Blackened Catfish and Dirty Rice

Since the parents had never tasted catfish, I decided to cook some for dinner tonight, with Zatarain's dirty rice and steamed string beans. The fish was super easy to make and came out tender and flakey and really tasty. It's spicy though, and although I cut the cayenne in half, it was still spicy. The recipe is actually from Allrecipes, though I made a few changes, noted below.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (as per the reviews online, I cut this in half and it was still plenty spicy)
  
• 2 teaspoons lemon pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 pound catfish fillets
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup Italian-style salad dressing (I omitted this and used olive oil instead)
• I also added 2 teaspoons onion powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
2. In a shallow, medium bowl, mix cayenne pepper, lemon pepper, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
3. Brush both sides of catfish fillets with butter (I softened the butter in the microwave for a few seconds first). Rub fillets with the cayenne pepper mixture on both sides.
4. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until really hot. Add fillets, and fry approximately 2 minutes on each side, until slightly blackened.
5. Arrange blackened fillets in a single layer in the prepared baking dish, and coat with Italian-style salad dressing (I just misted with a bit of olive oil and omitted the dressing completely). Bake 30 to 35 minutes (mine were cooked in 15 minutes) in the preheated oven, until fish is easily flaked with a fork.

Final Shower goodies

So the goodies for the baby shower are complete! I ended up making an apple spice cake with pumpkin spice buttercream, chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes, and vanilla sugar cookies for favors. The baby's room will be lavender and sage, with a daisy and lamb theme. So I ran with the colors and daisies and tried to make something Springy and fun for the shower this weekend.

Shower Cake - Test #1

So in addition to the daisy cupcakes, I'll also be making an apple pie spice cake since my sister-in-law is not into chocolate these days. I'd never attempted an entire cake with basketweave before, I'd learned it in culinary school but that's about it. So for my first shot at basketweave, I'm pretty happy. I need to work on the spacing a bit, but that's ok.

For the shower, The vertical lines will be lavender, and the horizontal ones will be sage, and there will be a lavender sugar daisy in the center of the top.

The cake itself is a spice cake with 2 cups of diced apples, then buttercream flavored with apple pie spice in the center and top. The buttercream around the edges is just plain vanilla buttercream.

Shower Cupcakes - Trial #1

This was the first trial for the shower cupcakes. They're going to be a quadruple chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing, in purple and sage daisies.

Can't remember the exact recipe right now, but it was a doctored cake mix, with added chocolate chips, sour cream, and extra chocolate. Quite tasty, though the icing was a bit sweet.

The purple ones photographed better, but the green ones looked better in person. And sorry they're a little sloppy. I kept doing a daisy, messing up, and scraping it off, so they're definitely not perfect. But they will be for the shower!

Justin's Birthday Cake!

He requested a GIANT cupcake this year for his birthday. So off to Michael's I went, coupon in hand, and picked up the pan to make said cake. I made a chocolate mocha cake, and plan to do chocolate icing on the bottom, and vanilla buttercream on the top. I haven't iced it yet, that's tomorrow's project. But I ended up with the giant cupcake and 12 regular sized cupcakes leftover. Damn tasty.

For the cupcake pan, the bottom part bakes much slower than the top, because of the cavity size difference. I filled the bottom about 2/3 full, baked for 10 minutes, then filled the top and continued baking for 40 minutes at 325. It came out perfectly. You'll see in the pictures, where the nonstick spray discolored the cake slightly, but it's getting covered in icing, so I don't care too much...

Cake recipe: From Sandra Lee
Ingredients

• 1 cup ground espresso
• 2 2/3 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 6 eggs
• 2 boxes of chocolate cake mix (I used a Dark Chocolate mix)

Directions

1. Brew espresso and water in standard coffee pot. Set aside.

2. Combine other ingredients in large bowl and mix on low until combined. Slowly add in hot coffee, while mixing on medium. Mix for 2 minutes until batter is light and fluffy.

3. Fill pans accordingly. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then invert to wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
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Frosting Recipe
Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 Tablespoons milk
  
• food coloring, if desired.

Directions

1. Combine butter and vanilla in medium bowl. Use whip attachment and mix on medium-high for 4 minutes, until butter is light and fluffy.

2. Add in confectioners sugar and milk. Whip another 5 minutes, until frosting is fluffy and sugar has completely dissolved (taste the frosting -- if it's still grainy, mix a little bit longer). Mix in food coloring, if desired.

** Depending on the thickness you require (thicker for piping, thinner for frosting), you may need to add milk and/or sugar to achieve the desired consistency.
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We also had some incredible, homemade cinnamon ice cream.

Ingredients

• 3 cups half and half
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Heat medium sized saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sugar and half and half. Stir occasionally, and remove from heat just as it begins to simmer (takes about 10 minutes or so). Slowly combine half of the mixture with the beaten eggs, whisking quickly to combine, preventing the eggs from scrambling. Pour egg mixture back into saucepan with remaining half and half mixture. Bring to 170 degrees, over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add in vanilla and cinnamon. Whisk quickly to combine. Set aside to cool. When mixture reaches about 70 degrees, refrigerate 2-3 hours.

2. Pour cooled mixture into ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

** Note: I used the Kitchenaid 2 quart ice cream maker. This recipe has to be made in 2 parts, because it is too large an amount for the KA attachment. If you place the full recipe in the ice cream maker, it won't freeze properly.

Finished cake, without the candles

Unfinished...still needs frosting!

Leftover batter I made into cupcakes. Also added some chocolate chips to them.

Four Cheese Macaroni

This was sort of a last ditch attempt to get rid of a lot of cheese left in the fridge. I had a bag of 65 cent pasta, some leftover broccoli from the 2lb/$1 sale, and 4 different kinds of cheese that needed to be used.

Ingredients

• 2 cups macaroni
• 1 head of broccoli, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup Mexican blend cheese (cheddar and jack)
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add macaroni and boil 8-10 minutes until tender. When pasta has about 1 minute left, add broccoli to the pot. Once pasta is tender, drain liquid.

2. Add 1 type of cheese at a time, mixing vigorously with a wooden spoon to avoid clumping. Make sure cheese is fully melted and has evenly coated pasta before adding the next one. Continue stirring vigorously until all cheeses are added.

Quick Ribs

You guessed it...back ribs were on sale! $1.49/lb instead of the usual $2.99/lb. So I picked up a rack and found a recipe on allrecipes.com that sounded pretty good. They were quick and easy to make, and surprisingly tender for only cooking for 2 hours. I usually cook ribs all day in the oven, so this was a nice change.

I served it with some garlic & basil polenta that I just fried in a bit of oil. We had a big lunch, so we weren't super hungry by the time dinner rolled around...

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef back ribs
• 1/2 cup ketchup
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
  
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  
• 1 dash hot pepper sauce
  

Directions

1. Cut ribs into serving-size pieces; place in a large kettle and cover with water. Simmer, uncovered, for 50-60 minutes (I recommend 90 minutes) or until tender. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a small saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Drain ribs; place in a greased shallow 2-qt. baking dish. Cover with sauce. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes.