TWD: The Perfect Party Cake

Ta-da. My first recipe with Tuesdays with Dorie. I will be posting about a recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours twice a month with several other baking enthusiasts who also have blogs. It's a nifty idea, and I'm happy to be baking something new and different this often. This week's recipe, Perfect Party Cake was chosen by Carol from mix, mix...stir, stir.

Finally, it was a sunny weekend in Brooklyn. David and I spent it at a pub crawl in Carroll Gardens, doing laundry (joy), and buying delicious food. We bought some homemade pickles and thai-flavored cashews while we waited for our clothes to shrink...I mean, dry. I was just getting ready to make the Perfect Party Cake when I realized my other 9x2 inch cake pan was missing. Sigh. It's been missing since Anne Marie and I made Valentine's brownies in it....over two years ago. Apparently, it's been that long since I made a cake. Welcome back to cake-baking, Jana. Why, thank you.

I have a fear of egg whites. It all goes back to the time I made Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything for pancakes that called for egg whites, and instead of them turning out super fluffy, they were super flat.

Don't mess with a girl's breakfast. (not Bittman's fault, my own)

Anyway, I may have overcome my fear of egg whites (I'm at least on the road to recovery). This recipe called for me to use a double boiler to melt sugar and egg whites to create a meringue and after some agonizing whisking (David had to relieve me at some point), I had created a solid. woo woo.

I have no idea how David and I are going to eat all of this cake, but I'm sure we will manage somehow. Off to Oregon to see David's family this weekend...

October in June, mostly an update

It feels like October in New York right now. blegh. It has rained for countless days, and I would like to shed my pashminas and cardigans for Coronas at Coney Island and drippy ice cream cones. Thank you very much.

Possible part-time job may be another freelance job, but I need to put a proposal together before it's a go. Lots of details to be ironed out, but if that doesn't pan out...I may be behind a coffee counter again. woo.

Just signed up for Tuesdays with Dorie, (I think? but I think it will take a bit to get added to the blog roll), so I will be baking recipes from her book as well starting next week.

Finally joined a book club, and we had our first meeting at Elsa's last Friday after reading Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.  Highly recommend this book; I couldn't put it down. I'm just about to finish Empire Falls by Richard Russo, and I recently read his latest, Bridge of Sighs. Love his style so -- his books are like wrapping your hands around a warm cup of coffee. 

June has been a bit of a blur so far. David and I were in New Orleans the 4th - 7th for Johanna's wedding, which ended up being a fantastic weekend. My parents were there as well, since the Hills are our oldest family friends. We met when my family and I lived in Baton Rouge when I was little, and we continued to stay close friends even after my family and I moved to Chicago, then to Charlotte. Johanna, Miss Karen and my mother and I would meet in Florida when we were visiting our grandmothers a couple of times and year, and when Johanna graduated from college she came to visit me in England (where I was studying abroad at the time). At that point, we hadn't since each other since we were 16, but we didn't miss a beat.

I feel truly lucky that she and I are still close friends, and it's crazy to think I was just a bridesmaid in her wedding. I feel like we were just six, with messy ponytails and smocked dresses.

Here is a recipe from the bridal brunch, which was held at Brennan's. mmm. I love New Orleans.

Brennan's Bananas Foster

1/4 cup (1/2 stick)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 cup banana liqueur

4 bananas cut in half lengthwise, then halved

1/4 cup dark rum

4 scoops of vanilla ice cream

Combine the butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a flambe pan or skillet. Place the pan over low heat either on an alcohol burner or on top of the stove, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the banana liqueur, then place the bananas in the pan. When the banana sections soften and begin to brown, carefully add the rum. Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot, then tip the pan slightly to ignite the rum. When the flames subside, lift the bananas out of the pan, and place four pieces over each portion of ice cream. Generously spoon the warm sauce over the top of the ice cream and serve immediately. 

CREDIT: This recipe was reprinted from the Brennan's website.

Kitchen This

I have a list of things I need to do. Mainly, I need a part-time job. I have been saying this since I moved to New York, but really...I am going to suck it up. I just got done reading the last lecture and Randy Pausch tells this story about a woman (maybe an old girlfriend?) who was worried about money and went to yoga class every Tuesday to de-stress. He finally pointed out that if she quit going to yoga on Tuesdays and got a part-time job, she would be able to pay off her debts. She did, and I will. Sigh. New York, why you gotta be so expensive? 

I shared pictures of my kitchen from my past apartment, but this time the pegboard was a necessity due to space. My inspiration came from Julia Child's kitchen, pictured below. 

I'm off to Johanna's wedding in New Orleans next weekend, and I will be posting something delicious in the meantime. I admit, we have reverted back to take-out more lately. I think I am still getting used to our tiny kitchen:).  

Image from NPR.org (also posted on happylivingdesign.typepad.com)

Our kitchen, below. Thoughts on painting the board? 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Scones

1 dozen scones

4 cups bleached all-purpose flour

4 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups “quick-cooking” (not “instant”) rolled oats

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size chunks

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream, or more as needed

2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

About 1/3 cup granulated sugar, for sprinkling on the tops of the unbaked scones

 

Mix the dough

In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar. Mix in the rolled oats. Drop in the chunks of butter and, using a pastry blender or two round-bladed knives, cut the fat into the flour mixture until reduced to pearl-size pieces. Further reduce the fat to smaller flakes, using your fingertips. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. Pour the egg and cream mixture over the flour mixture, scatter the chocolate chips over, and stir to form a dough. The dough will be dense but moist. (If the dough seems a bit dry—due to the absorption quality of the flour or if the day is cold and arid—work in a little more heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.)

 

Knead and refrigerate the dough

Knead the dough lightly in the bowl for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Divide the dough in half and form each half into an 8 to 8 1/2-inch disk. Refrigerate the disks, wrapped in waxed paper, for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line 2 heavy cookie sheets or rimmed sheet pans with lengths of cooking parchment paper.

 

Form and top the scones

Place each disk of dough on a lightly floured work surface, and using a chef’s knife, cut into 6 pie-shaped wedges. As the scones are cut, press in any chips that may stick out of the sides. Transfer the scones to the prepared pans, placing them 3 inches apart. Assemble 6 scones on each pan.

Sprinkle a little sugar over the top of each unbaked scone.

 

Bake and cool the scones

Bake the scones in the preheated oven for 19 to 20 minutes, or until set and baked through. Begin checking the scones at 18 minutes. Transfer the pans to cooling racks. Let the scones stand on the pans for 2 minutes, then carefully remove them to cooling racks, using a wide offset metal spatula. Cool. Serve the scones freshly baked.

 Bake-and-serve within 1 day

 Style:

For Big Oatmeal-Walnut-Chocolate Chip Scones, scatter 2/3 cup chopped walnuts over the dough mixture along with the chocolate chips.

For Big Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Scones, substitute 14 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, for the semisweet chocolate chips.

 Credit: Chocolate Chocolate; Lisa Yockelson; Wiley

R.I.P. Couch

“Are you sure you want to keep that?” “Where do you expect we will put this?” “Don’t we already have three of these?” In David’s case, he keeps everything (as does my father), in my case, I try to get rid of things—or as my mother would say, “pitch it.”

I knew this about David when we moved in together. I was aware.

(the packing process)

Me: I slam a box full of crap into the car and get in the passenger seat.

David: Looks at me with complete disdain. “Do you even know what was in the box under the one you just slammed on top of it?

Me: “Um. It’s fine.”

David: “No. It’s not,” he says, as he points to the now de-spiked figure of a Japanese dragon his parents brought us from Japan last summer.

Me: Yikes.

Relationship conversation ensues.

David: Be more careful.

Me: Don’t be so uptight.

Then, there was the couch.

We loved our couch. We did. Apparently, people these days don’t need couches. People are all set with couches. So, after a month of posting on Craigslist, one potential scammer, two price reductions, and several emails with slightly interested buyers, we decided to give it away.

Easy.

Wrong.

I called Salvation Army. They didn’t have room for a couch. I called the Hoboken homeless shelter. They told me to call social services. I called social services. They told me to call Salvation Army. This 9ft beast was starting to get to me. By this time, the girl who moved into our room sent us an email and told us to quit being “ignorant” and get the couch out of the apartment. Wonderful.

Monday. We decided to do what any self -respecting citizen would do. Put it on the curb and drive away quickly. It was pouring, but David was going to pick me up from work and we were going to carry it outside. David got into a car accident leaving Newark, so… This made the week..stressful. He’s okay…the car isn’t.

Tuesday. I recruit three of my co-workers, and as we try to get this beast out of our old apartment my old landlord knocks on the door. Wonderful. We scratched the wood. We scratched the floors. We barely got it out the door. We set it in front of the strip of stores next to our old building and….walked away very quickly.

I am happy to say we are fully moved in. We are bumming it around Park Slope finally feeling like our apartment is ours.

I don’t want to move for a long time.

As promised, here are some pics of the process. Don't the shelves look a-mazing?? More to come.

Below is a recipe from Ellie Krieger, one of my new favorite cookbook authors. I saw this magazine (goodbye Jersey City A&P) in the grocery store and ended up shopping for ingredients for the recipes right then and there. It's easy and low fat, as are most of Ellie's recipes. woo. Bikini season.

Recipe: Arugula, Caramelized Onion, and Goat Cheese Pizza

The key to this pizza is cooking the onions very slowly over low heat so the sugars develop and caramelize. Their sweet flavor and purple color is the perfect foil for the peppery ribbons of arugula and tangy, creamy goat cheese. 

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 medium red onion, cut in half and thinly sliced into half-moons

4 cups arugula, washed, dried, and coarsely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Four 6-inch-diameter whole wheat tortillas

2 ounces fresh goat cheese, preferably reduced-fat

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until golden and the edges are browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the arugula and cook until it is wilted about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. 

Place the tortillas on a baking sheet and top each one with the arugula mixture. Crumble the goat cheese over each and bake until the tortillas are crisp and the cheese is slightly melted, about 10 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then cut each pizza into 4 wedges and serve. 

Credit: Eat Smart with Ellie Krieger, from the publishers of Fine Cooking --featuring recipes from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

Love this video: Get excited about BabyCakes!!

BabyCakes, the Book of Recipes: It's Here (Almost)! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

Rambling: Freshness and Safeness

I gave a homeless man an Altoids container filled with change on the train this morning. I sat down one seat away from him, and he asked me if my coffee was delicious and if my neighborhood was safe. I told him “yes.” I often pay for things small like coffee and drinks with change and I keep it in this Altoids container—this comes from waiting tables and trying to avoid loose change in my apron. Really though, after I answered him I realized, what more could I ask for on a rainy Wednesday? My neighborhood is safe and my coffee was good.

I don’t even know if he realized there was change in the container, because as I was getting off the R train, he yelled at me “Are these supposed to make your breath fresh?” Oh well. I hope he buys himself his own delicious cup of coffee.

David and I are in the new apartment. My camera cord is buried in the boxes somewhere, so more on those pics later. We still have some random things at the Hoboken apartment, and although it has been listed on Craigslist for nearly a month, we have no takers for our enormous couch. Salvation Army may be coming to visit us soon. Free pick-up is amazing.

Oh. Life List just got a little more exciting. I drove in Manhattan by myself yesterday. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal for some people…but I felt like a superhero. I think I can do pretty much anything now.

Champagne recipe in celebration of the move and being 27. Ta-da.

Recipe: Springtime Sparkler

Something a little fancy for spring…

2 scoops lemon sorbet, softened

1 to 2 ounces Hendricks gin (while you may use another gin, Hendricks has some rose notes that accent this cocktail nicely)

½ ounce St. Germane Elderflower liqueur (optional) champagne

3 to 4 edible flowers (can sometimes be found in the produce section of grocery stores)

Scoop the lemon sorbet into a tall cocktail glass. Add the gin and elderflower cordial (if desired). Top with champagne and stir. Top with edible flowers, and serve with a spoon and straw.

Credit: 101 Champagne Cocktails by Kim Haasarud (Wiley 2008; photography by Alexandra Grablewski)