Month: May 2010

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Rainbow Butter Cake

Three colors of batter—what’s not to love?

After I volunteered to make a favorite little friend a birthday cake, I, who love color and art in my food, was told that he prefers white cake with white icing. Rainbow Butter Cake has saved the day—what 11 year-old boy wouldn’t like a multi-colored version of a white cake?

I found this in one of my mother’s favorite’s, the 1961 edition of The New Antoinette Pope School Cookbook:

Rainbow Butter Cake

  • 1-1/2 c. butter (room temp.)
  • 2-1/4 c. sugar
  • 4 large eggs (room temp.)
  • 1-1/2 tsp. lemon zest
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 5-1/2 c. sifted cake flour
  • 4-1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 c. + 2 Tbs. milk

Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat for several minutes. Add extracts, then flour sifted with baking powder, about 1 cup at a time, alternately with milk, beating after each addition only until smooth.

To 3-1/2 c. batter add red food coloring, to 2-3/4 c. add green coloring, to remainder (2-1/4 c.) add yellow coloring.

Grease and flour a 10 x 4 tube pan with a removable bottom. First pour in pink batter carefully with a spoon and spread it gently; then with spoon pour in green batter, and lastly yellow batter.

Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour; then about 20 minutes more at 375 degrees or until done.

The first time I tried this cake I cut it into layers—this was a mistake. The cake crumbled. Keep it whole until it’s time to slice!

First spoon in the red batter and top with the green batter.

Lastly, top the green batter with the yellow batter.

A slice through the cake—layer 1.

A slice through the cake—layer 2.

Fresh Strawberry or Raspberry Fluff Icing

This is the freshest, lightest, truly amazing icing. It beats up like a meringue.

  • 1 c. fresh strawberries
  • 1-1/4 c. granulated sugar
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • a few drops red food coloring

Beat all together at high speed until light and quite stiff, about 5-10 minutes.

Garnish with fresh berries.

 

Joe on his 14th birthday, ready to enjoy his cake.

 

 

 

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Chicken Parmesan served on a bed of Garlic Linguini

This was exceptionally delicious, and quick and simple to prepare.

Chicken Parmesan

  • 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • bread crumbs or Panko crumbs, Italian style
  • 1 jar marinara sauce
  • 6 slices mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
  • Fresh basil leaves or parsley (optional)

Dip the chicken in the egg, coat in the bread crumbs and saute in olive oil until brown, then turn and brown the other side. Pour about 1 cup of sauce to cover the bottom of a 13″ x 9″ pan. Place the chicken on top of the sauce. Top each breast with 1 slice of cheese. Spoon on the remainder of the sauce, and garnish with fresh basil and/or parsley, if you like. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Garlic Linguine

  • 1 pound linguine
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 Tbs. butter, or a combination of butter and olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
  • a little chopped parsley

Cook the linguine al dente. Drain. Add butter and/or oil to pan, add garlic, then toss in the drained pasta and finally the parsley. Serve in a heated bowl.

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Six Pies

This free-form leaf motif top crust is my antidote to a lattice top. Shown here on a rhubarb-custard pie. Custard pies don't freeze well, so we ate this one while still warm.

There aren’t many things that get me as excited as when someone brings me a bag of fresh seasonal fruit. Just consider the possibilities! Jam, conserve, chutney, crisp, crumble, marmalade, muffins, pie? So when 26 cups of rhubarb found its way into my kitchen this morning (thank you, Lori Day), I eliminated the other options, and all I could think about was pies.

This traditional strawberry rhubarb pie is headed to the freezer.

Try different shapes to decorate the top of the pie. Just lay them over the filling before placing the pie in the oven.

A fluted wheel cutter easily creates leaf shapes.

Why stick with round? This double-recipe pie was made in a 13" x 9" pan, and is for an event at the Shavuot Confirmation service at Temple. The ten commandments is the theme for the confirmation class's speeches.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Custard Pie

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 Tbs. milk
  • 1/4 c. flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1-3/4 c. sugar
  • 2 c. chopped rhubarb
  • 2 c. sliced strawberries
  • pastry for a 2-crust pie

Mix together egg and milk, stir in dry ingredients, and then stir in strawberries and rhubarb. Pour into pie crust, top with second crust in either a lattice-style or a covered top crust with vent holes. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until crust is browned and the filling is set.

Liz’s Lemony Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

  • 1/4 c. flour
  • 1-1/4 c. sugar
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 3 c. chopped rhubarb
  • 2 c. sliced strawberries

Mix together flour and sugar, then toss with lemon zest and fruit. Pour into pie crust, top with second crust in either a lattice-style or a covered top crust with vent holes. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40-50 minutes, or until crust is brown and the pie is bubbly.

Pastry for a 2-crust pie

  • 1-3/4 c. white flour
  • 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2/3 c. shortening (can use half Crisco and half butter)
  • 1/2 cold water

By the way, in case you’ve been keeping track, pie #6 wasn’t very photogenic. We’ll eat that one tomorrow.

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Boundary Water biscuits: the time I took Doug camping.

 

I learned a lot from Doug on this camping trip. Who knew that one could bake in a camp fire?

 

One of our first dates was a week-long trip to the Boundary Waters in upper Minnesota. By then we had a pretty good idea that we liked each other, but this was still an important step in our courtship. This would be my fourth trip to the wilderness canoe area, and I wanted to impress Doug with my mastery of all things outdoors: handling a canoe, putting a worm on a hook, starting a fire with one match, reading a wilderness map—I wanted to take him camping. It’s hard to clearly remember, but I don’t think I had yet grasped the depth of Doug’s mastery of the outdoors. Here was a man who, aside from being an Eagle Scout, had been a back country guide in New Mexico, a white-water canoe guide in Maine, had run Colorado’s rivers as a rafting guide, had earned his EMT in his spare time so that he’d feel better prepared during rock climbing emergencies, and possessed copies of his mother’s best recipes.

We had an idyllic week. Mysteriously, there were no black flies or mosquitoes. On one golden evening as we sat on a rock edge over looking the water, watching the sunset, the sky became darker and we were captivated with the brilliance of the Northern lights. Really, it was magical.

As for showing off my mastery of the outdoors, I gave up map duty on day one after getting us quite lost. Only by asking some fisherman did we find out that we were in the lake named, aptly, Lake of Confusion. Yet, I was a good sport in the middle of a down pour and impressed Doug by saying how fun it was. I made a passable camp fire, and was able to successfully feign indifference while putting a worm on a hook.

However, nothing could compare to Doug’s expertise with camp-cooking. He nursed the fire until the coals were evenly hot, mixed up some brownie batter from a homemade, dry mix we had concocted in his apartment in Chicago, then poured it into an aluminum pan which he then placed inside a dutch oven. Doug then buried the entire thing in the coals, creating a campfire baking oven. What a delicacy to have fresh, hot brownies on a wilderness trip!

And on one chilly morning, once again I was amazed by Doug’s camp-cooking ability. Using the dutch oven, he baked up some of his mom’s flaky biscuits.

I guess we each passed each other’s wilderness test. This morning, over 20 years later, using our regular stove, Doug mixed up a batch of biscuits in our kitchen. If you ask any of our kids, they’ll tell you, “Dad makes the best biscuits.”

 

Doug had everything covered: brownies in the oven; coffee on top.

 

 

Doug and Dori, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota, August 1989.

 

 

Here's a picture of the brownies, just coming out of the camp fire. (I was taking pictures of food, 20 years ago, while camping?)

 

Dorothy’s Soft Crumb Biscuits

  • 2 c. flour (Doug uses 1/3 whole wheat flour)
  • 1 Tbs. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 5 Tbs. shortening (Crisco)
  • 2/3-3/4 c. milk

Cut shortening into dry ingredients. Add milk all at once. Stir until just mixed. Turn out onto floured board. Knead about 20 times. Pat out on a floured board, about 3/4″ thick. Cut and bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 mins. Makes 12-14 biscuits.

 

You can see how flaky these are.

 

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Soaking beans

You know all of those plastic bags, each with just a little bit of beans in them, tucked into a corner of your pantry? Today I decided to mix them all together, put them up to soak, and invite them for dinner.

I used the quick-soak method: boil for 5 minutes, let rest for 1 hour, drain, refill with water and then cook for a couple more hours. After I refill the pot with water (covering the beans with about three inches), I’ll add a couple of cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and some salt. When the beans are cooked just right, and not overly soft, I’ll add a can of chopped tomatoes, a little oregano, a dash or two of cayenne, and some more garlic. We’ll eat this with some rice, some fresh tortillas, and some stir-fried vegetables.

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Lamb Kabobs and Carrot-Rice Pilaf

I’m still working on the box of lamb that I bought with Dorothy, and have been searching for something different to do with the ground lamb. Tonight I tried a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo, a book that Isabel Baker gave me. Isabel runs a fine children’s book catalog company and she knows good books. This gorgeous cookbook describes the cuisine of Aleppian Jews, who migrated from Syria to the U.S. in the early twentieth century. The lamb is exotic, yet so easy to prepare, combining finely chopped onion, allspice and cinnamon.

To make the rice pilaf I sauteed 1/2 cup chopped onion, a finely chopped large carrot, a teaspoon of cumin seeds and about 4 whole cloves in a little olive oil. I started brown rice in half water and half chicken stock, stirred in the sauteed vegetables, and then cooked the rice as usual.

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Ida, Suzie, Gert

Suzie’s chocolate bars are in the oven. For hamentashen or babka there’s nothing finer than Ida’s yeast dough, and for an elegant, flaky, bakery-class cookie I go for Gert’s. They are the baker matriarchs whose names head up the treasured recipes in my mother’s card box, and looking through the recipes is like following the jagged lines of a family tree. Recipes with names in the title are like found treasures, taking you back to a loved-one’s kitchen—that is if you know who the person is. I’m a little hazy on which Suzie made the bars that are in my oven, and I’m pretty sure Ida Cash, an old friend of my grandmother’s, is responsible for the yeast dough, but I do remember my great aunt Gert, and think about her when I make her cookies.

What names are on your recipe cards?

Suzie’s Chocolate Bars

For the crust, mix together, and press into a 13 x 9 pan:

  • 1/2 c. butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 Tbs. water
  • 1-1/4 c. flour
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking powder

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 mins. Remove from oven and sprinkle with:

  • 1 12-oz package of chocolate chips

Put back in oven for 1 minute and then remove and spread around the chocolate.

Mix together the following:

  • 2 eggs, plus the extra egg white
  • 3/4 c. sugar
  • 6 Tbs. butter, melted
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 cups chopped pecans

Spread over the top of the chocolate, return to oven and bake for 30-35 mins. Cut into bars when cool.

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Caramelized Banana Pancakes with Toasted Pecans

I woke up entirely too early and decided to treat the kids to some Thursday morning pancakes. These are a bit of a fuss to prepare, as you have to hand-place banana slices on each pancake right after the first flip. However, the caramelized bananas and crunchy toasted pecans make them worth the effort.

Caramelized Banana Pancakes with Toasted Pecans

Toss together and set aside:

  • 2 bananas, on the firm side, sliced thin
  • 1 Tbs. sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Set in the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove to cool:

  • 1/2 c. coarsely chopped pecans

Prepare the batter:

  • 1-1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 c. quick oats
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 c. milk
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbs. oil

Using a non-stick pan, pour batter as usual. When bubbly, arrange a layer of banana slices on the top of each pancake and then flip to cook the other side. Serve topped with extra banana slices and toasted pecans.

Before flipping the pancakes over, after they are bubbly, top with a layer of the sugared banana slices.

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Quick Fruit Tart

I grabbed a bag of apples from the IGA today and they turned out to be mushy. There’s nothing more disappointing than a mushy apple, but I didn’t want to throw out an entire bag, so I decided to put together this quick dessert. This is just a simple pastry, filled with apple slices, a little sugar and cinnamon. Nothing fancy, but very elegant for a Wednesday night.

In my quest to pack more vitamins into my growing children, I used 100% whole wheat pastry flour. I’m a big fan of whole wheat pastry flour. It can be substituted 1-to-1 for white flour, bakes up a little browner, but is every bit as light and flaky.

Quick Fruit Tart

Blend together the following, as you would for a pie crust:

  • 1-1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1-1/2 sticks butter
  • 1/3 c. ice water

Roll it out on parchment paper, into an oval or a rectangle. Sprinkle with the following, blended together:

  • 1 Tbs. flour
  • 1 Tbs. sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon

Layer on thin slices of fruit (apples, peaches, plums or pears), and top with berries if you like. Sprinkle with some additional sugar or cinnamon-sugar. Fold over the edges of the crust and crimp.

Slip the parchment onto a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until nicely browned. Serve hot. Scoop on some vanilla ice cream for a treat!