Monday, March 28, 2011

Competition for McCalisters

picture courtesy of google images

Have you ever been to McAlister's Deli? It's a chain restaurant that has many different types of sandwiches but is known best for it's baked potatoes and tea. They have HUGE baked potatoes with many different toppings. Mark and I decided a few months ago that we'd have baked potatoes at home and make them like we'd order them from McAlisters.

To bake the potatoes I simply wash them, poke a few holes with a fork, rub a bit of oil and salt on them and individually wrap them in aluminum foil. Then they go in the oven for about an hour on 350.

We usually grill some chicken and cut it up into bite sized pieces. Then, each add our own choice of toppings which obviously are endless. I like a bit of butter, tomatoes, cheese, salt, pepper and sour cream. Mark likes butter, cheese and chicken.

Here's a picture of my potato from the other night. They are easy, hearty, and healthy (depending on your toppings). Yum yum!



So, what toppings do you like on your baked potato?

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Danish Delicacies

Fresh bread, cheeses galore, amazing fish and meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, oh, and the desserts . . . the list goes on. I don't think I ever posted a blog about the wonderful food we had on our Scandinavia adventure this past summer. Now that just returned from Denmark I must tell you about the wonderful food I had there! If only I'd taken pictures of every bit of food I ate while I was there. . . I would have been taking pictures the whole time but I wish I had them to share!

Instead of having the pictures you have to use your imagination. It's still cold outside, there's ice on the the beach just across the road, but when you walk into breakfast at the hotel there are fresh tulips on every table, the room is filled with very modern Scandinavian decor, and there is more food than the eyes can take in.

Coffee and tea of course, 4 types of juice and a freshly made blackberry smoothie, sliced meats, hot meats, fresh bread to slice yourself (still slightly warm to the touch), eggs of all kinds, freshly sliced fruits and vegetables. Yogurts with granola, dried fruit, cereal flakes, honey and brown sugar as toppings. Oh yum!

After getting your first plate or two you sit down and enjoy this amazing feast overlooking the water with views of Sweden on the opposite shore. And this is just breakfast?

Every day I was there started this way, followed by wonderful "snacks" throughout our conference including the BEST macaroons I've ever had, crossiants, berry coffee cake . . . is your mouth watering yet?

Lunch was usually another buffet style spread with many choices, salads, fresh salmon (caught that morning), more breads, fruits and cheeses of course, the options seemed endless.

Dinner was a sit down meal and never included the ridiculously large portions we're so used to being served in the US, but we were NEVER hungry. It was always a perfectly plated, well balanced meal beginning with a small salad and then a meat and vegetable course. There were always options for vegetarians, or those of us who were pregnant and couldn't eat the fish.

The picture below is how my food experience started in Denmark. In a very delirious state after traveling for over 24 hours I went to the hotel cafe as I waited for my room to be available and was served this with a side of fresh bread slices of course.



Freshly made Tomato Gazpacho from the hotel cafe. Delicious! I would love to try to recreate it this summer, it would be a great meal on a hot summer evening.

Birthday Cake



I'm quite behind in the food blog arena, but that doesn't mean we haven't been cooking and eating :-). I'll try to add a couple of updates from the last month or two and to start off here is the cake we made this year for Mom's birthday. The last two years we have been at Henry's race in Alabama around her birthday and we've taken a cake to celebrate.

This year we decided to try a new recipe from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook I got for Christmas. We made Caramel Pecan Layer Cake. It was very simple to make, and the final product turned out better than I expected after I was quite overwhelmed with the sweetness of the icing which I made first. The caked ended up being lighter than I expected and a nice deviation from our "go to" German Chocolate and Carrot Cakes.

Here is the recipe.

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup softened, unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing Ingredients:
2 sticks softened, unsalted butter
5 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Garnish:
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Make icing first, the day before the cake to give the brown sugar time to sit and improve the texture.

Icing Directions:
Cream butter until smooth in large bowl on medium speed. Add milk, syrup, and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy (3-5 minutes). Store at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Cake Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and lightly flour three 9 x 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.
- Toast pecans on a baking sheet for 15 minutes (or until lightly browned). Set aside
- Combine flours in small bowl and set aside.
- Cream butter in large bowl on medium speed. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy (~ 3 minutes)
- Add eggs (one at a time), beating well after each addition.
- Add dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Beat until all ingredients are incorporated with each addition being careful to not over beat.
- Divide the batter into prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes (until cake tester comes out clean).
- Let layers cool in pans for 1 hour.
- Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
- When layers are cool ice cake, filling between layers with caramel frosting and springiling with 1/3 of pecans on each later.
-Ice top and sides and sprinkle with remaining pecans. ( I chose not to ice the sides to reduce the sweetness a bit).