Crazy Englishwoman Cooks!

Friday was Nic's fortieth birthday and for months I had been trying to decide what sort of Nic-appropriate cake I should make.

For those who don't know, he writes a series of werewolf detective novels. The second is currently in the editing stages. So it seemed only suitable that he should have a werewolf cake.

It was actually fairly easy to make. I used Duncan Hines red velvet mix to make two rectangular cakes. Sandwich them together with chocolate frosting and then cut into the right shape.


I had originally planned to add extra bits to raise the ridge of his forehead and jaws, but it turns out that the mix-made cake, while deliciously moist and tasty, is something of a pain to frost. It is so moist that the frosting and cake stick to the knife and since I was running out of time, I skipped that step.

Cover the entire thing with more frosting and then add facial features. I do not claim to be a cake artist but the important thing was that when Nic saw it, he happily exclaimed, "It's a werewolf!"

In the end we decided it was more of a "Teenwolf" werewolf than a "Rip your guts out on the moors" werewolf, but that was fine with us. It tasted great, Nic enjoyed his birthday, and fortunately, he took the remaining cake to work today, freeing me from all temptation.

I know I haven't been around much but I was sick last week and food was most definitely the last thing on my mind. But now I'm back and here's a quick, throw it all together recipe we had last night. I found it on AllRecipes and it had all the ingredients I needed to use up, ie. spinach and spuds. I tweaked it a little. To serve 6:   2 large potatoes, quartered 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, 1 1/2 cups sour cream 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes 2 tbs butter 1 cup fresh spinach 1 clove garlic 2 tbs olive oil, or as needed 1 onion, chopped peas 10 chicken tenders or an equivalent number of chicken breasts cut into chunks.

	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a medium casserole dish.
	Place potatoes in pot with enough water to cover, and bring to boil. Cook until tender but firm. Cool, and partially mash with 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup sour cream.
	Place sun-dried tomatoes, butter, spinach, garlic, and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese in blender, and blend until almost smooth.
	Heat olive oil over medium heat, and cook the onion and peas until tender. Reserve remaining oil in skillet, and spread onion mix over the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with the potato mixture.
	Mix the sun-dried tomato mixture into the skillet with the remaining oil. Place chicken in skillet, and cook 4 minutes on each side over medium heat, until browned and juices run clear. Arrange chicken and sun-dried tomato mixture over the potato mixture in the casserole dish, and top with remaining 1 cup sour cream.
	Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned.

One of my favorite spring time vegetables is fresh asparagus. It seems to be one of those "love it or hate it" veggies but I could eat it every day for the next few weeks, and may well do!

Last night I enjoyed it in an incredibly easy and versatile dinner. Toss together some pasta, asparagus, chicken, garlic, ricotta, and lemon juice. Yum!


Of course, this is one of those basic recipes that has a thousand variations. Skip the chicken and use ham or sausage. Switch the asparagus for broccoli or peas. Change the herbs. You get the idea.

Continuing my love of pumpkin (OK, it was a big can and besides it's full of Vitamin A), here we have a delicious weekend breakfast or brunch.

Pumpkin pancakes.  (serves 6)

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbs brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tbs vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar as white vinegar seemed too harsh) 

Mix everything together.  
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

We enjoyed ours with spiced apples.

Sunday was my friend Twila's birthday and since Nic and I were out of town, we invited her to dinner yesterday to celebrate. As per usual, that also meant she got to be a guinea pig as I tried out a new recipe... and this one I had my doubts about. I had first seen the recipe for a Pumpkin Spice Cake with Apple Glaze at the Noble Pig. The recipe claimed to have only 2 ingredients - cake mix and pumpkin. Just the cake mix and the pumpkin. But guess what? It worked!

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze 
1 Yellow Cake Mix (I used a low sugar mix so combined the puree, this cake was actually pretty darn healthy and vitamin packed.)
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1-1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tbs apple cider
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Now this is pretty complicated so make sure you're ready.... Mix together the pumpkin puree and the dry cake mix. 

That's it. OK, well you have to cook it. 

Pour batter into a greased  7 x 11 pan. I'm thinking you could also use a square 8x8. My pan was a touch too large, so the cake was a little flatter than intended.

Bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes, until the toothpick is clean (you know the drill).
Cool for 5-10 minutes, then flip onto a platter.


To make the glaze, mix the icing sugar, apple cider, and pumpkin spice. Pour over the cake while still warm.  Reserve some to pour over each slice when served.
There it is. 5 ingredients. A cake that is moist and puddingy and delicious, and will completely fool everyone into thinking you've been slaving away for hours.

Risotto is one of the ultimate comfort foods. Now, I'm not talking about a bowl of dry cooked rice with a few things thrown in - that is NOT risotto. Proper risotto should be rich and flavorful with a delightfully creamy texture.

The key to good risotto is using the proper rice - Arborio rice is what you need. Search around in stores to find the best price. Here in Lexington it's cheaper at our local Liquor Barn than it is at the grocery store.

This recipe also uses dried porcini mushrooms and goat cheese. I first tried dried porcini a few years ago when a recipe called for them. If you think that the humble button mushroom is all there is to fungus, you are in for a treat. Porcini add a wonderful, rich, almost meaty taste and texture. If you can't find porcini, try any other sort of dried exotic mushroom.

As for goat cheese, much as I love, adore, even drool for cheese, I'll be the first to admit that goat cheese is not up their on my to-buy list. However, in the right recipe, it can work wonders. Here, the mushrooms and cheese balance each other out well.

The recipe below serves 4, or 2 very hungry people.

Dried Porcini and Goat Cheese Risotto (from Delish).

1 cup dried porcini mushrooms (about 1 oz) 
3 cups hot water 
3 1/2 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock 
3 tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped 
5 cloves garlic, minced 
2 cups arborio rice 
1 1/4 tsp salt 
2 tbs butter 
1/4 tsp fresh-ground black pepper 
2 oz mild goat cheese, crumbled
Grated Parmesan, for serving

Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl and pour hot water over them. Soak until soft, about 20 minutes. Remove the mushrooms, reserving the liquid, and chop them. Put the liquid and broth in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. 

In a separate saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the chopped mushrooms, rice, and salt. Stir until the rice turns opaque, about 2 minutes. 

Add 1 cup of the broth to the rice and cook, stirring frequently, until the broth has been completely absorbed. The rice and broth should bubble gently. You don't want the heat too high because the liquid should be absorbed gently, not boiled away. Continue cooking the rice, adding broth 1/2 cup at a time and allowing the rice to absorb it before adding the next 1/2 cup. Cook the rice in this way until tender, 25 to 30 minutes in all. You probably won't need all of the liquid so you can freeze or refrigerate the leftover stock. 

Stir in the butter, pepper, and goat cheese. Top with a little grated Parmesan.

I love dishes that are incredibly easy but look and taste as if you've spent hours preparing them, like this black bean and chorizo chili.

For those unfamiliar with chorizo, it is a spicy Spanish/Mexican sausage meat and is absolutely delicious. It adds a kick to anything, from scrambled eggs to grilled chicken. Downside - it's high in fat. Upside - because the flavor is so great, you don't need a huge amount.

Black beans are also delicious and one of my favorite ingredients. High in fiber, great taste, and for those of you trying to get pregnant, black beans are widely rumored to help with fertility.

This Black Bean Chorizo Chili has only 3 main ingredients so there's no excuse. Even Nic could make this! This serves 2-3.

6 oz chorizo
1 can (about 15 oz) black beans
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
Tabasco sauce, to taste
1/4 cup light sour cream

Remove casing from chorizo. Drain and rinse beans. Pu half of the beans in a bowl and mash with a fork.

Cook chorizo over medium heat, about 3 minutes, stirring to crumble. Stir in mashed and whole beans and tomato sauce. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste with hot sauce. Garnish with sour cream.

You can serve this on rice, or as we did - on tortilla chips.

YUM!

So I needed a dessert to take with me on Saturday night and these did the trick. The photo above does not do them justice. A nice change from the usual brownies, these can be adapted to be as crunchy or soft as you like. I cooked them for the lesser time and the texture was slightly chewy. Want more of a crispy bar? Cook for a bit longer.

Toffee Cappuccino Bars

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp instant coffee granules or espresso powder, dissolved in 1 Tbs hot water and cooled to room temperature - I used hazelnut flavored coffee but next time I might just as easily use a cappuccino mix. The coffee flavor is very subtle. Several people in our group do not like coffee but enjoyed these.
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips - Again, feel free to play around. Peanut butter or butterscotch would also be good.
1 cup toffee baking bits

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in large bowl.

Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beating well. Add coffee mixture and vanilla. Beat well. Add flour mixture and beat until blended. Stir in white chocolate chips and toffee bits.

Spread batter evenly in a greased 13 x 9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. (I did 25 minutes for a chewy texture. 35 would be crunchier.) Cool on a wire rack.

Were they a success? Well, let's just say I brought home an empty plate.