Just a casual Saturday afternoon in the Pettway 

and Mitchell household.

Mmmmm, delicious.

Good Morning, readers. I hope this chilly Tuesday morning finds you well.

Christmas is just a mere 18 days away. No doubt, most of you are busy planning out your social calendars or scrambling to finish up the last of your holiday shopping. These days, I find myself focusing more on what I will be baking this holiday, rather than what I will be wearing and buying. Who cares about presents when you have an awesome cake to eat Christmas morning? My thoughts exactly.

Over the next 3 weeks, I'll be posting updates about my baking adventures as well as sharing some of my favorite holiday recipes. Got family visiting? Need a cheap gift to give to your friends? Got the annual office Xmas party coming up? Never fear, I'll have all the recipes you need to get through the holidays.

This week, I'm tackling breakfast. What do you eat Christmas morning when you have your entire family coming over to open presents? Something fast, sweet and filling. I'm a huge proponent of breakfast breads and coffee cakes but I thought, this year, I would try something new- crumb cake. Crumb cake is a delicious hybrid of a cake and coffee cake. It's a moist, fluffy and buttery cake with a crunchy crumb topping, often sprinkled with powdered sugar or drizzled with frosting. Below, is a recipe I've modified from Ina Garten. I've switched out the blueberries for raspberries, added some vanilla yogurt and included a frosting that can be drizzled liberally over the top of your cake. Make this the day before and all you'll have to worry about Christmas morning is finding a large enough spatula to shovel out your family's slices.

Raspberry Crumb Cake
(Adapted from Ina Garten)

Streusel-

• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/3 cup packed Brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose Flour
• 
  
• Cake-

• 6 Tbsp room-temp unsalted Butter
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 2 room-temp Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/3 cup Sour cream

• 1/3 cup Vanilla yogurt
• 1 1/4 cups Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup fresh Raspberries

Drizzle-

1 cup Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp room-temp Butter

Coconut Milk

Grease and flour a 9" cake pan. I suggest using a spring-form pan.

Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.

• 
  
• In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream and yogurt. 
• 
  
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Fold in the raspberries and stir with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out with a knife. With your fingers, crumble the topping evenly over the batter. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

I have to say, there's nothing quite like waking up to freshly-baked muffins and a cup of hot coffee. Unfortunately, that didn't happen this morning. Rather, this morning I found myself stumbling out of bed to gulp down my breakfast to get ready for another day of work. For the past month, I've been serving as a copy editor for my local newspaper. Once a week, generally between the hours of 12 and 8 p.m., you'll find me holed up in the quaint little office of the Village News and usually once 4 o'clock rolls around, you will hear grumbles coming from every corner of the office saying that we have no snacks. An 8-12 hr work day doesn't exactly lend itself to healthy eating and when you're working on deadline, usually the last thing on your mind is food.  You'd be amazed by how fast the visitor candy dish in our front office empties in regards to this situation.

Noticing an opportunity to do a little baking, I took the initiative to bring in a slightly healthier snack. Nothing says healthy more than fresh fruit and since it is now officially spring, I thought what better combination is there than blueberries and lemons? Below is a recipe I've been using for quite awhile. It's originally from my mother's old Betty Crocker cookbook. After a little tweaking, to take into account the efficiency of modern ovens, I was amazed by just how reliable the recipe is after 40 years. I would say it's definitely a testament to just how simple and good this recipe is. I hope you enjoy it.

Betty Crocker’s Blueberry Muffins

(Courtesy of Betty Crocker- circa 1970)

1 room-temp Egg
½ cup Milk
¼ cup Oil
½ cup Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 ½ cup Flour
¼ tsp Salt
1 cup Blueberries
*Lemon zest

Begin by greasing a 12-count muffin tin.

In a large bowl, whip up the egg. Wisk in the milk and oil. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir until just combined (if you over-stir, it will become stiff). Finish by adding in the blueberries (Tip- make sure your blueberries are dry otherwise your batter will be wet and runny around the berries). Give a quick stir and pour the mixture into the muffin mold.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

*If you want to add a little lemon zest, do no more than half a lemon. The zest adds a great freshness and zing to the muffin.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I honestly don't know where my year went. With my mother still recovering from her double-knee surgery, I find myself taking a much more hands-on approach to this year's celebration- i.e. I'm doing all the baking/cooking. You can definitely say that I've risen to the challenge. As I told my mom, Thanksgiving is like a decathalon for chefs and you better believe I've been studying Food Network as religiously as a Freshman student cramming for first semester exams. I've been stocking up on enough pricey cheeses, fresh herbs and obscure spices to make my parents cry from looking at all the grocery bills. I AM READY.

One of the easiest recipes in my arsenal, has to be my nana's coffeecake. The recipe dates back to 50s, a time when they loved their bundt pans and cake mixes almost as much as their first-born child. The fluffy vanilla cake pairs beautifully with the crunchy cinnamon pecan filling and sweet frosting topping. Serve it with a cup of coffee and it'll start your day off right!

French Vanilla Coffeecake

1 pkg French vanilla cake mix
1 pkg French vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1 cup Water
1 tsp Butter flavoring
4 room temperature Eggs

Topping-
3/4 cup chopped Pecans
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup Sugar

Frosting-
1 cup Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Milk
2 Tbsp melted Butter

In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except for the eggs. Add in each egg individually, beating after each. Beat batter for 8 minutes- make sure to time yourself!

Sprinkle half of the cinnamon topping into the bottom of a well-greased bundt pan. Pour in half of the batter. Throw in the rest of the cinnamon topping and then cover with the remaining batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Remove from pan after 10 minutes. Let cool and then drizzle top with the frosting.

September 21, the great autumnal equinox, has officially come and gone, meaning Fall is here. While Virginia continues to suffer through 90 degree temperatures, I dare to sport zip-up hoodies and home made vegetable soup in the comfort of my air conditioned home. I can't help it, my mind has already switched to "fall mode." I've bought my Martha Stewart Halloween guide and I currently have trips planned to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch in October.

During the Fall, in particular, I tend to become incredibly domestic. I have an urge to bake everyday, for everyone I know. The situation usually goes something like this: "Hey, I know you! You look hungry! Let me bake you a pie. You say you don't like pie? Well, how about scones? No? Pumpkin bread? Alright, here are 5 loaves."

There's nothing I love more than spending time with my friends and what better combination is there than food and friends? I guess this is my way of ensuring that those close to me have something to eat that's a little more nutritious than Doritos or leftover Chinese food.

So, when you're all by your lonesome this Fall, and Winter is looming ever so ominously on the horizon, remember that this recipe below- 1. is great with coffee, 2. bakes a lot and 3. freezes perfectly for months. Bake something for those dearest to you or start stocking up for the treacherous days of Snowacalypse 3. Who knows- the Great Pumpkin just might save the day after all!

Almond Pumpkin Bread

1 1/8 cup toasted, slivered Almonds
3 cups Flour
3 tsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Baking soda
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground ginger
3/8 tsp Ground cloves
3 large Eggs
1 1/2 cup Sugar
15 oz Can of pumpkin
3 Tbsp Vegetable oil
3/4 cup Evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp Almond extract

Begin by toasting the almonds in the oven at 350 degrees until they are golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.

Sift together all the dry ingredients, including the spices.

Beat the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until they're fluffy. Add in half the canned pumpkin, the almond extract and oil. Beat well. Add in some of the flour mixture. Beat well. Add in some of the evaporated milk. Beat well. Repeat the process until both have been evenly combined into the batter. Stir in the last of the canned pumpkin. Finish by folding in the almonds; make sure to save a few to sprinkle over the top of the loaves.

Pour  the batter into 3 medium-sized aluminum bread loaves.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.