Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Baking...

I love baking! I love bringing out my Kitchen Aid mixer (named Jill) and filling the whole house with the yummy fragrance. I am, however, in a baking slump lately. It's too hot over here (in Southern California) and I don't want to heat up the house anymore than I have to. And it is SO costly to buy all the ingredients! The cost of good chocolate is sky high these days. This is my dilemma...

Friday night is my brother's birthday. For some reason he decided he was going to make dinner for all his friends and family. It's kinda fancy! Here's the menu he created and send out via facebook message to all his friends:

Menu
Leek and Mozzarella Flatbread
Bacon wrapped scallops and asparagus
Stuffed Mushrooms
Tangy Plum Cole Slaw
Balsamic Rosemary Chicken
Garlic Herb Butter Salmon
Grilled Vegetable Medley

and dessert from Kasey's Kitchen


"and dessert from Kasey's Kitchen"! Talk about pressure for someone who's not in the mood! I wanted to try to make Madeline cookies and dip the tops in chocolate and do an ice cream cake with coffee ice cream and chocolate cake ... but I don't know. I've never tried to make Madelines before.

Does anyone have any ideas?

PS more Michael Miller fabrics will be here FRIDAY including laminated cotton Dandy Damask in Black! I thought that's be a perfect material for diaper bags or maybe a table cloth!

Happy Wednesday!

2 comments:

  1. Your brother's menu is rather ambitious, but sounds divine ! All I can offer is one of my all time favorites, no cook, perfect for those last sizzling days of summer.
    Take a nice large angel food cake (if you feel like baking it can be homemade, I always bought mine from the grocery or bakery.
    Place it on a nice platter or tray and cut an even 1 to 1.5 inch slice off the top (that part that would have been the bottom in the cake pan). You can try to gauge this by placing toothpicks around the side measuring at least an 1 down from top.
    Use a serrated type bread knife of your electric knife and cleanly, evenly slice off the top...set this aside. On the inside of cake carefully slice around the outside edge and the inside (tube) edge leaving a wall of cake about an 1 thick...also be careful not to cut through to the bottom of the cake.
    Now take a fork (or a spoon if you prefer) and begin to carefully remove the interior of the cake. Do this carefully making sure you leave a substantial shell of cake around the two outer walls and on the bottom.
    Now the yummy part.
    1 small can of chopped or crushed pineapple (drained well)
    1 pt. of sweet ripe strawberries, cleaned and sliced
    1/2 to 1/3 cup of mini-marshmallows
    1/3 cup of sliced almonds or chopped walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts (whichever you prefer or nuts can be optional).
    Whipped cream, sweeten and whipped until stiff peaks form...I prefer Dream Whip as it keeps in the refrigerator better, doesn't separate like cream can.
    Mix about 1.5 to 2 cups whipped topping with the other ingredients and lightly fill the hollow of cake completely, making sure there are no air pockets and also not so full that it distorts sides of cake.
    Carefully replace the top slice and then cover the entire outside of cake with a thick layer of whipped topping.
    Be sure to save a couple of extra nice strawberries to decorate the top of cake with and maybe a few sliced almonds. There is also a way to make marshmallow daisies but I never had any luck doing those...always ended up with a gob of sticky white goo and gummed up scissors, yes the secret was to use scissors to cut through the marshmallows, but as I said it never worked for me so I just stuck with the strawberries and almond slices.
    My family loved it as it was a very light and cooling desert.

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  2. Ooh I don't know if it would be appropriate for the rest of the menu, but these desserts are SO cute and no baking required!
    http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/04/springy-flower-pot-desserts-a-blast-from-my-past/

    You could also do maybe do a mousse... I like to make one with strawberries, basil, and mint - it's a surprisingly great combination! I think there are some simple recipes from Jell-O or something, or Recipezaar/Epicurious.

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