Spiced pumpkin muffins.....

I donated 2 dozen muffins to the agency I work for( the senior dining program). They're having a meeting on Oct 22nd and needed some muffins. I needed to bake these yesterday and deliver them because of our upcoming 2 weeks without a kitchen. I told them if they froze them, they'd be fine for the meeting. I used this recipe from Libby's. I used Kroger brand pumpkin though. The muffins smelled so good while baking, hopefully they taste good too.

cranberry citrus salad.....

This recipe comes from my former catering boss. I left my job at the caterer almost 2 weeks ago. A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders as I haven't been happy there for awhile. I actually dreaded going in to work which is very ironic because I love cooking. The working environment was unprofessional and as they say " when one door closes, another opens. I'm happy to report that I got a much better job that I start next week. I still have my Senior dining job too. My new job will allow me weekends off if I so choose. I actually forgot what it was like to have weekends off and I realized how much I've missed that. Anyway, on to the food.

I'm not sure where this recipe comes from, but its super simple. The dressing is equal parts oj and lemon juice, olive oil, a dab of honey, a touch of mustard, salt and pepper. The salad is red leaf, butter lettuce( or bibb), and raddichio. Toasted pecans, dried cranberries and segmented oranges round it out. Its actually a better salad to make in the winter because the citrus is so much better. I had a catering job last week and I thought it would be good to round out the other two salads they requested.

Southwestern Layered salad( Southern Living).....

Here is another recipe we tested on Saturday. This recipe comes from a Southern Living cookbook. I really enjoyed this salad, it was very fresh tasting and easy to put together. I liked it so much that I made it again last night. I prepped each component and kept it seperate so I could whip up a single serving of salad at the spur of a moment. I feel the dressing for this salad is what makes it special. Its not your typical creamy dressing that you'd normally find on this type of salad. The dressing consists of some pickled jalapenos, white wine vinegar, Olive oil and cilantro. Everthing gets pureed in the blender. Its very zippy from the higher proportion of vinegar to oil.

The first layer is just straight iceberg lettuce. I normally avoid iceberg, but it really works in this salad. The next layer is a mixture of black beans and red onion. The beans marinate for a couple hours in some vinegar and oil, then the red onion is added. The next layer is corn( frozen is fine) and green pepper. Then tomatoes( I skipped those for my home version). Then shredded jack. I used a sharp white cheddar at home. The final layer is diced avocado and cooked bacon. At work, we left the bacon on the side because a few of the tasters are vegetarian. I didnt make the bacon at home. I also added some crushed tortilla chips for crunch. When making the large bowl, the instructions have you save a few tbls of each layer to add to the top. I suppose this is to show everyone what is in the salad.

I searched and searched online for the recipe, but I couldnt find it. I just kinda winged it when I made it at home. If you want the recipe, I can borrow the cookbook from my boss, just let me know.

Lemon Cake Tasting......

We had a tasting at work on Saturday. My boss wants to revise her catering menu and she chose numerous items for us to test. On Friday, I made 3 lemon cakes and a tiramasu. I've made the tiramasu before( Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa). I won't really talk about that other to say its very easy to make and its not too sweet. Everyone loved it. Anyway, back to the lemon cakes. The first cake you see above is Fine Cooking's Triple Lemon Layer Cake. First, you make a lemon curd. I was in a rush getting out the door on Friday and I forgot the 3 magazines I needed for the recipes( My boss gave them to me to take home and review the recipes). Anyway, I thought " I'll just find it online". Well, it wasn't listed on Fine Cooking's website so I googled it and found it on Chowhound. I proceeded with the recipe, but the next day, I saw that the lemon curd recipe I used, was not the same as the one called for in the recipe. No matter though, the curd was really good and the author of the post on chowhound said it won Egullet's lemon curd tasting.

The curd is made in an unconventional method. First, you cream the butter and sugar together, then add eggs and lemon juice and cook over a double boiler. Lastly, you add the zest. This method is supposed to eliminate the need for straining out the eggs.

The cake is made by processing the zest with sugar and then creaming that with butter. From there its a straightforward recipe with cake flour, alternating with milk, etc. The frosting is a basic butter cream. Butter, confectioners sugar, lemon juice and zest. When I was assembling this cake, I chose a too small pedestal so I had trouble frosting it. I enjoyed this cake, it was very lemony. Everyone really liked it as well.


This cake was not my favorite. It was good, but nothing to write home about. However, it did have its fans. This cake came from an older issue of Gourmet. and you can find it online. The recipe starts with a lemon curd that is NOT cooked in a double boiler. It came together fast and honestly, I couldn't tell the difference between the this one and the Fine Cooking curd. The frosting is the curd lightened with whipped cream. I felt the cake was a tad dry and flavorless but other people liked it. I decorated it with some butterflies I picked up at the dollar store. Everyone kept referring to this cake as the butterfly cake.



This last cake was my favorite. I realized after this tasting that I'm not that big a fan of lemon curd. I like it, but its not something I'd make for myself. This cake is called citrus poppy seed cake. As is typical of Martha Stewart, this cake has 3/4lb of butter AND 7 eggs. The cake also has lemon, orange and lime zest. The frosting between the layers is silky cream cheese frosting( butter, cream cheese and confectioners sugar). The topping is a lemon glaze.( lemon juice and confec. sugar) You then sprinkle more poppy seeds on top. One of my boss's guests thought this was dry, but really it hadn't come up to room temp yet so it was hard to distinguish the flavor.

My mother in law and niece came over for lunch yesterday and they tried the cakes and loved this one too. After making 3 cakes in one day, I can see why people spend 20-30 bucks for a crappy cake at a bakery. If you're not a baker per say, its a lot of work. I do cook and bake and it was still a lot of work for me, I was exhausted when I got home at 5:30pm.

Last but not least, here is a picture of the tiramasu.

Top Secret Recipes......

Yesterday, I received a couple of cookbooks in the mail courtesy of the "free cookbook" thread over on egullet. Top Secret Recipes and Top Secret Recipes light intrigued me because once a week, I get a free top secret recipe by email. I've yet to make anything,but thats beside the point. : )

I whipped up a batch of 100% white whole wheat bread using the bread machine and coicindentally, Robin asked for french toast this morning. I used the top secret recipe for IHOP's French Toast. The secret is adding 3tbls of flour to the egg mixture to make a little thicker coating. It actually worked. Robin proclaimed this very good. Of course, my bread was good, so thats probably half of it right there.

Speaking of Robin, she is starting South Beach tomorrow so the meals around here will be rather boring for her first two weeks of Induction. I'm going to bake something for the next Sugar High Friday and look back thru my archives for something to post.

Oh, I start another job on Thursday. I'll be cooking for 50 seniors, twice a month. Check out that thread for more info.

New Year's Brunch......

Working is really cramping my blogging style. The LAST thing I want to do when I get home from work is cook a meal. Last week I worked Friday-Monday( NY DAY) preparing for the big New Year's day brunch we serve at work. On Friday we also prepared food for a dinner party and on New Year's Day we made even more food for another clients's own private brunch. I was soley responsible for numerous items on this brunch. I prepared all of the Jewish food using my mom's recipe for cheese blintzes and her recipe for chopped liver( gag). I also made rugelach and potato latkas. Additionally I prepared black magic cupcakes and we planned on yeasted waffles, but we ran out of milk on New Year's eve and no stores were open so those waffles became plain waffles.

I really didnt think the Jewish food would go over as well as it did, but people were raving about it. I won't touch the chopped liver with a ten foot pole, but my boss said it was fabulous. We even bought Matzah to serve with it. I only wish my mom was here to taste everything. Those blintzes were so labor intensive. I now know why I request those from my mom when I go back to Florida. I had some trouble with the crepe part until I read another recipe for Blintzes from The Joy of Cooking and saw that the batter needed to rest. My mom left that part out.

I made a really wonderful mixed berry sauce to serve with them. My boss was surprised when I informed her that the blintzes needed to be pan sauteed in butter since that is what my mom always did. She assumed once they were made, that was it. I also made homeade apple sauce to go with the latkas. My boss uses a recipe for chinese latkas( using cornstarch) and she said she thought mine were better. I also made 5 huge batches of wild mushroom risotto. I pre-cooked it the day before and finished it off the morning of the brunch. We had a lot leftover which will make wonderful arrancini( risotto balls).


Some of the other items on the brunch that I did not make were; Macaroni and cheese, creamed spinach, seafood casserole, parmesean chicken, prime rib, roasted vegetables, spinach salad, lemon raspberry trifle, caramel pot de creme, rice pudding and black olive tapenade.

I was so exhausted on Monday that I slept for almost 12 hours. In fact, I'm still tired!! Thankfully, I don't have to work for the caterer again until the end of January. However, I start a new job on Jan 11th cooking for 50 seniors twice a month. That will be an experience for sure.