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!
Hilton Head Vacation
We haven't taken a family vacation to the beach in many, many years. When Carly suggested it, we decided to go to Hilton Head, SC. It's about the same length of drive as to places on the Florida Gulf Coast, plus, we've had to go to Hilton Head for a weekend in November the last two years for an event that Carly participated in. Other than getting to eat a meal or two between activities and maybe a couple of free hours once we arrived on Friday afternoon, we didn't get to really explore the island. Since we had been there and I did get out a little bit, we had decided we wanted to stay somewhere in the area near Coligny Plaza. I went on VRBO and found a fabulous 2 bedroom condo about a block and a half from the beach. Carly brought a friend along and the 4 of us headed for the beach. Now what I was most looking forward to was eating a LOT of fresh seafood - what with being on the coast and all. Boy, I was not disappointed! Besides the restaurants and great dinners, there were the other food stops that also…
“Nutella” Second Attempt
As I established in my first post about Nutella (For the First Nutella post, click here), Nutella is classified as a food group at my house (along with bacon, but that's another story). So on our first attempt at making homemade Nutella, it came out quite tasty, but had some texture issues. After the first attempt, one of the readers suggested switching from the food processor to the Vitamix. Since I do have a Vitamix, thought I would try it. I will say, it did a much better job at turning the hazelnuts into a smoother paste, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.... I also read a hint about an easier way to skin the hazelnuts. The normal way is to roast them, then put them in a clean kitchen towel and rub until the skins come off. The problem for me is that not many came off. So, I read a method that Alice Medrich suggested (and if it's something from Alice - it's gonna work and it's worth trying...). I started with my cup of hazelnuts and a pan of boiling water. I added 3 tablespoons of baking soda to the water and then the hazelnuts. Boil…
Marinara Sauce
One of the basic sauces in Italian cooking is Marinara Sauce. I've used it with lots of dishes from appetizers like Fried Cheese with Marinara to the Spaghetti and Meatballs we serve at our meatball dinners. Every cook has their own way of making it and since there aren't a lot of ingredients, many look very similar. Well, here's my recipe...... The recipe is written for a standard size can of tomatoes (28 ounces), however, I'm usually making for a fairly large number of people, so you'll notice in the picture I'm using a large #10 can instead of the small can - I'm just scaling up the ingredients. I am a big fan of the San Marzano tomato - this is a plum tomato grown in the San Marzano region in Southern Italy. This is around Mt. Vesuvius and has a volcanic soil. There are a number of brands - the big can is one of the more industrial producers and makes a great sauce. I'll sometimes get one of the other producers (Like La Bella San Marzano) if I'm making a smaller amount and I'm using the 28 ounce cans. San Marzano tomatoes have gotten much easier to…
Shirley’s Lemon Pound Cake
If you've ever been to one of my classes or read many of my posts, you know that one of my "Go-To" sources for information is Shirley Corriher. I have both of her books - Cookwise and Bakewise - more like textbooks really. Whenever I have a question about why something is working (or more likely - not working) I head to these books to understand what's going on. I've had the wonderful opportunity to meet and visit with Shirley over the years through the International Association of Culinary Professionals at our annual conferences as well as visiting with her when I've had some free time in Atlanta. (Although it seems I haven't taken many pictures with her - I put one in the pictures to the right, but it is from the IACP conference in 2010 when Shirley led a class for us in Portland). But I often forget that while I view Bakewise as more of a text book - it has a bunch of incredible recipes in it. One that I have made time and time again over the years (And been asked for the recipe before) is the Take-Your-Breath-Away Lemon Pound Cake. If you don't have…