From Silver Palate Restaurant Sheila Lukins: Sticky Toffee Date Cake

From Denny:  Dates are loved around the world.  In the Middle East they are a traditional part of the culture, offered as a sign of hospitality.  Dates are served with strong black coffee and sometimes yogurt to balance the intense sweetness.

We love them in America too, especially here in Louisiana, and we never miss a chance to check out a cake recipe featuring them.  One beautiful characteristic of dates is that cakes like this freeze well and can be enjoyed months later.

This recipe is from a long time famous food writer, Sheila Lukins.  Read on to find out about her many cookbooks she has authored as she has worked for Parade Magazine and co-founded the restaurant takeout shop at the Silver Palate Restaurant.

Ouch Outrageous Obnoxious and Odd: Close Encounter Planes Fly Over Your Beach Vacation

Image via Wikipedia

Ouch Outrageous Obnoxious and Odd: Close Encounter Planes Fly Over Your Beach Vacation: From Denny: Check out just how low these planes are when they come in for a landing over Maho Beach at St. Maarten Princess Juliana International Airport in the Caribbean. People actually go to vacation here just to experience the dangerous jet blasts from the landings.

In the second video you will see people falling down on the sand and get blasted by what looks like a mini sand storm. Be sure to bring your safety glasses with you when you go to experience this new cheap thrill for tourists! :)

Comfort Food From Louisiana: 2 Recipes: Coffee Cake and Apple Cake Topped with Pecan Streusel

Comfort Food From Louisiana: 2 Recipes: Coffee Cake and Apple Cake Topped with Pecan Streusel: From Denny: Lots of tasty pecans throughout this dense coffee cake, perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack with a great cup of dark coffee. Here in Louisiana we love Bergeron pecans! Find the freshest pecans you can and buy them in large pieces as they will still retain more of the flavor.

Of course, we cake folk all know how delightful it is to use sour cream in any cake or muffin. The tenderness and full flavor can't be matched by anything else except maybe a high quality yogurt.

While searching for a photo to go with this post I happened upon a Rick Bayless recipe on flickr that is so unusual you just have to take it out for a foodie spin: Apple Coffee Cake with Pecan and Bacon Streusel.

Awesome Chocolate Pecan Tart

From Denny:  This easy tart combines two of my favorite flavors - chocolate and pecans.  Louisiana Bergeron pecans are wonderful if you can get them where you live.  If not, just look for the freshest ones, even asking your grocer when a new shipment is due.

Pecans exude such a wonderful aroma when roasting in the oven that is hard to resist.  Make sure you slightly warm the dessert when you serve it for the holidays.  That's how we like it at our house! :)

Black Raspberry Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

From Denny:  Who doesn't love raspberries for the holidays?  This cookie is dripping with butter, chocolate goodness, black raspberry liqueur and chock full of macadamia nuts.  Not a lot of sugar and flour either to make them.

It's a rich cookie - but easy to make - to impress your family and friends.  Of course, that's if they ever get a chance to taste them!  Beware of the kitchen cookie gremlins.  They lurk in the most unexpected places. :)

Flourless Chocolate Cake and Mocha Buttercream Icing

From Denny:  Check out this all time favorite - the flourless chocolate cake.  This time it's paired with another favorite flavor - the all important coffee!  Somehow, I just have to figure out how to grow coffee beans in my back yard.  Can you imagine how sweet that would be to pick your own beans and then roast them?  While we are dreaming we might as well include our own cocoa plants, right?  Hey, "Go BIG or go home!" :)

Happy Holidays and thank you for all your support this year!

Dennys Food and Recipes: Thanksgiving: Bourbon Cornish Hens, Mushroom Stuffing

Image via Wikipedia

Dennys Food and Recipes: Thanksgiving: Bourbon Cornish Hens, Mushroom Stuffing: Here, in the South, bourbon is part of the holiday festivities. Why not try using it for the hens?

Decadent Chocolate Cake

From Denny:  Go shopping online for a kitchen range and end up with a great recipe find from Wolf SubZero.  Of course, without a photo to go with the recipe I went looking over at flickr for a chocolate cake montage and check out this lucious photo, available with embed code with all rights reserved.

This chocolate cake uses high end chocolate, just perfect for the discriminating tastes for the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Thank you for your support this year on this blog and all the others too! :)

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 17 Nov 2011

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 17 Nov 2011: From Denny: Check out blog posts on photography, arts, food, news, politics, a huge amount of humor - especially the political pundits, poetry, astronomy, quotes, music, spiritual and just about anything else that catches my eclectic interest. Can you tell that 140 characters just doesn't work for me? :)

The last posts roundup I did was back in June and we sure are overdue like a long pregnancy. Be sure to bookmark this post as you will enjoy endless hours of laughing while you absorb some good information.

Most of the blog posts are at my flagship blog that spun off into the other 20, The Social Poets, where the news crashes into humor. I even manage to write a few in-depth news posts, slicing and dicing the BS that passes for truth these days on the airwaves.

And to think I do all this in my spare time... Hope you enjoy!