I'm Still Here

So I know the blog has been neglected the last couple of weeks! Between a big room-mate BDAY, a house warming party, and the encroaching arrival of my mother I have been BUSY(that's just all the stuff on top of the normal work, life and dog activities).
I have not given up on the blog- not at all! I have some great recipes from the house warming party to post. Also since the mom will be in town, that means trips to lots of nice restaurants, which means reviews! So just a quick glimpse, to keep y'all coming back! A sneak peak list of things to come: recipes for Caesar salad bites, ham and cheese challah rolls(NYC grocery stores do not have biscuits), fluffernutters- and restaurant reviews for Stanton Social, Annisa, Barbuto, and Minetta Tavern.
So bare with me, the next couple weeks will get much more exciting around here. Now just for the fun of it- a gratuitous picture of Herman. He generally loves when I am cooking for the blog as some of it inevitably ends up on the floor, and thus in Herman's mouth. He does not however like being put on the menu- as seen below from his sad face when my room-mate put in a strainer. Still so cute though! See y'all back here soon for a more food related post!!

Recipe Thursday!(Lemon Pound Cake)

I am not generally a huge fan of pound cake, but this recipe comes from my Grandmother, Gran Doris- who makes a couple of the best dished I have ever had(Broccoli Casserole). This pound cake is pretty traditional but the secret ingredient(jello) somehow makes it one of the most flavorful and moist(hate that word, but there is really no substitute in this situation) pound cakes I have ever had!

Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1 package yellow cake mix(I used Duncan Hines)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package Lemon Jello Powder

1 fresh Lemon

For Icing:
2 tbsp lemon juice(I used the kind from a bottle for this part b/c we had it in the fridge)
1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350*F. 
-In a large bowl, beat together yellow cake mix, eggs, cooking oil, water, lemon extract, vanilla extract, squeezed juice from one lemon and lemon jello powder for about 4 minutes.(I used my hand mixer)
-Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray(I used PAM for baking and it worked great!). Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until top turns golden brown like the picture above.  

-Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan onto serving plate. 
-To make the glaze: mix together powdered sugar with lemon juice. Drizzle the glaze over the warm cake.(I made a double recipe of the glaze b/c everyone always wants extra!)

The flavor and consistency of this cake is superb! We have been eating it for a few days now, and I must say it has been a breakfast favorite! Would be a great thing to make for a weekend when you have company as its the kind of thing you can have a piece of any time of day! 

Zucchini Pizza

So this past week I jumped on the Pinterest train. It has turned out to be a fantastic place to get cooking inspiration! All of the pretty food pictures make me want to try every recipe I re-pin! So from here on out I plan to post one Pinterest recipe every week! The inaugural flight of the Pinterest recipe endeavour is a recipe for zucchini pizza, YUM! This is a great recipe for several reasons: it is super easy, tasted fantastic, and is a slightly healthier way to enjoy everyone's fav late night snack, PIZZA!

Zucchini Pizza

Ingredients:

2-3 large zucchini

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups cheese of choice(I used mozzarella)

1 1/2 cups pizza sauce of choice(I used Mario Batali's brand!)

Toppings of choice! Here is a chance to get creative! I used turkey pepperoni and lemon artichoke pesto!(pictured below)

Directions:

- Cut zucchini long way into 3/4 inch thick slices and brush each side with olive oil and dust with salt and pepper

-Heat grill to medium heat and preheat oven to 350

-Once the grill is ready place the zucchini slices on the grill and let cook for 7-8 minutes or until they have obvious grill marks and are starting to soften.(I used the George Foreman grill as my NYC apt does not allow for outdoor cooking and it worked great!)

-Remove zucchini from grill and place on baking sheet(I lined mine with foil for easy clean up!)- now its time for toppings! I put the pesto on first, then the sauce, cheese and pepperoni!

-Place baking sheet in oven and cook for about 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly!

               

Here are the side by side pictures after the zucchini came off the grill and after it came out of the oven! From start to finish this entire recipe probably only took about 25 minutes to prepare, which is great when you get a late start making dinner!

All of the room mates tried it, and it was met with rave reviews! This is a recipe I will for sure make again, and its nice that you can change it up so easily  by throwing some new toppings into the mix! Just a warning this is not a hand held meal like pizza, you will need a plate, knife and fork! 

Recipe Friday(Crème Anglaise)

OK, I know I am a day late this week, but I am operating on the better late than never mantra for now! My oldest and best friend just moved to NYC this week, which is beyond exciting- and she came over to eat dinner last night. We decided we should cook something and crème anglaise is one of her favourite things. Yes, she has admitted to drinking it once in the morning for breakfast, while I am not recommending this- it is that good!!
It is relatively easy to make and requires very few ingredients, most of which you normally have around the kitchen anyway! We decided we would make brownie cupcakes topped with fresh fruit and crème anglaise. YUM. We used Ghirardelli Delux Fudge Brownie Mix:

These are arguably the best "box" brownies you can find! In order to make the dessert a little more "pretty" and easy to plate we made them into cupcakes. We just filled each cup cake tin about 3/4 full and while the directions say these have to bake for about 38 minutes the cupcakes took about 26. 
While they were in the oven we made the crème anglaise, which worked perfectly as it gives it time to cool before you are ready to put it all together!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 whipping cream
1 vanilla bean split(we just used a teaspoon of vanilla extract)
3 large egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar

Directions:

-Combine milk and cream in heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean(If you decide to use vanilla extract instead wait a put it in once all ingredients are combined!). Bring milk mixture to simmer. Remove from heat.

-Whisk egg yolks and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk hot milk mixture into yolk mixture. 

-Return custard to saucepan. Stir over low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when drawn across, about 5 minutes (do not boil). Now add the vanilla extract!

-Strain sauce into bowl. Cover and chill. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)

So once your brownies and crème anglaise have cooled enough to eat you can put it all together! This is another one of those cooking endeavours where all of the components are relatively simple but when you bring it together it looks like a lot of work went into it! 

It is easier to tell here how the cupcakes made this a more concise and clean plate! I decided to go for the trifecta and use blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries and it was delicious! The rich chocolate taste so good with the delicate crème and sweet berries! You can use crème anglaise on lots of desserts and it is an easy way to make it look like you went the extra mile! Anything that would generally be paired with vanilla ice cream and be made a little more sophisticated with the addition of this delectable sauce!

So here is one more picture, supplied by my room mate Caroline who has way cooler iPhone apps than me! This definitely does justice to this fantastic treat! So next time you are trying to figure out how to put a new twist on what might be a old faithful dessert think about adding some Crème Anglaise!