M: Gingerbread Pound Cake and Stuffed Peppers

Holy cold batman…It has been in the 30’s and 40’s here in Charleston, and that is just unacceptable. I guess Jack Frost is getting a little antsy this year…can’t wait until January to make us freeze our butts off. I know I know, some of you are sitting out in the mid-west or in Northern California or New York like “seriously Mandi…30’s and 40’s?....that is nothin!” This may be true…But a lot of us South Carolinians are just little girls when it comes to the cold, I’ll just go ahead and admit it.

Ok, so in the spirit of this cold weather and of course the holidays, I warned you I’d be doing more baking…And it’s nowhere near done! This time I baked up a gingerbread pound cake with lemon frosting.

This gingerbread pound cake recipe actually came from the Christmas edition of my favorite cookbook, Gracious Goodness Charleston. I LOVE my Gracious Goodness cookbooks, they are so much fun - so southern and just chock full of simple tasty recipes.

Anyway, this gingerbread pound cake came out beautifully! The spices just filled the kitchen with wonderful smells, and the cake itself was so moist and full of flavor. I whipped up the lemon frosting myself by just mixing up 1 cup of sifted confectioners’ sugar and about 2 TB of fresh lemon juice. The pairing was perfect!

And, just a little tip, the “frosted cranberries” I have placed around the cake are actually homemade. You can get the super simple instructions here. I think they are such a cute and elegant idea to decorate a buffet table during the holidays or lay around your baked goods, or to put in a big bowl as a centerpiece…so many possibilities!

So, I brought almost the entire cake (minus a couple pieces of course for the hubs and I and miss Erica) to work for my co-workers to dig into…Yea, the entire thing was gone by noon! Success! I couldn’t find an exact match to the recipe in the cookbook, but this one was pretty similar!

Now I know there are a lot of stuffed squash recipes out there, and don’t get me wrong, I like squash as much as the next girl, but my favorite vegetable to eat stuffed is peppers! I LOVE peppers – red, yellow, green, orange, ancho, jalapenos, etc…the list goes on.

This is such a simple dinner, but SO satisfying and tasty. It is good and hearty for a cold day and a big hungry hubby too =) I make 4 of them, I eat one, Bryan eats 2, and then he takes the last one for lunch the next day. You really don’t need anything to go with them, but you could always bake up a nice crusty bread or a pasta side.

I also think you could do a great batch of vegetarian peppers if you wanted as well. Instead of using ground beef or turkey you could sub in some black or pinto beans…yummm

Enjoy!!!

Oh, and Marley and Ziggy say “Don’t forget about Itzy’s Kitchen’s Newman’s Own Organics giveaway for your furry babies! Entries must be in by tomorrow, Friday, December 10 by noon!”