Cooking Course Challenge

Cook Around the Block came about because my friend Jenn inviting me to a "A Cooking Course - CHALLENGE!!".

Jenn put out the challenge to other friends this way:

For years, I have cursed myself for buying cookbooks and then not ever feeling like I have properly exploited their benefit. I thought about cooking my way through one or two, recipe by recipe for ages and then several years ago came across the book "Julie & Julia" but the sort of "chick lit" bent didn't appeal to me greatly. My friend Cris agrees with me - she also wants to "do" a cookbook. Everyone in food blogs seems to be writing cookbooks - how about cooking your way through a really good one?

I'm planning to tackle "The Millennium Cookbook" and my friend Cris is going to tackle "The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen" by Donna Kein (212 pages) AND "Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet" by Raman Prasad (224 pages). Anyone else interested in this challenge?

So, I invited a handful of thoughtfully-selected family members and personal friends to join our culinary challenge that love to cook, even cook professionally. My sincere apology to Kate Robertson Selner for too quickly generating a name for my blog "Cris in the Kitchen"; seemed catchy enough. As soon as I clicked the "Save" button, I realized that I had totally spaced it that my friend's culinary blog is Kate in the Kitchen. Sheesh. My first blunder. Anyway, her blog should be really be called "Incredible Kate in the Kitchen"! Thence, the creation of my second attempt at a culinary blog "Cook Around the Block".

Jenn is in the process of setting up a group blog in which we will collectively share our culinary adventure of cooking from a single (in my case two) cookbook over the course of the next twelve months, or so. More later about the "Challenge".

It's overcast and the fireplace is heating the great room to a toasty temperature. Cliff is napping and I am about ready to fix myself another cup of tea. Forget the cookies. I'll have another slice of the Sour Cream Bundt Cake I baked late last night in anticipation of an early morning visit by our Realtor.

Here's my recipe, using the yellow cake mix by Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten-Free Dreams. Mix together:

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
• 4 small eggs, or 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 8 ounce sour cream

Mix together 2/3 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons cinnamon. Set aside and grease the bundt pan well. Coat the pan with sugar mixture 3/4 the way up the pan sides. Pour in 1/3 of the cake batter, more sugar mixture, another 1/3 of the cake batter, more sugar mixture, the rest of the cake batter and top with the remaining sugar mixture.

Bake at 350-degrees for one (1) hour. When it cools, wrap in foil or keep under glass. The longer the Sour Cream Bundt Cake sits, the moister it gets.

Here's a couple variations that are just as delicious and moist - Poppy Seed or Cherry Bundt Cake:

Add to the cake mix, instant pudding and eggs. Then add in the following:

• 1/2 cup poppy seeds (none)
• 1/2 cup cooking sherry (Kirsch)
• 1 cup sour cream (pie cherries)
• 1 stick melted butter

Mix 5 minutes. Grease and flour bundt pan. Baking temperature and time is the same. When cool, dust with powdered sugar.

Everybody, and I mean everybody, loves my fail-proof bundt cakes. The Bundt Cake recipe with variations date back to the early '80's and were shared with me by my friends Julie Turner and Lynn Newby. I personally don't have a "sweet tooth", seldom bake or eat desserts, but I have to agree that they are so tasty and moist they are hard to pass up when offered a slice, even difficult to resist a second serving.

 "When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste." Laiko Bahrs

 

Best get busy looking through "The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen" by Donna Kein and "Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet" by Raman Prasad. I need a plan of action, to come up with my initial menu plan. Wonder how everyone else in our "Cooking Course Challenge" group is going to tackle cooking every recipe in their cookbook of choice?