God Gave Me Cotton Candy For Breakfast

Every year we look forward to going to the NM State Fair and every year along with the roasted corn on the cob and a slice of Fair pizza, I look forward to enjoying a bag of cotton candy. This year I didn’t have to wait until September. This morning, while enjoying my coffee on our patio, I was blessed with this awesome view of cotton candy in the sky. These pictures don’t do it justice as it was much more pulchritudinous (hee hee - word for the day) in reality. "Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever." Psalm 104:1-5

Towers, Heads, and Bavarian Treats

Today's post is just a quickie to let you know that I have not given up on blogging. We have been extra busy w/ preparations for and taking our summer vacation. We drove up from Albuquerque to Fort Collins, Devils Tower (where they filmed Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Crazy Horse monument, Mt. Rushmore (we ate in the same cafeteria where Hitchcock filmed the shooting scene in North By Northwest, starring Cary Grant.

Ok, maybe it's been remodeled a bit since then but you CAN still see the heads while you eat). We also toured the Badlands. We enjoyed camping in KOA cabins the whole way. It was such an interesting change from hotels as most of the campgrounds were in lovely settings w/ trees and rivers nearby. One of the cabins was at the base of Devils Tower.

We enjoyed this lovely meal at the Bavarian Inn in Custer, South Dakota. I had sauerbraten, Charles had wienerschnitzel, and we shared some out of this world spaetzel! Then for desert, we shared an apple strudel. Good thing we did lots of walking on this trip!

Enjoy this clip of the North By Northwest trailer. It's one of Hitchcock's best, so put it on your must see list if you haven't already!

A Vintage Find and a Comfort Cake

I have been so delinquent in posting to my blog! There are several reasons for this. There’ve been a multitude of distractions lately, and of course there’s always job work and house work to tend to. Recently, I discovered The Sims 2 game. What a time waster! However, if you like to design landscaping and develop interior spaces this game’s for you! I think I’ve gotten it out of my system for now though, but I’m sure it won’t be long until I hear the Sims begging me to come play with them again!

A couple of weeks ago, we visited our favorite antique mall where I picked up this great find for only $20.00! It was in pristine condition with NO stains! I love these old cotton tablecloths from the 40’s. They are quite a collector’s item and one can find many to choose from on Ebay.
I have been doing a fair bit of cooking and recently made this wonderful coffee cake. My version, below, was inspired by a recipe on the Food Network site.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Cake Ingredients:
1 ½ sticks of softened butter
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups sour cream
2 ½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Streusel Ingredients:
¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

For the cake: Cream the butter and sugar with a mixer for 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel: place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble.

Scatter half of the streusel into the bottom of the pan, spreading it out. Spoon half the batter on top, in globs to make spreading it out easier. Sprinkle the rest of the streusel on top and then finish with the remainder of the batter.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a thin knife comes out clean. Turn upside down on a cooling rack, dust with powdered sugar and let cool. Place on a plate, slice, and enjoy!

Enjoy this clip about how to care for your teeth after you've eaten this yummy cake!

Snickerdoodles

So much for waistline concerns! We are now on a cookie kick! Last night I made snickerdoodles as the lovely molasses cookies are long gone. I used the recipe from Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book which is listed under “MY COOKBOOKS” below. It is a reproduction of the 1963 edition and reminds me of the one my mom had. What I love about this “cooky” book are the photographs and sketches as well as the clear easy to follow instructions. There are over 450 favorite cookie recipes from simple drop cookies, bars, rolled cookies, as well as more elaborate cookies for entertaining.

Snickerdoodles
1 cup shortening (part butter or margarine – I used ½ cup Jungle shortening and ½ cup butter)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ flour (I used Gold Medal Organic)
2 tsp. cream of tarter
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix shortening, 1 ½ cups of the sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method. Blend flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt; stir in. Shape dough in 1” balls. Roll in mixture of 2 tbsp. sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Place 2” apart on silpat mat placed on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes.

I think we might enjoy these out on our patio with some iced tea this afternoon. Here's the view from the patio at 12:15 pm today.

Susan Boyle Wins Semi-Finals!!

I was thrilled to learn that Susan Boyle won in the semi-finals for "Britain's Got Talent." The finals are on the 30th. I sure wish we could see her performances here in the US. For now, we'll just have to settle for You Tube. Here she is signing “Memory” from the musical Cats.

Rainy Days Were Made for Cookie Baking

~We have had a very long dry spell here in the desert, but today it is raining! Rain, glorious rain! It’s been damp and cool all day with intermittent showers. Did monsoon season arrive early? Moisture is coming up from the Baja in Mexico which is bringing us all this wonderful rain. If we are lucky, we might get some thunderstorms. This weather is supposed to last through the weekend. Charles said I won’t likely see days like this at the end of May very often. One of our neighbors has their fireplace going of all things! The little Weather Bug icon in my system tray says it’s 57 degrees and it’s 2:40pm!

~Why waste such a fabulous day? Days like this were made for cookie baking, which is exactly what I did. When we were in Arkansas, Rochelle’s sister Mary, treated us to some of her wonderful Molasses Cookies one night after dinner. She was kind enough to share her recipe with me. These are so good! Thin and crispy/chewy. What more could you ask for in a comfort cookie?

Mary’s Molasses Cookies

1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup shortening, melted and cooled (I used Jungle brand)
¼ cup unsulfured molasses
1 ¼ cups sugar (reserve the ¼ cup)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 large egg
¾ cup rolled oats

1. Heat oven to 375. Line baking sheet w/ a silicone mat and set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cloves in a large bowl. Save the other 1/4 cup for step 4.
3. Add the shortening, egg, and molasses. Mix until smooth. Add the oats and mix well.
4. Place ¼ cup of sugar in a small bowl.
5. Make 1” balls of dough and place on baking sheet.
6. Using a glass dipped in the sugar, flatten out each cookie until it is about ¼ inch thick, dipping the glass in the sugar for each cookie. Moisten the glass for the first cookie with some dough. This will enable the sugar to stick to the glass.
7. Bake cookies until brown and crisp about 12 minutes.
8. Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool.
9. Make a pot of coffee or tea and snuggle up in front of your favorite old movie or book. (Ok, Mary’s recipe didn’t include this step, but I’m sure she’d approve!)

~I am going to take advantage of this wonderful weather and make us a pot of chili for dinner. I’ll share that in a few days.

~In the meantime, enjoy this clip of sponsor ads for The Andy Griffith Show. The ads are unique because the actors actually performed the commercials, which have not been seen for over 40 years.

A Healthier Chicken Parmesan

This winter has not been good for my waistline as I have gained a few extra pounds! I am going to have to start cooking in a more healthy fashion. Portion control, reduced fat and sugar, increased fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains are on the menu for the foreseeable future in this house! Things like the Huevos Rancheros below are going to have to be occasional treats rather than the norm!

I had a craving for and Italian dish for dinner last night and came up with this recipe for Chicken Parmesan. I took 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast and cut it into 2 inch pieces. I melted some Earth Balance spread w/ a teaspoon of chopped garlic. Then I made a mixture of whole wheat Ian’s bread crumbs, ¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese, a few shakes of garlic powder, Italian seasoning and pepper.

I placed the chicken into the melted spread, then coated them with the bread crumb mixture. I placed them in a glass baking dish sprayed w/ olive oil cooking spray and baked them in the toaster oven at 450 F for 30 minutes, turning ½ way through. As I had run out of my homemade sauce, I heated up a bottle of organic pasta sauce that I had on hand and poured some over the chicken and some whole wheat angel hair pasta w/ a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. I served this with steamed broccoli. By the way, this was my husband's plate. I had about 1/2 this amount!

Thinking of Italian food reminded me of the time Lucy tried to make pizza. Enjoy this funny clip.

New Mexican Kitchen Delight

Imagine this: eggs over medium on top of a corn tortilla, drowning in green chile and cheese, served with refried beans and fried potatoes. I have gotten on a Huevos Rancheros jag for the past few weeks. So much so, that I had to see if I could make it myself. I did not make the potatoes this time, the rest was enough, believe me! It turned out super delicious!

First, let’s make the Green Chile Sauce: Heat about 1 tablespoon of shortening in a skillet (I use Jungle brand) and sauté about ¼ cup of chopped onion until translucent. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and cook for about 1 minute. Add at least 1 cup of chopped green chile (I used the rest of the NM Roasted Green Chile I had left over from the beans posted below), a dash of garlic powder, and 1 cup of chicken broth (keep some extra broth on hand if it gets too thick). Simmer for 20 minutes and keep warm.

Second, preheat your oven to 350 F. Heat about 3 tablespoons of canola oil in a skillet and “cook” your corn tortillas (about 1 minute each side) on the stove top. Place the tortilla on paper towel to soak up the oil. Place two oven safe plates in the oven once it has preheated.

Third, prepare your eggs how you like them.

Fourth, assemble the Huevos Rancheros: Place corn tortilla’s on the HOT plate from the oven, top with the eggs, slather on as much green chili sauce as you want, and top with grated cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses. Heat in the oven until the cheese melts. Serve, garnished with chopped lettuce and tomato. Remember, these plates are screaming hot so don’t put them on plastic placemats!

For the refried beans, I just mashed up some of the left over pintos from Friday night’s meal, heated them in the microwave and put them on the plate before I put it in the oven w/ the Huevos.

This is a very filling meal and good any time of the day.

Please enjoy another installment of Depression Cooking with Clara as she shares her "Tips for the Depresson."