Cakes & Cooking

A birthday cake I made for a coworker, in keeping with this summers bee theme.

June 26th, 2007 | Category: cakes |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Using our fresh beef, I made a stew to stock a friends freezer. Short on time, I eschewed my normal redskin potatoes in favor of 2 lbs. of tiny golden creamers – “new potatoes,” as they were advertised. They really made an amazing addition – both in time and in taste. Since new potatoes are dug up early, they have a much lower starch content (which is why dieticians recommend them as a lower glycemic potato) and they lend a very creamy, buttery flavor to the stew. Many of them were so tiny that they didn’t need to be cut – and even the largest ones only needed to be cut in half. This freed up a lot of time in stew preparation that I normally spend washing and cutting large red potatoes. Normally I favor reskins for their color, but in a stew the skin often softens and peels back, so it’s all a wash in the end. The photo is not the best, because it was for someone else I had to omit the carrots I would normally put there, so it is missing that bright orange splash of color. But still the combination of the fresh beef and the buttery golden new potatoes made it one of the best stews I have made.

June 22nd, 2007 | Category: beef |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

When it’s hot and steamy out it’s hard to cook. A simple BLT wrap with oven baked fries goes a long way. And there’s no standing over a hot stove, either! A dash of honey mustard keeps the BLT from being overly salty.

June 14th, 2007 | Category: casual |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Each year we purchase a side of fresh beef. It’s hormone free black angus and humanely raised. This is what a side of beef looks like – it lasts us for about a year.

June 12th, 2007 | Category: beef |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I made this cake for a neighbor as thanks for the use of their kayak over memorial day weekend. It’s a chocolate cake with fudge buttercream icing, and kayaks molded out of marshmallow fondant. They enjoyed it! And that’s what cake is all about.

June 2nd, 2007 | Category: cakes |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

The Crispy Honey Shrimp at PF Changs is a big favorite of mine. But I always feel bad eating it because deep frying something that is freshly tasty like shrimp seems like such a waste of calories and seafood flavor! So I started making it at home, but on the grill.

For 1 pound of shrimp:

Peel and devein. Marinate for 1/2 hour in 1/2 cup worcestershire and 1/2 white wine, with 2 tbsp minced garlic whisked in. Thread onto skewers.

Mix together 1/2 cup honey with 1/4 cup melted butter. Whisk until smooth. Grill the skewers, brushing with the marinade at each turn. Do not overcook or shrimp will be tough.

The grilled honey sauce creates a really pleasant crystalized taste. Almost as good as the deep fried version, and a whole lot better for you.

June 1st, 2007 | Category: seafood |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I sent this cake home to my Dad (who already belongs to another woman, but whatever) in honor of his new set of bees – 11,000 of them, to be exact. I am afraid of all those bees but it’s nice that there will be fresh honey in the future!

May 28th, 2007 | Category: cakes |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Sea Scallops are easy, healthy, and quick to thaw – making them an idea weeknight dinner.

2 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil

Chop garlic and sautee in olive oil. Add in 2 tbsp butter and 1/2 cup of white wine. Add in 1 lb sea scallops (the small ones, not large bay scallops). Sautee until firm and opaque and until liquid reduces. Season with cracked pepper, fresh parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

May 23rd, 2007 | Category: seafood |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This is a comfort food for sure, with a thick cream sauce that soothes the tummy (and probably sits on the arteries). You can put all sorts of fresh and frozen veggies in, my favorites are peas, pimentos, and water chestnuts. But your mileage may vary.

4 chicken breasts, cooked and cut/ripped into small pieces
1 onion, diced finely
2 small square packages frozen veggies of your choice
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups cream or half and half (or whole milk, but it won’t be as thick)

Melt the butter in a large, deep saucepan. Add the flour and work to a paste. Salt and pepper generously, and add the broth. Bring to a boil. Add lemon juice.

Turn heat down to low, add in the cream, stirring continuously. Add in the cut chicken and frozen vegetables. Add one can of water chestnuts, drained. Heat through till thickened, taking care not to boil the cream.

Serve over biscuits or brown rice.

This freezes and reheats very well. When cooking to stock a freezer for a friend, I always include some version of this. It is an excellent recipe to make in large batches and it goes well from freezer to table.

May 20th, 2007 | Category: poultry |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment