A simple chocolate buttercream icing, made from butter, sugar, vanilla and cocoa.

Basic Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

A very basic and simple chocolate buttercream icing that I have used for years. Great for cakes and cupcakes or those big batch brownies.

Baking Tip - More Level Cake Layers and Cake Tips

To achieve more level layers when making a layered cake, divide your cake batter among the pans using a measurement cup to split the batter up evenly and -- this is going to sound funny and it's a little noisy, but -- level the batter by lifting the pans several inches off of the counter top and then dropping them. Do this several times. This will spread the batter out and bring air bubbles to the surface, which help to make your cake layers bake more level. When you see the bubbles dissipate, you're ready to put the pans in the oven. I swear this works! I have even seen Miss Paula Deen herself using this! Give it a try next time you bake a layer cake.

Did your cake collapse in the center, especially in a 9 x 13 inch pan? This happens to me and it's usually due to un-even oven temperatures, resulting in under-cooking in the center, thanks to my old oven, which will not hold a temperature correctly. Besides using an oven thermometer, try not to peek at your cake until it is almost done. This will cause a drop in temperature and could lead to a collapse once you remove it, so wait to check on it about 5 minutes before the earliest cook time.

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Baking Tip - Sifted Flour

When a recipe calls for sifted flour, just what exactly does that mean? Well, it depends on how it is worded. And, if you're using an old, vintage cookbook, well, that can be a whole 'nother thing.

1 cup of sifted flour means that you first sift the flour, then measure. So place a one cup measure on top of a piece of foil or waxed paper, grab your sifter, put that on top of your measuring cup and sift the flour directly into the cup until it fills the cup. Level that off and put it into a separate bowl, and repeat until you have measured out all of the flour for your recipe. Be sure to pick up the spillover excess flour on the foil and use that too because that has been sifted! Pour that excess into your measuring cup or if you've sifted all the flour you needed, simply return it to the flour canister.

1 cup of flour, sifted, is measured totally different. This means that you scoop flour from your canister using a separate spoon or scoop and placing that flour into your one cup measure, level it off and then place that one cup of flour into your sifter and sift it into a bowl underneath.

It really makes a difference in baking so be sure to carefully check the directions and when passing on a recipe of your own, be sure to indicate which method you used!

When using older, vintage cookbooks, you will often have to make a judgment call, because very often when they say 1 cup of sifted flour, what they actually mean is for you to measure out first, then sift. 

Pecan shortbread cookies made with butter, sugar, flour, vanilla and pecans, and dusted with powdered sugar.

Pecan Shortbread Cookies

On one of my last minute "oh I think I'll make some [fill in the blank]" I decided last night I wanted some shortbread cookies. These are really my most favorite cookie - just the right blend of flour and sugar, a touch of pecan, tender and just delicious.

Since I haven't done any Christmas cookies I figured I'd at least use a star cutter and a tree cutter so I wouldn't feel so bad about indulging myself. This batch makes about 4 dozen cookies when rolled to about 1/4 inch and are not overly sweet. If you are not going to dust them with powdered sugar, you might increase your granulated sugar a bit, or even sprinkle them with a bit more granulated sugar just before you bake them.

Butter Tip - Forgot to Soften Butter?

Method to Quick Soften Butter or How to Soften Butter Fast!

Want to bake something that requires room temperature softened butter, but your's is still in the fridge, hard and ice cold? Don't fret!  But don't microwave it either!!

Break out that grater from your kitchen drawer and grate your sticks of butter on the larger holes. It's fast and it works great! Give it a try next time you find yourself short on room temperature butter.

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A creamy, rich and decadent grown up hot chocolate beverage.

Cioccolato Caldo - Italian Hot Chocolate

Brrrr... it's cold and tonight I am craving a steaming cup of creamy, rich, chocolate decadence. Italian hot chocolate. I swear, it's like drinking a chocolate bar. Pure heaven.

Basic Ground Beef American Goulash - a quick and easy ground beef, macaroni and tomato skillet meal. Stir in 1/2 cup of cubed Velveeta for a cheesy version.

Basic Ground Beef American Goulash

This recipe is a basic American goulash - one of those easy to throw together, I'm in a hurry and need to feed my family quick skillet meals, sort of akin to a simple homemade Hamburger Helper meal, really.

Not to be confused, as it so often is, with its kissing cousin, Hungarian Goulash (gulyás), a hearty, saucy and thick dish that falls somewhere between a soup and a stew of beef, potatoes and onion, much like our beef stew, except that it's usually fairly heavy on paprika.

Old-fashioned holiday divinity, made the old school way.

Old-Fashioned Holiday Divinity

Not many people make divinity in the "old way" anymore and there's two primary reasons I believe.

It can be temperamental to make, and

It just takes practice to perfect.

Neither one of which anybody has much patience for these days.

 

Eggs, hard boiled perfectly, with pure yellow yolks and not a trace of green on the edges.

Perfect Boiled Eggs

Perfect boiled eggs seem hit and miss these days, but this method that I've used for years is pretty consistent to give you a pretty yellow yolk, no green edges, and a shell that easily separates from the membrane and doesn't shatter to a bazillion pieces.

Even still, sometimes they peel beautifully and other times they are downright stubborn.

Culinary Definitions and Pronunciations

Thought it might be an idea to build a dictionary of some of our cooking terms as I go. I'm also including a listing of recipe ingredients that are common here in the U.S. but might not be well known elsewhere.

Ingredients:

Chorizo - Mexican chorizo sausage is a raw sausage that is stuffed into a casing. Spanish chorizo and Portugese chorizo are cured sausages - more like the smoked sausages we are all familiar with.

Half and Half - When you see me refer to half and half in a recipe, it is a product we have available here in the United States that contains a mixture of equal parts whole milk and heavy cream. You can mix up equal parts of milk and cream, or simply substitute heavy cream. Half and half is mostly used in place of full fat, heavy cream to reduce some of the fat in a recipe.


Culinary Terms and Other Southernisms:

Bain-Marie - (bahn-mah-REE) The process of cooking one container in a larger container surrounded by hot water. Typically used for egg custards.