Sat - August 9, 2008Dibs and dabsSummer produce, yummy eats
The local peaches are outstanding this
year; I'm assuming it's because of the mild, wet spring and mild, nearly-as-wet
early summer. Whatever -- the local grocery is putting out some brilliant
freestones from right across the river in Illinois and we're snarfin' 'em up
quartered the minute they ripen (I buy 'em hard and brown-bag them at home; the
bag-boys are a little rough on 'em.) The children would probably rise up
en
masse in protest should I actually try
to bake with them.
Tomatoes, OTOH... We're getting them in from the truck farms at the nursery produce stand, which is a step above the central-Floridian cardboard they sell at the supermarket, but still isn't up there with the ones you find on a card table at the end of someone's driveway along with a coffee can and a hand-lettered sign with the price and "Honor System" on it. The folks four houses west have huge ones on the vine (see: wet spring and summer, above) but they're still completely green, when they should have started ripening a month ago. They were set out late because it was wet, and we just haven't had enough completely sunny, really hot days to get them to turn. Whaaaah! I want homegrown tomatoes! On the OTHER other hand (whut, you don't have three?)... the man at the aforementioned produce stand had cantaloupe that were starting to go overripe on the belly and offered one to me for $1 with the caveat that I had to take it straight home, cube it, and stuff it in a zip-loc, which I did. The car smelled like melon all the way home and the house smelled like melon all night, warm and sweet. Better than sweaty kids any day. We went to a Shakesville blogger meet-up at Waveflux & M's house Friday night, and the eats were light, summery, and sooo delicious. They served a cold red-pepper soup which I will be doing at home as soon as I get the recipe from them, albeit with vegetable broth instead of chicken in deference to Daughter, and a grilled chicken and pasta salad that used several of the fresh herbs from their garden. Being the rude, greedy-Gus that I am, I begged a baggie of sage from them when they harvest in the fall, since I used the last of Gran's a few years ago. I took over a mixed-greens salad with the aforementioned truck-farm tomatoes, and the creamy white-wine-vinegrette from the Clementine, Apple, and Spinach Salad (I use half-and-half, not heavy cream.) (Ooh, I had forgotten all about that pumpkin soup -- I should read my own back entries once in a while.) I'm seriously considering grabbing one of those $4 live potted basil plants at the grocery store, simply because I spend that much on fresh basil every time I make Roasted Tomato Soup. If it weren't for the fact that it's about the only thing I use fresh basil for (I see y'all shaking your heads in disgust; stop it) I've have grabbed a plant earlier. Can I keep it going in the southwest-facing window over the sink all winter, d'ya think, or would it be happier under the gro-bulb on the plant stand? Posted at 02:14 PM Home Fri - July 25, 2008Shrimp ÉtouféeWork, but very yummy
 We've started eating out too much again, so I polled the kids for things to fix for supper and Daughter dragged out the recipe binder and decided to make Southern Living's Shrimp and Crab Étoufée (but without the crab, because it does foul things to my digestive tract,) It took an hour and a half from start to table because the miserable recipe calls for uncooked still-in-the-shell shrimp (fresh or frozen, they don't care) and then of course the first step is "Peel the shrimp." So Daughter and I stood there peeling 2 pounds of 70-90 ct. raw shrimp. Augh! If it's not important that they be unfrozen, why is it important that they be unpeeled? At least we caught them on sale at $5 / pound, so the meal didn't cost an arm and a leg. (Foodies may skip the lectures on the importance on getting very fresh shrimp and how it still being in the shell is a better guarantee of that. I've seen the Good Eats episode on that subject. I'm in the middle of the freakin' continent; the only way I'm getting truly fresh shrimp is to drive 14 hours and then eat it while I'm there. We have two types of seafood here -- frozen and previously-frozen.) Howsomever, it is a delicious recipe! And may I brag that my daughter did the whole thing by herself with me acting only as a sous-chef; I did nothing but help peel shrimp and measure out some spice ingredients as she called them out when she was at a point where she couldn't stop stirring. She made her first roux and it was gorgeous. She didn't burn it or undercook it, it was a lovely caramel color when she was done and the final dish was a beautiful copper shade (it has a tablespoon of tomato paste in it.) Posted at 10:05 AM Home Wed - November 28, 2007Holiday treatsA couple will be missing...
After tossing out most of a
lemon-poppyseed cake a couple of years in a row, I've learned to ask for a list
of what holiday goodies my family wants, rather than just hauling off and making
every one I can think of. Each family member has been shown the list and told,
"Add anything you want that's not already on here." And #2-Son is already after
me to start baking. Um, can I at least wait until the first of December,
kiddo?
Nobody wants Bishop's Bread this year. Hmpfh. I'm fighting my weight; I sure as hell don't need to eat a whole loaf by myself. And Hubs said, "You don't have to make Russian Teacakes. Nobody eats them but me." Fine. (Mom, will you make me some Bishop's Bread when I come to your house?) Posted at 08:16 AM Home Sun - November 25, 2007Beaujolais nouveau 2007Don't bother
The girl at the wine seller was generous
when she described this year's vintage as "jammy." I bought two bottles of the
Mommessin, which she said was the best of the lot, and I'm regretting that I
spent money (if $12 can be called money) on the second bottle. Thin. Almost
watery. Not even fit to wash down Pizza Hut, really.
Posted at 07:25 PM Home Mon - November 19, 2007Just a reminderSince it's Thanksgiving week in
America
A pointer backwards to Cranberry-Walnut
Salsa.
Posted at 04:32 PM Home Sun - November 18, 2007Waitrose's "100 Greatest Moments in Food" UPDATEDSteady on, they are British
The British grocery chain Waitrose put up
"100
Greatest Moments in Food" on their website last
August.
Fire "came first" as they say on the other side of the Pond (Yankese: came in first) followed by the invention of the sandwich and the hamburger. Some of their list is very Brit-specific (to be expected) and much of their ordering is somewhat suspect, including the putting of the invention of the chocolate bar three places above the cultivation of grains. Or maybe not... In other news, U.K. grocery Tesco decided about a year ago to move into the U.S., opening a chain of high-end supermarkets starting on the West Coast. Tesco is the Hat tip to Respublica for the former, and Hubs for the latter. Posted at 05:05 PM Home Tue - October 16, 2007That one goes in the "eat" columnMarinade for salmon
Searching for something to do with the
salmon fillets I'd thawed for supper, I came upon this recipe for Alaskan
BBQ Salmon at allrecipes.com. I adjusted it down for the 24 oz. of
fish I had, and for baking instead of grilling. This is soooo not healthy;
you're basically candying salmon.
 Baked Apple Cider Salmon Serves 6 - 8 Prep time: 5 minutes Marinade: 30 minutes Bake: 20 minutes 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup honey Dash liquid smoke 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 2 pounds salmon fillets Preheat oven to 400° F. In a baking dish big enough to hold all the fish, mix the first four ingredients. Add the salmon and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, turning once. Bake salmon for 20 minutes or until it flakes easily with a fork. Baste it occasionally if you get the urge. Warning: the marinade will foam up in the oven. Make sure your baking dish is at least an inch deep. Posted at 07:17 PM Home Fri - September 21, 2007Two great things in oneA family-owned restaurant and Louisiana
cookin'
 'Way up here in the frozen North, I can get a proper po-boy. They even ask if you want it dressed. Using that word. I'm in heaven. About a year ago, a teeny little one-slot restaurant opened up in a local strip-mall. A local man and his Lafayette, LA-born wife serve po-boys, red beans and rice, jambalaya, crawfish etouffee', and a bread pudding that's almost as good as Mrs. Swampytad's. And that's the whole damn menu right there. You can also get Zapp's chips, Slap Ya Mama seasonings from New Iberia, and Pat O'Brian's drink mixes. You'll have to wait a bit because Shawn will not drop oysters to fry or put the andouille, onions and peppers on the grill until they've been ordered. I think he may be breading his oysters and shrimp by hand, because I've never tasted any quite like them. But he takes great pride in using the proper ingredients imported from Louisiana, and local businesses for what he can. He's even found / taught someone here in town to make a perfect baguette for those po-boys, and they're three feet long. Last night we heard about how he pays extra to bring up the proper red beans from Memphis (the closest place he can get them) because he's tried using other kinds, and they just don't taste right. And OMG, if Shawn says you'll have to wait a bit for your bread pudding because he needs to whip up a fresh batch of sauce, then you are actually very lucky, because I think he dumps a little extra booze into it to make up for the wait. Most of the employees are relatives; everybody in the kitchen is. And if it's just Shawn and his wife Susan back there, then their kids Doris and little Shawn will have taken over a big table out front with toys, homework, supper, and soda cups. Last night little Shawn had just learned the cat's cradle trick where you capture then free somebody's wrist, and he was keen to practice it on and teach it to everybody. He was using a short string of Mardi Gras beads and by the time he had them strung properly on his fingers, there was hardly any room for any of us with adult-sized hand to do the trick. It didn't keep us from trying, though. If he's seen you more than once, (big) Shawn knows you, and he'll come out of the kitchen to talk to you in between bouts of cooking. You'll hear about which media outlets have featured the restaurant, and how the catering end of the business is going if you ask. (I think that's probably where he makes more of his money, honestly.) He'll ask how everyone in the family is doing -- the kids all got quizzed about what they wanted to study in college -- and where any missing members are. I caught trouble last night for not having Hubs along, and when Shawn saw that I was taking half my order of bread pudding home for him, he refused to let me pay for either portion. Bless. Posted at 06:58 AM Home Sat - May 26, 2007A Holiday Weekend FeastCelebrating a couple of days early
Because Daughter heads for Wyoming in the
morning, we're doing our tradition summer holiday cook-out and feast this
evening. The menu:
Grilled hamburgers (Boca-burgers for Daughter) Grocery-store-bakery buns (egg-based, and slice-yourself for extra freshness) Grilled Vidalia onion slices Steak-cut French fries (wide-cut chips for my Queen's-English-speaking friends) Baked beans Green salad Peaches with homemade shortcake and whipped cream Strawberry lemonade I expect nobody will do much of anything after we leave the table... Posted at 02:40 PM Home Fri - May 18, 2007WhoopsUm, that would explain it...
My little bro Swampytad blagged (blog
brag) extensively about his wife's
brownies. He even used them in a competition. Yours truly, Queen of
the Boxed Brownie Mix, thought it wouldn't hurt to maybe make homemade brownies
once in my life, especially if they were as good as the boy claimed, and I know
his wife for a killer cook. She's lucky we don't descend on NOLA about twice a
year just to have her feed us! So I emailed Mrs. Swampy and wheedled it out of
her. It's from her mama's side of the family and I don't have permission to
print it, sorry.
I finally got around to purchasing the things I needed for it but didn't already have (Ghirardelli cocoa, dark Karo) and yesterday I mixed up a double batch right before the kids got home from school. We had them for dessert after supper. I thought they were good, but not outstanding. I tried to decide what wasn't quite working for me; thought to myself that next time I'd mix them by hand rather than with the electric mixer because hey, even though the recipe says it's ok, you just don't beat brownies. I pondered and I pondered, and just before I fell asleep I realized: I left out the oil. ONE WHOLE CUP OF OIL. I was trying to make them using just one bowl, and went with mixing up the dry ingredients and then adding the wet ones and the sugar like all the telly cooks tell you to do over and over. But the oil was the first ingredient listed, and because I was measuring and mixing and talking to Daughter all at the same time, once I got the dry ingredients mixed together I just carried on down the ingredient list from where I'd stopped. This sort of thing has happened before, when I left half the flour out of a toffee cookie recipe the first time I made it. (They spread a bit, they did.) We'll be trying this one again, after I get some more Ghirardelli 60%-cocoa chocolate chips. P.S. When I announced what I'd done, Hubs kindly said, "So, you made the low-fat version." Posted at 12:19 PM Home Sun - May 13, 2007Bright Sky Birthday CakeBake a rainbow
The May/June issue of
American
Girl magazine calls this simply
"Colorful Cake." Daughter came across it and immediately demanded it for her
birthday party. Because I'm a sucker, I
agreed.
Make a white cake cake-mix batter according to directions, and divide it into four parts. Add a tablespoon of Jello to each part of the batter; they used cherry, orange, lime, and berry-blast and I followed suite. They specifically state that one should not use grape. They call for using 9-inch cake pans and baking 15 minutes; I have 8-inch dark, heavy, no-stick pans that call for setting the oven 25 degrees F cooler than the recipe and I ended up baking for 20 minutes. 15 minutes was too little, although I might have gotten away with 18. Put the layers together in rainbow-order with a can of yellow icing. I didn't want to use lemon, so used the "butter-cream" flavor. Then you reserve a 1/4 cup of a can of white icing and mix six drops of blue food coloring into the rest. Frost the outside of the cake with the blue, and use the white to make clouds. The layers cooled and ready for assembly (the furthest right really is blue):  The layers assembled:  The cake, frosted (name blurred):  The first slice:  My writing-icing rainbow ran, blast it. It was still a pretty cake. This is a pain in the fanny to do, especially if you don't have four of the same-sized cake pans. It is also super-sweet, using two cans of icing and regular Jello in the batter (it didn't say one could use sugar-free and after the caveat about using the grape flavor, I wasn't going to risk it.) It was ok to make just once for the helluvit, but if she wants another one, she can bake it herself. Posted at 08:25 PM Home Wed - April 18, 2007ShamelessVote for meeeeeee
Do y'all remember I
entered the cake contest at Help! I Have a Fire in My
Kitchen? Well, it's time to vote, and I'm not ashamed to beg. Go
vote for your favorite entry, or better yet, vote for me even if it's not your
favorite entry.
Teddy says: Voting Procedure: 1. Anyone who wishes to can vote! 2. One vote from each email address (You can only vote once from one email address) 3. You can vote for your own recipe 4. Sign your name to your email - PLEASE 5. Due to the fact that I was late with this Voting will be open until May 15, 2007 closing at May 15, 2007 @ 11:59 EST (determined if need be by Email header) 6. It is legitimate to tell your friends to vote for you, family members etc. But ONLY ONE VOTE SET (1st, 2nd, 3rd Place) from one email. An email which has more than one set of votes will be disqualified. 7. Email MUST be sent firecakecontest@gmail.com 8. Email should be in the following format: * Email Subject: Great Cake Recipe Contest Vote * Email Body: 1. First Place: Put the title of the Post
here
2. Second Place: Put the title of the Post
here
3. Third Place: Put the title of the Post
here
All Entries for the Great Cake Recipe Contest Can Be found by Clicking on the icon below:  Posted at 05:07 PM Home Thu - March 22, 2007Buttermilk-Mexican Chocolate Pound CakeDifferent. Not sweet.
 There's a gorgeous photo of the cake in the hard version of the April 2007 issue of Southern Living Magazine along with the recipe, but of course it's not on the website when I want to show it to you. So you get my poor photographic efforts instead. Oh, no occasion, just the Black Forest Cake was long gone, and I was reading this month's issue of the magazine, and it looked good. Posted at 07:50 AM Home Wed - March 21, 2007From scratch?No, really.
Y'all have probably figured out that I am
a cake-mix sort of girl. The only "cakes" I bake from scratch are rather
esoteric ones, like Texas Sheet Cake or my great-granny's apple cake that is
really just apple chunks coated in barely enough batter to turn into cake when
it's baked.
But I just put a pound cake in the oven. A Mexican Chocolate pound cake. Made from scratch. OMG y'all - What. A. Mess. Melted baking chocolate, dry ingredients mixed together in a separate bowl and added alternately with buttermilk, yada, yada. I have every set of measuring spoons and half the measuring cups in the house (both liquid and dry) soaking in the kitchen sink, covered in (a very tasty) chocolate-cinnamon goo. Worse yet, I think my Bundt pan is a 10-cup instead of the 12-cup called for in the recipe. Pray for me. But man, the house smells good... Posted at 04:34 PM Home Sun - March 18, 2007Let me eat cake!Because it's my fave
I was right, the Black Forest cake is
tons better the second day when the pie filling and whipped cream have done
their work. But I couldn't very well make it a day ahead and had it be a
surprise, could I? Alas, but there are only three slices left. There's gonna
be a battle, or at least intense negotiations, after supper
tonight.
Cake is my favorite dessert. When I get the munchies for something sweet, I want cake. Hubs' is ice cream, hands down. I don't know about the kids, other than that Daughter doesn't care for pie-crust pie (as opposed to graham-cracker-crust pie) because she thinks the edge (known as pie bones around here) tastes funny, no matter how careful I am not to burn it. I think #2-Son has his dad's predilection towards ice cream. If it as served as an accompaniment for another dessert (birthday cake or pie or cobbler) he will request just ice cream after the first night, even if it's his birthday cake. It's genetic; my FIL was known to down a quart or more after playing a Legion baseball game. I will admit that it's probably more common to get a bad piece of cake when dining out than it is to get a bad piece of anything else. They can be too dry or tasteless from the recipe, or they can get too dry setting out on a buffet or even just in a kitchen. And a fancy presentation or icing job will lead your eyes to believe you're getting something special, only to have your mouth discover otherwise. I only eat dessert out on special occasions, and unless we're at a restaurant renowned for their desserts, I won't get the cake. I've been disappointed too many times. That said, my SIL makes the best cakes in the world. She took a couple of the Wilson classes, and she took 'em to heart. I asked her to make my wedding cake and transport it 250 miles to the wedding, as opposed giving to any wedding present. She did it, bless her. (She put it together and decorated it on-site. Don't be silly.) The grocery-store bakeries have started putting out cakes with what they call a "whipped" icing. It's supposedly something between butter cream frosting and whipped cream. Lots of people like it because it's "lighter", but I think it tastes like whipped shortening with a little sugar added. Give me butter cream or ganache on a cake. I'm not even much of one for a fondant / rolled icing, which is sooooo popular on wedding cakes now. Yeah, it's gorgeous, and you can do lots of pretty things on top of it. But it doesn't taste right. I want my butter cream! So, what's your favorite dessert? Posted at 10:26 AM Home |
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Total entries in this category: Published On: Aug 10, 2008 12:59 PM |