Way back in the 20th century, I spent 3 years in NW Ontario. The last year there was at a camp, as part-time teacher, part-time domestics. One of my favorite recipes from there is Finnish Coffee Cake. I hadn’t made in a few years and had actually lost my recipe, so I contacted my friend Marcia, who was my supervisor at the camp, and she had the recipe. She said it’s among her favorites from our collection at camp.

This coffee cake has no eggs in it and it is easy to whip up. I’ve made it at the office a few times now and it doesn’t take long for it to disappear!

 

Finnish Coffee Cake

1¼ cup sugar 
1 tsp. vanilla 
1 cup oil 
1 cup buttermilk 
2 cups flour 
1 tsp. baking powder 
½ tsp. soda 
½ tsp. salt
 
cinnamon mixture: 1 T. cinnamon and 4 T. brown sugar
 
Mix sugar, vanilla, oil, and milk together, then add rest of ingred. mix well. pour half of batter in greased 9x13 cake pan. add ½ cinnamon mixture .

Pour rest of batter on and then rest of cinn. mixture. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. While cake is still warm poke holes in w/ fork and drizzle w/ following:

 
1 cup powdered sugar, ½ tsp. vanilla, enough hot water to make a thin paste

 

Though it doesn’t take any eggs, it does take a whole cup of oil. I haven’t tried using olive oil. I’m afraid it would flavor it too much.

You don’t even need to pull out a mixture. Just whisk in a bowl.

The batter is fairly thin and pale.

After you put have of the batter in a greased 9×13, sprinkle half of the crumb mixture over it.

Add the rest of the batter and finish with the last half of the crumb mixture.

It has the most delicious aroma when it’s baking.

After you pull it out of the oven, take a fork or toothpick and make holes in the cake so that the icing can soak down in.

Serve to the masses who have been attracted to the kitchen by the smells coming forewith. There it is. Simple. Delicious!

 

Some time ago, I mentioned that I have a recipe called Penne Rustica waiting in the wings to bring to you. The meaning of “waiting in the wings” must have escaped me somewhere along the line because it the recipe has not been called to front and center stage yet. Of course, I also promised you some Colorado

pictures and

“Chahlston” pictures and those have not been forthcoming yet either. So even though I have loads of laundry waiting to be folded, my bed remade with fresh clean sheets and fresh clean chenille duvet cover and more cleaning to be done and sour cream apple pie to be made for tomorrow’s carry-in that is being held because we have a deacon ordination happening here this week and an other childhood girlfriend of mine is becoming a minister’s wife, yeah, in spite of all of that, I am going to prop up my feet for a bit and get this done.

You’re welcome!

If you’re a fan of Macaroni Grill, as am I, you may have had their Penne Rustica. And if you enjoyed it, as did I, you may have wished for a way to make it yourself. Now this recipe is similar but not by any means a clone of theirs. It is my adaption of a cloned recipe.

Assuming you have already peeled your shrimp and cut your chicken into small pieces, the start on the gratinata sauce. Sounds so cool, right. Gratinata sauce. Yum! It’s really good stuff and you have to keep your spoonful tastes to a minimum or there will not be anything left for your pasta.

Put 1 minced garlic clove in 2 T. of butter and let it simmer for a little bit.

Then add the half & half, chicken broth & milk & tomato sauce.

There is just something so cool about seeing milk or cream being poured out. I remember watching my dad strain the milk from our Guernsey cow named Corina. The milk just pours out so …. poetically. Someone send me a thesaurus, please. I need to expand my vocabulary.

Heat this mixture to close to a boil.

While this is heating up, mince rosemary and thyme and dump it in.

Thyme is so delicate and my hand is so wrinkly.

Now take the thyme to add 1 1/2 T. flour with a half cup (or so) of milk or chicken broth and whisk it together really well. I mean really well. You don’t want lumps later.

Once the milk/cream mixture is nearing a boil, whisk this in and stir until it starts to boil and thicken up.

Now comes the good part: CHEESE!

3/4 of a delicious cup of Parmesan cheese.

and 1 cups of mixed Italian cheeses or mozzarella, take your pick.

Mix this together and take it off the burner. Feel free to taste it but don’t be tempted to like me to call it soup and eat a bowlful. So far I have resisted temptation.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that your penne pasta should already be cooking and nearly be finished by now.

Take another skillet and melt 2 T. butter. Add, minced garlic, sliced mushrooms and the chicken. Season with a little salt and pepper.

When this is nearly finished, add your uncooked shrimp. If you have chosen to buy precooked shrimp, add it to pasta and sauce later. If you have access to fresh Wild Georgia Shrimp like I do, it would be nearly wrong to buy pre-cooked. But I will look the other way if you wish to do that.

I think it’s amazing that the shrimp gets this DONE look by turning from limp gray to firm orange and white.

Drain excess juice off and add to drained pasta. Add the gratinata sauce and toss everything together. Pour it into a greased 9×13 pan.

Add remaining cup of Italian cheeses and add some feta if you want. I usually want.

Bake for 20 minutes and pull out a bubbly delicious pan of pasta. If you have stoneware, you can also bake individual portions in bowls and serve directly to your guests/family.

I also didn’t mention this but if you have some kind of cooking wine/sherry, throwing a 1/4 to 1/2 c. or so into the gratinata sauce when you add the milk/half & half, etc. give is some zing and enhances the flavors.

_______________________________________________

Penne Rustica (Marylou’s Version)

1 boxes penne rigate, cooked

2 T. butter

1 – 1.25 lb. small shrimp, peeled

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 clove garlic, minced

salt & pepper

Gratinata sauce:

2 T. butter
1 garlic cloves, minced
1 pint half & half
1 pint chicken broth
1/2 c. milk
4 oz. tomato sauce
1/2 T. dijon mustard
salt & pepper to taste
fresh thyme & rosemary, finely chopped
1 1/2 T. flour

3/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 c. mixed Italian cheeses, divided

Feta cheese, optional

Saute garlic in butter. Add half & half, chicken broth, milk, tomato juice, mustard, salt, pepper and herbs. Bring to a boil. Mix flour with 1/3 c. chicken broth or milk. Add to hot mixture and cook until thickened, stirring frequently. Add 1 c. mixed Italian cheese and grated Parmesan cheese. Saute chicken & mushrooms in 2 T. butter. When nearly done add pealed shrimp. Add to drained pasta. Pour gratinata sauce over everything and mix together. Put into a greased 9×13 baking pans. Sprinkle last cup of mixed Italian cheeses over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

_______________________________________

The gratinata sauce can be used in a variety of other recipes, including crab bisque, shrimp & grits and chicken cannelloni. More recipes coming later. Not sure if they are waiting in the wings or not. Probably not. 🙂

or patties. Whatever you want to call them. I have yet to eat them in a bun with lettuce and tomato but it just might be good that way. And if you are going to compare them taste for taste with a hamburger, don’t! Unless having a hamburger is not an option for you for whatever reason. This is the recipe that I’ve been making. There are many other ways you could make them. If we were only doing vegetarian right now, I would add an egg to the recipe to help them hold together better.

Mix 1 small can (8 oz) of tomato sauce with 1 cup quick oats.

Mash 1 cup of cooked and drained black beans. I used a mini food chopper.

Saute 1 medium chopped onion and 1/2 cup of fresh chopped mushrooms in olive oil.

Throw the beans, onions/mushrooms and oatmeal/tomato sauce into a bowl. Add seasonings and mix well.

This mixture is a little on the sticky side and doesn’t form patties quite as neatly as I’d like. Drop a pattie into fine bread crumbs.

Coat on both sides and drop into 2 T. olive oil in a frying pan.

Fry until golden on both sides. I made them with and without the bread crumb coating. I preferred the non-coated but my sister preferred the coated.

We have a recipe to make a sauce out of tofu. It is called tofu “mayonnaise” but quite honestly it tastes closer to sour cream than mayonnaise. That is what the white stuff is on the burger pictured below.

I like also to spread the “mayonnaise” over it and then some fresh salsa. Quite tasty once you have gotten used to eating meatless foods. I thought they were better the second day than the first. Maybe for the same reason that we enjoy eating food we have not cooked. Anyone know why?

And one of these days I will post a non-vegan recipe again. I have one for Penne Rustica waiting in the wings. It has shrimp, chicken, cream and cheese in it.

 

EDITED TO ADD: I think it may be a 6 oz. can of tomato sauce instead of 8 oz!

This recipe comes from the blue Whispering Pines (Honea Path, SC) cookbook, and I believe it’s the second one they made. There are 2 recipes out of this cookbook that are among my favorite recipe collection. The other recipe contains cream cheese too!

I’ll give you the original recipe, and then the crust change that I did on it this time.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

1 c. flour
1/3 c. brown sugar
5 T. butter
1/2 c. finely chopped nuts
1 – 8 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. pumpkin
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine flour and brown sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter to make crumb mixture. Stir in nuts. Set aside 3/4 cup of crumbs. Press rest onto a 8x8x1.5″ baking pan. Bake in 350° oven for 15 minutes. Cool. Combine cream cheese, sugar, pumpking, eggs, spices and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Pour over crust. Sprinkle rest of crumb mixture on top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350°. Cool before cutting.

I love ginger snap cookies, and especially love it combined with pumpkin desserts. So I made this one with 1 1/2 cups ginger snap cookies, finely chopped (in mini food processor), 1/4 c. brown sugar & 5 T. softened butter.

It was easy to blend with a whisk. Bake the same length of time as the original recipe.

I haven’t made regular cheesecakes very often but one tip I learned from my mom about them is to not beat the eggs hard once you add them to the rest of the stuff. Just enough to blend it together.

And a regular cheesecake, it may crack if you cool it too fast.This recipe is not very critical. I put it in the fridge within 20 minutes of taking it out of the oven with no issues.

The original crust recipe is very delicious too!! And it can be made without pecans. I think this is actually better a day or 2 after it’s made. Just need some chai (or coffee if you’d prefer) to go with this piece!

Happy baking!

A few weeks back my sister and I decided to do the Daniel Fast, a 21-day vegan-with-restrictions fast. If you’re wondering why I’m talking about the fast I did, you’re not alone. Several other people mentioned too that usually when we’re fasting we don’t talk much about it. But if your on a very restricted diet for 21 days, the only way you won’t talk about it is if you don’t have any guests at mealtime, never eat anyone else’s home or never meet anyone at a restraurant.

In a nut shell, only plant-based foods are allowed. Any processed foods that contain only plant-based foods are allowed, but may not contain any chemicals/preservatives. Salt is allowed and many seasonings and of course all herbs, dried or fresh will add a lot of flavor to the food.

We did cheat several meals. Two birthday meals and 2 family meals. There are times when it is okay.

One of our favorite meals is rice and black beans, covered with a colorful veggie salad. On the fast you’re supposed to eat brown rice instead of white but said to say, neither of us like brown rice much. In these pictures I have white rice.

Cook white rice until done. Drain a can of black beans. Throw half the beans into a bowl with canned whole kernel corn, diced green peppers, purple onion & tomato. Chop some cilantro real fine and add it to the veggies. Add some rice vinegar and a little olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Rice Vinegar:

Fill a bowl with rice. Top with some heated up black beans. Top that with the veggie mixture and add a little salsa (not a sweetened kind like some homemade recipes are – if I don’t used my homemade restaurant salsa, I use a bought salsa casera) on top. And then top that with some avocado, cut into little chunks. Yum. Some grilled or sauteed chicken would be really good with this if you didn’t want to go vegetarian with this.

Last night I took one of my homemade tortillas, fried it on both sides in a little olive oil until it was a little crispy. I used that as the base for the above ingredients. Sort of a veggie tostado. Delicious!!! The only problem was I put too much on top and half of it fell off as I was eating, causing veggies to go flying with each bite I took.

This fast is fairly radical and it’s best to do it if you really want to. If you go into it half-hearted you probably won’t last 21 days. There are just so many things you can’t have. The second day was the worst for me. I had such cravings for what, I wasn’t sure. I just wanted to EAT something. After that I was fine. By the last few days, we were getting anxious to be finished and those weren’t as fun either.

I think I missed milk products more than meat or sugar. I really like cheeses of various kinds, milk, sour cream, cream cheese … but it didn’t hurt me to do without. In fact, the scale was quite happy about it!

I’ll probably post a few more recipes late, including a veggie burger.

Here’s to healthier eating (some of the time – I don’t suppose that Ben & Jerry’s Cheesecake Brownie ice cream I just had would be considered healthy)!