Thursday, April 29, 2010

Chocolate Mousse (CWF) - Foodie Friday

When Moogie sent me her choice for this month's Chocolate With Francois, she suggested everyone find a creative way to present their mousse. Sounds easy enough! I can do this! Or so I thought!

Earlier this week I read over the recipe to make sure I had all of the ingredients. I was thrilled to find that Payard had given the measurements for a half recipe. Since we have WAY too many sweets in the house, I usually cut the recipes in half. That can present some challenges, like how do you cut an egg in half? Perfect, the measurements for half a recipe are in the book, this is going to be so easy! Or so I thought!

Last weekend while we were in Kansas City, I stopped by one of my favorite stores, Crate & Barrel. Crate & Barrel has been one of my fav's for years. I used to travel to Chicago and always made a stop at their store on Michigan Avenue. This was before carryon's were limited, so I could easily bring those goodies home with me!! I found the cutest pink silicone flower shaped cupcake liners, butterfly and daisy cookie cutters. I suppose about now you're asking what that has to do with this Chocolate Mousse? My plan was to pipe the chocolate mousse into the pink cupcake liners. How cute and easy would that be? Or so I thought!

I did the mis en place thing and arranged all of my ingredients. Or so I thought! I used the 1/4 cup water from the FULL recipe instead of the 2 tablespoons from the half recipe. The mousse was too thin to pipe into the cute cupcake liners.

So sorry Moggie, no creative presentation for me! This mousse reminded me a lot of the Chocolate Mousse we made a few weeks ago for Sweet Melissa Sunday's. Just like the the SMS mousse, I ended up with little chocolate pieces in the mousse. This recipe is easy to put together and has a wonderful chocolate flavor!






Stop by Chocolate With Francois to find the links to all of the creative CWF members!!

I am linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.

In My Garden

When your daffodils and tulips are done blooming, you know how you're not supposed to cut them off until they have turned brown? This puts more nutrients back into the soil. I don't know about you but I really don't like how unsightly they look while waiting and waiting for them to turn brown. When visiting Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha's beautiful botanical garden, a couple of years ago I noticed how their gardeners took the daffodil and tulip leaves and bent them over and put a rubber band around them. Great idea and so much nicer looking!!!

This week's In My Garden is my lilac bush. Lilacs remind me of my grandma. She had beautiful lilac bushes in her yard. I think maybe she even wore lilac scented perfume. Or maybe it was called toilet water? I love the scent of lilacs...in flowers, not perfume.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Big News in the Big O!!

Since moving to Omaha from Kansas City 4 years ago, I've watched my favorite stores close their Omaha locations. First Stein Mart and then World Market. Omaha had three World Market locations, I still can't believe they didn't leave one location open.

While I don't expect Omaha to have the same retail landscape as much larger Kansas City, I keep hoping for some bright spots in that landscape. Today my wish was granted!! Later this year, Trader Joe's is opening a 13,000 square foot store in Omaha. No longer will I have to be envious of those of you who blog about this item or that item from Trader Joe's.

Besides the famous Two Buck Chuck wines, I am looking forward to trying some of the other, often publicized, Trader Joe's items!

Maybe not big news by news standards but big news in my world!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Picnic Cole Slaw

Last week I posted my recipe for Baby Back Ribs. It's one of my go to recipes when I am entertaining a large group for dinner. One of my favorite sides for a large group is this what I call my Picnic Cole Slaw. This is one of those recipes that I am not even sure where it came from. It's on a piece of paper showing the stains from years of preparation. What are your tried and true recipes? You know the ones that will turn out perfectly and everyone will enjoy?

Picnic Cole Slaw

1 bag of slaw mix
2 packages of Chicken flavored Ramen Soup
10 Green Onions, finely chopped

Dressing
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 sugar
2 chicken flavor packets from soup

Mix together slaw and green onions. Crush noodles and add to slaw mixture. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over slaw. Mix well. Refrigerate for a minimum of 6 hours. Add sunflower seeds just before serving.



I am linking this recipe to Tuesday's at the Table at All The Small Stuff and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's at Blessed With Grace.

One Year Ago Dr. Pepper Flank Steak.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Happy Monday - Cake Decorating

Happy Monday!! Knowing we would return from KC late yesterday, I decided to take today off. I have a list of things I would like to accomplish. The list is longer than the hours in the day, go through Spring clothes in the closet, split my seedlings, sort recipes for meals and blog posts, bake a cake and maybe just maybe take a short nap. Sounds like a busy day but when you normally work Monday through Friday, it's a great day!!

The cake I am baking is for tonight's final class in my Wilton Cake Decorating Course #1. We need to make a rose to "pass" this class. EEEKKKKKKK! So far in class, we've only made the first two parts of the rose and it's hard. I am sure it gets much easier with practice. Note to self, add to today's list...practice the rose!

Here's my cake from last week's class. I love making these flowers. They're so easy!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

No SMS - Strawberry Trifle

We're in Kansas City this weekend. I wanted to do some shopping and Tim wanted to see the Twins play the Royals. A perfect weekend away! I didn't have time to bake SMS before we left. Stop by and check out this week's SMS recipe, Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie, chosen by the very talented baker, Tracey at Tracey's Culinary Adventures. In addition to being a great baker, she takes amazing photographs.

I do have a delicious recipe to share with you. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted my first trifle recipe? The Chocolate Banana Trifle was wonderful, except for one thing. It is way too big of a dessert unless you are serving a group. Last weekend, Tim's family was here for Tim's son Michael's confirmation. This was the perfect dessert. Strawberries are plentiful and inexpensive right now. This dessert was delicious and the perfect compliment to our dinner. It was just sweet enough but not too filling.





Strawberry Trifle

2 pint baskets strawberries, washed and hulled
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups water - divided use
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (3.5-ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups whipping or heavy cream, whipped
1 angel food cake, cubed

Slice berries, reserving 6 for garnish. Place 1 cup of the sliced berries in saucepan with sugar and 1/4 cup water. Bring to boil. Cook 3 minutes; remove from heat. Mix cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Stir into strawberry mixture. Cook and stir until thick (about 2 minutes). Add lemon juice. Cool to room temperature.
Combine sweetened condensed milk and remaining 1 1/2 cups cold water in a bowl. Add instant vanilla pudding mix and beat well. Chill for 5 minutes.
Cut cake into bite-size cubes.
Meanwhile, beat cream until stiff. Fold into the pudding mixture.
Layer pudding, cake, sliced strawberries, and strawberry mixture. Repeat the layers; garnish with reserved strawberries.
Makes 12 servings.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Pink Saturday!



Happy Pink Saturday! We're in Kansas City for the weekend. I will come visiting when I return. Today I am sharing with you the pinks in our yard!!!



This week I'd like to introduce you to Ann of Tin and Sparkle. Ann's lives in my hometown of Kansas City. She has a really fun blog. If you haven't visited Ann before, stop by and say hello.