Cocktail Hour: A New Old Fashioned

Why is it that lately I either have a photo or something to say, but never both?

The best place to see what I've been up to is to check out my wonderfully low-quality Instagram feed. Lately, it's being updated nearly daily! One of my friends commented that she likes my photos, but that I don't write what's in them... but I do! Usually...

Anyway, back to story time:

In this age of social distancing and #stayhome, my parents have turned to digital happy hours, and on Monday, I thought they asked me if the boyfriend and I would be free on Thursday evening to join them and some friends for one. I'm pretty sure I gave a noncommittal answer, something like "I will be, but he may or may not be around, and if he's around, he may not be able to drink." Fast forward to Thursday. Around 4:45 pm, I realize it's Thursday, and that I still haven't received a Zoom invite from my father. I shoot him a text asking about it and decide I'll use this as an excuse to shower, actually put some makeup on, and wear jewelry, things I haven't done in weeks. Well, I've showered, just not the other stuff.

I get out of the shower and still haven't heard back, so I text my mom, and then go about making my cocktail.

It turns out there was never going to be a cocktail party tonight and I just imagined it.


A New Old Fashioned
makes 1

1.5 oz whiskey (I used TX blended whiskey)
3-4 dashes orange bitters
.5 oz rosewater simple syrup

Place a large ice cube in a glass. Add ingredients and stir.
Stare at wall and consider garnishes, but slip on heels instead, grab a book, and head outside to contemplate being digitally stood up by your parents.

Curried Eggs

I'm not entirely sure when my weird obsession with turmeric started. And I'm not even sure it's a weird obsession. I just think potatoes and onions look funny unless they're stained with its yellow hue.

But anyway, it's a Friday and lunchtime and I'm standing in the kitchen with eggs and curry powder and turmeric and nutmeg and a quarter of an old onion and half a package of goat cheese sitting on the counter in front of me while I wait for the oil in my tiny little skillet to heat up. I like my skillet. It's cute and adorable and the perfect size for making eggs just for me, and I smile, and thinly slice the onion and listen to the sizzle as the onion hits the now-hot oil. Turning up the dulcet tones of the Taylor Swift song filling my ear, I sprinkle a bit of salt and turmeric powder over the onions, and they turn a beautiful golden shade as I stir them...

I also, clearly, have been craving narratives. Terrible narratives that we both know I can't write, and that definitely have no place here. But regardless, it's Friday (does that mean it's the freakin' weekend yet and I can have me some fun? Nope. Not this weekend) and I made myself some delicious eggs and gluten-free toast for lunch. (As to why the toast was gluten-free, that's a different story, and it'll come later.) And despite the funny looks I get from my roommates for putting curry powder in my eggs, I like to think of it as sophisticated, though surely that isn't actually true. And I'm far from the definition of "sophisticated" with my bright pink melamine plates and heart-covered tumblers. But hey, it works for me. As does listening to this song on repeat. Yep, that definitely puts a smile on my face.



As for this recipe, it's not really that specific. There are no proportions here for the spices, because I pretty much just decide by thinking, "Hm, that smells like a good amount." I like spices. I could've been happy dumping even more spices in here. But eggs, onion, and curry powder go together wonderfully. And goat cheese just mellows it out and makes it even creamier.


Curried Scrambled Eggs
this feeds 1 person, maybe
2 teaspoons oil
1/4 small onion, thinly sliced
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
curry powder - or - nutmeg and turmeric (or both)
salt
pepper
goat cheese

In a small skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft. You can add some salt to taste, and turmeric if desired.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and curry powder. I use a around 1/4 teaspoon of a sweeter curry powder. Sometimes I just use turmeric and nutmeg instead of a curry powder. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Pour eggs over onions, and reduce heat to low. Stir constantly until no longer runny but not completely dry, about 3 minutes. Add goat cheese, stir once more, and then remove from the pan and enjoy!

The Limes are the Key

 

Despite my lack of posts this semester, I've been writing about food more than ever. Why, you may ask? That has an easy answer - I'm taking a course on the wonderful world of food writing. But it wasn't until this week that the topic approached something I could use not only as an assignment for class, but an excuse to update this blog as well.

Sitting in class last Thursday, I was handed two limes of differing sizes. The typical Persian lime and a small, surprisingly green Key lime. And with that, I knew I had to take an approach to the assignment of writing about limes and including a recipe to use the key limes. I sent my boyfriend to the grocery store with the request to pick up a bag of key limes if they were available, and he returned with a bag, but not before calling me to ask how to tell if limes are any good. (In case you're wondering, scald - those tiny brown patches - is okay, but if they're dried up, mushy, or wrinkly, that's bad.)

It took me three days to finally decide, but when I did, I decided on something that is more of an ingredient than a final product: Key Lime Curd. And since I made that, I needed to make some scones to eat with them. And then, as a wonderfully simple and delicious dessert last night, Key Lime "Mousse," which was nothing more than a half cup of heavy cream whipped to nice soft peaks, 1/4 cup of the lime curd, and then some vigorous whisking until it was an even consistency. Now that's simple and elegant.

Key Lime Curd

Yield: ½ cup

If key limes are not available, substitute Persian limes in this recipe.

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice, from about 9 small limes

1 tablespoon grated key lime zest

1. Bring 2 inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan. Be sure that the mixing bowl you choose to make the curd in fits in the pan without touching the bottom.

2.With a hand mixer on medium or wire whisk, whip the eggs and sugar together into pale yellow and fluffy, about 1 minute with a mixer. Whisk in lime juice and zest.

           
3. Rest the bowl over the pot of simmering water. Cook, whisking occasionally, until the mixture is thick and custard-like, about 10 to 15 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 160ºF.

4. Fill a large bowl about halfway with ice and a cup of water to make an ice bath. Once the curd is thick, remove it from the stove and rest the bowl in ice bath, stirring occasionally, until cool.

5. Use immediately, or transfer to a container to store in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

The 21st Birthday Cake

In the United States there's this mystique surrounding the 21st birthday. And by "mystique" I mean the ability to legally purchase your own alcohol and to legally imbibe in alcoholic beverages (responsibly, of course.)

With one of my friends slyly mentioned that her 21st birthday fell on a Friday, and that she would be having a party that night, I jumped at the opportunity. "May I make your cake as a present?" I asked her enthusiastically. She looked at me like I was crazy for even thinking the response might be a no. "Of course." Then a few weeks ago I sent her a text asking for some flavor suggestions. Her response? "Chocolate, raspberry, coffee, Bailey's, something with some of those?"



So with it being her 21st birthday and with that list of suggestions, what's more fitting for such an occasion than yet another cake with alcohol in it, not that this cake needs to be reserved for such an event. This one combines the Guinness ChocolateCake I made last year for my St. Patrick's Day-born aunt's birthday with a take on the awesome stabilized whipped cream from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book that I previously used in abourbon chocolate cake with a rich whipped chocolate ganache filling. So maybe she didn't mention beer, but swapping raspberry for beer sounded like a good idea, and decorating the cake with some dark-chocolate covered espresso beans threw in the coffee for good measure. And then there was the Bailey's making it's appearance in both the filling and the frosting.

I'd like to think the fact that people ate so little of the cake doesn't mean that it was a failure. From all the compliments, especially from the birthday girl, I'd say it was a success. But after tacos and numerous beers, a cake this rich was just the icing on the cake - a very thin, delicious layer of icing.



Guinness and Bailey's Chocolate Layer Cake
Makes a 6" round cake
Serves 10-20

For the Guinness chocolate cake layers:
adapted from Vegetarian Times, March 2006
2/3 cup stout, room temperature (I don't know how to measure beer. It was too frothy at the top, so I ended up using 2/3 cup+ with the froth since I did a bad job pouring)
10 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup strained yogurt or sour cream
powdered sugar, for dusting

For the whipped chocolate ganache filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons Bailey’s Irish cream

For the whipped cream frosting:
1/4 cup (28 g) confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish cream

Chocolate covered espresso beans (optional, for decoration)
Chocolate shavings (optional, for decoration)

To make the cake layers:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter a deep 6" round pan and line with buttered parchment and dust with cocoa powder.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring stout and butter to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

Beat egg, egg yolk, and yogurt with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth and blended. Add beer-chocolate mixture and beat to combine.

Beat in flour mixture for 15-30 seconds on lowest speed. Fold batter using rubber spatula until completely combined. Don't fold too much. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake about 50-60 minutes, or until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool about 10 minutes on rack. If cake needs loosening from sides of pan, run a small knife around edges. Turn out cake onto rack (if using parchment, peel off) and let cool completely.

To make the chocolate ganache filling:
Place the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a gentle boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for a minute. With a whisk, whisk the cream and chocolate until smooth, followed by the Bailey's. Let cool about 20 minutes or until cool, stirring occasionally. You can cool it off in an ice bath or the refrigerator to speed up the process. Once cooled, beat with a mixer for 30 seconds or until fluffy.

To make the whipped cream frosting:
In a small saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and 1/4 cup of the cream until smooth. Place pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Allow to boil for about 15 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool completely.

Once it cools, using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1 1/4 cups of heavy cream with the vanilla extract and bourbon at medium-high speed until the cream begins to thicken and the whisk leaves a train in the cream. Add the cooled cream and cornstarch mixture and beat until stiff peaks.

To assemble:
Slice cake into three even layers.

Place the bottom layer on a cake round or a cake plate and affix with a bit of chocolate ganache. Spread the top with half of the chocolate ganache and spread a thin layer on the side to seal in crumbs. Place second layer on top and use remaining chocolate ganache and place final cake layer on top. If needed, refrigerate cake for a while before proceeding to next step if the cake seems like the layers will slide off.

Spread 2/3 of the icing on the top and sides of the cake. If using chocolate shavings, pat them on the sides of the cake now.

Place remaining icing in a pastry bag with tip or a baggie with a corner snipped off to decorate the cake.

Cooking Carrot Cake Like It's The Seventies

Carrot Cake is delicious and tasty, and my thoughts on this subject clearly mean I was born in the wrong decade. Except, like fashion, food fads come around. And sure, red velvet cake may be the popular one right now, but hey, carrots are way more awesome than chocolate (okay, maybe they aren't) and you still get the cream cheese frosting!


But that's beside the point. Or maybe it is the point. I'm not quite sure. What I do know, however, is that I've made this carrot cake three times in the past month. THREE. I didn't even have the recipe with me the third time. That's how easy it is! It also means I have no idea where I originally got these proportions from, since I kind of just looked for a recipe that used the ingredients that I believed went into carrot cake, and went from there.

What prompted this carrot cake madness? Gorgeous carrots of course! Except they weren't all that pretty the third time. In case you were wondering, which you probably weren't, the carrots I used in Tehran were way more orange than the ones I picked up at a Schnuck's in St. Louis last week. But regardless of just how orange the carrots are, the cakes were tasty both places. The only time the cake, in my opinion, turned out less than stellar was when I cooked it in the form of a tube cake at my grandparent's garden house. Right before I was about to pour the batter into the pan, I thought it looked off, and realized I'd forgotten the oil. Adding oil at the last step meant overstirring the cake, bringing out the sticky property of gluten - not something you want in a tender cake. But, everybody still loved the cake, or at least they pretended to. All-in-all, I ended up giving four people the recipe for this cake while I was there. It'll be interesting to find out if any of them ever actually make it.


Simple Carrot Cake
Note: This cake can make 2 9" cake rounds, or probably somewhere around 24 cupcakes, or a bundt cake, or a sheet cake. The cooking instructions below are for cupcakes.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger (alternately, you can use 2 teaspoons of fresh grated ginger)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
4 cups grated carrot (about 5-6 average-sized carrots)
1 cup raisins (or chopped, toasted walnuts), optional


Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners. If you have 2 pans, line both, otherwise you'll need to bake them in two batches.

In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until pale and thick. Whisk in the canola oil.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and with a spatula or wooden spoon, stir until just almost combined. Add the carrots and raisins or walnuts, if using and stir until all the flour is moistened.

Fill the lined muffin cups about 2/3 full of batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool you can top them with cream cheese frosting, if desired. See recipe below or use your favorite cream cheese frosting recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese, softened
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powder sugar, or to taste

Beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy. Beat in salt and vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar and beat to incorporate.

Taco Time!

The problem with feeding just myself is that I frequently eat the same thing over and over and over again, with tiny variations. (The other problem is that since I share my fridge with three other people, I tend to lose my food to the depths of the fridge as one of them really likes to shop and stock up on things.) But somehow, by the time I ran out of Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo, I still wasn't sick of these. Maybe because they're super quick to make, and incredibly comforting. Maybe I have a strange idea of comfort food, but I'm okay with that. At least I've moved past my fish and chips phase of last month.

But in case you're wondering how I do it, here you go.

They key is the chorizo (onions, bell pepper, jalepeno, chorizo, extra chili powder.) Just finely chop the onions, bell pepper (I used orange), and jalepeno and saute them until soft. Add the chorizo and some extra chili powder, and heat through. Tasty and simple. Top with whatever you have on hand.

In a smaller pan, I heat up corn tortillas over medium-high heat, and then transfer them to a plate where I top them with some of the chorizo filling, and then depending on my mood, some of the following: salsa, cheese, cilantro, sour cream (I never actually choose this one), eggs.

Maybe it's not the healthiest, but it sure is tasty.

New School Year, New Post

It seems that somehow this gets more neglected over the summer. Summer, when in theory I have abundant free time, easy access to groceries and a kitchen, and willing test subjects in the form of my family. Unfortunately, those three things don't quite add up, and it's difficult to cook and take pictures whilst spending 28 hours a week commuting (and out of that, about 100 minutes a day actually on various trains and buses, the rest of the time was spent standing still at stops or walking. I now have a love/hate relationship with the CTA.) And in addition to that, I'm also one-half of My Car And My Guitar, a music news/reviews site.

But now that I'm back at school, it seems for the first time since the week I left I have something to post, following in what seems to now be a tradition (the mini gluten-free cupcakes from last year, and the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from the first Friday of my freshman year). And these aren't even the first thing I've made since I've been back. My first morning here, I borrowed my roommate's skillet and made a nice big (and bland) spinach omelet for three, and later that evening whipped up a batch of chocolate crinkles, with delicious smells wafting through our spacious apartment.

But last night, after being sadly (and predictably) disappointed by the VMAs (and the PDA in the living room), I opted to bake something interesting and bloggable. And with that, I present to you Spicy Double-Chocolate Mango Cookies (if you can come up with a better name, please, let me know.)

These tasty cookies pretty much require a glass of milk or your preferred equivalent. Rich and chewy, strong and spicy, they pretty much come on as a full-force attack. And didn't lead anyone to question my sanity before biting in as with those corn brownies I made freshman year.

So if you find yourself with a tiny bit of time on your hand, a Trader Joe's nearby (or time to put sugar, cayenne, and paprika on your mangoes), a warm oven, and a craving for something a little spicy, give these cookies a try.

Spicy Double-Chocolate Mango Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 ounces chili-spiced dried mango, chopped
3 ounces milk chocolate, chopped or 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat he oven to 350ºF. Line 2-3 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon until well combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs until combined. Beat in melted unsweetened chocolate.

With a spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour, followed by chopped dried mango and milk chocolate.

Place spoonfuls (I use a 2tsp. scoop) of dough 2 inches apart on prepared pans. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve, or transfer to wire cooling rack and let cool completely before storing.

Summer's Almost Over Again?

I can't believe how much I've neglected my blog over the summer, but come to think of it, I've also neglected the kitchen. Between being busy surrounded by baked goods all day, not knowing when/who would be around for dinner, and being pretty tired after spending the day in 80º+ weather, I just never really cooked or baked much, all summer.

But that still doesn't excuse this neglect. There were things baked, there were things eaten. There were tasty salads that my dad whipped up from leftovers (can those ever be replicated though?). There was an almond pound cake I decided to bake in my 6" cake pan, with a batter-filled center that fell out-yet I managed to save it and it turned out quite delicious. There was my birthday cake, and adventures in making meringue buttercream that I ended up not using. There was a disgusting looking cake that was tasty to celebrate my friend's Notre Dame acceptance. There was my failure of a cake for my dad, that was eventually turned into a week of trifles. There was lots of smoky grilled salmon, courtesy of my dad.

But that still left me, somehow, with a blog with no posts since the beginning of June. It's the end of August practically, and I'm sitting in the waiting room while my mom's car gets serviced. And soon I'll be back to using a dorm kitchen, carrying my supplies up and down stairs, and making (and keeping) friends through their stomachs.

But I'll stop with my regretful babble. Because I have a recipe for you. It's kind of a tres leches cake, but I doubt it's very authentic, considering it's adapted from an old recipe from Cooking Light.

But it was a hit, despite being cut into 24 fairly small, yet rich, pieces, and served with some blueberries on the side. And the torched meringue top (sure, a broiler would've been easier, but where's the fun in that?) added a nice little twist as well, at least aesthetically, that is.

Tres Leches Cake
serves 12 (unless you make small pieces, in which case, 24 not-very-hungry people)

For the cake:
7 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup all purpose flour

For the milk mixture:
1 cup half-and-half
1 can (12-oz) evaporated milk (fat free or 2% work fine)
1 can (14-oz) sweetened condensed milk (fat free works fine)

For the meringue topping:
3 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a 9x13 pan. (I'm usually a fan of metal pans, but in this case, a pyrex dish might work better. I transferred mine to one after baking when I realized that it made more sense with the milk mixture.)

Place egg whites and salt in a large mixer bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Place egg yolks and vanilla in a large bowl (most stand mixers won't be able to mix this amount, so whisk by hand or use hand beaters); beat until thick and pale. Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture. Gently fold 1/3 cup of flour into egg mixture. Gently fold in another 1/3 of the egg whites. Fold in remaining 1/3 cup of flour, followed by the rest of the egg whites.

Spoon batter into prepared dish. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

For the milk mixture, combine the half-and-half, condensed milk, and evaporated milk in a 4 cup measuring cup, or bowl. Pierce all over the top of the cake with a fork, and pour the milk mixture slowly and evenly over the cake. It will be soaked, with milk mixture sitting on top a bit. Let it absorb for about 15 minutes or so.

For the meringue topping, beat 3 egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 238°F. Beating the egg whites at high speed, pour the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over the egg whites. Stir in the extract. Spread over cake.

Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Just before serving pop under the broiler for 10-15 seconds (keep an eye on it) or until the top is just lightly browned, or use a small torch and gently torch the top of the cake. (This step isn't necessary, but fun.)

Bourbon Chocolate Layer Cake

Parents out of town. House to myself. Speakers set up. Saturday. Booze.

I'm not your typical teenager. Because all that added up to a layer cake for a family friend, not a crazy party. It was a variation of a cake I made for my RA's 21st birthday, the Chocolate Bourbon Cake from Simply Recipes. Only, instead of a bundt cake, I made a layer cake. Two 9 inch bourbon chocolate cake layers with whipped cream with a hint of bourbon in between and all around, and covered in a rich chocolate ganache.

I'll be honest, I don't know what it tasted like all together, but from the wonderful thank-you voicemail I receiver on Sunday night from the birthday boy, I can only imagine that it was tasty.

Bourbon Chocolate Layer Cake
cake from Simple Recipes
frosting and ganache from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle


For cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
2 cups (242 grams) all purpose flour
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/4 cup instant coffee or espresso (I used 2 Tablespoons of each)
1 cup bourbon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

For whipped cream filling/frosting:
1/2 cup (57 g) confectioner's (powdered) sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon bourbon whiskey

For chocolate ganache:
8 ounces (227 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream


To make cake layers:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease 2 9" round cake pans. For easier removal, grease and line bottom with parchment as well.

Place instant coffee in a 2 cup measuring cup and pour boiling water up to the 1 cup line. Stir to dissolve. Stir in bourbon and salt; set aside to cool.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy and not grainy. Add eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, baking soda, and chocolate.

Add 1/3 of the whiskey mixture, followed by 1/2 of the flour mixture. Alternate the whiskey and flour, stirring or beating after each addition, with remaining whiskey and flour.

Divide evenly between prepared pans. Bake in oven for about 35 minutes, or until top is dry and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with one or two crumbs attached. Or clean.

Let cool in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.



To make whipped cream:

In a small saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and 1/2 cup of the cream until smooth. Place pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Allow to boil for about 15 seconds. Remove tthe pan from teh heat and let cool completely.

Once it cools, using the whisk attachment of an electric mizer, beat the remaining 2 1/2 cups of heavy cream with the vanilla extract and bourbon at medium-high speed until the cream begins to thicken and the whisk leaves a train in the cream. Add the cooled cream and cornstarch mixture and beat until stiff peaks.


To make chocolate ganache:

Place the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a gentle boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for a minute. With a whisk, whisk the cream and chocolate until smooth. Let sit at room temperature until ready to use. If making far in advance, up to a week, refrigerate and warm to a pourable consistency. If the ganache is too cold before using it, place bowl over a bowl of simmering water, whisking until slightly warmed.

To assemble the cake:
Place to squares of parchment paper on a cake plate with the center crease across the diameter. Place the first cake layer face up on the plate. If overly domed, level the layers first.

Cover with about 1 cup of the whipped cream and spread to the sides. Top with other cake layer. Top with another cup of whipped cream and frost the top and sides of the cake. Freeze for about 5 minutes and then frost with remaining whipped cream. Freeze for 15 minutes.



Remove the cake from freezer and pour the chocolate ganache over the cake. Using an offset spatula, cover the cake with the ganache. Place in the fridge until set, and remove the parchment from under the cake.



Keep refrigerated until about 30 minutes before serving.

Drunken Birthdays

So today is my RA's 21st birthday. One of my floormates told me this fact last night around 10 pm. Which gave me limited time to think: Nutella Brownies for which I have all the necessary ingredients; the omnipresent banana oatmeal cookies; or, I could be "cheeky" and go with a bourbon cake. I was originally aiming for a bourbon pecan cake, since I love bourbon pecan sauce, but I couldn't find one that would be easy enough to make. And it seemed like most bourbon cakes called for bundt pans, which until 6 hours ago, I didn't have.

But with my heart set on making a bourbon cake, I made one. Even after the floormate who was going to make the cake with me had a sudden schedule conflict, I was undeterred, leading to a conflict of my own (oops!). I hung out in the kitchen alone, blasting my iPod and keeping track of the number of songs were by bands I'd seen live (62% of them were, in case you were wondering.) Once the cake had uneventfully made its way into the oven in my new pan, I settled down to read an article for my writing class as the lounge began to smell like a warm and comforting combination of whiskey and chocolate. I think I may have violated Redd Flag policy, with the wonderful smells wafting from the kitchen, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get in trouble for it. I mean, my RA did seem to like her cake...



This cake is boozy, quite so. There is no doubt that it's a bourbon cake, not at all. I think I sort of shocked my RA with it. She did call me "cheeky" for making a bourbon cake, and, in the e-mail that she sent out to the floor, made sure to note that this is the only time she'll ever be offering us something with alcohol in it.



So without further ado, here's the link to Elise's recipe. I didn't mess with it, except for not sprinkling the cake with bourbon after removing it from the pan. I used 72% cacao chocolate, and instant coffee. And so far, the cake has had a positive response. You just might not want to "taste" the batter. But really, this chocolate bourbon cake is definitely worth giving a try.

Oh, and those nutella brownies? Hold tight, because I plan on trying those out soon. And who knows, now that I have a bundt pan, I might just have to make another bundt cake sometime.

Fall Dessert For Spring Break

So I have problems with seasons? Is that really that bad? I mean, it feels like summer right now, there's piles of snow on the ground, and grocery stores carry practically everything year round. How am I supposed to not be confused?

Apples are delicious. Especially when they aren't of the Red Delicious variety, but more tart, like a Granny Smith, or crisp, like a Braeburn. I'm happy now. And you should be, too. I'm updating, and sharing a sort of recipe for something quite tasty. But maybe, just maybe, you should wait for cooler weather come November to make this. Because right now, I think something along the lines of lemon cheesecake fits the weather better. But maybe not the season.

But instead, out of the oven comes what resembles an apple crumble or cobbler, minus the topping. Spooned into bowls and topped with a maple whipped cream, it was a tasty ending to my dad's delicious dinner, far too fancy to be eaten on the couch while watching the Academy Awards. But that's (sort of) just what we did.



And this is also a testament to the reason I shouldn't start posts and finish them a month later. I don't remember what I did to make that. I just remember it contains apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup, and maybe some salt baked in the oven. And that the whipped cream was heavy whipping cream that I attempted to use almond extract in, didn't like the results, and covered it up with maple syrup. And then topped it with almonds, that if I had the foresight, I would have toasted.

First Homemade Meal...

A sandwich. And by me. Wait, that's a lie. My dad made tasty eggs for breakfast Sunday morning. So this is the second home cooked meal since I've been home. And I'm the one who made it...

I need to learn my way around the kitchen again. This was a lot harder than it should have been.

I showed up at the grocery store after Christmas shopping with no idea what I wanted to make. It hadn't been a particularly eventful day. I ran an errand for my dad, then for my mom, ended up at the mall alone, people watched, bought a few presents, got stuck in traffic, failed to merge at the right time and passed up Target, sang my lungs out to extremely summery songs with the windows rolled up, and talked on the phone.

It's amazing I'm still alive. And made it to the grocery store. And walked around the grocery store. And put things in my basket; took things out of my basket. Changed my mind. Stared at the seafood case. Grabbed some tortillas. Picked up chocolate chips. Put back the tortillas. Paced back and forth.

Eventually, I ended up in the checkout line. With a baguette, a bunch of kale, portabella mushrooms, a jar of red peppers, celery, and a bag of chocolate chips. The chocolate chips were unrelated to the rest of the stuff. And the celery was to go with the spinach dip in the fridge.

Bet you didn't think that those ingredients were going to turn themselves into a sandwich. Except they didn't. I softened the cream cheese, put it into the food processor, and then spent ten minutes unsuccessfully trying to get the jar of roasted red peppers open. I tried hot water, towels, t-shirts, paper towels, phone calls. Nothing worked. So much for the roasted red pepper spread.

But you know what, it was okay without. My mom was hesitant sitting down to eat, looking at her sandwich and soup (courtesy of the fridge and available at Jewel), but was pleasantly surprised. I guess kale, cream cheese, and portabellas do make a tasty sandwich.

recipe coming soon.

I don't remember what I did.

Since Everybody Could Use Another Potato Salad

Just in case a lack of words and pictures hasn't made it obvious, I haven't been cooking much lately. Or at least not much new or noteworthy, and if it has been new and noteworthy, there weren't any pictures to back it up. That, and I just haven't been able to come up with much to say.

But here's something. And I didn't make it, which makes me sad. But it's an idea, from a potato salad at Whole Foods. Something different for the last month of potato salads.

Grilled (or cooked however) potatoes, tosssed with crumbled blue cheese, torn watercress and sliced scallions in a vinaigrette of olive oil, red whine vinegar, shallots, dijon mustard, honey, salt, and pepper.

How's that for simple and different sounding? Not that I could get the proportions right. Maybe I'll try sometime this week. Or not.

About a year ago I purchased some buckwheat to make this buckwheat and calamari salad. The salad was delicious and one of those things on my list of things to write about that I just never managed to post about. But back to the buckwheat. I bought far more than I needed, so it just sat around, waiting to be used.

Enter Luisa, The Wednesday Chef. She posted about some delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies with Buckwheat Groats. I read the post and was immediately curious. She said they were good, and everything she'd ever said was good that I'd tried so far had been a success. So I bookmarked it, and thought about it, but for some reason, seemed to avoid making the recipe or touching the sad bag of kasha. Until nearly half a year later.

I sniffed the bag of buckwheat, deemed it acceptable, and set off to make the cookies right before entering my last week of school. While they weren't the prettiest of cookies, they were fairly tasty, with an unexpected crunch. Nobody who tried them disliked them. And I'm sure they won't disappoint you either if you give them a try. And then, with that leftover buckwheat, you really should try the calamari salad.

Recipe on The Wednesday Chef

Full circle, almost

My first post of the year was Oatmeal-Raisin cookies, and I'm ending 2008 with more cookies.

I guess that was a bit of a premonition about what my habits would be for the year, with cookie recipes now equaling muffin recipes, with 7 cookie recipes posted this year.
Make that 8 now.

I was not planning on making cookies today, but when I went to Trader Joe's today, I saw Miniature Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter cups. They were too cute to resist, and at the same price as a bag of chocolate chips for 12 ounces, too easy to toss into my basket. I figured I could use them in cookies of some sort.

Then it was crunch time. I told my parents I'd have a clean kitchen for them (I made banana muffins and espresso candied walnuts today) when they got home, I had to pick out what cookies I was going to make. I had just thrown out the bag from some Hershey Kisses and remembered that there was a recipe for peanut butter blossoms on the bag. I figured I could just use that as my base dough and work my way from there.

Quick, easy, and by the time my parents got home 30 minutes later, the last pan was in the oven.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Cups
makes 30-40 cookies
Note: If you can't find mini peanut butter cups (I haven't seen them anywhere but TJ's), you can omit them or substitute chopped peanut butter cups or chocolate chips. Milk can also be used instead of buttermilk.
I also think this dough would work for thumbprints, but I haven't tried yet. I've yet to find a dough that I like for them.

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 oz) butter, softened
3/4 cup (186 grams) creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces (1 package) mini peanut butter cups

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment or baking mats.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugars on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Stir the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture until combined. Stir in the mini peanut butter cups.

Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough onto prepared baking sheets spaced 1" apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.

Mice for Christmastime

My grandmother has been making mice for about a decade.
Yes, I said mice.
Like the one in the picture above. Except she didn't make it. Keri and I did. It was a team effort.


She taught me how to make them about six years ago, and the following year my friend Keri and I made them together. I'm not sure if we've made them since eighth grade (when I made a step-by-step tutorial, but this year we finally got around to making them again. And they're so adorable and fun to make!

Keri and I don't see all that much of each other. We see each other at lunch and in history, which is most all through high school, but it was fun to get together. And so the mice took four hours. But don't let that scare you. We easily could have been done in an hour, but we talked, ate lunch, and found fun ways to use the leftover chocolate- we crushed up candy canes to mix in and then poured the chocolate into molds.



Chocolate mice sort of instructions:
I have no clue about quantities, but we used 3 10-ounce jars of maraschino cherries, a 17.6 ounce bar of milk chocolate, part of a 12-ounce bag of slivered almonds (the smallest size should be fine, we needed 204 almond slivers that looked nice), 1 1/2 bags of Hershey kisses (the 11 ounce ones, or 102 hershey kisses), and part of a tube of red gel icing. The numbers were based on how many cherries with stems we ended up with, and that's what we ended up with.
Melt the chocolate, dip the cherries in, push the kiss on, stick in the almonds. Repeat. Place in fridge to harden up for a while, and then dot on eyes. For better instructions, see my how-to from eighth grade.


Last three pictures by Keri. She was having fun with the camera.

Happy Thanksgiving

Mmm. Thanksgiving.
Actually, it's really not the tastiest holiday. I don't really like turkey, or gravy.

But cranberries. I do love cranberries. And oranges. Cranberries with oranges.
CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH!

Every since Mom first made this cranberry relish about 8 years ago, I've been wanting it every year. So, for the past four years, so ensure I get it, I've been making it.

But for some reason, I failed to double the recipe this year. Oops. I'll just have to make some more tomorrow. Leftover sweet potatoes are no good without cranberry relish on top.

The food isn't what I like about Thanksgiving though (relish aside). It's my family. And no, I'm not trying to be a Hallmark card. I'm serious. Especially after dinner when we play games. Last year we played Catchphrase. Hilarity ensued. But there's an odd number this year.


Cranberry Orange Relish
adapted from the November 2001 issue of Gourmet (I think Mom made the entire menu that year)
Makes about 2 cups

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
1 navel orange
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Place the cranberries, sugar, and cinnamon in the food processor. Zest the orange over the food processor, and then peel the orange and separate the segments from the pith and toss them into the food processor too (the segments, not the pith. That would be nasty.) Pulse until it's all chopped up.
Refrigerate for at least two hours to let flavor develop. And then hoard it.
Or be nice and serve it.

I'd recommend doubling this recipe if you have someone who relishes it as much as I do. Gourmet says it serves 10, but who are they kidding?

Commotion in the Ocean: Cupcakes for Homecoming

My friends told me that I had to go to the homecoming dance this year. Really go. As in with them. Not just be there, as that presence in a dress running around in her practical heels, awkwardly taking pictures of people doing things that pictures should never be taken of.

Which put me an unknown position. But one that has absolutely nothing to do with food. So I'm moving on. But I will say that the homecoming dance, while the music left something to be desired, was still fun with my friends, before, during, and after. Nothing beats singing I Want In That Way at the top of your lungs at school and then later trying to learn the Soulja Boy dance in the privacy of your friend's room.


But oh, yeah. The cute cupcakes. The theme for homecoming prompted me to try to make the Shark Attack cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake. But they would have been a pain to make, I didn't have time to go get black food coloring at Michael's, and, plus, they probably wouldn't have tasted all that great anyway.


Cute little cupcakes made with my go-to cupcake recipe, and a buttercream that involved butter, powdered sugar, water, and blue food coloring until the desired consistency/color was reached and topped with goldfish: much simpler and tasty.

So I enjoyed the football game, where my school actually won its homecoming game. That hadn't happened since I started high school.

Simple Summer Veggie Boules

Yes. They require the stove.
But most of the work is chopping and hollowing out little rolls (if you can find them), so it's quite meditative. And the work on the stove is painless.

Last weekend I was at the library looking for a cheesecake book immediately following my yard-sale find: a mini cheesecake pan. I did find the book, but didn't check it out.
Instead, I checked out the Tassajara Cookbook because the picture on the cover of some sort of marinated tofu looked so fresh and bright. Or maybe it was just the overall look of the picture. I know, I know. Don't judge a book by the cover. But what else am I supposed to judge it by when I'm skimming the racks of new books at the library?

I picked out a few recipes from the book to try. The book mostly consists of spreads and dips and the likes (or at least the first two chapters, which is as far I read before having found things I wanted to try.) This also happened to be two days after cilantro, jalepenos and serranos were all suspect and before jalepenos were confirmed as the culprit, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find jalepenos or cilantro at the store. Which ruled out two of the things I'd wanted to try: Garlic, Cilantro and Chipotle Hummus and Anka's Roasted Red Bell Pepper Spread with Chiles and Lime (the latter being a double whammy.)

So I wrote a grocery list with three possibilities, depending on what looked good. I was really hoping to try the fig and kalamata olive tapenade since I'd had some tasty figs the week before, but that day the figs looked gross.

But I digress. I finally settles on two options: making the vegetable tapenade and stuffing it into hollowed out tiny rolls that I found in the deepest clutches of our freezer and caper-garlic hummus.

The vegetable tapenade is a keeper. Somehow, I didn't imagine it making so much, even though the recipe did say "Makes 4 cups." I think I may have ended up with more. I may have used more leek than it called for. Regardless of the quantity, it was tasty! And great wrapped in a lettuce leaf with fresh ricotta the next day. And wrapped in a lettuce leaf with leftover lamb the day after that.

What to do with it is up to you.

Sweet Veggie Tapenade
from Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics, and Appetizers


Note: I returned the book to the library before copying down the recipe... Not my brightest move. But the book is on amazon, and it is one you can "look inside" of.

The Toughest Question

The hardest question to answer, I think, is that "what is your favorite food?" question. I don't know the answer. It depends on the day. I used to say, definitively, that is was khorosht-e karafs, but now I'm not so sure. So then the interrogator moves on to their next question, unhappy with that answer.

What's your favorite type of food?

Uh, edible?

But no, of course that's what they mean.

They want an easy to digest answer, like Italian, Greek, Thai, Mexican, Middle Eastern, etc.

None of those answers satisfy me though. None of them really mean anything. Well, they do, but to different people they mean different things. Take Italian for example; for some people it conjures up images of red checkered tablecloths, pizza, and spaghetti and meatballs. To another person, it may conjure up fresh seafood dressed simply in olive oil and some vegetables following a course of fresh pasta tossed simply with rapini. The answers really aren't that simple.

And then what about American? What does that mean? I don't even want to try to wrap my head around that.

Like this dish. It has Asian flavors, but is it Asian? Highly doubtful. It was conjured up in test kitchens, and is tasty. But it fuses together flavors and different cultures and fresh ingredients and fits them nicely onto my plate.

Now that's my favorite kind of food.

As for the actual dish composed of the elements above, it jumped out at me when I was looking at the index of the August issue of Bon Appetit and had avocado in the basement on Monday and saw Asian Avocado Salsa. Dad however decided to make something that wouldn't go with the salsa, and the watercress at the store was droopy. Wednesday night, with the remaining avocado, I made a small batch of salsa based on the recipe, and as per one of the suggestions in the magazine, tossed it with some summer squash Dad grilled, soba noodles, and topped with (accidentally untoasted) sesame seeds.


Asian Avocado Salsa
based on recipe in August 2008 Bon Appetit
makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons mirin
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon wasabi paste*
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced on diagonal (about 3/4 cup)
1/3 cup 1/3-inch cubes jicama (about 1/2 4" jicama)
1 large avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, but into 1/3 inch cubes

In a medium bowl, whisk together vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and wasabi paste. Stir in cilantro, green onions, and jicama. Gently stir in avocado.

*I used wasabi powder mixed with water to create a paste so I'm not sure in intensity how it compares to a purchased wasabi paste. However, if the salsa is mixed with pasta and vegetables, an extra 1/2 teaspoon or so does not hurt because the squash mellows it out.