Mamere told me a little about her recipe. Apparently she got it it when she worked at the General Motors factory (must have been late 40’s) from a girl whose father worked in the kitchen at the Waldorf. Amazingly, the internet lists the Waldorf Astoria as the possible origin of the recipe. I am from Ohio and have eaten this cake almost every birthday of my life, so I certainly wouldn’t say this is a southern recipe, but somehow it has that reputation. See the end of this post for the recipe.

On to the birthday loot… I had to show you a few pictures of some gifts I got. Ingrid showed up with a perfectly wrapped gift… She sewed a little bag to serve as the giftwrap!

inside…. Last Minute Fabric Gifts Awesome!

Some other goodies include the cutest doormat in the world (from target!) and The Meat Club cookbook

I am off to finish my whiplash entry… Click ‘more’ if you don’t see Mamere’s Red Velvet Recipe below

Warning: This cake is a lot of work and takes a long time. After making it you will realize why cake mixes were invented. And it doesn’t stop at the cake. The frosting is something that I think many people of my (young) age have never even bothered to try – You have to cook it. There is flour involved… a lot of things could go wrong. BUT it is a delicious cake and even if it doesn’t turn out perfectly, you will enjoy it.

Mamere’s Red Velvet Cake

Traditionally, this cake is made in two small pans, and layered. Lazily, i made it in a 9 x 13 pan and had an extra thick layer of frosting on the top. Don’t even try this recipe without an electric mixer.
Cake:
1/2 cup butter (Mamere uses sweet cream butter and it doesn’t seem too salty to me)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups cake flour (sifted)
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 oz red food coloring
2 Tablespoons cocoa
2 eggs
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix the cocoa and food coloring together into a paste.
Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the food coloring/cocoa paste and mix well. Add salt and vanilla. Alternate sifted flour and buttermilk, mixing well. TURN of off the mixer and get out a spatula and get ready to be quick. In a small bowl mix together the vinegar and baking soda. while it is still fizzing, pour it into the batter. Then gently FOLD it into the batter. Don’t mix it with the mixer or you’ll beat all of the bubbles out.

pour the mixture into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.

Frosting:
5 teaspoons flour
1 cup milk

1 cup butter (this should be room temperature)
1 c sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

On the stove top on very low heat cook together the flour and milk until thick. If anything turns brown, throw it out an start over. The goal here is to make an Elmer’s glue-like substance. Once thickened LET IT COOL COMPLETELY (this takes a while). Meanwhile, Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixer. Add vanilla. When cool add the flour/milk mixture and whip until fluff. Ice the cake when cool.

That’s it. If you make one, let me know how it turns out.

Many easters ago at a BBQ in that wacky town of El Cerrito, a bunch if drunks had an idea. Generally, a juicifixion is any juice-based alcholic drink consumed in the daylight on an Easter sunday when no religious ceremonies were attended. i made a version just for 2007.

1 1/2 ounces grapefruit juice
1 ounce Gin
Shake together with ice.
Pour into a glass rimmed with Baker’s sugar. Float about 4 drops of bitters on top. Garnish with a bare plastic sword.

Drink up the symbolism.

I was partially inspired to write this up since I just bought an entire book about drinks: The Art of the Bar (Review coming soon!). The other part of the inspiration is JenLa, cause they seem like they would like this kind of thing.

Notice there is a bit of knitting going on in the edge of the photo!

I brought a hashbrown casserole to the brunch and we gobbled it up. I will share the recipe with you – it is delicious. but, hey, friends, this doesn’t mean you can bring it to brunches that I am attending. This is still my go-to brunch plan

Delicious Hash Brown Casserole

1 bag (1 lb) frozen hash browns
1 onion, diced (can be omitted with equally delicious results)
1 can cream of *something* soup (I like potato best, but chicken or mushroom are also tasty)
8 oz sour cream
8 oz cheddar cheese

The ingredients can be mixed the night before and stored in the fridge, and then baked in the morning.

Let the hash browns thaw, or defrost them in the microwave. To be honest, I have done this with them mostly frozen and it just takes even longer to cook, but turns out fine. Mix all of the ingredients together (reserve abiut 1/4 cup of cheese) and spread in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Roast in the oven at 375 for 45 to 60 minutes. If this isn’t long enough, crank it up to 425 and keep a close eye on it. This will make a delicious cheesy crispy crust.

This recipe also takes to customization very well. I have added bacon and also tomatoes and both were delicious.

The basic idea is to find some fresh-ish chestnuts, and roast them up in the oven on a cookie sheet. You need to cut a hole is the shell somehow to release steam and prevent the nut from blowing up. Here’s how to do it:

Picking out chestnuts
Chestnuts are a little on the expensive side, so take the time to pick through and make sure you get ones that aren’t rotten. If they smell really musty or have visible moldy spots you might want to avoid them all together. Sometimes i just buy a few and do a test bake to see if they are any good. Often they are totally moldy and disappointing, but I am glad that I didn’t buy ten bucks worth.

Preparing the nuts for roasting
The experienced heat up their ovens or toaster ovens to 425 before starting the cutting…

Chestnuts have a flat side, and a round side. The flat side will go down on the cookie sheet, and the upper side will have the steam-releasing cut on it. Get a sharp knife and get ready to do some cutting.

Cut off the pointy tip. fresh chestnuts will look white on the inside. The not-so-fresh will look brown or a fungus-y greenish color. Throw these out.

Then slice a line into the round side of the nut, making sure to go all the way through the shell to the meat. My knife was a little dull and i wanted to keep the cutting to a minimum, but i would have cut more if I had a sharp knife. It is good to also make a perpendicular cut so that you have a little cross cut. Repeat this for every chestnut you want to roast.

Roasting Chestnuts
Toaster ovens are PERFECT for roasting chestnuts. They cook much more quickly, and you aren’t heating up an entire gigantic oven for a little tray. If you took my earlier hint, yours will already be heated up to 425. Put the chestnuts flat-side down, cut-side up on a cookie sheet in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Peeling Chestnuts

When the chestnuts are roasted, the shell curls back and you need to peel them before they cool all the way. They have a fuzzy skin layer in between the shell and the meat. If you don’t peel them while pretty warm, the skin will stick to meat in a highly undesireable manner. So peel them as soon as they are cool enough for you to handle.

when they are all peeled they look like delicious little brains

Now you can enjoy some sweet, delicious roasted chestnuts!

I dug out my supplies

• Canning jars, rings and new lids
• Ikea stock pot with steamer/colander insert
• Two saucepans
• Jar Lifter and funnel

The stock pot is for boiling water to sterilize the jars, and is the key development for canning in a tiny kitchen. I have a standard canning pot, and it covers two burners on my little efficiency stove, and would prevent me from beign able to simmer jars, jar lids, and my jam at the same time. The stock pot is much a much smaller substitute. Since glass jars don’t do well in boiling water when sitting on the bottom of a pot, I used the insert to keep them off the bottom. Since this pot is much shallower (and smaller) than a standard canning pot, make sure that it will be deep enough to cover your jars wth water. I could only fit in shorter jelly jars.

Fill up the stock pot with water, and wait for it to boil (this takes a while). When it does, add the jars. Meanwhile, cook the fruity contents. I sliced up the kumquats (2 cups?) and added enough water to cover the fruit by about an inch in my saucepan.

I let this cook for about half an hour. Then I added a lot of sugar(2 cups?) and some lemon juice. If I wanted to not have to fret over whether my concotion would gel up like jam i could have added pectin at this point, but I decided to risk it. Plus, I think adding pectin is a little bit of a cheat. Then I let this cook for a while, until the fruit was syrupy. I put a splash of it in a cold bowl (that I stuck in the freezer when I started) and it quickly cooled and thickened. If it was still runny and syrupy, I would have cooked the fruit mixture longer. I also could have checked the temperature had I not left both (yes I own two) of my candy thermometers in a pot of oil at the thanksgiving turkey deep-fry that I attended.

To sterilize the jar lids, put them in a saucepan and heat them up, but keep it below a boil… Make sure you use NEW lids. They cannot be reused!

click through to flickr to see notes

Here is where a set of canning tools pays for itself. Use the jar lifter to fish the hot jars out of the pot, and dump out the water inside.

Stick in the funnel, and pour in the kumquats

Wipe off the rim of the jar, and add the lid and loosely screw on the ring. I had enough fruit for a little over two jars. I put the two jars back in the hot water to process. This sterilizes everything and also seals the jars. I put the leftover in another jar with a screw to plid and stuck it in the fridge for immediate consumption.

2.5 jars of jam. It is an all time low for me, but I couldn’t be happier about it.

*If you haven’t canned anything before, you will need more than this for reference. Sterilization and proper processing is very important. I recommend the Ball Canning Booklet – usually for sale near canning jars and lids.