Snow White Cake

• 3/4 cup Crisco or vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 4 t baking powder
• 1 cup milk, room temperature
• 4 egg whites, room temperature

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Grease and then flour the sides and bottom of the cake pans.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the shortening until light and airy. Slowly add 1 cup sugar, continually beating until fluffy. Add the vanilla.

In a small bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Add 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture and mix well. Then add 1 tablespoon of milk to the shortening mixture and mix well. Continue adding these ingredients, alternating and mixing well after each addition until all of the ingredients have been combined.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until fluffy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until stiff, shiny peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter mixture until blended, being careful not to overmix. Place in prepared pans. Bake about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 20 minutes, then invert onto wire racks and remove the pans. Cool completely. Yields 6 cups, enough to serve 20.

From Colette’s Cakes: The Art of Cake Decorating

Katie: This was a good cake! I thought that it was fairly difficult to make, but not too bad. You have to be very careful to follow instructions exactly. I liked that the cake was light and not too heavy, but I wish that it had more flavor. I prefer yellow cakes to white cakes, and so am a little biased. I really wanted to make this cake, though, because it seemed like a good one. I was pleased with the results, but it didn’t compare to the chocolate cake that we made from this cook book.

Gray:  I thought this was a very good cake.  It is a white cake and so I didn’t think it was as flavorful as as yellow cake. That being said, it was still very good.   I would definitely use this if you need a white cake for a wedding, etc.  The icing was the real treat and that is coming up next week!

Blender Pesto

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves (see note below)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 T pine nuts
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 T freshly grated Romano pecorino cheese
• 3 T butter, softened to room temperature

1. Put the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt in the blender and mix at high speed. [We used our food processor.] Stop from time to time and scrape the ingredients down towards the bottom of the blender cup with a rubber spatula.

2. When the ingredients are evenly blended, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheeses by hand. (This is not much work, and it results in more interesting texture and better flavor than you get when you mix in the cheese in the blender.) When the cheese has been evenly incorporated into the other ingredients, beat in the softened butter.

3. Before spooning the pesto over pasta, add to it a tablespoon or so of the hot water in which the pasta has boiled.

Note: The quantity of basil in more recipes is given in terms of whole leaves. American basil, however, varies greatly in leaf sizes. There are small, medium, and very large leaves, and they all pack differently in the measuring cup. For the sake of accurate measurement, I suggest that you tear all but the tiniest leaves into two or more small pieces. Be gentle, so as not to crush the basil. This would discolor it and waste the first, fresh droplets of juice.

Yield: enough for about 6 servings of pasta

From The Classic Italian Cookbook

Gray: Wow, this was amazing.  I can’t believe that I’ve never made pesto.   It is super easy and the flavor of fresh pesto is just amazing.  I toasted the pine nuts slightly before making it.  Maybe that is not traditional or a no-no, but we always like the toasted flavor so I tried it anyway.  This is definitely one we’ll be making again.

Katie: This was super delicious and I don’t know why we’ve never made pesto before. The consistency was just perfect and it really did coat the pasta nicely! We went with fettuccine, which seemed to be just right. I cannot wait to make pasta with pesto again. We now need to plant our entire garden with basil plants just so we have more basil leaves! Yum!

Maple Pecan Brownies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 6 T maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup self rising flour
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 4 oz semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 12 pecan halves
• wax paper
• 10 x 7 in rectangular cake pan

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line the cake pan with wax paper.

2. Place the melted butter, sugar, 4 T maple syrup, eggs and flour in a bowl and beat for 1 minute until smooth.

3. Stir in the nuts and transfer to the prepared pan. Smooth the surface and bake for 30 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven, and cool in the pan for 10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

4. Melt the chocolate chips, butter, and remaining syrup in a small pan over a low heat. Cool slightly.

5. Spread over the cooled cake with a spatula. Leave for 5 minutes to set.

6. Mark out 12 rectangles with a knife and place a pecan half in the center of each one. Leave until set and cut into rectangles along the marked lines.

Transfer to an airtight container as soon as brownies are cool. Best eaten the day of the making.

Yield: 12 brownies

From The Ultimate Cake Decorator

Katie: These were really good! But we can’t figure out whey they are called brownies. They were more like blondies than brownies, and were really more like a cake than either blondies or brownies. We took these to an event, and they were a hit! None were left. They weren’t hard to make, and I was very pleased with how they looked.

After I had melted my chocolate, butter, and maple syrup in a double boiler and let it cool for about 20 minutes, it was still pretty runny. I poured the chocolate mixture onto the “cake” and it was thick enough not to fall off the sides. I left a little in the bottom of the pot, and then drizzled the remaining over the top with the spoon so that it made the surface not quite so smooth. You can see little ridges in the top picture, and that is what made them. In the cookbook they did this by spreading, but the only spreading I did was towards the edges to ensure that I didn’t make a mess with pouring!

Even though these were great, a bit hit, and easy to make, I don’t think we’d make them just for us. But I think they would be something unique to take to another event, get together, or party! They look so elegant!

Gray:  These aren’t my favorite dessert ever because they are a little too rich and chocolatey.  Apparently everyone else loved them.  They are very elegant and tasted very good, and I would definitely make them for an event where you want to make an impact.

Shrimp on Tap

• 3 cups beer
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 t celery seeds
• 2 T finely chopped parsley
• 1 t Tabasco sauce
• 3 T lemon juice
• salt to taste
• 2 pounds medium-sized shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 8 T butter

In a large saucepan combine the beer, garlic, celery seed, parsley, Tabasco, lemon juice, and salt to taste. Over medium-high heat bring the beer to a boil.

When the beer is at full boil, add the shrimp. When it returns to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer the shrimp for 5 minutes.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Set aside in a warm place.

Drain the shrimp and transfer them to a serving bowl. Pour the melted butter into four small bowls for dipping. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

From American Seafood Cooking

Gray: I enjoyed this and it turned out well, but I usually boil shrimp with old bay seasoning, and it has a lot of the same flavors, and is a lot less work to put together.  This was good and I’m glad we tried it, if only to reinforce what we already liked.  I do think we’ll try putting a couple of bottles of beer in with the water next time we boil shrimp to see how it does.

Katie: This shrimp was great! I loved the flavor, but it was a lot more time consuming to make than boiled shrimp, and I didn’t think that it was really worth the extra effort. We also made cocktail sauce and I preferred dipping the shrimp in the cocktail sauce over the clarified butter. So we probably wouldn’t make this particular recipe again, although the results were good!

Rachael Ray’s Spinach with Nutmeg and Garlic

• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 bag triple-washed spinach (10 to 12-ounces), stems trimmed
• coarse salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 pinches ground nutmeg

Heat garlic in oil over medium heat.  Add spinach and turn in pan till leaves wilt. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a couple of pinches of nutmeg.  It is delicious with any dark green.  Remove from heat and serve warm.

Yield: 4 side servings

From 30-minute meals

Gray:  Katie prepared this dish for my birthday.  We used kale instead of spinach since I had been growing some this winter.  It was delicious.  This is a super-simple recipe that only takes a few minutes to prepare.  We had to wash the kale which makes it take a few minutes longer, but even then it is super fast to fix.  We will definitely be trying this again with other greens as well.

Katie: This recipe resulted in delicious kale! There was a bit of that bitterness characteristic to kale, but I think the nutmeg and garlic helped balance it out. The sauteed kale completed our dinner of steak, baked sweet potato, and bread. I think Gray had a good birthday dinner and we will be making this recipe again!

Grilled Steak Tacos

Hey everyone!  I am super excited about this week’s recipe.  This a first for several reasons.  This is the first time I have taken the time to write down one of my kitchen creations and this is the first blog post that we have gotten from one of our followers!  Let me explain:  around the first of the year, I was reviewing the blog stats and checking out the pages of some of our followers.  There are a lot of you doing some awesome cooking (and photography).  I came a cross a post from Eat, Drink, & Be Manly. He had posted an awesome article on some delicious looking Steak Tacos.  I have been craving them now for about 3 months. The Manly man cooks like I do, off the cuff, and he didn’t share a full recipe. However, he gave enough hints that I knew where I was headed.  I took the time to jot this down as a I put it together so I could share it.

Steak Taco Seasoning Rub

• 1 Tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ancho chili powder
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cumin

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Stir until uniformly mixed.

Yield: about 3/4 cup; enough to coat 1 to 1 1/2 pound of flank steak

From: Gray’s fuzzy brain, with inspiration from Eat, Drink, & Be Manly

Steak Tacos

• 1 1/4 lbs flank steak
• 3/4 cup steak taco seasoning rub
• 1 large yellow onion
• 2 poblano peppers
• 10-12 tortillas (corn or flour)
• shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese
• salsa
• sour cream

Pat steak dry.  Rub flank steak with seasoning rub until well coated.  It should appear like a dry breading.  Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.  Slice onion and pepper into half-inch strips.  Saute onion and peppers until soft but not browned.  While the peppers are beginning to cook, preheat your grill.  Grill over high direct heat to your desired doneness. I cooked it about 4 minutes per side for medium.  Allow the steak to rest for at least 15 minutes, then slice it thinly across the grain. Serve with the peppers and onions, warmed tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream.

Yield: about 3-4 servings

Gray:  These were awesome.  It combines two of my favorite things: steak and tacos!  You can’t miss.  This preparation is very similar to fajitas, but the seasonings are quite different.  You could make them with raw chopped onions, lettuce and cheese for a more taco-like production.  In any case these are very flexible, and the proportions turned out great on my rub. The meat had a very robust spicy flavor that still let the the steak flavor come through. These recipes are winners and we will definitely be doing them again!

Katie: Yummm! I was wary of Gray making up a recipe based on what he read on another blog, but thank you Eat, Drink, & Be Manly! These steak tacos were so delicious! I absolutely loved them. The only thing I think Gray left out, was that we also squeezed a little lime juice on some of the tacos to see how that was. We both liked it, but preferred without the lime juice. I personally thought it needed just the right amount of sour cream to balance out the spiciness of the meat. We sliced some meat, proceeded to eat tacos, and then sliced a bit more meat for the final taco. The meat sliced on the second go-round was more tender, so don’t jump the gun on letting the meat rest. Resting really helps it stay tender and moist. I would like to have more steak tacos anytime Gray wants to make his rub! Maybe we can have a taco party!

Sazón Grilled Chicken

• 2 garlic heads
• 4 onions
• 5 bell peppers
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/4 cup of oregano
• 1/2 tsp of allspice
• 2 Tbsp of olives
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1/4 cup of vinegar
• 1 cup of water (if needed)
• splash oil (optional)
• Black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.  The consistency should be a smooth paste.  Pourable, but not watery.

This recipe is from Gray’s coworker, José.  His family is from the Dominican Republic, and this is a staple recipe for them.  The instructions were to “Put it on anything you want to taste like Spanish food.” I think that is about right.

Gray: This stuff is delicious.  It was great on the grill, but José has had baked chicken that looks awesome, as well as rice that looks, smells, and tastes fantastic. Chicken, rice, and beans are the main things I’ve seen him bring in with this deliciousness.  He uses it on everything, so the recipe makes a ton, but feel free to cut it back to make a more reasonable quantity.  I think it was good on the grill, but It may be better to use in a baked chicken that would carry more of flavor.  I felt that some of it was lost in the smokiness of the grill, but I’m going to have do some more *ahem* research.

Katie: This marinade smelled delicious! I love the way the skin on the chicken got crispy on the grill. It might look burned in the picture, but it was just nice and crispy. The marinade tasted good on the grilled chicken, but we think it would work better in the oven. José said they usually make it in the oven, but we had these huge chicken breasts that just needed to be grilled so we decided to try it that way. I think next time we are going to try it in the oven with smaller chicken pieces so the delicious flavor of the marinade will be more prevalent.