Eulie's Chocolate Snack Cake

This is another one from the Grandma Eulie archives. When you drink about 14 cups of coffee a day, like she did, you might need a little something to go along with it. Hence, her arsenal of not-too-sweet, no-frosting, all-in-one-pan snack cakes. This is a gem. She apparently adapted it from a recipe on the Gold Medal package, sometime in the mid-1970s.

NOTE: You may mix in entirely in the pan, making this a one pan wonder, to boot.

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup cocoa

1 t. baking soda

1/2 salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 t. vinegar

1 t. vanilla

1 cup water

Mix dry ingredients well, then add liquids. Bake in an 8x8 ungreased pan. 35-40 minutes or until a wooden pick (seriously, who keeps wooden picks around?) comes out clean. No temp specified, but I think I do about 350.


*Because this is a "wacky" cake, there is no egg in it.  Vegan by accident. Lovely.*

Suzanne's Popcorn Cauliflower

I first had this at Suzanne's house for book group during summer 2010 and immediately became obsessed with it. Since then, I've made it probably ten times, tweaking the spices to suit whatever I'm having for dinner that night. A couple of things: 1. Don't be scared off by garlic powder and onion powder. There's a time and place for everything and here, it works. 2. I usually double this recipe. If not, you run the risk of eating all of the crispy pieces off of the cookies sheet and will barely have enough for dinner. It's that delicious.

Preheat oven to 450.

1 large head of cauliflower, in smallish florets

Combine in a large bowl:  

1/4-1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp paprika (try Spanish paprika, too)

2 tbsp sugar (honey works, too)

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

~6 tbsp olive oil, or less but enough to generously coat the cauliflower

1. Toss the cauliflower with the spice mixture. The florets should be covered and looking a bit like caramel popcorn in color.
2. Lay cauliflower on a baking sheet that has been covered in parchment paper.
3. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes, or until the florets are soft. Don't be afraid to let them get a bit more cooked and even a bit black on the edges of some pieces.

Spicy Hungarian “Sausage” and Lentil Stew

Once upon a time, I used to work out at the Y on Marshfield. This worked out fairly well. My daughter would take a swimming class and I'd get in some exercise. One problem: The Food Network played constantly on the TVs about the machines so I'd spend my work outs memorizing and mentally adapting recipes, grab V, then immediately head around the corner to Whole Foods to buy the ingredients. (It felt slightly counter-productive but I have some good recipes from that time.) 


This was a Rachael Ray special from the winter of 2007 that I changed eighteen ways to Sunday. I remember that it was originally called it something sort of stupid, like "stoup" but I wouldn't do that if I were you.

• @ 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 portobello mushrooms, chopped
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup lentils
• 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
• 2 teaspoons Spanish paprika
• 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, intact on stems
• 1 (14-ounce) can fire roasted chopped tomatoes, such as Muir Glenn or, regular diced tomatoes
• 6 cups vegetable stock (approx.)
• 4-5 cups fresh spinach, chopped (can also use kale or swiss chard)
• I box Boca Italian sausage (4 in package), cook according to directions and slice into bite-sized chunks

 Heat a medium soup pot over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil then add garlic, onions and mushrooms. Cook a few minutes, then add carrots, lentils, potato, salt and pepper, bay leaf, paprika and rosemary (leaves will fall from stems as stew cooks). Add tomatoes and broth and cover pot then raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Uncover pot and turn heat down a bit but keep stew at a good rolling boil. Cook 15 minutes until lentils and potatoes are tender. Remove rosemary stems and turn off heat. Add “sausage” and greens. Let stand 5 minutes.


Yield: 8 servings 

Charlie's Pumpkin Bread

My son fell in love with this pumpkin bread when we visited his cousins in Connecticut for spring break 2005 and his sweet cousin Maddie Atchue made this for him.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl:

2 ½ c. sugar

3 ½ c. flour (up to one cup can be whole wheat, oat, multigrain, etc.)

2 t. baking soda

1 ½ t. salt

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

1 t. ginger

Mix all wet ingredients in medium bowl:

4 eggs

½ c. oil

½ c. applesauce (unsweetened)

2/3 c. water

2 c. (or 1 15 oz. can) pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix. I stock up on the Trader Joe's organic canned pumpkin each fall and hoard enough for the year.)

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.  Do not over mix.  Split between two greased, full-size loaf pans.  Bake 50 minutes.

You can also put in muffin tins (use paper liners) and bake for 25 minutes.

Apple-Oatmeal Cookies

Once when I was quite little, my mom made Toll House cookies but left out the chocolate chips, and instead added apples and cinnamon. This bold substitution was a stunning move, even for a Home Ec teacher. They were so good that I spent the next 30 years dreaming about them and then finally got off my butt and made them. They were almost as good as my memory served but needed some improvements for the adult palette.  The most successful batch ever was in March 2007. Here's that combination:

1½ sticks butter (If you use other shortenings, I'll never tell.)

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

¼ c. applesauce

2 eggs

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. vanilla

1 ½ c. flour

2 c. rolled oats (I prefer to pulse them in the food processor until they are quite fine.)

½ c. raisins, preferably golden

1 c. apple, peeled and chopped finely

6 or so dried apricots, minced

  

Cream butter with sugars.  Add applesauce and eggs.  Mix well.  Add salt, baking soda, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix in flour, then oats.  Add raisins, apple, peeled and apricots.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 9 minutes, in 375 degree oven.

Grandma Eulie’s Carrot Cake

The main reason for starting a blog is so I could share my Grandma Eulie's amazing recipes with my cousins who are scattered all over the country. This is a Eulie classic or maybe even THE Eulie classic.  She got the original recipe from her friend Paulette Green.

If you want to bake it in true Eulie style, you have to get up at, oh, maybe 4:30am, bake this cake, and have it ready and frosted when your grandchildren wake up at 8am.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ c. flour

2 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

2 t. cinnamon

(above sifted together)

1 ½ c. vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 c. sugar

3 coarsely grated carrots

1 ½ c. chopped walnuts  (I make it without the nuts which many consider sacrilege.)

1.      Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2.      Grease and flour 2 8” layer cake pans

3.      Mix sugar, oil, and eggs in large bowl at medium speed for 2 minutes.

4.      Gradually add flour mixture at low speed for 1 minute.

5.      Stir in carrots and nuts until well mixed and spoon into pans.

6.      Bake for 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours, then cool. 

7.      Make icing and frost.

Icing:

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

¼ c. butter

2 t. vanilla

1 package confectioner’s sugar (I’m assuming that means a 1 lb. package.)

Cream the above ingredients until super fluffy.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

This soup may be the most customizable meal ever. The base is vegan and with a variety of toppings, you can make it whatever you want. Great for a dinner party. In fact, it debuted at the inaugural meeting of the Order of the Purple Finch.  Serves 8.

Base:
1 large onion
4-6 cloves garlic
1 red pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
1 poblano, seeded and roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 1/2+ cups fresh tomatoes (or frozen roasted tomatoes, or 1 14-oz can of tomatoes)
1 can of tomato paste
6 cups of veggie broth
1 t. cumin
2 t. ground coriander
cayenne, spicy paprika, or New Mexican red pepper to taste (I used 1 t. New Mexican)
olive oil
salt to taste

In dutch oven, sautee onion and garlic until fairly soft. Add spices. Add peppers and carrots. Sautee 5-10 minutes. Add tomatoes, paste, and broth. Simmer until all ingredients are very soft. Add more water or broth as necessary. Remove from heat. Puree using immersion blender. Adjust to your desired thick/thin-ness. Adjust seasoning and salt to taste.

Now, here's the good part. Ladle, steaming hot, into bowls over crushed corn tortilla chips (NOT Tostitos or some crappy fake chips, use the real thing) or strips of corn tortilla, oven toasted with a little oil. Let people top the soup with things like:

oven-roasted corn
oven-roasted grape or cherry tomatoes
diced white onion or scallions
finely chopped radishes
black beans
chopped cilantro
avocado or guacamole
limes, quartered for squeezing
chopped hard boiled egg
sour cream
cheese: chihuahua, goat, or jack
sauteed tofu or seitan

Try to have the toppings (other than the sour cream) at room temp so they don't cool the soup too much.