Lemon-Blueberry Swirl Cake

This is another dessert concocted by my sister-in-law Amanda and I for our Easter brunch.  This was simple, but delicious.  Also, another dessert that's relatively healthy (as long as you don't decimate the entire cake like we tried to do ...)  Amanda also noted that the cake could be made without the cream cheese layer in the middle, saving additional calories.

 
Lemon-Blueberry Swirl Cake
from Kraft Spring 2010 magazine


Ingredients:

1 pkg (2-layer size) white cake mix
3/4 c water
3 egg whites
2 T oil
1 pkg (3 oz.) Lemon flavor gelatin, divided
1 c blueberries
1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 whole egg
3 T water

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Beat cake mix, 3/4 c water, egg whites and oil until well blended. Add 1/4 c dry gelatin mix; beat on low 1 min., then on medium 4 min. Beat cream cheese and whole egg in small bowl until well blended.

Pour half the cake batter into greased 12-c fluted tube pan or 10-in tube pan; cover with layers of cream cheese mixture and remaining cake batter.

Bake 45-50 min or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 10 min. Loosen cake from side of pan with knive. Invert cake onto wire rack; gently remove pan. Cool cake completely.

Place cake on plate. Microwave 3 T water in microwaveable measuring cup on HIGH 30 sec. Add to remaining dry gelatin mix; stir until dissolved. Brush over cake until mixture is absorbed. Refrigerate leftovers.

Makes 16 servings.

Tabasco and Asparagus Quinoa

Asparagus is one of those vegetables that I didn't eat when I was a child.  I almost wrote that "I didn't eat a lot," but that isn't true - I didn't eat asparagus at all.  I'm not sure if it was something that my parents had tried once and didn't like or if they had never really ate it either, but I remember that the first time I tried asparagus was when I was out of college and in my 20s.  It was the start of a seasonal love affair.  I have never tried frozen or canned asparagus and I doubt that I ever will, because there's something so decadent about asparagus - I don't ever want that sense ruined by something that's sub-par.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I tried this recipe from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks.  I was a bit intimidated by the idea of liberal amounts of Tabasco, intrigued to cook quinoa for the first time and excited to cook a dish that promised to be healthy and something different for my lunch box.

As Heidi mentions in the headnote of this particular blog post, the taste of the Tabasco is subtle ... it's enough to bring your taste buds to attention, but not enough to have you running for a water glass.  The notes of lemon and mustard marry well with the butter.

My husband even liked this dish - I imagine that this will be one for the books and one that will be incorporated into our repertoire for years to come.

Tabasco & Asparagus Quinoa
from 101Cookbooks.com

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
25 drops Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

**Just a note - knowing that this was going to make more Tabasco butter than needed, I ended up halving this recipe.  It worked just fine.


1 pound asparagus, cut into 1-inch segments
4 cups cooked quinoa*
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted (I omitted)
scant 1/4 cup creme fraiche - optional (I omitted)
more Tabasco sauce to taste

Start by making the Tabasco butter. I used my mini food processor and combined the butter with the mustard, Tabasco sauce, lemon juice and salt.

Boil the asparagus in a large pot of well salted water, for just for a minute or so - depending on the thickness of your asparagus. Drain.

Take 4 cups of hot cooked quinoa and toss with 3 tablespoons of the tabasco butter. Stir in the asparagus. Serve with more Tabasco sauce on the side.

Serves 4 - 6.

*To cook quinoa: Combine 2 cups of well-rinsed dried quinoa with 3 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes or until quinoa is tender and you can see the little quinoa curliques.

Lemon Crumb Cake

I had the pleasure of spending my Easter holiday with my in-laws this past week.  And although I missed some of my family's traditions, my sister-in-law let me loose in her kitchen and we made a couple new traditions. This lemon crumb cake was for our Easter supper.

Lemon Crumb Cake
from Healthy Cooking April/May 2010

Cake:
2 c buttermilk
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 T butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla
3 c all-purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 can (15-3/4) oz. lemon pie filling

Topping:
1 c all-purpose flour
2/3 c sugar
1/3 c cold butter
1/4 c sliced almonds, toasted
Reduced-fat vanilla ice cream, optional

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, beat the first five ingredients until well blended. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; gradually beat into buttermilk mixture until blended. Pour into a 13-in x 9-in baking pan coated with cooking spray. Drop pie filling by teaspoonfuls over batter.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in almonds; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
3. Cool for 10 min on a wire rack. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

Nutrition facts: yields 20 servings; 1 piece (w/o ice cream) = 295 cal, 7 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 62 mg cholesterol, 255 mg sodium, 53 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 5 g protein.

Spicy Lentils

Digging in my formerly dormant garden.  Trying to make healthier food choices.   Starting a new job.  Spending time with family.  Quitting a part-time job.  Embracing change.  Re-reading Tolkien's books.  Re-watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.  Letting emails pile up.  Letting dishes pile up.  Enjoying the sunshine on my face.  Planning camping trips.  Thinking of flowers to plant.

These are all the things I've been doing other than cooking and blogging.  But I'm back and while I love you all, I've also been in love with simple dishes and eating simple meals in the garden.  (Incidentally, I don't really have a garden - it's a huge work in progress, so we eat outside in the driveway looking at what will someday be a garden. :) )  But this lentil dish wasn't overly complicated and kept me from having to make a trip to the grocery store.  As for the cornbread muffins, I just used the recipe that's on the side of the Quaker cornmeal container.

Spicy Lentils

Adapted from Recipezaar.com

2 cups green lentils
2 carrot, sliced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1 beef bouillon cube (used a chicken boullion cube)
6 whole cloves
6 peppercorns
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 hot chili peppers (I used ancho chilis)
3 cups water (used chicken broth)
1 tablespoon oil

In a large pot warm the oil under medium heat, then add the sliced carrot and minced garlic, fry for about 5 minutes just until the garlic has cooked. Then add the bay leaf, peppercorns, whole cloves and chilies (leave out for a non-spicy version), you'll fry these for about 2 minutes, this brings out or release the flavors and scents of the spices.  Next add the paprika, salt, bouillon and lentils. Stir to distribute all the spices and lentils. Now add water to the pot. (Note for every cup of lentils you add one and half cups of water.)

Bring the lentils to boil over medium heat, then lower the heat and continue cooking until the lentils are soft. It depends on your taste if you want the lentils to have more of a soupy texture than you'll need to add more water. Check on them often to make sure they don't get too dry.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This is a recipe that my sister-in-law Amanda discovered on the back of a bag of shredded cheese.  And it is gooooood.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole
from Kraft

1 lb. chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 c. frozen corn kernels
1 jar (16 oz.) salsa 'o choice (I used medium because I'm lame and afraid of stomach acid flare-ups)
1 bag of shredded cheese, Mexican blend
1 c. sour cream
corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut your chicken into bite-sized pieces and start browning in a medium-sized skillet.  Finely chop a green pepper and an onion, add to chicken (at about halfway through the browning process ...).  Once the chicken is basically cooked through and the veggies are softened, take off heat and add a cup of frozen corn kernels, salsa and sour cream.  Mix.

Spray a 9-by-13 cake pan or whatever you usually use to bake casseroles.  At the bottom of the dish, place a layer of corn torillas.  Like so:

Top this with about half of the chicken mixture.  Like this:

Sprinkle about half the cheese on top of the first layer:

The rest of the pictures look about the same as these do, so I'll spare you the imagery.  However, you will lay down another layer of tortillas and then repeat the layering sequence.  Tortilla, goop and cheese.  Then you put it in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.

This is what you end up with ...

And it is gooood - even if it photographs poorly.

A couple of notes:

1) Spraying your baking pan is a must.  Just ask my SIL, although my husband and I helped her pick out the tortillas that got stuck to the bottom of her pan.  And then we ate that part.  This casserole is that unabashedly good.

2) I think that you could totally omit the sour cream in this recipe or cut in half, saving you valuable calories and fat grams.  I'm not sure if I'm going to go that far though ...

3) For people who don't really care for chicken, I am confident that ground beef would also make for a good switch.  I could also see adding some black beans because I really like them.  The possibilities are damn near endless.

And finally ... while this is awesome when it's fresh out of the oven, this is one of those cases where the leftovers aren't great the second day - or as my husband said "the flavors are better, but the chicken is spongy and the tortillas are meh."  You have been warned.

Crack Cheese Garlic Bread

Dear World, I would like to introduce you to these little bites of cheesy garlic bread.  Why do I call it crack cheese garlic bread?  Because I snarfed down half a loaf of this appetizer like a junkie seeking a fix!  These are incredible.  They are also incredibly addictive.  And I am relatively certain that they are not good for you whatsoever.

I got this recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis.  And even though the woman drives my husband mad with her massacre of the word "mozzarella," even he admits that these are pretty damn tasty.

Cheddar Garlic Bread
adapted from Giada's Cheddar and Scallion Bread

1 loaf ciabatta bread, sliced lengthwise
8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated
6 oz. room temperature butter (I use unsalted, it's how I roll and what I put on my rolls.  Ha!  Um, lame ...)
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Take the cheese, the butter and the garlic and blitz them in a food processor until its a nice, combined and spreadable mixer.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees, spread cheesy goodness on the bread and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and bubbly.  Cut into slices (hint - it's easier if you use a pizza cutter ...)

A couple notes:

1) When I went about making this for the first time, I didn't have the recipe in front of me and ended up playing by ear - and making a ton.  Basically, I used two bags of grated sharp cheddar and then 2 sticks of butter. (Along with the two garlic cloves.)  As you can imagine, this made a ton of spread, but it's stored itself really nicely in the fridge and I've been pulling it out and softening it as needed.  So far, it's been in the fridge for three days.  I give it until the end of the week until I freak out and throw it out.

2) Please, please, PLEASE listen to Giada and use the ciabatta bread.  It has these crazy little holes that fill up with cheesy, buttery goodness when this is baked.  And my God ... if there are appetizers in the hereafter, methinks this will be served.

3) In terms of ciabatta - when I first made this, I bought a big loaf, but I also used some ciabatta rolls that I found - same thing, just smaller.  I really liked this because I didn't have to do as much cutting when it came time to serve my apps.

Creamy Polenta with Parmesan and Sausage

During my junior year of college, my life was majorly altered when I decided to study abroad for a semester.  I traveled with a group of 12 others to the Mediterranean island of Malta, spending six months in a different culture - learning a lot about myself (Did I really want to be an English major?  Would Amsterdam be a good country to be exiled in?  Do I really have to go home?  When do I get to go home?), learning a lot about other cultures and living with three extraordinary other women.  My flatmates were named Heather (the lady who ran the hotel gym across the street always called her "Heeter," I still call her Heeter), Gretchen (I usually just refer to her as "G") and Andrea - we called her "D."

While I have incredible stories about our times as a group and my times spent individually with these great people, this particular dish reminded me of Heather.  Although D and I would sometimes commandeer the kitchen and make stuff that reminded us of our Midwest roots, Heather was the spontaneous and adventurous one who was on a first-name basis with the butcher down the street, the green grocer who was around the corner and taught me how to de-ink a squid in our flat's kitchen.  She was also the first person to introduce me to polenta, which I would cheekily call "Pacino."   And while I remember little about what she served polenta with or if I even liked polenta the first time I tried it (there were few of Heather's dishes that I didn't like, so I'm sure I loved my Pacino too), this dish reminds me of when I was younger, a little more reckless, actually liked seafood, had access to wine that I would kill for now and of my dear friends.  I love each and every one of you ...

Creamy Polenta with Parmesan & Sausage
by Mark Bittman - New York Times

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 good-quality sweet Italian sausages (I ended up using chicken sausages with roasted red pepper in 'em ... divine!)
1 cup medium-to-coarse cornmeal
Salt
1/2 to 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
2 tablespoons butter
Freshly ground black pepper.


My sausages were pre-cooked and only needed to be heated, so if you need to cook your sausages - here's the directions for that:  Put oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add sausages and cook, turning occasionally, until well browned on all sides and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, put cornmeal in a medium saucepan along with 1 cup water and whisk well to make a slurry; continue whisking mixture to eliminate any lumps. Put pan over medium-high heat, sprinkle with salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook, whisking frequently and adding water as needed to keep mixture loose and free of lumps, between 3 and 4 more cups. If mixture becomes too thick, simply add a bit more water; consistency should be similar to sour cream’s.

Polenta will be done in 15 to 30 minutes, depending on grind. Add cheese and butter. Taste and add salt, if necessary, and lots of pepper; serve topped with sausages.

Yield: 4 servings.

Here's my take on polenta as a 31-year-old ... while it will never replace mashed potatoes as my comfort food of choice, it is still pretty damn good.  And like most dishes - it tastes better the second day when the flavors really get a chance to meld together.  I actually ate the leftovers for breakfast over the next couple of mornings - it was hearty and filling.