Name: Caramel Cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: one 9x13 sheet cake (about 20 servings)
Ingredients: 1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature; 4 large eggs at room temperature; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 2 sticks (8 ounces or 16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces and softened (plus more for greasing the pan); 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened; 2 cups packed dark brown sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 cup heavy cream; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

MoMo Hibachi (Soddy-Daisy, TN)

January 5, 2015

MoMo Hibachi is a popular hibachi restaurant that serves great, inexpensive hibachi food in a casual atmosphere in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee.

I’m not really sure how MoMo Hibachi has been in Soddy-Daisy for at least a year or two and I have never been there. That doesn’t really matter, though. Saturday was the day. It was a terrible rainy day and we have been working on giving our kitchen a facelift, painting the cabinets and countertops (that, my friends, is a process!) so we didn’t want to venture too far away from home. We headed over to MoMo at about 2 p.m., when there was only one other table occupied.

We had a seat and the server brought us menus and took our drink orders. The restaurant is clean and fairly sparsely decorated and is somehow smaller than I had envisioned (El Metate takes up a large portion of the strip mall). We spent a few minutes perusing the menu, which consisted of appetizers, salads, fried rice dishes, and yakisoba dishes.
We decided to order some spring rolls, which came out very quickly. The spring rolls were light, perfectly fried, and stuffed with cabbage and a few carrots. They came with a packet of hot mustard and a couple of packets of duck sauce in those telltale takeout plastic packages.

Entrees come with a side salad, which is served with ranch, honey mustard, and ginger dressing; we both chose ginger. The salad was a pretty standard hibachi restaurant salad, just iceberg lettuce and carrots, but the ginger dressing was not the thick orange dressing that you find at Ichiban. It was a thin, very sweet gingery dressing and was very tasty though maybe a bit too sweet right at the bottom of the salad.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted chicken, steak, or shrimp, so I decided to get all three with fried rice. The rice was well-seasoned and the meat cooked well and, again, seasoned well. I would have liked to have gotten a little more of the vegetables (zucchini and onions) and maybe some mushrooms too. However, I really liked the dish and it was a large portion for the price ($7.75) and I brought home leftovers. A bottle of “MoMo sauce” was brought to the table as well. It was the standard Japanese Yum-Yum sauce, sweeter than my Japanese White Sauce but very tasty.

Philip also decided to get the chicken, steak, and shrimp combo but he decided to get the yakisoba noodles instead of rice. His dish was very similar to mine, except, of course, for the noodles in place of the rice (the yakisoba chicken, steak, and rice combo was $7.95). The noodles were thick and chewy, very delicious. We liked them a little bit better than the rice. This will probably be the standard order for both of us when we go back, though I’ll probably order the steak from now on as it was my favorite of the three meats.

The service was good. There was one server working. While we were there, quite a few tables filled up and she managed to check on us several times, keep our drinks filled, and take our credit card when we were finished while waiting on the other tables. The food came out quickly and was fresh and tasty. The portions were good for the price.

I’d recommend MoMo Hibachi for a quick and tasty hibachi meal.

MoMo Hibachi is located at 9332 Dayton Pike, next to Soddy-Daisy Wal-Mart. They are open Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., and Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. You can call them at (423) 332-3003. They do not have a website, but you can “like” MoMo Hibachi on Facebook.

Chattavore’s Top 10 in 2014

January 1, 2015

Happy New Year! I’ve been seeing Top Ten of 2014 posts for the last week, so I guess I’m a little behind the pack. I’m okay with that, though, and I’ll tell you why. We’re in the middle of painting our kitchen top to bottom, quite literally. Right now we’re painting our cabinets and every single dish I own is precariously stacked on my kitchen table. My stove and counters are covered with a drop cloth. I’ll be microwaving dinner tonight. And I don’t have any pre-photographed recipes to share. So….I need a Thursday post and this is the perfect one! Here are Chattavore’s top 10 in 2014!

10. Crispy Oven-fried Zucchini

9. Broccoli Casserole – from Scratch

8. Roasted Chicken – the Whole Story

This was one of the earliest recipes on my blog! The photos were taken with a point and shoot camera before I ever understood a single thing about photography. It’s time to update the photos!

7. Broccoli and Mushroom Pasta Skillet

6. Broccoli Salad

5. Baked Fries

4. Chattanooga’s Top Five Burgers (According to Chattavore)

Burgers are important to people, not least of all myself. I’m working on shaking up the list, though. There are a few places that I need to try that are only open for lunch on weekdays, so it’s going to take me a little time to update. I’m hoping for a top ten list by summer!

3. Chicken Nuggets and Homemade Chick-fil-a Sauce

2. Quick Southern Green Beans

1. Fried Rice and Japanese White Sauce

Caramel Sheet Cake

December 30, 2014

Caramel cake is a Southern classic, but I turned it into a caramel sheet cake, which is so much easier but still as delicious and dramatic!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday! The flu put a damper on my Christmas…Philip was diagnosed two days before Christmas and was told no festivities…and that I was likely to catch it too. So we were quarantined. I did manage to get to my parents’ house to get Christmas prime rib “to-go”, but our Christmas with my side of the family was pizza. And this delicious caramel sheet cake.

Apparently, caramel cake is a traditional Southern cake, but until I made it I don’t think I’d ever had caramel cake. Never ever. I was recently reading The Help and one of the characters mentions making caramel cake several times. That made me think about an episode of America’s Test Kitchen where they made a beautiful-and beautifully simple-layered caramel cake. Have I ever mentioned that I watch America’s Test Kitchen at night to help me fall asleep? I’m a terrible insomniac….but watching cooking shows helps to soothe me to sleep. I’m weird like that.

So anyway, I recently purchased a 9×13 USA Pan cake pan from Mia Cucina, my favorite local kitchen store. I was planning to make a caramel cake, sheet-cake style, in my new pan for Christmas. Obviously, that plan got squashed, as no one wanted to eat anything made by someone who might be incubating the flu. My mom got a chocolate cake from Publix, which was good but not caramel sheet cake good.

This cake has a great texture…a firm but not hard crumb. The cake itself tastes of buttery vanilla and is assembled via a “reverse creaming” method-dry ingredients first, then butter, then liquid. Once the cake is cooled, it’s topped with a cooked caramel frosting made by melting butter and sugar, which is then mixed with cream. The creamy caramel is then whipped with powdered sugar and butter and poured onto the cake, where it cools to a slightly crunchy texture…which is what really sets the cake off. You could make half the recipe, because, as you see from the pictures, the full recipe makes a thick layer. I loved it, but if you aren’t a fan of thick icing, feel free to half it. The flavor of this caramel sheet cake won’t suffer a bit.

Have you ever had a caramel cake? When you think of “Southern” cakes, what do you think of? Whatever your answer, this caramel sheet cake will make you smile!

Also, help me decide what to write about in 2015: take my Chattavore in 2015 survey!

Mary

Yield: one 9x13 sheet cake (about 20 servings)
Caramel Cake
This recipe is adapted from America's Test Kitchen .
30 minPrep Time:
45 minCook Time:
1 hr, 15 Total Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar
Ingredients
For the Cake
1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces or 16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces and softened (plus more for greasing the pan)
For the Icing
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13-inch cake pan with butter. Set aside.
Make the cake: Combine the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla in a large measuring cup. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer set on low speed, begin beating the dry ingredients and add the butter, one piece at a time, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Increase the mixer speed to medium high and add the liquid ingredients. Mix until incorporated. Spread into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely in the pan.
Make the icing: Once the cake has cooled, place 8 tablespoons of the remaining butter into a medium saucepan with the brown sugar, and salt. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Add the cream and stir to fully combine. Cook until bubbles form around the edge again.
Transfer the caramel to a mixing bowl. Using a hand or stand mixer on low speed, beat the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, into the caramel mixture. Increase speed to medium and beat until fluffy and light in color, about five minutes. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, one piece at a time, and beat until well combined.
Pour the frosting onto the cooled cake and spread to edges. Allow to set until the icing has cooled, then serve.
7.8.1.2
265
https://chattavore.com/caramel-sheet-cake/

Garlic Presses and Other Kitchen Tools Chefs Never Use…But I Do

December 26, 2014

A while back, I saw an article from The Daily Meal entitled “Garlic Presses and 12 Other Kitchen Tools Chefs Never Use“. While I totally get that in a professional kitchen there isn’t room for lots of single-use tools (Alton Brown calls them multi-taskers), some of the chefs said things like, “Get rid of it!” implying that the kitchen tools they mentioned were useful to no one. I beg to differ! Here are the kitchen tools from that list that I’m proud to say I use on a very regular basis.

1. Pasta “Remover” (I call it a pasta spoon)
Sometimes I do take the advice of the chef here and use tongs to remove pasta from the pot, but just as often I grab the pasta spoon and scoop it out with that. It’s a handy tool that sometimes I use as a substitute for a slotted spoon, since for some reason I only have one of those (I should really remedy that).

2. Garlic Press
Now, I will say that I have run across some pretty terrible garlic presses in my life, but my garlic press is fantastic and gets more use that most of the other tools in my kitchen (after, of course, my chef’s knife, cutting board, and wooden spoons). It finely crushes the garlic (and I also use it to press ginger) and I don’t have stinky garlic hands after I’m done. Bonus: you don’t have to peel the garlic first, and it comes with a handy little tool to get the skin out of the press when you’re done.
3. Toaster Oven
Guys, I live in the Southeastern U.S. It gets really hot here in the summer and I like to keep my heating bills down. Between May and October, if I can fit something in my toaster oven, that’s how it’s getting cooked. I have a super-duper awesome countertop convection oven that my in-laws bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago. It helps us keep the temperature down in the house and only takes a couple of minutes to preheat. It’s big enough to hold my 10-inch Lodge skillet, so it’s plenty big enough for me!
4. Rabbit Wine Opener
We own a couple of different types of corkscrews and sorry, this one is just far and away the easiest one to use…completely foolproof. So maybe that’s saying that we’re fools because we don’t do very well with the standard waiter corkscrew, but it’s definitely not announcing that we’re lacking in any other areas (as the chef in the article implies)!
5. Oven Mitts
Okay, so maybe I can give them this one….kitchen towels as potholders/oven mitts do make a lot of sense, and as I remodel my kitchen I’ll probably move on from the Orka silicone mitts I’ve had for years just for aesthetics and storage purposes. But for now, I still use them on a regular basis.
6. Citrus Squeezer
I actually have multiple citrus juicers…a wooden reamer, a handheld press, and a countertop glass reamer. I just find that they’re the best way for me to really get all the juice, and I use my handheld press frequently…it literally turns the fruit inside out while keeping the seeds inside the press. I don’t know what I did before I had it!
7. Slow Cooker
The argument for slow cookers is pretty obvious. You can’t (or at least I can’t…too afraid of fires) just leave my oven on with a roast or a chicken or a stew in it all day long. You can, however, leave a slow cooker out on the counter all day long cooking the aforementioned items. It’s totally worth the storage space if you ask me.

Do you use any of these kitchen tools? What are your most used kitchen tools?

Siren’s Seafood and Steak Market (***CLOSED)

December 22, 2014

Siren’s Seafood and Steak Market was a seafood & steak market and restaurant located on Signal Mountain. They are currently closed, though rumor has it they may relocate eventually.

I’ve been meaning to get to Siren’s for some time now. They opened several years back on Signal Mountain Boulevard and at some point…they moved up to Signal Mountain. I really have no idea when. I also have no idea if they always had a menu or if that is a more recent development since they moved up the mountain. The employees were very busy when we were in Saturday so I didn’t have a chance to ask them.

There were only a couple of people in the shop when we went in on Saturday afternoon, but several came and went making seafood and meat purchases or placing food orders while we were there. There is a dining room with several tables on one end of the building and the seafood/meat shop on the other end. There’s also lots of outdoor dining…but it was a little chilly for that.

When you walk in, there’s a counter at the end in the dining room where you can look at the menu and place your order when you’re ready. You pay at the counter and find a table in the dining room, then they bring your food out to you. The menu consists of appetizers (crab bites, oysters on the half shell, and sesame crusted tuna), gumbo, sandwiches, fried seafood, chicken, burgers, salads, blackened fish, boiled seafood, and a kids’ menu. They also had a menu of specials, which included crab cakes and shrimp and grits.

I decided to get the fried oyster po’ boy, which consisted of lightly breaded and fried oysters served on a length of soft but crusty bread with remoulade, lettuce, and tomato. The oysters were well cooked and there was a good amount of sauce-not too much, not too little. The best part is that the oysters are cleaned, shucked, and prepared right there, in house. Philip decided to get the catfish po’ boy, which was a nicely sized piece of catfish, lightly breaded and fried, served the same way as mine. It was well-seasoned and tasty. The sandwiches came with lightly dressed coleslaw, hush puppies, and crinkle-cut fries, which I have learned are always food-service fries. The menu here is about the seafood, though, so that’s okay. I had sweet tea to drink and Philip had a Founder’s All-Day IPA (they have a pretty decent beer list for such a small place). For our two meals and the beer, our total was $24.56.

In the seafood section, there were several varieties of fish available in addition to shrimp, clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops. The meat section had a variety of cuts of beef as well as duck breast and there were also whole ducks in the cooler. They also had crab cakes and some other house-made items for sale in the cooler. There were seasonings and other dry goods available as well. I really wanted to get some mussels but we weren’t going straight home, so we’ll be going back up soon to get some. Since I discovered that I like to eat mussels, now I want to learn to cook mussels.

Siren’s Seafood is definitely the place to go for seafood in Chattanooga, and they offer a nice meat variety as well.

Siren’s Seafood and Steak Market was located at 411 Wood Street, Signal Mountain, TN. They are currently closed. I have heard that they are planning to possibly relocate to downtown Chattanooga, but I have not heard definite plans for this. You can like Siren’s on Facebook and check out their website.

« Previous Page