Ronan's birthday was last week. Our birthday traditions are fairly simple really. There is a present or two. We make a custom happy birthday poster. And the birthday person chooses the meals for the day. Presents weren't too hard. I am actually carrying with me the last bit of old printer paper (you know the kind that comes in a continuous sheet and has perforated edges punched with holes so it can spool through the 1980's era printer) that we have used for years for birthday posters, and while Fionnula's colored pencils are not the ideal medium for poster making, they worked. So all that was left to pull off on the actual day was the birthday meals. We cook most of our own meals as we travel, but cooking in strange kitchens with basically no food staples on hand has led to pretty simplified meal plans. Tacos and taco salads are a staple. We do a lot of spaghetti and sometimes break up the monotony with a pasta primavera of sorts or maybe an alfredo sauce. Ronan's requests for his birthday were a coffee cake for breakfast and a dinner of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and corn with a german chocolate cake for dessert.
Conveniently this house does have a small grill for the chicken. It does not have any baking pans beyond one pizza pan and one cookie sheet (which was conveniently stored inside the oven ON the heating element and not discovered until after I had heated up the oven...). Baking has proven a challenge even in kitchens that do have pans. It requires such a variety of ingredients and tools that are frankly difficult to carry from house to house. We have experimented with refrigerated cookie dough but have decided we are not that desperate. Most recently we have given in to the boxed brownie mix and found it a vast improvement over the cookie dough when I just really need some fresh baked yumminess. But a german chocolate cake was going to be a challenge.
First we had to buy all the ingredients, even the flour and sugar because we have no 5 gallon storage buckets in the pantry like we once did. I bought foil baking pans, the recipe said to use 9 inch round pans but we ended up with some odd ball rectangular ones, something like 11x9, a size no one ever uses for anything but still they manufacture foil pans in this size. Then I had to produce a decent cake with no mixer of any kind. This kitchen doesn't even have a wooden spoon. Who doesn't have a wooden spoon in their kitchen? Someone who never cooks. Well I creamed that butter and sugar BY HAND with a rubber spatula! It wasn't quite kitchen-aid quality creamed butter, but it worked. More impressively though, I whipped my egg whites into at least semi-stiff peaks too. I had actually forgotten that this step would be necessary when I agreed to produce this particular dessert. If I am going to continue making cakes by hand I am going to have to train my left arm to do some of the beating and whipping too or I am going to develop bulging biceps only on the right arm.
Dinner was a success. A not quite 9x13 two layer cake served straight from the pan is not as pretty as the 3 layer round ones Erin used to produce for us, but it tastes basically the same. The chicken was perfect, even if the tiny grill may have been a challenge to cook such large quantities on. The potatoes had to be peeled with a knife and then mashed and whipped with a fork and plastic spoon, but the leftover buttermilk from the cake made them extra yummy and corn on the cob wasn't much of a challenge at all, we may need to add it onto our list of foods easy to prepare in even the worst stocked kitchens.
First we had to buy all the ingredients, even the flour and sugar because we have no 5 gallon storage buckets in the pantry like we once did. I bought foil baking pans, the recipe said to use 9 inch round pans but we ended up with some odd ball rectangular ones, something like 11x9, a size no one ever uses for anything but still they manufacture foil pans in this size. Then I had to produce a decent cake with no mixer of any kind. This kitchen doesn't even have a wooden spoon. Who doesn't have a wooden spoon in their kitchen? Someone who never cooks. Well I creamed that butter and sugar BY HAND with a rubber spatula! It wasn't quite kitchen-aid quality creamed butter, but it worked. More impressively though, I whipped my egg whites into at least semi-stiff peaks too. I had actually forgotten that this step would be necessary when I agreed to produce this particular dessert. If I am going to continue making cakes by hand I am going to have to train my left arm to do some of the beating and whipping too or I am going to develop bulging biceps only on the right arm.
Dinner was a success. A not quite 9x13 two layer cake served straight from the pan is not as pretty as the 3 layer round ones Erin used to produce for us, but it tastes basically the same. The chicken was perfect, even if the tiny grill may have been a challenge to cook such large quantities on. The potatoes had to be peeled with a knife and then mashed and whipped with a fork and plastic spoon, but the leftover buttermilk from the cake made them extra yummy and corn on the cob wasn't much of a challenge at all, we may need to add it onto our list of foods easy to prepare in even the worst stocked kitchens.
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