 |
Young & HungryIf you can't take the heat, get outta the kitchen! |
| 26 January |
So there’s a lot of devastation in this world and not just the current tragedy in Haiti; it’s all around us and we don’t always think we can do anything to help. That’s like saying your vote doesn’t count. You realize that, right? Everybody counts. Everybody counts and we all have unique gifts and talents we can offer despite our financial situation or busy schedule. Let me tell you a little story about Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody:‘
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. In the end, Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Inspired by a book I’m currently reading, I decided to stop blaming Everybody and take action. I gathered some friends at work, we spent Sunday baking, and voila we had a bake sale. Our co-workers came in to some delicious treats, we raised money to send to Haiti, and I’m pretty sure we enjoyed our time in the kitchen.
| 23 December |
No, not referencing your dog dressed up in antlers and the ugliest sweater ever seen. This bark is the delicious crunchy, sweet, and salty southern treat that’s so easy to make you’ll feel you just didn’t work hard enough to deserve such a delectable treat! So while a photo of Mommy’s relentless battle to keep that red nose on Sparky might be entertaining for a hot second, these candies will keep you satisfied for day(s) to come! If you have more than a teaspoon of self-control that is…
You know what’s even more fabulous than having a cellophane wrapped bag of bark in your possession? The ability to take this basic recipe and bake it into your heart’s desire. This Christmas I tried two variations on the classic candy: Mexican Chocolate with Spiced Almonds and Fruited Nut. So I leave you with this chocolate topped butter laden Christmas gift and wish you all a fat and fabulous holiday! Ruff Ruff!
| 13 December |
While it turns out that Baci is just as much a nickname for chocolate hazelnut as Nutella, I’m sure they’d be happy to know that, in my mind at least, they’re the Kleenex of chocolate hazelnut candy! Baci, which means kiss in Italian, is the much more delicious Nestle version of our Hershey Kisses. Not only is their taste superior to our plain Jane chocolates, but they come with little multilingual love notes inside the wrapper!
I’ll never forget my trip to the chocolate festival in Perugia, the home of the Perugina factory where these little pecks of heaven are crafted. There was chocolate everywhere! Hot chocolate as thick as honey, decadent chocolate desserts, and even a chocolate sculpture contest where artists chipped away at life size blocks of cocoa while people crowded at their feet to catch the scraps*. How they maintained focus I will never know! It was a trip to remember, even 6 years later. And so here’s a little chip of Perugia just for you!
Dillo con un Bacio!
*Scraps?! Excuse my blasphemy.
| 4 December |
Valentine’s Day always comes with a list of requirements that vary drastically depending on the sex with whom you are conversing. My requirements, post the days of heartshape meatloaf with the rents, include the sporting of my favorite black and red heart blouse and copious amounts of cheese and chocolate, emphasis on the latter. My girlfriends and I have spent many a Valentine’s Day experimenting with new items to cover and smother with cheese and chocolate, but I definitely think we got it right Senior year of college when we stopped messing around and went straight for the Krispy Kremes, from the original location in Winston of course.
Last year I actually had a Valentine, so what better gift to give to both him and my office of almost eighty women than chocolate chip biscotti. Luckily, I had a recipe saved in my Blackberry “To Do” list which had been verbally relayed in ounces and grams from the pretty little owner of the Italian restaurant in my condo building.
My roomate and I had ventured down to the late Allegro for a building happy hour, hoping to actually meet meet one of our neighbors. We sipped our complimentary champagne and nibbled on the perfectly al dente truffled risotto brought to us by a waitor who probably felt sorry for the loner ladies in the corner. As the mostly married with children couples fled home we were able to get seats at the bar, the key to my fated encounter with a little Italian biscotti called cantucci. When they brought out the tray of crunchy cantucci with perfect ribbons of chocolate rippling through their centers my jaw dropped. I MUST get this recipe.
| 11 November |
To carry on the cherry theme from my previous post, here is a recipe from this year’s cherry themed party. Yes, I lied. The Sweet Potato Pizza was a leftover from last year. There are a number of these said leftovers and, going forward, I will plead the fifth and my right as a woman to keep the age factor undisclosed. Besides, who doesn’t love a good leftover!
I found this recipe in some sort of woman’s magazine targeted towards an age group that does NOT include me. Alas, I found this and many of the other dessert recipes quite appealing, and so I furtively tore the pages from the magazine, stuffed them in my purse, and continued reading. I wonder what a man, sans purse, would do in such a situation. And is it appropriate to borrow recipes in this matter or is this considered a dishonorable act? And are you, reaping the benefits of a fraudulent recipe an accomplice to the crime? Hmmm. At least I’ve used my embezzled formulas to bring happiness to many a watering mouth. So, for the second time since my sticky fingers came across Home & Garden magazine, I bring you Cherry Revel Bars.
| 30 October |
Combine two Junior League friends (plus one baby), a whole lotta conversation, and one recipe for Baked bakery’s Sweet & Salty cake and you get…..cake disaster! Blame it on the crying baby, blame it on too much gossiping, but whatever happened, it wasn’t pretty. Delicious, yes, but pretty, no. In actuality, our salty caramel never quite set and our chocolate caramel frosting never quite firmed, creating some landslide action down the side of the cake.
Wow.
In any case, the cake was ugly….but so delicious. Super, super rich and delicious. Which goes to show that you can’t judge a book (or a cake) by its cover.
| 14 October |
Not too long ago, one of the girls at work brought in Browned Butter Cookies. Have you ever had browned butter? It’s amazing. While I noticed the flavors are much more intense when used as a sauce, how could I not try to incorporate this deliciously nutty transformation of an everyday staple into baked goods! And so my quest for a Browned Butter Cake began.
Upon googling brown(ed) butter cake I was presented with a myriad of recipes for Hazelnut Browned Butter Cake. Surprised at how common this relatively specific cake was I decided to go for the one recipe that opted for almonds instead. Sorry hazelnut. Why is it that all the cakes containing browned butter also contain nuts? I don’t know exactly, but imagine that it brings out the aforementioned nutty flavors of the butter. When you taste this cake you’ll see what I mean. It has flavors quite unique from anything you’ve had before. The recipe, too, is quite unique. It contains no trace leavening agent, powdered sugar instead of the usual white, hardly any flour, and meringue?! Crazy, I know.
| 28 September |
Do you recall the days of Chewy granola bars and bagged lunches? The way peanut butter and jelly mixed with tater tots and chocolate milk to create eau de cafeteria? And scrambling down the hallways back to class, never failing to linger at the table just a little too long? Sadly those days are gone, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still pretend. We still scramble and we still eat granola bars. It’s just that the lunchroom table has been replaced with the parking garage and S’mores Chewy Granola Bars have been replaced with an ever growing variety of $2-3 “power” bars. Chewy will always hold a dear place in my heart, but, to be honest, they could have held a larger place in my belly. Thank you Cliff, Kashi, and Powerbar for at least creating a more substantial snack. One that satiates for a period of longer than the five minutes or less it takes to consume said bar. Funny how much energy we expend sitting at our desks with no escape for recess, afterschool sports, and the long backpack laden walk home… Or not.
But I still want a somewhat hearty snack – sedentary or not. An adult snack, if you will. It doesn’t matter that what I really want is a Nutty Buddy bar; I was conditioned to just say no to such detrimental desires long ago. Conditioned to replace processed delights with “whole” foods like fruit, cheese, and nuts. So here’s my Whole Foods solution to snack time. I promise it won’t fail to satiate your inner child’s need for chocolate and peanut butter and that it’ll keep you power-ed up all “school” day long!
| 17 May |
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!
| 26 April |
In the throes of my avid cake decorating career (aka the past four months,) I have had to throw away, on average, 2 cake tops per week in the process of perfectly leveling my cake layers. I don’t have to be part of the “green” initiative that seems to be sweeping the nation (and Hollywood, but I think that’s more for show than anything else) to know that such wastefulness is, well, wasteful. So what’s a girl to do with copious cake tops? Why, make cake balls, of course!
Not sure about other parts of the country, but in Big D, cake balls are the new confectionary trend, yesterday’s cupcake if you will (not that I don’t still totally love cupcakes, but they had their moment.) They’re popping up everywhere from dinner parties to my cake studio, where they’re now offering a cake ball class! But I digress….the beauty of the cake ball is twofold: 1. easy way to use up leftover cake and 2. built in portion control. In case you’re wondering what, exactly, a cake ball is….quite simply, it’s a ball made of cake and icing mashed together and coated, usually in some form of chocolate….a perfectly proportioned, moist bon bon of cake, icing, and décor, how efficient! I like to serve mine frozen, if circumstances permit, both because it cuts a bit of the sweetness and because the balls take on an ice creamy consistency. Yum!
Continue reading…
Top