May 3 2010

Meet Dorothy

Posted by Erika (TK) in Meet the Member!

Our featured member this week is a Southern belle, through and through. She says that she’s almost always barefooted in the kitchen because of her Southern upbringing, where little girls in beautiful hand-sewn dresses walked around in bare feet. Everyone, say hello to barefootbelle!

Barefootbelle is Dorothy Bradshaw, born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. She loves to cook, and started her blog, Belle of the Kitchen, in order to share that love with others. And of course, her recipe box has quite a number of good old Southern favorites in it.

Clockwise from top left: Montgomery Mint Tea, Roasted Peanuts, Sour Cream Biscuits, Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie, Pimento Cheese, and Cornbread For Your Chili.

After four years of marriage, Dorothy and her husband set out for the Northeast to become full-time seminary students for three years. She confesses that the move to Pennsylvania was a bit drastic for two born and bred Southerners. She lists “fast speech, a sense of patriotic history, several feet of snow, street parking in several feet of snow, and trying to buy groceries and bring them home through several feet of snow” among the things characteristic of “the true depths of Yankee living” that they’ve experienced since their move. Also in this list: new and exotic (to her) ingredients, and geniune, real people. She says that the Northeast is not quite as harsh as many Southerners think, and that the people are kind and honest.

The food, she admits, is an adventure. The adventure of being out of her comfort zone has allowed her to expand her horizons and try new and different ingredients. So although her freezer and pantry are stocked with a number of Southern goods (like stone ground grits, Alabama pecans, and her mom’s fig preserves), see if you can pick out a few of the “new ingredients” in some of her wonderful main course and soup recipes below.

Clockwise from top left: Chicken Corn Soup, Quick Curry Chicken, Bow Tie Pasta with Oven Dried Tomatoes, Asparagus, and Boursin, French Spring Soup, and Vegetable Fajitas.

She’s quite the baker too, be it yeast dough or quick breads. You can see definitely see the Southern influence in her Bourbon Pumpkin Pecan Bread, but she also has that Herbes de Provence Bread that’s more southern France than southern U.S.

Clockwise from top left: Bourbon Pumpkin Pecan Bread, Wheat Pizza Crust, Honey Oatmeal Bread, Cherry Almond Bread, and Herbes de Provence Bread.

Of course, her recipe box is also filled with more than a few great dessert items. Desserts and sweets are quite universal, aren’t they? Looking at the great dishes below, I don’t think South or North or East or West or even from which continent it hails. I’m just thinking plate, and fork or spoon, or maybe just something to use to wipe my fingers and face after stuffing myself with any of these.

Clockwise from top left: Carrot Cake, Chocolate Chunk Cherry Cookies, Black Russian Cake, Orange Rolls, Peanut-Peanut Butter Cookies, and those tantalizing Lemon Triangles.

Dorothy also says that she just can’t get enough of good, fresh seafood, and that she makes a mean homemade mustard that she thinks makes a ham sandwich or a good burger phenomenal. More bits of trivia? Her quick snack of choice is stove top kettle corn, and she panics when she realizes she’s out of butter. Her favorite kitchen tool is her Peppermate pepper mill, which she loves so much that when her first one was lost in their move, she bought another one.

I could go on some more about this lovely lady, but why don’t we just let her tell us more about herself and get right into the interview portion of this post?

Q: What do you enjoy most about cooking?
A: First of all, I love cooking because it is a relaxing, enjoyable and creative outlet. There are so many possibilities in the kitchen, and it is a great way to relax after a day of intense studying! Second, and more importantly, I love cooking for people! My husband was a youth minister before we started this northern adventure, and I found that the best place for me to support him was to cook for the youth group, on ski trips and retreats, for banquets and special events, and in our home. Cooking for others is a way to serve and love them, often from behind the scenes. I love that.

Q: Any favorite chefs or food celebrities? Who inspires you?
A: I love everything that my mom puts on the table. I don’t think she’s made a bad dish in her life. I don’t watch cooking programs, but I love to sit down and read good cookbooks, especially those that are like sitting down with an old friend who tells a good story or gives good kitchen guidance, like Frank Stitt, The Lee Bros., and Ina Garten.

Q: What is your go-to dish or meal?
A: Definitely Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken—I could make it in my sleep!

Q: Do you have a most memorable kitchen flop ever?
A: As soon as we were finished with school last semester, we drove around 10 hours to my sister-in-law’s house in Knoxville. She was hosting a baby shower, but had some tie-ups at work and a family emergency, and asked me to help out in preparation. Long story short, after a day of driving and then half a day of visiting with family, I made myself at home in her kitchen and started making my “famous” cheese straws, among other things. I used the cookie press to squeeze them out onto a baking sheet, and promptly realized that the baking sheet would not fit correctly into the oven. Well, call it Christmas vacation delirium, but I decided to try using them anyway, with the baking sheet tilted in the oven to fit. No more than two minutes later, I checked on them and they had all slid to one side on one side of the pan (surprise, surprise!). So, I pulled them out, and tried to mix the hot dough back into the rest of the unbaked dough (should have known better, but again, vacation delirium). The hot cheese and butter mixture melted the rest of the dough, and all was lost. Although this wasn’t that big of a deal, I think my exhaustion by that point blew everything out of proportion. By the time my sister-in-law came home late that night, I was in a tearful, determined, cheese-straw-making frenzy (with all new ingredients)! The second batch (on the correct-sized baking sheet) came out perfectly.

Q: What, besides post-road-trip cheese straws in someone else’s kitchen, gives you the most trouble?
A: I make a mean BBQ sauce, but I have yet to really love my own pulled pork BBQ from a Boston Butt. My dad’s is amazing. Mine? Always so so.

Q: Is there a food item that you always make at home and never buy at the store anymore?
A: I began making homemade yogurt using an electric skillet when I was in Alabama. My parents sent their old (as in 1970s) yogurt maker up here with me, and now I only buy yogurt when I need a starter.

Q: Give us one of your favorite kitchen tips that you wish you’d always known.
A: I started keeping a food calendar a couple of years ago. Not only is it a great resource for keeping your family well-balanced and well-fed and incorporating new meals and tastes into your repertoire, it is also a great money- and food-saving resource! We rarely have to run to the grocery for last-minute items because we have the whole week of groceries planned out in advance, and we rarely “waste” uneaten or spoiled food, because we plan for leftovers.

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Thanks for indulging us and answering all our questions, Dorothy!

For more recipes from our darling barefootbelle, take a look at her recipe box. (And if you head there on an empty stomach, don’t say I didn’t warn you.) Then visit her blog, Belle of the Kitchen, to read about her old family recipes, or her husband’s verdict on new ones. She’ll even share her kitchen failures, which I think makes this Southern charmer even more endearing.

May 4 2010

Stuffed French Toast

Posted by savorysweetlife in Step-by-Step Recipes

Since Ree is somewhere in D.C. right now with her gushing armpits (sorry for that visual on a cooking blog), we’ve invited a very special guest to host the Tasty Recipe post this week. Quite coincidentally, this lovely lady was also our very first member featured here in the Tasty Kitchen blog. She’s fabulous in so many ways, and we’re so glad to have her here. And boy, has she picked a great recipe to share with us today. Take it away, Alice!

French toast is one of my most favorite foods to eat any time of the day. When I saw this Tasty Kitchen recipe posted by manda2177, it was love at first sight. It makes ordinary French toast extraordinary. May I introduce you to Stuffed French Toast?

Here’s a list of everything you need: a loaf of French or Italian bread, eggs, milk, butter, cream cheese, cinnamon, and jam or fresh fruit (if you’re like me, you’ll use both). I also added slivered almonds just for the fun of it, but you don’t have to … unless you want to. If you do, let me know when and where I can invite myself over for breakfast. Thanks.

Before you can invite me over for breakfast, you’ll need to know how to make this. Slice a loaf of bread in 2-inch pieces. You should get about six pieces all together, not including the end pieces. Using a paring knife, cut a deep slit across the top in the middle of each slice, approximately 4 inches long (as pictured above). This will form your “pocket.” Once you’re done, set the bread aside.

I decided to go with strawberries for the filling. They were almost too pretty to eat. You could use any fruit or no fruit at all, but I highly recommend strawberries.

Wash the strawberries, remove the stems, and cut slices in each one. Turn them a quarter turn and slice them again, adding them to a bowl.

Next, macerate the strawberries, which is fancy way of saying add a little sugar and mix it in. Set them aside and allow the sugar to release its magic.

Next, add jam to the cream cheese and mix both of them until well combined.

The cream cheese mixture now looks like strawberry yogurt. Yum!

Now comes the fun part! Grab a slice of bread and add about a tablespoon (or as much as you like) of cream cheese filling. Personally, I like about 2 tablespoons per slice. Do the same thing with the fresh fruit. Make sure to close the opening by gently pressing the bread together. This will make frying them easier and less messy. Set the filled slices aside.

Now it’s time to make the egg bath. Mix eggs, milk, and cinnamon together until well mixed. Turn the stove top on to medium-high to preheat the skillet. While your skillet is heating up, dip sliced bread in the egg wash for about 20 seconds on both sides. Only dip as many slices as you plan on frying. In other words, if your pan can only fry two pieces at a time, be sure to only coat two pieces of bread a time.

Add a little butter to the surface of skillet. This will help prevent the French toast from sticking. I heart butter.

Fry each slice for about 3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Remove from heat and serve.

If you’re interested in making your stuffed French toast a little more glamorous, sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops of the slices and garnish with fresh strawberries and almonds.

Look at how beautiful these babies are! Can you believe how easy that was, yet how fancy this looks by adding a little magic dust (a.k.a. powdered sugar)?

Final thoughts: although I loved this recipe, I would like to suggest a few things. For a whole loaf of bread, you may want to double the amount of cream cheese and jam the original recipe calls for. If you plan on using fresh strawberries for the filling like I did, I recommend using a 1/2 cup of chopped strawberries with 1 tablespoon of sugar mixed in. Also, because I found the stuffed French toast was plenty sweet on its own, I opted not to add maple syrup.

Many thanks to Amanda for this great recipe. It’s now in my regular Sunday morning rotation!

Printable Recipe

Stuffed French Toast

by manda2177, i am baker, i am mommy on September 8, 2009 in Breakfast

4.91 Mitt(s) 22 Rating(s) 22 votes, average: 4.91 out of 5

Description

A wonderful twist on a breakfast classic!

Ingredients

1 loaf French Bread
3 Tablespoons Any Flavor Fruit Spread (You Can Also Use Jelly, Jam, Or Fresh Fruit)
½ packages Cream Cheese (4 Oz), At Room Temperature
2 whole Eggs
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
½ cups Skim Milk
2 Tablespoons Butter

Preparation Instructions

Heat skillet or electric griddle to 325 to 350 degrees.

Cut french bread into 2-3 inch wide slices. Then, with a paring knife, go back and cut halfway into each slice, in the center, creating a ‘pocket’ that your fruit mixture can be stuffed into.

In a bowl, place the room temperature cream cheese and three tablespoons of fruit spread of your choice. (I used all organic blueberry spread in the picture.) Combine well.

In a separate bowl, break 2 eggs; add cinnamon and milk and combine well.

Now, take fruit mixture and stuff into the ‘pockets’ of your french bread slices. Place on a baking sheet.

When done stuffing each piece of bread, completely coat each piece in egg mixture. Make sure all sides are covered. Do all pieces before starting to fry.

Put 2 tbsp (you can use less!) of butter into a hot skillet and melt completely. Add all of the bread to the skillet and cook roughly about 3-6 minutes on each side, until it reaches a nice golden brown. You want to make sure the cream cheese mixture heats through.

When done cooking, serve immediately with butter and syrup.

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Alice Currah is the force behind Sweet Savory Life and Everyday Alice. She and her husband Rob are the proud parents of three children: Abbi, Mimi, and Elli. Alice is the winner of Saveur’s Cover Contest and is on the Forbes.com list of Eight of The Very Best Food Bloggers. All we’ll say is that we knew she was a winner way before they did.

May 6 2010

Oy…Oy…Oysters!

Posted by steamykitchen in Kitchen Talk

My younger son, Nathan, who is 5 years old, absolutely loves oysters. Now honestly, I don’t know if he really enjoyed the taste of oysters or if it was the crowd of adults clapping and congratulating my little tot for being brave enough to down the oyster on his very first try a year ago. Brave little boy, he was, and it had nothing to do with me telling him that it tastes just like potato chips.

Most people have a preference for either raw, fried or grilled oysters. The people who love raw oysters will *sometimes* like them grilled, but the people who like grilled or fried oysters don’t enjoy it raw.

And I’m saying this as if I have such authority on the subject oysters, when in reality, I just merely questioned my neighborhood friends, i.e. 3 people.

My favorite is raw, super chilled, and served with a tangy, light mignonette. There’ll absolutely be no cocktail sauce nor horseradish touching my oysters (which serves to merely mask the oysters’ delicate seawater flavors). Sometimes, just really good sea salt and a squeeze of lemon is all I need.

I love playing with the mignonette … errr … vinaigrette for the oysters. I think technically, a mignonette is made of red wine vinegar and shallots. But I love using an Asian rice vinegar and adding some grated fresh ginger with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar.

For the perfect oyster “mignonette,” I think a mixture of tangy, salty, and slightly sweet works really well. In the above photo, I used tart green apples (finely minced), white wine vinegar, minced cilantro and minced jalapeno, a touch of salt and a touch of sugar.

But enough about raw oysters, let’s talk about fried! When I fry oysters, I love using Zatarain’s Fish Fry seasoning and using my cast iron pot to fry the oysters.

And grilled? Absolutely divine. I made these grilled oysters a few months ago, right after getting back from FoodBuzz Food Blogger Festival in San Francisco. The first night consisted of a festival of street cart food, and one of the vendors was Hog Island Oyster Company. The shucker must have gone through about 1000 oysters that night, poor thing, and I think I stood by his cart for about two hours straight, eating 100 or so myself.

He gave me a recipe for their famous Hog Island Grilled Oysters, and you’ll find the recipe on Elise’s Simply Recipes blog. And, yes the oysters are sitting on a bed of raw rice, only because I ran out of rock salt! The rice worked beautifully.

So I think I’m an anomaly; I love my oysters every which way—raw, fried and grilled—though my favorite is freshly shucked raw oysters that make feel as if I’m standing knee-deep in the crashing waves with my arms wide open and yelling “IIIII—–LOOOOVVVE—-TOOOO—-EAAAAAAT—OY-OY-OYYYYYSTERSSS!!!”

How about you? Raw, fried or grilled? (Or NOT?)

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Jaden Hair is a food writer, television personality, and food photographer based in Tampa Bay, Florida. Find more of her recipes in her blog, Steamy Kitchen, where you can also read more about Jaden’s new book, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, and the rave reviews it’s received!

May 7 2010

The Theme Is … Mama! (Nana, too!)

Posted by Erika (TK) in The Theme Is...

As we approach the weekend, many people are turning their thoughts to their dear mothers, either visiting them, having them over, taking them out for a special meal, or if none of those are feasible, calling them on the phone. This weekend is the weekend that typically sees the highest call volumes of the year, which is not to mean many of us don’t pick up the phone to call mom all those other times we need help with something, asking her how she makes her pie crust so flaky, telling her about what that mean person said to us this morning, or calling just to hear her voice and see how she’s doing.

I thought that for this week’s theme, we’d do something special and personal. We could have done a post about brunch ideas, and that would have been great too. We have tons of breakfast and brunch recipes here at Tasty Kitchen, and some of the suggestions we had in our recent Bridal Showers and Spring theme posts work beautifully for Sunday brunch as well. But today, let’s get all nostalgic and talk about the foods that remind us of our Mamas (and Nanas too!). And because there are as many possible answers to that as there are mothers and grandmothers, we’ll make it personal and poll the throngs of people behind the scenes here at Tasty Kitchen. (And by “throngs,” I mean all three of us.)

Let’s start with Ree. I asked her what foods remind her most of her mom and grandmother, and she quickly answered that for her grandmother, it’s biscuits and homemade jam. “Oh, dear. Best drop biscuits ever, and I’ll never be able to replicate them.” If it’s any consolation to you, Ree, Alton Brown said the same thing about his grandmother’s biscuits.

Clockwise from top left: Basic Buttermilk Biscuits from loveandbutter (Jamie), Grape Harvest Jam from italianfoodforever, Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits from madisonmayberry, Cinnamon Peach Jam from bertscannery, Easy Drop Biscuits from cookingfromscratch, Apple Pie Jam – Jelly from Mommy’s Kitchen, Biscuits, The Cheater Way from sarahhope, and Easy Homemade Plum Jam from nicoled.

For her mom, Ree’s reply was just as quick: Cinnamon Rolls. I’m sure many of you have become quite intimate with those luscious Cinnamon Rolls that Ree shared with us in one of her earliest cooking posts. It’s that sinful-looking dish you see in the top photo, and just for kicks, I thought I’d show you a couple of variations that we have here, including a gluten-free version.

Clockwise from left: Gluten-free Cinnamon Rolls from glutenfreegirl, Amazing Short Cut Cinnamon Rolls from sprucehill, Caramel Sticky Buns from Heather.

As for me, I seem to be an anomaly, because the dishes that remind me most of my mom are savory, main dish offerings. My all-time favorite is my mom’s spaghetti meat sauce, and it was always a treat when she made it. And the one, ultra-special once-in-a-while fancy meal that’s so memorable that I can clearly picture in my mind our old dining room and where I sat as my mom brought out the food was a steak dinner served with cream of mushroom soup and buttered corn. To this day, that combination always instantly brings me back to my childhood.

Clockwise from top left: Pepper Encrusted Steak from bell’alimento, Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup from steamykitchen, Corn with Bacon and Green Onions, Oh My from Karly Campbell, and Pastor Ryan’s Bolognese Sauce.

As for Nanci, the lovely lady who answers your support questions and helps you with anything and everything, she says that her mom makes the greatest cobblers ever, using her great-grandmother’s crust. And her paternal grandmother? She was a master candy maker, and people would travel far and wide to purchase little bags of her peanut brittle every time she would make them for church bake sales.

Clockwise from top left: Old-Fashioned Microwave Peanut Brittle from bitesizebaker, Nectarine and Cream Cobbler from joythebaker, Spicy Peanut Brittle from uwharrie, Blackberry Cobbler from Karly Campbell, The McNally Pie Crust from Courtney.

She also shared that her grandmother always made a roast when they came over, and that for both her mom and grandmother, pie was a big thing. A really big thing. And as I looked through the pie recipes here, I realized something: pie is a big thing for many, many people. So many of you have shared family favorite pies that have been passed on from mom, or grandma. And it’s so lovely that many of you are determined to continue the tradition, or start one of your own.

Top row, from left to right: Cherry Cream Crumble Pie from sugarnspice, Southern Sweet Potato Pie from bsherrill, and MaMaw Burkett’s Chess Pie from ace75. Center row, from left to right: Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie from Mommy’s Kitchen, Super Healthy Banana Pie from rawmazing, and Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie from A Cozy Kitchen. Bottom row, from left to right: “Just In Case” Pie from jaymielo, Grandma Inez’s Pineapple Pie from Natalie (Perry’s Plate), Blackberry Wine Glaze Pie with Ginger Crust from gastronomicgold.

And those are all the special Mama and Nana dishes for us here at Tasty Kitchen!

We want to hear from you, too. Is there something that your mom makes that you think no one else in the world can replicate? Something special and soothing that she’d make for you when you were sick that made you feel all better? What did Nana make for you every time you came over for a visit? We’ve love to hear it all!

And now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I think I’ll go look at old photos and find some Jean Nate to sniff.

May 10 2010

Meet Karly

Posted by Erika (TK) in Meet the Member!

She’s an Illinois native who, in her profile, lists shopping as a hobby, sea salt as her favorite food, and this baker isn’t afraid to say that she loves to make brownies from a box mix. She’s funny, spirited, and she’s definitely come a long way from her early years of marriage when she […]

May 11 2010

My Granny’s Chocolate Cobbler

Posted by missamy in Baking, Step-by-Step Recipes

This week, Ree’s in Orlando, ditching the boots for a pair of flip flops. Right now, she’s either lost in Wally World, hiding in the bathroom, or clutching the bars of some insane ride and crying for her mommy. So we have another special guest filling in for this week’s Tasty Recipe post! Today, missamy […]

May 12 2010

The Theme Is … A Healthy Start!

Posted by Erika (TK) in The Theme Is...

Everyone’s talking about the approaching “bathing suit” season, and it’s hard to escape it. Someone we know is in Orlando this week, where tank tops and shorts abound. For some of us (and by ‘us’ I mean ‘me’), we’re thinking now is a good time to say goodbye to some winter pounds and start […]

May 13 2010

Taco-Mania!

Posted by steamykitchen in Looks Delicious!

It’s taco time! We make tacos quite often for dinner, and I’m going to admit that sometimes when short on time, I’ll fill the tortilla with something a little unexpected but convenient. In a pinch, I’ll grab a cooked Mojo-seasoned rotisserie chicken from the deli department, a package of corn tortillas, shredded cheese and […]

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Meet Dorothy

Stuffed French Toast

Printable Recipe

Stuffed French Toast

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Description

Ingredients

Preparation Instructions

Oy…Oy…Oysters!

The Theme Is … Mama! (Nana, too!)

Meet Karly

My Granny’s Chocolate Cobbler

The Theme Is … A Healthy Start!

Taco-Mania!

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Step-by-Step Recipes

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