LOVE LE CREUSET? CHECK OUT THIS BLOG

KS over at While We're Waiting is hosting a fantastic giveaway - A set of TWO Le Creuset Stoneware baking dishes! I personally love anything Le Creuset has but this Bakeware is right up my alley. Choose from a range of pretty colors. I'll take one of each, thank you very much! But if I am chosen as the lucky winner I will stick with the white.

I like to keep my dishes neutral so that I can decorate with placemats, tablecloths, pretty vases, etc. and my dinnerware will not clash. Trying to keep it simple and uncomplicated wherever I can...

THE THINGS YOU DO FOR LOVE

I am getting ready for Valentine's Day and if you know me, that's a miracle. I am THE queen of procrastination. It's terrible, really. Anyhow, this year I am vowing to change certain things, and being a habitual dilly dallyer is one of them.
Yesterday I sent out a newsletter to my customers and brides, past, present and future. My newsletter isn't anything grand. I have a contest, but I don't give away big fancy things like other bloggers. I'm not there yet. I give away money off your order or a free dessert of some sort. The reward this newsletter is $14 off or an order of red or pink velvet whoopie pies! The $14 is because of Valentines Day. So clever.
Normally I buy my kids something along the lines of a stuffed animal and candy and put a love note in my middle child's lunchbox. She appreciates small gestures. The youngest, who's 4, doesn't go to school (but he starts in approximately 206 days!) and doesn't read yet so he doesn't get the note. And the oldest, the Teenager, doesn't want a note. He doesn't want anything. But this year, since it falls on a Sunday, I decided I would go all out. Food will be heart shaped, notes will be written, heart garland will be hung, kisses will be planted. Because I need to change the energy of my environment and now I can do it without my motives being obvious. Plus I feel the need to be unabashedly silly for my kids this year. I want to do things that my kids will talk about when they're older and reminiscing at 2am. If you have siblings you know what exactly what I mean. 

Tell me your traditions, the silly things you already do, or the traditions you'd like to start. I'm curious to see who else acts like a fool for love.

BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR DUKE FAN

Don't hate the team, love the cake! This is what I think is a cute cake done for a Duke basketball fan. I did his birthday cake last year and was told it was by far the best cake they had ever eaten! I love it when customers are that pleased with their order visually, but it's especially flattering when they love the way it tastes. It is a 9x13 chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.

ITS BEEN A WHILE

With the holidays behind us it's time to get back to the blog. Feels like confession..."Bless me bloggers for I have sinned. It has been 3 months since my last blog entry." But the time since my last blog entry hasn't been in vain. I have been 'researching'. You see, I got an early Christmas gift from my hubby, a Blackberry, aka crackberry (nicknamed appropriately for good reason) and I can't put it down. I downloaded Snaptu on it and have easy access to Twitter and Facebook and love the portability of it. No bulky laptop. So while I am finding amazing cake decorators, sugar artists and chefs on Twitter, I am also finding their amazing blogs. I will start posting their links as my favorites here in the near future.


They have been a welcome distraction to an otherwise difficult personal time. I will sum it up with one word. Teenagers. And that's all I have to say about that.


On the business front, December was slow, and that was a good thing. I found it, surprisingly, a relief. I didn't have too many wedding cakes and the same cake after cake with polka dots isn't too inspiring, but its what's requested so its what I do. Honestly I was starting to feel a little burnt out. But its a new year!!! Good things only, right? I have tastings lined up and I am running a wedding cake special (check out my site!) so I am hoping this year starts at a good pace. I have some ideas in the works for brides who are looking to save on wedding costs. I hear DIY weddings are a continuing trend so it will correlate nicely.


I also plan on starting 'The 21 day Consciousness Cleanse' courtesy of Debbie Ford by way of Oprah. It seems to be beneficial according to the reviews on Amazon and what better time than a fresh calendar year to embark on a cleanse? Not to mention it comes with goodies on Oprah's site. I love Oprah and think she is wicked inspiring. I was watching the show when she announced her last year and I am not ashamed to say, Oprah, I cried along with ya girl! But she's going to have her OWN network so I am looking forward to seeing what that brings. In the early days of talk shows that were redundant 'who's your daddy' shows, she became a breath of fresh air and a source of great spiritual information in my early adult years.


I hope all of you had wonderful holidays. I wish all of you different, fun and a wildly successful 2010!

SHE'S GONE COUNTRY

I live in North Carolina but I am a native Jersey girl.  When I meet people, one of the first questions people ask is "Where y'all from?" I think the way I say coffee (pronounced CAWfee) alludes to the fact that I'm not a southern girl.  And by the way, in case you were never taught this very important lesson in geographical etiquette, please note the following: I can say 'Jersey' because I was born and raised there. If you're not from New Jersey, you are not allowed to say 'Jersey'. We find it offensive. We are also offended by anyone with the opinion that 'The Garden State' has nothing more than a nasty airport, parkways and turnpikes to offer it's visitors.  There are parts of New Jersey, beautiful parts, that weren't shown on The Sopranos.
Getting back on track, I am not a southern girl, but in my heart, I am.  I love living in the south.  The music, the food, the people, the food, the weather, the food. I love it all. But I really love the food. I've loved southern food since I was a Yankee in a New Jersey zip code.  Southern food is homey. Comforting. Don't get me wrong, I love all types of cuisines, but southern food is what's written on my heart.  It's simple food.  But simple is not easy.  Family recipes are passed along to the next generation, and family recipes don't like imposters. They're not recipes so much as they are remembering what she did when you were looking over mama's shoulder while she was fixin supper.  Frying chicken, making biscuits, making sausage gravy to go with the biscuits, baking a red velvet cake or making Carolina pit barbecue (the good kind - with vinegar). And don't forget the slaw that belongs on top of your pit barbecue. 

My first food love was not baking. It was cooking. I know my way around a kitchen. I'm known to make beurre blanc on special occasions. I know what an 'amuse bouche' is.  I'm familiar with 'sous vide' cooking. For me, cooking is nothing like baking where precision is required. Cooking frees the rebel within us. There's nothing like grabbing what's in the pantry and creating a meal your family talks about for days. In my humble opinion, this is the foundation of southern cooking. Take available ingredients and make a meal that sticks to your ribs. The kind that tastes so good it makes you want to 'slap your momma'. (No mom, I don't want to slap you, it's just an expression!) It's simple food, cooked well. And it's an art.   

I have struggled for years to make fried chicken. I have tried battered, I've tried floured, I've tried oven fried, I've tried deep fried. What was once my nemesis is now something that I have gotten just good enough at that my family actually requests it. And they ask me to make extra for snacks or tomorrow's lunch. I'll share the recipe with you and it is my wish that you too can acquire the skill it takes to fry a chicken in such a way that one, it's cooked; two, it's not burnt (a nice amber, not burnt) and three, it tastes so good that the faces at the table are looking at you with their mouths agape in disbelief.  (Don't worry; the same thing happened to me.  If it weren't for the inaudible expletives coming from the kitchen as hot oil bungee jumped from the pan, my family would have thought it was take out, too!)  I don't think it's the ingredients so much as the method of cooking that helped this recipe become part of our rotation.  For the fried chicken challenged, it might unlock the door to fully cooked, juicy, perfectly browned fried chicken.

I fry chicken in two cast iron skillets. Depends on how much chicken you're cooking but don't crowd your pan or your chicken wont cook right.  Sometimes I brine the chicken in a gallon of water with a cup of salt (anywhere from 1-24 hours) or sometimes I soak it in buttermilk that's laced with Texas Pete. That's hot sauce to you Yankees. Wink.

As for the chicken, I am a thigh girl, my kids like the drumsticks cause of the built in handle and my husband is a cliche. Yep.  He's a breast man, culinarily speaking.  

When I can make biscuits like my southern cooking hero, Mrs. Jarod Benson, I'll share that with you, too.  If I can get into her house, even if I have to tackle her on the linoleum, I will. Her biscuits are THAT good, bless her heart. In the mean time, if you've got the recipe and the technique that's going to make me a Paula Deen stand-in, and you're willing to pass it along, this girl, southern at heart, is always up for a challenge. 

Just Plain Good Fried Chicken

1 cup shortening
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 2 to 3 pound chicken, cut into pieces, skin on

Heat the shortening in a large, cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. In a brown paper bag, combine the flour, salt, and pepper. Shake the chicken, two pieces at a time in the bag to coat. Place them in the skillet. Repeat until all of the chicken is coated and in the pan.
Fry the chicken over medium to medium-high heat until all of the pieces have been browned on both sides. Turn the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 25 minutes. Remove the lid, and increase heat to medium-high. Continue frying until chicken pieces are a deep golden brown, and the juices run clear. 

And may the fry gods smile upon you as you write your own fried chicken history.