Potlikkery

Ponchatoula is (bone fide) alright with me

Wouldn't you know that as soon as I bowed to the common ingredient list including box cake mix and strawberry flavored gelatin in the making of my strawberry cupcakes, that I'd come across a bone fide strawberry cupcake recipe? Just my poor old luck, really. But sort of scary, too. Like somehow, months ago when Foose dreamed up this cookbook, she included this recipe just for my sake. To redeem my hurt feelings about whether my cupcakes were "from scratch," for real. It was predestined. 

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea arrived a day or two ago via our U.S. Postal Service. Couldn't help myself from browsing it immediately. The cover photo is super inviting; just completely appealing to my particular preference for food styling. And I'm the first fool in line handing over her credit card to buy almost any and every southern-themed cookbook. Now I don't call myself a fool because these cookbook authors are fooling me into something. No matter that they all have almost the same recipes inside.  There are always a few gems in each one. And certainly that is the cake with SCAST. 

I'm referring to her Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes recipe. Batter made from scratch, and icing too, just what I dreamed of about a week ago. It's not too late though. There are still fresh, locally grown strawberries around. Must seek them out. Sadly, I barely used a whole pint of the gallon I bought. 

Frigid fruit and veggies taste terrible to me, so my berries sat out on my counter, and we're using that natural air conditioning a.k.a windows open. So they spoiled quicker than they should have if they were tucked into my fridge. Can you imagine knitted woolen strawberry cozies to keep each one warm inside that dreadful old icebox? I can.  The sad thing was throwing most of the lot out. Actually, the white fuzzy, almost projectile, mold forming on my berries reminded me of those fuzzy winter muffs that you see little girls of Currier & Ives era paintings carrying along on a sleigh ride, or an ice skating jaunt.

Foose covers a Delta meal from cocktails and appetizers on through magnificent, decadent traditional southern desserts. She grew up in the Mississippi Delta, then traveled a bit to work in big city kitchens. Then went off to cooking school in France, so her rendition of these southern favorites is well-informed. Right off her Cantaloupe daiquiri tempted me to throw caution to the wind about fetal alcohol syndrome and imbibe in such a delight. Yet, I shouldn't drink. And won't. But I'm keeping this one in mind for when I can have alcohol again. 

But I could have her Blackberry Limeade which looks refreshing and like it would soothe my nerves. The food photography/styling is delicious and enhances Foose's recipes. Unfortunately the scenic photography of the Delta, interspersed with those glimpses of heavenly southern food, appear more like stock photos and lack the intimacy and lushness of the latter.

Each recipe begins with a Foose anecdote. Readers learn about her great uncle Thompson alongside  Catfish Ceviche. Thompson preferred sleek cars to big old trucks so popular with all the Delta menfolk, and opened his catfish farming business in 1958.  A large sidebar following the recipe teaches the reader about the spawning and hatching of catfish.

There are lots of expected dishes like gumbo, turtle soup, cheese, grits, mac n cheese, country fried steak, and dumplings. Then there's the unexpected: Barq's Root Beer-Glazed Ham. This one, we'll have to try. Despite the kitsch factor of cooking meat in a soda pop brine, I declare that the end product tastes mighty good and receives rave reviews from our families.

The combination of her photo of egg salad and the recipe for Good Sandwich Loaf bread tempted my tummy, and pulled up to the Shamrock's drive-thru and bought an egg salad sandwich for lunch yesterday with eventual making of my own in mind. Already got lots of eggs for the egg salad and all the makings for the sandwich loaf. 

Those desserts...well, none of them jumped out at me like Sweet Tea Pie. Ooooooo-eee. I'll have to try that. Foose described it like so: 

The flavor tastes like state fair saltwater taffy, and the texture is like pecan pie without the pecans. I think you will enjoy it.

Last night on the phone I told Ian about the book and it's banana pudding recipe from scratch. Since we had a bad experience with the last from scratch banana pudding we made, um, we're reluctant to try it again. Another recipe that caught my eye was Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake. It takes 14 egg whites. Now that is a lot of cracking and separating of eggs. Though I don't ever yearn for angel food cake, that brown sugar twist might keep my interest long enough to try one. 

Be sure to read Fosse's notes to the left or the right of each recipe. She says to separate your eggs a day before making the Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake and that night-before step will result in a higher cake. When it comes to Angel Food, the higher, the better, you know, closer to the Pearly Gates and all those angels with their harps and halos. 

Come July Ian and I head west to Nashville and then south down the Natchez Trace, so I'm mostly hoping that we'll get a taste of good Mississippi cuisine, though it may not be Delta in origin, least not until we arrive at Natchez proper. Any recommendations, anyone?

strawberry delight

Recipes for Strawberry Cake that I found online disappointed me. Gelatin? Frozen strawberries? Ugh. Those ingredients seemed lame. Instead, I turned to my Blue Willow Inn cookbook. It's subtitle is "Bible of Southern Cooking," and I must say, that every recipe  I've made from the book turns out Delish!

Their recipe is simple, and similar to the ones found online, actually. So I was disappointed, skeptical, but tried it anyway. One box of butter cake mix, 3/4 cup of oil, 4 eggs, one box of strawberry gelatin, and one 10oz box of frozen strawberries, thawed.

Naturally, I used fresh strawberries. And I used much much more than the 4-5 oz they suggested for the cake's batter. I made cupcakes, two dozen of them, in fact, special-like for Rebekah's birthday. Ian helped me make a decision on what to top the icing with: sprinkles or strawberry slices. He asked "What will the kids like?" Oh, sprinkles, I suppose. So there was my answer.

Rebekah leads Biscuit

Rebekah is one of the sweetest young women I know. She turned 18 on Saturday, and I felt bad that I didn't have anything other than the strawberry cupcakes for her. But, she liked 'em. I took them over to Mize in Gray, Tn. because Rebekah worked Horse Days. She thanked me for them. Even asked, "Did you MAKE them?" Of course. All from scratch, ma'am!

And then had so much batter left over that I made a one layer cake as well. Didn't use their icing recipe. Used the one that Nigella suggests for her Guinness chocolate cake: creme cheese, confectioner's sugar, and whipping cream.

Sadly, no photos of cupcakes. They never look as grand as ones others make. I either overfill the cups or underfill them. This time, I underfilled them, and their appearance was rather poor. Sad, actually. Yet, they tasted good. I was very pleased with how they came out. Yum. Super good. Will definitely make this recipe again. And even though my batter and icing were much more strawberry loaded than the recipe called for, I still had at least a half pint of berries remaining in that container. So now what to do with the remaining 3 pints?

jumbo cupcake in the house

There is a cupcake staring me in the  face. It's a Jumbo Cupcake from Another Touch Bakery of Jonesborough, Tenn. Blogless Amy and I met for lunch today. I ran late.

She amused herself at the bakery. Sent me a text message about being at the bakery. I replied "There's a bakery?" Like, I think I'd know whether there was a bakery in Jonesborough because I'm first and foremost a pastry lover. But, no. I didn't know about Another Touch bakery. They make cakes. So it's not a "real" bakery. 

I think Amy is trying to sabotage my diet. But actually, she bought one for herself, also. And she's dieting, too. So she's sabotaging us both.

The cupcake, or so Amy told me over the phone, is a vanilla/almond cupcake with the same butter cream icing. And wow, is there icing? Too much of it. When I complained to Amy about her presenting me with the cupcake and my diet, she said I could just eat the icing. The icing! That's the worst of it. Surely the cake is healthier than the very buttery icing.

So much butter I can smell it. So much butter that the twenty minutes it spent in the car leaving Jonesborough and coming home kind of melted the icing a bit. At least my car doesn't smell like butter.

But my hands do. You see, I thought I'd try to carry the cupcake in to work inside my tote bag. Bad idea. It was sealed inside a Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid. The lid cracked open and I got icing all over my hands trying to snap it back in place.

Now that I've had a taste of the icing...well, I'll say that staring at it and not eating it is pure torment. I probably won't eat the whole thing. A good bite would do me. Maybe I can save the leftovers for the horses. I read somewhere that horses will eat cupcakes, even if the icing was licked off.

Btw, my crate & barrel cupcake holder/transporter arrived yesterday in the mail. Haven't unboxed it yet.

That butter aroma is something else. It wafts by my nose every few seconds or so. I want to wait until later, when I may actually be hungry, to eat a morsel or two to sustain me through this, my first late night at work, in ages.

cupcake carrying case

Despite my last bad experience in the world of cupcakes, I saw this cupcake carrying case at Awesome! and had to have it. One of the reasons I didn't share my last batch of cupcakes with anyone was because I had to split them into two or three plastic storage pieces and maybe you could say that looking at them in those containers depressed me and I couldn't bring myself to remove them from the house looking so boring and unloved. No doubt, I'll not have that problem with this lovely carrier that I ordered  tried to order from Crate & Barrel, except their website is all mucked up. Maybe I'll try later, or just call the 1-800 number to order the old-fashioned way.

cupcake debacle

Cupcakes abound in the blogosphere. I've wanted to make a batch for a while. I've been gathering and hoarding ingredients.  And looking for cupcake recipes everywhere in my books. I know, I ought to look online because of the vast recourses available thereabouts, but I prefer to find my recipes the old-fashioned way, from cookbooks. I complained about the dearth of cupcake cookbooks at my public library and Ani reminded me of Chockylit.  And Paula put me on to a lemon angel food cupcake.

These are banana buttermilk cupcakes. They taste a little too much like banana bread to me. But, no nuts. Not sure I'll make them again though. First time, I overfilled the cups. It's been a long time since I've mad muffins or cupcakes, so filling the cups 3/4 of the way full was a big mistake.

But the second time was a charm. At least I learn from my mistakes. So they weren't perfect. They were still a little sunken. Either the batter had too much liquid in it or the cooking temperature was too low. I cooked them on 350. Maybe 375 would have been better.

not the photo i wanted to share, but typepad is being a...

Frosted them this morning. And meant to bring them to work to foist them on everyone. Used a cream cheese frosting with a tad of coconut extract, vanilla, too, for that matter. And a dash of sprinkles. My favorite. They're in the fridge. Chilling.

After such a less than satisfying cupcake experience I took yesterday's lunch break at a bookstore and compared their cupcake cookbook selections before deciding to purchase 500 Cupcakes. There were three others. I don't remember what they are now, but they were boring. This one, this 500 Cupcakes had the most inventive flavor combinations. Also liked the way it was organized. Can't wait to delve inside and figure out how to improve my cupcake skills.

my first bagel

This morning was unlike others.  Okay, unlike other weekdays in which I wake up, clean up, eat up, and dash out the door to work.  Woke a few hours early, so I made a bagel and then finished reading my book in the living room. But before all that I peeked out the rear door and saw dawn on the horizon. Reading in the morning is my favorite thing to do. Wake up and read. What else could compare? Maybe eating a buttery blueberry bagel.

Pooling with butter, as you can see. While I gorged on bagel, my thoughts hearkened back to my very first bagel. It was in 1985, I think. At that time, bagels were only available in East Tennessee grocery stores in the frozen or refrigerated sections. Lenders, I believe they were. And I had a bagel because my friend Sarah's mother was Jewish (Gentile father). And they had bagels in their house.

Baptists (and other Protestants) didn't do bagels for breakfast or for any meal.

Sarah and I lived a few blocks away from each other and from our middle school junior high (when our city's public school system was organized much more soundly back in the days when dinosaurs gasped their last breath). We walked to her home after school to watch The Guiding Light, and to eat bagels with cream cheese. We didn't have good snacks at my house. She usually dragged out the discarded GL script that her relative, who worked one of the cameras, or in production, somehow, had sent her, and we pawed through it during commercials.

Many years passed for unfrozen bagels to hit East Tennessee. By the early 1990s we had at least one bagel sandwich place. And then there was another that set up shop in an abandoned Jiffy market, but it went out of business soon, too. Now we have those chain bakeries that sell bagels. And mine? Sara Lee from the grocery store. Nothing fancy for me. I like bagels though.

Another memory: The original bagel sandwich place was run by Christians. And they made all their workers make a profession of faith before they were hired. Only in the South. Only in East Tennessee, right? Well, there was a short-lived coffee shop downtown that had the same set up and it didn't last either. Maybe it's location. Maybe it's something else. But I'm not sayin... exactly.

That reminds me of frozen yoghurt. I read about it in Norma Klein's books in the early eighties, publication date, probably the seventies,  but it wasn't until the late eighties that we got a TCBY.

And that brings me to cupcakes. Everything come down to them. Will we ever get a cupcake shop? Seems doubtful. By the time someone here brings it to fruition, the trend/desire for cupcakes will be long long gone.

Living in a culinary wasteland; so sad. Such deprivation.

Did I mention the crushing culinary homogeneity of this pocket of East Tennessee? No more chain restaurants, please. Out of the Tri-Cities, we have more chains than Bristol or Kingsport because our city leaders had the foresight to pass liquor-by-the-drink in the late 1980s.

Sometime this month I'm supposed to make cupcakes for work in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. I bought a RVC mix in a box from Fresh Market. Am thinking about making those, but tinting the icing green. Maybe I have time to find St. Patty's Day cupcake liners.

y'all come

Y'all should check out Leah's post, including photos and narrative, but not recipe, for Cheerwine Cake. Sure would make nice cupcakes.

red velvet on the brain

I turned out a semi-successful red velvet cupcake this weekend. Knitted it all myself using a pattern from One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit  and Crochet.  It's a Christmas tree ornament. Now for the real thing... I'm working up to it.

red velvet cake (and the armadillo)

photo from Joyofbaking.

Tayari posted her mother's red velvet cake recipe. I haven't compared it to others, or even other RVC cake recipes to one another. I just know that the recipe I had didn't work. Then Stephanie write down her grannys for me, but I've misplaced it, so I'm RVC recipeless. Until now. Tayari saves the day. And, her family is from Atlanta, so you know a RVC recipe from the South's capital has got to be good. Bona fide, southern RVC straight from the peachiest state in the nation.

Cupcake segue: I'm not mad exactly put out, but why is it that all the cupcakeries outside of the south almost always feature a red velvet cupcake on their menu? It seems wrong. I know we can't keep RVC for ourselves, but letting everybody else have some without them crossing the mason-dixon line seems wrong, somehow.

Then there's one more thing: That red velvet armadillo cake featured in the Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts movie? Steel Magnolias. To have a red velvet armadillo cake of my very own would be a dream come true. My search for an armadillo-shaped cake pan/tin was unsuccessful. I'm not from Texas, but I swear I love the armadillo. I've collected them for years. Anybody who knows me in real life has no doubt to my admiration of the animal. I have them in my office at work, hanging in my foyer, littering tables in my living room, and cluttering up my jewelry box. There's even a laundry bag filled with stuffed/plush armadillos.

With all that blog of RVC, I may have to make one for Christmas Eve dinner, which I'm hosting at my house this year; Third Annual, in fact.

cupcake uproar

The irony is great. For someone who doesn't absolutely Love cupcakes--me--having a cupcake category seems strange, no? The icing hit the fan in Alexandria after a principal banned cupcakes. That's right. Parents were no longer allowed to tote in Tupperware filled to the brim with cupcakes for all the deserving kidlets.

So it's a hip food, something trendy and chic and upscale. Note: My own area boasts zero cupcakes shops, though some chain stores try real hard but fail miserably in their offerings of cupcakes.

The article about the furor goes into the history of the cupcake, essentially a mistake that made good, and it's iconic status as an American food reminiscent of happy childhoods along with hot dogs and apple pie.

But wait, that's not all:  It's happening in Philadelphia, too. More irony: Banning cupcakes for children when adults so easily satisfy their jones. Have cupcakes gone the way of alcohol and cigarettes?