Mother's Day Menu - The Happiest of Days

A happy happy happy belated Mother's Day to all of the Mother's out there. Yesterday was quite honestly, the happiest Mother's Day I can remember, plus it was all about "me". When I was a new mom, since I was a single mom much of my children's lives, Mother's Day focused on my own mother, who was such a critical part of my life and support system. She enabled me to have it all because she helped me so much raising my three children (21, 20, 15), I was able to still have a very successful career. On July 7, 2008, my mother passed away, my life changed on a dime, and the next several years focused on my grief from not having a living mother and how much I missed her.

Yesterday, about 6 pm, I thought about my mom, and when I did, I had the distinct memory that I was moving forward with my grief and I almost woke up this morning feeling "guilty" for not thinking more about her yesterday, so I opened Facebook and did an appropriate tribute.

It was literally the first time in my memory that I felt like a matriarch of my family.

Since it was my day, things went my way...which meant I cooked breakfast. I love love love to cook, but I don't do it as often as I'd like, so I took the opportunity.

Mother's Day Menu

 

Munka - A Swedish Pancake

(also known as Æbleskiver)

 

Apple Syrup

 

Maple Coffee

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Munka
Ingredients:
2 c. buttermilk
3 eggs separated
2 c. flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
Granulated sugar for rolling

Beat egg yolks and stir in buttermilk.  Sift dry ingredients together and stir in buttermilk and egg yolk mixture.  Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Heat the munka pan on the stovetop at medium heat with butter or shortening in each slot (you can also use applesauce). My munka is cast iron, it belonged to my mother. I use a toothpick to turn the munka which will bubble like a pancake will when it's time to turn.

Roll in granular sugar prior to serving. You can also use a ligonberry jam, powdered sugar...anything in your imagination you would typically put on a pancake. I use granulated sugar, because it's a tradition.


Apple Syrup
Ingredients:
1 can Apple Pie Filling
1/2 cup Maple Syrup

An apple flavored munka is not uncommon, thus why I will occasionally use applesauce in the slots, however, I wanted to make it the traditional meal my mom did, thus I used butter. To compensate, because my boyfriend loves apple pie, and it's the easiest thing in the world (to me) to make a flavored syrup, I used a can of apple pie filling. I love to make flavored syrup because it's basically open a can of fresh fruit and add maple syrup, and as Will Farrell said in the movie "Elf", maple syrup was one of the primary food groups, or something like that. I don't feel like looking up the quote, or the spelling of Farrell. You can also use jam. If you use jam I try to make it equal parts syrup to jam. Heat on stove top at medium heat until combined and warm. Serve warm.


Bacon

Bacon is the that in my opinion gives me the most bang for my buck so to speak. I've been dieting "years", in fact, as of today, it's official, I'm 127.2 lbs down (yip yip yip yahoo) and bacon is a food that for the amount of calories it packs, brings a punch of flavor. About 50 to 75 calories a slice, the key is to keep it at 2 slices...I have nothing less to say about that.

Sometimes I'll do bacon in the oven, 425 - 20 minutes on a cookie cooker that is sitting on top of a cookie sheet, but I'll also do bacon in my dutch oven on the stove top. Depends on how crispy I want it. If I start with frozen bacon, I'll use the dutch oven. Using the dutch oven makes the color crispy and black, but sometimes you are just in the mood for lightly burnt bacon.


Maple Coffee
Ingredients:
1 part Half and Half
1 part Maple Syrup
2 parts Coffee

It's magical...trust me, it's my Christmas go to and I was out of coffee creamer at home. Please don't listen to my boyfriend who said he'd wait until next Christmas to try it...

:)

Cook on the stove top, at low to medium heat. Top with whipped cream if you wish. This dish translates beautiful to a very low cal treat, use fat free milk, or fat free half and half with sugar free maple syrup!

Make me a panini...pppplllllleeeeeeaaaaasssssseeeeee.....

Nine O'clock on a Tuesday night. My shoes are on, my sink is polished (aka no dishes), I'm sitting on the couch editing my last blog (From April...uht oh) and just as I was getting ready to shut down my computer and settle in for the evening...

"Mmmmmmooooooooommmmmmmm. Can you make me a panini?" My daughter said.

I tried to ignore her.

"Please." She said.

I looked up, and I tried to look as tired as possible.

"Ppppppllllllleeeeeeeaaaaaassssseeee."

Since looking tired wasn't working, I gave in, and reopened the kitchen.

Truth. A traditional Italian salami sandwich is very simple. Good bread, olive oil, salt, pepper, salame. Period. Any questions?

I've been known to vary my panini ingredients, but typically, I'll keep it simple. The secret to a good panini, is an excellent panini maker. Here is mine. It's one of the best on the market. A brick from my house. Hey I paid $XXX,XXX for that brick.

Next you need good bread (a challenge in Dallas...but there are places, like Eatzi's you can get some good, quality, Italian bread).

And lastly, good meat and good olive oil. I chose a traditional salame, calabrese and capocollo. (Forgive me for the pictures...I used my cell phone...no bueno.)

Drizzle the olive oil on both sides of the bread. Sprinkle bread with salt and pepper. Place the deli meat in the sandwich and place the closed sandwich in a hot fry pan (with more oil). Place the brick on top of the sandwich, use a plate if you need to for balance. Flip when browned and serve.

From Couch to a Clean House

Draft from April 23, 2012

Quick Note: Since I have not taken the time to revisit this post since April 23rd...I thought I should give an update.

1. My shoes are on (and it's 8:30 pm.)
2. Me: "Do we have any dishes in the sink?"  Aly: "No".  I'm not going to get up and check.
3. Confession...I didn't make my bed this morning, but I still think I'm on the right track.
4. I have an amazing friend who comes by once a month and helps me with my housekeeping but she hasn't been here in about six weeks. I'm happy because she's coming in a few days! Yahoo.
5. I've made it a point to read (an actual book) for at least 15 to 30 minutes 4x a week.
6. I threw a little pool opening party last weekend for some girlfriends...I don't remember if I kept my shoes on or not...
7. It's official. I own more than one pair shoes that have laces. I purchased them a week ago from Old Navy while with some girlfriends in San Marcos/Gruene.
8. Aly is asking for a panini so I have to get up off the couch...recipe to follow...maybe a photo too.

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End of day 1, getting my life back. I'm pretty pleased with myself. I found an article/website/blog about getting "couched to organized" in baby steps. I'm not really unorganized, but there are nights I go to sleep with a messy kitchen and living room, especially when I'm not cooking for my 15 year old daughter...(shhhh...that means she cooked for herself so I didn't make the mess), so I thought it was a good place to start. Plus I have someone help clean once a month and today was her day. I pay her in advance, it hadn't arrived yet (sent it on the 18th) so she didn't come. I kind of thought, well, here's my chance to save some money in the future.  Anyway, step one of the article was to clean and polish your kitchen sink every night before going to bed. It even mentioned wiping the water drops out of the basin AND keeping a dish pan under the sink for dirty dishes in the am if you don't have a dishwasher (or your family refused to use it). A little too far out of the park for me, but I get the point. Having no dishes in your sink means an unloaded and loaded dishwasher plus a clean counter top. And if you're like me, and your kitchen is 100% visible from your living room, it even motivated me to put the pillows in the proper place on my couch. I am even going to dare to attempt something I haven't done since I've filed for divorce. Read...like an actual book before I go to sleep. At least a few pages to help wind down and create a habit. Tomorrow's task (in addition to the empty sink) is to wear my shoes all day. Huh? That one struck a cord with me. Even if I'm throwing a formal dinner party I will attend my own party without shoes on. The task is based that if you don't have shoes on, your not prepared to work, thus as the tasks get harder, it will be easier to ignore them or procrastinate. And by shoes she means fully dressed. Even if it's a track suit. Showered, hair, make up, jewelry, dressed, shoes. Sigh, this one will be harder on weekends and when I get home, but I'll give it a whirl. Wish me luck. <3


Ref: http://www.flylady.com/

Letting Go of Perfection

Letting Go of Perfection - Let Them Eat Cake - Cupcakes that is...

Total honestly. I'm a perfectionist, because I'm a perfectionist, I've probably iced a cake and or cupcake only a handful of times in my entire lifetime. But with cupcakes everywhere, I kept on thinking to myself, I've got to start somewhere so I did the following.

1. Watched a tutorial on cupcake icing.
2. Found an effortless cupcake recipe.
3. Found an effortless icing recipe.

Okay, I'm now three for three. It's going to be a good day. I post to facebook that I'm going to make cupcakes, so I actually get off the couch and now that I've committed, I'm up off the couch and off to the kitchen.

And I get out the stuff and begin.

Ut oh. I have no butter compartment on my refrigerator. What? Yep, the "butter" compartment on my two year old french door, stainless steel refrigerator is gone. So I yell (in a very calm manner, I assure you) for my 15 year old daughter. "Where is the butter compartment?"

Then I hear a story about she was in the kitchen yesterday and it "broke" and I was taking a nap so she asked my boyfriend to fix it...

In the meantime, obviously I've called him, repeated the story, he ignored the question...

"Where is the butter that was in the butter compartment?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Where's the margarine?"

More shoulder shrugging. Truth is that I had two full tubs of margarine in the fridge but I tend to use only butter sticks and my daughter went through the refrigerator the other day and cleaned it out (to be helpful) and I think since we never use the tub margarine, the date was probably expired so it was tossed. Just a theory though.

Now, a logical person would go to the store, and buy butter, but I'm stubborn. Going to the store would have been procrastination. Plus I planned to spend the day in my jammies. Hey, I'm making an effort to bake. I can stay in jammies if I want.

I remember that somewhere in the back of the pantry I have Crisco. I know I know. Back to the positive. We're back on track.

Bing! The cupcakes are taken out of the oven by my daughter who didn't know I used shortening instead of butter. She obviously knew we didn't have butter but I'm sure it never crossed her mind. I walk into the kitchen and she has half a cupcake in her mouth. "Good." She mumbles with a full mouth.

I smile to myself and break off a piece to taste and see for myself. Indeed, it was a very nice tasting simple cupcake. Moist, really moist. I might have to test the recipe with butter and see if it is just as moist.

Now for the frosting. Cream cheese frosting is my favorite, but for icing, I like butter cream because frankly it's stiffer.

I swap the frosting recipe I choose for one that used shortening, threw in red food coloring and viola. Now to find my cake decorating tools. Ummm...where are my cake decorating tools. I vaguely remembered making a three tier cake for my oldest daughter's birthday in 09. I know I purchased bags and tips. Where or where.

Ummm...yep, can't find them. Hey, I've only moved from San Francisco to Frisco Texas since then. So, now what?

Okay, I'll just use my cake knife or is that called a cake spatula? Whatever, it's for icing cakes. That I was able to find. I look at it in my drawer every day to remind myself to bake more.

So I remembered a technique where a good amount of frosting is plopped on top and then swilled around with the cake spatula. I did one. For a first attempt I wasn't that displeased with it but I wanted to find my piping tools, so I left the kitchen to try another box.

When I returned my daughter had filled a plastic sandwich bag with the icing and cut off the corner and was piping away. I was also gone long enough for her to pull out sprinkles and colored sugar. She had decorated two cupcakes beautifully, and got bored. She left the kitchen to do some homework.

I waited a few hours for the remainder of the cupcakes to frost themselves...and since that didn't happen, and there was hardly frosting left...(no comment), I just took a table knife and finished them off.

Then I pulled out ribs, did a simple salt and pepper rub. 45 minutes at 375 and some baked potatoes. Bing! Back to the oven. I pulled out the biggest baked potatoes I've ever seen. Then I remembered, and sighed. I have no butter.

I sent my daughter out to a few neighbors to borrow butter. Hey it's a potato. I wanted butter.

When I officially try again, I'll post pictures.

;)

ref:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-white-cake/
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Easy-Vanilla-Buttercream-Frosting
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-white-icing-ever/
http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2012/02/cupcake-decorating-tutorial.html

Party Like a Rock Star - Food Challenge

Fearless and always up to a challenge, I decided to challenge myself to create a menu for my boyfriends birthday. Simple enough...or so you'd think. Think again...he is the producer of a recently released heavy metal cd.

No, I haven't lost my mind. To be honest, I've always loved 80's rock (Hairband and Country are my only two Pandora stations) and now it's official, thanks to Creeper and their new cd "Welcome to Room #9" I'm in love with Texas metal.

So far this is what I've come up with.

Screaming Demon - Savory Glazed Chicken Wings

Timmy - BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos
...
The Magic - Deep Dish Antipasto Pizza

Push It - Mini Cheese Cakes

She Can’t Take No More - Crown based Cocktails

Want to help me with my vision, here's a link to the album on Amazon where you can hear a little snippet.

http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-To-Room-9-Explicit/dp/B007FH3F94/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334635331&sr=301-1

Rock On \m/ \m/

My Love of Tortilla Soup Continues

Lunch at the Belo - a one act play

Screen Play By: Robbyn Conciatore

Characters: Nina aka Buttercup, and Robbyn Conciatore

Scene:

An elegant buffet lunch in a dinning reception room at The Belo Manson. The walls are are the colors of lemon crème. The chandeliers and lighting are dazzling. The china are  sparkling.

Buttercup is eating happily. "These carrots are tasty." She says as she points to her plate of deep orange carrots in a light orange glaze. "What is the glaze?" 

Robbyn considers dipping her finger in Nina's food, but thinks against it. She decides instead to take a spoon and put a pen tip of glaze on the spoon. She carefully puts it in her mouth and says instantly. "Frozen orange juice concentrate." She pauses. "Would you like for me to make this for your party Saturday?"

Nina wrinkles her nose. "No."

Close scene.

---------------------------------

I am fortunate that I have the ability to taste something and know the ingredients used. I seem to be on a Tortilla Soup tour of Texas. I have a recipe I developed that is my go to at home, but I still also love to have it out. It's relatively unique where I believe I've never had it in a restaurant the same way twice (provided the restaurant is different...).

Today was no exception. Alyson and I went to Ernesto's Mexican food (definitely not Tex Mex) and it put a new twist on my go to fav. My interpretation of how they did it, I'm going to call Chicken Tortilla Soup ala Ernesto.

Chicken Tortilla Soup ala Ernesto was a chicken stock based soup. (Relatively common). It had a splash of homemade salsa (Pureed tomatoes, fresh cilantro, chopped white onions, cumin, minced garlic). Shredded monterrey jack cheese was placed at the bottom of the bowl and topped with a shredded boneless skinless chicken breast. The broth mixture of the purred salsa and chicken broth is placed in the bowl and topped with more diced fresh tomatoes, green chilies, sliced avocados and tortilla chip strips.

Since I'm on a roll, I'm also sharing my interpretation of the Chicken Tortilla Soup at my favorite Mexican Restaurant. I'm calling it Chicken Tortilla Soup ala Pepe.

This Chicken Tortilla Soup is the first I had that did not appear to have any, (yep...not one) tomato. Not purred, not chopped, not canned...nada. In a bowl, place shredded monterrey jack cheese, and top with a shredded boneless skinless chicken breast. Season the chicken breast with cumin, salt and pepper before cooking and shredding. Top with chicken broth and sliced avocados and tortilla chip strips.

 

 

And lastly, that brings me to my favorite Avocado Soup, which quite honestly is the Chicken Tortilla Soup ala Pepe without chicken. A dash of salt and pepper, maybe minced garlic and voila.

:)

A Shower for Baby Carlos

I am really the luckiest person in the world. When I moved to Dallas after spending my entire life just a couple miles from San Francisco I never, ever, dreamed how well everything would click. Quite honestly, I have found that when I face fear head on, I end up putting myself on a path of personal growth and success...to the point where sometimes I'm sobered, at what would have happened if I would have said "no thank you" instead of "yes" and then panicking about the thought of the task later.

That sums up how I approached cooking and baking. When my mother passed away in July of 08, I hired a caterer for her wake. (He did an amazing job...btw. My caterer was my friend Faylene Bandar's 19 year old son Nathan Kaplan, who had received the culinary award from Terra Nova High School. He did the shopping, planned the menu, set the table. Everything.

I was in a fog that day so I don't remember what he served, but when he appeared from my kitchen when everything was just about over, he received a round of applause. That I remember very well.

So here I am, an orphan, and although I entertained very often, I really didn't cook or bake. I just never had time to learn. I went through brief periods so I knew if I had a recipe I could do it, but I also never made the same thing twice.

Just before this I had a little birthday party and my dear friends gave me things like salt & pepper shakers, cutting boards, and a butcher block knife set. I actually received a few salt & pepper shaker sets at that party...my friends must have talked.  :)

I was going through my mother's things, which brought me to my father's things, which brought me to his father's things. My grandfather, Silvio Conciatore, was a renowned chef in San Francisco. My cousin Gina is amazing so I was hoping the talent ran in the family. It was at that moment that I decided if he could do it, I could do it, and my culinary adventure began.

Fast forward to last Saturday, the day before Easter. I still don't cook or bake every day. I'm really trying to just cook a home cooked meal once a week because of my schedule, but when I do cook, I love it.

My dear friend Kristi Mayne was at my home for a jewelry launch party (I sell Parklane...gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous) and we were talking about her pregnancy and I told her that I'd love to throw a shower for her, and that I've never, ever, EVER thrown a shower for anyone. Not a bridal shower, baby shower, engagement...never but I really wanted to. She was kind enough to accept the offer and with the help of my friend, Viv Demianiw the planning began.

I promised I'd post all of the recipes used for the shower. I do want to add quickly that I have a definite style. Because I have so little time (or at least I feel I have so little time) I lean very heavily on simple. I remember reading that the Barefoot Contessa recommends just having 3 homemade items at a party so you can enjoy the party. I have a twist on that. Generally, in regards to what I'm serving, I'll have several items that I can get to the table with my hands tied behind my back, and than one item that is a little more time consuming. For the most part, I choose things that make a dramatic presentation, but are, for the most part, simple.

Kristi's Baby Shower Menu

Crab Quiche

Tea Sandwiches

Grape Salad

Blue Cloud Punch

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

Cupcakes

Coffee Bar

Viv was sweet enough to bring the cupcakes and humus. Both could have been made but I wanted to focus on the chocolate dipped pretzels.

 

Crab Quiche - The Crab Quiche was made by my daughter Alyson who is 15. My crab quiche recipe is essentially the same as a traditional quiche recipe, but I use a little mustard as well. Four to six eggs (depends on the size of the pie plate, casserole dish). My crab quiche is the same as my crab casserole but one has a crust and the other doesn't. Just over cup half & half, two cups shredded cheese (I like to use a combo of monterrey jack and cheddar even though the traditional cheese used for quiche is gruyere), crab (we used a packaged frozen crab), just under one tablespoon of mustard (dijon or yellow, depends how much of the taste you are shooting for), a frozen pie crust and salt and pepper. 375/45 minutes.

Tea Sandwiches - Often I take an idea I've seen on a cooking show, or read in a magazine and make it my own. I do that because I'm too lazy to read the recipe twice. So I just made an interpretation and go with it. I've been pretty lucky. (That is why my recipes have so much room for your own flare.) I did make an exception when it came to my Tea Sandwiches. The Paula Deen idea I used to create mine is just too close to not give Paula credit. Here is a link to the recipe and a video. The sandwiches were so easy I was able to get a little assembly line going during the shower and my sweet friend Kimberley Smith and Alyson sliced the bread and did the garnish. We used bacon bits, parsley and chopped pecans.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/engagement-ring-finger-sandwiches-recipe/index.html



Grape Salad - I enjoyed this a few years ago at a PTA meeting. I wanted to ask for the recipe but missed my window so I got lucky with google. I put a little twist on this, but not enough to say it was my own.

http://www.food.com/recipe/grape-salad-with-a-twist-236360

Blue Cloud Punch - Finally an original recipe, even though I'm sure with a few keyboard strokes and google someone is doing something similar. I used vanilla ice cream, and Blue Mt. Dew. It was magical.



Chocolate Dipped Pretzels - My dear friend Lauren Labar has really inspired me. She's the biggest reason I've brought back the food blog. She was kind enough to pass this tutorial to me so I'm going to share it with y'all. It took time, but it was worth it. I was even able to find blue chocolate.

http://www.lovefromtheoven.com/2011/02/02/chocolate-covered-pretzel-tutorial/