try 43 new recipes

for the win. (Yes, I’m channeling Prax tonight. :)

Recipe to come later…right now I’m working on my second helping of cheesy, chewy, crunchy veggie goodness.

Coconut Cake Recipe.

Step 1: You will need Units: Metric US Imperial UK Imperial
■150 g sugar
■100 g brown sugar
■280 g plain flour
■1 tbsp baking powder
■A pinch salt
■3 eggs
■1 tsp vanilla essence
■250 ml coconut milk
■350 ml shaved coconut – dessicated coconut
■240 g soft butter
■1 26 cm spring form tin buttered floured and lined with parchment paper
■1 mixer with the whisk attachment
■1 rubber spatula
■1 wooden skewer
Preparation Time:
10 minutes

Step 2: Preheat the oven
Firstly, turn on the oven to 170 degrees centigrade.

Step 3: Whip the butter, vanilla and sugar
Introduce the white sugar, the brown sugar, vanilla essence and the butter into the mixer bowl. Lower the whisk attachment down into the bowl and blend on high for a few minutes to whip the butter.

Step 4: Add the eggs
When the batter is thoroughly whipped , slow down the speed and start adding in the eggs. Add the first egg and allow to mix in. Then add the second egg. Allow to blend in and add the final egg and mix in thoroughly.

Step 5: Add the remaining ingredients
Continue by adding the baking powder, salt, then add half of the flour, little by little, add in some of the coconut milk little by little, allowing each amount to mix in before adding the next batch. Then add a little more flour, a little more coconut milk, add the remaining flour and when thoroughly combined shake in the coconut and give it a quick blend. Switch off the machine, twist off the whip attachment, shaking off any batter and remove the bowl. Finally, give it a quick mix by hand using your rubber spatula.

Step 6: Transfer to the baking tin
Spoon the batter into the buttered spring form baking tin and using your spatula spread it evenly. It is now ready to bake!

Step 7: Bake
Place the baking tin in the centre of the oven preheated to 170 degrees centigrade and bake for roughly 45 minutes. Check to see if it’s done by piercing it in the centre with a skewer. If it comes out dry it is done!

Step 8: Present and serve
If you want you can sprinkle with icing sugar before slicing it and serve with whipped cream or strawberries!

Very moist and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I made muffins for the first time! I used this recipe http://www.cacaoweb.net/chocolatemuffins.html and it turned out quite well. I took them into my Chinese class as a treat for everyone since I can’t keep baked goods at home (they’ll get eaten in one night). Great start to this goal :3 though I’ll have to postpone further work on this goal until I can afford ingredients (its ramen for me this month). Or until I can go to my parent’s house and cook for them.

Decided to kill two birds with one stone and fix one of my meals for Dad’s birthday dinner – eliminating the excessive leftover problem and the restaurant problem (not many good restaurants open on Sunday around here).

Both recipes were wonderful and fairly simple.

Classic Minestrone
(recipe says it serves 4, but I think it easily serves 6-8)
1 large leek, thinly sliced
2 carrots, chopped
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
3/4 c whole green beans, halved (I cut mine into thirds, as the halves were quite long; I also used more, probably 1 1/2 cups, ‘cause I like green beans)
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced (I used 4, ‘cause I really like celery)
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 1/4 c stock or water (I used vegetable stock)
14-ounce can chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 t dried
14-oz can cannellini or kidney beans (I used kidney, as I could not find cannellini)
2 oz small pasta shapes or macaroni (I used a cup, because I really like pasta)
salt and ground black pepper
finely grated Parmesan cheese, to garnish (optional; I forgot this)
fresh parsley, chopped, to garnish (I forgot this, too)

Put all the fresh vegetables into a large saucepan with the olive oil. Heat until sizzling, then cover, lower the heat, and sweat the vegetables for 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.

Add the stock/water, tomatoes, herbs, and seasoning. Bring to a boil, replace the lid, and simmer gently for about 30 minutes. (I also put the beans in at this step, because I wasn’t paying attention; they turned out fine.)

Add the canned beans and their liquid together with the pasta, and simmer for 10 minutes more. Check the seasoning and serve hot, sprinkled with the Parmesan cheese (if using) and chopped fresh parsley.

Olive Bread
(bread machine recipe; makes a 2-lb loaf)
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 c chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives
1/4 c chopped ripe olives
1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil (I used olive)
4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or bread machine yeast

Add ingredients to the bread machine in the order listed. Select the loaf size and basic white bread cycle.

I’ve tried tons of these sorts of recipes, but most of them were bleh. This one’s a winner. Though I think next time I’ll add some other stuff…nuts, sunflower seeds, maybe some raisins. And possibly less brown sugar – the honey’s sweet enough for me.

1 1/2 c old-fashioned oatmeal
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 c toasted wheat germ
1 t baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp cinnamon (I used 2)
1 c unsalted butter
1/2 c light brown sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 c honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 c orange juice
6 oz shredded coconut (I used 7, because the package was 7 oz and I didn’t know what I’d use the remaining ounce for. Plus, I like coconut.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together the oatmeal, flour, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together at medium speed. While beating, add the eggs, honey, and extracts in a steady stream. Beat well. Using a large spoon, fold ingredients into the butter/sugar mix in the following order: half of the dry ingredients, half of the orange juice, all of the coconut, the rest of the orange juice, and the rest of the dry ingredients, making sure everything is fully incorporated before adding the next ingredient. Pour into an ungreased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Nom. Can’t say what they’re like cool (yet), but they’re delicious hot.

$120 worth. Recipes up for the next two weeks:

Trail bars (for breakfast; I need to work my way up from 2 meals a day to 4 or 5)

Corn, cheese, and potato soup

Spinach spheres (not a new recipe, but I’ve not had it in ten years)

Veggie crumble

Minestrone (one of at least a dozen recipes…I’m trying them all)

Olive bread

Spinach ricotta canneloni

If they’re any good, I’ll post the recipe. If not, we’ll just pretend they never happened.

So I had never made them before except out of the Pillsbury can but our cinnamon roll maker canceled and I didn’t have enough time to find someone else so between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon I made over 100 of them for our districts annual meeting. The recipe turned out tasting really good.

This one is a keeper, simple but hearty and tasty. The ingredients are chicken, noodles, mushrooms, cream of chicken soup, sour cream and grated Swiss cheese. The complete recipe can be seen at on Recipes4Living.

savory vegetable pancakes
fruit salsa
guacamole

So many months gone by, and I’d totally forgotten to mention these recipes!

About…three months ago I was reading the book Salt by Mark Kurlansky, and he mentions corned beef a whole lot. Which made me hungry for the delicious treat. And so, I decided to prepare my own corned beef.

Which is actually a lot easier than it sounds. Or a lot harder, depending on how you look at it. You can either buy a hunk of beef, salt and cure it for four weeks, then cook it, or you can get a corned beef loin from the supermarket. Guess which one I did?

I cooked it in a pot with water, beer, salt, and spices, and 40 minutes later it was delicious and done. For sides, I made spaetzel, a German dumpling/pasta dish, and cabbage simmered with apples and beer, with currant jam and lemon. It was a great meal, and I will definitely be revisiting all three recipes in the future.