January 2010

I Started.

After weeks and months of harrassing my husband with questions and ‘what if’ situations, I finally listened to him tonight. It may be the first time. It may be the only time. But that is how it goes when you are always right. Tonight I started writing my cookbook proposal. Tonight I started pouring stories of Mother Lovett out on paper, for the first time other than on my blog. For those of you who don’t know, Mother Lovett was blind as a bat, legally deaf, stubborn as all hell, and baked a fabulous cake. She left us this past April, almost one year ago. For a few months, I have been tossing around the idea of writing a cookbook chock-full of not only her recipes, but her stories. Her stories of strength, stubbornness, and vitality. Her stories of marrying her dead husband’s brother, and being most excited that she didn’t need to change her last name. Her stories of fondling every shrimp on the shrimp cocktail platter, before choosing the one she found to be most worthy. Her stories of scooting down the grocery store aisle, pushing her cart and wondering out loud if the maxi-pads in her cart [...]

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Whole Wheat BBQ Chicken Pizza

Please update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp We’ve been making our own pizza for years now, and I really think that it beats a lot of the pizza places around our home. I always make a whole wheat crust, and it is 100% whole wheat. I find it is different from many wheat pizza crust recipes that I see, because many of them call for all-purpose flour. I don’t add any white flour at all. The crust is nutty tasting, and a bit thinner and dense. We love thin crust, but if you prefer a more doughy crust, you may want to substitute some all-purpose flour for half of the wheat. After the dough has risen, I roll it out then form it onto a baking sheet. We love square pizza slices. I just add a bit of tomato sauce in order to not overshadow the barbeque chicken. My hubby loves tomato sauce. Me, not so much. He would swim in a vat of tomato sauce if he could. I wouldn’t join him. You know how veggies scare me. Next come the toppings. [...]

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Vanilla Cinnamon Pecan Butter.

Please update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp I have always loved peanut butter, but when it comes to other nut butters – walnut, cashew, and almond – I don’t really care for them. It is most likely because they are not sweet enough for me. I have the sweetest teeth ever, if you couldn’t already tell. Pecans are one nut that I truly love. Sure, I love them candied, in pie, and in ice cream, but I also love them plain, in salads, and crusted on meat or fish. Sweet or savory, I think they are fantastic. What I love most about this pecan butter? I know exactly what is in it. Even when nutrition labels say the nut butter contains only nuts, I still am a bit skeptical. I prefer making it myself. I used my large food processor for this one. I have the biggest food processor you can get, and it is a beast. This nut butter was finished in 1-2 minutes. I added in vanilla extract, cinnamon, sea salt, and the tiniest drip of canola oil – literally less than a teaspoon. Not only did it look amazing, but it tasted fabulous, too. It was impossible not [...]

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Homemade Barbeque Sauce.

Please update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp The first time I made this barbeque sauce, we fell head-over-heels in love with it. It is tart and tangy with a hint of sweetness, and we have added it to everything from salmon to nachos to salads. Barbeque sauce is one obsession that my husband is still going strong with. We used to buy it by the gallon, but now that we make it at home it is much more cost effective and, I must say, tasty. It is a good thing, too. At the rate we were going, we would be old, poor and living only in a pile of barbeque sauce and my shoes. The recipe came from a combination of The Neely’s sauce and Mother Lovett‘s. When I went through Mother Lovett’s recipes, I found one for barbeque sauce. It shocked me, because she used to use runny, watery tomato soup and call it spaghetti sauce. Yes, we obviously are not Italian. I’m sure those of you that are Italian are crying tears of misery and gagging at the thought of runny tomato soup on pasta. Don’t worry, I haven’t been deprived. My mom makes a spaghetti sauce that is much more substantial than [...]

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Provolone Stuffed Fried Zucchini.

Please update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp Forgive me. Forgive me for posting this while you are working hard towards your New Year’s goals. Forgive me for eating all of this without sharing. But please keep reading. This dish is worth it. It is another recipe from Barb, and was the most requested dish at her restaurant for years. To me, there is nothing like a good piece of fried zucchini. While we tend to stay away from fried food for the most part, there is something about having a slice of fried zucchini as an appetizer that is just fantastic. I remember as a young girl that my mom made fried home-grown zucchini. While it was more ‘pan-fried’ than deep fried, it was utterly delicious and I still can taste it to this day. I needed Barb to come help me with this recipe. If you think I am great in the kitchen, you are wrong. I am a complete goof. If Barb wasn’t with me I would have completely destroyed the dish, but now that I have a few under my belt, I feel confident in making them alone. I performed surgery on 2 zucchinis, [...]

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Avoiding the Weekend Weight Gain.

Good evening! It is snowing hard and heavy here in Pittsburgh, and I can’t help but wish I was still in school so it would be cancelled tomorrow. Wasn’t that the best? Yesterday when I was at the Red Lobster event, we were talking about restaurant menu trends over the years. While there have been many menu trends over the years (think low-carb), the steadiest trend has been comfort food. For years, heavy, comforting, well-known dishes were the main focus of most menus. Research still shows that these dishes are commonly ordered across the board. What kind of meal do you eat when you go out to a restaurant? Growing up, we didn’t eat out very much. It was a very special occasion and an exciting treat if we did. My mom cooked every night, and we never complained because it was always delicious and usually healthy. These days, I still think of eating out as a treat. Since I enjoy cooking at home, my hubby and I rarely go out to dinner. When we do, we want an exciting, memorable meal. It has me thinking that most people go out to restaurants with the intention of splurging. When it [...]

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Parmesan Risotto.

Please update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp My husband and I love risotto, but until recently had never made it ourselves. We used many box mixes that were pretty tasty, but I was sick of adding those flavored powders to the dish. I’d rather make it myself and add real ingredients. I realized this a little too late, given that my husband came home from Target with 15 boxes of flavored risotto. It is rapidly becoming one of his obsessions, but I’m sure within 6 weeks it will be over. How can I be so sure? We have enough diet Mountain Dew, egg beaters, onions, and pretzel crisps to feel a small country. Those were all obsessions that have now gone by the wayside. Anyone want to come grocery shopping at our home? Risotto is quickly becoming one of my favorite dishes to cook. I can’t wait to make variation after variation. The options are endless. I toasted up the rice in some olive oil and garlic until it was translucent. It made the entire house smell so incredible. I love the smell of sauteed garlic. When it was finished, I stirred in some parmesan cheese. A few tablespoons for my [...]

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Field Trip!

This afternoon I went on my own little field trip – as my husband called it. Erica from Red Lobster had invited me to a media open house to celebrate the completion of the remodeled Pittsburgh Red Lobster’s. The new restaurants are modeled after Bar Harbor in Maine, and they are very quaint. I must admit that I had never been to Red Lobster before, and I was pleasantly surprised. They had a lot of healthy options for us to try, and they were all delicious! We had small plates of the following: Peppercorn crusted salmon Lobster pizza Cherry-maple glazed chicken skewers Mango glazed jalapeno shrimp It was all fantastic, but I must say that the shrimp was my absolute favorite. We had a great time chatting with the executives of Red Lobster, including Michael LaDuke – executive chef & Food Network judge. If you guys have a Red Lobster near you, you have to get there soon! They have so many healthy dishes on the menu. My mom came with me and we had a great time. Thanks for the invite, Erica! After the event, we headed to the mall because I can’t seem to stop wasting my life [...]

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Homemade Chocolate Fudge Sauce.

Please update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp I find the most decadent foods to usually be homemade. It just so happens that they also usually contain chocolate. This is another recipe from Barb, who I am convinced has made some of the most amazing dishes I’ve ever encountered. It should come as no surprise, since her husband was a world-renowned chef. It’s no secret that I love chocolate. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that’s no exaggeration. I usually don’t like chocolate syrup or chocolate fudge sauce – I find many of them to be fake tasting or too runny. However, this homemade fudge sauce is divine. It is also super simple and quick to make. And it’s thick and fudgey, too. Just the way I like it. I’m sure a ‘healthier’ version of this could be made, but I don’t feel there is a reason. It’s not as if you are going to eat a cup at a time, and a tablespoon or so won’t derail you from your goals. Unless, of course, you are like me and eat it by the spoonfuls once you are finished making it. In order to make [...]

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My Happy Place.

I have this happy place. I store it in my mind and my heart, and I don’t think anyone will ever be able to take it away from me. I go to this place when times are tough, and I honestly must say that I am truly blessed to not have experienced many tough times in my life. Sometimes I wonder why I am so lucky. Most of the time I think my life is too good to be true. Occasionally I am just waiting for the ball to drop. But what I’m really thinking? I think tough times have a lot to do with our attitude. It all depends on how we look at the situation. I have always been a worry-wart. Always. Even when I was 7-8 years old, I would worry about things I couldn’t control. What if my parent’s got into a car accident on their way home? What if one of my brother’s got hurt? Growing up, bedtime was always a really rough time for me. If I couldn’t fall asleep I would get extreme anxiety, which would just keep me up for hours, worrying about not sleeping. Just imagine how much my parents loved [...]

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