Have you ever looked at a restaurants menu online and realized you absolutely had to have something on there? And then you realize with sadness in your heart that that particular restaurant is no where near you! That's how I feel right now. I recently looked up California Pizza Kitchen's menu and locations. Having come from Las Vegas where there are at least 2-3 in the city and lost more in other cities around the area I was hoping to find a location close to us where I could have some more yumminess. But sadly the closest one is in Jacksonville, FL or Birmingham, AL. I suppose when we visit my mother-in-law we could eat at the one in Jacksonville but that does not really help me right now. Well against my better judgement I went ahead and looked at the menu. Turns out CPK has a new dessert on the menu. A 6 layer lemon cake with lemon custard and limoncello in between the layers and a mascarpone frosting and a blueberry coulis drizzled around. You know what.....I am not explaining it correctly. Click HERE!
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| CPK version |
Now that you have cleaned off the computer screen from the drool and come back to reality you probably want to have a piece of that too! So that is where I come in. I set right to work figuring out a set of recipes to make this dish. And here is what I have come up with.
Lemon Curd:
As with the lemon danish I used Martha Stewarts lemon curd recipe which can be found here. I doubled the recipe to use for the filling on this recipe.
Limoncello:
I did not use any of this. I thought about it. But I didnt have any limoncello on hand and didnt go looking for any so I omitted it although I am sure brushing it lightly on the cake before layering on the curd would be good.
White Cake Recipe:
1c butter, softened
2c sugar
3 1/2c cake flour
3t baking powder
1c milk
1t vanilla
8 eg whites, beaten stiff
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 round cake pans.
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.
In a medium bowl combine flour and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Then add the milk and vanilla. Finally add in the remaining flour mixture. It will be thick and resemble a bread batter right now. Take your beaten egg whites and gently fold 1/3 of the mixture in at a time. Make sure all of the egg whites are thoroughly incorporated.
Pour the batter into the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Mascarpone Frosting:
Now I doubled the recipe thinking I needed more and I think I did but I did have quite a bit left over. So use your own judgement on doubling the frosting recipe.
8oz mascarpone cheese
1/2c confectioners sugar
1c heavy whipping cream, beaten stiff
Mix together the cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy, Gently fold in the whipped cream until fully incoprorated.
ASSEMBLY:
Take your cake plate and tear off 3 small 2-3inch wide strips of parchment paper and lay in a diamond shape. Do not place directly on the center of the plate though. This will keep the frosting and crumbs from spoiling your plate. Once you are done you gently remove the paper from the sides of the cake and throw away.
Take a round cake and slice gently into thirds. Take the bottom third and gently place on the bottom of the cake plate. Take 1/4 of the lemon curd and spread almost out to the edge. Take the middle third cake and place on the lemon curd. Spread with another 1/4 of the lemon curd. Then place the top third of the cake on the lemon curd. Spread with some of the frosting.
Take your other round cake and cut into thirds and repeat the process. Spread some frosting around the edges of the cake and smooth out. Place in the fridge to keep cool and set up.
Blueberry Coulis:
1 pint of blueberries
1/4-2/3c water
2-3T sugar
1t lemon juice
Combine all ingredients on a small pot and cook on medium for 10 minutes until gently boiling and berries start to burst. Using an imersion blender (or other blending device), puree the mixture. Let it cool and then strain to remove all the seeds and pulp.
Candied Lemon Peel:
Using a peeler, peel off the lemon skin. It is okay if you get some pith in it. One the peel is off take a small knife and scrape off the pith until none is left. I wanted small strips so I sliced the peel into thin ribbons.
In a small pot place equal parts water and sugar and bring to a boil. Place in the lemon peel and simmer for 15-20 minutes or longer if larger pieces. You want the peel to be tender when you eat it. Remove from the boil water and gently dry. Roll in sugar and let it dry out.
Take your cake and cut into slices. When placed on a plate garnish with candied lemon peel and drizzle some blueberry coulis around the plate.
You know aside from the sauce being a little thinner and not as prettily drizzled, I think mine looks spot on! And you know something else? It tasted really good too! After driving to my Dads house and having a wonderful meal of grilled pork and veggies what naturally comes for me is dessert and this one was really good. The lemon flavor was neither too aggressive or not there. You got enough lemon sharpness without it covering up all the other tastes in the cake. And I am glad I went with a lemon curd instead of lemon custard. I prefer the sharpness of the curd. The cake might have had a little too much vanilla (Im a cook not a baker so I didnt measure my vanilla out like I stated to do in the recipe) but my Dad prefered it that way. And the frosting was light and airy and not too sweet. So you didnt have the overly sugary sweetness of a frosting to compete with the other flavors. And blueberry naturally goes with lemon and it went really well to dip your cake bites in. But you know it wasnt entirely necessary. It does look pretty with it though. Oh and the candied lemon peel? It tastes great on its own, it looks lovely sitting atop the cake, but it kinda gets in the way when eating the cake. I guess thats why it is the garnish instead of integrated into the cake. But overall I would take the time to make this again. And if you are feinding for this cake, it really isnt that hard. It just take a little patience to get all the components together. But hey good things in life (like this cake) come to those who wait! Enjoy it!!
Well strawberries are in season and they are lovely looking. The kids love them too. And I had to finagle some away so they wouldnt eat them all. I am not kidding that I bought a large carton of strawberries and they were eaten in one sitting in one day by the kids!! I dont even wanna think about how much they are going to eat in 10 years!! But I digress. So back to strawberries. I saw this recipe in my Cooking Light magazine and it looked absolutely divine so I knew I had to try it!! And it is easy. Shocker right?! Most of the foods I make are time consuming some even taking days to prepare before they are ready to eat. But this my friends is an exception!! Anyone could make this is 20 minutes and be eating it 30 minutes after that (time to let it chill). So hop on in the kitchen and get ready to whip up this tasty concoction!
Recipe:
20-25 oreos
5T butter, melted
1pkg low fat cream cheese, softened
3/4c-1c powedered sugar
1t vanilla extract (I used fresh vanilla bean and scraped out the inside)*
2c fat free cool whip
1/2c strawberry jam
1/2 lemon, juiced
2t juice (I used the kids berry juice but apple would be fine too)
1lb strawberries, quartered
*if you want to use real vanilla beans, make sure they are fresh (soft and supple) and take a sharp knife and run it down the length of the bean and gently use the blade to scrap out all the black seeds. Place the seeds in your mixture like you would the extract.
Pulse oreos through a food processor until fine crumbs. If you do not have a food processor pound those suckers out with a mallet, cup, bowl, or other utensil until you have small fine crumbs. Pour crumbs into a buttered pie plate. Add the melted butter and mix. Press gently into your pie plate on the bottom and around the edges. Place in the freezer to set up while you make the middle layer.
In a large bowl combine with a mixer cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Gently fold in your cool whip until it is all incorporated. Layer on top of your oreo crust.
**in case you didnt know how to properly fold in something like whipped cream or whipped egg whites make sure you go slowly and only go in one direction so as not to deflate your whipped product. There needs to be no streaks of whipped cream showing.
Take your jam and microwave on high for 20 seconds until is is softened slightly. Add your lemon and other juice. Whisk to incorporate thoroughly.
Take your strawberries and place in the glaze and toss to coat. Arrange your strawberries on top of the cream mixture. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill. (if you had any fresh mint it would look very nice either on top of the pie or on individual slices)
So how did I like it? Oh man Im gonna be sick tonight it was so good! My digestive system doesnt always like dairy and this is loaded with it and with the amount I ate I am gonna hurt, but it was absolutely worth it! I got not only Anthony to eat a few bites of it but Vinnie as well!! Who knew that my little pickiest of picky eaters would try it. But after he saw his brother take a bite he felt brave enough to try and actually had more than his brother. So I guess all around it was a huge hit in my house! I explained it to Alex and he seemed to think it would be good so I guess I have a simple recipe for summer dessert when he gets home in July! So hope you have a nice big slice for yourself and let me know how you like it!!
This is a post for everyone who loves bagels and Panera. I have recently been introduced to Paneras French Toast Bagel. It is not done like french toast, it just tastes like french toast. And it is highly addictive. I find myself dropping off the kids and driving to Panera just for the bagel and a glass of tea more often than i should. And while sometimes I get the bagel for free and sometimes I get the tea for free it is not as cheap as eating at home. So I got to wondering if I could make a bagel that tasted like Paneras cheaper. So I started my bagel hunt. Youd be suprised how many recipes pop up for bagels done french toast still rather than french toast tasting bagels. I finally settled on a basic recipe and then did some additional tweaking.
Bagel:
1pkg dry yeast
2 1/4c warm water
1/4c sugar
6-7c bread flour
1T cinnamon
1T salt
1T vegetable oil
1T maple syrup
1 egg, beaten
Combine water, 1T sugar, and yeast in a small bowl and mix together. Let sit for at least 10 minutes until yeast begins to foam.
In a large bowl combine flour, salt, remaining sugar, and cinnamon. Make a well and add the yeast mixture, vegetable oil, vanilla, and maple syrup. Once mixed knead together for 10 minutes until it forms a smooth ball. Place in a well oiled bowl and cover with a towel to keep from drying out. Let it rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
French Toast Paste
1 1/2T cinnamon
4T brown sugar
1/2T nutmeg
1t vanilla
maple syrup
Mix together the cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg together. Pour in some maple syrup until your mixture forms a thick slightly crumbly paste. Add in your vanilla and mix together well. Set aside until time to use.
Punch down your risen dough and divide into 3 equal parts. Take each third and divide into 5 equal parts. You may get more or less depending on how equal your parts turn out. Even if you have the exact number of balls and I did they may be different sizes. So do whatever you like the best. Take the 5 equal parts and on each piece of dough place a tablespoon of the french toast paste on the ball.
Knead together and form into a ball. Take your thumb and make a hole in the center. You may want to fold the dough through the center of the hole to get a better look. Place on a lined baking sheet. Once you have done this with all 15 pieces cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
Take a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add 2T honey to the water. Place 1-2 bagels into the boiling water and let cook for 45 seconds to 1 minute.
Flip it over and cook another 45-60 seconds. Remove from water and place on a greased cookie sheet. Continue with remaining bagels.
Take your egg and if you want a slightly sweet top then add 1T or more of maple syrup or honey to the egg. Brush each bagel top with the egg wash mixture. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the bagels are browned.
At this point any unwanted bagels should be placed in a freezer bag and frozen until ready to eat. These will last for 6 months if sealed well. Take baked bagels not to be frozen and slice in half and toast. Eat with cream cheese.
The verdict? They were good. I wish I had added more of the french toast paste to each bagel. There was a small vein of the paste running through each bagel but not enough for my tastes. So next time I will add more. Perhaps I should have just add everything into the bagel and not done the paste separately but I like the looks of veins of flavor running through breads, I just wish there had been more flavor veins. but overall I am very happy with my bagels. I cannot wait to finish these and make different flavors. So if you like bagels like I do and want to experiment with flavors not found in grocery stores then try this. And enjoy!!
I read a very interested blog the other day about herbal sugars. This lady was so radiant about how wonderful an herbal sugar was sprinkled on toast or in your coffee that I almost believed it. Hey I said ALMOST! After pulling away from her unicorn theory I realized that she wasnt too far off. Instead of sugar why not salt. I know there are plenty of you out there who like sweet and herbal and salty all in one bite. And I am not disagreeing with that. I like it too. But I do not warrant a whole jar of herbal sugar. Salt on the other hand could be really fun.
I recently killed a large portion of my rosemary and all of my sage, all accidentally I assure you! I would never purposefully danger my precious! It was death by overfertilizing. But I decided before all the needles died I would pluck them off and make herbal salt with them. Why not right? I mean I have the stuff to do it.
I pulled out my reserved tiny mason jars (I mean afterall who needs a mason jar full of herbal salt?? Thats crazy talk). The method is herb/salt/herb/salt/herb/salt......etc. I did a rosemary and a sage. Although I didnt have as much sage as I would have preferred. It is suppose to sit and let the herbs oils permeate for at least 2 weeks. So I have hit that mark and pulled it off my cool dark shelf. I opened the sage jar first. Mmmmmmm.......salt. I opened the second jar. Mmmmmmmm.......rosemary salt. I believe the difference was the small amount of sage in that jar.
But at the present moment I am unsure if I will grind the herbal salt so the rosemary is always incorporated or use around it. I am afraid if I grind it then I will want to add more herbs and spices to it and make it a generic spice blend. Not that its a bad idea. Just not exactly what I had in mind when I started.
I will say this. While reading the comments about herbal SUGAR I saw some that peaked my interest. A lemon verbena in sugar would be very nice to use in/on sugar cookies. Maybe even mint. But if you are looking for something to do with your almost dead herbs try some salt or perhaps sugar and let me know how it turns out!
This has got to be one of my favorite desserts. And yes before you ask you will gain 5lbs eating it. But it is absolutely worth it in the end!! This is decadent and rich and sickeningly sweet and oh so satisfying. This is southern sweets at its very best!!
Now this recipe I halved since it was just me eating it. But I have made the full recipe several times and love it every time. So this is the full recipe.
Recipe:
6Tbutter
1 3/4c sugar
1c self-rising flour
5 1/2T unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
1/2c milk
1t vanilla extract
1/2c chopped pecans ( I always use more)
1/2c chopped toffee bits (I like to use crushed up Skor bars)
1 1/2c boiling water
dulce de leche ice cream or vanilla ice cream
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place butter in an 8x8 casserole dish. Place in oven for 5-10 minutes or until butter is melted. Remove from oven. Set aside.
In a medium bowl combine 3/4c sugar, flour, and 1 1/2T cocoa. Add milk and vanilla, whisking until smooth. Pour over butter in dish.
In a separate medium bowl combine remaining 1c sugar, remaining 4T cocoa powder, pecans, and toffee bits. Sprinkle evenly over sugar mixture. Slowly pour the boiling water over the top of the cobbler. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top of the cobbler looks set.
Serve warm with ice cream.
This dish will make you wanna slap yo momma. I suppose. Never really understood the expression. One of those southern ones that just is what it is. But its decadent and wonderful. I have actually made this for my mother. The first time I made this was for her on one of her visits to Vegas. We are big sweet eaters and decided we could handle a large portion of this dessert. So we piled our bowls with cobbler and ladled on the ice cream. Both of us ate about half of our plate and realized we were STUFFED! So beware. You may make yourself sick eating this it is so good. And I do recommend the dulce de leche ice cream if you have or can get. The vanilla is perfectly fine but the dulce de leche adds a little something extra to the dish. And this also reheats nicely. Spoon some cold out of the fridge onto a plate and nuke it and youll never know the difference. I hope yall enjoy this as much as I always do!!
Easter is upon us and nothing says Easter like lamb! Although it is more trouble than it is worth to cook for just one person this holiday I decided to go ahead and do something. I couldnt let today go by and just have cereal for dinner. So while out shopping in the meat department at Publix I saw their sale on lamb shanks. What is more Eastery than lamb?? Well perhaps a ham. But that is an Americanized Easter. I tend to believe lamb is more traditional. So lamb shanks it is! Lamb shank is a portion of meat from the shoulder that contains succulent meat as well as tendons and fat. This cut of meat is best when it is braised. Braising just means you are going to cook the meat in liquid to help break down the meat and make it tender.
Since I have all the time in the world why not make one for myself. Give myself a little taste of a proper Easter dinner even if its a dinner for one. And most recipes you find are for at least 4 lamb shanks but I didnt need that much so I took several different recipes and adapted it to work for one. One thing to note here is that the liquid needed to be enough to at least cover the shank half way. So I have way more liquid than I need to keep the meat tender while cooking.
Recipe:
1 lamb shank
1 large shallot, sliced
2 small carrots, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 small sprigs of rosemary
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1T tomato paste
1/3 bottle red wine
1c veal stock or chicken stock
In a dutch oven heat some olive oil over medium-high heat. Add lamb shank and sear on all sides. remove from pan and add carrots, shallots, and garlic. Saute until soft. Add red wine and deglaze the pan. Add tomato paste and stock and stir together. Add shank, rosemary, bay, and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to very low and cover. This will need to cook for several hours before it is ready to eat. Mine cooked for about 2 1/2 hours. I wanted to make sure it was plenty tender since there wasnt a lot of liquid and only one shank.
Pull out your shank and drain the braising liquid into a pot leaving behind the vegetables. Simmer the liquid until slightly reduced. If you want it thicker than an au jus then make a cornstarch slurry. This means take equal parts cornstarch and liquid and mix together well to thicken your sauces. The slurry keeps you from having clumps of cornstarch in your sauce.
I made polenta to go with my lamb. But potatoes or rice would work fine too. I garnished it with some roughly torn Italian flat leaf parsley.
So dinner turned out to be pretty good. I think it wouldve been better with someone to share it with. But oh well. Life goes on. The polenta was an excellent choice. And if you dont have polenta but want it....use cornmeal! So to all of you who love lamb like I do, this dish is for you! Slow cooked comfort food at its best!
Okay, I am a little late in blogging for April Fools Day, but rather late than never right? Well that is my thinking at least. Last year I made the "sushi" that was rice krispie treat wrapped in fruit leather with fruit slices. So what could top that? Perhaps "lasagna" could. And it was worth a shot! So I drug the kids to the grocery and together we forgot our list and winged it! So here is my winged version of fake lasagna.
Ingredients:
vanilla pudding mix (made as directed on box)
pound cake sliced into 1/4in slices
small tub ricotta cheese
powedered sugar
1/2 small jar strawberry jam
oreo cookies
bananas
white chocolate, shaved
mint, sliced
Mix your ricotta with 6T or more of powdered sugar. I pulsed my through a small food processor to make it smooth like cannoli filling. Use your own personal tastes on the sugar.
The recipe said to take 5 Oreo cookies and crush them up and add to your jam. But either I did something wrong or crushed the cookies too much or something else because when I mixed them together the color turned almost black instead of staying strawberry red. So if I ever did this again I do not think I would add the Oreos to the "marinara". But use your own preferences here.
In a small casserole dish place pound cake slices. Gently spread some strawberry jam mixture over the pound cake. Then layer with sweetened ricotta. Take a banana and slice. Place the slices on top of the ricotta. Finish with vanilla pudding. Continue layering until all ingredients are used or the pan is full. Take your white chocolate and shave it on a cheese grater. Place the shavings on the top of the "lasagna" Top with sliced mint leaves. Unfortunately I didnt have any fresh mint in my garden and forgot to buy some. Oh well.
Well now that is is officially spring I thought I would share my progress on my garden. As you know we built the on the ground structure and then planted sugar peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and potatoes. Everything is really growing. The broccoli seemed to stop growing and since it was time to plant peppers, I decided to call that a growing lesson in gardening.
The sugar peas almost didnt make it. They got really withered looking and started shriveling up. My dad said it was due to the high heat for those plants. But the day I went to pull them out of the ground I noticed pods on them! Go figure. So I let them go a few more weeks. We didnt get but maybe 18 pods out of the garden that were edible and me and Anthony ate most of those after picking. But there were some pods with large peas inside that were very bitter. So I pulled them off the plants and took out the pea and dried it to try again next year. After pulling up my sugar peas I planted some purple beans my grandmother gave me. There is nothing to show for them but I only did it this week. So the blank spot in the back of the garden is the purple beans. I hope they turn out!!
My cauliflower has only just started to take off. And I cannot tell if I see some formation of a head inside the leaves or not. But I am excited that 3 of them survived.
The potatoes have just kept growing more and more every day. I am waiting for about another month before checking on them. I think they should flower but I am not 100% on that. I am still new at all of this and learning as I go along.
Since I pulled up the broccoli you may be wondering what I planted that was so important. Well peppers of course!! I planted some sweet banana peppers, red and green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and poblano peppers. Although you would not believe how hard it is to find a poblano plant. So far I have only found one! I am very excited about those.
Now my boxed garden is full. But I wanted to grow more stuff. So we found these very lovely, but heavy, half whiskey barrels at Home Depot that we decided would look lovely on our back porch. So I have 2! One barrel has 2 blueberry bushes that have taken off. They already have at least a pint of new blueberries growing on the limbs. My dad was quite suprised a few weeks ago when he saw them. And everything I read told me that a blueberry bush would produce the first year but not a lot. But these seem to be scary good and blooming and producing berries. So heres to hoping!
