1. Mix all the ingredients except the shredded lettuce, avocado and pieces of lime.
2. Place the shredded lettuce in the bottom of 16 small serving cups.
3. Add the mixture of shrimp on top of the lettuce.
4. Add the avocado and piece of lime.  Serve with torilla chips
16 servings

This was ALWAYS a childhood favorite of Megan’s,  well, before she was able to really decide for herself.  Either way, this cake was generally a crowd pleaser.

3 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 1/2 teaspoon soda

4 large coarsely grated carrots

1 cup coconut

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons grated orange peel

1 1/4 cups oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 (11 0z.) can mandarin oranges

1.  Preheat oven to 350.

2.  Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, and soda into a large bowl.

3.  Add carrots, coconut, sugar, and orange peel to flour mixture and stir.

4.  Add oil, eggs, vanilla, and mandarin oranges.  Mix with a spoon to moisten.  Beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

5.  Bake in a greased 9″ x 13″ pan for about 40- 50 minutes.

Frosting

3 (4 oz.) pkg. cream cheese

1 tablespoon melted butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon orange juice

1/2 cup black walnuts

1/4 cup finely chopped raisins

1.  Mix cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and orange juice thoroughly.

2.  Stir in walnuts and raisins.

3.  Frost the cooled cake and keep refrigerated.

3 plum tomatoes, sliced 1/4″ thick (optional)

9″ x 13 ” buttered pyrex dish

12 eggs

3 1/2 c. milk

1 t. dry mustard

1 t. salt

Dash cayenne pepper

3 drops Worcestershire

1/4 t paprika

10 slices sourdough French bread, cubed

20 oz. cheese( sharp cheddar, Parmesan, and/or Jack),grated

1 green onion, chopped

8 slices bacon, cooked and drained

1 c. broccoli, partially steamed

1.  For optional garnish, preheat oven to 275.   Grease a baking sheet with olive oil.  Place slices tomatoes on the sheet.  Brush the tomatoes with olive oil.  Bake about an hour.

2.  Place alternate layers of bread and cheese in baking dish.

3.  Sprinkle with green onion, bacon, and broccoli.

4.  Mix seasonings, milk and eggs.  Pour over cheese and bread.  Arrange tomatoes on top.  Let dish stand overnight in the refrigerator.

5.  Preheat oven to 350.  Bake for 1 hour.  Let stand 10 minutes to set.

Makes about 12

1 3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. sugar

1 T. grated lemon peel

1 t. baking powder

3/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t salt

1 8-ounce container lemon yogurt

6 T. butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

1 T lemon juice

Glaze

1/3 c. lemon juice

1/4 c. sugar

2 t. grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper baking cups.  Mix first 6 ingredients in large bowl; make well in center.  Whisk yogurt, butter, egg and lemon juice in another bowl.  Add to well; stir into dry ingredients until just blended(batter will be lumpy).  Spoon batter into prepared cups.  Bake until muffins are golden brown and tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Cool muffins for 5 minutes in pan.

Meanwhile, prepare glaze:  Cookall ingredients in small nonaluminum saucepan over low heat, swirling pan frequently, until sugar dissolves.

Remove muffins from pan.  Transfer to rack set over baking sheet.  Pierce 6 to 8 holes in each, using wooden skewer.  Drizzle hot glaze over, coating tops well.  Serve at room temperature.

Makes about 24 mini muffins.

1 1/2 c. sifted flour (1 c. white flour and 1/2 c. whole wheat)

1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 t. soda

2 large grated carrots

1/2 c. coconut

3/4 c. sugar

1 T. grated orange peel

1/2 c. raisins

1/2 c. black walnuts

1/2 c. oil

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 (7 oz. can) mandarin oranges

1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.   Generously grease mini muffin tins.

2.  Sift together the flour, salt , cinnamon and soda into a large bowl.

3.  Add carrots, coconut, sugar, orange peel, raisins and nuts to mixture and stir.

4.  In a second bowl, add oil, eggs, vanilla, and mandarin oranges.   Beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

5.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid ingredients.  Mix until just blended (batter will be lumpy).

6.  Spoon batter into prepared cups.  Bake until muffins are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean,  about 12 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes and turn out of pan.

Kathleen Flinn (Meeze Fleen)

So…..I haven’t finished reading it yet, BUT I’m more than excited about completing it.  My mother, however, has finished it and can’t wait to talk all about it.  

I think everyone can really find something to relate to with this one……well, maybe it’s just a woman thing but, I have felt (multiple times) as if she stole words right out of my own head.  My own hopes, fears, desires, vulnerabilities.  And on top of that, who doesn’t want an inside look at Le Cordon Bleu.  It sounds just as intense as I could have imagined.  

Bottom line, everyone needs to take a little leap.  This book embraces that feeling that everyone has once in a while.  And then encourages one to take the chance.  The risk, worth it even through the up swings and the miserable failures.  

I’ll let you know how it goes…..

Next one on the list:  In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

My carnivorous side got the best of me a few days ago.

A good friend of mine and I traveled east past the past the palm trees on Monday.  We ended up in Niland, California.  I wouldn’t really judge anyone who didn’t know where this was….I didn’t.

Salvation Mountain. This is where we ended up after consuming all of that meaty, cheesy, starchy goodness.

So, we made it all the way to Niland and were dripping in our own sweat and stood with a sticky layer of dust coating our entire bodies.  And we were hungry.  And there were two options.  A genuinely difficult choice.  Mexican restaurant or Bobby D’s Pizza.  Unfortunately, in this case, I trusted Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern and went with the place that had the biggest line.  Neither place had a line, but Bobby D’s actually had customers.  We walk in.  The one lazy cieling fan circles dry air around the small restaurant.  The menu, laminated and ringed with those metal circles only teachers use for flash cards, simple, uncomplicated.  And my choice: the 1/2 lb bacon cheeseburger.  I hoped beyond all hope that I wouldn’t regret the choice considering we were going to be spending many hours out in a desolate desert.  My choice: rewarded.  Straight up meat and cheese, no fooling around here.  They didn’t muck it up with any sort of fresh vegetables like, you know, lettuce.  I wondered what their salads would be like.  I also thought to myself as I looked around the place, “everyone is kind of dusty here”.  This place was ridden hard and will never ever be put up wet.  It will keep on riding.  Wind, dust, and floods.  Forever and ever.  A man in the corner had striking blue eyes.  His hair was silvery and his face leathery and he smokes his cigarette like Joe DiMaggio.  He knows everyone.  His name is Jerry and he’s a local.  He orders an iced tea and the server asks “You gonna have your soup Jerry?”  Monday’s special was chicken and rice.  And I continued to wonder over and over how people end up here?  And stay.  I have a small feeling it isn’t because of the burgers at Bobby D’s.

]]> http://notjusthomeec.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/meat-and-cheese/feed/ 0 meganannpluth meat and cheese salvation mountain http://notjusthomeec.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/already-longing-for-fourth-of-july/ http://notjusthomeec.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/already-longing-for-fourth-of-july/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:44:03 +0000 map http://notjusthomeec.wordpress.com/?p=97 ]]>

So now, after four years of ridicule from college friends, I finally call it “Fourth of July” not “July 4th”.  Which, I still happen to see no problem with.  However, this is beside the point.

We’ve been having some amazingly beautiful days down here in Southern California and they’re making me long for summer.  And especially the fourth of July.  My family and I usually take our sailboat over to Coronado and anchor out with hundreds of others.  The warm, sunny days are filled with your typical BBQing, water balloon fighting, beer drinking, swimming, sunbathing, and on and on.  Don’t get me wrong, I do look forward to all of these things.  But, most of all I look forward to all the food, and not just the BBQed hunks of meat.  One thing that, for some reason, I really get excited about is my mom’s pesto pasta salad.  And just to preface this whole thing: I HATE pasta salad.  With a fiery passion.  That gooey, mayonnaise-y, overcooked macaroni jumble just doesn’t do it for me.  Just thinking about it right now is pushing me to a place of disgust.  So, this pesto pasta salad must really really good.

Over the years my mom has tweaked the recipe so it’s up with the times and our family’s taste buds, but it’s still the same good old pasta salad I’ve always loved.  She starts with a homemade pesto (the recipe of which I’ll dig out soon).  Then she adds some whole wheat Rotelli (ah, how times have changed) while still warm.  The smells are overwhelmingly good.  When the heat hits the garlic and olive oil and basil the thick scent hits you like a wall, suffocating in the best of ways.  Fresh mozzarella jumps in the party with Greek olives, diced tomatoes, and toasted pine nuts.  And then it’s finished.  I could eat just this stuff for days.

So, until summer rolls around, I’ll continue making the pesto pasta salad to ease my longing for the July 4th.

It’s called Two Fat Als and their claim is:

Two Fat Als is a cooking blog for young foodies. It is written and photographed by two New York City graduate students, Alanna and Alex. The recipes are designed for college students, young graduates and anyone else looking for healthy, cost-effective and delicious recipes!

And I buy it.  They seem like they’ve got something figured out.  Amazing photos and cost-conscious menus gets me exited about trying out their recipes.

Too bad their last post was on 3.29.2008.

However, there are still some really great food blogs that still get daily tender loving care.  My favorites that I’ve recently stumbled upon include:

This one is definitely high on my list, Lottie + Doof.  Their simplistic layout is incredibly appealing to the eye, and their photography is amazing as well.  Both things I greatly respect.  No bull.  My mom recently did a post about her amazing version of Bananas Foster.  Lottie + Doof did a smaller cake version….looks interesting, as to most recipes on their site

As I look over the Noble Pig right now, my mouth waters.  Just take a look.  Yum.  AND she’s got great writing.

And lastly, for now, there’s eat make read.  She focuses not just on her own recipes, but on encouraging readers to try them out.  Right now she’s growing tomatoes and peppers and keeping us posted.  Her design is sleek and incredibly readable, which is always nice.  Her photos are also really lovely to look at.  Recipes like Tequila Lime Popcorn and Blackberry Dumplings really get me going.  She lives in Brooklyn, so much of her focus is on New York City food life.  And this recipe sounds especially good….I might make it today.

So get clicking……

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 bananas, cut in half both ways

1/4 cup rum

1.  Melt brown sugar, butter and cinnamon in a skillet.

2.  Add sliced bananas.  Spoon mixture over bananas several times until the bananas are glazed and tender.  Handle the bananas carefully.  They may break.

3.  Pour rum on top of the bananas and immediately ignite.   Spoon sauce over bananas.   Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.