bFeedme

Cooking, Recipe and Food Blog

Archives for September 2007

Black Bean Cornbread Recipe

By

cornbread.jpgSometimes nothing’s better that warm cornbread on a September day. 

This unique Black Bean Cornbread Recipe calls for all the good stuff like cheddar cheese & whole corn.  One bite out of these puppies & you’ll be hooked, I promise!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
2 to 4 tablespoons evaporated cane juice sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup green onions, sliced
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/2 cup (cooked) black beans

What’s Next:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Spray a 9X9 inch baking dish with canola or olive oil spray and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and sea salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the buttermilk, melted butter, cheese, green onions, corn and black beans. Stir in any optional ingredients desired. Add to the dry ingredients, blending until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until done when tested with a toothpick.

Cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

Eat well & Laugh often!

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

By

pumpkin-bread-recipe-9-19-07.jpgWhat with the weather taking it a notch down & the leaves doing a bit of changing, I decided to decorate my house a little bit early, pumpkin style.

There are more pumpkins decorating this house than I know what to do with.  I fear that when it’s time for them to go bad, I will miss a couple & find them stinking up a corner of the bedroom I forgot to look in several weeks later!

But anyhoo, it’s pumpkin time & that always puts me in the mood for none other than a great Pumpkin Bread Recipe.  And that’s exactly what waits for you below, enjoy!

Ingredients: 

3/4 c. brown sugar, packed firm
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. Splenda
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 c. melted butter
2 tsps. vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour**
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsps. pumpkin pie spice
1. c. walnut, coarsely chopped
1/4 c. water

What’s Next:

Combine sugars in a large mixing bowl; add butter and cream together. Add eggs, vanilla and pumpkin; beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together until well blended. Add gradually to pumpkin mixture, folding in gently with a spatula just until well blended.

Add walnuts and 1/4 c. water, folding in gently just until blended.

Bake in a very well greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a testing stick pushed down through the middle comes out without any gooey stuff on it.

Cool on a wire rack for at least five minutes before you dig in.

Eat well & Laugh often!

Colby’s Rum Cake Recipe

By

rum-cake-recipe-9-18-07.jpgWell howdy there, readers & a good morning to you.  Guess what we’re up to today?  If you guessed scaling the great pyramids, you were close, but no cigar, sadly.

Today we’re celebrating my nephew’s birthday with a Rum Cake Recipe.  Yep, that’s right, rum cake.  And isn’t it perfect weather for it?  Enjoy this delicious recipe & take a stroll on me.

Ingredients for Cake: 

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1/2 cup dark rum
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 pkg (3 3/4 oz) Jello vanilla pudding mix
1 cup chopped pecans

Ingredients for Glaze:

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

What’s Next:

Preheat oven to 325°

Mix milk, orange juice, oil, eggs, orange zest, rum, and set aside.

In separate bowl sift flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in sugar and pudding mix- make a well in center and add milk and oj mixture, mix well.

Sprinkle chopped pecans in a greased and floured bundt pan and pour cake mixture on top.

Bake for 1 hour at 325°. Cool. Invert on plate, prick then spread glaze evenly over top. Do this in stages so that the cake has time to absorb all the glaze.

What’s Next On That Glaze:

Melt butter in saucepan, once butter is melted add sugar. Bring to boil and stir constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add rum.

Eat well & Laugh often!

Colby’s Rum Cake Recipe

By

rum-cake-recipe-9-18-07.jpgWell howdy there, readers & a good morning to you.  Guess what we’re up to today?  If you guessed scaling the great pyramids, you were close, but no cigar, sadly.

Today we’re celebrating my nephew’s birthday with a Rum Cake Recipe.  Yep, that’s right, rum cake.  And isn’t it perfect weather for it?  Enjoy this delicious recipe & take a stroll on me.

Ingredients for Cake: 

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1/2 cup dark rum
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 pkg (3 3/4 oz) Jello vanilla pudding mix
1 cup chopped pecans

Ingredients for Glaze:

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

What’s Next:

Preheat oven to 325°

Mix milk, orange juice, oil, eggs, orange zest, rum, and set aside.

In separate bowl sift flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in sugar and pudding mix- make a well in center and add milk and oj mixture, mix well.

Sprinkle chopped pecans in a greased and floured bundt pan and pour cake mixture on top.

Bake for 1 hour at 325°. Cool. Invert on plate, prick then spread glaze evenly over top. Do this in stages so that the cake has time to absorb all the glaze.

What’s Next On That Glaze:

Melt butter in saucepan, once butter is melted add sugar. Bring to boil and stir constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add rum.

Eat well & Laugh often!

Wasp Crackers Anyone?

By

wasp-crackers-9-13-07.jpgWe’ve all heard of folks eating insects like crickets & ants, you may have even participated in such affairs yourself, but what about wasps?

Apparently Wasp Crackers are causing quite a buzz (hehehe) in Omachi, Japan, a village about 100 miles northwest of Tokyo.  In this small village, elder hunters catch wasps which are then boiled, dried & sprinkled over cracker dough.

Sound good to anyone?

{Source}

Grasshopper Pie Recipe

By

grasshopper-pie-recipe-9-11-07.jpgWell, summer is almost at an end & I can’t say that I’m sorry to see the hot beast leave this year to the fall temptress.  It’s just been so darn hot this year!

To send off the old girl in style, I thought we would make one of our last summer pies of the year.  Take on this fabulous Grasshopper Pie Recipe & you won’t soon regret it.  Enjoy! 

Ingredients:
        
1 Chocolate Cookie Crust 
1/2 cup milk
16 ounces marshmallows
1/4 cup green crème de menthe 
1/4 cup white crème de menthe 
2 1/2  cups heavy cream 
2–3 drops green food coloring 
8   maraschino cherries 
Shaved chocolate 
Mint leaves  

What’s Next:

1. Prepare and cool the chocolate cookie crust.

Pour the milk into a heavy bottomed pan and turn the heat to medium.

2. Add the marshmallows and stir constantly until melted. Watch closely and lower the heat if the mixture begins to scorch.

3. Remove the marshmallow mixture from the heat, pour it into a large, heat-resistant mixing bowl, and cool to room temperature.

4. Stir in the green and white crème de menthe.

5. Using an electric mixer, whip 1½ cups of the cream until thick. Add the food coloring and continue whipping until the mixture holds medium stiff peaks.

6. Fold the cream mixture into the marshmallow until combined.

7. Pour the filling into the prepared cookie crust, cover with plastic wrap, and chill 4–6 hours or overnight.

8. Remove from the refrigerator 10 minutes before serving.

9. Pour the remaining cream into the bowl of your electric mixer and beat until it holds soft peaks. Add the sugar and whip until the cream holds stiff peaks.

10. Pipe or spread the whipped cream onto the top of the pie.

11. Decorate with maraschino cherries, shaved chocolate, or fresh mint leaves.

Eat well & Laugh often!

Marie Callender Frozen Turtle Pies Recalled

By

marie-calendars-food-recall-9-5-07.gifIn what is becoming a daily practice, yet another food item has been taken off the grocery shelves thanks to another recall.

American Pie, the team that makes Marie Callender pies, has been forced to recall over 1400 cases of the popular Frozen Turtle Pies, claiming that the desserts have been contaminated with a form of bacteria.

The pies in question were actually tested at the factory were to be destroyed, but they were accidentally shipping from the warehouse.  Oops.  I bet someone’s head is going to roll on this one.

{Source}

Celebrity Chef Of the Day: Mario Batali

By

mario-batali-9-5-07.jpgContinuing on with our celebrity chef-ridden month, we’re celebrating the talents of the one & only Mario Batali today.

Batali attended Rutgers University, graduating in 1982 with a double major in Spanish Theater & Economics.  Well, that’s rather impressive & interesting, eh?

Another little interesting tidbit about our little Mario is that he met & married Susi Cahn, the daughter of the founders of Coach Leather.  That was quite a find, if you ask me.  Mario & Susi have two sons together, Leo & Benno. 

With his trademark orange clogs, Batali has wowed us with his cookbooks, such as his 2006 Mario Tailgates NASCAR style as well as with his restaurant pursuits in Las Vegas.

From dishwasher to pizzaman, Mario has seen it all & lived to tell us all about the right way to cook!

{Source}

Happy National Macadamia Nut Day!

By

macadamia-nuts-9-4-07.jpgYou know, I just can’t get enough of silly holidays to celebrate, can you?

Today is apparently National Macadamia Nut Day & I hope you’re celebrating with some loose nuts or at the very least some macadamia nut cookies!

Tell me, do you have to be a nut to celebrate these kinds of days?

Celebrity Chef Of the Day: Jeff Smith

By

jeff-smith-chef-9-4-07.jpgHello out there, dear readers.  I trust that everyone enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day on Monday, I know I tried my best to forget anything laborious & concentrate on more engaging pursuits like lazing around in my hammock.

Well, since we’ve since entered a new month, we have to choose the topic & I think I’ve got a goodie.  For each blogging day the month of September we’re going to learn a little more about our celebrity chefs than we know or maybe even wanted to know!

We’re starting off with the late TV personality Jeff Smith who was the author of several best-selling cookbooks as well as the highly acclaimed host of The Frugal Gourmet. 

Smith was born January 22, 1939, apparently entering into the tasty universe with an insatiable longing for good food.  Graduating from University of Puget Sound in 1962 & Drew University in 1965, Smith first set off as a United Methodist minister who was known for his love of cuisine.

It wasn’t until Jeff started teaching cooking classes to the public with the launch of a show in Tacoma did his career really start taking off.  During this time the celebrity chef started to pen cooking books including The Frugal Gourmet, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome & The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine.

Smith died of heart disease in July 2004, his obituary called him a “food genius” & I don’t think there’s much mistake in that.

{Source}