vanilla pumpkin bread

See you later, summer.  The weather has finally gotten cooler here in Boston and I celebrated the passing of summer by baking two loaves of pumpkin bread (one for me, one for my coworkers at the office).  I'm fairly indifferent towards pumpkin as a flavoring, but it seemed like something quick I could whip up that would leave my apartment warm and smelling good.  Both of these things are true.  The pudding keeps this bread extra moist, and adds a hint of vanilla flavoring.


Vanilla Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs 
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil 
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 2 cups sugar 
• 2 pkgs. (3 oz. each) cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix 
• 1 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add oil and pumpkin; beat until smooth. 
3. Combine remaining ingredients; gradually beat into pumpkin mixture. 
4. Pour batter into 2 greased 8 x 4 x 2" loaf pans for 75-80 minutes OR 5 greased 5 x 2.5 x 2" inch loaf pans for 50-55 minutes / until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5.  Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

lemon picnic cake

Summer is winding down; temperatures have dropped dramatically literally overnight, leaves are starting to fall, and I am getting back into the cooking/baking mood.  This is good news for my blog; probably not so good news for my waistline.  I had just finished reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and it inspired me to make a lemon cake as one last hurrah for summertime.


This cake is more of an understated lemon cake rather than having in-your-face flavor like your average lemon box mix.  The batter only has a hint of lemon (creating more of a pound cake flavor) and most of the zing lives in the glaze.



Lemon Picnic Cake
recipe adapted from Mom

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, separated
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Separate egg whites into small bowl.  Beat egg whites at high speed, scraping bowl often, just until stiff peaks form, 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Combine the 2 cups sugar and 1 cup butter, beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg yolks, continue beating until creamy.   
3. Mix together the flour and baking powder, reduce speed to low and gradually adding flour mixture alternately with milk to butter mixture, until well blended. Add lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla.  
4. Continue beating until well mixed.  By hand gently, fold in the egg whites.   
5. Pour batter into greased and floured 12 cup bundt or 10 inch tube pan. Bake for 50-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

   

For glaze:

In a 1 quart saucepan stir together all glaze ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved, about 3-4 minutes.   With chopstick, poke holes in top of cake; pour glaze over cake, letting glaze seep down into the cake through the holes.  Cool 15 minutes, remove from pan.

caramel bars

I have spent the last week and a half* rationing out these caramel bars, and we are down to the final four.  Last night, I sadly wrapped the remainders in tin foil for delivery and spent the rest of the evening going back and forth to the plate with crumbs on it, popping them into my mouth and shamefully ambling back to my bed.  Thank goodness I don't have roommates anymore.

My mother makes these every year for Christmas, and for some reason during the holidays it seems perfectly reasonable to shove handfuls into my mouth.  And one of every other cookie offered.  I think this year I might just cut to the chase and start eating sticks of butter rolled in brown sugar.

*  I know that I'm supposed to do one new recipe every week and I know this is only my second week and I have already failed.  In my defense, I haven't been feeling well and I made three new recipes last week.  If you're interested, I can certainly post the recipe for "half-eaten bowl of cereal" and "cold pitas with hummus."

Caramel Shortbread Squares

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).2. In a medium bowl, mix together 2/3 cup butter, white sugar, and flour until evenly crumbly. Press into a 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes.
2. After baking, I placed the shortbread into the freezer for about 10-20 minutes to cool.  If you do not do this, the caramel will separate from the shortbread later on.
3. In a 2 quart saucepan, combine 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk. Bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes. Pour over baked crust. Cool until it begins to firm.
4. Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute, then stir and continue to heat and stir at 20 second intervals until chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour chocolate over the caramel layer and spread evenly to cover completely. Chill. Cut into 1 inch squares. These need to be small because they are so rich.

devilish

As promised, I began my new recipe making on Monday night.  You may be noticing that it is Thursday right now.  Let's move on.

I perused my recipe folder* on Sunday night and decided on something called "Deviled Chicken Breasts."  Chicken is really the only meat that I eat regularly and I have a soft spot for Dijon mustard, so it sounded right up my alley.  During my lunch break on Monday, I picked up the ingredients that were missing, which included a bottle of Chardonnay that will play a significant role later on.

I left work at 6, already dreading having to make dinner when I got home.  I am starving.  My sink is filled with dirty dishes left over from the weekend (Saturday and Sunday are generally my no-doing-dishes days).  My freezer is full of frozen chicken products that I could easily throw in the microwave and eat, tempting me.  I envision a particular disappointed looking face and persevere.  Let's do this.

For some reason, I seem to be lacking very specific adult skills.  I don't know if it is because I didn't go to high school, or if I'm just an idiot.  For instance, I have no idea how to style my hair or apply makeup successfully.  I also cannot open wine bottles.  A week ago I was at Trader Joe's (purchasing the aforementioned frozen chicken products) and impulse bought a $2.99 corkscrew (and a 29cent chocolate bar).  I felt so adult, imagining all the bottles of wine I would open and pour for all my friends at dinner parties (false).  I confidently screwed it into the cork and attempted to press down to pull the cork out.  The edge of the bottle seemed so far away from the metal part of the corkscrew and it would not latch on.  The bottle and I struggled for a good 10 minutes, during which I sent a flurry of fevered text messages and cursed Joe for his cheap goods.  I had witnessed the opening of wine bottles hundreds of times by now, why is this so difficult?  It finally popped out (through methods unclear to me), and I could get on with it.

The rest of the preparation went relatively smoothly.  The only tip I have to offer you, is to not submerge hands with cuts on them into the mixture of wine and mustard.

* Before I moved, I wanted to cut down on the amount of stuff I had to bring with me, so I went through most of my recipe books and marked all the ones that sounded appealing.  I then created a document template and just plugged recipe after recipe in. I had grand ideas to print them all out and organize them in a binder, but only got about halfway through before I lost steam/was no longer unemployed.

Deviled Chicken
Adapted from: Healthy Cooking for Two
makes: 4 chicken breasts

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• hot sauce to taste
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1 cup bread crumbs

1.  Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, wine, oil, thyme and hot sauce.  Stir in the shallots/onions.
3. Place the bread crumbs in a shallow dish.  Roll the chicken in the mustard mixture, then in the bread crumbs to coat.
4. Arrange in a single layer in the prepared pan and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the crumb coating is browned and the juices run clear.

surprise french toast

Sometimes I get so excited by ideas that I don't really think them through before embarking on them. I woke up late on Sunday morning and decided it would be really great if I packed up all the ingredients for french toast and surprised Ian at his apartment. Sort of like delivery, except I make a mess and leave all the dirty dishes. About three quarters of the way to his apartment, it comes to my attention that I don't know how to make french toast. Why did I think this was a good idea? What if his cell phone is turned off? What if he's already eaten?  What if he's not home??

Cut to the kitchen and I am pretending that I know what I am doing. I have only made french toast once before and that was three years ago. I am trying to remember what happened all the times my mom made me breakfast on the weekends and it dawns on me that I was probably reading a book at the kitchen table, waiting for food to be delivered to my waiting mouth. I was livin' the dream. Being an adult sucks.

Needless to say, I do not have a recipe. I am winging it. This is happening. I try to get Ian to go watch TV while I fumble around his kitchen, burning the butter in the pan and hoping he isn't noticing. Is there even butter in french toast? What am I doing?

Sunday Surprise (as in, Surprise!  I don't know what I'm doing) French Toast
makes 4 slices

• 4 pieces of bread (in my case, stale)
• 1 large/extra large egg
• quick slug of milk
• cinnamon, to taste
• teaspoon of sugar
• some butter for the pan
• maple syrup

Beat egg in in a bowl (ideally) large enough to place a slice of bread.  Pour in an unmeasured slug of milk.  I am not sure what good this does, and I used skim milk.  Beat again.  At this point, I put the sugar and the cinnamon straight into the egg/milk mixture.  I was cooking for someone who enjoys cinnamon, so feel free to be as liberal with the sugar and cinnamon as you'd like.  The cinnamon will just sit on the top of the liquid, so you might need to add extra sprinkles of cinnamon in between bread dunkings. 
Now would be a good time to get out a frying pan and throw some butter over medium-low heat.  Dunk both sides of one slice of bread until saturated and place it on the pan once you've gotten up to temperature.  Flip when one side reaches golden brown.  Repeat with the remaining slices, making sure to butter in between slices.  Serve warm with maple syrup.