Home Cook of the Year Competition

Vote for this recipe here: Cream filled Meringue with Citrus

It's been a very long time since I entered a competition in a foodie magazine. For some reason, the Home Cook of the Year comp in Australian Good Taste drew my attention. I made a recipe from the June edition, posted it on their website and it looks like I've entered. The top twenty recipes to receive the greatest number of votes will be invited to send in a recipe for the judges to determine the final six to participate in the cook-off later this year in Sydney. So. The catch appears to be the number of votes and I usually steer well clear of this kind of competition. I don't ask my friends and relatives to vote for me - it just doesn't feel right and I hate it.

Vote for this recipe here: Sunshine Tart

You on the other hand are different. I figure if you're reading this post, then most probably food has brought you here. So. I'd love to ask you to go to taste.com.au - log in or join and vote for me. Please. Another catch. You need to be a member of Taste to be able to vote. If not, you can easily sign up to become a member. Or not. No harm in asking. I'm having a go and the silly thing is it seems the entrant needs to enhance their chances by 'telling everyone'. So here I am telling you. It feels rather silly actually, but since I've taken the time to enter the recipes (without reading the rules first) - I guess I need to play the game.

Vote for this recipe here: Crepes with Poached Orange in Syrup.

I certainly enjoyed inventing and coming up with ways to use our terrific supply of citrus fruit this season.

Vote for this recipe here: Sauteed Zucchini

There is another month to go to upload and keep entering more recipes. I have my eye on at least another two. Drop back in at a later time to see if I've posted any more. If you're in a position to vote, I'd really appreciate you taking the time to do so.  Thanks.  And wish me good luck.

friday senses....!

this post is brought to you by 700 exclamation points!

eating: stir fry. This was my pre-race dinner last week.

 

I love dishes like this because it's so easy to cook up whatever veggies I have on hand, and we have a quick and healthy meal. Sometimes I add chicken.....sometimes I don't.

Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry with Wild Rice

Stir-fry some chicken (cut in to small pieces) in a little bit

Asian Noodle Salad

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

-Gloria Steinem
Writer and Journalist

This salad is one of my favorites. I've made it for parties, I've made it for potlucks, and it's always well loved. It's fresh and full of vegetables, and full of flavor. I think it's a perfect salad for a summer picnic!

Some of the ingredients of my salad, peppers, cilantro, cabbage, bean sprouts, spinach and cashews

One of the great things about this salad is that you can mix and match different vegetables based on your taste. You can also fill it with vegetables, of just have a little. It's all up to you and based on your taste.

Don't like bell peppers? Leave them out! Allergic to nuts? Cool! Leave the cashews out. This salad will still be tasty.

The dressing is so delicious, with fresh ginger and garlic, I love it. Sometimes I double it to use in salads later. It's just that good.

I use whole wheat linguine as the noodle element, but you can use udon noodles instead to keep it actually Asian. Or use brown rice pasta, and Tamari Sauce instead of soy sauce to make it gluten free.

Asian Noodle Salad

Remember, you can add different vegetables for this, and as many as you want. Some variations not included below are: julienned carrots, cucumbers, thinly chopped celery, or even sliced zucchini or yellow squash. Use whatever vegetables sound good to you.
Loosely based on one from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

For the Salad-

1 package (16 oz.) Whole Wheat Linguine Noodles, or Brown Rice Spaghetti, Cooked, Rinsed, And Cooled

1 head thinly sliced Purple Cabbage or Napa Cabbage- I use a Mandoline to get it nice and thin

1 bag (8 oz.) Baby Spinach, sliced

About 2 Red or Yellow Bell Peppers- I used a small bag of different colored peppers

1 bag Bean Sprouts -also Called Mung Bean Sprouts

3 Carrots, shredded
 
Chopped Cilantro, Up To 1 Bunch, To Taste

3 whole Scallions, Sliced

10 oz. (283 mg.) Unsalted Whole Cashews, Lightly Toasted In Skillet


 For the Dressing

1/3 cup (79 ml) Rice Vinegar - unseasoned, but if seasoned (means  it has sugar) then reduce the sugar below by half)

1/3 cup (54 mg) Brown Sugar

1/3 cup (79 ml.) Olive Oil

8 Tablespoons Soy Sauce or Tamari Sauce

2 Tablespoons (up To 3 Tablespoons) Sesame Oil

3 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger, Finely Chopped

2 cloves Garlic, Finely Chopped

Directions

Toss the noodles with most of the vegetables. For example sometimes I don't use the whole head of cabbage, or the whole amount of spinach. So I toss everything with about half of the cabbage and spinach then I see if I like the ratio of vegetables to noodles. If I don't I add more cabbage and spinach till I get it where I like the way it looks. You do the same.

Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour some over salad. Toss the salad with the dressing and see if you like the amount of dressing on the salad. If you need more add it till you get enough dressing on the salad for your taste. Refrigerate until serving.

Lizard Cake Party

You are invited...to your own imagination.  You know..the one that is over the top wild when you are a child?  I believe it's always there..even when we are adults. (or perhaps, big kids?)

We just have to embrace it.

 I threw a lizard birthday party.

On top of a cake.

With sprinkles and candles and swirls and swags....

♥ 

 Lizards crawling up and down the cake..

like lizards do.

I used an exacto knife to handcut little lizards out of fondant, and invited them to the birthday party. VIP status.

Here they are...alive and ready to party!

The little spikes are made out of Wilton candies and glued on with candy melts.  (You can buy the little pointy spike looking candies in the cake aisle at any craft store).  It isn't a party without sparkly candles and colorful sprinkles.  Don't we make our most hopeful wishes when we blow out the candles?

In my imagination, this is what lizards look like as cake pops.  I had one rule for myself-and that was to make the first thing that popped into my mind when I thought..Lizard & Cake Pop. My favorite thing are the little pink spikes that doubled as lizard tails.

♥

I forgot to tell you..

I was giggling practically the whole time I was decorating this cake, it made me so happy.  And you are invited..to join this happiness right along with me. ♥

FAQ

It's the moment you've all been waiting for. 

Or....most likely, you haven't.
I now have a Frequently Asked Questions Page. 

See it HERE

I did my best to put together the most common questions I get on a weekly basis. 

If you like, check it out.

Happy Thursday to you.

The One That Almost Killed Me

this is how it all ended (it did, eventually, end.) just in case you thought I didn't make it.

 

 Here is my (very long) race report for the Wahsatch Steeplechase. 

For all you runners I included what I ate and some other mumbo jumbo.



For those that aren't so into running I always provide a short version:

I ran up the steepest mountain. ever. There was puking and curse words flying (

normal

today was very.........normal. 

and normal was good. 

It's the first week in what seems like one bazillion years that no one had school or homework or projects or groups or meetings to worry about. 

So we did normal things. 

Didn't set an alarm. 

Ate some granola and yogurt for breakfast. 

He went to work.

We ran some errands. 

It was hot. 

Like,

a summer burger

note: I LIVED through my race!! (only almost died once) 

It was awesome and amazing and terrible all at the same time. race report coming soon.





I want to share a little something about myself. 

I really, thoroughly, truly, love, appreciate, and drool over,  and loooovve a good burger.

I went probably 5 or so years burgerless. (It was during my fat free stage of life--remember?)

A couple

Fourth Of July Drink

 

 

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."

  ~Erma Bombeck

Since Fourth of July is coming, I figured a cocktail was in order, to reflect the holiday, of course. This one features grenadine, blueberry vodka, and regular clear vodka.

Unique Tall cordial glasses available at my Etsy Shop, House of Lucien.

Fourth Of July Drink

Idea from ECurry

First let me warn you. I tried to use cream as the white part, it doesn't work. The cream is too heavy, the blue vodka just fell into it. The grenadine on the bottom is heavy and thick, so it holds the others well. The blue and the white or clear, should be the same weight, or a similar type of liqueur. I thought about using white cream De cacao or white chocolate liqueur for the white portion, but I don't know if it would work. But if you try it I'd love to know your results.

Keep reading after the recipe for more info on specific gravity of liqueors.

Ingredients

Grenadine

Blueberry Vodka, or Blue Curacao, or any blue liqueur- cold

Vodka, or any clear liqueur, cold. -or you could try using a white liqueur, see the note above about this.


Directions

Layer this cocktail by adding the grenadine first.

Next, add the blueberry vodka by pouring very slowly off the back of a spoon.

Finally, with a steady hand, add the clear or white liqueur or vodka on top of the blueberry vodka by pouring it off the back of a spoon.


Edited to add: courtesy of A_Boleyn

refer to these page to find the specific gravities of red/white/blue liquors

http://accidentalhedonist.com/how-to-pour-a-pousse-caf/

http://www.barnonedrinks.com/tips/reference/specific_gravities.html

White creme de cacao (1.14) should work in between the red grenadine (1.16) on the bottom and blue curacao (1.11) on the top based on this.

Double cream at 0.99 would float on top of blue caracao at 1.11. Most vodkas have a specific gravity 0.79 so a blue vodka should float on top of the double cream.


Like I mentioned, I tried heavy cream on top of the red, then with the blue on top and the blue vodka sank into the cream, I'm not sure why. Maybe because of the type of vodka, I have no idea. But these charts are great, thank you!

The Year of Seconds

The Mudgeeraba Show was on the weekend.  I managed to exhibit 14 entries. From this I attained 10 ribbons including the Champion Exhibitor in the Confectionary Section. I can't complain about that, although the Preserves were a bit of a let down. Rosella Jelly, Jaboticaba Jelly, Lemon Butter and Strawberry Jam all received zilch. The hotly contested marmalade class, which I must admit is the one closest to my heart, brought home the bacon. Yep - my orange marmalade took the blue ribbon. Very happy with that result. The only other blue I managed this year was in the Date Cake class.

My toffees received a third place and every other one of my entries took out second - six in all.
They were:

• Caramel Macadamia Fudge - Confectionary
• Caramels - Confectionary
• Coconut Ice - Confectionary
• Marble Cake - Cooking Our Way from the CWA
• Colour Portrait - Photography
• Colour Landscape - Photography

I was utterly blown away with the photography. I am a total amateur and so to attain this result was really special. I'm still trying to get over those results. The Cooking Our Way section is very competitive and this year was no different. I was very happy with the taste of my marble cake and I felt that I achieved a particularly pleasing icing. The marble swirl was not as effective as the winner and I take my hat off to the judge - she got it right.

So there you have it. Another Mudgee Show, come and gone. This year was particularly fun, not for the exhibits or for the wins, but for the people and the good time I had in general at the show. My daughter Issy and her boyfriend Kyle came up from Melbourne and I think they had an awesome time.

 I caught up with people from the recent election campaign and together with a couple of wines we laughed away the afternoon with our recollections of that time. I even got a kiss from the newly elected, (very handsome I might add) councillor that we fought so hard to see elected. We missed most of the night program as we continued to chat and laugh, get the favourite showbags and of course admire the fireworks show. The auctioning of all the cooking exhibits is fun too! Good old Mudgee - you are one terrific little country agricultural show. See ya next year.

I loved the whole parade including the Australian Light Horsemen, the belted galloways, the cattle,

 the motorbikes, the vintage cars, the showgirls, the chinese dragons (even though they drove me nuts),

the old dishevelled utes but this old tractor was probably my favourite as it cranked its way along

blowing smoky exhaust fumes and reminding me of the good old days.

Moist Chocolate Farmhouse Cake

"You have to believe in yourself, that's the secret. Even when I was in the orphanage, when I was roaming the street trying to find enough to eat, even then I thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world."

Charlie Chaplin

1889-1977, Comic Actor

This is a delicious, moist cake with a wonderful texture and great chocolate flavor. With a secret ingredient! It comes from a book called, "One Potato Two Potato." Guess what that ingredient is.

You're probably thinking, this is a chocolate cake recipe, what the heck.

Potatoes, of course. I actually don't own the book. But I do own a book called, "Best of the Best, The Best Recipes From the 25 Best Cookbooks of the Year". By Food and Wine. So dang, that book was one of the best of 2002! The 16 Amazon reviews agree.

Potatoes going through a ricer

The potatoes ensures moistness in the cake, they say. By golly I think they're right! Potatoes in bread is nothing new, it replaces part of the flour in many bread and roll recipes, to provide lightness.

Chopping chocolate

One of my favorite dinner roll recipes called, Amish dinner rolls, provided by King Arthur Flour, calls for mashed potatoes.  And those rolls are delicious, light and fluffy.

The batter is really silky and luscious (mine is bright yellow because I have free range chickens that produce bright orange yolks, if you use grocery store eggs your batter won't be so bright, FYI.

This cake isn't particularly light like the rolls, but it has an excellent texture. Moist, but with a lightness, not dense at all. But rich, but not too much so. I imagine all of those eggs helps with that.

I measured the batter to make sure it would fit my pan

The cake isn't too sweet either. With 2 cups of sugar, it doesn't seem like that would be true, but since the chocolate is unsweetened, that sugar makes up for the missing sugar in the chocolate.

Ready for the oven

Another thing I like about this cake is that it can easily be made dairy free by substituting shortening or non dairy margarine for the butter. So those that cannot consume dairy can enjoy it.

Right out of the oven, heavenly smells abound

Another positive aspect of this cake is that most cakes I make call for sour cream, yogurt or buttermilk, so it was nice to produce a moist cake without needing their help Since I don't always have dairy in the fridge.

So I guess potatoes + cake = Success!

Delicious

Crystal Cake Plate, Hand painted Pink Teacup and Pretty Pink Napkins, available at my Etsy Shop, House of Lucien.

Moist Chocolate Farmhouse Cake

Makes a 10 inch tube cake, or a bit under 8 cups (liquid) (almost 2,000 ml.) of batter. So if you use another type of pan, like a bundt pan you can check to make sure it will fit. Or you could make small bundts, but take note that the cooking time will be different if you do.


adapted from the book, "One Potato Two Potato" Roy Finamore and Molly Stevens

Ingredients

3/4 pound (340 g.) all purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Cocoa powder for dusting pans

5 oz. (142 g.) Unsweetened Chocolate, chopped

2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 cup (118 ml.) boiling water

1 3/4  cup (175 g.) all purpose flour


2 tsp. baking soda


8 Tablespoons (1 stick) (113 g.) unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup (55 g.) vegetable shortening

2 cups (400 g.) sugar

5 eggs at room temperature

3 tsp. vanilla extract

powdered sugar for dusting cake - optional


Directions


Cook the potatoes. Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water at least by an inch, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain well and put the potatoes through a ricer and measure out 1 cup. (167 g.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, or Gas Mark 4.

Grease a 10 inch tube pan generously with shortening or butter, and dust it with cocoa powder.

Put the chopped chocolate and honey in a small saucepan (or a microwave safe bowl) and pour the 1/2 cup (118 ml) boiling water over it. Stir it, and let it melt. Set aside for now.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl, set aside.

Cut the butter into chunks and place in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until light. Add the shortening and beat it again until combined and light. Pour in the sugar and beat until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one and beat after every addition. Add the vanilla.

Check the chocolate. At this point my chocolate wasn't completely melted no matter how much I stirred it, so I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. So do what you have to (put it on the stove, or microwave it) to make sure the chocolate mixture is melted and smooth, but not too hot or it will melt the butter, if it's hot to the touch put it in the fridge for a few minutes, until it is about room temperature. Then add the chocolate mixture to the batter. Mix well. Now add the potatoes, beat again and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber scraper.

Add half of the dry ingredients and beat until incorporated, then add 1/2 cup (118 ml.) cold water, and mix again. Now add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix again, just until it's all incorporated.

Scrape the bowl into the prepared pan. Shake the pan and tap it lightly on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles.

Bake the cake until a skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean, about 50 minutes. (Mine took about 62 minutes.)

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan by taking a long knife and run it between the cake and the inside of the pan, to loosen the cake from the pan. Turn the cake out of the pan and flip it right side up and let it cool.

If you want dust the cake generously with powdered sugar before serving.

Save any leftovers in an airtight container. It should stay moist for 3 days. Of freeze any leftovers by double wrapping them well in plastic wrap then in a plastic baggie.

friday senses

this post is GIANT.



eating: Last year I posted about raw oats. With all the fresh berries available right now I am back to eating raw oatmeal non stop again. I love them for breakfast, pre or post-workout, or a bed time snack. (yes, I have bed time snacks)

To make raw oats you need 

-raw rolled oats

-any kind of milk (I used vanilla almond)

-any kind of fruit (I used strawberries)

-any

a thank you, an apology, and an ice cream pie

First: a thank you

Thank you to all (so many! wow!) of you that took the quick minute to fill out the survey I posted. 

(miss it? it's still available HERE)

It was very helpful to me--I just want to make sure that what I'm posting here is relevant to at least someone out there. 

And THANK YOU!!!! for those who left such sweet comments as well, I really, truly appreciate it. 

Next: an

strawberry jam with honey

Do you make jam? 

If not......you should start.......this week. 

It really is the EASIEST thing you can make at home, I promise. 

promise. 

Get yourself some berries, some jars, and some pectin and you are set. 



I was so excited to finally find pectin that you can use honey with instead of sugar. 

(I found Ball No-sugar needed at the grocery store.)

Before this I used cane sugar, so it

parties: Father's Day in the Backyard

We had quite the backyard party to celebrate Father's Day.  With a brother I love who is a father of two and a dad I adore, I decided we should celebrate them both.  This menu would work at your backyard parties all summer long. 

To celebrate the musical, theatrical man that is my father, I set up a little photo booth with hats and mustaches (all the hats were brought by my mother from my father's collection). We bared the Houston heat and had a lovely time. 

Mr. Hungry had quite the moment with the grill and my nephew Baxter insisted that his mother feed him while adorned with a hat and mustache. 

Hope you had a lovely weekend and here's to more summertime fun. There's only one important dad missing from this picture.  We missed Mr. Hungry's father, Ron... hope you enjoyed the day in Missouri!

The menu included:  

Tomato Gazpacho Soup

Sliders

Mini Potato Boats

Kale Caesar Salad

Ice Cream Sandwiches 

Lemonade Tea

Keeping it REAL: Now there were not as many doozies as the last party I was a part of, but there were a few mishaps.  While trying to pull my camera out of a cabinet, I spilled an entire can of paint primer on our wood floor.  About an hour later, we discovered my brother and sister in law's dog, Rosie had eaten our second batch of sliders off the cooler when no one was looking.  Thankfully, we got the primer off the wood and everyone had plenty to eat...but it just wouldn't be a party that I'm a part of without a few tragedies. 

a quick minute......

Could you do me a HUGE favor and take this survey for me? It will take you 2 seconds (ok, maybe 60) and will be very helpful to me. Thank you!! I promise to post a super easy INSANELY delicious summer dessert as a thank you. 



Survey HERE

all in 26 hours

My plans to drive up to Montana fell through last week (still pouting about that one) and Robby was buried in a final project for school.....our weekend was looking to be pretty lame. But after a (very, very) last minute decision we decided to go camping for the night. We very rarely go camping for just one night--after all the efforts to pack up and set up, it's so much more worth it to stay a

Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie and Cool Stuff Weekend

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.  "

- William Faulkner

This smoothie is so great, it's virtually breakfast in a glass. It's filling and nutritious. A great way to drink your breakfast! The oats make it thick, and the frozen banana makes it frosty, cold and creamy. It was a great breakfast for me this morning when I couldn't figure out what to eat, but I was starving, so I needed to get something in my belly fast. (Keep reading for the recipe, below.)

This is the first installation of my new feature, Cool Stuff Weekend. Like I mentioned in my last post, I want to start featuring artists and other things I like out there in the world. So every weekend I will post a beverage, something easy, and it is the weekend so sometimes that beverage will involve alcohol, as well as a bunch of things I'm liking. Mostly it will be unique, different and interesting stuff. Who knows? I don't really like to put rules on myself, so I'm just going to say it will be stuff that I like.

So here's some stuff I'm digging right now, and I hope you like it too!

How cool is this? It's a quilt with little green army men in the form of a peace sign. This comes from Creatures By Diana. Diana lives just a few towns away from me in Olympia Washington.

Unicorn Coat Hook -a solid cast aluminum unicorn bust. By Architecture Jones. This would look great in a little girls room, or heck, in my room. I just love it.

You Rock Dad, Guitar pick for those dads that rock out. (I know fathers day is today, but you can tell dad you love him other days too!) By Sweetheart Circle. And to my Dad, if you're reading, this is how I feel about you!

Origami Gift Box- By Photo Mama Regina- Can you believe she made this box! Gorgeous! Inexpensive too, only $5.25. What a great thing to have on hand for gift giving.

Set of 4, Quilted 12 oz. Mugs available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.

Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie

adapted from "Food Writers Favorites, Beverages".
makes 1 Smoothie

This is so versatile, add yogurt or don't. You can also use another type of fruit instead of a banana.

It's difficult to remove the peel from a banana right out of the freezer. If you let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes, it makes it easy to remove the peel as well as keeping the banana frozen enough to make your smoothie cold and delicious. If you don't have 10 minutes, put the frozen banana in the microwave for 20 seconds. If you don't have one frozen, then add a few ice cubes along with the room temperature banana.


Ingredients

1/2 cup (43 g.) oats - any type, old fashioned, or quick, or even plain instant, should be fine

1 frozen banana, peeled

1 cup (237 ml.) milk, any type

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2-4 Tablespoons real maple syrup, or honey

a small tub of yogurt of your choice, optional


Directions

Place the dry oatmeal in the blender container, and blend it to a fine powder. Add everything else. Blend well for 2 minutes or so, to make sure the oatmeal is finely ground and everything is smooth. Pour in a glass and drink immediately.