Sam's Club Beef Kabobs, Grilled Corn on the Cob with Garlic Butter and Fruit Salad

Since Memorial Day is now over and that day officially kicks off the grilling season, I thought I would share with you some of my favorites!

My friend PJ and I make or weekly trip to the grocery store and sometimes make a stop at Sam's Club.  We started doing this when PJ would watch my daughter, Gillian, on Wednesday mornings when I bowled.  PJ doesn't drive (I've seen her push a grocery cart, be thankful) so she would accompany us to the store.  Gillian was about 6 months old at that time and is now 12 years old!

On this particular day, they were doing samples of beef and chicken kabobs and the beef ones had a very unique flavor.  They handed us the recipe cards and couldn't believe 2 out of the 3 marinade ingredients.  Country Time Lemonade Mix and Hidden Valley Ranch Mix!  The third was olive oil.  I know it sounds very strange, but you gotta try these.  They only need a minimum of 30 minutes to marinate and they are so easy.  I don't necessarily recommend using extra-virgin olive oil because it has a higher flash point and these are done on the grill, if possible.  On most recipes you can get away using regular olive oil if it's being cooked because extra-virgin's flavor holds up better when it isn't cooked for very long and at lower heats.  The recipe name was just Beef Kabobs, but I like to keep track of where I get recipes so I renamed them Sam's Club Beef Kabobs!  Here's the recipe:

Sam’s Club Beef Kebabs

Ingredients:

·       1 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak, cut into 1 1/4" cubes

·       1 tbsp. Country Time Lemonade Mix                      

·       1 oz. (3 tbsp.) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

·       1/4 cup canola oil

·       1 red or orange bell pepper, cut into 2" squares                             

·       6 mushrooms, cut in half

·       12 cherry or grape tomatoes                      

·       6 skewers       

·       non-stick spray

Directions:

    In a bowl, combine seasoning, lemonade mix and oil with a whisk.  Stir in beef cubes and marinate for 30 minutes in refrigerator. 

    Alternately thread pieces of meat, bell pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes on 6 skewers.  Spray with cooking spray. 

    Grill at medium heat for 10-12 minutes, turning occasionally.

Servings:  6


If you use bamboo skewers, be sure that you soak them in cold water for 30 minutes just before threading. If you use metal skewers, make sure you use tongs or oven mitts to turn them.  I don't recommend using white mushrooms, they keep splitting in half when you're trying to thread them.  I used brown mushrooms or you can use baby portabellas.  Be sure you don't overcook the skewers or the meat will be tough.  Enjoy!

Grilled Corn on the Cob with Garlic Butter

Ingredients:

·       4 whole ears of corn, cut in half

·       Garlic Butter:

·       1 stick unsalted butter, slightly softened

·       4 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped

·       Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

    Combine butter and garlic in a food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside until ready to use.

    Preheat grill to medium. Peel back the husks of the corn without removing them. Remove the silks and recover the corn with the husk. Soak in large bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.

    Remove corn from water and shake off excess. Place the corn on the grill, close the cover and grill for 15 to 20 minutes.

Unwrap corn and brush with the garlic butter. 

Servings:  8

I adapted this recipe from a Bobby Flay recipe.  It's very simple and very tasty.  I like to cut the cobs in half after cooking, because some people aren't able to finish a whole one and therefore, not as much will be wasted.  Get the butter done first so the flavors have a chance to marry.  If you don't want to deal with the husks and silk, tear them completely off.  Cut the cobs in half and wrap them in heavy duty foil.  Heavy duty foil really is better for the grill.  Cook them for the same amount of time.  

Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

·       1 tbsp. honey 

·       2 tbsp. lemon juice                    

·   1 sprig of mint, leaves chopped

·       preferred fruit, i.e. cherries, bananas, apples, grapes, strawberries, canned pineapple totaling about 3 cups

Directions:

    Combine honey and lemon juice (to taste) and add mint. 

    Cube and slice desired fruit and toss with dressing.  Cool before serving.

Servings:  4

I first tried this recipe while visiting some long lost relatives.  Her daughter had just started culinary school and made this recipe for her.  My favorite combo of fruits is banana, fuji or gala apple (no need to peel), cherries halved, green grapes halved, and strawberries.  I used strawberries from Oxnard, CA and they truly are the best!  Refrigerate to cool and then serve.  I normally make this recipe in May and June because the cherries really make it and those are the months they are best in season.  

In the Garden Pictures

Top: Snow Peas  Bottom:  Super Sugar Snap Peas

Radishes, romaine, red leaf lettuce and mint!

Everyday I'm seeing more and more stuff to harvest in the garden.  I've been harvesting boysenberries, sugar snap peas, snow peas, romaine lettuce, rosalita leaf lettuce, radishes (pink, white, red half red & white!), green onions, and mint.  In the next week or so I should be able to harvest spinach and zucchini squash.  I'm already seeing green tomatoes and little bell & hot peppers forming.  This is such an exciting time in the garden.  I love just walking around and checking on the progress of all the plants while munching on raw sugar snap and snow peas.

Phyllis

Bella

I've started letting my Polish hens, Phyllis and Bella, roam the garden.  It really is entertaining to watch them scratching the weeds I've left here and there for them searching for insects.  I even turn over a planter stone or two to surprise them with some big fat ones in hiding.  You should see them run after those little invaders.  This may sound weird, but I am so looking forward to the day I find one of those evil, plump tomato horn worms so I can turn it over to the wrath of the chickens.  A fitting death!  I've been hand picking squash beetles and rolly polly's (that's what we've called them since kids) over to the girls and I haven't seen any squash beetles in two days!

Don't forget, walk your garden every day if you can.  You'll be amazed with the day to day progress and might catch a problem before it's beyond repair.  Also, think of having bird feeders and hummingbird feeders nearby.  Yes, they may eat a bit of your garden here and there, but they will eat far more insects.  I love my little ecosystem right there in the garden.  Sit for a spell and you'll probably see at least 2-3 lizards sunning themselves or on the hunt for bugs.  Come out at night with a flashlight and you'll spot several pairs of glowing eyes from the spiders.  Everyone's welcome as long as they play nice.  Don't play nice and you will be eaten!

Flour Cafe's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I was in the mood to bake, but wanted something that was more on the healthy side.  If you ask any nutritionist (which I did) what is the healthiest cookie, they will most likely tell you Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  Who would have thought that you could eat these babies with very little guilt?  In the realm of cookies, this probably isn't the most favorite maybe due to the oatmeal or the raisins or both, but I love them.  They just have that old-fashioned goodness.

I have a couple of recipes that are pretty good, but wanted to try these from one of my cookbooks.  They are from Joanne Change's cookbook "Flour:  Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Cafe and Bakery".  I have written about this cookbook before on my blog about her Banana Bread.  So here's the recipe:

Flour Cafe's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light (golden) brown sugar

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arthur's is best!)

1 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled outs (not instant or quick cooking)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt (if you don't have kosher use 1/2 tsp. regular salt)

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cinnamon (Vietnamese is best!)

1 1/2 cups raisins

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer or wooden spoon), cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy.  (This step will take 10 minutes if using a handheld mixer or spoon.)  Stop the mixer a few times and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and the paddle to release any clinging butter or sugar.  Beat in the eggs on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, or until thoroughly combined.  Scrape the bowl and the paddle again to make sure the eggs are thoroughly incorporated.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  Add the raisins and toss to combine and coat.  On low speed (or with wooden spoon), slowly add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and then mix just until the flour mixture is totally incorporated and the dough is evenly mixed.  

For the best results, scrape the dough into an airtight container and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least 3-4 hours) before baking.  When ready to bake, position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat the oven to 350 degrees.  

Drop the dough in 1/4 cup balls onto a baking sheet, spacing them about 2" apart.  Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand.  

Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown on the edges and slightly soft in the center.  Be careful not to over bake.  Soft, chewy centers make these cookies irresistible.  Let cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.

I highly recommend using a stand mixer for this recipe.  It's important to get the butter-sugar mixture to that light and fluffy stage which the stand mixer is perfect for.  Also, when you incorporate the flour-oatmeal mixture into the butter-sugar mixture the mixer will save your arms. 

In this recipe she calls for freshly grated nutmeg which I always use if a recipe calls for nutmeg.  You can purchase the whole nutmegs at any grocery store and all you need is a micro-grater.  The smell of freshly grated nutmeg is heaven!  As always, I use King Arthur's flours and their Vietnamese cinnamon.  Another thing, don't substitute regular butter for the unsalted butter or your cookies will be salty.  Unsalted butter really is best in baking anyways. And if you have had that container of oatmeal in your pantry for a while, please check the expiration date.  If it's stale or too old, it will ruin your recipe.  Fresh is best!

I did as she recommended and let the dough sit overnight in the refrigerator.  I also use this technique for my chocolate chip cookies.  It really does make a difference.  To form the cookies, I use my Pampered Chef medium scoop (my standard for all cookies).  No baker should be without at least 1 of each size.  I have 2-3 of each size and use them constantly.  The small scoop is perfect size for small mouths and you'll be amazed at the lack of crumbs on your kitchen floor or car back seat.  The recipe calls for you to slightly flatten each ball, but I have to admit I forgot to do that, but they turned out just fine probably due to the convection mode.

For this batch, I used my convection setting at 325 degrees (convection is always 25 degrees lower than the recipe calls for) because I was cooking 2 sheets of cookies in each oven.  They cooked in 15 minutes (convection usually takes 5 minutes less than the recipe calls for) and were perfect.  I always use a sheet of parchment on the cookie sheets because when I take them out of the oven, I just slide the parchment with cookies directly onto the cooling rack.  I do this because when you let them cool on the rack, they are still cooking.  You can eat them slightly warm or cooled completely.  

So enjoy your only very slightly guilty pleasure in all their oatmeal-cinnamon-nutmeg glory!  

Mimi's Cafe Carrot Raisin Bread

I've loved this bread for years and decided I was going to find the recipe on the internet and make it myself.  Guess what?  There are a lot of copycat recipes on the web for this recipe.  Most of them call for molasses which I believe they add to recreate the darkness of the bread. But, when I tried them, they weren't even close and were way too bitter!  So I kept searching.  Eventually I found this recipe that had been printed in the Sacramento Bee.  They have a column where readers request recipes from restaurants and they try to get them. Someone had requested the Carrot Raisin bread from Mimi's Cafe and a manager in Sacramento got permission from the parent company to give it out.  And it has no molasses!

I've been making this recipe for a while now and while it's not as dark as the one they give you in the restaurant, it tastes pretty darn close.  If you do want the darkness, you can use a product a lot of commercial bakers and restaurants use and you'll never guess the name.  It's called....Caramel Color!  I bought mine through King Arthur Flour.  It says it can be used to enhance the visual appeal of pumpernickel, dark breads, gravies, etc.

Here's the recipe:

Mimi’s Café Carrot Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

·       1 3/4 cups flour 

·       1 cup sugar         

·       2 tsp. cinnamon

·       1 tsp. baking soda        

·       1/2 tsp. baking powder

·       1/2 tsp. salt         

·       1/2 cup milk       

·       1/2 cup vegetable oil

·       1 egg

·       1/2 tsp. vanilla   

·       1 cup grated carrot

·       1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray one 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" loaf pan with cooking spray; set aside. 

    In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, oil, egg and vanilla.  Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients until well-blended.  Sprinkle carrot and raisins over batter and blend until evenly distributed. 

    Pour batter into pan and even out on top.  Bake 45-60 minutes or until a tester inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool in pan for five minutes on cooling rack and then remove from pan.   Cool on rack for 15 more minutes before slicing. Serve warm.

Servings: 1 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" loaf

The original recipe called for it to be baked in a mini loaf pan, but since I'm not serving these in a restaurant I use a regular loaf pan.  You can use your standard 9x5" loaf pan, but I picked up a couple beautiful 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" loaf pans made by USA Pans so that's what I used.  

I like to use a product called Bak-Klene.  It's a non-stick spray/flour combination that my mom always used in her bakery.  The only place we can find it is at Smart & Final.  It's works pretty well in all pans except the specialty Nordic Ware pans.  I definitely advise you to do the shortening/flour technique on those puppies. Oops, I digress.  Anyways, here the batter in the oven. As you can see I smoothed out the top of the batter to help it rise evenly.

The recipe calls for regular salt, but if you wish to use kosher salt, just double the amount.  I also recommend using a good quality cinnamon.  I use Vietnamese cinnamon and I believe it really makes a difference in my baked goods.

It's real important to make sure your bread is baked completely.  If you don't, the middle will sink in and it is not very attractive.  You can use toothpicks, but I like to use bamboo skewers you would use for kebabs.  I feel like toothpicks are a little too narrow and the skewers are just the right width to catch the unbaked batter.

Of course you can serve it once it has cooled somewhat, but if you ever have patience enough try bagging it up and letting it sit overnight.  Like cupcakes, most quick breads are actually better the next day.  They will be more moist and have more flavor.  By the way, it is excellent with a nice wisp of butter on your slice!  Enjoy!

  

Chicken Enchiladas Salsa Verde

Here's another recipe from Lucinda Scala Quinn.  I really like this recipe and it will be great for Summertime.  It has a couple unique things to it.  The sauce has an item you don't usually associate with enchiladas-peanuts.  It sounds weird but gives it a real good flavor that you can't quite put your finger on.  Now if you or someone in your family has allergies, just omit them.  The next thing is you prepare a light salad and put it on top of the enchiladas.  Lucinda came up with this idea to make her boys eat some salad.  I like it because it lightens up the enchiladas.

This recipe has several steps that help build the flavor, so don't do any shortcuts.  They are worth it.  This recipe uses shredded chicken and at the end their are directions on poaching a whole chicken.  I usually try to take a picture before everyone digs in, but sometimes I just don't make it in time.

Lucinda Scala Quinn’s Chicken Enchiladas Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

·       Green Sauce 

·       1/2 white onion, peeled and coarsely chopped

·       2 garlic cloves, unpeeled

·       2 serrano or jalapeno chiles, stems removed

·       14 whole tomatillos, peeled and simmered in water for 5 minutes

·       1/4 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

·       2 tsp. coarse salt

·       1/2 cup chicken broth

·       Enchiladas

·       3 cups Green Sauce

·       1 tbsp. canola oil

·       12 corn tortillas, toasted, stacked, and wrapped in a clean kitchen towel to steam

·       4 cups shredded chicken (from a 3 lb. poached chicken)

·       7 oz. queso fresco, crumbled, or shredded Monterey Jack cheese

·       3 to 4 cups shredded romaine lettuce, washed and dried

·       6 radishes, trimmed and sliced

·       1 tsp. white vinegar

·       coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

·       2 tsp. canola oil

Directions:

    Preheat the broiler. Place the onion, garlic, and chiles on a baking sheet. Broil for 4 minutes, or until charred and blistered. Discard the garlic skin. Place the onion, garlic, and chiles in a blender jar with the tomatillos, peanuts, salt, and broth. Blend until smooth.

        Preheat the oven to 375º.

    Heat a saucepan to medium high and add the oil. Carefully pour in the green sauce and cook, stirring constantly to thicken up, about 3 minutes. One by one dip the tortillas in the sauce, place in an ungreased 9 x 13" baking dish, fill with some chicken, and roll up. Fit each enchilada snugly next to the other in the baking dish. Pour the remaining green sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling and the enchiladas are heated through.

    Meanwhile, toss the lettuce and radishes with the oil, the vinegar, and salt and pepper. Layer the salad on top of the hot enchiladas and serve immediately.

    Note:  To poach chicken, place 3 to 3 1/2 lb. whole chicken in cold water to cover.  Bring to boil and cook for 50 minutes more.  Allow chicken to cool completely and shred chicken.  Leftover broth can be used or frozen.

Servings:  6

Easter Dinner Recipes

I love holidays.  I mean I really love holidays.  And as much work as I put into them, I'm sure my family wishes I loved them a lot less.  No dice people.  Yes, I get a little crazy about a couple of them, but I love the looks on people's faces when they see the decorations and eat the food.  I love the feelings and memories holidays give you.  And to me, Easter means good food, especially dessert!

My mainstay is always ham and then I include a couple quiches because my friend PJ doesn't eat ham.  Not that I really need an excuse, but that's why I never change that element.  Normally I make Julia Child's Braised Ham, but wanted to change things up this year.  I tried a recipe from a magazine called Orange Glazed Spiral Ham.  While this ham involved a lot less work, I have to say Julia, your ham rocks!  I don't seem to have much luck with the spiral hams.  I've only done one once before and they just seem too dry.  But, if you love spiral hams and you don't have the problem with it becoming dry, here is the recipe I used:

Orange-Glazed Spiral Ham

  

Ingredients:

·       1 fully cooked spiral-cut ham (about 8 lb.)

·       1 cup packed dark brown sugar

·       1/4 cup orange juice

·       1 cup (12 oz. jar) orange marmalade

·       1/4 cup Dijon mustard

·       Sliced oranges, to garnish

Directions:

    Preheat oven to 375º.

    Place ham, cut side down, on a rack in large roasting pan.  Pour 2 cups of water into roasting pan.  Cover ham with aluminum foil.

    Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes.  While ham is baking, whisk together brown sugar, orange juice, marmalade and mustard.  Set aside.

    Remove foil and brush ham liberally with about 3/4 cup of the orange glaze.  Heat uncovered for 30 minutes or until ham is nicely colored and internal temperature registers 140º on an instant read thermometer. 

    Let ham stand 10 minutes before slicing.  To slice, cut around center bone with a knife, freeing as many slices as you wish.  Cut along the natural seams  of the ham to remove slices separated from the bone.  Serve with remaining glaze on the side.  Garnish with orange slices, if desired.

Servings:  24

As part of my main dish offerings, I use Julia Child's quiche recipes.  I did a Broccoli and a Spinach quiche.  She calls for a prebaked 9" pie crust.  When I use this, the filling always seems too shallow, so I usually double the filling amounts.  This year I baked them in a 11" tart pan, and the single filling worked out perfect.  The tart pan is much shallower than the pie dish.  But, I would recommend you do her recipe as directed first and then try the double filling in your pie dish and see what you like better.  Just remember, when you double it, it will take longer to bake and you DO NOT want to underbake a quiche.  I've done it, and it's quite embarrassing!

Broccoli Quiche

  

Ingredients:

·       2 tbsp. minced shallots or scallions                         

·       2 tbsp. unsalted butter

·       salt and freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg            

·       2/3 cup or so cooked chopped broccoli                  

·       3 large eggs

·       1 1/2 cups whole milk or cream                              

·       1/4 cup lightly pressed down, grated Swiss cheese

·       9” prebaked shell, see recipe for butter dough

Directions:

    Preheat the oven to 375º. 

    Sauté the shallots or scallions briefly in the butter, add the broccoli and seasonings; stir over heat until tender.  Let cool. 

    Blend the eggs with enough milk or cream to make 1 1/2 cups.  Blend broccoli mixture into the custard. 

    Reserving 2 tablespoons of cheese, strew the rest in the shell. 

    Pour in the broccoli-custard up to 1/4” of the rim.  Sprinkle on the remaining cheese; bake 35 minutes until puffed and browned. 

Servings:  6-8                                                      

Spinach Quiche

  

Ingredients:

·       2 tbsp. minced shallots or scallions              

·       2 tbsp. unsalted butter

·       10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well

·       salt, freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg      

·       3 large eggs

·       1 1/2 cups whole milk or cream                   

·       1/4 cup lightly pressed down, grated Swiss cheese

·       9” prebaked shell, see recipe for butter dough

Directions:

    Preheat the oven to 375º. 

    Sauté the shallots or scallions briefly in the butter, add the spinach; stir over heat until tender.  Season, let cool. 

    Blend the eggs with enough milk or cream to make 1 1/2 cups.  Blend spinach mixture into the custard. 

    Reserving 2 tablespoons of cheese, strew the rest in the shell.  Pour in the spinach-custard up to 1/4” of the rim.  Sprinkle on the remaining cheese; bake 35 minutes until puffed and browned. 

Servings:  9”, 6

These recipes and the ham recipe I mentioned are in Julia Child's The Way to Cook.  I love this cookbook because she really explains how to do the dishes.  It's pretty big!

The next recipe I tried for the first time at my friend Angela's house.  I'm not really big on fruit dips, but this one is so different.  It definitely has a more tropical flavor to it.

To the left is the fruit dip with orange slices, pineapple and strawberries.
To the right is Mimi's Cafe's Carrot Raisin Bread (minus nuts).

Angela’s Fruit Dip

  

Ingredients:

·       1/2 cup sugar

·       2 tbsp. flour

·       1 cup pineapple juice

·       1 egg, beaten

·       1 tbsp. butter

·       1 cup Cool Whip

Directions:

    Combine sugar, flour, juice, egg and butter in saucepan.  Heat on medium until smooth and thick.  Set aside to cool completely.

    Once cool, add Cool Whip and beat until fluffy.  Chill for 2 hours before serving.

Servings:  2 1/2-3 cups

The following is one of those recipes where I tried it at a restaurant and immediately got on the internet to find the recipe.  But, it's not enough to find it, you've gotta figure out which one is the actual one from the restaurant and which ones are just someone's interpretation.  A lot of them called for molasses, but it just wasn't the same flavor.  This one I found from the Sacramento Bee and it's from one of Mimi's Cafe's managers who received permission to give the recipe out.  And it's delicious!  But, as you'll notice I omitted the nuts.  Sorry, but as you've read before (if you have) I do not like nuts in a lot of things.  So, just add some chopped walnuts if you like.

Mimi’s Café Carrot Raisin Bread

  

Ingredients:

·       1 3/4 cups flour 

·       1 cup sugar         

·       2 tsp. cinnamon

·       1 tsp. baking soda        

·       1/2 tsp. baking powder

·       1/2 tsp. salt         

·       1/2 cup milk       

·       1/2 cup vegetable oil

·       1 egg

·       1/2 tsp. vanilla   

·       1 cup grated carrot

·       1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray one standard loaf pan with cooking spray; set aside. 

    In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, oil, egg and vanilla.  Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients until well-blended.  Sprinkle carrot and raisins over batter and blend until evenly distributed. 

    Pour batter into pan and even out on top.  Bake 45-60 minutes or until a tester inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool in pans for five minutes on cooling rack and then remove from pan.

    Cool on rack for 15 more minutes before slicing. Serve warm.

Servings: 1 loaf

This next recipe is one of my all-time favorites-Angel Food Cake!  When I would make this as a kid, I always made two.  One for me and one for my family.  I'm not kidding, I would eat a whole Angel Food Cake.  Good thing it's considered one of the lightest desserts.  This is from Alton Brown of The Food Network.  It requires the use of a food processor to make the sugar superfine.  I use to be able to find superfine sugar at the grocery store, but lately I haven't.  I really wouldn't recommend you skip this step.  It's important to use superfine sugar to keep the texture light.  It also calls for orange extract which smells divine while it's baking.  I actually have visions of bridal showers when I smell this cake.  Lately I've been using Fiore di Sicilia, an extract from Italy.  I order it from King Arthur Flour.  It's a combination of Italian citruses and vanilla and has such a unique flavor and scent.  

The reason the recipe calls for the eggs to be as close to room temperature is because egg whites which actually whip up faster and better if they are room temperature.  Whipping cream is the opposite.  Whipping cream actually does better if you put the bowl and the whip in the freezer for a while, too!

It's kind of hard to see, but if you look close, the Angel Food Cake is on the stand with the cover.  Yumm!

Alton Brown’s Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:

·       1 3/4 cups sugar

·       1/4 tsp. salt         

·       1 cup cake flour, sifted

·       12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better)

·       1/3 cup warm water

·       1 tsp. orange extract    

·       1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar      

Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350º.

    In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt and the cake flour, setting the remaining sugar aside.

    In a mixer with the whisk, thoroughly combine egg whites, water, orange extract, and cream of tartar. Slowly sift in the reserved sugar, beating continuously at medium speed.

    Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.

    Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Bake for 35 minutes (20 minutes for mini-cakes) before checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).

    Cool upside down on cooling rack for at least an hour before removing from pan.

    Cook’s Note: Since they’re easier to separate, use the freshest eggs you can get.

Servings:  10” cake or 12 mini-cakes