ParMieux Adventures

Behind the T-walls: A Regular Day

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Over the last few months, I've had people asking me many times what my daily life if like here in Iraq. In this post, I am going to give you a play-by-play of what most of my days here are like.

With the distant sound of the muezzin singing the inspired lyrics of the morning adhan, I begin to stir. When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is the sliver of hazy light drifting through the barely open curtains of my window. Without this little bit of light, I'd never be able to get out of bed. My feet touch down, protected from the cold tile floor by my green wool Persian carpet.

I walk to the window and open the dark curtains a little more, and I look up, trying to find the sky. My room is the safe room, in the basement of the building we call Hotel One on the Mansour Compound. There is a staircase outside my window, descending into the maintenance office below the Hotel, and as I gaze upward, I see dusty concrete walls topped with razor wire, up a little bit more to the now defunct Intelligence Building that has a huge hole in the middle of it from a bunker-busting bomb courtesy of the US Invasion in 2003, and I lean in a bit more, my face nearly touching dust-covered the blast paper covered glass and continuing my upward glance to find a clear and cloud-free, impossibly blue sky. This is how nearly every day begins for me in Baghdad, Iraq.

I run my hands under the tap, and the water is freezing at first, and boiling a second later. I fail miserably in my half-slumbering state to find the sweet spot on the spigot where the water is warm. Hot-cold-حار-بارد-Hot-Cold, I repeat the words in Arabic to myself, willing them to memory. I walk to my kitchen, kicking myself again for not cleaning my espresso pot and prepping the coffee before I went to bed. I dutifully rinse and dry my precious Bialetti, taking time to smell the grounds of Lavazza Crema e Gusto before putting them into the reservoir, screwing on the top, and putting the pot on the heat. I walk back to make my bed, and dress for work, making sure to listen for the signature gurgling sound of the Bialetti as it percolates my proper Italian brew.

Depending on the day, when I leave my room, either the towels or my laundry go on the dolphin-shaped hooks outside my door. The exterior corridor is usually glistening and wet from the housekeepers spraying everything down, as the Iraqis have done since the Mesopotamian era. Carrying my steaming coffee, I pass through the basketball court and out into the sunshine and haze, passing the subterranean laundry smelling the powerful scent of the already washed clothes and towels. I carry myself to the DFAC (Dining FACility), passing the idling armored vehicles along the way with British, South African, and Iraqi PSDs waiting to whisk expats away to the airport or to meetings across the city. I wish every day that I were one of the people venturing beyond our T-walls. Maybe someday I will be, and I'll be able to post pictures of what Iraq actually looks like.

"صباح الخير" (Saba7 al7'er)

These are usually my first spoken words of the day, to one of the staff or my colleagues already eating at a table in the DFAC. I will speak these words, and other memorized pleasantries in my bag of rudimentary Iraqi conversation words several more times before I get to work, and even as I eat my meal. I order my eggs. Two whites, scrambled. I'm excited because now I can do it in Arabic. I pile my plate with slices of cucumber, and sometimes olives while I wait for the cook to send out my eggs.

I sip the dregs of my espresso before leaving on my 3-minute walk to the office. It's usually cold now, but I don't care. I'm convinced that Turkish (or Arabic)-style coffee has absolutely no caffeine in it, and for me it certainly doesn't pack any kind of a punch. I greet more people, trying to pretend that I don't feel self-conscious about the way I can see some people stare at me. I try not to care, though even after 5 months, it still bothers me.

There's nothing to look at on my way to work. Just t-walls, ash cans, and dust-covered vehicles that haven't moved in months because of the suspension of licenses for foreign-owned security firms. It's one of the reasons that most of us don't really get to go out much anymore. I'm thankful for the handful of times I was able to get out to one of the FOBs, or for a meeting in the IZ. I don't see it happening again for me any time in the future, though I would love to just walk out the front gates and around the corner to the market, to get a fresh juice, or to the bakery for some fresh pastries. With the re-issuance of the State Department warning and "you're on your own" statement we know we're orphans out here. Because we're here on USG contracts, we're pretty much required to have armed security at all times; I suppose it's for the best, but I find it highly annoying since having so much security brings a lot more attention to you than going around low profile.

Our offices look pretty much like any other offices, if you put them into a converted house-- it's a regular Cube-istan here with desks tucked into every room. Our house used to be beautiful with big windows (now covered with fencing and tarp to prevent a sniper from seeing in) and stained glass.

Sometimes, I like to enjoy a nice cup of strong tea in the garden and listen to the cars pass by on the other side of the impossibly high t-walls.

If you go upstairs in the house, you can make out some of the unfinished Al-Rahman mosque on the other side of the street with green flags featuring the face of the Imam Hussein blowing in the breeze. Construction on the mosque began under Saddam Hussein; it was destined to be the largest mosque in all of Iraq. Unfortunately, construction was halted due to the US invasion and the war, and from what I've heard, no one will dedicate any funds to completing the building. So looks like the mosque will remain unfinished and decaying indefinitely.

When the workday is over, I head to go back to my flat. The sun is starting to set, and the sky is hazy with dust. Once I'm home in my room, I change clothes, and prepare to go back out to play volleyball. I rush to the other side of the compound to play with my some of my friends. They are almost all locals, and my lifeline to a life outside the t-walls encasing our compound, they exist not just here, but also in the real Baghdad, living lives that as an American in Iraq, I will probably never get to see. I hear the muezzin sing the adhan again, and I know I'm late, the sun setting on another day in Iraq, as I run to the court. We play hard on the dusty court, and if it's not too cold, we might even play for 2 hours, shouting and laughing, losing track of the time that passes. It's almost always fun, especially if I can survive without being hit accidentally in the face by the ball, which happens (or nearly happens) more than you might think.

After we finish the five- or six-games, I go back to my flat to shower before dinner. I send up a small hope on my way to the DFAC, in hopes that it's not stir-fry night, in my opinion, the worst night of the food-week. By now, it's usually 7:45 or so, and my colleagues are probably already there. We will sometimes stay, talking until 8:30 or sometimes a little bit later, followed by the usual questions of, "what are we going to do tonight? Do you have plans?," to which the response is the same over-played joke about all of the things that we will do, if we weren't held prisoner here -- go shopping, to the market, to the movies, walking in the street, hiking, etc and all of the other things that we sacrifice as part of a free life by being here.

The sun has set on another day on Mansur Boulevard, and I'll go back to my flat to study and practice Arabic, or Skype with home, or read. Not the most exciting life, but it's the best one to be made here.

Behind the T-walls: R&R Debrief

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:59:00 +0000

Well, hello there friends! I've decided that because I don't have an e-mail address for everyone who might be interested in my Iraq adventures (as in, facebook friends, et al), I would start to post my previously mass e-mailings here. As this is a lifestyle, food, and travel blog, I really didn't feel the need to begin a new one specific for my life in Iraq, since this space is ready made with a following, and being in Iraq automatically meets our self-described manifesto! As Andrea's been diligently posting about her recent travels as well as her adventures in the kitchen, it's only fitting that I also discuss what's going on with me here in Baghdad! I can only hope that posting here will mean I will send updates more often...

As many of you know (and many who don't!), I have been posted in Iraq since August 24 of 2011. I'm not going to re-hash my musings on why on Earth I would want to come here just as the US Military began its departure, but I will talk a bit more about what my life here is like since I don't think that I've given much detail about that in the past, and I will also relay any other relevant information as well.

Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) The ceiling is covered in these weird PVC pipes, and if a good breeze blows through, they just might "sing" for you.

I left Iraq for a brief leave to go home in mid-December, and I returned to Baghdad just over a week ago. After nearly 4 months behind the T-walls, having the opportunity to go outside and do whatever I wanted was a little bit overwhelming at first. I went from only moving within an armored convoy, wearing PPG (personal protective gear), to being able to walk, unescorted out in the open. I stopped first in Dubai, and all I wanted to do was walk and shop, two things which are not possible here. For a while, I'd been more or less satisfied with the occasional off-compound visit, and I could get my shopping fix shopping on Amazon.com and sending things to myself through the APO. At the end of October, with the then-coming departure of the US military forces, we also lost our access to incoming and outgoing mail through the APO. Though through some personal connections I've been able to make here, I was able to receive a few straggling pieces of mail, though I'm still not sure how they made it to me instead of being returned to sender!

Anyway, when I arrived in Dubai, I went to the mall first, after dropping off my bags at the hotel. No, not the Mall of the Emirates, that would have been too much. After some direction from my boss, I opted to visit the Diera City Centre mall, very close to my hotel. It was a great choice! I did lots of shopping there, though not really for any Christmas presents, surprisingly. I enjoyed a coffee, a macaron (the French kind, not the coconut kind) and a newspaper (yes, an article about Iraq!) at the Paul Bakery in the mall.

Just me and Faisal I, enjoying a coffee.

I'd been doing research for months on just what I'd do when I got to Dubai. I decided that my first stop would be the Diera City Centre Mall. It's a 'small' mall by comparison with the massive Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, but with three stories, there was plenty to keep me occupied for hours. Plus, they had a branch of Paul Bakery, my favorite coffee and pastry shop in the world. This is where I sat for an hour or so, enjoying a coffee, ad marcaron, and a Gulf News article about (what else?!) King Faisal I of Iraq.

Following my coffee, I wandered around for about 4 hours until I was totally exhausted by all the things I finally had the possibility to buy, and decided to go back to my hotel for dinner before getting ready to fly back to the States. I made the wise choice to eat at an Italian place at my hotel. I had the option to choose from about 40 different restaurants, and all I could think was, that they don't do anything simply in Dubai. I picked La Casa Mia, and was really drawn by the prospect of REAL! Cheese! Pizza! Look at how beautiful this 4-cheese pizza is!

CHEEEEEESE! Beautiful CHEEEEESE!

Though the service wasn't spectacular, I didn't really care since I wanted more or less to be left alone, and I also was just trying to remember that I had to make sure to pay at the end of my meal (we don't pay for our meals here, so you get quite accustomed to just walking away when you're finished eating!). I also opted to have a dessert. I didn't have the energy to wait for the flowing chocolate lava cake that I really wanted, so I opted for the vanilla pannacotta with a raspberry (?) - mango sauce. Garnished with a real vanilla bean, I was definitely happy.

After dinner, I did manage to remember that restaurants require payment at the end of the meal, and then I headed back to my room to get ready for the 14-hour flight back to DC. The wonderful thing about this long-haul flight was that the galley was constantly full of snack-foods.The other wonderful thing? My account shows that I have the vegetarian/vegan option, and that means that I always get served first! The downside? The flight attendant will wake you up to force-feed you your special vegan food. The other downside: The flight is 14 HOURS!!! I don't even think our 2008 flight to China was that long...

When I arrived to Washington, I realized after I got outside, that I was actually a little bit afraid of riding in the car...on the roads...without armor on the car, or on myself. I think these feelings were completely unfounded, despite not riding in a light-skin vehicle in nearly 4 months, let alone in a vehicle at all in more than a handful of instances. As far as I could tell riding in the car after my arrival, every single car was trying to swerve into us. Needless to say, it took me a couple of days to re-acclimate, and be willing to drive at all.

I realize now that this recap is starting to get a bit long-winded. So let me just give you a few photo highlights of the trip:

Who doesn't need a little more Christmas in their life? I sure did!

Gettin' ready to chow down on some 'famous' chicken.

Amazing Midwestern Sunset!

Just home from Church at Christmas

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Making homemade pretzels with Auntie E

Making Christmas with Andrea - High Tea at the Mayflower on New Year's Day

A visit to pick up my membership wines from Doukenie Winery

Last night in town - Happy Hour at Ardeo + Bardeo with the girls

Whipped Cream + Alcohol...Yes

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:26:00 +0000

A friend of mine told me about Whipped Lightening, an alcohol-infused whipped cream in a can. How could this not be a good thing? It comes in multiple flavors and the website includes recipe ideas. I knew I had to try this.

The problem is that the closest store to sell it is near Baltimore and I was not renting a car to buy whipped cream. So since I had a lot of heavy whipping cream and a number of liquors I decided to try making my own. I had a couple girlfriends over and we narrowed down my collection to four likely suspects.

I've never added another liquid to the heavy cream so I didn't know how much I could add before the cream would no longer whip; so there was a lot of trial and error. You also might be asking yourself, Why would I need alcohol-infused whipped cream? Well that's a good question; but really why wouldn't you? I think it would just be a nice touch to desserts, a way to dress up coffees, top off a jello shot, whatever you want really.

We started with the Malibu.

I love coconut so I figured this would be really good. And it was pretty good. Our scientific method, which involved eating a lot of whipped cream, discovered the following:

Pros:
Yum coconut
Could do with a lot of things (anything chocolate, top of a pina colada, coffee, etc)

Cons:
Could definitely taste the alcohol burn of rum

We believe that a small addition of coconut milk (milk not cream as cream of coconut would break down the heavy cream) would help mask the rum and enhance the flavor.

Next up was the Buttershots.

This was the clear winner for all of us. My notes from our tasting only say "Yay!".

The Buttershots was followed by Godiva.

Aesthetically not quite as pretty as Godiva is a dark brown so it did color the whipped cream a little. Contrary to the Buttershots when we had nothing bad to say, with the Godiva we really had little good to say. With this we could also taste the burn of alcohol but, unlike the Malibu with which the coconut flavor was still very much evident, we couldn't taste any chocolate at all. We decided this was a good concept but could be helped along maybe by a small amount of cocoa powder or Hershey's syrup. It would also be interesting to experiment with some mixes and use both the Malibu and Godiva. Or Godiva and Chambord.

You can see how this experiment could have gone of forever.

However I only had a limited amount of heavy cream so we ended the project after the fourth liquor...root beer flavored vodka. (You might also be asking why would I have that. My answer is the same; why wouldn't I have that?)

This too had the heavy burn but like the Malibu you could still very much taste the root beer. The real problem with this one is the very limited application. Pretty much you could use it to top off root beer floats.

I would definitely still like to get my hands on some of the Whipped Lightening...largely because they have flavors like German Chocolate and Pumpkin Spice and I'm not sure how to make those on my own. It certainly was a fun experiment and I can see myself putting this to use in future dessert recipes. Especially since we're still in the dead of winter (when DC remember that it's winter and it's not 60 F that is) and I can see this nicely topping off hot chocolate.

Hazelnut Crunch

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:58:00 +0000

*I pre apologize that the formatting is all wonky. I don't know what's happening here and can't get it fixed.

If you like Ferrero Rocher chocolates you will love this cake. Like many recipes I found this on Epicurious and modified it a bit to suit my pocketbook. I will say that this is one of the fussiest recipes I've ever dealt with, but that aside I think it's also my new favorite chocolate cake recipe.

Cake
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/3 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
4 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar

First you have to sift the flour and cocoa powder three times. THREE TIMES

Also you have to clarify the butter. Melt the butter but try not to let it simmer. Once completely melted, skim off and discard the floaty stuff on top. Then spoon out the remaining liquid, leaving anything on the bottom of the pan alone.

Add the vanilla to the clarified butter and set aside.

Next you have to rig up a double boiler and whisk the eggs and sugar until they get warm. It definitely helps to pre heat the water otherwise it takes forever for the mixture to warm up.

When that's done, put your bowl of clarified butter/vanilla into the warm water in order to keep it liquidy.

Then using a standing mixer if you have one (you'll get really tired if you don't) whisk the warm egg mixture until it triples in size; roughly 5-6 minutes. When it's done it should be all white and frothy and trick you into thinking its meringue.

Then, somewhat incredibly, you have to sift, again, the blasted flour/cocoa mixture over the fluffed eggs. Do it in three batches and fold it all together, do not use the mixer. Finally fold in the butter.

Pour into a 9 inch, parchment paper lined cake pan and bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes.

Hazelnut crunch
Nutella
1 cup Rice Krispies
1/3+ cup chopped hazelnuts

This is where one of my modifications came in. The original recipe wants you to use some European hazelnut flavored chocolate that's so fancy you can only order it online. No. Why bother when there's Nutella? You can use Nutella on its own or what I did was melt some regular chocolate in a double boiler (I would recommend Baker's or Chiradelli) and then add Nutella. I didn't measure, I just spooned it in until it looked like I might have enough and then tossed in a little bit more.

Mix the hazelnuts with Rice Krispies (I used Cocoa Krispies because I knew I'd eat the rest of the box!) with chocolate/Nutella mixture.

Then spread it on the bottom of a parchment paper lined 9 inch spring form pan.

Before that hardens you'll want to press the cake on it to make sure that they stick together. So a bit of a late warning but hold off making this until the cake is cool enough to come out of the pan.

The mousse is one of the easiest things to make and one of the yummiest things to just eat. All you need to do is make whipped cream, use at least 1 & 1/2 cups heavy cream and beat until it's all whipped creamy, then fold in Nutella. I'd say use 2/3 to 3/4 of the smaller jar of Nutella. Spread that on top, dust it with cocoa powder, and viola!

I made this cake three times in two weeks. The second time was my contribution to dinner at one of my favorite cousin's house. I brought home a left over piece to my mom who loved it so much that I made it again a few days later for her birthday.

London; Just...Kinda Weird

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:47:00 +0000

After spending a week hijabed and locked behind blast walls, London, the last stop of my Georgia-Azerbaijan-Afghanistan-UK tour just seemed really strange and surreal. For one thing, it was a city, a proper functioning city with hot water.

Why there was a giant ship in a bottle in Trafalger Square I do not know.

Trafalger Square

The Christmas tree that Norway gives to London every year.

Also, Regent street was shut off to traffic for shopping and a mini carnival and there was some sort of Santa pub crawl happening.

There were Santas everywhere. In the above picture they'd stopped traffic on Picadilly and were singing the 12 Days of Christmas. Also there's no open container law in London so seeing hundreds of Santa Clauses running about swigging beers was odd. You cannot really tell from these pictures but some of the Santas were themed...there were Santas in president masks, zombie Santas, and we even saw two Santas wearing speedos, hats...and nothing else.

I did have a great time though, especially at the South Bank Christmas market:

Maybe a little blurry but quite the image nonetheless.

Discovering new drinks like the apple pie and custard martini

Sip martini, then sip the shot, swirl in your mouth and swallow. Complicated but yummy.

And exploring the Chrismtas market and ice skating in Hyde Park

Sadly there are no pictures of us skating because cameras were not allowed on the ice...so that they could have a staff photographer charge an outrageous 8GBP for a picture. After probably 20 years of not skating I did better on the ice than I thought I would; didn't fall once. Shocking I know. In four days in London it only rained once, and of course that once was when we were skating. And it didn't just sprinkle, it poured so we were skating through huge puddles.

I also went to a show called Uncaged Monkeys: In a Night of 200 Billion Stars...which was basically physicists being funny. Think Big Bang Theory but even more hilarious. And while I may have initially rolled my eyes at my friend when she said one of the guys was some sort of science heartthrob...I am now a Brian Cox convert. Also randomly in the program was a group called Feeding the Fish...I absolutely must have a pair of the pixel poi they use. MUST HAVE!! If anyone knows where I can get a pair please let me know. Tim Minchin also popped by the show...and if he isn't surreal then I don't know what is.

Also completely randomly...I showed up at Saint Peter's Sunday morning (the closest Catholic church to my hotel) all excited for Mass since I hadn't been in two weeks cause of the travel...only to discover Mass was in Italian. WTH?

So ended my first trip for the new job. It was the longest shortest trip I've ever been on and while I had some great experiences, I hope the next one will be a little more leisurely and will involve more hot water.

Kabul-Dude I Don't Even Know

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:35:00 +0000

So Kabul, yeah. I was pretty excited to go to Afghanistan because for one thing, it makes my EAW field cred soar. Also I figured that after I returned safely from Afghanistan, anywhere else I go in the future can't be as bad and I will point that out to my mom.

Frankly I don't even know what to say about Kabul. It was hard to form an impression since I wasn't allowed to walk around. A car picked me up each morning from the guest house and a car returned me to it in the afternoon. Many buildings are hidden behind high blast walls (my office and hotel included) and there are guys with big guns posted at every entrance. Because of this I also don't have a lot of pictures.

There's me all scarfed up. I had to wear one at all times outside the hotel. I could have taken it off in the office but several of the staff are very conservative and I figured I was causing enough scandal sharing an office and, gasp, eating with one of my male coworkers. So I kept it on.

The guest house I stayed in is called the Park Palace. I think the name overstates itself. When we drove up my coworker told me it might look like a prison (it did but then I discovered so did almost everything) but that it was fairly decent. It was surrounded by a high wall and a man with a gun went through my suitcase before allowing us to enter. We walked into a large, enclosed room and across the way a second heavy door opened to reveal two more men with guns. We walked through another courtyard and gate (where there was only sometimes a man with a gun) into the hotel's actual courtyard.

The room was actually not the scariest room I've ever been in. There were a couple in India and one in Serbia that were worse.

There was no heat so that tiny little space heater to the bottom right of the picture was all I had. I wore a lot of layers and rarely took off my coat while I was here. I also made a list of everything I should bring if I ever go back to Afghanistan, including: several flashlights, batteries, long underwear, lots of make up and hand wipes, heavy socks, and lots of sweaters. Electricity was iffy but it never stayed off for too long.

The bathroom was the trickiest part. Anytime I turned on the shower water went every where. Also there was no hot water. I spent almost a week making do with "washing up" but a couple days in I couldn't stand my hair anymore. I stood just outside the shower area and turned myself into Gumby so that the majority of the icily frigid water fell only on my head. It was not pleasant. My last day there the water coming out of the sink tap was so hot it was almost boiling. I got pretty excited only to find that the shower wouldn't even turn on that day.

I was in Kabul for the Shia holy day of Ashura. Ashura is generally bloody enough in that the devout beat themselves in the mosques...but this year on December 6 it was especially so as a suicide bomber walked into the Shia mosque courtyard and killed over 60 people and injured over 100 more. The New York Times ran a picture from the AFP that was shocking...both for content and that American media are usually more conservative. Many of those 63 killed that day were children. The bomb was thankfully in another part of the city, we didn't even hear it, but security was extra cautious over the next few days in fear of reprisals.

Looking at the city as it is now, I have a hard time imagining what it might have looked like before...and that there could have been a real city here at all.

This is Chicken Street, a market area with largely jewelry and textiles.

I was able to go to a couple more places than just the office and the hotel. I went with coworkers to a few restaurants. Getting in was a very similar procedure as with my hotel...except there were multiple signs posted barring carrying weapons and requesting that you deposit your sidearms with the guard. The guys I was with were also patted down while I, a woman, was allowed to pass through without a search. Which on the one hand showed their respect of women but on the other was incredibly stupid. You could fit a lot of weaponry under a burka.

In addition to Chicken Street I was also able to go to Darullaman, the (former) king's summer palace. It was, as you can see, destroyed but is being rebuilt.

The region is quite mountainous.

Now, I think I may have mentioned that I have airport fear. They completely freak me out. Getting into the Kabul airport did not help matters. The airport is only a 15 minute drive from where I was in the city, but getting into the airport took longer than the drive. We got to the main entrance and a male coworker had to get out and walk a few yards down the street and be patted down. The driver got out, was patted down, and opened the trunk so the guard could inspect the car. I just sat inside. We drove a little ways and all three of us had to get out and be patted down. Being female I went to one side to a small building where an older lady just ran her hands down me and sent me on while the guys got in the long line of men being searched outside. Then we had to take out our bags and run everything through an x-ray machine. We put everything back in the car and were driven to a small parking lot from which we then had to walk. We were stopped once to have our tickets inspected, then again in a few yards where my male coworker was searched. We were searched going into the airport, again I had to go into a separate small room, and bags were run through another x-ray. Then I checked in and went through another x-ray and metal detector at the gate.

I just hope the thrice damned TSA never experience that and get any ideas from it.

Baku-I think it was worth the visa fuss

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Ah Baku. Such an interesting blend of the very old and the very new. Azerbaijan seems to me to be as eastern as a country can be while still being part of the west. It's like the last barrier between Europe and lands of the rising sun as it were. It is also a really surprising mix of the very new and the very old. Azerbaijan has a rich history and its contemporary history includes black gold...oil. This means there's been a great deal of development in Baku especially. Some of that involves brand new modern buildings but it also happily involves putting nice, traditional facades on the ugly concrete blocks left over from Soviet occupation.

Black gold also means that the local currency, the Manat, is worth more than the US dollar. I think the exchange rate was about 1 Manat = 78 US cents. The Euro was only slightly more than the Manat with the Pound being, as ever, the clear winner...although not by much.

These three buildings are called the Three Flames and apparently will be the representation of an eternal flame for Azerbaijan. Gots to love oil money.

That's a metro station. Seriously! I didn't use the metro but the pictures on Wikipedia look fantastic. Each station is nicely decorated and, shock, well lit!! (hint hint DC metro you bastards).

Getting ready for Christmas.

There were interesting fountains everywhere.

Large pedestrian shopping area with major brands and high end designers.

This is such a perfect example of the new/old paradigm...the old city with a view of the Three Flames.

Then there's the old city

There was definitely some fun to be had in Baku.

The fanciest Turkish coffee ever

Smoking shisha while being entertained by Sophia the parrot.

Fried cheese. Yes.

They love carousels. I counted three or four. There also seems to be a permanent fair in one of the parks with rides.

I only had three days in Baku but hope I can visit again. The visa was a pain to get and involved a lot of time, money and confusion. Eurovision 2012 is going to be in Baku and I hope they're either going to lift the visa restrictions or at least make the process clearer. I got mine from the Azerbaijan embassy in Tbilisi which we thought would be easier...but it wasn't. It was a nightmare. If you want a visa for this country, plan two months or more ahead.

თბილისი

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:16:00 +0000

If you're reading this you know it's because you saw the title and though to yourself, "what the heck is that?!". That, is Tbilisi, Georgia. Isn't it the coolest alphabet ever?

I finally am getting to travel again. It's been so long since I've been abroad that I shudder to think of when that was. Tbilisi was my first stop on a four country tour to visit some of the offices I work with. In fact I don't actually have any work in Georgia, but I needed to go in order to get the extremely difficult visa for Azerbaijan. Although ironically the plane stopped over in Baku, Azerbaijan before continuing on to Tbilisi.

Having heard for years how fantastic Georgia is I was happy to take advantage of the situation; and happier to discover that all the hype wasn't for nothing.Tbilisi is utterly charming, if cold. I don't know why I didn't think it was going to be winter cold but I decided it wasn't and packed like it wasn't. Big mistake. I ended up wearing two pairs of socks everyday, often also with tights under my trousers, and wishing I'd brought thermal underwear.

Monument in Freedom Square.

Freedom Square

This trolly is no longer in use but sits here for, I imagine, photographic opportunities.

Cafe Marrakesh-I found the street of shisha :)

The city is full of these random statues. I wish I could have got pictures of more of them.

Had some fun with Photoshop effects.

In addition to being charming, Georgia is known for it's good food and wine. While I only have one picture of the food, I can attest that the reputation it enjoys is spot on.

Baked trout in pomegranate sauce. Yes.

I had dinner one evening at a traditional Georgian restaurant and the yumminess was awesome. Most notably, and something I will try to duplicate at home, eggplant covered in this walnut paste stuff. Dude. Dinner also came with three bottles of excellent Georgian wine; one white and two green. I am already planning a future vacation to explore the wine regions of Georgia. I did not drink all three bottles by myself but think I had the majority of the third bottle since my colleague was driving.

Speaking of driving-scary. I don't think I've ever experienced traffic quite so scary. People drive down the center lane, make u-turns in traffic circles, and have to back down streets when they cannot fit through. Part of the problem I think are the extremely narrow mountainous roads that people park on either side of ensuring that there's only enough room for one car to squeeze through. Which probably wouldn't be a problem if there were one way streets; but there aren't.

Views in the evening are almost as nice as those by day. These I took from the balcony of my hotel's restaurant.

I was really sorry that I wasn't able to spend more time exploring Tbilisi. The architecture, while often sadly neglected, is amazing, Old City charming, shopping extensive, and the food and wine delicious. I'm definitely planning a return trip that won't be bogged down by work and head banging attempts to get a visa from the Embassy of Azerbaijan.

Pumpkin Custard Profiteroles

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:21:00 +0000

Because I cannot do something as simple as a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I decided to make a dessert that was kind of a pumpkin pie with a twist-pumpkin custard profiteroles. These are made with a baked custard that has about the same consistency as does pie filling, but which is then put into hollow shells and drizzled with caramel.

I made the custard the night before so it had plenty of time to cool. what you'll need is:

3 cups whipping cream
2 1/4 cups canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
9 large egg yolks

Notice the one ingredient egregiously left out? Vanilla! I'm not a fan of vanilla per say and I generally find it to be the most boring flavor on earth; on it's own. But it's a staple spice for baking for Pete's sake.

So whisk the heavy cream and all the spices (including vanilla) and bring it to a simmer while stirring occasionally.

Instead of liquid vanilla I used this ground vanilla bean from Williams Sonoma and substituted regular salt for fleur de sal.

Whisk sugar and egg yolks in a separate bowl then gradually whisk in the hot pumpkin mixture. It wouldn't be a bad idea to whisk in a couple tablespoons at first to temper the eggs. You really don't want to accidentally cook them.

The pour the mixture into an 8x8x2 glass or ceramic baking dish (or whatever you've got that fits into a 9x13), cover with foil, place in a 9x13 pan and fill said pan about halfway with water. Bake at 325 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. You want the middle to be pretty solid and not jiggly.

Once baked, chill at least 4 hours (or overnight).

For the profiteroles:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk

Bring the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil.

Add the flour and cook over medium-high heat, stirring vigorously, until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to mixer and beat until slightly cooled, about 3 minutes. Then add the 3 eggs 1 at a time, totally incorporating each before adding the next. Then add the egg yolk.

Drop dough in generous teaspoons unto parchment covered cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 for about 30...or until they look golden brown.

And you're still not done because there's caramel sauce and whipped cream to make.

For the caramel sauce:

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Stir sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it's melted, then add the cream and bring to a boil whisking until all the bits are melted. Reduce to medium heat and simmer 5 minutes, then add the vanilla and simmer for another minute.

Whipped cream is relatively easy. You can cheat with the canned or frozen varieties if you like, or beat the bejesus out of heavy cream, adding a little sugar along the way, until it's nice and thick.

To assemble, use a sharp parring knife to cut off the tops of the profiteroles, generously fill with the pumpkin custard, then set the tops back on. Drizzle the caramel, as much as you like really, on top of each profiterole, top with whipped cream and chopped pecans.

And yum!

Rita Hayworth

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:02:00 +0000

My absolute favorite chocolate shop in DC is ACKC; seriously if you're in the are and you haven't been, you need to go. In addition to just selling chocolates, ACKC offers coffee, drinks, cakes, brunch, and hot chocolate. Some of the awesomest hot chocolates ever, all named after silver screen divas. My favorite is the Rita Hayworth which is dark chocolate with clove, orange, and caramel. I decided that since I like it so much I should make a cake in homage to it.

I started by halving the cake recipe I think of as my base chocolate cake. I hate halving recipes because a) math is not my thing and b) using half an egg is tricky business. But the recipe I have was meant for a multi-tiered cake and I only needed two 9" rounds for this. The only other thing I did different for this recipe was to add a few dashes of cloves and the zest of about three oranges.

Side note: I was concerned before I baked the cake the the batter tasted more like orange than it did clove and was tempted to add more; but after a quick phone call to my mom I concluded the the cloveyness might be more prominent post baking; and it was.

Also for this creation I used my mom's recipe to make caramel:

1 cup each sugar, butter and karo syrup.
1 can sweet & condensed milk
Vanilla

Melt the first three ingredients until they're all combined and the sugar is dissolved.

Bring to a boil and let it go, without stirring, for 4 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in the sweet & condensed milk and a wee bit of vanilla, then put it back on the heat and bring to a boil.

Let it boil while stirring often for 14-ish minutes.

This is the color it should be when done. And while it's tempting...I really wouldn't recommend sampling it right away.

Second side note: if you want to make the caramel for candy, let it boil for 15-16 minutes then pour into a 9x9 pan to cool and set up. Boiling it for less time leaves it a little more viscous for filling my cake or the inside of chocolate shells.

While the caramel cooled I prepared the cakes by making a well in the bottom layer. First I cut off just the raised top section then shaved out more until I thought I had a decent hole.

For future reference though, I think I would make less of a dent in the bottom later and make a similar well in the top layer. This way there ended up being a lot of cake on top, then a thick layer or caramel, then a thin layer of cake.

Once it was cool I pour off the caramel into the cake. It was partially set up already but all I had to do was use the spatula to smooth it all to the edges.

I next made a small amount of ganache, flavoring the heavy cream with orange extract before adding the chocolate. I let that cool for a bit then poured it over the cake, smoothing it down the sides.

The ganache wasn't as thick as I wanted so I put the cake in the refrigerator for a little while which helped the ganache to set.

Unfortunately I was under a bit of a time crunch so I couldn't complete it the way I wanted to. While I had a smooth covering of ganache I would have liked to do a caramel drizzle on top as well. Even though the decorating wasn't completed to my satisfaction though, it really tasted good. I served it with dollops of homemade whipped cream which I do recommend doing; it helps to cut down on the richness of the cake.

Foamy Raspberry Goodness

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:10:00 +0000

A friend of mine in town over Thanksgiving gave me "raspberry" as the main flavor she wanted for her rather belated birthday dessert. I quickly discovered that it's really hard to find a dessert that's all about raspberries and not chocolate with raspberries. I eventually did find one though: hot raspberry souffle.

I've not done a lot of souffle-ing so I had to get myself some ramekins. That done I just had to tackle the actual recipe and hope for the best. Souffles are supposed to be deceptively difficult due to the delicacy of the meringue and something about not walking around near the oven so they don't fall...all in all though it proved easier than I was expecting.

The recipe itself is fairly simple. To make 8 you need:

12 ounces raspberries
3 Tbs sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch

Blend raspberries and 3 Tbs sugar in blender or food processor. You are then supposed to strain it into a heavy saucepan but I neither have a strainer nor did I feel like trying to clean itty bitty raspberry seeds out of one (that's such a pain). However I don't think the recipe went bad for lack of straining.

Once you've got your strained or not juice into the saucepan, whisk in the cornstarch and heat until it boils and thickens to the consistency of pudding. I'd really suggest keeping your eye on this. I was trying to do other things at the same time and my mixture thickened long, I think, before it even thought about boiling and I almost lost it.

Cool this completely before doing anything else. I made it 2 or 3 days in advance of the actual souffles so it does keep well. But if you want to use it right away, put it in another container and put it in the freezer, stirring occasionally.

Next you need:

6 egg whites
2/3 cups sugar

Beat the egg whites until they turn a nice foamy white and form soft peaks. Continue beating and gradually add the sugar. Now you want to beat until it forms stiff peaks. Use caution because over beating will deflate the egg whites and you'll have to start again.

I always separate eggs with my hands...a little messy sure but I think it works better than the shell method.

Once you've achieved sufficient foamy stiffness, fold roughly 1/3 of the meringue into the raspberry mixture then add the rest.

This you will spoon into the ramekins you prepared earlier by buttering and sugaring the insides.

Bake at 375 for 15 or so minutes or until they puff up and are pale golden on top.

And viola! We ate them as they were but they would be lovely drizzled with chocolate or served with ice cream.

Maryland Renaissance Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:10:00 +0000

I was super happy to be able to go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival twice this year; once with a friend and once with my mom (who came to visit for the first time in 8 years). Since we'd both been a couple times already, my friend and I made a point of taking in as many shows as possible whereas my mom and I saw a couple shows but mostly wandered around.

I really think that the first show we saw, Flexible Comedy, was my favorite. My face rather hurt after from all the laughing.

Then there were the Pyrates Royal. I regret not having got one of their CDs but might order one from the website. They were pretty good and the tenor had a wonderful voice.

Also doesn't he remind you of Smee from Peter Pan? Then there were The Interpreters, the definition of bawd. One speaks Italian and one speaks blond. Very entertaining.

We also saw a group called Wine and Alchemy. I'm afraid I was already playing with my fun lenses by then so the only picture of that I have was done with a fish eye attachment.

I had good fun that day playing with different lens attachments. There was the fish eye:

And a Lensbaby double glass:

The day I went around with my mom was so much fun. She was like a little kid at Disney. Actually I should ask my sister what mom's first visit to Disney was like because I think she got a bigger kick out of the festival...and who wouldn't? She particularly enjoyed the costumes people had, especially the totally not having anything at all to do with that year's story line costumes.

We also saw the Dangling Darlings and she got some good shots of them.

We saw a Gypsy band, a gentleman randomly playing a spinet, and some lovely stilt walkers.

We also ran across a guy I saw last year. Last year I saw him only as a butterfly but this year he was a butterfly, a baby, and was riding a horse.

The horse contraption was adorable, looked somewhat like a My Little Pony actually. My mom fell in love with it. I think she was more enraptured than the kids. It was adorable.

That's mom in the stripes.

I also introduced her to the awesomeness of fare food including fried brownies and fried candy bars. I was pretty disappointed with the brownies and will, myself, be sticking to the candy bars in the future.

Best part of the day? I got my face painted. I was so pretty I waited until I absolutely had to to wash it off. In fact, if the next day hadn't been Sunday and if I didn't consider face paint somewhat inappropriate for Mass I think I'd have kept it on.

Can't wait for next year!

Travel Journal, Grand Canyon Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:12:00 +0000

Lauren's Journal: July 20, 2011 - Wednesday

This morning many of us were up before the coffee call. After a bit of morning yoga, we packed up camp, and loaded the boat before hiking up the canyon to the ancient granaries. I notice that everyone seems to have settled into camp life well, and the mood is quite easy today. The hike started in the sand, and ended up climbing several hundred feet of stone 'stairs.' I kept thinking back to the Great Wall in 2008, and Andrea's harrowing experience. I kept thinking about that on the way up, and also the horrors I read in the Death in the Grand Canyon, and when the guides start talking about people 'rag-dolling' down the mountain, I start getting nervous. Thankfully, my ankle held up without anything more than a little stiffness, but the hike probably did it some good in the end.

The hike's intensity and the heat increased in relation to each other. As the hike got more intense, so too did the heat. The hike quickly became what we referred to as 'The Death March." We were all sweating, guzzling water from our packs, and I was definitely panting, but the reward of the spectacular views of the river and canyon made it all worth it in the end. A few people had to turn back part of the way there, and though I'm not sure how I managed, I did make it to the top, and the view from there made it all worth it.

We took a break while sitting at the granaries, and some people climbed a few extra (perilous) feet to peer into the granary. I was nervous about that, especially since touching the stone there is verboten, and I was still having horrifying images in my head of rag-dolls falling of the canyon.

Coming down was much easier, especially since the temperatures cooled very quickly. The river is truly life-giving, and I was surprised by how much I missed it such a short amount of time. I think after the heat of the hike, we were all feeling relieved to be back on the water. Once we were back on the water, today seemed to be all about singing through the rapids (a trend that would continue until the very last day of our journey). The group appears to be gelling more, and getting comfortable with each other. This is really turning out to be an amazing trip, and I am so glad I could come!

The lunch spot was nice, with little bits of shade everywhere, and plenty of things to explore while we waited for the Azra crew to prepare lunch. I wandered around a bit and met a spiny lizard who was quite curious about what we were doing there. Judging by how much he liked to have his picture taken while doing push ups, I'm sure this little guy spends a lot of time in the company of and examining humans. In addition to the Lizards (which became our most photographed animals on the trip), this lunch spot also included a beautiful array of stalactites (on top) which looked like white soda straws hanging from the limestone rock face.

The Lunch today was Roast beef on whole grain bread with horseradish mayo, German mustard, avos, tomato, and Havarti cheese with dill. I don't normally like roast beef, especially not in sandwiches, but this was delicious! I ate my fair share (and more) of the cookies, and following Penny's lead, made apples with peanut butter, dried cranberries, and pistachios. When I felt stuffed later, I certainly knew why.

After lunch, I played Euchre with Luchs, Kelli, and Jones. We cut the game short to get back on the boat, where we headed for the Little Colorado and where Captain Dave had a great surprise in store for us!

On the hike, we saw this collared lizard who popped out from under the rock to watch us as we walked by. As we rounded the bend of rock along the riverbed, we could see the water changing into the prettiest, alkaline blue water.

When we arrived at the starting point, we were instructed on how to put our life jackets on like diapers so that we could flow down the river like this:

After this, we felt exhilarated! Many of us flowed down the shallow, lazy Little Colorado rather than hike back. It was a welcome and relaxing time back to the rafts before we headed to make camp for the evening.

Travel Journal, Grand Canyon Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Lauren's Journal: July 19, 2011 - Tuesday

I was up early again this morning, right around first light. I had the WORST night's sleep ever. We all put up tents because there were some clouds that made us think it might rain in the night. Mary and I put up our tent and the rain cover, and it was SO HOT and humid, I'm certain than neither of us hardly slept at all. And to make it worse, the rain never came, so there was all that heat and sweating for nothing! I don't have a watch or a clock, so I think that the coffee call came around 6:30. I was up early enough to hear the 'jet engine' sound of the propane-powered blaster used to boil the water.

The coffee we drink is Cowboy Coffee, which has obvious origins with American Cowboys of the West, and would have traditionally been made over a campfire. Cowboy coffee uses coarse grounds of coffee (think a larger grind than French Presse). Boiling water is poured over them, and when the grounds settle, it's ready to drink. It's usually not filtered, and judging by the grounds I chewed up when I was drinking mine, we won't be filtering ours either. Breakfast was a smörgåsbord which included eggs to order, bacon, cereal, fresh melon, yogurt, granola, and toasted bagels with jam.

The morning ride was brief, and we passed by Vasey's Paradise before stopping for about 30 minutes at Redwall Canyon -- a wide amphitheater-beach at the edge of the river. The guidebook says it is estimated to be large enough to seat about 50,000 people. I think that assessment is pretty accurate, if you'd be able to get 50,000 people on the river at any given time.

Most of us took pictures, because this canyon was pretty extraordinary, and of course, beautiful, as they all are. I also took the time to paint a mediocre water-color. Not even very good for mediocre, but so-so for my first try, I guess it wasn't bad.

After packing back up onto the raft, we rode for a while , and stopped for lunch. The Newman Ginger O's went quickly at dessert. The group is starting to gel some more, as we get more comfortable with one another. While stopped, some of us took the opportunity to take a bath in the freezing water. The water was so cold, so I could only go in thigh-deep and was shivering. Suffice it to say, I don't think I got very clean.

After lunch, we hiked the Buck Farm Canyon, just after mile 41. The hikes are all optional, due to the varying skill-level of the rafting groups. There was a bit of a scramble over the boulders on this hike, and that was probably the hardest part.

Once inside the canyon, there were some small ponds that played host to clouds of tadpoles, and young frogs.

On the way back, I twisted my ankle (the reconstructed one), and though I didn't pay much attention to it, once we made camp (Lower Nankoweap) and stopped moving for a while, it finally started to swell a little and hurt.

Tonight's dinner included burgers and brats on the bbq, and they were so good! The guides also surprised us with a fresh-baked carrot cake! I don't know how they did it with a camp stove, but it was a welcome surprise. After dinner, Luchs, Kelli, Mary, Kee, Jones, (who else was there?) played apples to apples around the circle. A larger group of us also tried to play chase the Ace, but it eventually got too dark. I took this opportunity to take some failed photos of the stars before going to bed.

Sleeping was tough again because of the heat. Plus, I was still irrationally paranoid that a bad, kangaroo rat, or cicada were going to eat me while I slept. A few times I woke up thinking that it was time to get up, but I was wrong. The moon was as bright as the sun!

Travel Journal: Grand Canyon Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:37:00 +0000

Lauren's Journal: July 18, 2011 - Monday

Yesterday, we left Las Vegas for Flagstaff. The ride was somewhere in the area of four or five hours, and I really enjoyed the ride with Kee, Luchs, and Jones. We left really early in the morning, so I slept some, read some, and we spent some time getting acquainted.

We stayed at the Radisson, and had orientation last night. We received the blue and white bags for our stuff, and Mary and I spent some time packing, and went to bed fairly early. My bag is SO heavy! I don't think I'll need all this stuff, but I can't seem to bring myself to leave it behind! I was up early this morning, and headed down to breakfast for a nice huevos rancheros (my favorite!). I sat with Sherilyn and Tom, and they gave me a coupon (w00t!) for 20% off my breakfast.

I look pretty perky for so early in the morning!

At 6:45am sharp, we began our journey to Lee's Ferry, where we picked up the boats, and hit the water. Our guide is Dave, the Swamper is Lauren (Swampy!), and the Assistant is Meghan.

The AZRA team got us on the water relatively quickly after a short orientation, and the water was calm where we pushed off. After a little while, we hit some rapids, and held on like our lives depended on it...well, at least I did. And WOW! was the water cold! I think that this time of year, the temperature is between 45 and 55F. When the air temperature is 100F, the water feels even colder.

Just after Badger Rapids, we stopped for lunch with grilled chicken Ceasar salad wraps, dried mango, and GORP. This stop was pretty long, so many of us took the opportunity to take some pictures. Here are a few of mine from this stop:

Wedding Cookies part Deux

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:35:00 +0000

Last summer when my sister got engaged I made some wedding themed sugar cookies for her. The wedding has since come and gone but, since it took place in Mexico, few of our family attended. To make up for that, and possibly as an excuse for my dad to raise a pole barn, my parents are hosting a reception for them in Michigan this weekend. I am actually negative about four days of vacation (since I did go to Mexico) so I can't go. In lieu of my attendance I'm sending another batch of wedding themed cookies. I have a sad feeling that they'll arrive and my mom will open a big box of crumbs. Thankfully I documented the process so everyone can see what took me three days to do. And that I didn't just send a big box of crumbs. Although that would have been easier.

I started with a bride-shaped, champagne-shaped (does anyone else pronounce that sham-PAG-na to remember how to spell it? no?), and cake-shaped cookies cutters, both regular sugar cookies dough and chocolate sugar cookie dough, and a super duper floured surface.

I despise rolling out dough. This is one of the main reasons why I don't use fondant. Well that and the nasty taste. But I no less dislike rolling out cookie dough. And I rolled, and rolled, and rolled. For days. But then I had lots of cookies!

Yum! First I outlined all of them with royal icing and got to work decorating.

I'm very serious about my decorating. I had two colors of sugar sand, markers, royal icing mix, gold and silver powder (which amuses me for the warning label that says non toxic but not recommended for consumption;), color gels, little sugar ball things...and more. And the vodka was legitimate decorating. You have to mix the gold and silver with clear liquor to make a paint. I also made some buttercream as an alternate to the royal icing.

I was really annoyed to remember that buttercream always comes out rather yellowish (duh) so I added some blue to cleverly come up with the sea green the groom wanted (but did not get) for the wedding color. Sadly none of the buttercream frosted cookies took to my decorating techniques very well. Obviously I couldn't send those. So I ate them. Oh the sacrifices!! I used the food safe markers for most of the decorating. Mostly I just doodled but the bride cookies got a lot of poetry. Some of my favorites:

Shame my handwriting isn't better.

Homage to my other blog!

I used the chocolate dough exclusively for this topsy turvey cake shaped cookie cutter I got for Christmas. The cookie cutter came with three decorating mats for use with fondant (yuck + rolling = no) or buttercream. The buttercream just didn't work out for me so for these also I used royal icing and food markers.

I was pretty happy with these.

Also, can I say how awesome it is that I used both a bottle of vodka and the Bible for decorating? 'Cause it is awesome.

Wedding Bells

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:21:00 +0000

A few months ago my sister got married. It was a lovely beach event at the Barcelo Maya Palace resort in Cancun, Mexico. Rather than spring for the resort's pricey photographers, who according to other family who've been married there, aren't very good, my sister just asked that anyone with a camera please take pictures. I was in the wedding so I wasn't able to crawl around and get shots like I did for the last family wedding. A cousin of ours took pictures of the wedding but I was able to take a lot of the posed shots. When not required to be in them of course. I really really prefer to not actually be in pictures.

While I don't normally take pictures of people, largely because I don't really like people and therefore have a hard time relating to them in a photograph, I had a lot of fun with these. Partially because I do actually like my sister but also because I got to play with a lot of neat Photoshop effects!

They did a sand pouring ceremony to signify their unity.

They happy bride and groom.

I love to do this, make one element in the picture color. I get a little carried away and do it a lot.

See there I go again.

I also love the black and white.

And I could totally pretend that this was the result of my awesomeness but really it's an effect called 'glamour glow'.

Also I bought that bracelet for her. So glad she wore it!

This says everything you need to know about my sister.

The reception was on a section of the beach far from the resort buildings. It was quite excellent. Very private, they'd marked out a space on the beach with candles for our dance floor, and we just plugged an mp3 player into speakers for music.

Hands down my favorite shot. Not really sure why. Also that little land outlet ... abandoned resort. There was a brief plan to go investigate but then we heard there were pirates. And not of the sexy Johnny Depp breed.

Ah the toasts.

Also a little roasting.

Those of us who were able to attend spent a truly lovely week helping them celebrate their marriage. For me I decided that I was going to decorate my Caribbean getaway much like the resort when I either a) start making money as a blogger or b) take up the drugs/arms running career I'd planned at university.

No really that was my plan.

United States Botanic Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:48:00 +0000

Last month my little brother came for his first visit to DC. One of the first places we went, and to which he subsequently returned twice more, was the US Botanic Gardens so he could practice with his new 60mm lens.

Moment of jealousy that I don't have a 60mm lens.

I had to settle for using my 35mm but, thanks to some great Photoshop effects, I ended up with some pleasing shots I wanted to share.

A Non Traditional Cake ... Really Non Traditional

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:14:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Lauren!! Yesterday was Lauren's 32nd and this year she decided to challenge my construction skills, patience, and ability to not eat ice cream the instant it comes out of the machine. I don't know how she found this, but What's Gaby Cooking had a crazy dessert she asked me to make. I've certainly made ice cream cakes before (in fact I think I made that particular one twice last summer) but this was something more.

I started with the brownies. I have to admit that I almost always use box brownies. I just have not found a recipe that makes better tasting brownies than almost any box mix. That is however, the only box mix I use. I poured the brownie batter in three 9" pans and after they cooled I wrapped them in wax paper and cling film. I had a busy week so I needed to make them well in advance and freeze them.

They really freeze very well.

That same night I started ice cream number one, mint chocolate chip. Both ice creams (yes both) were firsts for me. The mint chocolate chip was super easy to make. I have two recipes for it and decided to not use the custard-based recipe, which is usually what I use, but to make what is apparently a Philidelphia style ice cream:

3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon peppermint extract
green food color

Heat the heavy cream until those small bubbles form around the edges. Do not let it boil. When you see the little bubbles, pull it off the heat and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. After it's cooled to room temp add the peppermint and the food coloring. The food coloring isn't necessary of course, but mint ice cream just isn't the same if it's off-white, is it? I refrigerated the cream overnight and ran it in the ice cream maker the next evening. After it had partially firmed in the maker I added mini chocolate chips. It's always a little iffy adding solids to the ice cream maker. It hiccups a little and makes angry noises but hasn't broken yet.

It was very, very green. Also, I would recommend slightly less than a full tablespoon of peppermint extract. While it blended well with everything else in the dessert, on it's own the ice cream was rather too refreshing.

Then I made the chocolate chip cookies. Sure there are plenty chocolate chip cookie recipes out there; but why look anywhere other than the back of the Toll House bag?

There's just something about cookie dough that begs to be eaten, isn't there? I mean what's better than whipped raw eggs, butter, and sugar?!

Oh yes, when you add chocolate!

Yum! I also used one of my baking secret ingredients for the cookies. I don't use vanilla extract. I haven't since I really started doing a lot of baking. I only ever use real vanilla. It's not that inexpensive but I have been to Mexico a couple times in the last few years and while I do not bring back sombreros or tequila; I do bring home vanilla. Lots.

Also a side note to the makers of baking parchment paper. Love you, great product, but the size is a bit off. Have you ever worked with parchment paper? Sure the wideness is great if you're using it on a cookie sheet or something but when cutting rounds for anything less than a 12 inch cake pan you end up wasting so much. Case in point:

So I'm just saying, think about making a couple different sizes, eh?

Next was ice cream number two. I find it incerdible that after making ice cream for what, three plus years now? this is the first chocolate ice cream I've ever made. How is that even possible? Chocolate is my favorite! I guess it was worth waiting for though because this is seriously the best chocolate ice cream ever. Do you remember Jello Pudding Pops? If not I feel deeply sorry for you. No clue why they were taken off the market since they were some of the best things in the entire world. But if you have this ice cream you'd have an idea of how good they were.

1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

Blend the sugar, cocoa and eggs until smooth

Bring milk to a boil in a heavy sauce pan. Unlike with the mint this time you actually boil it. Then slooowly pour it into the sugar/cocoa/egg mixture blending the entire time. My recipe book suggested using a food processor but I was too lazy to get mine down from its spot on the top shelf of the cabinet. And be careful, it will spatter.

Pour everything back into the saucepan and on medium to low heat stir constantly with a wooden spoon or whisk (I prefer whisk) until it thickens. I poured it back into the bowl again right away to help it cool faster. Once it was about room temp I put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight. One thing I like to do before putting these ice creams away to chill is to cover them with cling film; but not just cover like you do normally. I put the cling film directly on the ice cream.

This helps keep that nasty skin cooked milk things get. That's just gross. This one didn't go through the ice cream maker quite so well but I think it's because I hadn't let it freeze long enough.

The night before the birthday it was assembly time!! At this point you should have: 2 different ice creams, 2 9 inch cookies, and 3 9 inch brownies. Oh, you also need craem cheese frosting. Whip 1/2 stick soft butter, 8oz cream cheese, and powdered sugar to taste and ta da!

Step 1: Spread mint chocolate chip ice cream on top of brownie

Step 2: Press cookie gently on top of ice cream and freeze for at least 30 minutes.

Step 3: Spread chocolate ice cream on top of cookie, press brownie gently on top of ice cream, and freeze for at least 30 minutes.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2. Freeze overnight.

Step 4: Cover with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting.

Step 5: EAT!

I think the above shot is worth repeating but with some handy Photoshop labeling so you can see the various strata.

Hmm...hope you can see that. It's much smaller than when I viewed it in Photoshop. But awesome right? It tasted pretty good too I must say. And I am happy to report that unlike my last post, this cake caused no breakdown or emotional outbursts of any sort.

Follow the Butterflies*

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:28:00 +0000

Absolutely aaaages ago I co-hosted a pre-wedding party for two colleagues who got married this spring (but not to each other). My part of the job was, of course, dessert. I had huge plans that I was positive were completely unfailable.

I got up the day of the party really early to start baking. I had to make two batches of cake batter to fill a 12, 10, and 8 inch pan. And the baking took for-ever. Once those were in the oven I got down to the business was the chocolate. The bride co-worker only requested that something be chocolate. I decided I would jump on the cake pop train but make brownie pops (because obviously brownies are better than cake). I made the brownies the night before and decided that I was not going to mix in frosting as I've done with the brownie balls I've made. That was stupid. I thought this would be the easy part of the day but it turned out not so much. You know how brownies get all nice and crispy and slight hard on the top and around the edges? That actually makes it really difficult to smoosh them together into balls. I had to make sure that the crispy bit was never on the inside of the brownie.

I finally got all the balls together and sticks shoved through them. Then I regriderated them in hopes that making them cold would make them easier to deal with. Using a double burner (ie a coffee mug in a pot of hot but not boiling water) I melted pink, blue, and purple white "chocolate" for dipping. I bought a styrofoam cake form and used it to hold the pops while they dried. Before they were completey dried I decorated them with sugar bells and butterflies.

A few died along the way which was sad but yummy. I ate the dead ones. Can't let food go to waste.

Then the cake. I started by ordering a patterned Wilton decorating matt I'd had my eye on for a while and running by the local bake shop (in the rain) for a cake board and more royal icing mix. The cake was to be a three tiered lemon raspberry covered with white chocolate mousse. I would then pour a pale yellow thin royal icing over each layer and after it hardened I was going to press the form into it to make a nice pattern.

Things started out fairly well. The cakes came out well, I managed to slice them in half with little incident and the white chocolate mousse came out very nicely. Assembly went pretty well too. Pictured is the 8 inch cake but I even managed the 10 and 12 inch rounds without the cakes falling apart. I think I got too cocky.

I even did the cakes properly this time. Unlike the Great Cake Disaster, this time I put each layer on its own cake board separator thing and drove straws through the cake at strategic points. Not more dowels shoved through multiple layers to please God hold this cake together resulting in slices with slivers thank you very much!

Each cake went into the fridge for the getting cold while I mixed up the yellow royal icing. I left it a little thin so it would pour nicely. That is what I would remember as mistake number one. I poured icing over each cake and then back into the fridge they went. I checked them an hour or so later and notices that the icing was not only not hard ... but it seemed to still be running off the top. So I figured it just wasn't cold enough yet. Back into the fridge.

An hour later, same story.

And another hour after that.

And after that.

And after that.

Then panic started to set in a little because it was getting pretty close to the time when Lauren was going to pick me up for the party. And the blasted icing had not hardened. At all. There was just a pool of icing around each cake. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if all the icing had just slid off but no. I put the three tiers together anyway and hoped for the best.

The best did not happen.

In a desparate attempt to fix it I slapped more mousse over the melty icing. Two problems there. One, the three tiers were already assembled so now the cake did not look like three separate tiers but one tall cake that simply tapered off at the top. Two, mixing mousse with un set up royal icing was just a truly bad idea. Then I had another bad idea.

I took the leftover sugar butterflies and carefully placed them in concentric patterns around each layer. Only to notice that the pattern in my mind was just a nonsensical mess. And that pale yellow frosting combined with pink, blue, yellow, and green butterflies made the cake look like it was for a two year old's birthday party. And that said two year old decorated it. Then I had an even worse idea.

I decided to put on more mousse to cover up the butterflies.

Two full months later and I'm still banging my head on hard things when I think about this. Needless to say, the extra extra mousse just made things worse. And then, believe it or not, it got worse. I blame this on a number of things:

I had just quit my job.
I was fully realizing that, having quit that job I would no longer be getting free trips to hang out with my friends in Serbia and Kosovo.
I had this fail proof plan for a beautiful cake that somehow failed anyway!!
I was on cake decorating failure 3,000.
And about three other things that I don't want to list.

So I started crying. And I don't cry prettily. There are not tears that fill the eyes, overflow, and roll delictely down the cheek. No no. My face gets all red and scrunches up and heave out harsh sobs. Totally unattractive. I sobbed all through reading Lauren's text that she was 10 minutes away and all through getting dressed and fixing my hair. I about had it under control until I looked at the cake again. I'm sure when poor Lauren came in to my hysterics she was probably sure that my cat had died or something.

She came into the kitchen where I was standing in front of the cake (and I use that word lightly) with one arm wrapped around my middle and the other covering my face. Sobbing loudly. And hysterically. When asked what was wrong all I could do was gesture emphatically at the "cake". Lauren looked at it, then looked back at me.

"What?"

"It's hor-horibble!"

"No, no it's fine."

"NO IT ISN'T!!!!"

"No, look, we can fix it. We'll just add more butterflies."

So we threw more butterflies at the cake while I continued to cry. When they were all gone we left for the party. The ride there I had to keep pushing the 10 inch back onto the 8 inch. The damn royal icing was still so runny that the cakes were sliding off each other. On the way Lauren tried to reassure me that the cake would still taste fine. To which I responded:

"I don't care how it tastes!"

We got it to the party with no more major incidents. The people I worked with are overly nice and praised the cake to no end. I looked at them all like thery were idiots.

Also, side note. When directions tell you to put cake tiers on those separators for stability they do not mention what a mess they are to deconstruct!! All the frosting sticks to the bottom of the cardboard and not the top of the cake. No wonder they take away wedding cakes to cut them. And another note, if anyone knows how tiered cakes covered with smooth fondant don't slide off each other when I couldn't make them hold with sticky mousee/royal icing...please let me know.

Now I suppose if you've stuck around this long it's because you want to see the creature. sigh. I guess you deserve it.

And no ... I couldn't even bring myself to eat a slice.

*10 points if you know the reference!

A Retrospective

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:44:00 +0000

After many many years, too many of them really, I'm leaving the job that introduced me to the Balkans and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. I'm not sorry to be leaving the job but I am sorry to lose the trips to see my friends in Serbia and Kosovo. I have been incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to come to know these countries and people (and the food!). They're what kept me at my job for so long and I will miss them.

Belgrade Parliament

Jewish Cemetary, Belgrade

Kalamegdan, Belgrade

Radnom side street, Belgrade

St. Mark's Belgrade

I can't believe I've never been inside

Busy cafes, Novi Sad

Novi Sad

Mocaccino from my favorite coffe house, Belgrade

Dinner at Iguana with friends, Belgrade

Skadarljia, Belgrade

Mother Teresa museum, Skopje

Old city in Skopje

Yummy yummy meat, Pristina

Prizren, Kosovo

Prizren

Sarajevo

Bas Carsa, Sarajevo

Sarajevo, BiH

Old city in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Kotor, Montenegro

Cetinje, Montenegro

However all is not lost. My new job comes with vacation, which I'm hoping I'll get to use more than every other year, and I will return! Even Bill wishes me well and hopes I'll return soon :)

Pristina

Coconut-Peach Layer Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Another birthday another cake. With the advent of spring I chose something fruity and decided that peaches, while still out of season, would be my muse. And also coconut because I love coconut. Like many of my recipes I got this one off Epicurious. I heart the Epicurious.

Cake

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut
4 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Filling
1/2 cup peach preserves
3 pounds peaches, peeled, cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch-thick slices
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Frosting
3 cups chilled whipping cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canned sweetened cream of coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl then whisk buttermilk and sour cream in another bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. If, like me, you forget to take out the butter soon enough to soften it, about 10 seconds in the microwave and you're good to go. Gradually beat in the sugar scraping down the sides, then add cream of coconut, egg yolks, and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk mixture in 2 additions. Beat egg whites in another large bowl until stiff peaks start to form but be careful to not over beat. Fold into batter.

Divide batter between either 2 9" round pans or if you're me, 4 because you hate slicing cakes in half. I usually Pam the bejeesus out of the pan, line it with parchment paper, the Pam it some more. Or you can be fancy and butter/flour/parchment it. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Maintain oven temperature once cakes are done and put in the 3 cups if coconut spead on a large baking sheet.

Bake until lightly toasted. I'm a nervous coconut toaster so I took it out and stirred like half a dozen times. Epicurious claims you should only have to do it once in 14 minutes.

For filling:
Stir preserves in small saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Cool slightly.

Toss peaches, sugar, and lemon juice in large bowl.

Add preserves and toss to combine. Honestly if I do this recipe again, I'd either at least double the amount of preserves or lose it all together. I can't say that I really saw the point.

For frosting:
Beat heavy cream, vanilla, and craem of coconut in large bowl until peaks form. Make extra because you're going to need to lick the beaters several times. Yum-ME.

Drain peach filling of excess juices. Cut cakes horizontally in half (or just use 4!). Place 1 cake layer, cut side up, on platter. Top with 1/3 of peach filling then frosting and repeat.

I couldn't properly drain my peaches so I used the big slotted spoon I use for crab rangoon frying which helped drain them. The first layer i just dumped the peached on the cake.

Layers two and up I made nice, organized circles of peaches. You should go with my first scoop and dump method. I got way more peaches on that layer and it was noticable.

Spread top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.

Cover cake completely with toasted coconut. I once again utilized the 'throw the coconut at the cake' method. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day.

This was really good. Peach plus coconut? Genius! I would have liked to have used fresh peaches but the availability of decent fresh peaches right now is pretty slim so I went with the frozen variety. If fresh are available though, definitely go that route even though it'll be pricier and take more time.

A Glazed Almond Cookie Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:30:00 +0000

It's been a few weeks since my last post, so I hope that you've enjoyed reading about Andrea's Iron Chef victory with Garlic Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches. I'm glad to know that they were a hit, especially because I hope they don't reappear at home. I don't ever want to smell 3 heads of roasting garlic in the middle of the night ever again. It made for some strange nightmares. But I digress, we're talking about Christmas cookies, right? Yes...and it's March, so I'm right on time, of course. So let's get started!

My grandma (by way of my stepdad, but grandma just the same) used to send dozens of cookies around to her children/grandchildren every year at Christmastime. She doesn't do it anymore, and I really miss it. One year, I asked her to send me her recipes, and she did! Now, I try to make two or three different kinds each year.

I read a blog called Eat, Live, Run on an almost daily basis. The author's name is Jenna, and I love the way that she presents her recipes. She usually begins with a mise en place, meaning everything in place. I think this is a great way to start out all cooking, because your prep is done, and everything is lined up happily waiting for you to use it. Sometimes, however, there are lots of steps involved before your mise en place is complete.

For these cookies, the almonds first need to be blanched.

See grandma's hand-written recipe back there?!

In reality, this is my favorite part of making these cookies. I boil some water, drop the almonds in for 1 or 2 minutes (you don't want them to lose their crunch), and then strain them out, and submerge them in a bath of ice water. Then, strain them again, pop the skins off of the almonds one by one. I love this part because it's like taking a jacket off of each almond, and what emerges is a beautiful, perfect almond.

Next, we chop!

In this picture, you see the almonds in every stage: un-peeled, naked, and chopped.

After that, we gather all of the other needed items, and assemble our Glazed Almond Cookie Mise en place!

Now we can get started. First, we cream the butter and sugar:

Then, we mix in the flour, eggs, and chopped almonds, until you get this lumpy dough with almond pieces:

Once it's all incorporated, roll it all together into a dough log. Since the recipe has so much butter in it, I find that the dough tends to melt really easily. So i like to roll it into this log, and pop it into the freezer for 30-45 minutes until it's firm enough for me to start hacking at it with my tablespoon measuring spoon.

I take my measuring spoon and roll each cookie into a ball. This is the perfect size for them. Then, you drop them into egg whites before placing them onto a buttered Cookie Sheet. Then, you press a plain almond into the top of each one.

Bake them in the oven until they're golden. Make sure that you take them off the cookie sheet as soon as possible, because the combination of the egg-white and sugar on the hot cookie sheet will cool into a something as hard as a rock. Put them on a cooling rack if you have one. Since I don't, I just do what my mom always did, and just lay the cookies onto some paper towels on the counter or table.

And that's it! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Garlic Ice Cream Sandwiches

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:16:00 +0000

Oh yes I did.

Every once in a while my office holds its own Iron Chef competition. Usually the winner of the last competition chooses the ingredient but because several years have passed the organizer put it to a vote. I was torn between two of the options, sweet potato and garlic. I figured if sweet potato won I'd sweep the field with another Turcaken. But I do so love garlic. In the end I voted for garlic and it won so I got down to business planning a garlic dish. Of course I was going to do a dessert because that's where I excel in the cooking. But what to do? My mind went immediately to garlic ice cream which I'd been dying to try but that alone did not seem to be unique enough to enter. So I did some Googling for garlic desserts to see what was out there and one of the more interesting recipes I came across was garlic chocolate chip cookies. And then I figured, I could make it even better if I made regular chocolate chip cookies with garlic ice cream. And so began the terrible adventure.

The ice cream was easy and pretty much went the way of all my ice creams:

5 heads garlic (heads, not cloves)

2 tablespoons butter
1 liter half-and-half cream
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks

I roasted the garlic the night before I made the cream base (not for any recipe reasons, just because I didn't have time to do everything at once) and the entire apartment smelled like garlic for a while. I was constantly hungry and all I wanted to do was get some bread and butter and eat the air.

Peeling the five heads took forever and was something of a sticky mess. But I finally got them all done and into the blender.

Mmmm...garlic!!!

Then I made the base by mixing the cream and sugar in a saucepan, heating to the boiling point and pouring it over the egg yolks while whisking briskly.

Then about a cup of that went into the blender with the garlic.

And I pureed until it was as smooth as possible.

Then mixed it in with the rest of the cream base.

I let that sit in the fridge overnight because I like to start with my base being as cold as possible before putting it through the ice cream maker. That night I also made the cookie. I had to have enough ice cream sandwiches for 50-60 people so I made two batches of Toll House cookies. The only thing I did differently than the Toll House recipe was I used Ghiradelli chocolate because it's better and I used bitter instead of semi-sweet for more of a contrast.

The next day i mixed up the ice cream and made the sandwiches. I really could have used a lot more time for the process and it was a pain. It took me about three and half hours to make all the sandwiches. The ice cream didn't have a lot of time to set up so I could only make about 6-10 of them before I had to rush everything back into the freezer and wait 15-20 minutes for it to refreeze. Then repeat proceedure over and over and over. But finally they were done!

I have to say that I was a little afraid that my culinary genius had lead me astray. I'd sampled some of the ice cream and, despite my adoration of both all things garlic and ice cream and my tendancy to use garlic rather more liberally than most people prefer, the ice cream was so strongly garlic it even made me a little sick. While still convinced of my baking superiority I wondered if I hadn't crossed that thin line into mad scientist genius?

Lauren gave me a ride into work as my two heaping pans of ice cream sandwiches would never have survived the hour metro ride. As it turns out half of them didn't survive. It was raining heavily and while balancing the two pans, my bags, and an umbrella while trying to catch the door she opened for me...the top pan of cookies slid off my pile and ended up in the wet wet gutter. Lauren was in the car covering her face with a CD so she didn't have to look and I just stood outside letting the rain soak me as I watched all my hard work go, quite literally, down the drain.

I looked at Lauren and gave a little sob. "Sniff" said I (I tend to verbalize my sniffs and sighs). I got in the car and rode into the office in silence. I entered the competition anyway with what remained but my zeal for the whole thing was nowhere to be found. Competition time came and I had a small bite of one of the sandwiches. I knew I had to try it as entries were supposed to be secret and I couldn't just ignore it but I certainly didn't want the while thing. The little bite I had though was pleasantly surprising. Against the sweetness of the cookie and the chocolate, the garlic flavour of the ice cream was much subtler than it was on its own. I was not the only one to enter with a dessert and hadn't expected to be. There were, funnily enough, garlic chocolate chip cookies and a garlic peach sorbet along with a slew of savory foods.

Everyone sampled and discussed and scored and a few hours later, after recheking all our math and tabulating all the results, the event organizer announced that the next Unnamed Organization Iron Chef was...

Me!

Use of this photo courtesy of Unnamed Organization's communications guy who doesn't really know I'm using it :) Thanks Dude.

I was really surprised. Really and honestly. There were a couple things that I liked better than my dish but I think I edged out those with originality points. So yay me! My confidence in my culinary genius as been restored. Now I get to choose the ingredient for next year. Currently I'm waivering between bacon and lemon...but I have a whole year to be indecisive or choose something completely different.

Zambia Favorite Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:00:00 +0000

I've been promising since forever that I would share my pictures from Zambia...now that I've had two trips, I'm posting here some of my favorite pictures from each of the trips:

Roadside Mango Sales:

Victoria Falls:

Toad in the Hand:

Kids:

Girl with wheelbarrow:

Girls spinning troupe:

I wish I knew what kind of flower this is:

Leopard rug:

Tiny Praying mantis:

Giraffe:

Me on Safari game drive:

Elephant