Sunday Treats

 

Actually this is 1 days old posting - it happened yesterday, but I forget to posting this easy peasy treats . It's very simple recipe and just want re-cycle your old bread and create a delcious breakfast for sunday morning :)  So, no waste the food mom ..

 

French Toast

Ingredients

3 large eggs

1 cups milk
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
6 slices bread (french, brioche, any kind of day-old bread will work)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Pure maple syrup, (optional)

Powder sugar (optional)

Directions

Whisk together eggs, milk, juice, vanilla, sugar, zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl; set aside.

Place bread in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold bread slices in a single layer. Pour egg mixture over bread; soak 10 minutes. Turn slices over; soak 10 minutes more or until soaked through.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet, and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry half the bread slices until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to wire rack; place in oven while cooking remaining bread. Wipe skillet, and repeat with remaining butter, oil, and bread. Keep in oven until ready to serve. Serve warm with maple syrup, if desired.

Zakka Project

 

Sometime I feel quilting process can be so painful, right now I am in the middle of working for my new quilt .. a queen size bed cover to be exact .

Fallen in love with the pattern from Ayumi Takashi book , I need 3 more swedish bloom block to go since I need a bigger size , though.. well, let see .. how much hours I need to put for this project.

Date Nut Cake

 

Somebody get bored with a regular cereal breakfast !! Need something fast and still healthy, no time for pancake or waffle since this is still weekday .. everybody.. rush..rush at my home in the morning .. yelled at husband who forget his lunch box, called my daughter to get ready .. date nut loaf is one of the solution - made night before, wrapped with film plastic , in fact this way cake will stay good for 5 days at room temperature

Date-Nut Loaf
Recipe : Dorie Greenspan - Baking from my home to yours

Ingredients :
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) un-salted butter, room temperature
3 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup soft pitted dates, chop
1 cup of pistachio

Directions :
Preheat the oven for 325F - butter 9x5 loaf pan, dust the inside with flour - tap out the excess
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt
With stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until very smooth. Add the sugar until the mixture become light and fluffy.
Add the egg, one at the time, eating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat the extract.
Reduce the mixer speed, to low and mix the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dates and nut. Turn the batter into the pan.
Bake for 40 minute, cover the top of the cake loosely with a foil tent and bake fr another 40 minute or so, until the top is honey brown, bumpy and cracked and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Transfer the cake to a rack and cool about 10 minute before unmolding.

Playing around :
if you want to change the dried fruits or the kinds of nuts, go ahead. Prune, Apricots or walnut will work as well as the recipe above.

 

PS : I being naughty this morning, spread figs jam on the top of cake .. aah heaven .. !!

Just another day

 

What a quiet morning , just drop my little one to school, and sun still shy to shop up this morning ..

Get slice of pound cake I bake the other day, I feel good ... well, not the best choice of breakfast, though .. but it's freezing cold I can't just a cup of green smoothie I used to drink ... I will feel craving soon.. All right, I will work out soon .. Have a great day, friends..

The beauty of freezing cold ..

 

A polar vortex is coming back , we are facing another freezing cold today. Just 15F - even though the sky is so bright, but still not help .. still cold ... after all this is winter .. what do you expect ? :)) Is alright, I am not complain especially in other of the world facing drought weather even some has water flood, hang on there everybody .. mother nature is show her power !!

 

With the weather like this, mean is schools closed again .. so far 10 days total no school during winter , and another day to play pretend with my daughter. This time I pretend as her teacher ... get some free printable worksheet from online site, print out, getting ready , study etc. No problem so far, she is a nice girl I ever have ; she is enjoy play pretend with her mom. Even preparing her lunch like he regular lunch box .. a small portion this and that .. and at the end of the day, as I promised she will get reward for being a nice student, watching Martha Speak Movie on my computer .

Just another day ....

Roti Gambang

 

I missed my parents, I missed my sisters, I missed my country a lot - it has been 3 years won't be able to come to visit them. Hopefully someday. The more and more I miss my country, always pushing me to go back to the kitchen and make something related to my country, Indonesia - and the other hand, its always nice to introduce a new taste to my family members.

One of their favorite now is Roti Gambang, a very simple brown sugar bread . Is always easy to find this bread in my city ; there is always a guy who selling this bread and other kind of home made breads by the bicycle every afternoon. :))

The recipe I found from my blogger friend, Arfi Binsted - she made a gluten free version of the bread. Which is create a nice texture for the bread itself.

Gluten-Free Roti Gambang
By Femina Online
Source: Riana Ambarsari

250 g dark palm sugar, grated (I used Javanese Dark Palm Sugar).
175 ml water
380 g gluten-free flour or all purpose flour will work too
125 g almond meal
25 g milk powder (I skip this since I don't have in my pantry)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp vanilla flavouring essence
2 egg yolks, loosely beaten
200g margarine if you want softer texture
112g raw slivered almond, crushed lightly with rolling pin
3 Tbsp water, for brushing - I skip this since my dough is kind of sticky
3 Tbsp sesame seeds

Instruction:
Put sugar and water in a saucepan on a medium heat. Stir the sugar until dissolved and let it boiled for a while until bubbly. Remove from the stove, strain it  and let cool.
Combine flour, almond meal, milk powder, salt, baking soda, baking powder, crushed almond and cinnamon powder. Pour in the sugar mixture. Add in egg yolks and vanilla essence. With a wooden spoon, mix well until all the mixed dry ingredients hydrated. The mixture should be rather sticky. Add in margarine, mix well. Leave and cover the mixture a rest for 30 minutes for easy handling.
Preheat the oven to 300 F.
Line baking trays with baking paper. Weigh mixture 75g each, roll into balls, oval shape or long fingers , and put them on the trays. spread the sesame seeds stick on top of bread
Bake for 35 minutes. The bread will taste crunchy outside but soft inside.

 

Thank you Riana and Arfi for a nice recipe .. :)

Sunrise

 

As like my mom always say "wake up before the sound of rooster" ; she was right I'm not an early morning person but I know what she talking about when I see this an early morning ❤️❤️

 

Photo taken from our backyard yesterday morning around 6am with my iPhone ; the sky looks much better on iPhone than on blog.  I think I need to set up the gadget before transfer to site like this, anyway .. I just feel great to see the bright sky and really made my day .. :))

Chubby Crinkle Red Velvet Cookies

Its look like I abandon my mixer since last December ; I didn't do much of baking - nothing happened .. just feel bored !! I choose to sewing rather than playing with mixer.  But yesterday afternoon I received a very good news about my little one rank at school.  So, I tough it must be great to bake some cookies before I picked her up from school.  Well, this is really simple recipe , just using cake mix but still nice though ...

Here is the recipe I got from the back of cake mix I used :)

 

Chubby Crinkle Red Velvet Cookies

Ingredients :

6 tbsp. butter                                                                                      

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 box  Red Velvet Cake Mix

2 large eggs

1 tsp. lemon zest

Directions :

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Melt butter; set aside to cool. Place powdered sugar and cornstarch in shallow dish. Mix with a fork to blend.

 

Place cake mix, cooled butter, eggs and lemon zest in large mixing bowl. Mix by hand until well blended and a dough forms.

 

Form dough into 1" balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on cool, ungreased baking sheets about 2" apart.

 

Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in center of oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

 

Store in airtight container with wax paper or parchment separating layers.

 

 

Let it snow .. Let it snow

 

The temperature in Midwest is so brutal lately - this is what happened since last Saturday, resident in my city got warning about the temperature change so drastic ahead of time .  Every one take so seriously ; even me went to grocery to stock up some stuff for home on Saturday, filled up gasoline for my car too.  Oh .. as you know, a very long line at casher, long line at gas station..  but that what you need to do, always have a backing plan.  No going out if not necessary, the warning that we heard over and over from our Mayor.

That is the picture I took from backyard, ooh .. I couldn't stay out just even 1 minute .. just took one snap , than running back inside ... brr...
 

Indeed the weather is totally crazy cold, snow started since Saturday eve until Sunday afternoon,, we received 10 inches of snow total .  And the temperature drop to 0 F on following day.  Bitterly cold, so crazy.  The school has been canceled since Monday until tomorrow; and you know.. I have 1 so active little kid at home, you must to do many thing to make her happy and not get bored easily...   My husband is so nice to taking care of her and create some kind of game together, they really play along nicely.  And what mom did than ? well ... making quilt block for my new project than ... after all, the snow days are not bad at all ...