She: Sweets of sorts

Right now I'm waiting 2 hours for one type of sweets to freeze, and for another to cool. Figured I'd spend the time by letting you know what I was up to...First, I have been eating a TON of cherries. Its cherry season here, and I have never before been so enamoured with the fruit. But after three weeks of the red stuff, some of the farmers at the market have been picking stuff that is ripe right then, so it won't last as long. We bought 4 lbs of cherries this week for just a few bucks and I was determined to do something with them. Besides pit them. that is. I made Mark do the dirty work since we couldn't find a cherry pitter. However, I just read a tip: you can use a straw to pit cherries. Yes! You take off the stem, then poke the straw thru that end, and it will push out the pit on the other side. Nifty. Anyways, I didn't want to make a cherry pie. The crust is always so heavy and not that good for you. I found a Macaroon Cherry Tart Recipe from 101cookbooks blogger. Instead of a traditional crust, it uses a lot of coconut and egg whites, so it is marginally better for you. It smells awesome, and I've had to remind Mark twice to let it actually cool!
On the other hand, I'm freezing my new rocket pops! I bought a set of three tovolo rocket pops that let you layer flavors. I've been looking at these and the pig/icecream sandwich presses they have for a long time. Of course, the real kicker was the pudding I picked up for it. I wanted that fat free, sugar free jello pudding you can get--makes it preeeetty guilt free as a treat.All day on our list of errands I would cry "pudding!" in a cosby accent. Its silly, but Mark started picking it up, too. We were walking around the grocery store barking "pudding!"...anyways. I couldn't find anything but a few boring flavors. I got bananna and chocolate, of course, but besides cheesecake or pistachio (eeeeh) there was nothing but vanilla! What is that about? What about all the funky jello from my childhood? Sigh...

She: (mini) Lemon Cupcakes

So, stress baking begins again. I am in the midst of grading portfolios. I gotta say, english teachers can complain about essays all they want--at least they can fit it into one bag! Sigh. Anyways. I made some cupcakes for one of my classes, a classic lemon cake. Usually I fill it with lemon custard, but I didn't have the time, and I was using my new cute mini cupcake pan! Hurrah! Isn't the size just cute? I think I like them better than regular sizes. Fit into your mouth in two bites.

Well, here's what you'll need:
8oz flour, 2.5 tbs corn starch, 2.5 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, 7oz sugar, 3 oz butter, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, zest of 2 lemons and 8oz milk.

This goes a little differently than normal. First mix wet (except milk, use creaming method) then add dry (except flour). The creaming method, btw, is when you mix the butter til creamy, then add sugar, then egg, etc. After all this is mixed (including zest, yes?) then you alternate adding milk and flour. Bake at 350. If mini cups, 15 mts. If normal cups, 19 mts.

For the icing: cream 4 oz butter with 4 oz cream cheese, then add 1 lemon juice and about 3 cups powder sugar. Voila!

She: Brandy Gets Creative

We have this problem in our house sometimes. Well, often. My partner tends to eat/use ingredients I've mentally earmarked for a recipe without either buying more or letting me know I need to (grumble, grumble)...typical stuff, really, but when you're halfway thru making oatmeal cookie dough to find most of your oats gone, ya gotta get creative. In the end, it turned out to be a great new recipe and a really unique cookie.
Ingredients:
3/4C butter
1C brown sugar
1/2C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 3/4 C flour
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup dried tropical fruit (I used a mango/pineapple/coconut mix)


As usual, cream your butter and sugars with the cinnamon. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix in the flour, salt and soda/powder. I mixed in the fruit stuff by hand and baked it at 375 for 10 minutes. This is a chewy cookie that gives a slightly different flavor than a regular oatmeal-raisin does.

She: Pecan Sandies

I think these were the most polished looking and tasting cookies we had over the holiday. I love pecan sandies, and haven't ever tried my hand at them. The recipe I used said that you needed to have a special cookie cutter, but I ignored that for common sense--I just used a small jar lid, about 3 inches diameter.

Ingredients:
3/4 C toasted pecans (3 oz), plus about 2 cups unroasted pecan halves for cookie tops
2/3 C plus 2 tbs powder sugar
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter @ room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg, separated

To toast the pecans, I just put them on a cookie sheet at 400F for about 5 mts and let them cool. Then you take them and your 2tbs sugar and pulse them together in your food processor til they become a fine powder. Then mix it with your other dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix your remaining sugar, butter and vanilla, then add egg yolk. Mix all your ingredients together (minus egg whites and unroasted pecans). My dough was crumbly, but it held when I shaped it into a ball. Then take what you can between wax paper and roll it til about 1/4 inch thick. Use your jar and cut out circles. Brush it with lightly beaten egg whites, and place your pecans on top. Brush that with egg whites too (I think to keep it in place) and stick em in the oven for 12-15 mts at 325F.

She: Striped Cookies

I think I had the most fun this holiday making these cookies. It wasn't really that difficult, but they looked reeeeally pretty, and since I used Scharffenberger cocoa powder the chocolate came thru nicely. I also did all the steps inbetween other cookies, so I wasn't waiting around for stuff to chill. Here's how it goes:

For each of the doughs, you mix the sugar, butter, then egg, and mix with the dry ingredients. It'll be crumbly, so you add the icewater and then roll it in a ball and put it in a container for a half hour. Now you should have 2 cold balls of dough. What you need to do is divide each ball in half. Put it between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll it out to about 8x12 and stick it in the freezer for an hour. Take off the paper and stack each dough (alternating vanilla and chocolate) so you have 4 stacks. Cut those stacks in half and place that on top so you have 8 layers--I used a rolling pin to press them together lightly. Trim off the excess and cut your stacks into 1/4 inch thick cookies. I baked mine for 12 minutes at 375.

VANILLA DOUGH:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ice water

CHOCOLATE DOUGH:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 1/3 ounces)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ice water

She: Divinity

Okay. I'm not giving the recipe here, because this recipe or this candy in general is TOO MUCH WORK. And thats saying something, coming from me. But this is a creamy vanilla treat we would get during christmas from my Grandmother. I've been trying this dish for the last few years, and this is the first time I've gotten it right! So I had to post an image to my family. As proof.

Now, if you're curious, I used the good old fashioned Betty Crocker recipe. I found out a couple of things: After whipping up my whites, I started pouring in the hard-ball sugar mix. At this point, once its all fluffy, you're supposed to start spooning it onto sheets. Well, mine was still so hot it made pancakes...until it cooled more by the end of the line. So I'd say disregard that part of the recipe, and let the sugar cool just a bit before spooning it out. At the end, I had my fluffy candy, but it was still sticky. It took two days to set in the fridge! That was where I went wrong every year before--I didn't wait long enough for it to set! So, hurrah for divinity.

She: Cupcake Craving

Last week we went to Cupcake Craving off Arden and Howe. We got the half dozen and brought them home for a sugar coma. We had the Smores, Lemon Boost, Cherry cake, Red Velvet and German Chocolate. The Smores was fabulous--chocolaty (iiif thats a word) and creamy. The German Chocolate was also decadent. Red Velvet? (shrug) I don't think red velvet is ever all that fantastic, but I was disappointed by the cherry cake. I wanted much more flavor! There are a few others in town I want to try out. For this place, the people were very friendly, the cakes were all super soft with nice icing, and anything chocolate is great, but I'd prefer more punch to their fruity flavors.

She: Pumpkin Cheesecake

I actually made two different cheesecakes for thanksgiving, but the pumpkin cheesecake was by far better. Infact, it didn't last for more than an hour. The whoooole thing. I got the recipe from "Joy of Baking." It wasn't the easiest recipe, but it was worth it. I added a few alteration, but they are minor.

First, the crust: I used a food processor and ground up a cup of ginger naps, cup of graham crackers and mixed that with 1 tb of sugar and 4 tbs of melted butter. I smashed all that down into the bottom of a springform pan. I then ground up some walnuts and sprinkled those ontop...that helps the crust from getting soggy later.

The cheesecake: Mix/grind the spices together and set aside (1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 nutmet, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp salt). On low speed, beat 1 lb cream cheese til smooth, then mix in 2/3c brown sugar and spices. Add 3 eggs, then add 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cup pumpkin puree. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl! Pour ontop the crust, and bake at 350F for 30 minutes, then reduce to 325F and bake for another 10 minutes. If you put a cake pan filled half with water at the bottom of the oven while it cooks, it'll help prevent cracks in the cheesecake.

Topping: Mix 1c sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4c sugar. Spoon the mix ontop of the bakes cheesecake and then return it to the oven for 8 minutes to set it. A nice tip Mark shared: if you need to put this in the fridge, you can spray some pam oil on a plastic sheet before you put it on the cheesecake--it keeps it from clinging to the dessert!

She: Truffles galore

I went to the Oak Cafe and was served some scrumptious truffles. I bought a few to take home, and on the way FROM the cafe TO the car, it melted into a pool! So I decided to make my own. I used one of Mark's books, "Chocolate" by N. Malgieri...I usually stay away from it because its so...well, cheffy. A thousand silly ingredients and specific temps...if I can find a work-around, I will use it. But, not with chocolate. Too tricky. I decided to go crazy and make lemon flavored, dark chocolate truffles with milk chocolate coating. Ha! So here it goes:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs light corn syrup
8 oz bittersweet chocolate (72%)
grated peel of 2 lemons

Coating: 12 oz milk chocolate (50%) and a plate coated in dutch process cocoa powder.
First, cut your bittersweet chocolate into slivers and put it in a glass bowl with the lemon peel. Then mix cream, butter and corn syrup in a pan and bring to a low simmer. Remove from heat, and add to your glass pan of chocolate. Whisk smooth, and cool the mix for 2-3 hours in the fridge. Roll into balls and put on a cookie sheet, which you put back in the fridge for another hour.
Melt the milk chocolate to about 95, and let cool to the low 80's (F) and dip your truffles--I put the chocolate in my icecream scoop and then rolled the truffle around to coat. Let cool for a few minutes, then roll in the cocoa powder. Keep them chilled til you wanna eat them, then let them reach room temp. Yummy!

He: For the love of god...if you make nothing else...MAKE THIS CAKE!

How's that for a tagline? All due to the amazing cake that almost wasn't made.
Brandy and I were running through our area whole foods looking for ingredients. We were trying to find something that would inspire us to make a dessert with some of the apples that I had picked up earlier in the day (it's apple season right now...enjoy them while they rock). We talked about maybe some sort of turnover....nah. We talked about maybe making a pie...just too plain to really be us. I talked about some sort of thing that is in phyllo dough...that was shot down on the principle of being too cheffy (happens all the time in our house). By the time that we were out of the store we were really no closer to figuring out what we wanted to make with the damn apples...then it hit me....Scott's apple cake.

When I was working everyday at Watershed this cake went virtually unnoticed in my mind. I'm not sure if it's the leaden death-bomb quality of all of the peanut oil in it, or the almost gritty sugar glaze over the top. I never quite saw it for the beautiful thing that it is...just this wonderfully rich cake that beautifully shows off in-season apples. Sure...it does have a lot of sugar, and the glaze almost hurts it's so full of sugar...but if you don't attempt any other recipes on this site you must try this one!

Okay I just thought of one more thing that is kinda cool that you should know about this post...apples. The apples that the original recipe calls for are winesaps. Well, here in this part of California that isn't something that seems to be available right now. I ended up using pippins (which are a japanese creation crossing a yellow delicious with a granny smith). Also used were gravensteins, which I don't know the history of..but if anyone out there does please enlighten me. The last variety was some sort of crisp apple, as in there was 'crisp' in the name but I can't think of the variety now. When working on anything with apples it's always better to have more than one variety so that there will be greater depth of apple flavor (just one and it will be very monotonous as far as the apple flavor goes).

Here's the recipe:
1 C. packed light brown sugar
1 C. granulated sugar
1 1/2 C. vegetable oil (we used peanut oil at the restaurant..just make sure that the oil doesn't have any strong flavors...I bet grapeseed would be very nice in this)
3 eggs (at room temperature)
1 t. baking soda
2 t. ground ceylon cinnamon (very important...most cinnamon is vietnamese, and it's way too spicy for this preparation)
1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. salt (fine grain sea salt preferrably)
5 ea. fresh apples peeled, cored and diced into 1/2" pieces (baking varieties)
1 1/4 C. coarsely chopped pecans
2 1/4 t. vanilla extract

The Glaze
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 C. granulated sugar
1/4 C. packed light brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 C. heavy cream

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2) Mix the sugars and oil in a bowl until well blended
3) Add the eggs one at a time and mix until each is incorporated
4) Sift together the dry ingredients and mix into the wet..stirring only to incorporate (if you overmix at all this cake will be really dense and hard)
5) Fold in the apples and pecans and vanilla
6) pour into a buttered and floured 9X13 inch pan and bake until the cake tests clean with a skewer (ours took 2 hours.....don't expect this to be accurate for everyone else. At the restaurant the cook time on this cake varied a lot! Start checking it after 1 hour)
7) Allow to cool in the pan completely (about an hour
8) To make the glaze melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sugars and salt, stir until well blended and cook over med-low heat for 2 minutes. Add the heavy cream, stir and bring to a boil...cook 2 more minutes.
9) Quickly poke holes with a skewer or fork all over the top of the cake, and with the hot glaze pour it over the cake.
10) Allow to cool slightly, and then enjoy this fantastic old southern treat.

She: Peanut Butter n Jelly Cupcakes

I saw different parts to this recipe in different places, and just had to put it together. I had a baaaad week, and when I do I bake. I needed a good project. These cupcakes are worth it. They are delicious! The icing alone is sinful.
Ingredients:
1 1/4C flour, 1 1/2tsp baking powder, 1/4tsp salt, 1/2C peanut butter, 1/2 stick butter, 1/2C brown sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanila, 2/3C milk.
Icing:
1/2 stick butter, 1/2C peanut butter, 1/2C cream cheese, 2C powder sugar, 1tb milk
Directions: for batter, mix pb, butter and sugar on high til fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Reduce and alternate between the rest of the wet and dry. Fill cupcakes 2/3 full and bake for 18mts @ 350F. While its baking, mix the icing: all the ingredients should be at room temp, blended on high. For the filling, I used smuckers raspberry jam in a piping bag with a long tip and just stuck it into the cupcake and squeezed. I squeezed too much in the first few and had jam volcano erruptions, but I got it right after a few. I just covered the spot with the icing. Tasty!

He: Old Southern style preserved figs

Okay, Brandy has been giving me a lot of crap lately for not putting together any new posts, and she has every right to....I've been neglectful of our little blog. Well no more...at least until I run out of pics and recipes for stuff that needs to be posted.

Let's get to the point of this already....you guys really don't care about the random blatherings of a cooking madman...do you?

In a cookbook that I LOVE The Gift of Southern Cooking by Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis I found a recipe for whole preserved figs. I've seen this recipe executed under the tutelage of Scott Peacock a couple of years ago. It really seemed simple at the time...really just a lot of waiting for things to 'do their thing'. How often do you see something like that in a recipe? Anyhow, since Brandy is in love with figs, and since we're in the fig growing capital of the US, and since we hit that great local farm for more figs than anyone can realistically eat before they go bad (believe me I tried...my limit seems to be about 10 of them before I just want to yack), I thought that this recipe would be a good idea.

I'm not going to give you tried and true amounts for anything in here...because it's really not essential to getting this to come out. The only pieces that are important are: the amount of time between cookings, the type of figs that you use (black missions will not work), and making sure that once they are canned that they sit for at least 6 weeks. So here's the basic rundown.....email if you need more specific instructions...but really, there aren't any more

1. Sprinkle figs with a couple tablespoons of baking soda and then pour boiling water over all. Let soak for 5 minutes (this step toughens up the skins a little bit so that the figs stay whole).
2. Drain off the water and rinse the figs in a bath of cold water 3 times, so that you can get off all of the baking soda that hasn't combined with the figs.
3. Pour a bunch of sugar over the figs (for 2 pounds of figs, at least 2 cups of sugar). Back the freak off you diabetics...this is important to cure the little suckers! If you're really that concerned with the sugar content....tough....just don't eat so many.
4. Allow to sit in the sugar for at least 2 days.
5. Follow this cycle for the next several days: after 2 days put in a nonreactive pot and bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring to make sure that all of the figs get some time in the sugary mess at the bottom of the pot. transfer back to your holding container and wait 2 more days. do this cycle 3 times.
6. After the 3rd cooking transfer the figs to canning jars (with out transferring much of the liquid). Bring the liquid to a boil and cook until a candy thermometer reads 220 degrees. Pour the resulting syrup over the figs. Can according to manaufacturer's instructions.
7. Store in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks (do not store them in the fridge....it's not dark in there all the time...and too cold).
8. Eat the delicious figgy goodness when there are no figs available.

He/She: Just Desserts

She: Besides cheese, we did other foody things in Berkeley for Mark's b-day. We went on the Sharffenberger tour, for starters. (and mark looked oh-so-snazzy in his paper hairnet). We tasted lots of chocolate, learned about cocao, and how they actually build their own chocolate instead of buying it. Meaning, they go straight from the bean.

He: Okay I have a point of clarification about that. They don't build the chocolate...it's not like it's a building that needs to be constructed. Cut into it's simplest terms they make a completely smooth mixture of roasted cacao beans and added cocoa butter in bar form. There's a ton more complexity to it, but heck if I really know what that is.

She: OMG. Thats incredibly picky on word choice. And you build up layers of paint in a painting, you build the complexity of an image, you build flavors in food (I've heard you say that)...I'm right, you doofus. :P

She: we also went to two dessert places. For immediate gratification, we went to Ciao Bella Gelato. I must say, I loved their selection. The colors were like a beautiful pallete. I tried quite a few flavors before succumbing to one scoop of Jasmine Cassis and one of Passionfruit sorbet. Lovely. They were both tangy, and while sweet, filled with lots of fruit flavor. The jasmine stayed on the back of my tongue for hours and is my new favorite flavor.

He: What did I have? Mocha somethingarether and pistachio. They were good...it was nice to have actual gelato(which does seem like an actual treat). Honestly it still doesn't hold a candle to the joint that we used to go to in Atlanta that Alon's owns.
She: Well...I didn't have the gelato, I had sorbet, and THAT was better than any atlanta or other sorbet I've had. But yeah, nothing beats Alon's gelato yet. sniff, sniff...

She: The other dessert place we went to was Love at First Bite. The cupcakes came in interesting flavors like ginger or pistachio chocolate, but alas, the didn't have each every day. We picked up a four-pack for home. The lady at the register was really sweet, but I have to say that if there was anything that was a tad off-putting, it was the chef. She was a tad curt...and I was overflowing with cupcake adoration (but not in a scary stalker way), so it was baffling. At home I tried to lemon pistachio, which while the lemon cake was good, the icing was almost...chalky. I dunno. I didn't dig it too much, but it was a flavor adventure. The one I truely adored was the strawberry. The cake was light and pink, and the icing was sweet and crammed full of tart strawberry flavor. It was amazing.

He: Yeah, you'd think that someone that owns a shop that is dedicated to sweet little cake pastries would be more positive. The woman was cold...distant...and rude(typical cali). The cupcakes were nice, very nicely made...but after looking at their site, and reading their menu I wasn't really all that impressed by any of it. If you're going to specialize in just one foodstuff, be great at it...not just good.

She: Caaaake

Well, Mark still hasn't gotten off his keister and finished his blogs, so I'm posting this one. Preparations for Mark's b-day were a little harrowing. I went ALL out and got him a whole Star-Wars ensemble for the table, including streamers and all...and forgot wrapping paper. So I got creative with wrapping some presents with grocery bags...
Owls are birthday-ish, right? Well, in between cutting bag parts, I made cakes. Yes, CAKES, plural. I made a lemon cake for Erika (her bday too) and a chocolate almond cake for Mark, upon request. I've given a lemon recipe before, so I'm gunna dive into the chocolate one here, which is a little different, since its a Vegetarian chocolate cake...not because I don't eat dead things, I do (hope I don't offend, shrug), but because Vegan/veggie chocolate cake TASTES better. More chocolate, less sugar. So here we go:
Chocolate Cake Recipe
3 C. flour, 2 C sugar, 6 tbs dark cocoa, 2 tsp b. soda, 1 tsp salt, 2 C water, 3/4 c. veggie oil, 2 tbs vinegar, 2 tsp vanilla. Put into 2 nine inch cake pans, bake for 40 mts at 350F. I actually did one cake pan, and made cupcakes that I cooked for 20 mts with the other half of the batter. That way I could give away some more of the desserts...the icing is the chocolate ganache I previously mentioned in the toffee cupcake recipe, with the vanilla switched for almond extract (not neccisary, but gives a...almondy flavor that was requested) and then sprinkled sliced almonds ontop. You can see the process from un-iced to decorated here. Mark ate his entire cake ALONE. The rest of us had cupcakes.

She: Adjectives and icecream

Well, first I must say that Mark has about three blogs in the works filled with yummy recipes, but he hasn't finished them for some *lame* reason...But I now have this fabulous tale for you, and a promise that many recipes are in the works...we've been making our own preserves, veggie salads and other creative foodstuffs. So please be patient.

Mark and I are running a tad low on summer funds for fun, so we decided to do something cheap that we've been meaning to for a while: hunt good ice cream in town. You see, we left Atlanta JUST as we'd found the best gelato shop in town (What's the Scoop, right next to Alon's bakery). Now we are completely spoiled, having tasted quality. Sigh. So first, I wanted to get a sandwich so I didn't go completely piggy at the ice cream parlor, so we went to Bernardo's to split a grilled ham and cheese. It used to be that Bernardos served a fabulous grilled ham and cheese on a long slice of bread with warm tomatoes and a side of fries. Hmmmm. So I ordered the same thing I have in the past, but my sandwich comes out...and its not grilled. Infact, besides having ham and cheese on it, its nothing like the old sandwich--this new fiasco is drenched in mayo and stacked with lettuce, with a soft bun replacing the buttery, grilled bread. I look at the waiter and say "I'm sorry, I ordered a grilled ham and cheese?" to which I get an explination that the menu has changed, and that this IS the grilled ham and cheese. I protest. It ISN'T GRILLED. Ah, but the ham is, I'm told. The way this usually reads in the normal world is Grilled (ham and cheese) sandwich. Meaning, grilled sandwich. But no, now at Bernardo's it means ham thrown on a skillet til luke-warm...with some cold cheese, on a bun. UTTER CRAP! Don't use adjectives if you don't know how. As a consumer, I find this misleading and just wrong, considering they have, in the past, actually grilled the sandwich.

Well. After my mis-described sandwich, we move further downtown to Gunther's shop. There are pictures inside to prove it really hasn't changed much in the last 30 years or so, and I almost got one of their fruit freezes--they really do shave the ice right there, and they sandwich two scoops of shaved ice with a bit of vanilla icecream. Yum. But we wanted to see what these guys were made of, so Mark got two scoops: Butter Brickle and Mocha Almond Fudge, and I got Black Raspberry Chip and Chocolate in waffle cones. The cone was good, and didn't drip or get soggy...important when you're downing the sweet stuff. I think Mark preferred the butter brickle, and though the black raspberry was good, it was the old-fashioned chocolate that was amazing. The ice cream didn't have any ice chips in it and was nice and smooth. The service was good, and I kept wanting to go photograph the malts and bannana splits coming out for other people. The food was PRETTY. Its also local, friendly and cheap, so I'll be going back soon.

She: 4th of July and recipe justifications

This blog needs ceremonial meat, and who doesn't bar-b-que during the fourth? We didn't have a grill, so I got one at lowes. For some reason Mark had been saying a true dome top is better for some reason...don't remember WHY, but did remember he said that. Anyways, I got one for 10 dolla that was small enough to hide away, and it works great. Of course, I made my best buddy Justin put it together (one little grill, sooo many parts). We made burgers with grilled pineapple slices and cheese. MMMMMMM.

Well, as he put together the grill for Mark to slave over later, I was fixing an upside-down pineapple cake. For Mark's b-day Justin got us the Amy Sedaris cookbook, so I cracked it open to find a recipe. Of course, what that recipe called for DIDN'T WORK. You take 4 tb of butter in a skillet and mix in a cup of brown sugar til it dissolves...except IT DOESN'T. I tried this frickin thing twice (no one every said what temp to heat it at, so I tried a few times) but it either doesn't mix or makes candy. It sucks. If you know something I don't then lemme know. I'll also say that the cake ended up a little dry, so I'm changing the heat temp for the cake. Here's my altered version:

The upside down part: Lay 5 pineapple rings in 9 inch cake pan. Mix 1 cup brown sugar with 1/4 cup pineapple juice from can (unsweetened) until it dissolves (hah! take THAT recipe!) then mix with 4 tbs of melted butter in a pan and reduce. Pour it all in the pan with the rings.

The cake part: Mix dry in a bowl: 1 1/2C flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2C sugar. Get another bowl--Melt 8 tb butter, add in 1/2C milk and 1 egg. Mix wet and dry, then spoon over pineapple stuff in cake pan. Cook for 30-35 mts at 375F.

She: Asian Market

Last week Mark and I went to the Wing Wa asian market down Stockton. I love going there--it reminds me of living in Bangkok. We bought some candy that I used to get "Super Candy." Its reeeaaally sour--they have super lemon, apple, strawberry and some other flavors I can't remember, but it is coated in salt and makes your mouth pucker, but in a good way. Its not the biggest of the asian markets in town; we still have a few to try, but I love their selection of rice noodles. They have a whole frickin aisle for it. They've also got a great selection of uber-cheap seafood as well.

I went there to hunt for sticky rice, though, so I could make my favorite summer dish: sticky rice with mangos. I luuuuuv this dish. We used to buy it from the vendors by the pound. After the first round, where it was still nice and warm, we'd put it in the fridge and slice it like butter and chomp on it for breakfast. I tried to make it a few times in atlanta, but there are different varieties to the rice, and they never had the one I was used to: a medium grain sticky white rice. But behold! They had a whole shelf devoted to different kinds of sticky rice. Now, sticky rice is, well, sticky. Very sticky. When cooked properly, its more sticky than sushi rice, and makes a great dessert. Of course, there is another part of this puzzle that's also fallen into place here in california...the mangos. There are many different types of mangos. Thai mangos are not like the regular variety you get in most supermarkets. The mangos I crave are sweet and buttery--there's no bitterness, stringiness, or that nasty chalkly aftertaste I've come to despise. We've found Ataulfo mangos taste the same.

Instructions
So here's what you do: get sticky rice. Make sure its not the short grain but medium grain variety (medium looks like normal rice, short grain is almost round). Take 2 cups of rice and soak it for 5 hours in a bowl of water, covering the rice completely. Drain the rice, and put it in a rice cooker with the water about a 1/2 inch above the rice. Cook for 25-40 minutes (I have a rice steamer, not cooker, so it takes the longer amount). If you're not sure, take a bit out of the middle--if any of the grains are hard, cook it longer. While its cooking, mix a cup of coconut milk with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp salt (you need the salt!) until it dissolves. When the rice is done, mix it well with this mixture and let it sit for 15 minutes so the rice absorbs the mix. Then serve it with sliced mangos!

She: Lemon Bread with cheese filling

So, Mark came home the other day with about two dozen bananas. Who NEEDS that many bananas? I had every intention of making banana cookies and altering my banana bread recipe to a healthier but still moist wheat flour, but those plans didn't come through tonight. Why? Well, Mark made a fabulous goat cheese and mushroom pizza. From scratch. Which is great, except the utensil-part. Here's a run down of my thought process...

Mark is on the couch being a slug (he made dinner so that is his right). I walk into the kitchen and the bowl, cookie pan, and other instruments of baking are all slimed, in the sink. I look at the bananas, know I'll need at least two bowls, and decide that its just not worth it. So I find the one clean bowl we have, look in the fridge, find my lemons, and go to town. I'll leave the recipe at the bottom. While the bread is baking, I clean BOTH dirty bowls and all the utensils, and throw some baking soda in the sink and use my left-over lemon rinds as agents to scour the sink (soda + lemons work really well on grease stains, which were also in abundance since Mark doesn't rinse down the sink either). While I'm doing this, I belt in a loud voice sure to be heard "Gee, it would be SO nice if someone cleaned their OWN bowl and stuff." I am obviously a sensitive, delicate and tactful butterfly of social graces....

Anyhow. The lemon bread didn't dome, but thats because I put a lemon/cream cheese filling in the center. Its still yummy, though.

Lemon Bread:
Mix: 1/2 c soft butter, 1 c sugar. Add 2 eggs, 2 tbs lemon juice, 1-2 tbs lemon peel. Premix dry (1 1/2 c flour, 1 ts baking soda, 1/8 tsp salt) and add to mix. Lastly, mix in 1/2 c milk and put into bread pan.

Lemon Cheese
Mix 1 tsp sugar, 1/3 cup cream cheese with juice and peel of one small lemon. Put into a sandwich bag, cut a corner and squeeze it down the middle of the bread.


Bake in oven 350 F, 40-45 minutes. If you want extra lemon kick (I do), mix 1/2 lemon juice with 2 tsp powder sugar and drip over warm bread. The cheese sinks pretty low, but it does make a very nice compliment to the sweeter bread part. I suppose you could change the ratio of lemon juice in the cheese to keep it lighter. I'll repost if I try this again.

He: Fluffernutter cookie sandwiches

Aka doggie crack sandwiches

Okay, originally this idea was born out of trying to find a use for a bunch of peanut butter that we got for free. You would think that having a ton of free, organic, stone ground, raw, perfect peanut butter would be a fantastic thing. Well, you're right! Having this stuff around is inspiring to look for unique and creative possibilities. These cookies are the first of many explorations into the world of everything that is peanut butter.

Just so that I don't get lost in the thoughts of how and why all of this was born I'll give you the whole method now.


Peanut Butter Sandies
½ c. (4oz) unsalted butter
½ c. (4 ¾ oz) peanut butter (plain, unseasoned, unadulterated…just peanuts and nothing else)
1 c. (7oz) granulated sugar(I used organic, unrefined cane sugar, but just about any will do)
¾ tsp. salt (kosher or sea salt please)
½ tsp. baking soda
2 t. Vanilla extract (here we used Penzeys double strength)
1 ea. Large Egg
¼ c (2oz) Heavy Cream or sour cream
3 Tbsp. (3/4 oz) Cornstarch
3 C. (12 ¾ oz) Unbleached AP Flour

1. Beat first 6 ingredients until light and fluffy(medium speed on your mixer for 4 minutes)
2. Add egg and beat until completely incorporated
3. Add ½ of the cream, ½ of the flour and all of the cornstarch and beat well(about 2 minutes on medium)
4. Add remaining cream and flour, mix just until incorporated
5. Divide dough in ½ flatten slightly, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour(we did it overnight)
6. After refrigeration, preheat oven to 350˚F, parchment line 2 sheetpans, remove dough from freezer about 5 minutes before rolling out
7. Lightly flour work surface and ball of dough(instead of this I lined the counter with freezer paper…we have funky tile for counters). Roll to 1/4-1/8” thick, cut to desired shape.
8. Place almost touching on the sheetpans and bake for exactly 10 minutes do not allow to brown
9. Cool on the sheetpans for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.


Peanut Butter Pliable Paste (filling)
1 c. (9 ½ oz) peanut butter
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 ½ c. (10 oz)confectioners sugar
6 Tbsp. milk

1. beat peanut butter and vanilla
2. Add confectioners sugar and beat until smooth(this will take several minutes)
3. Add milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached
4. store until needed, covered

Almond Marshmallow Fluff
1 ea. Egg white-at room temperature
1 c. unrefined cane sugar
1/3 c. water
1/8 tsp. salt(sea or kosher)
1 ½ tsp Almond extract

1. Beat egg white in the bowl of an electric mixer until frothy, add salt and beat until stiff, shiny peaks are formed
2. Melt water and cane sugar in a saucepot, stirring only until dissolved, then bring to soft ball stage(240˚F on a candy theromometer)
3. Allow the sugar mix to sit for 1 minute off heat before adding to the beaten white
4. Slowly stream in the sugar mix, while beating on high, the white until all is incorporated.
5. Continue to beat on high until the mixture is completely cooled and lifted to full volume(this can take as long as 20 minutes)
6. Store covered until needed in a container

Assembly: Lay down finished cookie, and put a thin sheet of the peanut filling ontop, then about 1 tbs of Fluff. Put another cookie on top to complete the sandwich. I also dipped the cookies in melted chocolate, placed them on a rack and let them cool. If you don't want rack marks on your chocolate, transfer them to a wax sheet.

There are a few things that I would change if I do these cookies again. One, I think I want to play with the filling a little bit, it was way too sweet for me. Two, the original recipe that I based the fluff on came out of a cookbook by an old chef friend of mine Scott Peacock. Some of you may know him, he's extremely popular on the east coast. Some of you may even have his cookbook(written with his long time mentor and friend Edna Lewis) The Gift of Southern Cooking. The changes that I made were for just basic tinkering ideas…I think that I'd add back in the gelatin. Without the gelatin to provide structure for the fluff, you just end up with Italian meringue, which doesn't have the 'bounciness' that's soo nice about homemade marshmallows. Also, I think that I want to play with the flavoring of the marshmallows(the original recipe calls for vanilla, but I used up all of mine on the other parts of this cookie), maybe something like cinnamon???

I think that's about it with these. Please feel free to post your comments and questions and I will try to answer any and all that I can.

She: Toffee Chocolate Cupcakes

SO. I had my craving to bake some cupcakes again. I do this often...every week or two. But, since this is a new blog site, I will explain. I NEVER use boxed mixes. Why? Well, if I had my own kiddo who needed 75 cupcakes for school, I might. But most of the joy for me is coming up with a recipe that isn't a standard flavor. That, and boxed stuff has a ton of preservatives and other scary things I like to avoid. Because I like my sugar honest. I don't always start with an original base--the vanilla cake base is from Amy Sedaris, but usually I try things out a few times and modify from there.



Yesterday I made a new concoction: Toffee Chocolate Cupcakes. First, a few words of caution: do NOT overfill these cupcakes. They will overflow into a messy mass if you do. Also, make sure your oven is well heated at 360. Most recipes say 350, but when you open the oven, you let some of the air out, and it cools slightly. This adjusts for that a tad. And one last thing...if you use foil cups, great. But I don't always know what I have at hand at home, and this was a mix of both foil and paper. For paper, I tend to double-cup. This is because the second paper cup helps soak a little of the greasiness out of the cake. Also, this recipe uses baking powder--thats good because powder releases at oven temp and not immediately like baking soda, so don't subsitute.



Batter Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of butter (room temp), 1 3/4 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/4 cups milk, 1 cup toffee bits.

Instructions: Cream butter and sugar--make sure the butter is well incorporated. Then add eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder. Alternate adding flour and milk--I did this in 1/2 cup increments. Fill the cups 2/3 full, and cook for 20 minutes. Test with a toothpick; they'll be done when you get NO crumbs on the toothpick. Let cool for 5-8 minutes, then transfer to a rack. Recipe makes about 2 dozen cupcakes.

Now, the cupcake is moist, but the toffee bits melt in to add extra butteriness (is that a word?) to the cake. I paired it with my own version of a chocolate ganache icing. The icing was SO worth the wait, not that I had a clue of how LONG I'd wait when I started it.

Ganache Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup bittersweet chocolate (at least 60% chocolate--I like Ghirardelli), 1 cup powder sugar.

I have seen a lot of ganache recipes, and they call for either butter or a ton of powder sugar. I HATE adding butter to icing if I don't need it. Why? It cuts the chocolate flavor down. And so does too much sugar. This works really well though. Just put the cream in a sauce pan on low heat, stirring every once in a while til you see small bubbles around the edge. If you don't stir it, it could burn on the bottom and that would taste nasty. This took me about 5 minutes. I cleaned the kitchen counters and let the dog lick the bowl (the cupcake batter, NO chocolate for doggies!) while doing this. Put the chocolate chips in a Pyrex or metal bowl, and when the cream is ready, dump the cream on top. I let it sit for juuuust a minute or two to let it melt, then take a whisk and stir them together. After its all solidly mixed, I added the powder sugar, stirred it in well, and let the ganache sit. AND sit. AND sit some more. You don't put chocolate in the fridge or you start to break down the cocoa butter and such. And destroying chocolate flavor is a sin. But since I didn't know how heavenly it would taste, my patience was wearing thin. I'm a photographer. We dig that whole "immediate gratification" thing. SIGH.

Its supposed to sit til at room temp, but what I THOUGHT was room temp was only close, so I broke down, put plastic wrap on the bowl, and let it sit overnight. Up to that point it was like I was 8 yrs old in the back of my parents car, only instead of asking "are we there yet?" it was "has it cooled yet?" You'll know its ready because if you tip the bowl sideways, it doesn't slide. Niiice and thick. And really rich. I think it might overwhelm the toffee cakes, but adding a tad more toffee might make up for it.