Plum Upside Down Cake

How many variations of plum desserts are there? We're well on our way to finding out.. This time my childhood best friend was visiting and we whipped up a plum upside down cake - with only minor burns ensuing. The plums created a delicious pseudo frosting and the sponge cake was perfect.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart and Drizzle and Dip

Ingredients
10-12 red or purple plums
6 Tbsp. butter
9 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Directions

1. Cut plums into quarters and remove pits. heat 6 Tbsp. butter in a large saute pan over medium heat until it sizzles. Add plums and cook for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add 9 Tbsp. sugar and cinnamon. Cook stirring frequently, 10-15 minutes. Remove fruit with a slotted spoon and transfer to a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Remove pan from heat and save syrup.
3. Butter and flour a 9 1/2 by 2 inch round cake pan. Arrange cut fruit with cut edges down. 
4. Return syrup to medium heat and boil until thick with large bubbles. Immediately pour over fruit and set aside.a
5. Preheat oven to 325. Beat 1 c. butter and 1c. sugar until light and fluffy. Add almond extract and eggs one at a time, allowing to fully combine between each addition.
6. Pour over plums and cook 1 hour.
7. Let cool, run a knife around the outside edge and invert.

Peach Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

I'm on a quinoa craze right now. At first, I was terrified of quinoa. I mean, how do you even say "quinoa" ? As it turns out, it's keen-wah. Regardless, I'm a starch and carb-loving midwesterner at heart. Quinoa wasn't one of my things. Until I tried tabouleh, recipe to follow in weeks to come. Now, I'm on a craze and decided to have it for breakfast with some of our CSA fruits.

Ingredients
1/4 c. quinoa
1/2 c. water
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 peach
hand full of sliced almonds
1 dash cinnamon
1 dash vanilla
2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

1. Mix quinoa and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes until all of the water is evaporated. 
2. Fluff quinoa and move to a separate bowl. Mix in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk. Top with fruit and almonds. Enjoy warm!

Guacamole (for a crowd)

My guacamole brings all the boys to the yard. (except that I broke up with boyfriend a few weeks ago, but he really did like that guacamole.) Anyways, my roommate used to say that in college and then demand I make guacamole. So this is my treasured guacamole recipe. I think nothing is better than a few simple, fresh ingredients.

Ingredients:
2 avocados
2 garlic cloves, minced.
salt
3/4 lime, juiced

Directions:

1. Peel, pit and mash avocados. Add garlic, salt and lime juice. Serve with chips. NOM.

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

A couple summers ago I was a personal chef for an elderly couple. The first meal I ever took them? These delicious pan-seared Parmesan crusted pork chops. And the recipe is practically fool-proof...practically, of course. I've made them time and again for various occasions. They're even easy enough to cook in a dorm/college apartment kitchen with a half-sized stove.

Disclaimer: I have no idea where my mom got this recipe, but I got it from her.

Ingredients:
4 bone-in pork chops
1 1/2 c. unseasoned panko crumbs
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 c. flour
salt & pepper
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1 Tbsp. ground sage
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Mix flour, salt and pepper on a plate. Beat eggs and pour into a separate. In another plate, mix panko crumbs, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest and sage.
2. Dredge pork chops in flour until completely coated, followed by egg and finally Panko mixture.
3. Melt butter and mix with oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook pork chops for 2 minutes on each side.
4. Transfer pork chops in pan to oven and cook for 20 minutes. (Note: Pork chops should reach an internal temperature of 150.)

Peach Pie

Peach pie (aka summer incarnate) is one of my favorites. I say that a lot. I guess I like food (aka why I'll never have a six pack). But, back to peach pie. My grandma's crust recipe and our fresh CSA farm peaches. Yuuuuuuum. A dash of cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg and just enough sweetness.

Recipe adapted from Grandma's recipe book and Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Crust ingredients:
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. + 1 Tbsp. Crisco
2 Tbsp. ice water
Directions:

1. Combine flour, salt and crisco. Cut Crisco through with knife and combine with flour. Combine until Crisco is combined with flour mixture. Add water and roll out on a flat, flour coated surface. Lay in pie pan and patch cracks (let's face it, they happen).

Filling ingredients: 

5 c. sliced peaches (8 peaches, maybe - I mixed yellow and white peaches)

3/4 c. - 1 c. sugar

dash of salt

3 Tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Directions:

1. Boil peaches in large pot for 1 minute, then peel, core and slice. Combine with the rest of the ingredients and fill pie. Bake at 400 for 45 - 50 minutes.
2. Serve with vanilla ice cream (duh).

Canadian Bacon & Scrambled Egg Pancake Muffins

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. More often than not, I would rather eat breakfast food than anything else. As such, I love trying anything new. And anything in a muffin pan. Enter my new love interest: Canadian bacon and scrambled egg pancake muffins. Dipped in syrup. Done.

Recipe adapted from: Better Homes and Gardens, April 2012

Ingredients:
4 slices of Canadian bacon, cut in sixths
5 eggs
1 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
Maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400. Cook bacon in large skillet until it's brown on both sides. In a small bowl lightly beat 3 eggs, 2 Tbsp. water and a dash of salt and pepper. Cook eggs in a hot skillet over medium heat without stirring until eggs begin to set on the bottom and around edges. With a spatula, lift and fold for uncooked portion to flow underneath. Cook until set but still moist. Transfer to bowl and set aside.
2. Brush twelve muffin cups with cooking spray. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Combine milk, oil and remaining two eggs in a separate bowl. Stir into flour mixture. Fold in scrambled eggs and cheese. Spoon into muffin cups.
3. Place two bacon pieces on each muffin. Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until light brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly in pan on rack. Run a table knife around edges of muffins to loosen; remove from pans. Serve with syrup. Serves 12.

Ranger Rick Cookies - Happy Father's Day

I'm so so late on this - clasically behind. For Father's Day, we always whip up a batch of some of my dad's favorite goodies. This year, I broke out my grandma's recipe for one of my dad's favorite cookies - Ranger cookies.  In my mind, my grandma called these cookies "Ranger Rick Cookies" for my dad, but apparently I made that up. Anyways, they're sweet and chewy and nutty and crunchy - basically a wonderful cookies, especially as a snack during a hike or kayak session.

Ingredients:
1 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. sugar
2+ tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour
1 c. quick oats
1 c. shredded coconut
2 c. corn flakes
1 c. chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Cream butter, sugars and vanilla
2. Add eggs and beat
3. Add the dry ingredients and stir unti combined
4. Drop by the rounded tablespoon on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 15 minutes at 350 (rotate pan with 3 minutes left on timer)

Blueberry Pancakes

I LOVE PANCAKES. Plain. Chocolate chip. Peanut butter chocolate chip. Banana. Cinnamon vanilla. Pumpkin. and especially blueberry pancakes in the summer. My dad has making these pancakes for as long as I can remember.

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 c. milk
2+ tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix together dry ingredients.
2. Mix together wet ingredients; add to dry ingredients and gently whisk until just moistened. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
3. Over medium heat, pour 1/3 c. batter and let cook until bubbles stop popping. Add blueberries, flip and brown on the other side.

Apple Tart

Many, many months ago (enough for boyfriend and I to have broken up and gotten back together twice in the time frame), I was invited to boyfriend's house to celebrate his father's birthday. Now, I love to give gifts, but boyfriend forebode me from buying anything. So I decided to bake something, but what? As it was fall (and boyfriend's mom is lactose intolerant), apple something seemed like the only option. But, as boyfriend purports his mother's apple pie as the best it seemed foolish to make one and seemingly compete. I opted for a fun, rustic apple tart. The difference between this and apple pie, which seemed so huge and important at the time and so miniscule in retrospect, an apple tart is flat.

Recipe adapted from Real Simple.

Ingredients:
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. Crisco
2 Tbsp ice water
5 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 c. sugar
2+ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

1. Mix flour, salt and crisco together with a fork or fingers until it clumps together into little balls
2. Add ICE water and mix until it forms a ball
3. Roll out pie crust into a large, rough circle
4. Mix apples, sugar, cinnamon and lemon peel in a bowl. Arrange apple mixture in center of pie crust. Fold edges over apple mixture, making pleats around the outside. (Note: I used an excess of cinnamon because I think it is wonderful. The prescribed 2 tsps however is a reasonable amount.)
5. Brush pie dough with egg. Bake 20-30 minutes or until crust is golden and apples have lost some of their crunch.

Fourteen Layer Cake - Happy Birthday to Me!

For my 22nd birthday, I decided to indulge the crazy side (the one that always finds a more difficult way to do something) and make a 14-layer cake. I'm not going to lie - I am a huge fan of funfetti cake from a box, which contradicts almost everything I love about cooking and almost everything anyone knows about me. I'm also a huge red velvet cake fan. But, when it comes down to it - nothing beats yellow cake and chocolate frosting, especially when it's made from scratch. And a rainy Saturday with boyfriend in tow makes for the perfect day to make it a little bit more complicated.

When I announced with great excitement to my little sister and her friends about the 14-layer adventure, suffice it to say a little mockery ensued with the general idea that 14-layers is absurd and why stop there? After all, I did turn 22 and an equal number of layers only seems appropriate. After doing some quick mental calculations (and receiving a little, much needed discouragement from boyfriend), I decided that 22 layers was too much of an undertaking for the day, possible ever.

Anyways, the result of my endeavor was a spectacular seven pound cake. Absurd? Yes. Delicious? You bet.

Recipe adapted from Oprah and Bakerella.

Cake Ingredients:
4 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 1/2 c. sugar
6 large eggs at room temperature
3 c. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 box (1 lb) confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3+ Tbsp. milk

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat to 375°. Spray cake pans with Pam and line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper (having an extra set of hands aka boyfriend around to do this while you prepare the batter makes the experience much more enjoyable). Shake flour in  the pans to lightly cover the bottom and the sides. Tap extra out. (Note: I purchased 14 aluminum 9 inch round pans from Walmart and baked all of the layers at once, but you can bake them in batches as well.)
2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light in color and texture. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl and be sure the mixture is well-blended. On low speed, add the flour in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of the milk, beginning and ending with the flour, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla. Using a scant cup for each layer, spread the batter evenly in the pans. It will make a thin layer. (Note: When I filled the pans with batter, it didn't spread to the edges completely evenly despite my many attempts so the layers came out a little bit uneven.)
4. Bake the layers until they feel firm when pressed in the centers and are beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans, about 12 minutes. (Note: Because I baked all 14 layers at once, I checked the cakes after 6 minutes and rotated them at 9 minutes.)

 Frosting Directions:

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese with a mixer.
2. Add the cocoa and vanilla.
3. Add the confectioner’s sugar in small batches and blend on low until combined. Scrape down sides with each addition.
4. Add 3 Tbsp of milk and increase it 1 Tbsp at a time until you get the consistency you desire.
5. Frost cake with a relatively thin layer between the pieces of cake. Use remaining frosting to thickly cover the outside and top of cake, filling in any gaps. (Note: Because the layers of my cake were uneven, I tried to fill in the gaps with frosting. Another unfortunate side effect - my cake began to lean, so after assembling all the layers of the cake, I inserted two skewers to hold it together. Also, in the future I would use more frosting in between layers - I was conservative for fear of running out of frosting.)

Double Blueberry Muffins

There are blueberries everywhere. I don't even like blueberries that much and I can say these muffins are delicious. Easily the best blueberry muffins I've ever had. I thought the blueberry preserves would act as a filling, which I was not excited about, and much to my surprise it worked very differently. These are so yummy that I've made them twice in the last week and have to plans to make them 2-3 more times in the coming weeks - an unprecedented occurrence.

Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:
2 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
6 T. butter, melted
1 c. fresh blueberries
1/2 c. blueberry preserves
1 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners (or parchment paper!)
2. Stir together flour, the 3/4 c. sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; set aside.
3. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk and 6 Tbsp. melted butter (note: the butter may congeal upon being mixed with cool eggs and buttermilk, this is OK). Add all at once to the flour mixture and stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. Remove 1 1/2 c. batter.
4. Spoon remaining batter into prepared muffin cups. Spoon 2 tsp. of blueberry preserves into the center of each muffin. Top with remaining batter to cover the preserves. Bake 20 minutes.
5. Stir together orange zest, lemon zest and 2 Tbsp. sugar. Remove muffins from oven; brush with 2 Tbsp melted butter and sprinkle citrus-zest on top.

Strawberry Muffins

Nothing says spring like strawberries. Nothing says perfect-ending-to-a-stressful-week-slash-sad-night-after-watching-the-dead-poets-society-which-is-not-a-comedy like muffins. I also really enjoy finding ways to use up ingredients that are on their last legs (or about to grow legs). We had these very sad, sad strawberries that were not going to be eaten, so I turned them into muffins.

Recipe adapted from Feisty, Frugal & Fabulous

Ingredients

• ½ c unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ c sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 c flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ c milk
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1½ c chopped strawberries
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.
3. Add egg and mix well.
4. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
5. Next, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to butter mixture in the large bowl.
6. Add vanilla, then gently fold in the strawberries
7. Spoon batter into muffin pans (this makes approximately dozen muffins).
8. Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins. You will have a lot of sugar, but this allows you to be as generous as you like.
9. Bake at 400º for 20 minutes.