Never Bashful with Butter

Summer is a very special season out in farm country. At least it used to be, when I was a kid.

Going back home, every year I notice something different, something that has changed and become more modern. Different than the way it was “back in my day”.

I remember the way things went, before everyone and their brother had air conditioning. To be honest, my family didn’t even get one of those pop in the window air conditioners until I was like, 15 years old. By then I’d already learned what a swamp cooler was, and was already pretty set in my own personal ways of keeping cool.

Sure, having an air conditioner made me a little more lazy, but not by much.

Our first air conditioner really only cooled off about a 6 foot radius from the window where it sat. My dad put it in a window that sat above our small couch in the living room. I would fight my sister for this spot, but my dad had this rule about sitting too close to the air conditioner, and how if we would just let the air conditioner run, it neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comwould cool off the whole house by the time it got cool enough outside to open the doors and let the breeze in.

It never worked. No matter how far away we sat from the air conditioner, it was still ALWAYS colder right next to it than it was anywhere else. It was that  6ft area, the prime realty in our living room. That was where you wanted to be during the day.

Of course, there were other ways of keeping cool.

The sprinkler method was my favourite, after my parents got rid of our swimming pool.

Until I was 12 years old, I spent morning noon and night in that swimming pool, from spring through fall. My mom would joke about me being part frog, my dad would complain because I’d tromp through the house leaving a trail of water behind me. I have tons of memories of that pool.

We actually put the pool in after we lived in my great grandpa’s house for about a year. It took the place of a giant maple tree that we had removed (it was dead, and it was leaning towards the house, so.. it was either us or the tree) Originally my mom wanted to put a garden there. My sister and I lobbied for a swimming pool. I don’t know how we won, but we did, and I loved it.

I would go out there in the morning, and swim until dinner time, only getting out to use the bathroom or do some random chore my mom asked me to do. It got so that my dad actually built a separate room onto the back porch, and called it ” the pool room”. It had a bathtub in it, which was kinda weird, but it basically was just a room I could go into, shut the door and change in. It was really cool.

One of my favourite things to do in the pool, aside from swimming, was have my friends over, and have singing competitions. DO NOT ASK ME WHY. I have no idea what lead us to make the connection between singing and swimming pools, but we all went for it. So much so, that during one particularly emotional performance of “somewhere over the rainbow” (what can I say, I like the classics) I turned my upper torso to the right side a little too quickly and lost my footing and threw myself, open mouth first, into the side of the pool. I had a dental appliance on at that point, so landing mouth first meant that I shoved a sharp metal bar into the roof of my mouth.

An emergency oral surgery and 3 days later, I was back at it, sans sharp metal bar (they took the whole thing out to let my mouth heal.) and better than ever.

One thing that I had managed to forget about was brought up by my older sister at my bachelorette party.

We were playing that drinking game- “I never” where you have to say “I never” and then say something you’ve never done, but you try to aim it at certain people in the room, and if you’ve done what that person has “never” done, then you lose a point, and after you lose 5 points you have to take a shot.

So my sister says, “I never went skinny dipping with my mom, sister and grandma at the same time!”

Which.. was slightly embarassing for both of us, because she actually HAD done that, because she was there too.

I would catch frogs that got stuck in the pool cover during the late fall, and set them under the wooden pallet we used as a landing platform for the ladder. Underneath the pallet it was dark and swampy, so I knew it would be perfect for a little froggie. I named him fred, and he stayed there for a few years, I think. (Or at least, I like to pretend.)

I would wake up early, and I’d swim all morning long while my mom baked and cooked. She’d always make as much as she had to during the early morning hours, with all the windows and doors open so the heat would go out and the cool morning air would fill the house. That way she didn’t have to have the oven on during the hot parts of the day.

We had a little pie shelf just outside one of the windows off the kitchen. It just so happened I could see it from the swimming pool, and anytime she baked a pie… any kind.. I could smell it, and I’d find myself being lured back into the house for a quick snack before returning to my watery playground.

Pie season went from the beginning of June until the middle of September, in my house. I know many other people who grew up in similar circumstances know what I’m talking about.
Pie season is a country thing. Pies were quick, easy and they fed a whole family. They don’t have to be eaten hot, so they are perfect for baking in the morning and refrigerating until dinner. They are also a great way to use up all that fruit that is attracting all those fruit flies, just before it goes off.

June was all about the strawberries, July was all about the cherries, August we had peaches and pears to deal with, and September was all about Apples.  Sure, there were other fruits- Things we’d go and “U-pick” from neighbouring farms, or my mom would get from the grocery store, or a neighbour would bring over after they had ran out of ideas of what to do with their personal crops. One year we ended up with a bag of lemons. Another year we had three grocery sacks full of bing cherries left on our doorstep by a relative that had gone and picked them, but didn’t know what to do with them.

The solution, most times, was pie. There was also freezing, juicing, canning and just plain snacking on the fresh fruit…

But the best smell of all, and the most welcome sign of summer starting, for me, is A piping hot strawberry pie, fresh from the oven.

So I made one.

I sliced up a ton of fresh strawberries added a few things and then prepared the crust..

Remember that 5 gallon drum of coconut?

Yep, I used some of that in the crust. Its perfect!

Served with sweet cream cheese (not to be mistaken with cream cheese icing)

Just look at that buttery crust…

And finally, the bite. mmm…mm…

Not that I needed to be reminded that summer is fast approaching, its only like- 90 degrees here.

But that pie was somethin else. You gotta love a nice fresh summer pie.
Almost as good as an otterpop.

..almost.

This recipe came about as part childhood memory and part necessity. The filling comes completely from my childhood. Its not hard to make a fruit filling for pie. The crust however, comes out of necessity. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of coconut added into recipes here and there in the near future.

My mom gave me a 5 gallon drum of dessicated coconut. So, I used that in addition to some sugar, flour and butter to make a delicious pie crust.

So without too much babbling, here is the recipe-

To make two pies-
Strawberry pie filling

6 cups sliced or chopped ripe strawberries
1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch

In a medium sized bowl, mix the cornstarch and vanilla extract until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. To this mixture, add the six cups sliced or chopped strawberries and cup of brown sugar. Toss the mixture around a bit and allow to sit for about 10 minutes to fully macerate.

While you’re waiting for your strawberries to macerate…

Recipe for coconut pie crust-

2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
3/4 cup butter, margarine or shortening (cold, so make sure its refrigerated)
3-5 tablespoons COLD water, as needed.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and coconut until evenly distributed. To this, rub or cut in your cold butter, margarine or shortening until the mixture resembles rough corn meal. Stir the mixture lightly, not to combine, but to make sure there is no loose coconut, flour or sugar at the bottom of the bowl under the mixture.

To this, add the cold water a tablespoon at a time, gathering the mixture up until it forms a ball of dough that is not sticky or tacky.

Cut the ball of dough in half, and roll it out on a floured board until its just a little bit more than a quarter of an inch thick. place dough in greased pie tin and trim edges. Pour in half of the strawberry mixture and fold down the edges of the pie crust to cover the strawberry mixture loosely.

Repeat for the second pie.

bake pies on the middle rack at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the crust on the edges starts turning a dark golden brown. Remove from the oven, cover the entire top of the pie with tin foil, cutting a slit in the center to allow steam to exit through the top. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove from the oven, remove the foil and allow to cool at room temperature for about half an hour before serving if you wish to serve it warm, otherwise, cool at room temperature for half an hour and place it in the fridge until you wish to serve it. Its delicious either way!

For a little extra something, I made a sweetend cream cheese.

Sweetened cream cheese is different than frosting, because its made with granulated white sugar and once its mixed, its still thick and resembles cream cheese before being altered. Its not fluffy at all, but very flavourful.

For one pie-

5 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract.

in a small bowl, use a spatula to press the cream cheese into the white sugar. Do not whisk or fluff. Its best to do this by hand. Once the sugar has been fully pressed into the cream cheese, add the vanilla and stir. The mixture should be thick, not watery or clumpy.

use either a prepared piping bag or a ziploc bag with a small hole cut in one corner to pipe a design on the plate, if you’re serving the pie, or ontop of the cooled strawberry filling, if you’re bringing it to a gathering or you’re gifting it.

Its REALLY good. Kind of like a strawberry shortcake, but a little sweeter.

So there you go, my strawberry pie!

-A.

I’ll admit, there are very few photos of this particular dessert, but there is a reason for it. I wanted to take a few photos of it real quick right after I got it all prepared, but then I stepped away for a moment, since my husband and I were also working on making dinner.

Next thing you know, I turn around and my husband had opened one of our pantry cupboards and a rogue glass jar of spicy habenero honey from our last trip to Pike Place market in Seattle launched itself from the shelf, landing on the edge of the green plate on which this cake is sitting. Apparently the jar hit at such an angle to cause the entire plate to shatter, covering my pretty little cake in tiny little pieces of of ceramic death, peppered with little lime green paint chips.

Needless to say, only the few photos survived, and out of the 10 or so I took, only three were fit to print.

Don’t worry, I can attest to the cake’s deliciouneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comsness, because as you see the recipe makes two cakes, and the other I’d been munching on all day, so it wasn’t really photo worthy, but it was definately tasteworthy.

The point of me even posting about this over here is to tell the story of my family’s version of Pineapple upside down cake.

We call it the Down upside cake. Why? Because when you’re down, you have to look for the upside, and thats pretty much what this cake was for my family.

As I’ve mentioned before, my family went through some pretty rough times when I was growing up. My dad had worked for a company called Alcoa, which was an aluminum fabrication plant. Apparently it has gone back in business, but when I was little, they closed down, putting a few hundred employees out of work. My mom was a stay at home mom, and so we had no income. Luckily my dad was able to get unemployment, and for a short time we made our meals from whatever my mom could afford to get with the foodstamps the state provided us with.

The thing about foodstamps in our area of the country in the early 80’s was that they were not accepted in many places. There were special stores that “poor people” went to, like the canned food warehouse. You can imagine what the quality of food was at a place that even states “can food” in the name. Canned pineapple was fairly inexpensive around here, mostly because it wasn’t very popular. The tropical fruit craze hadn’t yet hit us, and canned pineapple cost half what a can of peaches cost.

So very little of what we ate was fresh, and if it hadn’t been for my mom’s resourcefulness, we never would have had any fresh produce, but she managed to keep a cute little vegetable garden in the front yard, our neighbours had fruit trees which my sister and I pilfered from often, and every summer we spent plenty of time at my great grandfather’s strawberry orchard.

But there were times when the money was always gone, the fruit wasn’t quite ripe, and my mom had to come up with something to sweet to make for her family to sort of boost morale.  That was where this cake came in. Canned pineapple was cheap, and we made the “topping” out of brown sugar and margarine (I make it with butter now) because brown sugar was much less expensive than white sugar, and margarine could be bought in large quantities for really cheap.

Apparently my mom and dad first had pineapple upside down cake on a trip to california a few years before I was born. As their story goes, They fell in love with it, and my mom made it every week for a year because she couldn’t get her fill of it.. Of course, this practice died out by the time I was born, and it wasn’t until we were down and out that we started making it again. Probably because it tastes fresh, it doesn’t require frosting, and it puts a little smile on your face when you take a bite. All I know is my mom would buy these giant cans of sliced pineapple, and she didn’t use all of the juice for the recipe, so she’d let me drink it.

I LOVE pineapple juice. I will drink it till the cows come home and start wondering why I’m not drinking milk anymore. Seriously, pineapple juice is one of my favourite beverages. There’s just nothing like it.

You don’t have to add sugar to it like lemonade, but its just as refreshing. The pulp isn’t nearly as obnoxious as it is in orange juice. Its perfect.  The first time I encountered an actual pineapple and someone handed me a slice, I had no idea what to do with it, so I just sucked on it and got the juice out of it.

But I digress.

Our family was all about this pineapple filled cake. It wasn’t until later that we added the coconut.  We always used fresh coconut.

My mom would buy a whole coconut from the store and have my sister and I hammer HUGE nails through the coconut eye, and then drain all of the coconut juice. My mom would strain that and mix it with pineapple juice and we’d drink it. It just made sense that we’d grate the actual coconut meat and add it to the pineapple cake, since the two tasted so good together.

So to me, this cake always puts me in a good mood.

Oh, I forgot the other reason it made us kids happy. My mom would slice the cake in extra large slices so we could each have an entire pineapple slice on our piece. There’s nothing like an extra large slice of this sunny yellow cake to put a smile on someone’s face, no matter what else is going on in their world.

…Or maybe its just me. You know what they say, simple minds, simple pleasures.

So, onward with the recipe-

3/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18oz) can sliced pineapple in its own juice
all of the pineapple juice from the can
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup toasted coconut

If you’d rather use fresh pineapple, then you’ll need 10-12 half inch slices of pineapple and at 3/4 cup pineapple juice in place of the canned pineapple and juice.

You don’t have to grill the pineapple ahead of time, but I find it makes for a much more “pineappley” flavour if you do. You can either grill the pineapple on the grill for a minute on each side, or use a grill pan, or even just a sauce pan. Be sure to brush both sides of the pineapple slices with either butter or olive oil so it wont stick to the pan!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.You’ll need to prepare 2 9″ cake pans. Melt the 1/2 cup butter and pour half of it (1/4 cup) into the bottom of each cake pan. Sprinkle a half cup of brown sugar evenly over the melted butter in each pan. Take one tablespoon of the toasted coconut and sprinkle that over top the brown sugar in each pan Place half of the sliced pineapple in a decorative pattern over the brown sugar mixture in the bottom of each pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat olive oil and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Combine eggs, pineapple juice and vanilla extract. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the olive oil mixture then add half the pineapple juice mixture. Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture. Scrape the bowl and beater often. Fold in the remaining toasted coconut (minus the two tablespoons used with the brown sugar)

Pour the batter into prepared pans and smooth top with metal spatula. Bake cakes about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.

Allow the cakes to cool in the pans so the cake will absorb as much of the caramelized pineapple mixture as possible. At least half an hour, on the counter NOT in the fridge.

While the cake is cooling, You can make the extra pineapple caramel sauce.

This one is way easy-

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup heavy cream

Place the pineapple juice, brown sugar and butter in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir constantly and reduce the heat to medium low. continue stirring until the mixture has thickened to your liking. Remove from heat and add in the heavy cream. The mixture will fluff up quite a bit, so its important that you use a high sided sauce pan. Stir vigorously and set aside.

To serve the Down upside cake, loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a knife. Place your cake plate or serving dish on the backside of the cake (the top) and invert the pan. Caramel sauce will coat the sides of the cake, and if you did it right, you’ll have a gloriously golden cake top. Finish with a dollop of whipped cream, and spoon over the pineapple caramel sauce. Sprinkle with some extra toasted coconut, and voila!

You’ll have two cakes, which honestly, makes 10 servings. In my family, this cake was an excuse to have an extra wide slice, because you didn’t want to cut through the beautifully golden pineapple slices. Its ok, because the cake itself is pretty thin, only about an inch and a half thick, so by no means are you eating more than a serving, PLUS you’ve got a nice big chunk of fruit!

Trust me. Its really good.

-A.

Hey everyone!

Its Monday again, so its time for this week’s main course and matching cocktail.

It was really hard to pick something today for some reason. I blame the long weekend. I don’t think anyone wants to make any decisions on long lazy weekends.

After consulting a few sources and conferring with my husband, we decided on grilled marinated pork tenderloin, a simple salad and a quick olive tapenade on crispy toasts, with a bright blue cocktail we like to call “Alpine blue”.

Sometime just the thought of certain foods brings back memories.
For example, there is a small amount of honey in the marinade for the pork tenderloin, and that got me thinking…

As a real young kid, my parents raised honey bees, so I grew up not being afraid of them. Until I found out that there was another type of bee called a yellow jacket that looked really similar, only less friendly, and unlike the honey bee who wouldn’tneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com harm you unless you harmed it first, the yellow jacket would harm unprovoked, AND unlike the honey bee who could only sting once, and then it would die, the yellow jacket could sting repeatedly AND bite.

Of course that never stopped me from rubbing a sour green apple jolly rancher on my lips like lipbalm, subsequently causing myself to be chased around the yard by a raging horde of yellow jackets hell bent on attacking my lips.

I hated yellow jackets though. They would come out whenever we did anything outside during the summer. Whether we were barbecuing or having a garage sale, they were out in full force.  I felt bad because I didn’t want to kill them, but if I didn’t, they’d get me first, and I didn’t like pain very much either.

I drank one once, it had fallen into a soda can I was drinking from when I wasn’t paying attention, and it managed to sting all around the inside of my mouth. Luckily it didn’t sting my throat or anything. I think I got pretty lucky on that one.

Here where I live now, we don’t have a yellow jacket problem. We can’t, the maintainance people come by and pressure wash everywhere a hive may popup every few days. I like being bee- free, but there’s just something odd about not having any bees at all, yellow jacket or honey bee.

Sure, from time to time last summer we had a visit from a rogue wasp or hornet. That sucked. I don’t like big buzzing insects with the dangley parts that those two bee types have. It makes them appear more menacing.

I guess the lack of bees around here explains the strange lack of flowers anywhere in the apartment complex. I miss that about summertime back home in the country.

I love the colours and flavours of summer. There is nothing like a nice tall glass of lemonade, or a carrot fresh from the garden. Bright, vibrant, and fresh, are the best words I can come up to describe everything about this season.

I can remember backyard barbecues, the smell of fresh cut grass after the last summer rain. trees with the first sign of fruit, lush green leaves on full branches. A field full of my favourite flowers, California poppies.

Gardens full of fresh corn, full crisp heads of lettuce, cabbage and the perky little green parts of the bright orange carrots that my parents would leave in the ground so long that when we finally dug them up they were as big around as my dad’s forearm (no kidding)

Evenings barbecuing whatever meat we had on the grill, steaming corn on the cob in the husk. Picking strawberries and flowers and making daisy chains with my best friend in my playhouse in the backyard, or selling rice crispy squares and lemonade at my “goodie stand” at one of my mom’s many late summer garage sales.

The smell of roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over an open fire, late at night because its still just warm enough to keep the bugs away.
I just love it.

Summer has just started, and I’m excited. I can’t wait to see what this season holds.

But for now, back to the food-

Tapenade anyone?

There are more photos and narrative under the cut, but if you don’t like looking at gratuitious shots of delicious grilled meat, I suggest you don’t click.

Our Alpine blue cocktail is a nice mix of vodka, Curaçao, sprite, peach juice and a bit of mint. It really is good, and quite refreshing when paired with the garlic filled flavour of the pork tenderloin.

Marinated in a mix of honey, herbs, spices and a ton of garlic and lime juice, this pork tenderloin just reeked of summertime flavour.

Mmm.

You don’t need a barbecue to enjoy this meal. Just make sure you’ve got a roasting pan with a removable rack inside.

You’ll need-

one 2-4 pound pork tenderloin
7 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons Mrs Dash salt free seasoning (original)
1 tablespoon honey (I used clover honey, but any will work)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
a few sprigs of flat leaf parsley, chopped finely (no more than a tablespoon)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
The juice of one medium sized lime
the zest of one medium sized lime

Rinse the tenderloin when removed from the package. with a small sharp knife, poke 5 or 6 small holes in various places in the tenderloin, not pressing very hard.

Take three of the garlic cloves, peel them completely and slice them in half. Insert a half garlic clove in each of the holes you’ve cut in the tenderloin. Place tenderloin in a resealable container (tupperware) that is large enough to hold the tenderloin loosely.

chop the rest of the garlic cloves as fine as possible, add them and the rest of the ingredients to the resealable container and seal it.

Shake the container for a few minutes and let it sit in the refrigerator for about half an hour. If you’re in a hurry, feel free to skip this step, just make sure you shake the container pretty hard, and for about five minutes.

After you’ve removed your container from the fridge, allow the meat to come up to just below room temperature. Don’t open the container, and really, it only takes about 10 minutes.

During that 10 minutes, get your grill prepared. Start the grill on high. You want the grill to sizzle when the meat hits it, sealing the juices into the meat. Close the lid and let the grill get hot.

Once the grill is hot and the meat is just below room temperature, use a pair of tongs to roll the meat in the marinade once more, and set it on the grill. Allow the meat to sizzle for a few minutes. There may be a few flare ups, but there shouldn’t be too many. After about a minute, or when you can see the flesh of the meat brown, flip the meat over and sear the other side. after about a minute, turn the temperature down to medium low, and let the meat slow cook until it comes to temperature. Once the meat has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees fahrenheit at the largest point, its done. This should take between 20 and 40 minutes, but the thermometer must read at least 160F or it is NOT cooked.

remove the meat from the grill and relocate it to a cutting board or the platter you wish to serve it on. Let it sit for a few minutes before slicing. Sprinkle with a dash of lime juice and salt before serving and voila! delicious pork tenderloin.

Along side our pork tenderloin we served a simple garden salad.
Not that you need a recipe, but a simple easy summer salad can be made with a few handfuls of hand shredded romaine lettuce, about a half cup of chopped baby carrots, a diced heirloom tomato and a few ounces of cubed dill havarti, served with a citrus balsamic vinagrette.

Another side dish we made, simple quick and easy- black olive tapenade-

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 cup black olives (or kalamata olives), quartered
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive brine (or water with a pinch of salt)

Whisk all of the ingredients except the olives together in a bowl until lightly frothy. Add the olives and stir. either heat set in sauce pan, or allow to sit, covered on the counter for about an hour for the flavours to really combine.

Serve with toasted baguette or bruschetta, serves about two hungry people, or 4 people as part of a multi course dinner.

Finally, we come to the drink.

Don’t worry guys! This one pictured here is alcoholic, but I can give you the cheats to make a similar tasting, nearly look alike version that is kid friendly!

For the alcoholics in the room-

4 measures vodka
1/2 measure gin
2 measures blue curacao
8 measures lemon lime soda
2 measures fresh peach juice

Add the vodka, curacao, gin and peach juice to a shaker with ice and give a good shake. Open and add the lemon lime soda, stir lightly, replace the strainer cap and pour into a chilled glass. Garnish with a peach slice, lime slice and a mint leaf.

The gin adds a bit of a wintergreen feel to the otherwise sunny beverage, making it a great palette cleanser after a rich meal full of flavour!

If you’d like to make the non alcoholic version-

1 package berry blue lemonade powdered drink mix (koolaid)
1/2 cup sugar
One 2 liter bottle of seltzer water or sparkling water
1 cup fresh peach juice

Instead of preparing the drink mix according to the instructions, empty contents into a gallon sized container. Only add 1/2 cup sugar, and the 1 cup peach juice. Stir until the sugar has dissolved completely. SLOWLY add the seltzer water, stirring every few seconds. Do not let the mixture fizz over the edge of the container. Continue pouring until you’ve emptied the entire bottle into the container. Stir lightly until combined. Pour into tumblers or clear glasses filled with crushed ice. garnish just as you would the alcoholic version, with a peach slice, lime slice and mint leaf on the rim.

If you are unable to find berry blue lemonade drink mix-

prepare 1 container frozen lemonade with seltzer water instead of tap water
add 1 cup peach juice and a drop or two of blue food colouring. stir and enjoy.

Hope you enjoy the recipes!

-A..

So this afternoon my husband and I set out to have a little impromptu picnic in one of the many parks that our fair city of Vancouver has to offer.

…Hindsight being 20/20, we probably should have written out directions to the park, but we decided to wing it, and we ended up in the hills HIGH above Camas Washington, and no where near the place we set out to visit.

It was cool though, because we ended up at a really cute little park, in a really nice QUIET area- right next to Fairgate Inn Bed and Breakfast, which is a little B&B that looks a bit like the White house. Hehe.. I took note of the name of the place next to it, and after a little googling, This particular park can be found at- 2213 NW 23RD Ave
Camas, Washington 98607.

Ok, so enough about that. Like I said, this was an impromptu picnic, so we made up a quick lunch made up of a few sandwiches, some carrots and dip, assorted cheeses and a nice crusty baguette. We also had banana cream pudding, but my husband started in on the pudding first, so.. no photos of thaneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comt. hehe..

PBJ&fluff. A nice slathering of organic peanut butter, kosher fluff, Whole fruit strawberry jam on white bread. Come on.. you can take the girl out of childhood, but you can’t take the white bread out of a fluffernutter.

Aaron’s Applewood smoked ham, Tillamook sharp cheddar, lettuce and tomatoes on the same wholegrain white.

Now, I’m much too lazy to log out and log into my other account, and then log back into here again, so under these cuts are photos that have nothing to do with food, but rather the slight adventure that took place in the hours proceeding. Nothing terribly exciting, just a trip up highway 14 up past Washougal.

Click with caution.

Here we see my husband conquering the play structure…

At this point we discussed our opinions of that strange orb-like viewpanel behind the slide.

..we decided it was a portal to the underworld- LOOK AWAY! *giggle*

I think we may have found the only handi capable playstructure in the Vancouver area. Seriously, that is one WIDE slide.. and it even has hand rails at the top!

Go Aaron go!

…See, what you don’t know is that at the bottom of the slide, some child had spilled soda or some other sticky substance, and Aarons feet made this HORRIBLE screeching sound as he neared the bottom.

I probably would have gone on the slide if it hadn’t been for that. I’m not really big on getting my butt all cozy on a metal slide coated with an undetermined sticky substance… There was a tire swing though, I was all over that. Aaron neglected to take photos. I think he was napping at that point. It was a very relaxing park.

If you’re not from the Portland metro area, you probably don’t know where highway 14 is. Basically, along the bottom of Washington state, pretty much running parallel with the Columbia River (and the Oregon/Washington border) is Highway 14 (State Route 14). It starts in Downtown Vancouver near Interstate 5, and runs through Plymouth Washington.  Once you’ve gone through Vancouver, you enter Camas and then Washougal. At the end of Washougal, Highway 14 becomes a National Scenic Area, as there are many beautiful views of the Columbia river gorge, and pretty trees and whatnot.

But first, a few scenery photos from the park-

The grass was seriously this bright green colour where we were sitting. Kind of scary.

Trees! We’ve got a bunch of them ’round here, don’t we.

This particular park had a lot of green stuff, but not many flowers…
‘Cept these ones.

We had actually happened upon this park by accident. We had no idea how we got there, and thusly, had no idea to leave. We actually ended up by highway 14, and a split second decision (and desire not to spend the rest of the day indoors) lead us to drive up East, rather than West, which would have taken us home.

…Oh yeah, we’ve got lots of rocks and cliffs too.

This is towards the end of Washougal… There was a whole line of boats out on the water.

The docks.

Ok, I took a photo of this because I thought the sign was kind of funny. Apparently the Parker house has family dining, and is hosting a Guns and Roses tribute tour. Hehehe..

Mount Hood in the FAR OFF distance. (it was fairly overcast today, so the mountain only came out a bit. You can still see it though!

Ok, this photo needs a little bit of explaination.
We couldn’t stop, so I took this photo from a moving car hoping to get a good shot of the pretty cliff over on Crown Point. If you look to the far right of this photo, in the top third, you’ll see a light grey spot on top of that cliff. That is The Vista House. We were going to cross over to the Oregon side of the gorge and go there on the way back home, but it would have been pointless as it was getting late already and we were burning up the little bit of daylight we had left. Soon though..

I tried REALLY hard to get a better shot, but there was always a tree in the way on all of the turnouts, and the only view point was full of tourists and SUV’s.

A hilly area by the gorge…

Ok, this photo I tried to get part of the road railing in on purpose. What you see there is the gorge. Its much prettier in person. This section of highway 14 has this ancient cement railing on it, with newer metal railing inside. There is absolutely no shoulder to the road, and you literally feel like you’re driving on the outside of the cliff. Its really pretty though. There is moss and ivy growing over everything, and if you look around yourself and forget that you’re in a car or that you got where you’re at in a car, you feel like you’re back in time for a few minutes. Its way cool.

The open road ahead of us, where will our next road trip take us?

I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend!
-A.

I don’t care what time of year it is, I love drinking hot chocolate. Its seriously one of my favourite beverages. I even went and bought the sugar free version so I can drink it and not worry about the sugar, although… It just doesn’t takes the same, and since I fill it full of whipped cream anyways, I guess its not really doing me any good.

This morning, while drinking my mug ‘o’ hot cocoa and deciding what to do with my day, what to eat for breakfast and what to bake for today’s goodie.. I thought back to cleaning out the pantry cupboard, and resisted the urge to make a special trip to the grocery to buy things when I won’t really get the benefit of them, since I give my cupcakes away at the end of the day anyways..

Perhaps I used my beverage as inspiration, as today I made some cupcakes using the last of my chocolate nibs and bits of cocoa powder and chunks of chocolate. I also made use of the giant bottle of olive oil that I’ve been ignoring, and the bottle of imitation vanilla extract that I ended up with after my mom cleaneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comned her cupboards out about six months ago.

I also managed to rid myself of the half filled tins and tins of hot cocoa mix I’ve been hoarding since last Christmas. The stuff never goes bad, but I’m tired of having the same old stuff on my shelf. I’d rather have room for more specialty varieties.

With all of that in mind, I whipped up a fluffy chocolate vanilla olive oil cake with hot chocolate cream cheese icing. To say they taste amazing would be an understatement.

They also look good.

I actually ended up making entirely too many cupcakes. They’re small though, as I made them with my mini mini muffin tin…

A big ol swirl of icing ontop of a light and fluffy cake?
so delicious!

Closeup!

A perfect swirl..

Just look at that cake.. moist, and fluffy.

This is the cupcake pose.

See how tiny it is? Thats my hand! My thumb is at the bottom of the cake.
They’re cute and they’re the perfect size for a little bite of sweetness.

Sometimes foods I make remind me of things in my past. Sometimes its just one ingredient, or a utensil, or just a feeling I get when I’m making something.. Today, its about the beverage I drink when I’m thinking up my daily schedule.

————————-

When I was a little kid and I stayed home from school.. My mom would make me hot chocolate.

A little metal kettle on the stovetop, a packet of swiss miss with those tiny dehydrated marshmallows. Sometimes there would be whipped cream, sometimes there would be cool whip. Sometimes there would be a giant marshmallow, or a few miniature marshmallows. Sometimes there would be nothing at all but the lukewarm cocoa, the perfect temperature every time.

Most times I stayed home from school, I really was sick. Knowing that I still needed to eat, my mom would make me little snack plates throughout the day. They always had random snacks from the cupboard and the fridge. Little bits of food that you normally wouldn’t think a sick person should eat, but tasted so good because there was just enough to get a taste, but not so much that you could hurt your stomach with it. I called it ‘tummy comfort food’. Things like buttered toast, or cinnamon toast, green grapes, carrot chips and onion dip, Maybe a tortilla and some sharp cheddar cheese, or an apple that she sliced in the ring slicer, and it came out in one big spiral, like a slinky. Sometimes she’d give me celery and peanut butter, or a handful of raisins with cinnamon  sugar sprinkled on top.
…And  together we’d drink hot cocoa and watch movies or daytime TV.

There was a long period of my life where sitting down and watching “the peoples court” made me feel at ease, and comfortable. That sort of free feeling when you know you’re somewhere safe, and although you’re not feeling well, you feel as though you could do anything, because you’re surrounded by comfort.

Comfortable blankets, comfortable couch, comfortable food, my mama close at hand. Always with a stuffed animal to protect me, and the softest of pillows behind me..

I remember other television shows that made me feel this comfort- The Price is Right, Little house on the prairie, Highway to heaven, 100,000 $ pyramid, and that one game show with the whammies. Oprah (big haired, overweight Oprah, with the scary eyeshadow and shows that were more like the stuff on Jerry Springer, and less like the stuff she has on now.), Phil Donahue, Sally Jessie Raphael, all of those talk shows played a big part of my sick day schedule. I knew my day of relaxation was coming to a close when the kid shows came back on television.

It just seemed like time moved so slowly when I was home from school. Like I could capture time and enjoy it more. I’d snuggle up to the giant couch that smelled like family (and it should smell like family, since my dad inherited it from his parents when they died and it had been around since the 50’s), wrap myself in a blanket that my mom made.  I was one of those kids that was sick pretty often, It wasn’t until highschool that I stayed home from school without being ill. My mom called those “self help days”.

The highschool years were tough. My little sisters were still new, and it took our whole family to raise them. My mom went through a really bad period of depression after they were born, and my dad was working so much trying to pay off the bills from the huge hospital stay.  Both my mom and my little sisters were in the hospital for over a month, and after my mom came home, I think it was another two months that my sisters were in the hospital.  My sisters were top priority, which was hard to come to terms with as “the baby” who had been “the baby” for 12 solid years. We made it through though.

I think my mom came up with ’self help days’ as a way for me to cope with all the hard stuff my family was going through.

Some times she’d let me go to school, and pick me up half an hour into my first class and take me to breakfast. Hotcakes and hot chocolate and McWillies, a little corner cafe that no longer exists. I loved those days. I miss those days.

And while its not the same, I feel a bit of a twinge of the past when I drink my morning hot chocolate, knowing I could curl up on the couch with a blanket and eat some buttered toast and watch the peoples court.

Usually I just stop with the Hot chocolate.. and I’ve got a special place in my heart for the people’s court.

…And buttered toast.

Without any further ado, The recipe for Chocolate vanilla olive oil cupcakes, and cream cheese hot cocoa icing.

Ingredients-

7 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons vanilla extract
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1 3/4 cups drinking chocolate (powder form, like Cadbury or Quik)
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar when beating egg whites

Recipe-

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the first measure of sugar until fluffy with a whisk. When the mixture starts to thicken, add a tablespoon of the warm water to make it fluffy again. While still whisking, pour in the olive oil slowly, beating continuously until combined.

Add the drinking chocolate and flour and then the rest of the water and the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, Whip the egg whites until thick, add the second measure of sugar and beat until it dissolves.

Pour the egg white mixture into the first mixture, and quickly and gently fold the egg whites into the mixture until combined.

Scoop the batter into prepared muffin tins and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Depending on the size of your tins and the amount of batter you pour in, you should have between 10 and 14 cupcakes.

As for the icing, you’ll be making a standard cream cheese icing, only adding in a bunch of hot cocoa powder towards the end. This icing is VERY thick, and suitable for icing sweet rolls as well (with just about as tasty of a result)

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2-2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
(about) 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup hot cocoa powder

In the bowl of a high powered stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together. Once throughly blended, add the powdered sugar. At this stage you want to beat the mixture until it resembles a bunch of frozen peas in the bottom of the bowl. if they’re sticky, add more powdered sugar. If they’re a finer crumb than pea sized, thats fine. Once all of the powder has separated from the sides of the bowl (you may have to scrape the sides with a spatula) pour in the vanilla, and then slowly pour in the milk, stopping about half way to see if you need to add the rest. The mixture should come together, and after a few minutes of beating, become fluffy.

Just before you think its done, pour in the hot cocoa powder and beat the mixture about 30 seconds. Spoon into piping bags and apply to your cupcake!

Garnish however you like, I sprinkled some white sprinkles on top and stuck a piece of dark chocolate in the top, yankee doodle style.

So there you go, folks. You done pressured me into giving away one of my secret recipes. *smile*

-A.

Hey there!

Living in the Pacific Northwest has its benefits. We’re within 2 hours of mountains, fabulous camp grounds, THE OCEAN… There is more than likely a state park within 15 minutes of wherever you are. The Scenery is green almost all year ’round, with beautiful colours strewn about each season. And for those of us who like mid range temperatures, The weather is perfect for 11 out of 12 months.

The only real problem with the area, is that you never know when its going to rain. And when you can’t tell, then it is more than likely about to rain at any moment.

Today was one of those days. It was kind of rainy, kind of drizzley, kind of dark. But still beautiful outside, despite a sky full of rainclouds.

Days like these require special dinners. Dinners that fill you up, make you feel warm inside, but not so warm that you start sweating before you finish your meal. Really, today was what my grandma would call a “meat and potatoes” day.

I wasn’t really feeling the Meat part of the equation, so I decided thatneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com today was going to be a potatoes kind of day. But I can’t just sit and eat mashed potatoes for dinner.
…Or rather, I COULD just sit and eat mashed potatoes for dinner, but I’ve been out of diapers for a long time now, and I’ve also given up on choice dinner selections as “cooked carrots” “Mashed peas” and “Hawaiian delight”. No Gerber baby food, I will not be preparing a meal with your new summer product line.

Thinking through my options, I decided on a simple dinner of Potato dumplings in a rich cheesy cream sauce. Otherwise known as-

Gnocchi in Alfredo.  Only.. a little different.

I made the Gnocchi with ricotta and potatoes, a little garlic powder and butter. When you make gnocchi, you don’t need to add any of that, all you really need is Potatoes, Flour and a bit of salt for seasoning…

For a while there, I was completely addicted to pre-made alfredo sauce. Then I got sick of it. Now I can’t stand the stuff, but I LOVE home made alfredo. Mine I made with a twist. Instead of Parmesan cheese, I used smoked mozzarella (scamorza) and Sharp provolone. There is no pepper in my alfredo, only dried oregano, parsley, thyme and garlic. Also, I used regular milk instead of cream, so there is so much less fat in it than canned alfredo.

Boil up your little gnocchi, then let them settle in a lightly oiled bowl, so they don’t stick together. Keep them as warm as possible.

I probably could have made the sauce beforehand, but I didnt. It was pretty quick though, so really there wasn’t much of an issue of time.

Probably the most important thing about the presentation of this dish is pouring the sauce into the bowl before adding the Gnocchi. This way you’re able to limit the amount of sauce you use (within reason) and the sauce doesn’t completely weigh down the fluffy little dumplings.
Season with some garlic powder, dried parsley and sliced sundried tomatoes.

..Also, If there is anything I’ve learned from my husband’s obsession with Olive Garden, its you NEED the garlic bread to sop up the extra sauce left on your plate… So don’t forget the garlic bread. *smile*

Now, a really important part of dinner, at least to me, is the beverage.
You don’t have to drink during dinner, but its important that between courses, or after you’ve eaten, you cleanse your palate.

So to go along with this rich, hearty potato and cheese dish, I’ve created a simple little cocktail to both clear out the flavour of, and compliment the flavour of dinner.

…And since a cocktail just isn’t a cocktail in this house without a funny name, this one is called-

The Lava Floe.

I know, I know.. Lava is hot, a “floe” is a flat sheet of polar ice.

But seriously, this Strawberry drink has a Lemony kick, and its REALLY COLD!

And its alcoholic.
Don’t worry, there is a non-alcoholic version too!

Mmm..

While gnocchi are simple to make, they’re a little more time consuming than other foods. There are many points you can start from, but I’ll detail the entire long form process, and give you all some good “cheats” that no one will ever notice.

First, you’ll need your recipe-

5 medium sized potatoes. (russets or yukon gold work best)
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-3 cups all purpose flour

Before you do much of anything, you’ve got to peel, chop and boil the potatoes. Remove any eyes or blemishes from the potato. You don’t want any skin or brown spots. Boil the potatoes as if you were making mashed potatoes.

When the potatoes break apart when pressed against the side of the pan, drain all of the water from the pan, and let the potatoes cool enough that you can touch them. Once they’ve cooled, grate the boiled potatoes with a cheesegrater. If you don’t have a cheesegrater, press them through a fine sieve, or use a potato ricer. This is called “ricing” because it breaks down the potato pieces into a size similar to a grain of rice. You want your potato dumplings to be smooth and creamy, so getting rid of lumps is a good idea, and much easier at this point than later on.

When the potatoes are completely broken down, add the ricotta, garlic, and salt. Mix well, ensuring even distribution of all ingredients.

Slowly add the flour in half cup increments. You do not want to “over flour” your potato dough. You want to add enough flour that the dough is soft, but not tacky to the touch. If your dough is still sticky after adding 3 cups of flour, add more. Be sure that as you begin to knead the dough, you’re doing so gently, because you don’t want the gluten in the flour to develop.

Once you’ve got a ball of dough-

Break that ball of down into more manageable pieces. Roll those pieces into ropes, and cut into 1″ pieces. Roll those 1″ pieces into balls-

And then roll those balls of dough over the back of a forks tines, to produce the distinctive Gnocchi shape, kind of like a little fist.

At this point, leave your potato dumplings on a floured board and let them dry for about 15-20 minutes as you prepare the Provolone Alfredo.

Recipe-

2 cups grated smoked mozzarella
3/4 cup grated sharp provolone
1 ounce laughing cow swiss processed cheese spread (or you could add cream cheese)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon each- dried oregano, thyme, sage and flat leaf parsley
1 dash of sea salt
1 cup milk (1% and up)
3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon flour

This sauce is easy, and it moves FAST.

Start out by melting the butter in a sauce pan. When the butter has melted, add the flour and stir until the flour has been completely distributed through the butter. As it browns slightly, add half of the milk, and all of the garlic, oregano, thyme, sage, flat leaf parsley and sea salt. Stir constantly. Add all of the cheese, and as it begins to melt, the rest of the milk. You’ll not want to turn the stove top heat above medium high, but you should bring the cheese mixture to a boil before placing the pan on a back burner and turning the heat to simmer, or one click above off.

Now you’ll want to boil your gnocchi. This part is easy. Bring a few quarts of water to a boil in a large sauce pan. salt the water slightly, and add the lightly dried gnocchi one piece at a time, making sure not to crowd the gnocchi as they boil. Allow them to boil only 30seconds to a minute, as most of the ingredients are already fully cooked (the potatoes) Strain the boiled gnocchi with a slotted spoon and either place directly onto the serving plate, individual dish, or into a lightly oiled storage container.

Plate your gnocchi by placing a spoonful of the alfredo into a bowl, and topping with about 10 or 15 gnocchi. They’re not super big, but they’re VERY filling. Top with sauteed sliced sundried tomatoes (the kind packed in oil) and season before serving with garlic bread, to sop up the extra alfredo (a guilty pleasure you shouldn’t deny your guests)

Be warned, these recipes will feed upwards of 4 very hungry adults.

As for the summertime sipper, We’ve named it the “lava floe” as its a kicky strawberry lemon dr ink served with frozen strawberries and made with chilled ingredients.

The alcoholic version-

1/2 cup liquid strawberry margarita mix
or 1 cup fresh strawberries w/tablespoon sugar
pureed
1 shot triple sec
2 shots lemoncello
1 shot vanilla, strawberry or citrus flavoured vodka
Blu’ moon lime essence sparkling water
10 small frozen strawberries

In a shaker, combine the triple sec, lemoncello and vodka, shake with ice.

Pour a 1/4 cup of the strawberry margarita mix or pureed strawberries into the bottom of two cocktail glasses. Top with the frozen strawberries. Pour the alcohol mixture over top and fill the rest of the glass with blu’ moon lime essence sparkling water. allow to sit 1-2 minutes before serving.

SO GOOD. Letting the strawberries sit in the alcohol allows them to thaw and macerate a bit, enhancing the sweetness and flavour of the drink. After you’ve taken a sip you’ll initially taste the strawberry, then you’ll have a kick of lemon in there. Surprisingly refreshing.
Serves 2.

For the non alcoholic version-

1 cup fresh strawberries, pureed with 1 tablespoon sugar
10 small frozen strawberries
Lemon or lime ade

Pour the strawberry puree into the bottom of two glasses (1/2 cup each)
place 5 frozen strawberries in each glass. Top off with lemonade or limeade. Stir before serving.

Enjoy!

-A..

I’ll keep this short, since its Sunday night and all..

Last night, I was left to my own devices. What is a girl to do when all alone?
Why, bake up some delicious treats, of course!

And considering I’ve recently inherited a 5 gallon drum of dessicated coconut, I figured I might as well make good use of it.
You see, if I’ve learned one thing from my mom, its to collect large amounts of certain ingredients, and then, almost at once, to dispose of them.

Her manner of disposal is quite different than mine, considering I, personally AM her manner of disposal. Yep. This 5 gallon drum of coconut? From my mom. What she was planning on doing with a 5 gallon drum of coconut in the first place? I don’t even think she could answer that question. Not that I’m complaining. I love coconut. I see this as a challenge, and I’m gratefully accepting it.

But what is my manner of disposal?
Thats where the delicious treats come in.

So last night, I cooked up a recipe for a thick, luscious, moist and flavourful pound cakeneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com. Among the usual suspects, the ingredients include a cup and a half of those miscellanious milk chocolate chunks we talked about last week, an entire can of coconut milk (which I managed to collect along with a half dozen more cans from a sale at trader joes) and yep… you guessed it. 2 whole cups of dessicated coconut.

The result was a tasty tasty rich, moist and above all, addictive, loaf of Chocolate chunk Coconut pound cake.

Look at the delicious exterior. A pound cake just isn’t a pound cake without a crack down the center.
Ask around. Its true.

A few slices off the loaf.
This isn’t a cake for people who like thin slices, nope. The coconut pretty much makes that impossible.

..but you wanted a big slice anyways, didn’t you?

Just look at that pillowy cake..

..Soft enough you could just lose yourself inside of it..

What could make this taste even better?

A healthy helping of raspberry preserves. If you’ve ever had a tiger tail, then you can imagine what this tastes like.. raspberry, coconut, chocolate and tasty moist pound cake?

Best midnight snack ever.

Or, breakfast the morning after. Just don’t tell my husband.

He thinks I saved the first slice for him.
*smile*

The coconut milk makes this recipe SO moist, and the flavours really work well for a nice summertime treat.

This is adapted from an old southern farmhouse recipe, given to me by a childhood friends mom. They’re from Louisiana. there is no telling where this recipe came from.

You’ll need-

6 eggs
1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (not light)
2 cups dessicated coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chunks or chips

(milk or water for thinning)

Combine and cream well the butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time and beat well until all 6 are added. Add coconut milk and flour alternately until thoroughly mixed. Add baking power and beat well. If the mixture is “too thick” or thicker than regular cake batter, add a few tablespoons of milk or water to thin it to the right consistancy. Fold in chocolate and coconut.

Prepare 2 non-stick 9″ loaf pans with baking spray or butter. Pour batter into each pan until half full. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If after 30 minutes the outside of the cake gets too dark but the inside of the cake is still soggy, cover with tin foil and reduce temperature to 300 until the cake is done, when a toothpick comes out clean.

And that’s it! Let the cake cool for a few minutes before slicing, you can eat it hot with some jam or wait until its cooled, and you can really taste the coconutty flavour.

-A.

Today I fell prey to the Starbucks trap.

I woke up early enough to regret it, and after my outings were completed, I felt drained. I realized then, that I’d managed to go the entire day so far (about 4 hours directly after waking) without eating or drinking anything.

It was then that I saw the holy beacon of caffeine- A Starbucks sign.

Against my better judgement, I rounded the corner and got in the drive thru line, and readied myself to spend an obscene amount of money on a slightly coffee twinged treat, and perhaps a baked good.

What you see here is my purchase, The dulce de leche frappuchino, with a toffee almond bar.

As for this particular starbucks location’s bakery selection, I chose the lesser of 6 or 7 evils, and went with the toffee almond bar, which really tasted like a massive hunk of margarine with a few stray shards of “chocolate flavoured candy” in it. It was really greasy, and It only took me about 3 bites tneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.como decide it just wasn’t going in my stomach.  I did, however, completely inhale the frappuchino, which I hope doesnt become a more common occurance, since seriously, these drinks are soooo full of calories.

Now, I’m not a professional coffee drinker, by any means. In fact, I can count the amount of coffee drinks I’ve had my entire life on one hand (four drinks, five fingers. I’ve got room for one more before I can stop saying that!).  But I’ve got a pretty good flavour memory, and I’ve basically decided that this new dulce de leche frappichino is a watered down version of the caramel frappuchino, which has been the only reason I’ve had any sort of flavoured coffee drink since childhood, when I mistakenly sipped one of my dad’s straight black coffees. I’d never tried something so bitter in my life. BAD IDEA, at least for me.

I’m not quite sure why I don’t like coffee. I just don’t.

It could be because I always acquaint the smell of coffee with the smell of cigarettes, because I’m fairly certain that was what my dad lived off for the first 10 years of my life. Coffee, cigarettes and margarine… and the occasional swig of bourbon.  Sure, I know he had to have eaten more than that. I mean, It wasn’t like he was eating the margarine straight from the tub with his bare hands. No, he always used a knife, and he always spread it on some sort of bread. And then he would it eat it. I remember he used to say “if you can see lincolns beard, its not enough” refering to sticking a penny into the margarine and having the margarine be thick enough that it went all the way up to lincolns nose.  Occasionally he would spread the margarine onto the bread and then grill it on a griddle along side sliced spam, which he had topped with cheese, and then he would make a sort of greasy spam n’ cheese sandwich. Always with a cup of coffee.

Actually, I don’t think I ever saw my dad drink anything other than coffee in those first 10 years. Well, other than that occasional swig of bourbon, which he smelled of way more often than he could be caught drinking it. I’m sure he snuck those sips in while he was outside smoking his cigarettes, returning to the living room and quickly covering up the aforementioned scents with a quick swig of hot coffee, no sugar, no cream, just coffee.

As time went on, he lost the bourbon. He quit drinking when we moved houses. Everything went about the same until a few years after I graduated highschool, when my mom came to my job and told me that my dad had heart failure and was in the hospital. We got there as soon as we could, and despite my father’s obvious discomfort, not only because of the whole heart failure thing, but because he was wearing a paper gown and laying in a hospital bed while everyone gathered around him, he pulled through, and followed the doctors orders.

No more cigarettes. No more greasy spam ‘n cheese sandwiches. And only decaf coffee, in moderation. He listened. And now my dad is back and healthier than he ever was before. He’s in his 50’s, and not only has he lost weight, but he’s very healthy. He has an identical twin brother, who, oddly enough, suffered the same thing about 6 months before my dad did, and he’s no where near as healthy as my father is. Its sad, but he chose to go the route of medication only, whereas my dad changed his eating habits as well.

So my dad no longer smells like coffee and cigarettes, but I still connect the smell with unhealthier times, and that’s probably the root of why I don’t like coffee.

…But I totally just read that starbucks has an orange cream frappuchino that has no coffee in it at all, so.. that may just end up being my summer indulgence. It sounds delicious!

-A.

So, I’ve got issues with chocolate cake. Some of you who’ve been reading me for a long time now can remember my little story about the little girl and the German chocolate cake. If you haven’t I suggest you read it, as its quite possibly my best childhood memory story where I definately learned my lesson. I haven’t been able to eat more than a few bites of chocolate cake in a sitting ever since, and very rarely will I make a chocolate cake, and I will probably never be able to use the Pecan coconut icing that people so often connect with German chocolate cakes.

But today, I held back my urge to go and blow tons of money buying even more baking ingredients. Why? Because I have a very small pantry area, and it’s beginning to overflow onto the counter. Times like these call for drastic measures.. Like having my husband bring all my cupcake leftovers to work with him.

So today I made some triple chocolate tidbits, which are TEENY TINY mini cupcakes. They’re so small, you haneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comve to use bonbon papers inside the tins.  Why did I make them so small? because I ran out of regular cupcake papers, and yep! No room in the pantry for more until I clear out some of this stuff!

I had a random bar of Ghiradelli’s white chocolate, circa- I don’t remember and that can’t be good, Some Nestle Chocolatier dark chocolate bits left over from the sheeps cake, (we used them for the sheep faces and melted some down for the feets.) Way back in the back of the pantry was a big jar that had a half filled bag of Ghiradelli’s milk chocolate chips, and a container of dutch process cocoa powder.

Yep, I took that as a sign that I needed to make cake, and since it has been a while since I’ve made cupcakes, I Figured this would be a great time to go back to my favourite kind of treat. Cupcakes.

I made a simple Cherry and white chocolate buttercream, added some sprinkles, because.. well.. everyone loves sprinkles.

Then I Figured Hey, I’ve got more chocolate left over, so I jammed a few chunks of chocolate into the tops of each tidbit. As if there wasn’t already a ton of chocolate inside them.

Take a peek-

Yep, My husband’s co-workers are gonna love me tomorrow!

-A.

You might not be able to tell from this photo, but there is so much chocolate in there that it made the cake SUPER moist. Little bits of white chocolate and dark chocolate can be seen if you look closely!

So tasty.

The cherry just enhanced the chocolate flavour, as I used it very subtly. We’re a coffee free house, or I would have added some espresso to the mix.. That would have been pretty delicious too!

The sheeps cake made it onto TV!!! Their popularity just keeps on growing!

Fuse TV, The sauce. Yippee! Just thought I’d let ya’ll know!

-A.