Today I am sharing a recipe that is close to a 100 years old, called the Shoo fly cake.
So, I have a serious disease. I am sure most of you food bloggers/lovers out there have it too. Its this obsessive habit of buying cookbooks. Hoarding on cookbooks.
Even before I started blogging or for that matter cooking I had this fascination for cookbooks. The pictures, the recipes, the stories, the techniques – I loved going through it all. As a child I would flip through my mom’s cookbooks, with not a single intention of cooking, but instead asking my mom why she doesn’t make such and such recipe.
If you guys have been following me on Facebook, then you would know I had posted a picture of this crème brulée dish quite a while back hoping that I will post the recipe soon. But, as you can see the blog has been unattended for quite some time now. Between a wedding in the family and my niece’s second birthday and travelling from Indian city to another, I hardly got time to work on my blog posts.
Before leaving for India, I had stocked up on some completely photographed recipes, knowing well that I will not be able to cook or shoot anything while in India, but hoping that at least I would get some time to sit online and draft my posts. But unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately that India has kept me that busy), I have not been able to find any time for the blog. And thus I have plenty of pending posts now. This crème brulée dish is just one of them.
So this little thing. I love her. She is my niece and I missed her so much in the States. She is also the reason these days why posting anything is difficult. If she is awake she doesn’t let me sit with my laptop. She will come to me and will try to shut the screen and keep saying close or “bas” (which is hindi for thats it). Of course, I oblige. And if she lets me keep the laptop on then all she wants to see are her pics. Don’t be misled by the angry face in the pic above. Thats just her posing. She is one of the naughtiest kids I know. The cute kinds of naughty. And did I mention that I love her. And I really do not want to leave her tomorrow. #sadface
Anyway, coming to today’s recipe, I did promise a post soon on my Facebook page and here it is.
I tried this dish for the first time at my friend Jamie’s place (the same friend who gave me the recipe for the crockpot tater tot casserole) and after that I have made this recipe so many times. Because, well, its so darn convenient. One of those easy to throw together weeknight meals. I generally prefer cooking from fresh ingredients, but sometimes you just want quick to put together meals with the least amount of clean up required and this is one such dish. It helps that it tastes great too.
Since I have made this dish so many times, I have tried many variations. I have mixed a little greek yogurt with the sour cream and made it slightly healthier. I have mixed greek yogurt with light sour cream and made it even more healthier. I have also done no cheese versions. Cheese versions are always better in my list. Once when I did a no cheese version I added chile lime chips instead (I had no cheese in the house and just the chips). I have used jalapenos instead of fire roasted green chiles- and have good results. Fresh fire roasted green chiles are definitely better than the canned ones, but the latter also do.
I have also added rotisserie chicken to the canned soup and sour cream mixture.
