Pumpkin Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Dressing (A White House Recipe)

This pumpkin cake recipe is straight out of the White House Pastry Kitchen - how lucky am I?  This dessert followed the Beef Bourguinon I made for dinner on Christmas Day.  I can only hope that Barack, Michelle, Sasha, and Malia were enjoying this cake while on their Christmas vacation in Hawaii.

Anyway, as you can imagine, this cake is legit and might become a family tradition for years to come.  If you decide to make it, I'd recommend checking the cake while it cooks to ensure it's not over cooking.  While the recipe calls for baking for an hour at 340 degrees, mine was a bit over cooked.  I'm sure it has to do with the oven, and of course it still tasted wonderful, but I think it can be improved over time.

Christmas Eve Dinner: Beef Bourguignon

For me, Christmas Eve is one of those rare nights when all seems right with the world.  It's peaceful, spiritual and a time when I feel love is all around.  The last few months have been particularly difficult for me but I'm quite fortunate to have parents who support and comfort me through the best and the worst of times.  I wish I could return the favor to them tenfold - and while it's a lot to live up to - I thought making a meal that requires a lot of love would be a good place to start.  That's where the Beef Bourguignon comes in.  It may seem silly to think that a meal could even begin to equate to my family but, really, it's just a small token of my gratitude.

Also, some background:  This dish isn't as daunting as it sounds.  Just know it must be made over a span of two days; unless, of course, you're willing to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to start the process.  I love cooking...but not that much :)

Holiday Sugar Cookies (a/k/a Fun with Instagram)

My friend Annie and I are marathon runners, so it's only right for us to have a marathon cookie making day, right?  Right.

Well, perhaps there is not a direct connection other than the more miles you run, the more cookies you get to eat, but we shared a wonderful Sunday afternoon into evening baking about 60 sugar cookies.  We even made homemade icing and used our "artistic" abilities to decorate the cookies.  And yes, the word artistic is used loosely...it's the taste that counts :)

Roasted Chickpea Stew

Okay.  This roasted chickpea stew is amazing and easily falls within the top three dishes I've ever made (it's closely ranked the beef bourguignon and a Moroccan stew).  I stumbled upon the original recipe on the Whole Foods website while searching for a use for leftover ginger root.

According to the original recipe, the dish has Ethiopian roots which is a type of food I've never experimented with.  It's heavy in spice and requires roasting the chickpeas prior to making the stew.  This is an absolute necessary step as the roasting intensifies the otherwise bland chickpeas.

Cooking for Friends: Beef and Chicken Kabobs with Three Dipping Sauces

Last Saturday, I invited some of my closest friends over for dinner and pre-dancing drinks.  My goal was to be creative and to stay away from the more traditional group foods like lasagna and pizza.  I also wanted to give my friends the opportunity to personalize their dish as much as possible (it's probably important to note that I'm a big fan of food personalization...so, bring it on!).  And so began my quest to offer a variety of flavors and options...

The focus of this post is the three dipping sauces that accompanied the beef and chicken kabobs, roasted peppers, and brown rice.  And, of course, the fresh bread.

In the photo above, the dipping sauces from left to right is a tomato-ginger chutney, a feta/herb sauce, and a lime/cilantro creme.  And below, a complete plate of food...

Minestrone Soup

Well, time for round two of cooking for my parents.  I chose minestrone soup because it's healthy but eats like a meal.  Yikes, I sound like a Campbell's commercial but it's late and, well, I just can't think of another way to describe it.  However, since my parents are a tough crowd (I kid, I kid), there was some skepticism in the room on whether it'd be enough food.

Oh, was it ever...

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes and Onions

You know you've made it when your parents request home cooked meals from their only daughter over one of the biggest food holidays of the year - thanksgiving.

Just kidding.

In all seriousness, while visiting my parents over the holiday, I had the opportunity to cook not one, but two, meals in a real sized kitchen, with high quality cookware and endless utensils.  It was a young cooks paradise, a la Big Girls Small Kitchen, so I took full advantage.

On the first night, I made spaghetti squash with roasted tomatoes and onion.  I wasn't prepared to cook - still recovering from overeating the day before - but made due with what was on hand.  For example, the roasted tomatoes were actually canned tomatoes.  Not ideal, but blended with roasted onions, herbs, garlic, and a dash of balsamic vinegar, this dish was pretty good considering the limited resources.