Tormented Kitchen

I have this habit of making somewhat labor-intensive birthday cakes for my loved ones. My dear hubby likes coconut cake. I made a different coconut layer cake in the past that was quite tasty, but this year he was interested in adding pineapple to the combination.   This cake is lovely! I really enjoyed the pineapple curd filling with pineapple pieces. So sweet and tangy and moist! The cake was different, a bit stiff at first. But after letting the cake mellow overnight, the moisture from the frosting and filling permeated and made it much more enjoyable. Cake Ingredients 1 1/2 cups cake flour 1 cup unbleached AP flour 1 2/3 teaspoons baking powder (This works for Reno's altitude. Low altitude bakers use 2 tsps.) 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup granulated white sugar 1/2 cup local honey 1/3 cup canola oil 3 Tablespoons butter, melted 3/4 cup buttermilk 2 Tablespoons Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum or Parrot Bay Coconut Rum 2 teaspoons coconut extract 3 egg whites ...

Back in the middle of winter, we decided to attempt something new, something healthy. Green smoothies. First, we tried the Dr. Oz 3 day smoothie cleanse. Wow, were those nasty tasting! One important thing to note though, we felt good! Three days of no junk, no artificial anything, and both of us felt good.  We just wanted something that tasted better. I borrowed a book from the library, Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko and got out the Blendtec high speed blender. The whole point of this book is that the author states people need the nutrients from greens, but you have to make it taste good to get them down the hatch. I have to admit that at first, we thought the smoothies were going to be horrible like the Dr. Oz ones. We started with some of her very basic recipes, and they were surprisingly tasty! With her idea in mind, I've experimented with some different combinations. They generally look like green or brown sludge, but there are some really tasty combination...

This weekend my dear hubby had a special request for breakfast. He claimed since his birthday happens mid-week, that I should fix him a special birthday quiche on the weekend.  So I was a nice wifey, and fixed a special bacon-loaded quiche. It was fabulous! I served it with cantaloupe and a salad of mixed greens with cranberries and almonds and a red wine vinaigrette dressing. Ingredients 1 9-inch blind baked pie shell 1 onion, sliced into strips 3 Tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon minced garlic 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 3 eggs 1 cup milk 1 cup shaved Swiss cheese, or similar cheese like Gruyere or Emmentaler Black pepper and sea salt to taste Method 1. In a medium frying pan, saute onion and butter. Cook over medium heat until onion begins to brown. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until softened and brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add minced garlic at the very end and saute until just browned, about 1 minute.    2. Spre...

Yum for broccoli! We like broccoli. I bought a seriously huge bag from Costco. I barely made a dent in it after this broccoli casserole and a couple nights of steamed broccoli. Note to self: Costco bags of broccoli are too big for normal consumption. Going back into my childhood, I liked broccoli with "cheeze."  Since processed cheese is very high in sodium (and lots of artificial weird stuff) I don't like to eat it all that often. Thankfully, my kids aren't big fans of Velveeta. However, this is one of those traditions where I have to indulge myself every once in a while. This was part of the Easter dinner feast. It was really salty and oozy and yummy. I'm pretty sure we negated any health benefits from the broccoli with all the "cheeze" and butter, but I enjoyed it immensely. Ingredients 2 lbs broccoli, chopped 1 lb block Velveeta 3 T. butter 2 T. milk 6 Ritz crackers, crushed Method 1. Microwave or steam broccoli until just tender. ...

Hello again my dear readers. It's springtime here and I'm finding more and more good produce at the stores. I found some adorable Brussels sprouts! They are essentially miniature cabbages that grow on stalks. I'm hoping to grow some in our garden this year! I wanted to try something a little bit different. I recruited my daughter to help me make dinner. I told her to help put the sprouts in the pan and that she had to watch for bugs. She was very thorough and questioned almost every brownish spot she saw. As part of this experiment, I asked her to eat one raw. She did! My picky eater ate one whole raw Brussels sprout! What an accomplishment! However, once I got out the onion, she lost interest. She did ask if I was crying (from the onion fumes) and looked deep into my eyes to see if I had any tears forming. Funny! After stuffing the pan into the hot oven, I managed to heat up some ham and microwaved a huge sweet potato to make the meal. The lemony cheesy Br...

Easter time has come and gone yet again. Now, let me tell you something. Usually, I attempt to give up something for Lent, and fail miserably 3 days later. I gave up chocolate for Lent this year. This is not the first time that I've tried to give up chocolate, but it was the most successful time! I was really trying to eat healthier. There was one birthday party with marble cake that I could not resist. For the most part, I was very focused on what healthy things I could eat instead of chocolate. That sort of impaired my inspiration to cook and blog about food.  Now that I've survived the month+ without chocolate, I've managed to put together a few thoughts. 1. I am a chocoholic. 2. I don't have to eat all chocolate all the time. 3. I should only eat the really good chocolate in small quantities. 4. Chocolate will put me into a tailspin of eating. No Chocolate means I'm in better control of what I eat later in the day. 5. I really do like fruits and veggies, b...

I got this tip from a friend who was trying Weight Watchers a number of years ago.  If you are using ground beef in a recipe that requires cooking and then combining with sauce ingredients, this is great because you will not miss the greasiness and the flavor will not be horribly reduced. Start with lean ground beef, I look for 90/10 or even 93/7 beef.  This refers to the percentage of lean meat and fat that is ground up together when raw. Now when you cook it in the frying pan, notice the puddle of hot, liquid fat. Normally I would drain the fat and return the pan to the stove. My friend recommended that you drain the fat and rinse the meat under hot water. Then also use a paper towel to wipe the fat residue out of the pan to remove as much fat as possible. Return the drained meat to the pan and season. This works really well for taco meat, sloppy joes, or chili.