What's Cooking, Lake Norman?

Today about 8 inches of snow blankets the grounds of the Cardinal Health Care facility.  It’s beautiful, but I must tell you I hate snow.  Employees don’t come in, making the hardy souls who managed to make it disgruntled and resentful.  Family can’t get up here to visit with patients (read: me) making them disgruntled and unhappy.  So, snow snow, go away.  We are in the South, or didn’t you get that memo?

Because of the above, I’ve dove into my pile of books to keep me amused.  I am still trying to muddle my way through Julie and Julia, bored as I can be.  I ordered the movie from NetFlix…hope it’s better than the book.  The one thing that bugs me most about this book is how lazy the author’s views on fidelity are.  She speaks of trying to seduce an actor with her Spiced Pecan Cake with Pecan Icing.  Good thing the actor in question didn’t succomb, or I’d have thrown the book against the wall. 

Spiced Pecan Cake with Pecan Icing by Paul Prudhome

Cake

• 2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, see note
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed,see note
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, see note
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, see note
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature,see note
• 3 tablespoons vanilla extract, see note
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups sifted unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk, plus
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3 egg whites, room temperature (save yolks for frosting)

Cake Glaze

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 8 egg yolks, room temperature (lightly beat all but 3 extra whites with pinch salt and freeze for other use)
• 1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, cut into pieces,room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
• heavy cream, if needed to thin
• pecan halves

  Cake: Position rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 425 degrees F.

To candy pecans, place on a large ungreased metal baking sheet. Roast 10
minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and
nutmeg in a medium bowl. Mix in 1/4 cup butter, and stir in hot pecans to
coat thoroughly. Return mixture to pan and roast 10 minutes, stirring every
2 minutes. Mix in 2 tablespoons vanilla, and roast another 5 minutes,
stirring frequently. Cool candied pecans to room temperature. See bottom
Note!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8″ round cake
pans. Cream remaining 3/4 cup butter with 1-1/2 cups sugar in large bowl of
electric mixer at high speed until very light and fluffy, about 6 minutes.
Sift flour and baking soda into another bowl. Combine milk and remaining 1
tablespoon vanilla in measuring cup. Add dry ingredients and milk mixture
alternately to butter mixture, beating at high speed until well blended,
scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Gently stir in candied pecans.
Beat egg whites until frothy. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon at a
time, beating at high speed until mixture is stiff but not dry, about 2
minutes. Gently fold beaten egg whites into batter in three additions.
Divide batter among prepared pans, forming a slight depression in the center
of each. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean,
about 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pans, then invert onto wire racks, and
cool to room temperature. Cake Glaze: Heat water and sugar in heavy small
saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, swirling pan occasionally.
Increase heat, and bring mixture to a full boil. Remove from heat, and stir
in vanilla. Immediately brush hot glaze over top and sides of each cake
layer. Frosting: Heat sugar and water in heavy 1 quart saucepan over low
heat, swirling pan occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and
boil without stirring until mixture registers 230 degrees F (thread stage)
on candy thermometer, swirling pan occasionally, about 15 minutes. Blend
egg yolks in the large bowl of an electric mixer at high speed for 5
seconds. Decrease speed to low, and add hot syrup in a thin stream, and
then beat at high speed until cool, about 10 minutes. DO NOT SCRAPE DOWN SIDES OF BOWL. Gradually add butter or margarine, beating at medium speed until smooth, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and blend in powdered sugar and vanilla. Add chopped pecans and beat at high speed until mixture is very thick. Thin frosting with cream if necessary. Stack cake layers on a serving platter, spreading 1 cup of frosting between each, refrigerating frosting as necessary to keep it firm. Smooth remaining frosting on sides and top of cake. Arrange pecan halves around top edge. Serve at room temperature. Note: If this does not sound rich enough for you, it can be made even richer. To do so, increase all ingredients used to candy the
pecans by one half. After cooling, reserve one cup of the candied pecans
and add these to the icing at the same time as the toasted pecans are added.

Makes one three layer cake

Paul Prudhumme’s Louisana Kitchen Cook Book

Pages 330-331

Even though I am stuck in this rehab center all day, I still hate to see the rain.  It makes my whole room gloomy.  Weekends are always so long here, no therapy and no activities to help pass the endless days.  I never thought I’d have this problem, having too much time on my hands.  sigh.

So, one of the books I’m reading is called In This Skin by Simon Clark.  In it these 4 strangers are pulled to this abandoned hulking dance hall called the Luxor.  Wouldn’t you know that it has a “doorway” to another world full of  creatures that skin humans and wear their skin a la Jame Gum.  I’m to the part where they get away from the “Skinners” and return to the little apartment within the hall to discuss a plan of attack.  The pregnant chick serves everyone cake and water.  So, I wondered what sort of cake do you serve when coming up with a battleplan against other worldly creatures who want to skin you alive?  I know what I’d serve in her spot:

Sweet Monster Cupcakes

From: Family Fun Magazine

Today I haven’t been feeling my usual chipper self, so I had to skip Bingo.  This is a travesty for a few reasons; one, it gets me out of my room and forces me to socialize and work my arms to get down there in the wheelchair.  Two, you can’t win fifty cents a game sitting in your room, now can you?  Three, dude came on a little strong on Monday and I don’t want him to think I’m afraid of him now…nobody finds numbers quicker than me. 

But, I felt puny, as Granny would say, so I continued reading my large and ever growing stack of library books.

Bless Your Heart, Tramp by Celia Rivenbark has taken a silly turn.  I guess that’s not exactly true, as it isn’t rocket science I’m reading, but she does discuss some Southern sayings that I’ve never heard.  For example, she describes a recent trip to Home Depot on a Saturday with tons of people milling about by saying  ” Shoppers were swarming the place like ants on marmalade.”  Huh.  Who takes marmalade to a picnic?

Here are some of my favorite Southern sayings..at least the ones I’ve grown up with:

• “Your teeth are as yellow as gourds.”
• “Dispute me, Gaither!” (used when a child corrects an adults story)
• “I’m going to fly from here to Georgia!”  (used when same child is driving you crazy whining, et al)
• “I know another dog named Ring”  (used snidely to gossiper when gossiper is talking about another and the gossiper has done the same thing).
• “As scarce as hen’s teeth.” (near impossible)

On to the marmalde with ants…

Jim’s Orange Marmalade
2 lb	Seville oranges (about 5)
1	Lemon
6 c	Water
7 1/2 c	Sugar

Directions: Put 4 small saucers in freezer.
In a very large pot, combine oranges, lemon and water.
Cover and bring to a simmer.
Let simmer 2 hours.
DON’T ALLOW TO BOIL.
Turn off heat.
Remove fruit.
Let cool 5 minutes.
Cut in half and scoop pulp, seeds and pith back into pan.
Put shells to one side.
Bring pan to a boil and boil hard 5 minutes.
Strain through damp cheese cloth in a sieve.
Gather ends and squeeze out remaining juice.
You should have 6 cups.
Make up any difference with water.
Return liquid to pan.
Remove all white pith from skins.
Cut skins in fine strips (or as desired) and add to pan with sugar.
Place over low heat and stir to dissolve sugar.
Bring to boil.
Boil hard, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.
Boil hard until jell point is reached, between 60 and 90 minutes depending on natural fruit pectin available.
Jell point test.
Chill some saucers in freezer while preparing marmalade, 2 or 3.
Test: drop a small amount of hot marmalade on chilled plate and chill for 2 minutes.
Run finger through marmalade on plate.
If surface wrinkles, it has reached jelling point.
If still syrupy, continue boiling.
Repeat test at 5 minute intervals until jell point is reached.
Remove pan from stove and stir for 5 minutes, skimming off any foam.
Ladle into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space.
Seal as you like

I had to get on a wait list for this book at the library.  Unbelievable.  Three little boys, coming of age in a small town, discover that even though there is unspeakable horror that they can’t understand lurking underground in the graveyard, there is real terror in their everyday lives!  That sounded pretty good, didn’t it?  It’s code for most of their parents are terrible.

The little boy, Barry, is sitting down to dinner with his abusive father and apathetic mother when he decides, over his Pork chops, mashed potatoes and lima beans, he’s had enough of his father, and stands up to him.  It doesn’t end very well, but the dinner sounds pretty decent, right?

OK, these pork chops I present to you are pretty fancy, and in no way do they represent the kind that Barry’s mom must have put on the table, because the book makes it clear that she is slovenly.  But we are not, and so here you are:

Tropical Grilled Pork Chops

Tropical Grilled Pork Chops

The Best Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes- the best you’ll put in your mouth!

1 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes 4 Tbsp heavy cream or a half half mix of cream and milk 2 Tbsp butter 1 Tbsp milk 1/2 teaspoon salt Salt and Pepper First we need to peel the potatoes, wash them and cut them into four pieces. We put them into a saucepan and cover them with cold water so all the potatoes are covered. Then we add salt (or maybe even better – before we cover them with water) and bring water to boil. When it boils we reduce the heat and we let the potatoes simmer for like 15-20 minutes. We can check if they are done by piercing one with a knife. If it goes in smoothly, they are done. Drain the potatoes and put them back into the saucepan and return them to really low heat- This will make the water evaporate and and mashed potatoes will taste better. Make sure you don’t burn them! In the mean time (or while you are waiting for potatoes to cook) you can warm the cream (and milk if you will be adding milk) and then add it to the potatoes together with butter. Mash the potatoes with wire masher, potato ricer or electric mixer until you get the desired smoothness and add some more salt and pepper if you want. Voila, this is the best simple mashed potatoes recipe.

Roasted Lima Beans from Food Network!

• 1 cup giant lima beans
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Place the beans and water in a large saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the beans are just soft, about 1 hour. Remove from the heat. Drain the beans and cool under running water. Drain thoroughly and spread on paper towels to dry.

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F. Toss beans with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt, lime juice and cayenne. Spread beans out on a baking sheet and place in oven. Roast until beans begin to brown slightly. Serve warm or room temperature.

I’ve never thought so before, but this Julie and Julia book is driving me nuts.  Julie annoys me because she takes stabs at Republicans every chance she gets and she thinks infidelity is okay.  I truly can’t stand her.  I’d kill her if she were my friend.

Anyway, I’m to the part where she’s about to give up the “Project” altogether, but before she does, she makes a few more dishes.  The first is a plain broiled chicken with sauce Diable and Chou-Fleur en Verdure(puree of cauliflower and watercress with cream, she explains).   For dessert she makes Charlotte Malakoff aux Fraises.  Who cooks like this?  Three complex recipes a night?  I can’t even fathom.

Sauce Diable

 

Use with broiled chicken, lamb and pork. Escoffier makes a good bottled variety.

1 cup BROWN SAUCE
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Saute onions and garlic in butter, add wine, and simmer for 4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.

 

 

Charlotte Malakoff

Charlotte Malakoff aux Fraises
From Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Serves 8 to 10 people

1 quart fresh strawberries
1/3 cup orange liqueur
2/3 cup water
24 single ladyfingers
1/2 lb. softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange liqueur
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 1/3 cups pulverized almonds
2 cups chilled whipping cream

Hull the strawberries. Wash them quickly if necessary, and set on a cake rack to drain thoroughly.
Line the bottom of a 2-quart cylindrical mode with a round of unbuttered waxed paper.

Pour orange liqueur and water into a soup plate. Dip in the ladyfingers, one by one, and drain on rack. Line sides of mold with ladyfingers. Reserve the remaining dipped ladyfingers.

Cream butte rand sugar together for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in orange liqueur and almond extract. Continue beating for several minutes until sugar is completely dissolved. Beat in the almonds.

Whip the cream until the beater, drawn across the top of the cream, leaves light traces. Fold the cream into the almond and butter mixture.

Turn a third of the almond cream into the lined mold. Arrange over it a layer of strawberries, heads down. Cover them with a layer of ladyfingers. Repeat with another layer of almond cream, strawberries, and ladyfingers. Fill the mold with the rest of the almond cream and a layer of ladyfingers if there are any left. Trim off ladyfingers around edge of mold, and press the trimmed off bits into the top of the cream. Cover mold with a round of buttered waxed paper , set a saucer over the paper, and place a 1 lb. weight on it. (I used cans of beans.)  Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. The butter must be chilled firm, so the dessert will not collapse when unmolded.

When ready to serve, remove the waxed paper. Run a knife around the inside of the mold, and reverse dessert on a chilled serving platter. Peel waxed paper from top, and refrigerate dessert until serving time. Decorate with strawberries an accompany with whipped cream or strawberry sauce.

No, not you.  It’s the new book Susan from Housemasters Home Inspections brought me by today on her visit!  It’s is incredibly funny and written by Celia Rivenbark of  We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier fame.

Wouldn’t you know it’s chock full of food references?  This book is right up my alley.  When reading the first chapter I found this excerpt and knew the  book was for me: 

Having a baby at age forty, or any age for that matter, is a whopping life-changer.  We went from impetuous, “What? A new martini and cigar lounge opens tonight? We are there!” kinda folks to the couple who spends Saturday night at K&W begging our twenty-month-old to please stop spitting creamed corn on our sweatpants.

I can relate.  To the lifestyle change, not having a baby at 40, thank god.  Anywho, creamed corn in the south never comes out of a can, uh uh.  My grandmother made hers in an iron skillet after taking an enormous knife to the whole kernels, and then turning the knife around and scraping down the cob with the blunt part to get the juices, too.  Put that in the skillet with a fair amount of butter, salt and pepper and you have got something heavenly.  That’s truly all you need to know to make good creamed corn, but if you are cooking/kitchen challenged here’s a step by step, ya’ll.  From Cooks.com:

I’m reading the book Just After Sunset by Stephen King, who is normally my favorite author.  This book, however, is just terrible.  It’s a collection of short stories, which I abhor anyway, but it was a gift, and I mean to get through it.

The story The Things They Left Behind features a young man who escaped perishing in the Twin Towers during 9/11 by calling in to work.  Uncannily, things from his coworkers who didn’t survive begin to show up in his apartment.  After deciding to dispose of them, he feels so relieved he picks up an order of General Tso’s Chicken at his favorite Chinese place.  The question is: Will these things stay gone?

General Tso’s Chicken

If you read the post below, you know I’m cooped up in a Rehab Center.  Real Estate has been put on hold for me until I can walk again, so I have been reading like a madwoman!!

If there’s one thing I miss (activities, not people) while my legs heal, it’s cooking.  I never thought I’d miss it this much.  So, to give myself something to do during the 22 hours in the day when I’m not exercising, I’m going to give you some excerpts from my reads with food. 

Currently I’m reading Julie and Julia, now a movie, which I thought I’d love so much more than I do.  Frankly, I’m having trouble getting through.  I will prevail, however.  You must know the book is fraught with mentions of all kinds of crazy French food, but I’m 1/2 way through and I ain’t going back. 

One thing that Julie and her hubby drink all of the time are Gimlets.  Apparently, her hubby makes the best and are just the thing when the plumbing goes haywire and begins to spew black vile liquid rice…shudder (page 215).

Gimlet Recipe:    

Gimlet

1.25 oz Tanqueray® gin
1 oz Rose’s® lime juice
1 twist lime

Pour the gin and lime juice into a mixing glass half-filled with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the lime wedge.
Further, Julie mentions Chocolate Mousse helps with the same problem.  This is one of the few things we agree upon(page 215).  Here’s a quick version of this dessert I found at Recipe Key:

Chocolate Mousse  

Chocolate Mousse

Navarin Printanier  

Navarin Printanier

1. Trim excess fat from lamb and place fat in a large roasting pan. Renderi fat in a very hot [500] oven for 10 min, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile cut lamb into 2″ cubes.
3. Remove pan from oven, reserve 6 tbsp fat and discard balance.
4. Mixi meat in the fat and spread out in a single layer in two roasting pans.
5. Sprinkle on sugar.
6. Bakei meat in a 500 oven for 20 min to draw juices; stir several times.
7. Drain juices and reserve.
8. Mix salt with flour and sprinkle over meat, mixing to blend.
9. Return meat uncovered to the oven for 20 min more.
10. Boil the reserved pan juices until reduced to 1 cup; add the stock, rosemary and bay leaves and divide evenly between the two pans, stirring to loosen the browned pan particles.
11. Cover and bake at 375°F for 1 ½ hr until very tender.
12. Transfer meat to another container and strain pan juices to remove lumps and bay leaves.
13. Skimi fat and pour juices over the meat.
14. At this point you can refrigerate the meat and continue the next day, if desired.
15. Peeli carrots, cut them into thirds and trim blunt ends to simulate baby carrots.
16. Peel turnips and if they are over 1″ thick slice them in half, trimming to make rounded shapes like a baby turnip.
17. Peel the onions.
18. Cook these separately in salted water 15 min. drain well; cover with cold water and refrigerate until the stew is assembled.
19. The same day you serve the stew: peel potatoes and cook in boiling salted water 15 min. hold in warm water up to an hour max. Until ready to mix into the stew.
20. Cut ends from the squash and split in 2 lengthwise or if large in ¾” thick slices.
21. Cook covered in boiling salted water 8 min. hold with the potatoes until ready to assemble.
22. Reheat the meat, covered, in a 300 oven 1 hr, add cooked vegetables and heat another 1-2 hrs. ½ hr before serving add the peas and mix. [i think this recipe needs more seasoning; say 2 tsp rosemary, 4 bay leaves and a generous amount of black pepper, perhaps other herbs or a bit of garlic – jw.
23.  from the sunset cook book of soups and stews.

Originally posted on Epinions

On Saturday night, December 12, 2009, I had the bright idea to take my family to look at Christmas lights at a new park that opened in Troutman, NC.  My little girl, Mary Ashley, had a friend spending the night and my son was sulled up because his friend hadn’t been home and hadn’t returned his call.  This turned out to be very lucky for this little boy.

On our way home, we began crossing one of the many bridges over Lake Norman when I spied a pair of headlights veering over into my lane.  I began slowing down and moving to the shoulder as soon as I saw this, hoping the other driver would correct himself before any of these defensive steps would be necessary.  He kept coming into my lane, almost like I had a magnet on my front fender.  Luckily I was able to come to nearly a complete stop, as far to the right as the bridge would allow, but the other driver never even hit his brakes.  He hit us at about 55 miles per hour, head on.

The next instant I feel my legs/feet screaming in pain, and I’m trapped in the driver’s side, feeling unable to get enough air because of the powder in the air bags floating in the air, hearing my children screaming.  My husband stumbled out of the car and I heard one of the girls say he was “asleep on the guard rail”.  The people who came upon us called 911 and our parents.  They put my children in their van to keep them warm until the police arrived.  It felt like forever until the ambulance arrived and pried me out of the car.  We all got our own ambulance, except for the girls who rode with my husband.

Luckily for all of us, we were driving a Chevy Tahoe.  The state trooper who answered our call told us it probably saved our lives.  The children in the back seat and the third row seats fared the best.  Ty had huge bruises across his stomach and shoulder from the seatbelt.  The girls in the very back sustained the same bruises, and Mary Ashley’s friend has a compressed vertebrae.  Dustin, my husband, was sitting on the passenger’s side and got a concussion, a bruised kidney a torn oblique muscle and some intense bruising on his back.  I sustained a compound fracture of the right leg, a shattered right ankle and a badly broken left foot. 

No charges have been filed yet, but the man who hit my family is being charged with DUI among other things, according to the preliminary police report.  This will be his fourth, in addition to other charges I’ve found such as child abuse and domestic abuse.  He is from an influential family in this area, and I’ve not seen a mention of our wreck in any of our local papers.  A fender bender by the courthouse made the front page, though.

I stayed in the hospital for 9 days and then was transferred to a rehab facility where I remain, perhaps for 3 more weeks.  I am unable to put any weight on either foot for 2 months, so I am learning to lift myself in and out of my wheelchair (sort of like Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump) to get around.  I have 2 more surgeries to look forward to and I will have to re-learn to walk I suppose, since my muscles have already atrophied in spite of daily exercises during my 2 hour therapy sessions.  I haven’t been home in nearly a month.  I spent Christmas, New Years and my daughter’s birthday in this facility.  My children are still afraid to ride in the car.  I will be out of work for a year.  I work as a REALTOR, which the government considers “self employment” so no disability checks during that time for me.

I don’t want pity, though.  What I’d like is for this dude to go to jail.  And for people to think about how much they can affect the lives of others if they make the decision to drive a car while under the influence.  It’s not rocket science, people.  Pull over and call someone.

Joe Montana’s estate for sale

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Joe Montana, has listed his Napa Valley estate with Coldwell Banker for $49 million.Sitting on approximately 500 acres, the property is situated in Northern California’s wine country, overlooking both mountains and valley. Click below to take a tour!

Villa Montana Tour