Kentucky Bourbon Balls

I have always made bourbon balls to help endure any family event.  When I was single I would pop one every time people would ask me if I was ever going to settle down....or why hadn't I met a decent guy yet.  It was like a little shot of bourbon every time.  And to be honest isn't every family event better with bourbon?

Now that I am married, I make them to just enjoy them.  The secret is to soak your pecans in the bourbon for at least 12-24 hours.  In fact, the longer you soak them the better since it helps to retain the bourbon flavor for quite a while.  Be warned this adventure in cooking can take a couple of days to complete but it is definitely worth it.  Oh...and if you have a stand mixer this is a great thing to use since it makes everything come together much nicer.

Ingredient list:
1 cup of pecans
1/4 cup of good Kentucky bourbon (I prefer Woodford Reserve or at least Maker's Mark)
1 bag of confectionary sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1-2 bags of semi-sweet chips

Day One:
Take 1 cup of pecans and turn into pecan dust in the food processor.  (Fortunately I live near Detroit and can buy pecan dust directly from Rocky's which is across from the Eastern Market.  I have also found the pecan dust at roadside stands in Georgia but that can be quite a trip if you don't live near by.)

Take the pecan dust and put in a small jar or plastic container with a tight fitting lid.  Now pour even bourbon to barely soak the pecans (usually 5 Tablespoons).  If you put in too much you may need to either add more pecan dust or use more confectionary sugar in the following steps.

Day Two:
Take 1/2 cup of softened butter (preferably the real stuff) and add one complete bag of confectionary sugar.  Blend together.  Please note that it will still not look like anything but confectionary sugar even when you are completed blending so just have faith that it will work out at this point.  Now mix the soaked pecans in with the sugar/butter blend.  Mix in your stand mixer until fully incorporated and the filling looks like the inside of an opera cream (with some pecans blended in).  You will now want to remove the filling from the mixing bowl and either a) spread to about 1/2" thick on a platter OR b) make into small round balls.  You will need to put these into the freezer and chill into firm.  This is crucial since it helps when you are dipping them into the chocolate to coat.

Day Three:
Melt a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (or for real decadence use dark chocolate chips).  If you did use method A for the filling, you will need to cut it into small squares or rectangles which can them be dipped individually.  The easist way to coat the bourbon balls is to either use a pair of chopsticks (if you are proficient with them) or use a small teaspoon to roll them into the chocolate.  Place on waxed paper to harden.  If possible, store in the fridge to completely harden before packing into an airtight container for longer storage in the refrigerator.  The second bag of chocolate chips is your reserve bag if your primary bag of chocolate chips is used up prior to finishing up coating all the bourbon balls.

NOTE:  Other uses for pecan dust are coating chicken / fish / pork and then frying or baking.

Blackberry Cake

Today is my DH birthday and I wanted to make something special for him.  So I went to my Grandmother's recipe box and found this one that was always a favorite around her house.  I was pretty excited about it since I was getting to use up some of the blackberries I had picked last year with my Godson at a U-Pick farm and I remembered it being a pretty darn good cake.

"Aunt Edie's Blackberry Cake"
Cream together:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup lard (I substituted butter flavored Crisco)

Add :
4 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Then Add:
3 cups flour (no more)
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoon Cinnamonm
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

Finally Add:
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups blackberries --  juice and all

Makes 3 pans    350 degrees
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OK....so notice anything missing from this recipe that I copied verbatim from her notes?  Yes...the length of time to cook it!  After 35 minutes, I put a toothpick in it and it came out clean so I removed it from the oven.  After letting it cool, I started to put icing on it and realized it was doing a slow wave with every stroke.  After checking again with another toothpick and it was still clean I decided to cut it open since it was either not done or it was possessed.

Well all I can saw is thank goodness I decided to do a 9 x 13 cake vs a layer cake.  It was definitely not done and had to go back in the oven for another 30-45 minutes.  I removed as much of the icing as possible prior to the rebaking but worried that it would turn extremely nasty while cooking.  Thankfully it just made the cake absorb the Cream Cheese Icing that I was using.

Also, my Grandmother (Annie) had always served this with a caramel icing but I was out of granulated sugar to make one from scratch.  Of course being the creative one.....I got a brilliant idea of using the caramel apple wraps I had left over from last fall.  Bad news I had already put them on since I wanted a layer of caramel between the icing and the cake.  Good news is while some of it melted into the blackberry cake along with the cream cheese icing the rest got more like toffee and formed a hard crust on top of it. 

Final result was good but was definitely a chore to get there and it was not the pretty birthday cake I had hoped for (hence the small pieces in the photo).  Next time I highly recommend cooking for at least an hour or longer and checking by cutting it open with a knife.  Also, make sure your opening can easily be covered with icing.  It is a rich cake so I would recommend doing a less sweet icing or even just sprinkling with powdered sugar.

Grilling Asparagus

I love the taste of grilled asparagus but find that it can be messy to do especially if you don't line them up correctly when placing on the grill plate.  And honestly there is nothing worse than watching your freshly olive oil coated and prepped asparagus disappear into the flames of the hot coals below. 

I was recently "googling" for some new tips for grilled asparagus when I came across the blog "Cooking Like Your Grandmother" which had this cool tip for grilling.....use a bamboo skewer to thread them together to be able to easily flip and control on the grill.  For complete instructions on this technique including photos, check out http://cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2008/06/how-to-grill-asparagus-take-2/.

Pioneer Braid Sampler

Finally finished my block for Linda G. today.  Decided to do a pioneer braid sampler quilt square.   Went with this design since I had a long piece of the braid left over from another quilting project and it was a good way to use up the scraps.  Now I don't feel so guilty about not using that piece.

Of course, the main project that this came from is still a UFO (UnFinished Object) but I am hoping to get it done in April (this year!).  I have only been working on it on and off for over three years so setting that as a goal should not be too unrealistic I hope.  I started it with my engineering friend at a class and she finished hers several years ago and gave it to her son for his bedroom.  (Talk about no pressure there.....)

I think the problem is it is such muted earthy colors and there is so many different fabrics.  I know it is supposed to be that way but I like bright geometric patterns in quilts.  I want to do this again in just two or three colors but it will probably be a while.

Wonky Star

I finally got my March block done for Jorie today.  She wanted a Wonky Star and I found a great tutorial on the web (http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonky-star-tutorial.html). 

Great thing about this quilt block swap is I am getting to use up some of my material from my scrap stash.  This is the second month in a row I had to do a Wonky Star and they are starting to grow on me.  The first one I did I made the seams too wide so I was doing a scant 1/4" on this one to make sure it was 12.5 inches wide.  Turns out I did a little too good of a job since it was almost 13 inches wide.  Personally, I like to make the points of the star a little more wonky than usual to give it  interest.  I am thinking about doing a whole quilt of this kind of star for my engineer friend since it would probably test her patience on not being perfect points!

My next challenge is to do my block for Linda G who moderates our swap block so you know it probably should be better than my usual work.

Block Swap Adventure - April

Received in the mail today my block from my April swap partner (Linda G) at Block Swap Adventures.  It is called a Rail Fence design and she did it in bright jewel colors for me. 

Easter Bunny Bread OR the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python

Decided to make bread today to go with homemade chicken and dumplings.  A little overkill on the starches but I could not resist when I saw these instructions to make a bunny out of bread.  (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/04/bunny-shaped-bread-baking-easter.html)


I varied the recipe a little by using 1/2 cup of wheat flour along with the regular bread flour.  Here it is after the second rising before baking.

I think he flattened out a bit much so I generally reshaped him and added some definition to the paws and face.



After baking, he still looks like something from Monty Python but for a first try, I think he turned out well other than needing more face definition.  The best part is he was still all connected!

I actually made two of these and gave the better looking one to my neighbor.  I may have to do this again when my godson visits since it was pretty easy.

My hubby could not decide whether or not to cut off the head first or a lucky rabbit's foot.  He decided to go for the head since he does not like his food looking at him while eating it.  :)

The Beginning...

Today is my first day of blogging and I started this to not only show off my quilting stuff to my fellow quilters but also to talk about my latest adventures in canning, cooking, travel, etc.  Can't promise to always be exciting but will try to make this entertaining.

Today my goal is to get a quilt block completed for another one of my swaps plus get the
tree block (shown below) in the mail.

The block I am mailing today is for Tara at Stashbee.Blogspot.com. It was an "improv" block that the Queen Bee of the Month asked that we only use Kona Azure for the sky background. Other than that it was anything goes. I got very lucky and found this really neat fabric that was similar in color with birds and tree branches. I decided to go with a simple block to show off the tree branch fabric. The little block to the side is my signature block (can you tell I REALLY liked this fabric!) I decided to hide my information in the branches to feature another one of the birds that I could not get in the original block.

Also this past weekend, my dear husband and I decided to visit Eastern Market in Detroit (www.detroiteasternmarket.com).  We were able to score a deal on some fresh green beans so we (I) decided to try out my new pressure canner that I had just received for my birthday.  Turns out one bushel of fresh green beans makes 17 quarts and 6 pints of canned green beans.  We ended up having to stay up until 4am on Saturday monitoring the canner since I was so nervous about using it for the very first time.  Every hiss and bit of steam release from the valves had me jumping and worried about the cost of having to potentially redo the kitchen ceiling.

So to keep me from going nuts I decided to clean out my canning "pickle mis-adventures" from last year.    The pickles we had made were a really odd combination of sweet, clove, and garlic.  I don't mind being adventurous but these did not taste good.  Ended up dumping over a dozen jars into the compost bin. My thoughts were I rather do that than force family / friends to pretend to like them.  I did have my cousin try them and after being polite about them and her saying things like "there is nothing like a homemade pickle" or "that was an unusual recipe"....I finally got her to admit that they were not worth keeping.  Guess I need to find a better recipe.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated on a better recipe for dill and/or garlicky pickles.