...as a foodie, I am learning more and more to despise the foods that are sold at the grocery store. The only chain store that I know of that sells good tasting stuff is Whole Foods, and they are hours away from me. There's a great little local independent, but they are kind of touch and go in their inventory.

So when I saw some thick cinnamon rolls are Meijer the other day and my mouth watered, I knew I would have to make my own. I found a recipe that had a more brioche-like dough than the one I've usually used, and I will never go back to the old recipe! I tweaked it a bit for taste, health (as healthy as pastry can be- who am I kidding?!)

Recipe adapted from this.

Ingredients:

Dough-

• 1 (1/4 ounce) package or 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 cup warm milk, fresh or sour
• 1/4 cup honey
• (Optional) 1 tbsp malted barley syrup
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour

Filling-

• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 2-3 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (Optional)

Frosting-

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cup 10X sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp triple sec (or 1/2 tsp orange extract)
• smidgen of fresh-grated orange zest
  
• pinch salt
  

Mix the milk, sugar, and yeast. I know this is old-fashioned, but I always let it sit for a minute or two while I measure out my other ingredients, just to make sure. When it froths a bit, you know you're good to go. Pour in the liquid sweetener(s), then beat in the butter, then add egg. Mix in flour and salt, knead gently for about 5 minutes. Cover with a damp towel (or plastic wrap). Let rise for 50-70 minutes, depending on how warm your kitchen is.

After rise, turn your oven on to 375˚
Flour your surface very well and roll out dough to just a bit thicker than a pencil. Try to keep a rectangular shape. The dough is soft enough that if it rips, you can tear off a chunk, wet it slightly, and stick it back into the formation. Remember to keep the flour under, this will happily stick to your counter! Spread with butter, keeping the edge near you 'clean'. Mix sugar & spice (and everything nice...) and sprinkle over the dough. Roll up, using the clean edge as the sealing edge. Slice appx 1 1/2" thick or so, placing upright in parchment paper-lined baking dish. Place close together if you want them all soft and sticky!

Let rise again for just a few minutes, then pop them in the oven. While they're baking, whip the frosting ingredients, starting with the cream cheese & butter together, then the liquid flavors, then add the powdered sugar a bit at a time and whip until fluffly.

The rolls are done after appx 20 minutes, or when a center tears out with no elasticity.

If you can stand it, wait until they are cool, then frost. I had to do one right after they came out, and you can see the frosting melting down the side here! Sprinkle with crushed nuts and/or chopped raisins, if you'd like. Not optional: coffee or tea!

Labels: baking, food, pastry, recipe

This is a meal that my nonna (grandmother) cooked when I was little. I have a vague remembrance of nonno (grandfather) shouting instructions in the kitchen, so I do not know if it was from his heritage (Hungarian/Italian) or hers (Croatian/Italian). Either way, it has been in my family for at least three generations, and is a constant favorite.

I will apologize in advance for my photos. I've never quite gotten the hang of cameras, lighting, or cleaning my house ;)

We don't have a proper name for this in my house. I grew up calling it 'paste' which offended the heck outta my dad, but oh well. It is pasty, certainly, but it is some sort of sublime potato salad/coleslaw the likes of which I have rarely encountered. It is a cheap meal- tasty, hearty, and more or less healthy. It is also incredibly forgiving with proportions and exact items, as you will see.
Recipe below.

Ingredients:

• water, to boil
• 2-3 medium sized potatoes, either starchy or waxy.
• appx 10-14 oz. lean beef (leftover grilled steak works awesomely for this, or you can buy raw and cook for the meal
• 1/4 cup (give or take) minced sweet onion
• 1 can beans: kidney, pinto, whatever. Kidney beans are our favorite, for color contrast and texture.
• 1/2 head cabbage, red or green
• olive oil, kosher or sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper: to taste
• vinegar: I use white wine, but we've also used red wine, apple cider, and balsamic. balsamic is not good for this, too strong and sweet.
• optional: tiny bit of orange zest.

Steps:

• Boil a quart or two of water, salt it heavily, dice the potatoes into appx 1" cubes, and toss them into the boiling water. While this is going, open the can of beans and drain appx 1/2 the liquid out, then dump them into a large bowl. Add the minced onion. Pour about 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over the beans & onions.

You'll know the potatoes are cooked when you can stir them and the corners break ever so softly. Or you can smash one against the side of the pan. Drain, saving the water if you make potato bread.

• Add the potatoes to the bowl, reveling in the steam...

• Whatever you use for meat, dice it up into appx 1/2" chunks, or appx the size of the beans you're using. This meat looks sickly, it's bad photography, sorry.

• Now add that to the mixture, salt to taste, and toss. Let this sit- for the flavors to blend- for a bit, or chill it now if your prefer. We love the hot salad on cold coleslaw contrast.
  

• Take your head of cabbage, and, using a large serrated knife, shave the cabbage just as thin as you can make it:

Some of the chunks in this pic are almost too wide. You don't want coleslaw, and you don't want mince. It needs to be shaved. My dad (and his before him) used to do this himself, and nearly every single piece of cabbage was almost transparent. I am not quite so picky with my cutting, but the thinner pieces do soak up the dressing better.

• Toss the cabbage with kosher salt, a bit of cracked pepper, a tbsp or two of olive oil, and about a tbsp of vinegar. Add orange zest (just a tiny bit!) if you'd like. Toss well, every piece should be coated. Add more oil/vinegar if you wish. My husband doubles everything I put on for his own plate.

• Now take your cabbage salad, while still cold, and make a nice bird's nest out of it on your plate. Dump a proportionate amount of the potato salad mixture on top, and enjoy!

Labels: cooking, dinner, food, hungarian cooking, italian cooking, recipe

When the weather warms up and the kids clamor for lemonade, we have come up with a way of fixing lemonade that is fun for them!

Requirements:

• Mason jar with tight-fitting lid, quart size is good. If we run out of these, we use old pasta sauce jars, just so long as that lid fits well!!
  

• Citrus fruit, any kinds, cut into quarters. Our favorite mix is: one half of a lemon, one half of a lime, and one quarter of a tangerine. You can use whatever you have lying around, however.
• Sugar, appx 1/2 cup. Demerara or turbinado is excellent because of the larger crystals, they cut the fruit better and taste amazing!
• Ice
• Water!

Start by putting the citrus and the sugar, dry, into the Mason jar. Works best if you kinda squeeze the citrus just a little first, but you don't really have to. Screw the lid down tight and let your kids take turns shaking the heck outta that jar. The harder they shake, the better tasting the drink will be!



When the sugar looks saturated, run some warm water, about a cup's worth, into the jar and let the kids shake again. My three year-old can handle it even at this weight, I just have her stand on the kitchen sink rug in case it slips out of her grip.

When the sugar is dissolved, run some cold water in that jar, and shake it just a bit more. You now have somewhat concentrated citrus-ade! Pour it over ice and enjoy!!

Try adding interesting things, like mint, fresh lavendar, a sprig of thyme, or whatever you can think up.

This method makes the tastiest drink not only because it is fun (and fun always tastes better) but because the sharp edges of the sugar crystals gently pierce the actual rind of the citrus skin, adding a finite amount of citrus oil to your drink. We all know how lovely lemon zest tastes- adding that in tiny increments to your standard lemonade is utterly divine!

Labels: citrus, demerara sugar, drink, fresh, fun, ice, jar, kids, lemonade, lime, motherhood, parenting, recipe, recipes, shake, sugar, summer, tangerine, turbinado sugar, water

Kid #1 is, like many other young girls, enamored of the American Girls books. In one book, some WWII kid doesn't want to eat her mashed turnips (who would?). Someone- obviously desperate or evil- dresses them up with cinnamon and sugar, and the kid is transported to happy eating once again.

This uncanny combination struck my oldest child as so completely novel that she had to try it. She would no relent until we had some cinnamoned-and-sugared mashed turnips ourselves. Having only eaten turnips in things such as stews and pasties, Kid #1 really had no idea how they tasted on their own.

Being the control freak that I am, I tried explaining to her that turnips are bitter, cabbagey, and not conducive to sweet. She was undeterred. So we traipsed out to Meijer tonight and purchased some turnips. Kid #1 was enthralled at the lovely purple gradient on the side, the interesting scales where the leaves had been trimmed, and the perfect firmness of the tuber.

"Do you have cinnamon and sugar at home, mom, or do we need to buy it?" Kid asked.

"Oh, I always have cinnamon and sugar in my house." I replied flippantly, "It makes everything better."

"Which is why it will be perfect on mashed turnips!!" Kid crowed, actually clasping her hands in glee. That's what I get for my flippancy.

We straggled home after leaving a pretty sum of money at the grocery store, and Kid #1 immediately began searching for a peeler. We boiled water, chopped the blarmy rigid things without incident, and tossed them in, excitement building among the little ones. Michael and I looked over their heads at one another, shrugged, and hoped for the best.

Twenty minutes later, we were far from the best. Mashed turnips look bad and taste awful, even with butter and milk. Add something that normally belongs on yummy toast, and you have a complete assualt on your senses. I made faces, but Kid #1 was crowing,

"Isn't it wonderful, mom? It's such a different taste!"

For all of my doubts, all of my silly groundless worries, it didn't even matter. She loved them, although I noticed a mostly-uneaten bowl sitting on the counter just now. Turnips are ridiculously cheap, I had maybe two dollars invested into the entire project- less than I would have spent on a movie. We got to learn about various root plants, and she got to actually try something that she had read about.

At the age of nine, she is going to be wanting to do a lot more of these things. I have always thought that I would have an easy time letting go of them, but I find it to not be so now. The maturity is fine- but worrying about burns and cuts and kitchen messes and wasted food gets to me. Most of all, I worry that they will be disappointed with the things they want to try.

These are needless worries! Of course all three kids will recieve burns and cuts and stitches! And I think that they will survive these things.
There will be messes and disasters and the occasional wasted food or destroyed pan- but they will leave my house knowing how to fend for themselves!

And disappointment- the only disappointment they will know is not having been allowed in the kitchen, if I keep up my current pace. But I will not. I know that it is time to start slowly letting go, gradually releasing my iron grip on these children and their minds and wills and imaginations.

There came a time when my own mom had to let me in the kitchen- and she grimly withstood burned hamburgers, clumpy rice, spicy potatoes, and watery eggs. I am ready to soldier up now and withstand my share of these, all the while teaching my children the science of cooking, the value of a dollar, and the importance of a happy kitchen. I hope I'm up for the task.

And I hope I don't run out of cinnamon.


We might try it on rutabegas next.

Labels: child rearing, children, cinnamon, cooking, experiment, food, kids, motherhood, recipe, turnips, weird

Hi! I just finished the most divine cake and wanted to share the recipe with you. It has been adapted from a 'Hummingbird Cake' recipe that I've made for a couple of years now:

Fruit Smoothie Cake

1 mashed very ripe banana
1 1/2 cups mashed cooked fruit of some sort (I used strawberry applesauce- tangy!)
1 cup, with juice, crushed pineapple
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened nearly to melting
2 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar (less if your cooked fruit is already sweetened)
2 cups plain unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350˚ and line an 11" x 7" cake pan (or equivalent size) with parchment paper.
Make sure fruit is room temperature!
Whip all three fruits with soft butter. Beat in eggs & vanilla. Mixture should now look like a fruit smoothie.
Sift all dry ingredients together, fold into liquid until just moistened, pour into prepared pan. Bake for appx 35-45 mins, or until center cracks a bit across top and feels springy to the touch.

Cool on rack, upend onto serving plate, frost with:

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened unsalted butter
between 1 and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, depending on your preference for sweet and sticky.

Beat on high, until frosting has a faint shine to it.

Frost cake, cover with crushed walnuts (optional) and serve with caffeinated and/or dairy beverage of your choice. It is very, very moist and dense because of all the fruit, and eats well as a breakfast cake!

Labels: cake, cream cheese, dense, fruit, moist, recipe, sugar, yummy