Honey Cake 2 ways for Rosh Hashannah

Posting recipe soon..I promise.

Banana Pound Cake

Hey Everyone,
Sorry for not posting in a while, my life has gotten a little hectic..trying to juggle 3 jobs leaves me not much time to cook and blog. :)
Although last weekend I did finally have time to bake a little something. I find it very relaxing to bake and the end result is always satisfying! :)
I made a banana pound cake that was just out of this world, it was so light and tasty. I think the ground ginger and lemon zest really added another dimension to the pound cake.
Here is the recipe:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 medium, very ripe bananas, mashed, about 3/4 cup
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk or milk
1 tablespoon freshly zested lemon or orange peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter in a large bowl, gradually add the sugar, beat until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. After eggs are in, beat several minutes until mixture is smooth and very pale. Beat in bananas.
In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt and ginger. Combine milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Beating at low speed add dry ingredients in thirds alternating with milk mixture. Stir in lemon zest.
Pour and scrape batter into a lightly greased bundt pan or 2 loaf pans, spreading evenly. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Then turn out of pan and cool completely.

81 Poppies

As many of you know I have started my own clothing line called 81 Poppies. I have been working really hard trying to get the collection together for an upcoming photo shoot as well as for spring market in a month. That's why I haven't been giving you guys lots of yummy recipes. So instead of food therapy here is a little fashion therapy for everyone to enjoy. These are some pictures I took during a quick fitting with my model.

Ice Cream you scream we all scream for Ice Cream

I am so happy to report that there is finally a non dairy ice cream product that is actually good! It is called NadaMoo and its made with all natural ingredients. The most important thing is that the texture is just like real ice cream. It is smooth and creamy and rich. I would highly recommend this product to anyone that has a dairy allergy or a gluten allergy. And even if you don't have all these things it just tastes good and you will love it! I promise. So far I have only sampled the Maple Pecan, which just melts in your mouth. I think you can buy it all Central Market locations and Whole Foods as well. And what's even better is it is a local Austin business! So go out and support your small local businesses!

Watermelon Popsicles

I took some of the watermelon that we grew and cut it up and stuck in a blender with some sugar and a couple tablespoons of lemonade, and froze it in our nifty Popsicle contraption. And the next day we had delicious and refreshing watermelon pops. This is so simple to do and you can do it with any fruit you like. Last year we did it with peaches and it was fantastic.

Summer Corn Soup with Shrimp

the tomato brushetta we made the second time around eating the soup. Simply cut some tomatoes and drizzle some olive oil a dash a balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper; mix well.
Then take some crusty bread and brush both sides with olive oil and stick in the oven to toast for 10 minutes. Its that simple.


This is another great summer soup recipe that I found on another food blog called Sprouted Kitchen. I think it came out really good and loved the shrimp and avocado topping. This minus the soup would even be good in tacos. We had a lot of leftover soup so we had the next night with some hard boiled egg and bacon crumbled on top with a tomato bruschetta on the side. Very tasty.
Here is what you need for the soup:
4 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
4 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
3 small Yukon gold potatoes or 1 large cut into cubes
1 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
cayenne or red pepper flakes to taste
2 teaspoons oregano
salt and black pepper to taste

Here is what you need for the shrimp topping:
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large avocado, diced
1 poblano chile
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 scallion, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and saute to coat. Cook until the onions just start to turn light brown. Peel the potato and cut into cubes, add it to the onion. Cut the kernels of corn off the cob, add them to the soup pot. Add the broth, spices and a few grinds of fresh pepper and allow everything to simmer, until corn and potatoes are cooked through.
Toss the shrimp in olive oil and salt and pepper and put on a baking pan. Cut the poblano chile in half length wise, and place it skin side up on the pan as well. Bake on the upper rack for 5 minutes until shrimp are cooked through. Remove the shrimp and set aside. Put the pepper back in the oven until the skin blisters. While waiting peel the tails off the shrimp. Remove the pepper and put it into a Ziploc bag to cool, this will help the skin peel off easier.
Check on the soup to make sure the potato and corn are cooked through. Using an immersion blender or regular blender, puree the soup. I left it a little chunky.
In a separate bowl, combine the shrimp pieces, lime juice, chopped herbs and scallions. Peel and cut the avocado and add to the bowl. Rub the skin off the chile, cut into small pieces. Toss together.
Serve soup in a bowl and spoon shrimp mixture over it.

The BEST Banana Bread

Ok, so I know I have written about several banana recipes and I am sure you all are thinking, enough already with the bananas. But I have to share one last recipe that I have found to be the best banana bread I have ever made. I have used several banana bread recipes but this one tops them all. The original recipe came from a bakery in Boston called Flour Bakery which I have never been to but I have seen it on the food network, and it looks amazing. So, Food Network was kind enough to post their recipe for everyone to share in its glory. I have switched up one of the ingredients in it which I think is the key to this breads moistness. The original recipe calls for creme fraiche or sour cream which I don't use, instead I use low fat buttermilk. What also sets this recipe apart from others is that you beat the egg and sugar together until it is light and fluffy, so the cake is very light and airy and puffs up a lot when its baking. So enough talking let me give you this recipe so you can get to baking. :)

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (i use canola oil)
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tablespoons low fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Set oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour (depending on your oven, mine usually takes about 50 minutes).
let it cool on a wire rack in the pan for about 15 minutes. Then turn out onto a plate and let cool more.