Peach Bread and Farm Fresh Eggs

I'm in major spring cleaning mode in my house right now. Essentially, the house looks like a tornado went through it, dashing magazines, clothes and books all over, but kindly leaving little clear paths between the rooms for me to walk on. I know this sounds counter-intuitive and not at all like cleaning, but I'm not just moving things around, I'm actually getting rid of a LOT of the clutter. Stuff is being listed on Craigslist (and boy has THAT been a fun little experience), sorted into donation boxes, and packed up to give away to friends and family. The more I dig the more I realize that in just 6 or 7 short years that I've lived in my tiny little home, I've accumulated enough "stuff" to impress Madame Trash Heap.

Among the things being cleaned out is the fridge. All of the mystery jars and random little tid bits have been cleared out and I've moved onto the freezer. That will take some time, I have a LOT of frozen fruit I never got to still left over from last summer/fall. I guess this winter has been busier then I thought. The first to go was the leftover bag of peaches I had brought back from a camping trip to Michigan last fall. I don't like using frozen fruit for pies, but in this lightened version of Peach Bread, they were lovely. The bread itself is not too sweet, quite moist, and very flavorful. The perfect thing to go with a cup of tea in the morning, afternoon, or a late night cleaning marathon. Hard work requires a few rewards, after all.



Peach Bread
Adapted from Honey & Jam (one of my new favorite blogs).
I increased the measurements by 1.5 because my pans are a bit bigger and I wanted taller loaves, but feel free to halve the amounts if you only want 1 loaf or decrease by 1/3 if your pans are smaller. I also left my peaches in bigger chunks and used a bit more then called for because I really love it when fruit forms little sweet pockets in the bread and it felt silly to hang onto just a half a cup of peaches. The batter held the extra fruit like a champ.

5 eggs
1.5 cup dark brown sugar 3/4 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup applesauce
3.5 cups roughly diced peaches, drain well if using frozen
4.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon baking soda
2.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour two 9 x 4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs lightly. Blend in the sugar, oil, applesauce and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; mix just to combine. Stir in the peaches. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.


On a slightly unrelated note, a few weeks back I visited my friend's sister's house and got to meet her 4 adorable red-headed chickens. Her husband had built them an ingenious penthouse coop and I've never seen happier chickens then these. It was already getting dark and I didn't have my camera with me anyways, so sadly I don't have pictures of the girls for you, but I was lucky enough to be given 6 of the beautiful, super fresh eggs to take home with me.



I'm still thinking of what to do with them to really let the eggs shine, but the first two got made into breakfast. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, so these are sunny side up eggs fried in just a slick of olive oil and with a hearty dash of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.



I may be biased considering I've met the chickens, but I think the whites were fluffier and the yolks were creamier in these eggs. I don't have room to keep chickens of my own, and considering all the baking I do buying local eggs is a bit out of my price range, but I think I'll need to splurge occasionally because these really were amazing.

Spiked Coconut Macaroons

Pi/Pie Day has come and gone, along with a half dozen birthdays, the ever popular St. Patrick's day, and at least a half dozen other food related, little known holidays, and yet this site has stayed quiet. Believe me, I enthusiastically participated in all of them. There were pies made when pies were called for, cakes and cupcakes made for all the March birthdays, cookies when no theme was given, and tarts when I had free reign. In fact, there was so much late night baking that there were almost no pictures to serve as proof for all this activity, not to mention absolutely zero energy or brain capacity to do any sort of a write-up. But I must get back on track, and I'm going to start with these:



These are spiked coconut macaroons that I had made for St. Patrick's day for work and squirreled a handful for myself for later. Luckily, these get better after they sit for a day or two, though not after a week, then the bell curve of their goodness begins to plunge once more.



They come together faster then anything you can imagine, they're way less fussy than macarons, their very very very distant cousins, and with a splash of booze and a few drops of green make perfect little treats to celebrate St. Pats. Because, you know, making nothing for a holiday would be a travesty of epic proportions. Though there's also nothing stopping you from just leaving them white, or adding lime juice in place of the booze, or standing on your head when you eat them (or, ahem, talking about them a week after the holiday has passed). Really, get as crazy as you like, they wont mind one bit.



Spiked Coconut Macaroons

2 14 oz bags sweetened coconut flakes
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp sour cream
2 Tbsp Irish Cream or Frangelico (or heavy cream if you don't want booze)
1 Tbsp Vanilla
A few drops of food coloring if you want

- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer bowl and give it a quick stir with a spoon, otherwise when you turn the machine on all the coconut will fly out and hit you in the eye. I'd like to prevent casualties whenever possible.
- Mix for a few seconds in the mixer using the paddle attachment, just until everything is evenly distributed. Scoop onto a baking sheet. You can make these into any size you want. I wanted them smaller so mine are about the size of ping pong balls, but there's nothing stopping you from making tennis ball sized macaroons. Well, unless you fear your dentist (these babies are sweet).
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the macaroon size, or until the bottoms and just the tips of the top are very light golden color. Don't worry if they still seem soft, let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and they'll firm right up.
- Dip in chocolate if you like or enjoy au naturel.

Spiked Chocolate Mousse

This has been a very busy weekend, and this upcoming week already promises to be crazier then ever, but in a mostly good way. I like staying busy, but I'm also already looking forward to the weekend after next when I'll hopefully have a chance to relax. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for that one.



But back to the point, last Friday was my friend's birthday and that, obviously, called for dessert. She's been trying to limit her carb intake, so instead of a cake I did some online sleuthing and landed on the world's best chocolate mousse recipe. With a few minor tweaks here and there (I never could leave well enough alone) I daresay it came out even better then I could have hoped for.



Mousse is not hard to assemble, but with the best possible ingredients and a tiny bit of patience you will be rewarded with a deep, rich, immensely flavorful vessel of amazingness to share with those you love. I'd throw out a bunch more adjectives at you, but I'd rather not waste more of your time and get you straight to the recipe so you can make this right now and see what I'm talking about.

Chocolate Mousse
Adapted slightly from Cooks Illustrated’s The New Best Recipe, via Crumbly Cookie

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tbsp espresso powder
3 Tbsp Irish Cream
4 large eggs, separated2 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ cup chilled heavy cream, plus more for serving

1. Melt the chocolate in a medium bowl set over a large saucepan of barely simmering water or in an uncovered Pyrex measuring cup microwaved at 50 percent power for 3 minutes, stirring once at the 2-minute mark. Whisk the butter into the melted chocolate, 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir in the salt, vanilla, espresso and Irish Cream until completely incorporated. Whisk in the yolks, one at a time, making sure that each is fully incorporated before adding the next; set the mixture aside.

2. Whisk the egg whites in a clean mixing bowl set over a saucepan of hot water until slightly warm, 1 to 2 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan. Beat with an electric mixer set at medium speed until soft peaks form. Raise the mixer speed to high and slowly add the sugar; beat to soft peaks. Fold a quarter of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then gently fold in the remaining whites.

3. Whip the cream to soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mousse. Spoon portions of the mousse into 8 individual serving dishes or goblets. You can possibly even get more servings out of the batch, It's very rich so a little will go a long way. Cover tightly with Saran wrap and refrigerate to allow the flavors to blend, at least 2 hours and up to 24.  Serve with additional whipped cream or with some fresh berries on top.

Curried Carrot Soup with Ginger

It's Restaurant Week here in Chicago, but with all the beginning of the year expenses even the discounted menus are entirely out of my budget. Why does it seem like all the big bills come right after you're done paying for the holidays? My friend spend more then two days pouring over all the menus and throwing out ideas, but I went home opened the fridge and made soup.



I can't tell you how or why, but these days it seems I have an endless supply of carrots in the fridge. I don't remember buying them and yet each time I open the fridge door there are more and more packages of them. In an effort to stay frugal and eat healthy, I decided to try a carrot soup. I had seen a recipe similar to what I was looking for in the last Food & Wine magazine, but it called for 3/4 cup of oil and there was no way I could justify that, so I used their recipe as a base and tweaked here and there to make it work for me. I nixed the tarragon oil since I don't care for tarragon anyways, pumped up the garlic, replaced water with chicken stock for flavor and added a tiny bit of yogurt on top to tame down the spice. I've now been eating this soup for a week and I still love how it came out. It may not be Sunda, but this girl is happy.




Curried Carrot Soup with Ginger
Adapted from Food & Wine

- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed and sliced
- 1 tablespoon minced peeled ginger
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1 1/2 pounds carrots, thinly sliced
- 7 cups low fat chicken stock*
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt
- freshly ground pepper
- flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
- plain yogurt, for garnish

1. In a large pot, heat 2 Tbsp of oil, add the onion and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the carrots and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes longer. Add the water and sugar and season with salt and pepper. Simmer over moderately low heat until the carrots are very tender, about 45 minutes.
2. Carefully puree the hot soup in a blender or my favorite kitchen tool ever: the immersion blender, adjust salt and pepper to taste and serve, garnished with parsley and a drizzle of yogurt.

* You can also do half stock half water, but I made it once with just water and it was just too bland.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Tomorrow is Valentine's day, are you ready? Do you have all your valentines signed and sealed, with the little chocolates taped to each one? Do you have your reservations made and that perfect outfit picked out? Have you planned out dessert?



My valentine tomorrow will be my sister, who I'm meeting up with after work for dinner at Girl and Goat. Yum! And while I'm no longer in grade school and little paper valentines are no longer a requirement, I've decided to bring some treats to share at work.



This is the third time in just few weeks that I've made these. Once for my sister's surprise birthday party, once for a potluck party at my friend's house, and now again for V-day. They're so pretty, amazingly delicious, come together pretty quickly. Plus, I'm not sick of them yet. Swirling the topping is my favorite part and so far everyone I'd shared them with loved them. Grab a bowl and whip some up for your valentine(s) :D



Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
Recipe adapted slightly from The Novice Chef

Red Velvet Layer:
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
5 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
8 Tbsp milk, divided
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp red food coloring
2 tsp white vinegar

Cheesecake Layer:
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Grease a 13 x 18 jelly roll pan with a little melted butter or spray with cooking spray.
- In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder (sift it right into the bowl to get rid of any lumps), salt, and baking powder. Make a little well in the middle and pour in the eggs, vegetable oil, 4 Tbsp milk, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and white vinegar. Carefully whisk the liquids in the middle and then incorporate the surrounding dry ingredients until you get an even mixture, which will be quite thick.
- Pour the batter into the pan, reserving about 3/4 cup of it in the bowl. Smooth the batter in the pan using a spatula or the back of a spoon, making sure it's even and and reaches all the edges.
- Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of milk to your reserved batter (and maybe an extra squirt of red food coloring if you want the color deeper) and whisk to form a looser batter. Set aside.
- In a mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until combined and there are no lumps. Remember to stop, clean the beaters and beat again about halfway through. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet layer and smooth mixture till it reaches all the edges.
- Drop spoonfuls of the remaining red velvet batter onto the top of the cheesecake layer. Drag the tip of a knife or a toothpick through just the top cheesecake layer to create swirls.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating half way through, or just until the center is set and it no longer jiggles. You'll have just a tiny bit of color around the edges, but don't let it get too dark...unless you like crispy brownie edges, in which case rock on.
- Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Either cut into squares as usual, or use cookie cutters for extra cuteness.