West Virginia

My sister is a character. She's beautiful, smart as a whip, sweet yet sarcastic, loves shoes, flaming liberal, and chill. She met her husband in undergrad and they moved back to his home state of West Virginia.

At first, I thought she was crazy. This girl can crush a day shopping. She's grew up in Northern VA and went to law school in California- not exactly the same lifestyle. I visited her for the 2nd time this weekend and I must say- I like Charleston! It's natural, lush, and laid back. Plus- there's some damn good food and art.

We went to Bluegrass Kitchen for dinner. I really loved the decor! The table lights had graf on them. We had the Beer Cheese Fondue and Crab Rangoon with Mango Marmalade appetizers. I had the Perfect Chicken (delicious!), Susana had the 1/2 Pound Hamburger (yum), Joe had Bourbon Trout & Grits (his favorite there), and Phannarith had Roast Chicken Quesadilla (meh, not impressed). The chips and salsa were perfectly paired.

Tudor's Biscuits were breakfast while heading out. Throw away all your hopes of being healthy. These bad boys are some salted butter biscuits with your choice of meat and egg. I had a side of apples and there was some hash brown action as well. This was simple and sinful.

Also, we had some amazing jerky that comes from Tennessee. My bro-in-law recommended it and drove us out to the only gas station that sells it. I'll have to double check the spelling though.
Country roads, take me home!

Old School Banana Bread

We don't use cook books in my house. The way my family cooks does not require measuring. You add, taste, think, adjust, repeat. However...

There's this one cook book that's been around my house since the dawn of time. I have no idea where it came from. We use one recipe in the entire book: banana bread. This is the only kind that's been made in my oven since I was a little kid. Yes, one day I will try something different. But for now, I love the simplicity of this recipe and how bananas make you feel slightly less guilty.

Preheat to 350 degrees and grease loaf pan.

1 stick margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3-4 large bananas, mashed

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 cup broken pecans (optional- any nut you want)

Cream together margarine and sugar in bowl. Add the eggs and bananas. Sift flour and soda together into batter, blending thoroughly. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Remember, the great thing about banana bread is you don't need ripe bananas. The mushy ones are perfect and have better flavor for baking!

I usually like to add in 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips and a tablespoon of cinnamon. I used chocolate covered almonds this time. Yes, I'm a rebel.

Pour into loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes. The numbers of bananas you put in make a difference. The more banana mush, the longer the cooking time. I've used up to 5 bananas.

Allow the bread to cool and jump right in! This is great for on-the-go breakfast.

Fish Tacos

My brother is a good cook. We didn't know it until he moved into his own place and started playing in the kitchen. Last night, he made fish tacos with a little help from mom and me scampering around his kitchen. His favorite recipe website, where he got this one, is allrecipes.com. I must say, these were a treat but the required a good deal of time. This is easily eliminated if you remember to do your prep work! We eliminated the Honey-Cumin element but feel free to use it.

Fish

1 pound tilapia fillets, cut into chunks or whole filets
1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Breading

1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups panko crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs, you can find them in the ethnic aisle)
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 cup veggie oil for frying

Chipotle Mayo Dressing

1/2 cup mayo
2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon adobo sauce from chipotle peppers
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Coleslaw

2 cups coleslaw blend
1 cup minced fresh cilantro

Flour tortillas


Place tilapia chunks in flat dish and poor lime juice over. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The longer, the better!

To make the chipotle dressing, place the mayonnaise, chilies, adobo sauce, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cayenne pepper together in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Cover, and refrigerate until needed.

To bread the fish, place the flour, eggs, and panko crumbs in three separate shallow dishes. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste. Dip the fish pieces first in the four, coating evenly, and shaking off any excess. Dip next in the eggs, and last in the panko crumbs, patting the pieces to help the breadcrumbs hold. Set the fish aside on a plate.

To cook , pour 1 cup vegetable oil into a skillet to 1/4 inch deep. Heat the oil to 365 degrees over medium heat. Cook the fish, turning until all sides are golden brown, and flesh is easily flaked with a fork. Drain on paper towels.

Mix the coleslaw and cilantro together in a bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup of the chipotle mayonnaise dressing, and pour the remaining dressing over the coleslaw mixture. Toss to coat evenly with the dressing.

Simply put the fish on the tortilla and coat with coleslaw. Wrap it up! Use the little bit of extra dressing as desire. We like to toast our tortillas slightly to keep some heat.

Sweet Seashell Candy

Presents are sweet, especially when they're for no reason, thoughtful.... and for baking! Special thanks to my SB2 (yes yes, I'm SB1). He gave me two really cool molds: seashells and an igloo. He found them on Kitchen Krafts, a site I've never seen before and has a ton of stuff.

In honor of Costa Rica, I decided to use the seashells for a dinner party this past Saturday hosted by one my traveling companions. I didn't want to make tea cakes, not everything can be a cupcake, so I decided to make candy. It's extremely easy to make and hella cute!

I made two batches, one from AllRecipes.com with some minor adjustments and the other was purely melted chocolate.

Chocolate Marshmallow Candy

1/2 cup butter
1 (12 ounce) semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds
1 (10.5 ounce) bag of mini marshmallows
1 teaspoon vanilla

Prep the pan! Use some solid vegetable oil (Crisco) and lightly coat molds. Dust with flour. If you don't do this with this pan- good luck. We didn't' do this the 1st round and it was a struggle to get the candy out.

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter, vanilla, and marshmallows. Stir until it becomes a guey paste. Add in chocolate chips. Finally add nuts. Dab about a tablespoon in. Lightly tap against counter to make sure the filling is distributed evenly. Place in refrigerator for 45 minutes or in freezer for 20 (until candy hardens).

To remove from pan, either gently tap out of pan or use a toothpick for a lil nudge. Dust with confectioner's sugar (optional).

The fun with this recipe is you can mix and match. Don't like almonds? Swap it out. Want more then just chocolate? Throw in 6 ounces of peanut butter chips or swap out the chocolate chips for butterscotch! This made 2 batches out of the pan. These were amazingly yummy and oh so easy to make!

Simple Candy

Melt the candy your choice (via double boiler or microwave; if you use the microwave use 30 second increments and stir in between) and pour into prepped molds.

Freeze until hardened. Bam! I used semi sweet and white chocolate and mixed them around. I also used some sugar pearls to add that beach look.

Blogging 101: What NOT to do

Imitiation is flattery. I get that. But if you're going to use someone's recipe in your own blog, don't take it verbatim. At least try the recipe yourself. I found some creeper did not just take the Vietnamese Coconut Waffle recipe-- they took my photos and words with absolutely no editing. It was really really creepy to see the boyfriends's name on someone else's site. Lady's, I know you'd cut someone too. Don't take someone's photos; don't take someone's words; leave a link; give credit where it's due.

I am thrilled people are actually viewing the stuff I make. That's amazing in itself. <3

So really- this is what NOT to do by Cake Today. Grumble grumble.