Ciopinno and Coconut Cake

Every year for my birthday, I bake a cake and make the Italian seafood stew, Ciopinno. This year was no different, except that this year it wasn't actually on my birthday day (work schedules and all) that I made this to celebrate with my family. It was the very best stew I have ever made and I had to share.

Ciopinno
Adapted from: The Best of Sunset

Saute:
1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced

Add:
1/2 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 T. dried parsley, minced
28 oz. can tomato sauce
3 -15 oz. cans Italian diced tomatoes
1 glass red wine
2 t. Italian seasoning
Simmer 20 minutes.

Add:
1-2 lbs. true cod, halibut or salmon, cut into 1 inch chunks
1-2 cooked Dungeness crabs, add crab legs in the shell and meat from body
1-2 lbs. live Manila clams, scrubbed
1 lb. live mussels, scrubbed
1 lb. shrimp, shelled
1 lb. scallops
1 lb. squid, cut into rings
Cover and simmer medium-low taking great care not to scorch. Clam and mussel shells should open and fish flake easily.



This is better the following day. And the day after that, if one is lucky enough to still have any left in the fridge, which often is the case and one of the reasons for this continuing birthday tradition.



I made this cake found in The Complete Southern Cookbook by Tammy Algood (click here) for my husband's birthday last April but never got around to sharing the recipe. This is the author's grandmother's recipe and her daddy's favorite cake. That I took as a serious endorsement. I made it again last weekend for my birthday (notice the trend here?) and simply had to share it. The first time I made it I wasn't sure how it would turn out. It it put together rather oddly compared to the usual way cakes are made but it's fabulous! The original recipe is a Four-Layer Coconut Cake and when I made it in April I baked the full recipe in three pans (because that's what I have). Last weekend when I made it, I halved the recipe for this Two-Layer Coconut Cake -a more modest approach that means I'm eating cake for breakfast only once rather than all week!

Two-Layer Coconut Cake
Adapted from: The Complete Southern Cookbook by Tammy Algood
Yields 6 southern-style servings (or 8 moderate servings)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour two non-stick 9 inch cake pans.
Combine with mixer, mixing well:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. cream tartar
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. solid vegetable shortening
1/4 c. butter, softened

Add:
1/2 c. coconut milk
1 t. coconut extract
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Add 3 eggs, one at a time and mixing well after each addition.
Stir in 1 c. shredded coconut.
Divide batter between two pans and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and turn onto racks and cool completely. Frost with Coconut Milk Frosting then sprinkle with shredded coconut. Candles are optional.

Coconut Milk Frosting

Beat with mixer until fluffy:
1/2 c. butter, softened
two pinches salt
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. coconut extract

Add alternately:
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/3 c. coconut milk

Meatballs, Blue Cheese Pecan Logs, and Iguanas

Those who know me, know about my little obsession. Those who love me, tolerate and even enable me in it. What is IT? IT is that I am obsessed with cookbooks. I love cookbooks. I love reading them, owning them, sharing and giving them as gifts (and getting them as gifts), and talking about them. I have always been a reader, but I soon discovered during the early stages of parenting young children that one's 'free time' occurs in increments of about 2 minutes, TOPS. Immersing myself in the plot of a novel became a thing of the B.C. (before children) past, but I discovered that being interrupted from reading a cookbook didn't break the thread. I could open a cookbook to any page and read the recipe, close it, open it again to another (or the same) page and continue reading, and pick up the thread of their style of cooking, the feel of their food and kitchen, and through their food (the same as with some blogs) -the taste of another life.

These three cookbooks were recent gifts -all quite different from each other and all with their own unique merits. The Meatball Cookbook Bible by Ellen Brown kicked off my proclaiming 2011 to be The Year of the Meatball and if you have been following here, you've probably seen some of my weekly meatball recipe posts -and more will follow.

My son gave me The Complete Southern Cookbook by Tammy Algood and I have the Four-Layer Coconut Cake recipe in it flagged. The same son has requested a chocolate layer cake for this weekend -and I'll happily be indulging him with this request- so it will have to wait. Valentine's Day, maybe? For the skg's holiday party, I made her Blue Cheese Pecan Log recipe (she adds parsley, I leave it out), and this appetizer would be great for a Valentine Day party or dinner (I'll halve the recipe for a small dinner).

Blue Cheese Pecan Logs

Mix in food processor:

8 oz. cream cheese

4 oz. Rogue River Smokey Blue Cheese

3/4 c. shredded Tillamook Cheddar Cheese

1/4 c. minced onion

1 T. Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 c. finely chopped pecans

Refrigerate one hour. Shape into two logs. Divide 1/2 c. pecans in half and roll and coat each log separately. Wrap in plastic and/or store in an airtight container in the fridge. Serve with crackers -and some Red Pepper Jam or Jelly!

Oaxaca al Gusto by Diane Kennedy was a gift from my husband and is just the sort of book I love, even if I never cook from it. Diane Kennedy is the Grand Dame of Mexican cooking, AND she is always such a good read, giving the reader the FEEL of actually being there and seeing the people, the places and the foods. She describes the entire food experience and culture on a level that at times practically makes me jump up and shout, "Yeah!" football-fan-style, and at other times simply sigh contently. I won't be scoring an iguana and preparing it for dinner tonight, or tracking down those special peppers that only grow in a particular part of Mexico, but I really, really like reading about her doing those very things. And though I'm more likely to make a Mexican meal like this (click here), after reading Oaxaca al Gusto, I feel as if I actually have been in Mexico, catching and cooking that iguana, and I know how to do it, now.