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Butter Almond Cake

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This cake was created by Marcella Sarne, who entered it in a baking context sponsored by C&H Sugar and won, to the tune of a grand-prize custom kitchen. Sprinkling salt over the batter together with the toasted almonds and sugar is genius. Covered and stored at room temperature, this cake keeps well for several days.  (October 2019) Margie made the cake with almond flour and gave this advice:  Next time I would increase flour by 1/4 or 1/2 c and drop the oven to 325°. She made it in a pie pan.

Ingredients:

  • 3 heaped tablespoons sliced almonds
  • 3/4 c (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 1 1/2 c granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for finishing
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp pure almond extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • A pinch of sea salt flakes, like Maldon

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.
  2. Butter and flour a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. (or 9″ round cake pan)
  3. (Spread the sliced almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in a preheated oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until fragrant. They should color only lightly.)
  4. Whisk together the melted butter and 1½ cups sugar in a large bowl.
  5. Add one egg, whisk until fully incorporated.
  6. Then add the other and whisk some more.
  7. Add the almond extract, vanilla and salt, and whisk well, until smooth.
  8. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour until just combined.
  9. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and scatter the toasted almonds, sea salt flakes, if using, and 1 tablespoon sugar over top.
  10. Bake for 35 minutes, until the cake peeking through the almonds takes on a faintly rosy color (this cake blushes more than it browns), and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
  11. Cool on a rack until nearly room temperature, then ease the cake out of the pan and cool the rest of the way.

Serves: 8 to 10

Source: Marcella Sarné, winning a C+H Sugar baking competition.

This cake comes out a brownie consistency, so can be served in wedges or in bite-sized chunks. Serve plain or with fresh fruit.

 

Margie’s One Bowl Brownies

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Sure, you can use the recipe on the ingredient box, but where’s the fun in that?

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 squares Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
  • ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs (4 eggs at altitude)
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup sliced almonds
  • ½ cup maraschino cherries, chopped

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
  2. Microwave the chocolate and butter in a large bowl on High for 2 minutes, or until butter is melted. Take out and stir until chocolate is melted.
  3. Stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract.
  4. Add flour, almonds, cherries; mix well.
  5. Spread mix into the pan.
  6. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake!)
  7. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Makes 24 brownies … depending on how you cut them up

Source: Baker’s Chocolate box, plus additions (cherries, almond extract, almonds instead of pecans)

 

Margie’s Sprinkle Cake

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The daughter does good things!!

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs frozen cherries
  • almond extract
  • 1 box chocolate cake mix
  • 1/2 lb butter
  • chocolate chips
  • slice, diced, or chopped almonds

Instructions:

  1. Sprinkle the cherries on the bottom of a greased  9 x 13 pan.
  2. Sprinkle with vanilla extract.
  3. Sprinkle with 1/2 box of cake mix.
  4. Chunk a stick of butter and sprinkle over the top.
  5. Sprinkle the rest of the cake mix.
  6. Chunk and sprinkle the other stick of butter.
  7. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes
  8. Sprinkle a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips on top.
  9. Sprinkle a hand full of almonds on top.

Serves:  12

Source:  Margie’s kitchen – with no time left to make dessert!

Margie’s Southwest Tomato Soup

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Many soups can be vegetarian or not if you just adjust one or two ingredients.  In this soup you may use chicken broth or V8 in place of vegetable broth.  Add chicken, beef, or shrimp.

Ingredients:

  • 1 small onion — diced
  • 1 Tab olive oil
  • 2  28 oz. cans tomatoes, crushed or 4 – 5 lbs fresh tomatoes
  • 1 qt  vegetable broth
  • 1 Tab cumin
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 2 tsp garlic salt
  • ¼  tsp pepper
  • 1 pinch sugar
  • 15 oz. can corn
  • 15 oz. can 1 black beans
  • 7 oz.  fresh salsa

Directions:

  1. Saute onion in oil until soft.
  2. Add tomatoes, broth, and spice.
  3. Simmer soup 15-30 minutes.
  4. Adjust spice as needed.
  5. Before serving, add beans and corn and return to simmer.
  6. Add fresh salsa and heat through.
  7. Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Serves:  8

Source:  Margie Kleerup

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Orange Ginger Butter

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Margie made these last Thanksgiving.  I’m not a yam/sweet potato kind of guy, but those who like this sort of thing will definitely find it the sort of thing they like!

Ingredients:

3 large red skin “sweet potatoes” (yams)
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
Kosher Salt

½ c Butter
¼ c Orange Juice
¼ c Marmalade
2 tbsp. Candied Ginger – diced

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Slice yams into 1 inch cubes. Place in shallow roasting pan and toss with Olive Oil. Sprinkle with salt. Roast until brown and tender (~20-30 minutes).
  3. While the yams roast, cook butter, orange juice, marmalade, and ginger in microwave for 30-60 seconds, or until melted and bubbly.
  4. Place cooked yams in medium casserole dish and drizzle with butter mixture. Serve immediately or cover dish and keep warm in oven.

Chicken Biryani

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Dave found this recipe long ago, and Margie keeps asking him to make it again. It’s a bit labor-intensive, but the results are well worth it. Biryani is a Pakistani/Indian cooking style, and you can find a lot of variations on this recipe out on the web. Dave writes:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Oil (I use olive oil) [2]
1 mdm Onion, sliced
3 lg Potatoes, chunked [1]

1/4 tsp Cumin Seed
3 Black Peppercorns
3 sticks cinnamon

1 clove Garlic, minced
3/4 tsp Coriander, ground
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper, ground
1/8 tsp Turmeric, ground
1/4 tsp Ginger, ground
1 dash Salt, to taste

1 whole Tomato, chopped
1 tbsp Tomato Paste

6 pieces Chicken [3]
1 cup Water

Instructions:

  1. Heat oil [2] in a Dutch oven or large pot or large skillet [5] over medium heat.
  2. Saute onion clices in oil until golden; remove and set aside.
  3. Brown potatoes in oil (get those surfaces nice and crispy); remove and set aside.
  4. Add cumin seeds, peppercorns, cinnamon to pot; fry for about 30 seconds.
  5. Add garlic, coriander, cayenne, turmeric, ginger, and salt to taste; fry another 30 seconds.
  6. Add tomato, tomato paste; cook 1 minute.
  7. Add potatoes, chicken, water. Cover and simmer until tender. [4]
  8. Add onion slices and simmer a few seconds.

Notes:

[1] The original recipe calls for “quartered,” which makes for very large potatoes. I usually use smaller pieces, but if you make them too small, the simmering process will basically make them part of the sauce, esp. if you don’t brown the sides enough, rather than leaving them as chunks of potato. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there’s probably a happy medium.

[2] The original recipe calls for 2 tbsp of oil, but, honestly, you will probably need an extra glug or two of oil after the onions and potatoes.

[3] It’s not always easy, in this packaged age, to find “chicken parts.” If you interpret this as a drumstick or a wing, that’s going to be different from a drumstick-thigh combo, or a boneless breast. Choose the size/qty of chicken you want as a serving and use that. The basic recipe will work okay with any of the above. You might also, with boneless breasts, chunk the chicken up into bite-sized chunks; that would fit with the more traditional Indian/Pakistani serving.

[4] If you end up with large chicken pieces (thinking here of boneless/skinless breasts with leg meat), it will look like you have much more chicken than you can handle. The fact is, though, by the time you’re done simmering enough to cook the chicken (180 degrees!), even large pieces like that will have simmered down into the sauce (which will have increased due to the water and fat from the chicken).

[5] I usually make double-recipes, so my 16 quart pot works great for this, eventually. It’s a bit more difficult in the onion and potato browning stages, though.

Serving suggestions:

Serve over hot rice (Basmati rice would be most traditional). Flat noodles also work (though since “biryani” means “rice,” that probably breaks a rule somewhere).

Source:

Derived from LA Times, 6 June 1985 (attrib. to Barbara Skaggs, Woodland Hillls, Calif.).

Death Chili

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Dave likes making chili, and he likes it spicy — and he likes bacon. So when he saw this recipe on line, it was a natural for him to try it out. The below is a two-pass modification of the original: stuff he did before making it at and stuff he wishes he’d done differently after that first time. 

This is a large recipe (doubled from the original). How many it cooks for depends on how much people eat, but this filled up a very large pot on the stove. 

The name, by the way, doesn’t have to do with the heat, but with the bacon. 

Ingredients 

2 lbs. bacon

1 lb. chuck roast, cubed
4 lbs. chuck, ground
12 tbsp garlic ( = 1.5 x 4oz. tube crushed garlic)

4 large onions

8 tbsp ground cumin
8 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp cinnamon
3 tbsp seasoning salt
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 pint beef stock
2 x 32oz cans of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp maza / corn flour for thickener

2 x 8oz cans chopped green chilis
3 fresh Serrano peppers
4 tbsp chili pepper

Instructions 

  1. Fry bacon to a crisp. Pour off fat in the skillet.
  2. Brown meat and garlic, Set aside.
  3. Brown onions.
  4. Combine everything and simmer for a few hours.
  5. Let sit in fridge overnight

Note that it really is much better when it sits in the fridge overnight.

Serves: Lots. Like, dozens. Lots of left-overs. 

Source: Original is here, by “timmah.” This recipe (doubled) has been modified to use a bit less cinnamon, half-again the garlic, no tobacco, and half the Serrano peppers. What is not modified is the bacon. “The secret is the bacon,” Timmah says. “Bacon makes everything better.”

 

Margie’s Corn Chowder

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This one’s pretty much Margie’s recipe. It’s actually scaled down from a large group recipe (great for luncheons), and makes the house smell great. Entered by Dave the Husband as a public service. 

Ingredients: 

4 oz. Bacon (diced)
½ Onion (diced)
¾ tsp. Thyme
¾ tsp. Sea Salt

2 tbsp. Flour
1 pint Chicken Broth

1-1/8 lbs. Canned Corn
½ large Idaho Potato

½ c.Heavy Cream

Instructions:

  1. Brown bacon until almost crisp. 
  2. Add onions and sauté until tender.
  3. Stir in seasoning until fragrant.
  4. Add flour and cook slightly.
  5. Slowly add half of broth while stirring. Cook until thickened.
  6. Add remaining broth and simmer 20 minutes.
  7. Microwave potato. When cool enough again to handle, peel and dice.
  8. Add corn and potatoes to soup and heat through.
  9. Remove from heat and stir in cream.

Serves 16.

This entry was posted in Soups and tagged .

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

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Very moist pumpkin spice cake.  First tried for Thankgiving Dinner, 2007

Ingredients:
3 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
¼  tsp ground clove
1¾  tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt
½  tsp ground nutmeg
—
1½  c sugar
1 c (packed) golden brown sugar
1 c butter (melted)
—
5 large eggs (at altitutde; 4 at sea level)
29 oz. pumpkin
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp grated orange peel
¾ c raisins (optional)
¾ c sweetened flaked coconut, plus extra for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Butter a 9×13 pan.
  3. Sift flour and spices into a medium bowl.
  4. Beat both sugars and oil into a large bowl until combined into a grainy mixture.
  5. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition.
  6. Add pumpkin, vanilla, orange peel, and beat until well blended.
  7. Add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated.
  8. (Optional) Stir in raisins and coconut.
  9. Pour into pan; bake for about 1 hour (when tester inserted into center comes out clean).
  10. After cool, top with a frosting.

This cake comes out incredibly moist — it almost seams undercooked, but it’s not.  It can be made a day ahead of time, covered and refrigerated; let stand at room temp an hour before serving.

Variations:  This recipe is originally designed as a layer cake — using 15 oz. of pumpkin, and putting into two 9″ cake pans.  Originally set to use 2 tsp ginger instead of cloves, and canola oil instead of butter.

Source:  Bon Appetit, 10/2007

 

 

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

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This frosting was originally from a Bon Appetit Spiced Pumpkin Layer Cake, but has been tweaked a bit by Margie and Ginger, and can be used on a variety of cakes.

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
10 tbsp (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.
—
¼ c spiced rum
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
—
4½  c powdered sugar

Instructions:

  1. Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth.
  2. Beat in rum and vanilla.
  3. Add powdered sugar (best to do in three additions, beating just until frosting is smooth after each addition; if you overbeat the frosting will become too soft to spread).

Source:  Bon Appetit, 10/2007