A Simple Gingerbread Cake

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

This time of year, even folks who’ve never touched a skillet get the baking itch. And how can you resist? The smells of cinnamon, gingerbread, chocolate and everything pumpkin spice wafting in the air instantly make us happier and eager to fill our own homes with that feeling.

In that spirit of conviviality, I wanted to leave you newbie cooks with a ridiculously simple, exponentially more satisfying, and comforting cake for the holidays. I’m hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t love gingerbread, but maybe rolling out cookies or the heavy molasses flavor of dark gingerbreads isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

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Greet Holiday Guests with Breakfast

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

During the holidays, there seems to be a Christmas party every other day. Most often, due to being tired and getting caught up in the holiday spirits, many of us wake up with a hangover the following morning…or is that just me?

More than the indulgences in sweets and champagne during the holidays, I love to indulge in breakfast. It’s the one time of the year I can have something rich for breakfast, and I relish that opportunity. Plus, in my family, we always had friends or family staying over the nights before the holidays and the days in between, so we always had to have breakfast for many on hand.

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French Onion Soup with a Twist

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

When it’s blisteringly cold outside and I’m running low on funds, a hearty soup is always the dish I go to first. And my favorite soup of all is French onion. The way the onions reduce to an almost meaty caramel and then get topped with cheesy bread –there’s nothing better.

I found myself without the usual dry sherry I use in making onion soup and in the spirit of changing up my routine, I grabbed the bottle of bourbon from my cupboard instead.

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Cranberry Sauce, Inspired by Quince

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

Every year at Thanksgiving, I’m an unashamed traditionalist. I love the turkey, the giblet gravy and the green bean casserole. And although I love cranberry sauce directly from the can, it’s the one aspect of the Thanksgiving table that I don’t mind breaking from tradition with.

This year, inspired by the plentiful quince trees in my neighborhood, I’m making a spiced cranberry sauce perfumed with the fragrant orchard fruit. Related to apples and pears, quince is my favorite fall and winter fruit, smelling of an intoxicating blend of rose, citrus and sour apple. Unlike apples and pears, however, they cannot be eaten raw; their concrete-like flesh needing heat to yield it soft and tender.

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A Sweet Surprise

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

As anyone who knows me well will attest, I have a weakness for sweets. I love to keep them around at all times in case a craving hits. But often that means candy or chocolates since those keep well for days. Very rarely do I come across a cake or a pie that will keep for over two weeks, enough for me to enjoy a small slice here and there until it’s gone.

But the other day, I remembered that my banana bread recipe does keep for over a week, actually improving with age. Eager for pumpkin cake this time of year, I decided to adapt my recipe using pureed pumpkin in place of the bananas. After I baked it, and it cooled, I cut into it and was shocked at how dry it was. I almost threw it away, but wrapped it in plastic wrap and kept it on my counter, thinking I would just eat it with tea to revive it when needed.

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