Happy Birthday Buckaroo
Just when all of you think I’m perfectly sane, I go out and bake a cake for my dog. This is a special day for Rocky, our 2nd born. He is a rescue, and since we don’t know his actual birthday, we celebrate the day we adopted him… two years ago today. He’s been a bit of a problem pooch as he has some slight behavior issues… I refer to him as five pounds of raw aggression. However, once he gets to know you, this little guy doles out big buckets o’ love. That’s how he got the nickname Bucky, but he also answers to Rocky and Stinkster.
This is not just a boring cake, but a savory one flavored with pureed chicken and… yes… that’s real bacon lining the sides. Carrots add sweetness and a nice fleck of color. The frosting is simply yogurt and cottage cheese pureed with a dab of swiss cheese (for extra stinky factor) and cake crumbs to make it stiff enough to be spreadable. The candles were Pupperonis cut in half. Good stuff. I’d almost eat it… ehhhh almost.
Spring Has Sprung
It must be spring because English Peas are available in my local grocery store. Of course, its hard to believe its spring because it is already Africa hot down here in Ft Lauderdale. Its been in the 90’s for the past few days. However, it did cool down a bit last night… to 75 degrees. What a treat. This time of year is when I feel pangs of envy towards the snowbirds that have the luxury of spending summers up north and winters down here. Best of both worlds, right? Sighhhhhh.
This is a very simple meal with one of my favorite veggies, English Peas. I kept the salmon simple and healthy with a pomegranate and orange juice glaze and the mashed potatoes extra flavorful and fattening with a nice big dollop of goat cheese and roasted garlic. Everything in moderation. The Peas were kept extra simple… shocked and buttered. 
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Going to the Dogs
When I first started this blog, I really didn’t know what to expect. I figured I’d blog for a little while until I ran out of recipes and/or time. Instead, it has become a part of my everyday life. I find it to be a fabulous creative outlet, and blogging pushes me to think about what I’m making for dinner or dessert. I started out doing mainly dinners, and it has evolved into more desserts and baking, as that is where my true cooking passion lies.
Although my husband is one of the biggest fans of my blog (and food) he is not my most discriminating taste tester. That would be my pooches, Sushi and Rocky. I posted a while ago about one of their regular dinners. They are probably the most spoiled animals on the planet. They get to eat what we eat, minus the un-doggy friendly ingredients, of course. The lucky dogs have even traveled to Germany twice. Although I assume they have no idea they are not in Florida… other than the fact it is cold and my father in law sneaks them German sausage for breakfast.
This is a sweet chocolaty cookie that is only for the dogs. Before you panic about me feeding the dogs chocolate, the ingredients are all natural and are doggy friendly. There is neither sugar nor chocolate in it. Instead it contains honey and carob powder. But shhhhh… don’t tell them, as I think I may have fooled them!
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Sadness…
It’s another sad day in my family… my husband’s grandmother passed away last night. I unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet her. However, I’ve heard so many wonderful stories about her, I feel like I know her. This comes not long after I lost my own grandmother, just a few months ago. I guess as I get older this is bound to happen, but that just doesn’t make it any easier.
Please… hug your loved ones today, and tell them you love them. Life is too short not to.
100
Today is my 100th post! I know I’ve been slacking for the past few weeks, but its been (as usual) crazy busy for us. We have so many exciting things going on right now with the business that blogging has been on the back burner. I’ll be back on the blogwagon soon, as the South Florida wedding season is almost at an end.
Anyway, this Daring Baker challenge, Cheesecake Pops, was so much fun to make. It was hosted by Deborah from Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms, and you can find the recipe at either of their blogs. It really turned out fabulously… creamy dreamy cheesecake enrobed with chocolate… on a stick! It just doesn’t get any better than that! I had really only one minor issue with the recipe… the cheesecake was very soft. I followed the recipe, and actually baked it about 20-30 minutes longer than it called for. We were supposed to scoop it into balls, but it just didn’t work for me. Then I started to think about enrobing the misshapen balls with chocolate and had an awful image of poop on a stick. :P 
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Easy Peasy Season-y
One of my favorite things about my blog is the opportunity to try items I would probably never try otherwise. I received an email from Urban Accents, a company out of Chicago that specializes in gourmet spices, herbs and assorted seasonings. They asked if I’d like to try some of their products and of course, I said yes.
A few days later, I received a nice box of goodies that included dryglazes, lemon and orange pepper and saffron rice. The first thing I noticed was the packaging is very modern and clean, not something you would see in a grocery store. The second thing was the ingredients… all natural herbs and spices. I have this thing about eating food that has ingredients I can’t pronounce with more than 15 letters. Monosodiumslimslam. OK, I made that word up, but you get the drift. The seasonings were also not loaded with salt, which it seems most prepared seasonings are. So no worries of having a case of hot-dog fingers from the excessive sodium! Whew!
I liked the idea of the dryglazes. All you do is coat the meat with olive oil and then sprinkle on the dry rub and place in the fridge. In half an hour, the rub becomes a luscious glaze. All I did then was simply grill the chicken. It was so moist and tasty you would have thought it marinated for hours. Perfect for those evenings you don’t have much time to cook, and are contemplating boring grilled chicken for the third time this week. Both the Puebla Mole and Vermont Grill were flavorful and will definitely be used again.
Here is Broiled Salmon with Sonoma Pepper. I marinated the salmon in orange juice for 30 minutes, sprinkled with salt and Sonoma Pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and broiled for 7-8 minutes. Great citrus flavor from the orange and lemon zest.
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Hamantaschen
When I moved to South Florida, I discovered my love of Jewish food and pastries. I grew up in north Florida (Tallahassee) where there are really no Jewish delis or restaurants. A few weeks ago, it was Purim, a Jewish holiday where a traditional treat is Hamantaschen. At one of the delis we eat at often, they had an unusually large array of Hamantaschen, from the traditional poppy seed to prunes and apricot to an untraditional cherry. I usually get the apricot but this time had a cherry one, and was quite disappointed when I found the filling was almost definitely PIE FILLING! You all know the kind. Thick transparent cherry paste with those plastic like cherries mixed in. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed.
So… I set out to make Hamantaschen. I found many many different recipes. The dough recipes were so different I immediately became confused as to what a traditional Hamantaschen cookie was made of. Some had absolutely no sugar in the dough, others had copious amounts, similar to a sugar cookie. Some had butter, others had oil. The first recipe I made was extremely delicious and buttery, but (darn it!) as flat as a pancake. Not exactly what I was looking for. Then I got my mother in law’s recipe and that held up beautifully, but it had oil, and I usually prefer butter in my cookie recipes. So after a slight adaptation, here is my mother in law’s Hamantaschen Recipe. The filling is unbelievably yummy, almost brownie like… light years better than that pre-made cherry filling! Thanks Mom for such a great recipe!
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Steak au Poivre
I took some Filet Mignon out of the freezer yesterday, and was just planning on doing the usual… Which is having Stephan grill them and serve with mashed potatoes. I do this quite often… its easy, quick, and I have someone else to cook the meat. Then I started to feel fancy, and thought what makes a steak fancy? Why fancy-pants multi-colored peppercorns, of course! I just so happened to have some gorgeous peppercorns my mother in law gave me at Christmas. So I detoured at the last minute and decided upon Steak au Poivre. If you don’t like pepper, this is NOT the dish for you. However, if you love the flavor of freshly cracked peppercorns… which I do, this is it!
I served it with mashed potatoes and oven roasted brussel sprouts. Those of you who are wary of the brussel sprout, have clearly not had them oven roasted before. They are beautifully crisp on the outside and tender and sweet inside. Who woulda thought? There is, however, an unfortunate side effect to roasting brussel sprouts. That would be a VERY stinky house. I suggest you light many scented candles before starting the roasting process!
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Passion Nut?
Its time again for another Daring Baker post! This is an especially fun one, as there was quite a bit of leeway in the flavoring and decorating. So expect to see many many fancy layer cakes in the blogosphere today! The hostess this month was Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts, and the recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours. You can find the recipe here.
When I saw the crazy amount of egg whites used in the cake and butter cream, I immediately knew I would fill the cake with some sort of curd. What better way to use up those yolks? Instead of the usual lemon, I chose to make passion fruit curd. I haven’t made curd with passion fruit before, so it was a bit of an experiment. Can we say yummy? I basically replaced the lemon juice with passion fruit puree in a basic lemon curd recipe. Easy peasy…
Kona Kampachi Sushi
One of my favorite things to eat is sushi. Although I’m half Japanese, I was a wimp and didn’t try sushi until I was in my early 20’s. I was always afraid of eating raw fish, but after my first taste, I was hooked. With all the different things I cook and bake, I’ve never made sushi until the other day. I had the perfect opportunity to make sushi with the Kona Kampachi (Yellowtail) so I figured it was time. Of course, I winged it as usual, and ended up with a ridiculous amount of cut veggies and not enough rice. Who woulda thought it took so much rice (and so little veggie) to make sushi? I really wanted to make Nigiri-Sushi, but I ran out of rice before I got to it. Oh well… we still had more than we could eat.
To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll make sushi again, as it was really quite labor intensive. We also have a little family owned Japanese/Thai restaurant close to our home that has fantastic sushi. I try to go there at least once a week to cure my sushi cravings. However, the flavor was unbelievably good. The fresh Kona Kampachi with the just cooked rice… you can’t get that, even in the best Sushi restaurant. OK, maybe I’ll make sushi again if I have an amazing piece of fish that warrants home made sushi!
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