Super Bowl Trifecta

Not being a huge fan of football unless it happens to be the Oklahoma Sooners or the New York Giants, I must admit I do look forward to the Super Bowl commercials and munching on some indulgent food morsels until A) I fall asleep or B) the game ends or C) husband gets bored and suggests a movie.



Budweiser Clydesdales

English Shire Horse

My favorite commercials are the Budweiser Clydesdale horses.  My Grandfather actually farmed here with English Shires (a bit smaller by a 'hand' than the Clydesdales).   I always wished I had been older so I would have seen his beautiful draft horses. He came to Oklahoma as a young boy in the late 1800's from Texas in a covered wagon. He eventually married my part-Cherokee Grandmother and built a farm on the edge of what is now Tinker Air Force Base. Grandpa said his horses were gentle giants and if Grandpa said it, it was true. I doubt he drank beer or fully appreciated their talents at football but he did love his horses, nonetheless.

Fast forward to microwaves, LED TV's, fast cars and gun-totin' Okies, let's not spend endless hours in the kitchen while the 'boys' are having a hi-ho time in front of the TV.  To that end, I have three, quick, easy ideas for your pre-game, half-time and celebratory Super Bowl festivities. Two are vegetarian and one is not. Ice down the longnecks and let's watch some Football.

Addiction #1 - Ranch Crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl mix well:
3/4 c vegetable oil
1-1oz package of Ranch dressing
1 tsp dill
1 tsp lemon pepper

Add 1-10 oz package of oyster crackers and stir until thoroughly coated. Spread on cookie sheet, bake 3-5 minutes. Do not burn. Serve warm or store in container if you can keep from eating all of them first.

Addiction #2 - My version of Trisha Yearwood's Hot Corn Dip (if you don't know who Trisha is, she's the wife of Garth Brooks and lives down the road in one of our lovely suburban towns.) Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Mary from New Joisey (that's how it's said, really), for Trisha's cookbook. I love it.

In your same 350 degree pre-heated oven, this dip will take about 30 minutes to bake.
In that cleaned out mixing bowl from those crackers (gonna have to make a second batch):
1-11 oz can of Mexicorn (that funny looking corn with the red and green-looking things in it)
1-11 oz can of jalapeno or chipotle corn
1/2 c mayo
1 c grated Monterrey Jack cheese
1 c grated Colby Jack cheese
2/3 c grated Parmesan or for me, Pecorino Romano cheese
a little splash of Tabasco sauce for some heat and
a little splash of Liquid Smoke--easy on this stuff.   It can overwhelm the dish if you use too much and the dip will taste like you cooked it in the bottom of a charcoal grill.  Not good.

Mix all and put into a Pam'd 9" square baking dish. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes. Serve with corn chips or anything you want to dip into this cheesy yummy goodness.  You could add some chopped chicken to this and it becomes a super delish lunch dish--salad on the side.

Addiction #3 - Sliders

Buy some dollar buns--warm them wrapped in foil in the oven for 5 minutes. Shape your ground hamburger meat into mini-munchies. Grill or cook stovetop to desired doneness. Top with cheese: Swiss, American, Cheddar or whatever puts a smile in your mouth.
Add some lettuce, a sliced cherry tomato, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper.

More quick snacks?  Well how about Bisquick Sausage Cheese Balls, Pigs in a Blanket, Crockpot BBQ Little Smokies and lots of Rotel Cheese Dip and chips.  If you want to spend time and wow everyone, cook some pulled pork, crawfish etouffee (need that recipe Bill!), bacon-wrapped shrimp and anything we normally don't eat every day but forgive ourselves when it comes to football watching.

Here's to a Super Bowl-ful of good food, good friends and good times.

Bon Addictions

Southern Biscuits for the Yankee

 

Who doesn't love biscuits fresh out of the oven with butter and Mom's Sand Plum Jelly or covered with sausage gravy? You have to be crazier than a football bat if you said you don't. Out here, that's probably a sin, maybe even against the law. We love our big weekend breakfasts. Biscuits just may be the best thing the South ever did. Go to New York and see if you can find any flaky biscuits...or grits for that matter (no offense or disrespect to our Yankee friends and relatives). The Best Husband in the World didn't grow up eating biscuits in NYC. Poor thing. What a shame. It has been necessary at times for me to put the South right in his mouth so to speak and he is always grateful.

When I was a little kid, all my Great Aunts and Uncles had big farms...not a couple of acres...but hundreds of acres of farmland. During the summers, my brother and cousins would go stay for a week and haul hay. This was before the days of mega-combines rolling the hay into one ton circles and delivering them to the barns via machines and conveyors.   Boys in the Midwest would go out to the hayfields and yank those 75 pound hay bales with their gloved hands onto the bed of a big trailer, take them to the barns and stack them to the ceiling. This generally took place in 90+ degree weather. It was brutally hard work and I think they got paid maybe $5 a day plus three meals and a bed in one of the big farmhouse spare rooms. Talk about strong, fit young men. Their days started before the sun came up with a huge breakfast of biscuits and gravy, grits, fried potatoes, fresh eggs, bacon, sausage and all the milk they could drink straight from the milk cows. No one worried about calories when you sweat and worked as hard as they did.

Well these are what my Great Aunts made and they sure as heck didn't come out of a can. Easy to make. Fail-proof. Delicious. So put on your aprons and let's make the best biscuits you've ever tasted.

Southern Biscuits

This recipe will make about 6-8 good-sized biscuits--you can double it to make a big batch.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pam a cookie sheet.
1/2 package yeast (or 1 tsp) into 1/2 c warm water. Set aside. This is not about rising, it's about flavor.
2 heaping c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP sugar
5 TBSP shortening
3 TBSP butter
1/2 c buttermilk (I didn't have any on hand but I did have cream which I added 2 TBSP lemon juice, let sit--fauxbuttermilk--you can use half and half or milk with the lemon juice as a substitute)

Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Cut shortening and butter into pieces and blend into dry mixture with a fork or pastry blender until is has come together in pea-sized nuggets. Add water/yeast and stir well then add buttermilk, a bit at a time until a slightly sticky dough forms.



Tulsa's Golden Driller
Roughneck Coffee

 

Flour your counter or pastry board and plop dough onto flour. Fold over and knead a few times, lightly roll out until about 1/2-3/4" thick. Cut out with biscuit cutter or juice glass. Place on prepared cookie sheet, bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with butter, jellies, honey or sausage gravy, some scrambled eggs and a big glass of milk or OJ. Don't forget that java--especially good is Tulsa's 'Light Crude Blend' Roughneck Coffee. Just what you need before hitting the rigs and doing some drillin'.

Now get outside and haul some hay, feed the chickens, do some chores or take your dog(s) for a walk. You're good to go until supper.

Bon Biscuit y'all

V-DAY FUNFETTI TATTOO COOKIES-PT 2

(Refer to Funfetti Parfaits Part 1 for first half)

You will now use the other half of your Funfetti Cake Mix. These are the cutest cookies--and if you have any young helpers, they will enjoy getting their hands in the dough and rolling it into balls, smashing with a glass and 'maybe' giving the cookies a heart tattoo...this is a judgment call--you will be using food dye and it will stain just about anything it comes in contact with--fingers, clothes, counters, etc...so maybe Mommy/G-ma would prefer doing the 'tat' art and the little guys can roll and smash.  

Funfetti Tattoo Cookies
Heat oven to 375 degrees

1.5 c cake mix
1 egg
1/8 c oil (not repeating the math)
1/4 c white chocolate bits
1/4 c flour on paper plate
red food dye on porcelain/glass plate and one 1/2" or smaller heart cookie/fondant cutter

Mix ingredients to form cookie dough. Take about a teaspoonful dough and roll into 1" ball. Place on cookie sheet 2" apart.

Take a juice glass and dip bottom into flour--just a light dusting you can smear with your fingers but be sure to shake off excess--smash doughballs with glass. When your balls are flat (poor things and if your mind went outside of the kitchen, shame on you), dip cookie cutter into food dye and press lightly onto cookies. You can also top the cookies with sugar sprinkles before baking.

Now, wasn't that easy (Terese) and we didn't use that nasty silicone.  If it's too much effort to make the F-etti cookies, buy the sugar cookie dough in the refrigerated section of your grocery store and follow directions for baking.

(tres) Bon Fetti

V-DAY FUNFETTI PARFAITS-PT 1

I spent the day being very Funfetti-frustrated because silpat/silicone forms and I just don't seem to work well with each other.  Because I do so love my silicone cupcake liners, I thought I should buy everything silicone  for Valentine's Day; i.e., cute little heart-cake form (icecube trays in disguise), a bavarian bundt big-ass mold for tall heart-shaped cupcakes and tons of heart-shaped inventory to fill my ever-growing 'pink' storage bin(s) (a color for each holiday so I know what's what). 

Recently, a good friend, Teresa, said she wished my recipes were easier.  I was rather surprised at that remark as I thought most of my cooking is pretty simple (with the exception of Boeuf Bourguignon and French fantasies when I have too much energy and time on my hands) and takes just a little extra time in the kitchen.  So with that in mind, I decided to do some short-cut baking for our busy schedules--jobs, family, dogs, kids, grandkids, Super Bowl, HGTV, etc--some more than others--to help my friends have an easier time baking and cooking--especially cupcakes, especially for V-Day.

At my weekly visit to Target land, Betty C. and her friend, Ms. Pillsbury, have the Valentine version of Funfetti cake mix--nothing more than yellow cake mix disguised by colorful and holiday appropriate 'bits' you throw into the batter before baking.  How easy peasy--can't think of much simpler than that.  Well, not being able to leave well enough alone, I could have just told you to buy the F-etti-box, taken pictures of how lovely it turned out and been done with it.  But, you know I had to try my new silicone doodads and that's how the F-etti box turned into F-etti hell.  Why I didn't just make pretty ice cubes is beyond reason.  It was torture to first try filling the batter into those nasty cute little hearts, then they got overfilled and then not even Pam Spray could release the demonic batter from their grip.  So...throw them out and don't do what I did. See the pictures?  Do not do this!  Do not be enticed by the Hobby Lobby and Michael's coupons or the Dollar stores or anyone pushing silicone.  I'm addicted.  I need coupon detox.

Anyway, as Julia would say, 'All is not lost.  Just DO what you have to DO and cover up the mistake'. So here's what you should do.  I will give you the easy details versus my Funfetti Failures (all pics except the final dessert relate to F-etti hell).  And remember--just use your imagination when things don't turn out the way they were supposed to.  This actually turned into a lovely dessert thanks to The Most Wonderful Husband in the World's idea to make parfaits.  Thank you, sweetie.

Buy a box of Funfetti Valentine' Cake Mix--you will be using one-half box for two different items;  this is Part 1 - Parfaits

Filling the cute molds--NO!

The filled molds before baking--NO!

Funfetti Parfaits
1" heart-shaped cookie cutter
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Pam a 13.25 x 9.25" sheet pan--metal, not silicone--I'm donating mine to the Breast Implant Group (B.I.G.)

1.5 c cake mix
1 egg
1/8 c vegetable oil (I doubt anyone has 1/8 measuring cup--it's 1/2 of your 1/4 measuring cup)
1/4 c water
Packet of V-fetti bits
1-2 Ice cream cones, broken into pieces

No stick Silicone! No!

Semi-sweet chocolate bits, maybe 1/4 c
Cherry vanilla ice cream (or strawberry or whatever your fancy but pink ice cream is best)

Blend all ingredients in mixing bowl. Spread in prepared pan. Do not use silicone, cute, heart-shaped ice cube or mini silicone cupcake molds--you will regret it. I promise.  If you don't regret it, please tell me how you made it work before they find their way to B.I.G.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until center is done when toothpick is inserted and comes clean.
Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes.
Press cookie cutter into cake and remove gently to rack. You can use any size cutters and shapes but for the parfaits, the 1" cutter was used because those stupid trays left the mini-cakes so messed up I had to 'reshape' the hearts with a cookie cutter.

In your cutest juice, cocktail, or parfait glass, add one scoop ice cream, break up ice cream cone and add a layer on top of ice cream, sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate bits, add another scoop of ice cream and place those darned cute heart cakes on top. Decorate with glitter hearts picks.  Freeze leftovers for future desserts or little mini-snacks.

Your kids--under 21 or the ones who never grow up--are gonna love this dessert. It is yummy and for you weight watchers, reasonably low calorie depending on the size of your cute little glass and ice cream used. 

Screw the silicone. Done with it.

Bon Funfetti

E Dehillerin, Paris

Lemon Box Scones

 

You simply must make scones now and then which are simply glorified English biscuits.   The good news is you don't have to 'bake' them in a griddle over an open fire (unless you want to) in the Highlands of Scotland as my ancestors did in the 1500's. These are so easy to make and your family will thank you for not putting a bowl of cereal on the table.

Lemon Box Scones

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Pam a 9" pie pan or round baking dish

2 c flour
1 c lemon cake mix
2 TBSP sugar, 2 TBSP sugar for sprinkling the top
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBSP lemon zest
2/3 c butter, cubed
2 TBSP lemon juice in a 1 c measuring cup, fill remainder with milk

In a medium sized mixing bowl, stir together flour, cake mix, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add butter and mix in with dough cutter, potato masher or your fingers until pieces are pea-sized.   Stir in lemon zest, add lemon juice and milk and stir.  Batter should be slightly sticky--if too dry, add 1 TBSP milk at at time.  Turn dough out onto floured sufarce and knead 3 or 4 times--add small amounts of  flour until dough is not sticky.  Do not overknead.

Pat dough into prepared pan.  It should be about 1" thick.  Sprinkle top with sugar.  Score into pie-sized slices.  If you prefer, you may free form the dough on a cookie sheet, score and bake.  Bake approximately 20 minutes until skewer inserted in middle comes out clean.

Let cool for 5-10 minutes, cut and serve with butter and your favorite jams, marmalades, lemon curd, clotted cream and/or honey.  A glass of milk, hot tea or coffee round out the yumminess.

 

Bon Citron

Poulet avec Potager Jardin/Farmer's Chicken and Vegetables

Let's  talk about  gardens (jardin) and green beans (haricot vert).  When I was a little girl about five years old, my parents bought an acreage-- a little bit of country in the city limits.  There was a creek where I caught crawdads in a coffee can, a treehouse to read my Happy Hollister mysteries and barns to explore.  I had a surplus of animals; chickens (which make wonderful pets), ducks, bunnies, dogs, cats and gray and red squirrels that even when we let them go, always came back to their hutch for treats and cuddles.

Because there was 10 acres of land, my father had a very large garden.  I would run barefoot through the cool dirt, picking and eating anything that was ripe.  Somedays, I would lie down at the edge in the soft, green grass and watch the clouds go by.  They werent just clouds, they were castles, dogs, dragons and frilly ladies dressed in white. The long rows of vegetables grew bush beans, green beans, scarlet runner beans and probably every variety of peas my father's country store had in inventory.  The corn was tall and a wonderful hiding place where I could imagine my fairy tale friends and never have a care.  The sun was warm, the rains plentiful and life was as good as it could possibly be when your world is surrounded by nature.

This dish so reminded me of that garden, I wanted to share with you those earthy flavors that take me back to a time where the fragrance of my mother's roses and flowers lingered in the summer air. A child's world of wonder and discovery. A simpler time. A safer place.

Farmer's Chicken and Vegetables

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Pam a medium-sized baking dish

3-4 c fresh green beans (or frozen--let thaw before using)
6 small red potatoes, quartered, unpeeled
4 TBSP olive oil
2 cloves garlic. chopped
two chicken breasts, cut into card deck-sized pieces for even cooking
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 slices bacon, cooked until crisp1 c grated swiss cheese
1 onion, halved and sliced
Panko bread crumbs
1 tsp Herbs de Provence
salt and pepper to taste

In a gallon ziploc bag, combine olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Add chicken pieces to marinate while you prepare the vegetables, allow 15 minutes to marinade chicken.

Microwave bacon until crispy. Set aside.

Remove chicken to plate. Add chopped vegetables to marinade and coat well. Place vegetables in baking dish and pour chicken broth over all. Spread out Panko bread crumbs on paper plate or wax paper and coat chicken pieces. Place chicken pieces on vegetables. Lightly drizzle all with olive oil, sprinkle herbs, salt, pepper and lightly scatter Panko crumbs over top. Sprinkle swiss cheese and bacon pieces evenly over all.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until chicken is no longer pink in center. I recommend you loosely tent with aluminum foil for the first 25 minutes, then remove foil for remaining time. When chicken is no longer pink in middle and top has slightly browned, remove from oven.

A wonderful, healthy meal on cold, winter evenings. Serve with a chunk of artisan bread and your favorite wine.

Bon souvenirs enfant

DRILLIN' FOR OIL MUSHROOM CHOPS (LOW CARB)

Hubby took me out for dinner Saturday evening to a landmark restaurant out here in Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Keystone Pipeline country.  It's a place called The Spudder and for those of you who think this is a potato bar, I will attempt to enlighten you. When we evil oil companies drill a well (so you can put gasoline in your vehicles, drive those vehicles on the highways, etc.), we find a location, clear it according to EPA standards (and replace said rocks, grass, replant trees, etc), bring in the rig that drills the well and when the drill bit hits the ground, we have Spud The Well.

The Golden Driller

In a city of 'oilies' and The Golden Driller, it seems pretty ordinary to the locals that when you drive up to The Spudder, there is an old rig out front by the entry.  Well parts, drill bits, collars and tools lie around the walkway and when you stop gawking at the craziness of putting a rig in a parking lot, you enter into the oil industry's past. Old glass and ceramic gas pumps, every imaginable metal company sign, historic brown pictures, maps and just about anything else including some pretty famous patrons photos (Man vs Food Nation) are in the large, open eating area.

Your dinner rolls come out in a black lunchbox--(my Dad used to carry one of those every working day of his life) and to start off your meal, some 'Stuffed Mushrooms with cheese and 'What Not' that we to this day cannot put our finger on exactly what constitutes 'what not' but I'd pay money to find out because they are that good.  With your steak, pork chop, Gusher (prime rib) comes a loaded baked potato and it is loaded.

You will always have take-home or explode trying to eat it all.  There are 'roustabout desserts' and a bar.  It is truly a feast for the eyes and belly.


Having stuffed ourselves but having sense enough to bring home some of that double pork chop, it was necessary to cut back the food overload but still enjoy the leftovers the next day.  All of this falderal is simply a wonderfully, easy means of using up anything you want to smother in good ole Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup (Healthy Recipe) and not feel guilty for sitting down to yet another satisfying dinner.

MUSHROOM CHOPS

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup, Healthy Recipe (or not)
1/2 can white wine or chicken broth
1 small can of sliced or chopped mushrooms or saute fresh in a tad of butter and olive oil
2 TBSP chopped green onion or sliced onion if you want more
1 tsp Worchestershire
Pork Chop, Chopped Sirloin, Steak (this is great for tougher cuts of meat)

Brown meat with onion in small amount of oil, add mushrooms and Worchestershire.  Mix soup and wine until blended and pour over meat.  Cover and cook on simmer for 30 minutes to an hour--whatever your schedule allows but do let it cook at least 30 minutes to tenderize and meld the flavors--you can also put all of this in a crockpot, set on low for the day and dinner will be done when you get home from work.

Serve with steamed veggies and you are on your way to healthy eating and thinner thighs.

Bon Spud

Screwed Up Caramel Lava Cakes

I hate it when something doesn't turn out right--especially when you have your mouth set on What It Was Supposed To Be. Of course, I was a bit distracted dog ruckus, laundry, good show on TV, packing, gift wrapping when putting these together and I did not bake them in the appropriate 'ramekin-sized' dish or time the baking or basically anything else.

So, I'm passing these along for you to make correctly and hope you don't have the attention span of a gnat like I do some days. These are similar to the chocolate lava cakes except this is a creamy, oozing caramel--if you do it right.

This is what it should look like baked in a ramekin. You decide--cute cupcake holders or schmoozing caramel cake.   Obviously, cupcakes are not ramekins and it will not ooze anything but raw dough if you cupcake Betty's cake recipe.  I should pay attention to my own words.

Screwed Up Caramel Lava Cakes

1 TBSP butter, melted
2 TBSP cinnamon graham crackers, crushed
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c caramel topping (Smucker's jar is right at 1 c) Buy another jar in case you mess up...just sayin'
1/2 c flour
3/4 c peeled apple, chopped


Heat oven to 450 degrees. Pam six 6-oz ramekin or custard cups. Melt butter and combine with crushed cinnamon graham crackers. Press cinnamon crumbs in bottom of each ramekin. Bad idea: use cupcake pan

Beat eggs until well blended then beat in brown sugar. Blend in caramel topping and flour. Mix in apples and divide evenly in ramekins.

Place ramekins on cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes or just until sides and centers have set--no longer liquid--and tops are slightly puffy. DO NOT OVERCOOK! They will turn into large cupcakes sans lava.

Remove from oven and let stand 3 minutes, run knife around edge to loosen then invert onto individual plates--or bowls if you want to top with vanilla anything. Serve warm.  That vanilla anything is going to melt into that yummy caramel and put a big smile on your face.  Kind of like your Grandma's apple pie used to do when you were little.

If you overcooked these and now have crumby cakes, you can always buy another jar of caramel topping to drizzle and pretend you didn't screw up.  As Julia said, 'Nothing is lost.  You just have TO DO whatever you MUST DO to fix it and no one will no the difference.'  Love that woman.

Bon lavaétit

(Blaming it on the Big Dogs)

Ain't No Sunshine Caribbean Breakfast Bars

 
When I wake up to a cold, gray day here and temps under 30 degrees, I go into countdown mode to just get me through January because I hate winter soooo much.  One thing that will brighten any winter day is sunny pineapples which I bought last week. I was going to just slice it up for breakfast but I started thinking about tropical islands, clear blue water and warm days ahead, dug out some recipe books and decided spicy, fruity something was just what we needed.

When The Most Wonderful Husband in the World swept me away to the beautiful island of St. Lucia, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.   We said our 'I Do's' and promised to forever love, be kind and never, ever be asses to each other. Halleleujah! Prince Charming finally came and swept me away. I consider my new life of the past five years a true Fairy Tale. So, ladies--never give up and stop thinking there aren't any good men left in this world. Just stop kissing snakes and open your eyes and your heart--he'll come along and sometimes, he might be right before your eyes and you're just not seeing him.

Well, anyway, St. Lucia is paradise. The weather is perfect, always a slight breeze and the warm water of the ocean to slip into. It is truly an assault on your senses--the sweet smell of flowers, the blueness of the ocean, hearing the waves lullaby you to sleep and feeling the warm sun on your body. Certainly a refreshing part of your lazy days is the fruit served at every meal and not always in the form of a little umbrella on your glass. Out here in Buffalo Country, we haven't always had the pleasure of having fresh pineapple that didn't cost as much as buying a ticket to an island. But recently, (thank you, Aldi's. NOTE: If you haven't shopped at an Aldi's store, you're missing out on some great prices and a bit of European-style grocers. I love the quarters in the shopping carts--no bag boys, and no carts in the parking lot--put in a quarter, get your quarter back when your put the cart back where it belongs, but I regress) fresh pineapple, mangoes and other tropical fruits are commonplace and quite reasonable. I'm not a canned pineapple liker but I could eat a whole fresh pineapple every day they are so sweet and juicy.

So let's get started. These scrumptious cakes will put a little sunshine in your day. Whether you eat them for breakfast with some fresh pineapple on the side or top them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert--they are moist, not-too-sweet and oh-so-good--and you can shortcut the heck out of these if you don't feel up to that arduous task of cutting fresh pineapple (used canned) or grating carrots (buy the bagged stuff).

Caribbean Breakfast Bars

Pam an 8" or 9" square baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 stick plus 2 TBS butter, softened
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c four
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c grated carrots
1/2 chopped pineapple
1/2 c pecan pieces, chopped plus another 1/4 c to sprinkle on top

Cream the butter and sugar together then gradually add eggs--one at a time--and a little flour after each egg is added. (Thank you, daughter for the new wooden spatula--love the bird!)

Add remaining ingredients except 1/4 c chopped pecans. Stir until well blended, fold into prepared pan, smooth top, sprinkle 1/4 c chopped pecans and bake for 25-30 minutes. When skewer comes clean from middle, cake is done.

Remove from oven and completely cool to hold it's shape when you cut into squares. If you choose to serve this warm, it will be crumbly--no big deal and would be just wonderful with a dollop of whipped cream or creme fraiche. If you're on a New Year's Already Failed Resolution Diet, just have a small portion. Remember, French Women Don't Get Fat BECAUSE they don't eat huge, honking portions like American girls. I refuse to eat junky diet food so cut those portions down and eat whatever you like.


Here's to warmer days, hibiscus blooms and long days with the ones you love.

Bon Soleil