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Blushing Valentine

January 21, 2013

I know it may seem a bit early to start thinking of Valentine’s Day, but it’s only a few short weeks away. If you like to make a special treat on Valentine’s Day, this is the cake.
It is a towering 4 layers high and lovingly encased in the most delicate rose-scented buttercream. It is outrageously good and worth every. single. calorie.

This is also the type of cake that could easily become adorned with say a few candles for a little celebratory birthday party? The colors could be swapped out for any, the flavor of the buttercream could be adapted to whatever you’d like it to be. Using a vanilla base for both cake and buttercream allows you the flexibility to change colors and flavors to suit the occasion or intended recipient….

The 4 Food Groups…

September 30, 2012

Bacon, Eggs, Cheese, Pasta.
It seems every time I make pasta, I always have leftovers. Every. Single. Time. I used to hear the phrase “your eyes are bigger than your stomach” on an almost daily basis and I think it may still be true.

So, seeing that sad bit of pasta hanging out in the fridge I felt the need to rescue it. I’m not a fan of throwing food in the garbage (unless of course it has started to look like a science experiment gone horribly wrong). With that sense of resolve, I scanned the kitchen to see how this bit of leftover pasta could transcend its current state into something seriously good.

Staring into the refrigerator, I felt a bit like the woman from “Romper Room”… you remember her right? She would look through her looking glass and say the names of the kids she saw. Every week I waited and waited to hear my name. Never happened.

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Herbed Heirloom Eggs & Crispy Roasted Mushrooms

June 15, 2012

This weekend is Father’s Day and while most Dads will be grillin’ & chillin’, they’ll need a little fuel to get the day started.
This is a perfect breakfast or brunch to start Dad’s day. It is substantial, but not too heavy and it is absolutely delicious.

The roasted mushrooms take on an almost meaty taste and texture and the slight crunch from roasting them is unexpected.

This Sunday, treat Dad to a special brunch and let him know you appreciate him.

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Dutch Puff Pancake – My Momma’s Recipe

May 11, 2012

My First Love.

Look at that gorgeous kid… and the baby isn’t bad either! That woman in the pic still makes the best dutch puff pancake in the Western Hemisphere.

The first love of my life: my Mom. As little girls, we often play “house” and pretend to be Mommies to our baby dolls and try to emulate our own mothers. As teenagers, we are less inclined to compare ourselves to our Moms. As adults we come full circle, realizing that “Mom” is a person just like we are who had worries and struggles, peacefulness and triumphs . Mine, like most, had to balance job and kids, errands, our activities, laundry, blah, blah, blah… and yet still found time to take us to movies or little excursions. We didn’t have much, but we didn’t know it. She made the most of what we did have and rarely did we feel like we had “gone without”.

One of my all-time favorite memories, which my Mom & I still giggle about to this day… Ok, this is going to date me a little, but you regular readers already know I turned 40 recently, so here we go:

Do you remember that show from the ’80’s, “V”?! It was about alien-lizards disguised as humans living on Earth. We LOVED this show. It sounds ridiculous, but it was the early ’80’s…
Well, one night we were in our Chevrolet Chevette hatchback (yes, a Chevette hatchback… named “Skeeter”, btw) and there were radio and television towers with flashing red lights on the road. They looked like they were so high up in the sky to me as a little kid… like they could have been lights on an alien spacecraft!

All of a sudden, my Mom hunches down over the steering wheel and starts saying “Oh no, they’re gonna get us!” Well, you can imagine our reaction! My brother & I started screeching & laughing like crazy and she just kept egging us on…

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Homemade Mini Corn Dogs

April 28, 2012

Battered, deep-fried meat on a stick. It is so many kinds of wrong, but I love corndogs.

Watching the hot dog get immersed in thick batter and then plunged into the hot oil as the sweet smell of the cornbread batter turning a deep golden brown fills the air. Pure bliss.
My mouth started to salivate the second I smelled the batter hit the hot oil.

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Pavlova with Fresh Raspberry Coulis

January 2, 2012

It is that time of year again when we all resolve to do better, eat better & live better. Life is about balance and although we may be a bit more stringent about our eating habits, every now and then one needs dessert.

Giving in to something a little less detrimental can keep us from going through a midnight fridge raid, faces smeared with chocolate sauce as if it were war paint… and in that crazed state it would be a war in which we had clearly been defeated.

We are all familiar with the pangs of deprivation and quite honestly, I’m not a fan. In lieu of depriving myself from culinary pleasures, I’ll temper them with a better choice.

Pavlovas are the lighter side of sweet. They are a meringue, made from egg whites and a bit of sugar. Granted, there is a billowy layer of whipped cream (and fruit!) piled on top, but if you are being extra good, you can omit the whipped cream… although that will change the dessert entirely.

While pavlovas are not cloyingly sweet, they pair well with fruit that is slightly tart. If you happen to live in a region where fresh passion fruit is available, that is a delicious option. I like pairing this with raspberries as well because they are not overly sweet and their crimson hue looks strikingly beautiful against the stark white of the cream.

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17th of May

May 17, 2011

These days my neighborhood is primarily Italian, but rewind a couple of decades and you’d see a very different picture. A few blocks over from where I live now used to be Scandinavian, specifically Norwegian. The streets used to be lined with Norwegian bakeries, stores, restaurants, etc. but unfortunately the majority of these have disappeared. However, all is not lost… every year there is a 17th of May parade, which is a national holiday in Norway marking the signing of their constitution and the best part (besides the food) are the people dressed in traditional clothing showing off their Norwegian pride.

photos courtesy of Keith Alexander

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