The Best Laid Plans

Well, I started this blog with every intention of at least a weekly update, but have been awfully preoccupied of late. Not to worry, we've still been eating well.

I have in the freezer the second helping of Pumpkin & Chicken Enchiladas - I'd like to use it this week (ever since putting this baking dish in the freezer, I have reached for it countless times), but am not hugely looking forward to having these again. The first time around, I thought I really liked them, but each time I ate them (maybe three servings in that casserole), they weren't as good as the last time. But - since I have cooked A LOT this past weekend, I am thinking I'll have to suck it up.

We had a fantastic holiday weekend. My parents came from Nashville to join us, and we had some friends stay overnight on Saturday night. The weekend was filled with good food.

Our thanksgiving menu consisted of turkey and dressing (I am the only Southerner I know who does not make cornbread dressing), gratin potatoes, cranberry sauce, cheese puffs, and green beans. Everything tasted great, though we still have enough cranberry sauce to enjoy with every meal for the next month - guess I should have cut that one in half or more! I even thought the gravy turned out well. I was also celebrating a birthday that day, and had my favorite cake for dessert rather than a pie.

Chocolate Velvet Cake

1- 4oz pkg Bakers Germans Sweet Chocolate
6T butter
3T all purpose flour
3 eggs, separated
4T sugar

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat, stir in flour, blend in egg yolks one at a time.

Beat egg whites until foamy, gradually beat in sugar, continue beating until soft peaks form.

Gently fold in chocolate mixture, blending throughly.

Pour into a greased & floured 8" cake pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until tester inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack. Top with Chocolate Glaze.

Chocolate Glaze:
Melt 1- 4oz pkg Bakers Germans Sweet Chocolate and 3T water over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in 3T butter, cool to thicken if desired.

This cake has been my top birthday dessert choice since I was about nine years old (as my mother is fond of telling anyone who will listen!) We had a great early dinner, followed by an early bedtime, since eating a HUGE meal at 4pm made everyone about to pass out by 7... :)

Friday, I made some delicious scones (I substitue dried cherries and almonds for the cranberries and walnuts) for breakfast, along with eggs and bacon. Saturday, when our friends came to visit I knew we'd be going out to dinner, so I decided to make a tasty lunch. I planned to have paninis with chicken, provolone, and spinach grilled on my new griddle (Thanks, mom!!) along with a beet, avocado, and pink grapefruit salad that looked amazing (I love grapefruit and have been wanting to try my hand at a salad which includes it). Unfortunately, upon getting the beets out on Friday night to roast, I discovered I'd waited just a liiiiittttle too long to use them. So, plan b was the sandwiches along with just a simple salad. Thank goodness for the salad, since I didn't know MP's buddy's girlfriend was a vegetarian - OOPS. I think we were able to make a veggie version of the panini that she enjoyed...though I need to learn to ask first, so that I make sure everyone can enjoy our meals. Finally, this morning, we had eggs, bacon (none for the veggie!), and my trusty blueberry pancakes.

I can't believe over the whole weekend, not one picture of our meals were taken...but hopefully I can get back on the wagon here!

I am hoping to sit down this afternoon and figure out what very fresh and light meals we can eat for the next week or so, since I have never felt so full. Perhaps the beet salad is just what we need (hope MP doesn't read this :))

My Sunday Routine

Everybody's got a Sunday routine. Some people head to church, others laze around reading the New York Times...me, I love to spend much of Sunday afternoons in the kitchen. Yesterday, I made banana bread for us to have for breakfast all week, the best oatmeal cookies ever (I added dried cranberries, walnuts, white and milk chocolate chips...yuuuum), a roasted chicken (for pumkin enchiladas later this week - still need to roast the pumpkin though), and coconut shrimp soup for dinner last night.

It took most of the afternoon and evening, but I love the warm kitchen and the radio on. It's my own little peaceful time of the week. I am still doing a horrible job of taking pictures, though I think I have one of the banana bread to upload (well, download from the camera, and then upload to the blog).

Tonight was a night off for me. The MP had dinner out while I was at yoga, and I had a bowl of Life cereal for dinner. That is so gourmet of me :)

Mid-week Bake-a-thon

I have started attending a yoga class on Wednesday evenings, leaving MP to his own devices for dinner...well sort of, we all know I am too controlling for that, so this really means, pre-portioned leftovers and a note with re-heating instructions (as if he's never used the toaster oven!).
So, since yoga doesn't start until 6:45, I have a couple hours between work and class to spend doing cooking other than weeknight dinner preparations. This week, I had a couple of very ripe bananas on the counter, and so I'd decided I would make banana muffins, and I knew these were the ones. I have a bag of wheat germ I have used all of one time, and why not take a chance to get some healthy grains into an otherwise unhealthy breakfast? I only had 1/2 the bananas I needed, so I had to cut the recipe in half, which is a bummer, because they turned out awfully tasty (nutty & dense).

We were also fresh out of sweets, and I don't think a meal can be considered complete with out a little taste of something sweet at the end, not to mention I've had this crazy peanut butter craving of late, so here was the ticket. I added about 1/3 bag of mini chocolate chips, and they're heavenly!

Pumpkin Overload?

...never!!!


But, I did need to use up the leftover pumpkin puree from making the pie on Sunday, so this morning I decided to whip up some muffins. I kind of combined two recipes - one I found included dried cranberries, walnuts, and chopped apples, but seemed like the muffins would turn out dry (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/2851), so I decided to use the one below, and rather than 3/4 c dates, and 3/4 c walnuts, I would just use 1/2 c each of chopped & peeled apples, dried cranberries, and walnuts. I doubled this recipe in order to use the rest of my puree, and I'll freeze 12 of the muffins for later.


Pumpkin Walnut Muffins
Gourmet November 1997
Yield: Makes 12 muffins


1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour or all-purpose flour *
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pitted dates (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (about 3 ounces)

*I used whole wheat flour


Preheat oven to 400° F. and grease twelve 1/2-cup muffin cups. Melt butter and cool slightly. In a bowl whisk together butter, pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Into a large bowl sift together flours, baking powder, spices, salt, and baking soda and whisk in brown sugar. Make a well in center of flour mixture and add pumpkin mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in dates and divide batter among cups. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over batter in each cup and bake muffins in middle of oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until puffed and a tester comes out clean. Cool muffins in cups 5 minutes and turn out onto a rack. Serve muffins warm or at room temperature.


Once they're cooked and taste tested - I'll update on how they turned out...



UPDATE:
1. Next time I will mix the brown sugar into the wet ingredients rather than the dry. I feel like it would have been better incorporated.
2. Doubling the recipe still only used 1 large apple
3. The batter seemed too dense and thick, but the muffins turned out really well
4. 20 minutes was too long, 18 was more like it
5. Doubling the recipe made 29 muffins
I am trying to resist eating more than the one I had to try them out...so I guess that means it's a success. I know MP will like them.