Laurie’s Cobalt World Blog

In year’s past, our family has celebrated Father’s Day in different ways.  Once, the family held an ice cream party and made outrageous sundaes.  I’d guess that many men love ice cream, but I’d venture that even more like something off of the grill.

If you choose to grill out for your Father’s Day celebration, then you’ve solved the question of what to do, what to eat, and which gifts to choose.  Or at least, you are almost there.

Gifts are hard, so let’s start there.  Here are some great Father’s Day gift ideas:

• BBQ apron (funny how some men will never wear an apron - unless they are grilling!)
• new grilling sauces to try out (how about Mama Scott’s Gourmet Sauce?)
• grill charms (work like wine charms to identify how meat was cooked or seasoned - very unique)
• an assortment of beers to sample (or, if he’s not the adventurous type, his favorite beer)
• stainless steel grill light for those late evening meals
• grill tools (come in a wide range of styles and prices - even personalized)
• grill thermometer - some even come built in a fork

You may be able to combine two great loves into one great gift.  Is your father (or the father of your children) into NASCAR?  You can actually purchase a NASCAR grill cover with his favorite design on it.  Or maybe he would love a steak brand from his alma mater or favorite college sports team.   

I can’t tell you my favorite Father’s Day gift idea because my dad might read this post.  But it’s listed here.

Now let’s talk about food for your cookout.  Plan a few surprises on the menu.  A few twists on some traditional offerings can make the meal more enjoyable and memorable.

If you are serving burgers, research the very best buns or rolls available in your area.  There’s no need to stick with the hamburger buns on the bread aisle of your grocer.  That alone can make the different between a WOW! burger and a ho-hum burger.

Select turkey, tuna, lamb, salmon, or buffalo burgers for something different.  Or maybe you just want to upgrade to ground sirloin for the special day.

Want something more upscale than burgers?  Try marinated chicken, lobster, tuna steaks, smoked brisket, high-quality smoked sausage, or the proclaimed man’s favorite - the steak. 

Here’s my favorite grilling sauce, originally from a Southern Living cookbook I received as a gift in 1978:

Steak Grilling Sauce Recipe

3 T. butter (not margarine)
1 tsp. garlic powder
3 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup steak sauce (I use A-1)

Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Add other ingredients and just bring to a slow simmer.  Apply to steak as it cooks and pass additional sauce.  (If you dip a brush into the sauce that has been used on raw or undercooked meat into the sauce, be sure to bring the sauce back to a simmer before serving for food safety.)

Makes enough for 2 1/2 lbs. of steak.

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On the side, choose bourbon baked beans for a delightful change from the old standby.  Or how about a macaroni salad that features a lb. of bacon?  That sounds like a man’s macaroni salad to me!

For dessert, try one of these:

• grilled peaches served with vanilla ice cream
• grilled caramelized bananas
• homemade ice cream (for my favorite chocolate ice cream recipe, be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter - it will be in the June 1 edition)

And then there’s always mom’s apple pie a la mode, or as my husband says, with a lot of ice cream on it.  This recipe for mom’s apple pie has a bit of whiskey in it.  I don’t remember that in my mom’s apple pie, but it sounds like a winner.

I visited an outdoorsman forum to see what men’s men like for dessert.  It seemed to me that cheese cake and homemade banana pudding were preferred by more fisherman and hunters.  But they also knew the ins and outs of blackberry pie or cobbler, chocolate cake (with chocolate icing, chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup as one member suggested), key lime pie, pecan pie, and even French silk pie.  I should mention that this was a southern group.  Perhaps northern or western hunters prefer different desserts!

We have 3 1/2 weeks until Father’s Day.  That’s plenty of time plan a great menu, order your grill charms and other grill gifts, and have a very wonderful Father’s Day.

I really thought that I would sleep until noon today after the fun, but very exhausting weekend.  But no, I woke up the regular time.  I think a nap is in my future!

My husband says that I’m great at estimating how much time a task takes - and terrible at factoring in all of the things that will happen to prevent me from being on task.  This weekend was a prime example.

I decided to go to a church sale on Saturday morning.  I’d heard about it last year and mentally planned on it for this year, not thinking that I’d be hosting a tea party on Sunday afternoon. 

I called my mom to see if she wanted to go.  She asked my dad and then we decided to invite my sister, who turned out to be babysitting her two infant grandchildren. 

We planned to be there by 7:30 and got there at a quarter of 9:00 instead.  It seemed a waste to go to just one sale since we were by then all assembled, so we took in a few more.

Then we had a flat tire.  Then we visited a few more. 

After several more sales, we were starving, so of course we had to have lunch.

The long and the short of it is that we got home at 3:00 p.m. on the day I was supposed to be cooking up a storm!

So, I got home and got to work - in a bit of a frenzy.  Andrew put the turkey roast into the oven and tended to that so I didn’t have to think about it again.

I started to zest limes for the lime cooler cookies, but couldn’t find the zester.  My zester is one of my all-time favorite kitchen tools.  Where would something like that wander off to?  We looked and looked and then decided to go with an alternate plan.

I don’t have a grater with a zester side to it.  I’ve always used my zester that does such a wonderful job.  So, I finally used a potato peeler using a lot of outward pressure to leave the pith behind.  Then I diced and diced and diced.  It took longer, but the end product was successful.

Then I juiced 12 limes and made the dough and glaze.

We got two sheets of cookies finished and glazed before it was time to stop and get ready for a dance.  We couldn’t skip it because the club was a little low on help and we needed to be there to help break things down at the end.  (I wouldn’t want to skip it anyway.)

Not having had time to think about what kind of refreshment we could take to the dance, we decided to take the cookies displayed on the inverted thistle large pedsetal cake stand.  They were very popular.

The dance was great.  I sat out very few numbers and was exhausted at the end.  So when our friends asked if we had the time and energy to go out after the dance, which is our usual custom, we were level-headed and said that we had to go to bed and get some rest for the next day - NOT!  We went out and stayed at the restaurant until ten minutes before 1:00 a.m.  We had a great time.

However, in the morning, I had a hard time thinking, walking, and keeping my balance (no, we didn’t drink).  After a cup of coffee, which I rarely drink, I was finally able to get my act together and get on with the crazy, busy, fun day ahead.

So now, all of my great plans to make ahead, cook ahead, and have a restful Mother’s Day just attending to the last minute details turned into a cooking circus.

Thank goodness my children are older and capable - and that my husband cooks!

I started on the petits fours.  Never, ever, ever make petits fours on the day you are going to serve them.  They will devour time.  And, it ended up that they were one of the less popular items.  With a double layer of poured fondant, they are pretty but so sweet that you can enjoy just one.

My middle daughter was in charge of buttering bread.  We had a grainy, nutty bread for turkey sandwiches with cranberry mustard.  We used a marble rye/pumpernickel swirl for my favorite tea sandwiches, and we used a gourmet white bread for the cucumber sandwiches.

With the turkey, we sliced the boneless turkey roast moderately thin.  Then I mixed 1/4 cup cranberry sauce with 1/4 cup coarse ground prepared mustard.  A thin coat of the mustard on each side of the bread plus the turkey worked out nicely.

I’m a fanatic about keeping sandwiches moist, so everything was kept in bags or under plastic wrap except when it was actually being buttered or assembled.

The favorite tea sandwiches helped me find an error on my blog!  I had left out the bleu cheese from the recipe.  Luckily, I generally go to my own website and print out recipes when I cook and had done so for the tea sandwiches.  My apologies to anyone who tried them before and wondered why in the world I had suggested the recipe.  It is repaired now.  They were the favorite sandwiches at the tea, too, and not just my personal favorite.  Try them out next time you need a party sandwich.

The cucumber standwiches were a hit, too.  They were simple to make.  My daughter peeled the cucumbers, sliced them thinly and then placed a thin, but overlapping layer on the buttered bread.  Then she cut off the crusts and sliced them into dainty triangles.

We made more cookies, and began scrambling to get china and serving dishes assembled. I had used our sugar and creamer for the tea and was fretting that I didn’t have a creamer for the coffee.  My husband Andrew replied, “Yes, you do,” and pointed at the Laurie’s Cobalt World door in our home.  So I now have an Inverted Thistle pattern coffee creamer and sugar bowl.  I wonder if he had noticed that I also have a Nicole glass serving plate with handles.  I had to have something for the third plate of sandwiches, didn’t I?

So much for the rule against Laurie’s Cobalt World glass not ending up in my kitchen.  Hee hee hee.

As the hour drew near, the kitchen sounded and looked more like a kitchen in a greasy spoon during lunchtime.  We were wiping, moving, dancing around each other, and getting it all together, maybe just a few minutes late, but it seemed to work out okay.

The number one rule for a tea party is to have plenty of boiling water.  I set a large pot to boil and found it cold ten minutes later.  The kids said that sometimes you have to turn it off and on again, if the knob doesn’t click into the “hi” position right the first time.  So we tried again.  Again, it didn’t get hot.  I found that the cassette had wiggled slightly out of the socket, so it took the third time, I suppose as a charm, to get the water to boil.

Luckily, I had arranged my flowers for the centerpiece on Tuesday (I’ll be writing about how I did that pretty soon).  I had made the corsage of silk flowers on Thursday.  We beaded the napkin rings beginning on Saturday, but then I forgot that I had six not yet completed in my craft room - and remembered about 15 mintues before our guests were to arrive.  [Sign up for our newsletter to find out how to bead the napkin rings- they'll be in June's edition.]  Luckily, I had passed by the table where my husband had the napkins folded or I would not have noticed in time.

Twenty minutes before the guests arrived, I popped the apricot-cream cheese scones into the oven (seemed they could have used a touch more milk in them).  It turns out that if we had had only tea and scones, everyone would have still been most pleased.  They were by far the most popular item.  I had made the lemon curd on Saturday, woven in around making the lime cookies.  And I had purchased the double cream on Friday. 

I also served black raspberry jam and orange marmelade, but I think we could have easily skipped those.  The double cream and the lemon curd were much, much more popular.

Lemon Curd Recipe

1/2 cup butter (not margaine)
grated peel of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg

In the top of a double boiler over medium high heat, melt butter.  Add the lemon peel, lemon juice and sugar.  Mix well.

Using a whisk, add the egg and egg yolks, continue to whisk and cook for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Cool.  Place into covered containers.  Refrigerate.  Will last approximately a week in the refrigerator.

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I had been disappointed that the market where I normally get clotted cream was out and I could only get double cream (clotted cream is 55% fat while double cream is 48% fat).  Clotted cream is supposed to taste better, but we all liked the double cream better. 

Before my next tea party, I want to get some small teaspoons to go with my china tea cups.  And I want to get more tea cups.  With coffee and hot chocolate drinkers, we had just enough tea cups.  But next time, we could easily run out. 

I will also skip the petits fours.  I love the currant jelly taste of them, but for the time they take and the “one’s my limit” reaction I got to them, I’m going to say they just weren’t worth it.

We also had chocolate mint lentils (they look like pastel M & M’s, just a bit classier), but they weren’t that popular.  I had meant to make brownies with pastel icing but let the weekend get away from me.  I think it was just as well.  Chocolate just didn’t seem to fit, for some reason.

I also left my carrot flowers and butterflies in the refrigerator that I had planned to use to garnish the sandwich platters.  I did remember to line the trays with lettuce (we used romaine).  That did help keep the sandwiches from drying out.  But I really would have loved to have had my flowers and butterflies, too.  (I will be posting a blog on making them later this week, so please check back.)

The tea party was a success I think.  The main thing was that my mother felt honored and seemed to really enjoy herself. 

I’m really glad that we hosted this tea party.  Next year, however, I’m taking the day off.

Yesterday, I was making myself one of my favorite breakfasts. I was enjoying the anticipation of having something delicious when disaster struck. Okay, that was a little overly dramatic for breakfast. Let me rephrase. I was disappointed to realize that I was out of a main ingredient.

I teach my children to read their recipe first and make sure that they have all of the ingredients before they begin cooking. I wish I could follow my own advice better!

One of my favorite breakfasts is steel cut oats with apricots and almonds. I was out of apricots. They really make all of the difference in this dish.

My aunt told me recently that she’d had a similar dish at a brunch and really enjoyed it. Yes, it’s great to serve on special occasions, but you deserve to be pampered for no reason at all.

I admit that I go through periods when I won’t take the time to make a favorite. But there have been long periods of time when I’ve made this recipe two or three times a week, too.

Preparation time is about 20 minutes. I’m worth that. So are you. It’s amazing how a little indulgence first thing in the morning can set you up for a great day.

I start with good steel cut oats. Yesterday, I used John McCann’s Steel Cut Oat Meal. One of the things I love about this oatmeal is that it comes in a resealable tin. That way it stays fresh, even if I skip a few weeks making steel cut oats.

These oats are imported from Ireland. The can itself is interesting to read. It includes awards and exhibitions that the oats were part of dating back to 1851. Impressive for a lowly oatmeal!

Per serving:

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup steel cut oats
• scant 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 (or 2) tablespoons toasted almonds
• 4 or 5 dried apricots, diced
• 1 pat of butter
• sweetener to taste (honey, sugar, brown sugar, sugar substitute)
• 3-4 tablespoons milk or cream

Bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the oats, stirring. Bring to a boil again and reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally and cook for 15 minutes (the instructions on the John McCann’s can say 30 minutes, but I like mine with a nuttier texture).

Remove from the heat. Add the almonds, apricots, butter, and sweetener. Pour into a small cereal bowl. Top with milk or cream.

If you can’t find the time to treat yourself during the week, try this recipe on a Saturday or Sunday morning, whichever is your most leisurely. And if all else fails and you just can’t find the time, serve it at your next brunch.

Laurie