Something Creative » For the Love of Food

Sour Cream & Strawberry Struesel Coffee Cake

Nil17 — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:50:00 +0000

In my preggie, nesting state I find myself drawn to cooking a lot more. I’ve been using my Betty Crockery cookbook ? 1950. Fortunately for me I have my grandma’s flour sifter (one of the items I inherited) as it gets a lot more use than I would have thought. I had some strawberries that were starting to get a bit past their peak this past week so out came the cookbook, a phone call was placed to my mom and I soon had a recipe to try. I took a basic sour cream coffee cake & added my own twist. Start with an oven preheated to 350° Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

3 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 c. sour cream

Brown Sugar Filling:

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c. finely chopped nuts (optional)

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs on medium speed for 2 minutes. Mix flour, powder, soda and salt. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream to sugar mixture until well blended.

Spread half of batter in greased 9x13 pan. Cover with half of brown sugar filling and then spread the remaining batter over filling. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

The sugar butter, vanilla & eggs all beaten smooth.

The dry ingredients & sour cream ready so they can be added.

I added finely chopped strawberries—about 2 1/2 cups.

Half the batter in the pan…add 1/2 the brown sugar mixture then top with remaining batter & brown sugar mixture.

Into the oven

Ready to eat! Tasty!!

That’s What I Get for Eating Healthier

Nil17 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:24:28 +0000

I’m trying to gather my strength today & recover from yesterday. I don’t know if I had the stomach flu or some mild food poisoning but it wasn’t pretty. The day started out fine. Magnus woke up his usual smiley self & we got his breakfast underway. I sat with him & we chatted while he had his Cheerios & milk. Although it is jabber, Magnus loves to chatter away & have someone answer him back.

After breakfast we played with toys & watched some Word World on PBS (I love the show cuz of the spelling & Magnus loves the animals). Magnus got sleepy around 11:30 so I put him down for a nap & decided that I’d fix myself a salad. Nothing fancy, just some romaine lettuce, a little cheese & some salad dressing. I was hungry & since I eat 5-12 meals a day I dug right in. Then when Magnus got up from his nap I fixed him some chicken & put some on my second helping of salad.

I was feeling so smart. Getting my leafy green veggies in early. I’m terrible about vegetables…fruit no problem but I just never seem to have the veggies I should. Serves me right…since yesterday afternoon I have felt awful. We’re talking dead donkey awful. Stomach ache, nausea etc. Like I said; it hasn’t been pretty.

So I’ve learned a valuable lesson: leave the leafy greens to the sub sandwich (spinach is the best!) and forget trying to have a salad at home. It’s just not worth being this ill.

**Author’s note: I’m sort of kidding…we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.**

Lazy Sunday with Biscuits & Gravy

Nil17 — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:20:20 +0000

Happy first day of spring! I hope you are having sunshine & maybe even seeing some flowers peeking out. Our snow is almost completely gone but that means the waters are rising. Our house isn’t near enough to a river or lake to be in danger for which we are very thankful!

Since Magnus & I are both sick with colds it has been a very lazy day. We slept in…okay we tried to sleep in. Magnus has not been sleeping well with this cold so any chance to catch some extra shut eye is held onto like grim death. Anyway, as we were trying to decide what to do for breakfast the idea for biscuits & gravy was brought up. I really liked the idea and knew I had the ingredients on hand…the trouble is I had never made biscuits & gravy before. Knowing that finding a recipe online would be like looking for honor in Congress I did the obvious thing & tweeted my desire for food. It wasn’t long before I got a reply with directions to check out Alton Brown’s biscuit recipe. Simple & quick but I didn’t have buttermilk. I did have vinegar & regular milk which is just as good. (1 tablespoon of vinegar in 1 cup of chilled milk—let sit for 5 minutes & it’s ready to use.) As for the gravy it’s just as easy: brown the sausage slowly so that the fat cooks out, when fully browned add flour (about 1/4 cup) and mix well. It will look pasty & thick but that’s okay. Then turn up the heat & add milk until the gravy reaches the consistency you desire. Season with salt, pepper & a dash of paprika. Plate & serve.

Thanks to Saynine on Twitter & my sister for their invaluable aid on this. I might actually become a cook… I mean who’d ever believe that my mom is a fantastic cook after hearing my tales of woe in the kitchen. O.0

Cowboy Day & Flapjacks

Nil17 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:13:54 +0000

We are staying at my parents’ house for the rest of the week/weekend as we attempt to find housing for the big move which is coming up fast. So far we’ve had lots of great prospects but unfortunately there seems to be something odd or not workable each time we get close….but that’s a whole other “Dr. Phil”. Last night while making pancakes for supper (with fresh blueberries….. *drools*) we needed more butter. Mom got some out & put it in the microwave to soften it. She placed it next to me as I dropped 2 piping hot pancakes onto my plate (everybody else had already had their first round). I grabbed the knife & proceeded to find that the butter was NOT soft…. ”Well it’s not frozen any more”, Mom retorted to my observation. ”You know how I feel about butter on my pancakes.” With the long suffering sigh only a mother possesses, “Yes I know….” Growing up Mom always made the best pancakes (she still does) and would always spread just the right amount of butter on each one, letting it melt into the golden brown before adding the syrup. They were always light & fluffy, melting sweetly on your tongue. It was the best thing in the world to wake up to the smell of the griddle heating for pancakes. Sometimes we’d get pancakes with faces or ones that looked like Mickey Mouse. Here’s the story of me & my pancakes…. When I was in kindergarten we had Cowboy Day. Everybody dressed up like a cowboy or cowgirl & we had flapjacks. I was so excited for Cowboy Day…Mom even made me a special outfit to wear with my boots (I think I even took a six shooter cap gun…..my how times have changed. Nowadays a kid taking a cap gun to school would surely be arrested & placed on a terrorist watch list) & of course I had a red handkerchief too. It was all fun & games til it came time to eat. One of the mothers who was helping gave me my flapjacks….with a big blob of butter in the center (all cold & unmelty) and promptly doused it in an overly large amount of cold syrup. I was aghast! Never had I witnessed such an atrocity….so I did what any 6 year old would do…pitched the mother of all hissy fits. I was adamant that I would not eat a lukewarm flapjack with a cold butter blob & enough syrup in which to bathe. There was no admonition, no threat, no “There are starving kids in Africa” speech that would move me….I wasn’t going to eat that flapjack. I don’t remember what happened after that…it’s possible that I just went without & if so I would have done it with a sense of deep satisfaction at getting my way. I do know that upon my return home that day Mom asked how my day had gone. Bursting into tears I recounted my tale of woe & flapjacks improperly prepared. No doubt Mom comforted me & reassured me that it was indeed okay to not eat the flapjacks. I am equally sure that I was told to be more polite about not wanting to eat something. To this day I have a difficult time ordering pancakes in a restaurant because often times they come in a haphazard pile (pancakes should be neatly stacked) with a giant blob of butter in the center. At least they provide me the option of adding the syrup on my own.

Seen Your Weiner or Why I Prefer Hooters

Nil17 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:17:13 +0000

Lately life has been hectic & overwhelming to the point where I’m a hot mess. Recently I’ve been off work quite a bit (ok in the last 2 weeks I’ve worked a total of 5 days) and it has reinforced my need to be done at my current job. However I digress…this post is a review. As a recent music reviewer (which I so enjoyed & hope to do again) I now take pen in hand ….ok keyboard in hand…to give you a review of a new restaurant in Sioux Falls, SD. If you are looking for an adventure in eating I will admit that Señor Wiener is an adventure. However, it’s a frightening adventure filled with double entendre of the lowest caliber. There is nothing clever about the innuendo & even less cleverness in the menu. Purporting to be a novelty hot dog restaurant this place lays on the schtick with a trowel. Wieners, wieners everywhere & no relief in sight (bring your R O L A I D S—just so you are prepared). Now from the outside there’s room for a few snickers & groans at the over the top signs. Just inside the door is a large statue of Señor Wiener along with posters of our “hero” in iconic places/events. The menu is basic & has the potential to be pretty good & seemingly inexpensive. The offerings start with bratwurst, all beef hot dogs, corn dogs or Polish sausage. Choose your white or whole wheat bun & whether you want grilled, boiled or fried. For $2.50 it seems like a good deal…then the pick-pocketing begins. For every additional topping that’s hot (chili, cheese, grilled onions etc) or every cold topping (onions, pickles, peppers, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, mushrooms, olives etc) it is an additional $.50 & sauces (mayo, hot sauce,barbecue sauce, gravy) are an additional $.25 with the exceptions of traditional ketchup & mustard. Seriously if you want a Chicago-style dog with all the fixings: onions, relish, tomato, kosher dill pickle & sport peppers your hot dog now costs $5.00 plus tax. Add in fries at $2.50 & a soda at $1.50 and you are looking at $9.00 plus tax for a very mediocre meal. Now for the rest of the restaurant…okay I get why Señor Wiener is funny in the most sophomoric of ways. I mean the first time I heard it & saw it I snickered like a 13 year old. It’s funny but the over-the-top nature makes Hooters seem less absurd. Here’s a small taste of what I encountered ….

All in all I will take a trip to Hooters any day. Sure there’s more butt cheek on display there than I really care to see & if I wanted to look at that much cleavage I could do it for free at home but their wings are pretty damn tasty. If I am going to tolerate body parts (or pseudo body parts) with my meal I want something that is more like actual food & less like a chew toy for my dogs. Besides let’s be honest—I’d much rather have some hot girls serving my food than a snotty nosed teen with a wiener complex.