A good book and 2 cool cakes

Late last week I went to Cleveland for the Fabulous Food Show.  It's not a terribly long drive from Columbus to Cleveland, but that stretch of 71 is not the most exciting.  I've been thinking a lot about time lately, and how I spend it.  It drives me nuts to waste time and miss out on doing something rewarding.

With the potential to drive and listen to random radio stations (hopefully something decent) or CDs I've played over and over, the solution to future time well spent donned upon me.  Get a book on CD from the library.

I have a post-it note in my wallet of books I want to read.  Each time I hear about a book that I think sounds interesting, I jot it on that post-it note so I can check it out later.  The problem is, I have not made much progress on my list.  Why didn't I think of the book on CD thing earlier?

This concept is not new to me.  I listened to all of the Harry Potter books on CD during my commutes to work, the journey to my Mom and Dad's, a few weddings, etc -- basically anytime I was in the car.  I also listened to "Rhett Butler's People," which is one of my favorite books, to re-familiarize myself with the story (having read it about two years ago).

The book I selected to listen to for my trip to Cleveland was one that I had checked out from the library in hard-back style earlier this year and never finished.  It wasn't because I didn't want to finish it -- I just ran out of time and before I knew, it was due again.

The book selected was "Once Upon a Secret" by Mimi Alford.  Alford was a White House intern who had an affair with JFK back in the day.  I had heard of this book on Mr. Brian Williams' show, Rock Center, and was pretty much immediately interested.  I also watched Alford's interview on one of the news shows.  Intriguing.

I love the Kennedys and I LOVE to read books that share the other part of a story or a different perspective on something I already understand to be factual.   This book was awesome.  I could not wait to get in my car to listen to more.  The story itself I find to be incredibly sad, complex and thought provoking.  I don't want to give too much away, but I loved this book because it explored so many human emotions such as happiness, love, dishonesty, guilt, neglect, vulnerability and more.

Anyway - the "2 cool cakes" part of the blog.  I think this was my fourth or so time to the Fabulous Food Show.  My work is a sponsor, so we have some neat opportunities there.  One of my favorite things to do there is to check out the fancy cakes.  These two were my faves this year.

I loved this cake for its drama and use of masquerade theme.

I typically don't like flowers on cakes, but I though this one was stunning.
The types of flowers were very diverse and since my favorites (magnolias)
were featured,  I took a liking to it.

I solemnly swear I am up to no good -- Visit to HP World!

I will admit that I began to love the tales of Harry Potter late in life.  My sister and ESPECIALLY my brother were pretty into them when they were kids, and me being the cool older sister obviously I thought they were lame.  That was my feeling until seeing the first movie.  Sorry, Katie and Cory.  Then, for nearly 8 months I listed to each book on CD during my commutes to work.  

When the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios, it was immediately placed on my list of places to visit.  John, Andrew and I went to Orlando last week, and I'm telling you - if you like Harry Potter, you must go.  It's awesome.  It's authentic.  I really feel like I've been to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.  

Come on down to Hogsmeade, gonna have ourselves a time.

I must say, this was awesome and a let down.  Awesome, because it was butterbeer
and had great flavor.  A disappointment because it lacked booze.  Oh well, haha.

I'm a slytherin and Andrew is a gryffindor! (sp? lol)

I'm more of a lover than a fighter.

Hogsmeade was full of awesome window displays such as this.

OK, so basically I saw this woman awkwardly taking a photo and
instead of getting John and Andrew's attention, I just took a snap.
I'm evil, I know.

Mmmm, Butterbeer snack in The Three Broomsticks.

Inside The Three Broomsticks.

Window display of wands at Ollivander's.  I was going to buy Snape's
wand since he's my fave, but his wand killed Dumbledore, also a fave,
sooooooooooo......

You know you're humming the theme music in your head.

Inside Hogwats the paintings were chatting it up.

The sorting hat was perched inside the castle.

Honeyduke's candy store was sweet (pun intended).

I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek of Harry Potter World.  It's good stuff, as you can tell.  As I end this blog post, I will leave one of my favorite Harry Potter YouTube videos:

Halloween Hijinx

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween – it’s one of my favorite holidays.  What’s not to love?  Candy, awesome costumes, parties, drinks – all some of my favorite things.

Today I decided it would be good to reflect on some of my favorite costumes through the years.  Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely had some “off” years such  as a hershey’s kiss, western witch (what the crap, right), devil farmer (again, lame) and little Edie from Grey Gardens (which would have been cool if people had heard of Grey Gardens – I was mistaken for a crazy cat lady, which is kind of related I guess).

I think I pretty much went as a princess from grades K – 5.  After that is when some of the costume fails listed above occurred.  Anyway, on to some of my faves.

We’ll start with the most recent.  This year, I went as a voodoo doll.  I love New Orleans and enjoy the mystery of voodoo (don’t freak out, I’m not like a devil worshipper, etc etc) and the culture that goes along with it.

I was at first going to go as Julia Child, but that seemed too easy.  Thus, the voodoo concept was born.

Meet the inspiration for my costume -- my sometimes cranky voodoo doll.
I took her along to JoAnn's to reference while buying supplies and her head
like seriously started popping off (in anger I think) -- more white pin!

This part is quite shocking.  I was able to restitch my sash without a major sewing machine melt down.

Here's a bird's eye view of my hair. 

And here's the whole ensemble!  Features -- tutu featuring mardi gras colors,
black and white pins, a little pouch for treasures, giant hair, crazy makeup.

And now onto some other faves from years gone by.

2011 - Cigarette Girl

2010 - Alice in Wonderland


2009 - Costume fail as Little Edie from Gray Gardens. No photos, haha.

2008 - 1950s Housewife

I pretty much didn't do Halloween costumes from 1995 - 2007 so I guess I'm making up for it now.  But, here is one last treasure from my youth.

1990 - Little Bo Peep.  My mom made me take the puppet.

Happy Halloween!! Can't wait for next year already!

We Can Can! Part 3 of 3

Later in the season I visited home and basically took the rest of the tomatoes from my Mom and Dad’s.  Since Mom was pretty much done canning, I was glad to take the remaining tomatoes back to the Cbus.

I had about 6 pounds to work with, not a lot, but enough to make a few jars for sure.  I decided to make some tomato jam, as I was inspired by my friend Leah Curtis who told me of her love for the oddity.  I highly respect Leah for many reasons, but really value her tips and advice when it comes to cooking and food.  She’s a natural!  So anyway, she told me stories of egg sandwiches with tomato jam and how the tasty treat was basically one of her favorite things.

Leah was right.  Tomato jam is the bomb.  I used the recipe from Food in Jars and it was prefect.  Some of my favorite days are when I can spend the whole day in the kitchen canning.  The tomato jam simmered pretty much all day before being put in jars.  The recipe caught me a little off guard at first since no peeling or anything but coring was required.  But hey, less work, so score!

Here are my pretties.  These may be my MVJs (most valuable jars) this season.

If you have a few tomatoes, make this stuff.  I have already been through 2 jars and am practically hoarding it!  Tomato jam is an egg's best friend.

We Can Can! Part 2 of 3

My sister friends Abby and Lindsey love to can, too.  They are basically can-iacs, so we work pretty well together.  This year, we did several different things in our approximately 12 hour canning spree but spent the majority of time doing peaches.  Linds picked the peaches up from Branstools, (pretty sure anyway) and they sure were real nice.

I was thrilled when the jam turned out.  One time we tried to do strawberry jam and didn’t follow the recipe closely (big mistake).  We kind of go something more like strawberry gel / sauce. 

Peach jam photo session.

The peach jam is awesome over cream cheese.  It will be great to break out for Pinterest nights, work birthday parties when I don’t feel like cooking, or pretty much anytime I want a delightful snack.

We also canned some peaches.  My favorite trick here --- drop the peaches in some boiling water for a few minutes so the skins will come off more easily.  It’s about the only way to go, people.   The peaches floated to the tops of the jars again this year.  Someday I figure out how to stop this nuisance. 

I see them floatin' I hate it (you know, like to the tune of Ridin' Dirty).
Even though they float, the taste is not affected - they are still awesome.

Thanks Abby and Lindsey (and their mom Mae) for a fun day!  Can with your friends! 

On an additional note, I need to finish a peach themed cross stitching project.  Better get on that!

We Can Can! Part 1 of 3

I sure wish I had a garden.  Luckily, my mom and several friends have great gardens!  And, Ohio is full of flavor and offers a variety of tasty treats.  I love canning.  It’s one of my favorite activities.  This year, I had a few different canning expeditions – each turning out pretty good.

My mom had tomatoes growing in like three different places on the farm.  There were a few vines behind Dad’s shop, several behind the horse barn and a few more by the wood stove shed, I think.  Mom and I picked some tomatoes for a while one day, until I saw a snake skin and fled.  Stupid snake.  Anyway, after we picked about 10 pounds, we got the tomatoes washed up and ready to go for making sauce and ketchup.

The tomato sauce was easy.  The ketchup was a little trickier.  We had to make a spice pouch, which was a little creepy.  But it turned out OK.  We should have let it cook down a little longer, but I think for the first time at bat with ketchup, it's just fine and dandy.  It was lots of fun canning with my mom.  And since we didn’t have to pressure can, I was allowed to stay in the kitchen the whole time, haha.

We entered several of our canned goods in the competition at the Brown County Fair.  And despite not taking the major prize, I think our display of goods looked the best.

A good project for mother and daughter.  What's more wholesome than such
a duo competing with canned goods at the county fair?

The display included corn, tomato sauce, tomato jam, blackberry jelly,
mint jelly, blackberries, ketchup, green beans, peaches, peach jam, tomatoes, etc.
A pretty good variety I think.

We also entered some of our tomato sauce.  We were pretty excited to see this ribbon.
While it's not blue or purple, Bro Co Fair is tough competition, people!

And one of the best parts of this story – Mom got me my OWN canning pot and supplies.  Thanks for empowering me, Mom!  I felt like Forrest Gump when he got his Nike shoes from Jenny.  Like Forrest, I was inspired to use my new treasure.  But unlike Forrest, I have to wait until next season to put my treasure to use.

Can you spot my new precious canner?  I hope she likes her home on
top of my fridge for hibernation. Ten points if you can locate the other
 canning tool in this photo!

Check back soon for more canning stories!

Corn Bread Success!

A few friends and I founded a tailgate this season -- one of my dreams for the past few years.  We named it Shenanigate and it is basically a smorgasboard of flavors, friends and fun.  I’ll blog about it in more detail when the season is over (GO BUCKS, btw).

Having a tailgate allows me to pressure myself to make amazing food to share.  For the Purdue game, I made chili and cornbread.  At the last tailgate, I made pimento cheese sandwiches (although kind of not because I couldn’t find pimentos and the cheese wouldn’t mash up so it wasn’t quite right).  The pimento cheese, umm, I mean cheese sandwiches, looked good, but  I was half embarrassed to put out them out on display. But this time, my stuff was the bomb.

I made a crock pot full of chili using a new recipe.  I usually make sweet chili, but I figured people would think that was weird.  So this time, I seasoned it with cumin and chili powder.  Magnificent.

The real crowd pleaser, though, was the cornbread.  I used the recipe from one of my favorite restaurants, DeSha’s.  The flagship DeSha's is in Lexington, but there's also one in Maysville (which is very close to Ripley, aka, hometown).  They are famous for many dishes, but their cornbread is kind of a classic.  I grabbed a recipe card from the restaurant after one visit and had been wanting to try it.  The tailgate was the perfect opportunity!

While emotionally drawn to the recipe and opportunity to create it, the recipe kind of intimidated me.  It called for a crap ton of things.  Umm, 6 eggs?  For real?  6?  Yes – it called for 6.  OK.  Here goes nothing!

I’ll tell you folks, the recipe is legit.  People actually WANTED to take a plate of leftovers home from the tailgate.  This kind of phenonema has never happened to me.  Probably one of the greatest moments of my life, haha.

The Recipe:

DeSha's Homemade Cornbread

3 cups self rising corn meal
1/3 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups sour cream
2 2/3 cups cream style corn

Combine all ingredients in order listed, mix well.  Pour the mixture into greased 9x13 inch pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.  Makes 12 squares of cornbread.

If you go to DeSha's, you too can pick up such a postcard
with the cornbread recipe on the back.

My recommendations:

• The recipe instructs you to use a 9 x 13 pan.  I really thought the stuff was going to overflow for a while, but it didn't  The amount of batter used in a pan this size will give you a very thick corn bread -- almost like a cake.  I think next time I will cut the recipe in half to see how it works.

• Also, the recipe card says to bake the cornbread for 30 minutes approximately.  My oven is a little janky, so that could explain this, but it took about 50 minutes for the corn bread to fully cook.  Just be sure to test with a toothpick of skewer for doneness.

• It makes 12 HUGE squares.  I would think it would be more like 36 servings approx.

Enjoy!

Keep on Cooking!

If you’ve seen this blog before or know me at all, you’ll know that the recipes I prepare usually rock or suck.  In the summer, I thought any cooking skills I had were vanishing as everything I tried to make ended up as an epic fail (black eyed pea dip, macaroni and crab, etc).  You can imagine my discouragement. 

But, I think I’m getting back on track!  Most things I’ve made the past month or so have turned out deliciously.  Here is a list of the things I have learned that will hopefully help cut back on recipe fails moving forward:

1 – Read the recipe fully.  Don’t skim it.

2 – If not quite sure what an ingredient is, look it up on the google.  For example, processed cheese loaf is NOT cream cheese.  I learned this the hard way.  FYI, processed cheese loaf is supposedly Velveeta. 

3 – Don’t make substitutions - ESPECIALLY when it comes to spices.

4 – If an ingredient sounds gross, add it anyway.  Follow the recipe.

5 – Use trusted sources for recipes.  I love Pinterest and all, but some of the recipes I’ve made from there are not quite right.

6 – This kind of goes along with lesson number one, but before you start making the recipe, make sure you have all of the crap required for it.  The lack of following this rule may lead to substitutions, which can lead to fails.

7 – Make sure you have the equipment needed to prepare a recipe.  For example, pimento cheese cannot be smoothly processed with a fork.  For serious.

Moral of the story, if you have a recipe fail, keep trying.  Don’t be afraid to try the recipe again if you know what you screwed up.  I believe in you!

And I leave you with this treasure:

Meet the Horses

Everyone who knows me know that I am a horse person.  Clearly.  I mean, look around my apartment.  There are snaffle bits hanging on doorknobs.  Horseshoes hang near doors.  My spurs sit near my fireplace.  OK, I’ll stop.  You get the picture.

So yeah, I love horses.  I also love stories about horses.  Now that I’ll have Another has taken both the Derby and Preakness, I feel inclined to write about one of my favorite equine finds in the last year while antiquing in Lexington.

Abby, Lindsey and I had been searching throughout the city for treasures.  In the third or so shop we visited, I found them.  Sitting on the floor in a back corner were three prints of racehorses all by the same artist.

The problem ---- they were a mess.  And I’m not kidding.  The prints were covered in mold spores, the frames were scratched and the paper itself looked to be ready to disintegrate at any moment.  But they spoke to me.  Looking so sad, yet so promising, as they sit on the floor, they were calling out for me to save them.  After walking around the store a few laps, I couldn’t stop thinking about them.  When I asked how much they were, I was told that it would cost me $25 for all three, or $10 each.  I thought myself crazy, but I took them.  All of them.

I made up a grand story in my head about the prints.  According to my imagination, the prints had been stored away in a stable for years and years after the farm experienced hard times and had to shut down. Decades later, someone found the prints all dusty and moldy.  Then, they landed at the antique shop -- or so I choose to believe.

That night, I dreamt that my friends and I tried to open the backs of the frames and the prints went scattering into the wind, much like something that had been away from oxygen for years and unable to handle the real world.  But luckily, it was only a dream.

While these horses weren't super well known, they had portraits, so basically they were all very good horses.  Each won some key races and made lots of money.

This is one of the prints I purchased in Lexington.   It's a print of Counterpoint.  As you can see, there are mold spores all around the dapper fellow.

The three prints, before restoration.  I had to buy all of them, right?  Couldn't split up the family!

When I got home, I knew that the prints needed intensive care.  I took them to Reed Arts in Grandview, knowing that the price was going to be steep.  But, hey, at this point I was committed.  I couldn’t allow these treasures to rot away.  As expected, the price was high, but it’s what I had to do.  When the backing was taken off, it was lined with a cigarette ad from the 50s – truly a step back in time.

After picking up the prints, I just could not have been happier.  When they were unwrapped from the paper, I seriously starting tearing up in the art store.  They had been completely restored.

I think this one is my favorite.  It's a print of Counterpoint.  Such a pretty face and he kicked tailed in the Belmont.  And notice the paper is free of mold!

One Count is looking sharp, too!  He was a great steed back in the day- winner of the Belmont Stakes.

Here is Alsab, all cleaned up as well and looking like he is ready to kick some ass!  He was a Preakness winner and came in second in the Preakness and Belmont.  So close!  He busted the Triple Crown Dream when he won the Preakness.

So the moral of the story, buy the art that speaks to you.  If it is truly special, take care of it.  And even if it looks like trash, it most likely has potential.  Restoring these pieces was seriously one of the best uses of money I have ever experienced.  I saved them.  They are mine, and I love them every day.

Dixie Punch - Wyadotte Abbey Style

Holy crap.  It has been over 6 months since I've shared anything on my once beloved blog!  There have been tons of adventures since my last post in October -- I wish I would have written about them.  I declare, that I will get back to blogging at LEAST monthly!  Help me keep up, people.

So, I guess I'll start with sharing my new delicious drink creation - Dixie Punch.  This drink was created through the result of not having ingredients to make another drink that I planned to try.  Thus, the drink was created, and I named it Dixie Punch.  Why?  Honestly, it was the first thing that popped into my head.  It's a delightful summer medley of some classic favorites.  And since you all know I love southern things, that probably had something to do with it, too.  This drink has become the signature special at my Pinterest Nights and the girls seem to love it!  In fact, I dedicate Dixie Punch to Miss Emily Wickham, for her delightful shout out on the Twitter.

Dixie Punch

Ingredients:

Southern Comfort
Triple Sec
Lemonade (made from scratch, OK?  That's important)

Take a decent sized pitcher (about 3 quarts I would say) and pour about 3/4 cup of lemon juice into the bottom.  Then add about a 1/2 cup of sugar to the juice and fill about 3/4 of the way up with water.  Give it a swirl with a spoon (or shake it state fair lemon shake up booth style).

Next take your trusty bottle of So Co (aka, Southern Comfort) and give a healthy pour.  I would say probably a cup or so.  Then, take your Triple Sec bottle and give about 2 or 3 shots worth.

Mix it all up and serve over ice!  Give it a taste first, and add parts as necessary.

I realize this is not a very good recipe as far as measurements and, well, instructions go.  My editor friend Lynn and awesome chef inspiration Marilou would certainly have some tips I'm sure, but Dixie Punch is all a matter of taste.  Make it your own :)

PS - I have tried to have bartenders create this while out and about, but they just don't get it. Bahaha.

Enjoy!