Awesome Day Cake!

It was a good day at work today…but then the traffic happened.  I’m not good with traffic, it turns my good days into cranky pants ones.  By the time I stopped at Target for some things and picked up a gift and made it home I was not so happy.  But a few kisses from my puppy and a glass of wine I was on my way to repair!

Another thing that makes me happy is baking things.  I wanted something simple, mostly because I don’t have a lot in the pantry/fridge right now and I wanted to make sure I’d get to eat it tonight! I remembered a cake I read about on the blog Orangette that I always wanted to try and haven’t.  I made it pretty much exactly as the recipe says and boy did it improve my mood. 

It was simple and delicious.  I drank it with a glass of milk and life was good.  My mother would probably need some whipped cream and fruit or something, the flavor’s not like WHOA but more small and satisfying.

One of the best things about it is that the top gets kind of golden and crusty so you cut off a piece and the middle is all moist and delicious and the top has a bit of a sugary crunch! 

Orangette got it from a recipe called the Busy Day Cake by Edna Lewis.  It’s basically a vanilla nutmeg cake.  The nutmeg is more of a scent, very light but definitely there.



yum

Vanilla-nutmeg cake (or Busy Day Cake)

1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp.  baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 good pinch freshly grated nutmeg, or more
½ cup 2% milk

Prepare a spring form pan and pre-heat oven to 375

Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each one then add in the vanilla and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

Starting with the flour add 1/3 of it to the butter mixture and combine, then add 1/3 of the milk alternating until you end with the flour mixture.  Mix until just combined and pour into the prepared pan.

Bake 35-40 minutes until done.  Cool for a few minutes and run a knife around the pan, release the spring form and cool on a baking rack.

I had a piece warm and it was delicious!  I also had to cook it a lot longer than the original recipe calls for, almost 45 minutes, so I guess it just depends on your oven. 

On the Orangette blog she talks about creaming butter with a mixer versus by hand.  I mix almost everything by hand even though I have a stand and a hand mixer.  I think it’s what I find most satisfying about baking almost as much as eating the finished product.  I can’t say for sure but I think you can taste that little bit of extra love.

This phone does not have a good camera, it tastes better than it looks!
 

Super Bowl Snacks 3: Garlic Bread Bowl with Spicy Pizza Dip

Ok, last Super Bowl snack, I promise. My girl Rachael Ray had this recipe in her January magazine and everyone agreed it was going to be a great decision.

Garlic Bread Bowl with Spicy Pizza Dip

Ingredients
1 large round loaf soft italian bread
3 T. EVOO
2 large cloves garlic, 1 halved
1/2 c. chopped onion
10 oz. hot italian sausage
1 jar (16 oz.) pizza sauce
4 oz. fresh mozzarella
1 T. freshly grated parmesean
1 T. fresh oregano I used basil instead

Directions:
Preheat to 400 with a rack in the middle of the oven. Cut the center out of the bread and hollow it out so it forms a bread bowl.
2. Make the bread you pulled out into rectangle-ish dippers. Spread onto a baking pan and drizzle with EVOO; toss. Place the bread bowl on the baking sheet as well. Bake until the inside of the bowl is toasty (about 5 min)
3. Rub the cut halves of garlic on the inside of the bread bowl. Toss the dippers again with EVOO and bake them again for 5 minutes. Increase heat to 450.
4. Heat dutch oven over medium heat and add remaining tablespoon of EVOO. I used a cast-iron skillet here (the 10 incher) and it worked great
Add onions and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Chop remaining garlic clove and add.
Add sausage, breaking it into chunks until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. The sausage I bought was cased so I cut that off and squeezed approximately 10 oz in the pan.
Add pizza sauce. Cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
5. Return the bread bowl to your baking sheet. Ladle in the sauce and top with cheeses. Bake until cheese is brown, about 10 minutes. Top with oregano. I have basil growing through the roof so instead of oregano I chopped basil into the sauce and also to go on top.

This dip was SUPER yummy but we really needed a lot more dippers. We were tearing the bowl apart to use, of course, but it would have been better to have some more pieces to start out with.

 

And thus concludes my part of our Super Bowl feast!

Super Bowl Snacks 2.5: Eli's Baked Wings

Feeling super confident about our first round of fried wings we headed into round 2 a few hours later: the baked hot wing! We used Alton Brown's method of steaming and then baking. We bought a little steamer basket which was actually lots of fun and we just followed directions to a t.

Original Buffalo Hot Sauce:

Ingredients:
2/3 cup Frank’s Louisiana hot sauce
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or other hot sauce (Sriracha is awesome) Pretty sure he used Sriracha...
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
salt to taste

Directions

Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.

Remove the tips of the wings and discard or save for making stock. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint.
Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry.
Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

Even though there were a lot of steps, these wings were easy to do. They were super tender and the sauce wasn't overly hot.

 I don't think we had a winner between the fried and baked wing. Frying took less time, but the baked are probably healthier?  I would do both again, and once you master the cooking technique you can try whatever sauces you can dream of which is always lots of fun! 

Super Bowl Snacks 2: Eli's Fried Wings.

Elliot decided he was going to contribute wings to the party. I declared myself supervisor and we got to work!
After some serious research team, we decided to try a baked wing and a fried wing. (The only other time I've ever tried to fry I almost burnt the house down with okra. This time I was going to do it right!)
My Taste of the South had a cast-iron fried honey-lime wing recipe in the January issue so we decided to use that and then we used Alton Brown's baked wing method with the original Buffalo hot sauce recipe.

Honey Lime Sauce
1/2 c. honey
3 T. fresh lime juice
2 t. hot sauce (we used Frank's Red Hot and it was more like 4 t.)
1 t. kosher salt

1 dozen wings
6-8 c. canola oil
1/2 t. black pepper

1. Combine honey, lime juice, hot sauce, 1/8 t. salt
2. Prepare wings (Elliot had to man up and learn how to separate and de-tip wings. I was so proud of him! ...and not about to do it myself :) )

 3. In a deep cast-iron skillet (I used my 12 incher) fill half way with oil, heat to 350.  Add wings and turn occasionally, frying 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Let's notice I bought a nice thermometer to safely fry this go round. I also learned when you drop meat in you lose a lot of heat fast, so it took some trial and error to keep a gas flame where it needs to be for 13 minutes.

4. Remove wings, drain on paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dunk in the honey glaze And hello, success!!!!

These wings were really flavorful especially for someone who doesn't love super hot sauce. And I am no longer afraid to fry! Hoorray cast-iron skillets and thermometers! 

Super Bowl Snacks 1: Feta Bruschetta

This year our house hosted the Caps/Pens game slash Super Bowl viewing so I had an entire afternoon of grazing to prepare for. There weren't too many of us so we decided to do half portions of most of the recipes.
The weekend before I had crashed at a friend's house and on Saturday morning I made everybody watch Barefoot Contessa while we were lazing around. She made a tomato feta crostini that everyone agreed looked awesome so that became the first course for the afternoons. This was the original recipe, but I modified it a smidge.

Makes 20 to 25 crostini; serves 6 to 8Ingredients

• 6 ounces good feta cheese, crumbled I used 4 oz regular feta and 2 oz sun dried tomato and herb feta because that is what I had
• 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• ⅔ cup good olive oil, divided
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp. pine nuts I omitted these because I really don't dig pine nuts
• 2 Tbsp. minced shallots (2 shallots)
• 2 tsp. minced garlic (2 cloves)
• 2 Tbsp. good red wine vinegar
• 2 pounds ripe heirloom tomatoes, ½"-diced I have friends that are weird about tomatoes (read: Annie will only eat cherry tomatoes) so I used cherry tomatoes!
• 3 Tbsp. julienned fresh basil leaves, plus extra for serving
• 20 to 25 (½"-thick) diagonal baguette slices, toasted

Directions
Place feta and cream cheese in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until cheeses are mixed. Add ⅓ cup olive oil, lemon juice, ½ tsp. salt, and ¼ tsp. pepper and process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the tomato topping, up to an hour before serving, combine shallots, garlic, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Set aside 5 minutes to allow shallots to absorb vinegar. Whisk in remaining ⅓ cup olive oil, 1 tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper. Add tomatoes, stir gently, and set aside 10 minutes. Stir in basil and taste for seasoning.


To assemble crostini, spread each baguette slice with a generous amount of whipped feta. With a slotted spoon, place tomatoes on top. Put crostini on plates and scatter with the reserved toasted pine nuts. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

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This was really easy to make and were very tasty. I renamed it Feta Bruschetta because it sounded more fun. The only thing I would change is the amount of lemon juice. I personally found it a little too much...