Too Old for Ramen

Nibble Plate with Elphaba Dip; Hors D’Oerves for Dinner!

It is so cold and gross out that I decided to crank up the heater and have a summery dinner treat in the middle of January.  I made an herby spinach dip with delicious blanched vegetables and cubes of teriyaki chicken for my supper and pretended I was at the beach with a good book.  That book was, of course, Out of Oz by Gregory McGuire.  I named the spinach dip after his muse, Elphaba- AKA the Wicked Witch of the West (who honestly wasn’t so much “wicked” as she was misunderstood, the poor thing). 

I have to tell you that once you blanch vegetables for crudites, or “nibble plate”, you will never go back to serving raw ones again.  Slightly cooking, or blanching the vegetables keeps them crispy but allows the flavor to intensify and a really wonderful experience when you pop a little bit of summer in your mouth on a cold, gloomy winter day.  Don’t forget a little salt, you will be amazed how much the flavor is enhanced further.  

The Elphaba Dip is verdant and enchanting, just like the literary heroine it is named for.  You will find that you will want to put it in everything from turkey sandwiches or to top your morning cup of cottage cheese.  

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did creating it for you.  I am using the leftovers in spring rolls for dinner tonight!  

Chocolate Almond Toffee Crunch

What a more perfect time to talk about making wonderful and easy treats to eat or share than Christmas.  My favorite holiday edible to receive is now my favorite to make and share once I learned how incredibly fun and simple it is to whip up: Chocolate, Almond, Toffee Crunch.  Anytime I eat this stuff I think about almond roca, which in return reminds me of the Winona Ryder film “Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael”.  But I digress. 

This recipe is so versatile. Change out the almonds for peanuts, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, or even sun flower seeds for variety.  You can even switch up the chocolate with dark chocolate, bittersweet, white, or extra-dark.  OR screw the nuts, go crazy and make a dark chocolate-peppermint toffee!  Get creative and let me know what fine toffee concoction you come up with and I may just try it out myself and post it on Too Old for Ramen.  

I think everyone could use a bowl of warm and comforting soup!  CheBroTato is the perfect pick-me-up, and has been proven to be a salve for a bruised soul.  It is pretty easy to make, and has lots of cheese and vegetables to keep you satisfied.  My followers are great, if any of you lived close by I would love to share a bowl of this comfort stew with any of you.  Those of you who have celebrated your holiday and those about to embark on a celebration, I wish you well.  I hope that everyone is safe and happy.  Merry,Joyous, Happy Annual Gift Day! -Enjoy! 

Old Lady Lemon-Buttermilk Cake with “The Best” Lemon Buttercream Frosting/Icing.

SO, in MY book frosting is fluffy and icing is thin.  However many people use the two terms interchangeably.  I recently found a wonderful recipe of a delicious cake and “icing” in an old treasured cookbook that my Mother-in-Law gave me.  The cookbook was her mother’s and the recipe was tucked inside the vintage cookbook on a small, yellowed piece of paper with type-written text.  I love this cookbook for both it’s own content and the well annotated pages and added well tested recipes carefully preserved inside.   Who knows how old this recipe is, or who it came from.  All I know is that it produces a fantastic cake and frosting, which the recipe refers to as “icing”.  I have dubbed this “Old lady Lemon-Buttermilk Cake” because that is exactly what it is.  I imagine you would be able to get this exact cake at a church bake sale or community picnic fifty or sixty years ago.  It is moist and dense and tastes like love made it.  The icing is honestly “The Best” I have ever put in my mouth, even if I don’t agree with the semantics.  I would frost meatloaves with this stuff if I thought I could get away with it, but I can’t.  My husband would think I needed to get out more or perhaps some medication would be in order-the baby would eat it though, happily, he LOVES sugar and meat!  I hope you get a chance to make this and share it with some folks this holiday season.  You are going to get lots of compliments.  

Great News for Biscuit Lovers!

I have received permission to use Dee Schoenmakers’ fantastic biscuit recipe.  Mrs. Schoenmakers is the author of three self-published cookbooks: Deedolicious! Granny’s Favorite Cookie Recipes, Granny’s Favorites Cookbook and Granny’s Favorites Canning and Preserving Cookbook.  All three are stuffed with a ton of precious, heirloom recipes that are all made from scratch like Grandmother used to make.  I love finding cookbooks like this, you can tell they were created truly from the heart.

These biscuits are everything a biscuit should be: tender, buttery, flaky, and light.  I have been in search of a biscuit recipe that doesn’t require shortening and wouldn’t turn out like a hockey puck. This one fits the bill nicely.   I think it helps to use a pastry cutter and to handle the dough with your hands little as possible as not to melt the butter before it has time to do it’s magic in the oven.  Also, Mrs. Schoenmakers uses milk in this recipe, I used buttermilk and it turned out just as delicious.  

These biscuits actually are part of a recipe for biscuits and hamburger gravy but, we are impatient and wanted those biscuits piping hot out of the oven.  My family loves them and we don’t really miss the gravy when we can enjoy them with loads of sweet cream butter and sourwood honey.

 If this recipe got your mouth watering you can check out Mrs. Schoenmakers’ other recipes on her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/grannys.favoritescookbooks or if you decide that you want to buy one of her cookbooks http://grannysfavorites.wordpress.com/about/.  

Oh, and have a happy Thanksgiving.  

Chick-Chick- BOOM! Sweet and Spicy Chicken Thighs

I like versatility in the kitchen, I like flavor, and I like exciting dishes that taste like they were hard to make (but really just super simple to prepare).   This recipe is all of those, and I whipped it up off-the-cuff with fantastic results.  I do believe that this will be one of our staples because of how delicious and economical it is.  Some people don’t live in southeastern Louisiana, so I have adjusted the ingredients to be as gentle or as fiery as desired. 

The best part about this recipe it that it makes A LOT.  So you can portion the thighs out for lunches during the week or pull the meat off the bone and mix with some chopped celery, white onion, slivered almonds, and some mayo for AMAZING chicken salad.  

I do hope someone tries this and lets me know what they though.  If you like this recipe, or any of my others, please feel free to share them with your friends or even follow us. 

Some other fun things you could do with this marinade:

 Chicken wings- Marinate them just like the thighs.  Put them in the oven at 375 F for 30 minutes, Flip and bake another 30 minutes.

Pork - Pour a cup or two over a pork roast or some ribs in the Crockpot and slow cook on low for 8 hours for Korean-style barbeque. 

Meatballs- Dump some cooked meatballs in a saucepan and simmer in the marinade for 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat and serve as an appetizer with toothpicks and the marinade to dip it in.  

Chilikristis

I get up very early in the morning and have to take care of my family getting ready for the day  by cooking them a good breakfast, making a fresh lunch for my husband to take to work,  dressing the little one, chasing the pieces of breakfast he flings around (so the cats don’t eat them and then hork them up later) and cleaning up before I can feed myself.  I usually have time for a yogurt or something light first thing, but I get hungry by 10 am for something more substantial.  So sometimes, if the planets align right and the baby bee takes his nap on time, I can enjoy a mid-week brunch to myself.  I have been in a festive mood lately and I wanted to make something that I could some Mexican crema on so I created a hybrid of chilaquiles and egg in the basket that I call “chilakristis” after myself.  First of all let me say, Mexican Crema is sublime, if you are able to pick some up it really makes this stupidly easy and slightly exotic dish absolutely perfect.  In the absence of crema you may use crème fraîche , or sour cream, if you really must. 

I usually scale this recipe down a bit for one serving.  Of course you COULD make this on a weekend and share it with your family, but it’s best to test it out on yourself first during the week with a guanabana nectar.  Enjoy and olè! 

Giant Yogurt Cake Cupcake Recipe

I have a baby, the baby really used to love Yobaby vanilla yogurt.  Ate it like it was going out of style, like it was the best thing in the world.  My baby thought that Yobaby yogurt was a yogurt to end all yogurts, the MOTHER OF ALL YOGURTS.  Then one day, he hated it.  I bought another pack thinking it may have been old or something, but now he thinks yogurt sucks.  He has moved on and has decided that he can live exclusively on graham crackers and Honestade grape juice pouches.  Well, he can’t but that is another issue that involves me trying to trick a 13 month old into eating some vegetable beef soup.  I am not giving up on the yogurt though.  I plan on putting some in a piping back and piping coins of it on a cookie sheet and then freezing it and putting the frozen yogurt chips in a bag so he can pick up his yogurt himself and put it in his own little mouth.  I saw this on pinterest if anyone is interested: http://pinterest.com/pin/138767232238326411/  . 

Since my piping bag is missing and I am out of ziplock bags !?!  I used some of his, absolutely delicious, baby yogurt to make you fine people a well deserved cake.  Win/win for everybody.  I used coconut oil, but certainly you could sub olive oil if you wish.  I had some leftover cream cheese frosting  that I added a couple of tablespoons of special dark unsweetened cocoa to that I frosted the top with.  I hope you like it,  the baby likes it but I don’t think he should eat the whole thing by himself, make one for yourself and let me know what you think.   If you don’t frost it you could probably even get away with eating it for breakfast. 

Crabmeat Ravigote Spring Rolls

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!  It is elegant and exotic and tastes like someone really fancy made it.  This is fun to make with someone or a group of people for a party.  Everyone can make their own and put whatever they want in them.  I especially like the fact that I get to use my Pickled Red Onions and Carrots, my Chili Garlic Remoulade, and LOTS of crabmeat.  You can find the other recipes here http://toooldforramen.tumblr.com/post/33726701260/i-whipped-up-some-delicious-chili-garlic-remoulade and here http://toooldforramen.tumblr.com/post/33639010572/pickled-red-onion-and-carrot-relish-recipe-this.  I feel like dancing around in circles like a little kid now this is so yummy.  Have fun and splurge, make some of these this weekend!

I whipped up some delicious chili garlic remoulade for an absolutely stunning special dish that I am making this week.  I love my version of this classic Louisiana Creole condiment and find all sorts of creative uses for it such as mixed in to deviled eggs, as a shrimp dunk, or even a dollop or two on a raw oyster.  I like to make my mouth happy, this is a good start.