Doesn't Bacon Make Everyone Happy?

On Wednesday evening, my husband called from his afternoon meeting and explained that he was bringing home his meeting-mates for dinner and that one person would be staying overnight. Oddly enough, I am one of those strange people who enjoy cooking for others AND I don't generally care about the overall impression. This means I'm very adaptable, but meals can be hit or miss :-) Hence, my menu ended up being a little...unique, but it was workable.

I made a vegetable curry from the Everyday Food magazine (which I realized after the fact did not have any actual curry in it). This was a partially embarrassing thing since one of the guests was born and raised in India. It tasted alright, but wasn't anything special. Along with the dish masquerading as curry was homemade bread and jam, as usual (I love my freezer!) and a BLT salad that turned out to be the star of the meal! It was tasty, quick (from Taste of Home's Quick Cooking magazine), and tasted like the real deal :-) Enjoy this yummy summer dish. (Again, lucky for my freezer, I had a yummy Grapefruit Berry Sorbet in the freezer for dessert.)

BLT Salad

• 4 bacon strips, diced
• 4 cups spring mix salad greens
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1/2 cup cubed cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup salad croutons

In a skillet or microwave, cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels. In a salad bowl, combine the greens, tomato and cheese. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour over salad; toss to coat. Sprinkle with bacon and croutons. Yield: 4 servings.

Side note: The overnight guest (an older Mennonite gentleman) informed me that he could tell I grew up on the farm because I had a guest room already ready to go, I knew how to "deal with" 4-5 dozen peaches (make jam, preserve, etc.), and I was so willing to be hospitable and host him. :-) Not sure how that makes me a farm girl, but I'll take a compliment, either way :-) Thanks for setting a good example, Mom!

Peachy Keen Peaches 'n' Cream

As I may have mentioned before, when I was growing up, every summer contained a particular day of joy. It involved lots of ice cream pails, but no ice cream :-) It was strawberry-picking day, at a u-pick farm nearby. First, came the pain: getting up before 6 on a summer morning, so we could be there when the farm opened, as early in the season as possible. Then, when we were trucked out to our very own back-bending row, Mom and hungry children each took our requisite set of ice cream pails (the hefty 5 quart ones, not the cheater 4 quart-ers) and started digging through the shin-high green to discover ripe, juicy, glistening strawberries hiding underneath.

When at least 10-12 ice cream buckets were filled, we took them back to be weighed. (luckily they didn't weigh US before and after!) I was always impressed with my mom's patented method of carrying so many buckets: putting them on the handle of a hoe or rake and carrying 6-8 at a time. Then, we'd get home, and spend the rest of the day rinsing and hulling berries to make at least one strawberry pie, strawberry ice cream topping, a seemingly endless supply of strawberry jam for the year, and any other strawberry product we could think of. The following week was hence known as "The Week of the Strawberry" in which strawberries were inserted into every possible dish possible. In other words, a week of heaven :-)

Though I have looked high and low, no such strawberry-picking venue exists in Arizona, as near as I can tell. While I try to make do with making jam with store strawberries, it's not the same. However, I do have the luxury of having a u-pick peach/apricot farm about 60 miles away. It's a long drive, but it's totally worth it. The heavenly scent of peaches heavy in the air, and children running around with peach juice dripping sweetly down their chins (and mine) are a lovely setting. Therefore, every year I come home with at least 20 pounds of peaches and freeze them for smoothies, pie, and of course, jam. After some...less than ideal peach jam attempts in the past, I was thrilled to make an excellent jam this year. My next peach dish was an excellent version of peaches and cream from Allrecipes. (That's also where the photo is from.) Hopefully, you have some peaches around to try this simple, yummy dessert.

Grilled Peaches & Cream

4 peaches, halved and pitted
1 T. vegetable oil
1 c. soft cream cheese with honey and nuts (or mix plain cream cheese with 2-3 T. honey, and 1/4 c. chopped nuts)
2 T. honey

Preheat a grill to medium-high heat. Brush cut side of peaches with a light coating of vegetable oil. Grill them, cut side down, for 5 minutes, or until peaches have nice grill marks. Flip peaches over and place a dollop of cream cheese in the center hole of each peach. Grill for 2-3 minutes more (cut side up) until cream cheese is warm. Serve on a plate. Drizzle honey on peaches and plate and sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired.

Lovin' Luscious Lemon

The other night, when supper group was at my house, I was going to make caramel flan for Marilyn for mother's day, since I know she loves flan. So, since it had to chill overnight, I started on it the night before. The first step was to melt 1/2 cup of sugar on the stove. I followed the directions exactly, and by the time I put it in the dish, it was a block of sugar, which I then had to pick-axe out. I thought, well, I must have done something wrong and tried again.

After chipping the second brick of sugar out of the dish, I decided to bail and do something different, so I made Lemon Pudding Souffles. It turns out that they are a fantastic use of extra lemons. :-) I made the recipe exactly as stated below, except I multiplied it by 6, since I was cooking for 12 people. (However, that much made approximately 16 servings, for the record.) These are excellent straight out of the oven or cold.

Lemon Pudding Souffles
Yield: 2-3 servings

1 egg, separated
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 T. butter, melted
1 T. flour
dash of salt
2 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. lemon peel, grated

In a small mixing bowl, beat egg yolk until slightly thickened. Gradually add sugar, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Beat in the milk, butter, flour, and salt. Stir in lemon juice and peel.

In a small mixing bowl, beat egg white until stiff peaks form. With a spatula, stir a fourth of the egg white into lemon mixture until no white streaks remain. Fold in remaining egg white until combined.

Divide between two ungreased 6-oz ramekins or custard cups. Place in an 8 in. square baking dish; add 1 in. of hot water to the square dish.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. If desired, sprinkle with coarse sugar and garnish with mint and/or pansies. Serve immediately.

Layers of Fun

Recently, my friend Liz (an excellent caterer) threw her hands up in despair upon discovering that her 5 year old had pulled a cake for catering off the table an hour before the event. As Liz was explaining this to me, she said, "It's a sign! I'm not supposed to be doing dessert! I just need to have someone else do it for me." Being the baker that I am, I volunteered. Liz, knowing sloppy me as well as she does, said "Yes, but could you do the decorating?"

This is the million dollar question. On more than one occasion I have noted my absolute carelessness in appearance of food, because my goal is solely for it to taste good. Whereas my sister will spend time arranging each leaf and element of a salad on a plate, I simply mix it all together and let people serve themselves. All this to say that Liz brought up a valid point. (My last layer cake decorating event was disastrous, at best.) So, after a moment of thought, I said, "Yes, I think I could do the decorating; I'd just have to take time to practice or maybe even take a class."

Hence, this weekend, I borrowed Liz's cake decorating items and set off to make a cake. Additionally, I had my mentee, Kayla, join me in this adventure since she loves to watch the cake decorating shows on the Food Network. After debating between chocolate cake, caramel cake, or white raspberry cake, we decided on the Raspberry-Laced Vanilla Cake on the back of the cake flour box. It was to be a 3 layer cake, with each layer split in half (to make 6 layers) with frosting and raspberry jam alternating between the layers.

After the cakes had finally cooled (I tried very hard not to cheat on this part-I'm very impatient), we cut off the tops to make them level, and then split each layer in half. This was challenging, but doable. The hard part was moving them from the rack to the cake plate, since some weren't cut particularly evenly, and one of them had been nibbled on by a certain white fluffy dog who shall remain nameless. But, after a bit of maneuvering and a fair amount of crumb-making, we succeeded.The next issue was trying to decide what to do since I had two 8 in. round pans and one 9 in. pan. After a bit of hemming and hawing, we just sliced off the extra inch when all the layers were assembled. (See first picture.)

Next came the frosting. We took our apparent gallons of pink buttercream frosting, and started slathering it on. Then we had to decide how to frost it. We had Liz's cake decorating nozzles, which worked great on a ziploc bag with the corner cut off. However, it took some practicing on various flat surfaces to get the decor to appear marginally presentable. When all was said and done though, I thought it turned out quite well. It's not professional by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely presentable. It's still not something I'd do for my own dinners, but for catering, I could probably arrange it :-) Who knows? Maybe there's hope for me, after all!

Simple, Speedy, and Sensational!

Since I've finished all my master's coursework (graduating on Friday, YAY!!!), I've decided its time to start having people over for supper again! So, on Friday, I had a few friends and family over for a quasi-Thai meal. It turned out to be a super-quick, tasty meal, so I thought I'd share.

The entree/main dish (which based on my prep for our time in France, actually means first course, not main dish) was a Vegetable Pad Thai from the newest Everyday Food magazine (probably my last issue, since I think my subscription just ran out). I also made an Asian tossed salad, and rounded it all out with carrots and celery, the standard homemade bread and jam (I know, not Asian, but it's my staple at dinner parties) and the classic chocolate zucchini cake. For those of you with tender palates, the most spicy item in the pad thai is soy sauce, so it's definitely accessible to all. (Also, it's gluten-free, and could even be vegan!) In the salad, I used lettuce, cubed oranges, green onion, ramen, and an Asian dressing, which was quite tasty!

Vegetable Pad Thai

8 oz dried rice noodles (or any noodles)

2 T. brown sugar

2 T. lime juice

3 T. soy sauce

2 t. vegetable oil

3 green onions, whites only

1 garlic clove, minced

2 large eggs, lightly beaten (optional)

½ c. fresh cilantro, chopped

¼ c. roasted, salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

1. Soak noodles according to package directions. Drain. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, lime juice and soy sauce. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add green onion whites and garlic and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant; 30 seconds. Add eggs (if using), and scramble until almost set; about 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate. Add noodles and soy sauce mixture to skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, until noodles are soft and sauce is warm; about 1 minute. Add egg mixture and stir in, gently breaking up chunks. Serve noodles with wedges of fresh lime, cilantro and chopped peanuts.

NOTE: Any noodles would work with this. You could also easily add chicken or turkey to make this more hearty.