Southern Style from a Northern Gal

Last Friday’s trip to BJ’s was a serendipitous event. There on the shelves with the other produce–strawberries. Not the out of season tasteless things that mock you with their presence, but the fragrant, delicious, crimson bites of summer. I couldn’t resist picking up carton after carton and inhaling their delectable aroma, transporting myself to a …

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Going Bananas

I’m not cut out to be a morning person. I like my late nights, working in the silence of early morning while everyone else slumbers. “Seinfeld” repeats on the TV in the background, snuggled up in my bed, I get a lot more done than I can during the day with the crazy kids …

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strawberry ice cream and waffled ice cream planes

Birthday Breakfast

I had the best of intentions. I wanted to get up bright and early, do the Donna Reed thing, and greet my daughter with a sunshiney-smile and a breakfast already laid out on the table, just for her. She would be overjoyed and run over to me, throwing her arms around me as she bubbled …

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Duracell batteries

P&G eStore: Making Christmas Easier

Christmas is coming–only one week away–and I’m sure you’re still scrambling for that last minute stuff. I know that I am! Proctor & Gamble is here to help with their P&G eStore, allowing you to get it done without having to leave the house–or get dressed!

Right now, if you shop their online retail …

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Musically-Challenged

I don’t even try to pretend I know anything about music. As desperately as I wanted to play the flute when I was 10, or tried to teach myself to play the keyboard in high school, I know there is no talent there. Don’t even get me started on singing (though I’m getting much better …

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Southern Style from a Northern GalGoing BananasBirthday BreakfastP&G eStore: Making Christmas EasierMusically-Challenged

Jan 21 2011

Back to School

Categories:

Baking, Recipes, School

That went fast. Winter break, that is. Just as I was settling into a routine that made me happy, BAM!, time to go back to school. Here comes the end of blissfully baking the day away–and the start of mountains of homework again. What was I thinking?

I could have graduated last semester. I should have. Instead, a class popped up that I couldn’t resist and the next thing you know… well, here I am. Sitting in the common area surrounded by kids who were in grade school when I should have finished this the first time around. I feel so old.

Some things are the same: the bustling bodies surrounding silver tables and blue chairs in the tiled hallway, full of youth and promise. Other things have changed: my beloved pork lo mein from the Chinese restaurant down the street appears to be the product of an altered recipe. It wasn’t for the better. Still, this is my world in the hallowed halls of learning, if only for one more semester before I say goodbye and rejoin the real world. Sniff.

The first morning, instead of preparing for the day like I should have, I was frantically throwing together a recipe so it would be baked and photo-ready before I had to leave. Remind me not to do that again. The banana chocolate chip streusel coffee cake was a little under-baked and it was too hectic trying to photograph it when I should have already been in the car, on my way… At least I baked, but I’m not sure how much longer I can continue making a recipe a day for the blog. I will keep trying though. Somehow.

And I’ll keep trying to get through my days at school where I don’t quite fit in, yet I feel so comfortable. At the end of the day, there’s coffee cake waiting for me. It’ll be alright!

Banana Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Streusel Coffee Cake

adapted from Buns In My Oven

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans (would increase to 3/4 cup next time)
  • 1/2 cup toasted sweetened flaked coconut (would increase up to 1 cup next time)
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened if not soft at room temperature
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
  • 3-4 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8″x8″ baking dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the chocolate chips, brown sugar, pecans, coconut, and cinnamon. In another mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In yet another bowl (did I mention there are a lot of dirty dishes after this?), beat together the butter, coconut oil, and egg. Stir in the mashed bananas and yogurt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just incorporated.

Spread half the batter in the bottom of the 8″x8″ baking dish. Sprinkle half the streusel over the batter, then spread the rest of the batter over the streusel layer. Sprinkle the rest of the streusel over the top.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (highly recommend doing that–in my haste today, I skipped the toothpick and it was a little underdone at 45 minutes). Cool completely before serving.

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Jan 20 2011

Southern Style from a Northern Gal

Categories:

Baking, Food, Recipes

Last Friday’s trip to BJ’s was a serendipitous event. There on the shelves with the other produce–strawberries. Not the out of season tasteless things that mock you with their presence, but the fragrant, delicious, crimson bites of summer. I couldn’t resist picking up carton after carton and inhaling their delectable aroma, transporting myself to a warmer clime and time.

The problem is that I’m so settled into winter in the Northeast that it took a while for inspiration to strike on what exactly to do with those bright red beauties, other than just eat them straight on.

Biscuits. That’ll do the trick. I googled for a recipe and found a tutorial on YouTube from one of my favorite shows when we had extended cable, Good Eats. I probably should have watched the whole thing first before starting but bah, that’s for amateurs. (On the other hand, I recommend that you do… or at least glance at the instructions below so you’ll be a step ahead of me…)

Just before I started the video, I began transferring my fresh 10lb bag of King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour to the flour jar. The bag slipped out of my hand, almost as if it were in slow motion, yet I could not stop the inevitable. I watched helplessly as a cloud of white covered the pantry walls and cabinet doors, all over the dog’s water bowl and floor. There the bag lay, split down the side, a wounded soldier–a casualty of a sneak attack. I was frozen–where do you start with a mess like that?

Somehow, I pulled it together. Cleaned up the mess, mopped the pantry floor (which needed it anyway), transferred the remaining flour, and moved on. I’m such a klutz.

The recipe is easy to follow by watching the videos, part 1 and part 2. Don’t go to Food Network’s website for the written version because it’s wrong. But do pay attention–if you want to make shortcake (which is what I probably should have made), you need to add sugar and switch buttermilk for half and half. I didn’t catch that part until my biscuits were already cut and lined up on the baking sheet. Oh well–they’re great regardless. Not bad for a Northern gal.

Southern Biscuits

slightly adapted from Good Eats

  • 2 cups (10 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 oz butter
  • 2 oz shortening (I used organic)
  • 1 cup buttermilk (or half/half for shortcakes) (I used 2/3 cup Greek yogurt mixed with 1/3 cup 2% milk)
  • (add 1/3 cup sugar to dry mix for shortcakes)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix dry ingredients together and set aside. Work in butter and shortening with your hands until crumbly. Add buttermilk and work it until fully incorporated, but don’t overmix. Roll out and cut with biscuit cutter or a small glass dipped in flour. Set out on on a stainless or stoneware pan so they are barely touching each other. Make a slight indentation into the center of each biscuit with your thumb. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes or so (dark/nonstick pans may make the bottoms burn before the biscuits are done).

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Jan 19 2011

Another Day Snowed In

Categories:

Baking, Food, Recipes

New England is notorious for ever-changing weather. But this is starting to get to me. After an epic snowfall during the middle of last week, bringing us about 2 feet of snow in 12 hours’ time, today brought 5 inches of snow followed by sleet and rain. Yup, rain. It was barely 15 degrees yesterday but today, it’s raining. This is ridiculous! I am, once again, trapped home and my little girl extended her 3-day weekend into a 4-day affair. So much for a peaceful last day of my winter break.

On days like this when there is little that needs to get done (well, other than the laundry–but I pretend that takes care of itself), I find myself browsing food porn sites. I worked myself through another 50 pages or so of the 1873 on foodgawker, making my way into the late 2008 entries.

Timelessness. A moment captured in time that remains, even when the original fades away. It’s funny how many of the pictures that caught my eye only led to dead ends, the blogs now mere memories of what they once were. The posts and recipes have disappeared, but the brilliant photography continues as proof of those snacks and suppers finished and forgotten. What happened to those who enjoyed them? We will never know…

From Christmas 2008 comes a beautiful pictorial with a quirky write-up on Cheeky Kitchen for Mint M&M Ornamented Chocolate Cookies. How could anyone resist the cartooned cookies, batting their eyelashes and just daring you to try them by their presence alone?

Well, I wasn’t in the mood for mint–and I didn’t have mint M&Ms anyway. But Reese’s Pieces are always a friend of chocolate, so these became the afternoon’s experiment. They turned out well. Don’t expect them to spread, because they don’t. They come out looking about the same as they did when they went into the oven. You can get about 4 dozen out of the recipe with a small cookie scoop.

Mint M&M Ornamented Chocolate Cookies, you haven’t been forgotten! Your memory lives on in this new generation!


Reese’s Pieces Studded Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Cheeky Kitchen

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 cup natural cocoa
  • 1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
  • 2 cups Reese’s Pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between. Add the vanilla. Mix in the baking powder, sea salt, cocoa, and flour until just fully incorporated.

Drop by rounded teaspoon (or with a small cookie scoop) onto the parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 7-9 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

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