Scenes from the weekend

 I’m pretty lucky I think. I own my home outright, so I don’t have to worry about a mortgage payment.I do still have to work, at least for another year or two. But, because I own my home, and because my boss approved it, I can work a four day work week and enjoy a  three day weekend, every weekend. Before the pandemic, I was out and about for most of the weekend. These days I’m seldom out and about. Most of the time I am at home. 

Being home means I have time to cook and bake and most weekends that’s exactly what I’m doing. This weekend was no exception.

 

Friday I made a delicious breakfast of roasted sweet potatoes, mashed avocado and sunny-side up eggs. Lunch was a delicious salad made with farro, spinach, chickpeas, cucumbers and feta cheese. Dinner? Lentil soup with celery, onions, carrots and tomatoes. 

Saturday was more baking, less cooking. I made a Polenta Apricot Pudding cake and a pan of Polenta Honey cake. I also took half a tube of sugar cookie dough, added some chopped pistachios and dried cherries and attempted to bake cookie sticks. The sticks spread so I have oblong cookies instead. Not as attractive as I had pictured in my head, but still delicious. 

The Honey polenta cake I use for one of my favorite snacks. I grill the cake and then top it with sliced, fresh pears, Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey. 

Yesterday I made breakfast for dinner in the form of a delicious pumpkin oatmeal. It’s a recipe from Aarti Sequeira. I caught it on an episode of her show "Aarti Party". The recipe turned out well, super easy to make and worth looking up and trying. I hadn't realized Indian cooking used so many spices that I know and love. I have earmarked several recipes I want to try. Watch this space for Indian recipes in the future!  

The last cooking for the weekend I did was just a little bit ago. I roasted some Brussels sprouts with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. I love roasted veggies of all kinds. I often roast some and use them as meal prep. Last week it was carrots. My dinner this morning was homefries made with red potatoes cooked in a cast iron pan with onions, green pepper and some chopped bacon. Then, to go with the homefries, I sautéed some shallots, tossed in some spinach and then added a couple of beaten eggs and cooked that all together.Topped with a few pieces of feta cheese. Not very pretty, but quite satisfying. Some red grapefruit was perfect for cutting the richness of the dish. 

 

And that was pretty much my weekend. Did a little cooking. Cleaned up the mess made doing said cooking. Repeated the whole thing again. Very relaxing. Very peaceful. Also very productive because most things I cook or bake make multiple servings, and I freeze the extra into portions for my meals at work. It's a "win-win" situation. 

Tuesdays with Dorie - Apple Weekend Cake

I joined this group just last month, and this is the first post since joining. I am excited to be part of a baking group again. It has been far too long. :)

I chose to bake the Apple Weekend Cake. I am a sucker for anything with apple in it, so it was an easy choice for me.

This was super easy to put together and smelled fabulous while it was baking. I did not have any dark rum, so I just upped the amount of vanilla in the recipe. I think my two medium apples may have been on the large side as it seemed there was more apple than batter, but since I like apples (see above paragraph) I didn't mind. I didn't add any nuts or raisins as Dorie suggests, but think I would add nuts when baking it again.

The cake is moist, not too heavy, not too sweet and delicious. I can see toasting a slice and then adding a little butter to it. I can also see warming a slice in the microwave and adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream to it. It would lend itself well to breakfast or dessert.

To see what the other bakers baked, head over here...https://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/bcm-lyl-apple-weekend-cake-and-pailles/

Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits & A Beachy Cake

Remember the other day when I posted the crazy Chocolate Avocado cake with Avocado Buttercream? I mentioned that I had lifted the recipe from Joy the Baker's blog. Well, that same day as I was perusing Joy's blog, I came across a recipe for the tastiest biscuits I have seen in a while. I am a sucker for anything with "pepper" in the title. I don't use salt, unless a recipe calls for it. I don't add it to anything I put on a plate to eat. I figure there is enough salt in most everything we eat and I don't need to add any more. (Wish my husband felt the same, but that is another story). But pepper? I add pepper to almost everything. I keep a pepper mill on the table in front of where I sit so I can add fresh ground pepper to my food. When I saw this recipe, Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits, I knew I had to try it. Joy's photos of the recipe being put together are great. Looks like you could reach right through your computer screen and snatch a biscuit.

Tonight I didn't have anything in particular planned for dinner and was sitting on the couch watching the weather forecast (10-14 inches of snow!) when I remembered I had printed the recipe for the biscuits and thought how yummy breakfast would be for dinner, with those biscuits on the side. Now, my hubby, while a hard core salt man, does not care for pepper. Too hot for his taste buds (wussy!) and normally when I cook I try to avoid adding pepper to things. But, tonight I wanted to try this recipe like it was intended. I figured I would apologize to my hubby later. :)

It took no time at all to whip these up. Took longer for the shortening to get cold in the freezer than it took to mix everything up and have the biscuits cut and on a baking sheet. I brushed the tops with heavy cream and then, being the loving wife I am, I only added fresh ground pepper to the tops of half of the biscuits. There is pepper in the dough, but I went a tad lighter then the recipe called for. But, I decided I could load up the tops of my biscuits.

15 minutes later I had the most wonderful looking biscuits cooling on my counter. They baked up tall and flaky looking. I scrambled some eggs for my hubby, heated up some sausage (I precook a couple of pounds of deer sausage and keep it in the freezer. Then when I need some, I only have to zap it a minute in the microwave) for him and put two of the biscuits on his plate. He ate his with butter.

For mine, I took Joy's advice and fried up a couple of eggs, cooked a couple of slices of bacon and made biscuit sandwiches.

Oh. My. Goodness. Hubby and I both loved, loved, loved these. They tasted every bit as good as they looked. Tender, buttery, flaky without crumbling apart in your hands (like a certain doughboy's do when baked). The cheddar cheese was subtle. The pepper? My hubby didn't really notice it in his. I could tell mine were peppery but I think it was more from the tops than from inside the biscuit. These were so good. And, because they were so quick to make I think I will stop buying the bags of frozen biscuits at the store and make my own.  Try these. You won't be disappointed! You can find the recipe here...

One last thing. I was contacted this week to do a small anniversary cake for one of my daughter's co-workers. The young lady told me that her and her hubby were married on a beach and that while on their honeymoon they saw starfish. She asked if I could do something that would incorporate those things. This is what I came up with. The chairs are wood and from a little kit I bought at a dollar store, knowing they would come in handy one day. The shells and starfish are melted chocolate. The towels and umbrella and flip flops are fondant. Everything else is buttercream. When I delivered it, the young lady was thrilled!