Super Bowl bean dip

This recipe is really something that I only find myself making once a year, if that.  I really like this dip, but it only ever gets made when I go to Super Bowl parties.  I don't know if it is because it was during a Super Bowl that I first encountered it, or if even I can't convince myself that dip is an acceptable meal replacement.  Nevertheless, I made some this past Sunday to bring with me to a gathering at a friend's house.  It disappeared almost immediately with rave reviews.

Apologies for the gross cell phone picture.  I put off making the dip until the last minute and subsequently rushed around.  I missed kick-off.

Super Bowl Bean Dip

• 8oz cream cheese
• 1 can of refried beans
• 1 jar of salsa
• bag of shredded cheese (I use "Mexican Blend")

1. Preheat oven to 350.  In a 9x13 glass pan, spread cream cheese over the entire bottom until even and smooth.

2. Drain can of refried beans and spread over cream cheese in the pan.

3. Over beans, pour and spread salsa.

4. Sprinkle shredded cheese over salsa and place in the oven.

5. Heat until the cheese has melted and the dip is warm throughout.  Serve with tortilla chips.

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.

road cookies

It has only been relatively recently that I have realized that I have had a latent interest in using cooking to show affection.  I have never really had much interest in cooking or baking up until this past year (and even now I'm not entirely sure how much of this "interest" I have is based on anything other than having something to do), but being able to have some sort of tangible evidence of my affection and effort I have put into making something for someone else is satisfying.  Sharing my baking with others also has some other nice selfish benefits: I don't have to eat 72 cookies myself (and gain 400 pounds), I get to try new recipes I wouldn't otherwise make, and it gives me something to spend my ample free time on.

I wanted to make cookies that could be given as a gift and transported across many state lines.  The plan was to use my stand-by recipe for chocolate chip cookies adopted from my mother (using vanilla pudding mix in the dough to make them extra moist).  However, scheduling issues arose and it turned out that the cookies needed to be baked much sooner than I thought.  I came home on Thursday with the realization that I both did not have vanilla pudding and that my brown sugar was in the form of a brick and still I had not found out how to soften it without turning it into mush or bought new sugar.  I considered giving up and just buying cookies at the store.  The sentiment would still be the same, but it always feels cheap to me to cop out and not put forth the effort to actually make something for someone.

Google to the rescue.  I figured that it would be a lost cause, but I did a quick search for "chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar."  I wasn't expecting any results.  As far as I was concerned, brown sugar and butter were pretty much the foundation for chocolate chip cookies and anything else would be a poor substitute.  I warily printed out a recipe that called for honey instead of brown sugar and decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

So I did.  The dough formed and everything seemed to go fine, but the cookies spread out like crazy during baking.  I'm sure some more experienced baker would be able to point out something I could have added to make them more firm, but alas.  I used my spatula to break them into smaller cookies, all the while assuming I would have to throw away the entire batch.

Like most things I make, these things look pretty questionable but they taste fine.  The honey adds an interesting extra layer of flavor, and while I don't think that I'd make these every time, they are an excellent substitute for the more traditional brown sugar based cookies.

No Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Spark Recipes

Ingredients
•    2 1/2 cups all-purose flour

•    2 eggs

•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•    3/4 teaspoon salt

•    1 teaspoon baking soda

•    6 ounces chocolate chips (I used a combination of milk & semisweet)
•    1 cup white sugar

•    2 tablespoons honey

•    1 1/4 cups butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Cream the butter with the sugar and the honey.
Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour and baking soda.
Stir in chocolate chips.


Place teaspoon sized dough about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.


Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes or until golden brown.