Olive Oil Cake

So this day the child wanted cake. Sadly I didn't have regular oil or enough butter for cake and frosting, and who wants cake without frosting?!? Not anyone in my house. So I decided to come up with something on my own. in this test kitchen of mine I pull all the stops.

Ingredients 
1C AP flour
3/4C sugar
2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
1 egg
1/2c buttermilk or (1tbsp buttermilk powder and 1/2c water)
1/3c greek yogurt or sour cream
3tbsp olive oil
2tsp vanilla

Recipe for buttercream 

Method
Preheat oven to 350° Spray with baking spray or grease a 8x8 baking pan.

Whisk together all of the dry ingredients



Whisk together wet ingredients

 

Add wet to the dry until combined



Pour batter into prepared pan.



Bake 30 min until knife or toothpick comes out clean



Cool Frost Eat

Blueberry Biscoff Cheesecake

I was challenged by my daughter, she said she didn't like cheesecake, whaaaat!?! So I made one and she liked it. I changed stuff around from a basic no bake so she would inevitably love my creamy concoction. I live to experiment with cookies and crusts so I tried Biscoff cookies. Mmmmm perfect balance. I will try my goat cheese cake on her next because that is truly the messiah of all cheesecakes. 

Ingredients

1 8oz package of Biscoff cookies finely ground

2tbsp sugar

6tbsp butter

16oz cream cheese

1tsp almond extract

1c powdered sugar 

1/2c sour cream

3/4c heavy cream

Blueberry compote 

8oz blueberries 

2tbsp sugar

1tbsp water

1tsp lemon juice

Method

Melt butter in 9" pie pan 350° heat

Mix together 2 tbsp sugar and cookie crumbs

Press around pan to form crust, bake for 10 min. 

Cool completely 

Using a mixer mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, almond extract, sour cream, and whipped cream until mixed and creamy. When the crust has completely cooled top with creamed mixture

For blueberry compote on stove with small saucepan cook blueberries sugar water and lemon until thick 

Top cheesecake when cooled

Chill in fridge for 4-6 hours. 

Red Curry Potatoes an Lentils

What a great vegetarian dish. It's a one pot dish easy to make and clean up and it's delicious. I love my Dutch oven, it's great for this kind of hearty dish. I cooked this for my daughter who is a vegetarian and she loved it, the dish has layers of Indian and Thai flavors, two cuisines she adores...so I call it a Thai Indian fusion dish. 

Ingredients

2tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion minced

1tsp fresh cilantro minced

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

2tbsp red curry paste

6C broth

1 large potato or sweet potato diced

2 fresh diced tomatoes 

1 1/2C lentils

1 can coconut milk

Salt & Pepper to taste

Dash of cardamom 

Method

In a large Dutch oven heat olive oil on medium heat. Sauté onions, garlic and cilantro until onions are soft. 

Add red curry paste and cook for a couple min till fragrant. 

Add broth and simmer 

Add lentils

Potatoes

And tomatoes

Bring to a simmer. Add salt, pepper and small dash of cardamom. Reduce heat to low.

And cook until lentils and potatoes are soft. These dishes are great the longer they cook the flavors really marry well. 

Finally when everything is soft add in coconut milk and cook on low for 10more min or so. I cooked it longer for more flavor but it's ready whenever you are! Enjoy

Amish Country Cabbage dish

 

When I drove from Minnesota to California I stopped in St. Louis at the arc there is a museum at the bottom. I found these wonderful cookbooks there. One of the few I bought was an Amish cooking cookbook. I have thumbed through many times. But never made anything. Lately I have heard of how great Amish food is so I started to research Amish cooking and dishes. I found many different cabbage and meat recipes. So I decided to make up my own one that fits my family's taste. I came up with one that was very similar to a Jewish dish that I make called Prakas. This meal was so simple but yet so amazing. It's a very hearty meal. My husband had 3 helpings. It's easy to make it vegetarian as well. I'm going to try some recipes in my book. 

I'm glad I was looking the Amish way. 

Ingredients

1lb ground turkey or hamburger

1 onion

1 clove garlic chopped

2tbsp butter 

14oz stewed tomatoes 

8oz tomato sauce

1/2 cabbage chopped

Salt and pepper

1tsp smoked paprika

1tsp brown sugar

1tbsp Worcester sauce

Mashed potatoes

Method

Chop onion and garlic and cabbage

Brown ground meat with salt, pepper paprika and onions, 

Drain grease

Add garlic, butter, cabbage 

Tomatoes, sauce, brown sugar and Worcester sauce 

Stir well, simmer 

and cover turn down heat and cook for about 20 min until cabbage is soft.

Serve over mashed potatoes yum

To make vegetarian omit meat cook same method. Yum!!