strawberries!

A few weeks ago I was checking out at Publix and saw on the cover of April's Southern Living this multi-layered strawberry-bonanza of a dessert.  I promptly decided, "oh I need to make that."  I got home, thought about it a bit more, then forgot.  THEN, a blogger I follow posted how she made it, and she posted a recipe and some tips.  Donesies.

On Easter weekend I bought the ingredients, and knew this recipe wasn't playing around...16 oz. marscapone, 4 cups of heavy whipping cream, almost a dozen eggs, etc.  On Easter Sunday at church I was telling my good friends the M's about it, and asked if they'd want some if it was good (fortunately, they did).  I got home, Z came over, and we got to cooking.  Meringues.  Filling.  Cutting berries.

It was my first time baking meringues, and didn't realize they needed almost 4 hours in the oven.  That bumped dinner plans of making a tart so we went and grabbed a burger, got in touch with the M's, and went out to their house to share.  And by "went out" I mean we got there as fast as possible.

One thing about the dessert was that height (and let's be honest, calorically) is ginormous.  I didn't want to waste any or have the meringues melt, so I cut the meringues into pieces (the meringues having been taste-test approved), layered some filling (bowl-licked clean taste-test approved) and berries, then topped with another meringue and berries.  OMG.

I also played around with my own recipe this week.  I had a decent amount of whipping cream left, and some berries that were too soft to eat and enjoy, but not bad enough to throw away.  I had biscuits on the brain, so I found a basic drop biscuit recipe from Joy, washed and mashed up the berries & added a bit of vanilla and let them sit, made up the biscuit dough, added a heaping spoonful of powdered sugar, added the berries, dropped, and baked.  While they were baking I whipped up the cream and added a tiny bit of powdered sugar to it.  I didn't take a picture of them with the good camera because I was too busy eating them, so I just got an instragram pic.

It was like strawberry shortcake, but less messy and less time consuming.  I'm a fan.

COOKIES!

I wonder just how many posts I'll have about cooking this season. But let's be honest. Baking is one of the (FEW) things I enjoy about winter. FEW.

Anyways, I was asked to bake a dessert for our AFUMC Staff Christmas party. I naturally heard "a dessert" and decided to make TWO desserts (for variety). And of course, anything worth doing is worth doing well, so quality baking ensued. I made my FAVORITE sugar cookies and icing (seriously...worth every bit of delicious effort), and "Royal Canadian Cream-Cheese Brownies" (a recipe from the Grit). Each recipe was a bit time consuming, but oh. so. worth. it.

EPIC mac-n-cheese.

When I decide to do something I am committed to following it through to completion, and I rarely deviate from what I first decided. I am open to other suggestions, but if it something I'm doing on my own, I'm rarely budging.

Case in point for the week: macaroni and cheese. I was invited to a pot-luck dinner on Friday night and I said that I'd like to make mac-n-cheese. My friend Daynes had mentioned that she had the recipe for 5-Star Day mac-n-cheese and I decided that THAT was what I wanted to make, without perusing the recipe first. I copy the recipe, get to Kroger, then read it as I'm walking down the aisles.

Smoked gouda cheese. Half-and-half. Cheddar cheese. Milk. Parmesan cheese.

Ooooh my. That's a lotta fat. I tried to make it not as a nutritional train-wreck by using whole grain shells instead of white elbow macaroni. I didn't hand grate the cheddar or parmesan for the cheese sauce because I was short on time (I only hand grated the cheese for the top). And if I ever make this gem again I'm adding in fresh spinach and broccoli.

However, it came out quite well. And I have WAY too much (nothing new). Want some mac-n-cheese?

Thanksgiving 2010

I love a morning when my first thought is, "I need to start cooking!" That is exactly what my first though was on the morn of Thanksgiving 2010. I was invited to have lunch with my kind friend's the Moore's, and to hang out with my friend Christie and her fam (along with a couple of other great invites. I'm very blessed). I braved Publix on Wednesday afternoon to get necessary ingredients for homemade stuffing. I had it made up in my mind that I was going to make stuffing, and that was what I was completely committed to. And, oh my. It. was. incredible. It is taking every ounce of my self-control to not go devour the left-overs cold (not even heated up because I don't have a microwave and it is that good cold).

I used a Real Simple recipe for my guidelines, but I made it my own. Some of the cast of players in this stuffing include a whole-grain baguette, half a white-wheat baguette, herbs de provence, chicken broth, mushrooms, carrots, parsley, and onions. Pictures are below of how it came together. I also roasted about 5 lbs of sweet potatoes, and proceeded to forget them at home. I'll be eating those all week. I roasted them in the oven, and added parmesan cheese to one batch, and slivered almonds to another.

The only snare in Thanksgiving food preparation was when I sliced off a chunk of my thumb when I was dicing up the sweet potatoes. I totally blame the sprained fingers...I didn't have full control of my hand! But roommate definitely heard a cacophony of not frequently used phrases coming from me after this happened. We went to Target and she started diligently looking for something in the kitchen area, and when I asked her what she was looking for she said she was looking for gloves to wear when you slice things so you wouldn't cut yourself. I don't know whether to feel touched or patronized.

That is a sneak-peek of how my kitchen looks. A blog home-tour will be up soon! If I'm ever home in the afternoon to get good pictures...

Yogurt-junkie.

Yogurt is one of my favorite foods. I am also incredibly yogurt picky. It's ridiculous. Store-brand or yoplait...noooo way. Greek is my absolute favorite. Or so I thought until I went on an Earth Fare yogurt run one day. You see, Earth Fare gives out these coupons once a week for an awesome free item. I went in one week and decided to get $5 in different yogurts...something I'd never do normally.

That Liberte stuff was incredible. Better than ice cream. As I was eating it I thought there had to be a catch. Yeah...check out that nutrition info. The Kangaroo-kind...great! My favorite is the Icelandic-kind, Siggis, but the picture is on my phone and not that great. I had also gotten a kind made with goats milk...

Moment of disgust.

Yes. Goats milk. My refrigerator broke one morning and destroyed all my dairy, and that had been the last one I was waiting to try. Maybe it was for the best...if it is as bad as I think it probably was, I may have never eaten yogurt again.