the best banana bread turned layer cake ever!

Hello peeps..
well we just had one mother of a storm...and you know what that means. Time for me to cook my ass off. Anywhoo..this post should have been called "How I ate my way through WholeFoods", but i dont eat meat so it would be impossible to eat my way through, but I'm damm sure going to give it the good ol' college try.  Before I get to the banana bread cake, i want to tell you about my dinner the last time i eate at WF. It all started with a tofu tower. I suppose it's their riff on a caprese salad which they veganized by leaving out the mozzerella. The presentation was pretty in that they stacked the tofu with tomatoes and alternating basil leave, however I feel its a culinary criminal act when one has the blank tofu canvas staring up at them and they do nothing with it. i forgot to grab some kind of dressing because it didnt look like it needed any. So out came the salt. Need I say more. the ultimate insult  is to reach for the salt. So I moved forward to the chimichurri tofu. looked a little more promising. Tofu swimming in a sea of green herby-ness. (yes i make up words).
And again, needed salt. im beginning to see a pattern with certain dishes. its almost as if they are afraid to salt the food. i mean salt is a natural mineral people. Pick it up people and use it. A little salt and pepper goes a long way. So just when Ive lost all hope of finding any flavor, i move on to the two things that i know are going to be good. Now check this out I'm not talking gourmet here..Im a regular vegetarian chic who wants a good samosa every now and then. I'm not hard to please. The samosas at WF are very spicy...so be prepared to perspire..they are probably one of my favorate things at their hot salad bar in addition to the koftas. which are spicy as well both items are a little on the dry side and definately need a sauce to go with it. But im not put off by eating them without a sauce.
So after my samosa..onto my cake. now i know it seems that ive eaten alot but mind you the beauty of eating at WF is being able to take a small spoon of something ive ner tried before. I hate having to commit to a whole dish of something only to find out it  sucks. ...ok now onto the cake..lol..and who doesnt love cake. I usually get this natural chocolate cake that is made with raisins and dates and cocoa and applesauce. Its a little bit healthier than a traditional chocolate cake. but I was feeling a little dangerous this one particular evening and decided to indulge in the chocolate ganache cake. Holy moly. Was I surprized at the layer of ganache on this cake. it was so thick and the cake was so dense. When i took a bite it was almost as if my mouth was trying to move through quicksand lol. If youre one for a light cake with a light frosting pass on this one...but if dense and rich is your bag then go and indulge with an espresso on the side. you most definately need to have a strong coffee with this cake.
Speaking of cake. The subject of this post was about banana cake. which was my project a few days ago as i let 6 bananas over-ripen on my kitchen table. I could not find my banana cake recipe so i took one off the internet  (cant remember where i got it, but will definately look and post the info when i get home). Anywhoo..im a fan of any cake that calls for either buttermilk or sour cream. i just find they tend to have a nice texture thats dense but not too dense. This is basically a banana bread recipe in the form of a cake. Im not sure if i like this one better than my other recipe..but I did something different with the frosting this time. I used a buttercream frosting in between the two layers .I attempted to put the frosting on top but I made a real rookie mistake. As soon as I started frosting this cake the frosting started to melt and my heart sank. Disgusting. So i scraped it off as fast as i could. I know better than to frost a warm cake. in fact i always frost the next day just to be safe. So I was totally kicking myself. Things happen for a reason..and my due to hurricane Irene taking down the transportation, my commitment was cancelled. So in the fridge this banana beauty went. The plan is to frost the outside with a cream cheese frosting. Other things to note on this recipe. I used a 9x13 round pan and poured all the batter into it. This recipe called for 3 cups of flour...so you know along with the other ingredients this is one big mother of a cake. It was a slow bake cake at 275degrees. the recipe said it would take an hour in a 9x13 rectangular pan. In the round it toom an hour and 15 minutes. Next time I will definately split the batter between two pans. it was in the oven forever and I had to trim the top off in a few spots because I was afraid it wasnt cooked all the way through. Anyway, my banana beauty is in the freezer awaiting her debut next weekend. Will be taking her out the day before and frosting her.
On that frosty note honeybees and honey bears...i must get going
Until next time!

forget chicken soup for the soul-lentil soup for my belly!

Hey everyone..

last week I went to the Chelsea market.  It totally runs a close second to the holiday market at union square which is only during Christmas season.  I went into this Italian store that upon first glance did not appear to be very impressive..however upon closer inspection, turned out to be quite the little store with all kinds of hidden treasures. I bought three things. Sun dried cherry tomatoes, honey, and french lentils(the small green ones). i actually thought i was buying the black lentils but when i got them home, turns out i made a mistake. Its ok.. I never met a lentil I didn't like.

I left the store and found a spot to sit.  I opened up the sun dried to tomatoes and tried one. I was surprised at how salty they were. To me the regular sun dried tomatoes have a concentrated tomato flavor..but not salty at all. So i was very surprised at the saltiness of the sun dried cherry tomatoes.  I had very high hopes for the honey, only to be disappointed with the overwhelming taste of lavender assaulting my palette. Maybe my taste buds aren't evolved enough to appreciate the 7 dollar honey from Italy. I think i will stick to my Golden Blossom honey from now on. Anyway, it was my mission to help these lentils fulfill their lentil destiny. I never follow a recipe for a soup. So it always  comes out different every time. I'm totally ok with rockin' that way. Life's too short to worry about food being the same every time. Plus it gives me an opportunity to try new things.

I'm a fan of the slow cooker. Never met one I didn't like. I was a little disappointed to find that I accidentally threw out my garlic last week, I was still on a lentil mission regardless. I used the inside of the celery, where all those leaves are. That's where I find to get the most celery flavor. I used a hand full of baby carrots and an onion. I must have had bechemel in my brain because I took an onion and cut it into quarters and stuck cloves in each piece. That's a common way to make bechamel sauce. with a clove studded onion. So that's what I put in my slow cooker for my soup. I honestly don't know where i made the connection to do that, especially since I'm not so much a fan of cloves...but I had no garlic and this soup was going to need some thing to help it along.

Anywhooo,,,I added my lentils and some salt and pepper, covered them with water and forgot about it. Until the next morning my house was smelling quite soupy. If you decide to make this soup, don't be put off by what you will find in the morning. I promise, it all comes together in the end. At the top of my slow cooker was all this dark liquid that had turned my onions a very unattractive shade of brown. Its ok because I'm not a fan of having big chunks of onions in my lentil soup, that's why I left them big so I could yank them out along with the celery. I put that stuff in more for flavor, All of the lentils were at the bottom of the pot. After I discarded all of my veggies, I gave my lentils a good stir. I tend to er on the side of caution with salt. You can always add more, but if you put too much you cant take it away. It definitely needed more salt and the clove flavor was quite strong. It was a little surprising to taste only cloves as the primary spice in my soup. I'm sure it could have benefited from some ginger. All in all I really like the soup because the texture of the lentils were very nice. I cant wait to go to the market again, get some more lentils and try this with some fresh ginger. I might also buy the red and yellow lentils as well.

Ok honeybees and honey bears...I'm off for now!

all things veggie

Hey everyone,

I haven't blogged in a while.. Sometimes life gets in the way....Its August. And you know what that means, It means that my favorite time of year is right around the corner. I  know I know, You're probably saying its way too early to get excited about the fall season. But that's not the case with me....oh how I can't wait for fall.

I haven't done much cooking lately. The other day i decided to make a veggie meatball and pasta dish. my recipe writing skills aren't the best so bear with me. I don't always follow an exact recipe so that is definitely something I will be working on in the future. I saw a recipe in "vegetarian times" for Greek veggie meatballs. It called for seitan, and mint and dill. I'm not a fan.  So I altered the recipe and stuck to the traditional Italian flavors that I feel meatballs are supposed to have. (minus the meat of course).

I bought this texturized vegetable protein (gimmelean brand) in ground beef style. I added ricotta cheese, Italian bread crumbs, two eggs, salt, pepper and garlic. It took a while for this to come together. The "meat" was hard to mix up. i added some water to loosen it up and eventually it all incorporated. I made my meatballs the size of golf balls and browned them in some canola oil. After they were nice and brown  I put them in a casserole dish with some of the tomato sauce I made and baked them off at 350 for 20 minutes.

The texture was that of a very soft meatball. Keep in mind I haven't had a real meatball in 15 years...so I was just going by my old memories. I wasn't exactly fond of the flavor and the texture. It was too smooth i think to mimic a real meatball. And it definitely could have benefited from some Parmesan cheese. I think next time I will use the sausage style gimmelean and add the parm. I think it might have a better flavor. When I get the recipe to where it has to be I will definitely post it. Ive been busy working on my cakes for Saturdays festivities ;)

I'm making a tres leches coconut cake,  strawberry kindergarten cake and a banana cake. I did a test run on Ree Drummonds "the best frosting i ever had" and I have to tell you It was the best frosting I ever had. lol.

It stares off with flour and milk...which I know sounds a bit odd....but there's a whole science to why this frosting works.lol...Ive actually seen this technique for frosting in quite a few blogs and books. I think its the first type of frosting that was originally on a Red Velvet cake. Then somewhere along the line someone decided to pair it with a cream cheese frosting. I'm a fan. in fact, Ive never met a frosting I didn't like. Ok honeybees and honeybears...I'm totally goofing off at work...so I must go. Will keep you posted on that "meat"ball recipe when i get it to where it needs to be

TaTa

Hey Everyone,

Wow...it's been a while. Where do I begin. I haven't blogged in so long. I really wanted to tell you guys about my dining experience at Saints Alp Teahouse in williamsburg. This place has a very cute atmosphere and is very cheap. Not the greatest food in the world if your a food snob, but if your in the mood for appetizers and a bubble tea, this place is right up your alley. I was with two of my friends, Juan and Mayra and for the three of us I think our bill came out to around 40 bucks and we all had 2 appetizers and a drink.
So lets talk about this bubble tea business for those of you who don't know. Bubble tea can come hot or cold and the bubbles are giant tapioca pearls (hence, the bubbles). I definitely prefer it cold. The give you a giant straw which enables you to get a bubble with each sip...its chewy and so interesting. But if you are a texture-phobe than you probably wouldn't be down with it. My friend Juan got a hot tea with bubbles. I got my coconut black milk tea (love it). The last time I got a butterscotch one an it was terrible. Being the creature of habit I am, I'll probably stick with that coconut milk tea every time I go there. My friend Mayra got  matcha sorbee which is kind of like a smoothie with what looked like red bean paste floating on top. She liked it,(her second time ordering it). I don't remember what tea Juan got, but he didn't complain so he probably liked it.
On to the food. I had fried calamari. It was a nice small appetizer portion for one person. perfect size for $3.50 it was cooked perfectly and it had this spicy powder on top that was good but it made me cough a little..lol...(it came with sweet Chile sauce..yummy.  Then I got vermicelli rice noodle with curry vegetables. That was a bit disappointing. The flavor of the sauce was good. The problem was that the only vegetables in the dish were potatoes and carrots, and two lonely little baby bokchoy off to the side that seemed to be more of  steamed garnish that anything else The next problem with the dish was that the sauce rested on top of this huge pile of noodles. Vermicelli noodles are particularly skinny and very very long. After I took one bite...my sauce got lost and all of the noodles on the bottom were naked. so it seemed very boring after 3 minutes. I told my friends to remind me next time to order something else.
My friends were happy with their food. They got spicy fried chicken chunks. I think the spice came from the same powder that was on my calamari. and Ramen with spicy minced pork. I'm a non-meat eater so I cant say first hand how those dishes were, but to be honest I think if you throw anything spicy in front of my friends they will love it. They throw sriracha sauce on everything! but I think I'm a little more picky. Oh wait, I did try Juan's tea eggs. I was not impressed by a hard boiled egg cooked in tea lol...but to each his own.
Sunday I went to The Rye Bar and grill in Rye New york for My aunt and uncles 50th wedding anniversary party. Well, lets get right to the business at hand, i was not impresses with the service in regards to the food,  but those waiters sure kept those drinks flowing. I'm almost positive that was my cousins fault. He probably told them to hold off on the food order for a while so that held everything up. I had a goat cheese salad for an appetizer. It had obviously been sitting around underneath the kitchen lights for quite some time because when it arrived to the table it ws warm. Now I know how to read and it clearly said  goat cheese salad. Not a warm got cheese salad. My entre was salmon with spinach and potatoes. The sauteed spinach was the best thing on the plate. The potatoes were cut in thick slices. Ive honestly never seen potatoes cut that way. It almost looked like a scalloped potato that missed the mark. There were three on the plate that were undercooked. They were straight up like card board. I did not eat them and I didn't even bother to send them back. By that point I was just itching to leave and go to whole foods.(my favorite place in the whole wide world!)

Havnt blogged in a while..im way behind on my food adventures

At saints alp tea house...just had dinner...blog to be continued!!!

Hey Everyone,

So Ive been a bit lazy with my blogging. After thanksgiving and that lasagna episode, I was tired....so so tired. But now I'm back. Back with  vengeance. A big cookie vengeance. Every holiday season I go to town baking pumpkin breads and banana breads. Cinnamon swirl bread...and they are sooo good. especially my cinnamon swirl bread. A not too sweet quick bread with a brown sugar  walnut swirl. Yum.
I think I'm going to try my hand at cookies this year. Ive always been a bit intimidated with cookie recipes because they are so easy to scew up if you take your eye off them for one minute.  Or if your oven is acting up that day. But Ive seen  few nice ones that I think are going to make some nifty gifts for my friends.
In Martha Stewart's magazine this month there is an article "One basic dough, 30 kinds of cookies". This looks like it could be right up my alley. I'm all about multi baking. If I can take a basic recipe and tweak it into something else..kudos!.   Of course I'm always out to eyeball a Paula Deen recipe, and Ive got my eyeballs on a few that I most definitely will try because they tend to be very simple to make and so good. And I'm all about a simple recipe.  The first one I saw on her cookie swap show tonight. I tried to insert the link but it wasn't working tonight. You can google the recipe and it will come up.

Paula Deen's Sand Tarts

Makes: 3 dozen cookies
1 c. butter (2 sticks), softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. confectioners' sugar
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. pecans, finely chopped
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 275°F.
2. In large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat butter, vanilla, and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to low; gradually beat in flour just until blended, occasionally scraping bowl. With spoon, stir in pecans.
3. With floured hands, shape dough by level measuring tablespoons into about 2" by 1/2" crescents. Place crescents, 2 inches apart, on 2 ungreased large cookie sheets.
4. Place cookie sheets on 2 oven racks. Bake about 45 minutes or until edges are lightly browned, rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through cooking. With metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks set over waxed paper. Immediately sprinkle remaining confectioners' sugar through sieve over cookies to coat well. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
5. Store cookies in tightly sealed container, with waxed paper between layers, at room temperature, up to 2 weeks or in freezer up to 3 months.
Nutrition facts (each cookie): About 105 calories, 1 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 8 g total fat (4 g saturated), 1 g fiber, 15 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium.

The next recipe I've actually made before. It's a chocolate crackle recipe. It's a recipe from my favorite southern belle Paula Deen (cant remember what she calls them). But this recipe I actually got from food network magazine. So I'm sure its all in the family on that one. Anyway, these are two easy ones that I am definitely going to make within the next week or so. Also, I saw a really cute way to present them as a present. In a plastic bucket (the ones kids use in the sandbox lol) filled with Turbinado sugar to look like "sand". I saw it on the cookie swap and when it was all wrapped in cellophane it looked so cute and fun. I know that is something I'm going to look into. So here's the next recipe.

Double chocolate crackles

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in the melted butter and eggs until combined, then stir in the white chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Put the confectioners' sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls, then roll in the confectioners' sugar until well coated. Place 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.

Bake until the cookies are puffed and the tops are cracked, about 10 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Ok so...Im off, so enjoy the cookie recipes and if you try them and like them, leave me some comments on my blog!

Until next time