Tag Archives: food

Nov 26 2012
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celebrations, holidays, homemaking, Thanksgiving, what's for dinner

my mom’s twinkie cake

When Hostess filed for bankruptcy the week of Thanksgiving (which, for the record, is very sad to me…even though I have probably only eaten five Twinkies in my whole life and even though hopefully some other brand might buy the product rights and the Twinkie may make its comeback in the future), I joked to my mom that she should bring her Twinkie cake for Thanksgiving dessert. I know, I know…we followed our completely traditional Thanksgiving meal with something completely nontraditional…it was delicious!

This is one of those old-school recipes that I loved as a child. Ahhh…the innocence of childhood…when I didn’t realize that blue can of Crisco was filled with artery-clogging hydrogenated oil…sigh…Now, as a semi-responsible adult, I am a label reader and I manage to talk myself out of many treats that list hydrogenated oil in the ingredients. I make an occasional exception (Chewy Sweettarts are one.) and to me, this Twinkie cake is one of the best exceptions.

This recipe comes from my mom’s recipe box, and her recipe says it comes from her mom’s kitchen. (We all have these recipe cards in our recipe boxes.) I’m sure my grandmother found the recipe somewhere else, maybe from one of those church cookbooks where recipes get passed around to all of the members of the tiny, small-town congregation. And, I should also say that this cake isn’t meant to be one of those fake-out recipes…it doesn’t taste exactly like a Twinkie. It lacks the weird sponginess and the sugary, light and fluffy filling. The cake (from a box-mix) is dense and moist and the filling is rich and creamy. It has the spirit of a Twinkie, but it is decidedly homemade (and delicious.)

 

Twinkie Cake

Box of Yellow cake mix
Prepare cake per directions.
Bake in jelly roll pan
Cool

For the filling:

5 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
Cook over low heat until thick like paste.  Cool

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oleo*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Crisco
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat well. Cream together until fluffy.
Add the thick flour & milk mixture once cooled. Beat again until fluffy.

Slice cooled cake in half. Spread fluffy filling on half & then put remaining half on top.
Refrigerate. ENJOY!!

If you’d like to make a HoHo cake, use chocolate cake mix instead.

In spite of the fact that my dad ate three (!!!) pieces on Thanksgiving, we still had some cake leftover for Naoto & I to enjoy over the weekend. mmmm…

 

*oleo=margarine

 

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Nov 25 2012
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homemaking, Trader Joe's, what's for dinner

the season of Turkey leftovers…

We cook a fifteen pound bird for Thanksgiving dinner, and since we were only feeding five people, we had some a lot of leftovers. On Saturday night, we made Mexican turkey soup, a modified Ina Garten–better known as the Barefoot Contessa–recipe. It was the perfect recipe for our leftovers because we got to use up the rest of the turkey and the leftover celery and carrots from the dressing.

Mexican Turkey Soup-

original recipe here, or it can be found in Barefoot Contessa At Home.

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups onions, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

2.5 quarts chicken stock (or turkey stock if you made some)

28oz whole tomatoes, crushed

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

leftover turkey (Ina’s recipe calls for 2 whole chicken breasts, we used about 4 cups of turkey)

salt & pepper to taste

In a Dutch oven, cook your carrots and celery in the olive oil for about 10 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. (Please don’t burn the garlic.) Then add the stock, the can of tomatoes, cumin, coriander, cilantro and leftover turkey. Bring everything to a boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

We garnished our soup with store-bought tortilla chips and fresh avocado and finished everything off with a squeeze of lime. The lime makes the soup.

You can also top the soup with shredded cheddar or sour cream.

Either way, don’t forget about the lime.

 

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Nov 23 2012
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celebrations, holidays, Thanksgiving, Trader Joe's, what's for dinner

This was my Thanksgiving…

Another Thanksgiving is behind us…it’s all a little sad for both Naoto and me–we love hosting a party, even a small one of my parents and our friend, Santron. Even though the guest list was small, the food was plentiful! We had all of the classics: the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (we make this one every year–it’s Naoto’s signature dish!), green bean casserole (I caved for the classic, although we used the Trader Joe’s stuff and it was much lighter than the Campbells version!), fresh veggies (courtesy of Santron), Hawaiian rolls (courtesy of my mom) and Kathy’s grandma’s cranberry sauce…I made it on Wednesday and I am a cranberry sauce convert…the cognac makes it delectable!

For dessert, my mom made a Twinkie cake, in honor of the “late, great” snack.

The table was half planned, and half happy accident. On Wednesday night I cut a long sheet of kraft paper and made a table runner. I used my fancy gold paint to draw feathers and polka dots. My mom brought up some pheasant feathers (from my dad’s “feather collection”) that I used with my glittery votives to fill out the center of the table. I forgot to buy flowers so my mom mentioned my jade plant (purchased this summer at Trader Joes) as an option. It’s in a copper pot, so it was kind of perfect. (Well, probably not perfect for Sandra Lee, Queen of the Tablescape, but perfect for us.) I finished off the table with a tiny turkey, a gift from my parents earlier this fall.

For the place cards, I used acorns from this Paper Source garland kit (not available again until next fall). I was in a neutral & metallic mood apparently…

 

The meal ended with a table viewing of Psy and MC Hammer singing at this year’s American Music Awards…clearly it will be a meal I never forget.

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Nov 20 2012
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celebrations, holidays, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Preparations Roll On…

 

I’m still working on cleaning up the spare room and wiping down well, everything in our home…construction dust does not stay in the construction area…lesson learned.

I also looked over our recipes and made my shopping list and did *almost* all of the grocery shopping. I say “almost” because I can never get it done in one shot, no matter how hard I try or how many lists I make. Upon returning home from the store, I realized we haven’t come up with a solution for cranberry sauce…canned or homemade? I admit that I really love the canned jelly stuff…it might be the noise it makes as it exits the can, it might be it’s jiggly can form, it might be that it’s a familiar friend at the table every year…I enjoy having it around. But I’m also intrigued with making my own…and it’s something that can be made the day before, so I feel like taking a stab at it. What’s the worst that can happen? If it’s a disaster, we can always open the expired can from the back of my cupboard! (just kidding…)

While I’m cleaning, I’m also contemplating what the table will look like. The table is my favorite part, but I never give it the time it deserves…mainly because I leave it for the last minute! I’m thinking candles, kraft paper, my new favorite gold paint, and feathers will be involved…but that’s all I’ve got. Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow with some accomplishments…

 

 

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Nov 01 2012
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homemaking, what's for dinner, Wine

The Maiden Voyage of the Yellow Dutch Oven

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We finally broke the new yellow Dutch oven out of the box this week and made French onion soup for dinner Monday night. As hurricane Sandy pounded the East and the residual winds battered Chicagoland, it felt like the perfect night to slow cook some onions into caramelized, salty goodness. And, I’m proud to say, I did all of the prep work of the soup by myself. (But once you see how little effort goes into making French Onion Soup, this fact is not impressive at all.)

I’ve been wanting to make French Onion Soup for a long time now, and I suppose I could have made it in our old metal soup pot, but I bet it wouldn’t have tasted as good…there was something so perfect about making it in that sunny pot. And, although the soup takes time, the rest of the work couldn’t be any easier. You seriously just have to slice a few onions–thin slices are important, but imperfect slices are fine!–and roughly measure out the rest of the ingredients. That, and a few stirs of the pot, and you’re done!

Here are the onions in the beginning:

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And after almost an hour of cooking & caramelizing:

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Delicious, yes?

We used this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen. We halved the ingredients, which made about three small bowls of soup for us. It was the perfect amount (one bowl for me, two for Naoto) with a light, herby salad.

Now that we know this soup will be a part of our regular repertoire, we are adding oven proof soup bowls to our Christmas list. The only thing I would change about our first attempt is that Naoto bought this weird, domestic-made “Gruyere” cheese…to get heavenly results, a good cheese is crucial to this soup…especially if the soup is secondary to the cheese, as it is for me! And, we need a little bit more practice using our broiler before I feel confident that we won’t burn the apartment down…little details…

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Oct 03 2012
6 Comments
homemaking, what's for dinner

a new addition…to the kitchen

It’s here! It’s here!

Naoto & I have been talking about buying a Le Creuset pot for more than two years now…and last weekend, we finally ordered it. I don’t know why we waited so long. OK, I do know why we waited so long…these things are made to last forever (as in, if I ever have grandchildren who cook, they will be using this very pot!) and I just couldn’t decide what color I wanted! Most of my kitchen has cherry red accents, but the red LeCreuset is more orangey, so I just went with what I love–sunny yellow. It will look beautiful on a fall table full of hearty stew. And, I think it will look pretty on the stove in my blue kitchen. Plus, the color name is Dijon and really, is there a better mustard than Dijon?

As excited as I am about the arrival of our new kitchen workhorse, it couldn’t come at a worse time. Naoto works tonight, while I head back to the airport to welcome home our latest group of Honor Flight Chicago veterans. I work tomorrow night and Naoto works Friday night. I really want the new pot’s maiden voyage to be one that Naoto & I share together, so our first meal in our shiny pot of sunshine will have to wait.

But, we’ve already chosen our first recipe–Braciole! It will be my first attempt at classic Italian cooking…and I promise that I will participate more than usual in the preparation…usually I just grab a glass of wine and watch 😉

I will (hopefully) be back tomorrow with regularly scheduled postings…Mail Call and beautiful fall weather has taken over my life 🙂

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Sep 28 2012
2 Comments
adventures, what's for dinner

Kikuko Salad

When we traveled to Japan together last year, Naoto & his family introduced me to many new tastes, textures and flavor combinations. Some were pretty scary (I remember you, abalone!), some were pretty delicious (mmm…a hot dog surrounded by a flaky crust) but some were unforgettably tasty combinations that Naoto & I can recreate at home. This salad, which we named the Kikuko salad after my mother-in-law, is one of those crazy good combinations.

 

Kikuko salad

a head of iceberg lettuce

an 8oz package of kaiware (also known as radish sprouts and can be found in Asian grocery stores or substituted with pea sprouts found more commonly in regular grocery stores)

2 tomatoes

bran flakes (yes, the regular kind you find in the cereal aisle)

Kewpie mayonnaise (found in Asian grocery stores, I’m not sure there is a substitution for this…Japanese mayonnaise is slightly sweeter, richer and smoother than regular mayo)

 

Chop the iceberg lettuce into bite-sized pieces and put into serving bowl. Cut the sprouts in half and add in with the lettuce and mix well. Slice the tomatoes and place on top of the salad.

The bran flakes and Kewpie mayo are added at the table. Think of it like croutons and salad dressing.

 

If you’re anything like I was when this was placed before me at my mother-in-law’s table, you’re thinking:

What? Breakfast cereal on a salad? With mayonnaise?

But I’m serious when I say try it…because it’s delicious! The iceberg lettuce is crisp and fresh. The kaiware is slightly spicy, like a tiny mild radish. The tomatoes are bright and juicy. The bran flakes are sweet and crunchy. And the mayo is creamy and rich. Kikuko salad covers all of the taste bases.

If you try it, please let me know what you think! And…do you have any weird food combinations that you enjoy (but maybe others question)? Please share!

 

P.S. I’ll be back next week with a new Little Red Toolbox! It’s another Honor Flight week and I’m up to my ears in volunteer emails and veteran letters!

P.S. (part 2) Kewpie mayonnaise does contain MSG…so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, use sparingly. I personally have a numb tongue right now…

 

 

 

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