Feast your eyes on this! It's Paula Deen's Southern Fried Chicken Recipe. You can find the recipe here. It's by far the best fried chicken I've had at home.
Sorry for the dearth of posts here lately. I'm busy getting ready for another garage sale, getting ready to go back to work, and working on a new project (to be announced here soon).
Cake decorating can be a lot of fun if you're in the right mood. I guess you could say that I'm "self-taught" when it comes to decorating. When I worked for a catering company a few years ago, I started out by piping small flowers onto brownies after watching a co-worker do it. The more I watched, the more I picked up, and once I finally got around to taking a cake decorating class at one of the hobby stores, I already knew how to do everything in the beginners' class.
I thought about going on to higher cake-decorating education, but I didn't have any plans to make a career out of making party or wedding cakes, and we don't eat enough cakes at home, so I decided that what I can do now is enough.
This was my first single-layer decorated cake. I have to say it's much easier than the multi-layer cakes, simply because I could tilt the plate to get the sugar on the sides. Had I done that with a double-layer cake, the entire thing would have landed on the countertop.
I "cheated" this time around and used 1-1/2 cans of prepared frosting in a tub. This is NOT the ideal frosting for decorating. It's far too soft and drastically limits what can be done with it (no roses, for example). But for the design I made and the limited time I had, it worked just fine. The cake will have to be refrigerated until serving time, though, because the frosting is so soft.
There's no recipe, but I did take step-by-step pictures:
1. Start by baking a cake in an 8-inch or 9-inch round pan. I used 9-inch, but wish I'd used the smaller so it would have been a taller layer.
2. If you use parchment paper, don't forget to peel it off the bottom. Let cake cool on a wire rack.
3. Place cake on serving plate, with strips of parchment under edges to keep frosting off plate.
4. Cover with a very thin layer of frosting, to seal in moisture and to also seal down any crumbs. Chill for at least two hours.
5. Cover with a moderately thick layer of frosting.
6. You can smooth out the top by dipping the offset spatula in room temperature water and running it lightly over the frosting.
7. Sprinkle colored sugar on sides.
8. Color a small portion of frosting a deep shade of lavender. I use Wilton gel coloring. Pipe concentric circles of this frosting onto cake using a small round decorator tip.
9. Using a wooden skewer draw through the frosting from center to edge to create spider-web effect. Or draw from the edge to the center to create a similar, yet different, effect.
10. Add remaining white frosting to whatever is left of the deep lavender frosting. Stir very well to achieve a paler lavender color. Pipe large rosettes onto top of cake using an extra large star tip.
11. Carefully remove parchment strips from under cake and using a small star tip, pipe a chain of shells around edge where cake and plate meet. You're done!
Hey, all! This is Violet! I'm feeling rather honored that Blogarita asked me to come over and post some of the recipes that I try at home... I have only recently begun cooking foods other than Easy Mac and toast, because I've spent so many years working so much that I haven't had time to cook. But, with Dave around to sample all my experiments, I've become rather adventurous and like to try things out of the ordinary.
This is a recipe that I found in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. When I decided to make it at first, I thought it would be just for Dave and me. Then it was us plus two friends. By the time I was cooking, we were having a dinner party for eight people... Luckily, I had enough food to double the recipe.
I was a little bit nervous that the citrus flavor of the dish wouldn't go over too well and that we would end up ordering pizza instead, but in fact, the flavor gave just enough kick to it to make it unique, but not overpowering. The orange slices also really brought out the flavor and the shrimp really complemented the whole dish quite well. I think one of the tricks is not to overcook the veggies; they were tender but not mush. I've also been on a health food kick recently, and I replaced the regular penne pasta with whole grain pasta, which worked well. Everyone liked it so much that I didn't even have any leftover to bring to work with me for lunch the next day!
Citrus Shrimp with Penne Pasta
12 ounces peeled and deveined medium shrimp
4 cups (uncooked) penne or bow tie pasta
1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel (set aside)
2 medium oranges
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules (I just used one of those little cubes)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 red or green sweet pepper, cut into 3/4-inch squares (Since I double the recipe, I used one of each)
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 1/2 cups fresh pea pods, ends trimmed and halved diagonally
Thaw shrimp, if frozen. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain; keep warm.
Meanwhile, shred the peel from the oranges and remove remaining peels. Set oranges aside. In a small bowl, combine orange peel, orange juice, water, cornstarch, bouillon granules, sesame oil, salt, and ground red pepper; set aside.
In a large skillet cook sweet pepper in hot oil over medium-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove sweet pepper from skillet. Add shrimp to skillet; cook and stir about 2 minutes or until shrimp turn opaque. Remove shrimp from skillet.
Stir orange juice mixture; add to skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Return shrimp and sweet pepper to skillet; stir in pea pods. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Gently stir in orange sections. Gently toss shrimp mixture with pasta.
Nutritional Info: Makes 4 large servings! 384 calories, 7 grams total fat, 2 grams of fiber
The stress of the holidays is behind us now. It's a nice, fairly warm day for January. We don't have Sparky tonight, and there's still that bottle of champagne to open that I didn't feel up to drinking on New Year's Eve. It's a perfect night for a steak dinner.
I had planned a better picture, with the steak on the grill, or at least with some corn on the cob on the plate with the steak and potato. But I got a phone call, and Spouse Guy also got a call, and things just got neglected from there. But the KC strips were excellent and it was a nice meal, nonetheless.
I'm not posting a recipe this time. I'm pretty sure you know what to do.
We had homemade pizza tonight, so I thought I'd re-post this. It was originally posted on Friday, April 28, 2006, at Wasting Away In Blogaritaville.
There are three things Spouse Guy can never get enough of: sex, beer and this...
I've heard it said that pizza is like sex: when it's good it's great, and when it's bad, it's still pretty good.
Take last night for example. We were busy, out dumpster diving for good strong boxes for moving in a few weeks, and since we were behind the $3.49-all-you-can-eat pizza place anyway, we decided to go in the front door and have us some buffet. It's good pizza. Not great by any means, but good, and we both stuffed ourselves silly for less than $8.
On the other hand, tonight we'll be having some of my homemade pizza, a lot like the one in the picture (that I made a while back). No matter that we just had pizza last night; Spouse Guy is always up for it. And my homemade pie is great pizza. The kind you keep going back to throughout the evening for "just a little more".
I better go restock the beer fridge and get my dough to rising. Y'all have a great weekend. I know we will.
