Marinated Vegetable Salad

Looking for a cool vegetable salad recipe that can make a bunch or just enough and keep for a while in the refrigerator?  This is it:  marinated vegetable salad.  I've made a gallon  for a wedding reception over in Gulf Shores, Alabama this weekend.  I'd provided the food for the bride's uncle's wedding several years ago.  In a little community like Leakesville, you grow up knowing everybody.  The father of the bride and his little brother were both in Mama's kindergarten;  their mother is a class mate of Brother #1, their uncle a class mate of Brother #3.  I'd line out all the other connections but it'd get confusing after a while.  You might be tempted to make a Southern joke.  The South doesn't need one more joke...

There's no specific recipe to this recipe.  I'll show you what all is in this salad, but use what you and your family likes.  It's quick to put together.  So quick I forgot to show you all the veggies draining in the colander.

Here are the ingredients for the vinaigrette:

Apple cider vinegar
White vinegar
Grapeseed oil
Vegetable oil
Celery seed
Dill weed
Garlic powder
Granulated sugar

There's a ratio for a sweet and sour vinaigrette:  equal amounts of sugar and vinegar and half as much oil as vinegar.  And whatever herbs and spices your taste buds are set on.  I like the bite of apple cider vinegar but there is such a thing as too much of it, so I use half white vinegar also.  I've also been enjoying lightening up olive oil recipes with grapeseed oil but it's kind of pricey and is used sparingly.  Celery seed and dill weed are always good in a salad but if you don't like them, don't use them, it's just that easy.

Put all the ingredients into a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup and microwave for three or four minutes.  Stir and microwave again another couple of minutes.  All you're doing is making sure the sugar is melted and incorporated.

I know.  This is where I stand to ladle jelly into jars.

You can see splatters of jelly all over the front of 

the microwave.  I should probably clean that

tomorrow.

In the meantime, open all your vegetables and put in a colander to drain.  Asparagus is delicious in this, but I didn't add it.  It's one of those acquired tastes that not everybody likes.  Water chestnuts give a nice crunch, even if they aren't real flavorful.  They're cut into thin strips to keep from having a mouthful of sort of tasteless crunchiness.

That's a sweet onion.  I'd forgotten green onions

so used what was on hand.  

MMMMmmmmm.  Wickles:  wickedly delicious pickles.

Or in this case wicked pepper strips.  They're a little

hot and a lot sweet.  More and more often they're 

getting added to salads right along with

homemade sweet pickles.

When the vinaigrette is finished and onions (to taste) are diced, all the well drained vegetables are placed in  a large container.  Add the vinaigrette.

Tadadaaaaa!  That's all there is to it!

Let it sit a couple of hours for the flavors to marry.

It's much better the next day and even MORE 

better several days later (please don't call

the Grammar Police).

After I'd put the salad all together I thought about transporting it Saturday and the amount of room the gallon jug would take up in the cooler and having to leave the precious jug with the clients and depend upon them to get it back to me.  The better thought was to put the salad  into a large ziplock bag in a baking dish.  Ziplock bags conform themselves around other things in coolers.  I won't feel sad about leaving a bag behind...

Y'all enjoy!

Marshmallow Fondant and Late Night Silliness

Starting to WORK work has definitely cut a chunk out of StumbleUpon and Facebook time!  Yikes.  I may actually go into withdrawl (<- that's a Southern withdrawal) in another few days if I don't have some decent set-down-in-front-of-the-computer time.  Perhaps I can sweet talk my employers into letting me use the restaurant computer in their office to feed the addiction?  Nnnnaw.  Best just to get on over it, right?  Right!  It's silly to be dependent upon something that can't reciprocate dependency, isn't it?   No good - no matter which way the situation is looked at.

I have to share with you a funny thing said at church when we were cleaning up after the Family Dinner this past Sunday.  The pastor was whistling "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."  It was the Hymn of Response i.e. closing hymn to the service and kind of has a way of getting stuck in your head if you're a church going hymn singing sort of person (if you're not, that's strictly between you and the Almighty).  I had been humming it and he was whistling it.  Mama and Mrs. Sally were covering the food on the table to be transported home.  Mrs. Sally starts trying to remember some phrase her mama used to say about a whistling girl.  Well!  Don't you know?   Mama knew exactly what it was.  She said she hadn't thought of it in years, but her grandmother used to say it too:  A whistling girl and a crowing hen are both two things with no good end.  I lol'd a lot!  The preacher was amused, too.  Mama said her grandmother used to kill the odd hens that tried to crow;  they were unnatural and evil.  She also said they always ate them.  Hmmmmm... I think somebody's grandmother was henophobic!

The fondant.  Marshmallow fondant.  I'm so distracted right now.  You can add any sort of flavoring you'd like in whatever quantities and concentrations after the marshmallows are melted.  Or that seems like the logical place to add it.  This marshmallow fondant tastes much better than the store bought packages and I don't use a flavoring in it.  I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to how much to use, although I think 1/2 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon might be sufficient.

You'll need a bag of marshmallows.  Miniature marshmallows work just fine, too.  I had these on the rack.  I didn't count how many were in here to start.  It's roughly 3/4 of a bag of marshmallows.  It's not rocket science.  Confectioner's sugar, you'll need that too.  The only difficult thing in the making of this stuff is kneading the confectioner's sugar in when it won't stir in any more.

There's my big Pampered Chef measuring/mixing bowl.  Oh.  And two tablespoons of water!

Put the marshmallows in the microwave safe bowl and pour the water over them, stirring to coat the marshmallows.

Oh yeahhhh... I also have TWO plastic bags there.  The one thing you'll want to pay extra attention to is the storing of your fondant.  Air, moisture, and heat are its worst enemies.  I always double bag the fondant to take care of the first two items on the fondant hit list after it's made.

Microwave on high setting, set for 2 and a half minutes.

Stir halfway through.  The marshmallows will still be a little lumpy.

OOoooooo... I love cobalt glass.  I found this lemon juicer with measuring cup at First Monday Trade Day and Flea Market in Ripley, Mississippi years and years ago.  That's where my watch stays, Monday thru Saturday.  I only wear it on Sundays.  Go figure!

DING!  It should look like this.

That glass cutting board/heat pad has been there ever since day one of living here.  I don't know what I'd do without it to set the hot things on coming out of the microwave RIGHT there. They're not pricey at all and work a charm saving the counter top.



Add a good half a bag of confectioner's sugar to the melted marshmallows.  I might mention that was a TWO pound bag of confectioner's sugar.  At first it's easy to stir in, becoming more and more resistant until it gets downright belligerent to deal with.  This is while it's still stir-able.

 
Quicker than you're willing to admit you're not prepared to, this goes to the counter to have more sugar kneaded in until it's the fondant consistency.

It's late in the evening at this point in the process.  If you go back up to the watch photo, you'll see it was 11:20 then, and this is another ten minutes or so later.  I amused myself trying to take that photo with melted marshmallow goop all over both hands.

GGGgggrrrrrrrrr!!!!  Did I scare you with that hand?  No?  I scared myself for sure! 

There was no way to photograph the process of continually adding and turning and kneading the constantly-firming-up fondant without wasting a bunch of it by sloughing it off and washing my hands. 

I didn't measure anything to start with but if you needed measurements on the sugar I would say I used five cups total in the making of the fondant, based on what was left (which I didn't measure either {like I said, it's not rocket science - trust your judgment on it and if that's no good, readjust and do over}).

This is what the fondant will look like. 

I double bag mine and leave it out.  If it's going to be a while (like weeks) before use, pop it in the refrigerator.   Tadadaaaaaaaa! 

Those ingredients again were:
Marshmallows
Confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons water

Y'all have fun with this.  And thanks for not paying me any mind when the hour is late (or is that early), silliness sets in and bed time is yet to come.  I appreciate it!

Back to Reality, Kara's Cake Strawberry Filling Recipe and Not a Whole Lot More in Particular

It's been kind of a busy week in Greene County of Southeast Mississippi.  In the restricted reality in which I exist, the children I keep as a home-based child care provider were coming back from the week's hiatus called Spring Break.  They had to be patiently and gently prodded into observing manners, particularly being patient and not prodding each other, also getting back to a small amount of self-sufficiency lacking in their homes.  And critical thinking skills.  There's nothing like a week with parents, grandparents, and older siblings to turn a well-mannered young Southern Lady or Gentleman back into a youngster that asks "You know what?" five times in a single sentence, chews with mouth open (YIKES!  Is there anything worse than hearing someone's food go around and round in their mouth as they're chewing while sitting at the table with you???) and with elbows propped on the table.  They've forgotten basic social skills such as waiting their turn to talk or play.  It was expected.  The cold front coming through wasn't though and I found myself scurrying to make giant paper hats from newspaper to cover the tomato plants that are almost tall enough to be staked.  Yep.  And in true Deep South form, the grass needed mowing two days later.

Thursday was spent working on cakes.  The cakes I make are almost all layer cakes.  I make a few pound cakes, cheese cakes, cupcakes, pies and a bit of candy, too - but the real income enhancers are mostly layer cakes, with or without homemade specialty fillings and icings.  They're heavy;  a single sheet of cardboard won't hold even a small one and so I cut my own from industrial cardboard salvaged, i.e. snatched, from the dumpster at the furniture store on Main Street.  I cover it pretty and appropriately for whatever the cake is for. 

This week I had four rather large cakes to get out.  One of them was for Darla's step-daughter, Kara.  Darla is quickly approaching forty-something.  We go way back.  She's the baby in her family too, so she understands very well the mistaken opinion folks have of thinking you're spoiled simply because you're the baby.  When she was in my mother's kindergarten, her own mom had to be at work well before the school and kindergarten day started.  She was dropped off at our house, still asleep more often than not.  Mama would put her in bed with me and we'd finish our sleeps together.  We'd lollygag about getting out of bed and stress Mama's last good nerve at trying to get me to school and her and Darla to the kindergarten on time.

Over the years, there were several youngsters that piled up in the bed with me in the early hours of the morning when their own mamas had to get to work.  When you take children in your care, the way Mama did and I do now, they become your own for the day and get treated just like yours - actually better, because you're done with them at the end of 10 or 12 hours and get a bit of rest when they go home.  I don't know if it bothered Mama or not, taking in a child that early, perhaps I should ask her.  I don't think it did, though.  She still loves those also-aging ladies as well as she did when they were in her care.

Anyways.  Darla's Kara and my oldest son graduated high school together and I feel like I know her pretty well.  Her favorite cake is a butter cake with strawberry filling and cream cheese icing.  This is all about the strawberry filling.  I'm sharing my recipe with you.  See?  I'm not spoiled at all!  AND, before going any further - this is the way I do it, okay?  Once you make it, it becomes your recipe.  Cook it the way you like;  amend the ingredients.  It's no skin off my back and I'll be absolutely tickled you thought enough of it to try it anyways.  Hmmmm... Maybe I am a little spoiled?

This is what you'll need:

And an 8 cup measuring cup for the microwave.  Or you can cook it on the stove.  But who likes standing there stirring and waiting for something to boil and thicken?  Nuke the stuff!

Put the dry ingredients in a food processor and give it a little whiz to get the granulated sugar, potato starch, and strawberry jello all mixed together.

 I used to use corn starch and it is easily substituted here by adding another tablespoon (or is it two?).  I've a grand niece with severe food allergies that I'm slowly but surely adapting lots of recipes to become Caroline-friendly.  This is one of them.

You can do this with a whisk.  I like the food processor, though, because I like a smmmmooth (<-- two syllable word there) strawberry filling.  Add the strawberries to the dry stuff and process until **giggle** smooth.

There's the large measuring cup.  A couple of years ago Pampered Chef parties were all the rage in the area.  I purchased two of these.  They've been in constant use.  Pour the amalgamation of strawberries and sugar and potato starch and jello into the measuring cup and cook on high in the microwave for ten minutes.  Stir it and put it back in for two minute intervals several times or until it looks like this:

It's very thick.  Some recipes for cooked fruit fillings add flavorings and butter at this point.  It's up to you.

Cover with plastic wrap to keep from forming a nasty hard skin on top and let cool.  To assemble a cake, pipe a border of icing around the edges to keep the filling from oozing out the sides, add filling, and smooth out to edge.

It looks like an 'a' doesn't it?  Not a script A, either, just an 'a' for awesome.

 Repeat with rest of cake layers.

In my fervor to get the process documented I forgot to take the photo of the crumb coated cake.  To decorate a cake pretty, it needs a thin coating of icing slathered on all the exposed surfaces to set firmly and seal all the crumbs in place.  Or I do, at least.

Decorate as desired.

Nom-a-licious!

Those ingredients are:

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons (or roughly half a small box) strawberry jello
8 tablespoons potato starch
24 ounces sweetened sliced strawberries

Combine dry ingredients in food processor and pulse a few times to thoroughly mix.  Add strawberries and process until smooth.  Pour into microwave safe container and heat on high for 10 minutes.  Stir.  Return to microwave for 2 minutes, stir again, and repeat until thick.  Cover with plastic wrap and let cool.

------------------------

So that's the big thing I've done for myself and the blogosphere this week:  actually write down a recipe I've eyeballed for several years and post it for posterity's sake.  

These were the other cakes done Thursday and early this Friday morning:

And one last thing:  I turned the air conditioner on.  I had said I was going to wait until I was miserably hot to turn it on, until all that miserable cold from January and February in the Deep South couldn't possibly be recollected.  But the cakes demanded less humidity.  The condensation on the crumb coat formed the moment they were brought out of the refrigerator and was a barrier to decorating.  I had to turn it on.  For the sake of the cakes.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.