Cranberry-Walnut Pumpkin Bread

-Bon Appétit | October 2003

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9 1/4x5 1/4x3-inch loaf pan. Line bottom and 2 long sides with waxed paper. Whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add 1 cup sugar, beating until blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in pumpkin, then vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions each. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Transfer batter to pan. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.
Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool bread in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around bread at short ends to loosen from pan. Turn bread out onto rack; peel off waxed paper. Cool bread completely. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Wrap and store at room temperature.)

Soba noodle salad with broccoli and spicy tofu

-adapted from Cooking Light, May 2011

8 oz firm tofu, drained and cut into .75 in slices
olive or peanut oil
soy sauce
hot chile sauce
8 oz broccoli, sliced lengthwise
1 bundle soba noodles (can substitute linguine, udon or other chewy noodles)
rice wine vinegar
1 T grated fresh ginger
1 t sesame oil
1/2 c thinly sliced radishes
2 T cashews or almond slivers, toasted.

Preheat oven to 350 and boil water for noodles. Marinate tofu in 2 T olive or peanut oil, 2 T soy sauce, 1 t Sriracha, for at least 15 minutes. Reserve marinade. Spread tofu out on baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10'.

While tofu bakes, cool noodles in boiling water until al dente or slightly firmer than al dente. One minute before noodles finish cooking, toss broccoli into cooking water. Plunge noodles and broccoli into ice water to stop cooking.

Combine tofu, noodles, broccoli, 3 T rice wine vinegar, ginger, sesame oil, radishes, 3 T olive or peanut oil, 1 t Sriracha, and reserved marinade. Top with nuts.

Flourless Almond Torte

-From ColinCowie.com

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups sugar
7 eggs
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Grated peel of 1 lemon
Powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Butter a 10-inch springform pan, then line it with wax paper. Butter the paper.

3. In a food processor, combine the almonds and sugar. Process until the almonds are finely ground. Set aside.

4. Separate 4 of the eggs, placing the yolks in a large bowl and reserving the whites. Add the remaining eggs, along with the salt, vanilla, and lemon peel to the bowl with the yolks and beat to blend well. Gradually beat in the almond mixture. The mixture will become very thick.

5. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the reserved egg whites until they are stiff but not dry. Gently fold them into the batter, a third at a time.

6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.

7. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack. Remove the sides of the pan and sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar