Baked - Mom's Olive Oil Orange Bundt

For starters, I have never made a cake with olive oil in it.  I'm still living in the world were olive oil is the good fat used to saute with, but this is why I joined cooking clubs.  To challenge myself with new cooking and baking ideas.  I bet you thought I joined for the food!



This was a fun cake to make.  I used the good California olive oil I was given as a Christmas gift.  This is the time to use the good stuff.  It's makes into a fluffy orange yogurt cake.  The cake is moist and the smell is heaven if you like oranges.  It did bake up in 50 minute, just like the recipe suggested.  The taste of orange is delicate and it's not too sweet.  I did pair the cake with fresh strawberries, because frankly, I think almost everything is great with strawberries. 

As I mentioned, I am counting points, so 1/16th of the cake equals 6 points.  Yeah, this means I can have some for dinner too!  I will make this cake again.  It is beautiful and tasty.  I recommend you try this for yourself.  See all the post at Baked or buy the book.

Citrus-Berry Terrine

I back again.  I've been cooking, but not writing.  Bad Connie.  Anyway, I was not going to pass on this recipe.  It's full of everything I love.  All those berries, Yumm.

I made this last night after reading the Questions & Problems and read how fast the gelatin sets up.  Your suppose to add the berries and citrus when the gelatin is the consistency of egg whites.  Mine wasn't at an hour, so I when back a half an hour later and Oh My Goodness.  This stuff was almost solid.  It is nerve racking to try some of these recipes.  I added my four cups of berries and citrus and jiggled my pan.  I scraped the edges and jiggled again, and then I jiggled some more.  At that point I just covered it with wax paper and went to bed.  An hour before I thought I was going to end up with berry soup.

Anyway, when I got up, after the blueberries exploded out of the refrigerate all over the kitchen floor (I guess I did not place the blueberries flat, was that a surprise at 5 AM).  I flipped out my terrine and Viola, pretty as a picture. 

My taste tester now comment on my food staging.  I'm getting some good input, unfortunately it is they are eating not when I'm taking pictures.  I need to remember that some mint would look good.   In addition, some of my taste testers are on Weight Watchers, so I even counted point for them.  FYI, this is 3 point for one-eighth.  So I raved to my friends who have the cook book Around my French Table and I think my Sister is going to try the recipe this weekend.  It's great while all the berries are in season.  I may make it again also, I have to use up the rest of the berries. Oh and there is still enough blueberries left even after the early morning explosion.  But I think I will add some cherries to the mix.    Happy weekend!

Salmon and Tomatoes En Papilote

I have been on a fish kick and cooking salmon recently.  So trying a new way to bake salmon was refreshing.  And it looks so pretty.

I am not a big tomato fan, but I insist on making the recipes as is, at least the first time.  I usually marinate my salmon in garlic, olive oil and lemon, but this had the lemon and olive oil plus basil, rosemary and tomatoes.  I don't think I normally salt and pepper my salmon either, but this was wonderful.



This was easy to assemble.  It did not take much longer than my normal marinate, but it had so much more flavor and was moist and it had a kind of olive oil and tomato clear sauce that was wonderful.  All your ingredients are rolled up into a foil packet and baked.

I love the look of the final piece of rosemary before closing the packet

This will be how I cook salmon from now on. After making this once, I wonder if you can grill the packets, or subsitute veggies for the fish.  I bet this would be good with zucchini instead of fish.  So many choice.  The recipe can be found in around my french table by Dorie Greenspan. 

Baked Blackberry Pie

Blackberry Pie

My favorite dessert - Blackberry Pie

I like pie and blackberry is one of my favorites.  I use any excuse to make it or eat it.  This year for my birthday, work brought in blackberry pie.  All of the pie in the past were not as good as this one.  The recipe from Baked is wonderful.  The crust, which is made in a food processor was wonderful to work with.  Is was easy to roll, went into the pie pan with no problems.  No cracking or breaking.  This was a pleasure to make.

I must admit, I used frozen berries.  Fresh blackberries are still very expensive, if you can find them.. Also, this made a big mess in my oven.  I bet there was a cup of juice on the bottom of the oven.  All the same I will use this crust as my go to pie crust and am looking for an excuse to make this again.

Chunky beets and icy red onions

Let me start by telling you I love beets.  I get them in my CSA box almost weekly and usually roast them and eat them on salads.  I was happy to see that Dorie offered three ways to just cook beets.  All three method can be found in around my french table.  And since it's been hot in California so I tried the microwave method.  This was great. 

Anyway this salad reminded me of a cold version of Harvard Beets I used to eat as a kid.  Kind of tangy and sweet.  Even so, this was not a favorite recipe.  It may be I've been eating plan old roasted beets.  But I must admit.  I did eat it all in one sitting.