Pizza Kit

I don't know if you ever have someone at your work with a child doing a fund raiser by selling Little Caesars, but if you ever do - try it.  I've gotten the whole wheat kits before, but this time those weren't available so I got the thin crust pepperoni kits.  For $17 you get 3 pizzas and the crusts are really good.  I also like the sauce.  I didn't use the pepperoni since that is probably my least favorite meat and I prefer vegetables.  On this one I used spinach, fresh tomatoes and onion. 

Steak Diane

 

I used a combination of three different recipes for Steak Diane for this dish, one from Paula Dean, Gordon Ramsey and one from the Cheesecake Factory.  Just picked the ingredients I had or preferred.  The sauce turned out very tasty, but the steak itself was a little tough.  B only wants his steak well-done, so this might have been better and more tender if it was cooked to medium or medium rare.  Or if I got a different cut of steak, I used eye of round.  I served it with a salad and fresh green beans with new potatoes.                    

Chairs

Okay - TWO YEARS AGO we lightly remodeled our living room.  C was moving out, so our living room furniture went with her.  I looked for furniture for a short time, but B made some disparaging comments so it became his job to find the "right" furniture.  I think our friends and family have made some side bets on who would "cave".  It was ME, I mean really - TWO YEARS?! It's not even my space, but two years of no living room furniture, of a desk chair and a bright pink lawn chair is really too much even for a stubborn person like me.  I think it was just me refusing to do it, B just couldn't get the gumption to care enough to actually shop and make a decision, even though it was him sitting in an uncomfortable desk chair to play hours of video games.  This way I have to do all the work of shopping, paying for it & he gets to complain about my decision.  You might think I'm being harsh, but when I showed him the pictures of the chair & asked if that was what he had in mind , his comment was "kind of" in a disparaging way.  ERRRRGH!

Cassandras Loft

This weekend I went to Leavenworth to help C do a little home update.  We sanded and then painted the lumber that surrounds her  new windows in the street facing side of her loft.  The lumber was  a mixture of old and new; the windows weren't trimmed out, but were caulked around.  So C got some paint and we did a wash on them.  The color was a reddish brown, so they kind of blend in with the brick walls.  We got her curtains hung, then cleaned up the room and moved in her bed.  The last time I was up we had painted the walls in the same room orange.  The floor still needs some waxing and buffing, but it's coming together.  It's hard to see the scale in the photos, but the windows are about 7 ft tall.

Salad with Shrimp

So what do you do with leftover shrimp and orzo? Sans the Orzo (I only made enough for one serving) Re-heat it? Maybe. Throw it away or give it to the cats? WHAT!? That will be the day that I waste a shrimp. So my choice was a nice salad with most of my favorites, iceberg, romaine, spinach, cucumber, onion, carrots, and tomatoes. I just drained the sauce from the shrimp and slightly warmed them, then made a light vinaigrette using the same flavors used in the sauce for the shrimp (white wine vinegar,sugar,lemon juice,garlic and olive oil). I served it with the Pinot Grigio and I must say, it was some of the best leftovers I've had recently.

Veggie Salad

As promised the recipe for the veggie salad.  I really just cut into strips all the vegetables that I had available then made a fresh dressing using a recipe I found online as a guide. It had several things I left out, changed or substituted, so it's really a new recipe.  As for the vegetables I used zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper, tomatoes, red onions, cucumber and carrot.  The cutting into strips might look daunting, but not if you have the handy dandy slicer that I have which  made very short work of it. 

Salad Dressing

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon sugar

juice of ½ lemon

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup good olive oil

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, garlic, sugar, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified.
Toss with the greens to moisten and serve.

Sour Cherry & Cream Cake

Now that the artificial flavor and REALLY artificial color contingent has made their cake and post, we'll get back to real food with real, natural flavor.  We had just a few cherries on our trees this year.  We usually  have a small crop anyway, but this year another storm came through just as they ripened & I just got what was left.  About two good cups.  So what to do with them?  Cherry Pie, I just made a two cherry pies a week and half ago.  Jelly or jam?  One jar will last a year here & B will only eat "store made" (he doesn't know what's good).  So I searched the internet for a cake using pie cherries and found one on a favorite site -NPR!  It calls for mascarpone cheese, but  I went to every store in town (3) without success, so had to use the sour cream instead.  It is very moist, and the sour cherries make it unusual.  The recipe also has instructions to make a cherry syrup and brush it on the cake, but due to an unfortunate accident (involving forgetting to use a timer) I didn't have a syrup to use. It might have been more flavorful with the syrup.  But it is a good pound cake.

Sour Cherry-Mascarpone Pound Cake

by Domenica Marchetti

This is a true pound cake in that it uses no leavening such as baking soda or baking powder to make it rise, but instead relies solely on the airiness of the fluffy egg-rich batter. The crumb is creamy and dense and dotted with bright red cherry halves, and the exterior of the cake bakes to a beautiful, slightly crisp golden-brown.. The recipe is from my book Big Night In: More Than 100 Wonderful Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends Italian Style (Chronicle Books 2008).

Makes 10 to 12 servings

2 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted and halved

3 cups sugar, plus 1/2 cup for marinating cherries

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan

6 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

8 ounces mascarpone cheese or sour cream, at room temperature

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan and set it aside.

In a small bowl, mix the cherries with 1/2 cup of the sugar. Let the mixture steep while you prepare the batter for the cake.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Set aside.

Put the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer and beat on medium speed to combine. Add the remaining 3 cups of sugar, a half-cup at a time, and beat at high speed until light and airy, 5 full minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Change the speed to medium and alternately add the flour and salt mixture and the mascarpone or sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until incorporated.

Drain the cherries, reserving the syrup that collects in the bowl. With a rubber or silicon spatula, fold the cherries into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and shake lightly to even out the top. Bake until cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean, 1 hour 15 minutes.

While the cake is baking, put the reserved cherry syrup in a small saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Strain and reserve the liquid.

When the cake is done, place the pan on a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan. While it is still warm, brush the top and sides with the warm cherry syrup. The cake will absorb the syrup. Let the cake cool to room temperature.

To serve, transfer the cake to a decorative platter or cake stand. Dust with confectioners' sugar

Shrimp with Orzo

The last time I made a shrimp main dish, I liked the shrimp, but didn't care for the pasta that went with it.  So I found a shrimp recipe that uses orzo instead.  It turned out to be just what I was looking for.  The recipe came from Martha Stewart's cookbook What to Have for Dinner.  I pretty much made it as listed, but substituted chicken broth for water in the cooking of the orzo and only made one serving using 1/4 cup of orzo.  I also took off the the shrimp tails, even though the recipe says to leave them on.  I really don't like having to eat a juicy, saucey shrimp with my fingers or spit out a shrimp tail when it's just as easy to remove the tails as they're peeled for the recipe. I also next time I make it, I'll reduce the sauce and the amount of butter in the sauce, it was really too much for the amount of shrimp.  I served it with a veggie salad (to be posted later), steamed spinach and pinot grigio. 

Shrimp Saute with Orzo

1 cup uncooked Orzo
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined, the tails left on
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
juice and zest of one lemon
1 cup dry white wine
5 tablespoons butter
1tablespoon capers, rinsed

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil.  Add orzo; cook until al dente, using cooking time suggested on the package.  Drain, toss with 1 teaspoon olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwile, heat remaining oil in a large skillet.  Add garlic; cook over low heat for 1 minute.  Add shrimp, salt and pepper to taste and 2 tablespoons parsley; cook for 3 to 4 minutes.  Turn and cook for 3 minutes more, or until opague.  Remove from pan and keep warm.
Add lemon juice and wine to the skillet.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, and reduce to half, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.  Add remaining parsley; stir in butter, lemon zest and capers.  Adjust seasonings. Pour over shrimp and serve on a bed of orzo.

Cassandra's Rainbow Cake

Subject: RED ALERT! Special guest post from Cassandra!

Get your coffee, people and meet me in the conference room. We have
cake to discuss.

Let's get right to the point, I saw the previous post on this blog and
was not impressed! No one wants to cut into a cake and discover the
hide of a sweaty beast from Africa. What the people crave is for
baked goods to give them an eye ball searing blast of color strong
enough to pop their brain out of their skull.

I brought visual aids for the group:

The facts: It is a white cake mix that I divided up and added food
coloring to. I don't like store bought frosting because it is way too
sweet. However, I am epically lazy, so the frosting is 1 pkg pudding
mix, 1 cup milk, and 1 container of cool whip. The feedback I got from
my test subjects was that the frosting was suitably light and
delicious.

Zebra Cake

I saw this cake at the KAF site & had to make it since it looks so cool.  It's easy to make the stripes &  it came out exactly as it should have.  The cake itself was a little bland, but the dark chocolate frosting raised the flavor level. 

Zebra Cake

1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup milk (whole, 2% or 1%)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons dutched dark cocoa

 

In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On low speed blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing. Remove 2 cups of the vanilla batter and place it in the measure you used for the liquid ingredients. Sift the cocoa over this batter, and stir well to combine. Be sure to use a sifter to avoid cocoa lumps in the batter.  Now for the stripes. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter into the center of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all batter is used. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center. Bake the cake in the center of the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost as desired.    Chocolate Frosting Makes about 3 cups 1 stick (4 oz) butter 3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder 1/4 cup milk 1/2 teaspoon instant expresso 1 teaspoon vanilla extractHeat milk for about 30 seconds in microwave until hot. Stir in vanilla and instant coffee until dissolved. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar, and cocoa powder. Add warm milk and mix on high speed until fluffy.  

Flowers in my yard

Flowers blooming in my yard right now.  Orange Asian Lillies and Purple Clematis.

C's pizza

So while I was sewing, Cassandra was creating a pizza buffet.  We already had some individual crusts made, 2 whole wheat and 2 regular.  Here's what she came up with:
1) On whole wheat, happy cow french onion cheese and provolone with shaved asparagus and green onions;

2) on white, BBQ sauce, chipotle Monterrey jack cheese with smoked Cornish game hen and green onion;

3) On whole wheat, fava bean puree, blueberry cheddar, cranberry Monterrey jack and ham

4)On white, cilantro dressing, smoked cheddar cheese, cheddar cheese and an egg.

We liked the shaved asparagus the best and the fava bean was surprisingly good.

Cassandra's pillows

While C made dinner Sunday, I made her some pillow covers. She had purchased the material and the forms some time ago, but hadn't gotten around to making them up. She did the cutting and I did the sewing. The material itself is suede-like and very soft. They should look fab on her couch.

Smoked Cornish Game Hens

Since salmon takes such a short time to cook on the grill, after I made the salmon last Friday I moved the coals down into the smoker portion and put on some Cornish Game Hens and a chicken to smoke.  I brined them overnight and smoked them for about 4 1/2 hours using apple wood.  They were nice and moist and smokey. I served them with a rice pilaf and a salad with Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing posted previously.  I tweaked that recipe a little.  By processing the cilantro with the milk before adding the other ingredients, you'll get a great green color and a lot of cilantro flavor. If you make the rice pilaf, definitely use the golden raisins to garnish, they really punch up the flavor.

Rice Pilaf

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, minced

1/2 red bell pepper, minced

2 pinches kosher salt

2 cups long grain rice

2 3/4 cups chicken broth

2 strips orange zest

½ teaspoon tumeric

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed

Golden raisins for garnish

In a heavy, wide, lidded pan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onion, red pepper, and kosher salt. Sweat the onions and peppers until aromatic, stirring constantly. Add the rice and stir to coat. Continue stirring until rice smells nutty. Add chicken broth, orange zest, tumeric and water, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Stir once, then place lid on pan and lower heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.  Add peas during last 5 minutes of cooking.  Remove lid from rice fluff with a fork and turn out onto a platter. Add raisins to garnish .

Brine

Six cups water
2 cups apple juice
1/3 cup canning salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon black pepper
Combine the brine ingredients and add the hens.  Weight down the hens so they are submerged and refrigerate over night.  Remove from brine and pat dry, rub with olive oil and place on grill and smoke for 3 to 4 hours.  Allow the birds to rest for 1/2 hour before serving