Caramel Cake - It only survived because of my mom

This weekend I made a caramel cake.  A from scratch, covered with cooked caramel icing, straight-from-the-south caramel cake.  I followed this recipe from Deep South Dish.  Why didn't I follow the recipe of someone from the Food Network or from a 4-H cookbook?  I don't know, but the recipes were the least of my problems so I guess that chick knows what she's talking about.

I started yesterday by making the cake part of the caramel cake.  Good thing I hadn't planned to make the icing yesterday since it was rainy and cloudy all day and ANYONE from the South knows you can't cook candy or icing on a rainy, cloudy day.  I'm making the assumption that it's because there's too much moisture in the air.  So anyway, I made the cake.  Keep in mind that the only "from scratch" cake I've made before was a pound cake.  It turned out well but that didn't keep me from worrying about these. 

I whisked my dry ingredients (that's my version of sifting), creamed my butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla, added in the flour and milk (alternating, ending with the flour because that's how the recipe did it).  I divided the batter into 2 springform pans coated with Baker's Joy (Thanks Kisha!) and waxed paper.  Everything was going great.  I got them in the oven with no trouble.  The recipe said to make sure not to overcook them, and to start with 20 minutes, then check them.  And there's where the trouble began.

At 20 minutes I could see they probably weren't ready, but I thought I would check anyway.  Wrong move.  Why?  Because as soon as I opened the oven door both layers sank in the middle.  Not a little bit - a LOT.  I thought maybe they would rise back up a little, but no.  Two sunken-in-the-middle layers.  This was not going to do, not at all.  One sunken layer?  That I could probably deal with...but TWO?  No.  So I set about making a third layer.  I halved the recipe, got it in the oven, turned on the oven light and set the timer for 30 minutes.  I watched it but I did NOT open the oven at all.  That one turned out much better - not perfect, but close enough.  Still, I only needed 2 layers soooooo what to do with that third sunken layer?  Why treat the Voodoo Biker and his employees that's what! 

Here's what I did:  I peeled and chopped two pretty big peaches (almost softball sized).  I melted 2 tbsp butter, about 1/4 cup brown sugar and a little vanilla and lemon juice in a pan.  I threw in the peaches and sauteed for a few minutes.  In the mean time, I poked some holes in the layer with a toothpick.  Then I dumped the peaches and glaze over the layer and took it down to the store.  I heard it was great ;)

Anyway, I put the other two layers in the freezer overnight.  Today after an awesome bike ride with my friend A, I set about making the icing.  I read the recipe twice before I even began.  It involved melting sugar (the "burnt" sugar portion of the recipe) in a cast iron skillet while at the same time bringing to a boil a milk, sugar, butter and vanilla mixture in a separate pan.  Eventually all this gets combined.  Tip #1:  Always use a bigger saucepan (like a 4 qt) than you think you'll need.  This was mistake #2 for me as I did not do that. 

When I poured the caramel mix into the milk mix it rose up to the top of the pan and over the sides as I was screaming to no one in particular, "This isn't going to work!  It's not going to work!"  I set the saucepan down on top of the cast iron skillet (although it had already poured melted sugar onto the stove eye) and grabbed a bigger pan.  As I was pouring from one to another my candy thermometer fell onto the floor.  Smoke was coming off the one burner, I was throwing the pan and sugar mix onto another burner and the candy thermometer was lying on the floor.  I turned on the fan, picked up the candy thermometer, and went back to whisking the mix to get it to the soft-ball stage.  The candy thermometer was sitting on "Soft-ball" after only a minute or two.  Wow, that was fast, I thought.  I took the mix off the heat and continued to whisk.  It was supposed to get thick and creamy.  It wasn't.  That's when I realized the candy thermometer was broken. 

At this point I suppose less stubborn people might give up, or at least start over.  I was determined to make this work.  I threw the candy thermometer away, got the pot back on the heat, and started whisking again.  They call it the "soft-ball" stage for a reason.  I grabbed a glass of cold water and a spoon and set them beside the stove.  I thought back to all the times I made fudge with my mom and sister.  Soft-ball stage literally means the mix will form a soft ball when you drop it in water.  So I whisked and every minute I would drop a little drop of mix into the water.  The caramel began to change, to get hotter - you could see it from the way it bubbled.  I checked again - still no soft ball.  After probably a full 5 or 6 minutes of whisking and checking, it finally changed - it didn't exactly form a ball shape, but it formed a shape instead of just streaming to the bottom of the glass.  

I took it off the heat and kept whisking.  I looked at the clock and figured I'd give it 5 minutes.  If nothing had changed by then I could assume it was ruined.  But it did start to change!  I thought again to the candy making from my childhood and knew to whisk until some of the sheen was gone from the caramel.  It started to thicken and get dull and I stopped whisking and picked up the phone.  "Mom?  The fact that this caramel icing worked is all because of you."

The bottom layer was the sunken one and you can tell that even here.  I tried to get the icing to flow prettily over the edges...

Is the cake beautiful?  No.  That's because I waited a bit too long to start icing it and the caramel started to set...BUT it tastes amazing! 

Fall Corn Chowder

I sort of kind of made this corn chowder recipe last night from the USA Weekend newspaper insert...Creamless Corn Chowder.  I say "sort-of-kind-of" because once I got home and started looking at it I realized I did not have time to grill the veggies.  So instead I followed the "short cut" version's suggestion of sauteing the onions, peppers, etc. with the bacon.  I didn't puree the corn either.  I cut the corn off the cob and then used a spoon to scrape the yummy milky goodness out of the cobs as well.  I added 4 medium-hot roasted green chilis as well.  SO, in a nutshell, here's what I did...

I chopped up 4 slices of bacon and started frying them in a pan.  I added 1/2 of a large Vidalia onion and 1/2 of a green bell pepper once the bacon was almost done.  I also added in 4 chopped green chilis.  In a separate pot I added 2 cups of chicken broth and 1 cup milk.  I chopped 3 small potatoes and 1 large potato fairly small and added that to the pot.  Then while that was coming to a boil, I cut the corn off of 4 ears and scraped out the corn milk too.  I added all that to the pot of boiling broth/milk/potatoes and let it cook (stirring frequently) until the potatoes were soft.  I added lots of salt and black pepper.  Once the potatoes were pretty soft I used the potato masher to smoosh the potatoes up a little bit and make the chowder a little smoother.  Then I dumped in all the peppers, onions, bacon and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  To serve I added hot sauce and a side of cheese and chipolte salsa quesadillas.  I will definitely be making this soup again!

Gringo Chile Rellenos and more uses for roasted green chiles...

I didn't know roasted green chiles were a popular item until I moved to Western Colorado.  Here we all await late July because we know that the Hatch green chiles will soon be roasting at all the farm stands in the area.  There is nothing like pulling up to your favorite produce stand and seeing a giant roasting drum outside.  You just know it's green chile season!  Bags and bags of warm, freshly roasted peppers lined the table at my favorite stand just yesterday.  An old farmer stood there labeling, bagging and sealing quarts of deliciousness.  Before November I'll have the freezer stocked with several bags of these awesome delicacies.

     Roasted green chiles have a very distinct flavor, I think.  There's a hint of smokiness along with a peppery bite.  They are soft and silky.  Some are hotter than others, but there's nothing that can replace the taste of a fresh green chile in a burrito, in scrambled eggs, or even in an eggroll wrapper.  What's that you say?  An eggroll wrapper?  Oh yes.

This is a bag of green chiles before I peeled and de-seeded them.

A lovely roasted green chile - peeled but with seeds still inside.  These come out very easily.  We usually split our chiles down the middle and rinse the seeds out.

    

These are Voodoo Biker's "Gringo Chile Rellenos" before they are cooked.  They are eggroll wrappers filled with a green chile and a nice slice of pepperjack cheese.  You just roll them up and brown them in about 1 tbsp oil.

Nicely browned Gringo Rellenos!

How awesome does that look?  Gooey cheese, a beautiful green chile...mmmm!

     Even though I could eat these for days on end, we do find plenty of other uses for green chiles.


Green chile creamed corn:  This is best with Olathe sweet corn :)  I cut the corn off the cob, then use the back of a spoon to get all the "milk" out of each ear of corn.  Then I saute onions and garlic in 2 tbsp butter, add in the corn, and a splash of chicken broth.  I let all that cook for a few minutes, until the broth is absorbed.  Then I add in about 1/2 cup of chopped green chiles and a lot of salt and black pepper.

Corn cut from the cob is on the right.  "Milk" from the cob is on the left.

Mexican flatbread (aka pizza).  For this I use the Santa Fe blend of Philly Cooking Creme as the sauce.  Then I top the pizza with red onions, red bell pepper, green chiles and cojita cheese (and of course a little mozarella).

 
You can also add them to scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey sandwiches, burgers...the list goes on!  I think my favorite ways to eat them are the simplest - wrapped in an eggroll wrapper, sprinkled in a quesadilla... But however you enjoy them, make sure you do it before the season is over!

Bunk? Bun? BUNDTTTTTTTT

    Everytime I use a bundt pan, I do two things:  1. Tell myself to wait until the cake is completely cooled before I invert the cake pan.  2. Giggle over my favorite scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."  You can watch that scene here. 
     Impatient people should not use bundt pans.  Seriously, if you're like me and you cannot wait until the darn cake is completely 100% cooled before you try to flip it out of the bundt pan, do not use one.  The cake will still taste great if you use a 9x13 pan. 

     I made this Chocolate Pistachio cake again from a recipe I found on the Pioneer Woman's website.  Here's a link to it.  You can see from the picture that Ree (the Pioneer Woman) must be a patient person.  Then again, she's posting her pictures for millions to see and therefore wants her cake to look perfect.  I was bringing mine to work where I have lots of friends - they don't care how it looks as long as it's tasty :) 

Creamed Spinach and the Farm Stand...

This is not my creamed spinach.  This is Emeril Lagasse's creamed spinach from the Food Network.  I didn't take a picture of mine and there was none left!  Voodoo Biker had creamed spinach last week at a BBQ place in Denver last week and it put me in the mood for some...Yesterday I knew I had spinach in the fridge so I thought, "well, why not?"  We were having leftover pintos and cornbread, a grilled steak, that we split, and sliced tomatoes...creamed spinach seemed like a good addition.

I've made it once before and stuck with my original recipe though I did glance at some others (Emeril's included).  First I washed all the spinach I had left.  That amounted to a salad spinner full.  That's about enough for 2 people ;)  Spinach wilts and turns into about a quarter of what you started with before you cooked it - so keep that in mind. 

I chopped up some (about 1/4 cup) onion and 2 cloves of garlic.  I got out 1 small sauce pot and 1 skillet.  In the sauce pot I started 1 tbsp of butter melting (real butter - not margarine).  When that began to melt I added in the garlic.  In the skillet I heated 1 tbsp olive oil and threw in the onions.
Once the butter was melted I added in a couple of spoonfuls of flour and whisked that around.  I let it cook for just a minute or two.  Then I added about 3/4 of a cup of skim milk because that's what I had...obviously 2% or even cream would be better ;)  I whisked all that around, added salt, pepper, and nutmeg (maybe 1/4 tsp of this).  I turned the heat up slightly so it would bubble.

In the mean time, I sauteed the onions until they were softening and then I threw in all the spinach.  I started stirring it around so it would start to wilt.  The sauce should be ready at this point - a little thicker, but not super thick.  Just enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Take the spinach off the heat as soon as it begins to wilt and add in enough of the sauce to coat your spinach.  Add more pepper or nutmeg if needed.  Trust me, the nutmeg makes a difference!

That's it!  So simple and, if you use skim milk, not at all bad for you.  Spinach is a great source of all sorts of things - fiber, Vitamins A, C, Iron and Calcium!

In other news, I've visited the Taylor's Farm Stand in front of K-Mart twice in 3 days.  We were almost out of tomatoes this morning and, now that I've gotten a taste of the "home grown" ones again, I can't stand the grocery store ones.  I spent $17.50 today on tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and garlic.  YAY summer!

The Pioneer Woman's Spicy Beans

So, I made these spicy beans today.  Why?  Well why not?  I had a day where I was going to be home (that's right, I didn't go biking or hiking or to the gym today) and after reading about them on her website I was craving them!  Have I ever made beans from scratch before?  No.  Have I ever eaten them before?  I am sure I have at authentic Mexican restaurants where they cook black beans all day long...or at some soul food restaurant...but I have never had them from someone's home kitchen before that I can remember.  Still, I read the recipe and I had. to. make. them.  So here they are, simmering away...they're close to done, which is why the lid is off...

What's going with them you ask?  Fresh cooked Olathe sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers from the farm stand down in front of K-Mart and southern cornbread!  I am really, really, really excited about this meal.  Cooking beans from scratch does take more time and effort, but just to do once in a while when you have the time...especially in winter when you just want something warm and comforting...I say, why not?

Pizza for Thought...

     Did you know that you can go to our local "Homestyle Bakery" and get pizza dough balls for a 12" pizza for only .99 cents?  I did not know this.  I knew they had pizza dough...or I had heard they did.  So today, since I'm cooking for 1 tonight, I stopped by to get some dough.  They had the cutest little balls of pizza dough!  Apparently they also have larger ones so you can make full-sized pizzas, but for 1, or for a "make-your-own-pizza" night with the the family and kids?  You can't beat .99 cents! So, here's the pizza I plan on making tonight...

     I haven't decided on a sauce yet.  It will either be a garlic olive oil sauce or tomato sauce.  Then I plan to top it with grilled artichokes (from a jar...I'm not that fancy with my pizza!), fresh spinach, mushrooms, and probably some onion.  Of course that will be topped off with mozzarella cheese.  I think that sounds pretty spectacular myself!

     What's your favorite pizza creation?