TODAY's CASES:

• Applebee's Lemon Parmesan Shrimp
• Sour Dough Starter Problems
• Million Dollar Pound Cake

Applebee's Lemon Parmesan Shrimp -----Original Message----- From: Samantha Sent: Friday, June 27, 2014 1:04 AM To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com Subject: Recipe request Hello there! I am looking for the recipe for Applebee's low calorie (550) lemon parmesan shrimp. The description is on their website but that's all I can find. I would like the details and measurements of what they use and how they made it. I feel like I have googled until my hands hurt and I just cannot find the actual recipe. I have found the nutrition facts and reviews of the dish but still no recipe. If you are not able to find the actual recipe for the dish, would you mind helping me get as close to it as possible? I know it has blackened shrimp, lemon cream sauce and creamy rice with a few other minor things thrown in like tomatoes, onions and maybe one more thing. Thank you for help and I'm so anxiously waiting for your reply. Samantha Hi Samantha, Applebee's menu here: Applebee's , describes the dish like this: Blackened shrimp sautéed with tomatoes, onions and basil. Served over creamy rice with a decadent lemon Parmesan cream sauce. I had no success locating the recipe, either actual or copycat. There is no shortage of Applebee's copycat recipes on the web, but the lemon parmesan shrimp recipe is not among them. Applebee's themselves have a site with copycat versions of many of their recipes. See: Applebee's at Home There is a another site with lots of Applebee's copycats here: Recipe Secrets I can't help you get close to it. I know no more about the recipe than the menu description. I'll post this on the site. A reader might be able to help. Phaed Sour Dough Starter Problems -----Original Message----- From: Mary Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2014 12:56 AM To: Uncle Phaedrus Subject: Sour dough starter disasters Dear Uncle Phaedrus, Hi. I have been trying to make sour dough starters for a while, but with not much success. I am on my second San Francisco Sourdough starter mix from a company from San Jose. The temperature has been pretty safe. Its rarely over 85, and generally around 80-83. I talked to the 1-800 person for help, and I am not doing anything wrong. My starter is a week old, I have had to add flour and bottled water to restore it to 2c. There is a slight tangy smell to the starter and that clear liquid on top. I am not sure I killed it or not. I have tested the temperature with temporary dips of my probe, which is stainless steel, but not for long periods. I have how ever sometimes mixed in the new flour and water with a stainless steel whisk. So maybe I killed it. My question is, is there a sour dough bread recipe that I can count on? I don't want to go broke trying to find one. Thankyou Mary Hi Mary, I'm no sourdough expert. I can't tell you what's causing your starters to fail, nor can I give you a recipe and guarantee that it won't fail. Sorry, wish I could. There are websites devoted to sourdough starters that can help you much better than I. There are message boards here that discuss reasons for starter failure: The Fresh Loaf Sourdough.com There are recipes here for beginners: The Pocket Farmer Kitchen Simplicity Phaed Million Dollar Pound Cake From: susan Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2014 4:11 PM To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com Subject: million dollar poundcake recipe Hi, I used to have a recipe for this marvelous cake, but in a recent move, I lost it. It called for bringing all the ingredients to room temperature, adding them all to the stand mixer and beating on low for 20 minutes. Then the batter was poured into a prepared turban pan and baked for an hour. I hope you can help me. Thank you very much. Carpe Diem! Susan Hi Susan, I found lots of “million dollar pound cake” recipes. However, I didn’t find one that exactly matched your description. They all have slight differences. “Turban pans” are mostly used in Europe. In the US, we’d probably use the similar bundt pan or a tube pan. All of the recipes that I found said “soften the butter”, many said the eggs should be at room temperature, and one said the butter, eggs, and milk should be room temperature, but I did not find any that said “all ingredients should be room temperature” in those words. None said precisely “beat on low for 20 minutes”, although the mixing descriptions would add up to about that. Finally, the baking times varied from your 1 hour. All of these “million dollar pound cake” recipes are very similar, including the one you lost, in spite of the small differences. Any of them should yield a similar pound cake . Try one of these: Forum.Purseblog Lanabird My Recipes Taste of Home Phaed From: susan Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2014 2:34 PM To: 'Phaedrus' Subject: RE: million dollar poundcake recipe Thank you so much. I neglected to mention that the cake was started in a cold oven. Susan Hello Susan, That’s a rather large omission. I hope you haven’t left anything else out of the description. The first recipe below is the only recipe named “million dollar pound cake” that I can find that calls for starting with ingredients at room temperature and beginning baking in a cold oven. There are dozens of “million dollar pound cake” recipes, but all that I found except for this one start in a preheated oven. There are also dozens of pound cake recipes that start in a cold oven, but this is the only one that I could find that’s called “million dollar pound cake”. Most of them are called “cold oven pound cake” or just “pound cake”, as in the bottom two recipes. Most every recipe that I can find calls for cooking the cake for longer than 1 hour. Phaed Million Dollar Pound Cake 6 Eggs 1 cup butter (2 sticks) 3 cups sugar 4 cups all purpose flour 1 cup Whipping cream (also known as heavy cream) 1 teaspoon Vanilla Instructions 1. Grease and flour tube (or Bundt) pan and set out eggs and butter to allow them to come to room temperature. 2. In a large bowl,cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. Sift the flour and add it to the creamed mixture alternately with the whipping cream. Mix until fully incorporated. 3. Stir in vanilla. 4. Pour into prepared pan and place in a cold oven. Turn oven to 300 and bake for 80-90 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from pan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pound Cake 2 sticks margarine or butter 1/2 c. Crisco 3 c. sugar 5 eggs 1 c. milk 3 c. flour 1 tsp. lemon extract 1 tsp. almond extract 1 tsp. vanilla All ingredients must be at room temperature. Cream margarine, Crisco, and sugar. Add eggs all at once. Beat for 1 minute alternately and gradually add milk and flour. Add extracts and vanilla; mix into batter. Grease and flour tube pan. Pour batter into pan. Place in COLD oven, turn oven on to 325 degrees. Bake 1 hour, test for doneness (toothpick comes out clean when inserted in cake). If not done, bake 15-20 minutes more. Remove form oven, cool on rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cold Oven Pound Cake 1/2 c. butter 1/2 c. Crisco 3 c. sugar 5 eggs 1 c. milk 3 c. plain flour 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. almond extract 1/2 tsp. baking powder Have all ingredients at room temperature. Cream sugar, butter and shortening. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Blend in flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour. Add flavoring. Sprinkle baking powder on top. Beat at medium speed for 10 minutes. Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Put into a cold oven. Set temperature at 350 degrees and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.