Artsy Crafty Fun, Fun, Fun!

Red Velvet Cake

My birthday was Jan 7, and Michael baked a cake for me. He asked what kind I wanted, and I chose red velvet. I do like red velvet cake quite a bit (a new taste acquired since moving down South), but find that most bakeries make their red velvet cake with a yellow or butter cake base which I really don't like. The recipe uses a whole bottle of red food coloring and with a light cake base you can really taste the chemical-y flavor of the dye. Which is gross and I really don't need a reminder that I am practically poisoning myself with this much food coloring. So the kind of red velvet I like has a German chocolate cake base. In fact, the recipe that I've liked the most comes from the Cake Mix Doctor. I might have posted about it before. So it's very easy and pretty fail-proof and Michael aced it. He made the icing and decorated the whole thing himself. Which begs the question, why isn't he in the kitchen more? Hmmm....

I also chose red velvet cake because I was annoyed with him. While we were home my family threw a bridal shower and of course there were games. I had to answer all these questions correctly about Michael---and he TRICKED me with his answers. :) I have definitely asked him what his favorite birthday cake is and his answer has always been either his grandmother's coconut cake or red velvet cake. So those were the answers I so confidently gave during the shower and guess what. I was wrong. He told the girls his favorite cake is yellow cake with yellow icing!!! This is just the beginning of how I was misled. Any time I answered incorrectly, I had to add another piece of gum to my growing lump. They chose BubbleYum--my jaw hurt the next day!

Anyway, I chose red velvet cake. It was very yummy. We ate the whole thing. It was nice to know that there was a piece of cake waiting for me at home after a long day at work.

Stuffed Peppers

Last night I made stuffed peppers, primarily because we had some peppers that needed to be used and also because my planned meal would have taken longer than I really wanted to devote to dinner. These aren't like the stuffed peppers my mom makes or that you might find in a Hungarian restuarant. For one thing, they're vegetarian. For another, I used cous-cous as my filler instead of rice and beef. They're also fairly low-fat, although I did use feta cheese and pine nuts in the filling. We had steamed asparagus on the side.

Cous-Cous Stuffed Peppers

2 green peppers, cut in half and seeds removed
1 cup cous-cous
2 med. tomatoes
1 c. chopped spinach
1 scallion, chopped, white and green parts
3 Tbsp pine nuts
1/4 c. crumbled feta
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
3 tsp. Penzey's pasta sprinkle (or Italian herb blend)

Steam pepper halves in large pot 4-5 minutes until tender. Remove from pot and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, bring a cup of water to boil, add 1/4 tsp. salt and stir in cous-cous. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.

Combine tomatoes, scallion and spinach in large bowl, add cous-cous and toss to combine. Stir in garlic and herb blend. Add pine nuts and feta and toss lightly to combine.

Loosely pack cous-cous mixture into pepper halves, place in baking pan, and broil for about 5 minutes, until cheese is slightly melted and pine nuts are lightly toasted. Enjoy!

There will be plenty of cous-cous mixture left over--you could  probably add another two peppers  for a total of 8 stuffed halves, which would serve 4.  I only had 2 peppers, so I'm taking unstuffed pilaf for lunch today--works for me!

According to NutritionData.com, each serving (2 pepper halves) has:

Cal. 300; Fat 9g; Sat. Fat 3g; Cholesterol 17 mg.

Let Them Eat Cake

Wow. We had a really busy weekend. Michael's birthday was Friday and so I made him this Red Velvet Cake. Not on Friday, as I was stranded at my apartment with no red food coloring--slightly essential to the whole RED Velvet thing. Not on Saturday, either, because I worked and even though it was slow, it still felt like not enough time to do everything I'd hoped to accomplish. But on Sunday, then I made cake. It was really easy, once I had all the right ingredients. The recipe was from the Cake Mix Doctor again. I used a German Chocolate cake mix. Really this was the first time I had ever had Red Velvet Cake.  As a northerner, I'm not sure I've ever been fully taken in by the idea of a cake colored by a whole bottle of red food coloring. One of my co-workers made a vanilla red velvet cake--it was flourescent. Anyway, this was good and quite striking. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the cake once it was cut--much prettier, I think, with the chocolate cake than the vanilla. The very rich cream cheese icing didn't hurt, either.

I took the leftovers in to work today. It didn't last long.

The photo is really yellow. It was either that or a horrid white-out from the flash. So the yellow won out. You see the quality of the lighting in my dining room.

+++I realize that this post is all about my feelings about Red Velvet Cake, but really the day was all about Michael. For real and for true. Cake baked as per his request.

Pineapple Inside Out Cake

It was YUM! Despite the fact that the glaze was clear too runny.  Recipe is from the Cake Mix Doctor, page 93.  You might recall my quest to winnow down my pantry? I have this tendency to buy things that I'll more than likely never use. Cake mix, for example. I don't really love cake. I mean, my Mom's crumb cake is amazing, my grandmother's apple cake is fabulous, and my aunt makes a mean lemon fluff. And flourless chocolate cakes are in another category entirely. But generally I don't get all hyped up about cake. I don't refuse a piece, of course (that would imply will power and restraint)--but I can't say that they interest is high. So why do I buy cake mixes? Good question. At least the Cake Mix Doctor was waiting for me at the library.  I have to confess that the cover of that book is scaring me a little, though.

Granola

This is the granola I made last week, using Mark Bittman's recipe from the NYTimes.  It's really very good.  Granola is a formula more than a recipe, I think.  So much liquid to so much dry stuff, with a little dried fruit stirred in. In the article (which is now behind a pay wall, so be prepared if you click on the link), The Minimalist called for the following (this is an approximation, as I didn't write the recipe down or follow it literally):

• 1/2 - 1 cup honey or maple syrup
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 6 cups of oatmeal
• 2 cups combined seeds and nuts
• 1 cup coconut

Combine dry ingredients, toss with heated liquid.  Bake at 350 until done to your liking, stirring every 10 minutes or so.

I used about a cup of maple syrup, added 2 tbsp of butter, 6 cups of oatmeal, 1/2 cup coconut, walnuts and pecans.  Probably 8 cups dry to 1.25 liquid.  I melted the butter and syrup together, added the cinnamon to the liquid (because otherwise it seems to settle at the bottom of the bowl), and added about 1 tbsp orange zest.  Tossed everything together, baked as directed and then stirred in raisins and sultanas. 

Can you tell this was a use everything up attempt? 

The granola is quite good, and like Bittman says, it will keep forever in the fridge.

Eating Well

I don't have a photo for this post, but I've been especially pleased with myself for keeping a minor resolution: to plan my meals for the week, shop accordingly, and then eat it all up.  This resolution also incorporates another resolution, which is to use up the many and varied pantry stores I've collected.

So, this week I've made and eaten:

• White Bean Soup with Italian soysage and spinach--this is a lot tastier than those of you who fear meat substitutes may think.  Served with tomato salad. Used up a languishing can of cannellini beans.
• Black-Eyed Peas with Kale over cornbread.  This used up the kale from the peanut pineapple stew and also some of the liquid smoke I bought a couple of months ago.  I really love this; I feel that living in the south allows me to make this all the time, too.  It's regional.
• Peanut butter and banana sandwich.  Not on the menu, but, hey, it was yummy.
• Pasta with Homemade Thick Sauce--mushrooms, Boca crumbles, onions, garlic, tomatoes.  And garlic bread. I'm always a sucker for sales on Barilla pasta, but I don't eat pasta all that often. Lots of blue boxes on my shelves.
• Mexican Cornbread Pudding.  To use up the leftover cornbread and also a can of corn. So if you check out the recipe, you'll see I didn't follow it exactly.
• Popovers.  Made in a muffin tin instead of a popover pan, not as pretty as Orangette's but still very, very good.
• Lasagne made with the rest of the Thick Sauce, Salad with Best (and Easiest) Vinaigrette Ever.  Also, Toffee Almond Crunch Brownies. 
• Granola based on The Minimalist's recipe in the NYTimes, although I'm not entirely sure how he expected to coat 8 cups of grains and nuts with 1/2 cup of liquid.  As you may have guessed, I don't ever feel bound to the recipe.  Regardless, the granola is tasty and has been my breakfast for most of the week. My combo was kind of random as I put in the bits and bobs left of various nuts, seeds, and dried fruit.(The Times has already pulled the recipe, so I can't link to it. I'll try to post it next week--it's a good basic recipe for a lower-fat granola.)

That's it!  Sorry about the colors, apparently I was feeling fancy.  Also, two friends with blogs: Erica and Trish.   They are knitters.  Erica is responsible for sparking my interest in knitting again, after it had waned due to a definite lack of patience.  She's a library person too!  Trish is my enabler in Jacksonville.  She's working on socks right now, which are a particular goal of mine.  I promise that if I ever finish a knitting project, I will post to the blog.  For all of you dying to see my handiwork.

Soup of the Week: Pumpkin Bisque

Yum!  It's getting to be the time of year that I really crave soups and stews, and so I've set myself a little goal:  make a new soup (or stew) every week and then blog about it in a timely manner.  I love putting together a fragrant and steamy pot of soup any time of the year, so I don't think the cooking is going to get me down.  Blogging in a timely manner, though...

I'm going to try to keep to some simple guidelines:
    1.  A different soup every week
    2.  Mostly new recipes, not something I have tried before (although it is the season for some hearty favorites--even in Florida)
    3.  At least one soup from every cookbook I own (not a tremendous amount, so shouldn't be hard)
    4.  Stay at it at least through March--after which it really does get so warm as to not be much fun anymore...

THE FIRST SOUP: PUMPKIN BISQUE

I had planned to include the pumpkin bisque as a starter to our Thanksgiving meal, but my time-line (thank you Mr. Turkey) was not quite working out to fit it in.  Which is too bad because this is a soup that my dad really likes and I wanted to make it for him.  My first time making this bisque I used a recipe from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in the Desperation Dinners column.  I really, really liked the soup, but the whole deal with Desperation Dinners is to have them on the table in 20 minutes flat.  I thought that the flavors would benefit from a longer simmer and I really didn't like the feel of the chopped onions and garlic amidst the velvety pumpkin/cream mixture.  So this time I mostly used this recipe.  With a few modifications as follows:

• The recipe called for 2 cups, I used 1.5 cans--the 16 oz size--I don't know how much pumpkin that is.
• I forgot the bay leaf.
• Instead of chicken stock I used Better than Bouillon Not-Chicken stock starter--1.5 tbsp to 1 qt water.
• I might have added additional water to compensate for the additional pumpkin.
• My pinch of sugar was brown.
• I used the 2 cups of half and half, but the next time I make this I will only use 1 cup, or maybe use whole milk instead.  The bisque is VERY rich.
• I ignored the whole let it cool before pureeing thing and had a rather unpleasant experience with the blender.  I followed directions with the second half of the soup. 
• I served it with garlic croutons and some grated Romano cheese--NOT toasted coconut. 

In all, it was a very good soup! You can't tell from the photo***, but this is a really pretty dish--pale orange and flecked with darker orange and brown bits from the pumpkin and spices.

***I am working on improving my photographic skills---these pictures taken inside my apartment are horrible!  I'm sure its the light and nothing to do with me...