Cheater Bulgogi Beef

You can make bulgogi sauce from scratch, but instead I just bought jars from the local asian market. Tried one and the DBD really liked it, so going to add this into the dinner rotation.

• 90 g bulgogi sauce
• ~1 lb beef (rundreepjes, thinly sliced steak, other)
• oil
• vegetables (sprouts, mushrooms, gailan, carrots, etc)
• rice/noodles

1. Marinate the beef for 3 hours to overnight, covered in the fridge.
2. Heat oil in pan and cook beef until cooked through (~2 min each side).
3. Remove to serving dish.
4. Saute vegetables in saucy pan.
5. Serve with rice or noodles.

Single Layer Cake with Fruit

MM doesn't like too cake that much so made a single layer birthday cake. This is easy to do with fresh or frozen fruit. I used frozen peach slices. XBD said there should have been more fruit. There was only a small amount of leftovers that was finished the next day.

• 
  8 T (113 g) butter, room temp
  
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 1 t vanilla
• optional: 1/4 t almond extract
• 1 c flour (or mix of almond meal)
• 1.5-2 c fresh or frozen berries/stone fruit (sliced)
• 2 T - 1/4 c sugar (depends on tartness of fruit)
• 1 t cinnamon
• whipped cream (slagroom/heavy cream 30-36% fat, sugar, vanilla)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8-9" square pan or 9-10" round pan
2. Beat together the butter, sugar, powder, and salt until smooth.
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl each time.
4. Stir in extract(s).
5. Mix in flour to make a stiff smooth batter.
6. Spread the butter in the greased pan.
7. Add the fruit and bake.
1. If using fresh berries, sprinkle on top of batter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 35-40 min.
2. If using frozen fruit, bake the cake batter for 10 min (to set the bottom of the cake). Remove from the oven, sprinkle the fruit evenly, and top with sugar and cinnamon. Continue baking for 40-45 min.
8. Remove when light golden brown. Cool slightly. Serve with whipped cream.
   
   
   

Sunshine Wreath aka Citrus Twist

This is my favorite recipe so far from Samantha Seneviratne's cookbook, Joys of Baking. Its warm yellow spiral design and wonderful fragrance can't help but bring a smile to my face.

The first few times I made it, I did it by hand. Truly a labor and I couldn't help add a bunch of flour because it was so gloppy after adding the butter. Now that I have a stand mixer, it's so easy to just let the machine do the work and the butter eventually gets worked in without having to add more flour (or feeling like I'm going to injure my arm from the intense kneading). I even made 2 doughs in the same day (saving one to bake a couple days later).

DBD watched the video on how to make it and caught that you can use the spread on toast as well, and  made sure to save some the last time we made it (in fact, DBD and XBD made the filling together while I lay on the couch). 

8/22/23 Made this for a summer gathering. Still a personal favorite.