Tag Archive for: NC

Double Coffee Tiramisu

/1 Comment/in , , , /by

We are finally home in Charleston, and while we had a great time, it is so good to be back.  The last week we spent up in Linville, NC, getting ready for the Fancy Dress Ball.  This year, instead of family with us, we had some of our closest friends up to participate in the fun.  We all had a great time, and Walker was quite the motivator as Saturday wore on, and we had no plan for what to do.  We ended up coming up with a very funny and very short skit that my brother, who was up with us, MC’d wonderfully.  While we didn’t take home first prize, we did take home 4th, which for the amount of effort we put in (minimal), we were all incredibly happy.  Saturday evening turned into very early Sunday morning quickly, and by the time we all went to bed, we knew the rest of Sunday was going to be a bit rough.  I don’t drink coffee, which is a problem on these mornings, and I was trying to find something that would help me on our long drive home.  I did not find this recipe until today, but I think if I had had the forethought to make this on Saturday in anticipation of Sunday, this would have been a nice little breakfast treat!

Double Coffee Tiramisu

Ingredients:

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup hot water
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1/4 cup coffee liqueur
2 (3-oz.) packages ladyfingers
1/2 cup grated semisweet or dark chocolate

Directions:

Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
Beat whipping cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fold into cream cheese mixture.
Stir together 1/2 cup hot water and coffee granules until dissolved. Stir in 1/4 cup liqueur.
Arrange ladyfingers evenly around sides of 8 (6-oz.) coffee cups or ramekins. Drizzle ladyfingers with coffee mixture. Spoon or pipe cream cheese mixture into center of ramekins. Sprinkle with grated chocolate. Cover and chill 2 hours.
Note: To serve the tiramisù in a single dish, prepare recipe as directed through Step 3. Arrange half of ladyfingers in bottom and up sides of a 2-qt. serving bowl. Drizzle evenly with half of coffee mixture. Top with half of cream cheese mixture. Repeat layers once. Sprinkle with grated chocolate. Cover and chill 2 hours.

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.

Skiing, Swimming, Sledding, and a Pinata

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

We took 14 people up to North Carolina with us this past weekend, so including us, there were 12 adults and 5 children (and 2 dogs). It was a packed house, but we all had so much fun!  Corby, Walker and I drove up on Thursday night which also happened to be Corby’s birthday- we stopped in Blowing Rock at Bistro Roca (www.bistroroca.com) for dinner which was fabulous.  I had a pulled pork crepe that was out of this world.  Walker had mussels that he said were delicious, and Corby had meatloaf that was really good.  The only drawback was that we saved one slice of meatloaf to put in our eggs on Friday morning, and when we stopped to get gas after dinner, Nemo- my pesky 10-year-old Springer Spaniel- ate the meatloaf- it was disappointing.  Oh well.  Friday, we skied all day at Sugar Mountain which was so much fun- bluebird day and 50 degrees- what more could you ask for! The rest of the gang arrived on Friday night.  Saturday, we woke up to another beautiful warm day and an amazing egg, cheese, and vegetable casserole made by Marguerite.  So, the way we set up the weekend was every family was in charge of one meal- we didn’t count lunch, and I was in charge of appetizers and desserts.  After our marvelous and healthy breakfast (the casserole consisted of the only vegetables we had all weekend) we set off on a hike to Lost Cove, while the kids went snow tubing.  It is a beautiful hike down to these amazing swimming holes generally used in the summer unless you are crazy like the men on our hike who decided to swim- in February- in 45 degree water- what?  Anyway, appetizers after we got home included “cheesy goodness” which is Edam cheese wrapped in Pillsbury Crescent Rolls baked at 350 for about 35-40 minutes, and a cheese plate- yay cheese.  Dinner was the Haynie’s famous hot dog bar- every topping you could ever want on a hot dog, and then for dessert, I made the Cheesecake Strawberries which were amazingly good and easy and Blondie Bars- also easy and delicious!  In one batch I cut up Twix Bars- that was something special.  Sunday morning was a breakfast for the history books.  Kendall and Robert made Bailey’s french toast with some sort of homemade heaven (aka syrup), venison sausage, and they added a bowl of fruit for good measure.  While we were eating, it started snowing which of course made the kids go crazy!  We ended up getting about 5 inches of snow throughout Sunday- the sledding, the games, the snowmen, and the snowball fights exhausted everyone!  To revive the group, I made Bacon appetizers which I found on the Pioneer Woman website (www.thepioneerwoman.com).  It was the most simple and fantastic thing ever!  Take a package of bacon- cut it in half.  Lay out the half strips of bacon on a baking sheet.  Place a club cracker in the center of the strip of bacon, place a spoonful of Parmesan cheese on top to the club cracker and wrap the bacon snugly around the cracker and cheese.  Bake at 250 for 2 hours. Really really good, and they did not last long!  After another amazing dinner cooked by Robert and Olivia- beef stew with baked potatoes, we brought out the pinata for the kids which was so fun!  The whole weekend was amazing, and not surprisingly, Walker slept for 3 and a half hours on the car ride home!  Such good food and good friends- can’t wait to do it again!

Ham and Cheese Crepes and a hike to Babel Tower

/0 Comments/in , /by

I can’t believe that Christmas has come and gone already.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  Corby and I went up to the mountains in North Carolina since it is Walker’s year to spend Christmas with his dad 🙁  While we missed Walker tremendously, we had such a relaxing great time just the two of us.  For your sake, I am going to break this up into two posts because I would just ramble and ramble and the post would be too long for anyone to read, and of course you don’t want to miss anything.  So, the first night we got up to Linville, we made ham and cheese (yum) crepes.  A friend had made these for us when we were in NYC a few weeks ago, and they were amazing- we had to try them ourselves.  Our technique needs some working on, but they sure tasted good and were surprisingly easy.

Ham and Cheese Crepes

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

ham

grated mozzarella cheese

 

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, and then add the salt and butter and mix until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled  frying pan over medium high heat. Ladel the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Add in as much ham and grated cheese as you like. Loosen with a spatula and flip half of the crepe on top and then flip to cook the other side. Serve hot.  This is where our technique left something to be desired as it is a little tricky.  Make sure the frying pan is HOT.

These really were so easy and so good, and I think they come off as pretty impressive.

The next day, we went on a great hike down into the Linville Gorge to a swimming hole called Babel Tower- we didn’t swim.  But it was so beautiful, and in the summer, it is a great place to go.  There are several different places to jump off- very low places for me, and there is about a 20-foot jump which scares me to death, but is super fun for Walker.  Here are some pictures.    Tomorrow, I will post recipes about our Christmas day feast of Rommegrot and Canadian bacon strata and our hike up the profile of Grandfather Mountain- too fun!