It started with a grapefruit sliced in half.

But I needed to place the grapefruit in a pan that was safe for broiling. See this glass pan? While pretty, it’s not the best for broiling. And by “not the best,” I mean it could explode in the oven under the extreme heat. (I remembered this important fact as I took the photo below.)A quick switch to a metal pan and all was right again. I ran a paring knife around the edge of the grapefruit flesh and between every segment to loosen things up.

I drizzled each half with melted butter, sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger, and broiled for about seven minutes. The result: A warm, satisfying breakfast in a city covered in snow.

Broiled Grapefruit

• 1 cold grapefruit, right out of the refrigerator
• 1 tbs. butter, melted
• 1 tbs. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1. Pre-heat the broiler.

2. Cut the grapefruit in half crosswise and place in a broiler-safe pan with the cut side up. If the grapefruit won’t stay upright, slice a small portion off the bottom. Run a paring knife around the edges of each grapefruit half and between each segment. This will make it easier to eat once cooked.

3. Drizzle each half with butter and sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger. (Feel free to add more to your taste.)

4. Broil for 6-7 minutes, or until the sugar begins to caramelize. Let cool for 2-3 minutes and serve.

When Christmas morning finally arrives, all I’ll want to do is collapse, but what better way is there to collapse than onto a couch with a sticky bun in hand? Even better, a sticky bun that’s easy to make and includes the flavors of the season, like citrus, cranberries, brown sugar, and lots (and lots) of butter. If you defrost your puff pastry overnight, this whole recipe should take ten minutes to put together, not counting the baking time.

It starts with mixing up some butter with brown sugar and orange zest.

Then, melt some non-zest-infused-butter, brush it on the puff pastry, and top with all sorts of delicious things.

Next, roll it up and slice it up. The filing will try to escape, but be strong.

Finally, drop spoonfuls of the orange butter into a muffin tin, place the rolls in the tin spiral-side up, and bake. The buns will puff up and brown. After about thirty minutes, they’ll look something like this:

Cool them for a few minutes, then invert on some parchment paper. Done. (If you were a stand-up comic or giving a speech, this would be an appropriate moment to drop your mic. You can do the baker equivalent instead, which I suppose is dropping your oven mitt. )

Sunday Morning Sticky Buns
Makes 1 dozen
(Adapted from Ina Garten)

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 package (17.3-ounces/ 2-sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

The filling:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375º. Place a 12-cup muffin tin on top of a baking sheet with lined parchment paper.

2. Mix together 12 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and orange zest. Place a tablespoon of the mixture in the bottom of each of the muffin cups. Sprinkle with pecans.

3. Lightly flour a large board or other work surface. Unfold one of your puff pastry sheets and brush lightly with melted butter. Top with 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 cup golden raisins, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Carefully roll the pastry, and finish with the seam side down. Cut a bit off the ends and then cut into six equal parts. Place the buns spiral-side up into the muffin tins. Repeat this process with the other pastry sheet.

4. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the buns are golden brown. (Check them often because just a few extra minutes can mean the difference between gooey caramel topping and tooth-breaking brittle.) Allow them to cool for five minutes in the muffin tin, then invert onto the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Let them cool and then serve.

It felt good to wake up at home this morning, a familiar light fixture above my head and the Brooklyn streets still quiet outside. A perfect time to fill the apartment with the smells of baking and warm spices, like cardamom, cinnamon, and a dash of ground ginger. A perfect time for coffee cake with streusel.

I adapted a Martha Stewart recipe to fit the contents of my refrigerator and available baking pans.

Cardamom Coffee Cake with Streusel
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

For the Streusel

• 1 tbs ground cardamom
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

For the Cake

• Vegetable-oil cooking spray
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tbs ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F.

2. Start with the streusel. Combine cardamom, flour, brown sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles large crumbs. If you don’t have a pastry blender, you can use the double-knife method. Set aside.

3. For the cake, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time. Reduce the speed again and add the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream.

4. Coat a large bunt pan with non-stick oil or butter. Add half of the batter to the pan and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle with the streusel. Top with the remaining batter and smooth gently with a spatula.

5. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t brown too much. I made that mistake today, and while the crunchy exterior of the cake is nice, I wish I’d pulled the cake out at the proper time.

6. Cool the cake in the pan for 15-20 minutes on a wire rack. Invert the pan on the rack to remove the cake and cool for an additional 45 minutes or so. Serve with coffee, tea, or a mug of chai with milk and sugar.

Get ready for a behind-the-scenes tidbit: My kitchen doesn’t get any natural light. Well, that’s not 100% true. There is a tiny window behind the sink that overlooks a concrete patio and dozens of cinder-block walls that separate tiny brownstone backyards, but it only gets direct sunlight for about an hour everyday and that light shines right into the sink. Not the ideal situation for a woman who wants to take photos that aren’t washed out or strangely orange. Good ol’ fashioned sunshine makes my antiquated point-and-shoot camera look pretty good.

To my improve photos, I decided to put a few surfaces in the well-lit living room to use while I made a quiche for breakfast today, including the coffee table, dining table, and very chic radiator cover. Behold, a bowl of eggs and dishtowel on my coffee table:

Yes. This quiche was off to a good start. I pulled together the other ingredients except for the half-and-half, salt, pepper and crust. Instead of using strips bacon as you would in a traditional Quiche Lorraine, I turned to cubes of pancetta and got to work.

Pancetta Quiche

• 1 9″ pie crust (make your own favorite crust without sugar or purchase a quality frozen crust at the grocery store)
• 3/4 cup pancetta, cut into 1 cm cubes
• 4 oz. Swiss cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 tbs butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°.

2. Place pie crust in a 9″ pie pan. Cover with foil and wrap around the edges. Pour in dry beans or pie weights, place the pie pan on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 3 minutes. Set aside and reduce heat to 350º.

3. While the crust is baking, heat butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Add diced onion and cook for an additional 7 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, beat eggs lightly. Mix in half-and-half and a dash of salt and pepper.

5. Use a slotted spoon to move the pancetta and onion mixture to the bottom of the pie crust, allowing some of the fat to drip off. Top the pancetta and onion mixture with an even sprinkling of the grated cheese. Pour in the egg and half-and-half. (The three photos below were not taken with natural light.)

6. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let set for 10 minutes, slice, and serve.

I don’t usually cook for lunch, preferring to throw together a salad or sandwich in the middle of the day. On Tuesday however, I was inspired by the dozen eggs sitting in my fridge and ran to the store for a few extra supplies for a quiche. Along with the eggs, I just needed bacon, leeks, pie crust, and a few cups of half and half for a simple lunch and a few days of breakfast.

Bacon and Leek Quiche
-Your favorite pie crust from scratch or store-bought (no sugar) for a 9″ quiche pan
-4 eggs
-1 1/2 cups half & half
-5 slices of bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
-1/4 cup finely chopped leeks (discard the tough green tops and use the white and light green stem)
-1 tbs. butter
-4 oz. grated Swiss cheese
-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
-1/4 tsp. black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 350°.

2) Place the pie crust in a lightly greased quiche pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Once chilled, remove from the fridge and cover with parchment paper. Add pie weights (dry beans or ceramic baking weights) and bake for 15 minutes. Then, remove the weights, discard the parchment paper, and poke the bottom of the crust with a fork in a number of spots. Place back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

3) While the crust is baking, melt 1 tbs. butter in a medium skillet and cook the leeks over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, or until tender. Stir often and turn down the heat if they begin to brown. Drain the butter and set aside. Next, beat the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl and set aside.

4) When the crust is done, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Line the bottom of the crust with the cooked leeks and bacon, then sprinkle evenly with the grated Swiss cheese. Finally, pour the egg and cream mixture on top.

5) Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the eggs are set and the top of the quiche is nicely browned.

I only cooked one night this weekend for a dinner party to celebrate the visit of my friend Inbal. She moved to Israel last year, but she’s back for the month to visit friends in all corners of New York State and she spent the weekend on the lovely futon in my living room. (Lovely is a bit strong. Creaky and lumpy may be more appropriate adjectives.) I decided to keep things simple by using existing recipes, so we made salsa, salad, and a summer tomato tart. We finished the night with cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar and a tasting of our friend Sean’s amazing home brewed beer, along with a few rounds of Rock Band.

This afternoon was my first time back in the kitchen, and as I assessed the contents of the fridge, I was faced with a wall of questionable leftovers. The three items that held up were the blueberries, figs, and a forgotten lemon (it should have been zested for the tart), so naturally I thought, “Muffins.”

These muffins are a take on the traditional blueberry muffin with pureed fresh fig and a dash of lemon zest. I think they have just the right level of sweetness, but you could get away with cutting down the sugar to 3/4 cup. They’re also a great way to use leftover ingredients if you make the Fig and Goat Cheese Salad I posted last week. Recipe after the jump.

Blueberry Fig Muffins
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
-1 cup sugar
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-1/3 cup milk
-1 tsp. lemon zest
-2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 cup pureed fresh fig (5-6 small figs sliced in half and pureed food processor or blended with 2-3 tbs. water)
-1 1/4 cup blueberries

1) Pre-heat the oven to 375º and lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

2) Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat until smooth, then add the lemon zest. Finally, add the milk and stir until fully incorporated.

3) Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add to the batter in three separate parts and do not overmix.

4) Gently fold in the fig puree and blueberries using a spatula. Once evenly distributed, fill the muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

I’ve been on a serious cherry bender for the past few weeks. Mounds of blushing Royal Ann, bright red sour, and purple Bing cherries seem to be around every corner in New York and I can’t resist buying a pint or two whenever I see them. They’re the perfect snack food because they take so much activity to consume that I eat less during my late night kitchen raid. I admit the image of me spitting cherry pits into a cup while watching Conan isn’t the most attractive tableau, but here we are.

Last Saturday morning was no exception during my morning trip to the Greenpoint Farmers’ Market. All of the sweet cherry varieties were $6-7 a pound, however the sour cherries were almost past their peak ripeness and going for just $3.  I decided to grab a few handfuls and try an afternoon baking experiment: scones.

I had only made scones once before, way back in 8th grade for a project in my history class. We were studying Ellis Island and to help us understand the US immigrant experience of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, every student in my grade spent an afternoon in a historical reenactment of what it was like to go through the various check points. We dressed up in our finest old-timey costumes (see: mother’s clothes from the 80s) and received an index card explaining who we were. Most were immigrants, some were doctors, and some were inspectors. The lucky ones were quarantined for TB in a row of desks in the back of a classroom, while the rest of us shuffled through and improvised our reasons for coming to the States.

As an extra-credit component of the day, we could bring in a dish from our ancestral home to share with the class. Being the nerdy girl I was (who was also nicknamed “Wednesday” during those torturous three years), I naturally jumped at the chance to bring in something reflecting my Irish heritage. Scones seemed easy enough, however when I realized I was short a cup of flour in the midst of baking, I had to improvise by adding oats I found in the cupboard. Unfortunately, they weren’t the rolled oats that are always used in baked goods, they were steel cut Irish oats that typically require 30-40 minutes boiling on the stove if you don’t want them to crack a tooth. I brought the finished scones in anyway and as you can imagine, the light brown rocks sat uneaten in a ziploc bag on my desk for the entire day.

With fresh sour cherries in hand, I was determined not to let this scone baking experience go awry. I picked up a bar of dark chocolate and got to work.

Chocolate and Sour Cherry Scones
-3/4 cup sour cherries, pitted and quartered
-1/2 cup unsalted butter (see special instructions in step 1 and 3)
-2 cups flour
-1/3 cup granulated sugar
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 cup milk
-1 egg, lightly beaten
-1/2 cup finely chopped dark chocolate (with a few chunks)
-2 tbs. of granulated sugar for sprinkling

1) One hour before you start baking, place the 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) in the freezer.

2) Pre-heat oven to 400°.

3) Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Take the butter out of the freezer and use a grater to carefully grate the butter into the bowl. Once complete, use your hands to mix it with the dry ingredients, breaking up any chunks of butter that may have stuck together. If you don’t have a grater, simply cut non-frozen butter into small chunks, add them to the dry ingredients, and cut them in using two knives.

4) Add the cherries and chocolate and mix briefly.

5) Add the milk and lightly beaten egg and then stir until fully incorporated. Do not overmix.

6) Turn out the dough onto a wide, floured work surface. Use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a 2″ thick circle.

7) Cut into 8 wedges (pizza-style) using a floured knife and place the wedges onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Make sure they have a little room to expand.

8 ) Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool on the sheet for 1 minute, then move to a wire rack. (They taste best while they’re still warm and the chocolate is still gooey.)

Both of my parents grew up going to the Jersey shore every year, but my father’s family spent the majority of their summers in a cottage by Quaker Lake. The small, man-made lake is a 20 minute drive from Binghamton, just over the Pennsylvania border, and it served as the perfect getaway for my grandparents and extended family on my grandmother’s side.

Along with clear water and scenic views, Quaker Lake also had a plentiful blueberry patch nearby. I can only assume a pail of blueberries made it from the patch to the cottage uneaten one day and someone decided to put them to use in the form of a cake. It could have been my grandmother or one of her sister-in-laws, but I’m not sure. I’m also not sure if the recipe was an original creation or was found in a cookbook, but I present the ingredients here as they appeared on the index card in my grandmother’s recipe box (by way of another index card in my mother’s stack of recipes).

What I do know for sure is that this is a great summer cake. You can serve it as a dessert (with my grandmother’s hard sauce on the side…if you dare), or enjoy its muffin-like qualities and have it for breakfast. It’s quick and easy to make as well, but I imagine it had to be with my father and his nine cousins running around outside.

Quaker Lake Blueberry Cake
-1 cup sugar
-Butter the size of an egg (Note: This is an old measurement but is approximately 1/4 cup of butter. I just placed the egg next to the stick of butter and cut a few centimeters longer than the egg.)
-1 egg
-1/2 cup milk
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1 tsp. baking powder
-2 cups blueberries

1) Preheat oven to 350°.

2) Cream together butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Add the egg and then slowly add the milk, mixing until fully incorporated.

3) Add the flour and baking powder in three parts, mixing fully between each. Once the batter is formed, use a large wooden spoon to gently fold in the blueberries.

4) Pour into a greased 9×9 pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Hard Sauce
(Note: This is completely optional. Hard sauce is meant to be served on the side and is essentially a sugary butter spread with a hint of liquor.)
-1 cup butter
-1 cup confectioners sugar
-Splash of sherry wine

1) Cream together butter and sugar. Add a splash of sherry wine and mix.

2) Chill covered in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and then serve.

I’ve mentioned my Sunday ritual before on this blog. I wake up early, plan the menu for the week, make a shopping list, and then head to the store once Ramsey wakes up for anything I wasn’t able to grab at the farmers’ market. As budgets become tighter, I’ve also added a quick fridge and cupboard inventory to the the routine, rummaging through the deepest recesses of food storage areas to make sure I know exactly what I still have and what needs to be replenished. This was inspired by what was becoming a wasteful practice of cleaning out the fridge after returning from the store to find all sorts of items that could have been used for dishes the previous week, but I had forgotten they were there.

During my inventory this past Sunday, I found a large chunk of ginger left over from dumpling adventure last week, as well as ample sugar, flour, oil, and spices. I decided to make a Ginger Pear Quick Bread that would only require the purchase of two pears, and would also serve as breakfast for much of the week.

Ginger Pear Quick Bread
Makes 1 loaf in a 5″ x 9″ x 3″ pan
-1 cup grated peeled pear
-1/2 cup pear in 1/2″ cubes
-1 1/4 tbs. minced ginger
-1/3 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup vegetable oil
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. ground cloves
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-Dash of salt

1) Preheat oven to 350º

2) Mix grated pear, sugars, eggs, oil, and spices in a large bowl.

3) Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl and add to the pear mixture in three equal parts, stirring thoroughly between each addition.

4) Fold in the cubed pear once dry ingredients are fully mixed into the batter.

5) Pour into a lightly oiled loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

The swiss cheese in this simile could easily be replaced with a blueberry muffin, as I often feel like the cakey space between the deep purple pockets of blueberries goes on far too long. My answer to this dilemma is a recipe for Extreme Blueberry Muffins: where extreme meets blueberry. It’s a recipe for those who love muffins, but use them as a vehicle for fruit.

This recipe is adapted from one by Alton Brown that uses no butter, but does use yogurt. The result is a very light muffin that has just the right amount of sweetness. I should also note that it’s not the most beautiful muffin, but it tastes great.

Extreme Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Alton Brown
Yields 12 muffins

-1 1/2 cups flour
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-Heavy pinch salt
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1 egg
-1 cup yogurt
-2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 1/2 cups blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Add the mixture to greased muffin pans (Mo note: I recommend not using the muffin cups if you want to have the whole muffin be slightly crispy). Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Place into the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel or paper towel to cool completely (Mo note: Because of the amount of blueberries in each muffin, they will be fragile until fully cooled. Turn out with caution). Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.