THE CHEF FROM HELL

Here's a recipe that always brings back childhood memories of Christmas in New Orleans for me.  Our neighbor, Mrs. Pettibone, used to make up a bunch of these pecan pound cakes and give them out as presents around the neighborhood.  One Christmas, her dog Luther (a German Shepard who happened to be blind), somehow managed to climb on top of her kitchen table and put quite a dent in a few of the pound cakes she had just made.  "Luther!  You gonna be thankin God you is blind, boy!  That way you not gonna see what I'm gonna do to you when I catch you this very day!!" 

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1 cup Buttermilk

2 sticks Unsalted Butter

2 cups White Sugar

1 tsp pure Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Salt

6 large Eggs

3 cups White Flour

10 oz Pecan pieces, chopped coarse

Cooking Procedure:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees

Place the buttermilk in a small bowl

Add the baking soda & stir well

Note: This mixture will foam up a bit

Set this buttermilk mixture aside

In a mixer, combine the butter & sugar

Stir well

Add the vanilla extract & salt

Stir well

With the mixer runn9ing, add the eggs, one at a time

Mix well

With the mixer running, gradually add the flour (1 cup at a time)

Beat this well

Add the buttermilk mixture

Beat this cake mix until creamy

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the pecan pieces

Grease a large loaf pan

Pour in the pound cake mix

Place the loaf pan in the oven & bake the pound cake for 2 hours or until a knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean

Let the pound cake cool at room temperature

Once the pound cake is cool, gently remove it from the loaf pan

Serve slices of the pound cake naked or with some ice cream on the side