Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Birthday cake for another friend!
Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out great.

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

I have a vegan friend whose birthday was a few weeks ago... so I made a vegan cake.  Didn't get around to making any frosting for it but the cake itself turned out well.  As you can see, everyone dug in before a picture could be taken.  I tweaked the original recipe a little.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado
2 cups brewed coffee
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Use oil to grease a 9 in pan. Set aside.
Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set aside.
Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the mashed avocado.
Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.
Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and mix.
Pour batter pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I powdered the top with confectioner's sugar and cocoa since I didn't have time to make frosting.
Turned out surprisingly soft and moist!

Avocado Salsa

Recipe found here.

Pics of Food

It's been awhile yet again... but I have been cooking since I last posted.  I haven't always been taking pictures of what I've been making nor have I been keeping track of all the recipes, but now that the Holiday season is upon us, I'll try to keep better track.

Vanilla Cupcake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

 Hasselbach Potato stuffed with Mozzarella and sauteed tomatoes, green peppers, onions and mushrooms

 

Uttapam (South Asian pancake)

 

Fish Tacos (made by my friend, Young)
The most delicious fish tacos (and admittedly, only fish tacos) I've ever had.  I was extremely skeptical of this before I tried it.

 

Naan

Blackberry Apple Cake

Ingredients:
Granulated sugar for 9inch pan
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 tblsp. butter + 2 tblsp. cut into pieces
3/4 cup + 2 tblsp. light brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
2 apples
1 cup blackberries
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
Pre-heat oven 375 F.
Butter 9in pan and dust with granulated sugar
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in bowl
Whist together melted butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, milk and eggs in another bowl.
Whisk into flour mixture
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.  Arrange apple wedges and blackberries over batter.
Gently press into batter
Combine remaining 2 tbls. brown sugar and cinnamon.
Sprinkle over fruit.
Dot with remaining 2 tbls. butter.
Bake for ~50 minutes

Recipe from Martha Stewart

Before dotting with cinnamon/sugar/butter and baking

I didn't have whole milk so I used half and half instead.  Also, still need to go out and buy some all-purpose flour so I ended up using whole wheat again as well.  This turned out better than I thought it would though it's more of an autumn food than a summer food.  One small thing I would change about the recipe is that you should probably cut up the remaining 2 tblsp. of butter into cubes and then keep that frozen.  Then, when the time comes to sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture, you can just mix in the butter with it and THEN sprinkle all of it over the fruit.

Honey and Soy Broiled Wild Alaskan Salmon

The scallions are burnt because I broiled them with the salmon on accident...

Ingredients*:
1 scallion, minced
2 tbls. soy sauce
1 tbls. rice vinegar
1 tbls. honey
1 tsp. minced ginger
4 6 oz. portions of salmon
1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions:
Pre-heat to broil
Whisk scallion, soy sauce, vinegar, honey and ginger in a medium bowl until the honey is dissolved.
Place salmon in a sealable plastic bag, add 3 tablespoons of the sauce and refrigerate; let marinate for 15 minutes.
Line baking pan with foil.  Place salmon on pan, skin side down.

Broil for about 7 minutes.
Drizzle remaining sauce on top, garnish with sesame seeds.

*Recipe from Copper River Seafoods

Chicken Athena

Recipe from some random slow cooker cookbook at Sam's Club... I think it might have been Taste of Home or something like that.  Seriously, the easiest recipe ever (but what slow cooker recipe isn't?)

Ingredients:
6 boneless chicken breast halves
2 medium onions chopped
1/3 c. sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil) chopped
1/3 c. pitted Greek olives
2 tbls. lemon juice
1 tbls. balsemic vinegar
3 garlic cloves minced
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Place chicken in a 3 quart slow cooker.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

I realize the picture doesn't really make this look appetizing... but it was good, at least I thought it was because I finished it all in two days.  I sprinkled feta on top as well.... mmmm delicious!