So, as one of my birthday gifts, I received a gorgeous mulberry-colored KitchenAid stand-up mixer.  As I looked for opportunities to use it, I decided that I wanted my first experience with it to be memorable… So I scoured the internet for recipes for a strawberry pound cake.  For whatever reason, I have some kindred connection to strawberry-flavored anything.  Anyway, I came across a Paula Deen recipe, and to my surprise and delight, it only called for 2 sticks of butter.  Now,  I would normally decrease the sugar in the recipe (it called for 2 cups) because we Americans take in way too much sugar as it is, but since I planned on sharing my pound cake with others, I decided to make it as Ms. Deen suggested.

My mixer worked like a charm, and my little cakes were perfect!  They did not even stick to the pan!   See images below.  By the way, if you have any suggestions for other dishes or desserts that I can make with my KitchenAid, please do share!

Every so often, I get a hankering to prepare some of the dishes that I remember my parents cooking when I was a child.  One of those dishes was liver and onions.  Now unlike most children, I liked many of the dishes and vegetables that other kids wouldn’t come near, like peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, liver, and the list goes on.  On the other hand, I never liked cream cheese, and for as long as I can remember, I have not been a fan of cheese in general, though like onions, I realize that it’s a necessary evil in many dishes.  The other day, I purchased some liver from the grocery store, and last night I found motivation to cook it.  Below are images from my Liver & Onions dinner with Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans!

By the way, if you are anemic, liver is a great option to get your Iron levels up!  If you’re not, it’s still a great dinner option!

A summertime favorite of mine is a hearty Apple Pie with a tender, flaky crust.  With this in mind, I made one for my family the other day and decorated it with a lattice crust.  As I looked at the final product, my apple pie reminded me of that American symbol of what we love.  It represented the highlight of dinner (in my humble opinion). It represented that thing that with 2 sticks of butter in the crust is GREAT… BUT only in moderation. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing…

See images of my apple pie below!

This evening when I started to make dinner, I had made up my mind to make some sautéed salmon, seasoned green beans, and pasta with a lemon-butter sauce.  Well, perhaps it was seeing a few of my fresh squashes go bad last week or maybe it was seeing green beans and then remembering how I used to eat them when I was a kid.  Whatever the case, I decided to go back to my roots with a little soul food dinner instead.  I started with the squash and sliced it thinly, and then threw the slices into a pan with corn and onions.  It’s a dish that my dad used to make that I actually liked, even though I was never a big fan of onions.  Next, I reached way back in the freezer and pulled out a smoked turkey wing and threw that in a pot with some boiling water, cut-up onions and garlic, and then my salt, pepper, and other seasonings.  After about 30 minutes, I added my green beans and let them cook.  Next, I had to go to my all-time favorite… CORNBREAD!  It’s rare that I get tired of cornbread – and I’m talking about real cornbread, not that fake-you-out stuff with sugar!   When people see me, they’d never guess that I get down with soul food (because of my frame), and this is more about how God made me than it is about my own dietary discipline, but I do still try to make healthy choices as often as I can (because I don’t know how long I’ll be blessed with this metabolism rate).  So, with this in mind, I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour for the base of my cornbread, but I still used oil and plenty of butter inside the batter and on the sides of the pan.  After the cornbread was placed in the oven, I moved on to my butter beans – another all time favorite.  Finally, I just could not make the fish the way I normally would with the sides I had going on.  I needed a little crispiness… AKA a little frying action.  Now this is something that I rarely do because I feel that I am exposed to so much fried food when I eat out.  Nonetheless, I was in the zone… So instead of a full fledged deep-fry, I thinly lined the bottom of the pan with some Canola oil, and then I lightly breaded the fish in a lemon pepper and whole wheat flour mixture, and then placed it in the skillet.

I have included pictures below of the final product!  And for the record, everything tasted great!  So the moral of the story is, no matter where this life or the Lord takes me, I won’t ever forget where I came from!

I hope you enjoy, and I’ll have to have you over for dinner one of these days 🙂