A family classic

Today is my father's birthday. It's proximity to Christmas means we usually celebrate when the family gathers for Christmas festivities. And his birthday means one thing - Cherry Carnival Cake. What is this you may be asking yourself? Why it is nothing more or less than a lovely yellow/white cake with cherries in it, topped with ice cream (optional, but why wouldn't you?) and a hot cherry sauce (just heated pie filling). It is quite delicious (if you like cherries). This particular cake was made by my grandmother. I've never actually made the cherry carnival cake. Maybe will try it sometime this year. But the history of the recipe is what is more interesting than even eating the cake itself. Which is good for breakfast, too, by the way.

I may have some of the details wrong, but back a very long time ago, my great-grandmother Mary (who was a saint) was a kitchen tester for Gold Medal flour. I believe that how it worked was that they sent you a recipe and gave you the ingredients. You made the recipe. They came, took a portion of the recipe, say, a quarter of a cake. You got to keep the rest of the cake or whatever the recipe was. So, especially during leaner eras, it was probably a good way to get more food on your table. I'm not sure if you got paid on top of it. But regardless, the cherry carnival cake was a recipe from Grandma Mame's (her name) Gold Medal testing days.

2007 Gingerbread House

More buns

Christmas Cookies!

From the top left, swirling around to the center: Nut boats (aka nut pillows), oatmeal florentines filled with butterscotch, jam thumprints, sugar cookies, almond bars, Russian tea cakes (aka snowballs/aka Mexican wedding cakes), shortbread thumbelinas.

Another crack at candy

I made bark! BARK! Why don't people make this stuff all the time? It was super easy. In a double boiler, I melted about 1 c of bittersweet chocolate chips and about 2 or 2 1/2 c of semisweet. While that melted, I laid down a rectangle (approximately 9x12, but I'm not good with measurements) of pretzels. Once the chocolate was melted, I poured/spread it over the pretzels. Then sprinkled about 1 1/2 c of salty mixed nuts over top. Delish!

Our child-like dinner

Mmm. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. V. homey, v. good on a cold night. I was flipping through some old Everyday Food magazines and came across a recipe for homemade tomato soup. I was intrigued. I've never been a huge fan of tomato soup out of a can - it's a bit too smooth, a bit too bland. This one looked like it would have a bit of texture and flavor, and I knew I could jazz it up myself. I added red pepper flakes with the sauteed onion. I also used an Italian spice mix instead of just thyme. I used lots of black pepper. And, since I apparently went heavy on the salt, I added in quite a bit of milk at the end (which made it creamier AND balanced out the ridiculous salty taste). Serve up with some lovely grilled cheese on the side (with ham for Mr. Carnivore), and it was quite delish.

Meanwhile, while the fudgemaster was at work...

I was making dinner. It was supposed to be a luscious dinner of London Broil, twice baked potato (born of a huge potato, as you can see, that's just half), and bread (no vegetables for Mr. R. I think I made myself something). As you can see from the picture, it turns into a dinner of potato, bread, and shoe leather/steakum/chewy bit. The meat got a bit overdone. Mr. R (I WILL CAST BLAME HIS WAY) was concerned it was UNDERdone on the stovetop, and suggested it go in the oven for a bit. BAD MR. R!! BAD! Sigh. Oh well. The potato was good and the bread.

I've been gone too long...

I know I've been gone. This weekend though, we finally cooked again. And my holiday cookie baking will commence soon.

Mr. R has been up in my grill about making fudge for weeks, so this weekend, I finally bought ingredients and let him have at it. He was very cute, wielding his candy thermometer. He let loose with an Emeril recipe. And it turned out very well, thank you very much.

Power eating

So, at our football party over the weekend, there was some major power eating.

We had a veritable schmorgasbord of appetizer type food. Balsamic carmelized onion dip. Beer cheese dip. Hot bacon dip. Let's see...what else what else? Rice Krispy treats, both regular and chocolate peanut butter. Brownies, lovingly decorated by my brother and future sister-in-law. WEENIES! Made by Miss L. And the lovely pumpkin dip with gingersnaps and vanilla wafers, also from Miss L. Chips/salsa. Pretzels. I think that about does it...oh wait, I can't forget a newcomer to the party, BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP which was FREAKIN' AMAZING. It may, I'm big enough to admit, have eclipsed the hot bacon dip. Twas amazing. And only four ingredients - 1 c wing sauce, 1 c chunky blue cheese dressing, 1 8z package cream cheese, and 2 c+ shredded chicken. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 min, serve. We served with crudite and Tostitos Gold chips (and random bread rounds) and it was delish. DELISH. Thanks Miss M!

Main course was beer. Haha. Also, burgers, hotdogs (from Buffalo, thanks again Miss M), hash brown casserole, baked beans...your football favorites.

It was a good time...sigh...now it is over. Till next year!

Superfruit

I keep hearing all this press about superfruit. And I've been intrigued by the granddaddy of superfruit, the pomegranate, ever since my Irish roommate (the noncrazy one) would eat them frequently when I lived over there. Miss Elle got me one on a recent trip to the sto' and I finally attempted to eat it last night. It is kind of a PIA. You eat the little jeweled pips. Which are tasty, tart, but tasty. They have a little crunchy bit in the middle. It was kind of fun to pop them out, for a while. It's a dieter's dream of a fruit - it would take forever to eat one. Until you dig too deeply and it squirts out at you, making your hand, arm, shirt, whatever look like a crime scene. I would not be opposed to eating it again - but I may just stick to using the juice!

Mr. R's Magical Birthday Celebration

Mr. R finally reached the ripe ol' age of 28 alongside me over the weekend.


We celebrated with the always lovely rigatoni with steak sauce and some vino. Thanks again Giada, for your fab recipe.




For dessert, a humongous square German chocolate cake. German chocolate is ok, but R prefers canned icing, and the canned icing smelled like a tanning bed. Or something equally skanky. Not that this has stopped me from eating it or anything so drastic as that mind you...

Meatball sandwich....

Sung in the manner of Adam Sandler in "Lunchlady Land." I had ground beef that I was intending to make into a soup, but I couldn't face soup on Monday evening. Miss L threw out the idea of meatball subs, and I said, hmmmmm....sounds interesting. We had ciabatta rolls in the freezer, and I knew I had pretty much everything else one needs to make meatballs (save breadcrumbs, remedied by a quick store run) so I whipped some up and then made these little pizza like creations under the broiler. Yum.

I've got a scone in my oven...heh heh

Thanks to Ms. S for the inspirational title...I needed to make my own breakfasts this week, and neither bagels, nor oatmeal were doing much for me. So I bucked up and baked some scones. I flipped through my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and found a recipe for Maple Oatmeal scones in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. It called for whole wheat flour, which I didn't have. It also called for a half cup of maple syrup which, in my mind, is a little too much syrup. A little maple flavor goes a long way in my book. So, I improvised. I, obviously, kept the required pound of butter. I only put in about 2 or 3 tbsp of syrup. I added a little brown sugar. And cinnamon. And pecans. And a LOT more oatmeal. The original recipe wanted 3 1/2 c white flour, 1 c wheat, and 1 c oats. I put in about 4 c white flour and 2 1/2 c oats. They are pretty tasty. Again, I don't really need the mapley-ness. In the future, I'll just use a bit of brown sugar and that will be it. But they'll get me through the week!

Dirrrrty risotto

On a recommendation from Miss Mo, I prepared Giada's Dirty Risotto last night. I used bacon instead of pancetta, because our Kroger is totally jacked up both physically (they are doing construction) and stock-wise (they had bresaola, I think, the ever popular prosciuotto, but not pancetta. Wtf?) I used Italian sausage from this random sausage store R and I passed on our ill-fated trip to Waldo, Ohio looking for a new couch. Mom Wilson's Country Sausage. It was interesting, they had a lot of different types of sausage . But my heart remains with Schmidt's (you'll see why).

anyways - it was fine. Kind of meh for me. R enjoyed it. I think part of my issue is the damn crap wine I used (again, the same wine that prob ruined that horrific casserole a while back). Another big part was the v. blah Italian sausage. It had virtually no flavor. Had I known it would be SO very mild, I'd have gotten the hot sausage. Those nasty pink breakfast sausages they serve in Ireland were spicier. But I think the biggest problem was that when I want risotto, I just want rich, creamy goodness. There are some variations I will tolerate - for example, the addition of some roasted butternut squash and sage - boo ya - I'll eat that all day long. But I don't really look to risotto for "spice" and "palate interest." I want comfort - creaminess - luxury. I want to taste the mushrooms I put in. The flavorless sausage and bacon kind of masked all that creaminess and then I got weirded out by the whole "meat tube" issue, so I started getting slightly gaggy...all in all, not a great experience. HOWEVER, I repeat, R did enjoy it. And with better sausage ,maybe I would too. However, Giada's attempt to take on the South's dirty rice did not work as I'd hoped.

FOOTBALL! GRR! and wine?

YES! The ultimate combo...pizza and a nice glass (or four) of a "meh" Zin. YES!

Greek burgers

On Elle's suggestion, I made fancy poultry burgers with a Greek flair. Ground chicken, tons of Greek seasoning, feta, sundried tomatoes. Mix. Grill up. Eat on buns with mayo mixed with some sundried oil and a tiny dash of Greek seasoning. Also some roasted potato wedges. I enjoyed them, maybe not enough to make again give Mr. R's apprehension of the ground chicken. He did eat it, and said it was better than he anticipated - but given that he rolled his eyes and sighed when I told him what we were having that is a rather low bar. I would suggest them though, especially if you were looking for something to do with ground poultry. No pics, they weren't particularly pretty - kind of gray.

Chicken dish pie

I didn't make it in a pot, it's chicken dish pie. Cook chicken. Cook onions, carrots, celery in butter . Add flour. Add hot chicken broth. Add frozen peas and onions. Add a splash of cream. Meanwhile, bake the bottom crust - a sheet of rolled out puff pastry in a 9x13 - at 400 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. Pour chicken mix over top. Top with another sheet of puff pastry - this one, you brush with an egg wash. Bake again, until puffed and golden - 10-15 minutes, longer if needed. Yum-o.

Fried food Saturday

R and I whipped up some gameday goodness on Saturday - fried pretzels with homemade honey mustard and lovely disgusting Velveeta dip with tortilla chips.

For the pretzels - take a box of frozen soft pretzels - fry in shallow pan with oil. Salt.

For honey mustard - mix a large dollop of mayo with several squirts of yellow mustard and Dijon mustard. Add about 1 tbsp honey, some salt, and some pepper. Keep tasting until it meets your taste standards.


For the Velveeta dip, in its tiny crockpot, fry up a pound of breakfast sausage, with onions if you'd like, or peppers. Throw in a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes. Cube up a big brick of Velveeta. Throw in some salsa. Add chili beans if desired. Once the 'veeta is melted, add in cheddar cheese, for a touch of authenticity. Slam with chips.

Brownie goodness

Ok, I made some seriously delicious brownies this weekend. I was motivated, again, by a post at Baking Bites, which linked me to a recipe for Peanut Butter Brownies And fabulously easy. And to at Smitten Kitchen. Supposedly (the B-lo crew will have to confirm) this recipe mimics a recipe served at the fab Butterwood bakery. These were FABULOUS. be honest, cut them into little tiny squares, and you have a perfectly presentable nibble for a party or dinner gathering. I mean, these were so good. They weren't greasy. The chocolate was just right. It was so tasty. The only tweaking I made to the recipe was to (similar to the picture) add a heaping handful of chocolate chips to the actual batter (I'd skip it next time, didn't add anything) AND I used mostly dark chocolate chips for the ganache. I threw in about 1/4 c of semisweet because R was getting concerned that it would be too bitter, but I knew it wouldn't be, so I told him to go away. Here are pictures of the pan both sans ganache and fully ganached.

I will try to get a cross section photo of my own brownies, but sadly, they are rapidly dwindling due to our own gluttony and my (i'd like to think) generosity at handing them out to a few peeps.

Sauerkraut Fest

Some of you have seen these lovely photos from our trip to the Sauerkraut Festival this past weekend. A polish sausage with kraut. A "German Sundae" - potatoes, kraut, cheese, sour cream, and an olive.




We also had our first " apple flappin" which were slices of apple battered and fried. Then powdered with sugar. Also, sauerkraut balls, which are balls of...sauerkraut and something else, breaded and...you got it, fried.

Mmm...apples

So, it's apple time in Ohio. I'm too lazy to make pastry (peeling and cutting up a half dozen apples is work enough) so an apple crisp is the route for me. For said lusciousness, peel and thinly slice 6-8 GRANNY SMITH apples (I don't care what anyone else says, you need MOSTLY grannies...you can toss in a Gala, Honeycrisp, Jonahgold, whatever else or TWO, but MOSTLY GS) and toss in a large mixing bowl with about 2 tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 c white sugar, a handful of brown sugar, some vanilla, and about a 1/3 c flour. Layer in a 9x13 dish. In the same mixing bowl, mix 2 c oats, 1/2 c flour, a large pinch of salt, 1/3 c white sugar, 1/3 c brown sugar, 1-2 tbsp cinnamon, some nutmeg (to taste) and 1 room temp stick of butter. Mix well, until mix is crumbly. Use hands. Press on top of apples - there's a LOT of topping, use it all, it's the best. Bake in a 375 deg oven for, oh, say 45-55 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and the apples are v. bubbly. Serve, obviously, with vanilla ice cream.

Healthy, or at least healthiER, living

So, the chub is getting me down. Have decided I need to be both MORE active and LESS about butter in my life. I'm not going crazy folks. I will never be schmall. But I don't feel healthy anymore, so have decided that I will at least eat healthfully during the week, and can splurge a teeny bit on weekends. I've been living life like it's always the weekend for several months now, and it shows. Right above my waist...right there...you can feel it. Sick.

For this week, my foods will be as follows (it's quite a bit as you see, but I've got a system)

1 container probiotic yogurt (blueberry)
1 packet low sugar oatmeal
1 sandwich with just meat and mustard on whole grain bread
1 apple
1 8 oz glass of milk
Up to 8 vanilla wafers (reduced fat) if I want them over the course of the day
Up to 6 reduced fat Triscuits with up to 1 1/2 oz cheese (Must get that 3rd serving of dairy), if I want it
Sensible dinners featuring lean meats and LOTS of vegs and a lot less carbs.
For example, tonight's sensible dinner will be Greek chicken in a pita pocket (half) with low fat (actually, no fat) tzatziki and salad. I will prob add a TEENY bit of feta for flavor - luckily feta has so much flavor a teeny bit goes a v. long way.

See, a lot of food. And still at least 1500 calories, more like 1800 prob. But combined with more doggie walking/jogging, I imagine I will at the very least starting FEELING healthier in a few weeks, even if my good friend Mr. Chub doesn't go away. And that's the important thing kids.

Don't fret, pets. I will still make yummy things, esp on the weekends. I just won't eat too much of them!

Country luncheon

More tales from the countryside. I dragged Mr. R out to the farm market on Saturday where we bought roasted turkey breast for $2.99/lb. TWO DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS A POUND. We pay $6/lb on sale at the K-roger. Also, we got roast beest for $3.99/lb. That's compared to around $7-$8/lb at the Kroger. Seriously. Seriousleh. I heart that place. And it is good stuff too, not like, watery blah shite.

Before we bought meat and cheese though, we stopped at Der Dutchman and had their barn-raising buffet. That is the name, I didn't make that up. On the buffet was the following:
Fried chicken
Pot roast
BBQ beef ribs
Ham
Mashed potatoes
Noodles
Lima beans
Corn
Green beans
Stuffing
Cornbread
Some kind hashbrown type thing
Poultry gravy
Beef gravy
Big ol' salad bar
And at your table, a loaf of soft white bread and apple butter.

It was super fun and good. They have a bakery attached with pies and what have you. I wanted to buy one of everything, but seeing as I'm starting a healthier eating style this week, I thought it less than prudent. It was good. Go Amish!

Stew!

More beef stew. I heart it. I heart dumplings too.

Pre-cooked dumplings, v. small and demure.

Below, post-cooked dumplings, v. puffy and large.






Bowl of stew goodness, although this isn't a particularly appetizing photo

Fancy night out

R and I went to a fancy schmancy dinner last weekend, at Brio TUSCAN grille. Tuscan. I do enjoy the grille, yes I do. We ordered a lovely bottle of Sketchbook Pinot Noir (mmm) and proceeded to slam the following from their lovely dinner menu:
Spinach/Artichoke Dip
I had the Pasta Brio, which was nice
R had the Roasted Lamb Chops, which he enjoyed, but I thought tasted gamey.
For dessert, R had tiramisu and I had the torta di cioccolata. The tiramisu was lovely. My cake was good, although, at this point in life, I want a little more complexity in my chocolate. I want it darker, with background tones like coffee or hazelnut, or something going on. I did eat the whole thing though. And the gelato was delish.

We both enjoyed our meal, but unfortunately, nothing holds a candle to Maggianos.

Tropical pie

In celebration of Miss L's birthday, I prepared a key lime pie (made with key lime juice she procured on a recent trip to the Keys). Very easy, which hopefully translates to tasty. Juice, condensed milk, egg yolks. Pour into graham cracker crust. Dollop with whipped cream. The end.

I probably won't be able to photograph a single slice, as it will be served in a group meeting at work later today, so here's the whole kit and kaboodle.

Fiesta at the Barrel

Miss M, Miss S, Miss L, and I all rocked the Barrel on Friday. We hit it, and we hit it hard. To the left, the whole table of food. A cornucopia, if you will. Below, my own personal cornucopia.

Chicken braid take 2

Mmm...the braid. I heart the braid. My last attempt at the braid was delish, but not the best looking specimen necessarily. My most recent attempts were not much better, I'm afraid. Here the braid is unbaked:





And baked.

Mmm...childhood breakfast fave

Soft-boiled eggs on toast. Place eggs in pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to boil. Allow to boil no more than 3 1/2 minutes. NO MORE THAN THAT! While eggs boil, toast bread. Butter. Put on plate. After 3 1/2 minutes, run cold water over eggs to stop cooking. Crack egg with spoon. Spoon soft egg from shell. Smoosh onto bread. Add salt and pepper. Eat. Enjoy.

I would like to point out that these eggs were even slightly OVER done for my taste. Looking back, I would go 3 minutes even. But R was wary of the soft-boiled goodness. Little did he know. Little...did he know.

Cheesecake bars

Not really anything extraordinary, but over the weekend I made the cheesecake bars featured on Baking Bites. They were quite easy. Much easier than a standard cheesecake. I am not the huge vanilla fan that Baking Bites is, so I did not opt for the vanilla power - just some extract in the cheesecake top. But I found it a bit bland. Not very "cheesy" - you didn't get that cheesecake tang. I threw some random strawberry ice cream topping on mine to jazz it up, but fresh fruit would obviously have been better. I did like the idea of these bars however - may have to experiment. Maybe a graham crust? Maybe incorporate dark chocolate? Sour cream, for more tang? Who knows.

A note about about hot bacon dip

I had to go far back in the way back machine to find a post about hot bacon dip. This dip is such an integral part of my life, and yet, I've devoted relatively little time to it on this space. How sad. It is prepared several times a year and is received with much joy and celebration by all who taste it. Except for vegetarians or those who otherwise shun bacon. Mmm. Bacon.


R's brother's friend T-bone took bacon dip to a whole new level over the weekend by serving himself up a dollop of it on a piece of smoked cheddar cheese (from Yutzy's) and summer sausage. Essentially, a blob of cheesy bacon dip on top of cheese and another meat product. V. interesting. Mr. T-bone may or may not have spent the day imbibing adult beverages prior to this feat.

More kielbasa goodness...

Both for ease and for deliciousness, nothing says "welcome to my home" like a huge platter of kielbasa and mustard-roasted potatoes.



With garlic green beans, of course.

Shower Madness

R and I played host and hostess to the baby shower on Saturday. We did fairly simple food. A cake from the Suisse Shop bakery (of M&R wedding fame), savory summer pie, blueberry muffins, and a fruit platter courtesy of the mother-to-be's fam.





I heart the savory summer pie - a quiche without pretension - that uses fresh ingredients. My dad always makes these with fresh garden tomatoes and basil. I was able to use my own basil, but my tomatoes bit the dust this year and just did NOT thrive. I bought some lovely tomatoes from the downtown Farmer's Market. I jazzed mine up with some of last week's ham as well. I also used the pre-made pie crusts from Yutzy's, which were really REALLY good. The muffins were nice as well, although, unless you have the 6 qt Kitchenaid, do NOT attempt a double batch at one time. That almost led to muffin batter engulfing my kitchen.


The cake, as always, was superb. Very VERY moist, and their buttercream is incredible. A lot of buttercream tastes too, well, buttery. Like eating a stick of butter. Which is unappetizing. But this does not. The cake is lightly almond flavored. The raspberry filling cuts the richeness of both cake and icing. Mmm.

We have bread....and cheese....

And bacon grease as the case was...I looked at the loaf of good white bread. And I knew we had good white American cheese in the fridge from the much-hallowed Yutzy's. I looked at the leftover bacon grease again. A plan was forming in my head....

Faux Cracker Barrel

Ham, HBC, and a green veg...the way to be. Lovely ham purchased from Yutzy's market. Lovely HBC. And pea pods. (NOT snow peas, sadly). For the ham, I simply sliced it, and put it in a baking dish with a sauce of Dijon mustard, brown sugar, a splash of cranberry juice, and pepper. For the HBC, chop one small onion and mix it with one can of cream of chicken soup, approximately 1 c of sour cream, 1 1/2 c or so of shredded cheese, salt, pepper, 6 tbsp melted butter, and one bag of frozen potatoes (shredded or diced). Mix more melted butter and cornflakes and sprinkle on top. Bake. Inhale. Eat too much. Get sick. Eat more.

Breakfast of CHAMPIONS

Rock the Barrel

Miss Elle and I SLAMMED some Cracker Barrel today. And I mean slammed it. It required a race against the clock south of town, screeching brakes into a parking spot, a race across the parking lot into the store, and a rush to the table to enjoy some downhome country chain store cookin'. I was already halfway out the door with the mention of Hash Brown Casserole, but the realization that fried okra was on the menu was as well had me grabbing my keys and signing out for lunch.

Elle and I both enjoyed "Country Dinner Plates." Elle had grilled chicken tenderloins with ranch, which were delish. She had green beans (healthy) and HBC as sides. Also onion rings for a table side dish. I had ham (HAM!), HBC, and the previously-mentioned okra. We shared biscuits as well. Biscuits = love you know.

So delish.

The Cracker Barrel logo comes from the CB website. Please don't sue me.

Yo Adrian

Another staple of my household is some variation on a Philly-type sandwich. This week, it was chicken phillies with delicious tots. I jazzed up my chicken/peppers/onions/toasted bun with a sauce made of mayo, whole grain mustard, and a bit of a horseradish. Mmm.