October 2005 Archives

Also known as Watergate Cake and coverup icing from the 1970's Nixon scandal.

1 box plain white cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) box instant pistachio pudding mix
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup ginger ale
3 large eggs

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350
degrees F. Lightly mist a 13 x 9-inch pan with vegetable oil, then
dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

Place cake mix, pudding mix, oil, ginger ale and eggs into a large
mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber
spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more,
scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well
blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top
with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven. Bake the cake
until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 35 to 40
minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to
cool completely, 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, prepare frosting.

Frosting
1 (3.4 ounce) box instant pistachio pudding mix
1 1/2 cups milk
1 8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Whisk pudding mix and milk together in a large mixing bowl. It should
thicken up but not set, from 2 to 3 minutes. Gently fold in whipped
topping. Spread the top with frosting. You can sprinkle toasted nuts
over the top, if desired. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

I am serving this cake at Christmas. The pudding makes it lightly green. The pistachios are a holiday favorite of my husband.

1 whole chicken
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 - 4 garlic cloves, crushed
salt and pepper

Place chicken in stock pot. Add vegetables and seasoning. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn down heat. Cook until the chicken is tender and the meat is falling from the bone.

Remove chicken from stock. Set aside on a baking sheet and allow to cool. Carefully strain the vegetables from the hot stock.

Dumplings
Bring the stock back up to a low boil. Begin adding strips of Anne's Dumplings to the pot 3 or 4 at a time. With a long handled spoon move them around in the stock gently allowing them to begin to cook through before adding more. Once all of the pastry strips are in turn the heat down to a simmer. Check and stir often. Dumplings will settle to the bottom and stick and scorch. Scorched dumplings are not good.

While the dumplings are simmering, pick the meat from the chicken and shred or tear into bite size pieces. Put the carcass into another pot with water and those limp cooked vegetables and set to boil again. Believe me there is still a lot of flavor in there to cook out.

Add the meat to your dumpling pot. At this point you can also add a small package of frozen peas and carrots. The bright colors dress up the dish and make it more interesting to the eye.

As the dumplings cook they will absorb alot of the stock. If the stock remains thin like soup you can add a can of cream of chicken soup to get a creamier consistancy. If it gets thick, beyond stew like, the chicken pieces you have boiled the second time, use that stock to thin it out. Add a can of cream of chicken soup to get a creamy consistancy. You can add a few peas and carrots to add color.

Before serving, taste the dumplings. Dumplings need salt, you may have to salt the pot while it simmers.

Whatever stock that you have left, strain out the veggies and carcass pieces, freeze it for use later in other soups or stews or to make noodle soup with. Pick through the bones and you will find a good bit of meat slivers to set aside for noodle soup.

For noodle soup you simply need a quart of stock and some egg noodles. Bring the stock to a boil, add the noodles, cook until tender. Perfect soup every time.

Something my old Aunt's did to dress up the dumpling pot - Once the dumplings are cooked make a pastry crust and seal the top of the pot. Brush with butter and bake like a pie. It is so nice to break through the crust and scoop up a creamy helping of the chicken and dumplings.

1 pumpkin 5 - 8 lbs
2 baking potatoes
2 sweet potatoes
1 med onion, diced
8 -10 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
Vegetable or chicken stock
butter
salt and pepper

Wash pumpkin well with soapy water, rinse and dry. Split pumpkin in half. Scoop out the fiber and seeds. Rub the halves with olive oil inside and out. Place flesh side down on a greased baking sheet (or silpat). Bake at 375 degrees until the meat is fork tender and orangey-yellow.

Preparing to roast the pumpkin.

At the same time, individually wrap the baking potatoes and sweet potatoes in foil. Place in the oven on an upper rack to bake until soft. The pumpkin and potatoes should be done about the same time.

Roasted pumpkin set to cool.

When cool enough to handle scoop out the flesh of the potatoes and pumpkin into a large clean bowl. Add a couple tbsp of butter and let melt into the mixture.

In a skillet brown the bacon rendering the fat. Remove the bacon to drain. Pour away all but about 2 tsp of the remaining fat. Return to heat and add the onion. Cook until clear.

Add the onions to the potatoes and pumpkin. Using a stick blender or food processor, puree the mix.

This is my 6qt stainless mixing bowl. I used a 8 - 10lb pumpkin, 2 each of the potatoes, and almost 2 quarts of stock to make this much soup.

Pour the puree into a stock pot. Slowly add the stock until the mix is the consistancy of soup that you prefer. We like a thicker soup. You might like a thinner soup. Heat through and allow to simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This soup is a beautiful color. Some recipes will call for heavy cream to be added. To me it isn't as nice of a soup when it has cream in it. I save the cream for my pies.

When serving use the bacon crumbles on top as garnish.

For freezing allow soup to cool. Pour into freezer containers. Lable and freeze.

**Note: I prepared this today when I was cooking a pork roast. I had plenty of broth from the pork so I used it in place of chicken/vegetable stock. It tastes great.

I am serving this soup with sandwiches made of fresh toasted bagels with a slice of roasted apple, cheddar cheese and ham. Absolutely delightful.

1 quart chicken/vegetable stock (saved over from other recipes)
egg noodles
chicken slivers (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Bring stock to a boil with any leftover slivers of chicken. Add a half cup of noodles. Cook until tender, 4-8 minutes. Season to taste.

Serve with crackers, bagel chips or a sandwich.

This recipe is perfect for lunch or a light supper. It is also one of those waste not want not recipes. Plan a little ahead and use what you have to stretch yur meals and budget. It pays in the end to do a little extra in the beginning.

I make these sandwiches in the fall. The apples are in season and the holidays are coming lending itself to cooking more with cinnamon and nutmeg (at least for me).

I like to serve these with my pumpkin potatoe soup for a warm hearty supper on cool evenings.

1 apple sliced into 1/2inch rings
cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
sliced cheddar cheese
thinly sliced ham
bagels

In a skillet add the butter and allow to melt on low heat. Be careful butter will burn quickly. Add 2 tbsp brown sugar and let it begin to melt. Add the apple rings and sprinkle with cinnamon. The apples will sautee and begin to soften. Turn to coat each side and for the apple to cook through but not into mush or applesauce. You want the apple slice to retain its shape.

Split and butter one bagel for each sandwich. Slide under the broiler to gently toast.

Build your sandwich from the bottom up.

Bagel bottom, slices of ham, slice of roasted apple and thinly sliced cheddar cheese, top with bagel top. The warmth of the apple and bagel will gently melt the cheese.

This is an excellent sandwich to serve for a Sunday brunch when you have guests also.

Preheat oven to 425.

In a cast iron skillet, heat 4 tbsp crisco. Get the pan and the crisco good and hot while mixing the ingredients for the cornbread.

1 1/2 cups white self-rising cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
water

Combine the cornmeal and flour.

Mix in the egg and milk.

Add water slowly, until the mixture is thick like pancake batter.

Take the hot pan from the oven and pour in the batter. Be very careful. The melted shortening may splatter or pop and cause a burn. Smooth the batter quickly in the pan and put it straight back into the oven. You do not want to lose much heat.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout

This is a most incredibly smooth beer. It is so dark that light does not pass through the glass. The head forms and is the most beautiful creamy head that is almost like silk on your tongue. You will want to drink this beer cool but not icey cold. You want to sip and savour and enjoy every tiny bit of it in your mouth. I promise you this is a beer that deserves to be given a fair chance. You MUST acquire and test this one out. It is not a beer you want to drink every day. It is not really a beer you have with a meal. You might enjoy it with a dark chocolate dessert. Beer and chocolate are excellent pairings! (I am thinking this beer might be excellent in a recipe I have for a chocolate cake made with a dark stout. When my shipment arrives I plan to try it. If it turns out the way I hope I might also add it to my cake-in-jar gift list.) This is one of those you pour on a crisp evening, sit by the fire with a good book or movie in your most comfortable jammies and simply enjoy and relax.

Cake

2 cups stout
4 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch)
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream

Icing2 cups whipping cream
1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350��F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. Butter paper. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.

Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.

I can't remember where I first got this recipe. Credit belongs to someone but I don't know who. I do know there are other versions spread around the world.

2 - rashers of bacon
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 tablespoon of Hunt's ketchup (It is the best)
1 large can Bushes' baked beans (country style)
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

Peel and crush garlic clove, sautee in olive oil.

Lightly cook the bacon in the frying pan with the garlic.

Stir in ketchup and other seasonings.

Arrange the baked beans in oven proof dish.

Layer the bacon on top.

Make four small indentations in the beans and carefully break an egg into each one.

Cover and bake it in the oven at 325�� for approximately 20 minutes - depending on how you like your eggs.

Serve with bread & butter.

When I make chilli I make a huge batch. One because it is easier to make a large pot of chilli and two chilli tastes better when it sits and the flavors marry. I make enough that I have plenty to put in the freezer.

My recipe is not exact measures. Much of it is by taste. The heat of chilli is by mood. But the ingredients are pretty basic.

4 cans light red kidney beans (I use Hanover beans for all)
4 cans dark red kidney beans (Hanover)
4 cans black beans (Hanover)
2 large cans diced tomatoes
1 large can tomatoe paste

Open all cans and pour into a very large stock pot. Bring to a slow boil and turn down to simmer while preparing the other ingredients.

1 jumbo onion chopped
6 - 8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespon olive oil

In a skillet, add oil and sweat onions and garlic. Add to stock pot that is simmering. You can add chopped bell pepper but I leave it out. It gives me heartburn.

8 pounds of ground beef

In skillet brown the ground beef. I use an 80/20 beef. Not too lean. It is the fat that gives beef the flavor.

You will have to brown the meat a few pounds at a time unless you have a very large deep skillet like mine.

Once browned add to the ingredients in the stock pot.

Mix well but not roughly. You don't want to break or mush the beans.

We like our chilli with a bite. Not hot, because the kids won't eat it but with a good bite. I like the flavor in layers. To the pot I add:

1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1/2 of a 5oz bottle of tobasco sauce

I would suggest adding a bit of the hot ingredients, tasting, then deciding to add more or not.

Your chilli pot should be pretty full and pretty thick. Liquid added should be in the form of beer. 1/2 to 1 bottle of good dark beer.

The next layer is the chilli powder seasoning.

You can use the store bought chilli spice or make your own. Sometimes I make my own and sometimes I don't. Whichever you prefer add to the pot until you like the taste. I add around 1/2 cup of chilli powder seasoning made with lots of ancho chilis. I LOVE the scent of ancho chilis. It is one of those scents that is extremely high on the sensuous smell scale for me.

Bring the chilli pot up to a slow simmer. Cook for at least 2 hours stirring occassionally so it doesn't stick on the bottom. This is a lot of chilli. The liquids will rise to the top leaving the heavy beans and meat to sit on the bottom.

Turn off the heat. Cover the pot. Leave to rest and the flabors to marry for several hours. (That why I make mine early in the morning.) This pot will hold a high heat for a long time.

Reheat if needed before serving.

Serve with various garnishes of cheeses, sour cream, chives, crackers, bagel chips, biscuits or cornbread.

From this pot we have had 2 family meals, 1 late snack and put five 48 ounce containers in the freezer. The chilli in the freezer will taste even better when we get around to eating it later in the fall or winter. The flavors will marry and the layers of taste will be delicious. All the pretty colored beans will add to a festive look, too.

Do not substitute ingredients or take short cuts because you will get a yucky cake.

2 2/3 c. self-rising flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 stick butter (real butter)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 c. buttermilk (no substitutees -only real buttermilk)
4 bottles red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour three 9 inch round pans or line them with waxed or parchment paper. (I often will divide the batter and make 5 - 8 very thin layers. It makes the cake more decadent to me.)

Cream butter and sugar. Add oil and eggs one at a time mixing well after each egg.

Mix together vinegar, buttermilk and then all 4 bottles of the food coloring. Yes, you do need all 4. You want this to be a rich deep Christmas red cake not pinkish or weak red.

Sift together the flour and baking soda.

Alternately add the three mixtures a little at the time until all three are combined.

Stir in the vanilla and mix well.

Pour into the cake pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean - 20 - 25 minutes maybe more depending on your oven.

Let the layers completely cool before you try to frost them.

Cream Cheese Icing
1 package of cream cheese (philiadelphia brand is best) softened at room temp.
1 stick of butter softened at room temp.
1 box confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 - 1 c. finely chopped pecans

Mix the cream cheese and butter together until it is well combined. Add the confectioners sugar a little at a time to combine it well. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the chopped nuts and mix until it is creamy as if whipped.

Frost each layer. If you make the several thinner layers you will most likely need to make 2 batches of icing -which I do anyway because I like thick coats of icing.

This cake is fine on the countertop for a day or two. After that time refrigerate. It never lasts long enough around our house to need refrigerating.

Let me remind you to not substitute ingredients. When you see red food coloring in your grocery store go ahead and start collecting it. It will begin to disappear fast at the holidays and the day you decide to make the cake is the day you won't find the first bottle left on the store shelf.

2 cups all purpose flour (I only use King Arthur unbleached)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup crisco shortening (butter won't make a perfect biscuit)
3/4 cup buttermilk (no substitutes)

Sift the dry ingredients together. With your fingers or a fork or a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening until it looks like crumbles. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well with your hands until a sticky dough forms. Turn out on a floured surface and sprinkle a little flour over top to keep everything from sticking. Fold the dough over 3 or 4 times then roll or pat out too a 3/4 to 1 inch thickness. Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter or even the floured rim a glass, cut out your biscuits. With the scrap dough fold it back together as few times as possible and roll it out again and cut more biscuits. Brush tops with melted butter. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until golden brown (15 - 22 mins).

Note: Some people add 1 tbsp sugar to their biscuits but I do not. This is not traditional. Biscuits should only be sweet if they are being made for a shortcake or sweetroll type dessert.

Take this same dough recipe and add a hand full of raisins and pecans and brown sugar and cinnamon. Bake as above. While piping hot drizzle over top a thick slurry of confectioners sugar mixed with a little milk. Excellent treat for a sweet roll breakfast or evening snack.