and let that mix in.  Add the ground almonds (basically throw almonds into a food processor until it becomes a meal) and flour to the bowl and let that mix until blended.  Pour into a greased spring form pan and whack that in the oven for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Juice the zested orange and put that into a sauce pan with some sugar.  Keep on low heat until the sugar is dissolved and you have a simple syrup.  Poke a bunch of little holes in the cake and pour the orange syrup over it.  The cake will totally absorb this and will give it the most fantastic smell, taste, moistness.... really just everything!  The picture below shows how glossy the cake becomes from the syrup being poured over it.  Yummo!
  

Confession: In an attempt to be precise with the measurements for this cake my Mom and I looked up online the conversions from grams to cups for each ingredient.  We accidentally used too much sugar in the cake so it's a little sunken in the middle!!  Oopsy!


For the icing:  Juice the zested lemon and add to a bowl with powdered sugar and give it a stir.... that's it.  And it was so stinking good!  It had just enough sweetness to it to avoid the lemon pledge being sprayed on top of this cake visual you have in your head (or at least do now! haha).  Allow the cake to cool completely and transfer to a serving plate before spreading the icing.  Garnish with some reserved lemon and orange zest and serve that baby up!

I made this cake again by popular demand and used the correct amount of sugar.  The picture above is the non-sinkhole cake!


Warning:  this cake is very addicting.  Step away.... at least from my piece!  Or half... haha!