Round Squash

I vow, again, to be better at this. I probably will not be. But hey!

Back in December, Andre' proposed to me after five years of dating. So I'll probably talk lots about our wedding in the next few months. If I actually remember to post, hahaha.

This post is on round squash.

Okay, so the one in the front isn't round.

I sowed the seeds back in March. It was Burpee's Ball Mix Squash packet. It didn't list which kinds of squash are in it, but I've deduced that 8-ball and Round de Nice are the dark green (not pictured) and light green (pictured), respectively.The yellow is One-ball.

I let them get to various sizes, but you can pick them as soon as they're golf-ball sized, even with the flower still attached.

So far my best producers have been the One Ball and Rond de Nice. Last year, I grew 8-ball and it did well. There are a lot of advantages to these kinds of squash that I have personally found, and a few disadvantages.

Advantages:

1. They're adorable.
2. They're perfect for stuffing.
3.  They're smaller than standard squash plants and can thus be planted in 1-per-square-foot in SFG's, and grow well in pots (10 inches or bigger.)
4. They have great flavor and texture.
5. They're prolific.
6. They have attractive foliage and bright yellow flowers, and make good ornamental plants.
7. They make fabulous projectiles for catapults,  large slingshots, or general throwing-at-people purposes.
8. Their skins don't seem to damage easily, which is nice when chucking into someone's head.You can give someone a concussion and a casserole within a 60-minute time period, all from the same vegetable. 
9. Kids get all excited by the prospect of bright, round, throwable squash. If your kids are being picky with vegetables, these may be a good option for you to grow. "You can only damage the china cabinets if you EAT YOUR VEGETABLES FIRST."
10. They keep their pretty colors and patterns when cooked.

Disadvantages:

1. They're fairly small- from golf-ball to softball sized. Some people like big, 3-foot-long squash, so this isn't for those people.
2. It confuses people that they're round.
3. It confuses people that they're yellow or striped.
4. It confuses people that they're small.
5. It confuses people that they're so pretty and adorable.
6. People are generally confused by these squash, so you have to sit there and explain to them that it's no different than regular zukes. They won't believe you, however. No matter how much you try to explain it. Eventually, you're just going to have to say "JUST TAKE THE DAMN THINGS AND TRY IT."
7.  You neighbor may get annoyed at you and tell you to grow "proper ornamental plants".
8.  If you want to actually beat someone with one, it's difficult because of the round shape- standard zucchini has much more of a handle. This can be remedied, however. See #8 in the advantages list.
9. They seem to be slightly more susceptible to the heat than some other varieties. This is mostly the Rond de Nice- my One-balls are still producing like mad. They also seem to be slightly more susceptible to powdery/downy mildew, a common problem for cucurbits in Central Louisiana, but really haven't had too much of a problem, yet.
10. Technically all squash keeps its pretty patterns when cooked, so I guess that doesn't really count.

Another fun thing to do is grow various kinds, then you can take pictures of squash in dirty positions.

Cherry tomatoes add to the effect.

All in all, I think these are a great asset to any garden, particularly one where space is a premium, e.g. square-foot gardens, patio and container gardens, or other small setups.

I guess I look like an alcoholic with all those wine bottles. I fill them with water and they help keep it moist during the hot, miserable days.

Rond de Nice on the bush

I have sucked at this

"Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes!"

Well I have sucked at keeping this up.

So here's the nutshell of what's been going on: school, started up a candy shoppe on Etsy called Moon Bunny Sweets that was very successful but I didn't have time to properly maintain it, so I closed it, started a backyard botany experiment that has turned into therapy, doing random goofy things with Andre, school, turned 24, school, worrying about having a job, worrying about student loans, worrying about what the hell I'm going to do after I'm finished with this BS, worrying I"ll never get into vet school, confronting my caterpillar phobia by going within 2 inches of a tomato hornworm, playing with bunnies, buying too many shoes and a new slow cooker (which is infinitely better than my last), starting an orchid collection, school, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, turnips, mustard greens, coffee...................

I vowed that every time I worry about whether or not I'll get into vet school one day, I'll plant another seed in the garden. Which would explain why I have so many things growing in the backyard right now.....

Weirdly this garden adventure has spiked renewed interest in science; it's not that I wasn't interested, per say, it was just that I was getting tired of slogging thru things that didn't have any application to real life. Now I've got various houseplants and a bit of a vegetable jungle in the backyard.

I'm not old but my parents are getting older; watching them age sucks even though they really aren't old themselves. Where did the last five years go? Last ten? Granted, I passionately hated being 14, so I guess I really don't want to go back, but damn, how it flies so fast, how we grow so quickly. How I am becoming who I have always been and always wanted to be; how I am kind of sucking at reaching some goals but blowing others out of the water.

It's 11:15PM and I have to go back to giving a shit about things other than my blog. I am planning on posting some stuff on gardening and recipes and other fun things soon, though.

Life's a bitch, and then you die.

But at least there's coffee.

Warm Soup on Cold Nights

Well. Not really cold nights. It was chilly for a few days, and I was required to wear a jacket. I was excited about this.

Today, I was back in sleeveless shirts. Because it's Louisiana.

Whatever the weather, it's a good idea to eat chicken enchilada soup. Who doesn't like it? It's got a bunch of tasty components, and can be as thick or as thin as you like. The soup is tasty on it's own, but what really makes it are the garnishes- my favorites are a dollop of sour cream, some chopped scallions, and perhaps some shredded cheddar.

Chicken Enchilada Soup:

• 2 tablespoons of olive or canola oil
• 1 pound of skinless, boneless chicken, white or dark, depending upon preference
• 1 white onion, chopped
• One 15 oz. can stewed tomatoes, chopped
• One 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 4 oz. can of diced green chilies
• 1 and 1/2 cup frozen white or yellow corn
• 1-49 oz. carton low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup of water
• 1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch skillet. Cut the chicken into tenders by slicing each piece with the grain. I normally use chicken breasts, but you can use dark meat if you like. Once in the oil is shimmering, add the chicken slices and cook thru. Allow it to brown nicely on both sides.

Remove the chicken from the pan and allow to rest on a plate for fifteen minutes. After this time, shred with a couple of forks.

While the chicken is resting, heat the other tablespoon of oil in the bottom of a large pot. After it's hot, add the onion. Stir around until it's starting to brown and is soft.  

Add the chopped stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, chilies, corn, chicken broth, water, chili powder, and cumin to the pot. Bring to a boil.

Cover the pot and reduce the heat, allowing the mixture to remain at a simmer. Simmer for 2 and 1/2 hours, stirring ever so often to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. If for some reason the soup has gotten thick (it shouldn't have, but this happens occasionally) add some water to thin it back out.

Add the cooked shredded chicken and the drained black beans. Simmer for another 40 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld together. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with your favorite garnishes.

Some garnish ideas:
Chopped red onion
Chopped scallion
Cilantro
Flat-leaf parsley

Sour cream
Monterrey jack, cheddar, mozzarella, or whatever you favorite cheese is
Fresh chopped tomatoes
Whatever other tasty garnish you can think of.

Enjoy!

Soon- candied kumquat slices, beet salad with champagne vinaigrette, and maybe even something involving turnips! Probably not all at once.

A further celebration of citrus. And a lot of mason jars.

The USDA dictates that home-preserved jams and jellies should be used within a year. I personally call a bit of BS, because well-canned stuff will last for a bit longer. Still, flavor begins to degrade within two years and really, why on earth would you want to eat preserves from two years ago when there is a fresh harvest in the present?

Which leads us to this:

I currently have a few jars of strawberry jam left, as well as blueberry, four-berry, and peach butter.

Andre’s father liked preserving. He made actual fig preserves, fig jam of various flavors, and Muscadine grape jellies. The whole fig preserves served over hot biscuits are absolutely divine.( I probably need to make some this year, when the figs come in.)

However, back to the picture above: that is representative of about 6 dozen mason jars filled with said preserves, jams, and jellies. I’m told they were light brown when first canned. Well, they were in fact not light brown when they were un-canned. Fifteen and a half years to six years later. Andre’s dad canned a lot of figs, as you can tell…………..and they needed to be gotten rid of. They were taking up space and cluttering up their house.

So, I was told I could have as many of the old jars as I wanted, as long as I cleaned them out. I figured this wouldn’t be too hard, right? Well, on top of the obvious expiration date, the jar rims hadn’t actually been wiped after the stuff was poured in, so there was ten-plus-year-old-sugar-gunk left under the rings. I had to soak the jars in really hot water for thirty minutes before the rims would even budge. Actually, some wouldn’t come apart after two hours of soaking, so the entire jar got recycled. (I’d like to apologize at the people working at the recycle plant.) Apart from being quite unsanitary, I’m also pretty sure I got carpal tunnel syndrome from having to unscrew all of the tops. Because that would be six dozen tops, people. Put this on top of the fact that they weren’t canned with a boiling-water canner (considerably more sanitary than the inversion method, to be frank. Hence why the USDA says to do it that way…..)I got some pretty cool fungal colonies off of these suckers.

What?! The smooth tops of the jelly made a beautiful growth surface for all of that gorgeous colony morphology.

If I hadn’t feared for my life, I would have smacked some of those suckers on some PDA and watched them grow.

Leave me alone.....

Anyway, I eventually got through this laborious task, and now I don’t have to buy jars this year! Yay!

So what was the first thing I canned this year? Well, a couple of things, actually. Sadly, I did not take pictures.

The first was strawberry marmalade. I had some Meyer lemons (see the Lemon Cake Pops!) and some navel oranges, so I went to town with this recipe. 

I use no-sugar needed pectin. You can add up to seven cups of sugar- the normal amount in most jam recipes. However, this pectin allows for greater control of the sweetness level. And why on earth would you cover up all that beautiful berry taste with too much sugar if it doesn’t need it?

Strawberry marmalade:

• Four cups strawberries

• One large navel orange or two smaller oranges
• One large lemon (I used a Meyer but regular lemons are fine) or two smaller lemons
• 3-5 cups of sugar, depending on the sweetness of your berries (Mine were very sweet, so I only needed 3.5 cups)
• 3 tablespoons no-sugar needed pectin (or one box no-sugar needed pectin)

Directions:

•     Prepare your boiling water canner, jars, lids, and other canning tools.
• Zest the citrus fruits, making sure to leave the white pith on the fruit. Chop the zests finely. Place them into a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer for ten minutes. Drain, and reserve.
•  Chop your strawberries using a large knife. I find that it is easiest to halve or quart them, then chop about half to the point of basically being mashed. Place them in a bowl or big cup. You may notice that the juices will begin to get thick- this is the strawberries’ natural pectin coming out. 
• . Using a small paring knife, remove the pith and discard. Section the orange and lemon by cutting between the membranes, removing the juicy slices. Roughly chop these slices. Don't include the inner membranes of the fruit- these are too chewy and no amount of cooking will ever break them down. 
• Toss the sectioned fruit in with the strawberries.
• Combine your pectin with a few tablespoons of sugar. This stops the pectin from clumping together annoyingly.
• Place your strawberry-pulp mixture, drained zests, and pectin into a large pot. Bring to a hard boil that cannot be stirred down. Be careful not to burn your fruit. I find that strawberries burn pretty easily.
• Add your sugar, one cup at a time. Stir between additions. The mixture will stop boiling. Once the sugar is well-incorporated, bring back up to a hard boil that can’t be stirred down. Boil very hard for one minute, stirring constantly. Quickly remove from the heat.
• Ladle the hot marmalade into sterile jars. Screw the lid and ring tight on the top.
• Process in your canner for fifteen minutes. Remove from the water, and allow to cool and set before eating (obviously.)

I also had cranberries left over, plus some pears I froze back in the fall. So I made cranberry-pear chutney!  Cranberries have so much natural pectin, you don’t have to use additional stuff. It’s pretty substantially vinegary- so if you don’t like this much vinegar, you can always substitute some of the liquids for water. I would use at least 1/3 cup vinegar, though.

 Cranberry-pear chutney:

• ¾  cup apple cider vinegar
• Two 12-oz bags fresh or thawed frozen cranberries
• Two cups chopped pears (I used pineapple pears, as this was what my dad grows)
• One white or yellow onion, chopped medium
• ½ cup raisins
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh ginger (you can grate it if you want it to be very fine)
• Zest of a lemon or an orange (yes, I zest a lot of citrus.)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (you can use more if you like it really sweet)
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon (preferably freshly ground) nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• Pinch of salt, optional

Directions:

• If you’re canning this, prepare your canner, jars, lids, etc.
• Combine all ingredients in a large pot, stirring the sugar and spices to coat all of the fruit. Bring the mixture to a boil. The cranberries will begin to pop. If several pop at once, it can make a rather loud and startling sound that scares the bejeezus out of you. Once it comes to a boil, stir over medium-low heat. It will seem that the fruit is just kind of floating around in the vinegar for a little while. That’s okay. Just keep stirring, and eventually the mixture will begin to turn deep red and thicken. This will take about twenty to thirty minutes.
• Ladle your chutney into jars. Process for twenty minutes in the boiling water canner.

Pear-ginger-orange marmalade:

• ½ cup fresh ginger, diced really fine
• 2 cups firm pears, peeled and chopped
• 2 large orange, zested
• 4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons no-sugar-needed pectin

Directions:

• Prepare canner, jars, lids, etc.
• Place the zest into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and simmer for ten minutes. Drain the zests.
• Using a small paring knife, remove the pith and discard. Section the orange by cutting between the membranes, removing the juicy slices. Roughly chop the slices.
•  In a large pot, combine the ginger, pears, orange sections, zest, and pectin. Bring up to a hard boil. Add the sugar, and bring to a hard boil again. Stir continuously for 1 minute. Ladle the hot marmalade into sterile jars. Process for fifteen minutes.

Of course, you don’t have to actually can stuff in mason jars. They make fantastic containers for home made salad dressings! 

Here are two dressings that further celebrate the beauty of citrus. I promise that lemons/oranges will not be in the next entry, ha ha ha ha.

These taste great over a salad with greens such as spinach or arugula. Or both. Preferably both.

Creamy orange-yogurt salad dressing:

Isn't this mason jar cool? It's an anniversary Liberty Bell edition.

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt (nonfat is fine. American-style yogurt is also okay, but the dressing may be a touch thinner.)
• Zest of one orange
• 1/3 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 garlic clove
• ¼ cup chives (green onions work well, too.)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• A few grinds of black pepper
• A dash of hot sauce, optional

Directions:

• Put the mayo, Greek yogurt, zest, orange juice, honey, apple cider vinegar, garlic clove, chives, salt, and black pepper in the workbowl of a blender or food processor. Blend until everything is nicely combined. Allow to stand at room temperature for a little while for the flavors to marry. Taste, and adjust salt and pepper to your personal preferences. It will begin to thicken a bit after sitting. It will thicken more after refrigeration. Dressing will keep for a week or so in the fridge.

 

This delicious vinaigrette is probably one of my favorite dressings.

Orange-cane syrup vinaigrette:

This vinaigrette will make you feel liberated, needless to say....

• ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• Zest of the oranges you’ve juiced
• ¼ cup cane syrup or molasses
• 2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard OR 1 tablespoon Djion mustard
• ½ teaspoon salt
• A few grinds of black pepper
• 2/3 cup canola oil

Directions:

• In the work bowl of your processor, put the orange juice, zest, cane syrup, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper. Blend together until well combined. With the processor still running, slowly integrate the canola oil thru the feed tube. Allow to emulsify. Dressing will separate after sitting. Just shake to recombine.  Dressing keeps for a few weeks in the fridge.

 

Some tasty things that go well on a salad with these dressings: candied pecans or walnuts, bleu cheese, feta cheese, dried sour cherries, dried cranberries, dried blueberries.....

 And something nice to put into a ball jar (that doesn’t have orange zest ha ha):

Spiced candied pecans:

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grate if you can)
• Dash of mace or cloves
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 12 oz. pecan halves (about 4 cups)
• ½ cup cane syrup (yes, cane syrup is a running theme in my recipes…..) or real maple syrup (grade B is preferable, or dark amber)

 Directions:

•  Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F.
• Combine the cinnamon, nutmeg, mace or cloves, and salt in a small bowl. Add the butter.
• Toss in the pecans until very well coated. Scrape any stuff from the bottom of the bowl over the pecans.
• Toast the pecans for about ten minutes in the oven.
•  Drizzle the syrup over the pecans.
• Bake about ten minutes longer.
•  Allow the nuts to cool down, then break any big pieces apart.
• Serve in a salad, or just eat them on their own.

In which I cave and make cake pops

I caved in. I followed the trend. It's a delicious and adorable trend. It's the cake pop.

Irony: Lactose-free milk next to butter-laden beauties. Yes, I realize this is an "interesting" picture at best.

It’s citrus season in Louisiana. This equates to bushels of Louisiana sweets (aka Hamlin oranges), navel oranges, satsumas, grapefruits, kumquats, loquats, limes, and lemons. My cooking during the winter will always inevitably include these items. Salads are tossed with orange wedges, freshly-squeezed orange juice is always in the fridge, there are an abundance of lime and lemon icebox pies in the freezer, the kitchen smells like a delicious batch of citrus body wash, and everyone is going to the bathroom more regularly than the rest of the year (exception perhaps being okra season….).

Citrus, baby.

Andre’s house came with two satsumas, one navel orange, and a black Mission fig. I expanded by adding a Louisiana sweet, a brown turkey fig, and a fuyu persimmon. I also added a pretty extensive herb garden in the front yard. Said herb garden includes four kinds of mint, sweet marjoram, basil, two kinds of sage, rosemary, lavender, garlic chives, regular chives, and probably some other things I am not thinking about. (Sadly, the thyme died, but I’m going to get some going soon.) But that’s for another post. J (Herb jellies- coming soon to a blog near you!)

So, the point to this is: this is the Time of Citrus. I always zest and juice a good portion of the fruit, and freeze it for use later in the year. I can have lemon icebox pies all year round. Or lemon sorbet or orange-fig-honey ice cream during the summer. Well, who am I kidding, it’s usually like 80 degrees in January…..so these things are acceptable during the winter too. Grapefruit granitas. Orange marmalade. Lemon marmalade. Heck, strawberry marmalade using said oranges. Really, the list goes on, and I use these beautiful juices and zests until it’s time to juice and zest again.

But this post isn’t about frozen fruits (though I’m sure it’s quite possible to use said frozen juice and zest in this recipe.)

This was from delicious fresh Meyer lemons. Probably my favorite of the entire batch of citrus.

What’s the difference between a Meyer lemon and a regular lemon, you ask?

Well, both are pretty amazing. Both are tart and zesty and refreshing. But Meyer lemons have an extra added sweetness because they aren’t true lemons- they are a hybrid of the true lemon and a mandarin orange. Think of them like orange-infused lemons, if you will. Like a lemon decided that it wanted to become an orange, but changed its mind halfway thru. I'm not really sure if that metaphor worked or not, but you get it. Oh, and Meyer lemons are bigger, too.

 If you let them ripen enough, the outside skins will occasionally turn an orange color. And then you will get them confused with the LA sweets sitting on the counter (because it’s 6 am and you’re sleepy) and you’ll accidentally juice the lemon, and you’ll get a very tart surprise. It’ll wake you up, at any rate………

Back to cake pops. I’m rambling. I decided to finally try my hand at them. I was first exposed to the cake pop at Starbucks a few months ago. It was tiramisu and it was actually quite tasty. I tried the pink one (whatever it is) a few days ago, and enjoyed it. So I figured hey, why not give this a shot? I’m a baker! I'm pretty good at making pretty cakes and whatnot! I love sweet things! It’s citrus season and I can make it with lemons!

I had avoided the cake pop for awhile. Virtually everyone I know of who makes them uses icky boxed cake mixed and icky canned frosting and icky candy melts. I am not a boxed-mix-canned-frosting kind of gal. I bake that ^&*( from scratch, babydoll. 

And those candy melts? Dear lord, use REAL chocolate, why don’t ya?!!!!!!!!

The first two dilemmas were easy enough to fix. Use my normal lemon buttermilk cake recipe; only don’t worry about making it six-layered. (Yeah, it’s a six layer cake. I’m that good. Not that it’s that hard, mind you. Google “mile high cake” and you’ll see the technique behind it.) Stick it in a 9x13. Make my normal lemon buttercream frosting. Make my…..dangit, I normally make ganache if it’s anything that has to do with “candy.”  Those candy melts kind of gross me out. Hydrogenated oils, etc. Use real cocoa butter………Well, I will give exception but still tinker with it a little bit to give it some genuine richness. So, candy melt + white chocolate, plus add some lemon oil to give it a really lemony punch. Yeah, that’ll work for this time. I will see how to get a hard candy coating without the ickiness of shortening. I'm not sure I can. But whatever, it tasted good, and it's occasional.

So without further ado, here’s the various recipes.

Lemon buttermilk cake:

 4 cups cake flour, well-sifted

 2 teaspoons baking powder

  

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

 1 teaspoon salt

 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

 2 cups sugar

 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 4 large eggs, room temperature

 2 cups buttermilk *****see note

Zest of one lemon

¼ cup lemon juice from the zested lemon

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time.

2) In a bowl, combine the vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and buttermilk. Mix very well.

3) In another bowl, combine the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour.

4) Add the dry ingredients alternatieviely with the wet, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until well combined, but no further.

5) Pour the batter into the greased and floured cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a tester comes out clean in the middle. When it’s finished, flip it out of the pan and allow it to cool. It’s okay if you just start tearing it up right away- it’ll cool faster that way.  While the cake is baking, make the lemon buttercream frosting.

*****if you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, you can simply add the lemon juice into 2 cups of milk and let it curdle for about twenty minutes at room temperature. It works just as well.

Mixing the batter.

Lemon buttercream frosting:

2 and ¼ cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted and free of lumps

1.5 sticks of butter

Zest of a lemon, plus two tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice from said zested lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the confectioner’s sugar and butter until very light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla until well combined and the frosting is fluffy and wonderful. It should be like eating a cloud of lemony joy. Stick the frosting in the fridge until the cake is done and cooled.

Assembling the cake pops:

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper.

Once the lemon cake has cooled enough to handle, break apart using a fork, hands, whatever. 

Put the cake crumbles in a big bowl and allow it to completely cool down. If it isn’t cooled down when you add the frosting, the butter in said frosting will melt and you’ll have a gooey mess.  That will never make cake balls. So, let it cool down. I got mine to cool very quickly by sticking the bowl in the freezer and occasionally tossing the crumbles around. This probably took about fifteen to twenty minutes altogether.

If there is any tough crust on your cake, such as the edges, or any overly brown spots, remove them from the crumbles.

Once the crumbles are completely cooled down, add the frosting. Stir it around until it’s evenly mixed and you have one big, beautiful mixture of crumble and frosting.

Take a small amount of the mixture and roll it in your hands until you have an evenly-rolled ball. I personally did mine slightly smaller than a golf ball. You don’t want to go too big, because otherwise it’ll be too heavy for the stick. So think three-bite sized. I know that isn’t very specific, but I’m not sure how else to describe it.  I finished mine in 3-4 bites and some of them could have standed to be smaller. Many people probably wouldn’t care. Ah well. Place the rolled cake ball onto the waxed paper sheet.

Continue rolling the cake balls until you have no remaining mixture, placing each on the waxed paper. Pop them into the freezer for fifteen-twenty minutes, or into the fridge for a few hours. Being impatient, I choose the freezer route. 

You don’t want your balls to be frozen, but you do want them very, very firm.

While the balls are firming up (hardy har har), make the candy coating.

Candy coating recipe:

 4 oz. true white chocolate, finely chopped

1 16oz. package CandiQuik or other candy melt, or a 16oz. bag of white confection morsels

1 teaspoon lemon oil

Directions:

In a double boiler, melt the Candiquik or candy melts along with the finely chopped white chocolate until very smooth and a bit runny. Be careful not to let the candy mixture get too hot as it will become hard to dip the cake pops in.

Have on hand your lollipop sticks, and a stand for your pops. This doesn't have to be anything fancy. I personally have a cake pop stand that holds 12, so then I had to improvise and find some styrofoam. The styrofoam worked quite beautifully.

Prepare your sprinkles, sanding sugar, whatnot by pouring it into a bowl. Have a party, it’s your cake pops. Go nuts. Or just leave the unaltered white color from the candy coating. You can also dye them with candy coloring if you like. I personally choose to leave the candy coating white and dip them in various sprinkles. As tomorrow is the LSU vs. Alabama game, I decided to go purple and old gold.

(The sanding sugar was an interesting story….I ran out of gold pretty quickly, so I went to purple. Then I started to run out of purple. So I dug around and managed to scrounge up one of those Easter variety sprinkle-whatnot containers. It happily had some purple and some sunflower yellow sprinkles in it. I got kind of bored halfway thru dipping so I threw in some sugar confetti, too. You can, of course, be more disciplined in your decorating that I am. )

(A pink batch is coming next. Just watch. Hey, strawberry season is about to start……….the first clamshells are appearing in the grocery stores as we speak. I had a delicious batch from Amite just earlier today. Strawberry cake pops…….yes……………..yes, indeed. ANYWAY back to the lemon ones…..)

yay!

Once your cake balls are done firming, it’s time to do the “pop” part of “cake pops.” Take your lollipop sticks, dip them in the melted candy, and stick it about halfway thru each ball. This helped SO MUCH in getting the sticks to stay attached!!!

Leave out about twelve of your cake balls. I personally had 36. Depending on your size, you may have a bit more or less than this. I wouldn't advise having any less though. Put the rest back in the fridge until you’re down with the current 12 you’re on. (I’d continue this process until you become REALLY REALLY REALLY efficient at quickly cake pop dipping.)

The next part was pretty dang fun, once you get the hang of it. 

Dip the cake pop into the melted candies, swirling it around and tapping the stick with your finger to remove any extra coating. Once it’s not dripping, has begun to set a little, and is relatively smooth and pretty, but still slightly tacky and wet, dip it into the sanding sugars/sprinkles. Tap off any extra sugar, and stick the cake pop into your stand.

Stir the candy coating around to make sure it’s still evenly melted. Even in the double boiler, sometimes the bottom will get too hot and it will begin to get too sticky. The addition of actual white chocolate into this doesn’t help, and it requires a bit more hawking over than just using the candy melts.

Repeat with the remaining eleven pops. 

Remove another twelve from the fridge, and go at it again until all of your cake pops are coated, tasty, pretty, and delicious.

You can tell that I am completely undisciplined in cake pop decorating.

They turned out pretty and smooth. By the end I just kind of dumped the purple and gold together. Aaaand I'm pretty sure I'd run out of sugar by that last one. Ah well. It tasted good. Nature's Seasonings not included in the recipe.

Once the pops are on the stand, allow the candy to set and harden. I stuck mine in the fridge for a little while to exacerbate this process. I was bringing them to Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue's Care Day, so once they hardened, I placed them in this nifty Rubbermaid. They held up quite nicely in the transport.

Enjoy your cake pop. Try not to eat a dozen at a time.

These little suckers are addictive.

Cream-Style Navy Beans

One of my favorite foods ever is New Orleans cream-style navy beans. Cream-style beans are essentially cooked so long they almost form this wonderful beany paste. They are typically served over rice and have a...well...creamy texture. This is my favorite way to prepare them. White rice is more traditional, but it's actually pretty good over brown rice if you prefer to be healthier.

This version is vegetarian. Hambone, sliced sausage, or cubed diced ham all add wonderful seasoning. (Obviously, you don't eat the ham bone.)

I don't soak my beans...a lot of people do, but I don't. You can, of course, add the step of soaking by covering the beans with water overnight.

Salt shouldn't be added until the end of the cooking time, because it will cause the hulls of the beans to become tough. I add a little while I'm cooking the onions, but other than that I don't add until the end. We want creamy, smooth, tasty, deliciously awesome beans!

I typically use my 5-quart crockpot for this recipe. It comes out absolutely fantastic. It can also be cooked on the stove top.



Cream-style Navy Beans and Rice 

One pound navy beans
6 cups of water
1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 medium onion,diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
 1 stalk of celery, washed, ends chopped off, diced
3-4 heads of garlic, smashed and chopped

3-4 green onions (about 1/2 cup), chopped and set aside
Coarse salt
1 pinch red pepper flakes
Black pepper, freshly ground

White or brown rice, optional, as much to your liking

Directions:
In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the onion with a small pinch of salt and saute until the onions are soft and beginning to brown. Add the bell pepper and celery and saute until softened (it's okay if they brown a little, just make sure it doesn't burn.)

Add the garlic. Be careful to make sure it doesn't burn! Move them around in the pan as it cooks. After about 30-45 seconds, the garlic should begin to smell fragrant. Remove from the heat and add to a large food processor. Grind the vegetables until they are uniform and mostly smooth- they won't smooth out completely, but will mostly become a paste.

Wash the beans. Add to the slow-cooker. Add the vegetable paste, then add 6 cups of water. Put in a pinch of red pepper flakes and black pepper.

Set the slow-cooker on High and allow to cook for 4-5 hours.

At this point, the beans should be nearly "creamy". You will be able to see the shape of most of the beans, but they won't be distinct and separate. This is perfect. This is exactly what you want! Heh. The texture should be thick, but not dry or gritty.

If after 4-5 hours there is too much moisture, or the beans are too watery, or you're just in a hurry, use an immersion blender to blend up some of the beans. You don't want a complete paste, you just want a..semi-paste, for lack of a better description.

Add salt to taste. Stir the salt in, then add 1/2 cup green onions. Or more if you'd like. I personally am pretty obsessed with green onions, and have no problem adding 1 full cup. I am also not object to using the white as well as the green parts!

Spoon the beans over rice or just into a bowl. Eat and enjoy!

One of these days, I promise I will have pictures with my blog posts, once I figure out how all this works! Yay!