Lavender Lemon Cake!

I meant to blog so much more in April, but life just sped up. Three weekends in a row we had friends in town from Southern California, and finals are rapidly approaching. I also had an interview in the general counsel's office at a major healthcare provider... fingers crossed! and tried out for moot court. I just have to make it through 3 finals and an article about food deserts and access to nutrition in Chicago and it'll be Summer Break!

Excuses aside, I'm really glad I had a little time today to bake. This cake is a riff on a classic french yogurt cake, but I think the lavender and lemon take it to another level.

I'll admit, I'm far too obsessed with lavender - i drink lavender lemonade as often as possible in the warmer months, I visit lavender farms at least once a year, and I adore basically anything lavender scented.

The key step to this cake is to really rub the lemon zest and lavender buds into the sugar to flavor and scent the cake.

It's awesome, and it's a perfect cake to say "welcome" to Spring! It's also super easy and goes into the oven within about ten minutes.

I had three slices, along with a lavender lemon drop martini :) Don't judge, I'm stressed.

Lavender Lemon Yogurt Cake
         adapted from the Kitchn

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 stick butter, melted
3 eggs
1 1/4 Cups sugar
2-3 tablespoons dried lavender buds
zest and juice of two lemons
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350

In a large bowl, combine sugar, zest, and lavender buds. Rub vigorously with your fingers to release essential oils in lavender and scent the sugar with the zest. Next, whisk in the rest of the wet ingredients, eggs, yogurt, butter, olive oil and lemon juice.

After well-combined, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until just combined.

Bake in a 9-inch spring form pan for 50-60 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Caramelized Onion Apple & Asparagus Tart

**I didn't think to add apple until later

Oral arguments at the downtown courthouse are tomorrow. Am I ready? Sort of.
Tuesday is our group presentation about access to nutritious food in Chicago. Am I done? Not really.
Finals start in less than a month. Am I prepared? uh....

It's in the 80s today! Yes, 80+

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have turned on the oven and heated up the whole house, but it was SO worth it. This tart takes some leftover fall flavors (apples and onions) and mixes them with a bright spring bite of asparagus.

I'm always drawn to items in bakeries made with puff pastry. Last time I was in Seattle, I spent nearly 40 bucks on a box of puff pastry related desserts and realized that I could probably make half the things in the box at home.

I looked at Whole Paycheck Foods recently, and they wanted 17 bones for a box of puff pastry. Really?

Luckily, on a recent trip to the outlet mall in Pleasant Prairie, WI I discovered a Pepperidge Farm puff pastry for two dollars. Yeah, a dollar a sheet. I bought several.

It's a super-easy recipe that looks and tastes way fancier than it really is.

Just shred some asparagus

Peel and slice an apple

And layer with some caramelized onions!

Apple Asparagus Tart with Caramelized Onions

1lb asparagus

2 large or 3 small onions

1 apple (I used a Braeburn, but a Granny Smith would probably be better)

1 sheet puff pastry

Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

Preheat oven to 425

Set the puff pastry out to thaw. Once it's softened a bit, cut a 1/2 inch border around the perimeter to it can puff up and make a crust.

Next, thinly slice and caramelize the onions in some olive oil over medium low. This'll take a good 20-30 minutes. 

In the meantime shred the asparagus with a potato peeler to get long ribbons. Also peel and thinly slice the apple. 

Cook the apple for 1-2 minutes on each side in some olive oil over medium head to soften them and get some of the moisture out. Remove apples, turn off the heat, and toss the asparagus in the leftover oil so it warms up and softens.

Once the onions are done, layer the apples first, then the onions, and finally the asparagus staying inside the border you cut earlier.

Bake at 425 for 18-20 minutes and you'e set!

Roasted Cauliflower & Tofu Enchiladas

I got a job! Yes, I'm working as an intern at Children's Home and Aid Society of Illinois. It's nice to feel like a useful member of society again, and know that my summer will not be spend eating obscene amounts of baked things and feeling sorry for myself. The weather has yet to improve to match my sunny outlook on the next few months though...

It's times like these I get a little homesick for California. It's April and the weather has still been in the 30s. Not only that, the produce at our local grocer is still mostly sub-par. I was lucky enough to find an awesome-looking head of cauliflower though, and for some reason I immediately thought of enchiladas. 

I seem to be drawn to them whenever I end up in a Mexican restaurant and a lot of the time, I end up mildly disappointed. I'm no enchilada snob, but I always seem to think "this would be awesome if it had more veggies in it," or "wow ground beef does not belong in an enchilada." 

I might get it from my grandma - she always scoffed at restaurant enchiladas, even if we were IN Mexico! When I realized that she uses canned sauce, I'll admit I was a bit shocked, but they're still pretty good regardless. I just picked up some dried chiles though, so I'll post a recipe with homemade sauce sometime soon. In the meantime - here's what I used...

The first step is to chop up the cauliflower, toss with salt and olive oil, and roast it at 425 degrees until it starts to brown up

Then toss it with some semi-carmelized onions, mushrooms, garlic, and seasoned tofu

then fry some tortillas 

sauce 'em up, and cover with a pile of cheese before baking. **Note, you can also omit the cheese (and sour cream later) to make these vegan!

Roasted Cauliflower and Tofu Enchiladas

1 head cauliflower

1 block extra firm tofu

1 medium onion

8-10 white mushrooms

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 packet taco seasoning (I know, it's processed but so good!) or 1-2 Tablespoons mexican spice blend

12-15 corn tortillas

1 bunch scallions

1 large can enchilada sauce (red or green, it's up to you)

olive oil

shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

sour cream (optional)

Make the filling:

Chop the cauliflower into small bite-sized florets and toss with olive oil and salt. Roast at 425 until they begin to brown and crisp. Reduce oven temp to 350 after you remove them.

In the meantime, press the tofu by wrapping in a paper towel, then a kitchen towel, and placing in a pan with something heavy over it (i use my cast iron skillet) for 20-30 minutes. This will get most of the moisture out, and improve the texture by like 5000%.

Dice the onions and mushrooms and cook over medium-high heat until onions are semi-carmelized and mushrooms have shrunk. Add minced garlic and mexican seasoning. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes and add roasted cauliflower before setting aside.

Assemble the enchiladas

Fry tortillas for a few seconds on each side in 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a shallow pan. Once each tortilla is fried, toss into a bowl filled with the enchilada sauce. Remove from sauce, and fill with some of the cauliflower/tofu mixture. Roll it up and begin filling a 9x13 baking dish. Repeat the process with the rest of the tortillas until your filling is used up and the baking dish is full.

Cover with cheese if you'd like and bake covered at 350 for 30-40 minutes until cheese is bubbling.

Serve with sour cream and chopped scallions.

Grandma's Cheesecake

Holy cow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted a recipe! I feel like the semester just stared, but it's already 6 weeks to my first final. Luckily, we had Spring Break recently and I was graced with a visit from my mom and grandma.

My grandma's amazing. Period.

She lived with us growing up and used to cook us all sorts of stuff. She's Korean, though she was born in Yucatan (long story). We would have enchiladas for dinner one night and rice and kimchi the next!

She used to make these cheesecakes for friends, family members, and even coworkers. People loved it and I remember there always being one of these in the fridge, alongside a jar of homemade kimchi.

So, since this blog is dedicated to her and stubborn declarations of "I can make this better at home," here is her cheesecake, made better at home.

Grandma's Cheesecake

about 2 cups crushed cookies (nilla wafers, or graham crackers will work)
1 brick of cream cheese
1 16 oz tub of sour cream
1 small can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp sugar
1 stick butter

First, grind up the cookies with a rolling pin, or in a food processor. Melt the butter, and combine with cookies in a spring-form cheesecake pan.

Next, cream the eggs, cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk together in a bowl until smooth. Pour over the graham cracker crust.

Bake just this layer for 30-40 minutes at 350 (just keep checking after 30 minutes to see when it's set).
In the meantime, stir together the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. Once the bottom layer is set, pour this mixture over it and bake for another 10-15 minutes (until it's mostly set).

Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before refrigerating until it's completely cool.

Carrot Ginger Cake

I'm just gonna be honest and say that being allergic to walnuts and pecans sucks. It really, really sucks. Polvorones, you know? Those Mexican wedding cookies? Yeah, can't eat 'em. Carrot cake had always been off limits since so many people insist on adding walnuts, and I was never able to enjoy a nice sugar-laden slice of pecan pie. 

Cue Alton Brown and his awesome cookbooks! My parents got me the set for Christmas, and I've worked my way through several recipes so far. This has to be one of my favorites. I adjusted it slightly, added some freshly grated ginger, and toned down the sugar, but otherwise this cake as fantastic. I know I've been using pumpkin pie spice in pretty much every recipe on this blog, but it's versatile, and a lot easier than buying several different spices you might never use.

It's not as fattening as it could be, and the finished cake is really moist. So forget about walnuts (though you can add them if you really want) and make Carrot cake better at home...

Basically, you shred up some carrots

Whisk a bunch of ingredients together

And bake

and make some awesome cream cheese frosting in pyrex

Carrot Ginger Cake 

(adapted from Good Eats 2)

6-7 medium carrots, grated (about three cups shredded)

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz block cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 stick of butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350, butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pans

Whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, salt, baking soda, baking powder in large bowl. Toss the grated carrots in and work with your hands until the carrots are well-coated in the flour mixture. 

Whisk together oil, sour cream, eggs, sugars, yogurt/sour cream. Fold into the carrot and flour mixture until just combined. Distribute batter evenly between two cake pans. 

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, and then reduce temperature to 325 and bake for about another 20 minutes. Keep checking the cake after 15 minutes though, to make sure you don't over bake. 

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, and then on a rack until completely cool. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

Whisk together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until well-combined. Adding half a cap at a time, gradually whisk in powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want. 

Vegan Lasagna

After a few weeks into second semester, I'm starting to get those all-too-familiar cravings for good comfort food. I think it's currently being caused by oh-my-crap-i-have-to-find-a-job-this-summer-and-do-better-in-my-classes stress.

Lasagna is one of my old-school comfort foods. My mom used to make a version with ricotta and cilantro which sounds odd, but was actually pretty fantastic. My friend Susan Wong makes pretty awesome lasagna with bits of cream cheese interspersed with ground turkey and tomato sauce that I crave on a regular basis.

The problem with all these comfort food cravings is that I'm trying to re-trainsition into veganism and have started the gym again. It's hard to justify eating half a pan of lasagna if you are waking up early for spin class the next day.

Cue vegan lasagna! I bumped up the health by making noodles out of zukes and the tofu "ricotta" is so good you can't even tell the difference!

Instead of piling on globs of parmesan or of a heavily processed vegan parmesan alternative, I just made "poor man's parm" by frying up some breadcrumbs in olive oil and spices. If you omit these, this lasagna becomes gluten-free! While it's not necessarily "make it better at home" since there are some really excellent lasagnas out there, it's definitely "make it better (for you) at home."

Vegan Lasagna with Zucchini Noodles

4-5 large zucchini
1 onion
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh spinach, blanched and squeezed dry
1 bunch basil
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce, or a large can of diced tomatoes with juice
veggie sausage (optional)
1 package firm (not extra firm) tofu
1/2 lb mushrooms
juice and zest of 1/2 an orange
salt, pepper, olive oil

First, slice the zucchini into strips lengthwise and soak in salt water for 1-2 hours. Rinse off and dry in the oven set at 150-200 degrees, checking every few minutes to make sure they don't brown.

While the zucchini are soaking, make your sauce. Saute mushrooms, onions and garlic in olive oil for 5-7 minutes and add jarred sauce or canned tomatoes, chopped up vegan sausage (if your'e using it) and simmer (if you're using a can of diced tomatoes, make sure to boil down the sauce and reduce it so the lasagna isn't super-watery).

Meanwhile, make the "ricotta." Crumble up the tofu with your hands into a big bowl. Add spinach, chopped basil, 1 tbsp of olive oil, orange juice and zest, salt, and pepper to taste. Mix vigorously until well combined.

Once the zucchini are done, begin layering your lasagna. Start with a layer of zucchini, then tomato sauce, then tofu mixture and repeat.

If you'd like, you can pulse whatever bread you have around and fry the breadcrumbs in 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper to make a parmesan substitute to sprinkle over the top.

Bake the whole thing, covered, at 375 for 50 minutes. After 30 minutes, check how watery it is and drain out the extra water if necessary.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I've been trying to cook healthier this year, trying to do away with processed foods, and cook clean. Yeah, I'm not quite there yet. I'm sure by the end of 2011, I'll have an all natural vegan and beet-dyed version of these, but they are pretty fantastic just the way they are. Besides, it's been below zero for the past few days, and sometimes you just need a little cupcake in your life.

Sure, you could hit up your local cupcake shop and spend 3, 4, or 5 bucks on a single cupcake, or you could make an entire batch of them and eat them all yourself. Luckily, it was my friend Keshia's birthday this week and I had an excuse to share.

This started out as a Cake Doctor recipe years ago, but has morphed into my own after making these so many times. Make sure you use the almond extract, it makes all the difference.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes

1 package German Chocolate Cake mix
1/2 Cup flour
1 small package vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
3 eggs
1 bottle RED food coloring (the big ones in the spice section, not the little bottle with the pointy top)

Almond Frosting

1 brick cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp - 1 tbsp almond extract (to taste)
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk dry ingredients until well combined before adding in wet ingredients. Once everything is well mixed, add the food coloring. Be careful, it stains!

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 19-22 minutes until tops of cupcakes are firm.

Cool for at least 30 minutes before frosting.

To make frosting, cream together butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and almond extract. Slowly add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time while whisking vigorously. Start with 1tsp of almond extract, and increase to taste.