Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

There are very few times in life my mother uses swear words(hard to believe I am her daughter :P) One of those times is usually a holiday. And it is usually for the same two things. #1. She forgot to take the rolls out of the oven, or she forgets to serve them all together. #2 The marshmallows were pilled on too high on the sweet potatoes and they took on a life of their own, boiling up and eventually exploding into a hellacious pile of goo that will have to be scoured for hours off of the bottom of the oven. I would like to point out however that my mothers swear words are far more watered down than mine ever are…I don’t want to paint a bad picture of her.
Since I already celebrate Thanksgiving in October(that is when we do our more traditional T-day) I don’t make it in November, we go out to eat, at a very nice restaurant. I do however crave certain things. Sweet potatoes is one of those things.
This cake is my version of sweet potatoes this year. I thought about doing something with marshmallows but didn’t want to be scraping marshmallow off of the bottom of my new oven…though I’m sure my mother will be(love you mom). This is very dense, I am still experimenting a little with the recipe, I think perhaps a little more buttermilk or maybe sour cream….we shall see. But it is pretty good as is and a great way to eat your sweet potatoes.
Hope that everyone has a wonderful American Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble!

Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Cranberry Walnut Streusel

For Cake:

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups cooked, peeled, mashed sweet potatoes, cooled
1 tsp vanilla
4 large eggs
3 TBSP buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg

For Streusel:

1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 TBSP melted unsalted butter
½ cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease and flour a 10” tube or Bundt pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and the sugar, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add sweet potatoes, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat for one minute.
Add eggs, one at a time and beat for 1 minute, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Batter will look curdled…not to worry.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the potato mixture on low speed.
Pour half of the batter into the tube/Bundt pan.
For the streusel, add all the ingredients together and combine.
Evenly distribute the streusel around the batter, covering as much batter as you can.
Pour the remaining batter over the streusel.
Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate. Can be served plain, with powder sugar or a glaze(orange would be nice).

Oh to be young again, I don’t mean my twenties, I mean like 8. Remember when you were 8 and everything was exciting to you? One of the referee’s little boy is there from time to time. Whenever I stop to talk to him he is usually so excited about something that I think at any moment he is going to burst like a pinata.What was he so excited about this time? A plastic Sponge Bob toy from the McDonald’s Happy Meal. He explained in great detail to me all the wonderful things this $.20 toy could do. He then went on to play with a tennis ball up against the wall for what seemed like forever, smiling the whole time.
One of the neighbor girls is always twirling. Spinning around and around, only never seeming to get dizzy(I on the other had get dizzy watching her). She spins and spins and spins everywhere she goes, which is usually just in her driveway. I said to her once, “you sure to like to spin” and her response was, “it’s my favorite.” Spinning around in a circle over and over again, throwing a ball against a wall and playing with a plastic toy(most likely to be recalled :P) and beyond happy to be doing it. Where are those days?
When my husband started to complain about the fact that he hadn’t had cookies in a few days(poor, poor him) I set out to find something that he would eat. I ran across these cookies and immediately they reminded me of my twirling neighbor girl. They are called Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies, but to me they are Twirly Cookies, inspired my my little neighbor girl and her favorite activity.

Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
¼ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
12 ounces chocolate chips, semi sweet

Preheat oven to 375F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using paddle attachment,  beat butter and sugars together on medium-high for 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract, followed by eggs, one at a time. Scrape down bowl and mix for another 30 seconds. At low speed, add the four mixture, until just blended.
Transfer 1 ¾ cup of the dough to another bowl and set aside. Add the cocoa powder to the dough remaining in the mixer bowl and mix on low speed until blended. Add half of the chocolate and mix until blended. Stir in the remaining chocolate into the light cookie dough.
Fill one side of a 1-TBSP measuring spoon with the light dough, making it well rounded, not level. Fill the remaining half with chocolate dough. Roll the doughs into a ball and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Moistened your palm to prevent sticking, and flatten the dough into a 1 1/2-inch disk. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time, for 8-10 minutes, until the lighter dough just begins to color. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Source: The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle, John Wiley and Sons, 2002

I was just sooo not in the mood to take pictures the other day. The lighting was horrible no matter where I was, as the sky was super Seattle gray. I wasn’t actually even going to put these up, but the truth of the matter is that they are far to tasty for me not to share the recipe with you.
As many of you know, I often bake for referees on nights that I score keep on. Makes them happy to work with and IF they happened to end up refereeing my game, then perhaps they will look the other way when I elbow some guy. I kid…sort of. So my poor refs have pretty much been neglected lately. What I have been making in the kitchen were not all that portable friendly and they had been missing out. One of my “regulars” let me know it too and let me know that he would enjoy something with gingerbread the next time he saw me….then he told me when the next time he would see me would be.
So off I went find something with gingerbread. I wanted something simple for as much as I would like to be done getting the house together, there always seems to be something. Tomorrow I am off for a rake and a recycling trash can for our pop cans. These bars I found on the McCormick spices website. Their recipe called for using their spices, but I was a rebel and did not. A couple things about the bars: 1. I will add a little more ginger next time for a tad more kick, though the ref thought they had enough kick. 2. When I made the cream cheese mixture I did it in the bowl with the gingerbread batter, without cleaning it, so that the gingerbread flavor would come through a little in the frosting…I’m glad I did. These are quick and easy and most definitely keeps.
P.S. Don’t forget I am hosting a virtual Housewarming Party on Saturday, December 8th. For more information about it go here.

Gingerbread Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon ground Ginger
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup  (1 1/2 sticks)  butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses
3 tablespoons water
1 package  (8 ounces)  cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons  Vanilla Extract
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil.  Spray foil with no stick cooking spray.  Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2.  Beat butter and 3/4 cup of the sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg until well blended.  Gradually beat in flour mixture until well mixed.  Stir in molasses and water just until blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan.

3.  Beat cream cheese in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth.  Beat in remaining 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the icing; refrigerate remaining icing.  Spoon dollops (about 1 teaspoon each) of the reserved icing over batter in pan.  With knife or spatula, swirl icing through batter to marbleize.

4.  Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 15 minutes.  Lift out of pan using foil.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Invert and peel off foil.  Spread refrigerated icing over bars.  Cut into bars.  Store in refrigerator.

Source: McCormick.com

If home truly where the heart is, then the food blogging community is definitely part of my home. I give thanks to many of you who have emailed me or left me new home well wishes here on my blog. They are very much appreciated. Above there is my new home(with  no window treatments ).
If I could of course, I would have you over for a housewarming party, pot luck style. Since that can’t be happening, I’d like to have a virtual one. So if you would like to come you simply need to bring a dish.

*make a dish and post the recipe on your blog(appetizers, main dishes, sides, desserts, even drinks!…your choice). If you don’t have a blog and would still like to participate you can email me a recipe and a picture(if you have one)
*tell in the write up why you are “bringing” that dish
*give your name, name of your blog(and your URL) and the name of the dish(and a link to the dish)

I will host my Housewarming Party on Saturday, December 8th. The deadline to “bring” your dish is Thursday, December 6th,  midnight Pacific Standard Time.  If you would like to “come” to the party please email your dish to luvbriere at gmail dot com. Hope to “see” you there!

Peabody