Cinnfully Delicious

Recipe below: Tipsy de Leche Cheesecake Squares

The last P is here! Were you dying in anticipation? I know you were. Even though I already told you it was practicality, and even though that’s pretty darn self explanatory. That said, let me explain to you all about it!

All those instances in the two previous posts where I mentioned being reasonable? That’s where the practicality comes in. Use your judgement! Whatever I tell you, whatever anyone else tells you, it should make sense. Starving Cleansing myself with some nasty lemonade pepper mixture for a week obviously isn’t healthy. Reverting to our hunter/gatherer roots and cutting out all foods that depend on “modern” agriculture is...well probably fine, but weird, and must be a total pain. No wheat! And cutting out entire food groups (i.e. super low-fat, super low-carb), or depending on outside companies to feed you is not a realistic long term solution. What happens when you’re fed up with your diet? You haven’t built any new habits, so you’ll go right back to your old ones. If it doesn’t sound healthy, don’t do it. If it’s a temporary solution, it won’t be a permanent solution, so why do it?

I also thought of some more Ps that have been important to my weight loss.  It's a coincidence, I swear. Patience and persistence. If you’re being healthy, it’s not going to be fast. You’re going to have good days and bad days. It’s all about sticking with it. It’s not about making numbers move on a scale, it’s about feeling good! Change is hard, in any aspect of life. Have the patience to learn what works for you, and have the persistence to see it through.

Being mindful of portion, proportion, practicality, patience, and persistence, these guidelines have really helped when relearning how to feed myself. And it was a learning process. But at the same time, it was actually kind of fun! Every week was a new experiment. I found some recipes that sounded delicious, tried them out, had some hits, had some misses, and then tried a new experiment the next week. I figured out what I was comfortable with, what I enjoyed, and as I cooked more recipes, it got easier and it ended up being a lot of fun! I didn’t set out to develop a serious cooking and baking hobby. It just happened! I just wanted to learn how to cook well enough to feed myself in a healthy way. You don't have to get as involved as I did.  Healthy options can be fast and easy, and even inexpensive!  Give change a chance.

I've always loved cheesecake, but I’ve never owned a springform pan, which kept me from attempting my own all this time. Then I saw this recipe for cheesecake squares, and the heavens parted. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

I love the combination of graham crackers and cinnamon, so I thought infusing it with a little Goldschlager, which is a cinnamon liquor, would go nicely. And it was awesome! Don’t have Goldschlager on hand? Well I highly recommend it for your liquor cabinet. Ever had a gingerbread martini? It's 2 parts Bailey’s, 1 part butterscotch schnapps, 1 part Goldschlager, shaken over ice. It will change your life. My favorite cocktail to drink around Christmas.

I love the deep, rich sweetness from the dulce de leche, and the Kahlua complimented the flavor subtly, but deliciously. Next time I want to try it with rum just to see if it holds up a bit stronger, but I definitely liked the Kahlua. Do I even need to go on about the flavor of these little gems? The cinnamon graham crust, the creamy, caramel cheesecake, the silky chocolate... They are divine. Heaven in your mouth. Ecstasy!  All the flavors and textures were wonderfully balanced in a perfect bite.

I cut these up super small so I could have just a bite of deliciousness. They are rich and the flavors are bold, so a bite was really a satisfying treat.  Feel free to cut yours a wee bit bigger.

The original recipe called for a 8 inch square baking pan, which I don’t have, and I didn’t modify the recipe to account for that when I made it. I think overall it was fine, but the crust layer was a bit too thin.  I had to really stretch out the crust layer to cover to whole pan. So I tweaked a few of the ingredients in my recipe to account for it.

This recipe, I would guess like many cheesecake recipes, is a bit of a process.  It involves lots of time in the refrigerator to chill and set, so make sure you read through the entire recipe before planning to bake it up an hour before company comes over.  I'm notoriously forgetful of that kind of thing when I bake.


A special thanks to my friend Geri for helping me come up with the name of these beauties!  You gotta have fun with it, right?

Tipsy de Leche Cheesecake Squares
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 81 1-inch squares

For the crust:
4oz graham crackers, or enough for 1 1/4 cups of crumbs
2 TB sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter (4 TB), melted
2 TB Goldschlager (cinnamon liquor)

For the cake:
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk (for the dulce de leche)*
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup milk (I used 1%, but whole is probably preferred)
1 8oz package cream cheese, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup Kahlua (or rum)

For the glaze:
3.5 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup unsalted butter (4 TB)
2 tsp light corn syrup


For the crust:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with a sheet of aluminum foil, leaving a few inches of overhang on the two opposite sides. Lay another sheet of aluminum foil similarly, covering the other two sides. Spray the pan with baking spray for good measure.
2. In a food processor, break up the graham crackers and pulse until you have crumbs. Measure out 1 1/4 cups of the crumbs, remove any leftover (and munch while you bake!), and put the measured crumbs back in the bowl of the food processor.
3. Add the sugar and salt, and with the mixer running, drizzle in the melted butter and then the Goldschlager and blend until it is fully combined.
4. Press the mixture into the prepared baking pan in an even layer. Bake 10 minutes, then cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes.

For the cake:

1. To convert the sweetened condensed milk to delicious dulce de leche, pour the can of milk into a bowl (or small pot) set over simmering water. Cover bowl and cook, stirring occasionally, for 40-50 minutes until the milk is thickened and a light caramel color.*
2. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the milk, and let stand for 2 minutes.
3. In a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese, eggs, salt, Kahlua, and milk mixture at medium speed for a few minutes until fully combined. Add 1 cup of the dulce de leche and mix at low speed until just combined.
4. Pour the batter over the crust and smooth into an even layer. You're going to bake this in a hot water bath.  To do this, place the baking pan in a larger oven-proof container (I used a large roasting pan), and pour in boiling water until it reaches about halfway up the pan. Carefully move this to the oven and bake at 325 degrees until the center of the cake is set, about 40-45 minutes.
5. Chill the cake completely in the pan for a few hours, then chill in the refrigerator, covered, for several hours or overnight.

For the glaze:

1. In a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, combine all the ingredients. Stir until the chocolate is melted, and everything is incorporated and smooth.
2. Pour mixture over the cheesecake and spread in an even layer. Chill, uncovered until the glaze is set, about 30-40 minutes. Make sure it's not too hard or it will be difficult to cut your squares.

To serve:

1. Using the overhanging foil, gently pull the cheesecake from the pan and place on a cutting board. Using a thin knife, cut cake into 1 inch squares. To make sure you don’t make a total mess of your beautiful squares, wipe off the knife after each cut.
2. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

*Note: You can also buy dulce de leche, but I figure why bother?  It costs twice as much, and it's not hard to make.  But if you prefer to save a step over a penny, just measure out 1 cup of the store-bought stuff. 

Condiment Obsession

Recipe: Wasabi Tofu "Mayo"

Alright, so last week I left off the 3 Ps discussion with portion.  I've been thinking about what I want to say about the next P ever since.  Proportion. If portion is all about what size your plate is, I think of proportion as deciding what goes on the plate.  A small bowl of chocolate ice cream has a heck of a lot more calories than a bowl of roasted broccoli, and the broccoli has all those wonderful vitamins and minerals, not to mention an awesome little thing called fiber.  Rather than associating fiber with poop, as some may tend to do, try thinking of it as a nutrient in food that makes you feel full and for longer.  And as my mom always said, "it escorts the fat out of your body".

Yes, I mentioned poop on a food blog that's intended to get you to salivate over my delicious recipes. Yes, I can't help myself.  Yes, I'm seeing someone about this problem...or rather, I would be if I could afford a shrink.  I can't even afford a haircut people.  I'm starting to look like cousin it, but frizzy.  Yes, I made chocolate ice cream and roasted broccoli last week, so I have both on the brain.  Yes, they were both delicious.  And yes no, I did not eat them together.

What I'm trying to get at here is that it's all about balance.  We're not supposed to eat all of the same food, right?  Sure, Husband wishes he could eat steak 3 meals a day, but that's just not reasonable.  There are things called food groups, and we're supposed to eat a certain amount of food from each food group each day to get the nutrients we need to be healthy.  You might remember seeing a chart at some point in your life with a picture of a pyramid and random foods all stacked on top of each other and topped with the delicious sweets at the top. You might remember more recently seeing one that is eerily similar but at points different.  I personally don't subscribe to any ancient Egyptian depictions of food proportions.  What do they know?

Now I'm not a nutritionist.  I'm not an expert.  I'm just telling you how I ate to lose weight and get healthy.  Everybody is different.  Everybody has different needs.  You'll have to identify your own needs based on how much you exercise and just how your body chemistry is made up.  I try to eat pretty low in complex carbs (as in grains, breads, pastas, all that tastiness), not because carbs are evil, but because my body just doesn't seem to like a lot of 'em.  I get all icky-digesty and feel sluggish when I eat a heavy-carb based meal.  Not to mention my body seems to burn through carbs like a shopaholic on Black Friday.  I could eat an endless bowl of pasta...forever.  I know this about myself, so I treat carbs as a side component in a meal, rather than the star.  Also, since I exercise an above average amount, I eat a fair amount of protein.  Not just meat, but dairy, nuts, beans, lentils, etc.  How do you know what your body needs?  Listen to it!  When you eat a bowl of pasta, how does it make you feel?  Are you hungry again 5 minutes later?  I wasn't a big meat eater until very recently, and I ate protein in general pretty sparingly.  Then I started exercising, and high protein foods not only started tasting better to me, but I was actually craving them!  I wanted meat!  That was my body telling me it needed more of the nutrient to build my big strong muscles I was working so hard for.

But of course, those pesky macro-nutrients overlap (protein, carbohydrates, and fat).  Protein does not = meat.  Carb does not = bread.  Fat does not = butter.  Let's not be so cut and dry and try being reasonable. And you need each one of those macro-nutrients, so don't cut anything out!  It's not about low fat or low carb.  It's all about balance.  In other words, proportion!

There's one main guideline I like to follow: eat as many vegetables as you want.  Vegetables are so stinking healthy and low in calories (compared to volume), that I'll bet I would be physically sick before I could eat enough to get fat.  And I'm not talking about corn soaked in butter, people.  Be reasonable.  You know why?  Fiber!  Vegetables are chalked full of it!  Not to mention vitamins, minerals, sometimes a bit of protein, and sometimes a bit of sugar to make 'em yummy.  That means vegetables make you feel full.  And when you're full, you tend to stop eating.  That's always my problem. The stopping of the eating.

So here's what I do when building my plate (and that would be the appropriately sized small plate we discussed).  I fill half of it with vegetables.  That's right.  Half.  That's half your stomach room going to something that's rich in nutrients and that's going to stick with you for a solid few hours.  Now hear me out!  Sure, half a plate of green beans doesn't appeal as much as filling half that plate with garlic bread or pork chops.  Or rather, they don't right now.  You want to know something funny?  My taste buds completely changed with my eating habits, not to mention my attitude.  I started off this whole thing tolerating the vegetables.  They were something to get through.  Then as I ate them more, I started finding better ways to cook them.  Sure, steamed broccoli is ok, but if you roast it in the oven it's 20 million times tastier!  Cabbage braised with a horseradish sauce?  Delicious!  I say my taste buds changed, but I think really my approach to cooking vegetables is what improved.  The veggies don't have to be plain.  It's ok to spice them up with sauces, spices, and additions like nuts.  Make a complete dish that you want to eat.  When I started putting some real effort into preparation, everything starting tasting better.  Before I knew it, I was craving vegetables!  I'm not even exaggerating!  Last time I visited my parents my mom kept laughing at how insistent I was that our meals at home consist of enough vegetables to handle me.  "That salad is enough for me, but what about the rest of you?"  Give vegetables a chance.  And not just lettuce!  Don't just go home and eat a salad for dinner.  Spice it up!  I rarely eat lettuce.  Sure, it's healthy, but it's mostly water and doesn't stick with me like heartier vegetables do.  Not to mention it's rather boring!

So our plate is half full with vegetables, now what?  I usually split what's left in half and fill one remaining quarter with protein, and the other with whole grains.  Now from this description you're probably envisioning a plate split into three sections, one with some boring plain vegetable, one with a piece of meat, and one with some brown rice.  That's not really how you have to eat.  That's just what the proportions should look like.  Use that idea to make a complete combined dish, by all means!  For instance, I made a thai curry last week.  I used a ton of vegetables.  I spooned an appropriate amount of the vegetable curry mixture over some quinoa.  Not a bowlful, mind you.  Quinoa is a super healthy ancient grain that's very high in protein.  I had some cooked chicken left over from another dish, so I put an ounce or two on top.  At the end of the meal, I think my proportions were about right.  It's not a hard and fast rule, it's a guideline to keep in mind when you're building your meals.  And being mindful of proportion is definitely one of the main factors that led to my weight loss.

Now I know I've left some stuff out, like fruit and dairy.  I actually eat quite a bit of fruit, but I eat it with breakfast and as a snack later in the day, not generally as part of a main meal.  Same with dairy.  If they make it into other meals, great.  In my book you can't have too much fruit either.  Just don't eat it in place of vegetables.  

There's so much to say on this subject!  But I'll have to cut it short in the interest of theoretical finite interweb space.

To say it much, much more succinctly, don't just think about total calories.  Think about eating the right calories that are going to make you feel the best.  Just remember, portion is all about how much food you eat, and proportion is all about the type of food you eat.

Time to change gears and get to a recipe already!  I was watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network a few weeks ago and they were talking to this guy that does grilled cheese sandwiches.  He made this one sandwich with seared ahi and what he called wasabi mayonnaise.  But it wasn't mayonnaise at all!  It was tofu he combined in a food processor with wasabi powder and a bunch of other Asian-inspired ingredients.  Genius!  I decided to give it a go with a few additions of my own, and the results were pretty much spectacular.

It sounds odd, I know, but trust me.  This stuff is addictive!  I have been eating it on anything and everything ever since.  As a salad dressing on baby spinach, on brown rice sprinkled with seaweed and sesame seeds (that was such a wonderful combo), and drizzled over chicken tacos.  Yum!  For demonstration purposes (i.e. the picture at the top of this post) I poured some over some leftover quinoa I was snacking on.  That was delicious too.

The great thing about this stuff is it's super healthy!  If not for the tiny bit of sesame oil, it would basically be fat free, and since tofu is the base, you get a good punch of protein.  You're probably wondering how the tofu flavor comes through, and the answer is it doesn't at all.  The tofu gives a creamy, mayonnaise-like texture, but the flavor comes completely from the other ingredients.  The green onions and cilantro really brighten the mayo, and the wasabi powder gives it a nice kick and complex flavor.  The mirin and sweet soy sauce give it a bit of needed sweetness, which could easily be substituted with sugar and some added soy sauce if you don't have them in your pantry.  Ginger and garlic are a must in my book, but I didn't have any fresh, so I used powdered, and it worked just fine.  It's a recipe you can play around with.  I just kept throwing in ingredients until it tasted good to me.

This is definitely something you can throw together with whatever you have in your pantry and refrigerator.  As long as your combination of flavors is good, your mayo will be delicious.  You could even go in a completely different direction, and nix the Asian flavors all together.  You could try sun-dried tomatoes, basil, garlic, and some red pepper flakes for an Italian sub.  Maybe some good chili powder, cilantro, green onions, and jalapeños for a chicken quesadilla?  The possibilities are endless!

I bought a bunch of 8oz squeeze bottles at Smart & Final a few months ago.  Best purchase ever.  They were just a couple of bucks, and are great for storing various homemade condiments like strawberry puree I like to keep on hand for topping desserts, bbq sauce from scratch, and this wasabi mayo!

This recipe is also very budget friendly.  I bought the tofu on sale for $.99, the cilantro and green onion bunches were $.25 each, and everything else was just little bits from my pantry.  You can't buy a jar of mayonnaise for that!

Sure, it sounds weird, but it's also delicious, so give it a try!

Wasabi Tofu "Mayo"
inspired by the sandwich dude on Triple D

Makes about 12oz

1 package silken tofu, drained
3 stalks green onion, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 heaping TB wasabi powder
1 TB fresh ginger, minced, or 1 tsp ground ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced, or 2 tsp garlic powder
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB rice wine vinegar
2 TB sesame oil
2 TB mirin (sweet rice wine)
juice of 1 lime
1 TB sweet soy sauce (or use extra soy sauce and a little sugar)

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and processes until everything is well incorporated.  Taste mixture, and adjust seasoning to your liking.
2. Pour the mayo into a squeeze bottle or tupperware for storage.   

The 3 Ps, Portion, And Delicious Cake

Recipe: Brandy Buttermilk Apricot Cherry Upside-Down Cake

I read somewhere a few months ago that one of the reasons maintaining weight loss is so difficult is that a person spends so much time thinking about food while they're losing the weight, that when they've finally lost it, they are completely food obsessed.  As you can imagine, it's very difficult for someone who is obsessed with food not to eat...and eat...and eat...to the point of obesity!  And I can tell you, it is so true.  I was food obsessed before I lost 70 pounds, so you can imagine my struggle to balance my constant desire to shovel food in my mouth with my desire to stay healthy.  No really, when I say obsessed, I mean obsessed!  A good or bad meal can instantly affect my emotional state.  My social activities generally involve food in some way.  Want to hang out?  Sure, let's grab lunch!  You want to see that new movie with me?  Awesome, let's hit up the matinée and get dinner afterwards!  Hey Julie, how was your vacation?  Great!  The food was good!*  So yeah, I think it's safe to say I genuinely love food.  I am not one of those people couldn't care less what foods they ate, so eating healthy is just as easy as eating unhealthy. Oh ho ho ho, no.

I've developed a few methods for keeping my eating in check because a healthy lifestyle is about so much more than just switching to healthier food choices.  Despite what the masses tell you, there are no "good foods" and "evil foods".  Fat (and then Carbohydrates) is not the Devil's nutrient. Everything is a balance, and the loss of that sense of balance is why we're all fat!  And I could go on, but you don't have all day.

One of these methods, it's really more of a healthy lifestyle philosophy, I call the 3 Ps.  And those Ps would be portion, proportion, and practicality.  [I thought about prudence instead of practicality, but who wants to be prudent?]  Yeah, I know...it's is beyond cheesy.  But I can't help it they all begin with P!  Just bear with me people, mkay?  In the interest of keeping this post at short story length, I'm going to break this explanation up into a series.  Today I'll talk just about portion.

One of the keys to eating right is eating the right amount and eating the right amount of the right things.  [And if you only had to read that sentence once to understand it...10 points for you!] That's where portion comes in.  It refers, of course, to portion size.  As gluttonous, greedy Americans, we have been bred to always want more.  It's economical.  And we're nothing if not economical, am I right?  I'm sure you've read the news stories about how much more a single serving of coffee is today versus 50 years ago, or how much bigger portion sizes are at restaurants.  The first thing you need to do is get your portions back under control.

I find this difficult because when I'm eating something I like, I want to keep eating it until I can't possibly eat any more.  Well that's just too damn bad.  Now I (on my good days) eat the amount of food I need, rather than the amount of food I want.  I judge my need based on both hunger and calories.  I took some time to research the amount of calories I needed to eat in a day based on my sex, height, weight, and activity level, divided it up between whatever meals and snacks I wanted to eat in a day, and tried to hit those goals.

I just scared you away, didn't I?  Counting calories scares a lot of people away.  Including me.  Fear not!  In all that work I figured out that if I also ate the right proportions of types of food and stayed practical and realistic, I was hitting my calorie target all on my own.  No counting calories needed!  Thank goodness!  Basically, the idea is eat until you're no longer hungry, and try to eat sensibly.

So as I was saying, one important step to overcoming over-eating was getting a handle on my portions.  I'm sure you've heard this before, but it is so true.  Using smaller vessels to hold your food helps you eat less.  Now, I'm not saying switch your soup bowl out for a shot glass.  Be reasonable!  But switch out your ridiculously large dinner plate for a salad plate, perhaps.  Not only does it keep you from piling too much food on your plate, but you'll feel like you're eating a lot of food because the plate is full.  No joke!  If you scoop a correct serving of rice onto a giant plate, your eyes are going to tell you you're not eating very much, and your eyes send data to your brain way faster than your stomach!  I know when Husband and I finally replace our hand-me-down dinnerware collection (We kind of desperately need to.  As much as I love it, it's totally chipped!), it's going to be hard to find something isn't ridiculously over-sized.  Gluttonous, greedy Americans, remember?  If you're worried about taking too little food, just remember you can always go back for seconds if you really need to.  I don't recommend having seconds as a general rule, but if you do just be sure to wait 15-20 minutes between helpings to give your stomach a chance to tell your brain you're full.

The same goes for containers you pack your lunch in.  If you have some huge 4 cup capacity container to hold your super healthy brown rice and vegetable stir fry, when you go to fill it up, you're going to keep filling and filling until it's full, or at least way fuller than it should be.  And while one of the perks of healthier eating is getting to eat more food for the same amount of calories as unhealthy foods, there is a limit.  Be reasonable!  Here's why.  When you eat a lot of food, your stomach expands.  When you eat less food, it shrinks.  When your super stretched out stomach is empty, you eat until that big stretched tummy feels full.  If your stomach isn't so stretched, you feel full sooner, and as a result eat less to get that same satisfied feeling.  So it's not just about what you eat, but how much.  Being able to control your portions is essential.

Baby steps!  When faced with a sweet tooth and an uncut cake, I'll take a bigger piece than I should just as sure as the next gal.  That's why I take steps to prevent Piggy Julie from rearing her ugly snout.  You may recall I posted a few of those steps? Just being aware of your portions ensures you're headed in the right direction!


*It's completely true that I judge a place I've been based on how good the food was.  What's worse, my desire to visit a particular location is generally right on par with how good their food reputation is.  Case in point, I couldn't wait to visit France and Greece, and oh my word is the food there ever the best!  Germany?  Not such a huge desire.  That's not normal, right?

If you couldn't tell from the pictures of cake sprinkling this post, I may have just been bestowing my wisdom about eating right as a way to off-set that fact that I'm posting another delicious Summer fruit dessert.  Not to mention, that makes you one of the most unobservant people ever.  Way to go.  Did you also fail to observe that the Summer stone fruit is finally here?   I for one did not!  I love stone fruit!  Apricots, peaches, and plums, oh my!  What's more, I love baking with stone fruit!

You know what I really love about this cake?  It was one of those unexpected kitchen successes. I had some apricots and wanted to do an upside-down cake, so I hunted around my Google Reader until I found one that tickled my fancy.  As luck would have it, I had cherries on hand too!  I thought I'd get something ordinary but delicious, but this cake was delicious!  I actually exclaimed "Oh my!" when I took the first bite.  The cake was light and fluffy (and boozy!), and the fruit topping was sweet and bright (and boozy!).  The apricots were a little bit tart, the cherries had that deep, sweet cherry flavor.  Everything was beautifully balanced and delicious. And the brandy!  Oh the brandy.  It was a beautiful compliment to both the cake and fruit.  It's richness and complexity are definitely part of what made this cake so memorable.  When can I make it again?

Brandy Buttermilk Apricot Cherry Upside-Down Cake
adapted from Eating Out Loud

Makes a 12" cake

For the topping:
1/4 cup butter (1/2 a stick)
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 TB brandy

For the cake:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup brandy
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
7 apricots, sliced into medium-thin slices
1/2 cup cherries, pitted and sliced in half

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In an oven-proof skillet (preferably cast iron), about 10-12", melt the butter, brown sugar, and brandy.  Over medium heat, cook the mixture until it begins to bubble.  Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the buttermilk.
4. Slowly add the flour, and then add the baking powder, salt, vanilla, brandy, and lemon zest.  Mix just until a smooth batter is reached.
5. Arrange the slices of apricots and cherries in the skillet, on top of the sugar mixture.  I wanted the top of the cake completely covered in fruit, so I really jam packed it in there.  If you want more of the cake to show through, use less.
6. Pour the batter over the fruit, and use a spatula to smooth it evenly over the cake, making sure to spread it all the way to the edge of the skillet. Move the skillet to the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Make it your own!  This recipe can be done in a ton of variations.  You can use any stone fruit in place of the apricots and cherries.  You can use any liquor you think will compliment the flavors well.  You know what would be really delicious?  Bananas and bourbon, of course!  I'll have to try that sometime soon.  

For the more vestal readers, first, I have no idea what you're doing reading a blog all about pairing booze and food (not that I don't appreciate the readership), and second, I'm confident this cake is still a knock-out without the brandy.  

Deliciously Sweet, Contrarily Sour

Recipe: Sweet and Sour Pork

This dish is a bit like my job search.  You know...at times sweet, and other times, um, sour. Pungent. Acrid. Biting. I totally broke out the thesaurus on that one.  Anyway, I had a bit of a rough week, on the job front, that is.  I wish I had some of this on hand to brighten things up because, while in life sour is generally inauspicious, in food it can be part of a necessary balance.  A delicious, delectable balance.  I'm putting the thesaurus away now, I promise.

I made this many weeks ago.  Remember Husband's birthday cake?  Yeah, this was the dinner that preceded dessert.  It turned out far better than I ever dreamed!  See, I'm not actually even a fan of sweet and sour sauce.  I don't like my food cloyingly sweet.  The recipes I see usually call for gobs of sugar (thus the cloy!*), ketchup, cider vinegar, and orange juice.  I know most Chinese food I eat is anything but authentic, but that doesn't even include soy sauce!  It's like the food culture supposedly inspiring the dish is completely lost.  After some hunting around, and massive experimentation in the kitchen, I finally rejiggered** something that has notes of the original Americanized dish, and hints of a more "traditional" Americanized, Chinese-influenced dish. [Phew!  That one was hard to type with a straight face!] That's right, I threw in a little ketchup and sugar, along with some darn soy sauce!  And oyster sauce!  And if we're using vinegar here, it should be rice wine vinegar, right?!

Getting the sauce just right was pretty hard.  The recipe below is definitely not hard and fast measurements.  If it's not sweet enough, add more juice or plum sauce (or ketchup if you must).  If it's not sour enough, add more vinegar.  For salt, add more soy.  For acid, more pineapple juice. You get the idea.  The oyster sauce, I think, gives it a bit more depth of flavor (umami if you'll pardon my buzz word), and the plum sauce gives it some sweetness without that ketchup tang.  But if you don't have plum sauce and oyster sauce on hand, by all means leave them out.  Don't buy them just for this one dish.  A bit more sugar and maybe some Worcestershire sauce would be acceptable substitutes.  Just keep tasting it and adjusting until it tastes just right to you.  This was the blend that was to Husband's taste bud's liking.

I know battered and deep fried chicken is what you normally get at the Chinese fast food joints, but who needs that?  Not only is it unhealthy, but it's unnecessarily unhealthy.  That's the worst kind!  Sure, battered and fried meat is flavorful, but you're lathering your food in sauce.  A flavorful sauce!  And I think the stir-fried pork provided a nice texture contrast to the soft vegetables.

Now I want to talk a little about mirin.  Have you heard of it?  Do you have a bottle in your pantry?  I highly recommend that you do!  It's a sweet rice wine, and I love it.  It has a sweet, mild flavor that goes well in all kinds of Asian-inspired dishes.  I like to use it instead of sugar.  It gives the sweetness I need and a bit more flavor. There's definitely more recipes with mirin on the way, so stock up!  I buy it at my local Asian market, but I've seen it at the major grocery stores too, right by the rice wine vinegar.

It's funny that I went into this dish not even liking sweet and sour sauce, and I came out of it with a new recipe in my arsenal!  Win!  Think you don't like it too?  Give this one a try.



*Is cloy a word?  Did I invent another word?  I guess that's what happens when you're bananas for bourbon.  New words tend to pop up in your repertoire.

**See what I mean?

Sweet and Sour Pork

Makes about 6 servings

1 lb pork loin, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 can chopped pineapple in natural juices (not the kind in syrup), drained and juice reserved
3 stalks green onion, sliced into rounds
vegetable oil

For the marinade:
1 1/2 TB soy sauce
3 tsp mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 1/2 TB sesame oil
1 1/2 TB corn starch

For the sauce:
3 TB ketchup
2 tsp plum sauce
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp corn starch
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 inch knob of ginger, minced
1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice
1/4 cup orange juice

1. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and place into a container or ziplock bag with the pork.  Marinate for about 30 minutes.
2. Whisk together the sauce ingredients, adjusting quantities to taste, and set aside.
3. In a wok or saucepan over medium-high heat, add 1 TB of vegetable oil and stir-fry the pork until it is browned on all sides, about 5-7 minutes. Remove the pork from the wok and set aside.
4. Add another TB of vegetable oil, if needed, and stir-fry the bell peppers, onion, and garlic until softened and aromatic.  Add the sweet and sour sauce, pork, and pineapple, and simmer until thickened and lovely, about 10-15 minutes.  Sprinkle in the green onions at the very end.
5. Serve over jasmine rice (preferably brown), and enjoy!

Invoking Memories

Recipe: Berry Crisp

The best compliment I've ever received from someone who ate my food was an old co-worker who said that my Christmas rugelach reminded her of the ones her aunts used to make when she was a kid.  She said the best food is the food that invokes memories, and it is so true!  Vegetable and barley soup reminds me of my grandmother.  She always had a pot of it simmering on the stove when I went to her house.  Rice sprinkled with seaweed will always remind me of my freshman year in college, when Husband and I practically lived off the stuff (he had a handy little rice cooker in his dorm room).  And blackberries...well there will always be a special place in my heart for blackberries.

Growing up, there was an abundance of blackberry bushes all around my neighborhood.  Right across the street was the best spot for picking.  Come summer we would pick tubs and tubs of blackberries and bake tarts, pies, and cobblers galore!  I remember my neighbor's adorably cuddly Samoyed, rather ironically named Killer, helping himself to the berries of our labor if we weren't careful.  I remember baking with my mom in the kitchen, my sister and I fighting over who got to eat the leftover pie dough.  And unfortunately, I remember the year a fire burned down a sizable portion the area due to a brush fire, after which the city passed super strict laws about the distance of brush growing near peoples' houses.  They came and cut away all those wonderfully blackberry bushes, and our summer blackberry baking became nothing but an occasional occurrence. It was sad. Those poor blackberry bushes would never have dreamed of catching fire and burning our neighbor's house down!

To this day blackberries are my favorite berry.  A good, ripe blackberry has such a deep, sweet flavor.  It has the brightness of a berry, but something more too.  They're just more complex than a blueberry and strawberry in a way I can't describe. You just can't beat it.  So when they were on sale for cheap a few weeks ago, naturally, I stocked up!

I was tempted to do a cobbler, always my mom's go-to dessert.  They're delicious and easy, what's not to like?  But I was really in the mood for a little texture, and something with oats.  Oats are just the best in desserts, aren't they?  Once I decided on doing a crisp, I hunted around for a recipe, and ended up kind of mushing a bunch of ideas into one.  After the muffins, I didn't really have enough blackberries to go for a mono-fruit dessert, so instead I opted for an ensemble.

I had some delicious pears, a few strawberries, and to get the volume of fruit I wanted, I threw in a few frozen blueberries I had left over.  The great thing about crisps is that you can use whatever you want.  You could do one entirely with blackberries, or mix it up with some apples or stone fruit.  Whatever floats your boat, which is extremely useful when there's something different on sale at the store every week at this time of year.

I did end up making this boozy by throwing in some brandy.  When it first came out of the oven and I burned my mouth I was so impatient to try it, I could taste the brandy and it was delicious.  But when I ate some the next day the flavor had dissipated and I couldn't really taste it anymore.  I like booze to play a part in the background of my baked goods, but if it's not even detectable, then you're just wasting perfectly good alcohol..  Blasphemy!  Next time I would just leaving it out all together.  Blasphemy!  Damned if I do, damned if I don't.  It really just comes down to what fruit you're using.  If I had used only blackberries, the brandy probably would have come through a bit better.  If I was using apples, some apple brandy would have been awesome.  Grand Marnier and peaches. Bourbon and apricots.  Chambord and raspberries...

I'll stop before my drool over the keyboard rends finishing this post impossible, but the point is, finding ways to better booze this recipe is as limitless as deciding what fruit to use.  And that's what makes it fun!  Crisps are right there with cobblers when it comes to simplicity.  This is definitely one you could make with your kids, and start your own food memory tradition.

You may notice there's a bit of ice cream in these pictures.  I think ice cream and crisps go together like booze and berries. But it's a trick!  That's no ice cream.  It's a frozen banana.  Have you heard of this trick? Take a frozen banana (because you're freezer is overflowing with overripe bananas you're constantly stashing away like mine is, right?), and put it in the food processor.  At first it'll look a bit iffy, but after a minute or two, the banana breaks down enough that it gets this irresistibly creamy texture that is very reminiscent of ice cream (or frozen yogurt may be a bit more appropriate).  Seriously, that is 100% banana!  It's an easy, healthy dessert!  If you want to really spice it up, throw a spoonful of peanut butter in the food processor with the banana and top it with some chocolate chips. Heaven!  Ok, I admit it. I wanted a scoop of ice cream for the picture, and with my lack of an ice cream maker, I used the frozen banana trick.  But that's all changed now because I am now the proud owner of an ice cream maker!  Yay!  But that's another post.

So what's one of your favorite food memories?

Boozy Berry Crisp
loosely adapted from Parade

makes about 8 servings

For the berries:
6 cups berries (or other fruit of your choice, cut into bite size pieces)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp lemon juice
a pinch of cinnamon
1/4 cup booze of choice (completely optional, choose wisely)

For the crisp:
1 cup oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
7 TB butter, cubed and chilled

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9" pie plate (or similar-sized vessel) with baking spray.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the berries in a bowl and set aside.  [If you want to save on dishes to wash, you can just mix this directly into the pie plate.]
3. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the crisp except the butter. Stir to combine, then cut in the butter with a pastry blender, a fork, or even your fingers, until it comes together into small crumbles.
4. Pour the berry mixture into the pie plate, then sprinkle the crisp mixture over the top.  Bake for 1 hour, or until the crisp is a golden brown and the berries underneath have make a bubbling, thick syrup of deliciousness.  Let cool for 15 minutes.  Trust me on this one, it's hot.  You might want to place the pie plate on a baking sheet in case the fruit bubbles over, creating a total mess in your oven.  I decided to be a daredevil and wing it, and I came out unscathed.  Or rather, my oven did.

I Am A Man

I have a confession to make.  Bless me George Foreman, for I have sinned.  I'm kind of embarrassed about it.  My face is all kinds of sheepish at the moment.

Last week was my first time grilling.

Seriously!  I mean, I've eaten my fair share of grilled food, and some of it has even come out of my own backyard, but never prepared by me.  It was always Husband up to this point.  And since he doesn't do much of the cooking, my poor grill hasn't seen much use for the last few years.  Grilling always kind of scared me.  It's so...flamey!  And hot!  And I was afraid I would burn my face off, which if you know me, was actually a real possibility.  Still is.  I'm rather clumsy, did you know?  Plus, it's kind of a man thing, right?  Meat!  Fire!  Cook!  Eat!  Good!  Well last week I finally manned up and successfully grilled some awesome food.  It was so awesome in fact, that I went back and did it again...and again...and...I can't stop!  It just gets so hot, and charred.  Love me some char.  My name is Julie, and I am a grilling bad-ass.

And bonus?  Grilling also apparently makes me happy.  Picture it.  Last Saturday.  Husband, the puppers (my Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Theo (aka: Goofball McTroublemaker)), and I chilling and grilling in the backyard on a gorgeous Spring day.  Husband turning some vegetables on the grill, munching some bread and cheese, while I, nursing a glass of red wine, kicked the ball around for Theo to fetch.  That's my idea of a perfect day.  A little sad, but completely true.

But I don't want to talk about everything I grilled last week.  I just want to talk about one thing.  Potatoes.  Grilled.  Mashed.  These were the best mashed potatoes I have ever made.  For serious.  Let me tell you all about them.

First, I used red potatoes.  Russets work great and all, but I just have a thing for red potatoes.  They are so buttery and delicious.  And leave the skins on!  That's where all the nutrients are!  Do you know what nutrients taste like?  Deliciousness.  If your taste sensors aren't too deadened by constant exposure to processed ickiness, they respond to nutrients because your body needs them.  That's how we  survived in the wild and stuff!  So leave 'em on.  You won't even know they're there, except for the yumminess they impart to the dish.

Second, I sliced the potatoes into 1/2 inch slices for maximum surface area exposure.  More exposure means more char-grill taste and even cooking.  Win.  Then Husband did something that can only be classed as genius.  And really, it's too bad this idea didn't pop into my head, given the subject matter of this blog, but as long as my tummy ultimately got to reap the benefits, it's all good.  See, we wrapped the potatoes in a foil bundle once they were good and charred because they still needed a little cooking to be a mashable consistency.  I piled the potatoes on the foil, and right before I closed it up, Husband had the bright idea to dump the contents of my wine glass in with the potatoes. A wine marinade!  See what I mean?  Genius!

Did I mention there was garlic involved?  Roasted.  Two heads.  Now if you're not completely gaga over garlic like I am, don't be scared!  Garlic seriously sweetens and mellows when it's roasted, so you get that great garlic taste without it punching in the face.  If you're still not into it I would suggest first, that you never come over to my house to eat, and second, that you do just one head.  You won't be sorry.

I wanted to top the potatoes with a gravy, but I was completely out of stock of any kind.  Sad, I know.  So I ended up just doing onions and mushrooms cooked in as much red wine as I could spare from my own glass (not much, it's my preciouussssss), but the recipe below is for what I would have used, had I the proper ingredients on hand at the time.  I hesitate to call it a gravy because I have an irrational fear that some Southern person is going to read this post and reach through the series of tubes that make up the interwebs and kick my butt for daring to call it gravy when it is not real gravy.  I have no idea what makes gravy gravy, so I'll just call it a sauce.  I am such a peace maker. 

What I really love about this dish is that it was completely improvised, but surprisingly successful.  Earlier in the day Husband had made a comment that he hadn't had mashed potatoes in a while, and the seed was planted.  Later that day at the store I saw red potatoes at a great priced and figured I do something with them.  When I got home we fired up the grill for other purposes, and I thought, what the heck.  Grill the potatoes while we're at it.  And by the time the sun went down, we were eating the best mashed potatoes I have ever made.  Delicious and fulfilling all at the same time.

What makes these so good is that that smoky flavor you get from grilling the potatoes first.  You don't need to add two sticks of butter to make it taste like anything because it tastes like awesomeness before you even go to mash it!  Husband and I may had sneaked a potato or two from the batch before it became the mashed dish you see below.  When was the last time you sneaked a boiled russet, huh?

Julie's Favorite Mashed Potatoes
(aka: grilled red wine roasted garlic mashed potatoes with caramelized onion and mushroom gravy sauce)

Makes about 8 servings (6 if you're a side dish piggy like me)

For the potatoes:
3 lbs red potatoes
2 heads garlic
olive oil
1/4 cup red wine (white works too)
2 TB butter
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
1 cup buttermilk
salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:
2 large sweet onions, quartered then sliced
10 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
olive oil
2 TB butter
2 TB flour
1 cup red wine

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 TB balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste
chopped fresh parsley for garnish

For the potatoes:

1. Slice the potatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices. Toss with about 1 TB of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper to coat.
2. Cut the top off the heads of garlic to expose the top of the cloves. Place each head individually on a square of aluminum foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, and pinch the foil closed so it encases the head of garlic. Place these on a cooler part of the grill and forget about them, or alternatively, place in a 400 degree oven for about an hour.
3. Grill the potato slices over medium heat until both sides have nice and dark grill marks, and a deep golden color. The longer these grill, the stronger grill flavor the final dish will have. I even let some of my slices get a little charred because I'm into that sort of thing.
4. Once the slices are grilled, get a big sheet of aluminum foil, dump all the potatoes in the center, pour in the red wine, and pinch up the ends so you have a big enclosed bundle. Let this sit on the grill on low heat with the cover down.  This will let the potatoes cook until they reach mashability and infuse them with a rich wine flavor.
5. Don't forget to check on your garlic! It's ready to come off the grill when it's soft to the touch. This for me happened to be the same amount of time it took to cook the potatoes.
6. When the potatoes are fork tender, place them in a bowl, and while still warm, add the butter, yogurt, and buttermilk. With a potato masher, pulverize the mixture! The potatoes may have developed a bit of a crispy crust from the grilling, so initially it takes a little muscle to get the ball rolling, but don't worry, it gets easier once you break that crust down. Mash until it's the consistency you like.   It'll need more liquid than regular mashed potatoes because so much has cooked out during the grilling process.  I just kept adding buttermilk until it was creamy enough for my liking.  Add a little more salt and pepper to taste, as well as the roasted garlic. You can either tediously peel each clove, or just squeeze at the bottom until it squirts out like a tube of toothpaste.  

For the sauce:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat with 1 TB of olive oil. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and sweat them until they give off all their water.  Before the onions start to brown, turn the heat down to low and cook until they fully caramelize and reach a rich, golden color, about 45 minutes to an hour.  You may need to increase the heat to medium-low if they still have a lot of moisture.  The trick is to make sure they don't brown.
2. In a separate pan over medium heat, and add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms give off their water and cook down, about 10 minutes.
3. Clear a little spot in the mushroom pan and add the butter. When it has melted add the flour, and stir to combine into a paste. Let this cook for a minute or two to cook off the raw flour taste, then deglaze the pan with the red wine. After a couple of minutes when most of the wine has cooked down, add the chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and caramelized onions, and let the mixture simmer until a nice, thick sauce forms.
4. Serve this over your grilled mashed potatoes, top with some fresh parsley, and enjoy!

PS: I actually wrote up this entire post already once today, and in the course of events, mostly involving blogger being a complete tool (ha!  get it!?), it was all completely lost.  This post, naturally, pales in comparison to the work of art that was the original post.  Try as I might, I just can recreate the magic.  I hope this didn't come off as too ho hum.  

The Muffin Man?

My husband is a muffin man.  If you ask him what his favorite dessert is, he'll say something with chocolate.  Usually cake. [see post on his requested birthday cake: chocolate!]  But if I set a tray of blueberry muffins on the counter, they are usually gone by morning.  He is a total muffin man.

Do you know the muffin man?  The muffin man?  The muffin man?

I totally have that song stuck in my head now.  It's not much of a song though, is it?  I mean, that's pretty much all there is to it.  Did you know there used to be dudes who went door to door delivering muffins?  Kind of like the milk man.  I guess that's where the song came from.  Wikipedia says so.  How did people learn anything before Wikipedia?

Bet you thought this blog was just for food chit chat and innocent, diverting entertainment, didn't you?  Oh no.  I make you learn something too.  There's life-changing information in here, people!  I mean, there's got to be the answer to some random gameshow question in there, that could win you millions of dollars.  You're welcome.  Also, I want my cut!

You totally have that song stuck in your head now, don't you? Mwhaha!

Anyways, berry season is here!  I love berry season. How awesome are they?  They're good just by themselves, over cereal, in yogurt, salads, pureed they can be used as a million different sauces, not to mention their possibilities in desserts!  Cobblers, tarts, pies, cakes, crisps, scones, breads, and...muffins!  The possibilities are so endless that I almost get overwhelmed when deciding what to do with them!

Blackberries were on sale last week, and my curiosity had just peaked by a recipe for some delicious-looking blackberry muffins...and the rest is history!  

Have you ever had blackberry muffins before?  I hadn't.  Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry...sure!  Blackberry, never.  It really doesn't make sense why not.  One might argue out of all the berries, the blackberry is one of the best!  But that's another post.

These muffins were so good.  Actually, they turned out better than I anticipated.  Usually Husband is the muffin oinker, but I definitely had my share of face stuffing with these.  It was the delicious crumb topping.  You bite into the muffin top and get that sweet and slightly crunchy crumbly top, and then right in the middle is that burst of bright sweetness from the blackberries. Oh my, they were addicting!  

See that picture below?  At ate that muffin after I took that picture.  Ok, actually I ate it after the one below it, because I cut it in half, got pictures of it's insides, then ate it.  Which is perfectly acceptable if you don't consider that I had already eaten one fresh out of the oven about 5 minutes prior.  But once I had cut this one open and it's blackberry innards looked and smelled so enticing, there was no turning back.  Yep, I had to run some extra laps for that one!  So worth it.

The muffins turned out kind of...mammothsiveossal!  Or rather, ahem, they were on the large side.  When I checked on them in the oven halfway through baking, I thought the recipe had gone horribly, horribly wrong.  They had taken on a life of their own!  They were...spreading!  But by the end they had puffed up in all the right places and made one delicious muffin.  Phew!

I like to change out about half the all purpose flour in muffin and quick bread recipes with whole wheat flour.  Not only does it make them a bit healthier (yay fiber!), it also gives them a bit of density and deeper flavor that I like.  I also like to go for recipes that use applesauce, or banana, or pumpkin, or some other fruit or vegetable puree in place of some of the oil to lighten and bright them a bit.  I prefer the more neutral taste of applesauce when I don't want the flavor to interfere with everything else going on.  I wanted blackberry muffins, not blackberry banana muffins, ya know?  But if your ears (eyes?) just perked up at the mention, feel free to try it.

I decided to booze up these muffins with brandy, not just because of the handy alliteration, but also because I wanted a rich flavor that would compliment the blackberries without overpowering them like a whiskey might.  But you could certainly use a whiskey in its stead.  You'll get a bit smokier of a flavor, I would think.  Yum!

Innards!

Blackberry Brandy Muffins

Adapted from The Hazel Bloom

Makes 12 enormous muffins

For the topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup rolled oats

4 TB butter, melted

For the muffins:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup applesauce

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon zest

1/4 cup brandy (optional)

1 cup buttermilk

12 oz fresh blackberries, halved

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a muffin pan with baking spray.
2. Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl until it's a crumbly consistency.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a medium bowl, scramble the egg, then add the sugar and whisk until fluffy and light in color.  Add the oil, applesauce, vanilla, lemon zest, and brandy.  Mix to combine.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, pour in the buttermilk, and stir until just barely combined.  Don't over-mix!  Then fold in the blackberries.
6. Fill the 12 muffin cups with the batter.  I fill them all the way to the top, which is probably why they're so huge.  Then crumble the topping mixture over each muffin.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and a tester comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes, which for Husband, sometimes requires an armed guard.

PS: If you check out the right-hand column of this here blog (come on, click over from your rss reader, I don't bite), there is a spot to follow this blog.  I hope if you like what your read, you'll do so.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.  Also, right below it is a link to this here blog's Facebook page.  Come like me on Facebook, if you please.  It makes me feel all cozy and safe on the inside.  One more thing.  A little ways below that there is a banner that will take you to my profile on Tasty Kitchen. Come and be my friend, or rate my recipes!  It makes me feel all liked and validated on the inside.

Baking Till You're Skinny

Psych!!!

Sorry to yank your chain, but you won't catch me touting any kind of magic cookie diet here.  Baking generally involves things like flour, butter, oil, sugar, etc.  Nothing evil per se, but a diet high in carbs (especially refined flour like all purpose, which basically just turns to sugar right along with all that sugar already in it) and fat isn't going to lose you any notches on your belt.  Not to make you feel guilty about consuming cakes and cookies and pies and whatever your part of your brain responsible for survival instincts that respond to body fat storing foods heart desires!  On the contrary.  Dessert should be a part of everyone's life!  If dessert is banned from your diet, then it's not a diet (as in, the way you eat...like all the time), it's just a temporary way of eating.

Unless you just don't like desserts, in which case, I don't even want to know you because that is just against nature!  If this were neolithic times you would be dead, and so you're dead to me.  Makes sense, right?

That's all just a wordy way of saying everything in moderation!  Me, wordy?  But you generally don't bake 2 cupcakes or 1 slices of pie, do you?  That's just silly!  So you're faced with eating an entire pie, and if you haven't developed some seriously iron-clad willpower, your entire pie will be gone far sooner than you might hope.

My willpower is more like aluminum foil.

So how do I bake a pie and only manage to eat 2 or 3 small slices?  Ahem, that's over the span of days thankyouverymuch!  I have some tricks up my sleeve.

As I said in my last post, Husband is my first line of defense.  When I bake something he really likes, like say, muffins, they usually don't last long enough for me to really pig out on them.  But what if you're not married?  Or your spouse refuses to help you (how selfish!)?  Or you come to realize it's not really fair to Husband's waistline when you expect him to scarf down everything you take out of the oven so you don't eat it yourself? Or what if Husband expressly asks you to stop baking so much for the love of our scale!

If no one at home will help you out (ugh, selfish!), it's time to become to most popular girl at work!  Most office environments have break rooms of some kind, right?  Share your kitchen triumphs!  Not only will you gain brownie points (Ha!  Get it?), but also it invites co-workers to strike up conversation about your hobby, and who doesn't like being the center of attention chatting about food?  And if you don't work in an office, or you hate your co-workers and don't want to feed those lame losers, how about your neighbors?  Drop off a goody bag to the couple next door.  You have friends, right?  Invite some over to help you eat whatever is looming on your kitchen counter.  It's amazing how much more social I am when I have baked goods around.

The thing with moderation is it's all about portions.  Eating a dessert that is a few bites in size is obviously going to do a lot less damage to your overall calories for the day than eating half a cake.  But when I'm craving sweets, and I'm holding the knife in my hands, I don't always cut the size of slice that I should.  I know this about myself, so I take steps to prevent myself from pigging out.

Yes, one side of my brain plots deviously against the other.  I blame you, sugar!

When I bake up a pan of brownies, and they're all nice and cooled, I cut them into teeny tiny bite-size pieces, rather than the huge bars you might buy at the grocery store.  Then I put them away!  When I want dessert at the end of the day, I grab one of my small brownie squares, rather than trusting my aluminum foil will to cut an appropriate piece.  This works for cakes, bars, and pretty much anything solid baked in a pan.  When I bake muffins and they are particularly huge, I cut them in half before storing them.  When I bake cookies, I make sure to make them as small as possible, so they come out of the oven all nice and portioned for me.

In some cases, you can bake only what you want to eat right then and freeze the rest.  Remember when I said it was silly to only bake a slice of pie?  Well I didn't really mean it.  I like to keep you on your toes.  Slice and bake cookies, scones, and pie dough (for pocket pies!) all work well.  Also, did you know that a full freezer is actually more efficient than an empty one?  Apparently it's easier, from a power consumption perspective, to keep a lot of frozen food frozen than it is to keep an empty space at a freezing temperature.  So really, by freezing your doughs, you're being green.  Good for the environment.  You are welcome planet earth!  I expect some kind of rebate check from the government any day now for my services.




Really what it comes down to is calories, right?  There is no expressly evil food (except margarine.  I hate you, margarine!).  Don't give up chocolate for a year unless someone is paying you to!  If you know you have a slice of pie waiting for you in the kitchen, take a few less bites at dinner.  Don't sacrifice healthy, nutrient-dense foods for what is essentially empty calories.  Just find a good balance.  You'll be happier.  Also, baking rocks!  Total therapy.  Am I right?

[Also, when I know I really want to pig out on something I shouldn't, I just try and work out a little more that day.  Calories in, calories out!  But that's another post...]



Oh, and that muffin up there?  At the tippy tippy top of this monster of a post?  Me wordy?  That recipe is in the queue, but I can tell you there may be fresh blackberries, brandy, and crumb topping involved.

The Birthday Cake

As in the birthday cake.  The birthday cake to end all birthday cakes!  When Husband's birthday was approaching last month, I said I would cook him any food for his birthday dinner, and bake him any birthday dessert.  After much thought, he decided on sweet and sour pork for dinner (I have no idea where it came from, since I had never made it before), and his usual for dessert.  He always requests a cake, chocolate and raspberry.  This year was no exception.  The flavor combination is both our favorites.  Being the person I am...I wanted to make something special...and I put way more thought into it than I probably should have...I landed on the most complicated, but delicious cake I have ever made.

Are you ready to hear about it?

Prepare yourself.  It's quite a mouthful.  Ha!  Get it?

It's my favorite chocolate cake, layered with both raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.  It's topped with a raspberry buttercream, and then that's topped with a chocolate raspberry glaze.

I'm drooling right now.

Husband likes frosting.  I gave him some options on how to put the cake together, and he liked this way the best.  Cutting the layers in half allowed for more layers of frosting without adding more cake.  If you prefer more cake, or even just a taller cake, you could always do 3 or even 4 full layers instead of 2.  That cake would be a doozy!  Or, just keep the 2 layers in tact with only one measly layer of frosting between them.

I used some of the extra buttercream to decorate the top of the cake.  Lettering and squiggles and what not.  An expert I most certainly am not.  Fresh raspberries would have worked well too, but they were too rich for my unemployed blood.

Now this may shock you, given the subject and title of this blog, but there is, in fact, no booze in this cake.  A travesty, I know!  The recipe below contains no booze.  Unthinkable!

But fear not!  I wouldn't leave you hanging.  While this blog will, from time to time, feature recipes without alcohol, this cake could easily work some in.  And so next time I will.  I just didn't have the right booze on hand, so it was left out.  Sad, I know.  I'm talking about Chambord raspberry liqueur, of course.  Wouldn't that go nicely?  When I make this cake again I plan to incorporate it in the chocolate glaze on top of the cake, as well as brush some of the liquor on the cake layers.  Did you know brushing baked and cooled cake layers with water, simple syrup, or liquor is a good way to keep a cake moist, and in the case of the latter, delicious?  This chocolate cake definitely doesn't need the moisture, but I never say no to flavor.  If you're not a fan of Chambord, I'll bet that Godiva chocolate liqueur would be delicious as well, though chocolate on chocolate...it would probably get a bit lost.

While hunting the interwebs for ideas and recipes for what I wanted to do with this cake, I happened upon this invaluable post from Deb at Smitten Kitchen.  If you're planning to make a layer cake, it's definitely worth reading her tips for a successful cake.  My chilling technique and use of the crumb layer came from her.  And her tip for baking the cakes at a lower temperature for longer to prevent the middle from puffing up is ingenious!  Totally worked for me. Check it out.

Making this cake felt like running a marathon.  Seriously.  It took me all day.  I missed a Corgi meetup at the beach because I knew I needed every available minute of the day.  It didn't really take all day.  And it didn't require constant attention.  But I took my time, making sure not to rush, so I was sure that I would be happy with the end result.  Also, I have an issue with time management.

But it was so worth it!  This cake was by far the best cake I've ever baked.  I was afraid there would be too much going on, but since I kept the flavors to just chocolate and raspberry, the taste was complex, but still cohesive and delicious.  If anything all the different fillings and frostings added a great textural element.  Especially after refrigerating it. That chocolate cake recipe really is my favorite.  The cake comes out light and very moist, and the chocolate flavor is deep, not watered down like some other cakes can taste.  Oddly enough, I think all the different fillings and frostings actually balanced themselves out well.  Without the chocolate frosting, the raspberry in the filling and buttercream together would probably have been too pronounced. And the frosting without the raspberry filling would have left the raspberry flavor not pronounced enough.  You see?

Apparently our guests liked it because they actually took some home!  Husband freaked out a bit when he saw after only one day it was already half gone.  But he's a bit selfish (read: oink, oink!) when it comes to my baked goods.  It's endearing.  And when I sent him to work with some of the leftovers when Monday rolled around, people were actually fighting over it!  Heh, ok, not really.  But Husband did bring in a slice for our old manager, a woman who has always appreciated and encouraged my baking efforts, so I share with her as much as Husband lets me.  She was out of town, but very much wanted to try the cake, so she told him to put it in the freezer for when she got back.  A few co-workers got wind of the frozen slice, and decided to pilfer it for themselves.  They're also friends who encouraged my baking efforts, so I was glad they were able to try it, but apparently my old manager was not happy to hear the cake had not-so-mysteriously disappeared from the freezer.  Husband actually asked me to bake another cake so she could try it!  I'm nice, but I'm not that nice.  Cakes are rather expensive to make!  And remember the whole marathon comment?  Pretty sure it's not healthy to run a marathon every month.  Ok, maybe it is, but I still don't want to do it.

That reminds me of a tip for people who, like me, love to bake, but don't want the calories that come with being responsible for eating an entire cake, or batch of scones, or pan of muffins.  My first line of defense is my husband.  If anything gets past him after 48 hours, then it goes to work with him to share with his co-workers.  Only the ones he likes, though.  He thinks it's an insult to feed my extra delicious baking to people who are not worthy.  This is why I bake him cakes that take all day to make.  He's a sweetie.  But I should amend that, since there are co-workers who he likes, but sometimes he just doesn't have enough to go around to everyone because he eats half of it at his desk before sharing.  The frozen slice of cake, anyone?  Sometimes I have to give him specific instructions.

Oh, and a word of warning.  If you're going to make this cake for a dude, I wouldn't skip the chocolate glaze.  I didn't realize until I frosted the cake, but without the glaze it would be a pink cake.  I don't think Husband would have particularly appreciated a pink cake.  Just sayin'.

Portions of the cake could in theory be done the day before.  I baked the cakes the day before and froze them with no issue.  But for the filling, frostings, and glaze, I wanted to make sure it was freshly made so I didn't have any consistency issues.  If you do attempt to undertake this cake, I applaud you.  I'm sure you'll make a beautiful cake, and I hope you like how it turns out!

Husband's Ultimate Birthday Cake


The Contents:

• the cake - 2 layers chocolate cake cut in half to make 4 thin layers
• between the cake layers - chocolate frosting and raspberry filling
• on top of the cake - raspberry buttercream and chocolate glaze
• decoration for the cake - leftover raspberry buttercream for lettering or fresh raspberries

The Recipes:

The Best Ever Chocolate Cake
Adapted from the Cafe Beaujolais Cookbook

3 cups flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup + 2 TB canola oil
1 TB vanilla extract
2 TB white vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Grease two 9-inch cake pans with baking spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, then spray the parchment paper.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt, and sift together in a medium-sized bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the water, canola oil, vanilla, and vinegar. Whisk the wet and dry ingredients together, and pour through a fine mesh strainer to break up any lumps.  Whisk one more time.
3. Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared cake pans.  Drop the pans, one at a time, about 6 inches from the counter or floor a few times to pop the air bubbles.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool completely.

Bittersweet Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

3.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 TB unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. Melt the chocolate and heavy cream in a double boiler, and whisk to combine.  Remove from heat and let the mixture sit, whisking occasionally, until it reaches a thick, gloppy consistency (which Deb likened to mayonnaise, which was right on).  This took me about 30 minutes.
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter using the whisk attachment, on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.  Add the chocolate mixture and whip until it is thicker and lighter in color, about 2 minutes.  Don't overwhip, or it could break.

Raspberry Filling

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

20 ounces frozen raspberries (2 packages), thawed

1/3 cup sugar

2 TB cornstarch

1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Puree the raspberries in a food processor, and push liquid through a fine mesh strainer to remove any seeds.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until it boils and thickens.  Let it cool completely, so the mixture will come to a thick enough consistency. 

Raspberry Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

5-6 cups confectioners sugar

10 ounces frozen raspberries (1 package), thawed

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Puree the raspberries in a food processor, and push liquid through a fine mesh strainer to remove any seeds. Set aside 3 TB of the puree for the chocolate glaze.  (To save time, I pureed the raspberries for both recipes together at once.)
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter using the whisk attachment on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.
3. Slowly add 2 cups of the confectioners sugar, and mix until smooth.  Then add 10 TB of the raspberry puree, slowly, and mix until smooth.  Add the rest of the sugar, in 1/2 cup increments, and mix until fully incorporated.  When you've added in 4 1/2 to 5 cups of sugar stop and taste the mixture.  If it is sweet enough for your liking, stop there.  If you need more, keep tasting after each 1/2 cup addition until it's sweet enough.  The exact amount of sugar will vary depending on the sweetness of the raspberries and, of course, personal preference.
4. Finally, add the vanilla extract and beat the mixture at medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

Note: Don't refrigerate the buttercream if you make it in advance.  It will become too hard and won't be spreadable.  It should be ok at room temperature in an airtight container.  This recipe makes enough to frost an entire cake, which will be too much since you're not using it between the cake layers.  I wasn't sure if I'd have enough if I halved the recipe, but if you're feeling brave (or miserly!), you can try it.

Chocolate Raspberry Glaze

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 TB raspberry puree

2 TB light corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Melt the chocolate and corn syrup together in a double boiler.  Whisk often until the chocolate is fully melted and the mixture is smooth.  
2. Remove the mixture from heat, and whisk in the raspberry puree and heavy cream until it is smooth.

Note: Don't do this part until you are ready to use it (the cake is assembled).  It needs to be warm when it is poured over the cake, so it's oozy and drippy.  I waited just a few minutes to pour mine, and it stayed a little thick.

Booze It Up!  Add 2 TB of Chambord raspberry liqueur when you add the raspberry puree and cream.

The assembly:

1. Cut the cooled cake layers evenly in half, so there are four thin layers.  Be careful!  They'll be very delicate.  If the tops have puffed up in the middle, use a bread knife to level them.  Put them in the freezer to firm up, about 30 minutes to an hour.
2. Place the first layer on your cake plate.  (If boozing it up, brush the top of the first cake layer with a little Chambord raspberry liqueur.) Using a spatula, spread about 1/2 cup of the raspberry filling in an even layer over the cake.  Make sure it gets all the way to the edge.  Spread about 1/2 cup (or one third) of the chocolate frosting over the raspberry filling.  Place cake in the refrigerator to firm up, if needed. (Note: If the raspberry filling is on the runny side, put the chocolate frosting layer down first.  My filling was very thick, so it worked best for me to use it first.)
3. Repeat Step 2 for the next two layers, making sure to work slowly and letting it set in the refrigerator if it is slipping and sliding at all.  Chilly cake is your friend!  Then place the final layer of cake on top.
4. If there is unevenness in the shape of the cake, now is the time to even it out.  Cut off any bits that stick out...and eat them!  Gotta test for poison, right?
5. Spread a very thin layer of the raspberry buttercream around the cake for a crumb layer.  This will glue the dark crumbs to the cake, so they don't show through the light colored buttercream.  Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 15 minutes until firm.  Apply a regular, thick layer of the buttercream, then chill again for another 15 minutes.
6. Pour the chocolate glaze over the top of the cake and using a spatula, push the glaze just to the edge of the cake, so it spills down the sides.  Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes to set completely.
7. Decorate the top of the cake with leftover raspberry buttercream and/or fresh raspberries.

Yum!

Jamming Around Town

I have a confession to make.  I'm scared of jam.  Making my own, I mean.  It's ridiculous, I know.  You hear all these horror stories about people dying horrible deaths from eating their home-canned goods in which the seals had broken!  Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I still prefer not to poison myself.  Also, so much gear is required for the endeavor.  You have to have jars and racks and tongs...and you have to boil things and sterilize things!  I'm all about a clean kitchen, but the words sterilization and food together just...turns me off. And...it might have something to do with the fact that I don't own any of that gear I mentioned.

But that won't stop me from making jam!  Ever heard of freezer jam?  For those not hip to the lingo, that would be jam that you freeze, rather than can, to preserve it. It's made much the same method.  I made some recently...and I may have boozed it up a bit.  That's what I do, right?  When I saw the recipe call for grape juice, I immediately made the jump to wine.  I perused my wine cabinet and decided that Gewürztraminer would fit the bill.

Ever heard of it?  Don't let those two little dots above that u scare you off!  Say it with me: Guh-wurts-tra-mee-ner.  Look at you, speakin' all fancy.  It's not as popular a varietal as Chardonnay or Riesling, but if you've never tried it before, you should. It's totally tasty. I'm really not a wine connoisseur, so this won't be the most accurate description, but Gewürztraminer is a bright and light white wine.  It's floral and fruity, a little bit dry and a little bit sweet.  Only slightly!  I'm not usually a fan of sweet wines, but this wine isn't cloying by any means.  Actually, one of my favorite wines is the late harvest Gewürztraminer from Navarro in the Anderson Valley.  Heaven in a bottle.

So I made a strawberry Gewürztraminer freezer jam that turned out so bright and complex, I was eating it all week.  I really held back on the sugar because I wanted to make sure to taste the wine, and I think strawberries are sweet enough on their own.  But if you like sweeter jams, you can always up the sugar.  You can also try a different wine varietal!  I would suggest sticking with sweeter wines, nothing too dry.  My ingestion method of preference?  That would be on a sesame cracker with some fig goat cheese I bought at a Costco roadshow a few weeks ago.  So...amazingly...good.  A fresh-baked buttermilk biscuit would do nicely as well.

I wanted to tackle my own jam because store-bought jams tend to be, well, mostly sugar.  I don't think sugar is evil.  Not by any means.  But when I eat jam, I want to feel like I'm eating fruit, not eating dessert.  You gotta pick and choose your sugar battles, right?

Strawberry Gewürztraminer Jam

3 cups strawberries
1 3/4 cups Gewürztraminer
1/4 cup sugar
1 pouch pectin (I used the Ball no sugar needed variety)

1. Mash the strawberries with a potato masher into small chunks. (Don't use the food processor for this, I hear if you break it down too much, you break down the pectin and it won't set)
2. Combine the strawberries, wine, and pectin in a pot over medium-high heat.  Bring the mixture to a rolling boil (don't jump the gun, let it really boil!), and cook for 1 minute. 
3. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the sugar until it's dissolved.
4. Pour the mixture into freezer jam containers (or any freezer-safe container that tickles your fancy), leaving at least half an inch of room from the top of the container, and move to the refrigerator to set up overnight.   

De-boozify it: Use white grape juice if you aren't so wine inclined!