The Lettuce Beets: Quarantine Chronicles Pt. 2

On this week's episode, Charlotte and Laura continue their adventures in quarantine! Charlotte has a huge Zoom meeting with her family, and Laura tries out some recipes from Baking With Josh & Ange. The girls also review the current season of Top Chef, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Sarah Maas' House of Earth and Blood, and Juliet Grey's Becoming Marie Antoinette. All this plus, Charlotte and Laura find out what their quarantine characters are.


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Don't forget to join us next week for The Lettuce Beets! The next topic episode of The Lettuce Podcast is a super secret topic selected by Charlotte. We're gonna keep the suspense going, but trust us! You don't want to miss it!

Until then,

Arugulater!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Lettuce - Show Notes

Check your Marauder's Map and make sure the coast is clear! In this episode of The Lettuce Podcast Tori, Charlotte, and Laura return to the world of Harry Potter to discuss its third book. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban presents new characters and new classes in addition to raising many questions. Tensions are high as Harry and his friends attempt to learn about and protect themselves from the famed killer Sirius Black. Join the girls as they discuss new Hogwarts professors Trelawney, Lupin, and Hagrid. They also share their views on the first fight between our three heroes Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Is Snape's prejudice against Lupin justified? What was Dumbledore's role in Sirius' trial? Does the Time Turner work while you're sleeping? 

Important questions are asked and answered as the hosts use The Art of Divination: Practices from Around the World to try their hand at seeing the future. Tori, Charlotte, and Laura then challenge each other in their favorite game: Kill, Marry, Pity Date! 

This episode's podtail and podsnack were Wolfsbane Potion (recipe here) and Golden Snitch Cakeballs. For the link and some tips on how to make them both delicious and beautiful check out Tori's blog post.

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The next episode of The Lettuce Podcast will continue the Harry Potter series. Laura hosts her favorite book from the series: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!

Lettuce Wraps- Golden Snitches

Snitches Galore

    So for today's podcast, I decided to try one of the recipes we have pinned on Pinterest. After looking through my options, I decided that I wanted to try to make the golden snitch cake pops. I bake regularly, so these seemed like they would be a challenge, while being familiar enough to be doable. Between my grocery store and my crafts store, I soon had all of the materials. One thing I will say up top is that if I were to make these again, I would bake the cake first, so that it had enough time to cool. The wings are by far the most time consuming part, and if my cake had been cooling while I made them, the whole process would have been much more efficient.

         Here you see the wings that I made out of gum paste. Since I am not an artist, I used graph paper to draw the wings, and then traced that onto card-stock to make my stencil. This was relatively simple, but since I was tracing each one individually, they definitely took awhile. 

        Here we are a little further into the process. The cake balls were made using a butterbeer cupcake recipe and the recipe for a butterscotch frosting. The two were combined to make the balls form, and then they were frozen. I melted chocolate in the meantime, and then used the chocolate to secure the lollipop sticks into the cakes. 

         Lastly I coated the cakes in the melted chocolate and let it harden. The last step was to secure the wings to the pops, again with the chocolate. These are the best of the best, and my roommate and I now have all of the lesser efforts to look forward to. They went over well at the recording, and fit well with our return to the Harry Potter series. Overall this was fun to make, and I would do it again, especially without the wings. 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Lettuce - Show Notes

This week on The Lettuce Podcast is all about the second installment of the Harry Potter series! Tori, Laura, and Charlotte slide down a pipe into the depths of the Chamber of Secrets and answer many important questions. Is Dumbledore a manipulative mastermind with a sweet-tooth? Didn't any of Ginny Weasley's brothers notice her strange behavior? Why was the scene in Knockturn Alley/Borgin & Burkes altered for the movie?

After the critical deconstruction of the book and its movie companion, the hosts take a break from cleaning their pocket protectors to have some fun! A tragically silly one-word-at-a-time story game called Harry Potter Alphabet and a round of Kill, Marry, Pity Date close out the show!

This week's podcast drink and snack were Polyjuice Potion made by Laura and Pumpkin Pasties made by Tori! If you're interested in making either of these treats at home you can find recipes here:

8 Magical and Delicious Harry Potter Cocktails 
Pumpkin Pasties

The next episode of The Lettuce Podcast will focus on Season 1 of Glee. Tori has been both a genuine and hate-watching fan since the beginning, Charlotte had seen a handful of episodes pre-Lettuce, and Laura was completely unfamiliar! Amid a cast of unlikeable characters and plot-holes aplenty, can they find love in a hopeless place?

Lettuce Wraps - Treacle Tart Edition

In an effort to prepare for our very first full-length episode recording tomorrow, I decided to make a special Harry Potter themed treat! Harry's favorite dessert is treacle tart. If you're like me and/or you aren't up to snuff on your British delicacies, you were unfamiliar with this dish prior to reading the Harry Potter series. If you're even more like me, you also have no idea how to pronounce "treacle". I'll address the latter - some light Googling (dirty!) led me to a pronunciation guide that says it's "tree-cle". So, what is it? Treacle is a British term for a golden sugar cane syrup that is similar to molasses. The filling for treacle tart is made mostly from this syrup and a handful of other ingredients. There are dozens of recipes available on the internet; most include lemon zest/juice, breadcrumbs, and ginger in their list of ingredients. After searching for a while, I choose this this recipe and added a few modifications based on other recipes I saw. 

 Step 1: Assemble ingredients! A different recipe I looked at suggested making fresh bread crumbs instead of using dried store-bought breadcrumbs. I did this by ripping 2 slices of bread up and then pulsing them in a food processor. Also, another recipe called for ground ginger so I added 1/4 tsp to the filling. Lastly, my local grocery store was sold out of Lyle's Golden Syrup (seriously, what are the odds?) which appears to be the brand of choice for treacle. Luckily, I was able to find Hey Shuga! sugar cane syrup in the organic section.

 

 Step 2: I decided to make individual tarts instead of one large tart. I had to divide the full-size pie crusts into sections and then mold them into a muffin pan.

Step 3: Mix filling ingredients! I love you so much, food processor!

 Step 4: Fill cups! I really wanted this picture to be landscape oriented, but it is refusing and I can't figure out why. C'est la vie.

 Step 5: Bake! They turned out a little oozy after baking, but my house smelled like a sugary, lemony wonderland. No complaints here!

Step 6: Finishing touches & Tasting! Confectioner's sugar and a spoonful on whipped cream. My boyfriend, Kyle, and I taste tested. I mean, you HAVE to make sure they aren't poisonous before sharing them with others, right? :) 

Final Thoughts: the filling was more liquid than I think it should have been. I've never had treacle tart before so I'm not sure what the desired consistency is, but I think it's supposed to be similar to pumpkin or pecan pie. These had a filling more like a lava cake. That being said, they are freaking delicious!! They taste like a yummy lemon candy. VERY SWEET. For me, the little tart was just enough to not be turned off by the sweetness of the syrup. Hopefully Charlotte and Tori will enjoy them at our recording tomorrow!

Arugulator!
Laura