Kardea Brown's Top Spring Recipe Videos 🌼 | Delicious Miss Brown | Food Network

I love a Caesar salad. The only thing about a Caesar salad that I don't like is that it gets very, like, soggy and wilted fast. So what I found is using a Tuscan kale, which is nice and sturdy, will hold up that nice, thick Caesar dressing and it won't get wilted. And it's easy to stem. Just pinch together the leaves at the bottom and scale it back. Leaf, stem. Give it a nice little bunch, squeeze it, and then slice thinly. Kale is very bitter, and a lot of people that I know don't like kale. Kale has a bad rap. It's all about how you work it. Just gotta give kale the opportunity to shine. So I've used about a pound or two bunches of kale. Now I'm gonna get started on my Caesar dressing. I love a good, thick Caesar dressing. About a half a cup of mayo. With dressings, especially like a Caesar dressing, I like to eyeball it. I mean, it's all about taste. About two tablespoons of olive oil. A few dashes of Worcestershire. It cuts through some of that creaminess and it adds a little bit of that salt flavor, too. I've minced three cloves of garlic. Wanna also add anchovies. Classic Caesar dressings have anchovies. If you're really funny about anchovies, you don't have to use them, but I like a good, authentic Caesar dressing and I love anchovies. Gonna use about two filets in here. And I like a very tangy Caesar dressing, so I'm adding the zest of one lemon and the juice of one lemon. And a liberal amount of freshly cracked black pepper. Half a cup of freshly shaved parm. I'm gonna add a little more to this. I want about a cup. You get that really nutty flavor. It's fresh cheese, I mean, you can't beat it. When I go to an Italian restaurant, they say, oh, ma'am, would you like some freshly grated cheese? I was like, yeah, sure. And they'll come over and they'll grate and they'll say, okay, no, no, no. Keep going. So that's about a cup. Give it a whisk. Make sure the anchovies break down. All right, before I add any more salt, taste. Ooh, it's tangy, it's cheesy, it's creamy. It has a nice little kick from that pepper. I don't need to add any more salt to this. The anchovies did the trick. Add my kale directly to the bowl. Use a tong to mix it up. Oh, yeah. This smells and looks great. Ooh, strawberry lemon cheesecake bars. And guess what? It's no bake. Cold, refreshing, one box of vanilla wafers in a bag. And I'm crushing the vanilla wafers because it's gonna be the buttery crust for the strawberry lemon bars. All right, I'm melting one and a half sticks of butter. It's a lot of butter, but hey, you're making a cheesecake bar. You can't skimp on the butter. While that's melting, I'm gonna grab a lemon and some sugar. I'm zesting a half a lemon so I wanna kick that lemon flavor up a notch. You know, now that I think of it, house names like Marty's are pretty common in my family. My grandmother's brother, his name was John Robinson, but we called him Snooki. Have no idea why we called him Snooki, but I always addressed him as Uncle Snooki. House name. So I've added three tablespoons of sugar. I'm gonna add that hot butter directly to those crushed vanilla wafers. I'm gonna add a heavy pinch of salt. This crust is so versatile. You can use it in a key lime pie. If you're making some type of baked fruit, like grilled peaches, you can add it as a quick crumble. And I actually make a baked banana pudding cheesecake. And of course, banana pudding has vanilla wafers, so use a vanilla wafer crust. All right, that looks great. Mm-hmm. That is the bomb.com. I'm just gonna press down till it's even and leveled. And I've added the parchment paper to make it easy to pull out once it's done. All righty, so my crust is in the freezer. I'm gonna get started on my cheesecake filling. I'm using, which is important, room temp cream cheese. I've tried to take the shortcut and not get this cream cheese at room temp, and it does not work. You won't get that nice and fluffy cream cheese filling if you use cold, mildly cold cream cheese. All right, so I'm using about 24 ounces. Here's why I love this no-bake recipe. It's summertime, it's hot. Who wants to turn on their oven in the summertime? I mean, here in Charleston, it's 100 degrees past 100 degrees. It's hot. I'm not turning that oven on. I'm gonna beat my softened cream cheese till it gets fluffy with a little volume. So I'm gonna stop the process right now. A little bit of lemon zest. Two teaspoons vanilla extract. All right, get this going again. That looks good to me. It's nice and fluffy, nice and silky and smooth. It's doubled in size, got a little bit of volume in there. Ready to add my lemon juice. Two teaspoons, two cups confectioner's sugar. Add it in one cup at a time. So I've made this recipe before for my mom and she loved it. The boys haven't tried it yet and I'm pretty sure they're gonna love it too. All right, I'm gonna add in the other cup, the final cup, confectioner's sugar. Get this started again. This is gonna be so light, so airy. Pop it in the fridge, take it out. Once it's chilled, it's gonna be cool, delicious and refreshing. I'm gonna add in one and a half cups of sour cream. It gives it that sharp tanginess and it just complements that lemon juice and lemon zest. All righty, pop this off. Fold in my whipped cream. And that's about one cup. Now because it's no bake, you want that nice, airy melt in your mouth effect and that whipped cream does that. In the time that it took me to make this, my crust has already set up. It's fluffy, it's creamy and it's gonna taste so good once it's chilled. That is done. I'm gonna pop this in the fridge. I gotta cut up some strawberries for the garnish. Cut the top off, cut it lengthwise. Nothing special. And I love using strawberries, especially in the summertime. It just screams summer. They're nice and sweet and ripe, very easy. I mean, lemon and strawberry go hand in hand, like strawberry lemonade. Just place them down. You can get fancy and create a little pattern. If you don't wanna do a pattern, that's okay too. I'm putting on the strawberries now instead of when I refrigerated it because strawberries tend to get really, really watery once it sets. These will not get watery at all. I've zested a lemon. I'm gonna add that right on top. I'm gonna make sure I cut between the strawberries. I will eat this by myself, but I have to share. Y'all ready for dessert? Yeah. Yes. That is good. That looks excellent. There you go. Look at that. Oh, that's good. I'm making my spin on my carrot cake. So instead of doing the big cake, I'm gonna do small little bite-sized cakes. I just shredded up about three cups of carrots. Dry ingredients. I'm using two and a half cups of all-purpose flour, two teaspoons of cinnamon, one and a half teaspoons of baking soda, one teaspoon of baking powder, one teaspoon of kosher salt, a half a teaspoon of ginger, and a quarter teaspoon of allspice. Now for the wet ingredients. I have one cup of light brown sugar, half a cup of granulated sugar, one cup of crushed pineapples. That's gonna make that carrot cake extra moist. One cup of vegetable oil, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, three eggs. Give it a whisk. And my carrot cake is not as dark as most carrot cakes, and that's because of the pineapples that I use. It's almost a light brown color. I'm adding just about three cups of grated carrots. Now I'm not using all of my carrots because I wanna top the little pieces with more carrot. A cup of walnuts, a cup of golden raisins. All right, that's ready. Now I'm gonna take my dry ingredients and fold it into my wet ingredients, a little at a time. That's just to make sure that it's fully incorporated. I have two quarter baking sheets that I've lined with parchment paper and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Knocking any of these air bubbles out to make sure it bakes nice and even. I have my oven preheated to 350. I'm gonna bake these for about 20 to 25 minutes. So I'm making traditional cream cheese icing. I have a cup of softened butter, 12 ounces of room-tip cream cheese, and I'm just gonna beat this about two to three minutes. I want it to get nice and fluffy. I'm gonna add in my sifted powdered sugar now, a cup at a time. Normally it'll take about four cups, but you know, just depends on your kitchen. It could be hotter in there, it could be hotter outside. You just gotta eyeball it. This is pipeable icing. My carrot cake has cooled. I'm gonna take this really big cutting board I have that I've been waiting to use. I'm just gonna flip over my cake. Yes, came right off. Take this parchment paper off. So I plan on cutting off the ends just to make sure I have a really nice and neat rectangle. Oh, that cake is so moist. I am not throwing out those ends. Be a little snack for tomorrow. I have a plastic bag here that I filled with my cream cheese frosting. I added a large star tip. Pipe it onto my bottom layer. Cut these into quarters, that's it. Doesn't wanna cut them in squares anyway, just to make things a little easier and make sure it doesn't fall apart. Pipe some more icing on top. A whole walnut on top. A golden raisin. Sprinkle a little bit more of the grated carrot on top. Adds a little pop of color. That's it. So I've zested one orange and I've juiced three oranges. Now I'm preparing my dry ingredients. I'm using three cups of all-purpose flour. I'm using a half a teaspoon of salt and a half a teaspoon of baking soda. Give it a mix. Set that to the side. All right, now for my wet. I have one and a half cups of softened, unsalted butter with three cups of granulated sugar. So I'm just gonna cream this together until it becomes light and fluffy. Now I have five eggs. I'm gonna beat them in one egg at a time. All right, so I've added my last egg. Now I'm gonna add my orange zest. Beat that in. Mm, so citrusy. If you love citrus, you're gonna love this recipe. All right, and I have a half a cup of sour cream, also room temp. The sour cream helps the cake stay moist longer. So I'm gonna alternate between my orange juice, freshly squeezed orange juice, and that dry mixture, starting off with the dry. All right, slowly add in my orange juice. Oh, this smells so good. Little bit more of the wet, and I'm gonna end with my dry. All right, that looks good to me. Let me grab my bundt pan that I've buttered and floured. I'm just gonna spread my batter evenly across the bottom of this pan. This is gonna be a very citrusy pound cake. So the oven is preheated to 325. I'm gonna bake that for an hour and 15. And now it's time to get started on my blood orange curd. I'm gonna get my pot started. I have a half a cup of sugar, a little blood orange zest, and I'm gonna mash this down to help release some of the oils from the zest. Blood orange is a little more tart than your typical, like, navel orange. I have five egg yolks, and this is gonna be the start of my curd. Give it a mix. Get that sugar to start to melt. Now I'm going to add 2 1⁄3 a cup of blood orange juice. Mm, look at that color. And the juice of this lemon. And I'm gonna add a pinch of salt. I'm just gonna cook this on medium-low temp. My curd has started to thicken, so I'm gonna turn the heat off and add a little butter. It's gonna give it a nice, smooth, and velvety taste. I'm gonna add a little bit in at a time. Mix it in, make sure it melts. Okay, add a little bit more in. I'm gonna strain this and then cover it and let it sit in the fridge and cool down a bit. And I'm straining this because I want just the curd and not the zest. Now, if you really love zest, you can leave it in there, but you want something that's really smooth, so it's best to strain the zest. If you put a curd or like a pudding in the fridge without it being covered, and you have to cover the surface, so you have to put the plastic right on top because you don't want a skin to develop in the fridge. Okay. My pound cake has been cooling for about 15 minutes. I'm gonna invert it into my cooling rack and let it cool down some more. This is always where I get like the most anxiety. Fingers crossed. One, two. Oh my gosh. That is beautiful. Southern tea sandwiches. So, Nancy, we're gonna make two types of sandwiches. I'm gonna do a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich, but we're gonna do the cream cheese little mixture on our own instead of just buying like chive and onion cream cheese. Right. So eight ounces of whipped cream cheese. I find that whipped cream cheese is just a little easier to manipulate. I have chives and I have scallions, so I like the variation of oniony flavor. Yes. And to that, can you add the zest of that lemon? Not only are we making one sandwich, I'm gonna make another one. I'm making a egg and bacon salad. But look at this cool thing I learned, Nancy. There's a wire rack here, right? So instead of like, you know, dicing it up and all of that, you just push it down and it breaks just like that. Oh, how cool is that? You do it. Oh, can I do one? Yeah. It's a good stress reliever. Oh, can I do another one? Yes. Yes, you can. I love this. All right, so what we're gonna do after Nancy mixes up our chive and onion cream cheese, we're gonna get two slices of bread. One side, the salmon will go, and then the other side, that's where we're gonna put the cream cheese. We're gonna sandwich it together, cut off the crust, and you got your southern tea sandwiches. Now, let me tell you a little secret that I learned because I'm only 50 years older than you are. When you knead that bread not to get soggy, you take just a thin, thin layer of butter and put it on both sides of the bread, so that whatever you're building the sandwich with- It creates a layer of protection. Correct. Oh, okay. I have six boiled eggs here that I put through my wire rack. I'm gonna add to that some shallots, chopped parsley, so bright, a pinch of smoked paprika, a pinch of salt, pinch of black pepper, a little squirt of this Dijon mustard. I have to dice up my bacon here. I have a little bit of mayo here, so I'm just gonna mix it up. Oh, it looks delicious. Isn't it pretty? Wanna build? I wanna build. Yes. I put some butter here. I would love to see this trick. Well, it's easy. I mean, it's just, you know, you're just kind of skimming the bread. Yeah. And that will prevent moisture from making the bread soggy, so that your sandwiches stay nice. And it's butter. So, of course, it adds a little richness to it. And everything's better with butter. With butter, absolutely. First, we'll make the smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich. Oh, Nancy, that is perfection. Aren't these beautiful? They are. Now, we'll make the egg and bacon salad sandwich. Nancy, can you grab the serving tray for me? I got some sliced cucumbers here, and I like just putting that on top for just a little extra pizzazz. And I'm gonna put the egg salad. On the bottom? Yes. Beautiful.