Blueberry-Lime Sheet Cake

I was a bit hesitant to take this to a party this weekend, as I modified the original recipe a huge amount (among other things, I halved it and made it not vegan). And it’s not like you can take a bite of a sheet cake to find out if it’s good or not! Luckily, it was and I didn’t have to take any leftovers home. Even my husband, who whined “I don’t like liiiiiime,” ate a piece of this one.

The original recipe also called for raspberries, we got a box of Texas organic blueberries in our Greenling delivery this week so I used those instead. I’ve used the blueberry-lime flavor combination once before when I made blueberry-lime frozen yogurt and it turned out wonderfully, so I was reasonably sure that even if the consistency didn’t turn out right, the flavors would be spot on.

Inspired by BitterSweet

Ingredients:
For the cake:

• 3/8 c. (6 Tbsp.) skim milk
• Zest from 1 lime
• Juice from 1/2 lime
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• 2 Tbsp. cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1-3/8 c. (1 c. + 6 Tbsp.) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 c. fresh blueberries

For the glaze:

• 1 c. confectioner’s sugar
• Juice from 1 lime
• Water, if needed

Directions:

• Combine the milk, lime zest and lime juice in a small bowl and let sit for ~5 minutes, allowing it to curdle.
• Add the oil, cream cheese and vanilla to the milk mixture, stirring until smooth.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Wash the blueberries and with the berries still damp, add them to the flour mixture and toss to coat (this will ensure that they don’t fall to the bottom of the cake).
• Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring continuously to combine.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for ~25 minutes.
• While the cake is baking, whisk the confectioner’s sugar and the lime juice together in a small bowl to make the glaze. If more liquid is needed, add a bit more lime juice or water (if you don’t want it to be as “lime-y”).
• After the cake is cooled, drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake before serving.

Thanks to Amy of Skinny Food by Amy for the tip about coating blueberries in flour to prevent them from sinking!

Verdict:
This cake is quite moist and has a lovely chewy texture, which really surprised me. I hesitated at first to sub the silken tofu with cream cheese, but it was a fine choice in the end. The recipe uses just enough lime with just enough berries so that the sour flavor of the lime doesn’t overwhelm the cake, even with the glaze. It’s pretty sweet though; next time, I will cut the amount of sugar back to 1/2 c. The sweetness is probably a function of the fact that my blueberries were fairly ripe; if yours are less so, you might want to keep the whole 3/4 c.

Our friends weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the cake:

“Where did my piece go?”

“Buster!! You ate my cake!”

Cran-Lemonade Punch Cocktail

At the risk of seeming like Sandra Lee, a summer barbecue isn’t the same without a icy punch (with a kick!). At least mine didn’t match my potato salad. Or my oversized tunic. I don’t even own an oversized tunic.

I made this in a pretty large pitcher (it’s probably around a 1/2 gallon), so you might need to adjust amounts accordingly.

I love adding herbs to my drinks, by the way. We got lemon basil in our Greenling box this week, and it was a good infusion of fresh flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. cranberry-raspberry frozen juice concentrate
• 2 capfuls lemonade mix
• 1.5 c. citrus-flavored vodka
• 1 lemon, sliced
• Lemon basil leaves, bruised (You can do this by rolling the leaves between your fingers.)

Directions:

• Add all ingredients to a pitcher. Fill with ice and water and enjoy.

So sorry for the terrible picture. I really just wanted to get back to the barbecue!

Verdict: Yummy! I don’t care for liquor, but this was a perfectly refreshing summer drink. The herbs and lemon help bring some freshness to the drink, so it doesn’t taste too much like drink mixes. If you have more time (and lemons), make the lemonade from scratch. I don’t use drink mixes often because they’re so sweet, and this didn’t let me down.

Barbecue Side Dishes

We had some friends over for a barbecue this weekend, and these 2 salads rounded out the meal. Both can be outside for extended periods of time (the potato salad isn’t mayo-based), so it’s perfect for your 4th of July barbecue this weekend.

Potato Salad with Dijon, Red Onion, and Herbs
I love potato salad, but the ones that are mayo-based are always so heavy. This one packs so much flavor from the dijon and white wine vinegar, so the heavy dressing isn’t necessary.

I used the lemon basil from our Greenling box this weekend, but I’ve also used flat-leaf parsley when I’ve made this before.

Adapted from NY Times

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. dijon mustard
• 2 finely minced garlic cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 2/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 large red potatoes
• 1/3. c. finely minced red onion
• 4 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley or basil
• 4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

• Remove the potatoes’ skin, if you like (I don’t). Cut the potatoes into small chunks. Boil for 10-12 minutes. Set aside.
• Whisk together the white wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Gradually add the extra-virgin olive oil. Set aside.
• Blend the flat-leaf parsley and red onion. Set aside.
• Thirty minutes before serving, pour the dressing over the potatoes and add the red onion/parsley mixture. Let the flavors marinate together, then top with goat cheese right before serving.

Verdict:
The salad is light, but very flavorful. The white wine vinegar and dijon give it a nice bite, and the goat cheese gives it a creamy mouthfeel. The parsley really brightens up the whole dish.

Macaroni Salad
This recipe is a remnant of my childhood when one of my favorite meals was pasta with italian dressing. Same concept, plus veggies.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. cooked short pasta
• ~1/2 c. Italian dressing
• Variety of veggies. I used a cucumber, a patty pan squash, a summer squash, and a pint of Juliette tomatoes, all of which came from our Greenling box this week. You could grill or roast them if you like, but raw is fine also.

Directions:

• Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat. Serve at room-temperature.

Verdict:
A completely different direction from the potato salad, this is a much simpler dish that really highlights the freshness of the veggies. It’s so quick to prepare and can be made a few hours in advance if you’re strapped for time.

Flag Cake

This is the first of a few posts celebrating all-American food for the upcoming holiday weekend. Enjoy!

I’ve made this once before, but I was sent to the emergency room before I got to try a piece. I was racing up the stairs from the basement, camera in hand, thinking that this was the coolest thing I had ever made and thus, definitely photo-worthy (come a long way, huh?). Looped around the banister was a strand of glass lights, one of which was broken. I grabbed the banister at just that spot and sliced my finger open. Fortunately, I managed to get my picture. Unfortunately, even though I was only at the ER for a few hours, the cake was gone by the time I got back.

I had to scan this picture in. I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I last made a flag cake!

I made this again for Memorial Day this year, and it turned out so well. It would be a perfect dessert for a 4th of July barbecue, especially since we’re in the midst of blueberry season here in Central Texas.

You could certainly choose to use boxed cake mix and frosting if you’re short on time, but homemade tastes so much better! Make sure you use a white cake (not yellow) to preserve the red, white and blue theme.

Cake recipe from Sara Moulton

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 12 Tbsp. (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 6 large egg whites (3/4 c.)
• 3/4 c. milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting: (Keep in mind that buttercream should not be left outside in warm weather. I’d use another kind of frosting if you’re planning on keeping the cake outside.)

• 16 Tbsp. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• ~4 c. confectioner’s sugar

For the decoration:

• 2 lb. strawberries, washed, dried and sliced
• 1/2 pint blueberries, washed and dried

Directions:

• Set rack at the middle level in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom of a 13×9″ pan and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter for the cake and granulated sugar for about 5 minutes with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
• Stir together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
• Stir together egg whites, milk and vanilla extract and set aside.
• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then add half the milk mixture. Continue to alternate the two, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scape the bowl and beater often.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a metal spatula. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.
• Cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto the rack, remove the paper and let cool completely.
• Beat the butter for the frosting in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy (~5 minutes).
• Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar until the frosting is stiff.
• When the cake is cooled, using a long slicing knife (or one of these), slice the cake in half to make 2 layers.
• Frost the top of one of the bottom layer with the buttercream, then arrange 1 lb. of the sliced strawberries on top of the frosting.
• Put the second layer on top of the strawberries and frost the rest of the cake with the remaining buttercream.
• In the upper left corner of the cake, arrange the blueberries in a rectangle-ish square to form the stars. If you’re feeling extra ambitious, use the remaining buttercream to pipe on the stars. I usually skip that. People know it’s the flag without the stars.
• Using the other 1 lb. of strawberries, make horizontal rows across the cake to form the stripes.

Verdict:

This cake is a cross between sheet cake and strawberry shortcake, and in turn, it’s got the best of both worlds. The rich flavor of the buttercream is counterbalanced by the freshness of the berries, ensuring that the cake isn’t too heavy. The cake is moist and spongy, and a good vehicle for the berries and buttercream (sorry cake fans, I’m the kind of gal that always goes for the corner piece — the one with the most frosting). Although you can make this cake a single layer without the strawberries in the middle, it’s much better with it; the juice from the strawberries soaks into the middle of the cake and you get the strawberry taste in every bite.

Soy-Glazed Green Beans with Toasted Almonds

We got a bunch of string beans in our Greenling box last week, and I was planning to make honey-soy-ginger pork tenderloin anyway, so I thought that doing an Asian twist to go with the pork might be nice. I just carried over the some of the flavors that were in the pork to the green beans.

These green beans were so fresh that they honestly didn’t need doctoring up like this, but it was a nice change of pace from the normal steamed or sauteed green bean.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. canola oil
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb. green beans, washed and trimmed (Mine were particularly long, so I also cut them in half.)
• 1 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce (The flavor gets pretty concentrated, so low sodium is key here — otherwise, your beans will be way too salty.)
• 1/4 c. toasted sliced almonds

Directions:

• Heat the canola and sesame oils in a skillet over high heat, then add the garlic and green beans and saute for ~4 minutes.
• After the green beans are almost done (al dente), add the soy sauce. It’ll deglaze the pan. Let it simmer and reduce for ~30 seconds.
• Remove to a plate, top with the toasted almonds, and serve.

For the pork recipe, click here.

Verdict:
Yum! The soy sauce was reduced just enough to make a nice glaze over everything and make the almonds stick to the beans, while the beans were just cooked enough to still regain their crispness and freshness. The flavor of the beans was accentuated by the other ingredients, rather than hidden. This is a great side dish for any meal, Asian-inspired or not.

Scallion-Corn Pancakes

I’m a member of a group called Cooking Away your CSA, and one of the group members emailed us a recipe for scallion pancakes. To me, scallions make everything better, and I thought corn would be a good addition for another dimension of texture.

This recipe makes ~10 pancakes.

Adapted from Dolores Riccio

Ingredients:

• Pam spray (if necessary)
• 1 bunch scallions
• Kernels from 2 ears of raw sweet corn
• 1 c. buttermilk (you can make your own by adding 1 Tbsp. lemon juice to a scant cup of milk)
• 1 c. boiling water
• 3/4 c. cornmeal
• 1 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

• Heat a griddle over medium-high heat and spray with Pam if it’s not a non-stick pan.
• Thinly slice scallion bulbs and about 3 inches of the green part.
• Whisk the cornmeal with the boiling water, then add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda to the cornmeal mixture.
• Mix the buttermilk, eggs, and oil together, then whisk into the cornmeal mixture. Fold in the scallions and corn kernels.
• Drop the mixture onto the hot griddle as pancakes and cook until they are lightly browned on each side (it took me ~3 minutes per side).

Verdict:
You know how some people have a sweet tooth? Well I have a scallion-corn pancake tooth. These have the same comfort food flavor as cornbread, but in breakfast food form, which automatically makes it better. I thought that this would be the perfect vessel for an hors d’oeuvre if you made the pancakes a bit smaller and more like blinis — maybe with a red pepper or black bean relish?

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Soup in June? Oh, yes. I’m usually freezing in the summer when it’s 100 degrees outside. My office cranks the A/C way up, so I’m often craving soups come lunchtime. There’s a cute little deli near my office that makes fantastic carrot-ginger soup, so I thought I would re-create theirs at home.

The carrots I used in this soup came from our Local box and they were HUGE! Each one had to be at least 18 inches long.

From A Full Belly

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1/2 c. minced onion
• 1/4 c. minced peeled fresh ginger
• 3 c. chicken stock
• 4 c. peeled and sliced carrots (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• 1/2 c. half-and-half
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg (I used more like 1/4 tsp.)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and ginger with some salt and pepper and sweat them for ~5 minutes, or until the onions become translucent.
• Add the chicken stock and carrots and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for ~30 minutes.
• Remove the soup from the heat and puree with an immersion blender or food mill.
• Put back on the burner and add the half-and-half (so pretty when you swirl it into the soup!), orange juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Bring back to a simmer before serving. This can be made a day in advance and refrigerated.

Verdict:
That picture totally does not do it justice. This soup is beautifully light orange in color and is flecked with spices in the same way that you know vanilla bean ice cream is good because it has vanilla beans running through it. =) It’s such a warm soup, not only because of the temperature but because of the ginger and cinnamon. It’s truly comfort food, but doesn’t have the same heaviness that most comfort foods do. It also freezes well, so save some for a cold, rainy day!

Local Box Meal Plan for June 22-26

I’ve been in a cooking slump this week (I think it’s because of the move), which means that I neither got around to the green smoothie nor the grilled peaches this week. What can I say; peach pancakes won out over the smoothie!

At any rate, we’re getting peaches and blueberries in our Local Box again this week, so I have another shot. In addition, we’re also getting: pickling cucumbers from Acadian, blueberries from Berry Best, Juliette tomatoes from Acadian, summer squash from Walnut Creek, Beefsteak tomatoes from Urban Youth, lemon basil from My Father’s Farm or Acadian, onions from Acadian or Naegelin, LaSoda potatoes from Guinea Hill, peaches from Caskey, and sweet corn from Acadian or Richardson.

We’re getting 2 types of tomatoes this week, and I LOVE warm tomatoes. They’re my weakness. So you bet they’ll be finding their way to the grill!

So this week, we’re eating:

Breakfast:

• Banana-Blueberry-Oat Muffins
• A green smoothie

Sides:

• Beefsteak tomatoes stuffed with grilled corn salsa
• Potato salad (recipe to come in the Local Box)
• Pickles

Dinners:

• Grilled pizza with fresh mozzerella, lemon basil, Juliette tomatoes, and summer squash (if you’ve never grilled your pizzas, you have to try it. It’s my favorite way to make pizza!)
• My version of Good Stuff Eatery’s Obama burger with roquefort, bacon, and onion relish

Doesn’t that look SO good?! Believe me, it was.

With those grilled peaches from last week (hopefully) in there, too. They sounded awesome!

Egg White Omelette with Sorrel and Tomatoes

Our Greenling box last week came with sorrel, which I never had before. The best way to describe it is kind of a green and kind of an herb (a gerb?). It looks much like a green but has a much sweeter and more pronounced flavor than any green that I’ve had. It’s most closely like spinach, so if you’re got a recipe that calls for spinach, try sorrel instead and see what you think.

My favorite omelette is spinach and mushrooms with some cheddar, so I thought I would sub sorrel for the spinach. Omelettes (and eggs in general) are kind of a personal thing, and everyone makes them differently. So if you have your own omelette recipe, use that! But definitely try to find sorrel.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 medium shallot, sliced into rings
• 1 bunch of sorrel, washed and trimmed of stems
• Salt and pepper
• Pam spray
• 1 whole egg, plus 3 egg whites
• 1 Tbsp. milk (This is optional, but I always make my eggs with milk.)
• 1 handful of grape tomatoes (or ~1/2 c. chopped tomatoes)
• 1/2 c. grated cheese

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat, then add the shallots and saute for ~2 minutes until they are lightly browned.
• Reduce the heat to medium-low, then add the sorrel, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper and cover the pan to allow the leaves to wilt. Toss every minute or so until the bunch is completely wilted (~2 minutes). Remove the wilted sorrel to a small bowl.
• Spray a non-stick pan with Pam (I’m sure you could use the same pan, but then your omelette would taste entirely like sorrel and would be made with olive oil.) and heat over medium-high heat.
• Beat the egg and egg whites together, then add the milk, a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Add the egg mixture to the hot pan and let it sit for a few minutes until it becomes a bit opaque, then add the sorrel, tomatoes and cheese to one half of the eggs. Let sit a few minutes more, then flip the empty half over and remove the omelette to a plate.

My omelettes are never pretty. Sorry.

Verdict:
The sorrel has a strong lemon overtone, so this was a great citrus-y pick-me-up in the morning! The acidity from the tomatoes cut through the lemon nicely though, and rounded out the dish. I didn’t have any mushrooms on hand, though I think a chopped portabella might be nice in here. I kind of made this on a whim, so next time, I think I’ll try keeping the sorrel raw and seeing what happens. I’ll keep you posted!

Mango Mini Cheesecakes

We’ve been getting mangoes in our Greenling box for a while now, and I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to pair it with ginger (I love pairing fruit with ginger, as evidenced by my cranberry-ginger sorbet). Plus, given that I have very recently found the inserts to my mini-cheesecake pan, I’ve had a hankering to make mini cheesecakes. Perfect — I’d use mango in the cake batter and ginger in the crust. It was settled.

I found a number of recipes for mini cheesecakes online and most of them didn’t call for a water bath. I had debated on and off about using one, but eventually decided not to. Using a water bath allows you to better regulate the temperature of the cake, thereby preventing cracks, but as I was garnishing the top with chocolate shavings anyway, I didn’t really care. Plus, I always manage to splash the top of my cake batter with the water.

I want to say that this recipe yields 24 mini cheesecakes, but I make pretty thick crusts, so I think for me it would only yield ~18 cheesecakes. I only made 1 batch (12 cheesecakes) and I had a ton left over.

You can adapt this recipe to fit a large springform pan, but if I’ve motivated you to bake minis and you need a mini-cheesecake pan, I purchased mine from Williams Sonoma about 2 years ago. I’m not sure if they still have it, but if they don’t and you’re in the market for one, make sure you get one with a non-stick surface (making for easy clean-up) and with removable inserts in the bottoms of the cups (making it easy to remove the cheesecakes from the pan).

Adapted from Cake on the Brain

Ingredients:
For the crust:

• Pam spray
• 8 graham crackers, crushed (yields ~1 c.)
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. butter, melted (The original recipe called for 2 Tbsp. butter, but the crust just didn’t have the right consistency. I’ll probably add another Tbsp. for a total of 4 next time.)
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• Pinch of salt

For the batter:

• 16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• Puree of 1 large mango, yielding ~3/4 c. (for best results, puree with a food mill)
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 1/2 c. sugar
• Pinch of salt

For the garnish:

• I used bittersweet chocolate shavings, but a bit of chopped mango or candied ginger would be nice also.

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the inserts in the mini-cheesecake pan and spray each cup with Pam spray. Set the pan aside.
• Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl.
• Add ~1 tsp. of the mixture (I used ~1.5 tsp. because I like crust) into each cup of the pan. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the cup with the back of a teaspoon or your fingers.
• Bake the crusts for ~10 minutes (took closer to 12 minutes for me), or until they have browned and baked together.
• Set aside on a rack to cool.
• Reduce the heat to 300 degrees.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on low speed for ~2 minutes until it’s smooth.
• Increase the speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time and mango. Blend until the mango and eggs are fully incorporated.
• Add the heavy cream and mix until fully incorporated.
• Add the sugar and salt and mix until fully incorporated. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• Pour the batter into the cups on top of the crusts. Bake for ~20 minutes (mine actually took 23 minutes) until the batter has set (it may still be a bit jiggly). Set aside on a rack to cool, then keep in the fridge for at least 2 hours before attempting to remove the mini cheesecakes form the pan.
• When they’re fully cooled, remove the cheesecakes from the pan by pushing them straight up with your fingers. Remove the insert from the bottom of the crust and garnish the top of the cheesecake before serving.

Verdict: These were actually pretty light and fluffy instead of a dense mass of cheesecake, which I was really excited about. The mango worked beautifully in the recipe and turned the batter a beautiful shade of light yellow, while the ginger gave the crust a subtle nuance of heat; together, the mango and ginger gave the cake a bit of an Indian vibe. Some of mine sunk in the center =( probably because I got distracted and let the mixer mix the batter for a bit too long, which aerated it instead of mixed it. Still tasted great though!