Spiced Apple Coffee Cake / What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm back! And just in time for the holidays! Actually, I'm just doing a mini-Thanksgiving this year since it'll just be me and Bobby, so no new Thanksgiving Super-Post for you. But I am coming back with a bang, regardless, because today I'm sharing a recipe for the best (and I do mean BEST) spiced-apple coffee cake you will ever taste. But as part of that, I'm going to steal a little blog-thing from my friend, Beth Ann, and do a What I'm Loving Wednesday post because I think they're such a cute idea. And a good way to re-ignite the blog! So here we go.

What I'm Loving

1) Bobby's home! He's been gone for two months doing away rotations in South Carolina and Florida and now he is back home, in the cold, with ME! And Gus and Shadow. No, it did not go quickly, and do not suggest anything otherwise to me. I really did try to cook in his absence...for about a week. And then I gave up and spent the following 7 weeks eating stir-fried veggies, Healthy Pop and apples, cheese and crackers, carrots and celery with hummus, etc. I'm going to have to be very careful not to balloon now that he's back and I'm cooking again. It's Thanksgiving week so I'll be a little lenient on my diet this week, but next week--back to it!


2) These two, for obvious reasons.




3) Baby Lily is going to be born today! Bobby's sweet cousin Katie, and her husband Noah, are at the hospital and in labor right now. They will be the most amazing parents and cannot wait to meet the new addition to the family! The question remains...will she be blonde? or a redhead?

4) Apples. I love fall because I get the best apples. I'm *kind of* an apple snob, and I'm extremely picky...but I can't help it! I'm from Washington! What do you expect? But I love going to Kroger or Whole Foods these days (mostly Kroger, the budget is super-tight right now) and stocking up for the week on Braeburns, Granny Smiths, Fujis, Cameos...the list goes on. I want them cold and crisp. Don't give me a mushy apple. If you do, I'll just feed it to Bobby.

5) Pandora. Obviously not a new thing, but I've got it on almost all the time now. It's great with headphones for work when people are clipping their nails over the cube wall. Dis.Gus.Ting.

6) My Mariah Carey All I Want For Christmas Is You ringtone! I don't think this requires explanation. And just the fact that we're entering the Christmas season...just love it! Christmas music, lights, scents, gingerbread! All of it!

7) And finally, the best (seriously best) Spiced Apple Coffee Cake in the world. I got this recipe from one of my cooking technique classes at Williams-Sonoma. So you know it's delicious! When I tried the sample in class, I nearly melted. And at the time, had no one to make it for! So I waited patiently and made it for Bobby on Monday evening so the whole apartment would smell like spiced apples when he came home, and that way he'd have yummy breakfast all week long. I can't stop "trimming the edges" as my dad would say. And do you know why? Because it has the best ingredient in the world. And I'm not talking about butter, Julie Powell. Although butter, real butter, is in there too. The best ingredient in the world, in my opinion, is: Cream Cheese. Have you ever had anything with cream cheese that you didn't swoon over? I didn't think so. It gives it the perfect texture. So I know we're on the tail end of Fall, but please make this ASAP! You won't regret it.

Williams-Sonoma Spiced Apple Coffee Cake

For the cake:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tart cooking apples, such as Granny Smith or Braeburn, 1 lb. total, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped (I used Granny Smiths...yum-o)
2 Tbs. strained fresh orange juice, lemon juice or apple juice (I used lemon, because that's what I had on hand)
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs

For the vanilla glaze:

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 Tbs. condensed skim milk, warmed, plus more as needed
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan or square baking pan. If using a glass baking dish, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, toss the apples with the juice. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sug ar, cardamom and cinnamon. Add to the apples and toss to coat. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture in 2 or 3 additions and beat well until smooth. Using a large rubber sp atula, gently fold in the apples just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Do not overmix. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let co ol for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners sugar, the 2 Tbs. milk and the vanilla until smooth and pourable. Adjust the consistency of the glaze by adding more milk, a few drops at a time, if needed.

Flip the cake on a wire rack set to cool. While the cake is warm, drizzle with the glaze. Let the cake cool to room temperature. Cut into wedges or squares to serve.

Delicious! OK here's a photo of our cake (minus one piece...) and a photo from Williams-Sonoma. More recipes coming soon!

Chiles Rellenos Casserole

Have you noticed I gravitate toward one-dish-wonders covered in cheese? :)

I'd like to preface this post by saying I won't be cooking much this fall since Bobby will be away (see other blog for details), and cooking for 1 isn't that interesting! There will be a lot of stir-fried veggies, cheese and crackers, and hopefully just a minimal amount of pasta--but really it's the easiest thing to make for one person! I'm completely open to some suggestions though if you've got them!

And if there's interest on the part of the readers, I'm happy to post a few favorite recipes without a photo (because it's unlikely I'll actually make them). For example, I went to my technique class at Williams-Sonoma this morning (my favorite weekend ritual) and today was all about Fall Baking. I picked up some great tips and recipes, but if I were to make a whole apple coffee cake or fruit crisp, I'd just eat it! So leave some comments if you'd like some recipes even without pictures.

But back to the cheesy dinner at hand! This came out of my Cooking Light Cookbook, and definitely got both our approvals for a repeat appearance. 15 minutes prep, and total cooking time of an hour and 5 minutes--estimated 333 calories per serving. Not too shabby.


Chiles Rellenos Casserole

1/2 lb ground chicken
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
16 oz can of fat-free refried beans
(2) 4oz cans of whole green chiles, drained and cut lengthwise into quarters
1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese
1 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained
1/3 cup flour
1 1/3 cup skim milk
couple shakes of Tabasco
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 350. Cook the chicken and onion together in a non-stick skillet over med-high heat, until browned. In a large bowl, combine the chicken mixture and the next 5 ingredients. PAM an 11x7 baking dish (you can see I went for my corning ware) and arrange half of the green chile strips in the bottom of the dish. Top the chiles with 1/2 cup cheese. Spoon the chicken mixture onto the cheese and spread gently--leaving a 1/4inch border around the edge of the dish. Cover evenly with the corn. Arrange remaining chile strips over the corn, and top with 1/2 cup cheese. In a smaller bowl, combine the flour and salt--gradually adding milk and Tabasco. Whisk until blended. Stir in eggs and egg whites, and pour whole mixture over the casserole. Bake for 1 hour and let stand 5 minutes.

Might be a lot of ingredients, but it went really quickly. You could also substitute the ground chicken for ground turkey or extra-lean beef depending on your preference. And of course, I probably added more cheese :)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Well, I finally made a cake that didn't fall apart when it came out of the pan! I'm sure the gooey caramel and fruit topping of pineapple upside down cakes had nothing to do with that, and it was all completely and totally my mad baking skillz.

Bobby usually prefers fruit-based desserts over heavy chocolate treats (weirdo), so I thought he'd really like pineapple upside down cake just for that reason. Apparently this kind of cake was a new concept for him and it was hard to tell whether or not he really liked it. Usually when we have desserts lying around, he goes through them pretty quickly--but with this, he only ate it when I served it and took it to him. I happened to really like this recipe and thought it was delicious, so I'm overruling his underwhelming reaction. He does insist he enjoyed it though, but I'm not totally buying it.

This is a pretty quick and easy recipe, but I'll note that the original calls for it to bake in a skillet instead of a cake pan. That's not a technique I've tried before, and putting my non-stick skillets in the oven to bake for a while makes me a little nervous. A Dutch oven is one thing...that's what it's intended for right? But a skillet... So anyway, I used my 9x13 cake pan, which worked fine, but it was a thinner cake, as you can tell from the photo. I think in the future I might use something between a 9x13 and a 9x9.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 can sliced pineapple, undrained
maraschino cherries
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Using a skillet, melt the butter over low heat. Remove from heat and mix in the brown sugar. Pour mixture into a baking dish and layer pineapple slices on top. Place a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple slice. Separate the eggs. In a large bowl or using a mixer, beat the egg yolks until lightly fluffy. Add 1/2 cup pineapple juice, white sugar and vanilla. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Sift baking powder, flour, and salt--combine well. Beat egg whites until stiff then fold into the egg yolk mixture (this was new for me, and I've since learned it's best to have your eggs at room temp for this). Add this mixture on top of the pineapple. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes.

Because of the gooey top, you won't want to use a cooling rack for this type of cake--instead wait until it cools 20 minutes or so, then turn upside-down onto a cake. You can tell from my picture that I omitted the cherries because I forgot them!

Caribbean Rice and Beans

Can you tell? It's a new background! I'm still not sure why my other once disappeared, and this one looks similar...but I thought it had a nice "recipe-ish" quality to it.

I did get back into cooking, dieting, and exercise this week! Needless to say I'm tired now :) But I feel much better. I've got lots of new recipes and cookbooks to energize me, not to mention Bobby is done with Honors Surgery and will be at home for the next 4 weeks! He'll be studying for his next set of Boards, but still--he's home!

This dish is from my Cooking Light Cookbook, and I actually found it in the "Meatless Main Dishes" chapter. Don't tell my husband (no meat, no meal). But to stick to his rule, you can tell from the photo that I paired this with flat-iron steak drizzled with Chimichurri sauce (you can get it bottled at Whole Foods, fyi) and served the Caribbean Rice and Beans as a side dish. It still makes enough for a main dish, so you could do that, or have some leftovers for lunch the next day.

As usual I probably put more cheese on than it actually calls for, negating the "Light" part of Cooking Light...but I just can't help it!

Caribbean Rice and Beans

2/3 cup water
2/3 cup uncooked instant rice
1 tsp oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 diced green bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 cup coarsely chopped tomato
A few shakes of salt, crushed red pepper, and cumin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
15 oz can black beans, drained
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook rice according to directions on the box, keep covered in saucepan and set aside. Coat large skillet with PAM or oil and add onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic. Saute about 5 minutes or until tender. Add chopped tomato, salt, crushed red pepper and cumin--then saute about another 2 minutes. Stir in rice, cilantro, and black beans. Cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with mozzarella and serve.

Depending on how fast you chop, this could take 20 minutes. Then if you'd like to serve as a side, just have your meat grilling at the same time. I think it would also be good to add some fresh corn if it's in season. Very easy, plenty for everyone--so it's great for a weeknight as a main dish or a side!

Mom's Ribs

Well, this is now two summers in a row that I've taken an unintentional blog hiatus. Summer to everyone else seems to be a time of leisure, but for me it ends up being a time of more work, more travel, and less time for anything else. Last summer I didn't blog much because Bobby was doing a mandatory AHEC rotation in Northern Kentucky. I don't actually know what AHEC stands for, but in general it's where they send the students to under-served areas for their rotations. So since I was by myself and didn't cook, I also didn't blog. This summer he has been doing Honors Surgery (translation = working an average of 90 hours per week). If you think that's some sort of hyperbole, then you should start reading my other blog to get your facts straight. Of course that also translates to a 100% share of household things. Couple that with my "long" hours at work this summer, and there just hasn't been time. But blogging, along with a renewed commitment to diet and exercise, are things I hope to pick back up now that summer and surgery are winding down and I'm feeling much more rested.

I'll be honest, I haven't cooked anything for a while, but I'm looking forward to it! So I dug through some pictures to see what I'd made but hadn't posted yet and came across my mother's baby back rib recipe. To be fair, I think she got this from her friend Deborah, but whatever. Ribs are one of those things that are really pretty easy to do, and this recipe make it so simple that it's a shame not to make them more often! You've seen my other baby back rib recipe that used a slow cooker, but this one is totally over the stove top, just in a really large pot.


Baby Back Ribs

2 lbs baby back ribs, cut into 2-3 rib sections with sharp kitchen scissors
6-8 green onions, chopped
2 T sherry
4 T rice vinegar
6 T sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water

Layer rib sections with onions in a large soup pot (about 5 qts). Combine remaining ingredients and pour over ribs. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Cover, and cook for 2 hours--but carefully rotate the rib sections often, about every 30 minutes.

When the ribs are tender, remove them. Increase the heat, and cook the sauce down until syrupy. Put the ribs back in the pan to coat, and serve with mashed potatoes.

So good, so easy :) Ribs might seem heavy for summer, but if you eat them on an outdoor patio, they're pretty perfect. Add corn or tomatoes and any meal seems more like summer, right? I warn you that I may go through another blogging dry-spell this Fall when Bobby is away for a while, but I'm officially soliciting recipes for 1 if you've got them to share! Now I have to figure out where my pretty blog background went??!

Deluxe Guacamole

Like many good cooking ideas, this one came from Whole Foods. A few months ago on a whim I picked up a container of fresh guacamole at Whole Foods (in the produce section). It was outstanding! It became a regular item in our fridge as the weather kept getting warmer. And then after a few $6-8 containers, it occurred to me to flip it over to read the ingredients, since (duh!) I could probably make it cheaper! Especially since it was made at Whole Foods, there was unlikely to be any ingredients with more syllables than "avocado". So I scribbled them down and began a guacamole adventure of sorts that has lasted most of the summer! I've been picking up fresh avocados from Kroger or Whole Foods every Sunday and mixing and matching different ingredient ideas. Since all guacamole really comes down to a ripe avocado (and not over-doing the onion), they've all been pretty good.

This past weekend, I made the "deluxe" version. It's a kitchen-sink approach to guacamole--everything that *might* go in, did. It was fantastic! You can use all of these ingredients, or just the ones you have in the fridge, and you'll get a delicious result. Serve with Restaurant Style Tositos and an ice-cold adult beverage of your choice. I love summer!


Anne's Deluxe Guacamole

4 ripe avocados (have some give, but not mushy), pits removed
1 ripe tomato, diced
1/4 yellow onion, diced (you'd think purple onion would be better because it has that tang, but yellow is much preferred if you're not a big onion fan but like a little flavor)
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and diced into very small pieces
2 medium-sized cloves of garlic, crushed
1 handful fresh cilantro (can substitute 1-2 tsp dried)
4-6 shakes of the Tabasco bottle
5-7 shakes of salt
2 Tbs lime juice

I recommend putting the avocados in a medium-large mixing bowl first, and mashing them with a fork. Then add all remaining ingredients and blend well with the same fork or a spoon. If you have leftovers, be sure to put them in an air-tight Tupperware container. All guacamole turns a little brownish overnight, but give it a good stir the next day and the green will come back quickly. It's still good--if not better!--the next day.

Dios mio, is it Friday yet? Also, if you're looking for more I Married a Doctor posts, I promise I didn't abandon my 2nd blog, I just prefer to write them on weekends and have been a bit occupied lately! Looking forward to a quiet weekend...

Cheesy Rice and Bean Strata

You know, for some reason I always thought "Strata" meant eggs. But I guess that's a frittata? So if you know what constitutes a strata let me know. I didn't exactly follow this recipe on this one, and it turned out delicious, and probably would have been delicious even if I had. But the main lesson I learned was: 5 cups of rice is a LOT of rice. I also learned that when you have something that calls for 5 cups of rice (and probably 5 cups of anything!) you should *always* use the dish the recipe tells you to for cooking. But it called for spinach and I forgot it at the store...so I thought since I wasn't going to use spinach that I would use a dish smaller than my 9x13 Pyrex for baking. Turns out 5 cups of rice probably doesn't fit in anything except the largest baking dish possible. Next time I make this (and there will be a next time) I might even take it one step further to my 9x13 Le Cruset.

So since I left out the spinach, I thought I'd throw in some fresh sweet corn because we had a few leftover cobs that wouldn't last through the week otherwise--and this time of year I just can't bear to waste good sweet corn. So to get the corn off the cob and into a casserole, you want to boil it on high for 5-8 minutes, and once it gets cool you can stand it up vertically and cut down the cob with a sharp knife. Needless to say this Cooking Light recipe made a ton! We had plenty of leftovers for the week! I also wonder if it's really "Cooking Light" if you double the cheese...hmm :) It's a great vegetarian recipe that you could easily add a lb of ground beef or turkey to if you have a "no meat, no meal" eater. But it makes enough to fill anyone up, I promise. Oh! I also have to mention that a year and a half later I started using my rice cooker! I absolutely love it and cannot believe I've been making it stove-top for so long.


Cheesy Rice and Bean Strata

2 Tbs EVOO
2 cups chopped red/purple onion (I probably did 1 cup)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 10oz package of fresh spinach (we accidentally omitted)
2 19oz cans of kidney beans, drained
16oz jar of picante sauce
12 tomato slices
5 cups cooked basmati rice
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup jack cheese, shredded
Optional 1 cup sweet corn off the cob
1-2 cups Quick Mole Marinara sauce (read on...)
Optionally top w/ sour cream and green onions

Preheat to 350 and prepare your rice. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over med-high. Add in onion, cumin, and garlic--saute for about 2 minutes. Add spinach and saute another minute until the spinach wilts--then remove from heat. Combine beans and picante sauce in a large mixing bowl. PAM your baking dish and spread half of the bean mixture in the bottom. Top the mixture with 3 cups of cooked rice, and top with tomato slices. Layer on spinach mixture, remaining 2 cups of rice, and then second half of the bean mixture. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

While that's baking, grate the cheese and cover. Then in a medium saucepan make the Mole Marinara. I completely admit I read this sauce recipe and thought it wasn't going to be worth it! But it added a great flavor to the strata and I'd make more next time. After 30 minutes in the oven, uncover the strata and top generously with cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Mole Marinara

2 Tbs EVOO
3 Tbs minced Anaheim chile
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
Half jar of your favorite marinara (I used Paul Newman's Shock-a-something or other)
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp dried cilantro

Combine and heat on medium while strata bakes.