Thrift Score - Vintage Books

 I stopped by the Goodwill today and picked up these cute little vintage books. They were a dollar each so I scooped them up! These are little - slightly bigger than the size of a wallet. They're from the early 40's and have great "patina" (aka wear and tear).

The illustrations inside are pretty, too, but I have to admit I got these books for their covers. I'm thinking of making wallets or maybe little notebooks/journals. I also got a Wilton cake-decorating book from the '70's. It's hilariously dated but has some great tutorials for making buttercream flowers and lots of other techniques.

I have a weakness for vintage books. I went to the Goodwill to look for clothes for my Halloween costume but somehow managed to walk out with books instead. It happens all too often :)

Pineapple Rice (a.k.a. Glorified Rice)

 Here's a dessert my mom used to make for us when we were kids. It sounds kind of weird, I guess, but I've seen a similar recipe in some old (60's and 50's) cookbooks under the name "Glorified Rice". Those recipes usually have marshmallows (they were OBSESSED with marshmallows in those old desserts) and sometimes bananas or maraschino cherries (another retro obsession). We didn't add all that extra stuff.

If you like mango sticky rice then you might like this dessert. The rice gives this a nice chew, the pineapple is nice and tangy, and whipped cream is always good. I added sweetened coconut flakes, which is not strictly part of my family recipe, but was delicious!

Pineapple Rice

Combine the following:

1 can crushed pineapple (or tidbits, which is what I used here)
2/3 cup cooked white rice (cooled completely)
1 cup sweetened whipped cream (I added vanilla bean to mine but vanilla extract is good, too)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

If you keep covered in the fridge, this is good for 2-3 days. If it gets a little dry (sometimes the rice sort of absorbs some of the liquid) just add more whipped cream.

Yum!

Target Highlights!

Do you get excited when there is new stuff in the "One Spot" at Target? I love it! Sometimes it is all just a bunch of plastic junk but I always keep my eye out. I was super impressed with the stuff I found on my last trip. Sometimes Target is so on trend! I got some of the woodgrain print wrapping paper above. I really want the newspaper print but had to hold myself back. Even dollars add up :(

 I did buy this awesome gift bag and some of the paper bowls shown below (the ones with the overlapping dots). There were a ton of other things I wanted. Now is a good time in the One Spot.

 Also, in case you haven't noticed, Halloween has arrived! Bwah-ha-ha! Love Target's expanded mask selection this year. I'm wondering what color the inside of a Cadbury "scream egg" is - green? purple? both? I wasn't curious enough to buy one. Cadbury eggs are super gross.

Creamsicle Pie

I made this pie as an excuse to make fruit curd. I used Martha's recipe (adapted slightly below), and it is delicious! Clementines (you could use another tangerine or even an orange) are sweeter than lemons so reduce the sugar accordingly.

I made the crust out of crushed Cookie Crisp cereal (finally, I've used the last of it!) but Nilla Wafers or graham crackers would work well. Just add melted butter until the crumbs stick together and then press them into the pie pan. Fill with orange curd and top with sweetened whipped cream (I added vanilla bean to mine, just because).

 Clementine Curd (adapted from Lemon Curd recipe in Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts)

Ingredients:

6 large egg yolks
1 T clementine zest
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed clementine juice
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (optional)

Instructions:

1. Whisk egg yolks, zest, juice, sugar and salt together in a medium saucepan.
2. Cook over low to medium heat, whisking constantly. DO NOT LET IT COME TO A BOIL!
3. When sauce has thickened (should coat the back of a spoon, probably 10 minutes or so). Take off heat.
4. Strain through a fine sieve to remove zest (or you could leave it in, if you don't care so much about a smooth texture)
5. While sauce is still warm, whisk in butter a bit at a time (no more than a tablespoon at a time) until well combined. Stir in Grand Marnier.
6. Pour into storage container and cover with plastic wrap so that plastic touches the surface of the curd. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week but there's no way it's going to last that long!

Wordless Wednesday

Got a bunch of projects in the works. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this picture of Simon the Cat. Feel free to make up your own caption!

Spice Cake with Cookie Butter (Biscoff) Cream Cheese Frosting

 People at work raved about this spice cake! And guess what? There is a secret ingredient - tomato soup! That's right; this is the tomato soup spice cake I mentioned in an earlier post. You can't taste the tomatoes, as promised. It's a nice moist spice cake that's perfect for autumn.

The frosting really makes this cake spectacular, though. I was hankering to use the "Cookie Butter" I had just purchased from Trader Joe's. The non-Trader Joe version is called Biscoff Spread. You can find out all about it here,

http://bakingbites.com/2011/12/what-is-biscoff-spread/

but all you need to know is that it is made from spice cookies called Speculoos and is super delicious. I added the cream cheese because I didn't want the frosting to be overwhelmingly sweet. It needs some tang.

Here is the slightly modified recipe for the cake and my frosting recipe. Some notes:

• I replaced some of the white sugar with brown sugar. This helps develop a deeper flavor and adds moisture. You could use all white, of course.
• I messed around with the spices. I find that clove tends to overwhelm all other flavors. Maybe I am just sensitive to clove so feel free to change it up.
• I decided to use vegetable oil because I knew that the cake would be refrigerated (due to the cream cheese frosting) and cakes with oil in them tend to stay softer when they are cold. Again, I'm sure butter would work fine.
• I used powdered buttermilk instead of milk or water. This product rocks!
• Another reminder to use room temp eggs. I can't stress enough how much this helps! Just stick your eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes before adding them.
• I frosted the cake with a rustic swirl. Truthfully, with cream cheese frosting you don't have much choice. It is difficult to get smooth. It is import to do a little bit of a crumb coat first - just a thin layer of frosting all around - to "trap" all the crumbs. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes and then dollop on the rest of the frosting. I added some little mushroom-shaped cookies for fun (Chocorooms!)

Tomato Soup Spice Cake

Ingredients

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon chinese five spice powder

1 10 ounce can tomato soup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or water

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare cake pans by spraying with cooking spray and dusting with flour. I used one 8"wide by 3" deep pan. You could use two eight inch cake pans.
3. Sift dry ingredients together into mixing bowl.
4. Combine wet ingredients in a bowl.
5. Pour wet into dry. Mix on low to medium until all ingredients are combined. Don't overmix.
6. Pour batter into pan or divide evenly into two cake pans. Place cake pans on a baking sheet on the middle rack.
7. Bake until toothpick comes out clean. For my extra-deep cake, I had to bake for about 40 minutes. Using two cake pans should cut the time to 25-30 minutes. Start checking at 20 minutes if you have a crappy rental oven like mine.

Cookie Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1 box cream cheese, softened
6 oz or 3/4 cup cookie butter
3-4 cups confectioners sugar
2 Tablespoons maple syrup (I used Trader Joe's Grade B)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps

1. Beat cream cheese on high speed to make sure that there are no lumps! Any cold lumps will not smooth out once you start adding liquid or other ingredients.
2. Add cookie butter and one cup powdered sugar to start. Beat until thoroughly combined, starting on low speed.
3. Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix.
4. Continue to add sugar, bit by bit, until you have a consistency and sweetness that works for you.

Minnesota Renaissance Festival 2012

Huzzah!

 Here are some photos from my trip to the RenFest (what the cool kids call it) this past weekend. I'm keeping my comments brief but a picture is worth a thousand words so here's about 15,000 or so. FYI, quite a few of these photos were taken by my sister, Melanie.

There are still two weekends left: http://www.renaissancefest.com/