Rhubarb Cake

This is a recipe that my grandmother has made as long as I can remember. She would bake the huge 13" x 9" pan, and then send most of it over to our house because she and my grandfather couldn't possibly eat the whole thing themselves.

It's basically a coffee cake with rhubarb in it... too much sugar on top makes a crunchy coating, delicate cake kept moist by the rhubarb, which adds a wonderful tang to off-set the sugar. Or is it the other way around? Either way, this recipe will always be a favorite with me.

We grow huge amounts of rhubarb. I sell a good deal of it by just putting it down by the road, but still we have much more than we will ever use in a year. This recipe uses 1 1/2 cups chopped, but I've been thinking about trying it with even more. The amount it calls for is by no means overwhelming, and I need to use up last year's frozen crop to make way for new. It's poking out of the ground now, getting ready to grow like crazy as soon as the warm weather finally arrives.

Rhubarb Cake


1 C sugar
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C soft butter
1 beaten egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C milk
1 1/2 C chopped rhubarb

Topping

1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp soft butter

Preheat oven to 350*

Cream sugars and butter; add beaten egg and vanilla. Sift in remaining dry ingredients. Make a well and add milk and rhubarb, stirring til thoroughly incorporated. Spread in a lightly greased 13 x 9 pan. Mix topping ingredients thoroughly (fingers turned out to be the most useful tool here), making sure not to leave any sugar dry. You may find a tad more butter to be helpful. Sprinkle over the cake and bake 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp.

I'm very tempted to wave my arm and say "Bon Appetit!" , but I'll content myself with a sorry little "Enjoy!" instead.

Enjoy!

Julie and Julia

Anyone else watch it? I know some of you have. I watched it the other night on NetFlix, and I LOVE it. As in, really, really, really like it a LOT. I'm sure I'm following in the footsteps of thousands of fans who watched it much sooner, when I do things like look up Julia Child's cook book on e-bay (Probably could have gotten it pretty cheaply before this movie came out... but who ever thought of it? Not I.), and search for THE blog... and find it. And did I mention that my long-felt desire to go to cooking school has blown through the roof?

I will say up front that the movie is not 100% what I'd have it be. There is language, and an awful lot of, er, making out... among married couples, but still, this is something that's terribly private and I don't want to watch other people doing it repeatedly in the space of two hours. Nothing horrid, just not my cup of tea. Still, I found it very refreshing that both lead characters had very supportive, caring husbands who stuck with them when it was rough (*SPOILERS* or at least come back...) and listened to them ranting about their passions very patiently. I can honestly say I've never experienced that with ANY man, Dad, brother or friend, and it's something I hope for very much in my future.

Another perk of this movie is it's ending. I won't say what it was in case some of you haven't seen it yet, but it did NOT end the way I was expecting, which is almost always a good thing.


Anyone else feel like cooking some boeuf bourguignon?

Chicken Tikka Masala & Naan

I am a food-lover, not a food connoisseur. I have NOT been to a number of Indian restaurants and tried this dish numerous times and so had to make it at home... in fact, I've only been to an Indian restaurant once in my life that I remember, and that was a good 17 years ago! I remember liking it though. I was probably five or six but I remember saffron rice, flat bread and chicken pieces plastered with curry. A while back I started noticing the name of this chicken dish all over the place. Well, I said, we'll have to see what this is all about. And we have to find a flat bread to go with it.

The recipe I started with calls for a number of spices, but when I found the recipe I decided to use, other cooks argued that using pre-mixed Garam Masala (which can be found in the spice aisle at your local grocery store) was good enough. The ingredients on the bottle included a number of spices not included in the recipe itself, so I mixed it up, using the spices called for as well as a hefty dash of Garam Masala. The next time I make it I'll try the mix exclusively and see how it compares.

With that said, doesn't this picture look AWESOME? I didn't take it but I love, LOVE mixing fresh spices and the thought of making my own Garam Masala is making me positively giddy!

Okay, on with the recipes!

NOTE: Both of these recipes require planning ahead. Don't think you can whip them up last minute for supper, you'll be eating at 9 if you try. They are totally worth the preparation though!

Chicken Tikka Masala

3 boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite-size pieces

Marinade:

1 C plain yogurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp cayenne pepper (I used our home-grown cayenne peppers for this, so did not use nearly that much. I didn't want our heads to explode. However, store-bought ground cayenne is much more bland, so that amount should be fine.)

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbs minced FRESH ginger. Fresh, fresh, fresh. Which means not dry powder.

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Garam Masala, optional. Or try replacing the first four spices with just the mix itself.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a lid. Coat the chicken thoroughly, cover and chill for at least one hour. The longer it marinates the more tender the chicken will be.

A half hour or so before you want supper ready, preheat your oven to 475F. Place chicken pieces on a broiling pan or grill pan and bake about 15 minutes til done.

While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce.

Sauce:

1 tbs butter

1 clove minced garlic

1 jalapeño pepper, finely minced

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 8 oz can tomato sauce (I cooked down home canned tomato puree)

1 C heavy cream

Sautee garlic and jalapeño in butter in a heavy skillet. Add the spices and salt and 'toast' for a few minutes to bring out the flavors. Add tomato sauce and cream and simmer on low heat until thickened. Add cooked chicken and simmer 10 minutes longer. Serve over rice.

Naan

From what I gather, Naan is a loose term for a variety of Indian flat-breads. I've seen Naan prepared in a number of different ways; on a grill, in the oven, in a fry-pan; I made mine on our pancake griddle, and it was delicious, though I don't know how authentic it tasted. The flat-bread I had as a child was cooked in a tandoor oven (We got to go into the kitchen and watch it being made! Yay for homeschool-group field-trips!) and was much larger and full of large air pockets. This one has smaller air pockets than some, but it looks lighter than others... As I said, it's a pretty loose term. Whatever the authentic thing is, THIS was delicious. I wouldn't say it's the end of my hunt for Naan recipes, but my brother, who is one of the people whose opinion I care a jot about when it comes to my cooking, said it was awesome and give me more now please.

1 packet (1 tbs) dry yeast

1 C warm water

1/4 C sugar

3 tbs milk

1 egg

1 tsp salt

4 - 4 1/2 C bread flour

1/4 C butter, melted (or if it's available, 1/4 C ghee, another specialty I want to try sometime.)

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and a little of the sugar in the water, and let it proof ten minutes, until it's very puffy. Beat in the milk, egg and salt. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead 6-8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Set in a warm place to rise until double, about an hour.

Punch down dough, and cut off pieces to roll into golf-ball sized balls. I think I got 18 out of one batch. Place balls on a tray, cover with a damp cloth and let rise another 1/2 hour. While rising, heat a griddle or heavy skillet.

When ready to cook, grease griddle. Roll each ball into a thin round, only rolling out as many as you can fit on your griddle. Keep the other balls covered and damp. Cook until lightly browned and puffy, then brush butter on the raw side and turn over (2-3 minutes). Brush cooked side with butter. When the second side is browned, the naan is done.

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Raspberry Almond Thumb-prints

These... are just awesome. I made them for our church Christmas party, and a bunch came back home with me after. This is not a good thing. I had a resolution to maintain my weight throughout the holidays. I'm worried now. These things are addicting. Try this recipe at your own risk.

Raspberry Almond Thumb Prints

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1 large egg, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
2/3 C sliced blanched almonds, coarsely chopped
Raspberry jam

Beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar. Add egg yolk and vanilla, beating until blended. Stir in flour. Dough will be crumbly, but easily pressed together. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic-wrap and refrigerate 3 hours.

Let dough stand for a few minutes at room temperature. Shape into 24 balls (3/4" or so. I used the small Pampered Chef scoop.. yes, I admit, I love those things, nearly to obsession.) Lightly beat egg whites. Dip each ball into egg white then roll in almonds, pressing firmly. Place on lightly greased pans, 1" apart. Press an indentation in the center of each with your thumb, and fill with 1/4 tsp raspberry jam.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. Try not to eat more than a dozen in one sitting.

New meaning for "Pizza Pie".

I've been making a lot of pies lately, so when mom asked me to make pizza one night, my hands automatically wanted to crimp the crust. I laughed to mom about it... and then I decided to go ahead and do it, to see what would happen. I wasn't sure the crust would hold the shape, but it did!

Chocolate Raspberry Scones

I'm not a huge fan of raspberry flavored chocolate, but raspberries and chocolate are a totally different story. We have a bumper crop of our own raspberries stored in our freezers, and I'm forever trying to think of something different to do with them. When a sweet ingredient needs to be used up, I generally look to scones for the answer. The results this time are amazingly delicious.

Chocolate Raspberry Scones

2 C all purpose flour

1/3 C sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter, cold and cut into pieces

2 ounces dark chocolate chunks* or chips (about 1/2 cup)

3/4 C fresh or frozen raspberries**

1/2 C plain yogurt

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk or sift the dry ingredients together, then cut in the butter until it looks like coarse crumbs, letting some of the butter remain in small pieces. Mix in chocolate and raspberries. Make a well in the center. In a separeat bowl, beat together yogurt, vanilla and egg. Pour into the well in the flour mixture, and using a fork, quickly but gently incorporate the yogurt into the flour. Don't over mix. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times till the dough comes together. Pat into a 7" round, about 1 1/2" thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Place on a pan with about an inch between each scone. Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Cool for a few minutes, then drizzle with a glaze made of 1/2 C powdered sugar and 1 tbsp milk.



* I roughly chopped 2 ounces of semi-sweet baking chocolate. I actually like this a lot better than chocolate chips, having the varying sizes of chocolate pieces. Also, chips have a way of turning hard soon after the scones are out of the oven. The chopped chocolate didn't seem to do this.

** If you want to use frozen raspberries, like I did, don't defrost them first. Bust them up with a knife and throw them in as frozen as possible to prevent them from bleeding and dissolving into the dough.

Christmas Monster Cookies!

Monster cookies are some of my favorite cookies ever. Huge, chewy and moist, peanut-buttery and full of chocolate, what's not to like? I got this recipe from a friend who runs a diner - never fear, she does not own the recipe, so I'm not betraying her secret recipe. These were very popular at her diner when I was last there; I remember a young boy coming in just as I pulled them out of the oven. He bought a baggy of them, and in five minutes he was back for more. :)

Since these contain M&Ms, they are easily made into Christmas cookies by using red and green M&Ms. I made several dozen for a party last week and very few came home!

Monster Cookies

1/2 C soft butter
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C peanut butter
1 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
3 1/2 C old-fashioned oats
1 C chocolate chips
1 C M&Ms

Cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then peanut butter. Mix in flour and soda thoroughly before adding oatmeal. And last, mix in chocolates. I use the large Pampered Chef scoop to drop the cookies onto cookie sheets, but optionally you could use a 1/4 C measuring cup. You'll probably only get about 8 to a pan.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until the bottom edges begin to turn brown. They should be still gooey in the centers, this is crucial. Allow the cookies to sit on the pans a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks. The centers will be cooked but still moist, and will remain so for several days.

Enjoy with a cup of cocoa!