Carrot Cake

My husband loves carrot cake so of course that is what I made for him for his birthday... back in October. Geeze I have been a bad blogger.

I used a recipe from Epicurious for Carrot Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups grated peeled carrots
• 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger

Icing

• 10 ounces cream cheese (such as Philadelphia), room temperature
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 12 walnut halves (for garnish)

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour. 

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl to blend. 

Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. 

Stir in carrots, walnuts (I leave the walnuts out, we aren't big fans) and ginger. 

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

 

For icing:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until well blended. Beat in maple syrup. Chill until just firm enough to spread, 30 minutes. 

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup icing. Top with second layer. Spread remaining icing over entire cake. Arrange walnut halves around top edge. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome; chill. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving.  

I made this cake the day before and then froze it in saran wrap. This let all the flavors get happy overnight and it made it much easier to cut into more layers for a taller more impressive looking cake slice.

 After filling between the layers with frosting I put the cake in the freezer to harden it up a little bit so it would be easier to frost the outside layer.

 Too bad when I took the cake out before dinner it melted. OOPS. I guess next time I'll need to adjust my frosting or leave it in the refrigerator until closer to dessert time.

It's a good thing I cook better than I blog!

As the title suggests I am one lame blogger. I have made a few things that I haven't blogged about but I never remember to put the pictures on the computer and then I go to blog and remember, dang I'm at work and my camera is at home. What a blogging failure!

So in lieu of a new recipe I will share with you some of my recent food related outings and future food related plans.


Epcot's Food and Wine Festival

My husband and I went to the Food and Wine Festival for the first time last year. The hubs is lucky because Food and Wine always falls over his birthday and after having such a grand time last year (both times we went) we decided to do it all again this year. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the food, because it was dark and I only had the camera on my phone, we are super light travelers when we go to Disney... don't want anything getting in the way of fun, not even a camera. So I will just tell you a little about my favorite parts.

In Ireland they had the most delicious chocolate lava cake and my husband loved the fisherman's pie, which had a stew of lobster, scallops and veggies topped with mashed potatoes.

In France the short ribs topped in mashed potatoes are amazing. Along with the cosmo slush they always have and the kir, which is a drink with champing and a fruit flavored liquor.

In Belgium... the waffles. Need I say more?! They also had an iced coffee with Godiva Chocolate Liquor, Yum!

I am a really picky eater so those are my favorites. I also love a good Riesling and could drink my way around Epcot every weekend from now until I die. There is just nothing more magical than good food, good wine and kids on a leash.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin Everywhere!!!

Jeremiah's Italian Ice in Orlando has Pumpkin Pie Ice and when you get it mixed with vanilla soft serve, it is by far one of the best things in the world. They have Pumpkin Pie ice mid October through the end of the year usually and right before they stop carrying it for the season I always get a quart of it to keep in the freezer because I love pumpkin so much.

Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake is also a fall staple in my diet. I could eat an entire pumpkin cheesecake, it's too good for just one piece.

First Watch, a breakfast/brunch place we have around here, has pumpkin pancakes on the weekends. Unfortunately I work on Saturdays and go to church on Sundays and I am NOT a morning person so there is no way I would wake up and go get pumpkin pancakes before work or church so I haven't had them yet. My mom and grandpa love them and I went with them on a Friday hoping they would have them only to be disappointed when they didn't and I had to settle for french toast, which was really good.

Dunkin' Donuts has a pumpkin donut. It's pumpkin spice cake and glazed. It was OK. I wouldn't get one again, but my husband loved it.

Oh the planning!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I have a large family. We always have "dinner" at my parents house at 2:00. I bring southern style green beans that I make in a croc pot with bacon and onions and pies, sometimes even cake, some combination of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bundt cake and pecan pie. I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, I usually love spending time with my family and oh yeah the food, especially left overs.


I have also started planning my Christmas baking. I have a few family members that either have everything or I wouldn't know what to get them, so I've decided to make baked goods baskets for some of those people. I have a list of cookies, treats and other munchies I plan to make but I will post pictures of those so you will just have to wonder until then.


Hopefully I'll get my act together and upload some pictures this weekend so I can post some more cooking posts, seeing as how this is supposed to be documenting my cooking adventures both delicious and unfortunate. Until then, get yourself something pumpkin and enjoy Fall while it lasts.

Bread

I have been wanting to make bread for a long time, but I have always been intimidated by the rising and waiting and smushing and waiting some more all before baking and waiting. I'm not very patient. So after seeing a very simple recipe for white bread on This blog, I decided to give it a try. She found the recipe in a cook book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I plan on checking the bookstore for this book this weekend because I just can't wait for it to be shipped to me. Anyway here way go, Homemade bread!

The Nice people at this blog have typed out the recipe so I don't have to! Check it out.


Here are the pictures from my break making experience.



Mixing the yeast with warm water.



The dough!

I forgot to take pictures of the dough rising. Ooops.



The refrigerated dough.



Two formed loaves on a pizza peel covered with cornmeal. Rising one last time.

I forgot to take a picture of them after flouring the tops and slashing the pattern. Again Ooops.



The finished product. So Yummy! Not to mention bread baking is about the best smell ever. It makes you feel all cozy inside.



Yum.

Zesty Lemon Pie

This recipe was on the cover of Southern Living Magazine in August I think.



Lemon Ice Box Pie
Southern Living, August 2010


Total: 6 hours 20 minutes
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Ingredients

* 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 6 egg yolks
* 2 (14-oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk
* 1 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1 cup whipping cream
* 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
* Garnishes: lemon slices, fresh mint leaves

Preparation (with pictures of my pie)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together first 2 ingredients; add butter, stirring until blended. Press mixture on bottom and up sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 30 minutes).





While the pie crust cooled I juiced my lemons.




2. Whisk together egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon juice. Pour into prepared crust.







3. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour). Cover and chill 4 hours.

Apparently I don't believe in wire racks because my pictures say I didn't use one.



4. Beat whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form; dollop over chilled pie. Garnish, if desired.

*I made this pie just for my husband and myself so I made whipped cream in my ISI cream whipper and stored it in the refrigerator so we could have fresh whipped cream with every slice. I knew if I put it all on top when I made it it would go flat by the time we ate the whole pie. So if I make this to serve to more than two people I would prepare the cream and dollop as instructed, however for the two of us making it in the cream whipper made more sense.

A cheesecake project pt. 2

Over the weekend the hubs and I tasted two more of The Cheesecake Factory's offerings.

Chocolate Coconut Cream Cheesecake - YUCK! Now I don't like coconut so I figured I wouldn't be too thrilled with this cheesecake, but the hubs loves coconut and he threw almost half of it away because he said it just wasn't very good. It was creamy and had a nice texture, until you got some coconut shavings stuck in your teeth. It was just bad. Definitely the worst flavor yet.


Tiramisu Cheesecake - This was good. If I am ever at The Cheesecake Factory and feeling Italian, I'd get this again. I love Tiramisu so I was excited about trying this. It was a great balance between the creamy cheesecake and traditional espresso soaked plateful of delicious.

Only 16 flavors left.

Taco Salad

My husband and I love Mexican food, from barely Mexican texmex to the more authentic mom and pop places that claim to have the real deal. This dish leans pretty far into the texmex court.

My fake it till you make it Taco Salad:

Ingredients:

Ground Beef
Taco Bell Seasoning Packet
Lettuce
Fritos Original Corn Chips
Salsa
Tomato, chopped
Mexican blend cheese
Sour Cream
Any other taco topping you like.

Brown ground beef, season with Taco Bell taco seasoning packet as directed.

Put lettuce into bowl or on a plate, top with salsa, tomatoes, taco meat, cheese sour cream and any other toppings you like. Add Fritos on top like croutons. And done!

Key Lime Pie

Key lime pie is my husbands favorite dessert. He can eat a whole pie all by himself, and he will if I let him. Key lime pie is very easy and very yummy. I use the recipe right off the Nellie & Joe's Famous Key Lime Juice bottle. I know that's cheating a little to use bottled juice. So if you want to squeeze all those tiny key limes, knock yourself out.

You will need:

1 9" graham cracker pie crust (store bought or home made, I've used both)
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed milk
1/2 C Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice
3 Egg yolks (whites not used)

Combine milk, egg yolks and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before refrigerating. Just before serving, top with freshly whipped cream and garnish with lime slices if desired.

This time I decided to make my own pie crust. It's super easy. I buy the graham cracker crumbs and use the recipe on the box. It's just crumbs, sugar and butter.

Angel Food Cake

I love Angel Food cake! It is so good and because it's half air and has no frosting it's not as bad for you as most other cakes. I use a version of my moms recipe which she has used for my whole life. This is a crowd pleaser and can be dressed up in so many easy ways. Add fruit on top and whipped cream or cut the cake in half and pull out some of the middle and fill it with sherbet for a chilly refreshing twist.

This time I just made plain angel food cake, no fruit, no whipped cream, no frills just cake.


Angel Food Cake

1 cup Cake Flour
1 1/4 cups Powdered Sugar
12 egg whites (yolks not used)
1 1/2 tsp Cream of tartar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Sift the cake flour and powdered sugar together three times.



In the largest bowl you have beat egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla and almond until they from soft peaks. Beat in the sugar a couple of spoonfuls at a time until stiff peaks form.



Sift the dry ingredients over the whites in fourths using an up and down motion and turning the bowl often.



Bake in an ungreased tube pan for 30 min.



After removing the cake from the oven flip the pan upside down onto the little feet and let the cake cool completely. I like to put a piece of parchment paper down on the counter under the cake just in case it's fluffed up enough for it to touch. If it's really fluffy and the little feet aren't tall enough you can set the pan on top of a wine bottle or set the little feet on top of coasters to give them a little extra height.



After the cake is cooled use a knife to cut around the inside and outside edges and then remove the cake from the outside ring. Then use the knife to cut the cake from the bottom of the pan and place on a cake plate, garnish as desired.

I was so excited about eating this cake I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product. But I make this cake a lot so I'll update this next time I make one.

What's for lunch?

As I think I've mentioned I pack my husbands lunch almost every day. It usually consists of leftovers or a sandwich and a salad, or sometimes just a big salad and some snacks. He works long days, between 9 and 11 hours, so I try to make sure he has a few things he can keep at his desk to munch on through out the day.

I don't take my own lunch to work because of my "office" situation. I need that break to leave my desk and see a different set of walls for a little while. My husband works in a large office with a break room so he usually eats in there.

Today for his lunch I packed a Greek salad with lettuce, banana peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese, pepperoncinis and Greek dressing, we were out of kalamata olives which are his favorite part. Tortilla chips and white bean salsa, green grapes, two prunes, a low fat mozzarella cheese stick, a strawberry banana yogurt, a chocolate chip chewy granola bar and a pacific cooler caprisun juice.

What's in your fridge?

What do you keep in your fridge?

On the average day we have Milk, eggs, cheddar, feta, organic Parmesan and shredded Mexican blend cheeses, mozzarella string cheese, broccoli, orange and apple juice, sweet tea, some kind of meat, bagged salad, a Brita water filter, apple sauce, peppers(banana and jalapenos usually), leftovers butter and condiments.

I have decided to take pictures of my fridge as often as I can remember. I think it will hopefully make me think twice about what I put in there and help me to see what sits in there and doesn't get used and what gets used a lot.

These are a few pictures from today and descriptions to go with them.



In our fridge today:

Top shelf - Brita water filter, leftover spaghetti sauce, broccoli, salsa, margarine, organic yogurt, cherry pie filling, a caprisun juice pouch, bagged salad, kosher hot dogs and the rice from the stir fry I made tonight for dinner.

Middle shelf - Two Sun Drop sodas, one large container of green grapes, one large container of red grapes, bagged salad, two and a half dozen eggs, half a head of iceberg lettuce and a large jar of applesauce hidden behind it all.

Bottom shelf - 1% Milk, Simply apple juice, no pulp orange juice, iced sweet tea, whipped butter, feta cheese, ham steaks, leftover re-fried beans and fresh mozzarella cheese

Left drawer - Mozzarella cheese sticks, Mexican blend shredded cheese, block of cheddar cheese and limes

Right Drawer - carrots and corn on the cob



Now the door:

Top shelf - soy sauce, Greek dressing, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, Caesar dressing, pure maple syrup, grenadine, banana peppers, pepperoncini, jalapenos, A1 steak sauce, white bean salsa and a Caesar salad kit dressing and crouton packet.

Bottom shelf - dill pickle chips, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, grape jam, BBQ sauce, yellow mustard, strawberry jelly, honey teriyaki marinade, moscato wine, Italian dressing, mayonnaise

The Freezer:



Eggo waffles, ice cubes, chocolate moose tracks ice cream, strawberries, collard greens, tater tots, chicken, bananas, Parker house rolls and chili frozen in slabs.

The door of the freezer:



Baking powder to keep it nice and fresh, crinkle cut fries, steak fries, thin mint girl scout cookies, mint chocolate chip ice cream, vanilla ice cream, jamocha almond fudge ice cream, lean ground beef and peanut butter cookie dough.

By the look of this freezer you'd think we ate a lot of ice cream. Truth is most of those are full and completely iced over, we should probably throw them out.

I try to make good use of my freezer by buying lots of meat when it's on sale and then freezing it. I also try to make large batches of things like soup, chili, spaghetti and meatballs or meat sauce so we can freeze it and have it for a night when we are busy or are feeling lazy. It is also nice to have for lunches and nights when I'm not going to be home and the hubs is fending for himself.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peak into my fridge. More peaks to come!

Stir Fry

Tonight for dinner I decided to try something new, chicken stir fry over fried rice. Again I just kind of took a stab at it and didn't follow a recipe. From what I understood stir fry was pretty straight forward, meat, veggies and noodles or rice if desired, so that's what I did.

I used one large chicken breast sliced thin. A package of premixed stir fry veggies from the produce department at my grocery store, a little bit of oil for the pan, white rice, soy sauce and a large egg.



First I cooked the rice in a rice cooker, then rinsed it in cold water and put it in the fridge to chill.



Then I put some oil in a bowl with the sliced chicken and the package of veggies along with some ground ginger, garlic red pepper flakes, ground pepper and a few tbs of of soy sauce and mixed it all up to get everything coated and spiced up.



Next I put a couple tbs of oil in a large fry pan (I don't have a wok), put it on high and tossed all of the veggies and chicken in. I stirred it as it fried up. I added a little bit of water to the pan near the end I threw on a lid and let the veggies kind of steam a little. Then I added a little more soy sauce stirred it up a little more and put it in a bowl and covered it with foil.



I rinsed out the pan and added some oil again, brought it back up to high and then added the egg and stirred it around until it was almost all the way scrambled. Then I added soy sauce and the chilled rice. I let it fry in the pan until it looked like fried rice.



After it was done I platted the fried rice in noodle bowls and put the veggies and chicken on top.



It was really good and it was really easy to make, didn't take long and leave out the chicken and its an all veggie dish.

Enjoy!

A cheesecake project

SO this has nothing to do with my own cooking skills, more my love of cheesecake. I love a good cheesecake as much as the next girl and my husband is right behind me in line for a big piece of creamy goodness. So we have been two by two trying all of the cheesecakes that The Cheesecake Factory has to offer and we are a little over half way through the cheesecake menu, so I figured I would share my thoughts so far.


The Original

This is a classic, delicious but too plain for us.

Fresh Strawberry

I don't like strawberries, I know I'm crazy... but I do love the sugary goo that surrounds them. This is a good choice if you want something simple and topped with fruit, especially for me and my husband who loves the strawberries and could care less about the goo!

Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake™

I love cheesecake and I love red velvet cake and this concoction was supremely disappointing, as in I had two bites and decided I couldn't eat any more of it.

30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake

Again this mix of chocolate cake and cheesecake was disappointing, just because two things are delicious doesn't mean they need to be layered with one another.

White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle®

This was really good. I don't usually like anything white chocolate in anything but this is probably one of my favorites so far.

Godiva® Chocolate Cheesecake

When I am in the mood for something chocolaty this is my go to cheesecake. I love myself some Godiva and mix it with cheesecake and I am in heaven.

Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake

I wasn't very excited about this entry on the list, but keeping with the task at hand to try every cheesecake they have to offer we got it. I have never been happier to put something banana flavored in my mouth EVER! It was like banana pudding which I love, except firm and creamy and over crust.

Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple

This is very rich, very good, but rich. Definitely share this with someone, it's not something you can eat alone.

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake

This was not as good as I hoped it would be. Especially because I love lemon and raspberry, those were our wedding cake flavors, lemon cake with raspberry filling. It was just a strange piece of cheesecake and I probably wouldn't get it again.

Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake

This will probably be in my top 3 cheesecakes when this project is said and done. It is just all around good, especially when you are sick of fruit and sick of chocolate, which happens on occasion.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle®

This is another great option for a chocolate cheesecake. Definitely in my top 10.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

This is my all time favorite cheesecake, not to mention my all time flavor of anything. If I could eat something pumpkin flavored every day I would.


Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

This is only OK. I love Pecan pie and Pumpkin anything but I was disappointed with the combination.


Maybe sometime soon I'll post a little blog about my first attempt at making a cheesecake... it wasn't pretty and ended with a hunk of baked cheese that you could use as a brick.

Pulled Pork

So being the lack luster blogger that I am, of course it took me a hundred years to remember to take a picture. And I only remembered to take a picture at the end. Anyway, here we go, I didn't use a recipe, I don't with a lot of things I make, I'm too lazy to look up what other people think I should do. So for this I got some advice from my brother who could out cook me any day of the week.



Pulled Pork

I used 3.5lbs. of picnic pork roast

I mixed:

1/2 c white vinegar
1 c bbq sauce (use your favorite)

A few shakes of:
fresh ground black pepper
red pepper flakes
garlic
kosher salt

I poured all the spices and sauce on the roast in a croc pot cooked it on low for 9 hours and then pulled it apart.

After I pulled it all I put it on a baking sheet and baked it at 375 degrees until the top layer was a little bit crispy. And then served on buns with bbq sauce.