Glazed Grapefruit Cake

So I went to Costco... any posts that begins that way is going to get interesting... and I was in the mood for produce. Costco had some great produce, including grapefruit. I would probably have been fine with just one grapefruit.  But I bought the 10 pound bag. I had one for breakfast and it was wonderful.  After I ate one, I looked at the bag.  There were a LOT of grapefruit left in that bag.

My hubby just can't be persuaded to eat grapefruit which leaves a whole lot of grapefruit for me. Probably a few more than I can finish before they have "passed their prime".

This got me to thinking of grapefruit recipe options. Which lead me to try making a grapefruit cake.  This recipe is a glorified lemon cake meets not quite a pound cake.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup (one stick) butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 eggs at room temperature
zest from 1 grapefruit
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup grapefruit juice, divided
1 cup whole milk at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon grapefruit juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Cream butter and 1 cup of the sugar in a stand mixer.  Once fluffy add the eggs, one at a time, mixing completely between additions.

And this is what one grapefruit's worth of zest looks like along with a naked grapefruit

Add the grapefruit zest along with the second egg.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl combine 1/4 cup grapefruit juice, milk, and vanilla extract.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix to combine.  While mixing add about 1/2 of the milk/juice mixture to the mixing bowl.  Next add about 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix to combine.  Mix in the remaining milk/juice mixture to the mixing bowl then the rest of the flour mixture.

Pour batter into greased and floured loaf pan.

Bake 50 - 60 minutes until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Make grapefruit syrup by adding the remaining 1/2 cup grapefruit juice and 1/4 sugar to small sauce pan. Heat over low heat until sugar is dissolved.  Set aside.

Once cake is done, remove from oven and let sit in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan to cooling rack. Pour the grapefruit syrup over the cake.  You can poke small holes in the top of the cake with a skewer if you like before pouring the syrup on the cake.


Once the cake is completely cool make the glaze.  Combine the confectioners sugar and grapefruit juice in a small bowl.  Whisk until completely combined.  Drizzle glaze over top of cake.

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Baked, Potato Rounds

I wasn't really sure what to call this recipe.  These are sort of a cross between a potato chip and a french fry. They are baked, they are potatoes, and they are round hence Baked Potato Rounds.  Apparently I am not feeling all that creative this morning but there you go.  But whatever it is called, my family loves this recipe!

You will need: 

3-4 medium potatoes

3 Tablespoons coconut oil

Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  While it is heating scrub your potatoes and cut them into slices.  I used a knife but a mandolin is a great tool for this.  You can peel your potatoes if you want, I don't bother.  (Of course these are potatoes we grew in our own garden... I peel store bought potatoes).

Line a rimmed baking pan with foil.  Then coat the foil with the coconut oil.  With the coconut oil the potatoes both bake and "fry" in the pan.  I love coconut oil!  I may have mentioned that.

 Spread your coconut oil rubbed pan with the potato rounds.  Spread them out fairly evenly.

Salt to taste and pop them in the oven.  After about 20 minutes, flip the potatoes over with a spatula.  Don't be too concerned if you don't get them all flipped.  Cook another 20 minutes or so until they are the consistency you like.

We like them just starting to brown.  The darker brown ones around the edges of the pan in the above picture are crisp like potato chips (but if they are cut thick they are hard to bite into).  The rest of the potatoes are just starting to blister on top giving them a crisp outside and a soft fluffy center much like a french fry.

You can use this same technique for potatoes cut into fry shapes or wedges, they just take longer to cook which is why I like to use the potato rounds.

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Winter Coconut Oil & Vitamin E Oil Lotion

The extreme cold we are having has made the air so dry that my hands and feet keep cracking.  Moisturizers help some but what I really need is protection from the drying air and this lotion recipe does the trick.

You will need coconut oil and Vitamin E oil.

You will also need some way to combine them.  I used a immersion (stick) mixer/blender but a stand mixer with a whisk or even a fork will do.

The recipe depends on how thick you want the lotion.  If you want a fairly liquid lotion try 1 cup coconut oil and 1 tablespoon Vitamin E oil.  For a thicker lotion cut the Vitamin E oil to 1 teaspoon.  You may want to start with a teaspoon and decide if you want a thinner lotion before adding more.  I also added some lemon essential oil but the essential oil is optional.  The coconut smells wonderful on its own. The lemon with the coconut smells like a tropical drink which made me think of summer and (since our high today will be below zero) that made me happy.

Put the oils together and mix until fully emulsified and you cannot feel  solid coconut oil bits in the lotion.  If you are having trouble getting the solid coconut oil to blend nicely with the Vitamin E oil, warm them a bit. You can put the bottom of the mixing bowl into another bowl of hot water.  Make sure to not get any water into your mixing bowl. The heat from the water will heat the mixing bowl and melt any stubborn coconut oil.

Add your essential oils if using and mix until incorporated.  With my immersion mixer the whole mixing process was only a few minutes.  Store in an air tight jar.

Use on your hands and feet as needed.  Remember this is not a moisturizer.  There is nothing in this recipe that will draw moisture to your skin.  This is a moisture barrier to prevent the moisture already in your skin from escaping to the dry air.  Also, since it is made of oil, it can make your skin slippery.  You may want to wear socks on your feet for a little while after applying.  This is a very healing lotion full of wonderful micro nutrients and other goodies that are good for you and your skin.

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Homemade Tomato Soup

This is the time of year when I am happy that I canned all those tomatoes!  

78 pounds of tomatoes harvested before the first black frost

Homemade tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich is a very satisfying and nutritious winder meal.  And surprisingly, both the soup and the sandwich can be made in less than 30 minutes!

For the soup you will need the following:

2 Tablespoons butter

3 cloves of garlic

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 cups stewed tomatoes (optional)

6 cups tomato sauce

2 teaspoons dried basil

You may also want some some shredded cheese and some baking soda... read on to learn why.

If using, drain the stewed tomatoes into a colander.  I like to add the stewed tomatoes to the soup to give it a variety of textures.  If you want a thin liquid soup, leave them out.

I canned these tomatoes in one pint jars but I use two jars for the soup. After draining off the liquid, there are only about 2 cups total of the tomatoes.   Apparently I am not very good at packing my jars tight while canning.

Add the butter and garlic to a medium sized pan.  Saute the garlic until it is light brown and makes everyone in the house hungry.

To the pan add two cups chicken or vegetable stock.  If had had any homemade stock on hand I would have used that.  Time to get a whole chicken!  Also add the stewed tomatoes (if using) and all the tomato sauce.  Stir and heat over medium heat for 10-15 minutes.

While the soup cooks, make those grilled cheese sandwiches.  No recipe provided...yet.

After your 10-15 minutes of cooking time, the soup should be boiling lightly.  Taste the soup.  If it is too sour, sharp, acidic, or however you want to describe it, add a small pinch of baking soda to the soup and stir.  It will bubble and fizz for a moment.  The baking soda is neutralizing some of the acid in the tomatoes. Taste again.  If still too acidic, add another pinch.  I find I often add three small pinched (which is probably less than 1 teaspoon of baking soda).  If you add too much baking soda the soup will taste really salty and flat and basically need to be tossed in the trash.  So don't do that.

Turn off the heat and add your dried basil and stir.  Let the basil sit in the soup for a couple minutes before serving. If you have fresh basil chop it up fine and add as much as you can stand.   Seriously fresh basil is awesome and healthy!

My husband loves to add a clump of shredded cheddar cheese to the soup. I just dip my grilled cheese sandwich in the soup. Enjoy.

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Artichoke Dip - Game Day Food - 3 Ingredients

We are big football fans at my house.  Even our little princess is (she didn't really have a choice).  But I am usually not good about planning to have game time snacks on hand.  I wish I was better about it. If I did it right, I'll bet I could plan it so that I didn't have to cook lunch or dinner on game day.  Hmmmm I might have to take on that challenge.

While I was mulling over game time snacks (snackage as my daughter would say), I remembered an old favorite of mine, artichoke dip.  And, as a bonus, I had everything I needed in the pantry.  Which means, yes I stock cans of artichoke hearts as a staple pantry item for my home (don't judge).

As you might imagine, this is NOT a healthy recipe.  But it is quick and yummy.  Two out of three isn't bad.

For this recipe you need:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 14oz can artichoke hearts

Drain the artichoke hearts then chop them up.  In a mixing bowl add the mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, and chopped artichokes.  Mix well.

Optionally you can add diced sweet or hot fire roasted peppers, chilies, jalapenos, or even a little minced garlic.  Technically you could eat this dip cold.  I prefer it heated.  Something about melting the cheese into the mayo makes it taste a lot better to me.  You can put the dip into baking dish and pop it into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so.  Or, as I did, you can put the dip into a microwave safe dish and heat it for 4 - 5 minutes (yes oven baked would have made a better photo but we wanted it now, not 20 minutes from now).

If I was bringing this to a party I would bake it until the top was nicely browned.  When it is for just me and my hubby, the microwave makes the prep time of this dip less than 10 minutes tops.  We eat this with corn chips but it goes really well with pita chips or french bread.

Enjoy and Go Pats!

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Dinner Rolls

Today I got home early enough from work to whip up some dinner rolls.  I often have to resort to biscuits because of lack of planning on my part.  We are going to indulge ourselves with some of my yummy ham and bean soup but we really need some bread to go with it.  These dinner rolls fill the bill.


This recipe takes less than two hours from start to ready to eat which includes  rising time and baking time.

You will need:
3 cups flour (I use 1/2  all purpose and 1/2 cups whole grain flour)
2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
a greased 9 inch round cake pan (a 9x9 inch square pan works too just divide dough into 9 rather than 8 balls)

Add dry ingredients to your mixing bowl and mix. Next add water and oil.  Now it is time to knead.  I prefer to use my stand mixer for this but you can use a bread maker or even knead by hand.  In my stand mixer I knead the dough about 8 minutes.  Remember, if you are using whole grain flour, this type of flour takes longer to adsorb water.  Do not decide you need to add water until after at least four minutes of kneading.

If your dough seems dry and does not come together into a ball, add water a teaspoon at a time.  If your dough seems super sticky, add flour a Tablespoon at a time.  You want a firm ball of dough that is somewhat sticky.

After kneading put your dough onto a heavily floured surface and generously flour your hands.

Divide the dough in half, then divide each half in half.  Then one more time divide each quarter into half until you have eight fairly equal sized pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball and place into a greased round cake pan, seven around the edge and one in the center.  If you are using a square pan make 9 balls and line them up in 3 rows of 3.

Spritz the top of your dough with olive oil and over the pan with plastic wrap. The oil keeps the plastic wrap from sticking.  Leave the pan on your counter for 40 minutes to an hour or so to rise.

Once you have lovely risen dough, remove the plastic wrap and bake for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Remove from pan immediately to a drying rack and serve warm. Yummy!

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Ham and Bean Soup

As promised here is my recipe for Ham and Bean Soup.  

You will need:

5 cups dried beans (this can be all one kind or an assortment)

Water (in which to soak the beans)

8 cups of water (for cooking)

Left over ham including ham bone (if you have it)

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp salt

pepper

1 tsp thyme

Optional - 1-2 Tablespoons hot sauce

Step one: put your dried beans in a colander and pick out any discolored, cracked, or damaged beans.  Also look out for any rocks or other foreign matter.

I used 2 cups Great Northern Beans, 1 cup Navy Beans, 1 cup small red beans, and 1 cup black beans

Step two: rinse off your beans.  Remember beans are dried plant seeds.  In many places they are dried out in the open field then dusted off for packaging.  They usually have not been pre-rinsed before packaging because that would require another period of drying.  Trust me, unless you grew and dried the beans yourself (which we do for some beans), rinse the beans off.

Below they are all rinsed and mixed together.  I just thought it was a really pretty combination so I added the picture.

Step three: soak your beans overnight.  Put the rinsed beans into a large cooking pot and cover with at least 10 cups of water.  You may be surprised with how much water the beans will adsorb over night.  The pre-soaking cuts down on the cook time.  And yes you can use a pressure cooker to cut down on the cook time too but I do not like to use mine unless I am canning something (personal choice).

 Put a lid on the pan and let it sit out on the counter overnight.

In the morning the soaked beans will look like the picture above.  The water is now cloudy and murky and the beans have swelled up and changed color.  Drain the beans into a colander into the sink.

Here is what the soaked beans look like up close.  Funny how the Great Northern Beans are now blue, the small red beans are now orange and the black beans are now red.  The Navy beans are still white.  Go figure.

Return the beans to the soaking pot and add 1 cup chopped onion and two cloves of garlic, minced.  Then add your ham.  In the picture above I put in the ham bone which still has a lot of meat on it.  Cooking the bone in the soup makes the soup so much more nutritious.

I then added some additional ham (probably about 3 cups worth but use what you have), 2-3 teaspoons of salt (I don't measure and the beans need salt), a few grinds of pepper, and a couple of teaspoons of dried thyme.  To all this I added 8 cups of water.  The pot was covered and put on the stove to boil.  Once boiling, the pot was stirred and the heat reduced to a gentle simmer.

Let the soup cook a few hours.  How long depends first on when the beans are cooked through and soft. How long also depends on whether you want the soup to have whole beans and a liquid broth, or if you want a thicker soup with the beans having melted to a velvet consistency.  I go for the second option, cooking the beans until they fall apart because my family likes this texture from the soup better than the whole beans in broth.  But there is no correct way.

Once the soup is done to your liking, remove the ham bones.  For most hams there will be two bones.  You may also find some other ham parts you want to remove as well.  Add the hot sauce if using.  If you do not want to use hot sauce but think the soup is a bit flat, add 1/4 apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, but add it one tablespoon at a time and taste between additions.

The picture above is the soup after cooking three hours.  The beans are soft and the meat has fallen off the ham bone.

The picture above is after 5 hours of cooking.  See how the broth is no longer a clear liquid but instead is a thicker texture.  Yum!  Serve with thick bread and enjoy.  This also freeze well!

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