A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Happy Birthday to Me: Banana Walnut Baked Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Glaze

 

As a kid, I always asked for banana bread for my birthday, much to my cake decorating Mother's horror "But I'll decorate any kind of over the top cake you want, any theme!"  "Nah, we have cake all the time. I just want banana bread."

What an ungrateful child I was.  :-)

Most birthdays now I bake my own cakes and they're still never cake per se. Not that I don't like cake, I love store bought white cake and any kind of country-type cake, it's just that I learned cake decorating from my mom so a fancy decorated cake is fun for me to make for others but I still personally want to make myself banana bread or these doughnuts (was craving them yesterday)  or Almond Croissants  like three years ago.  Not that I'd turn down traditional birthday cake. Most people are intimidated to bake for me so I was genuinely thrilled and touched when my friend Barb, who will tell you up front she doesn't bake much, surprised me with a Home-made Carrot Cake for my birthday two years ago. 

Even though these are doughnuts, I did manage to sneak some health into them.  Seriously.  The flour is 50/50 white/wheat, honey instead of sugar, olive oil as the fat, walnuts and they're baked instead of fried.  And yet with all that, amazingly they're really yummy! Seriously.,

Marlena Spieler Onion Rolls by way of Cooking Schmooking

 

Melody, over at Cooking Schmooking participates in Sundays with Marlena Spieler blog-off of sorts and this last week the onion rolls caught my attention in a big way. I've made dinner rolls before with spring onions and parmesan cheese mixed into the dough that were divine so I was quite interested in trying this recipe too, especially after Melody noted that her husband "happily" made this recipe and that they loved them.  Man in the kitchen = must try this recipe!

I have to confess one thing though--I flinched.  When you make these--DON'T FLINCH, don't wimp, don't wuss, don't chicken!  Gene and I liked the texture of the rolls but I was thinking, while he said out loud, "These taste good but I sure thought they would have a stronger flavor."  They would have had I not chickened out at the end and only put in half the onions. It seemed like so much but you really need them all.  So what I came up with was a very pleasant, but bland, onion roll.  Note to self: next time just take the plunge and mix in ALL the onions! 

By the way, I served them with meatloaf and not only were they the perfect accompaniment bread, they made for awesome meatloaf sandwiches for lunch today!

Honey Curry Roasted Turkey Thighs

At Thanksgiving when the butchers were cutting up Turkeys to accommodate everyone's needs, I snagged a few packages of turkey thighs to cook later for Gene. Last night I used the honey curry recipe from the chicken post and it was a huge hit, so give this a whirl! I separated the sauce I used for marinating form the sauce I used to serve on the side and it was very good and good for you!

Split Pea Soup with Ham

Mmmm.....nothing like soup in the winter to warm you up! This one from Whole Foods Market is easy to make, very close to the soup I grew up with Mom making,  and the house smells delicous all afternoon as the soup simmers in the crockpot.  Crockpot--even better--so easy!

Perfect for my lunchbox with a couple of pieces of cornbread.

 

Clementine (Orange) Olive Oil Cake

I've seen several recipes for olive oil cake and they've intrigued me.  There are many different recipes, some with only orange, some with a ctrus mix, some with nuts, some without, some with a few Tbsp of oil, some with a full cup....a full cup of olive oil in cake?  Usually for cakes and other baked goods, you'd switch over to expeller-pressed canola or maybe even walnut oil, something healthy but with a less persistent flavor but mixed with citrus it sort of made sense that the olive oil would work....  It does.  The cake is delicious.  Gene even made a point of saying he liked it, and that was with knowing it was good for him. 

Does this save you calories as far as diet? No.  The counts are similar to a regular piece of cake, although in this one, because of the olive oil, the fat content is higher. However, does this save your health?  You decide.  Here are the ingredients in a standard boxed cake mix: bleached flour, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonsee oil, corn syrup, modified corn starch, leavening, popylene glycol monoesters of fatty acids, corn starch, dextose, salt, distilled monoglycerides, dicalcium phosphate, maltodextrin, xantham gum, natural and artificial flavor, dye, nonfat milk.  Here are the ingredients in my cake:  whole wheat flour, honey, eggs, olive oil, orange zest, leavening, salt. It's not always all about calories. BUT if we want to look at those too, here they are side by side:

Boxed cake mix:  Cal: 170, Protein: 2, Carbs: 34, Fat: 3, Fiber: 0

Olive oil cake: Cal: 185, Protein: 3, Carbs: 21, Fat: 10, Fiber: 1

I'm still liking the all natural cake. I see a trade out between white sugar and olive oil, as far as calories.  Olive oil wins.

As far as flavor, we all know what an average cake tastes like. This one is more of what I call I country style cake. The crumb is coarsier and the heft weightier, more like a banana or zucchini bread, and the flavor is phenomenal. Nothing fake or artificial here.  The Tbsp of orange zest, I used Clementines, is powerfully enticing and the olive oil completely complements and enhances the citrus.

Lovely Whole Wheat Challah Knots

I love messing with Gene's head. I told him that for dinner we were going to have roasted chicken and challah bread. I love the funny look he gets on his face that says "Oh crap, she's experimenting on my food again!" But the truth is, once he tasted it, it was only a familiar egg bread that I've baked him a thousand times over the last 20 years. 

Which is another thing I love about food and cooking. There are so many names for the same foods that I find cooking a fun puzzle of a game.  The first time I actually read a recipe for and made polenta, I giggled because it sounds so exotic and looked so lush to watch Mario Batali make it, only to find out that polenta is merely my beloved corn meal mush from my child hood.  We ate it all the time as hot cereal in the winter and then my mother would cut the leftovers that had congealed with cold in the fridge into thick slabs, fry them in butter, and pour hot maple syrup on them for another breakfast treat the next day.

Challah is another of those things.  Here in the Bible Belt, challah sounds exotic until you make it and realize it's a delicious egg bread, like many other egg breads, although not usually as sweet as brioche or Sally Lunn bread.

I've made a few changes based on my new health guidelines:  butter/oil changed to olive oil and fine white flour changed to white whole wheat. The white whole wheat is heavier than processed white flour but lighter than the typical whole grain flour made from hard red wheat.  It's a nice compromise for lighter breads like this.

Comforting Roasted Chicken for Snowed in Evenings

I was asked to post a recipe for roasted chicken by a wonderful gal who said she was a bit intimidated by the idea of tackling this dish.  Have no fear. This can't be screwed up, I promise.  Just jump in with your chicken and few seasonings and do it, and you'll wonder why you ever hesitated. Really! (And never buy another rotisserie chicken from the grocery unless it's for convenience.)

Did You Eat Your New Year's Day Black-eyed Peas? Cowboy Caviar

I love traditions and so for years I've tried to be a good little New Year's girl and eat my black-eyed peas but the truth is I don't really like 'em.  Until now. I finally found a recipe that I feel like enhances the taste so that I'm willing to down them not only on New Year's Day but on other days of the year as well.

The recipe is called Cowboy Caviar and there are a million variations. This is mine. I tailored the idea of a cold bean salad to accommodate my personal tastes and to incorporate some of my new eating principles.  There are beans, veggies, and olive oil, a trifecta of good for the body and a treat for the tastebuds.  I served this as a side dish on New Year's Eve but we also played around with it as a salsa-type appetizer eaten with tortilla chips, and I mixed some with some cooked brown rice I had in the fridge that I'll be taking in my lunch box at times this year as an entree and eating for lunch on New Year's Day today.  Yummy and versatile.