Peach Cobbler (Lorren)

I finally made my peach cobbler. Again, I went for quick and easy so I could get caught up on these recipes. I looked for a recipe with canned peaches to save me that step. We had company and I didn't want to spend any extra time in the kitchen. This recipe was very quick and very easy! It was pretty good, too! Not the best peach cobbler I've ever had, but worth repeating. It would be a great recipe for when you need a dessert in a hurry! Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 (29 ounce) can sliced canned peaches, drained
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Pour milk into dry ingredients and then stir in melted margarine. Mix thoroughly.
Pour mixture into a 9x13 inch baking pan. Arrange peaches on top and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Give it a try sometime when you need something quick and easy. It was great with vanilla ice cream!

Bourbon Glazed Chicken Minus the Bourbon (Lorren)

So I really cheated on this salmon recipe. I figured I had put it off long enough, though and had to give it my best shot. I didn't have any bourbon and so I used the marinade that mom used (different brand, but same type). I guess I misunderstood though and thought that she JUST used the marinade. I didn't realize she had marinated the salmon in bourbon first and then used the barbecue sauce. So, I basically just made brown sugar barbecue salmon. Not a great meal, but edible. I bought the cheapest frozen salmon I could find, too (it's been a tight month) and I'm sure that didn't help any. We had the Lotts join us for dinner and everyone ate their meal and said it was pretty good, but you have to take in to account that they were being polite. Savannah wouldn't even put it in her mouth, so we'll have to wait a while before we try salmon on her again. Overall, this wasn't a big success, but I'm sure made properly it's delicious. I'll have to try it the right way sometime.

Week 5: Peach Cobbler (Katie)

Back from vacation and settled into our new house...and I'm ready to get back to cooking! Sorry it took so long to post this...things have been so busy around here. But, at last, here is my peach cobbler post!

I made this dessert for our small group party on Friday. The recipe is from Cooking Light’s 20th Anniversary Issue. It was voted the best pie/cobbler. It definitely lives up to that title! I made this recipe once last summer, and I was so glad to make it again. Oh, and you are supposed to make Bourbon-Pecan Ice Cream to go with it, but I didn't this time.

Coconut-Peach Cobbler with Bourbon-Pecan Ice Cream

ICE CREAM:

4 cups vanilla low-fat ice cream
¼ cup bourbon
¼ cup chopped pecans, toasted

CRUST:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup flaked sweetened coconut, toasted
6 tablespoons chilled butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces
½ cup evaporated fat-free milk
2 large egg yolks

FILLING:

11 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 4 pounds)
1 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash of salt
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1. To prepare ice cream, combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl; cover and freeze at least 3 hours.

2. To prepare crust, lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour, 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt in a food processor, and pulse 2 times or until blended. Add coconut and butter, and pulse 10 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine milk and egg yolks. Remove 1 tablespoon milk mixture; set aside. With processor on, slowly pour remaining milk mixture through food chute; pulse 5 times or just until blended. Press mixture gently into a 6-inch square on heavy-duty plastic wrap; cover with additional plastic wrap. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Roll dough, still covered, to a 14 x 10-inch rectangle.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. To prepare filling, combine peaches, brown sugar, 6 tablespoons flour, nutmeg, and dash of salt in a large bowl; spoon into a 13- x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Remove one sheet of plastic wrap from dough; place dough on peach mixture, pressing to edge of dish. Remove remaining sheet of plastic wrap; brush dough with reserved milk mixture. Cut 6 (2-inch) slits in dough; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until golden. Let stand 30 minutes on a wire rack. Serve with ice cream.

The recipe really isn't difficult to make, although peeling and slicing all those peaches did take a while. Here is the bowl full of peaches:

And here are the peaches after I added the rest of the filling ingredients:

Yummy! The delicious cobbler before it went in the oven:


The final product!


I didn't have my camera out at the party, but my wonderful friend Elizabeth was so kind to take some pictures for me. She took the picture at the top (the piece shot). And here we are enjoying the cobbler:


Since most of our friends were downstairs watching the hockey game, I didn't get to hear everyone's reactions. But the ladies upstairs seemed to enjoy it. Brent said his only complaint was that the peaches weren't quite ripe, so they weren't as soft or sweet as they could have been. I would agree with that. Last year when I made this, the peaches were so soft they were about a day away from rotting. And I did like that cobbler better. So maybe I will make it again later this summer. It's a perfect summer dessert for a crowd!

Here's a picture of our whole small group (minus Elizabeth who is taking the picture). I love these people!

Peach Cobbler (Caroline)

On Memorial Day, we had Joelle, Dave, Lyla and Pressley and the Rexfords over for dinner. We had chicken and/or steak, corn of the cob, baked potato, fresh green salad and Peach Cobbler a la mode for dessert. I used canned peaches because I thought it would taste better than fresh. Big mistake!! If possible, I would definitely use fresh peaches. The recipe I used was from "Cooks.com".
Canned peach cobbler
1 stick of butter
1 C. flour
1 C. sugar
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 C. milk
1 large can sliced peaches, drained (I used one and a half cans and it was not enough peaches!)

Melt butter in glass loaf pan in the oven (I used 9 x 13 pan because I increased the peaches). Mix together in mixing bowl flour, sugar, baking powder, and milk. When smooth, add drained peaches. Pour on top of melted butter in pan. bake for 40 - 50 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Top should be golden brown when finished.

*Note: Recipe could not have been any easier. What I would change: Definitely use fresh peaches and more of them! Maybe 4 cups...I like more peaches and less bread!

Because it was not very peachy, I'd say everyone gave it a "B" or a "C+". The girls (Lyla and Pressley) liked the ice cream.

Chocolate Intensity (Caroline)

See Joelle's post below for photos. I loved this recipe. I would definitely do it again, especially if I am trying to impress my guests. The cake was delicious although Dad and I could not eat a piece bigger than 1/2 inch wide because it is sooooo rich. Great recipe, Katie!

Fried Chicken (Caroline)

By Mom Kruithof

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Recipe (from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) fryer (see Wikipedia on the difference between broilers, fryers, and roasting birds), cut into pieces
2 cups buttermilk
1 large onion, sliced
1/4 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (parsley, tarragon, thyme) or a teaspoon each of the dried herbs.
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
2 cups grapeseed oil, or other high smoke-point oil such as canola oil, or peanut oil

Method

1 Soak chicken overnight (at least 8 hours and up to two days) in buttermilk with onions, herbs, paprika, and cayenne pepper. (Regarding the use of buttermilk, my mother has had good results from soaking chicken in plain yogurt instead of buttermilk.)

2 Drain in colander, leaving some herbs on chicken. In a large paper or plastic (sturdy) bag, mix flour with seasonings. Meanwhile, heat 2 cups oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet (cast iron, stainless steel, or anodized aluminum - something that can take the heat) on medium high heat until a pinch of flour starts to sizzle when dropped in the hot oil (but not so hot that the pan is smoking). Remember when working with hot oil, always have a pan lid close by.

3 Place chicken pieces in bag with flour and shake until thoroughly coated. Add chicken to hot pan and fry on 1 side for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown, and then use tongs to turn the pieces over and fry for another 10-12 minutes, again until golden brown.

Be careful to keep the oil hot enough to fry the chicken, but not so high as it burns the chicken. To do this on our electric stove we have to alternate the settings between high to medium high several times while we are cooking.

4 Use tongs to remove chicken from pan. Place on a rack over a cookie sheet or broiling pan for the excess oil to drain. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

I can't believe I am 55 years old and I have never made fried chicken before! If I had been more experienced I would have followed the directions better - at least I would not have used such huge breasts! I probably would use skinless chicken tenders so that the chicken meat would have the flavoring I peeled off when I took off the skin on our breasts! Without the skin (which I peeled off after cooking) there was no crust or spice and as a result the chicken, although very moist, was very blah. Dad gave it a "C" then changed it to a "C+" because it was so moist. Frankly, I would rather have dry with flavor than moist boring chicken!!

Week 4: Bourbon Glazed Salmon (Katie)

Happy Friday, girlies! I made this salmon last night for Joy (since Brent's been out of town, it was the one night this week I actually made dinner). Here's the recipe I used:

Bourbon Glazed Salmon
Adapted from Cooking Light, September 2001

1 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons bourbon
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 (6-ounce) salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
4 teaspoons sesame seeds
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; add salmon fillets. Seal bag, and marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, turning bag once. Remove fillets from bag. Put remaining marinade in a small pan and simmer for at least 10 minutes, reducing the sauce until it thickens.

Preheat broiler.

Place fillets on broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil 11 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Drizzle some of the reduced sauce over each filet, and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon onions. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings

I really like salmon. It's so simple! When I make it, I usually just marinade it with some raspberry or strawberry balsamic dressing and it is yummy! This was a good change though, and still pretty easy. I would definitely make it again. The only changes I made were to cut the marinade ingredients in half and to use 1/8 tsp of ground ginger instead of fresh. Oh and I didn't put seasame seeds or green onions on top.

The bad thing...I did have an abnormally tall piece of salmon, and it got a little close to the broiler. So the top got pretty scorched! Nothing that couldn't be picked off...but it didn't make for the best pictures. Here's what it should have looked like:


Fancy, huh? Here's mine:


Oops, I guess I should have had it on a lower rack...

Anyway, looks don't matter, right? It's all about the taste. My first bite, I didn't think it tasted that different from my regular marinaded salmon. You could just barely taste the brown sugar and bourbon. The original Cooking Light recipe said to throw away the marinade, but the adapted one I used had you cook and reduce the marinade into a sauce. And boy am I glad I did! That sauce was delicious! I wouldn't eat another bite without it - and a lot of it.

Here's Joy pre-first bite (ugh, check out that black top!).


We both decided that as far as salmon goes, this was delicious. For a fish recipe, I would give this 5 stars and a solid A. But out of all the main dishes in the world, it was just above average (what can I say, we're chicken people). Ratings:

Joy: 3.5 stars, B or B+ (wishy washy, huh?)
Katie: 4 stars, A-

I actually did really like this, especially with that sauce! I'd even call it one of my favorite all time seafood recipes, because really, I only have few (the raspberry balsamic salmon and I just found a catfish marniade that was really good). I'd even put this in our Best of 2009 Tastebook, and that says something!

Hope you all have a great weekend! Can't wait to see you in PA in two weeks!

Chocolate Intensity Cake (Joelle and Mom)

Well, I thought I'd have a chance to get with mom so we could do this post together, but it just hasn't worked out and I don't want to waste any more time! We made our chocolate cakes for Mother's Day dinner.

Joelle's Cake:


Mom's Cake:


We both made slight changes to the recipe. I used almond extract instead of coffee because I don't care for the taste of coffee and chocolate together and since Katie said the coffee taste was a bit strong, i thought I would try this. Mom baked hers a little differently. She can edit this post to give her details but I'm pretty sure she cooked the chocolate with the butter and I know she did something different with the eggs, too.

Because of the changes Mom made our cakes had a very different texture. Mine was more fudgey and Mom's was closer to a cheesecake. They were both very good!

You can tell the different textures in the pictures below. The first cake is mine, the second is moms, which says "Happy Mom Day" on it. She tried to do as the instructions say and put some chocolate in a bag to pipe a design on top but her chocolate was too warm and kept running together. Note to self: don't put the chocolate in the microwave.



In this picture, the closest piece of cake is mine, Mom's is closer to the whipped cream and strawberry.


And here is a picture of each of us enjoying our cake.






I don't have a picture of Lyla actually tasting the cake because she was much to busy picking moms flowers with the root still attached and placing them in her rocking chair. But, she wears the evidence of her "bites" on her chin!


We talked about the "grades" we would give the cake and they pretty much both got an "A". David and I preferred mine better and Mom and Dad liked Moms -- appropriate, right? At first Dad gave mom's an A+ and then took the plus back because he said her texture wasn't what he was expecting. And mom took one bite of mine and said "Ew, I hate raspberry with chocolate" and I told her it was almond, not raspberry and she said it tasted like raspberry and wouldn't take another bite, so, I got an F from her, but I'm not counting that because obviously she doesn't have very good taste. :) But, interestingly... Dad thought mine tasted like it has raspberry in it too, whatever it was, I LOVED the taste, it was right up my alley, which is why I made it according to my taste. Either way, it was delicious.

Chocolate Intesity (Lorren)

This cake was fun to make. I like that it wasn't just a dump and bake kind of cake. I used a spring-form pan and didn't really have any problem with it. It was hard to get the metal disk off the top of the cake when I inverted it and I ended up taking a chunk out of the cake, but because of the fudge-like texture, I just scraped it off the disk, dumped in on the cake and smoothed it together with a knife. You couldn't even tell it happened! I did get a little lazy at the end though and just poured the ganache over the top instead of taking the time to make it look pretty.
I also found that this was a really hard cake to take photos of! They either came out looking too light or too dark. The actual cake was hard to capture.
The first bite of this cake tasted almost like peanut-butter and chocolate. Weird, because I followed the directions exactly and used coffee. Cole said the same thing after his first bite. The second bite was pure chocolate! This was such a rich cake! I did use semi-sweet chocolate instead of bitter-sweet. This might be the reason it was SO RICH!
Cole is a chocoholic and even he had a hard time finished the whole piece! It definitely needed a full glass of milk! His rating ranged from a 5 to an 8 depending on how much he had eaten. He did have a second piece today, but just a sliver. That was about all either of us could handle at one time. It really was good, just extremely rich! I'm not a huge chocolate eater, so I'd probably give it about a 6 too. It was a great recipe, I probably would just use bitter-sweet chocolate and maybe add milk to the coffee like Katie did to try and tone it down a little bit. The texture was really creamy. I liked that a lot. When I eat a piece now, I have to eat it with milk and strawberry slices (kinda tastes like chocolate covered strawberries- Yum!)
Another note: Cole and I were both wide awake around 2 am. Not sure if that was a coincidence or the big pieces of cake we ate at midnight :) Next time I'll eat it a little earlier in the day!

Bourbon/brown sugar Salmon (Caroline)

I know you will not believe it but I made my salmon tonight and it is to die for!!! Just as good as Flat Rock Grill. But I cheated...I went to Flat Rock Grill and ordered take away. Just kidding! But I did cheat. I bought the Jack Daniels Bourbon Brown Sugar barbecue sauce. I soaked my salmon in about 1/3 cup of bourbon then cooked it in the frying pan with a little of the barbecue sauce and it is soooooooooo good!!!!! I will definitely do this recipe again (Why wouldn't I...it only took minutes to make and fantastic to eat). Dad hasn't tasted his yet. I'll let you know what he thinks.
Okay, he tasted it and he gave it an A+! I did, too!

Week 3: Chocolate Intensity Cake (Katie)

I made this week's assignment for Mother's Day, and it was a hit! I picked chocolate intensity cake because Brent was out of town, and I didn't think he'd miss the chocolate overload!

Here's the recipe (from Trish Boyle’s The Cake Book):
Makes one 9-inch cake

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably 62% cocoa), finely chopped
12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brewed coffee
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350º F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with a parchment round and butter the parchment. (If you’re using a pan with a removable bottom like a springform, make sure to wrap the pan with 2 or 3 layers of foil.)

Place chopped chocolate in a large bowl. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, stir butter, sugar and coffee until the butter is melted and mixture is boiling. Pour the hot mixture over your chopped chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute then gently stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs vigorously until blended. Whisk in the vanilla and salt. Slowly add about 3/4 cup hot chocolate mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly. (Tempering the eggs with a little bit of the hot chocolate mixture will prevent “scrambled eggs” when combining the two mixtures.) Add the egg mixture to the hot chocolate mixture and whisk to combine well. Strain the batter through a sieve (to catch any cooked egg bits) and then pour batter into prepared pan.

Set cake pan in a large roasting pan and fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the center is shiny and set but still a bit jiggly. Transfer cake pan to a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes.

Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Place a cardboard round on top of the pan and invert the cake onto it. Remove pan and carefully remove the parchment paper. Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours before glazing with chocolate glaze. *I chilled overnight before glazing and then chilled for 2 hours more before serving. It was PERFECT!

Bittersweet Ganache
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Remove pan from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute then gently stir until chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth. Gently stir in the vanilla. Transfer glaze to a small bowl and cover the surface of the glaze with plastic wrap and let cool for 5 minutes at room temperature before using.

To glaze the cake:
Place the chilled cake, still on the cake round, on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Slowly pour the hot glaze onto the center of the cake. Smooth the glaze over the top and sides, letting the excess drip onto the baking sheet. Scrape the extra glaze from the baking sheet and put it in a small ziploc bag. Seal the bag and cut a tiny hole in one of the bottom corners. Gently squeeze the bag over the top of the cake to drizzle the glaze in a decorative pattern. Refrigerate the cake at least one hour before serving. *I chilled the cake overnight and LOVED the texture and flavor of it. I actually prefer to eat it straight from the fridge, nice and chilled! The texture is smooth, rich and creamy and holds up well while eating.

I made just a few little changes...I read somewhere that the cake has a strong coffee flavor. So instead of using 1/2 cup of brewed coffee, I mixed some International French Vanilla Cafe mix with 1/2 cup of milk. For the ganache, I used 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate, and 2 oz of semi-sweet. Then there were a few changes in prep (I didn't strain for "scrambled eggs"), but I mostly stuck to the directions.

Saturday afternoon I made the cake. No trouble with the batter. I set the oven timer for 35 minutes, and when I got it out, it had no "jiggle." I was so upset, thinking I baked it for too long and I should have checked it sooner...but once I took it out of the pan, it looked was just fine.


I put it in the fridge and took it out to glaze around 11:00 pm that night (so it chilled about 10 hours). I didn't have any cardboard laying around, so I used a double layered brown bag. It seemed like so much glaze, layered thick on the top. I thought it looked odd, and I was feeling pretty skeptical at this point. But I put it in a pan, covered it with foil, and back in the fridge it went.


When I got it out of the fridge, the glaze had hardened and looked a lot darker. Since my glaze didn't really "drip" down the baking rack, I used a thin knife to go around the edge of the cake. I probably could have cut this a lot nicer, but I had a crowd waiting!


We ate it chilled, right out of the fridge.


Yum yum! The end product was delicious! Very rich, but not too sweet (thanks to the bittersweet chocolate). And just the right hint of coffee. The texture was so interesting...I read some reviews that said this wasn't like a normal flourless cake, and they were right. It was dense, but it was also creamy and soft (kind of like cheesecake texture). Here's a close up:


Everyone seemed to love the cake (of course maybe they just didn't want to tell me otherwise to my face?). Garret gave it an A+, my dad asked me to send my mom the recipe...overall it seemed like a success!


My mom had another taste after the cake got to room temperature, and said it was like a completely different cake. She said it tasted sweeter, and preferred the chilled bittersweet effect. Interesting. I would definitely make this again - it was worth the effort!

Happy Mother's Day, ladies! I hope your day was glorious! Love you all!