Fresh Strawberry Bread

Market Basket has been having a great sale on strawberries lately.  I keep buying the most gigantic containers and then struggling for what to do with them. I can only eat so many! When my aunt and uncle were visiting, I remembered that my aunt lives strawberry anything, so I found this recipe that I had pinned a while ago for fresh strawberry bread.  It was quick and say and sounded like it would have great texture and moisture - both cream cheese and buttermilk are in there, along with butter, to keep this bread decadent.

And of course there are the strawberries.  I chopped them into pretty large chunks to let them be the stars of the bread!  They add great flavor and color to the bread.

It was extra glorious right out of the oven (I caught my mom and uncle picking pieces off far before it was ready to be cut!), but I bet it it would be just as good toasted and spread with some butter or cream cheese. You could totally serve this for dessert, or cal it breakfast.  I love things like that.

Recipe:

fresh strawberry bread
from My Baking Addiction 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried and chopped

Instructions:

1) Grease and flour a 9x5-inch pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) With electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.

3) In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended.  Add buttermilk and only stir until just combined.  Do not overmix.

4) Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick.  Bake for 50 - 60 minutes.  Let cool for a bit before slicing if you can wait :)

Taco Torte

Christy yelled at me for being a bad blogger so here you go: the taco torte! :)  Isn't this a thing of beauty?

I made a similar recipe, a tortilla pie,  years ago, and it was okay. In fact I remember panicking because I was still such a new cook, and in reading the comments on the recipe, people claimed it was bland. Who wants to go through all the work to make a bland dinner? Even though I added a few things, it didn't stick in my mind and I never made it again.

But then I saw this recipe and I knew it was different.  Yes, there are still stacks of tortillas with beans and cheese in between, but the filling here can stand on its own.  It would never be called bland.  There are beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, corn and spinach, and lots of flavor from cumin, chili powder, tomato paste and a chile pepper, if you're so inclined.  Then the torte itself is made up of layers of tortillas, with the filling and monterey jack cheese in between.  Mmmm. Then the whole thing gets baked into a beautiful cake-like dinner. Cake for dinner? Yup.  Technically a torte but still. Torte for dinner?!

The even better news is that this makes for great leftovers.  It fed me through my last week of work at lunchtime!  Still not excited? Go ahead and add some ground beef or shredded chicken, you carnivores!  Just try this out. It's so much fancier than your standard tacos. Spice up taco night this week; you won't regret it.

Recipe:

taco torte
from Smitten Kitchen
serves 6-8

Ingredients:
nonstick cooking spray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped small
1 clove garlic, minced
1 fresh chile pepper, chopped small (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 15-ounce can or 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes, drained, with 1/3 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 15-ounce cans black, red or kidney beans (or a combination), drained and rinsed
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, from 1-2 ears, 1 15-ounce can, or frozen and thawed (I used a can)
3 cups rough chopped spinach leaves
6 medium sized (8-inch) flour tortillas (can use corn too if you want to be gluten-free)
2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese or cheddar (or a mix)
chopped fresh cilantro, sour cream, and/or salsa for serving

Instructions:

1) Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a 9-inch cake pan or cast-iron skillet tightly with foil and spray it with a nonstick spray.  You can also use a 9-inch springform; spray and skip the foil.

2) Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic, chile pepper, cumin, and chili powder, and cook until you can smell the spies and the onion is softened, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the tomatoes with the 1/3 cup reserved juice and the tomato paste; then stir in the beans.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Let bean mixture summer until everything is hot, about 3 minutes.  Add the corn and spinach and stir until the spinach has wilted and everything is well blended and hot, about 3 minutes.  Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed.

3) Place 1 tortilla in the prepared cake pan.  Spread 1/6 of the bean and vegetable evenly over the tortilla, then sprinkle 1/4 - 1/3 cup of the shredded cheese evenly over the top.  Repeat with 5 more layers, ending with the last of the bean mixture and shredded cheese.

4) Bake the tortilla stack until it is hot throughout and the top is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.  You can run it under the broiler for extra color on top if you wish.  Let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before removing it from the pan, either by carefully lifting the foil that lines the pan or by opening the springform sides.  Cit into wedges using a sharp knife and serve using a pie server or spatula.  Serve with cilantro, sour cream and salsa.

Optional do ahead instructions: Make torte up to step 4; cover in the fridge overnight and leave it at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before baking.

Basic Banana Muffins

I've been a bit MIA due to family emergencies, the craziness of the end of the school year, and just life in general.  My mother is feeling a bit better after a nasty bout with diverticulitis, but until yesterday, she was on a special low fiber diet to give her stomach a chance to recover.  Low fiber is pretty boring and cut out lots of her favorite things, like my maple pecan banana muffins, which she was craving after terrible hospital banana muffins.  Since pecans were off the menu for her for 10 days, I decided to find a new banana muffin recipe that wouldn't feel like it was missing something if the nuts were cut out.  I have made lots of banana recipes before, but they all seemed to have something extra, whether it be pecans or even bourbon.  I wanted these muffins to be calming to her stomach but still tasty, and I came across this recipe.  Nothing wild or fancy, but they promised to be moist and nutritious, so I gave them a try and brought them over to Mom in the morning before work.  They were simple and easy to make; truly no frills baking!

They were just what we expected: sweet, soft, moist muffins bursting with banana flavor, without anything crazy.  They are, as the recipe suggests, basic banana muffins.  If you're not baking for someone on a low fiver diet, feel free to toss in pecans or walnuts or chocolate chips, but for my mother, they were just what they needed to be!  She thought in the humidity they got a little wet as the days went on, but we discovered that they were delicious toasted and buttered... in fact, that is how I preferred them! How have I never toasted and buttered a muffin before? What else have I been missing out on in this life?

Recipe:

basic banana muffins
from Taste of Home
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin tin or line with paper cups.

2) In a  large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In another bowl, mash the bananas.  Add egg, oil and vanilla; mix well.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fill muffin cups half full.

2) Bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vegan Corn Chowder

Oh I am a bad blogger.  But then again I have lots of excuses, including that this week was chock full of family emergencies, late nights, and no cooking.  No groceries, for that matter.  But yesterday I shopped and cooked myself a big delicious dinner and it was heavenly.  It's the little things, I tell you: knowing your whole family is home safely, making a big pot of soup on a chilly June night, and eating a bowl of it at a freshly-cleaned island counter!

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at the beach house and went to a food festival in Newburyport.  Everyone had clam chowder, but the vegetarians of the group had corn chowder.  Usually corn chowder is not my favorite soup, but this one was special: it had carrots in it and wasn't super sweet. It had a lot of flavor, the corn was tender and juicy, and I devoured it very quickly!  Then I knew I had to recreate it, and when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, it looked very similar so I bought all the ingredients yesterday.  It was a weirdly cold night so the timing was perfect.

Before you judge this recipe for being vegan, let me explain what it means in this situation.  It means no milk or cream.  That means it's far healthier than your average chowder.  It also means no need to make a roux using flour - there is no flour in this soup, making it gluten free. Surprisingly, there's not even any chicken broth!  The liquid is from coconut milk and water, which get blended with half of your corn and a fourth of the potatoes.  Believe me, this thickens the chowder perfectly without the need of any gluten of dairy.

The flavor, besides from all the veggies (garlic, potatoes, fresh corn, carrots, celery and red pepper) comes from a little cumin, paprika, and Cajun seasoning.  It has a little bite to it, but not too much; it just adds some interest to the broth.

Honestly this was just as good as the chowder I got in Newburyport, if not better.  I ate it with some baguette that I had bought when it was still hot, and it was a delicious meal.  I will quite happily eat the leftovers at work this week.  And yes, I have a full week of work ahead of me, and then another half week.  Summer vacation feels super far away at this point, but this chowder will help me limp my way to the finish line.

Recipe:

vegan corn chowder
from Roasted Root
serves 4-6

Ingredients:
4 ears corn, shucked and steamed (I used 5 and put 3 ears worth of kernels into the soup whole)
2 large red potatoes, peeled and chopped (I left mine unpeeled for some more color and texture)
3 tablespoons coconut or olive oil
1 large white onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 large stalks celery, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, cored and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
2 cups water
chopped green onion for serving

Instructions:

1) Place earns of corn in a arge pot and fill with water. Cover pot with a lid and place on the stove over high heat.  Bring to a full boil and cook until corn is plump and juicy, about 5-8 minutes.

2) Use tongs to remove for from boiling water and place on a cutting board.  Take half of one of the red potatoes and place into the same pot of water you use for the corn.  Allow potato to cook until soft, 10-15 minutes.

3) While potato is cooking, saute the rest of the vegetables.  Add coconut oil to a large pot, along with the rest of the potato, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, bell pepper, sea salt, Cajun seasoning, paprika, and cumin.  Heat to medium-high and saute, stirring occasionally, until vegetables have softened about 10 minutes.

4) Use a knife to cut the corn kernels off all of the ears of corn.  Place half of the kernels in a blender, along with the cooked potato.  Add the coconut milk and water to the blender and blend until completely smooth.

5) Add the remaining corn kernels to the pot with the sautéed vegetables, and pout the blended corn/potato mixture into the pot.  Bring to a gentle boil and cook until potato has softened. about 10 - 20 minutes.

6) Remove from heat and taste; add sea salt and Cajun seasoning as desired.  Serve with chopped green onion.

20 Minute Lemon Broccoli Pasta Skillet

It's June, you guys!  This year went by so fast!  School will be over 3 weeks from today!  Maybe it was because my class was better or my life was better or both, but this year flew by.  Soon enough I'll be sleeping in and having pool parties, cooking and baking to my heart's content :)

But for now, I am getting home from work pretty exhausted.  This is a totally fun but totally crazy time to be a teacher.  Within the next 15 days of school, I have field day, field trips, fifth grade barbecue, spring concert, and countless other schedule-blowing extravaganzas!  By the time I get home, I'm lucky if I can make myself something quick like Ramen noodles.  Okay fine, that happened last week.  I may love the process of cooking but on nights like these when my eyes are closing before 7:00, I need something quick.

Enter 20 minutes lemon broccoli pasta skillet!  This was so quick and oh so good.  Is anything better than pasta with lemon and parmesan? I don't think so.  Add in garlic, spinach and broccoli, and what more could you ask for?!  I loved this meal, and I brought the leftovers for lunch for days until it was gone.  I kind of miss it. Guess I will have plenty of time to make it again real soon :)

Recipe:

20 minute lemon broccoli pasta skillet
from The Food Charlatan
serves 6

Ingredients:
3 quarts water
1 1/2 pounds fresh broccoli, cut into florets
1 pound rotini pasta
3-4 cups spinach
4 tablespoons butter
1 large lemon, tested and juiced
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup fresh parmesan, plus more to garnish
salt and pepper


Instructions:

1) In a large pot, bring the water to a boil along with 1 tablespoon of salt.

2) Add the rotini and boil on high for 4 minutes.  Add the broccoli, cover, and cook 3 minutes.

3) Drain pasta and broccoli and return to pot. Stir in spinach and sprinkle with lemon zest.  Let sit for a few minutes so the spinach wilts.

4) Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add minced garlic and crushed red pepper and saute for about 1 minutes until fragrant.  Turn off heat and add 2- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with more Parmesan.