BumbleBee Birthday Cake

A birthday cake I made for a coworker, in keeping with this summers bee theme.

Better Beef Stew

Using our fresh beef, I made a stew to stock a friends freezer. Short on time, I eschewed my normal redskin potatoes in favor of 2 lbs. of tiny golden creamers - "new potatoes," as they were advertised. They really made an amazing addition - both in time and in taste. Since new potatoes are dug up early, they have a much lower starch content (which is why dieticians recommend them as a lower glycemic potato) and they lend a very creamy, buttery flavor to the stew. Many of them were so tiny that they didn't need to be cut - and even the largest ones only needed to be cut in half. This freed up a lot of time in stew preparation that I normally spend washing and cutting large red potatoes. Normally I favor reskins for their color, but in a stew the skin often softens and peels back, so it's all a wash in the end. The photo is not the best, because it was for someone else I had to omit the carrots I would normally put there, so it is missing that bright orange splash of color. But still the combination of the fresh beef and the buttery golden new potatoes made it one of the best stews I have made.

BLT Wraps

When it's hot and steamy out it's hard to cook. A simple BLT wrap with oven baked fries goes a long way. And there's no standing over a hot stove, either! A dash of honey mustard keeps the BLT from being overly salty.

Beef

Each year we purchase a side of fresh beef. It's hormone free black angus and humanely raised. This is what a side of beef looks like - it lasts us for about a year.

Kayak Cake

I made this cake for a neighbor as thanks for the use of their kayak over memorial day weekend. It's a chocolate cake with fudge buttercream icing, and kayaks molded out of marshmallow fondant. They enjoyed it! And that's what cake is all about.

Honey Grilled Shrimp

The Crispy Honey Shrimp at PF Changs is a big favorite of mine. But I always feel bad eating it because deep frying something that is freshly tasty like shrimp seems like such a waste of calories and seafood flavor! So I started making it at home, but on the grill.

For 1 pound of shrimp:

Peel and devein. Marinate for 1/2 hour in 1/2 cup worcestershire and 1/2 white wine, with 2 tbsp minced garlic whisked in. Thread onto skewers.

Mix together 1/2 cup honey with 1/4 cup melted butter. Whisk until smooth. Grill the skewers, brushing with the marinade at each turn. Do not overcook or shrimp will be tough.

The grilled honey sauce creates a really pleasant crystalized taste. Almost as good as the deep fried version, and a whole lot better for you.