Recipe for Armenian Nutmeg Cake-Daring Bakers

Oh boy.  This is an Armenian version of a coffee cake, but not quite as sweet.  It is however, wonderfully delicious!  The original recipe called for nutmeg, which I used, but I also added some cardamom which just gave it the most amazing flavor.  

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.  I chose to make the nutmeg cake for this month's challenge, but have the nazook recipe tucked away for later.

Recipe for Asian Salmon Patties over Sauteed Veggies

One of Mr. ELEB's favorite meals lately is my Sesame Salmon and Spinach which I usually serve over whole wheat pasta.  I wanted to do something similar but wasn't in the mood for pasta.  Hmmm.  I had book marked a recipe for salmon sliders a while back and used that as additional inspiration for this meal.

Recipe for Turkey and Veggie Casserole

This turned out to be a nice surprise...one of those things thrown together with not much thought that ended up being tasty and satisfying.  And got the hubby thumbs up, always a bonus!

Recipe for Banana Bread in a Mug

I've seen, and mostly ignored, all the recipes on line for cakes cooked in a mug in the microwave.  We just don't eat dessert much (other than the requisite square of dark chocolate after dinner).  However, when I saw this recipe for banana bread done in a mug on Kita's blog, Pass the Sushi, I book marked it for the inevitable time when I had some sketchy looking (brown spotted) bananas on the counter.  

Recipe for Spiced Coffee Rubbed Pork with Cauliflower and Bean Puree-Daring Cooks

Once a month I join a group of adventurous cooks online in cooking up something new.  It might be preparing an unusual or unfamiliar recipe from around the world or trying out a specific cooking technique.


Our April 2012 Daring Cooks hosts were David & Karen from Twenty-Fingered Cooking. They presented us with a very daring and unique challenge of forming our own recipes by using a set list of ingredients!  The challenge was to cook using 1 ingredient from each list:


List 1: Parsnips, Eggplant (aubergine), Cauliflower
List 2: Balsamic Vinegar, Goat Cheese, Chipotle peppers
List 3: Maple Syrup, Instant Coffee, Bananas

Recipe for Scallops with Creamy Pesto Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

The blog I got to snoop around on this month for the Secret Recipe Club was Lisa's Cook Lisa Cook.  Lisa and her family (husband and daughter) live in the Atlanta area, near where I used to live and where I still have family.  She's a transplant from New England, her hubby from across the Atlantic, and their daughter all the way from China.  Lisa also writes another blog about their life as an adoptive family.  But on to this recipe-it comes together pretty quickly so best to be organized.  I used a commercial pesto sauce and it was fine but I do think this would be amazing with the fresh taste of homemade pesto-next time!  Lisa also used lemon pepper pasta which I could not find so I used my favorite multi-grain and added a generous squirt of lemon to the sauce.

Recipe for Thai Chicken Enchiladas

Like you probably do, I keep a folder of recipes to try.  Sometimes I get to them within the month, sometimes never, and sometimes like this recipe, I make it the next day!

More Egg White Ideas or how to use up those left over veggies

Consistently, some of my top read posts are those related to breakfast.  This tells me that like me, many of you are looking for quick, easy, and healthy ways to start your day.  As I've mentioned, I have an egg white breakfast treat 4-5 times a week so I'm always looking for new variations.