One Year

My little guy turned the big number 1 on the 15! It's been interesting watching him grow and try to start to walk! Exciting and scary at the same time.

Here are some photos of the cake and such:

Big monkey cake for the grown-ups - recipe below!

Little monkey cake (w/ alternate frosting) for the birthday boy!

SMASHED!

I had a lot of fun making these! The cake recipe is one I found on Smitten Kitchen - I've included it below. I did one and a half times the recipe so that I had enough to make an extra 12 cupcakes and 3 mini cakes in my Pampered Chef one-cup glass baking bowls. (One of these was the little boy's cake shown above.)

Two-Layer Banana Cake from Smitten Kitchen
3 1/2 cups (14 3/8 ounces or 406 grams) cake flour
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
3/4 teaspoon (2 grams) cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (7 ounces or 200 grams) sugar
1 cup (7 5/8 ounces or 218 grams) packed golden brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups mashed or pureed very ripe bananas (5 to 6 large)
6 tablespoons (3 1/4 ounces or 91 grams) sour cream or (weight will vary) plain yogurt
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of 2 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, then coat the paper and sides of pans with butter and flour, or a nonstick spray. [You'll also want to butter and flour 3 muffin cups or ramekins.]

Whisk cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl and set aside. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until blended. Beat in eggs one at a time, then bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients in two additions just until combined. Divide batter among two pans; you’ll want approximately 5 cups of batter per pan. [Fill your 3 muffin cups or ramekins two-thirds of the way up with batter and divide remaining batter among your 2 9-inch pans.]

Bake cake until tester inserted into center of each layer comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. [Muffin cups should bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Please watch them carefully.] Cool each layer in its pan for 15 minutes before flipping out onto a rack to cool the rest of the way.

Buttercream Frosting - this was a French buttercream that my pastry chef sister made for me! I split the recipe into 2/3 and 1/3 - the 2/3 got an additional 5 oz of melted semisweet chocolate to make the brown, and then the 1/3 got 1 spoonful of the chocolate frosting and some drops of yellow food coloring to make the yellow part of the monkey face. The link above is to a similar recipe, although I can't promise the niceness of having someone else make it for you!

Alternate Frosting
I didn't want Joseph to have a ton of sugar, so I mixed cream cheese and applesauce together for the frosting on his cake. (Joe I says it tasted pretty good!) I then decorated with leftover chocolate buttercream.

All in all we had a good time. Joseph still went to bed at a reasonable time, even with staying up to 'open' his presents (ok, Mom and cousins might have helped him a bit with that). I'm so proud of him and of making it a whole year as a mom! (Without serious injuries! haha)

Bacon-licious Corn Chowder

This weekend I made two soups with bases of bacon, onion and garlic. The corn chowder was so yummy that I had to post the recipe! (The other soup is awaiting taste testing in my fridge because we had a date night last night. :)

This is another 'use up things in my pantry' recipe, and I must apologize for those who can't tolerate dairy as it is most definitely NOT dairy-free! I am able to have dairy again, so have been relishing the taste of real cheese and milk. Milk by itself is not a good option all the time, but milk in things like soup is fine for me! Hooray!

Ashley's Quick and Easy Bacon-licious Corn Chowder
Ingredients:
1/2 lb bacon, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced (or use a Garlic Press - I love my Pampered Chef one!)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chicken stock (or 1 tsp bouillon paste + 1 cup hot water)
4 cans corn, drained
2 cans whole new potatoes, quartered - reserve water from 1 can, drain other
1 can condensed milk (12 oz)
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Process:
Place large pot on stove, turn burner to medium-low. Add olive oil, garlic, onion, and bacon. Cook until onion is soft and bacon is at your preferred level of doneness (mine was medium, ~10-15 minutes), stirring often to avoid burning. Add corn, potatoes, chicken stock, and water from 1 can of potatoes. Stir and let cook for 10 minutes so that the corn and potatoes get the taste of the bacon (keep stirring every so often to avoid burning). Add condensed milk, cheddar cheese soup, Parmesan, and spices, stir until well-combined and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring periodically. Turn off burner and remove from heat. Let cool for 10 minutes (or you'll burn your tongue like I did!) and serve with garlic bread, cornbread, or rolls. Serves 8-10.

This was a great lunch on a cold, rainy Rochester day! My husband, brother-and-sister-in-law, and three nephews all liked it too. Enjoy!

Wanna-be Gourmet

As a busy mom--still working full-time until September 1!--when it's time to cook, I go for the fast and easy route. However, I've been reading Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family lately, and it has motivated me to go more 'gourmet' when I cook. If I don't enjoy making it/tasting it/eating it, then what's the point?

This brings me to the other night (now a week or so ago) when I was concocting the deliciousness below.

Ashley's Dijon Walnut Tilapia and Beet Salad
Ingredients:
1 onion, sliced into rings
2 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tilapia filets, thawed2 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1 bunch large beets, scrubbed and quartered
1 bunch beet greens, washed with stems removed4 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese


Process:
In large frying pan, warm 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium low heat. Once warmed, place onion in pan and caramelize, stirring often, about 20-30 minutes. (Wait for them to really caramelize - tastes so much better this way!) While they are cooking, place a large pot with 6 cups of water on high heat. Bring to a boil. Place beets in water and boil, uncovered, for about 10-12 minutes (or until beets are able to be easily pierced by fork). While beets are boiling, use the steam from the pot to steam the beet greens! Take a steamer basket and place on top of the pot. Place 1/2 bunch of greens on top and cover with pot lid. Steam for 2-3 minutes until greens have wilted. Remove (carefully!) using tongs and reserve. Repeat with remainder of beet greens until all have been steamed. Once done with the greens, remove the steamer basket. If beets are done boiling, turn off the heat and strain out the water through a colander.

Place 1/2 cup cooked beets on top of 1/4 of the greens on a plate for a salad serving. Top with 1/4 cup feta and 2 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette. Let this sit to cool while you finish the fish as follows: Once onions are done caramelizing, push to one side of the pan. Place fish filets in pan and brown on each side for 2-3 minutes. Once the filets are mostly cooked (each side browned), add the walnuts, mustard, 2 Tbsp olive oil, honey, and spices to the onions. Mix well, then spoon over the fish filets and stir together. (If the fish breaks up, no biggie - it will still taste great!) Cook for another 3-4 minutes until the fish is done (you can use a meat thermometer to check this). Spoon 1 filet with onions and walnuts onto the plates you made previously. Enjoy!

You need to be a bit of a multitasker to pull this off but it's worth the extra attention! Hope you like it.

Transformers and Strawberry Ice Cream

Not that these two things go together, but this is what you get from my brain today.

Joe and I saw the new Transformers movie last night. I would give it a B+ overall (as in, I saw it, it was cool, but I wouldn't watch it again). It was action-packed and full of cool special effects (including super slowdown fight scenes so you can see the awesomeness of Optimus slashing the bad guys with his sword). There was a group of young kids sitting in front of us (which I didn't understand since the movie was rated PG-13... but I digress), which was fun because they kept exclaiming over the cool parts. The joy of children for things they've never seen before is always a lot of fun to experience.

*SPOILER ALERT* However, the movie also made me sad (not because of the lack of acting) but because of the scene where all these children are running around with no parents in sight due to the Decepticons killing people right and left. That made me a) want to get home to Joseph as soon as possible and b) reflect on the sanctity of human life - killing people is so wrong. Even if it's fictional alien mechanical creature/robot things.

On to strawberry ice cream! I've been trying to use up things in my pantry/freezer, and the big bag of frozen strawberries I bought a while ago caught my eye. I thought of churning them up in the food processor to make a frozen treat, and came up with the following recipe:

Dairy-free Strawberry 'Ice Cream'
Ingredients:

• 3 c. frozen strawberries (or you could use fresh too with no greens)
• 1 c. So Delicious vanilla coconut milk
• 2 tsp. organic agave nectar (add more as desired)

Process:
Mix all ingredients in food processor (or super strong blender) until well-blended. Freeze until hardened, or (if using frozen berries) you can serve immediately. When frozen, the final texture resembles an Italian ice; fresh out of the processor is much softer like a soft serve ice cream. Serves 4 - 8 (if you follow the 1/2 cup serving size).

This is a refreshing treat for a hot summer day, and there is virtually no coconut flavor since the berries take over. It's also super easy to make!

Making up some deliciousness

For a Memorial Day party this past Monday I brought a dairy-free modified Hershey's cake (used Earth Balance and almond milk in place of butter and cow's milk) and this tasty little side dish:

Ashley's Zesty Fresh Corn Salad
Also known as The using up stuff in my pantry salad!

Ingredients:
5 ears roasted corn, sliced off the cob (or use two cans of corn)
6 medium tomatoes, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 can medium black olives
1 can artichoke hearts, quartered
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, quartered
6 cloves roasted garlic, diced
2 tsp dried rosemary (or 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary), chopped
2 Tbsp brown mustard
1/4 c. olive oil
1/8 c. lemon juice

Process:
Mix garlic, rosemary, mustard, olive oil, and lemon juice in dish (I used a Pyrex measuring cup). Stir until well blended. (Add more olive oil if the taste is too sharp for your liking, or add more lemon juice if it's not sharp enough.) Place corn, tomatoes, olives, and artichokes in large bowl. Pour dressing over top and mix well with large spoon. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 3 days. Serves about 10 (or more). 

The flavoring gives it a nice, refreshing feel. Also makes a good topping for burgers (per my husband).

Dairy-free brownies... yum yum!

Since choosing to go dairy-free, I've been so thankful for the Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book I received as a wedding present. All of the recipes are "made from scratch", so they are very easy to modify for making them dairy-free! The following is my modified version of the Cake Brownies recipe in this cookbook.

Ashley's Choco-licious Dairy-Free Brownies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Earth Balance soy-free, melted in a bowl
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or try almond extract!)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I like King Arthur)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup chocolate rice milk (use this for best results... you can use almond milk but the brownies will be drier. I haven't tried other non-dairy milks yet.)
• 1 cup chopped almonds, walnuts, or pecans (optional)
• 1 cup semi-sweet dairy-free/casein-free chocolate chips (or chopped dairy-free/casein-free dark chocolate) (optional)

Process

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Grease a 15x10x1-inch baking pan (or 13 x 9) and set aside. (I use Pam for greasing, it's easier!)
3. Melt the Earth Balance in a microwave-safe bowl on high for 30 seconds (or however long your microwave takes. Mine is very powerful!)
4. Add sugar and cocoa powder, cream until well combined with wooden spoon.
5. Add eggs and vanilla and beat lightly until just combined, scraping down sides of the bowl periodically.
6. In a separate small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
7. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, mix until well blended after each addition.
8. Stir in nuts and/or chocolate chips, if using.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
10. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
11. Cool on a rack, cut, and serve.

Note: I've found if you let them sit overnight they 'coagulate' and become even more delicious! However, ours don't normally make it that long...

I used to make these every weekend, but I'm trying to slow down on the sweets consumption so I haven't made them in a few weeks. If you try them, let me know how they turn out!

Delicious and dairy-free?

Q: Is it possible to make delicious foods that are also dairy-free?
A: You betcha!

Since we found out that Joseph had a cow's milk allergy/intolerance, I've changed to eating dairy-free. That has been hard for me as 1) I like cheese! And lots of other dairy products! and 2) I was used to using cheese, milk, sour cream, etc. in my cooking. Although I haven't been able to find alternatives that work for all of my favorites, I have been able to use alternative products in many of my favorite 'treat' recipes. This has helped me to feel less deprived as I'm avoiding dairy.

Every once in a while I plan to post the results and/or recipes for my dairy-free experimenting. Today we will discuss the hot cross buns I made for Easter!

Original recipe: Martha Stewart's best hot cross buns

My dairy-free version (substitutions are in bold italics):

Ashley's Delicious Dairy-free Hot Cross Buns

• 12 Tbsp Earth Balance soy-free, melted and cooled
• 1 cup So Delicious vanilla coconut milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 1/2 tsps instant yeast
• 1 Tbsp coarse salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 orange
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 5 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/3 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 4 Tbsp Earth Balance soy-free, melted
• 2 Tbsp wildflower honey

1. Butter a large bowl (with Earth Balance); set aside. Take second large bowl and mix together the sugar, salt, butter, zests, eggs, and yeast until smooth with wooden spoon. Place 1 cup coconut milk in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Heat until milk reaches 110 degrees on a candy thermometer. Pour milk into other ingredients. Add flour, and mix until dough forms. Continue kneading, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, until smooth.
   
2. Add raisins; knead briefly by hand. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead briefly to evenly distribute raisins in dough. Shape into a ball. Place dough in ('buttered') prepared bowl. Turn to coat with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour or so.
   
3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Turn dough out onto floured work surface. Knead briefly and roll dough into a log. Cut log in half and cut each half into 6-8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a tightly formed ball. Place on prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Cover baking sheets with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until buns are touching and doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
   
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees with racks positioned in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Snip crosses into top of buns with kitchen shears. Transfer buns to oven and bake until golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes, rotating baking sheets after 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.
   
5. Meanwhile, melt butter in microwaveable bowl. Add honey and mix. Brush mixture over buns with pastry brush.
   

 Enjoy! My family had these and couldn't tell that there was no cow's milk or butter in them.