Sourdough Coffee Cake

When Brendan was home last, he left me some sourdough starter.  I hadn't had starter in the fridge for years, but remembered the sourdough "silver dollar" pancakes we used to have as kids, so I gamely decided I would try to keep the stuff alive and actually use it.

After feeding diligently for a few weeks, I decided to make a coffee cake for a girls weekend that was coming up.  I started with the recipe here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/sourdough-coffee-cake-225416

Added cinnamon to the batter, nutmeg and pecans to the topping and increased the topping by another half and put a layer of it in the middle.  Underbaked it a little (probably because of all the extra deliciousness I added) but it turned out great and everyone seemed to like it.

This one was a keeper, and I will definitely be using my starter more in the future.  Not as scary as I thought.

Our Next Attempt

I follow this guy on Facebook.  His latest post was the stuff dreams are made of.  Hoping to try this when all the kids are home this month. BTW, I think the name (Fatty) is what we will turn into eating this stuff. 


http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/145925/my-take-on-a-surf-and-turf-fatty-pic-heavy

A bit o' the Irish

Kathryn was unpacking and found her Irish Coffee mugs and said we should do Irish Coffee.  So she went to the liquor store and the guy there steered her toward the Jameson's Irish whiskey.  Said it was smooth and versatile.  I said we should have an Irish dinner and make it a theme night, so we decided on loaded baked potatoes and Irish beer.

Went to Fred Meyer to get some beer and the guy stocking the shelves asked what we needed and then spent 10 minutes or so looking for Irish beer and making suggestions. Finally settled on Killians, even though I was skeptical about a red.

It was hot and we didn't want to heat up her house, so we googled how to bake potatoes on the BBQ and found this link:

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/potatoes/baked_potatoes.html

We thought were wouldn't want to wait 90 minutes to eat, so we cooked them for 5 minutes in the microwave first, as he suggested to save time.  We then changed out her kitchen faucet and it took us 90 minutes, so the potatoes were slightly overdone but still a perfect baked potato - creamy on the inside and crispy chewy skin.  We cooked up some dead mushrooms I had, some bacon and added cheddar, chives and sour cream.

 

Ate it on her front porch - perfect!  Then it was time for Irish Coffee.  She put in coffee, a half tablespoon of brown sugar and a jigger of the Jameson's.  Topped it off with whipped cream sweetened with a little powdered sugar and salted caramel vodka.  She even heated the glasses as directed.  It tasted so good, we had to have a second.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/follow-that-food/original-irish-coffee-recipe/index.html

 

I think I could get used to theme nights......

Ninja Pig

Went to LaVelle to pick up my wine shipments.  Yummmm.  Chardonnay and their Trilogy blend.  Ended up getting a bottle of Pinot Gris to drink, though.  It was hot out and the Gris was light and refreshing.  The food cart that was there was this funky old VW bus that said they served tacos, which sounded delish.

 

 

The tacos on the menu were odd, though.  Scallops with strawberries and basil, melon with something weird, so I decided to get the Ninja Pig sandwich.  Roasted pork with hoison BBQ sauce and kimchi slaw.

 

 



 Very messy, falling apart deliciousness!   They had music there - one guy on a guitar who was singing.  Mellow, not too loud, wide variety of songs.  Jerry Zybach.  I would definitely go to listen to him again.

Sauce!
In doing baby back ribs try Sweet Baby Rays Hickory and Brown sugar sauce. I have a batch marinating and will cook them up tomorrow. The sauce tastes great (so far) and I don't like BBQ sauce as a general rule.
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Baby Back Ribs

I've been wanting to make ribs for quite some time now, and since having some at Dad's house awhile back, (Curly's pre-cooked and sauced - available at Costco - Delish) I thought I would run to Costco and get some for dinner tonight.  Well, I was babysitting Annie and needed to go to the grocery store, too, so I didn't want to push it by going to Costco as well, so I just picked up some baby back ribs. 

Got home and found this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baby-back-ribs/

I followed the suggestions of a few of the reviewers and cooked them for 4 hours at 225 and opened up the foil the last half hour and sauced them again.  I then turned on the broiler for about 8 minutes.

They turned out tender and falling off the bone.  Delish!

Crepes

Last night we made crepes for Kathryn's birthday.  I found the crepe recipe here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?recipeID=16383&origin=detail&servings=4&metric=false

Jerod took over the cooking of them and did an excellent job.  We wanted chicken and asparagus, and I found this recipe for the filling:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_535720_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

We added mushrooms because they are delicious, and used chives and parsley for the herbs.  I grabbed a can of beef broth rather than chicken by mistake, but used it anyway, and we kind of liked the added heartiness.  I think the sauce was a little thin, and will probably use cornstarch to thicken next time.

 

 

We doubled the recipe and it made this pan plus an 8 x 8.  We had some filling left over, so I froze it.  I think it will be excellent baked with ziti.

 



For dessert we made chocolate crepes filled with berries and whipped cream sweetened with some salted caramel vodka.  I found the recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_8544_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

I thought the crepes were a little flabby and would have preferred a little drier, cakier texture, but they were wonderful none the less.