I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving week! I am almost finished with day three of my detox from carbs and wine, and let me tell you how much it pains me to even look at this photo. It is only because I’m already past the withdrawal phase that I can post this. I think it was the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and this cinnamon roll cake that put me over the edge… carb overload! And don’t think this is a long-term thing, I only plan on torturing myself for a few more days.

My sister, brother-in-law, and my niece came and stayed with us last week and we had a great time. My sis and I stayed up late one night in our jammies laughing and watching Cupcake Wars. What a blessing to just hang out and catch up with her. She is also a master chef in the kitchen, so I loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner together. She didn’t even get mad at me when we had to run out to the grocery store a half an hour before the turkey was done.

This cinnamon roll cake is both a dessert and a breakfast, especially if you’re a fellow carb-addict. This recipe has made the rounds in the foodie blogosphere for good reason, and this will definitely become a repeat recipe in our house. The boy and family LOVED it! It really does taste like an ooey, gooey cinnamon roll, but it’s way easier than homemade cinnamon rolls. This would make the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning. You can even make it the day before and warm it up before serving.

On a totally unrelated note, thank you to my friends and readers who have let me know about my spam-posting impostor over the past few weeks. I was in denial, hoping it would go away. It didn’t! And no, that was not me trying to sell you false eyelashes, or whatever else was popping up here. The boy has a whole theory about the spam posting impostor and he could be right (he usually is and that completely frustrates me).

Jen from Swank Web Design, who created my blog design, has updated everything and I think the problem has been fixed. If you are looking for a blog designer, I cannot sing her praises enough. I love working with her! She is so creative and incredibly efficient. While Jen was updating things, I had her add a section to my sidebar called “The Essentials”. Many of you have asked for my frosting, sugar cookie, and gingerbread recipes, which I know have gotten buried in my blog posts. All of the essential recipes are now right there, just in time for holiday baking.

Hope you’re having a carb-indulgent week for me! More carbs next week… I promise!

Cinnamon Roll Cake (Posted by Holly at Life as a Lofthouse)

12 servings

CAKE:

3 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Sugar

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 1/2 cups Milk

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

1/2 cup ( 1 stick)  Butter, melted

TOPPING:

1 cup ( 2 sticks) Butter, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

GLAZE:

2 cups Powdered Sugar

5 Tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

In an electric or stand mixer add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well , slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into the prepared 9×13 baking pan.

For topping, In a large bowl mix the 2 sticks of butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.

Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.

FOR GLAZE:  In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla together with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Last weekend we took our annual road trip to find our giant pumpkin. We’ve been driving out to Bate’s Nut Farm since Blake was a baby. It’s always a family affair.  My BFF Keri and her family join in our adventure too. The Naughty One was part of the fun again this year (I think she was more excited than the boy!). It ended up being quite warm, so we alternated between me carrying the Naughty One and letting her ride in the wheel barrow (and we wonder why she is such a little sausage).

Here’s our pumpkin. There’s a whole system in place to move the giant pumpkin from field to wheel barrow to car to the doorstep. I keep the weight of the pumpkin a secret, and we reveal it the night of our annual pumpkin carving party. It always hits the triple digit mark. All of our guests get to guess the weight, and whoever is closest wins a prize. According to the boy, my prizes aren’t all that great so I’ve got to come up with something new this year. He used to think I was so cool. What has 5th grade done to him? I have a week before our party to come up with some 5th grade approved prizes (that the little ones like too). Any suggestions? The adult prizes are so much easier, no one ever seems to complain about winning a bottle of wine.

I made up a batch of pumpkin bread this week and decided to use up my stash of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I chopped them up and folded them into the batter.  These mini loaves, like the Reese’s Banana Bread turned out to be a great combo.

This recipe is very adaptable, and the loaves come out very moist. You can substitute the peanut butter cups for chocolate chips, toffee bits, chopped nuts, or any other kind of baking chips and I think it would still taste great. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think the batter would also work well for pumpkin muffins.

printable recipe

Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini pumpkin pans*.  In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in peanut butter cups. Fill pans 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake approximately 40 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for ten minutes before removing from pans.

* I made 10 mini loaves from one batch.

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

I’m warning you, this isn’t your ordinary recipe make-over. In fact, some people might see this as politically-incorrect in the fight against obesity. Usually, a make-over means cutting the fat and reducing the calories… this make-over is quite the opposite. I baked banana bread this weekend and adapted fattened up a recipe from Cooking Light. I’m not opposed to making “light” desserts, as  long as they keep the same texture and flavor of the original recipes (and quite often they don’t retain either), but having no plain yogurt or egg substitute on hand, I swapped them out for eggs and oil (a little backwards, I know).

I then took things a step further and fattened it up even more. Ever since my Kendall Jackson post last week, I’ve been craving Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and for some reason I felt compelled to add them to my batter. The peanut-butter/chocolate combo took the banana bread to a whole other level, and I’m proud of my politically-incorrect, added- fat recipe adaptation.

I may not be very good at making things “light”, but I am good at portion control.  Instead of baking this up in one large loaf pan, I divided the batter into five mini loaf pans. I then proceeded to eat one for dinner, with my wine, and wrapped up the other four to share with friends… four politically-incorrect friends who I knew would appreciate my make-over.

And in case you’re wanting to fatten up other banana bread recipes, Cooking Light has put together a great collection of banana bread recipes,  thirteen of their favorites.

printable recipe

Peanut  Butter Cup Banana Bread (Adapted from Cooking Light)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3-4 bananas)

3 large eggs

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

20 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped**

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add banana, eggs, and oil; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Gently fold peanut butter cups into the batter.

Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters together using a knife. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes* or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

*Baking these in mini loaf pans took about 35 minutes.

** I folded these into the banana bread batter before adding the chocolate batter. I forgot to put this in the original post, but went back and added it into the recipe. Sorry for that. I’m always going in fast motion!

“Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power, has that ability to comfort.”
~ Norman Kolpas

Comfort food was definitely on my menu this week. The past few days have been chaotic and stressful, but above all life-changing. I still haven’t processed all of it yet.

Monday night was a victory for students, teachers, and parents in the community. After a five-day strike, the school board finally caved and agreed to a fair contract for our teachers. This group of seven clearly had no idea what they were up against. In total, 92% of our 2,200 teachers walked the picket line. Thousands of parents and students joined in our stand-off and embraced our teachers whole-heartedly. Only 37% of our students attended school during the strike, with only 10% of our high schoolers showing up. What happens when a huge majority of your teachers and students walk out… a whole lot of media attention that the board never anticipated.

The moral of the story is this… if you plan  on backing 2,000+ teachers into a corner, you better be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Not only am I a teacher, but also a parent in the district. My boy has been lucky enough to have had the same teacher for two years. She has been such a blessing in our lives. My son has grown tremendously because of her support and guidance.

What could we do to show her our support? Comfort food, yes that works! While I got ready for each strike day, my boy and his dad picked up Starbucks for the staff and delivered it, along with some comfort food I had made.

Comfort food for me usually is something sweet. I’m not much of a main meal or side dish kind of girl. In fact, I’m fine skipping dinner completely. Note to Prince Charming…Nachos and mashed potatoes are exceptions ~ feel free to deliver those in stressful times.

During the strike, I made two of my favorites, Starbuck’s copycat coffee cake and oatmeal blueberry bars. I also baked up two new recipes, which were loaded with comfort. I found a can of pumpkin puree in my pantry and made pumpkin bars with chocolate chips. I also made use of the ripe bananas on my counter, and the result was one of the moistest cakes I’ve ever tasted. It was iced with a cream cheese frosting. Let’s face it, life can never be too bad if you’ve got cream cheese icing.

We survived all of the chaos and are ready to rest up and recover this weekend! Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin Bars (Recipe from Realmomkitchen.com)

printable recipe

6 eggs 1 1/2 cup oil

3 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 large can (29 oz) pumpkin

3 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin. Fold in dry ingredients and pour into jelly roll pan (13 x 18 pan) . (At this point I sprinkle half the pan with 1 cup of chocolate chips) Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.

Banana cake With Cream Cheese Frosting 

(printable recipe)

(allrecipes.com)

3/4 cup butter

2 1/8 cups white sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.

For the frosting: In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add confectioner’s sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high until frosting is smooth. Spread on cooled cake.

Planning on having a Halloween Cocktail Party?  My friends got together for a girls night out last night.  We were asked by the hostess to bring an appetizer and a drink.  I purchased a small loaf of sourdough bread and cut it on the diagonal to create a larger surface.  I cut into each bread slice with a pumpkin cookie cutter.   Surprisingly it was quite easy!  I dyed olive oil orange by adding  yellow and red food coloring and whisking it until it turned orange, then brushed the pumpkin cutouts with the orange olive oil, and sprinkled them with small amount of garlic salt.  I toasted the bread at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes until the edges a slightly browned.  I cut a 4″ X 6″ piece of pate with mini Halloween cookie cutters.  For the eyes on the ghost, the cat and the bat I used black sesame seeds.  When the toast cooled I placed the pate on top. 

For the second appetizer I tried to create a spider.  I used 8 toothpicks and placed 3 pieces of shrimp on each toothpick.  For the head I used baby bella mushrooms and stuffed them with crab (see my recipe for crab cakes).  I baked the stuffed mushrooms at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  To assemble I placed two toothpicks of shrimp together to form the body (six legs).  The stuffed mushrooms attach to the toothpicks and become the head.  My simple recipe for shrimp sauce is catsup (1 cup) + horseradish (1 tablespoon) to taste.

Candy Corn Martini - 1 part Rose’s Mango + 2 parts candy corn infused vodka* 

*1 cup candy corn + 2 cups vodka  – mix and refrigerate for one day and up to 3 weeks.