Welcome to my kitchen today

While at my sew-in last Saturday, one of my friends was generous enough to give me some rhubarb stalks from her garden. I love rhubarb.... Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam and Rhubarb Custard Pie are two of my favorites. I didn't have any strawberries to make the jam, but I had more than enough rhubarb to make a pie while freezing another 18 cups. Yummy!

Rhubarb Custard Pie
400° 50 – 60 minutes


9-inch 2 crust pie crust

4 Tbsp flour
3 eggs

1 tsp nutmeg
2 2/3 Tbsp milk

4 cups rhubarb, cut
2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 400°. Beat eggs, slightly. Add milk. Mix together and stir in sugar, flour, and nutmeg. Add the rhubarb. Fill pie crust shell with mixture and dot with butter. Place top crust and seal edge. Cut vents in top crust to allow steam to escape as the pie bakes.

Bake in 400° oven for 50 – 60 minutes. Cool pie to room temperature before placing into refrigerator.

2 Crust Pie Crust

2 ½ cups flour

1 cup butter, cut into small cubes and frozen
1 tsp salt

4 to 8 Tbsp ice water
1 tsp sugar

In food processor, add flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix. Add frozen butter and pulse until mixture resembles sand. Add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, and pulse just until mixed. You have enough water when the mixture holds together when pressed.

Place a piece of plastic wrap onto counter and spoon half of mixture onto plastic wrap. Tightly wrap pie dough with plastic wrap compressing pie dough as you wrap. Repeat for remaining pie dough. Place into refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Remove pie dough from refrigerator and roll dough out to fit pie plate on a lightly floured surface. Line pie plate and add filling. Repeat for top crust.

What's Baking In My Kitchen?

I love to bake and find myself a little picky about the things I eat because of this. One of the things I don't like is store bought bread, especially white bread. Although I prefer wheat or whole grain bread, I've had a huge problem in finding a recipe where the bread isn't like sawdust once it's baked.

In comes my friend Judy, author of Gramma’s Quilting Room blog. We participate in a couple of quilting group’s whose members generally live in Washington State. We have lots of fun attending sew-ins and other group activities, as well as online events. So, Judy sent me a link to a blog with a Whole Wheat Bread recipe that she uses.

I printed the recipe and decided to make if for the first time yesterday.

I was surprised at how easy this recipe was as it only requires one rise after kneading. To get a good rise out of my dough, I preheat my oven to 170° before turing it off and placing the dough inside with a warm, wet towel over the dough. This provides a warm place for the dough to rise without the risk of cold air disturbing the process. This is the dough after allowing it to rise in my warm oven for about 1 hour. I placed the pans onto my counter while the oven preheated to the proper temperature to bake the bread.

After baking for 30 minutes, this is the end result. See how much rise I got out of the dough?

Here is the ‘crumb’ shot of my bread. I am very impressed with this recipe as it produced a tender, moist texture without it being dry like sawdust.

Once in a while you come across a great blog with a plethora of information. Patchwork Times is one of those places. So stop on by, print out a couple of recipes, and browse the Patchwork Times blog. She has some great quilting information too.

What's Cooking?

It has been awhile since I posted a recipe so I thought I'd share two recipes with you today. First, let me say I would have posted this yesterday but Blogger was having hiccups and rather than try to fight with it, I thought I'd wait until this morning.

I love make-ahead recipes because it makes preparing a meal so much easier. They’re especially welcoming when you’ve been working all day or you’re running late because the soccer game went into overtime. Two of my favorite recipes are Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Grilled Lemon Chicken. Super Easy!

My children always loved working in the kitchen with me while they were growing up and I always stressed for them to read the recipe and gather all of their ingredients before they begin baking. This will prevent you from getting into the middle of a recipe only to discover you don’t have everything necessary to prepare your food.

I gathered all of my ingredients to make my chocolate cake. Of course, after this picture was taken and I had started assembling my ingredients, I discovered the eggs could not be seen in this picture... But they really are there. I did not show the boiling water.

These are the utensils required to make the cake. The mixer is shown with the ingredients.

Prior to assembling the ingredients in my mixing bowl, I sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. I choose to use a fine mesh strainer over a deep bowl for this technique. Simply add the ingredients to be sifted and gently shake the strainer over the bowl.

The purpose of sifting is to remove all of the lumps from your flour and cocoa.

If you do have some lumps, use a spoon to break the lumps before proceeding to finish sifting the ingredients.

This is what they will look like. All of the lumps have been broken up and you have a light powder mixture.

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla in mixing bowl.

Add the boiling water to creamed mixture and blend until dissolved. Add eggs and mix well.

Add dry ingredients to wet mixture. I use a 1/2 cup measuring cup and mix well between each addition. This will help eliminate any lumps that may form.

Batter will be very thin.

Pour into a 13" x 9" baking dish. I spray the dish with a cooking spray to prevent the cake from sticking. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool.

Once cake has completely cooled, add powder sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk to mixing bowl. Mix well. I use a wire beater because I like the light texture it gives the frosting.

With a rubber spatula, scrape the sides of the mixing bowl to ensure everything is mixed well.

You don't want to over beat your frosting, but you do want it to be smooth.

With an offset spatula, spread frosting over cooled cake.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

To make the grilled lemon chicken, you will need olive oil, a couple of lemons (even though I only pictured one), salt, pepper, chopped garlic, and chopped rosemary.

We'll use poultry scissors, a citrus reamer (or similar), a fine grater, small bowl, and a 13" x 9" baking dish.

I've washed the chicken in cold water and dried inside and out with a paper towel.

From the backside of the chicken, using your poultry scissors, cut the spine from the chicken.

The removal of the spine will allow you to lay the chicken flat on the grill.

Open up the chicken and remove any additional fat. You can either cut the fat out or, like I do, grab hold of it and pull. It peels right off.

The fat has been removed and I've wiped the inside of the chicken with a paper towel.

Lightly sprinkle both sides of the chicken with kosher salt.

Add olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, rosemary, and pepper into bowl. Whisk until ingredients are well combined.

You know it's combined when you can no longer distinguished between the olive oil and the lemon juice.

Add chicken to baking dish and pour marinade over chicken. Coat both sides of the chicken well. For a strong lemon flavor, put chicken skin side down in dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Remove chicken from refrigerate and allow it to sit at room temperature for 20 - 30 minutes while grill is preheating. Place chicken on grill and turn off burners underneath chicken. Grill chicken for about 20 - 25 minutes on each side. Chicken is done when juices are clear or leg moves easily. If chicken is not browned enough, place chicken over burners on other side of grill for about 5 minutes on each side. Allow chicken to sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

Squeeze fresh lemon juice over chicken before serving.

Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting
350° 30 minutes


2 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In mixing bowl, cream together vanilla, butter, and sugar. Add boiling water, blend well. Add eggs and mix until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into 13” x 9” baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Allow cake to completely cool before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 – 5 Tbsp milk
Dash of salt

Add all ingredients into mixing bowl and beat until smooth. For chocolate frosting, add ½ cup cocoa. With offset spatula, spread frosting over cake. Cover cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Grill Lemon Chicken


1 – 3 ½ lb chicken, flattened
Kosher salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tsp grated lemon zest
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
3 lemons, for juice and zest

Wash chicken with cold water and dry with paper towel. Remove spine using poultry scissors. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with kosher salt. Combine olive oil. Lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, and pepper in small bowl.

Place chicken on baking dish and pour marinade over chicken, coating both sides well. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Turn the chicken a couple of times while marinating.

Remove chicken from refrigerator and set out at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Preheat grill. Place chicken, skin side up, on grill. Turn off burners underneath chicken. Cook for 20 – 25 minutes per side, until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from grill, loosely cover with foil and let rest for about 5 minutes before cutting. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over chicken before serving.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Yesterday I was so busy preparing for today's sew-in that I didn't have the opportunity to write anything and I still wasn't able to get everything done as I had planned. Oh well... So today is the sew-in and I made a Cranberry Coffee Cake last night before going to bed. I receive a lot of requests for this recipe and thought I'd share it with everyone.

Cranberry Coffee Cake 350° 55 - 65 minutes

8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup softened butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 1/2 cups cranberries, or similar fruit

1/2 pecans, chopped

powder sugar

In large mixing bowl, cream cream cheese, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Mix. Add to batter in thirds. In small bowl, toss cranberries, chopped pecans, and final 1/4 cup flour. Fold into batter. Pour batter into a greased 10" bunt pan and bake in a 350° oven for 55 - 65 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before removing cake from bunt pan. Cool on rack and dust with powder sugar after it has completely cooled.

I need to finish packing for today's sew-in. I'll write more later if I have time.