Sweet & Sparkling Specialty Sugars for tea and coffee and sprinkling

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, cooking, crafts, DIY, food, recipe, sparkling, tea time, tutorial, Uncategorized

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allsparkledup, crafts, DIY, food

So happy she loved the gift I made for her! Specialty Sugars for her tea and coffee and sprinkling on toast, cereal or anything else that needs a little sweet sparkle.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.

I bought the decorative knobs and glass jars at Hobby Lobby. It was easy drilling a hole in the corks, using a hack saw to shorten the knob bolt and gluing them together with a few beads.

~ Lavender Sugar ~
I ground up culinary lavender with a mortar and pestle, then put the lavender and sugar in a food processor. The lavender sugar was then layered with crystal sugar in the jar.

2-specialty-sugars-spice-sugar-and-lavender-sugar

~ Lemon Orange Sugar ~
Lemon and Orange zest were placed in a food processor with sugar and ground medium fine. I’ve been making this mixture for years for use in cheesecake because it makes a very fine textured cheesecake. To fill the jar, I spooned in a layer of Lemon Orange Sugar then used tongs to place white sugar cubes against the side of the jar. Then I spooned in more sugar and repeated the layers. Next time I’ll add more orange zest for a darker orange colored sugar.

~ Vanilla Bean Sugar ~
I scraped the seeds from two vanilla beans and ground the seeds with sugar in a food processor. I used one half of each vanilla bean, split lengthwise, to place in the jar. I spooned in about 1″ of Vanilla Sugar in the bottom of the jar. Then I used tongs and a wood skewer to position each vanilla bean against the side of the jar before adding the rest of the Vanilla Sugar.

~ Pumpkin Spice Sugar ~
This recipe is something one of my sons and I made up, based on the spice ratio I use in my Pumpkin Pies. We keep this sugar blend on hand to make Pumpkin Spice Lattes, which everyone knows don’t have any pumpkin in them anyway. haha. Still, the flavor is very close to my pumpkin pies, sans pumpkin. To fill this jar, I used a small spoon and a tiny funnel I made from two straws. I can’t explain how I did the design but if you look up “sand art in a bottle” on youtube, you’ll get the idea. The white layer is Vanilla Bean Sugar. The dark brown “spots” in the white layer are pieces of cinnamon stick. I wanted to position the cinnamon stick pieces to look like hearts but the white sugar kept filling in the spaces so it didn’t work out.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” it is said. So true. I couldn’t access my precut wood pieces or run a saw so I ended up using the only wood on hand, a 30 year old piece of Sassafrass root from my parents property. It’s been in my tea collection for decades and still has a beautiful scent. I used a small craft saw to cut thin slices of the wood to make the tags. I wrote on them with permanent marker. Now I wonder if I had wood-burned the words in… could the slice of sassafrass be steeped in boiling water to flavor tea? What fun that would be! I’ll have to try it out.

For each of the flavored sugars, I used one cup of granulated sugar plus the flavoring agent. That was plenty to fill the jar, with a little left over.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! We sure had a jolly time.

Croque Monsieur

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

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food, recipe, sandwich

It’s the most luscious Ham & Cheese sandwich ever! Definitely our favorite. The guys loved them for lunch.
Don’t these ingredients look yummy?

Ingredients for Croque Monsieur. Sliced homemade bread, sliced ham, gruyere cheese, Herbs de Provence, mustard bechemel.

Ingredients for Croque Monsieur. Sliced homemade bread, sliced ham, gruyere cheese, Herbs de Provence, mustard béchemel.

I followed Bon Appetit’s recipe for Croque Monsieur. So delicious!
I baked a loaf of bread the day before but the guys cut into it so I had to make the Croque Monsieur slices a little thinner. The mustard béchemel turned out perfect. The only mustard I had on hand had horseradish in it but that was great with the ham and gruyere. The herbs were from Penzey’s, Herb de Provence.
Four slices of bread were spread with the prepared béchemel.

Note: Tear two round ham slices in half to fit a square piece of bread.

Half of the cheese sprinkled over the ham.

The remaining four slices of bread had more mustard béchemel spread on and placed on the sandwiches.

The remaining four slices of bread were spread with more mustard béchemel and placed on the sandwiches.

The remaining cheese was scattered on top of the sandwiches.

Herbes de Provence sprinkled over tops of the sandwiches.

Baked for about 18 minutes at 425 F.

Croque Monsieur

The smell coming from the oven was sooo good… The cheese! The toasty bread! The herbes!

Oh I wish you could taste this Croque Monsieur hot from the oven!

The middle was all melty and soft and the bottom crusts with dripping cheese had a great crunch. Oh so delicous!
Please comment if you’ve ever had a Croque Monsieur sandwich. Did you like it? This will be our go-to sandwich when we have tomato or bean soup this winter.

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In Lieu of Luke’s Diner – Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffins

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, family, food, recipe, tea time

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baking, food, Gilmore Girls, Luke's Diner, muffins, recipe

The plan was to get a free cup of hot coffee from “Luke’s Diner” in town. Commemorating the 16th anniversary of Gilmore Girls, and to celebrate the upcoming debut of a Gilmore Girls mini series, Netflix sponsored pop-up “Luke’s Diner” in coffee shops all over the country. Oh my goodness, I love that show!

I had every intention of going and really looked forward to it. In fact, I even walked toward the line and snapped a picture. What a special event in town!

“Luke’s Diner” pop-up at one of the local coffee shops

But then I started to miss my own “Rory” so much that I had to leave. If I had stayed, I feared I would have started to cry and end up blubbering something like “Will you please be my daughter? I miss my daughter! Anyone in this line, can I please be your Lorelai because my daughter lives halfway to China and I’m missing her so much and we watched Gilmore Girls together when she was going to college and HOW can I possibly get a cup of coffee that we would have shared but can’t because she’s halfway to China??” If I had stayed, I totally would have done that. 0_0

So I left without coffee, immediately went home and did a Sookie thing – I whipped up some Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffins and cried the entire time. I sure did.

Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffin

I made up this recipe years ago, just because I needed a batter that fit in the big, new muffin tins. I still use my favorite batter-scooping spoon, even though the handle is broken.

Scooping the muffin batter with the broken spoon, just because it’s the perfect size and shape for scooping.

Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffins

Sift together in a large bowl:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom

Mix together in another bowl:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup oil
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp grated orange rind

Mix together in another bowl:
3/4 cup raisins (I like golden best but any raisin will do)
3/4 cup candied ginger cut up into little pieces (I never buy the precut ginger because it has too much sugar sprinkled on it. All that extra sugar changes the texture of the recipe. It’s better to buy candied, sliced ginger and cut it up yourself with scissors.)

Dump the egg mixture into the flour mixture and quickly stir with a whisk or wooden spoon about 5 or 6 strokes. Mixture will be lumpy and NOT mixed together.

Dump in the raisins and ginger.

Stir quickly and thoroughly but briefly using a wood spoon or whisk. Mixture will be lumpy. Make sure you scrape the dry ingredients off the bottom of the bowl while mixing. If the batter gets rubbery and stretchy, you mixed it too long and the muffins might be tough. Anyway, drop spoonfuls of batter into greased, large muffin tins.

Sprinkle tops with coarse sugar crystals.

BAKE at 400F for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12 large muffins.

Spicy bits of crystalized ginger and raisins stud this ginger & cardamom muffin.

After I had two cups of good strong coffee and a muffin, I felt better. But since I miss my daughter so much, I’m declaring it Official Wallowing Day. Truly. At least once a year I just need a good wallow.

I miss you and love you, Heather. <3
And Texas just seems like half-way to China. ;)

Figs and Barquettes part 1

03 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, nature

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figs, food, goat cheese, harvest

It started with the figs last week. I’ve heard fresh figs are very hard to find in the market and very expensive. Now that we have two fig trees, I can see why. Ripe figs are quite perishable, being in perfect form for just a day after picking. They can be kept in the fridge a week but do get softer. Like bananas, figs can be eaten when super ripe but they turn winey.

Every year I tend to give away our little fig harvest.

The entire first harvest of figs.

I love sharing and I’m just in the right place at the right time and there are people to give figs to. But this year, there was no one. So to do the figs justice, I determined to celebrate each and every glorious one. Such richness, oh my. Figs are liquid gold, honey that grows on a tree, a king’s dessert!

The fig trees nearly died two years ago from the cold winter. I’m so thankful we have figs again on one of the trees.

We rarely get a second harvest of figs, which usually freezes before it has time to ripen.

We were out of town so I missed the peak ripeness of some of them and several had already dropped. I picked all the ripe figs from the tree.

Look at this basket of amazingness! I wish they weren’t so perishable.

Ripe figs in a basket.

Like honeycomb dripping with honey, the plump figs ooze with sweetness.

A month ago I found a new favorite goat cheese, Julianna from Capriole.

Julianna Goat Cheese from Capriole

My entire breakfast that day centered around the first ripe fig with Julianna cheese. (posted on Instagram)

Ripe fig with goat cheese, plum, omelet, biscuit and honey

But still, there truly is nothing finer than just one perfect fig.

Figs, 2015

If you only have one fig, enjoy it slowly, plain, with nothing else at all.

One Perfect Fig

But if you have more figs, then it’s fun to go further. Which started my search for the perfect compliment, a flaky barquette to cradle a fig and other flavors.

…to be continued…

It’s a BFN Day! Yay!

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, community, food

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baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, bread, community, food, Sourdough Grain Bread

You can read more about Baking for Neighbors Day on this post. Today was BFN for the 4th neighbor and I sure enjoyed it!

It has been a long time since I baked for neighbors. I got a bit derailed when we got an anonymous note in the mailbox over a year ago. An anonymous neighbor put a pretty blue envelope in our mailbox. Inside was a cute card with dogs on the front. And inside the card was written “Keep your #$%&* dog out of our yard. We’re tired of it dragging your recycled beer bottles into our yard too. You’ll be glad to know that we’re moving because of you. #*#%@ “… etc.

If that neighbor knew us, they would have known that we’ve never owned a dog. They would know that we don’t drink and we do our own recycling so there are no bins of bottles. If our neighbor knew us, they would have known that I broke my back and was doing a great job of recovering. And they would have known how much I love to bake.

So instead of being discouraged and scared of meeting that anonymous neighbor that hates us, I decided to keep going with Baking for Neighbors. Today I handed the fourth neighbor a loaf of steaming hot, fresh from the oven, Sourdough Grain Bread.

Sourdough Grain Bread

When I handed her the foil-wrapped bundle, she was surprised and delighted. That made me so happy! I guess she’s not the neighbor who put that note in our mailbox.

All wrapped in napkins and foil, tied with string – a big loaf of Sourdough Grain Bread fresh from the oven for neighbor 4.

I’m all encouraged now to keep going with BFN Day! Four neighbors down, 67 to go. ::big smile::

Meringue Breakfast Buns again

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

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baking, breakfast, brunch, eggs, food, meringue, Meringue Breakfast Buns, recipe

While it was freezing outside, this was going on in my oven this morning.

Savory Meringue Breakfast Buns in the oven

I posted about this before and you can find the recipe on my blog here.
They were soooo delicious. Oh the crunch! Oh the creamy! Something magical happens when you bake cheese on top of meringue. Please try it!

Meringue Breakfast Buns, served with banana drizzled with Tomato Marmalade.

More Christmas

26 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, Christmas, family, food, sparkling, Uncategorized

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baking, candy, Christmas, Christmas tree, cookies

I will be away for a bit but want to leave you with a couple photos. I’ll post more when I return.

Making gingerbread.

Gingerbread snowmen with wood pick arms and raisin buttons.

Decorating gingerbread.

The fun part of making cookies.

Lots of sprinkles!

Italian Sienese Nougat Candy

Wrapping each little square of Sienese Nougat Candy in cellophane. Washi tape worked great.

Springerli. The rolling pin and cookie mold are from House on the Hill http://houseonthehill.net/index.php?p=home

The first cookie tray for the company office.

My mom made the miniature tree under the cloche. I have several small forests of trees; this one is on top of the tall dining room book shelf.

We never see our tree lit until Christmas Eve. Every light in the house is turned off and the house is very dark. The light sets are turned on one by one according to the scripture. Here is the very first set, lighting the star at the top of the tree over the manger scene down below.

With a completely fused spine, I’m unable to get down to floor level to look through my camera lens so focus is hit or miss. But I love this photo and I can identify with a clueless sheep. Yet my Lord still watches over me tenderly.

The tree completely lit about 40 minutes later, Christmas Eve.

The tree completely lit later Christmas Eve. We didn’t have time to put the ornaments on so there are very few. But the lights make the tree lovely!

Dessert Tea

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, baking, birthday, family, food, party, projects, tea time

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All Sparkled Up, baking, dessert, dessert table, food, party, Rosanna, tablescape, tea time

The timing was right… It was Rosanna’s 8th Annual Tablescape Contest, my daughter-in-law’s birthday, and I was finally healed enough to tackle an ambitious baking event. What better way to celebrate all three than with a Dessert Tea!

Dessert Tea table setting

Here is the table before I started adding all the desserts. I made the tablecloth from an old bedspread with fringed edge. (You can see scraps from that old tattered bedspread in the photos of Tea by the Sea. Crafters don’t waste any scrap. Ha!)

I adore Rosanna’s style and was hoping to enter her 2013 tablescape contest last summer. But we didn’t get the remodel done in time and I wasn’t very mobile back then. The china cabinet was emptied so we could move it around and all the china was stacked on two tables in the living room. That’s when I got the idea for a blue and white and yellow theme for a table.

This year, I thought about the Dessert Table theme for weeks. Each time I got an idea, I added it to my notes.

Four elegant mugs on a dessert pedestal hold the floral centerpiece.

After I decided on the serving dishes, I wrote a list of tasks, desserts and a tentative baking schedule.

There were two main focal points for the table, Rosanna’s elegant Luxe Moderne mugs for the centerpiece, and her La Mode fashion plates.
I used four of Rosanna’s mugs on a vintage dessert pedestal to make the centerpiece. I was so excited about this design. It has a lot of potential and I plan on using four mugs as a centerpiece base for other tablescapes.

Sugar cookies were painted following Rosanna’s designs on her mugs. I wrote about the cookies here. It was challenging to paint the designs! I have new respect for Rosanna’s design skill.

The fashion plates are so pretty!

These are not dresses, they are napkins! Small squares of fabric folded are diagonally and draped over a miniature hanger. A bit of ribbon and trim… and you have sweet petite dresses!

This server was made to accommodate round plates. But rectangle platters made for more interest.

This tiered server used to be bright red, yellow and blue but I painted it all white with acrylic paint. Instead of using round plates on the server, I used two rectangle trays on the bottom. It looked great!

Dessert Tea – Layered Desserts with Vanilla Bean Cake, Raspberry Mousse and Orange Gelatin with Raspberry and Mandarin Orange Slice.

To continue the fashion theme, I cut 6″ to 8″ squares of fabric for petite tea napkins and fringed the edges. Each napkin was folded and draped over hangers to look like dresses. Most were folded diagonally. Each was tied at the “waist” with ribbon, a little flower tucked in the waist and a small piece of trim was draped over the top to look like a collar.

I made the miniature hangers from pieces of coat hanger cut with wire cutters. One coat hanger made three miniature hangers. The metal cake stand was perfect from which to hang the napkin dresses.

The tea service was on the back of the table, behind the desserts. I wrote how I made the Sugar Bonnets here.

On the tiered server, top to bottom: Spritz, squares of Fudge and Shortbread, Butter Cookie Dresses.

I experimented with a new baking pan to make the Layered Desserts. They were delicious and so pretty! I will post the recipe some time.

The Layered Desserts looked perfect on the long rectangular tray.

I also made a Lemon Orange Cheesecake topped with Pineapple and a Marmalade Glaze. So delicious!

Dessert Tea – I didn’t have time to make round pastry shells. It was quick and easy to cut squares with a pizza cutter and place the pie pastry in the tart pan.

Dessert Tea – a table set with a delicious assortment of desserts: Layered Desserts, White Chocolate Praline Cake, Pineapple Marmalade Cheesecake, Cherry Tarts, Spritz Cookies, Fudge, Scottish Shortbread, Butter Dress Cookies, Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Macadamia Frosting, Honeydew Melon Balls with Blueberries and a bowl of Cherries.

20 Fabric napkin folded to look like a dress on a hanger

Dessert Tea – napkins folded diagonally and hung on a miniature hanger, tied with ribbon and draped with lace.

Two bowls held Honeydew Melon balls and Blueberries and Cherries, garnished with fresh mint.

Cherry Tarts were on a glass dish.

I only had four covered glass dishes but that was enough to place four Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel and Macadamia Frosting.

The birthday cake was a White Chocolate Praline Cake with homemade Strawberry Raspberry Jam topping.

All together, the table looked lovely and the event was a huge success!

I submitted my photos and won an honorable mention in the tablescape contest… happy face! =)
My daughter-in-law was thrilled with her birthday, the girls loved the dress napkins and all our guests enjoyed the delicious desserts.
And it was the perfect event to celebrate the return of my health and stamina after such a long recovery. A sweet day indeed!

Meringue Breakfast Buns

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

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baking, breakfast, eggs, food, meringue, Meringue Breakfast Buns, recipe

So much has happened since I last posted. I’m sorry for the long delay. Please accept my apologies. Some bloggers have trouble coming up with topics to write about but my problem is I’ve got too much.

One thing I’ve been busy with is cooking and baking. I didn’t cook or bake much for almost three years so I’m thrilled to be back in the kitchen again!

My mom was visiting and I didn’t have anything special for breakfast except for day old buns and eggs. So I whipped up these Meringue Breakfast Buns. They were delicious and perfect for guests.

Meringue Breakfast Buns – an egg yolk in a bun topped with cheesy meringue, served with Balsamic Cucumber Raspberry relish and sour cream.

You can make any quantity you want, but I like to make a dozen at a time and refrigerate the leftovers to eat cold for lunch the next day. The cheese won’t be crisp anymore but they are still delicious. They’re great for breakfast on the run too.

MERINGUE BREAKFAST BUNS

Ingredients:

~ 12 small rolls, about the size of a small muffin or cupcake. This is a good time to use day-old rolls too.
~ 12 egg yolks
~ 3 or 4 egg whites (reserve the remaining egg whites for some other recipe)
~ 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
~ Olive oil (optional)
~ About 1 cup grated cheese, any kind
~ Salt and pepper
~ Dried or fresh herbs of your choice
~ Herb dipping oil (optional)

Start by preparing the rolls. This can be done the night before if you want to save time in the morning. Use a small paring knife to cut a piece out of the bottom of the rolls or buns. The portion I cut out looks like a shallow little cone. You don’t need to cut much out, just enough for an egg yolk with a little cheese. Place the rolls cut side up in a muffin tin. Brush the inside with olive oil if you want. I’ve used olive oil or softened butter or nothing and they’re all good.

Slip one egg yolk in each bun.

Sprinkle the egg yolk with a little grated cheese and herbs of your choice.

To make a dozen Meringue Breakfast Buns, you’ll need a dozen egg yolks but only 3 or 4 egg whites. [Note: Save the rest of the egg whites for another recipe or cook them in a skillet to make Roulades, shown further down this post.]
Beat 3 or 4 egg whites with 1/8 tsp cream of tartar until fluffy. The meringue won’t look the same or peak the same as a dessert meringue that has added sugar. Don’t worry, it will still bake nicely on top of the buns.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the meringues.

Sprinkle a little grated cheese on top of each egg yolk. Add a little sprinkle of herbs over each yolk.

Use a spoon to spread meringue over each egg yolk. Cover the top completely.

Sprinkle more cheese and salt and pepper over the top of each meringue.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the meringues.

Here you can see I left some meringues without cheese.

Cheddar cheese is great but I’m partial to asiago.

Grated asiago and dried herbs sprinkled over the egg yolk in the bun.

Look at all that fluffy meringue!

Brush the leftover cutouts from the rolls with herb dipping oil and place them on a cookie sheet to bake at the same time as the Meringue Buns.

The little cutouts from the rolls are brushed with herb dipping oil and baked in on a separate pan.

When picking buns to use, make sure they are small enough to be placed in the muffin tin. For this batch, the buns were bigger so they touched and barely fit in the pan.

If the buns are a tight squeeze, try not to let the meringues touch when you spread the tops.

Try not to let the meringues touch so they can be separated easy after baking.

Both Meringue topped buns and the small roll cutouts are baked at the same time at 375 degrees. The cutouts will be done after about 10 minutes but the buns stay in longer. (In this photo, I baked the cutouts and slices of leftover buns to make croutons for a future use.)
All ovens are different. In my oven, a LIQUID center egg yolk takes 15 minutes, a SOFT BOILED egg yolk takes 16 minutes, and a HARD BOILED egg yolk takes 17 minutes. If you’re going to eat these cold the next day, bake 16 or 17 minutes.

Bake brushed roll pieces for 10 minutes at 375. Bake Meringue Buns for 15 minutes for a liquid center yolk, 16 minutes for a soft-boiled yolk and 17 minutes for a hard-boiled yolk.

The cheesy topping on these is amazing! It forms a delicious crispy shell on top of the meringue!

Fun to eat and Yummy!

Egg White Roulade
I spread the leftover, fluffy beaten egg whites in a medium hot skillet, lightly greased with olive oil, about 1″ thick and sprinkled herbs and pepper over the surface. When the bottom was golden, I flipped the egg white over till it was golden brown. The hot baked egg white was sprinkled with cheese and rolled up.

The cooked egg white rolled up.

Meringue Breakfast Buns, with crisp cheese-topped meringue and hot, liquid egg yolk inside.

To make the Cucumber Raspberry Relish, I simply diced a cucumber with raspberries and tossed the mixture with balsamic vinegar, boiled apple cider and a little salt and pepper. It was so good with the eggs!

Meringue Breakfast Buns, hot from the oven, served with Cucumber Raspberry Relish and Sour Cream.

On my worktable – Dress Cookies

25 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, baking, food, On my Worktable

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cookie, cookies, dessert, flow icing, food, painted cookies

Today I have cookies on my worktable. This is the second time I’ve topped a cookie with flow icing. It’s not too hard if you get the Royal Icing consistency right. Fortunately, we were glad some cookies didn’t turn out so we could eat them. This is the first time painting on a cookie. Easier than I thought and quite fun.
In the little dish – kirsch mixed with edible gold dust. In the shot glass – more kirsch that needed stirring into the mixture as it evaporated.