It’s Tuesday! Let’s talk about food. I have lots of things to say because we’ve been feasting like kings and queens around here, finding personal little twists along the way. What follows is just a quick list of ideas for you to try.

Crab Meat Fettuccine Alfredo: This sounds so much fancier and more complicated than it is to make. I served it to Handsome for our Valentine’s dinner here at the farm, and I suspect it will become a staple rotation in our “special occasion” menu. The only two differences between this dish and our standard baked Alfredo are: 1) using some Old Bay seasoning along with the nutmeg, garlic, salt and pepper and 2) adding to the finished but still simmering sauce a can of sweet crab claw meat which you have first drained and steamed with lemon juice. Once the noodles, sauce, and crab meat are all combined, just pour it into a buttered casserole dish, grate some extra cheese on top, and bake till the tips and edges of that cheese are golden.
Oh man. So good. Handsome loved it as much as I did, and although we filled our bellies I was able to freeze a half a ton more for Jocelyn. The seafood and Old Bay seasoning made us remember New Orleans. So, double win! This is my contribution to your Mardi Gras, by the way. Give it a shot.
Last note on this recipe, I owe big thanks to Kelly and Katie for answering my crabby questions while grocery shopping! They steered me firmly but gently away from both imitation crab meat and canned something else. LOL The $6 can of claw meat was definitely worth the tiny splurge!

Kale-Mushroom-Swiss Salad: Okay, this could have been better had I used true olive oil and balsamic vinegar instead of plain ol’ bottled Italian dressing, but I was out of balsamic that day. I took this to book club a couple of weeks ago and one of the ladies said the kale was a bit “pokey.”  haha Kale gets more tender with an olive oil massage. Such is life.
The basics are: De-stemmed and torn up kale, raw mushrooms, and grated Swiss cheese, plus simple dressing. If you use true olive oil, start by massaging the kale shreds with that then add the rest of the food. Dress with balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and you’re done. It tastes lots better after marinating in the fridge for a while. The kale obsession continues.

Better Boxed Brownies: While most dishes seem to be much better prepared from scratch, and that’s definitely the way we usually roll around here, brownies seem to be better from the box. Or at least simpler and just as good, as long as you tweak the box instructions just a little.
I swap out the 1/4 cup of water for the same amount of heavy cream. Then brown and cool butter in the same amount as the box asks for oil. Do not add an extra egg, as this will make the finished product fluffier and more cake-like. Shouldn’t great brownies be fudgy? Then of course add you own special touch! Like candy or chopped nuts or anything you want.
For Valentine’s Day I topped the raw brownie batter with nine evenly spaced Ferrero Rocher candies. Do you love these as much as we do? All alone they are so delicate and crispy, so much subtle hazelnut flavor, I just… I just can’t. It’s almost too much with the brownies. So to make it even better I ate my fancy Valentine brownie with a scoop of frozen Cool Whip. Tones it down, you know?

Buttermilk Biscuits: When you make biscuits from scratch, what fat do you use? My favorite recipe calls for shortening, but I like the taste of butter, then I remembered how well pie crust turns out when I divide the fat need between the two.
So on Monday I made an icy-day cozy hibernation breakfast of pork chops, fried eggs, gravy, and homemade buttermilk biscuits made with half cold butter and half shortening. They were amazing! Light-years better than any other biscuit I have ever put in my mouth. Soft yet crispy. Tender, fluffy, buttery tasting, and sky high (though that property is owed to the baking powder).
So that’s my last kitchen tip today: when making buttermilk biscuits from scratch, use half butter and half shortening. Bam.

Okay, those are the kitcheny things on my mind today. What little culinary experiments have you tried recently? As a side note, these delicious adventures are why no matter how much I run I don’t seem to be slimming down much. LOL More on that in a couple of weeks on an upcoming Marathon Monday.

Happy cooking! And even happier eating.
Laissez les bon temps roulez
XOXOXOXO