Recipe: Southern Lemon Cake

I recently read “Under the Tuscan Sun” by Frances Mayes. A rather excellent book I must say. Lots of food and recipes and Italy in general. I was deeply enthralled from page 1.

I have since discovered that she does sell the oil produced in her Italian home (though I don’t know if its exclusively her olive trees at work for the oil if you read the page). And only $285 including shipping for a CASE (12 bottles in 500 ml size – $23.75 a bottle) of olive oil. Not too bad really. And its a cold press olive oil too. Hard for me to resist. Really it is. And since the deadline is Dec 10 I still have time for this year’s harvest. Hmmm.

Anyway I digress. In her book she had a recipe that I knew I had to make as soon as I read it. I just changed it a bit to suit me since I really rather dislike lemon zest. But my love of lemon is too much. This was an awesome cake. In her book Mayes suggested serving with pears, cherries or strawberries. Any and all of those would have been delicious but it was very good on its own!

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup lemon juice

Glaze – 1/4 cup butter (I used real butter for this)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Recipe: Hot and Spicy Chicken Hot Wings

Actually with this recipe they don’t have to be hot or spicy…but they can be! Its all in how you cook the sauce. This is my mother’s recipe and frankly I have never met a better Hot Wing recipe. EVER. No seriously. And I’m now a dead duck for sharing it with the world. I’ve been threatened but I said I was going to share it anyway…its too good not to.

The thing about spicy that A LOT of people forget is that to just have HOT without depth of taste means it doesn’t end up tasting like anything. You have to have the subtle background notes to truly make it a spicy worth having.

With the Super Bowl coming up I wanted to make sure these were posted ASAP…as the boyfriend is already requesting them again!

4 pounds of chicken wings, cut into sections, bony tips discarded
10 ounces of blackberry preserves
6 ounces of Louisiana Hot Sauce
2 tbsp butter

Recipes: Scrambled Eggs

I’m a scrambled egg girl. My typical breakfast is some form of scrambled eggs and toast. Nearly everyday. Yes, I am that boring. But I do “dress it” depending on my mood. And my moods are varied…

• The first way I actually picked up from the NY Times. Four eggs and 2 tbsp of tomato sauce, mixed together and scrambled as normal (pictured above sprinkled with a few bits of chives, what I had anyway).
• Vegetables such as diced bell peppers, tomatoes or mushrooms mixed in, scrambled and (sometimes) topped with hot sauce.
• Shredded cheese mixed in, scrambled and then more cheese (and sometimes hot sauce) on top.
• Meats like bacon bits, sliced lunch meat (ham usually), crab, smoked salmon (any meat you can think of basically!) mixed in and scrambled. Kind of a pseudo-omelet.
• Salsa mixed in, scrambled and more poured on top to serve. Sometimes just the “on top” bit.
• Spices (like crushed red pepper, chili powder, Worcestershire Sauce, garlic, etc) mixed in, scrambled and served.
• Scramble plain eggs and pour pancake or maple syrup over them. This is actually my favorite one and what I will *always* do if I happen to eat pancakes with my eggs.
• Slightly melt a few tablespoons of strawberry preserves (i.e. jam or jelly) in the microwave and pour over the plain scrambled eggs. Sweet tasting.
• Make pseudo-tamagoyaki – I typically mix 2 eggs, 1 tbsp dashi stock and 1 tbsp sugar and make plain scrambled eggs with it on very low heat, so as not to burn.

More information about making the perfect scrambled eggs after the jump…

Recipe: Easy & Quick Lemon Thyme Chicken

Typically I don’t buy fresh herbs as they go bad before I get to use them, and they usually aren’t cheap. But I got lucky and found a nice selection of some on clearance at the local gourmet grocery store (thank you Christmas!) so I decided to use them up in some creative ways. This was delicious and really had a nice depth to it from the herbs.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 sprig fresh tarragon, or about 1 tsp dried, chopped fine
2 sprigs fresh thyme or about 1 tbsp dried, chopped fine
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 chicken legs & thighs

Recipe: Honey Glazed Carrots

I had a bunch of leftover carrots from Christmas dinner (bought way too many) so I was playing around with a little of this and a little of that and came up with this recipe. Its not bad, sweet, but a nice compliment to something savory.

approximately 2 cups baby carrots
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt

Recipe: Oyster Stew

I have no idea why this is called oyster “stew” or even why its so popular here in the Midwest (everyone here knows what it is – EVERYONE). It barely has enough ingredients to warrant being called a soup, let alone a stew. And we are about as far from the coast as you can get, but yet this soup has been eaten every Christmas Eve in my family since the 1950s at least, possibly earlier. Its just what we do. I’ve never questioned what we were eating on December 24 as its been the same thing every year of my life. Oyster Stew is my absolute favorite followed very closely by Potato Soup (the other soup we eat on Christmas Eve). From time to time we also throw in there Clam Chowder, but we NEVER mess with the Oyster Stew.

Since I moved out on my own, and don’t always get to participate in Christmas Eve festivities with my family (like this year) I will make this just for me. I honestly can’t stand having celery in it like so many recipes call for, but if you do add it sliced very, very thin when your cooking the shallot.

Oh and I do call for tinned oysters. Yeah, yeah I know fresh would be better…and it is – I’ve had it! But in this part of the country oysters are incredibly expensive, moreso right now! So I make do, whether I like it or not.

3 tbsp butter
1 large shallot, sliced very thin
about 16 oz (or 4 tins) of oysters (I used smoked ones this year)
3 cups milk
dash of cayenne pepper

Recipe: Sugar Cookies

This is not a soft sugar cookie. I can’t stand those. Sugar cookies are meant to be cut and frosted and sprinkled with even more sugar (or my personal favorite EDIBLE GLITTER!). As such they need to be crisp and slightly stiff. These are your perfect cookie right here!

1 1/2 cups butter
2 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 cups flour

Recipe: Oreo Truffles

Hardly a truffle really…but so good and so easy its hard not make these for the holidays. Now the original recipe by Kraft is awesome but I ended up with LOADS of crumbs leftover…and what’s the point of wasting them? Besides your going to want to double this recipe anyway…the original only makes about 40 balls and we all know that’s just not enough!

Yes you can use any flavor of Oreo you like but don’t use the Double Stuff ones…they just don’t come out right (perhaps too much creme in the centers? I don’t know).

(2) 18 ounce packages of Oreo cookies
(2) 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, soft
(1) 3 ounce package of cream cheese, soft
(2) 12 ounce bags of semisweet chocolate chips

Recipe: Buckeyes or Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Depending on what part of the country you are from these are either Buckeyes or Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls. The only difference is you dip the balls into the chocolate about 3/4 of the way, so that the result kinda looks like a Buckeye seed (or so I’m told – hey, I’m from Nebraska, we don’t really have Buckeyes here).

Either way once you make these – FREEZE THEM! They are SO good frozen! Beyond that they are very soft and will melt if they get too warm so no matter what – keep them cool!

1 1/2 cups butter, softened (no substitutions on this one otherwise they don’t turn out)
6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups powdered sugar (approx. a 2 pound bag)
2 cups peanut butter
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
(3) 12 ounce bags of semisweet chocolate chips

Recipe: Cranberry Sauce

This is one of those so simple recipes you wonder why canned stuff is even sold…or why people buy it. I make mine every Thanksgiving without fail. Aside from when its piled on a turkey sandwich the best is slathered over a cheesecake (yes I make my cheesecake for Thanksgiving & Christmas too)…omg…HEAVEN!!

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup orange juice
1 (12 ounce) package of fresh cranberries

In a saucepan over medium heat, dump all ingredients and slowly boil. Cook only until the berries start to pop and split open – about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and serve as it thickens while it cools. It is very good hot or cold.