Bridal Shower Buffet

It's June and that means wedding madness is upon us. In the last month I've checked one Eagle Court of Honor, one graduation ceremony, a graduation party, a Boy Scout Eagle project, and, finally a bridal shower off of my to-do list. And somewhere in there we also moved my mom to an assisted living and emptied her apartment.

Now I can focus all of my attention on the big event coming up at the end of this month.

But this weekend wasn't just about Dad, Saturday was about the bride-to-be. Her bridal shower, to be exact. I love bridal showers, all us girls getting together, eating girlie food, talking girlie talk. Free to be girls and celebrate one of our own as she prepares to embark on this adventure we call marriage.

Doesn't she look blissfully happy? Actually, she's got a mouthful of bubble gum, like about ten pieces, thanks to a fun shower game.

As I said a few weeks ago, Danielle wants a country chic wedding, so we wanted her shower decorations to reflect that. And Blythe, her maid-of-honor, delivered beautifully.

 

Burlap served as a tablecloth, but the lace runner adds a touch of femininity.

 

And would you look at all that yummy food. Lemon cupcakes, glazed vanilla scones, strawberry spinach salad, quiche.... Do we girls know how to eat or what?

 

My favorite thing on the table had to be the scones. I LOVE scones, but I've only made them from a mix. This time, I made them from scratch and I'm here to tell you, them is some good eatin'. Worth every bit of effort. Alas, there were none left after the shower, but I think I'll whip up another batch just for me. Keep them in the freezer and pull one out when I need a special treat.

 

Oh, who am I kidding. I'll probably make them for the bridal brunch the day of the wedding. However, I may have to tuck a few extras in the freezer just for me.

 

So how do we make these delectable treats?

 

Well, first you're gonna need:

• 2 whole vanilla beans
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1/2 a pound) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 large egg

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Split the vanilla beans in half lengthwise and scrape out all of the "caviar" inside. Truth be told, this is the first time I've ever worked with a vanilla bean. I've seen it on TV, but that's where my experience ends. The first thing I notice was the vanilla bean was stiff. So I was surprised how pliable it actually was.

 

I cut off the ends.

 

Sliced it lengthwise down the middle, then pried the edges apart and scraped the tip of my knife down the middle, the entire length of the bean.

And that "caviar" sticks to everything. The good news is that it comes off easy too. I simply scraped the edge of my knife, very carefully, of course, across my fingers to remove the seeds into my bowl.

 

Keep in mind that this is vanilla in its purest form. So don't be worried if it seems like you don't have a lot. This is all I got from two beans.

Now, add that beautiful "caviar" to the cream and set aside for 15 minutes.

 

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Cut the cold butter into pats.

Add to the dry ingredients and, using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles crumbs.

Mix the vanilla cream with the egg, then add to flour mixture. Stir with a fork just until it comes together.







 

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until if forms a rough rectangle.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough until the rectangle is approx. 12 by 7 inches and 1/2 - 3/4 inches thick. You can use your hands to help with the forming.

 

Cut the rectangle into 12 sorta-symmetrical rectangles.

 

Next, you'll cut each rectangle diagonally into two triangles. (sorry I forgot to take a pic)

Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes, removing from the oven just before they start to turn golden brown.

 

Allow to cool 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

While the scones are cooling, let's make our glaze. For this you will need:

 

• 1 whole vanilla bean
• 1/2 cup whole milk, more if needed
• 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• dash of salt

 

Split the vanilla bean as before and scrape out the "caviar." Stir the "caviar" into the milk and set aside for 15 minutes.

 

This is where I sift the powdered sugar, while I'm waiting.

 

Mix the powdered sugar and salt with the vanilla milk, adding more sugar or milk if necessary to get the right consistency.

 

Whisk until completely smooth.

 

Dip the cooled scones into the glaze, one at a time. This is where I learned that scones can sometimes be fragile, so, after taking this pic, I used both hands to avoid breaking the scones.



 

Set the glazed scones on a cooling rack to let dry and allow excess to drip off. And there will be excess. I recommend setting the rack atop a baking pan, parchment or waxed paper.

Allow the glaze to set completely before storing.

 

I made these the day before the shower and they were still the moistest, most delectable scones I've ever had.

 

Maybe it's a good thing there weren't any left over:-)

 

I've told you what I'm up to, what's on your agenda this week?

 



 

My quickest lunch ever...

Jan here, letting you in on a little secret.

I think you might know by now that I love spending time in the kitchen, cooking for my family and friends...

...but occasionally I have a day when time is a premium.

Like when I'm in the middle of rewriting a proposal for the third time.

Or when inspiration hits and I just CAN'T step away from the computer, even though my stomach is telling me my time on this earth is going to expire if I don't send something down SOON!

On those days, I usually resort to a spinach/cheese omelette (about 15 minutes prep, but very satisfying), or PB&J (about 5 minutes prep, but not satisfying at all).

And then I found these at Sam's Club last week:

I usually pass by items like this, but that day they were giving out samples (don't you just love those samples!), and I thought, I think it's time for some convenience foods....

I started with the Asian mix (yes, I bought one of each!). When I opened the package, this is what I found:

The veggies are a blend of cabbage, carrots and cilantro (mmm, I love that cilantro...). The dressing is an Asian style sesame/ginger dressing (with no MSG - I checked), and then there were little rice snack thingies and slivered almonds to use for a garnish.

The package said there were 3.5 servings, with 120 calories per serving. I split the contents in half - which gave me a humongous salad for Thursday and another one for our Father's Day picnic yesterday.

The view during our picnic on Father's Day :)

And it was delicious.

How much time did it take? About 3 minutes, including stopping to take photos!

And then I revised another scene of my new story while I ate my lunch.

I'll be eating the Garden Salad version this week - probably Tuesday and Thursday.

:) I love it when I have lunches all planned out!


And, of course, Monday wouldn't be complete without a gratuitous puppy picture!

Thatcher, 11 weeks

So, let's chat! What is your favorite quick lunch?

Screaming for Ice Cream

Father’s Day, you know it is Father’s Day this weekend, right?  Mothers get a lot of attention on Mothers Day. Dinner out, flowers, chocolate. But fathers? Not so much. I asked my sister the other day what we did for Daddy when we were growing up.  It was a tradition to take our mom to a really special plant nursery and get her every flowering plant she desired. But Daddy?  We couldn’t remember. We both felt awful because what we remembered was Dad grilling FOR US on Father’s Day. 

Well, this weekend Man O is grilling!  It was enough to make me scream.  I feel so guilty. What could I do to make his Father’s Day dinner special? After much pondering and head banging against the wall - oh, that was when I came to bed late and Man O had the lights off, I narrowed in on what my guy loves. Ice cream tops the list.

Let me be more specific. Man O loves Goodberry’s Frozen Custard. It is thick and creamy with a texture hard to beat. But he will eat anything frozen made of milk and cream. My dad turns his nose up at cheap ice creams with a lot of gums and other ingredients. I must have gotten ice cream snobbery from him. Even so called "healthy" non-dairy substitutes are full of guar and xanthan gum. YUCK. No way am I eating that stuff in a carton or making recipes with extra ingredients to make it "taste" like ice cream.  It's better to just have a smaller serving of the real thing. Daddy and Man O both like a smooth texture and mouth coating appeal. The richer the ice cream the better. And wouldn’t you know it, that works for me. So what could I do?

My favorite website for anything gluten free is Gluten Free on a Shoestring.com. Recently, they shared an ice cream recipe I couldn’t believe. Only three ingredient. No need for an ice cream maker. Bonus? I could make it and eat it (in limited quantities) because, tah dah, Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed milk doesn’t have corn sugars in it!!!!  Again, IT DOESN'T USE AN ICE CREAM MAKER. Could you hear me yelling for joy? How great is that? But would it taste as well as it looks? I had to do a test run on Gluten Free On A Shoestring's Amazingly Simple Vanilla Ice Cream  

Random Factoid: Did you know a man named Gail Borden invented sweetened condensed milk in the 1850s after he saw infants starving on a boat trip when the cows on board stopped producing milk? Stop focusing on the cows on ships and think about the miracle of the product!  He made a fortune during the Civil War when he supplied the Union troops with the canned milk beverage and cooking ingredient that wouldn't spoil and sicken the soldiers. Soon, Eagle Brand was credited with reducing infant mortality, making the life of a harried cook simpler, and being the go-to ingredient for everything from fudge to key lime pie.

Hmmm, back to my dry run for Sunday. So I got out my THREE ingredients: Sweetened condensed milk, one carton whipping cream and vanilla.

Yep, that's it. Three ingredients.

I put the condensed milk and one tablespoon of vanilla in a freezer safe bowl that also has a matching lid. You could use plastic wrap and aluminum foil if you don't have a lid. I mixed the ingredients until blended and stuck it in the refrigerator.

Condensed milk with a splash of vanilla makes a great Rorschach test, you know the one where you look at an ink blot and say what you see? I am trying to decide if  I see a puppy or a flower.

I whipped the whipping cream on medium high until I had “semi stiff” peaks.  It looks pink only because I was wearing a red tank top that is reflecting on that white cream. Food stylist, I'm not.

I folded the whipped cream into the milk and vanilla until blended but not over blended, smoothed the top and put on the lid. Then I stuck it in the freezer. Once again, remember you don't need an ice cream maker!

Then the hard part.  I had to wait for at least four hours to see how it turned out! Um, I couldn't quite wait that long.

If you have the patience to wait longer, it will be a bit more solid. I couldn't!

Oh, so creamy. The mouth feel. The richness. Sigh. I probably should have added more vanilla. But I will be making my infamous chocolate sauce to make it special Chocolate sauce recipe here. and voila! Because the only thing my guy likes better than ice cream is chocolate on his ice cream AND his kids.

PS. I ended up serving Man O this ice cream and chocolate sauce when the crazy storms of the week passed through and I, ahem, couldn't cook dinner. He was thrilled. So there you go, Man O approved. 

Fancy Fish Packets

Missy, here. Do any of you have TV's in your doctor's office waiting room that show medical programing? My doctor's office shows these programs, and they often have a segment of healthy cooking. It's great! (Unless, of course, you're there long enough that the programming starts to play all over again.)

While there recently, I got to watch them make this wonderful recipe. I call it Fancy Fish Packets.

You'll need:
Fish filets (I used tilapia that was on sale)
Sugar snap peas
Julienned (match-stick) carrots
Aluminum foil
Olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (I may have done 400 degrees but can't remember for sure.)

Tear off a sheet of foil that's about 10-12 inches long. Place a stack of carrots in the center. Top with a handful of peas.

Rub fish with olive oil on both sides. Season with salt and pepper and lay a filet on top of the veggies.

Pull long ends of the foil up and fold over at least twice. Then fold the ends, making sure the packets are air tight so the juices won't leak. Create a packet for each piece of fish. (See, in the above photo there are two completed packets.)

Place packets in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of fish.

Voila! Very simple and pretty impressive. Or maybe my family is just easily impressed. :)

Starbucks Lemon Loaf

I caved.

I've been low-carb/high-protein for almost a month and my clothes fit again.

SO WHY DID I CAVE????

Sigh.

Stinkin' Facebook.

A recipe with a stinkin' pretty picture of Starbucks Lemon Loaf. That pic above, that's MY PICTURE, and it's even better-looking than the one on Facebook (no insult intended, Facebook sharers).

It looked so.... (sigh, sigh, sigh....)  Lemon-y. Springlike. Delicious.

FATTENING!!!!

So I made it. Ate a tiny sliver. And yes, it's good, it's got great cake texture but in all honesty I like the moister lemon cake recipe my mother passed down to me (you can find that picnic-style recipe HERE)

This cake does come out very much like Starbuck's Lemon Loaf and I think it's party-time friendly because it tastes great and LOOKS PERFECT-A-MUNDO.

That's so important for showers... weddings... book signings.... Mom's nights... and it's light enough to make people smile and not feel crushed by the Fat-Monster-Guilt-o-saurus.  That's the FAT DINOSAUR, in case you're unfamiliar with dino-lingo.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients together in bowl.

In separate mixing bowl cream together:
3 eggs room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup oil
zest of one lemon (if desired)

Mix together at medium speed. Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix. Add oil and lemon zest if used.

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9 x 5" loaf pan (I used the 8" x 4" and it came out fine)

Pour mix into loaf pan.

 Bake for 38-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Remove from oven, cool slightly, remove from pan. Glaze while warm.

Glaze:
1 cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Mix together well. Add a little extra milk if needed. Drizzle over loaf.

And this is what it looks like when done... and it disappeared quickly. And happily! While I ....

Yes....

Ate broccoli slaw.

:)

But when I went to Finance Boy's graduation for his MBA I got to wear that cool American Living Dress I got at Penney's this winter????

And it looked stinkin' nice!!!!

And Missy and I are having a pantyhose war.... I wear pantyhose because they slim you, they hide cellulite and they're a great bottom smoother under dresses... AND I have nasty veins on my legs after six kids, so I'm actually trying to do the unsuspecting public a FAVOR by wearing them.

Am I alone in this? Am I like the LAST PANTYHOSE WEARER IN THE FREE WORLD????

Inquiring minds want to know!

Hakuna matata, baby!

Helloooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back! Our Farmer's Market opens tomorrow and I'm SOOOOO excited! Fresh, local food! FINALLY!!

Maria and Jose Martinez always have a great crop of sweet onions, garlic, and beets.

                                Fehrenbacher Farms has lamb meat and wool.

 Our Daily Bread bakery and Zerba Farms have the bread and honey covered...

I'm so ready for some fresh, local food. It seems like this winter  has been extra, extra long. We try to eat locally as much as possible after I read a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (the web site is here).

 

This book changed the way I saw my family's eating habits, the way we planted our garden, what we bought at the grocery store, and made me aware of how my own eating choices changed the world around me.
  So, YES, Farmer's Market, here we come!! But first... one last random dish. Locally grown chicken. Some spices. Some canned tomatoes. You know... DINNER.

Tikka Masala (I can't say it without thinking of the Lion King song and if you want to have it stuck in your head, go ahead and click the video link. :)

Ingredients. Lots of jars and processed foods and *gasp* white rice. But that's okay, because the FARMER'S MARKET is tomorrow!! (In case anybody forgot and needed reminding.)

So, mix in a heated skillet
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp garlic, chopped
1/2 an onion
MMMMMMMMMMMM! Smelling good!
Add

Chopped chicken breast into the skillet. Brown.

Mix in 1 tsp  Garam Masala seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
2TBS lemon juice
Now it's REALLY smelling YUMMY!

One large can of tomato sauce, simmer and stir constantly for about five minutes so all the spices are mixed well.

Turn up the heat and add 2 cups rice and 2 cups water. Get it to a rolling boil, then turn it down to a simmer. You can either let the rice cook without the lid, or put on the lid. I prefer the lid-less method because I tend to forget about the food and it burns. Yuck.

Serve with fresh lettuce and tomatoes. That black stuff sprinkled on top? Red pepper. This is hubby's plate and it just won't have any flavor without some red pepper.

All right everybody! I can't wait to see what we find tomorrow. Something fresh, delicious, LOCAL. MMMMMM!
 Stay tuned!

Until then, you can gaze at this lovely picture of one of my little guys. He was drinking hot chocolate and gave himself a uni-brow. I think it's quite charming. I might give myself the coffee version. I can be a literary Frida Kahlo.

 

You know she did a lot of her painting laying in bed? I think I'll start writing in bed. But I'm afraid my eyes will be closed most of the time, which might defeat the purpose.

Until next time!

Pasta Salad to the Rescue

So last week I talked about party planning, and told you about my son's upcoming graduation party. The barbeque came out perfect, the beans were delish, but I still needed something to round out the menu.

Wandering the aisles of my local supercenter, inspiration hit--pasta salad! I haven't made it in forever, but it's so easy and doesn't take much time at all.

Pasta salad it is.

So I start with some pasta. You decide which kind you like. I tend to gravitate toward the rotini, you know, the corkscrew-looking variety. Sauce likes to cling to those little crevices. But for pasta salad, I like a little color, so Wacky Mac it is.

Wacky Mac comes with all kinds of shapes and colors that just make the salad fun. And since I'm feeding a crowd, I'd better use two packages.

I cook the pasta per the package directions, the low end of the cooking time, because you want the pasta al dente.

Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Now you can get as creative as you like. I kept things simple since people can be picky. I added some sliced green onions, some sliced black olives, some broccoli florets cut real small, and then the thing that takes this salad from ho-hum to vavoom!

Imitation crab flakes turn an ordinary pasta salad into an extraordinary one!

 

Just open the package, give the meat a rough chop, and toss it in. Now add some zesty Italian salad dressing, maybe a little salt and pepper, and voila! The perfect side dish to round out the buffet.

 

Of course, I forgot to take pix of said buffet :(  But as I promised Virginia last week, I will have pictures of this coming weekend's bridal shower.

 

Do you have a favorite pasta salad? Or a side dish that's easy peasy?