Hummingbird Carrot Cake, Lying Tooth-picks, and Accidental Granola

I had the good fortune to eat the Shrimp Shack in Fort Myers this winter. 

The fish was good, but the hush puppies (best I've had) and hummingbird cake were OOTW!   I wanted the recipe for the cake BAD!!!!

I called the Shrimp Shack and found out it would cost about $50 to ship a whole cake to Minnesota.  Hmm...I did consider it. I liked it that much.  Well, some sense kicked in (my bank statement actually) so I decided to make one myself.  

My go-to site is Cookie Madness to see what Anna has in her recipe box. Sure enough, she posted a hummingbird cake recipe.  

I baked mine in a 9 x 13 pan.  I did not let it bake long enough. At 42 minutes I took it out-the toothpick was clean.  Did you know toothpicks can lie?  The whole center caved in a bit after it cooled. I cut just the outside of the cake all the way around and ended up with 3 bread loaf pan shaped pieces.  

And what did I do with the underdone center?  Well, I made lemonade out of lemons.  I cut the raw-ish cake into bite-size pieces, threw them on a baking sheet, and let them dry out in a 300 degree oven for about 30 minutes-maybe longer ( I was not timing it exactly).  I stirred them a couple times. 

They were crispy, tasty, a bit like granola since they had fruit and nuts in them, and I didn't waste all those delicious ingredients.  I can mix them in yogurt or cereal.  

Yes, they look like hamburger or stuffing. Oh well.  They taste better than they look.

Here is Anna's Hummingbird Cake turned into a carrot cake with a few of my changes:

Ingredients: 

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1.5 cup chopped toasted pecans --divided use!

2 cups mashed bananas  (it took 4 or 5 medium to make 2 cups)

1 cup shredded carrots   (I might add 1.5 cups next time)
Cream Cheese Frosting-my adaptation of Anna's recipe below.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray (2) 9-inch round cake pans or a 9 x 13 pan with flour-added cooking spray or rub with shortening and dust with flour.
Stir flour, soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl.  Set aside.  Add eggs, mashed bananas, and oil into another mixing bowl and mix well together by hand.  Then add that wet mix to the dry, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not beat.) 

Stir in pineapple and 1 cup pecans-**save the 1/2 cup for topping. 

Pour batter into cake pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes (in a 9 x 13 bake at least 45 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks (I left the cake in my 9 x 13 pan).

Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake; sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top. Store in refrigerator.

16 servings

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
8 tablespoons (8 oz) salted butter at room temperature
1.5 cups powdered sugar½ teaspoon orange extract or one teaspoon vanilla. 

(add 1/8 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)

Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy. Beat in extract. 

No Need To Knead

For some reason I was in the mood for baking bread the other day (Maybe because I live in Minnesota and the weather keeps me cooped up in the house.) 
I discovered no-knead bread a while back when looking for a dairy free, egg free, iodized salt free recipe. I am not on the dairy free, egg free and iodized salt free diet now so I can have eggs, butter, milk, and regular salt. I also get to have the extra 10 pounds they put on me (of course it's not MY fault!)  I tweaked a no- knead whole wheat bread recipe I found on the King Arthur's website.  They claim it is so easy you can do it with one hand tied behind your back. Apparently the King Arthur official blogger for this bread did just that.  Another piece of information I found out is that King Arthur's baking hotline does work-even on the weekends there is a baker staff member waiting to answer your questions.  I was impressed!   So, without further delay, here is the recipe for KA no-knead whole wheat bread.

For me it came out perfect! Sliced easily even when warm (yup, couldn't wait.) You need a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for this recipe. Changes I made because I didn't have orange juice or powdered milk or enough whole wheat flour: Substituted 1 cup bread flour for 1 one cup WW. Used 1 cup of 1% milk instead of 1 cup water. Used 1 teaspoon lemon juice and added milk to equal 1/4 cup. I mixed all dry ing. together in my KitchenAid mixing bowl. I mixed 3 T of molasses into the cold milk and then heated it to luke warm in the micro.

ORANGE FLAVOURED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BARS

Have you ever heard of a healthy chocolate chip cookie bar? No? Me either! I did however find a not-so-unhealthy chocolate chip cookie dough recipe on Cookie Madness.  It uses Kellogg's All Bran cereal.  I get a lot of inspiration from Anna's site.  Her recipes are tried and true. Then I mess around with them!  This recipe was forgiving with the changes I made and actually came out better than I expected! That is kind of why I made them into bars rather than spending extra time making cookies-I was not sure if my changes would ruin them or not. 

In keeping with the  Kellogg's healthy All Bran theme, I substituted a half of a cup of whole wheat flour for one half of a cup of white flour.  Because I wanted to ensure they did not taste "healthy", I added a little more brown sugar and a little less white sugar.  (The bars are a little softer because of this. Next time I might go back to Anna's original recipe of 3/4 cups brown and 3/4 cups white sugar).  I also added 3/4 teaspoon of orange extract instead of vanilla hoping it would hide any "healthy" flavour! (It worked). I left the nuts out of my first go at this recipe. Because there is enough salt in this dough (they are not salty!), you don't need the nuts to cut the richness or the sweetness.  Plus, when I'm experimenting, I don't use the nuts because they are expensive! Anyway, these bars are delicious.  No one would have a clue there is anything healthy in them!   I had four open chocolate chip bags of various flavours. I mixed them all together and ended up with the 2 cups needed for this recipe.  I had fun squishing up the empty bags with frayed twist ties and throwing them away! See the link above for the original recipe. My changed recipe is below.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Kellogg's All Bran cereal

• 1/4 cup hot water

• 1 stick salted butter softened, but not melted.

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or extra light olive oil

• 1 cup golden brown sugar

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 3/4 teaspoon orange extract

• 2 cups all-purpose presifted flour

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 cups chocolate chips (I used bittersweet, semi sweet, and white)

• 1 cup chopped, toasted nuts of your choice (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly spray a 9 x 13" baking pan with non-stick spray or line with nonstick foil.
2. Pour the All Bran into a small bowl and pour the hot water over it. Mix it up a little bit and let sit until it softens and turns mushy.
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix thoroughly.  Set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl cream the softened butter with the sugars and oil until well combined.   Add eggs and orange extract. Beat only until well combined.  
5. Add the All Bran to the wet mixture and mix in until fully incorporated
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together on the lowest setting until JUST fully combined.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts if you are using them.
7. Pour into the prepared pan and pat down so the batter is evenly distributed.
8. Bake on the middle rack of a 325° oven for approximately 28 minutes. Check at about 25 minutes as ovens vary.
9. Let cool for about an hour.  Cut them into squares before the chips harden. You don't need to remove them from the pan yet, but cutting them after the chips harden is the mistake I made!!!

5-Star Pumpkin Praline Torte

It has been months since my last post. I can't believe time went by so fast! I did a lot of gardening, photography, and State Fair entry baking this summer.  Now to dust off my blog!
I made my favorite Thanksgiving dessert today and thought I'd post it for you before TG.  I received the recipe from a work buddy years ago.  Then I altered it a bit.  No surprise there!  Then I saw it posted on the Taste of Home website.
It has never, ever received a bad review from anyone (at least not in front of me!)
People taste it and you see this look of happy amazement on their faces.  Not even crumbs are left on plates!!!  All reviewers rated it 5 out of 5 stars on Taste of Home.
Here are a few photos.

Just out of the oven

Frosted

Sliced and ready to eat

You can see a caramel-coated pecan trying to fall out 

of the middle.  

You can get the recipe from the Taste of Home site, but here are my IMPORTANT TO ME changes:
1.  I put a large cookie sheet on the bottom of the oven while it is preheating to catch the possible drips from the caramel.

2.  I use real butter to coat and then lightly flour the pans.  Never had a cake stick.

3.  I use only one 15 oz can of pumpkin.  That is about 1 1/2 cups, not two.  The
change makes the cake lighter.

4.  I use 1/4 teaspoon of orange extract in the batter instead of vanilla.

5.  I only bake it for 30 min.  Check at 25 or so.  Less pumpkin causes it to bake up faster.

6.   Only cool for 4 or 5 minutes in the pan MAX.  When removing the cakes from the pans after about 4 minutes of cooling, you will see caramel and nuts still in the pans. I put the pans back into the oven for about 2 min. and then scrape the remaining softened caramel out and drizzle over the cakes. (I save some to eat-it is amazingly delicious!!!)

7.  I use 1/4 teaspoon of orange extract in the whipped cream topping.

8.  Hints for the whipped cream:  put the bowl and beaters in the freezer about 15 min before you use them.  The colder the cream, the faster it whips up.

9.  I use a product called Whip It  to stabilize the whipped cream so the cake can sit out for a few hours without the frosting melting.

10.  Use a large, sharp knife to slice it.  As you can see in my photos, I didn't.

I sure hope you try this cake!

Easy, Fresh, Corny Salsa

Every year I wait for a certain vendor to show up at our local farmer's market with his home made corny salsa. A small jar is over $7!  This year I couldn't wait and since I'm not working now, I thought I would try saving some money on salsa by making my own. I thought how hard could it be to find a good salsa recipe on line?  You can find everything online!  Guess what? It wasn't hard at all! I found two right off the bat! So, my recipe below is an adaptation of Tyler Florence's Salsa Fresca and Rob Barrett's Cooking For Dad's recipe on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_evFB7RIKA   This guy is from Minnesota and so am I.  Many of us don't like fire-breathing dragon spicy food and he takes that into consideration with his recipe.

I hope you enjoy my version!

What you will need:

Food processor-or get ready for lots of chopping.

4 large or 5 small Roma tomatoes 

1 green pepper-use half or the whole thing.  Cut into quarters.

1/3 of a large peeled sweet onion

1/2 jalapeno with seeds for spicy and without seeds for mild

8-10 cilantro sprigs (important for flavor!-I use six because hubby is cilantro challenged) 

2-3 peeled garlic cloves finely minced, or equivalent garlic powder

1/2 cup fresh off the cob or frozen corn-not canned. If using frozen, do not defrost.

1/2 teaspoon salt

juice of one lime

Directions:

Wash all vegetables well.

Slice tomatoes in half and with your finger scoop out the seeds and juice-throw seeds and juice out.  Throw tomatoes into the food processor.

Slice the green pepper in half, scoop out the seeds, and throw them out with the stem. Quarter it and throw into the food processor.

Slice the 1/3 of an onion in half and throw into the food processor.

Slice the jalapeno and put in as much as you would like. I like mild salsa so I use ½ without seeds.

Break cilantro sprigs in half and throw into the food processor.

Add the remaining items to the food processor and pulse to get the desired consistency.

This recipe makes about 3 cups of salsa-Enough for a couple bags of  Tostitos brand scoops!

Veggie Delight Lasagna

The high today in Minnesota was 44° and that was before noon.  They told us we could possibly get snow!  Here I was ready to plant my annuals and instead I decided it was a good day for baking.  I once tasted my cousin Frank's vegetable lasagna.   I was in the mood for it and had friends coming for lunch who like veggies.  I remembered his was delicious. So I called him up. I was thrilled when he said he would give the recipe to me.  Then he just started dictating! I was scared.  When someone is not reading a written recipe, it makes me think they will forget something.  So I wrote while he spoke.  My post today is proof Frank has an excellent memory and an excellent recipe! I did change one or two things and added one or two things, but this recipe lends itself to improvisation.  Without further ado, here it is!

Cousin Frank's and Gloria's veggie lasagna

My friend's rescued puppy Bronte looking hungry for lasagna!!!

Ingredients:

One small box no boil lasagna noodles

About a ¼ cup olive or other vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

16 oz sliced small baby bella or crimini mushrooms for divided use

24 oz can Hunt's pasta sauce or your favorite pasta sauce

1 large bag rinsed and dried fresh spinach (the bags are about 7 ounces or so. )  *You may substitute frozen spinach that has been thawed and well drained.

1 cup shredded carrots ( my addition)

½ cup half and half creamer or cream (my addition)

32 oz container ricotta cheese

2 large eggs.

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese, divided use.

18 slices mozzarella cheese.

Getting Ready:

Preheat oven to 350

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with non-stick spray.  Set aside.

Spray the foil which will be covering the pan during baking or use non stick foil for covering the pan.  

For the sauce:

Pour the vegetable oil into a large saucepan.  Set heat to medium and sauté chopped onion until it is translucent (you can kind of begin to see through it). Then add 8 oz only of mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Then add garlic and continue to cook for a few minutes so mushrooms lose their moisture and shrink.  When the mushrooms are cooked stir in the 32 ounce container of pasta sauce and pour in the bag of spinach.   Cook on medium low so the sauce just barely simmers uncovered for about 20 minutes.    Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup half and half or cream AND 1 cup shredded carrots.

For the ricotta layer:

Scoop out approximately 2/3 of a 32 ounce container of ricotta and put it into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir in eggs and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Stir until well combined.

To assemble:

To the sprayed pan add about a quarter cup of sauce to spread over the bottom.   Use a little more if you need to.  Then add a layer of noodles.  Break to fit them if necessary. Spread some sauce over the noodles. Then place half of the remaining mushrooms evenly on top of the sauce.  Lay six slices of mozzarella cheese over them. Then spread half of the ricotta mixture over the mozzarella cheese.   Repeat. You will end up with the ricotta mixture on top.  Add six slices of mozzarella cheese on top of the ricotta and sprinkle top with one half cup Parmesan or to taste.  Bake covered for 30 minutes and uncovered for about 20 minutes or until cheese on top turns golden.  Note: you can assemble this lasagna and refrigerate it overnight. Then you will need to add 15 extra minutes or so to the "covered" baking time.

Good day for chicken soup!

It snowed a half a foot or more somewhere in MN to day, so today's recipe is chicken soup...

Chicken vegetable soup

You just can't predict soup weather in Minnesota! In March we had an 80° day. Today northern Minnesota got 8 inches of snow. We all go figure.

I was totally getting overdosed on brownies so I decided to make something healthy for a change.  This recipe has evolved over the years so now I call it completely my own (especially since I add an ingredient most people don't add, but it makes a delicious soup.)

Recipe:

3 1/2 or 4 pound cut up fryer

6 unpeeled carrots cut in thirds

2 onions peeled and quartered (I use yellow or white onions)

1 parsnip cut in thirds

1  yam  cut in thirds

2 stalks of celery  cut in quarters

4 cloves garlic  peeled, but not smashed

1.5 tablespoons salt

To add after soup is completely done: 

1 package peeled mini carrots

2 cups sliced celery

Broccoli florets..to taste. 

Directions:

Place chicken in an 8 quart stock pan.  Fill with cold water until chicken is just covered. Bring the water to a boil and then boil for about five minutes.  While waiting for the boil, wash the parsnip and carrots and celery and prepare the vegetables.  Set aside.  Skim the foam out of the pan as it boils.  Add salt to boiling chicken.   Add prepared vegetables and simmer for about an hour and 15 minutes.   Remove chicken to a separate bowl.  Remove chicken meat and return skin and bones back to the soup.  Simmer for another hour (if I am pressed for time, I don't put the skin and bones back in and don't simmer for another hour.)   Strain soup to remove all cooked vegetables and debris.   So now you can do a couple of different things. If I use all dark meat (thighs or legs), I cool the soup, put it in the refrigerator overnight, and then take all the fat off the top before reheating it and adding the mini carrots and celery and broccoli.   If you use less fatty chicken,

then as soon as you strain the soup, put it back on the heat and add mini carrots and celery.  DO NOT ADD BROCCOLI YET!  Simmer for about half an hour. Then turn off heat, add broccoli, and wait for about 20 minutes.  Add chicken meat.  The broccoli will be cooked and the soup will be ready to eat!