Young & Hungry

Here is my final recipe suggestion for all you love birds out there.  This recipe is a big undertaking, however, so if you’ve waited this long to make plans, you might have waited too long to mentally prepare for the challenge that is the Big Night Timpano!  If you’re still reading, however, or if your boo bought one of those scalped reservations on the web…I bid you well and recommend you don one of those new skirts with the elastic waistbands that seem to have come back into style at JUST the right time. 

 

I first discovered this recipe in a dark movie theatre at the Aspen Film Festival.  In Stanley Tucci’s 1996 movie Big Night, the chef Primo slaves away at this towering pasta pie, among countles other dishes, in attempt to save his and his brother Secondo’s dying restaurant.  While the guest of honor, charged with brining celebrity buzz to the small unknown trattoria, never shows, the night is anything but a loss.  Actually, I suppose they do lose quite a bit of money, but they have a big extravagant evening filled with endless courses of food, wine, and dancing.  Additionally, they learn the importance of being and being true to yourself and your talents, which may not be as loved and appreciated by others as you would expect, but are the only thing that will bring you true happiness.

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A dear friend is turned the ripe old age of 24 this weekend and while sad I could not be there to give her a birthday hug and glass of her favorite vino in person, we planned a little preliminary birthday bash in her honor.  Since no birthday outing is complete without some sort of dessert I was left questioning what the dessert could possibly be as sweet as she.  She’s a traditionalist; her favorites being brownies & cookies yet those just don’t seem special enough for the occasion.   But what if we were to combine the two?  What if I made cookie dough cupcakes!

     

  

Now I’ve been known to be a semi-homemade baker in the past, but I’m feeling inspired by the occasion and the original recipe which, of course, I will stray from at some points or many throughout my baking expedition.   Additionally, I have a past experience with cookie dough cheesecake bars that were delicious enough to inspire decades of future cookie dough recipe experimentation!  That said, this is still an experiment that will have to take place after a long day’s work, so compromise might still be in order.  Either way, here’s to you Kimberly!  I’m so glad to have met you and thanks for always reading!

 
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The word ‘mashers’ makes me cringe, but it’s proven quite difficult to find a synonym for fried mashed potato balls…sounds so uncouth, like one of Rachel Ray’s idiosyncratic phrases. Anywho, the FDA is most definitely going to be on me for this one. As if French fries weren’t enough… all us teeming Americans need is something already smothered & covered, and now deep-fried too! Draws me back to that SNL episode with the taco stand spoof. I digress.

These are the brainchild of an old friend who originally called them ‘Mashed French Fries’; still can’t quite figure out that would have come to fruition, but the idea itself is a delicious one. Speaking of fabulous ideas, we love suggestions so feel free to submit and watch for yours to be in our next post!  If you’re worried about the nutritional value, please reference the ‘Glutton for Punishment’ synopsis. You’ll also be happy to know that I’ve chosen goat cheese – one of the less fattening cheeses. And they say that nice glass of red wine, cab perhaps, slows down the absorption of fat.

Please enjoy and remember – most foods served in restaurants are far worse. I know as <I’m ecstatic to say> I’ve worked in one before.

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 I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours of my youth babysitting. I never partook in the typical posts of youth—never was a summer lifeguard, never waited tables. I instead relished the opportunity to play house in the homes of my suburban neighbors eager for a break and quickly developed a reputation among my regulars for organizing kitchens after the kids had been safely tucked into bed. Parents would come home to neatly stacked Tupperware and maniacally organized pantries, a symptom, I suppose, of my fixation on the kitchen. It was at one of these houses that I wiled away many hours poring over a well-worn edition of The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Immediately drawn to the tome by the immaculately crafted chocolate cake gracing the cover, I spent many a midnight hour reading recipes and imaging the glorious cakes I would one day construct when I had my own family to tend to.

The finished product!

  
All these years later, while I don’t yet have my own family, I do have my own edition of Beranbaum’s “Bible,” a fitting moniker as it is, bar none, the authority on all things cake. It was without thought that I turned to this resource in planning a cake for an upcoming party. Given that this party would be filled with many fellow foodies, I wanted nothing short of show stopping and found just that in the Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte, which I neatly paired with the White Chocolate Ganache for a great black on white “tuxedo” presentation.
  

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