Red Velvet Cake

It's birthday season again! Chet & Larry's birthdays are back-to-back (February 24th and 25th), so this year, I made a shared birthday cake for them. Last year, they got individual desserts (Larry's is here and Chet's is here), but neither of them told me waht they wanted this year, so I got to pick. For some reason, I've been looking for a reason to make a red velvet cake, so that was this year's birthday treat! When I took the cake in to my parents' house, Larry said, "What kind is it?" When I told him it was red velvet, he said, "I don't know a single man who doesn't like red velvet cake." And what is that about, anyway? Remember in Steel Magnolias...the armadillo groom's cake? Why do men like red velvet cake? It's delicious, that's why! I think I may have overcooked (or overmixed) my cake layers, but they were still quite tasty. But the icing? Divine. I have found my go-to cream cheese icing!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Brown Eyed Baker, via Joy the Baker

For the Cake:

8 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

5 T unsweetened cocoa powder

6 T red food coloring

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups + 2 T all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 tsp distilled white vinegar

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. butter, at room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

5 cups powdered sugar

2 T vanilla extract

To Make the Cakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9" cake pans.

On medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to high and add the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.

In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter and mix on medium speed until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk. Add half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with teh remianing milk and flour. Beat on high until smooth.

Again, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the salt, baking soda, and vinegar. Turn to high and beat for another couple of minutes until completely combined and smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a thin knife or skewer inserted into the center of the cakes come out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes, and then remove cakes from the pan. Place them on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

To Make the Frosting:

Using the whisk attachment, whip the butter and cream cheese on high speed for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl down as necessary. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar until all is incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Increase the speed to medium high and whip for a few minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary.

* Note: This recipe can be halved to make 12 cupcakes.

Four Years

I can distinctly remember sitting in one of my Marriage & Family classes in my graduate program several years ago. One of my favorite (and best) instructors, Dr. Brenda Dew, was telling us about recent research that revealed that couples were more likely to hit serious rough patches and/or file for divorce in odd years of their marriage than in even years. At the time, I thought it was a load of crap. Now that we're celebrating our fourth year of marriage, I have to wonder if maybe there's more than a little truth in that.

Please don't get me wrong...David and I have a very happy marriage and we're devoted to one another, but this year has been tough! Over the course of our third year of marriage, we built a house, moved in, lost our first baby to a miscarriage, watched close family members struggle with some tough stuff, and made it through our September "due date" with the baby that we didn't get to have. And through all of that, there have been some really tough, dark times. Thankfully, somehow, during all of that, I recognized that the way we handle those situations together would make us or break us. There were times when for some reason, my first instinct was to snap at him or take out my frustrations, anger, and fears on him (and I probably did, to some degree), but I did my best to choose not do those things. Instead, we leaned on each other, our families, friends, and our God, and we've made it through. Things are looking great for our fouth year of marriage...in fact, we just got back from a week-long cruise vacation (which was much needed!) in order to kind of hit the "reset" button. Through it all, I can truly say that life is good, and I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone besides David. He is an amazing husband, and I look forward to sharing the rest of life's ups and downs with him. Love you, David!

David's Strawberry Birthday Cake

Yesterday was David's birthday, and I'd been in search of a perfect birthday treat for a little over a week. He loves strawberries, and if given the choice, will almost always choose a strawberry dessert over any other flavor. So when I found this cake on my cousin Lindsey's blog Yummy Things (which she found over at Homesick Texan), I had a feeling I'd found the perfect birthday cake.
When I found the recipe, I copied and pasted into an email and forwarded it to David while he was at work. The subject line said, "A possible birthday treat?" His simple reply was this, "Yes, please!" And it was wonderful! My favorite part of the cake was the frosting, though. The strawberry cream cheese icing is good enough (and not too overly sweet) to just eat with a spoon. I know this because I have eaten several spoonfulls of it! :) The cake recipe calls for two sticks of butter, but I only used one (because I misread the recipe), but it still turned out great! It's a very moist cake with a slight strawberry flavor. The cake isn't pink like boxed strawberry cake mixes...in fact, it comes out a little brown because of a chemical reaction between the strawberries, the other ingredients, and the heat from baking. (I'm not a very scientific person, but that's the best way I can explain it. In other words, don't be concerned when your cake is brown. It will be delicious!)

Here's a picture of David and me at the wedding in St. Louis last weekend. We had a great time on our little trip and were so glad to be there for Daniel and MaryBeth's special day.

Strawberry Sheet Cake

Homesick Texan

Cake:

12 oz. fresh strawberries, stems removed and chopped (about 3 cups)

2 cups sugar, plus 2 teaspoons

2 cups flour

2 sticks of butter (I used one, and it was fine)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1teaspoon vanilla

Over the chopped strawberries, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Let them sit for an hour at room temperature so they can release some of their juices. The berries should reduce to about 1 1/2 cups. In a blender or food processor, crush the berries on a low speed for a few seconds. You want them juicy, but still with some texture. Take 1/2 cup of the strawberry mixture for the frosting and leave the remaining crushed strawberries for the cake.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

Sift the sugar and flour together in a bowl.

Melt the butter on low in a saucepan and then whisk it with the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and baking soda. Add the liquid to the flour and then stir in one cup of the crushed strawberries.

Pour batter into the pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Cake is done when a knife comes out clean from the center. Let it cool and then frost with the strawberry cream cheese frosting (recipe below).

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 stick butter, at room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup crushed strawberries

2 tsp. lime juice (about half a lime)

1/4 tsp. lime zest

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Whip together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until blended. Add the strawberries, lime juice, lime zest, and vanilla. Spread over cooled cake.

Note: Depending on how juicy your berries are, your icing may be runnier than usual. If this is the cake, add more cream cheese to thicken it up.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, it was my birthday last week. And, as Chet so gently put it, the last time I'll ever see a "2" as the first number in my birthday ever again. Yikes. Where does the time go? Anyway, aside from lots of love and good wishes from family and friends, I got some pretty sweet baking birthday gifts. Wanna see?
A BeaterBlade! Yay! More on this guy later, but it caused quite a stir as I was opening gifts. Chet and my uncle both said, "Tell me how it works! I want one!" Neither of them knew that such a thing existed, and I wouldn't have either, if it weren't for the wonderful world of food blogging! I did try it out (the same day I got it), and it works great!

A mandolin! A while back, I told David I wanted a mandolin, and I had to explain that it's not the musical instrument kind of mandolin I was after. I haven't used it, but it looks extremely sharp. I wish I had some potatoes in the bin...I might have to make a stop to Kroger after work one night this week. It came in a black carrying case that made Larry comment that I'd look like a ninja carrying it. Now I'll be hunting for recipes that require thinly sliced veggies.
And this little cutie...

is from my sister! It's my Kitchen Fraggle! Several months ago, I stopped by Allison and Larry's house to admire her craft room, and I saw a "Fraggle" that she had made. It wasn't really a Fraggle, but it looked so much like it. I was mesmerized by the cuteness. And ever since I've gone to their house, I go admire the Fraggle. So I was so excited when I opened my gift to find this adorable little baker! Can you believe she made this?! She's so talented. If you want to see more of her work, visit her blog, Sew Delightful. She hasn't updated her blog in awhile, so maybe this'll light a little fire under her! She makes precious dolls, purses, aprons, and even clothes! I keep telling her she needs an Etsy store.

And I don't have a picture, but Earl and Shirley gave me subscriptions to Southern Living and Cooking Light. I can't wait till they start showing up in my mailbox!

So there you have it...all of my new kitchen gadgets. I'm sure you'll see more of them soon! Come back tomorrow to see the Dulce de Leche Duos that I mixed with the BeaterBlade.

Birthday and Shower Cakes

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that Chet and Larry both had birthdays during February. Chet wanted a jam cake for his birthday, so I made my first jam cake ever. Larry, however, chose the Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake (from Baking: From My Home to Yours) for his birthday treat. It was gooood...
For Larry's birthday, I made this cake as Dorie specifies in her recipe...using two 9-inch round pans. I love layer cakes. The recipe is so very simple, but I think my cakes got a little bit too dry. I did leave them in the oven a little longer than the recipe said, but that's because my toothpick kept coming out gooey, and the middles weren't "springy," they were soupy!

The chocolate malt buttercream is what made the cake though. In my opinion, the cake is really just a vehicle for the frosting. This was the one frosting recipe which made a little too much frosting. I wasn't stretching to be able to fill and frost the cake. Which was wonderful because I got to eat the remainder of the icing with a spoon. Oh, yes I did.

See how dense the cake was? A tad dry, but yummy nonetheless. We decided that the frosting tastes a lot like brownie batter. Yum! I couldn't really detect the malt flavor, but it was the best chocolate frosting I've ever made!

I also made this cake for a wedding shower for David's cousin's fiancee, Mary Beth. For the shower, I made the cake in a 9x13-inch pan, and again...the cake was dry! I thought it was too dry, but I got several compliments on the cake. The icing was still delicious, though! The cake is good too, but I just need to be confident enough to take the cake out sooner, without being concerned that it's still gooey in the middle. We all remember the brownie fiasco, right?

If you need a good chocolate cake recipe, give this one a try. You can find the recipe here. You can find the delicious chocolate malt buttercream recipe there, too. It's a little labor intensive, but totally worth it!

Old-Fashioned Jam Cake

Sorry for not having Dorie's Toasted Coconut Tart, which was chosen by Cinemon Girl. I had too many birthdays this week. Chet and my brother-in-law Larry have back to back birthdays on February 24th adn 25th. It's become a part of my gift to a loved one to let them choose a "birthday treat" from my favorite baking bible, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. So far, almost everyone has chosen a cake. My mom chose Devil's Food White-Out Cake, Earl (my father-in-law) chose Banana Cream Pie, Allison (my sister) chose a Double-Apple Bundt Cake, and my wonderful husband chose the Perfect Party Cake. (And now I realize that maybe Shirley didn't get a birthday treat. Oops! Shirley, you can pick a treat anytime, just because!) Since Chet's birthday came first, he got first choice. But he didn't want to look at my book. He said, "Jam Cake. I have the recipe." I didn't say it at the time, but I'll admit it now. I was disappointed. "Jam cake? Really? Only old ladies like jam cake." But I promised the birthday boy any treat he wanted, so I planned to deliver.

I'm glad that I obliged. It was ugly, but it was good. It had been a rough day, so I ran into some problems with the icing (I'd never made a cooked icing, so I kept whipping it, waiting for it to get fluffy. Before I figured out that it wasn't going to get fluffy, it almost got too cool to frost with, but it tasted like caramel fudge. Yum.) The flavor of the cake was wonderful. The flavor of the spices reminded me of fall, and the blackberry jam made the cake so moist. I think it had been a logn time since Chet had eaten a jam cake, because he said, "This is just the way I remember it!" I was so glad that I was able to give him a practically perfect (tasting) cake for his birthday.

As you can see, I didn't do a fantastic job on the icing, and the layers aren't exactly the same size, but it was delicious! It's rich though...the icing is like fudge, so you can't eat a lot of it...although we tried!

Want to see the recipe Chet gave me? This is exactly what he gave me:

Jam Cake

Charlene McPherson

1 cup butter

5 eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 cup raisins

1 cup pecans

1 cup jam

Mix Flour Grease and Wax paper Line Cake Pans

And for the icing:

1 box brown sugar

1 cup cream

Cook to soft ball stage add 1/2 stick butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat until creamy and spread.

Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake

Baking is my thing. If you're having an event, and you invite me over, put me down to bring dessert. I'll bake a pie, a cake, cookies...whatever you want. Just let me do dessert.
Thanksgiving was no exception. I told Mom that I would bring sweet potato casserole and a dessert. I cut this recipe for Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake out of the Louisville Courier-Journal over a year ago and hadn't made it yet. The recipe comes from Chris Weppler, who's Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake won a ribbon at the state fair. I had high hopes for this one. I was honestly kind of disappointed.
The cake was simple enough to make, but the flavor just didn't have as much "oomph" as I thought that it would. And parts of my cake never baked completely through, even though I rotated the cake halfway during the baking time. (But maybe that problem was due to operator error...who knows?) The cake was fine, but it wasn't as special or tasty as I hoped it would be for the Thanksgiving holiday. But I guess that's what you get when you make an untested recipe for a family gathering!

Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake

Chris Weppler

Cake:

2/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

3 cups sugar

3/4 cups caramel ice cream topping

1 cup canned pumkin pie mix (not pure pumpkin puree)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

5 eggs

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tbs. caramel ice cream topping

4 tsp. water

Pecan halves for garnish, if desired

Finely chopped (or crushed) pecans for garnish, if desired

For the Cake:

Grease a 10-inch tube pan. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine shortening, butter, and sugar, and beat to blend evenly. Beat in caramel icecream topping and pumpkin.

Combine and sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and other spices. Add eggs and dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating eggs with dry ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Bake 70 to 80 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and cool completely.

For Glaze:

Combine sugar, caramel topping, and water, and beat until no lumps remain. Drizzle over completely cooled cake. Garnish with nuts if desired.

Thanksgiving Recap

Thursday afternoon, David and I headed to Mom and Chet's for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. Aside from setting aside time to really consider the many blessings we have in our lives, it's about the food. And I love the food! This year, the celebration involved David and I (of course), Mom and Chet, Allison and Larry (my sister and brother-in-law), and Paul and Marty (Mom and Chet's neighbors). We had quite the spread for the eight of us...by the end of the afternoon, we were stuffed. Here's a recap of the Thanksgiving deliciousness! Chet carved the bird. He brined it overnight, and it was moist and delicious! I focused on the dark meat this year...something new for me. And oh, it was good!
The stove was a busy, busy place! Gravy, broccoli, and noodles up top, and rolls in the oven.

Here's the platter piled high with turkey. This was maybe half of the bird. Again, most and delicious!

One of my favorites...cranberry sauce! This year, Chet made his own, and it was wonderful! It was full of fresh cranberries, apples, pecans, and orange zest. He has promised me the recipe. Oh, it was good!

And the dressing/stuffing...whatever you want to call it. Chet's stuffing is a mixture of cornbread and regular bread (I think). Anyway, it's good. It's not dry and crunchy like some dressing is. This stuff is moist and full of yum!

This is fall broccoli that just came out of Chet's garden last week. I didn't even know you could grow fall broccoli, but now I know. Oh, it was good. I love fresh broccoli.

And noodles! I know...you guys are probably thinking that we're some kind of freaks at Thanksgiving. No mashed potatoes in sight, but we do have broccoli and egg noodles! I never really thought of egg noodles as Thanksgiving food, but when Mom and Chet got married, Chet fixed them for Thanksgiving because his family alway had them with Thanksgiving dinner. Yeah, I thought it was weird at first, but now, they just seem like a part of Thanksgiving. It wouldn't be the same without them. I like to pour dressing over my noodles and dressing, then eat a little noodle and a little dressing at the same time. Carb overload! Yum!

This sweet potato casserole was one of my contributions. I love this stuff. There aren't words to describe how much I adore this stuff. It's really sweet, but I love to have it with holiday (Thankgiving and Christmas) meals. The sweet potatoes are mashed, and then there's the crunchy, sweet topping. Oh, mercy. It's the perfect foil to all the savory stuff. You'll find the recipe at the end of this post.

These yeast rolls are absolutely wonderful. They're Chet's mom's recipe. And they're made with lard. Don't even think about trying to make them without the lard. Chet's pretty much got the recipe down pat, and they are the hit of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've got to learn to make these...it'll force me to get over my fear of yeast.

Here's the holiday table, ready for us to devour everything in sight. See the pretty fruit salad? Paul and Marty brought that, and it was wonderful!

For dessert, I brought this. It's a pumpkin caramel pound cake. I was less than impressed, but I'll post the recipe tomorrow. Paul also brought one of his famous cheesecakes...pumpkin! How in the world I got out of the house without a picture of it is beyond me. I was snapping pictures like a fool. Allison said I was the food paparazzi. Anyway, as you can tell, we were gluttons on Thanksgiving. We ate too much, but it was so nice to spend a lazy Thursday afternoon with family and friends.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Cathy Lawrence (my mom)

For the Casserole:

40 oz. sweet potatoes in syrup

1 1/2 cups white sugar (you could probably back off to 1 cup)

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

For the Topping:

1 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup Rice Crispies

1/2 cup crushed nuts (optional, but I always use them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain sweet potatoes well. Mash potatoes, and add sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated. Pour mixture into a greased casserole dish (9x13 is a good size, but I used a 12-inch round tart pan) and bake for 30 minutes. To make the topping, melt the butter and mix in brown sugar, Rice Crispies, and nuts. Spread over sweet potato mixture and return to oven to bake for another 15 minutes.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day, ya'll! I hope your day has been full of family, friends, food, and fun. Here in Kentucky, it's been raining pretty much all day, but that hasn't stopped the fireworks or the barbeques! David and I went over to my sister and brother-in-law's house to hang out with them for awhile. We had a great time...hotdogs, baked beans, scalloped potatoes, and ice cream for dinner/dessert, games, and fireworks. Earlier this week, I wanted to make something a little patriotic to celebrate today, but it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped.
These were supposed to be red, white, and blue cookies. They're sugar cookies with dried cherries, blueberries, and white chocolate chips. Except the cherries looked just like blueberries...really dark blue. And the white chocolate chips didn't really show up that well. But they sure were good! I started the recipe with this sugar cookie recipe that I found at Joy the Baker's website. Then I just added in the goodies until the proportions looked right.

Vanilla Sugar Cookies with Blueberries, Cherries, and White Chocolate Chips

adapted from a recipe by The Pastry Queen

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil, such as canola or sunflower oil

1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus additional for sugaring tops

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 oz. dried blueberries

6 oz. dried cherries

4-6 oz. white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, or foil, or grease generously with butter or cooking spray.

Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter in a large bowl on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add the vegetable oil. It may not fully incorporate with the butter, but that’s ok. Add the granulated sugar, powdered sugar, egg and vanilla, beating on medium speed until each ingredient is completely incorporated.

Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt all at once using a wooden spoon or the mixer set on low. Add the blueberries, cherries, and white chocolate chips. Mix just until incorporated. The dough will be soft.

Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour or freeze for 15 minutes just so it’s easier to handle.

For large cookies, dollop 2 Tablespoons of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. For smaller cookies use 1 Tablespoon for each cookie. Press the dough evenly with your fingers or palm to 1/4-inch thickness. Generously sprinkle sugar on top of the cookie dough.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes for larger cookies or 8 to 10 minutes for smaller cookies. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring to racks to cool completely. The cookies will keep for up to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.

Other People's Food!

I'm a member of our very small church's women's group, which is called The Agape Women's Group. We have lots of fun together at our monthly meetings where we fellowship, work on service projects, and EAT. We have a "Secret Sisters" program in our group, where each woman is a "Secret Sister" to another. We provide encouragement and prayer for our "Secret Sister," and we try to give little gifts during the year for important events (Christmas, Easter, birthdays, etc.). In June, we have our Birthday Party, where we reveal our identities to our "Secret Sister", play games, and EAT. Our annual birthday party was last night, and while we had a small turnout, we had a lot of fun. Each member brought some food for our festivities, and I thought I'd let you take a look at what we had. Maybe if I can persuade everyone to give me the recipes, I'll include those in upcoming entries!

First, I'll show you what I brought:

They got a little mangled before I got to take a picture, but these are mini-turkey and cheese rolls (I also brought mini-ham and cheese rolls). I got the recipe from The Big Red Kitchen. Robin Sue has a ton of great recipes. The only thing I did differently was use different seeds. I used a mixture of caraway seeds and celery seeds, where Robin Sue calls for poppy seeds. I actually made these for May's Agape meeting, and they were so well-received that they were requested for this meeting, too! Luckily for me, I made too many in May, so I popped two pans in the freezer (pre-bake), so all I had to do was defrost them and bake them. It was a lifesaver, as this is the busiest week I've had in a LOOOOOONG time.

This is Midge's Seafood Pasta Salad. She is a South Beach Diet devotee, so she usually brings something "Beachy" to our events. This was GREAT! I'll have to get the recipe from her. Also, can you believe that after eating this salad, my cousin Brenda (our hostess) said she'd never eaten crab?! Geeze, Louise! We've got to get Brenda out more!
Devona brought this delightful Cucumber-Tomato salad. There's a good chance some of this came from her garden, but I never did hear for sure. Devona is a fabulous cook, and she's the leader of our food committee. She makes sure that we never go hungry!

These tasty little appetizers came courtesty of my Aunt Betty. She took green onions, covered the bottom half with cream cheese, then wrapped them in ham. So simple...so TASTY! I've got to remember this for future gatherings! They look so elegant!

Devona also put together this cheese/grape tray. Red grapes, delicious flatbreads, and Boursin cheese. Boursin cheese is becoming a pattern in my life. A couple of weeks ago, Earl and Shirley had some Boursin cheese at their house. Now, Devona brings it to the Agape meeting. I had NEVER had Boursin cheese before these two occasions, but I know it's been around for ages. I told Earl and Shirley that you can make your own Boursin cheese, and I have all the ingredients...I planned to fix some for them to have with their houseguests earlier this week, but life interfered with my plans. Now, after last night, I've got to make the homemade Boursin cheese to see how it stacks up. Keep your eyes out for that later in the week.

Did you notice anything about our spread? What was noticeably absent? DESSERT. You know why? Because that's WHAT I DO. I do dessert. Always. But this week has been crazy-busy for me, and I slacked off and didn't get it done. Therefore, we didn't get anything chocolatey, peanut buttery, cakey, custardy, flaky, or gooey. I'll have to plan better next year!

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day, my stepdad, sister, and I put together a delicious meal for Mom after church today. She requested ham, one of her favorites. Chet made his mom's famous rolls and some macaroni salad, I made a Bluegrass salad, Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake (mom LOVES cheesecake), and Dorie's Tartest Lemon Tart (it's our assignment for this Tuesday). We had quite the feast...we were all gluttons. And I thought I'd milk the meal for all it's worth and use some of the components as posts here on The Sweet Life. By the way, in the picture above, my sister Allison is on the left, Mom is in the middle, and I'm on the right.

Let's get down to business with the Bluegrass Salad, recipe courtesy of my in-laws. Let's start with the salad components. Who shall we invite to this party?

You'll need a couple of hearts of romaine, (maybe you've also got some baby greens from your husband's uncle's garden...if you do, they'd be great), walnuts lightly toasted in butter, some sweetened dried cranberries, a couple of nice pears, and feta cheese. The recipe really calls for blue cheese, but Mom doesn't really care for it, so we're going with feta on this one. We're gonna need some dressing, too. Let's see what we can come up with...

We'll need some extra virgin olive oil, some rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and some Splenda. You'll need to whisk it all together real good, and you've got a fantastic dressing! Toss all of your ingredients together, and you'll have one dynamite salad!
Here's the recipe if it sounds like something you'd like to try. I highly reccommend it! It's fabulous!

Bluegrass Salad

Recipe Courtesty of Earl Orr

For the Dressing:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tbs. balsamic vinegar

5 pkg. artificial sweetener (if this freaks you out, feel free to sub regular sugar)

Whisk all the ingredients and set aside.

For the Salad:
2 hearts of romaine, chopped
Walnuts, toasted in butter (use as much as you like)
Sweetened dried cranberries (use as much as you like)
Blue Cheese (as much as you like; I used feta instead, which is good, too)
2 D'Anjou Pears, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Top with dressing and mix well to combine. Enjoy!

Talk Derby (Pie) To Me!

So, unless you've been living under a rock, you're aware of the fact that today was the running of the 135th Kentucky Derby. And here in Kentucky (very near Louisville), it's kind of a big deal. One of the many culinary Derby traditions (second only to the mint julep), is the Derby Pie, which you may not know is actually copyrighted by Kern's Kitchen. They are the only folks who can make "Derby Pie" and the recipe is a closely guarded secret. But that doesn't stop us from looking for a copycat! There are tons of Derby Pie recipes out there, and the best one I've ever had is the one my stepmom, Theresa, makes. But I forgot to get her recipe in time to use it for the Derby Party that I went to today. I checked around on the Internet last night and found a pretty good substitute. I've learned from experience that when people are at a party where they'll be grazing on food all day long that they're not going to sit down and eat a whole piece of pie or cake. If you take a whole pie or cake to one of these type events, it's going to look great, but it will just languish on the counter while people eat chips or cookies. So I decided to make mini-Derby Pies. Little two-bite pies, if you will. Of course, I used Dorie's pie crust recipe, because it's unbeatable.

Here's a shot of my floury countertop with the mini-muffin pan lined with Dorie's pie crust. The first batch I made was a wreck. They tasted great, but I was still working out the kinks. By the time I got this batch done, I was on fire. The secret was to roll out the pie crust super-thin...like 1/16" thick, then to use only a teaspoon of the filling. That gives you pretty much the perfect mini-pie crust to filling ratio. On the first batch, the crust was still kind of doughy and there was too much crust for the filling. But this is perfect.
Here are the filled mini-crusts. The filling kind of reminds me of chocolate chip cookie dough. It's good straight off the spoon. YUM! I was hoping you'd get a better shot of the chocolate chip and walnut chunks peeking out of the dough, but not so much. I really need to work on my food photography skills. But at least I was cooking in the morning on this project, instead of starting at about 8:30 at night.
Here's a shot of a portion of the mini-Derby Pies. The later batches turned out much better...they actually looked like mini-pies instead of muffins.
I made 6 dozen of these Derby pies this morning. I just realized that. I thought I made 3 dozen. Then, while I was adding these pictures, I realized that my mini-muffin tin holds 24 mini-muffins. I filled up the muffin tin 3 times. That's SIX DOZEN DERBY PIES. Holy crap. I came home with about a dozen and a half. I think they were a hit!

So, for those of you who have never had had a Derby pie...are you wondering what they taste like? Luckily, at the party, we had two of the real deal Derby Pies...from Kern's Kitchen. I had one of my three loyal readers, Jason, do a side-by-side taste test. He said that the Kern's Kitchen pie had more of a "pie filling" texture, which I would describe as a chess pie-type filling with chocolate chips and walnuts. He said my mini-pies had a kind of "chocolate-chip cookie dough" texture, which he said was more desireable. So I don't know which would win in a throwdown...probaby Kern's real Derby Pie. But Jason's pretty partial to sweets of any kind. But to only come home with a dozen and a half of the original 6 dozen pies tells me I'm on to something! Want the recipe?

Derby Pie (Shhh...Don't Tell Kern's Kitchen!)

Adapted from a recipe by Starry News from Recipezaar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup walnuts

Enough crust for a 9-inch pie

Combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Mix well.

Roll out pie dough to 1/16" thickness and cut with a small biscuit cutter to a size that will fit your mini-muffin tin. Fill each mini crust with 1 tsp. filling. It will look skimpy, but I promise, it's just right. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, turning once during baking. Serve slightly warm so the chocolate chips will be melty, but they're really good at room temperature, too.

* I doubled the recipe to get 6 dozen mini-pies. The amount listed above will also make 1 traditional sized Derby pie.