Monkey Bread

Yum. Monkey Bread. Great comfort food for those Sunday-morning-tomorrow-is-Monday blues.

Working Woman's Monkey Bread

4 cans of 8 buttermilk refrigerated biscuits (I only used 2 cans!)
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup pecans, chopped

On low heat mix butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts together until sugar is dissolved. Spray Monkey Bread Baking Mold with non-stick cooking spray. Quarter biscuits and dip in sugar mixture until well coated. Place biscuits in pan and pour remaining sugar mixture over biscuits. Place in a COLD OVEN and turn to 350° F. Bake 45 minutes. After removing from oven carefully release edges and center with a knife. Invert onto a serving platter and serve warm.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3, Class 2

Course 3 is Fondant and tiered cakes. I love working with fondant. It's pliable, not messy and contrary to what many think, delicious! I love this cake so much. It turned out so much better than I had planned. I almost don't want to let anyone eat it...

I was super proud of my corners, borders and tiny detail. Side shot to show off.

Orange Chiffon Cake with Orange Swiss Buttercream

It was my girlfriend's birthday celebration this past weekend in Amador Wine County. I wanted a light, not-too-sweet cake as we would be consuming lots of wine. I used the Orange Chiffon Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes, by Elinor Klivans and amended my go to Swiss buttercream with some orange extract. I used two 6 inch cake pans and torted the layers, which means I cut both in half. Torting can give a cake impressive height and make room for yummy fillings. Top it off with some royal icing flowers and this was an exceptional little treat.

Orange Chiffon Cupcake Recipe by Elinor Klivans.

1 ½ cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
4 large eggs separated
1/3 cup water
1 ½ grated orange zest
¼ cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare cupcake pans.

1. Sift the cake flour, ¾ cup of the sugar, the baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Using a large spoon, make a well in the center of the flour mixture and put in the yolks, oil, water, zest, orange juice and vanilla and almond extracts in the well.
2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the mixture until smooth and thick, about 3 minutes.
3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.
4. Set aside.
5. In another large bowl. With clean beaters, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until the whites are foamy and the cream of tartar dissolves.
6. Beat on high speed until the egg whites look shiny and smooth and the beaters form lines in the mixture; if you stop the mixer and lift up the beaters, the egg whites should cling to the beaters.
7. Slowly beat in the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat for one minute.
8. Stir in about one third of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
10. Bake for about 35 minutes, until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 2, Class 4

Course 2 was advanced buttercream, color flow technique, royal icing flowers and basket weave. I thought a lot about how I wanted my final cake to look. I knew I wanted pastel flowers and a chocolate buttercream for the basket. All the planning paid off in the end. I love this cake. Basket weave is surprisingly easy. Much easier than making chocolate buttercream! The bird is color flow, a thin, fast-drying icing that can be used to draw any shapes or designs. The royal icing flowers are easy to make and impressive once on the cake. My favorites are the pansies.

Due to my first kitchen disaster, which I am not yet ready to talk about, the cake was store bought. I just scraped it down to the icing and created a beautiful cake of my own.

Sushi

Coconut Red Curry Shrimp

This dish is a staple of mine. I love the flavor of coconut milk mixed with spicy red curry paste. I also use coconut milk to make my special version of shrimp pra ram, but that is another post.

The key is to cook the shrimp correctly. Shrimp is done as soon as it is pink. It really only takes a few minutes.

Heat the following ingredients in a saucepan over medium.
1 can of coconut milk
1-2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
2-3 tsp red curry paste

Add frozen or fresh veggies. I like to use bell peppers with eggplant or spinach. If using spinach, add it later because it takes very little to wilt it down. Bring sauce to a light boil, then add the veggies and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add spinach and once it starts to wilt, add the shrimp. Stir to coat spinach. Remove from heat as soon as the shrimp is pink.

I usually serve this dish with brown rice, but more recently switched to saffron. It is delicious. I also bought rice noodles at the store thinking they would combine lovely.

Fresh Basil & Mozzarella Pizza

I love to drink wine while cooking. It really helps me relax and experiment with my cooking. We love Betty Crocker instant pizza dough and with the hot Sacramento weather were craving something fresh. I used some left over Todd Taylor Sangiovese to flavor the tomato paste, which gave the pizza a strong, slightly bitter flavor. I cut generous portions of mozzarella, fresh tomatoes from the garden and topped it off with plenty of fresh basil. Lots of kosher salt and cracked pepper too!