Dear Friends:
I was all set to make cookies.  I had all of my ingredients (except for the maraschino cherries which Kid #1 was going to pick up for me).

This might be an excessive amount of chocolate.  Might.

I got as far as one batch of cappuccino flats rolled and in the fridge waiting to be baked the next day. When the next day came, this happened.


We woke to an icy wonderland in which about an inch of ice covered everything and made some things (like tree branches for instance) so heavy that they broke off of their tree trunk and fell to the ground.  Often they took wires down with them.  Oops.  Then there was the lovely green lightning that we thought was beautiful but ended up being transformers blowing out.  Long story short, we had an icy wonderland to look at but no power.
We got through it of course.  In these kinds of situations you realize quickly just how many options you do truly have in an emergency.  How many friends you can count on, how family checks in with you, how your amazing kids don't complain about the cold at all and roll with the punches.  You realize that even though you're not rich, you really are.  If you thought about it long enough it might even bring a tear to your eye... but you don't think about it long enough.
36 hours later I woke up at 7a.m. to a bright light in my face and Kid #2 telling me that the power was back and that his second front tooth had finally decided to leave his head.  A Christmas Miracle.

Large, gaping hold where two front teeth used to reside.

What I've decided to do is give you Christmas cookies after Christmas because who has time to bake Christmas cookies now?  I guess they'll be New Years cookies or something.  It'll be the gift that keeps on giving.

My Wishes for you this holiday:

Please keep your teeth (unless you are 7)
Eat lots of turkey (unless you've already gotten through 18lbs of thanksgiving stuff and never want to see a turkey again.  In which case, please eat something else)
Stay warm (with friends or family - use a blanket or alcohol or both)
Enjoy a cookie or two (even if it's from a box)
Hug a few family members
Have a drink with a friend (please KT?)

This is apparently what two kids get up to with christmas tree lights if you leave to room for a minute .

Merry 'Christmas/Holiday/Fill in the Blank' to you all.
Peace and Joy

Wanda

The good news:
Summer Break has just started... like just now.  This means that I can begin to rebuild that thing called a 'life at home'.  I have vague memories of it - the cooking and baking, the sweeping, the cleaning, the kids.  This is good.  This also means that I should be able to post more than one thing per week here because I know that this blog basically keeps your world turning.
More good news:  It looks like my shin problem was very short lived and since my foot is doing much better I'm going to slowly start ramping up my running and see if I might be able to hobble through a half marathon in the fall.

The bad news:
All of this stuff will happen but hasn't yet happened.
This Salad.


This Salad and I failed together.  We're on the outs... maybe permanently.  I had high hopes for it and it disappointed me thoroughly but it was my fault - I think.  It was supposed to be simple - a chick pea, feta, parsley thing.  That was where it started.  Then I saw that there were radishes and peppers in the fridge.  Into the bowl they went.  Oh yeah... then cucumber.  Chopped and into the bowl.  And What?  I've got a can of tuna in the cupboard... can't leave that out.  You guessed it - into the bowl.  What I ended up with was a crazy mish mash of a salad.  I mean, how much protein does one salad need.  My advice, should you be brave enough to go for it, is to omit the tuna entirely... and maybe the cucumber too... and maybe less feta if there is less salad.
Damn - I ate this for four days straight.  D doesn't believe in salad with dressing ever.  Only stuff with nothing dressingy in or on it.  Kid #1 and Kid #2 - they probably didn't even know that the salad existed in our fridge but the knowledge wouldn't have made a difference one way or another.  I could barely stomach it, I sure wasn't going to force it down anyone else's throat.  Serving salad is an optimistic endeavour in our house at the best of times and this one was barely edible even to me.  Maybe I should have thrown some pasta in there too... that it.  Throwing something else in there would probably have fixed everything.  Thank god for D coming to the rescue and cooking some food for the week.
This must be a new personal low for me and I'm thinking that after this there is only one direction that food in this house can go.  Here's looking at a good food summer.


Chickpea and Parsley Kitchen Sink Salad... with Feta 

I realize that making mistakes is not just a part of life but an integral part of learning.  I know at every level of my being that I am not perfect and make mistakes frequently.  We tell our kids (especially Kid #1 because she's at that age) that not only are the mistakes going to happen but that they should motivate you to continue learning so that you don't make the mistake again.  And despite all of this, I absolutely HATE making mistakes.  It doesn't matter when, where, how, why or what happens.  Nothing altars how much I hate it when I make a mistake.
I've made a lot of mistakes lately.  Things like not biking to work when I should have because I thought that the weather might be bad but it wasn't.  Not letting the kids finish a sentence before interrupting them with some sort of answer.  Giving one of the choirboys the wrong music to work on because I didn't read the service music properly.  You get the idea.  Making mistakes when it comes to food has the effect of seriously altering what we'll be eating for the week.  If something doesn't work then either I have to make something else or we just go without.  The last time I tried pumpkin bread it failed miserably.  MISERABLY.  The gooey, puddingy mess was almost unsliceable.  Yuck.  I put the rest of the pumpkin puree in the freezer and took a break.  We needed some distance.  The damn stuff stayed in my psyche though.  Every time I read yet another food blog with some kind of devastatingly gorgeous incarnation of pumpkin bread I would cringe.  Every time I walked into a Starbucks and saw their pumpkin bread I would curse to myself.  The wound was still smarting.
Today was the day.  The day where I be the example to my kids.  The day where I put my money where my mouth is.  The day where I pulled out that pumpkin puree and tried again.  I was careful this time.  So careful.  I didn't watch a Bollywood film or any other film/tv or screen involved device - well, except for the recipe itself.  The kids both read quietly in the other room.  D was out at a rehearsal.  There were no excuses.  This was going to be it.  If this didn't work for me then I was done.  If I used pumpkin puree again it would either be in a sheet cake form or muffin, something smaller, thinner and therefor easier to get a better texture.


When the loaf was done baking (and I left it in for longer than I should have probably), I waited impatiently for the loaf to cool.  A lot of nail biting was happening.  I worked hard to distract myself for the appropriate period of time.  I kept checking it, feeling the pan, sticking the tester in.  Hell, if I thought that putting it in the fridge would've worked, trust me, I would've gone for it.  Thankfully an hour or so was all I had to suffer through.  I can't imagine it being any longer.  I was finally time to place the bread out onto the cutting board and put knife to loaf.  It was agonizing.  I can't remember being so anxious about the outcome of a baked good.  The first slice would seal it, if there was any sign of goo then I would throw my hands up and then wash them of all pumpkin loaves ever again.
Then it happened.  All of a sudden the first slice was done.  Then the second and the third.  There was no goo.  No goop, no squish.  I didn't need to wring it out.  Textural success!  But how did it taste?  I broke off a little piece and it was... GOOD.  I loved it in fact.  I ate the rest of the slice just to make sure that first bite wasn't an aberration.  Nope, it was all good.


And that, my friends, means that I have now achieved pumpkin bread redemption.  I can now hold my head high in a room of food bloggers or home cooks.  I can stare into that case at Starbucks and give that bread the brush off.  Doesn't intimidate me anymore.  My kids are getting their real life lesson about dealing with mistakes while they eat the results of my tenacity.


Whole Wheat Pumpkin and Applesauce Bread adapted from weeklygreens
makes 1 loaf

3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used Red Fife in mine)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 lg eggs OR 1 egg and 2 whipped egg whites (thank you homemade ice-cream)
1 cup canned or pureed pumpkin or winter squash (if it's homemade you might want to drain it a bit through a sieve so that it's as dry as possible)
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened or barely sweetened)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) melted butter or coconut oil

Streusel topping:

3 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 - 1/2 tbsp quick oats or oat bran
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp sugar
dash of salt
2 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cubed

Combine all the ingredients.  Using your thumbs pinch together until the mixture forms a crumb.  Should be lumpy and holding together.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a regular sized loaf pan and set aside.
Combine the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg.  Mix well.  Set aside.
Optional: Whip the egg whites (if you haven't already) until light, fluffy and nearly stiff (will have at least doubled in size)
Combine the egg(s) - not the egg whites if using - pumpkin puree, apple sauce, brown sugar and melted butter.  Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.  Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture.  Mix well.  Add in the egg whites and whisk in slowly until combined.  Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.  After 25 minutes of baking add the streusel topping and continue baking for the remaining 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before slicing.

The fall is here and you know it for sure when you get a bunch of sage and a butternut squash in your kitchen.  I'm not sure how I feel about fall just yet and to be honest I haven't given myself the time to think about it.  What matters most to me in the moment is how I deal with the food that the season brings me.


Butternut squash.  I've said it many times throughout numerous blog posts just how challenged I feel by winter veggies.  I'm sure that I'm not alone.  We've all (at least in North America) been programmed to eat our '5 a day' fruit and veggies.  How the hell are you gonna do that in the middle of winter?  In fact, in my part of the world it's impossible to do that for most of the year.  Answer: ship it in.  From Brazil, Honduras, Chile... wherever.  Ship it all in.  Blueberries fresh from... Argentina.  Strawberries fresh from Venezuela.  Tomatoes fresh from California.  You get the picture.  Tearing yourself away from that isn't easy and we allow ourselves a little 'treat' once in a while.  Most of the time though our fruit is of the home canned variety or over-wintered apples and pears.  Veggies are harder though.  I've got a freezer full of summer vegetables that have been par-boiled and flash frozen but it's not enough to get me through.  So I made a decision last year to get friendly with winter vegetables.  The kind we've all forgotten about (or purposely obliterated from our memory).  Last year I made a good dent in my mission.  I got really well acquainted with cabbage and turnip and rutabaga.  This year I want to get squash and celeriac into my life.  The best part of the mission is that it's good for you.  I mean really good for you.  All those root veggies are packed with good stuff.


This recipe is my first 'fall' try.  I'll be honest with you, I didn't love it.  I browned the butter a little too long and it kinda turned black and then when I added it to the flour to make the béchamel it turned grey.  Ick.  Then the butternut stuff got too gloopy and I really didn't have enough time to make it all into the kind of food magic that I was hoping for.  The fam have been eating this with no problem.  I'm still wrapping my head around it.  I still like it in principle and I want to try it out again making some variations before I give up on the idea completely.  I've made a couple of changes to the recipe already and have reflected them below.  I toyed with the idea of not posting this at all but I think that in the spirit of what I do 'When I'm not at Work' and also desperately needing to get another post out there, it was important for this one to be here.  I'm hoping that you get inspired and write to me with some things for me to start making.  Fall, Here We Come.


Butternut Squash Lasagna Roll-Ups adapted from "How Sweet It Is'
serves 6 - 8

12 - 14 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente
3lb butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into chunks
olive oil
3/4 cup onion, sliced
3 - 4 cups mushrooms (the wilder the better) sliced
2 cups (about 3 large leaves) Kale, chopped
1/4 cup sage, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp salt
1 cup (200 g) goat cheese

Bechamel:
12 sage leaves
6 tbsp butter
6 tbsp flour
3 3/4 - 4 cups warm milk
1 veggie boullion cube
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
2 tsp pepper sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter a large, high sided baking dish and set aside.
Toss the chunks of squash in enough olive oil so that everything is nicely coated.  Place on a baking sheet and roast for about 40 minutes or until nicely browned on the outside and very soft.  Remove from the oven and set aside.
Meanwhile:
In a heavy bottomed saucepan heat the butter over medium heat and add in the sage leaves.  Cook the sage in the butter just until they start to get crispy then remove them and set them aside.  Add the flour to the butter and whisk until it forms a paste.  Slowly add in the warm milk, whisking continuously, until all the milk has been added.  Continue to whisk over med/low heat until the liquid starts to thicken.  Then add in the boullion cube, salt, honey, nutmeg, ginger and pepper sauce.  Check the taste and adjust if necessary.  Set aside.
Heat a large pan and saute the onion and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until both are soft and the onion is beginning to brown.  Add in the kale and sage and cook just until the kale has wilted.
Place the butternut squash in a bowl and mash (or use a hand blender) until it's completely mushy.  Add in the sautéed onion mixture and mix well.  Add in the cream and salt and mix.  Check the taste and adjust if necessary.
Put a little bit of the béchamel sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.
Take a lasagna noodle and spread it with 4 tbsp (or so) of the squash mixture.  Sprinkle a little of the goat cheese on that.  Roll up the lasagna noodle.  Place the noodle sideways in the baking dish.  Continue until all of the squash mixture is finished.
Pour the rest of the béchamel over the noodles.  Sprinkle the top with the crispy sage leaves that were set aside.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden and bubble on top.
Let it rest for about 15 - 20 minutes before serving.

I'm home.  I'm sitting in my house.  I am on my couch.  I am typing on my couch.  I am in my living room.  I'm not going anywhere outside of my own house for the rest of the day.  The whole rest of the day.  It feels... foreign.
For all my bitching about May and how it's all crazy and busy and overwhelming, June has been just as bad and maybe even worse.  Worse not really because it's worse but just because the expectation was that it would be better and it hasn't been.  That makes no sense when I look at the words but it totally made sense in my head.  Combine the 'crazy' with a heat wave in Toronto and you've got two kids living on cereal and toast.  Fortunately, that's done and we're back to absolute gorgeous summer weather.  Now that I'm still - as in not moving - I'm looking at the kitchen and wondering where to begin.


I have to admit that I almost didn't post this.  I think that the bread looks awful.  I look at other food blogs and the pictures are so awesome and everything just looks perfect.  The bread always rises exactly the way bread should rise.  It's always the right shade of golden/brown.  The cookies are never a little over-baked on the bottom.  There is never too much liquid in the stew.  You know?  The colours are perfect and the cakes look just right.  It's intimidating because almost nothing I make looks like that. It's taken me years to get over that my cooking and baking is best when it looks like crap.  So, I'm swallowing my pride and putting this bread recipe out there... crappy looking bread and all.
It tasted good.  And when we'd used it all up for sandwiches and it was starting to get stale... we made strata.  It was good.  And good for you.  And it was more than just a little ugly.


Whole Wheat and Red Fife Bread adapted from 'King Arthur Flour'
makes 1 loaf

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup red fife flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup dry milk powder
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp melted butter

Grease a stainless steel or glass bowl and have a clean dish towel handy.
Combine the warm water, yeast and 1 tbsp sugar together.  Stir just to mix and set aside in a draft-free spot for a few minutes (just to make sure that it starts to get foamy and bubbly).
Combine the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour and red fife flour together with the salt, sugar and dry milk powder.  Mix and set aside.
Once the yeast mixture is foamy (about 5 - 7 minutes should be enough) add it to the flour mixture.
Add in the melted butter and stir together until the mixture can form a rough dough ball.  Turn out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead for just a few minutes until the dough ball looks uniform and smooth.
Place the dough in the greased bowl.  Cover with the clean cloth.  Place in a draft free spot for an hour. The dough won't quite be doubled.
Gently remove the dough from the bowl and knead just enough to release the air and form into a rough loaf shape.
Place in a greased loaf pan.  Cover again with clean cloth and place in a draft free spot until the dough gets about 1 inch over the top of the pan (took about an hour for me but could take up to 1 1/2 hrs).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake the bread for about 35 minutes or until the crust sounds hollow when you knock on it.

I officially hate making Linzer Cookies.
There I've said it.  I feel better.... Dang, I just thought about making them again and lost it.  Well, I gave it my best shot.
I nearly threw in the towel with these things.  I was losing my religion (not that I have any to speak of at the moment) and my mood was threatening to send Kid #1 and 2 into therapy sooner rather than later.  I remember in the middle of the process thinking that doing this and being this way really sucks at Christmas time.


The experience has kinda got me thinking about the Christmas traditions that we all seem to get so hung up about.  I make a certain kind of cookie every year.  Cappuccino Flats.  You can find them here.  They're awesome.  I don't know why I only make them at Christmas but I do.  It's become a tradition because somehow it just seems wrong to dip cookies in melted chocolate in the middle of the summer... but I could still totally do it.  But then I can't stop there.  I have to make all kinds of stupid cookies... try new ones (because repeating a recipe is like wearing the same underwear two days in a row for me or something), try making crackers, throwing in some gingerbread ('cause they go well with the lemon curd that I made, right - that actually makes sense)... then my students give me stuff.  This year I got chocolate and more chocolate, jams, jellies and a gingerbread house... more stuff than I know what to do with.  I regift - there I said it.  I donate.  I share.  I eat some of it.  Then I've got all this other crap that I give away 'cause I made it and I know full well that everybody else is overwhelmed with stuff too but I'm giving some to them anyway... it's dumb.
Why don't we do this in February when nobody has any crap left and we would all really appreciate a little pick me up to get through the rest of winter.  This cookie tradition has to get amended for my own sanity, my kid's sense of well-being and my pocket book.
The christmas tree is a tradition right?  We get one every year and the kids love it.  I could take it or leave it.  I'm not sure that I would care if I didn't have it.  Might even be a relief.
Christmas dinner?  Yup - feel the same way.
Here's the only tradition that gives me any true satisfaction:  Having time with people that I care about and that I really want to spend time with.  Not worrying about what I bought for them and whether they'll like it but just being with them.  I don't want them buying me any gifts.  I don't need stuff.  I need them.  Having the time to do that is more precious than anything I make or buy or get.  Done.


So I've put my foot down about stupid linzer cookies that don't make as many as their recipe promised and dough that wouldn't roll out whether I begged or pleaded and wayyyyyy more time and mental anguish than they could ever give me back.  Not again.  They taste good... but not good enough.
Here is my new Official Christmas Tradition:  Hello Friends... Goodbye stupid Linzer Cookies.
Merry Christmas


(Stupid) Linzer Cookies adapted from Martha Stewart 'Cookies'
makes about 13 if you are me, recipe called for 2 dozen (!)

2 cups all purpose flour (plus some for rolling)
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup pecan halves toasted lightly
2 tbsp icing sugar (plus a little more for sprinkling)
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cubed
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 lg egg
1/2 cup jam of your choice (something red is nice)

Sift flour and baking powder together in a bowl.  Combine the pecans, icing sugar, salt and cinnamon in a food processor or blender and pulse until finely ground (in retrospect I would just buy ground pecans and be done with it... too much additional bother)
Add the butter and sugar to the pecan stuff and beat at medium speed until fluffy.  Mix in vanilla and egg.  Beat just until incorporated.  Continuing to beat, add in the flour mixture and mix until combined.
Halve the dough and shape into disks.  Refrigerate at least 2 hrs (Mine went overnight).
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or some kind of non-stick arrangement.
Roll out one disk of dough until it's about 1/8 of an inch thick.  Refrigerate another 20 minutes (really?!)
Remove from fridge and cut the cookies leaving half of them intact and the other half with a hole in the middle.  Re-roll the scraps, refrigerate and use again.
Place on the baking sheets and bake until pale golden - 8 - 10 minutes.
Cool on wire racks.
Heat the jam in a small pan over med/low heat just until it liquifies and thickens a bit (if needed) - about 7 minutes.
Sprinkle icing sugar on the cookies with the cut out in the middle.
Spread jam on the intact cookies.
Place the cut out cookies on top of each.
Take some pictures and thank the gods that you don't have to do this again for another year (maybe never)

Sometimes I'm just dumb.  Well... I'm not dumb but I do dumb things.  For example, setting things on the edge of the counter.  Like running to work but forgetting my bra so that when I get there, all hot and sweaty, I have to wear my sports bra... gross.  Like sending a government envelope back to the government thinking that I didn't have to add postage because there was this thing written where the stamp was supposed to be.  I didn't read the thing and it happened to say 'place correct postage here'.  Dumb.  
Well, I did something dumb yesterday.  
Kid #1 asked for red velvet whoopie pies.  I said yes.  Now keep in mind that Mother's Day was the day before.  Keep in mind that I had just been travelling with 65 gr 5 and 6 boys for the weekend.  Keep in mind that my mind was kinda fuzzy and I'd been working all day.  I quickly found a recipe on the net.  I skimmed the recipe... barely.  I pulled out ingredients.  I saw sour cream sitting in the fridge.  I grabbed said sour cream.  I thought, 'this sour cream would go well in the whoopie pies - I could use this instead of buttermilk' (dumb).  I put the sour cream with the rest of the ingredients.  
I put together the ingredients and did my thing.  I really did my thing... I never checked the recipe again.  Let's just talk for a minute about what I changed or didn't bother with at all:
1.  Didn't check about whether to mix together the flour/cocoa/baking powder.  Why check, all recipes are the same... right.
2.  Didn't bother to precisely measure the butter.  
3.  Didn't use buttermilk, added sour cream instead... still needed to add milk.  
4.  Didn't check for an oven temperature or how long to bake the cookies.  
5.  Didn't have liquid food colouring, used paste instead and didn't check the recipe about when to add the colouring.  
How did all this turn out?  




Mediocre... at best.  I was thoroughly disgusted truth be told.  My kids are still eating them but damn... they suck.  
For the record, sour cream is not interchangeable with milk or buttermilk.  
For the record, food colouring doesn't mix well if the butter isn't wet enough.  
For the record, when you are tired sometimes you just do dumb things.  
For the record, today I bought a whoopie pie recipe book and will try this again the right way.  
I'm giving you the recipe as I saw it and then telling you what I did to screw it up.  




Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
makes 16 or so icky cookies


2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed (used muscovado... that's all I had)
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature (use 1/2 cup sour cream... then add another 1/2 cup milk)
1 oz. red food coloring


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  (my recipe)
Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.  
Using another bowl cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg and the vanilla.  
Add in the flour mixture and mix that until it seems mixed in.  Add in the sour cream.  Mix and realise that this is turning out like bread dough... add in the milk.  
By this time the batter will be pasty and gross but loose enough that you can add the food colouring (even though you should probably have added the food colouring to the milk and done things that way.  Try to mix in the food colouring and realise that using paste isn't the same and won't mix properly.  Think that maybe it will look kinda cool that you've got 'marble' whoopie pies.  Realise that marble whoopies pies kinda suck.  




Drop the pastry grossness on a lined cookie sheet by tablespoons.  Bake for about 10 - 11 minutes.  




Once they all cool throw some cream cheese icing on the underside of one and sandwich together with another until they're all done.  
Give them to kids... they don't care if they're gross... buy a recipe book that has a proper recipe.  

Yesterday blew chunks.
It shouldn't have blown chunks.  It should have been amazing.  I'm on vacay from work, we've been doing fun things, we even got the bikes out yesterday and started tuning up and biking a little bit.  But the day just totally blew for me despite everything else.
Let me reverse for a moment... back to 1994.
I'm in University.  I have the Moosewood Cookbook as my favourite, most beloved and (nearly) most used cookbook.  I'm broke.  I want to make this cake.  Cardamom Coffee Cake it's called.  It calls for a whole pound of butter, 2 whole cups of sour cream and 4 eggs.  I'm broke.  I can't spend that kind of money on one cake.
Fast Forward to 2011.  I still want to make the cake.  I'm not as broke but I ain't rollin' in it.  I'm still balking at the pound of butter.  I decide that nothing sounds better to me than a lovely, light, cakey coffee cake infused with cardamom spice.  I decide to go ahead and try it because the world is potentially falling apart and this could be my last chance... and I have to use up this damned sour cream.  I make the cake and.... it BITES!
yeah... totally BITES.  Total and utter disappointment.  My poor family suffered the rest of the day with me in a depressed angry funk.  I had two people taste test it for me just so that I know I'm not crazy.  Those people told me that it wasn't as bad as I've described but I'm sure that they're just being nice.


Here is the synopsis:
1.  I think that it simply has too much butter.
2.  I think that brown sugar might not be the way to go.
3.  I think that between the brown sugar and nut mixture and the butter in the cake it's too overpowering and the cardamom is completely lost.
4.  It needs more cardamom!


I don't want to include the recipe because I'm angry at it (ok and yeah... I adapted it a little bit).  I can't eat the cake because I'm mad.
Moosewood is still my favourite cookbook and I've made some lovely desserts from the book.  This one however, won't be a repeat for me.  Ugh... I've gotta find something good to bake to make up for this disappointment and boost my bruised ego.


Cardamom Coffee Cake adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook

1 lb (2 cups) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups packed light brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp powdered cardamom
2 cups sour cream (yogurt or buttermilk)


Nut Mixture:
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.
In a large bowl beat the butter and brown sugar until it's light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs (one at a time, mixing each one in) and then the vanilla.  Beat well.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream - beginning and ending with the flour.  Don't overmix.
Combine the nut mixture in a bowl.
Spoon 1/3 of the batter into the pan.  Sprinkle with half the nut mixture.  Spoon another 1/3 of the batter over that.  Sprinkle the other half of the nut mixture.   Spoon the remainder of the cake on top.  Spread lightly.
Bake about 1 1/4 hrs or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for about 15 min. or so and then remove to a wire rack to cool.