Filet Marinade

This meat marinade has become my "Go To" meat marinade!  YUM!!

1 Cup of oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 Tablespoons diced garlic

1 Cup of water

1 Beef Filet*

Mix the marinade ingredients well and place the raw meat in the marinade.  Cover and put it in the fridge overnight.  I leave mine in the marinade for close to 24 hours.  When your are ready to grill the meat, just place it on the grill and cook until done.  Last time I made this, I served it on top of a spinach salad with this salad dressing.

*You usually have to ask around for Beef Filet's.  They do not usually have them sitting out with the rest of the meat, so you have to ask the man at the meat counter if they have Filet.  I tend to find them at Shoa or Fantu.

Russian Dressing

We recently ate this salad dressing on a Spinach Salad.  It's a hard salad dressing to describe, but I found this recipe while looking through spinach salad recipes on allrecipes.com .

1/2 Cup white sugar

1/2 Cup of white vinegar

1 Cup of oil

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1/3 Cup of ketchup

1 small onion

In a blender or food processor, combine all the ingredients and process until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Hard Boiled Eggs

I LOVE hard boiled eggs!  I hate peeling hard boiled eggs!!  But, I read something on a website a few weeks ago that has changed the fate of hard boiled eggs forever in my world.  If you boil eggs with a Tablespoon of white vinegar, they will be super easy to peel !  I have tried it several times now & it has worked every time!!  Just thought I'd share this little trick with you.

Yum, I am happy just thinking about it . . . deviled eggs, egg salad, etc.  Happy Peeling.

Fondant - Marshmallow

 

My daughter wanted an Olaf cake for her Birthday, so I decided to try my hand at making Fondant.  It was actually pretty easy to make.  I'm not the best at decorating with it yet, I guess practice will make perfect.

This makes 2 Cups of Fondant:

2 Cups of Marshmallow's

2-5 Tablespoons of Water

8 Cups Powdered Sugar (sifted)

1 stick of butter

Place the marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a double boiler.  I used a metal bowl that I set on top of a pot of boiling water.  Stir the marshmallows and water until the marshmallows are completely melted.

Place 5 cups of powdered sugar on top of the melted marshmallow mixture and gently fold it into the marshmallows. Grease your hands and your counter-top generously with butter.  Turn the marshmallow mixture onto counter and start kneading it like you would dough. Add more powdered sugar as needed and re-grease your hands the counter-top as needed.  If the marshmallow fondant is tearing easily, it is too dry; add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time) kneading until fondant forms a firm, smooth elastic ball that will stretch without tearing, about 8 minutes.

Roll the fondant out about 1/8 inch thick with a rolling pin and lay it over your cake.  This is my attempt at an Olaf cake made with Fondant.  The carrot nose, teeth and hair are all shaped out of fondant.  I used food coloring and a paint brush to "paint" the fondant.

I bought my marshmallows at Fantu.  The packages I bought had pink and white marshmallows.  I wanted to make white icing, so I only used the white marshmallows in the package.  If you use the pink marshmallows, your entire fondant will come out with a pink color.  That is fine if you are going to use food coloring to color the fondant, but if you want white fondant then you need to use white marshmallows.

To store the fondant, coat it with a thin layer of butter, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap, and then place it in a resealable bag with all the air squeezed out. It will keep well in refrigerator for several weeks.  When ready to use, knead the fondant until smooth and roll it out.

Grandma's Fruit Cobbler

This is my Grandma's recipe & I love to throw this together for a quick dessert when I have company.  

Batter:

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Cup Milk

Fruit:

One large can of Peaches (I've also used pears) - you will want the fruit (cut into bite

size pieces) & the juice

1 Cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In the oven, Melt 1/4 Cup of butter into a 9x13 baking dish. Add the batter into the pan with the melted butter.  Spread it out over the bottom of the pan.  Pour the fruit evenly over the top.  Bake for 1 hour (or until it is slightly brown on top)