Upside-down Plum Cake

3/4 cup butter, softened (divided)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
4 large plums, cut into segments
1 1/2  cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-in pan with 2-in sides.

In a skillet melt HALF the butter with honey and sugar over medium heat, stirring until smooth sauce forms. Pour sauce into prepared cake pan, arrange plum segments on top.

Mix flour, baking powder, spices and salt in a medium bowl, set aside. With a mixer, whip remaining butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and both extracts and whip until white and fluffy. Add 1/3 flour mixture, mix until just blended. Add 1/2 milk, then 1/3 flour, the rest of milk and flour, mixing until just combined.

Pour batter over plums, bake until golden, about 1 hr. Let cool in pan for about 15 min, run a knife around the edges and carefully invert onto serving platter.

Coffee-Crusted Pork Chops with Bourbon Cream Sauce

Good friends bought us Weber's "Real Cooking" book several years ago. We have never been disappointed with a recipe we tried from it. This particular recipe is one of the best yet! As usual, I changed the recipe quite a bit while I was cooking it so this is my version.

Sauce:
1T butter
1t minced garlic
1t onion powder
1/4c bourbon (we used Jack Daniels)
1c low-sodium beef stock
6T heavy cream
1/2t dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Rub:
1t dark-roasted coffee
1/2t dried thyme
1t kosher salt
1/2t fresh ground pepper

4 boneless pork loin chops about 1 inch thick
Olive oil

For the sauce:
In a saucepan over medium heat melt the butter and cook garlic for just a minute. Add onion powder then remove from heat. Carefully add bourbon then return to the heat (it may flame up). Reduce heat to medium and add stock and cream. Simmer until reduced to about 1/3c stirring occasionally. Add remaining seasoning to desired taste and serve over the cooked pork chops. We found this was delicious with our steamed broccoli as well!

For the chops:
Make the rub in a small bowl, mixing together all the ingredients. Spray or brush both sides of pork chops with olive oil then rub seasoning into the pork chops and let them come to room temperature for about 20-30 minutes.
 Grill over direct medium heat until barely pink in the center of the meat, about 8-10 minutes, turning once. Rest for a few minutes then serve.

Spent Grain Beer Bread

Since recently my hubbie has gotten into making his own beer I've tried to find a few recipes of things I could make with the things leftover from it. One of the big ones is the "spent grain" or the grains that are leftover after they've been boiled. I have read that they are still quite nutritious and they give a unique flavor to this bread that I've made twice now. The bread tastes different depending on the type of grain you use so it's always new!

3/4c warm water
2T active dry yeast
3/4c milk
1/4c unsalted butter
4 1/2T sugar
1T salt
1c apple juice
1/4c honey
1 1/2c spent grain
1c wheat flour
4-5c unbleached all purpose flour
oil to coat bowl
1 egg, lightly beaten

Pour the warm water into the bowl of your electric mixer. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let set for a few minutes. Heat milk and butter until the butter melts, either in the microwave or on the stove. Add in sugar, salt, apple juice and honey. Add into the mixing bowl.
Add the spent grain reserving 2T if you'd like to put some on top to decorate at the end. Add whole wheat flour and mix thoroughly. Add all-purpose flour a little at a time until no longer sticky. Knead for several minutes with the dough hook attachment. Oil the bowl and let rise for 30-60 minutes or until doubled in size.
Form into 2 loaves and brush on the egg wash and rise again until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake loaves for 45 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean.