A Hearty Soup For The Cold Days Ahead

Portuguese Bean Soup

What great memories! This one pot meal was cooked often by my grandmother and mother. My grandmother added homemade linguica to hers. I would eat hers and go on a date without a care in the world. Not until later did I realize the garlic might be an issue! Suggestion: Have your date eat this with you.

There was nothing more comforting on a cold rainy day than to come home and find this soup cooking on the stove. We would fill our bowls and have dinner before a crackling oakwood fire. All senses taken care of!

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A Fun and Easy Way to Make Vinegar

Vinegar Making

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making vinegar one essential ingredient needed is called mother of vinegar. This mother is cellulose and acetic acid bacteria. When the mother is added to fermented alcohol with air exposure the alcohol becomes acetic acid, the main ingredient in vinegar. Mother of vinegar can be purchased on line and at some stores that sell wine, beer and spirits. Sometimes this slimy substance can be found floating in the bottom of unfiltered vinegar, such as cider vinegar. I actually found this substance growing in my aged balsamic vinegar. At the time, some years ago, I had no idea what it was. In fact, it was revolting to have found this slimy slug-like thing in my beautiful vinegar cruet. Yes, it got dumped down the sink as I gagged … While thinking how lucky I was not to have eaten this diseased product. In reality this mother is harmless.

Just as I would only use quality wine to make my vinegar, the mother of vinegar must be of equal quality. Since my friends are not vinegar makers, not having mother of vinegar to share, and I am driven to do this from scratch with known products I am going to give making my own starter, mother of vinegar, a try. So, the purchased mother of vinegar I received today through the mail has been placed on my shelf, and hopefully will never be used.

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Tomato Soup Mystery Cake Now Pumpkin SpicE

Spice CakeThis was Marc’s choice for a birthday cake … The Mystery Cake for the mystery man.

I have tested alternatives to the main ingredient, canned tomato soup. With this recipe I substituted pumpkin with terrific results. The idea of pumpkin puree just sounds better for several reasons.

The cake is called a mystery because of the hidden tomato soup ingredient that cannot be detected in the flavor of the cake. As for the pumpkin substitution, it is hard to determine if the spices used take the palate to a pumpkin place as in pumpkin pie.

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Seared Pork Chops Dinner Recipes

Side of Cheese Potatoes

Side of Sautéed Green beans

Seared Pork Chops

This Pork Chops Recipe will quickly become a family favorite. A great treat anytime. Impress guests too! The addition of apples gives a nice presentation and adds just the right amount of sweetness.

Everyone will feel special at the dinner table with this Pork Chops Dinner. Enjoy!

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A Pleasant Outdoor Lunch At Watson’s

Small City Big Eats

Thank you Watson’s!

I was a road warrior for some years and the one big plus was seeing the United States. Okay, sometimes I just saw the inside of the airport! Being away from home was lonely but more than that uneventful … although bombarded by enormous amounts of work which sometimes softened the blow of boredom but more likely just increased cardiac risk. On these overnighters I found myself looking for special restaurants to make my travel more memorable … Family owned to quaint, famous to fabulous, regional food to ethnic food. Some parts of the country, this was hard to find.

A road warrior would be pleasantly surprised by Visalia. We have restaurants with big city sophistication, with healthy options, with diversity. We just have amazing eateries. Watson’s is one.

Small City Big Eats!


A Cake To Drizzle Or Not

Chardonnay Cake With Buttercream or Citrus Drizzle

 

This is a rich tasting but light in texture yellow cake … A cake I made for my daughter’s birthday today. I have added just a touch of drizzle … But did not pour a chardonnay glaze over the cake as in the original recipe.

I’m not sure who to give the credit to for this recipe. It was given to me many years ago but I fail to remember the details. With a little research I have found it has been recorded by Cindi Leive, 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know.

Changes have been made to the glaze only. I like to make all cakes from scratch. So, with this recipe I experimented with replacing the vanilla pudding with ingredients like extra eggs and cream for the whole milk with disasterous results. I did a little research here but all the suggestions were very chancy. Dry whipped topping was suggested, too. But if using this topping I might as well use the pudding mix as in the original.

Try this Chardonnay Cake with Buttercream or Citrus Drizzle! After all it has been recommended as 1 in 100 recipes women should know! That says something, doesn’t it?

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My Brother’s Recipe

Portuguese Linguica Sausage

A Family Recipe

Portuguese Linguica Sausage, A Family Recipe

Yep, this is my brother, Dan, who was one tough high school and college football player … even playing for the Arkansas Razorback Team way back when.

He has mastered the taste of Portuguese cuisine, notably from the Azores. Never being timid about spices … this being taught by our Grandmother Rose. Cumin and cinnamon are of particular importance.

Dan and his son, David, are the cooks in his family. Well, wife, Ruth, can certainly hold her own but she leaves this cuisine to Dan. Thank you Dan and David for including us and providing the photography. Dan has promised to send me some linguica soon.

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Moist and Chewy

Molasses Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, Vegan or Not

Molasses Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

This is a cookie my daughter would appreciate … The nutritional value is not outweighed by the calories. This is now a family recipe but the origin is unclear. I am going to give a vegan version; and then again with the changes that created this taller, less molasses tasting cookie with cranberries instead of raisins. Did you know almost all brown sugar we use for baking is stripped to white and then the molasses is added back? So, in reality we are more or less doing that here. This is a great breakfast on the run, Hint of Molasses Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, Vegan or Not!

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A Last Minute Get together

Antipasto for the Last day of summer

Bruschetta with wine can be dinner. This took some rethinking on my part. In fact, I had to develop a taste for raw tomatoes, specifically Roma. Roma tomatoes are mild in flavor and the texture is firm. These facts made this easy. My taste for wine had not fully developed either. This was Ed’s favorite meal. The recipe is one he put together many years ago.

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Delicious, rich, cinnamon Spicy

cinnamon cocoa Sheet Cake

Cinnamon Cocoa Sheet Cake

This rich cake is a favorite of Aubree’s. Dressing up a sheet cake is difficult because the batter is very rich and meant to be baked in a thin layer. But if it is a special birthday what do you do? I have layered this cake … Not so pretty. Here I used a 12 section quiche pan with 12 false bottoms. And at the end of baking I had twelve blobs of very cooked batter at the bottom of the oven. Small cupcakes did pretty well. So, this is what I suggest for a birthday if this is the favorite cake, a tower of cupcakes. This recipe will make 24 small cupcakes.

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