My Pineapple Upside Down Cake Fiasco turned Triumph

 

I made it! I always wanted to try doing this cake and I finally did. I love it! My boys loved it. Its the quickest I ever saw cake go in my house since my Picky Princes give me a hard time with just about everything.

Anyways, I did it. But, ha ha, there was drama. Or should I say, an adventure. I got the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Let me just say, I love her. Every single one of her recipes I've tried turned out to be a success.... and a hit.

The recipe called for a pie dish or a 9" baking dish. However, I wanted a reason to use my Spring form pan, so I went ahead and used that. Bad idea. I did not do my usual testing to make sure any leaking would occur as the mixture was very thick; but leak it did. Within seconds there was the hissing sound of sizzling coming from the oven. My heart sank. I thought it would just stop, but no, it didn't. I opened the oven, smoke everywhere! Within minutes the kitchen was filled with it. I dashed to open all the windows that were not already opened then I prayed the smoke alarm would not go off. It didn't. Thank you Lord! Anyways, what to do about all that sizzling? It was too late to change pans as the syrup, pineapples and cherries were all already on the bottom, nicely arranged (The liquid from that was dripping, my batter was fine). I grabbed one of my disposable cookie sheets which, for some reason, I always have around. So, I took the dripping pan from the oven and placed it on that in one quick maneuver, placed it back in the oven and phew! That was the end of the sizzling. I had to deal with the burning smell till the smoke cleared though. Then I had to adjust my bake time A LOT! I took that pan out and tested it with about half a dozen toothpicks long after the recommended cook time. Then I just decided to wait and do some other cool things - like work on dinner. Of course, my sons were oblivious to all this because even though my oldest offered to help, he was busy watching Ratatouille and my youngest was busy climbing stuff, getting into stuff and watching the same thing on and off.

So hooray! The cake was finally ready but I was so nervous to turn it over because of all that occurred. I did this carefully and released the spring, held my breath and slowly, carefully, lifted the pan. Yaayyy!!! Success! I was overjoyed! I wanted to take so many pictures but my phone died, my youngest was all fussy, ready for dinner and I couldn't get my other camera. So, one picture, one beautiful story to share. Perfection. So, by this time my oldest finished his movie and saw the cake and was like, "I want cake". My thoughts were "Really?" I smiled sweetly and said he had to eat dinner first. Pretty good bargain, since he is the super picky one. He ate his dinner so quickly, I was just there secretly giggling, because, this doesn't happen in my house. All for a slice of cake. So, we cleared dinner and it was cake time and they loved it! Would have taken pictures of them, but.... I lived in the moment and enjoyed it with them. Piece of heaven.

Simple Home Made Honey Wheat Bread

I baked some rolls for a dinner party I went to over the holidays.

I decided to do this because I forgot to pick up rolls at the supermarket like I had planned to and I had no intention of going back to the store in the midst of the holiday craziness. Anyways, I loved the whole process, the mixing, kneading, waiting...... then the way it made my house smell! Divine! I was hooked. Hence, the reason why I finally got around to baking my own bread, I love the process. It is so simple, so easy, plus kneading dough is fun, although a KitchenAid stand mixer would be awesome! (wink)
So anyways, lets get down to business. Since I'm a novice at this, I decided on a basic recipe I found on one of my favorite sites allrecipes.com. I also wanted a little more help so I went to thekitchn.com. I finally decided on using the recipe from the latter, mainly because I did not have bread flour and my OCD would not allow me to use it, I also did not want all of three loaves and I did not feel like doing (putting it into a computer program) all that math. :) So, enough chatter, here's what I did.

All you need is flour, wheat flour, honey, vegetable oil (I just used the olive oil I had), milk, salt, warm water and of course yeast! Then you just need a large bowl, a clean kitchen towel, your hands, a loaf pan and some patience. Easy!

Ingredients
1 cup warm water (Approx 110°F or 43°C)
2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
2 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp melted butter (optional)

Directions

1. Pour water into the bowl and add yeast. Let sit until dissolved (remember do not kill the yeast with hot water) Stir in the milk, honey and oil.

2. Add the All Purpose Flour a little at a time and stir until ingredients are combined. Add the Whole Wheat a little at a time until your dough looks shaggy. Let this stand for 20 minutes to allow for proper absorption.

3. Turn dough over onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add a little flour. It should be smooth and slightly sticky and should spring back when poked when you are done. Shape into a ball.

4. Clean the bowl and film with a little oil then place your kneaded dough in it. Turn the dough to coat all sides. Cover the bowl and let sit in a warm area for about 1-1 1/2 hours to allow the dough to rise. It should look visibly puffed, almost twice the size it was before.

5. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and turn out your dough on top of it. Divide the dough in half and shape into a loose ball. Let sit for 10 minutes. (Since I only made one loaf, I wrapped one of the balls and placed it into a Ziploc then the freezer until I'm ready for it. You could do this after you shape it as well)

6. Grease the loaf pan. Shape dough ball into a loaf. You do this by flattening the ball into a circle, wait, shape into a rectangle slightly larger than the pan, wait, then roll into shape of log with seam on the bottom, tuck in the ends and pinch closed and invert into pan. You could also go here, Shaping a Loaf of Bread. Make sure the surface is stretched nice and taut.

7. Let rise once again until it is about to dome over the edge, about 30-40 minutes. Heat oven to 425°F halfway through.

8. With a serrated knife, slash the top of the loaf then place into the oven. Reduce heat to 375°F at this time and bake for about 30-35 minutes. The finished product should be dark brown and sound hollow when you tap the bottom of the pan. Remove loaf and brush melted butter over crust to prevent it from getting hard. (optional) Let cool completely.

Enjoy!

Moist Banana Bread

I love banana bread. Whenever I chance to have over ripe bananas then, we all know to expect some banana bread in the kitchen by lunch time. So, since I love it so much, you can imagine that I've tried many recipes. This one however was a winner, which I found on allrecipes. It was an old 4-H recipe and me being an old 4-H member jumped on it. I did however make some of my own changes and adjust it to the preference of my family. But beware, this one tends to be a bit sweet because of the raisins, you can omit them or reduce sugar if you like. So here we go.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 egg
2 to 3 over ripe mashed bananas (or enough for 1 cup)
1/2 cup raisins/ nuts (optional)
5 tbsp milk

Directions:

• In a small bowl, sift all dry ingredients together. (Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg)
• In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugar.
• Add lightly beaten egg and mashed bananas to creamed mixture.
• Slowly add sifted ingredients until combined
• Stir in milk and raisins
• Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius) for about 50 minutes or until top is brown and cracking.
• Remove from oven and loosely cover with foil for about 15 minutes (a moisture-sealing trick I learned)

Enjoy! 

My Curry Chicken

This is one of my favorite dishes ever!! I just can't get enough, more so if it is extra spicy. Ooh la laa. So this recipe is a mixture of mine and my mom's and we both like it extra spicy so if you are not a spicy fan, you can tone it down to your liking. Where I'm from in Jamaica, we like to season and marinate our meats before cooking, but this is completely up to the cook, you can heat oil, saute onion and garlic then add everything else if you want to. It's your kitchen, do what makes you happy. Okay, here we go.

2 lbs of cubed chicken (boneless or bone in)
1 large diced onion
1 stalk chopped scallion or green onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large country pepper diced (or jalapeño or chile or any available)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp dried or fresh thyme
2 tbsp curry powder
a dash of cayenne pepper
1 large cubed potato
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp olive oil

In a large bowl combine meat and all other ingredients except for the potatoes, coconut milk and oil. Cover and marinate overnight or up to an hour in the refrigerator.
Heat olive oil in a skillet. Saute meat, stirring occasionally for about 2 minutes. Add coconut milk and potatoes then simmer for up to 30 minutes (boneless) or up to 35 minutes (bone in) or until juices run clear.
Serve with rice (white or brown) or any side dish of your preference. Enjoy!