Nibbles

Division of Labor

Nibbles

The stereotype seems to be, among couples, that one cooks more than the other and it’s usually the woman. Is it this way in your home, too?

My first 2 husbands (I say that like there’s been more–Elizabeth Taylor I am not!) were both non-cooks. Oh, sure, they could handle some basics, follow directions on a box, that sort of thing, but they weren’t really comfortable in the kitchen. Each had a specialty, of course. Ex #1 made tacos (from a kit, but he still considered it his specialty) while Ex #2 made chili (at least his was from scratch). Neither were very adventurous eaters.

Which is why I’m lucky that Todd is not only quite good in the kitchen, he’s more than happy to share supper duty with me and willing to try just about anything (as long as there are no nuts or mushrooms, lol). At first he would have dinner started when I got home (nice!) but now that his job has changed and I wanted to be able to test recipes for the cookbook, we tag-team it.

For a while we were strictly using the Menu Mailer each week but, well, that’s starting to be phased out. While it was nice to have everything decided and done, we were craving a little more variety, even if it sometimes means a little bit more work (and having to make our own grocery lists–the horror!). We still have years of archives to fall back on, though, should we not want to think too much on any given week. Instead, he’s pulling things from cookbooks, sites online and even things we’ve seen on Food Network (gotta love that channel!).

So who does dinner in your house?

Creative Cupcakes!

Nibbles

Have you noticed how many cupcakeries have sprung up around the country or, even, in your own town? Cupcakes are everywhere and it’s easy to see why.

Cupcakes are:

  • Portable
  • Cute
  • and Perfectly Portioned

Karen Tack & Alan Richardson, creative co-authors of Hello, Cupcake!, have come back for another batch of cute and surprisingly simple designs for a variety of occasions–bringing show-stopping cupcakes to home kitchens.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the book for review and to participate in a chat with the authors, hosted by McCormick. What fun!

What's New, Cupcake?

The book is brimming with pictures of both the finished cupcakes and many of the steps it takes to make them, making it easy for the home cook to replicate the fun ideas in the book as well as learn the techniques to improvise their own. The authors jokingly call themselves “lazy decorators” but, as Karen pointed out, lazy for some translates to efficient and smart.

For instance, a lot of the supplies you’ll need are basic kitchen tools. Most of the ingredients, outside of the cupcakes themselves, can be purchased in the candy aisle of your grocery store and take just a little bit of manipulation to turn them into great details.

Even with my background in pastry and cake decorating, I was able to pick up several fun ideas. I’m not sure I would have thought to use lime chewy candy to make broccoli spears the way they did for their Chinese Takeout cupcakes. And the marshmallow flowers are absolutely to die for! Simply snip a marshmallow on the diagonal and dip the cut edge into colored sugars, then arrange them in concentric circles to form the most darling, elegant flowers I’ve seen in a while.

Now, I’ll be honest, not all of the short-cuts and simplifications are my cup of tea. I’m not the biggest fan of Twinkies but there’s nothing to say I can’t substitute my own pound cake mini-loaves. In fact, a lot of the short-cuts can be made more gourmet for those looking for more of a culinary challenge.

And to top things off, I’ve got 2 author-signed copies of What’s New, Cupcake? to offer to you! Since the opportunity came from my connection over at Circle of Food, it’s only fair that I offer the giveaway over there. Head over to this same post over on Circle of Food and leave a comment with your favorite flavor of cupcake to be entered in the drawing. At the end of the month I’ll draw two comments out of a cake-pan for the books and a little something extra from me!

Cake Alternatives

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Last week Todd asked what kind of birthday cake I wanted, or even if I wanted one at all considered the amount of cake I’d just dealt with.

Have you ever considered a birthday non-cake for your celebration?

Here’s some ideas we came up with:

  • Cupcakes (good if gourmet, less run of the mill)
  • Cheesecake
  • Ice Cream Cake

Of course, those are still cake-like and, therefore, too close for comfort for some. Plus, we’d recently had cheesecake for Todd’s birthday, last month. One year, though, I decided I wanted an ice cream cake, ordered it, then ended up winning the cake giveaway on the radio that year–what are the odds?

  • Pie (but not a traditional fruit pie–maybe a French silk or a chiffon?)
  • Cobbler
  • Tart
  • Brownies
  • Cookies

. . . and so forth. Of course, there are non-cake alternatives, too. What about a birthday lasagna or celebratory cheese plate? Anniversary quiche?

What we went with was a Strawberry Torte from Fresh Market. Layers of cake, sure, but only a few thin ones, plus custard and strawberry filling and loads of whipped cream (stabilized with something, surprisingly enough) on top.

You know, it reminded me a lot of a Poke ‘n Pour cake Mom used to make for any special occasion when I was a kid. Case in point: my 6th birthday party at school.

My 6th Birthday

My 6th Birthday

In case you’ve never heard of this dessert, before, it’s pretty simple to make. First, bake a box-mix cake of the flavor of your choice in a 9×13 pan. Pyrex was the best choice because it looked nice for serving, though a deep metal pan would also work well. Once it’s out of the oven and had a moment to cool, take the handle of a wooden spoon and poke several holes in the cake.

Second, mix up a box of Jell-o with the hot water but not the cold. Pour the dissolved mix evenly over the cake, making sure some gets into each hole from the previous step.

Next, make a box of Jell-o pudding according to the package directions then combine it with half a tub of Cool Whip. Can you tell that this cake was obviously printed on a package insert, back of a box or in a magazine advertisement? Spread the pudding mixture over the soaked cake, chill until set.

Finally, spread the remaining Cool Whip over the pudding layer before serving.

Our usual combo was yellow cake, strawberry jell-o and vanilla pudding. I still get a craving for one every now and then.

So much for not cooking!

Nibbles

Well, we figured out exactly what to do with those chicken thighs and artichoke hearts!

First we combined them with most of a bottle of Basil and Balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic, squished it all together in a gallon-size freezer bag and let it sit in the fridge about 24 hours. Thankfully a dressing-marinade tends not to be overly acidic (or, at the very least, have enough oil to buffer it) so sitting for a long time doesn’t break down the meat so much that it produces a mealy texture. Blech.

Then, since the weather was nice, we fired up the grill of awesome and popped those suckers on the grill for about half an hour. I was a little iffy on what to do with the artichoke hearts at that point, but Todd (brilliant man!) suggested skewering them: tada! They were a little tricky to keep on but when I figured out that piercing them near the top edge of the leaves and angling it out the base of the choke would work fairly well, we were in business.

Meanwhile, to keep the marinade or not? Now, since it’s been hanging out with raw chicken for a while it has to be boiled for AT LEAST 5 minutes before it’s safe to consume. And, well, if I’m going to boil it at all, I might as well reduce it into a sauce for the finished chicken, mightn’t I?

After an incident in which I was reminded just how much a sauce can grow (i.e. exceed the capacity of the small saucepan it was in) when it’s hit the boiling stage and a quick splash into a bigger pot, it actually reduced perfectly! Love when that happens! As it started to thicken I went ahead and strained out the stray artichoke leaves and garlic and such and it make a beautiful sauce for the grilled items. I’ll probably remember to strain the marinade first next time. Maybe.

To go with it all we whipped up a simple white sauce to cover some steamed cauliflower and topped it off with smoked provolone and just enough time in the oven to get the cheese lightly brown and bubbly.

So much for not cooking this week!

But it was good enough that I didn’t mind. Thursday I picked up a bunch of fresh veggies (bean sprouts, eggplant, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash, matchstick carrots and green onions) on the way home and combined them with the shredded cabbage, coconut milk and green Thai curry paste we already had for a very veggie curry that was even better the next day for lunch. Sweet and spicy and delicious!

No-Cook Mode

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Every time I finish with an event of any kind it takes me about a week to recover and want to get back in the kitchen.

This is nothing new and if I’ve just thrown a party I’ve usually got plenty of leftovers to last me the better part of that off-duty week or, you know, there’s always take-out. But I’ve discovered a new facet of this quirk.

This past weekend was, of course, my brother’s wedding and we were out of town for 4 days, I was elbow-deep in cake for more than that, and I’ve hit my off-duty phased. But even with Todd here and more than willing to pick up slack this week–nuh uh!

Apparently I don’t even want him cooking this week. At least not very much. We did stop at the grocery store on the way home from the beach (because I knew I’d never want to go back out and stock up once we made it home and unloaded the car) and I didn’t get 100% convenience foods but, well…

Sunday night I wanted corndogs (all beef, at least) and I did make a batch of my pineapple-poppy seed coleslaw to go with them and the sweet potato fries. Monday night was potato-crusted fish, green beans and boxed rice pilaf (Todd did the prep, I had comics to do). I’m somewhat redeeming myself with the brisket that will cook in the crock-pot along with potatoes and carrots. But it’s still a one-pot meal that hardly constitutes cooking–I didn’t even cut up the new potatoes!

It certainly compounds matters that Friday is my birthday and I feel like celebrating in little ways all week. Eating comfort food is one of those ways, but it’s not going to last too much longer: I bought chicken thighs and artichoke hearts and I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do with them on Wednesday!