Monthly Archives: February 2012

Oh, Valentines day…For the young, a day of greeting cards with candy hearts and glitter covered shoeboxes and sugar-powered antics.  For the old(er), it’s a day some love to hate for it’s commercialism and schmaltz, and for others, a day to show love with thoughtful gestures, and of course, good food.  For me, it’s become a milestone of a different kind.  Two years ago today, I published my first post on a little blog called Spoon With Me.

If Spoon With Me were in a relationship, it would be snuggling on the couch watching Netflix on a Tuesday night.  If my blog were a toddler, it’s favorite word would be a toss-up between “no!” and “mine!”.  If Spoon were a student, it would have just earned it’s associates degree. However, I have a feeling that Spoon’s going for a PhD, and in that case, we’re just getting started!

Thank you for reading, cooking, and cozying up with me in the kitchen this past two years–may we have many more adventures together in year three!

Orange Chocolate One-Pan Cake

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Makes one 8″ round cake (I doubled the recipe as part of a little experiment)

The one-pan cake, a.k.a, the “wacky cake” was born in the depression era to be made without milk or egg ingredients.  In my version, I added whole wheat pastry flour (not to be mistaken with regular whole wheat flour), and orange zest.   It comes together quickly, and emerges from the oven moist, and scented with a slight tinge of bitter orange.  As always, feel free to add put your own spin on the recipe–I imagine it would be heavenly with the addition of a handful of dark chocolate chips, or drizzled with an orange powdered sugar glaze.  

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
• grated zest from 2 medium oranges (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup cold water
• oil or butter for greasing

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Grease an 8″ round cake pan that is at least 2″ deep with the oil or butter.  Put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, espresso powder, and orange zest into the cake pan and whisk until combined.  Don’t worry if there are tiny lumps of cocoa powder remaining.

Create three wells in the dry ingredients.  Pour the oil into one well, the vinegar in the second well, and the vanilla into the third.  Pour the cup of cold water over everything and whisk well until combined.  Use a spatula to incorporate any remaining dry ingredients from the bottom and sides of the pan.

Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes until set, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out moist, but clean of crumbs.  Sift powdered sugar over top to serve.

It has just been brought to my attention that it’s Super Bowl Sunday.  Tastespotting and the rest of the blog universe are abuzz with dips, hot wings, and soft pretzels with beer cheese.  It’s the pseudo holiday I forget about every year.  Don’t get me wrong, just like many of you, I’ll be “watching” the game; ie:  eating the food and socializing, with the occasional distraction of a funny commercial or a shell shocking manly shout when something important happens on the field.  It’s evident that football isn’t really my thing, but being as it’s practically an undeclared holiday, it would be un-American of me not to take part in the festivities!

This year, we’re heading over to the Mister’s sister’s house (I couldn’t resist) for pizza and beer.  I wanted to make something fresh and healthy, but still irresistibly snacky to go along with the rest of the typical Super Bowl fare.  Growing up, a Super Bowl favorite in my house was the seven layer dip, and mom usually assigned me the job of putting it all together.  I have fond memories of sprinkling cheddar cheese, green onions and tomatoes over layers of refried beans, sour cream and guacamole.  I always garnished the center with a tortilla chip.  I was quite the food artist at the age of twelve.

When a co-worker at school brought in a greek seven layer dip for Food Friday (we teachers have to reward ourselves), I promptly dug in, and made a mental note to recreate it.  Hers was layered with hummus, cucumber, tomato, feta, kalamata olives, spinach, and red onion, and we all tore off pieces of pita for dipping.  The beauty about all of this is that it isn’t an exact science. Some of my friends with more type A tendencies may be bothered by the fact that you don’t even need seven layers to make a seven layer dip.  6 layers?  Still a seven layer dip.  8 layers?  You got it, still a seven layer dip.  Most of your partakers won’t be counting, and it could be an interesting social experiment to see who’s worried about the discrepancy between the title and the contents.  I’m all about entertaining myself with arbitrary social experiments.

What I’m really saying is, take this idea, and customize it to your heart’s delight.  This time, my seven layer dip includes homemade hummus, a mix of olives,  cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, parsley, spinach, and a couple drizzles of olive oil  all scooped up by a batch of spiced, baked pita chips.  Dairy is not my friend anymore, but if your body is dairy-friendly, please, for the love of God, add some feta or lemon-spiked greek yogurt!

I wish you a happy Super Bowl day today.  Please enjoy the touchdowns, and, er…field goals and other football-like things.  I’ll be there to show my utter lack of football knowledge, 7 layer dip in hand to enjoy your food and your company, and of course, a commercial or two.

 Greek 7 Layer Dip with Baked Spiced Pita Chips