back, with cake

Hah!  I'm returning to blogging.  I'm still not sure why I quit for a while, nor am I entirely sure that I want to get back into the habit of blogging about most of what I cook.  However, I know this -- I made a great cake a couple of weeks ago, and I have to share the recipe.  :)

Maple-Walnut Spice Cake
yield: one 8-inch pan, 9 to 16 pieces (depending on how you cut them!)

Cream together:
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Stir in:
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 tsp maple extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine, then fold into wet ingredients just until combined:
1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Pour batter into greased 8-inch square baking pan, and bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes.  Cool.  Prepare frosting:

Beat together:
2 1/2 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat in:
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp maple extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Top with additional toasted, chopped walnuts.  Store cake in fridge.

Bundt success, and suppers

I have always kind of hated my Bundt pan.  Why?  Well . . . I had all of these images of beautiful, lobed cakes in my head, and every cake I'd ever made in that damn pan stuck like glue, and turned into a crumbled, broken mess.

That is, until this past weekend!

Bundt success!  How did I do it?  Two key items: spray oil, and a LOT of flour.  Like so much flour, you can kind of see a thin layer all over the top of the cake.  Oh well.  I'll figure out a better balance next time, right?

The cake is delicious, by the way.  :)  This Real Simple recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Cake caught my eye a while back,  and I'm delighted I finally had a chance to try it!  Of course, I can't ever follow a recipe as written -- I subbed a combination of olive, canola, and coconut oils for the butter, and used whole-wheat pastry flour instead of AP flour.  (I love whole-wheat flour in pumpkin baked goods -- it's so much more nutty and dense!  Mmm.)  The only drawback?  It's dense, rich, moist, and kind of a calorie-bomb, so I'd recommend smaller slices than the recipe suggests.

And since we cannot live on cake alone . . .

Winter Lentil Soup:
 

I have been a huge fan of this recipe, since the first time we tried it.  The soup is barely more than leeks, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, and lentils, but it is so delicious!  Light yet filling, slightly sweet, and containing two of my most favorite veggies, (kale and sweet potatoes,) which happen to pair beautifully.

Fried Rice:

Fried rice is one of those meals I tend to forget about, and then when I remember, I get so excited!  I love being able to clean out my crisper and get something so darn delicious for dinner.  In this batch, the purple cabbage dyed the egg a lovely shade of pale blue -- hilarious, if you ask me.

And, Jamaican-Style Black Bean and Coconut Cornbread Bake:

Isn't it funny how certain things trigger meals?  For example, I always seem to remember this recipe when I have a partial can of coconut milk to use up, since the cornbread topping calls for only 2/3 cup coconut milk.  Delicious, incredibly simple, and healthy, too!

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We'll be living off these leftovers for the rest of the week, and we might be eating more convenience foods than I'd like next week, as the move is approaching quickly!  I'll blog again soon, once I've unpacked enough to find the kitchen and make something -- until then!

back in the kitchen again!

After a long hiatus from cooking much of anything, (thank you, 90+ degree heat and high humidity,) I decided I had had enough salads, and got back in my kitchen this weekend.  :)  It's still hot, but I managed to sweat my way through several meal's worth of stovetop cooking and/or baking/roasting in the oven, and boy, was it worth it!

Dinner Friday night:

A simple meal of whole-wheat pasta tossed with homemade marinara and parmesan, with roasted pattypan squash on the side.

Bunch Saturday:

Breakfast burritos!  A whole-wheat tortilla stuffed with homemade refried beans, cheese, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.  This is one of those meals that if eaten after 10 am, will keep you full until dinner.  :)  Mmm.

Dinner Saturday:

Sloppy lentils piled on a whole-wheat bun, dilly beans, cherries, and Spud Puppies.

Dinner Sunday:

 

Tofu Steak with Miso and Ginger, Steamed Baby Carrots with Orange-Dill Butter, cucumbers with sour cream and dill, and Zucchini Fritters.  This meal was a LOT of work, (and generated a lot of dishes -- shout out to John, who washed nearly all of them!), but it was so worth it!  I had a blast finding new ways to make some seasonal produce shine.

My life is incomplete without dessert:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake!  Between the cake and the fritters, I have managed to take down about 2/3 of the ginormous zucchini John brought home from volunteering last week.  I still have about a pound left . . . muffins?  Bread?  Cookies?  What's your vote?

one cannot live on eggs alone

I'm back! After a couple of long bus rides, (and a lot of nose-blowing . . . traveling with a massive head cold isn't much fun, let me tell you,) and some quality time spent with grandpa in the middle, it's good to be home. :)

John picked me up from the bus on Monday afternoon; by dinnertime, we were both massively hungry, but I was so sick and tired and cranky that I couldn't come up with anything that possibly resembled dinner. And I needed to hit the store . . . desperately. John's suggestion? "I'll make eggs."

There we go. Dinner/breakfast is served. :)

And, since one cannot live on eggs alone . . .

"French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme," from Veganomicon:

I stuck pretty tight to the recipe this time around, although I didn't use all French green lentils, as I wanted to use up the mixture of lentils I had on hand. So . . . the soup has a blend of green, brown, and red lentils -- and what an amazing soup this turned out to be! I also cut back on the salt a bit, as I thought it would probably be too salty as writ. (I think I was right, at least for my palate!)

I was due another baking project -- Apple-Molasses Spice Cake:

I cannot say enough good things about this cake . . . moist, flavorful, intensely-spiced, warm, and just plain cozy. A perfect "ordinary" dessert, in my opinion!

Last, rice bowls with peanut sauce:

This is one of those amazingly-tasty, super-healthy dinners that come together in seconds if all of the ingredients are prepped ahead of time. I cooked up a bunch of brown rice, fried up some tofu, prepped a bunch of veggies, and made a batch of peanut sauce from Vegan with a Vengeance. Ta-da! Pile it all in a bowl, re-warm (or not, if that's your thing,) and dig in. Mmmmmmm. Peanut sauce is the BEST.

read the recipe

Last night, I decided the best possible thing I could do with my evening was bake something -- hell yes! (Really, when is it not time to bake?) I had a few baking apples lingering in my fridge from a Halloween trip to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard, and really thought that I better use them up, quick-like! This recipe for Apple-Molasses Spice Cake had caught my eye ages ago, and it sounded like the perfect early-winter dessert.

This cake is INCREDIBLE! Imagine a moist, light, sweet-but-not-too-sweet gingerbread, studded with bits of slightly tart apple throughout -- a lovely, rustic dessert, but also an excellent breakfast. :) I might even try this one again with whole-wheat flour, as I think the cake is so flavorful and light, one would hardly notice the flour swap.

A note of caution, though -- always READ THE ENTIRE RECIPE before starting! The recipe calls for a half-cup of water added to the cake batter, which was NOT listed in the ingredients, (shame on you, Real Simple!), and I had proceeded with the recipe without the water, surprised by how stiff the batter was, popping the cake in the oven before reading, yelping "oh no!", ripping the cake back out of the oven, adding the water, and returning it to the oven. :) No harm done in the end, but it would have been smart to have read through the full recipe first! (Shame on me, too! We'll say it's a 50/50 blame this time.) ;)

an epic cake disaster

Last night, I threw a triple birthday party for my friends Christine, Ann, and Courtney, as they all have their birthdays within two weeks of each other! We had a great time, ate some amazing food, and drank some delicious wine (thanks to Dora, for bringing beverages!)

However, pre-party, I experienced a cake disaster so spectacular, I would consider it epic.

I had planned on making an amazing, three-layer cake for this party -- I was going for a "chocolate-covered strawberry" cake, using chocolate cake layers, vanilla buttercream, and homemade strawberry jam as filling. I pulled out my favorite moist, tender, chocolatey cake recipe for this one, baked up the layers, let them cool, and set to work.

The cake was super-slidy when I was trying to ice it, and it didn't turn out very well, but I managed to get the thing assembled:


Things were looking okay for about two seconds, until this happened:

This was actually an action shot . . . the collapse/damage was even worse than pictured. What's a girl to do? There was way too much frosting involved already to make cake pops, and truthfully, I didn't want 700 cake pops, and I was so mad . . . I just threw the whole thing out. (Well, I picked off and ate a couple of the chocolate-covered strawberries, first.)

What a waste. Waste of money, (organic powdered sugar is expensive!), waste of ingredients, waste of time, waste of energy.

Grrrrrrr.

What did I learn?
1. Tender, moist cake doesn't have enough structure for layering. There is a reason most cake is kind of dry and sturdy.
2. Just make cupcakes. They are easier and less disaster-prone. (Plus, people like cupcakes!)


Or alternately, sick a candle in a persimmon:

(This works beautifully for people who don't eat refined sugar, who are called "Miss Persimmon" by the owner of the Asian grocery store! Ahem, Courtney!)

The dinner portion of our evening was great! I made . . .

Vegan Eggplant Parmesan:


Cheesy Eggplant Parmesan:


A beautiful salad, including honeycrisp apple, fennel, walnuts, and bleu cheese:


And sliced up some baguette.

We were too full for dessert, anyway. :)

adjusting

It's hard to adjust to changes in your routine, isn't it? I've shifted from cooking for both Dan and I practically every single night, and packing leftovers from dinners for lunches every day, to cooking/food planning for just myself, except on Tuesdays and weekends. It's a little strange, but I'm starting to remember how to do this! I planned on making huge Greek salads for most lunches this week, which worked really well -- plus, it's really good for me to eat a huge salad every single day! I did a wee bit of cooking this week, too:

First, a delightful minestrone I made for Dan and I on Tuesday night:

I stumbled upon this recipe from Ellie Krieger in an issue of Food Network Magazine that I was flipping through during my flu-induced stupor over the holidays. (Is it strange that one of the only activities I can tolerate while sick is reading magazines? I swear, I must have gone through 8 or so! After I read through the favorites, hit up Target for a second round, and then went to Walgreens on CHRISTMAS DAY for a supply of the third-stringers, I knew it was going to be a BAD illness. Can you tell I'm still recovering, at least mentally?) :) Anyhow, this recipe sounded simple, quick, and delicious, and it was indeed all three of those things! I made a few small modifications, including adding more beans and more pasta, since I wanted the soup to serve more as a meal, instead of a veggie side/app. This soup was an excellent, nutritious weeknight meal, (accompanied by some sliced baguette and brie . . . hey, we can't be all healthy, all the time, right?), and has served both of us well for several lunches in leftover form, too. Note: if you attempt this recipe, make sure you use at least a 6-quart pot . . . I had to transfer from my 4-quart mid recipe! (I HATE it when that happens!)

I also threw together a few odds and ends and made myself a delicious stir-fry for dinner tonight!

I tossed a 1/4 package of tofu, some garlic, ginger, and onion, and a few miscellaneous veggies into my cast-iron fry pan, and added a simple "sauce" at the very end -- 2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce, 1 tsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp garlic-chile sauce, and 1/2 tsp agave nectar. Served the lot over some leftover Basmati rice, (well, it was already made, ok?!) and called it dinner. Yum!

And appropriately, this treat was probably the most favorite thing I made this week!

I found so many attractive things about this recipe for Lemon Pudding Cakes from Eating Well that I knew I was going to have to make them SOON! I know they don't look like much, but they are light, fluffy, sweet, intensely lemony, and all around fabulous! Dan loves anything citrus, so he was all over these, and I loved how easy they were to throw together. Plus, I'd almost always rather a fruit or lemon dessert. I like chocolate, but just not all that often! :)

I'm so ready for the weekend! Cabin time, here we come!

I can't believe I haven't posted since Saturday! What happened? Well, let's see . . . Dan made off with the camera for a couple of days, so I had pictures trapped for a little bit. Here was Sunday night's dinner:

Butternut Squash Lasagna, from Cooking Light, was a huge hit! I didn't make their recipe for "Smoky Marinara" -- I just made my own recipe using a 28-ounce can of fire-roased crushed tomatoes. I also cheated a bit and used frozen butternut squash cubes, but hey, they worked beautifully! (I also had a coupon that was about to expire -- double bonus!) This will make a nice change from our usual spinach and artichoke lasagna, and is also another way I've found for both Dan and I to enjoy squash. :)

Dessert made me happy, too!

I had hit up Penzey's earlier in the weekend, and picked up a new blend to try: Cake Spice! I have enjoyed using their Baking Spice for a while now, and Cake Spice is a nice change of pace. What better way to test it out, than in a simple applesauce cake? I threw in some finely chopped pecans for texture and tastiness, and did use half whole-wheat pastry flour, too. Yum! I must confess . . . I have been eating this cake for breakfast! ;)

I did cook on Monday night, too -- Cheese Muffins alongside Red, Gold, Black, and Green Chili, but that was one of those meals that missed being photographed due to the camera being away from home. :) This meal was awesome to come home to, bubbling away in the Crock Pot, and has made delicious lunches for both of us the past two days in a row. I didn't cook last night, (translation: WAY too tired,) and won't be able to cook tonight, either, (choir practice,) but I'm sure I'll be back in the kitchen by Thursday. Until then!

personal slow-motion

I'm having a weird twist of time this weekend -- I feel like time is flying by, while I can't seem to get myself motivated to do much of anything! I'm experiencing personal slow-motion, I guess. :)

Even though my brain feels like mush and my feet feel like concrete, I have managed the usual errands and a few projects in my kitchen, like making granola, drying roma tomatoes in the oven, and roasting, pureeing, straining, and freezing butternut squash for future use.

I also cooked! A humble loaf of 100% whole-wheat Artisan Bread:

To go with soup!

I used 12 ounces of the mixed beans/peas/lentils that I bought up north this summer, and made a soup based largely on Moosewood's "Black Bean and Chipotle Soup." (You can find the recipe here, just scroll down.) Yum! A cheap, nutritious, uncomplicated dinner last night.

Even though I didn't make this, I have to tell you about my dessert, too!

I had a coupon for a 4-pack from Natural Brew, and I had never seen this "Chai Cola" until today -- and woo-ee, is it tasty! Imagine all of your favorite chai spices in soda form -- mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

I may have discovered my new favorite Sunday brunch:

Oh Breakfast Burrito, how I love thee! We filled whole-wheat tortillas from the farmer's market with refried black beans (from a can! Gasp!), hash browns, scrambled eggs, queso fresco, salsa, and sour cream. Expect a repeat next week. :)

I did a little baking this weekend, too:

"Orange-Almond Polenta Cake," from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers. Technically, I made "Lemon-Almond Polenta Cake," since I only bought one orange and I burned my first stab at the cake. (Note to self, if you smell caramelizing sugar, the cake's probably done, regardless of how many minutes are left on the timer or how important your phone conversation with your friend is! Sheesh. I hate wasting food.) Anyhow, I caught cake #2 just in time, (and let me tell you, this cake was done TEN MINUTES earlier than the suggested baking time in the book,) and it is fantastic! Lemony, sweet, with little crunchies throughout from the cornmeal and almonds. Mmmmmmmmm!

Laundry's calling . . .

Yoga Month!

I learned today that September is "Yoga Month!" That's exciting! Check out my sidebar for a link to the official Yoga Month website, where you can enter to win prizes and learn about free classes offered in your neck of the woods. Exciting!

One of my New Year's resolutions was to get into the habit of doing yoga this year . . . I had mixed feelings about making this resolution, because I knew I would "fall off the yoga wagon" during the summer. We are just so dang BUSY, I knew I'd have a hard time fitting in yoga -- and I was right. I'm using Yoga Month as an excuse to get back into the habit! I pledge to do at least twenty minutes of yoga per day, EVERY DAY, for the month of September! Woo! Care to join me? (At whatever frequency and level of participation you desire, obviously.) :) I plan to blog about my yoga daily, or as often as I can, so stay tuned!

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Here's the last of the weekend food fun . . .

Lunch today was Summer Squash and Corn Chowder, from Cooking Light:

If you click through to the recipe, you'll notice bacon is the first ingredient . . . I substituted a little olive oil for the suggested bacon drippings, and added 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika to the soup, which worked beautifully! In fact, next time I might add 1/2 teaspoon -- there was barely a whisper of smokiness in today's batch, and I'd definitely like a little more presence in the future. Overall, this is a wonderful recipe! I don't much care for summer squash, truthfully, but it is a fantastic addition to this creamy, yet light, corn chowder.

Dinner also featured summer squash!

Broiled summer squash and eggplant, lemon-garlic whole-wheat couscous, and "Mediterranean-Style Baked Lima Beans," from Veganomicon. Oh, those beans are so rich and creamy! Even though Dan doesn't much care for beans, he's a big fan of this dish.

We did both manage to save room for dessert . . .

We've had a bounty of local plums in our fridge for a couple of weeks, and the remaining half-dozen needed to be used today, or else! Enter, Plum Upside-Down Cake, from Cooking Light! INCREDIBLE! I love the contrast of the tart, flavorful plum with the rich, sweet butter cake. This cake will appear again and again in our house, I fear, featuring any seasonal fruit available. (For some reason, grapefruit upside-down cake just popped into my head . . . good idea? YES!)

Sliced . . .

Please don't attack your computer screen with a fork! :)

hiding vegetables in cake

Now, those of you who frequent my blog know that we have no problem getting our required servings of veggies . . . but sometimes I still get a kick out of "hiding" veggies in unexpected places.

Enter, Chocolate Zucchini Cake:

This recipe originally came from a coworker, who brought a mountain of this cake to work a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the cake so much that I asked her for the recipe, but I also knew that the cake wasn't to my liking -- it was too sweet, and just not chocolatey enough! I loved how the zucchini kept the cake very moist, though, and used her recipe as a starting point. Here's my version:

Magical Chocolate-Zucchini Cake
makes one 9X13 pan

Beat together with an electric mixer:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup canola oil
1 3/4 cups sugar

Beat in:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 packed cups shredded zucchini

Whisk together, then beat into wet ingredients at low speed:
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup AP flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice (or cinnamon)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9X13 pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Cool. Top with ganache -- measure 4 ounces (1/4 lb.) good quality dark chocolate into a mixing bowl. Bring 1/2 cup heavy cream just to a boil, and pour the cream into the bowl with the chocolate. Allow the chocolate/cream to sit for a few minutes, to melt the chocolate. Whisk the ganache until smooth. Allow the ganache to cool slightly, before spreading over the cooled cake. In this hot/humid summer weather, this cake definitely needs to be kept in the fridge.

I really like that my version is chocolatey and rich without being overly sweet, and that the cake hides both a little whole grain goodness and some zucchini nutrition. Awesome! I also really like the thin, glaze-like layer of ganache on top -- adds a little extra chocolatey-ness without being overwhelming. Plus, the zucchini keeps everything moist, so you don't even notice the whole-wheat flour. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

And, since we cannot live on cake alone, here are more Asian salads:

Just as good as last time, with the addition of a few sliced cremini mushrooms that needed to be used up ASAP. Happy lunch!

"toe-FOOD"

Have I ever told the story of "toe-FOOD?" Well, it's a short one, but funny.

The kids at my old job didn't quite hear me the first time I said, "tofu," and they heard it, "toe-FOOD." So, forever from that point, they'd ask me, "do you have toe-FOOD for lunch today?" :)

(The other mispronunciation that was hilarious was "shush-ee." You know, seaweed wrapped around rice and veggies?")

Anyhow, I must have been hungry for "toe-FOOD" this past week, because we ate a TON of it:

"Brooklyn Pad Thai," from Vegan with a Vengeance:


Tofu coconut curry, over brown rice:


Asian noodley soup, with tofu and too many veggies:


I did also manage to throw a little variety in there, mostly this past weekend . . .

PIZZA:


Beans and Rice:

Tucked safely away in the fridge for lunches this week. We never seem to get sick of beans and rice prepared in my super-secret way! (Super-secret? Nah. Pretty much everything you see in that picture, plus a jar of prepared salsa. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell!)

CAKE:

We had our annual "girls night in" last night, and we simplified this month by just doing dessert and tea. I made the "Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake," from Veganomicon, and topped the slices with vanilla ice cream (not pictured) and sliced strawberries tossed with a drizzle of agave. YUM!

Sigh. Must go find my kitchen under a mountain of dirty dishes! I leave you with a cat-in-a-box:

sunchokes!

Sunchokes, Jerusalem Artichokes, whatever you want to call them, I finally got around to cooking with the pound of knobbly little sunflower roots I bought at the Farmer's Market LAST weekend. (Not a day ago, but over a week ago!) I was so excited to find sunchokes, since I'd never tried them before, and quickly purchased a pound.

I googled soup recipes using sunchokes, and settled on a very simple sunchoke and leek soup, containing nothing more than a little butter, some vegetable broth, milk (or a blend of milk and yogurt, which is what I used,) salt, and pepper. About 45 minutes and a hit with the stick blender later, I had cream of leek and sunchoke soup:



Oh yum! I did detect a hint of artichokeish flavor, which I'm sure was enhanced by the slight sourness brought to the party by the plain yogurt I subbed for part of the milk, but really, sunchokes are their own flavor, in my opinion. Light, almost summery, incredibly subtle, fresh, and TASTY! You'd be hard-pressed to find another fall vegetable that tastes more springy!

Served up with a side salad and a couple of crostini spread with baba ganoush:



AND, pumpkin cake for dessert!



It's been a good night. :)

i so sick.

Hey, folks -- sorry for the extreme delay in posting and general lack of food photography here this past week! I, of course, have a lame excuse -- after a whirlwind weekend including hiking, biking, eating out THREE times, a "cleansing" juice from the co-op while shopping, and movie theater popcorn, (which I blame fully for the following,) I am mighty sick today -- like, up half the night in the bathroom sick. Ugh. Fortunately, I've been keeping food down just fine since the sun came up, and I'll be back to work tomorrow.

I do, however, have a backlog of some eats and treats that I discovered on my camera! Woo! Some food to show you!

A wonderful, summery dinner:

I made Melody's All-American Burgers, stuck them in a bun with some Vegenaise, lettuce, heirloom tomato, and sliced avocado, and served oven-roasted sweet corn and sweet potato fries on the side. If I had an appetite right now, I'd be wishing I had one of these! In my humble opinion, these are the BEST VEGGIE BURGERS I've ever had, storebought or homemade. Thanks, Mel, for sharing your recipe!

Anybody else gorging themselves on heirloom tomatoes lately?

Homemade pizza topped with caramelized onions, heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, olives, and a sprinkling of Italian seasoning. YUM. Oh, by the way -- those beets on that salad? They are from my dad's garden -- thanks, Dad!

Cake-n-Ice-Cream:

The cake is called "Reduced-Guilt Chocolate Brownie Cake," and I believe the recipe came from Nava Atlas. A cinch to prepare, moist, and delicious! I'm deeply saddened that we lost THREE-QUARTERS of this cake to the "fuzz," though. I'll make room in the fridge next time!

Applesauce-making:

Yes, I confess . . . I am the biggest dork . . . EVER. Alton Brown would shun me for owning this unitasker, but hey, I live in MN, and when it's apple season, I don't want to spend hours over the garbage can with a peeler! So there. Chunky, slightly sweet, slightly cinnamony applesauce came in handy today with my touchy tummy.

Last, but not least, MORE heirlooms:

But really, what else does one need this time of year???