A Ray of Sun on a Cloudy Day

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been able to find time enough to myself to sit down and write!  Things have been pretty hectic around our house lately with lots of transitions going on for our family.  Still, through all the hubbub, I was able to help a very dear friend make a very special day a little more colorful.

I was excited about the opportunity to make a cake for a beautiful little girls Baptism.  I was even more excited when her mom sent me an idea for a cake I had never done before, a Rainbow Cake!  Ever since spending time oversees, I've had a slight obsession with "surprise" inside desserts.  So, needless to say, I was a bit giddy at getting to take on this new challenge.  Fortunately, this turned out to be a lot easier than the checkerboard cake I made for my daughter's birthday last year!  Pictures of that cake will not be posted...take my word...it was a disaster and left me wanting to pull my hair out!  If you ever get the wild idea to try it, keep in mind, more time and lots of alcohol will be needed to keep you from loosing your mind!!

The Rainbow Cake, however was really very simple.  Time consuming only in the fact that I had to bake twice since I only had three 9 inch cake pans.  But that wasn't a problem for me since I had a cute little beauty to play with in between!  I whipped up my favorite white cake recipe, making enough batter to essentially make two three layer 9 inch cakes.  I then divided the batter into 6 equal portions and added food coloring to each portion to get all the colors of the rainbow.  It was so easy, even my own little adorable helper was able to lend a hand!

After all the cakes were baked and cooled, I mixed a batch of my "no fail" buttercream, filled the inside with some white chocolate lavender ganache I had left over from a wedding and stacked the monster.  It was tall!  The tallest since tier cake I had ever done.

For the outside, I mixed together some blue and white buttercream to give the illusion of clouds and bordered the cake to look like crashing waves.  Leaving the outside of the cake looking like this...




And the inside looking like this...

I was in love with how vibrant the colors came out!  Most importantly, mommy was happy with the outcome as well.  This will definitely be one I keep in my bag of tricks to pull out again!  After all, who could be glum on a rainy day when you have this to feast upon? Now for what you've been waiting for...the recipes for this masterpiece!

The LAST White Cake Recipe You Will EVER Need (adapted from Sweetapolita)
Makes 1, three layer, 9 inch cake

7 egg whites; room temperature
2 whole eggs; room temperature
1 1/2 c milk; room temperature
4 tsp vanilla extract
4 1/2 c cake flour; sifted
3 c sugar
3 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
18 T butter; cold, cut into 18 pieces

1 - Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour three 9 inch cake pans.
2 - In a bowl, combine egg whites, whole eggs, 1/2 c milk and vanilla.
3 - In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle, combine dry ingredients until mixed.
4 - Add butter to the dry ingredients, one piece at a time, until all butter is incorporated and mixture is crumbly.
5 - Add remaining milk and mix until well incorporated.  Scrape the bowl well.  Add the egg mixture in three batches, making sure to incorporate each addition before adding more.  Scrape the bowl between additions as well.
6 - Bake the cakes for 20-40 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing and completely cooling on wire racks.
*If making the rainbow cake, add food coloring as needed to the cake batter.  Make sure to make the batter slightly darker than you want the actual cake to be since the color will dull in the oven.

"No Fail" Buttercream (adopted from Savory Sweet Life)
Makes 5 cups

1 c unsalted butter; room temperature
1 c shortening
8 c powdered sugar; sifted
1/2 tsp salt
2 T vanilla extract
4-8 T heavy cream

1 - In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together the butter and shortening.
2 - Gradually add the powdered sugar, about 2 c at a time, incorporating completely before adding more.
3 - Once all sugar has been added, add the salt, vanilla and 4 T heavy cream.  Whip the buttercream on medium high speed for 5-6 minutes.
4 - If your frosting needs to be thinned, add more cream 1 T at a time and mixing for 2-3 minutes before adding more.  If your frosting needs to be stiffened, add more sifted powdered sugar.  Color, if desired, and use as soon as possible for best results.  Enjoy!

Remember Me?

It's been quite a while since my last post.  I know...I'm sorry.  A lot has been happening in the household.  I started a new job...and left said job.  The hubs is in the process of making some changes to his business.  My little one will be 4, yes FOUR next week...no idea how that happened.  Oh, and we're moving!  Just a few little life changes around here doesn't leave time for much else.  But I missed my little blog getaway, so I'm coming back!!

In all the crazy that's been invading our lives recently, it's been more important than ever to simplify as many things as possible.  Of course, this translates immediately into food.  We've been bad about eating out lately, I'll be the first to admit.  However, we're justifying it in that we want to hit up all our favorite places before we go.  That makes it ok...right?  Still, even I can't stomach eating out everyday (and neither can our bank account), so I recently turned to my best friend Pinterest for some wonderfully quick and healthy ideas.

I stumbled over a wonderful little blog called Damn Delicious.  Don't you just fall in love with that name?  Or is it just me who loves to add expletives whenever little ears aren't close by...or slip when sometimes they are?  The link above will take you to the original recipe, which sounds damn delicious (just as the name implies).  Usually I like to try any recipe I come across "as is" before putting my own twist on it, but since I needed this for dinner and didn't have time to run to the store, I improvised.  I was just so in love and curious about the idea of cooking a pasta dish all IN ONE POT, I couldn't not try it!  I fully intend on trying the original version soon, but here's the ingredients I had in my pantry and fridge to use.

Odd as it seems, I really did have this "veggie" pasta in my pantry.  It was on sale at the grocery store a while back, and I couldn't resist.  I will admit that I had shied away from using it since it was new and (most likely) tasted funny, but now was as good a time as ever.  I would be pleasantly surprised that it didn't taste much different from regular pasta, even when I tasted it on it's own.  By itself, I could tell a slight "veggie" difference, but all mixed into one, no difference at all.  I even had to tell the hubs it was different so he could give his opinion.  Extra serving of vegetables with no extra work coming up!!

Now comes the best part about this recipe...throw everything into the pot.  Yep, everything, all at one time.  Just like this...

This was the only part of this recipe that I was a little hesitant about.  I figured if the pasta was cooked, everything else would be mush.  If the other ingredients were cooked well, the pasta would be crunchy.  So with Pap John's on backup speed dial, I set the pot on the stove, brought it to a boil and left it alone for 10 minutes.  Everything came out wonderful!  The pasta, in fact, could have cook a minute or two less for my taste...something that is easily fixable.  I was amazed, and I am rarely amazed by a recipe.  Impressed, yes...amazed, no.  The final product came out as a true one pot tasty wonder that led the whole family to go back for seconds!

Can you say simple, quick, no fuss and damn delicious?!?!  This will definitely be a go to for those busy nights when you forget to thaw anything...or prep...for dinner.  Have fun trying out my version, the original masterpiece (I'm sure!) or invent your own.  I would love to hear what yummy goodness you add to your pot.  And the simplicity of it actually allows you a good 10 minutes to sit and have a glass of wine while your dinner cooks itself.  What could be better than that?  No one needs to know ;)

One Pot Wonder Spaghetti (adopted from Mushroom and Zucchini Spaghetti by Damn Delicious)

1 box "Veggie" spaghetti noodles (or other pasta)
1 package cremini mushrooms; sliced
2 T olive oil
14 1/2 oz can fire roasted tomatoes; undrained
14 1/2 oz mushroom broth (or other broth); use tomato can for measuring
3-4 garlic cloves; sliced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes; or more if you like some spice
1 T dried oregano flakes
1 T dried basil flakes

1 - Put everything in a large pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat slightly and cook 7-10 minutes until pasta is cooked to your liking.  Remove from heat, cover and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes so pasta can soak up all the yummy juices.  Enjoy!

Wellness Wednesday - The Clean Eating Craze

My quest to feel better about myself in 2014 has led to friends and family asking me advice on how they can do the same.  While I love to help a few people here and there while I can, I thought a good thing to help more people...and continue to hold myself accountable...would be to start a "Wellness Wednesday" on the blog.  My goal is to post a new blog every Wednesday that has something to do with health concerns and general healthy living.  So if you have a topic you want to hear about, let me know.  First up...clean eating!

I'm not going to claim to be a genius on the whole clean eating movement.  It's become increasingly popular over the last few years, as has the Paleo diet.  I've talked in several blogs before about the Paleo diet and the Whole30 food challenge which both did AMAZING things for my level of energy and general "feel goodness".  If you are looking at clean eating as a means to help you loose weight, I suggest you head over to the website The Gracious Pantry.  She breaks it down so much more than I ever could.

That being said, here's my two sense.  Eating clean is exactly that, clean...no chemicals, artificial additives, nothing that can't be found naturally in nature.  The best way I've learned to think about this is to imagine your grocery store.  Now pretend the only place you can shop is around the outer edges of the store and not the isles.  This will hit your produce, fresh seafood, fresh meat, dairy and frozen foods.  Now, we all know that wonders of Ben and Jerry's that hide in the frozen food sections, but this does give you a starting point for figuring everything out.  You could also imagine that you are back in the pre-grocery days where everything you put in your body was either grown or made naturally and that is clean eating.  The truth behind the phrase, you are what you eat is ever present, and when you put crap in...well...you can figure the rest of that.

A lot of people look at this lifestyle change and think they can't afford to eat clean.  My opinion on this one is that they are confusing eating clean with eating organic.  So, ok, soapbox moment.  Most people who are full force on the organic train do so because they are under the understanding...or misunderstanding...that their organic food is grown COMPLETELY natural without the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.  The truth is, organic farmers are only limited to the fertilizers and pesticides they can use, not completely banned to do so.  And when farmers have rough seasons, most will turn to some type of help to keep putting food on their families tables.  So when you're buying that organically grown lettuce that you're going to go home and wash before you're eating anyway, you kind of washing that money down the sink.  Buying fresh produce is enough.  If you want the added benefits of an organic product, do so in your protein (meat, eggs and the like).  Rules are stricter and you will taste and feel the benefits.  *Soapbox moment over*

Time is also a big issue I hear people talk about when wanting to make a change in what they eat.  For that I say, I hear ya!  My life is just as crazy as the rest of yours, and while I would love to spend my days testing healthy recipes for my family (and readers), it's not practical to everyday life.  So, that's why at the end of every Wednesday blog, I'm going to give you a recipe that is healthy, family friendly, tasty...and most importantly...quick and cheap!  Sound good?  Here you go...

Edamame Hummus (adapted from Oh My Veggies)

Quick note here:  I am a hummus fanatic!  I would buy Trader Joe's out of every single flavor every single day if I could.  But it's so easy and I know I could get more bang for my buck if I made it.  So I ran on to this gem one night...which I immediately cheered about since Trader Joe's doesn't sell Edamame Hummus anymore.  With a few tweeks, I had a fabulous hummus I would put up against them any day!

Ingredients
1 16 oz bag frozen edamame; thawed (not cooked-it gets really mushy if you do!)
3 T lemon juice
4 cloves garlic; peeled
1/2 c cilantro; leaves picked and stems discarded
1/2 c tahini (sesame seed paste)
4-6 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1 - Get out your handy dandy food processor and get ready to be amazed at how easy this is!  The original recipe called to rough chop the garlic and cilantro (or herb of your choice).  No need!  Let the processor do the work for you.  And don't be scared about adding the thawed edamame without "cooking" them first.  I ate a handful just to be safe and I'm still here :)
2 - Add everything to your food processor except the olive oil.

3 - After a few seconds, slowly drizzle in your olive oil while the processor is running.  Stop halfway through, scrape down the sides, and continue adding the rest of your olive oil.
4 - Taste, season as you would like with salt and pepper and mix again.  Done!

My little one was even chomping at the bit to get a hold of this one!  Best yet, along with being "clean eating" approved, it's vegan, dairy free and gluten free!  Yeah for quick, easy and healthy!

Stay tuned next week for a few snacks for the little ones in your lives...

A New Kind of New Year's Resolution

On Saturday, it will be March.  By that time, most of the people that made New Year's resolutions have long broken and abandoned them.  The odds are against any one who makes them anyway since change is hard and takes a while for a new behavior to become a habit.  Life gets in the way and sooner or later, most people fall back in the same routine, more than likely feeling like a failure that they couldn't do the one thing different they wanted to do this year.

Sound familiar?  This happens to me almost every year.  In reflecting why my New Year's resolutions don't stick, it's more than like because my list of things I want to do differently usually looks something like this...

No mom, I didn't start smoking and you and I both know I call you...but you get the point.  Our resolutions turn into more of a shopping list than one or two attainable goals.  No wonder we give up.  We set ourselves up to fail.

Now, ideally, I would like my attitude about resolutions to look something like this...

Unfortunately, I've never had that good of an opinion about myself.  That's when it hit me.  My resolution for this year...

"Do something about it or stop bitching about it."

This can go for anything in my life that I don't like.  Too often I find that instead of taking an active role in fixing the things I'm unhappy with, may they be physical or otherwise, I complain more that I try and change them.  And that's what I want to change this year.

I'll be honest, it hasn't been the easiest journey so far.  I brought back more than a few extra pounds from France...thanks to all that wine, cheese and yummy bread...so I knew I wanted to get my diet back in shape and loose some weight.  I thought what better way to jump start this than to complete another Whole30?  I'd done it before, so what would be so hard about doing it again?  Until the hubs and I had our first date night in months and I wanted a drink...or two...and my dad turned 60 and I wanted to eat the cake I made him.  Call it lack of will power, but life events combined with the fact that I just started a new job as an Assistant Pastry Chef...and the Whole30 just wasn't going to work for me right now.

THIS time, instead of getting discouraged and completely throwing in the towel, I decided to take a step back and reevaluated how I was going to approach the "diet" aspect of loosing some weight.  I'm starting small this time and working up from there, beginning with making Paleo dinners for the whole family.  Last night I made this yummy recipe for roasted chicken:

This was everything I love in a recipe...one pan, quick prep, healthy and oh so yummy!  It's Whole30 compliant and flexible to change up to use what you have on hand.  Give it a try, I know it will be a hit!

Crispy Roast Chicken and Vegetables adapted from Stuff I Make My Husband


1 whole chicken (cut into 8 or 10 pieces...if you feel like it, throw some water over the bones, add a little salt and pepper, put it on low heat for 10-12 hours and you have homemade stock!)
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
2 T dried rosemary
2 T dried oregano
2 T dried thyme
1 bunch asparagus; trimmed to 2 inch lengths
10 oz box frozen artichoke hearts; thawed
1 red bell pepper; cut into chunks

*Recipe note: If you look at the recipe, you see some of the veggies I used are different.  Here's where this recipe is great.  You can put any vegetable in you have on hand...which could help lower the monthly grocery bill (Yep...another goal...)

1 - Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2 - In a bowl, combine olive oil and herbs.
3 - Toss the veggies in the olive mixture.  Remove from the oil and line the bottom of a roasting pan with them.  I had a disposable one on hand which made clean up even easier!
4 - Arrange the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top of the veggies.  Pour the olive oil mixture over the chicken.  Cover with alluminum foil and cook for 45 minutes.
5 - Remove the foil and cook for an additional 15 minute.  Turn oven up to broil for the last 2-3 minutes to really get the skin crispy. 

So here's my new start for my New Year's resolution.  Along with starting my new job, I've also agreed to supply healthy treats for the hubs to take to doctor's offices to help drum up some business for the pharmacy.  We've also talked about me doing a blog once a week focusing on a dietary concern or healthy meal to post on the pharmacy Facebook page.  Lots of new things coming up!

What are your major health or dietary concerns?

Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

DISCLAIMER:  I am a southerner!  Born.  Bred.  Lived here all my life.  Although I welcome readers from all areas of the country...and world...I want no fun being made by all the northerners out there.  After all, when the temps rise above 80 and you freak out about the heat, we southerners don't call you sissies for not being able to handle it correctly.  So here is my take on our snow storm from last week.  No judgement here :)

"Snowmagedon" as I heard many Facebook friends refer to it, began on Tuesday, February 11.  Although it was by no means the end of the world, almost a foot of snow fell on the lovely city of Charlotte before the sun went down on Thursday.  Our city, the largest in the state, has only four snow plows and NO way of really handling this kind of snow.  In all my years living in NC, I've never seen it snow so hard for so long.  It really did shut down the city and had me wishing that I had gone to the grocery store with the rest of the crazies to clear out the milk and bread aisle...both of which we ran out of!

The little one was in heaven!  She spent the first day "shoveling" our back yard and Thursday we built a snowman.  She was quite surprised at the amount of snow on the ground and how she would sink when she jumped in the snow.  I know I'm biased, but she's pretty much the most adorable girl in the world!

After time in the cold, all I wanted for lunch was the same thing my mom always made on snow days growing up...grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Here's were I had to get creative.  The grilled cheese was handled, although this would be the last of our bread.  But we had no actual tomato soup.  I dug through the cabinets and came up with the following in which to put a concoction together...

Random ingredients to make my soup with.  After all, my first chef in culinary school would say that soup is nothing but liquid with stuff in it.  So here's the best at a recipe for you (note my lovely measurements for this one!)

Tossed Together Tomato Soup

1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 jar tomato basil spaghetti sauce
3-4 c chicken broth; the more you put the thinner it will be
3-4 shakes across the pot of each of the following: shredded Parmesan
; thyme; rosemary; oregano; garlic salt and pepper

Looks like this in the pot

Throw it all in and stir it up

Heat it through and serve with a toasty grilled cheese

Perfect end to a perfect day!

A Sweet 60th Surprise!

This year is a big one for birthdays!  Both my parents and the hubs parents turn 60 this year.  About a week and a half before my dad's birthday, my mom called to ask what I thought we should do.  "Have a party!"  I suggested...and we were off to pull off a surprise party...in about 12 days.

For those of you who have met or know my dad, you know getting something by him is no small task.  For those of you who don't know him, he's very smart, extremely curious and is known to figure out presents simply by looking at the box...sometimes even if it's camouflaged.  Pulling off a surprise party wouldn't be easy.  His birthday fell the Tuesday before Valentine's Day, so we set the day for the Saturday before.  Mom told him I would be coming into town to cook him a birthday dinner, a friend of him took him boat shopping in Raleigh for the day, which got him out of the house and with the hubs acting as my sous chef for the day, we pulled off all the food for the party!  When the moment of truth came, we (all 50 or so of us) waited patiently to see if Mr. Detective would really be surprised...

...and he REALLY WAS!!  I was pretty amazed that we pulled the whole thing off without him expecting anything.  My dad is a big golfer so I named the food with golf terms and made him a golf cake, vanilla with Bailey's ganache on the top and carrot cake (his favorite) on the bottom.

Thanks to Pinterest, I also had the idea to print off pictures of dad through the years in the shape of a "60".  I think it turned out pretty awesome!

A fun time was had by all!

Not Your Average Shrimp and Grits

I'm a southern girl.  Born and bred.  One of my favorite southern meals is shrimp and grits.  Between being out of the country for almost four months and hitting up the paleo diet before we left, I hadn't made shrimp and grits in a loooong time.  My craving hit, I was determined to make it for dinner and then I looked in the freezer.  NO SHRIMP!  I had everything else I needed but the shrimp.  So what does one do when you have a craving for something specific but don't want to brave the cold to go to the grocery store...improvise!  So here is my new play on shrimp and grits....

Italian Sausage and Grits!  It would actually work out perfect.  We had a huge pack of Italian sausage in the freezer and the hubs has been requesting that I try out making paella sometime soon.  So I used half the sausage for this and bagged the rest to save for paella later in the week.  I still missed the shrimp, but this was a good, yummy and (best of all) quick alternate!  Everyone cleared their plates!  Try it out sometime and let me know what you think!

Italian Sausage and Grits - Serves 4 (adapted from Baked Polenta from Spoon, Fork, Bacon)

1 lb Italian sausage; casings removed
1/2 red onion; diced
4 garlic cloves; minced
4 oz cremini mushrooms; cleaned and sliced
2 T thyme; minced
1/4 c chicken or beef broth
4 1/2 c water
1 1/2 c yellow cornmeal
3 T unsalted butter
6 oz goat cheese; crumbled
3 T parmesan; grated
salt and pepper

1 - Heat a skillet over medium high heat.  Brown the sausage.  Remove from the pan reserving the drippings in the pan.
2 - Add red onion and garlic to the skillet.  Cook until transparent.  Add the mushrooms.  Cook until slightly softened.  Add thyme and broth.  Reduce heat to medium and cook until slightly reduced, 5-10 minutes.
3 - Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a pot.  Whisk in yellow cornmeal in a slow stream.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened (about 5 minutes).
4 - Add butter and cheeses to the pot and stir until melted.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5 - Return sausage to the skillet and heat through.  Serve sausage mixture over polenta.

What's on your plate for the big game?  See what was on mine soon...