Aunt Kim's Coconut Cake

This recipe appeared originally in Just a Pinch Recipes as "Coconut Brunch Bread." With the glazed icing, it is delicious but very sweet... every bit a cake!

6 eggs
3 C. sugar
1 1/2 C. oil
3 tsp. coconut extract
4 1/2 C. flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. buttermilk
1 1/2 C. flaked coconut
1 1/2 C. chopped walnuts

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Beat first four ingredients together and blend well.
3) Mix dry ingredients.
4) Add dry ingredients to egg mixture, alternating with buttermilk, coconut, and nuts.
45 Spoon into 3 large loaf pans or 1 10" bundt pan.
6) Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes if using loaf pans, or 1 1/2 hours if using bundt pan.

ICING:
1 C. sugar
1/2 C. water
2 Tbsp. margarine (I always use butter)
1 tsp. coconut extract

1) While bread is baking, combine sugar, water, and butter in small saucepan.
2) Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add coconut extract.
3) Remove warm breads from pan(s).
4) Place back in pans and pour hot syrup over top of the warm cake.
5) Let stand 4 hours or more before slicing and serving.

Beach Week 2020

Rainy Day Egg Drop Soup

One of Molly's favourite kinds of dishes is the warm noodle broth, but in college she would often just opt to cook noodles in a water and soy sauce mixture in between study sessions, which isn't very nourishing.

Since it's cold and rainy, I whipped up this much heartier version for our dinner. She asked me to make it another time, so I'm writing it down here for future reference. If you make it, let me know what you think!

Note that this recipe only makes enough for two as a main dish, but could easily feed more as a side to another Asian-fusion dish.

Ingredients:

• Water
• Chicken bouillon powder
• Soy sauce
• Powdered garlic
• Powdered ginger
• Sesame seeds
• Whole prickly ash pods
• Chili bean paste
• Sesame oil
• Black pepper
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Somen noodles

Directions:

1. Boil 3 cups of water. Add a heaping tablespoon of chicken bouillon powder, stir, and let boil for a couple minutes.
2. Add a splash of soy sauce, a generous dash of garlic, a few fingerfuls of the prickly ash, a good dusting of sesame seeds, a teaspoon of the chili bean paste, a generous dash of black pepper, a generous dash of sugar, a little bit of sesame oil, and as much ginger as you'd enjoy (I put in just a little less than the garlic).
3. Stir everything together, then let the mixture boil for a couple minutes until it becomes a nice broth.
4. In a separate bowl, mix two eggs with a quarter cup cold water. Pour the egg mixture into the broth, stirring the whole time with a fork. Boil for a good three or four minutes, until the eggs have cooked into lots of little visible chunks swirling in the broth.
5. Add a packet of somen noodles and boil for two minutes, stirring at intervals. (Our somen noodles come in a package with several individually bound sections of noodles. I used one of the individual sections, not the whole package.)
6. Let sit for a couple minutes, then serve up into two bowls and enjoy!

Aunt Nita's Spaghetti

1 large onion, diced
2 Tbsp. finely chopped garlic (2-3 cloves)
3 lbs. lean ground beef
chile powder (hefty sprinkling)
salt and pepper to taste
1 large can tomato sauce
1 large can tomato paste
1 can mushrooms (stems and pieces)—optional
parmesan for topping

1) Sauté onion and garlic in oil until clear. (Add garlic after onion has cooked a little bit to avoid burning it.)

2) Brown ground beef with onion and garlic.

3) Add seasonings.

4) Add tomato sauce and tomato paste. Then fill each can almost full with water and add to sauce.

5) Simmer until flavors are well-blended and sauce is right consistency.

6) Add mushrooms toward the end and simmer until warm.

7) Serve over al dente spaghetti noodles with a nice Italian salad and good crusty Italian bread.

8) Serve Mumama's Banana Pudding for dessert! :)

Elanore's Favorite Chicken Salad

This is a knock-off of the very delicious rotisserie chicken salad from Fresh Market. It is so simple, and very delicious. 

The secret is to shred the chicken and make the chicken salad while the chicken is still warm.

1) Tear/shred the flesh of one rotisserie chicken by hand. Don't chop it!

2) While it is still warm (this is important), rub in the following ingredients:

Hellman's mayonnaise

sea salt

celery salt

cracked black pepper

celery, finely diced 

Everything is to taste, and quantities are according to your preferences.

Zucchini Bread

I received this text from our son, Philip, today: "I'm really hoping to find our nice childhood recipe for zucchini bread, since it's not on Sharing Recipes." So, as requested, here it is!

3 eggs
2 C. sugar
1 C. oil (I use light/"regular" olive oil, but not EVOO)
1 T. vanilla extract
2 C. unpeeled zucchini, coarsely grated
2 C. flour (gluten-free one-to-one blends work fine)
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. soda
1 C. pecans, chopped
8 ounces cream cheese (optional, for serving)

Beat eggs until frothy. Beat in sugar. Add oil and vanilla and beat until thick and lemon colored. Add loosely packed, grated zucchini. Sift together dry ingredients and add to egg mixture. Fold in pecans. Pour into 8x4-inch greased and floured loaf pan, or 3 small loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Bake 45 minutes for small loaves. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Serve plain or with cream cheese.

This recipe originally appeared in a favorite cookbook, Well Seasoned: A Southern Classic.


I'm really hoping to find our nice childhood recipe for zucchini bread, since it's not on Sharing Recipes

Anita's Creamy Tuscan Chicken (Instant Pot)

This is my mom's delicious recipe! It was fun to make it on Mother's Day in Virginia Beach and feel like she was involved in the festivities from nearly 5,000 miles away in Hawai'i! Serves about five.

Ingredients:

8-10 chicken thighs, skinless & boneless
4 garlic cloves, minced
Fresh mushrooms, sliced
Oregano
Marjoram
Herbes de Provence
2 tbsp. soy sauce (or liquid aminos to make it GF!)
3/4 cup chicken stock
Sun-dried tomatoes, to taste
Spinach, to taste
1/2 to 1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
A bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce

Directions:

1) Salt and pepper chicken thighs. Put Instant Pot on "Saute" mode; once it is hot, coat bottom with olive oil and add chicken thighs to brown. After 3.5 minutes, flip to brown the other sides for 2 minutes. Do this in batches, so as not to crowd the pan.

2) Add minced garlic. Saute for 30 seconds, then add sliced mushrooms to saute for another minute or so. Add oregano, marjoram, herbes de Provence, and any other desired spices.

3) Deglaze bottom of pot with soy sauce and chicken stock, scraping browned bits off bottom of pot. Mix.

4) Add browned chicken, along with any accumulated juices. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes, then allow 10 minutes of natural release. Release remaining pressure.

5) Set chicken aside. Bring liquid back to a boil by switching to "Saute" mode. Add spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Mix. Add cream and parmesan cheese.

6) Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Add mixture to pot in increments until sauce is thickened to desired consistency.

7) Add chicken back to pot. Serve over pasta.

Breakfast Danish

This recipe has been a classic birthday breakfast treat in the Sitterding house for as long as I can remember. Its name on the index card recipe is "Crescent Roll - Cheese Snacks," but we always just called it "danish." (I've edited it here to reflect some of the changes it's undergone through the years.)

Ingredients:
- 2 eight-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
- 2 packages of crescent rolls (use baking sheets!)
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1 egg, separated
- cinnamon sugar
- sliced almonds

Unroll one of the crescent rolls in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Beat together the cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Spread this mixture evenly over the crescent roll. Unroll the second crescent roll on top of the cream cheese mixture.

Optional: Beat the egg white until thick and no longer bubbly, but not stiff. Spread over the top layer of crescent roll.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar and almonds on top of the crescent roll, as much as you'd like.

Bake in the oven on 375 for about 30 min. Let cool for a bit so that the filling has time to set and doesn't scald your mouth. We usually serve it by cutting it into wedges, taking care that the "edges" and "middles" are evenly distributed.

This treat is also delicious cold and leftover, so don't feel any pressure to eat it all at once, nor even to reheat it! It's super rich.

Baby Teddy's Pancakes

Auntie Elsh found this recipe for Teddy one morning after a sleepover! This recipe serves Teddy plus the rest of the family, but the original recipe was a quarter of this and I generally half it unless I'm cooking a bunch and want to save them. I have found that measurements are flexible and you can definitely experiment; for example, if you're using flax seed you can cut out an egg and add a little water, or if you prefer a more "bready" texture, you can add a few more oats. I have also not noticed a difference between using fresh or frozen banana.

Ingredients:
- 8 eggs
- 2 bananas
- 1 cup oats
Optional Additions:
- flax seeds
- nuts (almonds or walnuts)
- spinach

Directions:
Blend together in the blender. Fry up in some coconut oil. Teddy likes his best with blueberries and almond butter. Enjoy! :)

Gluten-Free Cranberry Cookies

1 1/2 C. GF flour blend

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 C. butter, softened

1 C. sugar (I use less)

1 C. brown sugar (I use less)

1 egg

3 Tbsp. hot water

1 tsp. vanilla

3 C. GF rolled oats

2 C. chopped walnuts

2 C. dried sweetened cranberries (Craisins)

1 C. coconut (I use more)

1) Sift together first three ingredients and set aside.

2) Blend next six ingredients together in stand mixer.

3) Add blended dry ingredients and oats alternately to the blended wet ingredients in the stand mixer, incorporating well after each addition.

4) Blend in nuts, cranberries, and coocnut, in that order, incorporating well after each addition.

5) Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a metal cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

6) Bake at 375 degrees for 10-11 minutes.

7) Let rest 2-3 minutes before carefully transfering to wire racks for cooling. (Otherwise they will fall apart! If you're in a hurry, just tranfer the whole parchment paper to the racks. And yes, you can re-use the parchment paper for baking all the batches.)

This makes 4 dozen small cookies. (I haven't tried making larger cookies. I'm not sure they'd stay together well without crumbling.)

Jeanne's London Broil Marinade

This recipe is from my old friend Jeannie and is so delicious!

Marinate London broil in mixture of:

ginger

garlic

scallions

white wine

sesame oil

salt pepper

Grill 3-5 minutes each side for medium-rare.