Deviled Ham a la Rachael and Debbie

The ham we had the other night was good but just a tad salty for something like a sandwich. Debbie had suggested ham salad. I remember a "30 Minute Meals" episode where Rachael made one of her mug toppers for soup, with deviled ham. I took what I remembered from that episode and combined it with Debbie’s recipe, put chunked ham in the food processor with some onion and ground it up, then mixed in mayonnaise to get it to spreading consistency. Rachael is always talking about how "it’s the method, not the ingredients" as far as adlibbing recipes with what you have on hand or what your personal preferences are. After-the-fact I looked online and saw her recipe has paprika and hot sauce, and no mayo, but yellow mustard to thin out the mixture. I did put mustard on my sandwich but spread it on the bread instead of mixing it in. Anyway, it turned out yummy. "Diluting" the ham by making it into a salad helped with the saltiness.

Corn Casserole and Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

We had a belated Easter dinner last night since it was 90 degrees here on Easter. Don tried "baking" it on the propane grill outside last night, since it was cooler but still in the 80’s. We’d never done this before. I put the ham in a Reynold’s oven bag and we cooked the ham until it was 140 inside. It looked a little blackened and the twist-tie on the oven bag melted. Next time I think I will use aluminum foil or a foil bag so I don’t get as many carcinogens baked in. Anyway, it actually tasted fine and was moist.

To go along with the ham, Carol made scalloped potatoes, and I made Paula’s Corn Casserole (which Debbie had recommended, and I’d read good reviews of online). I was disappointed with the corn, it was too sweet for my liking, and it was mushy in the middle. I don't think I baked it long enough plus I put it in a small, tall pan, and I think a wide, flat pan (like a pie plate) would have worked better. I’m going to try making corncakes with the leftovers by shaping them into patties and browning them in a little butter.

For dessert, Gary made jello with bananas, and I made another Paula dessert, her Cherry Cream Cheese Pie. This was a bigger hit than the corn casserole. Gary thought it was really rich and the pie filling put it over the top. Don’s Mom makes a similar pie with lemon pudding mix and cream cheese that is lighter in texture. Don was surprised, he thought it was better than he’d expected. Unlike Debbie I don’t have a lemon tree in my backyard so I ended up using lemon juice from one of those lemon-shaped bottles. The fresh lemons at the store looked rotten. Next time I’ll just use lime juice, since I can get a big bag of key limes for $2 at Walmart.

(Rant: I don’t know why some things are so expensive and others are so cheap! The fresh, rotten lemons were going for 50 cents apiece. I can buy a giant bunch of cilantro for less than 50 cents yet a grapefruit grown in Texas is nearly a dollar, and cheaper in California even after it is shipped all the way there.)

Easter Peeps

Cooking with Rachael and Friends

I've been sick as a dog for days, just managed to drag myself into work today. I made myelf go in because I have a sit down job and am on the mend, so figured I'd probably get more rest at work than I would at home where partner Kate is cleaning the carpets.

Needless to say, I haven't done much cooking recently. So this blog entry is "An Ode To Peeps", my all time favorite easter candy. One memorable easter, about 10 years ago, I packed on 20 lbs by indulging my every Peep whim.

Subsequently, I've been much more reserved in my Peeping and only bought and ate a couple packages this year by waiting until the last week before Easter to buy them. Then, being sick for 4 days, kept me off of them even longer. So last night I finished a package and will eat the 2nd package tomorrow and I promise, promise, promise not to hit the 50% off after-holiday sales.

My daughter Emily and her partner Robin are hosting Easter dinner and I offered to bring the desserts. Daughter Jeanne promised to help, as I'm too weak to pull it off myself. So we agreed to make our new favorite dessert - Paula Deen's Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding and get a strawberry pie (Emily's favorite) from Cocos. Robin is very excited that we're making the banana pudding, as she's heard so much about it.

Happy Easter everyone!

Banana Bread

On Sunday morning I got up early and made Paula Deen's Banana Bread. What's a cookbook without a recipe for banana bread? Not much, in my opinion. Usually when I have overripe bananas, I use Jiffy banana nut muffin mix and follow the directions, add the mashed bananas and bake. This time I was glad I made it from scratch. The bread looked beautiful and had a wonderful texture and wasn't as sweet at the Jiffy concoction.

I cut a couple of big, hot pieces and slathered on some butter, wrapped them in foil and brought them to work. As I ate them, I envisioned Kate and granddaughter Rachel (who is visiting for spring break) waking up to that nice surprise and enjoying the bread. I was dismayed to get home and discover that no one had touched it! So I whined until they both promised to have a piece. 3 thumbs up!

We subscribed to Netflix a couple of months ago and love it! We have seen more movies in the last 8 weeks, than we had the entire 3 years we've been together. Our most recent rentals are the Showtime Series "Fat Actress" with Kirstie Alley. We watched Disc 1 last night. Since it's on Showtime, there was some off-colored dialogue so I was glad 14 yr old Rachel slept through most of it. But we've really enjoyed it - very funny.

Perdido Key Fish

My last attempts at dinner have been similar to Debbie’s. I tried a recipe from the third issue of Penzey’s One magazine, for Perdido Key Fish. The picture in the magazine looked yummy, it has tomatoes, celery, onion, lime olives and fish. The ingredients seemed simple enough where I thought I could imagine what it would taste like. I was disappointed in how it turned out. Maybe it was personal preference, but I thought it needed more of a tomato (as in tomato sauce) taste.

I had leftovers so the next night I threw together fish tacos. I heated up the leftovers, and put that on corn tortillas with some cheese, salsa, and lettuce, and a squirt of lime. OMG it was so much better. It only took 5 minutes to chop up the extra ingredients.

If I had company coming over and I had to cook what I had in the refrigerator, my gut feeling is that it would be a disaster. I don’t know why things turn out so great when it is just a fleeting thought in my mind about what to have for dinner, vs. deliberating about it for an evening or afternoon, and usually the long-thought-out versions do not turn out very good.

Penzey’s One is published by the folks who sell Penzey’s spices. So far I think their magazine is just "OK." It looks kind of home-made but I think that is the appeal. I like their spice catalog just for reading.

I am addicted to magazines. Right now I get Gourmet, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Saveur, and Texas Monthly, plus the stuff that comes with memberships (like AAA, etc.). I just bought the "King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion" cookbook, to fill out an order at Amazon.com to qualify for free shipping (I guess it would have been cheaper to pay for shipping than buy another cookbook!).

I'm A Pig

Last night we had unexpected guests for dinner. Actually, they had warned us they might stop by but we didn't think they'd actually do it, so hadn't prepared. So on my way home from work I find out that Brenna & her daughter Sara are actually putting in an appearance on their drive home from the grand canyon. Soooooo, I grabbed all this food that had been sitting in the fridge and had to be cooked before it went bad. It was a comedy of errors. I was scolded by everyone for making too much spinach dip, the pizza appetizers were too gooey and stuck to the pan, the grill turned out to be out of propane, so I had to broil the steaks, Brenna had unexpectedly sworn off red meat, so I also made some chicken strips, which were too dry. It was way too much and none of it appetizing looking at all. As we sat there glumly poking at our food, I wondered why it's so difficult to produce one of the wonderful meals I'd been making lately on short notice. Another thing I'm bad at is figuring out how much to make. For the 2 of us, I always cook enough for five, so if I'd made the normal amount it would have turned out swell. Instead I ended up making enough for 10.

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache & Cream Cheese Frosting

I try to remember to read the Food Section of the San Francisco Chronicle online, it’s one of the things I miss from California. Last week they had a story about the cupcake craze. I knew they were popular but until I read the article, I had no idea how trendy they are.

One of the recipes they included was from Kara’s Cupcakes in San Francisco. My niece is named Kara, plus the cupcakes have chocolate inside, so I decided to give it a try.

I’d checked out the website to see how much they are charging for cupcakes, and the filled ones are $36 a dozen! I guess if you walk in to a bakery and buy one for $3, it doesn’t seem that expensive. I was joking with Don that the dozen cupcakes I had sitting on the rack were worth $36.

Anyway, they were OK. I may have overbeat them because they were not as fluffy as the kind you get from cake mix. The two kinds of frosting (one filling, one on top) was fun. Next time I see a cake recipe I want to try, but don’t want to make a whole cake, I think I will try making it into cupcakes instead.