kale salad with pecorino and walnuts

This kale salad with pecorino and walnuts, from Smitten Kitchen, was the last thing I made before I left for a 2 week trip to Shanghai to visit Drew. 

I had just returned from a 10 day trip to Chicago and Minnesota, and after eating anything and everything, I was in need of some detoxing (though I think the cheese and walnuts defeated the purpose here). The salad was super salad and a breeze to put together. I like kale, but usually when I make it, I just saute it and that gets boring, so I'm glad to have another way to eat it. 

funfetti cookies

You know that 'birthday cake' flavor? 

I love it. 

I don't know why. 

For some reason, I've never tried to emulate it at home. Until now.

I stumbled across this recipe for Funfetti cookies. I had the feeling that they might be like the birthday cake flavor I adore, and I was right. Apparently, the secret is a combination of vanilla extract and almond extract. 

Well, guess it's not such a secret now.

I really liked these cookies. They were soft and buttery, and I know sprinkles are weird and artificial, but they're so festive and fun! These cookies were a great way to use them up. 

  

tomato basil pizza

Judging by the content of food blogs and food magazines, you'd think every gardener had bumper crops of tomatoes, but that's not the case with me. Not exactly. 

I have two tomato plants, both volunteers, and one is about 3 times the size of the other. So I guess I have like one and a third tomato plants, not two. Until the past week or so, I was fighting with the snails, who liked to eat chunks out of each tomato just as they turned red (the tomatoes, not the snails). I have no idea what happened to the snails (I was not doing anything to get rid of them), but now I'm relieved that I can finally allow the tomatoes to ripen on the vine and stop picking them as soon as they turn the faintest shade of red. 

In contrast to past years, I haven't bothered to keep track of the garden's productivity. I have no idea how many pounds of tomatoes each plant produces, but I estimate that every week or so, I find myself trying to figure out what to do with the ones that just seemingly appear on my windowsill.  

Last weekend, I made pizza, which was, for the most part, from the Pioneer Woman's recipe (though the crust is from the Smitten Kitchen. While the tomatoes marinate in balsamic vinegar, sauteed garlic, and basil, I par-baked the crust and then assembled the bottom layers of the pizza-- pesto, parmesan, and mozzarella. I returned the pizza to the oven to melt the cheese, then topped it with tomatoes, and returned it to the oven long enough to warm the tomatoes. 

The pizza must have been good because, and this is embarrassing to admit, I ate it in two sittings. 

raspberry cheesecake brownies

I love cheesecake brownies, but oddly, I don't make them that often. I had a craving for them last week and so I had to make them. The recipe is from Baking Illustrated, and the raspberry addition is my own (I dolloped raspberry jam alongside the cream cheese mixture). These are really good, but there's just not enough cream cheese mixture, but fortunately, the raspberry jam makes up for it,  

mushroom pasta

I moved a couple weeks ago, and I'm glad to report that I'm all settled in. Moving is hard, and I'm pretty sure it's rarely fun. Anyway, you learn some stuff about yourself when you move, like where your priorities lie. It took me almost an entire day to unpack the kitchen, but only an hour to unpack my clothes. 

You also make some strange discoveries that leave you shaking your head and muttering "why? why?" I mean, whose idea was it to buy Nutella from Costco? (I might have had something to do with that decision, but, of course, the thing to do is to blame the person who is not there to defend himself.) And, how many containers of sprinkles does one need? In case you're wondering, the answer is, apparently, 7.    

It was sad to leave the old place, but since it was scheduled for remodeling, I had no choice but to move. The new place is small and cozy, and I love all the natural light (the old place got no light at all, and we affectionately refer to it as "The Dungeon"). We also have a porch for plants, herbs, and lettuce.

And did I tell you that I grew pumpkins in my garden? They're currently curing on the porch. My grandparents (who used to grown tons of pumpkins, and really big ones!) would be so proud.

Now that I've moved, all the personal stuff in my life has calmed down. First it was Drew leaving for China for a year, and then it was packing, moving, and unpacking. So now, basically all I've been doing is working. But, I still have to eat, right?  

I came across this recipe for mushroom pasta in the Los Angeles Times last week, and I was inspired to make it right away. It was easy to make, but it wasn't actually that good. Or bad. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. Oh well, not every recipe can be a keeper.

chocolate kahlua cake

I don't know how this happened, but somehow, I ended up with a bottle of Kahlua. I don't know where it came from. Maybe leftover from a party a long time ago? 

I do know, however, how I ended up with rum, amaretto, brandy, and hazelnut liqueur. Sometimes I bake with booze*, but I end up with a lot of leftovers because 1) recipes don't call for that much alcohol and 2) Drew and I don't really drink at home (unless it's wine for me). 

But back to the mystery Kahlua. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm moving and I'm trying to clean out the kitchen. I tasted the Kahlua, and it was still good (full disclosure: I tasted it after drinking a glass of wine), so I decided that I had to use it. I did some quick browsing on the internet to see what kinds of things I could bake with Kahlua. I came across this recipe, and while I normally don't just dive into recipes by unknown blogs (uh, unknown by me, that is) without some sleuthing, I made an exception because it called for 3/4 of a cup of Kahlua, and guess what? That's exactly how much Kahlua I had. 

It was fate.

Or destiny.

Or whatever.

The Collegiate Baker's recipe is for a layer cake with frosting and chocolate curls, which looks lovely, but I made mini cakes instead because they are easier to share. As I was mixing the ingredients, I thought to myself "This better be good; I'm using the fancy cocoa powder!" And it was; the Kahlua was subtle, and the cake was rich and chocolate-y.

*I bake with bourbon too, but I must bake with it more frequently because there never seem to be leftovers. 

olive lentil burgers

I'm moving in a couple of weeks, and I'm trying to use up the food in the kitchen. Even though I'm not moving very far (it's only about a 5 minute walk from my current place), I'll be sharing kitchen space with a roommate now (a friend from my program), and I don't want to take it all up. 

So, these olive lentil burgers were a great opportunity to use up the kalamata olives, lentils, and panko that were hanging around. The recipe was from Post Punk Kitchen, a vegan website, but as these were baking up, all I could think was "oooh, these would be so good with swiss cheese." I don't think that's what they had in mind, but I was right.

My garden has been steadily producing tomatoes lately, so I made tomato jam over the weekend. On it's own, it's a bit too sweet for me (I think Drew would think it's perfect though), but fortunately you're not supposed to eat it on its own, and it was perfect on this burger. Tomato jam tasted like ketchup, except infinitely better. 

cheddar onion rolls

My mom used to say that I bake (or cook) for compliments. I'd be lying if I said she was wrong. Growing up, whenever I made something, I'd subtly fish for compliments, asking everyone if they enjoyed whatever it was that I made. 

I don't really do this anymore.

Not really.

Because sometimes, you just know if it's good. 

As I've mentioned before, I run most Sunday mornings with a running group, and we follow up our run with breakfast. Most of the time, we eat out, but sometimes, we stay in and cook. Last weekend, we did just that, and for the occasion, I made cheddar onion rolls, from the Smitten Kitchen's cookbook. 

And they were really good.

But, I had the feeling they would be. As I was grating the onion, I thought to myself "these are going to be so good. Everyone's going to love these." 

And they did. 

stir fried tomatoes and eggs

Drew and I were introduced to stir fried tomatoes and eggs when we were in Beijing together, 3 years ago. I believe it was our first meal there. Since then, I've tried my best to replicate this dish, but nothing I've made compares to what we ate in Beijing.

Drew has been in Beijing for 2 weeks now, and he's eaten this dish many times, sometimes with rice and sometimes with noodles. So in his honor, and because my tomatoes suddenly began ripening all at once, I made this a couple times last week. It's a very simple dish- just tomatoes, eggs, scallions, salt, pepper, and sugar. It doesn't really require a recipe, but I used this one, from Appetite for China. It was good, but definitely not as good as the versions I ate in Beijing. 

frosted sugar cookies

I have a confession to make.

You know those frosted sugar cookies packaged up in plastic and decorated with their seasonal sprinkles? 

I love them. 

Shhhhh. 

I'm not sure where the fascination comes from. I think they're tied to memories of Girl Scout camp, when I was a counselor. I think I ate my fair share in the staff house. 

And now, I see them taunting me in Target, but I find the willpower to resist. I'm always tempted, but I just can't buy them. I try my best to steer clear of pre-packaged foods with ingredients I can't pronounce and these cookies have so many preservatives that they last long enough to go on sale long after the holiday they were intended for has passed. 

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I found a recipe and immediately made them. A lot of them. The recipe calls for one stick of butter, and upon seeing this, I thought 1) whoa, only one stick of butter? and 2) whoa, since when did I become Paula Deen? 

I loved these cookies. They're soft and fluffy, and hit the spot. 

a week of smitten kitchen

After eating this pasta every day for a week, it didn't take me long to realize that I need to cut recipes in half. 

That strategy worked. 

Sort of. 

It just meant that I ate ratatouille 3 days in a row. 

And after that, corn risotto-stuffed poblanos for another 3 days. I'll get the hang of this someday.

The recipes this week are all from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite cooking blogs. Deb Perelman writes the best stories to go with each recipe, takes great pictures, and I think she's funny and down to earth. Both of these recipes are from her new cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. 

To accompany my poblanos, I made black beans. I winged it here and simmered black beans in veggie broth, sauteed onions, garlic, and cumin. Drew would be so proud of me for forgoing a recipe (though doing so was admittedly difficult). I also added a couple chopped tomatoes, fresh picked from the garden.

In addition to the ratatouille and poblanos, I also made vinegar slaw, breakfast apricot crisp, and a spring salad with potatoes. As you can see, I'm a big fan of the Smitten Kitchen. The recipes are fairly low maintenance, but Perelman doesn't resort to shortcut cooking or baking. Some of the recipes are pretty standard, but she also has ones with interesting twists. I will always have a soft spot for Smitten Kitchen. After all, it was after consulting Perelman's tutorial that I finally mastered pie crust. 

orange pecan brown sugar cookies

Big Fat Cookies was one of the first cookbooks I ever purchased. 

During my last year in college, my roommates and I used to go to the Barnes and Noble in uh, Roseville, I think, to study. One of the big draws was that this Barnes and Noble also sold used books, which were a lot of fun to peruse when I took study breaks. 

The cookbooks at this Barnes and Noble were located near the restrooms, so I passed by them a lot during my visits. I was just getting into cooking and baking, so I usually stopped to browse, but since money was tight, I usually restricted my purchases to the used book section. For some reason, Big Fat Cookies caught my eye, and after passing by it more than once, I finally gave in and bought it.  

This is a great cookbook. In the beginning, I used to make the cookies big and fat, but I eventually stopped because they were, well, too big and fat (now I just make them a normal size). I even remember the first thing I made: Chocolate Chip Stuffed Cookies. That was a long time ago, but I still turn to this cookbook when I'm in the mood to bake cookies. And when I'm not in the mood to bake cookies, I turn to Elinor Klivans' other cookbooks: the Cupcakes! cookbook, the Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook, or Chocolate Cakes.

I first made orange pecan brown sugar cookies back in December, and my friend loved them. In fact, he was the one who reminded me of when I first made them because I couldn't remember. It was his birthday earlier this week (we're birthday buddies!) and he requested these. I happily complied, and they were a big hit at his birthday party. 

on swimming

When I was in high school, I was a diver. I'm not exactly sure what piqued my interest in diving, but I suspect it was gymnastics. I took gymnastics classes for a few years, and I was on my junior high school's gymnastics team, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue in high school (I did, but only in 9th grade). Plus, I had weak ankles and I wasn't very good. So, I decided to try diving. 

I wasn't a spectacular diver, but I could do it. I was an exhibition diver in the 9th grade, but after that, I dove mostly at the varsity level but sometimes at the junior varsity level. At the varsity level, I always placed last in swim meets, but as a JV diver, I think I did win a few times. 

I had a lot of fun, made good friends, and went to diving camp. I was a consistent diver, but I was accident prone. I hit the diving board a lot, and one time when I did a somersault off the side of the pool, I even managed to hit my head on the underside of the pool deck. Aside from some scrapes, I never injured myself. But I suspect that I did eventually grow tired of hitting the board, and it probably contributed to the end of my diving career. When I was a freshman in college at St. Mary's University, I dove for about a month. In practice one day, I was doing an inward somersault, and I kicked out too early and smacked the backs of my calves on the diving board. There was blood. I think I quit shortly thereafter. To be fair, at that point in time, I already knew I was going to be leaving St. Mary's after only a semester there, so I wasn't too committed to the diving team or the school itself. 

Upon telling people that I was a diver, I am guaranteed to get 2 questions, in the following order: 1) Did you dive off that really tall platform? and 2) Are you a swimmer?

The second question baffles me. After all, unless an athlete is on the track or cross country team, nobody asks her if she is a runner, even if her sport requires a degree of running around. Diving doesn't even require the ability to swim. All a diver has to do is push herself up from the bottom of the pool and dog paddle to the side.  

This isn't to say that I can't swim; it's just that I wasn't a swimmer. I took swimming lessons for a few years as a kid, so if I happened to fall into one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, I wouldn't drown. I dreaded swimming. In fact, before I joined the diving team, it was apparently not uncommon for the divers to form a diver relay and compete in meets. I was relieved that this never occurred while I was on the team (that I could decline to participate never occurred to me).

I think you know where this is going.

To avoid turning a minor running injury into a major one, I took a month off after the OC Half. After doing nothing for a few weeks, I decided to take up swimming. I got a real swimming suit and goggles (and I have to say, swimming gear is a lot cheaper than running. For less than the cost of running shoes, I got a suit and goggles). I started taking swimming lessons at the gym a couple weeks ago, and I'm finding that I actually enjoy swimming. I've even voluntarily gone to the pool to swim laps.

If someone had told me that someday, I would be running and swimming- for fun- I never would have believed them.    

fettuccine with creamy tomato italian sausage

I tried to be a vegetarian twice. The first time was when I was 17 and my vegetarian streak lasted 2 years. I'm not really sure what compelled me to be a vegetarian. I think it was because I thought I cared about animal rights, and I did, to a degree. But the problem was, I didn't know where to draw the line, and this weighed on me. I mean, if I eschewed meat because I cared about animals, then what about eggs? Dairy? Leather? Animal testing? It was overwhelming, and because I didn't know where the line was, I gave up altogether. 

The second time I tried vegetarianism was about 3 years ago, and I think that streak lasted almost a year. I had given it quite a bit of thought, and besides, Drew was a vegetarian. Though he never cared if I ate meat, I thought it made sense. So I did it. But it lasted only until he went to Beijing two summers ago. 

Again, like the time before, the "line" weighed on me. If I was a vegetarian because it was good for my health, animals, and the environment, well then, why did I have to give it up altogether? I asked myself why I couldn't eat it on occasion. What was wrong with eating a mostly vegetarian diet? When I didn't know the answer, I knew my heart wasn't into it and that I had to give it up. 

When I gave up vegetarianism both times, it was pork that broke my streak. The first time, it was sausage pizza. The second time, it was ham. The thing is, and this is only anecdotal evidence, it appears that when vegetarians return to meat-eating, the streak isn't broken by what is considered to be "good" meat, like a steak. It's broken by what's deemed to be inferior meat, like pepperoni or lunch meat or bologna. 

I'm not surprised that pork products were my gateway meat. I've never been one to eat steak, and I never really ate chicken or turkey. Mock meats have come a long way these days, and I actually enjoy them. Though you can find fake chicken, ground beef, and hot dogs, fake Italian sausage and fake ham are difficult to come by. 

I'm confident that I've finally found the "line." Drew and I keep a vegetarian household (my choice, not his), and I try to be as responsible as I can when I eat meat. This means that I don't eat it at, say, a fast food restaurant. As I said to Drew early on, I don't eat meat so I can eat it at Del Taco. I also eat meat about twice a week. For me, the line is to reduce my meat consumption, something that everyone should do. Too often, I think people have an all-or-nothing attitude (I certainly did!), but people don't have to be either a vegetarian or a meat-eater. 

Last Friday night, Drew left for Beijing. I intend to continue eating a mostly vegetarian diet while he's away, but now I can cook with meat if I want to. Tonight, I made Fettuccine with Creamy Tomato Italian Sausage. from Simply Recipes.   

I was ambitious, and somewhat bored, so I decided to make my own pasta. It was totally worth it. I even did it the proper way, without the stand mixer. Using Chef Anne Burrell's recipe (I love her!), I made a volcano with the flour, and poured the olive oil and eggs in the well. You have to be careful not to break the volcano or else the liquid spreads across the counter, which is what happened to me. It really wasn't an issue, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Chef Anne would be disappointed in me. When the dough came together, I kneaded it until it was smooth and pliable, which was supposed to take 10 to 15 minutes for an inexperienced kneader and 8 to 10 for an experienced one. I wasn't sure which one I was, so I kneaded my dough for approximately 3 Taylor Swift songs.  

Even prior to dating Drew, I didn't eat a lot of meat. Aside from this meal, I can't think of anything else I'd like to cook while Drew is gone. I'm a vegetarian at home, and I'm not sure that will be a habit that I'll break.        

thanksgiving in june

Tomorrow night, Drew is headed to China to spend a year doing his dissertation research. Though we'll miss each other (I plan to visit in September and December), it is an exciting time for the both of us. This is a great opportunity for Drew- I mean, how many people can say they've spent a significant time in another country? And as for me, it will be a busy time as I finish my dissertation, do my own dissertation fieldwork, and apply for jobs. 

Living in China for a year means that Drew is missing out on some important holidays...like my birthday. 

Wait, what's that you say? That's not a national holiday? 

Okay, but aside from my birthday, Drew is missing out on some other holidays. For the most part, I don't think he's bothered by this, but it bothers me that he'll be missing out on Thanksgiving. I recognize that Thanksgiving is not without controversy. I actually attempted to read an academic book on its history, but it was boring and I stopped after 10 pages. Plus, in the introduction, the author basically said that we don't know what the first Thanksgiving was like, so, satisfied that I was not inadvertently celebrating the murder of American Indians, it made it easier to stop reading (um, to be clear, I know that happened, but if an academic can't find evidence that Thanksgiving is rooted in this, then it may not exist).

Anyhow, what really matters to me is the Thanksgiving food. I'm not much of a turkey girl, but I can practically eat my weight in stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. So last night, Drew and I had our own Thanksgiving. We made a seitan roast, stuffed with leeks and shitakes. 

It was easy to make (we made it up a few days beforehand) and I think this will become our new Thanksgiving staple. We also made stuffing:

And green bean casserole, but I had to fight for this one. You see, green bean casserole is usually made with canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions. I'm a big fan, though I make it with fresh green beans and not canned, but Drew is not. But I assured him that he'd like a homemade green bean casserole, and I was right. I used Alton Brown's recipe, which I watched him make on an episode of his show Good Eats years ago. At first, this dish seems high maintenance, but it's really not. You mix up sliced onions with panko and flour and bake them until crispy for about a half an hour. While that's baking, you blanch green beans and make the mushroom soup. It will all take longer than opening up a bunch of cans and mixing up their contents, but it's completely worth it.   

Of course, we had to have mashed potatoes. These are really simple, just butter and sour cream.

Here's what the full plate looks like:

Even though I don't think it's really Thanksgiving unless I eat pumpkin pie, I conceded and made a chocolate cream pie instead. Drew does not share my enthusiasm for pumpkins, and this was his request. I was happy to comply; after all, I did get green bean casserole on the menu, and I'll get to bake with pumpkins all I want this fall.   

The recipe is from Ashley English's A Year of Pies. I like this cookbook, and I suspect I'll use it more often this fall, which I consider to be pie season (despite it being called A Year of Pies).

Our Thanksgiving was successful, and we were satisfied. We decided that if we ever host Thanksgiving, we're totally going to rock at it. We also realized that there is a reason people grill for summer holidays-it gets too hot in the kitchen! 

veggie burgers

We made veggie burgers the other day, using this recipe from the LA Times. The base is pureed black beans, which is then mixed with a homemade pico de gallo, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and panko. 

We usually don't make homemade veggie burgers because 1) they turn out to be too dry, or 2) the mixture is too crumbly and is therefore difficult to shape into burgers. But on occasion, for some reason, we decide to give homemade veggie burgers a go, and I'm glad we did this time. These burgers did not suffer from the above 2 problems.

I am compelled to point out that I grew the arugula we used to top our veggie burgers.

strawberry cake

Whenever I go to a bakery and order a strawberry cupcake, I'm always disappointed. "Strawberry" cupcakes just taste like a vanilla cupcake with strawberry buttercream. Frustrated, I decided to finally just make my own, but last weekend, I discovered 2 things: First, it is nearly impossible to find a recipe for strawberry cake that 1) does not call for jello or a cake mix, or 2) is not actually a recipe for strawberry shortcake. I used this blog recipe, but I was reluctant to do so because 1) I dislike using recipes from just any blog, and 2) the name of the blog was utterly ridiculous (Confessions of a Foodie Bride). Second, strawberry cake is surprisingly difficult to make. I mean, it's not the technique that's difficult. What's difficult is getting a strawberry cake to actually taste like strawberry. 

As suggested, I reduced the strawberries in an effort to get a more concentrated strawberry flavor. It didn't work. There was pretty much no strawberry flavor. In fact, when Drew tasted the cake scraps (yes, I'm anal and trim the layers so they're level- this is called torting), he said "Man, it really is hard to get a strawberry cake to taste like strawberry." It sure is. 

To frost the cake, I made an Italian buttercream, with leftover strawberry puree mixed into it. Usually, I make buttercream the easy way- just butter and confectioner's sugar. But last year, I was watching an episode of the Worst Cooks in America on the Food Network, and this renowned pastry chef was teaching the contestants how to bake a cake. All I remember is him saying "Real buttercream is not that crap with butter and powdered sugar." Or something to that extent (I don't think he would say 'crap').

And so, I decided to make a proper buttercream. The recipe is from Cakelove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch. The author is Warren Brown, a lawyer turned baker, who owns the Cakelove bakeries in D.C. (Fun Fact: When Drew worked in D.C. a few summers ago, he lived just a few blocks from Cakelove and we used to go there and get cupcakes.)

I rarely use the Cakelove cookbook, but that's not because I don't like it- I do. This cookbook rarely leaves the bookshelf because the cakes are kind of fancy and the recipes are a bit too high maintenance. When I use this cookbook, it is for special occasions, like birthdays. And it was my friend's birthday, so I felt it appropriate to break open Cakelove.

To make the buttercream, first you have to whip 5 egg whites to make a meringue. Okay, you're not really doing that- the stand mixer is doing that for you. While that's happening, you make a sugar syrup and when that reaches 245 degrees, you slowly pour it into the meringue while the stand mixer is running at high speed. Yeah, crazy, I know. In fact, when I did this the first time, I wasn't wearing an oven mitt and the syrup splashed and burned one of my fingers. Profanity ensued. After the sugar syrup is mixed in, you add a pound of butter, one pat at a time, with the mixer at about medium speed. When all the butter is mixed in, you crank up the speed to high for a minute or two, until the butter is fully incorporated. 

If you were paying attention, you noticed that it took me 2 tries to successfully make Italian buttercream. I almost gave up after the first try (I burned my finger!), but I'm glad I didn't. The buttercream is light and fluffy, and it tasted so, so good (and that was before I stirred in the strawberry puree). It is superior to the powdered sugar crap in many ways (not only did it taste better, it was also easier to work with), and I'm not sure I'll ever go back. 

As for the cake itself, it was good even though I didn't detect any strawberry flavor. My friend was happy with her birthday cake, and so was everyone else at her party.

nachos

I love nachos, but before meeting Drew, making them myself didn't occur to me. Drew sauteed veggie crumbles, onion, garlic, and black beans with a variety of spices, but as usual, I wasn't paying attention. He poured the mixture over a pile of tortilla chips, topped it with grated cheddar cheese, and baked it in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. 

I usually turn my nachos into a salad, adding lots of lettuce, salsa, avocado, and sour cream. It feels more virtuous this way.

parsley pesto

When I was a kid, I used to fill out comment cards at stores, telling anyone who would listen that I was mad because I couldn't reach products on the top shelves. That I couldn't do so because I was a child never crossed my mind. Having been short my entire life,  even as a child, somehow I just knew this would be a lifelong issue.

And I was right; as an adult, I can't reach most things on the top shelves of any store. Before I dated Drew, sometimes I just wouldn't buy what I couldn't reach (which he found a bit baffling) and sometimes I would ask for help- it depended upon my mood or if a taller person was easily accessible. These days, Drew and I usually shop together, so my being vertically challenged is a non-issue.  

We made fusilli with parsley pesto the other day. The recipe is from Bon Appetit, which calls for spaghetti. But I wanted fusilli, but at Whole Foods the other day (Drew was busy grading final exams), it was on the top shelf, out of my reach. In the past, I've simply opted for penne instead, but this time, I sucked it up and asked someone to get me the fusilli.

 

It is a misconception that pesto is made with basil. In fact, pesto means "to crush" or "to grind." It can be made with pretty much anything. I'm normally not a huge fan of parsley, but I was intrigued by this recipe, and it was pretty good. Plus, pesto is so easy to make.

We ate this pasta with sautéed carrots, which I grew in our garden. Drew added butter and sage, which I also grew (no, I didn't churn the butter, but we have done that once in case you're wondering).

PS: Drew just told me that the parsley pesto was good, but it needed something. Apparently, my addition of sun dried tomatoes was insufficient.

triple chocolate brownies

Last weekend, Drew and I went to Surfas, this restaurant supply store. To us, it was like being kids in a candy store. We walked up and down every aisle, and we even ate lunch in the café. In addition to selling merchandise such as dishes, pots, and pans, Surfas also sold gourmet food products that aren't found in normal grocery stores. We found fancy pastas, cheeses, spices, and chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

 

We splurged on Vahlrona cocoa powder and Callebaut semi sweet chocolate. All the different brands and types of chocolate are sold as cocoa powder, discs, chips, and blocks. Even 10 pound blocks.

We were sensible and did not purchase 10 pounds of chocolate, and instead we got the more reasonable one pound block.

 

When we got home, I immediately made brownies. The recipe is from Baking Illustrated (from the geniuses behind the magazine Cooks Illustrated), and it calls for 3 kinds of chocolate: unsweetened, semi sweet, and cocoa powder.

These are quite possibly the best brownies ever. They're nice and fudgy, and they have a perfectly crackly top. Drew and I decided that splurging on good quality chocolate was totally worth it. Though we could not detect an appreciable difference between the Callebaut chocolate and the blocks we get from Trader Joe's, we could easily tell that the Vahlrona cocoa powder, which smelled almost smoky when I opened it, not surprisingly proved to be much better than Hershey's or Trader Joe's (which is probably the same thing anyway).

 

In 10 days, Drew is leaving tp spend a year in China. Until then, I will be baking with chocolate. Lots of it. 

tofu and pickled beet sandwiches

A few years ago, I spent a summer in Ann Arbor, on the University of Michigan campus. It was there that I discovered my love of sandwiches. I, uh, also learned a lot of statistics, but that's just not as tasty. Or interesting to blog about. Anyway, I had no idea that I harbored such a love of sandwiches, but when I was in Ann Arbor, it occurred to me that in contrast to the Univ of MI and Univ of MN campus (where I went to college), there really aren't good sandwich places on or near the UCI campus. 

But, there is Gogi, so I guess that might make up for the lack of good sandwiches.

Anyway, sandwiches are awesome, and I usually make them myself these days. Last week, we made tofu and pickled beet sandwiches. 

The recipe is from Bon Appetit and was supposed to be made with eggplant, but ours went bad in the fridge, so we baked up some tofu instead. I've been getting into pickled veggies lately, and they add some nice tang and crunch to sandwiches, and also, well, anything. 

seitan tikka masala

At the end of June, Drew is headed off to China for a year. He's going to do a language program and his dissertation research. I'm not looking forward to this, so I've been trying to find the silver lining(s). There are very few (no snoring and no sitting through action movies comes to mind), but one of them is meat. 

To be clear, Drew does not care if I eat meat. I never ate a lot of it anyway, and I've gone veg twice- once about 15 years ago and the second was just a few years ago. I prefer eating a mostly vegetarian diet, and most of the time, I don't miss meat.  

I began making a mental list of restaurants to visit and meals to cook when Drew leaves. It's not that he refuses to go to some of these restaurants, it's that these sorts of places have no veg options and I'm not going to relegate him to a meal of french fries or a side salad so that I can eat, say, seafood. On occasion, I do play what I call the "meat" card, in which we go to a restaurant where he must eat a meal of sides, but I try not to abuse it. Fortunately, this isn't an issue in Southern California; we've been able to find good restaurants where we can both be satisfied. 

I came across this recipe for chicken tikka masala in Bon Appetit a few weeks ago, and I immediately thought to myself "I'll make this when Drew leaves." But then I realized that, like so many recipes, this one could easily be made vegetarian. We could have used fake chicken, but we decided to make up a batch of seitan instead. Seitan is made with vital wheat gluten, and it has a firm, chewy texture. Drew and I used to buy it, but it's way cheaper to make and very easy to do. We use this recipe from Post Punk Kitchen.  

This tikka masala was very easy to make. It requires some advanced planning, but there's a lot of downtime, what with the marinating the seitan and simmering the sauce. We served this with sauteed red chard, which is difficult to see in the background of the picture. The chard is from the garden, and I sacrificed it to make room for a volunteer tomato plant. 

weekend baking

I am what you might call a weekend baker. Aside from cooking dinner with Drew during the week, most of my food projects are done on the weekends, with the Food Network on in the background. 

This past weekend, I started off with blueberry muffins. I have been trying for years (and I use the word trying very loosely here) to find the perfect blueberry muffin recipe. I don't think I'm particularly picky (hmmm, scratch that- I suppose that a picky person doesn't spend years looking for the perfect recipe), but a blueberry muffin needs to be fluffy and moist. Dense, dry muffins are gross, and aren't muffins at all. Muffins also can't be too sweet (I like to eat them for breakfast and not feel guilty about it). For a while, I used the blueberry muffin recipe from Simply Recipes, which produced a good muffin, but not quite what I envisioned.

Lately I've been curious about food science, so I picked up The Science of Good Cooking, brought to us by Cooks Illustrated. This is a really cool cookbook, and I immediately added it to my Amazon wish list. The recipes are for pretty basic dishes, but the geniuses over at Cooks Illustrated have done all this research and experimentation to make sure the recipes are the best. This book contains 50 concepts that are explained simply in digestable (haha, get it?) chapters.

I didn't pick up the cookbook with the intention of making blueberry muffins, but it was the first thing I made.         

I'm pleased to report that my search for the best blueberry muffin recipe is over. These muffins are light and fluffy and chock full of blueberries (as a homemade jam in addition to whole berries). The muffins are baked at a high temperature (425 instead of the usual 350 or 375), which creates a nice, sturdy, buttery exterior that contrasts nicely with the light and fluffy interior.

I also made cheddar-sage waffles. Our go-to recipe for waffles comes from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." While his recipes for muffins and pancakes are abysmal (they're supposed to be light and fluffy, damn it!), his waffle recipe isn't bad. I'm not sure if it's the best, but it is the one we keep returning to. This cookbook, as advertised, does tell you how to cook everything vegetarian. 

I added grated cheddar cheese and chopped sage to the batter, and for Sunday brunch, we used the waffles to make egg sandwiches.

And finally, I made ginger walnut granola. I don't recall when I began making granola, but it was sometime last year. Commercial granola is too sweet, so I began making my own, using the recipe from the Homemade Pantry. I made this granola so much that I got tired of it and began searching for alternatives. (If I were Drew, I'd just experiment, but I'm not and I really need a recipe, or at least a template.) Lately, I've been using the recipes (maple walnut, orange cranberry, and now ginger walnut) from the Food in Jars cookbook. Though the author writes a canning blog, she does have some fantastic recipes for granola (and other non-canned foods).  

roasted strawberry and buttermilk ice cream

If there is one thing that should be made from scratch, it is ice cream. It is easy to make, and so, so worth it. While I've been to bakeries with cookies or cupcakes better than homemade, I can't think of any ice cream shop with better ice cream than the homemade stuff.   

Making ice cream is pretty effortless as the ice cream maker does most of the work. As such, having a good quality maker is key. I acquired my first ice cream maker a few years ago, but it was cheap and I struggled to make good ice cream. Last Christmas, Drew's parents gave us a Cuisinart, in yellow, and it makes excellent ice cream. 

Last weekend, I made a roasted strawberry and buttermilk ice cream. The recipe is from the Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream cookbook, which has lots of unique and interesting recipes. I love this cookbook- the pictures are pretty and the directions are easy to follow. And best of all and most importantly, the results are wonderful.  

2013 garden

I almost gave up on the garden after the last summer. If you recall, we planted tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The plants got really big and green, but we got only a modest amount of tomatoes (from 4 plants), a handful of cucumbers (from 4 plants), and only 2 peppers (from 8 plants). It was a huge disappointment, especially considering that I had such good luck with the peppers the previous summer. I think that the problem was a lack of nitrogen, which we tried to fix, but too late. We also didn't rotate our crops, which probably didn't help either.

And so the garden lay dormant all last fall and into the winter. In February, Drew and I went out and planted beets, carrots, collards, arugula, kale, broccoli, chard, and spinach. I'm not sure if something re-energized me, motivating me to plant, or if it was purely functional- we had a lot of seeds leftover from the previous year and no other plans for them. Or maybe it was Drew's reminder that gardening was supposed to be a hobby that I do for fun, not something I do to survive, and therefore I was allowed to fail- and could.

Keeping that in mind, gardening was enjoyable over the winter. Some of the stuff we planted came up, and some didn't, but I wasn't discouraged. Not even when a gopher stole the arugula. I didn't take any pictures, but we still have some beets coming up:  

 

A few weeks ago, I planted our summer crops. I intended to go easy this time and plant just a few pepper plants and a pumpkin plant, but the plants were sold 6 at a time (for the same price as a bigger one), so of course I had to get 6.  

 So I made room for 5 peppers:

 And 3 pumpkins:

I'm actually very excited about the pumpkins. I love pumpkins, and fall is quite possibly my favorite time of year. My grandparents live on a farm, and they used to grow tons of pumpkins. And, I don't know how they did it, but the pumpkins they grew were gigantic. When I was a child, they visited every October and brought with them pumpkins to carve. Perhaps this instilled in me an early love of pumpkins? 

I also planted dragon tongue beans:

 Which look like this:

One of the coolest things about gardening are the volunteers. They are like gardening magic, and I love the surprise. Last year we got a tomato plant, and this year we got some dill (which I mistook for fennel), and 2 more tomato plants. 

un-chinese food, or Drew's super-secret surprise

Super-secret surprises are, well, super secret surprises that Drew and I plan for each other when we accomplish a milestone. There are few rules governing super-secret surprises. Obviously, it must be a secret. Beyond that, there is a lot of latitude. It doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive or complicated. It just has to be a surprise. The second rule is that they are reserved for milestones only- qualifying exams, prospectus defenses, marathons. Super-secret surprises aren't for just any occasion, so no birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays. The idea is that no matter the outcome of these (usually stressful and nerve-wracking) events, there will always be a super-secret surprise to look forward to. We don't remember exactly when we began referring to these as super-secret surprises, though I suspect that it was when I ran my marathon.  

My super-secret surprises for Drew tend to involve food; his involve either food or crafts. Here are some examples: When Drew took his qualifying exams, I made him pastries and gyoza like the ones we ate in Beijing. When I defended my dissertation prospectus, Drew transformed our garden into a pumpkin patch and surprised me with dinner. When I ran my first (and only) marathon, Drew made me a special trophy, and when I ran my 1000th mile, he made me 3 types of bagels each representing a city 1000 miles away. And when I recently interviewed for a job, Drew made me a giant gold star.   

Last week, Drew defended his dissertation proposal. The easy thing to do would have been to make him Chinese food, but that's cruel and unusual punishment for someone about to spend a year in China. And so I thought I'd be clever and make un-Chinese food. I bought egg roll wrappers and wanton wrappers, and stuffed them with Italian, Mexican, and Indian food.

First up: ravioli with a pesto and four cheese filling (maybe five). The recipe is inspired by Giada's Four Cheese Ravioli with Herb Pesto.

Next, I made egg rolls stuffed with taco filling and samosa filling. The taco filling is the Post Punk Kitchen's recipe for ancho lentil tacos (I used veggie crumbles instead), and the samosa filling is from Veganomicon (of Post Punk Kitchen).

The meal was a big hit, and Drew was impressed (and very relieved that it wasn't really Chinese food). I boiled the ravioli as one usually would, and I baked the egg rolls (though we did decide that frying is superior to baking, which we did with the leftovers).

red velvet cake balls

I resisted cake pops (or cake balls) for a long time, dismissing them as a stupid fad, and quietly waiting for some other pastry trend to take off (I think donuts might be the next big thing, but I'm still waiting for pie). I didn't understand them- are cake pops like mini-cupcakes, and if so, why do we need cake pops in addition to cupcakes?  

It didn't help that my impression of cake pops was based purely on Bakerella, who commits two of what I consider to be baking crimes. The first is the use of cake mixes and canned frosting. Okay, I admit that I'm not being completely fair- she does bake from scratch and posts recipes that don't involve cake mixes. However, when I flipped through her cookbook and her blog, I was disappointed by the use of cake mix and canned frosting. If you have a baking blog, using pre-packaged mixes and foods should be shunned (the taste and quality is inferior and it's not really baking) and damages your credibility. 

Okay, moving on. 

The second is that Bakerella's focus when it comes to cake pops seems to be about making them not look like cake pops, and I am against this. Sure, they look cute, but I dislike efforts to make cake not look like cake because then the cake isn't about the cake at all, which is why I'm eating the cake in the first place. Do you follow? Cake decorating detracts from the taste of the cake, which you already know because you know that wedding cakes are notorious for tasting like crap. When a cake is decorated to not look like cake, how the cake looks is prioritized over how it tastes, and even though I'm guilty of enjoying cake decorating shows on the Food Network and those cakes look super cool, they cannot possibly taste good. Also, why is it that cake is like the only food that is made to look like something else? I mean, when's the last time you ate a hamburger that was made to look like a rocket?     

Ha! Yeah, I thought so.

And so, I resisted cake pops until a few weeks ago. Drew and I were at the Crystal Cove Promenade to grocery shop at Trader Joe's, but then I saw a sign for the Sweet and Saucy Shop and of course we had to go immediately. There was an array of cupcakes, cookies, and tarts, but for some strange reason, I was drawn to the cake pops. If ever there was a time to give in to cake pops, I thought to myself, it's now. So I did, and so did Drew. And they were super good.

And then I vowed to make them myself. Cake pops are easy to make, but there are several steps, so advance planning is necessary. First, I baked the cake and made the frosting. On that same day, when the cake was cool, I crumbled it up and mixed it with the frosting. Then the mixture went into the refrigerator overnight and I shaped the cake balls the next day. On day 3, I dipped the balls in melted chocolate, and after an hour in the fridge, they were ready to go.

The recipe is from the Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook. I made the red velvet cake and the vanilla frosting (cream cheese frosting is customary with red velvet, but Drew is not a fan). I don't normally make red velvet cake (it's just chocolate cake, people!!!), but I made these for Drew's proposal defense. Since his dissertation is on China, the cake balls were meant to resemble the Chinese flag. That is, until I botched the yellow coating- twice. Fortunately, we had a block of dark chocolate in the cupboard and I used that instead.     

Liddabit actually calls these cake amazeballs, and for good reason. They are really, really good. Cake balls are more dense than regular cake (because the frosting is mixed in), and they're almost like cake truffles. I'm really glad that I gave cake balls a chance, and I'm already trying to figure out what kind I'm going to bake next.  

* This post began as a discussion on cake pops, but you'll see that I actually made cake balls instead. I found the sticks to be unnecessary and even wasteful, so that's why I went with the balls instead.       

spinach artichoke pasta

We wrapped up last week with this spinach artichoke pasta from the Pioneer Woman.

Like most of the Pioneer Woman's recipes, this one was easy and quick. It also made a ton, but fortunately, we had a friend over for dinner to help us eat it all.