Credo ↔ Oratio

It’s that time of year – friends all around me, both physically and at distance, are dropping like flies with sore throats.  As far as I’m concerned the only real soothing product for a sore throat is “Russian Tea.”  Sure… it’s barely “tea,” and it’s certainly not “Russian,” but I don’t care.  In case you’re feeling a bit under the weather:

Russian Tea

1 jar dry Tang (1# 5 oz size)
1 1/4 c. Instant Tea (cheap)
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 1/2 c. Sugar (can use some Splenda if you want less sugar)
2 pkg. Unsweetened Lemonade (like the cool-aid size packages)
1 1/2 tsp. Cloves (or a bit more..)

Mix well. Add 2 tsp (or more… I add quite a bit more ) of dried powder to a cup of hot water.

Enjoy.

Grace and Peace,

`tim

It’s autumn… that means pumpkins. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in our house who truly loves a good pie crust so pumpkin pies aren’t on the top of the menu. However, pumpkin seems to be one of the the ingredient of choice this year, so there are a variety of wonderful pumpkin recipes out there. Ari, over at Baking and Books posted a delicious looking recipe for Pumpkin Scones with Autumn Spice Glaze. I knew immediately that I wanted to give it a try. This morning was the chance!

They’re the perfect texture (not too dry, like scones sometimes are, heavy enough to be scone-y but light enough to skirt the adjective muffin-like). Next time I’d probably make them a bit thicker, and I over glazed them (according to JJ… although I’ll admit I’m more of a sweet tooth than she is). Great recipe though – and check out her blog, if you like food, you’ll certainly not regret it!

Grace and Peace,
`tim

We’re about half way through a vacation in Chicago – having a great time.

We’ve been to Ikea (an old favorite), Whole Foods Market (our first time), Trader Joe’s (first time… we’re in love…), a Hawaiian restaurant (in honor of Terika!), Wow Bao (yummmmmm!) – just to name a few.

Today I even got to take my first trip to Loopy Yarns. It wasn’t as big as I expected, but I did pick up some great Merino Top:

Anyhow, thought I’d touch in.

And have I told you how much I LOVE mass transit?!

Grace and peace,
`tim

You remember those little “Ho-Hos” (by Hostess) from when you were a child? They were like little chocolate “jelly” rolls with cream filling. Well, at some point (prior to High School, because I used to make this when it was our turn to bring treats to youth group), I ran across this recipe. It’s a 9×13 chocolate cake that reasonably resembles Ho-Hos. My guess is that I originally found it in the “Lester Cookbook” (the best “community” cookbook ever made!)

Now-a-days, I occasionally make it for funerals, which is why I pulled the recipe out this time. It always goes over well and several people asked me for the recipe so I thought I’d just put it up. If you want a printable version, you can download the .pdf here.

Whatever the resemblance, what’s not to like about a cake that has as much sugar in it as flour?! Be a bit careful baking it; if you over bake, the cake gets a bit dry – still tastes good though!

Ho-Ho Cake

Cake

Preheat oven to 325º.
Grease and flour 9×13 pan.
Mix Sugar, Flour, Salt and Cocoa in large pan.
Boil Water, Margarine, Oil for 1 minute.
Add boiled liquids to dry ingredients.
Mix in Eggs, Sour Milk, Baking Soda, Vanilla. Beat Well.
Pour into pan and bake at 350º for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Cool cake before putting on other layers.

White (middle) Layer

Dissolve Sugar in warm Milk, Water and Vanilla; beat with mixer.
Add shortening. Beat 5 minutes.
Add Powdered Sugar. Beat 5 minutes.
Spread over cooled cake. (Important that the cake is cooled or the white layer will melt!)

Chocolate frosting (top layer)

Bring Sugar, Milk & Margarine to boil. Boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and add Chocolate Chips.
Mix well until Chocolate Chips are completely melted and mixture is smooth.
Cool mixture. (Very important or the white layer will melt!)
Drizzle over white topping.

Enjoy!

Grace and Peace,
`tim

EDT: the blog copy was missing flour (the .pdf version was accurate).

Just as promised…
I hope you enjoy it as much as we have! The book is a gem and includes dozens of great recipes (including a to-die-for coffee ice cream!)

Chocolate Sorbet #1 (Dark and Dense)
From The Ultimate Ice Cream Book
by Bruce Weinstein
(Check out his new blog at: realfoodhascurves.com!)
Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

2 cups Water
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

Combine the water and sugar in a heavy saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Whisk in cocoa and bring the mixture to a simmer. Simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat and pour through a fine strainer into a bowl. Chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours. Stir the cool mixture, then freeze in 1 or 2 batches in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

When finished, the sorbet will be soft but ready to eat. For firmer sorbet, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least 2 hours.

Note: I’ve never bothered to strain the sorbet before chilling it and haven’t had any problems with chunks of cocoa. Although I whisk it during the whole boil.

I’ll admit, I’m not exactly a dark-chocolate fan (I’m more of a milk chocolate sort of guy) but trust me, it’s worth a try

Grace and Peace,
`tim

I don’t remember a lot of my mom’s recipes, but there are a few: Chili, Dutch Babies, Koek, Stroopwafels. One of my favorites is Rhubarb Tart. It’s the only rhubarb recipe I remember her making (although I remember eating large portions of it raw dipped in sugar).

I can’t seem to get rhubarb to take to root, but I broke down and bought a bunch the other day. If you have rhubarb available and like it, it’s worth a try!

RHUBARB TART

Cut together:

1 c. Flour
5 Tbs. Powdered Sugar
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup Softened Butter

Press firmly into a 9×9 pan and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Mix together:

2 Eggs
1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Flour
3/4 tsp. Baking Powder
3 c. Chopped Rhubarb

Pour over baked base and bake for another 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve warm or cold; the crust will set up into a shortbread-style bottom as it cools.

Enjoy!

Grace and Peace,
`tim

I probably shouldn’t find this as funny as I do; oh well. Enjoy…

Grace and Peace,
`tim

I haven’t written much around here lately (mostly because I’ve been busy and giving my free time to the Church Herald Blog and my FarmTown plot). Having said that, I ran into a great website today. It’s called Perpetual Kid.

There are hundreds of fun, unique and sometimes crazy products. It’s been all I can do not to whip out my Discover Card and go crazy (which, for the record, I have NOT done!)

Check it out.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

One of the drawbacks of being a pastor is that our family seldom has the opportunity to attend family activities on holidays. So when Sophia was born, we decided to start a tradition where we served some kind of special food on major holidays. For Christmas we serve poffertjes and sometimes saucijzebroodjes. On Easter, we celebrate with hot cross buns. I’ve tried a number of recipes to come up with the “right” one and consistently find them either tasteless or overly dry, so I set out to create my own. Hidden in the recipe is a nod to our Dutch and Swedish heritage (allspice for the former, lingonberries for the a latter). The “crosses” are made out of a lemon and cream cheese mixture which, although not traditional, is a favorite flavor in our household.

Since dried lingonberries are a bit hard to come by, try dried cranberries (but chop them into smaller pieces, North American cranberries are bigger than lingonberries). Of course, you could always replace them with the more traditional currents or raisins.

¾ c. Milk
3 Tbs. Sugar
2 Tbs. Butter
½ tsp. Salt

Cool to luke warm

Add:

1 tsp. Yeast
1 Egg
½ tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp. Allspice
3 c. Flour

Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes)

During the last minute, knead in 2 Tbs Dried Lingonberries (or Cranberries, chopped into smaller pieces)

Let rise overnight in fridge. (You can make the cream cheese mixture in the evening as well – put the ingredients in a bag and let the kids smoosh it around, don’t forget to refrigerate it.)

In the morning (2 hours before breakfast) work out bubbles; shape into 16 buns, and place them ¼” apart on a lightly greased sheet.

Let rise in a warm place (i.e: on top of a preheating oven) until ½ an hour before breakfast.

Cut a “cross” in the top of each bun.

Pipe cross-slices full of cream cheese mixture.

Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes.

Cream Cheese Mixture

4 oz Cream Cheese
¼ c. Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla
1 Egg Yolk
1 tsp Lemon Zest

Happy Easter!

Grace and Peace,
`tim

This is my basic, “use for everything” recipe – communion bread, sandwich bread, cinnamon bread/buns, etc. It’s a very sweet dough so lower the sugar if it’s intended for something a bit more savory.

The recipe is immensely quick – less than two hours from start to finish. There are some drawbacks to this; it’s very sweet and yeasty, but doesn’t have time to develop any of the rich artisan flavors developed by the use of less yeast and more time nor does it have a developed crust or crumb (which is actually less messy than many alternatives if it is to be used for communion). Every sacrifice has it’s payoff; but this one is well worth it for occasional use.

Preheat oven to 350º (do this NOW, don’t wait! This recipe goes FAST.)

Mix:
2 c. warm Water (for a richer dough, use milk; for an even richer dough, add an egg)
2-3 Tbs. Sugar
2-3 Tbs. Oil or melted Butter
1 – 1 ½ tsp. Salt
2 Tbs. Yeast (yes… 2 TBS!)
Add:
5-7 cups Flour or enough to make a medium, kneadable dough.

Knead 8-12 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Let rise 30-40 minutes or until doubled.

Knead 1 minute.

Divide into 2 loaves.

Let rest 1 minute.

Shape into desired loaf type (can be baked on a lightly oiled sheet or in a well-greased loaf pan).

Let rise 20 minutes or until doubled.

Score.

Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until golden brown and tapping the bottom produces a “hollow” sound. Optionally, brush with egg white half way through.

Cool on a wire rack.

Note: Be careful shaping and scoring. This recipe has a LOT of oven spring, any abnormality in shape or cut will be VERY visible on the baked loaf.

Note2: If you have the time, decrease the yeast to 1 Tbs. and lengthen the rising times; it improves the texture.

Enjoy!

Grace and Peace,
`tim