flowers and such ii

It feels like time for another episode of "Photos by Dave." I swear he doesn't just take photos of flowers. Those are just the ones I like best.

lime cake

Can I share something very exciting with you?

I'm going to be a maid of honor.

Even more exciting? One of my very best friends is getting married! Or perhaps you had guessed that much already?

This is cause for excitement for many reasons, a couple of which I'll tell you about. One, I've only been to one wedding in my 22 years (yeah — people in my family don't seem to get married), so getting to go to a wedding in the first place is quite the novelty.

Two, the bride-to-be, Danielle, has been dating Paul since before I met her, oh, three and a half years ago. To me, there's no Danielle without Paul, or vice versa, so the fact that they're going to tie the knot makes perfect, felicitous sense. There are happy endings, you see?

In celebration of all things good, Danielle and Paul came over to dinner Sunday night. We had a crazy amount of food between the spinach-walnut-cranberry-goat cheese salad they brought, the breaded zucchini appetizers, the intensely garlic-y bread, my mom's lasagna recipe and the lime cake. Oh, the lime cake.

This cake. It emits the loveliest lime scent you can imagine. The dense, flavorful cake is accented delightfully by the citrusy-sweet frosting, which is almost a little crunchy with sugar. Amazing. And with fresh lime zest sprinkled on top just before serving ... well. We couldn't get enough.

Lime Cake

Adapted from The Cookie Shop (which has a beautiful picture)

The only thing I altered with the recipe was the frosting measurements, which I doubled because it didn't look like quite enough.

Cake:

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon lime zest

2 cups sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 egg yolks (reserve the whites for making the frosting)

1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans* and set aside.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, rub the lime zest into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar becomes moist and fragrant. (the SCENT! so good!) Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer until white and fluffy. Add the yolks and the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, and beat until smooth.

Split the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake 30 - 40 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool to unmold and frost.

Update: The cake pans I used were 9 inches.

Frosting:

4 egg whites

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3 to 4 cups confectioner's sugar, added to taste

juice of 1 to 2 limes, added to taste

lime zest to taste

Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add 2 cups of sugar and beat until white and fluffy.

In a new bowl, beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Gradually add 1 to 2 cups more sugar and beat until hard and glossy. Add this to the butter mixture and fold in with a whisk. Add the lime juice and mix well. Cover the cooled cake with the frosting, and then sprinkle lime zest over the top before serving.

banana bread, revisited

This was my breakfast this morning. A thick slice of yummy banana bread, made all the more delicious by dunking every bite into milk first. Is that weird? I think I would dunk all of my food into milk first if I could. I guess that's a little weird.

Anyway, I've confessed my love for this recipe before, but a lot of you weren't reading then — and with those sad photos, maybe that's for the best! But now I want to personally make sure each and every one of you tastes this bread. It's hearty, but sweet enough for breakfast or dessert; I usually just eat it for both. And lately I've been throwing in a fourth banana and have been loving the super flavorful results. Eat a piece with a big glass of milk... you know you want to.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup canola oil or melted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 ripe bananas

cinnamon to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, combine sugar and butter (or oil), and stir. Add in the flour and baking soda, and sift the baking soda into the flour first before stirring it all together. Add several shakes of cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, peel and mash the bananas finely with a fork. Add the bananas to the other mixture, and stir.

Pour batter into a greased and lightly floured bread pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, til deep golden brown.

creamy vegetable soup

Geez. Give a girl a 12-day break from work and she'll ... take a prolonged mind vacation from life. At least, that's what I did.

I let my brother bake the Christmas cookies. I didn't turn on the computer for a week. Emails from faraway friends .... neglected. This blog ... sadly quiet.

Instead, I turned my attention to more important things. Like reading. I read a lot ... Like three books in a week, a lot. (More on those another time.) I saw Wicked. (Amazing!) I had a sleepover party with my oldest friends. Heck, I even humored my brother and watched some Battlestar Galactica — please don't tease. It was a lazy, and quite lovely, little vacation.

And then the snow came, right before I returned to work this week. The newspapers said Burlington got 32 inches of snow! I'm not sure it was quite that much where I was, but there was shoveling ... lots of shoveling. Even to fully open the front door, there was shoveling. And with that cold weather came soup.

This creamy vegetable soup is just what it sounds like. It's light, but packed with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and celery. It's hearty and filling, but doesn't require post-lunch or -dinner napping. It's seriously easy to make.

I've now made a full return back into the real world (thank goodness), but this soup is there for whenever I need a relaxing little break.

By the way..... It's this blog's first birthday today! Thanks for being here the past year. It's been a big year for me: First year out of college, first real job, new apartment, new roommate (the boyfriend). It's been a little crazy around here, actually. I've so enjoyed getting to know a bunch of you, and if you haven't said hello yet — please do!

Creamy Vegetable Soup

Adapted from Cooking on the Side

2 cups broccoli florets

2 cups cauliflower florets

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon onion salt

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrots, slivered

1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped finely

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 tablespoons flour

2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (you can use veg. broth here, too)

2 cups milk (I used 1%)

parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste

Add onion salt to 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Add broccoli, cauliflower, celery and carrots and let it come back to a boil for a couple of minutes. Drain and set aside for later.

In a large pot, let the butter melt and saute the onions until tender. Add the flour and stir constantly, making a smooth paste. Gradually add chicken stock and milk, stirring occasionally until fully mixed. Bring to a boil for one minute, then add the remaining vegetables and spices to taste. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 30-40 minutes until tender and tasty.

I served mine garnished with parmesan cheese and slivered green onions. Yum!