Serve up some Aloha with this easy recipe for Hawaiian Wedding Cake.

When I first read the ingredients, I was shocked to see that there was no butter or oil in the recipe! Turns out it didn’t need it.

This Hawaiian Wedding Cake comes together in a matter of minutes. You literally throw everything in a bowl and mix it with a spatula before pouring it into a greased cake pan. Once it cools, you frost it with a tangy, sweet (but not too sweet) cream cheese frosting. I added a maraschino cherry to each piece for an extra punch of color and flavor. The result is a tropical flavored cake that’s more dense and moist than most cakes.

I followed this recipe with one small change. I didn’t have any unsweetened coconut on hand. I find that it’s really hard to find unless you order it online. Since I was using sweetened coconut, I reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe from 1 1/2 cups to 1 cup.

Moist tropical flavor in every bite!

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Cranberry Surprise Pie

It won’t add any extra stress to your day because it comes together without the use of a mixer in mere minutes. You could even make it today and keep it in the refrigerator until Thanksgiving if you’d like. If you can’t manage to squeeze it into your plans for this holiday, promise me you’ll make room for it on future holiday menus. Hubby and I literally had to hide this pie so that we wouldn’t eat the entire thing in one sitting.

Cranberries, sugar, and sliced almonds go in the bottom of your pie plate

The batter is sweet enough to balance out the tartness of the fresh cranberries. Almond extract provides its unique aroma, and the sliced almonds provide a great little crunch when you bite into them. I served this with freshly whipped cream. When I make whipped cream, I simply mix a tablespoon of vanilla, a tablespoon of sugar, and a pint of heavy cream. The vanilla and sugar sweeten the cream to perfection.

Cranberry Surprise Pie

I also enjoyed a piece the next day with some vanilla ice cream. First, I heated my piece of pie in the microwave for 20 seconds. Then I scooped one some ice cream. I love what a warm pie does to ice cream. The resulting melty gooeyness is one of my favorite things in the world.

Cranberry Surprise Pie

While cranberries are in season, I like to stock up on them! Did you know they freeze really well? Just throw the entire bag into your freezer and you can enjoy cranberry treats like this pie any time of the year.

Cranberry Surprise Pie

I hope everyone has a great holiday season this year. This Cranberry Surprise Pie will be the last time you’re hearing from me on Cooking New England. Hubby and I are making a move from New England to the Midwest next week because of a great job opportunity. Even though I’ve only been blogging over here for less than a year, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time testing out recipes and sharing them with all of you. I’ve definitely tried some new things and found some recipes that I will be making for years to come. Thanks for reading!

Beautiful fresh cranberries

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Fresh out of the oven

For starters, it has seasonal fruit in it! Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year to bake. I wish it was the fall baking season all year long.

Second, I had all of the ingredients on hand. I love it when that happens. No quick run to the store to grab just one ingredient. No waiting until the weekend to make a recipe. I can just fulfill my urges and make it right away.

Fruit filling on freshly rolled crust

And last, I needed a dessert to contribute to a get together I was going to. You see, a bunch of my friends all live within a few block of my place. Since we were all working from home last Monday, we got a little stir crazy. We decided to get together in the early evening for some games and dinner.

Crostata crust

After an intense day of working from home, catching up on storm updates, checking in on friends and family from across the East Coast, my friends and I had a relaxing fun-filled evening together. Everyone really enjoyed this crostata and I came home with only one piece leftover. I served it with freshly whipped cream. Vanilla ice cream would be another great option here.

The crust is flaky and light, a perfect vehicle for the fruity filling. The apples and pears mingle together nicely, providing a subtle contrast in taste and texture. But those cranberries are what really make this crostata special. I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough of a cranberry flavor when I read the recipe, but it turns out I was wrong. There are just enough cranberries to add a punch of tartness that balances out the sweetness from the other fruits.

Apple Pear and Cranberry Crostata

One of my friends even picked up on the aroma of the orange zest in the filling. I have a tip for you about using citrus zests in baked goods like this. Any time that you’re mixing a citrus zest with sugar, combine the two in a small bowl and use your hands to rub them together. By using your hands, you’ll release the oils from the zest that provide the flavor. It will dispurse the flavor from the zest throughout the sugar and thus throughout the entire dish. It is a simple step that provides a big payoff.

Ready to go in the oven

Also remember that ground cloves are stronger than you think. An eighth of a teaspoon is not very much, but it really goes a long way. See those specks in the pictures? Those are from the ground cloves. You really can taste them in every bite. If you’re looking for a dessert to take to an upcoming holiday gathering that isn’t a traditional pumpkin or apple pie, consider this Apple, Pear, and Cranberry Crostata.

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Easy Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet in the Pan

I have to admit I had doubts about an “easy” cassoulet recipe. Believe me, this cassoulet tastes like it was cooking all day with layers upon layers of flavor. After making this recipe one productive Saturday, my husband requested it again the next Saturday. We were having friends over for dinner that night and all of them asked for the recipe.

Chicken and Sausage

I did have to adapt a few things when making this recipe. here’s what I did differently:

First, my store didn’t have 19.5 oz cans of beans. So I used one 15.5 oz can of cannellini beans, and a 15.5 oz can of Northern white beans.

Easy Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet

I cut the sausage into 3″ slices, then thought they looked too big, so I cut them all in half.

My chicken thighs were skin on. When I went to add the second half of the bread crumbs, I pulled the skin off the chicken and threw it out.

Onions Cooking

I doubled the garlic. Mostly because Hubby and I love garlic and we always double the amount of garlic in recipes. I highly recommend it.

I didn’t have any dry thyme on hand, so I used fresh. I threw in about 5-6 sprigs of thyme and pulled the stems out when I removed the chicken skin.

And lastly, I used a dutch oven instead of a skillet. I didn’t think my largest skillet would have been big enough for this recipe. The dutch oven worked like a charm.

Chicken cooked for Easy Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet

So if you’re doing some fall cleaning, just hanging out, or having company over, you need to try this recipe. It would also be great for a football watching afternoon. I know without a doubt that we’ll be enjoying this again very soon.

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Granny Smith Apple Brunch Cake

This Granny Smith Apple Brunch Cake is a simple cake that will impress your guests. Think of coffee cake loaded with tart Granny Smith apples and the warm aroma of cinnamon. The crust on the top gets nice and crunchy, while the rest of the cake is soft and tender. It goes perfectly with your morning cup of coffee or topped with some freshly whipped cream for dessert.

Granny Smith Apples

Whenever I do any apple baking, I break out my apple corer-peeler-slicer contraption. It is indispensable this time of year. You can peel, core, and slice an apple in mere seconds. It definitely earns a spot in my tiny kitchen. Even though it takes up some valuable cabinet space, it is worth the sacrifice. This recipe only calls for three apples, so you could definitely get away with doing the apple cutting and peeling by hand as well.

Granny Smith Apple Brunch Cake Out of the Oven

Hubby took this to work and it got rave reviews from his coworkers. He has been traveling a LOT for work and is rarely in the office. I’ve received multiple emails from his team saying they miss the baked goods that he usually brings in on a regular basis (I’m sure they miss him being around the office as well!) Whoever you share this with will thank you for bringing a little piece of fall flavors to their mouths.

Granny Smith Apple Brunch Cake Batter

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Another great attribute of stew is the fact that it freezes and reheats well. This recipe made about 12 servings for me. Since I’m not cooking for a big family, after portioning away containers for me and Hubby to take in our lunches, the rest of the stew went into the freezer. I like to use strong zip top freezer bags to freeze stew flat. This way it doesn’t take much room in the freezer. I’ll bring it out on a night when I need to get a quick meal on the table.

As always, I made a few substitutions when I whipped this up. First, I used a mixture of ground beef, veal, and pork in the stew. This is sold at supermarkets and labeled for use in meatloaf. I like the variety of texture and flavor it provides as opposed to just using one kind of ground meat or sausage meat. I also tossed in a few carrots that I chopped up. I threw the carrots in with the onions.

Shepherd’s Stew

While the stew was simmering away on my stove, I decided to do some chores and clean out the fridge. I found a small bag of green beans that we had gotten in our CSA box and forgotten about. I decided to throw those in for the last ten minutes. This worked out perfectly because green beans cook relatively quickly.

Have you tried this recipe for Shepherd’s Stew? If so, let us know how it came out, and if you made substitutions, we want to know that, too!

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Peach Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream

I am sure my fondness of peach cobbler has something to do with the fact that it’s a specialty of my mother-in-law. She makes it quite often at this time of year and everyone really enjoys it. She uses a recipe very similar to this one so I was excited to try it out in my own kitchen. I’ve been baking almost weekly for over five years and have never made a peach cobbler myself. That’s pretty crazy because peaches are my favorite fruit!

Peaches with sugar, cinnamon, and freshly ground nutmeg

Peeling peaches can be a hassle, but it’s important in a recipe like this – don’t skip this step! You don’t want the skins in there messing with the texture of the cobbler. If you enjoy boiling peaches to remove the skins, definitely use that method. If you’ve never done it, I’d recommend trying it out. If nothing else, it’s fun to do once in your life.

Peach Cobbler

If you’re not into a multi-step process to peel your peaches, simply using a paring knife to peel the peaches, similar to how you might peel an apple. When peaches are ripe and juicy like they are this time of year, using a knife is very easy to do.

Peach Cobbler ready to go into the Oven

I do have a couple notes about the recipe. My peaches were medium in size, so I needed 5 to get the 4 cups of peeled, sliced peaches. I doubled the cinnamon and nutmeg in the recipe to spice things up a bit more. I would also like to comment about the last step in the recipe. It says “Serve with whipped cream if you like.” In my mind, that’s not even an option. I serve my peach cobbler warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s really the only way to eat it!

Peach Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream

As I had hoped, this peach cobbler was magical in every way. The pastry reminded me of a pie crust to make it almost taste like a spiced peach pie.

Peach Cobbler straight out of the Oven

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Roasted Potato Salad

If you’re like my friends, there are always end-of-the-summer cookouts during Labor Day Weekend. In the same way Memorial Day kicks off the summer, Labor Day closes it out. So it’s very fitting that I post a potato salad recipe just before Labor Day. If you remember, I posted one just before Memorial Day as well (American Potato Salad.

New Potatoes and Thyme

In my mind, potato salad is the quintesential summer cookout side dish. You can never have too many potato salad recipes up your sleeve. I’ve got at least 3 favorite recipes, all very different, and am not afraid to try new ones that sound unique and interesting. One of the things that I like most about this Roasted Potato Salad is that it can be served at room temperature. In fact, I prefer it at room temperature. It’s also extremely adaptable to what you have on hand or what your family and friends prefer. I threw in some garlic cloves with the potatoes while they were roasted because roasted garlic makes everything delicious.

Roasted Potato Salad

Here are a few tips about this recipe. As with most recipes, if you cut your vegetables to similar sizes, they will cook more evenly. And since red potatoes tend to come in a variety of sizes, just be sure they’re all similar sized before you roast them. To remove thyme from the stem, simply hold the stem with one hand. Then, using the other hand, squeeze the stem between your thumb and index finger. Slide that hand down the stem to remove the leaves.

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Slice of Spinach Quiche

One of the things I love about a good quiche is how they are adaptable to whatever you have on hand or your own preferences. I had a few random ingredients in my fridge that I wanted to use up in this quiche, so I made a couple substitutions. First of all, I had some fresh spinach on hand. I ended up with 4 cups of spinach. While the recipe only calls for 2 cups, I love spinach, so I decided to throw it all in. I’m glad I did, because spinach cooks down so much.

I also doubled the amount of ham in the recipe. I had a ham steak in the fridge and just chopped the whole thing up into cubes. It came out to one cup, so I figured I’d use it all. The result is that I get a bite of ham more often then I would have if I hadn’t doubled the ham. That’s definitely a good thing in my mind.

Spinach Quiche

The recipe called for Gruyere cheese, but I didn’t have any on hand and didn’t have the time to run to the store to grab some. Since our fridge always has crumbled goat cheese in it — which goes really well with spinach — I decided to use that instead.

The last substitution I used was Greek yogurt. This may sound odd to you, but I’ve found that you can use Greek yogurt in a lot of cooking and baking applications. I sub it for sour cream on top of tacos or in baked goods, for buttermilk in baking, and even in place of mayonaise in some chicken salads. Greek yogurt is low in fat and high in protein, so it’s a better bet nutritionally. Since Greek yogurt is very thick, I used ¾ cup of Greek yogurt + ¾ cup milk in place of the half and half in the recipe.

Spinach Quiche with Goat Cheese and Ham

The result of all of these substitutions is a great quiche that fits my tastes and helped me to clear out my fridge a bit. Next time, I’d like to add some chopped red bell pepper to give it some more color and a little crunch.

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Blueberry Quick Bread

Hubby’s baby sister and her husband came to visit one weekend and this was the perfect recipe to whip up in a short amount of time. Hubby’s sister is allergic to nuts, but luckily the recipe yields two loafs. I simply left the walnuts out of one of the loaves and mixed them in to the other loaf. I personally preferred difference in texture that the nuts provided in this blueberry quick bread.

Blueberry Quick Bread with Walnuts

What really made this quick bread pop was the freshly picked blueberries that Hubby and I had in our freezer. Since he is such a huge fan of blueberries, we usually go picking at least twice every summer. We always come home a couple hours later with about 10 pounds of super ripe blueberries. While Hubby tries his hardest to eat them all raw, I usually bake with some of the berries, and then freeze the rest of them.

Sliced Blueberry Quick Bread

That’s one of my favorite qualities of blueberries. They freeze AMAZINGLY well. I portion them out into 2 cups and freeze them in quart ziplock bags. These frozen blueberries will keep in the freezer for quite some time. Ours never last more than 6 months between the snacking and the baking, but I’m confident they would be delicious throughout the year. Enjoying delicious ripe blueberries in January really is worth the effort. So if you’re like us and have a plethora of fresh summer blueberries in the house, give this blueberry quick bread recipe a shot.

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Frosted Strawberry Squares

My first summer in Boston was a mild one. There were a few days in late August where you were sweating from the second you got out of the shower, but other than that, I didn’t miss having A/C. Obviously that is not the case this year.

Crust Ingredients for Frosted Strawberry Squares

Hubby and I have been cranking our A/C unit in our bedroom from the minute we get home from work until the next morning when we leave. Last weekend, we had high hopes of playing tourist for the day in Boston. But we decided to stay inside and play board games instead.

Frosted Strawberry Squares

I also did some baking. But don’t worry, this recipe requires very little time in the oven. Only the crumble used on the top and bottom of these Frosted Strawberry Squares requires heat from an oven.

Fresh Strawberries for Frosted Strawberry Squares

These Frosted Strawberry Squares have frozen fruity mousse sandwiched between a nutty crunchy crumble. I think this recipe would work perfectly with whatever berries you have on hand. Hubby instantly requested that I make them again with blueberries. I think a combination of blueberries and raspberries will be next on the to-make-list.

Frosted Strawberry Squares

These squares are nice and tall, so I served them with a fork. If you would prefer to make them thinner, I’d double the crust recipe and make it in a 9×13 pan. I also let them sit a room temperature for about 10 minutes to get a little softer and easier to manage. Freshly whipped cream is an optional (but highly recommended) topping.

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Grilled Chicken Salad with Mango Salsa

When we do decide it’s time to crank up the oven or use the stovetop, I like to make a double batch of whatever I’m making so that we can enjoy the leftovers the next day without reheating the whole house. Another option to not turning on the oven is grilling outside.

Now I’m not going to lie, I really can’t wait for a time when Hubby and I live somewhere that we have an outdoor space where we can grill again. Our current tiny Boston condo does not allow grills in our common areas. Fortunately, we have friends who live in the next building who do have a grill. Grilling solves the issue of heating up your house on a hot day.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Mango Salsa

While you might still be using a hot burning flame to cook your dinner, grilling usually also involves a cold beverage of your choice, and relaxing outside with friends. So it’s totally worth it. And you can’t beat the flavor that a grill imparts on your food.

Whether you decide to grill outside or inside on a grill pan, I recommend that you whip up the mango salsa before the grill gets warm. This will give the salsa flavors time to mingle and really get to know each other. It also gives you a chance to taste test the salsa while the chicken is cooking.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Mango Salsa

In fact, I recommend making a double batch of the salsa to enjoy with some tortilla chips while the chicken is grilling. Just be sure to save some to put on top of the grilled chicken in this salad. The salsa, along with a fresh squeeze of lime juice is all the dressing this salad will need.

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Recently, some of my girlfriends and I hopped in our cars and headed west to a cabin in the Lake George area of New York. Our 3-day weekend consisted of reading on the beach, playing with Michelle’s puppy in the lake, riding around in a boat, and eating these maple barbeque ribs.

Maple Barbecue Ribs

With such a relaxing weekend, most of our meals were thrown on the grill to enhance the feeling of summertime through our stomachs. I offered to make dinner one of the nights since I’ve been dying to try this Maple Barbecue Ribs recipe. I wasn’t sure how well the kitchen in the cabin would be stocked, so I planned ahead.

I packed my large cookie sheet, basting brush, and a tupperware container with the sauce in a bag and brought them to Lake George with me. I didn’t know if there would be a grill, so I planned to follow the instructions for cooking the ribs in the oven.

Beach at Lake George

Even though there was a grill, I’m not the most confident griller, so I continued with my original plan. If you like grilling, by all means, follow the grilling instructions instead! Since I wasn’t going to be using the grill, I added one of my favorite ingredients to the sauce – liquid smoke.

Have you seen liquid smoke before? I buy it at my butcher shop but most large grocery stores are starting to carry it. I’ve seen it near the spices and also near where the BBQ sauce is found. Liquid smoke imparts a great smokey flavor to foods that is usually only achieved through grilling or smoking. By adding liquid smoke to sauces or directly to meat, you can cook in or on your oven but still have that great outdoor cooking taste.

Maple Barbecue Ribs

This recipe couldn’t have been easier to implement. As I mentioned, I mixed up the sauce ahead of time. Then it was just a matter of patiently waiting while the oven did it’s magic! Us girls really enjoyed the ribs. They’re the kind of meal that you have to dig in to and get your hands dirty which always reminds me of summer!

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Spinach-Strawberry Salad

I insist on going strawberry picking every year. Since my birthday falls in the middle of June, it’s usually a request that is fulfilled on my birthday weekend. Nothing says summer like picking fresh local strawberries, and obviously taste testing them as you go!

We usually comes home with about 15 pounds of strawberries when we go strawberry picking. Once they’re all cleaned and patted dry, we save about 5 pounds to just snack on throughout the week (which never lasts very long). Then I make a variety of goodies with the rest. I usually whip up some jam, bake with some of the strawberries, and inevitably, some end up on a salad.

Spinach-Strawberry Salad

I know some people have never tried salad with fruit on it, but believe me, it’s delicious. This salad mixes tender spinach, fresh strawberries, and a sweet poppy-seed dressing. Definitely start with a little less sugar than the recipe calls for and taste as you go. Hubby thought the dressing was a smidge too sweet, but I thought it was perfect. I did add a pinch of Kosher salt to the dressing as well. Again, taste as you go and adjust to suit your preferences.

The other great thing about this salad is that it could be adapted in a variety of ways. If you don’t have strawberries, it would be delicious with blueberries or even peaches! To make it into an entire meal, the salad would be perfect with some grilled chicken and maybe some crumbled goat cheese on top.

Spinach-Strawberry Salad

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American Potato Salad

This American potato salad has just enough mayo to make it creamy, pieces of celery and scallion to give it some crunch, and parsley to give it an herbal citrusy note. And who could forget the hard boiled eggs! I love potato salads with eggs in them.

I doubled the amount of celery, scallions, and eggs in the recipe. I like having more of the mix-ins in a potato salad than potatoes. Feel free to adjust the amount of these ingredients based on your own personal preferences.

American Potato Salad

So next time you’re headed to a friend’s house to enjoy a cookout this weekend or this summer, consider whipping up this American Potato Salad instead of grabbing a store-bought version.

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I have to admit, I grew up convinced that I hated rhubarb. My dad, on the other hand, loves rhubarb. His famous rhubarb rolls were made regularly for the few short weeks that rhubarb was in season. As my tastes matured with age, I began to appreciate the pink tartness provided by this late spring produce.

As luck would have it, once I started to appreciate rhubarb, I moved out to the East Coast. Back in the Midwest where I grew up, rhubarb is very easy to come by.

When I was a kid, we just had to go out to dad’s garden to harvest our fresh rhubarb. And if we didn’t have any, it was guaranteed that someone we knew had a surplus they were looking to offload. Here in Boston, I see rhubarb in the grocery stores or farmer’s markets for just a few short months. Since the rhubarb season is so short, be sure to keep an eye out for it!

This is another treat that comes together in a matter of minutes, travels well, and can be served for breakfast, a snack, or dessert (or all three in one day). Rhubarb provides a subtle tartness, while the topping provides a great sweetness and crunchiness.

So while rhubarb is in season, head out and grab some. Then make this Rhubarb Coffee Cake. Then let me know how much you loved it.

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Lemony Asparagus-Dill Soup

This soup provides a great compromise between winter and spring. Featuring vibrant spring produce and the comforting warmth of soup, this is the perfect recipe for this time of year. I really enjoyed the brightness provided by the lemon and dill in the recipe.

I followed the recipe with one small exception. Instead of reserving the tips of the asparagus from all 3 pounds, I only reserved the tips from 1 pound of asparagus. The rest of the tips went into the pot with the chicken broth. One other thing to note about this recipe. It’s going to make a couple dirty dishes. Your efforts (and dirty dishes) will be greatly rewarded with a delicious bright creamy spring soup.

Lemony Asparagus-Dill Soup

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Breakfast casserole — ready to dig in!

Aside from being a quick and easy recipe, it’s also super-adaptable to whatever you have on hand and whatever your family prefers. I had a couple bell peppers sitting on the counter so I chopped them up and threw them in. Prefer bacon? Use that instead of sausage. Or leave the meat out completely. Have kids who aren’t a fan of veggies? Leave those out or use something they will eat. You can customize this recipe however you’d like.

Cheesy and delicious breakfast casserole.

Be sure to use stale bread in this recipe. If you don’t have any, cut your bread into cubes and let it set out on the counter, uncovered, for the day. If it still hasn’t gotten stale, you can throw it in the oven at a really low temperature for about 30 minutes. The reason you want stale bread is so that it can soak up all of the egg/milk mixture overnight. I used the rest of a day old baguette and it worked perfectly!

Switch up the meat and veggies to suit your taste.

I served this to some family and friends a couple weekends ago. Everyone went back for seconds. I enjoy eating eggs in the morning since they don’t sit heavy like some breakfast dishes can (I’m looking at you, waffles!). This recipes really is a great start to any day.

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Freshly baked Irish Soda Bread

For my first post, I decided to choose a festive recipe. Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up in a couple days and I wanted to try my hand at some Irish Soda Bread. Believe it or not, I’ve actually never had Irish Soda Bread before. Now that I’ve made it, I can see why it’s so popular. I wish people made it more frequently than just the weeks leading up to St Patrick’s Day!

Serve Irish Soda Bread warm with butter

The dough for this bread comes together quickly and easily. The carraway seeds provide a subtle herbal sweetness unique to Irish Soda Bread while the golden raisins provide a hint of fruitiness. I highly recommend eating this bread while it’s still warm, fresh from the oven, slathered with butter, and possibly some jam.

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