Tag: recipes (page 2 of 5)

5 Years Bloga-Versary

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Well May 5th came and went for me this year. I have to tell you that there are times where my working week gets the better of me! We are up by 5 and I am home past 6 every night and by the time we make dinner, do the dishes, have a few minutes to talk, do a few things around the house, speak to my mom or my sister or sometimes I’m lucky enough to speak to both, it is time to hit the hay before 5 o’clock rolls around again, because it comes around all to quickly.

I have so many things I want to share with you. I have yet to share with you about going to my Shibori Dying Class, or about visiting the Matisse Exhibition or the number of other things that flit through my head. I will get there. I just need to work harder on my work/life balance. It came to me last night that 5 years of being in this space came and went unnoticed by me this week.

When I started this space 5 years ago, I didn’t know where it would lead, but it has truly grown into its own. A year ago I moved into this new space that I call my writing home. I love the simplicity of my site. It is colorful, yet simply elegant, it lets me showcase my writing and photography without a lot of fluff and that is what I wanted it to be.

Thank you for sharing this space with me. Thank you for coming to visit me and read my words and view my pictures. I write for me, but it is nice to know that my writing not only touches my own soul, but you have shared with me that it touches yours too.

When I did think of writing about my 5 years of blogging the other week, I had made a Kentucky Derby Pie. It turned out perfectly. A slice was cut and fresh vanilla whipped cream was pillowed on to the top, but Mr. Michie stole a bite before I could get a picture.

So, instead of sharing that pie with you and recipe, I shall share a cake recipe with you, as cakes are a wonderful celebration of life. The image and recipe comes from the lovely Twigg Studios. The pie recipe I will share just as soon as I make another one. Pies should be made to share, but unfortunately, this one was just too good, we were greedy and devoured it ourselves before we could even give away a slice!

For the full Mandarin & Lemon Cake recipe and assembly instructions please visit Twigg Studios, HERE

Image pinned HERE

Biscuits

Jennifer Michie Biscuits

Nothing better than fresh biscuits and strawberry jam for breakfast! I made the lovely Carrie of Callie’s Biscuits, Buttermilk Biscuit recipe! The only thing that would have made them better would have been to enjoy them with a glass of iced tea on my own Charleston porch.

Happiness is…

I’ve included Carrie’s biscuit recipe below:

Callie’s Classic Buttermilk Biscuits

This is the recipe that started it all. Sitting in my mother’s kitchen and watching her prepare the pans of these highly sought-after, melt-in-your mouth bites of goodness for her catering business gave me the lightning bolt of inspiration for Callie’s Charleston Biscuits. It took some convincing to persuade my mother that a biscuit business was a good idea. She was under the impression that people still made their own biscuits! Once I convinced her that the art of biscuit making was far from a daily ritual for most, she warmed to the idea. I don’t think she ever dreamed that in a few short years, we’d be making 110,000 biscuits a month and I’d be featured on The Martha Stewart Show.

The beauty of this recipe is that biscuit making can be part of your family tradition. Just save it for a day when a little bit of a mess in the kitchen won’t derail the rest of your plans, because this dough is wet and sticky. If the dough gobs between your fingers with the consistency of pluff mud (what we in the South call marsh mud), don’t worry! That’s a good sign! Getting my hands dirty is part of the fun for me, but if you are a little more averse to gooey hands, you can certainly use a rubber spatula to mix the dough.

Makes about 10 (2-inch) biscuits

  • 2 cups self-rising flour (White Lily preferred), plus more for dusting
  • 5 tablespoons butter: 4 tablespoons cut in small cubes, at room temperature, and 1 tablespoon melted
  • ¼ cup cream cheese, at room temperature
  • ¾ cup whole buttermilk (may substitute low-fat buttermilk)

1.      Preheat the oven to 500°F. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position.
2.      Measure the flour into a large bowl. Incorporate the cubed butter, then the cream cheese into the flour, using your fingers to “cut in” the butter and cheese until the mixture resembles cottage cheese. It will be chunky with some loose flour.
3.      Make a well in the center. Pour in the buttermilk and, using your hands or a small rubber spatula, mix the flour into the buttermilk. The dough will be wet and messy.
4.      Sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Run a rubber spatula around the inside of the bowl, creating a separation between the dough and the bowl. Sprinkle a bit more flour in this crease.
5.      Flour a work surface or flexible baking mat very well. With force, dump the dough from the bowl onto the surface. Flour the top of the dough and the rolling pin. Roll out the dough to ½-inch thickness into an oval shape. (No kneading is necessary—the less you mess with the dough, the better.)
6.      Flour a 2-inch round metal biscuit cutter or biscuit glass. Start from the edge of the rolled-out dough and cut straight through the dough with the cutter, trying to maximize the number of biscuits cut from this first roll out. Roll out the excess dough after the biscuits are cut and cut more biscuits. As long as the dough stays wet inside, you can use as much flour on the outside as you need to handle the dough. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet with sides lined with parchment paper, or in a cast-iron skillet, or a baking pan with the biscuit sides touching. (It does not matter what size pan or skillet you use as long as the pan has a lip or sides and the biscuits are touching. If you are using a cast iron skillet, no parchment paper is necessary.) Brush the tops with the melted butter.
7.      Place the pan in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 450°F. Bake 16 to18 minutes, until light brown on top (or as dark as you prefer), rotating the pan once while baking.

Note: You can freeze any leftover biscuits. To reheat, do not defrost. Wrap the biscuits in foil. Bake in a 400°F oven 25 to 30 minutes. Open the top of the foil for the last 3 to 5 minutes to brown a little on top.

{Please Note:  The recipe listed above is copyright to Callie’s Biscuits. I have eaten her biscuits at a number of events I have attended when at home in the South and was enraptured with their heavenly flavour and as any good Southerner knows, biscuits are a hot topic (no pun intended!), everyone has their favorite recipe and some are a closely guarded secret. I have a few favorites of my own and this is definitely in my list! This recipe was originally posted on the Design Sponge Blog}

Blueberry Pancakes

Jennifer Michie Blueberry Pancakes

We had lumberjack sized blueberry pancakes this morning for breakfast. They were heavenly! While the pancakes cooked, I worked on turning our leftover spicy carrot and celery slaw into a pasta salad. Made homemade pimento cheese and threw a couple of chicken breasts into a buttermilk marinade for the fried chicken I am making tonight in our new cast iron skillet!

Last night we made these buffalo chicken burgers, with a few minor changes. I used turkey instead since I can’t get ground chicken at my grocery store and I was so busy singing to a song I was listening too that I threw the chopped green onions in with the onions that were sauteing, instead of putting them in the slaw, but that was just fine. I also didn’t put any blue cheese in the slaw, but we did put cheese on top of the burgers, which I cooked in the oven and we toasted our buns so they would withstand the juicy slaw. So, I guess I really made more than a few changes.

Anyway it was delicious! So I made another batch of the slaw added it to the small amount that was left over, threw in some pasta and viola, pasta salad for our fried chicken picnic tonight! I love having cooking days where you can accomplish so much in a good space of time and this will help set us up for the week, because the first week back after a break is always a doozie!

Cast Iron Skillet Pizza

Jennifer Michie Cast Iron Pizza 1

Tonight is date night! And while I am still enjoying it, I just couldn’t wait to blog about dinner! I have wanted a Lodge cast iron skillet for ages, but in the many things that I always stuff in my suitcase to bring back to London, I could never truly justify putting a large heavy skillet in my suitcase, since all of my bags are usually marked HEAVY anyway. The skillet is where Mr. Michie drew the line.

My Nana has had her cast iron skillets for over 50 years and they are still beautiful! So, when I saw this gorgeous Lodge skillet at West Elm yesterday, it just jumped into my hands. Now, I broke all of my Southern upbringing rules today, because the first thing I should have been cooking in this pan was either fried chicken or a fresh batch of biscuits. I went to my Italian roots instead and the first thing we made was a cast iron skillet pizza.

It is a recipe I mentioned in my post yesterday. I used my favorite dough recipe from Annie’s Eats, although it isn’t quite her recipe any more. I have made it so many times and have incorporated elements from an Ina Garten recipe I like and some of my bread making techniques.

Mr. Michie made a delicious fresh sauce with wispy strips of basil ribboned through it, while I rolled out the dough. I was in charge of pizza making, he was in charge of pizza cooking. Now, just like the gorgeous Jessica, I don’t own a pizza peel either. So, we improvised, I wasn’t a Girl Scout for nothing!

Once the pizza hit the blazing hot pan, dinner went 1,2,3, literally! In 3 minutes we had dinner and you would have thought that we cooked it in a wood oven grill in our backyard, not in a cast iron skillet under the broiler!

It puffed up, some of the edges charred, the cheese was perfectly melted. We let it set up for a few minutes and then transferred it to our cutting board. Mr. Michie cut it and we couldn’t even wait to get it onto plates before we devoured the first slice. Oh My God! I don’t think we can ever go back to our normal pizza methods ever again! This was fantastico!

Jennifer Michie Cast Iron Pizza 2

On a side note there was a bit of smoke, so while Mr. Michie took care of the pizza, I had the front door ajar and was busily fanning our smoke detector. It was like an “I Love Lucy” episode in here for a few minutes. Also, one section of the pizza stuck to our skillet, so next time I might need to use a bit more flour. I managed to get it all out and after re-seasoning my pan, it looks as good as new.

What a perfect date night. The pizza was so good we never even bothered making the salad or opening the wine. We split a beer, listened to music and ate dinner by candlelight! What could be better?

All Hallow’s Eve

Last night we feasted on Butternut Squash Chili and fresh cornbread and ate Halloween cupcakes for dessert. All while watching Hocus Pocus and listening to the rain pour down! It was the perfect Halloween evening.

Jennifer Michie Halloween 2013

{The Chili recipe is from the lovely Jenny Steffens Hobick. We made it last year and just can’t stop making it! We have made a few changes to suit our tastes, it is a wonderful and easy recipe to make!}

 

Billie’s Italian Cream Cake

Jennifer Michie Pioneer Woman CookBook

Jennifer Michie Pioneer Woman Cake

We had a really lovely anniversary on Wednesday. We kept it simple and went where the wind took us. We had lunch at one of our favorite places in London and did a little browsing and a little strolling before heading home.

We had decided to keep dinner simple and enjoyable as well. So we did half the cooking and the fabulous Italian restaurant down the block did the other half. While I set the table and made a salad, Mr. Michie headed down the street to pick up the lasagna we had ordered.

I didn’t mind letting someone else make my dinner but there was no way, someone else was going to make our dessert, that was my real contribution to our anniversary date. I have wanted to make this cake since the first time I saw it on The Pioneer Woman’s site.

I earmarked it on my computer and would look at it from time to time, but nothing happened. Then her second cookbook came out and I saw that it was in there, but again nothing happened with it. You see, Mr. Michie is not really a fan of coconut and I was concerned he wouldn’t like it, but I think this cake has made him and coconut lifelong friends! I knew that this cake would be perfect for our anniversary, he would just have to taste it and he would know it was perfect too! So, I got my cakes ready on Tuesday before I met my girlfriend and iced them later that night before I went to bed. It was 4 layers of complete happiness!

It tasted great with champagne and great with coffee, it is also excellent for breakfast, but I won’t tell you how I know that!

Jennifer Michie Italian Cream Cake 1Jennifer Michie Italian Cream Cake 2Jennifer Michie Italian Cream Cake 3

To make you own cake go to Ree’s site, The Pioneer Woman.

{p.s. excuse the fuzziness of my pictures, I was taking them really quickly on Mr. Michie’s IPhone and he was less interested in me photographing and more interested in eating dessert with me}

Our Weekend

Well, I was going to share my weekend with you yesterday, but after my day in the cupboard, I just couldn’t.

It was my date night this weekend and I took Mr. Michie to the movies! It was so much FUN! I can’t tell you the last time we went to a movie in the evening, we are usually afternoon movie goers.

We saw OZ. We both really enjoyed it, I thought they did a nice tie in of the elements, the costumes were beautiful and I only wish she was real because the little girl the “wizard” helps save in China Town, I could just take home with me, she was so cute!

We grabbed some breakfast before going grocery shopping on Saturday morning:

Then I spent the rest of Saturday preparing Sunday’s lunch. I made my Nana’s macaroni salad, my dad’s green bean salad and homemade yeast rolls.

On Sunday we baked a ham and I tried a new peach cobbler recipe. It was delicious! I made a few changes, by adding some cinnamon and a little bit if lemon zest to the peaches, like I would do if I was making a pie.

I have been reading a series of books at the moment that take place in the South (The Caster Chronicles) and after reading what Amma has been cooking, I was hankering after a little Southern Home-style dinner myself. There was even sweet tea to boot!

The Day After Valentine’s

We had such a lovely Valentine’s Day Evening. I finished up dessert when we got in from work and Mr. Michie started getting his dinner ingredients ready.

I had made a chocolate cream pie for dessert. My poor beaters made it just till the cream was perfectly whipped and then sputtered, coughed and died. So I will be getting new beaters over our half term break, which is next week.

One, day I shall have a KitchenAid Mixer when we have more space, but for now, beaters it is. KitchenAid mixers are just kitchen dreams right now and you should always have something to dream about!

Mr. Michie made the most delicious garlic butter infused roasted chicken on a bed of roasted red peppers and pasta with homemade pesto. It was heaven!

My cream pie was extremely tasty, the perfect chocolate to cream balance, but unfortunately my crust did not cooperate, so it didn’t slice very pretty, but it tasted delicious-e-oso! It just didn’t do justice to Mr. Michie’s fancy Valentine’s plate presentation.

 

I am so happy that today is Friday, that it marks the beginning of the weekend and the beginning of our 1/2 term break!

{The recipe I used was from the King Arthur Flour Company – it is definitely worth trying, it tasted like a truly old-fashioned diner kinda pie – however, I did make my whipped cream as I normally do and I used store bought pastry, so I didn’t follow their directions to the letter}

A Valentine’s Day Round-Up & Lenten Thoughts

This will be a post in two parts today since I just have so much to say! Firstly, today we walk into the first day of Lent. I know that this is a period of reflection and abstaining. I have spoken about this before and I shall speak about it again this year.

In my family we had the tradition of adding something to our daily lives, instead of subtracting it. We still gave up things (and if you chose to give up chocolate, what a blessed morning Easter Sunday was because it meant you could finally touch it again and oh boy did you hope that the Easter Bunny left you plenty in your basket!), but my parents always made sure that we added something to our daily/weekly lives that would be to the benefit of others.

I am going to get on my soap box for a moment here and say that I have always felt it is wonderful to give of oneself; it is marvelous that Church organizations and charity organizations help so many people around the world. I grew up in the South and I was always amazed at how many churches in my town took trips to Mexico, South America, Haiti, Cuba and Africa.  Those were extremely valuable trips for all involved, but I think it is just as important to know where we are from, to teach your children and others what is around them as well.

You don’t have to go far to help someone in need. Not only were there people who needed help within my own community, you only had to drive a few hours into the mountains and there were families that would have benefited from a little extra help as well.  Start in your own backyard, so to speak and branch out.

I had the great fortune to meet Mother Teresa when I was in High School and I read an article recently that quoted her; it sums up my thoughts, better than I could:

“Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. … You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone.”

I want to make it clear now that I am in no way demeaning the work that others do, to give of your heart and of yourself in any capacity is a wonderful act. I just think that sometimes we might need to be reminded we can still make a difference just where we are right now, we can make a difference in the place that we call HOME.
 
Secondly, we sit on the Eve of St. Valentine’s Day today and I thought I would do a last minute Valentine’s round-up. I have breakfast planned for Mr. Michie, I will be making homemade doughnuts tonight and working on my dessert for our Valentine’s dinner, but I will share more of that later.

In case you need a few last minute ideas, this is for you:

These cookies from the lovely Sweetopia Blog are just too SWEET! Learn how to make them here:
 
 
For those classroom Valentine’s where teachers won’t let you give out candy, Inchmark has come up with adorable bookmarks instead:
 
The House that Lars Built, shows you a cute way to make your own wrapping paper, to make that special gift, extra special:
 
 
The lovely I am Baker blog, shared these Neapolitan Spritz Cookies this week and they look like a very scrumptious box of goodies for a Valentine to receive:
 
 
These “Sealed with A Kiss” waxed lips from Oh Happy Day, are a sweet and funny way to pass out Valentine Cards. Who doesn’t have fun playing with waxed lips?:


And last but not least, via Martha Stewart, you can give your Valentine a tied posy in a flower cone. These would be sweet to give to friends at a little Valentine Day Luncheon:

 
 
{all images are copyright their respective blogs}