Lemon Poundcake

Stole this from my college roomie's blog. She is a ninja with the baked-good.

Cake
16 Tbs (8 oz) unsalted butter, plus 1 tbs, softened, for pan
1 ½ c (6 oz) cake flour, plus 1 tbs for pan
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ c (8 ¾ oz) sugar
2 tbs zest plus 2 tsp juice from 2 lemons
4 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Glaze
½ c (3 ½ oz) sugar
¼ c fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray 9x5” loaf pan with Pam with Flour.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter

In food processor, process sugar and zest until combined. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla; process until combined. With machine running, add melted butter through feed tube in steady stream. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Sift flour mixture over eggs in three steps, whisking gently after each addition until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 325F and bake until deep golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Combine lemon juice and sugar in small saucepan, bring to boil stirring occasionally, simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire rack, poke all over with skewer, then brush on glaze

Butternut squash lasagna

When we were being inundated with autumn squash this past fall, I needed to find creative ways to prep it. I don't remember where I heard of this idea or how I came up with it, but I made it last week and decided it was blog-worth.

Ingredients

Sauce

1 medium butternut squash - pealed, seeded, and cubed

milk

salt

pepper

Filling

Part skim ricotta (1 medium container)

1 egg

bacon - chopped, cooked, and drained

1 teaspoon rubbed dried sage

salt and pepper to taste

Nuts and bolts

No boil lasagna noodles

Smoked gouda cheese-shredded

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F

2. Prep sauce: Steam squash until soft - about 15 minutes, whir in blender with milk, salt and pepper adding enough milk to make smooth

3. Fry bacon, drain

4. Mix ricotta, bacon, egg, salt, pepper, and sage

5. Construct lasagna in large baking dish: sauce, no boil noodles, then ricotta, repeat

6. Top with shredded gouda

7. Bake until bubbly - about 45 minutes

Couscous stuffed peppers

Source: SELF

This is so good, and used several items from last week's CSA box. The stuffing recipe made way more than 4 pepper-worth, so we just ate the rest as a side.

Ingredients

• Vegetable-oil cooking spray
• 1 1/4 cups fat-free chicken or vegetable broth
• 2/3 cup couscous
• 4 large bell peppers, mixed colors
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 6 oz zucchini, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
• 6 oz yellow squash, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 4 oz crumbled feta cheese (about 1 cup)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350, and spray baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Boil broth, add couscous, remove from heat and cover

3. Cut the tops off peppers, and remove seeds and membranes. Boil peppers in a large pot for 5 minutes. Drain upside down. Place in baking dish.

4. Saute onions and squash with salt, oregano, and fennel seeds over medium heat until soft.

5. Remove onion / squash mixture from heat and stir in tomatoes, chickpeas, couscous, and feta cheese.

6. Fill peppers will couscous mixture, bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Zucchini Fritters

Source: Nigella Lawson, Cookstr

Sorry, no pics. Ate these too fast.

I substituted smoked gooda cheese for the feta. I know, smoked gooda doesn't resemble feta at all, but I love it and I had a huge chunk of it from Sam's club so I was going to use it, damn it! It was delicious and I make no apologies. This is a great use for zucchini and summer squash while it is in over-abbundance. BTW, these would make an awesome little appetizer if made bite-sized.

Ingredients

• 4 zucchini (approx. 1½ pounds)
• 5–6 scallions, finely chopped
• 9 ounces feta cheese
• small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
• small bunch fresh mint, chopped, plus extra to sprinkle over at the end
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• scant 1 cup all-purpose flour
• salt and pepper
• 3 eggs, beaten
• olive oil for frying

Instructions

1. Grate the zucchini and spread out on paper towell to drain about 20 minutes

2. Mix herbs and cheese, add flour

3. Add egg to flour / herb / cheese mixture, and then mix in zucchini

4. Heat oil in pan, plop in zucchini mixture, and fry until golden brown

Veggie burritoes

Made these last night with some CSA produce and cilantro from my back porch. Yummy!

Filling ingredients

4 medium yellow squash, chopped

1 large white onion, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well

1 teaspoon cumin

salt to taste

Rice

1 cup long grain rice

salt

zest from one lime

Filling instructions

1. Saute squash and onion until just soft over medium heat

2. Add tomato, cumin and salt and cook about 2 or 3 minutes

3. Add black beans and heat through

Rice instructions

1. Cook according to instructions on package

2. After cooking, stir in lime zest

Assemble burrito on flour tortilla with rice, veggies, and top with guacamole and grated cheese.

Easy Guacamole

So I haven't posted in like, what? 6 months? It's alright. I lost my blogging mojo, but I imagine I'll come back from time to time at the very least to post a recipe.

I love guacamole as a topper to all things, and B who "didn't like avacados" when I met him is now obsessed with guacamole. I know, right? What kind of Mexican is he?

Anyway, this is easy, fast, and healthy. I like my guac chunky, so no purree-ing, just mixing.

Ingredients

2 ripe Haas avacadoes, chopped

1 tomatoe, chopped

1/4th red onion, diced fine

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

juice from one lime

salt to taste

Instructions

Mix and eat, silly

How to eat?

Chips, atop chicken or steak, in quesadillas or burritos

Grandma Bea's Nut Bread

One of the Christmas traditions on my mom's side of the family was the making of the nutbreads.  I don't know how many batches she makes in any given year, but she usually wraps them up and hands them out as gifts.  This year, I decided it was time for me to partake in this tradition.

I THINK this recipe was written, or at least adapted by my Grandmother.  It's not trivial, but it makes 8 loaves, so the work goes a long way.  One could serve these with dinner, as a dessert option, or for breakfast.  YUM.

Ingredients

Bread

6 EGG YOLKS (SAVE EGG WHITES FOR NUT FILLING)

1 WHOLE EGG

1 CUP (2 STICKS) MELTED UNSALTED  BUTTER

1 TABLESPOON MELTED SHORTENING

8 OZ. SOUR CREAM

3 PKG. DRY YEAST

1 CUP WARM MILK

1 CUP SUGAR

1 TEASPOON BAKING POWDER

6 TO 8 CUPS FLOUR

0.5 tsp salt

Filling

2 LB. GROUND WALNUTS

6 EGG WHITES

1/4 CUP HONEY

1 CUP SUGAR

1 CUP (2 STICKS) MELTED BUTTER

2 TEASPOON VANILLA

2 TEASPOON CINNAMON

0.25 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1.  Soften the yeast in the cup of warm milk.  Mix in cup of sugar

2.  Wisk together flour, baking powder, and salt

3.  Beat eggs

4.  Mix sour cream, melted butter, and shortening into eggs

5.  Mix yeast mixture into egg mixture

6.  Slowly encorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients

7.  Allow dough to rise until doubled for about 1 hour

8.  Preheat oven to 350

9.  Grind nuts in food processor

10.  Mix filling ingredients in order listed

11.  Punch down dough

12.  divide dough into 8 portions

13.  Roll out each portion dough into 10 in. x 10 in. square

14.  Spread one eight filling over portion of dough

15.  Roll up like a jelly rolld

16.  Place rolls close together (not touching) on a greased baking sheet

17.  Poke holes in top of rolls with fork

18.  Bake 30 minutes at 350