When I was a kid, I remember my mom making pound cake, a lot. She always used the Betty Crocker brand in the red box. Sometimes she would splurge and serve it with strawberries and whip cream. She called it “kekky with a floots”…..kekky was the way that she pronounced cake and floots was the way she pronounced fruit. Hahahah. I recently made the Betty Crocker pound cake and it’s still as good as I remember it way back when. Something about the consistency and texture…….don’t know how to describe it. Over the years, I have tried several recipes for pound cake……at least 6 or 7 different ones. I’ve never found one yet that has that same consistency and texture of the Betty Crocker mix. But I did find a recipe a few years ago in the newspaper, that I really like. It’s rich, buttery, not too dense, but dense enough…as pound cake should be. It’s absolutely delicious. I like it plain….dusted with a bit of powdered sugar. Sometimes I will add some orange or lemon zest to the batter. Perfect with a hot cup of tea or a good cup of coffee. So, whether you try it with or without floots, I think you will like this very much.

Pound Cake

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
2 – 3/4 cups of sugar
1 cup of sour cream, room temperature
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups of flour
6 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp lemon or orange zest

Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray. Dust with flour and set aside pan. Preheat oven to 325 deg.

In a large bowl, with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar till creamy and smooth. Add the sour cream and zest. Mix. Add the flour and baking soda alternately with the eggs (add eggs 2 at a time). Pour the batter  into the bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it into the cake. Allow to cool before trying to remove it from the pan. After completely cooled, dust with powder sugar and slice it up!

Have you ever had a good peppercorn sauce smothered all over a steak? It’s one of my favorite things. Oh yes. Most times when I make it, I don’t even bother using actual peppercorns. I use plain ol black pepper. It works just fine. I mean, you’ll probably sneeze a bit, but eh, so what!  So, the black pepper sauce is great as is, but let’s make it even better. Add a little blue cheese and some fresh mushrooms. OMG, it is amazing…or as Ina Garten would say (with a wave of her hand)….faaaabulous. This is a good sauce for any steak and even a pork chop. It’s better than any fancy shmancy restaurant sauce, that’s for sure! Give it a try. You will like it. Make extra, to put on your potatoes or some rice! YES! Do it.

Black and Blue Sauce
(enough for 2 steaks)

1 Tblsp butter or drippings from your steak or chops (scrape up all those lovely little tidbits in the pan)
1 Tblsp of course or regular black pepper
4 or 5 fresh mushrooms, sliced
salt to taste
1/2 cup half and half, add more if you want a thinner sauce
approx. 2 Tblsp of good blue cheese

Melt butter in pan. If pan frying your steak or chops, scrape up all those good little bits of meaty goodness. Add mushrooms and cook till tender. Add black pepper, salt and half and half. Stir in the blue cheese, till creamy. Spoon it over whatever you want, but my choice would be a steak!

It’s raining, windy and cold. I love days like this. We don’t get them very often in San Diego. Oh yesssssss, it’s definitely a soup kind of day. This is a quick to put together kind of soup. Zesty, comforting, satisfying. Yum. Sometimes I add some rice to this too, or replace the noodles entirely, with rice. Either way, it’s a hearty, warm in your tummy kind of soup.

 Salsa Chicken Noodle Soup

serves 3

1 large chicken breast, sliced up
6 cups of water
1/2 cup salsa, (I like mine spicy)
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/2 cup of corn (fresh, canned or frozen)
salt and pepper
approx. 6 oz (I dont really measure) uncooked spaghetti, broken up in pieces…Use the amount you prefer in your soup

In a good sized pot, add water, sliced chicken and bouillon cube. Once chicken is cooked, add corn, salsa and broken spaghetti. Cook on a medium low heat until noodles are done. Add salt and pepper to taste. It’s that simple!