Life

I was reading Juju's  blog today and realized that just like her my life has been hijacked.

Hijacked by working
Hijacked by living
Hijacked by our daughter living with us
Hijacked by a bill collector

I have been away for too long and have missed too much the contact.  It is strange how much life gets in the way of living life.  How much we let the little things (even though they don't seem so little at the time) affect us.

10,000 Views

Shrimp, Gravy and Rice

Some times things don't look or taste exactly as you expect them to or during the perfect storm both happen.  I don't know about you but I usually feel kind of crappy when that happens (the taste thing not the look thing). 

The other day  was looking for a recipe that would use up the half a pound of shrimp that was vacationing in our freezer so off to the Internet I went.  There were a few recipes that were intriguing at first and then Michael commented that  was shrimp defrosting and brown rice cooking (I think it was going to be shrimp fried rice originally) suddenly inspiration struck! 

A big part of living in Charleston is the food and along with that goes Shrimp, Grits and Gravy.  Being from the northeast we don't eat grits so there was a recipe for Shrimp, Gravy and Rice, sounded interesting and to tell you the absolute truth it didn't taste terrible but it needs a second go around and some adjustments to it.   The recipe will not be posted until I figure it out.  It tasted like it needed less flour and more chicken stock.

In the mean time at some point yesterday we  passed 10,000 page views.  One of the things I have learned after much deep research (checking which pages have had the most views) is that you seem to enjoy recipes more than stories about Bear so I am going to try to post just about cooking but if you have something to tell me about this (like you want pictures of my cute dog) please let me know!

Red Wine Velvet Cake

What is left of the Red Wine Velvet cake...before the family gets to it!
 

I have been invited to join this interesting group of ladies who call themselves "The Hens".  Basically its a group of women who love to cook and all have diverse interests (although we have many different types of artists). For the first time in many years I am the youngest member (when the heck do you stop being the youngest and become the oldest anyway?).  This is the second get together I have been to, the first being last month when I made the Thyme and Parmesan Crackers and some Olive Oil Crackers. 

Today being Valentines Day we all needed to bring a red food...sounds easy but I didn't want to bring anymore tomatoes or beets (since I figured that would be the base of most of the foods we would be having) so...off to the Internet I went!  First I typed in Red food recipes and that got me pretty close to no where until I found this recipe on Oprah's web site!

I was pretty comfortable making the cakes as the directions were straight forward.  My worries were icing the cake and getting it all the way down town without messing up the icing.  To the rescue came the eldest daughter who has way more patience than I do!  She put a crumb coat on the cake and than carefully iced the rest of it and did a pretty dern good job too!  I only know about a crumb layer of cake from watching PBS this morning where Julia Child's had Martha Stewart on making a wedding cake.  Now after I watch something like that I always feel like such an amateur (which I am).  They were making fruit out of marzipan...no such fanciness for us!  All we wanted was a kind of smooth looking icing and a cake that did not slide over as I made a turn (thanks to "The Chew" yesterday for letting me know that I am not the only person that ever happens to).  The daughter figured out that if we put bamboo skewers through top of the cake the layers wouldn't shift all over the place and than some careful skewers through the sides would stop the foil from mushing up the icing!  Well  done Jen!!

So for your reading and hopefully cake making enjoyment is....

Red-Wine Velvet Cake Recipe

Recipe created by Deb Perelman
Oprah.com | From the October 2012 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

 

Rather than let an open bottle of red wine languish on the refrigerator shelf, blogger Deb Perelman, author of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, uses it in place of the usual food coloring in a red velvet cake. The result—a rich, fudgy marriage of chocolate and wine—will leave you hopeful for more leftover Pinot Noir in the near future.

Makes 1 cake, to serve 16 to 20.

Ingredients

Cake:

·    18 Tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for greasing

·    2 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar

·    3/4 cup granulated sugar

·    4 large eggs, at room temperature

·    1 large egg yolk

·    2 1/4 cups red wine

·    1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

·    3 cups plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

·    1 1/2 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder                   

·    3/8 tsp. baking soda

·    1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

·    3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

·    3/4 tsp. salt

Frosting:

·    24 ounces cream cheese (three 8-ounce boxes), at room temperature

·    3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

·    2 tsp. vanilla extract

·    3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour

To make cake: Preheat oven to 325°. Line the bottom of three 9 round cake pans with parchment paper. Grease parchment and sides of pan. Place butter in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, cream butter on medium speed until smooth. Add brown and granulated sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and yolk and beat until incorporated, then add red wine and vanilla. (Don't worry if the batter looks a little uneven and grainy.)

In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Sift dry mixture over wet ingredients. Mix until 3/4 combined, then fold in remaining dry mixture with a rubber spatula.

Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of each layer comes out clean. The top of each cake should be shiny and smooth. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then remove cakes from pans and let cool completely on a rack. (If cakes have domed a bit and you want even layers, trim tops using a long serrated knife held horizontally.)

To make frosting: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in vanilla, then gradually stir in confectioners' sugar.

To frost cake, place one layer on a cake stand or plate and spread with 1 cup frosting. Repeat with next 2 layers and spread top and sides with remaining frosting.

Printed from Oprah.com on Tuesday, January 29, 2013

© 2012 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

Anne's Hot Sausage Dip

We went and watched the Super Bowl at a friends house last night.  The food and the beer flowed at least until the lights went out at the game. 

I had to work yesterday so Michael was in charge of making what we were bringing over last night.  He did he usual fine job!  He had a recipe, he had a shopping list and off he went.  A friend from church had given me this treat, we had enjoyed at Tea Time after church one Sunday and it is delicious!!!!  Not healthy but tasty!  I do not know who the Anne is that this is named after but she deserves some kind of an award!!!  What you are seeing is the little bit that we brought home with us...I think Michael hid it from everyone else.

Anne's Hot Sausage Dip

1 lb hot sausage
1 package cream cheese, softened
1 10 oz can Rotelle tomatoes
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

Cook sausage in a large skillet, stirring until the meat crumbles and is no longer pink, drain.  Drain tomatoes, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid.  Stir together sausage, diced tomatoes, reserved liquid and cream cheese.  Spoon into a lightly greased deep casserole dish.  Sprinkle with the cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Now if you are like my husband and think that Rotelle tomatoes are a type of tomatoes just stop there!  They are a brand and they come with different spices and various levels of hotness. 

Homemade Chicken Soup with Tortellini and Spinach

The weather here has been cold (at least for us) and Michael has come down with some kind of flu thing.  You know what I am talking about, scratchy throat, feverish and run down.  Seems like the perfect time for some chicken soup and being me I couldn't just stop at plain soup.  This is very comforting and is much more filling thanks to addition of tortellini and fresh spinach.  If you have left over chicken in the fridge that can be added also (we had a left over roasted thigh which went in the mix).

Homemade Chicken Soup with Tortellini and Spinach

1 pound chicken breast (with skin and bones attached)
2 carrots peeled and sliced into large slices
2 celery stalks with greens attached sliced
1 medium onion sliced
8 cups water
2 cups chicken stock (see note below)
salt
pepper
1 sprig thyme
1 cup dry cheese tortellini
2 cups fresh spinach
1 Tbls butter
3 large mushrooms sliced

Place the chicken, carrots, celery, water, chicken stock, salt and pepper into a large stock pot.  Bring to a boil and let simmer 2 hours uncovered.  Remove chicken and place to the side, allow to cool.  Add the thyme and allow to cook down to about 1/2 (or so).

Remove chicken from bones and chop roughly then add it back to the broth.  Bring back to a boil and add the tortellini allowing to cook about 12 minutes.  While this is happening place your butter into a small saute pan and melt.  Add the mushrooms to the butter and brown.  Add the mushrooms to your soup along with the spinach.

Note:  I keep chicken broth in zip lock bags in the freezer.  I make it anytime we have a whole chicken using the carcass, it is inexpensive to make, tastes so much better then what you buy at the store and you can control the amount of salt in it.

Chicken Broth

1 chicken carcass
1 carrot roughly chopped (no need to peel)
1 stalk of celery roughly chopped (including the greens on the top)
1 onion roughly chopped
8-10 cup of water
Freshly ground pepper
Salt

Place it all in a large stock pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.  Place a strainer in a large bowl and carefully pour the stock in to remove the vegetables and bones.  Cool and separate into zip lock bags (I usually put 2 cups into each bag) place in the freezer and you are done!

 

Seafood Stew

When  I first started this cooking adventure I was a cooking chicken.  By that I mean that unless it was something I had made before or if trying a new recipe it had more than a few items and a short set of directions it was not going to be tried here.  Then I moved onto a few cooking websites and if it didn't have a lot of positive reviews it wouldn't be cooked here.  Well over the past year and a half I have certainly become more adventurous and much braver. 

What brings all this to mind is yesterday's dinner.  Michael was talking about making some type of a fish soup, we talked about what we would like in it (red sauce or white sauce, what vegetables, what kinds of fish).  Once we had decided on the preliminaries off to the Internet we both went each with an idea of what we were looking for.  We came up with a combination of tastes from two different recipes and two different chefs.  Earlier in my cooking journey I would have had to stay exactly with the recipe and heavens forbid there was not every item called for in the pantry, that recipe would have been out the window!  So here is (to the best of my recollection) a combination of Emeril and Ina's seafood stew!

Seafood Stew

1 Tbls olive oil
1 Tbls butter
1 carrot diced
1 stalk celery diced
1 medium onion diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup diced green pepper
6 small red potatoes cut in small pieces
Cayenne pepper
Salt
2 cups seafood stock
1 can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
A couple threads of saffron
1 cup white wine
1/2 lb firm white fish (we used whiting) cut into chunks
1/2 lb mussels
One dozen small clams
1/2 lb raw shrimp (shelled and de-veined)

In a large stockpot heat oil and melt butter, add the carrot, celery, onion and potatoes.  Add some salt, cayenne pepper and bay leaf, stir and let cook over medium heat for 6 minutes (or until onions and peppers are soft).  Add your seafood stock, wine, tomatoes and saffron.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about a half an hour (potatoes should be soft).

Add the white fish and clams, simmer until the clams open.  Add the mussels and shrimp, once again let simmer until mussels open and shrimp turn pink.

Serve with crusty bread!

Ina Gartner's Parmesan and Thyme Crackers

Well, that was a nice little blogging vacation!  Hadn't really planned it but life got a tad over busy (including the eldest daughter returning from Guatemala and moving into our 700 sq foot apartment with Michael, Bear and myself).  All I can say is thank goodness for the backyard which makes this place seem larger.

I have been invited to join a group called the Hens and tomorrow afternoon is the first get together.  Apparently this group (which I knew nothing about) is a group of ladies who are devoted to cooking.  Tomorrows get together is going to be cheese, appetizers, fondue and wine.  Everyone brings something  or makes something...usually nothing store bought is allowed (except for things like the wine and cheese).  I know nothing about cheeses (so this should be a great learning experience) and to make up for my lack of knowledge we are going to make and bring crackers.  Little did I know there were tons of recipes on the web for crackers!  I am going to make two different types (possibly a third one if there is enough time) and this morning the first one was baked!  These taste like savory shortbread and are kind of tender...

Parmesan and Thyme Crackers on the Food Network

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 ounces grated Parmesan
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until creamy. Add the Parmesan, flour, salt, thyme and pepper and combine.
Dump the dough on a lightly floured board and roll into a 13-inch long log. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut the log crosswise into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake for 22 minutes.