CEiMB: Breakfast Cookies

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly is from Natalie of What's For Supper? She chose for us to bake a web-based recipe, Breakfast Cookies, by Ellie Krieger. These cookies have a bit of everything in them, oats, cereal, dried fruit, and nuts. I took some liberties with the recipe and made quite a few substitutions. Instead of bran flakes I used Kashi's Oat Flakes with Wild Blueberry Clusters. To go with the cereal, I used dried wild blueberries instead of the raisins called for in the original recipe. I didn't have any walnuts on hand, but I did have almonds, so I used them because I love the combination of blueberries and almonds.

These cookies smelled great while they were baking, and had a great cake-like texture to them. I think it's because the recipe only has a small amount of butter in it, instead, the recipe called for canola oil. They tasted great. The blueberries went really well with the almonds, and the cereal added a nice crunch. I can't wait to eat more tomorrow morning!

CEiMB: Vegetable Cheese Strata

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly is from Jenn of A Mid-Life Culinary Adventure she chose for us to make Vegetable Cheese Strata from The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger. I was excited to try this recipe. The ingredients broccoli, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, two types of cheeses all sounded delicious. Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy, and the recipe calls for the strata to sit overnight in the refrigerator to allow time for the bread to absorb the egg mixture. So tomorrow morning, I will have beautiful picture of my strata to post. I only made a few substitutions, I used scallions instead of onions, and and like Leslie over at Lethally Delicious, I threw in some spinach as well. I can't wait to see how this turns out tomorrow!

The next day...



The strata looked just gorgeous when it came out of the oven. It puffed up nicely, and was golden brown. I baked mine for 70 minutes, and added a little bit of extra mozzarella on top during the last 10 minutes. I forgot to mention yesterday, that I halved the recipe, and used a 9x6 pan. I also wasn't exactly precise when measuring the vegetables, so mine is full of them, which I love. And the taste? I really loved it. The cheese and veggies go great with the eggs, and the sun-dried tomatoes add just a hint of sweetness. I will definitely make this one again. I am so glad I have joined this group. The first two recipes I have made have been excellent, and I can't wait to keep trying more!

CEiMB: Double Chocolate Pudding

I have joined a new group of talented bloggers! Much like Tuesdays with Dorie, each week, a member of the group picks one recipe from the cookbook, and everyone in the group makes and blogs about that recipe. This group is called Craving Ellie in My Belly, the cookbook from which we are cooking is called The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger.

Ellie is a Food Network chef and a dietitian. I have often watched her show, Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, and I am excited about trying a lot of the recipes in her cookbook.

This week's recipe pick is from Tessa of Handle the Heat. She chose for us to bake the Double Chocolate Pudding Pie from The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger. Since it was just me who would be enjoying this dessert I took a suggestion from the Craving Ellie in My Belly website and decided to just make the pudding and not the whole pie. I halved the recipe and the pudding fit perfectly in two small bowls. Other than that, I stuck to the recipe exactly. After the pudding had cooled in the refrigerator, I topped it with whipped cream and crushed graham crackers. You can find the recipe here.

It is called Double Chocolate Pudding because it contains both cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate, and I think that it really adds to the deep flavor of the pudding. Instead of relying on heavy cream to thicken the pudding, Ellie's recipe uses two thickeners, cornstarch and gelatin, which makes the pudding thick enough for a pie, but perhaps a bit too thick for pudding alone. This is a really rich pudding, it is hard to believe that it is made with skim milk. I really liked this recipe, next time, I might add some instant coffee to the pudding to make it have a mocha flavor. I look forward to upcoming recipes!!

TWD: Parisian Apple Tartlets

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is from Jessica of My Baking Heart. She chose for us to bake the Parisian Apple Tartlets from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. You can find the recipe here. I knew that when this recipe was picked that I was going to participate this week. This recipe couldn't be simpler. It only contains four ingredients, puff pastry, apples, brown sugar, and butter. All you do is place the apples on the puff pastry, sprinkle brown sugar on top, dot with butter, and pop in the oven. I sprinkled a little cinnamon on top to give it a little spice, but other than that, I didn't make any other substitutions. My pastry took a bit longer than the recipe called for, about 30 minutes, but it was well worth the wait. These pastries are tart and sweet (I used Gala apples), and very buttery. I think this would be an elegant but easy dessert to serve to guests. I definitely will be making this again, I would love to try it with pears, plums, or peaches.

Shell Pasta Salad with Cheese and Peas

I am always looking for new pasta salad recipes, so when I came across this recipe from Pillsbury, I thought it would be a good side dish for a recent family get-together. I changed some of the ingredients from the original recipe, but for the most part, it is pretty similar. Overall, I think this is a good dish for a gathering or picnic. The sweet peas balance out the saltiness of the chunks of cheese, and the addition of honey mustard is a nice twist to a traditional mayonnaise based pasta salad.


Shell Pasta Salad with Peas and Cheese
from Pillsbury.com

serves 8-10

For the Salad:

• 8 oz. (2 cup) uncooked small shell pasta
• 1 cup frozen sweet peas
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
• 6 oz. sharp Cheddar cheese, cubed (1 1/2 cups)

For the Dressing:

• 2/3 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sweet honey mustard
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt (depending on your seasoning preference)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh flat leaf parsley.
  

Directions:

• Cook pasta in a post of boiling salted water to al dente as directed on the package, adding peas during last 3 minutes of cooking time. Drain and rinse with cool water. (Usually I do not like to rinse my pasta, but it does get rather sticky when it cools if you do not rinse it.)
• In medium bowl, combine cooked pasta and peas, and all remaining salad ingredients.
• In small bowl, combine all dressing ingredients; blend well. Add to salad and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with parsley. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes to blend flavors.
  

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is from Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. She chose for us to bake the Cinnamon Squares from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The recipe can be found here. I was excited to try these. The recipe is extremely easy to put together, and I really like the combination of chocolate and cinnamon. Usually I make quite few substitutions to these recipes to put my own spin on them, but this one I kept simple. The only think I changed was substitute skim milk for the whole milk because that is all I had on hand. I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference given all the butter that was in the recipe. The whole house filled up with the smell of cinnamon. The cake took about 50 minutes to bake.

I halved the recipe for the icing and only spread a thin layer of it over the cake, because I didn't want the cake to be too sweet or the chocolate to be the dominating flavor. I think this cake tasted great. I might reduce some of the sugar in the batter next time because it still was rather sweet, but not too bad. This cake goes great with coffee or milk. Another great recipe from Dorie! Be sure to check out the blogroll to see what other bloggers did.

Crab Salad in Phyllo Cups

For my cousin's bridal shower, I decided to make a simple crab salad. To dress it up a bit, I served it in these miniature phyllo cups. I used a mixture of real crab meat and imitation crab meat, just because real crab meat is so expensive where I am from. This was easy to put together, and was a big hit at the party.


Crab Salad in Phyllo Dough Tartlettes
makes about 65-70 appetizers

Ingredients

• 8 oz crab meat (I used back fin meat)
• 16 oz imitation crab meat, chopped
• 1 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 stalk of celery, minced
• 2 green onions, minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons (or more if you like) Old Bay Seasoning
• 3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper
• Approximately 70 miniature phyllo dough cups
  

Directions

• In one bowl, combine the crab meat and the imitation crab meat.
• In a separate bowl, combine the mayonnaise, celery, green onions, lemon juice, milk, Old Bay, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
  
• Pour the sauce over the crab meat, and gently mix. Try and fold the sauce into the crab meat as to not break up the pieces of crab meat. Overmixing can result in a "pasty" salad.
  
• Spoon the salad into the phyllo cups and serve immediately. I probably fit about 2 teaspoons into each cup.
  

TWD: Fresh Mango Bread

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is from Kelly of Baking with the Boys . She chose for us to bake the Fresh Mango Bread from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The recipe can be found here. I have never been a huge fan of mangoes. Either I get one, and it's not ripe enough and too sour, or it just seems to have an "off" flavor for me. Nevertheless, I still keep tasting them, hoping that one day I will find that "magic" mango that will turn things around for me. So I was excited to try the Fresh Mango Bread. It's a pretty simple recipe, you don't even have to use a mixer, just a whisk and a wooden spoon. The dough is a little thick, but it eventually came together.

I made a few substitutions/alterations to the original recipe.

• I decreased the amount of white sugar from 1 cup to 1/2 cup. It just seemed like too much for me, and it would make the bread too sweet.
• I decreased the amount of ginger from 1 1/2 teaspoons to 1 teaspoon.
• I didn't have any golden raisins so I chopped up 1/2 cup of dried apricots and used them instead.
  
• I didn't use one loaf pan, I used 4 mini-loaf pans.
• I used the leftover lime zest and lime juice and made a glaze with powdered sugar to spread over the bread.
  
• Since I used mini-loaf pans, I decreased the baking time to 40 minutes.
  

The bread was really tasty. The bread was sweet and the apricots went well with the mangos, which have a really nice flavor when baked in the bread. The glaze was a great addition. The tartness of the glaze balanced out the sweetness of the bread. The Black and White Banana Loaf is still my favorite quick bread we have made so far though, but if I had some mangoes on hand, I would definitely make it again. Be sure the check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see what other members did with their recipes.

Orange Creamsicle Cake

For Mother's Day, my mom requested that I make a cake that tasted similar to one she gets at a local BBQ restaurant. It tastes similar to a Creamsicle, basically an orange and vanilla cake. These cakes have also been called poke cakes, or Jello cakes, or refrigerator cakes. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, and it seemed like a good choice. I made a few changes, because it seemed that the cake might be too sweet with some of the components. Fortunately, the cake turned out really well, and was a big hit on Mother's Day. It looked great with the streaks of orange running through the cake.

Orange Creamsicle Cake
serves 12
Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 (3 ounce) packages orange flavored gelatin mix, divided
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (8 ounce) carton frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, water and oil. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Using a meat fork or large skewer, poke holes in cake. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, dissolve one package of gelatin in boiling water. Stir in cold water. Slowly pour over cake. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. In a mixing bowl, combine milk, vanilla, pudding mix and remaining gelatin; beat on low for 2 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes; fold in whipped topping. Frost cake. Refrigerate leftovers.

Lemon and Blueberry Upside-down Cake

Happy Easter everyone! Last year I made this Lemon and Blueberry Upside-down Cake from Bon Appetit magazine. It was such a hit, that it was requested that I make it again this year. It really is a fantastic cake. The lemons and blueberries go well together, and I love anything that has almond paste in the recipe. I reduced the amount of butter and sugar in the topping because last year, it ran all over the place, and I had to mop some of it up with paper towels. I also upped the amount of lemon zest called for in the recipe to give it a more lemony flavor. This is one of my favorites!

Lemon and Blueberry Upside-Down Cake

8 servings

Bon Appétit | April 2006

Blueberry topping

• 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Lemon-almond butter cake

• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces almond paste (scant 1/2 cup), broken into small pieces
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, room temperature
• 3 large eggs, room temperature

• Lemon slices (optional)
• Whipped Cream (optional)
  

For blueberry topping:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine brown sugar and butter in 8-inch-diameter cake pan (I used a cast iron skillet) with 2-inch-high sides (preferably nonstick). Place cake pan over medium heat and whisk constantly until butter and sugar melt and mixture is smooth and bubbling. Using pot holders, remove pan from heat; cool 15 minutes. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Combine almond paste, sugar, and lemon peel in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until almond paste is broken into very small pieces, about 1 minute. Add butter, 1 piece at a time, beating until mixture is smooth and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well and scraping sides of bowl after each addition. Add flour mixture and beat just until batter is smooth. Spoon batter in dollops over blueberries in pan; spread evenly with offset spatula to smooth.

Bake cake until deep golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 43 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand 1 minute. Run small knife around cake to loosen. Place large platter atop pan. Using oven mitts or potholders and using both hands, hold platter and cake pan firmly together and invert; shake gently, allowing cake to settle on platter. Cool at least 20 minutes.

Garnish cake with lemon slices and lemon peel curls, if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature with additional blueberries and Lemon Whipped Cream.

For lemon-almond butter cake:

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Combine almond paste, sugar, and lemon peel in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until almond paste is broken into very small pieces, about 1 minute. Add butter, 1 piece at a time, beating until mixture is smooth and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well and scraping sides of bowl after each addition. Add flour mixture and beat just until batter is smooth. Spoon batter in dollops over blueberries in pan; spread evenly with offset spatula to smooth.

Bake cake until deep golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 43 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand 1 minute. Run small knife around cake to loosen. Place large platter atop pan. Using oven mitts or potholders and using both hands, hold platter and cake pan firmly together and invert; shake gently, allowing cake to settle on platter. Cool at least 20 minutes.

Garnish cake with lemon slices and lemon peel curls, if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature with Whipped Cream.