Congratulatory Vanilla Almond Texas Sheet Cake

My friend and roommate, originally from Texas, recently got married in his home lone-star state. We were really bummed we couldn't make it down for the wedding but we decided to throw him a little surprise party. What would be more fitting than to make him some good old fashioned Texas sheet cake. I originally had in mind (read: bought the ingredients for and started making) a chocolate sheet cake when I had the sense to ask him if he even likes chocolate cake.

"Making chocolate cake for the blog, don't you just love chocolate cake"

"No, it's not my thing"

New plan.

I quickly searched for a vanilla cake recipe and found a white Texas sheet cake recipe all over the place but I wanted a little less almond flavor.

Here's what happened:

For the Cake
2 Cups of all purpose flour
2 Cups of sugar
1 Tsp of baking soda 
1/2 Cup of butter
1 Cup of water
1/2 Cup shortening
1/2 Cup of buttermilk
2 Eggs
1 Tsp of vanilla extract
1 Tsp of almond extract
1 Tsp of lemon zest.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Grease and flour a half sheet pan/17in jelly roll pan.

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, and baking soda.
2. Put the butter, water, shortening in a medium sauce pan on a low heat till totally melted and combined. Set aside till a little cooler.
3. In a smaller bowl beat the eggs, buttermilk, extracts and zest together.
4. Add all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients stir until smooth.
5. Pour batter into prepared half sheet pan spread out evenly (It was very useful to have an angled spatula to make this cake) and set to bake for 20 minutes.

If you are like me, you are confused/concerned that the half sheet is way to shallow to bake a cake. It's not. It is a very thin sweet cake that is quick and great for a crowd.

While the cake was cooling. I made the frosting


For the Frosting:

1 Cup of very soft butter
3-4 Tbsp. of heavy cream.
1 Tsp. of vanilla extract
3 Cups of confectioners sugar.

1. Sift the confectioners sugar in a bowl and set aside.
2. With an electric hand mixer using the whisk attachments whisk the butter, heavy cream and vanilla together until smooth.
3. Adding the confectioners sugar a few tablespoons at a time continue mixing until you've used all the sugar up.

The Chicken Process : Roast Chicken and Broth

There are a few things I need to cook to make myself happy and roast chicken is one of them. Making roast chicken starts off what I call the chicken process. There are hundreds of roast chicken recipes everywhere and I'mm well aware of how similar they may look to this one but this is the one I've been making the longest. From this chicken I often make broth(recipe below) or use the rest of the bird for other things such as chicken pot pie.

1 Whole 4-5lb organic chicken
2 Tbsp good olive oil
1 Head of garlic - halved
1 Small lemon - in quarters - Sometimes I can only fit half of the lemon, don't worry, there will still be great flavor.
6 Sprigs of Rosemary
6 Sprigs of Thyme
3 Tbsp Kosher Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

1. Wash off the chicken and its cavity and thoroughly dry the outside of the bird.
2. Sprinkle the olive oil all over the top the bird and massage under the skin of the breast.
3. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of kosher salt and grind some pepper in the cavity.
4. Put 4 sprigs of thyme, 4 sprigs of rosemary, garlic and lemon in the bird. - If you have kitchen twine tie the legs together.
5. Run your knife through the rest of the thyme and rosemary and sprinkle the herb mixture, garlic powder, remainder of the salt and pepper evenly over the bird.
6. Bake at 375 for 1 hour and 20 minutes or more if needed. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting into it.

Had to take this photos with my phone as my camera was missing at the moment. Sorry for the terrible quality. 

Since I'm always cooking for two I normally just carve the breasts for dinner that night and take one leg for the next day.

For Chicken Broth:

I then take the rest of the carcass remove what I can out of the cavity and pour water in a large sauce pan till the breast bone is about covered.

To the pot add :
2 Carrots
2 Stalks of celery
1 Small onion - halved.
If you saved the neck from the inside of the bird add this too for more flavor.
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Let this mixture simmer covered for 2-3 hours.
2. Strain the broth and store in the fridge for a week of freezer for a month. I heard a great tip of freezing the broth in ice cube trays and storing the chicken broth cubes in freezer bags for when you just want to add a little chicken flavor to a dish.

Quinoa Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

I need to spend more time than I have right now to explain what happened with the Easter ham, so, I will post about a quinoa salad that I experimented with the other day. Due to being fairly poor, I spend a lot of time deciding on how to reinvent my left overs. This process often gets too creative and doesn't work well at all. This quinoa salad however, turned out pretty well, so I'll share. A few days prior to making this salad I made something I called a warm asparagus salad. I quickly cooked one minced clove of garlic in one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. To that I added 8-10 diced spears of asparagus, half a diced red onion and half a yellow pepper diced. I served that mixture over spring greens. As I was only cooking for two I ended up with 1 1/2 cups of veggies left over. 

I visited a good friend of mine last summer and she served a quinioa salad that involved a maple balsamic vinaigrette. It was light, refreshing and filling. Food memories stick with me a long time and here is my take on what she made that day although I can not remember what she put in it. I'll blame that on the vodka she was serving with the quinioa. 

Here's what happened: 

For the Quinioa:

1 Cup of Quinioa

2 Cups of Water

1/2 Tbsp of Butter

1/2 Tsp salt 

For the Vinaigrette: 

1/4 Tsp Ground Pepper 

1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt 

3 Tbsp Maple Syrup - Grade B 

2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar 

1 Tbsp Olive oil 

1/2 Cup of Diced carrots - I had maroon carrots on hand which added a great color.

1/2 Cup of Fresh mozerella - diced - I added this to make a little less healthy for the picky eaters to enjoy.

The vegetable mixture described above.

Salt and pepper to taste. 

1. Bring water and quinoa, water, salt and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir and then lower the heat to low. Cover the pan until all the water is absorbed. 

2. Add 5 tbsp of the vinaigrette to the quinoa and put it in the refrigerator. 

3. As soon as the quinoa had cooled I added the cheese, the mixture of left over veggies, and the uncooked diced carrots and one more tbsp. of the vinaigrette.

The quinoa salad held up really nicely alongside a London broil I made that night.

Easter Fresh Ham?

My mother, for the first time ever, decided to buy a fresh ham for Easter dinner. Trying to figure out what to do with it should be fun. All I know right now is I think I might need a bucket for this one. There will be documentation. Stay tuned.

Buttermilk Almond Scones with Maple Glaze

Whatever someone originally buys buttermilk for, they are inevitably left with at least a pint extra. I purchased buttermilk to make Sunday breakfast last weekend and started brainstorming of what to do with what was left over. I was just going to make some buttermilk cornbread but I had promised a recipe involving maple syrup. This recipe is the sweet installation of my maple recipe posts. The next entry will be savory. 

Buttermilk Almond Scones:

1 Cup of Flour

1/2 sliced almonds - ground 

3 Tbsp of Sugar

1 Tsp of Baking powder

1 Tsp of Baking soda

6 Tbsp Butter - Salted - cut into small cubes

1/2 Cup of Buttermilk 

Maple Glaze:

3/4 Cup of Confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp Heavy cream 

2 Tbsp Maple Syrup 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees 

2. Take sliced almonds and grind them in food processors. 

3. In large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. 

4. Add sifted dry ingredients and cubes of butter into the food processor with ground almonds. Turn on until a coarse meal is formed. 

5. Return the mixture to the large bowl and add buttermilk. Stir until well combined. 

6. Turn dough over to a floured surface and form a circle about 1/2 inch thick and divide into 8 equal parts. 

7. Bake a couple inches apart on a pan lined with parchment paper for 12-15 minutes or just until they have slightly browned. 

8. While the scones are cooling whisk together all the ingredients for the glaze. 

Scones taste really great while they are still slightly warm.

Haddock with Warm Tomato Salsa

I love cooking for myself almost as much as I love cooking for others. When I was told I was to fend for myself the other night I got excited. Cooking for fussy eaters (read : my boyfriend) can annoy me to no end. This one certain fussy eater is not fond of seafood so every time it's just me eating I go find myself a nice piece of fish to do something with. Cooking for one is fun but it can also be challenging.When I cook for one or two I almost always end up with enough to feed at least four. I think this problem is genetic because my mother, who was only ever cooking for four, always ended up with enough for eight.

The following is a light very fast dinner for two.(I made too much as always) Paired with a light wine like Pinot Grigio and you have a simple weekday dinner or a lazy Saturday night in.

1 Large Fillet of Haddock - cut in two equal parts
1 Tbsp of Butter
1 Tbsp of Extra virgin olive oil **
A few dashes of paprika per side of fish
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tsp of Lemon juice
1 Clove of Galric - minced
1 Ripe Vine Tomato - diced

1. In a heavy bottomed frying pan on medium heat add the oil and butter.
2. Add the haddock seasoned with salt pepper and paprika. You want to make sure you hear the sizzle as soon as the fish hits the pan. If you don't hear the sizzle your pan is not hot enough. Cook fish for about 3 minutes per side. Squirt 1 tsp of lemon juice while cooking.
3. Remove fish from pan and add garlic and after about 1 minute add tomatoes. Add the second squirt of lemon juice, salt and fresh ground pepper. After 1 minute in the pan pour on top of fish.

** I often use half butter half oil. That way I get the butter flavor I want and the oil helps to avoid burning or browning the butter.

As soon as I took the fish from the pan I put it on a a bed of baby spinach. The butter, lemon, olive oil and tomatoes from the pan acted as a nice dressing.

Marathon Maple Syrup Festival

The good news is, that I got a job! The bad news is, that I haven't had as much time to cook and document my kitchen experiences. As soon as I get my act together and back into the swing of working everyday, I will get back on the blogging track.

I haven't had as much time to cook but last last weekend, on the way to visit my parents in New Jersey, I stopped at the Marathon Maple Syrup Festival. I absolutely love small town festivals and this one was no different. As soon as I got out of my car the air was filled with the sweet smell of syrup. It being a chillier day than I had anticipated I was drawn immediately to the sign advertising maple coffee and purchased a cup.

Coffee in hand, I looked around the festival grounds I stopped into the sugar shack. The sap straight from the maple tree does not taste very good at all. It must be boiled and treated and the sugar shack in Marathon is one of the places where this is done. The man supervising the operation told me that it had been a pretty terrible year for maple syrup. Due to the unseasonably warm weather earlier in the week they had been forced to stop tapping the maple trees sooner than usual. This year central New York had only produced about a third of the maple syrup that is normally made in a winter.

Leaving the sugar shack I was allowed to take a sample of the previously treated syrup. It was much lighter and way more flavorful than any pancake syrup on the market. (I will never go back to using Aunt Jemima.) There was more than just maple syrup and maple coffee at this festival. They had maple milkshakes, maple pulled pork and chicken, maple cotton candy, maple ice cream sundaes and of course pancake breakfasts going on until 4PM.




I loved learning more about where an ingredient comes from and how it is produced. All in all I had a great time trying all the food and being inspired to try my own maple syrup recipes. I'll make at least on thing using maple syrup for my next entry.

Maple candies being made from maple cream, which is made by heating maple syrup and stirring until a cream is formed. I brought home some of these tasty candies for mom and dad.