Mango Morning Quesadillas

Mango Morning Quesadillas {page 513} were a concept too novel to pass up. A sweet mango filling sandwiched between two tortillas, baked till crispy, and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon? Sign me up!

And it was good...mostly. Honestly, the filling was a little weird. It baked up funny in the oven, almost to the consistency of scrambled eggs {ew, gross, I know, sorry!}, and wasn't as sweet as I'd hoped. The Ninjahusband thought it was pretty good, but I'm a little on the picky side, and I didn't really love it.

I may be persuaded to try it again, but I think I'd make some modifications first.

Overall, major points for ingenuity and concept...just a touch lacking in execution.

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl

Spice Cake with Mango and Lime

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of ripe, juicy, delicious {and cheap!} mangoes. Nearly daily you can find me standing in my kitchen, eating pieces of mango straight off the knife I used to cut it, moaning to the Ninjahusband "Oh man, is there ANYTHING on earth that tastes better than a mango?"

{In case you're curious, the answer is no. No, there is nothing on earth that tastes better than a ripe mango.}

Therefore, Spice Cake with Mango and Lime {page 451} is the perfect summery dessert.

Because I was having a crowd for dinner, I doubled the recipe to yield a two-layer cake. It was easy to throw together, standard cake protocol. The batter was really thick, but baked up beautifully.

The recipe suggests using mango puree in place of the applesauce, which I did, even though it required a trip to the Indian market to acquire said puree. It really bumped up the mango flavor, and I'm glad I went to the trouble.

The cake was heavily spiced {but not overly spiced} with cinnamon, allspice, and ginger, and those flavors complimented the mango and tangy lime perfectly.

I frosted the cake with vegan cream cheese frosting, and it paired perfectly. Everyone who tried the cake loved it - in fact, there's just one small piece sitting alone on the cake pedestal now, waiting for someone to come along and snatch it up.

I think I might be that someone...as long as my Ninjahusband-someone or my Supertoddler-someone doesn't get to it first.

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl

Mango-Avocado Spring Rolls

I am a great lover of spring rolls {in my household we call them "summer rolls", to differentiate them from their fried cousins}. I usually make mine with mandarin oranges and sprouts. Upon discovering the presence of leftover rice paper and rice noodles in my cupboard, I was excited to make Mango-Avocado Spring Rolls {page 25}.

I took all the components to my friend Jess' house, as I thought it would be a fun activity for us to do for dinner. The only hitch in the plan was that it is not really mango season here, and it turns out that the mango I bought was reallllly gross and not ripe. So, we had to omit the mango, which omitted some of the sweetness and a layer of flavor, but the rolls were still really good. I had a lot of fun teaching her to soften the rice papers and how to roll all the fillings in tightly.

We ate the rolls with a sweet stir-together peanut sauce. They were delicious. I really enjoyed the creaminess that the avocados added. I think I will start adding avocado to all my spring/summer rolls from now on.

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl