A friend asked me for the Red Velvet Cake recipe yesterday and after posting it for you, I thought, since it is Suzanne’s birthday and we are celebrating it on Saturday: Why Not? She loves chocolate and it is a scrumptious cake to eat, so that is what I will be doing today.
I never claimed that I am a logical or methodical thinker, it is usually what crops up- happens. Maybe that is why entertaining is such a passion for me. I can go with the flow, as the saying goes.
Later.
Trying something new!
This time, I’m talking about technology. My tech guy wants me to move up another step, and at the same time, get a chance to meet some of you. As regular readers, you are the first to get in on what will become a new column – “Ask Bonnie” (and if you have a suggestion for a better name, that would be a great ice-breaker in your email to me at:
Have a question? Curious about something I may be able to help you with? Ask me.
(Give me a few days to sort out how to reply to you 🙂
Red Velvet Cake
- 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour, sift first, then measure.
- 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp. red food colouring
- 1 tsp. distilled white vinegar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift the flour, adding cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
Whisk buttermilk, food colouring, vinegar and vanilla in a small bowl to blend.
Using a mixer, beat sugar and butter mixture in a large bowl until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk mixture, finishing with flour.
Divide batter between 2 8-inch round pans. Bake approximately 27-30 minutes. Cool on rack for 10 minutes and turn cakes out, cooling completely.
Cream Cheese Buttercream Icing
- 1 package cream cheese, softened
- 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 cups sifted icing sugar
In a large bowl cream all the ingredients except for the icing sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar and beat to a spreading consistency.
This is one of the better cake recipes for company. It is perfect.
Taste Rating: 9.5
Lesson Learned
Just when you think you know what you are doing…SMACK! You don’t.
Made a luscious banana cream pie with white chocolate. Wonderful. Thinking that the white chocolate would be too hard to cut through, I put it in the warming oven while we ate dinner. Of course that wasn’t the brightest thing to do. When I cut into it, it was like soup.
It is a good thing she was a friend and ate it anyway and besides, it tasted good. If I had put into a pretty bowl, maybe I could have called it ‘pudding’.
This is what you don’t do.
Shrimp/Vegetable Pad Thai
This looks like a lot of ingredients (it is) but it is so worth it, even a novice can tackle it. Just take the extra five minutes to sit and read this through and slowly put it together. Some of this stuff I hadn’t heard of, so I asked a lady shopping in the aisle who looked like she might know and she showed us what brand to buy as it was the best and not “that” one. Lesson 1 – ASK someone.
- 7 ounces medium rice stick noodles
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp. dark brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1 tsp. tamarind concentrate*
- 1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
- 3 tbsp. peanut oil
- 12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 cup firm tofu, diced
- 1 cup sliced shitake mushroom caps
- 2 bunches baby bok choy
- 2 large carrots, cut into matchstick-sized pieces
- 1/2 cup matchstick-sized red bell pepper strips
- 2 tbsp. minced fresh garlic
- 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup diagonally sliced green onions**
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
Bring 4 cups of water to the boil. Place noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow noodles to soak for 5 minutes, drain and rinse with cold running water for 30 seconds. Drain well and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, red pepper, coconut milk , lime juice and the tamarind concentrate. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
Heat the seame and peanut oils in a wok or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Just before the oil is smoking, add the shrimp and cook until pink, stirring constantly. Add the tofu, mushrooms, bok choy, carrots, red bell pepper, garlic and reserved noodles and cook until heated through (about 2 minutes).
Pour the sauce mixture into the wok and toss until combined. Cook until the mixture is steaming and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the peanuts and green onions** and cilantro and cook another 30 seconds.
Note: *Soak 1/8 cup tamarind concentrate in 1/2 cup water. Soak for 10 minutes and strain through a cloth. Save the “mash” for the recipe, using 1/4 tsp. only.
** We doubled this recipe for 16 people and put the green onions only in one bowl and none in the second bowl (mine) and anyone else who doesn’t eat green onions. Always give an option if possible. Buying all this isn’t a waste. You will make this over and over again.
Taste Rating: 9
Biscotti
This is a great ‘dunker’ for coffee or a sweet dessert wine.
- 1/2 cup soft butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 3 cups flour, sifted
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp. liquid anise flavouring
- grated zest from1 lemon and 1 lime
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup white chocolate pieces, chopped
Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well, now add the vanilla. Combine the sifted flour, baking powder and salt and add slowly until mixed.
Add remaining ingredients and blend well.
Divide dough into 4 parts and shape into rolls about 1 1/2″ in diameter. Place each roll on a separate parchment lined cookie sheet, flatten top slightly and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cut each roll in 3/4″ diagonal pieces.
Place cut side down and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes. You want them cooked through.
I have a convection oven so I am able to put all the trays in at once. Be sure to move the trays around half way through the cooking times and on the second timing, turn the slices over.
They won’t be the really crisp biscotti until the second day, but trust me they are soooo good you will sample a few. I’ll bet you can’t wait, we couldn’t.
Taste Rating: 8.5
A neat tip
After dinner (or whatever meal), if there is cooked-on food stuck on your pans, simply fill with water, add a bounce sheet and let it sit overnight.
In the morning simply wash in hot, soapy water and it will be gone. Apparently the anti static agent in the sheet weakens the bond between the cooked on food and the pan.Voila! Another pan saved.
Sorry, did you really want new ones?
OR
Fill the pan with boiling water. add a heavy sprinkle of baking soda over and let sit for awhile. Come back after your television show is over and it slips off.
Either one of these tips works well and will save the frustration of trying to scrub it off.
Your Choice When Accepting Dinner Invitation
As a guest you should always take a host/hostess gift. Wine, flowers, gadget for the kitchen or bar, homemade candy…it doesn’t matter but to watch people go to these dinners with nothing in hand, shows no respect for the host. It doesn’t need to be expensive, just thought out and thoughtful.
After watching an “expert” expound that you should always open wine a guest has brought to dinner, I want to assure you this is NOT the case.
As the Hostess, if you have planned your dinner carefully and picked the wine and it is chilling, then you just say thank you and put it aside.
In truth, once you give it to the hostess, it no longer YOURS and should be her option. If your wine is chilled, then perhaps this would be a good choice. If she decides otherwise, it is no ‘rejection’ of your gift.
I don’t understand why an ‘expert’ would want you to spoil your plans over this.
Comments anyone?
Good Question
A friend of mine asked where we put all our guests at our Pot Luck Dinner.
Well….we can seat 10 comfortably at the table; so we set up a card table for 4 and 4 more for the livingroom. Now, so that no one feels left out, we put numbers randomly at all the positions available.
When they started to go down the Buffet line, they picked a number out of a hat and then they had to find their corresdponding number at one of the tables. When it was time for the dessert course, the ones that had been sitting at the diningroom table, had to move to allow the others to move to the table and relax.
After long conversations everyone drifted into the livingroom for the balance of the evening. What a hoot!
After the Potluck Dinner Party
All said and done it was a great party. Food was awsome, conversation was lively and you couldn’t ask for more.
Now for the clean up. We load the dishwasher up with as many of the plates that we can and start the machine. We have a choice: clean up now when we are tired and achy and will take twice as long OR pour ourselves a coffee, turn on the TV for about 30 minutes and sigh a big sigh of relief. (I used to be fanatical about cleaning up everything before going to bed but by the time we finished that chore, I was almost sorry we had the party in the first place.)
At some of our previous parties, we have had 75 glasses alone to wash. So now we pretty much always opt for going to bed THEN cleaning up. In the morning when we get up, we are refreshed. So….we turn on the coffee pot and run the hot water and add dishsoap. Put in all the silverware and let it soak while we have that first cup of coffee.
With the silverware out of the way now change the water to fresh, hot soapy water in one sink and in the other side, half fill with hot water but now add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of pure white vinegar. I always get out fresh drying cloths to use. Wash the glasses with care and swirl in the vinegar water and dry. This ensures we always have sparkling glasses.
In less than one hour the kitchen is clean and you now can have that second cup. Now, I can pat myself on the back for another stress free evening of entertaining. (Oh, by the way, did I mention Don made that Thai dish? Should have been here. Absolutely awsome to say the least)
Today is the Day
Today, Don and I have to shop for a few missing ingredients for his Pad Thai Shrimp dish, and I need to pick up some fresh flowers both for the table and for the bathroom.
I have set music aside that I like (Tuscany dinner music) and once more will check the bathroom for “sparkle”.
Nothing is more of a turn off than a bathroom that is less than stellar condition. Later…
One day to go
Hah! I got all the cleaning done yesterday and now I just have the silverware to clean. Easy as pie!
Without scrubbing or using polishing cloths, take a 9 x 13 inch baking pan, cover the bottom with tin foil.
Sprinkle the bottom with baking soda making sure to cover the bottom. Lay the flatware in the pan. Now add boiling water, enough to cover the silverware. It will fizz like crazy. Let it sit for a moment and then wash in hot soapy water, drying with a clean soft cloth.
That takes all of about 10-15 minutes and you are done. Silverware looks like brand new and no harm, no foul to the silverware. I have been doing this for about 30 plus years and my silverware still looks like new .