Something on a Stick Day

They're back ...

Reblogged from Eatocracy:

You're this much closer to getting your Twinkies fix

A bankruptcy judge has given final approval for the sale of Twinkies, Wonder Bread and many of Hostess Brands' other assets, clearing the way for the iconic products to return to shelves.
Hostess snacks - including Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Zingers - were sold for $410 million to a joint venture of private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. They expect to return the product to store shelves this summer. 

Wonder Bread and most of Hostess' other bread brands was purchased by baker Flowers Foods for $360 million. The company has yet to give a date for when those breads will be back in stores. On Thursday, Judge Robert Drain also approved the $31.9 million sale of the Beefsteak bread brand to baker Grupo Bimbo, a Mexico-based company that is one of the largest U.S. bakers.

Wow!!!  I can't wait for Wonder Bread to be back because the sorry excuse for bread my Mom has been purchasing as a replacement, just isn't cutting it.   I don't mind that Ding Dongs are back, I don't eat them often but they are sorta yummy.  I'm more of a Little Debbie's kinda girl!!

"O" is for Oatmeal and that's good enough for me!

 National Oatmeal Cookie Day is TODAY!!!

I love Oatmeal cookies especially Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies!!! If they have raisins, I’m out but my Mom loves raisins (I think that she adds more raisins then are in the recipe!) I like the cookie to be soft sometimes but I love the hard crunch kind that is just that little bit over cooked. They are great for milk and mush (will explain later). My Mom stole her Oatmeal cookie recipe from the Quaker box (well I guess it is not stealing if they but it on the box), it’s a good, solid, consistent recipe that’s easy too (see below).

When I was little my Mom would get the gumbo sized carton of plain oatmeal cookies from Shop Rite and they were always hard, almost like a stale cookie. Those were my favorites, even better then home-made!!! I don’t know what I loved then so much but I did. Shop Rite changed their recipe or something years back and now the cookie even when stale does not have the same snap as it did before.

I just generally love a harder cookie, stale Oreo’s are amazing, they really absorb the milk which is just the way I like them. When I was little my Dad would make mush every night for his dessert. I don’t know anyone who makes this and some people (my Mom) think its gross but I enjoy it. Mush is when you get a coffee mug fill it to the brim with broken up cookies. You really got to fill the mug with as much cookie as possible, leaving little open space. Then you pour in milk to fill the gaps. You let it sit a second and use a spoon to mush it all together. It should look the consistency of lumpy, thick baby food. You can use all one cookie or mix it up, my Dad was a fan of mixing in 2 types of cookies (Oreo’s and Chips Ahoy!) but I was a one cookie kind of girl (Oreo’s or Oatmeal). I also made my mush a little looser, less cookie more milk more of a milkshake with mixin’s consistency. Neither my Dad nor I make mush any longer but I have fond memories of it and whenever I have a stale cookie and dip it into some milk, it fills the urge to make mush!

Another variation on the Oatmeal Cookie is Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chuck Ice Cream. It is amazing and one of my favorite Ice Creams!!! It is best fresh scooped but in the grocery store carton is also great and would suffice!!!

Quaker Oat’s Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Total Time: 28 minutes | Prep: 20 minutes | Cook: 8 minutes | Yield: 4 dozen | Level: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 stick and 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins or other mixin’s

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed.

Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Mixin’s

Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts.

Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit cinnamon.

Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit.

Variations

Bar Cookies

Total Time: 50 – 55 minutes | Prep: 20 minutes | Cook: 30 – 35 | Yield: 24 bars | Level: Easy

Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered.

DLS = Damn Light Sleep

For me DLS = Damn Light Sleep ... understand that like many, when I'm tired I cannot form proper, full sentences.  There is only one cure I know for DLS when you have to be at work on Monday morning ... COFFEE!!!

And not that weak water crap, that a lot of these convenient stores try to pass off as coffee but the real stuff. You all should know my feelings on coffee and my favorite coffee from my post Coffee!!! on February 25, 2013.

In a recent episode of Kim and Kourtney Take Miami on E! (I know not everyone likes the Kardashians but this was really funny) Khloe gets hooked on Cuban Coffee, an espresso shot which is sweetened with demerara sugar as it is being brewed.  It is really funny how addicted to Cuban Coffee she gets, even going to look for some at 4am after being up all might because of a cup she had earlier that day.  Now that's the kind of Coffee that cures DLS!!!  If you want to read about the incident, here you go: Khloe Kardashian fired up on Cuban coffee as Koko may be axed by 'X Factor' USA (Video)

To end this lovely post here is an Ode to Coffee by Ranjit Nair's limericks:

Ode to Coffee

O! coffee, where art thou
When I need thee now?
In thy many flavored blends
A hot cup would be godsend.

I cannot keep awake
Without a short coffee-break.
With thy life-giving aroma
Save me from going into a coma.  

Java, Colombian or French Roast
Thy every flavor, I will toast.
To the end thy loyal slave
Three cups a day I will always crave. 

(Inspired by a very sleepy seminar)

Marc Murphy is a Horse Meat Eater!!!

Marc Murphy is a executive chef, restaurateur and television food personality.  He owns Landmarc with locations in TriBeCa and in the Time Warner Center, and Ditch Plains in the West Village.  He is best know for his regular judging spot on the Food Network series Chopped.

He is also a Horse Meat Eater!!!

and I have a problem with that.  In the interview below he talks about how its not a big deal to eat horse meat because he grew up in Italy eating it.  How it is common place to see horse meat on menus in France and Italy.  He even goes to say he would serve it to friends, if they wanted it and that the only reason he will not put it on his restaurant menus here in the US is because no one would buy it, on the basis that we don't want to eat our pets.

In the Forbes article How Safe Is That Horse Meat? by Vickery Eckhoff, Contributor, dated June 18, 2012, I quote:

Good fact-checking is essential when it comes to horse slaughter, especially the long list of drugs present in U.S. horse meat, including Phenylbutazone, which causes cancers that are fatal to humans, particularly babies.

Phenylbutazone (or “bute”), is a painkiller used legally by more than 85% of U.S. horse owners to treat everyday soreness and inflammation, but banned completely in food-producing animals, including horses, by the Food and Drug Administration and related agencies in Canada, the UK, and the EU. Interestingly, in 1949 it was used to treat gout and rheumatoid arthritis in humans, but was later banned when its carcinogenic effects were discovered.

In their report, Association of phenylbutazone usage with horses bought for slaughter: A public health risk, Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Dr. Nicolas Blondeau and Dr. Ann Marini describe Phenylbutazone’s adverse effects on humans such as aplastic anemia and leukemia.

Their lengthy 2010 study, which appeared in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, analyzes the presence of bute in slaughter horses; the government’s inadequate drug testing methodology; and the USDA’s failure to ensure the removal of the vast majority of horses treated with banned substances from the food chain, among other topics. 

Now how bout them apples!!!  Go head tell me its ok to eat horse meat!  When you get a disease from ingesting bute, and you cry about it, I will laugh at you!!!

 

National POUND Cake Day!!!

National POUND Cake Day!!!

POUND Cake is so yummy and delicious but can be very heavy if not prepared correctly.  The concept is simple, 1 lb of sugar, 1 lb of flour, 1 lb of butter, and 1 lb of eggs, all you need to do is add or subtract evenly across the board to make larger or smaller batches.  The 1:1:1:1 recipe is great for novice bakers but a real pro knows how to make a POUND cake, a POUND cake, without that heaviness.

My Mom has a recipe for POUND cake (recipe below) that is delicious and light with this perfectly sweet flavor that is not too sweet but not, not sweet enough.  I think it has to do with the confectioners sugar vs using regular sugar.  I also think that the the lightness is due to the fact that the recipe does not follow the 1:1:1:1 ratio.

For me the best way to eat POUND cake is with a little more confectioners sugar dusted on top, some macerated strawberries and homemade fresh whipped cream (recipe below).

My Mom's POUND Cake 

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes - 1 hour 45 minutes | Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes | Yield: 16 to 20 servings | Level: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 pound of butter
• 1 box of confectioners sugar (1 pound)
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups sifted flour (measured after sifting)
• Pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla (extract)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour pan, I prefer a angel food pan (similar in shape to a bundt pan but has a smaller hole in the center and taller sides)

Cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs, one at a time.

Add vanilla, salt, and flour.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 1 to 1.5 hours depending on your oven.

Homemade Fresh Whipped Cream

Total Time: 5 minutes | Prep: 5 minutes | Cook: N/A | Yield: 2 cups | Level: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (extract)
• 1 Equal artificial sweetener 

Directions

Pour the heavy cream into a large bowl.  Be aware that as the cream is whipped it will double in size, so make sure the bowl is big enough.

Add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and Equal. The Equal will keep the cream from falling.  Adding a little more sugar to thicker, but don't add too much.

Using a wire whisk or beater, whip the mixture together until you get soft peaks.

Always taste as you go so that you do not make it too sweet or not sweet enough.  If more sugar is needed it needs to be added before the soft peaks are created.

If you lift the whisk out of the cream and a small peak comes up with it, you're there.  If using a electric beater, start on a low speed and gradually move up to high.  Do not over beat the cream or you will make butter instead of whipped cream.

Serve and enjoy.