Applesauce Cake

The answer is yes, I have fallen to the busy holiday season. That's one reason for the lack of blogging lately. Well, and really I haven't been
cooking as much. Christmas Eve was with Al's family and Christmas day with mine...and I only had to make potatoes au gratin and cookies. (Which were awesome by the way...cookie dough truffles, pumpkin molasses, nutella no-bakes, butterscotch drops, and super soft sugar cookies with fun icing!)

Anyways, on to something that's kind of special to me. A little over a year ago, Al's side of the family threw me a bridal shower at which I received a family cookbook. Filled with pages and pages of recipes passed down from generation to generation. Mixed in with a family tree and some really neat photos from as early as the 1860s. This is a recipe that comes from that cookbook. Craving something sweet and not having a ton of ingredients, I found myself with just about everything for this cake. I skipped the frosting, it was good enough without. And I didn't add in raisins or walnuts which are in the recipe. This turned out to be a delicious moist cake. Loved it.

INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups unsweetened natural applesauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
2 teas cinnamon
1 1/2 teas baking soda
1 teas nutmeg
1/2 teas salt

optional:
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

*In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs well. Add applesauce, sugar, and oil, mix well. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients, stir until well combined.
*Pour into a coated baking pan. (13x9)
*Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
*Sprinkle with powdered sugar, eat plain, or top with some frosting! Enjoy.

Shredded Pork

Continuing with my current love affair with the ciabatta rolls I made, here is another stellar use for them...or really any bread for that matter. Or just a fork. Heck, finger food. Being a person who normally tends towards vegetarian meals, one might find it odd that I adore shredded pork sandwiches. Or pulled pork, whatever you want to call it. But for real, I love it. There is just something about it. And this recipe is a little bit sweet, a little bbq'y, a little just plain awesome. Its one of those slow cooker meals. Put it all in  in the morning and by the afternoon your house smells so good you want to eat the air. I slathered on a little homemade jalapeno mustard that made this one tasty sandwich. (2 parts yellow mustard to 1 part dijon mixed with some chopped jalapeno and a dash of garlic powder....yum!)

INGREDIENTS:
3 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tbls cider vinegar
2 tbls Worcestershire
1 teas chipotle pepper
2 tbls brown sugar
1 teas cumin
2 teas garlic powder
1 tbls dry minced onion
1/2 teas salt
1 teas black pepper

*Trim off any large chunks of fat on the outside of the cut of meat. There's plenty of marbled fat to give you nice flavor, no need to keep excess fat on there.
*Place pork into slow cooker. Smoother with all the other ingredients. Turn to coat. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
*About an hour or two before you're going to serve, shred up the pork-while still in slow cooker-with a couple of forks. This way the meat can soak up even more of the awesome sauce juice it's sitting in.
*Serve and enjoy!

Ciabatta Rolls

When I set out to do these, I really had set the bar kind of low. Expecting this to be a whole day invested into a mediocre attempt at something a little too far out of reach. Boy was I surprised when these turned out AMAZING! No lie. And I'm not even going to attempt to reiterate the details of the recipe, but rather point you in the direction of The Kitchn. Yup, that's where I found this. See last week, well, it was sandwich week over here. I already post a burger(okay, not exactly a sandwich, but go with it)that sat between a sliced ciabatta roll. And I've got at least one more post in the making. We went through these crazy fast. I ended up making about a dozen rolls and then one larger loaf for slicing. The loaf got wrapped up in tinfoil, froze, and about a week after I made these, pulled out and sliced for some pb & banana toast-to see if the bread was good after freezing. Ahem, it is. So here's a photo of how mine turned out and here is where to go for how to have them for yourself. There are step by step photos and its all explained really well. Happy Baking!

Black & White Burger

In my pursuit of all things delicious, I am yearning for a solid veggie burger recipe. I have done black bean burgers before with minor success. They have all tasted great, but consistency wise fall below where I would like. Perusing the internet for some inspiration, I came across these from namelymarly.com. I find it quite nice that there is a never ending source of vegetarian/tasty/pretty/yummy/healthy blogs out there. I could literally spend all my time searching for new things to make!

I'd give these a good thumbs up, although I need to probably try them sticking exactly to the recipe. I still have problems with measuring, I'm a guesstimater you see. And frankly, I'm okay with it....it just proves difficult when trying to then reproduce my dishes on paper. Another fun fact about me: I will use the least amount of dishes and utensils possible when cooking and baking. So for this, when it called to put grind up some of the beans in a food processor, I wasn't exactly feelin' it. The parts were still in my dish rack from being used and washed earlier in the day. So I nixed that step. It may be the missing link between my pretty good patties with okay consistency and awesome patties with consistency that melts your face off. All in all, these had great flavor. They have already been eaten as left overs in the form of a wrap with veggies and simply heated up with a little sour cream on top(I wasn't feeling so hot yesterday but knew I could use a little protein).

FYI, this burger went on homemade ciabatta rolls. Yeah, that's right. I went there. A little time consuming but sooooooo worth it. And way cheaper than you would buy them for. I'll get that posted today too.

INGREDIENTS:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup cooked brown rice
3 tbls flour
1 tbls lemon juice
1 teas salt
1 tbls chili powder
1/2 cup cornmeal
olive oil
salt and pepper

*Place half the beans and onion in food processor, pulse until coarse ground.
*Mash the rest of the beans in a bowl. Add back in the other beans, rice, flour, lemon juice, chili powder, and salt. Stir to combine. Add cornmeal and stir again. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. If its still to wet, add in some more cornmeal.
*Shape dough into 6 patties.
*Heat a splash of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, place in patties and cook about 5 minutes on each side. Keep patties hot in a 250 degree oven for about 10-20 minutes, while the rest of the patties cook.
*Enjoy!

Gingerbread Mini Muffins

I hinted to these bad boys yesterday. This was one of those "I saw it on pinterest and was immediately in my kitchen" kind of things. The recipe, coming from a pinch of yum, makes these as mini donuts. (I altered slightly, due to my lack absence of allspice.) Well, with a big sigh I say that I don't own a mini donut pan. And since making these, I have toiled with the thought of getting one. Even making up-in my head-a pro con list as to why or why not.

PRO: I love donuts.
CON: Its money that could be spent on something else used far more often.
PRO: I love mini donuts!
CON: Having a pan of this sort would cause me to want to use it to get my money's worth...thusly consuming far too many donuts.
PRO: They are baked donuts, so so much better than fried.
CON: They are still donuts.

So you see...its really just a toss up. But so far I've held out. Hence these guys became mini muffins instead. And really...still tasted awesome. All the steps were still the same and I, I mean we, got to enjoy a fun treat!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup flour
3/4 teas baking powder
1/4 teas baking soda
1 teas cinnamon
1 teas ginger
1/2 teas ground cloves
1/4 teas salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, dived
1 egg
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tbls maple syrup
3 tbls milk, divided
4 tbls butter, divided
1/2 cup powdered sugar

*Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Mix in egg, applesauce, syrup, 1 tbls milk, and 2 tbls of the butter.
*Transfer batter to a ziplock bag and cut the corner off. Pipe into an already (cooking) sprayed pan filling each space 1/2 full.
*Bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Immediately remove from pan onto cooling rack.
*In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tbls butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Let boil for 2 minutes then add 1 tbls of milk and bring back to a boil. Add the powdered sugar. If needed thin out with remaining milk.
*Turn down heat to low to keep glaze going. Dip each and let set.
*Enjoy/try not to eat all of them right away.

Spicy Thai Noodles

Have I ever told you my favorite place in the whole world is Thailand? Cause it is. I've had the privilege of being all over the country(and it's neighbors). Thai food ranks as one of my favorite types...ever. It seems its in a three way tie with Chinese and Mexican. I think it boils down to my love of spicy food. Anyways, I have only dabbled in a few thai dishes. Most of them being complex in flavor and/or preparation. This, well its got all the flavor but is a pretty easy dish to make. Which is a winning combo in my book. We gobbled this stuff up in no time. 

Kitchen tid-bit: Ginger is something I find myself using more and more, but I can go a week or two without sometimes. Which can make for having to throw away shriveled up ginger fingers and having to buy new ones when you find yourself craving say...gingerbread mini muffins with a brown sugar glaze? (COMING SOON!!) Here's what ya do. Buy a good chunk of ginger. Peel and freeze! Then whenever you need some pull it out and grate it! Easy peasy! 

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg of whole wheat spaghetti 

1 head of broccoli, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup water

1 tbls brown sugar

3 tbls low sodium soy sauce, divided

1 tbls rice vinegar

1 tbls sesame oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced or grated

1 tbls crushed red pepper flakes

*Prepare the pasta as directed, drain and set aside back in stock pot.

*While pasta is cooking, mix together peanut butter, water, sugar, soy, and vinegar and aside.

*Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add broccoli and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add in 1 tbls of soy sauce as well as bell pepper, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. You can also add in a bit more water if needed. Cook until veggies are tender, another few minutes. Remove from heat.

*Place the pot with noodles back onto a medium heat. Pour in peanut sauce and the cooked veggies. Stir to coat and cook until everything is hot. 

*Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Risotto with Asparagus

Last nights dinner was a home run. I'm not even going to mess around telling you all the little things about this dish, trying to persuade you of how awesome it is. It needs no real introduction. A couple hours after dinner as Al and I were chillin' on the couch, he started to talk about the risotto. He said something to the effect of: if I were offered a bowl of ice cream, even my favorite flavor, or another bowl of that risotto....I'd choose the risotto. That says it all folks.

Learning more fun facts about me: I don't drink. This is a choice that has evolved from, in my teenage years...it's wrong, to my early twenties...I can't stand the smell, to today...I don't really see the point and don't really have any desire to. Al has an affection towards scotch. He's not all that into drinking but once in a blue moon he'll break out one of the double old fashion glasses and sip a bit.

Why am I talking about drinking? Well you see, in cooking, there are often times when a recipe calls for wine. Found often in things like cream sauces or in instances when you need to deglaze the pan. Couple the fact that we don't drink wine with me not really having the desire to have some in the house simply for cooking not knowing when and if I'll use it and you'll find we never have it. Last night when preparing to make the risotto-which called for dry white wine-I found the alternative! This person suggested that you water down a bit of juice and use a splash of vinegar. Fun fact, I have all those things!! So instead of the 1/2 cup of dry white wine that this recipe called for...I used 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup apple juice, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Worked great for this dish! And now I have a go to for those instances. Rather than finding a whole new recipe like I have been.

INGREDIENTS:
1 small/medium butternut squash, chopped 1/4" pieces
7 cups broth(veg or chicken) divided
4 tbls butter divided
2 teas dried sage
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine(or sub 1/4 juice, 1/4 water, splash vinegar)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 strips bacon
1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed
olive oil
salt and pepper

*In a medium stock pot, simmer the squash pieces in 1 to 2 cups of broth until tender, about 7-8 minutes. Strain liquid from squash and place the squash in a bowl and set aside. Add the rest of the broth to the pot with remaining liquid and keep at a low simmer.
*In a large stock pot, over medium heat, melt 3 tbls of the butter. Sprinkle in sage and let it wake up for a couple minutes. Add in the onion and cook until the onion is translucent, 5 minutes. Stir in the wine, and let it be absorbed before adding any broth. Might need to turn down the temp a bit, medium to medium-low.
*Add hot broth in batches, 1/2 - 2/3 cups at a time. Making sure the liquid is still being absorbed. Repeat this until all the broth is added. This process should talk about half an hour.
*While broth is being added, fry up the bacon until crisp. Remove from heat and chop into small pieces, mix in with squash you previously set aside.
*About 10 minutes before risotto is ready, drizzle olive oil over asparagus. Salt and pepper to taste. Grill on a george foreman, takes about 7 minutes.
*Once all liquid is used and absorbed into rice, add in the squash, bacon, and parmesan cheese. Stir in until well combined. After about 5 minutes add in the last tbls of butter. Once everything is melted and heated through plate up with asparagus on top. Top with parmesan cheese if desired.
*Enjoy!

Breakfast Sandwich

So yes, I have already posted twice today. However, there was a reason for posting salsa and bread on the same day. Why you ask?? Two words...breakfast...sandwich. And I know you're like....Kati, we know how to make sandwiches!! But seriously, you should go over and make the bread and the salsa and then make one of these guys. I mean come on!! Fry up a couple eggs, melt some nice sharp cheddar cheese over them. Cut up some nice fresh avocado and then cover it all with some of the salsa and put it between two slices of toasty fresh bread....I mean!! Hello! That was one good lunch. Did I say that right? Yeah I had it for lunch. But really...I'd eat this whenever possible. So good.

W. W. Bread

I think in the past year I've made dozens and dozens of loaves of bread. I rarely buy bread at the grocery store anymore. Except for a good marble rye, which happens every now and again. After tweaking this and that recipe I've come up with a mighty fine loaf of bread. It functions for us as a decent sandwich bread, toasted or not. And I always enjoy when its fresh out of the oven and I just can't wait and I cut off a chunk and smother some butter on it and it melts right before my eyes. That might be why I keep doing this. Ha!! Don't judge.

The W. W. doesn't exactly stand for whole wheat. Its a combo wheat white bread. I've found that while I enjoy both extremes of the bread world (a nice hearty whole grain and a classic white) this is a nice middle ground. All things considered I enjoy its simplicity as well. One would think that after making so much bread I would a. have a bread machine or b. have bread flour. Yeah...about that. I don't. Have either. I think part of it is having just one more thing in my already lacking space kitchen. Not to mention I know I (almost) always have all-purpose flour on hand. I've dabbled in straight wheat bread, but theres more happening there. This is simple, has only a few ingredients, and doesn't require that much kneading.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup warm water
2 tbls sugar
1 tbls dry active yeast
1 teas salt
3 tbls vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
cooking spray

*Dissolve the sugar into the water, then stir in the yeast. After about 10 minutes, once the yeast is creamy, add the rest of the ingredients.
*Once a ball forms, knead on a floured surface until smooth. Put into a boil sprayed with cooking spray. Roll around so all sides are oiled. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for an hour in a warm area. (Note: if you're avoiding huge heating costs like I, and your house is a bit chilly, just preheat your oven to like 100 and then turn it off and you place the dough in...cuts down the time it takes to rise by a good amount)
*Punch down dough and knead into a ball, form into loaf pan, coated with cooking spray, you're using. Let that rise again until about an 1" above the pan.
*Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
*Enjoy for the next few days!!

Roasted Salsa

Now, I've dabbled with a few different salsa recipes in the past. My fav was a pineapple and black bean that I made months ago. But I've never really made a "I think I could eat this on anything" kind of salsa. I mean, when you have pineapple and black beans in it, you limit your options just a bit...not much, but I'm not sure I would have put that on say...eggs. In my constantly renewed efforts to eat healthy, salsa is a real good go-to. Its so much better for you than most other condiments. Especially when homemade. You can control and/or omit things like salt and sugar. This recipe is super easy and does just that. No sugar and minimal salt. I'm sure you could actually omit the salt. When I think about it I probably should have since most often we go to town on salsa with tortilla chips that have salt on them. Note to self.

This. Is. Easy. And makes a hearty portion of salsa. I adapted it from a recipe that I saw online but can't currently find. I was eating this stuff when it was still hot, temp wise, cause I just didn't care. It was also hot, spice wise, but again, didn't care and I loooove spicy food. Roasting all the veggies gives it some awesome flavor. So here it is....uber good, roasted salsa.

INGREDIENTS:
14 roma tomatoes
2 yellow onions
10 serrano peppers
5 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro
1 teas salt

*Slice tomatoes in half and place cut side up on a sheet pan. Peel and slice onions in half and again, cut side up. Cut the caps off the peppers and peel the garlic and place both on the pan.
*Roast at 375 for 45 minutes, or until your peppers start to go black.
*Put in a food processor along with chopped cilantro and salt. Process until desired consistency.

Garlic Butter Naan

Here's the recipe, from my post on veggie curry, for the naan. It turned out great. Do note though that this recipe makes a large amount of naan. However, I can now testify that freezing the dough totally works. I just made some a few minutes ago and enjoyed it. These turned out as nice individual sized pieces(even though I just ate three). I cooked them up on my George Foreman, which was slightly time consuming because there is only so much space to work with. But cooking 2 at a time and your good to go in just a few short minutes. We still have a bunch in the freezer to be pulled out whenever that naan craving hits.

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 teas active dry yeast (equals one packet)
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbls milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teas salt
4 1/2 cups flour
cooking spray
butter
garlic salt

*In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. After 10 minutes stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and 4 cups of the flour.
*Knead on a floured surface until super smooth. If too sticky add more flour, as needed. Place in a well oiled bowl and let rise for an hour.
*Punch down the dough. Pinch off and roll into small balls. Place them on a try and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise for another half an hour.
*Heat up your Foreman, or large skillet if you so choose. Melt a little butter and mix with a dash of garlic salt in a small bowl and set next to your grill. Stretch out dough until nice and thin. Spray the grill and place dough on it. Cook until browned. Brush uncooked side with garlic butter and flip, grilling again until browned.
*Enjoy.

Chicken Pot Pie

This one goes back a couple weeks. Had some friends and their kids over and I thought what better dish than a pot pie! And what's better than individual pot pies!! Not much really. Especially since its been getting colder and colder, which means I desire to be cozier and cozier. It was a hit. Each one of these little pies was creamy goodness on the inside and flaky tasty on top. I just used crescent roll dough for the top, didn't mess with dough all around. This was overall a lot easier than I had presumed it to be. I was even told, by one of our guests that it was the best pot pie they had ever had. I'll take it!

FUN FACT:
For the life of me I cannot remember how I made these. So, perhaps when I get a second go 'round at them I'll be a little bit quicker to post. For now, just enjoy the picture and know that they were awesome.

Polenta with Kale & Beans

Confession: I have been a little slack on the blogging. Reality: I have still been cooking up a storm. I have six dishes waiting, longing, yearning to be blogged. But as a result of having some sort of cold and or flu the last few days cooking the food is about all the energy I have. Mustering up some energy for a little photo shoot this afternoon, revolving around yes, food! I'm very excited to do this!! Okay, so hopefully there will be a steady roll out of posts this week because I have a lot to post. 

This dish was something I was eagerly waiting to make. Not really sure why. Probably the balsamic reduction!! And yes, I mean the reduction that almost killed us. I've never made a balsamic reduction before so I'm not sure if this is true for everyone else...but the "burn off" was potent! Al refused to go into the kitchen, and I knew I had to cause I already started the process. Which took about an hour, FYI so I was invested and committed to it. Turned out great, but yeah, painful. Ha! And my polenta turned out a bit funky too. I didn't have much coarse polenta was the thing, and I didn't want to mix it with fine ground cornmeal. I don't know. I was experimenting to say the least. But it turned out great. The kale and beans with the balsamic...pretty sure I could eat that daily. So good. It'll probably become a nice little side for us in the future. 

Also, yes, for those of you on pinterest, that is the infamous pinterest potato. Thought I'd try it, worked great. Go figure.

INGREDIENTS:

polenta, sliced

olive oil

crushed red pepper flakes(optional)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 bunch of kale, chopped

1 can of white beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup of vegetable broth

salt and pepper

balsamic vinegar

*Heat a splash of olive oil and flakes in a skillet on medium-high, brown the polenta slices and set aside.

*In a stock pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and the garlic until the garlic is nice and aromatic. Toss in the kale and cook until wilted, about 6 minutes. Add in the broth and beans. Heat through and make sure the kale is nice and tender. Stir in s&p and balsamic to taste. (I used only a splash of balsamic at this point.)

*Plate up the polenta, top with kale and beans, drizzle with more balsamic. Enjoy!

Veggie & Garbanzo Bean Curry

Tonights dinner, well lets just say it was kind of a last minute change of plans. All day I kept thinking it was Friday-not sure why. But my thought process when cooking on Friday is not like that of Sunday-Thursday. See, on those days, I'm always keeping Al in mind. Leftovers for lunch that is. So I changed it up and made this tonight instead of tomorrow. And tonights dish(its a doosey)will be made tomorrow.

This is yet another inspiration from the vegan stoner blog. Al is mad in love with curry. The boy could eat it, like always. When he came home from work he was hungry, which is totally the norm. Usually we eat dinner around 5:30, depending on the day. But this was going to take a bit longer. Mainly because my motivation for making it didn't start until later and also because I decided to make naan. For the first time. Ever. Not that it turned out to be terribly difficult, just a little more time consuming. I'll toss out the naan recipe some time in the not so distant future. Back to the curry. It was made, it was consumed, it was good. Wish I would have had some more yogurt, could have been a little more saucy. Next time! So I'm doubling what I used as far as yogurt goes.

INGREDIENTS:
olive oil
2 green bell peppers, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
12 oz plain greek yogurt
4 tbls curry powder
1 teas garlic powder
prepared brown rice

*Heat olive oil in a medium pot, add carrots and peppers. Cook for a few minutes and then add in beans, yogurt, curry, and garlic powder.
*Mix and cook until veggies are soft.
*Serve with brown rice.