Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

Eating

A small and unexpected victory

We packed up most of the contents of the pantry a few days ago, but we hadn’t yet sealed up the boxes. Poppy found one of them this morning and pulled out a bag of dried apples.

“Chips!” she said.

“Would you like a chip?”

“Chips!”

So I opened the bag and handed her a small piece of dried apple. She promptly popped it in and, to my surprise, didn’t spit it back out.

“Mmmmm,” she said.

It took her about 10 minutes to chew up that wee dried apple, but she did chew it up. And now she’s eating her lunch — mashed sweet potato with a little bit of apple sauce stirred in.

Maybe I need to put a bowl of broccoli in a box and leave it where she can find it.

Eating

No birds were harmed in the making of this cake.

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Hummingbird Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 (8-oz) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup chopped pecans
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl; add eggs and oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. (The resulting batter is very thick — practically dough-like.) Do not beat.

Combine vanilla, pineapple, pecans and bananas. Stir in to flour mixture.

Pour batter into three greased and floured nine-inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 23 to 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.

Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup butter
2 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (32-oz) package powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter and cream cheese. Gradually add powdered sugar, beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. (This makes roughly 3 tons of frosting. Cut the recipe in half if you’re not a frosting fanatic.)


Eating, Family matters

It's a good thing I don't sleepwalk

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Last night I dreamed that my friend Stephanie had us over for a murder-mystery-themed Christmas dinner. I’m a little disappointed that I never made it to the murder-mystery segment of my dream, but I am pleased to be able to share a very special recipe with you. It was presented cooking-show-style in my dream, so you’ll have to make an educated guess on the amounts if you really want to try it.

Stephanie’s Dreamy Shrimp Casserole
water
sugar
fresh basil
a bunch of large shrimp, peeled and deveined
butter
garlic
more butter
panko bread crumbs

Place shrimp in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine water and sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves to make a simple syrup. Bruise basil leaves and stir into syrup. Bring just to a boil, then pour over shrimp. Marinate shrimp in syrup overnight.

Preheat oven. Butter a large casserole dish. Add some minced garlic. Drain shrimp and line them up in the casserole dish. Top with panko crumbs, more garlic and butter pats. Bake until golden brown and delicious.

As delicious as it looked in my dream, I don’t think I’ll be trying this one at home. I don’t think the syrup/garlic combination is for me, and I’m pretty sure all that cook time would result in some pretty tough shrimp.