Honey Apple Spice Cake - with Gingerbread Sugar

This beautiful, fall cake makes a wonderful dessert, brunch, or breakfast item. Try serving it with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or all by itself!

What you will need:
2 apples - pealed, cored, and thinly sliced 
1 C Gingerbread Sugar
3 C cake flour (can sub regular white flour if needed)
1 T baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C vegetable or coconut oil
1 C honey
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C warm coffee
1/2 C apple cider

Optional (but not really): 2 T Spice Cake Sugar, extra apple slices, 3 T oil for frying

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. lightly grease a 9" baking tin and line the bottom with parchment paper.  Mix the apple slices in a bowl with 3 T of the Gingerbread Sugar and set aside. Combine the remaining Gingerbread Sugar with all other dry ingredients. Add half of the honey, the oil, eggs, vanilla, coffee, and cider and mix well.  Spoon 1/3 of the batter into the bottom of your pan. Layer with half of the apples. Top the apples with another 1/3 of the batter, followed by the rest of the apples and last 1/3 of the batter. Bake the cake for one hour, r until a skewer comes out clean. Straight out of the oven, drizzle with the remaining honey. Top with fried apple slices.

Fried apple slices:
Toss some apple slices in a few tablespoons of Spice Cake Sugar. Fry them on the stove in some oil until they start to caramelize. Drain the apples on a paper towel and garnish your cake with them. Dust the top with some powdered sugar.

3 Sugo spice mix recipes!

Quick Guide to Recipes and Uses - Sugo

Scratch Spaghetti Sauce 

(Serves 4)

You will need:

1 T Sugo Italian Seasoning

1 lb ground beef or pork

2 T olive oil

28 oz crushed tomatoes (with juice)

1/2 C water 

Directions:

Brown 1 lb ground beef or pork in 2 T olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add 1 T Sugo Italian Seasoning and stir it into the meat, allowing it all to stir fry a bit in the pan.  Add 1/2 C water and 28 oz of chrushed tomatoes. Stir to combine. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes. 

Serve over pasta or use as a filling for lasagna.  

Meatballs

You Will Need:

2 T Sugo Italian Seasoning

2 lbs ground beef/pork/or both

1 C bread crumbs

2 eggs

flour

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients except the olive oil (by hand is best).  Roll meatballs into desired size - golfball size works well. 

Roll the meatballs in white flour and shake off the excess so that they are just lightly coated.

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil and heat over med-high.  Brown the meatballs on all sides - working in batches if necessary. Place them on a baking sheet and finish cooking for about 15 minutes in the pre-heated oven. 

Serve in sandwiches, marinara sauce, or freeze them for later use.

*Can also be used to season meatloaf in a ratio of 1 T seasoning per pound of meat.

Roman Baked Chicken

You Will Need:

3 T Sugo Italian Seasoning

a whole chicken

1/4 C orange juice

1/4 C olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Rinse and pat the chicken dry. Place Chicken in a baking dish. Combine seasoning, juice, and olive oil in a small bowl. Rub the seasoning mixture all over the chicken. Loosely cover the chicken with foil and bake for half the total cooking time. Remove foil and finish cooking. (Cook time for whole chickens is 20 minutes per pound).

Italian Breakfast Sausage

You Will Need:

1 lb ground pork/turkey/chicken

1 T Sugo Italian Seasoning

olive oil

*if using chicken or turkey you may also want to add 1/4 C applesauce for moisture

Coat a skillet in olive oil over medium heat.

Combine all ingredients and form into small patties.

Cook sausage patties 5-8 minutes on each side until they are browned and cooked through.

Moroccan Beef with Garlic and Herb Mash

Full of warm and wonderful flavor, this dish, akin to a stew, will never fail to please a crowd.

What you will need:

1/4 C Moroccan Tagine spice mix
2 T tomato paste
2 C vegetable or beef broth
2 lbs beef, cut into bite-size cubes
2 C baby carrots, cut into halves
1 yellow or red onion, cut into pieces
2 baking potatoes or several golden/white potatoes
4 whole garlic cloves(skin on)
1/2 stick butter
salt/pepper
olive oil
1/2 C chopped flat leaf parsley and/or other fresh herbs

Season the beef with salt/pepper to taste.  Brown the beef cubes in a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large, high-sided skillet over med-high heat.  

Stir in the tomato paste and onions and saute' until onions are browning.

Deglaze the pan by adding the broth and stirring/scraping the bottom of the pan.




Stir in the Moroccan Tagine spice mix and carrots.  Cover and simmer on low until meat is tender - about an hour.

While your meat is simmering, make your mash.

Peal your potatoes (if desired) and cut them into even chunks.  Boil them with the garlic cloves until they are very tender - about 30 minutes. 

Drain off the water and squeeze the garlic out of the skins into the potatoes.
Mash the garlic, potatoes, and butter together and season with salt and pepper to taste.
stir in chopped parsley and/or other fresh herbs such as rosemary and thyme.

Spread mash onto a serving platter and pour the finished beef stew on top. Finish with some more chopped herbs for garnish.  Voila - a beautiful meal is served!

*Different cuts of meat and different varieties of potatoes take shorter or longer too cook. Test tenderness by sticking them with a fork. If there is any resistance - keep cooking! 

*If your stew seems to be getting too low on liquid, simply add more broth and cover to achieve desired sauce consistency. If your sauce seems too thin, crack the lid open on one side to allow some evaporation.

What Is Tagine?

Tagine, or tajine, is simply an ancient method of slow cooking.  Shaped like a teepee, the tagine allows steam to escape very slowly, keeping the food inside moist and the meat tender. In places like the Middle East and North Africa, you can order a tagine to go. But don't be fooled - this is no fast food! To order a tagine, you would select your preferred meat and veggies and they would be cooked with spices in your own personal clay cooker in a basement area filled with hot coals and buried in ash.  Several hours later you would return to take home your hot and delicious meal, right in the cooker.

But just because you don't have a basement filled with hot coals and ash, doesn't mean you can't enjoy the succulent flavors of this exotic cooking method.  Tagines can be used at home on the stove, grill, or in the oven and are more widely available than ever before at specialty stores such as Sur Le Table or World Market.  An electric crock pot or covered creucet will do the trick too!

A dear friend of mine, who was raised in the Middle East, sent me this glorious photo of her famous chicken, rice, and carrots - slow cooked with our Moroccan Tagine spice blend.  This dish became an instant family favorite. There's nothing I like hearing more than being a part of a special family memory or tradition. What a gift!

While our spice blend is named after tagine cooking, it is useful and delicious in countless other preparations as well. Try it as a rub or marinade on lamb, chicken, beef, kebobs, or even fish.  Add it to sour cream for an excellent dip or sauce. Throw some in your rice as it cooks for an amazing side dish. This one is only limited by your imagination. Find us on Facebook and share your creative uses!

Mayan Mocha

Introducing our latest all-natural sugar: Mayan Mocha! Chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla bean, and a pinch of cayenne - this blend transforms coffee or hot milk into an exotic mocha beverage.  It can also be used in baking, on top of cereals, or as a chocolatey finishing sugar on desserts and ice cream.

Creole!

Introducing our newest spice mix - Creole! seafood boil & seasoning mix.  If you are craving crawfish, but not MSG, try replacing your regular crawfish boil with this spicy, cajun blend.  In addition to seafood boil, this mix is great on grilled chicken, shrimp, or fish, and can be used in most any cajun recipe.  Treat it like an all-purpose seasoning and try it in beans & rice, jambalaya, and etouffee!  

Unexpected Blessings

It is pretty well-known and accepted by now that many things in nature carry amazing health benefits.  Certain herbs and spices have been used medicinally throughout history and can truly offer support and comfort to us in times of health, ailment, and recovery.

For example, lavender is commonly used to promote relaxation, while fennel seed is known to sooth digestive issues.  Citrus oils are known for their disinfectant properties, while cinnamon is believed to help with inflammation. The list goes on and on for nearly every edible herb or spice in its whole-food form.  The best part is, in the right combination, they are also delicious!

During the recently past winter months, when we were all soothing throats and looking out for our immune systems, I developed a ginger-clove tea drop. Ginger and clove are both known for aiding bodies in fighting germs, soothing tummies, and helping you to warm up - and they taste wonderful together.  Soon afterwards, I had two separate, surprise orders for these teadrops to be delivered to some cancer patients as gifts of love, support, and comfort. Until this happened, I just thought I was making something yummy to get us through the winter.  To unexpectedly partner with two different people in being instruments of grace in someone's recovery process was a very humbling experience.  It is such a blessing to know that life can take such a turn and your fun little project can suddenly have significance that you weren't even looking for. And then your eyes are open - to hope and look for more.