Yoga community love: almond flax chocolate power bars

Trying something new with this post;  using the Blogger App on my iPhone while "out of the office". Pretty sure auto correct and I will tangle over the next hour or so as my thumbs fumble across the keyboard without actual keys.  But mid way through vacation I should be able to find some patience with myself and my limited iPhone typing skills. 

Last week some of my favorite people worked together to launch Spincycle and a new location of The Yoga Studio in one amazing space. I love our yoga community in Indy and I love my job for connecting me to so many beautiful people and practices.  The week started with Amanda's 5:45 am get your week started right spin class and ended with Tiffany's challenging evening vinyasa class / lulu party.  In between, Sharon's super motivating spin class left Sara and I ready to take on just about anything.  

So if you are having a party after a hot vinyasa class you probably should show up with something with a solid nutritional pedigree.  But since since it"s a party you can throw in a little chocolate. 

This recipe is from a party after a rooftop yoga class with another group of favorite yoga friends.   Yoga friends overlap in some amazing ways to make up one very inspirational community.  This power bar recipe is vegan and crazy delicious.  The bars need to be refrigerated. Thy warm quickly ad maybe some day I will figure out the twist needed to make them a bit sturdier and more portable. 

Maybe you don't have Stevia or agave nectar in your pantry, but they are worthy additions. If you have Celtic sea salt, I will be very impressed.   I did not have I but live using it now that it's part of my cooking and baking arsenal.   When I made these last week, I did not have almonds in any significant quantity (unusual), but I did have a big bag of hazelnuts (more unusual).  I had plenty of chocolate chips, but I also had a nice block of Callebaut milk chocolate that really I just wanted to nibble a bit and knew it would make the bars really good.  So use what you like.  Give it your own twist.  Then just try not to eat half the pan.  Tempting!

Almond Flax Chocolate Power Bars

2 C almonds 

1/2 C flax meal 

1/2 C unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 C creamy natural almond or peanut butter

1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt

4 drops Stevia

1/2 C coconut oil

I T agave nectar (or more to taste)

1 T vanilla

1/2 C chopped chocolate or chocolate chips (pick your favorite)

Process the almonds, flax meal, coconut, nut butter and sea salt until combined about 30 seconds.  Over very low heat melt the coconut oil in a small pan. Add coconut oil, stevia, agave nectar and vanilla to processor and pulse to blend into a paste.  Add in chocolate and pulse to combine.  Press mixture into an 8x8 or 9x9 pan and refrigerate at least an hour. It into bars and serve. 

Makes 16-20 bars

salads to share: "Boulder" Salad: aka bulgur salad with apricots and pistachios

It's time to make big bowls of delicious things to serve for Mother's Day, graduation parties, showers, cookouts, concerts and all the other warm weather bring a dish to share functions.  I made this creative salad from Fine Cooking for just myself and my BFF who stopped by when she was on this continent last week (so fun).  It's a bit much for two, but great for 8-12 or more.  It's a side dish for anything, but you could toss in some chilled or grilled shrimp or diced or shredded rotisserie chicken and maybe even add a little feta cheese to make it more of a main.  So, I had a great big bowl of it in my fridge and realized we wouldn't be home to finish it since we were off to pick up Sara who is now half way through with college at Duke!  I called my mother-in-law and asked if they would like some yummy bulgur salad with apricots and pistachios and if so, I could walk it over after cutting our lush May green lawn.  Love this time of year.  Well, usually this time of year is further in bloom, but we have caught up to the vivid saturation of green.  Love.  Anyway, I walked it over and she asked me why it was called "Boulder Salad".  Ha.  If you know me you know I might talk way too fast to actually understand and or be multi-tasking while on the phone which never helps with the clarity.  And now we will just rename this Boulder Salad because after visiting Boulder, Colorado last summer while moving Kelly out to California I can honestly say you might be served a salad just like this in Boulder.  And maybe someday I'll be the one serving you.  Would live in Colorado in a heart beat.  

Note that if you're gluten-free, quinoa would work perfectly here.  So would other whole grains and even orzo.  Just prepare them according to package directions and toss with the other ingredients.

Boulder Salad

2 C bulgur (I bought the little package from Trader Joe's which is quick cooking)

kosher salt

1/2 C olive oil

1/3 C minced sweet, yellow or red onion or shallots

1 T minced garlic (3-4 cloves)

1/2 C chopped dried apricots (Costco's big bag has way too many, but they are lovely)

1 C coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

3/4 C coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

3/4 C coarsely chopped fresh mint

1/2 C chopped roasted, salted pistachios

1/3 C fresh lemon juice (2 large lemons)

freshly ground black pepper

Prepare bulgur or other grain as directed on package with salted water (when done, drain if necessary).  Meanwhile, heat 1 T of olive oil in a small skillet and cook the onion until tender, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the garlic until fragrant (about 30 seconds-1 minute).  In your large serving bowl add the remaining ingredients and toss together tasting for salt and pepper.  Refrigerate up to 4 hours for the freshest herbs, but it will keep for a few days covered and refrigerated.  Warm to room temperature for serving.  

ingredients (half batch)

ready to toss

so pretty and delicious

busy girl breakfast: baked oatmeal to go

Quick post for one of the smartest lulus I know, Tricia.  Tricia's a busy young mom and needs breakfast on the go.  I'm a kind of busy older mom with no one to feed breakfast every day other than myself and my cat, but he's super easy.  Besides, he wakes me up every morning around 5:40 and for some unknown reason I get up, go downstairs and feed him and then sleepily climb back upstairs and go back to bed for a little bit.  I trained my kids better than my cat.  Sad state of affairs.

Anyway, here's a breakfast you can make on Sunday night and enjoy all work week.  The brilliant blogger I adapted the recipe from actually bakes her baked oatmeal in 4 or 8 oz mason jars, puts on the rings and lids and keeps them in the fridge so they are ready to throw in her bag every morning.  I usually make mine in a loaf pan and slice it, reheat it and serve it with some yogurt and maybe some fresh fruit.  You don't really need to reheat it, it's pretty tasty cold.  I have posted baked oatmeal before, but this version is vegan without the eggs and milk.  You'll never miss them.  Go ahead and customize with your favorite spices, fruits and nuts.  I'm pretty stable on my choices:  cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, banana and walnuts because I go day to day on raisins and other dried fruit.

Baked Oatmeal To Go

1 cup rolled oats
2 T chia seed or ground flax
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of fine salt (one or two turns of the Costco sea salt)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 C almond milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk and skip the vanilla extract)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (see above)
2 T pure maple syrup
one sliced or diced banana (apple, peach, fresh or dried blueberries or raisins would be good)
1/3 C chopped walnuts or pecans (or sunflower seeds if you're nut-free)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 6 little mason jars or one 9x5x2 loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, chia seed/flax, cinnamon, nutmeg, slat and baking powder.  Stir in the almond milk, vanilla and maple syrup and combine well moistening the oats thoroughly (almond milk is mostly absorbed).  Fold in the fruit and nuts of your choice.  Divide into mason jars (about 1/3 cup per jar) or pour into loaf pan.  Pour any leftover milk from mixing bowl into jars or loaf pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly firm and golden brown on top.  Cool completely.  Place lids on jars or slice loaf and put in a storage container.  Refrigerate until ready to eat or take with you as you fly out the door.

first time I made this:  one mason jar and one 6-inch cake pan,
now I use a loaf pan for easy slices

ready for the fridge

LA travelogue and (shocking) a recipe: red pepper and goat cheese dip

Wow.  Been a while.  Visited warm and sunny LA last week to belatedly celebrate Kelly's birthday.  She's quite the hostess.  If you need an LA concierge, she's your girl.  Started the trip with a late night dinner at the very exclusive Gjelina on Abbot-Kinney in Venice.  The place that Gwyneth loves.  There is a reason.  Dark and cozy inside/outside with too many creative vegetables, small plates, thin thin thin pizzas and desserts to choose.  Friday night dinner up in the Hollywood Hills at Yamashito, glittering LA below and sushi perfection on your plate.  After a good hike in Kelly's back yard aka Runyon Canyon; Saturday brunch at Blu Jam on Melrose for Cobb egg white omelets (brilliant) and a little relocation for a movie star that earned us a side of crunchy french toast (yes, little french toast triangles rolled in corn flakes served with berries and vanilla cream) for our troubles.  After Kelly's first Stand Up Paddleboard outing in Marina del Ray (she's now hooked like her mother) and some touring around Santa Monica we showered up at our old neighbor's adorable new place just a bit inland before heading out to the PCH and dinner over the water in Malibu at Moonshadow.  Sunday brought another hike, brunch at Grub with a carafe of blackberry jalepeno champagne cocktails, errand running, drinks at the rooftop Sonoma Wine Garden back in SM and early dinner on Sunset at the surprisingly hopping Pink Taco (quite a party for a Sunday).  Not that we were ever hungry after about 11 am on Saturday.  It should go without saying, but if you can grow fruit trees out your door you can make some pretty amazing adult beverages.  If it isn't wine, I want all fresh fruit juices in my cocktails.  The more the merrier.  They have that down in LA.  Thanks again to Kelly for the stellar travel itinerary.

Back at home, I've still been cooking and baking with recipes in the draft stages and just no time to write.  When I've had time, we actually have had some spring weather here and there and outside work always trumps inside work.  Just an outside girl.  Then there was the last few days where the woods behind our home have become a nice pond and the cold winds even flew a few snowflakes in on April 24th.  One of those Springs.  One I am thankful not to be hunkering down in the stands for a lacrosse game.  I loved watching Sara play lacrosse, but Spring sports in the Midwest can be pretty brutal weather wise.

Right, so it's time for a recipe.  Past time.  We had a really pretty weekend about 2 weeks ago and in between yard chores, I'd duck in the house and roast this and bake that until a nice little Sunday dinner was ready for Greg's parents to walk over and share with us.  I made a red pepper goat cheese dip and served it with carrots and pita chips to unanimous approval.  It's not tricky.  Do roast your own red peppers, I tried it again with jarred red peppers but they are too water-logged and the dip ends up too thin.  I'm sure you could tweak this and process in some parsley or spinach.  Toasted almonds or pine nuts would be good too.  I'd love it on a turkey or veggie burger.  I tossed some on some hot pasta and it was divine.  Get creative!

Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Dip

4 ounces goat cheese
3 T fresh lemon juice (off your own tree would be awesome, but not required)
1 large red pepper, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
4 cloves garlic
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss red pepper strips with a tablespoon of olive oil and lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.  Spread onto a baking sheet with the garlic cloves (don't peel them first).  Roast until garlic cloves are tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Remove garlic and turn oven up to 425 degrees.  Roast red pepper for another 10-15 minutes or until slightly charred.  While red pepper is roasting, squeeze roasted garlic out of skins into a bowl.

Combine goat cheese, roasted red pepper, roasted garlic and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  Taste for additional salt and pepper.

roasting peppers

processing

dip deliciousness

champagne mangoes are just superior: mango salsa lunch variety

*quick note from me:  I wrote this post on Monday and added photos on Thursday.  I thought I hit "publish" after adding the photos, but oops, guess I didn't.  Sorry for the delay.

So I have over a week of my nice big house all to my self (well, it's pretty impossible to forget my cat) with Greg out and about on the job.  As usual, I just can't coast in the kitchen.  All it takes is a couple of bountiful bags of good fresh things from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and I have to cook and bake, even just for myself.  Even at lunch.  Girl's gotta eat.

So Sunday was just a flat out gorgeous day.  And it was about d*** time.  Went to an awesome hot vinyasa yoga class and rolled right up into my first side crows ever.  Ran my usual round of Sunday errands in my cute little Mini Cooper (also known as the sippy cup because even with good mileage, a ten-gallon tank needs filling too often) with the sunroof wide open.  Walked up to Whole Foods to be greeted by a sassy display of $1 champagne mangoes and took a picture to share with Sara.  We have a deep bond over the superior goodness of the champagne mango over the year-round ready larger variety.  For us it's mainly a texture thing, the champagne mangoes are just really smooth.  Anyway, as soon I entered WF there was a tasty grouping of samples:  tomato salsa, mango salsa and guacamole.  Logically, then I had to buy 10 mangoes and some nice sturdy red peppers that were also on sale so I could make some mango salsa for lunch.  Mind you, I am the only one home.  I have a new blender and I'm not worried any mangoes might go to waste.  They can always become smoothies.

I also had some rotisserie chicken at home so Sunday's lunch was chicken quesadillas (the good corn+flour tortillas from Costco, rotisserie chicken, avocado and white cheddar) with mango salsa.  Monday's lunch was a salad with heated up chicken, leftover caramelized onions, avocado, mango salsa and sour cream.  This could go on for days.  Maybe in a bowl with brown rice and all of the above.  Salsas are super easy to make at home.  I'm always in the less is more category.  Whole Foods adds red onion and pickled jalapeños to their mango salsa.  You never know if your red onion will be super hot and I hate how that ruins a dish for me, so I left out onion but could have added some sweet onion.  I didn't need heat and I didn't have any so I skipped the jalapeños, but they would be good.  Go get the champagne mangos while they are in season and brighten all kinds of things with some sunny mango salsa.

chicken quesadillas with mango salsa

Mango Salsa

3 or 4 ripe mangoes, diced
1/2 to 1 whole red pepper, cored and diced
1/2 red or sweet onion, finely chopped (optional)
1/2 bunch cilantro, cleaned, stemmed and leaves chopped
2 T pickled jalapeños, diced (optional)
juice of two small or one large lime, to taste
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Toss all ingredients together and taste for lime and salt.  Store in refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.

cutting around the large flat seed

scoring and scooping the mango fruit

make it ahead: breakfast casserole "muffins"

Is it really possible that I've never shared a recipe for the tailgate and company classic breakfast casserole?  The tried and true staple of brunch entertaining?  Really?  I sat down to write (finally) a new post and thought I'd just share the brilliant twist invented out of necessity over Easter weekend while visiting (and feeding) Sara and her friends.  I searched my blog and found plenty of references to "breakfast casserole", but no recipe.  It could still be here somewhere, but with 235 published posts and a quirky search function (even in my blogger screens, so I feel you there), I couldn't find it.  I do keep a binder of my favorite vintage recipe cards, magazine pages and printed recipes and I can easily find it carefully written out on a recipe card by my wonderful mother-in-law.  I've mentioned before how easily she appeared to entertain and how that really inspired me to do the same.  This is her recipe from at least twenty-five years ago.  When we would visit overnight from Purdue or later from wherever we were living at the time, Becky would fix either this breakfast casserole with biscuits and jelly on the side or the even more classic, biscuits and gravy which also had jelly for those of us that mostly ate the biscuits and not the gravy (and really that was just me).

Easter Sunday at Duke was going to be a quick event because we needed to get the ten hour drive home started and Sara needed to get back to the books.  So we decided to gather up brunch ingredients during the day on Saturday and make the casserole after going out to dinner on Saturday night.  The casserole is the kind you refrigerate up to 24 hours and bake just before serving.  Easy peasy.  Saturday morning we started off right at our favorite breakfast place, Guglhupf.  After enjoying every bite of omelet, pancakes, muesli and fruit we perused the gorgeous choices in their bakery.  This is actually kind of challenging on a very full stomach, but we persevered.  We bought pretty little fruit and lemon meringue tarts along with a little bag of adorable macaroons.  Later in the day we bought local (must have been local greenhouse because it's been a chilly early spring even down in North Carolina) strawberries and lots of champagne mangoes (they are back in season, smoother texture makes them the mango of choice at our house).  And of course we bought what we needed for the casserole:  milk, eggs, white cheddar, bulk freshly ground chicken breakfast sausage and nice egg dinner rolls.  I think that was the first time we didn't buy one thing from the incredible hot and salad bar at the Durham Whole Foods.

I knew Sara had some baking pans in her dorm/apartment kitchen but did not know she didn't have a 9x13x2 pan, so this is where the big twist comes in:  she did have a muffin pan and a loaf pan.  So while we watched basketball on her Macbook, we prepped for Easter brunch using what we had on hand.

Easter services at the Duke Chapel were as beautiful as I had imagined even without the trees and flowers all abloom outside.  The altar was lined with Easter lilies, the pews were full with plenty of Easter bonnets, the choir was accompanied by the organ and a full brass section and the readings were very skillfully done by seminary students.  The interim pastor's funny and inspiring sermon even included a little Duke v UNC basketball reference and a cheer for their Elite Eight game (that didn't work out as well as hoped later that day).  The service was just a little too long and we ducked out the side aisle during communion so we could eat brunch with Annie and Jack in a timely manner.  The breakfast casserole "muffins" were just that much better than the big pan of casserole because of the nice crust to casserole ratio on the muffins.  Plus, you could whip this up some weekend and freeze one whole tray of muffins and freeze them two, three or four to a bag and have a fast breakfast to go.

So strictly for blogging purposes, that's just what I did last weekend.  I took two bags in to my early Friday morning merchandising shift at lulu today everyone loved them.  So easy.  Just a minute or less to heat one up from frozen.  Genius.  Funny how a genius idea came from a visit to Duke.  We'll have to share that genius idea with our other smart friends at Purdue next football season.  Please, no jokes about how it may or may not be a sign of intelligence to actually attend Purdue football games.  It's a tradition, just like the breakfast casserole.

A little note about bread choices:  I like to use challah or some other good egg yeast  bread like the pretty dinner rolls at Whole Foods or even a brioche if you're feeling flush.  Pepperidge Farm's farm white bread loaf works well too.  I'm a whole grain fan and almost never eat any white bread, but I have yet to find a whole grain loaf that doesn't give this casserole a bitter or nutty taste that is just kind of wrong, but you can try.

Breakfast Casserole "Muffins"

1 1/2 pounds chicken or turkey breakfast sausage (I like the freshly ground bulk kind best)
12 ounces good egg bread (rolls, challah or brioche), but any sturdy white bread is fine
6 eggs
2 cups milk (skim is fine)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2-3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp dry mustard
2 C white cheddar (or any cheddar or blend you like)

In a large non-stick pan with a little canola or olive oil, brown the sausage, breaking it into small pieces as it cooks.  Blot with paper towels or drain on bed of paper towels.

Tear bread into bite-sized pieces into a large mixing bowl.  In a 4-cup measuring cup, measure out the milk and add the eggs.  Whisk together with the salt, pepper and dried mustard.  Pour over torn bread.  Add the drained sausage and the grated cheese.  Mix well to combine.  I like to really work the mixture with a big spatula to further break down the bread.

Spray two 12-cup muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.  Scoop the mixture into the muffin cups to fill the cups.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Remove plastic wrap and bake casserole muffins until they are puffy, browned and the egg mixture is set (18-25 minutes).  Serve hot or warm.

makes 24 muffins, serves 8-12

Easter baking: hot cross bun bread

It's frigid here in lovely central Indiana, but I still bought my pansies to plant in my pots at my front door today.  One of those gardening rules:  pansies out for the basketball tournament.  That might just be an Indiana thing and I'm guessing when the Indiana people who follow this rule made it up, they were thinking of the storied single-class high school basketball tournament.  That's going on along with March Madness this weekend so I bought my pansies.  But it's too dang cold to dig in the dirt today, so they'll wait patiently by the sunny window in my garage.  They are joining my herbs and flowers I winter over out there.  When I pull in the garage after yoga, tennis or whatever the day's workout might be if I have water left in my bottle I pour it on the wintering plants.  I have already had my geraniums bloom.  It's a little experiment of mine.  The thyme, oregano, rosemary and parsley are doing great this winter.  But the people of Indiana, well, we're hoping that since it's the second day of spring at some point we can stop pulling out the down jackets and actually pull on a windbreaker.

But, it's great baking weather.  I'm not sure when it's not great baking weather at my house, but it's a good week to heat up the oven.  I posted a recipe for hot cross buns two years ago (!) and this recipe is a fun twist on it.  An equally good yeast dough (all yeast doughs that include butter, milk, eggs and sugar rock) studded with traditional currants and a little orange zest rolled up around a cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and brown sugar filling.  Not a tricky dough and easy to mix, knead and rise without a bread machine if you have a heavy duty stand mixer (KitchenAid type).  Start to finish in less than 3 hours, I had two pretty and very tasty loaves.  I froze one to take to the hungry children at Duke over Easter weekend, so I did not put icing on them and instead did an egg wash and coarse sugar.  Makes great toast if you can resist eating the whole loaf while it's warm and just out of the oven.  The trick to rising dough in a cold kitchen is to turn your oven on for just 2-3 minutes to warm it to about 75-80 degrees (not too hot).  Keep the door closed and then put your dough in there to rise covered with plastic wrap and a tea towel.  The first rise of the dough and the second rise of the loaves each took about 30 minutes to double.   There you go, your handy kitchen tip of the day.

Hot Cross Bun Bread

4 T unsalted butter
1 C milk (I used skim and it was fine, use whatever you have on hand)
1/4 C granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (one package if your's is not bulk like mine)
4 C all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 C dried currants
1 T orange zest

filling
4 T unsalted butter, softened
2/3 C packed light brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 egg white, beaten with a T of warm water
2 T coarse, demerara or raw sugar (optional)

icing (optional)
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp milk

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  Stir in the milk and granulated sugar and warm gently to 110 degrees (test with an instant read thermometer).  Watch that you do not overheat this mixture, if you do you will need to let it cool to 110 degrees or you will kill the yeast when you mix it in.  Pour the warm milk mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle in the yeast.  Let stand until foamy or about 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and kosher salt.  Add to the yeast mixture along with the eggs, currants and orange zest.  Attach the dough hook to the mixer and knead the dough on a medium (or medium low) speed for about 10 minutes.  Shape into a ball, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and drape a tea towel over the wrap.  Let the dough rise in the bowl in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled (could be 30 minutes, could be an hour or so).

Meanwhile, make the filling by stirring together the softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Punch down risen dough.  Spray two 9 x 5 loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray.  Divide dough in half.  On a floured surface, roll one half of the dough into an 8 x 12-inch rectangle.  Smear the dough with half of the filling.  Roll up the dough, starting at the 8-inch edge, pinch the seam to seal and place seam side down in one of the prepared pans.  Repeat with remaining dough and filling.  Cover each loaf pan with plastic wrap and drape with a tea towel.  Let rise until puffy and dough is taller than the pan sides in a warm, draft-free spot (again, could be 30 minutes to more than an hour).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the middle position.  Brush the loaves with the egg wash and sprinkle with the coarse sugar if desired.  Bake for about 35 minutes until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pans.  Turn the loaves out onto racks and cool completely.  Well, if you can't resist let it cool about 10 minutes before carefully slicing with a sharp serrated bread knife.

If desired, ice loaves with the icing ingredients blended together until smooth.

ingredients
(by the way, the simply pure milk is really nice
especially the 2% someone bought by mistake)

dry ingredients before whisking

warm butter, milk and sugar with yeast after 10 minute rest

wet and dry together

kneaded and ready to rise

risen dough

ready to roll

smeared

rolled up

ready to rise again

rising in the oven

risen and under wraps

ready to bake with egg wash and sugar sprinkle

baked

yum

bites of happiness: grapefruit olive oil cake

One of my favorite things I've ever hauled home from Zingerman's in Ann Arbor is their Olive Oil Cake.  It's a little bundt cake with amazingly fruity olive oil, zesty lemon, sugared almonds and a very delicate crumb for such a moist cake.  Kelly remembered how much I loved that cake and sent one for my birthday.  You have to read the note.  My girls have stellar writing skills and can be so funny.

and here I have to admit one thing about being 50:
I can no longer tell if something is in focus looking at the screen on my camera
going to have to pony up for a good old-fashioned view-finder
because clearly using readers and a camera is not an option
well, it is an option but not one I care to employ

It took me a week, but piece by piece that cake made each of those seven days a little happier.  I tried baking a version a year or so ago and did not have the right olive oil.  That's very important.  I e-mailed Zingerman's and they recommended one of their beautiful olive oils, but I hedged on buying one more bottle of olive oil. And an expensive one at that.  Right now I have six different olive oils lined up on my counter and in my cupboard and I have my favorites for different uses.  My $21 bottle (and it's not that big) is reserved just for dipping warm crusty artisan bread (Zingerman's bakes some mean artisan loaves if you ever get to Michigan or splurge on a mail order).  Anyway,  in the middle of this debate my lulu friend Amanda and I carpooled after a Saturday morning yoga class to the Indy Winter Market and I bought a yummy bottle of blood orange olive oil from Artisano's Oils.  Purely for baking an olive oil cake.  So when I baked this cake, I had to save one piece for Amanda to enjoy at work.  Greg and I devoured that cake.  

This version is more like the French yogurt cakes and less like the bundt cake from Zingerman's, but the taste is very similar.  It's the crumb.  You have to use butter to get that crumb and I haven't found a recipe that calls for butter and olive oil yet.  But the quest will continue.  For now, taste your olive oil and find one that is full bodied and a little fruity.  You will use zest from two grapefruits and juice from one, so remember to zest your grapefruits before slicing one in half to juice it (much easier to zest a fruit when it is whole).  If grapefruit is not your thing, sub out oranges or lemons and their zest for the grapefruit.  You can also use a lemon flavored olive oil too, blood orange just sounded good to me.  The recipe calls for 1/2 of the sugar to be turbinado sugar (coarse sugar, demerara sugar, sugar in the raw), but you can substitute granulated sugar.  It is fun to have turbinado sugar on hand to sprinkle atop baked goods, however.  So along with your six different olive oils you can have four kinds of sugar.  Next time I bake this I'm keeping the syrup, but trading out the icing for sugared slivered almonds.  I'll post that when I figure it out.  It won't be long.  I still have 6 grapefruits and 2/3 a bottle of blood orange olive oil wanting to be made into cakes!

Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake

cake

1 1/2 C flour

2 T freshly grated grapefruit zest (2 large grapefruits)

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C turbinado or raw coarse sugar 

1/2 C olive oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 T grapefruit juice 

1/3 C plain yogurt 

syrup

2 T granulated sugar

1/3 C grapefruit juice

glaze (optional)

1 C confectioner's sugar

2 T grapefruit juice

pinch of salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.  

In a large bowl, rub the grapefruit zest into the sugars with your fingertips to help release as much grapefruit essence as possible.  Whisk in the oil until the mixture is smooth.  Add the eggs and whisk until well combined, scraping sides of bowl.  In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a liquid measuring cup stir together 2 T of grapefruit juice and the yogurt.  Alternately add the flour and yogurt mixtures to the sugar and oil mixture in the large bowl, stirring to combine.  Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour, or until tester comes out clean.  

Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes.  While cake is cooling, make the syrup.  Stir 2 T sugar into 1/3 cup grapefruit juice in a saucepan over medium low heat until sugar is dissolved.  After 10 minutes, invert cake onto cooling rack over a sheet of waxed paper or parchment.  Poke holes all over the top of the cake with a toothpick or fork.  Slowly drizzle or brush the syrup over the hot cake allowing the syrup to  soak in as much as possible.  Cool cake completely.

For the optional glaze, whisk together 2 T grapefruit juice and 1 C confectioner's sugar along with a pinch of salt.  Spoon over cake allowing glaze to drip down sides if desired.  

ingredients

zest, sugars, and olive oil

juicing the grapefruit

finished cake before brushing with syrup
(my camera battery was playing dead, sorry about the gaps in photos)

glazed cake

yum

Cancun travelog: chimichurri sauce and salad

One week post vacation with a little color still on my cheeks and a few rum drinks and birthday desserts still lingering.  Cancun which can easily be confused with Florida once you get out of the beautiful warm blue water and off the beach.  Your dining choices include Margaritaville, Pat O'Brien's and Ruth's Chris.  Ugh.  The food at the JW was actually creative and fresh, but it wouldn't be a vacation if I didn't get to do some research and find somewhere off the beaten path for a little culinary adventure.  Our absolute favorite was a cab ride away to the Centro area of Cancun. An area we decided to attempt by bus 9 years ago with our daughters in tow.  That will forever be one of our most memorable transportation adventures.  We missed our stop and at some point one of the locals asked us where we were going and then recommended we get off the bus and get a cab as the surroundings got a lot more local than we were expecting.  Good times.  So this trip we just had the helpful Marriott staff call up a nice cab driver and got our Pesos ready.  A charming little restaurant tucked into the streets of downtown in what was the owner's home 37 years ago, La Habichuela and it's patio of Mayan sculptures, lush aromatic landscape, twinkle lights and vintage white "peacock"wrought iron chairs was  just delightful.  So good we went twice.  Bob and Tammy joined us the second half of the trip and this was their favorite restaurant too just from the ambiance.  For dessert Bob ordered butterscotch crepes and I ordered crepes Suzette.  Little did we know they would both be prepared with a dramatic tableside flambe station, although we could have guessed with all of the liqueurs involved.  So fun.

This little travelog is leading somewhere.  Our second favorite restaurant was in the dreaded Hotel Zone, although there is something to be said for the convenience (and the exercise) of walking to and from dinner.  Puerto Madero is an Argentinian steak and seafood restaurant and part of a small international chain.  The steak and the souffle potatoes (double puffed potatoes that just really defy description except to say that there is nothing souffle about them except that they are served in a basket made of basically huge ridged potato chips and when it's full of the puffs it has a souffle shape) were amazing.  La Habichuela served an incredible hot but flavorful habanero sauce with the octopus appetizer.  Puerto Madero put something on their steaks, but they are not telling.  The standard accompaniment to all things meat in Argentina is chimichurri sauce.

La Habichuela. Cancun

I've seen recipes for it for years and always thought, "that would be delicious and I should make it sometime" as I dog-eared a page.  So upon our return I added parsley and cilantro to my grocery list for a warm evening when we were grilling very tasty ribeyes from the deep freeze bought on sale this winter at Whole Foods.  And of course I found a new favorite flavor profile and a recipe I'd tweak three more times in the next week because that chimichurri sauce was spectacular.  I'm giving you recipes for the sauce and for a salad adaptation.  Give it your own spin.  Very fresh and sunny.  It snowed here again today and I'll take fresh and sunny however I can get it.

The first time I made this I did not have fresh cilantro in the house and just used 1 tsp of cumin and 1 full cup of parsley instead. Worked liked a charm.

Chimichurri Sauce

1/2 C packed chopped flat-leaf/Italian parsley
1/2 C packed chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 T fresh when it's growing outside my door again)
1 T chopped garlic
1 T red wine vinegar
2 T-1/4 C olive oil (you decide how thin you'd like your sauce)
juice of one-half or one lime, to taste
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
kosher salt

Combine parsley, cilantro, oregano and garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.  Scrape mixture into a bowl and stir in the vinegar, olive oil, lime juice, red pepper flakes and 1/2 tsp salt, taste for seasoning.  Store in refrigerator.

Chimichurri Salad

chimichurri sauce
1/2 pound campari or roma tomatoes cut in big chunks or wedges (it's winter and I use Costco tomatoes, fresh local ones of any variety from the farmer's market will be so good in this come summertime)
sliced sweet onion
avocado, pitted and cut into chunks
romaine hearts, washed, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces

Toss all ingredients together and serve immediately.  Garnish with fresh ground pepper and crumbled cotija, feta or ricotta salata cheese if desired.

ingredients 

my food processor died and this little bowl on my
immersion blender is struggling, better results with better equipment

one delicious salad

local paper celebrity update: Purple Grits with Roasted Vegetables, Feta and Balsamic Vinegar

I was sunning on a pool lounge chair in Cancun last week when I received word that  The Indianapolis Star was running my recipe for crunchy chopped salad in today's paper.  Did I have a picture of the salad?  Nope, I had my iPad and my iPhone and access to my photo library but somehow I've never photographed that salad.  Did I have a more recent photo of myself than the one where I am talking to the camera carrying my creme brulee cheesecake into dinner club at the home of our dear friends back in the summer of 2011?  Nope, not really.  Solo pics of mothers are not easy to find and good ones are even trickier.  So, a cropped version of the talking cheesecake photo graced the pages of today's living section.  And you've already heard that I was in Cancun this past week kicking off the continuing celebration of the "year of Kristin".   Yep, I turned 50 last week and as luck would have it my husband jetted off to Mexico for business meetings the morning of my birthday.  The only logical thing to do was to cash in some miles and some hotel points and join him when his meetings were over.  

vacation photo

All this is the long way of saying, that as I showed him my recipe in The Star today I realized someone might type in my URL and check on my blog graciously mentioned with my recipe.  They might stop in and see that indeed I write a cooking blog, but I don't seem to write very often.  And really, I'd like for you to stop in again and keep reading so I should possibly make something for dinner and write a little post about it.  

Before work yesterday I had to get in a little detox hot yoga and I had to get some fresh fruits and vegetables.  I needed to do some laundry and go through the mail too, but a girl's got to have her priorities straight.  The laundry and the mail weren't going anywhere.  But the week of excess and the hours of traveling needed to be wrung out on my yoga mat.  And the balance needed to be restored to our diets, so where else do you head when you need a lot of fruits and vegetables?  Costco, of course.  Sure I like Meijer's selection better and some things you just don't need in supersize quantities, but I also wanted a rotisserie chicken and no one's is better than Costco's for $4.79.  I could have gone all organic and beautiful at Whole Foods, but did I mention I had just been on vacation?  There are budgetary restrictions after vacation that contraindicate the purchase of massive quantities of produce at Whole Foods.   

I closed last night and "merched" early this morning (read, I am tired) so dinner needed to be fast and easy.  So I popped two trays of vegetables into the oven to roast while I stirred up some polenta/grits on the stove alongside some Italian chicken sausages browning for a little more substance.  Two weeks ago I went on a little field trip to the Indy Winter Farmer's Market downtown (after yoga and with my lulu friends, very fun) and bought some amazing Purple Grits from the Bridgetown Mill.  The Bridgetown Mill is out in Parke county in covered bridge territory so it may be another field trip next fall.  The purple corn is grown separate from any commercial corn crops so it's a nice pure purple strain with all the original native American goodness and color.  Yum.   The Winter Farmer's Market is a great little field trip too.  Check it out!  

And if you just found me through The Star, welcome!  Keep checking in on me.  It keeps me writing.

yep, purple corn=purple grits or polenta if you're fancy 

Purple Grits with Roasted Vegetables, Feta and Balsamic Vinegar

3 C water

3/4 C purple grits

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 T olive oil

onion, chopped

one pound asparagus, chopped

one red pepper, chopped

one pound portabello mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and sliced

olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

salad greens, optional

feta cheese, optional

balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Boil the water in a saucepan and stir in the grits, salt, pepper and olive oil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until grits are thickened about 20-30 minutes.  

Meanwhile, toss onion, asparagus and red pepper with a tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper.  Spread on a baking sheet/pan and roast at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes, stirring a few times until roasted and a bit charred.  

Toss mushrooms with a tablespoon of olive oil and spread on a baking sheet.  Roast at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes until softened.  Season with salt and pepper after roasting.  

If desired, place salad greens on dinner plate and then serve the roasted vegetables on top and dress with feta and balsamic vinegar.  Or do it my way and serve the polenta with the vegetables on top along with a little feta and balsamic vinegar and lightly dress some greens and serve them on the side.  

Voila.  Dinner is served.  Makes about 4 servings.  

purple grits/polenta and blackberries for a color comparison

roasted vegetables

dinner