Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

My book club friends are in for a treat tonight because I made a Brown Sugar Bundt Cake with a Butterscotch Glaze. The recipe is from The Back In The Day Bakery Cookbook. (Casey, it is the gift that keeps on giving.)

I have not cut a slice yet, but I did have a spoonful of the glaze. My word it is good. The cake is lightly flavored with ground cardamom and lemon zest. My home smelled amazing as it baked last night.


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It's Been A While...

So I am going to try to ease back into this. Today I am testing brunch recipes for a baby shower I'm hosting in a few weeks for Leah. I made my favorite muffin recipe - Morning Glory muffins - and modified it for mini-muffins. Morning Glory muffins are filled with goodies: carrot, apple, pineapple, raisins, nuts, and cinnamon spice. Little nuggets of fall.









-- Post From My iPhone

Happy Easter!

Yesterday I made an Easter Bunny cake for today's Easter lunch with my family.





It is a Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese frosting. The recipe is from "Come On In" (Junior League of Jackson, 1992).

Happy Easter, y'all. I hope you enjoy this beautiful spring day with your loved ones.

-- Post From My iPhone

A Week Off

Yep - I took the week off! I can't believe it! Yesterday we did a little Christmas shopping in Vicksburg and Jackson. Today, I cook and bake! I am planning to bake Alicia's Oatmeal Bread. Then, I am making three batches of soup to freeze for winter suppers. A Tomato and Leek soup. A Split-Pea, Sweet Potato, and Kale soup. And a Chickpea and Kale soup. I picked out the kale recipes because I have mounds of mustard greens from my mother-in-law's garden that I am subbing for the kale. Yay! This is going to be a fun day!

Recipes from My New Orleans by John Besh

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law gave Chip and me John Besh's My New Orleans for Christmas. John Besh has many restaurants in the New Orleans area. We've been to Restaurant August two or three times, and we never miss brunch at Luke on our weekend visits to New Orleans.

Chip read My New Orleans cover to cover first, and I almost stole it away from him before he finished. As Chip was reading the cookbook, he read many of the stories and recipes from the cookbook aloud to me and would have my mouth watering every night right before bed. I probably dreamed of creole cooking for a week straight! I knew that this was going to be a cookbook I actually cooked from... unlike The French Laundry cookbook that I've ogled but have yet to try a darn recipe.

I made Besh's the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo for the NFC Championship, and it was mighty good! I left out the okra, though, because I just don’t love okra. For Chip's birthday back in October, I made Emeril's Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and it was neat to compare the two batches. I cheated on the Besh batch because I pulled the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken. For the Emeril batch, I used only thigh meat. The thigh meat was better, I think, but the recipes were really similar.

For the Super Bowl, I decided to make the Shrimp, Chicken, and Andouille Jambalaya and the Mardi Gras King Cake recipes from My New Orleans. The jambalaya was really good. It was a celebration of pork: bacon, andouille, ground pork sausage, and sliced smoked sausage. We don't eat much pork in our house, so it was definitely a treat. I used crawfish tails instead of shrimp, and that added a yummy twist.

Stirring up all that porky flavor!

I have some reservations on the King Cake recipe. The recipe said the baking temperature and time should be 375F for 30 minutes. I thought the temp was a little too high, and sure enough it turned out dry and a little too brown. I should have pulled it out of the oven earlier or baked it at 350F. Also, Besh's recipe had me sift the cinnamon and nutmeg into the flour. Next time I might try to roll out the dough, shake on some cinnamon sugar, and roll it up jellyroll-style so that there are swirls of cinnamon throughout the braids. But seriously, I can't complain too much, because with a few tweaks, it will be a showstopper. Just look at this cake!

I forgot to take photos until I had already mixed the dough, kneaded for 15 minutes (!), and let it take its first rise. And from there...

Rolling out the dough for the braid.

The recipe said equal lenghts. These looked equal enough for me!

Getting ready to braid.

The braiding begins. It was so FUN!

Braided and ready for its second rise.

Second rise done. Now it is ready for the oven!

Cooling before the icing goes on.

What do you think? Happy Mardi Gras!

Geaux Saints!

The South is exploding with pride because our Saints are in the Super Bowl! Growing up, Sundays were football days, and we always watched the Saints play. I would sit in my daddy's lap in his chair, and he would teach me all about what was going on on the field. My little brother LOVED the Saints and had a 1991 NFC West Champions t-shirt that he wore out. My high school had a "Who Dat?" cheer (insert "Arrows" for "Saints"), and it was always our favorite way to end a pep rally.

We are having a Super Bowl Party at our house, and here is the menu so far:

Guacamole (football isn't the same without it!)
Buffalo Chicken Dip (Susan says it is the Devil! Can't wait to try it!)
Shrimp, Chicken, and Andouille Jambalaya (John Besh recipe from his new book, My New Orleans. I might throw in some crawfish tails, too.)
King Cake (I'm making one from scratch, also from My New Orleans)

Peyton and the Colts may tear the Saints apart, but I'm hoping that they hang in there and play a good game. Geaux Saints!

Mid-Week Mish-mash

To begin, I'd like to say, "Congratulations!" to Susan and Daniel. Susan gave birth to a healthy baby boy early Sunday morning. I can't wait to see their sweet thing in person!

I am heading to Oxford tomorrow morning and will be there for a while. I'm sure I'll need to mow the yard, and I have perennials to divide. Fun stuff. I have to work before the 11:00 AM kickoff of the Tennessee game this weekend. I'll probably miss the pre-game and the kickoff, and I'm not thrilled about it. If you haven't heard, just yesterday, the new Chancellor, Dan Jones, asked the Ole Miss band to stop playing the school's unofficial fight song "From Dixie with Love" because there are folks who chant "the South will rise again" at one point duing that song. I have been going to Ole Miss games for twelve years, and I had no idea until last year that people chant that crap. Some are defending the phrase, saying that it no longer has racist, segregationist undertones; that is it just of a way to express pride and love for our region. I’m not convinced. Couldn't we find another phrase to express those feelings instead of reviving an old Civil War chant? For me, I say good riddance. Maybe my alma mater can finally move on from all of these offensive Old South relics and can learn to be proud of more than our flawed past. How about building our academic future?

Moving on!

Tonight, we are hosting Chip's parents for dinner. I am making Ina's Chicken Stew with Biscuits. It looks delicious. Last night I roasted and diced the chicken and chopped the veggies so that I can throw everything together after work today. I also baked an Almond-Crusted Pound Cake. It is Chip's mom's birthday, and she adores almond desserts. I am a little worried about the cake because it seems dry and crumbly instead of moist and delicious. There are two things I could have done wrong. 1) I didn't sift the cake flour before I measured, so it is possible that I just added too much flour. 2) I overbaked it. The middle wasn't done after 1 hour of baking, so I turned down the oven to 325F and baked for another 10 minutes. Maybe too long? I guess I'll find out tonight. I hope I am nervous over nothing and the cake turns out to be delicious.

October is My Favorite

I've always loved October. Something about the arrival of cooler weather energizes me. I get a lot done in October.

This October I worked on a few projects. Project #1 at the beginning of the month was to bake the yummiest birthday cake for my husband Chip. I chose Macrina's Tuxedo Cake, and it was fabulous. This cake is huge. It goes something like this: chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache, another layer of chocolate cake topped with raspberries and whipped cream, another layer of chocolate cake and ganache, then the top layer of chocolate cake. All frosted with the most delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Wow. It took me about six hours to bake it and put it together. It was really good but RICH (obviously).

Project #2 was the fall/winter garden. My grandpa grows spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, and broccoli in his fall/winter garden. Chip and I don't love greens, but we do like spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and Swiss chard. I bought transplants (the ones I listed plus fennel and leeks) from Mountain Valley Growers. I love this website! I've purchased healthy herbs and perennials from them in the past: thyme, spice islands rosemary, all-purple mexican bush sage. All have performed excellently in my garden. My live transplants were sent via 2-day shipping. I ordered on a Sunday night and the plants arrived that Wednesday afternoon. The packaging is awesome.

I need to buy some fabric row covers. It doesn't get too terribly cold here in central Mississippi. We rarely see low temps drop below 20F, and we're still months away from weather that cold (think February). I am thinking about getting this GardenQuilt cover from Gardeners Supply Company. Anyone out there have experience with this fabric, or can recommend a different one?

Baking for My Mothers

I'm finally back home from being in Oxford for 11 days. So good to be back home!

Since I had to work Saturday morning, I only got one day off this week. Boo. Sunday was good, but it still didn't really feel like a day off because I was so busy. I baked for my mother and mother-in-law in the morning. Took my mother to lunch and shopping. Then went to my mother-in-law's for dinner. Quite a day! My mother got banana bread. I made a small loaf for myself, and it was excellent. I made a very traditional banana bread with walnuts - recipe from Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics.

My in-laws got these gorgeous Lemon Butter Cupcakes with Strawberries and Lemon Cream.

These cupcakes were wonderful. A light, lemon-flavored yellow butter cake topped with a lemon curd/whipped cream frosting topped with a strawberry. Yum. The recipe was adapted from my favorite bakery cookbook, Macrina. Leslie Mackie makes a delicious layer cake with the ingredients. I have to admit that I cheated on the lemon curd. I ran out of time and bought Dickinson's at the grocery store. I added the store bought lemon curd to the homemade whipped cream, and no one was the wiser.

Christmas Cookies

And here are the rest of my Christmas cookie photos. I baked on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. There are Angel Thumbprint cookies, White Chocolate Dipped Oatmeal Cranberry cookies, and Coconut Macroons. They are all divine. I didn't get around to baking the Red Velvet Cake. Maybe next year.

Christmas Baking

The Christmas baking frenzy has begun!! I'm baking this week. Three batches of cookies and a red velvet bundt cake. Am I crazy? Probably, but I loooove Christmas baking. I am giving most of the cookies away as gifts for my co-workers and friends. The bundt cake is for my family Christmas celebration on Sunday night. Here's the breakdown:



Tonight - Angel Thumbprint cookies. I love these! I made them last year for my family for Valentine's Day. Yum! This recipe is from the Macrina cookbook.





Tuesday - White Chocolate Dipped Oatmeal Cranberry cookies. Enough said. This recipe is from Southern Living.

Thursday - Coconut Macroons. This recipe is also from Southern Living.

Friday - Red Velvet Pound Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. A Paula Deen recipe. It sounds sinful and probably is. My grandmother gave me a bundt pan for Christmas a few years ago, so I really wanted to bring a bundt cake to Christmas dinner. This recipe looked good, and I thought the red color would be festive.

Scones and a Galette

I got some good baking time in on Sunday morning. I flipped through the Macrina cookbook on Saturday afternoon, went grocery shopping, then did some prep work on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning I made the Cherry Almond Scones and a Butternut Squash and Apple Galette for brunch. Both of these turned out great. I made a few substitutions on the galette, but I was very pleased with the results. We enjoyed brunch with a little mimosa cocktail. Yum! We had galette leftovers for supper.

Seattle, Weeding, and my new Compost Bin

It is Saturday morning and the hubby just left for work. My off-days are Sat/Sun and his are Sun/Mon. I've come to appreciate this, as we have an off-day together and one on our own. On Saturday it gives me plenty of time to clean house in the morning, garden mid-day, and then grocery shop and cook in the afternoon. If I have time in the evening, I'll make a muffin or scone for Sunday morning breakfast or some baked good to enjoy throughout the week.

One of my favorite baking cookbooks is by Leslie Mackie. She owns Macrina Bakery and Cafe in Seattle that was featured on the Food Network's Road Tasted show with Jamie and Bobby Deen. I've made many things from her recipe collection, including the Angel Thumbprint cookies I posted back before Valentine's Day. While I was in Seattle, on Friday morning I had some time to explore the city before my flight. I headed out to Macrina's Belltown location at about 7:15 AM. It was thirteen blocks from my hotel room at the W to Macrina Belltown, and a nice walk the entire way. 20 minutes later I was perched in front of a beautiful pastry case filled to the brim with mouthwatering selections. I ordered a Morning Glory muffin. I've made the Macrina recipe a few times, and I wanted to see how my version compared to the real thing. Their's was so much better than mine! Now I know what a real muffin should be like. The muffin bread was so moist and fluffy it just melted in my mouth. When I make the muffins, I usually leave out the raisins because I'm not a big fan. Well, not anymore. The mix of golden raisins in the bread was just perfect. Tonight I plan to bake something from the cookbook. I'll post an update later about what I decied to bake.

In gardening news, we got some rain this week (finally!), and the weeds popped up fiercely while I was away. My Earth Engine compost bin came in this week so I plan to put that together today. I'm off to the garden to sharpen up the hoe and weed the beds. We're supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon, so I better get to it!

Recent Recipes

A few of you have requested recipes for my latest dishes. The puff pastry-wrapped brie didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. The brie wasn't melted enough and the honey bubbled out of the wrapping and all over the pan. I was trying to recreate an appetizer I had a Yocona River Inn and it didn't work. Yocona must have the creamiest brie, the sweetest honey, and the best puff pastry around.

The Angel Thumbprint cookies did turn out delicious. You should make these soon and give some of them away to a friend!

ANGEL THUMBPRINTS

(Courtesy of Leslie Mackie's Macrina)

Makes 4 dozen cookies

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract

3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups finely chopped pecans

3/4 cup raspberry preserves

• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Combine butter, shortening, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed for about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix for another 5 to 7 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and pale in color. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding another. After the last eggs is added, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the vanilla extract and almond extract and mix for about 30 seconds, making sure the egg and extracts are fully incorporated. Remove bowl from mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl again.
• Using a rubber spatula, fold half of the flour and the salt into the dough. After the first batch is fully incorporated, fold in the other half and continue folding until all of the flour has been absorbed, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Pour pecans onto a plate or pie pan. Scoop small amounts of dough out of the bowl and roll the dough into quarter-sized balls. (If the dough is too sticky to handle, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.) Roll each of the balls in the chopped pecans and placed them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between each cookie. Use your thumb to press down on the center of each cookie, flattening them about halfway. Place baking sheets in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Bake on center rack of oven, 1 sheet at a time, for 15 minutes. To help the cookies bake evenly, rotate the baking sheet every 4 minutes or so. Remove the cookies from the oven and using a small spoon, slightly dimple the center of each cookie to make sure the "thumbprints" are big enough to hold the preserves. Top each cookie with 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry preserves, the return the cookies to the oven. Bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, or until the cookies are golder brown and the jam has just set. Do not let the jam start to bubble. Let cool completely.
• The best way to store these cookies is to lay them flat in a single layer. If you want to stick them in a tin or cookie jar, place a small piece of parchment paper between each layer to keep the jam from sticking. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 month at room temperature.

Cookies for My Sweethearts

Angel Thumbprint Cookies

Mexican Wedding Balls

The wedding cookies are just okay. The dough was really crumbly. I think they are supposed to be this way, but I don't necessarily like it. The thumbprint cookies are TO-DIE-FOR! Seriously good. The dough is flavored with almond extract, the cookies are rolled in chopped pecans, and mid-way through cooking I put raspberry jam in the center. Mmmm!