Desserts

Chocolate Tuxedo Cake

I have tried for 3 days to post this recipe plus including a picture of the cake, but at this point, all you will get is the recipe as I cannot figure out how to upload the pic from my phone. This cake is absolutly one of the pretties cakes I have made and it is equally delish! It is so worth the little extra time and will make you so proud to have it as a centerpiece for your dessert table or even at your dinner table.
Bake 1 Duncan Hines French Vanilla cake mix according to the directions on the box, making 2-9″ layers. Set aside to cool.
Then bake:
1 Duncan Hines Devils Food Cake Mix
1 small (4 oz) size of french vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 cup oil
1 1/4 cup water
4 eggs
Combine all ingredients for the Devils food cake mix and bake in 3-9″ layers. When cake is done, turn out ea layer onto waxed paper to cool.
While cake is cooling, make frosting:
5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup of Crisco shortening
1 stick (1/2 cup) of softened unsalted butter
1 tables almond extract
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk, or whipping cream
Mix all ingredients for frosting, adding enough milk or whipping cream to get to spreading consistency. (Begin with the 1/4 cup and add more by the tables, to ensure that you don’t get to thin)
Place one chocolate layer on serving plate. Frost top with about 1/2 cup of the frosting. Place one of the vanilla layers on top and frost it with another 1/2 cup of frosting. Repeat with another chocolate layer, frosting only the top. Finish with one more chocolate layer and frost sides and top of cake. Set aside while making the ganache topping.

In small saucepan, pour 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream with 2 tables granulated sugar, 2 tables unsalted butter and bring to a boil. When mixture is boiling, pour over 4 (1 oz) squares of semi-sweet chocolate which you have broken up into smaller pieces. Place a plate over bowl of chocolate mixture, which keeps the heat in, for about 5 min. Remove plate and stir until chocolate is finished melting and mixture is smooth of any chocolate pieces. Stir for a couple of min to cool down mixture. Using a tablespoon, begin to spoon chocolate ganache over the top of the cake, allowing the chocolate to drizzle down sides of cake, but totally covering the top of the cake. This makes a dramatic effect of all chocolate top with it drizzled down the sides of the vanilla frosted cake. Store in fridge until about 2 hours before serving time. Take out and let sit at room temp so chocolate is easy to slice.

Daily Thoughts

Fall Comes to Orange Grove Blvd. #4

I wish all of you could have been with Peter and Penelope Punkie (yes, we are already changing our names for Fall) this morning.Peter tells me that we are going to storage this morning to begin cleaning out and to “let” me bring home some of the Fall decorations to begin decorating our house for the season. Well…that’s all you need to say to me, is “let’s decorate” and I am ready and out the door. We get to storage and begin going through each of the boxes, only to learn that there are boxes and boxes of clothes that need to be taken to our church thrift store and still more furniture to get rid of as our house here will only accommodate half of what we had in Texas. As we begin to look for the Fall Decorations we realize how much we are going to be bringing home to use. We went after 3 fall trees, plus the decor that go on them……..we end up making 3 trips to the car, or as Peter calls it, the “mercedes pick-up”. There is too much for one trip home, so we load the car and head home, knowing that we will be coming back for another trip of fall clothes and decorations. On the way home, Peter pulls into a Halloween store and tells me to get out. I look at him wondering what in the world. When I inquire what are we doing, he says to me, “you don’t think I’m going to unload all this stuff without a costume on do you,?” The neighbors have already called “1-800-I Am A Hoader” on us and he thinks that we will be getting another visit from them if neighbors see us hauling more things into our house. As we “camouflage” ourselves, we begin unloading and hauling upstairs, bag after bag and container after container. We see neighbors peeking out their windows, wondering where in the world all this stuff is going to go, as their houses are exactly the same size as ours. So, we wait until after dark to unload all the bags of “fall clothes” “fall decor” and hope that they dont see us. We are convinced that they probably think we are carrying up dead bodies in bags, but Peter assures me that if we were doing that, we wouldn’t be using the white garbage bags, as all the bags we see on Unsolved Mysteries are always the dark black or green bags. So we are sticking to white to hopefully lesson the neighbors concerns.
Since I didn’t get through writing this post yesterday and am just returning home from Costco today, I have another update. Peter and I take his small 2 seater car to Costco, knowing that we are only going for cheese, gas and Dr Peppers. He reminds me that I cannot buy anything other than these items since we are in his car. Well……we walk down the TV isle and low and behold they have the TV that he has been looking at for 3 months on sale. Do I really have to tell you the rest of the story. Yes, we buy it. We carry it out to the car and of course it is too big for the trunk so he pushes up the seats as far to the front as they will go and proceeds to push the boxed TV behind the two seater. We are pushed up against the dashboard, with our knees up under our chins, and he decides that it will be impossible for him to drive because he can’t position his leg to even step on the brakes, so I unfold my body out of the car and switch seats with him. Cars are passing us, laughing as they pass. We finally make it home, after stopping twice just to let our legs, which have fallen asleep, due to no circulation, get some feeling in them. We arrive at home and begin to unload this when our worst nightmare happens, our downstairs neighbor is walking out and sees us carrying not only a crate of Dr Pepper, but the television. He remarks to us, “are you sure you have room up there for that” which tells me that he was watching us out his window yesterday. I need to close and post this, as I am going to go hide a few of the bags which we brought up yesterday. Our neighbor already informed us that his ceiling is sagging and we are expecting a knock on our door in the morning from “1-800-I Am A Hoarder”.

Vegetables

Spinach or Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce

This Cheese Sauce is one of the first recipes I received from a roommate back in the early 70’s. It is just so different, and good, but is so easy to make. Even if you aren’t a great gravy maker, this sauce is one that will make you proud. To make a colorful dish, you could also add Spinach, Carrots and Cauliflower or Zuchinni and have a medley of veggies with this sauce.
2 tables butter
2 tabels flour
1/4 teas each salt and pepper
1/4 teas dry mustard
1/8 teas cayanne pepper
1/2 teas garlic powder
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, cubed (4 oz)

In a heavy saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Blend in flour and seasonings. Cook over low heat, stirring until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in milk.*See below* Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Boil one minute. Add cheese and stir until melted and well blended. Set aside. Cook the veggies (which one you choose) until tender; drain. Pour cheese sauce over veggies. *I also, use 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup of the water that I have cooked the veggies in instead of the 1 cup milk. It gives more vitamins and I like the taste of the sauce using 1/2 and 1/2 instead of all milk.*

Meats

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

I know most of you know how addicted to Sister Schubert rolls I am and when I went on-line on Tues to order them to be mailed out here, I discovered that their website has recipes which can be downloaded. Instantly, I pushed “print” and now have several recipes which sound just so southern and delicious. One of the first that I am trying is this one. It has just ordinary on-hand ingredients and you can tell by that the flavor will be just amazing because of the soy sauce and red wine vinegar. Here is the recipe.
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tables Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tables chopped fresh parsley
1 tables dry mustard
1 1/2 teas freshly gorund black pepper
2 pork tenderloins

Whisk together all ingredients, except tenderloins, in a mixing bowl. Add pork tenderloins and marinate at least 4 hours.
Prepare a grill to medium-high heat. Transfer pork tenderloins to a tray and discard marinade. Oil grill rack and grill pork until each reaches an internal temp of 160 degrees. Cooking time will vary according to the size of each tenderloin.
Transfer pork to a cutting board and cover loosely with foil for 8-10 min. Slice and serve. Offer the infamous SS Dinner Yeast rolls or her Parker House Style rolls. YUM!!!!!!

Daily Thoughts

Sister Schubert Rolls

We are home from Cameron and Mandy’s wedding and still feeling a little festive from having all our meals with our kids and extended family, it is easy to already get excited about the upcoming holiday season when we will get to be with family and friends again. That never seems to come fast enough, but I have discovered a secret that I just had to share. As soon as the plane flew over the border of Texas and knowing that I was about to re-enter the land of No Sister Schubert Rolls, I got a little down, not only were we flying back to grocery stores which do not carry breaded fried okra, but they also have never heard of these amazing rolls. So…upon awaking our first morning back in Sushi-land, I got on the computer, contacted Sister Schubert Rolls and found that they ship all their mouth watering rolls to anywhere in the USA! Well….I guess I don’t have to tell you that I have 12 pans of rolls coming my way. Since I am cooking breakfast for a brunch next week, these ladies out here are going to be introduced to these amazing little gems.
Sushi and salad lovers, watch out……you are about to discover a little roll that will have you saying, “ya’ll” and “git back here” before you know it……Some ladies might need to go for a mani and pedi or massage to get regenerated……..me, I just need to bake a pan of SS rolls, and I’ll be dreaming of grits, gravy and green beans seasoned with bacon tonight. Meals as I remember them are about to “git” good again!