Average Jane

Average Jane Tries A Lifehack

A week or so ago, A Librarian shared a Lifehacker post on Google Reader that claimed you could make cookies in 90 seconds with your waffle iron.

She came over last night after dinner and once we'd had some wine and watched "Iron Man," it seemed like a logical next step to take some of the cookie dough I had in my freezer and see what would happen if we tried to cook it in my waffle maker.

As you can see, they turned out pretty well:

I have to disagree with the estimate of 90 seconds. They really took a good four or five minutes to be done enough to hold together, although that could have something to do with the fact that my waffle iron is 15 years old. The cookie texture was nice and soft with just a hint of crispiness on the edges.

I'm sure it was psychological, but both of us thought they tasted like a weird hybrid of waffle and cookie. I used white chocolate macadamia nut dough, but there was a distinct waffle-y flavor that almost overrode the cookie flavors. Still tasty, though.

We made a total of four and I probably could have eaten more, but decided that two was plenty.

So if you have a tub of cookie dough from some kid's fundraiser that's languishing in your freezer, this is something fun you can do the next time you're in the mood for a cookie or two. If you decide to try it, let me know how it worked out for you.

Why Average Jane Is Not A Professional Baker

Last night my friend LuAnn came over so I could help her make a successful Pumpkin Cake Roll to take to her family Thanksgiving dinner. She'd made one before, but ended up turning it into a layer cake when it cracked to pieces. Everyone loved it because it was still delicious, but she was hesitant to try it again.

Here's the thing: this cake always cracks, at least for me.The key is to minimize the cracking and try to confine it to the part that's rolled inside and less visible.

Here is where I wish I'd taken a bunch of photos, but I'll try to draw you some word pictures. (That sentence is way too "Simple Jack" for my liking, but it's early in the morning and I'm tired, so I'm leaving it.)

LuAnn had carefully measured all of the cake ingredients and arrived ready to just mix everything together. It wasn't long before we had spicy, pumpkin-y cake batter.

The cake went into the oven and it smelled wonderful. I'd greased and floured the pan within an inch of its life and when the 15 minutes were up, I went to turn it onto the powdered sugar-covered towel.

The cake stuck to the pan. The middle of the cake separated from the edges and crashed into an untidy pile of cake pieces. Crap.

I piled the failed cake into a bowl, figuring it would make an excellent trifle with cream cheese pudding, whipped cream and some spiced rum.

Fortunately I had all the ingredients we needed to make another cake. This time I extra, extra greased and floured the pan. When the cake was finished baking, I took a thin spatula and carefully loosened the edges all the way around. You know, the way I should have the first time around.

The cake came out perfectly. I rolled it in the new powdered sugar-covered towel and we let it cool while we made the filling and further killed time watching "Heroes."

Unrolling time came and - look at my surprise face! - the cake cracked a bit. LuAnn spread the cream cheese filling and I stepped in to roll it back up. It wasn't too bad. There was only one exterior crack and it was low enough that it wasn't terribly obvious. I was happy to consider it a success.

I decided not to make one for myself right now because we're going to have pumpkin pie with Thanksgiving dinner and that's plenty for four people. However, I am looking forward to making trifle with the disaster cake...

Another Dessert Recipe from Average Jane

While we're on the subject of torte recipes, here's another one we used to have all the time when I was growing up. This one actually is a torte, in that there's a baked, cake-like component. It's really quite good.

Walnut Torte

6 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
Red currant jelly
1 pint Cool Whip or whipped cream

Beat egg whites until stiff and gradually add sugar and baking powder. When mixture looks like meringue, fold in graham cracker crumbs and walnuts. Grease pie pan and bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes. The top will be somewhat cracked. Cool and spread with a layer of currant jelly, then top with Cool Whip or whipped cream.

* * *

When I was a kid, we had red currant jelly all the time and there was even a Smucker's variety. These days it's a little harder to come by, but I've noticed that Target carries it. I like it because it's more tart and tangy than a lot of other jellies. It makes a great PB&J, too.

Thanksgiving Cooking Help from Average Jane

A few years ago, I gathered all of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes into a single PDF and shared it with my readers. This year I have updated the booklet, fixed the most egregious typos, changed the format, and added an introduction. If you could use a basic Thanksgiving dinner how-to with a few little extras, please feel free to download it and use whatever recipes would be handiest for you.

Here's the download link: Average Jane's Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

The booklet contains scratch recipes for two appetizers, the turkey and dressing, green bean casserole (fancy or standard), cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cake roll with cream cheese filling. Many of these recipes are already on the blog, but I've filled in the gaps with other information you'll need to make a complete dinner.

I'm sharing the booklet under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license, which means you are free to share it as long as you attribute it to me (I'd prefer a link back) and do not sell or alter it in any way.

I'll be making Thanksgiving dinner at my house this year and I'll probably make pretty much all of these recipes. I've already purchased the turkey and I'm looking forward to getting together with one of my friends tomorrow night to make pumpkin cake rolls.

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

You can still enter to win a SnapGifts card! Contest closes at midnight on Wednesday, November 25th.

Average Jane Shares A Retro Recipe

In the early 1990s, my grandmother published a cookbook of recipes spanning five generations of our family. They range from rabbit stew with dandelion root from my pioneer great-great-grandmother, to a handwritten recipe for pancakes from my then-six-year-old third cousin (who is now a chef).

There's one chapter for each generation, and each chapter is divided into sections by cook. In my grandmother's own section there's a recipe that I remember having only one time, but it made a big impression on me because it had booze in it! and I got to have a piece even though I was just a kid. I loved the cake itself, but the glaze (which my grandmother wisely served on the side), seemed horrifyingly strong and alien to me when I tried a little dab of it.

I keep telling myself I'm going to buy a bottle of Galliano liqueur specifically so I can make this cake. Perhaps posting this will give me the incentive to actually do so.

Here's my grandmother's introduction to the recipe in the book. Bob was my grandfather:

I was introduced to the Harvey Wallbanger cocktail in Savannah, Georgia, when Bob and I were going through on vacation and stopped to see Tom Cheeley and his wife. The guys had worked together for Amoco Oil Co. I liked the cocktail, and when Tom's wife told me that there was a Harvey Wallbanger cake, I asked for the recipe. At the time, I was food editor for The [Independence, MO] Examiner, and thought I had a minor scoop. Imagine my chagrin when I saw the same recipe in the Kansas City Star.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Harvey Wallbanger Cake

1 two-layer orange cake mix
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. Galliano liqueur
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. vodka
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. orange juice

Combine cake and pudding mixes; add eggs, oil, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup Galliano and 2 tbsp. vodka. Beat 1-2 minutes until dry ingredients are moistened, then beat on high for 5 minutes. Pour into greased and floured Bundt pan and bake in a 350 degree F oven for 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove to wire rack. Glaze: Combine powdered sugar, 1 tbsp. orange juice, 1 tbsp. Galliano and 1 tsp. vodka. Pour over cake while it is still warm.

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Sounds rather tasty, doesn't it?

This week I'm giving away a copy of my family's Five Generations Cookbook to one lucky blog reader. To enter, just comment on this post before midnight on Sunday, November 8, 2009 and describe or name your favorite alcohol-tinged dessert. If you can include a link to the recipe, so much the better!

Average Jane Talks About Food

One of the oft-heard criticisms of Twitter is that people tweet way too much about what they're having for lunch. As a fan of both Twitter and eating, I fail to see why anyone would consider that a problem.

When I was growing up, I had relatives in South Dakota and we often wrote letters back and forth. My Great-Aunt Edith, who was a wonderful cook, would fill her letters with entire paragraphs about what meals they'd had recently. At the time, we'd joke about all of the food mentions, but I have absolutely no room to talk because I'm now doing the same thing, only electronically.

As the big list of recipes to the right implies, I enjoy cooking and baking. I also like going out to eat. I think food is interesting and I like hearing what my Twitter buddies have to say about where they're going for lunch, what great new recipes they've found, and what kind of candy they're planning on buying for the trick-or-treaters this week.

So if you find that your tweets tend to be about breakfast, lunch, happy hour hors d'oeuvres and dinner, that's just fine with me. Perhaps we'll have a tweetup somewhere delicious someday.

Average Jane Makes Chicken Soup

It's been a long time since I posted a recipe, so I thought I would share my sister's chicken soup recipe that I have shamelessly stolen. In fact, I made it for dinner tonight.

Chicken Alphabet Soup

1 package boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs.)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, pressed

3 ribs of celery, sliced

4-6 carrots, peeled and sliced

Other vegetables as available*

1/2 cup dried alphabet or tiny star noodles

Chicken stock and/or chicken soup base**

Ground black pepper and parsley to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place chicken breasts in a baking pan, cover with foil and bake until cooked through, approximately 30 minutes. In the meantime, prep vegetables and heat oil in a large soup pot. Saute onion, garlic, celery and carrots until onion is translucent. Add chicken stock or water until pot is 3/4 full and bring to a boil. When chicken breasts are ready, remove from pan, chop into 1/4" cubes and add to soup pot along with any juices. If using water, add soup base to taste. If using additional vegetables, add them now. Stir in alphabet noodles and simmer for 20 minutes or until noodles and vegetables are soft. Season with black pepper and parsley before serving.

*Chopped zucchini and yellow squash are good in this, as are sugar snap peas (de-string and slice diagonally in halves) and green beans (cut into 1" pieces).

**I've been using a low carb, organic soup base called Better than Bouillon. It's kind of expensive, but you can get at least two big pots of soup from a jar.

I'm looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Average Jane Does Some Baking

Yesterday morning I decided I wanted some kind of baked breakfast-y goodness to go with my coffee. I went looking for recipes that would accommodate my limited stores. Something with apple would have been great, but I didn't have any apples. What I did have was oatmeal and walnuts, so here's the recipe I created by melding two different oatmeal muffin recipes.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup milk
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper muffin cups. Combine milk and oatmeal in a small bowl; microwave on high for one minute. Beat together egg and oil in a large bowl; stir in oatmeal mixture. In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients, just until combined. Stir in walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 small muffins.

I over-baked my muffins a tad because I was watching TV in the next room instead of keeping an eye on them. They were still good, but I had to cut the bottoms off a few of them. I'll definitely make them again, but the next time I plan to add some chopped apple.