SNOMG 2010

Swings

I’ll share a secret with you…I don’t typically blog in real time.  I’ve got myself a nice little backlog of posts all written and scheduled to magically appear here on BAH Monday through Friday.  That explains why some of my recipes may not be “in season”…it’s easier just to set things to publish and not worry about whether I’m talking about Christmas Dinner in February.  If anything, it breaks up the routine.  It’s unexpected.  But there are times when you just have to cut the line and talk about the obvious.  Like SNOMG.  Or Snomageddon.  Or whatever you’ve taken to calling the freak of nature that has engulfed the MidAtlantic.  It cannot be ignored.

How could it?  Government office are closed.  Schools are closed.  Stores are closed.  Mass transit has shut down.  Mail is not being delivered.  Trash is not being picked up.

We each cope in our own way.  Me, I’m doing my thing in the kitchen when I’m not outside wielding a shovel.  Let’s look at what I’ve been cooking up for your reading enjoyment:

Retro Cinnamon Cake

Nigella’s Beef Stew

Beth’s Chicken and Rice Soup

Salmon with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Apple Almond Coffee Cake

Biscuits

Homemade Hot Chocolate

And the rest of the week looks like this:

Penne with Mushrooms

Char Siu Pork

Frizzled Beef and Macaroni

Beef Pot Pies

Cinnamon Bread

Buckeyes

Chocolate Cake

I’m guessing that by the time SNOMG moves out of here, I will be carrying around 5 extra pounds from all those sweets.  What about you?  How are you getting through the storm?

Dara has opened up a cooking help line at the Dining Examiner.  Got a question or quandry?  Send it to snomg@diningdish.otherinbox.com OR on Twitter @daracooks and we’ll see if one of Baltimore’s Food Bloggers can provide an answer.

Retro Recipes – Cinnamon Cake

Retro Recipe - Cinnamon Cake

When the weather predictions call for snow measured in feet, instead of inches, my first instinct is to fire up the oven and get baking.  There’s something hard wired in my brain that says copious amounts of time locked inside should be celebrated with sugar, butter, and flour.  Luckily, all the ingredients for Cinnamon Cake were safely tucked away in my pantry as SNOMG (thanks Pigtown for this catchy phrase) came barreling into town.  I say luckily because if you’ve ever been inside a grocery store the night before a big winter storm around these parts, you know that it’s that last place you want to be.  So to kick off the first really big storm of the decade, I rocked it old school with one of the recipes in a random collection of cookbook pages that I got from my grandmother.  I have no idea what cookbooks these may have been or exactly how old they are.  But trust me, Cinnamon Cake stands up to the test of time.  And it makes a great snack when you’ve just freed your car from 2 feet of snow.

Cinnamon Cake

BAH Note: I get all confused when a recipe says sifted flour vs. flour sifted.  To me, flour sifted means you measure then sift where sifted flour means you sift then measure.  Since I have no great way to sift directly into a measuring cup, I say fluff your flour a bit then measure.  Don’t be alarmed when you put the melted butter and cinnamon sugar on top of the batter.  The edges of the cake will bake up around it and then it will sink through the batter in places.  This end result is similar to a coffee cake without a crumb topping.

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 cups sifted flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 4 tablespoons melted butter plus 5 tablespoons melted butter, divided
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs.  Slowly add the 1 1/2 cups sugar and continue to beat until very light.

Add the dry ingredients and milk in several additions, alternating between wet and dry, beginning and ending with the dry.

Add the 4 tablespoons of melted butter and mix until thoroughly blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out evenly.  Drizzle 5 tablespoons of melted butter over the top of the batter.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top of the cake.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a tester comes out with only a crumb or two.

{printable recipe}