A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Jenn's Birthday Sushi and (Hooray) the REAL Japanese steakhouse "Orange" Seafood Sauce Recipe

 

Saturday night, we were invited over to our good friends', Corbin and Jenn's, house to help celebrate Jenn's (cough)nd birthday where we were told there would be a few people and some finger foods--a total underestimation of the food and fun! We met Janis, a fellow foodie who took on the task of a 3-course sushi meal for nine people and her daughter, Jordan, who along with Jenn's daughter, Chelsea, made dessert for us all of chocolate chip cookies and fudgy brownies.  Good work, ladies! Also invited were another lively couple, Al, and his wife Melissa (can't believe I didn't get a decent picture of them all night)  whom I think (from my investigation on Facebook) might know a bunch of people I know which is even more fun. Melissa also had the dubious job of keeping me ante'd into the poker hands last night since she was sitting next to me instead of Gene.  I think she didn't realize she was going to have to take on his job all night of taking care of me but I thank her!

Happy Birthday, Jenn!  Thanks for the great party!

Janis was rolling California rolls when we walked in the door so I did roll up my sleeves to roll a few for her but she was much faster than me and did the bulk of the work.  The salmon roe on top was an impressive touch that I forgot the first time I tried my hand at this at home:  http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/woohoo_no_longe.html 

I've tried a couple of recipes for the seafood sauce (left upper corner of next pic) that's called orange sauce,  white sauce, or yum-yum sauce, but I'd never found one that really tasted like what you get at the hibachi grills until I had what Janis prepared last night, a recipe she said she got from a chef friend.  Chef friends and friends with chef friends are the best! (Recipe at the end). Woohoo!  The secret is a mix of butter, oil, and mayo to get the right texture and consistency.  Aha, now we know the secret!

This is Janis in the process of a roll with Chelsea being....a teenager.  Funny, when "my" kids (nieces and nephews) do the whole finger thing in the pics they get "the look", but hey, she's not MY kid so I thought it was funny.

Janis and her daugher, Jordan. The girls were really cute last night: funny, silly, vibrant--and helpful--so glad they could be there with us.

 

Part of the fashion show after dinner--more entertainment just for you Jenn!

Okay, since I showed goofy pics of the girls, here's one showing their more elegant, angelic sides while Janis works and the rest of us...well....look at the foreground and you'll see our job.

Pre-course, 1st course, and 2nd course...

Corbin exhibiting proper soup ettiquette.  No, seriously, it's absolutely okay to drink your soup and to eat sushi with your fingers. Got this great article about sushi do's and don'ts from reader Jerry the other day:

http://snippets.com/what-is-the-right-way-to-eat-sushi.htm

Woohoo, my pot from the 7 card stud hand where I had 2 Kings in the pocket to go with my 2 Kings showing!

Gene and Corbin counting their money at the table. For two former country music DJ's, you'd think they'd listen to Kenny's  song better.

And finally--Our heroes!  Chelsea and Jordan clean up the kitchen for us--thank you!

 

Japanese steakhouse Seafood Dipping Sauce "Yum-yum sauce"

Recipe given to me by Janice Keeton who credits local Chef John Blansit for its creation

1 tbsp butter, softened at room temp

1 tbsp canola oil

2 tbsp real mayonnaise

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/4- 1 tsp Rooster (hot red chili sauce) sauce (to taste)

1 tsp rice vinegar

Directions: Stir oil into softened butter a bit at a time until smooth. Mix in mayo a bit at a time until smooth.  Mix in rest of ingredients. Refrigerate until needed.  Set out a bit before use to allow butter to resoften.  Re-whisk before using. 

Cook's notes:  To make larger amounts, note that the ratio of butter to oil is 1:1, the ratio of the butter/oil combo to mayo is 1:1, and then rest of the ingredients can be increased logically and to taste.  For example, to make enough sauce for a party, you could use 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/2 cup mayo and then increase the rest of the ingredients x 4.

Fruit Cake IS Good...if you do it right

All my life I've thought fruit cake, even my cake baker Mother's, was the nastiest food on the planet.  It's dry, it's got GREEN pineapple in it, poisonous maraschino cherries (okay, just because they're approved by the FDA doesn't convince me that soaking cherries in formaldehyde, and then recoloring them with red dye and chemical flavors, makes for something good for the body), it's dry, it's tasteless, it's dry... well, you get the idea. You've all been tricked into taking a bite of the stuff at least once in your life. And I bet your swore off it too.

When I started blogging I noticed that all the English bloggers got all excited and into Christmas Cake each October/November and spent the next couple of months "feeding", nurturing, and dreaming out loud of their Christmas cakes.  I wondered what this wondrous stuff was.  I mean, come on, I grew up in a cake decorator's household and grew up to be a baker for a while too.  Was there possibly some divine cake I'd never heard of or made myself?  I looked more closely at those cakes on those blogs and was shocked, shocked I tell you!, to see that Christmas Cake was that other awful "F" word--Fruit Cake!!!

At first I thought it must be the seventh sign of the Apocalypse that a whole country would enjoy making AND EATING such a repulsive cake but then I started looking at the recipes and methods more closely and saw my favorite "B" word, as in "booze".  It was my Oprah "AHA" moment heard 'round my house!  The answer to good fruit cake was laid out in front of my eyes.  Our Puritan forefathers had obviously screwed the pooch on this one when they denied me alcohol in my fruit cake.

Okay, seriously, I think part of my problem with fruit cake is that I always expected fruit cake to be  "cake" and to Americans, cake is light and fluffy. I think it should be called "Fruit Bread"  because, honestly, it's much more of a fruited bread in texture and density than it is a cake, although the cake designation may come from the idea that a lot of non-Americans bake theirs in round cake tins, where we're used to the long square log of nasty.  So once I wrapped my head around the idea that it's really a bread, then I took the recipes that I'd been playing with this summer and combined them with my own baking knowledge to come up with my personal fruit cake/bread recipe that not only tastes great but doesn't require a cup of coffee or tea to wash down the sawdust aftertaste. It comes out a dense, moist bread with a sugary, fruity taste and a pop of smokiness from the whiskey.   It's good straight out of the oven but really something special after being fed for a month or two.  Give this one a try and you might change your mind about fruit cake like I did.

Happy Halloween '09!

Scaring up a bunch of spooky treats, half for our family Halloween party and half to take to work to share with my favorite vampires and ghouls:  Witch's Fingers Pretzel Rods,  Orange Popcorn Balls, and "RIP"  Cookies.

Click below for Popcorn Ball recipe.

And don't forget our Blockbuster Halloween Monster Makin' Contest! Deadline is Sunday night, November 1st so you still have time to help the kids make any kind of monster they want out of movie candy.  Send a picture to me at Marie9949 (at) sbcglobal.net for the chance to win a $25.00 Blockbuster movie gift card.

Halloween! Holli's "Twilight" Birthday Cake

Cake decorating is one of my favorite food arts but because it's so tough on one's hands, I only do it for family these days, specifically for our nieces and nephews. The rule is that for their birthday I'll make anything they want.  One year, Sydney wanted a butterfly. Check.  Boy Jordan wanted an Eric Carr (the fox) from KISS cake. Check.  Girl Jordan wanted a car cake. Check, although it was made from rice krispie treats rather than cake which added to it's value in her eyes.  Holli's birthday falls the week before Halloween so her request was doubly appropriate for both the holiday and the latest vampire craze.  She asked for a Twilight-themed cake.  On the inside is a cherry chip (family favorite) cake torted into five layers with homemade buttercream between each. The covering is black marshmallow fondant (I think it looks like leather).  Everything on the cake is made from sugar with the exceptions of the apple and the ribbon.

Not having read the books, I didn't know what the icons all stand for but Wednesday night at work Carissa and I did a quick google and found that the apple represents man's (and vampires') free agency: the choice between good and evil, innocence and corruption.  The red and white flower is for purity stained by blood.  The chess pieces we found nothing on but it seems pretty obvious that the king represents the vampire and the pawn represents humans in their eyes.

Fun cake. I had a great time putting it together.  Happy Birthday, Holli!

For the recipes and tips on cakes, see my prior cake posts:

Marhsmallow fondant recipe:

http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/day_1_the_cake_.html

Sculpting a truck cake for Isaac and tips on stacking cakes:

http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/day_1_the_cake__1.html

The finished truck cake and Jordan's retro black and white cake:

http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/day_0the_cakes_.html

 

Happy Halloween from Diedre

My friend, Diedre, sent me this pic this morning of the pumpkin cake she made for work today.  Isn't he cute?  Tthe basic idea is two bundt cakes, the bottom one flipped upside down and the other one placed on top of it.  Not sure what she used for the stem but you can either use cake or even a cone of paper, frosted, would suffice for the eyes.  Frosted with a knife to create the pumpkin ridges, the rest of the face is piped on with tubed icing colors you can find at the hobby store.

Thanks Diedre--I bet you're a very popular woman at work today!
 

Halloween: Witch's Fingers Pretzel Rods

Gnarly hag's fingers--the perfect treat for Halloween!

Easy to do, all you need are a couple of items from the cake decorating aisle and time.  The mold and colored almond barks are all made by Wilton, a company that specializes in cake decorating supplies.  You also need pretzel rods, two bags to make the three dozen fingers shown here from 2 bags of green chocolate wafers and one bag of midnight black wafers.  The last ingredient is an evening since you have to melt the chocolate in small amounts, pipe in the fingernail using a snipped end food storage bag, chill, pipe in the finger color and set the pretzel rod in, then chill.  Release from the mold and start all over again.

 

Quick Frozen Corn Idea

Now that corn is back up to $ .75 an ear... we've been going back to frozen corn. Canned corn? Only in desperation.  Through the winter, frozen vegetables are a great substitute for fresh but in the fall, the in between time, when the taste of fresh corn still lingers on my tongue, even frozen doesn't cut it.

Until I came up with this idea on the fly the other night.  Gene loved it. It's probably going to be our new standard, although with the cream it's not going to be a nightly kind of thing no matter how much heart attack boy begs.