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.

chocolate almond biscotti

When I think of biscotti, I think of hard, inedible, stale cookies. I'm afraid that if I ever ate the biscotti I see in coffeeshops, I would crack a tooth. I really don't find biscotti appealing, and though (I believe) the idea is that you're supposed to dip it in your coffee, that makes it even less appealing. 

You're probably wondering why I bothered to bake biscotti, but this biscotti is different. Trust me.  

Drew's mom is an avid baker, and if memory serves me correctly, on my first visit to meet his family, among the array of baked goods was biscotti. I almost passed it up, but Drew practically inhaled it, so I had to see what all the fuss was about. I'm glad I did. This biscotti was definitely not hard, crunchy, or stale. It was really, really good, and I too began inhaling it. In fact, I believe that Drew mom's baked us another batch.

I usually bake on Sundays, but I was indecisive last Sunday and couldn't decide what to bake, so I let Drew decide (sometimes I poll him for input but he doesn't make the decision unilaterally because I usually have some ideas) and he decided that he wanted chocolate almond biscotti. It seemed fitting that I bake something from his mom's repertoire on Mother's Day. 

I packed the biscotti with chopped almonds and chocolate chips, which was simultaneously a good and bad idea. It made it difficult to slice after the first bake- I began slicing it too quickly and it crumbled, and I unleashed  a string of profanities- but the almonds and chocolate are what makes the biscotti so good.

falafel

It never occurred to me to make falafel until I dated Drew. In fact, I'm not sure I had even heard of falafel, but it is something you become well acquainted with when you are a vegetarian or you date one. We're tried various recipes, mostly from the Food Network, and they are virtually indistinguishable (the link is to the one we used this time).

Falafel is very easy to make (but that's not why Drew was in charge of it) because you can process all the ingredients in the food processor. Glancing at the recipe, I know that Drew omitted the cilantro (he's not a fan) and the parsley (I'm not a fan). I know he included the garlic, scallions, coriander, cumin, cayenne, and lemon, but knowing Drew, it is highly probable that he played around and added some other seasonings and knowing me, I wasn't paying any attention.

We used to deep fry the falafel, but lately we've been baking it instead (inspired by a friend who bakes hers in muffin tins). I refuse to fry anything because 1) ) deep frying is very unhealthy, and 2) I'm too lazy to do it. And so Drew knows that if he wants something fried, he has to do it. I must be rubbing off on him because he decided to bake the falafel (and then finish it off with a pan fry, minimal oil) and I didn't even have to persuade him to do it.

I made the sweet potato wedges, which consists of olive oil, Tony Chachere's creole seasoning (I know, I know, the sodium level is through the roof, so I go easy on it), and cayenne pepper. I baked them, but my wedges were kind of soggy. I think the trick must be to par-boil the potatoes first, but that's just one step too many for me. Really, the trick is probably to deep fry the wedges, but that's not happening given my reasons above.

apple puffy pancake

As I write this on a day that probably reached 90 degrees, it's hard to believe that just a few days ago, it felt like a perfect fall day. Fall brings with it apples, and so it was only fitting that we made apple puffy pancake.

The recipe is from Eating From the Ground Up, the blogger behind the Homemade Pantry. Drew and I don't normally make breakfast for dinner, but it's a nice way to change things up and it feels like such a treat.  

brown butter snickerdoodles

While snickerdoodles are one of Drew's favorite treats (shocking because they don't have a trace of chocolate!), I'm not such a huge fan. In fact, I don't really see the appeal. I mean, I like them, but they're just so simple and so not showstoppers at all. After all, they're just cinnamon, sugar, butter, flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt. So not surprisingly, I've made these only two other times in my life. 

While paging through my Baked Elements cookbook, I was intrigued by the recipe for Brown Butter Snickerdoodles. I'm a sucker for brown butter, ever since I made a Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake, which is quite possibly the best thing I've ever baked in my entire life. Despite my ambivalence with snickerdoodles, this recipe had me at "brown butter" (old movie reference-do you get it? It's from Jerry McGuire, circa the late 1990s. That I just referred to a movie released while I was in high school as old makes me a little sad.).

Anyway, I had a bit of a tough time browning the butter. Not like it was hard or anything, what I mean is that I had a difficult time detecting when it was "done." I followed the directions, cooked it for the recommended number of minutes and until it reached the appropriate color, but my sense of smell was off and I couldn't smell if it was sufficiently browned. Given that I ate 5 cookies yesterday (2 for breakfast, and 3 for dessert after dinner), which is very unusual, I'm guessing that 1) I must be a huge fan of brown butter, and 2) it was sufficiently brown. 

Let me say  a few words about the Baked cookbook (and this will explain why I was eating cookies for breakfast). This is the 3rd Baked cookbook, and I have all three. For the most part, I like them, though the recipes have many steps, seem a little high maintenance, and usually require some advance planning. As long as you plan in advance, it helps alleviate the high maintenance aspect. And best of all, the results are terrific, so it's all worth it. If you make any of the cookies, you can pretty much count on chilling the dough from 1 hour to up to 24. I made the cookie dough on Monday morning and baked the cookies on Tuesday morning...hence cookies for breakfast. In my defense, there is almost nothing better than fresh baked cookies straight out of the oven. 

pasta with pistachio pesto

The garden, despite the random gopher appearance, is doing pretty well. Along with beans, carrots, collard greens, and red chard, we have beets. Lately, our preferred way of eating beets is in a salad.

Did you know that you can wrap beets up in aluminum foil and roast them in your oven? And that you don't even have to peel them first? Or cut them up? And after they're done, the skins easily slip off. This was news to me, but now I'm a huge fan. I roasted the beets for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees, and after they cooled off, I effortlessly peeled off the skin. I also roasted pearl onions and quartered mushrooms, and Drew and I served them on top of spinach. We've never eaten pearl onions, but Drew was suddenly inspired (by what, I have no idea) to roast them.

Drew and I like to try out new recipes, and the results usually fall into 3 categories: 1) so good we should definitely make it again; 2) good, but not good enough to make again; 3) disappointing. It turns out there is a 4th category: surprisingly good. Last night we made pasta with pistachio pesto, and it turned out a lot better than we expected. Not that we expected the results to be disappointing; we just didn't think this dish was going to be so good. 

The recipe is from Food and Wine, and it's super simple and quick to put together. The pesto is made up of pistachios, garlic, olive oil, and mint, processed in the food processor and then mixed with grated pecorino. Instead of orecchiette, we used trottole. Normally, we eat whole wheat pasta, but sometimes we shake things up a bit and we happened to be at Target, where it is sold (it's a Target brand of pasta). 

Drew and I enjoyed this dish a lot, and we couldn't stop raving about it. With a few bites remaining, Drew declared that he was stuffed and I wasted no time polishing off his leftovers. In my defense, I had run a half marathon earlier in the day, and if there is ever a time to finish Drew's leftovers, it's on a day when I've run 13.1 miles. Make this dish, and you'll understand.

balsamic onion, mushroom, and goat cheese pizza

This meal is inspired by a recipe from the Vegetarian Times magazine. If you're not familiar with the magazine and you're interested in eating more vegetarian meals, I highly recommend you take a look. The recipes are low maintenance and easy to follow, and the results are good. Drew and I used to be subscribers, but we stopped only because I began checking the magazine out from the library. 

Last week, we made a balsamic onion, mushroom, and goat cheese pizza. The original comes from Mario Batali (he was doing a pizza special for the magazine) and doesn't contain mushrooms. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the recipe on VT's website but a quick google search took me to the recipe posted on this food blog, if you're interested.

But really, no recipe is necessary. I caramelized 2 sliced onions, and when those were almost finished, I added 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms. When the mushrooms were cooked through, I dumped in a couple glugs of balsamic vinegar and let the onion-mushroom mixture simmer for a few minutes until the liquid evaporated (I repeated this a second time because I decided that the mixture was not sufficiently balsamic-y, but do whatever you'd like).

The pizza crust recipe is from the Pioneer Woman. A couple years ago, Drew really got into pizza making (and bread making) which means that we got a pizza peel and a pizza stone. It's not terribly high maintenance to make "real" pizza, but lately, we haven't been feeling it (okay, the truth might be that when you make "real" pizza you can't use a lot of toppings or else the pizza won't slide on or off the pizza peel easily, and I fail to understand this because I like to have lots of toppings on my pizza, and I got tired of having Drew admonish me for overloading the pizzas), so we use PW's recipe and make it in a pan. We always double the recipe so we have an extra crust in the freezer, and besides, what else would we do with half a yeast packet?

We par baked the crust for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Then I sprinkled on some olive oil and covered the pizza with the balsamic mushroom and onions, and then Drew dabbed gobs of goat cheese over the top. Then we put it back in the oven for about 8 minutes or so until the cheese was sufficiently melty. As was the case the last time we made this pizza, we were really satisfied. And the best part is that there is another crust in the freezer, waiting until the next time we do it all over again. 

OC Half Marathon

Today I ran the OC Half Marathon, setting a personal record of 2:29:17. I wanted to come in under 2:30, and I'm happy that I made it happen today.

A year ago, I ran the OC full marathon, and the 2nd half was miserable. This time, I ran the good part and stuck to the half. The weather was perfect; not cold and not at all hot. The fan support was excellent (best sign: Run like Ryan Gosling is at the finish line with a puppy), and the views were awesome. The race felt really good, and almost even easy. I took it easy for the first 10 miles, and then kicked it up a notch and pushed myself for the last 5K.