Chase Away The Monday Blues With

Chocolate + salt in a tortilla chip? Amazing.

Lisa Hannigan's CD 'Sea Sew? Lovely

Cute yawning baby? Pure happiness.

tea + cake

I always loved the idea of afternoon tea. So many of my favorite novels have meaningful moments over afternoon tea and cakes, and I've always wanted to have some kind of 'afternoon cake' on hand for drop in guests. I've always imagined the cakes to be simple - something easy to make in the morning, and moist enough to last a day or two.

So when M+J told us they'd like to stop by Friday afternoon, I decided to try to whip up some kind of afternoon cake. I went with an orange cornmeal cake I had tried with success a couple of years ago - good flavor, not too many ingredients, and no kitchen-aid mixer required. This cake is also a little unique - it is made with olive oil and white wine, which gives it a light, fruity flavor. It was a hit.

Orange Cornmeal Cake
from Everyday Food

1/2 cup olive oil
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for topping
1/4 cup dry white wine [or vermouth]
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
finely grated zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 375. Grease an 8 inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, 1 cup sugar, wine and orange juice until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and orange zest; whisk gently to combine.

Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top evenly with remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.

Cool in pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert cake gently onto a plate, and remove parchment paper. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely. Serve with orange segments, if desired.

*free music*

Some peeps I know, The Greycoats, have put out a great album that they are offering for FREE right now. I highly highly recommend it. You can check them out on itunes if you want to hear some song samples.

baby baby

Baby boy [R] is here!
We are all very tired and happy here at Threaded Basil.
And posting may be few and far between these next couple weeks...

My Favorite Banana Bread

I know there are a million recipes for banana bread out there, and I know that most of them are good. I can only remember one bad experience I've ever had with it - I bought some at a Caribou Coffee, where they used banana extract instead of real bananas, and it was so bad I actually spit it out. But otherwise you really can't go wrong.

This recipe isn't the most healthy, but I've used it at two different coffeehouse I've worked at, and our customers LOVED it. I hope you do, too.

Banana Bread
from Martha Stewart

Makes 2 loaves
1 cup butter, soft
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup toasted pecans
2 cups mashed bananas [or 5 bananas]
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 bread pans.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and pecans together. In a separate bowl, mash bananas. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined.

In a standing mixer, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl frequently. Add dry ingredients, and combine slightly. While mixer is running, add banana mixture and mix until just combined. Finish stirring batter by hand, making sure any batter on the the bottom of the bowl is well incorporated. Pour batter into pans and bake until bread is no longer doughy and golden brown, 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in bread pans for 20 minutes, then turn out on to wire racks to finish cooling.

Fabulous Homemade Bread

While we have been enjoying our dutch oven bread all summer, I wanted to make an 'american' sandwich bread that we could use for toast, sandwiches and whatnot. I recently stumbled upon this recipe over at Ms. Katie's blog.

I decided to try it out, but didn't want to make 6 loaves the first time [nor did I have 6 bread pans to use], so I cut the recipe in half. It turned out great, and I've been making it quite frequently over the past couple weeks. I've found freezing the extra loaves is a great way to keep the bread fresh all week.

Here's my version:

Fabulous Homemade Bread

1/4 cup warm water
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/8 cup bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 cups warm water
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4-5 cups bread flour

1. In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, stir together 1/4 cup warm water, 1 3/4 teaspoon sugar, 1/8 cup bread flour, and yeast. Let grow for about 5 minutes. It will bubble almost immediately.

2. Measure oats, 2 1/4 cups warm water, whole wheat flour, salt, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and 1/3 cup oil into the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed with a dough hook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add 4 cups of bread flour and mix on medium low speed. Slowly add the remaining cup of flour, adding only until sides of bowl are clear. Knead on medium-high speed for 8-10 minutes. Dough will be very sticky. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and kneed for a minute or two, until dough is smooth and shiny.

3. Place dough in a large, oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

4. Divide dough into 3 pieces. Shape loaves and place in greased 8x4 inch pans. Cover bread pans with plastic wrap. Let rise until dough is 1 inch above rim of pans, about 1 hour.

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a 9 x 13 glass pan on lowest oven rack. Fill with 2 cups boiling water. Place bread pans on middle oven rack and bake until bread registers 195 degrees. Remove from oven and turn out bread immediately onto wire racks. Cool completely before slicing.

Celebrating Fall

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost

Celebrating this crisp fall day with:

a warm cup of coffee

cozy slippers

apple pie

a new fall hat