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A Word from Anne A Word from Workman Recipe Swap Bits & Bytes Next Issue

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My heart goes out to the residents of the Gulf Coast who have endured Hurricane Gustav. I am thankful this storm was not another Katrina.

Our house has been hectic as we’ve celebrated summer birthdays and the kids have now headed back to school. I’m sharing a photo of a cake my older daughter baked for me recently. She and my younger daughter gave me the cupcake pan for my birthday and baked a giant chocolate chip cake in it. Two weeks later she headed off to college as a freshman. How can such a happy cake make a mother cry? When I asked my daughter what foods she would like for her last few meals at home, she said fried onion rings, burgers on the grill, and what she calls my Potato Stacky Thing, teenage-speak for Potatoes Dauphinoise, a recipe I learned to make many years ago in France, before I had a family, before I ever thought about counting calories. It’s more a method than a recipe, but here is how it goes:

Potatoes Dauphinoise (aka Potato Stacky Thing):
Scrub one large baking potato for each person you are feeding. If you like leftovers scrub an extra potato for the pan, as we say. Peel the potatoes then slice crosswise as thinly as you can. We use a mandoline. Mist a 2- to 3-quart casserole (depending on the number of potatoes you use) with a little vegetable oil spray, place a layer of potato slices on the bottom, slightly overlapping, in rows. Scatter slices of fresh garlic over the top, add a light sprinkling of salt, and scatter a handful of grated or shredded good Parmesan cheese on top. Repeat with layers just like this until you have used all your potatoes and nearly filled the pan. End with potatoes. Pour heavy cream around the outside edges of the potatoes and let the cream trickle in between the potatoes until the pan is half full of cream. (I use about 2 cups cream for 4 to 5 baking potatoes, for example). Sprinkle the top with a little Parmesan and paprika. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 70 minutes or until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork and are tender. Remove from the oven, remove the foil, and cut into squares and serve with steak, roasted chicken and grilled fish.

I remember the meal I wanted more than any other food when I returned home to visit my parents. It was my mother’s fried chicken with milk gravy, and for dessert, her chocolate cake. To me, and I guess to my children as well, the comings and goings of life center around food.

Happy Baking and Happy Fall!

Anne

Anne dishes out her best potluck pointers in an article for The Star Ledger on the art of potluck.

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Chocolate Chip Cupcake Cake (Lighter Stacy’s Chocolate Chip Cake)

Ever since Nashville cook Stacy Ross passed along the recipe 10 years ago it became a favorite of our crowd. But through the years I have sought to lighten it up mostly in response to your emails about how to make this great cake with less oil.

SERVES 12 TO 16
PREP: 20 MINUTES
BAKE: 65 TO 70 MINUTES IN THE CUPCAKE PAN; 50 TO 55 MINUTES IN A BUNDT
COOL: 40 MINUTES

Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan
Flour for dusting the pan
1 bar (4 ounces) German chocolate
1 package (18.5 ounces) plain butter recipe golden cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1½ cups milk
½ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mist a Nordic Ware Cupcake pan with vegetable oil spray and dust it with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.
2. Break the German chocolate bar into four pieces. Grate the bar using a food processor or a hand grater until the bar is finely grated. (If you are using a food processor, insert the steel blade and drop the chocolate pieces into the processor one at a time.) Set the grated chocolate aside.
3. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds or until ingredients are incorporated. Stop the machine, fold in the grated German chocolate, and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. Fold in the chocolate chips. Transfer the batter to the two sides of the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.
4. Bake the cake until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 65 to 70 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert the two parts onto a rack. Let the cakes cool completely, 25 to 30 minutes more. Assemble the cake, following the directions with the cake pan. Frost with my Fluffy Chocolate Frosting or your favorite chocolate frosting. Top with sprinkles and birthday candles and serve.

Note: You can bake this cake in a regular Bundt pan at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes.

High gas and grocery prices have put the squeeze on everyone, and this summer we shared many of your clever ideas for saving money in the kitchen. Here is one more, from Jen Spaeth of Ozark, MO, who saves both time and money by buying in bulk.

“I buy the large family packs of ground beef and cook it up that same day. I add chopped onion to flavor it slightly. Then, after it’s drained, I divide one-pound helpings into freezer bags. I lay them out flat on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer. They stack great that way and thaw faster. Then, whatever I want to fix that uses cooked ground beef is almost done before I start – tacos, spaghetti, chili, the list goes on.”

Our family saved money this summer by cooking more meals at home. I taught my 10-year-old son how to make an omelet and he soon became the breakfast chef, eager to open the refrigerator to see what he could chop and add to the omelet. His favorite? Sauteed onions and Cheddar, and a few capers for crunch. So it was a winning situation all around – fewer meals out, healthier ingredients from our own kitchen, and a sense of accomplishment by learning how to cook.

To read other winning money saving ideas, visit Anne's blog.

Reduced-Sugar Cake Mixes

Mary Keaveny of Collinsville, IL, wrote asking if I had any suggestions for doctoring up the reduced-sugar cake mixes that contain Splenda. I have tried both the yellow and chocolate mixes and think they benefit from doctoring. Here is how you can turn either one into a pound cake:

Reduced-Sugar Pound Cake
To a 18.25-ounce package of reduced-sugar yellow or chocolate cake mix add:
4 large eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1¼ cups milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract, optional

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, beating on low for 30 seconds, then medium-high for 1½ minutes. Pour into a misted and floured 12-cup Bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Let the pan cool 10 minutes on the rack, then invert and let cool completely, 30 minutes. Slice and serve with fresh fruit.

Baking for the holidays.

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