Food Friday - Spring Colors!

from Tracey G

I love lemons, and I love pound cake - but literally pound cake adds on the pounds that I just don't need. So, when I saw this recipe for a lower fat version in my new issue of Taste Of Home (can be found here:Makeover Lemon Pound Cake), I KNEW I had to try it! But I will be honest here, this didn't work out too well for me this go around - and I'm not sure why. Not sure if it was something I did or didn't do, or that I used a glass loaf pan and so forth. I'm just not sure, seems like it could have been the perfect storm of things combined that affected the cooking/outcome of it, because mine did NOT look like the beautiful cake in the magazine! LOL But that's just how it goes sometimes isn't it? Kris and I are always saying that we think the making of the recipe and what we deal with is the better story of them! And we have some pretty funny ones to too!

But I must say, it was very yummy and got thumbs up from my guys, so that's good enough for me. I will definitely be making it again, and trying out a different baking pan. I do believe it was in the way it cooked somehow, the upper 2/3 of the cake was fine, but the bottom third seemed like it didn't rise - and I know my baking powder was good too. It could also be my oven's cooking/temperature affecting things as well. So, try try again, right? And you can bet I will be trying again because it was REALLY tasty. They garnished theirs with candied lemon slices,(which I'll include the recipe method for as well as the recipe) but I made up an impromptu lemon buttercream to garnish it with and added the strawberries I happened to have in the fridge - they were a great combination!!  

Lighter Lemon Pound Cake

Recipe courtesy of Taste Of Home, can be found here:Makeover Lemon Pound Cake

1/4 c butter, softened

3/4 c sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp canola oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp grated lemon peel

1tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp poppy seed, optional

11/2 c all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 c fat-free vanilla yogurt

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9x5-in. loaf pan with cooking spray.

2) In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in oil, lemon juice, lemon peel, vanilla and if desired, poppy seeds. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with yogurt, beating until just combined.

3) Transfer to prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Garnish with candied lemon slices if desired.

Candied Lemon Slices:

Bring 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water to boil; stir until dissolved. Add one thinly sliced lemon and simmer 5 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool slices on a wire rack. 


from Kris B.

Last week it was what to do with all of those hard boiled eggs after their coloring and hunting; this week, it's a suggestion for what to do if by the time the Easter Bunny gets to your house he is full and leaves behind the snack of carrots you left out.  Now that my girls are adults, I can't decide whether I miss the Easter traditions of dying eggs,  the early morning egg hunt and leaving those few carrots out for The Bunny, or whether I'm relieved.  As a church musician, Holy Week and Easter are extremely busy, so on one hand, I am glad to have one or two less things to do, but I do miss those smiling faces as the little ones scurry around trying to find every last egg.  Oh well...

Served warm, this carrot soufflé can be a sweet side; or, if you chill it, because of its spices, it is reminiscent of sweet potato or pumpkin pie.  At my house, it is a hit served either way.  

And a bonus…it is easy to make!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb peeled and steamed carrots.

3 eggs

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

3 TBS flour

1  tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

Steam or boil the carrots.  Then mash them.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs.  Add all of the ingredients and whisk together until well combined.  You may still have small pieces of carrots. 

Pour the mixture into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish or comparable vessel.  (You can also use ramekins.)

 Bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cooking times will very depending on your oven.

Serve hot or cold.  Garnish with a dusting of powdered sugar and/or a peeled carrot curl.

Happy Spring!

Mug Shot 3.24.16

Likely the last school snow day of this winter!! Old Man Winter needed one last hurrah I guess...

Food Friday - Eggstravaganza

from Kris B.

When me girls were little and we had all of those dyed hard-boiled Easter eggs, I remember being so happy when I had eaten the final deviled egg and egg salad sandwich!  Those were the only things that I knew to do with the eggs once they had been hunted and were no longer  of interest to the kids and I didn’t want them to go to waste.  I wish that I had discovered Scotch eggs back then!  They would have provided me with another alternative and my non-vegetarian child would have enjoyed them.

What I’m sharing with you is more of a process than a specific recipe.  The process involves cooking eggs somewhere between soft and hard boiled, covering them in sausage seasoned somehow, then coating them in some crispy carbohydrate, and then cooking them somehow.  I’ll tell you how I did them, but know that there are variations that you may want to try.

INGREDIENTS

5 eggs

1 pound bulk sausage

1/2 finely diced yellow onion

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup fine bread, cracker, or corn flake crumbs

1/2 panko

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Hard boil four of the eggs.

Finely dice the onion and in a medium combine with the sausage.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Divide into 4 equal parts and flatten into patties.

Carefully peel the cooked eggs.  Pat them dry with a paper towel.  Dredge the eggs in the flour, then place each one on a sausage patty.  Wrap the sausage around the eggs, completely closing the seams.  

Whisk the fifth egg.   Dip each sausage covered egg in the beaten egg and then dredge them in the bread crumbs covering completely.  Then again dip them in the egg and this time coat them in the panko.

Place the eggs on a baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the sausage is cooked through and contains no pink.  Turn the eggs over two or three times during the cooking process to achieve crisping on all sides.  Traditional Scotch eggs are deep fried.  I’m not a fan of deep fat frying anything so I baked mine.  This is one of the reasons that I double dipped the coating.  I wanted them to be as crispy as if they had been fried.

Serve immediately.  Or, let the eggs cool to room temperature and then freeze them in a plastic freezer bag.  To reheat, place on a baking sheet in a 375 degree oven or toaster oven for 25 minutes.  I would not advise reheating in the microwave.  

Scotch eggs are delicious served with your favorite mustard or mustard mixed with a bit of mayonnaise.

You may wish to season your sausage with a little thyme or rosemary.  You can also use this same recipe and deep fry your Scotch eggs if you wish.

from Tracey G

I love breakfast/brunch casseroles. I love the idea of preparing something the night before, throwing it into the fridge to sit overnight and it comes out ready to be baked the next morning. Talk about making a morning easy with just a small amount of effort the night before! So, these things are always popular with me for holidays. Especially the big ones, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those are the mornings when there is so much going on, it's a nice convenience to be able to just throw breakfast (or brunch) in the oven and let it cook while you attend to other things, be it hunting Easter Eggs, prepping turkeys for the oven or opening Christmas presents. These kinds of things help take one more thing off your to-do list!

I have run across a lot of recipes through the years, and I'm always willing to try a new one, generally the combination of ingredients are ones you know you can't go wrong with. I found the original recipe for this at Taste Of Home, which can be found here: Farmer's Strata, and used it as a basic guide for my own twists.

Some of my tweaks were for convenience - as in I had a certain ingredient I wanted to use up AND it was already prepped, then some were for my tastes and preferences - for example I don't like soggy bacon, so instead of adding to cook in the strata, I decided to use it as a topping. It worked wonderfully, and kept it's integrity! But I was really pleased with what I ended up with by the time I got to eat it! There was only one thing I'd do differently, add more potatoes, I used 2 cups, but they could easily have been increased to 3 or 4!

Breakfast Strata

1 lb sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 c chopped fully cooked ham (I used Smithfield brand fully cooked ham cubes for convenience)

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

10 slices white bread, cubed

2 c cubed frozen hashbrown potatoes, thawed

3 c (12 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

8 large eggs

3 c milk

1 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground mustard

dash of salt and pepper

1) In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and set aside. Add onions, ham and garlic, and cook until onions are tender. Remove from pan and set aside. Add hashbrown potatoes and cook until tender, set aside.

2) In a greased 13x9-inch baking dish, layer half of the bread cubes, potatoes and cheese. Top with all of the ham/onion/garlic mixture. Repeat layers of bread, potatoes and cheese.

3) In a large bowl, beat the eggs; add milk, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, salt and pepper. Pour over all. Cover the pan and chill it and the cooked bacon overnight.

4) Remove from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake uncovered for about 65-70 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. About the last 10 minutes of cooking, top with the reserved cooked bacon to reheat and re-crisp.

Mug Shot 3/17/16

Date night cappuccino on the go...

Food Friday - On the Side!

from Tracey G

When I was a kid, the only coleslaw I would eat was Kentucky Fried Chicken's - to me, that stuff was the epitome of coleslaw and what it should be. I never realized back then either how easy it was to make - it wasn't a salad my mom made at  home. When we had it, I only wanted KFC's!

I would have to say it wasn't until my 30's that I actually made the stuff. And my first time with it was kind of a disaster - I know, I know, how can one screw up coleslaw?!? Well, I had a recipe to follow, but the dressing just didn't seem like enough - so I made more. Much more. I didn't take into account the sitting time that most coleslaw recipes direct - I didn't realize the amount of liquid that would come from the cabbage and carrots and actually add to the dressing! So, by the time I took it to the potluck party it was pretty soupy. I think it was after that I learned my lessons - 1) mix up just what the recipe calls for dressing-wise and 2) never make something you've never made before to take to a party - but if you do, always have a plan B!!  

I remember the first time I made this (I even followed the directions too!), I announced that if I ever needed a potluck recipe to take somewhere, this would be it. It's so very simple, and if you use pre-made cabbage/veggie slaw mix (any kind would be good with the dressing, even a broccoli slaw etc) it comes together super fast! I think super fast is even an understatement! And aside from the dressing of the slaw mix - the dressing mixture, I think would be great as a regular salad dressing on lettuce of any kind! I don't remember where I got the recipe from, and I've tweaked the amounts because the original recipe made much too small of an amount for our household and I'm pleased with how it's evolved.

Raspberry Slaw

4 c shredded green cabbage

4 c shredded red cabbage

1-2 c shredded carrots (personal preference can be used here)

Dressing:

1/2 c raspberry vinaigrette

1/2 c mayonnaise

1/2 - 1 c fresh raspberries for garnish

1) In a large bowl combine green cabbage, red cabbage and carrots.

2) In a small bowl, whisk the raspberry vinaigrette and mayonnaise until well blended. 

    Pour dressing over cabbage/carrot mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at

    least an hour for flavors to blend. (I find it's much better if it's sat overnight!)

3) Before serving, top with fresh raspberries. When at home, I usually just top the

    individual servings with a few of the raspberries.

From Kris B

Most of the time I love to cook.  What I don't always like is trying to figure out what to cook.  If someone will tell me what they want, I will gladly fix it.  When I am left to determine the menu myself, it is most often the side dishes with which I struggle.  Once you get beyond some form of potatoes or rice and steamed or roasted vegetables, my creativity starts to fall by the wayside.  So, I am always on the lookout for side dishes that push me beyond my boring starchy box!

This week's slaw recipe is one of my favorite quick and easy sides.  I believe it may originally have come from Weight Watchers, but I'm not absolutely sure of that.  Regardless, it is fairly low calorie and surprises the taste buds just a bit.

INGREDIENTS

1 12 oz. bag of prepared broccoli slaw mix

1 medium to large apple (variety of your choice)

3 scallions

1/4 cup sliced roasted almonds

3 TBS prepared balsamic vinaigrette dressing of your choice

Chop the apple into small bite sized pieces.  Slice the whites of the scallions.  Combine all ingredients in a good sized bowl so that you have room to "toss."  This best if chilled at least an hour, but this is not absolutely necessary.

A side dish doesn't get much simpler than this!

Food Friday - Gluten Free Goodies!

It is both a blessing and a curse that I have no dietary restrictions or food allergies.  The blessing is that I can eat anything that I like; the curse is that I do! Lol!  I am grateful for the freedom to not have to read every food label super carefully to avoid a potential life threatening reaction.   These brownies are perfect for those who must follow a gluten free diet, but beware if you have nut allergies.  The typical wheat flour is replaced, in my case, with almond flour.

My daughter did some baking for an event that we were having at school.  A specific request was made for some kind of gluten-free treat.  She made these brownies.  They are the best brownies that I have ever put in my mouth!  Assuming that you like chewy fudgy brownies over the more cake-like texture.  When Tracey and decided to do a post containing gluten free goodies, there was no question that these would be my contribution.  The original recipe is from Brave Tart blog, a blog that was started by two friends who shared common interests in food, writing and photography.  Hmm...sounds kind of familiar. :-)

Whether you have to or you just can eat gluten free brownies, I promise that these will not disappoint!!  Brave Tart calls them Brown Butter Hazelnut Brownies.  Because the one adaptation to the recipe that we have made is to use almond flour rather than hazelnut, I am simply calling them Gluten free brownies.  With that one exception, the recipe appears exactly as published by Brave Tart.

INGREDIENTS

16 oz. unsalted butter
12 oz. dark chocolate chopped (70% minimum)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, seeds reserved, or 2 TBS vanilla extract
7 oz. (2 1/4 cups) almond flour
4.5 oz. cocoa powder (not Hershey's - her words, not mine!)
6 eggs
21 (ounces of sugar  (approximately 2 1/2 cups)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 TBS instant espresso powder
optional: additional chocolate for drizzling or dipping
(These brownies are so rich that this is not necessary for taste, but it does make them pretty for display.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Line a 9x13 baking pan with a sheet of aluminum foil down the center and hanging over the ends.  This will make removing the brownies super easy.  Alternately, lightly grease 15 4" round tart pans.

Melt the butter, along with the vanilla bean, in a medium saucepan over low heat until liquefied.  (If you are using vanilla extract, DO NOT add it now.)  Increase the heat to medium low.  The mixture will bubble, possible spit, and make a lot of noise.  Keep an eye on it and keep simmering.  You'll notice brown bits forming on the bottom.  You don't want these bits to turn black.  Don't bother with stirring or skimming, just watch and listen and possibly turn down the heat if it looks too toasty.  After a while the butter will go ninja silent, which means that you are done.

Remove the butter from the heat and add the chocolate.  Whisk, scraping along the bottom to mix up the browned bits, until smooth.  The mixture will be quite thin.  Set off of the heat to cool.

Put the nuts and the cocoa in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground.  Don't bother sifting.  The nibby bits of (hazel)nuts are really nice in the finished brownies.  Set aside.

With a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combines eggs sugar, reserved vanilla seeds or vanilla extract, salt, and espresso powder,  Whip on medium speed for about five minutes.

Turn the mixer speed to low and pour in the butter/chocolate mixture all at once.  Immediately add in the dry ingredients and keep mixing until just incorporated.

Pour or spoon the batter into the prepared pans.  Bake 30 minutes for the large pan or 15 minutes for the tart pans.  Bake until the brownies are slightly firm to the touch.  They may not seem totally done when you pull them out, but this particular brownie is so very dense that it will retain its heat and keep cooking for some time.  Err on the side of gooey.

Cool the brownies thoroughly before cutting.  If you are looking for extremely neat squares, refrigerate for an hour before cutting.  If you used the tart pans, use a toothpick to loosen the brownie and then turn the pan over to release the brownie.

You can drizzle or cover the brownies in tempered chocolate.

I don't usually double up my Pixels, Plates, and LOLs photos and my Capture Your 365 photos of the day, but today was an exception.  Since Tracey and I met through Capture Your 365 and today marks its fifth birthday, it seems only appropriate to "double dip" here.  If you have not read about our beginnings, here is the link to our very first post.

from Tracey G

I too am fortunate that as of now, I don't have to restrict my diet, but in the effort to try to do some good and be helpful for those that do, I don't mind testing out some mixes out there for gluten-free eating. I recently bought a couple gluten-free cake mixes, one by Betty Crocker and the other by King Arthur. I was going to test them side by side, but I decided that would be a LOT of cupcakes around, and I didn't want to waste anything. The Betty Crocker mix made only 12 cupcakes and the King Arthur Yellow Cake Mix makes 24 - that would have been way too many cupcakes to get eaten in a timely fashion around here!

This time around I made the Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix, since Betty Crocker mixes are all over the place, I figured it was a good one to try since it's likely very attainable. It wasn't too bad, just a little different. It had a very dense texture, and to me, kind of light on flavor. But that wouldn't be enough for me not to buy it again, I wouldn't hesitate to get it. Both Jeremy and Harry liked them, so I take that as a good thing. I do find the addition of frosting helps them out in the flavor department for me personally, but again, Jeremy and Harry thought less (frosting) would be better. Go figure

This mix mixed up a bit different. It was like a butter cake recipe, where you add 1/2 c butter instead of vegetable oil. The mix also directs you to add 2 tsp of vanilla extract, that was a first for me - I've never added any to any other cake mix before. Other than those things, the rest went along as usual for a cake mix.

Per my taste, I made homemade chocolate buttercream for the frosting. I like the combination of yellow cake and chocolate frosting, because yellow cake isn't my favorite, so that combo helps me out, lol. I'll include the frosting recipe since it's my all-time favorite. I've tried for years to find a chocolate buttercream recipe that I loved, and I finally did about a year or so ago. All the frostings I ever found weren't chocolaty enough or were too chocolaty and usually too sweet. I never liked chocolate cake with chocolate frosting until I found this one.  

So I guess my bottom line is, Betty's mix is a good choice. I would make it again if needed. I am anxious now to try the King Arthur brand, but as I said, I have a feeling Betty's would be easier for me to locate on my local grocery store shelves, so I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Yield: about 4 cups

1/2 c butter

1/2 c vegetable shortening

4.5 c powdered sugar

1 1/4 c cocoa powder

1-2 tsp vanilla

1/2-3/4 c milk

In a mixing bowl cream the butter and shortening (you can also use all butter if you like); add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add and beat in powdered sugar & cocoa powder. Add enough milk to make frosting to desired spreading consistency. 

Mug Shot 3/2/16

I am fairly certain that in the big scheme of things both peace and coffee are far more important to know about than music theory.  Despite that, however, I spent this morning lecturing on synesthesia, Scriabin, and the mystic chord.

Tuesday in Texas - Give Me An "I," Give Me An "E," But Don't Give Me Both!

As I sit down to write this, it is a perfect sunny seventy-two degrees here in Dallas.  

These are both unedited phone photos taken at approximately the same time.

Tracey, on the other hand, is working against the odds to clear the snow from her car so that she can make her way  to the bus stop to pick up Harry.  In her world, it is a not so perfect twenty-one degrees and snowing!  

Needless to say, of the many commonalities that Tracey and I share, weather is not one of them.  LOL!  Frequent misspellings of our names, however, is.

I find it funny that, for most of us, our names are something over which we had no say yet we take great pride and ownership in them, even becoming quite protective of them…meaning that we want them pronounced and spelled correctly!!!  My “real” name is Kristin, though during my life the only people that have ever called me this are my maternal grandmother, my godmother, and, on the first day of school only, every teacher that I had.  Even my parents never called me Kristin.  So, why didn’t they just name me Kris?  Short, sweet, and to the point…and it would have saved me lots of trouble with random and unwanted i’s and e’s!

And we won’t even talk here about how many times in my fifty-four years that I have said, “It’s Kris with a K, not a C.”  That is occasionally met with, “Oh, so it’s Kh?” "No!  It is NOT KH!"  This is the icing in the i’s and e’s cake!

Here are all the ways that extraneous i’s and e’s have been added to my name, making it no longer my name:

Kristen

Kristine

Kersten

Kerstin

Kiersten

(Apparently my computer is smarter than many people; it tried to auto-correct all of those misspellings for me! :-))

Many of these permutations have appeared on meaningless junk mail, but just as many instances have been by people who should have gotten it correct, but just don’t care enough or aren’t willing to take the time to get it right.

Two i’s, no e’s; that’s all I ask for!  I will gladly give Tracey all of the unnecessary e’s that people ahve tried to give me, as they are often left out of her name!

It’s Tracey.  Not Tracy.  Really.  I will give her all of the e’s that she wants!  She needs them.  I don't.  And, she promised to give me any unnecessary i’s that come her way when her name is spelled Tracie.

Neither one of us needs both an i and an e.  No Tracie and no Kristine!  We are both pretty happy with one vowel each.  Well, Tracey is kind of pushing the limits here with that y, which in her case, really is a vowel. LOL!

While you are minding your p’s and q’s, also consider your e's and i’s.  They really do matter!

Since we both have a quiet sense about us, we consider it a compliment when we are told that we complement one another quite well.  :-)

Mug Shot 03.01.16

How I'm taking a mental break for a bit - coffee & coloring. Some downtime from thinking is much needed!!! 😃