Menu Ideas

Tropical Gingerbread House

photo 5-1Christmas and the Islands… two of my favorite subjects!  So, I combined them into a Gingerbread House theme.  I love doing gingerbread houses because it can be as simple or as complex as you want.  It can take a couple hours or a couple weeks!  A great project for kids or a family gathering.  It’s hard to have family drama when everyone is focused on visions of gingerbread.  A little eggnog doesn’t hurt either!   I made this gingerbread from scratch as well as the royal icing.  Here are the recipes, courtesy of Chef Michele Prairie.  The recipes work beautifully!

Gingerbread Dough
6  3/4 cups All Purpose Flour (29 oz)
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup (18 oz)
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar packed (10 oz)
1 cup margarine (8 oz)

Preheat oven to 350.  Stir flour and spices into a large bowl.  Combine corn syrup, brown sugar and margarine in sauce pan.  Stir over medium heat until margarine is melted.  Stir liquid into the flour mixture and then mix with electric mixer (paddle attachment) until well mixed.  Chill the dough until stiff and easy to handle.  Roll the dough out to 1/8″ to 1/4″ thickness on parchment paper.  Move the dough and the paper to a sheet pan.  Cut out dough with a template of your choice.  Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.  Check for air bubbles during baking and poke them with a sharp knife or tooth pick to deflate.  Cool on pan 15 minutes before moving.

Royal Icing
1 lb. box of powdered sugar
3 egg whites at room temperature or 3 Tbsp. meringue powder plus 7 Tbsp. water
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Sift powdered sugar in a bowl.  Place egg whites or meringue powder and water in a mixing bowl.  Add cream of tartar and sugar to egg whites while stirring.  When all sugar is added, turn mixer to high and beat until thick and very white and holds stiff peaks.  May take 5-7 minutes.  When finished, cover icing tightly with a damp cloth or plastic wrap as it dries out very quickly.

Tips to get you going:

-Plan a theme for your house and then decide on some major elements you want to include
-Purchase all your candy and decor items and lay them out on trays for easy access.
-Make any special decorations that need to dry well ahead of time… like icing flowers, trees, anything that needs to have the icing set up well before adding to your house.
-Put the walls up first and then let it sit for a few hours or overnight before adding the roof.  Reinforce the inside with icing.  No one sees that part!
-I prefer to decorate the sides, the back, the front and the roof in that order for easiest access to everything.
-Do the landscape and board cover last so you’re not sticking your arm in it while you finish the house.
-You can draw your own templates or use pre-made cutters.  You’ll need two roof pieces, two side pieces and two front/back pieces.  6 pieces in all.

Have some fun this year with gingerbread.  Here are some pics of my house from different angles.

photo 3-2 photo 2-2 photo 1-2 photo 4-2 photo 3-1 photo 2-1 photo 5 photo 1-1 photo 4-1 photo 4 photo 2 photo 1 photo 3 ghouse

Pumpkin Chocolate Nut Quick Bread

chocolate pumpkin nut breadThis autumn treat falls into my husband’s “Get this stuff out of the house before I eat it all” category.  Consequently, I make it, we gobble up a few pieces and then I slice it and wrap it for sharing at my next school meeting, work appointment or social gathering.  I love the smiles that spread around the room when I walk through the door with freshly baked treats.  It’s how I sprinkle a little stardust wherever I go and keep my hubby  (and myself) from doing that kitchen fly-by thing we do when there is something tempting on the counter.    So here it is.. a moist and delicious “totable” treat for you to sample and share.  I keep these ingredients on hand to have a quick go-to when I need to come up with a baked good for company, hostess gifts, or other gatherings.   You can also bake this into muffins, just increase temperature to 375 and decrease baking time (time depends on the size of your muffins).  My son and his friends like the muffins best, especially when I leave out the nuts and double the chocolate.

 

 

Some of our favorite wine brands

A friend called today to ask advice on purchasing wine for party.  I am certainly no expert on wine, but I do have a Go To list.  So, I decided to write up some of our favorite wine choices…   I’d love to know your favorites.  Just leave in comments section.  Here’s to Vino!

Menage a Trois California Table Wine-  a wonderfully smooth red blend that is so very drinkable!

Menage a Trois also has a great Chardonnay, fruity and clean.

Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay is our absolute favorite for a buttery smooth treat

Cupcake Red Velvet is also a nice, inexpensive red blend.

Conundrum Red is my top choice for a red blend.  A little pricier than Menage, but worth it on special nights.

Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon is quite wonderful… tastes like velvet.

Dreaming Tree Cabernet Sauvignon is the Dave Matthews wine we have recently fallen in love with.

 

 

Grilled Chicken Salad Bar for a Ladies Lunch

I co-hosted a lunch meeting for a group of twenty women at my son’s school this week.  My cohort and I decided to present a Grilled Chicken Salad Bar and it was a big hit.  Plus, assembling the whole meal was relatively easy and didn’t require a great deal of prep time.  We did it all from baking to location set-up in just a few hours the morning before the lunch.  Be sure to feature at least one really special salad dressing.  Our star was the Braswell’s.  We coordinated the tablecloths, serving dishes and flowers for a simple seasonal presentation.  Next time you have to host a lunch for the gals, give this menu a whirl!

Here’s the plan
-Fill two big salad bowls with mixed greens (include some spinach and purple lettuce)
-Marinate, grill and slice boneless chicken breasts; keep warm on a covered platter on the “salad bar”
-Set out bowls of all your favorite toppings with spoons.  We served candied walnuts, sliced strawberries, dried cranberries, feta cheese crumbles, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, and diced red onion.  You could also add apples and croutons.
-Braswell’s Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing, Olde Cape Cod Wasabi Soy & Ginger dressing, Wishbone Light Balsamic Vinaigrette
-Gourmet Crackers
-Pasta Salad
-Extra fruit (we had a plate of grapes)
-Homemade Pound Cake

Here’s the Pound Cake Recipe

heavenly pound cakeHeavenly Pound Cake
3 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½  tsp baking powder
8 oz sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
½ tsp dark rum or rum extract
Glaze (1/2  tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. rum extract and enough powdered sugar to make a thick drizzling consistency)
Garnish:  Toasted sliced almonds, optional

Bring butter and eggs to room temperature (set out for 30 minutes).  Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time.  In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder.  Add to the batter mixture, alternating with sour cream, starting and ending with flour.  Don’t overbeat.  Stir in vanilla, almond, lemon and rum.  Pour into prepared Bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees 60-70 minutes or until center is done.    Cool 45 min.  in the pan on a wire rack.  Turn out onto cake plate.  Drizzle glaze over top of cake, letting it run down the inside and outside of Bundt shape.  Top with toasted almonds.

Chicken Cordon Something on the fly… inspirations from last weekend at the lake.

My whole family loves spending as much time as possible at Smith Mountain Lake in the summer.  We swim, boat, sleep, play cards, read, gossip and of course we EAT like there’s no tomorrow.  The lake is a great place to test out my latest culinary creations because I have a captive, hungry audience and most of what I make is at least better than the food at the Dairy Queen down the road.  I cook for the hubby, the kids, the in-laws, the rents, the sibs, the dog, some of the neighbors and occasionally the random strangers in the nearest boat.   My mom and sisters take their turn at the stove too.  My van is usually running over with twice as many groceries as suitcases.  However, this past weekend was probably the last weekend at the lake for a while so I was trying to use up what food we had and not go out and buy a lot of extra groceries.  By Labor Day Monday, the cupboards were pretty bare.  So, like the enterprising family that we are, we pooled our resources to make the final dinner.    Turned out pretty good.  Here’s what happened.

Chicken Cordon Something

-I took the last of my Sister’s boneless chicken breasts and pounded them thin between plastic wrap. I didn’t have a mallet, but a heavy ice cream scoop worked just fine.
-Applied salt, pepper, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, and onion powder to both sides of chicken.  You can use whatever spice/herb mix you like.
-Collected everyone’s leftover lunch meat and layered the meat on the chicken.
-Layered slices of leftover cheese (swiss slices, grated Italian blend and what I think was shredded cheddar)  Didn’t really try to make them all the same.. the chicken pieces just got what they got.
-Rolled up the chicken pieces and secured with a toothpick
-Coated each piece in a mixture of grated Parmesan cheese, club cracker crumbs, and seasoned salt.  I used the club crackers because THAT’S ALL I HAD  and they were starting to go stale.
-Drizzled a tiny bit of butter on top for some moisture and baked at 350 for 17 minutes or so until internal temp was 165 degrees.  It’s a good idea to remove the toothpicks halfway through the cooking time.

We ate it just like this with some leftover green beans and pasta salad but a white wine cream sauce or a mushroom sauce would be a nice accompaniment.

This turned out to be one of the best meals of the weekend.  I think the key to making this approach work for you is to consider the protein ingredients you have, think of a dish you like that includes that protein and then look around your kitchen for similar items.  Don’t be afraid to improvise!  Leftover lunch meat may be the sleeping star of your next dinner, too.

Summer makes me think about Country Potato Salad

I think it’s fun to take food from my childhood and give the recipe a little twist of my own.  I have wonderful memories of my great-grandmother and then my mother making our family’s potato salad.  My Philadelphia-bred husband says it’s not really potato salad, but mashed potatoes with stuff in it.   I disagree with him in my subtle Southern way.   Here’s my version of the local classic.. you be the judge.

Country Picnic Potato Salad

 

Blame it on the Turkey… But I still like my broiler

I am one of those odd cooks that likes to broil things.  I have produced amazing results with my broiled hamburgers.  My husband actually prefers them to grilled.  But I digress…. I found these beautiful turkey tenderloins and decided to marinate them overnight like so:
1 cup dry red wine
½  cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger root
dash of pepper

The next day I decided to broil them, just to see how it would turn out.  So, like the sanitary-minded cook that I am, I stuck my fancy thermometer into the turkey (you know the one that has the cord that runs out of the oven into a digital display setting off an alarm when the right temp is reached) and put the pan in the oven.  I checked every 5 minutes or so and turned it just right each time.  No problem. Well at some point during the last 5 minute cook cycle, the poor little thermometer gave up the ghost and proceeded to burst into flames!  Actually it was the cord that caught on fire.  With a little teeth-gritting help from my hubby, we managed to get the burning cord and metal probe out of the oven…. all while I’m nagging “Don’t let the cord touch the turkey!”  I was determined to rescue that fine piece of dinner.  And I did, and it was delicious.  So, go ahead and broil the turkey, just don’t leave this kind of thermometer under the broiler.  Next time I’ll opt for a plain old meat thermometer or maybe just poke it with an instant read version when it comes out of the oven to be sure I have hit the magic 160 degrees.  Don’t let the broiler beat you down! If I haven’t scared you away yet, give these babies a try.

Broiled Cheeseburgers

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburgers

Pizza Cups will be a good Super Bowl snack.

Still looking for a snack idea for your Super Bowl gathering? How about Pizza Cups!  These are a big hit with all ages.  Here’s a tip for easy browning and crumbling of the sausage (or any ground meat).  Use a potato masher to brown the meat.  It crumbles so much better than the back of a spoon.  You can get creative with the ingredients if you want.  Whatever you like on your pizza.

PIzza Cups

The kitchen math that makes life so much easier!

Measurements and Equations to commit to memory!  Once you get these down, you can convert recipes and make grocery lists in a flash.

1 Gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups = 128 oz.1 Quart = 2 pints = 4 cups = 32 oz.
1 Pint = 2 cups = 16 oz.
1 Cup = 8 oz. = 16 Tablespoons
1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons = .5 fluid ounces
1 Pound = 16 ounces.

Basic Kitchen Tips

Here are some basic kitchen tips I’ve learned over the years.  Just some random things I thought you might find interesting.

  • It’s best to use kosher salt for cooking and sea salt for finishing.
  • Don’t ever use your good knives on glass, ceramic or granite.  Use on wooden or plastic cutting boards.  Don’t forget to wash and sanitize those boards and have separate ones for meat/chicken and fresh veggies.  Some people color code the boards.
  • If you have a convection oven, it’s important to realize that it runs about 50 degrees hotter than conventional.
  • The OXO brand of vegetable peeler is awesome!
  • To keep your cutting board from slipping, place a rubber mat or towel underneath it.
  • To get the peel off tomatoes, take out the core on top with a paring knife and score an “X” on the other end.  Blanch in boiling water for a couple minutes and the skin will slip right off.  If it’s a beefsteak tomato, you can cut it in half and squeeze upside down to get a lot of the seeds out. (after peeling)
  • It’s best to salt your food towards the end of cooking because the concentration and reduction of liquid can intensify the salty taste.
  • Want your cooked veggies to be beautiful and brightly colored?  Blanch the veggies in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then plunge into ice water. This technique locks in the color and the nutrients.  You can then finish cooking them to your liking or add to other ingredients.
  • If you’re making a sauce in a saute pan, add a couple pats of butter at the end of cooking to make the sauce taste rich and silky.
  • When making soups, it’s best to add the cooked meat (like chicken) and the cooked starch (like pasta and rice) to the soup just before serving to avoid over-cooking the ingredients.
  • When cooking pasta, cook in salted water until al dente and then remove from pot and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking.  Drain and serve with sauce immediately.  If you need to hold the pasta for a while, stir in a little oil to keep it from drying out.  Do NOT let it hang out in water.  It gets fat and mushy!