Earl Grey Truffle

Cookie Scoop: Quack's Bakery on 43rd

2010-12-13T17:17:00.003-06:00

Giving up all attempts to narrow my hips and letting the pastry flour hit the fan. I've decided not only to bake cookies in my own kitchen over the holiday but to eat cookies from local bakeries and other kitchens too! Yea, its nothing novel, but I need a break from writing my thesis and from senior year at UT.

First cookie scoop: Quack's 43rd Street Bakery
Location: 43rd St. and Duval, Austin, Texas
Provisions: coffee served in mammoth sized ramekins, cupcakes the size of your face, cinnamon rolls (sugared or frosted), jalapeno croissants, salty oatmeal cookies et plus.
Featured: handcrafted works of baked art in the form of shortbread, sugar and gingerbread cookies.

Running to my thesis adviser's house I stopped and picked up a few ~~bribes~~ treats to share. It is our routine to meet once or twice a month for tea at her lovely old west Austin home. My thesis revolves around Jane Austen so tea and sweets are appropriate, but then again who needs girlie literature as an excuse to indulge! Upon arriving, I found out that her daughter had just taken a major crash while biking earlier that morning. I like to think that the gingerbread helped her recovery. In the end, biker and bike are doing fine, thesis was not ripped to shreds, learned a few things about graduate school and the rigors of scholarship, and we devoured these lovely cookies below.

Royal Frosting gingerbread house with a few gingerbread inhabitants.

Better view of the sprinkle-pocked gingerbread men.

Irwanh Banshee Special Blend

2010-11-21T14:56:00.006-06:00

Some say it’s the beginning of the end. Others say its an epic way to start off the holidays. Personally, I find it an excuse to wear my robe in public and drink butter beer like a grindylow. Here in Austin, the Alamo Drafthouse not only has butter beer, but serves both an alcoholic and an mugglebaby-friendly version. MWI (Magic While Intoxicated) FTW.

That is Brasnose.

Some butter beer links:

Fox News thinks they've found THE recipe for butter beer here.

Gastronomy Blog has actually been to Hogsmeade (aka Orlando, FL).

The Huffington Post also boasts of a prized butter beer concoction. I just want to say I've always thought the Huffington Post sounded like a wizarding publication.

Witches Duel: my thesis adviser and her daughter

I’m renaming my cat Crookshanks and I’ll be sporting an extra messy head of hair for the weekend a la mode Hermione. The creaks and groans of my old house will be attributed to Peeves and I might slip and call the boyfriend Ron. When I studied at Oxford I may or may not have pretended I was at Hogwarts and that the staircase to my little room changed between breakfast and class. Our meals at ~~Hogwarts~~ Brasenose College were served on long wooden tables complete with benches, a headmaster’s table, and crocks, bowls, and pitchers of fascinating foods and drinks. This was less an issue of magical gastronomy and more of a British- American culture clash. Stewed sausages, choco-“qwasants”, bacon that looked nothing like bacon, bangersnmash, shredded cheese sandwiches, prawn flavoured crisps, maltesers, bounty bars, garlic soups, squash drink, chocolate penguins, barley water, and figgy pudding to name a few. Mind you, these are muggle British foods. While in Oxford, instead of befriending the locals, the cluster of proper Brasenose students or my fellow Americans, I snuck into the kitchens. My room, conveniently in the tower, yes tower, above the kitchens, seemed to draw up he intoxicating scents from below.

Just add the stupid 3/4

I would rush down the stairs before breakfast to peek through the grease stained windows, past the stocked larder and to the stoves hot with bubbling pots and cauldrons (maybe). I was caught a few times when some of the sous came out for a smoke. They couldn’t understand why I would be interested in the kitchens when I was there to study stuffy Jane Austen. They should take a look at my current thesis. During my last week in Oxford I mustered the courage to ask for the head chef and her recipe for the sticky toffee pudding we had been served a few nights earlier. The next day, by way of proper oxford student named Tom, I was delivered a cleanly folded piece of notebook paper with a hand written, personal recipe for the Brasenose pudding. Tom thought it a little weird that I would want a recipe but I knew the other students were a little jealous of my acquisition (maybe).

In the kitchens

In the spirit of the holidays and peeing-in-pants excitement for HP 7 here’s my secreted recipe for sticky toffee pudding straight from the house elves that work in the kitchens at Brasenose.

Sticky Toffee Pudding: 6 portions

50g margarine

150g granulated sugar

250g Flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

150g stoned dates

½ pt boiling water

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda, yanks)

1 tsp vanilla essence

65g brown sugar

35g butter

2 tbs double cream (heavy cream)

Cream the butter and sugar together. Sift the flour and baking powder. Beat the whisked egg into the creamed mixture with a little of the flour. Continue beating for a minute or so before mixing in the rest of the flour.

Flour the dates lightly and chop them finely. Pour the boiling water over them. Mix in the bicarbonate of soda and vanilla. Add this mixture to the batter and blend well. Turn it into a buttered cake tin. Bake for about 40 mins at 160C ( 320 F).

For the Topping:

Heat the brown sugar, butter and cream and simmer. Pour over the hot pudding. Place under a grill until it bubbles.

Pumpkin Service Announcement: In effect through the end of Winter

2010-11-01T15:40:00.013-05:00

Smelling slightly putrid yet fresh and grass-like at the same time. Leaving stringy bits, impervious to soaps, oils or lotions, and staining the hands a happy shade of orange. At this point, ethics begin to meddle with holiday festivities. It boils down to one question: Do you relish being squash-stained up to your elbows or do you carve-and-run?

I speak of innards-abuse. A terrifying annual occurrence that rips families apart, literally reeks havoc on your garbage bin, litters your lawn and frightens pumpkin purists like myself. If you find yourself in the carve-and-run category you cannot claim environmental management; there is no catch-and-release in the pumpkin world. Do not fall for the common misconceptions of gourd rights or pumpkin mistreatment. Take a cue from our hunting forefathers: if you kill it, use all of it. The common pumpkin can be rendered down into pounds of fresh meat, pulp and seeds. The outer shell makes an acceptable jack-o-lantern, soup receptacle or cat house. The stem of course can be whittled down to toothpicks, carried around as a lightweight weapon, or glued to other non-natural products to make it appear as if you grew it (i.e. TV, fake pumpkin bought lacking stem, vehicles, small or large cats).

You ask then, "what am I supposed to do with all those pumpkin guts?!" Scoop them, Cook them and Save them. Then you can go back and do any number of these fun things:

1. Bake the pumpkin seeds like so, so (salty)or so (sweet).
2. The traditional pumpkin pie from Martha Stewart, she's a fellow pumpkin purist and encourages you to use a real sugar pumpkin.
3. pepita (pumpkin seeds) brittle
4. Salted Pumpkin Caramels from food52.com
5. pumpkin soup from The Merry Gourmet
6. pumpkin mac n' cheese from (never home) maker
7. pumpkin souffle from everyfoodfits
8. pumpkin face cream

In the Cooking Tent: Texas Book Festival Part I

2010-10-17T19:43:00.007-05:00

Amanda Hesser told me that I should venture to try old classics such as Shrub (a late 19th century drink), Tomato Figs, and Apple Snow. I listened wholeheartedly but then she recommended that we absolutely must make our own Dulce de Leche. Abrupt halt. Did it just get a slight warmer in this uninsulated tent full of easily excitable Central Texans, mostly Austinians no less? Did someone from New York City (please refer to Southerners' opinions about NYCity dwellers here) just imply that we might not know about Dulce de Leche, a common treat of Hispanic heritage from a country we not only share a border with but we also pride ourselves as the breakfast taco capital of the world! I jest of course, Mrs. Hesser can tell me to do anything related to the culinary world and I will not only believe her but brag about that fact that she told me in person (I can say I was there...a mere four rows back) and thus this blog post. Truth be told, I bet her version of Dulce de Leche would knock the calcetines off any local abuela.

Nevertheless, her bold comments intrigued me. She explained Food as something fashionable that has changed as often as our costume trends throughout the years, however staples remain such as all things chicken and dessert. Hesser felt that the entirety of her newest endeavor included these two main categories with a smattering of fish, meat and veggies; personally I feel that America has spoken. Allow me for a moment this little aside: preferred categories of consumables = chicken and dessert; it only follows that the two most popular categories should be combined to eliminate waste and encourage efficiency resulting in chicken + dessert = chicken and waffles. End aside.

Hesser prides her book, despite its lack chicken fried meats or authentic queso, on being a mix of crowd-sourcing and curation, an alliteration I can quite agree with. She spans the past 150 years to include the classic Craig Claiborne recipes, the historic jewels that came almost a century before him and the newest breed of culinary creativity. A literal tome of cooking knowledge, timelines and recipes comes packaged in such an attractive and infamous red that it made the boyfriend ask why they had changed the cover from the red and white checked pattern. He definitely won points for that one. However, Hesser won me over with promises of straightforward recipes, novel delights, and a sweet little online project called food52. She left us with one assignment for the day: dare to deep fry as there is a significant fear of frying these days that surly must be fixed. I think we Texans have that covered.

Jane Austen liked Good Apple Pies and Cold Beer.

2010-10-08T11:18:00.006-05:00

Well, perhaps not beer as she was a lady after all. Throughout her letters and her novels she consistantly hints about perferring alcoholic beverages to most other things and finds complete happiness in being an older chaperone because it allows her to be" put on the Sofa near the Fire & can drink as much wine" as she pleased. As holder of the keys to the "Wine & Closet," its obvious Austen knew her fair share about food and the processes that went into making a meal.

Austen's favourite dish included chicken feet and miniature Roman soldiers heads.

This article details the food related metaphors found throughout Austen's text, and few from Dicken's, but it refrains from assuming or even leaping to the idea that Austen might have preferred human brains, unlike some other people.

And, while everyone likes to think that Jane sat around all day drinking tea and licking pastry crumbs off her dainty fingers, I would like to present a different view: Jane One-mead-drinking- pie-eating-extreme-donkey-cart-riding-hell-of-a-woman Austen.

Jane Austen's flag of choice

For future ramblings on this food fancy, tune in next time for part two of KC's senior honors thesis: What did Mutton mean in the 18th century.

Not your Mother's Sous Vide

2010-09-16T16:07:00.009-05:00

Last night I attended one of my first foodblogger events of the Fall semester. The newly published Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks, stopped in Austin on his self-financed book tour across America. In between cooking appliances and a box of Whole Foods chocolate chip cookies there was a smattering of Apple products, both the men in front of me and to the side wielded iphones and several people still wore their bluetooth headsets; geeks were definitely present. While its difficult to get past Potter's nerdish good looks, and yes that is a thing, he wowed the crowd with promises of unmitigated food safety and a perfectly poached egg.

His new cookbook combines his two passions of cooking and nerditry, also a thing. And by that I mean it has a page dedicated to customized cookie cutters in the shape of Tux the Linux penguin, an interview with Adam Savage from Mythbusters and uses the word "hack" without reserve. Styled a la biology lab report, the book itself reminds me of something you could find Used at the University Co-op, complete with a handwritten cheat sheet and a few mid-class doodles (notably, page 19 is an xkcd comic.)

The evening began pleasantly as I was greeted by Potter himself who then promptly removed his shoes. The discussion began with an introduction to his book's approach to culinary science and the various cooking methods available. An infrared thermometer was passed round as were words such as myosin and actin and discussions between Potter and friend Michael of Cooking for Engineers about $1000 hacks of the culinary sort led to the highlight of the evening: a crock pot.

Yes, the crock pot. While I'm not a big fan of this 1950's staple (I have an unexplainable fear of casseroles and other similarly homogenized meals) Potter demonstrated its obvious hackablity. Rice cookers, crock pots, and slow cookers alike are all easily converted into domestic-friendly sous vide contraptions with a few extra purchases and perhaps a quick lesson in Celsius conversions. For hundreds of dollars less, home cooks can now sous vide like the pros, properly cook a steak medium rare and make soft poached eggs that 1950's house wives could only dream of. The book similarly explains how to achieve this hack.

Without a doubt, this book is well work the $34.99. Cooking for Geeks has a nice balance of hacker humour, easy instructions and recipes, old timey illustrations and an adorable author who wondered if the wireless computer doc would work all the way from the downstairs parking lot.
You can find more information about Jeff Potter and how to purchase his book at his website.

Cooking for Geeks Lab Report
September 15th, 2010

1. With Potter's sous vide methods one can potentially cook an egg for multiple hours and it will still remain nicely poached and edible
2. We humans like our myosin proteins cooked and our actin proteins uncooked
3. There is a difference between melting and caramelizing sugar
4. Those who write code are the most innovative cooks
5. According to the Mindless Eating "What type of Cook are You?" quiz I rank somewhere between a giving and healthy cook and that I should only date someone from the same category. I think I'm safe, the Boyfriend does not cook.

Americans get ice but no free ketchup

2010-07-20T16:06:00.003-05:00

Nam's first fish and chips and what does she want to order...salmon cakes.

We found a little slice of fried heaven tucked away in a small shopping strip, across from MACdonalds and joined to a thai dining hall. The cokes were warm. The napkins too thin to wipe our greasy fingers. But the weather was wonderful for an outside meal.

A huge filet of crunchy crispy flaky cod with a mound of peppered chips. We had to purchase ketchup packets for 20p a piece.

Interestingly, and happily, neither the ketchup nor our first UK sodas contained HFCS...just flavour additives, like caffeine.

She tried the malt vinegar, but decided she would prefer a few hush puppies and a side of nice cool cole slaw.

Portobello Market in Notting Hill

2010-07-18T11:49:00.004-05:00

More shopping with my foodie Nam.

You've all seen the movie. Though I didn't take any pictures of coloured doors this time.

However I did find some ever green produce.

Some fresh baked breads.

The most delicious sprinkle donuts I have ever seen in my entire life.

Rhubarb tarts in singles.

Large tubs of olives and cheeses.

One stall sold only mangoes

Portobello Rd. Market was doing a special summer programme that emphasized lots of fresh veggies. They would hand out fresh sugar snap peas to passerbys.

Paella for a crowd.

End the walk with market made bruschetta. Fresh ciabatta bread, sliced and grilled on a portable grill, olive oil, ripe red tomatoes and some rocket.

Snacks from Sainsbury's

2010-07-15T15:28:00.005-05:00

So Grandnam and I are puttering around England for 10 days. I'm on research for my senior thesis on Jane Austen and Grandnam is my chaperone. We landed on Sunday and have eaten various things on our trip, however we are trying to avoid looking like tourists so the majority of our meals are not photographed. However we've sneaked a few here and there.

So for starters I'm here studying Jane Austen and her relation to food and farming during the Regency era. She was a farm girl and was in charge of making family breakfast every morning. She lived in various locations throughout her life starting on the rectory farm in Steventon, then to fashionable and foodie society of Bath, and lastly in Chawton with her mother and sister in a "small" cottage with a fantastic kitchen garden. She had the Godmersham estate and the Chawton House, her brother's sweet pad, for diversions and luxuries in diet.

More thesis updates to come but for now...our snacks from the local Sainsbury's.

Lemonade on Coconut Clouds

2010-06-27T16:10:00.005-05:00

Too much chocolate during the dog days of summer, in which we are officially as of last week, leads to stomach aches and cotton mouth. Pavlovas should be light and refreshing, melting on the tongue but not lingering. Like a quick sip of ice cold lemonade, it makes you keep drinking.

Lightly lemon flavoured pavlovas with a coconut cream cloud on top. Rolled with toasted unsweetened coconut and a skinny slice of fresh lemon.

Blog-checking lines: The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

Mon petit chou

2010-05-27T13:38:00.005-05:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Vanilla and local Texas honey form a rich pastry cream center for the choux. The glaze is lime-sugar hard caramel topped with local Texas bee pollen granules.

Please bring me some bees mes choux...

Shipe Park Pleasantries

2010-04-28T21:30:00.003-05:00

My front porch, covered in pots and buckets of various sizes, appears as a miniature Eden. My new red plastic adirondacks offer a quiet repose luring me away from homework and paper writing. Eleanor is now allowed out of doors and into the jungle that is our little parking lot. She gets lost in the beggar's lice weeds and the tall wild rye...cat treats will soon fail to bring her back.

But there across the street in quaint Shipe park is a little bubbling creek, well not quite bubbling, perhaps more like lowing, but a flow of water none the less. Along this creek bed grow dozens of spindly trees with leaves similar those found on grape vines. Beneath these palm size greens hide bundles of tiny berries...yet no one seems to know that they are edible. So they remain.

Until I found them. 4 or 5 pints later, my freezer and fridge are packed with fresh mulberries, ripened in the Texas sun. The ground is so slick with fallen mulberries my feet and sandals stain purple as if I were stomping grapes into wine. Cautiously tiptoeing to reach the higher branches, the sides of the creek slope ever so slightly downward and the berry sludge make things slippery.

At least a dozen more pints remain on the trees, almost ripe, too high to reach, or still barely green. I've weeks left to sneak back cupfuls of these native treasures...

Anyone for mulberry muffins, pancakes, syrup, bread, oatmeal, macarons?

Slow Money Austin April Event

2010-04-12T16:37:00.002-05:00

This is an amazing event that every foodie, farmer, and even friends of those previously mentioned groups should attend. My lovely housemate works at Barr Mansion and is proud to be part of one the only organic venues in the nation. Please help out your plate, your community, and the environment by attending or donating to this event. Read below for a full schedule of events and information for registration.

Former Odwalla & Sweet Leaf Tea CEOs Join Visionary Investors & Fellow Food Entrepreneurs to Talk Slow Money, April 21 & April 22

Slow Money Austin Sets Table with City Hall Showcase and Barr Mansion Dinner featuring Dai Due Supper Club

Local and Organic Foods also on Menu at Malverde Happy Hour, Upstairs from La Condesa

Austin, TX- April 12, 2010- This April, companion events redefine the value of a healthy Central Texas food system, and reassess the role risk capital plays in fueling its growth. Joining the conversation are leading investors, entrepreneurs and regional sustainable food advocates, including:

-Woody Tasch, Chairman Emeritus of Investors' Circle, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money and Founder of the national Slow Money Alliance

- Greg Steltenpohl, Founder and former CEO of Odwalla, and Co-Founder of Adina for Life

-Clayton Christoperh, Founder and former CEO of Sweet Leaf Tea

-Sarita Role Schaffer, Director, GrowFood.org

-Craig Wichner, Managing Director, Farmland LP

-Jenny Brown, Administrator, Whole Foods Market's Local Producer Loan Program

-Ronda Rutledge, Executive Director, Sustainable Food Center

-Scott Collier, Managing Director, Triton Ventures

-Mason Arnold, President, Greenling.com

-Margo Weisz, Executive Director, People Fund

-Marla Camp, Publisher, Edible Austin

The April 21 Slow Money Austin Showcase, held in partnership with the Sustainable Food Center and the City of Austin, provides an afternoon-long program laying out the players, the issues and the opportunities involved in a healthy food system. With the event, Slow Money Austin brings together consumers, food businesses, civic leaders and investors to learn about the regional food chain, and explore funding alternatives essential to the continued growth of the regional food economy. Specific program highlights include:

-The current status and future of a sustainable Central Texas food system
-"Farm to Table to Farm" Showcase of regional food enterprises
- Delivering Slow Money to Austin

Attendees of the April 21 City Hall event will receive a gift bag featuring local fare from Better Bites of Austin's food purveyors, and are invited to attend the Slow Money Austin Happy Hour immediately following. Co-hosted by La Condesa, this networking event, held directly upstairs as Malverde, will showcase local ingredients as fashioned by Texas born, nationally esteemed Executive Chef Rene Ortiz.

The following day, April 22, Slow Money Austin and nationally recognized Barr Mansion host a special Earth Day dinner prepared by the Dai Due Supper Club.

The dinner program combines a delectable exploration of the diverse, sustainably grown riches Central Texas has to offer with a continued dialog about funding growth in our region. In addition to a keynote presentation by Odwalla and Adina for Life founder Greg Steltenpohl, program highlights include:

-a special meet and greet dinner with local food and beverage artisans
-a first-hand perspective on the challenges and opportunities in running all-organic operations
-brief presentations by emerging local food enterprises seeking investor capital

At both events, made possible by underwriting sponsors Whole Foods Market and Barr Mansion, local food entrepreneurs embracing organic methods and focused on sustainability will discuss challenges and capital needs, suggesting myriad opportunities for investment and expansion. Presenters include food and beverage producers, distributors, restaurants, service providers and support businesses.

In addition to underwriters Whole Foods Markets and Barr Mansion, Slow Money Austin thanks sponsors:
Austin Ventures, Greenling, La Condesa, White Mountain Foods, Casa Brasil, Coyote Creek Farm, Dai Due Supper Club, Eastside Cafe, Daily Juice, Kiimy, Skematik, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs' RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.

Complete event information is online at the Slow Money Austin website.

March Daring Bakers Challenge: Grapefruit Tian

2010-03-27T10:30:00.005-05:00

In Texas, though oranges are abundantly available, we prefer our own Ruby Red grapefruits from the Rio Grande Valley. This dessert French dessert has now been revamped Texas style (minus the big hair; although it might have an accent). What inspired my citrus swap was a) the large yellow mesh bag of pink globes recently purchased on my return trip to the Valley and b) the French's historic obsession with all things Texan. While grapefruits are not strictly Texan, nor American for that matter, they represent something to us as a State: Our grapefruits are the biggest!

The French language even has a word for grapefruit: pamplemousse. Though they don't have a word for jalapeno or taco. So of course I don't mean to be inventing the wheel of cheese here.

An excerpt from my American Food History class:

"Tacos benefited from a French infatuation with all things Texan in the late 1980's. The Tex-Mex historian Robb Walsh attributes this fad to Jean-Jacques Beineix's hugely popular film Betty Blue(1986), about a mentally unbalanced woman and her tquila-swigging, chili-con-carne cooking lover, Zorg. When the film premiered, a struggling Tex-Mex restaurant called Le Studio, in the Marais neighborhood of Paris became an overnight success and spawned a dozen imitators. " -Jeffrey M. Pilcher "Eating Mexican in a Global Age"

Now the thoughts of crepes shaped in the infamous "U" filled with chunks of brie and filet de boeuf and herbes de provence instead of chili spices. Doesn't sound too bad, non?

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

February Daring Baker Challenge: Tiramisu

2010-02-27T21:58:00.004-06:00

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Here is my more cake-like version of the tiramisu challenge. I guess I should have used the entire pot of coffee instead of drinking it. Oh well.

Foodzie Winner Receives Food

2010-02-13T13:00:00.010-06:00

This morning the jolly FedEx man rang my doorbell with four little boxes in hand. I quickly signed for them and dashed up stairs to open the packages with the boyfriend and Eleanor.

This is what I've received thus far:

A sweet shortbread cookie selection from Saralyn's Shortbread in Deluth, Georgia.

Chewy Mexican Chocolate Caramels from Petite Bouchée in LA, California. But these are for Fey so I can't tell you how they taste...yet.

Flavoured Sugars ranging from Curry to Spiced Gold from Didi Davis Artisan Food in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

And Homemade "Oreos" from Elsylee Galetes Artesanals in Miami, Florida. Each cookie she makes is named after a city or place and some are combined into various collections. I purchased a few "New York"s and she sent me a sample of Morton Pumpkinsnaps.

Oh, Happy Day!

Blues Song for Blue Baker

2010-02-09T18:35:00.004-06:00

Perhaps this will get me a life time of free BlueBaker cookies...I doubt it though.

A Blues song for Blue Baker (think of me soulfully singing with a guitar on my lap and a fedora on my knee…maybe throw a harmonic in there too

I have the blues before sunrise,
waiting in line for an everything bagel with cream cheese.
I have the blues before sunrise,
adoring the array of baked pastries, oh may I have a Nutty Muddy Water latte, please.
It was a wonderful feeling,
Now babe, a feeling I do despise.

I have to leave, leave you baby,
But I’ll be back before noon.
I have to leave you baby,
I’m coming back for my Quattro Formaggio Wood-fired pizza real, real soon.
I’m gonna pack up and leave you darling
but make sure no one sits in my favourite booth. Ahh…yea…baby.

I have to leave, leave you baby,
But there is still dinner
I’m gonna leave you baby,
perhaps I’ll have a Caesar salad or a soup with bread bowl-owl-owl.
I’m gonna pack up and leave you darling
But you know I don’t wanna go…cause today is rosemary kalamata olive bread day baby, ahhh yea.

Well now goodbye, goodbye baby,
I’ll see when I’m home from college one weekend soon.
Well now goodbye baby,
I still expect there to be no one sitting in my favourite booth, cause you know I’ll kick ‘em out, ahh bluesy baby.
You can go ahead now little darling,
Keep on making those daily breads of yours, shiner bock beer bread and jalapeno cheese too, but for now… I’ll just take my cinnamon roll for the rooooooaaaaad.

Adapted from Leroy Carr
For the complete adoration for my local bakery called Blue Baker in College Station, Texas.

Look for the full story and the wonderful world of Foodzie on their blog.
They claimed me a winner for this little diddy and my smokin' mug. Hello carrot cake caramels!

The Remains of a Sunny Day

2010-02-08T18:04:00.007-06:00

Its cheesecake month again, yet the skies aren't filled with dainty songbirds and the park benches aren't packed with teenage couples whispering into each others hair so I'm reluctant to whip out my cream cheese. The clouds have been hanging so low, bellies full of fresh rain, and the winds have been so bitter, probably pissed about years of warm Texas winters. My newly planted lavender shrinks back in its clay pot wrapping in on itself and dreaming of the good old days back in Provence. My moccasins and the chill are the only dependable constant these past few weeks.

Saturday, a bit of sunshine peers over the windowsill. Birds from every corner of the earth seem to grace the single tree in my front yard. Droves of people, dogs and babies a plenty, shove past one another through the front doors of houses that have been shut up for ages. I think I heard the feint clap of a long forgotten flip flop down the sidewalk. It was a splendid day indeed. So I broke out my cream cheese and the sunniest thing I could find in my cupboard: oranges.

Orange and Ginger Cheesecake

1 3/4 cup ginger cookie bits
1 cup sugar
3 packages cream cheese
4 eggs
1/2 stick UNSALTED butter melted
juice of half an orange
zest of one orange
2 tablespoons ground ginger (or even fresh ginger all mashed up)

1. Combine cookie bits and butter and press into pan. Let chill in freezer for at least half hour.
2. Combine all other ingredients. I find its best to whip the sugar and cream cheese a bit first.
3. Pour into pan. Tap lightly on counter to release any oxygen bubbles at the bottom.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45mins-1hr. Place a baking pan of water on the second rack to help keep the oven humid. When the top of the cheese cake begins to crack a bit and browns ever so slightly it is done. Jiggle it a bit and if it springs back to formation then hoorah, you've cheesecake!
5. Let cool for a few hours, or not at all. I hate it when people say you can't eat hot cheesecake. Its divine hot.

Daring Bakers January: Nanaimo Bars

2010-01-27T22:53:00.013-06:00

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Au jour d'hui, tout en francais! Ma meilleure amie, elle s'appelle Elli, est Canadienne. De plus, aujourdhui est son anniversaire! Elle a 20 ans! J'aime les points d'exclamation! Et, pour elle, j'ai fait ses petits gouts.

J'ai fait deux types: une du citron et la vanille; l'autre de la framboise et du chocolat. Les deux bars utilisent l'homemade biscuit de farine complet (graham) epice avec la plante d'Asie (cardamom) et du sucre turbinado.

C'est pas tres dificile, mais ils sont tres riches, ainsi que on faut partager avec tes meilleurs amis canadiens aussi!

ca suffit du francais? oui...

toasting les coconuts

So, yes I still have yet to determine the phonetic pronunciation of this no-bake Canadian treat but I don't care so much as all I think about when it comes to Canada is Elli and half naked Mounties. Not together, bien sur. Les Mounties sont pour moi.

There is a sweet little bit about Nanaimo Bars on Cakespy, who has much more to say on the matter than I do.

The Nanaimo carnage...

Spiced Apple Cake

2010-01-08T16:26:00.008-06:00

With new kitchen tools at my disposal and an empty sad looking cake platter beckoning me from the pantry I could only do one thing. Bake. While this sounds epic, it wasn't really. Just wanted to blow up your expectations there a bit. So here you are. No frills, no exclamation points, just apples, the rest of my bottle of cinnamon and loads of butter.

I sliced an apple wafer thin and dehydrated them ever so slowly in the oven to make apple chips for the top of the cake. I know am in the mood to do this to every fruit in my cupboard...it might not be a good thing. We will see.

What's more, my lovely kitten Eleanor has decided to become a chef. Yes, she told me so and has gone so far as to clean the contents of the kitchen sink to show her dedication ( even if it was with her tongue). She for some reason loves to watch you cook, clean or prepare anything in the kitchen. She helps you sprinkle flour leaving kitty paw prints on the black range. She is my taste tester for boiled noodles, although she doesn't understand the meaning of al dente quite yet. She likes all fruits and vegetables including strawberries, cucumbers and the dregs of the salad bowl. Although I've also caught her nibbling on the ends of sticks of butter...that must be her weakness.

Daring Bakers December Challenge: Gingerbread Structures

2009-12-28T23:19:00.008-06:00

So instead of a basic gingerbread house I decided to go "all out" though my stomach and my ambitions were beyond me skills and time frame. No matter, four year old Tristan and I had plenty of wholesome farm-to-market fun while building our little Gingerbread Austin Farmer's Market.

Our Ginger Market's fair this week included gummy cherries, sugar plums (for the holidays of course), mallowcreme pumpkins, swedish fish, mini marshmallows and chocolate bits, sugared watermelon slices and olive painted jordan almonds.

The plans that did and did not help...

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Daring Bakers November Challenge: Cannolis

2009-11-27T23:26:00.004-06:00

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

On a full stomach of turkey and cranberry stuff, I managed to fry up some cannolis and convince my equally satiated family members to taste test.

Pumpkin Cannolis...

black pumpkin seeds and chocolate shells with a real pumpkin and spice ricotta filling

Ginger Cannolis...

sugared ginger pieces and chopped ginger wafers top a ginger and vanilla spiced ricotta layered onto plain cannoli shells...

Cooking with the Copain: Scratch Made Corn Dogs

2009-10-24T19:29:00.010-05:00

So just after we went to see AB we re-watched a few his episodes to keep the hysteria alive. Josh was particular smitten with the "Man Food" episode that begins as a ruse as Alton is pretending to show the male viewers how to impress their loved ones via fancy food and asks kindly that the women leave while the men are instructed. "It's a surprise!" As soon as the girls are "gone" he pulls a bottle of beer out of tall glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and macho fried food from under the quiche. Of course I didn't leave and we learned how to make homemade corn dogs.

We went and bought a gallon of peanut oil...and I feel like its coating my innards...

They were actually quite easy...but not so much on the stomach a few hours later.

We were going to wrap them up and take them on a picnic to Central Market Park however we didn't think they or our appetites would survive the trip, so we ended up on the front porch.

Ingredients

1 gallon peanut oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups buttermilk ( it calls for this but a simple substitution is plain milk with a dash of vinegar)
4 tablespoons cornstarch, for dredging
8 beef hot dogs (I don't eat beef so we used turkey dogs!)

Directions:

Special equipment: 8 sets chopsticks, not separated

Pour oil into a deep fryer or large heavy pot and heat to 375 degrees F. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, combine the jalapeno, corn, onion, and buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients all at once, and stir only enough times to bring the batter together; there should be lumps. Set batter aside and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Scatter the cornstarch into a dry pie pan. Roll each hot dog in the cornstarch and tap well to remove any excess.

Transfer enough batter to almost fill a large drinking glass. Refill the glass as needed. Place each hot dog on chopsticks, and quickly dip in and out of the batter. Immediately and carefully place each hot dog into the oil, and cook until coating is golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. With tongs, remove to cooling rack, and allow to drain for 3 to 5 minutes.

(recipe from AB on foodnetwork.com)

Just met AB

2009-10-18T16:17:00.007-05:00

For those of you who are not foodnetwork saavy, that would be THE Mr. Alton Brown.

He was doing a book signing at Austin's downtown location of Whole Foods...

It was actually by pure chance we happened up on the marquis at Bookpeople while we were picking something up for Clover (family dog/sister) at REI...

it ends up her package was at the other REI uptown, thank goodness I forgot that little detail...

I'm so glad the boyfriend appreciates good food, and Good Eats, as much as I do...he had the great idea to watch each episode while reading the book at the same time.

Otherwise I would have missed out on one of the best afternoons ever! Alton wouldn't let me carry the books and made the boyfriend do it cause "chilvary's not dead." He also said he wants to move to Austin because no one gives you grief for wearing big cowboy hats here...

Slow Food Feast in the Field: Help Out Local Austin Ventures

2009-10-13T18:23:00.002-05:00

Forget spaghetti dinners, though in reality spaghetti is never unwelcome, our local Green Gate Farms is hosting "Slow Food Feast in the Field" to help raise funds for the Austin Discovery School. This is a wonderful opportunity to eat local and fresh and help out your fellow half-pint Austinites. "Enjoy an evening of fresh local food and wine served on the farm under twinkling stars. Chef Jesse Bloom of Ecstatic Cuisine will be preparing a five course dinner paired with wines from Flat Creek Estates. Green Gate Farms is a small historic farm in East Austin. Come explore the grounds, participate in our silent auction, and sit down to a slow feast, fresh from the field."

Saturday, October 24, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Green Gate Farms, 8310 Canoga Avenue, Austin TX 78724

Tickets are $100 each

Participants must be 21 and over

Here is a link to the Austin Discovery School's website where you can purchase tickets: www.austindiscoveryschool.org

or you can send a check to:

Austin Discovery School
8509 FM 969 Suite 200
Austin, TX 78724

Tickets may also be purchased at the front office of the school

Sponsor List:

Motorblade Postering Service
Slow Food Austin
Ecstatic Cuisine
Marquee Event Group
Flat Creek Estate
Stacey Hoyt Events
Sweet Leaf Tea
Richard's Rainwater
Elixercoffee.com
Texas Olive Ranch
Texas Medicinals
Good Flow Honey
Mary Louise Butters Brownies

For more information about this event and its contributors follow these links:

About Slow Food, www.slowfoodaustin.org
Sara Weber, Slow Food Austin President
The Slow Food Austin Convivium hosts slow educational and taste events throughout the year. It is part of Slow Food International, founded in 1986 in Italy, in reaction to the opening of first the McDonalds in Pizza Spagna near the historic Spanish Steps in Rome - a nod to the contrast with fast food values. The organization was created to celebrate and promote rich and delicious food traditions that are part of our cultural heritage.

About Green Gate Farms, www.greengatefarms.net
Skip Connett and Erin Flynn, co-owners
Green Gate Farms, a small family farm, uses sustainable methods to grow vegetables, flowers, and meat just eight miles east of downtown Austin at the historic Bergstrom farmstead. Visitors and volunteers are encouraged to participate in our weekly CSA membership program, shop at our farm stand, tour the farm, and join in our workshops and events.

About Ecstatic Cuisine, www.ecstaticcuisine.com
Jesse Bloom, Chef
Ecstatic Cuisine creates spectacular food events that inspire clients, nourish community, and sustain the earth. They use Iocal and organic ingredients in a unique brand of world fusion cuisine. Their professionalism, passion, and uncompromising gift for flavor combine to create food experiences that are, in a word, ecstatic.

Daring Dobos: Daring Baker August Challenge

2009-08-27T21:36:00.005-05:00

Let me just start off by saying my main migraine trigger is dark chocolate. So as much as these little sponge cupcakes flirted with my senses and no matter how luscious the homemade chocolate butter cream looked lounging in the bottom of that Pyrex bowl I would resist the urge. Or so I thought. Lets just say I feel like my migraines are now so fine tuned that I can discern the depth and richness of a dark chocolate by the severity of my headache, its quite an art really. Well on a scale from one to ten this episode of precise cocoa discernment was off the charts. Please, Daring Hostesses, please pick something without chocolate for September. My chocolate/migraine sensors are only to be used on rare occasions.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

As always, my changes are in between *asterisks*

Sponge cake layers (not really layers in a cupcake though. Makes 18 regular sized)

6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.
bit of vanilla

Caramel topping

1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Finishing touches

18 whole hazelnuts

Preheat to 400 degrees F. Be sure to check on the cupcakes as sponge cake seems to cook quicker.

1.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)

2.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
3. Fill cupcake papers about half way. Sprinkle in a few chocolate chips or chopped up pieces to act like chocolate frosting "layers"

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.

2.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Melt chocolate.

3. Beat the butter and sugar into light fluffy cloud. Add vanilla. Whip once more.

5.When chocolate has cooled slightly, beat in with the soft butter mixture. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Directions for the caramel topping:
1.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.

2. Using a large spoon pour little pools of caramel, roughly the size of the top of one cupcake. When they have slightly hardened, but not much!, use a knife to score the little rounds like a pizza. It isn't necessary to completely slice the the caramel round through. When they are fully hardened they will break apart quite easily.

Assembling the Dobos

1. Once cupcakes have completely cooled, frost them with the chocolate butter cream liberally. Top with a fan of the caramel slices, sticking them into the frosting at angles. Leave room for a hazelnut in the very middle.

2. Eat!

Eat!

Joy of Food, and the things to which it relates

2009-08-23T17:15:00.007-05:00

Firstly, Da came to town ditched the in-laws and made pesto in my new kitchen. He brought with him a bushel of basil from our family garden and spouted that there was plenty more at home! It was a mad dash of a pesto session as I had to make it to work on time. We made two kinds: pecan pesto with pecans and pecan oil and regular pesto with the classic olive oil and pine nuts. I prefer the pecan. I've put it on pasta, my sandwiches, saltines, and cheese. There are no limits to the wonders of pesto!

Secondly, my three musketeers gang was reunited in a day of general giggles and gourmanding. Started with Italian food at the Texas branch for ex-mafia members. We ordered the Roasted Pie with hot peppers, onions and garlic. Then it continued with of course a trip to Sonic happy hour. Then cupcakes at home. Sponge cake cupcakes with chocolate swirled into the batter and topped with homemade whipped cream with cinnamon and strawberries. The end of summertime tasted sweet.

The night ended, well sort of, with a belated trip to HEB for a few things to finish off our planned feast of side dishes. Macaroni and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes with skins mind you, Homemade gravy from impromptu drippings, Alex really wanted Caprese salad so we had that and finished the lot with watermelon. The gravy was the real delight seeing as our uber veggie Divya had never tried gravy seeing as the vegetarians tend to not have the means or need for gravy making with the whole no meat thing. Gravy tastes good sans meat drippings let me just say.

Lastly, Alex, the darling girl she is gave me my birthday present a little early. A loverly new tea pot complete with red poppies! My inner Angela Lansbury said a clear yes to this one.

Tut Tut...It does Not look like Rain...

2009-07-27T23:22:00.003-05:00

***The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.***

Since we have been sweating in the everlasting summer heat I decided to channel someone who knows best: Pooh Bear. I know what you are thinking...what does Pooh Bear know about rain? Well you remember when he tries to get to the bee's nest by pretending to be a rain cloud and singing a song to casually cover up his licks smacking at the mere thought of honey? You know..."I'm just a little black rain cloud...hovering over the honey tree...I'm just a little black rain cloud...pay no attention to little me". From below Christopher Robin pitches in with an added "Tut Tut! It looks like rain" while sporting a classic umbrella...

Well in hopes that channeling my inner Pooh Bear would actually bring about a bit of rain, I made this months Daring Baker's challenge accordingly. Honey Mallows dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with a little bees pollen. Pooh Bear, be jealous.

Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade marshmallows:
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup ( I used honey instead)
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate glaze:
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

My Changes:

*I substituted honey for the corn syrup for a "healthier" mallow
* I baked the cookies in a long sheet pan, much like a sheet cake
*then I spread the mallow mixture over the sheet cookie to set
* I then chopped the cookie-mallow into little squares and dipped in chocolate and dusted with bee pollen

Des Legumes Miniature: Petits pour les Droigts Fées

2009-06-29T13:13:00.007-05:00

In my family's secret little garden, back beyond the mulberry tree and the mint patches you can find an immense blooming of vines and shoots and leaves. If you creep along the dirt path, on your hands and knees, you can see the little buds of fruit pushing forth from their seedlings.

There you can meet mischievous baby mockingbirds pecking away at near-ripened cherry tomatoes and resting atop blushing pumpkins. If you dig a finger into the earth you will find minute pearl onions no bigger than a penny but sweeter than any peach or apple fresh from the orchard. Of course, there are potatoes too, not too many, but they'll do.

Their skin barely formed and an eye here and there, they are starchy and mellow yet you can only savour them in one bitty bite.

From our garden, we have a bounty of things, yet this summer's bounty appears to grow in miniature.

June Daring Baker Challenge: Bakewell Tart Peachy Petits Fours

2009-06-27T14:55:00.008-05:00

I wasn't quite so keen on baking this, or baking much at all, since it is so awfully hot outside here in Austin, Texas. That is why I didn't bake at all until today, the challenge due date! However, no matter my chagrin against sticking my head in a steamy oven, these little petits fours were worth it. I also didn't want to weigh down my tart with heavy syrupy jam and how could I dare destroy my beloved Freestone peaches (recently acquired a second bushel from Abuelo, delivered fathers day). So I made a sort of deconstructed Bakewell Tart, with all the necessary components mind you, just in a slighlty lighter and simpler way. Oh and my new watering can served as a backdrop for a few photo ops, I figured that was better than the newly aired tires on my vintage bike.

THE NECESSITIES:
The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

***my additions or changes are in stars***

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

***instead of using water or almond extract (I didn't have the latter) I used a splash or two of Disaronno that had peach ginger loose leaf tea steaping in it. If you use alcohol, Vodka is used most often, tart and pie crusts become lighter and oh so flakier.

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar *** I actually totatlly forgot to use this and put turbinado in the mixer instead! Oops, instead the frangipane was slightly denser and a little more rustic looking, but it still tasted the same.
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract *** Again the Disaronno spiked gingerpeach tea:)
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Un peu de notes:
* For the frangipane, try to have everything the same tempurature, so room-temperature that is. The ingredients will mix better that way.
*I also didn't have enough almonds, so I tossed in a few pecans, walnuts, and I think a chashew went in there too!
* And as I didn't have enough plain almonds for the frangipane I didn't have some for the top of the tart, however since my peaches, or whatever fruit you choose to use, covered the top it didn't really matter.

Assembling the tart

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. ***I didn't use jam so I skipped this step and put my fruit on top!*** Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. ***Cut into small petits four sized squares, top with three or four slices of fresh room-temperature peach and sprinkle a bit of fresh ginger over it all. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

The Garden at 304 Francis...

2009-06-07T23:32:00.012-05:00

First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes;

And then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley.

But round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor!

I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.

His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter!

'One teaspoonful to be taken at bed-time.'

But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries, for supper.

THE END.

In our garden this weekend I found baby birds, so pale and with big bulging eyes still covered in skin. Not a slick of a feather to be found, and no momma around to pester me, so I couldn't quite tell what type of bird they might be. Nevertheless they cried like mockingbirds.

Near the backdoor our fig tree is bearing fruit again...

I plucked two miniature strawberries from the pot on the picnic table, of course the best I have ever tasted...

The fenced garden was blooming with mint as always and sprays of basil, every shape, colour and flavour imaginable pierced with steamy air in the afternoon.

Da's newest addition, a la farmer McGreggor, is near the back of the yard.

We've already seen pumpkins, little dainty watermelons barely striped in green, and snap peas.

Oh, the tomatoes, the tomatoes! Vine heavy Beef Steaks, little mouth popping grapes, stylish yellow pears, and vintage heirlooms all being simultaneously watched by human and avian eyes. Who will reach them first is merely a battle of speed and stealth. Mockingbirds will become vicious around cats, loud cars and the loss of a great tomato.

I've got Georgia on mind...

2009-06-03T21:41:00.013-05:00

Well, Fredericksburg actually. That's a little closer anyways. Close enough to drive two hours just to pick up 1/8 of a bushel at Berg's Corner. The Texas peach crop this year was close to destroyed due to a late surprise frost so the price of peaches increased (as with everything else in this nation). However, I am not one to shirk at elevated prices on good produce, and let me tell you this is fine produce. So fine, you must drawl out that "i" in fine to exactly understand how fine these are.

The Texas hill country, specifically Fredericksburg and Stonewall, are renowned for their plump peaches. Stonewall, where Berg's is located, is 15 or so miles East on 290 from Fredericksburg. A large orangey, almost peachy, wooden building invites drivers with several variations on the "OPEN" sign. Mr. Berg, I don't know if this is his real name I just want to call him that for story's sake, is also known for his peach ice cream. After a day of shopping up the Fred (the local nickname for Fredericksburg as I am sure you could have guessed) a cup of fresh peach ice cream is the perfect antidote to sweltering summer heat and aching feet. However I do not recommended our previous edible choices of The Bakery, thick cinnamon rolls and giant sweet German pretzels, then The Brewery, at least we split the chicken sandwich and beer battered fries, in addition to a peach-pit stop for Berg's ice cream.

So, at the chagrin of our stomachs, and my hips, that is the consumable course we elected. I then drove home with 1/8 bushel of peaches for myself, another 1/4 bushel for Da, and the requisite French milk Provence soap and some fabric quarters. My little 1/8 bushel, tucked neatly into a little white cardboard box cost me a whole $13 dollars; Da's significantly more mind you. My roommate scoffed at their price until she bit into one of my precious buys and exclaimed, and I quote, "This is the best damn peach I've ever had!"

So what else was I to do with so many peaches. I had to leave for work and day dream about them, sitting all by their lonesome in my little apartment, waiting to be fashioned into something remarkable. Although, I do not think their is much more remarkable than just a plain fresh Fredericksburg peach. Well, it does improve; I made individual cobblers and they were practically perfect. I do apologize if I appear a bit immodest, but what can I say: at these prices, perfection is necessary.

Ginger Peach Cobbler

1.5 cups flour
1 tbs sugar
1/4 tps ground ginger
dash of salt
1 stick butter
4 tbs ice cold water

2 peaches per serving
2 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tbs corn starch
4 tbs sugar ( this is easily modified according to preference and peach ripeness, sweetness. Honey would work nicely too!)
4 pours Disaronno (well this is technically supposed to be lemon juice but I didn't have any. Really you just need a bit of liquid aside from the peach juice)
1 tsp fresh minced ginger root

1. Slice about 2 peaches per serving, or however many will fit into your little serving dishes. In a bowl combine peaches, cornstarch, cinnamon, fresh ginger, ground ginger and Disaronno. Let it alone to set and congeal a bit while you mix up the dough for the crust.

2. Combine all dry ingredients, including sugar, and then cut butter into flour.
*** Cutting butter is easiest with two forks or a pastry cutter. Simply slice butter into little chunks and place in with dry ingredients. This is sometimes easier if you freeze your butter for a few minutes before working. Then "cut" the sliced/chunked butter bits into the dry ingredients by smashing with fork/pastry cutter. This creates little pieces of butter throughout the dough, creating a flaky, buttery crust in the end. Do not handle the butter too much as it will melt and not achieve the same type of crust.

Once combined add the ice water a tablespoon at a time and mix until the dough holds together, but not sticky.

3. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into rounds with biscuit cutter for tops of cobbler. This batch of dough should make 6-8 tops, depending on how thick you cut them.

4. Fill dishes with peach filling, cover with dough, sprinkle tops with bits of sanding sugar. Add tiny chunks of butter on top of dough and around openings of peach exposure. Not too much as this is just for browning purposes.

5. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Eat piping hot with vanilla bean ice cream:)

Strudel Not Suitable

2009-05-27T18:57:00.005-05:00

Name: Strudel

Alias: Derives from an older German word that might mean "whirlpool" or "eddy" (do what you will with that).

Location: Mostly associated with the Austrian culture, but is also linked with pastries from Turkey, Hungary, Croatia, and Romania (think Baklava).

Characteristics: unsweetened flaky shell/dough, either a sweet or savory filling of fruit, meats, cheeses, breadcrumbs and spices.

Modern Adaptations: The Pillsbury Toaster Strudel...might I add a resounding yuck...

But when I say unsuitable I do not mean un-delicious, just a little out of place in Texas during the beginnings of our summer months. But hey, I'm not the host. So I attempted the strudel, much to my personal chagrin, and it came out okay. I didn't have much trouble with dough, as the recipe says you will. However, I think the humidity here is not quite compatible with this type of complex dish. I didn't vary from the original recipe hardly at all, except for the addition of quite a bit more cinnamon and I used plain vinegar rather than apple cider, since I didn't have any...

Anyways, I wasn't too pleased with overall image of my finished strudel, so I just added some vanilla bean ice cream and it all turned out fine.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Posting date for the May Challenge is May 27th.

(Please also read the tips and notes on the trial runs Courtney and I did. You'll find them below the recipes.)

Preparation time
Total: 2 hours 15 minutes – 3 hours 30 minutes

15-20 min to make dough
30-90 min to let dough rest/to prepare the filling
20-30 min to roll out and stretch dough
10 min to fill and roll dough
30 min to bake
30 min to cool

Apple strudel
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.

3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.

4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.

5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Give Five Austin...

2009-05-22T08:18:00.001-05:00

The Austin Food Bloggers posted this on our facebook site and suggested we post it in our personal blogs as well:

Give5 Memorial Day Weekend Schedule of Events

Proceeds Weekend Shopping - Shop at the following stores & restaurants from May 23-25th and they will donate a portion of their proceeds to United Way Capital Area!

34th Street Café - 1005 W. 34th Street (www.34thstreetcafe.com)
Dine at 34th Street Café during the entire weekend (May 23-25) and 5% of the proceeds from food sales will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar (www.Applebees.com)
5010 W. Highway 290
6315 S. IH35 (William Cannon store)
7522 N. IH35 (I-35 & 183 store)
During Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25), guests presenting the Give5 flyer will be able to donate 10% of their food sales to UWCA. Additionally, guests will be offered the opportunity to add any amount over your total bill (+ the 10% proceeds) to be donated directly back to United Way!

Barnes & Noble Booksellers - All Austin locations (www.bn.com)
10000 Research Blvd. (Arboretum store)
5601 Brodie Lane Suite 300 (Sunset Valley Village)
701 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. (Westlake store)
12701 Hill Country Blvd. (Hill Country Galleria)
Present the Barnes & Noble Give5 voucher (click here to download)
or mention United Way’s Give5 program at check-out and at least 10% of your total sale will be donated to United Way during the entire weekend (May 23-25th.) Additionally, look for the Women's Giving Network and Success by 6 book fair displays and purchase books from the wish list to be donated back to United Way's education programs.

Bennu Coffee - 2001 E. MLK Blvd. (www.bennucoffee.com)
Open 24hrs, stop by any time May 23-25 for coffee & a quick bite and 5% of the proceeds of your check will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Beyond Tradition - 221 W. 2nd. St. (www.beyondtraditionaustin.com)
Shop at this chic 2nd Street store any time during Memorial Day weekend for jewelry and accessories as unique as Austin, and 5% of the proceeds of your purchases will be donated to UWCA. Additionally, be sure to stop by on Monday, May 25th from 2-4pm during the exclusive Give5 2nd Street Block Party and earn a chance to win a $100 gift certificate from UCHI!

Blue Star Cafeteria - 4800 Burnet Rd. (www.bluestarcafeteria.com)
Enjoy comfort cuisine for lunch, brunch or dinner at Blue Star Cafeteria during the entire weekend (May 23-25) and 5% of the proceeds from food sales will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Estilo - 234 W 2nd St ( www.estiloaustin.com)
Get the look when you stop at Estilo and during the entire Memorial Day weekend, 5% of the proceeds of your purchases will be donated to UWCA. Additionally, be sure to stop by on Monday, May 25th from 1-3pm during the exclusive Give5 2nd Street Block Party and earn a chance to win a $30 gift certificate from Ace Custom Tailors!

House Wine - 408 Josephine Street (www.housewineaustin.com)
Give5 attendees be sure to RSVP for an exclusive FREE wine tasting on May 23rd from 6-8pm. Additionally shop all weekend and 5% of your proceeds will be donated back to United Way Capital Area. Mention Give5 and receive 50% off the Tuscan Olive Three Cheese spread with crackers.

The Hub - 3815 Dry Creek Dr. (www.thehubaustin.com)
Mention "Give5" when you dine at The Hub during the entire weekend (May 23-25) and 5% of the proceeds from food sales will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Lilly Pulitzer - The Domain, 11501 Century Oaks Terrace (www.lillypulitzer.com)
Celebrate the weekend with "cupcakes & cocktails" at Lilly Pulitzer May 23-25 and 5% of the proceeds from your purchase will be donated to UWCA. Additionally, customers receive a FREE GIFT with any purchase!

milk+honey Spa & SALON by milk+honey - 204 Colorado Street (www.milkandhoneyspa.com)
Mention Give5 when you make an appointment and 5% of your purchase will be donated to United Way Capital Area. Additionally, be sure to stop by milk+honey Spa and SALON on Monday, May 25th from 12noon - 2pm for an exclusive event, coupons and FREE gift certificates for Give5 attendees.

P. Terry's Burger Stand www.pterrys.com
404 S. Lamar (Corner of Barton Springs & Lamar)
3303 Lamar (32nd Street & Lamar)
Stop by P. Terry's from 11am-11pm for a quick snack, lunch or dinner on Saturday, May 23rd and all of the profits from that day will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Paciugo Austin - 241 W. 2nd Street (www.paciugo.com)
Enjoy gelato any time of day during Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25) at Paciugo and 5% of the proceeds will be donated to United Way Capital Area. Additionally, be sure to stop by from 3-5pm on Monday, May 25th for an exclusive gelato tasting specifically for Give5 attendees.

Sanctuary - 3663 Bee Caves Road, behind Breed & Co. (www.sanctuaryhomebathgarden.com)
Make your home a sanctuary! When you shop during Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25) at Sanctuary (Sanctuary hours: closed Sunday, May 24th; open Monday, May 25th – 12noon – 4pm.), 5% of the proceeds from your purchase will be donated to UWCA.

Santa Rita Cantina - 26 Doors Shopping Center, 1206 W. 38th Street (www.santaritacantina.com)
Need a Tex-Mex fix? Stop by Santa Rita Cantina during Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25) and 5% of the proceeds from food sales will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Tiff's Treats Cookie Delivery- www.cookiedelivery.com
1806 Nueces Street
11011 Research Blvd., Ste 310
Order your favorite Tiff's Treats cookies during Memorial Day Weekend (May 23rd-25th) and 5% of the proceeds will be donated to the United Way Capital Area. Mention coupon code "Give5" when ordering and receive 15% off any order!

Touch of Sass - 500 N. Lamar, #170 (www.touchofsass.net)
Mention Give5 when you shop at Touch of Sass and 5% of your entire purchase from May 23-24th (Touch of Sass is closed Monday, May 25th) will be donated to United Way Capital Area. Also, be sure to stop by May 24, 2-4pm for an exclusive drawing for Give5 participants!

Viva Chocolato! - The Domain, 3401 Esperanza Crossing (www.vivachocolato.com)
Check out the selection of scrumptious chocolates at Viva Chocolato and 15% of your purchase during Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25) will be donated back to UWCA. Additionally, receive a FREE $10 gift card with any purchase of $25 or more.

Give5 Special Events:

Saturday, May 23rd, Free Wine Tasting, 6-8pm, House Wine
An exclusive event for Give5 attendees…check out the latest specials and deals and also receive 50% off the Tuscan Olive Three Cheese spread with crackers.

Saturday, May 23rd, Chocolate Party, 2-4pm, $20 per person, Viva Chocolato!
Attend an exclusive Chocolate/Wine Tasting or Fondue Party at Viva Chocolato! specifically for Give5 attendees… Three 2oz. pours of three different wines are perfectly paired with three different Artisan Chocolate Truffles, and described by VC's Chocolate Guide, who will also convey a bit of fascinating chocolate history, amazing health benefit information, and how to pair chocolates with wines. Or, enjoy VC's dark or milk chocolate fondue with a variety of fruits and sides. Attendees will also have a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to McCormick & Schmick's Restaurant in the Domain.

May 23rd-25th, Book Fair - Barnes & Noble Booksellers (all Austin locations)
Don't forget to purchase a book or two from the Women's Giving Network and Success by 6 Book Fair wish lists and donate books directly to United Way's education programs. Present the Barnes & Noble Give5 voucher (click here to download) or mention United Way's Give5 program at check-out and at least 10% of the proceeds from your purchase will go to United Way Capital Area.

Sunday, May 24th, Drawing, 2-4pm, Touch of Sass
Drop your business card to win a gift certificate package for dinner and a massage at the Four Seasons when you shop at Touch of Sass during this exclusive event for Give5 attendees! Do not need to be present to win.

Monday, May 25th - 2nd Street Block Party

milk+honey Spa, 12noon - 2pm, Free gift certificates
Estilo, 1-3pm, Drawing
Beyond Tradition, 2-4pm, Free drawing
Paciugo, 3-5pm, Gelato tasting

Upcoming Fundraisers

Tuesday, May 26th - Philanthropizza FUNdraiser, California Pizza Kitchen, The Domain - 3401 Esperanza Crossing
Serving creative pizzas, pastas and salads, California Pizza Kitchen invites you to join the fun at its Philanthropizza FUNdraiser, May 26th. Present the attached flyer (click here to download) when you dine at CPK on this date, and 20% of your check will be donated to United Way Capital Area.

Thursday, May 28th, 6-9pm - Pluckers Wing Bar/KGSR Party with a Purpose - 3909 S. Lamar
Join Pluckers and KGSR for one crazy fun party, with live music by Marshall Ford Swing Band, drink specials and 20% of food sales donated to United Way Capital Area. Be sure to mention UWCA when you attend this party with a purpose!

Chef Cottontail on Daring Baker's April Challenge: Carrot Cake Cheese Cake

2009-04-27T18:52:00.010-05:00

So this was my first Daring Baker's Challenge ever! I decided to make this one at home for Easter weekend since my roommate had sworn off cheesecake for a while. You might remember that we dubbed February "Endless Cheesecake Month" and sadly she got her fill for a while. Seeing as it was Easter weekend, and that my father is a notorious cheesecake-hater I opted for something a little more acceptable to his palate and for the occasion. Carrot Cake Cheesecake: simple, garden fresh, and my father approved.

With the help of my professional cake baking grandmother we whipped up a classic cake worthy of peter cottontail's garden; and that is exactly where we placed it! Well, okay, no we put it in one of our many garden scapes for photographing. After pictures, I had several generations of women (me, grandma, stepmother and her mother)stuffed into our tiny galley kitchen filling our faces with cheesecake and talking about what to cook next in between bites of carrot. We nibbled quickly, weirdly resembling rabbits, so as to avoid stares and condescending grunts from the men folk. You see, we had just eaten breakfast (cream biscuits, eggs, bacon, fruits etc) and after photo staging and cheesecake baking we thought we deserved a post-fast breaking snack; the menfolk didn't agree. "Vegetables in a cheesecake, nuts too? That doesn't sound much like a cake I wanna eat!" cried the grill-utensil-welding menfolk. They ate it. They loved it. Came back for seconds. It was solid 24 carrot golden cheesecake.

Official Stuff: My additions are in *** brackets

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs *** substitute ginger snaps***
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake ***did not use***

PERSONAL ADDITIONS:

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp. each of nutmeg, cloves, allspice

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans

6-7 grated carrots

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice.***I lined my pan with a circle of parchment paper that is big enough to line up the sides as well. This creates a more rustic look but it works for this type of cake*** Set crust aside.***FREEZE***

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy. ***Add spices and then hand fold in carrots and pecans.***

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Must Love Waffles

2009-04-22T20:39:00.004-05:00

This will be my new prerequisite for any future romantic relations; thank the breakfast gods that my boyfriend shares a similar affinity. Not only are waffles applicable in various situations, ice cream cones, street treats in England, tortilla-like wrapper, obvious breakfast functions, and the most significant and delicious of all waffle-uses, as a palatial cushion ironed specifically to cradle crispy fried chicken.

This is how it started:

Last night as I lounged in bed dreaming of my Nana's tamales and cursing my mother for keeping my year's allotment in our freezer back home, I perused the austin360.com food blogs where lovely Addie Broyles and Mike Sutter fill my food writing appetite. I came across an article by Mr. Sutter describing a new local travelling food coach specializing in the furthest thing from tamales: chicken n' waffles. Of course, I am limited to this particular adage otherwise it just wouldn't be real. This new little victual trailer is called Lucky J's and is located on north Burnet Rd., past the Amy's Ice Cream, and is so worth the wait and the sticky fingers. So in a matter of minutes my midnight cravings went from one end of the social spectrum to the other; however, the unhealthy genre of snacks remained stable. So I quickly sent a message to my good friend Alex all but commanding her presence at Lucky J's the next evening.

She, of course, thought I was kidding, I mean who in their right mind craved such things at such hours? Well I am neither pregnant nor alien, but simply a girl with a serious subconscious appetite problem, a brain that seems to be on constant foodie patrol, and a tendency to eat like her teenage brother used to.

So we go. Meet at 7; of course I am late. I bring the boyfriend, Alex brings hers. Michael is so excited he is almost bouncing off the wooden picnic tables. He has been talking about it all day, or so I've heard. We order. Alex and Mike choose "The Baller": a full fried chicken and four waffles. Josh and I decide we should just do half a chicken and two waffles which is aptly named "The Deal". Everything includes butter and syrup but you can request real maple syrup at an extra cost. Sadly, and to my health kick's demise, the corn syrupy goodness of "that fake stuff" reigns supreme when it comes to chicken n' waffle coverage. Save the maple for your cakes and pies.

As we wait on the brand new picnic tables, studded on each end with seedlings still sporting their bar codes, we contemplate the awesomeness soon to be before us. Our orders are announced ready and come in recycled paper to go boxes. Mike and Alex return with three full boxes. Our "Deal" only fills up one box, but we hungrily dig in. Chicken is flying, crispy bits of fried crust sticks to every inch of you, while the syrup seems to seep into every pore! The packets of butter included in the boxes melt next to the greasy heat of the chicken so there is no need for a knife. There is almost no practicality in utensils; you are going to become one with your chicken n' waffles.

In the end, despite still being covered in syrup and smelling of a diner, it was completely worth it. We are thinking of making it a weekly occurrence. We left with a box of left-over chicken each and swollen bellies. Mike said he was going to make Alex make him waffles at home to accompany his second day fried chicken; he is a bold man.

Absentmindedly, I forgot my camera and so these pictures are not authentic of our experience. Next time we will come prepared with ready cameras, starving stomachs, bottles of water and wet wipes.

Wabbit Food

2009-04-16T09:52:00.009-05:00

So I attempted Bakerella's cake pops and needless to say I am not she. Even my professional cake baker Grandma helped me and we mostly made an orange mess of our kitchen. But, it is the effort that counts. Besides, too many carrots will undoubtedly turn your skin orange, or at least your tongue. Unfortunately these will not improve your eyesight.

Carrot Cake Carrot Pops

Shame: I used a boxed cake mix, but added fresh carrots, extra spices (chili powder in my carrot cake say what?) and apple sauce instead of oil. I also used *gasp* pre-made icing. Don't judge.

Simple vanilla bark coating dyed orange and thinned with precious pecan oil made the carrots all carrot-like and the addition of green apple sugared licorice belts made chic little stems.

NB: You can Frankenstein your decapitated carrot heads and regrow them. Hoorah for indeterminate growth!

Olive Juice

2009-04-02T20:11:00.003-05:00

I had to write an essay for a scholarship and what do I write about, food of course! My roommate says my grammar and sentence structure is immensely better when I write about food, who knew. The inspiration for my essay was my lovely boyfriend Joshua. For one of his admissions essays to UT he compared himself to a hot dog. I figured I more resembled an olive though.

When it seems like my life is down in the deepest pits of pre-adulthood catechisms I like to liken myself to an olive.I do this for several reasons: a) olives are the food of the ancient gods and therefore precede all other foods in fame and reputation.b) They are actually a fruit and the ability to pass and apply oneself in multiple faculties, fruit and veggie,is highly respected. Finally,c) I rather like olives. They are a simple food that can change flavours depending on my mood and these various flavour applications I can parallel to my current phase of life. Right now I feel as if I am a plain green olive, perhaps stuffed with a bit of basic red pimento, simply floating in a giant glass jar on some bargain market shelf crammed between the pickles and the relishes. I am just a student stuffed with basic knowledge in the giant mason jar known as the University of Texas. But I have such dreams and hopes of becoming a fancier more learned olive one day. Oh,the visions of being delicately filled with a Stilton blue cheese and spinach puree, or perhaps gourmet multicoloured mustard seeds in a subtle red wine vinegar and minced herbs. Similarly I have these dreams of a student, and perhaps more strange they are food related.I, like the fancy marinated olive, aspire to be great. I plan to learn as much as I can and share all this knowledge with other fledgling olives so that they might become outstanding olives themselves. I am studying and researching to my pimento's limit in order to achieve all that I know I can. I am marinating in all that the University has to offer so that one day I can write about all I know about food, foodways and the cultures surrounding them. Some day I will end up on my own special shelf or perhaps one of those new "olive bars" along with other petite pots of gourmet stuffed olives. We will stand alone, never again to be categorised with the sour pickles and confused relishes. I think this is why I should be considered for a Texas Exes scholarship, although perhaps I should have considered my comparison with a jalapeno or a Rio Grande ruby red grapefruit. But no, I believe myself an olive, destined for greatness; not just another condiment on the world's shelves.

póg mo práta...s'il vous plait

2009-03-18T15:18:00.012-05:00

I'm actually Irish so I am entitled to be extravagant, with food that is. I'm still too young to drink, nor do I have the so called "contacts" and I don't much like beer. So I'll stick with the green tinted lemonades. When I was younger St. Patrick's day was almost a bigger event than, say, Christmas! More food, more lounging, more festivities, and sometimes ridiculous amounts of time at a plant/music/book store. The night before we would leave the windows open so as to obtain that chilled floor effect that we thought synonymous with Irish homes. Upon waking I would pop in my Irish bagpipes tape, yes tape, and wake the family. We would have hot tea and biscuits, but then again biscuits are a norm in the Hysizzle family. Green was worn, sometimes including undergarments, Irish themed movies were watched, or our medley of Drop Kick Murphys, the Pogues, Sinead O'Connor and "the Guinness Song" would be played. We might work in our garden, since we also found that a particularly Irish hobby. We lived in a sort Celtic liberation for the day, which included Irish stout for Da and brown bottled root beers for Garrett and me. One year, who knows why exactly, Garrett and I came up with this ridiculous song called "Old Tad MacFaddie" which was sung to the tune of "Molly Malone". Each year another randomly concocted verse would be added and then bellowed all day long. We also had another song about King Lear but that had nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day. But one year, something magically delicious happened...

After the family had drifted off to bed, two little leprechauns left a glittering trail throughout the house and porch. Little green footprints dusted with gold glittering flecks and folded up bits of tanned paper with clues. When the boys woke up they followed the trail from their bed to the porch, to our English neighbor's flag pole, to nearby Thomas park, back to the house, curiously under the toilet seat and various other places. Finally, back where they had begun, underneath their bed sat a little dutch oven stuffed with fresh potatoes, bottles of brew(Guinness and otherwise of the root recipe), books, gold coins and bright green head of cabbage. They ran with their pot of gold back to the living room to examine their find properly. When one of them decided it was too hot in the room and decided to turn on the ceiling fan they were surprised yet again. From each blade poured cupfuls of gold glitter that stuck to every surface and every inch of skin or hair exposed.

Needless to say, the surprise scavenger hunt was much appreciated but the fan-attack not. Those two little leprechauns had glitter duty the rest of the afternoon.

But, no worries, colcannon was in the making!

So that is what I made this St. Patrick's Day: Colcannon, oatmeal coated flounder and fresh ginger honey carrots.

The fish and the colcannon are undoubtedly Irish, although my ancestors would not have had ginger in their cabinets, carrots or any root such as parsnips, would have been staple.

Colcannon is sauteed cabbage and a few cloves of garlic mixed with mashed potatoes. Make the two separately, mash the potatoes add bit of cream, salt and pepper (I used spicy white pepper) and butter. Hand stir in the wilted cabbage. Top with pool of melted butter.

For the flounder I simply cut the filets into strips and then patted them into an oatmeal and flour (salt and pepper) coating. Bake at 350 degrees. Dab with a bit of butter or oil at the end, let the outsides golden, then flip and repeat. Serve with lemon.

I used a peeler to make the carrots into long ribbons, I felt fancy and they took almost no time to cook. You could roast them in a glass dish in the oven with a bit of oil, salt, pepper, and freshly sliced ginger, or on the stove top in a skillet. Mix in a tablespoon or two of honey just before serving.

I tried to sing Old Tad MacFaddie again, but I couldn't remember the lyrics, I'll try again next year Garrett.

Pink Lemonade Miniature Cupcukes

2009-03-07T15:53:00.004-06:00

It was First Friday Around the Cookie Jar again, a monthly occurrence in the Plan II office on campus, though last time my peers proved inadequate and shamed themselves by not showing up or empty handed! This week our theme was Spring Break, since all the students are buzzing about it.

I don't normally use cookbooks or recipes but this time I borrowed my roommate's Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. The simplest, and quite possibly smallest, recipe I've ever used can be found on page 174 and it is aptly called "Busy-Day Cake". I dressed the recipe up with the zest of a lemon and some pink lemonade icing and cute little lemon heads. Although the seemingly lemon of a cookbook proved fruitful in the end, and although life did not hand me lemons, I had to run to the store for lemons, butter, milk and eggs, I was able to make some damn fine lemonade (cupcakes).

Cake: makes 1 1/2 dozen MINIATURE cupcakes/ this recipe should make 6-10 normal sized
1 1/3 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
zest of one whole lemon
yellow food colouring (optional)
Icing:
1/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
3 tbs shortening (if you would rather exclude this ingredient just substitute more butter or some other solid oil like coconut!)
juice of one lemon
1-2 cups powdered sugar
red food colouring (optional)

Depending on how big/juicy the lemon is the amount of sugar will vary.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix sugar, butter, vanilla, zest till creamy. Slowly add egg and milk. In increments, add flour and baking powder till complete mixed. Add desired amount of yellow food colouring. I really wanted people to know these were LEMON cupcakes so the colouring was a necessity.

Pour consistent amounts of batter into baking cups (about 1/3 full) bake for 5-12 minutes. Stay close to the oven, these little lemonades don't take long to cook.

While the lemon babies are cooling mix all icing ingredients together until desired consistency, I was trying for lemonade-butter cream. I piped out little swirls of pink lemonade icing with a ziploc baggie snipped at one end and topped each little gout with a lemon head.

Zesty, Indeed!

Je suis le petit chou...

2009-02-21T20:20:00.006-06:00

Most hate it when their parents reminisce about the "cute" things they used to do as children. Fall asleep on the potty, drink out of the dog's water bowl, take baths with the neighbor kids, the usual. Well mine is a story of a true slow food foodnik. My Da loves to talk about how he would come home and find me sitting on the front porch with a half eaten head of raw cabbage in my lap. Then, we lived in Anderson, Texas a little mustard seed of a town where a kid could safely sit on her porch eating produce. We had a backyard full of dewberry bushes and a little path that led to our neighbor's prize winning garden. I felt sort of like Peter Cottontail sneaking things out of his garden, little did I know that he and my parents had a secret pact allowing me to pick things on my own. I would come back from his garden with a giant head of cabbage or lettuce, and from what my parents swear, whole onions that I would eat whole like an apple. Ah, the good old days. (Can I even say that yet, I mean I'm not even two decades old yet?!)

Look Ma I can make coleslaw!

3-4 cups purple cabbage (the best cabbage)
2 "shaved" carrots
1 tsp whole celery seeds
1 tsp whole yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp whole brown mustard seeds
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs sour cream
2 tsp sugar (you can add more to taste)

Wisk together all spices, vinegar, sour cream and mayonnaise like a dressing. You can use the bowl you are going to serve in! Add shredded cabbage and carrots, toss and eat. In your face Chick-fil-a.

I've got a case of the cranberries

2009-02-19T20:03:00.011-06:00

My secret wish, besides the one about being a librarian, is to visit a cranberry bog. Not any one in particular, I just want to be up to my waders in cranberries. Since that is my "happy place" I often go there when the world gets me down and I tend to eat/drink anything cranberry when I'm depressed. It's kind of like my "chocolate" or "fried chicken"; they are my comfort food yet secretly they boost my insides so I don't sick too. Philistines, I love them little bouncy berries! While I was in one of these sour moods I perused smittenkitchen.com like one might Google "fluffy kittens". There I found something that could lift the moods of a landlocked sea dog (don't ask): Cranberry Vanilla Bean Coffee Cake. And...it just so happens I have a three-pound bag of cranberries in my tiny freezer. Why, you might ask, would I keep so many cranberries on hand? Well why would you, oh never mind, I was reaching for something clever. You see, this is why I needed these cranberries.

If you need more convincing that cranberries can be an anti-drug, legal form of crack and oh yea antioxidant healthy superfood you should talk to the people at The Cranberry Institute. Yes it really exists, almost as exclusive as the MIB, or the CIA( that would be the Culinary Institute of America).

Of course you could Google "cranberries", if you needed a visual pick-me-up. Just looking at pictures of those little crimson candies does it for me. Then again your search might yield some unwanted materials, such as the semi-popular musical group "The Cranberries"; who knows they might be able to cure a urinary tract infection with their magical voices.

Anyways, I was quite upset this past week and one night I had just enough, even the vocal chords of Dolores O'Riordan couldn't make me happy again. So I bogged out my bag of cranberries and made myself a cake. Cranberry Vanilla Bean Coffee Cake.

Cranberry Vanilla Coffee Cake
Gourmet, December 2008

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (6 ounces)
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, divided
2 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
*1/4 tsp nutmeg
*1/2 tsp cinnamon
Confectioners sugar, for dusting

*These ingredients I added of my own volition, add them if you'd like.

Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Generously butter a 9- by 2-inch round cake pan.
Line bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter parchment.

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into a food processor with tip of a paring knife
(reserve pod for another use if desired). Add sugar and pulse to combine. Transfer to a bowl.

Pulse cranberries with 1/2 cup vanilla sugar in processor until finely chopped (do not purée).

Whisk together 2 cups flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Beat together 1 stick butter and 1 cup vanilla
sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time,
beating well after each addition. Scrape down side and bottom of bowl. Reduce speed to low and mix in
flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour, until just combined.

Spread half of batter in pan, then spoon cranberries over it, leaving a 1/2-inch border around edge.
Spoon small bits of the remaining batter over the top of the cranberries and smooth them with as gentle
of a hand as possible.

Blend remaining 1/4 cup vanilla sugar with remaining tablespoon each of butter and flour using your
fingertips. Crumble over top of cake.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted into cake (not into cranberry filling) comes out clean and side
begins to pull away from pan, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 30 minutes, then remove from pan and cool
completely, crumb side up.

Do ahead: Coffee cake can be made 1 day ahead and kept, tightly wrapped, at room temperature.

The roomate's away, lets make some fish...

2009-02-15T13:55:00.006-06:00

It's not that she is allergic or anything along those lines, she just doesn't like fish. So the minute she leaves town I head down to the market to buy some. My goal: Texas Gulf snapper, but no (in an embarrassingly drawn out fashion). They didn't have it, or at least the real Gulf snapper. They did have the thick marble-scaled red water breathers, though they were selling them under a false name! I know this because I have people on the inside (not inside the ocean) that know whats up. What's up? A terrifying over-fishing fiasco! My insiders (Grandmum and Grandpa) tell me that due to years of large limits and loose restrictions the red snapper has been banned, forbidden, unfishable! You get caught with snapper in your rig you get cuffed. A pretty decent reason for jail time in my opinion, but hey I also want to be proposed to in Whole Foods. So these contacts of mine, they live on the coast, a short yellow-jeep drive from the Island, my little Island, South Padre Island. Ever since my Grandpa, who later realised his monetary mistake, introduced me to snapper, flounder, shrimp and crabs, I have been quite particular about where my sea fodder is found.

...dream sequence...

I was walking back home the other day from Toy Joy, the kooky nostalgic toy store across from my house, when I paused at the light to wait for the cross-walk sign. There was a Texas-sized white truck in the front of the turn lane, patiently waiting for their arrow, and for some reason when it changed they lunged. Their mistake. As they turned the tell-tale ice chests started rolling out of the bed and toppling out of the truck, slashing their contents in the intersection. Now, some of you might understand my interest in these particular ice-chests. They are a certain breed that are only used when transporting fish, or perhaps the ones I was used to when my grandparents brought home bag after bag of fresh fillets. Focusing back on the mess interrupting traffic I had a mild panic attack, as did the woman who rushed out the doors of Toy Joy behind me who yelled "That's SNAPPER!" It was a voice that knew. She knew as did I, the value that lay in the filth of the upper drag, the stark red lips and tail of a raw snapper. Okay, I know its lame that for a few seconds I considered putting myself in danger to rescue the already dead fish. Before I threw myself into traffic I realised how pathetic I might seem and pictured the headline on tomorrow's newspaper: Hook, line and sink-her. Girl in critical care due to fish rescuing attempts. So I waited for the light to change and walked across the street and up to my apartment. Later I re-examined my actions and thought that it would have been a perfectly acceptable hospitalization, my father and grandparents might actually have been proud.

...end dream sequence...

So back in the market I had to settle for tilapia, my wallet couldn't fathom Chilean sea bass this month. With the roomie gone, the boyfriend and I made fish tacos with Havana style coke and lime, oh and garlic green beans. He saw them in the market and decided that fish tacos paired perfectly with my garlic green beans. I know he really loves me: true love=love of garlic green beans.

Baja style tacos:Grilled Tilapia with Lime, Scallions and Green Peppers

February: Endless Month of Cheescakes

2009-02-12T21:16:00.009-06:00

By endless I mean continuous,you know, like birthday week that slowly turns into birthday month. The roommate and I have decided February is now officially Cheesecake month and we will attempt as many flavours of cheesecake possible on a college students budget and with two lazy girls' lovehandles. So far we've had Chocolate Chip Animal Cracker Cheesecake and a Chocolate Orange Ganache (a little flawed so unworthy of earlgreytruffle-dom). Our most recent concoction: Brownie-bottomed Blackberry Cheesecake. Crowded around our little oven we peeked in the smudgy window at our creamcheese baby bubbling away. This particular cheesecake is quite rustic with cracks and crevices and a few browned edges. Though these flaws should not be taken so seriously of course, as nothing should when considering cheesecake in general.

Ingredients:

Crust

half of a pan of old baked brownies (any kind, brand, flavour)
break into pieces and freeze before putting in food processor

When pulsing in food processor add a tablespoon of flour or so to reduce sugary stickiness.

Filling:

2 packages cream cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
pinch of salt
1 package blackberries

Press crust mixture into tart tin or parchment padded spring form or cake round.
Freeze.

Mix filling together, taking care not to "over froth".
After completely mixed together you have two options:

fold in blackberries by hand for full blackberry effect
whip in blackberries with mixer to make pretty dotted lavender creation
(this is what I did, it looks nice)

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, but do watch for over browning.

Cool on wire rack and then in fridge for an hour or until your roommate just can't stand it.

Add a dollop of roommate's amaretto whipped cream (which she made for a dainty little angel food cake with strawberries) and enjoy.

The whipped cream maker:

The food fan:

cinnamon roll in my cupcake, say what!?

2009-02-10T10:02:00.008-06:00

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes marries the two niceties of cupcake batter and caramel like cinnamon swirl.

Batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tbs baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter( 1 stick)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon Caramel Swirl:
5 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs standard sugar
2 tbs cinnamon
8 tbs water
(I always add nutmeg and cardamom to anything that involves cinnamon, but these are completely optional)

Frosting:
1/2 package cream cheese
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs shortening
1/4 tsp vanilla
splash of milk (if necessary)

PREHEAT: 350

Blend sugar, salt, baking soda, vanilla. Slowly add bits of butter and let cream together. Add one egg at a time. Slowly add flour in 3-4 parts. Blend in milk. Do not over mix!

On stove top, boil down sugars and cinnamon in water to make caramel. Do not over boil, you do not want a hard candy state. Use a candy thermometer if necessary.

Let caramel cool slightly and hand stir into the cupcake batter. You want to see the swirls after baking.

Bake for 15-25 minutes(do not over bake, rather underbake to preserve moisture)

Top with Extra Cream Cheese Frosting

Combine all ingredients in mixer, looking for texture of traditional buttercream. Only add splash of milk if frosting needs thinning.

Dust frosted cupcakes with a little shower of cinnamon.

Now you can have breakfast all day long!

I think I just traded my soul for a bar-b-que sandwich

2009-02-06T19:30:00.010-06:00

I am what the fancy kids call a flexitarian. To be honest I'm only a periodical flexitarian; my not-so meaty cravings waxing and waning perhaps with the faces of the moon or perhaps with the wafts of pits and grills that surround west campus. I, very occasionally, indulge in a chicken burger or a tranche of turkey tomato lasagna, throw a piece of fish at me or a skillet full of shrimp and I wont shy away.

I have no idea what phase the moon is in tonight, but today I needed my fix: a smoked turkey bar-b-que sandwich. I find solace in drowning the little pile of meat in homemade sauce, like submerging my sorrows in that ridiculously addictive brown-sugar base or baptizing my monthly indulgence in house style pickles. Pair that with an unhealthy heap of creamy poppy seed coleslaw made with purple cabbage and crisp orange carrots, the sharpness of vinegar and onions bites back oh so nicely.

Earlier, my future thoughts and present preoccupations seemed to slowly boil over and like a rue gone black completely tarnish the rest of my day. From reading Best Food Writing 2007 to perusing cakewrecks.blogspot.com nothing seemed to soothe the sour spot that was mounting in my stomach. Until the roommate, saving grace in pint-size options she is, declared she would make my day better as soon as I came home from work. Although I was the one to suggest bar-b-que she lovingly obliged and took credit for my new found happiness.
Ruby's Bar-b-que, located on the little side street of 29th and Guadalupe, is a tiny savory stain on the smoke house map that is Austin. As you walk in, the smell of smoked meats and slow cooked spices sprints up your nose and tickles your inner most happy parts (those are located in the brain by the way) in a pure and blissful pit-pleasure. Not to sound saucy: I wanted to take one of those college-age beau hunks behind the counter home with me, simply so I could smell the sweet aroma for the rest of the night, if they happen to supply me with another helping of that coleslaw I wouldn't object. I think I sang my pickup order to one of those guys and pretty much batted my turkey-lusted eyelashes at him in thanks.

I just need to figure out why I haven't asked one of those smoke slathered bar-b-que boys to marry me yet.

animal crackers are the stuff that childhood cheesecakes are made of

2009-02-01T19:31:00.007-06:00

Yes, a very stupid title, but nonetheless, this cheesecake is not. This is how it all "went down":

Scene one- the grocery store

Keegan (the roommate): "So I vaguely remember you promising to make me a cheesecake soon"

Me: "Oh I did, huh, well I don't have any recipes on hand"

Keegan: "Well just get two things of cream cheese and make me one!"

Me: "But I don't even--"

Keegan: "Chocolate! Chocolate! A Chocolate one!"

She gets in these dessert moods, not necessarily foul ones, but those heart wrenchingly puppy eyed please ones. She will come prancing into my room in her polka dotted pjs and coo "roooooomieeeee" and then beg. She is quite good at this, seeing as she has a cheesecake cooling on the counter that I just pulled from the oven. Actually, this is my favourite mood of her's, because I can make anything and force her to try it. ***Remembering the face she made, reeling over the texture of cous cous*** Although she picked the make I chose the model, and oh what a cherry she is. A nostalgic piece of childhood poured into a buttery crust of adult sophistication. With a dollop of yesterdays hand-whipped chai spiced whipped cream, this little flashback will be complete. Fun Filled: Chocolate Chip Animal Cracker Cheesecake.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter (unsalted, as always)
1/3 cup almonds
couple handfuls of animal crackers
2 8oz packages of cream cheese-room temperature (I used low fat)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1/3 cup plain yogurt
splash of milk
plenty of chocolate chips

for the crust:
combine sugar and almonds in food processor, after slightly chopped add in animal crackers a bit at a time. Looking for the consistency of polenta or coarse corn meal. Add in melted butter, pulse a few more times. Add into a large tart tin, or spring form pan, if you'd like. Push flat with fingers and palm or bottom of a flat glass. Freeze for 15 minutes.

for the filling:
combine 1/2 cup of sugar and cream cheese to stand mixer on medium. Turn to low add egg, vanilla, and salt. If cream cheese is not quite room temperature this process might take a while longer to rid the filling of any big cream cheese pieces. Add in yogurt and splash of milk. Mix until smooth and creamy. With a spatula or spoon fold in chocolate chips. The chips will fall to bottom so you will end up scooping a bunch of them on top of the filling, its okay they will mix in quite nicely while in the oven.

Bake at 350, you remebered to preheat didn't you, for 30-35 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.

Chill for 1-2 hours, or overnight, or if you just can't wait, like my darling roomie, just eat it when its cooled.

Top with a bit of whip cream and an extra chocolate chip or two, or get fancy with some chocolate curls and shavings!

Hysmith family Christmas uniforms: flour dusted cranberry stained pajamas

2009-01-09T19:01:00.016-06:00

We rolled out of bed in flannels yet the floor was sticky with humidity. Hot tea was ready to pour yet it undoubtedly wanted ice. Our stockings hung over the fireplace, yet no fire roared cheerily behind them. It was 80-something degrees Christmas day, how rude. We began the day with Da's "secret recipe" cinnamon rolls made with whole wheat flour...well wait they're secret.

After a jaunt of a bike ride through our deserted little college town, in which I did not manage to fall or seriously hurt myself or my bike, we returned to begin the mighty task that lay before us: "CHRISTMAS DINNER" (Says Da in a deep DJ weekly top 40 countdown voice).

The Menu:
zealously herbed breast of turkey wrapped in prosciutto
citrus barley with roasted grapes
brown sugar fruit salad
sauteed cherry cranberry chutney
shallot and ginger pan seared broccoli
sweet potato yeast rolls

The shear amount of herbs included in these dishes would like to strip our garden bare, yet each little potted plant seemed to replenish it self magically with each trip out the back door.

The brown sugar fruit salad is most simple and palates better a day after it is made. I liken it to a soup that needs a full nights rest to bring about its full flavours. Ingredients consist of several tablespoons of brown sugar and the juice of one lime. Let it the acid dissolve all the sugar before tossing the fruit. Chop up bite size portions of whichever fruits you like and those which are in season: apples (grannysmiths are my preference) black grapes, any berries, plums, peaches, cranberries, pears. Anything but bananas! Toss the fruit about till completely coated with limed sugar. Chiffonade a few mints leaves and toss those in too. Now that I think of it, in the summer time a full sweet basil would be even better!

Our loverly neighbors joined us at the climax of our cooking escapade which allowed me to sneak off for a game of "take two", a sort of back alley scrabble, with Nan and the kid sister. Nan, being the wonderful lady-neighbor that she is, satiated my leafy cravings and brought her simple yet refreshing green salad of cashews, dried cranberries, mozzarella, and julienned green apples.

In conclusion, our family does not prepare a most orthodox Christmas meal, nor do we follow a strict starch/veggie/meat/pie code of more traditional holiday dinners. To be honest I wouldn't put a tofurkey past my father without the possibility of his delicately primping it to the bubbling concoction that was our Christmas vitals.

Next on the menu due for Hysmith family alterations: New Year's Day Luck and Health feast (complete with cabbage hats).

jalapeno studded sour cream; or, how a non-Jewish foodie spiced up Hanukkah

2009-01-09T18:45:00.003-06:00

Though the days marked by food intake and hours logged on couch and/or bed have long since passed I have yet to begin my holiday postings! Growing up my father introduced me and my brother to various cultural holidays in hopes that we would better understand the world and own culture. Little did we know that this was his excuse to experiment food-wise and add yet more days onto the annual week or two of gorging. His culinary devices won out, thankfully and this year I decided to prepare a Hanukkah dinner for my Mum and her new boyfriend, Mark (who has a Jewish last name, though is not the slightest bit Jewish). Though I thoroughly enjoy a grease soaked potato as much as the next person, I find that it lacks bite and is wanting in ???. So as a proposed remedy I fashioned the traditional sour cream slathering with a heated pop of diced Jalapeno peppers. My palate is one only subdued with the most sweltering of heats, the kind that literally burns away your taste buds yet later leaves you with a satisfying warmth in your tummy. Sadly, these latkes didn't do the trick. Next year, I'm thinking potato-horseradish latkes with roasted Ancho chile sour cream. Maybe?

Compositions for LIN312: Eat your Words

2008-12-17T17:40:00.000-06:00

These are the few essays I wrote for one of my linguistics electives last Spring. The course discussed, well, the linguistic application of food. The course was wonderfully impressive, yet needed improvement. I will hopefully do that...one day.

All Buttered about Butter

Cinnamomum verum and the Bridge to Authenticity

Le Cuisine Lyonnaise: Fromage, Fruits Beaujolais and Frog legs

Chapter 1 English Edibles: Fears and Beers

2008-12-16T15:43:00.001-06:00

When I left Oxford, England I wanted only one souvenir for myself: the head chefs recipe for sticky toffee pudding. I like to think that this recipe is as old as the relatively young Brasenose college nestled in the heart of Oxford. When I say relative, I do mean that; a mere 500 years compared to those other more renowned colleges that boast 900 years or more! Though this quaint little college has nothing to be ashamed of in any way, despite lacking in historic academic semesters; a beautiful vintage library, stairwells that twist around and creep up behind you like ghosts that undoubtedly haunt them. Even Jane Austen had the privilege to study under the headmaster's wife's instruction for a summer. She is the very reason I even ventured to Brasenose college. I left on a five week study abroad program specifically for the discovery of all things Austen, but I seemed to have returned with much more than just a tome full of Regency trivia and a habit for saying "cheers".

I approached my trip to England with severe caution, after all I am a pseudo vegetarian ( no reds, nothing bloody). All I had heard was ghastly tales of sausages bobbing in pools of muck and baked beans with bits of mystery meat and ,worst of all, the utter indignation for anything with the slightest bit of spice. I contemplated packing a stealthy package of salt and pepper in my luggage but found myself nervously laughing away the idea.

I arrived in the afternoon, starved, parched and exhausted, terrified by the idea of never finding a diet coke. I remembered that I only packed one box of Kashi pumpkin spice flax bars and wept quietly in my 17th century dorm room. When dinner arrived, though I was not excited about the menu, I was at least thrilled about eating "harry potter style". The dinning hall was exactly thus: gilded portraits leaning forward from their tacks so as to get a better look at their guests below, massive solid wood tables with notches and scratches as deep as the college is old, and a high arched ceiling with windows reaching up to its corners. This was to replace my pathetic little bought-in-a-box dining room table, that possessed painted wood laminate and no trace of the real stuff. The tables were set with pitchers of water and the most amazing squash (english for juice) that tasted like boysenberry candies my old french teacher used to pass out. There was real pats of butter, though they were packaged in little gold foils it was unlike any butter I've ever tasted. Fresh rolls of every sort from the bakery down the street. Every dinner was served by students of the college who were working over the summer to earn some extra money. The students would one by one, dressed in white button down shirts and black trousers, bring us our courses. Sadly I do not remember my first meal, perhaps it was the jet lag. Though I do recall that it desperately needed seasoning. Disclaimer: I am not a compulsive salter. The salt was ordinary table salt, like one finds in many American pantries but the pepper, oh the pepper, was a fine dust that resembled and smelt of decaying mummy and made one cough like breathing the the first smoke from a bonfire. Being an immense fan of peppercorns, I held a private funeral for my taste buds that must endure the following weeks.

After dinner, I sauntered outside the hall with my fellow UT students when we were motioned towards a little basement staircase. The Buttery. Brasenose's own private pub. Being from Texas I am accustomed to alcohol and drinking, but in the school's basement! I am also not one to drink and beer or concocted beverage that some upperclassmen might hand me. I like to think of myself as a budding enthusiast when it comes to such special libations. Though, not wanting to be left out, I followed the other girls downstairs. I expected the moldy stale stench one usually encounters in the numerous bars in Austin and throughout Texas. I did not expect, tidy little dark wood tables, dust free stone floors, or the same Oxford boys who were our waiters to be drinking enormous pints while playing a game of raunchy Jenga. Then the smell hit me, a beautiful sweet and dulcet collaboration of wheats and billows of what I can only describe as yeast puffed clouds. The mere odor of local beers and ales had permeated this tiny stone basement pub making it my new favourite haunt, sadly I only had the red wine.

Chicken Pot Pie: Universal Health Care at its Best

2008-11-10T22:12:00.000-06:00

So tonight, at the request of my oh so eager roommate, I made my scrumptious Chicken Pot Pie. I say it is scrumptious with such assurance because I was proud of myself for my ingenuity as a new pot pie maker. My first endeavor with pot pie began late in the summer before my freshman year at University. The freshest vegetables were just at market and the Texas sun was still withholding its hottest rays to let us autumn junkies have our one last fix. I sped to the market one afternoon with a mind to purchase all things in miniature: micro greens, small organic carrots, fingerling potatoes (of various earthy colours), pearl onions, snap peas, broccolitini, and sweet corn. All these I planned to tuck neatly into a quaint ramekin lined with a feather or two of philo dough, a perfectly rounded slice of emmentaler, a bit of stock reduced in a garlic roux, and of course the chicken!

As I child I loathed any sort of dish slightly reminiscent of a casserole one might find on a church potluck line up and unfortunately pot pie was in this category. I still do not understand why I associated pot pies with such nasties as casseroles, they are very distant cousins at best. The basic components of a true casserole includes some sort of noodle, a creamy liquid (usually a canned mushroom soup of sorts), an undefinable meat substance (i.e. ground beyond belief beef, boiled chicken shreds, or the dreaded canned cat food, I mean tuna) and either an over powering salinity similar to the Gulf of Mexico or a complete void of salt. Pot pie, usually, lacks all of these dreaded characteristics, yet I couldn't bring myself to even a forkful. I shut myself off from the mysterious world of labeled Tupperwares and crusty overcooked pan corners only to exempt my misinformed palate from such wonderous things that could happen as a result of a steaming doughy pot pie.

Bon temps roulant: Autumn in a fist fight with Summer...

2008-10-21T20:11:00.000-05:00

So I have yet to add another recipe/baking awakening but as the inklings of Fall creep in my baking senses begin to tingle and I have to find my way to an oven or I just feel too lazy. At this moment I am baking cardamom snaps, not my own recipe www.bhg.com, but they aren't too pretty and won't go up on this site till they are!

It is almost Samhain, or the nature-freaks autumn version of a New Years. So it is a time for eating, baking, pumpkin spice lattes, and harvest-themed resolutions! I have several but the one that really applies here is at least one weekly baking excursion with my new friend Julia. Who is Julia you might ponder...well she is my new shiny red KitchenAid Stand Mixer! Leave me alone, Alton Brown named his...and she is named for the great Julia Child...I don't think she would mind being reincarnated as a kitchen utensil.

So yes, so hopefully every week Julia and I will explore the many reaches of the culinary world together and share them with everyone!

To Do:
1. need more butter
2. find family pumpkin pie recipe
3. figure out the secret ingredient in my Da's cornbread...he is holding out
4. I smell cardamom...need to go check those snaps!

Local Texas Fig and Honey Cupcakes

2008-09-03T18:12:00.000-05:00

So foodbeam.com hosted the most wonderful event to reincarnate the cupcake. I created a list of possible flavour combinations but none of them seemed to be the perfect one...until one day my father, whom I call Da, called me up. Through the receiver I could hear him tinkering in our little galley kitchen back home. The back door was swinging open and shut and he said he was in the process of freezing the figs from our little tree in the backyard. When I was younger my little brother and I would never even think of touching a fig, unless it was in Newton form of course. The little tree that grew up against the house, right off the back steps, mainly served as shade for our dog Clover who would lounge underneath its wide sweet smelling leaves. Recently, though we knew it was a fig tree all along, we've been more keen to try new recipes and convert ourselves into regular gourmands, mais c'est un processus tres difficile dans la petite ville de College Station, Texas!

So my little recipe is made with figs grown in my backyard and honey made from local Austin bees.

Our little fig tree was there before we even moved in and it now produces several pounds of figs each year...unless the birds get them first.

RECIPE:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup diced fresh figs
2/3 cup sugar (you could substitute with some other sweetener, nothing artificial of course, but something mellow so it doesn't overpower the figs!)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (unsalted)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
pinch of cardamom

Icing:
1 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-5 tablespoons local honey
Optional*bee pollen

Because of the extra liquid from the figs you might need an extra dash of flour or two but the result is extra moist and delicately sweet goodness!
Equipment: 6-cup jumbo muffin tin

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking powder,spice and salt together in a medium bowl.

In another medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugars with an electric mixer until light and foamy, about 2 minutes.
While beating, gradually pour in the butter and then the vanilla.

While mixing slowly, add half the dry ingredients, then add all the milk, and follow with the rest of the dry ingredients. Take care not to over mix the batter. Divide the batter evenly in the prepared tin.

Bake until a tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove. Cool on the rack completely.

For icing: Mix the confectioners' sugar and butter in a medium bowl. Add the honey and mix with an electric mixer to make a firm but pourable icing.
This makes more of a very thick glaze and you should let it run down the sides of the little cakes.
ice generously!

I topped each with a sprinkle of bee pollen (very good source of protein, but be careful if you have really bad allergies). Put the pollen on right after you've spooned on the glaze on top in the middle of the cupcake. The glaze will pick up the little bits of pollen and run down the sides with them!