Comfort Food

 Welcome!

Paper snowflake kaleidoscope by inkspired 

Had enough snow/ice/wet?

Tired of being cold?

I think it’s time to make some comfort food!

Buttermilk biscuits

Comfort food is just that -

 food that comforts you.

It is a food that reminds you of home, your family, a gathering or coffee with friends.

Happy memories!

Yay, Sesame Street!

I have my favorites.

Yours will be different.

However, perhaps some of my favorites 

might become some of your comfort foods. 

If you choose to share some of your favorites,

maybe I will find new faves also!

Here is one of my comfort foods recipes:

Ooey Gooey South Saint Louis 

Butter Cake

With a name like that, you know it’s going to be good!

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix, any brand

1/2 Cup butter, melted

1 egg

****** ****** ******* ******* *******

8 Oz. Package cream cheese

2 eggs

1 box confectioners/powdered sugar,

(This is approximately 3 and 3/4 Cups)

 reserving 1/4 Cup if desired

***** ***** ****** ****** **** *****

Directions:

Heat oven to 350’

Combine first 3 ingredients

and press into the bottom of a greased pan 

(9x12 works great)

Set aside.

With mixer, combine last 3 ingredients 

and pour over first mixture in the pan.

Bake at 350’ for 1/2 hour

or until the top is golden brown.

If desired, sprinkle 1/4 Cup reserved powder sugar over top.

This cake will slightly ‘fall’ in the middle, and cracks a bit on top.

We enjoy it warm or cold.

My mom discovered 3 different recipes 

with similar ingredients and directions.

3 different names!

So we tweaked all three into one

and that is how we got

Ooey Gooey South Saint Louis Butter Cake!

A little Star Wars Food Fun

Found on Pinterest, unknown 

My comfort food involves a lot of carbohydrates 

like noodles, cake, bread and potatoes.

So naturally I have favorite recipes to satisfy this.

Pecan Cranberry Muffins

Makes about 18 good sized muffins

Ingredients:

 1 1/2 Cup chopped cranberries, fresh or frozen

1 1/4 Cup sugar, divided

3 Cups flour

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup butter/margarine

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 Cup milk

1 Cup chopped pecans

1 Tablespoon grated lemon peel

Directions:

In a bowl toss chopped cranberries with 1/4 Cup sugar 

Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and remaining sugar.

Cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

Combine eggs and milk;

 stir into flour mixture just until moistened.

Fold in pecans, lemon peel and sugared cranberries.

Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Bake at 400’ for 20 - 25 minutes,

or until lightly browned.

(I buy extra cranberries every Fall and freeze them.)

A few of you may have noticed that I have 

posted this recipe before.

Since I have been blogging since

February 17, 2011

I thought it might be a good idea 

to try and gather faves together.

Saves you a lot of ‘search time’!

Kaleidoscope by inkspired 

It is common for Comfort Food to include 

sugar, chocolate, and saturated fats.

Sounds good to me!

Photo courtesy Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

The Originator of this Recipe.

Magic Cookie Bars

Preheat oven to 350’, or 325’ for glass pans.

Melt 1 stick (1/2 Cup) butter in 13”x9”pan.

Add, in order:

1 1/2 Cups graham cracker crumbs

1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 Cup butterscotch chips, 

1 Cup coconut

1 Cup chopped nuts

Press down with fork.

Bake 25 minutes or lightly brown

Let cool a bit before cutting into squares.

*******************************

- you can also use 9” x 9” pan. Let bake 4 more minutes.

-LOTS of substitutions for different tastes such as:

Raisins

M&Ms, including mini M&Ms

Dried cranberries

Mini marshmallows

Any flavor chips, like peanut butter chips

Go discover some faves of your own!

Now the recipe I am most familiar with has the sweetened condensed milk poured over everything as the last/final ingredient. There are MANY slightly different recipes out there.

The Swedish Chef, The Muppets

Up next-

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Prepare greased and floured Bundt pan

or Angel Food Cake pan

Ingredients:

1 Cup butter/margarine

2 Cups sugar

2 eggs

1 Cup sour cream

2 Cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

**********************

1 Cup chopped pecans

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar well.

Add eggs one at a time; beat well after each egg.

Fold in sour cream and vanilla.

Mix dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture.

Pour half mixture into greased/floured Bundt pan,

 or angel food cake pan.

******************************

Mix chopped pecans, brown sugar & cinnamon.

Sprinkle 3/4 mixture on top of batter in pan.

Try to not let this mix touch sides of pan.

Top with other half of batter, 

and sprinkle on top rest of nut mixture.

************************

Bake at 350’ for 45-60 minutes.

Cool cake 10 minutes.

Using spatula, loosen edges from pan 

and turn upside down to remove cake from pan.

This coffee cake is dense and great warm or cold.

Mine almost always breaks and part of it remains in the pan. Grease/flour carefully and try to not let the ‘filling’ touch the sides to help prevent this.

Recipe from ‘Miller’s Collection of Recipes’

By WJ Miller

This next one has remained a fave since I got it back in 1979!

Mrs. Schindler’s Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients 

3 cans cream of chicken soup

1 pint sour cream

8 Oz. Can Diced green chilies

1 pound grated cheddar cheese

Tortilla chips

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked & cut up

Directions

Combine soup, sour cream, chilies 

and chicken in a bowl.

In the bottom of a 9”x13” pan 

place a layer of broken tortilla chips.

Spoon 1/2 of soup mixture over top with 1/2 of the grated cheese. Repeat (chips, soup mix, cheese)

Bake at 350’ for 30 minutes, uncovered.

This is a great potluck dish to share!

This next one, even though it includes peas, 

is a winner in my recipe box.

Hidden Valley Ranch Crunchy Pea Salad

Ingredients

1 10 Oz. Package frozen peas, thawed

1 Cup chopped celery

1 Cup chopped cauliflower

1/4 Cup chopped green onion

1 Cup roughly chopped cashews

1/2 Cup sour cream

1 cup Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing

(Optional garnish- crisp cooked crumbled bacon)

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT cashews & bacon.

Chill.

Add bacon and cashews just before serving.

Recipe from Hidden Valley salad dressings

I have more comfort food recipes to share,

Yet I think I best post this before y’all give up on me!

Sometimes Life falls into the ‘hectic’ category, doesn’t it?

‘Til next time,

inkspired

Tea Party Basics with Edible Flowers

Welcome!

Kaleidoscope by inkspired and KaleidoCam app 

“Come, let us have some tea

and continue to talk

about happy things.”

- Chaim Potok

I think it’s time for a tea party!

Vintage clothing ad, I believe.

You must have really great food

and

really great tea

and

pretty decorations

for a successful tea party,

don’t you agree?

Let’s start with the invitations.

There are so many free graphics out there 

for anyone to use with a computer/printer 

making it easy to create your own invitations!

Bring out your rubber stamps, inks, fancy stickers,
specialty papers and embellishments 
to make your invitations really stand out
and become marvelously unique!

 An inkspired original using Sizzix dies and sticker cardstock,
accented with Stickles glitter glue.

 Found on Pinterest

A reverse color embossing technique original card by inkspired.


I would suggest staying away from ‘cutesy’
and focusing more on elegant.
Unless of course you have some darling ‘cute’ teacups
you have been wanting to use!
Otherwise, let the teacup designs show you
your style and color palette for the party.

Vintage tea party graphics, found on Pinterest

Decorations:

Courtesy Stone Gable, from Pinterest 

Paper doilies cut with my Cricut machine

Before I get too carried away with invitations
and table decorations, let’s talk about
FOOD!
I will get back to other things later.

Stephanie /31 Daily, Pinterest
Traditional High Tea has 3 groups of food, as shown above.
You can certainly serve them as three separate courses.

Start with tea sandwiches (savory).
Second, serve a variety of scones and breads
traditionally with clotted cream & jam.
Last, offer sweets.

Really though, it’s best to serve all three together
so your guests can choose for themselves
if they want to start with dessert!
It will depend on your kitchen schedule,
table layouts and whether you want to go
all out with a formal High Tea.

4 ingredient Radish-Dill Canapés
Tea Time Magazine, Pinterest

Notice the flower & thinly sliced cucumber
decoration on top of each canapé?

 Flower and Herb Cheese tea sandwiches with edible flower decoration
From Mary at Home is Where the Boat Is, Pinterest

These attractive sandwiches have been cut
with shaped cookie cutters.
Easy!

Spring Garden Bites
Tablespoon.com, Pinterest

These pretty little ‘Bites’ use a spiced
whipped cream cheese to help hold together
the carrots, snap peas, fresh Dill & radishes.

There are many charts available that list
flowers that are edible, what parts are edible
and what parts are not.

www.greensofdevon.com


Plan a Flower Tasting get together with
a couple of friends
and experiment with the different flavors
of each flower and its’ edible parts.

Test a few recipes that you hope to serve
at your Tea Party later.
This will help you decide what to make,
what flavors go with each course and what is
 not worth the time and effort involved.

Call it a Rehearsal High Tea Party!

Author Dina Falconi and Artist Wendy Hollender 
from ‘Foraging and Feasting Cookbook’

Lifehacker posted this Lucky Peach poster on Pinterest

There was an interesting comment on the above post.
A reader shared that sweet pea flowers
are poisonous.
Regular pea flowers are edible!

Always, always, always check 
three or more sources
when learning about new foods,
especially wild grown foods.
(Think mushrooms, also).

Shortbread Cookies with flowers
The Kitchn, Pinterest

After deciding to try out some edible flowers
be sure to find a reliable source
that has used no pesticides,
fertilizer, etc.

The absolute best however is to
grow your own!

Home grown marigolds and Rudbeckia


Here are a few more edible flower
recipe ideas you may want to try:

Organic Coconut Flower Bark
Indigo Herbs - Glastonbury (Pinterest)

Pansy Salad
Martha Stewart Living

Nasturtium Tangerine Spritz
Well and Full


Flower Sun Tea

You will need:

1 gallon size glass jar
6 - 8 black tea bags
1 1/2 Cup edible Marigolds or Nasturtiums
Sweetener to taste

Optional:
Frozen edible flower and leaf ice cubes

*Mostly fill gallon glass jar with water.
*Throw in about 3/4 Cup Marigolds/Nasturtiums.
*Add black tea bags, twisting their tea bag strings together
to hang over the outside of the jar.
*Check to make sure tea bags are submerged.

Place jar in sun.
Outside works best, in full sun.
Move the jar as the day progresses 
and the sunlight moves,
always keeping jar in full sun
as much as possible.

After several hours, bring Sun Tea inside.
Discard tea bags and strain out saturated flowers.
Add water and sweetener to taste you prefer.
Honey works well as a sweetener.
Just before serving 
add remaining 3/4 Cup or so
of edible flowers.

If desired, add frozen flower and leaf ice cubes
to individual glasses.
Remember as they melt your tea 
will become weaker.

Store leftovers in fridge.

Photo posted by Linda Wagner, Pinterest 

That’s all for today!

Let me know how your flower filled recipes taste.
What is your favorite drink to have flowers in?
Show us photos of your invitations
and table decorations!

Oh!
and don’t forget to invite me!

‘Til next time,
inkspired

Truth, usually discovered before coffee or 10am,
whichever comes last:
When making Sun Tea, double check
that you have actually added the tea bags.
Otherwise,
at the end of the day you will have
a gallon of 
Hot Water.