Crab Soup

I have been wanting to try to make that crab soup I had in Baltimore for a couple months now. I don't have a recipe, So I am winging it. Penny and I went to Costco today and they had the big King Crab legs, So I got enough for Crab Cakes and Crab Soup.
Ingredients

3/4 cup chopped green onion, with tops
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups fish broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 pound crabmeat, picked free of shell
1/4 cup sherry
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Directions
Saute chopped green onion and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in flour, stirring until well blended. Slowly add 2 cups of the fish stock, continuing to cook until smooth and bubbly.

Slowly add cream and milk. Stir in crabmeat. Add sherry, lemon-pepper seasoning, salt and white pepper. Simmer until piping hot; adjust seasoning (sherry, salt, and pepper), to taste. Serve in bowls topped with cheese and chives.

This soup was so good. Second best to Baltimore. If I had Fresh Baltimore crab it would contend with their soup. The crab cakes were great too. I will definately be making this soup on a regular basis.

Strawberry Cake Revamped

A friend of mine in Oregon made my Strawberry cake. She loved it! She made it again and folded whipped cream into the frosting and said it was scrumptious. We have house guests and so I decided to try her method. I doubled it though, cuz there is so many people. I made two sheet cakes and put the original frosting in the middle, then I made whipped cream and folded it into the rest of the frosting. She was right. It was SO good!! Thanks Coppi!

Strawberry Cake (doubled recipe)

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour 2 11x13″ pans.

In mixing bowl combine:
4 1/4 Cups Flour
3 Cups Sugar
1 Tbsp & 2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Salt

Mix on low speed for 30 seconds then add:
3 Sticks Softened Butter
1 1/2 Cups Strawberry Puree
Mix to blend then beat to light and fluffy for about 3 minutes.
In another bowl whisk together:
10 Egg Whites
2/3 Cup Milk

In 2 separate additions add to cake batter. Blend after each addition until incorporated and wipe down sides of bowl.
Split batter into prepared pans

Bake for about 30 minutes.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
With an electric mixer beat together equal parts:
16 oz Cream Cheese
1/2 cup strawberry puree
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tspVanilla

Whipped cream
2 cups whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp sugar
Whip until thick

Beat until light and fluffy.
Spread half of frosting on first sheet cake.

With remaining frosting fold in whipped cream and spread on the outside of top sheet cake.

Happy Birthday Jordan

My son Jordan turned 16 years old today. My how time has flown. Jordan is my picky eater. He likes what I call "kid food". But alas, it is his birthday and he gets to choose what he is eating. He handed me his menu and I just had to laugh:

Brunch:
Eggs
Bacon
Pancakes
Mountain Dew

Dinner:
Pizza
Fried Chicken
Cookie Dough Cake

Now I have posted recipes for all of the above on here. However to my surprise I only found my chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake recipe on here. Not the cake. It is a different recipe, because the cake has to be made in a dobosch form... a thicker cake to hold the weight of the cookie dough.  We Threw him a surprise birthday party. Jordan is too shy to invite friends over for HIS birthday, so I snuck his phone and called his buddies. Also his favorite color is Deep Purple. So we got a bunch of balloons. I filled the house with food and friends. Happy Sweet 16 Bubby.... or excuse me, happy manly 16!

Here is the recipe for the Cake, I doubled it and made a sheet cake because there were a lot of people:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks lightly salted butter, room temperature, plus additional for greasing the pans
2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Ganache:
8 ounces (227 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter

Cookie Dough:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips

Remember: This recipe has raw egg in it. Just a warning to only use fresh eggs.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter until smooth and add the sugar. Continue whipping until the mixture becomes fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Note: this process can be done with a whisk by hand. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, taking care that each egg is thoroughly integrated. Add the flour mixture and combine.

Grease the 2 pans with butter and fill each with half of the batter. Place the pans in the center of the oven. Bake until the center is firm or when the tip of a small knife emerges clean when it pierces the center of each cake, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly, 1 hour at least. Set aside.

Mix all cookie dough ingredients together.

Make Ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.


Top 1 cake with cookie dough, then the other cake, then more cookie dough. Pour ganache on top, refridgerate until you serve.

I put toothpicks on it to keep the saran wrap from sticking to the ganache

 
Here are some party pics

Waiting for Jordo

Surprise Jordan .... and dad hahaha

Some of the boyz eating outside. Jordan is like "Moooooom! leave us alone!

Yes, even Taylor loves her brother on his b-day... heading out to sing happy birthday

Getting ready to blow out the candles

Junk food, friends and video games. Yep, they will be at it all night.

Happy birthday Jordan!

apple cups

I love the beauty of apples. I also love to serve products in their natural form. What I am attempting today is a deconstructed caramel apple pie. I am not chopping up the apple. I love my apple pie and apple crisp to be hot, but still crisp. I am taking the core out of the apples, filling the middle with caramel and baking it. I am also garnishing it a crumble topping.

I peeled the apples and cored them, Making them naturally look like a bowl, then soaked them in some lemon water (1 lemon 2 cups water) to keep them from browning.


For the Caramel Sauce:

1 cup of sugar
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to to incorporate. Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes.

Crumble Mixture:
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)
combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in one bowl. In another bowl combine flour, sugar and oats. Cut butter into 8 small pieces, and cut butter into flour with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture is crumbly.

Put apple bowls into large baking dish. Fill each apple 1/2 with Caramel sauce and top other half with crumble mixture.

Bake at 375° for 30 to 45 minutes depending on how cooked you like your apples. This recipe is a great dessert or a great addition to a breakfast or brunch.

Chocolate Babka ,The Best Jerry!

Today is my first full day of work and cooking. I still can't taste without it tasting like soap, but I am thrilled to be back at my normal routine. Ok, everyone that knows me, knows I LOVE Seinfeld. One of my favorite episodes is "The Dinner Party". I re-watched this episode last night and was inspired to try making a chocolate Babka. The infamous cake that Elaine fought over in the bakery prior to the dinner party. Elaine always cracks me up. Babka is a Jewish tradition cake/bread is made from a doubled and twisted length of yeast dough and is typically baked in a high loaf pan. Instead of a fruit filling the dough contains cinnamon or chocolate. So after watching Elaine throw her fit over not getting the Chocolate Babka for the 1,000th time, I decided I better make one.
Here is the process I used:
Chocolate Babka
For dough
3/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
2 whole large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

For egg wash
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream or whole milk

For chocolate filling
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, well softened
8oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped
1/4 cup sugar

Pour warm milk bread machine and add 2 teaspoons of the sugar and 3 tsp active dry yeast.
Stir with your spoon to mix. Then add flour, whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and start the dough cycle on your bread machine.

After dough rises assemble babkas with filling, you can either use 2 loaf pans, or make 2 loafs and put them in a lasagne pan. My bread pan is busy, so I am using the lasagne pan.
Line each loaf pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (1 lengthwise and 1 crosswise).
Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then halve dough. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a well-floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 18- by 10-inch rectangle and arrange with a long side nearest you.

Beat together yolk and cream. Spread 2 1/2 tablespoons softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush some of egg wash on long border nearest you.

Sprinkle half of chocolate evenly over buttered dough, then sprinkle with half of sugar (2 tablespoons). Starting with long side farthest from you, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along egg-washed seam to seal. Bring ends of log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of lined loaf pans.

Make another babka with remaining dough, some of egg wash, and remaining butter and chocolate in same manner. Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap (buttered side down) and let babkas rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 to 2 hours. I sprinkled one with sugar, the other with chocolate.
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are deep golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped (when loaves are removed from pans), about 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.

I understand now why Elaine threw a fit about the chocolate Babka. They are THE BEST JERRY!!!!!!!

Sushi

Jordan went to spend the night at a buddy's tonight. He hates Sushi, but we all love it. So it is the perfect time to make it. There are a million ways to make sushi. I prefer all vegetarian of course. My husband loves crab and Taylor loves shrimp. Tonight I do not have crab, so I am just making Shrimp Tempura suhsi rolls and vegetarian sushi. The first thing you need to have is Nori. You can find it at any grocery store next to the asian food. They are small sheets of seaweed paper. The next thing you need is sumeshi rice. Sumeshi is the Japanese term for the sushi rice. Here is how you make it:
Ingredients

•3 cups uncooked short grain rice, I acually buy sushi style rice made by rice select.
•3 cups water
•12 tbsp rice vinegar
•10 tbsp sugar
Cooking Directions
1.Cook the rice, using equal parts rice and water. I use a rice cooker.
2.Put the rice vinegar and sugar in a small pot over medium heat.
3.Stir until the sugar has melted into the rice vinegar.
4.Once the rice is finished cooking, take the rice out of the pot and put it in a large bowl
5.Cool the rice and rice vinegar mix, then slowly pour the rice vinegar mix over the rice, using a cutting motion to mix it into the rice with a WOODEN SPOON. Do not use metal when dealing with vinegar, it reacts to the vinegar and makes it taste funny.

For shrimp tempura you need:
1 cup ice cold water
1 large egg
3/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
cooking oil
1.In a medium bowl, mix the water and the egg.
2.In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda.
3.Stir the flour mix into the egg and water mix.
4.Stick the batter in the fridge for 30 minutes
5.If you are using shrimp, peel, de-vein, and wash it. Cut small cuts across the belly of the shrimp, to keep it from curling when you cook it.
7.Heat the oil in a deep fryer at 350 degrees.
8.Fry until it is golden brown.

Sushi is made all as a matter of how you like it. Everyone likes different ingredients. When rolling you need a bamboo sushi roller, We find it much easier if you first cover the bamboo roller with saran wrap, then place Nori on top of the bamboo roller.Cover the nori 3/4 of the way with sumeshi,

 

add wanted ingredients. I add cucumber, avacado, green onions, chives, cream cheese to mine,

 It is important to Jullian cut your veggies super super thin. Start rolling the side that is covered all the way with sumeshi. Shape... then cut. It is pretty easy.

I eat mine with soy sauce and Wasabi.

For the meat eaters I add avacado, green onions, Shrimp tempura, chives and cucumber.

Here is what the finished result of Shrimp Tempura Sush Roll

Randy likes his with Soy, Wasabi, Siracha and pickled ginger. I didn't get a shot of the pickled ginger, but you can find that in your grocery produce section.

Have fun and happy sushi eating!!

Pine Nut Mayhem

Saturday morning I woke up with a weird sore throat. It was different than any other sore throat I have ever had. But, I had to work at the fair, get the Pure Country Pet Boutique dog clothes booth up and running for my daughter. So even though I felt yucky, I had to push through it. By the end of the day I was really feeling bad. I woke up several times at night and had a high fever. I couldn't find any other medicine, so I took Benedryl. Good thing. Turns out I had a reaction to Pine nuts. 2 days later my fever is gone, but I can't taste anything but a yucky detergent taste in my mouth. This is not a good thing for a cook. Turns out a lot of people have this reaction to Pine nuts that come from China. This problem is called Pine Nut Intoxication, Pine Mouth amonst other things, and there is a lot of info out there about it.
It is even on Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2009/05/got-pine-mouth.html 
steady Health: http://www.steadyhealth.com/Bitter_taste_in_mouth_while_eating-t85978-0-asc-50.html
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut
Pinch My Salt: http://pinchmysalt.com/2009/05/02/pine-nuts-left-a-bitter-taste-in-my-mouth/
iVillage: http://foodrush.ivillage.com/food/archives/2009/05/do-pine-nuts-leave-a-bad-taste.html
There are thousands of posts about this problem. Course I had an allergic reaction, on top of the pine mouth.
There is however temporary relief of the horrible taste. After hours of reading I found a post that said if you cut up a large chunk of ginger into small pieces, boil it with 1 quart water... reduce heat once it boils and simmer for 20 minutes. Add some honey and lemon and drink. It relieves the bad taste for 20 - 30 minutes. Long enough to enjoy a meal... thank goodness. I will never eat pine nuts again. That is sad for me. Because I love pesto. But I was told that each time I eat them, my reaction can worsen each time. Which is probably why it went undiagnosed before.

Pad Thai

Well I went and got sick. Sunday morning I woke up with a high fever. I am still sick, but my fever is going down. I had already bought my ingredients for dinners this week, so my sweet husband Randy is cooking tonight. I gave him the recipe to follow.If he can do it, all of you can. =) 
It is a simple recipe that is comfort food for me. Randy did a great job and even the kids gobbled it up. Randy added Chicken for his and Jordans, but here is the recipe without chicken.

Pad Thai
24 ounces dried rice sticks or rice noodles
12 tablespoon brown sugar
9 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus wedges for serving
12 tablespoons soy sauce
6 teaspoons canola oil
9 green onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Steamed Broccoli ....I like mine al dente
1 cup fresh cilantro
3/4 cup chopped roasted, salted peanuts

1. Cook rice noodles according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Whisk together brown sugar, lime juice, and soy sauce

3. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant.

4. Add broccoli, noodles, and soy sauce mixture to skillet, toss constantly until noodles and broccoli are coated with sauce.
5. Serve noodles with lime wedges and top with cilantro and chopped peanuts

serve with Siracha for spice.

Muffins aux brisures de chocolat Fudge lowfat

Sticking with my trying to eat healthy kick... for dessert I am making a low fat version of chocolate muffins. You can make it even healthier by using oat flour, but I'm not this time. baby steps. =)

Fudge Chocolate Chip Muffins
•1 applesauce
•½ cup sugar
•1 teaspoon vanilla
•¼ teaspoon almond extract
•¾ cup flour
•1/3 cup cocoa powder
•2 teaspoons baking powder
•½ teaspoon baking soda
•½ teaspoon salt
•½ cup semisweet chocolate chips (if vegan, they have to be dairy free. But I like my original toll house.

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use paper cupcake liners in a muffin tin and combine ingredients.
2.Evenly scoop into muffin tins.
3.Bake for 20 - 30 minutes check after 20 minutes. if toothpick entered in the middle comes out clean, they are done..
4.Place toothpick in center. When the toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are done.
5.Allow to fully cool, then pop out with a spoon.