Getting Back to Normal and other Musings....and a Drink!

First, I would like to thank all of you who sent get well wishes to me. I am finally starting to feel like I am human again. Whatever this was, it knocked me out. My husband waited on me...the kitty hardly ever left my side in bed. I felt...well, half-baked! You know the feeling when you cut into something that you THINK looks done and then, BAM...in the middle, it is soggy? Well, that was me. But the worst has passed and I am now able to prepare for our daughter's visit this week. Yes, my friends, timing IS everything!

Second, I hope you all had a great Halloween! The evening was not a nice one here...peppered with rain and quite chilly. But the kids and their parents were troopers and going from door to door. We saw about 250 kids. Or I should say, my husband had the honors! I watched from an upstairs window.

So now we start to prepare. Our middle daughter is paying a week-long visit with her husband and 22-month old, Morgan. Next weekend, the house will be singing...did I really say singing?...with the sounds of our other 2 coming in with their families. That means we will have 3 little ones, 6 and under running around. Our kitty is going for a visit to grammy and grampy's house as the commotion would be too much. And she deserves a little vacation too. My parents love her and she loves them so it is a match made in heaven! Our grandsons are a little older and they like the kitty, are very gentle with her and they play. But Morgan is a terror with her Yorkie, so why tempt fate with putting a cat in front of her?

This is the only time this season that we will all be together, as holiday plans are going to separate us at some point or another. We are going to make it our Thanksgiving celebration. The hubs and I are trying to plan a little something different for food other than a traditional turkey and I think we are doing a couple of turkey breasts. I have been looking through magazines for some new ideas for sides and have a few in mind. Everyone is going to pitch in to help, so it should be fun.

Now the plan is to start off the cooking with something warm and cozy. The basic recipe comes from Southern Living.

WARM CITRUS CIDER

Bring one gallon apple cider; 2 cups orange juice; 1/2 cup lemon juice; 1 orange, sliced, 1 lemon , sliced; 1-1/2 tsp. whole cloves; and 3 cinnamon sticks to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minures. Discard solids. Garnish with an apple slice, if desired, Serve hot. Makes about 4-1/2 qts. (Now my plan is to add a little Calvados (apple brandy) to the mix. I'm sure rum would work equally as well. )

This would be a terrific after ski or sledding party beverage and you can definitely keep it non-alcoholic especially where there are younger members or non-drinkers in the group. How about after a day of going to cut down the Christmas tree? This will certainly warm your insides!

For today, I am still going to kick back a little when I feel tired. I may try to make a small supper. One positive is that I lost 8 pounds being sick. I wanted to lose 5!! Not this way of course, but it is incentive!!

Chocolate Cinnamon Bread.....Can you Just Smell the Aroma?

I have been away from blogging for 2 days attending to the busy-ness of life! Whew. It is nice to have the weekend appear. And weekends for me usually mean getting down to serious fun of cooking and baking. (Ahhhh.........hence the name Weekend Cook!)

So this weekend, I am making another "coffee and..." recipe. Two of our kids are home with their families for the weekend so it's a houseful and someone is always looking for a snack!

This is really good recipe for coffee. This recipe is very similar to the Chocolate Cinnamon Bread you can buy by the slice at Starbucks. And what can be better than chocolate and cinnamon? The recipe makes 2 loaves. This means you can make one for yourself and give one away, or make one for yourself and freeze the other loaf for when you need a chocolate fix (!!) or unexpected company. Serve with a steaming good cup of joe or a glass of cold milk. If you want to make this extra-chocolate-y, toss in a cup of mini-chocolate chips to the batter. And if you want to try something REALLY decadent, put a slice of this in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes and make some cinnamon butter to go on top. I have to stop now because just writing about this is making me want some, and if I don't get to work, it isn't going to get made! I wonder if this would make good French Toast? How about using some in bread pudding? Stop...stop the insanity!!!

Chocolate Cinnamon Bread

Recipe Adapted from Starbucks Coffee Company
Ingredients

Batter:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1¼ cups Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk, chilled
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs

Topping:
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar
½ teaspoon Dutch cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans, line with parchment paper, then lightly grease again.

2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and cinnamon together. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, water, and vanilla. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar; cream together until mixture appears light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each egg is thoroughly mixed. Alternately add some of the sifted flour mixture, and the buttermilk mixture to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until blended.

5. Pour batter into the loaf pans, dividing the batter evenly between the 2 pans. Set aside. Topping:

6. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar, Turbinado sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Sprinkle evenly over the batter.

7. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove pans from oven and let cool about 15 minutes.

Grabbing the top edges of the parchment paper, lift bread from loaf pans and place on wire racks to finish cooling.

Remove parchment paper and discard. Makes 2 loaves

Using Pumpkin...in April

The sun is shining and the trees are in bud and the forsythia is in bloom. And this is not the time of year to be thinking about pumpkin. But, one of the women in my department was celebrating her 10 year company anniversary today and her favorite sweet is pumpkin pie. Well, I didn't want to do the traditional, so I pulled out the recipe I got from http://dozenflours.com/and whipped it up for today. Awhile ago, I made the plain Snickerdoodle Bars off her blog and commented on how great they were. She wrote back to say if I liked those,I should try them with the pumpkin. All I can say is that this has the WOW factor. The fact that the recipe looks long belies the actual time to prepare it. It goes together easily and the house is fragrant with the baking spices. When it was cool, I drizzled it in a crisscross fashion with the white chocolate glaze and put it in the fridge overnight. It was gone in 2 hours today...clean plate! It was a hit and a lot of people were asking for the recipe. So I am definitely putting this in my fall folder of wonderful desserts. I could see this with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top and drizzled with caramel sauce....like a brownie sundae. Plus it is a great alternative to pumpkin pie.

NOTE: For the drizzle, I filled my Pampered Chef little decorator with the glaze and used the small tip. I went back and forth over the top in a diagonal fashion and crossed it the opposite way....quite pretty.

Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodle Bars

Snickerdoodle Layer

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, at room temperature

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Pumpkin Pie Layer

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 stick butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs, at room temperature

1-1/2 cups Libby pure canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 oz white chocolate, chopped

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan and lay a piece of parchment paper across the pan, so that it extends the pan slightly. The parchment paper is an optional step, but it will make it easier to get the bars out later.

To make snickerdoodle layer: Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan (mixture will be thick and cookiebatter-ish.)

In a mixer bowl (you can use the same one you used to make the snickerdoodle batter) with a paddle attachment, mix together all ingredients until well combined. This layer will be less thick and more pourable. Pour over the snickerdoodle layer, smoothing out the top.

Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

Bake for 33-40 minutes (maybe more depending on your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the *center* of the pan comes out clean.

Let the bars cool completely (about an hour). They will deflate a bit and remain a bit pie-like on the top layer. The bars that are closer to the edges of the pan will be more firm, but are still equally as yummy.

After the bars are completely cool, place the chopped white chocolate into a bowl or zip-lock bag and melt on low power. When it's completely melted, add the pumpkin pie spice and mix (or knead if using a zip lock bag). Use a spoon or cut a small corner off the bag and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the bars and let it cool and harden. Use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan. Place on a cutting board and cut into bars. Store in a covered container.