A Triumphant Return to the Kitchen (June & July)

While I was so VERY HAPPY to be home, in Madison and it was GREAT to see my sister in Texas (Happy Birthday Suze!)- there was one slight problem with being on travel for so long.... I couldn't cook anything.

In Madison, I stayed in the VERY empty condo that was once my home- literally camping out there with just a sleeping bag and Hunter. The kitchen was there - but all my pots, pans and most importantly, my mixer, were back in TN. And in TX - who can compete with the Tex-Mex and the "best damn tacos" that I have ever had. I had a bit of a cooking dry spell.

Now that I'm home - I'm back in the kitchen!! And here are the things that I have recently cooked up.

S'moreish Brownies
Invented for my first grill out in the Friday night grill out series, these brownies were a bit of a last minute - what do I have in the house type thing. I think that they were pretty good though.

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 t vanilla
1/4 t salt (kosher)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F, mix the butter, sugar and eggs using your favorite stand mixer. Stir in the flour, vanilla and salt. Mix the nuts in by hand.

Pour into a buttered 1" deep 8"x10" glass pan. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, then cover with mini marshmallows and bake for an additional 3-5 minutes, until the marshmallows are toasty. Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Poundcake with Peaches
Pound cakes are a wonderful thing, and brown sugar is my favorite ingredient of the moment. Using those two things, and a regular sour cream pound cake recipe -> I came up with this.

1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar (i like the dark brown)
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
4 eggs (at room T)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt (kosher)
1 bag frozen peaches

Preheat the oven to 375F. Butter a bread pan, line the bottom with frozen peaches and set it aside.

Using your beloved stand mixer, blend the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the extracts, then each egg separately, mixing well between each.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder, then slowly add the dry mixture to the wet.

Spread the batter into the bread pan, layering with the frozen peaches. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test. MMM - this was great.

Cherry Upside Down Cake
I had a bag of frozen cherries in the freezer and by making a few changes from a blueberry cake from Martha's website -> a new cherry cake was born.

4 T unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 T brown sugar (for topping)
2 cups frozen cherries
3/4 cup cake flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt (kosher)
1 egg
1/4 cup *at room T*

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9"x12" glass baking dish. Pour 2T melted butter into the bottom of the pan, then sprinkle the 3T of brown sugar into the pan. Scatter the cherries into the butter/sugar mix.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt. In your KitchenAid stand mixer, blend 2T butter, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and the egg. Mix in the dry ingredients, until the batter is smooth.

Pour the batter over the cherries in the pan, bake 45 minutes at 350F, or until the cake passes the toothpick test. Mmmm.


Pineapple Upside Down Cake
My favorite non-Harry Potter character is probably Stephanie Plum. Ok, that isn't true - Grandma Mazur is by FAR the most entertaining, but without books about Steph, we wouldn't get to know Grandma. Anyway, often, Stephanie enjoys pineapple upside down cake, which is apparently her favorite. After searching epicurious and making a few changes - I think I have a Stephanie (and Grandma!!) worthy offering. Epicurious suggested cooking the cake in my cast iron skillet.....I thought it sounded very southern and kinda fun - so I tried it. I think it worked. Except - ***the burns on my hand would suggest that the cast iron skillet gets very hot in the oven - BE CAREFUL***

Topping
1 can pineapple slices/chunks/crushed (I don't think it matters)
3/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar

Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
2 t ground cardamom
1 t ground cinnamon
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt (kosher)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 T dark rum (appletons!)
1/2 cup pineapple juice (use the stuff from the pineapple)

Preheat the oven to 350F. In the skillet, on the stove, melt the sugar and butter for the topping until it carmelizes. Remove from heat, then sprinkle or lay the pineapple all over the bottom of the pan.

Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla and the rum, then add half of the dry mix. Add the pineapple juice, then the remainder of the dry ingredients.

Spoon the batter over the topping in the skillet, then bake in the middle of the oven for 45-55 minutes. BE CAREFUL THE PAN WILL BE HOT - maybe you know that - but I might have a couple burns that mean I forgot.

Let the cake stand for 15 minutes, then invert the skillet over a cake plate. Mmmm.