Happy Birthday/Valentine’s! Have some Brownies!

This post is dedicated to my friends Bree and Andrew who just happen to share a birthday and on a special day, no less!

It is Valentine’s Day… Not my favorite “holiday” though I am assured by all the “marrieds” in my life that this will change when I finally find that special someone to buy me great things on this day. Just kidding, seriously I am constantly told that my opinion will change when I am no longer a “single” and have someone to share the special meaning of the day with. Until then I am perfectly content to loathe it. (Not my friend’s birthdays but Valentine’s Day in general.) For me this day is rife with the constant covert but yet somehow in your face competitiveness between women… Who gets the prettiest flowers, or who received the most romantic gesture from their partner? To me, romantic gestures, sweet words, or beautiful flowers would mean more on any other day of the year not just the day that is dictated by tradition and a successful marketing campaign developed by Hallmark. I have never been a fan of the sympathetic looks or remarks when people ask what my “Valentine” is doing for me… I have only twice had a boyfriend on this day, once in High School and once three years ago. Both ironically enough turned out to be less than amazing at relationships or Valentines.

Though I am a HUGE fan of birthdays! It is like having your own personal holiday. No matter where you are or what you are doing it is your day, permanently. No one can take your birthday from you, just like they cannot take your name. There are few things in life that cannot be taken from us and I think more and more we should celebrate those things.

So as requested by Bree I “cooked” her up something special, and as a special nod to the holiday it is CHOCOLATY! I am not the biggest fan of chocolate myself; I really have to be in the mood for it. (I know I should hand in my girl card now…) The few recipes I have involving chocolate are amazing though! The one you will find below I did not actually prepare today as it is NOT diet food, and I have spent most of the day finishing a paper for my Composition class. However I assure you it is delicious and has been a big fudgy hit in my household many times. Serve it warm with a big scoop of Vanilla ice cream and maybe some whipped cream and I guarantee people will melt!

Simple Ooey Gooey Fudgy Brownies

Ingredients:

· 1 cup butter (2 sticks)

· 6 squares of unsweetened chocolate

· 4 eggs

· 2 cups sugar

· 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

· ½ cup All Purpose Flour

· 1 cup semisweet morsels

How To:

1. Pre heat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate together in a sauce pan

3. In large bowl beat eggs

4. Blend in sugar and add chocolate/butter mix

5. Stir in Flour and Chocolate chips

6. Pour in greased 8 inch pan

7. Bake 45-55 minutes

8. Allow to cool (at least a bit, because they are like molten lava when they come out!)

Easiest brownies in the world! Enjoy! Be creative! I think you could even melt the chocolate chips with the butter and unsweetened chocolate for an even fudgier brownie! Play with it! And take some pictures so I can see how they turned out! Let me know how your Valentines or birthdays were! Lots of love and warm wishes to all my readers! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Spring is coming and bringing Lemon Ricotta Cake!

What is likely the last snow of the season here in Charlotte fell overnight last night. Merely a dusting here in my area, but enough to make it soft and pretty for a small time until the sun chased it all away. The promise of spring is starting to pop up everywhere. My neighborhood has a flock of Canadian geese that spend spring and fall with us yearly. They roost and raise their chicks every year. It is fascinating to watch them return every year and bear witness to their cycle of life. A few years ago a gosling was born missing one of his little webbed feet; he had the leg just no foot. I was saddened because I knew this was likely one that wouldn’t make it and probably would not be chosen as a mate if he did. The next spring he returned with a mate and for several years now has returned and helps raise a whole new brood of goslings. It really is heartwarming! Without that missing little foot, I may never have given a second thought to the fact that it is the same flock of geese each year. Life really is a miraculous succession of events if you look for it.

The recipe I am giving you this week is decidedly NOT a diet food. I give this as a sort of peace offering begging your pardons for being busy with my school work and not getting enough blog posts out! This recipe could easily be converted to a diet recipe and I will tell you at the end how and how many points that would make it. I make no apologies for using real butter and sugar now and then; we have gone over that in the past. Real ingredients cannot hurt you when you eat them now and then! This recipe also gives you the opportunity to use your spring form pan or your Bundt cake pan, which I always find fun!

Lemon Ricotta Cake

Ingredients

· ¾ cup softened butter

· ¾ cup sugar

· Lemon zest (How much you want depends on how lemony you really want this! I use about a tablespoon worth of lemon zest.)

· Juice from one Lemon

· 3 Large or extra-large eggs, separate the yolks from the whites

· 1 cup Ricotta Cheese

· ½ cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

· 2 teaspoons baking powder

· Dash of salt

How to Make:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray your spring form or Bundt cake pan, would also work with a regular cake pan, with some Pam type spray. Wipe out any excess; you just want a light coating.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar until you have a light and fluffy looking mix.

3. Add your lemon zest, lemon juice, yolks, and the ricotta cheese; beat until smooth.

4. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until just mixed. Be careful not to over mix.

5. Wash the beaters really well or use different beaters and beat the egg whites until stiff, like making a meringue. Very gently (GENTLY) fold the egg whites into the batter using a spatula.

6. Pour the batter into your cake pan of choice.

7. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the edges are just browned and a fork or cake tester stuck into the center comes out clean.

8. Allow to cool before serving.

I served with this cake topped with a mix of blueberries, a couple packets of Splenda, and about a tablespoon of Fat Free half and half mixed together. Though any fruit would be an excellent topping! Or just plain! This cake is elegant and remarkably simple. This time of year Florida strawberries are in season, the first big mark of the coming season in my humble opinion, and would go great on top of this cake! Makes about eight servings depending on how you cut your slices.

To lower the fat content in this cake you could use Fat Free or Reduced Fat Ricotta, replace the butter for a butter substitute, and Splenda instead of sugar. Cut into eight servings it makes it a 7 point dessert on the Weight Watchers Points Plus plan. (A bit heavy points wise, but well worth the indulgence.)

Please enjoy! Play with the recipe and let me know what you do with it! I love feedback!

Just an Update because I miss Y’all!

I have come to the determination that preparing diet food is not really my forte. Though I am trying, I scour my lovely new cookbooks from Weight Watchers and Hungry Girl. I find I have no real natural talent for interpreting my recipes into healthier versions. Practice makes perfect however and I am certainly doing a lot of practicing.

The other day I decided I would make us this recipe I had for “Red Velvet Cupcakes” straight out of one of these “diet cookbooks”. I was highly skeptical of diet cupcakes but went ahead and tried it. The red part of any red velvet cake/cupcake is usually made up of a lot of red food coloring. In this recipe it was done with pureed beets. Let it be known I love a good pickled beet now and then. However, I had never dealt directly with plain canned beets before. Please allow me to just say I am very glad I am not Russian and borsht is not part of my menu. I found these canned beets to be smelly and unappetizing. I kept on with the recipe thinking that surely the cocoa powder and all the other ingredients would cover the beet smell. Let me just say as most of the country was covered in Snowpocalypse 2011… I was left with these beet atrocities. What came out of the oven looked like a cupcake, but was no cupcake… more a frosted beet muffin. They even tasted of beet, chocolate and beet isn’t the greatest combination. It truly was one of the nastiest things I have ever made. EVER. That includes the “pickle sauce” I made in the fourth grade; which was this green, dill scented uh… sauce and I can assure you was perfectly disgusting.

I can report that I managed to make it through my second term with a 4.0, even the dreaded, evil, math class. The new term has started and I am taking my first junior level class. So far I am a bit overwhelmed (especially with my desire to write this blog and actually keep up with it). I have joined the gym and I am working out more; I started going everyday but the ugly ballet injury I had as a young girl has complicated this. So I am going to start going every other day until I get that knee used to the idea of working out regularly. Quitting smoking is still an ongoing project. Though I can say I have not had any at all today and I do not currently have a pack so… Sadly I am not a pleasant person to be around. I am told this will pass.

Currently I am working on getting settled into my classes and I have an ongoing project of getting a post out on the care and keeping of Cast Iron pans. Many people do not realize the importance of treating them correctly. Please bear with me and I promise I will get it out to you! I love all of you! The support I have received has been awesome! Please keep an eye out for all my new advertisers! Williams Sonoma! I have hit the big time, just kidding but they are my happy place and now I get to feature them on my page!

Do any of you have favorite “diet type recipes”? Please feel free to share! As always keep cooking and keep being creative!

When it works it works: Pear Tart and Ambrosia Bread

Sometimes great recipes just happen. There are times when you are throwing things together in your kitchen and magic just happens. Food miracles… I have these miracles sometimes. Other times, even Queens cannot make fabulous happen. Today was one of those days. I am forever experimenting in the kitchen; trying to find some new flavor that makes people ask for more.

Tonight I decided despite suffering from a horrible cold that I would make roasted Cornish game hens. (I am not a glutton for punishment, cooking just makes me happy… and I think I was kind of out of my head.)  I have had game hens in the past, but never cooked them myself. I decided I would prepare them like I prepare my roasted chicken. After all they are just mini chickens, developed in the 50’s to provide a single serving of white meat poultry. When done correctly these little hens can be very impressive; my roasted chicken always gets rave reviews so I thought why not start there. (Ordinarily it takes me several attempts to get a recipe just right, unless it is one of those magical nights….) This evening’s adventure in cooking was not even a good start. I think I will blame the cold medicine… Yeah… It was the cold medicine that caused me to lose my mind.

I decided I would use fresh herbs, which are usually stronger in flavor than my typical dried herbs. So I opted not to add much to the outside of the chicken other than some salt and olive oil.  For some reason I picked up the Thyme instead of the Tarragon. Tarragon goes very well with poultry; Thyme not so much. My thought process was to make a lemony, garlic herb infused hen. Instead I got something that resembled two tiny rubber chickens with lemons and what appeared to be dead weeds shoved in a very rude place. My images of aromatically infused herb flavoring fell on its tookis. They just did not brown up like I would have liked. The lemon flavor was nice but that’s the only flavor you could taste. Overall very moist and juicy, kind of bland and lemony; next time I attempt these little chickadees; I will go a different route.

I noticed we had some very ripe bananas sitting in the fruit basket and I thought I would try to make banana bread. I remembered that my mother hates, no loathes, warm banana so I thought I would try and make it different and therefore more appealing to everyone. For special occasions my family makes a fruit salad called “Ambrosia” that is a mix of pineapple, banana, orange, coconut, and marshmallows. I say to myself, “Self, I am going to make “ambrosia bread”. What results is not a complete disaster like the chicken. However, the bread seems to be missing something. I am not sure what, yet, maybe just a pat of butter or a caramel sauce. Try the recipe and see what you think, please send suggestions as I continue to play with this one.

Ambrosia Bread

Ingredients:

2 eggs

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup butter melted

1 ½ cup mashed RIPE bananas (about 3-4 mid-size bananas)

1 cup chopped pecans

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese (room temperature)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup flaked coconut

½ teaspoon orange extract

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350° and lightly grease 13x9 baking dish

Mix together mash banana and pineapple together in mixing bowl. Add flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, salt, and orange flavor. Mix until well blended. Add melted butter and cream cheese, mix until well blended again. Fold in pecans and marshmallows. Pour mix into 13x9 dish, it will be full! Place on baking sheet (in case you have any spills).

Bake in preheated oven for 1 ½ hours, or until toothpick stuck in center comes out clean; keep an eye on it as it browns up, you may want to lightly cover with foil to prevent heavy browning.

 

My success for the evening was the simple pear tart I made. It needs no introduction because it was perfect! I whipped up some whipping cream and served a slice of this tart with a dollop of the cream on top. My family said it more than made up for my rubber looking lemon flavored chickens.

Pear Tart

Ingredients

1 Prepared Pastry Pie Crust (look for it in the refrigerator section)

3-4 Pears, peeled, cored, and sliced

3 tablespoons butter

3-4 tablespoons sugar

Sugar to sprinkle

Preheat oven to 400°

Unroll prepared pie crust and lay over lightly greased tart pan, or if like me no tart pan was available a 9 inch cake pan will work as a substitute. Press dough into greased tart pan with the overlap hanging over the edges. Lay the pears into the tart pan; I stand mine up because I think it is pretty to look at. Fold overhang of pie crust in on top of pears, around the edge. Melt butter in a sauce pan and mix in sugar. When sugar dissolves brush butter and sugar mix over the pears and over crust. Sprinkle with sugar and place in oven. Bake for about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the tart so that it does not brown too much on one side. Rotate to prevent this from happening. Let stand for about 20 minutes to cool. ENJOY!

Please try these recipes and leave any suggestions, or comments. Make sure to vote for me with the Picket Fence Blogs button! Are you subscribed and following?

Traditional Southern Cheese Straws

When people think of the south they likely have images of lazy summer days where women fan themselves on large porches while sharing a tall pitcher of sweet tea; gentlemen talking over cigars and a couple fingers of whiskey. The heady smell of gardenia, honeysuckle, and magnolia waft through thick sultry air and the sounds of cicadas calling surround you. I find that most people assume we either live like Scarlett O’Hara or something out of the Beverly Hillbillies. That just isn’t true on either count. We are just like everyone else; we just talk a bit slower (draw out our vowels) and move at a different pace. Generally we know our neighbors and wave at passing cars. I don’t know that I have ever honked my car’s horn in my life, even when I may have wanted to, southerners just don’t do that. If I have something bad to say about someone I usually follow it up with “Bless her heart”. (Or his heart) I use the word y’all a lot and if I am about to do something I frequently say I am “fixin” to do it.

I am extremely proud of my heritage as a southern woman, and the food I learned to make is a huge part of that. There are so many iconic southern foods but feeling festive for the holidays I am going to share a quintessential southern party food. Cheese straws can be found at most any southern affair, from weddings to wakes and from baby showers to cocktail parties. In fact an old friend of our family gave, as her gift, a huge amount of cheese straws to be served at my mother’s wedding reception! The cheese straw is about as traditional as it gets here in the south. They date back to at least the Civil War era, but no one is really sure on when they came to be. Every family tends to have its own recipe but they are all about the same. Please try this recipe with my compliments. Share it with your friends and have a very Merry Christmas!

Southern Cheese Straws

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (room temperature)

3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (room temperature)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 300° Fahrenheit.

Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

In a food processor, add butter, cheese, flour, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne. Process until a smooth dough is formed. It may seem like it is taking too long sometimes, but trust me it will get smooth. Pat dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap or seal in a Ziploc bag. Chill 30 minutes. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until it is a ¼ inch thick rectangle. Cut into small strips 2 or 3 inches long. Bake 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to racks to cool. Sprinkle with Paprika if you like. (I don’t but some people like this)

I prefer to use parchment paper because I can slide them off the pans easily for cooling and start another batch if I want. These delectable treats could not be easier to make and are a HUGE crowd pleaser. You can cut fat by using a butter substitute and low fat cheese. Though my opinion is if it is a party food then use the real stuff, and really enjoy the party!  Trust me when I tell you these are way better than dumping a box of Cheez-Its in a bowl!

The best Peanut Butter cookies I have ever tasted!

 

Being a little under the weather, I did not cook today so I decided to share a recipe that is not mine. However, this recipe is one of my favorites! I wish I could take credit for it because it is quite honestly wonderful! These cookies are perfect for those times you are craving peanut butter, need to wow people for a party, or want to give a great peanut buttery cookie gift.

These cookies won Carolyn Gurtz the 43^rd Pillsbury Bake Off. I saw coverage of the event on Food Network and decided to try them myself. I call the Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookies. (Ms. Gurtz, won one million dollars in the Bake Off) The recipe is quick and easy because it uses a prepared roll of Pillsbury peanut butter cookie dough, though if you want to use your own recipe for peanut butter cookie dough you could. To change it up you could use a chocolate cookie dough! I don’t crave peanut butter that often; these cookies hit the spot though.

Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookies

¼ cup dry roasted peanuts, finely chopped

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup creamy peanut butter (I use Jif)

½ cup powdered sugar

1 roll (16.5 oz.) Pillsbury peanut butter cookie dough, well chilled (you could use your favorite prepared peanut butter cookie dough)

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Make filling:

In small bowl, mix chopped nuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside. In another small bowl stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1 inch) balls.

Form cookies:

Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half to make 24 slices, flatten slightly. Shape one cookie dough piece around 1 ball of filling. Roll each covered ball in peanut, cinnamon, and sugar mixture; pat lightly to secure peanuts. Place balls of dough 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Flatten balls to ½ inch thickness. Bake in preheated oven 7 to 12 minutes, or until edges are browned.

Pour yourself a tall glass of milk, dunk if you like (I love to dunk these cookies!) and enjoy these great cookies! Let me know what you think!

As American as….

The first recipe I will post will be one of the most iconic of American cooking. We do not say “As American as watermelon granita” for a reason.  What you may not know is that apple pies have been around since the middle ages!  Originally the pastry surrounding the fruit was not meant to be eaten; only used as a container to hold the fruit until it was time to be eaten….  Also the pastry contained no sugar and was referred to as coffins, very unappetizing. Sugar became more readily available in the 1500-1600’s and pastry started to sweeten up a bit. Most European countries have some version of the apple tart or pie of their own, if you have ever eaten in an IKEA then you know about the Swedish version. So what about these pies make them American? More than likely, the fact that our apple pie is truly a blending of the different cultures that make us American; our apple pie recipes take a bit of all the best parts of other European recipes and make the scrumptious dessert we know and love.  Nearly everyone I know has a family recipe for apple pie, usually dating back further than anyone can remember.

Apples, if you don’t know, are not native to the United States.  English settlers brought the seeds with them, planted the trees, and introduced these wonderful fruits to the new world. The famous saying regarding the patriotism of the pie is actually a short version of the original saying “As American as mothers and apple pie.”  This saying of course brings forth all the warm fuzzy feelings of your mom cooking for you in pearls and apron.  So next time you bite into an apple pie think of the journey that sweet treat has made and of course ENJOY! 

My recipe of apple pie is my own blending of research on other people’s apple pie recipes and my southern heritage.  (I throw some pecans in for a slightly nutty taste.)  While I do cheat a little by using a prepared pie crust you could always make your own pie crust should you choose to.  I usually do not have time (or the patience) to wait for pastry to set up.  It should be noted I don’t make really healthy desserts…. In my opinion, desserts are not health foods they are meant to be pleasurable experiences.  Please try my pie recipe and let me know what you think!

Apple Pecan Streusel Pie

1 pie crust prepared

Apple Filling

7-8 large, peeled, cored apples (I use Cameo apples because I like their taste. However any apple or combination of apples would work.)

1 Lemon (Squeeze juice over apples as you slice, if you like grate some rind into the mix for added tartness.)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 flour

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (based on your liking of cinnamon)

1/4 cup melted butter

Streusel

1 cup chopped Pecans (I chop in a food processor for a fine chop)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt (I only eyeball this to cut my sodium)

1 stick of COLD butter (cut into small cubes, do this ahead of time and put back in the refrigerator to make sure they are really cold)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Prepare Apple Filling:  In large bowl combine apple, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter. Let this mixture sit at room temperature while you are preparing the streusel. (or about 15 minutes.)

Prepare Streusel Topping: In food processor place your pecans and chop until a find chop is achieved, don’t make pecan butter just a fine chop.  Blend in the remaining dry ingredients, flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt.  Add butter and use the pulse option on the food processor to just combine the butter. You want this mix to be coarse and to have clumps of butter in the crumbs; this is how the streusel is made. 

Fill the prepared pie crust with apples and juices, you can press down on the filling to pack it if you like.  Spread streusel topping over entire pie.  Make sure all of the filling is covered.  Place pie on baking sheet or foil lined oven pan, and bake 15 minutes.  This causes the pie to brown.  Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and continue baking for another 60 minutes, until filling bubbles and streusel is golden brown.  If necessary ( I always find it necessary) cover pie loosely with foil, I always spray the underside of the foil with cooking spray to keep it from sticking to anything.  The foil will prevent the pie from burning.  Remove from oven.  Cool for 2 hours.  Serve!