Julie's thoughts on Julie/Julia

I have been so busy at work lately, to much playing for me that I haven't been posting! Any how I realized that I have quite a few posts unfinished and in draft status. So I am going to try to finish a few.... so here's one.

Julie the Book/Movie Critic Strikes Again............

Julie/Julia

I didn't like it, not one bit. Not the movie, nor the book. I would have much preferred the love story between Julia & Paul Child. I love to cook and read blogs but not Julie Powell's. My Book Club read the book, and I just didn't like Julie Powell's character, I guess I don't like Julie Powell. Mmm. That doesn't sound very nice does it, after all she is a real person. I just didn't care for her from the very beginning of the book. I didn't like the fact that she was selling her 'eggs' to pay her credit card bill or the way she talked about the 911 families, or the how she treated her husband. Or the way she would just begin to swear like a sailor for no apparent reason. She just didn't seem wholesome to me. I guess I don't know a lot about Julia Child, but I envision my grandmother or something when I would watch her cook on PBS, very down to earth & wholesome. Let's just say... it wasn't my 'plate of beef bourguignon'.

One of our favoRED things........

Let them (me) eat cake!

The deliciousness that is......."Red Velvet Cake". What words can describe our favoRED cake? Sweet, dark, creamy, delicious, yummy. Is it only our 'fav' because it is red? No! Well, maybe...it's chocolate too! Is it really the cake we love or is it the frosting? Oh, yes we love the frosting too. But it is the combination of a cake that is not too sweet, and a frosting that it deliciously sweet. A cake that is red and lovely and a frosting that is white and creamy. It is everything about it, that makes it so delicious. During the summer months we will celebrate 6 of our 7 birthdays! Leaving only poor JM in the wintertime. But that is what is great about her birthday, she doesn't have to share it with anyone else. Back to the cake... we celebrate a lot of events with this cake. We don't usually bake it ourselves because we have a wonderful bakery that makes the absolute best about 20 miles away. 20 miles you say, that's pretty far to drive for cake, NO IT IS NOT! Please excuse my yelling. I lost control thinking about the cake. I'm sorry. I don't kid around when it comes to cake. We do bake it at home and when we do we use this fab recipe.
Red Velvet Cake~
Vegetable oil for the pans 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease & dust 3 9inch round pans.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, & cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, & vanilla. Using a mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and batter is smooth.

Divide the cake batter evenly in the 3 prepared pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides. Invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely. Frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using a mixer, mix the cream cheese, sugar, & butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, & mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy. Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days. Yeah like it’s gonna last 3 days!
Enjoy! jt

One of our favoRED things.....

Big Red Ice Cream! Cold, sweet, yummy and delicious! There is nothing better on a hot Summer day than a bowl of Big Red ice cream. We have been making this for at least 30 years in my family and it's still our favored. Don't know what Big Red is? It's kind of a red cream soda. Big Red is actually the brand name in Texas. I guess you could use a substitute, some people I know use Orange Crush and pineapples. That would never fly around here. Give it a try, here's the recipe.

Big Red Ice Cream
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 small pkgs frozen, sliced strawberries, thawed
1 (2 litre) bottle Big Red

Electric or hand crank ice cream maker, rock salt, ice

Open milk, pour it in the cylinder, add the strawberries to the milk, pour in Big Red to the fill line on the container. Start freezing. That's it! Enjoy! jt