Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 stick butter, plus extra for loaf pan

3 medium apples

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 cup apple cider (I substituted )

1 3/5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for loaf pan

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 or 4 grates fresh nutmeg (about 1/2 teaspoon)

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch kosher salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting

One 8-ounce package Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature

1 stick butter, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 lemon, juiced

                                                                         Plan of Attack

                                                                                Cake

Chop the apples into medium dice, toss with lemon juice

Add butter to medium sauce pan, toss the apples and add juice/cider; Cook apples until they reduce and then transfer to a food processor where they can be processed into a paste.

Mix flour, sugar, vanilla, egg, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder in a bowl and then add the apple mixture. Mix completely and pour into a buttered loaf pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted is clean when extracted. When cool, remove cake from loaf pan and slice lengthwise so there is a top and a bottom.

                                                                            Frosting

Prepare the frosting by mixing butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and remaining lemon juice. You can use a hand mixer or ya can mix by hand - awesome either way. Mixing my hand ensures ya burn the calories ya need in order to actually deserving eating this decadent of a dessert! ( your biceps'll send a "thanks" notice)

Spread frosting on the inside of the cake and then put the top on. Mindfully spread the frosting not he cooled cake to cover the entire thing. If ya so desire, decorate with patterns of cinnamon (as pictured in the photograph).

My comments: This recipe was introduced to my kitchen by a very special lady, and I make this cake in her honor and the honor of her gente. I have made this cake over and over again and it is always enjoyed. It freezes well, and I because of the apple mixture, is actually not as bad for ya a traditional cakes which generally require more butter than this recipe indicates.  It is possible to over-nutmeg and I suggest being very mindful about how much ya add. I did try and add five sm apples instead of the required 3, and the result was a very tasty but very dense puddingesque version of this cake.

Bacon-Wrapped Rosemary and Dijon Pork Loin

                                                                          Ingredients

2-3 tbls of olive oil

2 sm - medium apples

Portuguese bread (amount based on size of pork loin- you could also substitute for Italian Bread in a pinch)

Dijon Mustard

1 Shallot (medium to big)

Rosemary (to Taste)

2 cloves of garlic

Pork tenderloin 

package of bacon (6-9 slices)

salt and pepper (to taste)

                                                                        Tools

Baking Dish

Toothpicks

Wood Board for Resting pork

Medium Skillet

Sharp paring knife for preparing the pork

                                                                   Plan of Attack

Preheat oven to 450 Degrees

Cut the pork through the mid line so it open like a book. Season lightly with pepper.

Add the bread to a food processor and pulse until it resembles bread crumbs. The ratio you're looking for with bread crumbs in this recipe is 2 cups of bread crumbs : 2 lbs of pork...)

Add the olive oil to a medium skillet. Saute the diced shallot, diced garlic, diced apples, 2-3tbls of mustard,  sprinkle of salt and rosemary, until it is cooked through and the shallots are clear. Add the bread crumbs and mix thoroughly. The three musketeers of garlic, shallots and Rosemary rock my world all day, every day...in WHATEVER!

Line up slices of bacon behind the butterflied pork so they can be wrapped over after it is stuffed. After the stuffing mixture has cooled, add it to middle of the pork neatly. Close the pork "book" so it resembles a sandwich with the raw pork as the "bread" and the stuffing as the filling. Wrap the strips of bacon around the pork loin and secure the strips with toothpicks with the seam of the wrapped bacon on the bottom of the pan.

Put your pork in the oven and cook thoroughly until bacon has browned and pork is cooked through. This   should be 40-50 minutes (depending on your oven).

My comments - Awesomeness...of course. Rosemary and decadence ...there's nothing bad there! What I would make better: I would place the pork loin in my cast iron skillet before putting in oven so it had the satisfying crunch everybody  looks for in pretty much anything with the word bacon in it.  This would cut the cooking time to 30-40 minutes. You could also accomplish this effect by placing in the broiler, but I live in an old house so I personally don't mess with my broiler!

You could get away with not as much bacon (5-6 slices) by cutting them and wrapping them tight on the pork loin. It is definitely a matter of personal preference based on the indulgence level you're looking for!

Crunchy Wild Hippie Banana Bread

Only the best and sweetest bananas welcome in this recipe

                                                                   Ingredients

2-3.5 bananas (super ripe)

cup of flour

.65 cup of oats

.5 cup of milk

tbs salt

tsp real vanilla

tbs of butter (room temperature)

an egg

7/8 tsp of baking powder

.25-.5 cup of brown sugar (made to your preference for sweetness and ripeness of bananas)

                                                                Plan of Attack

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Mash the Bananas in a medium mixing bowl. A potato masher works very well. Add wet ingredients and then add oatmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Mix well with a wood spoon carefully to integrate the ingredients to a smooth batter.

Butter a loaf pan. Pour batter into the loaf pan and place in your oven.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, when a knife should be clean when inserted in the middle.

Comments: This is my favorite banana bread recipe. It also works as a muffin recipe which makes 9 muffins baked for 11-13 minutes. Somebody said recently: "Banana bread isn't healthy!" Then I said "You obviously haven't met mine!"

I could muse on banana bread recipes all day, every day, but I'll keep it brief. The vast majority of banana bread recipes call for refined ingredients, massive quantities of butter or oil and more sugar than this recipe. The trick is incorporating the oats, using a better banana-to-flour ratio and using only super ripe bananas. My trick: I freeze bananas when I have them in abundance in baggies with the correct amount of bananas for this recipe. The I take the baggie out, defrost them on my counter and bake my bread when I get home from work. The freezing and defrost process brings out the natural sweetness of the bananas and they're easier to work with. Don't let their de-frosted appearance fool ya- they're still good to use as defrosted banana soup!

Homemade Sun Dried Tomato, Arugula, and Goat Cheese Pizza with carmelized shallots

Ingredients

Prepackaged Pizza Dough

Shallot (medium)

2-3 cups of arugula

cup of sun dried tomatoes

medium log of goat cheese (I used herbes de provence- chèvre variety)

Fresh mozzarella (to taste)

tbs brown sugar

olive oil 

crushed garlic (to taste)

                                                            Plan of Action

Preheat the oven to 325

Line a baking sheet with tin foil (if pizza stone is not on hand)

Knead pizza dough and stretch to opposite corners of pan/stone. Brush the dough with olive oil which has been flavored with crushed garlic. 

Chop Arugula into bit size pieces; Chop sun dried tomatoes into rough dice; Using your hands spread the goat cheese to coat the pizza dough; scatter sun-dried tomatoes over the pizza dough;

In a medium skillet, caramelize the onions by sautéing them in olive oil, a sm amount of garlic and the brown sugar.

Scatter the onions over the top of the pizza. Scatter Arugula over the top of the pizza and cover with mozzarella (to taste).

Put pizza in oven for 25-30 minutes...ENJOY!

*Makes 5-6 massive servings..but it's pizza so who complains about big slices?

Comments: This my go-to pizza for nights when ya wanna little fancy but gotta have some cheese...Comfort food elevated, but still sinful so it'll give ya your indulgence fix. 

Thai Chicken Soup

Yummity Yum Yum 

                                       This Week's Recipe of the Week - Thai Chicken Soup

                                                                      Ingredients

A lb of chicken ( I got thin sliced boneless skinless breasts) 

Scallions

Bunch of Cilantro

Thai Rice Noodles - 0.5 of package

Thai Fish Sauce

Lime 

Sugar (tbs)

3.5 cups of chicken Stock (I used Goya chicken boullion to make my chicken stock)

carrots (2-3) - Thinly Sliced

                                                                    Plan of Attack:

- Boil 6-7 cups of water and submerge the rice noodles. Cook for 3-5 minutes. drain pot and rinse noodles in cold water. 

- Cut the chicken into thin strips and marinate in whatever marinade works for your palate. Used Lawry's Balsamic herb marinade for meat and fish. Add olive oil to your medium skillet -  butter can also be used. Saute the chicken until cooked through. Put aside.

- Combine chicken stock, 2-3 tbs of Thai Fish sauce, tbs (or so) of lime juice, sugar, and thinly sliced carrots in a stockpot. Bring broth to a boil.

- Add the chicken to the dish with the noodles and pour broth over both. Serve in individual bowls and garnish with chopped scallions and cilantro.

*Makes 6 sm-medium portions.

My opinion: This was a light refreshing soup and if I were to make this recipe again I would experiment to other ways of preparing the chicken. I might also try adding celery or additional Asian vegetables to the broth.  This recipe is a slight variation of the recipe which was on the back of the Thai Kitchen rice noodles box...in cooking, as in rice, I put my own spin on things...