Microwave Mug Cake

I found a recipe for mug cake like this recipe years ago, and threatened to make it, but never made good. One night when I was fiending for something dessert-y, and coincidentally trolling Pinterest, I found this Salted Caramel version on Babble and thought it’d be a brilliant quick fix. (You know, once I  modified it slightly.) The recipe takes minutes to throw together, and total “bake” time is a minute and a half.

I will admit that my cake came out a bit dry, but that won’t deter me from trying again and likely zapping it for less time. Or maybe I’ll finally try Fatty Dumpling‘s version that I still have in my archives from 2 years ago, and for some reason didn’t use yet. (Blame Pinterest. I’m a very easy target on which to impart impulsive ideas.)

Point is, make yourself some cake.

MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE – makes one mug cake

• 4 Tbsp all purpose flour (1/4 cup)
• 4 Tbsp sugar (1/4 cup)
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg – beaten
• 3 Tbsp milk
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• splash of vanilla extract
• 2 salted caramels (optional – I only had regular caramels, it was fine!)

Now, pay close attention to these directions… Put everything into a bowl, mix it together, then pour it into a mug. (Or as Fatty writes, you can even be super lazy and just mix it straight in your mug!)

Super easy, right? No preheating or anything! As for the caramels, the directions said to drop them into the center of the mixture. Now, maybe I’m missing something – but I didn’t quite get what that meant. Just drop them on top of the batter, in the center of the mug? That’s probably what it was, but I pressed mine down into the batter a bit. The caramel ended up sinking to the bottom during baking, but it was still deliciously molten. And stupidly I sprinkled some salt on top to create a salted caramel effect. I won’t do that again. Remember how the caramel sank to the bottom? Yeah, didn’t bring any of the salt with it…

Anyway – microwave your mug on high for 90 seconds (a minute and a half), and voila. As I mentioned earlier, my cake was a bit dry, so I think I’d try 1:15 and add the extra time if it was too raw. And not all microwaves are created equal anyway.

So if you’re short on time before you start going crazy without dessert, this is a handy recipe to keep… well, on hand. I’ve only ever seen it for chocolate, but please share if you’ve found any others you’ve used successfully!

Versatile Blogger Award

This post had been sitting unfinished for a week, but I just couldn’t think of fun enough facts to share. Oh well!

It was such a lovely surprise to receive this award from the ladies over at Omnomalicious. Jecca and Pami do it all – cooking, baking, and cocktails – and I want to be friends with them and partake in the fabulousness that goes on in their kitchens. (Read- please make me omnoms!) You should head over to their site immediately  to check out recipes. Thank you again, ladies, for this award!

**Update – I have also been nominated for this award by Lazy Laura Maisey. She recently did a fun post-a-day series using each letter of the alphabet to inspire that day’s post. Such a fun idea! Thank you again for the award

Below are the rules, as passed down from generations of bloggers before me:

•  Thank the person who gave you this award. (That’s common courtesy.)
•  Include a link to their blog.
•  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
•  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
•  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Well here goes… in no particular order, these are some blogs I really can’t get enough of!

• A Girl and Her Brush
• The Background Story
• Susan Eats London
• Rantings of an Amateur Chef
• Yogininoms
• Sally’s Baking Addiction
• Lil Kunj, Big World
• Raising My Rainbow
• Cookie Momma
• Eggton
• Clones ‘N Clowns
• Movita Beaucoup
• The Temperamental Kitchen
• Chez Sylvia
• Anywhere Home

And here are 7 facts about me:

1. I have soup for at least one meal a day, almost every day. I really do love soup. (And it’s so easy to make!)
2. Saying, “I love soup,” always reminds me of a line in Hot Shots, where Admiral Benson says, “I love soup. At least I think I love soup… It’s either soup or duck. Which one do you shoot?” Seriously, I chuckle to myself every time I think it.
3. One of my new favorite TV shows is Phineas and Ferb. Where have I been the past 4 years?
4. My senior year of high school, I wore something orange almost every day.
5. In 8th grade, I painted my nails every day for at least 2 months.
6. I still find myself watching movies on TV, with commercials, when I have the DVD on a shelf nearby, still in its original packaging.
7. A year ago this week, I was in Europe traveling with a tour group of amazing  people that I’d never met before. It still amazes me when I think about it. I guess I never give myself enough credit for how ballsy I can be!

Orange-scented Strawberry Pie

This really is the most accurate title for this pie, because Strawberry Orange seemed a bit over-exaggerated since I only used a bit of orange zest. The original intention had been to make a Strawberry Rhubarb pie, but I guess rhubarb isn’t in season since I could find it neither fresh nor frozen in 3 stores.

That the pie would be strawberry was no question, they’re on sale for $.99 a pound!, so I decided to sample from a few different recipes for strawberry pie to come up with the one I used below. I probably read 10+ recipes for strawberry pie, and sampled the what I liked best from each recipe. When I see something appear more than once,  I figure it’s tried and true.  In this case, I opted to go with baking the pie whole, as opposed to baking the shell and cooking the filling separately. I also used store-bought, pre-made pie crusts because they were on sale, but you can use your favorite double crust recipe for this as well. This pie was extra exciting for me, because it also marks the day that I made my first latticed crust, and I think it looks fantastic

ORANGE-SCENTED STRAWBERRY PIE – Serves 8

• 2 pie crusts
• 2 lbs fresh strawberries (about 4 cups) – hulled and quartered
• Juice from half a lemon
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp freshly grated orange zest
• 3 Tbsp instant tapioca (or you can grind yours fresh)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp cold butter – I used unsalted, but I imagine salted would taste good too

Roll out one of your pie crusts into your baking dish. (I used glass.) Keep the second crust in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. I covered the prepared pie tin with plastic wrap and placed it back in the fridge while I started on the filling.

Combine your orange zest and your sugar together by massaging the zest in with your fingertips. I love doing this because it makes for a more even distribution of flavor. Your strawberries are likely all together in a bowl, so squirt or pour the lemon juice over them and mix around for even coverage. Then add your tapioca, cinnamon, and orange sugar to the bowl, and stir so the berries are evenly coated.

Pour the berries into the prepared pie dish.  Then, cut your butter into pieces, and dot the top of the filling with it. Preheat your oven to 375ºF.

To prepare the lattice crust – roll out your second pie crust onto a cutting board, or whatever surface you don’t mind cutting on.  Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough into strips, mine were about 1/2″ thick. Pulling every other strip, starting from the smaller outer ones, lay them in one direction across the top of your pie. (You can probably leave out the outer two strips, though I didn’t.) Then, rotate your dish, and lay down the remaining strips, weaving them into the ones that are already on the top of the pie by peeling back every other horizontal piece and placing another one down vertically. For the next strip, peel back the alternating ones, and so forth.

Press the dough at the edges together to seal it (I didn’t see anything about using eggs or water to bind it), and use the pizza cutter to cut away the excess dough. Now, you’re ready for baking!

Put the pie into the oven for 15 minutes at 375ºF, then lower the temperature to 325°F and bake for another 35-45, until the filling starts to bubble. If the crust is getting too browned, cover with aluminum foil. Let it cool before serving.

And voila, a delicious pie! Seriously… This was incredible, and I was pretty skeptical about strawberry filling at first. The orange was present enough to add a layer of depth, but didn’t take over at all, and the pie as a whole wasn’t too sweet or tart. Not to mention, it paired wonderfully with a nice Riesling as well as French Vanilla ice cream. My friends loved it, and I’ll give it an evil rating of 3. I’ll definitely be making it again since strawberries are very much in season now! Food porn below…

Cheese Latkes

I’m literally eating these for breakfast as I type this. It’s not  a breakfast recipe, per se, but they are pancakes, and I wanted to give them a whirl. I’m drooling to think how great they’d taste with brisket. I came across this recipe on Kosherista while I was looking for new Passover recipes to try. The recipe at the link serves four, while below I’ve quartered it to make just enough for one. Still ended up with too much for me – about 4 sizable pancakes!

These are ridiculously good, but I need to work on my execution. (Mom’s the latke expert in the family.) I had a hard time keeping them in pancake form, as you’ll see below, because the cheese gets melty and they stick to the pan, but it didn’t affect how they tasted in anyway. It just looks like more of  a hash. I didn’t expect the recipe to yield so many either, or I would have used a larger pan. (Next time! As there will definitely be a next time.)

CHEESE LATKES – Serves 1-2

• 1/2 cup matzah meal (I didn’t want to make the extra purchase, so I ground 1+1/4 sheets in my mini processor)
• 4oz cottage cheese
• one egg
• pinch of sugar
• veggie oil for frying
• applesauce or sour cream for topping

Here is the rundown of the directions without my personal experience thrown in:

In a bowl, mix together your cheese, matzah, egg, and sugar. Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan, and flip when they’re lightly browned. Once they’re golden, remove from oil and let drain onto a paper towel (over a plate!).

Here’s what happened with me:

The directions are totally straightforward. The problem I ran into, as mentioned above, was that the cheese started melting and so the latkes then stuck to the frying pan. It made it difficult to flip them over and still keep them in pancake form. That being said, I will use a larger pan next time, and literally just drop spoonfuls instead of making silver-dollar size pancakes. I seriously thought I’d end up with a pancake or two, even as I was spooning out the batter. (Give me a break, I’ve been up since 5am.)

The results? Awkward-looking, but super tasty, fried cheese pancakes. Oil makes everything taste better. Top these with applesauce or sour cream, whatever your preference, and you’re all set. Oh, also, make sure to eat them while they’re still hot. They lose a little somethin’-somethin’ as they cool off.  And, again, I bet these would be amazing with brisket – provided you don’t keep Kosher kosher, of course.

And if you’re wondering about the discrepancy in pictures, “batch” 2 turned out much better than the first. So that’s why there’s a single, normal-looking pancake

I’d never had these latkes before today, so who knows what else I’m missing out on. Do you have any different recipes for Passover, or otherwise?

Matzah Brei

Another Passover classic is matzah brei, which is a breakfast dish along the lines of french toast. My mom always made this for us growing up, and it’s quite tasty, as well as easy to make.

You can serve it either sweet or savory, and for this breakfast I opted to top it with some blackberry jelly from Oregon Stirrings that I purchased at a crafts fair. (I also bought a fabulous marmalade that day, which goes great with salted butter on matzah. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a company website to share with you.)

MATZAH BREI – 2 servings

• 2 sheets of matzah – broken into bite-sized pieces
• hot water (to cover matzah)
• 1 egg, beaten
• splash of milk – optional

Start off by soaking your matzah in the hot water. This step isn’t for the faint if heart – especially if you’re like me and squishy things, like cereal that’s been in milk too long, are unappetizing to you. The purpose of this step is to moisten the matzah enough that it will absorb the egg. You want the matzah soft, but not disintegrating, I’d leave it in the water no longer than 2 minutes.

While that’s soaking, in a separate bowl, you can beat your egg with the optional milk. Next, you will literally squeeze out the water from the matzah. Put the matzah into a bowl and add the egg mixture, stirring to make sure it’s all coated.

Heat up a skillet on the stove and melt some butter in it. Then, cook your matzah brei like an omelet, or french toast, letting it set on one side before flipping it over. I used one egg for a sheet of matzah in mine, and it was a bit too eggy, but still tasty. Then, as I mentioned earlier, I topped it with jelly. You can also use powdered sugar, syrup, or maybe even charoset. To make it savory, you can add onions to the pan while it’s cooking, as well as salt and pepper.

Hope you found this to be another easy recipe you can enjoy while keeping Kosher for Passover this week. I’m hoping to post one more before it’s over, but otherwise I’ll just have more in the arsenal to try for next year. What are your favorite Passover breakfast recipes?

Traditional Charoset

So it’s Passover, and I’ve been remiss in posting recipes appropriate to this particular holiday. Specifically associated with the seder, charoset is actually a wonderful salsa of sorts that can be scooped up and eaten on matzah.

While its purpose at the seder is to represent the mortar with which Jews built the bricks while they were slaves in Egypt, the dish is actually made from ingredients you can find year round. I always mean to take advantage of its taste and ease of prep outside of Passover, and maybe this year I finally will. (Especially now that my friends discovered it goes great on french toast. I think that means it’d be pretty tasty on matzah brei too…)

The recipe below is for traditional Ashkenazi charoset, and I found it on Epicurious.

CHAROSET – makes 4 cups

• 3 medium apples, peeled and cored – I used 2 honeycrisp and a gala
• 1.5 cups toasted and chopped walnuts (Toasting optional)
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sweet kosher wine or grape juice

You can prep this in a food processor, but I found it wasn’t too bad chopping everything by hand. Also in a processor you run the risk of making applesauce by accident.

**Optional – Preheat your oven to 400F and place the nuts onto a baking sheet. I used an 8″ square cake pan. When the oven is ready, place the nuts in, and toast for 5-10 minutes, or until fragrant.

The easiest method for chopping up the apples evenly, I found, was to cut it into little “fries” in one direction, then dice it from there. Pour the chopped apples into a bowl. Add the cinnamon and sugar.

While toasting the nuts adds does enhance the nutty smell, it also is much easier to chop them while they’re a bit warm. Make sure the pieces are coarse but similar to the size of the sliced apples. Add them to the bowl as well. Then add the wine and stir until everything’s mixed together.

That’s it! Make sure you cover and refrigerate it when it’s not being eaten. It will last for 3 days this way in the fridge, so you can definitely make it ahead of time and let the flavors develop.

Super tasty, and easy to make all year long. I’d love to try a Sephardic version of this dish, and my neighbor has a recipe I might borrow. Do you have your own charoset tradition?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone

I made some deviled eggs (I use yellow mustard, mayo, pepper, salt, and garlic powder in the yolk), and used teeny sliced carrots for the beak/nose, and some roasted chiles for the eyes. You could also use olives, but I didn’t have any!

To get the eggs to stand upright, use a sharp knife to shave a thin slice off the bottom of the white. It’ll be easier to do this before you cut the egg open to pry the yolk out.

These are also great for Passover. See? This chick is even wearing his matzoh yarmulke.

Whatever holiday you’re celebrating, and even if you aren’t, I hope you have a lovely day!