Archive for

Dec 31

Happy New Year And My Blog Anniversary!!

Taken from Pinterest

I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Happy New Year. It’s 2015 and I can hardly believe it, where did 2014 go? They say time goes faster as you get older and I think that saying is absolutely right on. I know I have said it before but it’s the honest truth, I really appreciate you all. I look to you for inspiration, you challenge me and that makes me a better cook and blogger. This month is the 3rd anniversary of the start of my blog. I had no idea what I was doing, still don’t really.There is no plan or formula. I simply write and cook what I like and hope that you like and appreciate it.

Honestly, this has been a tough year for me. Trying to balance work, I changed companies this year after a very long time with my previous company. Then there are the pugs, well the pug now, this year I lost my sweet Izzy, and that hit me very hard I don’t know if I will ever really get over it, she was very special.

I don’t make resolutions because if I don’t keep them then I fail and I don’t want to fail. I do however give myself suggestions. For example this year I want to try to hone my photography skills. Although I own a camera I still use my iPhone to take all my photo’s for the blog. I want to learn more about photography, food photography to be specific, feature more great recipes from other bloggers, lose weight, volunteer more in my community, exercise more frequently.

I am also very active in the wine community and want to learn more about wine, all aspects and wine tasting. I have some great teachers, Michelle from Rockin Red Blog, Anatoli from Talk-aVino, Stefano from Clicks and Corks (Flora’s Table) Julian from Vino In Love, Jeff from The Drunken Cyclist to name a few and I plan to learn from them by carefully following their blogs and asking lots of questions. This year I want to actually visit a winery, maybe in the Finger Lakes or the vineyards in Long Island, keeping it local. I am hoping for more collaboration with my wine expert friends.

In 2014 I also found some fantastic blogs that are not food related or loosely related to food, I discovered some amazing talent in writing and crafts. Teagan Geneviene@Teagan’s Books is a very talented writer and I follow her blog religiously, she weaves incredible fantasy stories based on three ingredients, each week is a different installment and the readers can suggest ingredients or items which are incorporated into the story for that episode, it’s fascinating and exciting. Lord David Prosser@Barsetshire Diaries is incredible, you follow his exploits on his blog, it’s kind of like a Seinfeld episode, you are with Lord Prosser throughout the day from when he wakes following him all day and into the night and peppered in are lovely photo’s and some great music. It’s so much fun. Then there are the craftsmen, Michael@Michaels Woodcraft makes the most amazing cutting boards, ice cream scoops and anything that can be carved out of wood. You probably remember the giveaway here for one of his cutting boards and scoops. There are those that are harbingers of all that is beautiful and drool worthy, House of KTS (previously pure and complex) and Lynne Knowlton from Design the Life You Want to Live, Daniella who could crochet a house for you, Sharon who has a heart as big as Texas with her love for Special Needs Pets. Photographers, Patty Nguyen, The armchair Sommelier (wine and photography), Justine@eclecticoddsnsods, writing, photography, food, humor.

My wish for each of you reading this blog is that all of your dreams and aspirations come true and that you enjoy health, happiness and success in 2015. I want to thank you for putting up with me, following my blog, offering support and kindness and I so appreciate it all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

Before starting A Pug In The Kitchen I was very active in the food scene, I was a regular on the sites of both Food52 and Whole Foods Market, I regularly entered contests and was lucky enough to win some. It was competitive cooking that inspired and excited me and gave me the courage to start a food blog. Thank you all that voted for my recipes and gave me encouragement.

Here is a little trip down memory lane. This is my first post ever which I wrote and sat on for a week, petrified to press the publish button, the fear of the unknown I guess. Would anyone read my blog, would they like it, do I really have anything of substance to offer. All those thoughts flooded into my mind but eventually I took the plunge and found a warm and welcoming community.

Mixed Citrus Curd

This was my first post on January 14th 2012 for Mixed Citrus Curd. Actually my first recipe, the first post was a very scared me explaining that I would post something as soon as I could.

Here are some of my favorite photo’s that were taken in the last 3 years:

Her cupcake leash- Izzy

Nando- when he was younger he loved to sit in the window

May 2012 Sweet Daisey Izzy and Nando’s BFF

Photo by James Ransom for Food52- Flank Steak on Texas Toast With Chimichurri contest winner on food52 and published in their cookbook

Photo by James Ransom for Food52-Whipped Chocolate Caramel Ganache- contest winner food52

Jerk Chicken Photo by James Ransom contest winner Whole Foods

Jerk Chicken Kebab Photo by James Ransom contest winner Whole Foods

Tomato And Goat Cheese Tart

Galette With Blackberries and peaches

Mosto Cotto Fig And Goat Cheese Tart

Triple Chocolate cake

Beef Kabobs on Flat Bread

Open Face Steak Sandwich

Campari sorbet and soda

The best doughnuts from Dough at the Brooklyn Flea

Belgian Endive, orange, pecan, micro greens

My apologies this post was supposed to be maybe a paragraph but I just couldn’t help myself. If I didn’t mention you it’s only because this post would have to be the length of War And Peace if I included all of you. but you know I am so happy to have met you all and look forward to 2015 and more from each of you. Special shout outs to:

Carla, Jocelyn, 2 Cheryls, Rhonda, Sonal, Prudy, Mochi, Chitra, Margot, Laura, Vivianna, Emily, Jess, Louie, Amit, Johnny, Lindy, Pat, Bevi, Cynthia, 2 Linda’s, Justine, Julian, Jeff, Anatoli, Francesca, Stefano, Holly, Sharon, Lina, Sean Munger, Elaine, Virginia, Brandi, Kim, Olga, Loretta, Nancy, Amy, Cindy, Angie, Jhuls, Aleksandra,Tracey, 2 Liz’s, Amy, 3 Sarah’s, Amanda, Stacey, House of KTS, 2 Ginger’s, 2 Michelle’s, Georgie, Jenn, Sue, Mimi, Patty, Fae, Azita, Katerina, Laila, Hoda, Sadia, Susan, 2 Melissa’s, Christin, Pamela, the Patron of the Pit, my lovely friends from Ireland, India, the UK, Australia, Dubai, Canada and all of you whose blogs I follow and try my best to comment on or at least let you know I like. Best wishes for a wonderful 2015!!

Dec 31

62 Comments

Nonna’s Piadina And A Breakfast Pizza

Piadina

This recipe is from the wonderful and talented Liz Larkin (aka mrslarkin, aka the scone lady of Pound Ridge NY) on Food52. It is her Nonna’s recipe for Piadina and was entered in the latest contest on Food52 for your best Family Recipes part 2. It was nominated for a Community Pick and is a contender to be a finalist. I signed up to test the recipe. It’s a wonderful recipe, the dough is easy to make and handles beautifully. It tastes similar to a biscuit but has the appearance of flat bread. You get the flavor of a biscuit without another biscuit making failure which works for me since I am biscuit challenged. Win win!!! You can use this delicious bread in many different ways, I made a breakfast pizza, use whatever you like as a topping it’s delicious.

Soft and delicious

Serves 6 (recipe can be multiplied)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3 heaping tablespoons shortening or leaf lard
3/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup warm milk
Fillings of your choice like Prosciutto, ham, mozzarella, fritatta, salad, Nutella, pretty much anything you want
Place flour in a mound on pastry board or counter. Sprinkle on salt and baking powder, and mix together with your fingers.
Make a well in the center. Drop in the shortening and rub it together with the flour using your fingertips. Lumps are okay! And it will still be pretty floury.
Make a well again and pour in water and milk. Mix with fingers until dough comes together. Add a little more warm water or flour, if needed. You want a soft dough – not at all sticky. Knead for a couple minutes, and roll into a log shape.
Alternatively, all the mixing can be done in a large bowl. I like to use a fork to mix everything together.
Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces, using a scale if you have one. With one hand, gently roll each piece on the board/counter into a ball. Mom says to use your thumb and nudge the dough ball under with each turn. Set each ball to the side on a sprinkling of flour and let rest for 5 minutes.
Heat griddle to medium. Slightly flatten a ball and roll out dough to about 9 inches in diameter. Gently lift and place on hot griddle, scoring the piadina all over with the tines of a fork. If bubbles appear, quickly pierce those suckers with the fork. Cook each side for a few minutes or until each side develops some lightly browned spots. Remove to a clean dish cloth. Repeat with each ball, and stack each cooked piadina over one another. Loosely cover with a dish towel. When done, cut piadine into quarters and enjoy with your favorite sandwich fixings.
Piadina freezes well. Reheat on a griddle over low heat, or wrapped in damp paper towels in the microwave.

Breakfast Pizza

For The Pizza:

serves 2

1 pint cherry tomatoes cut in half

1 shallot chopped

salt and pepper to taste

4 eggs

cheese of your choice grated – I used Toma Piemontese a mild Italian cheese that melts beautifully(but is semi soft and a bit hard to grate) and is from the Piedmont region of Italy.

Parmigiana grated

Olive oil

Heat oven to 375 degree’s, place tomatoes and shallot on sheet pan and coat with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper and roast in the oven until the tomatoes are soft and caramelized and shallot is softened approximately 30 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce oven temp to warm or 170-200 degree’s. Place tomatoes in heat proof bowl, cover with foil and place in the warm oven, wrap the piadina in a towel and place in oven also to stay warm. Heat some olive oil in a skillet and fry the eggs sunny side up over easy your choice I recommend a soft yolk. Remove piadina and tomatoes from the oven,brush the bread with some olive oil and spread tomato on the bread, add the grated cheese and a sprinkling of parmigiana. Turn the oven to broil and place in the oven just so the cheese melts, top with the eggs. Enjoy! You can top with arugula tossed with olive oil or some flat leaf parsley for a bit of green if you like.

Piadina Pizza

Dec 30

53 Comments

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

I am thankful to wordpress for putting this very excellent report together and to you who faithfully read my little blog. Thank you.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 37,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Dec 26

103 Comments

Rugelach- Fig/Cognac Jam, Pistachio,Orange For Fiesta Friday #48

Rugelach

I am making another batch of my rugelach, the very one I put in my gift boxes, I always make a double batch of the dough because invariably I need to make more to give away after Christmas. This new batch is the same but I decided to add some chopped pistachio and a hint of candied orange peel (chopped really fine). Since I am baking for friends and you all are my friends right, I made enough to bring with me to the party hosted by the lonesome and totally awesome Angie@The Novice Gardener, I only say lonesome because this week she gave everyone the week off, no co hosts. Don’t worry Angie you won’t be lonesome for long, soon your house will be filled with eager party goers.

orange and pistachios added

Makes 4 dozen

The Dough and filling:

8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar + more for sprinkling on cookies

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup pistachio’s- chopped

2 tbs finely chopped candied orange peel

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 cup fig jam

egg wash

sugar for sprinkling

1/4 cup light brown sugar packed

looks like dukkah

In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment cream the cream cheese and butter until light. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla. With mixer on low add the flour and mix just to combine. Dump dough onto work surface form into a ball cut into four quarters and wrap each in plastic wrap, refrigerate for one hour
Place pistachio (if they are not toasted already) on parchment lined sheet pan and toast in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes (just until you can smell the nuts). Once the nuts have cooled enough to handle, and add the brown sugar cardamom and ginger, orange and chopped pistachio. Set aside.

Remove one of the dough quarters from the refrigerator, roll into a circle on floured work surface. Note: The dough should be cold when rolling, do not let the dough sit out and come to room temperature, it will get too sticky and you want to avoid using a lot of flour if at all possible. I use the lid of my dutch oven to cut an even circle. Spread jam on the dough round, sprinkle nut/sugar mixture on top of the jam and press down gently with your hand. Cut into quarters and cut each quarter into 3 pieces. Roll from widest end to smallest.

ready to roll

Place each rugelach on parchment lined baking sheet, brush with egg wash and sprinkle some sugar on each. Put in freezer for 15 minutes before baking. While they are in freezer pre heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack.

fresh from the oven

flaky and delicious

Dec 24

96 Comments

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Happy Holidays!

I want to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone of you the happiest of holidays. This is the season of giving, enjoying the company of family and friends and whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza I hope you have a fabulous day filled love and laughter, lots of delicious food and that you get to spend the day or days with those you hold dear.

I am thankful for each and every one of you, for your kind comments, enthusiasm and inspiration. Without each other why would we be tending to our blogs almost daily. This Christmas is hard for me, I have had to literally force myself to try to get in the spirit of the holidays. Losing Izzy just a couple of months ago still weighs on my mind. I am reminded of her daily and getting out my holiday things brought memories flooding back. I still hung her stocking. I hope you don’t think I’m silly for wearing my heart on my sleeve. Nando is doing a little better but losing his life long companion has been very hard on my frail little guy.

On a brighter note, I participated again this year in the Food52 Holiday Swap and got this incredible gift box from Jason. Look at all these goodies. You should consider participating, it’s a lot of fun!!!

Food52 Holiday Swap – Yes thats a bottle of KY bourbon

I made several gift boxes this year. dozen after dozen of cookies and mini loaves came from my oven, you saw my posts. It was fun and I like keeping busy.

One gift basket

Happy Holidays to all, I just wanted you to know how much I love and appreciate you and I look forward to more delicious recipes, amazing photo’s and mesmerizing writing from you all!

Nando

All dressed up

Dec 23

4 Comments

Mary’s Secret Ingredient- Holiday Gift Offer

Mary’s secret ingredient

My very good friend Mary Frances from Love The Secret Ingredient has a special offer for you just in time for the holidays, you know she puts together those fab boxes of goodies that come to you seasonally, Mary’s Secret Ingredient. Well, my apologies to Mary Frances in doing this so late, I had a crazy hectic day and am just now sitting down at the computer. What Mary Frances wants you to know is that you can purchase her amazing boxes of goodies as a holiday gift and she is even offering a discount of 20% just use the code “HOLIDAY 20” at checkout. It is a great gift for anyone who loves food, including yourself, who say’s you can’t get yourself a gift right?

I love the boxes, they contain items both food and food related and I love that so many items I have never tasted or used and it’s a wonderful introduction to a new product. Because of my wonderful box of goodies I was introduced to Calmer Sutra products, delicious teas and amazing honey. So this is a shout out for Mary Frances and her great boxes of goodies, they will make a wonderful holiday gift for any food lovers on your list.

Dec 22

74 Comments

Cardamom, Orange And Chocolate Ribbon Cookies – Cookies For Christmas

Ribbon Cookies

This is the last cookie I will be making to include in my gift boxes. It’s such a beautiful cookie, festive and delicious. The recipe came from my Mom, it’s probably from the 60’s, the original recipe did not contain cardamom or orange, that was my idea. Both are very subtle and go well together, the sum of all the parts makes a wonderful cookie. You can add whatever flavoring you like, you are not bound by cardamom and orange. I think orange, hazelnut and chocolate would be great. Almond extract to the vanilla portion would be lovely also. The great thing about these cookies is that you can change the flavor profile to suit your taste. I hope you enjoy!

Makes Approximately 36 cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup good quality shortening at room temperature (I like Spectrum)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg at room temperature
2 tablespoons whole milk or half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
Zest of one orange
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate melted (Use the microwave method — it’s great.)
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup toasted walnuts chopped finely
In mixing bowl beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment for approximately 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda, and salt and beat until combined. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. Add flour and mix to combine with spoon. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30-second intervals stirring in between. It took me 60 seconds.
Divide dough in half. Knead the melted chocolate and walnuts into half of the dough and then the cardamom and orange zest into the other half. Line a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Divide chocolate dough in half and press into the bottom of the loaf pan, now divide the vanilla dough in half and press on top of chocolate layer, now another chocolate layer, and finish with the vanilla layer. Cover with the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, I freeze or refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 375° F.

Three equal pieces

Going into the oven find the cookie that isn’t facing the right way!! LOL

Remove from refrigerator, invert onto cutting board, and remove plastic wrap. Divide into 3 equal pieces (each is 3 inches) and cut each third into 12 equal pieces that are about 1/4 inch thick. Place on baking sheet with either parchment or silpat and bake for 10 to 12 minutes turning baking sheet around halfway through baking (5 minutes). BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERBAKE! Remove from oven when edges start to turn a light brown. If you leave them in longer than the prescribed baking time they become overdone and are really crunchy. I took out my batch of cookies at 11 minutes. They were just right.

Ready for the gift box

Dec 21

52 Comments

Rugelach With Fig/Cognac Jam And Spiced Walnuts- Christmas Cookies

Ready to make the rugelach

I love making rugelach, and the possibilities are virtually endless when it comes to the filling for these lovely little buttery flaky beauties. Some of you may remember my Chocolate Hazelnut Rugelach that won a Whole Foods Contest a few years ago, it’s a lovely combination of orange marmalade, chocolate and hazelnut. There is the traditional with apricot jam, cinnamon and walnuts, love that too! I thought of doing something a little different this year, my good friend Bevi of Brussels Sprouts,Pears and Pistachio fame and an amazing cook on Food52 sent a jar of her homemade fig and cognac jam. I have been waiting for just the right use (other than eating out of the jar with a spoon) and thought rugelach would be the perfect use for this amazing jam. The walnuts are toasted and then you add some cardamom and ginger when you mix in the brown sugar. Spread the dough with the jam, sprinkle the walnuts and roll them up. It’s an amazing combination of flavors, a little on the exotic side but very subtle. I include rugelach in every gift box and hope the recipients enjoy these.

Slice and roll

Makes 4 dozen

The Dough and filling:

8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar + more for sprinkling on cookies

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 cup fig jam

egg wash

sugar for sprinkling

1/4 cup light brown sugar packed
In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment cream the cream cheese and butter until light. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla. With mixer on low add the flour and mix just to combine. Dump dough onto work surface form into a ball cut into four quarters and wrap each in plastic wrap, refrigerate for one hour
Place walnuts on parchment lined sheet pan and toast in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes (just until you can smell the nuts). Once the nuts have cooled enough to handle, chop and add the brown sugar cardamom and ginger. Set aside.

Remove one of the dough quarters from the refrigerator, roll into a circle on floured work surface. I use the lid of my dutch oven to cut an even circle. Spread jam on the dough round, sprinkle nut/sugar mixture on top of the jam and press down gently with your hand. Cut into quarters and cut each quarter into 3 pieces. Roll from widest end to smallest.

Ready for the freezer

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack.

Out of the oven

Dec 20

39 Comments

Chocolate Chip Granola Cookies- Cookies For Christmas

Chocolate Chip Granola Cookies

These cookies were just posted on Butter Basil And Breadcrumbs, my good friend Prudy’s totally delicious blog, they were a guest post from yours truly, I liked them so much I decided to put them in my gift baskets this year. They are crunchy, chewy, chocolatey downright delicious. I always put a chocolate chip cookie in my gift boxes because they are really a classic and adding the granola takes them to a new level. I used my homemade granola, it contains lots of nuts, coconut, maple syrup, coconut oil all good stuff and I make it super crispy. Forgive me for being redundant but had to include this cookie in my holiday repertoire. Note: I changed the recipe a bit after posting on Prudy’s site. reduced the butter by 1 tbs and increased the flour, I think it really depends on the granola that you use my latest batch must have had more coconut oil and the cookies spread a bit too much. You judge make a test cookie which is how I saw it spread. After adding the additional 2 tbs of flour they came out perfectly.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature (I use salted)
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups + 2 tbs flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1½ (heaping)cups granola (recipe here) Use your favorite or try mine. Your choice
3 oz milk chocolate cut into pieces
3 oz dark chocolate cut into pieces

Instructions

Cream butter and brown sugar until creamy, add egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated and the mixture is fluffy.
With mixer on low add the sifted flour, baking soda and salt, beat just until combined, add the granola and chocolate and again mix just until it is combined.
I like to wrap the dough in plastic wrap or parchment put in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for at least an hour but its even better overnight.
Remember: If you refrigerate overnight let sit at room temperature before baking(a half hour on the counter will do it). You can also freeze cookie dough, wrap well and place in zip lock freezer bags and store until ready to use. Let thaw in refrigerator about 2 days before you will be making the cookies.
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Place scoops of the dough (I used a 1½ tbs ice cream scoop) on silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on rack.
Note: the granola I used had pecans in it. If your granola doesn’t contain nuts you can add to the cookie dough unless you have a nut allergy.

Dec 18

60 Comments

Mini Loaves, Banana And Fruitcake- Christmas/Holiday Gift Box

fruit cake

I love including a mini loaf in my gift box of cookies. I always do banana, sometimes I do pear or apple or fig. This year I made banana which is always good and yesterday I got an email from Pure Wow Recipes. The name of it was The Best Damn Fruitcake Ever. Hmmmm I thought, thats a lofty claim, the dreaded fruitcake that most really hate, can this be the exception that I have been looking for. I decided to give it a try. How can you go wrong with delicious dried assorted fruits, nuts and booze. I bought the fruit. was out of bourbon so I used cognac to soak the fruit, ran out of almonds so I used walnuts along with the hazelnuts and pistachio’s. I must say it tastes absolutely nothing like the dreaded fruitcake, it is a loaf like banana bread or any fruit based bread really and is really good. If I make this again, I will make a few changes. They have you soak the fruit for 10 minutes in 1/2 cup of bourbon (cognac) I would soak the fruit longer even over night in more booze. The other change I would make is baking temperature. They say 350 degree’s I would bake at 325 degree’s. I found it got done much quicker (actually a bit overdone) than they said, of course to be fair I doubled the recipe baked 4 mini loaves and 1 larger loaf in a pan that wasn’t quite full enough. If I had left the larger loaf in the oven for 2 hours it would have burnt. All in all I think this is a really nice fruit cake and is a recipe I would play around with and tweak, it has serious potential.

Ingredients

Makes one 9 inch loaf or 3 mini loaves

from Pure Wow Recipes

½ cup dried apricots, chopped

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup dried cherries

½ cup golden raisins

1 cup bourbon

½ cup pistachios, chopped

½ cup hazelnuts, chopped

½ cup pecans, chopped

½ cup sliced almonds

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons orange zest

Pinch of cinnamon

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Turbinado sugar, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick spray.

2. Prepare the fruit: In a medium-size heat-safe bowl, toss the apricots with the cranberries, cherries and raisins. In a small pot, bring the bourbon to a simmer. Pour it over the fruit and let sit for 10 minutes. NOTE: I soaked my fruit overnight and because I did that I didn’t bring the bourbon/cognac to a simmer on the stove.

3. Drain the fruit, reserving the bourbon. Transfer the fruit to another medium bowl and toss with the pistachios, hazelnuts, pecans and almonds. Set aside.

4. Make the batter: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the side of the bowl well after each addition.

5. Beat in the vanilla extract, orange zest and cinnamon. Add the flour and baking powder; mix just until combined.

6. Bake the cake: Add the fruit-and-nut mixture to the batter and mix to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Garnish with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar, then bake until golden and cooked through, 2 to 2½ hours. NOTE: I made 3 mini loaves which took approximately 45 minutes to bake. I tested with a bamboo skewer starting at 30 minutes in the oven.

7. While the cake is baking, bring the reserved bourbon to a simmer and reduce to about ¼ cup. Pour the reduced bourbon over the warm cake as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let the cake cool completely before slicing and serving. The uncut cake will keep for up to two weeks in an airtight container. NOTE: I did not cook the bourbon/cognac but spooned some on the cake when it came out of the oven, let it cool then spooned on a little more and wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in a air tight tin. Every few days I spooned more syrup on the cake and re wrapped and let it age in the tin. It is good after about a week to eat but it can sit longer.

not your average fruitcake

Banana Bread:

Makes one 9 inch loaf or 3 mini loaves

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping cup mashed very ripe bananas (the recipe calls for 1 cup, I pile it high)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla; mix to combine. Stir in nuts, and pour into prepared pan.
Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.