Honey almond loaves

Honey almond loaves, a healthier holiday treat sweetened only with organic honey and perfect for gift-giving. Enjoy for breakfast or dessert!

I love the holidays as much as the next gal -- probably more so, given the multiple trees I decorate in the house -- but the overeating and over-indulgent eating can be a drag. Well, not at the time, of course -- at the time, the food is too delicious so you just keep cramming it in your face.

But let's be real: I know that there's no way I'm not going to indulge in whatever sweet treats come my way this holiday season, via gift giving, holiday parties or family celebrations. (We save the not indulging for Detox January, remember?)

So what's a normally healthy-ish eater to do? This year, I'm giving these honey almond loaves, sweetened only with honey rather than lots of refined sugar.

Tiramisu bread

You'll love this tramisu bread -- all the delicious flavors of the classic dessert in a simple quick bread.

Happy Valentine's Day!

OK, I know it's not really Valentine's Day (heck, we haven't even quite reached the end of Detox January), but you are going to feel like it is a holiday all about love with today's post. Why? Two reasons:

1. I am giving you a spectacularly yummy recipe for tiramisu quick bread that is perfect for Valentine's Day. 
2. I've teamed up with some other blogging buddies to give you a chance to win a $500 gift card from Tiffany and Co., which would pretty much be perfect for choosing a Valentine's Day gift! (The giveaway deets follow the recipe below.)

Booyah for Valentine's Day!

Now, before you get all cray cray about the giveaway, let's talk about this tiramisu bread.

ERMERGAHD. This stuff is like candy -- well, if the candy was coffee-mocha-marsala-flavored. Just as with the traditional tiramisu dessert, the key to this recipe is rich mascarpone cheese, which I love because it's not too sweet. Add to that a great mocha-espresso flavor, accented with sweet marsala wine and you've got all the awesomesauce of tiramisu without any of the hard work.

Peanut butter and banana snack cake

Super-easy peanut butter and banana snack cake is perfect for snacking or a quick breakfast.

We're into Week 2 of Detox January 2014 and I'm giving you a recipe for peanut butter and banana snack cake.

Only with The Ninj do the words "cake" and "detox" manage to go well together.

(See? I told you this would be easy!)

Since I'm still on my post-oral-surgery soft food kick, I've been trying to come up with ever-more inventive ways with bananas, as they are filling and a good source of protein. I've been making a version of this snack cake (peanut butter only) for a few years now and realized that, if I took small bites and mixed in some mashed banana, it would definitely be post-surgery worthy -- especially since I have graduated from drinking my meals to chewing them again.

The banana was the perfect addition, lending a bit more moistness and really highlighting the creamy peanut butter flavor. It's a new breakfast favorite around Casa de Ninj.

This cake is also very kid-friendly and would be a nice lunchbox or after-school treat.  And, as with all my favorite recipes, feel free to personalize it; for example, throw in a handful of chopped nuts, if you want to add a little crunchiness, or add a sprinkling of crushed peanuts to the top before baking.

Eggnog coffee cake

Eggnog coffee cake with a cinnamon-nut swirl and topping is only lightly sweet, making it perfect for breakfast.

I'm wrapping up eggnog week with a total winner: eggnog coffee cake -- no coffee required.

By now, you've made a batch of easy homemade eggnog and perhaps even turned it into some eggnog cookies. If you haven't yet completely boozed it up and glugged it all down, you can now use it in this moist, delicious coffee cake.

While I like sweet treats and desserts, I prefer my baked goods a little on the less-sweet side (some I even prefer savory). This eggnog coffee cake fits the bill, making it ideal not only for breakfast but also as an afternoon snack or a pretty after-dinner dessert.

(Don't you just love versatility?)

But I'm highly recommending it for breakfast, especially your Christmas morning breakfast, which is rapidly approaching and deserves a pretty, delicious cake.

Port and cherry brownies

Rich and decadent round brownies made with ruby port and tart dried cherries.

I got a recipe for boozy cherry brownies delivered straight to my inbox. Booyah. If that's not fate, I don't know what is.

As a food blogger, I get slammed on a daily basis with press releases and other marketing emails, wanting me to promote/review/check out whatever food-related item or information is being hawked.

Most of it is crap, but every once in a while, there's a diamond in the crap pile. Recently, the diamond was this brownie recipe.

Since the recipe comes directly from Dorie Greenspan, I knew it would be foolproof. And since it's made with port wine, bittersweet chocolate and tangy dried cherries, I knew it would be completely awesome.

And it is.

I love that they are made in muffin tins which makes them not only round (Dorie calls them "broundies") but also cutely personal-sized without the jaggedy cut edges of pan brownies.

Pumpkin ginger cupcakes (gluten-free or not) -- and a giveaway

These delicious pumpkin ginger cupcakes with mascarpone frosting can be made gluten-free or not.

Yes, I know it's November and therefore the all-pumpkin-all-the-time blogger recipe pumpkinpalooza should now be over, right?

Wrong.

As I have mentioned before, The Ninj respects seasonality. To wit, I held off this year on pumpkin-izing the blog until October, to give props to apples and pears in September.

And guess what? Pumpkins are still in season, even though Halloween is over and it is November! I mean, hello? Ever heard of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert?

But I'm here to do you one seasonal dessert better, since regular readers know I'm not a fan of pie: pumpkin ginger cupcakes with a creamy mascarpone-cream cheese frosting. Now THIS is a Thanksgiving dessert that I can get behind.

And did I mention these cupcakes are gluten-free? OR NOT!!? And that either way they are moist, not cloyingly sweet and perhaps the most perfect dessert EVAH?

Yeah, I'm pleasing the heck out of everyone with this one, especially for Thanksgiving. Pfffft: Who the hell would eat pie when you can have cupcakes?

Banana-zucchini muffins

So, have you used up all your zucchini yet? (Snort)

Yeah, I know: bad joke. Mine is still coming in from the garden and I don't know how many more baggies of shredded zucchini my freezer can hold. I still have one in there from last year, for cripes sake.

But if you also happen to have a past-its-eating-prime banana hanging around, today is your lucky day.

If not for the pathetic banana on the counter, I would likely have made my summer harvest zucchini bread this week. But frugality (read: cheapness) got the better of me: I was determined to use up the banana and the zucchini -- and not by throwing either one into the compost bin. My challenge to myself was to find a way to use them both in one recipe.

Lucky for you, I scored. And scored big.

You know how yummy banana bread is? And you know how much you love zucchini bread? Yeah? Well, now combine them together, add some flax seed meal to make it good for you and -- voila! -- you've got The Ninj's favorite new breakfast: banana-zucchini muffins.

The best thing about these banana-zucchini muffins is that they are incredibly moist, without any added oil -- and not that rubbery, oh-you-clearly-added-applesauce-instead-of-oil-to-make-it-healthy moistness. We enjoy them au naturel (which makes them handily portable), but they are also wicked with a little butter or fruit butter schmeared on them.

And they freeze well, too.

Flourless chocolate cake with strawberry-rhubarb jam

 
I need you to make me a promise. Right now.

You must promise me that you will make this cake as soon as possible. It is imperative that you promise me this because, if you don't, your life will not be complete.

(Yes, the cake is that good.)

Mr. Ninj described it as "better than restaurant-quality"; I'm calling it my new go-to dessert.

But wait -- there's more: it is ridiculously easy to make.

How easy? Well, can you boil water and use a spoon? Then you are imminently qualified to make this cake.

I'm participating once again in the From Scratch Club's virtual book club; currently, we are cooking from Sherri Brooks Vinton's Put 'Em Up! Fruit. Every two weeks, the group is assigned a different seasonal fruit or group of fruits to preserve (put 'em up) and then incorporate into a recipe (use 'em up). And we share our results with the rest of the group (and I, with you).

Our first fruit group was strawberries and rhubarb, the classic early-summer duo. I decided to cheat a little bit and use my roasted strawberry-rhubarb jam, since Sherri's book included recipes both for strawberry-rhubarb jam as well for roasted rhubarb (which was very similar) -- and I had already made a bunch of jars of my jam.

Lucky for you, one of Sherri's suggested recipes for using the jam was this flourless chocolate cake (topped with the jam). Frankly, I tried this recipe because I was pressed for time and happened to have all the ingredients in my pantry, but it turned out to be an excellent choice.

What a cake! 

Nutella banana bread

Since I made my own Nutella, I've been looking for new, creative ways to use it -- other than eating it straight from the jar with a new, creative spoon each time.

That, coupled with having three past-their-prime bananas on the kitchen counter, gave rise to this bread.

(And why do overripe bananas always seem to hang out in recipe-perfect groups of three?)

Regular readers know I like my sweet stuff a little on the less sweet side (I'm more of a savory gal, frankly), which is why I'm happy happy HAPPY about this bread. It's a great afternoon snack and, if you don't mind a little chocolate in the morning (Mind? Who am I kidding...), it's a lovely breakfast bread.

Especially toasted and topped with a little schmear of strawberry jam. Yowza.

Pinspiration: Double chocolate cake

This is the second installment of my new feature -- Pinspiration -- in which I make some of the recipes I have pinned in Pinterest and share some love for the original creators.

If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll see that I pin a lot of baked goods recipes. Not a lot of over-the-top baked goods, mostly breads and breakfasty items.

But sometimes you just need chocolate cake, right?

This recipe was actually described as "healthy zucchini brownies." Um, let's just be clear: these are neither brownies nor healthy. But they are less bad for you than many desserts, given the use of whole wheat flour, applesauce and shredded zucchini (just ignore the large amount of sugar and chocolate chips!).

I guess "less-bad-for-you cake" wasn't as good a title.

The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook (a review)

Have you ever wanted to eat your way across the entire state of Vermont? Or get a first-hand taste of real farm-to-table eating?

Well, now you can, in your own home, via Tracey Medeiros' new book, The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook: 150 Home-Grown Recipes from the Green Mountain State. 

(photo courtesy of The Countryman Press)

Medeiros' book, supplemented with gorgeous food and Vermont scenery photography from Oliver Parini, is refreshing in that while it includes the expected recipes from chefs at Vermont's most celebrated restaurants, it also offers favorite family recipes shared by the farmers who provide many of the key ingredients to those same food professionals.

Additionally, Medeiros offers a profile of each contributor or the backstory behind the recipe, which makes each feel like one you received from a friend or relative.

Pinspiration: slow cooker pumpkin bread

 

Are you on Pinterest? If so, I'm sure you, like thousands of others, have a pin board named "Yummy Food to Make" or "Recipes I Want to Try" or "Hellz Yeah" or some other such cleverness.

Now, show of hands: how many of you have actually made any of those recipes?

(Crickets, crickets, crickets)

Exactly.

That's what inspired this new feature: Pinspiration.

As a food blogger, it's hard to come up with interesting new ideas for things to cook every single day, since I rarely make the same thing twice anymore. Therefore, I really appreciate all the inspiration I get from things I see on Pinterest.

So I decided to create a feature to show some love for all of your pins.

First up, a yummy pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and crystallized ginger made in the slow cooker, courtesy of Katie at Mom's Kitchen Handbook, inspired by a slow cooker banana bread recipe from Jane of The Zen of Slow Cooking.

Shut. The. Front. Door.

Not lying, not a typo: the slow cooker. Now you know why the original pin caught my eye.

Chocolate-strawberry quick bread

I love it when a recipe that is easy, delicious and timely crosses my path.

Just such a perfect event happened earlier this week.

It was late afternoon and I was craving a little something sweet (but it's me, so not too sweet) but didn't feel that I had the time or the energy for a whole batch of cookies, nor did I want the calorie overload. In checking my Facebook feed, I found the perfect solution.

Simple Bites had just posted about a chocolate and jam tea cake. I pulled up the recipe and loved the fact that it was touted as a "way to use up last year's preserves" (got those) but was also a tiny bit disappointed that it called for a lot of butter and whole milk -- not quite stealthily healthy enough for me as a snack.

So I adapted it.

As I did so, it occurred to me that, while I am not by a long shot the best or most inventive cook I know, I am proud of how much my skills have improved and my knowledge grown since I started this blog three years ago. (Remember, I didn't really know how to cook much at all until I was nearly 30.) Practice makes perfect, right?

Apricot cookie bars

I'm not happy with this picture but don't let that keep you from sampling their awesomeness.

These cookies started out as a riff on fig newtons -- without the fig. Does that just make them newtons? Fruit newtons?

Let's just say they are fig newtonish. Personally, I think they're a little nicer. Not as sweet, not quite as cakey but still a delicious cookie with a chewy fruit filling.

As an aside, has anyone else ever wondered why they are called fig newtons? Apparently, the fig-filled pastry was first produced by a Massachusetts-based company that named them "newtons" after the town of Newton, Massachusetts.

Nice.

Pancake breakfast muffins

I've been working on this recipe for weeks now and am so excited that it is finally ready to share.

Regular readers know of my obsession with breakfast foods -- that is, trying to find breakfast recipes that meet my stringent criteria:

1. Reasonably healthy
2. Easy to make in advance
3. Portable
4. Freezable

You wouldn't think this would be such a tall order, but it is. At least, finding more than one or two recipes that meet the criteria is hard. If you eat the same thing every day and don't care about variety, I guess you'd be go to go -- but that's not how I roll.

Recently, it occurred to me that while I love pancakes, I never seem to bother to make them, especially during the week. It seems like too much of a hassle to drag out the griddle and just stand there, making three pancakes at a time. Not speeedy. I have a friend that whips up a huge batch and then freezes them, so her kids can pull a few out of the freezer and heat them up for a quick breakfast or snack. Perfect workaround, if I ever remembered to make a big batch on the weekends.

Then I realized that I could mess around with the format a little. Because pancakes are not really unique: they are cakes, with the normal roster of cakey ingredients -- flour, egg, baking soda, etc. And cakes are basically muffins, right?

So I took my pancake recipe and made it into a muffin recipe.

Panettone

Panettone

I'm sure each of you has at least one never-to-be-messed-with family holiday traditions. Mine is panettone, a light, sweet, fruit-filled Italian bread.

(Well, it used to be homemade manicotti for Christmas day dinner, but then I married someone who is not Italian and we started spending the holidays with his non-Italian family.)

So I introduced my non-Italian in-laws to panettone. I'm happy to report it has become one of their traditions now, too (or, at the very least, they're humoring me, so thanks for that -- mwah.).

As I mentioned in my last post, I like to try one big new recipe at holiday time each year. This year, I decided to try my hand at panettone, complete with homemade candied citrus peel.

It turns out, there are a LOT of varied recipes for panettone out there on the web, which can make it difficult to decide which one to try, especially when you're messing with a tradition: you don't want it to suck.

To stay on the safe side, I chose Jeff Hertzberg's and Zoe Francois' recipe, straight from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. Even as an amateur bread baker, I have had such good luck with their recipes and instructions that I knew it would be a winner.

Green tomato cake

Green tomato cake

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here in Vermont, it's definitely fall.

I enjoy the change of season and the feeling of turning inward that it brings. While my wardrobe moves from t-shirts and flipflops to fuzzy sweaters and boots, my mind changes gears from gardening to loading up the bird feeders, reading by the fire and pots of chili and soup.

But when I put the garden to bed, there are always unripened tomatoes. Sadly, they never got their chance to shine and be the star of some salad, sandwich or jam. It seems a shame to just get rid of them, doesn't it?

So I don't. I let them have their moment in the sun, so to speak.

Blueberry-peach cobbler with sugar cookie crust

Blueberry-peach cobbler with sugar cookie crust

So this is kinda fun: this post represents my first time participating in the Secret Recipe Club.

Here's how it works: each month I am assigned another member's blog (a different one each month). I then pick any recipe from that blogger's site, make it and write about it here. There's also a link hop at the end of the post so that I (and you) can check out all the other participating blogs.

Neat idea, right? I'm excited to see who got the Ninj and what s/he decided to make!

This month I got to check out the offerings from Jenn at A Cook's Quest. She has lots of great recipes, especially if you are cooking on a budget. But of course I knew which recipe I'd choose when I came across her sugar cookie crust for fruit cobbler.

Or cobblah, if you're a New Englandah.

Strawberry-lemon marmalade and marmalade muffins

Strawberry-lemon marmalade, used to make marmalade muffins

I can't believe we're already halfway through the Cook It! 2012 challenge! We've made and shared so many awesome staples and recipes so far: pasta, bread, butter, cheese, lactofermented veg (pickles) and now jam.

Well, in my case, marmalade.

According to the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, a marmalade is nothing more than a jam or jelly with fruit peel suspended in it.

I'd call that jam with zing!

I'm not new to making jams and jellies, so this challenge didn't fill me with any real trepidation. But I did want to do something a little bit different. However, I picked a time when the only fresh fruit to be had was strawberries.

(Believe me, I'm not complaining. Who the heck would complain about fresh strawberries?)

But everyone does strawberry jam and that wouldn't be very Challenge-ish, now would it?

Hence the strawberry-lemon marmalade.

CSA Share Ninja Rescue: zucchini

Zucchini chips

This week, readers have started receiving zucchini in their shares.

Let the great summer zucchini onslaught begin!

I tried to include both traditional and non-traditional ideas for using zucchini; there's only so many times you can serve sauteed zucchini as a side dish without your family looking weary, am I right?

As always, if you need help with a veggie you've received in your CSA share, leave a comment below or send me an email before this coming Friday.

Recipes suggestions are posted on Mondays.

• Zucchini chips: Near and dear to my heart, as these are my only official prize-winning recipe. 
• Zucchini pecan cake: Whether you make it as a cake or muffins (minus the frosting), this recipe from In Praise of Leftovers is a winner.
• Lemony zucchini goat cheese pizza: I love this easy, unusual recipe from Smitten Kitchen -- perfect for casual summer dining.
• Cream of zucchini soup: I just discovered this one from The Meaning of Pie -- easy and delicious, my favorite combination!
• Morning glory muffins: Just substitute shredded zucchini for the carrots called for in this great breakfast muffin recipe.

You can also check out last year's suggestions for using zucchini.

What's your favorite way to prepare zucchini? The Ninj wants to know.



[Shared with the What's in the Box? link party]