Review: Candy Cap Mushrooms

Initially, Marx Foods approached me about participating in a Candy Cap Mushroom contest.  Through a series of unfortunate events including empty grocery shelves and the stomach flu, I was unable to meet the deadline, but I did want to review these mushrooms for you.  I ended up using them as a twist on my Thanksgiving dessert, and it worked out quite well!

When the mushrooms arrived, I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.  Reviews described them as tasting like maple syrup and being very sweet, but the smell was more of a smoky/sweet combination, and somewhat unusual.  What would they go well with?  I ended up doing something very simple, and it worked out very well.  Since dairy takes on flavor so effectively, I let a good handful of the dried mushrooms sit in a small bowl of heavy cream overnight.  When I whipped it, I added a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup, resulting in a great smoky/sweet topping for pumpkin pie.  My take?  Surprisingly good!  I'm not sure I could find many uses for these, but as a special treat, they're a fun and unusual accent to a recipe.

TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie

I have to agree with Dorie on this one, folks. This is definitely my favorite pecan pie, too. Someone mentioned that the chocolate and espresso and cinnamon cut the sweetness of the pie, which is what makes it so good, but for me it's just chocolate. And espresso. I mean, say no more. It's beautiful just a teeny bit warmer than room temp, with the chocolate still melty. I don't have a pie tin so I made it in a 9" cake pan, and the dough turned out kind of thick around the bottom, so I made 2/3 of the filling recipe to compensate, which worked perfectly. The crust is like one big cookie. It's definitely good, though I'm not sure the effort is necessarily worth it compared to a frozen crust. This would be great for Christmas Day if anyone's still looking for recipes. You can find out how the other TWD bakers did here.

Sage Apple Crumble with Eggnog Sauce

So this is one of those recipes that I made last year and sadly can't for the life of me remember how I did it. It's a combination of a few recipes, I do remember -- one for the apple filling, one for the crumble topping with the sage, and another for the eggnog sauce. So it was really good, but perhaps not recreateable. I'm going to think about it and get back to you if anything comes to me!

TWD: Sablés

They're far more appetizing than they look in this image, enough so that I ate 15 in two days, but I have to say that the recipe was kind of a pain. I always have this problem with shortbread, where the dough is too crumbly to work with and most of it ends up on the counter or floor. About half of my cookies were pieced together from crumbs, and I got 15 instead of fifty. Even with plastic I couldn't get an actual log shape, and it hardly held together when yolking, sugaring, and slicing, even after six hours in the fridge. The taste is mostly worth it, as I've been craving shortbread forever, but I wouldn't make it more than once a year. Check out all the other TWD bakers.

Blogs I Am Thankful For

All right, folks. Behold, the project I've been working on for the past two months, which is why I've only had TWD posts for a while. As you know, I normally do a blogs I am thankful for post, but this year I wanted to not only mention the blogs but actually make a recipe from each of them. This was a somewhat daunting tasks, but I succeeded, with only one exception (I was going to make something from Delicious Days today and there was a big of an egg shortage in my refrigerator). In order from least to most successful recipe (though let's be clear, the blogs themselves are all great -- sometimes I just have a faux pas), here are some of my favorite blogs. Happy Thanksgiving!

#21: Sweet and Spicy Almonds from Dragon's Kitchen

The failure of this recipe, I have to point out, was totally my fault. I was watching fairly carefully, stirring every few minutes as Dragon suggests, but in about 30 seconds they went from golden and bubbling to blackened. I tried a few anyway, but I couldn't really stomach my blackened walnuts. That said, I really like this blog because it's full of fairly basic recipes that look tasty and easy to prepare.

#20: Cranberry Hazelnut Crisps from La Cuisine d'Helene

This is a blog that I come across frequently when I'm looking for baking and dessert recipes. I tried the cranberry hazelnut crisps, which weren't bad, but I had a little storage snafu. Don't put these in a bread box -- they were crisp when they came out of the oven, but then softened up in the bread box, and ended up tasting kind of stale. That said, I like the cranberry and hazelnut flavor a lot and the recipe's not hard. You want to make sure the loaf is nice and cold before slicing, but you don't have to do it paper thin to get results.

#19: Linguine with Sage Burnt Butter Sauce and Sauteed Sweet Potato from Cook (Almost) Anything Once

Cook (Almost) Anything Once is a long-time favorite blog of mine because of the beautiful pictures and very simple recipes. Unfortunately, the recipes often feature some specialty ingredient or brand that I can't get or can't afford, so I haven't done much cooking from this blog. The linguine I found to be good overall, though it took me a long time to get the butter to even start to brown, and I don't think it was really dark enough. The pasta was mostly oily, though the sweet potato and sage were nice flavors and I enjoyed it with shaved parmesan.

#18: Pasta Gratins with Goat Cheese, Sage, and Mushrooms from Cafe Fernando

Cafe Fernando is one of those big-name blogs that everyone reads, and I don't keep terribly good track of it, but I studied Turkish and so I enjoy seeing what Turkish food bloggers are cooking. These gratins are a really clever idea for health food, but I found them lacking in taste. The mushrooms came through, but the sauce was quite bland. It was mostly the taste of the herb (I used basil instead of cheese), and I didn't think that was enough to carry the dish. I might try a stronger cheese were I to do this again. Also, I used a little bit more pasta than called for so I ended up getting six tartelette tins and an 8 x 8 dish out of it The big dish was much better and more moist.

#17: Eggplant Marinara from Coconut & Lime

This eggplant marinara didn't strike me so much as marinara as just a pasta sauce. It was thinner than I think of for marinara, with big chunks of eggplant, instead of uniformly thick. That said, I liked the tangy taste and it went well with pasta, if not so much a great dipper for mozzarella sticks. I love Coconut & Lime's blog because Rachel does only original recipes, and because she's a fellow Baltimore blogger. I also enjoy that there are thoughts after each recipe so that you get an honest, concise take on the recipe. I've done several recipes from her blog and though this isn't my favorite, it's a good staple pasta sauce.

#16: Sweet Corn Puddin' from Kitchen Wench

I used to visit Kitchen Wench more than I do these days, but it's still a great standby blog for recipes. I love corn puddin', just like all the delicious Southern corn recipes -- cornbread, corn muffins, corn pie... really, after living in Iowa, I wonder if we don't like corn more than they do. This is a nice reliable dish, dense and sweet and plenty corny, as well as being easy to prepare. It's also not watery, which is a problem I've had before in corn pudding.

#15: Spaghetti with Avocado and Cashew Pesto from the Passionate Cook

Again, a blog that I don't visit as much as I used to, but a very reliable source for recipes. This pesto was an interesting idea, though I did a lot of substitutions, using mint and almonds instead of the specified ingredients. I liked the way the creamy avocado brought the pasta together, though the mint taste as very strong and next time I would probably just stick with basil.

#14: Pain d'Épices by Amuses Bouche

I have a number of French blogs on my list, and this is a longtime favorite. The pain d'épices was relatively straightforward, and the taste was about what you would expect: a dense, sweet spice cake. The amount of honey in the recipe seemed really off to me, so I reduced to a few tablespoons and that worked well. I also mixed my own basic ratio of quatre d'épices, playing around with it a bit.

#13: Eggplant Korma by Beau à la Louche

Beau à la Louche is a fun blogger I've been following for a while, and this korma did not disappoint. It's my standby fare for Indian restaurants, but the last time I tried it at home I wasn't too impressed. I found that using full-fat coconut milk really helped, and quality does make a difference here. The recipe was a great balance of sweet and spicy, and definitely recognizable as korma.

#12: Cheddar Ale Spread by Peabody

I adore Peabody because not only does she produce consistently tasty-looking recipes, but she also has a sense of humor and always comes across as very candid in her blog posts. She's a big fan of sweet things, but I selected a savory recipe this time, and was not disappointed. The flavor of the ale (I used Pyramid's apricot ale) was definitely pleasant, and the crunch of the hazelnuts worked well. My food processor situation right now is... interesting... so there were more chunks than intended, but I actually liked that. Very dense, actually works as a meal if you're so inclined. Also, it looks like potato salad in the picture but in reality it's orange.

#11: Chocolate Espresso Mousse Cake by Tartelette

I have to admit that I'm kind of intimidated by Tartelette, who always has the most gorgeous little desserts with several different subsets of steps. However, despite the number of steps her recipes usually seem doable enough, and this first one was not bad at all. The cake was a bit dense and dry in European fashion, but the mousse was fantastic, and so the combination worked really well. I didn't bother with a crumb coating and I don't think it needed it. Got rave reviews at the office.

#10: Cake au Miel, Romarin, et Gorgonzola by Foodbeam

Foodbeam is a fantastic French/English blog that specializes in desserts but has a little bit of everything. This "cake" is sort of in between a cake and a bread, with a really interesting mix of flavors. It has a nice dense, moist crumb with a delicious melty ribbon of blue cheese running through the middle. My crust got a bit too dark, but I found it really yummy sliced and reheated by the slice for about 30 seconds in the microwave.

#9: Poêlée de Champignons au Miel by Chez Lorette

Another French blog I enjoy is Chez Lorette, and of course any mushroom recipe gets bumped up a few points by default on this blog. Like any side dish involving mushrooms, these reduced down a lot so that they were dark and delicious but only a few servings. Still, despite my wanting more more more, I liked the idea of doing a mushroom sautée with honey, and I loved the really dark and sweet mushrooms.

#8: Mini Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies by Sugar Plum

Sugar Plum is a fun storyteller whose blog uses tons of photographs and lots of original recipes. I actually had intended to make a different recipe, and this was the first one I chickened out on and switched at the last minute, from Cheddar Chipotle Biscuits to these cookies. I'm glad I did, because cookies are easy and these were very good cookies. I froze half the dough for later and was able to pop it in the toaster oven for a quick dessert option for a birthday potluck at work. Everyone loved them, especially with my sub of cinnamon chips for chocolate.

#7: Chai Spiced Buttermilk Pancakes by Joy the Baker

Joy the Baker has one of my favorite blogs because her personality comes straight through the screen and you just want to grin with her. She's a breakfast nut, and hopefully would approve of my turning to her blog to satisfy a 3 am pancake craving. The chai spice is a great flavor for these pancakes, and I love how yummy and fluffy they are. 3 am needs more pancakes, really. I enjoyed them with some real Canadian maple syrup (#1 medium, in case you were wondering) and thought this was an awesome idea.


#6: Butterscotch Pudding by David Lebovitz

David Lebovitz is quite a big name blogger, and though I don't use his blog much for recipes, I like how simple they are, and I also like that he throws in some of the French recipes I crave. This butterscotch pudding was awesome, and relatively easy for a pudding recipe. I tend to suck at any kind of smooth, creamy, make over the stove and don't mess up recipe, especially if there's a danger of curdling, but this barely curdled at all, and all the curdle stayed at the bottom so I could just leave it in the pan. Perfect.

#5: Spinach and Artichoke Dip by Stephanie's Kitchen

Stephanie is yet another tasty, reliable food blogger with fabulous easy recipes. This dip really hit the spot, so much so that I did a spin off (post to come). I loved the combo of cream cheese and cheddar with the veggies, and baking it with the parmesan in the last step. This is another dip you can eat as a meal. It's also good on baguettes if you want to add in some carbs.

#4: Mac 'n' Cheese by My Madison Bistro

My Madison Bistro is one of my newest favorite blogs, which lured me in because of the pretty pictures but kept me because of the awesome recipes. I am a huge mac 'n' cheese freak, and this is definitely going to be one of my standbys. It's nothing super fancy, just your usual bechamel sauce and cheeses, but I thought the panko bread crumb topping worked really well, as did the thyme. This is my first try at panko, and I loved how it turned out. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that she got the recipe from Ina Garten!

#3: Bohemiènne by La Tartine Gourmande

Another of my absolute favorite French foodblogs, with gorgeous photos and recipes. You really can't go wrong with a recipe like this. I've seen quite a few variations on the basic eggplant, tomato, onion, olive oil combo, and I never can complain. In fact, my only complaint is that they never seem to have enough servings! I am a huge fan of earthy vegetables, and this dish wins for that.

#2: Mushrooms Bourgignon by Smitten Kitchen

I'd been planning to make this for my Thanksgiving entree for quite a while. A small bridge was thrown in the works when I saw the price of baby bellas, and so I actually used half the mushroom amount (and no pearl onions, because there weren't any). It was thus a little more gravy like, but still awesome. I ended up getting invited to Thanksgiving with friends, and so instead of an entree for one with leftovers, it ended up being a sort of gravy for four over mashed potatoes. I used a Cabernet for the wine and Emeril's vegetable stock, courtesy of my awesome partners at Foodbuzz, for the liquid. Delicious, earthy, boozy, and dark. Can't go wrong. Smitten Kitchen remains my favorite blog, and I hope she sticks around for many years to come.

#1: Almond Crunch Cookies by Use Real Butter

I'm so amused that this was my favorite recipe of them all, because it was really an accident. I had an egg crisis last night at 11 pm when I was getting ready to make crustless pumpkin pie to take to Thanksgiving and realized that I only had one egg, that the store was already closed, and wouldn't be open today due to the holiday. I didn't want to neglect Use Real Butter, as it's one of my favorite blogs with never-fail recipes and great photos, but I couldn't go with the plan. After a small anxiety attack, I found these cookies instead, and boy were they awesome. The inside is like marzipan, the outside crunchy and delicious. Perfect for dessert as pictured with apple crunch, vanilla ice cream, and runny custard.

TWD: Holiday Bundt Cake

It's Tuesday, so that must mean my camera's funky! This is kind of a placeholder post while it's still Tuesday, but the basic idea is that I loved the holiday bundt cake. I used sweet potato instead of pumpkin, almond extract instead of vanilla, and almonds instead of pecans, but it worked really well. Nice and dense and crumbly, with the tartness of cranberries and mild sweetness of apples. Very nice.

TWD: Flaky Apple Turnovers

Bear with me - my camera's being funky and since I need to get TWD up tonight, I'm going to post now and add the picture later. Anyway, this week's recipe was Flaky Apple Turnovers. I thought they were pretty good, but far more of a pain than I expected. I don't know that it was really worth it. The dough seemed really neat, with few ingredients and sour cream for moisture, but it was hard to work with. Last night, I did the first two steps, and I found that it needed a lot of pressing and kneading together to make it possible to roll out. Then tonight when I finished the recipe, I had trouble getting it to roll thin enough, and it kept tearing so I had to patch it up, creating thicker bits of dough that weren't very flaky when baked. I couldn't get much of the apples in, so I only used half the apples. I'm wondering if maybe I could just boil the remainder down for applesauce so that it's not a total waste. The final product was sweet, crispy, and fairly flaky, if a little light on the apples. I froze half for later, too, since Dorie suggests that you don't refrigerate or freeze the end product. You can see how the rest of the TWD bakers fared here.

TWD: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

Yes, I finally decided to join Tuesdays with Dorie. I've had the book since Christmas, but I just couldn't commit to baking twice a month in law school. Even now, I'm not sure I can afford to, but I'm going to give it a try! This month's recipe was Espresso Cheesecake Brownies, picked by Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell. You can get the recipe at her blog and see the other bakers' efforts here. My impression of these brownies? Well I loved the idea. I've done swirl brownies before and loved them, but I've never done one where you put part of the brownie on top of the cheesecake layer. I was right to be sceptical. I found the cheesecake layer great and really tasty, but the brownie layer was dry and uninspired. Letting it sit while preparing the cheesecake layer makes the batter thick and hard to swirl, and may also account for the lacking moisture. I also did it in a round 9" pan, lacking a 9" square pan, and I baked the full 35 minutes. I left the sour cream topping off because it seemed kind of extraneous.

Cooking for Our Rights: Nyponsoppa

Long ago I posted about a package I receieved full of Scandinavian goodies, most remarkable being that fabulous Danish Sortie Sara cheese. Well, I've recently had an opportunity to try something else in that pacakage, a powdered soup mix called nyponsoppa (rosehip soup) and the accompanying Mandelbiskvier (almond cookies). The sender informed me that the key to this soup is to dunk the cookies in it, and a friend also suggested that I add vanilla ice cream. The verdict? Well, I like cold fruit soups, and I really like almond, so the cookies were fantastic (they're quite hard but the soup helps that). The taste of the soup itself is very strong. I followed instructions and mixed with a liter of water, but if I were to try it again I might dilute it more. I ended up letting the ice cream melt a bit, though, and when I swirled them together it cut the taste of the soup so it made quite a nice dinner. Yes, I had ice cream and cookies for dinner. This also means that I can cross Sweeden off the Cooking for Our Rights challenge list!

A Cinnamon Celebration with Dim and the Dark Cookies

This recipe has been on my to-do list for at least two or three years. The lovely Miss Shelley Adams of Richmond, Virginia created the recipe in honor of the band Jump, Little Children's last full album, Between the Dim and the Dark, and when I saw the awesome mélange of ingredients I knew I'd have to try it some time. A couple of the members of the band were friends of mine (and music instructors!) and though I've moved past my indie rock kid days I do miss them all. I've linked to a song I've uploaded if you'd like to hear them (a live track so I don't get in trouble). It's one of their more fun crowd-pleasers, if not the most musically challenging, featuring my friend Matt on vocals, and it's actually a track from the first concert of theirs I went to back in 2003. Also, be sure to check out the lovely blog A Southern Grace for the Cinnamon Celebration round-up. Happy V-day to you all! I'll be celebrating with a mushroom stroganoff, a glass of wine, and the film Paris Je T'aime. It should be a fun Self-Love Night.

Dim & the Dark Cookies
recipe by Shelley Adams
makes a couple dozen, give or take

Ingredients:
● 1 cup flour
● 1/2 cup plus 1 T cocoa powder
● 1/4 tsp salt
● 1/4 tsp baking soda
● 1/2 cup sugar
● 1/2 cup light brown sugar
● 6 Tbsp butter
● 1/2 tsp cinnamon
● pinch cayenne pepper
● 1 tsp vanilla
● 1 egg
● 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks
● 1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:


Sift together a cup of flour, ½ cup plus 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder, ¼ t salt, and ¼ t baking soda into a medium bowl. Combine ½ cup sugar with ½ cup light brown sugar and mix with the fingers to press out lumps. Add 6 T slightly softened butter, ½ t ground cinnamon, a generous pinch of cayenne, and 1 t vanilla. Mix about a minute on high, then beat in an egg. Slowly add the flour mixture on low speed. Stir in ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks and ½ cup cinnamon chips. Drop by tablespoons on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes at 350. Cool on a wire rack. Remove cookies to racks to cool.

This are super-amazingly delicious, soft and crumbly but not too cakelike for a cookie-lover like me. The cinnamon gives it a great spicy kick, and I would recommend a generous pinch of cayenne. I was kind of wimpy with it but that's not necessary.

Can I Interest You in a Kiss?

I was super-bummed when my area for whatever reason didn't carry the Pumpkin Spice or Candy Corn kisses in autumn, because I love getting the different seasonal flavours, but it's all right because I think this is my absolute favourite, up there with peanut butter. I put these candy cane kisses on top of some chocolate cookies for a variation on the familiar peanut butter thumbprints. They were fortunately tasty and not super-dry à la Josh's taste on the West Wing, but I can't for the life of me remember where the recipe came from. I know it was a blog, and one I read frequently at that. I'll update this post when it comes to me. Anyway, I do think the cookie itself would be better with the white chocolate chips that were suggested, but when you press on a kiss and let it get all melty, it's a wonderful combination.

More Quick Hits

Since it worked well in the last post, here's another little dump of the random stuff floating around waiting to post, so that I can start getting into the bulk of my November/December recipes.

This is Leeks Simmered in Wine from page 386 of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I'm not posting the recipe because I found it fairly so-so. It wasn't bad or anything, but it's basically just leeks with a bit of wine and flavour, not a real sauce. I have a habit of flipping through this cookbook by vegetable, but what Madison really does well is sauces and more substantial vegetarian meals, so I'm going to try in the future to do some more focused flipping to find her gems.

This was a very nice dish, just some curried green tomatoes that I served over some polenta. I used a recipe from The Perfect Pantry, but I thought I'd like the pairing with polenta a bit more than brown rice or adding tofu. I was right, and the slightly spicy preparation and the tart tomatoes went wonderfully with the smooth, buttery polenta. Try it with white wine!

Continuing in the chocolate chip cookie quest, I tried the Martha recipe with toffee again and this time had considerably more success. The cookies were perfectly chewy, and I was happy to take them to school for a treat to go along with my World AIDS Day presentation. They fall apart when warm, so you have to be careful when transferring them, but otherwise perfect. It's funny how on the first go of two recipes, one comes out heads and shoulders on top, but then on the second go they flip-flop completely.

This was my first time playing around with delicata squash, so I just sliced it into lengths and roasted it simply with a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was still sweet but the skin crisped up pleasantly and I like the texture of this squash better than the other winter varieties. I think this would be a great snack for throwing in the bento box if I had one.

Well You're Just Plum Crazy!

This particular dessert wasn't really a success, nor a failure. I got the recipe from Meeta, who served them with a sabayon (or zabaglione). The big difference is that I used the red plums, which are bigger, and so there wasn't much reduction/losing of shape/etc. The brandy did improve the flavour of the plums, though, and they were a tasty snack to have around. I think next time I will try David Tanis's White Wine Peaches and see if I have better luck.

SHF: Spice Cake

It's been a long time since I did an SHF, and I keep wanting to but timing fails me. This month, though, the fates aligned, because I had been wanting to bake a spice cake and lo and behold, the theme is spices! The host, Dessert First, is a blog I've recently discovered and love. I found it through Tastespotting (or maybe it was Food Gawker), which has been a great way to find new blogs lately. Speaking of which, if anyone knows a good-quality free online image resize site, or a good-quality free image resize program for Mac, please share the love. I want to get on those sites but my pictures always get rejected, probably because they're resizing funny.

Anyway, back to the spice cake. I remember having one of these once as a kid, probably ten or eleven, at my friend's mom's house. I helped her frost the cake and kept thinking "no way something made of SPICES is going to be any good." I assumed that a cake had to have fruit, or chocolate, or something along those lines to be tasty, but I was wrong. I love spice cake, and I'd been craving one. The recipe comes from here, and it's delicious. Perfectly moist and flavourful - the only problem is that you need to either not flour the pan (just grease) or maybe let it cool longer than instructed. About half the cake came out of the pan and the other half didn't, so I had a cake covered in cake bits. Still good, but I'm glad I wasn't bringing it to anything. Also, the cake is huge, so find some friends.

Not On, Cookies, Not On

So I tried Gretchen's fabulous chocolate chip cookies again for a bake sale a couple of weeks ago, and for some reason they didn't turn out anything like they did the first time. Instead of being gorgeous and flat and crispy/gooey, they were puffy, cakey, and had a weird almost sponge-like consistency. They also didn't taste all that great. The changes? Well I had enough flour this time; last time I had to skimp and use 1/4 cup less than the recipe. I used raspberry chocolate chips (though I can't imagine that making any difference) and I ran out of brown sugar so part of the brown sugar amount was natural cane sugar instead (the coarse, light brown kind). I hope I can make them turn out the right way again!

Around the World in 26 Letters: Sachertorte!

When I saw that the first challenge for the letter "A" was Austria, I knew I wanted to participate. Austrian baked goods are, quite frankly, yummy, and what's more I was planning on doing this on a Sunday and I have a Monday class with an Austrian professor from 5-7 where we're all complaining that we're starving. So I decided to make a Sachertorte and bring it to class. Since it is only 2:43 on Monday as I write this, I haven't tasted it, but I can tell you about the process. I followed the recipe more or less religiously, and it went pretty well for the most part.

It looked complicated, but the cake part took only an hour from start to in the oven, and baked up quite nicely. I didn't bother "spackling" the little holes, because I'm not that anal. The apricot glaze was also fairly easy, though I was somewhat limited by a grocery store that only had one apricot option, called "fruit spread." I didn't bother straining either, because bits of apricot are tasty. The hard part came with the chocolate glaze. I used the small saucepan as recommended, and I'm glad the chocolate didn't burn, but it was impossible to keep it from boiling over! I couldn't stir very effectively with the candy thermometer in, and if I tried to stir and then stick it back in, it wouldn't get all the way up to the temperature before it had started boiling over again. So I estimate that it was probably only about 220 degrees max, and definitely too thin.

My kitchen was quite a mess after it had run all over the place, and though I kept doing a scrape-and-retry job, it never really set enough to keep there from being thin spots where you could see through. You can see the dripping in progress here, which continued onto my floor. I decided it didn't really matter, though, and a thin glaze is still a glaze.. So I'm about to go whip up some Sahne and head to class. I can tell you that the cake itself is tasty, and the top that you have to cut off tastes great with jam! I don't know if I'd do it other than for a special occasion, because the jam and chocolate are pretty expensive, but it's an impressive treat. Check out Prettybaking in Israel in October for the roundup!

Trying the Chocolate Chip Thing Again

Oh cookies, why are you always so volatile? Though I already have a favorite recipe, I thought I'd test something different, like everyone's been doing since the New York Times article came out. I have no time for those particular cookies with their multiple flours, so instead I found the most attractive cookie picture on Slow Like Honey's blog and decided to try those cookies - Martha's Chocolate Chip Toffee, that is. I love toffee. I especially love delicious gooey cookies as pictured on that blog post. As you can see, my first attempt didn't quite fly. See, I'd been craving cookies but didn't want to do the oven thing in the heat, so I came up with an ingenious idea. Make a batch, then pull off two-cookie chunks of dough and freeze them individually, thawing and baking in the toaster oven when in need of a snack. Of course, I always eat both large cookies at once, but you can't have it all. The first cookies I did were a bit overbaked, and way crunchy. The next two batches had the same thing happen because I forgot about them. The next few, though, were quite tasty, if not so amazing as SLH's picture. They were gooey and tasty, as long as I only baked them 11-12 minutes!

Alcohol, Espresso, and Frozen? I'm there.

I've been wanting to do granitas since the summer started, and sure enough all the recipes soon started rolling in on FoodGawker and Tastespotting. Next, I think, is going to be red wine, but the one that caught my eye right away was courtesy of the lovely Nic at Cherrapeno - Cool Coffee Granita. Of course, the trouble with a granita is that it will eventually re-freeze into a block, and so it's not exactly ideal for leftovers. Also, it's probably not a good idea to get into the habit of drinking alone, so I invited Rita over to sample this caffeinated treat prior to an evening out (which involved pomegranate mojitos for $3 and baked boursin - this must have been my lucky night!) I think Rita could clearly give Vanna White a run for her money. I made her pose for this picture because her parents are apparently both readers of the blog (hi, Mom and Dad!) The thing in her other hand is the cinnamon tea that normally sits on my table, which she always thoughtfully thinks to move before I start pointing and shooting. Rita, I'm sorry for yelling at you to "move your hand, I can't see the drink!" It's my anal inner food photographer talking.

So I was quite satisfied with the presentation, and with the overall effect. I made some slight modifications to the recipe. First, instead of coffee I actually used espresso granules for an additional kick. I was afraid it wouldn't be sweet enough, but it was actually quite sweet, especially with the addition of the liqueur and whipped cream. Speaking of which, I must admit that I was too cheap for Tia Maria and bought a less expensive coffee liqueur, but it tastes just fine. I also didn't bother whipping cream, but did a trick with the Cool Whip so that you can't tell it's Cool Whip. Just squirt it into a bowl and give it a quick whip with a spoon until the ridges disappear. Your guests will think you whipped it yourself! Oh, and another note is that my granitas never freeze as quickly as recipes say. Your freezer/kitchen temperature may vary, so just check after an hour and keep checking every half hour until there are some frozen bits forming on the bottom and sides. That's when it's time to start scraping.

A week of feasting

So I'm obviously a bit behind on getting all my recent meals posted for you, but part of the reason for that is that I had my friend Nicole visiting for a week, during which we cooked a lot. Having a guest to do the dishes and chop things is never a bad thing, and I'm always more enthusiastic about tasty food when there's someone other than me around to eat it. Of course, the flood made impromptu grocery trips difficult, but we managed to do pretty will regardless. The apricots pictured here were purchased one night during a walk downtown that turned into a swim, practically, when the sky opened up. Judith's flood tip of the day: always go to the store with a buddy, so that when you need the last gallon bottle of water on a high shelf, said buddy can give you a leg up.

The apricots were breakfast for most of the week, because I came up with the most amazing crumble recipe. It was actually a hybrid of a few different recipes, because I wanted to use fresh apricots but the crumble topping I liked most came from a recipe that used the dried variety. I used this in terms of oven temp/time, and I used about a pound of apricots, halved and stones removed. I baked in a greased casserole, not a pie dish. I then prepared the topping from this recipe and sprinkled it on top before baking, but without the whole pecans. So tasty, especially if you're a big fan of tart fruits (which I am).

We also did some dishes that I didn't bother to photograph - Nicole's amazing grilled cheese, my goat cheese enhanced scrambled eggs, and the zucchini patties I posted about before (that are still amazing) - but I decided that this grits dish deserved a snapshot. I cooked the grits in the usual way on the stove, then added a bit of butter and a LOT of cheese. Parmesan, mozzarella, and goat cheese all made an appearance, making the grits thick and cheesy and amazing. Sauteed onion and canned (blame the flood) mushrooms went on top, cooked with a little sherry.

The last food adventure we tried was a cheesy tortilla pie. I made a lot of variations on the original recipe, but I loved my version. I used an 8" springform and 8" flour tortillas, so no trimming. I think I used six tortillas. For the cheese, I mixed cheddar and mozzarella. I only used on can of black beans, but I also added a can of mushrooms. Once the bean mixture was a few minutes from done, I added a chopped zucchini in place of the corn. I didn't use a jalepeno, and I used water because I didn't have beer. It turned out great though, despite all the changes. Very cheesy, and I loved the green onions on top. The springform pan is also great for presentation.

One last thing I wanted to mention is a trip to Masala, a restaurant in Iowa City, for dinner. I've been to one of Iowa City's two Indian places, but not Masala, which is all vegetarian. I really enjoyed it! We got an appetizer platter, which may not have been the best idea, and I was so-so on some of that, but the garlic naan was amazing, as was the rose lhassi. For my main course, I had punjabi curry, and it was perfect for my tastebuds. I asked for it "very mild," and it was just spicy enough for me, with a delicious rich curry sauce.

Don't forget! Entries for A Vegetarian Picnic Feast are due a week from today, July 4th!

Taste & Create: Red Plum and Kiwi Cheesecake

For this month's Taste & Create I was paired with Min of Bad Girl's Kitchen. I must admit that I was a little anxious about the pairing at first. Min and I clearly have very different cooking styles, but I think that's the whole point of T&C! She made my Mushroom Stroganoff right off the bat, and I giggled at the need to have a meat dish alongside it, but I'm glad that's what she picked because it's one of my favourite recipes. I also laughed at replacing margarine with butter, since everyone thinks it's crazy that until a couple of months ago I had never actually purchased a stick of butter.

But then I started feeling guilty - would I be able to finish in time? The problem was that when the pairings came in, I had a friend visiting from out of state and was in the middle of a huge flood. I wasn't sure if I would be able to access the other side of the city (i.e, the grocery store) and even if I could, I didn't want to be one of the assholes ignoring the "no non-essential traffic" warning. So I pored over Min's recipes and found a few possibilities - I thought about macaroni using penne, or granola, maybe. I bookmarked several recipes for later, because she's really got some good ones, but then I found... cheesecake!

I've been craving cheesecake for a while, and this looked mighty tasty. I even had a jar of (light, haha) cherry pie filling on hand! What I did not have was four tubs of cream cheese. I am a cream cheese-eater, so I had one full 12-ounce container and one with just a little bit left (maybe 14 ounces total). I cringed a little at the instruction not to get low-fat, but I couldn't help it. At least mine were 1/3 less fat, not fat free, and they were Philadelphia brand. I also only had cinnamon graham crackers. Oh, well.

The thing is, I had been planning to do a plum tart, but I only had three plums. I didn't really want to make two desserts in one week, either, for little old me. Then I got an idea - plum cheesecake! I halved the recipe and got out my 6" springform, which would accommodate the lack of cream cheese and be a much better size for little old me (most of my cakes sadly go bad or stale before I can finish them, even in the fridge). I ended up doing the normal amount of crust, and I did use real butter! On top of the crust I put a layer of sliced red plums, and then poured the filling (easy as pie... I mean...) on top of that. It was really quite beautiful.

Though I hated heating up my apartment, the cheesecake turned out wonderfully. I didn't think to reduce the cooking time for the pan size, but it ended up working out all right. It was fully set (cheesecakes normally should jiggle a bit in the centre) when it left the oven, but that didn't affect the taste at all. The plums made a lovely pink layer on bottom, and then I sliced some kiwis for the top to go with the fresh fruit theme (pie filling, you'll have to wait for a pie I'm afraid). This is a very rich, dense cheesecake, so I'm having trouble finishing it despite the size, but it's so tasty! Even the cinnamon crust is kind of interesting (though an odd combination with the kiwis). Thanks, Min! It's been fun cooking with you.