A Mishmash Hodgepodge

I really need to get back to blogging!! I've just been busy swimming and going to the beach, which is also fun, but I miss my blog! This post doesn't really have a theme, but even though it's a mishmash hodgepodge, there are lots of good recipes!

Whenever we go to visit my Grandma Linda and Papa Richard, my Grandma Linda makes us a coffee cake. She loved this coffee cake when she was a student at Wellesley and then found the recipe in a cookbook years later. This cake is made in a tube pan, which is similar to a bundt pan, but has a higher straighter tube coming up in the middle. The coffee cake has batter with a layer of pecan streusel in the middle and then more batter and another pecan streusel layer on top.

This is what a tube pan looks like.

And this is what the finished cake looks like.

You can see the middle streusel layer once you cut it.

This cake is very moist and flavorful. Coffee cakes are often dry, but this one is the opposite. I can't link to the recipe, but I can send it to anyone who wants it. This is definitely worth making! Kelsie and Chelsea got to try it, and they really liked it. Especially the streusel part!

We've actually had quite a few delicious breakfast treats lately. One of them was blackberry cornmeal muffins. This recipe calls for flax eggs, to be vegan, but we just used regular eggs and these muffins were great. One of the things that we've learned in quarantine is that we really like baking with cornmeal. It gives cakes and muffins a delicious crunch!!

I liked how these muffins had a pretty golden color.

One really special thing that happened this summer is that some of our closest friends, Kookoo and Gerry came to socially-distance-visit us with their kids, Reece and Mila. We don't get to see them very often because they live kind of far away and we love them so much, so this was really fun. One of the things that we made for them was cinnamon roll pancakes. These are pancakes that have a cinnamon swirl in the middle and then a cream cheese icing drizzled on top, just like cinnamon rolls! Everybody loved these pancakes! My dad said that these were exactly like eating a cinnamon roll. Gerry really liked how light these pancakes were. He expected them to be heavy, but they weren't. We all agreed that the pancakes would be great on their own, even without the cinnamon and cream cheese parts.

My mom used a squeeze bottle to add the cinnamon swirl, once the pancakes were on the griddle. I thought that the squeeze bottle made her look like a real chef!

These were the pancakes drizzled with icing.

We had leftover cinnamon swirl and cream cheese icing after we made the pancakes, so we decided to try to bake something else with it. This was the first time that we made up a recipe all on our own. We had made amazing blueberry streusel muffins that I highly recommend the week before (we forgot to take a picture - sorry!), and so we used that recipe as a starting base.

We made the basic muffin batter and then added a layer of cinnamon swirl, and then added more batter on top. Sound familiar? It's just like how we layered the Wellesley coffee cake!

This is how they turned out baked.

And then we piped the cream cheese frosting onto the top. I'm the piping set-up master in my house!! My mom is never sure how to attach the tips and so I always do it!

I was really proud that we made up our own recipe and it turned out to be delicious!!

We also made oatmeal raisin cookies. These cookies are very soft, just the way we like them! They did spread and get very thin though. I'd like to experiment with ways to keep them thicker. I'd also like to make my Grandma Linda's recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. My mom used to love them a long time ago, but hasn't made them since before my brother was born.

These taste warm and toasty and were very chewy. The house smelled really cozy while they were baking! But do you see what I mean about their being thin?

Going back to our s'mores theme, we also made peanut s'more seven layer bars. My mom and I really loved these. But I think that she mostly loved eating them and I mostly loved making them!! This is a fantastic recipe for kids to make because they're super easy. I could do everything myself except for putting them into the oven at the end!

These are delicious but very sweet and sticky!

But one of our absolute quarantine favorites was chocolate covered pretzel peanut butter brownies. My mom loves anything with peanut butter frosting and so do I. This is a very good salty sweet combination.

The chocolate covered pretzels on top add a nice crunch.

Sometimes bars with frosting look messy once you cut them, but these cut cleanly and looked very nice.

We've done lots of cooking with tomatoes lately, because they're great at the end of the summer. So there's lots more coming, but this recipe for flank steak with a grilled corn salsa was a big hit with my dad. But be warned, the dry rub that you use is SUPER spicy!! At first even my dad thought that maybe it was too spicy, but then the flavor grew on him. I felt like a dragon with fire in my mouth! We also used the rub on shrimp for my mom and brother, and that was really good too. And another thing that is great about this recipe is that it makes amazing leftovers. My mom used the steak on top of salad for my dad for lunch and he thought that it got even better over the next few days.

I thought that this looked very summery and pretty.

I also made a tomato salad all by myself one night. First I went with my dad to Eataly and we bought ingredients for dinner. My mom always rolls her eyes when my dad and I get home from Eataly because we always buy tons of extra stuff! I layered tomatoes and mozzarella and added basil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. This is simple and a classic combination, but it tastes really good.

It was my idea to arrange this in a pie pan. I really liked the way that it looked!

My Grammy Marcia makes amazing corn pudding. She started making it when my brother was a baby and whenever we used to go to Pawley's Island or Sea Island together, she would make crab cakes and corn pudding to welcome us on our first night. So my mom decided to make it this summer, even though we were having it at home. This tastes sweet and fresh and creamy and is really really good!

One of my favorite tea time cakes that we've made in quarantine happened on Yes Day! It was a coconut cake with chocolate chunks and a coconut drizzle. This recipe uses bittersweet chocolate, so it's not too sweet. It's very delicate and a little bit messy, but it was the perfect cake for an afternoon treat.

I thought that this cake looked beautiful.

Next time, I think that we'd serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

Let me know if you try any of these recipes or have other ideas for us! And stay tuned - I already have the blog title for my next post figured out and it's really funny!!!!!!!