Cherry Tea Cakes

Chocolate Stripe Cookies

2012-02-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

Last year, Butchie and I made these cookies à la glass shards. Yep. Plastic wrap is important.

Needless to say, the pictures were not the best. The cookies were not the best and in general this needed a do over.

So..........here it is!

These cookies happen to be my favorites. They are subtle, simple, adorable, and in my opinion taste best frozen. The stripes are easy to make. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (shocker) and my little trick to make the lines beautifully straight is to put plastic wrap over the top of each layer of dough and smooth it a second time. The plastic wrap will help you get rid of any fingerprints and dips in each layer of dough. It's not necessary. The cookies will be very cute either way, but if straight lines matter to you, try my trick.

Oh, and if you're not a fan of rum flavoring (I am) I'd try almond, raspberry, or peppermint!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Stripes

adapted from Chocolate Ribbon Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/4 teaspoon rum flavoring

In a mixing bowl beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda, and salt; beat until combined. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour.

Divide dough in half. Knead the melted chocolate into half of the dough. Knead the rum flavoring and mini chocolate chips into the other half of dough. Divide each portion of dough in half.

To shape dough, line the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with clear plastic wrap (DO NOT skip this). Press half of the chocolate dough evenly in pan. Top with half of the vanilla dough, the remaining chocolate dough, and the remaining vanilla dough, pressing each layer firmly and evenly over the preceding layer.

Invert pan to remove dough. Peel off plastic wrap. Slice the block of dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices. If desired use cookie cutter to cut out fun shapes, otherwise, cut the slices into thirds. Place cookies 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Bake cookies in a 375 degree F. oven about 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.

Valentine's "Nuts About You!" Craft

2012-02-10T12:53:00.001-05:00

For Valentines last year I made some sad sad horrid little cookies that ended up breaking glass shards in them. Fail. The year before that I made some valentine's fortune cookies and ended up breaking up with the guy (okay like 8 months later but c'mon! it was good word play). This year I decided cookies were a BAD plan. They don't seem to work out for me. My valentines instead will be receiving these little packages filled with Valentines Jordon Almonds that I got from Oh Nuts. Cute eh? The tagline is: [Insert name here] I'm nuts about you because [of the reason I inserted here]. Cute? Cheesy? Adorable? All of the above.

Now, for those of you who paid close attention to the photo it calls Butchie my son. It's an inside story. If you liked reading the photo, try reading the story! ....and yes, Brandon's box says "rawr!" No it's not exactly a touching heartfelt message for your boyfriend.....but if you're boyfriend has a small obsession with T-Rex humor it's fitting. Rawr means I love you in dinosaur after all.

Now, I'm pretty sure the steps to this crafts are easy: 1. get nuts. 2. put them in a container 3. put a piece of paper on it that says "i'm nuts about you!" and done. :) If you get lost in there.....um. Well. Sorry???

I hope you all have a lovely Valentines! I'm running off to a weekend trip to Seattle! Literally running, flights in 2 hours! Woot! Sure beats fortune cookies and glass shards!

Thanks for being my readers. I giggle every time someone posts about their husband drooling over the screen, or how well a recipe turned out! I'm nuts about all of you too! Happy Valentines!

Cream Puffs

2012-02-06T12:18:00.001-05:00

We had a housewarming this weekend. My own? No. Sadly we're not ready for that yet. We warmed my boyfriend's new condo...that he bought four months after me...that I'm decidedly not at all bitter about having been "warmed" first....which I bet you do not believe....and you'd be somewhat right. I'm a tad jealous. I'd love to fill my house with friends instead of contractors. *Sigh*

The party itself was fun. Fifty friends of my boyfriend and his sister came to eat, drink, laugh, and break in the new place. The one person I invited didn't show up to warm the kitchen cabinet I was granted. (The kitchen is cold to you, Butchie. C-O-L-D. No cream puffs for you!).....actually, few cream puffs for anyone. Brandon scooped up the tray, walked off and....well... I'm not actually sure any made it into a guest's mouth......

As one of the people who did get a cream puff, I can vouch, they turned out pretty well. If you've never made choux before you should try it. I find choux pastry to be a simple 'go to' recipe you can take from start to finish in half an hour that looks far more complicated and impressive than it truly is. Not to mention all the yummy things you can do with it! Don't believe me? All of these recipes are choux pastry:

Cheddar Dill Gougères

Cochonettes

Gougère Soup Bowls

I've been having lots of fun with choux. In a few days I'll even have another choux recipe to post: rosemary parmesan gougères! and maybe another after that because now that I'm looking at these lovely foods I might need more.....and since I'll be at butchie's tonight maybe we will warm her kitchen with some eclairs. That should happen. That should always happen.

For the first -ime cream puff maker: take your time. If you have the time to make everything all at once I'd like to know your secret for time management. Please teach a seminar. I made the choux on one day, the pastry cream the next, and the assembly was on the third day...right before the party....I was a wee bit frantic but even then, for me it was easier to find half an hour or so each day, than two hours all together. I bet you know the feeling.

Without further ado, I present:

Cream Puffs

for the choux:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup skim milk
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
Large pinch of kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

for the pastry cream:

1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt, preferably kosher
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

for the chocolate glaze:
1 cup semisweet chocoalte chips
4 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the choux:

Preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit. Line two heavy baking sheets with parchment paper. (If you're pans are too light, stack them. This will reduce the chance of scorching on the bottom of the puff).

In a small saucepan, bring the water, milk, butter, and salt to a boil. Add the flour and stir until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and dries out a bit. Roughly two minutes.

Turn the dough out into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each one.

Transfer the dough to a pastry bag with a half inch tip (or a disposable bag with the tip cut off) and pipe tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets at least two inches apart.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.

The puffs can be frozen or refrigerated. To reheat, cook in an 350 degree oven for at least five minutes, or until piping hot and crisped.

To make the pastry cream:

Pour the milk, vanilla, and salt into a heavy sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat and scald, bringing it to a near boiling point. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a stand mixer add the cornstarch and sugar. Whisk to combine.

Add the eggs to the sugar and cornstarch and whisk until smooth.

When the milk is ready, gently and slowly while the stand mixer is whisking, pour the heated milk down the side of the bowl into the egg mixture.

Pour the mixture back into the warm pot and continue to cook over a medium heat until the custard is thick, just about to boil and coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and pass through a fine mesh sieve into a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool for ten minutes stirring occasionally.

Cut the butter into four pieces and whisk into the pastry cream a piece at a time until smooth.

Cover the cream with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap onto the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator for up to five days.

Assembly:

Put pastry cream into a pastry bag with a sharp end that will be able to pierce through the top of a choux pastry puff. I used a disposable plastic pastry bag.

Pierce into top of each pastry puff with the tip of the pastry bag and squeeze bag, thus filling the puff with pastry cream. You should see the puff slighly expand as it becomes full.

Place filled puffs aside on a tray and continue to fill each pastry puff.

Once all puffs are finished, place tray of puffs into the freezer. This allows the cream to freeze slightly so that it will not leak into the chocolate glaze while dipping.

Make the chocolate glaze:

In a bowl combine chocolate chips, butter and corn syrup. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between each time until smooth. Do not overcook.

Dip the top of each cream puff in the chocolate glaze, covering the hole made for the cream filling. Place right side up on a tray. Return trays of dipped puffs to the freezer for the chocolate to set.

Serve immediately, or allow to freeze on a cookie sheet and then transfer to a suitable container. (I'd tell you how long they keep in the freezer, but they all are eaten within a day!)

Chocolate Pudding

2012-01-24T10:43:00.000-05:00

My boyfriend has a friend. Yes, just the one friend. He's not the most outgoing. (just kidding honey!) This particular friend (of Brandon's many friends) happened to ask a rather silly question: Does Jana's house renovation have any projects that would require unbridled destruction? Why yes! Yes, it does.

Saturday afternoon the plan went into attack. We started pulling out everything in the room I begrudgingly refer to as my kitchen. Don't be fooled. It hasn't had a working stove or fridge in five months. Nevertheless, the last remaining vestiges of the kitchen needed to be removed with unbridled destruction. He and Brandon used a bit of that reckless abandon we love about them and swung a hammer at anything and everything.Craig, aka The Hulk, literally tore a cabinet in half. LITERALLY. With. His. Bare. Hands.

Swing. Crack. Rip.........huh. "Um, Jana, how big of a deal is it that I punched a hole through your tile....and wall???"

Ummmmmmmm.

The walls of my house are plaster. 87 year old plaster. If you'd ever met a plaster wall, you know that you don't really punch a hole in them....you more of less crack the shell and see the ribbing of your home. It's solid. No room for holes. Hearing that a hole had been punched in my wall confused me. It's just not possible! I scramble through the wreckage, climb up a few feet to survey the damage.

It's a fake wall! ....well, it's a real wall.....it's more of a wall with another wall inside of it. It's the inception wall. Our minds ran wild. There could be drugs, cash, jewels, or.....dead things.... inside of this fake wall! Nobody would put a wall on top of a wall for no amazing reason, RIGHT?!

cough. cough. sigh. wrong.

We tore the whole thing down and it was the medium for adding two electrical plugs into the kitchen. WHY DO THAT?! Gah. Frustrating. SO frustrating. I was truly hoping for cash. It would have paid for the remodel. On the plus side, I can't tell you how happy I am not to find anything dead. Such a bonus.

With the kitchen destroyed we moved onto the drop ceiling in my sun room. It's just like the ones you used to get pencils stuck in during junior high. They had installed them in every room of the first floor. I have taken them down, one at a time, each and every one with a small bit of calamity. This one came down, with a small crash.....and a slight injury to my boyfriend....who I might have asked to stand underneath it. And he thinks I'm trying to kill him. Psht. Where would he get that idea? Okay, okay, so I asked him to help brace the ceiling from falling. but it still fell, pretty loudly, and sharply, and on his arm.

Well, as luck would have it, irony was with us that day. Because above the drop ceiling, was......dun duh duh DUUUUH: Another drop ceiling. Not kidding you. I have a kitchen you can peel like an onion and a sunroom with four ceilings.....one of which is made of asbestos. Score!

With my weekend over and my kitchen destroyed, I am left to sit back and contemplate just how useful a good contractor can be....but doing so while I'm at Brandon's house....using his working kitchen..... eating chocolate pudding....and breathing asbestos-free air.

Chocolate Pudding
From Smitten Kitchen, as adapted from John Scharffenberger, via Wednesday Chef
Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate chopped or chocolate chips
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes.

If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

Caramel Macadamia Rice Crispie Treats

2012-01-16T10:52:00.000-05:00

Yes. I stink at life. I have not blogged in months. I swore I'd start blogging again....then I didn't. I told you my kitchen would be done soon.....then it wasn't. Not even close, BUT.....this time I mean it. No really. I will be blogging and cooking and photographing again! No, my kitchen is not finished, but all it not lost.....I've been cheating on my kitchen. I confess. There is a new oven in my life *sigh* it's an electric. It's just so hard to tell you this. *wipes tear* but yes, I am using a "boy kitchen."

Until I have a pretty shiny new double oven gas stove happily installed in my own kitchen (which at this rate won't happen until the fall), I will be using my boyfriend's kitchen. I'm slowly infiltrating it. First it was just a Kitchenaide mixer on the counter.....then came the spring form pans, and the souffle dish and even a small frother for hot chocolate. Before you know I'll have properly set up shop! He says he's okay with this....and despite the fact that he helped me move and pack all my kitchen wares, I'm still not sure Brandon really gets just how much gear I own. He understands in theory.......

He'll understand fully soon. The blog is back and it's being run from his kitchen. It's a good test for the relationship right?

In other news, no, this recipe is not something I came up with on my own. I read this on Epicurious and my jaw hit the keyboard. It's one of the best things I've made in months....and not just because I haven't had a working kitchen in months.....but that helps its case. These were actually made in Butchie's kitchen (gas oven = happy Jana). Do make them. They are delicious and you'll wonder why the gourmet rice crispy trend hasn't taken off yet, because, WOW.

Enjoy!

Caramel Macadamia Rice Crispie Treats

as found on Epicurious

4 cups puffed-rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies
1 cup salted, roasted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Butter 17- by 12-inch rimmed baking sheet. Line with parchment paper, leaving 1-inch overhang on each end, and butter paper.

In large heatproof steel bowl, toss together cereal and nuts.

In heavy large saucepan over moderate heat, stir together sugar and 6 tablespoons water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves, then raise heat to moderately high and boil without stirring, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush, until syrup turns deep amber in color, about 8 minutes. Carefully stir in cream (mixture may splatter and briefly harden) then stir in butter. Remove from heat and stir in salt and vanilla.

Drizzle caramel over cereal-nut mixture and, using heatproof silicone spatula or wooden spoon, stir until fully incorporated. Spread mixture evenly on prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm and slightly cooled, about 10 minutes, then break into bite-sized pieces.

In small metal bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water, combine chocolate and oil. Heat, whisking occasionally, until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes. Drizzle chocolate mixture over Rice Krispie pieces and let stand until chocolate hardens.

Rice Krispies Treats will keep in an airtight container for up to two days.

Baked Apples

2011-11-02T13:09:00.001-04:00

Yes, an actual baked dessert back on the blog! Freshly made by Butchie and I....well sort of. It was made the night before in her fully functional kitchen and reheated in my toaster oven back at my foxhole. Two weeks from today appliances will be delivered. Two. 2. To. Too. Two. I don't care which grammar obscenity we use. TWO WEEKS!

Lately I've had baked apples on the brain. I blame an old friend who called me up for the sole purpose of telling me about the baked apples he made. Jerk. I was hungry all afternoon after that conversation! I have to say, I'm of a mixed mind about baked apples. On the one hand, I prefer having all the extra pie crust, and the apples themselves are lovely, but If I did this again, I think I'd change a few things. I'd cut the apples into rings on the inside and put lots of cinnamon and spices in between. I'd also take any excess juices, boil them down into a glaze to spoon over ice cream on the side.

I hope you enjoy these little treats! I'll be back in two weeks with a bright and shiny new kitchen!

Cheers!

Baked Apples
Adapted from Tartine

1 cup unsalted butter, very cold
1/2 cup water
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling
8 Apples
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground Vietnamese cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup unsalted butter

To make the dough, cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer. Measure the water, dissolve the salt into it and put into the freezer as well. Chill both for about 10 minutes.

Measure the flour onto a large, flat work surface and spread into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour and toss a little flour over the butter so that your rolling pin won’t stick, and begin rolling. When the butter starts flattening out into long, thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up the sides of the rectangle so that it is the size that you started with. Repeat the rolling and scraping 3 or 4 times.

Make a well in the center and pour all of the water into it. Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough into the center, cutting the water through the dough. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass and shape into a rectangle.

Lightly dust the top with flour and roll out the rectangle until it is half as large again, then scrape the top, bottom and sides together to the original size and re-roll. Repeat 3 or 4 times until you have a smooth and cohesive dough. Transfer rectangle of dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.

When you are ready to roll the dough, divide it into 8 equal portions. Roll the dough into circle shapes. Transfer to baking sheets and chill for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Core and peel the apples.

Mix together the cinnamon, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg. Stuff the core of the sugar spice mixture and butter in layers. Alternate as you go.

Wrap the apple with the dough, trim excess dough.

You can make decorations for the top with the extra dough and cookie cutters.

Put them in the oven for about 45 minutes to one hour.

Dilly Beans

2011-10-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

Alright. I've been awful. It's been nearly a month (okay, probably more) since I've posted consistently....and it's probably going to be longer. It's just hard to be a food blogger without a kitchen aide, a stove, an oven, or a working knowledge of where my food props are (hint: still in boxes). Excuses, excuses. Except they are valid. If you could see my kitchen, you'd understand. I took down the upper cabinets and I'm now convinced at one point there was a fire...and rather than fix that wall, they just put a cabinet over it. Yeah. That happened.

Despite the overwhelming and negative daily discoveries, I've been in the house for five weeks, and there are a few bright sides.

Such as this:

I feel like this should be the "What 5 things are different in the second picture?" game.

Drop ceiling. Ugh. That was awful. Beware of snipping wires......sometimes half comes down at once if you snip the wrong wire.
Mauve carpet. Hardwood oak floor? Yes please.
Vertical blinds....never liked them.
Grey walls instead of ones that were probably white ten years ago.
The drapes. My goodness the drapes. Oh what drapes. Don't kid yourselves. Those were heavy.

The second piece of good news is that after this weekend with tons of great help from my friends Charlotte and Brandon the dining room is now equally lovely....or would be, if my fridge and stove weren't in there. I dare to dream of a day when my kitchen appliances are working and in the kitchen. Well, not these kitchen appliances. The bright shiny new ones I'm getting delivered as soon as that stupid wall doesn't look like a wayward grenade hit it.

Sigh. I will be back. Eventually. I promise. Butchie and I are making baked apples tonight....in her kitchen....as mine is a foxhole. But I found another post that I just somehow never put up!

Be back soon!

Dilly Beans

1 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 1/2 cup very hot tap water
2 heads fresh dill weed

4 garlic cloves

4 dried chilies

1 1/4 fresh green beans, washed and trimmed

Preheat oven to 200 degrees fahrenheit. Put mason jars, lids and rings in the oven to sterilize for twenty minutes.

Combine the water, salt and vinegar in a large pot, and bring to a boil. When it begins to boil, reduce heat to low and keep at a simmer. Meanwhile pack the jars.

Divide the remaining ingredients between two 8 oz jars.

For refrigerator beans:

Cover the produce with the brine. Cover and refrigerate. Let sit for four days before eating. Lasts up to two months.

For canning beans:

Pour the simmering brine over top with a quarter inch left to spare. Seal with rings and lids. Place lid-side down. Allow to sit upside-down on your counter for 45 minutes.

Store in a dark cool place. The dilly beans will keep in the refrigerator for two months after opening.

raspberry white chocolate chip ice cream

2011-09-22T11:11:00.000-04:00

Oh I have been a VERY bad blogger. How neglectful I've been! I feel that I owe all of you a big big BIG explanation!

Last Friday I closed on a house. Saturday I moved in and Sunday I started renovations. I bought a fixer upper. I think once you see pictures of my kitchen (as of midnight last night) you'll understand.

Surprisingly my big thing isn't that the kitchen is ugly. I mean, it is. oh it is. but, some paint and chipping off tile, taking down a drop ceiling, removing the florescent lights etc. can fix that. The biggest problem is the appliances got "built in." The counters don't have enough space in between them to remove the twenty year old fridge and stove. I have to remove some counters. Plus, those counters could use painted, inside and out. So..........there is nothing in my fridge, no food in my cabinets, and no cooking happening. Ideal for a food blogger right?

I'm sure you can see why the posts have been scarce. That ice cream up top was made weeks ago and I completely forgot about it. Otherwise, you'd probably not have a post now! I'm too busy taking down ceilings, tile, buying floor tile, and scheduling the plumbers, electricians and contractors. As it is, the house right now has no power. The electricians is currently updating power boxes from the 50s. Yes. The power boxes are older than my parents. That's......special. It's not so bad actually. Most of the house was already updated.....just not the addition to the house. Yep. Many of my electric plugs only have two holes, not three. They are from the 1920s. Oh, so special.

The house is livable. I live in it. It's not pretty or perfect or amazing just yet. It will be. Give me two more weeks of focusing on the renovations and I'll have a beautiful house....and no more blog followers. Hahaha. Please hang in with me. It's just a temporary hiatus.

To hold you over, here is a recipe I completely forgot about:

raspberry white chocolate chip ice cream

5 egg yolks
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 cups half and half

1 quart raspberries

1/2 cup finely chopped white chocolate
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Scald half and half over medium heat in a medium sauce pan. Remove from heat.

In a stand mixer whisk together the yolks and sugar until light and fluffy, then gradually pour the scalded half and half down the side of the bowl as the mixer is still going.

Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture has thickened and will coat the back of the spoon. Remove from heat, and pour through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Add in vanilla. Chill the custard thoroughly. About two hours.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. Add raspberries. Allow the ice cream to churn until near finished then add the white chocolate chunks. Freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Stuff the Bus Food Drive

2011-09-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

No. That's not me. Not even close. That would be Chef Mike Isabella from Top Chef. Until yesterday, we only had two things in common: DC and loving food. Today, I'm excited to announce we have a third: We've both been asked to host Stuff the Bus!

See! There's Mike Isabella on Monday! Me? Tuesday September 20th 12:30 pm at Dupont Circle! Right before Mary Beth Albright! I love the cooperation on this project! Local celeb chefs and food bloggers getting together with Venga and DC Central Kitchen to Stuff that Bus! Not to mention that if you're lacking in canned goods, you can buy food in the virtual store to donate. Ha. I realize it's a basic cash donation, but I find the idea of virtual food donations to be a lot of fun! I feel an iphone app in the making.

If you're in DC, please stop by. If you're near DC, please make a drive. If you're nowhere close to DC, please donate to your local food bank. And if you're one of the hundreds of thousands of people who bought today's $10 for $20 worth of groceries from Whole Foods, consider using that free purchase power for a can of beans to Stuff the Bus.

What do we accept?

Here are the best things to bring, but don't hesitate to bring other items if you have them!

canned tomatoes (stewed, diced, paste)
canned beans
boxed pasta
granola bars, trail mix
applesauce, fruit cups

If you're not able to bring food with you, you can still help DC Central Kitchen. Just use the virtual market that is set up next to our bus and donate, or donate online.

$5 = 1/2 dozen heads of hydroponic bibb lettuce
$10= 1 free range roaster chicken
$25= 1 case of plump Shenandoah Valley tomatoes
$50= 80 servings of hormone free, pasture raised local ground beef

If you decide to actually hand me 80 servings of beef the old-fashioned-non-virtual way, please have your camera ready, because my face will be priceless.

I hope to see you at Dupont Circle a week from today!

Cheers!

Dark Chocolate Cookies

2011-09-09T10:19:00.000-04:00

Funny story...well, not so much funny, as wow-facebook-i-don't-like-you. Yesterday, I was perusing the site, checking on updates like "Kylie is pregnant!" (congrats Kyl!) and then I look to the right and the box reads: Your Status one year ago: is so excited to take my boyfriend to Arizona! .....um. Yeah. Since I'm single (and dang happy about it!) you can guess how well that went. I'm going to give FB the benefit of the doubt and assume they scanned for "excited" status updates. I'd like to believe they wouldn't just post any old status. Who really wants to hear "Your status one year ago today: My dog died." Seriously, FB? Not loving this. I mentioned it to a friend, on the ever so much more lovable google-chat about this incident.They made a good point. Even if you were "so excited to get married!!!!" that maybe your partner turned out to be a jerk and now you're divorced. Nobody wants a yearly reminder of that even if at the time it was "uber exciting!" I certainly don't care to be reminded. The sheer fact that I've forgotten when that was is a pretty good sign to let it go. Let it go, Facebook. Let. It. Go.

Heh. I've actually pulled a bunch of my posts from a year ago. I'm redoing them. These cookies are a prime example of a previously published post. I just erased a three paragraph story about the same former boyfriend. (Like I said Facebook: let it go). I replaced the photo of underexposed cookie dough for this one. SO much better. It's kinda like a fixer upper post. It was a bit broken down, kinda shabby, poorly constructed and now....well, the picture is pretty even is this story isn't great. But c'mon. You've been there. At some point you had something that just didn't need a reminder. Bad photography and past relationships are two of my favorite things to forget!

Blerg. N-E-ways, here is an adapted recipe for a large, soft, dark chocolate cookie. Enjoy it, and may nobody remind you of things best left forgotten.

Dark Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Epicurious

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix just until combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Drop level tablespoons of dough about 3 inches apart onto parchment paper or baking mat lined baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.

blackberry cobbler pancakes

2011-09-07T11:50:00.000-04:00

Why yes, I do still exist. A week off? No posts? Me? YOU BET! I'm losing my mind over here.

In the last week I began my couch surfing....or rather, bed, love-sac, and couch surfing. I went up to NYC and had some Laduree macarons (after a two and a half hour line!), walked through parks, ordered in food, and watched my friend's roommate slowly melt down for fashion week. Who needs Bravo? I have real life.

Now I'm back in DC, crashing with Butchie, baking before work, living out of the suitcase at my office, and calling my home-buying team daily to make sure everything is good to go. So far, the worst of it has been the insurance company. They typed in K St. instead of T St. HOW?! That's not even near each other on the keyboard! (Said the girl who can't spell or type worth a darn.)

Oh such good times. It'll be over in a week. I'll have a house.....and lots of debt! Fun!

Okay, not fun, but at least blackberry cobbler pancakes are fun. And delicious. OMG. Why I haven't done this sooner, I don't know. There is cobbler topping and blackberries in the pancake, plus I threw a little ramekin of cobbler in the oven at the same time for a topping. Genius. The trick is putting the cobbler topping onto the griddle and not into the batter. That way it has time to caramelize and crisp on the hot pan, instead of being soggy in the middle of a pancake.

Enjoy!

Blackberry Cobbler Pancakes

2 cups blackberries

for the cobbler topping:
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon

for the pancakes:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups whole milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus additional melted butter
Maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Put one cup of blackberries into a ramekin. Cut the remainder of the blackberries into smaller pieces the size of peas.

In a stand mixer, combine the remaining ingredients and mix until clumps have formed. Spread a fourth cup of the mixture over the blackberries in the ramekin.

Bake for roughly 20 minutes, until blackberries have burst and the topping is slightly browned.

Meanwhile, make the pancakes.

Whisk cake flour, all purpose flour, and next 3 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk milk and eggs in medium bowl. Gradually whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients. Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter.

Heat griddle or 2 heavy large nonstick skillets over medium heat.

Brush lightly with additional melted butter.

Working in batches, sprinkle two tablespoons of cobbler topping on the griddle, then pour batter by 1/4 cups over top.

Sprinkle each pancake with a few blackberries pieces. Cook until bottoms brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn pancakes over and cook until sides brown, about 1 minute. Divide pancakes among plates.

Top pancakes with a spoonful of cobbler fresh from the oven and maple syrup.

Truffles

2011-08-31T13:09:00.000-04:00

Today is a big day for me. My bedroom is empty, my car is going to storage, my bags are packed, my kitchen empty. It's an odd feeling. In a way it feels like going on vacation. When I leave tomorrow, for the last time, I'll be leaving for NYC, not my new home. There will be a duffle bag on my shoulder and air mattress waiting for me, just like all my other trips to visit my friends in NYC. It is strange to think I'm not coming "home" from this vacation. I'll get back to DC and go to another friend's house.

I'm incredibly worried that one day I will go on auto pilot. I'll get on the metro, go home, get there and realize I have no keys! It's not my house anymore.

Tonight is my last night in the house. When I get up and head to work I'll be leaving a key behind. I knew this was coming but there was no way to be fully prepared. I'm packed and "ready" but I'm completely scared out of my wits. I guess that's normal for being homeless for a few weeks and buying a house. So many life changes all at once!

In my haste to pack and move and get going....I forgot I was supposed to post two daring bakers recipes in one post! My apologies. Here are my second candies for our challenge: a basic chocolate truffle.

Truffles

1 ¾ cup Dark/Bittersweet Chocolate
2/3 cup Double/Heavy Cream

Finely chop or grate the chocolate. Place in a heatproof bowl.

In a saucepan, heat cream until just about to boil (it will start bubbling around the edges of the pot).

Pour the cream over the chocolate. Gently stir the mixture until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth. Allow the ganache to firm up in a container of choice, preferably deep rather than shallow.

Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop up room temperature ganache.

With gloved hands, roll the balls between your palms to round them off.

Roll in various ingredients like cocoa or chopped nuts as desired.

Nectarine Thyme Fruits de Pate

2011-08-29T11:28:00.000-04:00

Good morning! I am about three days late on posting my daring bakers challenge for the month. Yes, I'm a bad person. There was a hurricane....that hardly affected me, but still. It was rainy, windy, and I just had no desire to stare at my computer long enough to post the daring bakers challenge! I'm a sad lazy blogger. At least I participated! I didn't entirely phone it in.

This was my first experience making fruits de pate. OMG. EASY! I just love treats that look astounding and require little more than boiling. I just love it. Throw these five things into a pan, boil to a temperature and done. Perfect!

I'm so excited to play around with this more! Enjoy!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!
Nectarine Thyme Fruits de Pate

13 oz nectarine puree
1 tablespoon Lemon juice, fresh
2 cups Granulated White Sugar

3-4 tablespoons Liquid Pectin

1 handful fresh thyme

Prepare an 8”x8” pan by lining it with aluminium foil or parchment paper and spraying it with non-stick cooking spray.

Pour the puree into a medium saucepan. Stir in the lemon juice and 1/2 cup of the sugar, place the pan over medium-high heat, and insert a candy thermometer.

Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until it is hot, around 140°F. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar and the liquid pectin, and lower the heat to medium.

Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture registers 200°F. At this point, turn the heat to low and hold it at 200°F for 2-3 minutes. After this, return the heat to medium and bring it up to 225°F. This process will take some time, especially with the heat on medium, so have patience and be diligent in stirring frequently so the bottom doesn't scorch.

Once the fruit paste reaches 225°F, add the thyme and turn the heat to low and keep it at that temperature for an additional 2-minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and scrape the pate de fruit mixture into the prepared pan, smoothing it into an even layer.

Allow the pate de fruit mixture to set at room temperature for several hours, until completely cool and firm. Use a sharp knife to cut it into very small squares, and roll the individual pieces in granulated sugar.

The pate de fruits can be served immediately, or refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week. If refrigerated, the pieces may need to be re-rolled in granulated sugar before serving.

August Foodbuzz 24x24: Back to School Lunches

2011-08-28T09:05:00.000-04:00

This post is titled "back to school lunches" and in an ideal world that would have been how this would have gone. This post in reality is "Hurricane Irene Meal Packs." I was supposed to make some beautiful school lunches, take them on a picnic to a lovely DC park with my friends in the glorious sunshine and have it be like a grown up field trip....instead I ended up in a snuggy on my sofa for a "state of emergency." This got me thinking how really this kinda worked out pretty well for me. If I'd been asked to evacuate packing a meal to go would have been something I should have done, and as a grown adult I wouldn't have had a lunch pail. Thank you, Irene. Now I have a lunch box. I am ready to pack a meal to go in the case your sister pays me a visit in the future. The major bonus is having three meals planned out ready to go while the rest of my lovely city was fighting lines at the grocer. Winning!

I did all the prep ahead of time, lest I loose electricity or a tree branch destroy my current home (moving in four days!). I planned out three meals : the monster meal, a proper tea, and the gourmet Lunchable. Thankfully these meals and the leftovers meant that I was eating well while bunkered down in DC.

The Monster Meal

If you're looking at those photos you might be thinking.....huh? Let me explain, below you see monster mouth apple slices. These are a personal fave that is easy enough to accomplish. A quarter of an apple, some mini marshmallow and slivered almond and you can create a gobbledy treat. I kinda think they look like crabs. They make me smile, and also the person who is unfortunate enough to be around me while I play with them like puppets. Grrrr. Arg. (For the Buffsters out there).

You're also looking at "dragon's liver." Okay so it's nectarine and thyme fruits de pate. I made it work. It was a hurricane people! ...it was actually in the plan the whole time, I just feel sheepish about putting pretty ribbons on dragon's liber. It reminds me of the old movie Bed Knobs and Broomsticks when Angela Lansbury is making potions and needs poisoned dragon's liver. If it entertains my child-like mind it certainly should pass on a much younger child. I say, make the pate, rent the movie and make a hurricane party of it. I did.

Last but not least, those knarled vampire eyes are actually radishes! Who knew that a radish and a zester could combine to make vampire eyes? Now all the kids who hate Edward Cullen (Go Team Jacob!) can get a healthy treat out of it. Just think of the potential a bowl of these have for a Halloween party! Who wouldn't adore a bucket of eyes sitting next to the dip? Wow. I just said that. I paired it with some of my Gummy Worm Soda. It's a very fun lunch, if you like creepy crawly gobbledy gook.

The Gourmet Lunchable

The typical Lunchable used to be some food they called meat, cheese, and perhaps some pudding if you were lucky. Nutritional value was a zero, and quality of food was pretty poor. I'm sure not sure that I believe that ham really was ham. I love eating cheese, crackers and meats for lunches. I often have packed myself some crackers, a slice of brie, grapes, a square of dark chocolate and walked over to the park to enjoy. This lunch was supposed to be for Butchie, who was barricaded down in Dupont. I had planned this one revolving around her favorite foods, which ideally she got to enjoy in an orchard, picking fruit. Oh Irene, you killed this weekend. I upgraded the basic crackers for romano basil flower crackers, treat for rich chocolate truffles, slices of parmesan and black forest ham, and an added bonus of greek olives.

Tea Time

This meal was geared toward me and my love of tea time. It had some of my beautiful cucumber sandwiches that I adore, and confess to eating at least four days this week. It also contained some homemade blueberry scones (sadly this recipe was not a winner), carrot flowers, chamomile tea, and a lovely cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes. It's DC. In hurricane conditions we stop off for the essentials on the way home, and this included a Banana Split Cupcake.

I must say it surprises me how just a simple thing like make my carrots into flowers actually does allow me to enjoy them more. I hate carrots. Always have. Smother them in blue-cheese and we'll talk.

The tea time lunch was quaint. It had it's own little tea cup and a cupcake holder and I could just see a cute little girl taking a tea cup out of her lunch box at school and enjoying herself. My little daydream gets better if mom's collaborate and her little circle of friends all get to have a lunch time tea party. It'd be too cute. If nothing else this could easily be packed up for her to take to a tea party at a friend's house.

The cupcake holder is a neat trick for someone who want to DIY instead of buying a cupcake caddy. For your convenience I created a stencil! It's very basic. Cut on the dotted lines and fold on the full lines. This will hold on standard cupcake. If you need to adapt the size....and you probably will, just scale it so the center is the size of normal cupcake, about two and a half inches!

I wish this post had gone according to plan. I wish I had not spent my entire Saturday, in my house, in a pink snuggy, with cookie dough..............who am I kidding. It was great!

I hope for the rest of you who have been in Irene's path that it worked out equally well, and for your next natural disaster, may I recommend packing a lunch.

Gummy Worm Soda

2011-08-26T12:33:00.000-04:00

Alright, this post is for the kids, the sad poor little kids who have to be forced back into little uniforms, or stiff uncomfortable desks, while grumpy teachers stare at them disapprovingly....I loved school. I really did. Elementary, junior high, high school, college, grad school, you name it, I loved it. Why? That's where my friends were! I saw school as seven hours a day where I got to see my friends. The classes and homework were just a side-note...during which I passed notes.

Some kids really hate school though. Compared to summer vacation, I can see that. It's significantly harder to put in quality swimming pool time with school getting in the way. For those kids, who are severely upset by the end of summer, I dedicate this Worm Soda.

Yes, Worm Soda.

Okay, so it's not the most appetizing name but what else can you call it? Now, the neat trick with this soda is, the longer you let the worms sit in the soda the more colorful it turns, and the more "giggly" and active the worms appear. Remember, my target audience is a five year old kid. While you're thinking "uck, giggly worm" that little kid is thinking "dude! awesome!" and planning how they can creep somebody out with it. Yep, if you aren't the parent of "that kid" you at least remember them from your own elementary school days. There may have been a pulled pigtails moment in conjunction.

As for the taste, yes, it tastes exactly like a gummy worm. What else can it taste like? The ingredients are soda water, sugar and gummy worms! Welcome back to school, kids. Here's a kiddy mocktail to take the edge off!

Gummy Worm Soda

1 part simple syrup (see recipe below)
4 parts soda water
4 gummy worms

Mix it all together and drink. :)

Simple Sugar

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

Boil the water and sugar together for five minutes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Cucumber Sandwiches

2011-08-24T14:45:00.000-04:00

Well, if you missed the news, let me tell you myself, DC had an earthquake. Not a major one. We're not complaining. My office shook for 30 seconds, and most people remained composed.Not me, I ran like the wuss I am and didn't stop for a block. Actually, what has upset DC most is the lack of preachers condemning DC. We have a pretty tongue-in-cheek humor here and were really looking forward to a few men of God blaming our earthquake on liberal social politics. Personally, I broke into a rendition of Carole King's "I feel the earth move under my feet." I think the best coverage was done by the National Zoo, who studied all their animals to show the ways they reacted and which knew about the earthquake before it happened. Remind me to get a pet lemur.

The building next to ours has been having some work done. Our office is an 1800s historic rowhouse just up 16th St. from the White House and ....well it predates building codes. When our building shook I assumed the construction next door had destabilized our building. I confess to screaming like a baby, yelling "I'm getting out of here" and taking the steps four at a time. I realized I was standing outside looking like a fool among everybody else. They were composed and I was......not. Once I realized I was looking pretty idiotic, I decided to handle this "crisis" in the true English fashion: tea and

cucumber sandwiches.

Now, my version of a cucumber sandwich is nothing fancy: cucumbers, cream cheese or mascarpone and bread. However, I like to make them look pretty so I can feel fancy. I use my mandolin to cut the cucumber slices as thin as possible, so they are transparent and I can get a stained glass effect. I layer them in rows so that they are just overlapping and cut them with cookie cutters to match the bread. You'd be surprised how easy it is to move the cut cucumbers over to the cream cheese topped bread. Sounds awful, but the base layer is usually so large it doesn't shift...like DC yesterday. Next time we have a minor earthquake I hope to react in such a composed manner.

Fingers crossed my afternoon is less eventful than yesterday's.

Cheers!

Romano Basil Flower Crackers

2011-08-22T11:11:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! and for me, Happy Inspection Day! ......okay, so it's a scary kinda day and I'm just trying to make it feel celebratory. I'm nervous about a professional person walking around my soon-to-be house and telling me everything that's wrong with it. It's good to know, but still less than exciting. Since we're paying him to find flaws, I am doubtful he'll throw in compliments for free. The house is only 86 years old. Psht. What could be wrong with it? Um, everything. The house itself seems incredibly stable and compared to some of the rat traps I toured it's amazing....but the real question is: when in the last 86 years was the electricity, plumbing, roofing, etc, brought up to date? Yesterday I heard that depending on the updates the house might not be able to run a blowdryer. If it can run a fridge can't it run a blowdryer? All these answers and more are coming in just a few hours.

My house related stress eating put me into a sugar coma. I did so much baking this weekend that by the time Saturday night rolled around, I wanted nothing to do with sugar anymore. I loved my parmesan rosemary crackers from last week, so I decided to try again. This time using romano and basil flower buds. Romano is a significantly stronger cheese. Translation: don't add salt. Don't get me wrong, my sugar coma had me one step away from buying a salt-lick, kicking back in my snuggy, and watching a tv show marathon, but for the rest of you who aren't drowning their sorrows in chocolate truffles, you'll most likely be very happy with me for adapting the recipe from my original and incredibly bold attempt.

If you have a basil plantation like me with my 17 basil plants, you have more basil buds than you know what to do with (or how to keep up with pinching). If you're an urban cook with no basil, you're most likely cursing the skies right now. Sorry, but you can't have it all. Oh, snap! I live in DC and have 17 basil plants....yes, you can have it all. Google urban gardening and get on that! DC even has a seed swap and a seedling swap! I'm going next year. I traded seedlings this year and it was fun. Very excited....hmmmm, I feel like I was saying something relevant to the recipe before this.....oh right! You can add basil buds in place of basil in any recipe, and they taste the same as regular basil. The ones I used for these crackers had been vacuum packed and frozen for food storage. Nifty right?

Okay, time to get ready for house inspections! Wish me luck!

Romano Basil Flower Crackers

1 1/4 cups finely grated Romano cheese or Parmesan Romano blend
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon basil buds
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons water

Combine all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until it forms a coarse meal.

On a work surface, knead the dough until it is just combined. Form into a log about one inch in diameter. Chill the dough, wrapped in the wax paper, for 1 hour, or until it is firm enough to slice.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the dough into rather thin slices, arrange the slices 1 inch apart on wax paper. Cover with a second sheet of wax paper. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece until very thin.

Carefully move to parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake them in batches in the middle of the oven for 8 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges. Remove from heat and allow to cool long enough to be flipped over carefully.

Put the trays back in to the oven for another 5-7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Transfer the crackers carefully with a spatula to a rack, let them cool fully.

Peach & Lemon-Thyme Panna Cotta

2011-08-19T13:32:00.000-04:00

My house has been a central point for my friends. Butchie lived there before I moved in. I actually have her old room. My friend Thelma had the room at the end of the hall. I'd been visiting that house for a year before I moved into it. Thelma moved out, then Butchie moved out, then I moved in and now I'm moving out. It's the end of an era for us. That house has been a part of us for five years. Our generation is growing up and moving on to rented rooms in Adams Morgan, high rise apartments in Dupont and townhouses in Anacostia.

Butchie came over Monday night and silly Thelma had other things to do. I realized today that Monday could have been our last baking night in Tenleytown. No more baked goods being eaten on the wraparound porch, chatting about life and watching fireflies. It's been an oasis in chaotic DC: lush, green, and peaceful. It's been our 'giving tree.' We'll have a farewell evening there. In a way, we owe the house that much. We're actually saying goodbye for good this time.

So, for the second-to-last time, here is the recipe from baking night in Tenleytown. Enjoy....preferably on a porch with a few close friends.

Peach & Lemon-Thyme Panna Cotta

adapted from Epicurious

2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-ounce envelope)
2 tablespoons water
2 cups heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup mild honey
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon-thyme leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
3 peaches, peeled if desired, pitted, and thinly sliced

Sprinkle gelatin over water in a small heavy saucepan and let stand 1 minute to soften. Stir in cream and salt, then heat gently over medium-low heat, stirring, until gelatin has dissolved.

Whisk honey and almond extract into the cream mixture.

Pour mixture into 4 small bowls and chill, covered, until set, at least 8 hours.

Mince lemon thyme with sugar, then toss with peaches. Let macerate, stirring occasionally, at room temperature 20 minutes. While peaches macerate, let panna cotta stand at room temperature.

Top bowls of panna cotta with peaches and their juice. Drizzle with additional honey if desired.

The Brownie

2011-08-17T12:48:00.003-04:00

House purchasing is well underway. In just two days, I've filed and scanned every document for my mortgage lender, researched and quoted out my new insurance rates, closed my utility accounts, got a new tenant for my current spot, started packing, and looking into security alarm companies. Busy, busy, busy as ever. With all this comes stress, and with stress comes stress eating, and it's just a short ride on a slippery slope to making copious amounts of brownies. Dark rich brownies that are just a few tablespoons of flour away from being pure fudge. It makes you feel much better when you're staring at a mountain of requested financial statements and cursing adrenaline induced insomnia.

Those brownies are my favorites. When you bake them, you never really feel like they're fully baked, even when they are because they are so dense. I've handed out the recipe before, and those silly caterers burned every batch trying to get it to "bake fully." I wish they would just take an internal temperature and realize those little babies are done when the internal temp is 140 F. but no, they had this definition of a brownie that included a bizarre concept of being like unto cake. Why not just eat cake? This brownie isn't cake. It isn't fudge. It is what it is and that is a brownie. A yummy gooey, cocoa brownie with stress-reducing super powers.

I'm going to head off a comment question about how to put that powdered sugar pattern on the brownies. I know you. You will ask, I will sigh, and feel weird about putting answers in the comments instead of the post. Let's just skip the middle man. That pattern is my cooling rack. Yes, these brownies were set about an half inch under my overturned cooling rack and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It's that simple. Do that right before serving as the moisture will settle into the sugar and look pasty after a while.

I keep the leftovers (when there are some) in the fridge. I allow the pan to sit out for 20 minutes before cutting and then stick the brownie in the microwave for 8 seconds. It's divine, and legitimately just as good as it is fresh out of the oven.

One last reminder, today is the last day. At midnight tonight EST the entries end.

Giveaway: Newman's Own Prize Pack

a Cisco Flip Video UltraHD 1hr 4 GB Camcorder - White
3 Newman's Own Salad Dressings!

If you want to enter the little give away:

be a twitter follower AND
tweet: @cherryteacakes is giving a Flip HD camcorder to one of her tweeps! Follow and retweet to enter! For details visit: http://bit.ly/pqEzey

Rules:

Yes, this is a twitter-only contest.
You may retweet once a day for additional entries.
Contest ends on August 17, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST. Happy brownie making. Happy Wednesday, and happy contest entering!

Happy brownie making. Happy Wednesday, and happy contest entering!

"The Brownie"
adapted from Epicurious

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Dutch cocoa
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
Scant 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof skillet, tarte tatin, or 8-inch frying pan. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Allow to cool slightly. Stir in the vanilla and add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour.

Place the pan into the oven. If using a pan with a plastic handle, wrap the handle in aluminum foil first. Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes or until internal temperature is 140 F. Let cool completely on a rack. Cut and serve.

Enjoy!

Rosemary Parmesan Crackers

2011-08-15T11:34:00.001-04:00

I am now "under contract." Well, I will be in two days. One of the sellers is out of state, blah blah blah, mailed contracts, etc. So, this means that on Friday I was freaking out and sanitizing every inch of my body from houses that had no roofs, and Monday I am in the process of buying one. A much cuter one...with a roof....and proper flooring. Yep. Saw it Friday, made and offer Saturday, was accepted Sunday, and now Monday morning is hitting me and we're scheduling inspections ..............and yes, the type-A personality caused me to start packing last night. I already have a board on pinterest of color palettes. Yep. I move at break-neck speed and the second best thing is that my boss-man will be out of town for two weeks and that means I can go and do all the inspections without any hassle from him...mostly because he won't know. Also good, it will give me time to pack, clean, call utility companies, and the myriad of other things I need to do. For any of you who have bought a house, please feel free to comment some advice, because WOW am I going to need it.

Before I run off, crazed, stressed and on the verge of screaming at the sky, just another friendly reminder that my giveaway ends in two days.

Giveaway: Newman's Own Prize Pack

a Cisco Flip Video UltraHD 1hr 4 GB Camcorder - White
3 Newman's Own Salad Dressings!

If you want to enter the little give away:

be a twitter follower AND
tweet: @cherryteacakes is giving a Flip HD camcorder to one of her tweeps! Follow and retweet to enter! For details visit: http://bit.ly/pqEzey

Rules:

Yes, this is a twitter-only contest.
You may retweet once a day for additional entries.
Contest ends on August 17, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST.

Now that you've been reminded (and hopefully entered!), time for recipes, and me to calm down. So much happening all at once!

Rosemary Parmesan Crackers

1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-2 teaspoons crushed rosemary
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons water
a dash of kosher salt

Combine all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until it forms a coarse meal.

On a work surface, knead the dough until it is just combined. Form into a log about one inch in diameter. Chill the dough, wrapped in the wax paper, for 1 hour, or until it is firm enough to slice.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the dough into rather thin slices, arrange the slices 1 inch apart on wax paper. Cover with a second sheet of wax paper. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece until very thin.

Carefully move to parchment lined baking sheets, and bake them in batches in the middle of the oven for 6 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges. Remove from heat and allow to cool long enough to be flipped over carefully.

Put the trays back in to the oven for another 3-4 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Transfer the crackers carefully with a spatula to a rack, let them cool fully, and sprinkle them with additional rosemary.

Butterscotch Pudding

2011-08-12T13:51:00.003-04:00

Let's talk butterscotch. Can anything top it? Sugar, caramel, butter, scotch.........nope. That's just about as good as it gets. Technically, that picture is of butterbourbon, as a bottle of Knob Creek is what is sitting on my counter. We can debate the pros and cons and differences of American bourbon and Scotch scotch, but I find that with that much sugar, and so little alcohol, the difference between butterbourbon and butterscotch is not a big enough difference. Butterwhiskey however, no. Bourbon is as low as I'd go on that ladder.

After a few of the houses I saw today though, I'll take any rung on that whiskey-scotch ladder. I have been house hunting, as my tweeps know, and some of the houses I saw today were in my price range....and lacking roofs. *Sigh* I toured an "artsy" home that had lampshades stuck to the ceiling, paint cans forming pyramids lining the hall, eight bikes in no apparent order, and more broken antique chairs than I knew what to do with (or how to steal and refurbish). It all added up to the perfect set for a psycho killer clown playhouse film. Other houses I saw had similar problems: hallways you can't pass through unless you're under 180 pounds, floor you can't walk on if you're over 150 pounds, and the ever charming smells of moth balls, dampness, and of course, mustiness. It was an interesting day. I got more brave about houses and dove right into some of them, lucky I didn't fall right into some of them. That was the occasional concern. I took a more observant friend along with me who has an eye for shoddy flooring like the nose on a bloodhound. He's also very good at pointing out slanted rooms, bad electrical wiring, poking at the ceiling to find the water drip, and other such things that tend not to cross my mind as I plan how to decorate the house. Yep, I'm great at that sort of thing. Details? No. I only noticed one of the eight bikes and no, I didn't notice the missing roof either. But hey, those decorating and design options I have down.

Suffice it to say, it was an interesting day. I did find a few gems to look at further, but, at the end of this, I want my cup of butterscotch, and maybe to pour some scotch on my hands as a disinfectant.

Before I head into recipe mode, just a reminder about:

Giveaway: Newman's Own Prize Pack

a Cisco Flip Video UltraHD 1hr 4 GB Camcorder - White
3 Newman's Own Salad Dressings!

If you want to enter the little give away:

be a twitter follower AND
tweet: @cherryteacakes is giving a Flip HD camcorder to one of her tweeps! Follow and retweet to enter! For details visit: http://bit.ly/pqEzey

Rules:

Yes, this is a twitter-only contest.
You may retweet once a day for additional entries.
Contest ends on August 17, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST.

Now that you've been reminded (and hopefully entered!), time for recipes! Enjoy the butterscotch pudding!

Cheers!

Butterscotch Pudding

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons Scotch/Bourbon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, in pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir sugar and water in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat. Boil without stirring until syrup turns deep amber color. Brush down sides of pan with wet pastry brush to remove sugar crystals. Occasionally swirl the pan. Remove from heat.

Add cream, being careful of the rapid bubbling that will occur. Stir until smooth and set aside.

Mix brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt in heavy medium saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk. Stir over medium-low heat until mixture thickens and boils, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in caramel sauce.

Whisk egg yolks in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk a bit of the warm caramel pudding into the egg yolks to temper. Gradually whisk yolk mixture back into the pudding. Bring to simmer over medium heat.

Add in butter, scotch, and vanilla.

Divide pudding among 8 containers. Chill until cold, at least 6 hours and up to 1 day.
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First Video Post & First Give Away

2011-08-10T11:56:00.002-04:00

Welcome to my first video post! Yes, after much work and effort, I now have learned how to post videos! I'm thinking of starting to do video posts on a weekly basis....maybe. It's not as easy to do a video post as I thought it would be. You learn FAR too much about your own speech patterns when you film yourself. I say "ready...okay!", "so, um, so," and I say "all you have to do is" and "simply" like I breathe....or blink....or clap. Turns out..... I clap a lot. What am I? A high school cheerleader masquerading as a cook. I knew the truth would come out someday and today is that day. Luckily I already knew about the blinking. A boy named Shad Casconi pointed that out in the fourth grade. (Thanks Shad. I will always remember that day playing tetherball with infamy).

This video was made for a Newman's Own campaign. We were told to "be funny." I love blooper reels. So I threw out that I would make one. Ever tried to mess up cooking on purpose? Yep, that doesn't go how you think it will. I chose ravioli because I have had a horrible history with making my own ravioli. It's never worked out. I've always messed it up in multiple ways: the pasta won't stick, there are holes in the seal, my pasta dough wasn't kneaded thoroughly, etc. but, of course, despite using no recipe to make something that I always mess up, and going into this with no prep, no trial run, no recipe..... it went fine. Of all the stupid luck! It would, wouldn't it? When I need it to go badly, it goes fine.

Newman's Own gave us little HD Flip Camcorder to use to film our videos, and a bunch of salad dressings, pasta sauce's, frozen pizza, etc. So...........I already have an HD camcorder. Who needs one? It's a good time to start sharing. :)

Giveaway: Newman's Own Prize Pack

a Cisco Flip Video UltraHD 1hr 4 GB Camcorder - White
3 Newman's Own Salad Dressings!

If you want to enter the little give away:

be a twitter follower AND
tweet: @cherryteacakes is giving a Flip HD camcorder to one of her tweeps! Follow and retweet to enter! For details visit: http://bit.ly/pqEzey

Rules:

Yes, this is a twitter only contest. Sorry. I'll work up to other mediums.
You may retweet once a day for additional entries.
Contest ends on August 17, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST.

In any event, let's call this video a transition video. When I try this again, the video will be shorter, include a recipe, complete instructions, less of my singing and dancing and being annoyed at construction workers. That's for next time though, for now, it's a blooper reel. I'm still learning, and if you win the HD camcorder you will be too! Good luck!

Cheers!

Hazelnut Sandies

2011-08-08T10:20:00.003-04:00

I've had a weekend that just had broken me down to a little pile of rubble. Cute rubble, tired rubble, but rubble none the less. I feel like I fit three weeks worth of activities into two and half days. I went: out to eat, miniature golfing, house hunting, out for pie, celebrated a friend's birthday, shot a food video, watched Buffy with Butchie, made pasta and ricotta and combined it into ravioli, converted video files, edited a video, lost the work I'd done, edited it again, slept off a migraine, took nighttime drives around the neighborhoods I'm looking into houses in, took a friend to an open house, went to church, made baked ziti, uploaded video to youtube, and then woke up today and realized....the video isn't there. HOW?! At 2 am last night I was on the verge of tears. After working on this video for three hours, losing the work, redoing the work, having the computer tell me I don't have the memory to save the video, erasing hundreds of pictures, and finally uploading the video I was so happy to be done......but no no. Now I'm fully awake, at work, and the video isn't there.

I should have called in sick today. I need a mental health day.

So, instead of seeing a hopefully funny video blog of my bloopers in the kitchen.....you're getting hazelnut sandies. It's not a horrible trade. You get cookies, and I get a headache and another evening of trying to finish this video mess.

A hazelnut sandie is a take off of a pecan sandie. I bet you already knew that and I bet you already knew a pecan sandie is a nutty shortbread cookie. It's a simple cookie, easy to throw together and remarkably delicious for what little hands on time you'll put into it. I prefer hazelnuts to pecans....and this seems like pointless rambling. :)

Enjoy the cookies. I need a nap and it's only 10 am. This is gonna be a long day. I hope your Monday is going better.

Cheers!

Hazelnut Sandies

1 1/2 ounces ground hazelnuts
1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1.1 ounces confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt (not kosher)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Sift together the remaining flour, the salt, and the baking powder, and add it to the dough, mixing until just combined. Stir in the nut mixture. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper to 1/4 inch thick . Using cookie cutters or knifes cut cookies into desired shapes.

Place them 1 inch apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheets . Bake until pale golden all over, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Blueberry Galettes

2011-08-04T10:41:00.000-04:00

Ever get ideas stuck in your head? I had this idea to make galettes. I made them. The crust was awful. I made them again. The crust was fair. I made them yet again. The cursing was abominable.

Try and try and try again, I finally found one recipe with a galette crust that was amazing. It's a shame that when you read the instructions all you can think is "oh that's never gonna work." Not to mention the snide taunts of Butchie and our friend Thelma asking me how my mental health is doing as I slam frozen butter with a rolling pin. Over, and over, and over again.

It probably won't shock you that the winning recipe came from Tartine yet again. What should shock you is that I actually tried out other recipes first. It's most likely for the best, as the anger I had boiling up from the failure spurred by aggressive attack on the butter. It's like that little book on happiness I read said, failure and disappointing force us to change things. Light bulbs never would have been in invented if everyone was content with candles. Pastry chefs never would have become artisans if everyone was happy with cupcakes (Slam! I'm over cupcakes. Make it stop).

Thank heaven for pastry chefs and all they do for us. Cheers.

Blueberry Galettes
From Tartine
6 small galettes

1 cup unsalted butter, very cold
1/2 cup water
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 cups blueberries
Granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling

To make the dough, cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer. Measure the water, dissolve the salt into it and put into the freezer as well. Chill both for about 10 minutes.

Measure the flour onto a large, flat work surface and spread into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour and toss a little flour over the butter so that your rolling pin won’t stick, and begin rolling. When the butter starts flattening out into long, thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up the sides of the rectangle so that it is the size that you started with. Repeat the rolling and scraping 3 or 4 times.

Make a well in the center and pour all of the water into it. Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough into the center, cutting the water through the dough. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass and shape into a rectangle.

Lightly dust the top with flour and roll out the rectangle until it is half as large again, then scrape the top, bottom and sides together to the original size and re-roll. Repeat 3 or 4 times until you have a smooth and cohesive dough. Transfer rectangle of dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.

When you are ready to roll the dough, divide it into 6 equal portions for small ones. Roll the dough into circle shapes by rolling from the center to each end, not flattening the end points. Turn the pastry so the flattened out corners are at the top and bottom. Again, roll from the center towards the points nearest and farthest to you, stopping short of the top and bottom. Roll the thicker areas and you will begin to see a circle forming. Transfer to baking sheets and chill for 10 minutes.

Fill the center of each dough circle with fruit, leaving a one inche edge. Taste the fruit for sweetness and determine how much sugar you want to use to sweeten it. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, typically 1-2 teaspoons. Fold in the sides of the circle to cover the fruit partially. Chill for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375ºF. To make the egg wash, whisk egg yolk and cream in a small bowl. Crush the egg wash over the pastry edges and then sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake the galettes until the crust has visibly puffed and baked to dark brown and the juice from the fruit is bubbling inside – 40-50 minute. Rotate the baking sheets at the midway point to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and serve hot or at room temperature.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

2011-08-03T14:58:00.003-04:00

So this last weekend we threw a birthday party for dear Butchie. She wanted a chill night on my awesome porch, good friends and food and one fancy cake. She used expletives to express her fervor towards the fanciness of the cake.......and by the time I was done making the darn thing I was too. She described the cake as "infused with curse words." Before you get on your high horse and judge me, let me give you a time line: Thursday night baking, Friday morning baking, Friday night pudding cooking, and ALL Saturday on construction. By that point wouldn't you be infusing with swear words? That was twenty hours on a cake! Every free moment I had for three days! KILLER.

magpies cake

So this cake was an attempt at a do it yourself replication of a magpies cake I've seen and loved. Now........my cake is just not that good in comparison. How on earth they made those amazingly thin and delicate looking layers is beyond me. You can see where the theme held threw even if the technique was lacking.,,, but how? How? HOW did they do it?!? I'm going to try again in the near future, this time with chocolate instead of fondant, and also, on a cake that does not have three massive cream filled layers, and that has time to let the crumb coating set into a very hard shell for structural support. Also....better lighting. Trying to take a photo as the sun was setting....not so hot.

Butchie's cake was chocolate, filled with butterscotch, wrapped in a buttercream crumb coat, and layered in thin sheets of fondant...as thin as I could go and it still wasn't thin enough! I tried to texture the little sheets by pressing paintbrushes into them.......didn't hold. I tried to make the layers pull out from the cake........then the humidity hit and the cake drew it's inspiration from the wicked witch of the west....melting, melting, melting and infused with curses. So..........what I really think everyone should take away from this cake is the chocolate cake recipe. It's a beautiful chiffon cake, smooth, with good flavor. It stays moist and airy, and lately is my go to chocolate cake recipe.

Enjoy! and another happy birthday to Butchie!

Chocolate Chiffon Cake
adapted from Tartine

¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup dutch cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon powdered lemon zest
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large egg yolks
⅓ cup water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

5 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to moderate 325°F (160°C/gas mark 3).

Line the bottom of an 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan with parchment paper. Do not grease the sides of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Add in all but 3 tablespoons (45 ml.) of sugar, powdered lemon peel and all of the salt. Stir to combine.

In a small bowl combine the oil, egg yolks, water, and vanilla. Whisk thoroughly.

Combine with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly for about one minute, or until very smooth.

Put the egg whites into a stand mixer, and beat on medium speed using a whisk attachment on a medium speed, until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat on a medium speed until the whites hold soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining sugar and beat on a medium-high speed until the whites hold firm and form shiny peaks.

Using a grease free rubber spatula, scoop about ⅓ of the whites into the yolk mixture and fold in gently. Gently fold in the remaining whites just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Removed the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack.

To unmold, run a knife around the sides to loosen the cake from the pan and remove the spring form sides. Invert the cake and peel off the parchment paper. Refrigerate for up to four days.