Lessons through Cooking: Baking with my Mother-in-law

One can tell that my father-in-law really enjoys cooking. We make it a ritual to buy him a new dressing, spice, or something he can use in his kitchen whenever we go on vacations. He loves to find recipes that are easy to make and modify it according to what he or his guests prefer. Mom and Dad often invite us over for dinner. Dad especially enjoys cooking for others. He takes his time and extra care even though each meal is simple. I always enjoy the meals he prepares for us. I always appreciate the simplicity of each meal and enjoy every bite. He knows how to make the simple comfort meal look like more than what it is. 

When I cook in our home for Kris, I try to make similar meals. I want to be done in the kitchen so we can enjoy our meal together yet I still take extra care to add the things that Kris really enjoys. I make my own modifications and add other ingredients to make the meal more complete. Kris never has been into fancy food so I stick to comfort foods with a special twist. 

I am not much of a baker. I can follow a boxed mix pretty well but I rarely try to bake from scratch. When I do, it does not come out like the picture shown in the recipe. Before we left on vacation, I learned my mother-in-law has always been quite the baker although she has not had much of a chance to do much baking. I was happy to hear this as perhaps I could learn a trick or two and perhaps some recipes that Kris might have enjoyed as a child.

The chance to learn something came much sooner than I expected. My mother-in-law had asked me to come over and help her bake a few things since I was going to be in town. Kris was going to be up in Pasco County, and I would be spending some time with my in-laws by myself. I had not had a chance to spend time with them alone since we were married. I had spent time with them before we were married but it was not more than an hour or so and I never had the chance to spend time with just my mother-in-law. I did not know what to expect but I was excited to learn a new recipe or two that I could try at home.

We started off by making a simple 5-minute diet key lime pie. She had never made it before but wanted to try it to see if she could maybe make it for Thanksgiving. It was made from sugar free lime gelatin, fat free key lime pie yogurt, and light whipped topping. It was simple and easy with no baking. It did not look like a real key lime pie but it tasted like one. It was more like a key lime flavored Jell-O pie.

The next thing we made was simple three-minute fudge (Super-Easy Chocolate Fudge except we used 12oz milk chocolate chips and 6oz semi-sweet chocolate chips) They were so rich that you could eat only one at a time. We poured them into rubber molds to make different shapes. We had hearts, shells, flowers, and butterflies. The molds were actually butter molds but Mom used them for fudge. Since the molds were deeper, the hearts and shells came out easier than the butterflies and flowers. I am sure that whoever eats them will not be looking at how pretty (or not so pretty) each shape turned out.

The last thing we made was a plum wine bundt cake. I had never made a bundt cake before much less a liquor or wine flavored cake. The recipe we used was for a whiskey cake that she had cut out from an old newspaper many years ago. As an expert baker, she had made some modifications to the recipe and I followed her lead. I was happy to see that the recipe called for a box pound cake mix as our base ingredient. It helped keep the recipe simple and easy to repeat when I got home. We both made our own bundt cake and I just followed the recipe just as she was doing. She had made the recipe before with whiskey but not with a plum wine. It was something new for both of us although she had much more baking experience than I did.

Whiskey cake recipe

(The recipe originally called for 2 boxes and was made in a 9-10 inch spring foam pan and served 15 to 20 people. We only used one box each and used a bundt pan instead)

1 box pound cake mix
Eggs – as many as box recipe calls for
Butter (we left this out but you will need as much as the box recipe calls for)
Bourbon (We used plum wine) & Heavy whipping cream (amounts will depend on how much liquid necessary for pound cake)

1. Preheat oven to temperature required for bundt cake. Lightly grease and flour bundt cake pan.
2. Prepare pound cake as per directions on the box. Use 2 parts bourbon to 1 part heavy cream in place of the liquid needed for cake. (For example, if 1 and ½ cups of milk is needed, then use 1 cup bourbon and ½ cup of cream)  -- Mom modified the recipe to one to one rather than two to one.
3. Pour batter into pan.
4. Bake according to directions on box.

Mom gave me some of the fudge we made and the heart and shell molds so that I can make fudge here at home. She also gave me the bundt cake I made. I decided to add a glaze to the bundtbundt cake.

Glazed Plum Wine Bundt Cake

The cake was so good...

...I had three slices!

Shell and heart shaped molds for fudge

Heart shaped fudge

Shell, flower, and butterfly shaped fudge

I am so glad that I got to spend this time with Mom. I look forward to spending time with Mom again and learning more new recipes that I can share with our kids someday.

Lessons learned through cooking:

1. Always grease AND flour the pan when baking. The flour will stick to the grease and help keep the cake from sticking to the pan.
2. Baking is not as intimidating or scary as I used to think.
3. Special moments shared with loves ones are to be cherished for a lifetime.

Lessons through cooking: Potato Pancakes

Before I got married I never thought of myself as a good cook. As a young child and teenager I even had difficulty cooking a simple frozen pizza without burning either the pizza or myself and sometimes even both. I often tried new recipes that just did not come out like the pictures I saw or the way I had seen others make them. I continued with my college food staples for a long time as they were simple and I had a decreased chance of burning the food, myself, and even the house down.

When Kris and I were engaged last year, I realized that my current food staples although filling and satisfying were not going to be a healthy choice in the long run to feed and take care of our family. I also realized that cooking for our family would become my responsibility. I had to start to make some changes in the way I ate and what I cooked. I did want to start cooking fancy meals as I knew Kris was not into fancy meals or even fancy dining. I knew he enjoyed more of the comfort foods so I became an expert at cooking comfort foods with a healthier twist. I tried to learn to make meals from a box without using the boxed meals.

I get my basic recipes from various Internet websites such as Cooks.com or Allrecipes.com. Even websites such as weelicious.com offer simple and healthy alternatives to familiar comfort foods that we both enjoy. The recipes are simple and do not take much time to prepare or cook although it does take me some time to prepare recipes or meals I have never tried. They are not the fancy recipes found on other websites such as Foodnetwork.com. I am not opposed to using other sites but I find the recipes more complicated than what I need. I do not follow the recipes to the letter but I use them as a basic guideline. I tweak each recipe as needed every time I make it. Each dish comes out different every time I make it. I cannot seem to cook something the same way twice. I am very fortunate to have a willing guinea pig to try each new recipe with an open mind and heart. Kris loves that he gets a new dish every once in a while and he has not complained (much) since we have been married. I do not think he has eaten this well since his childhood days. There have been a lot of changes since eating frozen meals, Ramen noodles, or eating out during his bachelor days.

I often like to try new recipes when I have to use foods before they spoil. Kris is very big on not wasting any food. He makes sure to save or eat every bit of food on the table at every meal. He will even eat the last few bites on my plate so there is nothing that goes to waste. He likes to consider himself a bit of an environmentalist since reading an article online.

I decided on potato pancakes for today's recipe since we had a few potatoes that I was afraid might spoil in the next few days.They turned out to be more like potato cakes rather than pancakes but Kris enjoyed them. When Kris is happy then I am a happy wife.

Potato pancakes which came out more like flat potato cakes

I learned a few lessons today in making my potato (pan)cakes. Lessons that I think will make me a better cook and an even better wife and Mom someday.

Lessons learned through cooking:

1. A little flour goes a LONG way.
2. A little salt does NOT go a long way.
3. A big mess is not as a big mess that we think it is when it is all cleaned and put away.

I still do not consider myself a good cook but I know that I have a satisfied and happy husband who does not want for food.
 
Click the link to see basic recipe that I followed to make my potato (pan)cakes today.