This weekend, I had a bit of a crisis.

There is no recipe here today, thanks to said crisis.

You see on Friday night I did something very, very stupid. Apparently, while hauling all of my stuff in from my car after work/gym on Friday night, I somehow dropped my iPhone on the seat of my car. And then I proceeded to forget to lock my car. Anyone can tell you this a potentially deadly combination. When I realized my phone was missing about 2 hours later, it was too late. The phone was gone. No amount of frantic searching was going to turn it up.

At first, I was ready to deal with the consequences of my actions. That lasted for about, oh, 12 hours. By midday on Saturday I was having the classic signs of withdraw…cold sweats, mild panic attacks, the works. I even “borrowed” (or stole) Noel’s iPhone at one point in hopes of getting a fix.

And this is where I owe the BIG thank you! My friend Tony G had just upgraded his iPhone 3g to a 4, and he offered to let me use his old phone until I could figure out a permanent solution. So after about an hour in line at the AT&T store today, I’m back online again. Phew! And to make things even better, it seems my iTunes is smart enough to restore my phone. I won’t curse that iTunes autoplay business any more! That’s my new to me iPhone in the picture above, ready to help me through.

And to thank you Tony G (if you’re reading) know I’m on standby to bake/cook you whatever you want, whenever you want. No need to wait for your birthday…because you saved me, big time!

We’ll return to our regular recipe programming once I fully recover from this weekend’s trauma!

For more Wordless Wednesday, go here.

Or, how we took apart and reassembled my KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer.

If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you know that I love my KA Artisan stand mixer and that I use it ALL THE TIME for just about EVERYTHING. This kitchen workhorse has a permanent place on my counter and it’s been one of the focal points of our kitchen since we moved here five years ago. I asked for a KA because they’re supposed to last forever, and do just about every kitchen job. Or so I thought.

Last year when we were making the wedding cake, Eileen noticed that my mixer ran much, much faster than her Artisan. In the six months since then, my mixer has just started to run faster and faster. After Amelia’s birthday cake nearly exploded in my face while mixing last week (the mixer went from off to waaaay too fast!) I had had enough. I decided to stop ignoring the problem and get it fixed.

So I called the KA *customer experience center*. After three attempts, I finally got through, and the woman I talked to told me that since my mixer was out of warranty (that only lasts 1 year) it would be $32 for me to mail the mixer to them, plus a $25 diagnostic fee. The repairs would likely be over $100. Frustrated, I told her I would think about what I wanted to do next. I went to SeriousEats and posted a query there, to see if anyone had suggestions. Some very nice people posted links to a couple of tutorials on how to take apart your mixer. I read them, thought it didn’t look too hard, and then decided to take my mixer apart. In the end, I’m glad we did. I seemed to fix the problem, and it only cost about $10. And that was for the solvent to clean off the old grease and for the new grease to regrease the machine.

KitchenAid Deconstruct and Repair

If you’re worried about taking your mixer apart because you think you’ll break it, don’t. The whole thing is pretty solid, and there aren’t a ton of teeny tiny parts. The whole thing comes apart with a couple of screwdrivers and some patience. I am not handy at all and my husband is a bit handier. But my husband and I took the whole thing apart, cleaned it up, and put it back together in a couple of hours.

What you’ll need before you start:

Something to protect your work surface (we used a brown paper bag on my white countertops)
Small and Large Phillips Head Screwdriver
Small and Large Flat Head Screwdriver
Hammer
Popsicle Sticks
Paper Towels
Oil Solvent (we bought some that came in a can at Home Depot)
All-Purpose Grease (this came from an auto parts store)

Visit this site for an awesome step by step tutorial on how to get your mixer apart. Although the author has an older, classic Kitchenaid, his steps still work for taking apart your Artisan. Also, he has some great tips for regreasing.

Look at the manual for the Artisan here. This will give you a good idea of how it all fits together, and when you’re putting it back together and can’t figure out where [insert part here] goes, this will help you out.

Visit this site, which talks about how to replace the worm gear on a KA. I started this whole process thinking it was my worm gear that was busted. It wasn’t, but I’m glad we looked at this, because you have to take the whole gear tower apart to clean it, and this helped us get it back together.

Okay, Let’s get started!

Use the instructions on the first website to take your mixer apart. This is really just a bunch of unscrewing and popping off of the shiny silver bits. I recommend that you also take off the base off your mixer. This will make it easier to handle the head when you’re cleaning it out.

As you’re taking the mixer apart, be mindful of the wires at the back of the machine, especially the ones that connect into the plug. These are your main power source, and unless you’re an electrician, if you break em, you’re buying a new mixer!

Here is my first look at the cracked open mixer. Yeah, that stuff’s not chocolate or cake batter–it’s gross, thick, sticky, tar like grease. I don’t think it’s supposed to look like that either. Clean grease looks like Crisco. This stuff was not anything like Crisco–it was more like that stuff that’s washing up on shore in the Gulf from the oil spill. Inside my mixer. Don’t think that’s help the mechanical operation at all, do you?

Close ups of the inside:

Main gear tower

Top cover

After you get to this point, it’s time to clean it up. You want to do this outside, because solvent it noxious stuff, but it’s the only thing that is going to get the mixer clean. Don’t use water, because it won’t remove the grease and it could damage your motor. Make sure you clean out all of the original grease, including any stuff that is stuck down in corners. We just kept spraying solvent until our mixer was clean, whipping out the inside with a paper towel to remove any solvent residue.

The cleaned up inside, after we let it air dry for a couple of hours:

See that white-ish gear? It’s the worm gear, which I thought was what was broken on my mixer, but it was fine. Worm gears are often what breaks though (they’re designed as a fail safe to keep the engine of your mixer from breaking) so if you open your KA up and it is broken or sheared, don’t panic, you can order another one online for fairly cheap.

Top cover

Now, it’s time to put it back together. But first, the grease.

We used this white all purpose grease we bought at an auto parts store. The grease says it’s for all uses, including kitchen uses. You can also order KA brand grease from them, but we decided to use this.

You want to grease up all of the mechanical surfaces really well, making sure you get grease in all the nooks and crannies. Anywhere there was grease before, you want to reapply it. With the gears, it’s a good idea to grease as you reassemble them to make sure it’s in there really good, and that you turn the gears to make sure the grease is well distributed.

As you’re greasing, you’re putting the thing back together. If you can’t remember where something goes, don’t panic, just look at the manual–it will tell you where to put it.

When you get to the point where you’re ready to put the two halves together, make sure you wipe around the edges so you don’t get grease where the two halves join. This will just make a mess! Carefully fit the two halves together. The seal will tighten once you put the screws back in.

Now, if you’re having the same problem as I did [loss of speed control] the solution to that problem is actually at the back of the mixer body, behind the first panel you took off during your deconstruction. If you move the speed control lever, you’ll see that the black piece at the back of the mixer moves in and out as you move the lever. There’s a screw at the base of the panel that helps to control the tension of the panel. If the screw is too far in or out, your speed control won’t work properly.

After some trial and error (and some microscopic turns of the screw) we discovered that the screw has to be about 1/4 unscrewed for the speed mechanism to work properly. Our guess is that this screw can jiggle itself in or out if you’re making something that puts a lot of strain on the mixer (like say, bread or marshmallows). I’m planning to keep this in mind so I can check the screw after I make something heavy duty. That back panel pops right off, so it’s easy to check on the adjustment. Just make sure the mixer is unplugged first!

So now the mixer is back together, and back in operation. I made cookie dough yesterday and everything worked great! So happy I decided to give it a go and troubleshoot my KA!

Four years ago I married the perfect man. He puts up with me and all my crazy.

[Noel aren't you glad we're not getting married now, cause nowadays, you know I'd want to make my own cake!]

We got married from our 990 square feet, here in East Baltimore. It was perfect. It was us. And everyday as we walk around in our everyday lives, we’re reminded of that special day.

Scenes from the day:

Thank you Noel. I love you more every day!

ps-all of the photos on this page were taken by the Amazing Will Kirk. On film! Amazing!

I think I might need a flour intervention.

Saturday morning I counted, and I have four types of wheat flour. FOUR. All-Purpose, Cake, Whole Wheat, and White Whole Wheat. All from King Arthur, of course. If you don’t use King Arthur Flour, you really should. It’s the secret to really fantastic baked goods, and once you use King Arthur you won’t go back. All of their wheat is grown and processed in the US, and their flour is always unbleached and unbromated. You don’t really want to eat bleach, do you? No I don’t work for them, I just really, really love the company, their products, their recipes, and the website. So back to flour–I also have almond meal and cornmeal, and multi-grain baking mix. Oh, and did I mention I ordered a 25 pound bag of All-Purpose Sunday morning? Yeah, I might be close to the point of intervention.

So why would anyone possibly count their bags of flour? Well Saturday morning was cracker time at the Ratskellar. There was a blogger meetup scheduled for Saturday night, and I had been too slow on the draw to claim a sweet item on the potluck list. But I was still determined to bake, so crackers it was! I went to pull out the two types of flour I needed to make the crackers (All-Purpose and White Whole Wheat) and I think it took me three trips to the pantry to get the right combination of flour bags! And then it hit me, if I kept pulling out the wrong sacks, maybe there was a flour problem. And then I counted. Eek. A bit startled at the revelation, I just closed the pantry door and went back to my baking and my coffee. I use them all, so it’s okay, right?

Crackers weren’t the only thing I had planned for meetup. I also had mushroom dip, which I had just been waiting for an excuse to make since I saw Deb make it back in December. Mushrooms + Shallots + Butter/Wine/Cream = OMG DELISH!

But sadly for my Baltimore Food Blogger Friends and Sweet Mary (who I’m sure did lots and lots of prep for our arrival) Mother Nature had other plans for Saturday. Instead of that dusting of snow the TV folks had been calling for, we ended up with more like 6 inches of snow (Mr. Foot was right!) and woefully bad roads and negative visibility. So we postponed meetup and some usual suspects helped to eat the crackers and dip. I was sad not to see everyone, but happy not to be on the roads!

Three Seed Crackers
Adapted from the King Arthur Website (I told you I love it–it’s a fantastic recipe resource!)

These crackers remind me of the fancy flatbreads that you can buy at the store–crispy, crunchy, and full of flavor. The seeds that load down these guys make them especially tasty and surprisingly filling. And the mix of All-Purpose and White Whole Wheat gives these another element of nutty flavor. You could probably substitute regular whole wheat for the white whole wheat, but don’t try with only all purpose–you’ll lose a critical flavor element!

Ingredients:

Crackers

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoons non-diastatic malt powder or sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons raw sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Topping

• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, midget preferred
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup flax seeds

Directions:

To make the dough: Mix and knead together all of the cracker ingredients (except the seeds) to a smooth, fairly stiff dough. Add 1-2 more tablespoons of water if the dough is dry.

Knead in the seeds. Then let the dough rise, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until it’s expanded a bit. Dough should spring back when touched.

Divide the dough in half. Working with one piece at a time on a well floured surface, roll it into a 16″ x 11″ rectangle, about 1/8″ thick. Sprinkle each half with 1/4 of the topping seeds, pressing them in with a rolling pin. Turn the dough over and repeat with the remaining topping seeds. If the seeds won’t stick, brush the dough with water and gently roll your pin over the dough to work seeds in.

Cut crackers into strips. Place cut crackers on a lightly greased baking sheet. Prick all over with a fork. Let rise for about 30 minutes; the dough will get just a bit puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the crackers are a medium-deep brown. Remove from the oven and cool.

Mushroom Dip
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

This dip is fantastic and in my book it tastes like a trip to France. Melt on your tongue mushrooms, butter, shallots, cream–I felt like Julia was looking over my shoulder as I whipped this up in a Paris kitchen, even though I was really in snowy East Baltimore. This is best eaten when it’s hot, but you can rewarm it with a bit of extra cream. And if you’re serving a crowd you might want to double the recipe below, because this goes fast!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large or 2 small shallots, chopped
• 2 tablespoons dry white wine
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Clean excess dirt from mushrooms–don’t skip this step because mushrooms like this are typically grown on manure! Slice mushrooms in half lengthwise and brush away any grit; chop into 1/4-inch pieces.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté until very limp, about three minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Add wine, reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for five minutes more. Don’t worry about the mushrooms becoming overly brown–they’ll stew nicely in that bit of wine. Don’t lift the lid though, all of the moisture needs to stay in!

Remove lid and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until most of the remaining liquid has evaporated, about two minutes. Stir in cream; simmer until slightly thickened and light brown, two minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Be nice to your friends and neighbors and don’t wolf all of this immediately. But if they get distracted by something silly like this, then feel free to eat as much as you want!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled cookiepalooza post to bring you this breaking news–we had a Ratskellar birthday this past weekend! And you know what that means.

Cake time! Birthdays call for cakes, even when you’re up to your eyeballs in cookies. Especially the birthdays of very important people, like my Dad, who just happened to turn 51 years young this weekend. I didn’t get the opportunity to make Dad a birthday cake last year for his big 5-0 (we were at the happiest place on earth, where they were not so happy about me bringing a bakery cake to their fancy pants restaurant) so I needed to make it up this year, big time.

When I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen right after Thanksgiving I knew immediately that I needed to make it for Dad’s birthday, simply based on the adjectives Deb used to describe it– “ridiculous”, “richest thing ever to come out of the smitten kitchen”–these all seemed PERFECT for Dad. He IS a bit of a chocoholic. And of course there was that challenge at the end of the recipe–”Because if you know anyone who can eat more than a one-inch wedge of this cake, I might need to meet them. I might have to shake their hand.” Well, Dad did it, so when he meets Deb, I want to come along for the experience!

Cappuccinno Fudge Cheesecake
Adapted from Bon Appetit, via Smitten Kitchen

This recipe deserves a warning–it is super rich and super chocolatey. Even chocolate lovers like Dad had to pause mid-slice to take a breather. Oh yeah, and it might be the most involved thing I’ve ever made. It took me the better part of a morning to assemble and bake, three hours to cool in the fridge, and then another hour to decorate (piping ganache is HARD!). And it’s supposed to rest for 24 hours so the flavors can meld. So if you are going to try to make this, make sure you give yourself plenty of time and be patient. Also, I suggest having a whole gaggle of people–say 30 odd holiday party guests–on hand to help you eat this. Because although you may be able to eat a whole slice, you will not be able to eat this whole cheesecake alone!

But despite the effort and the richness, it is so worth it. Dad called me again last night to thank me.

Crust

• 1 9-ounce box chocolate wafer cookies (like Famous Chocolate Wafers)
• 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 7 tablespoons hot melted unsalted butter

Ganache

• 1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
• 20 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup Kahlúa or other coffee-flavored liqueur

Filling

• 3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum (I didn’t have any so I used more Kahlua)
• 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder or coffee crystals
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
• 3 large eggs

Topping

• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

A handful of chocolate covered espresso beans (the little packet from Starbucks was perfect!)

Directions
Make crust: Finely grind cookies, chopped chocolate, brown sugar, and nutmeg in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and process until crumbs begin to stick together. Transfer crumbs to 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 3-inch-high sides. Wrap plastic wrap around fingers (don’t skip this or you will have crumbs all over your fingers!) and press crumb mixture firmly up sides to within 1/2 inch of top edge, then over bottom of pan. Don’t worry if the sides aren’t even, it won’t show in the final cheesecake.

Make ganache: Bring cream to simmer in large saucepan. Place chocolate and Kahlúa in a heatproof bowl, pour simmering cream over chocolate. Allow to sit for one minute, then whisk until chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth. Pour 2 cups ganache over bottom of crust. Freeze until ganache layer is firm, about 30 minutes–this is about the time it will take you to assemble the rest of the cheesecake. Reserve remaining ganache; cover and let stand at room temperature to use later for decorating.

Make filling: Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until blended. Scrape down bowl, then beat in flour. Stir Kahlua, espresso powder, vanilla, and molasses in small bowl until instant coffee dissolves; beat into cream cheese mixture. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.

Pour filling over cold ganache in crust — it will completely fill the pan. Place cheesecake on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until top is brown, puffed and cracked at edges, and the center two inches moves only slightly when pan is gently shaken, about one hour (mine took 70 minutes). Transfer cheesecake to rack. Cool 15 minutes while preparing topping

Make topping: Whisk sour cream, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl to blend. Pour topping over hot cheesecake, spreading to cover filling completely. Bake until topping is set, about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer cheesecake to rack. Refrigerate hot cheesecake on rack until cool, about three hours.

Release pan sides–if it seems like the cheesecake is stuck, run a knife around the edge. Transfer cheesecake to serving platter. Spoon reserved ganache into pastry bag fitted with small star tip. Decorate as you please! I went with the lattice look done by both Deb and Bon Appetit. Chill until ganache is firm, at least 6 hours.

Before serving, allow cheesecake to warm slightly. This will avoid the situation we had, where we couldn’t quite make it through the solid as a rock ganache layer at the bottom of the cake. After a few minutes of warming though, cutting was MUCH easier.

And once again–HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I’m already starting to thing about NEXT year’s cake, cause this one is going to be hard to top!

For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.