Cannoli Cake

THIS. CAKE. IS. EVERYTHING.

You need it in your life. I made it for Christmas, but it's definitely not a project for holiday baking.  It's totally like a lil' Saturday/Sunday afternoon casual kitchen romp. Go for it!

That is a lovely bowl of sugar, being scented by citrus zest! 

Cannoli Pound Cake

From Smitten Kitchen

Butter or cooking spray to coat pan
1 cup sugar
zest from 1 orange
zest from 1 lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 or 2 pinches allspice
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup mini-chocolate chips or 6 ounces semisweet chocolate bar, chopped into tiny bits
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped

1. Heat oven to 350. Coat a standard loaf pan with butter or a nonstick spray.

2. Place sugar in a large bowl, and add zest. Use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar.  Whisk in olive oil, wine (if using), ricotta and eggs. Sprinkle baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice over wet ingredients, then whisk to combine. Gently stir in flour, then chocolate and pistachios until just combined.

3. Scrape into prepared loaf. Bake oven for 55 to 65 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out-batter free. Let cool on wire rack in pan for 15 minutes, then invert out onto rack to finish cooling.

I am so sorry for not taking a photo of this baby dusted with powdered sugar and sliced to see the beauty of it's innards.  Perhaps that mystery and intrigue will get you to bake up a cannoli cake of your own.

Shaved Asparagus White Pizza

So I seem to have taken a month off from blogging.  I haven't taken a month off from cooking, I can assure you of that, but I have been pondering whether or not anyone reads this darn thing. Turns out, people actually do read it! 

So hey, I'm back.

I made this pizza months ago, but couldn't find the beautiful photos anywhere.  I got a new laptop recently and discovered the photos during some tedious file transfers.

Shaved Asparagus White Pizza
From Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
1 pizza dough, make your own, buy it, whatevs
1/2 lb asparagus
1/4 cup Parmesan
1/2 lb shredded mozzarella
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
pepper

1. Preheat oven to 500. Set up your asparagus for shaving: don't snap off the ends because this is what you will hold onto when shaving with a peeler. Shave those asparagus with a regular ol' peeler.  Discard the ends.  Toss shavings with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
2. Stretch out your pizza dough. Place onto whatever pan you cook your pizza on. Spread the ricotta cheese on the dough first, then sprinkle the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.  Finally, top with asparagus. Cook 10-15 minutes.

Yay, finally got myself to write a blog post for the first time in a month! And it was a recipe from months ago! Hah!