In case you missed the news, the great state of Kansas turned 146 yesterday. That’s really not very old… I hear that 146 is the new 30, so Kansas is still a young spring chicken. My son came home from school pumped full of Kansas information. He quizzed us all on what the state flower was (the Sunflower), what the state bird is (the Meadowlark), etc, etc. When my 3 year old found out it was somebody’s birthday she said "Mommy, we need to make a cake for Kansas. He’ll really like it and we can have a party for him." I am never one to turn down an opportunity to bake, so I set out to find what kind of cake to make for Kansas. After a little research, I settled on Kansas Dirt Cake. It really isn’t a cake, but it is still good! The cake was made, a few neighbor kids came over for a little party, and we celebrated the birthday of Kansas. Kelly kept waiting for the guest of honor to arrive, very confused as to why we were having a party for someone who didn’t even have the courtesy to show up. In the end, I think she was glad because that just meant more cake for her.

Speaking of parties, have you heard about the Ultimate Blog Party being held by the folks over at 5 Minutes for Mom? It is going to be quite the shin dig, with tons of great prizes for those attending! This is a party for all bloggers, not just moms. Make sure to check it out. Hope you can make it! 

I know that grocery stores aren’t the most glamorous places to buy bread, but our Kroger bakery has the best rustic Italian Loaf I have ever tried. Since I enjoy baking bread, I don’t usually buy artisan or homemade style bread from stores, but I have yet to be able to duplicate the goodness of the Kroger Rustic Italian Loaf. When I am hungry for that specific loaf, I head to Kroger and purchase one to bring home.

I had given up on trying to find a recipe that would result in a loaf as good as Krogers. I still tried different Rustic Italian Loaf recipes, but I never anticipated that these attempts would end up being a close comparison to the Kroger loaf.

Yesterday I promised my husband I would make some bread. I asked him if he had a particular kind in mind and he said "Surprise me.". I did the easiest thing that came to mind and logged on to Recipezaar. I wanted to try a new recipe, and I had a meeting for a few hours in the afternoon so I wanted my bread machine to do the dough work for me. I came across a recipe for Rustic Italian Bread by andypandy. The recipe had high reviews from the previous chefs and it had some lovely photos along side of it.  From all angles, it looked like a winner.

The result?? A winner it was. It had a soft, yet crusty outside and a soft and chewy inside. My husband and I agreed, it was better than the bread at Kroger!

I am so excited to finally be able to produce something better than the Italian Loaf at Krogers bakery.  For me, this kind of discovery is what cooking is all about. When it is tastier to eat at home than it is to buy food from outside sources, you know that you are on your way to cooking goodness.

I am so tired of making apple pies. My husband loves apple pie. Every weekend he always asks "are you making me an apple pie this weekend?" He’s even willing to do the daunting task of peeling and slicing the apples if I make the crust and pie. I usually give in to his apple pie cravings and make him his precious pie. Sometimes I vary and try out new recipes, but they are still apple pies.

This weekend I put my foot down. I was tired of making apple pies. I needed some variety in my life…a change from the mundane. I didn’t want to disappoint him, but I also didn’t want to make yet another apple pie.

I’ve mentioned to you before that I’m a sucker for advertising, and that little epicurious widget at the bottom of my blog is getting the best of me. When I saw the photo of the Caramel Apple Tart pop up, it called my name. My plan to deviate from the norm started churning in my head.  What would happen if I made an apple tart instead of the apple pie? Would my husband revolt? Would he sulk and pout in disappointment that I did something different? Or, would he discover something incredibly delicious? Would he find out that there is more to the world than apple pie? With trepidation, I was set to find out.

As the tart was baking, my husband came downstairs and I saw the delight in his eyes at the aroma of baked apples and cinnamon in the air. When the timer went off and I pulled the tart out of the oven to cool,  he came over and looked stumped. I explained to him that I made an apple tart instead of an apple pie and that I really think he was going to like it. I could tell he wasn’t convinced. He looked a little disappointed that his usual weekend apple pie wasn’t what I pulled out of the oven. When the tart cooled, I made a slice, poured some of the warmed caramel sauce over it and presented it to him. I left him alone with the tart wanting their first meeting to be without me hovering over him, wondering what he thought. After his first bite he exclaimed "This is sooooo good!" This comment may not mean much to you all, but it was a victory in my mind. My husband hardly ever "exclaims"… his normal comments are "I’d eat this again" or "You don’t have to make this again".

The proof that he really loved the tart was the fact that this morning when I came downstairs to go to church, I noticed the tart pan empty and washed sitting in the dish drainer. Aside from the one slice I had yesterday and the slice my friend Kathy had, Nick had eaten the entire tart.

I now see in my future alternating weekends of apple pie and apple tart. Variety is a wonderful thing! 

I will be the first to admit… I am not a wine snob. My husband and I enjoy wine, we enjoy going to wine tastings, and we have a nice collection of wine. We do not, however, have the faintest idea about what wines are better than others and why. I personally like to pick the wine we drink based on how pretty the label is. Yes… I judge the wine by the cover (I can feel you cringing now, Kate!). Another plus in my book is if the wine has a fun or interesting name.

I do love to drink wine and was so pleased to see how many great wine selections there were in the Food and Wine 100 Tastes to Try in 2007 list. Taste number 40 is Southern Italian Wine. Based on how pretty the label was, I chose to order a bottle of Donnafugata Sedara. We were eating T-Bone steaks with friends and this was the perfect companion to the meal we had.

 I don’t really feel qualified to critique this wine, but in plain "wine gal" terms, it was a very dry wine with a full fruit body. The aroma was sweet and the color was a deep ruby red. In my husband’s terms…"I would drink it again." So, there you have it… two thumbs up from two label judging wine drinkers!

I’m behind on posting some of my Food and Wine Top 100 Tastes challenge. We tried a couple of other wines over the weekend that I’ll blog about soon. I’m sure since my wine posts are so informative, you’ll be hanging on the edge of your chair until the next wine post comes along. 

Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too?

Remember that Dr Pepper commercial from the late 70’s, early 80’s? Quite the catchy little tune, wasn’t it? That commercial and my favorite beverage, Dr Pepper, was the inspiration for the cupcakes I made yesterday. I had made the pumpkin roll for my husbands birthday, but was being kind of selfish and didn’t want to waste something so delicious on the younger crowd of kids that would be attending his little party last night. The cake roll was for the adults…. cupcakes, I decided, for the kids.

I remember making a Coca Cola cake once and thought that the flavor was slightly unique. I began to wonder if I could do something similar but exchange Dr Pepper for the Coke. Since I’m not confident enough to create baking recipes from scratch, I decided to do a little search on Recipezaar to see what I could find in terms of a Dr Pepper cupcake. Lo and behold, there was such a thing… the Dr Pepper cake. It seemed simple enough and I knew that since it was chocolate, the kiddos would enjoy it.

These cupcakes have a rich chocolate flavor with a hint of spice, which I’m assuming comes from the Dr Pepper. The frosting was a bit sweet, but it didn’t keep anyone from scarfing them down at the birthday party.

Even though I didn’t create this recipe, I did make a few minor adaptations (reduced the amount of sugar, added a bit of grape juice) I’m submitting this post and picture to the Cupcake Roundup being held by Garrett of Vanilla Garlic and by Chokylit of Cupcake Bakeshop. Cupcakes are one of my favorite treats… I can’t wait to see the gallery of yummy creations this round up is sure to create. 

It’s amazing  how having a successful attempt at something you have wanted to do for so long can give you that extra boost of confidence you need. This past weekend I made the Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake Roll and it was a huge, delicious success. For so many years I’ve been watching people make cake rolls and I’ve been so envious, certain that doing something like that and having it result in one piece without cracks was beyond my culinary baking capabilities. To that fear I say, farewell! I now know that I can make a cake roll and I know that I can do it well. A task that was intimidating me for so long ended up being really not that difficult. I could kick myself for not tackling this sooner.

To make up for lost time, I’m now on a cake roll kick. The one cake roll that my husband always comments on is the Pumpkin cake roll. Every holiday season we’ll go somewhere and there will be a pumpkin cake roll and he gets so excited… it is one of his favorite desserts. Well, today is his birthday so as his cake I made him a pumpkin cake roll. It was surprisingly simple and incredibly delicious!

For those of you who commented after my Chocolate Cake Roll post that you too have been intimidated by cake rolls, kiss that fear good bye. Follow the recipe instructions carefully and you too can be a master of all cakes rolled.

Come in out of the snow. I know your hands and feet have got to be freezing cold from building the neighborhood’s largest snowman. You must be exhausted from sledding non-stop down the hill and back up and down the hill and back up again, over and over. Take your coat, shoes and mittens off and sit down to a nice steaming cup of hot chocolate and my first Dorie Greenspan recipe attempt…Chocolate Malted Whopper Cookies. They didn’t turn out puffy like her recipe suggested, but they were still a great treat to go along with the fire and cocoa. Enjoy!

To read more about the perfect snow man building snow we had, head over to our family blog "Dishing It Up Family Style" 

I am a marketers dream. I am the target audience that marketers go after when they are trying to entice customers merely by the power of suggestion. It will be 4:00 in the afternoon and a commercial will come on the television for a restaurant. I watch, get hungry, and can’t get that restaurant out of my mind until I visit it. I hear a friend talk about a product, and if they are speaking favorably about it, I get to the nearest store and buy it to try it out for myself.

Yesterday I added a little widget to my blog from widgetbox.com. You can find the widget I added towards the bottom left hand corner of my blog. This particular widget is from epicurious and it shows a little slide-show of various recipes you can find on Epicurious.com. I installed the widget and then sat there watching the recipe slideshow flash tempting photos of enticing recipes. When the recipe for Lighter Than Air Chocolate Roll popped up, my mouth started watering. My stomach started growling. My craving for some chocolate goodness intensified. I had to try this recipe, and I had to try it ASAP. I slept on it, thinking that surely by the next day I wouldn’t feel the urge to create this chocolate roll. Didn’t happen… I woke up this morning and it was one of the first things I thought of. The Lighter Than Air Chocolate Roll and I were going to meet today… I couldn’t avoid it.

I must start by saying that I bake often, but I have never made a log or roll of any kind. I’ve always been intimidated by the rolling process, certain that it could only end in a crumpled up, broken log of a disaster. I was oh so pleased when that didn’t happen. I made my first log/roll and it was a huge success!  The flavor of this chocolate roll is incredible. The chocolate is light, yet cures the craving. The Grand Mariner and orange zest in the cream gives this recipe a subtle yet rich flavor. For a dessert that is impressive and delicious, you should definitely give this one a try. Take it from me, the marketers dream… this is one suggestion worth following.

Addition - I’ve decided to use this as my entry for Sugar High Friday, hosted this month by the talented David Lebovitz. The chocolate I used was Ghirardelli. It is one of the only chocolate brands I use to get perfect results with every time. It has a rich flavor, but it doesn’t over power the recipe.

LIGHTER-THAN-AIR CHOCOLATE ROLL

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

For cake layer
6 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
3 tablespoons water
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder

For filling
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange zest

Garnish: unsweetened cocoa powder and confectioners sugar

Make cake layer: Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil a 15- by 10- by 1-inch shallow baking pan and line bottom lengthwise | with a large piece of wax or parchment paper, letting paper hang over ends by 2 inches.

Melt chocolate with water in a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring. Cool to lukewarm.

Beat yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 5 minutes in a standing mixer or about 8 minutes with a hand-held mixer. Fold in melted chocolate until blended. Beat whites with cleaned beaters until they just hold soft peaks. Gradually add remaining 1/3 cup sugar and beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. Fold one third of whites into melted-chocolate mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.

Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake in middle of oven until puffed and top is dry to the touch, 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack. Cover top with 2 layers of damp paper towels and let stand 5 minutes, then remove towels and cool completely. Loosen edges with a sharp knife.

Sift cocoa powder over top of cake layer and overlap 2 layers of wax paper lengthwise over cake. Place a baking sheet over paper and invert cake onto it, gently peeling off wax paper lining. (Don’t worry if cake layer breaks; it will hold together when rolled.)

Make filling: Beat cream with confectioners sugar and Grand Marnier with cleaned beaters until it just holds stiff peaks. Fold in zest.

Fill and roll cake: Spread filling evenly over cake. Put a long platter next to a long side of cake. Using wax paper as an aid, roll up cake jelly roll–style, beginning with a long side. Carefully transfer, seam side down, to platter, using wax paper to help slide cake. (Cake will crack but will still hold together.)

Dust cake generously with cocoa powder and confectioners sugar.

Cooks’ notes:

• Cake may be rolled 1 day ahead and chilled in a cake keeper or loosely covered with plastic wrap.

• You can substitute the following for Grand Marnier and orange zest: 2 tablespoons Cognac and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; 2 tablespoons cocoa and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; or 2 teaspoons instant-espresso powder or instant-coffee granules dissolved in 2 teaspoons water plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

• This batter can also be baked in an unoiled 91/2-inch springform pan. Bake until cake is set but still moist in center, 35 to 40 minutes (cake will rise and then sink as it cools). Top with Grand Marnier whipped cream.

Makes 12 servings.

Gourmet
January 2001

This morning I made a quick post, reaching out to the food blogging community for some help finding a new homemade pizza crust recipe. Wouldn’t you know it? I left soon after to take my daughter to dance class only to return to find the comments by you all with some fantastic pizza dough recipe recommendations. I looked through all of the recipes and could not decide which one to go with because they each one fit the bill of what I was looking for. I wanted an in between crust.. not too thick and not too thin. I wanted it to be a tried and true favorite and I wanted it to be something I could make in time for dinner tonight. Every recipe suggestion fit these guidelines. Now, I had a dilemma. Before posting this morning, I was stuck with my one tried and true crust recipe, but I was ready for a change. After my post, I was confronted with too many options! I decided to take the easy way out. I went with Claire’s recipe because she was the one first to post a link to her recipe. We have homemade pizza often, so with each time I have pizza on my menu, I’m going to go down the list and try the other pizza crust recipes as well.

Thank you all so much for your help! Now, for the results.

As I stated before, I used Claire’s recipe. By reading her blog, I understand that this is a family recipe passed down by her dad. I tweaked the recipe some because I decided I wanted to make my bread machine do the work. I placed all of the recipe ingredients in my bread machine on the dough cycle and left to tend to my children. When the dough was done, I took it out of the bread machine and let it rest in the cornmeal coated pan for a short bit.  This dough was so easy to work with. It stretched with ease and I must say… this was my best pizza crust attempt ever. The crust was soft and tender, just like we like it. It had a great flavor and made the perfect base for the Southwest Pizza I made. Thank you Claire for sharing this family recipe… it was fantastic! Thanks to the rest of you for your help too. I look forward to more fun with pizza crust in the near future.

Head on over to Claire’s wonderful blog, Cooking is Medicine, for her pizza crust recipe.

As for the pizza, here is my adaptation of yet another Jan/Feb 2007 Simple and Delicious recipe! (I told you this issue was a goldmine!)

 Southwest Pizza

1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup southwestern salsa (the kind that has corn and beans included)
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup cooked barbecued shredded pork
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1-3/4 cups shredded "Taco Mix" cheese

Follow crust instructions and then prebake at 400° for 6-7 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, in a
skillet, cook beef and onions over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in salsa, black beans and pork. Cook for a few minutes until warmed through. Spread over crust. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 6-8 minutes longer or until
cheese is melted.

Yield: 6-8 servings.

I have a quick request this morning. I’m making a southwest pizza tonight and have been browsing the web looking for a new pizza crust recipe to try. I’m looking for a crust that is in between thin and thick… kind of like the hand tossed crust at Pizza Hut. Do any of you have a tried and true recipe that you love that you could share?

 Now, down to business. Several days ago Rachel over at Rachel’s Bite tagged me for a meme. The meme is to list 6 weird things about me. Let me see what I can come up with.

1) I am a Dr Pepper / Mr Pibb fountain drink junkie. I don’t like the drinks in a can or out of a bottle, but give me a straight up Dr Pepper on crushed ice in a Styrofoam cup and I am a happy camper. I would choose this over ice cream, cheesecake, chocolate, etc.

2) I was a good girl growing up and didn’t have my first drink of alcohol until I was 21. I’m not a big drinker now (despite the martinis the other night) but I do enjoy a nice glass of wine or a margarita on the rocks every now and then.  

3) I used to eat everything plain. Hamburgers, sandwiches, pasta, etc. The reason is that I don’t like messy food. I used to completely detest barbecue for the same reason. I don’t like to get messy when I’m eating! I like barbecue now (which is good since my husband is big into smoking meat) but I still prefer my burgers plain.

4) Not food related, but weird related. When I was middle school age, I had a very unhealthy obsession with Kirk Cameron. (Oh…I just searched for a site to link his name to and found an official Kirk Cameron website. I got a little swoony looking at his picture again. It’s probably a good thing the web wasn’t around during my obsession, isn’t it mom? The long distance phone calls trying to find him in California were probably obsessive enough.)

5) I love cereal. I think if I were single and didn’t enjoy cooking so much, I could eat cereal morning, noon and night.

6) I used to hate pineapple. Hate is probably an understatement…I used to detest pineapple. I’d gag at the thought of it, at the smell of it, at the taste of it. When I was pregnant with my 3rd baby, we went to a birthday party and the hostess had a fresh, cut up pineapple set out. Something strange came over me and I took one bite and my hate for pineapple turned to history. While I was pregnant I would eat an entire fresh pineapple every single day. I can’t wait until it is pineapple season again because I love it so much now!

I think that just about covers it! I’m not going to tag anyone else because I was so late at doing this that I think everyone has already been tagged. If that’s not the case and you’d like to be tagged, let me know :)