Toffee bundt cake with a sweet surprise inside...

I asked Jeff this weekend when the last time was that we made a cake for the weekly Wednesday Treat Day. One nice thing about the blog is we can go back to see just how long ago that was! I searched and found the last one was that spectacular Crunchy Milk Chocolate–Peanut Butter Layer Cake back in November.

I'm not sure that this dark golden Brickle Bundt Cake is in the same league as that massive chocolate cake, but it is certainly just as tempting!

Inside this dense cake are two distinct layers of caramel-esque toffee bits mixed with a bit of sugar, crunchy toasted walnuts and our favorite Vietnamese cinnamon (I can't tell you how much I love having Penzey's not more than 5 miles away from our house again!).

Now, don't read into dense as being heavy and dry - with a full cup of sour cream, this cake is very moist and quite tender. One technique that I found interesting in this recipe was drizzling a few tablespoons of melted butter on top of the assembled batter, before placing the pan in the oven to bake. I turned the oven light on halfway through and found myself distracted from cleaning up for a few minutes as I watched that butter slowly bubble down into the rising batter.

Do you ever say a little prayer when you un-mold a cake like this? Thankfully, the cake easily released from my bundt pan - but I was a little worried that the toffee bits would bleed through and end up making the cake stick. I love using those baking sprays that have flour in them (I prefer Pam with Flour or Baker's Joy) and have never had a cake stick yet! For a little teaser of what's to come inside the cake, a light confectioners' sugar glaze is drizzled over the top to give some sticking power for a sprinkling of those sweet crunchy toffee bits.

Since I knew we would do our part in the "quality control" department, I figured we should off-set our treat tonight and make sure dinner would be pretty healthy. This Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Chickpeas dish was just the ticket to fill up our bellies!

You know how much of a fan we are of roasted cauliflower and I bet you already know that we both were tapping our fingers waiting for this to finish so we could dig in. Adding some sweetness to the crisp cauliflower is the addition of chunky sliced carrots this time. The duo is slicked up with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoned simply with smoky cumin, salt and fresh ground black pepper. Because of the volume of vegetables, you will want to spread this mixture over two baking pans to ensure the vegetables have enough room to spread out and evenly cook. While they roast away, quick-cooking whole wheat couscous is cooked in vegetable broth (again, the original recipe called for water, but this is a great opportunity to introduce more flavor!) for just 5 minutes and then set aside to cool. Adding moisture and a bright tangy flavor, a dressing to coat the salad is whisked together from fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and just a touch of oil.

The nutty couscous is tossed together with the tender (but not mushy) roasted veggies, some chickpeas for protein, a few thinly sliced scallions for a mellow onion-y flavor and is then drenched with the tart dressing. Since I already had a bunch of fresh spinach leftover from that quinoa bake last night, we served the hearty mixture over a few of the tender leaves - but try some arugula if you would like a contrasting peppery bite.

Recipes
Brickle Bundt Cake
Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Chickpeas

Seeing what else quinoa can do...

We've made our fair share of quinoa dishes of late, but most of them have been in some sort of salad. Now, that doesn't mean we have not ventured out of that box once or twice... remember those Quinoa and Potato Croquettes?

We thought it was about time we tried something a little different with this complete protein and see just how versatile it can be. In the original recipe for this Quinoa-Spinach Bake, it just called for 2 cups of cooked quinoa - to boost the flavor a bit, we cooked the quinoa in vegetable broth (feel free to use chicken broth!) instead of water as typically called for. While that was bubbling away, we quickly blanched a very large mound of fresh spinach - this literally takes seconds and you want to plunge the spinach in an ice bath as soon as it turns bright green. I used to end up having to pick out ice cubes from the cooked spinach when we did this in the past, but a couple years ago I started placing a colander in the icy water first so I wouldn't have to deal with that! You can use a towel to wring out the excess water, but I've grown to like using a potato ricer as it makes a little less mess (the one we have now comes with 3 disks and we use the coarse one for this). Oh, and am I the only one that is always amazed at the tiny amount you end up with afterwards?

If you don't want to bother with that step, just use a 10 ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, it should be close enough. Once those ingredients have been prepped, an onion, along with fresh thyme, rosemary and crushed red pepper are sautéed until the onion is softened. A couple cloves of garlic are then added until you can smell their fragrant aroma. The cooked spinach, quinoa, some ricotta cheese and a couple eggs are then combined with the onion mixture in a large bowl. It did call for using cottage cheese, but I switched that for ricotta as I already had half a container aching to get used (or risk being tossed in a few days!). Baked in a square dish until the center is set and the edges are golden, you could either slice this into several cleanly-cut pieces to serve as a side or just quarter it to have a big hunk for a veggie main dish. With the amount of spinach and (somewhat) bland/earthy quinoa, I think you could be a little more aggressive with the spices to heighten the flavor a bit more. It also didn't call for any salt, but I tasted it before it went into the oven and it was a little flat, so I stirred some in before it went into the oven.

Recipes
Quinoa-Spinach Bake

Do figs, prosciutto and blue cheese work well on a pizza? Only one way to find out!

9 new recipes came from the kitchen this week - our favorites were of course those wicked Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars, the Southwestern Chili Pasta and the Korean-Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls.

As you know by now, we cook and use a variety of different grains, pastas, flours and whatnot... I've been asked a few times how I keep things organized and stored. So, here I present to you our shelf of goodies (don't forget, you can get a closer view by clicking on any pictures!).

We do have a fairly big pantry "closet", but I like to keep things out where I can see them... I find that I tend to use the ingredients more often this way! All of these clear jars come from Ikea and are available in a multitude of sizes and shapes. On the top shelf is whole-wheat spaghetti, orecchiette and whole-wheat penne pasta (there are others in the pantry though!)

The next shelf has pearl barley, brown basmati rice, whole-wheat couscous, steel cut oats, arborio rice, wheat berries and whole grain cornmeal. Next comes all-purpose flour, oat groats, Israeli couscous, green lentils, kasha and granulated sugar. Underneath that is brown sugar, quinoa, M&Ms(!), jasmine rice, bulgur and confectioners' sugar. As you can see the other shelves occupy some baking pans, a bowl of Granny Smith apples and a variety of pound plus chocolate bars from Trader Joe's (we go through so much chocolate it is ridiculous!). You may be asking where all the whole-wheat flours we use are... I keep those in the freezer, along with most of our nuts, to keep them fresh and to prevent them from going rancid. While we buy in bulk and go through most of those ingredients quickly, I also think it just helps to preserve their flavor a bit!

Since it is so quick to make, I was able to use some of that whole wheat flour to prepare a batch of our favorite dough for this Fig, Prosciutto, and Blue Cheese Pizza we made for lunch today!

After we whizzed together the dough and let it rest, we were able to easily stretch it out to about a 13" circle - if you would like a little more crunch to the bottom of the finished pizza, use some cornmeal, instead of the flour, while maneuvering the dough. We thought any sort of tomato-y sauce would be a little odd with the combination of flavored we were after, so we opted to just rub the dough with a light coating of extra-virgin olive oil. We sprinkled creamy blue cheese crumbles over the now-glistening round of dough, followed by chopped sweet black mission figs and a handful of buttery fontina cheese. With such strong flavors already, a good dose of fresh ground black pepper was all we needed to add before we slid the pizza on the stone.

Where's the prosciutto you ask? Well, some recipes call for it to be added before it hits the oven, while some have you add it after - use it how you see fit as we think it is a visual and textural preference with what you like. We have found we like prosciutto best (at least with pizza) when it is applied after. The residual heat will just slightly warm up the salty meat without making it too dry. We didn't have any idea if this would actually turn out well as we were really just playing around with flavors and using up leftover ingredients in the fridge, but Jeff and I very much enjoyed this salty, sweet and pungent combination of flavors paired with that crisp wheat-y crust!

Recipes

Fig, Prosciutto, and Blue Cheese Pizza

Should have made these Anzac biscuits much sooner!

Since it's way to cold too go anywhere outside, what else is one to do but bake? Cookies sounded good today and we decided to go for a recipe we've been talking about making for awhile... Gingery Anzac Biscuits!

When I pulled the first trays out of the oven, my first though was that I must have been too light-handed with the flour. Our cookies went a little more lacy that I thought they should have - I gathered after reading a few descriptions that these cookies would spread and be somewhat thin, but ours were almost see through!

If we put that aside, the taste and texture were exactly what we needed today. What makes these cookies special are those wonderful caramel undertones from a couple tablespoons of Lyle's Golden Syrup. A bottle or jar of this is good for many things by the way... it is fantastic on toast or warmed up and poured over pancakes!

Traditional Anzac cookies don't have ginger in them, but we love the combination of sweet and heat, so I added a modest half cup of the crystallized variety. You will also notice that the cookies have a decent amount of coconut in the recipe - however, I didn't detect much of that flavor at all if that is not your thing - it mainly adds a definite chew to the cookies. When you bake them, be sure that they are a rich golden brown before you remove them - they will be soft right out of the oven, but they will slowly crisp up around the edges, yet remain chewy in the center, as they cool. A bonus to these is they keep for quite awhile without loosing their texture.

Recipes
Gingery Anzac Biscuits

All we needed were some cowboy hats...

I don't know why, but apparently some time ago we bought a bag of wagon wheel pasta... I'm guessing Jeff made me buy it on impulse thinking it would be fun to toss into a recipe, but who knows?!

I was cleaning up the pantry last weekend and came across said bag - when we heard about how cold it was suppose to get this weekend, Jeff immediately asked if we could make a big ol' pot of chili at some point this weekend. The high tomorrow is suppose to be -6... brrr! So, after some digging around, we decided on integrating that wagon wheel pasta into this Southwestern Chili Pasta dish for dinner tonight as it would make just enough to give us a few extra bowls to enjoy Saturday and Sunday.

A pretty typical recipe for chili, this one starts out by lightly browning a healthy dose of chopped onions and red peppers. In the same skillet, sans cooked vegetables, a pound of lean ground sirloin is added to brown up. To the beef, we added the best part in my opinion, the spices! You can play around with the amounts to your taste, but we used a combination of regular and hot chili powder (from Penzeys of course!), a little unsweetened cocoa powder, cumin for a smoky depth and just a couple pinches of cinnamon - the cinnamon may sound odd to some, but its subtle sweetness just adds that extra "something".

After the spices have toasted briefly, stewed tomatoes, black beans and a cup of beef broth is stirred into the meat, along with the golden veggies, and allowed to simmer for a few minutes to let the flavors meld. Be sure to use this time to break up the tomatoes a bit as they cook - they are still fairly large right out of the can. This mixture is then added to the cooked fun wagon wheels to create a thick, chunky and very stomach-warming one-bowl meal. If you don't have the wheels, this would work quite well with the same amount of ziti pasta instead. Jeff and I both took a bite to see if we needed to add any of the traditional chili toppings, but we were quite pleased and decided to leave off the sour cream and cheddar we would typically add. We are so looking forward to having this hearty dish for lunch tomorrow!

Recipes
Southwestern Chili Pasta

Side dish or dessert... you choose!

The more I think about tonight's side dish, Green Grapes with Feta Cheese and Honey, I have a feeling it might make another appearance soon as a dessert instead! While we thought it was still appropriate as a side, I really think this sweet, yet savory recipe could go either way.

Chunky pieces of salty feta cheese are sweetened up by a drizzle of sticky orange-blossom honey, while the savory flavor is back up with a little extra-virgin olive oil and fresh ground black pepper. Juicy green grapes and thick slices of a ripe, but firm Anjou pear. A good way to check if the pear is ripe is to gently press near the stem - if it gives slightly, you are good to go. Don't use the round bulbous end to check as if that is soft, the pear is probably over-ripe already. The plump grapes we found at our market were quite small so we left them whole - if yours are much bigger, I would suggest halving them shortly before serving. To make the flavor pop once the grapes, pears and feta are combined, thinly sliced basil leaves are scattered among the fruit adding a burst of freshness.

I knew I was going to have a bunch of cabbage left over from those beefy buns we made last night, so while I was menu planning last weekend, I kept that in mind and pulled out a recipe for Asian Steak Salad with Cucumber and Napa Cabbage to make for tonight's dinner.

Fresh lime juice, rice vinegar, canola oil, toasted sesame oil, crushed red pepper and a smashed garlic clove are whisked together - half of this tangy mixture is used for a dressing later on, while the other half is combined with soy sauce to tenderize a hunk of flank steak. If you have time to prepare this part before hand, let the steak marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours; if not, ten minutes or so at room temperature will be good enough.

While the steak is cooking, half a head of Napa cabbage is shredded and combined with crisp and cool cucumber slices. When the steak is done, be sure to give it at least a 5 to 10 minute rest when it is done so the juices don't gush out when you slice it. The thinly sliced strips of medium-rare steak are served on the bed of dressed vegetables and topped with a scattering of crunchy chopped peanuts. Light and clean, yet quite filling, Jeff asked that we make sure to file this recipe away to make again, except to grill the steak instead of broiling to keep the kitchen cool on a warm summer night.

Recipes
Green Grapes with Feta Cheese and Honey
Asian Steak Salad with Cucumber and Napa Cabbage

Beefy buns... err Korean-Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls!

I was originally planning to halve the recipe for tonight's dinner, Korean-Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls, since it had a fairly large yield, but after I checked the inventory list of the freezer, I decided to just make the whole recipe so we could freeze the leftovers to have for quick lunches. Boy were we glad that I changed my mind once we finished our plates!

With ingredients like mild green onions, soy sauce, sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, a shot of dry sherry, a couple teaspoons of sugar, fresh garlic, minced ginger, black pepper and just a dash of cayenne, there was no way this filling was going to be bland! Once whisked together, this powerful list of ingredients is mixed with half a pound of lean ground sirloin. My first thought was "I wonder if this is right as it looks very wet!". Once the mixture is added to the hot skillet, the beef begins to cook and slowly you will notice how it transforms from being a liquid-y mass to moist and glazed crumbles of beef. The volume won't look like much at this point, but we change that when we add a mound of thinly sliced crisp Napa cabbage. Once the cabbage is tender, this mixture is set aside as it needs to cool completely before you work with it again.

Now, you might expect these rolls to be yeast based, but this recipe is a bit different. Instead of the yeast, the recipe calls for baking powder to keep the rolls pillow-like - this also cuts down the total time needed to make the dish allowing it to be a little more reasonable to make on a weeknight. I found the dough to be quite easy to work with, but teetering on being a little sweet for us - I would think about reducing the honey to 3 tablespoons. While you don't need to wait for the dough to rise, you do want to give it a good 5 to 10 minute rest after kneading - this will give the gluten a chance to relax and it will roll out much easier for you.

Once the rolls have been assembled and given a light egg white wash, a scattering of nutty sesame seeds is added to each. Baked until golden, these filled buns were very good warm, but I can easily see them being served as a snack at room temperature. I thought there was a decent filling-to-bun ratio, but I would have liked a little more of the well-seasoned meat mixture.

Recipes
Korean-Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls

Like a Chunky bar wrapped in a delicious oatmeal peanut cookie...

I already had an idea in mind when I asked Jeff what item he would like for the weekly Wednesday Treat Day - all he requested was that it contained oats and peanuts. Score! I thought to myself when I ran through the ingredient list in these Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars that I had marked to try.

Have you ever had one of those Nestle Chunky candy bars? You can still find these retro candy bars here and there, but they can be hard to come by. I haven't had one in ages, but after Jeff took a bite from his "quality control" piece of these bars, that name was the first thing he said! While these bars are not quite the same, the thick fudgy middle layer has flavors that are reminiscent - chocolate (updated to bittersweet!), raisins and peanuts.

First, the bottom layer is like a rich and sturdy oatmeal cookie laced with chunky peanuts - a small portion is set aside and we'll get to that in a bit. While firm, the base is still fairly chewy from a generous amount of brown sugar - however, because the peanuts are salted, this helps keep the balance to ensure it is not cloyingly sweet. The dough is not notably sticky, but it is not dry and crumbly either - if you find it tough to press the dough into an even layer, place a sheet of plastic wrap on top to help you move it around the pan.

Next, the studded chocolate layer is prepared - this is like a quick fudge made simply by heating sweetened condensed milk with bittersweet chocolate and a couple pats of butter. You want to work with this mixture warm as it will begin to stiffen as it cools - when the mixture is melted and smooth, a shot of vanilla, plump golden raisins and more crunchy salted peanuts are stirred in. You can use golden or dark raisins here, but make sure they are nice and moist - if the raisins are dry, just steep them in boiling water for a couple minutes and pat them dry before adding them.

Now is when we bring back the reserved oatmeal cookie dough that was set aside. You want to drop chunks of this mixture all over the fudge layer - you are not looking to smooth it together as you want it lumpy and bumpy so don't try and be perfect here. You want the chunks to be somewhat large - about marble size or a little bigger as they will spread just a bit and connect together. This way you get those beautiful buttery cookie bits strewn all over the top. Serve them at room temperature or chilled - either way, these neat and clean squares will be gone in no time!

Sadly, I can't comment myself on the taste of the finished product as I have to eliminate(!!) chocolate due to health issues for the next couple of months - so I hope I was able to describe them well enough from Jeff's feedback. I did sneak several tastes of the delicious cookie dough though! Don't expect me to stop baking with chocolate however; I don't think we'll have a problem finding people to let us know how whatever it may be came out (well, it would have to get past Jeff first!).

Recipes
Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

A snazzy fruit salad with a light cauliflower gratin...

Naturally sweet, fresh and very colorful - I think that is all I really need to say about the Citrus and Kiwifruit Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Pistachios recipe we made as a side to tonight's dinner.

The title pretty much says it all - in this clean-tasting dish are invigorating slices of vibrant green kiwifruit with segments of juicy oranges and tangy grapefruit. Like sparkling jewels, each serving is scattered with pomegranate arils just waiting to burst in your mouth with their sweet, yet tangy juice. For a unique twist, a drizzle of orange-flower water adds a tempting aromatic note without distracting you from the delicious fruit - while leaving this out wouldn't make or break the recipe, we think it is certainly worth looking for if you don't already have a bottle. Since most of the textures are smooth, though those ruby arils do have a bite to them, a few raw pistachios are the only thing needed to finish off this snazzy side with a contrasting crunch.

I know we do this a lot and I'm sure this Skillet Cauliflower Gratin would be great as a side to many recipes, but Jeff and I both were glad we decided to just split it between us for a healthy main dish.

Rather than steaming the cauliflower, the florets begin by cooking in a bath of milk until they become tender. Flour, dissolved in a little more milk, is then stirred into the skillet to thicken up the milk and create the base for a creamy sauce. A handful of sharp Cheddar cheese, some chives for a hint of onion and a dollop of Dijon bring depth and a bit of richness to the sauce. To finish off this gratin, a mixture of whole-wheat panko breadcrumbs, a little more cheese and olive oil are tossed together and scattered across the cauliflower. The skillet is then placed under the broiler for just a minute to crisp up that crumb topping and add some color. Even though this dish lacks butter, we didn't seem to miss it as the cheesy sauce had enough flavor to carry the tender cauliflower without being bland.

Recipes
Citrus and Kiwifruit Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Pistachios
Skillet Cauliflower Gratin

Bite-sized pizzas...

Back to report 9 new recipes for us this week - the stand-outs for us this time were the Pear and Blue Cheese Flatbread, Banana Piña Colada Muffins and the Fettuccine with Parmesan, Pine Nuts and Lemon.

We had a particularly busy day today and I did not feel like fussing much with dinner... so it was not long before Jeff and I were chowing down on these Mini Spinach and Cheese Pizzas we had tonight!

The base of these little guys are just mini whole-wheat pitas that were split in half. On top of the split pitas is a mixture of creamy ricotta seasoned with oregano, garlic, a few crushed red pepper flakes for heat and of course the obligatory bit of coarse salt and fresh ground pepper. Next, a layer of spinach is strewn across the ricotta. Rather than using shredded mozzarella, we arranged a generous amount of tiny pearled fresh mozzarella balls (labeled as perlini at the market) for the final cheesy layer. You could also use bocconcini and just halve them before you put them on. The only thing left to do is toss them under the broiler to melt the cheese - while the recipe doesn't make a ton, they would be fun as little appetizers, great for a quick lunch or just split the whole batch between you and a friend for dinner!

Recipes
Mini Spinach and Cheese Pizzas

A little chocolate can go a long way!

We have certainly made our fair share of coma-inducing, outrageous and obscene brownies before (click on those if you don't know what I'm talking about!), but what if you wanted one that was not crazy full of calories, yet could still satisfy a chocolate craving? While these Dark Fudgy Brownies may not be as jam-packed with butter and chocolate like those others, they were able to put our craving to rest today!

These brownies are dense, chewy and decidedly fudgy (don't confuse that with gooey though!), as there are no leaveners called for - without them, you have your choice of what cocoa powder you wish to use. We chose Dutch-process cocoa powder which gave our brownies an extra dark finish and a smooth rich chocolate flavor. However, if you prefer the slightly bitter edge that natural cocoa powder has, you can swap them without needing to change anything. The original recipe calls for light corn syrup - I try not to use that unless it is absolutely necessary, so I used Lyle's Golden Syrup which gave the brownies a mild burnt sugar depth. You could also use brown rice syrup if you shy away from corn syrup.

For an extra punch of chocolate, we chopped up some extra bittersweet chocolate into small shards to throw in at the end. Jeff doesn't care for nuts in brownies, but feel free to toss in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts, or nut of your choice, when you fold in those small chocolate bits. When you test for doneness, you don't want the toothpick to come out clean - a few moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick is ideal. If you pull up wet batter, give them a couple more minutes and test again. While they may not be entirely guilt free, they are certainly lighter than most... and besides, a little chocolate is good for you, right?

Recipes
Dark Fudgy Brownies

A satisfying pork and rice meal...

We certainly kept the stove busy preparing dinner tonight! While the oven was full taking care of the main dish, we had our side of Herbed Brown Basmati Rice keeping one of the burners company.

This dish starts off by lightly toasting brown basmati rice and a clove of garlic in a little olive oil to bring out the natural nuttiness of the rice. The liquids are added - a combination of vegetable broth and water - and then seasoned with basil, thyme and a dash of salt. This will take roughly 30 to 40 minutes to cook, but check early to see - the rice should be tender, but still have a slight bite to it. The original recipe called for a tablespoon of fresh basil and a teaspoon of fresh thyme, but I opted to add the dried spices to give them a chance to permeate into the rice. If you prefer to use fresh, be sure to wait and add it once the rice has finished cooking. Once ready, the rice is given a dose of Parmesan cheese, sliced green onions, toasted pine nuts and a scattering of fresh ground black pepper. We love the heartier flavor brown rice has, but feel free to use white if you already have it - just reduce the cooking time to about 15 minutes to compensate. With subtle, but delicious flavors, this side of rice could easily be served with a variety of dishes or turn it into a main dish by adding some cooked shredded chicken or even shrimp if seafood sounds good one night!

While the rice was bubbling away on top of the stove, the recipe for the main portion tonight, Apple and Fennel Roasted Pork Tenderloin had the oven slaving away. We kept two racks busy - on the bottom rack, we had a slew of sliced sweet-tart Fuji apples, licorice-y fennel, and red onions that were coated in olive oil and roasting away. While they were cooking, we quickly seared a lean pork tenderloin on one side, turned it over and then slid the skillet into the oven to finish. Once the two were finished cooking, conveniently at about the same time, we transferred the pork to a cutting board to rest and we pulled up all of the tempting bits stuck on the bottom by adding a few tablespoons of cider vinegar. Brimming with flavor, this mixture was poured over the golden veggie/apple mixture. We served this dish by thinly slicing the juicy still-slightly-pink-in-the-center pork and arranging the slices over the roasted mixture. For a finishing touch, we we sprinkled some chopped fennel fronds on top on an additional note of fennel.

Recipes
Herbed Brown Basmati Rice
Apple and Fennel Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Banana Piña Colada... not a drink!

As I mentioned yesterday, we baked two types of muffins for Jeff to bring for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day we do for his co-workers. To go with those Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins, I also made a batch of these tropical Banana Piña Colada Muffins!

These muffins need about 3 ripe bananas - we buy bananas each week and I try to overbuy what we will eat by one or two to let them go nice and dark. When they are ready, I either mash them in 1 cup servings or just toss the whole banana, skin and all, into the freezer so I always have them handy if I need them. Both ways work well - if you leave them in their skin, all you need to do it thaw them, just snip off the end and the insides will easily squish out and be pretty much mashed already.

Besides adding sweetness, those ripe bananas we used keep these muffins quite moist, yet does not make the crumb gummy. You do need some additional sugar for structure and a bit more sweetness - you can either use light or dark brown in these muffins. However, I recommend that you use dark if you have it - it is slightly more rich and the extra depth it has is favorable in these. With Piña Colada in the title, you might expect some sort of rum flavor, right? Instead of having to add a bunch of rum, which may make the batter a little too runny, the recipe pairs a bit of vanilla with a splash of rum extract to highlight that flavor. To keep that tropical theme going, a good handful of diced chewy dried pineapple is added to the batter and before these go into the oven to bake, the batter of each muffin is topped with shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened is fine, whatever your preference).

Since I already had to buy lemons for those poppy muffins, I picked up an extra one to use in tonight's dish of Fettuccine with Parmesan, Pine Nuts and Lemon we made for dinner. With flavors and ingredients close to a regular pesto, this recipe combines them in a different way to moisten the al dente pasta.

Minced fresh parsley, olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest are combined and left to marinate together for about half an hour. About 10 minutes before the time was up on the dressing, we dropped the pasta - when it was done, but before we drained the water away, we saved about three-fourths cup worth of the pasta water. The pasta went back into the pot and was combined with the marinated parsley, pasta water and a generous amount of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. To serve, more fresh parsley and a few toasted pine nuts are scattered across the top. Clean, zesty and the sharp cheese provided a nice counterpoint to the buttery pine nuts.

Recipes
Banana Piña Colada Muffins
Fettuccine with Parmesan, Pine Nuts and Lemon

That last sugar pumpkin... and some bright poppy seed muffins!

Whenever we choose recipes for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day, I try and make sure that there is a decent yield so everyone who wants a treat can have one. While we could just go ahead and double the recipe if it does not make much, I like to make a different flavor of whatever we are making so they have an option in case they prefer one kind over another (or sample each if they so desire!).

Today happened to be one of those days as Jeff asked for muffins this week, but didn't have any preference on what went in them. So I'll talk about these Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins today and we will get to the other "tropical" (hint hint!) ones tomorrow. This recipe produces a kind of cake-like muffin that is tender, yet fairly light and fluffy. It is a little more work as it uses the same method as making a cake where you cream together the butter and sugar, unlike other recipes that don't need a mixer and just use melted butter or oil.

I did depart from the recipe in couple ways - first, I decided to use half whole wheat pastry flour instead of completely all-purpose. I really like this combination as the muffins gain some nutrition without compromising the texture. The next was in regards to the lemon zest - we used the method we learned from Dorie Greenspan's newest book to rub the sugar and lemon zest together. This releases the bright fragrant oils from the zest into the sugar and intensifies the lemon flavor in the final product. You also have a couple options to top the muffins - you could keep the glaze on the thicker side and drizzle it on top of the cooled muffins to get more of a frosting effect or thin out the mixture a little and brush it on the warm well-crowned muffins. We opted for the latter, so the muffins could absorb some of the glaze and give an extra sweet burst of tangy lemon on the inside while leaving a light sugar-y crust on top. We didn't use all of the glaze during the first coat, so when they cooled, we brushed another layer on top for a more iced effect.

So we've had this 3 pound sugar pumpkin we originally bought for decoration around Thanksgiving looking at me daily screaming to be used for something. Since we already had enough mashed pumpkin in the freezer, I needed something different - while I was menu planning this weekend, I came across this Maple Roasted Pumpkin Salad recipe that I intended to make last fall and never got to.

After I hacked away at the pumpkin to get it cubed and cleaned up, we tossed the pieces with olive oil, crushed red pepper and some whole garlic cloves. This mixture goes into a fairly hot oven to roast until the pumpkin can be easily pierced with a fork. At this point, the garlic is plenty soft and needs to be removed - the pumpkin left behind is then sweetened up by a drizzle of pure maple syrup. As the cubes finish off, the sweet mellow garlic is mashed and made into a dressing consisting of fresh lime juice, Dijon mustard, a touch of maple syrup and the leftover olive oil. When the cubed pumpkin was ready, the glaze formed by the syrup made them quite sweet, but combined with the savory dressing and greens, we both thought the sweetness was needed to stand up to the other bold flavors. For the greens, the recipe called for using arugula - while we both like that peppery bite, it can be a little strong for Jeff, so we used half arugula and half baby spinach to tone it down. For a bit of crunch and salty contrast, this main-dish salad is finished off with a sprinkling of toasted pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) and crumbled feta cheese.

Recipes
Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins
Maple Roasted Pumpkin Salad

From salad to pizza... just hold the lettuce!

I can't remember the last time we actually bought prepared pizza dough since we began making our favorite Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe. While you can make it by hand, and I sometimes do, I love how quick it comes together using a food processor! It makes just about a pound of dough, creates little mess and it literally comes together in a couple minutes.

I prepared that effortless dough again tonight so we could turn this classic combination of ingredients for a salad into a Pear and Blue Cheese Flatbread for dinner. If you have a pizza stone, be sure to pull it out for this recipe - now, you don't need one to make this, but it sure helps getting that crisp golden crust! I shaped this into a round as that's what our stone looks like, but if you use a baking sheet, just roll out the dough to fit inside. As the dough was resting, we began by creating the base flavor - a layer of soft golden onions. I like to add a couple pinches of salt to the onions when they cook, even though the original recipe didn't call for it, as we find it helps the onions release their moisture and moves the process along.

When the onions are done, they are drizzled with tangy balsamic vinegar and chopped fresh sage to freshen them up. Once they are spread over the par-baked crust, firm slices of crisp pears are arranged on top, followed by crunchy toasted walnuts and a sprinkling of blue cheese. After being assembled, it goes back into the oven to finish off the crust and melt the cheese. Between the juicy pears, pungent blue cheese and sweet onions, this bold golden flatbread had a multitude of textures with an alluring bite that made it hard to stop eating and much more pleasurable that a salad!

Recipes
Pear and Blue Cheese Flatbread

Hearty baked pasta with spicy sausage...

We prepared about 8 new recipes this week - our favorites were the Chili Dog Chili, Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints and the Balsamic and Asiago Roasted Cauliflower.

It has just been in the past few years that I have grown to love pasta (can you believe that I wouldn't go anywhere near it growing up?!?) and especially enjoy it in baked dishes. Just going through the ingredient list for tonight's dinner, Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cheese, had my appetite in a tail spin and I almost burnt the inside of my mouth trying to sneak a taste when it came out of the oven.

While the pasta was cooking away, we browned up a few links of hot Italian turkey sausage with a good cup of chopped onions. A couple cloves of garlic are minced and tossed in when the sausage has browned, followed by a dollop of thick tomato paste. As we've mentioned before when using the paste, be sure to let it cook for a minute, before continuing to add the rest of the ingredients, as this intensifies the flavor. A couple cans of fire-roasted diced tomatoes with a pinch of crushed red pepper are stirred in and the mixture is left to simmer to let the flavors mingle.

The pasta and meaty sauce are combined and then layered with chopped fresh basil, shredded mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese in a large dish. The assembled dish bakes just long enough so the sauce warms back up and the cheese has a chance to melt. Saucy enough to keep the pasta moist, yet not dripping, this was hearty, warming and just spicy enough for us. If you don't groove on spicy foods, you could tone down the heat by omitting the crushed red pepper and using a sweet sausage if desired. If I had remembered to save some of the fresh basil, a sprinkling on top before serving would help make the dish pop!

Recipes
Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cheese

That darn leftover eggnog...

I wonder if anyone else has this problem... Jeff and I always end up buying a carton of eggnog sometime around Christmas thinking we love the stuff so much that we can finish it no problem. However, after having our first cup, we both say "so... yeah, that was good and all, but I don't want anymore!". We then get stuck with more than half of it leftover and usually end up freezing it until we figure out how to get it used up.

I actually made these Eggnog Cheesecake Bars during our baking spree a couple week ago, before we froze the rest of the leftover nog, and I completely forgot to post about it! The base for these bars is made from sugar, butter and flour - to bring some spice, a hint of fresh grated nutmeg is also added to the shortbread-like crust. While you wait for the crust to set in the oven, the filling is made from soft cream cheese, sugar, a touch of flour, eggnog and some eggs. Making sure that these ingredients are at room at room temperature will ensure the filling will be velvety smooth.

Now, what would eggnog be without some rum? The recipe didn't originally call for any, but we added a couple tablespoons of rum when we were mixing up the filling. Rather than stirring the nutmeg into the filling, we sprinkled it on top of the uncooked bars so the top would have some visual interest. You want to bake these long enough so the edges are set, but not so long that the center is firm - it should still jiggle a little if you gently shake the pan. Be sure to let these cool to room temperature and allow at least a couple hours for them to chill in the refrigerator before cutting - you will get the cleanest cuts this way. We both agreed that the bars don't scream eggnog when you take a bite, but you can definitely pick out the subtle flavor, especially with the touch of rum. They baked quite evenly and had a shiny smooth top - the filling was creamy, which was set off by the firm, yet tender nutmeg-spiced crust.

Recipes
Eggnog Cheesecake Bars

Playin' around with chili...

I didn't have anything lined up to bake today, so I took advantage of some extra time I had to make a couple batches of our favorite Chicken Breakfast Sausage. I've made these countless times now since we first put them together back in August of '06! I usually make 2 or 3 batches at once because they freeze so well and Jeff loves to have these for a quick breakfast - they re-heat very well in the microwave!

Remember the other day when we made that Chile-Cheese Corn Bread? At the time we decided to bake the full recipe as we hoped it would freeze well - we wanted to be able to take out the leftover pieces and use them as a side dish when needed. We heated a few up tonight (and they held up well!) in the toaster oven to have along side our bowls of Chili Dog Chili we made for dinner tonight!

"Huh..." is what Jeff said when he saw me cutting up hot dogs and asked what I was making for dinner. That tells me he was quite skeptical and already had doubts that this was going to taste good! This happens often when he sneaks in to see what's actually going on in the kitchen - I'm used to it though and snicker a little (mushrooms anyone?) when I prove him wrong!

I tinkered a bit with the recipe as it originally called for a pound of hot dogs and a couple pounds of ground beef - this seemed a bit excessive for us, so I pared it down to 12 ounces of hot dogs, 12 ounces of ground sirloin and 8 ounces of ground turkey. The chopped hot dogs are browned first, then removed to allow enough room to evenly brown the ground meat mixture. Diced onions, garlic, a couple jalapeños, chili powder and cumin are then tossed into the meat mixture and allowed to cook until the onions begin to soften.

You can also play around with the amount of liquid - if you like your chili on the thicker side, go with the lower amount of broth called for - if you like it thinner and more soup-y, add up to three cups. When you add the broth, fire-roasted crushed tomatoes, red kidney beans and the browned hot dogs are added back into the pot. The recipe only called for 10 minutes of simmering, but I covered it and let it bubble away for about half an hour or so to give the flavors a chance to develop - we did taste it at the 10 minute mark and thought it definitely could use the extra time. We ended up using about 2 1/4 cups of broth and thought it was just about right for us - perfect for dipping that corn bread in! Chunky, meat-y and quite smoky from the double dose of chili powder and cumin - Jeff quickly decided he was wrong (surprise!) and conceded to the notion that he just might like this. I even caught him red handed dipping into the leftovers! If you like your chili with a spicy punch, add a few shakes of hot sauce (we always use Frank's Red Hot) when you uncover the pot for the last 10 minutes of simmering - I would suggest adding a good dollop of sour cream if you end up doing this though.

Recipes
Chili Dog Chili

Trying to fill him up with chicken, potatoes and roasted cauliflower...

Jeff and I have only come to love cauliflower in the last couple of years and I think our favorite way to prepare it is roasting the chunky florets in a hot oven. While it is very good with a toss in olive oil, salt and pepper, tonight's side, Balsamic and Asiago Roasted Cauliflower, added a few savory ingredients to really punch up the flavor.

Rather than breaking up the florets, try to slice them so there is a good flat surface on at least one side - this gives the cauliflower more surface area on the hot baking sheet, allowing it to caramelize and deepen its flavor. As we've talked about with some other baked dishes (like fries or breaded chicken), I like to preheat the baking sheet first so as soon as the food hits the pan, you can hear it sizzle and begin to cook. The cauliflower is tossed with oil and then seasoned with salt, fresh ground black pepper and marjoram. Marjoram is more mild and slightly sweeter than oregano - it has flavors that are mildly minty and an almost citrus-y flavor. I don't usually have it on hand in the pantry, but our local natural foods co-op has a great bulk spice area where you can buy as much or as little as you need - a great way to test out spices you've not used before! Once the cauliflower has begun to soften and gain a golden hue, the florets are tossed with rich and tangy Balsamic vinegar and then given a light coating of sharp Asiago cheese (though, you could use Parmesan if you don't have Asiago already). The cauliflower goes back into the oven to crisp up the cheese and to concentrate the balsamic flavor. As I said, we quite enjoy plain roasted cauliflower, but we may never go back after trying this!

If I would have really looked closely when I was menu planning for this week, I would have noticed that both recipes tonight used the oven at fairly different temperatures. It is nights like this that I wish we had double ovens! Oh well, I just prepared the protein portion of our meal tonight, Cocoa-Chili-Rubbed Chicken, first and figured it would be just as tasty at room temperature.

A mixture of chili powder, cocoa powder, thyme, oregano, sugar and salt are combined to form a spice rub. The chicken is then brushed with olive oil and given a good massage to generously coat them with the rub. To give the chicken a head start and a good sear, it is briefly cooked in a skillet and then slid into the oven so they can evenly cook through. While they certainly don't taste like chicken coated in chocolate, the cocoa brings a pleasant depth to the chili flavor and adds a slightly bitter edge.

Jeff was feeling especially ravenous tonight, so I also just threw together some basic spicy potato wedges (also with a scattering of Asiago!) that we roasted along side of the cauliflower. While we had the moist chicken breasts with potatoes and cauliflower, I can really see us going in a fantastic different direction by serving it on top of a soft creamy bed of polenta spiked with Parmigiano-Reggiano - next time!

Recipes
Balsamic and Asiago Roasted Cauliflower
Cocoa-Chili-Rubbed Chicken

First treat day of the year...

Jeff has been on vacation now for a little over two weeks and guess what today is? Yup, time for him to go back to work (oh it was a grouchy morning!). Being a Wednesday, we couldn't let him go in empty handed on the first Weekly Wednesday Treat Day of 2008!

We decided on these small Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprint cookies so the co-workers could choose if they wanted a few or just one in case they have started watching what they eat as a new resolution. The dough for the little guys is simply butter, sugar, flour, salt and a little almond extract. The dough is not sticky at all, but to give it a chance to relax and help control spreading while being baked, it needs to be chilled before continuing.

Once the dough is nice and chilly, it is portioned out and rolled into 1" balls. You need a divot in the center of the dough to hold the jam, so you have a couple options to do this. As the name implies, you could just use your thumb to push the dough down and make the indent, but I like using the tapered end of our ice cream scoop (you could also use the end of a wooden spoon) as my thumb is a bit too big and ended up cracking the dough. We filled the indents with raspberry jam, but you could change up the flavor if you like. I found this to go much faster when I scooped the jam into a zip-loc bag and pipped it into the dough rather than measuring it out with a quarter teaspoon. Once they are baked and cooled, the cookies are drizzled with a sweet almond glaze made from confectioners' sugar, almond extract and just enough water to thin it out. The cookies are quite buttery, but not at all greasy... they are just sweet enough with the jam adding a striking and flavorful contrast to the pale two-bite gems.

Recipes
Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints

Will these black-eyed peas become a new tradition?

We thought we would take a look back and see just how many "new" recipes we made this year - after checking our records, we came up with 461! I think our highest amount was made during October for some reason as we made 53 in that month alone. It is actually slightly less than we made last year, but only because a large amount of time this year was spent selling the house back in MD, buying the house here in MN and all the traveling back and forth! I wonder what our number will be for 2008?!

Jeff and I have never really thought about making a special meal for New Years Day, but this year we thought we would try something different! Neither of us are from the south, but we thought we would try taking a couple ideas from a southern tradition - having black-eyed peas and greens! Apparently having them will bring good luck and "financial enrichment"... we're a little skeptical, but we are willing to give it at try at least! As Jeff grew up in PA, I'm sure his mom would rather us be making their traditional pork and sauerkraut, but Jeff wouldn't touch it then and has no plans to start (it doesn't sound all that inviting to me either... sorry!).

Anyway, we decided to make a recipe for Hoppin' John with Mustard Greens. First we needed to get a bunch of chopped onions softened in a bit of olive oil to get us started on this dish. We then added basmati rice (any long-grain white rice would do), finely diced ham and a few cloves of minced garlic to the onions - this gives the rice and garlic a chance to slightly toast to bring out their flavor. The original recipe called for water as the cooking liquid, but rather than miss a chance to add extra flavor, we added vegetable broth instead. Along with that broth went in grainy mustard and thyme. When the rice was almost completely cooked through, a few cups of cooked black-eyed peas (these are so much better if you can prepare them yourself rather than using a tinned variety!) and trimmed mustard greens are placed into the pot. The greens added a nice bitter contrast with the ham bringing a bit of smokiness to this hearty bowl of peas and rice. I think we found another combination of ingredients that we both quite enjoyed and we may have just started a new tradition for us each new year!

Corn bread is supposedly a traditional accompaniment, so we kept the theme going and made some Chile-Cheese Corn Bread. We thought about making half of this recipe as it makes a big batch, but doing so would leave us with a couple half empty cans of ingredients. It should freeze well, so we just made the whole thing.

This golden corn bread was moist, yet dense and had a mild spicy kick from green chiles. With only a couple tablespoons of sugar for a big recipe, the corn bread is not very sweet. We thought this was a good thing though as the extrasharp cheese and chiles made it decidedly savory. The cream-style corn called for did add a little more sweetness, but it mostly brought flavor and moisture. Buttermilk helped to keep the corn bread tender and added a little twang. We liked that this had a slightly higher proportion of yellow cornmeal to flour - this added a slight crunch and nutty flavor.

Recipes
Hoppin' John with Mustard Greens
Chile-Cheese Corn Bread