# 032

Applesauce Cake.


This is from the April 2010 issue of Everyday Food . I love Everyday Food. I have had a subscription for the past 4 years or so, and I have hoarded the cute little magazines. This new issue though has made me want to go back through them all... so many yummy recipes! And they're all fairly simple (unlike the stupid gnocchi or the 6 hour peanut butter cookies).

This cake was good and super simple (you do all the mixing in the pot that you make the applesauce in - no bowl to wash!), plus it was "healthy" enough that I didn't feel guilty giving some to Ben for breakfast the next morning - it had a lot less sugar than some muffins I've made.

My OTHER blog

I've been doing a lot of non-Martha crafting, and have decided to start posting that on my other blog, if anyone is interested!

http://jillydooodles.blogspot.com/

#031

Potato Gnocchi (aka, the ugliest gnocchi ever).

I love pasta. For a while, I was convinced that I really wanted this $180 pasta maker KitchenAid attachment from Williams Sonoma. Yeah, it's expensive, but I could MAKE MY OWN PASTA! It would practically pay for itself after like 300 pasta dinners!!! Making this stupid gnocchi has me glad that I didn't waste my money. For the type of cooking I usually do (ie., with a hungry toddler playing at my feet), an hours long process just isn't a good idea. The forming of the shapes part was the toughest part, and I gave up after making about a dozen of them (so maybe the pasta maker would be ok, since it makes the shapes for you! hmm...).

Taste-wise, they were sort of bland, which being pasta, was not surprising, I guess.

These are good to make if you have a couple of hours to kill. But I will be sticking to the $4 packages from the grocery store.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/potato-gnocchi

# 030

Light Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.

This cake officially marks my being finished with whole wheat flour for anything other than bread. I tried! Really, I did. I just don't enjoy the flavor it imparts to anything but bread. This cake wasn't horrible (and Gabe's dad and step-mom really seemed to enjoy it)... but if I want a pineapple upside-down cake, I want it to taste like a dessert, and this didn't. The fun part though? It was the first time I actually purchased and cut up a whole pineapple! Much easier than I had expected.

Link to Recipe

# NM2

Split Pea Soup.

Not a very appetizing photo, I know. But the soup is delicious, and so easy to make. Really. Even my mom, who is a self-proclaimed pea soup hater said that this soup wasn't too bad. And it's vegetarian!

8 cups water
1 16oz bag of dried spilt peas
5 carrots, diced
1/2 onion, diced

and the "secret" ingredient:
3 extra large Knorr vegetarian vegetable bouillon cubes

Sautee onion in a large pot with butter or oil until translucent. Add the 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the bouillon cubes and stir occasionally until they dissolve (because you don't want to happen upon a chunk of that flavor goodness when eating your soup).

Add peas, carrot and onion. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cook for approximately one and a quarter hours - you'll be able to tell when it's done. Make sure to stir occasionally. If you like your soup chunky, stir fairly vigorously every 3 minutes or so during the last 15 minutes of cooking. This will break down some of the peas, but not all of them. If you like smooth soup, you'll want to put it through a blender or food processor when it's done - or use an immersion blender if you're lucky enough to have one.

Then it's ready to eat! It makes a fair amount of soup, but it also freezes well. And you can add more water if you like your soup thinner.

# 029

Chocolate Piped Peanut Butter Cookies.

To me, these cookies are the quintessential example of a Martha recipe. She takes something that is common and usually simple, and takes it another step (aka, makes it harder).

Now if you look at Martha's recipe (here) with picture, and then look at my picture, you will notice a slight difference. Or a massive one. Other than the fact that I am still a horrible photographer, my cookies look a bit different. In my defense, I did make one sheet of cookies that looked like Martha's - pre-chocolate, anyway. But I forgot to rotate my pans in the oven, and those cookies go burned. Oops! But after doing it Martha's way, I was running out of time and patience (I have to do the majority of my baking when Ben is napping), so I just did one fork tine impression over the top. And with the chocolate piped into the tine indentations, I think they actually look pretty nice (upper-right hand corner of the picture). Only I became impatient again, and then just started drizzling the chocolate all over the cookies. They still looked delicious, just not as neat and tidy and anal retentive.

Good cookies, but can be done a lot easier and quicker than this recipe (I didn't even talk about having to chill and freeze the dough at 2 different times). Made for a neighbor who snow-blowed our driveway after we got almost 2 feet of snow last week. :)