The Life and Times of Whitney Drake
This recipe has been in my bookmarks for almost a year now, after I saw her make it on an episode of Barefoot Contessa. Not too long ago, a dear friend wondered if I had a good recipe of macaroni & cheese, and I remembered this. So when we had a wonderfully rainy and dreary day, I decided it was time to give this a go.
Baking is sort of my thing. It has been since I was in middle school. Icing, however, is something I’m still learning about. This weekend, I was making a birthday cake for The Boy’s grandfather, and was running out of time. So when the layers were almost cool, I began icing. More on that. Since the cake was delicious, I thought I’d share the recipes that are quickly becoming family favorites.
Now, to the disaster. I had the bottom layer on the cake plate and put strawberry preserves in as part of the filling, and a bit of icing. Then I started icing the sides. I was nearly done, when it started to ooze out the middle. Quickly, I put it in the fridge and hoped it would set before all the filling had melted out. This is what we wound up with. An ugly, yet delicious cake. Lesson learned, wait until layers are completely cooled to ice them.
Restaurant Eve’s Cake
adapted from The Washington Post, found on chaos in the kitchen
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter melted, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
Heat oven to 350°F and prepare cake pans with grease and parchment paper.
Combine dry ingredients (sugar through salt) in a mixing bowl.
Beat in melted butter for about 2 minutes and until mixture resembles cornmeal.
Combine eggs, vanilla, and milk in a bowl.
Add liquid mixture to dry mixture, beating constantly for 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl mid-way.
Pour batter into pans and bake for about 35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Remove cakes to a rack and allow to cool before frosting.
Magnolia’s Vanilla Buttercream
from More from Magnolia
Makes enough for one 2-layer 9-inch cake or 2 dozen cupcakes*
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Add butter to your mixer bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk & vanilla. On medium speed, beat until and creamy (about 3-5 minutes) Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
I’m not sure how I wound up at this recipe. It might have been a link in a blog, or I might have googled ‘cranberry almond’ out of desperation, looking for something to bake.
Regardless, I wound up at The Wednesday Chef and her post for Regina Schrambling’s Almond-Cranberry Cookies. And I realized, that I had everything I needed to bake these cookies. You see, I’ve been putting off going to the grocery store. Knowing that I’ll be somewhere else next week tends to make me not want to buy food that I’ll have to use in one week or else. So, I’ve been creating out of what we’ve had.
Eons ago, I’d bought almond slivers and dried cranberries- intending to make scones from them. But inevitably, I was out of some ingredient I needed for the scones.
So I looked at the ingredients, and I had everything! Even the almond extract and the brown sugar! Only, my brown sugar was a hopelessly solid brick, so I used regular sugar.
Even with the substitution (which I thought was hilarious given that she made substitutions when she made the recipe), they were fragrant, crunchy with some give, and exactly what I was looking for. The oldest kidlet proclaimed them to be “scrummy,” which I think was supposed to be scrumptious and yummy combined. Regardless, the recipe yielded just a little under 3 dozen, and they were gone in two days flat.
One of the challenges I face in baking is following familiar recipes and having my youngest son, Reed, be unable to share them. He has a slew of food allergies- including wheat, eggs, and soy. He recently turned 2 and so I took to trying to find either a vegan recipe that I could adapt to being gluten-free (since vegan means no egg) or find a recipe that used all the allergens and adapting.
I wound up going the latter route, mostly because the vegan recipes called for a lot of ingredients that he hadn’t tried before- whereas a substitution method would only call for one. And for those who either have allergies or have children with allergies, you know that’s the way to go.
I’m going to share the recipe that I used, without substitutions first, and at the end share what I did to make it wheat and egg free. No pictures, sadly.
Banana Cupcakes
Source: Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners.
In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Mix in butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir just until incorporated.
Spoon better into muffin pan lined with paper liners.
Bake 25-28 minutes or until done.
Cool completely.
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Thoughts
This was an astonishingly quick recipe to put together, and as it turned out was pretty easy to adapt. For the two eggs, I used 1 Tbsp of Ener-G mixed with 4 Tbsp of water. To replace the 1 1/2 cups of flour, I used 1 cup of rice flour, 1/3 cup potato flour and 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp of tapioca flour.
The results? A cupcake that’s a little dense- almost more like a muffin. But excellent nevertheless. It got the seal of approval from the birthday boy, as well as from those who don’t have food allergies. Though, word the wise, they don’t keep as well as cupcakes made with all purpose flour. They’re much better the same day (two days later, and they were doorstops).
I am a fan of quick and easy meals from scratch. I think it’s genetic. My mom, the queen of Chopped style cuisine (“What can I make for dinner using a can of tomatoes, a can of black beans and some pasta?”), is as well. Okay, it probably isn’t genetic- but I know that since we were/are both stay at home moms, you run into situations where it’s suddenly lunchtime, you’re starving and don’t have the time to make something elaborate.
But it doesn’t mean you have to skimp on flavor. I’ve mastered the quick tomato sauce, which has a bit of a raw taste to it. While my pasta cooks, I heat a small skillet and saute some onions and garlic in olive oil. Then I throw in a can of drained crushed tomatoes and cook until it smells right- I usually just season with a bit of oregano, some fresh basil and salt and pepper.
This is my staple go-to sauce, but sometimes you just want something more luxurious. On my last shopping trip I’d bought more heavy cream (now a staple since I’ve started baking regularly) and some Parmesan Reggiano. So when yesterday rolled around (a beautiful overcast fall-like day in Southern California), I wanted something a little more luxurious.
So I made alfredo sauce, and discovered that it’s even easier than my tomato sauce and just as fast to make.
Ingredients
Heavy cream
Butter
Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt & Pepper
You’ll note that I haven’t listed measurements. Mostly because I only made the sauce for myself, and not a family sized portion. But from the recipe I made, I can tell you this… for every 1/2 cup of cream, you’ll need an equal amount of parmesan. And 1 T of butter. So you can just expand as necessary.
While my pasta cooked, I put the heavy cream and butter in a small saucepan, heating it over low heat. (This is the only thing you have to pay attention to – while you can heat it over a slightly higher heat, you don’t want the cream to boil. So low makes it fool-proof) When the butter’s melted, and they’ve thoroughly combined, pull off the heat.
Grate your parmesan cheese. (Or use the pre-grated stuff you can buy in tubs, but try not to use the stuff in plastic bags or in a can. They use stabilizers to make them shelf-friendly, which makes it not melt) When the pasta is nearly done, put the saucepan back on the burner. Add in the cheese and season with salt and pepper.
Toss with your pasta, and enjoy! Honestly, it’s just that easy!
Note – this is for the Americanized version of alfredo. The true Italian alfredo sauce is basically butter and parmesan, tossed together over warm pasta. Equally easy, and just as good. 
One of my favorite ingredients to use is the potato. I’ll have them mashed, french fried, turned into potato chips. They’re just wonderfully versatile, and typically quick to prepare!
Now, I’ve come to realize that people are divided into two types of snackers. Those who crave sweet foods and those who crave salty foods. I fall squarely into the latter category, and will eat just about anything that’s been fried.
Recently I’ve started frying things on my own. For a family party last month I made onion rings, and had said that potato chips were next on my list. I was making some potatoes for my son for breakfast and realized that I’d cut too many potatoes in half, and set aside two of them to make chips with.
Required equipment:
Heavy bottomed pot for frying
Fry thermometer
Spider/Skimmer
Ingredients:
An appropriate oil for frying (vegetable, canola or peanut)
Idaho potatoes (the number is up to you)
To start off, fill a non-reactive bowl with cold water. Potatoes oxidize quickly, so if you don’t want them turning brown, have a decent sized bowl ready. (I’d put the left over potatoes in cold water and they kept all day) When you’ve finished washing and peeling each potato, put it right into the water.
Slicing. You can go one of two routes – use a knife, or invest in a mandoline! You can get pretty decent ones (just get one with a hand guard) for not much, and then you know you’ll have uniform slices and won’t have to worry about rolling potatoes. Just make sure that if you’re using a knife that you slice them as evenly as possible to ensure an even cook time- aim for about 1/8″. As you slice, put the slices back into the bowl of cold water.
Now, in your large heavy bottomed pan, get some oil heating up. You’re going to want to have at least 4-5″ of oil in the pan, so that the chips have enough room to flip as they fry. Using your handy dandy fry thermometer (not an expensive piece of equipment either), get the oil up to the 325-350 range. If you go too high, the chips will burn, and too low, they’ll just suck up oil and get soggy.
While it heats, set up your drain station. I used a cooling rack on a baking sheet with some newspaper underneath to help minimize mess.
Potato time! Take out a batch of potatoes – about 6-9 slices depending on how large the slices are. Pat them thoroughly dry in paper towels or a dish towel, and add all at once to the oil. Now, these do cook fairly quickly, but you can’t leave them unattended. Gently stir the potatoes with your spider/skimmer to keep the potatoes from sticking and to make sure they cook evenly. Keep going for about 3-4 minutes or until they’re golden brown.
Remove the chips from the oil and put on the sheet rack to drain. Once some of the oil has drained off, season them with whatever spice blend you like (I used just salt). And repeat until you’ve finished the batches.
Obviously, this isn’t as speedy as opening a bag of Lays- but the chips were wonderfully crispy and delicious. As a matter of fact, I wish I’d made more!
Final thoughts: Making these in front of small children is not a good idea. Not because of the frying (my kids are well trained to stay away when I’m cooking on the stovetop), but because now my son knows that all I need are potatoes to make potato chips!
Years ago, my husband and I had made the conscious decision to get DSL rather than pay for cable service. So we sat, for hours on end, adjusting our antenna to make sure that the broadcast stations came through loud and clear. Then, years later, we realized we were doing well enough to afford cable (and a precious DVR).
Finally, I would have what I’d been longing for. The Food Network. (To imagine my excitement, you have to hear a heavenly choir of angels singing every time you say it- The Food Network)
In the years that have followed, it’s been the channel that I’d leave on when I needed background noise. I nursed my second child while watching. I assume this is why, at the age of nearly 2, he’ll sit on the floor and watch an entire show with me. Or why he loves to watch Ratatouille.
All of that said, I’m much more a fan of Ina Garten and Alton Brown than say… Paula Deen or Rachael Ray. While both have their merits, usually their shows are on as background noise. But this recipe caught my eye. Paula Deen’s oven fried chicken. Not because it’s simple (it is) or because I love dijon mustard (I do). But it’s an egg free recipe. Not only that, it’s one that you could easily make wheat-free as well. Definitely one to add to your dinner rotation (it’s been added to ours!)
Oven Fried Chicken
Source: Paula’s Best Dishes (Paula Deen)
Ingredients
2 cups Panko bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons freshly minced thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons water
2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 -inch thickness
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place a cooling rack on the baking sheet. Spray cooling rack liberally with non-stick spray (you’ll be cooking the chicken on this).
Pound your chicken to 1/4 inch thickness. If you don’t have a meat mallet, use a pan that has a decent weight to it. (Note: I didn’t have full chicken breasts, but had tenders)
In a shallow dish, combine the dry ingredients for the crust – the panko crumbs, parmesan cheese, thyme, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper this mixture to taste.
In another dish, combine the wet ingredients. 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the dijon mustard and water. Also salt and pepper this to taste.
Coat each piece of chicken thoroughly with the mustard, then dredge into the bread crumbs. Place on wire rack and repeat until you’ve finished all the chicken.
Place in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken is a golden brown.
Thoughts
This was a really fast recipe to assemble, and used ingredients that I always have on hand. My oldest son is nearly four and a picky eater, so I was worried that he wouldn’t want to try the chicken- but not only ate it, but proclaimed that it was yummy. He also was happy to see that we had leftovers, and happily ate it reheated. As I said earlier, it’s found a home in our dinner rotation.
On adapting it for allergies: My youngest had severe food allergies, so I plan on trying this with a crushed puffed rice cereal in place of the panko crumbs and a sheep’s milk cheese in place of the parmesan. The recipe itself is egg-free and can easily be made wheat-free or gluten-free by making substitutions for the panko.
Recipe time! After see
ing the movie- I prepared the first meal that we see Julie Powell make (pre-Project, for those wondering). Bruschetta with a pan-fried bread. It’s quite a simple recipe (I made it in practically no time at all- even after I accidentally burnt the first batch of bread)
Bruschetta ala Julie and Julia
from The Hungry Novelist
Ingredients
For the crostini:
French bread (the wider loaf, not a thin baguette- though if you’re doing a party, those are great, too)
Olive oil
One clove of garlic
For the bruschetta:
Tomatoes (good quality)
Fresh Basil
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
The simplest part of the recipe is the bruschetta. Simply roughly chop your tomatoes, removing the core and seeds if they don’t look edible. Toss them in a little bit of olive oil (the original recipe called for 16 oz of tomatoes, and 1 T of olive oil) and sea salt. I added a tiny bit of pepper as well. Then, tear the basil into bite size pieces and set aside for the moment (to make sure that the basil doesn’t get soggy, it’s added at the last minute)
The crostini is pretty easy, too. But as I mentioned, you might want to keep an eye on the bread- I did burn mine the first time. In a non-stick skillet, heat 3 T of olive oil. Add in your bread (don’t overcrowd the pan) and cook until one side is a golden brown. Flip the bread and add more olive oil, if necessary – the bread will soak up the oil as it cooks. Remove as soon as they’re golden brown to a paper towel. Take your clove of garlic and rub the toast (both sides).
When all your toasts are done, top with the bruschetta and enjoy!
Source: Peanuts Cookbook
I looked forward to summer for these. I never quite believed my mom that these were easy to make- simply because they tasted so darn good!
My family has always loved lemon (my Grandmother has a “famous” lemon meringue recipe that we’ve all tried, and failed, to duplicate). So it was extremely lucky that my husband loves lemons are well. I was trying to decide what to bake one day, and his request was “something with lemons.” Knowing how tricky meringue can be to pull off in the middle of a hot summer, I turned to these lemon bars.
The Husband loved them, but my neatnik of a son decided that he didn’t like them (the lemon portion was too sticky, but it was yummy, he said). I’m sure that he’ll come around! Forgive the horrible picture, all I had at the time was my cameraphone.
Lucy’s Lemon Squares
The crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350°. Sift flour and sugar into a bowl. Blend in butter with clean fingertips until well mixed. Pat evenly into the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch baking pan (no need to grease it, but if you’re worried you can’t get it out, feel free to line with parchment paper!). Bake for 20 minutes.
The filling:
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
dash of salt
Mix all ingredients thoroughly, and pour over baked crust. Return to oven for 20-25 minutes at same temperature. Cool on rack, and cut into squares. Sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar.
Yield depends on the how small you cut the squares.
