Cooking For Different Tastes

I don't think our family is that unusual in that all of us have different preferences and levels of pickiness. My husband, for example, will eat anything I put in front of him. My older son, at 16, is pretty much the same way, because he's a teenager who eats everything in sight, really. My younger son, at almost 14, has always had a more sensitive palate (part of which, I think, stemmed from issues of lactose intolerance and reflux as a baby/toddler), and although he's getting better and is willing to try things (it's a rule at our dinner table), he is much more picky about what he eats. And it's hard to know, exactly, what he will eat, since sometimes he doesn't like something because of the flavor, other times it's because of the texture. Sigh.

For someone who is an adventurous cook and who rarely makes the same thing twice (really!), it can be a challenge to make things that are interesting yet will appeal to everyone. I never did get into the habit of being a short-order cook (making one meal for the kids and another for the adults), but I do like to make things that everyone will eat, so one of my tricks is to plate things in layers. Also, if someone doesn't like what I make, he is free to make something else of their own choosing, but I won't make it for them. My youngest son learned early on to make his own PB&J (not the healthiest thing, but I always had at least one vegetable he would eat, too).

One way I did this, especially when the kids were littler, is to make pasta, but before I put on a sauce, I would put some of the plain noodles in a bowl for my youngest, then a bowl of pasta with sauce for my oldest son, then pasta, sauce and extras (sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, olives, etc) for my husband and me. This is relatively easy to do for pasta, but one can only eat so much pasta. Another trick is with sauces. Grill up some chicken, keep it plain for the kids, do veggies (raw carrot sticks for one, roasted or grilled for the rest of us -- no biggie, since they have to be prepped anyway), then add a sauce (pesto or romesco, for example) that people can put on their plate as they wish. Same with salads and noodle bowls (two of our favorite types of meals), along with a "snack plate" which I have blogged about before. Tacos, of course, are also popular in our house, because I just put every part out, and they make them how they want. But sometimes, you want something a little more sophisticated.

A recipe I found on Epicurious encapsulates this idea very well, and it's relatively easy to do. It's a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin with grains (you can choose farro, rice, quinoa -- whatever the majority of your family can tolerate) and a salad with a sauce, building flavor from one level to the next.

The recipe gives three options for seasoning the pork loin. I chose the middle option, which included salt, pepper, cumin and brown sugar, because I knew my pickiest would still eat it if it had cumin on it, plus, you can add a little (not as much as in the recipe) to get a hint of the spice, without being very forward with it.

I then chose to make the grain salad with farro, which I have made before. Everyone in my family is pretty adventurous when it comes to grains, so I don't have to worry about that, but this would work just as well with rice. You can see for the simplest plate I made, I separated out all the grain salad elements, which is easy to do, since you just need to set aside unseasoned tomatoes and cucumbers as you prep them (in this case, I left the cucumbers off all together, since he won't eat them). I usually just have plates out and make my son's plate as I go along. For the next level of flavor, I knew my older son didn't like olives, so I made the salad up to the point of adding the olives and feta, serving some up on his plate before I tossed everything together. To get him to try the feta, I served a small bit on his plate, separate from the grain salad.

Then, for my husband and me, I added the olives and feta to the salad, and served with the pan sauce. Because my youngest likes broccoli, I added some steamed broccoli to everyone's plates as well. It complemented the rest of the dish, and we can always use an extra helping of veggies, right?

Do you have simple ways to serve meals that appeal to different tastes? Please share your ideas!

Dole Whip? Dole Whip? Three Dole Whips!

Anyone else have hundreds of pinned recipes on Pinterest that you have yet to make? Hopefully it's not just me. LOL

Stick with me the next several posts, because I'm going to start working my way through my pinned recipes to see if they're worth making again. I organize my pins in two different folders. My "Yum!" folder is recipes I want to try that look good, and "Family Food Favorites" are the ones I've made that I would make again.

I started out with something easy, mostly because I already had the stuff on hand, and I had some leftover pineapple from another thing I made. Plus, the Dole Whip you can buy at Disneyland seems to have cult status, so if there's a home made alternative for you to get your fix, I'm here to help.  The problem is that I never had it when we went to Disney, so I don't have a point of reference for this.

That being said, this version is super simple (3 ingredients) and quick to put together, no need for freezing after you blend it. I have a Vitamix blender, so that made it a lot simpler, but even so, I still had to use the pusher thing to get the ingredients to stay down near the blades. Plus there was some stopping to scrape down the sides. 

 This is what I mean by the "pusher thing":

The recipe is basically dump all the things in the blender and puree together. Pretty simple (as one would expect from a recipe in Real Simple magazine!).

So here are all the ingredients in the blender:

In the process of making it smooth:

Like I said, it took some stopping and scraping and pushing around to get it all smooth...

Final product:

I thought it was pretty easy, and would even stock the ingredients to make again (the only thing I don't regularly have on hand is frozen pineapple anyway). I  like it, because it has real ingredients and no processed ingredients (is coconut milk considered "processed?" IDK). This is ready to serve right out of the blender, but if you have leftovers and put it in the freezer, it gets pretty solid, so you'll have to pull it out to soften to eat. 

Rather than copy and paste the recipe, I'm posting the link to the recipe located on the Real Simple website (it's called 3-ingredient Pineapple Soft-Serve), mainly because of copyright, but also because I'm not a fast typist and this is the easiest route to take. Work smarter, not harder, I always say!

For those of you who have had the real Dole Whip, let me know what you think. Is this an adequate substitute?

The best cake, as told by Norwegians

In Norway, there's a cake called Kvaefjordkake or verdens beste kake (world's best cake). Now, if you know Norwegians, or Norwegian-Americans at least, you'll know that we are not a people to use superlatives very often, because we are not a bragging type of folk, not given to creating a bunch of excitement. So, when I saw the name of this cake, I knew I had to make it! It's a sponge cake that you bake with meringue right on top, sprinkled with almonds, then sliced and filled with vanilla cream or whipped cream. My first attempt didn't go well. I used a recipe from Sverre Seatre's book, "Norwegian Cakes and Cookies," but it didn't work out. The meringue was fine, although I was starting to run low on the second layer, but one of the cakes underneath didn't bake and it was hard to get out of the cake pans. I don't do as well with recipes that I have to divide stuff equally into pans, to be honest. Part of the problem is that I'm too lazy to use my scale to get it just right...

Anyway, still intent on trying this recipe, I looked online and found a couple of options. I ended up using the ratios from one, but some of the directions of the other, so I kind of mashed up the recipe. The first recipe I used is from Sweet Paul, and I used it mainly because it had the number of eggs that I had happened to have pulled out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. The second one is from Daytona Strong, one of my go-to people for Norwegian baking. Her site will also give you the history of this cake.

So, on to the cake. It was a little fussy, but not much (would have been easier if I had 2 bowls for my Kitchen-Aid mixer, but I don't, so I made due). You don't have to toast the almonds beforehand, because they get plenty toasted while baking. I took a suggestion from the Sweet Paul post and sliced strawberries to put in between the layers. I think it added a little brightness that cut through the richness of the cake. I also added a little almond extract to the cake, to enhance the almonds on the meringue, but I couldn't taste it much. Next time I make it, I might add more.

I shared it with my Bible study group, and it was a big hit! I will definitely make this again. I think you could have fun changing the cream filling (maybe do a mocha, which would taste good with the almonds, or lingonberry sauce for something fun for the holidays), since the basic cake, while very tasty, is a bit of a blank slate between the plain sponge and the unflavored meringue and vanilla cream.

My main tip for this cake, is to make sure you have all of your ingredients ready to go for both the cake layer and the meringue layer. It makes the process go a lot smoother.

Is it the world's best cake? Most of my friends really liked it, a few definitely said yes, but my heart is with chocolate, so I don't know. Maybe I'll have to work on a chocolate version to see how that might compare! Hope you enjoy this! If you experiment with different flavor combinations, let me know how it went!

Norway's "World's Best Cake"

Ingredients for the Cake layer

10.5 Tbsp butter, softened to room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 large egg yolks (you'll need the whites for the meringue, recipe follows)
1/3 cup milk (I used 2%, although the original recipe used whole milk)
1/8 tsp pure almond extract (I use Penzey's) -- feel free to omit or add more (not more than 1/4 tsp though), according to your preference

Ingredients for the Meringue

5 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup slice almonds

For the Whipped Cream layer

1 cup whipping cream
1/2 vanilla bean (again, I used Penzey's)

1 pint strawberries, cleaned and sliced

To make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven. Line a small sheet pan (mine was 15.5 inches by 10 inches) with parchment paper. Set aside.

Cream butter and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. It should look like this:

Add the flour and baking powder, mix in to the butter/sugar mixture, then add the egg yolks, milk and almond extract.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and spread into an even layer. Set aside while you make the meringue.

To make the meringue, using a clean bowl and dry beaters (I used the whisk attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer), whip the egg whites until they start to look white and foamy, then gradually start adding the sugar. I add it in a slow stream while the mixer is running, but you can also sprinkle in a tablespoon at a time. Continue whipping egg whites until they form stiff peaks. If your whites were at room temperature, this should only take about 4-5 minutes using a stand mixer. DO NOT add all the sugar at once. it will make the meringue more marshmallow-y soft and it won't crisp up when you bake it. Believe me, I've tried it as a short cut. Don't do it.

Here's what they should look like:

Evenly and carefully (use a light touch!) spread the meringue onto the (unbaked) cake layer, then sprinkle with the sliced almonds. (hint: you don't have to spread the meringue all the way to the edges, because it spreads and puffs up a bit while baking)

This is what it looked like before baking:

Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes. I was nervous because my first attempt ended up with gooey cake batter, so I left it in a little longer than I needed to, but it turned out fine. Cool completely in the pan.

For the whipped cream layer, pour whipping cream into a chilled bowl (using a chilled bowl and beaters makes the whipping go faster), then split the vanilla bean and scrape the inside of the bean (those are the seeds) into the whipping cream. Discard the outer part of the vanilla bean (or add it to your vanilla extract bottle). Whip cream and vanilla seeds together until soft peaks form, about 2-3 minutes.

To assemble the cake:

Cut cake layer in half width-wise, so you have two pieces, each about 10 inches by 7 3/4 inches. Put one layer on your serving plate:

Then fill with all of the whipping cream and most of the sliced strawberries. Save about 10-12 slices for the top).

 Place second layer on top of the first layer, then place remaining strawberry slices in a line down the middle. Refrigerate for one hour before serving.  Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this cake! It should serve about 12, depending on how big you make the slices.