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I have a select few blogs that I read at least twice a week. One of those is Susan of She's Becoming DoughMessTic About a month ago I was reading over her blog and found something that melted my heart more than any recipe that I've ever seen. What I found was Operation Baking GALS (Give A Little Support). I signed up immediately and ended up choosing Susan's team after reading who her group would be baking for. The second round ended yesterday and below are a few pictures of what I decided to send to our group of men in Fallujah. I was not only amazed at the number of people that signed up for Operation Baking GALS but also at the support post office. Everyone was so helpful and the rates were much cheaper versus what I usually pay to ship gifts to friends overseas. If you're interested in helping out, please check out Operation Baking GALS for information on round 3. 

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There isn't a more exciting time of the year in my household than football season. We are die-hard Aggie and Dallas Cowboy Football fans. I am also anticipating this year's football season because it marks my one year anniversary as the LilAggieCook and my food blog. Since I will be a little less of a rookie this year, I am looking forward to football parties and all of the cooking/baking that I will get to do. One of my favorite football snacks are potato skins. You know the ones you can get at most restaurants? We'll watching the Dallas Cowboy training camp I got a craving for some. We've been wasting so much food lately, which I hate, so I decided to incorporate a tub of pre-cooked shredded beef brisket that we had in the house for quick sandwiches, etc. This is bay far one of the easiest recipes that I have come up with and it's super yummy. It would probably be even better if you make the brisket and use leftovers but who has the time? So, for a quick dinner or dish at you football party this season, give this one a try.

BBQ Red Potatoes

Red Potatoes

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Prior to getting married my husband and I thought that we knew all of the important stuff about each other. We're both Catholic, Republican and we both graduated from Texas A&M University. All of the important stuff matched up, or so we thought. The other night I made, what I thought, were the best chocolate chip cookies ever, but my husband had a different opinion. When I bake or cook something that someone doesn't like, I am happy to take the criticism as long as they tell me why they don't like it. My husband's explanation was, "they are just too fluffy." I thought to myself, "that was the point." I love big, airy and soft cookies. My husband likes cookies that are thin and crunchy. Our minor disagreement over what constitutes the perfect chocolate chip cookie made me think of the "Chocolate Chip Cookie Throw Down with Bobby Flay." On the episode Bobby makes a cookie much like the one my husband described and the opposition and WINNER made my ideal cookie. This combined with a recent post by The Foodie Bride, made me curious about people and their cookie preference. Surely the two must be linked to one's personality. For example, is it possible that a person that prefers a variety of chips or nuts in their cookie could be more adventurous in life? I think I could have something here. But I don't claim to de a psychologist or a scientist so I'll just stick with my baking.  Regardless of how my husband felt about my cookies, he did take a platter to work. Best of all, one of his co-workers said they reminded her of the chocolate chips cookies her grandma used to make. There's a tally for my side! Anytime that anyone compares my cooking to their grandma's, I take it as a huge compliment. So, I consider this recipe a success, no matter what my husband says. Until I am able to find the perfect cookie to satisfy both of us, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Chocolate chip cookies

Cookie Dough

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Recently my husband and I have started to eat a little healthier for dinner; little being the operative word. I hate diets and wish everyone else did too. But oh well. I enjoy food too much to be skinny and I'd prefer to keep it that way. Regardless, I could stand to get a little healthier. So, for dinner I had a mad craving for sweet and sour chicken from our local Chinese dive. Healthy? No. Does it matter? Not really. When I crave something I typically go for it. So I did...but I did keep our health in mind. Instead of battering up the chicken and frying it, I lightly coated it in bread crumbs and seasoning. Then I cooked it in a wok, added some veggies and pineapple, tossed it in yummy sauce and voila! My hubby even thought that it was better than take-out! All we lacked were the cute boxes and some fortune cookies. Maybe next time

Sweet and Sour, Hot and Spicy Chicken

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Everyone knows that the 4th is all about the 4 F's...Freedom, Family, Fireworks and FOOD! This year it was all about Red, White, Blue and Chocolate Shortbread. These babies offer a variety of tastes and textures that are sure to satisfy your palette enough to make you forget all about the fireworks.

                                                             

Red, White, Blue and Chocolate Shortbread

1 pint fresh blackberries

1 pint fresh strawberries

1/2 pint fresh raspberries

1/2 pint fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons gin*

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cubed

1 large egg

1/2 cup cold milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon gin*

Powdered sugar

*may be eliminated if you prefer not to use alcohol 

In a large bowl combine the berries, sugar and gin. Marinate at room temperature for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and mix well with fingertips or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and all ingredients are well mixed. Add the egg and milk until the mix becomes a sticky dough. 

Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Drop 1/4 cup dollops onto the sheet, leaving 2 inches between each. Gently press and smooth out the batter with the back of a spoon. Each dollop should be about 3 inches in circumference and 1/4 inch thick (during the baking process the cakes won't expand much). You should have 6 cakes. Bake 12-15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. 

baked shortbread

In a medium bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks. Slowly add the sugar and and gin until stiff peaks form. Keep cold until use. 

Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled split the shortcakes in half. Place the bottom half on your dessert plate.Top with whipped cream and berries. Place the other half on top and garnish with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

R, W, B & C shortbread

This recipe was adapted from Emeril Lagasse. Changes were only made to the fruit selection.

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Anytime I eat pancakes I am reminded of how I used to make them (a.k.a. pat-a-cakes) as a child. I spent my childhood mimicking my mom and her dishes that I adored. Pancakes was one of them. So, on any given weekend you could find me outside, shortly after breakfast playing in the mud...making pancakes. Yes, you all know what I am talking about, you get dirt wet and create little cakes out of the mud. Even then I cared about garnishing my dishes, only instead of using blueberries or mint leaves, I used clovers and rocks. Sure I have come along way since then, but there are few things in life that I do that make me feel the excitement I felt as a little girl, cooking is one of them. Pancakes take me back to a more carefree time so I am always up for making them. This morning I tried a recipe by the Naked Chef, Jaime Oliver. I love his British take on American dishes. This pancake recipe was so good. I think that whipping the egg whites is a great way to make the pancakes fluffy. Like Jaime said, "Instead of being think and silky like French crepes they are wonderfully fluffy and thick and can be made to perfection straight away." I added a little vanilla to the  recipe.

Pancakes

Pancakes

3 large eggs

1 cup flour

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch salt

Separate the eggs by putting the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Add the flour, baking powder, milk and vanilla to the egg yolks. Mix until the batter becomes smooth and thick. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold into the batter. Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat. Spray the pan with a non-stick spray. Heat the pan to medium heat. I used a griddle set to 375 degrees. Pour desired amount of batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes or until golden brown and firm. If you choose to add a topping, do so at this point, then flip the pancake over. Continue to fry until both sides are golden brown. Serve to your liking.

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I spent most of the day shopping with my best friend and her daughter. I love to shop but after walking nearly 3 miles I just want to go home and crash on the couch. Today, however, I came home and hit the kitchen. Now, sometimes I know exactly what I want to make and other times I just stare into my fridge and pantry until I come up with something. Sometimes, I just need to get away and do what I love...cook. My kitchen is my sanctuary. It's where I go when I'm stressed about life or work, excited about an upcoming occasion or just simply want to watch the magic of cooking. It makes me happy to see the end result of watching separate ingredients come together to make a delicious and beautiful dish. I think that is one of the things that gives all foodies their passion and keeps us in the kitchen. Today I went into the kitchen with a mission, a mission to fry. I spent my Saturday morning like I always do, drinking my cup of coffee and watching Food Network. Down Home With The Neely's was on this morning. I love them! Not only do they teach me even more about Southern cooking, Gina gives me some great lines to use on my hubby! Well, today the Nelly's were fryin' up some deviled eggs. I could only think, why the heck didn't I think of that? I love those little suckers, and of course, I love all things fried! So I hit my kitchen with a mission to make fried deviled eggs. Needless to say, my kitchen is full of sin right now, sinfully good food that is. The eggs were amazing. Even though I changed up the recipe (I added paprika and relish because that is how I normally make them and dipped them in bread crumbs) but the Neely's totally found their way to my Southern heart with these babies. 

Fried Deviled Eggs

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Eggs Benedict

I am always up for experimenting and trying new things. In cooking, I think that you have to be willing to try new dishes or else you will continue to just make the same things over and over, and even when it's tasty, repetition starts to get old. This time I decided to experiment with eggs. Up until today I thought I knew every possible way to make an egg for breakfast. Little did I know, I have been missing out big time. Now, keep in mind that I grew up on a farm. While that is no excuse, country girls just don't eat Eggs Benedict, or at least this country girl didn't. I grew up eating eggs, scrambled or fried, and fancy eggs meant throwing in some onions and pepper and folding it into a tortilla. But boy oh boy did I realize what I was missing when I tried this recipe for Eggs Benedict. If you don't know what Eggs Benedict is, it's simply a fancy McDonald's Egg McMuffin (hopefully that isn't offensive to any foodie god's). I am all for making things simple, so for this recipe I chose to use a packaged Hollandaise sauce but you could also make it from scratch. This is truly a simple dish that requires little effort and tastes great. So, get to crackin' your eggs!

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I got home Tuesday from work and was in the best mood ever. I had finished up my calls for the month, then hit the gym for a full force work out, and when I got home, I was pumped about making a nice meal for my hubby. One of the "house favorites" in our house is sweet potato fries. I love the way that they taste, but I hate making them (sweet potatoes have got to be one of the most difficult things to cut), so recently I bought a mandolin in one of many visits to Williams-Sonoma. I was super excited to use my new toy and make some pretty cut fries! So...I washed and peeled my taters and then set up my mandolin. About half-way through I was so proud of myself. I thought, "finally, I will actually make some fries that taste and look good." Little did I know that in a few minutes I would see my thumb lying across the 1/4'' blades cutting my fries! As I neared the end of the potato it become increasingly more difficult to push across the blades, so with all my might, I pushed...still nothing. Finally, I gripped the back of the vegetable grip and went for it again. To my surprise, the gripped slipped through the potato and off of the mandolin, leaving my thumb lying across the blades of the mandolin. All that I could see was blood. I picked up my hand and ran it under the faucet and then wrapped it in a towel and held it as tight as I could. Luckily my hubby was on his way home from work and was only 15 minutes away. Four hours later I got my first shot of Lidocaine, and about an hour after that I had 20 stitches. Yes, twenty stitches in one little thumb. I believe that my doctors exact reaction when she saw my thumb was, "oh my God. What in the world did you do to your thumb?" I was actually very lucky that my thumb was still attached and that I didn't cause any tendon or nerve damage. So, to sum it all up for ya', I got 4, 1/4'' cuts in my thumb, 20 stitches, a whole lotta pain and I didn't get any freakin' dinner :( My biggest tip is to buy a cut resistant gloves if you are even thinking about using a mandolin. I actually researched it and discovered that even big time cooks have been involved in the same type of accident, and these gloves appear the be the best thing ever. Needless to say, my husband already bought me a pair. 

Finger_1

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Whole chai cake

About four years ago one of my best friends, Will, introduced me to the Chai Tea Latte. It was love at first taste and nearly four years later it is still my drink of choice at any coffee shop and my go-to when I feel homesick (the spices remind me of holiday baking time when I was young).

Today it was 45 degrees and raining ALL DAY LONG. I was working from home, curled up with my laptop on the couch, and craving a Chai Tea Latte. I do most of my baking on the weekends, so I was also trying to think of things to make when it hit me, a Chai Tea Latte cake! I decided that I wanted try to do this totally from scratch and totally without a recipe! I wrote down a couple of ideas and then consulted with my Chai Tea Latte expert, Will. After hitting the grocery store I got to work in the kitchen on my first "ALL ME" dessert.

I was actually surprised that it turned out on my first try. In the future I would like to see if I could tweak my recipe to make it a little bit lighter. It resembled a typical coffee cake, so I guess that works. If you try it and have any suggestions, please let me know. 

Chai Tea Latte Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

3 cups AP flour

1 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup spiced black tea latte concentrate (I used the TAZO brand sold at Starbucks)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Spiced Cream Cheese Icing

2, 18 oz tubs of Cream Cheese Icing (I used Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting)

1/3 cup spiced black tea latte concentrate 

Chai Tea Latte Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter until smooth (a stand mixer makes this much easier but you could use an electric hand-held mixer). Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix until fluffy.

Adding 1 egg at a time, continue to beat. Add the sugar and continue to mix until well mixed and fluffy. In a separate bowl sift the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl combine the milk and vanilla.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk mixture into the original mixture. Stir until well mixed.

Chai cake batter

Baked chai cake

Pour mixture evenly into 2 greased 9-inch round cake pans.

Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Spiced Cream Cheese Icing

Beat together the icing and tea concentrate until the tea is totally incorporated.

Ice as desired.

Sprinkle with cinnamon for an extra hint of spice.

* I like to use anything that will help me save time, which is why I used canned icing, but you could also use homemade cream cheese icing.

Slice of chai cake

 

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