I love this!!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
The elusive apple cake
When we were in southern France we had what might have been the greatest meal of our lives. We ordered a cassoulet (partly because it was the only thing on a very long menu that we remotely understood, not speaking a bit of French ourselves and also because cassoulet seemed quintessentially french), wine, and a cheese plate.
When we were finished with our meal the chef/owner came out and asked us how everything was ( thankfully she spoke English). After giving much praise and sounding like the stupid Americans that we are, we asked her for a dessert recommendation and she asked "well what did you have for dinner?" ahhhh what a watershed foody moment, asking what we ate for dinner to pair a dessert-I think G. shed a tear! Anyways after describing our meal she recommended (without hesitation) an apple cake. It was such an amazing dessert and I wish I'd taken a photo. Ever since then I've wanted to recreate it, but haven't really know what recipe to use.
When we got the most recent version of the Canal House cookbook and I saw the apple cake recipe in the back I thought this might be it. Honestly, Canal House describes the cake as Italian not French. But I figured, hey, the countries are geographically close, and surely delicious cake recipes cross borders.
I found some apples at the farmer's market this past Wednesday (who knew they started growing now?!?) and so this seemed the perfect opportunity to try the recipe.
The recipe is simple. It calls for butter, sugar, milk, an egg, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. You make the cake batter, place in a springform pan, and then carefully arrange apple slices in the batter.
This recipe was good, but not great. I want to try again with different apples (maybe Golden Delicious, which the Canal house recommends), and with smaller slices.
I've also been searching the web and seeing all sorts of different takes on similar cakes:
here, here, and here, for example.
So many possibilities....so little time.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Guess what's going on in the food epidemic kitchen these days
Bread. Lots of bread baking. I'm a little obsessed. I love the idea of creating something so delicious out of just flour, water, salt, and maybe some yeast. I stay up late reading this blog. And watching instructional videos on how to shape loaves of bread. And reading messages on the fresh loaf bread forum- Bread bakers are so nice!
So...outcomes:
The bread I've been baking the most is the Tartine country loaf. This has been very much a success! The recipe and instructions are given on Martha Stewart's website. Pictured below is the whole wheat variety.
I have also been trying to make baguettes. These are not going quite as well. Somehow my baguette attempts always seem to end in an over-proofed disaster, which makes me grumpy.
First I tried to make baguettes using the recipe in the Tartine bread book. That was a COMPLETE disaster. I was very sad. Luckily, we were taking care of my sister-in-law's dog at the time, who managed to eat 1.5 of the baguette disasters that I baked.
She's so cute I had to forgive her (see below):
Next I tried using this recipe. The latter mentioned formula was developed by Anis Bouabsa, who was recently named the baker of the best baguette in Paris. My first attempt using his formula was only half of a disaster. The baguettes still didn't shape properly. And I was still grumpy afterwards. Oh well.
We still managed to make some delicious meatball subs with the bread (sorry, we ate the sandwiches before I could take a picture!).
I want to try again. I am determined.
In other news, I'm obsessed with iced coffee. I have been using the Japanese iced coffee "on the rocks" method.
I love this. It's so simple. I grind up 1/3 cup of coffee beans, place them in a filter, place the filter over a mason jar filled with a couple cubes of ice, and then pour approximately 1 cup of boiling water through the filter on top of the ice. It's so delicious. And I love being able to use a mason jar. It's super convenient. You can screw the lid on and you're set to travel.
Which reminds me: G. bought me a "cuppow." It's awesome. It's a drinking lid that you place on a mason jar. It essentially turns a mason jar into a sippy cup! Next I'm going to buy the straw-friendly version.
Alright, it's 11:30 and I am supposed to wake up early tomorrow. So that's all for now.
So...outcomes:
The bread I've been baking the most is the Tartine country loaf. This has been very much a success! The recipe and instructions are given on Martha Stewart's website. Pictured below is the whole wheat variety.
I have also been trying to make baguettes. These are not going quite as well. Somehow my baguette attempts always seem to end in an over-proofed disaster, which makes me grumpy.
First I tried to make baguettes using the recipe in the Tartine bread book. That was a COMPLETE disaster. I was very sad. Luckily, we were taking care of my sister-in-law's dog at the time, who managed to eat 1.5 of the baguette disasters that I baked.
She's so cute I had to forgive her (see below):
Next I tried using this recipe. The latter mentioned formula was developed by Anis Bouabsa, who was recently named the baker of the best baguette in Paris. My first attempt using his formula was only half of a disaster. The baguettes still didn't shape properly. And I was still grumpy afterwards. Oh well.
We still managed to make some delicious meatball subs with the bread (sorry, we ate the sandwiches before I could take a picture!).
I want to try again. I am determined.
In other news, I'm obsessed with iced coffee. I have been using the Japanese iced coffee "on the rocks" method.
I love this. It's so simple. I grind up 1/3 cup of coffee beans, place them in a filter, place the filter over a mason jar filled with a couple cubes of ice, and then pour approximately 1 cup of boiling water through the filter on top of the ice. It's so delicious. And I love being able to use a mason jar. It's super convenient. You can screw the lid on and you're set to travel.
Which reminds me: G. bought me a "cuppow." It's awesome. It's a drinking lid that you place on a mason jar. It essentially turns a mason jar into a sippy cup! Next I'm going to buy the straw-friendly version.
Alright, it's 11:30 and I am supposed to wake up early tomorrow. So that's all for now.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
the imposter
Someone told me that she hates it when bloggers sign in after a long hiatus and write something like "it's been so long since I blogged and here are my excuses" (or maybe it was someone else expressed that sentiment to her, and she subsequently told me this)... but whatever. it doesn't matter. Just very momentarily I'm disregarding any feelings of resentment such people might feel towards me. Because yeah, it's been a really long time since I posted anything on this little blog. And yes, I've been really busy and blahblahblah. But I think that the reasons that I haven't posted on this blog in so long have more to do with an identity crisis of sorts.
The truth is, I always felt like a bit of an imposter in writing this blog. I billed it as a food blog and mainly posted recipes that I've tried. In reality there are millions-- maybe even billions?--of food blogs on the web. Most of them are really good. I love visiting them, I get fabulous tips and ideas and inspiration from them. And on top of that there are all of the professional webpages out there that are dedicated to food writing/instruction (see marthastewart.com for example), and the magazines devoted to the topic, not to mention all of the beautiful and shiny and insightful (and well tested) cookbooks that are published each year. The world of food writing and blogging is (over)-saturated--saturated by the writings and creations of people who are much more skilled and creative than I am in the kitchen. So anyways, this realization left me a bit embarrassed to post anything up here. I'd post recipes that I was excited about, but why do that when there is so much of this information out there in such better form than I could ever hope to present it? And so, tail between legs, I left the blog.
Sometimes though the weblink to this site pops up in my browser when I start to type in something else that starts with the letters "www.foo" and I'm reminded of this project that I abandoned. And I feel a bit sad. And I've been reading recently about how important it is to write, and how it helps you to deal with the world that you are experiencing. And so, I'm revisiting the blogging experience. This post might represent the beginning of an evolved blog. We shall see.
For now, I'll just post some links to some food blogs, and then some links to some other sites, beyond the world of food, that I love.
First the food blogs:
www.smittenkitchen.com -this is probably my all time favorite food blog. Her recipes are manageable and delicious.
www.davidlebovitz.com-because who doesn't love a former chez panisse pastry chef who has uprooted himself and moved to Paris? He has great dessert (chocolate) recipes.
www.chocolateandzucchini.com-Written by an adorable french woman. Her recipes are often creative, healthy, and inspiring.
www.simplyrecipes.com-The name of this blog doesn't lie. I go here for basic ideas/instructions. For example, I learned how to boil an egg on her blog.
Now for some other sites that are inspiring me as of recently:
www.brainpickings.org - Great culture stories. Easily digestible ideas and information. I love this part of the site's mission statement:
"Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will become"
http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/
I just discovered this site. Submitted stories about New York City. I love this story about the chocolate egg cream: http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/2012/03/i-love-you-u-bet
[and by the way, if you haven't ever had a chocolate egg cream, well, you must make yourself one!]
http://www.thedaysofyore.com/
Features interviews with artists, writers, etc. about how they ended up where they did.
Interesting and inspiring.
And with that, I'm signing off. Until next time, whenever and whatever that might be!
The truth is, I always felt like a bit of an imposter in writing this blog. I billed it as a food blog and mainly posted recipes that I've tried. In reality there are millions-- maybe even billions?--of food blogs on the web. Most of them are really good. I love visiting them, I get fabulous tips and ideas and inspiration from them. And on top of that there are all of the professional webpages out there that are dedicated to food writing/instruction (see marthastewart.com for example), and the magazines devoted to the topic, not to mention all of the beautiful and shiny and insightful (and well tested) cookbooks that are published each year. The world of food writing and blogging is (over)-saturated--saturated by the writings and creations of people who are much more skilled and creative than I am in the kitchen. So anyways, this realization left me a bit embarrassed to post anything up here. I'd post recipes that I was excited about, but why do that when there is so much of this information out there in such better form than I could ever hope to present it? And so, tail between legs, I left the blog.
Sometimes though the weblink to this site pops up in my browser when I start to type in something else that starts with the letters "www.foo" and I'm reminded of this project that I abandoned. And I feel a bit sad. And I've been reading recently about how important it is to write, and how it helps you to deal with the world that you are experiencing. And so, I'm revisiting the blogging experience. This post might represent the beginning of an evolved blog. We shall see.
For now, I'll just post some links to some food blogs, and then some links to some other sites, beyond the world of food, that I love.
First the food blogs:
www.smittenkitchen.com -this is probably my all time favorite food blog. Her recipes are manageable and delicious.
www.davidlebovitz.com-because who doesn't love a former chez panisse pastry chef who has uprooted himself and moved to Paris? He has great dessert (chocolate) recipes.
www.chocolateandzucchini.com-Written by an adorable french woman. Her recipes are often creative, healthy, and inspiring.
www.simplyrecipes.com-The name of this blog doesn't lie. I go here for basic ideas/instructions. For example, I learned how to boil an egg on her blog.
Now for some other sites that are inspiring me as of recently:
www.brainpickings.org - Great culture stories. Easily digestible ideas and information. I love this part of the site's mission statement:
"Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will become"
http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/
I just discovered this site. Submitted stories about New York City. I love this story about the chocolate egg cream: http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/2012/03/i-love-you-u-bet
[and by the way, if you haven't ever had a chocolate egg cream, well, you must make yourself one!]
http://www.thedaysofyore.com/
Features interviews with artists, writers, etc. about how they ended up where they did.
Interesting and inspiring.
And with that, I'm signing off. Until next time, whenever and whatever that might be!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)