Crepes Day

I am determined to keep up with food holidays this year!

Today, February 2, is Crepes Day.  Crepes should be, in my opinion, something everyone knows how to make. Why?

Because you can put anything in them, throw any sauce over them and have a gourmet, delicious, interesting meal in no time. Seriously. Anything. Add leftover creamed spinach? Sure!  Any vegetable, any fruit, any meat… anything!

Here are some posts from the Baking Delights Vault. Stuff you may not even remember because it was posted years ago. BUT it is still awesome. Crepes are easy to make. Give them a try for Crepe’s Day. Just say, ” Oh Crepe! ” and channel your inner Frenchman.

• Lemon Curd Crepes
• Beggar’s Purses
• Strawberry Cream Cheese Crepes
• Cream Cheese Crepes with Warm Peach Compote

Still haven’t found what you are looking for? More crepes!

• Chicken Crepes with Asparagus and Mushrooms
• Olive and Chicken Curry Crepes

image: marye audet

Keeping the Feast Book Tour

I was blessed to have been asked to review a new book, Keeping the Feast, scheduled to be released in February. The book is more of a memoir than anything, or maybe it is the diary of surviving one of the most difficult periods in a life.

How do you walk through devastation? How do you handle that journey from the moment your life turns upside down until you reach that place where you can say, “I am through it.”? For Paula Butturini it was the daily ritual of food; acquisition, preparation, enjoyment. This is a book about survival and conquest, despair and healing and woven throughout is always the comforting thread of food.

I loved the descriptions of the foods, the markets, the celebrations that Paula sprinkled liberally throughout the chapters of the book. I loved that she was real, like the Velveteen Rabbit, threadbare areas worn like a medal of honor. Keeping the Feast is a deep read, a choking drink out of a fire hydrant of emotions that carry you along with her until the end.

I liked the book a lot. I liked the words and the images and the way that the story carries you along, sometimes dreamy, sometimes hanging on for dear life while the white water roars all around you…taking you finally to the last page of, although certainly not the final one.

I asked Paula for a recipe to share with you Read more

Saturday Surfing…

Saturday Blogsurfing is going to be a little rushed this week but here is the list!

• Caramel Macchiato Cream Cheese Muffins
• Homemade Cheesy Tater Tots
• Double Chocolate Muffins
• Vanilla Scented Granola
• Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter
• Butternut Squash Soup  with Chorizo
• Giant Peanut Butter Cup
• Black Bean Soup and Toasted Cumin Seed Crema
• Beef and Vegetable Taco Soup
• Lemon Raspberry Pancakes

I am going to try to get several appetizers up over the next few weeks in time for planning your superbowl party so do check back often. Have a great weekend!

Image:marye audet

Blogsurfing Saturday

Something happened to Texas. Not sure what it was but the temperatures dropped a bazillion degrees. BRRR!
How has your week been? Mine has been fluctuating between awesome and awful, depending on the day…and maybe even the hour. Don’t you just hate weeks like that?

Are you ready for some winter surfing?

Enjoy the blogsurfing!

• Pumpkin Brioche Cinnamon Rolls – how did I miss these last fall?
• Beef Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup
• Risotto with Proscuitto, Butter, and Parmagiano
• Beer Cheese Bread
• Coconut Rum Pound Cakes
• Smoothie Packs – these are a seriously brilliant idea!
• Triple Lemon Cupcakes
• White Chocolate Cardamom Mousse
• Chipotle Clam Chowder
• Magic Cookie Bars

Guinness Apple Chicken

I never liked domestic beers too much. In fact, I don’t drink often and when I do it is more likely to be wine than beer. But if I am going to use a beer for cooking (with the occasional sip) it will more than likely be a Guinness Stout. Guinness has a sharp, sour taste that is reminiscent of granny smith apples followed by a smoky finish. So, when I was contemplating a Chicken Normandy last week I decided to see what would happen if the Stout was used rather than the fruity white wine I would normally use.

I grilled the chicken long enough to get grill marks and rubbed it with a beer-honey-chipotle mixture. I put it in the oven at 350F and then worked on the compote. Read more

Whiskey Sour Bundt Cake. Oh Yes I Did.

Twitter is a great invention as far as I am concerned. I love chatting with y’all there and especially late in the evening the banter can get going pretty strong. One night last week it was going back and forth and Kelly from Evil Shenanigans said something about me making whiskey sours and inviting her over…I don’t drink very often…counted in terms of maybe once or twice a year if that and so I thought that was funny. I said I needed to make a whiskey sour bundt cake and all of a sudden half a dozen people were inviting themselves over for cake. It seemed to me to be a good idea to actually do it and see what happened.

So I did. Results? Read more

Roasted Cauliflower with Panko

My mom used to make cauliflower that was served in hot milk with melting butter and plenty of pepper – and I loved it. I have always loved vegetables of all kinds, although it took me a few years to accept cooked carrots. Cauliflower is one of my favorites because it is so versatile.

Roasting brings out the sweetness of almost any vegetable because it caramelizes the natural sugars in it. The flavors aren’t diluted by water (even steaming involves water and evaporation of flavor) and the texture is tender but not mushy. Read more

Blueberry Blue Cornmeal Pancakes

I’m so Blue-hoo-hoo-blue-hoo-hoo…

I love that song from Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry and it is a good thing, too. My kids love that movie. Remember George Carlin’s thing on why there wasn’t any blue food? Well he would have to take that back..Blue corn meal is blue, there is just no way around it.

It isn’t at all difficult to find around here. If you are having trouble finding it try ordering it on Amazon at least once. I think there really is a difference in flavor. I think blue cornmeal is sweeter than the yellow or the white variety.

I was paging through my Mesa Grill cookbook and happened to notice the blueberry blue cornmeal pancakes in the back. I am always looking for something a little different to make for breakfast and this seemed like a perfect solution to one more day of pancakes in all of their glory.

By the way…if you don’t have the Mesa Grill cookbook – get it. Go on over to Amazon right now. I love that cookbook and I am constantly using it for inspiration.

Don’t get me wrong, we love pancakes. You can’t beat them for filling up a couple of teen age boys with stomachs that extend  down through their legs somehow. I know that I have never seen THAT graph in health class but I am sure it is so. I have one that can eat 14 or more 8″ whole grain pancakes at one sitting. You try filling him up sometime. And, go figure, he is 5 ‘ 11″ and battling to get up over 125 lbs.

I served them with honey butter and maple syrup. I liked the honey butter on them but the kids just don’t think a pancake is quite right without syrup. The flavor of these is sweet and nutty, with the slight grittiness you would expect from good cornmeal. Read more

Blueberry Lime Muffins..My Oh My

Blueberries have always been one of my favorite fruits. There is something about them that draws me. I love the color, the flavor and everything else about them.

I love blueberries.

I wanted to make blueberry muffins but I wanted something a little different that just blueberries. I couldn’t think of a compelling flavor combination and I happened to set the blueberries down next to a bowl of limes.

Well maybe the flavor didn’t strike me as having the potential to be amazing but the color combination of the deep blue and vivid green did. I decided it would be blueberry lime muffins.

They were excellent. Sweet blueberry flavor with the acidic tartness of lime. Lime is so different from lemon, rounder somehow and more full. Citrus always adds a complexity to blueberries…but the lime gives it a little extra wow.

Read more

Images from This Weekend

So, as you know, this past weekend I catered a luncheon at church. It was for the North Texas Junior Bible Quiz coaches (JBQ) and if anyone deserves something special they do.  Then I must have been on a cooking roll because I topped it off by making lime blueberry muffins for the family Sunday morning and beer batter onion rings that afternoon. Whew! A couple of dozen buttermilk biscuits this morning and I am done in.

I was happy with the menu:

• Grapes
• Chicken Breast with Maple Chipotle Glaze and Savory Cranberry sauce
• Chili Lime Corn
• Dinner Rolls
• Blue Corn Muffins
• Double Apple Cake

I am going to be posting each of the recipes individually this week but I have a backlog of images to deal with (again!) and I wanted to have a reference point. So….here is what you can look forward to this week. Ladies and Gentleman, Get Your Ovens Ready! Read more

Next Page »