He Cooks, I Bake

We have a running joke in our house; when you hear the smoke detector screeching, it’s time to get to the table; mama’s done cooking tonight’s meal. I’m not a great cook. I’m okay, my family will not die of starvation with my cooking, although they might not appreciate each meal char grilled, but they will survive.

A chef I am not, but I love to bake and I miss all my baking gadgets and readily accessible baking ingredients back home in Texas. Grocery shopping in Abu Dhabi is not easy. We go to Spinneys for our bread, chips, and fruits and vegetables. We go downstairs to Abela’s for laundry detergent, pork products (only a few stores sell any pork) and dairy products. When we need breakfast foods we head to Lulu’s and my last resort is Carrefour when we want baking goods and coffee creamer. And just because one store carries the ingredients you need this week, next week they might not and it will be weeks until they get them in stock again. Getting the picture? It’s a complete run around and there is no way to do all the shopping in one day as all the stores are spread out around the city, some stand alone stores, some inside the mall, and it’s a major PITA (pain in the rear end) to park. The point is, it’s not easy to find the ingredients I need to bake so my baking has been very limited while we’ve been here.

Last week we had a dinner party to attend and I wanted to bring my favorite Dump Cake. After collecting the ingredients from multiple stores, I was ready to bake. I had Artem help me, he loves to cook and I’m hoping if I train him early he won’t set off smoke alarms when he’s on his own and cooking for himself or his family.

The Dump Cake ended up being a huge hit at the party but I only had one serving and the next day I was craving it so bad, I baked another one. This time I had more than one serving!

If you want to bake a Dump Cake, it’s so easy a two year old can do it, try it!

You’ll need:
*Yellow cake mix
*Can of pineapple tidbits (don’t drain)
*Can of cherry pie filling
*3/4 cup oil (some people like to melt two sticks of butter and use that instead)
*Nuts (optional)

To make it, pour the cherry pie filling on the bottom of a 9X13 pan, you might need to spread it out to get it to cover the whole pan. Then dump in the pineapple tidbits juice and all and cover the cherry pie filling. Next poor in the dry yellow cake mix covering the whole area. Poor the oil over the dry yellow cake mix and sprinkle the nuts over the cake if desired. Do not mix! Put it in the oven and bake one hour at 350 degrees. I serve it with Cool Whip but I’ve also had it with vanilla ice cream. It’s very rich, so a little serving will go a long way.

It really doesn’t matter that I can’t don’t like to cook, because Randy is becoming a GREAT cook. A couple years ago he took an interest in cooking and started experimenting with different flavors and tried to copy dishes that we ate at our favorite restaurants. He makes a homemade, complete from scratch lasagna that is TO DIE FOR and a mean Alfredo sauce also from scratch.

Last night he made an Italian-Shrimp-Alfredo-Spinach dish that was by far his best yet. After my first bite, I almost got down on one knee and proposed to him. You had me at “alfredo”. He rounded out the meal with crescent rolls that he covered with butter, sprinkled with garlic, rolled the dough into the crescent shape, and then baked. Yum!

I wish I could share his recipe with you but he doesn’t keep track of how much he adds versus me, who measures down to the last drop and still gets it wrong.

I know he:
*Roasted pine nuts and then caramelized onions and garlic
*Added shrimp
*Heavy whipping cream
*Grated Parmesan cheese (green bottle from Kraft)
*Cherry tomatoes
*Fresh spinach leaves

He served it over the smallest pasta we could find here. (we pretended it was angel hair) Next time he said he’d like to put in some white wine to give it just a little kick. I asked him what he wanted to call it, and he came up with “Randy’s Italian Shrimp Alfredo”. Guess what I’m having for lunch today??

Now you see why there isn’t much reason for me to work on my cooking skills; not with chef Randy in the house.