Diving Into Darkness and an Upside Down Plum Cake

I just can't wait for daylight savings time!! It is soooooooo dark in the mornings it feels like the alarm is going off in the middle of the night! Walking to work in the dark is also kind of scary......just sayin'. Perhaps I should take a flashlight.... At least I get home while it is still light out.  As we delve deeper into autumn then into the depths of winter, it will be dark at the beginning and the end of the work day. OK, enough about the impending darkness on the prairies, we are after all, here for the food!

The other week we bought a bunch of these cute Italian plums.  Hubby loves plums and he figured he'd take them in his lunches to work.  The very first day, I got a message from him that read.  "These plums are tasty".  Followed very quickly by "I just found a worm in the plum".  Well, at least it was the whole worm.....right?  Understandably, he was a little gun shy about taking any of the plums after that....  ICK!

Now I just can't let a basket of plums sit there and not be baked into something!  I started searching the Foodbuzz archives for plum recipes and found this delectable looking upside down plum cake from Boulder Locavore.  After checking the cupboards, then running to the store for milk, coming back, starting the baking, it was after 9:00pm. So what did I do? I kept going forcing me to stay up late. Yes, 6:00 am comes quite early but once I started mixing, I just kept going! Did I need the cake for anything? No. But with my Hubby and the Boy both studying for their courses, I needed something to pass the time.  Also, the plums make me think of summer....

I slightly adapted the recipe to suit my baking style but this cake is so fabulous you should go check out Boulder Locavore yourself.  This cake would go well with other fruit if you don't have plums on hand.

Upside down Plum Cake

·         1/2 cup butter, softened (divided into 3tbsp and 5 tbsp portions)

·         ½ cup packed light brown sugar

·         2 tablespoons water

·         3 cups pitted plums

·         1 ¾ cups flour

·         ½ cup ground almonds or almond meal

·         1 cup white sugar

·         1 tablespoon baking powder

·         ¼ teaspoon salt

·         1 cup milk

·         2 eggs

·         1 ½  tsp vanilla

 

         Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 

     Wash and cut the plums into wedges.

       Melt 3 tablespoons butter and pour into the bottom of a 9 x 9 pan. (I used my spring form pan and the butter leaked out so play it safe with a regular pan)

       Add to the butter in the pan the brown sugar and water.  Stir to combine and spread the mixture evenly across the bottom of the pan.

  

     Arrange the plums on the bottom of the pan and set aside.

      In a large mixing combine flour, ground almonds, white sugar, baking powder, and salt.

 

     In another bowl, mix together the milk, 5 tbsp of softened butter, eggs, and vanilla.

  

      Add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat until well combined, then beat another minute on medium,

    

      Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.   I think know my cake needed another 5 to 10 minutes to bake.

I lost a lot of the brown sugary goodness through the pan....

           Allow it to cool for 5 minutes on a cooling rack (note: do not allow it to sit longer or it may be difficult to remove from the pan).  Run a knife along the sides of the pan and carefully turn onto a serving plate.    Cool about 45 minutes.

 I highly recommend this cake.  It was the perfect thing to have for breakfast this morning!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

The Tastiest, Easiest Fudgey Pumpkin Cookies Ever and an Epic Battle

Gratuitous fudgey pumpkin cookie shot....something to look forward to....

The Nephew slept over Saturday night so I got to spend my birthday with my 3 favourite guys....Hubby, the Boy, and the Nephew! We watched a movie, watched the nephew get over tired from going to 2 other birthday celebrations, and had a massive Nerf dart gun battle. You know you are in trouble when you see this:

Or this.....

The poor little guy, because of the cast, he needed help loading gun for EVERY shot! It still didn't stop him from chasing the Boy into the bathroom and cornering him in the tub though!

Darts were flying everywhere!!

Eventually though, snacks were needed....energy was needed to keep up the battle.....

And to keep everyone happy!

A happy Nephew and his pirate loot!

The moment I saw these, I knew I had to make them.  I have made them twice now.  Since Sunday.  It is only Tuesday.  Hubby did take some to work and I did some to my mother in law's for supper last night. Cleo Coyle not only writes the Coffee House Mysteries, she manages to whip up some very tasty treats!  Cleo did a guest post on Dying for Chocolate and that post introduced me to Chocolate Fudge Pumpkin Cookies.  You only need a few items from the pantry to make these.

A box of devil's food cake mix, a can of pumpkin, vanilla, and chocolate chips!!!  For the glaze, all you need is butter, water, pumpkin pie spice, orange colouring, vanilla, and icing sugar. Seriously.....go to the dying for chocolate link, get the recipe, and make these....then go to the Coffee House Mysteries link and check things out.

Mix the mix, pumpkin, and vanilla

Keep mixing....it will come together

Add the chocolate chips

Scoop and bake

Make the glaze

Drizzle with Glaze

Seriously, make these cookies.....I dare you!!

Make sure to check out the blog hop for Melt in you Mouth Monday over at Make Ahead Meals!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Cook For the Cure

Every week in our staff room, someone has the nasty job of tidying up, running the dishwasher, and bringing in some treats on Friday.  It is a neat idea to keep things neat but sometimes it seriously feels like some people use it as a license to leave dirty dishes in the sink and leave their crumbs everywhere.  While I was loading the dishwasher, I grabbed a glass from the counter.  It turned out is was actually 2 glasses nested together and the outside glass was broken. There was actually a shard of glass on the counter! Lucky for me I notice before a grabbed tightly and pulled the glasses apart!

For the past three years, I have used my clean up week/treat day to raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation through their Cook for the Cure party. All I have to do is register my party online, tell my co workers that on my Friday I will collect donations for the CBCF.  Donations are optional and everyone is invited to snack.  The CBCF always helps me out by sending items to raffle off, things to use as thank yous such as post it notes and name tag lanyards.

This year's treats included: Brownies with pink icing, pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple brown butter icing, strawberry mini cupcakes with strawberry meringue icing, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate meringue icing, pink strawberry Star Wars sugar cookies, banana bread Marvel heads, and some chips with onion dip and popcorn....you know, just to have some salt!

Between donations and raffle tickets, the lovely people I work with, donated $500!!! WOW! Thank you guys!  The prizes sent to my by CBCF were 2 cookbooks with a pink apron attached to each one, 2 pink Webkinz poodles, and 2 pink ribbon travel mugs.  Each raffle winner was very happy to win their prize!! I really should have taken pictures, but I left my camera at home the day I did the raffle. (Shucks!)

Anyone interested in donating, please go to this link and click on the 'sponsor me button'.

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1254427&langPref=en-CA

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Tale of Two Mexican Restaurants

We seem to have a bunch of Mexican restaurants opening up around the city and I must say I am a fan of this concept.  Hubby, the Boy, and I have visited two of these restaurants in the past month and have had some pretty darn tasty food! As I write this I am still so full I could fall asleep! The food at both places was delish but at the same time quite different from each other.

Tonight we visited Burrito del Rio on River Avenue.  It is a brightly painted, Subwayesque place where they make your food in front of you so you can choose the fillings.  Burritos are the main item but they also offer tacos and fajitas. Once you choose from  a variety meats such as chicken, carnitas, beef, (or veggie), you can choose from two different types o beans as well as corn, rice, lettuce, jalapenos, cilantro, green onions, and even different sauces and salsas.  There is quite a bit to choose from.

I opted to try the pork carnitas burrito tonight.  When asked if I wanted the vegetarian black beans or the pinto beans with bacon, I obviously said "the ones with bacon please!" When you order a burrito, seriously, order the medium. It is easily enough food to feed a small army (or a teen age boy). The burrito itself was quite tasty. The sauces were flavourful but I found the carnitas itself to be quite bland and in need of some help from the other ingredients.  The medium salsa I had the girl put in the burrito was more of a mild salsa so I think next time I will opt for the hot.

Hubby and the Boy both ordered the beef burritos and varied their options to suit their own tastes.  Hubby tells me the hot salsa needed more heat and he resorted to multiple additions of hot sauce. The beef had more of a flavourful, Mexican inspired spice to it than the carnitas did and was quite tasty.

Cost wise, Burrito del Rio was nice.  We paid just under $40 for 3 medium burritos, a basket of taco chips with guacamole, 2 can drinks and 1 sangria (I just had to try the sangria. It was from a bottle and not homemade so I was a little disappointed there).  We all left full and happy with our food.

Overall the meal was very tasty and filling.  I don't think I would order the carnitas again but will definitely give something else on the menu a try.  I am not a fan of the basket lined with foil thing they have going on.  We all used a knife and fork to eat and that just cut right through the foil.  We did notice many people pick up their burritos and eat them like that but I just couldn't fit that in my mouth. We will go back and try more food.

A couple of weeks ago, we tried out another cafeteria style Mexican joint on Henderson called JC's Tacos and More.  This is another brightly painted place housed in the old Elmwood post office.  Once your read through the board with a decent number of choices, you have to make up your mind!!  JC's uses all natural and organic meats so that has been worked into the cost. We paid just over $50 for the three of us to eat here for 3 meals and 3 canned pops. There is also a nice offering of home made sauces of varying heat to try out, each one was delectable.

JC's is a cafeteria style restaurant where you order at the counter.  Some of the fillings and items they house up here.  Items such as the rice, beans, beef, and carnitas are held up here but lots of prep goes on in the back.  Other dinners had ordered a burrito and when this tiny lady walked by to deliver this ginormous burrito to the table next to us, I was suprised she could carry it, it was just that big!!

That night, the Boy was still recovering from his gastritis and order a chicken quesadilla.  Grilled chicken fresh ingredients, he truly enjoyed the quesadilla.

quesadilla

Hubby ordered the 3 taco platter with the shredded beef. The platter came with rice and beans. This proved to be quite the filling platter.  The shredded beef was quite flavourful and lent a punch to the taco.

3 taco platter

I ordered the enchilada with grilled chicken...I adored this enchilada. The ingredients used were fresh, the grilled chicken in particular was lovely. I wound up taking leftovers home.

Enchilada platter

a bottle of tasty hot sauce

We did enjoy both restaurants will most likely go back to both of them but at the moment I must say I am leaning towards JC's as the food I enjoyed more.

I am so ready for my burrito coma. I will have to save my ice cream for tomorrow....perhaps for breakfast...

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

A Pumpkin Fell into My Cart!!!

I popped into the store this evening to pick up "just a couple of things" and left with a pumpkin....you know how it goes.  They didn't have the hair product I was looking for so I bought food related items instead....sigh.  I just really fell in love with fall, pumpkins, and pumpkin seeds! That's right, I just wanted to roast the pumpkin seeds....some roasted/pureed pumpkin is just a bonus.

The Boy wanted to test out some of his carving skills this evening, so I figured why not?  I killed the pumpkin and scooped out its brains then prepped the pumpkin seeds or roasting in the oven.  I used Boulder Locavore's method of roasting the seeds, they were nice a crisp!

The Boy went to work with sharp utensils and such to see what he could come up with.

When he is done, I will roast up the pumpkin flesh and have some bake worthy goodness to bake with.  This is a win-win situation.

I was somewhat disappointed with the amount of seeds in this pumpkin, but that is the chance you take when you buy only one pumpkin!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!