Ahhh…Porch Life

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We arrived in the Catskills on Friday night after a very long 14-hour drive.  My wonderful husband drove the whole way.  We got up to Twilight just in time for the Friday night drop-in dinner at the clubhouse, which was a welcome treat.  After a quick bite and hello to old friends that we hadn’t seen since last summer, we came up to the house to unpack and relax.  Friends in Charleston were asking me before we left what we did up here.  To be honest, we don’t do much- there are pretty much only two questions to be answered during the course of the day.  What hike will we do, and whose porch are we sitting on tonight?  The hiking I love, but porch life is what I look forward to all year long.  The Swansons’ porch has one of the better views, and hanging on that porch usually involves some sort of meaty treat.   Our porch always brings a plethora of cheese (after all, it is my porch), and Dave’s porch is usually reserved for after-dinner cocktails and fireside chats.  It really doesn’t matter whose porch we are on; it is always a good time.  However, I did want to spice up my cheese offerings this year.  And, in honor of my two favorite cookbook authors, The Lee Brothers, who coincidentally have a house close by and we are hoping to see next weekend, I am going to try to recreate their Henry’s Cheese Spread.  I have had it at a cocktail party they threw during Spoleto in Charleston, and it is fantastic.  I think everyone in Twilight will love it as much as everyone in Charleston.  Stay tuned for more “porch” recipes!

Henry’s Cheese Spread

Ingredients:

10 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (3 cups)
2 ounces (1/4 cup) lager or ale
Juice of 1 lemon (3 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish, drained
2 teaspoons hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Crystal
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 garlic clove, minced

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture is smooth and spreadable. Transfer to a small bowl to serve.

Sierra’s Favorite Cucumber Soup

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We spent the most wonderful weekend up on Lake Summit with a bunch of great friends before we picked Walker up from camp.  I can’t believe three weeks’ sleep-away camp has already come and gone.  Lake Summit was like a camp for adults, which is my favorite kind of place.  We sat on the boathouse deck for pretty much the whole day- occasionally swimming, napping, reading, fishing, and lots of eating and drinking.  Two of our group were in charge of lunch, which were fabulous BLTs and really delicious cucumber soup.  It was a perfect meal for a hot summer day.  I had put my soup down while eating my sandwich, only to look up and see Sierra, a very sweet dog with maybe not the best manners, nose deep in my soup.  It was so funny I couldn’t even be upset that she had eaten the rest of my soup.  Here is Sierra’s favorite cucumber soup recipe- hope you enjoy it as much as she did!

Chilled Cucumber Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound cucumbers, peeled, seeded and sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups fat free plain yogurt

1 green onion coarsely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

4 1/2 teaspoons snipped fresh dill

Additional chopped green onions and  snipped fresh dill

Directions:

In a colander set over a bowl, toss cucumbers with salt. Let stand for 30 minutes. Squeeze and pat dry.

Place the cucumbers, yogurt, onion and garlic in a food processor; cover and process until smooth. Stir in dill. Serve immediately in chilled bowls. Garnish with additional onion and dill

 

 

New Mom Meals

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My dear friend Kendall is having a baby today, maybe even as I write this.  It was scheduled which is how I know it could be happening right now.  I am currently hanging out with her first son Kevin before I take him to camp, and then I will pick him up this afternoon and take him out to the hospital.  I think that is going to be a very difficult ride.  Kendall and Robert do not know what they are going to have, but they will send out a text to all of us who are waiting very impatiently to tell us all the good news.  When I pick Kevin up from camp this afternoon, I will know if it is a boy or a girl, and he still won’t, and of course, Kendall and Robert want to be there when he finds out.  So basically I am trying to bribe Kevin not to bribe me into telling him.  I am pretty sure I am going to win this one.  I texted Kendall this morning asking if there was anything I could bring her this afternoon like beer, cold cuts, soft cheese or anything else she has not been able to eat for the last 9 months.  She said she would let me know.  In that vein, I found a great web site (TheKitchn.com) for 10 great meals to bring new moms http://www.thekitchn.com/what-foods-to-bring-a-new-mom-10-recipe-ideas-176173.  Chances are I will bring donuts and beer mainly because I think she will like that better than healthy chicken.

Brownie Dessert

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Pinterest always makes me hungry.  I love looking at the wonderful food photography, and all of the recipes are great.  I did read a really funny quote from DJ Joe Kelly about all of the food photography that is constantly on Facebook and Pinterest.  He said:

“Remember the old days…when you used to have dinner…then grab the camera, focus it, and take a picture of your food? You’d then take the roll out of the camera, drop it off at the Fotomat place, and you’d pick it up a few days later…. Then, you’d pick out the best photo of your food, go back to the Fotomat, drop off the negative, get copies of the photo made….then, pick them up a few days later. You would then take the photos, put them in envelopes, add stamps, then run down to the post office and mail the pictures of your dinner to all your friends. Remember all that?

Of course not! You didn’t use to take photos of your food – why are you doing it now?

Studies show Facebook would be much less traveled if people just stopped taking pictures of their food!

Apparently, your friends onhttps://thesouthwillrise.com/wp-admin/post-new.php Facebook aren’t the only ones tired of this practice.Some restaurants are now banning picture taking in their dining rooms since all the camera flashes are disrupting the ambiance and disturbing other diners.

If you eat a nice meal and don’t take a photo, did it really happen?”

I thought it was pretty funny, but despite that, I do love this new trend.  Here is a fantastic Dessert Brownie recipe I found on pinterest via Luscious Food Recipes for the Soul while drooling on my desk.

Brownie Dessert

Ingredients:

2 brownie mixes
1 extra large egg
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 (8 oz.) containers whipped topping
1 (3 oz.) package instant chocolate pudding
1 (3 oz.) package instant vanilla pudding
3 1/2 cups milk
1 Hershey candy bar or chocolate syrup

Directions:

Mix brownie mixes according to directions. Add egg. Bake in 9×13 inch greased and floured cake pan. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and 1 container whipped topping. Put this mix on top of the cooled brownies. Blend puddings and milk together and put on top of the cream cheese mixture. Top with another layer of whipped topping. Put chocolate shavings or chocolate syrup on top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

 

So Many Cravings

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It has been an eventful week in our house with Walker out of school.  I took him fishing with a friend on Tuesday where he caught one red fish, two blue fish, two baby sharks, six big sharks and the biggest stingray I have ever seen.  Needless to say we did not swim in the ocean on Tuesday.  Yesterday, Corby, Walker, Nemo and I drove up to Lake Summit in North Carolina to drop Walker off for three weeks at Camp Mondamin.  This is Walker’s third time at Mondamin but his first time for three weeks.  He was so excited, and fortunately for me, the camp puts up pictures every day for the parents to see how the kids are doing.  And from the pictures this morning, it looks like the first day was a blast.  So, now that Walker is off for a couple of weeks, Corby and I have decided to do a cleanse.  I guess this is a good time to do it since we don’t have to cook Walker meals and there are not snacks in the house.  But on the other hand, now also would be a good time to go out to dinner and movies and bars etc since we don’t have to get a babysitter.  But, alas, we have chosen the cleansing route and this being the first day, I want to eat my desk.  My lemon, maple syrup, cayenne pepper concoction is not really doing it for me right now.  I am instead thinking about cheese, pastries, bread, crackers, milkshakes, cheese, hamburgers, bread and more cheese.  So I have decided to post my all time favorite recipes and to live vicariously through writing them out.  Here is the first one- keeping it pretty simple here with an old fashion grilled cheese sandwich.  (The two pictures are of Walker and his shark and then the car ride up to camp- Nemo did not want Walker to go!)

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:

4 slices of white bread

3 tbsp butter

cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat skillet over medium heat. Generously butter one side of a slice of bread. Place bread butter-side-down onto skillet bottom and add 1 slice of cheese. Butter a second slice of bread on one side and place butter-side-up on top of sandwich. Grill until lightly browned and flip over; continue grilling until cheese is melted. Repeat with remaining 2 slices of bread, butter and slice of cheese.

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris

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Tomorrow is Walker’s last day of 4th grade.  He keeps saying he can’t believe how quickly the year went by. I can’t believe how quickly the year went by.  The years somehow keep getting faster.  Fortunately, while summer does seem to disappear on me too quickly as well, I am looking forward to enjoying the long lazy days ahead.  Walker heads to camp for three weeks next week, and everyone keeps asking what I am going to do- the answer is nothing.  I am pretty excited about it.  Well, nothing is a relative term because I do plan on making strawberry daiquiris and sitting on my porch.  Here is my favorite daiquiri recipe- hope you enjoy it as much as I plan to.

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris

Ingredients:

3 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup white rum
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 (12-ounce) can limeade concentrate, thawed and undiluted
1 cup crushed ice
6 lime slices (optional)

Directions:

Place the first 4 ingredients in a blender; process until smooth. Add ice; process until smooth. Serve immediately; garnish with lime slices, if desired.

A Weekend in Savannah

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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.

An Update on the Wedding Cake

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I am getting married in 8 days.  It is amazing how fast this has gone- granted I didn’t want much time between engagement and wedding, and everything is all done- except that I still have to make the wedding cake.  This is the only thing that I am feeling at all stressed about, but I figure if it doesn’t work out- I can always run the the grocery store and buy a cake or a lot of cakes- either way- should be fine, right?  This definitely has been an eye opening experience since I have now googled how to assemble/decorate a wedding cake and watched lots of videos.  For example, I was wondering how in a tiered cake is there frosting underneath the different tiers.  Apparently, you put each tier on cardboard and that way it is easy to disassemble and serve.  Also, I found out that you need to put supports in the cake so it all stays together.  Thank goodness for Amazon.com and there vast amount of baking supplies.  As for decorating, well that will just be a morning of creation.  In searching for decorating ideas, I came across a website of ridiculous wedding cakes 30 Hilariously Terrible Wedding Cakes.  I don’t think I will model our cake after any of these, but here are a few of my favorites!

Bayou Bakery and Smoked Bacon Marmalade

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I came across Bayou Bakery  located in Washington, DC while searching for new recipes and places I want to visit, and I think a stop here on my yearly drive to New York this summer is going to be a must!!  Not only that, I think I need to own this cookbook DamGoodSweet – Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth New Orleans Style by chef and owner David Guas.  I love the website for the bakery and especially this recipe for Bacon and Vidalia Onion Marmalade.  Sounds amazing!!  If anyone has been here- would love to hear your thoughts, and I can’t wait to go myself this summer!

Smoked Bacon & Vidalia Onion Marmalade

Yields: approximately 6 cups
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds – Vidalia onions, medium diced or pulsed in food processor (approximately 5 onions)
1/2 cup – Apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon – Mustard seed
1/2 cup – Light brown sugar
1/4 cup – Steen’s cane syrup
2 to 3 strips each – Bacon (preferably Allan Benton’s Bacon)

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Lay the strips of bacon onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place inside the preheated oven.  Cook the bacon for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, until each strip is evenly crispy.  Remove the baking sheet with the bacon from the oven and drain off the rendered fat into a heat proof container (a coffee can works great for this).  Chop the bacon into small pieces and reserve.
Toast the mustard seeds in a dry pot on medium heat just until the seeds begin to dance and get slightly browned.  Add the vinegar and remaining ingredients into the pot with the seeds, including the chopped bacon.  Cover the pot and raise the temperature to medium high.  Allow the onions to sweat on the heat for approximately 20 minutes, stirring the pot a few times throughout.  After 20 minutes, remove the cover and continue to cook the ingredients on medium heat until most of the liquid is reduced and the onions are dark in color—approximately 45 minutes to one hour.

Marmalade lasts for 2 weeks in the refrigerator and for 3 months in the freezer (air tight container).

A Fresh Twist on Salsa

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I was at the grocery store yesterday with Walker, and he was lamenting the fact that they never have his favorite fruit- Saturn peaches of course.  I told him that they were not in season to which he responded, “Well let’s just go get ice cream then.”  Which actually made perfect sense to me, so that is what we did.  It got me thinking about what fruits are in season, and I had actually been over to my brother and sister-in-law’s house for dinner last weekend, and they served an amazing lemon pound cake with fresh strawberries they had picked that day out at Ambrose Farm.  The strawberries were delicious, and while you can get strawberries year round at the grocery store, they are always so much better when they are in season.  I started googling strawberry recipes and found this one for fruit salsa and cinnamon chips.  It looks like the perfect addition to spice up brunch, and you can change it up for whatever fruit is in season.

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

Ingredients:

2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Golden Delicious apples – peeled, cored and diced
8 ounces raspberries
1 pound strawberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor
10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
butter flavored cooking spray
2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

Directions:

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.