The Cast Iron Kitchen

quick ziti supper

2010-10-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that I haven't posted anything here since Mother's Day. lol. Well, there was that stint on the other blog, where I cheated on myself - there were a few foodie posts there. ROFL

Maybe one of these days, I'll transfer those recipes over to here. :)

But for now, I have a different objective in mind. I've watched my daughter grow up with a mixture of pride, love, happiness, and...dread. She's 19 1/2 now and talks about moving out one of these days. Sigh. I don't know what I'll do without her around here, she's sunshine in the mornings, yes, even those mornings when she's a bit of a grouch.

I started thinking about how she likes to cook, but she really hasn't had much time for a lot of learning or experimenting. She's a very good baker. :) But for supper dishes, she's not had many experiences so far. I thought it might be nice to post some basic recipes now and then and she can check in here for some of our favorites when she needs to. Especially when she gets tired of canned spaghetti sauce, ramen noodles, and rice (which she CAN cook LOL).

Quick Ziti Supper

Sauce:

1/2 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 - 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, cooked and drained

1 can tomato sauce

5 roma tomatoes, diced

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Pour about 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a heavy pot, and heat on medium high; add chopped onion and saute for 1 minute. Add chopped garlic and dried herbs and saute for another minute. Add cooked ground beef, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes and stir well; season as desired with salt and pepper. Let this simmer for about 10-15 minutes on medium low heat.

In the meantime, fill a large pot with water to within 2 inches from top, and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Heat to boiling on high heat, then add a box of ziti (serves 8) and stir well. Reduce heat to medium and cook at a low boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain carefully into a colander in the sink.

Add the shredded cheeses to the sauce mixture and stir until melted and blended. Turn off the heat. Add the hot drained ziti pasta to the sauce and toss gently until it's all mixed up.

If desired, top individual servings with fresh grated parmesan or percino-romano cheese (my favorite).

panna cotta ~

2010-05-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe on the blog of my friend Dawn, who linked to the barefoot contessa for the original recipe. As usual, I didn't have the exact ingredients, so I faked it out with what I had on hand. lol.

And for the record, I didn't do the balsamic strawberries, but I have a bag of homegrown strawberries from my mom, in the fridge - and I'm going to make that berry marinade tomorrow and give it a taste. :)

I've never made panna cotta ~ no, let me rephrase that. I've never heard of panna cotta, til I saw Dawn's post, and decided immediately to try it for Mother's Day dessert. And so I did, and it was a success. woot!

We all decided though, that it's a lot at once in my favorite ramekins, so next time, the smaller dishes will be the chosen ones.

Also, I don't think mine came out as smooth as Dawn's and other photos I've seen; I think it's because I used light sour cream instead of yogurt, which is what I had, and I should have blended it with a whisk a bit more, or even used a mixer to smooth it out. Ah, well...didn't affect the taste any, I don't think. lol

Panna Cotta

2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin powder (1 envelope)

3 tablespoons cold water

3 cups half and half

2 cups light sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

3/4 cup sugar

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over the water and let sit for about 10 minutes, while you prepare the other ingredients.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, pour 1 1/2 cups half and half, 2 cups sour cream, and both extracts and blend well. In a heavy saucepan, pour the other 1 1/2 cups half and half, and the sugar. Stir and heat on medium low until it reaches a simmer. Remove from heat and add the gelatin mixture, stirring until completely dissolved. Pour into the cold mixture in the mixing bowl, stirring as you pour, and mix well. Divide evenly among ramekins (6 or 8) and put in the refrigerator to cool. When completely cool, cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge overnight.

About 30 minutes before serving, mix 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Pour over 8 cups sliced fresh strawberries, and toss to coat.

To serve: remove plastic wrap from ramekins; run a table knife around the edge of the panna cotta, and dip the bottom of the ramekin in a bowl of hot water for a few seconds. Invert onto a plate, and top with balsamic strawberries.

Oven Roasted Broccoli ~

2010-04-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

Our new favorite way of cooking broccoli! WOOT!

Oven Roasted Broccoli

(Adapted from the recipe found here, originally attributed to Epicurious)

about 8 cups fresh broccoli florets

3 1/2-4 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon (or more, to taste) chili paste (found in Asian foods aisle or store)

3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk the oil, chili paste, garlic, salt and pepper together in a small bowl or measuring cup until well blended. Place broccoli florets on a cookie sheet lined with foil and brushed with olive oil. With a spoon, drizzle some of the oil mixture on each floret, or brush each one with the mixture using a pastry brush. Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the broccoli in for another 5 to 10 minutes, checking to see when they are crisped/caramelized to your liking. You can remove them after the 20 minute roasting time, and they are good then too, but more tender. I really like the crunchiness obtained by longer exposure to the heat.

Crusty-Chewy Bread ~

2010-04-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

I am really stinkin' excited about making bread this afternoon. After lazily blogbrowsing over the weekend and finding some really saweet cooking blogs, I ran across a recipe from Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (I'll post the links to the blogs in a few) and I was excited to try it. I mean, 5 minutes? Come on! Who wouldn't want that!

So I did it. The 5 minute prep time is just that, short and sweet. There is rising time, and a minute or so shaping time, and a rest, before baking - but those are the times to do another couple loads of laundry, surf the net, read or watch tv, or even exercise.

The blogs I visited were a sweet blog by Hannah called Honey & Jam, and a lovely blog called The Ivory Hut. I'm just posting links to the blogs, but if you want to search the recipe there, the posts are called No Knead Bread and Baking Bread Made Easy, respectively.

The ingredient list is short and sweet, and I'm just going to put this in my own words, since it's so simple.

Basic No-Knead Bread
adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Ingredients:
3 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a large (and I do mean large) bowl, mix the water, yeast, and salt, and let it sit for a few minutes. It doesn't have to be all bubbly or all the yeast dissolved. I let it sit for probably 5 minutes. Add the flour all at once, and using a wooden spoon, mix it until there are no more streaks of flour. I muttered to myself "gotta get my hands in it" and ended up flouring my hands and kneading it for just 3 or 4 folds. lol. Kinda defeated the purpose of no-knead.

Anyway, after that, cover it and let it sit on the counter for 2 or 3 hours. Don't cover it too tightly - there's a photo on The Ivory Hut of her dough just volcano-ing out of the container, LOL. If the cover or plastic wrap is on too tightly, it wouldn't be a good thing.

After the dough has risen and started deflating a little bit, it is ready for refrigeration or for baking right then. I did both, baking one loaf and refrigerating the rest for later. Tear off a grapefruit sized chunk of dough with floured hands, and gently pull the edges into a ball. Place this on a wooden cutting board or pizza sleeve that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Let it rest for at least 40 minutes.

About 20 minutes before you want to bake, preheat the oven to 450 and place a pizza stone on the middle rack and a cookie sheet or broiler pan on the bottom rack. (These are supposed to heat for that 20 minutes too). While they heat, dust the loaf with flour, and slash the top. Slide the loaf onto the preheated stone in the oven and pour a cup of hot water in the cookie sheet. Close the oven door quickly to contain the steam, and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until beautifully browned. Let it cool before slicing, according to one poster, although I couldn't do it and had an end piece after only 10 minutes out of the oven. LOL

This is supposed to keep for a couple weeks in your fridge, and you tear off what you want to bake and follow the baking directions above.

Fresh baked homemade bread. Isn't it a beautiful thing?

.

Blackberry Jelly Lemon Bars ~

2010-04-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

Probably the biggest success of my cooking for the Resurrection Sunday dinner was adapted from Elissa's Blackberry Jam Almond Bars. I like almond but I like lemon much, much more. If you are more crazy for the almond taste than lemon, be sure and try her recipe.

These were moist and delicious. They had a slight chewy texture and the top/edges were a little bit crispy. And the jelly that I used added a wonderful bit of sweetness in a nice bite ~ next time I make these, and I will be making them again, I'll dot even more jelly around so that I can cut the servings smaller and include jelly in each one.

Blackberry Jelly Lemon Bars
Makes a half sheet of bars

Bars
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
approx. 1 cup blackberry jelly

Drizzle
1 cup powdered sugar
lemon juice as needed to obtain a thick drizzle consistency - probably about 3 tablespoons

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a half sheet (13″x18″ rimmed sheet) with butter or nonstick spray.

Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Add in vanilla and lemon extract. Mix flour and salt together, and slowly add to mixer; mix until just incorporated.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Drop teaspoonfuls of jelly evenly over the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges start to turn golden brown.

Allow to cool, then cut into squares. Whisk together the powdered sugar, and lemon juice, and drizzle over the bars.

I felt like Bubba Gump for a little while ~

2010-04-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

My eyes popped the other day at the size of the prawns my friends Rick and Toni bought from a guy who brought them up from South Louisiana. They stopped by the church fish fry fundraiser while we were prepping, so they could pick up more ice to chill the shrimp. And so they showed us. It's just what we Southerners do. Got a big deer on opening day? It's in the back of your truck as you drive around town, so you can show people. Good deal on crawfish or shrimp, from down South? Same thing. lol.

Anyway - they offered to get me some next time, and I jumped on the chance. So today I had the fragrant pleasure of putting up 10 pounds of big Louisiana prawns. :)

I kept out a few to grill, and tried a recipe I found online, with lime juice, jalapenos, onions, and garlic, and a bit of other seasonings in there too. Wasn't too crazy about it. They were worth eating, but not as tasty as I wanted. I'll keep looking...

But the rest, I deheaded and froze. Some of them, I peeled first, some I left the shells on. And with the heads and shells, I made some fantastic shrimp stock and put it in the freezer, in anticipation of some yummy chowders and soups to come.

Laissez les bons temps rouler, y'all. :)

Take the heads and shells and rinse them a couple of times in cold water. Let them drain while you peel and slice 2 large onions; slice 2 large lemons; chop 5 or 6 baby carrots (or one regular type carrot) into chunks; and chop 2 stalks of celery into chunks. Drizzle about 4 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of a large stock pot, and heat. Add chopped/sliced veggies and lemon and the heads/shells of the shrimp, and cook it for about 5 minutes on medium high heat.

Add approximately 4 to 6 quarts of cold water to the pot, or however much it takes to cover everything by an inch or so of water, and toss in 4 bay leaves, a palm full of sea salt and a palm full of whole black peppercorns. Bring this to a strong boil, stirring occasionally, and reduce heat to medium or whatever keeps the pot at a steady simmer. Cook this way for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally to mix everything up.

Cool the cooked stock for a while, and then strain it into a big bowl or pot. Be sure to tilt the strainer and mash the solids to get all the juice out; it has a way of hiding up in those little heads and the strainer should be tilted all around to get it.

Discard the solids once strained out, and measure the stock into prepared freezer bags, labeling with the name and date. Freeze until use.

I don't know how long it keeps, but I would think it'd need to be used within 6 or 8 months, at the longest. You might want to google that.

Look at the size of those babies! And ignore my man hands. I gave up years ago on having delicate, ladylike hands. I mean, look at that thenar eminence. It's as big as the heel of a delicate lady's foot, for gosh sakes. LOL

And here are the skewers of shrimps ready to be grilled, with the marinade poured back on them until actually grilling on the rack. Like I said, they were okay, but not nearly as yummy as I wanted them to be. Back to the drawing board for grilled shrimp marinade. :)

Lee's dressing ~

2010-04-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

I'm sure Lee would not claim this dressing, as he found it in a local-to-him magazine, from a restaurant where his family loves the salad dressing, so I guess it's not really his. But in our house, the biscuits we eat are his ('hey mom, are these Lee's biscuits? Yay!'); the fudge we make is his ('hey mom, is this Lee's fudge? Yay!'); and the chocolate chip cookies are his as well ('hey mom, are these Lee's cookies? Yay!'), even though the biscuits and cookies are actually Alton Brown's, and the fudge, it probably came off the back of a jar, if I'm remembering correctly. rofl

Anyway, this is Lee's dressing, and I don't even know the name of the place who originally makes it, but if someone needs to know, pop me a comment down there and I'll ask Lee. :)

It's a bit on the sweet side, yet rich and rather complex, imo. I tend to go for tart over sweet, but I really liked the smooth flavor of this dressing. It makes a LOT but it also halves or quarters easily. Lee says he's going to tweak it for even less sugar; when he gets it finalized, maybe I'll jump over here and update. :)

Lee's 'somewhere in Arizona' Restaurant Salad Dressing

1 quart balsamic vinegar (I'm liking it already)
1 quart olive oil
2 quarts canola oil
1 pound brown sugar (I googled and this is 2 1/4 cups)
2 yellow onions
2 cups fresh grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic (I used about 6 or 7)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper

Chop onion and garlic fine, and grate parmesan cheese fine. Soften brown sugar in the microwave for a few minutes, and mix sugar, onion, garlic, and cheese together in a mixer bowl.
Pour balsamic vinegar into mixing bowl and mix on low with wire whisk attachment. With mixer running (using wire whisk), slowly add the oil to the bowl and mix until emulsified. Do not refrigerate. Store in tightly lidded jars in cool spot and use within a few months (I added that last part after "do not refrigerate" lol)

This recipe makes one and one quarter gallons.

Enjoy.

flavored vinegar ~

2010-04-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to make some of this yum for a long time, ever since I ran out a couple years ago. Decent balsamic has been satisfying my vinegar love affair, though, and I haven't given the flavored stuff much thought. But, I had a huge pile of lemons and limes due to buying extra bags at Sam's for a use that didn't materialize, and it meant the time was ripe for the vinegar project.

I thoroughly washed the 2 bottles I chose for this, and filled them with hot water. BIG HINT: choose bottles with wider mouths, especially if you have a fresh cut on your finger. More later. lol.

While that kept the bottles nice and warm, I sliced 2 lemons (thin slices) and 2 limes (slender wedges), peeled about 10 or 12 cloves of garlic, and washed the 6 stalks of rosemary I had cut from my bush. While I did all that, I had a big pot of apple cider vinegar heating to a boil on the stove. When the lemons and limes were sliced thin, I spent the next few minutes stuffing the bottles with the garlic, citrus, and rosemary. After pouring out the hot water, of course. LOL. I thought it was prettier to make the slices rather than the wedges. The whole thing about a wider mouth bottle was that with the narrow opening bottles, it squeezed out a lot of juice and wasted it, not to mention soaking my cut finger even THROUGH the bandaid, lol; so please think ahead and don't get those skinny neck bottles, no matter how cute they are or if they have an embossed wheat pattern on them. Yes it was an old whiskey bottle. lol. Yes, I drank the whiskey. But no, I don't drink any more and haven't for years. :)

Anyway. lol. Sorry about the sidetrack. When everything is stuffed in, shake it around with the bottle sideways so everything's not packed in the bottom. Get your funnel, and pour the boiling vinegar in the bottles, slowly. When it's cooled, you'll probably have to put a little more in there (doesn't have to be boiling that time) because the level of vinegar sinks a bit. Cork the cooled bottles, and let it set for a couple weeks, melding together.

Uses for this vinegar include salad dressings, sauces (a tablespoon in some homemade OR bought spaghetti sauce is divine), and whatever you'd use nice flavored vinegar for. We just like to uncork it and breathe it in a couple times a week. lol.

The one with lemons:

And the limes:

Both cooling:

snow ice cream, or as Tennesseeans say, snow cream ~

2010-02-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

It doesn't snow much here, but when it does, enough to not have mud in every bit of it, we make snow ice cream. And yesterday it did! There's still plenty of clean snow for more today! Woohoo!

If you've never made snow ice cream, there are google-able recipes. Paula Deen has one. But that involves measureing. LOL

Here's how I do it:

Snow Ice Cream

Take a big bowl outside and find clean fresh snow. Like on top of a camper, for instance. We had at least 2 1/2 inches on there when I got this. Just get some, don't really worry about measuring it; whatever you think your family will eat at this sitting.

Bring it in, and pour a can of sweetened condensed milk in there, and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract. Stir until it comes together like softserve ice cream. Depending on how much snow you got, you might have to pour some cold milk in there too, to make it 'wetter.'

Serve immediately, because it starts melting right away.

Make more the next day, and maybe even for as long as the snow lasts. LOL

...

lemongrass-infused coconut rice pudding ~

2010-02-11T21:36:00.000-08:00

It's snowing outside, and has been all day long. It's absolutely beautiful. And as cold as I get now that I'm older, I've totally enjoyed the cold of today; it's been such a pleasure seeing God's creativity at work, and watching him sugarsprinkle the trees like a gingerbread house. :)

Driving home, I got it into my head that today might be the day to try something I've never made before ~ rice pudding. So as soon as I got settled in the kitchen, I ran right on over to 17andbaking's latest recipe, Vanilla Bean Jasmine Rice Pudding. Not to be taken as made with jasmine rice, her recipe actually uses basmati, and the jasmine comes from jasmine green tea. I'm not a hot tea drinker, but the wheels were a'turnin...and I came up with my own variation of rice pudding. I was not disappointed. Warm in my favorite ramekin, it really hit the spot, the perfect amount of creamy sweetness.

Lemongrass-infused Coconut Rice Pudding

3/4 cup basmati rice, rinsed

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 14-ounce can coconut milk

a little over half the can filled with 2% milk

1 stalk lemongrass, bottom part only, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup half & half

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour coconut milk and 2% milk into a small saucepan, and add lemongrass pieces. Heat on medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, until simmering. Remove from heat and let steep, uncovered, for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Place the rice, water, and salt in a heavy saucepan (I used my dutch oven) and heat on medium high heat til simmering; reduce heat to low, cover and cook until the water is absorbed, 10 minutes.

Strain lemongrass-infused milk mixture into a large measuring cup; add half & half and vanilla, and stir a few times. Discard lemongrass chunks.

Remove cover from rice, and pour in the milk mixture, stirring constantly; add sugar, stirring until well blended. Increase heat to medium and heat until simmering; simmer for approximately 30 minutes until thickened; stir frequently to prevent sticking. If bubbling gets vigorous, turn the heat down a bit.

Divide evenly between 6 (full) ramekins or 8 (approx. 1/2 full) ramekins. Enjoy warm, or cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the rice pudding, and chill until cold.

I prefer it warm, which is surprising because I'm such a cold dessert person. Reheating in the microwave works well too. :)

I'm really loving this recipe. It's going to be my go-to rice pudding recipe. Thanking Elise for the wonderful base recipe to experiment with.

mango bread ~

2010-01-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

Have I ever said I loooooove mangoes? I think I have. :)

I have been meaning to try Wandering Chopsticks' Mango Bread recipe for a long time, and just got the chance to do it today; I've been feeling kind of virus-y and stayed home from work yesterday and today, and that bed is driving me crazy (although after I type this, I'll be back in it). So I threw this together as I am cooking rice for lunch. Keeping it simple today, and those mangoes needed using anyway

As usual, I can't leave recipes alone, and tweak at will, so my version is a bit different from WC's, and she tweaked hers from several recipes to begin with, LOL. Anyway - it's baking right now, and I'll post a photo later on after it's been sampled (done!). I can tell you the batter tasted wonderful already. :)

Mango Bread

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coconut milk (not cream of coconut)

1/2 cup melted butter

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 mangoes, peeled and diced

3/4 cup chopped or broken pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 2 standard size loaf pans with baking spray. In a mixer, blend on low speed the flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Add coconut milk and melted butter, and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, with mixer running, and then add vanilla. Remove from mixer and fold in mangoes and pecans with a spoon. Divide evenly between the loaf pans and bake for 1 hour. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from loaf pans onto a wire rack.

Did I say I love mangoes?

my favorite cooking blogs ~

2009-12-30T08:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post this morning, for fun - I was exploring the world of couscous, which I've never made, and ran across a new foodblog that I immediately fell in love with, and it got me to thinking that maybe I should share my favs here. So, here goes:

1) www.nikkipolani.wordpress.com This one is a combo blog, lots of good food, great photography, cats, and roses. And a great dose of Jesus too. What could be better? :)

2) www.17andbaking.com A fun one to follow, this young girl has a zest for life and photography and baking that will just make you feel young again.

3) www.wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com My go-to place for great Vietnamese recipes. :)

4) www.mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com This one has lots of good homey-type recipes. I don't have time to try them all but man, do they look satisfying.

5) www.themadchemist-trish.blogspot.com Another fun place to hang out and see what warm and comforting goodies she dishes out. I smile just thinking about it.

6) www.crispywaffle.com Gotta recommend this one for the wit, great photography, and the recipes that are like, wow! Just found it and went through 3 or 4 pages and loved every single thing I saw. I've tagged her adobo chicken recipe and the coconut shrimp for cooking within the week.

Check them out, and happy cooking, in this Happy New Year season ~

and a Christmas tradition ~

2009-12-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

Actually, a Christmas AND Thanksgiving AND Easter dinner tradition...we have these at all of those special holidays - Deviled Eggs. Yum.

This was another request of my daughter's to learn how to make these. It was fun, because she learned that not everything's a 'written-down' recipe. Our Deviled Eggs are made by taste alone, and that's half the fun of making them. The other half is eating them. LOL.

Our Deviled Eggs

Hard-boil and peel as many eggs as you need, we did 8 for 16 servings. Gently slice the peeled eggs in half lengthwise, and scoop out the yolk into a mixing bowl. Place the empty whites on a deviled egg plate with the hole up.

Mash all the yolks well with a fork, and add a couple of large spoons of Miracle Whip (you can use mayonaisse but it's not as good, lol), and a good healthy spoon or so of mustard, either yellow mustard or Dijon - the yellow gives a brighter color but I do love the Dijon. She used yellow for these. Mix that in, and then add dill pickle relish to taste. We like that a lot, so she added about 3 heaping tablespoons. Finely chop as much onion as you like and mix that in. Add a teaspoon or so of sugar, and then salt and pepper to taste. Fill the holes of the whites with a big spoon of the deviled filling, and when all of it's in, sprinkle them all with paprika. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour before serving.

standard Southern fare ~

2009-12-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

It's not often that I deep fry anything, just because it's not very healthy and as the years go by, I like fresher flavors than those in deep fried dishes. I did grow up on a lot of deep fried foods, though, and every once in a while, there comes an occasion to make something in this manner - either I get a 'hankering' for it, or my daughter requests it, such as fried squash. She loves that stuff.

She's taken an interest in cooking, lately. I know what's up, she's in college now and when she can afford it, she wants to (eek!) "move out." lol. But she also wants to be able to feed herself good food without spending tons of money on it. So she's wanting to learn to cook from me. We've decided she needs to take care of one supper per week, and she's really excited about it. I got her a cookbook for Christmas that has a lot of basic techniques and recipes, to help her get started.

Here's the first one she did, and I must say, the student outdid the teacher in this case. I've never been good at breaded meats, because for some reason or another, the breading falls off in the grease with me. So when she called me from work saying she wanted to try backstrap, I kind of groaned. lol. But we took our time, and she made some fantastic backstrap, better than I've ever done - we could tear the meat with our fingers, it was so tender. She also learned gravy at the same time, because we like rice and gravy with deep fried breaded meat. Nothing like doubling up on unhealthy, right? ROFL! Seriously, we do this so seldom, there's no guilt involved. Maybe 3 times a year do we cook like this. :)

We didn't weigh any of the meat, so I don't know how to tell you to estimate it, just however much your family will eat, and adjust the amount of eggs and breading accordingly.

Breaded Venison Backstrap

2 packages (approximately 20 pieces) backstrap, thawed
2 cups flour, seasoned as desired (we used salt & pepper, and Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning)
2 or 3 eggs, beaten with a fork
an inch or so of cooking oil, in a cast iron skillet, preferably

Get the oil pretty hot. I think this is the secret to not losing the breading, this and not crowding the meat. We tested ours by sprinkling a little flour in the oil, and when it bubbled and sizzled vigorously, she started cooking the meat, alternating the temperature by turning it down a little after browning the meat on the first side, and turning it back up a bit right before each new batch was added.

As the oil heats, take about 7 or 8 pieces of backstrap and flour them thoroughly, then dip them in the egg, then back in the flour. Your fingers will get really messy so have paper towels handy. Place the meat in the hot oil, and remember to leave space between them, not crowding. Move them around with a slotted spoon or spatula after loading the pan, to help avoid sticking to the bottom. Fry for 5-7 minutes, checking the breading to make sure it's not burning, then flip over and fry the other side. Drain on paper towels.

When you're done, pour out most of the oil, but leave the bottom covered in maybe 1/4 inch, including the browned bits from cooking the meat. Brown a couple tablespoons of flour to desired color (just use some of the flour left from the breading), and then slowly add a cup of milk, stirring with a whisk to blend and avoid lumps. As this cooks and thickens, add more liquid as needed (milk, or even water) to get the desired consistency of gravy. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve over hot rice. Add a salad and you've got a great Southern meal. Well, some might say you need hot cornbread as well, but we skipped that this time. :)

Enjoy supper, then take a walk to work some of this off! LOL

Indian dosas ~

2009-09-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

Since I had so much fun with The Daring Baker's challenge that I did, I signed up for The Daring Cooks too. :) I needed something else in my schedule. LOL

I'm running late posting here, it was supposed to be on the 14th - but with all the rain we've had, a limb broke off a tree and knocked our power out that day, and we didn't get it back until late Tuesday night. Yesterday was full of church activities after work, so yes, I'm dragging in here late...

Debyi from www.healthyvegankitchen.com hosted the challenge this month - you can find it at www.thedaringkitchen.com as well as other fun stuff. Debyi chose Indian dosas for the challenge, and it was indeed a challenge because I've never made an Indian dish before and also - I tend to not cook vegetarian. You know me and meat. LOL

Anyway - Stevie and I were pretty much the only two who tried it, but I figured that. The guys are boring, us girls are adventurous and daring! I liked it, but it was very powerful and different from anything I've ever made before. Much more spicy and complex than the typical Vietnamese cooking I like to do (when I'm not cooking "regular Southern" food, haha). My favorite part was the filling - Stevie and I think it would be good in any dish where you have a bean type filling, like burritoes or even mixing it up into some baked beans. The sauce was pretty good but I added significantly more salt to it than it called for. I'm trying some over rice tonight. :) The pancakes were, well, kind of bland but you know, with all the other flavors, I don't know if we could take any more from the pancake. It was really a rich dish.

I did have lots of fun making it and am looking forward to the next challenge. :)

Here's the recipe, copied directly from the challenge post:
Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) watercooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.
5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste
1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced
1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.

Sauce:

Filling:

Pancake:

Final yum:

mango-coconut ice cream ~

2009-08-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

After getting an ice cream maker at Wallyworld on clearance, I couldn't wait to make some. I had a few nice ripe mangoes, and hmm, yep, it sounded good to me! Got some recipes online, and just tweaked and played and decided as I went. The result? YUM!

Very strong in the mango flavor, to tell the truth, but that's fine with me and the kids; coconut milk adds some flavor but not so much that I know I need to use it next time. In fact, I'm going to make this again with regular milk and see how it goes.

At any rate, it's very good the way I did it, and it's a pretty color, too. :)

Mango-Coconut Ice Cream

1 1/3 cups mango puree (2 large ripe mangoes, peeled, deseeded, and pureed in blender)

3/4 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup half & half

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup 2% milk

3 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

Stir together thoroughly in a bowl: mango puree, coconut milk, half & half, corn syrup, lemon juice and vanilla and set aside.

Place milk in a heavy 2 quart saucepan and bring just to a boil. Whisk together in another bowl or in a mixer the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Add the hot milk in a thin stream, whisking constantly until well blended. Pour back into saucepan and cook the custard on medium low heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until the temperature registers 170 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer (approx. 2-4 minutes). Pour into mango mixture, mix well, and place in refrigerator, covered, to chill for 3-4 hours. You can run it through a sieve but I didn't do this, I didn't mind the texture of the mangoes.

When custard is chilled, freeze in ice cream freezer according to manufacturer directions. Place ice cream into an airtight container and freeze in the freezer overnight to harden.

Look at this - I could hardly keep from eating it before it was pureed, mmm! I love mangoes.

Mango mixture, waiting patiently.

Eggs, sugar and salt, whisked and ready.

Hot milk/egg mixture, ready to add to the custard.

Custard, cooked and about to be chilled.

Freezer running, packed with ice and rock salt.

This isn't the best picture, but I was trying to capture the motion of the bucket spinning.

I'm so coldhearted... :D

This is the way it looked when it was done. It was already pretty firm, I think I over froze it, if that's possible, lol.

Oh yum! Transferring it to the plastic tub (an old sherbet container was perfect); and yes, I did taste - we all did, teehee!

Here it is the next day, in all it's mango-ey glory. Wonderful taste!

you took the words right out of my mouth ~

2009-08-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Now THAT'S my favorite Meatloaf...I have always loved his music. teehee!

I experimented with a different kind of meatloaf tonight, the eating kind. lol. Meatloaf has never been a fav meal for me but ya know, I think it's because if it's dry, I just don't like it. Other than that, I like the combination of good flavors.

I went kinda wild this time - pork sausage and venison rather than beef, and I made my own sauce for it. The whole thing is loosely based on Alton Brown's meatloaf recipe from foodnetwork.com and I took quite a few liberties with it.

Meatloaf Sis Style

1 pound ground pork sausage

1 pound ground venison

1 stalk celery, cut into pieces

1 medium onion, cut in to wedges or sliced thick

5 or 6 cloves garlic, peeled

about 8 baby carrots

1 large or 2 small jalapeno peppers (remove seeds if you don't want the heat)

about 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)

1 teaspoon salt

about a cup bread crumbs (seasoned, if you like)

2 eggs

1 can tomato sauce

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

about 1/2 teaspoon of your favorite hot sauce

3 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon brown sugar

freshly ground sea salt to taste

freshly ground pepper to taste

Place the sausage and venison in a large bowl. Mix it around a little. In a food processor, place the celery, onion, garlic, carrots, and jalapenos. Pulse until chopped very small but be careful not to puree. Add this to the meat in the bowl. Add salt and pepper. Pour in the bread crumbs and drop the eggs in. I use a potato masher to get things fairly mixed, and then use my hands to finish it out.

For the sauce: pour the tomato sauce into a medium bowl, and add the cumin, Worcestershire, hot sauce, honey, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Mix well with a whisk and taste. Make adjustments to suit your tastes.

Pour about a half cup of the sauce into the meat mixture and blend well. Add more bread crumbs if the meat mixture seems too 'wet' and doesn't stick together well; however, don't go overboard, you don't want it too dry or full of bread crumbs.

Place meat in a greased 9x10 dish, and shape into a long, even loaf, or a round one if you want to use a round baking dish. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Pour on enough sauce to cover the loaf entirely, spreading it with a basting brush or a large spoon (however, do not dip the brush or spoon into the sauce, because you don't want to contaminate it with raw meat juices - just pour it out of the bowl or use a measuring cup to scoop it out). Use about a half cup at a time so you don't get too much and waste it. Continue baking until meatloaf is done. Alton Brown's recipe says until a meat thermometer reaches 155 degrees. I don't have one, so I just baked it 40 more minutes (total of 1 hour, 10 minutes) and checked in the middle to see if it was done. Let meatloaf sit for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with some of the remaining sauce.

#1 best EVER cheesecake ~

2009-08-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

When I first saw this recipe on 17andbaking, I just knew I was going to try it. Since then, I've made three cheesecakes, LOL. That's just how much I like it, because the first one was just a couple weeks ago. :)

Here is the original recipe, by Elissa, the author of that wonderful blog. The following recipe is my version of it, with a couple of changes that resulted in a cheesecake more to my personal tastes - meaning, a bit more dense, and with stronger lime flavor.

If you love cheesecake, give this a try. Don't be scared by the "strange" combination of flavors. They are absolutely divine. And cheesecakes aren't hard to make at all.

Chocolate Marble Cheesecake with Coconut, Lemongrass,

and Kaffir Lime

(adapted from a recipe by Elissa at 17andbaking)

**This version makes 2 cheesecakes: one 9-inch and one 10-inch**

Crust:

4 cups chocolate layer cookie crumbs (pulsed to crumb texture in food processor)

1 1/4 sticks butter, melted

4 teaspoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine in a large bowl and mix well; press firmly into bottom of non-stick (or greased) 9- and 10-inch springform pans (approximately 40%, 60% respectively). Set aside.

Cheesecake:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup coconut cream (NOT coconut milk)

1 large stalk lemongrass, cut into 1 inch pieces (including leaves)

3 dried or frozen Kaffir lime leaves, cut into strips

6 eight-ounce containers cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups sugar

6 large eggs, room temperature

juice and pulp of one medium size lime

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate squares, melted and slightly cooled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; boil large pot of water for waterbath. Wrap springform pans in double layer of heavy aluminum foil; prepare crusts as described above and set aside.

Mix cream and coconut cream in saucepan, and add lemongrass pieces and kaffir lime leaf strips. Heat on medium-high heat until the mixture just begins to boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cover. Steep for a half-hour, then strain cream mixture into a bowl and let it cool completely. Discard the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.

Place cream cheese and sugar into a large mixer bowl. Cream until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well with each egg, and scraping the sides frequently. Add the cream mixture, vanilla extract, and the lime juice/pulp and blend until smooth and creamy.

Take about 2 cups of the cream cheese mixture and blend with the melted chocolate. Pour some white batter into the prepared crusts, and dollop with several spoonfuls of chocolate cheesecake mixture. Repeat layers (white batter, chocolate dollops) until batters are gone. Run a sharp thin knife through the batter to swirl. Tap the pans on the counter to help remove air bubbles.

Place the pans inside one large pan (big enough for both springforms) or inside 2 smaller pans. Pour boiling water 1 inch deep into the larger pan, being careful not to pour water between the springform pans and the foil.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until almost done - cheesecake will hold together, but still have jiggle in the center. Close the oven door after checking, turn off the heat, and leave the cheesecakes in the cooling oven for at least 40 minutes, preferably an hour. Place cheesecakes on the counter on a rack, and let them cool completely before removing springform pan sides (couple hours). Chill at least 5 or 6 hours in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap or foil. When chilled fully, it is ready to serve. Enjoy!

Vietnamese: Shaking Beef and Vinegared Onions ~

2009-08-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. Goodness.

I have a new favorite. TWO new favorites. This was the most awesome meal EVER.

I got the recipe from Wandering Chopsticks' blog, and please click on the name to see her great photos and commentary, as well as her original recipes (click "Wandering" for the onions, "Chopsticks" for the beef dish ~ aren't I clever? LOL). Lots of times I change a little here, little there, but this time, I pretty much left things alone. :) I did double things a little, and noted it in the recipe.

So - no need for lotsa words, here goes - an easy and delish salad meal.

Hanh Dam (Vietnamese Vinegared Onions)

(doubled due to large size of the onion)

1 large onion, sliced thin and placed in a bowl

1 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

2 teaspoons white sugar

Sprinkle the sugar over the onions as they sit in the bowl; pour the vinegar over everything, then stir/toss well. Let the mixture sit for about 20 minutes, at least, tossing and mixing frequently and making sure the onions stay covered by the vinegar. Enjoy! Store the remainder covered in the fridge.

Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef)

(marinade doubled according to amount of meat)

1 1/2 pounds beef (or venison round steak, which is what I used), cubed small

4 teaspoons fish sauce

2 teaspoons salt (next time, I'll reduce this to 1 1/2 teaspoons)

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

Mix fish sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar, and pour over meat cubes, mixing well. Sit aside to marinate at room temperature while you prepare the rest of the dish. I actually let the meat marinate while I went to the store, so it was very well marinated for about an hour.

To cook, mince a couple of garlic cloves and stir fry briefly in a little hot oil in a wok or skillet. Add the beef, reserving any juice you may have for later. Cook the meat, without stirring very much, so it will char a bit. When I did this, at first the beef released a lot of liquid and I was wondering if it would ever char. I turned the heat up a bit higher and in a few minutes, the liquid cooked down and the meat started charring satisfactorily. When it's done like you want it, add any remaining meat/marinade juices and cook for a minute more.

1 bunch greens of your choice (I used spinach leaves)

1 or 2 large tomatoes, sliced into bite size chunks

Hanh Dam (vinegared onions)

Place washed greens in a 'wreath' on a plate, and top with sliced tomatoes. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, place some onions in the center. Grind a little salt and pepper over the whole thing, and drizzle a little of the onion vinegar over the spinach and tomatoes. Top the whole salad with some of the warm shaking beef, and dig in.

Simply amazing. My new favorite.

snack time! ~

2009-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have not ever considered myself hesitant to try new tastes, but until I started cooking some Vietnamese (and other Asian) food, I didn't know that truthfully, I was hesitant. I was always willing to taste Cajun food, Mexican food, things I was somewhat familiar with - but after my mom said mangoes tasted to her like pine-sol, it took several minutes to will myself into taking a bite of the peeled, juicy one I had in my hand that day. And it's been full speed ahead since then, with mangoes falling right below lemons and limes for my absolute favorite fruit.

Today, I found that still, I have a hesitancy about me - I am determined to get rid of that, if it takes me the rest of my life to do it, lol.

The sweet sweet little older Japanese lady at the Asian market that I adore, well, today, when I asked her about a package of mung bean cakes, told me they were a fairly healthy snack. I honestly had no idea what to expect, but I was feeling adventurous and bought one. All afternoon, it's taunted me in there, as it sat on the kitchen counter looking all smug and self-satisfied. "Come on, big talker, whatcha waitin' for?"

So I came in here and googled it. LOL

When I found it was supposed to have a sweet taste, I hesitated no longer - and you know, I like it. It faintly reminds me of Big Mama's fried pies, when I was a little girl. Not that it's fried, because it's not, it's baked. But there's something about a fruity tasting paste inside a crust that makes me think of those yummy fried peach pies that I gorged myself on at 8 years old.

But it's kind of heavy. They aren't really very big, but they are thick and the paste fills up just about the whole inside. Half was good enough for me, for now. Later, I'm going to pop the other half into the microwave for a few secs, and see if it tastes good warm.

I am all about finding fairly healthy snacks to get me through the day, especially when I'm working, and school will be starting up very soon. This one made it to the list, along with hardboiled eggs, string cheese, and bananas. :)

Thanks, Fuji-ya lady. One more step forward along the no-hesitation path of eating.

the Daring Baker's July Challenge...Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

2009-07-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

So - I've added something else to my already FULL plate - a monthly baking challenge. LOL.

Ah, well, a girl has to do something she loves to pamper herself a bit, right? :)

Since I love baking, I thought this would be fun. A new challenge every month, posted on the 27th of the month, and here goes my first one ever. The Daring Bakers are found at http://thedaringkitchen.com/ and all the participating members get the challenge on the same day of the month (at the beginning), bake it during the month, and post their results on their blogs on the same day of the month, the 27th. If it sounds like fun to you, check it out and let me know so I can keep my eyes open for your posts. :)

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Since it was legal to only choose one of the two, I did the marshmallow cookies. Too much going on this month and time got away from me to do the Milan cookies, but I am hanging on to the recipe for later.

OK - here goes, with recipes (cookies, marshmallows, and chocolate) and my most likely droning commentary accompanying, LOL.

For the cookie base:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 eggs, whisked together

Homemade marshmallows (recipe follows)

Chocolate glaze (recipe follows)

In a mixer, blend the dry ingredients, then add butter and mix until sandy (I had it at room temperature). Add the eggs and mix until well combined. Form dough into a ball or disk, wrap with plastic wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least an hour (or up to 3 days).

For baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a cookie sheet, or use parchment paper/silocon mat. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to desired thickness. The original recipe said 1/8 inch, but I think that's a little too think, I did some that way but preferred the ones that were about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out small rounds of dough using a 1 1/2 inch cutter.

Place on prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Cool to room temperature on a rack. (Note - I made this kind and also added some cocoa powder to the recipe for chocolate cookies).

Next, with homemade marshmallows in a pastry bag, pipe a kiss of marshmallow onto each cooled cookie, and let sit uncovered at room temperature for a couple of hours. (Another note - I took out about 2/3 of the marshmallows and then for the last 1/3, added 1/4 teaspoon orange extract and a little red and yellow food coloring, to use on the chocolate cookie base).

Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat, and dip the cookies into the melted chocolate glaze, lifting out with a fork when covered. Be sure and let the extra chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place on pan and let sit at room temperature until the coating is firm, a few hours. I actually had to chill mine after they cooled, for a couple of hours, to get it firm enough not to stick to my fingers. A note about the marshmallows - you can make these cookies with store marshmallows by using the large ones, and cutting them in half, putting 1 half on each cookie. Heat it a little in a 350 oven to slightly melt and brown the marshmallow, and then dip after it cools.

For the homemade marshmallows:

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup light corn syrup

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon powdered gelatin (one envelope)

2 tablespoons cold water

2 egg whites , room temperature

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a bowl, place 2 tablespoons of cold water and sprinkle the powdereded gelatin over it to dissolve.

While this is going on, in a saucepan, mix 1/4 c. water, the light corn syrup, and the sugar. Bring to a boil and cook until 235 degrees on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage). Pour the syrup into the gelatin bowl, and mix well.

Whip the two egg whites until they soft peak stage; then pour the syrup mixture in (while mixer is running), add the vanilla, and beat at high speed until stiff peaks are formed.

Put the marshmallow mixture into a pastry bag and pipe out the marshmallows onto the cookies.

Chocolate glaze:

12 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water. Use to dip marshmallow covered cookies. I used this exact recipe but next time, I'll use shortening like my mom does when she makes candy at Christmas. The chocolate sets up better and looks prettier in the end.

These were amazingly tasty and reminded me of the cookies I used to get at Piggly Wiggly when I was a kid. There were quite a few of them, and luckily for me and the kids, we didn't have to have them tempting us for several days, because we had a cookie reception for our new youth minister and his wife, and I took them as part of my contribution. Because honestly, I probably could have eaten them all, myself. They were that good.

Coconut Pound Cake with Lime Glaze ~

2009-07-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

This, my friends, is my final version. It has texture like my mom's pound cake, and fantastic flavor. The height is aweinspiring, LOL. Next time I make it, I'll put it in 2 or maybe 3 loaf pans and see what happens ~ but for now, I'm keeping this one just like it is.

Coconut Pound Cake

with Lime Glaze

1 1/4 cups shortening

2 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten until well blended

3 1/2 cups flour

1 Tblsp. baking powder

1 1/4 tsp. salt

(mix flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside)

1 1/8 cup coconut milk

2 tsp. coconut extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

(mix coconut milk and both extracts and set aside)

1 egg white, beaten until very frothy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan and set aside. In a mixer bowl, cream shortening and sugar; when blended well, increase speed and whip until light and fluffy. Pour beaten eggs into mixer bowl in 4 or 5 increments, with mixer running on low and mixing eggs well after each addition. Increase speed and whip again to a light fluffy stage. Stop the mixture and add 1/3 flour mixture; mix on low until incorporated well. Add 1/2 the coconut milk mixture, and incorporate well. Repeat flour mixture and coconut mixture, and end with adding the remaining flour mixture, incorporating the additions into the batter each time. Mix until you are sure the batter is well blended, but do not overmix. Fold in beaten egg white, with 2 or 3 slow turns of the mixer paddle, or fold in by hand. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan, and bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes. Test at 1 hour, since your oven may be different from mine. When the cake is done, set on a rack for 15 minutes to cool in the pan; then make sure edges are loose and invert onto rack to cool completely, out of the pan. Place on cake plate and glaze liberally (or to your liking) with Lime Glaze. Before the glaze completely sets, top with thin shreds of lime zest and some cooled toasted coconut flakes.

Lime Glaze

1/2 lime, juiced completely into a bowl

powdered sugar to make a thick glaze

(this recipe is easily doubled for extra, such as in the photos here)

Mix well, until no sugar clumps remain. Spoon over cooled Bundt cake, letting it run down the sides. Adjust the amount of glaze to your liking.

Serving recommendation: tastes best when accompanied by a huge ice-cold glass of milk. :)

Test recipe ~

2009-07-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Please note - I have tested several recipes since this one, and have settled on a final version. I'm leaving this one up, just for my own reference in the future, but the link in the side bar "Cake recipes" will no longer bring this one up, but instead, the new and my favorite version. Thanks to those of you who bore with me during trial and error, lol. XOXO

After struggling through several cakes this past week to find what I wanted (that being, I finally decided, a really coconutty-tasting coconut cake), I have come up with this recipe. It is NOT, I repeat NOT, the finally endorsed recipe, because there is one change I want to try in an attempt to lighten the cake just a little...but it's dadgum close. Really good. My mom and my daughter both say leave it alone, except add more lime glaze on top. LOL. When I try it with the one change, I'll add an addendum to this post (and a new post just to notify of the addendum, oh faithful reader - teehee!) and let you know what it was and how it affected the final product.

On to coconut heaven!

Coconut Pound Cake with Lime Glaze

(messed around with and adapted by Sis, lol)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

1/4 cup oil

3 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten until blended

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 1/4 cups coconut milk (NOT cream of coconut)

2 teaspoons coconut extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease and flour a Bundt pan; set aside. Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl; set aside. Mix coconut milk with coconut and vanilla extracts and set aside. Whip butter in mixer until light and fluffy; with mixer running, pour in sugar in a slow stream until all sugar is added; whip for a minute or so, then pour the 1/4 cup oil in slowly, with mixer running. Whip another minute. Add beaten eggs in 5 or 6 'batches', with mixer running, blending well with each addition. When well blended, stop the mixer and add 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix slowly until dry ingredients disappear; with mixer running on low speed, slowly pour in 1/2 of coconut milk mixture, until blended. Repeat: dry, then wet, then lastly, the final 1/3 of dry ingredients. Mix on low until dry ingredients disappear, then keep mixing on low for another minute, to be sure all ingredients are incorporated. Pour into prepared Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes, checking at 1 hour with a cake tester or toothpick. When cake is done, remove and set on a rack (in the pan) for 15 minutes; then place rack over cake pan and invert, removing pan. Let cool completely. For the glaze, juice one lime into a bowl, and then add powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments, mixing well until you get the consistency you desire, which should be pourable, but a very slow pour. This will probably take about a cup or more of powdered sugar (this is a guess, since I didn't even come close to a measuring cup while making mine, LOL - also, please note, this is more glaze than you see in the pictures; I made that with the juice of half a lime but by popular request, I've increased it to one whole lime here). Spoon thickly onto cooled cake and let it run down the sides. Top with thin threads of lime zest, and cooled toasted coconut. Serving recommendation - serve with a huge glass of ice cold milk!

Ga Xao Xa Ot (Stir-fried Chicken with Lemongrass )

2009-07-03T17:29:00.001-07:00

This one, for me, is a recipe in the making. I copied it from one of my fav cookbooks, "The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking - Favorite Recipes from Lemon Grass Restaurant and Cafes" by Mia Pham, but made a few changes to the amounts of some of the ingredients; for instance, more chicken; more sugar; etc. I was a little bit disappointed in it, thinking it was too bland, even with the changes I made. Of course, I put my serving on the rice as soon as it was done, and consumed it right then - good, but like I said, bland. About 15 minutes later, as I was cleaning up the kitchen, and putting the leftovers away, I couldn't help but grab a bite or two more. Surprisingly, it was much smoother and better tasting. So, my personal recommendation would be to let it rest for about 5 minutes, at least (maybe more like 10), before eating.

Googling around, I found several recipes online for the same thing - none of them had julienned carrots (which I liked, and will keep in any version I make) or any cornstarch, and all of them had caramel sauce, which Pham's didn't. Also, it seemed like the chicken pieces were bigger, and most people used thighs; and there also seemed to be sort of a caramelized glaze on the chicken I saw in some photos. Some recipes even recommended marinating the chicken pieces in the sauce overnight.

So - I'm not positively saying I'll keep this one as is - that glazed chicken looked so good - I'm thinking that I'll try again without the chicken stock, until the chicken is cooked through, and without cornstarch either. And then when the chicken is done, I'm thinking to add the stock and a little water, and simmer it in the remaining sauce in the pan, with cornstarch added at that time, to make a sauce to drizzle on the rice. Because the sauce was yummy, and I think it would be divine on hot rice - there just wasn't enough of it. When I do this, I'll repost with the results and let ya know how it went.

In the meantime, this was fairly good but as is, I probably won't make it again in this exact same way. I'm posting it like Pham's directions said to make it, with the few minor changes I made to it (in ingredient amounts), and am calling it "Ga Sao Xa" like she did, since it's based on her recipe.

Ga Sao Xa

1 tsp cornstarch

3 Tbls water

1 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, sliced 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long

3 Tbls vegetable oil

10 whole dried chilis

1/4 cup finely minced lemon grass

2 Tbls minced garlic

2 1/2 Tbls sugar

1 tsp ground chili paste

1 fresh red Thai chili, sliced thin

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 Tbls fish sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 onion, sliced into thin wedges

1 cup julienned carrots, blanched and shocked in ice water and drained

fresh cilantro sprigs for garnish (which I forgot, lol)

Combine cornstarch and water, stir until dissolved; add chicken slices and set aside. Heat the oil on low heat; add dried chilis and cook until puffed, about 30 seconds or so. Remove and drain on paper towels. Increase heat to high and add lemon grass, garlic, sugar, chili paste, and fresh chili and cook until fragrant, stirring, about 1 minute. Add chicken, stirring to separate, and cook 3-4 minutes until opaque. Add chicken stock, fish sauce, salt, onion, and carrots, and cook an additional 3-4 minutes. Add reserved chilis and cilantro, and serve.

a new toss on pizza (haha, get it? "toss - pizza" HAH! Um...)

2009-07-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I was once again taking pics of a pizza I'd made - Stevie walked in and said "Dontcha think your blog buddies are tired of your pizza by now?" Pop! Fizz.... Dang. She's right, it's the same ol' boring pizza.

Til now! Woot! A reason to blog about pizza again! So there, Miss Smarty-pants! ;)

I subscribe to this and get a daily email with a recipe in it. Most days, I scan it and delete it, but probably 25% of the time, it catches my interest. The other day, I got one for a pizza with no red sauce. Last night, I gave it a try, and I have to say, it was amazing. I really loved it.

Not a new 'recipe' as such, but just a twist on topping it. Here's the crust, if by chance I get a 3rd reader to this blog who's never seen the pizza before (rofl)...

And what the diff was is that I spread the crust with pesto. YUM! I mashed the crust out on a bigger pan, because I really wanted thin crust this time instead of puffy, spread it with jarred pesto, and topped it with tomato slices, torn spinach leaves, mushrooms, and black olives, then sprinkled feta and mozzarella on top of it all. It was a salty-type pizza, but delish. Here's the link to the original recipe, and following are some photos of last night's experiment. I could hardly wait to post them today. :)

Ga Nuong Xa (Grilled Chicken with Lemongrass) ~

2009-06-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

The other day, I had the wonderful experience of eating lunch at a for-real Vietnamese restaurant, for the first time ever. Of course, I knew what I wanted before I even parked in the lot - I wanted Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. I had made it myself but honestly, had no idea how close I even came to the "real deal." I am happy to say, I came really close. :) The pho from the restaurant was lovely, but honestly, I think mine was just a little teensy bit richer. Am I out of line saying this? I hope not, lol. It's just that I took extreme care when I made mine, reading 4 or 5 recipes to "coach" myself on what to do. It was an all day affair, and the results were wonderful.

Still - I enjoyed the soup at the restaurant very much. I didn't like that the basil and cilantro came in big stalks - I would have preferred chopped - and the jalapenos were sliced instead of chopped, as well. But the flavor was good and it was p l e n t y. My youngest had fried shrimp, and was still a little hungry after eating those - I pushed the huge bowl toward him and said "finish this, I can't eat another bite." And he did. lol

Tonight, I decided to try my hand at using some lemongrass in a recipe. I was feeling brave and all "Vietnamese-y" LOL. I looked at a chicken recipe that sounded wonderful but I am out of carrots; I even checked out a Thai recipe with chicken that sounded wonderfully flavorful, but I have no bamboo shoots. Finally, I simply picked Ga Nuong Xa and made a few tweaks to some recipes I read. It was exquisite. Honest. I wasn't sure I'd really like lemongrass, I've only used it once or twice and in amounts so small, they didn't even matter, I suspect. Tonight, the marinade had three heaping tablespoons of minced lemongrass. And I found that I do like it, very much.

If you try this, grill it hot and fast - you want the chicken done, of course - but you want it juicy as well. I grilled mine for 5 minutes each side, over the center of the grill (keeping it away from most flareups). It was perfectly done and still juicy. I could maybe have cut off that last minute and been a little better.

Ga Nuong Xa

(Grilled Chicken with Lemongrass)

4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 teaspoons fish sauce

4 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

2 heaping teaspoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons finely minced lemongrass

juice and pulp of 1/2 a large lemon

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Add all ingredients except chicken to a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add chicken and marinate for about 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, if desired, start some rice cooking, chop veggies for stir-fry (for me, choosing these sides was good - they all came together about the same time). Start your grill heating. When the marinating time is up, place chicken on grill, and turn down the heat to low or medium low. Close the cover and grill for 5 minutes on each side, less if the breasts are thin. Serve with rice and stir fried veggies, if desired. A squeeze of lemon over the stir fry brings this all together quite nicely.

My kids loved it too. It's always a keeper for me when that happens. :)

new toy! ~

2009-06-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

I've cooked for years...and never had one of these.

I most likely paid too much for it - but it's supposed to last my lifetime...

A simple garlic press. Who'da thunk it? That I would be so excited about such a thing.

It feels like Christmas around here. :)

Isn't it beautiful?

Ga Ro Ti (Vietnamese Roasted Chicken) ~

2009-06-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

I can't help but giggle because, even though I don't know how to pronounce this recipe in Vietnamese, it makes me think of the cook Justin Wilson saying "I gaa-ran-tee it" in his Cajun accent.

This is a recipe I got from Wandering Chopstick's blog, and made some minor adjustments to it - here is her original recipe, which I always recommend trying if you want to know what it REALLY is supposed to taste like, lol. I either never have all the correct ingredients, or can't do it exactly like someone else did, or just something! But it always seems to work...

And it did tonight. I absolutely LOVED this and so did my boys. Jack tasted it and liked it too - my daughter didn't, but last summer she had eaten some Asian food I cooked while she was sick, and it didn't sit well with her - she's had trouble with some of the spices since then. Poor thing. She's missin' out!

OK - here is my version, with the changes being that there's a little more honey than originally called for, and I baked it differently. Also, I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, although I really wanted to try the thigh/drumstick combo. And since we are a family of 5, I cooked 4 large breasts instead of the 2 called for in the original, so I doubled the recipe initially. I forgot to double the garlic, but I could taste it in there just fine.

Ga Ro Ti (Vietnamese Roasted Chicken)

4 large chicken breasts

2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons honey

4 teaspoons fish sauce

2 teaspoons Chinese 5-spice powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

4 cloves garlic, finely minced (or pressed)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Pour and rub half the marinade over the 4 chicken breasts as they lay in a shallow baking pan. Flip the breasts and pour/rub the other 1/2 of the marinade over them. Make sure both sides are well covered in marinade. Bake in a 425 degree oven for approx. 25 minutes, flipping over and basting a couple of times. Adjust time depending on thickness of breasts. When the chicken is done (no pink flesh, juices run clear), baste one last time in the marinade left in the pan, and serve.

I sliced my chicken breast, and enjoyed a few slices while I put together a sandwich with the rest. I split a 6 inch whole wheat sub bun and toasted it - then added Miracle Whip (yum!), sliced fresh homegrown cucumbers, fresh spinach leaves, the sliced chicken, sliced black olives, and grated mozzarella cheese. Totally forgot the purple onion in the fridge, but wow, that would have been awesome too. After adding the cheese, I sprinkled some ground black pepper and ground sea salt on it and broiled it til the cheese was melty.

It was amazing. Juicy and succulent, whether on or off the sandwich.

Kim's Kake ~

2009-06-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

A new family favorite, for sure - the other hugest chocolate lover in our household, 'sides me, is my son Dalton. If I turn my back too long, he makes the hugest dent in this cake...

Credit for the wonderful recipe goes to my friend Kim, who is an amazing cook and loves to experiment. I am treasuring the handwritten recipe on a torn piece of paper, too, lol. It may just have to be framed...

A warning for people I don't understand very well, those who like chocolate but not that much (ahem, Lee...teehee!), you should probably stay away from this one. SUPER chocolatey. Perfect. :)

Kim's Kake

1 box devil's food cake mix

1 box instant chocolate pudding mix

(Note from Sis - I add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder here)

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 cup vegetable oil (I use 2/3 cup)

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups (1 bag) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate chips, those are my favorites)

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour (or use cocoa powder) a Bundt pan. Stir together cake mix, pudding mix, cocoa powder (if used); add sour cream, vinegar, vegetable oil, eggs, and water; mix until smooth and well blended. Stir in chips and walnuts (if used). Bake for about 50 minutes, or until done. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes, then flip out onto rack and cool for an hour. Dust heavily with powdered sugar. Cut a big slice, pour a huge glass of cold milk, and enter mouthparadise.

another skillet one - Skillet Tamale Pie ~

2009-06-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

Woot! It's been like, FOREVER since I've posted here!

I must apologize for losing the comments when I transferred this blog to this account. :( Please feel very free to comment on anything at all to catch me up!

The recipe I'm blogging today is one I 'stole' from Rachael Ray's cookbook (that I proudly own) "just in time!" I'm going to post it the way I made it, but here's a link to the version on her website (which, btw, is a tad different than the one in the book - I don't know which came first).

And, of course, I took pics. :)

Skillet Tamale Pie

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 quart chicken broth

2 cups 2% milk

1 pound ground beef

1 pound spicy pork sausage

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 large red or green bell pepper, chopped

1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

4 garlic cloves, pressed

1 heaping tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon (or a little less) ground cumin

pinch of ground cinnamon

fresh ground salt and pepper to taste

1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes

2 cups masa (the corn meal stuff for making tamales)

handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

1 cup or so of shredded cheddar cheese

In a large pan or wok, mix together the chicken broth and milk, and heat on medium high to a simmer. While this is heating, heat the olive oil in a large (14") cast iron skillet, on medium high. Add chopped veggies and cook until softened, stirring frequently. In a separate pan, cook ground beef and ground sausage until done; drain. Add meat to veggies in large skillet; add spices; stir well to combine; let it cook for a few minutes. Add the can of tomatoes and mix thoroughly; heat through.

In the meantime, when the liquid has begun to simmer, pour the masa in a smooth steady stream into the liquid, whisking as it pours in. Cook, stirring frequently, for approximately 10-15 minutes; add salt, pepper, and chopped cilantro and mix well.

Pour or spoon the masa mixture over the meat mixture in the skillet. Place in 500 degree broiler for about 5 minutes until masa is set. Sprinkle the cup of shredded cheese over the masa and heat for a couple minutes under broiler to brown the cheese.

Serve hot from the skillet; top with salsa, sour cream, olives, chopped green onions, guacamole, whatever you like. :)

And now for the photo documentary, LOL.

And...there wasn't any left!

skillet nachos ~

2009-03-01T16:58:00.001-08:00

My friend Ruthie made these for the church Super Bowl party, and I was blessed enough to be in the kitchen when she walked in the back door with them. I was #2 in the skillet, and it's a dadgum good thing, because they were gone in about 5 minutes...

I've been wanting to make them at home ever since, and finally did it today for dinner. And took lots of photos, lol.

Make these soon, you'll really enjoy them, I think.

Ruthie's Skillet Nachos

You'll need some pinto beans; either cooked from dry yourself, or a couple of cans. I used a can of Ranch beans with jalapenos and a can of regular pinto beans. Don't drain, just pour both into a skillet, and season as desired. Mine has Spicy Tony Chachere's, Arizona Gunslinger hot sauce, and some minced garlic. Heat these on low heat, stirring occasionally, as you chop the veggies.

I forgot a picture of the veggies, LOL - but I chopped fresh tomato, onion, avocado, cilantro, and serrano peppers. After chopping those and setting them aside, cut up your meat and cook it in a separate pan with some spices or just salt and pepper. Cook it like you would fajita meat.

Now, for the homemade chips. Quarter small corn tortillas, and fry quickly in hot oil. Flip once while frying. Salt while hot. Keep a close eye, it only takes a minute or two for them to be done.

You kinda find yourself juggling a bit, LOL

Somewhere in the middle of all this, when the meat is almost done, take a potato masher and mash up the beans to a thick consistency. You still want them a little chunky. Stir and let them simmer on low to thicken them up a bit.

When the chips are done, and the meat is cooked, sprinkle the meat cubes on top of the beans.

Add the veggies in a nice layer.

Spread about a cup of sour cream over the top. I used low fat and it was great.

Sprinkle with grated cheese to cover.

Next, place in the oven and broil until the cheese is nicely browned.

Scatter a few chips (or a bed of lettuce) on your plate, and top with the hot nacho filling. Add some salsa, and go to town! lol

fresh...

2009-01-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

I just had a craving for fresh today. Jack was grilling some steaks and that sounded good, but what to cook to go along with it, mac & cheese or rice or potatoes, those things just sounded 'heavy' to me. I wanted light and fresh. I've wanted it since Christmas break, I think.

So - while some penne pasta was bubbling, I threw together a quick stirfry of diced squash, sliced onion, a little garlic, diced Roma tomatoes, and a little can of sliced mushrooms. At the end of the cooking, I stirred in some cilantro, a dash of Worcestershire, and a sprinkle of Tony Chachere's and some additional salt. With some fresh grated Parmesan, it was...

It was just want I'd been wanting...fresh and light.

check this out, my friends...

2008-12-29T19:42:00.001-08:00

I want to send you on a fun little journey to Australia, via a sweet little blog I visited - found it on a photography forum, of all places. LOL

Meet my friend, Doc-G, and his blog about food, restaurants, chefs, and his own recipes that just look to me as if they would melt in your mouth...

Click on his wonderful photo to go to his blog...and straight to this particular recipe, to boot! Then be sure to click on his header, to check out the rest of his writings, including fantastic photos of food. He's an excellent photographer, all around, as well as a good writer, and, I'm sure, fantastic cook.

Have fun, mate!

soup's on! ~

2008-12-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

Yippee! I looooooove cooking and baking! And I love blogging! Perfect mix, right?

Well - not on Christmas Day, at 1:00 a.m. HAHA ~

But here is the makeup post for yesterday, because I was baking and missed the deadline of midnight or before, lol.

Tonight, I'm posting just the recipe for butternut squash soup, with a Sistwist...I'm not done baking completely and the cookies almost done in the oven are going to have to survive the taste test in the morning. But just a taste of what's to come: Lee's Fudge, Nikki's Coconut Macaroons, Wandering Chopstick's Mango Bread, and maybe these cookies - we'll have to see about those...

About the soup - butternut squash is something I've not eaten before - at least, not that I remember. It was a totally new experience for me, both the squash, which sort of reminded me of pumpkin or even sweet potato, and the soup made from the squash. BTW - I just took a simple basic recipe and put a whole different twist on it...

Sis's Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash

4 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large carrot, or about 5 or 6 baby carrots, chopped

1 large stalk celery, chopped

4 cups chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning (or cayenne pepper)

1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

1 8-ounce cream cheese, cut into large cubes

Cut squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out seeds. Place cut side down on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in 350 degree oven for about an hour. Let cool; peel and cut meat into chunks. In a Dutch oven, melt butter; saute onion, carrot, and celery until soft. Add squash and broth and bring to simmer; let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add seasonings and stir. Next take an immersion blender and blend until smooth, or use a blender to puree in small batches. Add cream cheese and blend in last. Stir and serve, or let it cool and refrigerate. This soup is even better the 2nd day, reheated.

battle of the breads ~

2008-12-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

I made 2 loaves of bread today, one in the oven, mixed by my faithful KitchenAid mixer, and one in the bread machine. I used the same ingredients in each. My purpose was to see if I could make a bread machine recipe in the old fashion way and which loaf was better.

Dang it - that means I had to taste a piece of each loaf. Sigh...it's a hard job, but somebody has to do it...lol.

Here's the recipe, straight from the Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook.

Honey Corn Bread

(for a 1 1/2 pound loaf)
1 egg plus enough water to equal 1 cup
1/3 cup honey
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons dry milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons bread machine or quick active dry yeast

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Basic/White cycle. Use Medium or Light crust color. Do not use delay cycles. Remove baked bread from pan and cool on wire rack.

12 slices

Here's a photodocumentary of part of it - I forgot about taking pics until right when I put the loaf in the oven. BTW - I let it rise for about an hour, and I warmed the stoneware loaf pan before I put the dough in; I baked it at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or was supposed to - see below.

The verdict: I think the oven baked loaf was denser, and more crispy. I suspect that I should have kneaded it longer in the machine; and I know that I left it in the oven for about 8 minutes or more longer than I should have. So the bread machine loaf was a little lighter and not as crispy. Both tasted good, and both had the pleasant texture from the corn meal.

So - I suppose that, if you like baking bread yourself, kneading and such, you can take bread machine recipes and use those - but for convenience, machine loaves are tasty as well. I call this one a tie.

Farmer Maggot pizza...

2008-12-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

Anybody as big of a Lord of the Rings fan as me? That's my favorite novel, in the whole wide world, and, like the High elves who live halfway in the Undying Lands while they walk about in Middle-Earth, for many years, I was halfway walking around in a LOTR dream most of the time. I really love that book.

What does that have to do with cooking? Well - I think of LOTR every time I make these low carb versions of pizza - because of the mushrooms used as the crusts. Remember when Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin were walking through the dark to try to get to Buckleberry Ferry, to cross into Buckland? The Black Riders weren't far behind, and they took refuge for a few hours and for supper at Farmer Maggot's homestead...Farmer Maggot, who grew amazingly delicious mushrooms! My mouth waters every time I read that part...

Jack is doing low carb most of the time, the Atkins diet which I don't like but hey, he's a grown man and can make up his own mind...but when we have my homemade pizza, which he loves, he was always left out. So I came up with this - and sometimes, if I know I've had my share of breads on a particular day, I'll do this version as well, just to cut back on carbs myself. It's really good, although occasionally, the 'skin' of the mushrooms is just a little bit tough. And I named it in honor of Farmer Maggot. Don't let the name turn you off, ROFL!

Farmer Maggot Pizza

Brush or rinse 4 portabello mushrooms and remove the stems - be careful not to tear through the cap. If rinsing, let them drain for a while, with the gills pointing down. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray, and place the mushroom caps gill side up in the pan. Spritz the mushrooms with just a little cooking spray or brush lightly with olive oil, to keep them from drying out, and bake them at 400 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, to soften them up a bit. Remove from oven and top with a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce (or pizza sauce, if you prefer). You can sprinkle other seasonings on the tomato sauce too, like minced garlic, parsley, grated parmesan, etc. Top that with a light layer of torn spinach leaves. You could also sprinkle a little chopped onion or olives or whatever veggie on this too. Top the leaves with a little meat, if you desire - 3 or 4 pepperoni slices cover these nicely, or a sprinkle of cooked pork sausage. Top the meat with grated cheese, or if you're not using meat, put the cheese on the spinach. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees. After removing from the pan, let them sit for 5 minutes and then transfer to plates. You probably could eat these with your hands, but they are kind of drippy (you know how watery mushrooms are) and so we use a knife and fork. Enjoy!

steak with balsamic sauce...

2008-12-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

What the heck is a flat iron steak?

I had that question the other day, when I saw this recipe. I googly-eyed it, and got that it's similar to a top blade steak or roast. So anyway, I just bought this big chunk of beef. I don't remember what it was called, heh, but it was pretty thick - too thick, as it turns out, and slightly on the tough side, but tasted wonderful anyway in the end. Next time, and there will be many next times with this recipe, I'll use a good cut of meat, just whatever I want - sirloin, or t-bone, whatever...

OK, here's the recipe. Be forewarned - it stinks to high heaven, when cooking (the sauce) - or so Jack and the kids told me. I just thought it smelled vinegary. It's kinda like fish sauce, though - stinky but when you eat it, wow, is it full of flavor!

Steak with Balsamic Sauce

3 pound flat iron steak

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons coarse peppercorns (I used coarse ground black pepper)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)

1 tablespoon butter (I just used the olive oil for this)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I had none, but didn't miss it this time)

Brush steaks with oil. Press peppercorns and salt into each side of steak. Melt butter in large skillet over medium high heat. Add steak and cook on both sides until desired doneness. Remove to plate and keep warm. Stir garlic into the pan and cook over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar and increase heat to medium high; simmer until reduced by half. Thinly slice steak scross the grain and arrange on platter. Pour sauce over steak and sprinkle with parsley.

pumpkin with a twist ~

2008-11-27T05:32:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, we never had pumpkin pie. My mom wasn't too crazy about it, I guess - and she liked sweet potato pie better, so that's what we always had. I like my mom's sweet potato pie pretty much best of all, with the exception of chocolate and cherry pies. But when I first tasted a pumpkin pie, I wondered why my mom deprived me. LOL

The other thing we hardly ever had was cheesecake. I don't think we could really afford it. So we had cakes and pies and cookies, but I don't remember ever having a cheesecake until I was in my teens.

Anyway - as an adult, I really do love cheesecake, and pumpkin pie. So I did a search and got this recipe from allrecipes.com.

I haven't tasted the final product at the time of writing this blog; it's for the family Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house. But I did taste the filling before baking and it was light and tasty. I think I'm going to like this cheesecake. I'll do an edit and let you know.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

2 - 8 oz packages cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1 - 15 oz can pumpkin

1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

Blend cream cheese, sugar, and pumpkin. Add spices and mix well. Add salt, and then eggs, one at a time, blending well after each egg addition. Pour into prepared pastry shell (deep dish or 2 8") or into graham cracker crust. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees; cool completely and refrigerate overnight.

I typically just 'dump' all the ingredients in and mix, if flour is not involved, and that's what I did. You will likely get a smoother filling if you actually mix in the steps listed above. lol

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, I love you dearly and thank God for you.

chilly means chili ~

2008-10-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Or what passes for chili around here.

As I've grown older, chili is the only thing (so far) my stomach can't tolerate. It gives me acid reflux something terrible. So I go easy on the chili powder (avert your eyes, purists!).

But - I make up for it with a nice few shakes of Gunslinger hot sauce, teehee!

So - here's my easy sort-of chili, and since I was totally out of chili powder, Tony Chachere's made a great sub.

2 pounds deer burger

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon minced garlic

Cook and drain (if needed) the deer meat in a large Dutch oven. In a separate pan, saute the onion, pepper, and garlic until soft and add to the deer meat. Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, and 2 cans Ranch style beans (you can use the kind with jalapenos, if you like). Stir in about 3 tablespoons Tony's and some black pepper to taste. Hold off on salt until it's done, because Tony's is salty. Simmer for 30 minutes or more.

Jack always asks for rice to put under his chili. You can't see me but I'm rolling my eyes, LOL.

The other thing we had tonight was grilled squash slices, cooked in my new grill basket. Tossed them with a little olive oil, worcestershire sauce, and Tony's, and grilled for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This, my friends, was even better than the pseudochili...

new toys ~

2008-10-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

In case no one knew, I just love Pampered Chef's bamboo cooking utensils. Here are the 2 latest additions to my cookie jar...

Plus a new thing, I hope we really enjoy around here - a grill basket. To keep those pesky hot dogs and shrimps and squash slices and mushrooms and whatever else teensy we are grilling topside of the grill rack.

I'll let ya know how that part goes.

spring rolls ~

2008-10-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna let the pictures do most of the talking, because this is pretty self-explanatory, imo. These babies were very tasty, even my boys liked them and they are not so adventurous, most days.

The rice paper was dipped (fairly quickly, lol) in hot water ~ pretty fun to work with. And the nuoc cham might look a little funny because I didn't have red chilis or paste, so I just poured some red chili sauce into the mixture. Tasted just fine & dandy.

The meat - it's pork; the veggies - onion, celery, carrot, cucumber, spinach; the noodles - the teensy rice noodles. I thought I had cilantro on hand but I was mistaken. It would have been delish too.

I gotta figure out better how to wrap a little tighter - some of the filling fell out when I dipped it, after a bite or two. But overall, this was a success and I'll be making them often, varying the veggies and meat a bit.

birthday present ~

2008-10-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

My dear and sweet friend Tom and his lovely wife Evelyn sent me a birthday present and I got it today...

I just love them.

And I just love what they sent, too!

I decided to call him to say thank you, instead of emailing or pm'ing, and we had the greatest little talk, oh, man, there's nothing like hearing a friend's voice, even if you've never seen their face (except in pictures, LOL - and Tom has a really great face, as well as his voice!). While we were talking, he taught me to say nuoc cham, which he also taught me to make, a while back...except that my Southern accent only got me to "that's close enough" LOL.

In case you pop in here, Tom, thank you again, and you are so awesome! I can hardly wait to make those spring rolls!
XOXOXOXO

(yes, I already had busted into those dried mangoes, LOL)

sort of a rerun ~ our favorite pizza ~

2008-10-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

I've posted this on the other blog before, but I wanted to put it here too - and I was in a picture takin mood, lol...

I have discovered that I like it a bit better if I bake the crust for about 5-7 minutes before adding the sauce and toppings. I was kind of rushed so I didn't do it this time, but that's my preferred way, so it's gonna be included in the instructions.

Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups flour

(you can use all-purpose or substitute whole wheat flour

for 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the total flour)

1 teaspoon salt

herbs and spices of your choice

(typically, I use a palm full of dried parsley,

and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic)

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

3 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup hot water

(if the dough seems dry after mixing,

add more water one tablespoon at a time

until it's holding together right)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all this stuff together in a big ol' mixer. This doubles really well for 2 pizzas, if your mixer can handle it like the Kitchenaid can. In the meantime, put your pizza stone(s) in the oven for 5 minutes or so to heat up.

(It's a good thing to already have your toppings prepared, btw)

When the dough has kneaded for a while, take it out of the mixing bowl and put it on the hot pizza stone, dividing if you're making 2. Mash it evenly to the edges with your hands, and leave a little bit of a raised edge. Bake it in the oven for about 5 minutes, maybe 8. You don't have to do this but I think it's better.

Now time for the toppings. First, the topsecret recipe for the sauce. Don't tell ANYONE.

LOL

Next, add your toppings. I was "chatting" with my friend Lee and he said 'less is more' when it comes to ingredients on homemade pizza, and I totally agree. Even so, I have 4 veggies on half of this pizza, all of them sliced thin and left raw: spinach, squash, tomatoes, and onion. Don't go overboard with any of them or they will release too much water and make your crust soggy. And that's also a good reason to prebake your crust for a little while.

Then the cheese, and pop that baby in the oven for 25 minutes. The cheese may brown a bit but hey, that's even better, lol. I always like browned cheese.

Let the finished pizza sit for about 5 minutes so the sauce and cheese won't just run everywhere.

it's a texture thing...or not ~

2008-10-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I go to my mom's house, she gives me wonderful and awesome gifts. Not money or jewelry or such, but something better.

Vegetables. Oh yeah, baby.

Today, she gave me a sack of okra.

Now - here in the South, people typically like their okra battered and fried, or in Louisiana, in gumbo as is good and proper. But since I didn't have some of the gumbo fixins and I don't really care for fried okra, I fixed it my favorite way of all - boiled.

Ever had it? It's slimy, teehee! REALLY slimy.

For someone who gags on the last 2 bites of forcefed oatmeal, can hardly choke down a gummy nasty banana, and who thinks grits are a curse of the devil (don't tell, I'll lose my Southerngirl card), you'd think slimy okra would be the last thing I'd be headoverheels in love with. But - I'll fight ya for em.

Luckily, Stevie isn't home and Dillon and Jack don't like them, and Dalton only eats a few...that means more for me, and leftovers for tomorrow, LOL.

As for preparation, it's not anything that should really even be posted here, to tell the truth - it's that easy. Wash the okra, throw in a deep pot and barely cover with water, salt it a little, cover, and bring to a boil. Let it boil for about 7 or 8 minutes, and you're done. Season it with salt pepper Tony's whatever while it's hot on your plate, and go to town.

BTW - if you get the big ones, best do something else with those or toss them to the chickens, because they are tough. Now those big tough ones will make me gag, LOL...

double dog daring myself ~

2008-09-20T19:32:00.000-07:00

I need to come up with something to do with these, a gift from my mom.

I'm thinking this - what about stuffing them with some flavoredup cream cheese, and then baking them?

Those red ones are supposed to be pretty hot (I'm drying those) but the jalapenos would be nice, and the yellow ones, well, they are supposed to smoke off my socks, too...I can hardly wait to try those.

So - herb-flavored cream cheese it is.

I'll let you know how it goes.

more bananas, pudding this time ~

2008-09-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

This recipe is the most basic, most easy, probably most well known dessert ever. So why am I posting it? Two reasons.

Well - for one thing, sometimes people forget to teach the 'basic' stuff. It was years before I could successfully make gravy, because nobody taught me. Cutting up a chicken? I never quite got that until I was probably 30 years old.

Sometimes we just assume...

The other reason is that I just wanted to take some pictures today. HAHA

Banana Pudding

1 large instant vanilla pudding mix

1 3/4 cups cold milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 regular size frozen whipped topping, thawed

lots of vanilla wafers

a few firm bananas

Mix up the vanilla pudding mix and the milk, and whip for a couple of minutes.

Pour in the sweetened condensed milk, and mix it well.

Fold in 1/2 of the container of whipped topping. Go slow and easy on this, mix well but not hard.

In the dish you want to put the pudding in, layer vanilla wafers and sliced bananas.

Top that with half the pudding. Repeat the cookie/banana layer and then cover with the last of the pudding.

Spread the remaining whipped topping over it all, or just pile it in the middle. Crush a couple of cookies over it to pretty it up some.

Refrigerate it for a few hours at least, or overnight (best). When I made ours, I made one for Dustie and Jenni and decorated it with a few extra cookies. Just because I love them.

The sweetened condensed milk is what makes this pudding so good. It adds a smoothness and yet gives the pudding some 'weight'. And it tastes like a dream.

banana muffin ~

2008-09-18T04:14:00.000-07:00

I always hit the cookbook table at the school's book fairs, and one of the best finds I've ever made was this little bitty muffin cookbook. It has quick and amazing muffin recipes, from standard ones like banana and blueberry, to healthy ones full of nuts and raisins and made with wheat flour, to party ones with chocolate and cherries and such.

If you love muffins like Dr. Kelso, you gotta try this one. Warm and sweet, with a cup of coffee, you can't beat it for a great starttotheday...

Banana Walnut Muffins

(from The Totally Muffins Cookbook by Helene Siegel and Karen Gillingham)

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tins or line with paper cups.

Spread nuts on a tray and toast in oven 8 to 10 minutes. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add mashed bananas and beat until combined.

Stir dry ingredients into banana mixture just until flour disappears. Lightly stir in nuts.

Spoon batter into muffin cups to the top. Bake 20-25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

egg-cellent ~

2008-09-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

OK all you experienced cooks, maybe you will have a good laugh at this - I'm almost 47, been married 2 times, and cooked for most of my life.

Yet - I've never cooked a frittata.

Well, at least until tonight. My excellent cookfriend Lee told me how. What would I do without him?

So here's what I did - cut up the veggies I had, which included onions, garlic, peppers (a variety that's kind of like bell peppers), and celery - I was supposed to have broccoli but my daughter drove off with it, LOL. Sauteed those for a while, until crisptender, and also browned a pound of ground sausage, and drained it. Broke about 16 eggs in a bowl (I have big boys here, remember? ha) and beat those up with a little milk, chopped cilantro, and grated cheese. With the veggies and sausage in the bottom of my great big skillet (I think it's 14"), I poured the eggs over it and let it cook on medium until the bottom set, and then put it in the oven to broil. The top browned so nicely and it was so pretty when I took it out. I tore up a big handful of spinach leaves all over the top to wilt...

Y'all, me like frittata. Frittata good.

addendum to the best biscuit recipe ~

2008-09-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have discovered that if I spray my huge cast iron skillet (remember, I double this biscuit recipe), set it in the preheated 450 degree oven while I dump and pat out the dough, then crowd the cutout biscuits into the hot skillet before baking, I get a hugely tall, soft insides, crispy top and bottom, wonderful biscuit. As much as I love my baking stones, this skillet thing is even better.

Look and see. Better yet, try and taste and see.

best hot sauce ever ~

2008-09-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Really. I mean, that's the name of this hot sauce.

I got it from our church cookbook, submitted by a local doctor who likes to eat healthy stuff.

And let me tell you, it's best with fresh tomatoes. But my brother's tomato plants are long gone, and tomatoes in the store are too expensive right now to make this huge batch of sauce, so when fresh is unavailable (or unaffordable) please use canned, it's really good in spite of not being fresh.

So - here it is - Best Hot Sauce Ever. Tweak the ingredients to your liking - everything is adjustable except that you do need a lot of maters. And once, I made a smaller batch using fresh everything, but I diced it all instead of using a blender, and then tossed it in a bowl with a squeeze of lime juice (I left out the tomato paste on this version). It makes a great fresh chunky salsa.

Best Hot Sauce Ever

(original recipe by Vince L.)

1 #10 can whole tomatoes, drained (reserve juice)

1 can tomato paste

1 large onion

3 large jalapeno peppers (more or less to taste)

large handful cilantro (more or less to taste)

Process the whole tomatoes in a blender, until they are a thick saucey texture. Process by using pulse and in small batches, so they don't get processed too thin.

In the last batch, top them with rinsed and drained cilantro (I use a whole bunch, but that's pretty strong flavored - adjust to your own taste) and rinsed and destemmed jalapeno peppers (again, to your taste - these 3 huge peppers made the sauce pretty wonderfully spicy). Process the same as the tomatoes, in pulse mode to retain some texture.

Peel and slice the onion into wedges. Pour a little juice from the reserved tomato juice into the blender, top with the onion wedges and the tomato paste, and pulse until blended into a nice saucey texture. You can see it in the 3rd from last picture, poured in front of the green stuff.

Combine the tomatoes, green mixture, and onion mixture well. Salt to taste - the mixture will foam a little but it will soon go away. Be careful not to salt too much right now - you'll have to taste again after the flavors meld and maybe add more, maybe thin with a little reserved juice, maybe just leave it alone. You can eat it right away, but it's a lot better when you let it refrigerate overnight. And it's good with anything you'd eat hot sauce with - chips, eggs, taco salad, whatever...

One more thing - this hot sauce freezes GREAT, and thaws quickly, tasting as good as when you first made it.

I could make myself sick on this stuff.

ooey gooey rich and chewy ~

2008-09-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

The other day, I decided to finally get around to trying The Chewy, a chocolate chip cookie recommended to me by my sweet friend Lee - the cookie itself is found at the following link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-recipe/index.html

So - since there is the recipe, and it's simple to follow, I'll leave that to you to link to and read - in the meantime, here are photos of the process.

There was a glitch - since Dillon is well known for his chipstealing abilities, and since Stevie made chocolate chip pancakes the other morning, this is what I had to go with, for a double recipe (which should have been 4, count them, 4 cups of chips)...

Grr. Ah well, when ya got a lemon, make some lemonade, even if you have to use lime juice too. Behold, here's what you get when you pick out as many chips as possible from the trail mix, including m&m's, and then make up the rest with the white chips and the raisins and stuff, haha.

So - just follow along and see the result. And try not to drool on your keyboard. You'll be mad at yourself if you do.

(anybody else surf while cooking? teehee!)

(notice the vintage cookie jar in the back - I don't have a lid, so it holds my cooking tools)

(mmm, here they are, on my great-aunt's wagon train prairie plate. HA)

This cookie recipe is awesome. Best warm from the oven, of course, but still good days later. And if you take them out just a minute or too early, you get the gooey part. I did a little of both, gooey and more crispy. But I did learn one thing. I really don't like the white chips very much. And also I can't wait to make these with just plain old semi-sweet chips, I think it will be a favorite cookie recipe from now on. (thanks, Lee!)

tofu...can you believe it? ~

2008-09-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

I can remember my mom cooking tofu once, when I was a teen - I thought it was absolutely the most "nothing" thing I've ever eaten, LOL - I have no idea how she cooked it, but I've had no desire to try it again...until I started trying Vietnamese cooking.

My good friend Tom sent me some simple instructions to 'break me in' for my first tofu experiment. I didn't have the fresh tomatoes he recommended, but I did have a nice 14 oz can of diced tomatoes and that worked just fine.

Tofu is kind of fun. It's springy and a little spongy and looks a little like cheese, to me. I rinsed and drained it well on paper towels, and then I sliced it into blocks. First lesson learned (later, when I ate it) - make smaller thinner blocks. The sauce soaked into the tofu but they were so thick, it didn't go all the way.

Next, in a cast iron skillet sprayed liberally with Pam, I slowly fried the tofu blocks. There was a little sticking, but I don't have a large non-stick pan and so I was stuck with this (haha, get it?). However, there was so little liquid produced, I bet I could have gotten away with cooking these on my non-stick electric griddle.

Just a note here - during the tofu cooking, I had water boiling for noodles, and cooked them at the same time as the sauce.

OK - here are the browned tofu cubes. I thought they were kind of pretty.

The next step was to stir fry a little minced garlic for 15 seconds or so, and then add the can of tomatoes. I let it simmer to reduce some of the liquid, then I added the tofu cubes and simmered some more, stirring frequently to cover the cubes well.

Before turning off the heat, I sprinkled a tablespoon or so of soy sauce over it all and mixed it in. This is the sauce I used, it's what I have on hand right now. I liked the previous one better, I think it might have had a swan on it...I'll have to find out what kind it was. This sauce is a bit strong and black.

Finally, I topped the drained hot noodles with the tofu sauce. And, I may get whipped with a wet noodle, haha, but I sprinkled some feta cheese on it as a final touch. Nothing like mixing ethnic cooking to taste, is there, LOL.

Here's my final impression - I liked it, and think the health benefits of tofu are worth buying it again. It was different, and I can't say it will ever be an absolute favorite, but I think next time, the thinner blocks will be better. Also, in "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" by Andrea Nguyen, there is a pork stuffed tofu that looks absolutely divine. I've just gotta try that.

the quest for the ultimate biscuit~

2008-08-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

For many moons, I've searched for a good biscuit recipe. I mean, MANY moons. I finally settled on one I found in the Better Homes & Garden's red checked cookbook, but ya know, either I couldn't make em right, or it was a flawed recipe, because they would just crumble to pieces whenever I opened them to put in jelly or slop gravy over them. Grr.

Somehow, the topic came up in a few private messages with a friend on, believe it or not, a photography forum. And I tried the recommended recipe.

My quest is over.

So - may I present Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits recommended to me by my photographer and cooking buddy, Lee. Thank you, Lee! Not that you'll ever read this, HAHA...

(psst - I doubled the recipe because, um, we really like biscuits - so if you don't like biscuits like I do, then cut this baby in half)

Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits (doubled by Sis)

4 cups flour

8 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons shortening

2 cup buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in the butter and shortening with a pastry cutter. Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick square. Cut square biscuits of desired size, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. The square method eliminates the need for reworking the dough...
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Introducing...my bread bowl.

I make all my breads in this bowl, which was a gift from my mom for Christmas.

Except for the breads that I make in the bread maker.

And the ones I mix in the Kitchenaid mixer.

Hmmm...

I make all my biscuits in this bowl. (haha)

I didn't have enough shortening, so I just used all chilled butter.

Cut until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Except mine never does. It just resembles flour with chunks of butter in it.

The fun part is coming! Make a big hole in the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk to make an amazing lake! Oh, look, Gertie the magical Gator has paid a visit! She must be curious to see if she can take a swim...

Hi, Gertie! Please don't swim in my buttermilk.

Options abound with the next step - you can play avalanche, dam-break,

earthquake, or my personal favorite, back-hoe...just collapse the sides of the lake

and mix all that good stuff up.

When it'll hold together, dump it out on a floured surface (the counter will do, HA)

and form a ball.

And since I love to get my clean DNA all over bread dough, I used my fingers

to press it out into a nice square. With rounded corners (not on purpose).

I like to use one half of the blades for my electric knife - it's really sharp, serrated, and cuts dough, bread, tomatoes, all sorts of stuff without smashing the edges.

I don't worry about whether the biscuits are all the same size. Sometimes, you get almost done eating, and you just want a little bit extra...there's a little biscuit that fits the bill. Starving? Grab a couple of the huge ones! lol

Transfer to a pan - I'm using a stoneware pan here, I love my Pampered Chef stoneware.

The final product. Ahhhh....btw - those are hamburger patties in the background, just waiting for gravy to be done so they can go back in and simmer a while.

I couldn't wait for supper, so I put just a tiny smidgen of jelly on the littlest biscuit. Just a little bit, because I don't want the jelly taste to overwhelm the biscuit. Plus I don't want to get fat. HAHA

Remember. Just a little bit of jelly.

After all that, sheesh, I need a nap...

'something something' peanut soup ~

2008-08-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

heh heh...

The original name of this recipe from Fiwa's blog is "African Thai Peanut Soup Stew Stuff" and please click on the link to see how she did it. I never have the same 'stuff' on hand that all the great cooks have so I just have to fake it, and mine won't be exactly the same tastes, but I don't think it's too different. And...honey, hush...it was soooo good...

I've never cooked with peanut butter except to make cookies and desserts. I've been missing something.

Sis's version peanut soup

5 medium size potatoes

1/2 large onion, chopped

green curry paste

minced garlic, to taste (meaning a big ol' heaping spoon haha)

little bit of cooking oil

3 cups broth (beef or chicken)

1 can diced tomatoes with juice

1 14 oz. can coconut milk (not the sweetened kind)

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

Scrub the potatoes clean, and boil them until done in a pot of water. Let cool for a few minutes. Since I seek fiber wherever I can, I left the skins on but you can scrape them off if you like. Slice the potatoes into uniform chunks and set aside.

Heat a little oil in the bottom of a big pot or large wok, on medium-high heat. Saute the onions for a minute or so, add the curry paste and cook another minute, then add the garlic and cook for yet another minute. Pour in the 3 cups broth, the tomatoes, and the coconut milk, and add the potato chunks in, and cook and stir until it's simmering well. Add the sea salt and stir to dissolve. Add the 1/2 cup peanut butter and let it melt while stirring. Let it simmer a few minutes to meld the flavors, and then turn off the heat.

Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and chopped peanuts, if you used smooth peanut butter. I didn't have any peanuts to chop, so I sprinkled some roasted salted sunflower kernels on mine and it was delish.

pan fried rice noodles with beef & veggies~

2008-08-01T15:43:00.001-07:00

Today I tried a deliciously different way of fixing rice noodles - pan fried. I learned about how to do it and pretty much got the recipe from Wandering Chopstick's post, but I didn't follow it exactly; so I'm linking to her for the original recipe. Being such a newcomer, you'd best follow hers rather than mine, LOL. One more thing - since I had significantly more beef in mine, I didn't have any marinade left in the bowl, so I made up a little sauce from the recipe from "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" by Andrea Nguyen, and I added that along with the marinated beef. I'll call that "Flavoring Sauce" like AN did in her book.

Panfried Rice Noodles with Beef (and Vegetables)

1 pound beef round steak, thinly sliced

3 cloves minced garlic

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Mix these ingredients up and pour over the beef. Set aside to marinate.

Perpare vegetables. I julienned carrots, chopped bok choy, soaked and chopped dried black mushrooms, and sliced an onion thin.

For the noodles: soak 1 package of the medium wide rice noodles for a while in warm water, drain and then boil them until chewy tender. After draining in a colander, rinse with cold water and then drain very well. Toss with a little oil.

Flavoring sauce:

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 teaspoons fish sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce

3/4 cup warm water

OK - I'm going to let the photos do a lot of the talking...

Beef, marinating...

Boiled and drained noodles, waiting for frying...

Chopped veggies (onion not shown)

In a wok, pour oil until the bottom is covered. Heat on medium high heat until hot, and then carefully add the noodles. I did them in 2 batches. Spread the noodles out to cover the bottom of the pan. Fry until beginning to get crispy and holds together pretty well, then carefully flip with a spatula and fry the other side. Drain on a paper towel covered platter or plate. When the noodles have cooled, cut with kitchen shears into chunks or wedges, or just do like I did and tear them into smaller pieces. Set aside on a plate.

Next, in a little oil, stir fry the onions until they are getting soft. Add beef and any marinade left in the bowl, rinsing with water to get it all (about 1/2-1 cup water). If it's like mine, there is no marinade left, so you can add the flavoring sauce for the needed liquid.

Let that cook a few minutes - a gravy will start to form. Add the vegetables (not the bok choy yet) and stir fry for a few minutes.

Next, add the bok choy and stir fry a few more minutes. Keep the veggies crisp tender.

Finally, add the noodles back into the pan, tossing and stir frying until well mixed. Pour onto a platter and everybody dig in!

triple chip chocolate cookies~

2008-07-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

As a hostess for a "couple shower" for my friend's son and his bride-to-be, we were all supposed to bring cookies. I'm happy to say, out of 8 hostesses, I'm one of only 2 who brought homemade cookies - 2 kinds: standard peanut butter, and these, a "tweaked to suit me" recipe. Nothing against Oreo's or chocolate stripe cookies, they are delish too, but nothing beats a homemade cookie.

The peanut butter recipe I used was the classic one from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. You can google it and there it is. I never use crunchy PB and never add nuts, either - just good ol' smooth peanut butter deliciocity.

I also wanted to bake something chocolate, so I searched around a little. This recipe started out as one in a cookbook I have that's devoted to just cookies, and I messed around with it just a bit to satisfy myself. When I test a new recipe, I always watch to see reactions from other people, especially when they don't know that I was the one who made it, so I can get an honest idea of whether it's a recipe worth keeping or not. At the party, I overheard several people asking "who made these?" and another couple of times, I heard "you have got to try these" so I think I'm safe in assuming that they were a hit and this one's a keeper. In my book, it's become my favorite cookie ~ at least for now!

If you are a chocoholic, make this. It's soooooo good.

Triple Chip Chocolate Cookie

(makes about 5 dozen)

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup softened butter

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup milk chocolate chips

1/3 cup white baking chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until well blended and creamy. In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to creamed mixture and beat at low speed until combined well. Stir in all the chips. Drop onto ungreased baking sheets by heaping tablespoons, 3 inches apart. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until set. Let cool for 1 minute before removing from sheets.

People, I must tell you that these are so excellent dipped in cold milk. Mmmm. Oreo's, move over.

my new favorite cookbook~

2008-07-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

I just have to recommend this. It was a gift to me that I'll treasure, not only for the recipes and the lovely photographs, but for the well wishes and the friendheart behind the gift. Anne, I love you, my friend! You are truly a kindred spirit, my sister!

Let me introduce you to:

'Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors'

by Andrea Nguyen

If you have any interest at all in Vietnamese cooking, get this cookbook!

broiled chuck roast & bleu cheese sandwich~

2008-07-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

This one's for Ginni! I know she loves bleu cheese...

Today for lunch, I knew I was gonna have a sandwich, but I really am not just a "meat sandwich" kind of person, unless it's bologna (yum!), so I wasn't looking forward to just having a roast sandwich. I spied the wheat sub rolls I had picked up the other day, and somehow, something inside my foodbrain just went 'ding!' and I had an idea.

I split the roll, shredded some roast, topped that with thin sliced bleu cheese, and sliced red onions (God's gift to my mouth!). Then I set it in the oven to broil for a few minutes, and the smell was heavenly. Immediately upon removal from the oven, I put some fresh spinach leaves on, a strip of Miracle Whip, and salt & pepper, and went to town.

Ginni, it was so good - you gotta try it.

Vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho bo)~

2008-07-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

My apologies to Ginni and anyone else who might have been wondering what great recipe I cooked and consumed Saturday night for supper, and promised to blog about on Sunday - I am just now getting here after a packing marathon to get my two older kids off to camp as youth counselors - a last minute request from our pastor...

But, they are on the road now, and I have a few minutes.

Y'all. May I say, I have now made Pho Bo (except I don't have the font to put the proper dots and squiggleys to make it look like it should) which is, as the title says, Vietnamese beef noodle soup. And may I say, it took a long time to complete it. And may I also say, it was 100% well worth it.

The recipe comes from a cookbook that a wonderful friend and fellow rose grower/food lover sent me, to "christen" the new blog. (Thank you, Anne! XOXO)! Am I supposed to post recipes from new cookbooks, are they copyrighted? Right now, I won't post it, because I'm not sure, but the cookbook is written by Andrea Nguyen, and it's called "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors" and it's absolutely beautiful, both recipes and photographs.

At this time, I'll just sort of list the ingredients and the steps I took to make it, and there are a few photos to go along with it.

First, I dug around a bit in the freezer and took out 2 packages of soup bones. These are wonderful bones, because they come from steers that my daddy raised and fed out. The meat is tasty and there was a good bit of marrow in them as well. I thawed those and then put them in water to cover in a large stock pot, and set it to boil.

Those are figs from my mom's tree, there in the back. I've already put those in the freezer for future cakes and biscuits, yum!

While the bones were heating up in the water, I lit the grill outside and charred some whole, unpeeled yellow onions and a big piece of ginger. Never knew something burned could be 'pretty' LOL.

While they were cooking on the grill, the soup bones came to a boil, and I let them boil hard for 5 minutes, dumped everything in the (clean) sink, and rinsed off the bones with clean tap water. Then I cleaned the pot, put the bones back in, and added 6 quarts of cold water, and set it back on the stove to come to a boil again. This got rid of tons of impurities (all that nasty brown foamy stuff). I had to lightly skim the pot once or twice more, but nothing like what came up with that first boil.

When the onions and ginger had cooked for about 20 minutes on low heat, I brought them in and peeled them, and washed them off; then I added them to the stock pot, along with the required spices and seasonings: cinnamon, star anise, cloves, fish sauce, rock sugar, salt, and several chunks of chuck roast. When it came to a rolling boil, I turned down the heat to a steady low simmer and left it for 1 1/2 hours, checking occasionally to make sure it was still simmering. Oh, I almost forgot, don't cover the pot (psst - in addition to the figs, look at all the beautiful tomatoes my brother gave me!).

After 1 1/2 hours, remove the chunks of chuck roast, and cover them with water for a while to cool them; drain and put in a bowl, covered, in the refrigerator until ready to prepare the bowls of soup. Let the rest of the ingredients remain in the pot and simmer for 1 1/2 hours more.

Next, strain the soup, removing everything, leaving a clear, beautiful broth. This is the point where my daughter and I tasted it. I thought my eyes were going to roll back in my head. I've never made a broth with "cake spices" LOL ~ but it was absolutely the smoothest broth I've ever had. My daughter loved it, even though earlier, when my older son asked "what's cooking?" she replied "some stinky soup." haha

I let the broth cool, then refrigerated it over Friday night, because I wanted to pick up the fat off the top and toss it. I did leave a little bit of fat for more flavor. You can see it in this photo, glistening on the surface.

My broth may not be as clear as it's supposed to be, I'm not sure. But I was pretty happy with it, for my first time ever.

OK - chow time! I took the broth out of the fridge, removed most of the solidified fat, and heated the broth to a rolling boil. In the meantime, I set a pot of water on to boil, and placed some small rice noodles in hot water to soften. While all that was going on, I chopped some yellow onion, green onion tops (I don't have shallots), and cilantro, and sliced the cold chuck roast into very thin slices. You can use thin slices of uncooked sirloin in addition to the cooked meat, but I didn't do that this time. After 10 minutes of soaking, I took a serving size bunch of noodles, placed them in a long handled strainer, and boiled them for about 1 1/2 minutes, then drained them and placed them in a large bowl. I laid slices of chuck over the noodles, put a big spoon of chopped onion in the middle, and sprinkled green onion tops and cilantro over all of it. Then I ladled boiling broth over it all, until it covered it well. We ate it immediately, and absolutely loved it. As for personal tastes, there are other garnishes you can add, but we didn't; my daughter thought it was too much cilantro, and I thought it needed salt. But we both agreed, it's a winner and a keeper.

It's so worth the time and effort, and it's so much fun for me to eat foods from other cultures, that I've prepared myself. Please comment on this post, if you like, and if you make this regularly or for the first time ever, I'd love to hear from you.

just wait til I get back on here this afternoon...

2008-07-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

I am so dadgum excited about what I had for supper last night...

lemon mango scones~

2008-07-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

One time, a while back, I called myself making up a recipe, it was a stirfry recipe that was, at best, only ok...I've never gone back to it, because since then, I've tasted some pretty awesome stirfries that make me embarrassed about my first attempt, LOL.

Today, I decided to try making up another recipe - I got the idea that maybe mango and lemon would marry well together. I googleeyed "baking recipes mango lemon" or something like that, and got basically nothin' so I took a little breath and went for it. I made this thing up and could hardly wait until the timer went 'ding' because it was starting to smell pretty awesome the longer it cooked.

All I can say is...it's the best scone I've ever put in my mouth. Seriously. I ain't meanin' to boast on myself none, haha, but it is. Now I pronounce you lemon and mango, you may kiss the bride...

OK - here goes...please try it sometime and give me some feedback, and thanks!

Lemon Mango Scones

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

finely grated zest from 1 large lemon

1 1/2 sticks butter, cubed but still cold

juice and pulp from one large lemon

3/4 cup cold milk

1 mango, peeled and diced into small cubes and pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, mix dry ingredients, including zest. Using pastry cutter (or in your mixer), cut cold butter pieces into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. In bowl or cup, mix lemon juice and milk, and then gently pour into well. Using flat spatula or fork, gently blend ingredients. When they hold together a little bit, add mango pieces and continue to gently mix. Make a ball from the dough and place it on floured surface. Using floured hands (and adding flour by the tablespoon if needed due to being too moist), gently fold and knead the dough about 5 or 6 times. Pat out into large circle, about 1 1/2 inches thick. Using sharp knife, divide into 12 wedges. Transfer to seasoned baking stone or lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 30-35 minutes, checking toward the end for overbrowning.

If desired, after the scones have cooled, drizzle a mixture of powdered sugar and a little lemon juice (to make a thick icing) over each scone.

grilled lemon grass pork chops~

2008-07-14T06:18:00.000-07:00

Jack has been on a grillingfest lately and I'm totally good with that - he does a pretty good job, too, considering the first time he tried to grill a brisket, it was half frozen on the inside and burned to a crisp on the outside and our tough ol' outside dog Rudy refused to eat it. While I snicker at that fun memory, I'll continue...

On Saturday, I was taking engagement portraits of my niece and her fiancee, and by the time we'd finished, it was dark and I was starved. My dear spouse had grilled some chops, and he took care of the ones I had left marinating in the lemon grass mixture I had put together. It was heavenly to walk into the house and smell those wonderful smells floating through the air...ahhh.

OK - so here's the recipe for the marinade. I got it from Mai Pham's cookbook, "The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking" but it was taking forever to chop that lemon grass - either I let it dry out too much or my knife is just way too dull - anyway, this recipe is not the exact same as the one in Pham's cookbook, but instead it has a couple of small changes that I made - still, it was delish.

Grilled Lemon Grass Pork Chops

2 green onions, chopped

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced lemon grass

1 teaspoon fish sauce (I'll double this next time)

2 teaspoons soy sauce (I'll make it 1 tablespoon next time)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 pork chops

Mix all the ingredients and pour a little in 4 spots (one for each chop) on a deep platter or large flat storage container. Place the chops on top and sort of smush them around to cover the bottom of the chops. Divide the remaining marinade between the chops and rub in with your fingers. Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes. Grill 5-7 minutes per side, depending on thickness of chops.

I must admit that I took a couple of photos of these luscious pork chops before devouring them - but I accidently erased them from my camera, dang it. So I just dragged out a previous photo of some chops on the grill. Not as pretty as the lemon grass ones, because the tiny bits and pieces of the marinade were grilled onto the pork, and it made an attractive as well as tasty presentation.

If you try this recipe, please let me know, and any changes you made.

nuoc cham~

2008-07-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Or, Vietnamese Dipping Sauce. Apparently as varied in Asian cooking as Thanksgiving dressing is in the South - every mom has her own way of doing it.This first try is using my friend Tom Tran's recipe. I liked it so much, I wrote it down in my Vietnamese cookbook so I won't lose it. The same ingredients in both, but different quantities. I think Tom's must be extra sweet, but I loved it.

I have to say - I had no idea what to expect. I've never had this before. I was out of limes, so I ran to town to get some, and though in our small town, rice paper is not available on the shelf (BUT...Chuck at one of the markets is ordering some for me, it will be here Monday - Yay for Chuck!), I found some frozen pork and shrimp egg rolls. I grabbed those, just to have something to dip, because I couldn't wait til Monday (patience is NOT my middle name).

Can I say that my mouth did a happy dance when I tasted the first dip? Is it ok to drink nuoc cham? lol

Here it is...try it and enjoy...and thank you, Tom, for sharing your recipe with me.

Tom Tran's Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
Mix these 3 ingredients in a pot and bring just to a boil, to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Let cool completely.
In a mortar & pestle, smash 4 cloves garlic and fresh red chili to taste. If you don't have fresh peppers, you can use red chili paste but don't add it yet. Add smashed garlic/chili mixture to cooled sugar mixture. Add juice and pulp of 1 lime and mix. If you are not using fresh chili, add red chili paste to taste now, and then add 1/4 cup fish sauce. Mix it well and serve.

Husband Jack was online at the time I was finishing this, and I asked him to search for the sauce to see about storage. When he found that info, I was so happy to see that the online picture of dipping sauce looked just like mine! Is that not awesome? And isn't it pretty?

In my opinion, cooking experiment number one is a total success. Please try, and come back to post your results. I'll be checking in on these recipes periodically, just to get some input.

just a little change~

2008-07-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got your interest, HAHA, let me throw a wrench into the gears...I'm changing the name of this blog to Cast Iron Kitchen. After all, it needs to be made totally of cast iron to withstand me, lol...

I think this name will be better because I intend to explore other recipes besides just Asian. So...sorry to put you through the trouble of changing your blogs, if anyone had already put me on their blogroll (Gin!). Please forgive!

And, I'm going to transfer the Vietnamese Dipping Sauce post I had already made, so look for a repeat - I don't want to lose the recipe for Tom's nuoc cham.

I lost the first post on the other blog, but it's no big deal - it was just saying how I wanted to learn more about Asian cooking, especially Vietnamese. But there are tons of other cooking experiments I want to try, too - and a special request from a friend, for Pumpernickel Bread. Gotta get on that one, lol.

Anyway - I hope whoever reads this blog will find it entertaining, and the recipes appealing enough to want to try them too, or at least to get in the kitchen and cook something. Most of all, I hope everyone goes away feeling happy and with smiles on their faces. May God bless you all with everything you need and desire.

See ya later, gators!