A favorite side dish for Bar-B-Que!

This is one of my favorite side dishes for anything bar-b-qued - think grilled steaks, chicken, shish-ka-bobs, ribs...

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It is actually better to use tomatoes that are a little bit firm.

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Slice them in the morning, alternating with mozzerella cheese and diced sweet purple onion. Drizzle good olive oil and balsamic vinegar over all. Seran wrap and stick in the fridge until about 2 hours before you want to eat - then take it out and set on the counter and let come to room temperature.

At least, that is my method because I usually have a bit of time in the morning to prep something. If you have a different schedule - then adjust. It is better if you have at least 1 hour so the tomatoes can absorb the flavor.

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If you live in New England, near a Stop & Shop - they have an excellent line of "gourmet" foods now - I think it is called Simply Stop & Shop or something like that... but they have a very yummy basil olive oil that is soooo good. This olive oil is particulary good with this dish. I also keep a jar of olive oil that I put sliced garlic and herb in - you can make your own flavored olive oils, but whenever you see one that is already made - it is usually worth trying out!

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In my photo - that is 1 tomato - it is enough for 2-3 servings.

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Make sure you serve this with some crusty bread because the left-over olive oil/balsamic vinegar makes an excellent dipping sauce!

My Rum Cake

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Not long ago I posted something about making this cake on my quilting blog, and some expressed an interest in the recipe. Believe me, this is not a difficult cake to make (I make it with "help" from my 4 year old son), it tastes great - even if it is a few days old (especially with your morning coffee), and it serves lots of people... at least 18 servings! It is a pound cake, but very moist inside. And the rum taste is evident!

Here is the recipe - I write my recipes as I use the ingredients - because I pre-measure everything. Besides, if I write down 3 cups of sugar - that is what I use - in the beginning - paying no head to the fact that I was supposed to save 1/2 cup for the egg whites. So, yes - you see 2 1/2cups of sugar and than 1/2 cup of sugar - that is just the way I cook...

This is one of those recipes where it is helpful to have a big mixer (for the batter), a small hand-held mixer - for the egg whites, and a seperate BIG mixing bowl (to blend the batter with the egg whites). This BIG mixing bowl can be one of those cheap commerical kitchen type bowls...

To make the cake:

1 cup butter - room temp.

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 eggs yolks - room temp.

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

8 oz container of sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

6 egg whites - room temp.

1/2 cup sugar

So, you don't have time to wait until your butter comes to room temp in order to cream? Put it in the microwave for about 22 seconds - the edges will melt, but the center will still be solid enough and when you cream it with the sugar it will be just fine. Just don't nuke the butter until it is all melted because then it won't work. Eggs I find work OK even if they are a little cold, but good luck trying to cream COLD butter!

1. Mix butter with 2 1/2 cups sugar, beating well. Add egg yolks and beat well.

2. Add flour and baking soda - alternating with the sour cream and mix until just blended well. Add your extracts.

3. In a seperate mixing bowl beat the egg whites until foamy. Add sugar a bit at a time until stiff peaks form. Don't know what stiff peaks are? Well - if you can stick your finger in the stuff and your finger indent remains intact - that is perfect.

4. Fold the egg whites into the batter - this is where the BIG mixing bowl comes in handy - to blend the 2 mixtures. What is "folding" - this means just mixing the 2 things together until just mixed - don't stir and stir and stir here, ok?

Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hour (in a household oven) in a greased and floured tube pan. That means - crisco the pan and then lightly flour. My original recipe calls for a 10" tube pan, but I really have no idea what that means - I just use the same old tube pan I've always had. My pan is nifty - it is a 2 piece pan so I am always assured of getting that cake out of there somehow!!! My oven doesn't take so long because it is a convection oven. Basically - after 1 hour open up the oven and take a look. Then guage. Then start watching and after it looks like the sides are pulling a tiny bit away from the edges of the pan - poke with a shish-ka-bob stick to see if any batter is on the stick. Batter = cook longer. No batter - it is done!

Now I put the entire pan on top of a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto the a LARGE platter. Poke full of holes with that shish-ka-bob stick - at about 1" intervals and pour the hot rum glaze over the entire cake. Of couse - mostof it slides right off the cake - take a soup spoon and keep scooping it up and putting it back on top of the cake until the mixture cools too much and it impossible to scoop - or until you are tired of scooping! Basically - the more hot rum glaze you are able to put on the top of the cake, the more the cake will absorb the glaze down into it. The glaze all pooled at the bottom won't do much good.

Did I mention that this cake is absolutely fabulous even a few days after the fact (just put it in the fridge). So - go ahead and make it ahead of your big event, whatever that may be!

RUM GLAZE

Got to have this recipe too...

I use a very strong, 80% proof rum from Austria - it is typically used for making rum balls and also in hot tea, but I think it would be good with any rum...

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

a little less than 1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup rum

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Bring 1st 3 ingredients to almost a boil for about 3 minutes.

Turn heat way down and add 1/4 cup of rum - be careful pouring because it will tend to fizz up a bit. Simmer for another minute.

Add the walnuts and then immediately pour over your cake. Spoon any glaze back up onto the cake - 3, 4, 5... times!

A NOTE about seperating eggs:

I always crack and also seperate my eggs over a small bowl... by working egg by egg - in a seperate bowl - you have much better control over the situation if there is a bad egg, egg shell or the yolk breaks. And - you never kn0w - you just might end up with a double yolker sometimes! AND - working with a very enthusiastic 4 year old who likes to "help" break the eggs - we usually get egg shells, so this method works best for me!

Orange Chocolate Mousse and technique

Excuse the sloppiness of presentation, but please let me present - chocolate orange mousse.

This is one of those recipes where it is handy to have 2 food processors, but 1 will do just fine.

First, I chill the processor bowl and blade in the freezer. Chilling the bowl/blade makes a better whipped cream, I think. Make 1 batch of whipped cream using 1 cup of whipping cream. Put this in a large mixing bowl in the fridge, and I know that a large bowl for this amount of whipped cream seems silly, but it will save you from dirtying another bowl later on. Make a 2nd batch of whipped cream - again using 1 cup. I put in about 1 tsp of orange extract. If you have a 2nd food processor - just set this bowl in the fridge - if not then you put this whipped cream in a small bowl in the fridge and clean the food processor because you need it again for the chocolate part.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself here and should start with the recipe?

1 tsp grated orange rind

1/4 cup firmly packed sugar

2 egg yolks, plus 2 eggs

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate squares (from the baking section), melted and cooled

1 TBS orange juice

1 cup whipped whipping cream

More whipping cream for the topping, plus mandarin oranges for the garnish

It is enough to make at least 9 small servings. But, hello! this is a fairly rich dessert and usually people are full by dessert, so a small serving is just fine. If you want bigger servings, use less cups.

Combine orange rind, sugar, egg yolks and eggs in processor and blend until well mixed. Add chocolate and OJ; and mix until well blended. Fold in mixing bowl with whipped cream. * Important to see my note about raw eggs at the bottom!

Spoon mixture into dessert cups and chill to set. Top each serving with whipped cream and oranges.

OK - sounds simple enough, right?

Except - do you immediately know that you should melt the chocolate first? I only 1/2 melt it and stir with a tiny little whisk. I move the pan completely off the burner and let and let heat from the pan finish melting the chocolate, giving it a little stir every now and then to make sure it is completely melted.. I use a very thick, heavy pan - because chocolate will burn very quickly in a cheap pan. And burnt chocolate is not yummy, which is why I never completely melt it over the flame in the first place. Now - when the chocolate is cooling I will make the whipped cream - setting the plain whipped cream in the bigger bowl so that later - when I come to the folding in part - it will already be in the correct size bowl.

To get the orange rind off the orange I use a hand-held gadget that looks like a small cheese grater. You have to be careful not to get the pith - because that it bitter. 1 orange will be about 1 tsp. of rind. You can use the orange for something else later.

Following the directions, I will mix the stuff in the food processor. Now - time to add the chocolate and OJ - but WAIT!!! It is important to check that the chocolate has cooled off enough so it won't instantly cook the eggs way more than what you want them to be. But - it still has to be warm enough to pour. Why don't recipes have helpful little hints like this in their directions. I wonder how many people over the years have cooked the eggs into solid chuncks when making this?

Oh - and don't forget to make this the day before you want to eat it - so it has time to set nicely. And - when setting this many dessert cups in the fridge - it is nice to use a tray (just like I use a cookie sheet to put lots of baked potatoes in the oven). If you don't care about presentation - just laddle the mixture into the cups with a small laddle - if it is important not to have drips - then you have to use a laddle, swipe it across your drip plate first and then laddle into the dessert cup. Obviously, this time around, I wasn't caring about the drips - and your family and good friends won't either! But if you are going to be making this alot and really don't want drips... well - there are other ways.

Easy enough to change this recipe around a bit - you can used sieved raspberries (use vanilla extract in the topping whipped cream instead of orange, in that case), or purreed bannanas, use different juice, etc. Strawberries, raspberries, mint leaves, candied orange peels, etc. all make fine garnishes. You can make a fruit purree and put a little over the top... Just try to make sure that all the ingredients "jive" together. But cooking is a bit about experimenting - you don't have to follow this recipe exactly - feel free to change it around a bit.

Oh, and please don't give me any lectures about eating raw eggs - think hollandaise sauce, ceasar salad dressing, etc. Yum.

THAT being said - this is an OLD recipe and we all know that egg products should be cooked. I don't think restaurants serve caesar salad dressing made with raw eggs anymore. And mousse and hollandaise sauce - the eggs are cooked over a pan of hot water until 74 - 75F is reached.

Party Sandwiches

We had a party last week and made 7 sandwich platters. This is the "egg" tray - egg salad decorated with cheese, cucumbers, red onions, peppers, etc. We also had trays of roast, ham, pastrami... as a decoration for the meat sandwiches we like to use sliced egg (get yourself a nice egg cutter!), plus everything we use on the egg ones.

These sandwiches are very economical to make, look pretty and taste great. Actually, the egg ones are my favorite the next day for breakfast.

What else did we serve? We kept it simple with meatballs (in the crockpot), chicken skewers - we prepared the chicken ahead of time and baked 1 tray at a time. then placed the skewers on an electric hot plate to keep warm), green salad, fruit salad, shrimp coctail and clam chowder. We discussed the idea of a potato or pasta salad too, but didn't. It is a pretty safe menu, enough to satisfy both the vegetarians and meat eaters for a little social get-together.

Fast Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

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Someone was over the other day and watched in amazement as Little Boy and I very quickly made this pie. This is definately a "kid" friendly recipe because you can actually get it done before they lose interest! We have rhubarb coming out our ears this time of year and this recipe is a favorite!

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Here's what you need:

Pre-made double pie crust

1 cup sugar

3 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup strawberries in light syrup - spoon off a little of the syrup though

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons flour

1-2 Tablespoons butter

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* - About those strawberries - of course, you can use chopped fresh ones, but many times our grocery store does not have fresh strawberries, so we get the frozen ones instead, which work just fine too! Oh - and it is a bit faster than chopping strawberries. AND - the extra left-overs are sooooo good on vanilla icecream with a nice slice of this pie!

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OK - thaw out the pie crusts, but don't let them get too warm, ok? About 15 minutes should do it.

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Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon together. Add eggs and beat altogether. Stir in the rhubarb and strawberries.

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Pour mixture into pie crust. Cut little chuncks of butter and put over the top of the mixture. Invert 2nd pie crust over top one (this is where it gets "sticky" if your pie crust is too warm, which can make it a bit hard to get out of the pie pan). If it rips a bit, just moisten your finger and "patch". Crimp edges with a fork. Cut good sized slits on the top of the pie with a butter knife - wiggling it back and forth a bit to open the slit up.

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Rip 3 pieces of tinfoil, each about 4". Wrap the tinfoil around the outside edges of the pie.

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Bake at 400 for 45 minutes (on a cookie sheet).

Left over grilled steak salad plate

A great summer dish - next time you have the grill on - throw on an extra steak. After it is cooled, slice it very thin. I love it a day or two later with a variety of salads (tonight's salads were purchased macaroni and purchased potatoe salad, a tossed green salad, and cucumber salad). Because it isn't too hot to run the oven yet - we also had baked garlic bread. Yum! A perfect summer meal!

Cucumber Salad - well, I grew up on sliced cucumbers in vinegar with a sprinkle of pepper - for sure this must have been served just about every day - either with lunch or supper. And that is good - very good, and healthy too. BUT - if you don't care about a few extra calories.... try this - thinly sliced cucumbers stirred in sour cream with probably just less than 1 TBS vinegar. Add some fresh dill if you have any - it looks pretty. And - just before serving - grate a bit of salt over it. Don't add the salt early or your cucs will get watery.

Weekly cooking

No photos, sorry, but I thought I would at least post some of what I've been cooking, not that it seems very exciting, but all these meals are fairly fast and easy to make - all within 1/2 hour to 1 hour and there is enough variety to keep things interesting...


Night 1:

Pot roast - I cooked this in the crockpot on high for 4 hours - I added 1 cup of water mixed with an envelope of pot roast seasoning, plus 1 bag of baby carrots. To serve - remove the meat to cutting board and slice - put on platter. Put carrots and gravy in a bowl. Serve with plain egg noodles tossed in basil/garlic olive oil. I also made an artichoke/spinach casserole that I was experimenting with. This was a really good meal with very little work!


Night 2:
Chicken drumsticks - these were on big time sale at the grocery store this week! I froze 1/2 of them and cooked 1/2. I bought a pre-seasoned mix - country chicken. You combined the mix with water and put everything in the handy-dandy oven bag and baked it. I also made rice - got to have something to sop up all that gravy, butternut squash and brocolli, buttermilk biscuits.

Night 3:
Boneless pork chops - again on sale this week and I bought a big family pack and froze most of them. I baked them in a covered casserole dish with a can of cream of mushroom soup, plus the left-over rice - gravy again! Served with acorn squash. I also made carrots - both my son and Dad love carrots boiled to death with butter. I saved the water for soup. I know, I know - 2 orange veggies, but they are yummy! Apple sauce.

Night 4:
German weistwurst - or is it bratwurst? The light colored sausage. Served with potatoe salad, bread and butter and dill pickles, plus frozen vegetable mixture.

Night 5:
Soup - I combined the left over squash, a little of the rice and vegetables, plus the gravies from the drumsticks and pork chops - added the carrot water... pureed it all with one of those hand held stick blenders - that was my base. Now, I added cooked carrots, corn, peas, more rice and the left over drumsticks - chopped. Served with grilled cheese sandwiches. That pretty much empties the fridge of left-overs!

Night 6:
We went to my sister's for pizza!

Night 7:
A pre-cooked roasted chicken picked up from the grocery store, sweet potatoe, acorn squash, a frozen vegetable mixture. Apple sauce.

Night 8:
Fried chicken tenders - I set one aside for my 3 1/2 year old son who prefers plain food. The rest I chop and add to a frozen stir-fry vegetable mixture, plus I add 1/2 a can of chunk pineapple. I add a bit of terriyaki sauce and plum sauce, but you can also use your favorite stir-fry sauce. Served with rice.

Night 9:
Baked porkchops - I make stuffing from a box - then put the porkchops in a oiled casserole dish - put the stuffing on top and bake (covered) at 450 for 1/2 hour, 350 for 15 minutes and then uncovered at 350 for another 15 minutes. Served with mashed potatoes, carrots mixed with frozen peas/corn mixture and extra stuffing on the side. Apple sauce.

I think that's it for the week and I am fairly sure that is the correct combination of things! I go shopping 2X a week, but here is a pretty decent breakdown, minus juices, desserts, breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc.!!!

Shopping list:
Pot roast
Chicken drumsticks
Chicken tenders
Boneless pork chops
Bratwurst
Roasted chicken

Carrots
Baby carrots
Yams
Potatoes
Butternut squash
Acorn squash
Brocolli

Frozen veggie mixtures
Frozen stir-fry veggies

Chunk pineapple
Dill pickles
Potato salad
Buttermilk biscuits
Apple Sauce

Pot roast seasoning mix
Country chicken in an oven bag mix
Stuffing mix
Cream of mushroom soup
Stir fry sauce
Rice

Bread
Butter
Cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches