Shopping List

We've got a big storm coming! They're forecasting upwards of 12 inches of the white stuff and I need to put together a shopping list . . .

milk, beer, bread, wine, batteries, margarita mix, limes, vodka, candles, chocolate, acetometaphin . . .

Okay! I think that'll do it!

What's on your list?

Rassberry-Vannilla Cupcakes

Who doesn't like a cupcake? When sadness overtakes you a cupcake can comfort. A cupcake can restore your sense of wellness in the world.  My darling daughter just participated in the school wide spelling bee and much to her disappointment she misspelled "vanilla." Poor dear, she didn't even study that word because she knows how to spell it! It was a mistake, a mistake I tell you! I feel her pain. See, when I was in fifth grade I was in a spelling bee and misspelled "raspberry." In honor of "making lemonade out of lemons" we bring you Rassberry-Vannilla cupcakes . . .

Do you remember jello dream cake from the 70's? This is the same recipe only in cupcake form! In addition to the standard pantry staples you'll need some of the following items . . .

Could you make a white cake from scratch? Of course. Could you crush raspberries, strain the juice and gelatinize it yourself? Of course. But when you're in mourning you don't have the oomph to do these things. I need my cupcakes NOW!

Prepare your cake batter according to the package instructions. We chose a white cake mix that required all sorts of difficult steps such as . . .

. . . separating eggs.  The only purpose of that is to let the cake be as "white" as possible. Normally I just skip this step and add two whole eggs rather than 3 egg whites but I thought darling daughter would enjoy the challenge. She did.

The girl should be a hand model. Those hands are so beautiful I just want to grab 'em and kiss 'em. Except they're covered in raw egg, yuck. Make sure to wash your hands afterward! 

Get your pans ready!

I like to use the little papers.  My cupcake pans were my grandmother's pans.  They're made out of actual tin. The things bend! The point is that since they were made in oh say 1925 they're not quite "standard." They're a little shallow.  So papers really help out. If you just want to spray your pans and produce "nude" cupcakes go ahead.

Our cake mix made 24 normal size cupcakes.  After you're done with your batter. Distribute it amongst your pans. Then throw them in your preheated oven! You DID preheat your oven didn't you? It's the FIRST instruction on all cake recipes ya know! There's a reason for that! A good 10 or 15 minute preheat sets you up for success in baking.  Seriously, I hope you preheated that oven . . .

Beautiful cupcakes! Let them cool completely and then stick them back in the pan. Seriously, stick them back in the pan.  You've got to be prepared for the next steps and they are a little messy . . .

You want to punch about five holes in each cupcake using a chopstick or something shaped like that.  This is very therapeutic.  Ally was very vigorous in her punching. There may be a few holes at the bottom of the cupcake papers . . .

Add 1 cup of boiling water to the jello powder. Stir it until the gelatin has dissolved. Now take a spoon . . .

. . . and gently spoon the mixture onto the cupcakes.  A little for each until it's all gone.

What's that you say? Why is there a Costco ad under the cupcakes? Why don't I clean off my counters before I take pictures? I'm just keepin' it real . . .

When you have them all soaked with the sweet and sour goodness of liquid raspberriness cover them with some plastic wrap and put them in your refrigerator.  I like to leave those drips on the pan so I can judge when the gelatin is firm. This takes an hour or two. It's a good opportunity to stuff your face with some pizza, take a shower, watch American Idol etc. etc.

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there will be no posting of refrigerator pictures on this blog. My refrigerator is a very private, very messy place and I don't like to share it with others.  Thank you for respecting my privacy . . .

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Lets make frosting! We're going to make a nice whipped cream frosting. We're going to use a trick I heard about and haven't ever tried before! We'll take 1/2 a cup of mini-marshmallows and add . . .

. . . a cup of heavy whipping cream to it! See marshmallows have gelatin and sugar in them. The sugar gives an almost imperceptible sweetness to the cream and the gelatin adds stability! So you can whip up this whipped cream and use it later! I just checked my whipped cream and it's still all whippy looking 20 hours later!  So if you're having a nice little party and want fresh whipped cream on something you can make it before your guests arrive! Before you're in you're nice blouse that doesn't look good with whipped cream on it.  You won't be getting out loud kitchen equipment in the middle of after dinner conversation!  This stuff has none of the sweetness of canned whipped cream or the frozen stuff either. They'll TASTE the difference.  Original "Dream Cake" had cool whip on it but I've been wanting to try this trick out and we all know you taste the frosting first! 

We added a little vanilla to the frosting just to make sure we had good vanilla flavor throughout--these are Rassberry-Vannilla Cupcakes after all!  Let the cream and marshmallow mixture sit covered in the fridge for about an hour. By this time your gelatin should be set in the cake and the marshmallows should have started to dissolve into the cream.  We had to move the cream to a bigger bowl . . .

Beat on high speed just until it starts to hold it's shape. Then spread a spoonful on a cupcake and garnish with a raspberry.

Here it is! All unwrapped! notice how the gelatin has went down in stripes? It soaked right into those holes you poked in the cake.  Then it spread out from there! So when you cut into it . . .

Beautiful stripes o' flavor!  This cake is light and moist. The gelatin adds a sweet, sour, moistness to plain old boxed cake mix.  The whipped cream is lovely, light, and dare I say "creamy"? Who wouldn't feel better after one of these?

Rassberry-Vannilla Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix, prepared according to package instructions

1 3 oz. box of raspberry gelatin, dissolved into 1 cup of boiling water

1/2 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup heavy whipping cream

fresh raspberries for garnish.

Prepare the cup cakes according to package instructions and allow to cool.  Poke 5 holes in each cupcake.  Distribute liquid gelatin over all the cupcakes.  Cover and chill. Mix marshmallows, cream, and vanilla in a bowl.  Cover and refrigerate.  When ready to serve, whip the cream and spread it on the cupcakes. Garnish with a raspberry.

Chick Beer II

Since, I spent all my time these last two days running around to attend childrens' activities I thought I'd continue my discussion of girl friendly beers.  No self-respecting man I know would ever drink a pink beer from a purple and pink bottle covered with fruit. Of course, I live in Missouri where men hold hunting and BBQ in highest esteem.  So today we focus on a bisexual beer . . . hmm . . . somehow that didn't quite come out right. I have heard reports of men drinking and liking this beer.  Okay, two men, and neither of them are hunters but they fish and that's like hunting while working on your tan right?

Blue moon, you saw me standin' alone
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for
You heard me sayin' a prayer for
Some beer I really could care for . . .

Blue Moon Belgian White is a Belgian-style wheat ale. I have no idea what that means other than there is wheat in the malt used to brew the ale!  You may remember my earlier remark that women tend to like wheat beers better than the barley dominant beers mass produced here in the old USA.

This beer may be a little different for many in that it's "unfiltered." Being unfiltered leaves it with a slight cloudiness. It makes it mysterious. Who doesn't want a little mystery? 

This is another beer that is flavored with all sorts of goodness! Blue Moon has orange and coriander in it.  Coriander seed grows into that beautiful all purpose herb cilantro.  I have heard several chef's describe coriander as having bright citrusy notes. It's great in Mexican and Indian foods. Consequently, this beer is lovely with either of those cuisines. 

This is another beer that has very little bitterness. You won't see any mention of "hops" on the label.  If there are some in there they are muted and gentle. This beer DOES taste like beer. But, it's a kinder, gentler, beer. A more compassionate beer if you will. It is smooth. It is so smooth that given good music and good bar food three girlfriends could down four pitchers of it.  If they weren't paying attention that is . . . This is something to watch because it's alcohol level is actually a little higher than average American beers.

Traditionally, a glass of Blue Moon is served garnished with a slice of orange. I understand it's brewed from oats and wheat. Hmm, oats, wheat, oranges . . . it sounds like breakfast! No wonder they toast "to your health!" Try some the next time you're out.

* Queenbeemo is pretty sure that beer is not a recommended breakfast food.

A Super Bowl of Chili

Super Bowl time is approaching fast and we all know that you've got to have good food! If you're planning on serving your guests a real meal may I suggest some chili?  I like my chili to be thick and spicy!  All others need not apply.  I made this chili for a potluck my husband was attending so I had free reign when it came to the heat level.  Woohoo! Let's get going and don't forget the Beano . . .

With chili there's always the great meat debate in my house. What meat shall we use? Seriously, they're all delicious in chili! I was making this batch for an all male potluck my husband was attending. So, I went with his favorite . . .

This was a lovely 2 lb "bottom round roast" that I located for $1.99/lb. I could of fainted with joy.  A chuck roast or arm roast would of been lovely too.  I cut this one up and it was so lean I didn't even have to trim any fat off of it.  Dice it up!

I wanted something that would fit on the spoon with some sauce and maybe a bean. The meat will shrink as it cooks. If I was making this for the family I'd use a smaller size because the kiddos just don't seem to like huge chunks of meat. Now for some seasoning.

I like to season my meat with a few chili seasoning packets. I use the store brand which is actually rather light on the salt and has ingredients a 4th grader can read. It's NuVal rating is better than my children's breakfast cereal . . . What the heck? Can I just send the kids on the bus with a packet of it? That would really speed up that whole school morning hustle thing!

Anyway you want to toss your meat with the seasoning packet and add about 2 tsps of salt at this point too. Cover it up and set it in the fridge. You've just done a dry rub!!!

On to bigger and better things! The beans . . .

These are lovely.  Of course you can use canned but I like to make my chili S-L-O-W-L-Y.  Wash 'em, and pick'em (look for debris). I found 4 split peas in my bag of beans. What is the world coming too? sigh. Anyway since they're dried beans you're going to want to soak them. I wanted to do it quickly but I didn't want to agitate them because I like them to keep their skins whole.  I just poured boiling water over them and set them aside.

This is when you take all the kids to their music and athletic practices. Clean the toilets. Eat lunch. Write a blog. Pick your favorite! When you can break a bean open with a fork it's ready. An hour or two should do. Your meat will be nicely seasoned by this time too!

Beans are soaked! Now what to add to the chili? Since it's a "one pot" style meal we're looking to get all the flavor profiles in one place. We need umami(meatiness), salty, sweet, sour, and bitter working together for total mouth happiness!  The meat takes care of umami. The seasoning packet was mainly bitter. I added salt already. We shall turn to our aromatics once again!

You're going to want to chop up an onion or two.  I had a nice large one so I only used one. Dice it up! We're going to cook it nice and long, What happens when you cook an onion nice and long? Sweetness baby! So sweet is in the pot. Next . . .

Dice up a bell pepper. Green peppers have a nice bitter and slightly sweet quality to them that makes them indispensible in cooking. My daddy put a little green pepper in EVERYTHING! Now put all these yummy things in the pot!

There's no heat and no fat in here. They're just patiently waiting for the party to start.

Now for a little sweet and sour addition . . .

I like to use these in my chili for two reasons. First off there's a ton of juice. I like the juice because it limits the amount of flavor-diluting water that has to be added to the chili.  The 2nd reason is there's this little chemical they bathe canned tomatoes with that makes them keep their shape.  I want my tomatoes to dissolve into my chili! The smaller the tomato piece the firmer the tomatoes are. So I chose the large tomatoes. I used a little muscle on them . . .

I actually ended up missing a whole tomato in my blending and didn't discover it until I was stirring the chili later. It completely dissolved by the time it was served. So if you don't have one of these devices then just crush them up with your hands.  If you like little bites of tomato in your chili by all means go for the canned diced tomatoes. Whatever floats your boat!

Add the tomatoes and the beans to the pot!  I added my soaking water to them too. I know most people don't but it just looks like there's flavor in that water and I just can't stand to throw away flavor. You wouldn't want me to go against my principals would you? No, thank you.

Go to the fridge and get that beef! Dump 'er in. Everything should be underwater!

It's just barely covered and that's good. The onion, bell pepper and meat are all going to be releasing their juices into the water. The beans have already soaked up all they need.  Go ahead and bring this mixture to a gentle simmer, covered. At this point you're a few hours away from a nice chili. A chili that could be served in any elementary school cafeteria. But we want more! More flavor! Show me the heat!

Okay, this is not heat but it's pure deliciousness in chili! All the really good chili has a ton of cumin in it.  Technically it has tablespoons of it in it. Overly dramatic you say? Well somebody has got to be!  Back to the cumin. Cumin seed is packed with flavor! I like to take a tablespoon of it and squish it with a mortar and pestel until I can smell it. You can skip this step but it'll take you longer to get the full flavor of the cumin in the chili.  If you only have powdered cumin well go ahead and use that. Stir this into your chili even if it's not quite bubbling yet!

Now show me some heat!
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GASP!

I can't show you the heat.

The pictures of the heat didn't turn out.

Do you ever have these times when you feel like a total failure?

Like everything you do and try stinks?

Excuse me. While I gather myself . . .

Technically this ISN'T the heat I added to the chili. These are the high paid vegetable actors that you think are about to jump into the chili but actually go back to the refridgerator.  So what are their names? The pepper on the right is the star of the show. It is a smoked jalapeno pepper preserved in a vinegary tomato sauce. It's called Chipotles en adobo. You buy it in a little can in most grocery stores with a mexican/latin/hispanic section. I often only use 1 or 2 peppers from a can so I throw the leftovers in a baggie and freeze them.  These puppies are flavor power houses! Smokey, hot, with a vinegar brightness. Great to keep around to add to BBQ sauces, queso dips, pulled pork etc. 

The pepper on the left is a beautiful green serrano pepper.  It adds a vibrant, vegetal, FIRE! Use the seeds if you really want to turn up the heat.  My family likes to double the amount of peppers in the recipe. Of course you can leave both peppers out if that's how you roll. Let people add one dimensional hot sauce at the table. Be boring. I don't care . . .

You want to cook the chili until the beans are soft, and the meat is tender. A couple of hours should do it. I actually cooked mine for an hour and then threw it in the fridge and finished cooking it in the morning! I love stop and go food. This is one of those recipes where you can stop and set everything aside at any point! Perfect for mothers. A quick run to the emergency room isn't going to ruin this dinner!

You want to test your salt level now.  If you used any type of canned beans, seasoned canned tomatoes, or a really salty brand of chili seasoning in this you probably don't need it.  For the stuff I used I need another teaspoon or two.  Unless you're planning on serving it with cheese and chips. If you're adding fritos to your chili you might want to take a quick taste of a chip dipped in the chili.  At this point I have a beautiful chili but it's a little bit runny for me.  So I stirred in 1/4 cup of plain old cornmeal.  Thickens everything up and makes the sauce more gravy like. Who doesn't like gravy?

See the glossiness? See the utter richness? There are very few sour components in chili so pick a few sour things to add as garnish. I'm thinking some sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream or even a splash of lime juice!  A little chopped cilantro or raw onion never hurt anyone either. My husband's new favorite thing is corn chips. See how we naturally add sweet, sour, bitter, and salty to our foods?

There's no grease on the top of this chili!  If you're not a beef eater you could substitute 2 lbs of center cut pork loin or 2 lbs of turkey.  If you're a fan of ground meat feel free to sub in any of those too. I think it would probably be lovely made with deer meat even! Follow the same steps.  This chili can also be thrown in a crockpot and it'll be done in the evening! Enjoy!

Spicy Beef Chili

2 lbs bottom round roast
1 lbs dried red kidney beans
1 large onion, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
2 one oz. packages of chili seasoning mix
2 tsp salt
1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes in juice, chopped up
1 Tbsp cumin seed or powder
1 chipotle pepper in adobo, minced (my family likes two of these)
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (my family likes two of these too)
1/4 cup corn meal

Dice meat into bite sized pieces. Season with seasoning mix and salt, then cover and place in refridgerator.  Heat 6 cups of water to boiling. Wash kidney beans and remove any debris. Let beans soak in boiling water for 1-2 hours. Add onion, green pepper, tomatoes, meat, beans, cumin, chipotle pepper and jalapeno pepper to a pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer covered until beans and meat are tender, around 2 hours.  Before serving stir cornmeal into pot and allow to cook for at least 5 minutes.

Chick Beer

Wine is nice. Cocktails are lovely. But I, I prefer BEER!  I'm just genetically predisposed due to my Irish and German heritage I think . . . this is also how I explain why I've never met a potato I didn't like!  I am currently particularly fond of these three.  Besides, their labels are so attractive together--don't you think?  Their flavor profiles fall along lines that I find popular with women. I really know nothing much about beer other than what my dear friend Amy has taught me! The best part is when her and her husband are brewing a batch and my husband and I get to sit there and do quality control!  Quality control duties are very important.  You have to help them read the really tiny instructions on the beer kit. Stir the pot during restroom breaks. Make sure everybody has a nice cold beer in hand. It's all about priorities! Amy's a chemical engineer and loves to talk all about the hydrometers and carbonation and technical beer stuff.  We're always drinking beer while she's trying to educate me though so I'm afraid I haven't picked up too much of the finer points of beer. Today let's focus on an "easy" beer. Easy to like, easy to drink, my husband would call it "chick beer" . . .

Leinenkugel's Berry Weisse is quite possibly the prettiest beer on the market.  The beautiful pink, purple, and gold labeled bottle contains a rosy hued, sparkling confection of a beer. I have learned over the years that if I'm in a "wine cooler" type of mood I need to look for a wheat beer that mentions some sort of fruit.  This beer fits that bill. It does have some wheat in the malt. The hops are very muted so there's very little of the bitterness you expect from a Budweiser, for example. It's flavored with logan, elder, and blackberries. What's not to like?  It's also a relatively low alcohol beer so it's perfect for picnics and BBQ's.  You can even serve it over ice! We will choose to ignore the calorie count though because you're paying a price for all that sweetness.  Sweet, crisp, bubbly, and not bitter at all.  I'll be pouring a few of these this summer when the heat goes over 90 F and it's time for a BBQ!

Right now I'm pouring these because I like to close my eyes and pretend it's summer!

Chicken Soup: a primer

Tis the season for chicken soup! Baby it's cold outside and a nice warm bowl of soup is just what a person craves. Of course in my neck of the woods it seems like everybody is staying home with sick kiddos. Since you've got to take the time off why not make them something healing? Besides, chicken leg quarter sections were on sale . . . we'll discuss my food hoarding tendencies later.

To make a plain jane style soup you'll need the following items

Of course you can make a passable chicken soup with just chicken, water, and salt but this is AMERICA and we have different standards for our soup. Start off with a nice large pot and . . .

stick the chicken in! I'm using three whole chicken leg quarters. I pick leg quarters because they're full of dark meat, bone, and connective tissue. The trinity of stock making! Cover them with some . . .

nice cold tap water.  I like to add a couple teaspoons of salt at this point.  I want my chicken meat to be well seasoned you see.  It makes it taste "chickenier." Now for some more flavors! I like to create some balance in my food and that means it needs to hit all the spots on our tongue.  We can taste sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami(meatiness). So far we've only covered salt and umami. Who will rescue us? Where are our sour, bitter and sweet?  To whom shall we turn? . . .

Our "sour" player today is some nice dry vermouth! Sure you could use plain old white wine but so many of the cheaper whites are sweet and cheap sweet wine has this tendency to turn a little funky in food. No funkiness allowed in chicken soup! Dry vermouth is actually nice and "dry"--no sweetness here, and it has a herbal quality of its own. The price can't be beat either!  Bonus, if you have it on hand you're always ready to produce martinis! I just love multifunctional liquor, don't you? But what about our other tastes? What about bitter? Do we really need bitter? YES! Our bitter will be a tag team production today . . .

Here's the "aromatics" to our rescue. Celery, parsley, and onion.  I wash them up and cut them up just enough to fit nicely in the pot. I want them to be easy to fish out of the broth afterward.  I leave the skin on the onion because I'm lazy. Why take unnecessary steps? Besides that nice onion skin will naturally add to the beautiful yellow color of the broth! The second half of the "bitter" team . . .

Da HERBS! Well technically the garlic is an aromatic but it fits so nicely on the plate with the herbs! I've got some dried thyme, a lovely bay leaf, salt and pepper, and some garlic.  Now I wanted to just have the lovely rounding of flavor a little garlic adds without a pronounced garlic flavor.  So I took a head of garlic that I had used all of the really nice large cloves off of and just washed it up and sliced it in half.  I think most people wouldn't of even been able to identify garlic as an ingredient but they'd miss it if it wasn't there! Besides, garlic is good for you and this is supposed to be a nice healing soup.  A few ginger root coins would be lovely at this point too but I just wasn't in the mood today.  Now everybody into the pool . . .

Check your water level, we don't want anybody left out of the broth! Turn the heat up high and bring it all to a boil. Then turn it down to a simmer and cook it for an hour if you're in a hurry, 2 hours if you're feeling lazy. Did I mention you could put all of these things in a crockpot at night and cook it on low while you sleep?

While the stock is simmering go ahead and prep your vegetables you want to eat in the soup.  We stuck with the classic carrots and peas. About a cup of peas and 2 cups of carrots. These will add that "sweetness" we're looking for to make the soup a delicious taste treat! When your broth is done simmering. It's time to get to work!

You need to get everything you put into the broth, out of the broth now . . .

Get those old aromatics out too. They're cooked to death by this point and sort of limp and unvegetably! They may go to their rest now knowing they fought the good fight . . .

Take the chicken meat off the bone and discard the bones, skin and any of those other unidentifiable lumps of "stuff." Cut the goodness into bite size pieces that'll fit your spoon nicely. Now to make your soup . . .

If your broth looks a little oily, go ahead and ladle the fatty parts off, a fat separator works really well for this if you've got one. You could also stop cooking at this point, throw the broth in the fridge over night and just peel off that fat before you make soup. The options are limitless!

Bring the broth to a boil and add the carrots. You want to cook them for about 5 minutes. They won't be "done" yet but that's okay, you still have noodles to cook!

Add your yummy noodles and cook them for about 3-5 minutes . . .

Add your peas and chicken and bring it to a simmer again.  Check the salt level, add some if it needs it. You're ready to serve!

Soup! It's what's for dinner!!!  I often like to add a couple slices of ginger root to this soup just for kicks! My German relatives from South Dakota garnish their soup with cinnamon! President George Washington actually enjoyed a little peanut butter stirred into his soup!  Go crazy with it!

Chicken Noodle soup

3 chicken leg quarters

1 tablespoon salt

water

1/4 cup dry vermouth

1 yellow onion, sliced in half

4 stalks of celery

4-5 small cloves garlic

8-12 stalks flatleaf parsley

1 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

2 cups sliced carrots

12 oz. pakage egg noodles

1 cup frozen peas

Place chicken, 2 teaspoons of salt, vermouth, onion, celery, garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaf and pepper in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer.  Simmer for 1-2 hours.  Strain broth. Remove chicken meat from the bone and chop into bite size pieces.  Bring broth to a boil and add carrots.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add noodles to boiling broth and cook 3 minutes.  Add chicken and peas to soup and simmer until they're warm.  Test soup for salt and add more if necessary.