Author Archives: Lauren

About Lauren

Foodie, blogger, instructional technologist and the Evernote Ambassador for Home Cooking.

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Sunshine Cake: Pineapple Ginger Upside Down Cake

Pssst.  You.  Come here.  It’s ok, I just want to talk for a second.  Look, we’re friends, right?  Good.  Cause I need to tell you something.  And I feel that since we’re friends, I can be honest and direct with you.

You look like you could use a piece of cake.

And not just any cake either, but a piece of cake that practically radiates sunlight, or rainbows.  Like the unicorn of the confectionary world.

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Now I don’t know what’s going on.  Maybe you’ve had a bad week.  Maybe you’ve had a fabulous week.  Maybe you just look a little hungry, I dunno.  But you need this cake.

So here’s what we’re going to do.  I’m going to lay out the recipe below.  You are going to read it, make a grocery list, go to the store, buy the items you need, come back to your house and bake this cake.  When it’s done and cooled, you are going to cut yourself a slice and then you are going to eat it.

I know.  Crazy right?

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Pineapple Ginger Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

    For the cake:
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • For the topping
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 8-oz can pineapple rings, drained
  • 1 8-oz can crushed pineapple
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Prepare the cake
  3. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in the butter, milk, vanilla, eggs, ginger and cinnamon. Mix until it just comes together.
  4. Prepare the topping
  5. Spray a 9" high-sided cast iron skillet with baking spray.
  6. Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon until fully incorporated and gooey. Pour the butter mixture into the skillet. Place individual pineapple rings in the butter mixture around the pan. Fill in the spaces with spoonfuls of the crushed pineapple.
  7. Pour the cake batter into the skillet.
  8. Bake in the oven for about 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely.
  9. Take a knife and edge around the cake to loosen it a bit. Place a plate over the top of the skillet and flip it upside down. The cake should slide out smoothly but if you lose a pineapple ring, just nudge it back into place. :)

Notes

Cake recipe adapted from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice

This makes a very tall, dense but soft cake. You can adapt this into two 8" cakes, a couple dozen cupcakes if you prefer.

http://haveforkwilleat.com/2013/06/sunshine-cake-pineapple-ginger-upside-down-cake/

Grand Marnier, bitters, grenadine, champagne

Champagne Wednesday: Horn of Plenty

Grand Marnier, bitters, grenadine, champagneThis week I bought my first bottle of grenadine.  Do you remember where you were when you bought your first bottle of grenadine?  Probably not.  It’s a weird thing to remember.  However, I remember it quite clearly because it was less than a week ago.  I was in Hiller’s market, I stopped to get a little four pack of tiny champagne bottles, as is my usual to-do before a Champagne Wednesday, and the grenadine was right where I thought it would be, near the bitters and other cocktail accoutrements, in a tall dark bottle.

‘Now that is a bottle of tasty looking syrup,’ I said to myself.  I may or may not have made a mental note to try it on pancakes sometime.  It’s not important.

What is important is this: this week’s Champagne Wednesday cocktail is delicious.  Tart, beautiful, tasty and you can get 3 servings out of a 187ml bottle of sparkling wine.  I know this because I did.  Aaaaand I drank all three.  I was on my own!  Josh was away at a gaming convention this week.  And besides, they were only champagne flutes.  And I drank them while making dinner, so it hardly even counts at all.

Horn of Plenty

Yield: 1 cocktail

Ingredients

  • 1/3 oz Grand Marnier
  • 1/3 oz Campari bitters
  • 1/4 oz Grenadine syrup
  • 3 oz sparkling wine
  • Ice cubes and cherries for garnish, if desired

Instructions

  1. In a champagne glass, place a few fresh cherries and a couple small ice cubes. Pour in the Grand Marnier, bitters and Grenadine. Top it off with the sparkling wine and enjoy.
http://haveforkwilleat.com/2013/06/champagne-wednesday-horn-of-plenty/

Frizzante Cucumber Caipirinha

Champagne Wednesday: Cucumber Caipirinha

Caipirinha is the national cocktail of Brazil, and I can see why.  It’s freaking delicious and refreshing.  Traditionally it’s made with cachaça (a sugar cane-derived liquor), sugar and lime.  For this week’s Champagne Wednesday, we used a derivative recipe from Cookie and Kate that uses white rum and adds slices of cucumber, as well as club soda.  Being that this is Champagne Wednesday, we further substituted sparkling wine for the club soda.  So what we really have here is a derivative of a derivative.  Which equals…I’m not really sure.  I was told there would be no math.

[fancy_link color=”black” link=”http://cookieandkate.com/2011/cucumber-cocktails/”]Cucumber Caipirinha from Cookie and Kate[/fancy_link]

Frizzante Cucumber Caipirinha

Parmigiano Orange Zucchini Bites with Dipping Sauce

My Ode to the King of Cheese: Parmigiano-Orange Zucchini Fritters

Parmigiano Orange Zucchini Bites with Dipping SauceI’m three months into my thirtieth year, and it’s become official: I am not aging backwards.  I had briefly entertained the notion that, by some arcane feat of magic or dubious loophole in the natural law, I might merely crest the top of this thirty year timeline before slowly and gracefully falling backwards where I would begin to age in reverse, somehow growing younger and fresher as the days wound on.

Now that I’ve written that out, it does sound a little stupid.  But I like to think that stranger things have happened.  Case in point: the platypus.   Continue reading

Sex in a Hot Tub

Champagne Wednesday: Sex in a Hot Tub

Sex in a Hot Tub

There are two words to describe this cocktail: freaking. delicious.

Not only is today Champagne Wednesday, but it’s also Paul’s birthday (happy birthday Paul!) so we got to include today’s cocktail in our celebrations.  I’m glad because it was really good.

It’s got everything you could possibly want in a glass: chambord, cointreau, vodka, champagne and a splash of juice for um…well, garnish, really.  :) Continue reading

Learnist Love: Making Buttermilk Biscuits

You can’t buy happiness but you can make biscuits and that’s possibly even better.  Check out this Learnist board on making buttermilk biscuits from scratch that will rival anything you can make out of a can.

Zucchini Calabrese Hash with Poached Eggs

Zucchini Calabrese Hash

Zucchini Calabrese Hash with Poached EggsI make some of my best dishes off-the-cuff when I don’t feel good.  When I’m sick, I need rest, green tea, and hot delicious food, in that order.  Plus throwing together a very quick, simple but tasty meal for myself lifts my mood and helps me feel better.

This little veggie hash is one of those things.  I didn’t think much of it when I threw it together the first time, but then it was gorgeous.  So gorgeous I had to make it again a few days later.  It not only takes very little time and looks gorgeous, but it’s easily customizable and full of veggies and it features one of my favorite sausages of all time: calabrese.   Continue reading

Strawberry Marshmallows

Valentine’s Day: Make All the Marshmallows!

Strawberry Marshmallows

Strawberry Marshmallows

I’ve been on a marshmallow-making kick lately.  I’ve made vanilla bean, chocolate-Grand Marnier, amaretto dipped in almonds and chocolate, and chocolate covered strawberries.  Next I plan on lemon, stuffed marshmallows and vegan marshmallows.  Why, you ask?  Because happiness and marshmallows are pretty close to being the same thing.  Fluffy, pillowy, flavorful, fun to melt on a stick and smoosh in between pieces of chocolate and graham cracker.  There are a lot of similarities between the two.

Also, it’s surprisingly easy.

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Coconut-Flour Parmesan Drop Biscuits

IMG_0026We had two really warm days this week.  By “really warm,” I mean, 50 degrees in Michigan in January.  They were promptly and predictably bookended by several days of snow and freezing temperatures.  It’s the kind of weather that makes me think about….well, running away to Tahiti.  But also biscuits.

I love biscuits.  Pillowy, fluffy, savory biscuits, dripping with butter and all the promise of delicious flavor conveniently transported to my mouth in one hand-sized package.  My favorite, of course, is the buttermilk biscuit that I can now make in my sleep, practically.  But I’ve been working on other species, if you will, of biscuit.   Continue reading

mojito frizzante

Champagne Wednesday: Frizzante Mojito

mojito frizzante

This week’s cocktail is definitely my favorite thus far, and not just because I’m a huge fan of mojitos.  It was also one of those Wednesdays that really, really called for a drink.  I can’t wait til summer because this is going to be a perfect “sit outside on a sunny patio” kind of drink.

This fizzy mojito is a combination of the usual ingredients (lime juice, simple syrup, mint, rum), it also includes a dash of bitters and some sparkling wine.  Because I was lazy and/or out of some ingredients, I subbed just a sprinkling of sugar for the syrup, which worked, and did a mixture of dark and coconut rum, which really worked.

You can find the original recipe here on Martha Stewart.com.

Remember, life is better bubbly.  And happy new year!

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New Year’s Resolution: A “Fireproof” Kitchen and a Canon Scanner Give-Away!

DSC_0001It’s almost that time again.  Out with the old, in with the new, creating resolutions that may or may not change your life, or at least your habits for three weeks.  All that jazz.  My cooking resolutions include a complete redo of my pantry, creating a full kitchen inventory system,  learning to make pastry cream, committing random acts of cupcakes, taking some more cooking classes and perfecting a barbecue sauce recipe.  I also intend to not burn down my kitchen. Continue reading

Champagne Wednesday: Hibiscus Punch

hibiscus cocktail

Photo by Isha Dusseau

This week’s bubbly celebration of life comes to you from my friend Isha.  “Isha” is ancient Egyptian for “amazing, awesome and ridiculously beautiful.”  That might not be technically true.  But it’s a general translation.

Anyway, Isha made a fun, beautiful cocktail that she describes as being, and I quote, “holy sh– delicious.”  Apparently the flower tastes like rhubarb berry pie.  That alone is worth a trip to your local S-Mart to pick one up (remember, shop smart.  Shop S-Mart).  I think this is definitely something you want to make to impress your friends on New Year’s Eve. Continue reading

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Satsuma Delight

Did you have a merry Christmas?  Or, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, did you have a terrific Tuesday?  I did.  I got to spend time with friends and family and relax and eat good food.  That’s what holidays are truly about.  And I’m lucky enough to be off work for the next two weeks, and it’s a good thing too because I have serious plans for my kitchen and pantry…but more on that in a later post.

I promised you the third and final installment of our Citrus Dinner series—that is, the recipes and dishes we made for our citrus challenge, featuring delicious and fresh satsuma and clementine oranges from Whole Foods.  Thus far we’ve covered a delightful Champagne Wednesday cocktail (berry punch with clementine simple syrup) and a wholesome cheese plate (goat cheese, olive oil, raw almonds, fresh satsumas), plus two main courses (clementine-roasted chicken with thyme, mushrooms and tofu en papilotte).  Now, for the grand finale….

…dessert. Continue reading

Clementines and Thyme

Clemen-Thyme Roasted Chicken & Citrus-Scented Mushrooms and Tofu En Papilotte

Whew.  Say that three times fast.

Continuing with our citrus fest, let’s move on the main show, shall we?  If you remember from last time, Whole Foods sponsored a little bit of experimentation using their fresh, in-season clementines and satsumas.  And with these beautiful little balls of sunshine, we made a delightful feast.

Citrus Dinner Menu

So we covered the berry punch with clementine syrup (which I already have another request for—as one of our New Year’s Eve cocktails) and our lovely fresh satsuma, almond and goat cheese plate (still one of my favorite appetizers ever).

But there was more.  Oh, so much more.  I’d been wanting for a while to make a thyme-roasted chicken dish and figured that adding a bit of citrus would make it even better.  And I was right. Continue reading

Champagne Wednesday: Berry Punch with Clementine Simple Syrup and a Satsuma Cheese Plate

fresh satsumas and thyme in a wooden bowlWhat I love about winter is that it’s when some of the brightest, cheeriest fruits are available: oranges of all kinds.  And beyond the basic navel, there are other delicious citrusy goodies to be had, like clementines and satsumas.  To be honest, I’ve never really worked with either of them.  Sure, I’ve had the odd clementine now and again, but I was mostly a navel girl.  And satsumas, a variation of mandarin oranges that originated in Japan, were never really on my radar until recently. Continue reading

Doxie scanner sitting in a kitchen drawer

How I: Use Evernote and Doxie to Save Family Recipes {Guest Post!}

In the spirit of sharing helpful information from one home cook to another, I’m going to start a series of guests posts from home cooks talking about ways that they make their time in the kitchen easier, more efficient and more delicious.  (Are you a home cook interested in doing a guest post?  Email me.)

When Amanda (a fellow geek, foodie and Twitterer) told me about some of the ways she collects original, hand-written family recipes using Evernote and a Doxie scanner, I knew this needed to be shared with the masses.  Full disclosure: Amanda works at Apparent, the company that makes Doxie, so she knows all the best tricks to using it.  Check out her fabulous guest post below–it might inspire you to create a family recipe notebook of your own over the holidays!

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How I: Use Evernote and Doxie to Save Family Recipes by Amanda

I have various means of keeping track of my favorite recipes. I toss recipes into my Evernote “Cooking” notebook to keep track of everything. From cook books, saved PDFs, screen shots, magazine clippings, and handwritten family recipes, I like to have my entire catalogue on me at all times. As a cook, you never know when you’ll need ingredients or a recipe on hand.

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Learnist Love: Holiday Prep

Me: What do you mean, there’s only 12 more days til Christmas?

Calendar: That’s what I’m saying, you have a week and a half.

Me: No, that’s not right.  I have way more time than that.

Calendar: Uhhhh yeah no, you don’t.

Me: Yes I do.

Calendar: Yeah no.  That’s not how time works.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably had similar conversations with your calendar.  Probably quietly.  I mean, if other people heard you talking to your calendar, they might think you were crazy.  And you’re not craz…ier than anyone else.

But just in case you’re starting to feel a bit crazy about the impending holidays, don’t worry.  I’ve been assembling some great boards on Learnist to help you make it through.

Let’s start with gifts.  The best gifts are homemade… 
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