Blueberry Oat Scones

Yesterday I spent the day with Donna, baking and eating and being lazy- the things that we love to always do together.

We're going up to Maine for the July 4th Weekend (HOOORAY!) with several other friendsies so we wanted to bake a few goodies for the trip. After several email recipe exchanges and lots of thoughtful consideration, including an adventurous suggestion of macarons (too risky), we decided to make pound cake and batch of scones, both of which could keep for the remainder of this week in the freezer.

We met up at Cafe Pedlar to start our day with Stumptown, of course, then made what seemed like a Carroll Gardens supermarket Odyssey through Trader Joe's, KY Mart (hehe), the Natural Foods store, and finally the Fish Monger. Er, the fish wasn't for the pound cake nor the scones, it was so we could have a little lunch, let's just clear that up right here.

We baked the pound cake first, a super-easy recipe I found in this month's Martha Stewart Living. Yes, I subscribe to Martha Stewart Living.

After lunch and a short tv break/catnap, we moved onto baking the scones. Though we encountered a tiny problem when Donna's mini-cuisinart food processor couldn't handle the entire recipe at once, we solved it by breaking up the ingredients in two and processing the necessary ingredients in two batches. Other than that minor snafu, the recipe was easy-peasy, and didn't take longer than 30 minutes to bake. They look fabulous, so delicioius! So here's to hoping they will taste that way, too.

From left to right: Unloading Trader Joe's groceries (!), pound cake on the cooling rack, and our decadent lunch spread.

Blueberry Oat Scones

adapted from Molly Wizenberg's recipe in Bon Appetit July 2009

Prep Time: 30 min

Bake Time: 30 min

Plus time to cool

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp coarse kosher salt

11 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 cup plus 3 tbsp old-fashioned oats

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 3/4 cups half and half

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 tsp raw sugar

Our ingredients, all set out on the table. Look! You can see mini-upside-down-me in the stainless steel bowl!!

Position rack in upper and bottom thirds of oven an preheat to 350 degrees (F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Alternatively, you may line the sheets with foil and lightly butter the foil.

Combine first five ingredients in a processor, blend for 5 seconds. Add butter. Using on/off turns, blend until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. If you have a mini-processor like we did, halve all ingredients and do the same thing twice. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, mix in oats and blueberries. Stir blend evenly.

Stir half and half and vanilla together, gradually add to flour mixture and toss until dough just comes together. (dough will be very moist and sticky!)

Using 1/2 cup measuring cup for each scone, drop dough in high mounds onto prepared baking sheets, spacing a few inches apart (as they will flatten during baking). Sprinkle tops with remaining 3 tbsp oats, then raw sugar.

Bake 15 minutes. Reverse sheets and continue baking until the scones are golden and tester inserted into the center from side comes out clean, about 12 minutes longer. Let cool for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature

Improv cooling rack: The bottom side of muffin pans!

*1/2 cup portions ensures 12 large scones. Use smaller portions if desired.

Early morning intro to Eggs

I know everyone likes eggs, but I never have. Particularly hard boiled or scrambled, blechhhh. What turns me off is not only the distinct taste that overwhelms your entire mouth and coats your throat, but also the textures of the cooked whites as well as the yolks, and that gassy, stinky smell. Don't get me wrong - eggs can be an amazing addition to things like lemon meringue pie, brushed over pastries as a glaze, and dunked under breadcrumbs for fried chicken. But somewhere in my life I developed a massive aversion to most forms of plainly cooked eggs, which as you can imagine, has left me with many (limited) eggless breakfast mornings.

Then last week rolled along. One of those mornings I was awake by 5am, unable to fall back asleep. Not only could my brain turn itself off, but my stomach sounded like the Industrial Revolution had made a comeback inside of me. Bleary eyed and barely conscious, I made my way to the fridge, a path so familiar I didn't even need to turn on any lights. Sad. Even sadder was that I didn't have any groceries to make even a decent lunch. I've become very inventive in my days of unemployment, and have used up most of the cans, jars, bags, and tupperware full of food that I had stored away God-knows-how-long ago. I took a look at what was left, the substantial ingredient being two eggs out of a 1/2 dozen that I used in a cake some time before. Big sigh. Hunger conquers all, even distaste. Must use eggs.

Fortunately I had just enough of a few other ingredients leftover from other cooking endeavors to make what in my head seemed like a marvelous concoction. And you know what? It wasn't too bad in my mouth, either. NOT bad at all. In fact, it was pretty much exactly what I was craving, made me full, satisfied, and licking my plate. It even woke me up a little bit. This sandwich has definitely made me re-think The Egg as a decent foodstuff, and even made me start to conceive inventive ways I could include them in sandwiches. I'm not yet ready to have a whole hard-boiled egg, or scrambled (because I think that's the absolute WORST tasting way to cook them), but I don't think I will ever just throw away leftover eggs again.

INGREDIENTS for the EggSandwich for EggHaters:

2 eggs

chopped garlic scape

sliced parmesan cheese - a LOT of it!

pea shoot pesto

mustard (I used wasabi mustard, yum)

toasted bread - english muffin, whole wheat, wonderbread, bagel - whatever suits your tastes

Crack the two eggs onto an oiled skillet, and sprinkle garlic scapes to cover the eggs. Flip the eggs over and layer parmesan cheese on top. If the cheese can withstand, flip over one more time to "fry" the cheese too.

Toast bread, spread with pesto on one side and mustard on the other.

Sandwich egg, garlic scape, and cheese concoction onto the now-seasoned bread. VOILA! Isn't she a beaute?

Serves one very hungry, barely-awake person.

Just Cut It (and slice, and spread, and chop)

I love multi-functional kitchen tools. I mean, at my parent's house, it's cool to have a cheese slicer, a nutcracker, dumpling ladles, crab forks, a tea serving set, a pastry brush, a basting brush, a meat thermometer, etc etc etc. But it's just not realistic to keep fifty different gadgets in my teeny-tiny Brooklyn kitchen. We have three cabinets, one (ONE!) drawer, and a wall of shelves which doubles as our "pantry".

So when I saw this knife that really is a do-it-all kind of tool, available at my local kitchen supply store, I was instantly enamored. Am I the only person here who swoons over the thought of owning a kitchen knife? Below I've include Brooklyn Kitchen's product description...

You only need one knife to make a sandwich, this knife. You could conceivably have this knife be the only knife in your kitchen. I've seen it!

The blade is scalloped to make fast work of slicing breads and juicy fruits like tomatoes, but don't let that fool you. The Pure Komachi Sandwich Knife's edge isn't your basic dull but serrated so it still cuts bread knife. You can slice onions (slice, not saw!), cheese, avocado, cucumber, etc. And the blade is wide and long to easily spread condiments. It is really an all-purpose knife.

The flourinated resin coating on this stainless steel knife resists bacteria and is non-stick for easy release of sliced foods.

Length: 6-in.

Best of all, this PURE KOMACHI SANDWICH KNIFE retails for the amazingly affordable $25!!! perfect for my little unemployed rump!

Get yours (or mine, if you feel generous) today at The Brooklyn Kitchen!!!

Comeback Kids

I spent 63 minutes on the treadmill today. Before you congratulate me, I have to tell you it was only to watch the soccer game on TV, and the last 30 min was spent at a walking pace. I also tripped several times because I was paying too much attention to the TV and not enough attention to which part of the treadmill was moving and which one wasn't.

I love soccer. I forget about it sometimes, but watching professional soccer, especially European teams, really makes me miss playing. At this point I haven't played for almost ten years (yikes!) and the last time I played a little bit of pick-up I felt so embarrassingly out of shape. Actually, I was out of shape, my legs and my back hurt for three days thereafter. Ooof, I'm getting old.

Soccer fan or not, everyone knows that the U.S. pretty much sucks in terms of soccer enthusiasm. My dad thinks it's because soccer isn't a sport that's conducive to the American marketing and capitalistic creed - Not too many commercials in a sport where there are two 45-minute halftimes and no time-outs. I tend to agree, and also think it has a hard time competing with sports that are so much faster-paced and higer scoring. Anyway the lack of professional soccer support has often led to the U.S. being disregarded as competitors, and it's usually proven true by early losses.

So I was surprised, first of all, that soccer was actually playing on ESPN today. I was also surprised, second of all, that the US was in a semifinal game! Really!? Watching the teams play, it was obvious that Spain is actually a better team, but guess what, the better team doesn't always win. Sometimes a little bit of luck and a few breakaways just need to happen. And that's what happened today.

USA vs. Spain

2-0

Europeans are regarding this as one of the bigger upsets in recent soccer history. Spain is a team that had a 15-game winning streak, and had not lost since November 2006. They were widely regarded as the favorites to win the entire tournament. Not any more!!

ok. Thanks for listening to me geeking out about sports for a bit. I'm telling you, I've got something for everyone on this bloggity blog. (And finally, soccer players are so hot)

Wedding Photos

I have been absolutely infatuated with wedding photography lately.

Which is weird because I was never one of those little girls who dreamt about my perfect wedding. Up until recently, I wasn't even positive that I really wanted to have a formal wedding. I've since decided that yeah, maybe a ceremony would be cool...but these photos make me want to find a husband and get married and have a HUGE ceremony and even bigger party! If not just to have some amazing photos of myself - is that too vain? But really, I just want these amazing photos, photos with vibrant color schemes, hard and soft focus points, pretty dresses, handsome men, bright blue skies, and so so so many smiles!

I've come across tons of wedding blogs lately. TONS. There seem to be as many wedding blogs online now as there are food blogs. And you know, that's a lot. I stumbled upon one today (HERE) that I spent way too much time on, but I'd like to share it with you because it makes me simply happy. And excited to one day have my own! :)

Pea Shoot Pesto

Last Wednesday marked our first CSA pickup, from the Garden of Eve farms. My roommate and I are doing a bi-weekly vegetable pick up, which seems to work out perfectly for our little budgets and big stomachs.

There are so many wonderful things about being part of a CSA, the least of which is getting the opportunity to try new produce that one would never pick out at the supermarket. For example, garlic scapes. I've seen them all over the place and always observed them at the farmers market, but never once had the guts to get a bunch. Another example, pea shoots. These are just a couple examples of veggies that veer slightly off of a common grocery list.

Pea shoots tend to wilt fairly quickly, mine seemed to keep five days in a ziploc bag in our produce compartment fairly well. The basil, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. RIP sweet basil.

I decided that these fresh delicate pea shoots should be eaten raw, as sautee'ing them (as traditionally done in Chinese cuisine) seemed to be such a waste of something so fresh. After doing a quick google search for ways to use pesto, maybe in salads, I came across a bounty of pesto recipes for pea shoots. Brilliant! Though pesto is traditionally a combination of basil, pinenuts, parmesean, olive oil and garlic, chefs and home cooks have modified the recipe to include walnuts, mint, cilantro...the list goes on.

The pesto, because pea shoots are far softer in flavor than basil, turned out to be a sweet, nutty, and fresh sauce. It's not an oily liquidy pesto like the ones you may buy at the store, but rather a thick, chunky, smooth paste. I don't eat a lot of pasta at home, so I am inclined to use this "sauce" on sandwiches, chicken, tofu, with pretzels, on salmon, and as a salad dressing (with an extra squirt of lemon, of course). I can't wait!!!!

PEA SHOOT PESTO

prep time: approx. 15 - 20 min

2 handfuls pea shoots (about 1 lb??)

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup olive oil

1 cup pinenuts

5 cloves roasted garlic

1 lemon

salt and pepper, to taste

Wash and prep the pea shoots by snapping off all the thick stems. Spin in a salad spinner to dry completely

Pea shoots and roasted garlic, delightful!!!

Combine 1/2 of all ingredients in a food processor or blender, begin to blend on a lower speed. You may need to stop the blender every so often to mix around the ingredients. Once the pesto starts to farm, start adding in the remainder of the ingredients while the blender is still running. Add more (or less) olive oil to determine a consistency that you like. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

giving the pesto a final whirl in our blender.

Blend on high speed until thoroughly pureed. You can also leave your pesto chunkier, if you wish.

Store in an airtight jar or container. Should keep for about a week or slightly more.

**To roast garlic, cut off the top of a garlic bulb and place on a sheet of foil. drizzle a tiny amount of olive oil and wrap foil to cover the entire bulb. Roast in a 400degree oven for up to an hour, or until soft. This is also great on toast, in pastas, or just about anything, really.

The "hipsta" neighborhood

I always say I'm lucky to have lived my entire life in liberal-minded environments, call them left-wingers, blue states, Democrats, atheists, the public education system, non-profits, whatever have you- I've been surrounded by these groups and their beliefs for as long as I've been able to think. I leave the right-wing, Obama-hating, Super Jesus masses confined, in theory, mostly to states like South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi, those glaringly red states that offer zero appeal, ideologically or otherwise.

Hence when I came across this man I'm about to mention, a man born and bred in Brooklyn, who is just as righteous about his conservative views as the Pope, I was appalled. Jay Mundy is a conservative media blogger and radio personality, with a website dedicated to all his silly rants. There's too many things to mention about his insane conservative views, you just have to visit his website to believe it.

I was drawn to his specific June 15 broadcast because it was about him visiting Williamsburg for the first time, written in the Brownstowner blog with the headline, "Conservative Talk Show Host Beholds Williamsburg". W'burg! My 'hood! Hmm, click.

This man irritated my right off the bat. First of all, his monologue begins with a horrible introduction calling him a conservative warrior, paired with a whiny country song whose lyrics sing "God Is Great, Beer is Good...and People are Crazy" (twang twang twang). Seriously.

Then Mr. Mundy comes on the air, and spewing in his horrible Brooklyn accent, announces that indeed he broadcasts from "The sick city of New York," or as he likes to call it, "New York Sicky". He goes on to profess that he's a lifelong Brooklynite, born and bred in the "ethnic" Irish-Italian parts of the borough. Because in today's society, the ethnic struggles of the Irish and the Italians in America are rife with stories of hardship and heartache. But I digress. He eventually continues to the topic of his monologue, which is as previously stated, Williamsburg.

Now before I go on to what he says, I just want to add that I go back and forth between my thoughts of Williamsburg, usually I find it rather annoying and cliche but on many days I also find it to be a complete gem of a neighborhood. Williamsburg is a big area, there's a lot to do, a lot of spaces to do things in, and well, my favorite, a lot of things to eat.

But how does Mr. Mundy describe it? Here are some passages that I've transcribed:

"Just think of wherever you are, the most left-wing hippie person you can think of...most left-wing, lunatic, liberal hippie - 1960's nutcase, off the wall, keep that image in your head...now multiply that by hundreds, by thousands. THAT is what Williamsburg is, it is extremely scary."

"[They have] tattoos all over them, people are high on drugs all day, and they got tattoos on their faces and they're all wearing weird clothes, like something that you can't even imagine that you'd see in a hollywood picture and say, 'That's not the real world.' ...these are misfits, that's what they are, and they're acting out."

"There are no cops on the street because they hate it - you should see it, there's graffiti , they think graffiti is art! There is graffiti everywhere! - There's no cops on the street because they hate power, they are extreme leftists."

And that's just from Part One. I got so sick of listening to him that I didn't even go on to Part Two. But you are more than welcome to check it out yourself, below:

Part One:

Part Two:

Namaste

I've recently started working a couple mornings a week at a yoga studio in the neighborhood. I love the studio, there are great teachers and great classes and it's quite a beautiful studio. It's brand new, so tell all your friends about it and come visit me!! Sign up for a 'newbie' special which gives you 2 weeks of unlimited classes for $30 (gasp!). Get your downward dog on!

Sangha Yoga Shala

107 N. 3rd Street, #2H

between Berry & Wythe

http://www.sanghayoganyc.com/

also check out our cute little blog

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

This week's dessert theme for the Soup Kitchen was Rhubarb Cake. Such a fine fine example of a seasonal dessert. Like beets, brussels sprouts and artichokes, rhubarb is one of those latecomers introduced fairly recently into my adult diet. And like beets, brussels sprouts and artichokes, I think it's simply divine.

For those of you who are rookies to rhubarb, THIS is a complete guide to rhubarb in all its splendor. Since I'm not a big fan of fruit pies and tarts and the sort, I decided to make a rhubarb coffee cake, upon recommendation. It comes direct from Smitten Kitchen via an older issue of the NY Times. Her pictures trump mine by a million, but I've tried to provide a little bit of competition, if you can even call it that. The recipe is as follows:

Time: 1 1/2 hours, plus cooling

Butter for greasing pan

For the rhubarb filling:
1/2 pound rhubarb, trimmed
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, melted
1 3/4 cups cake flour (I was out and used all-purpose and it worked great)

For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (ditto on the all-purpose flour–worked just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For filling, slice rhubarb 1/2 inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.

2. To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together sugars, spices, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. It will look like a solid dough.

3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside.

4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.

5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

I have lost my mind a little bit today and started using a 1/2 tablespoon measuring spoon instead of the 1 tsp portion. I also forgot to dust the top with powdered sugar, which would have made it look immensely better. I guess every cook has her off days, right? Hopefully it tasted as good as it looked....

Slow Down

Campbell, CA, c.1987 I wasn't allowed near a stove but that certainly didn't stop me from cooking up a storm.

As most people who read this blog (does anyone read this blog?) know, I am quite enthralled by the world of food. Making it, eating it, reading about it, I love it all. My mom would always tell me that as an infant, I would refuse canned and jarred baby food, only eating homemade meals that my dear mother so painstakingly cooked each day. Why she didn't just threaten I starve or shove a jar of Gerber's puree down my throat I have no idea. I guess somewhere between birth and learning how to eat I also honed a very sophisticated palate, and my mother decided to appease this.

In retrospect it's easy to see how my early love of food was further encouraged as I grew older by the accessibility to develop my tastes and awarenesses. I grew up not on Captain Crunch and Fruity Pebbles, but "healthy" cereals such as Kix, Basic 4, or Bran Flakes. The Chinese culture taught me to love trotters (pigs feet), whole fish, dried squid, chicken feet, seaweed, and pork belly- wayyy before New York over-popularized the poor cut of meat. I never knew avocados didn't really exist in some parts of the nation, have gone apple/cherry/blackberry picking as a weekend sport, and thanks to mom was frequenting Farmers Markets and eating locally and seasonally at a very early age.

When I started working in restaurants in high school I really saw how different people were in their tastes. You can really separate those who eat for just consumption purposes, and those who eat for enjoyment- just by watching them for ten minutes while they dine. In my opinion, the latter is always more fun as a customer. As I moved on to different restaurants, I became more aware of the dynamics between food and culture, how people were able to use food as a source of discussion and debate, how it could become art....pleasure. I even took a class in college that focused on Food in Modern Culture, watching Tampopo for the first time and realizing that Food and Surrealist movement probably weren't so different after all. At the ripe age of 21 (okay, maybe a little beforehand) I became aware that wine wasn't some nasty grape juice, and likewise with beer, port, whiskeys, grappas, ohh the list goes on. I know I am completely romanticizing food and wine right now and frankly probably sound quite ridiculous, but I'm dead serious.

Anyway this mini-rant leads me to my current food infatuation: Slow Food. Or, more generalized, the slow food movement. Starting in the hippie-infested slums of Berkeley, I'd like to describe very succinctly that it's the movement to bring local, sustainable, and Old World ideals back to our every day eating. It's about providing a food system that is clean, fair, and healthy for both producers and consumers alike. If it's anything that will save the world, it's the slow food movement. That, and abolishing my credit card debt. But save that for another time...

I think my early infatuation and experiences with food, with eating, with eating WELL has led me to the place that I'm currently at in my young adulthood. Which is in New York, broke, and trying to eat as well as I can. Eating sustainably doesn't mean you HAVE to grow your own garden and become a vegetarian and convert to buddhism and spend loads of yuppie cash at the Farmer's Market. It just means putting that extra little care to know where your food comes from, making sure that you're eating according to the season and that you're not stuffing your face with HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) and a bunch of other chemicals I can't even begin to spell let along pronounce. And yes, I do care about the environment, but I'm mainly doing it because frankly, it tastes and feels so much damn better. Ok, example: gross Entenmann's coffee cake that is loaded with bad fats and processed sugars and has been sitting on a shelf for years and was probably made in a factory in Venezuela, or my fresh homemade seasonal Rhubarb Coffee Cake that I baked this morning, laden with pure butter, brown sugars, and fresh eggs? (slightly exaggerating about the Entenmann's cake for comparison purposes, please don't sue me) Which one do you think will taste better? Huh? That's what I thought.

I am so zealous about this ideal that I would likely call it the closest thing to my religion. Though I wish I had enough energy, time, and money to carry this through in all aspects of my lifestyle and habits, I'm unfortunately sometimes too lazy, sometimes too short-of-time, and sometimes too broke to eat live and breathe Green all day. But I do what I can, which I think is more than some can say, right?

Anyway, I will close out the post by plugging my version of a PSA and tell you to please check out Slow Food USA for tons of useful information and volunteer opportunities and fun events in your hood. I'm a member of Slow Food NYC, and though I can't describe what exactly I do as a member (nothing, really) it helps when you want to do fun foodie things with fun foodie people. I'm going to a wine tasting tonight at the Astor Center featuring the wines of the Finger Lakes (in central NY). Fun Foodie drinking, most excellent!

I'm so high

Hi friendsies. I've been busy being sick this weekend, but managed to get out of the house to do a few not-sick activities.

View from the Highline onto 16th Street

Got a chance to check out The Highline last week. I know all New Yorkers are blogging/posting/twittering about this, but for those of you non-New Yorkers (or New Yorkers who have their heads up their arses) The Highline is a magical place. Well, sorta. The Highline is the newest multi-million dollar park renovation project supported by a special committee along with NYC's department of parks and recreation. The project aimed to transform a stretch of what used to be an elevated rail used to lift dangerous freight trains up and down the city's Westside to a large pedestrian-only park area. Though only partially complete, the eventual project will span a mile-and-a-half, from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District all the way to 34th Street. I thought they did a beautiful job reconstructing the old railways, loved the landscaping, the views of the city, and how they left little bits of the track exposed here and there. It really is great to see the city preserving and re-invigorating spaces like this. It was gorgeous during the day, and can't wait to see it at night!

Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Ganache.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am getting involved with an organization who bakes dessert every Wednesday for a local soup kitchen. I swear these guys who eat here are eating better than I do!

The theme for this week was chocolate cake, and I had decided early on that I wanted to make a good, old fashioned, moist and dense Devil's Food Cake. After toying with the idea of a salted caramel filling, I decided to just take it back and go classic with a bittersweet chocolate ganache (I told you these guys are eating better than I do!)

I've recently become very infatuated with the blogworld of David Lebovitz, so decided to see if his site offered up any hits. Oh yes indeedy, a perfect classic recipe for devil's food cake with chocolate ganache! Sometimes I'll alter the recipe to adjust sugar content or cream content or whatever, but I found this recipe to be simply divine. Here it is, direct from the site:

For the cake:
9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup strong coffee (or water)
½ cup whole or low-fat milk

For the ganache frosting:
10 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup water (or cream)
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter

1. Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Butter two 9" x 2" cake pans and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.

3. To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.

4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)

5. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.

6. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

steps 3-6. Easy as pie (or cake)

7. To make the frosting, melt the chopped chocolate with the water (or cream) in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.

8. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk them into the chocolate until completely melted and the ganache is smooth. Cool until spreadable, which may take about 1 hour at room temperature.

ganache-goodness

To frost the cake:

Run a knife around the inside of each of the cakes which will help release them from the pans. Tilt one cake out of the pan, remove the parchment paper from the bottom and invert it back onto a cake plate. Spread a good-sized layer of icing over the top. Top with the second cake layer and spread the top and sides with the remaining icing as decoratively as you want.

Storage: Cake is best the day it is made, although it's fine the next day. Store at room temperature under a cake dome. Just be sure to keep cake out of the sunin the meantime.

hiatus

Did you miss me?

Probably not.

Sorry I've been gone, my good friends came up for the weekend from DC and I've been recovering from a whirlwind weekend of food, fun, parks, sun, cocktails, late nights, new friends, and the best - reconnecting with the ones you already have.

Speaking of good friends I have, please check out Carmen's website. I've been a major supporter of Carmen for years, and really love so much of her work. Carmen and I go wayyyy back to undergrad art students at UCLA. We liked to think of ourselves as the normal kids, but there's no such thing as a normal art kid. Anyway, she's also been selected as a finalist for Google's homepage photography competition. 36 Finalists, the public votes, and whoever comes out on top gets to have their images as an option for iGoogle. Kind of like American Idol for the Google Homepage. Check it out and vote HERE; Carmen's work is in the second row down on the very right, with all the feet.

Cheers! Welcome back to my world!!!

Craig's Kitchen

Good karma, I'm all about that. What better way to earn some good karma than to cook for others? I've been looking into ways to involve myself more with the community in general, so when I heard about Craig's Kitchen I immediately became intrigued.

Without going into TOO much detail, Craig's Kitchen is an organization of volunteers who organizes a more sustainable, seasonal, nutritious, and home-cooked program for the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen. They work with local CSAs to ensure the soup kitchen receives as much good produce as possible, and I'm hoping they are able to do similar things with the meat they serve (though I'm a tad skeptical). I'm volunteering to bake as a part of their Dessert Corps. Baking! For a cause! Woooooo!!

Each Wednesday a handful of volunteers bake within the category that is given to them, with a reminder of the dessert and sample recipes sent out the weekend prior. The desserts also try to be as seasonal as possible, but let's be real- Sometimes you just gotta have a brownie.

Next Wednesday's dessert du jour is chocolate cake. There isn't a strict recipe you must follow, but you do have to bake some cake thing made out of chocolate. I'm thinking a two-layer moist devil's food cake with some sort of salted caramel icing. mmmmm. Will let you know how it goes.

Homemade Granola & Yogurt

My apartment has been cleaner than it's ever been before. I've cleaned our fridge, Laundered all our linens, cleaned and installed our A/C, mopped the floors, dusted all the shelves....Unemployment is looking good for our humble little abode.

And when I'm not cleaning like a maniac I'm usually dreaming up some crazy recipe that will substitute for my cravings to go out to dinner. We're talking penny-pinching here, people. I've been a little more cautious at the grocery store, taking note of the per pound/per ounce prices more than ever before. But I decided to splurge a little on Wednesday and made a trip to the Union Square farmers market and Whole Foods - I had a few ideas brewing in mind.

One of which was something I've been meaning to do for a long time, which was make homemade granola. As far as the cost-effectiveness of homemade granola, the jury's still out. I made a pretty decent-sized batch of granola, but nuts and seeds and flax are still expensive.

The thing I love about making things at home is that you know EXACTLY what is being put into the foods you make. Duh. But really, I like the idea that granola is granola, not sugar and processed oats and refined wheats and what not. Without further ado, here is the recipe I used, passed on from my good friend Gillian:

4c - oats

4c - combined of some or all of the following: wheat germ, flax, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and/or pecans, and/or walnuts, raisins and/or cranberries and/or cherries. (I have found the perfect combination of these to be: 2/3c wheat germ, 2/3c flax seed, 2/3c sesame seeds, 1/2c pecans, 1/2c walnuts, 1/2c pepitas, and 1/2c golden raisins)

some - cinnamon

some - salt

2c - oj

1c - honey (mostly maple syrup 2/3c and a little honey 1/3c)

1/2c - canola oil

preheat oven to 300.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl

on the stovetop heat the oj, honey (or maple) and oil in a small saucepan until combined and smooth. Whisk together like a dressing. Pour 'dressing' over rest of the dry ingredients and fold everything together. The mix should be rather wet, like an oatmeal cookie dough.

Line 2 baking sheets or pans with foil, and spread the granola mixture evenly between the two sheets. Bake in the oven for an hour, stirring/checking ever 20 minutes. The longer the granola is in the oven the crunchier it will be, so bake for as long as it suits you tastes. I have found that in my oven, the perfect cooking time for my preferences is 1 hr. 15 min.

Leave out to cool for at least 30min, the longer the better. Stir around the granola with your hands and break up the larger chunks if you prefer. Make sure granola is completely cooled and dry before you store in airtight containers or ziplocs.

The finished product, mixed into some homemade plain yogurt

The result? After one hour of baking and about an hour or so to cool and set, I had perfectly nutty, chewy, not too-hard, not too-sweet, perfect with plain yogurt granola. (And to top it off, I made my own yogurt, too- whaddya think bout that!?) Keep in mind this is not your store-bought packaged crunchy hard granola. I cannot emphasize enought that it is a softer, chewier, less-sweet version. In my opinion, yummier. This recipe is definitely going to get some good use.