A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Kids Decorate Their Own Cake: Sydney's Butterfly Cake

One of my nieces' and nephew's favorite birthday cakes wasn't one that I decorated elaborately, but that I baked and put borders on, then let them decorate with candy pieces.  Sydney has always had a love affair with butterflies so for her 10th birthday I baked a simple butterfly-shaped cake (Wilton pan), piped purple borders and simple wing marking patterns, bought skittles, M & M's, gumballs, and sweet/sour candies and assigned each of them one quarter of the cake space. 

Look at those serious faces! They enjoyed it, as you can see in later pics, but they took the decorating seriously, carefully choosing their colors and gently placing the candies on the cake. 

Look at those adorable faces!

 I'm pretty sure Sydney LOVED her cake, aren't you? 

 

 

Sydney & Kaylee Birthday Party 2012: Pink Rice Krispy Cake with Buttercream Borders

In my family, as much as we love decorated cakes, we're not very big cake eaters.  At least, not me and my siblings. We grew up the children of a cake decorator so while all of our friends were jealous of the presence of cake and buttercream in our house all the time, we got sick of it!  We often laugh about what rotten kids we were to our Mom who would volunteer to make us any kind of outlandish birthday cakes we wanted but because we had so much cake around us every day we all requested things like my banana bread favorite, our brother Kenneth's angel food cake with no frosting, our dad and brother Carl's pie requests, and my sister Suzanne's Rice Krispy treat wish.  What whiners we were! "Pleeeeeease, Mom. Do not make us eat cake!" What kind of sick children were we?

While we were planning Sydney and Kaylee's birthday party last week Suzanne and I were talking about cake, or the lack of it being okay, and told stories to the nieces and nephew about our childhood brattiness and the fact that Suzanne's wedding cake just out of high school (1988) was made of Rice Krispy treats because she emphatically did not want cake at her wedding.  I see Rice Krispy cakes on Pinterest now all the time and people kind of verbally smack themselves in the head and comment "That's so cool! Why didn't I think of that?"  I'm proud that our Mom was 25 years ahead of her time, making my sister's whole wedding cake from Rice Krispy treats and everyone at the wedding loved it.  After that wedding Mom got tons of orders for rice krispy treat wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and anniversary cakes--she was a wedding cake pioneer in our little town in the Ozarks.

Smiling about all the stories we told, and already having planned to make Rice Krispy treats for the party, I decided to revive Mom's idea and go all the way with the girls' birthday and make it an unforgettable cake.

I'm pretty confidant the girls were pleased! 

Kaylee was really nuts about it!

Upside Down Potato, Thyme, & Onion Tart

 One of the best, most useful, things my wonderful cook of a mother taught me as I was growing up was how to think in substitutions. I know that sounds like an odd statement but I have learned in my adulthood that not every home cook has been given the benefit of those skills.  I know many wonderful cooks who, if they want to make a recipe and don't have certain ingredients they go to the store for those specific ingredients without any thought of "Hmmm...what do I have that would work, put my pantry or fridge supples in use, and be more economical than purchasing new items?" 

It doesn't always work but in many cases, it does.  For example, in many chicken, rice, and vegetable casseroles that call for, for example, fresh asparagus, if that's not in season, then 99% of the time, either broccoli or fresh green beans will not only work, but be delicious too.  In the example of this recipe, the red potatoes would make an excellent tart but what I had on hand were Yukon yellows, and they too were delicious.  For cheeses, this recipe calls for gruyere, feta, and mozzarella, so we need something with a bit of a tangy, something creamy, and some binding.  I had asiago (tangy), feta, and provolone (binding) available, and again, they were delicious in this recipe. I wish I had had fresh thyme available, but having only dried at the time, it's a simple matter of using half what the recipe calls for since dried herbs tend to be more intensely flavored (unless they're a million years old).

The next time I make it I may have the red potatoes in the house to use and maybe the fresh thyme too...or perhaps I'll try a little tarragon or rosemary, which would also be fabulous.  I love the combination of grilled onions, potatoes, and herbs:  the dinner trifecta!

Pork Cutlets with Bourbon Butter Sauce

 After feeling under the weather for a few weeks, I knew I was feeling better last night when I spent two hours in the kitchen making some new, some practiced recipes for one of the best dinners I've made in a long time, if I do say so myself.  To top the breaded pork cutlets, I created a smoky, complimentary bourbon butter reduction sauce, and for sides:  a simple green salad, potato and onion tart, and my friend, Lisa's cheddar and feta cheese puffs.

Those couple of hours reminded me how therapeutic working in the kitchen can be, To me, the satisfaction of making a great meal is comparable to creating a work of art or writing a good story. It makes me feel like me again.

Lots of great recipes coming up this week. today, the pork cutlets, and later in the week: the potato tart, Lisa's cheese puffs, my friend Mark's bacon leg, and another great kid-friendly meal from Pinterest.

Summer Porridge aka Yogurt Oats

 

When I first saw this recipe, called "summer porridge", "yogurt oats", or "overnight oatmeal", I honestly thought it sounded gross but so many people were enthusiastic on Pinterest and other places on the web that I knew I had to give it a chance. It's not like I'm not an adventurous eater anyway, and with these ingredients I knew that at the very least it would be very good for me. (I just needed to check it out to see if it was "good" in the concept of "good & good for you".)

Guess what? It's my favorite way to make oatmeal now.  Hot oatmeal in the winter is filling and somehow defines cold weather for me, but the summer? Not so much.  Now I have a summer oatmeal to enjoy and start off the day with a nice healthy meal that keeps me going.  And more than just breakfast, it's now included in my lunchbox almost every time I go to work as my go-to healthy mid-night snack that keeps me going until 0700.

This healthy habit plays off another of my new favorite healthy habits:  Sangria Water, where I fill a pitcher with filtered water and fruit of all kinds and let it soak overnight, giving me great fruit-tasting water to drink all day and then the fruit to put on my oatmeal for the next day. So the Sangria Water  I made yesterday, with peaches and blueberries, became the peaches and blueberries that topped my yogurt oats this morning for breakfast. It's a win-win, for sure.

 

Get Your 8 Glasses with Taste: Sangria Water

Every time I go to a restaurant and am served water with lemon wedges I always think to myself "Why do I not do this at home?"  It's a lemon wedge: uncomplicated, easy, and takes 15 seconds to cut, but the difference in taste is amazing. We're lucky, here in the Ozarks, to have great tasting water but that tiny extra makes a lot of difference in how much water I drink, so now I do cut lemon wedges at home for our water.... and limes...and grapes, blueberries, peaches, apples, and so on.

I love the Dannon water commercial that says something like "...at some point it occurs to you to replace one can of sugary soda a day with water..."  I always think "How about all or all but one...that would be even better!"

That's what I do now.  Every evening before I go to bed, I put together a quick a pitcher or two of Sangria Water for the next day by combining whatever fruit I have that sounds good to me at the time.  It only takes a few minutes, sitting in the fridge overnight intensifies the flavors, and we wake to a great tasting drink that doesn't have the sugar of juice or soda. At night, after the water has been downed, the fruit is left to munch on as an after dinner snack.

In the pitcher shown, I used a combination of blueberries and peach slices from the freezer, quartered fresh green seedless grapes, and a lime that I halved, reamed, and then dropped the peels in as well.

 

Cauliflower Salad with Grapes

If you like the broccoli raisin salad, you'll like this, it's very similar.  I created it out of desperation. With only two of us in house, it's hard to make batches of things I can't eat by myself if the hubs doesn't care for it.  Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he's super picky or that he won't try new things, he just doesn't like broccoli.  But. What I have found is that when I substitute cauliflower in some of my favorite broccoli recipes, he loves it as much as I do.

For me, I love both broccoli and cauliflower so this is another great salad with that sweet, sour, creamy, bacon smoky flavor combination I crave.

 

 

Whole Roasted Cabbage with Bacon for the Oven OR Grill

 Whole Roasted Cabbage on the grill is impressive when cooking out for friends or just as tasty when roasted in the oven inside.  It's quick and easy, can be prepped ahead with just a few ingredients from the pantry, and makes for a tasty side for any meal.

Copycat Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

My niece, Holli, found this recipe on Pinterest and made them the other night. They were a huge hit so I had to make them too.  This is her lovely pic (such a pretty plate, Holli)--a plateful of yummy goodness without having to get dressed up and go to Red Lobster to get them.  Is it just me and Holli or is the best thing about Red Lobster these biscuits?  I mean, no offense to Red Lobster, but these cheddar biscuits are my favorite part of going there.

Thanks, Holli!

Pretty Olive & Cream Cheese Penguins All in a Row

 

Doesn't fun food make holidays and parties feel more celebratory? I think so too. Auntie Miranda made these for a family party and the little guys were the hit of the evening.  They're almost too cute to eat.  Almost.  Delicious!

The best part?  They'd be great for ANY holiday or party so we can make them all the time without having to wait for just one season or holiday!

So without a lot of chitchat, here's how to make the little fellas: