Barefoot Bloggers: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

First off, I would just like to point out how wrong it is to have the AC running full bore and the oven on when it's 95 degrees out. For some reason that was the day I chose to do it. Of course it's been 90+ every day for the last week and will be as far as the 10 day forecast showed. There is a cold front coming through where it might get down to 92 in a few days. The joys of summer in the South.

Anyway. This recipe was chosen by Gwenn. I have been meaning to make her peanut butter pie but haven't quite gotten around to it yet. Maybe next week.

I made mine in a bundt pan so I put the crumbs on the bottom. My coffee cake, that is. Because who would make a peanut butter pie in a bundt pan? Oh wait, I probably would if I couldn't find a pie pan or something. Of course, I think I have 3 pie pans so the chances of me not being able to find one should be pretty slim. But then again, this is my house where an empty pan or bowl is the perfect place when you need somewhere to put something. Anything.

I added wonderberries from the garden into the middle layer with the crumbs. A wonderberry, aka sunberry, is extremely prolific. When ripe, it has a dull black/blue color. Uncooked, the flavor is fairly mild. However, when cooked with sugar, it tastes a lot like a blueberry. Or so I'm trying to convince myself. I picked about a quart of them in the last couple days and there will be lots more. Didn't think about what I was gonna do with them when I decided to plant them.

I didn't double the crumbs like a lot of people recommended. I figured 2 sticks of butter was enough. I suspect the texture of the crumbs would have been better if they had been on top in the oven but it would have been weird to have them on the bottom of the finished cake.

I just realized apparently I didn't make the glaze. Oh well. Pretty good even without the glaze.

The cake is very soft and fluffy. You know how some coffee cakes are more bready, a la B&W Bakery in Hackensack, NJ? Well this one is not. It's very springy and delicate.

I thought I did take pics although if I did, they are probably on my camera. My camera is downstairs. I am upstairs. So you see me dilemma.

This is one of my most incoherent blog posts. I blame the heat. Which means they aren't going to get any better for a while. Sorry, suckers. Your fault for reading :) I guess I should post this sometime before the end of the month.

Barefoot Bloggers: Scalloped Tomatoes

The garden is doing quite well. I just started getting tomatoes. I have a feeling this is going to get insane in a few weeks. So this recipe is perfect to use up a bunch of these.

I didn't have (well, technically, I didn't see it until after I had already made this) any bread so I decided to use tater tots instead. Random, I know. I had some sort of craving at some point for tater tots so I bought a bag. They then proceeded to sit in the freezer until now.

The tater tots kinda fell apart once I put the tomatoes in. It was not the prettiest dish. It came out OK although I can't say I really loved it.

Flavorwise, it was very tomatoey. Yes I consider that a word.

Here's the recipe. I didn't take a pic because it was pretty unattractive. Dog food probably looks better. Oh well. The coffee cake is prettier. Maybe I'll post that pic.

Barefoot Bloggers: Grilled Herb Shrimp

Another loosely followed recipe. Chosen by Penny.

A fairly simple recipe. Marinate the shrimp in some herbs, garlic and lemon juice. Cook it up.

I didn't actually used the specified herbs. I used random unidentified herbs from my garden. The only herbs that are doing really well in the garden so far is this random herb mix that I got. I don't actually know what most of the herbs are in it but most of them seem to look like lettuces and some parsley. I recognized that one.

I had mine over an herb salad. This actually would have been good with that risotto from earlier in the month. If I had thought ahead I would have had them together. Oh well.

I cooked them in a skillet rather than a grill pan. I hate cleaning a grill pan. It takes forever to get down into all the little grooves of a grill pan and I never seem to get it clean so I almost always opt for a skillet or griddle over the grill pan. Someone please tell me I'm not the only one. Maybe I need to cook a bunch of bacon on it to get a nice season on it. Maybe I'll just stick with the skillet.


PS I uploaded my pic of the spring risotto. Are you proud of me?

Barefoot Bloggers: Spring Green Risotto

YES! I am totally making all the recipes this month for all the cooking groups. The first one for the month is this one. This on is Spring Green Risotto chosen by Kim.

By making the recipe, I mean vaguely following it. I had the arborio rice, asparagus and peas. I halved the recipe, added edamame, replaced the mascarpone with cream cheese, upped the lemon juice, replaced the wine with chicken stock. Not to mention I don't measure anything. But it came out pretty good. I would like to believe it was pretty healthy too.

I said I would make them. I didn't say I would have anything interesting to say or download and post pics.

Edit: Here's the pic.

Barefoot Bloggers: Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Well my pictures still suck but at least I am baking again. I made a half batch of these.

The second recipe chosen for this month was Jam Thumbprint cookies. It was chosen by Cassie.

Note to self. When the recipe says jam, you should use jam. I decided to try some lime curd on some of them. Didn't work out so well. The lime curd melted and ran out over the cookie. Then it burned to the pan. So those ones died.

But overall these came out pretty good.

Barefoot Bloggers: Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

You know what oatmeal cookies are good for? Just about everything. It's the perfect way to throw in just about everything you've got. Yup. That includes anything and everything in the pantry, including dried blueberries, cranberries, chocolate chips, cashews, in addition to the oats, raisins and pecans.

This recipe was chosen by Leslie. It's a good basic recipe. People at work were very happy with them. Possibly because I haven't brought anything in in a while. Possibly because it's a relatively safe, not scary cookie. Whatever.

I took pics but haven't gotten around to uploading them. Somehow I also didn't get around to posting this either. Oh well.

Barefoot Bloggers: Caesar Club Sandwich Wrap

The second recipe for this month was the Caesar Club Sandwich, chosen by Karen. If you want to see how the recipes are supposed to come out, you should go there. She's much better at this than me.

Apparently I wasn't in the mood to follow recipes this month so I adapted it pretty liberally. First off, I had a bottle of caesar salad dressing in the fridge collecting dust. There isn't really any dust in my fridge because it's a sealed vessel but you get the idea. I didn't want to make dressing when I had a bottle already in the fridge. I know, that's the whole point of the recipe but whatever.

I don't really have much bread around the house. Whenever I buy/make a loaf I end up throwing out most of it or putting it in the freezer, where it rarely gets pulled out and not being tossed in the trash. So I decided to make it a wrap.

I had some spring greens so that's what I used rather than arugula.

Let's see, what else. I am sure there were other things. Ah yes. bacon instead of pancetta because i had bacon in the freezer and I'm lazy. And I left out the sun dried tomatoes because... well since I was failing pretty badly I stopped checking the recipe and didn't notice them there.

I know, I know, I failed pretty bad at following this recipe but at least my wraps were pretty good.

Barefoot Bloggers:Individual Meatloaves

This month's first recipe was chosen by Tonya. First off, let me just say, if you are looking for some inspiration, you should go to her site. Her pictures are hot. Look at the gooey butter tart squares. Or pizza. Or the swedish meatballs. mmmmmm

OK gotta focus. Individual Meatloaves. Tonya chose Individual Meatloaves.

I made it with ground turkey. I had some in the freezer. At some point they had some good sales on meat at the grocery store so I picked up a bunch. Or I was craving protein. Whichever.

Anyway, so I made this meatloaf with my liberal adaptations. I upped the onions because I figured the turkey could end up dry. I upped them more than I realized. I halved the recipe because I don't need that much meat loaf. I made the half recipe into 4 loaves just because. And I replaced the bread crumbs with rice crispies because I had rice crispies in the pantry that I never eat. Which makes you wonder why I have it. Along with all the other cereals that I also don't eat. No, that was not a lead in to an entertaining story.

I suspect it is because of all the onion adding a ton of moisture but my meatloaves did not have that nice crusty edge. For me, that is the best part, the crusty part with just a bit of the ketchup. So it made me sad not to have the crust. When I reheated one in a pan I got a bit of browning on the bottom, which made it a little better but still not quite the same.

I just realized I didn't take a pic. Oh well. The verdict: It was OK but not great. Maybe because I followed the recipe very loosely. Perhaps it would have come out better if I'd followed better. Oh well. There's lots more recipes out there to try.

Barefoot Bloggers: Baked Shrimp Scampi

It's been a rough week. I won't go into it in much detail because it's all stupid shit but it's been rough. Or maybe I'm just crazy and it just feels rough even though it wasn't really. I don't know. I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyway.

The second recipe for the month was Shrimp Scampi. It was chosen by Jill.

This has been a good BB month for me. Both of these recipes came out really good. Now that I've looked at my picture it doesn't look so great but this was definitely tasty.


It was rich and buttery and satisfying that's a good meal when you've had a rough day. Granted I didn't actually eat it during that time but I am thinking about it now so that's close enough right? And there is still some left in the fridge that hopefully hasn't gone bad that now I'm thinking about heating up.

So I'll hold on to this recipe. We'll see if I actually think to make it again.

Barefoot Bloggers: Coconut Cupcakes

OK so somehow it was already the last weekend before this post was due and I was just getting around to finding out what the recipe was. Never a good start. Oh well.

This recipe was chosen by Jamie. She chose these Coconut Cupcakes. Which is good because after my shrimp bisque disaster I needed something to work out better.

I started off intending to do the recipe as is. 18-20 cupcakes, no big deal right? Then I started looking at the recipe. 1.5 lbs of butter for 18-20 cupcakes. That's ridiculous! I only had 1 lb of unsalted butter and I had already run to the store for everything else so I wasn't going again so I decided to halve the recipe and make it into mini cupcakes.

And this recipe makes a ridiculous amount of frosting. If I had used all of it, they would have been 50% by volume frosting. So I have a pint of cream cheese frosting waiting in the fridge for the next thing it should go on. Maybe some cinnamon buns.




Wanna know a secret? I put some key lime curd inside of them. And it is wonderful.

Barefoot Bloggers: Shrimp Bisque

I guess I better finish this post. This month's second choice was Shrimp Bisque. It was chosen by Jennifer.

OK this recipe did not work out at all for me. I guess I shoulda thought about it some before I made it. Pureed shrimp? Bleh. Oh well. I had a couple spoonfuls. The rest is in the fridge probably to be tossed in a couple days.

Better luck next time!

Barefoot Bloggers: Indonesian Ginger Chicken

The first recipe for this month is Indonesian Ginger Chicken. It was chosen by Todd. It was a good choice. It's something I would not have chosen on my own but is pretty good.

I halved the recipe. I am not going to eat 2 chickens. Even 1 chicken is a lot more meat than I typically eat in a week. Some of it will probably end up in the freezer. And some of it ended up in the trash when I forgot to put it in the fridge for a day and a half.

I didn't know what to serve with this so I served it over a bed of rice. A bed of slightly overcooked rice but that's OK. That's why you should measure the water before adding it to the rice cooker, not just add and say eh, that should be good.

It's fairly sweet for a chicken dish. The dark meat was excellent and juicy. The breasts were a little dry. I strained off the pan drippings, separated the fat and saved the juices. I put some of them with the chicken breasts to help with the dryness. The pan drippings are a good alternative to chicken stock if you want to mix up the flavor a bit (thanks, Lynn Rosetto Kasper) with some saute'd vegetables or something.

Here is the recipe. Look, I even posted it on time!

And now I've even added a pic!

Barefoot Bloggers: Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

OK this is probably gonna seem weird but I actually liked the leftovers better than the stuffed mushrooms themselves. At first I made them and ate a few and they were decent. Decent enough to eat but not amazing enough to write home to mom about. I stuck the rest in the fridge, where they sat for several days.

At that point I didn't feel like reheating them and having them again. So I chopped them up. I added them to some sweated onions and olive oil, some spaghetti with a bit of pasta water and voila, a whole new dish! I am not entirely sure how this happened but it ended up tasting really creamy. I am thinking that's because of the pasta water emulsifying with some of the oil but so not intentional but it came out really good! Which is a good thing because I have about 6 meals worth of it left. At least I can put a few in the freezer and I can have them when I come back.

While I took pics, I am too lazy to find my card reader right now.


Here's the recipe for the mushrooms. Chosen by Michelle. Thanks for the tasty leftovers!

Barefoot Bloggers: Croissant Bread Pudding

I'm late, I know. I have a good excuse. Like I usually do. I got some sort of nasty stomach virus. One that had me getting to know my bathroom waaaay too well. OK that was probably enough information to gross you out and not make you want to read the rest of this post.

Anyway, this is not a dessert for when your stomach is not feeling well. Especially if you are lactose intolerant. Not with all that cream and richness. So this had to wait until that passed. And the week after that... well.... so I'm slow.

I fudged the recipe a bit. I used 8 mini croissants. I used fat free half and half. I cut back the recipe, 4 cups 1/2 and 1/2, 6 yolks, 2 whole eggs, 1c sugar. I baked it in a few individual ramekins and a loaf pan. Oh and I added chocolate chips instead of raisins. So did I really follow the recipe at all? Not very well. Oh well.

I found it very eggy. I think it would have been better if I'd cut it back by an egg. Although I thought I had because I saw comments that said it was eggy. Oh well.

I have put off posting this because I keep meaning to put my pics in but alas I am lazy and I give up so these are getting posted now.


Here's the recipe. Thanks Peggy.

Barefoot Bloggers: Company Pot Roast

This recipe was chosen by Lisa. She has a lot of fairly diverse recipes on her blog. It's a great place to look for ideas when you want to make something new.

It's a fairly simple pot roast. Perfect for a cold rainy day. Well, it was 75 and all sorts of sunny the weekend I decided to make it but no worries. It was still good.

I used a fairly small roast, about 2 lbs, because who wants to be eating the same pot roast for the rest of their lives? Even if it is good, it needs to go away at some point.

Initially when I added the wine, it smelled and tasted really wine-y. I was a bit concerned about this and thought I should have held back on the wine and added just a little. Fortunately, after a couple hours in the oven the wine mellowed out.

I didn't actually do the flour thickening thing because the sauce was pretty thick with the pureed veggies in there. It didn't seem to reheat all that well because the sauce separated but oh well.

Barefoot Bloggers: Creme Brulee

This recipe was fairly simple. I halved it because I really don't need to eat that much heavy cream and this would not transport well. Although I briefly thought about making a tray and using the real torch at work to caramelize it. Then I decided ramekins and broiler were probably a wiser approach. Only trouble with the broiler is, it's fairly easy to burn it.

I halved the recipe, left out the orange liquor and used vanilla paste rather than extract. By halving the recipe, I mean I used 1 egg, 2 yolks, 1.5 cups cream. The half batch made 4 almost full 8 oz ramekins. The little bits of vanilla bean are so good. I could see how the orange could be good in there but I didn't have any in the house.

Next time, I'd put it through a sieve. I got the chalaza in the one I ate. The custard was so smooth and creamy and mildly sweet and then there was that little nugget. Oh well.

This was mine pre sugar and brulee-ing. Haven't gotten an after brulee-ing picture. Yes, that is a word in my book. Do you always get a skin on it and then the brulee covers it? I had this the last time I made creme brulee as well.


This recipe was chosen by Suzie. I have way too many of her posts starred that I haven't made yet.

Barefoot Bloggers BRC: Caramelized Butternut Squash

This came out really good. Something like candy except it's got butternut squash so it's gotta be good for you, right? While the amount of sugar in it is not exactly good for you, it's not THAT much sugar.

Wanna know my secret ingredient? Bacon grease. I put about 2 tbsp bacon grease and 2 tbsp butter rather than the 6 tbsp butter. So I actually cut back the fat a bit.

The toughest part of this recipe is peeling the squash. All I can say is make sure to sharpen your knife before you start. I did it twice while in the process just in case. I also broke a peeler (who does that, how do you even manage to do that?) at which point I decided to peel with the chef's knife. Once you get it peeled, it only takes a couple minutes. Note to self: next time look to see if they sell it peeled.


Here is the recipe.

Barefoot Bloggers: Blue Cheese Souffle

This month's recipe for Blue Cheese Souffle was chosen by Summer.

So here's the dilemma. What was I gonna do with a full 8" souffle? it's not like it would keep well in the fridge once it was baked. And I don't have an 8" souffle dish. So I decided to make single serving size souffles.

Then I got tied up with work stuff. 14 hour days were so much more tolerable when I had a 6 minute commute.

And then I got this nasty cough from my flu shot.

Anyway, I still managed to make it on time. Barely. But it's here.

The blue cheese flavor is pretty strong. I would probably cut it back and add some other cheese for future reference. That or actually use the amount called for in the recipe, not just dump some in and figure that should be good. I made it in my toaster oven because the front is clean and I could watch it without opening the door. Otherwise I'd have no idea how long to bake it for. That worked out pretty well.

Is it sad that I've never had a savory souffle before? I've had plenty of chocolate souffles but never savory. Anyway, here it is. It is a hold on and tweak it recipe.

Barefoot Bloggers: Cheddar Corn Chowder

This recipe Cheddar Corn Chowder was chosen by Jill. When I first saw what this months recipes were, my first thought was ugh. See, I had just made a large pot of soup. By large pot, I mean 12 quarts. And I had just eaten 2 bowls and was starting to get sick of it.

So I decided to quarter the recipe. I figured that'd give me probably 2 servings. Well, it gave me significantly more than 2 servings. But that's OK because this soup is really good. I used whole milk instead of half and half (although I used more than called for, I just took the bottle and poured) but it still is so creamy and has a really nice mouthfeel.

I ate a small bowl (about a cup worth) and it was so rich tasting that I was actually pretty much full at that point. Even though I had made a grilled cheese sandwich and some roasted veggies to go with it, I had most of it left because the soup is so rich. Although if you look at the ingredients, it's not all cream. I guess the bacon fat gives it all that richness. I only used 2 strips of bacon that I had in the freezer. Which is no where near the 2 oz the recipe called for. I even left out (aka forgot) the butter. I can't imagine how rich this would be if I had all the fat that was supposed to be in it.

Thanks Jill, this was an awesome choice! This one is definitely getting saved.

Barefoot Bloggers: Beatty's Chocolate Cake

The second recipe for the month was Beatty's Chocolate Cake. This is a really dark chocolate cake.

OK ready for baking/decorating tip from me? Try to contain your laughter. This is how I do most of my cakes if I am going to take them out of the house, which I almost always do. Bake it in the pan you are going to carry it in. Line the pan with foil and grease it or whatever. Take the cake out with the foil to cool. Then return the cake to the pan to be frosted and transported. This makes sure the cake doesn't stick to the pan and it fits perfectly. I have 4 pyrex pans with lids. 2 9x13's, a 9x9 and a 8x10. I do it with brownies and lots of other stuff too.

Mary of Passionate Perseverance chose this recipe. Thanks Mary!