Decorating with Fondant

Fondant is a sort of play-doh-ish textured icing of sorts. When you look at a wedding cake and think "wow, how did they get the icing so smooth?" you are probably looking at fondant.

You can purchase-premade fondant at craft stores (or wal mart, I get mine there as it's closer and cheaper- in the cake decorating section). It comes in blocks that are a bit stiff.

Ice your cake well with whatever kind of icing you want- butter cream or stuff that Betty Crocker makes. Use a goodly amount so that you don't end up spreading it out too much and getting it all crumby- you may think that the fondant will cover your mistakes, but you'd be wrong in that assumption. It hides no sins.

Dust the counter well with powdered sugar. Kneed the fondant as you would dough, using powdered sugar to coat your hands as you would flour. Kneed it until it's considerably softer and you could envision rolling it out. That's the next step, to be done with a rolling pin and yet more powdered sugar.

Roll it pretty thin- about 1/4 of an inch. It's difficult and takes a good deal of time. Make sure you've measured your cake- sides and top, and have a large enough piece to cover it. It won't do to be stretching it once it's placed.

Use two hands, or a hand and a rolling pin, to very quikly but gently pick up the fondant sheet and place it on the cake. Do your very best to center it on the first shot so that it doesn't have to go sliding around and messing things up.

Trim the fondant with a razor, but make sure you don't trim too much! You can cut slivers out to shape it around corners or round cakes, but coaxing it to stick to itself again is tricky. Use your fingers and some water.

You can color fondant with food coloring. The gel kind works better than the liquid, so try to find that. Just slip a bit on, then kneed the fondant until the color is completely evenly distributed (or you can easily marble it by stopping early). Fondant cutters are available (although cookie cutters would work well, too). Don't worry about powdered sugar on the colors- it wll come off fine.

To stick various fondant pieces to the cake, brush the backs with water and hold them firmly in place for a few seconds. When you're done, brush the colors with water and the powdered sugar will disappear

Leftover Turkey Chowder

2 cups turkey (or more if you want/have it), shredded

4 cups chicken broth

3/4 cups cream

1 1/2 cups milk

1 medium onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 container of shitake mushrooms, chopped

1/2 tbsp chopped garlic

1/2 cup butter

1 box gnocchi, prepared

3 tbsps flour

salt to taste

thyme to taste

Sweat the carrot and onion in the butter over medium heat. Add flour, then chicken broth. Add cream, milk, turkey, garlic and heat.

Prepare gnocchi according to directions (add to water at a rolling boil, cook for about 5 minutes, until they are floating). Add gnocchi and mushrooms, let it cook until mushrooms are tender. Add spices, feel free to add whatever you feel would be appropriate, the thyme is just a suggestion.

Mmm. This was a delicious was to get rid of leftover turkey!

Salmon Cakes

1 can pink salmon

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 green onions, chopped

1 egg

2 tbsps mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp Worchestershire

1/4 tsp cayenne

salt & pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Use enough oil to coat the bottom of a large frypan. Heat over a medium high heat.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Remove as much of the skin and fat as you can.

Shape the salmon mixture into patties, relatively thin and as big as you want- larger for sandwiches, smaller for snacking or meals.

Set the salmon cakes gently into the oil, be careul of splattering oil. Cook until nice and golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side.