Martie at the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show with Paula Deen, Giada, and lots more!

It's almost here! The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show in Atlanta is NEXT weekend, Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1st. If you are anywhere close and love cooking, you should make plans to attend. Many of the region's top chefs, restaurateurs, and foodies will be on hand to share recipes, tips, and fun at the Cobb Galleria for two days. I've done this show before and many of the people who go come back year after year.... it's that much fun!

For more information, show times, celebrity chefs, schedule, and ticket information, go to their website.... 

Come see me at the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show:

metrocooking.com

Saturday, April 30

12:30pm -1:00 pm

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm 

Sunday, May 1

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm

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Recipes from our Friends: LynnBo's Fresh Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Lynn and her husband GaryMy favorite photo of Lynn from back in the day-- pep rally day!I've known Lynn about as long as I've known anyone, I think. We went to elementary school all the way through high school together. Lynn had the most amazing parties back in the day... she was a big time party-thrower, even as a kid! I cannot hear Sly & the Family Stone to this day without thinking about spend the night parties at her house. And while we lost touch for a lot of years, I am soooo happy to have reconnected with her. I've met her teriffic husband Gary and one of her beautiful daughters, Kara. (who are both pretty amazing musicians and singers, I might add) I saw a Facebook post where someone was asking Lynn to make this cake for them and they were raving about it... so I asked her to share it with us. Lynn, you are so inspirational! I'm so happy we are friends!

LynnBo's FRESH STRAWBERRY CAKE with STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ingredients

1 strawberry cake mix (plus eggs and oil as required by the package)

1 1/2 cups fresh chopped strawberries plus more strawberries for garnish

1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick) softened
12 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons heavy cream or evaporated milk

1 small box strawberry Jello- add this to taste. (I used about half of the box)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 (or to package directions)

Prepare or spray your pans as directed on the package; I used Baker's Joy and sprayed mine.

First, chop up 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries and mash them so they resemble a puree.

Make the cake mix as directed except exchange the mashed strawberries for the water the package directions call for. Pour evenly into the prepared pan (s). Bake as directed or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Lynn recommends using a 9x13 pan but I used two 9" round pans for mine. Allow them to cool before frosting.

For the frosting:

Cream together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and Jello at medium speed of your mixer. Add the milk and vanilla and mix well.

Garnish with lots of strawberries. Lynn recommends adding them just before serving because there is so much moisture in the strawberries, they will slide all over the cake if you add them too soon. She also recommends to pat the strawberries dry before topping.

Hope you enjoy this one.... perfect for Spring and strawberry season!

Want more recipes for strawberry cake? Try this Strawberry Layer Cake recipe from our friends at myRecipes.com which calls for Grand Marnier in the frosting.  Yummy!

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Easy Shower Recipe: Stuffed Strawberries

Instead of dipping your fresh strawberries, why not stuff them? It's a new spin on an old Southern favorite. I cannot remember a bridal or baby shower where there was not a big bowl of some sort of dip for strawberries. I made this recipe about 100 years ago for a wedding and haven't made it since- until last week when I thought about it for my royal wedding viewing party. I changed it up a little; only because I could not remember the exact recipe. But this one is awfully good!

Stuffed Strawberries

1 quart fresh whole strawberries

1 8 ounce block of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/3 cup Grand Marnier

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

In a bowl, combine Grand Marnier, vanilla, and brown sugar. In the bowl of your mixer, beat cream cheese and sour cream together. Once blended, add the brown sugar mixture and the orange zest and beat until the brown sugar is dissolved. Spoon into a Ziploc bag and chill.

Cut the top off the strawberries. The flat surface will become the bottom. Cut a cross in the other end of the strawberry, taking care not to cut all the way through. Basically, you make four petals... put these on a tray or pan that you can fit into the fridge.

Push the filling into the corner of the bag and barely snip off the tip. Pipe the cream into the middle of each strawberry. Chill until serving time.

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Bourbon Baked Ham, Perfect for Easter Sunday Celebrations!

Being from the South, I can't remember an Easter Sunday without ham. My mom made the best ham; she'd bake it for hours and it would always be so delicious. Sometimes, she'd use pineapple and cherries to garnish the outside for very special occasions. That was when you knew you'd better be on your best behavior! My mother rarely used recipes and it is such a shame I didn't get this one from her before she passed away. Here's my version of my mom's Sunday ham.... with a little bourbon to put my own stamp on the original. Happy Easter and many blessings to you and yours!

BOURBON BAKED HAM

1 fully cooked bone-in ham about 10 pounds for a crowd

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup bourbon

2 tablespoons ground mustard

1/2 cup pineapple or apple juice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon whole cloves (optional)

dash of cayenne or Tabasco sauce

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

Whisk the brown sugar, bourbon, ground cloves, mustard, cayenne, and pineapple juice together and let it sit. Next, prepare the ham.

I usually cook my ham in tin foil on a baking sheet like my mom but you can use a baking pan and a rack if you prefer. Put the ham, fat side up, onto a large piece of tin foil, large enough to make a tent over it-- meaning you close it up but don't let the foil touch the ham when you close it for baking... like a tent.

You don't have to do this next step, but it makes for a nice presentation. Use a small knife to cut a diamond pattern into the top layer of the fat. Just cut on the diagonal one way, then cut another diagonal going the other way to make the diamond shapes. Put a whole clove into each diamond. Or you could decorate the outside with pineapple like my mom did.

Next, brush half of the the brown sugar mixture over the ham. Close and bake for an hour.

Open and brush on the remaining brown sugar. Add a 1/2 cup water, pineapple juice, or bourbon to the bottom of the pan. (if you use bourbon, make sure you are not near an open flame when you add it because the fumes can ignite!!) Close it up and bake for another hour or until the temperature reaches 140 degrees. Let the ham stand for at least 15 minutes before carving or it will fall apart.

Want more Easter ideas? Martie's ideas for fabulous and affordable Easter celebrations include: 

Make a deviled egg bar with lots of toppings for lots of options!Make a Deviled Egg Bar

How to Make Speckled Eggs

Make a Peeps cake

Easter Egg Hunt for the Kids (indoors in case of rain!

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Martie with Meryll on Talk of the Town NewsChannel 5 Nashville!

HELLO NASHVILLE!

A BIG SHOUT OUT TO ALL OF OUR NEW FRIENDS IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE! WE LOVED BEING THERE ON TALK OF THE TOWN! I was so busy getting set up for two segments yesterday that I forgot to take photos! But I had so much fun with Meryll talking Spring party ideas: Our Garden-ing Party aired yesterday and our ideas for a Royal Wedding viewing party pajama party will air next week.

If you aren't in Nashville, check out the video from NewsChannel 5's Talk of the Town! Thanks to Tuwanda, Meryll, Amy, Brittany, and everyone else at the station for making us feel at home and welcome! Can't wait to bring the Martie Party back to Nashville!

Martie Knows Parties: Host a Garden-ing Party on Talk of the Town Nashville

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