Chocolate Buttercream Cake (aka Yummy Bday Cake)

Landon's 2nd birthday party was last weekend and since he loves chocolate I decided to make Ina's recipe. In one word - INCREDIBLE!! This recipe was very moist and overall terrific. I did use lowfat buttermilk, light sour cream, and instant coffee instead of instant espresso. I did consider what effect the coffee that was in the cake and icing might have on a houseful of 2 year olds, but did it anyways! :) I had never made icing that used egg whites for fear of poisoning someone, but since they sit over a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes I figured it was fine. The frosting was shiny and smooth and if I wasn't pregnat I would have helped myself to a bowl of it. :)

Lobster and Shrimp Pot Pie

Pot Pies and myself go way back! I remember as a child eating the frozen individual pot pies in the aluminum containers. Then when I was in 5th grade I got involved in 4H. I entered my chicken pot pie and went to district with it and I typically take my chicken pot pie to new moms. When I first found this cookbook and started looking through it, the Lobster Pot Pie recipe caught my eye. So this was another meal that I made while my mom was in town.

I debated on whether or not to use real lobster or fake and I decided to splurge. I got 2 lobster tails at HEB. One was 3.4 oz ($3.99) and the other was 7 oz ($9.99) and I also picked up a small bag of cooked salad shrimp ($2.99) just in case I didn't have enough lobster meat. HEB steams the lobsters for free so I wouldn't have to cook them.

First you take some scissors and cut throught the middle of the back. Then use your muscles to pry the lobster open and rip out the meat. This is a great way to relieve stress!! After that I just followed the recipe and compiled everything into the dough. I did use peas and carrots, instead of just peas to ensure more vegetables entered my kids mouths. :)

Oh, I loved the pastry! I had never bought real lard, but since it was only $1.50 I decided to use it and I could tell a difference in Ina's dough recipe compared to my recipe. For a personal touch, I always take a small, sharp knife and "engrave" the last name's initial of the family that I am preparing the meal for. So for my family it was M for McLain.

This recipe was a HUGE hit at our house. I will definitely make it again and probably tweak it to work for chicken pot pie, too.

Maple Oatmeal Scones

These scones were so yummy! The glaze totally makes it so don't skip that step. :) I must say I felt somewhat healthier eating these, since they had whole wheat flour in them. I'll make one confession to you about this recipe - the dough is very tasty!!!

Roasted Chicken with Roasted Carrots

My mom was in town last week and I so I rolled out the red carpet in the kitchen for her. :) The first night we had roasted chicken with roasted carrots. First I took out all of the giblets - yuck! Next I propped the chicken in the corner of my roasting pan to be able to get the salt and pepper into the cavity.

I got all the butter slathered on with more seasoning and stuffed the helpless chicken. :)

After roasting in the oven, it was a beautiful golden brown. I will say that for all of the time that it took I thought it tasted good, but not fabulous. I think I will stick to just buying a rotissiere chicken at the store already done.

I attempted to make the gravy, but I'm pretty sure it flopped since it was thick and gloppy. :) I got confused with the directions. Ina said to take out all but 2 Tbsp of fat, which I did, but it didn't seem like there was enough liquid to make a gravy.

The roasted carrots with dill were easy and very yummy!!

French Potato Salad

This was such an easy recipe and it turned out great (not to mention it required minimal mess). Though I will say that my version of this dish does not look as pretty as Ina’s does on page 140. So far I have yet to follow a single recipe as published in the cookbook. I somehow always come up with something different. For this recipe I didn’t have the scallions so I just used a small amount of yellow onion that I already had. I reduced all of the spices because it just looked like too much for our taste buds; reduced to: dill ½ tsp, parsley ¼ tsp, ¼ tsp basil, and 1 tsp of salt at the end. I served this dish cold, because I really wanted to give the potatoes time to soak in all of the flavors. As mentioned in a previous post, this is the perfect picnic dish because there is no mayonnaise in it!

French Potato Salad (page 96)

Maple Oatmeal Scones

I majorly messed up my back on Tuesday, and couldn't hardly get up to do much on Wednesday. My poor kids wore their PJ's all day and ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted! Wednesday night I remembered that I had signed up to bring breakfast to a Bible Study group on Thursday morning. I got a tiny burst of energy and decided to make these scones. By the time I got them cut out, my back was killing me and I couldn't stand up any longer. So I took Ina's tip that she had in the recipe to cut them out, then refrigerate them till the morning. It worked like a charm.

I don't know how big her scones turned out, she says it makes 14 large ones...well I got 32 medium sized scones! I did roll them out a little thinner than she says. (which knocked the cooking time down to 10 minutes) The only changes I made were to cut 4 TBSP of butter out and to add alot more sugar...my, my she likes her scones unsweet! The recipe calls for 2 TBSP..I put in 1/3 cup...then panicked at the last minute that all the ladies at the Bible Study would think they weren't sweet enough, so I added another 1/4 cup. I thought they were perfect. I skipped the egg wash step...I didn't think it made sense if they have a glaze on them. Don't skip the glaze, it makes them. I wanted them in triangles cuz I thought circles made them look more store bought, but the dough was so soft I couldn't get them to hold their shape, so store-bought looking circles they were.

I didn't get to see what the ladies thought of them cuz my back was not in shape to get me and 2 kids dressed and out the door. So I had a friend come by and pick them up to take to the study while I sat at home on my sofa on a heating pad watching Cinderella with my girls for the 5th time in 2 days!

But I did sneak one off the plate before they went out the door and they were WONDERFUL! I will definitely be making them again. I liked them better than the other strawberry scones of Ina's. Put these on your list to make soon!

--Carissa

Perfect Roast Chicken & More Roasted Carrots (AKA - the last supper!)

Well as Daniel stated "This was the last supper!"

We had my former boss over last Thursday, 9/25, (yes the night I went into labor! that's why it's the "last supper":)) for dinner so I was bold and thought I'd make the roast carrots and chicken. I usually don't like to serve people something I've never made just in case it turns out bad but this turned out really good!

I'm a little phobic when it comes to raw chicken so I think this will be only a weekend dish so Daniel can help me because I think I washed my hands/arms about six times through the process of preparing it. Just having to touch the chicken then the salt/pepper and then turn it over etc. made for a lot of handwashing!

As someone else stated the gravy makes the dish. Although mine was a bit salty for my taste but I think it was because when I was salting the chicken it fell into the bottom of the pan. So next time I might prep it on a cutting board and then put in the baking dish. I baked the chicken for the 1.5 hours and then turned the oven down to 400 and put the carrots in while I made the gravy which worked out perfect.

I also served with mashed potatoes because you gotta have potatoes to pour the gravy on! We all loved it and I think Isaiah loved it the most because he decided he wanted to come out and meet the chef!:)