October 6, 2008Cake update
I had a very unproductive weekend. Saturday: Went to Blacksburg, couldn't score VT tickets. Ended up drinking beer and eating wings, then taking a nap. Okay, at least there was the cake. I feel as if I did accomplish at least one thing: I figured out the mystery behind the Cheerwine Cake recipe and produced a pretty delicious cake. One problem: Couldn't find the Cheerwine. But I'll get back to that later. Every Cheerwine Cake recipe I could find on the Internet failed to specify exactly how to bake the cake part. It called for a box of Devil's Food Cake, one cup of soda and a dash of almond extract. But no word on whether you add all the eggs, oil and water as instructed on the back of the cake box, too. It was an important question, because with too much or too little liquid the cake could turn out wrong. And eggs are a leavening agent, so I couldn't imagine leaving them out. Now I see that blog reader Deb was smart enough to go to the Cheerwine Web site and find the specific instructions. I, however, was without a computer this weekend so I had to lead my friend through my search over the phone. We ended up finding a recipe for Coca-Cola chocolate cake that said to substitute the cup of soda for whatever water is called for on the back of the box. October 2, 2008Where are you lunching?I've got a question for all of my readers who work in downtown Roanoke. Since the market building closed for cleaning and renovation on Sept. 20, has it changed your lunchtime routine? Are you eating at other restaurants you don't normally patronize? Or has it turned you off restaurant dining completely? I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this matter. Cheerwine cakeOkay, who went home and made popcorn last night? Admit it! All this talk of popcorn has seriously got me craving a big, buttery batch. Thanks for all the great comments. I'm intrigued by the popcorn cake recipe submitted by Michelle. How do you eat the darn thing, though? Do you cut it in slices or just pull it apart like monkey bread? Speaking of cake, my sister Kim sent me this intriguing recipe this morning for Cheerwine cake. Who remembers Cheerwine? They still sell it in these parts, I believe. My husband loves it, but it's so sweet that he can only handle about one soda per year. I might have to make this cake for the holidays. Sounds like a chocolate-covered cherry. Keep sending in those popcorn memories and recipes, too! I think we're onto something... October 1, 2008It's POP-tober!
On my way into the grocery store on Sunday, I saw them: the Boy Scouts with the popcorn. The truth is, my husband doesn't really like popcorn. Something about things getting stuck in his teeth and in his throat. The bottom line is that when we go to the movies, I get the bag of popcorn aaaaall to myself and he keeps his hands away. Which suits me just fine. When I was a kid, my mother had some hideous orange plastic popcorn popper with a little built-in dish on top where you melted butter and let it drip down into the snack. I recall it being such a pain in the butt to pull the thing out and make the popcorn that we hardly ever had homemade popcorn at my house. Maybe that's why it was all the more exciting that one neighbor always handed out popcorn balls on Halloween. We'd always rush on past all the other houses in the neighborhood in an effort to get to the popcorn ball house before all the popcorn balls had been handed out. Then we'd double back. Come to think of it, October really is an appropriate month to celebrate popcorn, not just because of popcorn balls. It's the time to cuddle up on the couch -- not recoil from your sweaty sweetie and the wooly upholstery -- to watch a movie. Preferrably a scary movie! Thanks to The Popcorn Board, I've got a few recipes for jazzing up an ordinary bowl of popcorn. If you have any popcorn memories or recipes yourself, let's hear them! September 30, 2008A new friend = an awesome recipeWhat is Facebook good for? Well, you know, it's a "social networking" site. Which basically means that you look up old acquaintances from high school and college to see what they've done with their lives in the decades since you last saw them in their jelly bracelets, tight-rolled jeans and Motley Crue hair. I'm guilty of the same thing. I have bunches and bunches of friends on Facebook who used to be old schoolmates. It's really quite fascinating and nostalgic, and occasionally you come across a real gem, like some "Most Likely to Succeed" cheerleader who is working a Denny's or the quietest, most dorky kid in class who is now a billionaire. I got a real gem the other day, in a different way. One year in high school, we had four Brazilian exchange students come to Alleghany High School. There were three boys and a girl, a quite dazzling and beautiful girl, in fact, whose name was Raquel. All the boys were dizzy for this exotic girl with the sexy accent and flowing dark hair. Raquel was more than pretty, she was sweet, too. So I was very excited when she asked to be my friend on Facebook, all the way from Brazil! When she told me that she, too, loved food and cooking and would send me a Brazilian recipe sometime, I nearly fell out of my chair. So much for what Raquel's been doing since high school, I just wanted the darn recipe -- STAT!! Nah, I really do care about Raquel, but I sure was excited when she sent me one of her very favorite Brazilian recipes. It's for a shrimp or fish stew seasoned with tomato, coconut milk, cilantro and garlic. It's called Moqueca, which I swear I've seen on the menu at Carlos' before and absolutely loved. Enjoy! And thanks, Raquel! |
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