It’s time to get creative again and help get out of any cooking rut you might be in. I have a feeling many home cooks including myself, get into a cooking funk once in a while. (See my blog post here and the Reluctant Gourmet Cooking Community Forum responses).

I thought it would be fun to put RG into a cooking rut situation in this cartoon but I need your help coming up with a funny caption for it. If you have ever felt like you were cooking the same 6 or 7 meals week after week, month after month, now’s your opportunity to comment in the form of a cartoon caption. Just post your response below.

What is RG thinking?

Go to the bottom of this blog and post your reply in the “Leave a reply”. Add as many captions as you like but keep them clean and be respectful of your fellow visitors. Any caption that I feel is inappropriate will be deleted.

This is not a contest but….

This is not a contest but I will pick my favorite caption and the author will receive a free copy of a new ecookbook I’m working on with Chef David Nelson and soon to be released. The eCookbook is all about cooking potatoes and will feature over 100 incredible potato recipes and the secrets to preparing them.

I will also make the cartoon available on various items like tee shirts and cooking aprons at Café Press. This means all entries become the property of The Reluctant Gourmet™. Please read Small Print below.

Small Print

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Melt In Your Mouth Blueberry Cake

We spent this weekend in State College, PA celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday with family members coming in from as far north as Maine and even as far away as Ireland. Saturday night’s meal was a Maine seafood feast with all the ingredients brought down by Katy and her boyfriend Billy.

We enjoyed lobster, Louisiana shrimp, seafood casserole, cole slaw and this delicious Melt-In-Your Mouth Blueberry Cake. The recipe was found in the cookbook, Cooking Down East and originally came from a Maine church cookbook.

Thank you Katy and Billy for a great meal and Happy Birthday Judy.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake

Ingredients

2 eggs separated
1 cup sugar
¼ cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

How to Make Homemade Blueberry Cake

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add about ¼ cup of the sugar to keep them stiff.
Cream shortening (cream as a verb means to beat an ingredient or a couple of ingredients together until soft and smooth) and add the salt and vanilla. Add the remaining sugar slowly.

Add the sifted dry ingredients alternatively with the milk. Fold in the beaten egg whites and then the blueberries. The recipe says to use some of the flour “called for in recipe and gently shake berries in “ so they won’t settle. I’m not sure what this means but I’m guessing by coating the blueberries with some flour they won’t sink to the bottom.

Add the mixture to a greased 8 x 8 inch baking pan. Sprinkle top of batter lightly with granulated sugar. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 to 60 minutes.

This recipe serves eight and is absolutely delicious. We served it with ice cream for dessert but my wife had a piece the next morning for breakfast (without the ice cream) and it was fantastic.

This Spicy Corn Chowder recipe is from Jeffrey Spear, a “marketing guru…working with manufacturers of food, beverage and other lifestyle products” and was published in the cookbook Yum! Tasty Recipes From Culinary Greats.

Yum is collection of over 100 great recipes from chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook writers and culinary marketers sharing some of their favorite recipes. This collaboration was put together by Microplane, the manufacturer of some of my favorite culinary tools that you may be familiar with and who are donating 100% of its profits from the sale of the book to the National Kidney Foundation (www.kidney.org).

Yum is available at Amazon.com

Some of the writers may be familiar to you including Rick Bayless, Sara Moulton, Susanna Foo, Gael Greene and Charlie Trotter and then there are some like the author of this recipe who may be new to you.

I was fortunate to receive this cookbook from Kimberly Goldstein who works for the publisher Cumberland House located in Nashville, Tennessee and specializes in, among other things, cookbooks. Thank you Kim for sending Yum to me and I can’t wait to try these great looking recipes and sharing some with my readers.

Spicy Corn Chowder
By Jeffrey Spear & Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, grated coarsely
1 tablespoon All-Purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 – 3 large red potatoes, peeled & cut into ½ inch dice
4 cups corn (fresh or frozen)
1 ½ cups whole milk
Salt & pepper to taste
Tabasco, to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

How to Make Spice Corn Chowder

In a large pot, heat oil and melt butter. Add the onion and sauté until soft, not brown. Add flour and stir for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add the stock gradually, being sure to stir constantly to incorporate the flour. Add the potatoes and corn. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat.

Transfer half of the soup to a separate bowl. Ladle this soup, a little at a time, into a blender. Puree until creamy smooth. You can return the soup puree from the blender back into the pot as you go. When done, add milk, salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste. Adjust the spiciness of the soup with the Tabasco. Return to heat, bring to a desired temperature and serve. Garnish with chives.

Jeffrey notes: you can also use an immersion blender right in the pot, taking care not to puree all of the solids. The soup won’t be quite as smooth and creamy but much faster to make. Less dishes to wash as well.