Recipe: Sweet Rice Cakes

These rice cakes date back to the 1800’s when African-American women would carry baskets of them piping hot, wrapped in a clean towel through the streets. They strolled through the French Quarter yelling, “Belles calas, tout chauds! Calas!” and for a small price you had a warm tasty breakfast a la street food.

It’s also a great way to use up that leftover boiled rice during the week. Make sure you enjoy some café au lait with your calas this morning!

Sweet Rice Cakes

(Belles Calas Tout Chauds – this is the old recipe)

From: Louisiana Keepsake

Ingredients:

½ cup rice

½ cake dissolved yeast

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon nutmeg

3 cups boiling water

3 eggs, well beaten

1 heaping Tablespoon flour

Powdered sugar
(In Louisiana almost everything gets doused and drowned in powdered sugar!)


Directions: Cook a half cup of rice in the boiling water until mushy. When cold, mash well and mix in a half-cake of dissolved yeast. Set to rise overnight.

The next morning, add the eggs, continue beating, and add the sugar and spoonful of flour. Beat into a thick batter. Let it rise for 15 minutes then add ½ teaspoon nutmeg.

From a large spoon, drop the batter a spoonful at a time into hot lard to fry (peanut oil these days is smarter), hot oil should be 400-degrees F. When brown, take out, drain, and wrap in cloth to keep hot.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with café au lait for breakfast!

Chocolate: Yin & Yang

Yin & Yang
Originally uploaded by mateoutah

Talking about balance written in the chocolate in the form of the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol! Happy Monday!

Taming Wild Roosters

Taming Wild Roosters: "There are bee charmers, snake charmers, dog whisperers, and horse whisperers -- and then there are those who can tame a rooster. From the very moment I met the rooster tamer, I was both jealous and in awe. Admittedly, I tend to be a know-it-all, when it comes to some subjects -- and the subject of poultry was one of my areas of expertise. Highly competitive, I was being upstaged, out-witted, and humbled. It's true, the older you get, the more you realize how little you really know." 3 videos.

By Jerilee Wei

Chocolate Humor

As I scour the web for chocolate anything I'm always entertained greatly by fellow funny people. They are everywhere! While it would be nice if people would take the extra time to give the attribution to the quotes, it is fun to make up reasons as to why the quote is attributed to Unknown or Anonymous. Also, flickr is a ever-increasing source of amusement. My fellow flickr photographers have a great sense of humor and there is always something new posted every day. These guys are real characters!

The above photo is great because mainly of the title. I mean, who is so creative that they call their cat Fishcake The Chocolate Thief? I love it! My cats have normal names like Pearl-a-nator the black tiny warrior kitty, Mike the majordomo tuxedo cat, Curty Cartier the sweetheart bouncer bruiser weight rippling with muscle golden tiger, and lastly, Leonardo the Love Bandit, a plucky tuxedo and the youngest of the Hurricane Katrina Cat Clan.

Chocolate Humor:
"A balanced diet is a chocolate in both hands." - unknown
(maybe too embarrassed to admit to addiction or in rehab.)

Shameless Self-Promotion: If you are interested in some of my own chocolate recipes I've been developing lately check out my HubPages address where they are stashed (faster than flipping thru these achives):
Denny Lyon @ HubPages

Photo of Fishcake The Chocolate Thief by rileyroxx @ flickr - Is this a great photo AND title or what?! :)

Recipe: Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake

Tomorrow: Chocolate Banana Coconut Cream Pie


Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake

From: Kraft


Prep Time: 20 min

Total Time: 1 hr 20 min

Makes: 16 servings



Ingredients:


1 package (2-layer size) devil's food chocolate cake mix

4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 package (8 ounces) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar

2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

12 OREO Cookies, coarsely crushed


Directions: HEAT oven to 350°F. Prepare cake batter and bake in 2 (9-inch) round cake layers as directed on package. Cool in pans 10 min. Invert cakes onto wire racks; gently remove pans. Cool cakes completely.

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool 5 min.

MEANWHILE, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in COOL WHIP and crushed cookies. Stack cake layers on plate, spreading cream cheese mixture between layers. Spread top with chocolate glaze. Let stand until firm. Keep refrigerated.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Family Fun: This great-tasting cake looks like a giant OREO Cookie.

Cooking Know-How: If chocolate glaze becomes too thick, microwave on HIGH 20 to 30 seconds or until of desired consistency.

Tomorrow: Chocolate Banana Coconut Cream Pie

Photo by ginnerobot @ flickr