Year: 2014
Princess On The Porch
My book is finished and ready to be read! It is available through ETSY in the shop called ChocolateCastles or here on the blog.
It is a collection of stories and recipes, Southern Style and is divided by seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring, such as the seasons of our lives, each season brings different circumstances and growth. The book sells for $18.00 and postage is $3.50.
(Canada and Europe are $4.00 and $5.00 respectively)
The book is full of encouraging stories and recipes from family and friends, as well as southern cookbooks and magazines that I have used since the early 70’s….it is my hope that as the seasons of your lives change, Princess on the Porch will allow you to see life a little more humorous, no matter the season of life you are in….blessings, Trudy
Easy Mushroom Puffs
It is raining, it is 63 degrees, finally, and there are fresh baked oatmeal cookies to eat while I look through my Christmas Cookbooks from Southern Living. One of my most favorite ways to spend a day at home.
1 (8 oz) container garlic & herb cream cheese (ex: Philadelphia Swirls)
2 (4.5 oz) jars of mushrooms, drained (I will use fresh, which I will sauté in a little butter, after chopping the package of mushrooms and drain any liquid left over before adding to the onion, cheese mixture.)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teas dried chives
1/4 teas teas hot sauce
1 large egg
1 tables water
Freshly grated pepper (optional)
Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl, cover and chill 1 hour.
Roll 1 sheet puff pastry into a 16″x10″ rectangle. Cut pastry in half lengthwise.
Spread 1/4 of filling (that is about 1/2 cup) down center of each rectangle. Whisk together the egg and water. Brush egg mixture over edges of pasty. Fold pastry in half lengthwise over filling, sealing edges of pasty with a fork. Cut each pastry into 10 pieces and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Repeat procedure with remaining sheet puff pastry and filling. Brush remaining egg wash over top of pastries and, if desired, sprinkle pepper over top, per your taste.
Bake at 400 for 15 min or until lightly browned. Yield: 40 puffs
Creme Brulee Cheesecake
Enough healthy foods for the week, let’s get back to basics of life, desserts! This recipe comes from Southern Lady 2013 and since Peter Pumpkin loves crème brulee, this will certainly get him in the mood to go pumpkin shopping. Makes 1 (9″ cheesecake
Crust:
2 cups firmly packed vanilla wafer crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
6 tables butter, melted
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Filling:
4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups, plus 3/4 cup sugar, divided
6 large egg yolks
2 tables flour
1 cup sour cream
Garnish: sugared fresh raspberries
Preheat oven to 300. In a small bowl, combine wafer crumbs, 1/3 cup sugar, melted butter and egg white.
Stir to combine well. Press firmly on bottom and up sides of a 9″ spring form pan. Bake for 8 min; set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups sugar with mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour, beating just until combined. Stir in sour cream. Spoon batter into prepared crust.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 min. Turn oven off and leave cake in oven with door closed for 4 hours.
Remove cheesecake from oven after 4 hours. Gently run a knife around edge of pan to release sides.
Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours. (or overnight).
Evenly sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar on top of cheesecake. Caramelize sugar with kitchen torch until sugar is melted and lightly browned.
Remove sides of pan to serve. Garnish with sugared fresh raspberries.
Sauteed Kale
I am so proud of me, I am actually posting a recipe that is almost totally healthy. Not one teas of butter to be found in it. So all you butter lovers out there, just skip over this one and go straight to the dessert section.
I am trying to find different recipes that I can cook when my DIL is over having dinner. She is gluten, diary free, so this one will grace our normal butter-laden table next time she comes over.
4 qts water
1 tbles plus 1 1/2 teas salt, divided
2 heads kale, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tables minced garlic
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tables firmly packed dark brown sugar (I will use light, as that is what I have on hand)
1 teas garlic powder
1 teas onion powder
1/2 teas ground black pepper
In a large Dutch oven, bring water to a boil with 1 tables salt over medium high heat. Add kale; cook for 3 min, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and drain thoroughly; set aside.
In Dutch oven, heat olive oil and add onion; cook for 5-6 min stirring constantly. Add minced garlic, cook for 1 min, stirring constantly. Add the kale and cook for 2 min, stirring frequently.
Add chicken broth, vinegar, brown sugar and remaining 1 1/2 teas salt, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper.
Cook for 5 min, stirring frequently. Serve immediately.
Makes 8-10 servings
Double Corn-Cornbread Dressing
In 2 days, the weather person has promised us that the first cold front of the season will be arriving. When it does, a pan of corn dressing will be in my oven. Cornbread dressing is one of my all-time favorite foods in the whole world.
No matter if I missed the 12 hour sale at Stein Mart, by 1 hour or forgot to use my coupons at Nothing Bundt Cakes before they expired, all I need is a pan of dressing to pull me out of my blues. This recipe sounds perfect for the coming cold (which means that the 90’s will be in the 80’s) front that will arrive here in about 48 hours.
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/4 cups flour
3 table sugar
4 teas baking powder
1 teas salt
1 1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
3 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 large red onion, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teas crushed red pepper
6 cups fresh spinach, torn into small pieces
1 3/4 cup to 2 3/4 cup chicken broth
For the cornbread, preheat oven to 400. Grease a 13×9″ baking pan; set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and the 1/3 cup melted butter. Stir milk mixture into cornmeal mixture just until moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 20 min or until edges are golden. Cool cornbread on wire rack. Cut into 1″ cubes. Makes about 10 cups.
Preheat oven to 325.
Spread cornbread cubes onto baking pan. Bake, uncovered, 10 to 15 min, stirring once. Cool on wire rack.
In a large skillet, cook the corn and onion in the 1/2 cup butter over medium heat 6-8 minutes.
Stir in crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to taste. In a very large bowl, combine cornbread pieces corn mixture and spinach. Drizzle with broth to moisten; toss lightly to combine.
Spoon into a 3qt baking dish, which you have lightly greased. Bake uncovered 30-40 min or until top is browned and dressing is heated through.
Makes 8 servings.
This can be made ahead up to 24 hours, if you cover and place in fridge until the last bake step. Then proceed according to baking directions.
Free Popcorn, Flat Tires & Fresh Coffee
I am re-blogging this story as a sample of what is in my new book, which will be available next week. Several people have asked what kind of stories are in the book, so thought I would share one with you.
I thought an update might be appropriate since many of you have commented on the fun and cheap, (oops, I forgot, we are trying to be classy) I mean inexpensive Saturday that Randy and I had a couple of weekends ago.
We have now learned something else, very important. The more expensive the car dealership, the better the snacks you get. This past Saturday, we woke up to a flat tire which meant that we called AAA (the ones who come out to fix your car, no, we didn’t turn into alcoholics from just having a flat tire, that would have been AA) But back to the story. We had them put on the spare in order for us to get to the dealership where we were told it would only be a few minutes and they would have a new tire put on and we could just wait in…
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Gingered Fruit Cake
Do not think that this is your normal fruit cake that gets passed around from house to house at Christmas. It is way beyond that. Last year I discovered that I love using fresh ginger in biscotti, cookies and now this fruitcake. You will be proud to have it sitting on your dessert buffet during the holidays. I won’t be waiting for Thanksgiving to make it. It is a great recipe to make to have on hand during the Fall when guests show up unexpectedly. Whip up some homemade whipped cream and put the coffee pot on.
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tables baking powder
1/2 teas salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
2 eggs
1 teas vanilla
1 cup dried apples, chopped
2/3 cup dried apricots, chopped (not unsulphured)
2 tables grated fresh ginger
1 recipe Honey Bourbon Butter (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour a 9″ spring form pan; set aside.
Place 1/2 cup of the toasted pecans in a food processor; cover and process until finely ground; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine ground pecans, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk, butter and eggs. Add vanilla.
Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat for 1 min.
Fold in dried fruit and ginger. Transfer to prepared pan.
Arrange remaining pecans (1/4 cup) on top of batter.
Bake about 40 min or until cake tests done. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove sides of pan; cool completely on rack. Remove bottom of pan.
To serve, pour Honey Bourbon Butter over fruitcake if desired and whipping cream if this doesn’t have enough calories to make you feel guilty.
*Honey Bourbon Butter*
In small saucepan melt 1/4 cup butter. Add 2 tables bourbon and 1 table honey. Stir until heated through.
If you want to make this ahead of time for the holiday dinner or party* See below.
Use bourbon or orange juice to moisten a large piece of 100% cheesecloth. Wrap cake in cloth and place in a large resealable plastic bag or wrap in plastic wrap. Store in fridge up to 1 week.
There Is No Such Thing As A Free Meal
I learned that yesterday. We kept our 10 year old grandson all weekend and just trying to think of things to keep him entertained was enough to exhaust us, much less actually doing all the things that we thought up. But yesterday did me in. Sevy wanted to go to the Flight Museum down at Love Field so we took him. Sounds great doesn’t it? Such an easy field trip, right? Well, half way through the museum, we discovered there was a whole other wing that had actually Southwest airplanes to go through. Since I love to fly and at one time, back in my crazy years, I actually interviewed to become a flight attendant. But since they didn’t make those cute little khaki pants in my big girl size, I guess they didn’t want to have to special order a pair, so I was turned down. They told me it was my age, but I’m not quite sure I believe them. Anyway, I have totally let that go, but when we go through the plane and there is the place where the flight attendant would sit, I decided to see what it would have felt like to actually sit where they sit and pretend for a moment that I was indeed working for SWA in my dream job. I had Sevy take my picture and off we went to the next exhibit. We are getting ready to leave when I discovered that my Brighton sunglasses are no longer in my pocket. I panic. I ran all over the museum asking total strangers if they had seen a pair of sunglasses when all of a sudden I remembered that I had sat down in that plane and maybe, they had fallen out of my pocket during my moment of dreaming of being Ms. SWA flight attendant. I ran, truly, I ran back to that part of the museum, up the steps to the plane and proceeded to the front where there on the seat, are my sun glasses. Even though I am to old to be running through museums and too old to be dreaming of being a flight attendant, I was so thrilled to have found them. We leave and ask Sevy what he would like for lunch. It is 1:00 and we are starving. It is hot and humid and I told him I didn’t care what we ate, it just had to have air conditioning and seats as my feet were feeling the effect of running all over the museum. We drive for a few minutes when I see that Randy is going on a street that wouldn’t be leading us to any restaurant. I ask him what in the world was he doing. He just said, “trust me”. I learned along time ago, not to trust him. Those words usually mean that an adventure of some sort is getting ready to unfold before my eyes. Sitting in the back seat, allowing the “boys” to take over the front, I am still trying to get my body temp under 100. Randy quickly pulls into the parking lot of Jackson’s Pottery. What in the world are we doing here? I knew he was not one to buy any type of greenery or pottery, in fact, he is the one that reminds me that he doesn’t like to throw money away on flowers, as I just kill them before you can say, “Miracle Grow”. But here we are parking when I look and see, oh no, they are having a “cook off” competition between the different vendors of barbeque grill brands. He parked and turned around to look at me in the back seat and said, “this will be fun, it is all the barbeque you want, and it’s free”. This will be great. Sevy is in agreement and we exit the car to go sample (if you can call filling up the plate they give you with fajitas, sausage, brisket, ribs and tortillas),sampling. As you stand there eating, of course, they are wanting you to buy either their grilling meat rub, their barbeque pit, smoker, or grilling tools. Of course, Randy is able to just take their free food and walk away. But me…well, that is harder for me. I feel guilty just standing there eating their food, and of course, as hot as it was, the vendors are soaking wet themselves. When I couldn’t talk Randy into buying anything, (he says that they are use to people coming and just eating, that they really don’t care if you buy anything or not) I can’t take it anymore. Any make up that was left after running around the museum is now running into my eyes and stinging like crazy and Sevy is running around trying to find a drink (free of course) since the “free sausage” is so spicy his mouth is on fire. We finally tell Randy we are done. We are hot, our mouths are on fire and we want air conditioning. He tells us we are no fun…
I don’t want to be fun. I want air conditioning, I want a huge glass of iced tea and I want to wash the make up out of my eyes. He is so giving…he says that if we by pass the Sonic on Forest Lane and can make it to the one on Park that it would be 2 by then and it would be happy hour so we could get our drinks half price.
PLEASE….SOMEONE FIND HIM A JOB! I can’t take anymore of these “free lunch adventures”. Being retired has ruined my husband. At least before retirement, I didn’t have to wait for Sonic Happy Hour if I was thirsty…
The day turned out fine after all, Sevy got a milkshake and Tater Tots and I got my Diet Cherry Coke, sitting in an air conditioned car. That’s enough adventure for me this weekend.
I promised him I won’t gripe anymore when he suggest that we go have a free lunch off samples at Costco anymore, at least it’s air conditioned.
Princess On The Porch
This day ranks among the top days in my last 20 years!(yes, and the days all the grandkids were born, so please, our adult children, don’t write me yelling that those days should be the most important) The book I have been working on for more years than I care to admit is being printed as I write. It will be in my hands in a week! Princess On The Porch is a collection of great recipes and stories that will entertain you and show you that we see life a little more humorous than is probably necessary, but we learned a long time ago that we would rather have laugh lines instead of red swollen eyes.
There are so many of you who have been encouraging me to do this for many years and I thank you for that.
Randy is already planning a law suit against me for the many stories I shared in the book about him. But I will worry about that later.
Princess On The Porch will be available in fine stores everywhere….ok, maybe just on my blog and Face Book, but a Princess can dream, can’t she?
Chocolate Castles 