TWD Walnut/Almond Mocha Marbled Bundt Cake & March of Dimes Charity Auction

TA DA! Here is a slice of the small cake and it is delicious!

Six Beautiful Farm Fresh Eggs went into this cake!

The flour, ground almonds, salt, and baking powder.

Butter, sugar and eggs!

Ready to go in the baking pans!

Hello Folks.  I am posting this at the last minute for the Tuesday's With Dorie Group.  It is due on Tuesday and I am just barely getting this done before Tuesday is over.  I replaced the Walnuts with Ground Almonds.   I made two cakes, a regular sized one and a small one.  The regular sized one is for a March of Dimes Charity Auction tomorrow at Ocean Springs Hospital in Ocean Springs Mississippi.  I found this recipe fairly easy to follow, and I am typing this while it cooks and it smells so good.  I hope it tastes as good as it smells.  I recently bought some new lights for my photographing, but since this was put off u til the last minute, I was not able to use them.  Although I did do a couple of other things that I learned in the class, and I can already see a difference.  I can't wait to utilitze my new lights.

Confections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado

http://www.amazon.com/Confections-Closet-Master-Baker-Hollywood/dp/0767932684/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269198396&sr=1-1
I have been reading this book and I LOVE it!  I have decided that I am going to make all of the recipes in the book.  There are only 18, so itwill not take too long to do them all.  I am thinking about one a week until they are all done.  The recipes look great, mostly from German heritage, I think.  The writing is as good as the recipes and it has truly been a joy to read.  Please join me if you want to  do some great baking, and read some really good writing about food and a look behind the Hollywood scene.  I wont give anyhting away about who this author is related to, because I was really surprised when I started reading, and it hit me who she was.  I think the surprise added to why I like this book so much.  Now, you may be quicker on that than I was, but wether you are surprised or not, I promise you that you will enjoy this book.  My start date for the first recipe will be April 10, 2010 and will shoot for every Saturday after that.  The first recipe is called Golden Eggs, I will not post the recipes inhopes that folks will want to buy the book so they van make the recipes.  It will be nice if you can post your photo's on your blog, but if you don't have a blog, you can just leave a comment about your experience at the end of this post.  Please email me at lalas@cableone.net if you want to participate.

Back from NYC and oh so tired!

Hello Everyone! I am back from a trip to NYC and I have so much to share.  It is going to take me a few more days to get my stuff together, but I will be telling you all about it very soon.  Among my favorite things I did was to take a Class on Food Photography with Lou Manna.  You can find a link to his blog in the side bar.  If you have an interest in this subject, I highly suggest that you look him up  I learned so much in one day and can't wait to start putting some of the new knowledge into action.  I have ordered lights, mirrors and a light meter.  I hope that you will be able to see a huge difference in my photography very soon.  Lou is great and I hope to take other classes from him in the near future. Also, I ate some wonderful things and will  be sharing all of those wonderful things with you and I took lots and lots of photo's.

TWD: Thumbprints For Us Big Guys & Happy Birthday Pam

Ta Da!!!!

I enjoyed this weeks project very much. The recipe was easy and the cookies were pretty.  I had to use Almonds instead of Hazelnuts. I really wante to use the hazelnuts, but couldn't find them at any of the local grocery stores.  The only thing I would have done different is to use Strawberry Jam instead of Raspberry.  Maybe Iwould have liked the Raspberry better f I had been able to use the Hazelnuts.  Regardless, they were still very good.  I took them to9 work for my friend, Pams Birthday.  I hope that she had a great one and Knows that I was thinking about her.  I could not post on the day of her Birthday, due to a computer problem.  She is such a fun lady and I love her dearly!

Devil's Food Layer Cake fromWilliam Sonoma's "Comfort Food"

This is the second recipe I have made from this book and the secon recipe that I will share.  Although, I will probable just show photo's from future recipes that I make from it.  Again, I have to say that I think this book is a Winner! I used Special Dark Cocoa from Hershey, and if I make it again, I will just use regular cocoa.  This was just about too much chocolate. Oh wait, I can't believe that I wrote that. Can there ever really be too much chocolate? Oh,I dont think that is a possibility. I will say that this was wonderful with a scoop of vanilla ic cream.
Boiling water, 1 cup
Unsweetened natural cocoa powder, 3/4 cup(use regular unsweetened cocoa instead of the special dark)
All purpose flour, 1 3/4 cups
Baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp
Sugar, 2 cups
Unsalted butter, 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs@room temp
Large eggs, 3(at room temp)
Pure vanilla extract, 1 tsp
Buttermilk, 1 1/4 cups

Chocolate Frosting
Confectioners sugar, 3 3/4 cups
Unwseetened natural cocoa powder, 1 cup
Unsalted butter, 1/2 cup @room temp
Pure vanilla extract, 1 tsp
Heavy cream, about 1 cup

Makes 10 servings
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter 2-9" pans.  Dust the pans with flour.

In a samll heatproof bowl, whisk the cocoa and boiling water until sit aside and let cool completely.  In another bowl, sift the flour, baking soda and salt.Using a hand held mixer, on medium speed, beat togetherlight in color.  Beat in thee eggs, one at a time.  Then add the vanilla and the cooled cocoa mixture.  Reduce the mixer speed to loww and add the flour and alternate with the buttermilk in 3 additions.  Dvide the mixture evenly into the prepared pans and bake approximately 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from the pans and let cool completely on a cooling rack.
To make the frosting, sift togetther the confectioners sugar and cocoa.  Using the mixer on low speed, mix in the butter until the mixture is crumbly.  Mix in the vanilla and gradually add the cream until it reaches a good consistency for spreading..  Put at least 1/2 cup frosting between the layers.  Then frost the top before the sides.

Smothered Porkchops & Williams Sonoma "Comfort Food" Cookbook review

This was the first of many recipes from this book that I  want to make.  Seriously, I think I want to make every recipe in this book!  If they all turn out as good as this one, I may just have to make them all.  The recipe was well written and easy to follow.  I will share this recipe with you, and maybe just a couple more, but I really think that you should buy it, if you like the few that I share here.  I don't think you will be disappointed.  The photo's are beautiful and so is the book!  I served this over steamed rice, but you might also like it with mashed potatoes.  Wl, here is the recipe.

Smothered Pork Chops

Center cut bone in pork loin chops, 4 @ about 1" thick

Kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper

Canola oil, 2 Tbs

Unsalted butter, 2 Tbs

Yellow onion, 1 large, chopped

Green Bell Pepper, 1 small, sedded & hopped

Celery, 3 stalks, diced

Green onion, 4 white & green parts, chopped

Garlic, 3 cloves, minced

Fresh Thyme, 1 tsp, minced

All purpose flour, 3 Tbs

Chicken Stock, 21/4 cups

Heavy Cream, 1/4 cup

Hot pper sauce

Steamed rice for serving

Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper.  In a large pan, heat the canola oil over medium heat.  Add the chops to the pan and cook on both sides until they are browned..  Transfer to a plate.

Add the butter to the hot pan, and melt. Add the peppers, celery, green onions, and garlic to the melted butter.  Cover and cook until the veggies are tender, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the Thyme.  Then stir in the flour.  Gradually stir in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. 

Place the chops back into the simmering stock.  Cover and cook for about 20 minutes.  Check and make sure that they are not pink when pierced near the bone.  When they are done, remove them again and place on a plate.

Stir in the cream and cook until thick, about 1 minute.  Season to taste.  Pour gravy over the chops to serve and they can can be served over rie.

Hawaiian Sandwich Rolls

I had a Silpada Jewelry Show a few nights back.  If you have never seen this jewelry line-You should have a look.  They have some beautiful things an the quality is excellent.  mysilpada.com/sabrina.daves  I served my Buffalo chicken dip & crackers, Cheesecake squares, vegetables and dip and these Hwaiian Roll Sandwiches.  I also served a wine that I had never tried before, and luckily it turned out to be one of the best tasting wines I have had. It is From the Gallo Family "Twin Valley"  White Zinfandel.  Even though it is a White Zinfandel, the color is a blush.  You can check the entire family of wines out here ejgtwinvalley.com  Anyway, back to the recipe, it was given to be my friend-Pam and they were delicious.
1 12 pk of Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls kingshawaiian.com
3TBS of Honey Mustard
3TBS of finely shredded onions(sweet onon preferred)
2Tbs melted Butter
1 TBS Worcestershire
1tsp poppy seeds
1 16 oz package of honey ham(sliced thin)
1 16 oz package sliced provolone cheese

Slice the entire package of rolls in half.  Mix the mustard, worcestershire, poppy seeds, and onion together and spread on one side of the sliced rolls.  Place hame and cheese on top of the onion mixture, evenly. Cover with the other half of the rolls, coat tops of rolls with melted butter, and wrap in aluminium foil .Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and slice into individual sandwiches.  They are easy and delicious!

 This is a photo of Pam at a fly fishing class we took together.