Cranberry Upside Down Cake

I hosted Mother's Day breakfast this year and I obviously have no regard for the fact that it's Spring.  Besides an incredible egg casserole with biscuits, sausages and fruit salad, I made this amazing Cranberry Upside Down Cake and Sweet Potato Donuts (the donuts will appear in a future blog post).  I suppose my menu would be more appropriate at Thanksgiving.  Ah, whatever...

Back in...the Fall...I found this recipe in Parade Magazine.  Olympic gold-medalist Lindsey Vonn's friend came up with this recipe.  They bakes theirs in a 9" cake pan; I baked mine in a bundt cake pan.  I also glazed mine in the photo where as the cake they show on their link is not. 

I really like how it came out.  Being that cranberries are not in season I used frozen cranberries from Whole Foods.  I also used pecans instead of walnuts because I have a ton of them in the freezer (ya know, because nut go rancid). 

Here's a photo of my work in progress.  I used a scoop to evenly distribute the cake batter.

I would definitely make this again.  I'd probably used the bundt pan again too.  I really like the way the juice from the berries and the glaze seep down the sides of the cake.

Recipe slightly adapted from http://www.dashrecipes.com/recipes/sunday-dinner/cranberry-upside-down-cake-lindsey-vonn.html

Ingredients

• 1½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• 2 tbs chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 tsp grated orange zest (rind)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened, divided
• 1/2 cup packed, dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (fat-free is okay)
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar 
• 1 tsp melted butter
• 4 tbs freshly squeezed orange juice, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch square, a 9- or 10-inch round, or bundt baking pan with cooking spray and dust with flour.
2. In a small bowl, combine cranberries, walnuts, and orange rind. In a small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter over medium. Stir in brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with cranberry mixture.
3. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
4. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer set on medium, beat granulated sugar and remaining butter until creamy. Add vanilla, egg, buttermilk, and flour mixture. Spoon over cranberries.
5. Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Invert onto a rack to finish cooling. Beat glaze ingredients. Drizzle over cake. Serve.

Mexican Black Bean Salad

I was looking though one of my Southern Living cookbooks for side dishes to serve with dinner and I found this one.  While I was preparing it my husband told me more than once that it smelled great.  The combination of chopped onion and fresh tomatoes was filling the kitchen.  By the time dinner was served, anticipation was high.  Healthy, colorful, aromatic...I decided to give it a try before serving it.  Oh no!  How disappointing!  It was similar to a taco salad that I make, but it totally lacked flavor!  How could something with so many awesome ingredients not taste fantastic?  The dressing completely lacked flavor...I had to make modifications to the recipe since it didn't have quite that wow factor that I was looking for and, the green leaf lettuce couldn't stand up to the weight of the dressing and beans.  By that I mean, once tossed with the dressing, the lettuce didn't have any distinguishable flavor or texture.  I would use a hardier lettuce next time, like iceberg or a romaine/iceberg mix.  I want my lettuce to crunch when I bite into it, not fall flat.  To improve the dressing I added some medium salsa to it.  It saved the salad.  Below is my adapted version.  I would make it again using this version.

Here's the salad when tossed.

Here's the salad when served as a small side salad (not tossed).

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbs taco seasoning
• 1/4 cup medium salsa 
• 1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped purple onion
• 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• corn chips, slightly crushed
• 1 fresh lime, cut into large wedges, optional

Directions

1. Combine first 4 ingredients into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
2. In a large bowl combine next 5 ingredients, toss with dressing.
3. Sprinkle with corn chips, serve immediately with a wedge of lime on the side.

Here's the original recipe from my cookbook.

Rustic Potato Pizza

I once saw a photo of potato slices on pizza.  It looked good.  Very, very good.  The other day I was thinking about making a pizza and I recalled the potato pizza.  I researched various recipes and some said to peel then cook the potato, some didn't say to cook it first.  Some recipes called for butter while others called for EVOO.  Some  instructions said to bake for 15 minutes, others said to bake for 35.  Since none of the ingredients nor directions set me on a clear path I decided to create my own.  I'm so happy I did.  It turned out fantastic and it's versatile.  Alter the ingredients (cheese, potatoes, herbs) to suit your preferences or to use up the cheese you've got in the refrigerator.  What is also nice is that you don't have to measure out each ingredient.  If you like more cheese, use it.  If you want less, cut it back.  Just make sure you have the pizza covered so that each bite has some potato.

This pizza is light.  Even though it's got oil, cheese and potatoes, it bodes well for an appetizer for a group of friends to share.  To serve it as an entree, serve it with a salad.  The combination of mozzarella cheese and Gruyere cheese is incredible.  You can use any combination that you like.  I was really in the mood to buy some Gruyere and I thought it would complement the creamy taste of the Yukon potatoes and fresh rosemary.  Gruyere is a harder cheese with a slightly salty yet creamy flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 FRESH homemade or store-bought pizza dough (regular or whole wheat) 
• NOT ready-made like Boboli
• 2 tbs Fresh rosemary, roughly chopped, divided
• you can use dried but it can't match the quality of the fresh stuff
• 1 Yukon (yellow) potato, peeled and sliced about 1/8"
• a potato about the size of your fist
• 6 oz Gruyere cheese, shredded, divided
• 6 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• EVOO 
• S & P

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Peel and slice potato.  Set in a bowl of salted water and set aside.
3. Spread or roll fresh pizza dough on a greased baking sheet pan.
4. Brush EVOO on dough to cover, sprinkle with garlic and 1 tbs chopped rosemary.
5. Spread 3/4 of the shredded cheeses on the dough.
6. Drain potatoes and pat dry.  Sprinkle both sides with S & P.  Place on pizza.  Do not shingle or layer.
7. Cover the pizza with the remaining cheese and rosemary.
8. Bake for 20 minutes. 

We all really enjoyed this recipe, although my son picked off the rosemary first.