Tag Archives: In the Kitchen

Chocolate Sheet Cake

27 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by in Far Away Places, In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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On the Irish Ruins of The Quiet Man set

Buying my father a Christmas gift has never been easy.

Just ask my brother Jon  —  he’ll tell you all about the time he learned too late that  Dad was not a Willie Nelson fan — at Christmas or any other time.  But one year, about sixteen years after that Willie Nelson Christmas, I thought I had finally come up with the perfect gift for Dad, when I offered to take him to Greece, to see the land of his father’s birth.

It should come as no surprise to learn that Greece was not on Dad’s radar.  Instead, my father wanted to go to Ireland.  And not just any old place in Ireland — Dad wanted to make a pilgrimage to a city I had never heard of where a movie I had never heard of had been filmed.  In other words, Daddy had his heart set on a visit to Cong where the movie The Quiet Man had been filmed.

Being the gracious gift-givers that we were, we exchanged Greece for the Irish vacation of Daddy’s dreams.  And before travel plans were finalized, the trip grew to include three days each in Paris and London.   All this horsetrading of countries taught me that my beloved father — the quietest man I had thought to ever know — could be quite vocal when it suited his purpose.

In the end, it didn’t matter where Daddy wanted to go.  To his three traveling companions, it was all good.   The days and nights were a blur of memorable sights and sounds, that collided and bumped into each other like fast-moving scenes from the roller coaster ride my sixty-eight year old father rode at Disneyland Paris.

There were the soaring spaces of Paris — Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tour and the Arc de Triomphe — the green rain and gorgeous plump flowers of the Irish countryside, along with lazy sheep crossings on the way to an intrepid picnic on Dingle Bay shared with sea gulls — a ‘mind the gap’ tour of London tubes and seeing history come to life with visits to the Tower of London and walking in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper.

And then there are all those special memories I will always hold dear, like when Daddy, wearing his new tweed jacket and cap, was mistaken for an Irishman by tourists.  And then there’s the photograph of Dad above, standing near the ruins of the “White-O-Mornin” cottage featured in The Quiet Man.  Daddy took in all fifteen days with wide-eyed wonder.  All the memories are precious, especially as I think of how quiet Dad has really grown over the last year, so that he can no longer string two words together.

Amidst all the changing scenery and countries was the constancy of my sister’s chosen dessert of chocolate cake.  It is because of this shared trip with Daddy, that I can no longer see a slice of chocolate cake without thinking ‘Christi.’   And the sweet irony of the association is that I don’t even think chocolate cake is my sister’s favorite dessert — on her birthday, she always asks for a light lemony cheesecake instead!

But two days ago, when I was enjoying a slice of my family’s favorite chocolate cake, I thought of Sis and this shared memory of a fifteen day tour dotted by pieces of chocolate cake.  And with today’s visit to Dad, it seemed right to flip through the photos from the trip and share this recipe with you, along with the few memories that will forever be held together by crumbs of chocolate cake.

Make a chocolate cake memory and you’ll see what I mean.  From my life to yours.

Chocolate Sheet Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks butter
1 cup water
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring butter, water and cocoa to boil.  Add the hot mixture to flour mixture.  Sitr well.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour in a greased jelly roll pan (10″x15″x2″) and bake at 350 for 20 mins.

Chocolate Frosting

1 stick butter
4 Tbsp cocoa
6 Tbsp milk
1 box powdered sugar (16 oz)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

In a mixing bowl, add powdered sugar.

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring butter, cocoa and milk to a boil.  Immediately pour over powdered sugar, mixing with an electric mixer until smooth.  Mix in vanilla and nuts.   Immediately spread over hot cake.

Beef Fajitas

22 Friday Jan 2010

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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No matter that it’s mid-winter by the calendar… outside where it counts, it’s early spring.

The bright sunny day has inspired me to all sorts of spring cleaning.  I’ve mopped floors and scattered the dust off furniture.  My bed linens are freshly washed and even now, a white coverlet hangs on the backyard gate soaking up sunshine  and Oklahoma wind.  Even our little Scottie dog hasn’t escaped my attention — freshly washed herself, Cosmo is driving poor Max to forget they’ve been ‘fixed’ to live squeaky-clean, G-rated lives.

The way I like clean-living, it’s easy to forget I wasn’t raised in a squeaky clean house.  Housekeeping was never tops on Mom’s priorities.   The only time we could count on a clean house was when company was coming.  Even then, to make our house presentable, it took all hands on deck  to cram two months of cleaning into one day.

In spite of her poor housekeeping, Mom enjoyed having company.  Importantly, the reverse was true also:  folks liked being Mother’s guests.  Mom was a wonderful cook and she loved to play card games, but mostly, it was Mom’s lack of pretentiousness that caused guests to forget themselves and have a good time.  My girls were never ready to leave — they would have moved in had Mom invited them.

Housekeeping regimens probably changed once my parents moved to Texas, as entertaining occurred less often, with guests usually staying over a long weekend.  My parent’s entertaining base kept changing every couple of years, with the phone company transferring Dad to Austin, San Antonio, Kingsville, Corpus Christi and eventually to Lake Jackson.  But all the changes in scenery offered guests a chance to soak up different parts of Texas culture.

It was Kingsville, in 1982, where mom first served beef fajitas.  The girls were young — Kara 8 months old and Kate just four — when I took my family ‘home’ for Christmas.  I’d never heard of fajitas and was a little hesitant about trying this new food.   But it wasn’t long before we were all filling our tortillas like old hands… and thank goodness, soon finding them on menus at Oklahoma restaurants.

Fajitas are easy to prepare in advance, which is one secret of being a good host.  But certainly there are other secrets, which raises the question of what good hospitality should look like.  Margaret Guenther’s Holy Listening, provides answers by describing what happens when we offer hospitality:

“We invite someone into a space that offers safety and shelter and put our own needs aside, as everything is focused on the comfort and refreshment of the guest.  For a little while at least, mi casa es tu casa, as the Spanish gracefully put in.  There are provisions for cleansing, food and rest.  Hospitality is an occasion for storytelling with both laughter and tears, and then the guest moves on, perhaps with some extra provisions or a roadmap for the next stage of the journey.”

Guenther shares a perfect recipe for hospitality.  My mother followed it, my friend Bernice follows it, and Susan — my source for today’s recipe — follows it.  “Make yourself at home.”  They said these words in a way that their guests knew they meant them.

From the inside out is where it all counts:   “Mi casa es tu casa. ” And in my mother’s casa, whether it was tidy or not.

De mi vada a tu’s — from my life to yours.

Beef Fajitas

4 servings        Preparation Time:  1 hour or less (excluding marinade time)

Serving Note:  The fajitas can be made in advance and kept warm in a foil-lined ice chest.

2 lbs skirt steak
1/2 cup bottled Italian dressing
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp garlic powder
juice of 1/2 lime

Combine all ingredients except steak and mix well.  Remove as much fat from meat as possible.  Cut into 6-8 portions.  Marinate meat in sauce in shallow dish 24 hours in refrigerators or 3-4 hours, covered, at room temperature.  Drain and grill. Let meat rest for 5 minutes before slicing into strips.

Serve with flour tortillas, salsa, sour cream, black beans, lettuce and tomatoes — and like us, with caramelized onions and green peppers.

Inside Cooking Note: During the winter months, I sear the meat in an oven proof skillet and finish it off in the oven.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Heat oven proof skillet over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.  Depending on size of your skillet, you may need 2 pans.  Add 2 tbsp. olive oil to hot pan and sear the steaks well, 2 minutes each side.  Finish cooking in the preheated oven — 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon the level of  doneness desired.  Let steaks rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Chicken Casserole

16 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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It’s funny how likes and dislikes go topsy-turvy as we age.

As a child, one of my least favorite meals was any sort of chicken stew dish.  Maybe it’s because Mom didn’t serve this much at home.  So ‘my’ chicken casserole derives from a recipe in a Martha White cookbook, one purchased during the early days of second marriage.  The recipe quickly became a family favorite except for the ‘icky’ mushrooms.  I compensated by slicing and not chopping to make the mushrooms easy to pick out, though eventually, most of the kids grew to like them.

The phrase ‘most of the kids’ means four.  We began married life with the two girls from my first marriage.  And then we didn’t waste time adding two boys to the mix.  In less that two years, my husband went from a quiet, sedate bachelor existence to family circus mayhem with four under the age of 10 — surely these are grounds for growing saints… or for becoming insane.

Just like any new U.S. President in office, my new husband turned prematurely gray from the stress of his new family responsibilities.  Our eight-to-five jobs were easy in comparison.  Who knows but maybe this was part of the reason neither of us seriously considered putting our careers on hold to stay home with the children.  Being the business professionals we were, we invited a sassy southern lady into our home and paid her well to help us raise our children while we were away at work.  Nanny Tellie was part of our family for five years.

A divorced grandmother who hailed from Mississippi, Tellie never bothered to mince words.  If she thought she could improve the state of our family with the wisdom of her years, she was quick to dish it up.  With four children and two stretched-at-the-seams parents, we offered plenty of areas for Tellie to point her finger at and shake her stern head toward — as she muttered under her breath —  Humph, Humph, Humph.

But like most people, Tellie had more strengths than not.  She was dependable; she arrived a little early; she was rarely ill and fairly flexible in working overtime.  And as a bonus, Tellie did light housework and all of our ironing.   But best of all, Tellie was a steady influence in our children’s lives while my husband and I were running in and out the revolving door.  She was good to all our children, though clearly, her favorite was our oldest son Bryan.

In addition to all of this, Tellie was a fabulous southern cook.  Though she didn’t cook for us often, it was a treat when she did.  My second biggest mistake during our Tellie-years was not paying Tellie to cook dinner for our family and hers.  My first was not buying  Tellie a copy of the Martha White cookbook that she enjoyed looking at — I should have a made a special trip to the store the very day she asked if she could clip the mail-order coupon at the back of the book.

My life is full of ‘should-haves’ and ‘wish-I-would-haves.’   As I recollect our years with Tellie, I wish I hadn’t let Tellie’s constant nagging cloud my vision of all the good she brought into our lives.   And surely there is a lesson in this story for us all — for whining and nagging surely shows us at our worst — and its value is questionable in helping others to dig deep for their best.

In honor of the best of Nanny Tellie, I share this adapted Martha White recipe with you.  Serve it over rice, in the best tradition of most good southern dishes.  And in memory of Tellie’s worst…. remember to hold the whine.

From my life to yours.

Chicken Casserole

Serves 4    60 minutes (another 60 minutes plus to pre-cook chicken)

Stew

1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms (diced cooked carrots may be subsititued)
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
2 to 3 cups cooked shredded chicken (3 half-chicken breasts, baked or boiled)
1 Tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In a large sauce pan over medium high heat, cook vegetables in butter until softened.  (Note, if using carrots instead of mushrooms, cook separately and add cooked carrots to cooked celery and onion.)  Gradually add flour and stir for about a minute.  Gradually add broth and cream — boil for 1 minute — sauce should be thickened.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Pour stew into a greased casserole dish.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp shortening
1/2 cup scant (less 1 Tbsp) buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs.  Add buttermilk and stir only until dough leaves sides of bowl.  Do not overwork.

Turn dough out onto floured surface.  Gently knead or pat dough a few times — then roll into 1/2 inch thickness.  Cut into biscuit with either 2″ inverted floured glass or even with a sharp knife — biscuits don’t have to be round.

Place biscuits on top of stew and place casserole into a preheated 400 degree oven.  Bake for 25 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown. Cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving over rice.