It's Been a Quite A While

Ok. 

A Year. 

Nope! How bout over two since I posted on this blog. 

It's been 32 whole months since I got married, moved into our MAJOR renovation, and 4 years or so since we started our relatively successful business. 

I've gained a ton of weight. Ok, not a ton but the poundage has done more than creep up. On both of us.   We are were eating low carb more or less, some days less than more and I've been adding tasty gluten free recipes to my rotation. Its a struggle though and I still really feel like I just want to document a lot of it. But man I have just been feeling so crappy, totally lethargic and worn out. Zero energy. Blood pressure is creeping up and I was given "the talk" about loose weight or go on meds. Time to do something about it.

This last month has been really busy, with niece and nephew graduating from high school and grade school. A visit from sis in law #6 and her family from Chicago that will wrap up in a few days. My honey's birthday and the 3 day house boat trip on the USS Swan Princess, and tomorrows birthday party for sis in law #5. I number them because I have 7.

I also want to document the AMAZING house renovation inside and out. It's a huge, very cool  project. I want to document, my new home interior/furniture findings and DIY. That's a total learning process all it's own. And I still want to talk about food. Not as much as I used to once upon a time but there are days when I do something spectacular and I want to share. That actually happens fairly often, I just haven;t been sharing. 

So, that said,  I think I am going to change the focus of the blog a bit and not focus entirely on food and wine but make the blog more about the journey I'm on cause it's pretty darn cool. 

Can a Girl Live a Low Carb Gluten Free Life????

Yes, I've been gone, a long, long, time. Life totally interrupted with a series of major life changes and stresses. You know you've all seen the "Life Stress Test" Well it seems that for the last two years or so my scores have really been up there, new husband, new home, major renovation of said new home etc. Now we are adding change in diet for both of us. So in honor of that change I thought I'd get my butt in gear and start documenting some of the ways we'll be doing that.
I finally determined that gluten is not my friend, although I'm more gluten sensitive then anything. And the carbs...well, white carbs, you know the ones, white rice, white flour, white sugar, all those processed foods. While they may be tasty, I don't think they do anything positive for the body except help make us fat. Dont get me wrong, I think everything in moderation. So the hubby and I are changing out diet big time.
If you're curious stick around. We're switching to a lower carb, gluten free(ish) house. I think the transition may be rough but I suppose we'll see and since we've tossed the carbs he's already lost 20 lbs. Me, only 6 in the same time frame. wish me luck. I know I'm gonna need it.

The Biggest Oysters I've EVER seen

Well last weekend was a whirlwind. Went to Auburn on Thursday morning for my future sis in laws wonderful wedding. Came home Saturday night and turned around to leave again on Sunday for a quick trip to the Oregon coast.

With Monday being the 4th I actually had a day off and got to take a drive up to Port Orford. The weather was beautiful if a little windy but we were directed to a place where we had the best dinner. This was at Griff's on the Dock. This place may have had more that 6 tables in the tiny place but I'm not sure where they could have been.

Dinner was wonderful, I got the fried oysters and they were a sight to behold. I kid you not those things were about as large as my palm, tender and very delicious, lightly breaded and totally tasting of oyster not breading. The french fries and coleslaw weren't too shabby either and the thing I really liked about the plate was that all about the oysters, not the fries or the slaw.


One of my girlfriends got the Ciopinno. This had fresh butter clams, and baby shrimp, along with the largest chunks of crab I've ever seen and fresh rockfish.
It was tasty too, or at least the spoonfull she let me have was really yummy. When it comes to shellfish sharing can be an iffy thing.

Cool Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

cool quinoa salad

Well we're having a hot streak with the temps around here. The kitties are laying flat on the linoleum under the A/C vent and the fiance is sitting under his A/C vent at his place. Everyone is trying to stay cool.

When it gets warm like this may favorite thing to eat (besides a DQ Heath Bar Blizzard) is a salad with tomatoes, a bit of red onion and garlic with just a splash of olive oil and red wine vinegar. Of course the tomatoes have to be really good. Now this is a really good jumping off point for a couple of different things, Spanish Gazpacho, Italian Panzanella (bread salad) if ya have some really good day old bread. But I'm trying to reduce the carbs a bit and I could eat a whole loaf of bread. I'm needing to increase my protein intake a bit as well, so voila, quinoa and chick peas. let me tell ya, it was so good, I almost licked the bowl. For the record, this would be really good as a substantial side for grilled chicken or salmon.

Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1 14 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic minced or put though a garlic press
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 medium avocado, diced small
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
a couple good grinds of black pepper and a good sprinkle of kosher or sea salt.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar or to taste

I like to mix the garlic and olive oil with the chick peas and letting them sit for a few minutes then put everything into a large bowl, sprinkle with the vinegar and mix well.

I personally think this is best after it's sat at room temperature for a bit, i don't want my tomatoes cold so I get the full flavor of them. Also I think this would be very easy to change up, add cucumbers, olives, feta and some fresh oregano and it would become Greek inspired. My moth is watering just thinking about it.

Easy peasy and delish!

Friends, Food and Fun in Texas Hill Country

Well. I'm supposed to be working, playing catch-up from being with my gal pals in San Antonio and the surrounding Hill County last weekend. Instead I'm in town working, drinking an extra, extra strong back tea with not quite enough honey, and um, I'm working.

Really. Can't you tell?

I just couldn't stand it any longer. So here's a preliminary post as I catch up, get my pics in order and beg Yvette for the recipe to her version of Chicken Cordon Bleu that was fantastic. Hear that Yvette???
Check back soon as I add more from the trip or better yet subscribe...I know shameless self promotion.
By the way I didn't catch the name of the butterfly above but this was one of the beautiful inhabitants at the butterfly house on the property of Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg, TX. Goal for the weekend a slide show added to the page so you can see all of the cool places we visited.

Citrus Tian with Kumquat Cranberry Marmalade - Update

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I got a little excited and decided to make a few changes because while I really like orange, I LOVE citrus. I found kumquats while I was at Trader Joe's and decided that I needed to make the marmalade for the recipe from that and then I decided that the whole thing would benefit from the rosy color of cranberries since I still had some in the freezer. As my cousin says Oh, My, Damn! It turned out much better than I expected and using ruby red grapefruit for the orange segment part of the recipe just made the whole thing far more beautiful.

I had to add an update to this because I had my fiance ask after reading this post as to why I had no picture posted of the actual finished product. I had to explain to him that it was because I'd gotten so excited after putting them together and tasting the individual components that I ate the darn thing before I remembered to take pictures of it. My Bad!

Ode to a Tuxedo Kitten

Ok, I know this isn't about food but I had a rough weekend. I had all sorts of plans and ideas of how my weekend was going to be and that included a funny write up on the numerous eviscerated rodents my small tuxedo hunter Little was bringing up on the porch. I was sure he just thought I wasn't eating well. The most recent was Thursday night and he was happy as a clam and so proud of himself. Instead, after me not seeing him for a day, I found him dead and I was devastated and I'm hoping that writing about the loss will help me get over it.

Frankly, there are heavy rumors going around that gophers and field mice put a hit on him and that may be true but I haven't gotten any of the locals to give up any information. Lexie, his terrier buddy from next door has been doing the questioning and come up empty handed so far. She too is sad not having her playmate around but she's a bit rambunctious for Little's brother big boy, Ace and sister the princess Izumi.

Needless to say I have a very heavy heart and will miss him bunches. He was a huge part of my daily life for the last 5 years being the boss of the house and the property here and pretty much the neighborhood when we lived down in Concord. He truly believed that he was the king and we were all his subjects as shown in the photo below. Here he's lying at my workspace on my desk where you could often find him when he was in the house. We'll all miss you Little Kitty!

Bitter Greens

Last night my mom cooked dinner for the first time since she came down with pneumonia. So, I think sometime in early February. She'd been pretty sick. Apparently she'd had about enough of my cooking and damn it I'm a good cook, but mom is old school. OK, Old School and from North Carolina. In short, Southern cook, that happens to have freaking skinny genes. (Which is just plan not fair!) At 70 something she has a right to be old school, but sometimes cooking for her can be really difficult.

Last night she wanted pork chops and greens and apparently she wanted nothing to do with anything I would choose to fix. She made real old school pork chops, fried in a bit of bacon grease. Now I love pork chops, heck, who am I kidding, I love pork. I won't lie, I was looking forward to having the pork chops. But when I came into the kitchen for some sweet tea I saw the greens. At first I thought she'd stopped at the market on here way home from her volunteer work at the elementary school. (She's just started back)

I was wrong. Very wrong.

This was not collards or chard which are very common at our house if I was not mistaken she's been out in the yard pulling up Chicoria, "dandelion greens!"

Wow we haven't had those in a long time but here they were ready to go. I knew she didn't get these at the market, but she'd been out in the yard. I was a bit concerned cause I knew she was gonna do them just like she does collards or chard but these things are BITTER. So I let her. Being mom she would never give into the fact that I might be right about something. So when it came time for me to put them on my plate I just drizzled them with a bit of olive oil, a dash of wine vinegar and pepper and ate them first.

She took a bite and stopped and I just looked at her. "Ok," she says to me, "I'd forgotten how bitter they could be. How would you do them?"

"Heck mom." I said, "This is when I'd totally do them Old School ya know? I'd saute 'em in a pan with bacon and onion, or garlic and red pepper something to just take that bitter edge off and then sprinkle them with wine vinegar."

"Hmmm," she says, "That might be a pretty good idea, next time you do them."

So next time, I will.

Guilty Pleasures

I think I have a serious addiction to couple different things.

Right now the one that has overtaken me are potato skins. Not the fancy cheese and bacon things that you sometimes find recipes for, or even the restaurant appetizer although those are darn tasty and there are few places where they are a must order. I'm not talking about those.

I'm talking about the crispy skin of a beautifully scrubbed, lightly oiled, roasty, toasty baked russet spud. Baked in the oven, not in the microwave and not wrapped in foil so that the potato is more steamed in it's foil jacket. We're talking oven roasted, dry heat. The potato seems better to me then. Tastier somehow, lighter, dry and fluffy, pretty darn perfect. After the actual potato is gone from the insides there's that skin all golden and crackly, maybe with just a little salt on the outside and maybe just a bit crunchy. Then the insides, spread with soft butter and lightly salted again. If I'm home, picked up and eaten like a burrito or a piece of pizza, straight from my hand. No fork and knife here.

Nirvana. That can be better than any sweet after dinner.

When Things Go Bad

Have you ever had things you cook not turn out the way you want them to, or have you been greatly disappointed by something you cooked. Maybe it didn't taste the way you thought it should or it just flopped. My fiance asked me this last night. And I have to say yup, it's happened to me and it makes me nuts when it does. Maybe that's the control freak perfectionist that comes out every once in a while but it can be frustrating.
I have a wonderful Coq au Vin recipe, love to make it, it never fails. That is until I try to take care of the final steps and then hold it warm in a crock pot. Good idea, bad, bad out come. For me anyhow. All that butter and flour that's supposed to thicken, just turned into a melted mess sitting on top. It still tasted pretty good but I was truly irritated with myself. Then the other night I made Chicken Piccata to go with my risotto and was so NOT happy with it. I thought my chicken was a bit dry, I didn't think it had enough color, my sauce wasn't balanced enough and I REALLY need a fresh jar of capers. Everyone else loved it. Man I'm hard to please.
But things happen, cakes fall, or stick to the pan, or you misread a recipe and you add 2 "quarts" of zucchini instead of 2 "cups" the first time you make that Chocolate Zucchini Cake. Man was that cake green oh, and I was like, 16 or so. What a mess. But, in the end you try again in hopes that you've just made the bast thing ever! So, have you ever had things you cook not turn out the way you want?

Below is the zucchini cake I've been making for the last few years. It's AWESOME!


Chocolate Zucchini Cake

"This is a moist fudgy type cake. Sweet but not extremely sweet and makes good use of zucchini! You can frost it with chocolate frosting or cream cheese icing."
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated zucchini
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the eggs and oil, mix well. Fold in the nuts and zucchini until they are evenly distributed. Pour into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting with your favorite frosting.

Risotto!!

Awesome! The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

Instead of the pumpkin, I decided to make mushroom. I usually serve this with either seared scallops or shrimp with sinful balsamic butter sauce. But, I had neither of those things, so I did chicken piccata instead. Fabulous! I go to use the last of my Vermintino for the risotto and it was delish!! Thanks Eleanor and Jess this was an awesome challenge! Now to find my cable so I can upload my pic from my camera. OK. Finally got that updated. Here's my yummy pic. This stuff was so good I could hardly stand it.

Wow!

It took three tries to get the clothes right yesterday afternoon. It's bright, sunny and Brrrrr. Not warm. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm a wuss, I think it needs to be a tad warmer before I try mowing. But heck the Weeping Cherry is getting ready to burst into bloom, and the nectarine and grape hyacinth are already there.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

I'm all souped out. I decided that tonight I'd make this Chicken Pesto Pasta dish. I haven't made pasta for dinner in quite a while and I didn't get any pictures during the process but here's the finished product.
I used piccolino farfalle (baby bowtie) pasta and I popped a tasty bottle of 2007 Uvaggio Vermentino to use in my sauce and to drink with dinner. Perfect! Here's the recipe.

Chicken Pesto Pasta
(serves 2-3)

3/4 lb Chicken Breasts cut in 1-2 inch chunks
2 Tbsp Olive Oil divided
8 oz sliced white or brown mushrooms
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup white wine
2-4 oz pesto (to your taste)
1/4 to 1/2 cup pasta water or chicken broth
Salt & Pepper to taste

6 oz uncooked pasta

cook pasta in a bot of boiling, salted water until al dente, drain saving some water for the sauce.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt, a good pinch or so. Saute the chicken in 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat just till you get color on the chicken. You don't want to cook all the way through. Remove to a plate. Add the second tablespoon olive oil and the mushrooms to the pan. Cook until they are getting some color and start to lose their moisture but don't let them cook all the way down. Slowly add the white wine and the cream cheese stir until it starts looking a bit creamy and saucy. Add the chicken and the juices from the plate back to the pan and let cook for a few minutes, to let the chicken cook through. No more than 5. Add the pesto to taste then the pasta. At this point you can decide if you need to add the pasta water to loosen the sauce some. Taste for additional seasonings, be careful with the salt as pesto can be pretty salty.

Yum!

On the Road to Recovery

Ok. So it's been months. I have a weekly reminder to write but do I nooooo. I also don't do "THE DAMN REPORT" for my regular job either until I have to and I enjoy my blog a million times more. But that's another story. I've been sick with strep throat and mom's had pneumonia for what seems like months even though it was really weeks. Several weeks, and saying she's not a good patient is an understatement. At least I've been entertained by bad Little Kitty. See how his ears look a bit like horns. Rotten kitten, he refused to move and I thought grandma was gonna kill both of us.

Spring is springing into view. I've got bunches of daffodils all over the house to brighten up the place. I think it's helping some too. I didn't think these flowers had a smell but they do. It's really nice and fresh.
If only the frigid weather would just move on out. Not that I don't love the rain and the creek running etc, etc, etc, if the cold would just move on I'd be so thrilled.
I picked up a big bag of Meyer Lemons. They smell so fabulous I can hardly stand it Now what to do with them. Lemon Bars? Lemon Pound Cake? Lemon Curd? I'd love lemon meringue pie, but it has that meringue on it. I'm not fond of that kind of meringue. Oooo or what about Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
Well I'll get back with what I decided shortly.

My First Sugar High Friday

I love King Arthur Flour and order from them religiously. They have the best products for baking and cooking and the Baker's Banter Blog is awesome! Just last night I was searching for a gift for my sweetheart and I stumbled into the site and what did I find Black and White Brownies. These look wonderful but tonight I'm searching for the two recipes I'm doing for Sugar High Friday.

The theme this month is "TOASTED" so I went with nuts. Almonds, because I was too tired to run and pick up walnuts for the Mallows.

I decided to try two recipes. Partly because I wanted to do a test run of gifts for the holidays and partly cause I thought it would be fun to do this with my 9 year old nephew. We ended up only doing the Choco-Mallows with some revisions. My Variation used almonds and I added caramel filled milk chocolate squares.


Below is the original recipe

Choco-Mallows

Ingredients

* 2 2/3 cups chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 teaspoon espresso powder
* 13 marshmallows, halved around the circumference
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted if desired
* 16 ounces chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips
* 4 ounces heavy or whipping cream
* 1 3/8 ounces light corn syrup
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 teaspoon espresso powder
* 3 ounces marshmallows, halved around the circumference
* 2 ounces chopped walnuts, toasted if desired




Directions

1) Line an 8" x 8" square or 9" round pan with parchment, and grease the parchment. If you don't have parchment, use waxed paper or plastic wrap.

2) Combine the chocolate, cream, espresso powder, corn syrup, and vanilla in a microwave-safe bowl.

3) Heat the mixture in the microwave (or in a saucepan set over low heat on the stove) till the cream is hot and the chocolate has softened.

4) Remove from the heat, and stir till the chocolate has melted and everything is smooth.



5) Spread about 3/4 cup of the melted chocolate in the bottom of the pan.

6) Space the marshmallow halves atop the chocolate. Distribute the walnuts evenly in the spaces between the marshmallows.

7) Spread the remaining chocolate atop the marshmallows and walnuts, spreading to the edge of the pan so that everything is covered.

8) Refrigerate for an hour or so, to set the chocolate. Remove from the refrigerator, and loosen the candy from the edges of the pan.

9) Bring to room temperature, and leave in the pan, covered with plastic, till you're ready to cut into squares.

Oh I also totally messed this thing up due to pressure from Sal, I just poured the chocolate over without mixing it with the cream etc. I'll have to do a revision after my weekend away. But they were still YUMMY!!!

Goodbye Fruit Flies

Well after weeks of madness the harvests are winding down, the weather is getting cooler, and the fruit flies are finally moving on or dieing. I'm not sure which. They tend to become the bane of my existence the last few weeks of summer, beginning of fall.

Tonight to continue my thwarting of the last few those pesky flies all those bananas they've been eying that were sitting getting speckled in the kitchen are getting turned in to bread and muffins. Not just any bread either but Apricot Banana Bread. The recipe below is wonderful, I do use the Mariani Apricots if I can find them but any good, moist, dried apricot will do. I love banana bread but this just raises the level of bread way above yum for me and adds a little tang. Oh boy and is it ever good toasted with butter or cream cheese. Now lets see if I can keep from eating it after it comes out of the oven.

Tomorrow night is my final time to finish my Sugar High Friday project with my nephew Sal. But, until that's unveiled here's the Mariani Orchard Recipe for Apricot Banana Bread, all I can say is try it you'll like it.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup Mariani Mediterranean Apricots, chopped
3/4 cup ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, apricots and nuts. Mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine mashed banana, milk and egg. Stir in dry ingredients, mix until well blended. Pour mixture into a 9” x 5” loaf pan, bake for 1 hour or until bread begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and wooden toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, remove loaf out of pan and place onto a rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 loaf.

Oh Soooo Tired

I've been back home from Virginia for a whole 14 hours or so, maybe a little more. The trip was a whirlwind weekend to support family and I'm really glad I went and can hardly wait to return. I'm hoping I was able to get some passable photos with my Blackberry and they're few, but not too bad.
It was beautiful.
Anyone want to purchase a yacht? The Yachts available at Bluewater are stunning and the food at the restaurant was simple but fabulous.




It looks like fall has set in. It's a whole 61 degrees outside and I don't think I'm ready for the change just yet. I have things to do. Chocolate chip cookies to make, Renee's Chili Colorado to whip up for the camping trip this weekend. The pear tree has just exploded with fruit. I'm going to get a batch of pear preserves or two in jars before the weekend starts. These are Bartletts and boy are they good. I'll post more after I'm done.

Random Musings and The Cannoli Cake

So, I've just discovered that I live in a town that is on the National Historic Registry. That's kinda cool. Oh and we've got Shasta County's first legal marijuana cooperative. That's just interesting. As long as everything sold there is locally grown I really don't care, but I'm all for supporting the local farmers. :-)

Speaking of locally grown, Miss Nancy brought me about 25 lbs of Roma's from her sister in laws garden yesterday, enough to make about 8 quarts of delicious sauce. Aren't they beautiful!

Yesterday was my cousin Liz's 70th Birthday. We were supposed to go up to her place for a birthday bash on Saturday but that got canceled so my mom thought having her down would be a good idea, and it was. We had great fun! My brother's birthday was last week so it was a dinner for him as well, old man.
Mom did all the usual favorites Meatball and sauce with pasta, eggplant, garlic bread. Then she decided that we also needed some North Carolina BBQ Pork, so she did a cheater version. There was tons of food.
Mom insisted that I make a cake so I decided on a cannoli cake and it was DELISH. I wish I'd taken a picture of it after it had been cut. For the first time out I was very happy with it, but there will be changes. Sponge cake, split and filled with cannoli filling then topped with this amazing light whipped cream butter cream frosting. it was sooo yummy. Things I was not happy with, I personally think the sponge was a bit heavier than it needed to be but I think that was operator error and I'll have to look into to. My niece refused to even try it because she thinks Ricotta cheese is disgusting. My mom said she likes the traditional Cassata cake better so I may have to do a Cassata/ Cannoli cake taste off down the road doing a full compare and contrast. The cool thing about the recipe from last night is that I have leftover filling AND frosting and I think I'm going to fill some cupcakes!!!! Maybe I'll get pictures of those!

Here's the recipe I used.

Jun 16, 2005

This delicious Cannoli Cake has a thick layer filled with ricotta and cream cheese flavored with orange and liqueur and iced with Vanilla-Cream Frosting.

SERVES 12 (change servings and units)

FOR THE CAKE

* 6 large eggs, separated
* 1 cup sugar (divided)
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR BRUSHING CAKE LAYERS

* 2 large oranges
* 2 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur (optional)

FOR THE FILLING

1 (32 ounce) container ricotta cheese

* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate, mini pieces
* 1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (for feather- design on top of cake)

VANILLA-CREAM FROSTING

* 3 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened
* 3 tablespoons milk
* 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups whipping cream

Directions
FOR THE CAKE: Begin early in day or day ahead to make Cannoli Cake.
Preheat oven to 375°F In small bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually sprinkle in 1/2 cup sugar, beating until sugar completely dissolves and whites stand in stiff peaks.

In large bowl, using same beaters and with mixer at low speed, beat egg yolks, flour, baking powder, salt, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 Tablespoons water until blended. With rubber spatula, gently fold beaten egg whites into egg-yolk mixture, one-third at a time.

Spoon batter into UNGREASED 10 inch by 3 inch springform pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until cake is golden and top springs back when lightly touched.

Invert cake in pan on wire rack; cool completely in pan.

FOR BRUSHING CAKE LAYERS: From oranges, grate 2 teaspoons peel (use the rest of peel for the filling) and squeeze 1/3 cup juice (IF NOT USING LIQUEUR, INCREASE JUICE TO 1/2 CUP). Stir liqueur into 1/3 cup juice; set aside.

FOR THE FILLING: In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat ricotta, cream cheese, rest of the grated orange peel, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup semisweet-chocolate mini pieces.

With metal spatula, loosen cake from edge of pan; remove pan side. Loosen cake from pan bottom; remove pan bottom. With serrated knife, cut cake horizontally into 2 layers. Brush orange-juice mixture evenly over cut side of both layers.

Place bottom cake layer, cut-side up, on cake plate. Spoon ricotta-cheese filling on center of cake layer. Spread some filling out to edge, leaving a center rounded to achieve a dome effect.

Cut a small wedge out of remaining cake layer; and gently rest cake layer over filling. (Cutting wedge will allow cake layer to bend, without cracking, to fit over dome shape.).


PREPARE VANILLA-CREAM FROSTING: In small bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat 3 Tablespoons margarine or butter, softened, 3 Tablespoons milk, 1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth, adding more milk if necessary until mixture has an easy spreading consistency. In large bowl, using same beaters and with mixer at medium speed, beat 2 cups heavy or whipping cream until stiff peaks form; fold confectioners’-sugar mixture into whipped cream. Spread over top and down side of cake.


In a heavy small saucepan over low heat, heat remaining 1/3 cup mini pieces, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth.


Into waxed-paper cone, spoon melted chocolate. (Or, use small decorating bag with small writing tube.) With chocolate, make feather design.


Refrigerate cake until filling is firm for easier cutting, about 3 hours.

Holy Cow

Ok, I'm back. AGAIN.

There have just been so many changes in the last 9 months. I've moved North to the house I grew up in with my bratty brother and my mom and dad. Now I'm here with my mom, my three kitties, mom's kitty and the neighbors boisterous Jack Russell cross Lexie. I've reconnected with friends from school that are keeping me somewhat sane and providing for lots of comic relief and free entertainment. I'm getting to spend more time with my niece and nephew. And, I've met the most amazing man that apparently adores me even though I say what's on my hard headed mind.

So...let the adventures begin, it's looking like there will be LOTS of them.

I've decided with all the things that I've got in my brain that I'll probably expand the focus of the blog to include the other aspects of what's going on here at the ranch. Farm. Ranch. Whichever one it is although with my love of food and family I'm sure there will be lots of goodies cooked and hopefully interesting things will be happening.

Everythings Better with Bacon (or Pork)

Parker's BBQ 3
Originally uploaded by dwightsghost

I'm playing hooky. It's nearly noon, I was up late updating the blog layout and I'm not done. And yet I can't get the darn thought of bacon out of my head. You think working from home would be easy but I've really decided that it's what I have to do when I'm not working on other food related projects. Sad but true and now it back to bacon. Again.
I was just in North Carolina after the holidays to visit family and it's all about the pork products and I didn't get enough. I don't know how that can even be possible but man I'm missing my pork.
I've never been back east in the middle of the winter. There's just not enough room for all the family in any one person's home at that time of year but here we were, about 35 of us at any one given time for the most part, at my Aunt's place eating.
For breakfast, ham biscuits! Not the passable ones you get from Hardee's but real ham biscuits. With the biscuits made from scratch, or Atkinson's biscuit mix with ham (or sausage) from Nahunta. Barbecue, chicken livers and hush puppies from Parker's with these awesome fresh yeast rolls that May Dolan brought over for us. They were still warm when I hid them after snatching one and someone brought over a spiral sliced ham, it was good. Now, that doesn't mean there wasn't the requisite fried chicken but compared to the pork it wasn't touched and it was good too.
So now I'm home in finally rainy Northern California and I'm missing all things pork related which means I'm going to have to make something with bacon. How about some Pig Candy! Thank you Jill Conner Browne!


Pig Candy

Ingredients

# Bacon (several strips)
# Brown Sugar (enough to coat strips of bacon)

Directions

1. Coat uncooked bacon in some dark brown sugar.

2. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Recipe from The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner, by Jill Conner Browne copyright Copyright 2003, Three Rivers Press publishing.

Oooo, and I'm going to be re-reading this book, it's hilarious!