White Sapote

I loooooove White Sapote. The huge, thick, firm, sweet ones taste like how angels sing. If you can find one that's both newly ripe *and* firm at same time, you're in for a culinary ride.

Well, just about every white sapote, no matter the quality, seems to have at least 4 viable seeds. They just LOOK viable. And after eating about ten of them, you've got.....forty good seeds. Aaaaggggghhhh. I hate wasting potential payoff, so it's painful throwing out even the puniest of the seed loot.

Well, over the past month, I've planted about 20 or so. And.......SPROUT!!!!


There's something amazing about the above shot. Something about photgraphic scene compostion. Anyhoo. Not really a photographer. Forgiving the obvious label, here's a close up of the "green thing".



Here are the latest "seed" harvest from the delicious fruit. The "perfect" sapote specimen with the perfect hard, white flesh and creamy taste produced the two "more yellow" seeds closer to the bare paper towal roll. While the perspective wipes out the direct size comparison, I can guarantee you that those two were about 50% bigger and...."viable-er"....than the others.



My first action is to immediately submerse them in tepid water. I will likely do so for at least 4 days. I recommend doing this only if you keep the "seed shell" on the seed, as removing the seed-encasing means you're likely going to over-saturate the embryo, and then encourage rotting. If you remove the "capsule"......carefully.....I recommend soaking it for no longer than 24 hours. Even that long is risky.

Plant Progress Update 6/27

The first image is an orchid. Not obvious, but it's actually VERY large. Hard to tell from the bulbs and leaves alone, but I believe it's an oncidium. Interestingly, Googling "Sharry Baby" comes up with an alllllmost match. Except that the blooms had a bluish flush to them. For some reason I like non-blooming orchids.



Next up is my onion. The tallest spike is yellowing out and nearly scorching, but I've severely underfed it. Come on, it's an onion. Inside! Cut me a little slack!



In case the label in the previous picture wasn't obvious, here's the China Doll again. This time, with the whole plant. Like mini-roses, it seems mass-produce greenhouse put several plants in a single cup with holes in the bottom. The "smaller" sections are actually a bit larger than what the entire plant system used to be. Yep. Four months and it's nearly tripled.



Banana on the left. Croton on the right. The banana was an impulse purchase at a local Publix. It looked so sad :-( Well, now it's doubled in size. The croton is quite new. And it seemed to come with spider mites as an added bonus. And a weird "wrap" bag for its root system. Weird meaning "why is the soil wet after a week of not watering it?".



This fittonia was my first plant for my living situation. As you can see, it's bizarrely leggy. It's probably too bright for it. Meh. Just gotta make sure the humidity doesn't drop too low. And it doesn't mind my intermittent watering!




This incredibly non-descript plant has been identified as possibly been a murraya paniculata - curry leaf plant. Gonna be a while before I see blooms, but it seems happy enough. Except for watering when the soil is dry, I leave it alone.



This greeted me when opening up the second of the two grapefruits from Walmart. You're looking at four sprouting events and one ready seed. From left to right - seed, seed with tiny double-root sprouting, a small seed that sprouted, a large seed that sprouted, and a huge seed the sprouted. In fact, the rightmost one was multi-embryonic. Sadly, the "tiny twin" was faaaarrr too small to be viable and was tossed into the trash.

Bean Salads

As I never want my food to be described as "blasée", I have concocted several different bean salads to whet the gourmet and gourmand's tongue.

Ingredients:
Any canned beans (except for pinto beans - not a good idea- and those that come with any sort of sauce)
tomato (if large tomatos, chop them up until no bigger than those ball-shaped tomatos you find at salad bars)
any spices

Recipe:
1.  Mix available beans

2.  Add tomato (chop if necessary)

3.  Add spices.


My favorite spices:
-Cardamom!
-Oregano
-Rosemary
-Cilantro

Notes: Make sure the cilantro is knockout strong if you put it in. You'd be surprised at how the spices overpower it.

Plant Progress Update 6/26

The first image is of Kiwano/"African Horned Melons". Should you plant Kiwano seeds, I should warn you that 95% of them sprout. Quickly. They will vine around, and I am so far unsure how to support them, but it will likely involve dowels and twist ties.


In the second image, you can see my lychee SPROUT. WOOHOO!%_@()$)_(% OMG. The shiny brown thing is actually a different un-sprouted seed. Not a cockroach. I'm excited.




The next is what laid in store for me inside a grapefruit. Words cannot express the OMG-ness that welled inside of me when open my grapefruit to find THIS:

Mangosteen! Lychee! Plans!

A GardenWeb forum user tipped me off to the arrival of mangosteen at the Atlanta Farmer's Market on Buford Highway.

Mangosteen. And lychee.

You know exactly what I'm gonna do with the seeds!

Anyhoo....today.

- Plant Kiwano Seeds.
- Eat Jackfruit. Soak seeds.
- Back to work in real life :)

Oh, Cilantro.

I have two favorite spices. Rosemary. And cilantro.

I prefer to use the cilanto paste you get in tubes at your grocery store.

Did you know....that several dabs of it goes well in every ramen noodle thing?

(Not recommended for straight up "pasta options" that they now produce" - spice clash)

Back to life...back to reality....

Current and Just-About Seeds

I'm hooked.  I like making things grow, and I'm trying to cut my teeth on the impossible.

I am many things going, and so, in no particular order:

1.  Avocado - I have about eight different avocado pits going.  Toothpicks.  Ramekins.  Water.  Patience.  So far, the only activity is that I needed to clear fungus out of about half of them.  Fuuuun.

2.  Kumquat - fresh seeds from fruit.  Put them in fast draining rich soil. (~8 seeds)

3.  Lime - I have sown a few key lime seeds in the same pots as above.  (~8 seeds)

4.  Sapodilla - Yup.  Bang.  Bam.  Off the wall right away!  There is almost zero information about growing these things from seed online.  Perhaps I will be the one to rectify this (crosses fingers).  Sadly, I don't particularly care for the fruit as much I though I might.  Perhaps it's because they were harvested under-ripe.  Astringent was not an adjective ever used to describe it online!  (~4 seeds)

5.  Cherimoya - I am now certifiable.  I have sown some cherimoya seeds in peat moss (this will prove to be a mistake, oh well).  (~6 seeds)

6.  White sapote - I love this fruit, and the larger the better.  I really really love the "harder" varieties, the ones that spoon out like extremely thick ice cream.  Anyhoo.  Seeds are thick and fat, at about 1 1/2".  (~6 seeds)

7.  Rambutan - I can't get enough of these things.  I've now planted for of them in peat moss (likely a mistake).  After hearing how they need nearly 80% humidity almost constantly, I'm wondering whether failure may actually be an option.....  In the following picture, the rambutan is the read "hairy" one.  For reference, the fruit on the LEFT is a kiwi!  Image is property of fluffbuff and all rights are reserved by them.




8.  Mamey sapote - I got a huge mamey from my local Harry's farmer's market, and enjoy about 2/3 of it so far.  And the seed.  Oh my god.  It started to germinate INSIDE THE FRUIT.  The seed was a freaking MONSTER.  I'm including a picture just to prove it.  I planted it pointed side up with the point about 1/2 inch above the soil surface.  This orientation helps ensure a germination without unnecessary complications.  I'm not sure what the "thing" attached to seed is.   Aaaaand I just realized it reminds me of an ex-vivo femoral artery :X perhaps the image recognition software in my heads needs to learn when to shut off.



9.  Jackfruit.  In case, my mother ever reads this, no you won't ever have to smell it again.  In the mean time, I will be trying to start a jackfruit from seed.

10.  Kiwano - you've seen these orange spiky things in the stores.  Yup.  A while back, I tried one, but wasn't impressed with the taste.  Like a bland passion fruit.  This close cucumber relative (no, it's not even related to the cactus family) will likely be grown outside in the sun.

Future: Dragonfruit.  I must not die before trying this.

Current Plants

As a reference for future posts, I wanted to keep a record of all the plants that I have and have had.  I will make a pre-emptive strike and say I've only managed to "kill" one type of plant.  Ever.  Damn carnation seedlings.  Oh well.  So much for "I can't kill plants if I try".  I'll wait until I'm better able to provide better light and growing conditions.

Indoor and houseplants:

0.  Two 24" fluorescent growlight bars.  One chromish metal wire shelving unit.

1.  Croton - unsure of what Walmart does, but the soil hasn't dried out all week.   Their is a decomposable "bag" the roots are packed in, and it might be what helps retain moisture.

2.  Dwarf Cavendish Banana - saw this at a local Publix and thought, "wow that looks sad".  It is now under the lights.  At first it lost two of its lower leaves, but it seems to enjoy its placid place in my apartment.  It grows slower than it could, but I'm not terribly disappointed.  It's growing that's what counts for now!

3.  Aloe (most likely vera) - Gift from my family.  Smallish.  Got a bacterial infection that I had to slice and dice for to get rid of.  Sad, but I got some free lotion from that....  It seems to be doing okayish, but I want to give it more light.

4.  Fittonia - this was actually my very first plant.  Grows moderately fast in a lowish light.  DRINKS water, I swear!  It's a little leggy, but I love it.

5.  A hypoestes-like redpink plant - just got it.  Doesn't mind me so far.

6.  Doritaenopsis orchid - I got it when it had about four bloom pods.  Three fell off due to blast.  The fourth one BLOOMED OH MY GOD YES.

7.  Onion - found an onion at the grocery store that started to sprout.  Amused and amazed, I took it home.  It's already grown a quarter inch since I put it in soil.  Yes I AM crazy.

8.  China doll - bizarre behavior.  Wilts and then explodes somewhat randomly.  Perhaps I should expect it.  I have repotted it from it's original little Walmart starter cup.  I can see myself repotting it yet again in other six months.

9.  Ivy - for some reason, it barely even grows.  In the past four or so months, it's grown about ..... 10% of its original tiny size.

10.  Peperomia - somewhat slow but remarkably steady growth.  It even bloomed.   Flowers are .... unattractive, but the plant itself is cool.  I've already repotted it.  Twice o_O

11.  Gynura aurantiaca - I have a quadruple Purple Passion plant that I got on clearance from my nearby Pike's Nursery.  After being repotted, it has quadrupled in total size in only three months.  I only say this because one of the four has grown by a factor of......who knows....ten??

12.  Unknown plant - unbelievably nondescript.  No markers.  It was only a dollar.  And is now sloooooooowly dying.  I will rectify this.  But that requires knowing what the hell it is.  :-|

Outside:

1.  Rubber tree - started out indoors, but the summer sun's angle prevented sunlight from getting to it, so....outside.  It it on a covered patio and receives about 4 hours of direct sun.  I know this is slightly too much, but since it's surviving, it beats dying from no light at all.  As it's my largest plant (but not the most expensive, amusingly), it shades a few of my others.  I seems to like it when I clean every single leaf, but probably frets over my obsessiveness.  What a team we are.

2.  Coffee - tried to give it partial shade outside to speed up it's rather slow growth.  That worked!  Unfortunately, the lower leaves were starting to burn, and I'd rather not risk the plant.  It'll be back inside before sunset tonight.

3.  Dendrobiums - I have two of these finicky things, and both are a story unto themselves.  The first was found at a local Super Walmart stripped of its soil, laying on its side for God-knows-how-long underneath one of the unlit trays of plants inside in the Lawn and Garden section.  Needless to say, I got a price reduction.   The second one had its flower spike snapped off!  Incompetent fools.  Or maybe not, as I ended up buying it - the purple flower this one makes are un-be-lie-va-ble.   Currently, bother are on the patio and shaded by the Rubber tree.  Precarious situation, but it's working.  I can't *believe* I managed to save orchid number one.

4.  Daphne - Two of them now, but at first, I got a flowering one back in March.  They smell like fruit loops!  And they look elegant.  And they like me.  I noticed that Monrovia has chosen its soil very well, and my daphnes don't seem to mind staying in their starting pots....for now.  Interestingly, they branch at the flowering points.  Here's hoping for much larger showing next year!  Though currently out of bloom, they are enjoying their stay being shaded by....you guessed it.

5.  Gardenia - I was a FOOL and started this Walmart plant inside.  Idiot!  Gardenias are famous for dying inside.  The web is literally littered with rants and eulogies to the pretty little plants that just didn't like their owners.  I got spidermites within a single DAY.  Yikes!  It is now happy in a new bigger pot.  And double the size.  Outside.

6.  Catnip - mother gave it to me hoping that it wouldn't die.  I may never get the chance, as it prefers full sun, and the only place I can provide that is outside.  Where it serves its obvious purpose.  Oh well.  At least the two stray cats nearby LOVE me.

7.  Minirose - I think I got this one at Walmart - looked purdy enough.  It grows rather quickly, and I had to stake it cleverly with well-placed chopsticks and twist-ties.   As those who have experienced these things may know, mass-produced mini-rose plants are planted in about fours, and in a single pot.  When repotting, it does well to remember to move the root systems apart from each other.  Sadly, it was a recent victim of a leafcutter-like bug.  It took me a whole day to realize that the bushes are trees near it that weren't mine had every since leaf chewed on.  And only a couple leaves of my Gardenia, and nothing else.  I hope I didn't cause it =O.  My rose system likely wont fully recover for another month.

8.  Strawberry - not sure why I like this, as it's so unexotic.  Then again, who really ever grows a single strawberry plant?  It's doing well, has and has had a total of about 8 flowers now, and it looks like I'll be getting a STRAWBERRY HARVEST OMG.  I Will likely surround the entire plant with a fine-mesh case after everything sets fruit.  Obvious reasons.

9.  Stargazer lilies in pots - the first time, I just got a plant from Kroger.  Amazing.  I purposely got one with the most unopened buds.  And they all performed.  Just amazing.  Sadly it passed, and I realized that it CANT END THERE.  I then got three bulbs, a large pot, and some Hyponex soil (more on that later), and waited a month.  Up comes green shoots through the soil!  Three months later, I have four buds on each stalk, and possibly more on the way.  Exciting!  The bulb from Kroger might be used again in the future!

10.  Confederate Jasmine - amazing fragrance.  Nice leaves.  Likes a lot of water and a LOT of soluble fertilizer.  I probably should be feeding it again right now :-S .  Not really sure about growth.  It seems to be about the same size.  Perhaps vegetative growth waits until the flowers are gone?

11.  Dracaena like thing - small little plant.  Seems to take abuse.  The little pot was knocked over, and it even lost half its soil!  I should repot and take better care of it.  Hasn't changed at all in several months.

12.  Dead carnations - not really sure what to do with the pot.  The two carnations that managed to survive for a month will be laid to rest in my version of an Arlington cemetery (cries).

Next post.....the seeds I'm attempting to start.  Wise....or not?  Next time!

Explore your world

Foreign people that meet me seem to be universally amazed that I know anything at all about their country of origin.

Sometimes, I seem to know more.....which makes for some awkward conversations.  However, I have noticed that it makes great conversation to ask about possible things to do and see in the Maldives, Madrid, or Madras - which is now Chennai for those with up to date maps.

I've always wanted to explore anything and everything.  I MUST explore every nook and cranny in new areas. so it makes sense that I would become fascinated by maps at an early age.  Gifts for birthdays in the single digits almost always included an atlas here and there.  Over time, I had built one in my head.

And then Google Earth came out.  I forgot how much like crack reading atlases were to my mind, and now I'm even more geo-aware.  Braggart?  You bet :-)

And then I found things online that lets me complete my picture.  So here are the tools necessary:

1.  Google Earth.  See the map.

2.  Flickr.  Search for what it looks like.

3.  Panoramio.  Explore picture on a map.  Like crack for me.

I do it for fun.  For a great experience, start with Western Mongolia, Kamchatka Russia, obscure Brazilian and Argentinian areas (trust me it's beautiful), and green mountain ranges in the middle of the US western desert.

Hold on, I just found out how beautiful islands-in-the-middle-of-absolutely-nowhere are.

Scallop Burrito

I am a seafood fanatic.  In fact, I would love to live in a coastal area just to get more seafood.

This is an extremely simply recipe, and requires little planning.

Ingredients:
15 sea scallops of Publix grocery store size.  Yeah, I'm picky.
1 typical tortilla
A1 steak sauce (or your own obviously less worthy sauce)
1/2 teaspoon butter or related butter-like substance

Recipe:
1.  Pan sear the scallops to taste.  I don't like the squish, and prefer a more cooked scallop, but hey, I'm only me.

2.  Before the scallops finish cooking, slick the "inside" of the tortilla with the small amount of butter.

3.  Place finished scallops into tortilla.

4.  Add A1 steak sauce.

5.  Fold into burrito form.  Serve as hot as possible.

Reaction:  99%.  There's always somebody who doesn't properly worship the A1.

NOTES:  Scallops are so pan-unfriendly that you must not forget to spray or butter even a teflon pan, lest you lose a pan.  It follows that it take fives times as long to clean.  Just be warned.  'Tis worth it, though.

Avocado Pie. THREE recipes.

After reading "OMG MAKE THIS NOW" being posted mere days after reading "that sounds weird or disgusting", I was immediately intrigued.  I love a good exotic food idea.

So, I tried three different incarnations of it.  After all, I had ... oh ..... ten different avocados, and I want an avocado plant forest!  But more on that later.

Ingredients 1:
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
2 avocados - peeled, pitted and pureed
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 (5 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Recipe 1:
1.  Get your crust ready.

2.  Put everything else into a blender.

3.  Dump everything into graham pie shell crust

4.  Freeze it.  For at least 3 hours.

Reaction: 90%.  The lemon in the recipe made it taste like a key lime pie.  Which is nice, but if I wanted that, I would have just made that instead.

Ingredients 2:
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
2 avocados - peeled, pitted and pureed
1 (5 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
15 extremely fresh cherries.  They should literally be this (link) color.  Rainier cherries would be even better.

Recipe 2:
1.  Get your crust ready.

2.  Put everything else into a blender.

3.  Dump everything into graham pie shell crust

4.  Freeze it.  For at least 3 hours.

Reaction: 75%.  The only think that made this worth my time was the large number of cherries I put into it.  Perhaps if I put in a lot more, it would be a lot better, but as I made it the taste of sweetened condensed milk was ridiculously overpowering.

Ingredients 3:
1 (9 inch) prepared NORMAL pie crust
2 avocados - peeled, pitted and pureed
3/2 cup milk
4/5 block package of cream cheese.  I used low fat.  Perhaps you should too......
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Recipe 3:
1.  Get your crust ready.  I bake it for about 5 minutes.

2.  Put everything else into a blender.

3.  Dump everything into graham pie shell crust

4.  Freeze it.  For at least 12 hours.

Reaction: 99%.  I just discovered a culinarily pure dessert form of Avocado.  To bad it's a giant circular icicle, and unfit for pie form.  Avocado Popsicles, here we come!  In the future, however, I shall reduce the amount of milk to reduce ice crystallization in my precious pie.

Notes:  Get ready to gain weight.  Do NOT give yourself multiple portions.

Goat's Rose

Time to start going off the wall, and do the kinds of things I always wanted to do.

First up.  Rose flavored goat milk.  Not kidding.  Follow recipe for large scale creations, as you're likely to experiment by the cup with this first anyway....

Ingredients:
Goat milk
Rose water to taste
Any refined sugar
Vanilla extract optional

Recipe:
1.  Place cold/fresh goat milk in a tumbler.

2.  Add a reasonable amount of rose water.  I have never used more than a 1/4 teaspoon per two cups.  Ever.

3.  Add sugar to taste.  I recommend about a 1/4 cup sugar for every 1 cup milk.

4.  Add the vanilla in tiny quantities if desired.

5.  Shake and stir.

Reaction: 95%.  I am surprised that the idea of milk coming from a goat is a negative for people.  What can I say?  People have weird quirks.

Notes:  Try to stir more than shake.  Bubbles bubbles BUBBLES!

Tomato Lemon Salad

Originally, I was planning on an Israeli salad that had tomato, lemon, cucumber, and a mix of spices, but I never quite managed to do so - I forgot the cucumber!  Oops.

I've made this recipe many times, and it's a HIT HIT HIT. It's simple .... depending on how much work you want to put into it.

Ingredients:
chopped tomatoes
chopped onion
lemon wedges, without pith
olive oil
vinegar (small amount)
salt
spices*

Recipe:
1. Chop your tomatoes. Remove the slop. Don't use the core if you think that it's too white. Add to a huge bowl.

2. Chop your onion. Not too finely. Chopped onion pieces should be all be smaller than the chopped tomato pieces. Add to the tomato in your bowl.

3. Remove the pith and peel of your lemon. Try to separate each wedge from each other. Cut them in half if you desire. Add them to the bowl.

4. Add 1/8 cup olive oil of whatever quality for each whole tomato you used.

5. Add 1/8 of a cup of your best vinegar, preferably not too heavily flavored.

6. Add pinch of salt.  Who am I kidding?  Several pinches.  Kosher salt!

7. Add spices.

8. Mix and serve! Keeps well for a day. Longer is still safe with refrigerators, but the acids inherent in the food will affect the taste of the tomatoes over time.

Reaction: 100%. "Fresh" was the adjective most used.

Notes: Buying pre-chopped tomatoes and/or onions is risky. Use it only if you really can't devote the time to doing it yourself. Salad texture seems best when tomato pieces are at least as big as your biggest fingernail. Take care when choosing spices - rosemary, cardamom, sage, thyme, etc work well. Ginger, clove, cinnamon, etc., do not.

Candied Tangerine Peel

I originally got the Buddha's hand citron because it was OMG SPECIAL at the nearest Harry's Farmer's Market. It smelled good. Looked cool. Rare, even. Impulse purchase.

Regret. But in the process of coming to this realization that candying the citron was the way to go, I wanted to make a test batch. With tangerines! Well, they were nearby and I didn't want to mess of the citron by doing it wrong.

So........what did I do? I just took a carrot peeler to the fruit and peeled it until it was a white ball. Three of them, actually. Here're the steps for the word-problem impaired (me).

1. Peel the citrus. Don't bother including the pith in the first place. Not worth the trouble or the risk of it making bad tasting candy. Enjoy the actual fruit at this point :D

2. Boil the orange peel shavings you now have. Until soft. But NOT mushy. Mushy is bad. 45 minutes is probably on the "too much" side of done.

3. Strain it. Boil it again and strain it if you're a perfectionist, but the peels need the boilwater off them at this point.

4. Boil in "simple syrup". 2 parts sugar, 1 part water. Just keep boiling. Taste test with COOLED pieces occasionally until it's good for you. My batch took 30 minutes.

5. CAREFULLY strain the peels from the syrup. Do NOT get burnt. Let the peels cool and they're safe to eat!

6. If you used a mesh strainer, it's easy to "sift" the solidified sugar syrup off the mesh and onto your peels. Makes it look pretty, and .... hey .... more sugar can't hurt.

Notes: DANGER WILL ROBINSON. Boiling sugar is BAD for your skin. And fight the urge to taste test the runny syrup you strained. It's runny because it's BOILING HOT. HOT. Did I mention that it's HOT?  Using grapefruit peel at a much later date failed for reasons of my own incompetence.  If you try doing it with grapefruit, understand it will be much more bitter.  Alas, I can't be precise, as I managed to burn it and aaaalllllmost destroy a favorite pot.

Reaction: 75% awesome. 25% too bitter. Understandable - it's peel after all. I'm in the 75 by the way.....

Candied Citron Buddha's Hand Citron

Don't bother. My version is a bitter tasting and bitter smelling failure. Obviously depithing, boiling in water, pithscraping, and sugarboiling is insufficient.

Sigh.

Butternut Squash Pie

For thanksgiving, I needed to do something NEW NEW NEW. Pumpkin pie is passe, and sweet potato pie is actually familiar to my family. I don't remember how, but I found this young lady's blog entry on butternut squash and how it's awesome.

The recipe she links to is in the food section of the NYT, and she made her own adjustments. Just in case the NYT article EVER becomes inaccessible, I am reproducing it without a lick of guilt here.

In case you were wondering, I like cooking because I like EATING, not because cooking is a magical process that often involves slaving. So of course, I used a premade pie shell.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups roasted squash purée, packed (see recipe, linked at right)
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
Candied squash, whipped cream and ginger relish for garnish, optional.

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 300.

5. While crust bakes, prepare filling: combine eggs, vanilla, sugars, salt and spices in food processor, and process until smooth. Add squash purée, and process until smooth. With machine running, pour in heavy cream, and process to combine. Scrape filling into hot prebaked shell, and bake on pizza stone until filling is set 2/3 in from perimeter and center still jiggles, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool to room temperature on rack. Garnish with whipped cream, candied squash and ginger relish if desired. Serve.

Notes: I'm going to use even more pepper the next time I make it. Also, don't worry too much about the temperature. Your oven will vary, and raising the temperature to 350 to get it to finish baking. Oh, and you'll have AMAZING LEFTOVERS if you use a huge butternut squash. The extra squash can be pureed with ginger and sugar - a lot of sugar. You'll have extra filling too! Just bake it with the pie in a glass cooking bowl. Makes for a great "extra" dessert.

Reaction: 110%. Dangerously good - keep away from small children.

Asian Pear Pie

You'll find I simply wont settle with ordinary. So I decided to next make a pie. Asian pear.

I used a recipe off the net. From diana's kitchen!

Of course, I modified it in three basic ways.

1. I used a premade shell ... <_<>_> ..... no one will mind!

2. Instead of ginger powder, I used candied ginger! Err... 4 grated large pieces. I wont do that again, but it was worth a shot.

3. In case you missed the title of the post, I used ASIAN PEARS.

Notes: Asian pears are closer to apples than pears. They don't cook down as fast at pears. So prepare for crunchy asian pear slices. I recommend trying to make an "apple pie filling" style modification, and bake them at a slighty lower temp and a longer time.

Reaction: 90% percent positive, 10% "what is this?"

Dense Chocolate Cake

The other day, I reminisced at an old memory of eating at the Crowne Plaza Hotel with my family. I remember the seafood dinner, nouveau cooking to the core, but what really stood out was that CAKE. It was like eating a wall of chocolate.

I thought I'd make something so chocolately, it hurts. Well, there ya go.

Ingredients:
4 squares (1 oz each) Baker's semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder - dark variety is best.
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 tsp raspberry flavoring recommended.

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 300° F (150° C).

2. Grease 8" pan, preferably round.

3. Melt chocolate and butter together and stir. Remove from heat when finished - don't burn the butter!

4. Add the sugar, the cocoa powder, and the extracts. Mix completely. Don't worry about "overmixing".

5. Bake the mixture in the greased pan for 30 minutes. When finished, a toothpick inserted and removed should bring back almost no cake.

6. When finally cool, flip it out onto a plate. I dust top with confectionary sugar. I used a strainer. Yeah, I'm hardcore.

Notes: If you want to double the recipe and make it twice as thick/tall, do so. I set the baking at 350 and let it cook. For almost twice as long. I couldn't believe I didn't burn it.

Reaction: 100% positive. 25% "I can't finish this it's too chocolatey!".

Fr1st P0st!

As a homage to the dregs of Slashdot, I am putting up a "first post" as a place marker.  Stay with me folks.