Sarah cooking bacon

If you haven’t fixed it before, you need to do so. It’s one of the super easy things you can fix. Like fixing scrambled eggs, there’s no need to measure things. You want a good quality bread to fix French Toast. Something like French bread, a good bakery bread or the Pepperridge Farm sourdough will make an excellent dish. A bread of substance is needed. If you use your normal sandwich quality bread, the bread will get too soggy as it has too much air & will soak up too much of the egg mixture. Then the end result will be a piece of bread that is toasted on the outside & soggy inside–not an attractive or tasty dish.

Turn your stove on to medium heat & heat your iron skillet while mixing your eggs. Usually when I’m fixing it, I’ll fix a larger batch than necessary to have French toast mixture handy for another morning. There’s 3 of us in my family living at home so if I crack 4-6 eggs, I’ll have extra egg mix leftover. How many eggs I use is based on how many times I figure we’ll have French toast in the next few days. Lightly whip the eggs & add some milk, approximately a tablespoon and a half for every 2 eggs is how much I usually pour in the bowl of eggs. This is a guess as I eyeball it. Then I add around a half teaspoon of cinnamon & half as much nutmeg. Some people add a dash of salt. I prefer to leave it out & nobody has ever complained. Lightly whip the ingredients until the spices are evenly distributed.

Whisking egg & milk mixture for French toast.

Cracked eggs in bowl

Pour the mix into a shallow container. Place a slice of the bread in the egg mixture & gently push it down until the mix flows over the top. Using a fork, I lift the bread up & turn it over so both sides are well coated. Lift it up using the fork & let the excess mix drip back into the container. Gently drop the coated bread into the hot skillet. After it has cooked for 3-4 minutes & is toasted on the bottom, use a pancake turner to flip it over. Let the other side cook until it is grilled to your satisfaction. Using the pancake turner, slip the piece of French toast onto a plate.

French toast cooking in iron skillet.

Depending on your family’s taste, the French toast can be served with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, syrup, applesauce or a warm fruit puree. After fixing however many pieces I need, I store the leftover mix in the refrigerator. I would not suggest keeping it more than a couple of days before using it.

Finished French toast with an egg

Drained macaroni

With all of Jim’s health problems, it’s no wonder I’ve been craving all kinds of comfort foods. Sarah’s been wanting me to fix some macaroni & cheese for awhile now so I’ve decided to get to it. I have several macaroni & cheese recipes I use depending on the cheeses I have onhand & which one I feel will suit my tastes better at the time. Some of them are very simple & easy with only 1 cheese involved; some are more complicated & use several cheeses. Today, I don’t want to have to pick up more cheese & just want a simple basic macaroni & cheese. As usual, I have cheddar cheese onhand.

Layered macaroni, cheese, & cracker crumbs just needing milk poured over them.

That’s why I went with the simplest & most basic one I have. Once again, I’m using one of my great-grandmother’s, Mama Bobo. Cook 2 cups of macaroni in boiling, salted water until it’s tender. Drain the macaroni. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish. Place 1/4 of the macaroni in the casserole dish  & pepper it to taste. Taking 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese & 2 cups of crushed cracker crumbs, layer a 1/4 of the cheese over the macaroni & cover with 1/4 of the cracker crumbs. Continue this until all ingredients have been used. Then pour 2 1/2 cups of milk over the layers in the casserole dish. Place in a 350 oven, uncovered & bake for 50 minutes. Try to refrain from eating it until it has cooled enough you won’t burn your tongue!

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers with parmesan cheese

Tonight I did something different. I usually use the whole wheat Ritz crackers for the cracker crumbs. We have some Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers that are made with parmesan cheese. Nobody in the family has liked them that much. Not wanting to waste them, I decided to use them for making the macaroni & cheese. You wouldn’t think such a small detail would matter, but frankly, we liked it even better than usual. I have some more of those crackers left so will try it again & see if they do work better or if it was just we were so hungary.

Oops. Somebody has already been in the mac & cheese!

Mama owned the boarding house in town & ran it for years. In 1908  she & her husband, Jack (Lacy Jackson) bought & opened the Bobo Hotel. As far back as I can remember, it was always referred to as the Hotel, but it was a boarding house not a hotel. For many years, Mama fed guests of Jack Daniel’s Distillery there at dinner time. The dinner bell would be rung & everybody that was eating would go in to sit down. The tables of distillery guests always had a woman from Lynchburg as their hostess. She would encourage talk, answer questions, make sure everybody had plenty to eat & make it a pleasant experience. Meals were served family style with a waiter keeping full dishes on the table. The food was excellent and in the summer the vegetables came from a garden for the hotel.

We always sat at a round table in the corner in the dining room closest to the kitchen. Quite simply, it was called the family table. The only way you were seated there was if you were a relative, friend or invited guest of Mama’s. Quite simply, us kids loved it. When we finished eating, we would run into the kitchen to tell Mary Lou, Dill & the other cooks that it was good & off we would run. A favorite spot of mine was Mama’s private quarters “playing the piano”. I put that in quotes because I didn’t & don’t now play the piano. In actuality, I banged away on it. But it was grand fun.

Lynchburg Courthouse

Brown Foreman, the current owner of both Jack Daniel’s Distillery & Mama’s boarding house, just finished restoring the boarding house. That was one of things I wanted to see. First, I parked downtown & Sarah & I walked around the town square & wandered in a few shops. It has changed so much from when I was young & was allowed to walk to town by myself on visits. In fact, the only thing on the square that is still there besides the courthouse is Farmer’s Bank! Nothing else remains from my childhood.

The Bobo Hotel as it has been restored by Brown Foreman.

After that, due to the cold, we got back into the van & drove to the hotel. From the outside, I can only say they did a beautiful job. It looks grand. It was open so we wandered inside. I was overwhelmed with memories. However, I will admit that I was very upset to find Mama Bobo’s private living quarters a gift shop. I have to admit that business-wise it made good sense, but it did make me a bit sorry I had gone inside. That’s what’s wrong with going back to important places from our past. What is important to us, probably isn’t to others & may well be totally changed or changed in ways we don’t like. I have to say though that I am grateful to Brown Foreman for restoring the hotel.

My grandparent's home & I have many happy memories of it.

Heart-shaped silicon muffin pans I found at Target. They work great!

Heart-shaped brownie as it looks out of the muffin pan.

Divided the brownies into 2 groups for playing purposes. Used a yummy icing on half of them & pop a candy heart I had made on it. Isn’t it adorable? Tastes good too.

Dont these look adorable with the chocolate icing & candy heart?

The second batch? Well let’s just say that was not as successful. I used an icing for petit fours on them. Made a lovely coating on the brownies. Unfortunately, the taste was something else. Let’s just say I threw that recipe away! Folks, it doesn’t matter how amazing it looks if it doesn’t taste good. I have a couple more recipes to try for the same look I’ll give a shot another time. Hopefully one of them will be a keeper.

Looks aren't everything! These look prettier than they taste.

If you’re just beginning to cook or just beginning to venture out to try new recipes, remember not every recipe you try will be a keeper. Tastes vary from family to family also. Something my family finds amazing might meet with a ho-hum attitude from your family. The object is to end up with foods YOUR family finds amazing!

NY Sirloins

The local grocery store had a good price on NY sirloins so I picked up a package for tonight’s supper. I also indulged and got a package of fresh mushrooms to go with them. Yum

A package of mushrooms to top the steaks.

Idaho and Russet potatoes are the best varieties for baking. I bought Russet the last time I got some. These were some nice large potatoes evenly sized. Wash 2 of them as Sarah doesn’t want a potato. She’s going to eat some of the leftover citrus rice. This menu was decided early enough in the day that we’re having real baked potatoes. Place them in the oven at 450 and they’re on their own for about  75 minutes.
Remove the steaks from the refrigerator & opened the package. I season them well on both sides with seasoning salt & coarse black pepper. Leave them on the counter at room temperature and covered for the seasonings to soak into the meat. There are 4 steaks in the package and I will cook all 4 of them. The leftover steak will be available to slice into a salad, add slices to a quesadilla or eat as is after heating up. Learn to make leftovers your friend & you’ll start planning to have leftovers.

About 15 minutes before I plan on us eating, I pull out the trusty George Foreman grill. I like my steaks medium rare to rare. The rest of my family like theirs medium well so I will monitor the steaks carefully so everybody will be happy. If I had heated the grill up before placing the steaks on them, I wouldn’t have started cooking the steaks as early.

Washed mushrooms sitting on towel waiting to be gently patted dry.

I want to have time to work with the mushrooms though so have made a little more time available. Experts tell you to gently pat mushrooms with a damp towel to clean them. I can’t do it. Knowing how they’re grown, I carefully wash under cool running water about ¾ of the mushrooms. The rest of the mushrooms will go into salads raw. I then carefully & gently dry the mushrooms with a towel. Place them on a cutting board and slice them into ¼ slices.
While slicing the mushrooms, I have heated up a small skillet on medium high heat. I add 3-4 tablespoons of butter to melt. If I have olive oil, I use half as much butter & make up the difference with olive oil. At the moment, I have no olive oil so it’s butter only. The butter has to be carefully watched so it does not burn. I look in the spice cabinet trying to decide what I fell like using for seasoning. Oregano looks good tonight so I sprinkle oregano & coarse black pepper on the mushrooms as they saute. Garlic salt goes nicely on mushrooms also, but I’m not in the mood for garlic. By the time the mushrooms are barely sauteed, my steak is done so I remove it from the grill so the others can cook longer. Gently spoon the mushrooms over the steak. It looks delicious.

Steak with sauteed mushrooms and baked potato.

Don’t know about you, but salmon & rice go together naturally. I have had a baked potato with salmon, but unless I also had broccoli rice casserole I wasn’t happy. Sometimes I like to flavor the rice & this doesn’t seem like a plain rice night. Funny how that is.

My George Foreman Grill

Simple things can make a big difference taste wise. Not going to do anything fancy. Measure 4 cups of water into a large pot, add a teaspoonful of butter & a smidgeon of salt. I don’t use much salt & seldom use as much called for in a recipe unless I’m baking. Pull the orange juice out of the refrigerator & pour about 1/2 cup in the pan. Turn the heating element to high heat, put a lid on the pot & wait for the water to boil. As soon as the water comes to a boil, I add 2 cups of long-grained rice. This will make a lot of rice, but leftover rice is a good thing as far as my family is concerned. Turn the heat down to medium-low and continue cooking for about twenty minutes. That’s it. Nothing fancy, but the rice will have a delicate citrus taste.

If you don’t have a George Foreman grill or a knock off, I don’t know how you live. It’s one of my favorite kitchen tools & perfect for fixing salmon. Occasionally, I do something fancy, but it’s going to be straight simple salmon tonight. Sprinkle some seasoning salt and pepper on one side of the salmon. Smear a little butter on it & slap it on the grill. Repeat the above steps on the side facing up. Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on it & let it cook. Depending on how thick the pieces of salmon are, I grill them for 6-10 minutes.  I like my salmon pretty well done.

Salmon cooking on the grill.

In the meantime, I have another pot with about 1/2 cup of water in it coming to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, I add the entire pound bag of frozen broccoli to it. This will finish about the same time as the salmon. Again, I’m wanting leftovers so I’m not concerned with the fact that that’s more broccoli than I need for supper.

Supper ready for a fork.

That’s it. In less than 30 minutes, supper is ready.

The finished coconut cake. Have a knife?

Thursday we’re celebrating Zoey’s (my oldest granddaughter) birthday. So today I’m baking a cake. A coconut cake that will have an orange filling. Here’s where you can find the recipe I used http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Six-Layer-Coconut-Cake/Detail.aspx. It makes an awesome cake.

Pull out the flour, butter, eggs & other ingredients and get started. In a very short time, I have cake batter ready to pour into 3 8-inch cake pans. Carefully place the pans into the preheated oven & bake the cake layers. While my coconut cake bakes, I work on cooking the filling. As soon as the filling is finished, I put it in the refrigerator to cool.

Coconut cake cooling in pans.

In a short time, the coconut cake layers are ready to come out of the oven. I place them on the wire racks to cool before removing them from the pans. After the layers are removed from the cake pans, I let them cool completely. In the meantime, I clean a spot on the counter.

I had lots of oranges so used fresh orange juice.

Once the coconut cake is completely cooled, I pull the layers over to the newly cleaned spot on the counter. I dig out my cake leveler & set it for cutting the 3 layers in half. Once the initial cut into the crust is made, it’s easy going. Just have to be careful & watch what you’re doing. Go too fast & the cake will move on you.

The cake leveler sits on top of the cake layer that is now 2 tiers.

Now that cake is cut is cut into the proper number of tiers, I start filling the cake. Place the bottom tier on a cake board & a third of a cup of the filling on top of it. Gently spread it until it covers the cake. Take the top of that layer & gently place it on top. Spread a third of a cup of the orange filling on top of it. The bottom tier of a layer goes on it. Continue stacking cake tiers & filling until the last tier is in place.

Stacked & filled layers of coconut cake with orange filling.

Now it’s time to make the frosting. Pull out the candy thermometer as it will be a necessary tool for making the frosting. Combine all the ingredients but the vanilla in a large pot & start cooking. I use the directly over low heat method; if you prefer, you can use a double boiler. Very carefully beat on low speed with an electric mixer. It’s a bit of a pain because you have to be careful to stay away from the candy thermometer. Don’t want a diaster!

After the frosting reaches 160 degrees in temperature, it’s time to pull it off the stove & pour into a large mixing bowl. Add the vanilla & turn your mixer up to high speed. Beat until you get lovely stiff peaks. This will take somewhere around 7 minutes. Your frosting is now ready for the cake!

Another look at the finished coconut cake.

Spread the icing on the top & the sides of the cake generously. Once that’s finished, it’s time to either sprinkle or cover the cake with shredded coconut. Which you do, will depend on how much your family likes coconut. I cover mine because I love coconut. You know the old saying “you eat what the cook likes”. Now all I need is a certain grandchild who’s celebrating her birthday & we’ll have cake.

Birthday gift for the junior chef, Zoey.

Cooking with little ones can be a lot of fun. Done well, you can set them on the road to a lifetime enjoyment of cooking.  My family has always encouraged new cooks so I’m just following an old tradition. I have very fond memories of the jam making kit I was given by my Aunt Charlotte when I was 5 or 6. Remembering this, I knew exactly what I wanted to get Zoey for her birthday when I spotted this. Need to be getting it wrapped as we’re going to celbrate her birthday later this week, but had to post a picture.

What new cook wouldn’t be inspired by this lovely gingerbread boy apron? Actually, it came with 2 aprons, so Zoey & I will be cooking in style the next time she comes. Getting her started on her very own cookie cutter collection by adding 2 cutters to the mix. I figured a flower cutter and duck cutters were good ones to start the cutter collection. Two silicon spatulas added to the junior chef’s starter set. I think she’ll love them. I’m anxious to see her in her apron cooking!

I

Either peel or cut the skin off of a number of oranges. (I saved the peels to make candied orange peels with later.) Using your kitchen shears, cut the oranges into bite sized pieces into a large bowl. Open a can of crushed pineapple and add it to the bowl. How much pineapple you add will vary to test. I like to have approximately 1/3 crushed pineapple to the amount of cut up oranges. Sprinkle cocount on the mixture & stir until you have enough coconut to suit your family’s taste.

Cool in the refrigerator for around 2 hours so the flavors will blend & the mixture will be cool. Enjoy a favorite Southern treat.