Jade Keller

This recipe was born out of a deep-in-the-bones need for pancakes. But I’m kind of picky about pancakes. I have a tendency to get bored with them halfway through – and even more quickly if they’re large, fat, and plain, the way they’re served in most restaurants. (Is anybody else the same way or is it just me?) So my go-to recipe involves small silver-dollar sized pancakes with lots of cinnamon and vanilla. But today, I wanted something with a little more oomph. And I got through to the very end of the recipe and realized I didn’t have a single egg in the house. So a quick Google search for egg substitute plus inspiration from a clafouti I made last month and I present to you:

Apricot Almond Pancakes

Here’s what you’ll need (serves 2):
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk (to make it vegan friendly, I’d recommend using almond milk)
3/4 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
5 tablespoons water
apricot preserves
fresh fruit to serve (berries, apricot, peaches…summer is lovely, isn’t it?)

Here’s what you do:

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Whisk the wet ingredients together: milk, lemon juice, vanilla & almond extracts, and oil. Mix the ground flax seed and 3 tablespoons water together and add to the wet ingredients. Put the wet mixture into the dry mixture, add 2 tablespoons water to thin a little bit, and mix well.

3. Get a griddle up to medium heat with cooking spray or canola oil. A trick I learned from an ex-boyfriends’ mom: pour enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, then pour about 4-inch sized dollops of the pancake mixture. I love this because it gives the pancakes crispy edges and they’re not too big. Plus I prefer smaller pancakes. But to each her own; make them however big or small you like. When the pancakes start bubbling in the middle, flip them over. Cook for another minute or so until done.

4. When the pancakes are done, put a couple of heaping teaspoons of the apricot preserves in a microwaveable bowl. Nuke for about 30-40 seconds to make it runny like syrup. Pour over the pancakes and serve with fresh fruit. Sliced almonds and powdered sugar would also go well.

Nutty, fresh, light…and probably about as healthy as a pancake can get.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy. I love you!

I made my mom brownies for Mother’s Day which was a good idea and all, except that I gave them all to her and didn’t leave any for myself me and Toby. Really, I tell ya’, it was a problem. So Monday night rolled around and I was really jonesing for brownies. But not just any brownie. I had raspberries in the fridge and I was darn certain those raspberries just needed to be in those brownies (and in my belly).

Plus, there’s kind of just no stopping me once I get a craving. It’s like there’s this monster inside me, who lies dormant most of the time, and everyone thinks I’m all quiet and shy like. But then I’ll get a craving and all of a sudden it’s like RAWWRR! And then, pretty much everyone has to get out of my way until the monster has been satiated.

Anyway. So chocolate. And raspberries. I was on a mission.

I went on yet another internet search for a good brownie recipe. (I’ve tried a few and they’ve been okay, but nothing to really clap my hands, jump up and down and giggle in manic glee over.) And I found one that touted itself as the ULTIMATE BROWNIE. (But then, have you noticed? A lot of people claim they have the ULTIMATE BROWNIE. I’m unconvinced.) I’m going to say I think this was a damn good brownie. And I figure everyone has their own notion of what the ultimate brownie looks like, ranging on the spectrum from cakey to fudgey. This one falls probably closer to cakey. But the liqueur makes it yummy moist.

And hello? Chocolate + raspberries + liqueur?

All right then.

So I found a recipe that satisfied the criteria of 1) only has ingredients I already had in my cupboard. Because, you know, it was like 8 o’clock at night and I wasn’t really going to make a trip to my grocer, and 2) actually looked like it’d make a pretty good brownie. But I didn’t have quite all the ingredients they wanted, so I had to improvise. (As in the recipe called for 8 1-oz squares of unsweetened chocolate and I had 6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips. So I had to cut the recipe in 3/4. That’s always fun. Especially when you’re as awesome at math as I am. NOT.

Don’t worry; there’s still plenty of brownie at the end. And that was Monday and this is now Friday, so we’re just going to pray I remember exactly what I did, m’kay?

Here’s what you need (I’m pretty sure)
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. butter
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
handful of fresh raspberries
about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of Chambord Liqueur

Here’s what you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.

2. Put butter and chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Nuke for about a minute and a half. Check and stir. If it needs more nuking, microwave it in 30 second intervals until fully melted. Stir vigorously to blend chocolate and butter. Blend about 1/3 of a cup of the Chambord into the chocolate mixture. (Now don’t shoot me, but I think it was about 1/3 – 1/2 of a cup. I just poured in a bunch – about a tablespoon or two at a time – and had no qualms about doing taste tests until the chocolate-raspberry balance just tasted good to me. Then when I mixed it in later with the flour, etc. I realized the raspberry taste wasn’t strong enough again so I had to add more. Which made it too liquidy. So I tossed in a little bit more flour. So these measurements are approximate, but I think they’re all right.) Set aside.

3. In another bowl (or a stand mixer if you have one), beat eggs, sugars, cocoa, and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes. Yes, the recipe actually said 10 minutes – hence the joy of a stand mixer. I don’t have a stand mixer. So I stood there diligently mixing. For about 3 minutes. Then I got bored (and really wanted brownies already!) so I stopped. The brownies clearly survived and my kitchen didn’t explode in a fiery ball of sin (although, that might have been fun too…), so I say mix until you’re done mixing. It’ll be all right.

4. Blend in the chocolate mixture, flour and salt until everything is mixed up nicely. Add the raspberries and pour into the prepared pan. Bake about 30-40 minutes (don’t overbake it!). Check with a toothpick for doneness then set out to cool. Brownies are always best if they’re just a smidge underdone because they bake a little more as they cool.

I cut mine into 16  (about 2 x 3 inch) brownies. If you’re on Weight Watchers and counting points, it makes about 346 brownies.

I have a love affair with kitchen gadgets and doohickery. (Ironic I should say that after yesterday’s post, no? But it’s true.) I love tools that I can use to create yummy cakes and pies. And I especially love items that I can use for a myriad of things: like my panini press. It does not just press paninis, it also grills meat and vegetables, and is a godsend in a small apartment when you don’t have an actual grill. So the other day, I was browsing the new items at Sur la Table, just because it’s fun to look, when I came across this: a grill rack for jalapeno poppers. Oh, and corer. For 20 bucks. Now, forgive me, but WHO needs a $20 grill rack for jalapeno poppers?! Does it stuff them for you too? No. Does it do the dishes for you afterward? No. It’s just gonna take up space until the once or twice a year you pull it out from the very back of the cabinet, behind the sort-of broken coffee pot, and under that dish you don’t really like, to make poppers. I have a grill rack for jalapeno poppers. It’s called a muffin tin. That serves a dual function of making muffins like my pumpkin muffins filled with cream cheese. Oh, right, and the corer. I have a corer too. It’s called a paring knife (a.k.a. “the little pointy one”).

All mustered up with self-righteous indignation, I, who have never before in my life made jalapeno poppers, set out to prove it. Well, or I just started daydreaming about jalapeno poppers and then had to make them to satisfy my craving.

Here’s what you need:
For the stuffing: whipped cream cheese, garlic powder, lime juice, cheddar cheese, tomato, and onion. Jalapenos. Bacon to wrap and cilantro garnish optional. (Ok the bacon’s not really optional. I just like to try to accommodate my vegetarian friends.)

For about 10 poppers, I used:
10 jalapenos
2 tablespoons whipped cream cheese
a dash of garlic powder
a few splashes of lime juice
about 1/3 lb. cheddar cheese
1/2 a tomato
a few slices of onion
2-3 sprigs of cilantro
5 slices of bacon

I should specify: I used Weight Watchers whipped cream cheese. It’s not nearly as fat as regular, but it still tastes really good (not like fat-free philly…bleah). And whipped cream cheese is easier to mix and spread.

Oh yeah. And be very sure to get jalapenos. Not the extra-large serranos that are lurking surreptitiously right next to the jalapenos, ready to attack the unsuspecting customer. You know, unless you like pain. Me? I choose life.

Here’s what you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the tops off of the jalapenos, and with a small knife, scrape out the seeds from the inside. Be very careful doing this. Don’t be in a rush or you could accidentally cut yourself. And cut plus chili seeds plus lime juice = no bueno. Not that I would know from personal experience or anything. Also be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap afterward because the oils from the chillies transfer everywhere and 5 hours later you could rub your eye and then get a mighty burn in your eyeball and then you’ll run around and curse down the house crying. Again, not that I would know from experience. Just sayin’.

So when you’ve done them all, they should look like this:
And look! What’s that? It’s a muffin tin!

2. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, garlic powder, and lime juice. Go ahead, give it a taste. You know you want to. I know it doesn’t look like it’ll be enough for the peppers, but I chose pretty darn large peppers, and it was just enough for them. With a butter knife, take a small dab of the cream cheese mix and put it into the peppers until each of them has some of the cream cheese.

If you want, you could take evil hot chili powder from hell:
and sprinkle it into one of the poppers for a *surprise* popper. And then subtly arrange it later so it ends up where your husband will be the one to eat it and find the surprise. Not that I would ever do such a thing. {evil grin} Just don’t make it TOO hot. Because what goes in must come out.

Fire in the hole!

Just sayin’.

Then, cut the cheddar cheese into little sticks and stuff the sticks into the peppers too. Cut the bacon slices in half, cross-wise. Wrap the peppers with the bacon pieces and use a toothpick to hold it together. So they should look like this:
See how the muffin tin keeps them elevated so the stuffing doesn’t run out? Uh huh, tha’s right.

3. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. The bacon should be cooked and the peppers turn soft and a duller shade of green. But while the peppers are baking, you can chop up the tomato and onion, mix in a tiny smidge of garlic powder, lime juice, and cilantro to make a mini pico de gallo.

4. When the peppers are done baking, let them cool for a few minutes. Then stuff a tiny bit of the pico de gallo into them. Serve fresh with cilantro garnish.

Oh, and look! No $20 grill rack needed. (Plus some of the cheese oozes out onto the muffin tin and then you have crispy baked cheese. No one will know if you scrape that up and snack on it.)

I tried to come up with a literary name to call these little guys, but I’m unfortunately just not up on my Chicano Studies literature. And everything I could think of along those veins just sounded more like a racial slur. The best I could come up with was calling it “Cheesy Popper and the Half-Baked Pig”, with a hat tip to my favorite book of all time. {smirk} Buuuut, I didn’t. You’re welcome. So they’re just plain ol’ “jalapeno poppers”.

Do you ever just get tired of your staples? I do. I get bored SO easily. And that is sometimes a problem because we do eat a lot of rice. I switch up the main part of our dinners with a lot of variety. But unless I’m making something like pasta for dinner, our evening meals usually involve a serving of rice – usually brown rice. Sometimes I feel like I would love to mix it up and have a rice pilaf or a risotto, but when I look at the nutrition labels I practically chuck the boxes back at the shelves in the grocery aisle and run away in horror. (Not that that stops me from eating it in restaurants. Because in restaurants there are no nutrition labels and I can pretend it’s not that unhealthy. Just like when I tell myself ice cream is a good source of calcium. And that second glass of red wine is really just doubling the benefits to my heart.)

But then I thought about the possibility of using other alternatives that are healthier than rice. I initially wanted bulgur, but bulgur is really hard to find in this town. Unless you want to go to the co-op. But our co-op is kind of far from me, and I really didn’t feel like going out on a trek for just one ingredient because, hey, I’m lazy efficient. So I decided to go with quinoa. Pronounced kinwa, quinoa is kind of a grain, but it’s high in protein, fiber, magnesium and iron, but lower in carbs than rice and it’s gluten-free.

So. I give you my veggie-rich pilaf alternative!

Here’s what you need:
Quinoa, broth (any kind will do), olive oil, garlic powder, carrot, zucchini, scallions, flax seeds, chili powder, dijon mustard, lemon juice, (salt optional). And of course, I forgot to put the dijon mustard and lemon juice in the photo because I always manage to forget an ingredient or two to include in the photo. That’s what happens when I post too long after I’ve made the dish. But too late now. It’s Saturday night, all the good light is gone, and my hubby’s waiting on me for us to go out. So this’ll just have to make do.

::sigh::

ANYWAY.

To serve two:
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup broth (you can use any kind: vegetable, mushroom, chicken, etc.)
2 tsp olive oil
2-3 dashes of garlic powder
2 tsp lemon juice
1 carrot (or about 1/2 cup, minced)
1-2 zucchini (or about 1 cup, minced)
1 scallion, chopped
1 tsp flax seeds (gives a nice added nutty flavor and is a good source of your omega-3s and fiber)
1 tsp dijon mustard
pinch of salt (optional)
hint of chili powder (if you like a little spice in your life)

Here’s what you do:
1. Cut up the carrot and zucchini into tiny little minced pieces. Chop the scallion.

2. Wash the quinoa. It cooks basically just like rice. If you have a rice cooker, this becomes SO EASY. But if you don’t, you can cook it stove-top. Put the quinoa into the rice cooker or pot. Add broth of your choice. (Water is fine too, but broth adds more flavor.) Add olive oil, garlic powder, carrots, zucchini, flax seeds, dijon mustard, lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

3. Cook as per directions on the quinoa box. Again, if you have a rice cooker, it cooks just like rice. If you’re doing it stove-top, you’ll probably need to bring it to a boil, then simmer, covered, just until the broth is absorbed (about 10-15 minutes).

4. Serve topped with chopped scallions and a hint of chili powder.

And it’s quite yummy! Even my hippie-grain-skeptic of a hubby enjoyed it because the broth adds a richness to the nutty flavor and the mustard adds a hint of spice that’s a little more complex than just chilies. Anyway, it’s nice for when you just want to switch things up. I served it with spice-rubbed grilled chicken and a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette and all the flavors complemented each other quite nicely. Great for a simple mid-week meal.

And I title this after Don Quixote. Because why? ‘Cuz Quixote and quinoa both begin with q-u-i, that’s why. ‘Cuz with all the health benefits and ease of cooking, it really is nothing like quixotic. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite. But whatevs.

You may recall last week I set out to make strawberry rhubarb cobbler, but alas was thwarted in the quest for rhubarb, and so we made a scrumptious blackberry cobbler instead. Well, what do you know, but I go to do my weekly grocery shopping and lo and behold, bright red stalks of rhubarb sit innocently in the produce section like I hadn’t just spent hours scrounging around for them just the week before. Punk rhubarb.

Well, I couldn’t just let them sit there being all punk like that. So I bought a bunch. And by a bunch, I might mean 4 pounds. And 2 pounds of fresh strawberries.

I foresee a lot of strawberry-rhubarb dishes in the near future.

But the whole cobbler idea seemed a bit stale, seeing as how I’d just made a fat dish of it last week. So what could I do with all these strawberries and rhubarb?

I took a vote, and me, myself, and I made a unanimous decision to go for cake. I had visions of chocolate cake with a strawberry rhubarb filling, slathered in butter cream frosting. Something that looks like this:

If you’re gonna’ dream, might as well dream big, right?

Right. So here’s what you need:

For the cake: 2 cups sugar, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 cup butter, 8 tablespoons cocoa (I know Nesquick is pictured, but use Hershey’s cocoa if you can. I did…but didn’t keep the box for the photo.), 1 cup water, 1/2 cup milk, juice of 1 small lemon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 eggs beaten, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

For the filling: 3 cups strawberries cut in quarters, 1 1/2 cups rhubarb cut in 1/2-inch pieces (about 3/4 of a large stalk), 1/2 cup sugar, and about 1/4-1/2 cup of water.

For the frosting: 1 pound powdered sugar, 1/2 stick of butter, 8 oz. cream cheese, and 2 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract.

(Note: If you buy a pound of strawberries, you’ll have extra for garnish.)

Did you notice? At least this time, I included the berries in the photos!
Of course, I’m still missing cream cheese, the Hershey’s cocoa, and a lemon.

Forethought and planning. I don’t have it.

Anyway, here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Start with the cake batter. Mix the sugar, flour, and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside. Combine the butter, cocoa, and water in a saucepan; bring almost to a boil, but do not boil. Pour over sugar mixture and mix well. Add milk, vanilla, eggs, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the fresh squeezed lemon juice and mix well. Grease two 8-inch cake pans, and split the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

2. While the cake is baking, prepare the fruit filling. In a saucepan, put the strawberries, rhubarb and sugar. Add a little bit of water, just enough to keep the fruit from burning as you heat the fruit on medium heat. Add more water as necessary, but no more than 1/2 a cup. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer, stirring continuously, until you have a thick liquid and the fruit has all dissolved. Take off heat and let cool.

3. When the cakes have cooled completely, slice the rounded top off of one of the cakes and discard (Or eat, covered with jam. Not saying I would do such a thing. But then, I’m pretty sure throwing good cake away into the trash is bad for the environment). And here is my little secret: sprinkle or squeeze the remaining lemon juice delicately around the open top of the cake you just beheaded lopped off you just cut. Then spread the strawberry rhubarb filling on it. This adds a little hint of citrus and helps make the cake nice and moist. Then what I did was sliced about 4 strawberries nice and thin and littered the slices on top of the filling. Then I put the second cake on top, rounded side up.

4. Mix the frosting ingredients until they’re all smooth. Then with a butter knife, slather it all over the cake. You’ll most likely end up with a wee bit too much frosting, so feel free to go to town as much as you like. I suppose you could calculate 3/4 of the recipe and that’d probably be about perfect. Or you could just have extra frosting that you could use on something else (like dolloped on strawberry rhubarb waffles…). It’s really good frosting.

5. Garnish with the rest of your strawberries. A sprig of mint would look nice too, if you have it.

And this is what the final product looks like:

See right there, all that chocolatey-goodness with that yum-yum strawberry rhubarb filling just oozing out?
Ohhh yeahhh. That’s what I was dreaming about.

Though I should warn you, that filling is slippery, so serve with care. I suppose I might have added some gelatin or something to make it less slippery. But all that pure flavor was just too good to mess with.

You might be wondering why it’s called Scarlet Letter cake. The hubby suggested when I make up my own recipes I should give them a name. I decided to let literature be my inspiration. And all that dark chocolate brown, luscious red, trimmed in stark white called to mind The Scarlet Letter.

And the taste… the chocolate and strawberries call to mind passion; a passion simultaneously sinful in nature, yet innocent at first blush. Not too sweet and rich, or heady like a ganache…just light, moist and fleeting, with the hint of citrus to add an element of surprise. An element of je ne sais quoi, like the draw of a sexy man just at the edge of your reach.

This is a cake for dessert in bed. For weekend getaways and summer flings.

It’s a cake for love.

(Fleeting, cuz that’s how fast you’ll eat it.)