Welcome Spring with Vanilla Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

If you've been around the cafe for a while, you might remember this equipment fail from November:

I was trying to make this Caramel Apple Cake. And while the cake was delicious, it didn't look so pretty.

So yes, I did put a new Bundt pan on my Christmas list, and my favorite middle son gave me this beauty on the big day:

Sometimes better equipment is all you need!

Daughter Carrie gave the new pan its first test with this delicious cake. The light vanilla flavor with a bit of tang from the cream cheese makes this the perfect dessert for spring. It would make a great base for strawberry shortcake, too, if you weren't already addicted to Grandma's recipe :)

This recipe is from a website called http://www.rockrecipes.com/. They have tons of good looking recipes over there, and once I get a minute to breathe, I'll have to browse a bit longer than I did the other day.

Here it is:

Vanilla Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

ingredients:

for the cake batter:

1 1/2 cups sugar
8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup butter
3 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

for the Vanilla Cream Cheese glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar (aka icing sugar)
4 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 teaspoons milk

instructions:

Preheat your oven to 325°.

Cream the sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla together well.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Stir together the flours and baking powder, and then gently fold the dry ingredients into the batter until everything is smooth and creamy.

Bake in a well greased and floured Bundt pan (or two parchment lined loaf pans) at 325° for about 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Or use the touch test: press down lightly in the center of the cake. If the cake springs back, it's done. If an indentation remains, bake a few minutes longer.

Cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

Beat all the ingredients for the glaze together very well until very smooth. Add more of less milk to get the glaze to the proper consistency which should be relatively thick but not quite pourable.

Spoon and swirl the glaze on top of the cake and let it drip down naturally.

And try to restrain yourself to one piece!

In other news, spring has officially arrived in South Dakota!

In addition, I recently purchased a new camera. I'm taking a research trip to western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in a few weeks, and I hope this new toy takes fabulous pictures. I played with it a bit last weekend when we went to Custer State Park. 

One thing you'll notice from these pictures is that even though the crocus, daffodils and Pasque flowers are beginning to bloom, we don't have greengrass yet.

No, that's not a typo. Greengrass. All one word. The Hills and prairies are still brown.

Okay, Thatcher was not at the park. I was fiddling with the camera settings :) Besides, I had to include him in this post. Today is his birthday!

Which means it's also Jeter's birthday! Happy birthday, you handsome dogs!

One reason for the new camera was to make it easier to get distance shots like this...

...and this one, looking east at sunset.

And close up shots, like this one...

...and this one. Yes, he is standing near what you think he's standing near. That's where the insects are!

I'm very happy with the way this one turned out - with no danger from trying to get too close:

But this last one surprised me. This would have been a big white splotch with my old camera:

It's amazing to see what you can do with the right tools!

What new tool or equipment has made your life easier lately?

Easy cream cheese brownies for the chocoholic!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a delicious little recipe a friend passed on to me. It's probably the usual cream cheese-brownie recipe but this one has MORE chocolate. How can we go wrong?
You'll need to preheat the oven to 350F.
Ingredients are:
1 package cream cheese
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips, dark

1/4 cup butter
another cup of chocolate chips, dark
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
 2/3 cup flour
1/2 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

 So, soften your cream cheese and blend with one egg, and a 1/4 cup sugar.

 See? Just so. (Ignore the lumpy cream cheese on the sides.)

 Blend 1/2 cup sugar and two eggs together/ Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together. Mix. At this point, I was a little skeptical. This did not look like enough for a batch of brownies.

 Melt the butter and cup of chocolate chips in a pan. When all mixed, add to the batter.

 Like so.

 Put the brownie batter in the pan first, then add the cream cheese mixture. Oh, so pretty!

 At this point, I review the recipe and realize I've forgotten to mix in the other cup of chocolate chips into the cream cheese batter. *SHHHHH* We will tell no one.

 Bake at 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

 Gratuitous random brownie shot. I knew most of my kids would not appreciate me messing with perfection so I actually made two batches.

 Here they are, living peaceably, side by side. Why can't we all just get along??

Close up of the cream cheese version and the chocolate chips inside. As of this writing, it's been 40 minutes and they're all gone. Having on ravenous husband, two teens, two preteens, and two preschoolers is good for my health. No leftovers to tempt me in the midnight hour!

 Until next time everyone!

Fried pepper poppers- garden fresh!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back with a really fun recipe to use up all the left over peppers in your garden. (what? No leftover peppers?? Well, sometimes my husband eats ours, too, but for some reason... this year I had extra!)

Oooo, pretty peppers!

Mild banana peppers and a little hotter chile de arbol peppers.

In summer, this is what my counter looks like. Complete with little grabby hands.

Grabby and grubby.

OK, so, split the peppers down the center and get out all the seeds. I hear that's where the hot part is. I'm not sure if that's true but I don't want to test it.

So, wash them well and pat dry.

Mix 6 oz of cream cheese 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper and a little salt. (The cream cheese is salty, so you don't need much.)

I found this at my local grocery store! Oooh, feeling Southern!!

A friend who lives in Louisiana says she always rolls her batter in cornmeal before frying. I'm gonna try it.

Stuff the peppers with the cream cheese mix.

Mix the batter according to the directions and carefully coat the peppers, making sure the cream cheese doesn't fall out.

Then carefully roll in the corn meal...

Here's an action shot of the peppers getting their battar coating.

Ta-Dah! After frying about four minutes on each side, the batter should be crispy, the pepper slightly cooked (not super soft or slimey, just soft) and the cream cheese soft and melted.

Fresh cukes with cherry tomatoes! A sprig of lemon basil adds a lot of flavor. Over the cukes I usuall squeeze a lime and sprinkle some salt.

Happy summer food! The only part I didn't like was frying over the hot stove, so next time I'll use the fry daddy. Maybe I'll even plug it in outside so it doesn't make the house smell greasy, but even so, this was worth it!!

Sometimes You Just Need Cheesecake

As the GAL (gluten free, allergic living) member of Yankee Belle, sometimes it is plain torture to read the delicious posts of my compadres. Whether you're watching what you eat due to health restrictions, allergies or ethical beliefs, living around food and foodies can be a challenge.  I just read about a vegan blogger who developed orthorexia, over focus on ethical eating. Another ate too much kale and found it interfered with her thyroid levels as too much of a good cruciferous thing can. And I lost too much weight when my allergies were first diagnosed a decade ago because I was afraid of dying at any moment from hidden corn syrup!

That's not a way to live. No matter how hard it is, you need variety in your diet. You need more than green leaves every day, all day or so much pumpkin your hands turn orange (don't ask!).  And maybe sometimes you just need cheesecake. I blame it on the fact that cheesecake was my birthday cake growing up. I associate it with comfort food. It is friendlier toward diets needing protein, less sugar, and fewer carbs. 

Ruthy's Triple Berry Cheesecake looked so scrumptious but thanks to my allergies to corn and wheat it was out. I ignored Ruthy. Or rather Ruthy's post. How could she do that to me?

But one day last week, things in my life transpired to make me declare, "I need cheesecake" and I immediately thought of Ruthy's recipe.

The berry flavor.  I wanted Ruthy's cheesecake - but what fruit did I have? My sister and I had eaten almost all my cherries but I did have a pint of black berries. Except ManO says he doesn't like the seeds in blackberries. Hmmmmm, so I cooked down what I had and strained it to make a sauce. Note: I cut the sugar level because I've gotten rid of a lot of sugar out of my diet.

Confused about the PBJ picture here? Keep reading.

    
Berry Cherry Sauce:
1 cup cherries
1 cup blackberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
water to dissolve sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca starch (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Boil until fruit is soft, pressing spoon against softened fruit. Turn to low and simmer twenty minutes for a thin sauce.

Happy Accident: Add tapioca starch at the start if you want a more jelly type consistency. I was so thrilled to have jelly on my peanut butter toast!  It will still have a drizzle consistency for your cheesecake if you leave it out a few minutes but straight out of the fridge it is perfect for PBandJ.

Now to the crust.  Ruthy used Nilla Wafers. I didn't have any gluten free wafers in the house but I  just made my own gluten-free granola. Tah dah! Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. That and a bunch of granola crust recipes online! Don't let lack of ingredients keep you from getting something you really want.

Make sure you pulverize your granola but still leave small bits of oat.

  

Granola Crust:
2 cups granola WITHOUT fruit bits
4 tablespoons butter

Pulverize two cups granola in a processor or blender until chopped up but not fine like flour. Add cold butter and mix. Press into pie plate. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes and take out of oven.
 

Two eggs are hiding under here to add a bit more protein.

The cheesecake: The most important part, right?  I needed a recipe that was lower in sugar, higher in protein, and organic everything for me. I also knew vanilla would bring out the sweetness and almond would give it a bit of gourmet flavor.

Pie filling:

2 packages softened organic cream cheese
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon organic almond extract
2 organic Omega-3 eggs

Mix all ingredients until just blended with a mixer.  Pour into granola crust and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until center is set. Take out and cool on counter for 15 minutes and then place in refrigerator until cool, at least two hours.

Top with your berry-cherry sauce and voila! Just what ManO and I needed! 

So what about you? Any food you just HAVE to have when you are low or for a party or just because? What have you had to adapt to fit your lifestyle or your family's tastes or because you hate an ingredient?

Where's my Velveeta?

It's been all over the news. Kraft has announced a Velveeta shortage due to changes in production location! Oh, what to do for the Superbowl? Never fear. They promise the fast melting ingredient for the queso dip made famous will be in stock prior to the Big Game. Find the original recipe here. But Kraft is warning people in advance it will be hard to find afterwards!

This is actually called Velveeta LOAF on the Kraft.com website.

Now I have been around for a few decades so I've experienced a few product shortages.  I also am a WWII historical fiction writer so I know about shortages before my time. But the most traumatic time was the 70s. I remember it well.

The oil crisis in 1973 led to a gas shortage. Daddy was glad he had a VW Bug but he still had to wait in line an hour to get gas. Dinner was later because Daddy came home later. We watched every mile we drove in the family station wagon.

I inherited Daddy's bug when I went to college. Pictured here with our first house and ManO's Nova!

But 1973-4 was also the year of the infamous toilet paper crisis. Thanks to the writers for Johnny Carson, king of late night at a time when folks watched a few channels instead of hundreds, and a government official who remarked they were behind on getting bids on toilet paper supplied, people were in a panic. They took what Johnny said about not being able to find TP, added their own anxiety caused by the oil crisis, and voila. Toilet paper flew off the shelves.

So you can see I know panic over shortages. Just because I have four plus 24 packs of toilet paper in my upstairs closet does not mean I was scarred in any way. Never mind we are empty nesters.  

Ahem. Well, back to Velveeta. I can't argue with the smooth melt ability of the orange block. But if you want to try something different, here is an easy substitute that ends up with the same smooth texture. There are lots of recipes on the web but this is by far the easiest and so delicious.

2% Milk, cream cheese, and cheddar. That's it.

1) Combine two cups shredded cheddar, one 8 oz block cream cheese and a scant 1/2 cup of 2% milk in a small sauce pan. NOTE:  Do NOT use pre-shredded cheese because it will clump due to additives.

2) On medium heat, constantly stir ingredients with a whisk until smooth. You can turn the heat up a bit at the start but turn down to medium low as soon as the cheese starts to melt. Keep stirring with the whisk until smooth and there are no shreds of cheese left. Don't let it sit without stirring.

You will have this:

Smooth, creamy and NO flour added. Amazing.

Your substitute sauce is now ready to mix with salsa (fresh is fantastic to add) to make a great dip or pour over shells or any recipe where you would use one large block of Velveeta.

Are you worried about a Velveeta shortage? Do you have a favorite Velveeta recipe? Do you remember shortages on a mass scale or just when someone forgot to go to the grocery store?