#Berrylove: Raspberry Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and a goodbye

01. April 2012 · 38 comments · Categories: Baking, Cake, cooking, Dessert, food, life, recipes · Tags: , , , , ,

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. My grandpa passed away last week and I’ve been spending time down in Florida with my family. As sad as it is that he wasn’t there with us, it was really nice to see everyone all in one place. It doesn’t happen often that we’re all together.

My grandpa had been wanting our whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins) to get together for his and my grandma’s 60th anniversary and earlier last year we had been planning to take a trip somewhere together. After he got sick he knew that trip would never happen and really was just hoping he could at least make it to my wedding in October. It’s sad that we were all finally able to be together and my grandpa couldn’t join us. And my wedding will definitely feel like there’s something missing.

This month’s bloghop ingredient is berries. I really wanted to bake up something that my grandpa would have loved.

His and my birthday were only 2 days apart so either my mom or I would bake a cake every year and the two of use would celebrate together, blowing out the candles on our cake.

birthday with grandpa

Birthday with Grandpa- 8 yrs old

I contemplated baking a carrot cake because I remember how much he loved when we made a carrot layer cake for his birthday, complete with cream cheese frosting. I also remember a time we made a white cake with lemon curd filling and blueberries- the only berry he would eat because he hated seeds getting in his teeth.

I kind of combined the two and made a raspberry cake (I think he wouldn’t have minded the seeds are baked in but you could easily strain them out), with lemon curd filling and a cream cheese frosting. There were no good blueberries so I used blackberries in this filling.

I think my grandpa would have loved this cake. I miss him already.

I’m posting this as part of the #berryove April bloghop. I’m co-hosting with the following:
A little bit of everything, Baker Street, Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves, BigFatBaker, Bon à croquer, Cake Duchess, Easily Good Eats, Georgie Cakes, Hobby And More, Java Cupcake, Mis Pensamientos, No One Likes Crumbley Cookies, Oh Cake, Queen’s Notebook, Rico sin Azúcar, Simply Reem, Soni’s Food for Thought, Teaspoon of Spice, That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!, The Art of Cooking Real Food, The Wimpy Vegetarian, Vegan Yack Attack, Vegetarian Mamma

Please join in on the #berrylove fun by linking up any berry recipe from the month of April 2012. Don’t forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #berrylove event! The twitter hashtag is #berrylove :) . See below recipe for linkup!

Raspberry Cake with Lemon Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake adapted from DixieMockingbird, frosting from my Valentine’s Day Cake

Print this recipe!

Makes one 9 inch 3-layer cake

Cake Ingredients:
parchement paper:
butter and flour – for the cake pans

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup raspberry puree* (I used about 1.5 12 oz bags of frozen berries, thawed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, beaten

2 pints fresh raspberries (i used blackberries because raspberries were ridiculously expensive)
8 oz lemon curd ( I bought some but you could easily make it)

*For raspberry puree – simple run two to three cups of raspberries through the blender or food processor until very smooth. You can strain the puree to remove seeds if you wish, but I didn’t

Frosting Ingredients:
8 oz. of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz. butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
2 cups confectioners sugar
8 oz. containter of non-dairy whipped topping (I used Cool Whip Free)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter and flour three 8 inch cake pans, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, vegetable oil, raspberry puree, vanilla, and eggs.

Gently whisk in the flour mixture until just combined.

Evenly divide the batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or so. The tops of the cakes should be springy to the touch, and a cake tester (aka wooden toothpick or skewer) inserted into the center of each cake should come out clean.

Allow cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes, then turn cakes out onto wire cooling racks to cool completley. You can frost them once they reach room temperature, but it is better to chill the cakes for at least an hour before assembling and frosting.

While cake is cooling, beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla and lemon zest with an electric mixer. Beat in confectioners sugar. Fold in cool whip.

Place one cake layer on a plate. Spread half of lemon curd on cake. Place enough raspberries to cover.

Place next cake layer on top and press down, smushing raspberries. Spread rest of lemon curd on cake and place raspberries on top.

Place top cake layer on top and press down again. Dump frosting on top of cake and spread evenly over sides. You may not need all the frosting. Refrigerate cake before cutting to firm up the frosting.

 

Homemade Newtons!

23. March 2012 · 21 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, Dessert, food, recipes · Tags: , , ,

We went down to PA to visit Nate’s mom this past weekend and it was a fun, relaxing time as always. We stopped by a few antique shops on the search for some things I want to use in the wedding. I didn’t have much luck though. I’m thinking next time a flea market will be a better bet.

Another reason we went down is because Nate’s dad gave us a whole set of never-been-used bedroom furniture because he’s turning his guest room into a gym. Although we can’t fit the huge sleigh bed into our teeny NYC bedroom, we’re super excited about when we have room for it!

I figured after getting such a nice little present, I should say thank you in the only way I know how: baking.

After my success with making granola bars the other day, I thought about what else I could make from scratch that would be as good as or better than store-bought.

I had seen some look-alike Fig Newtons online and thought that I would have to try them. Nate told me his dad likes Fig Newtons so I thought it would be the perfect time to give this recipe a try. I wish I was closer to my parents, because growing up I remember my Dad loving Fig Newtons too. Next time I go down to Florida to visit, I’ll have to make these for him.

The dough was a but sticky and kind of ripped when I folder it over the filling, but all-in-all it was very forgiving after it cooked up. In addition, you definitely have to plan ahead with these since the dough has to be refrigerated for several hours and the filling takes a while to cook.

Next time I think I’ll try this with a different flavor inside :)

*Note, for great step-by-step pictures, visit the site I got the recipe from, Oh Nuts

Homemade Fig Newtons!

Taken from Oh Nuts

Print this recipe!

makes about 30 cookies

For the filling:

1 generous cup Calimyrna dried figs
1-1/2 cups water
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 1/2 grated orange

For the cookie dough:
4 oz (8 tbsp) softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1/2 grated orange
1 egg white, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups all-purpose flour

Both parts of this recipe require extensive down-time, so make sure you plan ahead and leave enough time for cooking and chilling. To make the dough, start by combining the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar in the bowl of stand mixer (or use a large bowl and a hand mixer.) Beat them together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg white, the grated zest of half an orange, and the vanilla extract, and beat everything together until you have a silky smooth mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. Add the flour, and mix on low until everything is mixed together and there are no streaks of flour remaining.

When you’re finished, you should have a soft dough similar to a sugar cookie dough. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it until it’s firm enough to roll, for about two hours.

While you wait for the dough to chill, it’s time to get figgy with it! (Yes, I’ve been dying to use that joke this whole time.) Take those dried figs and chop them up into small pieces.

Combine the chopped figs, water, apple juice, and 1/4 cup of sugar in a medium saucepan, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. After it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer it until the figs are soft and practically disintegrating, anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours. Stir the figs occasionally so they don’t scorch on the bottom of the pan.

When the figs are done, most of the water will have cooked off and they will have the consistency of a thick, sticky jam. Cool the fig mixture at room temperature or in the microwave. It’s ok if it’s not as thick as you might think, as it will get blended.

Transfer the fig mixture to a food processor or blender, and add the grated zest of half an orange. Blend until you have a smooth paste.

Now it’s time to bring together the two halves of our Fig Newton. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Take your chilled dough from the refrigerator and dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. The dough will get sticky as it warms up, so it’s best to do this quickly and avoid adding any more flour than necessary. Roll the dough out into a very thin rectangle, about 16 inches long by 12 inches high. Remember how thin the cookie part of a Fig Newton is? Yeah, it’s a wee little layer. That’s what we’re going for.

Cut your dough into 4 strips, so that you end up with 4 long thin rectangles 4 inches across and 12 inches high.

Take about a quarter of the fig mixture and spread it along the center of one of the strips of dough. Gently fold one side over the fig mixture, then fold the second side over the first, so that you are left with a long tube of dough enclosing the fig filling. Repeat until all four dough strips have been filled and folded.

Gently (gently!) transfer the strips of dough to a parchment-covered baking sheet. I found it was easiest to do this by sliding them onto a long metal spatula, but even a large chef’s knife might work for his purpose. You can either cut them into cookies before or after baking–I prefer before, because I think it’s a little easier to get clean cuts that way, but either way works fine.

Bake the cookies in the 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, until they’re puffed and golden brown around the edges.

**These cookies are even better the next day. Fresh from the oven, the cookie layer is a little crispy, more like a shortbread. But after they’ve had time to mellow, it softens like a real fig newton. Keep in tupperware on counter up to a week or longer in fridge.

#Greenslove: Kale, Apple and Pancetta Salad

17. March 2012 · 18 comments · Categories: Brunch, Dinner, food, recipes, Savory · Tags: , , ,

It seems like Kale is the 2012 super food. I mean I know it existed before that, obviously, but everywhere I turn, I’ve been seeing recipes for it.

Usually I’m not a fan of raw kale since it’s a lot tougher than a typical salad leaf. I like to sauté or braise it. But I found this recipe  for Kale, Apple and Pancetta Salad in one of my trusty food emails the other day and thought it sounded too good to pass up.

Most of the recipes I had seen for kale in salad called for massaging it. Yep, you read right. While you’re peeling and chopping those poor other veggies, lucky Kale is getting a rub down.

Massaging kale is actually some sort of a scientific process. You add some oil/dressing, grab bunches of it in both hands and squeeze. Then rub them together. And repeat. The tough cellulose structure breaks down and the leaves wilt. The leaves will darken and shrink to almost half their pre-massage volume.

This salad actually didn’t call for such a technique, although I think it could have used it. Nate might have gotten a bit jealous though ;)

In the end the flavors were totally delicious but I think if I made it again I would either massage it or lightly saute just the greens before mixing it with everything else. And oh my, the pancetta MADE this salad. If you don’t eat pork, you must substitute something else similar (maybe turkey bacon), as it just wouldn’t be the same without that saltiness.

I’m posting this as part of the #greenslove March bloghop hosted by:
Al Dente Gourmet, Astig Vegan, Badger Girl Learns to Cook, Baking and Cooking: A Tale of Two Loves,BigFatBaker, Bon a Croquer, CafeTerraBlog, Cake Duchess, Cheap Ethnic Eats, Easily Good Eats,Georgiecakes, Kitchen Belleicious, Mis Pensamientos, My Twisted Recipes, No One Likes Crumbley Cookies,Oh Cake, Queen’s Notebook, Rico Sin Azucar, Savoring Every Bite, Simply Reem, Soni’s Food for Thought,Sprint 2 the Table, Teaspoon of Spice, That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!, The Art of Cooking Real Food, The Spicy RD, The Wimpy Vegetarian, Vegan Yack Attack, Vegetarian Mamma.

I didn’t get my stuff together early enough to host with them this month, but hopefully I will in April!

 
Here are the rest of the entries!:

Kale Apple and Pancetta Salad

Taken from Serious Eats

Print this recipe!

Serves 4-6

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 ounces sliced pancetta, diced
1/4 cup Champagne vinegar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small head radicchio, shredded
1 8-ounce bunch kale, stems discarded, leaves shredded
2 tart yet sweet apples, sliced into thick matchsticks
3/4 cup pecans, toasted if desired

Combine the olive oil and pancetta in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until pancetta is golden and crispy. Strain the pan drippings into a small bowl and leave the crispy pancetta off to the side to cool. Add the Champagne vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper and whisk well.

Combine the radicchio, kale, apples and pecans in a large bowl. Toss while adding the dressing, little by little, until salad is well dressed. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with crispy pancetta.

Non-food Post: Pinterest Challenge! Button Bird

14. March 2012 · 14 comments · Categories: crafts, life · Tags: , ,

The goal of the Pinterest Challege, is to make one thing each season that’s inspired by all the gorgeous stuff that we’ve pinned on  Pinterest!

The Pinterest challenge is hosted by:

Sherry from Young House Love
Katie from Bower Power Blog
Erin from The Great Indoors
Cassie from Hi Sugarplum

You may remember I participated in this challege last summer and made myself a jewelry holder! I have to confess that as gorgeous as that jewelry holder looked, it hasn’t been working out quite so well. The earrings are very precariously hanging and I need to have a way for them to stay better so they don’t all fall off every time I touch it. If you have any ideas, please let me know! I’ve already lost an earring that fell off and I have no idea where it went.

Aaaaaanyway, so this time I knew what I wanted to do way ahead of time. You see, during my Pinterest browsing, I came across this really cool bird made out of buttons.

source

I knew that it would be a perfect Christmas present for Nate’s mom (she loves birds), if I could figure out how to make it.

First I went online and did endless searching for a pretty bird silhouette. I decided that I wanted mine to have a prominent branch, unlike the inspiration. This is the image I found, although I actually ended up flipping the image, blowing it up, and cropping it so it fit nicely on my 8″ embroidery hoop.

Sorry, I have no progress photos…I didn’t think about it :(

Next I ventured out to the fabric store to get fabric and thread for both the branch. I knew I had wanted felt for the background and picked purple since Nate’s mom loves that color. I ended up finding a small piece of it at Michaels. I would have like a lighter purple but ended up just going with lighter buttons instead.

Finally, I had to figure out where to get all those buttons. I ended up finding this button store on the Upper East Side in nyc called Tender Buttons, which admittedly was prob not the best place to go. The buttons were gorgeous, with a huge selection of colors, but also super expensive and mostly fancier than I was looking for. $100 something dollars later, I left with my purchases in hand :( I just told myself that since this was a present anyway, it was ok to spend a little more than I was expecting.

I also ended up going online and found some cheaper buttons to throw into the mix. I have to say that the pricey buttons were gorgeous and probably worth the $ but it was nice to mix it up with different shapes/sizes/colors.

Ok, on to the actual process:

First I put the felt in the embroidery hoop and stretched it as much as I could. The hoop was really loose and I don’t know if it was because it was a cheap hoop or what, but at the very end I glued the felt to the sides of the hoop in the back to keep it from slipping. (I did this after the whole thing was complete). I can thank my mom for that wonderful idea :)

I had to figure out the best way to transfer the image. I ended up freehanding it with chalk. In the end it was hard to get all the chalk lines off the felt, but I don’t know what else I could have done.

After transferring the image, I cut out the branch fabric to the appropriate shape and sewed it to the felt with contrasting stitching to give it a rustic look.

Next was the hardest part by far. I took all my buttons and placed them on the felt til I thought they best filled up the bird shape, making sure I got a good variation in colors, shapes, etc. I used pins that i stuck thru the button holes and then thru the felt to hold the buttons in place while I began my sewing.

I chose a silvery thread and just started at one end, sewing each button on. I used the same thread for several buttons until I needed a new piece. In other words, I didn’t sew it off after each button.

The buttons shifted a lot while I was doing this and it was super frustrating to keep rearranging it, but I don’t know a better way.

In the end, to make it look more like a bird and less like a bird-like blob, I used little plastic and glass beads to fill in the empty areas that were too small for any buttons. It seems like the inspiration button bird lady did something similar.

This project was NOT easy. I definitely cursed the day I decided to attempt this multiple times during creation of my button bird. But in the end, I love how it came out. And Nate’s mom loved it too! I hung it in her bedroom over a little table she has and I think it looks great :)

Pin It

Lazy Day Granola Bars

09. March 2012 · 14 comments · Categories: Baking, Breakfast · Tags: , , ,

My laundry usually sits on my bed for the whole day after I wash it in the morning. Sometimes I don’t even put it away when it’s time for bed…I just put it in a little pile on the floor until I feel inspired to clean up.

After trips, my suitcase full of clothes sits in the corner of my bedroom for at least a week or two before I manage to empty it and put it away.

I haven’t worked out in months, even though there’s a gym downstairs in my building.

But As lazy as I am, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making homemade granola bars rather than paying the exhoribitant nyc prices for a box of packaged ones. See, I’m also extremely cheap frugal, and in this case, that won out over laziness.

Sometimes it’s nice to have convenience foods, but they never taste as good as homemade. I also wanted Nate to have an easy-to-grab, nutrious and calorie dense fuel for his morning runs. I guess these granola bars are technically still a convenience food for him, since he didnt have to make them ;)

But in all honesty, these are super easy and, if you have all the ingredients, will take you less time than it takes to get to the store and back.

Crispy-Chewy Chocolate Granola Bars

Very slightly adapted from Once Upon a Chef

Print this recipe!

makes 12-16 bars, depending on how big you like them

1 + 1/2  cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (available at Whole Foods or natural food markets)
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 + 1/2  teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds (not the kind in the hull)
1 cup crisp rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil.

Spread the oats and pecans onto prepared baking sheet. Place in the oven and toast for 7 minutes. Add coconut and toss well, then place back in the oven to cook about 6-8 minutes more. Keep an eye on it towards the end; you want the coconut to turn golden but not burn.

In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract and salt in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir with a whisk until the brown sugar is completely dissolved. Turn off heat and set aside.

Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees. Combine the the oat mixture, honey mixture, rice cereal, and mini choco chips in a large bowl and toss well.

Use the foil to line a 9 x 13-inch baking dish, then spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Turn granola bar mixture out into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly, being careful not to press down too hard. Bake for 20 minutes (be sure heat is reduced to 300 degrees). Remove from the oven and cool completely, about 1-1½ hours. Use the foil overhang to tranfer bars to cutting board, then use a large knife to cut into rectangles. Store in a single layer in an airtight container for up to a week (do not stack the bars or they will stick together and fall apart).

*I think next time I make these I’ll add peanut butter into the wet ingredients…give it a try!

Amazing Potato “Scones”

05. March 2012 · 18 comments · Categories: cooking, food, recipes, Savory, Side dishes, vegetarian · Tags: , ,

**NOTE TO ALL MY SUBSCRIBERS:

If you were an email subscriber before and you haven’t switched over to Feedburner, please do so!

To do this, go to the right hand column and scroll down to where it says “Get Elephant Eats Sent to your Inbox!” If you haven’t done this yet, you probably received an ugly text email about my post today…but when you switch over you’ll get a better html version. I’ll make sure to take you off the other list when you do.

WordPress subscribers please follow my directions in my other post. Thanks!

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Nate likes to have bread of some sort with dinner every night. He usually buys his beloved Trader Joe’s whole wheat dinner rolls, but every once in a while I like to make him something fresh.

When I was reading Martha Stewart Living magazine the other day, I came across this interesting-looking recipe for Potato Scones. I guess they were called scones because mashed potatoes were combined with flour to form a dough. But unlike typical bready scones, these were filled with cheese and pan fried, rather than baked.

I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of cheese and being fried in butter, so I figured I’d give them a try.

Man, these were so easy and SO delicious! You have to try them…seriously. I think they’d be an amazing use for leftover mashed potatoes, but I followed the recipe and boiled and mashed potatoes just for this recipe.

Nate and I both gave this one a giant thumbs up!

Potato Scones

Taken from Martha Stewart

Print from Martha’s site

Makes 8 scones

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes (or 2.5 cups mashed)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus 2 teaspoons for skillet
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 pound Tipperary cheese or sharp white cheddar, diced small (about 1/3 inch)
Directions

Bring potatoes to a boil in a pot of lightly salted water. Reduce heat, and simmer until fork tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain well.

While still warm, push potatoes through the large holes of a ricer, or use a potato masher to mash them until smooth (you should have 2 1/2 cups). Stir butter into warm potatoes until combined well. Stir together flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, then stir into potatoes with a wooden spoon until just combined. Form dough into a ball on a lightly floured work surface. Cover with a dish towel, and let cool for 20 minutes.

Dust rolling pin and work surface with flour, and roll out dough to an 8-by-10-inch rectangle. Sprinkle half with cheese, and fold to create a 4-by-10-inch rectangle. Gently roll out. With a floured knife, cut dough into four 2 1/2-by-4-inch rectangles, then cut each in half diagonally.

Heat a griddle or a large cast-iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat, and add 1 teaspoon butter. When it has completely melted and is sizzling, cook 4 scones until golden brown and cheese melts, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Keep scones warm in a 200-degree oven while you cook the remaining dough.

Lentils with Sausage, Sweet Potatoes, Feta and Balsamic Dressing…YUM.

01. March 2012 · 10 comments · Categories: Breakfast, Brunch, cooking, food, recipes · Tags: , , , ,

This is the meal that I made Nate for Valentine’s day…because nothing says love like lentils.

Also because I didnt’ have any better ideas and I got a craving for something like this. I know this isn’t much to look at, but it tastes amazing!

We could have gone out to dinner but making something seemed a little more special.

I don’t think Valentine’s day really needs to be a meal any different than a regular dinner.

Dessert, on the other hand, must be either red, pink, or heart-shaped, but as you may remember, I had that covered!

P.S. Those biscuits you see…I totally cheated. They’re Pillsbury. Who doesn’t love Pillsbury biscuits?!

**NOTE: If you were an email subscriber before and you haven’t switched over to Feedburner, please do so! To do this, go to the right hand column and scroll down to where it says “Get Elephant Eats Sent to your Inbox!” If you haven’t done this yet, you probably received an ugly text email about my post today…but when you switch over you’ll get a better html version. I’ll make sure to take you off the other list when you do. Thanks!

Lentils with Sausage, Sweet Potatoes, Feta and Balsamic Dressing

Print this recipe!

makes 5 very generous servings 

1 cup dry lentils
1 lb sweet italian turkey sausage
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/4″ cubes
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
s+p to taste
1 1/4 cups feta

Dressing:
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp olive oil

Rinse and drain lentils, then add to a 4 quart pot filled halfway with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 min or until lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain lentils and set aside.

Remove sausage from casings and heat in a large saucepan over med-high heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Stir until cooked through. Remove with slotted spoon to a bowl and set aside.

Add sweet potato to pan with sausage drippings and cook over med heat for 5 minutes.

Raise heat back to med-high, add 1 Tbsp oil, onions, carrots and celery and cook 5-10 minutes or until onion is soft.

Add sausage and lentils into veggies and stir until warm.

Mix dressing ingredients and pour over lentil mixture, tossing well.
Serve with a generous serving of feta sprinkled on each plate, or toss into lentil mixture if desired.

February 2012 Daring Bakers Challenge- Quick Bread.

27. February 2012 · 10 comments · Categories: Baking, Bread, Breakfast, Brunch, cooking, food, recipes · Tags: , , , , ,

**Before getting into today’s post, if you’re a WordPress,com blogger, please read my last post! I made some changes to my blog and if you were “following” me before, you won’t be anymore until you make the changes in that post!**

I don’t know the last time I ate a donut (I’m not counting the two bites I snuck at work on Friday when I was being tortured by the smell of Krispy Kreme’s someone brought in.)

I mean we all know donuts aren’t good for you, although Dunkin Donuts might say differently.

There are tons of those baked donuts going around the food blogs lately. Honestly though, I don’t think you can pretend a baked donut tastes like a fried one…so why bother. That’s where this recipe comes in.

I’m not pretending these are donuts. Nope. These are muffins through and through. But if you love the taste of a cinnamon sugar donut then you *might just like these too.

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Quick bread is an American term used to denote a type of bread which is leavened with leavening agents other than yeast. Quick breads includes many cakes, brownies and cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, cornbread, biscuits, pancakes, scones, soda bread, and in this instance: muffins.

Pumpkin Donut Muffins

Very slightly adapted from Cait’s Plate

Print this recipe!

makes 12 muffins

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (or omit whole wheat flour and add an additional cup of white flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

Topping:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper cups.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

In a small bowl, whisk together soymilk and pumpkin puree.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture, and beat to combine.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup with batter and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean (about 25- 30 minutes).

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture.
Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

Elephant Eats gets a makeover…and has some trouble

26. February 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

…you may have noticed that my blog has undergone some changes.

I finally got around to transferring my blog from wordpress.com to wordpress.org.

Changes can be good…and I now have the ability to completely customize my site….but I lost all my wordpress.com Followers in the process!! :(

 

So if you were following me thru wordpress you have to re-follow me by doing the following (also found at http://en.support.wordpress.com/following/):

Go to the wordpress.com homepage and log in. Click on the “Read Blogs” tab:

click Edit List:

In the text box at the top of the page, enter www.elephanteats.com and click “Follow.”

Now you’ll receive my blog posts by email again!

I don’t know if there’s any way to transfer my followers (I figured out how to transfer my email subscribers), but if there is, please let me know.

Thank you to all my loyal followers :)

Amy

High Protein Peanut Butter Dip

22. February 2012 · 17 comments · Categories: Appetizer, cooking, food, recipes, Side dishes, vegetarian · Tags: , , , ,

As you know, I decided to make a tasty risotto for Nate the other day. But I realized that the meal was lacking in protein and I try to serve us balanced meals as often as I can.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what to serve with it, since I had zero desire to cook up any sort of meat. Nate suggested that I make an appetizer, and that’s when I remembered an interesting type of dip I’d seen going around the blogging world.

This dip is made with a bean base, like hummus, but with the addition of peanut butter and honey it becomes a wonderful spread for apples, graham crackers, or whatever else you want.

It’s simple to make too, since you just dump all the ingredients into a food processor. I used my small 3-cup one.

I hope you’ll get past the fact that this is made from beans and give it a try. This is a perfect way to serve your kids a snack that’s healthier than cookies and chips. Serve it to your family and don’t tell them what’s inside ;)


High Protein Peanut Butter Dip
Recipe by Me 

Serves 4 for a snack with things to dip

Ingredients
1 (15oz) can White kidney beans (aka cannellini beans), drained and rinsed
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp Smooth peanut butter
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Chocolate graham crackers and sliced apple for serving

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend well.

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