I can't believe it's been about 2 months since I last posted, but have no fear my blog posts are back! As much as I am excited to see friends & family over my spring break, I am also excited to cook again and make my own food. What better time was there to start cooking then the very day I got back? So here is a little bit about my adventures (cooking and otherwise) on my first day of spring break.
A Trip To Whole Foods
One of the first things I did when I got home on break was take a trip to Whole Foods. Now I didn't buy anything to cook from there, but Whole Foods has the MOST AMAZING Mac & Cheese in the world. It's so good that I felt the need to tell all my reader's about. It is the most delicious combinations of noodles & cheese that I have ever had. The top layer of cheddar cheese gets a little hard from being baked in the oven and once you combine that with the middle layer of creamy pasta, you get pure magic. Since their Mac & Cheese comes premade, I unfortunately couldn't release my inner top chef. Part of me wanted to run around yelling "Where's a worker? I need a worker" & proceed to the meat counter to order 25 pounds of lamb like they do on the show. Instead, I decided to act kind of civilized, but next time...
All in all it was a great trip to Whole Foods. I combined the Mac & Cheese with an Arugula Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, goat cheese, and crispy bacon. Overall, it was a very delicious meal. Also, I learned a very important lesson (non food related) on this trip. For those of you who are dying to eat this Mac & Cheese in the near future, I have a piece of advice. DO NOT take a random highway that you think leads to West Hartford( when it doesn't) and get stuck in rush hour traffic at 5:30 PM. It will lead to some headaches, and this may or may not have happened to me.
Delicious, somehow managed to
save some for lunch today!
And on to the next course.....
I'm not sure what to call this dish that I made, since the flavor came out a little different then it was supposed to (but in a good way). I'll just go with calling it
Almost a Spice Cake, Almost an Applesauce Cake
Some college students complain about their food at school being bad, but UCONN has very good food. I never thought I'd be content with not making my own food, but UCONN does a very good job of helping me get over that. One of the delicious desserts that UCONN has is an applesauce cake with cream cheese frosting, and that is what I tried to recreate on my first day of spring break. I've posted the link to the recipe below, but there are two notes I'd like to make.
1) I used a 9X12 Baking dish, and the cook time ended up being right about 40 min instead of 50-60. Use your judgement and watch how the cake browns on the top. The cake is very moist because of the applesauce, so if it's a little more wet/spongey then normal cakes it's OK. If you want it to get a little drier, keep it in a little longer. I just want you to make sure the top doesn't burn.
2)APPLESAUCE: This is where the difference between an applesauce cake and more of a spice cake lies. I used UNSWEETENED APPLESAUCE & some cinnamon to spice the cake batter. Because of this, the taste of the cake didn't hit you over the head with an applesauce flavor. I got more of a spiced, cinnamon flavor that reminded me of a pumpkin bread. If you want to get more of an applesauce flavor, I suggest using your favorite brand of CINNAMON applesauce and just leaving out the cinnamon in the directions. Either way you will get a moist delicious cake. Here is the link to the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/applesauce-cake-vi/
Definitely a keeper.
Thoughts on the recipe: I loved this cake. The cinnamon flavor comes through in a non overwhelming way, and the texture is spot on. To get more of the applesauce feel next time, I will use a cinnamon applesauce in the batter instead of a unsweetened one. I garnished my cake with a little whipped cream and crushed cinnamon graham cracker. Hopefully if you try this recipe you'll enjoy. Let me know how it turns out for you, and I'll have more blog posts this week. Thanks for reading!
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