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0 October 23, 2010 Dessert

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Three

Margie – [Pronounced Marrrr-ghee] A hilarious species native to Israel. I mean, New York. Known to carry a large camera, abbreviate most words in the English and Hebrew languages, and ask for crowns relentlessly. Often seen practicing Judaism and stealing bagels at the Freeman center. Adapts easily to some external habitats, but will stagnate in others, most notably the park in Budapest and dirty hostels in Cesky Krumlov. Is much better than Helen Wang at carrying large bags of groceries. Enjoys Taylor Swift, Mika, Steph Wells, Miley Cyrus, and no other musicians. Highly lovable.

Seriously, Margie and I are Praha besties. Sophomore year we actually lived on the same hall as each other and didn’t speak for the entire year, except for one time – a time which I remember vividly and she remembers not at all. I cut my hand on the espresso machine at the coffeehouse during a late shift, and when I got back to the Crave Megan was already sleeping and I couldn’t find my bandaids without the light. Bleeding, exhausted, I was standing in the bathroom at 3 in the morning, when Margie pads in in bright red feetie pajamas, looks at my hand, and runs back to her room to get a bandaid. I thanked her, she went on her apparently exceedingly merry way, and we never spoke again. That is until I showed up in Prague and saw her name on my apartment door. Awkward. Good thing she rules, and we quickly bonded over the fact that we’re both kind of cheap and occasionally grouchy and bigoted. Especially when it comes to Asian roommates. Kidding! We love you Helen, even though you can’t cook rice and store food in the dishwasher instead of dishes.

Anyway, being together in Prague was a blast, and now I have an incredible friend at Duke too. Honestly, that was not at all something I was expecting when I escaped to Prague via NYU, but it definitely worked out in my favor. And Margie’s too, because I rule. Now, on to the birthday part. I’m really glad Margie’s finally 21 … I think I may actually have been looking forward to her birthday more than she has. People like my parents and Steph and Trevor keep asking me how I’m doing, and I’m like “great, Margie’s birthday is in 15 days!” And they sort of pause awkwardly and decide to just move on. What can I say? I really like Margie and I really like birthdays. And I really like making cupcakes, and this time around, I went with mini key-lime and raspberry cheesecakes.

All the components of these cupcakes have a reason behind them – the key lime is because she ate all of my break-up key lime pie out of the freezer, the cheesecake is to pay homage to the one I made her in Prague a year ago (it was a serious feat considering they don’t have cream cheese in the potraviny), and the raspberry swirl/white chocolate layer/almond crust is for keeping it classy, like her. D’aw. These were delish – they taste kind of just like you would expect them to taste, given the description. You can taste all the components, and they go well together. And that, my friends, is the end of the cupcake extravaganza. I’m going to go have a salad.

Mini Key-Lime Cheesecakes

Makes 18. Recipe adapted from Modern Comfort Food.

1 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c. sliced almonds
4 TBS butter, melted
1/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. white chocolate chips
8 oz neufchatel cheese, room temperature
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
4 oz (1/2 c.) key lime juice
1/2 c. frozen raspberries
2 TBS sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. In a food processor, pulse graham crackers, almonds, and sugar, until fine. Mix in melted butter and stir or pulse until all crumbs are moistened. Press a tablespoon of crust mixture into the bottom of each cup. Top with a few white chocolate chips. Bake for 3-5 minutes, and remove from oven. Immediately spread white chocolate chips into a layer over the graham cracker. Pop into the freezer while you prepare the other components.*
In a large bowl, beat neufchatel (cream cheese), sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks, until combined. Set aside.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm raspberries and sugar, stirring constantly. Break up the raspberries with the back of your spoon. Cook until all of the raspberries have broken down and have formed a slightly thickened sauce. Remove from heat and set aside.
Remove muffin tin from freezer. Place 3 tablespoons of cheesecake batter in each cup. Using a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, spoon 3-4 tiny dots on top of each cheesecake cup. Take a toothpick and gently swirl the raspberry into the cheesecake batter, forming a marble pattern.
Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes, until set. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Serve cold.

* If anyone can think of a better way to do the white chocolate layer, let me know. I tried heating the chips with a small amount of cream to form a makeshift ganache, but it soaked into the graham cracker layer. Ideally, I’d like a crisp layer of white chocolate over the graham cracker firmly separating the crust from the cheesecake.

Want some more?

Cupcake Lovin’, Part One

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

1 October 18, 2010 Recipe

Detox

We’ve reached that point in the semester that’s like the Wednesday of a busy week – fall break already seems like it happened months ago, Thanksgiving is about 30 midterms away, the excitement of being back at school has worn off, and we’re tired. We need to be re-focused. We need a detox – a mental, physical, and emotional detox.

My physical rejuvenation is getting a kick-start with my mom’s vegetarian chili. It’s one of my favorite recipes of all time; long before I was doing my own cooking, or actively consuming vegetables, I frequently requested this for dinner. It’s really, really good. Like, it’s so good that I had some for breakfast this morning. Vegetables? For breakfast? Katie? Yeah, now you know it’s delicious.

I’ve been wanting to share this recipe pretty much since I started this blog, but I’ve been waiting for the right time, and now is definitely the right time. It’s just starting to get chilly and crisp outside, it’s getting dark earlier, and a bowl of hot, nutritious chili is about as appealing as it gets. This particular recipe is full of vegetables, beans, and nuts, so it’s super flavorful, energizing, and full of nutrients. So that after you eat it you can continue your physical detox by ellipticalling infinity miles at the Belmont gym while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on TV. Man I love those new ellipticals. But seriously, I really can’t describe it adequately – you have to try it. Served over rice or fresh cornbread and sprinkled with shredded cheddar, it’s perfection.

And you know what? Making this chili and some corn-thyme biscuits was kind of an emotional detox too. There’s something very therapeutic about being tired but calm and making something wholesome that takes time and patience. And I also have this weird thing for cutting butter. Literally, one of my favorite food memories is of sitting at our kitchen table in Prague, cutting sticks and sticks of frozen butter into little pieces for our Thanksgiving pies. Maybe that’s beside the point. The point being, make this chili.

Mom’s Vegetarian Chili

Serves 6

1 T olive oil
3/4 c. chopped celery
3/4 c. chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 c. raisins
1 T red wine vinegar
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
6 oz. beer
1/2 c. cashews
cheddar cheese

Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add celery, onion, and garlic, and saute until softened.
Add tomatoes, beans, raisins, vinegar, bay leaf, and spices. Stir to mix, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.
Slowly stir in beer (it will bubble) and cashews. Return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes.
To serve, remove bay leaf, and spoon over rice or cornbread. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

0 October 5, 2010 Dessert

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

Megan is my rooms. In fact, this is the fourth year in a row that she has been my rooms. That’s a pretty solid relationship right there. Two years ago after a particularly thirsty night out I came home and asked her, quite plaintively I believe, if we could be roommates forever, and ever, for life. I was completely serious. I still am completely serious. She would have to let a seriously large amount of laundry mixed with dirty dishes accumulate in the living room for me to change my mind.

There are a lot of reasons Megan is a good roommate. She’s very generous with her car, which is a. the only vehicle I’ve ever enjoyed driving since the demise of my poor, poor pimpmobile, b. the only vehicle I’ve ever driven, period, where I didn’t have to adjust the seat when I got in because we both drive inappropriately close to the wheel, and c. full of jammin’ music which I refer to in my head as Megan tunes. Megan tunes include a significant portion of the Glee soundtrack, usually followed by JJJJ J R, with some random a capella that makes me cry suddenly and unexpectedly while driving home from work thrown in there. Annnnd … that’s all the reasons I have.

Just kidding. I love Megan to death. I love when she dances around without pants. I love that she gives the best drunk hugs known to man. I love that we have the same conversation every night as we sit around the kitchen table and then laugh (or cry, depending on how many hours past midnight it is) about how pathetic we are. I do not really love the flotsam she tends to eject but I will deal with it. I love that she suffers from baby-itis as badly as I do. I love that she does things like eat entire boxes of nilla wafers dipped in frosting and four slices of cheesy bread at midnight. I love that she’s just the right amount of normal mixed with just the right amount of weird. Megan is incredibly smart, caring, funny, and mature, and I really mean every single one of those words. She’s a great person to have around.

I had sort of a hard time deciding what kind of cupcakes to make for Megan. Mostly it was hard because she obviously knows whatever I’m cooking and sometimes she watches over my shoulder when I’m foodgawking and says things like “I want that. And that. Oh and those pumpkin ones.” And since I want them all too it’s hard to focus. My initial inclination was, like my dad said, to make something messy on the outside but delicious and sweet on the inside. I almost went for some sort of chocolate filled peanut butter candy covered concoction, but then I asked her if she wanted something vanilla-ish or chocolate-ish and she said “light, so I can eat five at a time. But it’s OK if you work a little chocolate in there somewhere.” So I regrouped. I decided to go for these fondue cupcakes, because fondue is decidedly messy but in a fun, communal way. Appropriate. Also they have berries on top, and Megan eats a lot of berries. And berries are healthy so you can eat 5 of these at a time. Tah dah! The perfect Megan cupcake. These came out very well. I used Martha Stewart’s buttermilk cake recipe and it was just what I wanted – great flavor, great texture, and very moist. It will definitely be my go-to yellow cake recipe. The chocolate topping was decadent, but when combined with the light cake and the cold fruit it was just right … and all together they really did remind me of chocolate fondue!

So, three down, one to go. And after October 23rd, no more cupcakes until at least Christmas. Time. Ish.

Fondue Cupcakes

Cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart. Frosting recipe from Shelly Kaldunski’s Cupcakes. Makes 18.

1.5 c. cake flour
3/4 c. AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 stick salted butter, room temperature
1 c. + 2 TBS sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. buttermilk

8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
2/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
2 TBS butter
fresh strawberries and raspberries for topping

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, sift together flowers, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add whole eggs one at a time, beating vigorously in between additions. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat to combine.
Add flour mixture and buttermilk to wet ingredients in alternating additions: add 1/3 of the flour, mix, 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix, 1/3 of the flour, mix, the remaining buttermilk, mix, the remaining flour, mix. Only mix very gently between additions, just to fold the ingredients into the batter evenly.
Spoon the batter into cupcake liners, filling about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 17-19 minutes – when done, they should spring back lightly when you push down on them and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, but the edges should not have begun to brown. Let cool.
In a small saucepan over low heat, melt together chocolate, condensed milk, and butter, stirring regularly. When it has formed a smooth, even mixture, spoon on top of cooled cupcakes (leaving the chocolate over low heat so it doesn’t lose it’s texture). Spread to form a smooth cap, then top with fresh fruit. Be careful not to let the chocolate get to warm, as it will begin to burn and the texture will change to become grainy.

Want some more?

Cupcake Lovin’, Part One

4 October 3, 2010 Breakfast

Recap: September

I’m literally shocked that September is already over. It went fast. I feel like I’ve just barely gotten to school and yet we actually just finished the fifth week of class. So we’re going to do a little recap just so I feel like we can officially move into October.

In September, I had fun. A lot of fun. More fun than I’ve had in a while, and definitely more fun than I was expecting to have back at Duke. Where I’m actually enjoying being. In a controlled, happy, down-to-earth true-to-myself way. For the first time ever. About time.

But let’s get specific. In September, I danced. I learned to salsa dance with Justin on the chapel steps. In the rain. It was romantic. I continued cardio dancing with the 300 other people who attend that class. It was not romantic but I lost five pounds. I danced until I was drenched at the Homecoming Ball, at which the University provided free wine, and it was a total blast. I danced while people showered me with beer at two tailgates (which has to be a personal record for me.) And I’m pretty sure I danced in the pool at the kind of epic Belmont pool party after the Army tailgate.

In September, I had more friends than I realized. Friends with whom I went running, friends with whom I went hiking, friends with whom I played sports on East Campus and tried to befriend awkward freshman. Friends who were Margie with whom I watched a lot of movies, including Titanic (which I’d never seen and now I understand why everyone was so obsessed with Leo), Wall Street 2 (which was over my head but I do love Shia LaBeouf) and The Social Network (which was incredible and made me oddly homesick). Friends with whom I saw Whose Line Is It Anyway Live. Friends with whom I ate meals, and cooked. Friends with whom I went out for burritos, and hamburgers, and drinks. I even made new friends, just like you’re supposed to in a new school year.

Of course it wasn’t all fun. I did a lot of engineering. And then recruiting season snuck up on me. The second week of class I wore gym clothes every day. The third week of class I wore heels on four consecutive days and used an electronic apparatus to do my hair more times than there are days in the week. If you have ever lived with me (aka you are Megan, Margie, Helen, Mel, Molly, Trevor, my bunkies from camp 8 billion years ago, or my mother), you know how very, extremely unusual this is. I also shook a lot more hands than I do in an average week, nodded enthusiastically a lot more times than I do in an average week, and collapsed completely exhausted at 9pm a lot more times than I do in an average week. OK, maybe the same number of times I do in an average week, but still.

Oh, and here’s some breakfast. Because this is a food blog, and even when I don’t write about food, I still feel obliged to share some with you. These tartlets are lovely and pretty healthy and you could easily make them on, say, Sunday night, and have a delicious breakfast treat for Monday and Tuesday. I recommend trying them. Like, really. Because they totally taste like dessert for breakfast but with more redeeming nutritional qualities. So you can eat two.

Yogurt Tartlets

Makes 6. Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

1 c. AP flour
1/3 c. oats
1 tsp salt
7 TBS butter
2 TBS maple syrup
2 TBS natural cane sugar
1 c. plain lowfat vanilla yogurt
2 TBS maple syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
fresh fruit, for topping

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together flour, oats, and salt in a medium bowl. Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Once melted, add sugar and maple syrup and stir until evenly incorporated. Add flour/oat mixture, stir to mix, and continue to cook for two minutes. Dough will turn slightly whiter in spots and will start to smell toasted as it cooks.
Turn the dough out onto a cutting board or other heatproof surface. Divide into 6 portions. When cool enough to touch, press each portion into the bottom and around the sides of a 4 inch tartlet pan. Freeze tartlet crusts for 10 minutes.
In a medium bowl, mix together yogurt, lemon juice, and remaining 2 TBS of maple syrup. Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl, then stir into yogurt just to incorporate. Divide yogurt mixture evenly among tartlet pans. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until the custard is no longer jiggly. Refrigerate baked tartlets for 2-3 hours before serving. Serve cold, topped with fresh or dried fruit.

Nutritional Analysis (estimated using SparkPeople’s recipe calculator): 297.2 calories per serving (6 servings per recipe), 15.3 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, 7.1 g protein.

0 September 26, 2010 Dessert

To Russia, With Love

I miss hearing and speaking slavic languages. It seems a little odd, but I actually find what most people consider to be the harsh sounds of Russian and Czech very soothing, perhaps because I have only good associations with them. Memories of good people, of good stories. It’s been over nine months since I left Prague, and Czech is rarely spoken in North Carolina. Russian is more common, but I always freeze up when I hear people speaking it, so I don’t get as much practice as I would like.

I won’t be able to take another Russian course until the spring – too much engineering to be done – but I did just get a job with the library collections department assisting with cataloging slavic literature. It might turn out to be sort of a tedious job, but I’m excited about the practice I’ll get and I think I’ll like it. I like being around old books, sitting in dark, musty rooms heavy with silence. I like the mystery of foreign titles, of imagining the story within. I feel as though I’ve read so many short stories in Russian that I have this whole canon of Russian lore in my imagination. You know the way that you feel you understand a place you’ve never been, just because you’ve read about it? How you can have a swirling but fully complete concept of an Arabian desert because your mind has merged all the stories you’ve read into a real place? How you know the feeling of salt spray on your face, the wind blowing your hair back as you stand on the prow of a wooden ship? I sometimes wonder what the imaginations of people who have never had access to literature or media are like. If you live in an isolated tribe in the desert, can you still dream of the ocean, not knowing what it is? Could you conjure the idea of snow, never having heard of it? Or would your imagination be that much greater, having never been limited by what can and can’t be?

I think that I have an especially good concept of Russia as portrayed through 19th century Russian literature – of the poverty and wheat fields, the cruelty and power of man, the weakness of the classical female character, of тоска, the untranslatable word that describes the melancholy every Russian is said to hold within their soul. Maybe I don’t really understand, but when I conjure the Russia of my imagination, there is a sweeping expanse of plains dotted with epic sadnesses and small triumphs. With happy summer dachas and cold, hungry winters. With clever men who think only of evil, and strong, brainless men who triumph over them. With withered babushkas in huts and frail, blonde peasant girls.

To honor all this Russian-ness on my mind, I decided to make fruit dumplings. In Russian, the word for them is vareniki; in Czech, ovocne knedliky. In Prague, my roommates and I used to pick these up at the potraviny as a quick dessert, and so I have many good memories of eating them late at night around our little kitchen table. The recipe I used for these is a Czech one, however, these are a fairly ubiquitous dessert in Slavic countries, with slight variations from country to country, so they can serve as a culinary testimonial to both Russia and the Czech Republic. The dough is a bit hard to work with, but don’t add too much flour as the stickiness of the dough helps to seal the fruit in. Fresh or frozen fruit will work equally well here, and these are best served warm with sweetened cream, cottage cheese, whipped cream, or simply melted butter and sugar.

Ovocné Knedlíky – Fruit Dumplings

Makes 35-40 dumplings. Recipe from bfeedme.

1 c. whole milk
1 TBS butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 c. flour, divided
8 oz. fresh or frozen fruit (cherries, plums, blackberries)

In a small bowl, lightly beat one egg. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, bring milk, butter, and salt to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and pour half a cup of hot milk over beaten egg, whisking vigorously the whole time so the egg does not begin to scramble. Return tempered egg and milk mixture to pan of milk, stirring. Gradually pour in one cup of flour, stirring the whole time. Dough will have the consistency of a thick paste.
Pour remaining cup of flour onto large cutting board. Form a large well in the middle, and pour hot dough onto flour. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, or until it is comfortable to knead with your hands. Knead flour into dough until it forms a ball. Dough should be sticky, but add up to 1/2 cup extra flour for workability.
Tear small pieces of dough off the ball and pinch into a thin disk. Place piece of fruit in center of disk and wrap dough around fruit, sealing the edges, so that the dough is spread equally thin around fruit. The layer of dough should be as thin as possible for the best flavor. Repeat to form remaining dumplings.
Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil. Add dumplings, and boil for 10-15 minutes. Dumplings should begin to float to top when done. Remove from water with slotted spoon and serve warm, with sweetened cream, cottage or ricotta cheese, whipped cream, or melted butter.

* Dumplings can be frozen before boiling.

0 September 21, 2010 Dessert

Cupcake Lovin’, Part One

Four of my best girlfriends have their birthdays in between mid-September and the end of October. For each of them, I am making cupcakes, because that is the best way that I can think of to show my love. And also because who doesn’t love things that are small, pink, delicate, and, most importantly, edible? I’m of the opinion that everyone should have something both cute and slightly indulgent on their birthday. Because each of my friends is lovely and wonderful and unique, each of them clearly had to have their own highly-personalized batch of cupcakes. Here’s what I made, for whom, and why.

Becky. Shirley Temple Cupcakes. Becky and I have been friends for an extremely long time. In fact, I think she might be the oldest friend I have whom I’m still in touch with, besides like, my baby brother. And my mom. You know. We used to jump rope together and write stupid ridiculously girly letters to boys while at the beach. We used to have a fake joint AIM account we used to harass our crushes. I went to her bat mitzvah. She threw me an incredible surprise birthday party in 8th grade. I have some really epic pictures of us in our awkward stages. We ended up at the same high school, where we grew apart a little, but would still go on long, long walks once every few weeks to catch up and then we would get cold and it would be gray and we would continue talking in long uninterrupted streams in Starbucks. We both got accepted at Duke, and by complete chance ended up two doors apart from each other in our freshman year. We got close again, made the same friends, dressed in matching outfits to go to parties, had a few drunken adventures. We started an excellent tradition of girl talk with Megan and Phoebe. And now we’re seniors, we live a few buildings apart, and we’ve officially been friends for 11 years. Wow.

It’s because of all this… past, that I decided to make shirley temple cupcakes for Becky. Because we were already close when we were young enough to get excited about ordering shirley temples out at dinner. And I seem to have a very vague memory of some chicken fingers and shirley temples and something that felt unbearably funny late at night during a jump rope trip. And they are just innocent and sweet and their appeal is enduring, and it seemed appropriate. The cupcakes have a grenadine based cake batter topped with a lemon-lime cream cheese frosting. They came out well – a lovely color, fluffy texture that reminded me of the box mix texture that can be hard to achieve from scratch, very sweet, and a simple flavor.

Shirley Temple Cupcakes

Recipe from The Cupcake Project. Makes 15.

1/2 c. lemon-lime soda
1/2 c. grenadine
1 tsp vinegar (cider, white wine, or white will all work)
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. canola oil
1 1/3 c. flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz. neufchatel cheese, room temperature
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp lime juice
3 c. powdered sugar
15 maraschino cherries with stems

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together soda, grenadine, and vinegar. Let stand for a few minutes, then add sugar and canola oil and whisk until frothy.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and stir to combine.
Add flour mixture to liquid. Stir together just to combine fully; do not overmix. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling half way (they will rise a lot). Bake for 17 minutes. Let cool completely.
In a medium bowl, beat cheese until smooth. Add lemon and lime juices (a small amount of lemon and lime extracts might work better here, but I couldn’t find them in my local grocery store) and beat to combine. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating to incorporate fully. Continue adding powdered sugar until taste and consistency are as desired – you may need more or less than 3 cups of sugar, and you may need to add more lemon or lime juice to achieve the desired flavor. Refrigerate the finished frosting for half an hour.
Frost the cooled cupcakes. Top with a maraschino cherry. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Phoebe. Strawberry-Lemonade Angel Cakes. Phoebe and I were hall neighbors freshman year. I don’t really remember when we went from awkwardly saying hi in the hallway to having intense late night conversations sitting on the bathroom floor, but it happened, and I’m glad. Now, although we don’t see each other very frequently, she is one of my absolute favorite people to talk with. We both spent the summer trapped in Durham and we spent a significant part of every week sitting in the library chatting and debating and laughing while she pretended to study for orgo and I pretended to do research. Although I’m pretty sure she actually did accomplish learning orgo while the achievements I made in my research this summer were minimal. Not that I didn’t try. I think frustration is the point of research. Anyway. One of the things I love about Phoebe is her respect for people’s individuality. She always makes me feel good about what makes me me – loving to be outside, wanting to take care of people, being mellow when it comes to my social life – and she shows equal dedication to and respect for friends that are completely different from me. And also she’s intelligent and focused and way cooler than me and beautiful.

I made Phoebe lemon-based angel food cupcakes because she loves them. The first time I made a similar batch we ate them sitting out on the dock by the scummy Belmont pond, and she told me how her mom used to make angel food cake for her birthday every year, and so how could I not make them? This version of the recipe was super good, at least in my opinion. The cake had a true lemonade tang and the fresh strawberries really shone through in the frosting. They were zippy. I could eat a lot of them.

Strawberry-Lemonade Angel Cakes

Makes 12.

1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. cake flour
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp lemonade mix powder
4 oz. neufchatel cheese, room temperature
2 tsp lemon juice
5-8 fresh strawberries, diced
3 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, sift together 1/4 c. sugar with cake flour. Set aside.
Beat egg whites until they begin to foam. Add cream of tartar and continue beating until they are white and fairly fluffy. Add salt, incorporate. While continuing to beat egg whites vigorously, slowly add remaining 1/2 c. of sugar in a slow stream. Beat until egg whites form soft peaks.
Fold flour mixture into egg whites, mixing just to incorporate flour fully. Add lemonade powder (I used 2 packets of crystal light to go) and fold in.
Spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
In a medium bowl, beat neufchatel cheese until smooth. Add lemon juice and strawberries and stir to incorporate. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. You may need more or less than 3 cups of sugar.

So happy birthday September girls! And Megan, Margie, get excited. Start leaving me hints about your favorite flavors. Or, better yet, start trying to get me to associate your personality with the type of cupcake you want. That could be a fun experiment.

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Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

0 September 12, 2010 Pasta

Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #2

When I titled a post “Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #1,” I had sort of planned on, you know, doing more than one post about rotisserie chicken in the 3 months that followed. But no, I can’t count on myself. There it is, just the one, lonely chicken post. Waiting for its insinuated brothers and sisters. I mean, the first recipe was really, really great, one of the best I’ve posted. But the title is still making it feel sort of false. And my lack of follow-through has been bothering me. So I’m here to remedy that.

I’ve actually made several rotisserie chicken dishes since that first one with the intention of blogging about them. The first was a curried chicken salad layered with yogurt and mango and spiced chickpeas that I made for Becky and Marc and Trevor one night. I had high hopes for it and it’s blogability, but a. we ate it all before I could take any decent pictures, b. it was not particularly attractive, and c. it just wasn’t that good. There was too much going on in it. And while I admit that I have very infrequently shared recipes I knew were kind of terrible, just because I liked the pictures or had already written the whole post (see disgusting walnut and sweet potato pie, the invention of which I blame completely on Trevor for engaging my apparently tasteless, competitive side), I’m trying to up my integrity level, so it got cut from the rotisserie chicken blog plan. Then I tried a West African chicken and peanut stew which was easy, tasty, and nutritional, but left me sort of uninspired. Perhaps if I find a way to give it more oomph it can be, oh, say, Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #5 in, like, 2014, when I get to that, but for now it’s not up to par.

So the other night, while hemming and hawing about possible chicken recipes to try and post, I had this sudden memory of a pasta dish that Trevor and I threw together one night completely on a whim when we got home from the grocery store. At 10pm. After 2 full days of lugging boxes up 3 flights of stairs and scrubbing floors and other fun moving activities. And how completely incredible and creamy and comforting it tasted. I had not planned for it. The recipe hadn’t been analyzed and re-analyzed. It did not even cross my mind to blog about it. But it was excellent, and could even be photogenic, and so the rotisserie chicken #2 dilemna has been solved.

The only challenge in sharing this recipe came when I went to the grocery store Friday morning… and there was no chicken. I was too early. The thought that there could be a time when there were no rotisserie chickens in Kroger had never crossed my mind. So I had to leave without a chicken. I was despondent. So despondent that on Saturday afternoon I seriously considered walking the sketchy strip to the grocery store solely for the purpose of getting my chicken, but then I actually didn’t leave the apartment all day. Megan and I were pretty depressed when we realized the door was still dead-bolted from the night before at 4pm. Saturdays – you win some, you lose some.

Moving forward – Sunday was my day. Not only did they have chickens at 11 am when I went, the price had gone down from $4.99 to $3.99. Three dollars and ninety nine cents! For an entire chicken! That someone else cooked! I honestly find this fact so exciting. I really hope there are other people out there who share my enthusiasm for this form of poultry or I’m going to feel kind of lame. So I made this chickeny mushroomy mustardy pasta, and it was a success, and I drank my photo-shoot wine at 2pm and felt rather European, and then went on to go hiking and swimming and see a huge poisonous snake and eat a great hamburger and do other things I thoroughly enjoy that have absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming week. Sundays – you win some.

Fettucine, Mushrooms, and Chicken in a Mustard-Cream Sauce

Adapted slightly from Rock Recipes. Serves 4-5.

3 c. cooked, shredded chicken (from 1 rotisserie chicken)
1 lb fettucine, cooked according to package directions
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS minced garlic
1 1/2 – 2 c. mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
1 1/2 c. heavy cream*
3 TBS mustard
3/4 c. white wine
salt and pepper
slivered almonds

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms and sautee until they are beginning to brown. Add garlic and sautee for another 2 minutes. Add heavy cream and mustard, stir until cream is heated through and mustard is fully incorporated. Add white wine, and simmer gently, stirring, until sauce has thickened to desired consistency. Add chicken and heat through. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve sauce over prepared fettucine. Top with freshly ground black pepper and slivered almonds.

* I have successfully used half in half in this recipe in place of the cream. Towards the end of the cooking process I added 1/2 TBS of butter mixed with 1 TBS flour to the sauce in order to thicken it to the consistency it would have been with cream.

Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #1 – Asian Pesto Chicken Salad
Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #2 – Fettucine, Mushrooms, and Chicken in a Mustard Cream Sauce

0 September 6, 2010 Recipe

Aliens and Eggplant

In July, the Belmont gym was remodeled. This caused little to no excitement for me. Then Megan came home from her inaugural use of the facility and announced that every single machine has a built-in TV. Excitement levels have spiked. Motivation is rampant.

So, the next morning, I happily made my way to the gym, climbed on a treadmill, and proceeded to simultaneously exercise and watch a history channel special on ancient alien encounters. Yes, I still had to move in order to burn calories. Yes, I still sweated. So you could say the system isn’t perfect. But, while moving and sweating I learned that Noah, of Ark infamy, was actually the product of an alien genetic experiment to purify the human race, and was conceived through artificial insemination. It says so in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And the Ark itself? An alien DNA bank. Duh.

This gym experience was life-changing for me. Who knew you could be enriched on so many levels by a simple machine? So, while I generally detest the gym because it makes a run seem about 4 times longer than it would outside, the temptation of more episodes of ANCIENT ALIENS may keep me coming back, at least while it’s still too hot to run outside at any time other than 5 am. Rah rah treadmill.

In the spirit of all this exercise, I was going to offer you a cake. To be specific, a chocolate cake with toffee mousse, chocolate ganache, and toffee bits. But then I realized I didn’t actually have all of the things I needed to make this sinful and completely inappropriate for my diet/a post about the gym dessert. What I did have was some getting-mushy-in-the-fridge-I’ve-been-saying-I’ll-use-them-for-five-days-in-a-row-now eggplant and tomatoes. So we’re going the healthy route. Maybe I’ll still make that cake sometime. But in the meantime, I’m getting skinny and eating vegetables. Stuffed with cheese. Just to be contrary.

I’m not sure why I put making this off for so long – it ended up being super quick and easy to throw together, even including making my own fresh tomato sauce. With bottled sauce it would be a 30 minute dinner, with about 10 minutes or less of active time. On top of that, it’s fairly healthy (see bottom for nutritional analysis), yummy, and comforting. All in all a solid weeknight dinner.

Eggplant Cannelloni

Serves 4, Inspired by SELF

1 medium eggplant
cooking spray
6 oz. goat cheese
8 oz. whole milk ricotta
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp lemon juice
1/3 c. fresh parsley, chopped
1 recipe fresh tomato sauce from Chez Pim, or bottled sauce of your choice

Remove stem and 1 inch of bottom from eggplant. Slice lengthwise and soak for 15 minutes in heavily salted cold water.
In a medium bowl, mix together cheeses, garlic, lemon juice, and parsley.
Spray both sides of eggplant slices with cooking spray, or brush with olive oil. Lay flat on a baking sheet and broil for 7 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Remove eggplant from oven, turn temperature down to 400°F. Place 2 tablespoons cheese filling on the bottom third of each eggplant slice. Using tongs, roll to third and middle of eggplant slice over cheese filling to form your cannelloni. Bake eggplant cannelloni for 10 minutes.
While eggplant is baking, prepare Pim’s Fresh Tomato Sauce or heat up bottled sauce of your choice.
Serve eggplant with tomato sauce and additional fresh parsley on top.

Nutritional Analysis: (Estimated using SparkPeople’s recipe calculator):

340 calories per serving (based on four servings using the linked tomato sauce recipe); 22.9 g fat, 5.4 g fiber, 17.4 g protein.

0 September 3, 2010 Dessert

Sorry, August.

Dear Blog,

I’m sorry about August. I really meant to spend a lot of time with you, whisking, mincing, drinking nice wines, holding hands… but I got distracted, and I let things slide. Please forgive me.

To be fair, I did get to do some pretty cool things in August. I successfully summitted Katahdin via the Cathedral Trail, and although it was one of the most challenging/terrifying/harrowing things I’ve ever done, it was also completely exhilarating and incredible and awesome. I finally had the loon stalking experience I’ve been waiting for (see my previous lament), and I was totally channeling my Native American heritage as I paddled my little red canoe, kneeling quietly in the center, into the middle of a group of birds fishing. And then whipped out my huge high tech camera and stole their souls. Sorry, guys. I kayaked in the ocean and communed with bald eagles, I saw Shakespeare performed in a tiny opera house by the sea, and I had some really, really good steak. Life’s been OK.

I even got a little busy in the kitchen, despite my lack of effort in the documentation department. I tackled my first leg of lamb with less than thrilling results. I then returned to my vegetarian inclinations and made the most sublime gnocchi-corn-chanterelle-sage concoction, which I promise to share with you sometime. And I had ribs for the first time in my life and now I know why everyone always wants to eat them. I lost negative 1 pounds.

But now I’m back. Back in Durham, back at school, back in my own kitchen. And that means I’m once again responsible for feeding myself every day. So hopefully, with a little help from the food muses, I’ll be around here more often. And by food muses I mostly mean Justin, whom I have committed to cooking for at least once a week. He has high standards.

So, to start things off, I’ve made some back to school cookies. You know, to pack in my lunch bag. Because I’ll probably never outgrow bagged lunches. These particular back to school cookies are linzer cookies, because I’ve been meaning to make them since I had a less than satisfactory one in Prague. And because one of the other things I did in August was spend an amazing hour in Rooster Bros, my favorite kitchen store of all time, buying culinary essentials like tartlet pans, orange oil, and linzer cookie cutters.

I used the Dorie Greenspan recipe, as it seems to be fairly ubiquitous, and I would give it a 4 out of 5. Definitely make sure your nuts are ground very finely so that you don’t get irritating little pieces stuck in your mouth. Less jam makes a prettier cookie, but more jam gives a better flavor balance. The dough was a little bit difficult to work with it – be sure to chill it in between each time you roll it out so your cookies don’t crack as you transfer them. And, for the most photogenic results, dust the top halves of the cookies with powdered sugar before placing them on top of the jam. Enjoy!

Linzer Cookies

Makes 12 large sandwich cookies, or 20 small sandwich cookies

Recipe from Dorie Greenspan via Lottie and Doof

1 1/2 c. ground almonds and/or hazelnuts
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 egg
2 tsp water
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. jam
2 tsp water
powdered sugar for dusting

Sift together ground nuts (to grind, pulse in food processor), flour, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Stir to combine. In a separate bowl whisk egg with 2 tsp water.
Beat softened butter with 1/2 c. sugar until smooth. Add egg and water mixture and beat for another minute. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir gently. Do not overwork the dough once you have added the dry ingredients as it will toughen the dough. When the dough comes together in your hands, take half of the dough and form it into a ball. Flatten into a disk and place between two sheets of wax paper. Roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness. Repeat with remaining dough. Place dough sheets on top of a baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes, or refrigerate for 2 hours, until dough is firm.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Use a round cookie cutter to cut circles from the chilled dough. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use a smaller round cookie cutter to cut circles out of the centers of half of the cookies; these will form the tops. Bake cookies for 12 minutes. Re-roll any dough scraps and chill quickly in the freezer while first batch of cookies bakes. When first batch is done, remove from oven and place on racks to cool to room temperature. Cut out cookies from remaining dough and bake.
In a small saucepan, bring jam and 2 tsp water to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once boiling, remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.
Dust top cookie halves with powdered sugar. Line bottom cookie halves up and place a small spoonful of jam on each one. Sandwich the jam by placing a top cookie half over the jam.

0 August 10, 2010 Dessert

Ode to Steph

The other night I was talking to my best friend on the phone, when I mentioned something I’d been working on for this blog. “You blog?” she asked. “Oh, is it that food one?” Audible sigh. So I informed her that since I’d been working on this blog for 8 months, she needed to look at it, even though it was about something as unappealing/un-intellectually stimulating as food. I sent her the link, and proceeded to listen to her laugh maniacally. “Is this real? This is hysterical. You really write this stuff? I have to send this to my other friends who are weird about food.”

Now, many people would construe this sort of response as hurtful and un-supportive. But I find it both highly entertaining and priceless, mainly because it perfectly demonstrates the fact that Steph and I are complete opposites. She gets paid to blog about feminism; I don’t get paid to blog about domesticity. She eats mainly lettuce and is infamous for only wanting half of something scrumptious; I eat mainly everything and am known for eating my own portion as well as the half Steph didn’t want. She is in firm control of all her emotions; I generally like to savor and prolong emotional extremes. When we prioritize the importance of gaining money, prestige, family, love, and friendship in our lives, our lists come out as mirror images – both have friendship in the middle. Oh, and the boys we like could not be more different. Except for the time I was secretly dating Andrew. Which was now.

And yet, we find all the same things extremely hilarious – Mr. Godine used to call us “chuckles” and “giggles” because that was our main form of communication, although it’s still unclear who was who in that scenario. We like and dislike the same people, and despite being completely different, we understand each other. Also I hang out with her because I like her dad. (He once brought me a cookie at school when Steph told him I was having a bad day and since then I have been his most devoted fan. It’s startlingly easy to win my love. On the other hand, someone once ate my cookie on a date at Starbucks and I still haven’t really forgiven them, so just proceed with caution on the cookie front.)

So in honor of Steph gracing this blog with her presence, I’m making something that she would definitely refuse to eat more than 2 spoonfuls of – a blueberry and dark chocolate galette with homemade cinnamon ice cream. Also she would almost certainly end up with some if it in her hair, because that is something that frequently happens to her when eating. I think her hair has special attractive chemical properties. It can sometimes be a fun game to not tell her that she has cake in her hair and let her continue telling a story while the cake bobs wildly back and forth next to her face. Just kidding, Steph, I would never do that. I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I think you’re incredibly smart and talented and I think you will probably get a great job.

The galette is my entry to this month’s Have the Cake baking challenge, and it’s using up the last of the wild Maine blueberries. The dark chocolate is included because it’s good for emotional people, such as myself. The ice cream is because I’ve been drooling over all of the homemade ice cream recipes that have been going up all over the web since May, (seriously, you guys are the worst), and have been saving my pennies in an empty cocoa tub hoping to one day purchase an ice cream maker. Actually, that’s a lie, Trevor and I used those pennies to buy chili cheese fries at the drive-in on the Fourth, but I like the idea of saving my pennies for an ice cream maker, so maybe I’ll start. Anyway, now I am living with my parents and their ice cream maker, so I can whip up frozen custards to my heart’s delight and rub them in non-ice-cream-machine-owner’s faces for another two weeks until I rejoin their sad ranks.

Or so I thought. But then my much anticipated use of the cuisinart automatic ice cream machine turned out to be a complete failure on the cuisinart’s part, so I resorted to sticking my melty custard in the freezer and stirring it once an hour. And shockingly enough, it came out incredible. Actually both the galette and the ice cream came out incredible. The ice cream was sophisticated and subtle, the dark chocolate-blueberry combo was complex and not too sweet, and all together it was really good. Not to brag. But it was really good. I think even Steph may have indulged in this one. Let me know what you think if you give either recipe a try!

Dark Chocolate and Blueberry Galette

Inspired by Shared Sugar, serves 10

1 stick butter, cold
4-10 TBS very cold water
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 c. heavy cream
3 c. fresh blueberries
1 tsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/3 c. sugar

Prepare the pie crust: cut butter into small pieces. Return to fridge/freezer for 5 minutes or until needed. Mix flour, salt, and 1 tsp. sugar together in a medium bowl. Add cold butter and combine with a pastry cutter or fork until the whole mixture is crumbly with pea sized chunks of butter. Add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork in between additions. Add just enough water so that the crust comes together in a loose ball of dough. Turn out onto plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Prepare the ganache: place chopped chocolate in a small heat proof bowl. In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir with a whisk until smooth. Allow to cool for 5 to ten minutes.
Prepare the filling: mix blueberries, 1/3 c. sugar, lemon juice, and corn starch together gently. Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes, until blueberries begin to juice.
Bake galette: preheat oven to 425°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled pastry dough out into a circle about 1/4 inch thick and 12-14 inches in diameter. Transfer to a large baking sheet with sides. Spread a layer of ganache over the crust, leaving 2 inches at the edge. Pour blueberries over ganache layer, and fold the sides of the crust up over the filling, sealing any broken edges by pressing together. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 350°F and bake for another 25 minutes, until crust is light golden brown and filling is bubbly. Serve warm with Roasted Cinnamon Ice Cream.

Roasted Cinnamon Ice Cream

Adapted slightly from Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen

2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 3-inch pieces of cinnamon stick
6 egg yolks
3/4 c. sugar

In a dry, non-stick pan over medium heat, toast ground cinnamon for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Stir to keep from burning.
Combine the whole milk, 1 cup of the heavy cream, and the cinnamon sticks in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to keep from scorching. Remove from heat when it reaches a boil and allow to infuse for 5 minutes.
While waiting for the cream to infuse, whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl. Slowly add the sugar, whisking just enough for the mixture to turn slightly paler. Pour the hot cinnamon cream slowly over the eggs, whisking vigorously to keep eggs from scrambling.
When all of the hot cream has been incorporated into the eggs, return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 10 to 12 minutes, until the custard has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Have a clean bowl with a strainer placed over it ready on the side. When the custard is the desired thickness, immediately strain into the bowl.
Add 3 tablespoons of the remaining cup of heavy cream to the pan with the ground cinnamon, stirring with a spatula until the cream and cinnamon comes together into a runny paste. Add this paste to the strained custard, stirring to incorporate.
Press plastic wrap against the surface of the custard and cover bowl. Refrigerate custard for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.