Angel Food Cake for Boo Radley (#ReadCookEat)

  "Mr Tate went to the swing and picked up his hat. It was lying beside Atticus. Mr Tate pushed back his hair and put his hat on.

  'I never heard tell that it's against the law for a citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly what he did, but maybe you'll say it's my duty to tell the town all about it and not hush it up. Know what'd happen then? All the ladies in Maycomb includin' my wife'd be knocking on his door bringing angel food cakes. To my way of thinkin', Mr Finch, taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight -  to me, that's a sin. It's a sin and I'm not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man it'd be different. But not this man, Mr Finch.'

  Mr Tate was trying to dig a hole in the floor with the toe of his boot. He pulled his nose, then he massaged his left arm. 'I may not be much, Mr Finch, but I'm still sheriff of Maycomb County, and Bob Ewell fell on his knife. Good night sir.'

  Mr Tate stamped off the porch and strode across the front yard. His car door slammed and he drove away.

Atticus sat looking at the floor for a long time. Finally he raised his head. 'Scout,' he said, 'Mr Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?'

  Atticus looked like he needed cheering up. I ran to him and hugged him an kissed him with all my might. 'Yes sir, I understand,' I reassured him. 'Mr Tate was right.'

  Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. 'What do you mean?'

  'Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?'

  Atticus put his face in my hair and rubbed it. When he got up and walked across the porch into the shadows, his youthful step had returned. Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo Radley. 'Thank you for my children, Arthur,' he said." 

- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

As you have read, thing turned out that Boo Radley would not get into the limelight and as a consequence wouldn't receive any  angel food cakes from anyone around town.

Therefore, in order to join #ReadCookEat again this month, I decided to have a go at an angel food cake. I never had one before yet attempted to make one. So I had to do some research. One recipe I found was from Mary Berry on the BBC website. It mentioned also it was from The Great British Bake Off. I didn't notice anything ...

So, I didn't want to make a huge cake requiring a lot of ... eh ... cake eating afterwards, so I went one adjusting ideas from the net to my needs ...

Angel Food Cake for Boo Radley:

Ingredients:

75 g flour

180 g sugar

6 egg whites

Zest of one lemon

A small splash of lemon juice

1 tsp. baking powder

Pinch of salt

Method:

Sift the flour, baking powder and 60 g sugar into a bowl, which you set to the side for the time being.

Then start whisking the egg whites in a large bowl for one minute on high speed.

Add the lemon zest, juice and salt and continue whisking on high speed for another 3 minutes. The egg whites should form soft peaks when you remove the whisk.

Now you continue whisking at even higher speed and add the remaining 120 g of sugar on tablespoon at a time until all is in. Continue whisking for a while.

Now fold in the flour and sugar mixture, being careful as not to knock out all the air you whisked in before.

Transfer the batter to your tin you plan to use. Only after I had finished my angel food cake and was ready to eat, I remember I had seen the episode of The Great British Bake Off, where they had to bake angel food cakes according to Mary Berry's recipe. They even had special angel food cake tins. However, I hadn't. So I used a small rectangular tin for it.

Whatsoever the case, bake the angel food cake in the bottom third of your oven at 180 °C for 30-40 min.  I had mine in for a longer time (as I have read in other recipes) and that resulted in the cake to be looking slightly unpleasant around the edges.

Whatever you do, use common sense and test with a wooden skewer whether your cake is ready. When it comes out clean, it is.

After you removed the cake from the oven allow it to cool down for at least one hour. Then you can remove it from the tin and eat it ...

As you see on the picture, I wasn't quite satisfied to eat it like this. I added some strawberries and some freshly made rhubarb and strawberry jam.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam:

Ingredients:

400 g strawberries

2 large stalks of rhubarb

175 g sugar

100 ml water

1 vanilla bean

Juice of one lemon

Method:

Chop up the strawberries and the rhubarb. Put them into a sufficiently large pot together with the sugar and the water. Slice open the vanilla bean, add the seeds to the pot and the sliced open vanilla bean, too. Finally add the lemon juice and bring on the heat.

Let it cook and bubble away. Once you are satisfied with the consistency, fill the jam into a sterilised jar. Use it for the angle food cake or to enhance other desserts.

Well, it really has been a long time since I read To Kill a Mockingbird, it was back in school. Hm, this reminds me once more, I am not 20 anymore. Oh, oh, I feel the crisis coming up again. Therefore, I have continue to do some stupid things again or ... some even more stupid things ... things, I've never done before.

But, before I can go over to this I go and link this post up to the #ReadCookEat challenge. If you want to join, too, head over to Chez Maximka and add your link. That will nit only make Galina happy, but me as well.

I hope this post has made you hungry for reading, cooking and eating and you will join us this month ...

Life, Darkness, Randomness, Chocolate ... Apple Shortcake with Chocolate Chip Cream

I made it to the weekend again. Pah ... what's the use of it, nothing is ever going to happen. Fine, yes, fine, you are right ... then you have to make it happen yourself ... and so I did. The evening had already advanced a bit and so I took my bike for a right around town ... village ... hamlet ... whatever. You can imagine that would be quite some fun ... darkness ... winter ... bicycle-tour ... idiot me! First I went down the way past the office and after that unknown territory when it comes to the bicycle. Luckily I had my cap and gloves along. On the minus side I didn't bother to take my glasses along. Not seeing where you are going with the bike can give you some kicks of adrenaline from time to time. Anyway, the route went up and down, the little dog wasn't hit by a bicycle and the fact that I am writing things here right now proves that things didn't go that bad after all.
I reckon, even stupid exercise at night would entitle me for a sweet treat today ...
Ah, I need something anyway ... 

Besides all that I already had planned to join two lovely blog challenges this month ... Random Recipes and We Should Cocoa. In fact they have morphed into one challenge kind of for this very month of February. You will see ...

Bloggers Around the World: USA Round-up ... and next assignment

Did I mention in one of my last posts that I would be going to the airport? Of course I did, it was the post about the French bread with the chocolate and strawberry filling. Well, I didn't go to the airport to fly somewhere, but just to pick someone up. Once more, no travelling!
A good thing we have our Bloggers Around the World trip.

The last few weeks we have been visiting the USA. There were a lot of options of what to cook or bake ... Let's see then with what everyone came up with.
We want to start with Caroline. After all, she couldn't be stopped once she read the theme was USA and so she went on submitting post after post after post ... you can all find them on Caroline Makes ...
At first we have American-style banana pancakes. Why not have some for breakfast.

Then Caroline has some Walnut Whip Whoopie Pies for us. To be honest, I have never tried whoopie pies. At least not that I know of.

From the looks of it, though, you might want to have a go. Or what about some Navajo Fry bread? If not, you can at least enjoy the nice view ...

Then we have some cake from Caroline as well ...

I might have ordered a New York Cheesecake, but hey, who am I to complain when I get a Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake? However, don't get confused, there is no chocolate pumpkin in it, but ... eh ... go figure out.

Next up on our American round-up is the lovely Choclette from the Chocolate Log Blog. She has some lovely cupcakes for us ... oopsy ... she said she might manage cupcakes and ...

... we have some more pancakes. Just look at these beauties. As they are such we can live quite well with Chocolate Pancakes with Blackcurrant & Rose Compote instead of cupcakes. At least I can.

After having had so many sweet things, I guess it is time for some savoury dishes.
Elizabeth from the Law Student's Cookbook is helping us in this regard. She has some burgers for us. She copied them ... eh ... not that kind of copying. I love that idea of copying food I have eaten at another place. Now, without any further ado here we have Elizabeth's In-N-Out Burgers ...

I hope you enjoy them as you enjoyed the sweeties. Fine, it makes me think about dinner already. However, I have to wait a few more minutes more for that.

Something more savoury you have read about already on this blog a few weeks ago. Some colour food: Chicken on Chickpeas.

Somehow I didn't manage anything else, although I had ideas on doing more. That's a point also for those who couldn't make it this time. I know how busy life is and how you sometimes don't even manage the things you want to do, not even to mention the things you have to do.

Anyway, thank you for everyone, who had a part this time in Bloggers Around the World. It was a delight to have you travel with me.
Now it's time to travel on ... and maybe you manage to join us on our next leg.
What do you have to do?

1. Leave a comment with a link to your post here in this very post, below. 
2. Link to my blog and this challenge in your post.  
3. Use the "Bloggers Around the World" badge (the one you find at the beginning and end of this post).  
4. You can use a new or an old post, but it has to be adjusted accordingly (you know, all the linking). 
5. Have fun and enjoy it!

That's it! No, of course not. You don't know where we are going to. Hm, I had A fantasy destination in mind, but then again, I thought I could leave that thought for a while, because we still have so many lovely real places we still can go to. We nearly made it one time around the world, but we haven't really been to Asia. I haven't been myself to any places there apart from Turkey, but that isn't what I have in mind for this time.
So, before anyone gets confused here on what the subject is from the 13th of March to the 13th of April, I state it here clearly ...

 JAPAN

Well, that might be a bit more difficult then the last one, but ... no worries ... I still have some udon noodles in my storage and I have enough sushi rice.

Get yourself ready and do something nice. It doesn't have to be Japanese exactly, but you could also do something that makes you think of Japan or that is inspired by anything from there. Be as creative as you can be.

Hm, shall I watch the miniseries Shōgun again for preparation? I will see ...

Neither here nor there ... Chicken on Chickpeas ... Randomly

And the Oscar goes to ...
How am I supposed to know. After all I have probably seen only two of the films that have anything to do with this years Academy Awards taking place in Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S.A. I guess in a few more hours we will be richer of a bit more knowledge that won't be of any use for us.
No worries, in the end it will make all sense. It's like a puzzle. There are thousand pieces that relate someway to each other, but in the beginning you have no clue. However, as time goes on you put piece next to piece. First you get a frame and in the end you have a full picture.
Let's do it slightly different this time ... or not. Here you get a full picture at least.

Sometimes I do things and I don't do that on purpose, but somehow it all fits together.
Back to this years Oscars. Will an Australian playing a French person in a British movie win? Who knows?
For Best picture we find the nomination of Les Misérables. I already made a connection somehow in my last post.
At least this is one of the two movies I saw. It was only in between my last post and this post. Now I'm not all good as to these things as some might know from school like ... What was it that Shakespeare wanted to tell us with Macbeth apart from that he wanted to make some money and apart from "Fair is foul and foul is fair"?
I managed school anyway. Fine, don't mention what has become of me ...
Les Miserablés. Consequently I'm not filling you in to what was Victor Hugo's intend in that direction. Some people - either in the theater or in the cinema - go on crying most of the time. I find it easier to do so while watching an episode of MASH.
Well, some might claim, men have no feelings. I do not know nothing about such phrases or generalisations in general.
Anyway, most stories are fabricated in such a way, that the reader, listener, watcher etc. can identify with certain characters or at least relate to them in a certain way.
Now, as it comes to Les Miserablés it can get quite deep and complicated. I can relate to almost any of the characters portrayed.
Jean Valjean slaving most of his life and being on the run and not really finding peace in his life.
Fantine, her live going down the drain and seeing only misery.
The students crying out for justice.
Cosette being afraid to go alone in the dark into the wood to fetch some water.
The unrequited love of Eponine.
Finally also Javert, who sees his life not making any sense anymore, when all he was fighting for didn't work out in the end.
Marius sitting alone in the ABC cafe grieving all his friends that are gone now ...

Fine, what to say? For a change it was possible to go and see a movie in the right language. At times I really feel like being in the wrong place. Then again I don't want to be neither here nor there. In the end it will make all sense. But then again, who knows?

 

Let us go towards a subject we know a little bit more about: food!
This month, in Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipe challenge, the theme is 'the choice is yours'. 

At least a little bit of choice. Was it really a choice? Well, I simply took the book without thinking too much. This as well implies that I didn't make it all up, but in the end it makes all sense.
I'm not sure, though, whether that would be the place to be, but as the book I choose Jamie's America. Now the random part of this challenge brought me to the recipe Chicken on Chickpeas as you have seen on the picture above already.
Funny enough, the recipe is under the section Los Angeles. Some years ago I checked out this place myself and had a look at the Hollywood sign as well.
A friend of mine was driving the car and I had the duty to read the map. He was only a bit afraid we could end up dead if we take a wrong turn. So I better be reading the map properly. Obviously I did just that or ... it isn't that bad to end up in the wrong neighbourhood.
Chicken on chickpeas then is what we are having this time. Can we go wrong with that?
Pieces of chicken marinated in garlic, parsley, lemon and olive oil.
Chickpeas stewed up with onions, yet more garlic, peppers, tomatoes and green chillies. Just look at them going ...

I was supposed to put in red any yellow tomatoes, but I didn't bother to visit more than one shop. 
At least I had plenty of green chillies.
As to the chicken pieces, I didn't bother putting them into the oven, but just fried and cooked them in my special pot and it turned out fine and juicy and not dry and everything.
With the chicken arranged on the chickpea stew and finished off with some fresh basil leaves, it was just beautiful and delicious.
Taken everything together it didn't even take one hour and I still have some food for tomorrow. How good is that!?
Once more it has been a pleasure to take part in random recipes, although I know that the day will come when luck evades me in this department as well and I will end up with a totally painful cooking and eating experience.
However, not today, not yet. But why worry about the things not here, when there is plenty to do with worrying about the things already being present.

Little did I know that the 85th Academy Awards will be taking place in February 2013 while I was having the Bloggers Around the World challenge making a stop in the U.S.A. 
Why not then kill two birds with one stone and make this stop in Los Angeles and have this Chicken on Chickpeas for Bloggers Around the World as well.

Finally, remember one thing: "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." ... but where? Neither here nor there?

Or simply dig in ... and don't relate the food now to Les Misérables and the 'Master of the House' part!

Bloggers Around the World: Mexican Round-up ... we travel on and on and ...

It's time already ... time that we pull down our tents, travel on and pitch them up somewhere else.
Hey, not so fast, gringo!
We are not going anywhere before we had a look at what we accomplished last month at our stop in Mexico. Was it hot enough? At least I was in need of some heat and still could use some more. Gladly my brain didn't freeze through while being outside.
Let us check it all out then ...

... where shall we start? Maybe with the microwave nachos recipe we never received?
Ah, that wouldn't make sense. Right, the same is true to me at times.
Alright, let us search for some spice then ...

Who could do this better than Corina from Searching for Spice! She brought along a beautiful Mexican Chicken Stew. There is something special hidden in it as well: chocolate. If you like to know, how it turned out, well, you know what to do.

Elizabeth from the Law Student's Cookbook was enjoying our trip so much, she kept on travelling. Yessss, that's the spirit! However, it took her quite some time to cook up something lovely for us. No, that wasn't meant negative in any way. I didn't say she tried so long until she finally managed to cook something nice.
The name of her dish, Slow Cooker Machaca, explains everything. It took 8 hours to cook, slowly, but surely. Elizabeth shows you there is no excuse to have some freshly home-cooked meal after a full day at work.

Now, after having some nice and spicy stew and everything, we switch over to Galina at Chez Maximka and have some cake, some Mexican inspire cake to be precise - after all we want to be precise. Do you want to have a piece of her delicious Orange Polenta Cake?

I'm afraid it's all gone by now. No problem, do your own.

Did I miss anything? If so, let me know ... wait, I'm just getting something in ...

Ah, wonderful, it's some more pudding from Choclette and her Chocolate Log Blog.

Some call it "sex on a plate", but Choclette prefers to call it Mexican Chocolate Pudding with Chilli and Lime Mango Slices. To see what it is all about and to find out about the "sensuousness" of this love-ly pudding you have to check it out.

You know, how things in life are, just when you think it's over, it isn't. No worries! Need a drink. Why not have a margarita!? That is also what Caroline from Caroline Makes ... thought. After she was 'slightly' disappointed on how the recipe for Mexican chocolate mole turned out, she needed a drink, kind of. You can't go wrong with that one ...

Thank you everyone for putting in such a great effort to join our cooking trip around the world!!! It's really fun travelling with all of you!

However, we seem to have problems at the border. Are we somehow jinxed? Well, I don't know anything about that. Let's head over to 8&Ruth and see, what feast Ruth has prepared for us ...

This ceviche is only part of it ... there is more ...
 
What was I doing the last month to support our cause? Let's see ...

First of all, Pimiento Mexicano con Huevos. 

 

You can have it for breakfast or for whenever you like or ...

... you can use the leftovers to have pizza ...

... or soup, tortilla soup that is.

Now that you have seen it all, we can move on. But where? To the North, East, South or West? Hm .... I would say ... hm ... we might go ... North to the US of America and have some American food. What do you think? Is that a deal?
It has to be, because that is where we are going. But what will we be cooking? That is up to you. Maybe you are thinking of bagels, doughnuts or pancakes.
Or maybe there is a Mexican dish you missed to turn in this time and want to sell it as being from Texas, no worries ... hm, as I think about it. This month seems to be some kind of a joker, since there are so many people living in America that are originally from all over the world, we could end up with simply anything.
Whatever, feel also free to post something that you feel is absolutely American. I have some books to check. 
Is anyone doing a New York Cheesecake? We will see.

Just one more thing to take along ... rules:

1. Leave a comment with a link to your post here in this very post, below. 
2. Link to my blog and this challenge in your post.  
3. Use the "Bloggers Around the World" badge (the one you find at the beginning and end of this post).  
4. You can use a new or an old post, but it has to be adjusted accordingly (you know, all the linking). 
5. Have fun and enjoy it!

Oh, what am I going to do, I better find some time to do a few things ... time always flys when you are enjoying yourself.
OK, since it is so easy for you this time, why don't you challenge me on how many entries I can put together in one round-up ...