Yogurt Pound Cake

I eat yogurt all the time, but I don’t really cook a lot with yogurt. I’ve found that I don’t care that much for the tangy, yogurt-y taste in cooking. I prefer the taste of sour cream which is an easy substitute for yogurt. Baking however is another story. Yogurt is a substitute for butter in this pound cake recipe that I found on Epicurious. You can not detect the tangy yogurt taste in this cake.

Yogurt Cake with Orange Marmalade Glaze
8 servings

1 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp (packed) finely grated lemon peel
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup orange marmalade (for glaze)
1 tsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inch metal loaf pan. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Combine yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon peel and vanilla in a large bowl; whisk until well blended. Gradually whisk in dry ingredients. Fold in oil. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Place pan on baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack for five minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Turn cake out onto rack. Turn cake upright on rack and cool completely.

Stir marmalade and one teaspoon water in small saucepan over medium heat until marmalade melts. Brush hot mixture over top of cake. Let glaze cool and set. Cut crosswise into slices.


The result? I thought this cake was pretty good for a simple pound cake. I used non-fat yogurt in this recipe which in stead of using butter makes the cake a little bit healthier. The real kicker to this cake is the marmalade glaze on top – yum! I think this cake would be a good addition to a brunch and I’d also like to try making it in cupcake form sometime.

Afternoon Links: Made in America

I found an article earlier this week on MSN that is right up my alley. It talks about ten different factory tours you can go on here in the United States to see how things are made.

Made in America

I have been on a couple factory/manufacturing tours and find them to be really interesting. Most recently I went on a tour of the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado (near Denver). Besides getting a chance to learn about the entire brewing process, it was also a free tour and at the end you get to sit in a lounge and enjoy three free beers! Golden is also a cute little town with boutique-y shops and such. We didn't have a chance to see other parts of the town so I'd really like to go back and spend a day there. Most local breweries give tours of their facility. I know our local brewery does and I would really like to go sometime.

The two places that stuck out to me in the article were the Jack Daniels Distillery and the Jelly Belly factory. I have some friends who have been to the Jack Daniels Distillery before and they said it was really interesting and fun. The Jelly Belly factory just sounds neat and since I have a major sweet tooth I'm sure I would love it (maybe they give you free candy...).

Chickpea Pasta

I found this recipe in the January 2008 issue of Real Simple magazine (my favorite magazine). It had simple ingredients and looked simple to make so I decided to give it a try. I’ve always been a sucker for a big bowl of pasta.

Chickpea Pasta with Almonds & Parmesan
4 servings

1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
7 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1 pound angel hair pasta
1 15.5 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
¼ cup unsalted roasted almonds, chopped
½ cup grated Parmesan

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the broth, red pepper, and ¾ tsp salt and bring to a boil.

Add the pasta and cook, stirring, until the broth is nearly absorbed and the pasta is al dente, about six minutes. Stir in the chickpeas and parsley.

Divide among individual bowls and top with almonds and Parmesan.

My take on it: I pretty much followed the recipe as directed above using vegetable broth instead of chicken and sliced non-roasted almonds instead of chopped, roasted almonds. Also for some reason I decided to make this recipe in a covered skillet instead of a saucepan. Not sure what I was thinking there but it worked out just fine.


So was it worth it? The recipe tasted great however I probably won’t make it exactly like this again. First, I’m not a huge fan of long pasta noodles such as spaghetti, fettuccini or angel hair. So the first substitution I would make is to use a different noodle such as rotini or farfalle. Second, this recipe makes a lot! I felt like it was a lot more than four servings. So next time I will use less pasta and therefore less broth. Finally I will cook everything in a big pot instead of a skillet!

One thing I really liked about this recipe was the chickpeas. I’ve really only used chickpeas to make hummus and in a great soup recipe. I had never tossed them in pasta. Since I’ve made this recipe I’ve started using chickpeas all the time. I have tossed them into other pasta dishes and into salads. They are a great source of protein and they are pretty inexpensive too.

Seeds: Week 2

Approximately two weeks ago I started seeds for my first garden. I keep them indoors (in my bedroom actually) in front of a sunny, east-facing window. I planted 32 pots of eight different seeds. They have been doing pretty well I think. Most of them have germinated by now and are growing more and more each day. I'm afraid I might have to transplant some of them sooner than I planned.

There hasn't been much to do for the seeds this week except water them and thin out the pots with the larger seedlings. To thin means to pull out all but the strongest seedling in each pot. I've thinned all of the larger seedlings by now but for some of the smaller ones I'm going to let them duke it out for a few more days.

In the past week I noticed that my peat pots have mold growing on them. I think I was keeping them too wet and also I was watering them from the top which is a no-no (promotes mold and mildew; should water from the bottom instead). A quick Google search told me that a little bit of mold on pots is no big deal and that I should turn a fan on in the room with the seeds. Not directly blowing on the seeds, but just enough for air circulation which should cut down on the mold. I have been leaving my ceiling fan on during the day and it seems to have helped.

Another interesting gardening tidbit I read this week is that a fan blowing indirectly on or around your seeds can help them grow stronger. The fan acts like the wind outside and will make them develop sturdier stems. Interesting!

The last thing I learned this week about seeds that I wanted to mention is that if your seeds are growing long and spindly it is because their light source is too far away. They are growing taller and taller trying to get to the light. If you put a light source directly above and closer to the seedlings they won't grow so tall and spindly and instead will develop thicker, healthier stems. I think this may be the issue with my broccoli. It is just laying across the soil instead of sticking up.

Here's what my seeds looked like a week ago.

Here's what they look like after another week of growing:

Broccoli


Big Boy Tomato (these were not even out of the soil a week ago!)


Peppers - very slow to germinate. I think a basil seed got in one of my pepper pots because the first pepper plant to pop up looks an awful lot like the other basil plants and the second pepper plant to pop out (this one) looks nothing like the first one. Ooops!


Roma Tomato


Basil


Marigold


Impatien


Zinnia



I am having a lot of fun with these seeds. It is amazing to me that a tiny seed can grow into an entire plant!

Afternoon Links: Recycling Odd Items

Earth Day is on April 22nd so it seems like everywhere you look this month someone is going on about something "green". Every magazine I pick up is "the green issue". Yesterday I was in the bookstore and there was an entire table of books devoted to being green and green living.

I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm a tree-hugger so I'm all about being green. I've enjoyed learning some new ideas with all the green literature out this month.

I came across an article yesterday on weather.com (of all websites) that was about recycling items that most people didn't know you can recycle. I found it to be really interesting so I wanted to post the link today and now I can't find it! That's okay though because I found a better one on Co-Op America:

21 Things You Didn't Know You Can Recycle

Some of these I had already heard about such as batteries, eyeglasses and cell phones. But there were two that stuck out to me as very interesting. First is tennis shoes. I am a runner or at least I used to be. I try to get out there now every once and a while. Over the almost fifteen years that I've been running I have gone through a lot of tennis shoes. Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program grinds up old shoes and turns them into athletic flooring. The program can turn 2,500 pairs of old tennis shoes into a full size basketball court. Check out their website for drop locations. I wish there was a drop in my area! If there isn't drop in your area and you are willing to spend a little you can mail in your old shoes. I just might do this.

The second one I found interesting was toothbrushes. My mom recently told me that she read somewhere that regular toothbrushes that we use everyday will never decompose in a landfill. I have no idea where she read this so I don't know if it's true or not. But if it is just think about how many toothbrushes are sitting in landfills out there! The solution? The Preserve toothbrush. The handle of the Preserve toothbrush is made of recycled polypropylene, mainly Stonyfield Farm yogurt cups. No only is the toothbrush made from recycled materials, it can be recycled again when you are finished with it. The toothbrush comes with a postage paid envelope so that you can return it to Recycline when it's worn out and it will be recycled into plastic lumber. What a great idea! This toothbrush can be purchased at Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores or check the Recycline website for more locations.

Happy Earth Month!

Compost Part II

This week I’m all about gardening so here’s another gardening related post.

Back in November I posted Compost Part I where I talked about how I wanted to start a compost in my backyard in anticipation of gardening this year. Well back then I honestly wasn’t sure if my compost would ever come to fruition but here it is about 4 ½ months later and I am happy to report that I HAVE A COMPOST BIN!!!!!!

Not only do I have a compost bin, but I have THE compost bin that I originally wanted: the Wood 3-Bin Compost Unit.

Not only do I have THE compost bin but as of last Sunday I started a compost pile inside the bin.

And now here is the whole story of the compost bin. Back in November I found the plans for the Wood 3-Bin Compost Unit and presented them to FIL. “You know FIL if you ever get bored or don’t have anything to do or need a new project you could sort of uh, build me this compost bin…”

Several months passed and although I mentioned it a few times, a compost bin did not materialize in my back yard. I couldn’t exactly pester FIL about it since the man did install an entire new wood floor in my living room, saving me thousands of dollars in installation fees.

Then one day a couple of weeks ago FIL came over and we staked out the plot for the garden in the backyard (more about the garden plan in another post). About a week later I came home and a compost bin had magically appeared on my deck! He must of been inspired from all the talk about the garden. The bin looked like this:


FIL ended up building the entire bin in one day! He poked his head in the house and said “It’s done come and see.” I popped out on the deck to take a look at the finished product and realized that it had started drizzling! The man was so determined to finish building the bin that he kept at it even in the rain. Well I was equally as excited about the finished compost bin that I wanted to put it in action right away.

Now let me break for a minute here and explain a little bit about this compost unit. It has three sections and is approximately nine feet long and four feet wide and tall. It is very large and very heavy. I specifically wanted a three bin unit so that I can have two compost piles going at once in different stages of decomposition. One bin will be left empty so that the compost piles can be completely turned out from one bin into the empty bin.

I live on an acre of property with 15-20 large trees. While this compost unit will use up a nice chunk of my yard waste, I don't think it will use up all of it. It’s a start though. Let me also remind you that I have never had a compost bin before so this is all an experiment to me.

Back to the story. FIL and I loaded the nine foot long, very heavy compost bin into the back of his truck and he drove it out to the back of my property where the garden will be planted in about a month. We unloaded it managed to maneuver it to the right location. We argued about the exact positioning of the compost (what does it matter really, it’s a compost bin for Pete’s sake!), pushing it this way and that until we were both happy. Mind you this entire time it is still drizzling.

Seeing the compost bin that I had been waiting months and months for got me all excited so I of course wanted to fill it up with leaves right away. FIL drove his truck back around to the front of the yard and we loaded up the ten bags of leaves I had previously raked and then drove them back out to the compost bin. We dumped all ten bags of leaves into two bins. Then we stared at it. “Well I guess that’s the compost” we said and then went back in the house to get out of the rain.

Now the thing about compost is that it’s a very long process. The leaves that I threw in the bin on Sunday did not magically turn into compost by Monday. Nevertheless I’ve still been very excited about it all week. Just ask my friend Kelly who has to endure my ramblings about composting and gardening all day long on instant messenger. “Kel did you know you can compost tea bags? Cool!” “Hey Kel – last night I was turning my compost and I found a huge worm in the bottom – how exciting!” Pretty much I’m a huge nerd.

So what exactly do you put in a compost bin in order to make compost? There are two types of material that go into a compost bin. First there are the “browns” which are carbon-rich materials such as dried leaves and dried grass. Second there are the “greens” which are nitrogen-rich materials such as kitchen scraps and grass clippings. Compost Guide says that the optimal ratio is 25 parts browns to 1 part greens.

I’ve started saving my kitchen scraps in a bucket under my sink. Egg shells, orange peels, banana peels, apple cores, strawberry tops, some old slimy carrots, old lettuce, etc. I also keep my scraps from my lunch at work and bring them home with me. Every day this week I’ve taken my few little scraps out to the bin and thrown them in and stirred it up. I’ve determined that composting makes me a healthier eater because I want the peels to throw in my bin. I’ve eaten an orange everyday this week just for that purpose.

With a small family we currently have a low volume of “green” materials to throw in the bin with all the “brown” leaves. I want to get this compost going as soon as possible so I’ve enlisted the help of MIL and FIL by asking them to save their scraps and bring them over. I also confess that I...took the coffee grounds from the coffee pot at work and brought them home to throw in my bin. I would be mortified if someone caught me actually taking the coffee grounds from the coffee pot and putting them into a tupperware container to take home. What would they think? They would think I was a complete weirdo. Luckily no one has caught me yet and I’ve done it three times this week. And I plan to keep on doing it!

Here is the finished compost bin including leaves:


The slats in the front slide out for easier access to the contents. The other three sides are wire mesh to allow air circulation.

Honestly I can't say much about the actual construction of this bin as I did not participate in that process. I can tell you that the materials cost approximately $120 at the local home improvement store. I can also tell you that FIL did not use cedar as the plans suggest. He used CGA treated wood because it was about half the price of cedar. There is also a lid to the bin that he has not made yet which will add to the cost. I don't mind spending the money to construct a sturdy, dependable bin like this because it should last for many, many years.

From what I’ve read about compost, I could just leave those leaves in there and do nothing to them and they would eventually decompose. It would take a couple of years though for them to completely break down. I definitely want my compost sooner than that. What I’ve read says that the more you actively maintain your compost, the faster it will decompose. That means turning it often to allow air to circulate, keeping it wet but not soaking, and keeping the right proportion of materials in the bin. Also the smaller the materials are in the bin the faster they will break down.


Here are some other interesting things you can throw in the compost bin, according to Compost Guide:

Dryer lint
Tea bags
Coffee grounds and filters
Sawdust
Newspaper – shred first
Cardboard – tear into small pieces first
Hair

You should not put the following in your compost pile:

Cat litter & droppings
Dog droppings
Meat or fish scraps
Bones
Oil, fat or grease

I feel like this is a giant science experiment in my backyard. I really hope it goes well so I can post pictures of the finished product.

Go to Compost Guide for more information on composting. It's been a great resource for me.