Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake.....

Blood Oranges....aren't they beautiful? People are turned off by them because of the name...blood...no one wants to eat blood....so lets call them Sangria oranges....doesn't that sound better? and sangria is spanish for blood...they are sweet and taste like orange/raspberry juice....they are only available December through March..I love this recipe for blood oranges....it is so good and rustic, very moist, best to make the day before....great to share with a bottle of wine, or morning coffee....

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake
Butter for greasing pan
3 blood oranges
1 cup sugar
Buttermilk or plain yogurt
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Grate zest from 2 oranges and place in a bowl with sugar. Using your fingers, rub ingredients together until orange zest is evenly distributed in sugar.

2. Supreme an orange: Cut off bottom and top so fruit is exposed and orange can stand upright on a cutting board. Cut away peel and pith, following curve of fruit with your knife. Cut orange segments out of their connective membranes and let them fall into a bowl. Repeat with another orange. Break up segments with your fingers to about 1/4-inch pieces.

3. Halve remaining orange and squeeze juice into a measuring cup. You will have about 1/4 cup or so. Add buttermilk or yogurt to juice until you have 2/3 cup liquid altogether. Pour mixture into bowl with sugar and whisk well. Whisk in eggs.

4. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently whisk dry ingredients into wet ones. Switch to a spatula and fold in oil a little at a time. Fold in pieces of orange segments. Scrape batter into pan and smooth top.

5. Bake cake for about 55 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up. Serve with whipped cream and honey-blood orange compote, if desired.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

grate the orange rind of 2 of the oranges into the sugar.....

like this....

cut the oranges segments......

fresh squeezed blood orange and measure yogurt to 2/3 cup

add to orangey sugar....

whisk together, with the 3 eggs too.....

mix dry ingredients together.....

whisk dry ingredients with the wet......

slowly add olive oil and fold together....

folding.....then add orange segments, folding them in....I know it looks way to oily...but the cake just tastes moist. I used a Sicilian olive oil, that has citrus notes as well as a peppery finish...the flavor does come out in the cake, very delicious....

add to prepared pan.....

55 minutes later...out of the oven....

glaze with juice from one orange and 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, stirred together...

glaze warm cake.....

cool and serve, and enjoy!!!!!

Cheers to Happy  !!

Creamy Vegetable Soup....

One of my gifts for Valentines Day was a hand blender....it is the coolest toy, and I want everyone to get one...in just a jiffy you can make the best creamy soups....that is the only thing I have made so far but I have plans big plans, plans that involve salsas, and blended morning berry drinks...salad dressings..and even the best mashed potatoes....but first Creamy Vegetable Soup....

First I put all the vegetable from the vegetable drawer in the pot, and sauteed....there is broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and a whole head of cabbage....I cooked it until it was very hot and then...

add a large container of chicken broth and then.....

bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on low for at least an hour....you want the vegetables very soft...

and the soup to get very done and soft...season and.....

time to start the blending.....

you could stop here and leave little bits of soup....

but I wanted it to get a little creamier....

now very creamy......

I put greek yogurt on mine as well as fresh Thyme, and handmade garlic spelt croutons....So Good!!

Cheers to Happy !!

Oma's Sugar Cookies

Greetings! Gang member Mary is our cookie maker today,....I want to add that Mary is a the most fantastic cook,...she is also a great Baker....she makes the most wonderful cakes and pies....imagine this...fresh coconut cake....really hand grated coconut....so good....unbelievable...o.k. back to the cookies....I had some of these cookies yesterday...they are cookies that go well with either milk or hot tea....the fresh lemon is so good....makes all the difference in the world...

OMA'S SUGAR COOKIES

This is one of the very best sugar cookies I have ever eaten.

The prebaking process is a little longer than usual but it is so worth the few extra minutes.

 

Begin by assembling all of the ingredients.  I find that if I am proactive with this the mixing up process is speeded up. The recipe follows:

1 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Grated zest of one lemon

Granulated sugar for rolling cookies

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice or milk

the cup of powdered sugar and lemon/milk ingredients are for making the glaze for the cookies if you opt not to make the butter cream frosting. 

  

The recipe comes from this novel by "Judith Ryan Henderson"  this is such a satisfying chick book.

I thought I was a little too cool for books like this Ha!!!  Seems I am not.

The page number to find this recipe is  142

And let me just say there are other recipes in this book for really good artisan bread.  Just read it and you will be so happy that you did.

 

Ok so I cleared the decks a little bit.  I might have a little ADHD or autism something.  There are times when order is over the top important to me.  Baking is one of those times. 

So cut the chilled butter into small pieces and blend with the sugar.  I used ultra fine baking sugar because it incorporates more quickly.

When it is nicely blended add the eggs and vanilla. Blend until smooth.

They say at this point you should sift the dry ingredients together, I don't.  I have never really used a sifter and why start now.  So I just put all of the dry ingredients into the bowl on top of the creamed butter mixture.

Put the zest of the lemon on top of the dry ingredients. And then use a wooden spoon to blend everything together.  Don't ask me why they want us to use a wooden spoon.  She said it in the book and I say OK.

Besides that I have some really cool old wooden spoons that are so worn from mixing that they know their business and do the best job.

Mix until all of the dry ingredients disappear. Turn out on a floured board and knead gently

 

for 15 to 20 minutes.  Adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking.

This is very cathartic I think.  Reminds me of my Grandma and my mother baking bread.

 

This is how it should look.

The recipe asks us to roll walnut size pieces of dough into balls.

Roll in sugar and bake on a buttered cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes

in a 350 degree oven.  I baked them for 15 minutes and that was just right.

Wait a second I almost forgot.  Press the cookies down to 1/4 inch depth with a glass dipped in sugar.

Then bake.

 

As soon as the first batch is out of the oven you should taste them right away.  Then you will know why you bothered in the first place.

  

The recipe calls for a lemon glaze over the cookies and it is delicious, however I was making Valentine's cookies so I made a simple butter cream frosting colored pink and instead of frosting the complete cookie,

  

I just mounded it on top of each one.  And then as you can see I used candy hearts for the garnish.

  

So simple, so good.  I had to put them on plates and take them around the neighborhood or I would still be standing at the dining room table eating them.

 

I hope you will give these a try and read the book.  We can talk about it later.

CHEERS TO HAPPY !!! 

Pastry bags....

Today, Valentines day, I made cupcakes....I took them all across town to deliver them....it was great fun....they were just regular cupcakes, but they were beautiful...presentation is everything, or so I think....

here they are in the trunk of my car.....fun huh?

To make bakery looking cupcakes you need this.....trust me when I say this....

it is a cloth pastry bag. This one is 18 inches long but they also come in 12 inches and 24 inches...this one is a good size to work with...you can buy them at kitchen speciality shops...but don't...get them at a restaurant supply houses...in our area it is Cash and Carry....the bags and tips are cheap...you can put frosting in them to pipe or whip cream.....they wash up easy and will last years...

you cut the tip off.,, of the bag to fit your tips......so your tips will fit inside...just inside.....

like this...it is a tight fit, the frosting does not come out around it.....

just use regular buttercream frosting...it works perfect.....

your cupcakes come out so pretty.....

Cheers to Happy  !!

Saint Valentine.....

Saint Valentine: Holy Priest of Rome: The date of this Saint Valentine's birth is not known. Along with Saint Marius and his family, Saint Valentine assisted the martyrs during the persecution they suffered under the rule of Claudius II (also known as Claudius the Goth and Claudius the Cruel).

In addition, since Rome was at the time involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns, the emperor found it difficult to recruit the male populace into joining his military leagues. Believing this to be because Roman men were adverse to leaving their loved ones or their familes, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements within the City of Rome. Saint Valentine and Saint Marius, however, continued to perform wedding ceremonies in secret. When is was discovered that Saint Valentine was defying the emperor's decree, he was apprehended and dispatched by Claudius to the Prefect of Rome who, being unable to force the saint to renounce Christianity, ordered that Valentine be clubbed, stoned and then beheaded.

According to tradition, while Valentine waited in prison for his execution, he corresponded with those under his care by sending letters and love notes to his parishioners. It is also believed that while incarcerated, the Bishop fell in love with a young woman who visited him during his confinement. According to some sources, this was the blind daughter (whose name may have been Julia) of of Asterius, the jailer. It is said that God enabled Valentine to miraculously restore the girl's sight. Popular belief indicates that Valentine's farewell message to his love contained a closing that has now transcended time: "From Your Valentine." The saint was executed on February 14 in either 269 A.D. or 270 A.D. In 270 A.D., Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole in the saint's memory at a location once known as Porta Valentini and now called Porta del Popolo. The relic bones of this Saint Valentine, who may also have been a physician, are now housed within the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome.

 
 
Cheers to
Happy  !!

oh-oh this is not right.....

This is definitely crazy weather we are having....When all over the country they are experiencing record snow and ice and cold..her in the Great Pacific Northwest our weather is warmer than Arizona's....

seriously I took this picture this morning....the daffodils are about to open and the Azalea is open...is this happening in everyone else's garden here? I guess it is time to put lime on the lawn and get ready for spring, they say to wait until the middle of March, but what if March comes early and it already looks like April out there...I wonder what Ed Hume or Cisco Morrison, would say?......

Cheers to Happy  !!