Chit chat

I thought that I would spend my Easter Week (aka spring break) catching up my food blog with recipes that have been waiting to be posted. Where did the week go? I had also planned to do a lot of sewing for my daughter, and only managed to sew one little skooter shirt. I might need some time management lessons.

I did make 18 goody bags for a girlfriend who was hosting a bridal shower. They held chocolates, body butter and lip balm -- really good all natural stuff I make in my kitchen.

I also baked cupcakes for a family get together, and cupcakes and cookies for the same bridal shower. People often tell me that I should go into catering (not because my food is that great, but I think just because I do bake), but there is too much love involved for me. I wouldn't be good at it. (The recipe for the chocolate cupcakes is here, and the recipe for the wedding cupcakes here, buttercream frosting here.) I only do it because I love the people I bake for.

 My first foray into royal icing. I hated it, which probably means I won't rest until I have mastered it, even though I swore off it forever.

 The bride's flower is sunflowers, which I tried to make using the marshmallow/sugar technique. They turned out cute though not very sunflower-ish. This technique was very easy -- cut the "corners" off the marshmallows at a diagonal and promptly dip the cut side into colored sugar.

Tomorrow is the Feast of Divine Mercy, so please celebrate with your family. There are many ways to recognize the feast day (at Mass, a rosary service, with Confession and the Divine Mercy chaplet), but if you are celebrating with food, please make some Divine Mercy sugar cookies or a Divine Mercy Shortcake -- neither will disappoint and your children will always remember those red and blue rays!

Make sure you get your rays on the right sides (opposite mine!)

Subpar Peaches

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 You pick up a large peach and sniff it. Mmmm, smells sweet and peachy, just like it should. Feel soft, just gives a little under your thumb. Looks absolutely perfect.

One bite, however, reveals a mealy, dry, albeit soft and sweet peach. Completely inedible in my opinion, relegated to cooked dishes or the compost (or the dog).

Today I discovered that subpar peaches, diced up in a bowl of granola with cold milk (and any other fruit you might have around) are completely and totally delicious.


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Sunday Breakfast

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Elisa (and Kelly) shared these wonderful scones and we enjoyed them for breakfast this morning. Oh my, yum. Recipe to come but if you just can't wait, follow the links. :-)


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Just Pics

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I am trying to get caught up with all the dishes I've made recently and intend to post here, but for now I have "just pics." This was my birthday cake this year and homemade vanilla ice cream. Though we were out of town on my actual birthday, I squeezed in a cake over the weekend. This is the third year in row that this has been my birthday cake: Caramel Buttermilk Cake and Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (found here).


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Tea

The ladies at Snapshots Around the World are enjoying tea (or at least photographs) this week, and so, I'm posting my picture here, again.

My tea is Barry's Gold with a bit of sugar and 1% milk. Enjoyed with a chocolate, chocolate chip, cherry biscotti.

Tea for me, is much more than a beverage. Tea, is an event, whether enjoyed alone or with family, or with a friend. To me, tea is a process, and a moment to be enjoyed. I know some people make tea with a cup of water in the microwave. For me, heating one's water in the microwave defeats the purpose. The point is to have a moment of two during the day (and by moment I mean more than a minute) to slow down, to relax and divert one's attention from work. The process of brewing the tea is important to the total experience.

Fill the kettle with cool, fresh water and put it on the stove. Heat until boiling (the water must be very hot in order to brew the tea properly). When the water boils, turn it off and let it sit for just a moment. The decision to use a tea bag or loose leaves is personal. Loose leaves are not always superior over tea bags, as long as quality tea is used -- with either method. Quality tea does not have to be exorbitantly expensive -- just choose a good, reliable brand, or visit a tea shop and ask for advice. Place loose leaves in a strainer (or chose a bag) and place in cup or tea pot. Add hot water and let steep for at least three to five minutes -- taste to determine your preference. Do not dunk twice and discard -- you are completely missing the point, and the taste. After steeping, remove bag or strainer (do not squeeze). Add sugar, lemon or cream (or leave plain). Serve with a treat. Keep a box or tin of cookies in the pantry just for tea, or bake some scones and pop them in the freezer -- pull one out and heat in the oven or toaster oven for 20 minutes before tea time. Sit and enjoy with a book, a friend, or just quiet moments looking out the window.

A good cup of tea should recharge you, and not just because it's caffeinated.

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Poaching in progress

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My friend Kim at Starry Sky Ranch has joined with two other women to create Snapshots Around the World. This week's subject is "eggs" and I just happened to have this photo that I recently snapped when I was poaching eggs -- quite a few eggs for my very hungry husband and teenage boys.

It's best to place each egg you are poaching in a small bowl or glass so that you can place the container close to the simmering water and drop it gently. Always add a teaspoon of white vinegar to your poaching water and it will help hold the whites together.

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Easter Recap

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I apologize to all my foodie friends for not getting any photos of the Easter dinner. With a crowd to serve I just can't say "Hold it -- gotta get some photos first!" Everything tasted wonderful, but you'll just have to trust me. ;-)

I did get a picture of the cake and the Easter bread (first ever!) and the table.

 Eggs dyed by the children.

 Easter bread -- recipe to come.

The annual Hot Milk Cake.

 One of the tables -- the dining room.

 I snatched this little butter lamb at the store over a month ago. I learned years ago to get one early.

Join the ladies at Catholic Cuisine for most Easter dinners.

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Be back soon

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After the biggest food prep week of my life(!), I promise to be back soon. I have a backlog of recipes to get posted. In the meantime, my family absolutely insisted that I take and post a picture of the Thanksgiving table after the candles were lit. They truly did appreciate the work.

Happy first Sunday of Advent!

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The gift of recipes

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Many years ago I gathered and published into a cookbook recipes from families in our school community, intended as a gift to the faculty and administrators of the school. We had plenty of copies, however, and many families benefited from the collection in their own kitchens. As the person who processed all the handwritten recipes into a publishable format, I got to know quite a few of those mamas, as well as their style in the kitchen. Some were "scratch cooks" as I often call those who bake and cook the way their mothers did, using recipes passed down in the family. Some were "modern cooks" who used modern ingredients to create fusion foods -- combinations of multi-cultural dishes. It was all good.

I remember one woman in particular who told me some of her best recipes came to her as a wedding gift, from a dear friend who could not afford a pricey gift, but instead gave her a gift from the heart -- some of her best recipes. As a private business woman with a catering business she had some real keepers, and had gifted them to her friend to start her own collection in her own newlywed's kitchen. How precious, I remember thinking -- how very personal.

It was not long after that I started my own collection for my two young cousins Amy and Jill, and then several years later for my niece Rachel. I gave them my very favorites -- easy recipes that a young woman can make with little experience, and family recipes -- dishes they may have enjoyed in my mother's or my kitchen.

I came across some blank recipe cards recently when I was cleaning a kitchen drawer and I was reminded that I had not gifted any new recipes in at least a year. Having just baked a loaf of banana bread, I sat down with the recipe and copied it -- I'll give a handful of new recipes to Rachel for her upcoming birthday. Years ago I gave her to box to hold the recipes. Maybe this year an apron and some kitchen tools for her hope chest.

I have never known a woman who did not treasure a hand-copied recipe from a beloved family member. Those recipes always seem to taste so much better. They elicit memories and warm feelings that make the food created so much better, so much more real, if that's possible.

When money is tight we often resort to homemade gifts, but you don't have to wait for crunch time to give family recipes. Offered in a collection box, or tied with some kitchen twine, paired with some wooden spoons and a set of stainless measuring cups, the gift of family recipes are heartfelt and cherished and can be given for any special occasion.




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Wordless Wednesday -- to drink with your Sloppy Joe

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Got Whipped Cream?

As an addendum to yesterday's Strawberry Shortcake post I am posting this picture of Maggie the Dog. She loooooves strawberries. Amazingly, whenever I get out the strawberries, she is right by my side. She smells them and she waits very patiently for a tidbit or two.

Celebration Cake

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The First Holy Communion party is over and almost all of the goodies were enjoyed; just a smidge of cake is left, but I took a picture when I finished decorating it, so I could share it with you. I wish you had been here to enjoy a piece.






What I did: I used a vanilla pound cake and filled the Wilton cross-shaped pan halfway, aftergreasing sndflouring well. I think it was 1.5 times the recipe. I baked it until a toothpick came out clean. After cooling, I frosted it with buttercream frosting and then placed a white chocolate cross (purchased at Easter) on the center of the cross. Using a small round top, I piped the pink, squiggly line all over (to look lacey). I made pink roses and placed them on the cross and piped green leaves. I used a small star tip to pipe a pink scallop around the bottom edge. With just s few cake decorating tools and some time, it was easy to do.

For pictures of the big day, pop over to Praying for Grace.


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Better get bakin'

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Frosted Sugar Cookies

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Whew!

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I admit that I am completely whipped, but thankful for family (and friends) and glad that all my dishes turned out well. I followed my time line almost to the letter and dinner was served at exactly 5:30 p.m., just when I had hoped. We have tons of leftovers, so we'll be eating yummy Thanksgiving dinner for days.

My husband took a picture of one of the tables and sent it to me from his phone, so I thought I'd share.

Good night!

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Another Chocolate Lovers Cake

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Here is another variation on my Chocolate Lovers Cake. We celebrated my husband's birthday with our parents over the weekend and he requested chocolate cake and chocolate icing. I made a variation of this cake, with his favorite candy on top. He is a lover of Peppermint Patties, so I used M&Ms new premium mint candies around the top and bottom, and chopped Peppermint Patties for the top. The inside was still just chocolate cake, but the exterior had a fresh, minty flavor!




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Number One Reason*...

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... for using a gas stove.



Good S'mores, even when it's raining. I'm thinking about building an ark it's been raining for so long. I better make sure it's equipped with a gas stove.

(*O.k., maybe not Number One, but it is way up there.)

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Peaches and Cream -- Simple Pleasures

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This, to me, is perfect food. Fresh, simply prepared, delicious. These peaches came in our co-op delivery. They were juicy and ripe, but not quite the sweetest. The freshly whipped, sweetened cream was just exactly what they needed to be perfect. No recipe needed.





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God's Color Palette

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If you have ever seen the film Girl with a Pearl Earring you probably remember the opening scene where Scartlet Johansson's character, Griet, is chopping the food and arranging it in a colorful palette, foreshadowing her work with painter Vermeer. The other day when I was chopping vegetables for our Mediterranean Veggie Pitas, I was reminded of that scene.

I am often perplexed at how people can eat greasy meat and French fries day after day when beautiful, tasty foods are available that are so good for us. How can food fried in fat taste as good as the beautiful food God has provided, freshly cleaned and eaten in its most natural form?





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'Tis the Season...

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...for fresh fruit.


Red, Green and Black Salad. Strawberries, cherries, blackberries and honeydew. Everything except the honeydew was awesome, and the honeydew (AKA sugar melon in our house) was alright. The honeydew came from Guatamala and everything from the U.S. I have noticed that the farther a food travels, the less it tastes like itself. Today we'll have watermelon, green grapes, strawberries and blackberries. We have a color theme goin' on.


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Rhubarb Streusel Pie

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My husband might soon leave me and go take up with one of those Mennonite girls. Just kidding, but he really is quite a fan of their recipes. I made this Rhubarb Streusel Pie over the weekend and he said it was the best rhubarb pie he ever ate, though you better not tell his mama.

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