Happy Mother's Day!

Today I was awakened by the sound of a small voice saying, "Happy Mother's Day...!" and precious Sweet Pea giving me a hug (the first of many I would receive from her). Awww! She and Hubby gave me a homemade card and a gift certificate to the local scrapbook store - score! We lazed around the house for a while and then got ready to go to The Big City (aka Little Rock) for a cool lunch; this is a big deal considering we live in the armpit of the U.S. with very little cultural diversity - yea!

We had Japanese for lunch and then did a little shopping to totally maximize the experience. One of the places we went was the Wild Oats Market (which was bought out by Whole Foods, but they still have the Wild Oats sign, so I don't know if they're keeping it or just haven't gotten around to it all). We had a lot of fun and got some neat things, including some cool cheeses that you can't get where we live.

Freshly cut papaya

When we got home, I set out the cheese

L to R: Champignon brie, Amish Blue, Saint Andre' Triple Cream, Fontina, Raw blue

with some crackers, bread,

Mmmmm, bread-ish items...

and fruit.

Clockwise from top: Seedless red grapes, Reduced balsamic vinegar, Pears, Papaya, & Granny Smith apples

Hubby grilled these El Yummo salmon burgers, also from Wild Oats. It was great! He wanted to pull out just about everything we'd gotten there and have a smorgasboard - and I will admit I tasted everything - but my fave was the cheese and fruit. I could live on that, man!


It was a good day to be a mom. :)

Tag! I'm it!

I was notified by my friend Chriesi that I was tagged in her blog, and went to find that I am the next victim *ahem LOL* participant in a meme! This is my first one, so I'm excited.

The rules are:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

I have a bookshelf right here next to my computer, so it's hard to figure out the "nearest" book. But I stretched my arm out, leaned over, and grabbed the first one I touched.

Digression/Background: Quite a few years ago, the singles group at the church I attended did a service project for an elderly lady. Our mission, to clean out her attic. It was PACKED with books, papers, and old things and was both an ideal penthouse for rats as well as a major fire hazard. The singles minister instructed us to throw away all of the old books, and my sister and I....well, we just couldn't! We grew up in a house with antiques that our parents collected, and old family things that were treasured. So we rebelled. We loaded up the back seat and the trunk of my little Mazda 323 with books; we were probably dragging the ground at the end of the day! LOL

Anyway, I grabbed one of these books, Sixteen Famous British Plays, which was published in 1942. The book includes plays by Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), A.A. Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame, and the inimitable Noel Coward. This is quite apropos, because aside from my love of cooking and baking (which is what this blog mostly consists of), I have a great love of literature and writing. After all, my degree is in English! :)

Capote, Welty, Faulkner......Hendrix?!?! =:D

Following the rules led me to What Every Woman Knows, written by J.M. Barrie, whose claim to fame is being the author of Peter Pan. The following quote is from the first paragraph of Act One of WEWK. Some characters are playing some sort of board game, I think (I have to admit that I haven't ever read this, so we're all sharing it for the first time):

"JAMES glares; and, too late, his opponent is a simple old father again. JAMES mops his head, sprawls in the manner most conducive to thought in the WYLIE family, an, protruding his underlip, settles down to a reconsideration of the board. ALICK blows out his cheeks, and a drop of water settles on the point of his nose."

See? There it is. Read for yourself.

Hmmm. Cracking this book open has really intrigued me. I'm going to have to check it out! :)

And the following 5 are officially tagged to do the same thing I have just done!
1. Anna, my lovely sister and partner in crime when saving old books - at It's Just Not Me
2. My awesome "W Girl"* friend Brandie at Confessions of an Ill-Behaved Woman
3. The very cool (and likely just as ill-behaved, LOL) Megan at Hobbit Ramblings, also a "W Girl"*
4. Michele, my 3rd "W Girl"* at Barrels of Monkeys
5. OK, that's it. I'm not that widespread to have a 5th person. Sad, no?

All righty, girls, have at it! :)

*Term of endearment for fellow grads of my alma mater

Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage

Hubby went to the store the other day and got a lot of things for meals. Tonight I cooked pinto beans and cabbage to go with some other things that we already have, as well as to go with a roast that we'll be crock-potting for supper tomorrow.

When I went into the fridge, I saw that we had red cabbage. No problem, I like both white and red cabbage, but since they require different seasonings (and I don't cook red cabbage as often) I had to poke around to find a good "receipt", as old folks call recipes. :) I made mini cornbread muffins too (I'm a Jiffy mix kind of girl), which as any self-respectin' Southerner knows is a must if one is having beans!

I know it probably doesn't look like much, but this is a great example of comfort food for me! The shininess on the cabbage is mostly the moisture from cooking and the balsamic -- I promise there isn't THAT much grease/oil in it!! :P

Here is my variation on the red cabbage recipe that I found here, which is an authentic Austrian dish. I decreased the sugar and increased the vinegar, because I'm not too big on sugar in vegetables, but they really balanced each other out well! I'd definitely make this easy, tasty dish again.

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 small red cabbage, sliced thinly
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 c. balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring, until wilted - 5 or so minutes. Sprinkle sugar in and stir well. Add balsamic vinegar. Cover and simmer, stirring often, until the cabbage is tender and the sugar/balsamic mixture coats the cabbage well, about 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!

Piemonte Night!

About a year and a half ago, I was fortunate enough to make my first trip to Europe. It was heavenly! We went to the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and Italy. I really loved each place and, like one's own children, I couldn't tell you which was my favorite!

I have become enamored with Italian food, though. No, not like the freakin' Olive Garden. Phhttt! I mean REAL food like Italian people living in Italy have. Each region has its own specialities based on their location, history, and indigenous creatures/plants that it's just fascinating to me. While we were in Italy, our friends Max and Monica (sorry, teeny pics!) took us on a walking tour of old town Torino. It was fabulous! We had lunch at a cool little sidewalk cafe, and had orecchiette with cream sauce. *swoon*

Last night Hubby was off playing a gig and it was just Sweet Pea and me. I started thinking about this bag of orecchiette that I had in the pantry, and my lunch with our cool Italian friends, and I just couldn't NOT make it! For those who don't know, orecchiette means "little ears" in Italian. That's because the round, dimpled pieces of pasta do resemble little tiny ears! I had to explain to Sweet Pea that we were not actually EATING EARS. Ha! I get myself into so many long explanations sometimes, just trying to tell her interesting little tidbits.

It has a little more stuff in it than my lunch in Torino, which was lovely and mild, but I thought I'd share it because it was pretty awesome (which is always cool when you just throw things together that you *think* might taste good). If I just bastardized it horribly, I'll blame it on my lack of Italian blood. :D Thus, I proudly present....

ScotsIrish-Piemonte Orecchiette with Dreamy Cream Sauce

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 small onion, grated (about 3/4 cup)

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 1/2 c. heavy cream

1/2-1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Italian spice mix, dried

Salt & Pepper to taste

Capers, drained

Parmesano-Reggiano, grated

Cook orecchiette according to package directions [mine said to boil 12-15 minutes and I pulled mine off at 12 so it would have that nice al dente feel to it].

Put olive oil into a cold saucepan. Grate onions into pan (or grate and dump in) and add garlic; turn stove onto medium heat and cook until onions and garlic are translucent and soft, about 10 minutes. [Note: Trust me on this - if you add grated onions to a hot pan they just get too close to burning. TOO close.]

Add cream, nutmeg, spices, and salt/pepper to taste, and stir to combine. Let simmer for a couple of minutes so that flavors can meld. Serve over orecchiette. Sprinkle cheese and capers over the top.

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Please note that I'm totally guessing on the amounts I used, here. Unless I'm baking, that's how I cook. You could probably add 1/2 to 1 cup of chicken broth to thin the sauce down, if you wish. Honestly, I didn't think about it and it was wonderful, and it was what I remember the thickness of my Torino orecchiette to be. It would be totally fab if you wanted to add some white wine.....but since my 5-year-old was eating this I opted out on that this time. My meal in Torino had thin slices of ham sprinkled on top, which, now that I think about it I could have sliced up the Canadian bacon that's in the fridge, but honestly, it just now crossed my mind (erk).

We also had a mixed green salad with olive oil and balsamic (yummmm), and I had a savory biscotti that I made -- Parmesan biscotti with Cracked Black Pepper and Herbs. Gah! That was great.

The perfect end to the evening would have been making a cup of Italian hot chocolate (from the recipe I found online after I got back from Italy - so I don't know how authentic it truly is - but I also found another recipe that a girl who is from Milano posted, which I now must try soon). But I stayed on the computer too long last night. :P

You Know You're Into Blogging When...

...your hubby says, "OK, Wed. night we're going to talk about taxes/finances" etc. etc. "and that means no blogging about cheesecake before we do it!"

:D

Daring Bakers - April '08 Challenge!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's me skidding into this month's Daring Bakers challenge. :D I wanted to have a whole weekend where I wasn't doing anything so I didn't have to rush. Well, that sure wasn't last weekend because I was at Homecoming. And the weekend before that I was in Little Rock all Saturday with a college alumnae meeting that morning, and hanging out with a friend that afternoon and evening. I don't like to do a lot of involved baking (on an unknown recipe) during the week, because who knows what's going to happen after work from one night to the next. So that left me starting this one the day before our posting date. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The cool psychedelic quality in the picture wasn't intentional, but I love it! Unintentional artsy-ness!

Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell are the hosts for this month, and their choice for our challenge is Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. I halved the recipe out of sheer fear (although I did use 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. vanilla powder) - I just knew if I made the whole thing that *ahem* we would probably devour it in a matter of moments, only to have it show back up on the scales. Erk! Here is a time line of my progress.

Sat. 4/26:
10:30AM - Actively getting mise en place together, and I swear if my child comes over one more time asking to help I'm going to scream. Not that I don't want her to help, but I've already told her three freaking times, "I'll let you know when I start mixing." The last time I had to threaten her with NOT helping me if she asked me about it anymore. How the hell she even knew what I was doing in the kitchen, when she was in the living room, is beyond me.

11:40 AM - Cheesecake in oven. Mixing was easy, and Sweet Pea had fun helping. ('Finally! What does Mom think she's doing, putting me off like that?! It's not like I have a long attention span or a memory that overrides excitement at this point in my life.') Fears came to fruition when a little bit of the boiling water sploshed into the pan with the cheesecake instead of into the roasting pan, but I don't think it did much, if any, damage. I set the timer for 35 minutes to see how it is doing then.

12:15 PM - Timer goes off, signaling the necessity to peek at the cake. Because of other Daring Bakers' posts about having to cook their cheesecakes a long time, I anticipated great soupiness. However, the cheesecake feels pretty firm to the touch. Needs a little more time, though, so I put another 10 minutes on it. Hopefully by then it should be done.

Wow! How'd I get it that perfect?!

12:28 PM - Ohhhhh.... My goodness gracious.... I should not, I repeat, NOT, have taken a tiny bite from the warm-from-the-oven cheesecake. I've made them before but the recipes I have used give a dense cake. This one is soft and creamy....Clawd have mercy!!! Now I'm wishing I'd made the full recipe just to have one extra cheesecake to eat warm, burning the roof of my mouth because I couldn't wait to just make the darned little pops. No....it is all for the best, and truly a wise decision....

Ahem...

1:15 PM, 1:38 PM, 1:55 PM, 2:30 PM, 3:05 PM, 3:34 PM - Peek into fridge and lightly touch top of cheesecake, feeling it gradually getting cooler each time. Once I pinched off a little bite smaller than the size of a pencil eraser. If that's not enough to tick you off....

4:14 PM - FINALLY pull out cheesecake and use a measuring tablespoon to scoop out pops. Sous Chef Sweet Pea helps by putting the sticks in. Fun and messy, and I enjoy licking off my fingers when finished!

Nekkid pops!

4:35 PM - Sous Chef Sweet Pea is witnessed peeking in freezer, "checking" the pops....

5:30 PM - Time for dipping and decorating! I really enjoyed it. I guessed at the amount of chocolate to get, so about 5-6 of the pops go undecorated, but I'm sure they will not be culled. I did three kinds of decorations: little sugar flower decorations, finely chopped candied lime peel** and candied ginger mixture, and finely chopped candied orange peel** with Italian cocoa. Into the fridge while we have supper -- after we tried a couple of the plain, uncoated ones, that is.

**(I made the candied lime and orange peel sometime around Christmas - yum.)

Chillin' with my peeps, I mean pops

6:35 PM - Ohmigosh, these are great! And portion control - yay! I'm not sure which I like the best, but the ones with the candy flowers don't have anything competing with the cheesecake and chocolate.

6:54 PM - Sous Chef is in her room, crying because I told her that she must eat supper before she has any more cheesecake pops. Tried to use cuteness to override my decree but in light of that failure she decides to throw a fit on the living room couch. She has been relegated to continuing the show in the bedroom, as Mom is rarely in the mood to put up with that kind of malarkey.

7:05 PM - Still hearing sniffs and wails from child's bedroom.

But it's confirmed - - these things are too good for acting right!!

See my toes down there? LOL

Thank you, Deborah and Elle, for the great challenge!

Chicken-Barley Salad

I tried out a new recipe the other day that's really easy and yummy. Its original name is "Sesame Brown Rice Salad with Chicken" on Cooking Light, but since Hubby doesn't like brown rice (Gah! Communist!) I made it with barley instead.

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Chicken-Barley Salad

1 c. barley
2 c. shredded cooked chicken breast (I used the chicken strips in a bag, already cooked, and diced them)
1/2 c. shredded carrot (I took baby carrots and cut them into little coins)
1/3 c. sliced green onions
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (I also used the zest)
4 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. dark sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced (or jarred minced)

Cook barley according to package directions. Transfer to a large bowl; fluff with a fork and allow to cool. Add chicken, carrot, onions, cilantro, and salt. Toss to combine.

Combine lime juice, oils, and garlic in a small bowl. Drizzle oil mixture over barley/chicken mixture; toss to combine.

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The only thing I'll do different in the future is make more of the dressing - it was really good, and it definitely wouldn't have hurt it to have had more. The original recipe called for chopped peanuts sprinkled on top, but I didn't do that although it would be good - as would some sort of peppery substance to give it a little heat.

~*~

I would also double the recipe and hide some of it for me to take to lunch, as Hubby adored it and kept going back for extra little helpings, and in the morning there was just enough for a little snack -- which he promptly ate for breakfast!