Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

I'm not big on "specialty" equipment for the kitchen. For this cake, though, you will need a Bundt pan. My dad found one for me at a yard sale. I frequently see them at flea markets and things like that, too! Find a cute vintage one and keep it on hand for those times when you want to make a cake. Which should be all the time.

Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

What You'll Need:

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups peeled, finely chopped cooking apple (I ran four peeled and cored Granny Smiths through my food processor. You could also use a box grater.)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

A handful of raisins (optional)

For the Glaze:

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

2 tbsp evaporated milk

How to Make It:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs in a bowl at medium speed until creamy. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon with a whisk; add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating well. Stir in the apple and pecans (and raisins, if using.) Pour the batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until the cake passes the toothpick test. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Place a serving platter on the pan, and turn the whole thing upside down to remove the cake. Combine the ingredients for the glaze in a small saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, for about two minutes or until the butter is melted. Pour the glaze over the cake and serve. 

Dark Chocolate Buttons

These tiny cookies are technically supposed to crackle on top, but not all of mine crackled! They are really yummy and full of chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Buttons

What You'll Need:

8 oz bittersweet (unsweetened) chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp coarse salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup milk

White sugar and powdered sugar, on separate plates, for rolling cookie dough

How to Make It:

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, or in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water. You could also microwave the chocolate in 30 second increments, stirring in between. Set the chocolate aside to let it cool. Sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 or 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Then beat in the melted chocolate. Reduce the mixer speed to low, and mix in half the flour mixture. Add in the milk, then the other half of the flour mixture. Divide the dough into four equal pieces, and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm but still workable, for about 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pinch off or scoop out pieces of cookie dough and roll them into 1-inch balls. Roll each cookie dough ball into the regular sugar first, then in the powdered sugar to coat. Space the cookie dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats. Bake the cookies until the surfaces start to crack, for about 14 minutes. Rotate the pans after 7 minutes to ensure they bake evenly. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets on wire racks.

Peach-Cinnamon Kuchen

There's something really special about peaches covered in cinnamon-sugar and baked in the oven for a while. Or any fruit, for that matter.

Peach-Cinnamon Kuchen

What You'll Need:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

1 large can peach halves, drained and patted dry (as dry as they can be)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 cup heavy whipping cream

How To Make It:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in the butter* until crumbly. Press the mixture onto the bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the side of a 9 inch springform pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet. Arrange the peach halves, cut side up, in the crust. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; sprinkle over the peaches. Bake for 20 minutes. Combine the egg yolks and cream and pour over the peaches. Bake for 25-30 minutes longer or until the top of the kuchen is set (it will still be custard like- don't worry, it will set up in the fridge.) Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate the leftovers.


*If you make a lot of biscuits and scones, you probably already have a pastry cutter. They're inexpensive little gadgets used to combine butter and flour mixtures to make them crumbly crust material. If you don't have one, you can still cut butter into flour using a fork- just keep stirring and mashing until the mixture is crumbly and you can pat it into a crust dough. It's also a great arm workout!

Pecan Blondies

This is a pantry-staple recipe. These things are so yummy, and a tiny bit impressive- but the nice thing is, you probably have all the ingredients on hand! 

Pecan Blondies

What You'll Need:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter

1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 lg eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup pecans, chopped

How to Make It:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9 pan with nonstick spray. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a 3 qt saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the brown sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs and stir until well mixed. Stir in the flour and pecans just until blended (when you can no longer see the flour mixture). Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted 2 inches from the edge comes out almost clean. Cool the blondies in the pan on a wire rack.

Lazy Sunday Pasta Bake

You don't have to just make this on Sunday. It is, however, a very lazy dish, and I've made it a few times when I wanted something that tasted like real food but didn't actually require me to do much. 

Lazy Sunday Pasta Bake

What You'll Need:

1 box bowtie pasta
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
1 packet dry Italian dressing mix (found with the salad dressings at your grocery store)
1 bag shredded mozzarella, or 2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella if you like to shred your own

How to Make It: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 13x9 pan with nonstick spray. While the oven is heating up, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the marinara sauce and the Italian dressing mix .When the pasta is done, drain it thoroughly and add it to the marinara mix. Stir everything to combine, and pour it in the prepared dish. Top it all off with the mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and everything is nice and bubbly-hot.

If you're feeling adventurous, you could add some extra diced tomato (straight from the can is fine), mushrooms, cooked sausage, or even more cheese, if you feel like your arteries could use some extra build-up. But adding ingredients to the dish kind of takes away from the point: it's yummy food to eat when you don't feel like actually cooking!

Fail-Proof Peanut Butter Fudge

Some fudge recipes are complicated. I own a candy thermometer, but it is my goal in life to use it as little as possible. If you have a kitchen timer and can stand for a few minutes, you can make this fudge.

Fail-Proof Peanut Butter Fudge

What You'll Need: 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

How to Make It: 

Put the powdered sugar in a large bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar and the milk, and bring to a boil. Let the mixture boil for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove the mixture from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla; mix everything together until the peanut butter is melted. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the powdered sugar, beat the whole mixture until it's smooth, and pour it into an 8x8 or 9x9 square pan. Chill the pan in the refrigerator until the fudge is firm, cut it into squares and serve! This fudge sets up in no time (it's ready to eat in 5-10 minutes), comes away from the pan clean and slices beautifully. It's pretty much perfect.

Review: The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook

Working at the library, I come across a lot of cookbooks (and I would probably come across a lot of cookbooks even if I didn't work there, to be honest.) With the start of this new blog, I've decided to start posting reviews of those books that I read! Full disclosure, I'm not making any money off of this (as of this writing, my readership is non-existent) but if I knew how to get sponsored reviews, I would totally do it.

The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook
by Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Five stars

I love the Beekman Boys. If you don't know who they are, check out their bio here. And I really recommend watching their old TV show, following their facebook page, and checking out their online store as well! Josh and Brent gave up their careers in order to start a farm in Sharon Springs, New York. They grow or raise just about everything they eat, make goat's milk soap and other products to sell in their store, and cook gorgeous food- and share the recipes with us! This is their third cookbook, and I think it was my favorite so far. It's full of beautiful photographs and delicious recipes featuring veggies at their finest; recipes are divided into four chapters, one for each season.

The Beekman recipes are accessible and easy to follow. Don't be intimidated by the stunning photography- sometimes the better a cookbook looks, the more we think that it's meant for real "foodies" and not the average home cook. There are no complicated techniques in this book, and as an added bonus, I don't think any of the recipes take up more than a full page. Simple doesn't mean bad in this case- the vegetables are given a chance to shine, not covered up in "cream of" anything, or hidden away in carb-loaded, artificially flavored casseroles.

I think that this cookbook works best for cooks and families that are already used to having lots of fresh vegetables around the house- those who frequent farmer's markets, or farmers themselves! If you have your own vegetable garden, I think that you will adore this book. Just about everything you can grow is featured in here. I can't wait to get cooking!

To learn more or to purchase this book, click here.

Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs

Looking for something a little different than your standard grape jelly-chili sauce combo? These meatballs Have a lot of familiar flavor, but with a twist! And who doesn't love cranberries, especially around the holidays?

Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs

What You'll Need:

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup dry bread crumbs

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tbsp finely chopped onion

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 lb ground beef or turkey

For the sauce:

1 can (16 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce

1 bottle (12 oz) chili sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp mustard

2 garlic cloves, minced

How to Make It:

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, bread crumbs, ketchup, onion, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the beef and, using your hands, smoosh everything together until it's well combined. Shape the mixture into 1 inch meatballs. Place the meatballs on a wire rack set inside a shallow baking pan. Bake them uncovered at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until they're no longer pink. Drain the meatballs on paper towels before you put them in your slow cooker. Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a saucepan, and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour the sauce over the meatballs in the slow cooker, and heat them through until ready to serve!

Spicy Oven Fries

Don't serve these with regular old ketchup from your fridge. That's boring. These would be great with honey mustard, aioli, or a spicy ketchup (like curry ketchup.)

Spicy Oven Fries

What You'll Need: 

2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into strips
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of kosher or sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of paprika
About 1 tbsp olive oil

How to Make It: 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Toss everything to coat the potatoes. Drizzle the potatoes with the olive oil, and toss again to coat. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes (turning once or twice) until the fries are golden brown and fragrant. If you cut thinner fries, check them after about 25 minutes in the oven. Some of mine were a little burnt, but they were still yummy!

Chai Snickerdoodles

These cookies are a crowd-pleaser! Even my in-laws, whom I would call "snickerdoodle purists," still ate a ton of these when I made them for Christmas! If you're having trouble finding cardamom, or affordable cardamom, see if you have an Indian or Asian grocery store nearby. Spices there often cost a fraction of what they would at your average grocery chain, and you get a larger quantity, too!

Chai Snickerdoodles

What You'll Need: 

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, salted
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp all spice
A few grinds of black pepper
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

How to Make It: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line any baking sheets you have with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and all spice. Set aside 1/4 cup of the sugar-spice mixture for rolling the cookies. Add the butter and beat it with the sugar-spice mixture until it's fluffy, brown and completely incorporated. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture in 3 or 4 batches, beating after each addition just until the flour is mixed in. Scoop out the dough with a teaspoon and roll each spoonful into a ball. Throw each dough ball into the remaining sugar-spice mixture and roll it around to coat it. Place the dough a few inches apart on the baking sheets, and flatten them slightly with the bottom of a glass (so they look like a little sugary, spicy biscuit.) Bake them in the oven for about 8 minutes. They'll still be a little puffy and soft if you touch them. If you like flatter, chewier cookies, just smush the dough out a tiny bit more. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for a minute before removing them to a cooling rack. Store them in an airtight container, only for a day or two, so they'll stay soft and fresh!

Potato and Onion Breakfast Strata

I made this dish for Christmas breakfast a couple of years ago, and it was a big hit! My grandma still talks about it, and my mom took home all my leftovers. Some of my family members are a little picky, so I kept this pretty simple, but I think it would be great if you added some mushrooms, kale, or red pepper, too!

Potato and Onion Breakfast Strata

What You'll Need:

1 sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 large Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
About 2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded Parmesan
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded Swiss cheese
8 large eggs
3 cups milk
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of paprika
1 12 oz loaf sourdough bread, cubed

How to Make It: 

Saute the onion and the potato in the oil until the potato starts to become very slightly tender and the onion just starts to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan, and layer half the bread cubes in the pan. Spread half the onion mixture on top, then sprinkle half of each of the cheeses over that. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs to break up the yolks. Add the milk, the mustard, and the spices, and whisk to combine. Pour half the egg mixture over the ingredients in the pan, then repeat all the layers. Cover the pan and refrigerate it overnight (at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours.) Take the pan out of the fridge for about 10 minutes before placing it in the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees, and bake the casserole, uncovered, for 45-50 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle of the strata comes out clean (the top will be lightly browned and the casserole will be set in the middle.) This recipe makes 6-8 hefty servings.

Parmesan Tomato Soup

I made soup for the very first time tonight! My mother-in-law gave us her blender, so I'm going to be putting it to good use- starting with this soup! It has a very mild flavor, thanks to the cheese and half and half, so it's less acidic (and therefore much nicer for me to eat) than store-bought tomato soup!

Parmesan Tomato Soup 

What You'll Need: 

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen)
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 finely diced onion
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 cups broth (we prefer using vegetable, but chicken would also be a good choice)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup grated or shaved Parmesan
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 tsp salt
Fresh ground black pepper

How to Make It: 

Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, tomato paste, broth, and herbs to a slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 5-6 hours. When there are about 30 minutes of cook time left, melt the butter in a saucepan. Slowly add the flour, and whisk constantly about 10 minutes to make a roux. Very slowly and carefully, add 1 cup of the soup to the roux and whisk- it will make a paste, but it will also let off a lot of steam, so watch your hands! After the soup is incorporated and a thick paste has formed, add another three cups of warm soup to the mixture, and whisk to combine. Return this thickened soup mixture to the slow cooker, and stir it in. Add the half and half, Parmesan, salt ,and pepper to taste, and stir everything to combine it well. Before serving, blend the soup with an immersion blender or a standing blender (you may have to do this in batches if you're using a regular blender) and blend until smooth. Return the soup to the slow cooker and set on "warm" until you're ready to serve it! This recipe serves 6-8.

A New Beginning

So I decided to start a new blog.

I like fresh starts, and I think that my old cooking blog really needed one. I started it not long after I got married, and then took a loooong sabbatical from cooking. I was still passionate about food, but just didn't have the money or the physical strength to do it. I felt sad for my little cooking blog, because I was neglecting it, and I never really was happy with the way it looked, anyway.

When it came time to start posting recipes again, I decided to give my blog a facelift- but I had some trouble. It just never looked quite right. And I was tired of the name, too. Plus I wanted to start featuring more book reviews on there as well, and thought that maybe it was time to just move to a new place entirely.

So here I introduce to you my humble new blog, where I will post recipes, share about cool cookbooks with you, and anything else that pops into my head (or in front of my eyes) that is food related. Food is really wonderful. It brings people together, and it's an excellent way to learn about the world. Those are two of my favorite things to do!

Come back soon to see what I've been up to- I'll slowly start moving over some of the best recipes from my old blog, and I'll try to write at least one new post every week or so. New little blog, you will not be neglected like your forebears!