From My Kitchen to Yours .....
Contrary to popular belief, tomatoes have been grown as a food since the 16th century, though they have in various times and places been regarded as both poisonous and decorative plants. The Italian name for the tomato is pomodoro, meaning “apple of love” or …
The History of Valentines Day:
Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday. The history of Valentine’s Day, and its patron saint,is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite. Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men, his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl (who may have been his jailor’s daughter) who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It’s no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend on average twice as much money as women. Found this info on history.com
A chocolate Ganache is just chocolate melted and beaten into heavy cream. It’s a magic substance; it can be a glaze, a filling, a coating, a solid truffle it just depends on the ratio of cream to chocolate. I like a ratio of a bit more cream to chocolate for a whipped filling; this ensures that it doesn’t get too hard and difficult to spread. The bittersweet taste of a good chocolate Ganache is refreshing.
Ganache is a French term referring to a smooth and velvety mixture of chocolate and cream. Its origin is a little unclear, but it is believed to have been invented around 1850. Some say it originated in Switzerland where it was used as a base for truffles. Others say it was invented in Paris at the Patisserie Siravdin.
Ingredients
For the whipped chocolate ganache:
8 oz semisweet chocolate
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp brandy or bourbon
For the whipped cream:
2 cups of heavy cream
1 tbsp brandy or bourbon
1 tbsp sugar
1 bag whip it of Dr Oetker
For the cake:
3/4 cup butter
3 eggs on room temperature
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup bourbon or brandy
1 cups milk
1/2 cup of chopped pecan nuts or any nuts you have available
Instructions
1. Put the chocolate in a large, heatproof bow. Heat the cream to boiling and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for about ten minutes, then add the salt and flavoring, if desired, and stir by hand with a spatula. Refrigerate overnight. Whip with a stand mixer or beaters until soft, whipped, and slightly lightened in color. Put in the refrigerator until you layer the cake.
2.To make the whipped cream you add 2 cups of heavy cream to a bowl add 1 tbsp of bourbon or brandy, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 bag of whip it of Dr Oetker ( that keeps the whipped cream stiff, it’s a stabilizer). Put in the refgrigerator untill you layer the cake. 
3. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt: set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined. Beat for 2 minutes more after all sugar is gone. Add eggs 1 at a time beating after each egg for one minute. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk and brandy to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Bake at 375F oven for 25 min. You need only 1 cake layer for this cake, you can put the other one in the freezer for later use. Use a toothpick to check if it comes out clean.
4. After you let the cake cool down use toothfloss to half the cake. On the first layer you put the ganache, then top with the chopped pecans and then the whipped cream. Add the second layer of the cake and then another layer of ganache and whipped cream. Keep in the refrigerator to keep cool.
*Arrisje’s Recipe Card. Click on the pic below, save to your hard drive then print as a 4×6 pic*
The name Pound Cake comes from the fact that the original pound cakes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No leavens were used other than the air whipped into the batter. In the days when many people couldn’t read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes.
Chicken Fried Steak:
is the classic example of an inexpensive regional folk food utilized by working-class folk and generally categorized as comfort food.
The precise origins of this dish is unclear, but many sources attribute its development to German and Austrian immigrants moving to beef-growing areas of western Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and possibly further north into Kansas, who brought recipes for Wiener Schnitzel from Europe to the USA. Now I am still wondering why call it chicken fried steak and there is not one piece of chicken in this dish. So I did a litle research and found out that one of the earliest mentions of a similar food is a recipe for veal cutlets. By the late nineteenth century numerous cook books provided the recipe. At that time the delicacy was usually called pan-fried steak or country-fried steak, or some similar designation, and it was very similar to the fried pork cutlets so popular in the South, where the swine industry was much more important than beef production. Chicken-fried steak is almost identical to German schnitzel
The actual term “chicken fried steak” was probably developed in the 1930s. It is possible the name change for this recipe was due to the war with Germany.