October 2008 - Posts
WAIT! Don't turn the page simply because you saw the word "grits". Trust me, you won't even know they are there. Grits are not my most favorite food. They aren't even in the top 100. Actually, I only eat them in this dish. I don't eat them plain, buttered, with cheese, bacon, or sausage. And me not eating anything with bacon is saying a lot. However, this dish cleverly conceals one of it's main components inside fluffy, cheesy, and buttery morsels of egg. Ok, now I'm hungry. Lets get started.
The ingredients are whole milk (can substitute if you HAVE to), eggs, shredded cheddar, grits butter and sausage. Aaahhhh pork!
Put the sausage in a pan to start browning. And if you could use your most scratched up pan in the cabinet I would feel much better about myself. Thank you.
While the glorious ground up pork fat is browning, cook up enough grits to make three cooked cups. Check the measurements on the side of the box of grits you buy. Subtract about 1/2 cup of the water while making them so that they come out dry. Then add butter, cheese, milk and lightly beaten eggs.
Mix till combined then add salt and pepper to taste. The sausage should be done now. Drain it and put in a casserole dish. No need to spray it, there is enough fat in this recipe to keep it from sticking!
Now pour the grits/egg mixture over the sausage. Then what do we do to make it just that much better?
Add MORE cheese!
Then pop it in the oven and bake for 1 hour. And when it comes out it is bubbly and warm and gooey and cheesy and and and and, oh heck, it's GOOD! See, my hubby didn't even wait for it to cool down before he took a big ol' scoop!
And neither did I! Try it, you won't even notice the grits. Trust me!
Grits Casserole
Ingredients:
1 pound bulk sausage
3 cups hot cooked grits
2 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 TBS butter
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 ½ cups whole milk
Directions:
Put the sausage in a pan and start frying. Use a fork to break the sausage into small crumbles as it is frying. Use
mild or hot sausage. Sprinkle the cooked sausage (fat drained off) in a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Cook the grits and measure out 3 cups.
While hot, stir in cheese and butter. The heat of the grits will melt the cheese and butter. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Whisk together the eggs and milk.
Lower fat milk will make the casserole runny. Combine the two mixtures together and pour over the sausage in the dish. Top with more cheese.
Bake uncovered for an hour at 350 degrees F. Enjoy!
I've been doing a bit of cooking lately, but haven't been remembering to take pictures of the whole process. On some of them I got the ingredients, some of the process but forgot the finished product picture. On others it was the opposite. I just haven't been able to get it together lately. But I will do my best to start posting them with or without all the pictures. At least you will get the idea of what I was trying to do. I've been doing some practicing with cakes lately. I did an over-the-hill cake for my daughters teacher for her 60th birthday. A chocolate icebox cake and a ganache cake with gum paste flowers. Then I had this bright idea to replicate a purse cake. it was somewhat time consuming, but it turned out ok. I always learn ALOT when doing these, which is why I do them in the first place. The more practice I get the less I fret when someone actually pays me to make one! Let me walk you through what I've been up to.
This is the purse cake. I guess it looks more like a carpet baggers bag. But I feel pretty good about it. I used gel food coloring mixed with almond extract to paint the black "stripes" on the front and back panels. This was also my first time using gold luster dust. I wanted it to be more of a rich, deeper gold, but mixed it wrong. Next time.....
This is the Icebox cake. Made popular by the Magnolia Bakery and later Oprah. My friend Julia knows ALL about Oprah, and she loves cake. So I know she's probably hanging on my every word if they involve both Oprah and Cake! This cake couldn't be more simple. It has like 4 ingredients, cream, sugar, vanilla and chocolate wafers. Thats it! Seriously. After whipping the cream, sugar and vanilla to soft peaks, you place the wafers in a circle on a plate and top with some of the whipped cream, then more wafers and cream until you run out. Wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and put in in the fridge overnight. The wafers absorb some of the moisture out of cream and become soft like cake. You can top it with shaved chocolate but I didn't. Just because I was lazy, really. But it tasted good. And there was good fluffiness left in the cream and the wafers were nice and cakey. Not bad all in all.
This is the chocolate ganache cake with gum paste flowers I made for my daughters teacher's assistant. She is leaving for another job and I wanted to give her a little going away gift for all her hard work. The ganache was easy to make and pour over the cake. The flowers took a bit of extra work, but they were easy to form and fill. I let them dry overnight and placed them the next morning before delivery.
I know you already saw the Spongebob cake I made but that was a trial cake. This was the final cake that was delivered to the party. I was very proud of how it turned out and the birthday boy was very happy with the outcome as was all the party guests.
And in between all those cakes I managed to fix some meals here at home too. See, I told you I've been busy. But for right now I am going to put up my feet, play some poker and watch tv. Catch those other posts later this week.
Fondant is a medium I have never worked with before. I was fascinated by it and thought it looked easy enough. Huh? What 'first time' did you think I was talking about? Alright, alright, get your head back in the game. Do you know what fondant is? Basically it is sugar and water boiled to soft-ball stage and then whipped to the right consistency. Then it is rolled out like playdough. It is usually used to cover wedding cakes and it is the filling inside the Cadbury creme egg, if you have ever had one. But, for me, going through all that time of measuring, boiling, getting the right consistency is just too much for me. So I found a recipe for Marshmallow Fondant. Super easy, super fast and messy, which I think is fun. Anyway, I used it to make a trial cake for an upcoming birthday party where the boy wanted Spongebob. Since I was new to the whole thing, I figured it was a good idea to make a smaller version first and work with it to see how things flowed. I made some mistakes and learned alot, but all and all, I think it worked out great. What do you think?
I recently read "bacon is the fairy dust of the culinary world". If that is the case, then I am tinkerbell. Cause I LOVE bacon and I use it often. Actually, I like most anything pork related. And this pasta dish is as good a way as any for using pork related products. And SUPER simple. It has less than 12 ingredients and takes about 15-20 min to make. Good for a quick before-the-game meal or a oops-I-forgot-to-take-the-chicken-out-of-the-freezer supper. So I'm going to get started and quit yapping.
Our ingredients: Parmesan cheese, white wine, chicken stock, parsley, onion, garlic, eggs, butter linguine, and bacon.
First throw the bacon in a pan and start frying.
While that is working, chop the onion and mince the garlic. Then start a pot of water with about 2 Tbls of salt to boiling. Keep an eye on that bacon, the worst sin is to let bacon burn. Okay, maybe it isn't a sin, but it should be!
Give the bacon another stir then get out a large bowl. Large enough to hold all your ingredients and still leave room to stir. This is kinda like a two pot meal. But one is a pan and the other is a bowl. That's it. Besides a knife and a cutting board that is all you need. Check your pasta water, if it is boiling, add the past now and cook for about 9-10 min.
Add the chopped parsley and grated parm to the bowl and mix well.
Note to self: make sure you pick up PARSLEY not cilantro when you make this dish again! UGH
Once the bacon is done remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Then add the onion to the bacon grease. After it has cooked down for a few minutes add the garlic. Once that is done remove with a slotted spoon. Then put the pan back on at medium high to high heat and add the wine scraping up the bits at the bottom. Then add the chicken stock. Add the bacon, onion and garlic back to the sauce and reduce heat to a simmer. Try not to go to far, like trying to find your children because they are being too quiet only to find them outside using the water hose to make mud puddles while still in their school clothes. So don't let it simmer too long, or you will end up with this. And there goes some of your sauce. It should be close to this, but not so dry.
So drain your pasta and add it directly to the egg mixture. On top of that add the bacon, onion, garlic and butter. With the hot pasta on the bottom it is starting to cook the eggs, so you want to start stirring/tossing the ingredients together. The eggs with set some and combine with the white wine/chicken stock sauce and the parsley will wilt some.
After it is all throughly mixed it is time to serve. Dish out in bowls and top with a little parmesan and parsley. I eat this by itself, but if you have company, serve with a small simple salad. Enjoy.
Pasta Carbonara
Serves 4
1/2 lb linguine pasta
2 eggs
1/2 pound bacon or pancetta, 1/2inch pieces
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese plus 1/4 for topping
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine (or substitute another cup of stock)
1/4 stick of butter
1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 - 1 tablespoons black pepper
First, toss your bacon into a stainless steel pan. Stainless steel is better for this dish because it will help to develop flavor later on. While the bacon’s cooking, set a pot of salted water and about 2 tbsp. salt per gallon of water on the stove for the pasta.
Once the bacon has crisped up, remove it with a slotted spoon to a bowl and put the pan back on the stove. Now put the diced onions into the bacon grease.Give them a quick stir and let them cook down over a medium-high heat for a couple of minutes. Then throw in the garlic.
If the pasta water is boiling, go ahead and add in the pasta. and cook for 9-10 minutes.
After the onion and garlic are cooked, removed from the pan with a slotted spoon. And carefully dump out the excess grease. Place the pan back on high heat and pour in the white wine (or chicken stock if you’re not using wine). Scrape the bottom of the pan vigorously until the little bits of flavor (the bacon left behind) have released themselves into the liquid. After scraping, add in the 1 cup of chicken stock. Return the bacon, onion, and garlic to the pan in the sauce you just created. Now stir together simmer over medium heat.
Crack the eggs into a large bowl. A bowl large enough to hold the pasta and other ingredients, and still leave room to stir together. Add the 1/2 cup of Parmesan and the parsley to the eggs. You can leave out a little parsley for garnishing. Mix well.
If the pasta is done, drain the water off. Then add the hot pasta to the egg/parmesan/parsley mixture. It’s important that the pasta be very hot, because this is what cause the eggs to cook. Then add the bacon,onion and butter on top of the pasta. And mix! Use tongs or pasta forks for this. Then add in the black pepper. Once everyting is combined......your done!
Serve and toss on the extra cheese and parsley for a delicious Italian classic. Serve with a nice simple salad.