Pantry Revisited

Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch chose Coconut Butter Thins for our Tuesdays With Dorie group this week. Check out Jayne's blog for the recipe and her great photos (especially of mudpies and pink caviar!). I was very hesitant to make these cookies since coconut cookies sounded about as fun as a sharp stick in my eye. Coconut cookies? Yikes. Give me a good ole Almond Joy however and I am in heaven! Cathy and A manda talked me into trying them. I still remember tasting my first macadamia nut. It was in Hawaii and I was in my 20's. Everything seemed better in our 20's didn't it? But even then I thought, I'm not going to waste my life worrying about the foods I eat, high cholestrol, etc. I mean why forego any pleasure just to spend an extra three years in the geriatric ward? And people who eat all natural stuff? Craaazy I say. Personally I stay away from natural foods. At my age I need all the preservatives I can get! The entire time I was zesting my lime I kept t...

One of my favorite bloggers, Anne of Anne Strawberry , chose the Barefoot Bloggers recipe this week. I'm not a fan of goat cheese so I knew I would have to make a substitution on that. Of course, everything Ina Garten makes is delicious! This was pretty easy to put together. I substituted a mixture of cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan for the goat cheese. I love anything with puff pastry. We served this with spaghetti on the side and avocado slices. It was very tasty!! Thanks Anne for choosing this. It is something I probably would not have tried on my own. The DH really liked it even though he hates onions! My tomatoes were small so I added more slices! BAREFOOT CONTESSA'S TOMATO & GOAT CHEESE TARTS MAKES 4 TARTS 3 tablespoons good olive oil,plus more for brushing 4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions) 3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper 3 tablespoons white wine 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme plus sp...

Aggie at Aggie's Kitchen hosted our Craving Ellie group this week and chose Chicken with Mango Barbecue Sauce. I love Aggie's blog. Check it out and see what she did with this recipe. I was very excited about making this recipe. Always makes a recipe more a favorite of mine if it is a quicky and this one was. I thought my mango was not ripe enough because it was a bit hard to peel. But it tasted delicious. You all know about mangoes right? The fruit is known for its aphrodisiac qualities. I don't know about that, but I know I love the taste. Once you blend up the sauce, you marinate your chicken in it. Then grill it. I pounded my chicken breasts flat so they cooked up in no time. Maybe about five minutes on each side. I have to say I may have gone a bit overboard with the jalapenos. The sauce was hot. As you can see below, I had to have reinforcement. A drink to follow the hot. And someone burned the edges of the chicken just a bit, but it was oh so tasty anyway!...

I really wanted to make this cake. And I will. Just not this week. But go to Sihan's blog at Fundamentally-flawed and check out the cake and recipe for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. Sihan I apologize for not cooking with you this week. I love going to Sihan's blog each week. She has the most beautiful photos and is so creative with everything she bakes! I'm not going to make a hundred excuses. Let's blame it on the weather. When it is warm and nice outside, I cannot be inside. I worked hard this weekend raking leaves, cutting bushes, washing the patio. Found a blue snake at the lake. Does anyone know what a blue snake might be? It was almost a neon color. We got new patio furniture also. We wanted pretty but comfortable. And we got it! I'm very excited by it. I'll share this picture with you. Note the plastic wrap is still on it. We're thinking of leaving it that way. Some people leave the plastic on their lampshades to protect them from the ...

Lately I have been obsessed with vampires. I keep thinking back to my first experience with them and it was a show called Dark Shadows. I was really too young to understand all about it so my memories are fuzzy. I just remember Barnabas and I remember how the vampire would summon a woman to him and she would walk willingly to wherever he was and give freely of her neck. Didn't they know they would die if they did that? My next obsession with vampires became the Ann Rice novels. I remember reading her books and then seeing the movie Interview with a Vampire. I was distraught for days over that sweet child (Kirsten Dunst) being a vampire and seductress in that movie!! Then there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I first saw the movie and loved Peewee Herman's death scene. He should have received an oscar for that one I tell ya. Then there was years of the tv show after that. Spike was my favorite character on that show. I really loved a show called Blood Ties a year or so ago, but it...

Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction chose French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze for our TWD challenge this week. I enjoy going over to Liliana's blog to check out her mouthwatering cakes. I hurried home from work to make this cake. But first, I had to practice the violin. I am now playing as my song of the week the "May Song." A song probably any six year old could master, but I am so proud of myself. Okay, its no Beethoven's Fifth or Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, but we have to start somewhere, right? If my stocks keeps falling, I might need a second income! Got all my ingredients together. I was really excited about this cake because I love lemon stuff. I love what lemon zest does to foods. I decided to make it in a nine inch cake pan as Dorie suggested on the side. It was a really easy cake to mix up and bake. It came out of the pan with ease. I let it cool, cut the layer in half and filled it with Dickinson's Lemon Curd. I was going to take it to a friend ...

Fish tales. I'm not a huge fish fan. My idea of fish is good fried catfish, really crispy and brown with some hushpuppies on the side. First, I can't buy tilapia. I just can't do it for reasons I will not go into here on this food post. If you want gory details, you'll have to email me. Second, I could not find halibut at our local Publix where I shop. Third, the mahi mahi was $16.99 a pound. I was not going to pay that much to try a dish I might not like. So I scooted over to the frozen fish aisle and bought some just plain ole whitefish. Publix was out of corn tortillas. This is the second or third time I have tried to find those and they are always out. So I bought some corn hard shells and some flour tortillas. I had a bit of trouble finding the chipotle in adobo sauce, but finally succeeded with that. Because I spent all my time at Publix trying to find the necessary ingredients, I was starving and in a hurry so I did not use a grill. I just panfri...

I love lemon. I really really love lemons. But after reading all the reviews of this week's challenge, I opted not to make it. Everyone said it was eggy and Leggy Peggy doesn't love eggy. I'll be back on Thursday with some good fish tales, and next week will be French Yogurt Cake. Check back in if either of those interest you! Meanwhile, go over to Tuesdays with Dorie and check out what all the other fabulous bakers made this week! I did make a chocolate cake this weekend with ganache on top and some toffee bits thrown on there. Shared with a few friends of mine, I did. Sometimes the simplest things can taste heavenly. Have a great week!!

One of my favorite bloggers, Apple Crumbles , chose these Stir fried bokchoy for this week's Craving Ellie group. I didn't even know what a bok choy was, much less how to cook it. So I googled bok choy and how to prepare it. I found this video of a man on YouTube showing you three different ways to chop bok choy. Very interesting. You have the domino cut, the sliced cut, and the smaller domino cut. I went for the sliced version. I left out the greens because I just wasn't sure what they would taste like. This was very easy to prepare. I love Chinese food and I thought I would really love this. However, I found it a bit bland. I served it with salmon patties and rice. I think it would have been better with maybe some sesame chicken. I also think it would have been better if it had water chestnuts, onions, and maybe some green pea pods in it. But by itself as a side dish, it wasn't my favorite. Check out the recipe at Ap ple Crumbles blog.

Lyb of And then I do the dishes chose Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Armagnac Cake this week for our Tuesdays with Dorie group. Go to Lyb's blog to get the recipe and browse around her wonderful blog. I was really hesitant to make this cake. But then it started snowing. It's March 1st, and it is snowing in Alabama. Out my front door: So I was sort of stuck in the house and I thought why NOT try the cake. I've never flamed anything so I thought the extra heat in the house might be nice as well (ya know, since it's snowing). I have no clue what Armagnac is, but Dorie said I could use scotch. I do have that handy. I couldn't imagine putting prunes into this cake. But I trust Dorie. But the yankee said, "if it's a prune cake in disguise, and you eat it, you'll become a 'regular' girl." Sounds like it could be a nice replacement for bran muffins. I followed Dorie's instructions but when I tried to light the prunes with my bic lighter, they...

This morning I thought I would treat the yankee to a little something special. I think I make great pancakes from an old tried and true recipe. I changed them up just a little this morning however by using whole wheat flour and adding some smashed banana. They were excellent with our favorite maple syrup. I did not eat pancakes as a child because mom made them really thick and big. I like light and fluffy so I have perfected a recipe just for my tastes. They are the lightest pancakes ever. Try them! They are great without the added cinnamon and banana so you might like them better that way. Ingredients: 4 egg yolks 1 cup sifted whole wheat flour 1 cup sifted all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons sugar 6 tablespoons melted margarine or butter 2 cups milk 4 egg whites 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon one smashed banana Place all ingredients except egg whites and banana in a bowl. Beat with mixer until blended. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but n...