This post should be called “Surprise Me Thursday – Part 4” except we didn’t make this dessert on Thursday.  No, we made it to serve 24 at our Teen Week graduation lunch on Friday.  Although, I did find it on Pinterest… and originally I had planned to make it on a Thursday.  Until, one of the students wrote down “Red Velvet Cake” on their menu suggestion card (which I have the teens fill out on Monday mornings), and I thought, “Hey this is the perfect opportunity to make those cute mason jar cakes I see daily all over Pinterest.”  Two Birds – One stone.

These are so delightful and oh so delectable, that they are now my go-to party dessert!

By the way, we made the recipe twice to get 24 jars.  You may double the frosting but don’t try to double the cake portion… instead, make two separate batches.

[Read more →]

Yesterday I explained how I had an extra angel food cake hanging around after I had made one ahead for class and then had the kids make one too.  The question was, “What does one do with an entire extra angel food cake?”  I took to Pinterest for the answer and found out that one makes Angel Food Cake French Toast.  But of course! The recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens.

[Read more →]

I don’t know what my record high is for the number of photos in one post, but this may top them all.  Why would such a sweet, innocent, plain-Jane-looking, and in fact, angelic cake need so many (14) descriptive pictures? Because when we’re talking about angel food cake, we’re talking all about the “Incredible Edible Egg.”

Eggs truly are incredible!  Perfection in a shell.  Magical, if you will.  They are the workhorse of the kitchen, providing the strength to bind ingredients, the power to rise and puff soufflés, and the delicacy to act as the wings of an angel food cake. Simple egg whites whip up into soft, fluffy, light as air, clouds of creamy goodness.

Egg whites are mostly protein and have no fat.  When whipped, they hold air, and their volume increases by up to 7 times. When whipping whites, what you are looking for is “peaks”. With soft peaks, the bubbles are a little more pronounced, and when you remove the beating whisk, the peaks tip over. Stiff peaks stand up straight when you remove the whisk. Egg whites whipped to this stage are used in meringues and cakes when sugar is added.

Plus, once the sugar is added, you won’t need to worry about over-beating, and the meringue can be whipped almost indefinitely… but only once the sugar is in there, otherwise it is quite easy to over-beat the whites. They will become dry and separate into clumps. Once that happens – they are ruined.

A most important note: Egg whites simply will not whip in the presence of fat. Egg yolks contain all the fat in an egg, so if you drop a little bit of yolk into your whites, carefully remove it by scooping with a bit of eggshell, this works because the shell attracts the yolk (same is true if egg shell gets into your cracked egg -shell also attracts to shell).  If there is more than a drop of yolk in the whites, just toss that egg out and start over.  And always whip with a sparkling clean whisk and bowl.

Ironically, fresh cold eggs are easiest to separate but older room temperature eggs whip quicker and can achieve a bit more volume. Personally, I separate my eggs when they are cold and don’t worry about how fresh they are or even wait for them to come to room temperature, it is what it is!

The reason recipes often call for cream of tartar or lemon juice is that acid makes beaten whites more stable.

And the reason angel food cakes are inverted as they are cooling is because this cooling method keeps the cake from collapsing or deflating once it is removed from the oven.  (I think my photo of the cake inverted on a wine bottle looks like a table lamp… but maybe that’s just me.)

Hopefully all this is more than you ever wanted or needed to know about the wonderful egg  –  now on to the main attraction – The Cake!

Oh wait, one more thing… real quick… I had to make a cake ahead of time, then the kids made the cake in class.  They frosted my cake and tomorrow I will show you what we did with the cake they made – Oh my word, you will L-O-V-E IT!

[Read more →]

This recipe was Connor’s favorite from yesterday’s Meatless Monday menu. I might have to agree – darn tasty!

Speaking of Connor, I asked him to grab my camera so I could take a shot of a couple of the girls frosting a cake. While doing so, before I could stop him, he quickly snapped a picture of me.  It turned out kinda artsy and since it’s just a glance, I decided to share … it is of me in “action” during classes.

These toasts call for hummus.  You have three options here –

1. “Think and Plan Ahead” and make THIS most excellent hummus
2. “Quickly Put Together” the easy-breezy hummus recipe below
3. “Super Easy Approach”  use prepared hummus from the store

[Read more →]

On Saturday, I was supposed to post the scallop and chorizo recipe I served at the Thursday night “Dirty Book Club”.  I forgot – but no one seemed to notice.  No harm, no foul.  Since you didn’t appear to be waiting with bated breath, how about I delay it a tiny bit longer and tell you all about my pretty flowers and trophies?

Above is a photo of the flowers I gave to Dave for Father’s Day.  I was about to arrange them in regular old vases, when I remembered that I had just seen peonies and other flowers as trophies at the gorgeous home of my friend, Shelia.  Yes, trophies, are so much more manly than vases.   Especially when you consider that Dave won the golf tournament he played in over the weekend! I wish they gave out trophies at the darn club, but I think he’ll just get club or store credit. That sucks, trophies are way cooler!

The two tall trophies hold peonies and sunflowers from Trader Joe’s. They are replicas of vintage trophies. I bought them online at Antique Farm House.

If they are offered for sale again, I’m going to get at least one more – OK probably two – can’t help it, I love them!

The small loving cup is a true antique and holds dahlias and lavender sprigs from my garden.

Oh, and it was exactly one year ago today that my baby girl moved to San Francisco. Time Does Fly!  I miss her dearly but am so excited because I just booked tickets for Connor and I to fly off and visit her in just six short weeks!!!  OK, no more delaying… it is recipe time…

[Read more →]

Happy Father’s Day to my dad who is in Idaho visiting three of his eight grandchildren and all five of his great-great children.

And to Dave, father to our two beautiful kids, who is off playing in a golf tournament at the club and will then come home and watch golf on TV while Connor and I make him a well deserved special Father’s Day dinner.

Here is what Marissa, Connor, and I want to say to the two of you…

[Read more →]

It seems as though about half of the “Surprise Me Thursday” recipes I’ve found on Pinterest have been “rainbow” this or “rainbow” that. I guess colored food is big this summer. It is fun and pretty to look at and this week’s Rainbow Fudge is no exception.

Plus, it couldn’t be easier to make. Place white chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract in a microwave-safe bowl for 35 seconds, stir in some food coloring paste and layer in a foil-lined loaf pan.

There is quite a bit of wait-time while each layer freezes, but the end result and the opportunity to “taste the rainbow” makes it worth the effort.

Check out my “Fun Foods” Pinterest page HERE for a link to the full recipe and all our featured fun foods from summer classes.

[Read more →]

Yesterday I shared with you the details of my typical day of summer cooking school.  What I failed to mention is that I NEVER, and I mean NEVER, do anything in the evenings after classes.  I don’t go out with friends. I don’t have friends or family over. I don’t entertain or want to be entertained. I am basically a hermit crab, retreating into my shell and just trying to rejuvenate for the next day.  Sounds like a great life for 5 or 6 weeks, doesn’t it?  On the weekends in-between, I don’t plan or do much either. Maybe we’ll take in a Diamondbacks game or have my dad over on Sunday, but in general, I don’t like to have people over to the house because it’s a mess and honestly just way too much work and effort.

All that being said… last night… I broke my own unwritten self-imposed rule. And you know what? It wasn’t all that bad. After I finished cleaning up from class at about 2:30, I got busy setting up my tablescape and cooking. As you can see in the photos below, I had it pretty much under some semblance of control amid the chaos by 4:00 PM.

At 6:30 a handful of lovely ladies from my neighborhood arrived for our first-ever book club night. OK, it wasn’t just any book club night, we actually named it the “Dirty Book Club”.  With those three words, you may have already guessed the book we had read.  And, yes, you are on the money – the book in question is 50 Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.

No need for me to give you a “spoiler alert” if you haven’t read the book and plan to do so.  I will not be giving anything of importance away unless knowing that the book is set in the cities of Portland and Seattle would just ruin it for you.  Oops, now you know that. Honestly, nothing of plot significance will be revealed, so read on with confidence.

I had fun with the theme, and not for the reasons that just inadvertently popped into your own dirty mind. The book makes specific references to the food they ate; from the pancakes and bacon that Anastasia has for breakfast most mornings, to specific meals they have at fancy restaurants, to the many varietals of wine, almost always white wine, that they drink. In addition, Anastasia loves Twinings English breakfast tea and Christian is constantly telling her she needs to eat and to take Advil.  Along with the food and drink specifics, there are many references to music… making a playlist was a no-brainer.  Without further ado – here is your complete party plan.

[Read more →]

After THIS POST from the first week of classes, in which I put up a “before the storm” photo of my kitchen – I had comment from my friend, Sydney, saying, “I’d like to see the “after” photo :)”

Trust me, no one really wants to see the “after” photos!

Let me put it this way, it took me 95 minutes to mop my kitchen and breakfast room floors on Wednesday afternoon. I use a steam mop and I went over the floors 3 times with 3 different double-sided white micro-fiber pads… all six sides were black by the time I was done.  A few minutes later, I accidentally dropped an ice-cube on the floor… it’s so dang hot here that it started to melt on contact.  So after picking it up, I got a paper towel to get the water off the floor. With only one brief wipe, the paper towel was dirty – and this was after three moppings! There is no winning. The only solution is to have my marble floors stripped and polished, once classes are over at the end of the month.  Now those are before-and-after photos I promise to show you!

Not only did I receive Sydney’s comment from that blog post but also an email from another friend who asked how much time it takes me to set up for classes each morning and just what goes into a class day.  I decided to share a sort of “show and tell” with a sample of a day – yesterday to be exact.

[Read more →]

I purchased one too many package of fresh pizza dough from Trader Joe’s last week for classes. I also had a few extra onions on hand and I always have plenty of herbs in the garden. Pretty much a no-brainer as to what to make with that dough, but I really didn’t want to use cheese or make a sauce.  Then I remembered a foccacia I’d had in California that had an savory almond paste as the “sauce” – almonds, herbs, and caramelized onions… YES!

This did not turn out to be the prettiest focaccia I’ve ever seen or made, but my husband, son, and dad will attest to the fact that is darn tasty! One way to add a bit more color would be to sprinkle on the herbs after it comes out of the oven instead of before it goes in … so, yeah … do that!

[Read more →]