Glazed Orange Cake

Hello, December.

Good-bye July, August, Septoctvember...

Uhh, what happened for six months ... ?!

Oh right, wild and adventurous chaos consumed my life.

!!!

No really. Chaos. I'm still wigging out.

I traded my mountain view for a windy lakefront. A five-bedroom ranch-style house with dos fireplaces and a screened-in porch for a one-bedroom apartment that costs me twice as much. My office job for an apron and artisan breads. A personal vehicle for a CTA pass. And most significantly and troublesome of all, mild, mild winters for intolerable arctic temperatures.

Not arctic. But close enough.

Chicago. I moved there. Here. I live in Chicago.

I have a library card to prove it.

My iPhone saw all this.

But today, the first of December AND more importantly, my first Saturday off since I snagged a job in the Windy City, I decided to introduce Virginia to my new life-partner, Chitown.

My thoughtful friend Ana sent me off to the Midwest with a bit of Southern charm in tow: the Virginia Hospitality Cookbook.

A conglomeration of the commonwealth's heritage and culinary tradition.

So, in consummating the marriage between VA and Chicago, I chose a wintery cake recipe from the historic Kenmore Plantation to commemorate my new location on Kenmore.

Glazed Orange Cake

Food creds: Virginia Hospitality

Ingredients:

         Cake:

            1 cup butter, softened

            2 cups sugar

            1/2 tsp vanilla

            2 T orange zest

            5 eggs
            3 cups cake flour
            1 T baking powder
            3/4 cup milk

         Glaze:

            1/4 cup butter

            1/3 cup orange juice

            2/3 cup sugar

          

Directions:

         1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

         2. Add vanilla and orange rind. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

         3. Combine and sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt twice. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture gradually, alternating with the milk and ending with the flour, beating well after each addition.

         4. Spoon batter into buttered and floured tube pan and bake 1 hour or until cake springs back when touched. 

         5. Cool 15 minutes.

         1. Heat ingredients in saucepan until sugar is dissolved.

         2. Pour evenly over cake in pan while cake is still warm. 

         3. Allow cake to cool thoroughly in the pan before removing.



Thank you, Virginia, for your hospitality and sweet Southern edibles.

With love, from one Kenmore to another.

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Coconut Mango Quinoa

I get obsessive sometimes.

Hi.


Does that make you nervous?

You totally don't need to worry. It's mostly about things, not people.

Not that you aren't awesome enough to obsess over. ... But, yeah.


I have compulsions to love a thing into a state of unfashionableness.

Justin Bieber's acoustic album has been my office jam for an unhealthy length of time. I bob my head to it. My shoulders sway a little. It helps me type. Do people look quizzically at me? Not sure. I'm in my zone. It's a Biebs thing.

Confession: last summer I listened to Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" (the extended version) for a solid week while writing my first grad paper. No joke. Repeat. Over and over again. Contradiction and a half: I totally cried. Maybe big girls don't need to cry, but grad students sure do.

I could watch You've Got Mail every night of the week and function just like any other normal variety-movie-watching person. My mother coined the term "feel good movie" when I watched Baby Boom with her for the zillionth time. For her, it's Diane Keaton all the way. As for me, a lover of books, coffee, and NYC, it will always be Joe Fox (F-O-X) and Kathleen Kelly.

And don't get me started on the bean burgers I made all.summer.long. Soooo good. Though, tasty as they are, no one should really have an obsession with anything containing beans as the main ingredient. Just sayin.

I don't ever remember eating slash seeing slash knowing what a mango was when I lived in PA. Ever.

What?! I dunno. It just doesn't exist in my food memory. 

My fruit world was rocked about two summers ago when my friend Kim introduced me to my new food obsession. Mangos. Mangooooos.

Their technicolor skin and invisible seed are both intimidating and enticing. I really have yet to conquer the "hey, I'm ripe!" stage of a mango. What is that? When does that happen? Though I've nailed the "do that pineapple thang on my hidden stone seed" maneuver. Oh, mango, you enthrall me.

Coconut cousins | shredded & milk

Coconut Mango Quinoa

Adapted from: Epicurious

Ingredients:
         1. 1 cup uncooked quinoa
         2. 1 can coconut milk
         3. 1/4 cup Stevia OR 3/4 cup brown sugar
         4. 1 tsp. salt
         5. 4 ripe mangos
         6. shredded coconut for topping
         7. green onions, chopped, for garnish

Directions:
         1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Set aside.
         2. In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk over medium heat until
             hot but not boiling. Add sugar and salt and stir until dissolved.
             Remove from heat.
         3. Add 1 cup of coconut milk mixture to quinoa. Stir and let sit for 20 minutes
             so the quinoa can absorb the flavor.
         4. Meanwhile cut mangos into small pieces. (If you're unsure how this
             is done, check out this short video).
         5. Serve quinoa in individual bowls. Add mango pieces and drizzle more
             of the warm coconut milk mixture on top. Finish with some shredded
             coconut and chopped green onions.



Maybe these constant repetitions simply mean recognizing a good thing when you've come across it.

Maybe perpetuating goodness breeds familiarity.

I like familiarity.

And I certainly like a good mango.

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Mini Monkey Bread

My childhood memories are tainted with hyperbole.

As in the time when my child self spotted a bumble bee as round as a softball hunting me down in the backyard. I thought my life was ending. Or, that my face was about to become one ginormous bee sting. Hence, I thought my life was ending. (Is hence too willy shakespeare?)

And perhaps I also recall my aunt making monkey bread every time she and my uncle and cousins stayed for a weekend visit. It was an extravagant piece of architecture. A cinnamon-sugary dough tower as large as the Empire State building. Erected on our kitchen table.

King Kong could have hung tight on its biscuit rafters.

That bread was stories high.

Or, so it seemed.

Monkey bread: equal parts Nostalgia and Exaggeration. Always, always scrumptious.

Mini Monkey Bread

Ingredients:
           10 muffin cups
           1 can (10) biscuits
           1/4 cup maple or pancake syrup
           2 tbsp butter + 4 tbsp butter
           1/3 cup sugar
           1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
           1. Preheat oven to 450°. Prepare a muffin tin with 10 muffin cups.
           2. Cut each biscuit into 4 even pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball.

           3. Melt 2 tbsp butter then mix with syrup. Put a spoonful of the 

               butter/syrup mixture in the bottom of each muffin cup.

           4. Combine sugar and cinnamon together and mix well. Melt the other 

               4 tbsp of butter. Dip each biscuit ball into the butter and then roll 
               ball around in cin/sugar mixture. Four biscuit balls for each cup.

           5. Sprinkle any remaining cin/sugar mix over each cup of biscuits.
           6. Bake for 8 minutes.

Serve warm. Heck, even add a bit more syrup or maybe some caramel to the top of these mini delights.

Indulge. No exaggeration necessary. 

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Rice Pudding

I'd like to tell you that I had a hankering for rice pudding because the chilliness of winter simply called for it. Warm brown sugar. Cinnamon. Sooo winterish.

But January and February have been hijacked by 60-degree days, and so warm indulgent treats beckon without necessity.

I'd also like to persuade you that a gathering of friends arrived to help spoon ridiculous amounts of vanilla-y, nutty goodness from the pot.

Nope. Just me. With a spoon. And an unjustifiable hankering for rice pudding.

Do I own a cow? Nope.

Did I make my own milk? You betcha.

Cashew Milk
Food creds: About.com: Vegetarian foods

Ingredients:
          1/2 cup raw cashews
          2 cups water
          sweetener (honey, stevia, or similiar), optional
          a dash of sea salt (to taste)

Directions:
          1. Soak cashews in water for at least one hour. Drain and rinse.
          2. Put cashews and 2 cups of water in a blender or food processor and
              mix until smooth (about one minute).
          3. Add sweetener and salt, to taste.

I suppose using the term "rice" is a bit misleading. And by a bit, I mean I didn't use rice. At all. Not one grain.

Quinoa. Keen-wa. Say it. Buy it. Eat it. Make up reasons to substitute it for ordinary grains.

It's power-packed. My friend Rachel has a great post on her website, PureGoodness, about the benefits of quinoa and lists other awesome recipes for its use.

As for me, I'll make non-rice pudding out of it. With milk made from nuts.

Quinoa "Rice" Pudding
Food creds: Simply Recipes

Ingredients:
          2 cups water
          1 cup quinoa
          pinch of salt
          2 cups cashew milk
          1 egg
          1/4 cup dark brown sugar
          1 tsp vanilla extract
          1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
           1. Using a medium saucepan, bring water, quinoa, and salt to a boil. 

               Turn to simmer and cook covered for 20-30 minutes. *Quinoa 

               doesn't get as tender as rice does.
           2. Fluff quinoa with a fork and then add the cashew milk.
           3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and brown sugar. Add half 

               a cup of the quinoa mixture into the bowl on spoonful at a time, 

               whisking thoroughly with each addition.
           4. Add the egg mixture back to the saucepan of quinoa and milk, and 

               stir on low heat for 10 minutes until thickened. Stir in vanilla.

           5. Remove from heat and add cinnamon.
                

               Optional: Add raisins. I topped with granola. Yum. 

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Wishbones & Cheesecakes

Wishbone: Have you pulled one before?

Photo creds: Real Simple

It's a bit like blowing out birthday candles . . . with the unfortunate possibility of having your wish snatched by whoever's grasping the other bony end. And in approximately 0.643 seconds you're intensely concentrating on a wish (or, like most of us, an untold deepest longing that you only ever summon on occasions like birthday candle blowing, shooting stars, or wishbone pulling -- never did marry Rider Strong -- sigh) and hoping your thumb is mightier than your opponent's.

A few years back, I had my first (and last) Thanksgiving wishbone pulling experience. It left me scarred, and not for reasons you might think.

You see, I actually won the bigger half! Against my grandmother.

It was an unfair match; I don't disagree. The family had gathered as spectators in my sister's kitchen to witness whether the matriarch of the family or the youngest of the cousins would claim the wishbone title. I tried with as little force possible to let her break the better portion. A woman whose fingers have clenched victories of various sorts in her lifetime just wouldn't achieve it that day.

It really wasn't so much that I got my wish but that I snatched hers. She seemed so disappointed.

"Aw, Nana, what was your wish?"

"That I'd live another year."

" . . . "

Tell me she did not just say that . . . out loud . . . in front of the entire family!? If she died before next Thanksgiving, that would loom over me for the rest.of.my.life! Not okay. Pretty certain this tops the list of things grandparents should never say to any member of the family.

She lived. 365 days later. And plus. And plusss. And plusplusplusplus. And she's still living. Thank goodness. :) We love her.

But no one lets her touch the wishbone anymore.

~~~

When I was in my early college years, I was usually given the task of bringing such important items as the canned cranberry sauce to the Thanksgiving feast.

I was broke. The family understood. 

Now that I'm in a slightly more stable situation, I offer a much more worthy and promising contribution: cheesecake.

It's kinda become my signature dessert. Last year I made a Pumpkin Swirl cheesecake. What a big decadent hit. Velvety cream cheese with the familiar flavors of pumpkin and spice dancing throughout.

This year I'm making the swirly pump. again, but this time with an Apple Caramel to join it. Yum.

To make a little extra income these past few pre-Thanksgiving weeks, I started selling them at work too. Office grandeur by day; kitchen whiz by night.

I tightened my apron strings and got down to business. 

          - Gettin' toasty -                                  - Cool down -                                     - Chillaxin' - 

If only these pictures were scratch-n-sniff. Mmm mm.

And if our table could drastically multiply itself, I'd invite you all! I certainly would.

But please, someone bring the cranberry sauce. It's no longer my duty. ;)

Have a wonderfully delightful Thanksgiving.

Full of food. Laughter. Memories. Family. Friends.

Photo creds: Hostess with the Mostess

Minus the wishbone.

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Pumpkin Spice Cake

Sometimes I just want simple. I love making things from scratch, but I can't always handle scratch. You know what I mean? You've got things to do; of course you know what I mean!

This spice cake is probably not new to most of you. In fact, I saw it posted on Pinterest just the other day. But this is a classic. The way Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz are classics: not new but always loved, always familiar.

Spice cake, for me, is nostalgic. Every time I smell it baking, I'm reminded of Nana in the kitchen with pans and Crisco and toothpicks and these old old hot pads that are about as faded as Betsy Ross's American flag. That kitchen smelled like autumn. Like fallen leaves and wool sweaters.

Nope. There's not a thing wrong with simple.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Ingredients:

             1 box Spice Cake

             1 can pure pumpkin

             1 can frosting (cream cheese or buttercream or vanilla)

Directions:

             1. Preheat oven according to box directions. Grease selected pan

                 and set aside. (I use a 9" springform pan).

             2. Combine cake mix and pumpkin in a bowl until thoroughly

                 incorporated. The batter will seem a bit too dry at first,

                 but stay faithful to mixing and you'll see it will all blend together.

             3. Pour batter into pan and bake according to box directions.

             3. Let the cake cool completely. Heat icing (uncovered) in microwave

                 for about 10-15 seconds and pour on top of the cake allowing the
                 icing to drip off the sides.

Plate it up.

Add a dash of powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice, and you are in for a fall treat.

Simple.

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Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes



Grad classes begin again on Monday. MONDAY!!!

When did summer shake off her beach towel, pack up her sunscreen, and vacate the beach?

Now, I get all giddy in my soul anticipating cooler, cripser weather, chai lattes, and cardigans. But I'm still totally feeding on the flavors and colors of summer.

A marriage of pretty, bright sensations. Pink. Yellow. Lemon. Raspberry.

Dear yellow and pink houses, I would like to be your neighbor.


Pink and yellow make life whimsical. I want more whimsy, don't you?

Photo creds: you frivolous mommy!

Photo creds: basedecor

Photo creds: aloha island weddings


What's your favorite summer flavor combo?


Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes
Adapted from: the hummingbird bakery cookbook 

Ingredients:

           Cupcakes:

                  1 cup all-purpose flour

                  3/4 cup sugar

                  1 1/2 tsp baking powder

                  2 Tbsp grated lemon zest

                  3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp.

                  1/2 cup whole milk

                  1 egg

                  raspberry cake/pastry filling

           Lemon frosting:

                  2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

                  5 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp.

                  2 Tbsp grated lemon zest

                  2 Tbsp whole milk

Directions:

           1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

           2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and butter in a

               freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a

               handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get

               a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in

               the milk and beat until just incorporated.

           3. Add the egg to the flour mixture and continue beating until just

               incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the

               bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more

               minutes until the batter is smooth. Do not overmix.

           4. Spoon the batter into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake

               in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake bounces

               back when touched. A skewer inserted in the center should come

               out clean. Let the cupcakes cool slightly before turning out onto a

               wire rack to cool completely.

           5. Once completely cooled, using a small spoon, scoop out a round

               shallow bit of the cupcake top. Spoon in the raspberry filling until

               completely filling the missing cupcake portion.

Lemon frosting:

           1. Beat together the confectioners' sugar, butter, lemon zest in a

               freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a

               handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture

               comes together and is well-mixed.

           2. Turn the mixer down to a slower speed. Slowly pour in the milk,

               then when it's all incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed.

               Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5

               minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter

               it becomes.

           3. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the lemon frosting on top

               and decorate with a little lemon zest.

Makes 10-12 cupcakes

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