Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake - made June 17, 2014 from American Baking Competition

Ever since I watched the American Baking Competition last year, I've been wanting to make this recipe. I found it from the show's blog and it's from my favorite baker in the competition, Elaine. Unfortunately, Elaine wasn't the ultimate winner but I still liked her down-to-earth ways and her recipes.From a quick glance at my pictures and the ones on the original blog (recipe title link), um, you can tell mine didn't come out the way it was supposed to. I never intended to put a raspberry in the middle of each pineapple ring anyway which was just as well because you can see the cake batter baked right over most of the pineapple rings so it doesn't have that traditional pineapple upside down cake where you can actually see the pineapple. Oops.

I don't usually make pineapple upside down cakes as most of the ones I've tried (made by other people) were always a bit too sweet. Plus I have that prejudice-against-most-fruits-in-desserts going on. This has coconut in it though so it was a little bit different than the standard pineapple upside down cake so I wanted to try it. A couple of things I didn't expect: first, this doesn't make much cake batter. I was glad I baked the cake in an 8" round pan instead of a 9" or it would've been even thinner. Second, I thought the melted brown sugar/butter would produce more caramel syrup which would then bubble and pour out as a syrupy glaze over the cake when you turned it upside down. Instead, most of it baked into the cake so while it kept the top moist, there wasn't a lava flow of caramel at all. Which worked out fine because if it would have done the lava flow, I think it would've been too sweet.

As it is, I liked this cake. The chewiness of the coconut was a nice texture addition and the sweet tartness of the pineapple kept the brown sugar/butter part of the topping from making the cake too sweet. I think it could've used a little more cake but this makes for a nice little summer dessert nonetheless. I don't know how to solve the problem of making the pineapple not get buried into the cake as it bakes though. Because the batter is so thin, it seeps right under the pineapple when you first pour it into the cake pan and hence bakes right over it. That might've been avoided had I actually used the pineapple bits called for in the original recipe to lay down a good base on pineapple but I don't like pineapple bits (waste of chewing effort) so I left them out.

¾ c butter, room temperature, separated
¼ c light brown sugar, packed
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, reserve juice 
2  - 8 oz cans sliced pineapple, drain, reserve juice and pat dry (I omitted these since I don't like pineapple bits)
½ c sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup all-purpose flour 
1 ¼  teaspoons baking powder
¼ cup granulated sugar
½  cup milk
1 extra large egg
3 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice
¼ teaspoon salt
Fresh Raspberries (optional, I left it out)
Apricot Preserves, slightly heated (optional, I left it out)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Mix ¼ c butter and brown sugar in 9" cake pan.  Heat in oven until sugar and butter begin to turn dark but not burnt. Add crushed pineapple and coconut. Mix and spread evenly in pan.  Place pineapple slices around edge of pan and one slice in center. 
2. Combine remaining ingredients together and mix at low speed to blend.  Mix at medium speed until well blended.  Pour over pineapple in pan.  Bake 40 minutes or until cake test done.  Invert onto serving platter and garnish with raspberries in center of each slice.  Glaze each berry with syrup from preserves, if desired.

Restaurant Review: Market Broiler

Market Broiler - lunch on June 8, 2014

There's a restaurant in my parents' hometown called Market Broiler. We used to go there occasionally when I was younger but then the restaurant changed locations and moved further south. It was farther away so we stopped going. Truthfully, when they left their old location, I thought they had closed permanently. I found out later they had just relocated. Looking back, I realized they've actually been open for years. I remember taking my nieces there when they could barely walk and even then the restaurant wasn't new so they had to have been opened for at least a couple of decades. No easy feat in the restaurant industry. They're a small chain of 6 restaurants, concentrated mostly in Southern California with the one outlier in the Bay Area which is the one we've been going to for years.

When you walk into Market Broiler, almost one of the first things you see is the display of fresh fish. While it's easy to assume that's what the kitchen dips into for the orders that come in, it's actually a "Fresh Fish Market" for people to shop from just like at any grocery store, Asian grocery store, farmers' market, etc. Yes, you can walk into this restaurant just to buy raw seafood. I've never actually ever seen anyone purchase from the Fresh Fish Market but it's always there so they must have customers for it. The only drawback of course if you do get that raw fishy smell when you walk in and walk past the display case. It's not overwhelming but for those delicate of nose, you may not care for it.

When we first started coming to Market Broiler, one of the big selling points was the loaf of crusty sourdough bread served warm. Similar to the bread basket at Cheesecake Factory or Outback, it's free, they serve it before you order and you can ask for as much as you want. I try to limit myself to one piece so as not to fill up before my entree arrives but it's good bread and the carb lover in me usually twitches for a second piece. I manage to restrain myself....most of the time.

My parents ordered the Shrimp Tempura Sushi appetizer. They said it was really good. My parents hardly ever get appetizers since they don't eat much and often don't even finish their entrees (they bring home a lot of doggie bags) but they finished off this appetizer in one go so it must've been delicious. I didn't partake since I'm not a sushi eater. Plus I'd take bread and pasta over rice any day (please don't revoke my Asian membership). I'd already had a piece of the crusty warm sourdough bread and I was planning on ordering a pasta dish so that seemed like enough carbs for one meal.

Shrimp Tempura Sushi appetizer

Linguini and Clams

The menu at Market Broiler offers good variety. Plenty of seafood of course but they also offer non-seafood entrees like steak, ribs and chicken. We're seafood lovers so we all got some sort of seafood.  My dad got the Rainbow Trout (I think that's what it was) and my mom opted for the Linguini and Clams while I got "Harvest of the Sea" which was essentially a fettucine alfredo with shrimp, scallops and lobster. Like anything with a cream sauce, it was completely rich and decadent. I only ate a small portion and saved the rest for a future meal. But I don't really deserve props for portion control because you know I only did it to save room for dessert.

Harvest of the Sea Pasta

The only jarring note in both my mom's and my order was the garlic cheese bread our entrees came with was terrible. The bread was oversaturated with butter, to the point that although the bread was toasted, so much butter had soaked into it that it was tough and too chewy. The butter also ran into the pasta sauce and looked like oil. So maybe it wasn't butter but...something else. Either way I only managed a couple of bites before I gave up. I normally am very forgiving about bread but this wasn't edible or worth the calories.

Rainbow Trout....I think

Fortunately we ended on a good note with dessert in the form of a brownie "sundae". Although this breaks my cardinal rule of not having nuts inside of desserts, the brownie was served warm with chocolate and caramel sauces, was nicely chocolaty and paired well with the vanilla ice cream so I was forgiving. I'm lenient like that. This is something I could easily make at home so my parents always wonder why I "need" to get dessert but we were there, I was treating them out to lunch and I don't feel like it's a restaurant review if I don't have dessert and commentary about it. So there you go.

Brownie Sundae

Toffee Pecan Caramel Pound Cake

Toffee Pecan Caramel Pound Cake - made June 15, 2014 from Carlsbad Cravings

I got a new job last week and had to break the news to my coworkers that not only will I no longer be doing my day job for them but yes, the weekly desserts in our communal kitchen provided by yours truly were coming to an end. I'm not entirely sure which they were more upset about: loss of my day job support or their "involuntary dessert diet" once I leave. I don't change companies very often but since I've baked for every company I've worked in, I've come across this reaction before.

The first instinctive response varies from "congratulations!" to "nooooooo, you can't leave" (always nice to hear). Then once the news sinks in, the next click is "wait, does that mean you're not going to bake for us anymore?" Once I get them past the denial and I-reject-this-news stage, we get to the bargaining stage: "hey, any chance you can still drop off baked goods to us on your way to your new office?" Um, probably not but I did promise to step up the baking in my remaining time in my old job so I can leave them in sugar comas by my last day.

Starting with this pound cake from Carlsbad Cravings. I modified the recipe slightly to leave off incorporating pecans into the batter and instead used them as a garnish on top. I don't mind adding toffee into the cake itself but I discriminate against nuts in cakes. The nuts soften during baking and lose their crunch. In my mind, the main purpose of nuts in cakes is to provide a crunch contrast so putting them into batter and having them lose their purpose is not my baking path of choice. You can still get the flavor of the pecans but you'll also get their texture when using them as a garnish rather than incorporating them into the cake itself.

I didn't bake this cake as long as the original recipe directed. I'm horrible about timing things since I go by looks and the toothpick test so I don't know how long I baked this for but I don't think it was as long as an hour, if that. It definitely wasn't in there for 85-90 minutes. But ovens vary so I suggest checking this at least at 45 minutes and then every 5-10 minutes after that. I did have to cover the top loosely with foil towards the end to prevent the cake from getting too brown.

Let the cake cool completely before you spoon the caramel sauce over it. If you glaze it while the cake is still warm, the caramel will melt into your cake instead of remaining as a distinct covering of caramel. Or if you want to serve it warm, pour the caramel over it, sprinkle with toffee bits and pecans and serve immediately. I don't recommend garnishing it with pecans too far ahead of when the cake will be consumed because the pecans sitting on top of the caramel will absorb the moisture from the caramel and soften. Then they lose their purpose in life once again.

I really liked this cake. I held back a tiny portion of the batter to bake in a small ramekin as my taste test and ate it just slightly warm with the caramel poured over it. Yummmmm. It had the perfect pound cake texture, not too dense or too light and the brown sugar toffee flavor was delicious. I think I preferred my ramekin version instead of a normal slice from the Bundt cake but that's probably because I had the ramekin cake while it was still lukewarm. It's hard not to like a caramel-covered cake in that state.

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 8-ounce bag toffee bits
1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped
1/2 cup to 1 cup caramel (you can make your own or use storebought)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and generously spray a 12" nonstick Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter until creamy then add sugars, beating until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture in thirds, alternating with milk between each third. Beat until just combined. Stir in toffee bits and pecans then spoon batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean, 85-90 minutes (check it at 45-50 minutes). If your cake is browning too quickly, lightly cover with a piece of aluminum foil.
5. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes. Loosen from pan with flexible spatula and invert onto wire cooling rack. Let cool completely before spooning caramel over cake.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Spaghetti

Slow Cooker Cheesy Spaghetti with Turkey Sausage - made June 14, 2014 from Skinny Ms

The main reason I made this recipe is I still had my crock pot out and rather than climbing up on my step stool to stow it away on the top shelf of a cabinet I can't reach, I decided it would be way less effort (yes, this is what sarcasm looks like) to look at the cooking recipes on my pinterest board, make up a grocery list of ingredients I didn't have, drive to the store, buy what I needed then come back to throw everything in the crock pot. Totally makes sense, right? Yeah, I thought so too. It was just an added bonus that this made enough to feed me for 2 weeks.

True to its title, this is pretty cheesy spaghetti. I don't get how Skinny Ms got hers to look so "clean" in terms of not creamy with the cheesy sauce. Mine didn't turn out looking like hers. And that's with me doubling the amount of noodles in the recipe but keeping the sauce ingredients the same amounts. I doubled the noodles because I don't like a bunch of runny sauce and since I was using the slow cooker which has a tendency to make things watery, I was afraid the sauce would be watery so I wanted the extra noodles to sop it up. My fears turned out to be unfounded because doubling the noodles really did make for a thick concoction without much extra sauce. I thought this was pretty good but I think it would've been better to let the sauce simmer on its own, boil the noodles separately and just mix it all together at the end. I found myself checking the slow cooker too often to determine if the noodles were done. Which defeats the purpose of a crock pot since you're supposed to turn it on, walk away and just come back when everything's cooked. It does make a lot so this is good for a potluck or a large gathering. Or two weeks' worth of carb-heavy meals in the freezer.

1 lb lean ground turkey sausage (see recipe below)
1 (24 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce (no sugar added)
8 ounces (uncooked) 100% whole wheat spaghetti, about 2/3 of a 13.25 oz box, break into small pieces before adding to meat mixture
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 cup skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon chopped (fresh) basil
Kosher or sea Salt to taste
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Turkey Sausage
1 lb lean ground turkey or chicken
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano

1. Add all the sausage ingredients a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Cook ground turkey sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking into small pieces while cooking. Ensure the turkey loses its pink color before removing from heat. Drain, discard any fat and set aside. Combine meat with marinara and broken spaghetti pieces.
2. In a medium bowl combine cooked turkey sausage with the remaining ingredients, add to slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 2-3 hours or until spaghetti is al dente and cheese is bubbly.

Restaurant Review: Naschmarkt

Naschmarkt - dinner on June 5, 2014

A few of my coworkers and I went out to dinner a couple of weeks ago and we tried out a new-to-me restaurant that one of them recommended. Naschmarkt is located in downtown Campbell, CA and the biggest reason I'd never been there before is parking in downtown Campbell on a weekday, weeknight and the weekend sucks. Truly. It's a cute little neighborhood with lots of cute shops and restaurants but parking (did I mention it sucks?) is so hard to find that I rarely bother. So when I do go, I try to make the most of it.

We showed up early because 5:30 pm was the only time available on Open Table that was close to the dinner hour. Otherwise the next open slot was 8 pm. As we were seated, our waiter explained that they fill up fast since their space is small. I've been in smaller places so I thought Naschmarkt was a nice size and we were lucky enough to score a table by the front window.

I've never really had Austrian food so I don't know if I can attest to how authentic Naschmarkt fare is but I will say what we ordered was delicious. There were four of us and two got the Jager Schnitzel while I and another person ordered the goulash.

Jager Schnitzel

I had assumed goulash would be some kind of stew with vegetables and figured I'd just pick out the veggies (yeah, I know, that exasperates my parents to this day) but, wonder of wonders, this turned out to be my perfect dish because it was beef in sauce. Just beef. Sweet. It was supposed to come with a dollop of sour cream but I don't like sour cream so I asked them to leave it out which they obligingly did. The beef was tender and the sauce was tasty. It was like eating an upscale pot roast but better. I also had a bite of the Jager Schnitzel and that was good too, even the mushroom cream sauce it came in (bear in mind I don't even like mushrooms).

Hungarian Beef Goulash

The goulash (as well as the jager schnitzel) comes with Herbed Spatzle. Spatzle is a soft egg noodle or dumpling and the one at Naschmarkt was delicious. Our waiter recommended we spoon the spatzle, which is served separately, into the sauce of the goulash and mix it in. I tried that and yup, he was right; that was a great way to eat it.

Spatzle

Dinner was pretty filling but that's never stopped me from getting dessert and I had three friends with me who I could lead astray. The four of us split 2 desserts: Schoko Kuchen (aka molten chocolate cake) with salted caramel ice cream and Apfel (apple) Strudel.

Schoko Kuchen

The molten chocolate cake was gratifyingly liquid chocolate in the center and, more importantly, it was obvious Naschmarkt uses the good chocolate. This was yummy. My friends laughed at me because I not only had to get a picture of the molten chocolate cake before any of us cut into it (above) but I also had to capture proof that it really did have a molten center (below). Hey, I believe in truth in advertising and documenting when something lives up to its name.

The apple strudel was a must-get since it's a more traditional Austrian dessert but I always forget this isn't the season for apples. It's always better to get apple desserts in the fall when they're in season. Yes, you can get apples year round but for the truly flavorful apples, fall is the best time to have apple desserts, especially from restaurants who source their produce locally. I thought I would favor the apple strudel but it was a bit too tart for me and I ended up liking the molten chocolate cake better. One of my coworkers favored the strudel so we ended up balancing each other out. And I wasn't shy about forking up the last bite of that chocolate cake either.

Apfel Strudel

I liked Naschmarkt. Prices are in the mid to slightly high range, depending on what you order but I thought it was reasonable given the quality of the food. Portion size wasn't too large or too small but you can definitely leave full. Trust me on that. Service was good and the waitstaff was very nice. We all had a lot of fun that night so that also helps me think fondly of the experience. So the only main drawback was just finding parking in the neighborhood.

Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp

Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp - made June 7, 2014 from Bev Cooks

Are you flabbergasted that I keep posting savory recipes instead of desserts? Yeah, me too. Don't get used to it though. It's just a phase. As in "still too hot to turn my oven on very much" phase. And this was during the "still have to heal my shin splints so I'm not running and therefore have time to cook" phase. FWIW, I don't really care for either phase. But life, lemons, lemonade, yada yada.

I had a package of shrimp in the freezer to use up and all the other ingredients were ones I'm familiar with so one trip to Trader Joe's and I was set. This was easy to put together but I have to say, I think I went overboard on the shrimp which kinda crowded out the chowder part. This didn't end up having much liquid so it was more like a thin sauce covering the shrimp than a creamy chowder. It was still good but may not have been what the original blogger intended. Regardless, whenever my cooking doesn't quite come up to par, I remind myself my main goal is not to give myself food poisoning from my cooking and that resets my perspective.

2 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper
3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup half and half
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
basil slivers for garnish (optional)

1. Heat a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan and set aside on a paper towel to drain. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of bacon fat, if you have that much in the pot.
2. Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the shrimp to the pot and sear on one side for 2 minutes. Flip and sear 30 more seconds. Remove shrimp from pot and set aside.
3. If you need to add a little oil (or bacon fat) to the pot, do so. Add the onions to the pot and sauté 5 minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, crushed red pepper and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté another minute.
4. Add the fresh corn to the pot and toss to combine. Sauté 1 minute.
5. Add the stock and half & half to the pot. Stir to combine. Keep on a low simmer for 15 minutes. Salt and pepper as needed.
6. If you have an immersion blender, place it in the pot and pulse it a few times until about half of the soup becomes creamy, still leaving whole kernels as well. If you don’t have an immersion blender, ladle about a cup and a half of the soup into a blender and pulse until creamy. Pour back into the pot and stir to combine.
7. Serve chowder with the shrimp and reserved bacon crumbles. Garnish with slivered basil if desired.

Crockpot Beer Chicken

Crockpot Beer Chicken - made June 7, 2014 from LaaLoosh

I've discovered it's hard to take an appetizing picture of anything I make in a crockpot. It's always so soupy and I'm not artistically inclined enough to make my food pose and look fabulous. Nope, you're just going to have to see it as I do - chicken swimming in liquidy, watery....water?

Actually that's beer. I'm still working on the 6-pack of Heineken I bought for the Slow Cooker French Dip. This is bottle #3. I truly don't like the taste or smell of beer but fortunately, the alcohol cooked off in the hours the chicken was in the slow cooker. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little flavor in this. Perhaps a dark beer would have imparted more flavor; I don't know. The chicken breasts came out tender which was good but since I didn't want to use the sauce, which is mostly beer, with rice or noodles which is what I normally do with soupy slow cooker dishes, I ended up eating just the chicken. And it was just chicken. Not my finest moment with a crock pot.

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 bottle or can of your favorite beer
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1. Place all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8 hours until chicken is tender. 
2. If you want "prettier" chicken, sear the chicken breasts in a frying pan to give them a little more color before placing in slow cooker.