Apple Pecan Cake

Apple Pecan Cake

This cake is tasty and moist inside and perfectly crunchy on the outside. 

I made this Christmas Day. It was so good...Try it! You'll like it!

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 large apples cut into 1 cm cubes, leave skin on

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts cut roughly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all wet ingredients first, then add dry ingredients, and finally apples and nuts.

Use your muscles. Strong arms are sexy. 

Spoon batter into nonstick sprayed bundt pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 min. 

Chill out and read or listen to music. 

Test cake with shish kabob skewer. If it comes out clean, it's done.

Decorate with powdered sugar once cooled.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

I don't go for all those pumpkin flavored drinks at Starbucks. Or the bizarre stuff you start seeing at the grocery store once September hits: Pumpkin Spice Hummus, Pumpkin Spice Cheerios or Life Cereal, Pumpkin Spice Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookies, Pumpkin Spice Oreos, Pumpkin Spice Greenies for your dog.....Too much!

But, I do like making a good pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread this time of the year. So, here is one of the best Mother Lovin' Pumpkin Bread Recipes I have found. It stays moist inside while getting a nice crust to the outside of the loaf. Try it!

Pumpkin Bread

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray nonstick spray to two loaf pans.

* 1 15 oz can of Organic Pumpkin

* 2 large eggs

* 2 cups of sugar

* 1 1/2 sticks of butter softened

Mix all of this together at medium to high speed in mixer.

Then, add

* 2 cups of all purpose flour

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1/2 tsp baking powder

* 1 tsp of ground cloves

* 1 tsp ground cinnamon

* 1 tsp ground nutmeg

Mix some more. Use spatula to make sure everything is incorporated.

Put mixture into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake 60 minutes. Test to make sure done. If not, add 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!

***Optional: Add demerara sugar crystals to tops of loaves 3/4 the way through baking process for nice crunch and look to your finished product.*** 

Fried Egg and Avocado Toast

I had heard of this nice combo of avocado and egg before. Maybe my first taste of something similar was a western omelet at a diner in San Francisco in the mid 1980's. But my first real taste of this avocado egg toast in the last year was at a great coffee shop named Drift in OIB, NC (Ocean Isle Beach is a little beach town 1 hour south of Wilmington, NC and 45 min north of Myrtle Beach, SC).

It's a real hit with my family on the weekends as it is kind of breakfast like and kinda lunch like. If you have teenagers, you know they like waking up during "brunch" time!

Here's the recipe:

Avocado Toast with Fried Egg

* Cut and mash 1 whole avocado with knife then fork with 1 tsp lemon or lime juice and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Set aside.

* Cut up a handful of grape tomatoes and set aside.

* Toast 4-5 slices of whole grain bread.

* Fry 4-5 eggs.

* Spread avocado spread on toast, layer on fried egg, add on cut grape tomatoes, season with sea salt and pepper. Sprinkle on sunflower seeds for extra protein.

* Enjoy!

Goes nicely with fruit salad and some bacon. Delish!

Two-Bean Enchilada Casserole

Cold and snowy out today, so I decided to cook! Here is my Two-Bean Enchilada Casserole recipe from Better Homes and Gardens:
www.bhg.com/recipe/two-bean-enchilada-casserole/
And my photos:

Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary and Food

To celebrate my parents today on their 50^th anniversary, I will talk about food.

No, I will not do a power point behind me with a montage of food photos from my Instagram or Facebook or family and friends of mine’s great food photos for this. That might be a tad distracting. Though I was tempted… Don’t berries look just luscious in the right light? Well, anyway.    

Berries

Food to me is a symbol of love. The time and thoughtfulness and care that are needed in the proper preparation of food are very similar to the same care needed to tend to love. Mom and Dad’s 50 years of marriage is a culmination of good talk, good food and love. Thank you all for being here to honor and celebrate that love!

I am going to share with you some quotes about food and love and my brief thoughts on them

1. "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." ― Virginia Woolf   Okay.. so mom was and is a really good cook! So that means by default we are all a tad smarter, nicer to people and got a good night’s sleep if we have ever partaken in an Ann Donaldson meal. So, dad…that explains how you got into MIT. Mom’s love and food gave you an edge!

2. "Cooking is like love: It should be entered into with abandon or not at all." — Harriet van Horne   Yes, cooking is dangerous! It sometimes involves flame, knives, extreme heat and oils, etc. right?!Have you seen my mom make peanut brittle? The woman has asbestos hands pulling molten hot sugar. But it’s all worth it, right? So, is love. To a certain extent you have to run into it blind, because if you really overthought it you would probably just not do it.

3. "If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him...the people who give you their food give you their heart." — Cesar Chavez   This is very true. I’m grateful for our dinner parties with friends and family growing up in mom and dad’s house. Those are some of my best memories.

4. "The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death." ― E.M. Forster   Yep…that about sums up what life is all about.

5. "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." ― Charles M. Schulz   Love release endorphins. So does chocolate. It’s all good.

And to wrap up this little food / love talk for my parents, I will leave you with this:

6. "People who love to eat are always the best people." — Julia Child

Translation, you are all connected to my parents. My parents are foodies, my brother and myself and our respective partners are foodies. I think most of the people here today love good food! That means by default, you are the best people. This is Julia Child telling us this folks. No lie!

Eat, drink, enjoy! Here’s a toast to the host and the hostess with the mostest…love, that is! Cheers!

                                                                                      Love, Heather

         

Anniversary luncheon

Challah

 

Challah

 

 

Enjoyed this recipe this morning with breakfast. I am not patient. 15 min of making dough in Cuisinart and waiting for it to bake 45 min was enough. I am sure this would have been even better if I had let it rise the entire hour. Oh well, still delicious!

 

 

 

  

Challah Recipe from  www.cuisinart.com

 

 

one package of active dry yeast
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose bread flour
2 eggs
4 heaping tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup warm (105-110°F) water
1 egg mixed with water for egg wash
handful of sesame or poppy seeds
cooking spray

INSTRUCTIONS

Sprinkle yeast over water in a small bowl or cup, add sugar and watch it bubble, about five minutes. 
Pour the above mixture into a food processor; add flour and then the rest of the ingredients. Mix and let it rise (It's okay to cover and leave it in the food processor or remove it to a greased bowl and cover) for about an hour.
Punch down the dough (press pulse a few times) and let it rise again (about an hour).
THEN: 
Separate the dough into four pieces. Use three to make the main bread, and use the fourth piece to make a smaller braid that you’ll pinch into place on top of the main braid. Place the braided dough into a greased bread pan and cover with greased plastic wrap (PAM is easy to use.). Let it rise another hour.
Paint with egg wash (egg and water whisked together). Sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. 
Bake for 45 minutes in a 350° oven.



Kolache Cookies

 

Kolache Cookies

~celebrating my Czech heritage~

 

 

 

In continuing the "sharing our cultures through food" theme on my unit, I decided to share a little of my Czech background. I may only be 1/8 Czech but I love the food and culture.

My great grandmother was Czech. She and my grandfather lived in the Czech neighborhood of Cicero in Chicago. While the neighborhood is no longer Czech, I remember visiting the area when there was still a Czech bakery there. All types of pastries with prune, poppy, apricot and blackberry fillings. My most fond memory was of the Kolache cookie.

Cicero Chicago

 

 

 

While some make the version of this cookie made out of a yeast dough, I prefer the delicate nature of this cream cheese based recipe.

 

Try and enjoy! I used a very small jelly or honey jar upside down to make my cookies and they were petite and lovely! Less guilt for those enjoying a small cookie, I say.

I also refrigerated for 20 min before rolling out on lightly floured cutting board.

Kolache Cookies

6 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup butter
3 T white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
apricot and/or blackberry preserves/jam
1/4 cup confectioners sugar and sifter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Use food processor to blend first three ingredients
3. Slowly add next 3 ingredients
4. Chill for 20 min in fridge
5. Roll out on lightly floured cutting board
6. Use 2 in diameter upside down empty jelly jar to cut out circles and put on lightly greased cookie sheet. Indent each with thumb. Put 1/8 tsp of jam in middle of each circle.
7. Bake for 10 min
8. Cool. Dust with powdered sugar. Store in airtight container.

 

Kolache Cookies

 

Young girl in traditional Czech folk outfit

 

 

 

 

Dobru chut! (bon appetite)

 

Sbohem! (goodbye)