Fun in the Kitchen

I have been toying around with starting a separate blog for my cooking experimentation, but I think I will just do an occasional post here.  We cook quite a bit in our house.  On Friday, Toby made red curry with shrimp for lunch, because, hey, he was in the mood for red curry.  Today Aspen made a lattice top apple pie, because, hey, she felt like making a pie.  When Isaac was 5, he would get up and cook himself a quesedilla for breakfast.

We also do "theme cooking" in our house.  Typically I go out and get a couple cookbooks, and cook that theme for a year or so.  The major themes we have done are breads, Thai, Indian, and ice cream.  Betsy has also done a bunch of soups and salads.  The theme cooking works its way into the usual dinner rotation, which is how you end of having red curry for lunch on Friday.  The two current themes I have going are waffles and kind of a "food science" theme, playing with different textures and cooking techniques.

First, the waffle theme.  I got a Belgian waffle maker for my birthday, and we have been making different types of fancy waffles.  I also got this 200 year old waffle iron off eBay for about 15 bucks.  The hinge was broken, so I got a clamp at Home Depot to hold it closed while making waffles.

The coolest part of the waffle iron is the patterns it makes on the waffles.   There are two patterns on each side, and the sides are different.

Lemon poppy seed waffle with homemade blueberry sauce.  We have also done ginger waffles with peaches, chocolate waffles, and a couple other kinds.

In the food science category I have done a few different things.  I may do a catch up post later.  Here are a couple fun things we did recently.

Jalapeño chicharrones--made from pureed jalapeños, starch, and salt.  Could have been a little more spicy, but they were fun to make.  They puff up completely in about 1 second.

Caviar with creme fraiche.  At least that is what it is supposed to look like.  They are actually little root beer floats--root beer caviar (made with agar), and vanilla whipped cream, on a cookie.  The kids had fun helping make the caviar.  Betsy thought this was one of the best things I have made so far--fun and delicious.