I was wondering if someone would ask for the Hungarian Palacsinta recipe. After mentioning the pancakes that I grew up with in my newspaper column and on this blog (Roll ‘em up, 2/24/08), I thought maybe I could slip by without any requests for it. But, just this morning, a reader posted a comment asking for the Hungarian pancake recipe.

Years ago my mom typed her recipe on a card for my husband, who is not Hungarian but is the best Palacsinta-maker. One line in the recipe is typed in all caps and underlined for emphasis: DENNIS: LET THIS RECIPE BE OUR SECRET OKAY?. So, we’ve guarded her exact recipe.

A couple of years ago Dennis was one of my guests on Lakeland Cooks.
He showed how to make Palacsinta using this recipe:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
About 1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 eggs

Put milk and eggs in blender. Give it a whirl to blend. Add dry ingredients and blend until mixed.
Use about 3 tablespoons batter for each pancake. The larger the pan, the more batter you will need. My mom always used a 10-inch skillet to make pancakes as big as a plate. Melt a little lard or shortening in pan. When it’s hot, add batter. Rotate pan until batter covers the bottom. Brown pancake on one side, then carefully flip with a spatula to brown other side. Stack pancakes until all are cooked.
The pancakes will be thin, light and delicious. I like to spread butter on the big round pancake, sprinkle it with sugar, roll it up and eat it.

If you live in the Lakeland Public Television viewing area, this segment will be one that is shown tomorrow (Saturday, March 1) on The Best Of Lakeland Cooks which starts at noon. Dennis will be making Hungarian pancakes.

Enjoy the palacsinta!

I was in Texas a couple of weeks ago, spending time in Fort Worth and Austin. The weather was warm and the food I ate while I was there was good enough to make me want to go back there soon.

My travel partners and I made a few stops as we drove along Interstate 35 between Fort Worth and Austin. First stop was for grass-fed beef burgers in Grandview, Texas. Burgundy Pasture Beef serves big, lean burgers loaded with rich flavor on a toasted bun with your choice of organically grown toppings at their Burgundy Boucherie. It’s only about 30 minutes south of Fort Worth.

Next stop: West, Texas. If you have a bit of Czechoslovakian blood in you, there’s no way you can pass up a place called Czech Stop. And if you don’t have an ounce of Czechoslovakian blood in your body, you may be tempted to pass by the place, but please don’t.

It’s not just a place to fill up the gas tank and stretch your legs. The main attraction at Czech Stop is the Little Czech Bakery. The bakery case is brimming with many kolaches, baked fresh each day, all generously filled with sweet and savory fillings.

Made with rich yeast dough and a deep well of filling in the middle, they remind me of the ones my Aunt Elinor used to make. I used to love her kolaches filled with poppy seed, prune or apricot fillings. I tried one of each at Little Czech Bakery. I didn’t want them to end. On our drive back to Fort Worth from Austin a few days later, we made another stop at Little Czech Bakery. That time I had a sausage and sauerkraut-filled kolache and a cottage cheese kolache for dessert.

Oh, if only they could ship their Czech baked goods to me here in the woods of northern Minnesota.

If you ever get to Fort Worth, be sure to plan a meal at Bonnell’s. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a dinner at this restaurant that is proud of their fine Texas cuisine. We started with some elk mini-tacos and Texas-style bruschette, herbed goat cheese, avocado & pecan relish, caramelized onions, and fire roasted salsa served with crisp flour tortilla chips. Both were wonderful and served as a teaser for the entree ahead. I chose Chile Relleno, grilled seasonal vegetables and mushrooms, saut�ed with pesto, stuffed in a fire-roasted poblano pepper, topped with farmstead goat cheese and served with an eggplant-tomato sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Dessert was a favorite — an edible toffee-almond bowl filled with homemade vanilla ice cream, caramelized bananas and rich caramel sauce. That was so delicious.

Chef Jon Bonnell is dedicated to working with local Texas farmers and ranchers to serve his patrons the highest quality and most unique products. Almost all of the grass-fed beef, produce, venison, quail, wild boar, fish, oysters, cheeses and fresh herbs served at Bonnells are from Texas. I highly recommend a dinner at Bonnell’s.

Finally, I’m getting to the recipe for today. I was so enthralled with all the kolaches at Little Czech Bakery in West, Texas I almost missed the chocolate mini-cakes that looked like giant upside-down cupcakes. Sliced in half to form two cakes, they were sandwiched together with a thick layer of creamy custard, then drizzled with chocolate. I didn’t try one, but I was determined to come home and make my own. With coffee and chocolate still fresh in my mind after making Mochaccino Biscotti for a newspaper column, I combined the flavors again in Cappuccino Cake with Espresso Cream. It starts with a cake mix and blossoms with additions of espresso powder and cinnamon. I baked the batter in monster muffin tins after I’d sprinkled chopped pecans and semisweet chocolate morsels in each.

Once the giant cupcakes are cool, Espresso Cream made of instant vanilla pudding spiked with espresso powder can form the filling of the two-layer cupcakes. An easy and delicious Mocha-Fudge Sauce can be spooned over the top of the cakes at serving time.

If you fill the cupcakes with the Espresso Cream before you are ready to serve them, be sure to store them covered in the refrigerator.

This dessert proves that it’s not just cakes made from scratch that can be beautiful and delicious.

Coffee lovers will rejoice when they taste this cake. So go ahead — indulge!

Cappuccino Cake with Espresso Cream

Cake:

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
• 1/4 cup instant espresso powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup canola oil

Espresso Cream:

• 1 (4-serving size) box instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 2 cups milk

Mix semisweet chocolate morsels and pecans together. Sprinkle into
bottom of a greased and floured 9 greased giant
muffin tins or greased and floured Bundt pan.

Combine cake mix, instant espresso powder and
ground cinnamon in large bowl. Add eggs, water and oil. Use an electric
hand mixer to beat for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake
Bundt cake in preheated 325-degree oven for 45 minutes or until cake
tests done. Bake giant cupcakes for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven
and allow cakes to cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove cake from pan and
cool completely on wire rack.

When cakes are cool, prepare Espresso Cream by combining dry pudding mix, espresso powder and milk in medium bowl.

Blend according to package directions. Cover and refrigerate until time to serve cake.

At
serving time, use a long serrated knife to cut Bundt in half across the
middle or cut cupcakes near the spot where the top meets the bottom.
Spread chilled pudding over one half of cake. Place other half on top
to make a sandwich. Drizzle each serving with Mocha Fudge Sauce.

Mocha-Fudge Sauce:

• 1 (16-ounce) jar hot fudge sauce
• 2 tablespoons Kahlua or any coffee liqueur
• 1 1/2 teaspoons
• 1 1/2 teaspoons hot water

Combine all Mocha-Fudge Sauce ingredients in a 2-cup glass measure.
Microwave at 60% power, stirring after each minute until sauce is
smooth, blended and warm — not hot.

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Light-as-a-feather Ricotta Pancakes that I shared in my newspaper column are delicious served hot out of the pan. And just like my mom’s paper-thin Hungarian pancakes, they’re just as delightful the next day rolled up with sweet filling. My mom would mix dry cottage cheese with eggs and vanilla and a bit of sugar. She’d spread it over crepe-like Hungarian pancakes, roll them up, then snug the chubby rolls up tight together in a casserole dish. A swipe of sour cream would go over the top along with a sprinkling of sugar and nutmeg and then she’d cover it tight with aluminum foil and chill it overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning she’d put them into the oven to heat until they were steaming. At the breakfast table, she’d serve them with strawberries and whipped cream. What a treat that was.
I choose to use slightly sweet ricotta cheese to make the filling. It has a much finer and drier texture than cottage cheese making it perfect for this filling. When you make a full batch of Ricotta Pancakes (about 12 pancakes), you will have just enough filling for all. I like them just the way they are, but it is delicious drizzled with a fruity syrup or fresh berries.
Ricotta Pancake Roll-Ups remind me of the filling tucked into blintzes, the Jewish version of rolled up pancakes with cottage cheese filling.
This dish is such a nice addition to brunch with friends. Try it. You’ll like it.

Ricotta Pancake Roll-Ups

• 10 to 12 Ricotta Pancakes (for my recipe, click here)

For Filling:

• 1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 2 tablespoons sour cream plus extra to spread on top the roll-ups
• 1 egg yolk from a large egg
• 2 tablespoons sugar plus a little more for sprinkling over the top
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a spoon to blend. Lay one pancake down on work surface. Spread a few tablespoons of filling over the pancake. Roll up. Place in buttered casserole dish. Repeat procedure with each pancake. Pack them tightly together in the casserole dish. Top with a thin layer of sour cream. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, uncover and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes or until heated through. The pancakes will puff up and they will be steaming hot. Serve immediately. They can also be baked as soon as they have been filled and rolled. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

At this time of year when blood oranges are at their peak, try squeezing some of the fresh garnet-colored juice over the baked pancakes.

It happens every year. About a month before Christmas, I buy at least a couple of boxes of little candy canes. I have plans to hang them over the edge of cups of hot cocoa. I place a large bowl of them on the kitchen island, ready to be snatched up and chewed. There are all kinds of ways I use them during the holidays. But, it never fails. I always buy way too many. And, every year at this time, I pull out the leftover candy canes and begin to stir them into cookie dough. This year is no different. But this year, the cookies are Italian-style twice-baked cookies — biscotti.
Mocha-Mint Biscotti get their mocha flavor from cocoa and very finely ground espresso beans. I go to my local coffee shop where they will do a Turkish grind for me. This grind is finer than an espresso grind and turns the beans into a very fine powder. Peppermint extract gives a boost of flavor to the crushed candy canes that are stirred into the dough.
I find that a sharp straight-edge knife works better than a serrated knife to slice the baked loaf of dough, getting it ready for the second trip to the oven. If the knife gets a bit sticky between slices, just wipe it with a damp kitchen cloth.
So, don’t toss out those candy canes yet. Crush them up and toss them into these crunchy Italian cookies.

Mocha Mint Biscotti
1/2 cup (1 stick butter)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup very finely ground espresso coffee beans
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
3/4 cup crushed candy canes or any hard peppermint candy
Extra sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Melt butter and allow to cool slightly.
In a large mixing bowl, stir sugar with cocoa and ground espresso beans until not little lumps of cocoa remain. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into the sugar mixture. Stir to blend.
Using an electric mixer, beat eggs in a medium bowl until fluffy and light-colored. Gradually beat in milk, peppermint extract and melted butter. Pour liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the dough comes together, with all dry ingredients absorbed by liquid mixture. You may need to finish mixing with your clean hands. Add crushed peppermint candy and mix in, using hands if necessary.
Divide dough in half. On a clean work surface, form each half into a loaf about 14 inches long. Place each loaf on the parchment-lined baking sheet, with at least 2 inches of space between them. Sprinkle sugar over the tops of loaves.
Bake the loaves in preheated 325-degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until cracks appear on top of the loaves and they feel firm to the touch. Remove baking sheet from oven. Allow loaves to cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes. Slide loaves onto cutting board. Use a sharp knife to slice into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. Stand slices upright on the baking sheet with 1/2-inch space between each slice. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Bake biscotti for 30 minutes or until they are dry to the touch. Cool biscotti completely on the baking sheet placed on a wire rack. When biscotti are completely cooled, transfer to a tin, jar or airtight container. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen biscotti.

• 2-26-08: If you’re in the mood to read more candy-centered stories, visit One for the Table. They’ve got a candy thing going on right now. Sweet! Read more at One for the Table.

I was on the verge of a meltdown. I had spent an entire morning searching for a recipe for Chocolate Madeleines. This wasn’t just any recipe. Last February when I attended the Twin Cities Food & Wine Experience (which, by the way, is coming up again at the Minneapolis convention center on February 23rd and 24th) I watched pastry chef, cookbook author, food network star and restaurant owner, Gale Gand, make these little French scalloped-edged cookies. Not too sweet, very chocolaty, and so cute. I diligently took notes as Gand went through each step. On the way home, I stopped at Williams-Sonoma to purchase two madeleine plaques. I couldn’t to try the recipe out myself.
For months I took very good care of the recipe, keeping it at a special spot on top of my desk. But I get piles — high piles of mostly recipes that begin to overtake the top of my desk. So, every once in a while, I make a big swipe over the top, sending everything into a plastic garbage bag and then push, push, push the bag into the closet in my office which is also overflowing with cookbooks and recipes. And then, I start all over again with new piles on my desk.
I suddenly realized that almost a year had passed and I still hadn’t used my madeleine plaques. I wanted to make Gand’s chocolate madeleines. The recipe wasn’t on top of my desk. Maybe I tucked it into her cookbook. No. I probably filed it in the folder full of recipes I’ve received from cooking classes I’ve attended. Not there. Oh, I could have put it in my folder of favorite desserts. Nope. I pulled garbage bags out of my office closet and I sorted through Rubbermaid bins of more paper that had once been on piles. It took all morning — that’s half of a work day. I knew I could probably track the recipe down on the internet, but that was beside the point. I stubbornly continued to go through papers.
Finally, totally exasperated, I gave in. I remembered Gale Gand had talked about her appearance on Martha Stewart’s show just a few days before she flew to Minneapolis. She had made the same chocolate madeleines with Martha. Not only did I find the recipe on Martha Stewart’s website, there is also a video available to watch Gand make the madelienes.
You can click here to access the recipe and the video.
I added 1 teaspoon of coffee syrup (remember? It’s the coffee syrup I used in the "Love You" parfaits in a recent newspaper column). I read a madeleine recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From my Home to Yours. She suggested piping marshmallow fluff into each little French treat. I decided to use the Cream from my Crazy Cake recipe (find that recipe posted on this blog on 2/3/08).
A little dip into chocolate ganache is the crowning glory on this already beautiful plump little sweet. Ooh-la-la. The first bite you will say it so slow — ooh————–la————-la. Because it is so decadent and ooh————-so————–good.
In case you’re interested in learning more about Gale Gand, I found a newspaper interview in the Houston Chronicle published in May of 2007. It’s interesting. She also shares a couple of her recipes, including the chocolate madeleines.
I wonder if I’ll ever find my missing recipe.

Recipe for Gale Gand’s Chocolate Madeleines, click here

Recipe for Cream Filling, on this blog, posted 2/3/08 with Izzy’s Crazy Cake

Chocolate Ganache for Dipping

• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

Place bittersweet chocolate into a glass bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the whipping cream to just barely simmering. Pour the hot whipping cream over the chocolate. Allow to set a few minutes, then begin to gently stir. Continue to stir until chocolate melts. Add butter and stir until melted into the chocolate ganache.

To fill the madeleines, fit a pastry bag with a small plain tip. Spoon the Cream Filling into the pastry bag. Use the point of the tip to poke a hole in the rounded side of the madeleine. Pipe cream slowly into the madeleine until you see it begin to puff.

Line a small baking sheet with waxed paper or a silpat. One at a time, hold each madeleine by its narrow end and dip the wide end into the chocolate ganache. Lift it, allow chocolate to drip off the end, and then place it on the waxed paper. After all madeleines have been dipped, slide the baking sheet into the freezer to set the glaze, for about 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and repeat the dipping process so that each madeleine has been double-dipped. I like to set the baking sheet in the refrigerator until the second coating of chocolate has set. Store any leftover chocolate ganache in a jar in the refrigerator. When you’re having a chocolate attack, get a spoon and dip into the jar in the refrigerator.
These madeleines are best eaten the day they are made. I made one dozen the first time. Gale Gand says the madeleine batter can be refrigerated right in the plastic pastry bag (I used a big zip-top bag and cut the corner off of it) used to pipe the batter into the plaque. I wanted to try that. After an overnight in the refrigerator, I used the batter to make another dozen. They were just as good as the first batch, with the texture being more airy than solid.

Since I purchased my madeleine plaque a year ago, I’ve paid more attention to madeleine recipes as I come across them in magazines and cookbooks. I’ve got lots more recipes to try. I guess that means lots more madeleines to eat. Ooh-la-la!

As I was searching through piles of recipes the other day, trying to find my recipe for chocolate madeleines (which I never did find), I came upon a ginger cookie recipe that included a box of butterscotch pudding in the list of ingredients. The recipe had been clipped from a newspaper, so I wasn’t sure exactly where it came from. Since it’s made with a box of Jell-O pudding I thought it may have been created by recipe developers in the Kraft kitchens. All it took was a quick visit to kraftfoods.com. There was the recipe along with a photo of cute little gingerpeople made from the cookie dough.
Their original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon ground ginger and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. My adaptation of the recipe replaces those spices with a generous amount of minced crystallized ginger and some Chinese five-spice powder.
Chinese five-spice powder combines the five basic flavors of Chinese cooking — sweet, sour, savory, bitter and salty. A little goes a long way, so add it gradually the first times that you use it, so that it gives just the right amount of flavor for you. Chinese five-spice powder can be very versatile, adding flavor to sweets, yet also adding mysterious flavor to meats, stir-fry dishes and soups. You can find my recipe for Asian Squash Soup posted on this blog on October 7, 2007.
You can buy Chinese five-spice powder in the international aisle of the grocery store or in the spice section of the baking aisle. If you just need a small amount, make your own Chinese five-spice powder blend by placing equal amounts of cinnamon stick, fennel seeds, whole cloves, star anise and peppercorns into a spice grinder. I have an extra electric coffee grinder that I use only for grinding spices. Blend the spices to a fine powder. I like to put the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to catch any larger bits of the spices.
I was a little worried as I mixed up the dough. It seemed dry. I had to work to get the last of the dry ingredients incorporated into the dough. It seemed that rolling out the dough may get a little tricky. I divided the dough into three pieces and wrapped each one in plastic wrap. I chilled it for a couple of hours before rolling it out, removing one portion of dough from the refrigerator as needed.
I was surprised that the dough was not difficult to roll out. It pulled apart a little in the center as I was rolling, but that was okay. I just worked around the little cracks as I cut heart shapes from the dough.
Sweet and Spicy Ginger Hearts are thin and crispy. A sprinkle of sparkling sugar over the top of each heart makes them glisten. I tried sprinkling coarse crystals of turbinado sugar over some of the cookies, but I didn’t get the bright sparkle that I was looking for. These cookies would also be darling with a cap of frosting rather than sugar.
These cookies are the perfect little gift for your sweet and spicy valentine. After all, not everyone appreciates chocolate.

Sweet and Spicy Ginger Hearts

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 package (4-serving size) JELL-O Butterscotch Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
• Sparkling sugar, optional

Beat butter, brown sugar, dry pudding mix and egg in a large mixing bowl until well blended.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and Chinese five-spice powder. Gradually add to pudding mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add crystallized ginger and work into dough.
Divide dough into three pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap and smash to form a disk. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove one disk of dough from refrigerator. Roll out on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Use heart-shaped cutters to make Valentine cookies. Place on lightly greased or parchment paper-lined baking sheets. I use Doughmakers baking sheets and do not need to use parchment or grease. If you are using sparkling sugar, use a pastry brush to lightly coat the top of each cookie with water. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake the cookies in preheated 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Note: I did not re-roll the scraps to cut more cookies. The dough seemed a little too dry for that, and I did get plenty of cookies. How many cookies this recipe will yield depends on the size that you make them.

I’ve developed a soup that’s just right for a cold caucus night in Minnesota. I wrote a short piece for "One for the Table", an online magazine, for their special Super Tuesday feature. For that piece, I also developed a recipe for Minnesota Super Duper Tuesday Soup. I hope you’ll visit One for the Table to check out the Super Tuesday feature, read my piece and enjoy the soup that will satisfy all Parties on Super Tuesday in Minnesota.

I get a little worried when I receive a recipe from someone and at the very bottom they sign off with "Good luck." What is that supposed to mean? It leads me to believe that I’m in for a challenge. Be prepared for disaster. I may try to make the recipe on a day when I’m feeling lucky.
I pulled out the yellowed and vanilla-spattered piece of paper that held my mom’s typed-out recipe for Crazy Cake. She had gotten the recipe from her friend who had convinced our grade-school cook, Izzy, to share the recipe for the cake she occasionally served on our hot lunch trays. That cake and the great sloppy joes that Izzy made still hold a place in my heart as the best school hot lunch food in the world.
And there it was, at the bottom of the page — Good luck. I’ve made this cake so many times. I don’t remember ever feeling especially lucky as I mixed, baked, boiled and frosted to make my favorite cake.
The Crazy Cake is a chocolate cake mixed right in the 9- x 13-inch pan that it is baked in. It’s the one that probably everyone has made at sometime — sift the dry ingredients into the pan, make three little wells in the dry mix and then fill each little shallow indentation with liquid. Pretty straightforward — no luck necessary. I added just a little bit of coffee syrup from my jar in the refrigerator. Adding coffee to chocolate always brings out a rich depth of chocolate flavor. I use coffee syrup to add flavor to the "Love You" Chocolate Truffle and Mocha Cream Parfaits in my newspaper column this week. Click here if you’d like the recipe for the parfaits. To make the coffee syrup, just mix 1/2 cup of instant espresso powder with 2 tablespoons of boiling water. I find 2-ounce jars of Medaglia D’Oro instant espresso coffee powder in the coffee aisle of the grocery store. You’ll find all kinds of ways to use this syrup, which keeps for months in a jar in the refrigerator.
What makes this crazy cake a bit special and out of the ordinary is the layer of smooth creaminess that is sandwiched between the cooled cake and the fudgy frosting. A cooked mixture of flour and milk is whipped for a long time with butter and sugar to become as light as a cloud. A stand mixer comes in very handy for this step, because it really does need about 20 minutes of beating.
The cooked fudge frosting is thick. You’ll need an electric mixer for this one.
Good luck? No, no, no. Have good fun in the kitchen making this delicious cake.
And good eating!
Monday, February 4, 2008: Okay, maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is a little luck involved with the successful completion of this cake. I don’t remember ever having problems with the frosting, but when I made the cake yesterday the frosting would not cooperate with me. Mounds of fudge lay over the top of the Cream, too thick to spread. The fudge was delicious eaten off the spoon. So, I must confess, I turned to the frosting I like to pour over brownies. It nicely formed a thick blanket of chocolate over the cake, cream and slight hills of fudge. So, If you’re feeling lucky, go with the original frosting. I think I’ll use my brownie frosting each time I make this cake in the future. Unless I’m feeling real lucky. I’ve shared the brownie frosting recipe below the Crazy Cake recipe.

Izzy’s Crazy Cake
Cake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon coffee syrup
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 1/2 cups cold water

Cream:
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting:
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
Dash of salt
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

To make cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients into an ungreased 9- x 13-inch baking pan. Shake pan to evenly spread the dry ingredients in the pan. Make three holes in the dry mixture. Fill the holes as follows:
Hole #1: vanilla and coffee syrup
Hole #2: vinegar
Hole #3: oil
Pour cold water over all and blend with a fork until mixed well. Bake cake in 350-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool baked cake on rack.

To make Cream:
In small saucepan, mix milk and flour. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside. Cream butter, sugar and salt in large bowl with elecric mixer. Beat for 15 to 20 minutes until mixture is very light and fluffy. Add flour and milk mixture with vanilla and beat until fluffy. Spread this mixture over cooled cake and refrigerate for an hour. If you’re in a hurry, stick it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

To make Frosting:
Place all ingredients except powdered sugar and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Mix well. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once mixture begins to boil, set timer for 3 minutes. Cook and stir. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until thick enough to spread over layer of Cream on cake.

Brownie Frosting
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Combine butter, milk and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Beat with spoon until creamy. Pour over brownies or Crazy Cake.

It has been quite a while since I’ve used my wok. I’ve had it for years — a big electric Maxim.
The other night I decided to turn some little bits of this and that, things that had been collecting for a week or so in the refrigerator, into supper. I had some leftover pork roast. Over the weekend I had tried to recreate a Porketta, an Italian-style highly seasoned meat, that we had purchased at a meat market in Duluth over the holidays. I think the final result was close, but not as good as the one from Duluth.
I also had a jalapeno pepper that was beginning to look a little shriveled and half of a large red onion. Earlier that day I had read an article reminding me of all the health benefits of fresh broccoli, so I had picked up a couple of bunches at the grocery store.
And, when I was at my local natural food co-op, I couldn’t resist all of the varieties of oranges and tangerines shining brightly from the refrigerated case. I bought several kinds. Oh, and that reminds me. I had also spent time on the treadmill that day at the place I workout. I had to chuckle as I walked into Anytime Fitness carrying my gym bag in one hand and my cloth bag full of groceries from the co-op in the other. You know you’re in northern Minnesota when you have to carry your groceries into the gym so they don’t freeze in the car. The thermometer in my car read -22. I didn’t want those oranges and tangerines to be ruined. My Minneolas needed protection from the frigid Minnesota weather.

A stir-fried meal can be quick if you don’t have to spend a lot of time chopping. I rinsed and cut up the broccoli, minced up the jalapeno and sliced the onion. I squeezed some fresh juice from a couple of the minneola tangeloes (see photo above) and stirred it up with some soy sauce. Gourmet Gardens sent me some of their Single-Serve Squeezable Herb & Spice Recipe packs to try. Each half-ounce tube of garlic, chili pepper and ginger was the perfect amount of seasoning to squeeze into the citrus juice mixture.Those three tubes were packaged together as the Garden Spice Medley. When you’re in a hurry, these little babies are perfect. No smashing, chopping, mincing or grating — just snip and squeeze. I also appreciate the fact that they can be kept in the refrigerator for a few months and in the freezer for six months. Apparently, they can be purchased at Cub Food Stores in the Minneapolis area at this time and should be showing up at more grocery stores soon.
The beauty of a stir-fry dish is that you really don’t need a recipe. I just tossed a couple bunches of broccoli florets into the wok with a little canola oil. I stir-fried them until tender but with still a nice bit of crunch, added the sliced red onion and minced jalapeno, then poured the orange juice mixture over the whole vegetable medley. I mixed about 2/3 cup fresh orange juice with 2 tablespoons soy sauce and squeezed in a half-ounce tube of garlic, ginger and chili pepper. Or, just use the amount of flavor your tastebuds appreciate.
I’m sharing just a small photo of the finished dish. It’s not a good picture — remember, I was in a hurry. The minneolas were the star of the show, as you can see. The great citrus flavor was perfect with the broccoli. Healthful, flavorful and quick.