Blueberry Pound Cake

I celebrated my five year anniversary and my first Mother’s Day this weekend. Needless to say, I felt very loved. I understand, like never before, how much my own mother did for me. The years of patience, of guidance, of love. I’ve only known my own daughter for ten months, and yet the love I feel for her is almost all-consuming. I can only imagine what that love feels like for a daughter of twenty, thirty years. My mom is my best friend, and I’m so happy that we were able to celebrate together yesterday.

Ryan and I are lucky enough to live near both of our moms (we moved back home for a reason!). Yesterday, we had our families over for a Mother’s Day brunch. Freshly baked baguettes, smoked turkey and ham, swiss cheese, tomato basil soup, and fresh fruit made the snow, yes snow, more bearable. And this blueberry pound cake served as the perfect dessert.

Dense and moist, this pound cake slices beautifully (to a food photographer, slicing capabilities matter). And when I say it’s my favorite pound cake recipe, please know I’ve tried dozens. What I love about this recipe is that it requires both butter and cream. And please don’t skimp on the times listed in the recipe. You want to cream the butter and sugar for at least five minutes and then allow the batter to whip for an additional six. You won’t regret the extra time in the mixing bowl. I tossed a cup of fresh blueberries in flour and then folded them into the batter. The berries rose to the top as the pound cake baked, creating a beautiful berry crown.

Blueberry Pound Cake

2 sticks (1 cup butter) room temperature

3 cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups granulated sugar

7 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

2 TBSP all-purpose flour

Do not preheat oven. Line two standard loaf pans with parchment paper.

Stir together sifted flour and salt into a bowl. Beat together butter and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add half of flour, then all of cream, then remaining flour, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down side of bowl and then beat at medium-high speed for an additional 6 minutes. Batter will become creamy and satiny. Toss blueberries in all-purpose flour and gently fold into batter.

Spoon batter into prepared pans and rap against counter once or twice to eliminate air bubbles. Place pans in cold oven and turn oven on to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake until golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out with just a few crumbs adhering, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool cake in pan for 30 minutes before removing. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Very Banana Muffins

A good day. May 9th. Ryan and I are celebrating our FIVE year wedding anniversary today. Over the last five years, we’ve walked through good and bad. Suicides and car accidents. More funerals than I ever thought we’d have to attend. We’ve moved across the country….three times. We’ve traveled across Europe and started creative businesses. We’ve fallen deeper in love. We’ve experienced unspeakable heartache and uncontainable joy. And of course, we brought this little light into our world. We are so blessed. This morning, we went to the church we got married at and took these pictures.

I am still very much in love.

And because this post is full of good things, I had to share my favorite banana muffin recipe. I make these every single week. Four large and ripe bananas lead to a moist and sweet muffin that needs no additional sweetening. No sugar, no maple syrup, no honey. Once you make them, you won’t go back. You don’t need sugar when you’ve got a bunch of ripe bananas! These are especially ideal for little ones. I love baking treats that aren’t loaded with preservatives and sugar. I think you will too.

Very Banana Muffins

4 LARGE and RIPE bananas (if bananas are small, use five)

4 TBSP butter, melted and cool

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (whole wheat flour works well too)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line six regular muffin tins (you can also make a batch of 12, but the muffins won’t be quite as large).

In a bowl, mash together bananas until smooth. I will often use my kitchen aid and paddle attachment to achieve the desired consistency. Add in melted butter and egg. Stir until well combined. Add flour, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon. Fold in dry ingredients with a spatula. Do not overmix. Distribute batter into prepared muffin tins. If using six muffin tins, your batter will almost overflow. Don’t worry. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

18/52

I am sure that many of you heard about the tragic loss of Baby Boy Bakery blogger, Jacqui Saldana’s 3 year-old son. Through blog posts and instagram, mothers and fathers, friends and strangers collectively mourned. We all agreed, “this just doesn’t make sense.”

And it doesn’t. How such a loving, beautiful family could go through something as tragic as this. Earlier this week, Saldana’s son, Ryan, was playing frisbee. In an attempt to catch and further the game, he ran out into the street and was struck and killed by a truck. When I first read the story, I cried.

I cried because I know life is precious and fleeting. I cried because I know I can’t always keep my daughter safe. And then, to compact an already emotional week, Lucy fell down the stairs. We have a baby gate at the top of our stairs, but in a moment of forgetfulness, we didn’t latch it. Ryan was in the living room, I was in the kitchen, and we both assumed that the other had their eyes on Lu. Suddenly, we heard a large crash. Terror and adrenaline coursed through my body. Ryan ran down the stairs and cradled our daughter in his arms.

To say that it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life is an understatement.

Thankfully, we live in one of those 1950 split-level homes. She only fell down a few stairs, and she rolled on her side, instead of falling head first. Of course, she was scared and upset when we got to her…but after a few seconds of crying, she was laughing and playing again. There wasn’t even a bruise. But we were lucky. In one instant, your whole world can fall apart.

So all I know is that I’m holding onto her even tighter this week. I’m trying to find faith despite these tragedies. I’m trying to choose hope over despair. Keep the Saldana family in your thoughts and prayers this week.

Spring Strata

Mother’s day. My first. We’ll be celebrating at our house with both my family and Ryan’s family. I’m still tossing around menu ideas, but I know something spring-like will be in order. The weather has been perfect here. Warm days, cool evenings, and flowers blossoming along every path we walk. Ryan and my father have been working tirelessly in our yard (ie wasteland). They are making progress and I’m dreaming of flower beds, green grass, and outdoor dinner parties.

This spring strata came together quickly on Sunday morning. If I had enough foresight, I could have prepared it Saturday night. Stratas often do even better if they’re allowed to sit in the refrigerator for ten to twelve hours. The asparagus I used came from a local farm and had been picked only the day previous. I roasted the asparagus along with the bell pepper to bring out the sweetness of the vegetables. Then, I tossed together bread, feta cheese, and the vegetables in a medium casserole pan. A quick mix of egg and milk was poured over top, and then the strata was ready to bake.

My dearest friend and I went out for a planning session yesterday (we co-founded cord). We left our husbands with the babies and this strata. By the time we came home, most of it was gone.

Spring Strata

1/2 bunch spring asparagus

1 red bell pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 loaf artisan bread (I used a lovely nine-grain from Old School Bakery), torn into three inch pieces

1/2 cup feta cheese

5 eggs

1 1/2 cups whole milk

Fresh oregano or basil, chopped

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Chop asparagus and bell pepper into two-inch pieces. Toss gently with olive oil and spread on a baking sheet. Roast vegetables in preheated oven for fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, butter a medium casserole dish. Arrange a layer of torn bread on the bottom, sprinkle with 1/4 cup feta cheese. Once vegetables finish roasting, arrange half of asparagus and bell pepper on top. Repeat with a second layer of bread, cheese, and vegetables.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and fresh herbs. Gently pour over strata, allowing egg mixture to make contact with each piece of bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30-35 minutes. Remove and serve warm.

Perfect Biscuits

Despite spending my first decade in the south, I didn’t grow up eating biscuits. My husband, however, did. And so as we near our FIVE year wedding anniversary, I’m baking a few of his favorite eats. And even though I don’t have memories of my five-year-old self running down the stairs to slather butter and jam on biscuits just pulled from the oven, my twenty-seven-year-old-self now thinks that image is pretty close to heaven. In fact, I don’t think there’s much that a warm biscuit can’t fix. It certainly made the end of a very busy week a whole lot better.

Last night, after we finally put Lucy down to sleep, I made these: my perfect biscuits. One of my favorite bloggers, Marta, just returned from her adventures in Japan. If you haven’t visited her blog, What Should I Have For Breakfast Today. You should. When I saw a long-awaited post from her last night, I knew breakfast was in order. I’ve tried a lot of recipes over the years, but this Cooks Illustrated version produced the best results. Flaky, buttery, mile-high biscuits. Now….imagine these with butter, a spoonful of honey held over top. Or, perhaps, you like your biscuits with scrambled eggs and gravy. The good news is that one of these perfect biscuits, just enjoyed on its own, is out-of-this-world-amazing. My biscuit loving husband would know. So do what you like with them. You can’t go wrong.

Perfect Biscuits

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus additions for work surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, lightly floured and cut into 1/8-inch slices, plus 2 tablespoons melted
1 1/4 cups cold low fat buttermilk

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat to 450-degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Add shortening to flour mixture; break up chunks with fingers until only small, pea sized pieces remain. Working in batches, drop butter slices into flour mixture and toss to coat; pick up each slice of butter and press between floured finger tips into flat, nickel-sized pieces. (Meg note: the butter just wanted to break into little pieces when I pressed between my fingers. I found that placing the butter in the palm of one hand and using the heel of my other hand I pressed and smeared the butter into thin shards, then tossed them into the flour, gently mixing everything together with my fingertips.) Repeat until all butter incorporated; toss to combine. Freeze mixture in bowl until chilled, about 15 minutes.

Spray a 24-inch-square area of work surface with nonstick cooking spray; using a paper towel spread the spray evenly across the work surface. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of extra flour across sprayed area; gently spread flour across work surface with palm to form thin, even coating. Add all but 2 tablespoons of buttermilk to flour mixture; stir briskly with fork until ball forms and no dry bits of flour are visible. adding remaining buttermilk as needed (dough will be sticky and shaggy but should clear sides of bowl.) With rubber spatula, transfer dough onto center of prepared work surface, dust surface lightly with flour, and, with floured hands, bring dough together into cohesive ball.

Pat dough into approximate 10-inch square; roll into 18 by 14-inch rectangle about 1/40inch thick, dusting dough and rolling pin with flour as needed. Using a bench scraper or thin metal spatula, take the top edge of dough and fold it down until the edge reaches the middle of the rectangle. Fold the bottom edge upward until the edge meets the top edge, ultimately folding your dough into thirds. Brush any extra flour from surface. Now take the left edge of dough and fold in toward the center. Take the right edge and fold over to the other edge of dough, again folding into thirds. Your rectangle should approximately be 6 by 4-inches. Rotate dough 90-degrees, dusting work surface underneath with flour; roll and fold dough into thirds again, dusting with flour as needed.

Roll dough into 10-inch square about 1/2-inch thick; flip dough and cut nine 3-inch rounds with a floured biscuit cutter, dipping cutter back into flour after each cut. Carefully invert and transfer rounds to a baking sheet, spaced 1-inch apart. Gather dough scraps into ball; roll and fold once or twice until scraps form smooth dough. roll dough into 1/2-inch-thick round; cut three more 3-inch rounds and transfer to baking sheet. Discard extra dough.

Brush biscuits with melted butter. Bake without opening oven door, until tops are golden brown and crisp, 15 to 17 minutes. Let cool slightly then serve with butter and honey.

Freezer Directions: Place raw cut biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in freezer until hard. Store in zip-lock bag. When ready to bake, place frozen biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.