Shavuot, congratulations: you are the first Jewish holiday I am on time for! I was late for Purim and Passover, but you; you I managed to not be tardy for. I think it’s because you’re about dairy; all sorts of dairy, evidently, so it’s easy to both love you as a holiday and also find you easy to make food for. I can see why people look forward to celebrating you. Continue reading →
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Admittedly, this is not my best photo. Simple cakes get a raw deal in that they are so elegant and beautiful in real life, but often difficult (for me) to capture on film. I promise you, it is gorgeous in real life.
In my quest to learn more about Jewish holidays and the foods associated with them, I committed myself to making something for each (major? I’m a non-Jewish person, so I don’t know how to classify these) holiday. Since I am new to this, all of my offerings have been after the actual holiday has occurred. First, there was the great hamantaschen experiment for Purim; I got so caught up in oil-based versus butter-based hamantaschen and homemade jam fillings that those didn’t show up until the week after Purim. Now, here we are at my contribution for Passover, which has come and gone, and evidently we’re just days away from the holiday which falls 7 weeks after Passover, so it’s safe to say that I’m tardy in posting this one too. Please forgive me: I’ve decided to expand my Jewish food exploration to two years in the hopes that next year I’ll be ahead of schedule. Continue reading →
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I posted so many things for National Library week last week; I thought I’d give you all a little breather to catch up. A week has passed, you’ve cleared out your Google Reader (Feedly?) by now, so I’ll resume my post-Easter 2013 food recap, since we still have the desserts to go.
It’s been a little while, but do you remember that yellow sunshine cake I made for the Easter festivities? That was a french butter cake called a “sableuse,” pronounced – so far as I can tell – “sableeeuuuussse.” You know you want to say it like that too, so don’t deny yourself that one tiny pleasure. The sableuse was a very different cake recipe than I’ve ever tried by the manner in which you put it together, so I thought it safe to go about it on a holiday where there would be another cake in place, were this one to fail. Thankfully, it didn’t fail, and what resulted was pretty magical.
I’ve never met a cake that’s this light in weight yet so dense and rich on the tongue. It’s almost impossible to experience, because cakes that are this rich generally have quite a bit of heft to them; you could have flung this one into the air like a Frisbee. Because of this, it’s a great warm weather cake; just throw some fresh whipped cream and berries alongside of it, and you have a lovely dessert that doesn’t seem overdone. It’s sunshine yellow due to a massive amount of egg yolks inside it, and comes out in much the way that a sturdy pound cake would, which means nothing will fall apart on you in the heat. Continue reading →
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Odd things happen when you completely plan on working and making food during your vacation, only to find that any and all attempts at making food and writing about it are fruitless. It’s a difficult mix of emotions: I love being in the kitchen, but as it turns out, mostly I prefer being in my own kitchen. Also, writing has now become easier to do than to not do, which is thrilling/scary. Documenting the day-to-day seems to have become an essential part of my day-to-day, in a very natural way, perhaps for the first time ever (or perhaps it’s just the first time I’ve noticed.)
So I missed this, our little time together. I had every intention of writing, but foolishly decided to just take the iPad instead of the laptop on our journey. This was folly. Continue reading →
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You know it, I know it, we all know it: we have discussed these stack-happy little Momofuku cakes before. I love making them, you love telling me how much work it would be to even attempt one of these. Is it work? Yes. But have I said that it’s not as hard as you may believe it is? Also, yes. Do you think I’m lying? Perhaps. So I decided for this cake, I would take you behind the scenes a little and show you exactly what goes in to making one of these things. Shall we? Continue reading →
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I begin this by saying something which echoes my bacon sentiments: I’m not a peanut-butter obsessed person. Some people live for it; I, quite simply, do not. It’s not that I don’t like it: on the contrary, on the days I want to feel most like my elementary-school self, I make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat, throw some pretzels alongside, and am transported to a time where I made daily visits to the park and The Jetsons were the only ones who owned cell phones. Continue reading →
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I hesitate to call these ‘cupcakes,’ for fear it would imply some whimsey-ish kid-party thing. Mostly, I don’t want you thinking that I’m making beer cupcakes for toddlers. Because I’m not: these are clearly adult cakes. They don’t even look young child-appropriate, unless your little one adores swanky dinner parties and Irish pubs from time to time. Hopefully, they don’t.
This is the small version of my Chocolate Espresso Guinness Cake from last week; as it turns out, I was still miffed I didn’t get a proper piece. So miffed, in fact, that I was bound and determined to find a way to make these in a smaller format more appropriate for every day use. Why? Because I want to eat them more often, and baking cupcakes to share with others and accidentally keeping a few for yourself is so much less obvious than baking a giant cake and not sharing. Continue reading →
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Doesn’t look very much like a traditional birthday cake, right? Certainly it’s not the mile-high, multi-layered numbers I like to push here, but this was indeed someone’s birthday cake. Someone who really. likes. drinks. because they tend bar, people, don’t worry; I didn’t make a beer-infused cake for a recovering alcoholic. No one fell off the wagon on my watch. I have it on good authority, however (Mr. Table), that if you were going to get addicted to a cake, this one would be it. I hear this was maybe the best chocolate cake a bunch of coworkers have ever laid waste to; if you knew this bunch, you would know they’ve probably demolished some food in their day. Continue reading →
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So we’ve all said our long goodbye (almost) to summer fruits, and have taken turns lamenting the disappearance of our nectarine, blueberry, and plummy friends. We will miss them; they never stay as long as we would like them to. We send them off with tears in our eyes, pressing our hand against the kitchen window. Goodbye, little fruits and vegetables. So long, sweet corn and tomatoes which make my home smell like a greenhouse. Fare thee well on your journey to next year, where we will see you again, glimmering and bright as always. Auf Wiedersehen, summer produce.
Because I’m done with you. It’s been chilly here and I am a fickle, fair-weather friend. Bring on the apples and pears and pumpkins and squash, farmers: I open my arms to you. Summer produce may be all vibrance and sizzle, but fall produce? It’s all subtleties. Sure, you have some sunset-hued apples in there, but for the most part, its matte-finished gourds and soft harvest goldens and greens. And that’s my kind of color scheme. Continue reading →
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Are the kids all safely back in school where you are? They are here, and holy sweet Mother Mary, I could not be happier about that. Kids cramp my style in the summer. Not my own, obviously; she’s too young to be in school and besides, I love her like crazy. I mean everyone else’s kids. You know the type: always out running around, heading to the pool or crowding up the stores with their boredom and unimpressed little faces. They have nowhere they have to be, really, and nothing in particular to be responsible for except keeping themselves alive and unhurt with fast food and Coppertone. Sometimes, I shake my fist at them and say “get a job, you little vagrants!” and then I remember: I’m 35, not 85. I need to chill. out. Continue reading →
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Monica: I've never had grapefruit curd and boy, I'd love to try it! Your cake...
Jen @JuanitasCocina: I like the spoon to my face method for enjoying curd. But this would ...
movita beaucoup: I. Love. Curd.
Aaaaaaand now I'm trying to think of about a million...
shannon: Monica, i know you love your eggs. :) and chiffon cake is great simply...
shannon: (snort laugh) :) sometimes i blame cake mixes: i love them, but when t...
seems like lately my kitchen smells like…
stalking = so much fun.