Pioneer Woman Wannabe

I admit it, I'm a Pioneer Woman wannabe. Well, minus that whole cattle ranch thing! I really do love her though and all of her recipes are fabulous! This week we (and by we I mainly mean Morgan) made her Salisbury steak dinner. Just go to her site for the recipe, but here are my pictures of our meal!

I had never heard of "kitchen bouquet" from Ree's recipe and though I was willing to try it, I could not find it in the grocery store so we skipped that step.

The steak was delicious though! Even my mom who normally doesn't eat a lot of meat loved it. This is a great meal for a week night.

I know some of you foodies make freak over this, but confess I had a purchased a can of cranberry sauce to go with this. You know the kind that slides right out of the can and you slice it? So sue me, I like that stuff! Sadly, I forgot all about it until after we ate.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

I am obsessed with all things pumpkin and that is one reason this summer girl does look forward to fall. I am always on a mission to find great pumpkin recipes. I had seen this Pumpkin Crunch Cake recipe on a couple other blogs and so I thought I would try it.

I used the recipe from the Picky Apple, but clearly I did not read her comments very well as she explains that the consistency is more like a custard than a cake. That is one thing I was a little disappointed about in this recipe because from the picture, I thought it would be more like the consistency of a blondie. At any rate, the recipe is tasty and I would definitely recommend trying it, but just be prepared that the pumpkin layer is sort of custardy.

One thing I really loved about this recipe, is it requires fairly simple ingredients that we almost always have in stock in our pantry.

The ingredients are:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup butter, melted

We didn't have a yellow cake mix, but I did have a butter pecan cake mix and I thought that would be a yummy twist on this recipe!

Another reason I loved this recipe is it's simple. I'm not big on those recipes that require you to fold in the eggs separately etc. Also, I confess, I'm bad to forget to pre-heat my oven, so do as I blog, not as I do and get to pre-heatin' at 350 degrees. Also, you should grease your pan. I vote for the spray stuff! Then mix your pumpkin, milk, eggs and spices together.

Then put it in your pan.

Then sprinkle the cake mix on top.

Then top with your crushed pecans and melted butter! Yum!

I baked mine for close to an hour. I kept thinking it would become more firm, but the pumpkin layer pretty much stays the consistency of regular pumpkin pie. I think I had some sort of mental block against something that consistency being in a square. If I make this again I think I would go ahead and bake it a round pan and present it more like a double layer pumpkin pie. Some cool whip would be nice with it also! 

If you know of any other pumpkin recipes I should try, please share!

Kitchen Roselli

Dining out with my love is one of my all time favorite things! This weekend we enjoyed a meal at one of our favorite local restaurants, Kitchen Roselli. I love going here to eat not only because the food is excellent, but I love the atmosphere.

A few years ago, a lovely couple renovated one of our last remaining historical buildings and turned it into a restaurant. I was thrilled because I used to work in this building when it was a "General Store" that sold everything from bib overalls to  Christmas knick knacks. The building was also featured once in a short film called Two Soldiers that won an Academy award!

Their menu is flavorful and hearty Italian fare. When we dined there this week they were featuring a steak special. I do adore a filet mignon! I devoured every delicious bite
 of this little beauty that was cooked to perfection in a red wine and mushroom sauce.

Morgan enjoyed a hearty pasta dish, which unfortunately I did not take a picture of because I was too intent on eating my own meal.

My steak was also accompanied by a side of spaghetti, which was also delightful.

To compliment our meal, we enjoyed a bottle of wine  (as we often do!) Morgan discovered this wine when we dined at Roselli's back in April and it is now one of our favorites. We are big supporters, and by supporters I mean drinkers, of Yadkin Valley wine, but we try not to be snobbish about wines not made in our own appellation. This lovely wine is made in Sicily and sipping it makes you feel like you are there. It is so smooth and the flavors of blackberry and fig give it the barest hint of sweetness although it is a dry wine. After taking a bite of our antipasti salad with salty olives and salami the wine tasted even sweeter. We plan to find out where we can buy this wine and have at home because we love it that much!

Of course, no good dinner out is complete without dessert. At Kitchen Roselli, getting dessert can be a little cut throat. The restaurant's most popular dessert is a cream puff and there are not always enough for everyone. Sadly, we were told all the cream puffs were gone when it came time for us to order dessert. We do enjoy a cannoli so we were going to settle for that. And then, a most wonderful thing occurred. A cream puff was liberated and delivered to our table! We were beyond thrilled.

And then something even more amazing happened, the server offered us an after-dinner drink! Why is this amazing? My whole life, our town and county has been dry. The fact that we can even enjoy wine and now liquor at a meal out is quite amazing. I enjoyed a very soothing glass of Amaretto. Yum!

Cheers!

A Wedding Road Trip

This weekend my lovely sorority sister got married in Asheville, NC. Her ceremony was at Lake Junaluska (which is actually in Waynesville, NC) and it was so beautiful. The lake is absolutely gorgeous, as was the adorable stone chapel where the ceremony was held. Of course, I cried.

Lake Junaluska

The wedding reception was held at a trendy venue, aptly called The Venue. Highlights of the reception included a dance off between the Groomsmen and Bride and Bridesmaids and a mashed potato bar. I have been hearing that mashed potato bars, were the new "thing" when it comes to wedding reception food. This is definitely a trend I support. I am a fan of anything that allows me to add my desired amount of bacon and cheese. Another sorority sister's husband joked with us that we should have a bacon bar where you can add small amounts of potato, chives or cheese to your bowl full of bacon. Again, another amazing idea! I'm pretty sure all good ideas start with bacon.

As a North Carolina native I am sad to say this was the first time I had ever been to Asheville. We didn't get to spend a lot of time touring the city, but we did make the time to eat somewhere cute and shop. The main reason I like going ANYWHERE is to eat and shop! Come to think of it, I live to eat and shop!

The Bride and Groom had thoughtfully created little goody bags for guests staying overnight in Asheville and included a list of their favorite places to visit. Tupelo Honey Cafe and The Early Girl Eatery were on the list and the concierge at our hotel also recommended having brunch at one of these places. Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out) both of these places had long wait times and so we bravely ventured out to try something else. By chance we parked near a place called Chorizo. I did a double take when I saw the name. I love chorizo about as much as I love bacon! We were seated right away and it was toasty warm inside, since it was very chilly outside this was a huge perk. 

Morgan ordered the homemade chorizo and a "cheesy pancake" served with apples and eggs. I had the tortilla plate with bacon, cheesy grits and the freshest pico de gallo, black beans and guacamole I've ever had! I was very thoughtless, my dear readers, and starting hogging in all this good food without even thinking to take a picture for you. With just a few bites left, I remembered so here you go:

The best part was really the pico. I don't know how in the world they had still had such fresh tasting tomatoes this late in the season. I'm just crazy about tomatoes and let's face it, the kind from the grocery store never taste as good as the home grown kind. The guac and beans don't look that appetizing, I know, but I promise they were yummy! I ate all of my food and what was left of Morgan's. 

Being the material girl that I am, I just couldn't leave town without purchasing some sort of memento from my first visit to Asheville. I got two adorable pairs of earrings (made in the USA, can you believe?) and some books from a super cute bookstore. Jewelry, food and books, yep my day was complete!

I will leave you with this last photo of the awesome wall decor at Chorizo. 

Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes

I love summer best of all, but pumpkin anything and holiday treats help me make it through fall and winter. This fall I am on a mission to find THE perfect pumpkin cupcake. I found several on the internet this weekend, but when I stumbled on one that was chocolate I knew I had to try that one first!

Mamma graciously agreed to be my sous chef and even assisted in gathering the ingredients for a photo!

Pumpkin Ale Cupcake ingredients

I admit I was a little dubious about this recipe at first. I love pumpkin and I love chocolate, but I wasn't sure how they would be together. As pumpkin was my primary flavor objective, I decided to up the pumpkin on this recipe. Instead of just using the pumpkin ale, I also added 3/4 cup of pumpkin. I cut down the amount of sour cream to about 3 tablespoons.

I found the original recipe here. 

I've never understood exactly what adding one egg at a time really does to enhance the recipe, but nevertheless, I followed the instructions. (This time anyway.)

Yep, there's pumpkin beer in there! Yum!

And now it's getting chocolatey!

True to the recipe instructions, the batter is very runny, but don't worry!

And in we go! 

As the batter is fairly thin and runny it is easy to drip where you don't want it to. No matter, just scrap that off with your fingers (feel free to take a little taste!)

And now we bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. I often find cooking times unreliable, but 25 minutes was right on the nose for this. The recipe does say this makes 24 cupcakes. Our batch actually made 30 cupcakes. I think the secret to pretty cupcakes is to not overfill each cupcake well. This also means more cupcakes, yah!

I think these cupcakes would be great with just a basic cream cheese icing, but the buttercream icing recipe is also quite yummy.

Pumpkin spice buttercream icing ingredients

We decided to cut the icing recipe in half and we had plenty to ice each yummy cuppycake!

Yum!!!

And now for the final touch.

Aren't they beautiful?

This recipe turned out to be a lot of fun. The combination of rich dense chocolate flavor combined with the spicy pumpkin and pumpkin ale flavors was very unique. I would definitely make these again.

If you know of any pumpkin recipe I should try, please let me know!

Pumpkin spice love!

Wine for supper

I'm sure this never happens to my food blogger idols like the Pioneer Woman, but sometimes supper just doesn't work out like you hoped it would. There are some nights you plan to go home and get into your pjs straight after work and have wine or perhaps a can of icing for supper, but some days it's just a last resort.

My Dad (bless his heart) tried to make hamburgers in a basket for our supper tonight and it was a dismal failure. Perhaps dismal is too strong a word. It really wasn't horrible, it just wasn't good but we are apparently food snobs in my family and refused to eat it. Hamburgers in a basket is sort of a 70's fabulous dinner item that is an old favorite of ours. We haven't had it in quite awhile and Daddy thought it was a good idea to break out an old favorite.

The recipe is simple. You put a hamburger patty in a packet made of tin foil and top it with sliced potatoes, onions, carrots and green pepper. Season it all well and put it in the oven for about an hour. The secret is in the seasoning. My Dad always accuses Mamma and me of over salting everything. The secret to the recipe really is in the seasoning though. You have to coat this stuff down with salt, pepper, seasoned salt and Worcestershire.

***We interrupt this blog post with a message from Mamma***

"Why are you putting that recipe in a blog. I've always hated that recipe. It's not good. The potatoes don't cook up crispy enough in that foil," says Mamma. 

Well, clearly after all these years Mom has decided to confess her hatred of hamburgers in a basket. I agree with her that the potatoes don't get crispy. However, if it is seasoned correctly I still think this is a fast and easy weeknight menu item. One pot (or packet of foil, as the case may be) meals are always good for busy week nights.

Unfortunately, Daddy seems to have a seasoning phobia and failed to put enough salt, pepper, seasoned salt or even Worcestershire sauce on the burgers in a basket. Flavorless meat and veggies are just a major bummer. If you decide to try burgers in a basket, salt, pepper and season till your heart's content. I promise it will be good. I think some Tony Cachere's would be great on it! Maybe I'll try that next time.

Sadly, tonight's supper was a failure so we ended up eating cheese, crackers, olives and wine for supper.

Really the only downside to having large amounts of wine and cheese as a meal on a Tuesday night is that it may make you feel like crying at random commercials like the University Phoenix of Commercial. Are they really using Amazing Grace as the background music?

Sunday Dinner

Our menu for tonight's dinner promises to be very exciting. We are trying several new recipes shared with us by friends and making up a few recipes of our own. It's really a joint effort between myself, my boyfriend and my mom. I confess, they are doing most of the work. I'm more the idea person! (Teehee)

The pork loin was rescued from the freezer and we searched various cookbooks and the internet for a recipe before finally deciding to make up our recipe. A friend of ours makes a fantastic dry rubbed pork loin and we used his seasonings. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly have the measurements so we pulled some spices out of the spice drawer and started dumping stuff in the bowl! 

Spice line up for our dry rub

The spices in our dry rub are kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, hot paprika, dry mustard and course ground pepper. Dump desired amount into bowl and mix together then smash it into your meat (I made boyfriend do that part!) 

Yummy spiced up pork loin all ready for the grill!

The pork loin should be cooked on low heat for a long time! Meat should have an internal temperature of 170 when done. Hey, I told y'all this wasn't one of those detailed food blogs. :)

 Our next menu item was recommended by a family friend. This recipe combines a vegetable with one of our all-time favorite ingredients. . .bacon! Cut a cabbage head into four quarters, sprinkle with salt, pepper and seasoned salt. Wrap with two strips of bacon. Wrap bacon-wrapped cabbage quarters tightly in foil and cook on the grill for 45 minutes to an hour. The bacon wasn't quite crispy enough for us so we unwrapped them and put them in the oven on broil for about 5 minutes. YumEE!

We need a fun name for these!

Our sweet cousins brought us a whole bunch of jonagold apples that they picked straight from an orchard in Ohio. We just had to incorporate these beauties into our meal. We threw in a pan with a stick of butter, brown sugar, white sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It's fruit! It's good for you. Yum!

Yummy Fried Apples

So just to recap, we had grilled pork loin, bacon wrapped grilled cabbage, twice baked potatoes and cinnamon apples. We were all pretty much stuffed by the time we finished eating, but it was all delicious! 

Our decadent Sunday dinner

Close shot of the pork loin. Yum!

Many thanks to Mamma and Morgan (that's my boyfriend;) who helped (ok, did most of the work) put this meal together. Yum!

Cheers and Pork!

Steak and Pumpkin Cake

Our annual Pumpkin Festival is this weekend and I volunteered to bake some pumpkin goodies for a charity bake sale. I really wanted to try to bake these pumpkin nutella muffins, but I decided instead on this pumpkin pound cake recipe.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

I thought the overall flavor of the cake was nice, although it could have been more pumpkiny (is that a word?) The cake called for a glaze, but frankly, I'm just not a glaze kinda girl. Since it was for a charity bake sale I also thought it would be less messy without any icing. If I make this recipe again, I would definitely ice it with a cream cheese frosting.

When fall arrives, I become a pumpkin junkie! If you know of any other great pumpkin recipes I should try, please let me know! And now on to my other culinary adventures of the evening. . .

Tonight for dinner we had one of my all time favorite meals ever, steak, baked potato and salad. Sadly, I have realized that I am actually quite content to just eat steak and potato and forget the salad. Oh, yes, and garlic bread. I do adore garlic bread! Yum!

Steak, Salad, Wine & Garlic Bread. Yum! Yum!

Since we are such good friends, I will share my secret steak recipe with you. If you are a steak purist, like my boyfriend, you may not care for this, but if you like a steak with a little kick, you will love it! I put a small splash of olive oil in a deep pan and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, then I lay the steak in the pan. I prefer a t-bone, preferably one with a large filet side! I sprinkle both sides of the steak with an unflavored meat tenderizer, white pepper (you know it's my favorite!) and garlic powder. Then I coat the entire thing in Tony Cachere's creole seasoning. I adore creole seasoning! I think I could actually just eat this stuff right out of the container. Ok, maybe not, but it is yummy! After I put the creole seasoning on the meat, I sprinkle a few more dashes of Worcestershire. I like to let this marinate for a few hours, but even if I don't have time for all that, I still use this same method and it makes the steak very flavorful. A few minutes before putting on the steak on the grill, I add a sprinkle of kosher salt to the meat. This steak is so good I actually lick the bone when I'm through! YumEE!

I always like to serve a nice hearty red wine with steak. In the above photo is a bottle of Castle Rock Petit Verdot that I bought at the beach this summer. (I confess this was taking awhile back as I was too intent on chowing down to actually take any pictures tonight.) Tonight we had Cupcake Malbec, which was excellent!

Cheers!

Food Blogger Wannabe

You know all those awesome food blogs with the great step by step photos of everything the recipe entails? This is not one of those. But I do aspire to that. Personally, I'm not sure I have the patience to photograph each and every step of a recipe. You're lucky if I'm patient enough to finish the entire recipe. I think I would be great on a Food Network show where all the ingredients are already on the counter and measured out perfectly in neat little colorful bowls. I would only occasionally have to walk over to my cutesy pink refrigerator and get out some heavy cream. Of course, I would NEVER have to clean up the mess afterwards. So. . .until then. . .here a few things I have prepared lately.

I am a tad obsessed with the Pioneer Woman! My mom just got the cookbook for her birthday and everyone at the party stared at me when I started screaming. I haven't had a chance to peruse the book yet, but I am a huge fan of everything on her web site and her hysterical comments throughout the recipes. While Ree is channeling Lucille, Vivien and Ethel, I'm channeling her!

I was recently searching through Ree's web site for a picnic friendly recipe to make for my friend Sarah and me to take to see my boyfriend's outdoor theatre production. (It was Smoke and the Mountain and he and the entire cast did a wonderful job! ;) I found this lovely layered salad recipe and it was perfect! I have always loved a green pea salad and we often make a similar version around the holidays. This recipe is a great mix of healthy greens and some yummy fatty bacon and cheese! If a recipe includes bacon and cheese, I'm sold! I added just a tad Hidden Valley powdered ranch dressing mix and some fresh dill to the mayo and sour cream mixture. I was also extremely pleased with my smart self when it (Ding! Lightbulb!) dawned on me to make the salads in individual bowls for Sarah and myself. Because it was in a smaller container, however, the dressing was a bit overpowering. If I do that again for a picnic I would prefer just a dollop of the dressing on top and not a full layer.

As my boyfriend's show ran for two weekends, I had to come up with yet another picnic friendly recipe. I had lots of fresh dill and some lemons so I came up with my own recipe! I really just dumped stuff in a bowl and kept adding and tweaking it, but here is my estimation on the measurements for the recipe. Ok, so its not very accurate. I promise I'll do better next time!

Lemon-Dill Dressing

• 1/3 cup (possibly, maybe? How about just a couple of good glugs) of good extra virgin olive oil 
• juice of half a lemon plus some lemon zest
• splash of pinot grigio (or any white wine you may have)
• tablespoon (ish) of dijon mustard
• lots of fresh dill
• tad of honey
• pinch or two (or three) of sugar
• kosher salt (I like a lot of salt)
• white pepper (I'm obsessed with white pepper, don't ask me why. I can't explain it.)

Cook about 3 cups of fusilli pasta in some heavily salted water. (I added some pink food coloring because I'm silly like that.) When the pasta is done, drain in a colander and add some fresh spinach immediately. The spinach will wilt a bit and I like it like that.

When pasta is cooled, add whatever additional fresh veggies you like. I used some colorful red and yellow grape tomatoes sliced in half, cucumber diced very small and some minced shallot. Then pour on your dressing and eat it all up!

It is a very light and refreshing dish so you don't have to feel the least bit guilty. I served it with some bagel chips and a manchego cheese, which my boyfriend said was too overpowering for the salad. I personally liked it, so there!

Both of these salads were lovely, but you will just have to take my word for it as I didn't take a picture. Here is a picture of the Caprese salad I made for my Mom's birthday party yesterday. This was so easy it was scary! I still had some of those beautiful little yellow and red 'maters so I sliced the larger ones in half and the teensy tiny ones I just dumped right into the bowl. Then I added fresh basil and mozzarella balls. I doused it all in some olive oil, kosher salt and both white and black pepper. It was delish!

Caprese Salad

Fine Dining in a One Horse Town

I'm from what you call a "one horse town," make that county. The county refused to allow the railroad line to go through in 1871, 1885, and again in 1908 and we've been a little behind the times ever since. Restaurants are one of the things we are severely lacking in, especially nice restaurants. As a transplant from NYC once told me, "popcorn shrimp ain't exactly fine dining." As our wine region continues to grow, however, we are beginning to see some improvement in our dining options as well. (What kind of wine does go with popcorn shrimp, I wonder?)

Tonight, Mom and I had dinner at Sanders Ridge Vineyard & Winery and we found it a delightful evening all around! Enjoying something other than a hot dog (or fried seafood) in a beautiful log building nestled in the woods is a great treat for us one-horse-towners. The menu is not extravagant, in fact in mainly involves salads and sandwiches, but there are some intriguing entree specials as well.

View from the porch at Sanders Ridge

We began with a cheese course that featured blueberry Stilton, granny smith apple, candied cashews and grilled foccacia. It was simply wonderful. I could have stuffed myself with bread and cheese and been perfectly content.

For the entree course, I ordered the grilled rib-eye smothered with bleu cheese, grilled onions and overnight tomatoes. I'm sad to say I did not take a photo, but it was a sight to see! The steak was huge! My boyfriend will be extremely jealous when he hears about it, he does adore a rib-eye! I think he would probably have enjoyed the dish more than I did. While it was good, I have come to the conclusion that rib-eyes are just a little too fatty for me and I found the bleu cheese a tad overpowering to the dish. The garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus were seasoned perfectly, however!

I was jealous of Mom's entree. She ordered what they were calling a "stuffed chicken" which was actually a very unique interpretation of chicken cordon bleu. It was a fried chicken breast stuffed with honey ham and pimento cheese! We (yes, that's the royal we!) love pimento cheese! 

Being at a winery, we naturally chose to enjoy a glass of wine with our meal. Mom had the Carlos Muscadine wine. If you grew up in the south, and ever had a fresh muscadine grape right of the wine, you will certainly identity with this wine. Of all of the muscadine wines I have had, theirs tastes the most like a fresh muscadine! 

I had a glass of the chambourcin (ok, I had two!) I plan to do a future post all about chambourcin soon, because it is one of my favorites. The Sanders Ridge chambourcin has a very intense smoky flavor and a very unusual tartness, reminiscent of rhubarb! It paired nicely with both the Stilton and the steak. 

Sunset at Sanders Ridge

Having such a restaurant nearby is such a joy for us and the lovely setting is really the best part. This evening as we were leaving, there was a beautiful full moon rising over the vineyard. As much as I love my iphone, it really couldn't capture the true beauty of the scene. 

Moonrise over the Vineyard

If you are in the Yadkin Valley area for any reason, you should definitely plan to do a tasting and dine at Sanders Ridge. If you are the adventurous type, you can also go zip lining as well! Let me know how you enjoy it if you do get a chance to go.

Cheers!

Plant a watermelon (martini) over my grave

When I was a kid my dad always sang this silly song that went something like this; "just plant a watermelon over my grave and let the juice sssssssslip through." Of course you make a dramatic slurping sound on the "s". As fun as singing the song was, watermelons have always been something I could take or leave. Watermelon mojitos are a whole other story!

Watermelon Martini at Twenty One & Main

Last summer our favorite restaurant, Twenty One & Main, made watermelon jalapeno martinis and they were fabulous! I've been dreaming of them ever since. Now, let me tell you, this restaurant is amazing and they try their very best to accommodate any request you have. I had been asking them to make some more watermelon martinis this summer but it just hadn't worked out for me to be there on the weekends they were trying to do it.

So, for my friend's birthday last week, I decided to show up with my own watermelon and see what they could come up with. Sadly, they didn't have any fresh jalapenos on hand, but they did make us fresh watermelon martinis and they were yum, yum, yummy!!! A few days later, we ended up back at Twenty One to have drinks and they still had some of my fresh watermelon so the bartender made us watermelon mojitos! I adore a mojito! (I also adore exclamation points. Can you tell?) Our fabulous bartender managed to concoct a drink with the absolute perfect balance of mint and watermelon flavor. Even my boyfriend liked it and you know how men can be about "girly" drinks!

Watermelon Mojito at Twenty One & Main

The first watermelon martinis that we had tasted just like fresh watermelon and nothing else! My guess is that she used just the pureed watermelon and some watermelon vodka. How easy is that? If you have some fresh watermelon and think it would be fun to drink it rather than eat it, here are some links I found that look promising. With August already flying by I think an end-of-summer party is definitely in order and watermelon drinks should be the featured item!

Here is Bobby Flay's watermelon martini recipe. He is just adorable. Isn't he?
If Martha says it's a good thing, we should definitely try it! Here is Martha Stewart's recipe for watermelon mojitos.
And here is one for watermelon sangria.

If you have a favorite watermelon beverage, please share the recipe with us. Better yet, invite us over to enjoy some!

Cheers!