On Hiatus

Indefinitely. After surgery, I just don't feel like cooking, much less documenting. I might put a few things on my regular blog.

Fruit Salad

We aren't talking about your deli's fruit salad. I absolute hate that stuff with all of the whipped cream on top of the sweet fruit. This was one of the first things I got to help my mom make for Thanksgiving.
I start with 2 large apples. I prefer Fuji apples, they are my favorites.I also like the red color, makes more of an impression than a green apple in this salad. You can cut all of the fruit up into the size you want for the kids, or what you can fit into your mouth. Then I slice 3 large bananas. Next is pineapple. After eating fresh pineapple, I can't go back to canned pineapple. But, if you want to use a large can of cut pineapple, that will work as well. Since I hate spending the extra money on a large fresh pineapple, I grab an already cut up one from the refrigerated produce section and spend about half the money. Drain two small cans of mandarin oranges.
That's it for the fruit. Then we add 1-2 cups of mini marshmallows. Sometimes, if we have them, Fiona convinces me to use the fruity mini marshmallows because, well it's fruit salad right? Then I chop about a half of a cup of nuts, pecans or walnuts, depending on what we have. This is the only part that Fiona and I disagree on, which might lead to some spitting at the table. I don't know what's up with that kid.
Here's where the secret ingredient comes in. I remember when TD was at our first Thanksgiving together at my parents. I showed him the 1/4-1/2 cup of sour cream that went in when I tossed everything together. He was thoroughly grossed out, but I told him to just try it at dinner. After that we went to his grandma's and he couldn't eat her fruit salad because of the whipped cream in it. I use light sour cream. When you stir everything together, you can get it to your amount of gooey-ness. Most normal kids will eat it, especially with the marshmallows and they can get some of their daily fruit intake.

Breakfast for Dinner

Since my stomach can only really handle cereal in the morning, we have been missing out on tons of tasty breakfast foods. I came to the realization that breakfast can be served for dinner and seriously enjoyed at that time (thank you Scrubs). So, usually on Sunday night, you can find us around the oven, griddle, etc, cooking up some new tasty items. This past week was Emeril's Buttermilk and lemon scented pancakes with warm blueberry syrup.
I started out with my own recipe for blueberry syrup because I didn't want to waste all of that corn syrup. I have had this recipe for literally years, but I can't remember where I got it.

Blueberry syrup
1c water
2c blueberries (frozen or fresh)
3/4 sugar
1T cornstarch
1T lemon juice
Bring the water to a boil. Add berries; return to boil. Combine cornstarch to sugar. Add to saucepan. Simmer until thickened. Add lemon juice.

Pancakes :
1c flour
2T sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1c buttermilk
1 large egg
1T butter, melted
2T fresh lemon zest, finely chopped

Put all of the dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and butter until fully incorporated.
When I remember, I try to get out the refrigerated ingredients and bring them to room temperature, like you are supposed to. Doesn't always happen. Add the sifted ingredients to the milk mixture and whisk until it is slightly smooth, but still has some lumps. Fold in the lemon zest and allow the batter to sit for a couple of minutes. I didn't get all of the lemon zest it calls for. I zested several lemons that I had sitting around the fridge for a while. I am not sure how I feel about the dried lemon zest. It sure seems like it would be easier.Lightly grease a griddle over medium heat. Cooking in batches, pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the hot griddle for each pancake. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes or until the batter bubbles and is golden brown, flip over and continue to cook until golden brown.
Everyone in the family enjoyed the pancakes.
I also served turkey sausage patties. I buy that sausage in the rolled package and always use it in place of pork sausage in my recipes.

Birthday Cake

Princess Fiona told me a few months ago that she wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday. I am not sure if she remembers that. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. Very emphatically, " chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Oh and cookie dough ice cream". I found the neatest recipe on Breyer's.com. You know, the ice cream, home of my favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip, not to be confused with the green stuff, this is more of an inside out peppermint patty. It was the Chilling Graveyard Cake.

1 box devil's food cake
1 container of your favorite ice cream (shockingly, they recommend Breyer's)
2 cans chocolate frosting
Graveyard decorations.
I made the cake, using the directions on the box. I had one good 8-inch pan and so I put half in it, baked it and then repeated it. I sprayed the bottom of the pan, lined it with wax paper and sprayed again. I have a hard time getting chocolate cakes out of the pan and this worked like a charm. I wrapped the cakes in saran wrap and put them in the freezer. Then I lined it with more saran wrap and set out the ice cream to let it soften. Then I scooped out the ice cream and spread it in the bottom of the pan to be an inch thick. When that was hard again, I could easily pull it out of the pan, unwrap everything and put the first cake on the plate, put the slab of ice cream on top and then put the second cake on top. And it was pretty easy. I like my way better because the initial recipe said you should spread the ice cream on top of the cake and then place the cake on top. I wasn't sure if I could make it look nice that way or not get frustrated while doing it.

The next day, I made up some Hershey's chocolate frosting. I don't like the chocolate stuff out of the can.

PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting

I only have Hershey's dark cocoa, so I used that.
It wasn't too hard to frost the cake. I had more than enough since I didn't need to put any between the layers. I frosted once and then put it back into the freezer. Then I frosted again and everything was nicely covered up.
I waited until the birthday to decorate the top. I crushed these cookies, instead of buying Oreos. I did scrape the frosting out so I could make sure the dirt was really dark.
I figured I could kill two birds with one stone, not only have the dirt topping but also the grave stones. I didn't decorate them, but I didn't think the girls would care. I did buy gummi worms. Moe took the leftover frosting and made a skeleton with it.
Check that out! I was pretty proud of myself. This was a pretty easy recipe to follow and even make my own changes to. Not to mention, an ice cream cake! Since Moe used to work for Dairy Queen, next time I make one, I am going to have to add a layer of their fudge cookie crunch stuff.

Pumpkin Pie Wannabe

So, I came across this particular recipe and getting prematurely excited for Thanksgiving pie, I thought I would give it a whirl. It started off well, it's one of Paula Deen's. Fiona spent a lot of time watching the Food Network when we were housebound and Paula Deen is one of her favorites.
Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes
1 package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8T butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan. This was the intriguing part for me.

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey. I am not sure if I cooked it too long, maybe the center could've been a bit more gooey (I just spend 30 seconds trying to see if I could spell gooier, is that a word?) Anyway, it just resembled a pumpkin pie, only without the joy of a slightly salty crust. So, if you like pumpkin pie, you will enjoy this. But I just wanted the taste of pie, I think. Next time I make a version of this, I will make the peanut butter version: For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above. This sounds much wilder. I might have to make it at time when I can share with plenty of people because that sounds sort of trashy. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Welcome to My Kitchen

I love to cook, I don't like to clean. I love to eat, a lot. I eat all sorts of things. Unfortunately, my family does not. TD, my husband, likes his meat and potatoes. The only vegetables he will eat are corn, potatoes and lettuce. He hates onions with a vengeance. Buttercup is awesome, she is willing to try anything once. Fiona, has spent the last two years on chemotherapy which I think altered her taste buds, hopefully not permanently. I am trying to wean her off the love of salt. She is even more picky than TD. She will eat something this week and tell me how much she hates it next week. My sister, Moe, also lives with us. She is a big fan of my cooking, which helps a lot. I figure there shouldn't be a family out there more picky than mine, so you can come here and find things already vetted for your family. I will start with a fabulous fish dish. This is the second time I made it, apparently no one noticed it the first time I made it.

This time, Fiona ate it before everyone else was served, she doesn't even like fish. Here's Buttercup's plate:

She will eat a salad and actually enjoy it. I cooked the rice normally, but this time I cooked it with chicken broth and it tasted so much better than normal. The fish is a tilapia dish and I got the recipe off allrecipes.com, which I use a lot.
Broiled Tilapia Parmesan:
1/2cup parmesan cheese ( I used grated from the can)
1/4cup butter, softened
3T Mayo ( I use our normal lite mayo)
2T lemon juice
1/4tsp dried basil
1/4tsp ground pepper
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp celery salt
2lb tilapia filets
Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil. In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside. Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.
I followed the recipe to the letter, including the times on the broiling.