Beignets and a Fun Wedding

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We went to a friend’s wedding in Wilmington, NC this past weekend.  I have never been to Wilmington, and it was awesome!  We got into town on Thursday and walked down to a restaurant on the river.  The city is so beautiful and strolling along the streets, the historic homes were so much fun to look at.  We stayed for the weekend out at Wrightsville Beach which is a 20 minute drive from downtown Wilmington.  I had been to Wrightsville once before as a child, but I did not remember what a wonderful, quaint beach town it was.  It was a perfect weekend with amazing weather, beautiful morning runs on the beach, fun boat outings in the afternoons, and the most fun wedding activities at night.  The rehearsal dinner was in Wilmington at the City Club.  The terraced garden leading up to the house was spectacular.  Here is a picture.  The atmosphere was so fun and lively and the food was delicious.  As the groom had spent a lot of time in Louisiana, there was a Cajun theme to the event, and so for dessert, they served a King cake and beignets.  I could not eat enough of these.  They were really really good.  And fortunately, I have a deep fryer, so guess what I am making this weekend!  Here is the recipe I am trying from www.food.com.  I will let you know how it turns out.

Beignets

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pinch nutmeg
4 -6 cups vegetable oil (for frying)
confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Combine the water, milk and egg in a large mixing bowl and mix well.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and the sugar and mix until the batter is smooth.
Pour the oil into a large, deep pot or a deep fryer and heat to 360ºF.
Drop the batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil and fry, turning two or three times, until they are golden brown and puffy.
Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Glazed Lemon Bread

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Now that it is finally getting warm out and hopefully staying that way, there is nothing more refreshing on a hot day than the taste of lemon.  For some reason to me, the taste of lemon always seems cool.  This is a great recipe for a glazed lemon bread which is really a dessert, but I think it is a treat any time- especially for breakfast.

Glazed Lemon Bread

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 1 9×5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the lemon peel. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
Blend the flour mixture into the egg mixture, alternately with the milk; stir just to combine. Fold in the nuts; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.
In a small bowl, dissolve 2 tablespoons sugar in the lemon juice. After loaf has cooled for 10 minutes, spoon glaze over loaf.

A Weekend in Savannah

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

We spent this past weekend in Savannah, GA.  Having never been there, I really didn’t know what to expect, and I was wonderfully surprised.  Of course I had heard Savannah was beautiful, but being from Charleston I am of course biased.  It really is a beautiful city.  We had perfect weather for walking around, and the squares were enchanting.  The first night, we wandered around until we found a great sidewalk restaurant where we could enjoy the weather and looking around.  It was called The Public and it was a great spot.  We then moseyed back to our hotel, The Bohemian and had a drink on their spectacular roof deck over looking the river.  The next day we explored the river front and then drove out to Tybee Island.  Tybee is a great old beach community, and we thoroughly enjoyed a late afternoon cocktail at the Tybee Island Social Club.  They bingo on Tuesday nights and I was very disappointed that it was not Tuesday.  That night we went to Local 11 Ten for dinner.  We started on their roof deck which was fantastic and then had an amazing dinner.  It was really amazing.  Sunday morning before driving home, we stopped at Goose Feathers Cafe for a quick breakfast.  I was still stuffed from the night before, but they had slices of coffee cake in the display that looked very interesting.  The woman told me they were made of pastry dough, a sweet cream filling and topped with cinnamon.  Of course, I got one, and it was so delicious.  I have now spent the better part of the day looking for some sort of recipe that even resembles what I had, and I can’t really find one.  There are tons of recipes for sour cream coffee cakes, but not many for sweet cream coffee cakes.  I did find one that comes from Taste of Home that I am going to try.  We will see if it comes close!

Cream Filled Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar, plus
1 teaspoon sugar, divided
1 tablespoon salt
1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115)
5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 eggs, well-beaten

STREUSEL TOPPING

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

CREAM FILLING

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup butter or 3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Heat milk, butter 1/3 cup sugar and salt; stir until the sugar dissolves. Set aside. Mix yeast, warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar; let stand 10 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour, milk mixture, yeast and eggs; beat until smooth. Add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning one to grease top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.Meanwhile, prepare topping. Combine sugars, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients; set aside. Punch dough down; divide in half. Pat or roll each half to fit a greased 9-in. cake pan. With a fork, pierce entire cake top. Divide topping and sprinkle over each cake. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. For filling, combine flour and milk in a saucepan; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Cool. In a mixing bowl, cream remaining ingredients until well-mixed. Add flour mixture and beat until fluffy.  Cut each cake in half horizontally; spread each with half the filling.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Huguenot Torte

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

The wedding is done, and we had a fantastic weekend!  And the cake turned out well which I could not have done without the help of my dear college friend Lance!!  Thanks to her secret icing recipe and talking me through some basics, it all came together!  She is a fantastic baker, and if you live in Vermont or even if you don’t, you should check out her stuff on her facebook page Takes The Cake Vermont.   The photographer took better pictures, but I don’t have those yet, so here is the one I took at my house before transporting the cake.  The food was wonderful, the weather turned out well despite a torrential storm and flood on Friday night.  The water outside of my parents house where we had the rehearsal party was mid calf deep when people were trying to leave.  It added some drama, but it was really funny to see everyone with their pants rolled up and shoes off trying to get to their cars.  We are not really going on a honeymoon, but we are going to Savannah this weekend for a quick get-a-way.  Shockingly, I have never been to Savannah despite living in Charleston, so I am really looking forward to it.  I did take this past Monday off from work to relax, and while sunning on the porch, I came across a recipe for Huguenot Torte in the South of Broad magazine.  I have not had this in so long, and I was so happy to see a recipe for it.  Such a traditional Charleston recipe and so delicious.

Huguenot Torte

Ingredients:

4 eggs
3 cups sugar
8 tablespoons flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped tart cooking apples
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Beat whole eggs in electric mixer or with a rotary beater until very frothy and lemon-colored. Add other ingredients in above order. Pour into two well-buttered baking pans about 8 x 12 inches. Bake in 325 degree oven about 45 minutes or until crusty and brown. To serve, scoop up with pancake turner (keeping crusty part on top), pile on large plate and cover with whipped cream and a sprinkling of the chopped nuts, or make 16 individual servings.

 

Easy Quiche

/0 Comments/in , /by

I used to not like quiche.  Most likely the reason for this is that I thought all quiche contained spinach because when my mother made quiche it was spinach quiche.  I am still not a huge fan of cooked spinach- will eat it in my salad all day long.  I like it fresh.  Of course I have since had quiche that did not contain spinach, and it was quite tasty, but quiche is not something I ever think about making.  I was at dinner last night to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and she was given a Le Creuset tarte tatin dish as a present.  We were talking about all the things you could make in it, and quiche came up as an option.  So, this morning, I started looking at some quiche recipes.  While this one would not be made in a Le Creuset tarte tatin dish, I particularly like this easy mini quiche recipe- probably because it has a lot of cheese, and cheese is good.

Easy Mini Quiche

Ingredients:

12 slices bread
1 onion, grated
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 pinch black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin tins.
Trim or cut bread into circles. Place circles in bottom of muffin tins. Distribute the onion and shredded cheese evenly between the muffin tins.
In a medium bowl, combine milk, eggs, mustard and pepper. Divide between the muffin tins.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a quiche comes out clean.

Yummy Tastings

/1 Comment/in , /by

This past Friday, Walker, Corby and I rode our bicycles over to Carolinas, a local restaurant that has been around forever.  My father’s office building is right across the street, and literally, he goes there every day for lunch.  And much to their enjoyment/chagrin, he has the same thing every day.  He orders a chopped Caesar salad and a small scoop of ice cream.  Chef Jill Mathias has tried desperately to get him to change things up a bit- maybe try kale instead of his usual romaine lettuce.   But he will not waiver because if you find something good, stick with it.  I think the whole thing is pretty funny, especially when Walker’s favorite dish there is salmon and risotto.  But, back to Friday- we went there for a tasting as Carolinas is doing some of the food for our wedding, and we pick some of the appetizers that will be served.  We ended up with a lamb medallion with a little creme fresh and capers, and a trout salad on brown bread.  They were both delicious- well I didn’t actually try the trout because I don’t like fish, but Corby said it was great as did Walker.  However, one of the things that we tried was goat cheese on their house baked ciabatta bread drizzled with honey and topped with a green.  It was really wonderful, and if we hadn’t already chosen a brie and fig appetizer, that definitely would have made the list.  It seems like such a simple concept which in fact it is, but I would not have thought to put it together.  I am going to try it for my next book club meeting.  I will obviously have to buy the bread instead of their house made stuff- but other than that, I think recreating it will be pretty simple. Here is a version of the recipe I found on www.sarcasticcooking.com.

Goat Cheese and Honey Appetizer

Ingredients:

1 French Baguette- sliced

1/3 cup of goat cheese

Honey

Fresh mint or basil

Directions:

Set the broiler on low to toast the slices of the baguette for just a few minutes until crisp.  Top each piece with desired amount of goat cheese and drizzle with honey.  Top with fresh herbs.

 

My New Favorite Appetizer

/0 Comments/in , , /by

For those of you who watched the Super Bowl last night- what did you think? For those of you who didn’t- it was a pretty interesting game- complete with a 35-minute delay because half of the stadium lights went out, which caused quite a momentum shift. Anyway- Ravens won- football is over til September.  I am ok with all of that.  What was really exciting about the weekend was that I found my new favorite appetizer.  Super easy, super delicious, and looks like you spent a lot of time slaving away in the kitchen.  Of course, it involves cheese because how could it be my favorite if it didn’t?  All you need is a little puff pastry cups- you can buy them frozen at the grocery store, some brie cheese, and some fig preserve.  Cut up the brie into little pieces small enough to fit into the pastry cups, and then add a dab of the fig preserve on top.  Then bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  So amazing!

L’USINE and Jet Lag Dreams

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Happy New Year to everyone!!  I am finally coming out of the fog of jet lag from our trip to Vietnam which was awesome!  It was such an amazing trip, and I am the luckiest girl to have gotten to spend such a special vacation with my family.  I feel so lucky and blessed that I forwent (is that a real word?) eating the traditional black eyed peas and collard greens on New Years Day mainly because I really do feel so lucky, and I really do detest them, so it worked out.  First I want to give a quick up date on the trip.  The food was phenomenal.  Walker, of course was much more adventurous than I, but everything I had was fantastic.  I need to tell you about them most wonderful restaurant we went to.  Corby, Walker and I had a day of wandering around District 1, doing some shopping and attempting to go to the Vietnam War Remnants Museum (it was closed- hence the attempt).  Walker was quite the trooper dealing with me and Corby and all we wanted to see, especially since Walker’s cousins who live in Vietnam and had already seen all this stuff, were back at the house swimming and watching TV.  After several hours of walking in the heat, we decided lunch was in order.  My sister had mentioned a place called L’Usine that all the locals know about and love, and she had pointed out the alley you walk down to find the staircase that leads you to the restaurant.  Fortunately, we were right around the same area, and I managed to find the alley.  Walker was very skeptical.  As we climbed the stairs and finally found L’Usine (http://www.lusinespace.com/), we actually realized we had found heaven.  It was like walking out of Vietnam and into the coolest Manhattan downtown loft space ever.  It also helped that one of the first things we saw was a huge display of cupcakes.   We sat down to a delicious menu.  Walker ordered the baby squid and clam linguini while I ordered a delectable cheese plate. It was a fantastic lunch, and Corby I think just about fell in love with that place and would make the 30 hour trip to Vietnam just to go back.  We then ordered cupcakes that came from a bakery called Sweet and Sour run by a girl from Wilmington, NC- no wonder they were so good!  Anyway, L’Usine was definitely a highlight of the trip!!

Now, here is a quick little recipe that I came up with at 4 am dealing with jet lag.  I know that I am not the first person to think of this, but I thought it sounded great and so easy!  I love Pilsbury Crescent Rolls- but what about before you roll them up, sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese and bits of bacon in them.  Or for a breakfast treat- sprinkle cinnamon sugar in them- roll them up and then sprinkle more on top.  Just a little twist that I am going to try out this weekend!!

 

Loveless Cafe Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

/0 Comments/in , , /by

I know that I have posted a bunch of recipes using pumpkin, but it is such a great fall ingredient and it tastes so good, so here is one more.  I made these this past weekend, and they are amazing.  Thank you to the Loveless Cafe in Nashville for another great recipe.  I will say that I did not have any Loveless Cafe Biscuit Mix which the recipe calls for and had to use Bisquick, so while I loved these little treats- I am assuming that they would probably have been better had I used the Loveless Cafe Biscuit Mix.  I will have to get some of that!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients:

1 package cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

½ cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup Loveless Cafe Biscuit Mix (or other biscuit mix)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour and Loveless Cafe Biscuit Mix (or other biscuit mix), baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients and place dough in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, line cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350°. Place spoonful’s of chilled dough on sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool 2-3 minutes before putting on a cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely.

Ingredients for Maple Cream Cheese Icing:

4oz. cream cheese, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsps maple syrup

3-4 Tbs. milk (depending on desired consistency)

Directions:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in powdered sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and milk. Drizzle on cooled cookies.

Halloween Costumes and Pumpkin Cheese Puffs

/1 Comment/in , , /by

Halloween has always been Walker’s favorite holiday especially since we have moved back to Charleston.  He loves the carnival at school and of course the candy is great, but Walker actually doesn’t go in for trick or treating. Every year, Walker and my dad build a haunted tunnel up the front steps of my parents house, and Walker hides in the tunnel and scares the trick-or-treaters.  As he has gotten older, he has gotten much scarier in the tunnel.  We now have to ask children and their parents whether or not they want a big scare or a little scare.  If they want a big scare, then Walker has full reign to jump out and scare the living daylights out of them.  If they actually don’t want to be scared, then we have to yell to Walker in the tunnel to “tone it down” at which point he comes out completely disgusted and lets the children through the tunnel without scaring them.  While all this is going on, Corby, my dad and mom, and myself are sitting on the front porch (at the top of the tunnel) drinking wine and handing out candy.  By the end of the night, we are laughing so hard at Walker scaring people that he gets mad that we are ruining it and not making it scary enough.  To be honest, with this whole tradition, Halloween is my favorite holiday as well.  Here are some pictures of Walker through the years- first when I got to dress him up in whatever I thought was cute- then we moved on to a “Star Wars” stage (my favorite is the jazz hands Darth Vader), and then we got scary- initially with the Headless Horseman, and now he is just a zombie.  This year, I think I will add to the wine and candy aspect of the evening with this great recipe for Pumpkin Cheese Puffs that I found on www.tasteofhome.com.

Pumpkin Cheese Puffs

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 drops yellow paste food coloring
1 drop red paste food coloring
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
2 eggs
20 sprigs fresh Italian parsley, stems removed

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and vinegar. Cover and refrigerate. In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter and salt to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine the yellow and red food coloring; stir Romano cheese and food coloring into dough. Add eggs, one at a time; beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.
Drop by level tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
Using a star tip and reserved cream cheese mixture, pipe stems onto puffs. Add parsley sprigs. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 10 servings.