Thursday, May 15, 2008

Champagne and Strawberries

Posted by samele at 9:53 AM 0 comments
Mother's day rolled around with me, as usual, trying something new.. I have been searching and searching for a champagne cake recipe and then right under my nose, I ate a piece of champagne cake from Buttercream Bakery In Napa. the cake was ok, for we all know how much I love (NOT) bakery cakes. the cake was vanilla cake with a custard that was champagne flavored.. Wow, I can do that!

So I went home, made some creme patisserie (pastry cream) and spiked it with Champagne.. Alcohol evaps at 140 so it should have cooked out and left the flavor only (for anyone who is concerned :))

One of these cakes was taken with me to my aunt's house where we pigged out on BBQ from my aunt's restaurant, House of Chicken and Ribs (Antelope, Ca), Chocolate Mousse cake fro my moms birthday and chocolate Bomb (lava cake to die for!).

The other cake made its way with Nate to His mom's house for their Mother's Day Dinner..

Proud to say, Champagne and Strawberries was a hit!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Posted by samele at 5:07 PM 0 comments

Blackberry Cobbler
Originally uploaded by lilthorner
Today is my Gramma Peach's birthday. She's not with us, but I sure thought about her a lot today. I made this cobbler last week. I had never made blackberry cobbler before, but making it brought back all sorts of memories of "Redwood City"- this is what we called my great-grandmother's house in Redwood City. She had a big pool, a built in brick grill, a separate lil house with a changing room in the back. and we used to climb the plum tree for those super sweet plums.. (In October we raided the pomegranate tree).

My great-grandmother "nana" taught me how to peel potatoes, and how to make cheese toast (monterey jack) in the toaster oven. She collected all kinds of cookbooks and put notes in so many of them. I recently found that the notes were other recipes, not necessarily that she tried the ones in the book. nana had an obsession with cookbooks, gramma bought tons of cookbooks and you guessed it, I will buy a cookbook before I buy shoes or clothes.

Back to the cobbler, I don't remember ever asking nana how to make cobbler, but I sure do remember how I wanted it to taste. I ask my mom what I should do and she said "the secret is....." (If I told you it would be a secret right?) I said oh really? thats all.. and she assured me that was what nana did..

so, I made a pie crust with LARD (thanks to my wonderful classmate Robert and his family ) and commenced to making the cobbler.. I prewarned my dad "don't judge me to heavily, its my first time"

after coming out of the oven, I put a scoop of Safeway Homestyle Ice Cream on top, took my lactaid, and tasted.

MMMMMMMMM just how nana used to make.. It tasted JUST how I remembered it!

nana cooked, gramma cooked,my aunt cooks, my mom cooks, I cook and I am teaching my daughter (the oldest first) how to cook. I'll call this a generational blessing!
 

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