Welcome to the Cooking with C.C. Blog. I will be discussing all things food and travel related. Be sure to join me for information from recipes, cookbooks, restaurants and places to visit. I look forward to hearing from you!
Sometimes you just gotta smoke something
Sometimes I like to have something smoked, but don't want to go to the hassle of breaking out the big smoker, get everything set up and then cook it. This is especially true when I want to cook smaller amounts or food that doesn't take long to cook. Many years ago, I discovered the “stovetop smoker.” “Stovetop” is a bit of a misnomer for me - I don't like to use it in the house as we don't have a great ventilation system. I have found that the side burner of my gas grill does a fabulous job and I don't have the smoke in the house. A few years back, I had the opportunity to participate in a smoking class with the BBQ Queens (Judith Fertig and Karen Adler) at the IACP Annual Conference. They used the stovetop smoker on several recipes including one of my now favorite appetizers – smoked shrimp. The other night, I came home with a nice piece of Mahi Mahi and Lori suggested that we smoke it. No problem, out comes the stovetop smoker and away we go. If you haven't see one of these before, it has 4 pieces. First is the outside…
Valentines Dessert Contest
About 4 years ago, we were looking for a good party/fellowship opportunity for our Sunday School class – so I borrowed an idea from a friend – have a Valentine’s Party where the men have the “opportunity” to make desserts for the ladies. Of course, we had to turn it into a competition and thus, the “Golden Spoon Award” was born. This year was the 4th annual Golden Spoon Valentines Dessert contest for our Sunday school class. As you can see from the pictures, we had a very wide variety of desserts for all to enjoy. I've got close up pictures of all of the desserts at the end of the post. The winner this year (for the second year in a row) was Richard R. with Phillo Cups with Orange Chocolate Mousse. Everything was incredibly good! The judges had a very difficult decision. I was a bit rushed, so I decided to make the chocolate cake I made at Christmas with one of my favorite icings! When I was originally researching for a really good chocolate cake, I looked at my normal go to cookbooks for baking recipes. The recipes were mostly similar so I settled on one of…
Breakfast Strata
For those times when we have people in for the weekend, I'm always looking for great dishes to make for breakfast that don't require a lot of effort in the morning. I've tried several different ways to make a Breakfast Strata. A “Strata” is a layered casserole. There are as many different ways to make this as there are cooks that mix one together. It is similar to a quiche or frittata – generally, includes bread, eggs and cheese. Meats and vegetables can also be included. There are two basic methods – mix all of the ingredients together and put them in the casserole dish, or put all of the dry ingredients into the dish and pour an egg mixture over it. Here is an easy and very tasty version that I have made on a variety of occasions: First, brown the sausage and bacon and break into small pieces. In a saute pan, melt one stick of butter. Add the shallots and red peppers and cook until they soften. Mix in the seasonings and pour the mixture into the bottom of the casserole dish (This makes a 9X13 – in the picture, I was making it for an event,…
What’s wrong with a Bacon and Peanut Butter Sandwich?
Yesterday, I was in the south part of Huntsville, so I stopped in at Fresh Market to pick up my favorite bacon. I stopped at Ayers Market on the way home to get some "Fredbread." They were out of that but had a sourdough loaf from another baker, so I bought a loaf. Had a conference call at 11AM, so I rushed home and attended the call. In the meantime, I posted this on Facebook and said that I saw a Bacon and Peanut Butter Sandwich in my future for lunch! I NEVER expected the response I got to that posting. They ranged from "have you made an appointment with the cardiologist" to the succinct "Ewww." Very few postings I've put on Facebook have had that many comments! What was it about the combination of Bacon and Peanut Butter? It certainly isn't that common, but if you combine really good bread with really good bacon and lettuce and tomato it makes a fantastic sandwich and almost everyone thinks that is a good combination. Replace the lettuce and tomato with peanut butter and you might as well have two heads! If you ask me, there isn't hardly a food around that…