Let's Cook! Key Lime Cake

I've always loved the atmosphere about the Keys, that string of islands cutting between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. A different atmosphere, a world unto itself and a place to kick back. No wonder Hemingway took to Key West specifically. 

Key West has the Cuban flair mixed with America. Being the Southernmost point, 90 miles from Cuba, it enjoys a singularly fabulous reputation. It feels like the Caribbean but you are still in the U.S. 

 The Hemingway House, brimming over with the polydactyl cats the island is known for. I understand there is a 6 year wait to adopt one of the 6 toed kitties. The tours are led by docents who know everything about Papa Hemingway. 

The Aquarium houses local sea creatures and a sanctuary for the wounded. I remember the blind pelican who just wanders everywhere, mostly in circles!

And how about the buried treasures from shipwrecks over the years. The air conditioned exhibit is so welcoming. 

Take a stroll down to Mallory Square at sundown and join everyone toasting the sun's settling down for the day. Or go down to Duval Street for the art and fun. Most of all, enjoy the unique culinary delights like a lobster rueben or conch chowder or fritters while sitting on the deck at the juncture of the two bodies of water. Yes, there's Sloppy Joe's with its touristy kitsch but there are other great places on this tiny island.

One of the favorite sweets here is Key Lime Pie. My best friend's son loves ANYTHING with that zesty flavor! In Paul's honor, I am posting this recipe for Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese frosting that I found online. Yummy!

Look for lines about golf ball sized. They are the best. They are not always the pale green color but sometimes all shades up to a beautiful yellow color. 

Key Lime Pound Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Icing

•  4 sticks butter, that’s 1 pound, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup fresh key lime juice
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk, (I always keep a good number of those small, 5 ounce cans in my pantry.)
• 4 teaspoons key lime zest, minced
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 300°.  Cover inside of 10 inch tube pan with non-stick spray.  My pan is 10  1/2″ and it’s just fine.  Set aside.
2. Using a stand-up mixer or electric hand-held, beat the butter well until light in color and fluffy.  Add the sugar and again beat well for at least 5 minutes.  I use a stand up mixer and beat the mixture 10-15 minutes.  I don’t like a “grainy” cake.
3. One at a time add the eggs and beat only until the yellow disappears.
4. Now mixing by hand, gradually flour to the butter-egg mixture alternating with the key lime juice and milk.  Begin and end with flour.  Beat well but just enough to incorporate all ingredients.  You don’t want a tough pound cake!
5. Pour evenly into the tube pan and tap pan on the counter to loosen any air bubbles.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
7. Cool on a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes in the pan then transfer from pan to cooling rack and allow to cool another hour or until completely cool.

The cake is far better the following day or 2 days later.

Key Lime Cream Cheese Icing

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3-4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice
• 2-3 teaspoons key lime zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Using a hand mixer beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until well mixed.
2. Add confectioner’s sugar and beat well until completely smooth and fluffy.
3. Add key lime juice, zest and vanilla and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Ice cake.

This makes quite a bit of icing.  After icing the entire  pound cake I fill the middle hole with the excess icing.  When the cake is served icing can be taken from the middle and dolloped along the side the slice of cake.

Let's Cook! Fruit Skewers

Great tasting fruit can be had any time if year now. We are coming in to the best time of year for it!

Saw this recipe on All Recipes and wanted to share it for those easy and healthy desserts or snacks. They look pretty and fun to eat.

    Have FUN! And remember to sprinkle a little lemon juice on the bananas and apples so they don't turn brown as fast. 

Hugs,

Beth 💋

Let's Cook! Bawdy Boston Baked Beans

• Ever wonder why Boston baked beans are called “Boston” baked beans? It’s the molasses. Boston has been tied to molasses since colonial days, when the city was a trade center for rum from the Caribbean. Molasses is used for rum production and is a by-product of sugar refining and was easily available to the colonists. And then there’s the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, when a huge tank of molasses exploded and sent a sea of the gooey stuff flooding the streets of the North End. I lived in the North End of Boston in the early 80s and at the time you could still pick up a faint scent of molasses on a hot summer day.

  Now to the baked beans. Boston baked beans are by definition, slowly cooked. According to Shirley Corriher in CookWise (great book, btw), either sugar or calcium will make beans hard, even after long hours of cooking. Molasses contains both sugar and calcium, which is why adding molasses to a pot of beans will enable you to cook the beans for what seems like forever, without the beans getting mushy. But it also means that if you cook the beans in molasses to get that wonderful flavor, you have to cook them a good long time.

  Although traditionally cooked in an oven, Boston baked beans lend themselves perfectly to slow cookers, which is the method we prefer here.

  
  
  Cook time: 8 hours
• Yield: Serves 5-6 as a main dish 

• 1 pound (2 to 2 1/4 cups) dry white beans such as Navy beans or Great Northern beans (can also use kidney beans)
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 cups hot water
• 1/2 pound salt pork (can sub bacon), cut into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, (1 1/2 cups) chopped

Method

1 Place beans in a large pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Soak overnight and drain. Alternatively, bring a pot with the beans covered with 2 inches of water to a boil, remove from heat and let soak for a hour, then drain.

2 Mix the molasses, brown sugar, mustard, and ground cloves with 3 cups of hot water.

 
 

3 Line the bottom of a slow-cooker (or a Dutch oven if you are cooking in the oven) with half of the salt pork (pick the fattiest pieces). Layer over with half of the drained beans. Add all of the onions in a layer, then top with another layer of beans and the remaining salt pork. Pour the molasses water mixture over the beans to just cover the beans.

4 Cover and cook in a slow-cooker on the low setting for 8 hours (or in a 250°F oven), until the beans are tender. Check the water level a few hours in, and if the beans need more water, add some. Add additional salt to taste if needed. Note that fresher beans will cook faster than older beans. Your beans may be ready in less than 8 hours, or they may take longer. Best the next day.

The Countdown to 50

I will be extremely honest in saying that turning 50 is not the event I am expecting to treasure. The phrase, "It is only a number", has been thrown about carelessly by those that have either already passed the mark or really don't care about you anyway! Thanks to my 16 year-old son, I have been doomed to think about this as turning a Half Century. For some reason, I cannot get a firm hold on this. In my small experience, for these first 50 years, I have witnessed so much change personally and in the world.

Should I point out the obvious? Yeah, why not? This is my blog! I have never really blogged before. This is another change in the universe. People can write almost anything about every subject under the sun and feel important doing it. We can all feel like the one and only person writing about a particular theme. Our fifteen minutes of fame can continue as long as our fingers can tap out this dance of information. And like that tree falling in the forest, do we know if our words are being read or just silently taking up space on the Internet. I would hope at one person other than myself who is benefiting from my spew of of emotion and feelings.

I got off the track. I have witnessed the Space Race, Cola Wars, wars fought on foreign soil, dozens of Olympics some of which were too sad to remember, adding machines to personal computers, computers that talk back to you and my favorite: meals in minutes.

Being a foodie, I really love to cook and, to the detriment of my health at times, I love to eat what I cook. Modern technology can just keep to itself. Nothing replaces a slow simmering stew or soup, a beloved brisket, a flamboyant dessert or sumptuous buffet set out for family and friends. Entertaining can be so much fun and fulfilling when I hear the compliments and kudos bandied about. Fortunately, Larry loves to have guests too. And he helps to clean up which is the bane of my culinary existence. I just hate that part! So where does a microwave fit into all of this? I can melt a stick of butter or hunk of chocolate without burning. Quickly warming up the leftovers for late arrivals to the dinner table keeps them from burning in the oven. I am sure there are much more useful tasks for the white box on my counter than holding my recipe box and various travel mugs. So far, I do not see it as an integral part of my cooking in general. The worst of it is warming up a cooled cup of coffee...yuck!

So, this new half century will commence on Christmas Day, 2009. I am feeling nostalgic. I expect there will be many blogs devoted to days in the past. I am hoping to chronicle my foray into the Internet experience as I grow older and maybe wiser. I hope to avoid repeating my mistakes from the first 49 years. But I know me pretty well. I know I will!