cherries & cream coffee cake

i was racking my brain and then the interwebs for some new toppings for a buttermilk coffeecake base. in the past, i have always topped coffee cake very simply with some streusel crumb, but i came across a blueberry coffee cake with a cream cheese center. still wanting a sort of simple cake and one that wasn’t too wet or too sweet, i started to fiddle with combining the two recipes. cherries are my all-time favorite fruit and i figured cherry preserves would be less wet and sweet than a pie style cornstarch thickened filling. i still wanted my streusel topping, but with some extra punch, so i added almond flour to the mix. My dear friend Brenda calls this the SuperNova Cake.

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Masala Roasted Cauliflower

i overbought veggies this week and was worried that i wouldn’t get to everything in time, so i figured i could just start roasting stuff and then use it over the weekend. roasting stuff started to get boring and by the time i dug a head of cauliflower out of the back of the crisper, i really wanted to do something different. IMG_7930 Continue reading →

waffled french toast

breakfast boredom begat my new favorite breakfast thing. i call them waffled french toast. my gut told me, if i mixed up a french toast batter and dipped some gf bread into it, happiness would follow. IMG_3907 my gut was right! this is super simple and can be accomplished by making a french toast batter from scratch Continue reading →

mother’s day strawberry shortcake

i’m so excited that my recipe for mom’s favorite strawberry shortcake was a finalist in Cup4Cup‘s Mother’s Day 2013 Story & Recipe Contest.

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mother’s day buttermilk waffles

A busy day here, my sweet kitty Callie is home from the animal hospital and recovering slowly but surely IMG_2510 and it’s Mother’s Day. My mom came over for brunch and to visit with Callie. Continue reading →

old fashioned kentucky bourbon pound cake

still riffing on pound cake here. this one is a buttermilk pound cake flavored with Maker’s Mark bourbon whisky and orange, inspired by a friend’s reminiscence of an orange bourbon pound cake. i was supposed to be working on a re-creation of that cake, but by the time i got to the glaze, i realized i could turn it into something akin to an old fashioned cocktail. woo hoo!

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red velvet redux

some kind folks have asked for the red velvet recipe and the truth is, at the time of the earlier post, i wasn’t totally happy with the end result, so i didn’t put up the recipe. my earlier attempt didn’t contain buttermilk and while it was good, i thought it could be much better. today, i set about to “make it work” (tim gunn is my idol).  IMG_0567 a few things to know about red velvet, it usually has buttermilk, Continue reading →

cornbread

for a couple of years, i have been trying to remember my nana’s plain cornbread recipe, but have not quite managed to recall it completely. for the time being, i have settled on my own adaptation of ms edna lewis’ cornbread, as interpreted by chef scott peacock.

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ad hoc buttermilk biscuits

i’ve been doing a lot of biscuit “research,” lately. these biscuits are adapted from “ad hoc at home” by Thomas Keller and i substituted Cup4Cup gluten free flour for the cake flour and regular all-purpose flour called for in the recipe. i did find the original recipe just a tad on the salty side, for my taste, and cut the added salt by one-third.  i was also feeling lazy, so i just “mixed” the dough in the food processor, rather than doing it by hand.