Orange Cardamom Cake with Honey Glaze

So, it has been a few weeks since I last posted. I told myself I was not going to lag on this blog like I have done with others in the past. I am so sorry! There have been many changes going on in our lives and I really haven't been experimenting with recipes as much as I like to. 

Here's what's happened:
1. I took summer classes, which are a little more intense than regular semester classes.
2. We moved out of our apartment and into a rental house close by. It is old and had years of grime to scrub through, but it has hardwood floors and a good bit of charm.
3. We went on a couple of fun family trips, including St Simons, which we just got back from!
4. We adopted a DOG!! Her name is Olive. More on her later :)

As you can see, it's been a busy summer! I'm going to start the posts off again with a nice summer-to-fall transition recipe. It has a summery fruit, but with a spice that reminds me of the holidays. This orange cardamom cake is moist and thick, almost like a pound cake. It's wonderful at breakfast with a nice steamy cup of tea. 

Ingredients:

Cake
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cardamom
- 1-2 tbsp orange zest 
- 3/4 cup greek yogurt (I prefer 2% fat over no fat)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

Glaze
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1-2 tbsp orange juice from the orange you zested
- 1 tbsp raw honey

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease a standard loaf pan with butter and dust with excess flour. You can line the pan with parchment paper if you prefer. It can sometimes make it easier to remove the bread from the pan if it's a little sticky. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom. In a separate small bowl, combine sugar and orange zest, coating the zest with the sugar. Add yogurt, olive oil, eggs, and vanilla. Fold this mixture into your dry ingredients just until smooth. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake about 45-50 minutes, or until golden. Remove the cake and allow it to cool. In the meantime, whisk together more zest, orange juice, and honey. Once the cake cools, gently remove it from the pan. Brush the honey orange glaze onto the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. 

Now slice that brick of goodness. 

Fruit and Seed Chicken Salad

This recipe is not your typical onion and celery chicken salad. It is adapted from my mama's famous cream cheese-based chicken salad, which is heavenly. She usually serves it warm, either by itself or on a croissant roll. Her original recipe includes grapes and pecans or walnuts. My husband is allergic to nuts, so I modified it to have toasted seeds instead for the same yummy crunch. I also tweaked it to make it a little bit more health friendly ;) 

You can make this with any kind of fruit - diced pineapple, chopped apples, cranberries, cherries, etc. Mix and match as you please. The goal is to be healthy and sweet and delicious, all at once! 

Ingredients:

These amounts are mostly guestimates. We usually just make it to taste. Start off with a little, and keep adding until it feels right.

- 2 lb rotisserie chicken, hand shredded (you can also cook 1-2 lbs of chicken meat yourself, but a rotisserie chicken makes the process a lot easier)
- 1/2 block of cream cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil based mayonnaise
- 1/2-3/4 cup chopped fruit (I used grapes this time)
- 1/4 cup mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp thyme 
- 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Set out block of cream cheese to soften. Hand shred your chicken into small pieces and put in a large mixing bowl. Put mixed seeds into a frying pan over medium-high heat. Mix until they start to sizzle and brown, and then pour over chicken. Add chopped fruit. In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. You want more cream cheese than mayo - the mayo just helps it all "hold together." Mix cream cheese and mayo into your large bowl with chicken and toppings. Add thyme and salt, and then mix thoroughly. Voila! 

Serve in a croissant, in a lettuce wrap, over cantaloupe, or by itself for light lunch or snack. 

Hugs, 
Madi

DIY Macrame Hanging Planter

Our small apartment home is currently being overrun by plants. I have discovered my passion for tending green things, and it has developed into a fun hobby. We have several ferns, an evergreen, rosemary, basil, mint, oregano, sage, cilantro, aloe, three tomatoes, a red bell pepper, a serrano pepper, and about a dozen succulents. I have a hard time restraining myself from buying many more.

With any luck, we will hopefully be moving into a slightly larger place soon with a yard and patio. I might even be able to set up real gardening boxes! In the meantime, these hanging planters have been an excellent way to free up space on our balcony and dining room. And they are so easy peasy! They literally take maybe 5-10 minutes to make in their simplest form. Of course, you can get creative and add more braids, knots, or even beads, shells, and feathers. You can dip dye them too! This DIY is for the basics. 

Step 1// Cut 16 pieces of yarn, twine, or thick string. The length depends on the size of your planter. For a medium pot, I would cut the pieces at about a yard to a yard and a half. 

Step 2// Next, you're going to line them up and tie a knot (with all the pieces) about six inches down.

Step 3// Use your potted plant to hold your twine in place while you divide the pieces below the knot into four sections of four strings each. 

Step 4// Then divide each section in half, with two strings in each half, and tie those halves together into a knot. You will end up with four knots. 

Step 5// Each knot will have two pieces (of two strings each) hanging down. Tie the second piece from the first knot group to the first piece of the second knot group, and continue this pattern all the way across. At the end, tie the last piece to the piece in first, making a full circle. 

Step 6// About two feet up from your last set of knots, tie another big knot around the whole thing. Then braid until you run out of twine. You can use a loop in the braid as the hanger, or braid in a key ring. 

I like to add little knots in the strings hanging below the basket portion. 

All done! Enjoy,

Madi

Glazed Beets n' Sweets

Good morning,

Beets have quickly become one of my favorite tubers to cook and play with. They are tangy, sweet, starchy, and have such a gorgeous ruby-red color. They look like jewels once you peel them and start chopping.

Their juices are fuchsia pink, and can be used for a variety of things. You can use it to dye tablecloths or other fabric, temporarily color your hair, or make it into cheek stain or lip balm.

It's a very pretty hue for summer. I think I might make some lip balm soon.

My favorite way to use beets is to roast them with other vegetables, usually another kind of starch. Sweet potatoes and beets go especially well together.

Let me introduce you to my glazed beets and sweets recipe.

Ingredients:

- 1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 4 beets, peeled and cubed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- thyme
- 2-3 tbsp sweet vinegar - I used a delicious blackberry ginger vinegar from Olive the Above, but a raspberry or other berry vinegar would work great as well

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F. While it's heating up, peel and chop your sweet potatoes and beets. 

Look how pretty the beets are. Toss it all in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a few sprigs of thyme. Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes, and then add your berry vinegar over the top. Put back in oven for another 10 minutes or so, or until the beets are fork tender. The vinegar will have turned into a nice glaze.

All done! Serve with protein of your choice. I think this will be especially good in the fall with pork chops. 

Have a wonderful week! 

Madi

Happy Anniversary!

Hi friends,

I realize it has been a long while since my last post. We have been very busy lately with work, school, and travel. I went to the beach for a week and my husband, Joseph, was in Europe for two weeks! He was on a Reformation study tour that went through Germany, France, and Switzerland. I'm so thrilled he was able to see and learn so much while he was there. I only wish I could have been with him.

While he was away, we had our one year wedding anniversary! Hooray! 

We were sad to be apart from each other on that day, but we've been able to celebrate it since his return to the states. My husband is an incredible man, and he makes my heart happy. He is wise, tender, considerate, and a fabulous leader in our marriage. God blessed me richly when he put Joseph by my side. 

In honor of our anniversary, I want to share some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. Let me tell you, I "pinterest planned" for months, and this day turned out to be everything I had hoped for. Everyone involved just did an amazing job. We wanted it to have a Midsummer Night's Dream or enchanted woodland sort of feel. Our florist did a phenomenal job capturing the ferny, natural look that I wanted. She is a sweetheart too. If you ever need florals in north Georgia, please look up Blue Willow Floral. 

Our photographer was Kyle Hale. He took photos for my husband's brother and sister-in-law at their wedding, and we were very impressed. He has a great eye and buckets of talent. More like wheelbarrows or mega truckloads of talent. 

We owe the wedding planning and catering to Denise Bluster and Epting Events. My mom would have gone insane without Denise's help. She was a doll. The only thing I wish we had more photos of was our fantastic food...sticking with the enchanted forest theme, we had butternut squash soup, chicken, lamb, and all kinds of yummy sides. Denise's cousin made our wedding cake and the dessert table's pies and tarts, which I hear were delicious (we didn't really get much of a taste!). 

That's my handsome man :)

We were married by Joseph's dad.

I love him so much.

We made these honey favors ourselves. There is a honey farm just a couple miles from my parent's house in Clarkesville, and they found the little bottles for us. We are still eating some of the extras. So. Good. 

My mom and I also made all the signs and menus like the one above by gluing moss on old frames. It was great bonding time.

Our florist really was amazing. I wish you could see the details. 

My mom and I made the centerpieces. If you follow my instagram, you've probably seen these book planters before. We bought tons of old books (mainly readers digest) from thrift stores, and my husband and his friends had been collecting the green bottles for a long time. My mom and I turned the books into succulent pots, and then we found branches in the back yard to spray paint gold. It was very easy, and much cheaper than letting someone else do it. I might put up a DIY for the planters sometime soon. 

Mhmm...dessert! We had a beautiful party to celebrate a beautiful day. I'm thankful for my family, friends, and above all, our God who joined us together. 

This is a short summary video from Remedy Films. It is going to bring me joy year after year :) They captured the day so well. 

Love and peace,
Madi