TJ Hirst

The first time I made my mom’s traditional crumb coffeecake, my husband did an impersonation of the Swedish chef and called it “Ka Hoo Fee Cake.” We don’t drink coffee, so the name stuck, and our kids can’t say it any other way. When I was growing up, this cake was a special birthday breakfast cake we often ordered from Mom’s kitchen. Whatever we call it—mom’s coffee cake, breakfast cake, crumb cake or “Ka Hoo Fee Cake”, it’s worth it whenever we get to indulge in this food memory on Saturday mornings. We can never wait long enough for it to cool.

Cinnamon Crumb Coffeecake

½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup milk

Topping:

8 tablespoons sugar
8 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large jelly-roll pan with shortening or non-stick spray. Make the topping first by combining the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut the butter or margarine into large chunks and cut into the cinnamon mixture with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

Cream shortening and sugar in an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat. Measure dry ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with the milk, until all has been combined. Beat well. Evenly spread batter in the pan. Sprinkle the topping over the batter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool slightly and serve.

In the summer, especially, I like to serve easy make-your-own-sandwiches for dinner. This week we’re making our first BLT’s with garden fresh tomatoes. Last week I laid out a variety of fixings for hoagie or submarine sandwiches. No one complains because they get to choose what they put on it. Whatever we are putting on the inside, the freshest, crustiest bread available makes the sandwich perfect.

Since I like to bake, starting a batch of Italian bread at lunchtime doesn’t take more than 15 minutes. Then I let it rise and bake it fresh for dinner. The small of amount of time is worth it for bread that looks like this and makes a sandwich taste like it’s from a bakery. This is a recipe my mother found years ago from Fleischmann’s Yeast.

Italian Bread

4 ½ to 5½ cups all-purpose or bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 pkgs. Fleischmann’s active dry yeast
1 tablespoon softened margarine
1 ¾ cup very warm tap water (about 120 degrees)
Cornmeal
Oil
1 egg white
1 tablespoon cold water

First, in a large bowl, thoroughly mix 1 ½ cups flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast. Add margarine.

Second, gradually add tap water to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add ¾ cup flour. Beat at high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough.

Third, turn out onto lightly floured board or counter and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap, then a towel. Lest rise about 40 minutes.

Fourth, to make hoagie rolls, divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into an oblong 8 x 5 inches. Beginning at wide side, roll up tightly; pinch seams to seal. Taper ends.

Or to make loaves, divide dough in half, roll each half into an oblong 15 x 10 inches. Beginning at wide side, roll up tightly; pinch seams to seal. Taper ends by rolling gently back and forth.

Fifth, place on greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. Brush dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise until almost double, about 30 minutes. When ready to bake, you may make 3 - 4 diagonal cuts on top of each with a sharp knife.

Finally, bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes for rolls and 20 minutes for loaves. Remove from oven and brush with egg white mixed with cold water. Return to oven; bake 5 - 10 minutes longer, until golden brown.

Makes 2 loaves or 6 hoagie- or sub-sized rolls.

It’s summertime and my staple ingredients now come from my roof—instead of my pantry—where beautiful lettuce grows in our garden. I made a favorite salad to share at a friend’s house last weekend and received so many compliments and requests that my friend Julie asked me to post the recipe here.

I cannot receive credit for this clever combination of ingredients since I copied it from another friend at a similar gathering more than a decade ago who had copied it from her friend. That’s how all the good recipes get passed around anyway, right? I did personalize it with our own garden lettuce, though. If you’ve never had jicama, this fresh summer salad will introduce you to its crisp and slightly sweet character.

Glazed Almond and Orange Salad

4 ounces slivered almonds
3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon dry Italian dressing mix
½ tablespoon grated orange rind
2 teaspoons sugar
1/3 cup orange juice concentrate
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil

2 heads dark lettuce (I used garden lettuce mixed with green leaf lettuce)
1 jicama, julienned
1-2 cans mandarin oranges, drained

First. Heat the almonds and the sugar in a small skillet over medium-high heat until carmelized. Spread out on wax paper to cool.

Second. Make the dressing by mixing the dry Italian dressing mix, the orange rind and the sugar. Add the red wine vinegar first and then the orange juice concentrate. Whisk in the olive oil or shake until combined.

Third. Wash, dry and break up the lettuce into bite-sized pieces and add to a large salad bowl. (I use my big Tupperware one with a lid to mix the salad and then pour it into a pretty bowl afterwards.) Julienne the jicama and add to the salad. Drain and add the mandarin oranges.

Finally, break apart the glazed almonds and sprinkle over the top of the salad. Just before serving, pour on all the dressing and toss the salad with tongs or cover the bowl with a lid and shake.

Galatians 5:22-23

I slept late after the alarm sounded. The sun didn’t stream through my windows at 6 or 7 a.m. like usual. A steady rain awakened me an hour later, and the weather outside seemed like a a perfect day to sideline any schedule at all. The kids agreed, and we determined we would take the ultimate relaxer—a sweat’s day.

Now this might look like a Saturday in December but the sun doesn’t shine at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. at that time of year in Minnesota. We are mid-way through summer break, and we’ve become a bit exhausted by the constant activity.

The rain gave us a slice of something else to do. We lounged through breakfast and the newspaper, took hot baths, curled up on the couch with my daughter to finish reading The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (a great book), and baked. While I strolled through my Google Reader a little slower than usual, my husband walked in the front door from his office and said to KH, “What’s up, ‘nut?”

“Mom and I are making raisin and cinnamon bread,” she said.

We sliced into the loaf for lunch before it even had a few minutes to sit. The steam rising from the thick chunks of bread seemed to be an anomaly on this summer day. Here’s my mother’s recipe:

Honey Wheat and Cinnamon Raisin Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 ¼ cup hot water
3 cups white flour

Mix first three ingredients in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Measure next three ingredients into a medium bowl and stir until honey is well mixed in. Pour liquid mixture all at once into flour mixture. Stir with a heavy spoon until flour is all wet.

Add white flour 1 cup at a time, mixing in well after each cup. Mix last cup in with hands, kneading as you mix. When it is mixed in well enough that the dough begins to stick to your hands, rub the bottom of the bowl with shortening. Continue kneading just until mixed well and ball of dough is greased. Turn over in bowl and let rise until double in bulk, about 30 to 60 minutes.

Turn dough out on a smooth surface and knead until a smooth ball forms. Cut into two equal pieces. To form each piece into a loaf, use a rolling pin to flatten and expel air bubbles. Fold each side in—more at one end than the other. Roll small end toward wide end. Pick up and place in a well-greased standard-sized loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let rise just until even with the top of the pan, about 20-30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. When it is finished it will be golden brown and sound hard when you tap it.

For Cinnamon Raisin Bread: When you leave the dough to rise the first time, put 1 cup of raisins in a 2 cup measuring cup. Cover with very hot or boiling water. Allow these to sit while the bread rises; it will plump the raisins. Drain the liquid when you are ready to roll out the dough. After the dough doubles, cut into two pieces. Roll each piece into a rectangle. Sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Scatter raisins on top. Fold edges over and roll each rectangle up into a loaf. Follow instructions above for baking.