Author: The Blind Guy Cooks

Birthday Cake!

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A few weeks ago I posted that my daughter Elizabeth asked me for my mother Loretta’s sponge cake recipe. I also mentioned that it was my favorite cake and that I always asked her to make me one on my birthday; just a plain sponge cake with no frosting.

Yesterday was my 50th birthday. My daughter Elizabeth surprised me with an unfrosted sponge cake. Loretta, you would have been proud. Yes, the picture is the cake she baked for me with the one piece I cut out for myself.

Thank you Elizabeth! I love you!

Here is a recap of the recipe:

Ingredients

3 C sifted cake flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
10 to 12 egg yolks
2 C sugar
1 C cold water
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. lemon extract

Directions

Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt together three times. Beat egg yolks in large bowl of mixer on high speed for 5 minutes until thick and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Turn to low speed and beat in cold water, vanilla, and lemon extract. Then sprinkle in flour mixture quickly but not all at once. Beat only until blended.  Pour into 10” diameter, deep angel food tube pan. Bake at 350° for about 1 hour.

A Timeless Side Dish: Potatoes au Gratin

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Potatoes au Gratin have been a staple of family potlucks and cookouts since God knows when. And why not? Cheese and potatoes just go together. My creation adds a few other flavor profiles not typically found in these ubiquitous potluck standards that I feel give them just enough flavor to stand out. Here is what I do:

Ingredients

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
1 ½ cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 sprig thyme (leaves)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ t freshly grated nutmeg
2 C heavy cream
1/3 C course bread crumbs
2 T butter, divided

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bring the cream with a sprig of thyme, chopped garlic and nutmeg to boil over medium heat. Remove from heat.

While cream is heating up, butter a casserole dish with one tablespoon of butter. Melt remaining butter and mix with bread crumbs and set aside.

Place a layer of potato using half the potatoes in an overlapping pattern and season with salt and pepper. Then layer half the cheddar cheese on top of potatoes. Repeat with remaining potatoes and cheese.  Pour cream mixture over the potatoes. Top with bread crumb mixture. Bake, uncovered, for 50 to 60 minutes.

Just “desserts” — Grilled Peaches and Ice Cream

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Here is an insanely easy dessert that is a perfect end to a day of grilling. Serve these with a white port or icewine and your guests will be talking about this dessert for a long time. You might call these S’mores for adults. Here is all you need:

Ingredients

Peaches – I prefer white flesh peaches. Make sure they are not too ripe.
Brown sugar
Vanilla ice cream

Directions

Heat grill to medium heat. Quarter peaches and sprinkle with brown sugar. Place peaches on grill skin side down. Grill approximately two minutes. Flip peaches to one of the cut sides and grill an additional two minutes. Flip to other cut side and grill another two minutes. Remove from grill. Place three to four peach slices in a bowl and scoop ice cream on top. Enjoy!

A Cheesy Side Dish: Corn Casserole

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Here is a simple and quick side dish for your next cookout. In my family it is sometimes described as a cup, a cup, a can, a can, a stick. Read the recipe and you’ll see why. It is also a very filling comfort food that pleases all. This side goes well with any barbequed food.

Ingredients

1 C Elbow macaroni
1 C Velveeta cheese (cubed)
1 Can whole kernel corn
1 Can creamed style corn
1 Stick butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Meanwhile, combine all ingredients in casserole dish and stir to mix well. After 25 to 30 minutes, stir casserole again to further mix ingredients. Continue cooking for another 25 to 30 minutes until casserole is bubbling and top begins to brown.

It Doesn’t Have to be Red: Grilled Chicken with White BBQ Sauce

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When one thinks of BBQ, one typically thinks of beef, pork, or chicken slow cooked and slathered in a tomato based red sauce. Now I love a good BBQ sauce; from the mild sweet to the mouth numbing fire bombs, but every once in a while I look for something different. That’s when I pull out my white BBQ sauce. Although this sauce works well on pork, I believe the tanginess of the vinegar and lemon simply complement the flavor of chicken. Here’s what I did today:

Ingredients

1 whole cut up chicken or your favorite pieces

Rub
1 T garlic powder
1 ½ t Smoked paprika
1 T Mexican chili powder
1 T Kosher salt

Sauce

1 C mayonnaise
1 T ground black pepper
1 T Kosher salt
3 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 T distilled white vinegar
2 T white sugar
A few splashes Tabasco sauce

Directions

To make the sauce:
In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, pepper, salt, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, and Tabasco sauce. Mix all together until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours to allow flavors to integrate. This sauce will keep for several days in the refrigerator so it is best to make this at least the night before.

To make the rub:

Simply add garlic powder, paprika, chili powder and salt in a sealed container and shake well to combine.

Rub seasoning mixture evenly over all chicken pieces. First grill chicken for a few minutes on both sides over direct heat to give chicken a little color. Continue cooking over indirect heat until chicken is cooked through. This will take approximately 45 minutes.

After chicken is finished grilling, pour sauce over chicken and serve.

Remembering Mom: Sponge Cake

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Recently, my daughter Elizabeth asked me if I had Grandma Loretta’s recipes for her angel food and sponge cakes. This gave me reason to look through my mother’s recipe box. I can’t help but think of my mother when ever I do.

My mother passed away in 2008 three days before my 46th birthday. After her death, I really only wanted two things: her 30+ year-old KitchenAid mixer and her recipe box. This box is a big connection to her for me. She is a big reason why I cook. Memories of fantastic meals and my mother’s exploits in the kitchen flood over me whenever I look at these hand-written cards. She was a fantastic woman and a great mother. I miss her dearly.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when Elizabeth called asking for the recipes. My mother’s sponge cake was my absolute favorite. Every year for my birthday I would request a sponge cake; plain, no icing. She always obliged. Luckily, my sister Michele’s favorite cake was angel food. My mother would simply freeze the egg whites from making my cake and use them a month and a half later to make her birthday cake.

Here is my mother’s recipe. My birthday is September 15th. I turn 50. If anyone would like to make this cake for me, I won’t stop you. No icing please!

Ingredients

3 C sifted cake flour
2 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
10 to 12 egg yolks
2 C sugar
1 C cold water
1 t. vanilla
½ t. lemon extract

Directions

Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt together three times. Beat egg yolks in large bowl of mixer on high speed for 5 minutes until thick and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Turn to low speed and beat in cold water, vanilla, and lemon extract. Then sprinkle in flour mixture quickly but not all at once. Beat only until blended.  Pour into 10” diameter, deep angel food tube pan. Bake at 350° for about 1 hour.

And Now For Something Completely Different: Grilled Sweet Potatoes

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I found myself having to cook for myself tonight as Susan was at her monthly Bunco night with her MOMS Club friends. This gives me an opportunity to either cook things that Susan doesn’t particularly care for or to experiment a little. Tonight I did both. Susan will eat pork but it isn’t necessarily her favorite meat. So, since she was gone, I picked up a nice thick Iowa Chop to grill. I seasoned this with some El Pilson’s Super Secret Smokin’ Meat Rub. This rub is made by my friend and fellow foodie and wine maker Ed Slonaker in Corpus Christi, Texas. Although this is a rub that is intended to be used while slowly smoking, it tasted very good on some chops cooked over a medium-low, direct fire. I will be slow cooking something over Labor Day weekend with this stuff and will blog about it then, so be looking for that to come. Tonight is about the experiment.

I love sweet potato fries with barbequed pork. To me, the smokiness of the pork and the savory-sweet flavors of the sweet potato fries just go hand-in-hand. Not really wanting to go to all the trouble of making sweet potato fries and since I was going to have a nice, big hot grill with plenty of room, I started to wonder how grilling these sweet potatoes would work. Fantastic! As you will see. These will definitely be made again. Here is what I did.

Ingredients

Sweet potato (Depending on size, one per person)
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Sugar
Cinnamon

Directions

Heat grill to medium-high heat. Meanwhile, peel and slice sweet potatoes into about ¼ planks. Drizzle olive oil over sweet potatoes to coat. Season with kosher salt and a few grinds of fresh ground pepper. Place planks on grill and grill on each side for about 4 to 5 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from grill and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over sweet potatoes. Serve immediately.

Smoked Turkey, Havarti, and Roasted Red Pepper Panini

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Although they are nice, you don’t need a panini press to make a great panini. They tend to be one of those devices that, unless you make a lot of paninis, they just take up a lot of valuable space in a kitchen. I make these great sandwiches using a George Foreman Grill.

When making paninis, you are limited by only your imagination. All you need are two slices of good bread, a meat, a cheese, some sort of veggie, maybe a condiment and you’re good to go.

Tonight I made paninis using sourdough bread, smoked turkey breast, Havarti cheese, Roasted Red Peppers, and my own honey mustard. This makes a very satisfying sandwich that isn’t too heavy. They go great with a nice, clean, crisp sauvignon blanc.

Ingredients

Two slices sourdough bread
3-4oz Smoked turkey breast
1-2oz Havarti cheese
Roasted red peppers
Blind Guy Honey Mustard (recipe follows)

Directions

Preheat grill. Spread bottom slice of bread with honey mustard. Then assemble sandwich in this order: turkey, Havarti, peppers. Place on grill and close lid. Let the bread toast for a few minutes. When grill marks begin to appear you can begin to apply a little pressure. Grill until heated through and grill marks are well defined; about 5 minutes total. Remove from grill and slice in half. Serve immediately.

Blind Guy Honey Mustard

Ingredients

2/3 C real mayonnaise
2 T Grey Poupon Dijon mustard with white wine (Not Country style)
3 T Honey
1 t Soy sauce
1 t Fresh lemon juice

Directions

Whisk all ingredients together until well blended. Chill for at least 2 hours. Overnight is better.

This also makes a wonderful salad dressing.