Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Icing

This cake is one of our favorite chocolate cakes.  It contains sour cream, which typically results in a
moist cake that keeps well.  The dark chocolate ganache is a decadent icing, which further helps to keep the cake moist.  I usually store the cake under a glass cover.

Ingredients for the Cake:

• 1 cup butter
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I use Hershey's dark chocolate)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups all purpose flour (I use King Arthur)
• 1 and 3/4 cups sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for the Cake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F and thoroughly butter and flour a Bundt cake pan
2. Combine butter, cocoa, salt and water in a small pot, and heat on medium, stirring frequently until butter is melted (don't overheat). Set aside to cool a bit
3. Sift the flour, baking soda and sugar into a large mixing bowl (I use a KitchenAid with whisk for this cake)
4. Add about half of the melted butter mixture to the flour mix and start whisking until combined, then slowly add the remaining butter mixture
5. Add the eggs, one at a time
6. Add the sour cream and vanilla
7. Whisk until the batter is smooth (may need to scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure it is all blended together)
8. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake in center of oven for about 40 - 45 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (my oven takes 44 minutes) Try not to over-bake it.
9. Place pan on cooling rack, and let cool down - about 15 minutes or so, before inverting onto cake plate.  Let cake cool some more.

Ganache Icing

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chocolate morsels  
• scant 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Combine 1 cup chocolate morsels (I use Hershey's dark morsel, can also break up high quality chocolate into small pieces) and scant 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream in a double boiler.  Heat on medium, stirring constantly.  Watch carefully, stir until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture gets shiny - pull of heat immediately (chocolate will temper quickly) and stir.  (if it seems too runny, add a few more morsels and stir them in)  While still very warm, spread ganache on the cake.

Cookie Press Lemon Cookies with Icing

Here is one of my favorite cookie press recipe - a light, lemony cookie that is perfect for Springtime (or any time).  I made these for Easter:

Cookies:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind 
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/4 cup flour (I use King Arthur all purpose flour)

Preheat oven to 375 F. 

Thoroughly cream butter and sugar (3 minutes or so in the KitchenAid).  Add lemon juice, lemon rind and the beaten egg and mix until combined well.  Sift the combined flour, baking soda and salt into the mixing bowl and then mix it in.

Use a cookie press with a shape of your choice (I used a flower petal one), and press out the dough onto cookies sheets.  Bake in center of oven for 10 - 12 minutes.

Removed cookies from sheet and let cool on wire racks.

Icing:

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or to taste)
• Powerdered sugar

Melt butter in a glass bowl in microware, add milk and lemon juice and mix it together.  Add powerderd sugar until soft icing consistency.  Spread on center of cookies and let the icing set until dry.  Store in closed container. Enjoy!

Anja's Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup

This recipe came with the following preface: "Leif and Freyja both loved it".  Leif is three and a half and Freyja just turned one.  If they both like the same dish, it must be amazing.  And it is! Really delicious - plus it is fast and easy to make:

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• wine
• 1 lb loose Italian sausage (I used mild)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3- 4 carrots, chopped
• 3 - 4 celery ribs, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic - minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 14.5oz can stewed tomatoes
• 1 can cannellini beans
• 2 cans of condensed chicken broth, one can of water (may use 2 cans if you want)
• 1 cup rotini pasta, uncooked
• 1.5 cups baby spinach, cleaned
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated 

Heat some olive oil and cook sausage in skillet, until done.  Transfer cooked sausage into stock pot.  Add the onions to the empty skillet, add a little more olive oil if necessary, and cook until they are "glassy". Add the minced garlic to the onion and mix well, cook for another minute or so. Add the chopped carrots and celery, and stir in the skillet, together with the onions for about 5 minutes. (At this point, I add freshly ground pepper)

Deglaze skillet with about 1/2 a cup of (red) wine, then add all the vegetables to the stock pot with the meat. Add the tomatoes, beans, and the 2 cans of chicken broth plus 1 can of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes. (Test your carrots to see how done they are).  Add the pasta and cook for at least another 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the spinach. Let soup stand for another 5 minutes. Top with grated cheese in bowls.

Enjoy!

Making "Fruit-leather"... and Jerkey

Samantha got us a "kick-ass" dehydrator for Christmas. The first thing Jeff made in it was - of course - deer jerky, which turned out great.

But then we experimented with making fruit leather - the fruit roll-up kind of snacks.  We thawed out some of our seedless blackberry puree (the same kind we use for making jam), and then cooked it with SureJel and sugar, only we used more than twice the amount of fruit than the jam recipe calls for.  This thickened the puree enough to be able to spread it on the trays of the dehydrator.   I should mention that we got non-stick silicon sheets for the trays - which was very helpful.





We also spread out some of our homemade applesauce on two additional trays.  We let the fruit dry for about 8 hours,then peeled them off the sheets onto a cutting board.  We then sliced and rolled up the dried fruit puree.  They turned out really well, more tart than sweet, and absolutely delicious!

More Jam Recipes from our Garden

Experimenting with different combinations of fruit was a lot of fun this year, since we finally had a nice variety to choose from.  Here are two other delicious blends:


Strawberry-Gooseberry Jam:

• 2 cups cooked gooseberries (cooked with 1/4 cup of water until soft)
• 4 cups of nearly pureed strawberries
• 1 packet of low-sugar SureJell
• 4 cups of sugar

Follow recipe on SureJell insert for cooked strawberry jam.

Black Currant - Blueberry - Blackberry Jam:

• 1 cup finely chopped blueberries (nearly pureed)
• 1 cup cooked black currants (heat currant with a small amount of water until berries are soft)
• 4 cups seedless blackberry puree
• 1 packet of low-sugar SureJell
• 4 cups of sugar

Follow recipe on SureJell insert for cooked blackberry jam.

Mixed Berry Bread-Pudding

Here is another great use for mixed berries fresh out of the garden: bread pudding!

Ingredients:

• Butter for the casserole dish
• 3 large eggs
• 1.5 - 2 cups of sugar (depending on the tartness of the berries used)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups mixed berries (for this batch I used red and black raspberries and blueberries in season)
• 8 cups dense bread cubes (I used left over home made dinner rolls from last night)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and butter a casserole or 9x13 baking dish.  Whisk the eggs, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until smooth.  Blend in the milk and cream and then carefully mix in the berries.  Add the bread cubes and let them soak for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then our the mixture into the prepared pan and bake 55 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for a perfect  midsummer eve.

Mixed Berry Jam

Raspberries and blueberries are ripening right now and this morning's picking was perfect for a batch of mixed berry jam.  I use the Sure.Jell low sugar recipe, following basic directions for blackberry jam, only I modified the ingredients to match the fruit I had on hand:



Nearly Seedless Mixed Berry Jam Recipe:

• 3 cups prepared seedless black raspberry puree  (i.e. heat the cleaned blackberries and run them through a food mill with a berry screen)
• 1 cup smashed red raspberries (these will have seeds)
• 2 cups smashed (not pureed) blueberries
• 4 cups of sugar
• 1 box of low sugar Sure.Jell

Wash jelly jars, heat lids and have the matching rings ready.

Follow directions for making cooked jam:  measure the sugar and use 1/4 cup of this to mix in with the Sure.Jell powder.  Place all the measured fruit into a large pot, add the sugar/Sure.Jell mix to the fruit and bring it to a full boil (one that cannot be stirred down).  Make sure that the sugar mixture is blended in and that there are no clumps.  When the fruit reaches a full boil, add the remaining sugar and return to a full boil.  Once the full boiling point is reached, boil for exactly 1 minute.

Pour hot jam into prepared jelly jars, wipe rims, adjust lids and place filled jars in a water bath, bring to boil and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove jars and let cool overnight before removing rings.

Yields about 7 half pints of rather thick, amazingly good jam.

A New Take On Potato Bread: Sweet Potato Maple Loaf

Here is another favorite recipe - for a dense, slightly sweet, wonderful breakfast bread.  I mix my dough in a bread machine, but always use the "dough" setting, and then form the loaf, let is rise again, and bake in a conventional oven.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed sweet potato (about one medium sized yam or sweet potato, peel, cut into cubes and boil in water until soft, then mash with a fork and let it cool down a bit)
• 1/2 cup of lukewarm water
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/3 cup of (real!) maple syrup
• 4 and 1/4 cup of bread flour
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place ingredient in order given into bread machine, use dough cycle.  When finished, remove the dough, knead to get air bubbles out, and place in a greased bread pan.  Let rise for 45 min to an hour. Then bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes (or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped)  Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove from pan and let the bread cool completely.  I usually brush the hot loaf with butter to make a softer crust.

Ultimate Pea Soup

Our peas are ripe - and we have been picking them for a few days now.  We ended up with over 60 quarts of canned peas, and we gave a lot away to friends. 

This is of course the perfect time to make fresh pea soup (which is distinctly different from canned or dried pea soup).  The soup is surprisingly tasty and rather filling.


Here is our favorite recipe for fresh pea soup:

· 1 tablespoon olive oil

· 1/2 cup finely sliced spring onions (or Vidalia onion)

· 1 clove garlic, chopped fine (not crushed)

· 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon (or use chicken broth instead of water for cooking)

· 1 pound shelled peas

· 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

· 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste: depends on the chicken stock)

· 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon of pepper (to taste)

· 1/4 cup half and half 

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and add the onions and garlic.  Sauté over medium heat, until onions are glossy, then add 3 1/2 cups of water and the chicken bouillon (or chicken broth).  Bring to boil, then let simmer for about 30 minutes. (this is about how long it takes to shell one pound of peas)

Add peas, tarragon, salt and pepper and bring back to boil. Turn down heat and simmer until peas are tender (this will depend on how ripe your peas are, anywhere from 10 - 20+ minutes). 

Remove from heat and let cool a bit - then purée with an immersion blender, or put it into a  conventional blender in small batches.  You want this soup to be very, very smooth. 

Stir in half and half , salt and pepper to taste.  We like to eat it hot, but you can also serve it chilled!

Some Jam Experiments

It was time to clean out the freezer and use up last year's berries!  We still had several containers of frozen strawberries, and a whole lot of bags of frozen blackberries.  Luckily the strawberries were ready to be used for jam, since we froze them as puree. The blackberries needed to be thawed, heated and run through the food mill to remove seeds before we could use them.

We set all the berries out to thaw on Friday, and Saturday morning at least the strawberries were ready to use. While the blackberries were slowly heating on the stove (in a 22 quart pot), we decided to experiment a bit with rhubarb-strawberry jam.  Roughly we used twice as many strawberries as rhubarb, plus lemon juice - the trick was to know how much total fruit to use in order to get a nicely set jam.  After the initial runny batch, which had the consistency of apple butter, we reduced the amount of fruit by a cup, and ended up with a soft jam, slightly tart, but nicely balanced with the sweetness of strawberries.

Here is our recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam:

• 1 and 3/4 cups of cooked rhubarb (chopped cleaned rhubarb is heated with very little water and cooked until soft)
• 3 and 1/2 cup of mashed strawberries (can use fresh, we used frozen "chunky" puree) 
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 4 cups of sugar
• 1 packet of low-sugar SureJell  

We followed the SureJell instructions for cooked jam.  This sized batch made 4 pint sized jars of jam.

The blackberries yielded enough puree for 5 + batches of jam.  We kept the extra out for smoothies :)

Bluegills and "Krabby Patties"

Jeff has been fishing in our pond - sometimes with Toben and once in a while with Fiona as well.  They have been pretty good a catching bluegills, by the bucket full.  One afternoon of fishing usually yields 4 lbs of fish fillets.



Since the grandchildren are not too keen on fried fish, Jeff has been experimenting with making fish cakes.  He told Toben that they are "Krabby-Patties" and ever since then, Toben likes to eat them.


Here is Jeff's Fish-Cake recipe:

• 1 lb cooked fish fillets (fried lightly in butter, in a skillet until a fork can pull the fish apart)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons "Old Bay" seasoning
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard (we used "French's")
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
• 1/3 cup mayo (we used "Hellman's light")
• 1/3 cup bread-crumbs

Mix all ingredients, except fish, together.  Then carefully fold in the fish, cool for at least one hour in refrigerator, or over-night.  Form into paddies, and fry in medium hot skillet until done.

Blackberry Vinaigrette

So, what can one do with dozens of bottles of blackberry wine - well, one thing is to make some quick and delicious salad dressing:

Blackberry Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup seedless tart blackberry jam
• 1/4 cup apple vinegar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup blackberry wine - until it tastes good :)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well, and serve with choice of mixed greens & veggie salad.

Sweet German Breakfast Bread

Here is another favorite bread recipe - for Easter morning, we braid it in a circle and put colored eggs in the center, for everyday, just simply shape the dough into braid and glaze after baking.  The same dough can also be used for wonderful cinnamon rolls. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup cold milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, cut into slices
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 and 3/4 cup bread flour
• 2 and 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place ingredients into bread machine, in the order given above.  Then use the dough cycle, which takes about 1.5 hours.  When the cycle is done, and the dough has risen nicely, punch the dough down, and divide into 3 equal pieces.  With each piece of dough, form a long roll - getting rid of all air bubbles in this process.  Shape into a braid, place on cookie sheet and let rise another half hour.  Preheat oven to 375 degree F, and bake for about 25-30 minutes.
While the bread is still hot, cover with a simple icing (melted butter, some milk, vanilla flavoring and powdered sugar)

For Cinnamon Rolls:
Divide dough into half, roll each half into a rectangle, cover with melted butter and sprinkle generously with a sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Then roll up from the long side, slice into 2 inch sections, stand sections on end in a 13x9 inch pan and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.  Spread icing generously over the rolls after baking.

Brewer's Grain Bread

Anna, Duff and Leif visited us for the long 4th of July weekend and Duff decided to brew a batch of beer from scratch (as he often does when he comes to our house for a few days).  He bought several types of malted grains, which he mixed according to his own recipe.   After the grains were steeped, Duff offered me a taste, and it was delicious.  I had read about "spent grain" bread recipes, but I had also tasted spent grains and was skeptical as to their usefulness. Spent grains obviously lack all the malt sugar, which is still part of the steeped grains. 

Duff offered me a cup to use for bread making and I modified a "spent grain" recipe for the basic ingredients and used the steeped malted grain mixture.  Honestly, this turned out to be one of the best loaves of bread I made recently - very similar to the coarser, multi grain breads that you find in northern Germany, and obviously very rich in fiber (brewers grains are NOT hulled).


Here is my "Brewer's Grain Bread" recipe that works even if you don't have a home-brewer in your family.   Although you will need to find a homebrew store to purchase your malted grain and to have the grains ground/crushed - usually the homebrew stores will have a grinder available for their customers.




Brewer's Grain Bread (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup steeped Dark Munich Malt (or other malt variety) - see instructions below
• 1¼- 1½ cups water
• 3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons sugar or honey
• optional - 1 ½  tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (gives a sour dough type bread taste)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 ½  cups bread flour*
• 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour*
• 1 cup of rye flour*
• 2¼ teaspoons instant yeast

* amount of flour varies a lot depending on how wet the grains are.  I started off using ½  cup less of each of the flours mentioned above, but my dough was so sticky that I had to knead at least 1 ½  cups of additional flour into it after the dough cycle was finished in my bread machine.  Remember that it is always possible to add flour before the second rising of the dough, so better to err on the side of less flour than more.

 

Instructions for bread machine mixing:

1. To make the steeped grains, cover 3/4 cups of malted grains with ½ cup of water, heat to 150 degree F, remove from burner, cover and let sit for about 30 minutes.  The sweetness in the grain will develop as it steeps (first step of beer-making)
2. Follow instructions of your bread machine for the order of ingredients - mine starts with the wet ingredients:  add water, butter, sugar, salt and steeped grains into bread machine
3. Add the three types of flour on top of the other ingredients
4. Make a small indentation in the flour and add the yeast
5. Start the "dough" cycle of your machine
6. When finished, remove the dough - you can feel if it is too wet.  Ideal bread dough resembles a pie crust dough ready to be rolled out.  If the dough is too wet, add more flour and knead it manually until well mixed
7. Shape the bread into two equal sized loaves (either standard oval shapes, or baguette style shapes), place next to each other on baking sheet and let rise for about 30 minutes
8. Adjust oven racks to have one at the very bottom of the oven, and the second rack in the middle, place an empty metal baking pan on the bottom rack
9. Pre-heat oven to 410 degree F
10. When bread is ready, place in oven and immediately pour a cup of cold water into the empty pan - being very careful not to get cold water onto any glass of the oven door or the heating elements.  Quickly close the door.  This "steam treatment" creates a nice crust, like you would want for a baguette.
11. Bake for 40-45 minutes (depending on the size of your loaves)
12. Bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom

The bread keeps well for several days, perfect for sandwiches as well as jam.  We eat it toasted as well as plain.

Strawberries and Cupcakes

We spent a lot of time over the last week freezing strawberries.  We bought close to 200 pounds of late berries at the fruit auction and cleaned, chopped  and then froze them.  (They just would not have fit into our freezer space without pureeing them).  We will make jam and wine with these, once we have some extra time. 

Fortunately, we also got the best strawberry cupcake recipe from a friend this week -  just in time for the 4th of July holiday - and we had all the ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup finely chopped or pureed strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.
Mix buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract, set aside.
In a large bowl beat sugar and butter at medium speed for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.   Add the eggs, one at a time and reduce the speed to low.  Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, mixing until just combined.  Gently fold strawberries into batter.  Do not overmix!  Spoon mixture into 24 paper-lined muffin cups and make 22-24 minutes.  Cool on wire rack. 

Strawberry Frosting:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup pureed strawberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients with mixer at low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes, until frosting is smooth and creamy.  Spread on cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Alternatively, you can bake them as mini-cupcakes.  Reduce the baking time to 15-18 minutes, depending on your oven.

Blueberries and Muffins

It's Blueberry Picking Time!!! 

Even though our bushes are not fully mature, we are picking about a quart of berries each evening.  That is certainly enough to snack on and make muffins:

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Streusel Topping:

• 2 tablespoons cold butter
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cut the butter into remaining ingredients until coarse crumbs are formed.  I use one of those small, pulsing food processors, which really speeds this process up.

Muffin Batter:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg

Beat the above ingredient in a large bowl with hand-mixer, until well mixed.  In a separate bowl, combine the following ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Using a fork, stir the above mixed dry ingredients into the mixed liquid, just until the flour is moistened.  DO NOT OVERMIX!

• carefully fold in 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries

Divide batter into 12 greased, paper-lined muffin pan.  Sprinkle with streusel topping.  Bake for 22-24 minutes.

Jeff's Perfect Scrapple (Sans Mystery Meat)

For the last few weeks, Jeff has experimented with scrapple recipes.   He tried different ratios of flours (buckwheat, wheat and cornmeal), different meat combinations and finally came up with something that even Tina will eat:

Ingredients:

1. Pork bones for stock
2. Bouillon or seasoned chicken stock (enough for 1 gallon)
3. 1 lbs of pork sausage
4. 1 cup buckwheat flour
5. 2 cups cornmeal

Prepare Pork Stock - about 1 gallon:

• Boil pork bones in 1 gallon seasoned chicken broth (bouillon cubes/powder works)
• Season to taste with salt and pepper
• Strain the broth, making sure no small bones make it through the strainer
• Depending on how much meat was on the bones, may want to save any pieces of meat in a separate bowl

Prepare Meat:

• Brown 1 lb of pork sausage until crumbled and well cooked
• Mix in any of the pork meat left over from making stock (if desired)
• Run the meat and sausage mixture through a meat grinder (we use the KitchenAid attachment) or use a food processor to make sure the meat is very finely ground - almost smooth, otherwise the scrapple will have a very coarse texture

Making Scrapple:

• Mix 1 cup buckwheat flour and 2 cups of cornmeal
• Add the ground meat to the stock and bring back to a boil
• Slowly start adding the flour mixture, stirring constantly - add a little at a time
• When the mixture is thick enough that your spoon can stand in it, stir and boil for another 5-10 minutes  (not all the flour may have been used)
• Pour the hot mixture into greased loaf pans (bread pans)
• Let these cool completely
• Remove the scrapple from the pans and let it dry out in the refrigerator overnight
• Slice into 1/4 inch slices and fry until crisp - serve with syrup if desired, and fried eggs

Left-over scrapple can be wrapped in freezer paper and kept refrigerated for a week.  To freeze it, it is best to slice the scrapple and place freezer paper in-between each slice, then wrap everything in freezer paper and place in freezer.

Tasty Red Cabbage - A Traditional German Recipe

I know that not everyone loves red cabbage - I really do, but it may be one of those genetically inherited tastes.  Here is our favorite recipe, which goes well with pork roast or beef roast, especially a "Sauerbraten" - mashed potatoes or dumplings are also great with it.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium head of red cabbage (about 2 - 3 lbs), finely shredded, hard center core removed
• 1 medium onion, finely cubes
• about 1/4 cup of butter
• 1 glass red wine (we like to use fruit wines for this one, like blackberry or blueberry)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (or regular vinegar)
• 5 tablespoons of blackberry or current jam
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional: a dash of cloves

Sauté the onions in the butter, until translucent, add the shredded cabbage and stir well.  Add all other ingredients, mixing well.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to let cabbage simmer for at least 2 hours.  This vegetable is great warmed up - I think it tastes even better if reheated :)

Another Way to Serve Frozen Strawberries

Lemon Pound Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

I was searching for different ways to utilize my many bags of frozen strawberries, and came across this lemon pound cake recipe from Southern Living.  I modified it a bit (did not include the mint, added baking powder and a bit of salt)... it turned out well, not too much lemon, since my guys are not big fans.  Me - I like super sour lemon cake, with lemon drizzle and lemon icing, but not the rest of my family.  So this cake is a very mild flavored lemon pound cake:

• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2.5 cups powdered sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• lemon zest from one lemon
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add the powdered sugar slowly, and beat for about 5 minutes.  Then add the eggs, one at a time.  Add the flour, alternating with the whipping cream on low speed.  Then add the lemon zest and juice.  Pour batter into a buttered loaf pan (8.5 x 4.5")

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean.  (Mine took about 1 hour and 5 minutes)

Let cake cool, then serve slices with thawed-out strawberries and whipped cream.  (If you really crave more lemon flavor, fold in some lemon curd into your whipped cream before serving).  Enjoy!!

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Here is an easy, delicious medley of winter vegetables...if you like rutabagas, parsnips, carrots and garlic:

Ingredients:

• 5 parsnips
• 6 carrots
• 1 medium sized rutabaga
• 6 (or more) cloves of garlic with their skin on
• 1/4 cup light olive oil
• 1 sprig dried rosemary (about 2 inches - more or less to taste)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey would also work)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and peel the parsnips, carrots and rutabaga and cut into chunks, approximately 1 inch.  Place them in a large (10 x 15 inch) oven proof glass dish and cover with the olive oil, mixing the vegies and oil thoroughly.  Season with salt and pepper and place in oven for 30 minutes.

Strip the needles off the rosemary sprig and chop them finely,  mix these with the garlic cloves (in their skins).  Add this mixture to the roasted vegetables after the 30 minutes are up and return to the oven for another 25-30 minutes (depending on how big your vegetable chunks are).

Remove from oven and immediately pour the maple syrup over the vegetables and mix them up.   For those who like garlic, squeeze out the soft insides and discard the paper skins. 

(This evening we had these vegies with maples glazed grilled ham slices and potatoes - the squeezed garlic mashed into potatoes with some butter was delicious as well)