{ biscuitwallah }

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

nyckid — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 18:14:56 +0000

Okay, I lied. It was actually two days ago… in my kitchen. But anyways, I made a star wars cake for Bubby’s birthday! And it was pretty fun! (although it wasn’t that fun when I was adding each dragÃ©e on one at a time with tweezers at 1:30 in the morning… but I digress).

I’m actually kind of a faux star wars fan, considering I’ve only seen the new movie (and like parts of the 1st movie). But Bubby’s basically told me everything that ever happens so I don’t think there’s any point watching the rest of the movies now to be honest. The only reason I watched the new one in the first place was because we were in India during December and my brother and dad were going to see it (cause it had just come out) and they had an extra ticket so I was like “what the heck” and I just went. And I’m glad because I really liked it! Although I’m not sure if I can ever take it seriously again after watching this…

But anyways, I’m a total star wars freak now. So when Bubs asked me to make him a star wars cake for his birthday I was like YES!

So first I made the actual cake! I didn’t want to make a box mix because that’s lame but I also didn’t want to make some elaborate recipe because let’s face it these are 12 year old boys we’re talking about. So I ended up finding a pretty simple yellow cake recipe on my name is yeh which worked out great!

So start out by mixing all the dry ingredients together! Then move onto the wet ingredients…

Â Put them all in a medium bowl and whisk em up.

Â Then pour over the dry ingredients and whisk that too.

Â Then, you’re going to do something weird: pour boiling water into it. I’ve never seen this in a recipe before so I was like ummm okay but I followed the instructions and it worked! It just results in a pretty thin batter.

Make sure you have a dingbat to help you do the dirty work.

Â Then just fill the pans with the batter! (make sure the pans are buttered/floured with parchment circles). I ended up using the biggest pan we had (like a 9 inch I think?) and the smallest one we had. I also added some sprinkles at the last minute because I couldn’t help myself.

They’re done !!

Stack them onto a cake plate and make sure to put frosting underneath so it doesn’t slip! Also put wax paper under the edges if you’re feeling neat or whatever.

Put the little cake on top of the big cake!

You can put a few dowels into the cake if you want to be extra sure it doesn’t slip!

Then do a crumb coat! And stick it in the fridge.

(this is optional too but I always do it because it makes me feel like I’m on food network Challenge)

Then to make the “happy birthday” letters on the side, I used fondant!

I feel like kind of a hypocrite for doing this because I’m the type of person who’s always like “I hate fondant!” and I only use marzipan because I like to be artisanal or whatever, but I realized that these letters just wouldn’t work unless I used fondant so I had to step off my high horse and buy some Buddy Velastroâ„¢ fondant from Michaels’ (which also killed me inside because I hate buddy velastro). But anyways I realized that fondant actually doesn’t even taste bad so in the future I’ll probably just use it for everything including the figurines on top of the cake because marzipan is just too sticky and messy to be quite honest (although it does taste good).

Anyways, I cut the letters out of paper and then used a swiss army knife to cut them out of fondant. It wasn’t that hard as I thought it’d be!

Then I realized that I made a really embarrassing mistake, which is that I forgot to make the letters their iconic YELLOW. So I had to use my sharp wits to think of a Plan B and I just mixed some gel food coloring with water and painted them yellow. I also added some edible food glitter for pizzazz.

Anyways, by this point it was getting really late at night and I kind of conveniently forgot to take pictures. But I’ve drawn a step-by-step of how I assembled the rest of the cake so maybe this will help!

Yeah that probably doesn’t make any sense. But I’ll decipher it for you:

Make a batch of buttercream frosting and make it as dark blue as you can (which won’t be very dark unless you use like your entire bottle of gel food coloring)
Frost the cake
Add the figurines/dragees/letters/etc.
I also wrote “may the force be with you” with some canned vanilla frosting I found lying around.

And you’re done! Make sure to douse in extra glitter for that space-y look.

Here are my babies :))

I wanted to make Kylo Ren and Matt the radar technician too but I ran out of time. It was a sacrifice I had to make.

BB-8!

R2D2!

Happy birthday Bubs – may the force be with you.

Here’s the cake recipe!~

Vanilla Cake

(makes one 2 layer, 8 inch cake)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c sugar
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp each: baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 c buttermilk
1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c boiling water

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment (or whatever sizes you’re working with).
In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the boiling water. It will be a very thin batter. Pour into cake pans and bake until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.
let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn onto a cooling rack.

*for the frosting, I just used the recipe on the side of the powdered sugar box!

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Key Lime Pie

nyckid — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 02:39:16 +0000

So I have a confession to make: the photos in this post were not taken recently…. in fact they were taken way back in………..

SEPTEMBER.

Sorry. I know it’s a little much to take in but that’s the cold hard truth. But I can explain myself.

I have no explanation for this, though..

Back in September my aunt had just had a baby! Which I thought was a pretty exciting occasion so I made her a key lime pie to celebrate. I actually took like a bazillion photos of the process but I never ended up using them in a post which is pretty embarrassing.

But anyways, flash forward to like two weeks ago… I decided to make another key lime pie! But this time I didn’t have any special occasion (I just had a very strong urge to eat key lime pie so you know I had to make it…). Unfortunately, though, I hardly have any pictures from that because I made the fateful mistake of offering some pie to all the guys at my Dad’s annual Manly Man Party where he invites all of his dad friends to bond over sausages and stuff. Anyways they basically inhaled it and I had like 5 minutes to take a decent photo of the pie before all the dads attacked me.

So I was brainstorming for a post when I remembered that I had all those pictures I took in september….. score!!

Basically, I’m recycling pictures here (which probably breaks some sort of foodblogger code but whatever).

You’re probably wondering what this is. Honestly I don’t really know. Bubby made it at school and I guess I thought it was so hilarious that I forced him to pose with it and the key lime pie… I think it’s supposed to be a game? Like you flip the triangle and see if you’re ze boss or de swag. Or something. Anyways it must be an 11-yr old boy thing.

ON to the pie!

Step 1: crush da grahams!!

If you’re a normal, logical person, you would probably just pulse them up in a food processor. Or if you’re hardcore like me you could violently crush them in a ziploc with a rolling pin.

In all honesty it didn’t work that well (there were tons of lumps left haha) but it’s a good stress reliever !!!

Step 2: find your local 3 year old and force them to work for you

(just kidding)

(actually, she wanted to help. she told me that she’s “a caker and a baker” so I couldn’t really argue with that)

hard at work!!!

also, at this point you wanna mix in the melted butter and sugar. once you’ve done that, pour it into your pie dish…..

and bake it! ;~)

while the pie crust’s baking you can look at your brother while he stares pensively at his arm.

who know’s what he’s thinking about…. probably whether he’s de boss or ze swag…

Okay, I have another confession.Â This might be a little shocking but……

I didn’t use real key limes!

The main reason is that it honestly tastes the same either way (unless you’re a diehard key lime pie fanatic or something in which case… pls leave). Also because once I actually did make key lime pie with real key limes and it takes FOREVER because key limes are like the size of a grape and you need a ridiculous amount of them just to get a cup of juice. It’s just not worth the pain and suffering !!

Anyways, zest a few limes..

until they look weird and naked like this.

In all, you want 1/2 a cup of juice.

I guess I was SO into it that I went a little overboard here.

the star of the show: CONDENSED MILK !

what a beautiful sight.

make sure you get every single bit. this is so important.

violently mix everything on high speed !!! (also I think there were some egg yolks involved in there somewhere but I must’ve forgotten to take pictures….. typical…)

also add the lime zest!

pour into ze pie crust! and bake it!

ahhhhhhhh yes.

don’t eat it yet though. you have to chill it for a few hours! sorry.

ew. I apologize so much for this putrid lighting. as you can tell, it is nighttime.

but anyways this is after a few hours of chilling in the fridge! time for the moment we’ve all been waiting for!!

wow. this is honestly such a beautiful sight. I might even shed a tear.

plus look at that homemade whipped cream. I hope you’re all impressed.

side view

oh no not ze boss de swag again…..

well great. I guess I should’ve figured that would happen

anyways… enjoy, guys!! here are a few lessons I’ve learned from this pie experience.

just use a food processor for the crust. I know it’s tempting to pull out the rolling pin but let’s be real it doesn’t work that well.
(use regular limes! shhh)
homemade whipped cream is best! but nobody will really care if you use reddi whip….
keep all 11 year old boys far away from the kitchen!!!

alright so here’s the recipe. make this pie soon!

Key Lime Pie:

(adapted from The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

18 whole Graham Crackers (the 4-section Large Pieces)
1/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Butter, Melted
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Lime Zest
1/2 cup Lime Juice
2 whole Egg Yolks
1 can (14 Oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
For the crust:
Crush crackers in a food processor or Ziploc bag. Pour them into a bowl and stir in sugar and melted butter. Press into a pie pan and bake for 5 minutes or until golden and set. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly.
For the filling:
Mix lime zest, lime juice, and egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Add in condensed milk and mix on high until smooth and thick. Pour mixture into crust and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 1 hourâ€”more if possible.
Serve with sweetened whipped cream and more grated lime zest.

The post Key Lime Pie first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

whole lemon bars!!

nyckid — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 20:27:34 +0000

well….. let’s admit it: summer is sort of almost getting close to being over (??!). there’s still a month left which is good but I went to jo-anns today and they had all their fake halloween leaves and stuff ready in the front and I almost went into cardiac arrest.

Also, it probably seems as if I’ve been slacking on the baking (from the lack of posts) but the cold hard truth is that everything I’ve made has either: a) turned out horrifically (MACARONS) or b) not been exciting enough to document (like banana bread or something like that haha). But I figured lemon bars are pretty exciting if you’re into that kind of thing! and also lemon things are always a good idea in the summer… so

anways, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably finding it hard to find the motivation to do… anything (especially things like studying for the ACT or PSAT or subject tests or even getting started on summer homework… lol). the other day I was going through this sort of funk… aka it was like 100 degrees and I was slowly degenerating into a blob on the floor. What to do???!

well I’ve learned over the years that baking stuff is usually a good use of my time! So I started flipping through our smitten kitchen cookbook and narrowed my choices down to either lemon bars or some sort of snickerdoodle-blondie thing. To be honest the snickerdoodle things looked pretty dang good but I didn’t think I’d be able to eat a whole pan of them in this weather without feeling even more lethargic than I already do haha so….Â even though it went against everything I stand for…. I decided to make something.. lemony! It just seemed like the right thing to do. I mean citrus is refreshing right. And zesty. I figured that’s the kind of stuff normal people make in the summer so might as well give it a go.

Deb’s recipe seemed pretty nifty because: a) it uses the WHOLE lemon (like you just throw the whole lemon in the food processor without peeling it or anything) which is obviously great and b) it’s all made in the food processor so you don’t have to use any other bowls….. which is also great (except the food processor is sort of a pain to clean… but whatever I got over it)

so first line an 8×8 pan with parchment and butter! also don’t be like me!!

(deb said to use two pieces of parchment overlapping each other so that they were hanging over the sides of the pan for easy removal… and I thought I was outsmarting the system or something by just using one big piece of parchment. long story short it wasn’t a great idea so just do what deb says!!)

so first pulse all the dry ingredients together in the food processor!

also I apologize for the weird lighting change… I swear I was making these in the afternoon, but there was like a random rainstorm and everything got really dark for 5 minutes haha

add the cubed butter…..

and pulse until it looks like this!

press the dough into the pan and up the sides

and poke it all over with a fork!! (this part is the most fun tbh)

here it is after it’s baked!! it looks pretty funky and I was kind of freaking out because it didn’t look perfect haha but anyways it worked out fine

ok .. now pulse the lemon slices with the sugar!! I was so excited that it just turned into this pureed mixture like how did it just pulse up the whole lemon omg I was so impressed

then add the butter cubes

and the cornstarch, eggs, and salt

pour it into the baked crust!

after you bake it it’ll look funky again lol……. but anyways just take it out of the oven when it’s not super jiggly, just sort of jiggly (??? does that make sense? haha)

just stick it in the fridge for a few hours and dump as much powdered sugar as you can fit on top… it’ll end up looking fine!

see!!! totally acceptable! I was kind of worried that it would taste weird because of the whole lemon in there (??) but I totally couldn’t taste it! It was super creamy and sweet and tart and I really liked it actually (even though I’m usually anti-fruit desserts haha)….. when I told bubby I was making lemon bars he made a pukey face but then he ate like 5 of them so if that doesn’t convince you to make these I don’t know what will!!

whole lemon bars

(from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)

Ingredients:

for the crust:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon, unsalted butter, cut into chunks, plus extra for greasing pan

For the filling

1 small-to-medium-sized lemon (about 4Â½ ounces, or about 3 inches long)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Â¼ teaspoon table salt

Instructions:

Place a rack in middle of the oven and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut two 12- inch lengths of parchment paper, and trim each to fit the bottom of an 8- inch square baking pan. Press the first sheet into the bottom and up the sides of your pan in one direction, then use the second sheet to line the rest of the pan, running it perpendicular to the first sheet. Lightly butter or spray the exposed parts of parchment. Set the pan aside.
Make the crust. Blend the flour, sugar, and salt together in the work bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is powdery, but if firmly pinched, will hold together. Turn the dough crumbs into the prepared baking pan and press the dough evenly across the bottom and about Â½ inch up the sides. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Should any parts bubble up, gently prick them again with a fork. Leave the oven on.

For the Filling:

Cut your lemon into thin rings and discard any seeds. Toss the lemon rounds in the bowl of your food processor, add the sugar, and run the machine until the lemon is thoroughly purÃ©ed, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and again run the machine until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides of the work bowl as needed. Add the eggs, cornstarch, and salt and pulse the machine in short bursts until the mixture is evenly combined.
Pour the lemon mixture over the crust and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the filling is set, slightly jiggly and a bit golden on top.
Let the pan cool completely on rack or in the fridge. Gently cut around the outside of the parchment paper to make sure no sides have stuck, then gently use the parchment lift the bars onto a cutting board and cut into squares.

Notes:

Before using your lemon, you have to do a test to make sure the white part of the skin isn’t too thick. (if so, the bars may be too bitter).Â Cut your lemon in half- is the white part of the skin especially thick? If the widest part of the white is Â¼ inch thick or less, your lemon is good to go. If any part of it is thicker than Â¼ inch, however, remove the skin from half the lemon- a little less skin will help to even out the flavor!

The post whole lemon bars!! first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

Incredible India!

nycmom — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:09:50 +0000

So somehow I managed to finagle a two week trip ALL BY MYSELF to India last month. Â I’m not quite sure how it happened – but it had something to do with my darling husband and somehow all the stars aligned and before anyone could say “Mommy!” I had booked a ticket. Â It’s like therapy for my soul – I miss the food, I miss the people, I miss the country.

Now, I love NYC like nobody’s business but there are some things you just cannot get here:

A proper dosa. Â (Sorry nyc peeps – it’s true)
Fresh lime soda
A Hanyuman temple in the middle of a busy street.
Dancing south indian coffee
fresh flower garlands for your hair every day (not that I put them in but nice to know i can!)
a reasonable car and driver (because you would have to be mad yourself to drive there!)
sitaphal
unrestricted pharmacies
the food. Â omg, the food. Â it just does not compare

Luckily I got my fill of two weeks and am ready to hit the ground running for summer 2014!

Let’s talk about some of the delicacies I experienced over there.

Well, before we get to India I feel I need to mention Emirates Airlines and the sheer ridiculousness of their awesomeness. Â I got a ticket last minute and because we have a gajillion miles I upgraded myself on some of the legs. Â Well I did not know what I was in for.

This was the breakfast scene at the airport (my flight left at 11am so this was about 9:30am). Â I wasn’t even hungry but I couldn’t help myself.

What is it about the psychology of buffets? Â Can someone please explain this phenomenon? Â I never even eat breakfast but somehow was powerless against the draw of the buffet and had to throw down a breakfast. Â And VC for brekkie? Â I restrained myself. Â I still had a 14 hour flight to get through.

But get this!

Â This was ON THE PLANE! Â There was an actual bar and lounge. Â OMG. I thought to myself, “This plane doesn’t even have to leave the tarmac – this is enough!” Â A bed, George Clooney movies and champagne. It was already a vacation. Â Since it was now 10:30 Â I thought, why not?

And that was the start to the most blissful transatlantic flight I have taken and sadly, probably the last. Â Let me tell you I had a bit of a rude awakening when I had to fly economy on the next leg. Â I know, I know – cry me a river.

My first stop was Mumbai. Â I love Mumbai. Â It is a large bustling metropolis surrounded by water. Â Sound like a city you know and love already? Â You betcha! Â It’s the NYC of India.

This is me trying to cross the street at Crawford Market. Â While taking a video. Â Probably not the best idea.

Pretty hairy, huh? Â Well I did safely make it across. Â It’s funny how in all the chaos there is beauty and things actually work.

Crawford Market is one of Mumbai’s most famous markets. Â It was completed in 1869 and architecture is a blend of European styles. Â You want to buy a puppy? Â or a chicken? Â You want fake Croc’s or a sari bag? You want any kind of fruit or veggies you can think of? Â Quality Street candies? Â This is your place. Â Everything is here. Â Somewhere.

Â To fortify ourselves in the midst of all the shopping we stopped at a very famous falooda place – Badshah’s.

seriously? 1905??

Never had a falooda? Â Well, you are in for a treat. Â If you can find one here (let me know if you do!). Â It’s basically a flavored syrup with vermicelli noodles, milk, chia seeds and ice cream. Â Whoa! Â I know it sounds like a lot going on but man – it’s delish! Â It’s basically a not-very-healthy smoothie-like drink you eat with a spoon! Â Well it does have chia seeds so maybe that negates some of the naughtiness. Â Eh, who cares?

mine was mango flavor!

Badshah’s has been doing this for over 100 years so they seem to know what they are doing. Â Check them out next time you are in Mumbai! Â Or visit Crawford Market and take home a mix!

falooda mix!

We spent one glorious lunch at Trishna’s. Â I was so excited to eat there that I forgot to take any pics of the food! Â They are one of the best known sea food restaurants in India and some say the world. Â The inside looks like a drab conference room but people come here for the food, not the ambiance. Â We weren’t very hungry so we just had a simple lunch of Butter Pepper Garlic Crab and thin butter naan, but Oh momma. Â If ever I was on death row this would most certainly be my last supper. Â Just perfection. Â I didn’t want to eat dessert lest the flavors left my mouth. Â And you know me, when do I not eat dessert? Â Twice? Â It is that good.

trishna with the cousins

Mumbai has lots of other great dining options – Sassy Spoon, Table, Leopold’s Cafe, Brittania, the Sea Lounge at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Â You need a good week to hit everything. Â Which we didn’t have. Â On the way to the airport though we made one last stop:

for the famous Mumbai sandwich! Â Somehow I have lived 40 something years and have never had one of these! Â We stopped at Hajiali which is next to a mosque in the sea behind it. Â It happened to be high tide so the walkway was covered in water and no one could get to the mosque! Â It was quite a sight to see. Â So we had to fight some serious crowds to get our Mumbai sandwich! Â But it was worth it!

This sandwich is not fooling around – triple decker, layered with grilled veggies, cheese, potatoes and chutney. Â A perfect send off to a perfect Mumbai visit!

See you soon Mumbai!

PART II Â Â Incredible India coming soon!!!!

The post Incredible India! first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

miami shenanigans part II: south beach food tour !

nyckid — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 04:50:38 +0000

random picture of a cool house bc i’m running out of pictures to use haha

hey!! hi! I’m back

(sorry for the hiatus you know what week it is…………………. FINALS WEEK) but anyways:

so where did I leave off………. oh yeah day 2

sooo for day 2 we actually got to be there for the FULL day (instead of showing up halfway through the day haha) so we hopped out of bed with a spring in our step ready to attack the day! (kind of)

but anyways I don’t know if I mentioned this before but the basement in which this whole convention was held was literally FREEZING it was ridiculously cold and I honestly don’t know what they were trying to do to us but I was NOT prepared for that because I thought we were going to Miami which is usually warm right?? but yeah I had to brace myself before going downstairs because I knew I’d start to get pneumonia again after like 2 seconds

so we were greeted by a lovely continental breakfast (which was kind of mediocre to be honest) and we were in this huge auditorium room with a stage at the front… and there were a bunch of women sitting on the stage who were supposed to be giving a presentation on how to use pinterest to boost your blog traffic or something but it turned out to be mostly them just talking about themselves haha

well anyways after that they basically had these things called “breakouts” which were these different presentations held in various auditoriums and you could choose which ones you wanted to attend! so we went to a few….. one of them was a guy plating a cheesecake for an hour or something which was kind of anticlimactic… and there was another one that was supposedly about how to take quality food pics with your phone (except it was also kind of anticlimactic ha)

there was also a presentation which was a panel of a bunch of people who were supposed to be talking about “turning food ethics into action” (it was basically just them talking about their success stories which is great and all I guess) but there was one indian woman who has a blog called food babeÂ which is basically about her finding out all the bad stuff in different food brands and then exposing them to the world! which is pretty cool except now my mom is trying to get me to stop eating goldfish crackers because they have something horrific in them I guess?? except that’s not gonna happen ahha sorry

we also went to ANOTHER panel in which we learned that apparently it’s really important to have a facebook page for your blog?? maybe we should acquire one of those I guess idk

but okay sorry I’m ranting a lot! back to the point of this post! so for lunch we were supposed to be dropped off at some exotic location by the name of “mary brickell village” which my mom googled and quickly found out that it’s really just a mall haha

sooo because we weren’t gonna spend a good 2 hours of our life at mary brickell village, my mom decided to book us 2 spots on a “south beach food tour” which ended up being an A+ experience which I shall recount for you guys!

(also we had a super swag tourguide named mirka shoutout to her !!!)

first we went to a restaurant and my mom got some alcoholic beverage (I really don’t know what it is sorry) but I also got some type of latin american cream soda which was really good!

!!!

this is ceviche I think (not really into that kinda stuff but I bet it was good)

we also got empanadas!!! score

my mom caught off guard smiling charismatically with a churro

these churros!!! were so!!! GOOD

we found them in this like little hole in the wall restaurant and I totally would NOT have expected them to have these but…. they were literally the highlight of that whole trip (also they had caramel in them)

~cool art deco hotel spotted~

dat me

this was a really good chicken sandwich that we got at a cute restaurant called Polo Norte (which means north pole in spanish !) (because it used to be an ice cream store apparently?)

we also got these teeny shots of coffee and for some reason I thought I could handle it so I took a swig and I almost puked everywhere because I definitely could NOT handle it honestly I can only drink coffee when its like 1% coffee and 99% milk sorry

(and then we were begging mirka for some milk or sugar or something and she was like no a true columbian drinks its like this!!! what the frick)

then we went to a pizza place (I think) and we got these things called like hippie wraps or hippie something (they had cheese and sundried tomatoes and other various things it was good!)

cute street !!!

our last stop was an ice cream place with a cool machine that looked like this and it was spinning the whole time omg wow

dat me (again)

so that night when we went back to the hotel there was one more final event which was the afterparty!! so we all got on a bus and it got lost for like 20 minutes and rammed into a fence but soon we were back on track and we finally got there and it was kind of anticlimactic except…………

I MET THE PIONEER WOMAN !!! she was so cool wow you don’t even understand how excited I was haha

(sorry I look like a grapefruit in this picture but hey at least I’m wearing a cool ice cream sandwich dress am I right)

buut yeah that concludes our trip!! hope you guys enjoyed my recounting! In all I think BlogHer food was definitely a learning experience (being our first food conference and all) and honestly I don’t think we’d do it again (because I feel like it was more focused on networking rather than hands-on learning classes) and also I just feel like it was aimed at a different crowd…. but maybe we’d try a different food conference?? we learned about a few cool ones so maybe that is in our future….!

The post miami shenanigans part II: south beach food tour ! first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

blogher food 2014 and other miami shenanigans

nyckid — Tue, 27 May 2014 13:05:41 +0000

So! I’m assuming that the vast majority of you all know (from our incessant updates) that we recently decided to assert our status as true food-bloggers by attending the annual BlogHer food conference! It seemed pretty great in my mind… a congregation of people dedicated to the art of food-writing! We’d be surrounded by famous food bloggers and walk out changed forever by the insurmountable amount of knowledge we’d gained! How could anything go wrong!?

(…also the conference just so happened to be in Miami this year which wasn’t sounding too bad when we booked this trip aka in the dead of nyc winter)

Well. . . I’ll start with PART I of our saga: flight gets cancelled by rampant tornado!

It all began on Thursday-

I’d successfully survived my World History AP test at school and returned home feeling pretty triumphant. Sure… I might’ve written that the Dutch were the first to land on the Cape of Good Hope instead of the Portuguese but… whatever. I made it out alive! Things were looking up! We were scheduled to board our flight to Miami at like 6 that night and arrive at 9, just in time for the first day of the conference on Friday.

So we left the house around 4 something, after checking to make sure our flight was on time and all that, but were shocked to find out once we reached LaGuardia airport that… our flight had been cancelled due to a TORNADO in Miami.

ummm what. I thought it was a joke or something because like… how did a tornado suddenly materialize in the 30 minutes it took for us to get to the airport?? I honestly don’t know. But basically we both went into panic mode and my mom furiously hunted the web for any flights that would get us to the conference in time…. TO NO AVAIL. It was pretty obvious that we were gonna have to miss the first half of the friday conference (sigh) and probably end up flying through Ft. Lauderdale instead of directly to Miami (gah). So we just went home and I ate a box of mochi.

So the next morning we got up at like 5 am and drove to JFK where our flight ended up being delayed for like an hour (what the frick) but after we landed in Ft. Lauderdale and drove to Miami and picked up our business cards… we FINALLYÂ got to the conference around like 1:30. Woo!! We waltzed into the conference ready to be thoroughly amazed and after 0.5 seconds I’d already been thrilled beyond my wildest dreams. Because…

LOOK AT THIS ICED COFFEE STAND. Basically they gave you this awesome free reusable cup thing and you filled it up with iced coffee and any creamer you want (out of like 5 flavors). It doesn’t sound as cool now that I think about it (??) and I honestly don’t even love coffee… maybe I was just slightly deranged from the plane ride? But at the time I thought it was the COOLEST THING EVER !!

we also got these swag bags!! which consisted of multiple large grapefruits and a book about lentils I think

look at this professional tag we got yoo

I also met this slightly terrifying blue cow

there were tons of other cool sponsor stands too like…..

Â THIS! this was basically a stand handing out free jamba juice I was so happy I think I took like 10

haha this was the strangest thing because first of all it was a FARMVILLE stand (does anyone even play farmville honestly) but they were handing out like chocolate chip cookie jars and to this day I still don’t understand the correlation between the two

Â there was also an entire room devoted to some new line of gluten free snacks at CVS (we filled up like 2 bags of samples for our gluten-intolerant uncle)

so after the first thrilling 20 minutes of looking at all the free stuff, reality kind of set in and I began to realize where I actually was: a 16 year old indian girl amidst aÂ conglomeration of middle-aged suburban women who run food blogs (who were most definitely not indian). But hey… not like I have a problem with that. But yeah the sponsor food wasn’t very substantial so we went to explore the mediocre hotel and eat some real food.

But we came back to the conference later because there was a special guest speaker…….

DAVID LEBOVITZ!!! He’s actually 100% the coolest person ever and runs a killer blog. He was on a book tour for his newest book– My Paris Kitchen, but we ended up buying one of his older books (Ready for Dessert) because… dessert. But yeah he was way funnier than I expected (??) and it was super cool to see him in real life!

Sadly we missed all the morning workshops because of Tornado Miami. Â And it took a while to get our bearings with all this free food being thrown at us at all times. Â So highlights of Day 1 #BlogherFood was David Leobovitz and a useful trick which we learned at the Pie Lady workshop (which we will share with you at a later date) (and of course free stuff !!!)

afterwards they had all these cute desserts set up!!

and also some pastries I think

some shrimp things??

my mom posing with some chicken skewers Â (nycmom edit: I don’t usually pose like that but since nyckid always does I thought I give it a try. Â Think it works better on 16 year olds.)

tiny tabasco bottle !!!

a vegan setup (which consisted of basically tomatoes and cucumbers)

so later that night we decided to go to W Hotel which housesÂ the DutchÂ MiamiÂ which is a really cute restaurant with awesome art including these fountains (!!!)

(sorry for my twerpy pose)

dinner was really good (I forgot to photograph it whoops but I got some pasta dish with homemade ragu which was A+) and then we got these caramel beignets afterwards which were good but not GREAT but still good !

so yeah that was the end of day 1

Stay tuned for Part Deux and theÂ South Beach Food Tour!

Coming soon!!!

The post blogher food 2014 and other miami shenanigans first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

My Big Fat Indian Mother’s Day

nycmom — Thu, 15 May 2014 13:08:55 +0000

Hey y’all!

Happy happy Mother’s Day to you out there! Â I know some of you probably get breakfast in bed and homemade cards and gifts and all. Â Drink it in! Â We are a little more casual here in our house. I do get cards and gifts but for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to host my entire extended family for Mother’s Day about 10 years ago. Well, my extended family has now grown to be about 35 people. Â That includes my mom and her two sisters and their kids and their kids. Â Phew! Â We’ve got all generations mingling here and it’s always fun albeit a little hectic. Â Needless to say it’s not much of a Â Mother’s Day for me. Â I usually get up early, go for a run and hit the ground running for guests arriving at noon. Â Ten years I’ve been doing this! Â And as my brother-in-law Russ mentioned – he has it good! Â He gets to come into the city, hang out at our apartment, eat good food, drink a beer, go for a walk in Central Park and go home! Â And his wife is happy! Â Mother’s Day done! Â And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This year I decided to try something different. Â My brother-in-law Justin usually makes Momofuku Bo Ssam which is this melting good pork butt that has been in the oven for about a thousand hours. Â And all these amazing dipping sauces to go with it. Â You take some pork, wrap it in lettuce and add some sauces. Â OMG. Â David Chang doesn’t fool around. Â As amazing as it tastes it is quite easy to make. Â So he was assigned the entree.

I took dessert – obvi! Â I made a tres leches cake and a chocolate pie with pretzel crust and peanut butter whip.

And my friend Katie Â – former nanny of one of my BFF’s from Colorado who is now a chef in Brooklyn Â – made all the sides and apps. Â It worked quite nicely! Â See for yourself!

Katie started apps with summer rolls with two sauces – a peanut sauce and a ponzu sauce. Â There were two kinds of rolls – veggie and vietnamese pork. Â Delish!

She also made grilled garlic shrimp (no pics!) and masala mixed nuts.

That was in addition to the lbs and lbs of grilled sausage nycdad loves to make!

For sides we had

buckwheat noodles with veggies, an asian slaw, vietnamese fried rice, a green salad and other things which I have forgotten and also not photographed!

Of course we have to spice things up with a little Indian in the mix. Â My cousin Runa brought a Calcutta favorite – Puchka or Pani Puri or Gol Gappa.

Basically a cute little hollow fried dough that you poke a hole into and fill with potato and tamarind and a cold spicy watery broth. Â Sounds weird, right? Â But it’s oh so good! Â In Calcutta you stand on the street and just pop them in your mouth. Â One after the other. Â This is, of course, after your uncle has made the Puchkawallah wash his hands with bottled water and make a new jal jeera (spicy water) using said bottled water. Â Oh us dainty Americans…

Puchka fixins!

And then of course lunch!

Here’s Justin going at it! Â He is a BOSS with the Bo Ssam!

Bo Ssam! Â In all it’s glory! Â Really if you haven’t tried you need to run out and secure yourself a pork butt! Â Or call Momofuku and make a reservation.

Here’s the link to the Bo Ssam recipe on the NYTimes.

These are the Bo Ssam sides – ginger scallion sauce, kimchi, pickled radish and unidentified bowls of bo ssam stuff!

Â What a feast!

And then of course dessert!

I made a Tres Leches Cake which I forgot to take pictures of – oops! Â The recipe is delicious and from Cook’s Illustrated if you want to take my word for it.

The pie above is a chocolate pie with a pretzel crust and a peanut butter whip – the combo was too good to not try.

Here’s the recipe (adapted from ohladycakes – didn’t realize it was a vegan site so added dairy. Â Sorry not sorry!)

CHOCOLATE PIE WITH PEANUT BUTTER WHIP + PRETZEL CRUST

Pretzel crust

2 cups + 2 tbsp pretzel flour
2 tbsp sugar
13-14 tbsp non-hydrogenated shortening, room temperature (could probably use butter also)

Ganache filling

6Â oz of good quality dark chocolateÂ 
3/4 cup of heavy cream

Peanut butter whip

1 pint of heavy cream full
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325ËšF. Line the bottom of an 8-9â€³ removable bottom tart pan with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the pretzel flour (which is just pretzels pulverized in a processor)and sugar. Add 13 tablespoons of the shortening and use a wooden spoon to mix it with the pretzel flour until itâ€s combined and the mixture resembles large crumbs. Press the mixture together with your hands â€“ if it sticks together fairly well, you donâ€t need to add the final tablespoon of shortening unless you want to. Firmly press the crumbs into the prepared tart pan and bake at 325ËšF for 10 minutes then set aside to cool. If you donâ€t want to use the crust right away, it can be kept frozen in an air tight container for up to 3 months.

Prepare the chocolate ganache. Â Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Â Once melted pour in the cream and stir till combined. Â Pour it directly into the crust and transfer it to the refrigerator to chill.

While the pie is chilling, prepare the peanut butter whip. Â Combine heavy cream, peanut butter and sugar and whip till stiff peaks form.

Remove the pie from the refrigerator and top with peanut butter whip. Allow to chill for at least another 2 hours before serving â€“ the shortening in the crust needs some time to solidify to keep the pie structurally sound. When ready to serve, top with crushed pretzel sticks and chopped chocolate, if desired. Pie will keep covered in the refrigerator for up to four days, but if you want to add the crushed pretzel topping, I recommend waiting until serving (or else the pretzels get soggy).

Yield: 10 slices

Needless to say, everyone was fat and happy.

Some of us even lost our shirts.

Parting Mother’s Day gift was a jar of homemade tomato jam by Mark Bittman- recipe here. Â Made with love by nycmom and packaged begrudgingly by nyckid.

Â Happy Mother’s Day till next year! xxx

BIG P.S.!! Â Nyckid and I are attending Blogher Food in Miami this weekend! Â We are beyond excited to be in Miami with other food bloggers we have been following and finally get to meet! Â Hope to pick up a blogging trick or two. Â Stay tuned…

The post My Big Fat Indian Mother’s Day first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

Isitspringyet Strawberry Yogurt Bundt

nycmom — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 20:34:23 +0000

Somehow spring is just not ready to pop it’s pretty head in on the east coast here. Â We have had numerous snow storms. Â Plenty of skiing. Â Worn our down coats to death. Â And winter just keeps hanging on. Â It’s the end of April here and I think it snowed last week.

It’s been so cold that my bees didn’t make it. Â For those that don’t know, this was my first year at attempting to be a beekeeper. Â Apparently they had food in the hive but were too cold to leave their cluster to get it. Â So so sad. Â Poor cold bees. Â Poor cold me!

I haven’t been feeling like leaving my cluster much lately either so I decided to try and fake it till I make it. Â I’m making fresh strawberry cake because what’s says summer more than a bowl of strawberries??

Here we go!

butter and sugar as usual…

add lemon juice and eggs

prep your strawberries

add them to your prepped batter

and bake!

perfect!

make your icing – add a drop of color if you want

and colored sprinkles also!

is it spring yet??

Strawberry Yogurt Bundt

adapted from Bakerette

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 eggs, beaten
8 ounces plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
12 ounces fresh strawberries, finely chopped (do not use frozen strawberries)

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a 10-inch Bundt cake pan with grease and flour.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
With an electric mixer on medium high, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lemon juice and eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
Alternately add the dry ingredients and yogurt to the creamed mixture beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the strawberries.
Pour the batter into prepared Bundt pan. Reduce the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow to slightly cool before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice together with a drop of color and drizzle over.

The post Isitspringyet Strawberry Yogurt Bundt first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.

intense harry potter birthday cake!

nyckid — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 23:18:19 +0000

I was trying so so hard to come up with a pun that would incorporate Harry Potter and cake……. but alas my mind is overwhelmed with the overabundance of Harry Potter knowledge I’ve acquired over the years so I settled on “intense harry potter cake” because let’s be real here, that’s what this post is about.

BUT if you are still doubting my superior knowledge of Harry Potter, I’ll tell you that I’ve read the series twice and somehow managed to watch all the movies once within the span of 2 weeks- my deepest darkest fantasy involves going to Harry Potter world and drinking butterbeer soo… I think it’s safe to say that HP has a special place in my heart.

It took us a while to convince my younger brother to start the series (because he’s a huge twerp) but obviously he got super into it once he started! SO for his 10th birthday bash he requested a Harry Potter cake (which is funny because his party had nothing to do with HP, and everything to do with small sweaty boys running around in a pit with balls) but I was more than happy to comply because honestly how could I resist this golden opportunity to combine two things I love?? Harry Potter?? And cake????? Let’s get into it!

so I decided that I really didn’t wanna deal with baking the cake from scratch because honestly what kind of 10 year old is gonna tell the difference right…?? so yeah this is cake mix (SORRY)~Â I made two mini cakes and then a slightly larger one and then one that was a little bigger than THAT one if that makes sense! then I layered them as you can see above so yeah!

(I also made two flavors because my brother wanted vanilla but I thought that was pretty lame so I made some chocolate too haha)

DON’T forget to poke some skewers or something into the cakes to prevent them from toppling over after you’ve frosted them and everything (which would be a travesty!!!)

do a quick crumb coat to seal in all the crumbs yeah! (cake mix tends to be extra crumby)

here is our ~special tool~ MARZIPAN !! if you have never heard of marzipan it’s basically a moldable almond paste which not only looks super nice but also tastes 102% better than fondant- sometimes it can be sort of hard to find but usually it’s in the baking aisle! (try to get it in a can and not a tube)

here’s what it looks like inside!! to color it, just knead drops of gel food coloring in a little bit at a time.

(also if you don’t use up all of it in one sitting, wrap it in saran wrap/plastic bag and put it in a plastic container and put it in the freezer– it should keep for a while!)

here I tried to make hedwig but it didn’t work lol whatever it was a valient attempt

I made this little mini castle out of graham crackers and pretzels and yellow frosting to put on top of the cake!! isn’t it cute

here’s a little sign made out of marzipan! I used food markers to write on it !

haha here is a broomstick made out of a pretzel and marzipan (looks sorta lumpy sorry)

another sign!!

here’s a little snitch! (cheated kinda and made the wings out of paper haha sorry)

here it is in natural lighting ahh!! (fluorescent kitchen lighting at 11:30 at night just isn’t the same you know)

you can sort of tell in this picture but I made the forbidden forest in the back with ice cream cones and green frosting!!

I tinted some frosting blue and made the lake that they have to sail cross to get to hogwarts in the first movie!! (I also stole some of bubby’s lego harry potter figurines to complete the look ha)

here is a small owl in a boat! aw

VOLDY HIDING IN THE FORBIDDEN FOREST (spooky)

here are some quality hogwarts house banners that bubby made!! this one is slytherin

gryffindor!

hufflepuff!

ravenclaw!! (personally I feel like I would be a ravenclaw yeah)

Â ~*~Â happy birthday bubs! ~*~

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Very Delicious Chocolate Chip Marble-Lo Bundt

nycmom — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 13:21:01 +0000

full disclosure: cake pictured is NOT the marble bundt in this post, just an AWESOME bundt I made recently!

I quite like making bundts now. Â We seem to have come to an understanding. Â As usual it was all about money.

I love to cook and bake but some of my favorite dinners are one pot stewy dutch oven-y things. Â The bundt is a baking version of that. Â It’s fancier than cookies but doesn’t require frosting so easier than a cake. Â I was having an ongoing issue with trying to get the bundts out of the pan cleanly Â – it never seemed to work for me. Â I would wait 10 minutes. Â Or 20. Â I would run a knife around the edge. Â I would wrap the base in a wet paper towel. Â I got nothin’. Â But a fragmented craggly bundt. Â Which still tasted good but was not very pretty.

BUT

I easily solved that! Â I bought a really expensive heavy duty bundt pan from Williams Sonoma (no they didn’t pay me, I wish they did!) and guess what? Â All my bundt troubles vanished! Â This is the pan I bought and I highly recommend (it’s the top one):

These are the things I like about it:

Â – it has handles
Â – it’s really deep, holds 15 cups
Â – it weighs as much as my 1 year old niece

I think Cook’s Illustrated recommends it also and that’s good enough for me.

In my quest for bundt recipes I stumbled upon a really great blog with a really great name:

I Like Big BundtsÂ ! Â She has so many bundt recipes on there – it’s a treasure trove really. Â Check her out for bundt inspiration.

So the other day I was having a trunk show and was looking to make a quick goodie to offer. Â My younger two nyckids love Marble Loaf which we used to buy at Starbucks on our way down to Science class at the AMNH. Â We call is Marble-Lo in our family as that’s what my kids thought I was saying before they could read. So I decided to make a Marble Bundt and decided that it must have chocolate chips. Â I think it had something to do with the zaniness of the holidays (this was early December) and I was having a hard time coping unless I had chocolate chips. Â In almost everything.

The cake was delicious and a hit and I made it through the holidays. Â Sadly I have had to stop the chocolate chip method of emotional support. Â For the sake of my pants.

Here’s the how:

butter your bundt ( I like to put a pat of butt in the pan and stick it in the pre heating oven for a minute and then swirl it around. Â Since this cake I have found Pam with Flour – hallelujah!

flour it

meanwhile you should be mixing together the sugar, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla.

and melting it into this wonderful chocolatey mess.

mix the butter and sugar

add the eggs (there’s a lot of them in this cake! Â it’s a big one!)

Add the flour mixture

alternating with the milk

add chips and fold in by hand

clean up your mess

Now you are ready to make the marble-lo part of the cake!

mix 1/3 of dough in with the chocolate sauce you made earlier – I did it right in the pot!

yumz!

put in half of the remaining vanilla dough

put in the chocolate layer

put in the last vanilla layer – smooth it down and swirl your knife through. (sorry no pics of that!)

and rightfully so since I didn’t do a very good job at swirling! Ha!

Still tastes mighty good!

Marble-Lo Bundt Cake with Chocolate ChipsÂ

adapted from I Love Big Bundts

2 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) sugar, divided (1/2 cup and 2 cups)
1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) cocoa powder
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup (4 ounces) hot water
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided (1/2 teaspoon and 2 teaspoons)
2 2/3 cups (11 3/8 ounces) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (8 ounces) milk
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips

Oven: Preheat to 350 degrees.

Pan: 12-15 cup Bundt pan. Butter and flour pan generously OR Use Pam with Flour. Â I know, I know – what’s in there, right? Â I say just close your eyes and SPRAY because the STUFF IS MAGIC.

1. Chocolate Syrup: In a small saucepan, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar, cocoa powder and corn syrup with 1/2 cup hot water. Bring just to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and set aside to cool.

2. Dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt

3. Cream: Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter with 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 2 teaspoons vanilla.

4. Combine dry & wet: Using slow speed on mixer, add 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Add 1/2 the milk. Scrape down the bowl. Repeat flour and milk, ending with flour. Don’t overmix batter.

5. Fold in chocolate: With a spatula, gently fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Make chocolate batter: Scoop out 1/3 of the batter into a medium bowl. Blend in the chocolate syrup mixture until smooth. The chocolate syrup will thin out the batter quite a bit.

7. Bundt Pan: Spoon 1/3 of the remaining (non-chocolate) batter into the prepared Bundt pan and smooth out (I like to use an offset spatula or back of a spoon for this task). Pour the chocolate mixture on top of the batter. Top with the last 1/3 of the batter.

8. Marble: Using a butter knife, swirl the batters together to get a marble effect. Smooth out the top of the cake.

9. Bake: Place pan in the oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the cake springs back lightly when touched, about 60 minutes.

10. Finishing: Place Bundt on a wire rack and let cool. Invert on a tray and dust lightly with powdered sugar.

The post Very Delicious Chocolate Chip Marble-Lo Bundt first appeared on { biscuitwallah }.