New Blog - Simple Sunday Supper

I created a new blog and snagged a great blog title, Simple Sunday Supper. I hope to show our real suppers, try some new recipes and invite family and friends to join in.

Jill turns 7 - Better Pictures

Baked 60 cupcakes to take to the summer program at the park. Then we had a little family party for Jill with pizza and what was supposed to be a sand castle cake. It looked more like a Christmas snowfall cake, but it tasted good.

Mom's Barbie cake then and now

Barbie cake, 2006

Jill and Jonah, 2006

Barbie cake and Jill, 2010

Jill's mom, Courtney, made her a Barbie cake like the one where she was 3.

Crafting and Baking for Valentine's Day

Only a few pictures. Didn't get shots of it all, but there were paper hearts, store bought valentines, brownies, heart shaped cookies with icing and sprinkles. Even Jonah decorated a box and wrote out Valentines for all his classmates. It is also picture day so he is off to school with a red shirt on. He even took extra time to comb his hair. Roger and I plan to go out to dinner with Karin and Alan. Jaime will be celebrating after Valentine's Day when Aaron comes home for two days before heading to Kuwait. Happy Valentine's Day to us all!

Super Bowl chocolate bread pudding

I was inspired by Blizzard Bread Pudding on Florida Girl in DC. Sounds lucious. Croissants and chocolate chips. I made a more simple version. I remember my grandmother bringing chocolate bread pudding to Thanksgiving dinner one time and teaching me how to made hard sauce which didn't seem like a sauce at all. I remember creaming butter and granulated sugar together. I think she flavored it with bourbon. Anyway, I used stale bread, cocoa, milk, eggs, white and brown sugar and a little coffee for flavoring. Cooking with cocoa reminds me of my mother. Another bread pudding memory is when I won THREE cakes at the school fair cake walk. I was so excited. There was so much cake that it got stale and my mother made bread pudding from the stale cakes -- coconut, chocolate marble and yellow cakes. I don't remember the cakes that much but the bread pudding was amazing.

The recipe I used was based loosely on the following (which I cut in half).

1 loaf of French or Italian bread cut into 1/2 - 3/4 inch cubes
3 cups whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup coffee flavored liqueur (I used strong coffee)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 TBS. vanilla extract
2 TBS. almond extract (I omitted this)
6 eggs - slightly beaten
8 ounces semisweet chocolate - grated (Didn't have any handy)
whipped cream

Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly grease a 13x9 inch baking dish. Whisk eggs, milk, cream and liqueur till well mixed. Combine sugars and cocoa powder and mix well. Add sugar mixture to milk mixture. Place cubed bread in baking dish and pour mixture over it. Let stand for about 20 minutes to absorb most of the liquid. Bake for 1 hour until an inserted knife comes out clean. Serve warm or chilled with whipped cream.

I added a sprinkling of chopped pecans on top. I still had to bake it for an hour even though it was in a 9 inch square dish. It was good.

We had fajitas made with sirloin steak and red, green and yellow peppers and onions for our Super Bowl dinner. I meant to take pictures, but we were hungry and I forgot.

Heartwarming

My big red pot with ham and cabbage in it this time.

Sometimes the heart needs warming. Sore throat, stuffy nose, damp, gray day, troubles on your door step. Yesterday I made New England Boiled Dinner. Big meaty ham bone, carrots, onions, potatoes and cabbage. It is a humble and rather unphotogenic meal, but it did warm the heart. The resulting pot liquor was steamy hot and pungent. I am always surprised by my vegetable-hating and especially cabbage-hating kids. They seem to go for the pot liquor and ham, potatoes and carrots even though they won't touch the cabbage. Mia especially loves the carrots. Roger and I devoured it and felt heartened by it. He is even learning to like cornbread muffins. I am happy to say that not one bite of that ham was wasted. I found a way to use it all.

A Good Dinner

Just a pot roast, cornbread and some strawberries from the frozen fields of Plant City. But it was warm and filling. The farmers put so much water on the strawberry fields trying to save them from freezing that sink holes are opening up everywhere even under the interstate highways and one elementary school! Oh the law of unintended consequences. The only thing holding up this sandy little penninsula we call Florida is apparently ground water. I don't think we have to worry about earthquakes, only suddenly collapsing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanksgiving

Holiday spread from 2008

I love Thanksgiving, but it hasn't always been that way. There were times when I thought my mother took so long to cook everything just to torture us. We usually had just our small family with an aunt and uncle or my grandmother. No cousins to play with, lousy damp Oklahoma weather outside and nothing but a televised parade and football on TV.

When my mother became unable to cook the whole meal the way she had always done, I confess to being resentful at being handed the job. I even forgot to turn on the oven one time and we didn't eat until 8:00 at night.

Then one day it clicked. I brought a tiny TV into my kitchen and turned on the parade. I called various friends and relatives who I knew would also be up early, stuffing a turkey. I parked my mother at the kitchen table to help and to keep me company. When my mother was gone, my daughter took her place. I bonded with the tradition, the food, the memories. My mother's specialty was the stuffing. I have played with the recipe every year trying to make it easier and more tasty, but now I keep it very simple.

We liked moist suffing in my family. The prize was the stuffing from inside the turkey. Second choice was the pan of "side" stuffing with it's crunchy edges. Bob Evan's turkey and stuffing is much like my mother's. Also, Publix supermarket has the same stuffing for sale in an aluminum pan. When I worked at Verizon, their cafeteria roasted a wonderful turkey and made great stuffing. But buying the stuffing would not be the same.

My mom made a pan of cornbread and dried out slices of white bread the day before. She made broth by cooking the giblets. Then she sauteed lots of chopped onion and celery, crumbled the bread and added 1 egg, broth, salt and pepper and lots of dried sage. It was my job to taste for seasoning.

Over the years I have added apples, pecans, mushrooms and sausage (not all at the same time). Nowdays I use herbed stuffing crumbs and store-bought broth, but the rest of the recipe is very much the same as my mom's original including a little bit of cornbread. I leave out the extra stuff and strive for the perfect seasoning and texture. I make all the stuffing on the side now but with a lot of broth to keep it moist with just a bit of crunchy here or there.

My feast is spread out on a buffet table on the porch since it is usually very warm here in Florida. I have never been able to have the sparkling, beautifully set table that my sister-in-law does every Christmas. My fantasy is a big, white farmhouse with autumn leaves or a sprinkling of snow outside and a big, warm kitchen overflowing with family and a huge, shining dining table with candles. In real life, my kitchen will be overflowing mostly because it is so small, but also because many of my dear family and friends will be there. Some, but not all. Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to all. I will be thinking of all my fellow cooks and many Thanksgiving memories, happy and sad come Thursday morning.

Mia is 3 years old and stuffed pumpkin recipe

Mia chose blue (cotton candy) ice cream with sprinkles at Cold Stone Creamery

For her present Mia chose a twirling ballerina jewelry/music box

Stuffed pumpkin makes a nice presentation

Stuffed pumpkin with wild rice and roasted pumpkin seeds

Mia's party is Sunday, but today was her birthday. Three years old! Jaime and I took her to Cold Stone Creamery for a free ice cream. Then we went to the grocery store. Mia got lots of attention with her Tinkerbell outfit and her jewelry box. Everyone could tell she was a special girl today.

I have been wanting to make a stuffed pumpkin. It was not too hard (except for taking the top off that little sugar pumpkin - hard as a gourd!) I cleaned the pumpkin inside and out and rubbed the inside with butter and seasoning. Then I cooked some link sausages and sauteed some onions in the drippings. I cooked a white/wild rice mix and added the sausages, onions and golden raisins and put the whole thing into the pumpkin. I sprayed the outside of the pumpkin with a little cooking oil and baked the whole thing for an hour. I think it looked great and tasted OK, but not a show stopper. BTW - the pumpkin part tastes a lot like acorn squash when baked this way.

What to bake when there is NOTHING in the pantry

Blackbottom (chocolate and cream cheese) cupcakes

I wanted to bake something and I was out of everything -- even milk! The only "exotic" ingredient I had was an almost full brick of cream cheese. That and a magazine article with a really enticing picture made me think of blackbottom cupcakes. I searched through my cookbooks. Then I got on the internet. I found a lot of recipes - many of which called for a teaspoon of vinegar in the chocolate layer. (Didn't have that either!) I finally found this recipe which called for common ingredients and not many of them. I will definately make these again. Not only were they easy, they were moist and delicious. The recipe made 12 cupcakes but I did run a little short of the cream cheese mixture, so instead of making two layers as the recipe suggested, I used less cream cheese on some cakes and swirled it a little with a kitchen knife. Both versions were good. Even with this recipe I didn't have vanilla or chocolate chips, but it was still good. P.S. If you are really low on ingredients, the chocolate part alone was very good and it didn't need milk, egg or butter!

I found this recipe on www.everydaycook.com.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Filling
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 8-ounce package of chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, oil and water until smooth.

In a smaller bowl, combine softened cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

Line a 12 cupcake pan with paper liners (or butter cupcake pans). Pour equal amounts of chocolate mixture in each cup. Top with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

peach pie

2 cups of flour (approximately), 1 stick of margarine, 1 teaspoon of salt and a little ice water. No wonder pie crust is not good for you!

Last night I made a pie. My husband asked, "Why didn't you just buy a crust?" Good question. You can buy ready made crusts, pie dough rounds or pie dough mix in boxes or pie dough in biscuit tins and they are all good. So why make one?

I'm just fascinated by the idea of taking a few simple ingredients and creating something really special. Also, I found an old pastry blender in the drawer which renewed my enthusiasm for homemade biscuits and pie crusts, etc.

Anyway, as you might be able to tell by the quantity of ingredients, this was supposed to be a two crust pie. But when I began to roll it out, it was still a little crumbly even though I had rolled it in a ball and chilled it in a baggie for a while. It was not rolling out properly. The one thing I learned from my past attempts at biscuits is that continuing to try to make it pretty is what makes it tough as shoe leather so I just put it in the pie plate and used what should have been the top crust to build an edge around it.

For the filling I used two cans of sliced peaches in syrup which were on sale. I added some cinnamon, a little extra brown sugar, a pat of butter and a couple of tablespoons of tapioca spinkled on top for thickening. I cooked the filling on top of the stove and pre-baked the pie shell for 10 minutes before putting the whole thing in the oven for 20 minutes more (at 400 degrees).
Anyway, it was GOOD! I even liked the rustic look. With a little ice cream on top. Ymmm. The crust was flaky! And it actually had a flavor! Enough success to make me try again soon. Already had another piece of pie for breakfast. (See picture above).

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day Menu

We are going out on Saturday night, but on Friday night we are planning our own private dinner. It is a simple menu but as good as any expensive restaurant -- even better in my opinion. We are having: 5 oz. Omaha Steak bacon-wrapped fillet, baked potato and salad with greens, cucumber, tomato and croutons and Ken's lite Sweet Vidalia Onion salad dressing. Oh. and a glass or two of red wine (Merlot). This is our special go-to dinner since he made it for me when we were dating a few years ago. All our dinners are special. Like having a date every night. But this dinner is the best.

For dessert, I may make a great cheesecake I found in a little cookbook called "Sunday Suppers -- Classic Recipes." This recipe is so simple I have committed it to memory and have made several variations already. This is so easy it makes you wonder why there are so many "no bake" cheesecake recipes and mixes that don't really taste like cheesecake or why people (including me in the past) pay a fortune for a store-bought cheesecake. Here is the recipe. It is called "Philadelphia 3-Step Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake."

2 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened (I use light cream cheese)
1/2 cup sugar (Splenda or 1/2 Splenda works fine)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (or other flavoring)
2 eggs
prepared graham cracker crust (or homemade)
3 tablespoons red raspberry preserves (or other flavor)

1. Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together until well blended. Add eggs until well-blended. (The book suggests an electric mixer, but I have done this by hand with good results - not as fluffy.)

2. Pour filling into crust. Dot top with preserves and cut through batter with a knife to create a marble effect.

3. Bake at 350 F for 40 minutes or until center is almost set.

The book says there are more recipes like this at http://www.fbnr.com/. I plan to check out this web site myself. Happy Valentine's Day!

Foam

I keep seeing blogs with delicious-looking drinks. Here is mine. Coffee, hot chocolate mix and foam. I found a gadget in the back of the cabinet and almost threw it away. It was a round metal "net" on a plunger which used to be part of a capacino set I got Jaime one Christmas. The little coffee pot is gone along with the tall glass container that fit the plunger. I put the plunger in one of my regular glasses with a little low fat milk and plunged it up and down a few times and had a glass full of FOAM! Now I am busy thinking of all the things you can do with foam, hot or cold, plain or sweetened. So far, this is it. But it is very good. It is still cold in Florida. We have had freezing temperatures for 3 nights now which is mostly bad for strawberries and other tropical plants. The fair is here and Gasparilla is next weekend. I usually pass on both and wait for the Strawberry Festival in Plant City in early March. By then the weather here will be beautiful. Meanwhile, it is Fair Day and no school. Mia is already here and playing with Roger's flashlight which is a no no. Got to go. Have a good day.

Disaster

Tried to make waffles this morning. Found Jaime's waffle maker in the garage, cleaned it up and made the batter. I have never actually made waffles but I do like to eat them at the Waffle House. I did think about spraying the grills, but I only had olive oil flavor spray and I didn't want to RUIN the waffles. BTW, this appliance does NOT have removable grills.