ginger & praline spice loaf

Recently one of my baker friends gave me a tub of pralines. A 5 pound tub! You can imagine how happy I was--oh the possibilities and non-stop munchies. HA!
Besides eat them non-stop, I have praline cookies on the list, but I wanted something a little more creative. Plus there have been a lot of homemade baked breads surfacing around food-bloggerland, has anyone else noticed this? My last bread creation was such a hit, I was inspired to try another creation. My latest creation is all about ginger cake with pralines mixed in. And ginger and pralines actually work together very nicely.


A slice of this loaf/bread the next morning with a good heaping of cream cheese on it is heavenly! Heavenly I tell you!

ginger & praline spice loaf
semi-adapted from Gale Gand
print recipe

For the cake:
8 TB (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup sugar
½ cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1 cup hot water
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ts baking soda
½ ts salt
1 ts ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup finely chopped candied ginger
¼ cup ground of pralines

For the topping:
½ cup ground up pralines

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and lightly flour two 8 inch loaf pans or 1 9-inch loaf pan or a 10-inch cake pan.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), combine the melted butter, egg, and sugar. Add the molasses and water and mix. In another bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon together. Working in batches, mixing after each addition add the dry ingredients to the molasses mixture. Mix until smooth. Then fold in the chopped candied ginger and chopped up pralines.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes, then sprinkle on the ground up pralines for the topping and bake another 15 – 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to completely cool.

corn, cheddar & bacon pancakes

Hearty, rich, thick, cheesy and all around delish. I've wanted to make a corn pancake for a while now. I love corn muffins, but I have to have them with some cheese or heat in them, I just can't eat a plain old corn muffin. So I guess the same is true with these pancakes; I had to make them with a bit of stuff in them.
They are very rich, filling and heavy, so eating one or two just maybe enough.
The next time I make these I will add in some corn kernels, I just think it was begging for that extra texture. I didn't have any fresh scallions on hand, but you should put them in here if you plan on making them.
The best topping for these pancakes are sour cream and/or salsa. I didn't have either, so the pics look a little naked without them. But if you make these make sure to top them with sour cream and/or some salsa at room temp. Maple syrup will be a no no here. If had corn relish on hand, oh yeah, I would have totally put some of that on here.
Thank you Marisa over at Slashfood, for that little ditty on these pancakes.



corn, cheddar & bacon pancakes
from vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

2 cups cornmeal
1 ts salt
2 ts baking powder (don't use this if you have self rising cornmeal)
1 ¾ cups buttermilk
4 TB butter, melted/cooled (or 3 TB bacon fat)
1 egg
¼ cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded (I have used Monterey jack too)
½ cup +/- of cooked bacon, chopped up
Couple dashes of hot sauce
A couple good dashes of onion powder
A good handful of freshly chopped scallions

Some butter or bacon fat for frying pancakes
chopped scallions or decorating

Toppings:
serve with butter, sour cream, salsa, fresh guacamole, corn relish, etc..

In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, salt and baking powder. (I’ve also just used self-rising cornmeal; if you do use this then don’t add in the baking powder).
In a small bowl crack open the egg, add in the hot sauce and the onion powder and whisk. Next whisk in the buttermilk and melted butter or bacon fat until fully combined. Add in the dry ingredients, then fold in the bacon bits, shredded cheese, and scallions.
Melt about 1/2 teaspoon butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once completely melted, pour about ¼ +/- cup batter in pan. These pancakes don’t really spread like normal pancakes so you will have to mold them with your spatula to form them into circles. Cook till golden brown then flip over. Maybe 4-5 minutes each side? They take a bit longer to cook than normal pancakes.
Keep in mind when pouring these onto the griddle, don’t make them too thick as they are heavier than normal pancakes and will take longer to bake; you don’t want a gooey middle.

Should make about 6-8 (depending on size).

cranberry bliss bars

If you're a regular to Starbucks then you've surely come across these cranberry bliss bars. I never bought one at Starbucks because they are so overpriced. Why not try and recreate them at home? Obviously we see something we love in a store, cafe, or mostly on one of our favorite food blogs, vowing to make them ASAP. Of course ASAP never happens. And then after the holidays have come and gone, that's when I decide to make them. I didn't know those bars were seasonal, oh well.
They were OK. They tasted really good without the frosting, at least I thought, but then I can be fussy. The next time I make these I am going to try Shelby's version; those look much tastier. These photos were too pretty to not post.





starbucks cranberry bliss bars (copycat recipe)
recipe from mrbreakfast.com

For shortbread base:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 and 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 t ground ginger
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup minced dried cranberries
1/4 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup minced candied ginger

For frosting:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 T butter, softened
1 t vanilla

For garnish:
2 T dried cranberries, minced
1/3 cup white chocolate chips, melted

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9×13 pan.
Beat butter and sugar together for the cake base, and add eggs/vanilla beating until fluffy.
In separate bowl, sift together flour, ginger, and salt and then add to the butter/sugar mixture beating well.
Fold in the cranberries, chocolate and ginger. Spread thick batter in pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden.
When cake is cooled, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread a thin layer over the cake. Immediately sprinkle with the minced cranberries.
Next use a sandwich bag with a small corner cut (as your homemade pastry bag) add melted white chocolate and drizzle the chocolate over the cake. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, cut into triangles and serve

sauerkraut relish

I wasn't going to post this one, I mean it's just a sausage sandwich, BUT when I tasted that sauerkraut relish I was over-the-moon speechless. This sauerkraut relish is amazing people, amazing. It is quite literally the perfect accompaniment for any type of grilled sausage or hot dog. I swear I want to bottle this stuff up and sell it. If you like sweet, tangy, vinegary, and a bit of heat then this is it for you. I even ate this relish on a sandwich with some hummus. So for my vegan friends, you can totally eat this up with a good veggie burger, hummus or you know what would be good? Falafel! Oh yeah, that good. But then again, I crave the uncraveable!

The whole reason I made this sandwich creation? Not for the relish really, but because I was inspired by an episode of that show Diners, Drive In's & Dives on Food TV. Guy Fieri has the best job in the world and an even better personality as a host. Well, on one of his many ventures they visited Primanti Bros. in Pittsburg, PA. If you're not familiar with Primanti Bros., they are famous for their mile high sandwiches filled with whatever meat be it hamburger, corned beef, roast beef, etc.., then a thick layer of coleslaw, and then a huge layer of french fries, and tomatoes. Crazy sandwich, I totally love it. When I set out to create this sandwich I didn't have any coleslaw, but I has sauerkraut and thus came the sauerkraut relish. Did anyone see that episode or better yet ever go to Primanti's?

sauerkraut relish
print recipe

1 1/2 to 2 cups Sauerkraut, (from package or jar, not canned), drained really well (I used whole foods brand)
4-5 TB ketchup
3 TB dark brown sugar
Couple dashes of hot sauce (about 5 to 7)
1 TB Worcheshire sauce
A couple pinches of celery seeds
1 package (16 ounces) kielbasa, grilled or fried

Cooked french fries
Warmed crusty rolls or hearty sandwich rolls.

In a medium saucepan combine the drained sauerkraut, ketchup, hot sauce, dark brown sugar, worcheshire sauce, and celery seeds. Heat through.
The sauce should thicken up, if not just let it reduce for a while on low heat.
Meanwhile, grilled or fry your kielbasa.
To assemble, place cooked kielbasa on roll, then a layer of the sauerkraut relish, then the French fries.
I've also used this relish on: hummus roll ups, veggie burger, hot dogs. I will try this with falafel.

peanut butter & pumpkin pie

Pumpkin pie? Now? What the....?

Oh yeah--it has peanut butter in it people! And you know what's even better? It has safe peanut butter in it. There are no recalls on this peanut butter.
This was not my own recipe, but I was inspired to make it simply by the sheer fact that I love Peanut Butter & Co. products. I think The Peanut Butter Boy made something kind of similiar to this? The Peanut Butter Company have stellar peanut butters, great sandwich stores and really out-of-the-norm recipes; I like that, a lot. Have any of you ever been to one of their sandwich shops? Crazy good. I think the guy behind this company is a genius. I keep emailing him (his company rather) and telling him he must, must, create a bacon & banana peanut butter. I told him I would come over and help.... he never emails me back. lol
I did make one addition to the crust. I did everything it said to do, but I added in about 1/2 cup of crushed graham crackers to the pie dough. I just felt it needed that extra "umff". I also used the maple peanut butter instead of the plain peanut butter, but you know, I think you could literally any type of their flavor peanut butter in this. This was really good. I'm not a huge pumpkin pie person, but I loved it once I made it this way.

peanut butter pumpkin pie
adapted from Peanut Butter Co.

Crust ingredients:
1 ¼ cups AP flour
½ cup graham cracker, crushed
1 ts sugar
1 ts salt
1 and ¼ sticks unsalted butter, diced & chilled
1 large egg, beaten & chilled

Filling ingredients:
¾ cup sugar
1 ts cinnamon
½ ts nutmeg
½ ts ground ginger
½ ts salt
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) unsweetened pumpkin puree
½ cup Smooth Operator peanut butter (I used Mighty Maple)
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

To make crust, sift together the flour, crushed graham, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. Add the egg and mix gently. If the dough is too dry, add ice water, ½ ts at a time, until it become workable. Transfer the dough to a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a disk. Cover it with another sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or more.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 12-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie pan. Use your fingers to flute the edges, trimming any excess. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling.
For the filling: Combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs, then add the pumpkin and peanut butter, mixing until smooth. Continue to mix while you add the dry ingredients, then add the evaporated milk and mix until well combined.
Oven must be preheated to 420 degrees. Gently pour the pumpkin mixture into the pie shell and bake on top rack of oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees and bake for an add’l 40 to 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.
Cool for at least 2 hours before serving.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream (obviously I didn't in the photo, but you must).

cinnamon-espresso cake

I love espresso. Do you know I would always spell it as expresso? For years I was doing this. I mean when you say it out loud it sounds like there is an X in there. Right? But if you are living in Italy then there are no X's expressed...it's all one lovely flowing beautiful language. uno scorre bella lingua. My Italian is good, no? That's when you say "sì, è in sospeso" (yes, it's outstanding).
Onto the latest creation of mine. I love my morning espresso. I drink about 1 or 2 cups per morning, depending on the day ahead of me. I love Illy coffee. It's so darn expensive, but it's really the only kind I can take. I need to feel like I am drinking real coffee, real coffee beans. Those mountainous cans of ground of coffee and powders in the grocery store are horrid and bitter. I do put a little bit of milk in my espresso so it's mostly a latte. With my love of espresso comes my love of creating baked goods using espresso. This cinnamon & espresso cake did not dissappoint at all. It was wonderful.
I think you could get away without using a glaze, but in all honesty, the espresso in the middle really went well with the glaze/frosting.
A note on the frosting: I tried my best to remember all the ingredients. It may be off a bit here and there, so taste it before using. I need to get one of those handheld recorders to speak into as I throw my ingredients in the bowl.



cinnamon & espresso cake
print recipe

cake:
1 ¼ cups + 2 TB sugar
1 TB + 2 ts cinnamon
1 ½ ts espresso powder (such as medaglia D'oro)
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
2 ts baking powder
a big pinch of sea salt
3/4 cup half & half or light cream
2 large eggs
1 ts pure vanilla extract
9 TB unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ cup mini chocolate chips (no substitutions, as the mini's work best here)

glaze:
6 oz bittersweet chocolate morsel or block, chopped
2 TB unsalted butter, soft
Less than half a block of cream cheese, room temp
A tiny pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter or spray an 8-inch square cake pan. You can line with parchment paper, but I didn’t need to. In a small bowl, combine 2 TB of sugar, 2 ts of cinnamon, and the espresso powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, remaining cinnamon and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk the half & half, eggs, and vanilla.
Pour the wet mixture over the flour mixture and gently whisk until almost combined. Don’t overmix! Using a whisk or a rubber spatula, fold in the melted butter, just until the butter is absorbed.
Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan, spread evenly.
Sprinkle the mini chocolate chips over the batter and then top with the cinnamon expresso sugar mixture. Top with the remaining batter, spreading it evenly and slowly. Spreading the top half is a bit tricky as you don’t want to spread the middle filling around, so just go slow; working inside to the outside in small little circles.
Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F, just until a toothpick comes out clean. Please turn pan around halfway, during the middle of cooking. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and remove the parchment. Turn it out again onto another rack so it is right side up.
(The cake will look dark, very dark while it cooks, that’s the cinnamon—it’s not burning.)
For the frosting, put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and fit the bowl over a pan of simmering (not boiling!) water. Stir until the chocolate and butter have completely melted and it is super shiny and smooth. Add in the cream cheese. Remove from heat and combine well. (If it gets too thin, let it stand for about 10 minutes and it will eventually thicken up). Spread on the top of the cake and allow the frosting to set up before serving. If it does not set, put it in the fridge for an hour or more, and it will harden up.

pumpkin-coconut bread

This wonderful concotion was thought up by the sheer fact that I had many food items in the pantry to use up. So, everyone in the pool!
I had been craving toasted coconut for a while now. I was too lazy to make toasted coconut marshmallows by Ina; those are a big weakness of mine. But I was also craving pumpkin-something. The toasted coconut on this bread was soooo good. The good thing with homemade breads is you can add whatever you want to it. And now after having this bread, adding in some milk chocolate chips would be wonderful!





pumpkin-coconut bread
print recipe

1 (15 oz can) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie puree, just plain pumpkin puree)
½ cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 ts vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups of white sugar
1 ½ cups flour
½ ts salt
½ ts baking soda
½ ts baking powder
½ ts ground cinnamon
½ ts ground nutmeg
½ ts pumpkin pie spice mix
½ cup pecans
½ cup shredded coconut
½ raisins

Topping:
½ to ¼ cup of pecans
½ to ¼ cup of shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Or two smaller loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and sugar.
In another bowl combine the topping mix and combine.
In another bowl combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice mix. Mix well, then slowly add to the wet ingredients until well combined. Don’t over mix!
Then fold in the pecans, raisins, and coconut into the batter. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then add on your toppings, gently push down the topping into the loaf (if you don’t push them into the loaf they may burn). Then bake another 20 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into bread comes out clean. Cook times may vary depending on your oven.

salty peanut caramel bars

A lot of times there are some stupid, good, boring, crazy "get to know me quizzes' on Facebook. Some of them ask you crazy things about yourself that no else knows and/or might find interesting. Well, on one of these random quizzes I told my friends that one of the crazy things I do is eat peanuts everyday. I don't think it's crazy, but it is strange. I mean, think about it, everyday I eat a handful or more of salty peanuts. Plus, I eat a lot of walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds and almonds. Never thought about it till I answered that quiz. Even hubby says when we are grocery shopping he is amazed at the the amount of nuts I buy, in bulk, at the store.
Those macadamia nuts are one of my favorites. So buttery, so crisp and so addicting. Why do they have to be so fattening you know? It's bad enough they are so expensive, but why all the calories from something so natural? Speaking of fattening---


These caramel bars are very rich and decadent, so make sure to cut them into candy/bite-sized pieces,. With all the caramel in there they are chew-worthy; you'll be chewing for a while. If you love those sea salt caramels, then you will love these.


salty peanut caramel bars
print recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
½ ts sea salt
3/4 cup cold butter, divided
3/4 cup chopped peanuts (I left them whole & used dry roasted)

caramel middle:
30 caramels, unwrapped (or I made my own:make your own caramel)
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
½ ts sea salt

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Grease a 13 x 9 inch pan, then line it with parchment paper, both side; two pieces overlapping each other (this will help you get bars out; there is caramel in here, so it will be sticky).
In large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, salt and egg; cut in 1/2 cup butter until crumbly. Stir in nuts.
Reserving 2 cups crumb mixture, press remainder firmly on bottom of baking pan.
Bake 15 minutes.
In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt caramels with condensed milk, the other ½ ts of salt, and remaining 1/4 cup butter.
Pour over prepared crust. Top with reserved crumb mixture.
Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly. You need to cool this completely (about 2 hours) before cutting it. It is hard to cut so use a sharp knife. Wetting the knife helps too. Store loosely covered at room temperature.
Makes about 2 dozen + bars.

blueberry muffins

I love blueberry muffins. I love them so much that I tend to seek out new recipes for blueberry muffins. I'm amazed that there are a lot of various recipes out there specifically for blueberry muffins. I know Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats' devoted a whole show just to blueberry muffins! It was good, did anyone see it or try his version? I think I have a stash of about 7 blueberry muffins in my freezer for backup. Crazy right? Does anyone else do that? I must eat about 2 or 3 muffins a week. When I go to Whole Foods and see there is a fresh delivery of organic blueberries, I buy 4 pints.
Well, here is the latest blueberry muffin recipe I found. This one uses a crumble topping. Nothing like a good blueberry muffin with some coffee cake crumbies on top.

How many blueberry muffin recipes have you tried?
Which was your favorite one?

Blueberry Muffins with crumbly topping
print recipe

Muffin batter:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup white sugar
½ ts salt
2 ts baking powder
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

Crumb topping:
½ cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup butter, melted
1 ½ ts ground cinnamon

Cook Notes:
If you like a lot of crumb topping like I do, then double the ingredients in the crumb toppings.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Whisk together to fluff it all up.
In a separate bowl mix vegetable oil, the egg and milk. Combine well. Incorporate the wet with the dry. Do not over mix, only mix till just combined; it's ok to have lumps! Next fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
Make the crumb topping by mixing the sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon.
Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

chicken curry burgers w/ tzatziki

I'm going to let the pictures speak for me. Not that I don't have tons to say, I always do, but these chicken burgers were soooooo good. A pinch of this, a pinch of that, and then a pinch or two of curry thrown in and we have a delish burger. Not to mention the tzatziki sauce is one of my all-time favorites to use as a dip, a sandwich spread and on my hummus roll ups. Oh yes, my hummus roll ups have warm falafel balls , some hummus and then smother it in tzatziki. Delish.
This great recipe is inspired by my friend Esi over at Dishing Up Delights, who just made a wonderful batch of Greek Burgers, and from seeing that post I had to have something similiar. So here is my creation of a curry burger...hope you like it or are inspired to create something similiar. And if you can, grill these burgers for the ultimate taste, and serve on warmed Naan bread. ***And for you vegans out there, I've made this before using those Boca burgers and it was fabulous and tasty!

chicken curry burgers
print recipe

1 lb. ground chicken breast
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 TB fresh ginger, minced
1 TB fresh lemon juice
2 ts paprika
1 ts ground cumin
1 ts curry powder
¼ ts cayenne pepper
A dash of salt & pepper

1 small cucumber, sliced thin
Red onions, sliced thin
Tomatoes, thinly sliced (optional)
Naan bread, warmed
Taziki sauce

In a bowl, gently combine the first 9 ingredients.
Form into mini burgers or meatballs and set aside/refrigerate for 20 minutes or longer to combine flavors.
Grill or fry the patties until cooked through. Remember chicken burgers cook a lot faster than beef. Don't forget to warm your Naan bread before serving!
Place cucumber, onions, tomatoes on warmed Naan bread, followed by the patties. Drizzle, no, smother with the tzatziki sauce.
Made about 7 mini burgers.

Tzatziki Sauce

16 oz. Greek style yogurt*
1 cucumber, washed and peeled
3 - 4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1/2 tsp salt
A pinch or two of cayenne pepper (optional, but wonderful)

*Greek style yogurt is much thicker and richer than normal yogurt. If you can’t get a hold of it you can make your own. Place some plain yogurt in a cheesecloth, tie up the edges and hang it over a bowl or place the cheesecloth in a strainer over a bowl in the fridge for a few hours.
Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a small spoon. Then coarsely grate the cucumber.
Gather the grated cucumber in a cheesecloth or paper towel and squeeze out the excess water, otherwise the tzatziki will be too runny.
Mix the grated cucumber with everything else.

sweet potato-cheddar and oat cookies

Do not let the word cheddar turn you off. You hardly notice it. To be honest, I have never in my life tasted a cookie as good as these. I only had two of them and the rest were sent off to friends as I knew I would easily eat them all. I worked hard on finding the right balance of sweet to savory in a gentle way, and I finally found it. I wanted a cookie that was moist hence the sweet potato, wanted a savory cookie hence the cheddar cheese, and wanted a bit of sweet with some texture hence the chocolate chips and the nice texture of raisins. I knew they would all work together nicely in a cookie. And there is a healthy aspect to this too with the sweet potato and oats. These cookies have all that nice savory and sweet, but not overly so on both. Trust me you will love these; they tasted so good with my morning coffee and were the kind of cookies that 'stick to your ribs' and fills you up.



sweet potato-cheddar & oat cookies
recipe by vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

1 and ½ sticks of unsalted butter, room temp.
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup + 2 TB cooked & mashed sweet potato
1 and ½ cups of mildly sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ts baking powder
¼ ts cinnamon
¾ ts salt
¾ cup old fashioned oats (or quick cooking)
¾ cup milk chocolate chips
1 and ½ cups pecans
1 cup raisins

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, whisk a bit; place to the side.
In another separate bowl combine the oats, raisins, pecans and chocolate chips, mix well.
In a big bowl, cream the butter and both sugars together. Add eggs, then the sweet potatoes, and then the cheddar cheese, combine. Then fold in the dry ingredients; then pecan, raisins and oat mixture.
Don’t over mix, just fold in.
Drop by tablespoon size onto a non stick cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. These cookies do rise a bit. You could shape them into smaller sizes if you want.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Or until a light golden brown around the edges.
Should make about 30 cookies,depending on size +/-

bbq chicken

Too cold to grill outside! But I've been craving grilled anything! So I grabbed my cast iron grill pan, heated the oven to 500 degrees and viola! I have fire! Or I have grill, inside, where it's nice and warm. And you know what? It came out fabulous. My cast iron has grill-nubby thingee's on it so I got the grill marks. It's all about the grill marks right? Oh yeah! Since it was night time I don't have the best of pics, but you can imagine how good this tasted. I used a wonderful barbeque sauce from my buddies at Stonewall Kitchen.

my kind of "missing" cat...

It was such a nice day today, the sun was finally out, it was a warm 33 degrees outside! That's warm for us that have been stuck in the artic tundra for the last few weeks. I decided to get out early and do all my errands, get in my exercise of walking while the sun was still high and strong in the sky. Now normally when I go out and come back home my cat always, I mean always greets me at the door. Not today. He's such a friendly loving little guy. He always hears my car pulling into the driveway, runs over to the sun room watching me get out of the car, walk up the pathway, and at that point he runs to the other side of the house to the front door to greet me. No kitty to be found. I was so scared. I thought the worst....and told myself not to panic. I thought maybe he got outside? We don't let him outside because of all the coyotes we have around here. And then I remembered this did happen a couple times before and I eventually found him in my bedroom closet (he knows how to close the closet door, and for whatever reason he loves to close the closet doors and have a nap on the floor of my closet). He was not in the closet. I searched everywhere in the house, nothing. More panic came over me. I started thinking maybe he got into the back of the washing machine? You know how your mind starts thinking the absolute worst and craziest outcomes? Yeah, that's where I started thinking towards. And then all of a sudden, as I was walking down the stairs to go check out the laundry room, I looked over to the post & beams of the ceiling, over by the skylights and found this.....

Relief flooded over then a little bit of anger as it's not the safest place to be since the drop to the ground floor is a long way down. How did he get there? Upstairs in the bedroom, there is a little lookout window, that overlooks the downstairs. He jumped up onto that little railing, hopped onto the post beams and over to the windows.

This is the little opening. Crazy right? He got down fine and now, goes back and forth like it's nothing. I think everyone in this house has a bit of cabin fever lately, so maybe that's why he was feeling 'creative & daring'. So after that mini heart attack, I put away the groceries and wanted to go outside and see where my duck buddies were. Lately there have been a few ducks brave enough to kind of come close to me and say hi, but only if I feed them some treats. So, I wanted to give a few stale pieces of bread to them. As soon as I opened the slider, they heard that noise and came right over.

But as I was feeding them I turned to my left and looked at what was coming....

I had never seen this before! I was in shock and slowly, walked into the house to get my camera. I mean is this a shot or what? And if you can see in the distance, there are more crossing the little pathway heading over! And just behind that bush, by the pathway, are tons more coming over! It was so cool! I was lucky to get this shot, and wanted to feed them more, so on my way back to the house (to get more bread) a ton of them got spooked and flew back into the river. The fly-away wind they created was INTENSE!

chai crumbcake

My love for crumb cake runs deep. I love NYC style crumb cake with a thick, thick crumbly topping and a rich buttery cake. I love how it's a 2 to 1 ratio for topping and cake. But some of the recipes I've found only give it a 1 to 1 ratio, so when that happens I just double the ingredients for the crumb topping, just like I did with this recipe below. I mean the best part is that darn sweet and gently salty topping filed with spices or just plain cinnamon, right? Oh yeah! And I also love what you can do with crumbcake: you can add fruit to it, add nuts, glazes, drizzles, chocolate, and now I've found you can add chai. I love that strange but warming flavor of chai, every once in a while I love to get a hot chai tea from Starbucks. I highly recommend this recipe from Baking Bites; it's really good and has a gentle flavor of chai.

If you were going to kick up a crumbcake, what would you add to it?



chai crumb cake (with extra crumb topping)
adapted from Baking Bites
print recipe

Topping: (I doubled this for an extra thick topping. Below is the regular size, if you want double crumb topping, then double all the ingredients for topping)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cardamom
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

Cake:
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup butter, soft
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9″ square baking pan with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil. (I used an 8inch pan and sprayed with Pam)

In a medium bowl, combine all topping ingredients except butter. Whisk to blend.
Gradually stir in the melted butter, using a large fork or spatula to mix. When all the butter has been incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand, squeeze small clumps together to make large crumbs ranging in size from that of a pea to that of a grape. Set aside. (I doubled the amount of crumb as there was such a thin layer of it).

In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. With the mixer set on a low speed (or by hand), alternately add in flour and sour cream in two or three additions. When no streaks of flour remain, pour into prepared pan. Top evenly with crumb mixture.
Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing. (I baked at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, turned pan, then another 15).
Serves 9-12, depending on how you slice it.

honey sesame shrimp

A fabulous taste sensation of flavors in this shrimp dish. Just like I love my sweets with a hint of salty, I love my spicy foods with a hint of sweet. The key to this dish is the marinade, but then again isn't that always the case? The longer something sits and marinades in a good sauce, the better it tastes. So, if you can, let this marinade overnight. I also added in more of the Thai chile sauce, you don't have to, but the flavor is a deep spice, not an instant HOT, but a slow warming heat as you eat it; that's why I love spicy Thai chile sauces.
Sorry I don't have better pictures this time around as this was a dinner meal and it's so dark here by the time we get around to eating. But I had to share this recipe with everyone as the sauce was soooooo good. And when something is good you just have to share it with friends.
I don't know about you, but I am a huge lover of ginger root. I am amazed at it's healing powers and more importantly it's taste. Whenever I eat sushi I always ask for more ginger. I'm the person in Whole Foods buying the jars of pickled ginger and bargaining with the sushi chefs to pile on some more ginger onto my sushi lunch rolls. In this dish, I added big chunks of thinly sliced ginger...you can see it in the first pic, on the left side. When those chunks of ginger marinaded in that sauce and then were cooked through, oh the taste! I ate all the chunks in this dish as the hubby won't touch it.

Honey Sesame Shrimp
print recipe

1 ½ pounds jumbo shrimp peeled and deveined
4 slices fresh ginger 1/4-inch thick (I did 6 slices)
5 trimmed scallions
6 TB dark sesame oil (also called Asian sesame oil)
4 TB rice wine sake (or dry sherry)
6 TB soy sauce
5 TB honey
3 TB sesame seeds
1 TB Thai sweet chile sauce or paste (I did 2 TB)
1 ts Chinese five-spice powder
4 cloves garlic crushed

Flatten white parts of scallions with the side of a cleaver. Finely chop green parts and set aside for garnish. Rinse the shrimp under cold running water, then drain and blot dry with paper towels. Set aside while you prepare the marinade.

Combine 3 tablespoons of the sesame oil, the rice wine, soy sauce, honey, sesame seeds, chile sauce (if using), and five-spice powder in a large bowl and whisk to blend.
Stir in the garlic, ginger, scallions, and shrimp to coat, then cover and let marinate, in the refrigerator, for 30 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the grill to high. Using a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp from the marinade to a bowl and toss with the remaining 3 tablespoons sesame oil.
Pour the marinade into a saucepan; remove and discard the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites, using the slotted spoon. Bring the marinade to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, uncovered, to a thick, syrupy glaze, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
When ready to cook, oil the grate.
Arrange the shrimp on the hot grate and grill, turning with tongs, until nicely browned on the outside and firm and pink inside, about 2 minutes per side. Brush the shrimp with the glaze as they cook.
Transfer the shrimp to serving plates and or a platter and sprinkle with the scallion greens. Serve immediately with sticky rice

Serves 3 - 4
(I've also stir fried this dish and it came out just as good. Right now the grill is buried in snow...somewhere)

potato chip & cc cookies

My love for salty, crispy food things combined with chocolate is endless. I love making my potato chips dipped in chocolate, and my new found love of dipping Cheez Its in chocolate was a thrill when I found I could further kick it up a notch by using it in my Poor Man's Toffee. I had yet to make a good chocolate chip cookie with potato chips in them. It was hard as I wanted to find the perfect balance of potato chip and cc's. I would make normal cc cookies and add chopped up potato chips to it, but never tasted the potato chips in the end. To make a long story short and to sum up my many experiments in finding the right balance I finally came up with the fact that you have to use small chocolate chips because the bigger ones (or normal sized ones) were too overpowering and I could never taste the potato chips. I also found that using salt & vinegar potato chips that are hearty and have a bold potato flavor like Kettle Brand worked perfectly. These potato chips have enough salt on them to stand out with the sweet contrast of the chocolate chip, and the intense flavor of the salt & vinegar doesn't break down/get lost as much during the mixing and cooking sections. You really don't taste the vinegar in the chips, just the salt. I think the vinegar dissipates during baking. Also, never grind the potato chips too fine, leave them a bit hearty-like so you have that crunch in each and every cookie. These were so good, I mean really good. If you like salty & sweet then you need to put this on your 'to bake' list. Next time I make these I am trying other flavors of the Kettle Chips; those spicy thai, the chipotle (oh yeah!) and the salt & pepper. Endless possibilities, I love that.

potato chip & chocolate chip cookies
print recipe

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup crushed (not too fine) salt & vinegar potato chips (used Kettle Brand)
1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder; mix well.
In a mixer combine butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla.
Gradually add in the flour mixture and combine well.
Stir in potato chips and chocolate chips by hand.
Place in fridge to chill for at least an hour or more.
Once dough is nice and chilled use a mini scooper or your hands to form about 1-inch balls. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, 2 inches apart. (they do spread when baking)
Bake 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on baking sheet.

Makes 2 dozen.

Note: you can add crushed salted pretzels to this as well in addition or in place of the potato chips. You don’t have to use salt & vinegar chips. Just make sure to always use a hearty/sturdy type of potato chip.

winter, so far....

Obviously you've heard the northeast had quite a cold spell? Yeah, I'm living in the artic tundra. This past Friday & Sat. nights we had temps below zero and the wind chill was a -5. Today, Sunday, isn't so bad, we're having a mild heatwave as the temps are finally back into the low 30's. I thought I'd share some winter photos from my neck of the woods...


The docks in my town. The commercial fishing boats, most of them are all out. How'd you like to go and fish in zero degree weather with cold water all around you for 10+ hours? That's gotta be a very hard job to do in the winter. My hat goes off to these guys & girls; I'm grateful for their hard work and some of the best local seafood around.
Look at that sky! How magnificent, how monstrous! When you're standing in zero degree weather with below zero wind chills staring up at that sky you truly feel alive. (and truly friggin frozen!)

Down the road a bit from the docks is the cape cod canal. This is a place where I like to walk, long walks, as the canal is about 8 miles long. It's a great place to walk in the spring & summer, not in the winter as the winds are brutal here. The wind is so strong here in the winter that it literally slaps your face.

That's that Sagamore Bridge in the distance; a bridge that separates cape cod from the mainland; only way on to cape cod is this bridge or the other bridge (Bourne Bridge).

Look at the clouds! Friggin awesome.

Ever since 911, cameras are everywhere along the canal, thankfully.

My back deck with the beginning of snowstorm number 7? I lost count by now.

One hour later, two more inches fell. I love the sound/no sound of the snow falling. No other noises, no cars, no animals, just snow falling...you know that almost non-existence sound?

This photo is from Friday, the creek that runs to the marsh in our backyard is frozen in some parts: that rarely happens; this shows you how cold it was. But I worried about my friends the ducks, how can they stand that cold water? Aren't they just freezing? Can they not feel the cold water in their feet? I wanted to bring them in the house so badly.





When I went over to feed them, they started to move, so I my thoughts of bringing them inside would never work. I love my duckie friends. They do chat A LOT with each other early in the morning.


Very early one morning I saw these tracks on my back deck. How cool? Nothing else touched the snow, but these tracks. I'm pretty sure it was a bunny.

You know it's cold out when my cat literally gets under the blankets!

A skylight window above my bedroom at 9am--yes, 9am! It's that dark outside. Can you say SAD (seasonal affective disorder)? I swear I have a touch of it every winter; I crave the sun so much these days.

My bedroom outside deck, not very deck-like these past few months. I loved sitting here in the summer soaking up the warm rays and watching sunsets at night.

My cocoon. Winter makes me sleep a lot more. Hibernate is more the term. See the ivory blanket on top of the mattress? That's my electric blanket, I put ON the bed so I lay over it me--that's how cold I am at night. Sooooo nice and comfy that way. When we have frigid cold days I swear I love getting into bed with my electric blanket set high, and my comforter surrounding every inch of skin, I can't leave any skin unexposed, everything covered!! Cocoon!

My night table these days is nothing more than a pharmacy and watering hole. My skin is so dry this winter. On Friday night the dew point was a minus -4. Minus people! It's been so dry here this winter. During the middle of the night I get so parched and my skin so dry that I have to mist it. I put eye cream on my dry eyes at least 3 times a day...crazy. The dark gray box behind the water is my late kittys' ashes; it's always on my nightstand, near me.

I finally broke down and bought a warm mist humidifier. I LOVE this. The amount of clean, warm mist this little guy spouts out is amazing. No more waking up with dry throat. It really is a great little machine.

This is where I'd rather be this winter....

Or here.... aloha `aina