Cake for Breakfast!

I am sure you all begged your parents to let you have junk food for breakfast at least a few times in your childhood (and maybe you still fight with yourself every once in a while... go ahead and pour some Lucky Charms, I won't tell.) I was never a huge fan of sugary cereals and the like, but I love anything that combines sugar and carbs, like pancakes, bagels, or in this case, coffee cake! Along with some Greek yogurt, what a great way to start a lazy Sunday.

Hazelnut Coffee Cake

dry ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (bonus points if it is freshly grated yourself!)

wet ingredients:

2 eggs

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 fat-free sour cream

1/2 cup fat-free milk

topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

4 handfuls chopped and toasted hazelnuts

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, grease and 9x9 baking dish, and your pretty much should know the drill after this. Toss around the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients together, then fold into the dry ingredients. Set this aside to mix the two sugar and cinnamon together in yet another bowl (I said it was simple, not without dishes - this is what dishwashers were invented for!) Pour half the batter into the baking dish, top with half the topping and two handfuls of hazelnuts (or more if your are a nut for nuts, like me!) Repeat this layering process one more time. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Enjoy with coffee! (I like mine black, or on the rare occasion, with a slash of skim milk.)

A Ying and Yang Kind of Morning

You know those mornings when you can't decide what you want to have for breakfast, but skipping breakfast is never an option? Yeah, me too.

So why not have a little bit of everything?

I knew I needed some protein because I have a long, hot day of work ahead of me, so some fiesta scrambled eggs were in order...

But, but, but...I really wanted to have some of the blueberry preserves that I made a few days ago. Not having any bread on hand, I went with the next best thing - cornbread! Sweet and spicy, not a bad combination. 

Top it all off with a peach fresh from the farmers' market, and I am good for great day at work!

Grilling, Picnics, and Bubble Tea

I hope this blog post finds you all enjoying your summertime to the fullest: the weather has gotten decidedly warmer around here which makes staying inside virtually impossible; farmers' markets beckon to me from every street corner; swimming pools and sprinklers become necessities and sun kissed tans are quickly building to darkened tan lines. Oh how I love summertime. 

I've also been enjoying the many pleasures of alfresco dining with my man. We are quickly become grill masters and have used his barbecue to cook the majority of our meals as of late. This was actually one of the first meals we made together.

Spicy grilled chicken, spring greens salad, par-boiled and grilled potatoes, and an orange salad.

A little red wine never hurt anyone either...

 There has also been a ton of picnicking too, a traditional summertime staple. Here are some pictures from our very first picnic together. We ended up staying at the park until way after the sun went down, just talking and snacking.

Macadamia crusted tapalia, veggie basil brown rice salad, lots of sliced watermelon, homemade pecan honey bread, and chocolate dipped strawberries. A picnic fit for sharing!

 And we have been blessed enough to have shared many many breakfasts together as well. He is in the process of perfecting my soft boiled eggs, something which I had never tried to master before meeting him. This is just one way in which we spend our mornings together.

 And last but certainly not least, I have now officially tried Bubble Tea! For those of you out there who have no idea what I am talking about, let me break it down for you, because it is an experience everyone has to have at least once. Picture a smoothie, in whatever flavor floats your boat, that has been blended with green tea and a little protein powder. So far, pretty awesome sounding right? But it gets better! They then add boba to the bottom of your glass. What is boba? Little spheres of heaven that burst in your mouth and provide an incredibly sensational and yet almost unrepeatable sensory overload! Really, they are like nothing else I've experienced, especially in a drink. Some people don't enjoy this overall sensory overload, but I quite enjoyed it. The protein powder kept me full and focused (I sound like a Shredded Wheat commercial, but when the shoe fits...) and the flavor combination was refreshing and ultimately a treat. I shall be visiting that place again real soon. 

I highly recommend a mango Bubble Tea when you go... which should be now... go get your keys... or better yet walk to the nearest Bubble Tea shop and enjoy the summertime weather!

I'll end all this with a recipe that I am sure Peter, my boyfriend, would be ecstatic if I shared with you all. It has been his favorite thing we have made together so far (and trust me, we have dabbled in a lot of noms.)

Spicy Orange Salad

2 oranges, peeled and sliced whichever way you choose
1 TB freshly minced parsley, or 1 tsp dried
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp salt

Place oranges in a bowl (the easiest way to peel an orange for a salad like this is just to cut of the rind with a sharp knife.) Sprinkle on the remaining ingredients, adjust the seasoning for your taste, toss with your fingers, and serve.

Education is like a Frittata

I just finished my last week as an Undergraduate student of the University of Kentucky. The final class is in the books, my parents' last tuition dollar put to good use, and I can now look forward to focusing all of my attention on the culinary world. How strange is this? I know soon-to-be-graduates across the country are suddenly confronted with the same realization, that what we have been working on for almost two decades now is finally achieved. Our whole lives have centered around studying, reading textbooks, flashcards, vocabulary terms, finals exams, and term papers. But in just over a week, eight days to be exact, our happiness will no longer be determined by what we earn on a project or the comments we get from a professor on an idea for a thesis. How bazaar this paramount moment is.

I have been asked a lot this week about whether I was excited to be attending commencement next weekend, and all I can say is "yes and no." I could not be more proud to have earned my Undergraduate degree, in three years no less, and to have a definite career path for which I am so incredibly passionate to now turn all of my attention to. But how could I have achieved this so quickly? It scares me to think how time passes in the blink of an eye and, as cliche as it is to say, how it seems like just yesterday I was no so successfully blinking back tears as my parents and sister pulled away after moving me into my freshman dorm room. Mature, adult, professional, pulled together people graduate from college - I cannot be that prepared yet. But yet here I am, coordinating commencement day outfits, pressing my gown, making sure to hang up my tassel and cords, and planning graduation parties. Now only time will tell if I am truly prepared for this huge leap of faith called adulthood.

In a way, education is like a frittata. Colorful and vibrant. Yet nutritious and sustaining. It is what you make of it.  Throw everything together and see how it suits your tastes. Experiment, try new things, but know you will always have those old stand-by's to help you out in a bind. Just a few basic ingredients, steadfast technique, and the world in your oyster... rather, frittata.

Congratulations to all you soon-to-be college graduates out there!

Frittata for One

2 eggs

slash of milk

salt and pepper

1/3 tsp dried tarragon

mix-ins: I used spinach, tomato, onion, and yellow bell pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an oven proof dish with cooking spray. In small bowl, which eggs with milk and season with spices (feel free to customize these to your liking.) Fold in your mix-ins, pour into your oven proof dish and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on how deep your dish is, or until the middle is set and a knife, when inserted in the middle, comes out clean.

It's Waaaay to Early for Breakfast

The clock in the bottom corner of my screen says 5:24am. 

Even these pictures look tired.

I'm not hungry this early in the morning. Which is shocking because I'm always hungry. 

But I have to eat to have my strength for a whole day at work, then class, then back to work. 

I work at the Woodford Reserve Distillery, in their banquet kitchen. It is a beyond awesome job, with wonderful people, great food, and a fun atmosphere. It requires lots of long hours that usually extend from way before the sun gets up to way past by bedtime. However, that's a small price to pay for such a great opportunity. I am so thankful and thrilled to have earned the chance to work there, so good thing I am a morning person.

Anyway, here is my protein packed breakfast for working champions. Eggs, scrambled with lots of parsley, scallion, spinach, and a healthy dose of red pepper flakes, piled on top of melted mozzarella cheese, spicy salsa, and toasted tortilla. Yummy, regardless of what hour it is.

Time to go to work. Check Woodford out here: http://www.woodfordreserve.com/

When Life Gives you Buttermilk...

The best thing I know to do with leftover buttermilk is make biscuits. It is a no brainer really. But, as you know by now, I try to take the guilt out of eating by finding healthy ways to make what we all love to eat, so behold, the healthy buttermilk biscuit! (whatever you put on top, be it sausage gravy, jam, or honey butter, is completely up to you.)

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup plain yogurt (preferably Greek yogurt)

1 C low-fat buttermilk, plus more for brushing 

 Toss all your dry ingredients together with a fork. Cut the yogurt in with a pastry blender/fork/hands until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal (this is a little trickier to do than if you used shortening, but it's the same concept - just be gentle.) Use a fork to carefully incorporate buttermilk into the flour mixture, and just before it is all combined, dump out onto a clean work surface. Knead the dough into a smooth ball (try not to incorporate too much flour,) roll out to desired thickness, and cut out with biscuit cutters. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush with buttermilk. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Our university hosted our DanceBlue Marathon from 8am to 8pm Saturday (don't know what the heck I am talking about? You just have to check DanceBlue out over here - seriously,) so I was ready for a substantial breakfast yesterday morning, even though I hardly eat anything other than oatmeal and yogurt before noon. 

Scrambled eggs, potato hash, and one of my freshly baked buttermilk biscuits.

I also decided, since it was snowing outside, to treat myself to a little coffee drink. I always keep leftover coffee in a Mason jar in the fridge so I can have iced coffee when a craving hits. Plus you can add your flavoring (in my case, just some skim milk and a dash of vanilla, and lots of ice) and shake it up to get those wonderful foamy bubbles!

Hope it is snowy and beautiful where you guys are too!

Roasty Toasty Banana Bread

Happy Leap Day (yesterday) y'all! A whole extra day in the year which is essentially a freebie from Father Time as a reward for making it through the past three years. "Oh! I see that you endured 2009, 2010, AND 2011 without an extra day in February. Well this year, because you were SOOO good, I will gift you a whole extra day. Use it well and keep up the good work!" Yes, that is in fact how I think Father Time would talk too. All jovial and saint like, much like Santa Claus.

So what did I do to celebrate this extra day (disregarding the tornado warning and torrential downpour that soaked me to the bone for the rest of the day)? I made banana bread. But not just ANY banana bread, roasted banana bread. I know! Get back Jack, this stuff is good! I had read on one of my various food blogs that roasting bananas before adding them to banana pudding is a great way to develop natural sugars in the fruit and thus make it taste more banana-y. So, as I am not a huge banana pudding fan, applied this technique to banana bread. 

Bananas before the oven...

... and roasted bananas after the oven.

After mashing and adding to the rest of my wet ingredients, which included a lot less sugar because of the banana's now more pronounced natural sugars, I tossed it with some flour and nuts and threw it in the oven to wait the excruciatingly long 40 minutes for the loaf to be done. I have already decided that whatever is left of this beautiful loaf will soon turn into roasted banana french toast - more on that later!

Wet and dry, moments before marrying and making beautiful banana bread babies.

Roasted Banana Bread

Wet:
2 medium bananas, with their ends cut off
2 TB agave nectar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Place bananas on a baking sheet and roast at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until skins are browned and inside fruit is warmed and fragrant. Peel bananas and mash with a fork. Mix in a bowl with all wet ingredients, mix completely. Set aside. Mix all dry ingredients in a separate, larger bowl. Pour wet into dry and stir just to combine. Pour in a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, or until center comes out clean when poked with a toothpick.

Peanut Butter is a Food Group

Or at least in my world it is. I know it is not the best thing to be eating on a regular basis, thanks to its calorie density and saturated fat, but I figure there are worse things I could be addicted to. I try to cut my loses by buying the natural kind (I tried to low fat variety and that stuff is awful!) so I figure I am at least not putting so many chemicals and preservatives in my body. And I would like to start making my own someday, but that would require one of those fancy-dancy food processors which is still on my wish list. So all natural, Simply Jiff is what it is.

Given that I am so in love with this legume's spread, I tend to dollop it into a lot of my baking. Last week I made peanut butter and jelly muffins, a first for me. They were delicious, and I deemed them appropriate for breakfast, snacks, and dessert. Topped with a little of my homemade granola and I was good to go! Needless to say the dozen didn't last long at all.

Post 50 Planning

We are quickly approaching 50 posts (two more posts to go) and I am trying to decide what I should make for the memorable anniversary. I love baking and sweets, obviously, but as you will see below I have gone a little overboard on the sweets lately in order to celebrate my birthday - this is not a bad thing and I by no means complaining, mind you, I simply don't think my hips can take much more. I have journals and journals filled with ideas, recipes, and notes about cuisines and things to try, and I have been flipping through them to get ideas. (I know paper and pencil is not the most efficient way to do such a task, but what can I say? I am a traditionalist who sticks with what she knows. And technology and I don't get alone so I can't automate the system.)

Do you all have any suggestions or requests? I am all about trying something new, but am not against revisiting an oldie but a goodie. Or maybe pick something off my wish list to try, that sounds like fun! (check it out over here is you forget what's on there.)

While you ponder that - here are some photos!

Homemade granola! Made with oats, walnuts, raisins, agave nectar, and a little cinnamon. Easy squeezy.

I plan on eating this on top of yogurt, mixed into a salad, topping a baked sweet potato, 3and any extras will be baked into some pancakes at the end of the week - but I doubt it will last that long.

Have a happy week!

Ode to Hash

 Hi friends! T.F. (almost) F.

I was able to stay away from the chocolate this evening. Achievement? I think so.

But I feel into another trap - breakfast for dinner. Which I have done for three nights in a row now. Bad thing? I think not. It's nutritious, tasty, quick to prepare, you don't need a lot of ingredients, not to mention the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So why not eat it twice?

And now, my ode to hash. Hash, what a fabulous fruit. It is diverse and flexible, you simply can't mess it up, and you simply can't eat the same hash twice, I'm convinced it's impossible. I took this opportunity to clean out the fridge before traveling home for the weekend. I was able to use a left over potato, some red bell pepper, a sweet onion, and some chipotle and chili powder to make a spicy savory version. By letting the raw diced potatoes steam a bit in a shallow skillet with some chicken broth, then cooking off the liquid and crisping the veggies, I was able to impart some great, cooked-all-day flavor to my hash. MMMM...

Topped here with a perfectly poached egg (still my favorite way to prepare eggs), some seared turkey smoked sausage, and topped with a shred of cheddar cheese and chopped parsley.

'Tis the Season for Cinnamon

Rolls that is! I have been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for WEEKS now, allured by the sugary stickiness of melted brown sugar and cinnamon, the tender flake of the homemade yeast dough, and the fun that is eating them layer by layer as you pull them apart, leaving you with an almost too heavenly to be true center. But I was faced with the same conundrum I am always faced with when it comes to making a batch of something I have been craving... if I make it, I will eat it. Hence why I am always trying to pawn baked goods, remains of hearty casseroles, or slices of desserts off on people, so that they do not sit in my refrigerator and mock me every time I reach in there for something a little higher on the health scale, such as an apple or some hummus. Fortunately for me, I had an apartment full of willing and able eaters this past Tuesday night. They claim they came to watch the UK basketball game, but I suspect the promise of freshly baked Cinnamon Rolls topped with Cream Cheese Icing might have had something to do with their wanting to visit as well.

If tempting my friends with sugary treats is what it takes to 

1. finally bake something I have been craving for weeks, 

2. get my girlfriends to come over to visit when we are all so busy we can't seem to find the time, and 

3. saves me from having to flaunt my gross ignorance of basketball (I really am attending the wrong school, to LOVE football and not know a darn thing about basketball) then so be it! 

I topped each person's cinnamon roll with the cream cheese icing individually, so that it would melt down into the roll  perfectly as it was being eaten. Here's mine!

Rustic is my Middle Name

I figured today was a fine day for me to figure out how to use Blogger and how to make the pictures that I take (which are certainly not fabulous) look spectacular. I don't pretend to be a photographer (that is what I have my younger sister for; she takes jaw-dropping pictures) nor am I a professional chef by any means. I just love to cook and share my findings with others. And hopefully bring about some inspiration and curiosity in the kitchen after reading my blog. So welcome to the new and improved Peach&Kiwi!

One of my favorite things to do is use up any and all leftovers in the fridge in a different way than originally intended. Odds and ends veggies go into a frittata, a ham hock is re-purposed for a big stock pot of brown beans, leftover cornbread is diced and made into a southern version of panzanella salad. Today's leftover mission was to take white bean stew and turn it into breakfast. Not impossible, and oh so delicious! 

Let's start with the white bean stew first. I am a sucker for any kind of stew or soup (though admittedly I don't like cream based soups to save my life) and when I started reading a lot about using white beans as a base for a hearty soup, I was all too eager to try my hand at it. I took basically every veggies I had in the fridge (which included carrots, celery, onions, bell peppers, spinach, and tomatoes) and simmered them with some savory spices like rosemary and bay, bumped up the nutrition with some pearled barley, and whala! I got a soup that was comforting yet non-traditional, filling yet light. I ate it for a few nights but then needed to change it up and, since breakfast was staring me in the face, turn it into a savory breakfast.

I have been on a recent poached egg kick. I don't like big breakfasts (you know, the eggs, potatoes, biscuits, gravy, meat route) and instead tend to stick with cereal and yogurt. But poached eggs toe that line for me, that line between having to loosen your belt so early in the morning and having to go back to the cupboard because you're still hungry. The key is protein and carbs, those are your main energy suppliers. And this soup had plenty of that, so I took the heel off of a loaf of bread (yet another wonderful way to use up the heel that no one seems to want to eat anymore) toasted it up, ladled some of the white bean stew over top, topped that with a perfectly poached egg, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a few dashed of balsamic vinegar, and it was breakfast time!

It occurred to me shortly after eating this that you could do this same thing with any number of soups or stews. Vegetable, chili, corn chowder, cabbage soup, you name it and it can be made into breakfast. Not to mention ones that are impressive to entertain with at a brunch or breakfast-for-dinner party. So I encourage you to have fun and be creative... and go look at your leftovers!