Rich Tea Cake #12WksXmasTreats

I've been dragging my heels a bit today with all the stuff I have going on at co-op (I devised a new material that is - surprise - food related and it's keeping me busy!) so I'll have to keep this short. In fact, the amount of time it takes to whip this dense, fruit and nut fruitcake after the fruit is soaked (which you can even do the night before), is roughly the amount of time I have to sit at my computer today - 30 minutes.

However, I promise you that this loaf will last a lot longer in the freezer than it takes to make... that is, if it makes it to the freezer! I know there's a lot of stigma around the Christmas fruitcake (and gosh knows I've made my share - including a 5 pound monster!), but this one is way less door-stoppy, stodgy and sickly sweet than most of them and there isn't a single candied peel in sight. Even my typically fruitcake-adverse mom tucked into a piece of this with a cup of tea and declared it yummy, with delicate hints of spice from the Earl Grey piggybacking on the stronger cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg, crunch from a slew of walnuts, almonds and seeds, and a rich natural sweetness from maple syrup and the dried fruit.

I would never suggest cloaking this in marzipan like a standard fruitcake, either - not only is it far too sweet and domineering a flavour in general (even at the best of times), it's heavy. One of the secrets behind this loaf is while it is dense with stuff, the batter itself is incredibly tender because of the spelt flour and tenderizing orange juice. Marzipan on top? Say hello to a pile of crumbs and nuts all over your countertop!

The original recipe was found in one of my recent favourite baking books - The Vegan Baker - and I only slightly modified it to use what I had on hand (and I urge you to do the same!). With no refined flour or sugar, no eggs and no dairy, but all the taste of the season, it's one holiday gift you won't have returned to the store!

We're 4 months into the  12 Weeks of Christmas Treats hosted at Meal Planning Magic already! Is your freezer starting to fill up? Mine is!

Strawberry Balsamic Shellac (#EatA2ZRecipeChallenge)

Have you ever been "stuck" trying to figure out a way to jazz up yet another meal of leftover Thanksgiving (or Christmas) turkey? Since our (Canadian) Thanksgiving was this past weekend (and my mom is off on a business trip), we have a lot of leftovers to contend with (in a household which is currently filled with leftover-haters!), and there are only so many leftover turkey sandwiches
you can eat before they lose their allure (yes, even my favourite gravy-soaked trencher-style open faced one gets a bit old after a while). Then there's the ever-present question of veggies - as delicious as my lemon honey roasted carrots and Famous People's Carrots are, it's always nice to change them up a bit to keep them interesting!

Luckily, it's usually the simplest changes that make the biggest impact on a dish, and by whipping up a new sauce or glaze you can transform a basic ingredient. Strawberries and balsamic vinegar have been a hot pairing for a while, and a lot of the time it seems like something too fancy for a weeknight. I'll admit, I'm not going to whip this drizzly sauce (or "shellac" if you use it as a yummy baste!) at 6:30 on a Wednesday, but by making a jar of it on the weekend you have so many possibilities open to you for two or three weeks at a time! I found the original inspiration in my (well-loved) copy of  Put 'em Up! Fruit by Sherri Brooks Vinton, and since making it once we've been finding all sorts of things to use it for - a "grown-up" ice cream sauce, a mix in for vanilla yoghurt, a brush-on glaze for chicken breasts, roasting root vegetables and salmon, even a condiment for leftover meat and rice! Even now, a small jar is on our fridge shelf for last minute ideas.

Keeping in mind the upcoming holidays, I made and canned a few extra jars over the summer when our local strawberries were at their peak (and cheap!) to tuck into my gift baskets. Since I have a few "household gourmets" on my list, I can't wait for the wide eyes on Christmas morning!

With all the strawberry goodness that goes into this sauce, it's my contribution to the Eating the Alphabet Recipe Challenge at Meal Planning Magic. We're up to S & T already, can you believe it?

Après Holiday Soup

When it comes to the holidays, my family never does anything halfway. Why only host one festive feast in December, when you can have three (Italian-style Christmas Eve, Christmas morning brunch and my stepdad's birthday bash), and why not triple stack Canadian Thanksgiving with two turkey dinners and a huge family birthday? Since our parents are divorced, my sister and I also have the situation of multiple families to feast with. While neither of us eat the traditional accoutrements of holiday dinners (she might have a bit of turkey with her buttered spaghetti), that doesn't mean we don't get sent home with leftovers. Thankfully, holiday leftovers are generally versatile, and between curries, casseroles, stir-fries and soups like this one we manage to finish one holiday's glut before the next one rolls in! 

The first thing I always do with my holiday remnants is turkey stock. This on its own is reason enough to host a dinner, since with the bones and maybe an onion and some carrots you have a rich, flavourful base for sauces, gravies, soup and rice dishes that needs almost no attention (especially if you make it in a crock-pot). Then, I take stock of what veggies were leftover from the side dish prep, pick a starch that is ideally not plain white potatoes (since while they are good, after 3 days of them you start to get tired of mashed, roasted, boiled... tubers). 

Usually the "re-purposing" meal I default to is soup, since it's a great catch all for ingredients (both leftovers and those "bottom of the box" pantry staples you may or may not have forgotten about). When I set about making this year's first turkey concoction, I was able to toss in the last of a bag of adzuki beans, a lone sweet potato, chopped-but-never-used leeks, carrots and celery from stuffing, and the last of our green beans and peas along with the chopped meat. I was lucky enough to snap up some delicious Ontario garlic at the market too, so a head of roasted cloves found their way into the pot along with most of the herb garden. This would have been well and good enough on its own, but to bump up the heartiness and stretch the goodness further, I chucked in some multigrain pasta at the very end. It's hard to resist a soup with so much going on - even if it's all leftovers from the week before!

What's your favourite thing to do with holiday leftovers?

Zucchini Fudge Cashew Cake

Is there anything better than a rich, moist, tender chocolate cake waiting for you when you come home from school or work? I grew up in the era of Deep 'n Delicious cakes, which we were never allowed to have at home, but when I went to a friend's house it always seemed to be waiting for us in the freezer. There was something about being able to just dig right in to a piece of cake at the end of an ordinary day that made the experience perfect - and I've been a fan of the "snacking cake" ever since.

These days, the snack cakes of my youth are fewer and farther between on the grocery shelves, being replaced by gigantor muffins, pizza pockets and snack wraps. However, when I bring a homemade, no-frosting-needed, single layer treat to a gathering, it always winds up going first. 

I originally set out to make the Zucchini Fudge Cake Brownies that I saw on Eat Healthy, since I had a few scoops of Zapple Butter to use up before we went apple picking this morning. Somewhere along the line, I got it into my head that it would make a killer gluten free brownie that I could lace with the bottom of my jar of cashew butter and stud with roasted cashews too for good measure. I knew, even with the guar gum in my recipe, that they would be tender and rich, but they came out of the oven looking and acting way more like a cake than a pan of brownies. That said, it was one of the most spectacular surprise outcomes I've had recently, and was  lapped up by everyone who tried it - vegans, omnivores, gluten free or not! Sneaking in a hefty dose of zucchini was easy as pie, and you'd never guess it was in there! Considering that the only oil came from the cashew butter, it was surprisingly moist and tender for days and would have been perfect for a weeknight treat or a mid-afternoon snack.

Gluten Free Cranberry - Citrus Muffins (#12WksXmasTreats)

Making muffins ahead of time for the holiday rush is a great way to make sure you're fueling yourself properly amidst the craziness. If you're like my extended stepfamily, the Winter mornings begin at 4AM with a dash off to hockey practice, or like me and my mom you're jetting off to work while it's still dark out, running errands on the way home and still finding time to cook dinner, clean the house and do the laundry (never mind the multitasking on the holiday party nights!). Trips to the mall take on a whole new life too - you think just parking, finding, paying for and leaving with a gift would be a breeze, but something changes inside people at the shopping centres and that one-hour jaunt turns into a half a day!

At any rate, having a go-to snack stashed in the freezer can be a boon for your health and wallet... especially if you have food allergies, which mean a lot of the handy "mall food" is off-limits. These festive, seasonal muffins are not only gluten free, but they are nut, soy and egg free as well! Greek yoghurt, orange juice and coconut oil help keep these moist and rich tasting even after a few weeks in the freezer (wrap each individually in cling wrap and place in a zip-top freezer bag for best storage), so all you have to do is pop one in your lunchbox, hockey bag or purse before racing off - by the time you get the mid-morning (or afternoon!) munchies, they'll be thawed out and ready to chow on.

We're into week three of our 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats hosted at Meal Planning Magic, and I can't wait to see what everyone else has to share too!