Kung Foo Cinema

TWD Rewind: Perfect Pound Cake

2010-05-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

This was another of those recipes I made while I was on medical leave, and craving some good old-fashioned comfort.

On the plus side, it tastes very light and delicious, and it's easy to bung together. I've had trouble with pound cakes in the past; they tend to come out squat and hard. No such problems with this one; it went together like a dream and came out tasting like one.

That's the good news.

The not-so-good news (the CHALLENGE, as we say in the corporate world) is the texture. I don't know...I just didn't like it. It came out a tad dry, and with almost a cotton candy-fluffy crumb. It was very Sara Lee-ish, and oddly, Dorie called this out as a plus in her recipe intro. I didn't see it as so plus-y.

I ATE it, don't get me wrong. And I liked it. But the texture wasn't what I was hoping for in a pound cake. I guess I'll keep looking for MY Perfect Pound Cake.

Dorie's Perfect Pound Cake

(Source: Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From My Home to Yours” p. 222)

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour (or 2-1/4 cups cake flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Getting Ready:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan or an 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf pan. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce the mixer speed to medium. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each egg goes in. As you’re working, scrape down the bowl and beater often. Mix in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is incorporated – don’t overmix. In fact, you might want to fold in the last of the flour, or even all of it, by hand with a rubber spatula. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top.

Put the cake into the oven to bake, and check on it after about 45 minutes. If it’s browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. If you’re using a 9×5 pan, you’ll need to bake the cake for 70 to 75 minutes; the smaller pan needs about 90 minutes. The cake is properly baked when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, transfer the pan to a rack and let rest for 30 minutes.

Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.

Chockablock Cookies: A Hit

2010-04-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Remember the Chockablock Cookies I made for last week's Tuesdays with Dorie? (By the by, this week's recipe is Burnt Sugar Ice Cream; weekend guests, you have been warned.)

Well, I took them to the office this morning, because they were just too deadly to have around the house. I was a little nervous about them, because they were full of weird dried fruits and pumpkin seeds, and I wasn't sure how they'd go over.

Well, they went over a STORM. Holy cow. This may be one of the more popular things I've made. The Russian, who doesn't really go crazy for sweets, had THREE. One guy was eating one in the elevator and another guy told him, "Dude...your eyes are glowing."

(Which may be because my cookies were awesome, or because he's an alien robot. You decide.)

Fortunately, I was smart enough to keep them on my desk so most of my friends all got one, and I didn't get in trouble. (If I put something in the kitchen, they disappear pretty quick.)

So, if I wasn't enthusiastic enough, go make these cookies. You won't regret it.

Alas, Poor Crack House

2010-04-28T20:45:00.001-07:00

For the past five years, the house next door to mine has sat empty, slowly decaying and falling apart. It had actually been sadly neglected, with a jungle growing in its yard, for some years before that; that's just how long I've known it.

In the past two years or so, it's become a well-known meeting spot for meth dealers and crackheads, and a place for hitchhikers on the coastal highway to crash.

No longer. Today, I came home to this:

Poor old Crack House. On one hand, I'm glad to see it go. The cops were over there quite a bit, and I had to install security because of people jumping my fence.

On the other hand, it was an old house and at one point, apparently, it was well-loved. There were probably a lot of good memories in that house.

Then again, there were a lot of bad, and there was no hope of restoring it, so in the end, it's probably for the best.

Rest in Peace, Crack House.

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

2010-04-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Oh, she sneaks under the wire!

I mean really under the wire, since - although I've thought of them for days - Tuesday morning dawned with my still not having made these cookies. And since I'd only made one Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this month, I risked getting kicked out if I didn't get to them.

And then, lo! My day did turn to rubbish. And we all know what the cure for a Really Bad Day (tm) is...

Cookies.

So I threw together the batter tonight. (Like most of Dorie's cookies, it comes together in a jiffy.) I did halve the recipe, and then only baked two, because there's only so much temptation you should invite in when you're recovering from Bad Day-itis. The others will be baked when I'm feeling a little more stable, and promptly packed up for the coworkers.

Why? Because they're freaking awesome. I was all "Oh, I'm on a diet...I'll just eat one" and promptly hoovered them both up. Rotters.

Why am I suddenly speaking in English slang? Maybe it was because I replaced the molasses with Lyle's Golden Syrup. I love Golden Syrup - a British version of corn syrup with much more flavor - with a love to rival a thousand suns, and I kind of detest molasses. Reading the recipe, I was already considering swapping them out, and when I read on the TWD forums that others had done the same thing, off I went.

As for the mix-ins, I used a kind of strange mixture of cranberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, papaya, apples and ... something else. It sounds strange, but mixed with the oats and coconut, it worked really well. I also added Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips, which are more like flat discs and melt in striations throughout the cookie. Heaven.

These are a good, hearty "cookie jar" type cookie, and I definitely intend to make this one again.

Want the recipe? Head over to Popsicles and Sandy Feet.

Rosemary Focaccia

2010-04-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

Boy do I have a lot of catch up posts to do, and this is one of them. When I was off on medical leave, I was feeling very pitiful and sorry for myself. And there's only one cure for my self-pity:

Bread.

Not ice cream or cake or a bottle of wine. (Okay, maybe a bottle of wine.)

Yes, bread: soft and hot right from the oven. And since I don't have any bakeries within walking distance, that meant I did a lot of baking when I was on medical leave. And for the first time, I baked focaccia. Specifically, Rosemary Focaccia, with fresh rosemary straight from my garden.

Behold:

Now, focaccia has always been one of those things that scared me to death. Why? I'm not sure. It just seemed like it had to be very complicated and tricky.

Well, of course, it's not that complicated and tricky at all. It's pretty easy, in fact, particularly since you bake it on a baking sheet. But I'm still scared of it. Know why?

It's delicious!!!

Holy cow. I'm going to be totally honest with you guys, 'cause we're all friends here, right?

I ate the whole thing.

YES. The WHOLE PAN. Okay, it took me a couple of days, but oh, my. Not a good thing. I actually haven't made it since; not because it's too hard or anything, but because I'm afraid I'll eat it all again.

But I think of it. A lot.

Just a note: This is best the day you bake it, but it will work the next day if you toast the pieces. (Which is delicious, especially with a little butter and a pot of tea.)

Rosemary Focaccia

(adapted from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, which I cannot recommend highly enough)

1 medium russet potato, peeled and sliced into large chunks

3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups (17 1/2 to 18 3/4 ounce) all purpose flour

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 envelope instant or rapid-rise yeast

1 1/4 teaspoons table salt

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary (not dried)

Coarse sea salt or kosher salt for sprinkling

Boil the potato in water until easily pierced by a fork, about 10 minutes, then remove potato with a slotted spoon. Reserve one cup of the water; set aside to cool until just warm (110 degrees). When the potato is cool enough to handle, grate it on the large holes of a box grater. (You should have about 1 cup of lightly packed potato.)

Mix the cooked potato, 3 1/2 cups of the flour, 2 tablespoons of the oil, yeast, and table salt in a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the reserved potato cooking water and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes.

Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. If after four minutes more flour is needed, adding the remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clears the sides of the bowl but sticks to the bottom.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball. Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with greased plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Coat an 18 by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet with 1/4 cup more oil. Press the dough into the prepared baking sheet with wet hands. Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon more oil, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 45 to 75 minutes.

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Dimple the dough with wet fingertips, then drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Sprinkle with the rosemary and coarse salt.

Bake until the focaccia bottom is golden and crisp, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer the focaccia to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

TWD: Swedish Visiting Cake

2010-04-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

What better way to come back to Tuesdays with Dorie (and posting in general; sorry about that) than with my FAVORITEST ALL TIME DORIE GREENSPAN RECIPE OF ALL TIME.

For serious.

This Swedish Visiting Cake is phenomenal on multiple levels. First, it takes one bowl. Second, it takes only a handful of ingredients. And except for maybe the almonds and the lemon, you have all those ingredients already.

There's no complicated creaming or fancy techniques. You even melt the butter before you pour it in. A quick stir and voila.

Even better, you bake it in a cast iron skillet! How cool is that?! I was going to bake it in My Baby (a 100-year-old, beautifully seasoned cast iron skillet), but realized it was a tad too big. So I pulled out the Le Creuset I hardly ever use, and that now has a new purpose in life: To bake this cake. Over and over and over.

Because - as if the easiness and the coolness of cast iron wasn't enough - this cake is fracking delicious. It's moist and yet sturdy, and there's a delicate taste of lemon to it that's not overpowering. It's perfect with a cup of tea.

As with most of my baked goods, I tried this out on the guys I game with. There were only three of us, and we decimated the entire thing. (I was actually grateful I had two guys here, because I might have done the same if it were just me and then I'd have to go to confession.)

One guy said that he didn't believe dessert was dessert without chocolate in it, but he was making an exception for this cake.

So, there you have it. Awesome dessert to throw together quickly that is not only easy, but totally delicious.

Get the recipe at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. (How cool of a blog name is that?)

And hi!

Cheddar Cheese Beer-Batter Bread

2010-03-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

I read tarot cards.

Odd way to start off a post about bread, I know, but hang in there with me a second. Anyway, I read tarot cards, but I only read for friends. I can't read for myself and I can't read for pay; it's really something I do to help people I care about. And from what I've been told, it does exactly that.

So, if you are my friend, and you need guidance or help on something, you call me up and ask for a reading. And with that reading usually comes a big helping of comfort food, like this cheddar bread. (See? Told you I'd get there.)

I'm actually not sure if it's the food or the readings that keep people coming back, but it makes my friends happy, and that's what matters.

This is a super easy bread; absolutely no kneading is involved. You just mix everything together, pour over melted butter, and bake. The beer is what gives it both its lift and its yeasty flavor. I like to serve this with my Guinness Beef Stew.

Oh, and slight warning: You know how you always like to taste the dough when you're baking, cause the dough's the best part?

Do not do that with this bread.

For serious. Ugh.

But the bread's good!

Cheddar Cheese Beer-Batter Bread

8 oz. extra-sharp cheddar cheese (shred 4 ounces and cut the rest into small cubes)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 12-ounce can of American-style beer (like Bud)

4 tablespoons melted butter

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

Combine all cheese, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Stir in beer and mix until well combined. Pour into loaf pan and spread evenly. Drizzle melted butter evenly on top of batter.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. (You may want to check it in a couple of places, in case you hit a pocket of cheese.) Cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn onto a rack to cool completely before slicing.

(This is awesome toasted for breakfast the next day.)

TWD: Toasted-Coconut Tart

2010-03-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

I've been sick.

I say this not to illicit "poor you" comments (though I'll take pity where I can find it), but to explain why I've suddenly fallen off the face of the earth. Sick, as in...can't think of anything else and spending all my time either at the doctor's or asleep sick. Sick as in, on medical leave sick.

REALLY SICK.

Not too sick to bake, of course. Don't let's be silly. I've actually got several blog posts queued up and just need to sit down and do them: a nice cheddar cheese bread, a rosemary focaccia sprinkled with sea salt and awesomeness, and at least one Tuesdays with Dorie rewind (a pound cake).

But for now, let's stick with today's awesome, awesome Tuesdays with Dorie recipe: Toasted-Coconut Tart.

Holy mother of coconuts, this thing is good. And easy! This was my first ever tart, and I had no issues with it at all.

I have to admit, I actually usually despise recipes that require a food processor, and avoid them as a matter of course. It's getting harder and harder to find modern recipes for tart or pastry dough that aren't built on the food processor, though; even America's Test Kitchen uses it. So, I grumbled alot, but I dug out my old Black & Decker, and guess what? It was so easy. Ridiculously easy.

My crust was a little thicker than it is really supposed to be, because I got nervous that I'd get it too thin. But it turned out great: nice and buttery and just golden brown. The custard wasn't at all hard, even though I let the milk boil all over the stove. I'll show you my 1920s Wedgewood stove one day; it's awesome.

Anyhoo, great dessert. It does take a little time, what with the chilling of various parts, but it really isn't hard. And it looks very impressive, so overall: win.

Now, I just have a huge tart in the house, and no one to share it with. Of course, I am sick, so eating an entire coconut tart by myself is completely allowed. Right?

Want the recipe? Go to Beryl's site.

TWD Makeup: Chocolate Chunkers

2010-02-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

Because I have an unnatural aversion to wheat germ (why would I want to cook with germs?), I avoided this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe: Honey-Wheat Cookies.

But I still had hungry gamer mouths to feed, so I decided to do some makeup baking from the recipes I've missed. And since it's easier to play board games with something that you can hold in one hand, I decided to choose one of the cookie recipes.

And boy, did I hit a dandy. I'd say that Dorie's Chocolate Chunker cookie recipe is my favorite of any recipe of hers I've made. It may be one of my favorite cookie recipes, period. The cookies are more mix-ins than dough: a full 6 oz. each of hand-cut bittersweet and white chocolates, a cup and a half of toasted walnuts, and a cup of dried fruit (more on that in a minute). The dough itself, which really just holds all the goodies together, has melted bittersweet chocolate AND cocoa.

In other words, folks, this is one seriously chocolatey cookie.

Now, the only thing I changed on this recipe is that Dorie calls for salted peanut and raisins. I don't know why she has this thing about chocolate and raisins, but she adds raisins to, like, everything. I, personally, can't get into the raisin thing, so I substituted dried cherries, chopped up a bit. I also substituted toasted walnuts for the peanuts.

The only thing I'd do differently is cut the cherries into smaller pieces; the larger pieces sometimes jumped out at you when you took a bite. But honestly, that didn't even matter that much. These things leapt off the platter into people's mouths. They were, by far, everyone's favorite of anything I've brought to Game Days.

And that's saying something.

Chocolate Chunker Cookies

by Dorie Greenspan

pg. 70 of Baking: From My Home to Yours

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks (or 1 cup chocolate chips)

6 oz. white chocolate, chopped into chunks (or 1 cup white chocolate chips)

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped nuts (I toasted mine for flavor)

1 cup dried fruit, such as raisins or dried cherries, cut into smaller pieces if necessary

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add the butter, and the bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates (Disclosure: I didn't have unsweetened, so used 7 oz. of bittersweet) to the bowl and stir occasionally until just melted. The chocolate and butter should be smooth and shiny, but not so hot the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the heat and set it on the counter to cool.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer and a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and foamy. Beat in the vanilla extract, then scrape down the bowl. Reduce speed to low, add the butter-chocolate mixture and mix only until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl, and - with the mixer on low - add the dry ingredients. Mix just until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough (which will be thick, smooth, and shiny). Scrape down the bowl and, using the rubber spatula, mix in the semi-sweet and white chocolate chunks, nuts and fruit - you'll have more "crunchies" than dough at this point. (The dough can be wrapped in plastic and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

Drop the dough by generously heaping tablespoonfuls (I made them bigger) onto the baking sheets, leaving about an inch of space between the mounds of dough.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes. The tops of the cookies will look a little dry but the interiors should still be soft. Remove the baking sheet and carefully lift the cookies with a metal spatula onto a cooling rack. Cool to room temperature.

Repeat with remaining dough, cooling the baking sheet (if necessary) between batches.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

I've talked about this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe before, so I'll keep this very brief.

1.) This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, and it never fails to get rave reviews.

2.) The ratio of chips/nuts to batter is very high, meaning if you don't like a lot of goodies in your cookies, you may want to ratchet back on the add-ins.

3.) Chopping your own chocolate is a must. SO much better than chocolate chips.

4.) I replace four to eight ounces of the bittersweet chocolate with semi-sweet. The all-bittersweet was too bitter for my tastes.

5.) I go with the full amount of salt. The bit of saltiness gives the cookies major depth.

6.) Yes, they bake up kind flat. They're not at all puffy and cakey. If flat chocolate chips cookies are a problem for you, this may not be the recipe for you.

All in all, a great cookie. Want the recipe? Go to Kait's Plate.

PS...Yes, one day I will post my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe on a Tuesday. But not today.

King Cake!

2010-02-16T18:59:00.001-08:00

Happy Mardi Gras!

Yes, today is Fat Tuesday and for the second year in a row, another Louisiana girl and I hosted a Mardi Gras "party" at work. I say "party" because in reality, we had a captive audience at a meeting and a PowerPoint presentation and everything.

But they got cake. So it couldn't have been all that bad.

Anyway, last year, we ordered a King Cake for our Mardi Gras presentation/celebration from a bakery, and had it shipped all the way from New Orleans, along with an assortment of beads and doubloons. My friend Risey got the baby, which traditionally means that you are responsible for the next King Cake.

Risey took that responsibility very seriously, even though she's not from anywhere near Louisiana. She...get this: baked a King Cake herself.

For serious!! I had never heard of such a thing! I just thought they grew in bakeries.

But Risey proved me wrong, looking up recipes and videos on the Interwebs, and baking three King Cakes to get it right. The King Cake she brought in (above) was honestly one of the best I'd ever had.

Risey's going to hopefully put together a guest post showing us all how to do it, too. Next year, I'm totally baking my own.

Laissez bon temps rouler!!

Guinness Beef Stew for Lovers

2010-02-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

Look, I am not the one to be giving relationship advice.

I'm notorious for picking absolutely the wrong kind of guy. Emotionally unavailable? Check. Borderline manic depressive? Check. Only shows an interest when he thinks I'm dating someone else? Double check.

Add an Eastern European accent and an addiction or two and there's no going back.

My last liaison went so awesomely that one of my guy friends coined the term "douchelationship": the act (or perhaps art?) of being involved with a douchebag.

She's just upset about her douchelationship.

So, who am I to judge what you serve your honey for Valentine's Day? God knows, you probably know better than me.

And yet...

It is my blog, and I can dish out all the unsolicited and unqualified advice I care to.

And since most of my friends are guys, I actually do know a thing or two about them. I know, for instance, that most of them just want simple things. (Give them a steak and they're happy. Really.) And I know that most of them don't want their wives or girlfriends stressed out, even if it's over cooking a nice meal for them. Maybe especially if it's over cooking a nice meal for them.

Therefore, I propose the perfect, guy-friendly, no-fuss meal for Valentine's Day. (I almost typed Thanksgiving. Ha! Me proposing a no-fuss meal for Thanksgiving. That's rich.)

I've served this Guinness Beef Stew, and the accompanying beer batter cheese bread, to a couple of guys now, and it's always a huge hit. It tastes rich and meaty and somewhat decadent, but is really a cinch to throw together. True, there's some prep work involved, but otherwise, it bubbles away all day in the slow cooker. The beer batter cheese bread (which I'll give you in the next post) is just a quick bread, even though it tastes like something way more. The last guy I served it to doesn't like cheese (?!) and had two slices.

So do yourself a favor and cook something that you know your man will love, and won't kill you in the process. Your douchelationship will thank you.

Which may not be a good thing.

Slow-Cooker Guinness Beef Stew

4 pounds boneless beef chuck stew meat
2 tblsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cups chicken broth (I use homemade, but you can use whatever. Choose something low-sodium)
1 1/2 cups Guinness (not extra-stout), divided
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
Few sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate (yes, really), chopped
2 bay leaves
5 carrots, peeled and cut on the diagonal into chunks
2-2 1/2 pounds of red baby potatoes, scrubbed

Pat beef dry with paper towels, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons (or so) of the oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook the beef in batches until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. (In my Le Creuset French oven, with this amount of beef, it takes about three batches.) Transfer meat to slow cooker insert.

Add carrots and potatoes to slow cooker.

Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil, onions, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to skillet and cook until onions are lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add broth, 1 1/4 cups stout, sugar, thyme, chocolate, and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Scrape up any brown bits. Transfer that to slow cooker.

Cook until meat is tender: 9-10 hours on low or 6-7 hours on high. Set slow cooker to high. Whisk flour and remaining 1/4 cup beer until smooth, then stir mixture into slow cooker. The flour will seize up some; do not freak out (like me). Just keep stirring it gently and then let it simmer, and it will work itself out. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until the sauce is thickened.

Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves, and serve.

Downloads for Cooks

2010-02-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

I have about a 20-minute train ride to work each day, and the same old songs on my iPhone were starting to get boring. So, I started poking around iTunes for cooking videos, and came across a treasure trove: Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen is on iTunes!

America's Test Kitchen - This PBS show usually gives you 1-2 recipes a show, along with equipment ratings and taste tests. Each show has a theme (cookies, pork, etc.), and the recipe instructions are very thorough. Ingredients and instructions are spelled out, so you could actually cook a recipe based on just watching the show.

Currently, only this season - Season 10 - is on iTunes; right now, there are about 6 episodes. I can usually watch a full episode between my morning and evening train rides.

Now, granted, this show airs for free on PBS, and the episodes cost $1.99 each on iTunes. But if you're looking for something to take with you or, like me, you don't have a DVR, it could be worth it.

You can find these in the TV Shows section, under America's Test Kitchen.

Cook's Illustrated - ATK's sister magazine, Cook's Illustrated, has done a series of short video podcasts on a wide variety of topics. The podcasts usually last 3-5 minutes, and can either cover a particular recipe (plum cake, shrimp salad), a technique (cooking thick-cut steaks), or a piece of equipment (they did a whole podcast on cast iron).

Each podcast gives you an overview of the recipe or technique, and then one or two short segments on a related technique or gadget. The podcast on French pot roast, for instance, has a section on how to tie a roast.

Best of all, the podcasts are free.

That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that the podcasts are hardly thorough, and don't give the whole recipe. For instance, the host will say "Add the sugar and salt", but not give you measurements for either of those. Instead, you're told to go to www.cooksillustrated.com/podcast to get the recipes.

Unfortunately, that's a bit of a bait-and-switch, because when you get there and click on your desired recipe, you're basically told to sign up for the Cook's Illustrated website to get it. Now, granted, they offer a 14-day trial, and in my book, their site is well worth the price they charge for a yearly subscription. But I do kind of feel that if they're saying you can get the recipe on a page, you should be able to get the recipe - and then if you want to subscribe to the site, that's fine.

Anyhow, that said, I actually think you can still learn from these podcasts. And if, like me, you have most of the Cook's Illustrated cookbooks and magazines, you'll find the recipes there.

Both the shows and the podcasts make my commute a little nicer.

TWD: Rick Katz' Brownies for Julia

2010-02-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm late with my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Again. I also set these out at a game day and totally forgot to take pictures until about halfway through. But as you can see from the above, these were a knockout.

The story behind these brownies is that Rick Katz made these for Julia Child when both he and Dorie worked for her. They're unique in that you first combine the egg and sugar, and then divide the mixture in half. Half goes into the melted chocolate, and half gets whipped until light and airy - then folded into the batter.

The result is a very dense, almost gooey brownie.

It's so gooey in fact that many of the TWD bakers had problems with this recipe. So, I was pretty cautious. I baked it for the full 28 minutes, even though my oven traditionally runs hot. Sure enough, they had gotten just set and were still very soft in the center.

They were, to be honest, a tad TOO soft for my taste. They tended to crumble when you cut them. But no one really cared about that; the pan you see above was decimated in short order.

Some of the bakers refrigerated these before serving, and that would probably be good. I might also give them another minute or two in the oven. (Just because, again, not a huge fan of "gooey" - in brownies or life.)

But truthfully, they were so delicious that it really doesn't matter that they're soft. I knew when I was putting the batter together that they were going to be incredibly rich and chocolatey - and they were. The use of bittersweet chocolate makes these even more rich.

Overall, I would highly recommend these. Sure, they're a little fussy, but most good things are.

Also, don't give in to the temptation to eat these while they're still warm, unless you want to do so with a spoon. (Which I totally did.)

Want the recipe? Visit Tanya at Chocolatechic.

Stella's Worst Day Ever

2010-02-10T16:33:00.001-08:00

Stella's spent the past two days in the hospital with an obstructed stomach. She's spent the past half-hour sitting on her chair, telling me how horrible it was.

This is, in case you didn't recognize it, her "How could you do this to me, Mom?" face.

Of course, the fact that she EATS GARBAGE (literally) might have had something to do with the whole obstructed stomach thing. Garbage Dog strikes again.

One friend asked if she'd learned her lesson, and then promptly laughed it off, since dogs don't do cause and effect well. I said, "Yeah, especially when they have a brain the size of a walnut."

When I went to pick her up, he texted me: "Yay! Walnut-brained Garbage Dog comes home!"

Indeed.

Anyhoo, I'm significantly poorer, but she's happy and in one piece, and worth every penny.

Sunday Brunch: Nona's Kitchen

2010-02-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

Sunday Brunch this week is at my favorite, favoritest restaurant in my hometown (and maybe anywhere):

Pacifica is not a fancy town, and Nona's isn't a fancy place. It's in a small stripmall right near the big surfer's beach in town. (Plenty of people walk over to Nona's for breakfast after surfing.) It's tiny, but clean and attractive, like a fifties-style diner without the kitsch.

And while Nona's is open for lunch and dinner most days, where things get really crazy is weekend brunch.
Nona's chef, Joreth, specializes in "home food", but home food that's best in class. So, the menu - which changes with the seasons - will feature simple things like egg in a hole or blueberry pancakes. But they'll be the best egg in a hole and blueberry pancakes you've ever had.

The brunch specials (and every meal's daily specials) are written on a board on the wall, but the servers all know them by heart. I always sit in the far corner of the bar, right by the board, so I can peruse it at my leisure. There's always something delicious for brunch, and he even does biscuits and gravy well. And as a Southern girl, I'm picky about my biscuits and gravy.

One thing I love about the way Joreth cooks is that he focuses on what's local and in season. He's not slavish to it, but his specials are always going to reflect what's going on in the world around you. I love coming in and being offered a carrot soup from carrots that he found that were just picked today. And a while back, I happened to come in when he was taking the first peach pie of the season out of the oven. I hunched over that pie, growling like a dog whenever anyone got to close. I still have dreams about that pie.

But most people come to Nona's for the biscuits.

They're actually not the biscuits I grew up on, but they're pretty darn good - very buttery and flaky. He serves them for brunch with honey butter and two types of jam.

I've never really gotten anything on the menu that wasn't good. I love their hamburgers and flank steak for dinner, and one winter meal was memorable for the chicken pot pie whose puff pastry crust was decorated with a puff pastry rooster.

But for brunch, one of my favorite meals is the Monte Cristo. It's not greasy, and he covers it in powdered sugar before serving. The home fries, though, man... Best potatoes I've ever had. I really have no idea how he gets them that perfect.

The tiny kitchen is open to the dining room, and I like to sit at the bar on Sunday mornings and watch the bustle. Joreth is totally passionate about his restaurant, which can be highly entertaining to watch. Plus, he's cute. (But married, alas.) He's also a nice guy who is a part of the community; I ran into him at the Safeway once, and he voluntarily started helping me pick out turkey gizzards for my gravy.

Nona's is a great place to go for brunch, if you're looking for nice, hearty food served by people who really care.

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispy Treats

2010-02-05T18:09:00.000-08:00

Birthday cake baking is a royal pain in the butt. So, I require the coworker recipients of my birthday cakes to be nice to me.

And then there's Jeff.

Jeff is a meanie.

He makes fun of me at least once a day and I can never read his poker face and he told me that Russian mustard wasn't spicy (LIES!!) and he said snarky things about my favorite character from the tv show Dollhouse, Mr. Dominic.

Laurence Dominic

(God rest his tortured soul)

All of my friends with sense (which - to be clear - is not all of my friends) will tell you that dissing Mr. Dominic to my face is not the way to go about securing a birthday cake.

Lucky for Jeff, though, I am a giant sucker.

And lucky for me, Jeff was rather "meh" on cake, but he told me once that his favorite dessert in the world was Rice Krispy treats. I happen to have an awesome recipe for Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispy Treats, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. This allowed me to assuage my guilt at leaving Jeff birthday treat-less, without breaking my unofficial (yet deadly serious) "No Cake for Meanies" Rule.

These are, without a doubt, the best Rice Krispy treats on the planet. They have that perfect, moist-but-not-gooey, marshmallowy texture, and also have depth of flavor from the browned butter. If you sprinkle a little sea salt on top before they cool, you'll get a nice, subtle salty hit in every bite. Plus, they're super easy; not much more time-consuming than the regular ones.

And if you feel guilty for spending about 10 minutes on a birthday treat for your friend, when you spent 8 hours on a cake for a Russian guy, you can cover it with colorful birthday sprinkles.

In the end, all was well that ended well. Jeff made happy noises when he found them on his desk, and declared them "The best birthday cake I ever had." And he washed out the pan himself, so I guess he's not all bad.

He loved his birthday treat, I don't have to feel guilty, and Laurence Dominic lives on in reruns.

Happy Birthday, Jeff.

Jeff's Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispy Treats

Note: These are slightly different than Smitten Kitchen's recipe, mostly in quantity but also in the fact that I use salted butter, and eliminate extra salt in the recipe itself. Hers works just as well, and doesn't make quite as many.

2 sticks salted butter

20 ounces of large marshmallows (for me, this was about a bag and a half)

1 regular-size (12 oz.) box of Rice Krispies

Sea Salt, to taste (Do not use kosher or table salt)

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a very large, light-colored pot or saucepan (I use a stockpot). Allow the butter to cool over medium heat, stirring it frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan. The butter will begin to bubble and foam; at this point, scrape aside the foam so you can see the color of the butter. As soon as it begins to turn brown, take it off the heat. (If it gets a little dark, don't worry - the little flecks of brown will be fine in the treats. However, be very careful not to allow it to burn.)

Add the marshmallows to the butter. Lower the heat to low, and return the pan to the heat. Stir the marshmallows and butter vigorously until the butter is absorbed and the marshmallows have melted and are smooth.

Add the cereal to the pan, and stir everything together. Transfer mixture to the baking pan and use a spatula or a square of waxed paper sprayed with cooking spray to press the mixture evenly into the pan.

Sprinkle sea salt over the top of the treats, and press in with your hand. Let cool, cut into squares and serve.

Mini-Bundt Cake Madness

2010-02-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

Remember my mini-bundt-cakes-that-weren't?

Well, I certainly wasn't going to eat them all, so I did what I do with all leftover baked goods: I took them to work. I was rather embarrassed by them, to be honest, because they were all different sizes and some of them were a tad on the deformed side. But still, I stuffed them into a plastic container and dropped them on the table in the kitchen, saying something along the lines of:

"Here. You people will eat anything."

This was at 8:30; they were all gone by 9. And that was the last I thought of them until 3pm, when I got the following text from my best friend, Jay:

"YOU MADE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES AND DIDN'T GIVE ME ANY?!?!?!?!"

Oopsie.

See, Jay's on a diet. Specifically, he's on the vegan cleanse I went on a while back. And apparently he's been really, really craving chocolate. So, the idea that I made chocolate cupcakes and "hid" them from him, well...

He was so mad, he threatened to quit his job. (Although I'm unclear on how that would have been effective in this case...)

He was almost as mad at me as I was at him when he forgot my birthday.

Oh, well. He'll get over it.

I think.

TWD: Milk Chocolate Mini-Bundt Cakes

2010-02-02T21:05:00.001-08:00

If I had a mini-bundt cake pan, I would have loved this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

But I don't.

So I didn't.

As you can see above, I tried to soldier on, even though I didn't have the right equipment. (And don't get me wrong; I actually think it's great that she formulated one recipe for those who have the pans. I just didn't want to go and buy a special pan for one recipe.)

I was going to double the recipe and use my large bundt pan. Well, no...first I tried my usual tactic, which was to bum a pan. To no avail. Alas.

Anyhoo, I was going to double it, but I kind of couldn't be bothered, and it would have made a huge cake, and I wasn't really into having a huge cake around. So, then the Barefoot Kitchen Witch said she made hers in muffin cups, and I want to be just like her, so that was how I decided to go.

But I am not her.

Alas.

My little mini-bundt-muffin-thingies did not turn out so hot. First, I didn't have quite enough batter for 12. I should have just gone with nine, but I hate unevenness. So, I soldiered on (again) and they all turned out different sizes.

I skipped the "swirl" in the center and added chocolate chips, which really didn't help much. And I forgot about them and left them in too long, which helped even less.

All in all, they were a little dry, and they were obviously not what the recipe specified. But even then, they weren't my favorite. The cake part didn't really taste like chocolate and the bittersweet ganache I used over the top overwhelmed them. (Everyone on the TWD forums had trouble with Dorie's glaze recipe, so I skipped it and made a ganache, then dipped the tops of my muffin-thingies in it.)

So, overall, I give this a big meh. Though if I ever get a mini-bundt cake pan, I would probably try it again. But since such a pan is kind of at the bottom of my kitchen wish list, I do not expect that to happen anytime soon.

Alas.

Want to try it yourself? It's on pg. 188 of Dorie's book, and if the recipe goes up online, I'll post it here...

Gratuitous Cuteness

2010-01-28T22:36:00.001-08:00

A comforter, haphazardly tossed over a chair, becomes a nest for Topher.

Dorie Greenspan's Chewy, Chunky Blondies

2010-01-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

My friends and I get together at least once a month to play board games, and when we do, the rules are pretty simple: You bring your own booze, and games and a snack to share. Most people pick up a bag of chips or some hummus and once, famously, a box of Twinkies.

As you can imagine, that's not good enough for me - not when I have a whole captive audience on which to try out new baking recipes.

In preparation for the last get-together, I was flipping through Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours and came upon these "Chewy, Chunky Blondies." (By the way, if you don't have this book and you're into baking, you need to buy it - right now.) I just happened to have all the ingredients in my pantry, and so it made the cut for Game Day.

The thing I love about Dorie's cookie recipes is that they usually are chock full of add-ins, which is how I think cookies and bars should be. In the case of these bars, we're talking a full cup each of coconut, chopped nuts (I used walnuts), butterscotch chips and hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate.

There were almost more add-ins than cookie, and that was just fine by me. But the cookie itself is nice and moist, full of rich, brown-sugary, buttery flavor. They went over a storm, and are definitely something I'd make again.

As a bonus, Game Day was held at the home of a couple; I'd played with the husband before (that sounds weird), but had never met the wife. When I walked in, she looked at the container and said, "If those are what I think they are, you're my new best friend." I asked her if she thought they were blondies and voila...I had a new best friend.

Chewy, Chunky Blondies

a Dorie Greenspan recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups (packed) light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks, or 1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips or Heath Toffee Bits

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Butter a 9x13 inch baking pan and put it on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, until well-incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until they just disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate, butterscotch chips, nuts and coconut. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and even the top as much as possible.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the blondies comes out clean. (Note: Careful here; a couple of times I got "false readings" because I hit a chunk of butterscotch or chocolate.) The blondies should pull away from the sides of the pan a little and the top should be a nice honey brown. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for about 15 minutes before turning the blondies out onto another rack. Invert onto a rack and cool to room temperature right side up.

Cut into 32 bars, each roughly 2 1/4 by 1 1/2 inches.

David Lebovitz' Potato Leek Soup

2010-01-27T17:49:00.000-08:00

I know it seems like I only bake sweets, and I'll admit, I do that a lot. It's not that I'm averse to cooking. It's just that I'm usually just feeding myself, and when I am, I'm perfectly content to eat peanut butter sandwiches or stir fry some rice and tofu. Or just pop a batch of popcorn to eat while playing Mass Effect.

When I do cook, I like to do something that can be stretched out for informal meals throughout the week - beans and rice in the Crock Pot, for instance, or a pot of soup.

Key this week's recipe from David Lebovitz. I love Lebovitz, because he's funny, he's from San Francisco (even if he now lives in Paris), and he makes some seriously good grub. (Plus, he's written the world's best ice cream book.)

I came across this recipe on his site a few days' back, and since we're currently smack dab in the middle of the Bay Area's monsoon season (didn't realize we had those, did you?), I figured it was as good a time as any to pull it out.

The thing I loved about this recipe is the balance. In other potato-leek soup recipes I've tried, the flavors weren't balanced enough for my taste. They were too, well, leeky.

Which reminds me of a funny story about leeks: I was shopping once with my friend Jennie, who is totally punilicious. I love puns, which annoyed everyone else, because it meant I was always encouraging Jennie's terrible puns. Anyway, we were shopping, and our friend suggested we buy leeks for the stew we were making. Cue Jennie:

"Well, if they're LEEKS, we need a double bag!"

Get it?? See what she did th... Oh, never mind.

Anyway, David's soup was none too leeky, and had the perfect blend of potato and leek. I used a rich homemade veggie stock I had on hand instead of water, and I can't help but think that boosted the flavor a bit, too. Best of all, since I'm currently eating strict vegetarian, it could be made completely vegan (subbing olive oil for butter).

And it made the house smell all warm and homey.

So, if you're looking for a nice warm soup for your own monsoon season, I'd highly recommend David Lebovitz' Potato Leek Soup.

TWD: Cocoa-Nana Bread

2010-01-26T17:40:00.001-08:00

I actually made this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Cocoa-Nana Bread, over the New Year's break, in anticipation of today. It certainly is an interesting hybrid: Is it chocolate or banana? Is it a bread or a cake?

On the former, it's definitely more chocolate than banana, in my opinion. I know the combo sounds kind of odd, but the banana is almost an afterthought - what with the full cup of cocoa powder and chunks of bittersweet chocolate. It's almost as if the banana is there to give the bread a nice, moist texture, but the banana flavor really only hits you at the end of the taste.

And while it's called Cocoa-Nana BREAD, I'd beg to differ. Texture-wise, this is much closer to pound cake than to, say, banana bread. Part of that is the mixing method; quick breads like banana bread mix the dry and wet ingredients together separately, then stir them together. This bread is made more like a cake, by creaming the butter and sugar, then mixing in the other ingredients.

The result is a dense, thick loaf that really should be called Cocoa-Nana CAKE.

This was delicious served on its own, but it really came to life when I spread it with cherry preserves. Nigella Lawson has a chocolate-cherry trifle recipe that calls for sandwiching chocolate cake like this with cherry preserves, and I really think this would be the perfect base for such a trifle. I didn't have enough leftovers to try it, but I will.

In the meantime, if you want the recipe, head over to Obsessed with Baking.

Sunday Brunch: Sears Fine Foods

2010-01-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Sunday Brunch here at the Cinema! Sunday brunch is kind of an institution here in the San Francisco Bay Area (at least in the crowd I run with), and there are a lot of places that do it really well. I thought I'd take you through some of them, thus allowing me an excuse to go to brunch this morning to get pictures. See how this works?

Let's start with the granddaddy of all of them:

Yes, it's called Sears. I love saying "I had brunch at Sears", which conjures up images of me hanging out on a washing machine, eating eggs benedict. However, the two Sears are not associated, and there are no washing machines in sight. Sadly.

What Sears Fine Food is is one of the most famous places for breakfast in all of San Francisco. It's located right on Union Square, and is a major tourist draw. It's got a very old-fashioned SF vibe inside, filled with dark wood, white and black tile flooring, brass fixtures and neatly dressed waitstaff.

Miss Cassy, perusing the menu at Sears.

A couple of my girlfriends and I "discovered" this place a few months ago, because it's very close to the movie theater we like to go to downtown. I say discovered because it falls into that old adage where you never really experience the city you live in the way tourists do. (I, for instance, have never been to Alcatraz.) Lots of natives don't come here for that reason, and they're missing out, I say.

There's always a line outside Sears, especially on weekend mornings. This is actually one reason a lot of people don't experience it; they look at that line, which can stretch down the sidewalk, and freak out that they'll starve to death before they make it in the door. And they leave.

Here's an insider's secret: do not be intimidated by the line. I have never once been in it where I waited more than 10 minutes before I got seated. The truth is that a.) Sears is a cavernous place, and they move people in and out pretty briskly and b.) there's no place inside to wait. So, people wait on the sidewalk, but that's really not an indication of how long it will take to get seated. What would look like an hour wait in the rain at another restaurant is just a few minutes there.

So be brave and stay in line. Your reward will be...

The most awesome French toast you've ever had. This is what Cassy gets almost every time. One thing I love about Sears Fine Food is that they bring out their maple syrup warm.

Asking for extra powdered sugar gets you a whole ceramic bowl filled with the stuff. Cassy sprinkles it all over her French toast.

This is their most famous breakfast item: the Swedish pancakes. They're dollar-sized pancakes with a bit of buckwheat in the batter. They serve them with a little lingonberry sauce on the side, and I must say they are darn tasty.

This bad boy, however, is what I love the most. It's their "Crisp Pecan Waffle" and it makes me want to cry, it's so good. (You pronounce it PEA-can, by the way, not puh-CAHN. Don't let my mom tell you different.)

Actually, pretty much everything we've tried at Sears is delicious - even their hash browns are crispy on the outside and creamy and smooth inside.

We haven't done lunch or dinner there, but my friend Terry had a club sandwich on our last trip together, and she said it was just as good as their breakfast food.

Happy Terry, full of sandwich.

The waitstaff is always attentive, and when you're done, they give you a little token. You can keep it as a souvenir, or drop it in a slot machine at the front for a chance to win a free meal. We never win, but we keep trying, because at the very least, we still get to eat yummy waffles and french toast.

If you're in San Francisco, brave the line and try Sears Fine Food for brunch. Then you can be like me!

Next Sunday: Nona's Kitchen, in my hometown.

My First Pie

2010-01-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

I made a pie.

Doesn't sound all that exciting, does it?

After all, pretty much every post on this blog is about me making something or other. So, why should a pie be all that different?

Because - and here I have to make a confession: I was scared of pies. Absolutely terrified. Well, more specifically, I was scared of pie crusts. I just couldn't get them right. They always tore into pieces when I tried to roll them out, or shrunk into the filling when I baked them. But they usually didn't get far enough to be called pies; they were more like balls of slimy chunks of unrollable dough.

Yum.

I have never - not once - made a final pie that I would want to serve anyone, and since I am not one to resort to ready-made crusts, I just gave up on them.

Stupid pies.

The problem is, I am seriously considering going to pastry school. If not full-time, at least taking some more in-depth pastry and baking classes. And how could I hold my head up in pastry school if I couldn't even make a simple pie crust?

So, a few days ago, I got it into my head that I was going to make a pie. I happened to have a jar of leftover pumpkin-pecan butter from Thanksgiving that I needed to use, and a little cream and an egg would turn that into a pie filling. So, I had only to tackle to the crust.

I turned to Cooks Illustrated, and they had at least one nice recipe that didn't require a food processor. (I don't like them, but it seems like every pie crust recipe requires one nowadays.) It included both shortening and butter, but here's something interesting - they have you freeze the butter, and then grate it into the flour (mixed with a little salt and sugar) after you've smashed in the chilled shortening. Then you cut that with a pastry cutter, and add some iced water until it forms a dough.

I pressed that dough into a circle until it held together and waited while it chilled. I was able to roll it out and into the pie plate, then added the filling. Less than an hour later, I had a real, honest-to-goodness, delicious pie.

It even looked okay. Sorta.

On the plus side, the crust was delicious - the butter gave it really good flavor, while the shortening made it nice and flaky. It stayed crisp, even on the bottom and even the next day. Cooks Illustrated isn't big on people reprinting their recipes, but it's in all their magazines and websites - I think it's called the traditional single-crust pie dough.

There were obviously a couple of negatives that I will need to iron out with practice. For starters, I got a little nervous rolling it out, and stopped too soon. That not only meant that my crimping looked kind of bad, but there was not quite enough dough on a couple of sides of the crust, and it crumpled in on itself. It also got a little brown; the filling recipe directed you to start out at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, and at the end of that, the edges were already brown. I protected them with foil the rest of the way, but they were still too dark. Next time, I'd wrap them in foil from the start.

But all in all, I was pleased. I had made a real-live pie, and I know what to do to get even better at it in the future.

Heck, maybe next Thanksgiving I will make my own pies. We'll see.

The point is: I did it. I made a pie.

Go me.

TWD: Chocolate-Oatmeal "Almost Candy" Bars

2010-01-20T20:03:00.000-08:00

Again with the not posting my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe on Tuesday. Sorry about that. It's purely a reflection of my own laziness, and not a reflection on these Chocolate-Oatmeal "Almost Candy" Bars. Because they rock.

Hard.

The recipe is really straightforward; it's just a bar cookie with an oatmeal cookie base, covered in a layer of chocolate. You hold back some of the oatmeal base to make a crumbled topping, and then bake.

There's lots of little interesting bits. The oatmeal cookie base is studded with pieces of salted peanuts, and there's salted peanuts in the chocolate topping too. The chocolate layer is actually made by melting chocolate chips with condensed milk.

Dorie calls for adding raisins to the chocolate, but that just didn't sound appealing to me. It apparently didn't sound appealing to a lot of other bakers, either, because I read about a lot of substitutions on the forums. I settled on butterscotch chips, which melted nicely into the chocolate and gave an extra hit of sweetness to the bars.

There's really nothing I didn't like about these cookies, and they were super popular when I brought them to work the next day. I recommend you cut them thin (especially because they were really thick). It also makes a really big batch - I had plenty, and only made a half recipe in an 8x8 pan (instead of the 9x13 called for).

They were really sweet, especially with the butterscotch. I can even see making these MORE over the top, by adding coconut to the cookie base, or trying a caramel or dulce de leche layer between the two layers. But honestly, they're delicious and plenty sweet as is.

Overall, I thought these were great, and will probably make them again soon. To get the recipe, go to Confectiona's Realm.

North American Cup Fencing Championships

2010-01-17T10:28:00.001-08:00

I've always wanted to fence.

I love the energy of it, the power involved in overcoming your opponent quickly, before they can get their attack in on you. I love the blade itself - how something so small and thin could have done so much damage. "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age", as it were.

So a few months ago, when a local fencing club put flyers up in my area for an adult beginner's class, I thought, "What have I got to lose?" I was hooked instantly, and I've been fencing 2-3 times a week since then. Now, understand, I SUCK at it, but I suck a lot less than I did in August, and it's a great workout, and I love it.

Anyway, this weekend, the North American Cup is in San Jose, about an hour from me. The NAC is one of the biggest tournaments in the country, and it rotates from city to city. Essentially, this is where the big boys (and girls) fence. These are the best fencers in the country - the ones we'll all be watching at the next Summer Olympics. So I figured I'd go down and watch a few bouts and see how it's really done.

Division I was fighting yesterday, so it was pretty much the best of the best. It was also mostly college-age kids; I saw major contingents from Ohio State, Penn State, and Air Force.

Interestingly, there were tons of Eastern European accents, both in the fencers but particularly with the coaches. Most coaches (called Maestros in fencing) seemed to be Russian or Eastern European (one of my own Maestros is Polish, and two of my fellow students are Eastern European). The sport definitely seems to be more popular with those cultures, but that's just my own observation.

To give you an overview, there are three types of fencing - all based on the type of blade used: epee, foil, and sabre. Every type has different techniques, different blade/guard combinations, different targets, and different rules. Sabre is the fastest and most aggressive of the three, and it's what I fence. I went mainly to see the women's sabre fencers, but there was also some epee going on while I was there (not a lot of foil that I could see). I watched some qualifying rounds of women's sabre, and the medal round of men's epee.

The tournament goes through Monday afternoon, with Divisions II and III fighting today and tomorrow.

Here are some random shots from the floor. (Sorry, I didn't get any names or details or anything - a fencing tournament is a little bit controlled chaos.)

Some of the action from the women's sabre matches, mid-attack.

More sabre action.

En garde

She was the best fencer I saw yesterday. I believe she was from Penn State, but I may be wrong on that.

This fencer (from what looked to be an all-Islamic club) fought the best bout I saw yesterday - she came back from a 4-0 deficit (in a five-point bout) to win.

Men's epee. The guy from Air Force (left) was pretty cute.

Epee is a completely different style of fencing than I'm used to. Much more deliberate and methodical. They spend a lot of time setting up for a final strike, whereas in sabre, you just strike first and ask questions later.

Women's epee

Brown-Eyed Susan Cake

2010-01-16T10:46:00.001-08:00

Another one of the "Cake People" had their birthday this week: sweet Cassy. (Well, her actual birthday is this weekend, but we start early with Cassy's birthday.) I've only known her for a little over a year, but in that time she's pretty much become one of my favorite people in the world; I know if I ever need anything, Cassy-Cat will be there. So, yeah, she gets a cake for her birthday.

Plus, I've turned her from cool kid into a complete nerd (being partially responsible for her current Battlestar Galactica obsession), so I figured I ought to do something to make it up to her.

Her instructions were a little vague ("Not too huge on chocolate", "Maybe something fruity?"), until she mentioned that her favorite flavor combo in the world was chocolate and orange. That sounded more like something I could work with than her rhubarb idea (??), so I latched onto it.

Digging around, I found mention of a "brown-eyed susan cake." Apparently, it was all the rage in the 50s to make and decorate cakes based on flowers: crysanthemums, dahlias, and the like. The brown-eyed susan cake combined chocolate and orange flavors in both the layers and the frosting, so I decided on that.

Basically, you take a yellow cake batter and divide it in half: half gets flavored with chocolate and then half gets orange zest. You drop it into the cake pans by the spoonful to get kind of a checkerboard effect. Unless you're me, and then your cake layers look more like the symbol for radiation:

...which is kinda cool, actually.

Anyway, you then take a regular vanilla buttercream frosting, and divide it. To about 3/4 of it, you add dark chocolate, and to the rest a little orange juice (or in my case, a lot of orange juice and a little Grand Marnier). The chocolate frosting goes between the layers and on the sides, and the orange frosting goes on top.

I added a tiny bit of yellow food coloring to the orange-flavored frosting, then picked up some fresh brown-eyed susans on the way into work, and voila ... fancy birthday cake for an awesome person.

The things I would do differently? I used my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting that didn't require egg whites, but it's normally for cupcakes. I doubled the recipe, and still barely had enough to frost the cake. I felt this cake really needed piping around the edges to blend in the two frostings but I didn't feel like making another batch to have enough to do that.

Also, I wasn't too precise with the orange frosting. I added a tablespoon of juice to the frosting like the recipe said, but I couldn't taste the orange, so I added juice and Grand Marnier until the frosting was just about to break. Therefore, it looked a little moister and grainier than I'd like...but it tasted good!

It was actually a really great cake, especially for someone who prefers the taste of orange over chocolate. The chocolate held its own, but was very mellow and blended well with the orange. I added extra orange zest and juice to pump up the orange flavor, but overall, it's a great, easy cake.

You'll need your own recipes for yellow cake (or you can use a box; I won't judge) and frosting, but here's the instructions:

Brown-Eyed Susan Cake

1 recipe yellow cake batter

5-8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2 teaspoons orange zest (I added a lot more; do this to taste)

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

1 recipe vanilla buttercream frosting

Make the cake batter according to the recipe instructions, and divide it evenly between two bowls. To one bowl, add 2 ounces melted chocolate; add the orange zest to the other bowl. Drop the batter into your prepared pans by large spoonfuls in a loose checkerboard pattern; bake according to the recipe instructions.

After the cakes cool, make the buttercream frosting, and again, divide it into two bowls - this time putting about 3/4 of it in one bowl and 1/4 in the other. To the first bowl add the remain 3-6 ounces chocolate (use the larger amount if you doubled the frosting recipe). Add the juice and Grand Marnier to the second bowl and whip both to mix. (You can add extra juice and liqueur to the orange frosting, but be careful!)

To assemble, place one cake layer on the serving platter, and spread with chocolate frosting. Top with remaining cake layer, and spread the sides with chocolate frosting. If possible, reserve some of the chocolate frosting for piping. Spread the orange frosting on top. Pipe swirls of chocolate frosting to cover the cake's edge, if desired.

Top with fresh brown-eyed susan flowers, or make "brown-eyed susans" out of small pieces of candied orange zest and chocolate chips.

Secret Santa Game Exchange

2010-01-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

And here you thought the holidays were over.

See, I've discovered that gamers have a hibernation period:

Every year, in every gaming group I've been a part of, Game Days start slowing down in late fall, and then come to a virtual standstill over the holidays (because, contrary to popular belief, we gamers apparently do have lives - who knew?). However, they then come roaring back in January. That is so true this year: I have a game scheduled pretty much every weekend of January.

So, in that vein, one of my groups celebrated Giftmas just a tad late, holding our "Secret Santa Game Exchange Day" yesterday.

We each made a list of games we wanted, and our Secret Santa purchased one of those off the list. We got together yesterday to open our gifts and play as many of the new games as we could.

Here're some scenes of the day, complete with color commentary.

It's my Secret Santa, DJ David K! He put the whole thing together, got us all to do wish lists, coordinated the exchange and basically herded cats to make it happen. Plus, he drew my name, so I was guaranteed an awesome gift:

Android is a complex, sci fi storytelling game where the players race against time and each other to solve a murder. There's a whole dystopian world of androids, clones, gadgets and vehicles, all set on a moon colony in the future. You're not only trying to solve the murder, but you're trying to solve your character's personal backstory and deal with their demons before the end of the two week game period.

This is exactly the kind of immersive, rich, theme-based world that David and I love in our games, so as soon as he saw it on my list he wanted to play it. Through total luck (and I know, because we were on Skype when he did the random draw), he got my name, and so I got Android.

Kingsburg was the game David got from his Santa, and it's on my list too. It's more of a strategy, resource-gathering game. You're basically playing as one of the king's governors, holding your own "duchy". You have to influence the king's advisors to give you various resources with which you build buildings - each that has its own effect. The buildings then let you fend off invasion (which happens periodically) or give you other benefits.

Here's my view of the table while playing Kingsburg. The mechanics are simple and straightforward, and it didn't take any time to learn the rules. There's an element of chance each round, so you're kind of having to rethink your strategy every round, which keeps you engaged. I actually loved this game, and want it now even more than I did before.

Here are some of the other games people got:

I got to be Secret Santa to my good friend Bryce! (There were lots of people I didn't know, so it was cool that two of the closest people there to me were my giver and receiver.) Anyway, Shadows over Camelot is an oldie-but-goodie, but one of the ones that Bryce doesn't have in his collection. Now he does.

My friend Davy got A Touch of Evil. It's a very atmospheric game set in the 18th century. You randomly draw a character on a card, each with their own abilities. I was Katarina, the Outlaw. This meant mostly that I was the best shot in the game. Also, that I was hot.

The premise is that you have a bunch of heroes going up against a randomly chosen villain, which is not played by anyone. So, it's basically you against the game. You have "teams" of heroes, though, so it was your team against the others. I'll do a full-blown review on Giant Fire Breathing Robot, but I had a hard time with this game. It lasted forever for starters and the rules and mechanics were a bit overwhelming for me. At the same time, the artwork, theme and soundtrack (yes, soundtrack) were pretty freaking awesome. So, I definitely want to try it again.

Overall, Secret Santa Day was a roaring success. I got an awesome game, got to spend time with some of my favoritest people, and made cookies that got me extra popularity points, which always come in handy.

Finally, speaking of Giant Fire Breathing Robot (GFBR, for short), that's my friends' new site for all things "geeky". They're really trying to branch out past games to cover anything of interest for our type of people. I've been writing some articles for them, so check them out.

My New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie

2010-01-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

Every good home cook has it: "their" chocolate chip cookie recipe. It has as much to do with your personal tastes as anything: milk vs. dark, crisp vs. chewy, nuts or not.

For me, I like my chocolate chip cookies with a little bite, and a lot of chocolate. But I don't like the chocolate to get all over my fingers for some reason. I like dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate (but only in chocolate chip cookies - for eating, I prefer milk), and I like walnuts, not pecans (even though I prefer pecans in everything else).

Basically, I'm incredibly picky.

Fortunately, I've found my chocolate chip cookie. First of all, I don't use chocolate chips; taking a tip from Dorie Greenspan, I take good chocolate and cut it into small squares. I dump the bars, shards and all, into the batter, so that the cookies are marbled and tweedy with chocolate. 1/3 semisweet chocolate and 2/3 bittersweet chocolate, which I think gives it just the right sweetness level. I also use a little extra sea salt for a faint salty flavor to balance the sweet.

I've made these cookies several times now, and they've always been a big hit. They're soft and chewy out of the oven, but then crisp up when they cool, though they still have a nice chew to them.

Also, they're pretty much noob-proof. Just bake them one sheet at a time, and keep an eye on them, and you'll be fine.

Better than fine, actually, cause you'll be full of chocolate chip cookies.

Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted from a recipe by Dorie Greenspan)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into small squares

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small squares
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or a Silpat. (I prefer Silpat - the cookies don't brown as much on the bottom.)

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well-blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. Mix in the chocolate and nuts, preferably using a spatula to avoid overmixing. (The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen. Freeze the mounded tablespoons of dough on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when they're solid. There's no need to defrost the dough before baking-just add another minute or two to the baking time.)

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.

Bake the cookies - one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point - for 10-12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

The List - 2009

2010-01-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

So, every New Year's Day, you think about all the things you did wrong or didn't do at all, and resolve to do things right this year.

Right?

Well, here's another idea. It's the New Year's List - 25 things that you accomplished, did right or are just plain proud of from the year just past. I've been doing this for a few years now, and I highly recommend it.

I got the idea from Cheryl Richardson, who writes life coaching/self help books, and I have to say it's a pretty sound idea, especially if you're one of those people (like me) who tends to discount what they have really accomplished.

For instance, when I started to write my list this morning, I thought, "Oh, God...I accomplished nothing in 2009. I bet I won't even get to 25." Then I started writing.

Here are just 5 things from my list:

1. Traveled to London, England with my daughter (her first time abroad)

2. Lost 40 pounds

3. Turned 40

4. Went home for Christmas to see my family for the first time in 8 years (and had an awesome time)

5. Took up fencing, which I had always wanted to try and was too scared to.

Uh...I think those things alone would probably be enough to say I accomplished a lot in 2009, don't you? And of course, I had a lot of smaller - but equally impressive - things on my list, too.

The point is that it's easy to focus on the things you didn't do or want to change, and then forget all the things that you did do and do well. And while having goals and resolutions for the new year is important and worthwhile, how are you supposed to do that without a good internal inventory? You need to know your assets, as well as your liabilities.

At work, we call it "Start, Stop, Continue." What are those things you want to start doing, stop doing, and most importantly, continue doing? If you're doing something well or right now, you don't want to stop doing that, or let it slip. You want to build on it.

So, start your list! You can do more than 25 if you want, but try to get to at least 25. To help you out, here are some questions from Cheryl's book Life Makeovers.

"*What qualities of character have you strengthened? Are you more honest with others about how you feel? Have you learned to set boundaries with those people who drain your energy? Have you improved your communication skills or become more sensitive to the needs of others?

*Have you shared an act of kindness or supported others in some way? Did you help a friend who is going through a divorce or care for an elderly parent? Did you coach your kid's sports team or volunteer for a non-profit organization?

*What special memories have you created with those you love? Did you take a vacation that was particularly memorable? Did you organize an event that brought people closer together? Were there any special memories that stand out?

*What have you achieved or accomplished? Consider both your personal and professional life. Did you meet business goals or get a promotion at work? Did you finish an important project, like writing a book or developing a workshop, or channel your creative energy into cooking or painting?"

The great thing about this exercise is that even in "bad years", you accomplished more than you think you did. To see that on paper is actually a really good thing, and puts you in a frame of mind to make this year even better.

Happy 2010, everybody!

Collin Street Bakery

2009-12-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

There was one more thing I was reminded of in Texas that I'd totally forgotten about, and will happily remember now next Christmas: Collin Street Bakery.

Okay, I know that fruitcake is kind of an acquired taste. And I know that the fact that I don't hate it makes me an anomaly. Granted, most fruitcakes are ... meh ... at best, and if I go through an entire Christmas season (or eight) without one, I don't miss it. I don't, really, even remember it.

Collin Street is different. They honestly have the best fruitcakes I've ever had - moist, spicy and not liquored-up. They also do a pecan cake that's downright ridiculous. Everyone in my parents' area that I know orders one and has it shipped for the holidays (their original store was in Corsicana, Texas). My mom had one this year, and holy cow. I ate it for breakfast on Christmas morning, and it pretty much is the taste of Christmas.

I plan to order one next year, and if you don't despise fruitcake - and even if you do - you may want to consider it yourself.

Christmas Wrapup: What I ate

2009-12-28T19:32:00.001-08:00

My daddy's beautiful pond, which he dug himself.

So, I'm sorry I vanished. Christmas really grabbed me by the throat this year, and it seemed like I had no opportunity to think, much less sit down and write something coherent. Now, here we are, umpteen days since my last post, and I'm finally able to breathe.

Somewhat.

You see, for the first time in ages and ages, I went home for the holidays, where home = Texas. It was awesome, actually; everything was pretty much right where I left it. Even the feed store (do they have feed stores in California?) was in the exact same place. The unchangeability of small town Texas is deeply impressive.

My family, too, was quite awesome, with my dad and mom still playfully bickering about pretty much everything. My sisters are beautiful, strong, amazing women, and my two baby nephews take adorableness to whole new levels. I am not allowed to post pictures of them, because the cute would kill you. For serious.

And I don't have that many readers.

Anyway, one of the best things about going home is eating food you never get to eat normally. I didn't get any pictures, sorry; too busy stuffing my face. But I thought I'd take you through some of what home tastes like for me.

Cracker Barrel - Okay, if you've never eaten at a Cracker Barrel, you so seriously don't know what you're missing. Or maybe you hate Southern food - and freedom - and you don't care. But I had dreams of this place before I left for Texas. I think the farthest west I've found them was in Arizona, so it's been...what...six or seven years since I've eaten here? A long time.

I ate at Cracker Barrel every single day I was there except Christmas day, and then only because they weren't open. There's nothing healthy on the menu: the hash brown casserole is dripping with cheese and sour cream, the carrots are glazed in sugar, the chicken is deep fried and everything's smothered in sweet milk gravy. (Sweet milk is the opposite of buttermilk - it's what the rest of you heathens call "milk".)

Heaven. Particularly because they have ...

Sweet Tea - Ah, yes. The nectar of the South. This is iced tea (plain old Lipton tea) with lots and lots of sugar in it, but that doesn't do it justice. In California, they always serve iced tea (and it's not nearly as ubiquitous here as in the South) unsweetened. You can add sugar to it, but a.) people look at you askance and b.) it never seems to really dissolve once the tea's cold and leaves a big puddle in the bottom of the glass. You have to put the sugar in the pitcher when the tea's still warm.

Besides, as I told my mother, it's not really about putting sugar in your tea; it's about putting tea in your sugar.

Basically, I drank it like it was laced with heroin. The Cracker Barrel waitress finally just offered to leave the pitcher on the table.

Boudin - My parents live in Southeast Texas, which is close enough to the Southwest Louisiana border that it's still marginally Cajun Country. There are plenty of Guilbeaus and Thibodeauxs there, at least. (People there call Cajuns "coonasses", which is really rude and still makes me laugh.)

I preface this that way because Boudin is a strictly Cajun thing, and outside of Cajun Country, it's pretty much unheard of. Actually, according to wikipedia, what they serve there is actually "boudin blanc". It looks like sausage; at least, it's stuffed in a pork casing like sausage. But it's really a rice dressing - pork sausage, parsley and herbs, mixed with white rice. This is then stuffed in the casing, and either baked or steamed until hot.

You split open the casing, scrape out the dressing and spread it on Saltine crackers. If you're not deathly allergic to cayenne pepper like me, you then douse it with Tabasco. It's a staple appetizer at home, and we actually had it as a part of our Christmas day dinner buffet. I didn't realize how much I missed it until then, and suddenly paying $40 just to have it shipped to me actually seems doable.

I'm hoping I get over that.

Wolf Brand Chili - Yes, it's canned chili. And yes, I should be embarrassed. But I'm not, because it's better than any stupid canned chili in California. Stupid California chili.

So, I bought a bunch of it and stuffed it in every spare nook and cranny in my suitcase. My parents noticed, but said nothing, bless them.

Of course, it's not as good as...

My Mama's Chili - Or her homemade cookies, for that matter. She makes spicy chili with big chunks of ground beef, and serves it over rice with lots of butter. She had some made the last day, when I stopped by before leaving for the airport.

She also made lots of cookies for Christmas: oatmeal chocolate chip, sugar cookies with colored icing and these cherry cookies that were to die for (also, pink). When I was driving to the airport, I opened my bag to find a ziploc baggie full of cookies for the road.

There really is no place like home.

And finally, to make up for this nearly picture-less trip, here's a picture of me, taken by my three-year-old nephew.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

TWD/Holiday Cookies: Volcano Cookies

2009-12-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

So, I didn't do anything right with this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. First of all, as you might notice, this is not Tuesday.

But yesterday was a long day and I couldn't find my camera USB cord and I couldn't think of a good way to start a post, and basically, I couldn't be bothered. So, this week, it's "Wednesdays with Dorie". Deal.

Also, the actual recipe is for "Cafe Volcano Cookies" - where the main flavor is espresso. I'm not a huge fan of espresso in baked goods, so I turned these into Cocoa Volcano Cookies with the addition of cocoa and cinnamon.

And holy crap are they good! Granted, as you can see from my awe-inspiring photography, they don't look like much. And, essentially, they aren't much. The totality of the recipe is 2 cups of nuts (half walnuts/half almonds), egg whites, sugar and the flavorings. (Again, the recipe calls for espresso powder - I replaced this with 2 tablespoons of cocoa and a generous pinch of cinnamon.)

After toasting the nuts, you warm all the ingredients in a saucepan on the stovetop, then drop it by teaspoonfuls onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet. I have to say that while I was doing this, I kept thinking that this didn't look like a cookie at all and maybe this Dorie person is crazy.

Turns out she's not, and they bake into crackly, crunchy, yummy little meringues of goodness.

Now, two things on these. One, I would have taken them out of the oven just a minute or two sooner than I did this time (I left them about as long as the recipe said). The bottoms were not quite to burned, but were getting there.

Also, one of the other TWD bakers mentioned on the site to only bake these on Silpat, not on parchment paper. I forgot about this tip and baked one on each. The Silpat batch came up from the baking sheet without a problem. However, the parchment ones stuck horribly, and they got darker on the bottom, too. So, I'd say a Silpat is a requirement for these.

Otherwise, I absolutely loved these, and they were popular with my coworkers, too. They're also gluten-free, which is a plus.

As always, I can't post the recipe, but if you want it online, it's on this week's chooser MacDuff's blog, The Lonely Sidecar.

Five Things

2009-12-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

So, there's still a little buying time left before what my friend Bella calls "Giftmas." Therefore (ergo), I thought I'd channel Oprah and do a post about five things I love and think you should buy for someone. Anyone, really. Including you.

And no, I get paid by none of these people. And I don't know anything about any of them other than I like them. Oh, and if you have stuff you like, consider doing your own "five things" post on your blog, because I always need new stuff.

Without further ado, here are my five things, with absolutely no common thread between them and in no particular order.

1. Roku - Oh, how I love my little Roku box. It plugs into your teevee, and then connects wirelessly to the internet. From there, the main draw is that you can watch unlimited movies instantly on Netflix if you have a subscription. Mine's only $15 a month. Granted, they're still building their movie and TV show collection, but I was surprised at what I could find on Watch Instantly; I have 63 titles in my queue, and many of those are full, multi-episode tv seasons.

But there's more! You can also download movies and TV shows from Amazon's Video on Demand, and therefore rent newer movies on a pay-per-view basis. Plus, Pandora streams their internet radio service onto your Roku; I'm listening to my "holiday" station through my teevee's speakers as we speak. They're also adding more channels - like Major League Baseball - so there's no telling where the service will go in the future.

I know there are other services like this, but I liked that it gave me access to things I was already using, all in one place. Plus, it's a fairly inexpensive option - just $79-99. It also took me no time to hook up, and I usually suck at things like that.

So, yes, Roku is currently one of my favorite things.

2. Erase Paste - I guess you know that you're of "a certain age" when number two on your favorite things list is concealer.

And yet I love it.

Erase Paste is from Benefit, and a little spendy, at about $26. But it's the best concealer I've found in ages. It's really light, but the coverage is great and a little bit goes a long way. It also tends to lighten everything up, but not in a noticeable way. It is, as I told my friend, like a real-life Photoshop.

And we could all use a little of that.

3. "Come to Me" by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - I can, and should, do a whole post on BPAL. Let's just say that they're the best, most unique fragrance purveyor on the Interwebs. I can't really do their site justice, you have to go there yourself.

No seriously, go there. I'll wait.

See? Their whole store is devoted to utterly unique fragrances. But they don't just throw together a bunch of oils. They take myths, legends, deities and characters from stories (Lucy Westenra, anyone?). Then, they create oil blends to match the stories. Some of them are truly unique. One of my favorites is called Zombi, which is a blend of Spanish moss, grave dirt and dried roses. Kick ass, no?

So, currently, my Favorite Thing from BPAL is a scent called "Come to Me". I wear it obsessively. It's supposed to be an old voodoo recipe for drawing the male attention, and I do have to admit that it seems to work in that respect. But mostly it's just clean-smelling and sexy and awesome. I love it.

4. Dragon Age - Okay, I've talked about Dragon Age before, but come on! Seriously one of the best video games I've ever played, hands down.

It's "dark fantasy" and yes, okay, a little bloody. (I do love me a good beheading.) But the story! The story is as good as any I've ever seen, and I actually got emotionally attached to my "friends" in my party. The game isn't hard to learn, but it is hard to stop playing - every person I know who's started it has had a hard time putting it down.

If you're a gamer and even if you're not, it's really worth trying it - especially if you like good storytelling. There's nothing like a really good story, except when you're the hero. That's really awesome.

5. Cuisinart Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Ice Cream Maker - You know I had to get at least one kitchen appliance in this list, and this is both one of my favorite appliances and one of my favorite gifts.

I know a lot of people get one of these, make ice cream once or twice, and then never use it again, but I've made dozens of batches. I just keep the inner container in the freezer at all times, and am always ready to make ice cream.

It's super easy to use. You make the custard on the stove, then let it chill (I usually put mine in the fridge overnight). Then, you place the frozen container inside the ice cream maker, put the paddle in and the top on, and turn it on. Pour in the custard and a 20 minutes later, voila. (The ice cream's soft right from the maker, though; you have to freeze it a bit to harden it up.)

I actually have a hard time eating store-bought ice cream now. There's just nothing like the real thing.

It's also less than $75 on Amazon.

Holiday Cookies: Brown Sugar Shortbread

2009-12-13T21:40:00.001-08:00

Okay, there's no picture for this, because I suck. You see, I made these for a Christmas party, and there was tequila, and well, yeah. No pictures.

This has to be one of my favorite recipes now, though. I love it first because nearly everything you need is already in the pantry. You don't have to make a special trip to the store or buy fancy spices. I also love it because it's pretty much a snap to make. Except for the scoring, there's nothing complicated about this recipe at all.

And the taste! These aren't "true" shortbreads, but the rich, cinnamon-brown sugar taste will make up for any lack of shortbread purity. They are soft and chewy at first, and even once they cool and crisp up, they're still rather toothsome.

Altogether, just an awesome cookie, and I recommend trying it this holiday season.

One note: the original recipe recommended cutting these into 12 wedges. I found those cookies a little too big (it's actually a very rich and buttery cookie), so I recommend cutting 16 wedges. I also find it's easier to score and cut that way.

Brown Sugar Shortbread

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed (7 ounces) light brown sugar

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325. Lightly spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray and set it on a baking sheet.

In bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium until light and pale yellow, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add brown sugar and mix on medium until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add flour and salt and mix on low until just incorporated. Empty mixture into prepared pan, and use your hand or the bottom of a ramekin or measuring cup to press it evenly into the pan.

Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle evenly over the surface of the shortbread. Using a sharp knife, score the shortbread into 16 even wedges.

Bake until shortbread is golden brown and firm at the edges, but slightly soft in the center, around 55-60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, remove springform sides, and cool for 10 minutes. Slide shortbread onto cutting board and recut wedges along existing lines.

Cool completely before serving, about 3 hours. Shortbread can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Important: Do not skip the scoring, or wait until the shortbreads cool before trying to cut them. It will be impossible. Cut them immediately once they're baked. Also, don't try and bake these in a regular cake pan; they will be very difficult to get out.

Holiday Sugar Cookies

2009-12-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Traditional holiday cut-out sugar cookies are tough.

No, seriously. They're tough. As in dry and crunchy, instead of soft and tender like I fantasize they should be. I think half the recipes I've seen must be designed to hang on the tree and not to eat. Or they should have been.

They also suck to roll out.

I went looking for the perfect Holiday cookie recipe: one that had a tender crumb, was easy to roll out, took a glaze well and was, above all, yummy.

I think I found it with this one.

These cookies are a little thin, and as with all cookie cutter cookies, they're a bit of a project. But very worth it. I was surprised to find the cookies actually tasted better the next day, even after being glazed. I have no idea how they are on the third day; none of ours lasted that long.

The glaze freaked me out a bit, because there was no egg or the usual royal icing-type ingredients. And who puts cream cheese in cookie glaze?

But it really works.

Oh, and did you know that cookie cutters have two sides, and you cut out cookies with the thick one? I didn't.

Here's the recipe:

Holiday Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup superfine (or baker's) sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened

2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together into your mixer bowl. In an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time. Continue to beat the flour-butter mixture until it looks crumbly and slightly wet, 1 to 2 minutes.

Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla until the dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds. Knead the dough by hand in the bowl a few times until it forms a large, cohesive mass.

Transfer the dough to a clean counter and divide it into 2 even pieces. Press each piece into a 4-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until the dough is firm yet malleable, about 30 minutes.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it out between 2 large sheets of parchment to an even 1/8 inch thickness. With the dough sandwiched between the parchment, slide it onto a baking sheet, and refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle, and heat the oven to 375. Line two more baking sheets with parchment.

Working with one sheet of dough at a time, remove the top parchment and stamp out cookies with cookie cutters. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet with a thin metal spatula, spaced about 1 inch apart.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until light golden brown, about 10 minutes, rotating halfway. Let cool in the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

Holiday Cookie Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons whole milk

2 tablespoons softened cream cheese

Whisk all of the ingredients together until smooth. Color with food coloring, if you'd like.

TWD: The World's Ugliest Sables

2009-12-08T19:22:00.001-08:00

Okay, that's not the name of this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. It's just plain "Sables". And it's certainly not Dorie Greenspan's fault that they're ugly. It's mine.

See what I mean?

Poor little sable. He's supposed to be all round and crisp and sugar-coated. Instead he just kind of looks ... eh. Sad.

Fortunately for him (or unfortunately, I guess, as long as I'm anthropomorphizing), he was delicious.

Sables, for those who don't know, are a French butter cookie, similar in many ways to shortbread. Except better. The dough is mixed up, rolled into a log and chilled, and then rolled in sugar, sliced and baked. The big issue is that you can't overmix sables if you want to get that sandy texture they're famous for.

And therein lay my downfall.

I was so freaked out about not overmixing that I undermixed. It can happen to the best of us, I guess. I didn't realize how badly I'd undermixed until I spied lumps of flour in the dough as I was rolling it into a log. At that point, it was a little too late, so I soldiered on. Unfortunately, the dough was so crumbly that, even after chilling, it fell apart. There was no hope of coating it in raw sugar, like I'd planned. I managed to get a few nice slices (which baked up looking close to real sables), but the rest...oy. I just smashed them together and hoped for the best.

But boy, were they tasty. And their texture was perfect. So, I'm pretty sure if I didn't do the freak-out undermixing thing, they would be great.

I just didn't get to test that theory before it was time to post for TWD. So, you get ugly sables. Sorry.

If you want to see what real sables look like (and get the recipe), head to Bungalow Barbara's blog.

Holiday Appetizer: Sausage Balls

2009-12-07T21:02:00.000-08:00

Pretty much any party you go to in the South, you find sausage balls. These little balls of awesomeness (or breakfast sausage, cheese and biscuit mix - same thing) were the first "grownup" appetizer I ever had. Granted, lots of things that seem all sophisticated and fancy when you're young don't have that same appeal when you actually are a grownup.

These sausage balls are an exception. I've never made them when they weren't just snapped right off the tray.

The recipe is pretty much as basic as they come: Bisquik, bulk sausage and shredded cheese. You can change the flavor of sausage (maple vs. hot, for instance) or the type of cheese (cheddar is traditional), but at the end of the day, it's just those three things, mixed up, rolled into balls and plopped in the oven.

Now, two hints on sausage balls:

1.) Mix them by hand. Yes, I know it's gross. But trust me on this one. Take off your rings and mix the "dough" by hand. A spoon or spatula just makes a huge mess, so dig in.

2.) Serve them hot. This is where I differ from a lot of Southern cooks, and also why everyone says my sausage balls are the best. Because a lot of Southern cooks make these up ahead of time and serve them at room temperature. I like to make the dough ahead (even putting the balls on a baking sheet, if I have space in the fridge), and then put them in the oven once guests arrive. That way, the cheese is still melty and everything's hot when you bite into them. Much better. Plus, the whole kitchen smells of sausage.

(Granted, you can totally make these ahead and serve them at room temperature. Yours just won't be as good as mine. So there.)

Southern Sausage Balls

1 1-pound package ground breakfast sausage (plain or flavored - I personally like Maple)

3 cups Bisquik baking mix

4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Heat the oven to 375, and spray two baking sheets with cooking spray. Using your hands, mix all ingredients together in a (really) large bowl. You'll have to work it, but understand that it will still be pretty crumbly. Form the mixture into 1-inch balls and place on your baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, 18-20 minutes. To keep them from sticking, you may want to move them a bit with a spatula about halfway through cooking.

Note: The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated, tightly covered. When you're ready to make the sausage balls, let it sit for a few minutes, then form the balls like you would normally.

The Blind Side

2009-12-06T14:58:00.001-08:00

Everyone who knows me knows I'm not into chick flicks. I don't like silly comedies. I'm not into schmoopy tearjerkers, and I laughed all the way through The Notebook. (Gawd, people. Seriously?)

Anyway, basically, if a movie doesn't contain blood, monsters, soldiers, action, swords or zombies - or some combination thereof - I'm not usually interested.

Except when I am.

You see, there are times in life where what you need is really not legions of zombies bent on destroying humanity, or a creature from space running amok in New York City (as awesome that is.)

What you need is inspiration. What you need is hope - to feel that maybe humanity isn't completely worthless after all.

Fortunately, possibly because of the economy, Hollywood seems to have gotten that message, and they're offering several feel-good movies this holiday season. Since most of them revolve around sports, I feel better about my need to soothe my psyche with them.

First up was The Blind Side.

This is based on the true story of Michael Oher, who has just been signed as a rookie with the Baltimore Ravens. He was a homeless teen in Tennessee who was taken in by a wealthy white family who helped him succeed in school and football, and eventually became his legal guardians.

Sandra Bullock plays the mom in this story, and she's absolutely pitch perfect. First of all, she has the accent down (I think she's actually Southern) and she definitely has the look for it. (Lord, she's pretty.) But it's more than that...

How easy would it have been for this story to become about white guilt? How hard is it to show a mother and a family who have a lot of money, and who are still healthy and whole and like to be together? Think about it - most of the time, white, well-t0-do people are one-dimensional and shallow. Her Leigh Anne Touhey is certainly bold and a little brash, but she is so deep. She takes Michael in not because she feels some obligation to, or maybe she does at first - but she asks him to stay because she truly grows to love him.

Michael, also, is deep and multi-dimensional. The teachers at the exclusive Christian school he attends at first treat him like he's retarded. He's not; not at all. He's very smart, he just has never learned to learn. Watching him open up as he warms up to his new family is truly touching.

In a way, the movie's almost too perfect. It's a little hard to believe that everything fell into place just so for this young man, and that he just happened to find a family who truly loves him and sees him as a part of their family.

And yet that's exactly what happened.

And that's why it's so inspiring. Because you know what? Sometimes good things do happen. A lot of times they don't, but they can. They really can.

And at Christmastime, especially this year, that's a good lesson to be reminded of.

See The Blind Side. I don't think you'll regret it.

Note: Please note that this movie opens with a replay of Washington Redskins' quarterback Joe Theismann breaking his leg. This is one of the worst, most painful-to-watch injuries in all of sports. It makes total sense why they did it in context of the movie (and they actually tie back to it at the very end in a great way), but just be prepared.

Next up in the inspirational holiday sports-movie lineup: Invictus.

The Yule Goat!

2009-12-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

Behold my favorite Christmas decoration ever: the Yule Goat!

I picked him up a couple of years ago at IKEA, which is appropriate, since the Yule Goat (or Yule Buck, or "Julbok") is a distinctly Nordic tradition. Being Swiss means I'm not actually Nordic, but when it comes to being able to stick a big straw goat on my table and call it Christmas, I make an exception.

The Yule Buck originated in pagan times, presumably tied to the god Thor, whose chariot was pulled by two strong goats. There are lots of "Yule bucking" traditions that involve blackface, pretending to slaughter one of your neighbors, and cake. I'm not real clear on how they all fit together, but you can look at this Wikipedia entry for more info.

In many towns in Sweden, they erect a giant Yule goat in the town square, and see if it can survive until Christmas before vandals burn it down. (Pretty sure that wasn't the original intention of the tradition, but that's how it's turned out.) The vandals get REALLY creative, and so do the towns in trying to prevent the torching.

The most famous of these is the city of Gavle, which has had a goat for years, and has about a 50% record of reaching Christmas versus early firey death. One of Gavle's fire-prevention methods has turned into one of my absolute favorite personal Christmas traditions. I bring you...

BOCKENKAMERA!!!!
Yes, the Gavle Goat has its very own webcam! (Plus, the word "bockenkamera" is right up there with "wunderbar" as the coolest non-English words EVAR.)

He's also got his own blog, written in his own voice. It's not as cool as his goofy webcam, though.

It's one of those 1998-style ones, too, where it refreshes every few seconds. ("Look, the blue car moved!") I don't know what it is about this thing, but I am mesmerized by it every year. I keep it on my screen at work and keep refreshing the page - because, of course, the more we watch the better the Goat's chances of making it to Christmas sans arson.

We're watching you, goat burners...

Chicken Bog

2009-12-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

Despite the goofy name, Chicken Bog is one of the most solid recipes in my repertoire. It's the dish I make when I need something warm, comforting, and a lot of it.

Chicken Bog is a southeastern, lowlands dish, from what I can tell. At its heart, it's just chicken, rice and sausage. I love it for two main reasons:

A.) It's super easy. You don't even have to brown anything, just throw it all in a pot and let it simmer away.

B.) It makes enough to, as we say back home, "feed General Lee's army". In other words - it makes a lot. A whole lot. The main recipe basically fills my dutch oven. Bailey and I can eat off a pot of Chicken Bog for a week.

And sure, you can halve the recipe, but it keeps really well in the fridge. It's one of those things I make when I have a lot of people to feed, or when I need to have something easy and quick at hand. (It sure beats pizza when I'm busy prepping for a big meal like Thanksgiving.)

Here's the recipe:

Chicken Bog

3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 pound smoked link sausage (I use kielbasa), cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup chopped onion

1 stick butter

Seasonings to taste - black pepper, seasoned salt, Cajun spices, etc.

3 bay leaves

8 cups water

3 cups rice

Put chicken, sausage, onion, butter, seasonings and bay leaves into a stock pot or dutch oven. Add the water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat until the water is at a low boil. Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through and tender, about 40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot; when cool enough to handle, shred into bite size pieces.

Note: I like to test the cooking liquid at this point for seasoning, before I put in the rice. Remember that you're seasoning a pot full of rice, so don't be timid here.

Add the rice to the pot and bring to a boil, then boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until rice is done (remembering to give it an occasional stir) - about 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and return the chicken to the pot.

It's Christmas Time!

2009-11-29T17:57:00.000-08:00

After two post-Thanksgiving, leftover-stuffed days of "I'm just not feeling this Christmas thing", it hit me all at once today.

I ended up going out to see the new version of "A Christmas Carol", which I found thoroughly enjoyable, even though it's the same story we've heard/seen a thousand times. The animation and the 3D actually make it worth seeing, even if you can recite Scrooge's lines by heart (which I can). 3D is getting better and better, and there were no tricks and gimmicks in this movie - just an immersive feeling of actually being IN Dickens' London. It's really gorgeous.

And despite the fact that this is ostensibly a cartoon, you recognize most of the actors - not just Jim Carrey as Scrooge, but Gary Oldman (as Bob Cratchit, no less), Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, etc., etc.

Definitely consider going if you need a little push in the "Christmas spirit" direction.

And a nice eggnog latte from Starbucks (my first - and probably only - of the season) doesn't hurt either.

Once home, I kicked on my Irish Christmas music and began to get out my Christmas china and decorations. I don't think I'm doing a tree this year; haven't decided, but it seems like a lot of trouble since I won't be home Christmas day. But we'll see. I will get a wreath, at minimum.

But I trotted out the Yule Buck (more about him later), set up my snow village, hung stockings, and filled the hurricane lantern on the coffee table with glittery pine cones.

It's definitely starting to feel like Christmas around here.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T23:17:00.000-08:00

My day was just too busy - and my stomach too full - to take many pictures today. But if my awesome Thanksgiving could be summed up in one image, this is it:

The gang, contemplating a grey sea, right after dinner.

And now that Thanksgiving is (nearly) over, here's a little something to get you into the spirit of the next winter holiday:

Stella Claus says: "OH, HAI!"

I hope your Thanksgiving day was as great as mine, and you got to spend it appreciating all the people you love. Who could ask for more?

Thanksgiving Countdown: Wednesday

2009-11-25T19:05:00.000-08:00

Wednesday is the big cooking day, where I put most dishes together to go into the oven on Thursday morning.

Here's what I did:

1. Brined the turkey.

2. Picked up the pies. I got a pumpkin pie and a chess pie, which is the closest thing to pecan pie that the bakeries around here make. If I ever break down and make my own pies, it'll be because I can't get pecan any other way. Anyhoo...

3. Froze the vanilla ice cream. Too bad I didn't think to take pictures. It always looks so cool when it's churning.

4. Finished the gravy.

Altogether, it took me the better part of a day - spread out over yesterday and today - to finish off the gravy. On the plus side, that's my pretty orange Le Creuset dutch oven, absolutely brimming with gravy. There'll be no shortage of gravy in my house, people.

5. Made the stuffing.
I made two pans: one with sausage and one without. I'll pop them in the oven when the turkey comes out. I take several shortcuts with my stuffing, including using packaged breadcrumbs, and this cool package of fresh onions, celery and herbs, already chopped. Sure, I've made my own from scratch before, but it's a lot of trouble, and it really isn't all that much better than this way. So, I save myself some trouble and people still love it.

6. Assembled the casseroles.
First, there's my mom's famous candied yams (or sweet potato casserole, take your pick of names - it's all delicious).

Then, good ole green bean casserole, complete with french fried onions.

7. Made dough for sausage balls.
These will be the only appetizer tomorrow. I don't usually do apps with such a big meal, but a while back I had a party where I served these. One of the guests, D, was on a restricted diet at the time, and couldn't eat them. She told me she's thought of them ever since. So, they're on the menu for her tomorrow.

I made the dough and will pop them in the oven when the guests arrive. Fortunately, the recipe (which I'll post soon) makes a ton, so I made some for Bailey and I tonight.

8. Set the table.
More specifically, watched Bailey set the table. It's her one job every year, and as you can see, she tackles it with artistic flair.

9. Took a walk along the seawall at sunset.
If I needed a reminder of everything I have to be thankful for, this was it...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

2009-11-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

This is a dark, rich - almost brown - gravy. It can be made up to three days in advance; I usually make it on Tuesday. If you make it prior to your frozen turkey thawing out (which I usually do), you can usually procure turkey necks or extra turkey gizzards at the butcher's. Just substitute those for what you'd pull out of your turkey.

Last year after Thanksgiving, I made turkey stock from the turkey carcass, and froze it. I substituted that this year for the chicken stock, and I have to say so far that the taste is really worth it. But regular chicken stock will certainly do.

Make-Ahead Gravy

Reserved turkey giblets, neck and backbone, hacked into 2-inch pieces*

1 medium carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 rib celery, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 small onions, chopped coarse

6 cloves garlic, unpeeled

3 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 cups dry white wine

6 sprigs fresh thyme

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place turkey trimmings, carrot, celery, onions, and garlic in large roasting pan. Spray lightly with cooking spray and toss to combine. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until well-browned: 40-50 minutes.

Place roasting pan over burner on high; add chicken stock and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits on bottom of pan.

Transfer contents of roasting pan to dutch oven. Add wine, 3 cups of water, and thyme; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until reduced by half, about 1 1/2 hours. Strain stock into another container, and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until fat congeals, at least 1 hour. (Note: I usually do this on Tuesday and put it in the fridge overnight, then finish the gravy on Wednesday.)

To finish, skim fat from stock and reserve. Pour stock into another saucepan through a fine-mesh strainer and discard any solids. Bring stock to a simmer over medium-high heat. In a second saucepan, heat four tablespoons turkey fat (note: I use a little butter if I don't have enough fat) until bubbling; whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, until combined and honey-colored, about 2 minutes. Continuing to whisk constantly, add hot stock by the ladleful, then reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Note: Gravy can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat in a medium saucepan over medium heat until hot - about 8 minutes.

*Honestly, I don't usually bother with the hacking part. I throw the trimmings in whole and it comes out fine.

Thanksgiving Countdown: Tuesday

2009-11-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

Tuesday is when the real pre-work for the Thanksgiving feast begins. I do a lot of prepping of dishes that will need to be finished over the next few days: making stocks, custards, etc.

Here's what I worked on today:

1. Prepared the stock for the gravy.

I make my turkey gravy ahead of time, which saves a whole lot of stress on Thanksgiving morning. A lot of people marvel at that, but it's actually pretty easy. I roast some turkey necks and parts I buy frozen with some basic vegetables (carrots, celery, onions, etc.). Then, I combine them with water and white wine and cook that down into a stock. I then use the stock as a base for the gravy. It's time-consuming, but again, worth it not to have to stand over a hot stove at the last minute, frantically stirring a roux.

(And yes, I double the recipe. I like gravy.)

2. Made fresh cranberry sauce.

I use the Pioneer Woman's recipe. And yes, I still buy the stuff in the can, because some people just have to have it. But this stuff is amazing. Plus, it looks pretty packed in a Mason jar and set on the table.

3. Made custard for vanilla ice cream.

I don't really do pies (never been too good at it), and with a great bakery just down the street, why would I? I let them handle dessert, and my stress levels go down accordingly. However, good as their pumpkin pie is, it's even better with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. And since I can do it ahead of time, it's easy to add to the menu.

I made the custard tonight to chill overnight. I'll freeze the ice cream in the morning.

4. Started the turkey brine.
I brine my turkey, which makes it really moist and flavorful. I've heard brining is becoming passe, and everyone salts their turkeys now. Whatever. To me, nothing gets the kind of flavor into the meat the way brine does. I used to make my own solution, but I fell in love with Williams-Sonoma's last year. You add apple cider to the mix while the turkey brines, and then stuff the turkey cavity with apples. Heaven.

After boiling the brine, it needs to come to room temperature and then chill, so I do it the day before I want to brine the turkey (which is the day before I want to roast it). So, I did that tonight.

I also cleaned the house a bit, and made a trip to Michael's for table decorations. I got a lot accomplished, but have a long Wednesday ahead to finish everything in time.

Thanksgiving Countdown: Monday

2009-11-23T19:20:00.001-08:00

Today, I:

Bought groceries. I stocked up on everything I'd need for the meal, including fresh cranberries and turkey necks (for the gravy). Of course, Thanksgiving would not be complete unless you forgot something; I have to go back tomorrow for onions.
Organized my kitchen cabinets. No one will see this but me, of course, but it's easier for me mentally to cook that much if my cabinets are organized.
Tracked down my baking and serving dishes. I'm missing one bowl and need to buy a couple of more glasses. A Target run seems in order.
Set the frozen stock out to thaw. It's all homemade stock - some chicken and some turkey that I made with the remains of last year's Thanksgiving turkey.
Cooked dinner for the week. I always feel bad for cooking non-stop for two days straight, and then being too tired to make Bailey dinner. So, tonight, I made a huge pot of Chicken Bog (an easy chicken, sausage and rice dish - I'll post the recipe soon). That will give her something warm and tasty to have while I'm getting the main meal ready.

Tomorrow the real work begins...

Thanksgiving Countdown: Sunday

2009-11-22T19:55:00.001-08:00

Over the next few days, I'll be documenting my crazy pre-Thanksgiving prep in all its glory. Here is what I accomplished today:

1.) Put the turkey in the fridge to thaw. And yes, that's the $7 Safeway frozen turkey, and not a fancy-schmancy expensive fresh organic one. And you know what? I am not ashamed!! You see, last year, I was in the grocery store right before Thanksgiving, and ran into the chef at my favorite local restaurant - and he was buying this turkey for his own family Thanksgiving. If it's good enough for him, it's darn sure good enough for me.

2.) Made my grocery list. Or, more specifically, my grocery spreadsheet. Yes. I have a spreadsheet. It lists every dish I'm making, the ingredients and amounts, and the timing of when I'm cooking it.

Tomorrow, I'll be buying all the groceries I need, gathering up all my serving and baking dishes, and getting the house ready.

Holiday Recipe Testing Day

2009-11-22T09:40:00.001-08:00

Every good cook or baker knows you don't try a new recipe for the first time on a special occasion, so Risey and I got together for what I hope is a new annual tradition: the Holiday Recipe Test.

The concept is simple: we each picked a new recipe we wanted to try or technique we wanted to practice (in our case, both - she wanted to learn piping while I tried my hand at glazing sugar cookies). With ingredients and equipment in hand, B and I trekked over to Risey's house, where she'd made a fantastic vegan brunch (with bacon just for Bailey). After brunch, Bailey camped out on the couch with her computer, Risey turned on some Christmas music to get us in the mood, and her kitchen exploded in flour and sprinkles.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

Lovely Risey, measuring out ingredients for her vegan Mocha Cupcakes.

That's my disembodied hand, cutting butter into flour a piece at a time.

The glory that was Risey's Mocha Cupcakes. Note the different piping styles.

Risey and I, very focused on glazing sugar cookies.

Still life of half-decorated sugar cookies.

Ignore my parti-colored finger. Had some trouble with the food coloring.

Risey looked at this and said, "That's KIND of a good idea."

Well, it was a better idea than her tree decorated with red lips.

This is from Risey's "Blob Period".

Bailey and Sweet Boy, happily ignoring the commotion in the kitchen.

The Cake People

2009-11-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

I love where I work.

(And I will explain what the above shot of cake has to do with that in just a second - don't be alarmed.)

I know how lucky I am to be able to say that; so many people don't. (And I haven't in the past.) Part of it is just that I love my actual job, I'm good at it, and it's a good environment to work in. But mostly, it's the people. There are some great people who work there, and who make it a pleasure to go in every day. Fortunately for me, some of those people have become true friends - in and out of the office.

Those friends are what I call "The Cake People." These are the people who are so high up on my list that I would put myself through the ninth Circle of Hades - i.e., bake a birthday cake - for them.

See, baking a birthday cake to bring to the office is a royal pain in the ass. First, there's remembering their birthday (no mean feat - ask my mom, who gets birthday wishes every March 3rd, then reminds me that her birthday is May 3rd.), then remembering to borrow the cake taker. Then there's the shopping. Then, I bake the layers the night before, wrap them and place them aside to cool. Then, I get up at 5am the day the cake is due, make the frosting, fill and decorate the cake.

Then I pack it up in my borrowed cake taker (why don't I have one of these, Bueller?), and schlep it all the way into the city on the bus. THEN, I get to walk ten minutes from my bus stop to the office, past about 100 people who think they're uniquely funny when they say "Can I help you with that?!"

I really, really have to like you to bake you a birthday cake.

Well, one of my friends at work is someone I really, really like apparently: I call him The Russian. Even though he's Ukrainian. And over the past few months of patient translation of Russian movie trailers and shared soccer fervor, The Russian has clawed his way to Cake Person status.

Behold, The Russian's birthday cake:

The Russian is apparently broken and doesn't like chocolate (didn't realize those people existed), so he requested something with fruit, preferably raspberry. Therefore, I made him Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake: a buttermilk cake scented with lemon sugar, and frosted with a lemon-flavored Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. Inside, I brushed the layers with raspberry jam before filling them with the buttercream, then added a ring of raspberries to the top.

It went over a storm, and The Russian seemed genuinely happy with his cake. He kept it in his cube until the whole row smelled like lemon, and growled at anyone who got too close. In the end, he did share it, and we all pretty much made ourselves sick on it. One girl declared she "doesn't like cake" - and proceeded to have two slices.

See the hand in this picture? That belongs to a guy in the office who was slowly working his way into the rarified Cake Person stratosphere. Then, while devouring my masterpiece, he pointed out that he didn't actually have to make me like him enough to become a Cake Person. He just had to make friends with the other Cake People, and then he'd get their cake.

Guess who is never going to become a Cake Person?

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Perfect Party Cake

For the Cake

2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream

1 cup sugar
4 large egg wites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing

2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-x-2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter, and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and will aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch- a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

To Make the Buttercream: Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate-just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny, smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake: Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream left over). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Makes 12 to 14 servings

TWD: Sugar-Topped Molasses Cookies

2009-11-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Sugar-Topped Molasses Cookies. Mmmm....molasses.

I was excited about this recipe, partly because I plan to give away cookies as Christmas gifts this year. I don't actually have a ton of good cookie recipes, so the possibility of a solid, spicy-gingery-molassesy recipe filled me with excitement.

Cause my life's boring, obviously.

Unfortunately, the cookies didn't quite live up to what I'd built them up to be in my head. This may or may not be a good thing. Let's start at the beginning, though.

These mix up really easily. They mostly consist of things I have in the pantry (I'm Southern, so yes, molasses is a pantry staple.) The dough is soft and sticky, but you divide it into two pieces, wrap them in plastic wrap and chill them in the fridge for a half hour or so. This was one of the parts of the recipe I liked best; I was able to make just a handful at first, keep the dough in the refrigerator (it can stay there for up to three days) and come back the next day to make more fresh cookies with little fuss.

Once they're chilled, you roll them into balls, roll them in sugar, and then tamp them down with the bottom of a glass. Then you bake them a few on a sheet at a time, because they spread like wildfire.

I used turbinado sugar on the first ones instead of granulated sugar, and I liked the turbinado a lot better. Also, I used dark brown sugar instead of the light brown sugar the recipe called for. I was scared they would taste too much of molasses because of it (brown sugar is flavored with molasses, with a heavier concentration in dark brown), but they were fine.

Better than fine, actually. These cookies are flat-out delicious. Like, dangerously delicious. I was glad I'd only made a few at a time, because I couldn't stop eating them.

That's the good news.

The not-so-good news is that I wasn't thrilled with the texture. My friend J, who's a fantastic intuitive cook and baker, also thought they were oddly textured. The edges where they'd spread out were nicely carmelized and crisp, but the centers were soft and cakey. It's very possible that, due to the taste, we were expecting a crisp, gingersnap-type cookie. But these weren't that at all.

At first, I thought it was me. My first batch, I didn't press them down with the glass - just left them in balls. I made another small batch following the directions, and while these were better, they were still odd, and I actually had trouble getting them off the sheet without breaking.

The third batch I made, I actually made a lot smaller than the recipe called for. These came out much crisper and nicer, but still a little soft for mine and J's tastes. (Granted, we both ate every one of them.)

Our conclusion was that taste-wise, these were fantastic. But overall, we just couldn't get into the texture. Sadly, they will probably not be in my Christmas boxes. However, they probably will show up next to a pot of tea on non-fancy occasions.

My Tax Dollars at Work

2009-11-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Usually, saying "my tax dollars at work" is a negative thing. In this case, I actually say it with a bit of pride, because my tax dollars actually went toward something I can get behind: our new hiking and biking trails.

I live very close to the ocean, and to a group of hills that overlook said ocean. The hills have always had trails in and around them, but they've been haphazard. A few months ago, the county took on a conscious effort to improve them, and I have to say, it makes life here even better.

There are lots of nice, wide, well-marked trails here, of varying levels of difficulty. Every sign gives you directions and distance to the next trailhead. This is the beginning of a nice short trail with a mild upward slope that I use as my daily walking trail.

These are the newest installations: a series of flat wooden bridges and walkways perfect for biking and walking. This whole area was uneven and unappealing, and turned into a giant mudslide in the rainy season. Now, it's the most inviting part of the area.

Strategically placed wooden benches provide seating, and I almost always see older people hanging out here and resting, or moms taking a break with their kids.

They even carved out this faux creek thing beside the walkway, which is very likely to become a real creek when the rains start in a couple of months.

The weather stays nice here until January or February (and is then yucky for only a couple of months), so hiking is the main way I stay fit. Now, it's just a little nicer.

Granted, that big check for property taxes on December 10th will still hurt, but I have to admit it will hurt just a tiny bit less when I'm out on our spiffy new trails.

Thanksgiving Recipe: Candied Yams

2009-11-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

So, I completely thought the whole "sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top" was an American thing, until I served it at an "orphan's" Thanksgiving dinner one year. As in, all red-blooded 'Muricans ate it at Thanksgiving. Apparently not. It's a Southern/Midwestern thing. And the rest of the country is seriously missing out, I say.

This is my Mama's recipe, and I print it as she gave it to me. This is one of those recipes that you kind of have to do by feel but, honestly, you smother it in melted marshmallows. How could you really mess it up?

Mama's Candied Yams (aka Sweet Potato Casserole)

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.) Drain and mash 2 big cans sweet potatoes
3.) Mix in well:
1 egg
Dash of salt
Pinch of cloves
Some cinnamon (I heart this ingredient. Precise, no?)
Brown sugar to make it sweet (This is even more precise!)
A few chunks of butter
Handful of mini marshmallows (you'll need more for topping)
4.) Spread into a pan and cook until heated through, about 30-45 minutes.
5.) Remove from oven, and cover with mini marshmallows. Return to oven until the top marshmallows are ’melty’ (exact phrase ala Mama) and browned.

Thanksgiving Approaches

2009-11-09T20:07:00.001-08:00

I was making plans for a project at work today, when I suddenly realized that Thanksgiving was just a couple of weeks away. I plan to take off the whole week (which does throw a wrench into things at work, but whatever).

I love cooking and I love feeding people, so Thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday of the year. I start cooking on Monday night, and pretty much cook straight through until the end of the day Thursday. Funny thing is, we tend to eat a lot of pizza that week, because after spending all day in the kitchen getting ready for the big meal, I don't have the energy to cook dinner.

Every year, I say I'm not doing it...that I'll go have dinner at one of the fancy hotels in San Francisco. And every year, my daughter gives me her sad eyes and says, "But you're not cooking?!" and every year, I do. (Who can resist a child who loves their mom's cooking? No one with a heart, that's who.) I also say I'll just keep it simple, and then end up inviting someone for every seat at the table. My friend Shawn is always here, and the others rotate. This year, a couple who are some of my closest friends will be here, and they're bringing a coworker who's just moved down from Canada and would otherwise be alone. The more the merrier, I say. I cook too much, anyway.

Some of my favorite yearly traditions are based around Thanksgiving, and I look forward to the days of preparation preceding the meal almost as much as I do the meal itself. I'll cook while the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special plays in the background, and we'll watch the parade that morning while I get everything ready. We always watch the dog show, too, and of course, play games. Then we all pass out from the infamous turkey sleep drug, while cursing ourselves for eating too much.

And I have to admit, I can't wait.

I don't have anything formal or special planned for the blog in the days leading up to the holiday. I'll be showing off a few of my favorite recipes, and talking a lot about the menu and preparation, I'm sure.

If you want to read a real, proper "Countdown to Thanksgiving", check out Home Ec 101. (And if domesticity is one of your things, you should have this site bookmarked. For reals.) Heather threw a huge pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner for 20 in order to bring us daily tips and near-daily recipes leading up to Thanksgiving. I've actually used some of her daily reminders to help me get ready this year, and I highly recommend it.

Restaurant Review: Good Karma

2009-11-07T16:31:00.001-08:00

I'm in San Jose, visiting my adorable friend Risey, who's house-sitting down here this weekend. I don't visit downtown San Jose that often; didn't even visit that often when I lived here. But I have to admit, it's clean and nice and most importantly, it has this:

Yes, you read that right: Good Karma Vegan Cafe.

As you may or may not know, I eat mostly vegetarian, avoiding animal products and dairy. I don't freak out about a little egg in my gluten-free bread (trying to avoid that, too) or a little honey, but I feel better since I've started eating this way, so there you go.

Risey discovered this place a couple of weeks ago, when our meat-eating friends took her here for lunch. They were impressed enough with it to consider going veg themselves, so that was good enough for me. We popped by for lunch today.

It's super casual and comfortable inside, papered with the expected flurry of liberal pamphlets and hipster club advertisements, with another hipster behind the counter. The food is kept cold in a deli case, and their dishes rotate daily. There's no menu, just hand-written cards on the containers. You choose two to three dishes, and they're piled on a plate with some mixed veggies and some brown rice, then nuked in the microwave.

Yes, the microwave.

And you know what? It's delicious. So, suck it haters.

I went the faux-meat route, above. I had ginger "beef" with portabello mushrooms, barbecue "chicken" (on a little stick to make it look like a chicken leg), mashed potatoes, rice and broccoli.

Risey also had the "chicken leg" and potatoes, but chose dahl as her third dish. It's an Indian lentil-based dish.

After dinner I had this:

Rocky Road pie!!! How do they get pie so creamy and mousse-like without eggs or dairy? No idea, but it was awesome. In fact, the pie was so awesome that two San Jose bicycle cops, who I doubt very much were vegan, were in having pie when we were there. One of them and I had this very mature exchange, while I dithered about which pie to get:

Cop: Oh, GAWD. Just get the plain pie!

Me: But...that one's Rocky Road!

Cop: So?!

Me: SO!

Yes, that conversation was as moronic as it sounded. Anyhoo, I got the Rocky Road, and it was awesome. The End.

All in all, I loved Good Karma, and will now visit my friends in San Jose more often, just to get to eat here. Get ready, guys.

And here, as a special treat, is beautiful Risey:

Party Meatballs

2009-11-06T18:07:00.001-08:00

These meatballs are one of those dishes I'm "known" for, which I find hysterical in that "Isn't it Ironic?" sort of way. (Thanks, Alanis.) Because, I really do love to cook and I'm really good at it, and I cook some amazing, elegant things.

These meatballs are not one of those things.

For starters, I don't even make the meatballs. I start with frozen. Oh, sure, I could slave away over a hot stove frying lots of little balls of ground-up animals (oops, my vegetarian is showing - sorry), but why bother?

Why bother, indeed, because the heart of these meatballs is that rich, tangy, barbecue-y sauce. A rich, tangy, barbecue-y sauce that's made out of ... wait for it...

Grape jelly and chili sauce.

No, I'm not even kidding. You dump a jar of chili sauce and a jar of grape jelly over your frozen meatballs in a crockpot and turn it on. A couple of hours later, you have meatballs that your normally-loveable geeky guy friends will literally fight each other over, like snarling, rabid, yet loveable dogs.

I've been making this for probably close to twenty years (for serious), and I've never once had them be anything but a rip-roaring success. A standard size bag of meatballs feeds a crowd as appetizers, though on occasion I have doubled up to serve a really huge party. They are really popular, so better to have too many. (At my last party, some of the guys had huge platefuls of them - it was basically their dinner.) If there are leftovers, you can put them on grilled buns for cool meatball sandwiches.

I have found it's best not to tell people what's in them until after they've had one ... because then they won't care.

Here's the "recipe".

Party Meatballs

One bag of frozen meatballs (around 50-60 meatballs) - plain or Italian style (your choice)

One 120z. bottle of Heinz chili sauce*

One 15oz (or so...regular size) jar of grape jelly

Pour the frozen meatballs into your crockpot. Don't even bother to thaw them. Pour over the whole jar of chili sauce, followed by the whole jar of grape jelly. I like to smoosh them around with a wooden spoon to "combine" here, mostly because it's nice to feel involved. They won't really combine until they melt, though.

Turn the crockpot on low, and cook for 1-2 hours until the meatballs are heated through and the sauce is combined. You'll want to stir them once or twice to help them along and make sure they're all evenly coated with sauce.

The meatballs will keep on warm for a couple of hours, at least.

Note: Can you make this on the stovetop? Sure. I'd just get a dutch oven, put the ingredients in and heat them up on as low a setting as my stove would go. The crockpot works better, I think, because you can make them before people arrive, then just keep them warm for folks to serve themselves.

*Chili sauce is in a glass jar near the ketchup and such. It looks like this:

Where's Foo Gone?

2009-11-05T17:19:00.001-08:00

If I appear to have dropped off the face of the Earth, here's the culprit.

It's called Dragon Age: Origins, and I would declare it a giant timesuck if I were not so mesmerized by it.

Honestly, to call this a video game is kind of doing it a disservice. It's a fantastical movie, and you happen to be in the middle of it. Truly, at one point I had tears in my eyes at a plot point, and I'm only a few hours in.

This game has everything: love, betrayal, honor, violence, death and yes, even sex.

That's right. You can flirt with, woo, and finally, bed one of your NPC (non-Player Character, for you non-gamers out there) party members. I am currently working hard on a cocky young knight named Alistair.

This game has all the right video game moves: great graphics, realistic-looking monsters, good combat tactics and lots of blood.

But so far, I'm loving the storyline; it's very rich and nuanced, and even at this early stage I'm seeing patterns that - as a writer - I'm rather impressed with. The characters I've run into so far have also been fairly richly written. (My knight, for instance, is definitely sarcastic and flip, but he's also loyal and kind and somewhat unsure of himself. It's hard to write a character who's that nuanced in general, and I think it's especially difficult in a video game. It's certainly unusual for the genre.)

Altogether, I'm loving this game. Which means you probably won't see me until I emerge a few weeks from now, grimy and bleary-eyed and married to Alistair.

Sorry about that.

To see what it's all about, watch the videos. I highly recommend the one that loads when you land on the page, and the one titled Sacred Ashes. (They have some of the same footage, but the last one is worth watching. When J saw it, he turned to me, wide-eyed, and said, "I would watch that movie!")

Restaurant Gary Danko

2009-11-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, my friends took me to dinner at Gary Danko for my 40th birthday. GD is one of the best, if not the best, restaurants in all of San Francisco, and after eating there, I can tell you this:

This was the best meal of my life. And I've eaten some good meals.

First of all, the atmosphere and service are nearly perfect. They knew exactly who we were and where we were at all times. They offered us drinks at the bar, and gave us little linen napkins and basically just made sure we were taken care of. The thing was, though, that even though the service was top-notch, it was very warm and friendly. You felt very welcome and very at ease. Our guys were even in jeans and no one so much as batted an eyelash. (I've been to other restaurants in the city where they looked down on me until I bought the expensive wine - then I was great!)

The other cool thing about GD is the menu. Basically, you choose the amount of courses you want - three, four or five - and they do have a tasting menu. What's cool, though, is that you can choose any type of course you want. If you want five meat courses or five desserts, they're fine with that - they just adjust the portions to match whatever course you're on.

Therefore, I ended up choosing mostly appetizers, which were more vegetarian-friendly. They also had a great vegetarian menu. I chose the five-course meal (it was my birthday, after all).

Here's what I had that night:

Fig salad with fennel

These figs were perfectly ripe, and just bite-sized. They were served on a bed of very thinly sliced fennel and red cabbage, and under there somewhere was a delicious, crispy crouton of some sort of brown bread. The whole thing was covered with a delectable balsamic reduction.

This was my friend Jason's appetizer - the crab salad.

Crispy egg with white polenta

This was without a doubt my favorite course of the night. That, people, is an egg. Yes, an egg. And not just any egg, but a perfectly poached, organically raised farm egg coated in a crispy panko crust. It's sitting on top of white polenta that were better than any grits I'd ever had. There were lots of other interesting bits in there - chanterelle mushrooms and green beans and some sort of rich sauce.

I have had dreams of this egg since. Unbelievable.

Risotto with butternut squash and chanterelles

My main dish was a beautiful risotto. It was well done, with just a bit of bite. The orange bits are actually butternut squash, and there's chanterelles and peas in there as well. You can barely discern a sheer green oil around it - that's thyme oil.

Cheese course

Gary Danko is famous for his cheese cart, and it did not disappoint. They roll out this enormous, marble-topped cart and you get to pick three or four. Since it was my birthday, I got five. Clockwise from the bread, I got: a triple creme Brillat Savarin; a manchego; a gruyere from a small purveyor in Switzerland; a Taleggio and GD's famous Roaring 40s bleu.

First, let me say, these people know how to treat and serve cheese. The Brillat Savarin was perfect, and the Taleggio was so ripe it was almost oozing. The gruyere was, honestly, the best cheese I've had in my life - and not just because I'm partial to Swiss cheese. It was nutty and tangy and had almost a cheddary feel to it. Just perfect. I wasn't as thrilled with the Manchego, but Manchego is hard to do well. And I liked the Roaring 40s bleu, until I tasted my friend Shawn's Buttermilk Blue. Unreal. Almost as good as the Swiss - but not quite.

Chocolate souffle with two sauces

I chose Gary Danko's signature dessert: a perfect, fluffy chocolate souffle. They poked a hole in it at the table and poured in chocolate fudge sauce and a vanilla creme anglaise. They also brought me the little lemon mousse dessert in back for my birthday. It came on a plate with Happy Birthday piped in chocolate, and had the fancy candle in it. It was delish; maybe even better than my souffle.

Finally, because we hadn't stuffed ourselves enough apparently, they brought us out a small tray of petit fours with our coffee (note the artistic photo of the coffee service). I only had one of the jellies, because I was fit to burst, but it was awesome.

To top it all off, they sent Marise and I home with one of these:

It was apparently a banana bread with banana cream filling. It was meant for our breakfast, but I was too overwhelmed by the dinner and a weekend of partying to be able to eat it, even on Sunday. I gave it to Jay, who said it was awesome.

All in all, really the best restaurant experience I've ever had, from the food, to the service to the atmosphere. They even had a cab waiting for me when I walked out the door.

And to be honest, for the amount of food that you get and the choices you're given, the price is very reasonable. So if you can get reservations, I recommend you go at least once. It really is the best restaurant in San Francisco.

It's NaNoWriMo Time!

2009-11-01T07:34:00.000-08:00

National Novel Writing Month is here!

For those who don't know NaNo, the name pretty much says it all: you write a novel this month. Specifically, you write 50,000 words of a novel this month. It comes down to about 1,700 words a day.

To win, you hit 50,000. That's it. No judging. No competing. Just get to 50K.

I've won the last two years in a row. What I love about NaNo is it takes away my inhibition. I don't worry so much about how crappy it sounds, because the point is just to get it on paper, to finish. I can clean it up later. It frees you up to actually write. In fact, I've found that my other writing got a lot better - even at work - after I NaNo'd, because I began treating first drafts as just that: a draft.

Since I know several new NaNo'ers this year, I thought I'd reprint some of the advice I've gleaned from the last two years:

1.) Write every day. Even if you can't get the 1666 words or whatever that you should be writing, do a little bit.

2.) Try not to fall too far behind. You'll definitely get bursts of energy where you write a lot in one day, but use those as "buffer" for when you get a low day. Don't count on them.

3.) Don't reread your previous pages! Yes, they do suck. Just keep going.

4.) If your story goes somewhere you didn't expect it to, let it. In my first year, I got about halfway through and almost stopped, because a minor character was becoming more important than the main character. Clearly, that was broken. My officemate said, "Maybe that's exactly what's supposed to happen", and so I kept going. And you know what? He was right.

5.) Don't be afraid to drop something. I didn't do this as much last year because I had an outline, but the first year I worked without an outline. A couple of times I found myself in a plotline that I just didn't like or that wasn't working for whatever reason. I just dropped the thread and picked up a new one. Remember, the goal is to get to 50K and get a draft that you can work with later, so if something's not working, don't start over. Just drop it and move forward.

Today's the first day of NaNo, so if you've always wanted to do it, just jump in! The water's great. Remember, it's about the process, so just see where your story takes you. I know I am...

Halloween Decorating: Tricker Treat!!

2009-10-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

First of all, yes, Mom. I know it's spelled "trick or treat". I just think it's funny to spell it phonetically. And by phonetically, I mean how I say it.

Well, I put off decorating to the very last minute, but I managed to dig out a box of Halloween goodness to throw all over my porch. Above is this year's Jack-o-Lantern, Ned. Please ignore Ned's pen ink moustache. He's sensitive about it.

Some more scenes from my porch (with really weird lighting - very Halloweeny, no?) below:

Giant candy bowl is outside, so that if I want Hershey's bars and Twizzlers, I have to go out on the porch for them. Since I'm currently munching on a Twizzler, I'm not sure how effective this plan is.

I found Mrs. Pumpkin-Head just languishing in my garage, so I hung her by the door. She's not as blue and washed-out as my bad photography makes her seem.

I've had this sign for years, though the best place for it means that "Witch Way" points away from my house, which is probably inaccurate.

Glamour shot of Ned, Mrs. Pumpkinhead and little Mexican paper mache pumpkin (Jose, I guess?). I line the steps with Mason jars filled with candles and candy corn. You can see three of them in this shot. That is, you can see them if you squint.

These pictures suck. Sorry. It looks nice, trust me.

Here's a shot of the Mason jar. The candies and candle wax fuse together to make a pile of mess that you'll never get out, so you might as well set them aside for next Halloween. Which is precisely what I did last Halloween.

Hopefully these decorations will lure the tricker treaters out of the woodwork, because I love them.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Halloween Decorating: Tabletop Graveyard

2009-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Meet my new favorite Halloween decoration: the Instant Cemetery!

I got this on Etsy, and if you don't already know Etsy, I'm really, really sorry for introducing you to your new addiction. It's this awesome site where people sell things they made by hand - anything from clothes to paintings to makeup to Instant Cemeteries!

This was made by Crafterella, and came packed in an adorable paint can. (It even had one of those paint can openers!) Each of the tombstones is drawn by her and then printed on heavy cardstock with a built-in stand thing on the back.

I like the fact that there are so many of them, because I love the look of things (books, candles, what have you) massed on a table. I have these on my dining room buffet, which has a mirrored back. Thus, you could probably blow these pictures up and see who I was murdering in my dining room.

Not that I'm murdering anyone in my dining room. Just saying.

What I'm Reading: Prodigal Son

2009-10-29T22:25:00.001-07:00

Yes, yes, I owe you a Gary Danko review post. It's coming soon, I swear. DO NOT DESPAIR.

In the meantime, let's play What's Foo Reading!

My mom recommended this book to me (which the librarian found funny for some reason), and of course, mom is usually right.

Prodigal Son is actually a novel by Dean Koontz, but he's teamed with a comic book artist to turn the story into a series of graphic novels. I usually don't consider myself cool enough for graphic novels, but picked this up at the Library by mistake.

The story is a modern-day "retelling" of the Victor Frankenstein story. It's interesting how Koontz sees Shelley's Frankenstein as essentially a utopian - someone who believes he can make a better world by cheating death. Koontz' Victor has survived to our time, and he still believes in a utopia - but the idea has gotten very twisted. I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say that Victor's gotten much better at his work since his original Monster.

Anyway, the art work is great, with buxom blonde ladies and strapping young men. Honestly, the whole thing is pretty bloody - I haven't decided if that's better in a graphic novel or not. Maybe it's worse when all the blood is in your head.

Anyway, my mom says the novel itself is worth reading, but I'm kind of hooked on the graphic novels now. If you read either, let me know what you think.

TWD: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

2009-10-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

I like the concept of Tuesdays with Dorie. I really do. But the practical aspects of baking a delicious new dessert every week - on top of trying to shed excess weight - is what gives me pause.

That's where I was when this week's choice came up: the Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte. It sounded scrumptious, but what was I going to do with a huge brownie torte in the house? I came this close to passing when I realized that this recipe fell on the same week as my birthday.

Voila! Instant birthday cake.

Note the mad birthday around the cake, in the form of copious beer bottles/wine glasses.

And thank goodness, too, because this thing was spectacular. For serious. One of the best things I've ever baked (and that's kinda saying something.)

The bottom layer is a dense, rich brownie, laced with dried cherries plumped in kirsch and glazed in cherry preserves. It's also dotted throughout the batter with chunks of bittersweet chocolate. The top layer is a mascarpone/cream cheese mousse. The creamy, barely-sweetened mousse is the perfect counterpoint to the sweet, heavy brownie.

In a word: Awesome.

It comes together fairly easily, but you have to plan ahead. I made the brownie in the morning, and the mousse about 5pm, and then stuck it in the fridge until my midnight serving time. Both the brownie and mousse are easy to make, but you have to give plenty of cooling off and resting time, and quite frankly, even after seven hours in the fridge the mousse was rather soft. The next morning for breakfast, though, the mousse was perfectly set. If When I try this again, I will plan to let it chill overnight.

I didn't make many substitutions, using the cherries and cherry preserves, along with the kirsch, but I could see using other dried fruits. I messed up shopping, though, and only got 8 oz. of mascarpone instead of the 12 the recipe called for; I made up the difference in cream cheese with no noticeable negative effect.

I used melted semi-sweet chocolate for the brownie (7 oz.) and a bittersweet bar to cut into chunks. I made big chunks, which surprised people when they bit into the cake. Most people liked the chocolate, but at least one thought it disrupted the texture. I might cut it a little smaller in the future.

All in all, everyone who tasted this raved about it. Considering how relatively easy it is and how special it feels, I'll definitely put this in my "make again" file.

This week's TWD was April of Short + Rose. You can find the step-by-step and recipe on her site.

The Birthday Finale

2009-10-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

So, I partied hard both Thursday and Friday. By the time my actual birthday rolled around, I was almost birthdayed out. But I managed to find the strength to go on...

Saturday, Day - Despite being up til nearly four, I rolled groggily out of bed at 9am. I was immediately greeted by a ton of text messages (thank God people have figured me out and no one actually called - I'm a text message kind of girl). There was a really sweet one from my Mom:

"I still remember the morning you were born..." followed shortly by: "Granted, it was a LOOONG time ago..."

Thanks, Mom.

Of all the Galacticans (our name for our gang of gaming geeks), David was the one with the longest drive home, so he'd just gotten a little motel down the street from the house. He and I met for breakfast. I took him to my favorite little Pacifica cafe - Nona's Kitchen - which is in a little shopping mall on the surfer's beach. They serve great homestyle food but with a gourmet twist.

I met David through our mutual friend Davy, at an all-day board game day, and he was one of those people I knew instantly would be my friend. Mostly though, our interactions were around gaming. It was unbelievably nice to spend two hours lingering over our coffee and just talking - about life, things he's done and seen, spirituality, and of course, gaming. It was kind of one of the highlights of my weekend.

After breakfast, I went back to bed. Ha!

Saturday, Evening - The finale: Restaurant Gary Danko. I got dressed up (sort of business casual, actually; GD is remarkably laid back to be so nice), and took the train into the city, then hopped into a cab to go across town to the restaurant.

(My cab driver, Josef, was from Ethiopia and hilarious. He would go from joking with and teasing me to screaming out the window at the next car. I gave him a big tip.)

There was no room at the bar when I arrived, so Marise, her boyfriend Jason and I stood in a corner drinking cocktails while we waited for Shawn. They seated us right at six.

I will do a full Gary Danko review soon (maybe later today). Fortunately, Jason's an awesome photographer so he took tons and tons of pictures. Not a single one has people in it, because none of us could focus on anything but the food.

The food! Our server, Michael, was fantastic, and they even had a special vegetarian menu that I could order from. I got a full five-course meal, although I ended up leaving some on my plate from each course. I had a fig salad with fennel and red cabbage; a crispy egg on a bed of polenta, chanterelles and deliciousness; perfectly-cooked risotto with butternut squash and peas; their cheese course (I got five choices because it was my birthday!); and dessert. For dessert, I had the chocolate souffle with two sauces, plus they brought out a little lemon dessert for my birthday. PLUS, I had two bellinis.

The conversation around the table was fun and warm and my friends (I think I may have mentioned this) are bloody awesome. It took three hours for us all to finish our meal, and then we all waddled home. (I got another great cab driver - this one a cranky old man from Russia.)

All in all, I'm going to call it:

This was the best. Birthday.

Ever.

More Birthdaying

2009-10-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

The celebrations started on Thursday, and continued on...

Friday, Day - I took Friday off, which is a treat unto itself. It was mostly quiet: shopping, straightening the house and cooking. I prepped my infamous Grape Jelly Meatballs, some olive cheese bread and brown sugar-macadamia-brandy-glazed brie (and of course, completely forgot pictures of all of them - sorry). I also made this week's Tuesdays with Dorie dessert as my birthday cake - a cherry-fudge brownie torte with mascarpone mousse topping. (I'm currently still in bed, trying hard to convince myself not to go down and cut a piece for breakfast, but that's a story for another day.)

Plus, I sent my mom flowers. Sending your mom flowers on your birthday is good karma.

Friday, Evening - This was what I'd been waiting for. You see, for several months now, a group of us has played the Battlestar Galactica Board Game together. We're kind of obsessed. It's one of those groups where we play the game to have fun, and not necessarily to decimate our opponents, so I love playing with them. However, there are seven of us and till now, we haven't all been able to play at once. The new expansion allows for seven players, though, and we'd waited months for the stars to align so we could all get in the room together. It just so happened to be on the night before my birthday.

So, everyone arrived with lots and lots of booze and lots and lots of food. My friend Risey brought fixings for bruschetta with carmelized onions, port and blue cheese which were out of this world, and my friend David picked up my favorite red velvet cupcakes. (And yes, our gaming group does eat better than most...) There was so much food that we didn't even bother ordering dinner.

Me and David (or "DJ David K"), whom I love even though he's always the Cylon/Bad Guy

Now, some of what happened during the evening won't make sense without some knowledge of the game, so bear with me. First, it's based on the new Battlestar Galactica show, so all the pictures on the cards are of the new actors. Basically, there are four types of characters you can play (pilot, military leader, etc.) and each type contains three different characters - each with their own abilities and drawbacks. At the beginning of the game, you choose who you want to be that game. Everyone usually chooses someone different each time we play.

The gang, arguing some obscure point that is crucial to the humans' survival...

Except me.

I always play Apollo. Always. It's because of his abilities and how I like to play, but the guys insist it's because he's cute. (Which, okay, fine...he is. But, still...) It's become a running joke now, to the point where I'm referred to as Jenna/Apollo - or "Slash" for short.

On a side note: choosing our characters was hilarious. What we do is lay out all the character cards and everyone decides their first choice. You put a token on your first choice; if two people want the same character, we roll for it - high roll gets to play the character. No one usually puts in against me for Apollo because a.) most people don't like playing pilots and b.) I'm Apollo, dammit.

So, I put down my token on Apollo, walked into the kitchen, and came back to find everyone else's token on Apollo, too. Bitches.

"Oh, hell no. Ya'll need to get your tokens off my boy!"

(And yes, of course, they let me play Apollo. It was my birthday, after all.)

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details of the game, but we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. And then the clock struck midnight. Yay! It was my birthday! Everyone immediately starting singing Happy Birthday, which was adorable.

Out came the torte (delicious) and a bottle of champagne, so we stopped for a "birthday break". At this point, I'm thinking the night is pretty much perfect and can't get any better. I'm totally unprepared for another surprise.

They'd been planning it secretly for a while, apparently. First, there was an adorable card filled with inside jokes about Apollo and gaming. I loved it. Inside the card was a gift certificate to a game store, because what else do you get a gamer for her birthday? Since I have a whole list of games I want, this is awesome.

But there was one more gift.

Remember, these guys are all about inside jokes, and they insist I'm all about Apollo. So, I unwrapped a framed picture of the guy who plays Apollo in a scene from the show, wearing nothing but a towel - and barely at that. They'd even added a cheeky "note" from "Apollo" - written to "Slash".

No caption necessary.

It was completely silly and completely perfect.

I can't tell you what a fun evening I had, and what a great start to the year this has been.

Risey, David, Davy, Shawn, Bryce and Sam - thank you. You guys are the very best.

Birthday Update, Part Two

2009-10-24T03:20:00.000-07:00

I've been 40 for just over 3 hours, and am so excited I can't sleep. Not because I'm excited about being 40, but because I feel great and loved and everything else you can think of that's good.

I'm too worn out to fiddle with the camera, but I do have some pictures I can post later. Still, I wanted to share what's been going on on my "birthday weekend extravaganza".

Thursday Day - We celebrated my birthday at work on Thursday, since I took Friday off. First, I was totally surprised when one of my friends, C, dropped by and handed me a wrapped package. Turns out, it was a book - an encyclopedia of mythical creatures from all over the world. I was spellbound by it all day. She said she actually saw it and thought of me, so she picked it up - not even knowing my birthday was near.

My friend M baked a cake for me, and we all shared it in the kitchen. It was my favorite - chocolate cake with white icing - and absolutely scrumptious. Plus, I have a soft spot for homemade cakes. When someone makes me a birthday cake - or I make one for someone - I think it feels really special. I felt special, at least.

Thursday Evening - At the end of the day, several of us walked over to Norton's Vault, a cool pub down the street from my office. I think this may be my go-to pub now. It has a great atmosphere - open and free-flowing, yet cozy at the same time. We started drinking Guinness, progressed to Irish whiskey, and then more and more and more people showed up. Altogether, there were almost 20 people who came to wish me "happy birthday", including several who don't normally do happy hour-type things. Everyone was super nice, and kept telling me how great I looked and I didn't look 40, etc. Not sure if they were stretching the truth or not (don't people always have to say that?), but it felt good nonetheless.

(Also, one friend from another department hadn't seen me in a couple of months, and she was so tickled over my weight loss that I got tickled, too.)

I mingled around the table, I drank whiskey, and I shined my light, which I haven't necessarily in a while.

To say I felt great is a mild understatement.

I even made a new friend - a woman invited by one of the guys whom I instantly connected with. We rode the train home together, and she gave me the warmest hug before her stop.

Yes, definitely a good day.

I'm getting sleepy now (finally), so I'll pick up tomorrow with the story of the even MORE awesome day I had on Friday...

Birthday Update

2009-10-22T07:06:00.001-07:00

So, I finally made a decision on my birthday plans for this Saturday. In fact, the celebrations begin today:

Thursday - I'm going out for drinks after work at Norton's Vault with a bunch of co-workers. There's also a rumor that there may be cake at work.

Friday - Taking the day off to do some napping and cooking. My "boys" (the guys - and one girl - I game with) are coming over after work. We'll order a feast of pizza and/or chinese, break out the bubbly and the Red Bull, and play Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game all night long. Yes, I am that geeky.

Saturday: I'll go from immature to very mature, by ending the celebrations with a fancy meal at Restaurant Gary Danko, along with three close friends.

Looking forward to it!

TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

2009-10-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

This week was my first week baking for Tuesdays with Dorie, and this week's recipe was...

Sweet Potatah Biskits

(That's the proper, phonetic Southern spelling, of course. Dorie spells them "right".)

Funnily enough, I recently tested a recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits for a well-known cooking mag, and as yummy as they were, I threatened to never make them again. Between all the steaming and mashing of sweet potatoes, and the sticky, sticky dough, they were a fracking pain in the butt.

Dorie gets around all that by using canned ... yes, canned ... sweet potatoes. Not only did I appreciate the workaround, but my mom uses canned sweet potatoes in her casserole at Thanksgiving, so there was a bit of nostalgia going on, too. And nostalgia in the kitchen is always a good thing, far as I'm concerned.

These came together quickly, partly because of this shortcut, and I got them in the oven without too much trouble. (The dough is still sticky, but that's somewhat to be expected with biskits.) After I cut out my first biscuits and patted it back into a rectangle a second and third time, I did end up with a tad of leftover dough, but I also ended up with the recipe-specified 18 biscuits, so that's good.

As you can see above, these are not tall biscuits and they're not flaky-style ones, either. Mine baked up fairly flat, though they were moist and tender. Some of the other TWD bakers were offended by this, but I thought they were a good country-style biscuit.

The taste is ... okay. Lots of sweet potato taste, and I actually did taste a lot of butter. (Though that could be because I eat a lot less fat now and my tastes have changed.) I added both cinnamon and nutmeg, but couldn't really taste them and thought that overall the biscuits tasted a little flat. I might up the spices if I made these again.

Finally, I froze half of them (Dorie says you can freeze them for up to 2 months), since I couldn't eat them all myself and they don't keep that well. I'll let you know how the frozen ones do once I bake them up...whenever that is.

Overall, a good recipe, especially because it can be made quickly and with pantry ingredients. I loved it as an accompaniment to fall soups. I would definitely make this again.

This week's recipe was chosen by Erin of Prudence Pennywise. You can get the recipe there, along with her own recipe for sweet potato rolls. Otherwise, it's on page 26 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

What I'm Reading: Baking from my Home to Yours

2009-10-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been wanting to do a regular "What I'm Reading" feature, and this is as good a place to start as any.

And while we're starting stuff, let's start with a confession: I read cookbooks in bed. Yes. Cookbooks. It helps me fall asleep. There's a stack of 5 cookbooks on one side of my bed as we speak.

Anyhoo, I added this book to the stack mostly because I decided to start doing Tuesdays with Dorie. This is essentially a group of bloggers who are baking their way through this very book. They choose a new recipe to make every week, and then you bake it, take photos and post your experience with it on your blog. They've already gone through a lot of the book, but I figured starting late was better than starting never, right?

My first recipe was this past week, the sweet potato biscuits; I'll post those tomorrow. This week's recipe, which I hope to make for my birthday party, is a chocolate cherry brownie torte with a mascarpone mousse top layer. (Umm...hello?? Yum!)

Overall, I'm quite enamored with the book. It's one of those few cookbooks where nearly every recipe is something I'd actually want to eat. She doesn't go for a lot of the fancy pants desserts - there are a lot of chunky cookies, mile-high layer cakes and the like. They don't all have pictures, but the ones that do are usually big and bold and delicious-looking. There's a photo of a chocolate brownie cake with a carmel and salted peanut topping that I can't get out of my mind...

I'm not as impressed with her writing in the introductions to the recipes. She doesn't have the graceful pen of a Nigella Lawson or the honest voice of an Ina Garten. But she does seem to write solid recipes and again, the kinds of recipes a home cook could really make.

I'll have to make a few more of the recipes to tell if they're as foolproof as some of my favorite cookbook authors (like Ina Garten), but so far, I'm a fan of Dorie.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

2009-10-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in this post, I'm on the hunt for orange Fall soups, and apparently, they're hard to come by. Even though it's Fall. Go figure. So, I spent some time this Sunday afternoon and made a big pot for the coming week.

It was simple enough to make, and pretty healthy, especially since I used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. There was a bit of cream (as you can see from the pretty splashies above), but only 1/4 cup for a huge pot of soup, and it really needed it.

Basically you take 3 pounds of butternut squash...

...and cut it into chunks. Not as hard as I expected, because the recipe suggested a trick: lay it on its side and lop off both ends. Then cut in it in two between the neck and the bulbous part of the squash. Then you can turn the pieces right side up, and use a vegetable peeler to peel them. Cut the pieces in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Voila! All peeled, seeded, and ready to cut into chunks and roast.

Anyway, recipe is below. And here it is in its cup, prior to being in my belly. The craggy biscuits next to it are the Sweet Potato Biscuits I made for Tuesdays with Dorie ... but I'll talk about those on Tuesday.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash (about 3 pounds), peeled, seeded and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks.

3 medium shallots, peeled and quartered

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 cup heavy cream

Adjust oven rack to center and heat oven to 450 degrees. Toss squash, shallots, oil, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large roasting pan, then spread them into a single layer. Roast, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are golden brown and soft, around 45 minutes. Add 1/2 cup broth to pan and scrape up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. Return to oven and cook until liquid has reduced and vegetables are glazed, about 5 minutes.

Working in two batches, puree squash mixture with remaining broth until smooth. (You can also use an immersion blender.) Transfer puree to large saucepan and stir in syrup, vinegar, nutmeg, and cream. Bring soup to simmer over medium-low heat, adding 1/4 cup of water at a time, if necessary, to adjust consistency.

Note: I like this recipe, but it's very shalloty. I don't mind the taste of onion/shallots, but I thought the roasted shallots were TOO pronounced, so I'd actually cut back to only one or two next time.

Lunchtime at the Farmer's Market

2009-10-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this post by explaining that I am currently obsessed - obsessed - with orange soups. To blame for my current issue is the San Francisco Soup Company, which has branches all over downtown San Francisco, including one within spitting distance of the door of my building.

They have amazing orange soups: roasted pumpkin, Caribbean sweet potato, curried butternut squash. Seriously awesome. I've been known to walk across town to get to the one store carrying roasted pumpkin when our store was out.

Yet for some reason, they won't serve them, even though it's clearly the season for them. Every day I check the specials board and every day there's chilled gazpacho, and no orange soup. Chilled gazpacho in October in San Francisco, guys? Really?

So, to hell with the San Francisco Soup Company. Stupid San Francisco Soup Company. I'll make it myself.

Fortunately, on my lunch break, I can walk straight down California street and wind up here:

The Ferry Building, which hosts a ginormous farmer's market every Saturday, and two smaller ones on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's very small on Thursdays, but I found one booth called Thomas Farm Organic that had everything I wanted. Namely...

I got butternut squash for my curried butternut squash soup, but these sweet dumpling squashes looked pretty. Must be murder to peel, though.

What in the world are jelly potatoes? I didn't know, but I needed them. Really, really needed them. I got a pound.

These Thomas guys thought of everything. I picked up some fancy dahlias to go.

There are worse ways to spend your lunch hour, especially on a day like today - that couldn't decide if it was going to be sunny or rainy, and finally, gloriously, decided on sunny.

Halloween Decorating: Vomiting Pumpkin

2009-10-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

Aw... Poor Mr. Pumpkin had a tad too much to drink on Halloween night.

Who could blame him really? If you had your insides scooped out and a candle stuck up your butt, you'd get a little drunk, too.

This centerpiece is beyond cute, and you can eat the vomit! Bonus!

Frat Boy Jack is SUPER simple to make. I used a mini pumpkin, which I thought worked really well on the buffet table, but I suppose you could use any sized pumpkin.

1.) Prep the pumpkin like you would any normal jack-o-lantern.

2.) With a sharp paring knife, cut two "X"s for eyes. (You will want to cut them a little wider than single lines, just so you'll be able to see them from afar.)

3.) Cut a large rectangle for the mouth.

4.) Position the pumpkin at the back of a large platter.

5.) Take a tub of hummus, and spread a little around the mouth. Then, pour the hummus onto the platter so it appears to be coming from Jack.

Note: I've seen people add a smidge of green food coloring to make the "puke" look green, but I thought it was fine as is.

6.) Add plenty of crackers or pita wedges to the platter, and serve. Preferably with a beer bong.

The Big Fat Four-Oh

2009-10-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

I’m turning 40.

There, I said it. YEAH, I SAID IT!

I mean, it’s not like people don’t at least suspect, right? I do have an 18-year-old daughter. Unless I had her at twelve (and I am from the South, so you never really know), you can kinda do the math.

(Unless you’re really bad at math, and if so I completely empathize with you. You and I were busy in school learning other stuff. BETTER stuff.)

Despite the combative nature of the Post So Far, I’m feeling oddly blasé about the number itself. I mean, I think I look fairly decent for my age, with only a few wrinkles to show for it. I am pretty happy with my life as it stands, and while I haven’t accomplished world domination (sadly) or sold a novel, I do feel like I’ve done and seen a lot.

You know what’s bothering me? The birthday. The ACTUAL day. Now, I love birthdays, and I usually don’t let mine pass without marking “Jenna Day” on people’s calendars and at least making sure to gorge myself on cake. And usually, celebrating on days other than THE date is totally cool.

But this one – the day of - feels like a big deal. More importantly, it feels like I need to make a big deal out of it, or I’ll sit at home feeling sorry for myself.

The original plan was simple: spend the evening with my very closest friends at one of the best restaurants in San Francisco: Gary Danko. Got reservations two months in advance, and was all set.

Then Life happened. (Thanks, Life. You’re great.) Fully half my very best friends had to pull out - all for very good reasons. And while there will be other celebrations (had the first of them last Saturday night – til 3am! Wheee!), I have to decide what to do with that night.

Right now, I can continue out with a smaller group to Gary Danko. Which would be great to cover for this blog. However, there is another, tantalizing option: I could take the Monday after my birthday (a Saturday) off, and go up to Mendocino for two days. Just me, the dog, a cute cottage and plenty of nice restaurants and spas. Mendocino would also be great to cover for the blog. (It would also, if we're being honest, not cost much more than GD.)

Cue: decision paralysis.

It’s not that I’m that upset about turning 40.

It’s that I hate making decisions. I am the master at avoiding decisions. Stupid decisions.

Want to make my decision for me? (You won’t be able to but good on ya for giving it the old college try, to mix cultural catchphrases.) Comment below!

The Annual Plum Cake

2009-10-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

This plum cake is so delicious, I don't know why I only make it once a year. I do, actually. I'm not huge on plums. If I do buy them, I'll only buy a couple at a time. I'm not going to go out of my way to buy enough to make a cake out of them.

Except, inevitably, I do ... mostly because someone gives me a carload of plums from their backyard, and I have to figure out what in Hades I'll do with them all.

Enter the Barefoot Contessa's "Plum Cake Tatin":

I can't express how good it is. Every year, I make it and think "I should make this all the time!" That sums it up. I never do, but still...

Basically, the halved (and pitted, natch) plums are placed cut side down in the pie plate, like so:

Then a hot, sugary caramel is poured over them, and over that is a rich, citrusy cake. After it's baked, you turn it upside down, cover it in powdered sugar and chow down. The cake is light, airy and moist, and the caramel brings out the sweetness in the plums.

It's awesome with a cup of tea.

I coulda taken a rag to the edges of that platter, huh? Geez.

Anyway, you can find the Barefoot Contessa's recipe here. I'd highly recommend it, and more than once a year.

Note: If you follow the link to the Food Network site, go to the Comments & Reviews section. Several reviewers of this dish suggested using different fruits, and I have to say, the cake (which has a slight citrus flavor) is well-designed to handle different fruits. I may try it with something other than plums.