“I” baked a cake!

I LOVE to cook – BUT I am NOT a baker.  I can make a family recipe for yeast rolls – sometimes they rise and sometimes they don’t.  Most of the time they come out good now – I figured out what I was doing wrong.

When I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago with my mom, she baked my daughters favorite pie – a coconut custard pie – yummy.  We ended up talking about one of my favorite cakes that she makes called a Texas Sheet Cake.  I had tried and tried to make that cake, a very simple recipe and it just never worked for me.  I resigned myself to the fact I am just not a baker.

I have a few things I can bake that work well, peach cobbler, sweet potatoe pie (which I don’t really eat), and creme’ brulee’.  Creme brulee’ is my favorite desert so I had to perfect that!

Anyway, so I told my mom I wanted to try the cake again and she emailed me the recipe.  I carefully put all of the ingredients together, mixed it up, poured it into the baking dish.  After I poured the cake batter into the dish – I remembered – I had not put in the baking soda!  so I sprinked it across the top and gently stirred it in.

Three days later – the cake is gone – so I guess my family liked it! BUT my daughter had a birthday yesterday and guess what she wanted – so I baked another one and it came out even better.  This is a pretty quick cake to make – remember that’s my motto!

Follow this recipe exactly.

Grease a 9×12 glass dish with butter and a little flour.  Turn oven on to 325.

Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients for Cake

2 cups of sugar, 2 cups sifted flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup, water, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 cubes butter (1/2 lb.),  4 T Hersheys cocoa (unsweetened), 2 eggs

Put sugar, flour, & salt in large bowl.  In small pot, bring butter, water, and cocoa to boil.  Immediately add to dry ingredients.  Mix well, add sour cream with tsp soda, mix, and add eggs.

Pour into the glass dished (It must be thoroughly greased w butter & flour (rub the butter completely around the dish covering it thin layer, take a lil flour and spread it by moving the dish around so that the flour covers the entire dish – do not make it thick) I learned this early in the kitchen with my Nana.  Bake 30-35 minutes at 325 degrees.  Frost while cake is warm.

Cocoa Butter Nut Frosting

Ingredients

cup of walnuts or pecans (you can leave this off if you want), 1 box of powdered/confectioners sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 stick butter, 6 T milk, 4 T cocoa

Sift the confectioners sugar in a bowl, add vanilla.  Boil milk, butter, and cocoa.  Add to sugar and vanilla – beat well.  Spread over warm cake.

Tip you can either add nuts and mix with the frosting, or you can put on top of the cake after you have spread the frosting.

I really would love to hear how this comes out for someone after it took me soo long to get this simple recipe right!

Do you like Red Beans & Rice?

This will be quick today – trying to catch up after spending Easter with my mom in Atlanta.  That was a long drive and I had hoped to post to this blog while I was there – but there just wasn’t enough time.

Last week, my granddaughters girl scout troop wanted to have a pot luck.   Of course, I had to say – I’ll cook something.  Needless to say, the troop leader called and reminded me.  I could not come up with anything, so I thought about Red Beans and Rice. That is something easy and quick (for me) and I know my grandbaby loves it and thought the kids would too.  My daughter ended up fixing those snack size sausages with biscuits wrapped around them in the oven – 15 minutes – DONE…

BUT – I still cooked the red beans and rice.

This is NOT a quick meal, more of an easy meal to fix while you are working.  Another comfort food for me, here’s how:

Ingredients/shopping list:

• Red kidney beans (We use Camelliabrand.com) You can use others – we like this brand the best.
• Smoked Turkey
• Bay Leaves
• Bell Pepper, Celery, Onion, Garlic (our staple for all beans)
• Seasoning
• Smoked Sausage, Andouille Sausage
• Jiffy corn bread mix (need egg, milk)

Choice:  Soak the beans overnite – that reduces your cooking time.  If you forget, you will have to start early in the morning and boil for longer period of time.

In a pot that can hold about 10 cups of water – add your smoked turkey and cook med/low for a couple of hours until the mean falls off the bone.  Saute your bell pepper, onions, celery & garlic in a pan and put aside or place in a bowl.  In that same pan cook the smoked sausage, andouille sausage and put it aside. Do a lil work.

Once the smoked turkey is done, take the bones out of the pot and with a fork, pull all of the meat off of them and put it back in the pot.  Add the red beans, seasoning, bell pepper mixture in the bowl.  Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Do a lil work.

About 30-45 mins later – check for softness of the beans.  Add the sausages into the pot – NOT the grease from that pot – just the meat.  Cook for at least another 30 minutes or until the beans are very soft – not mushy. Do a lil work.

Take about 1/4 of the beans only out of the pot and put on a plate.  Mash them with a fork and put back in the pot and let it cook for another 10-15 minutes.  This will make the beans creamy.

Now, fix the jiffy cornbread (for ease).  When the cornbread is done, your beans should be ready too!  You will have a meal that you can eat off of for a few days and taste better the next day!  You can serve this by itself or with another meat.  But if you are like me – I put soo much sausage in it – It is a meal all by itself.

If you make too much – you can always freeze them.

Today – I am going to try my first cornbread from scratch (white corn meal).  I have ALWAYS wanted to try it.  My daughter’s godmother made some for their red beans this past weekend and I asked for some tips.  We shall see.

Till next time…..

Havin’ a lil steak – marinade, marinade, and seasoning

A client asked about a marinade for a London Broil.  I haven’t fixed one in a long time, but I think I will soon when the weather is better and I get my grill shipped from California.  This lead me to research, and reminded me that I wanted to post about seasoning.

First, let’s talk about marinades…One of the recipes I found I like, OF COURSE – I have to add my own spin on it.  You can pretty much use this on any beef that you are going to grill or broil…The quantity should be adjusted depending on how much meat you want to marinade.  I am going to use much of this when I marinade ribs for bbq as well – I just bought some St. Louis ribs that I cannot wait to cook.

In this case I am going to recommend:

1/2 c of sweet Italian Seasoning dressing

1 T of salad oil/canola

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1/2 c of Heinz 57 sauce

1/2 c of Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 tsp of seasoned salt (Johnnys I LOVE find it here)

1 T of balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp of lemon pepper

1 tsp of italian parsley

1 whole onion – sliced thin (red)

Fresh thyme, basil, oregano, chives

Mix all the ingredients together – let sit for about 10 minutes.  Poke the meat in a few places with a fork.  Place the meat in a plastic storage bag and pour the marinade over it.  If you don’t have a storage bag large enough, I would use either a plastic container or a deeper glass dish.  Marinade overnight.

The next day grill the meat.  As for the marinade  – I would cook it in a pot and make a very thin gravy.  Taste the mixture and make adjustments by adding more seasoning if needed.  Pour a small amount in to a class with water and mix quickly with a little bit of flour using a fork making sure there are no lumps and pour back into the pot with the rest of the marinade and bring to a boil.  Turn down and simmer.  If it’s too thick – add water or a little bit of beef stock for flavor.  Once that is complete – I would add mushrooms as this recipe suggest.

Here is a recipe that I built mine from

Seasonings

I am not a fan of recipe’s that only speak of salt & pepper…I love well seasoned food.  My pantry has a full shelf of just seasoning – my staple seasonings are:

Johnny’s Seasoning, Lemon Pepper, Chili Powder, Mesquite seasoning, Ground Pepper (variety), ground garlic, cumin, basil, italian seasoning, old bay.

Just about anything I cook will get these seasonings.  I may add more or less depending on what it is I am seasoning.  Of course I am constantly trying new seasonings and marinades.  One I just found that I am learning to use correctly is Chef’s Blend Spices – Ultimate Steak Rub.  I have been using it on all of my meats.  I used it on steaks I pan broiled last nite – YUMMY!!  You gotta try it.  Here is a website where you can find it – I am definitely going to buy all of the other seasonings they have.

Hope you enjoy and please share if there is a new seasoning out there that you love…