-First off, I'll say I was more than a little excited when I heard that Brian Eno had a new album dropping, well, I was eager to give it a try. The fact that its a collaboration with David Byrne means that this is a once every 30 years release. Here's the first single off "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

Brian Eno and David Byrne - Strange Overtones

-In an attempt to get into Orangette's good graces I'm going to link my favorite post of hers, breakfast at Jimmy's. Blogger should get an autoscroll feature because this, my friends, is food porn.

-I'm headed back to Boston here in two weeks and very eagerly awaiting unfettered access to one of the best kitchens on the Charles. In addition, I'm excited to eventually get a loft space and make some hella mod stuff. . Some of the weburbanist stuff is too much for me too handle, but I'm really fond of some of the kitchen designs on there.

-So, aside from that, I'm going to devote tomorrow to fashioning a granola recipe and maybe making my own yogurt and then let you in on the results.

Until then, if you live in Florida, you shouldn't be reading this, you should be boarding your windows.

Black Kids - Hurricane Jane

I made Molly's chocolate granola last week as a present for my mum. Unlike me, she's a hard-wired early bird and actively enjoys breakfast. So I thought I'd make something that was a little bit luxurious but would still work well for every day.

After packing a Kilner jar to the brim, there was plently left over. So now it has become my morning treat too :-)

How do you like to start the day? Are you a coffee-and-cigarette kind of person (Mr B.) or do you dig into something more substantial? What's your favourite breakfast of all time?

In anticipation of a crazy week, and because the line at the deli had twenty people ahead of me, I tried to cram several cooking projects into one short Sunday.  By the time the lower fat, vegan friendly, deep chocolate cake came out of the oven, I was well into pasta sauce for baked pasta, and had yet to begin the chicken or mushroom cream sauce for a casserole (think chicken and cream of mushroom soup bake with rice...only WAY better).  Somewhere between assembling the baked pasta and furiously trying to reduce the creamy mushroon sauce, I lost all enthusiasm and most of my patience.  And the cake had yet to be dressed.

The end result was a baked pasta that didn't wow me enough to justify making it a regular dish (really, why do I continue to try and do sauce from scratch when I'm never happy with the final product?), chicken casserole that's ready to go into a 350 degree oven till hot and bubbly, and low fat vegan chocolate cake covered with an entire jar of Trader Joe's Chocolate Fudge Icing.

Hmmm, sadly that TJ's icing probably renders the low fat and vegan parts null and void doesn't it?  The cake itself tastes a little too much of almond extract.  So if you are so inclined to try it at your house, I'd say to skip the almond extract and just add more vanilla.  Also, I baked it in two 9" round pans instead of the bundt pan specified in the recipe.  I adjusted my baking time down...set the timer for 30 minutes and I think I pulled them out around 24 minutes.

Somehow I did manage to squeeze in a quick game of cards with The Mistah while that durn tomato sauce was splattering along.  I won the best three out of five hands of Kings in the Corner.  Yeah me!

not just because the entire US of A is celebrating its independence today, but because i a finally FREE!!! yes FREEEEEEEE - i finished the book. i am breathless with excitement. there's still much editing to do, but that's like eating cake compared to writing. i can edit all day long and still feel fine, whereas writing for 5 hours is absolutely exhausting.

so just in time to enjoy a bit of summer and focus on the 40th birthday party i can stop digging my brain out with a small spoon, and loll about in the glorious ease of footnote-checking and preposition-rearrangement. life is good.

and to all the yanks out there, enjoy your hot-dogs. i am off to a dinner where i'll bring orangette's simple basil aioli and fresh carrots from the farmers, and earl-grey tea cupcakes from desert candy in a respectful bow to that other event that preceded the 1776 declaration.

Easy Doughnuts from The Amateur Gourmet
Lower Fat Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake courtesy of A Mighty Appetite
Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs - a test recipe for CI
Chilled Teriyaki Glazed Salmon and Jasmine Rice Salad from the Washington Post
Oven Fried Onion Rings and Well Done Hamburgers on A Charcoal Grill from Cook's Illustrated
David Lebovitz's Green Tea Ice Cream as posted on Use Real Butter
Shortuct Basil Aioli at Orangette
Chocolate Butter Cake and Vanilla Buttermilk Cake at Smitten Kitchen

That would be 11 recipes going home with me today.  And I didn't even include the Paul Deen poundcake that slipped out of my printer yesterday.

When will I have the time to actually make these?  Who knows...except that I do need to test the Short Ribs and respond to CI before the 9th...thank god for a deadline.  But the next time I'm looking for something to do with Salmon, I've got a plan.

A few weeks ago, she made James Beard's "Braised Onion Sauce".

If you don't like onions **stop reading now**, if you do like onions, then by all means, continue reading..

I had to try out this recipe as, 1. I love onions and 2. it's made with very basic ingredients and 3. Considering that I've never used it before, I was interested to find out how Madeira wine worked out in cooking.

So, I tried out this recipe and, my oh my!, was it ever rich,...but still, mind you, delicious!

You start out with 1 1/2 pounds (a lot!) of sliced, yellow onions and let them cook in butter (a lot!) and a bit of sugar for a couple of hours until the onions are soft and translucent.

Towards the end, you pour in the Madeira wine, which I found out is a sweet wine; used many times with dessert and cooking.

After letting the sauce cook through for a few minutes, you mix in the pasta of your choice and eat your heart out!

But, as I said, its insanely rich, so it goes a lonnnng way! Enjoy! :)

For the more detailed recipe, check out Orangette's site.

I'm happy to say, I've found my food writing fix. I'd read an article in the June 2008 issue of Bon Appetit on making homemade jam simply by Molly Wizenberg, also known to foodies as the genius behind the much-loved food blog Orangette. The jam article made me immediately mark my calendar for the U-Pick berry months and fantasize about fresh, warm, homemade strawberry jam oozing off a steaming buttermilk biscuit. My next move was to check out the Orangette blog. Her archives go on forever, so points taken from me for picking up on this so late. But better late than never.

Here's what's fantastic about Ms. Wizenberg's blog. She sounds normal. She doesn't sound like some prissy know-it-all who's going to make me feel incompetent for not never having heard of green garlic. Instead, she sounds like an otherwise relatively well-adjusted human who happens to really dig cooking and food, and who can also write really really well about it. Check out a little bit from her post on soup (from 4/21/08):

It’s hard to know what to say about soup. I mean, it’s soup. It’s a liquid, sort of, but it’s eaten with a spoon. It’s not a steak, or chocolate, or fancy cheese, or an ice cream sundae. It’s what people eat when they’re sick or miserable or old, wearing dentures that clack like sad, weary castanets. Soup is a hard sell. But if I could, I would eat it every day. Sometimes, actually, I do. I never get tired of soup.

She goes on to describe a spinach and green garlic soup that she recreated from a bowl she'd had in San Francisco. Now, we could at this point head into "I'm so much more accomplished than you" territory, at which point, I'd have looked elsewhere. But she admitted to (a) having never bought green garlic before, (b) being cheap enough to wait to buy said garlic at Whole Foods until the price went down, and (c) not being all that great at recreating dishes. Then she goes on to give the recipe of this soup, which I will be trying one of these days.

So, if you're looking for comfort food without the calories, give Orangette a read.

This cake is probably the first recipe I ever tried off of somebody's blog. It is also the first thing I baked after going gluten-free. With regular flour out of my life, I turned to the internet for answers and inspiration. I discovered food blogging. First, I found Shauna, a.k.a the Gluten Free Girl. I loved how honest her blog was, and I loved her attitude towards food. I didn't have any desire to sit around and feel sorry for myself or mourn the loss of wheat; instead, I was excited about feeling better, and ready to embrace my new lifestyle. Reading her blog, I felt as though I had found a kindred spirit. I went back to the beginning, and read every single post, I talked about her blog to my friends (imagine a conversation that goes something like this: friend: "how was your day," me: "good, I read this amazing post on that blog I'm reading..."). I spent hours, literally hours a day reading every word, until one day I caught up to the present. All of the sudden, I was limited to one post, every couple of days or so... desperate, I turned to her links, and I found Molly (a.k.a Orangette).

While reading Shauna's blog I felt a connection over our shared attitude towards being gluten-free, but with Molly it was something else. Her blog has, of course, wonderful food. But it wasn't the food that kept bringing me back day after day to read every single entry of her blog. Instead, it was the fact that Molly's blog was both exhilarating and frightening to me. She had faced herself, her true loves and passions, and had left her graduate program, and it was the best decision that she could have made. Having just gone through a very busy, stressful semester of graduate school, and unsure what I wanted from my life, her blog, to put it lightly, pushed my buttons.

And when I read about this cake...the cake that led her husband to her. I had to have it. Never mind, that it had gluten, never mind that I had never baked anything gluten-free. I wanted lemon yogurt cake. I somehow felt that my ability to be satisfied with my own life depended on my ability to successfully recreate that cake. So I read Bette Hagman's suggestions for converting recipes, and dove in.

Amazingly, it was spectacular the first time. All summer, every time I had any excuse to make a dessert, I made this cake. By the end of the summer, I had the recipe memorized, and could whip the batter together in minutes. I tried all sorts of flour mixes, and never had a problem with any of them, that is, until I tried a flour mix that involved garbanzo beans (beans and lemons in a cake = yuck). The yogurt helps give the cake a fabulous texture and moisture, regardless of flour choice. I'm not sure if my happiness ever really rested on this cake's success, but if it did, the results were felicitous.

By the end of the summer I was moving on to exploring new recipes, ready to face a new semester of graduate school, and this cake faded to a fond memory, until the other night. Asked to bring dessert to a dinner party, with my tongue still remembering last week's Meyer lemon bars, I couldn't not make this cake.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

This cake is light and refreshing, and the glaze packs a tangy lemony punch. I've also made it with orange zest and orange juice, and sometimes I throw some almond flour into the mix (the almond works especially well with the orange flavors). I am convinced that it would make a good layer cake with a very lemony buttercream frosting (I would probably still do the glaze in addition to the frosting, but then again, I like a lot of lemon). Molly also makes a strawberry version, which looks heavenly. Even if you don't think you are a cake person, you should try this recipe, it is nothing like a box mix cake, and if you don't like it, your friends will.

For the cake:

½ cup plain yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup tapioca starch
½ cup potato starch
¾ tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
½ cup canola oil

For the glaze:

Juice from 2 lemons
¼ cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. In a small bowl, combine the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate, continue stirring until it comes together into a smooth batter (this will take a little while). Pour and scrape the batter into a buttered 9-inch round cake pan (you can also butter, then line the bottom of the pan with a round of wax or parchment paper, and then butter that too).

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely.

When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.

Serve.

If you are looking for another great recipe, try the carmalized carrot risotto recipe that Julie just made. I have to say that cooked carrots and cooked peas are the only two foods I really don't like, but even I was tempted to try that delicious looking risotto.

Being the word nerd that I am, I have a penchant for jotting down (or copying-and-pasting, as it were), pithy bits of crafty phrasing, comic genius or piercing insight from other writers. As these snippets do little other than provide me some personal satisfaction or amusement when I re-examine them randomly sometime in the future, I thought I should expand their reach. Thus, I propose to share with you a weekly-ish compilation of fun things I've read in the blogosphere and beyond.

From his column "First Shot" in Orlando Weekly (full disclosure: I work there), here's Steve Schneider re: the DVD release of Juno: "At this very moment, girls across America are striving to get pregnant because it obviously makes you so damn witty."

The People's Nature is my new favorite eco/foodie site, for obvious reasons. [1. We are poor but don't want to eat chemicals or destroy the environment. 2. The writing is damn funny.] Ross provides the following nugget about blended beverages: "I don’t know why smoothies have to sound so infantile. There are many demographics that enjoy a delicious berry smoothie other than those that take a dump in their pants. I quite enjoy them and haven’t shat my pants for quite some time now."

Orangette is so full of quotables. From her post titled "The way a cloud would" (never thought I'd be quoting a blog entry about meringue cookies for its exceptional writing): "Entire revolutions have been started because of shortages in bread - and that, people, was only bread. It’s scary, really, to think of what a lack of cocoa nib meringues might lead to. That’s why I got out the mixer."

Molly Wizenberg has done it again. I mean I know she has a large following and people have been trying their hand at her recipes for a while now, but she has done it again. I vowed to myself that during the long Easter weekend, I would try her recipe for cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze. Yesterday, after running 5 miles with the Mr. and freezing my hands off (almost literally); I got the overwhelming urge to fill the apartment with the most delicious aroma that I could think of. Granted, it obviously took a few hours to actually have the rolls ready to go in the oven and fill our home with their gorgeous perfume. It didn't matter, I love cooking and I more so love using my hands to prepare food. It takes me back to so many good (and even not-so-good) memories. It's completely therapeutic and a form of love.

I followed the recipe exactly and the only thing that I did change (or rather added) were toasted chopped walnut pieces in the sugar/cinnamon mix. That is just personal preference. When they were finally out of the oven, cooled for 10 minutes and ready to ice... my heart wouldn't stop pounding. I sneaked a bite from a still warm cinnamon roll, without telling the Mr, and was instantly transported to an even happier "happy land." Pure bliss, and not for the faint of heart or those counting calories. Post-eating guilt is certainly not allowed for this kind of treat, and trust me there was none in our apartment. Not even today, with all the rest of the marvelous rolls left in the kitchen.

We had an early one because I wanted to sit and watch the sunset. Plus, I was really excited about having this. I don't normally follow non-baking recipes 100% (well, even then I add my own twist), but for these lamb patties I did. Ever since I saw Molly Wizenberg's
February Bon Appétit article, my mouth watered. Her down-to-earth writing style is so wonderful to read, plus her photography & recipes always look so great. I'm a Bon Appétit subscriber now, after veering away from that publication.

So, this evening I made the lamb sausage patties and Mr.E and I were thrilled. So delicious, and I had no doubt that would be the case. Of course I used all organic ingredients and served a nice spring mixed greens salad with tomatoes, kalamata olives drizzled with olive oil-freshly ground pepper-lemon + a sesame & pumpkin seed baguette. Heaven.

Happy Easter! ;)

5 Oranges, any kind
3 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Water

Soak and scrub the oranges in warm soapy water and rinse well.
Cup the tops and tails from the oranges, then peel.
Cut as much of the pith as you can without getting too crazy about it.
Slice the peels into strips and add them to a sauce pan with enough cold water to cover.
Once the water begins to boil, drain and repeat 2 - 3 times to reduce the bitterness.
Dissolve the sugar in the one cup of water and bring to a low boil, heating 230ºF.
Once the sugar syrup reaches the magic number, reduce the heat to just a simmer and add the blanched peels.
Soak the peels in the simmering syrup for 35 - 40 minutes, or until they are translucent.
If you're finding it irresistible, infrequently spin the pan but try not to stir it since it will create sugar crystals.
Remove the peels, separate them and lay them out on a cooling rack to dry. (Or be sure to toss them in sugar first, if they're just for snacking.)
Reserve the syrup for other uses. (Like sweetening cocktails, iced tea or as a glaze.)
Once they are cooled, store the oranges in granulated sugar until ready to use.

As I sit and write this post I hear four little chicks chirping and pecking in their little box home. A light keeps them cozy and warm as they are still quite tiny and vulnerable. Each day (actually a few times throughout the day) I peer in their home to see the progress of their feather growth. Gabe was gone a few days doing a shoot in Portland and came home surprised to see how much they have changed. I will post some photos soon (my photographer has been quite busy).

In our breakfast nook I have created a small greenhouse where I am starting a number of seeds to be added to my soon-to-be complete vegetable garden. For my birthday Gabe is making me a very spacious vegetable bed. Inside the garden will be a gravel path and a raised bed in the center with seating around it so when our garden is bountiful we can sit and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Fresh eggs and fresh produce.... I sense some tasty food coming this Summer.

Speaking of Eggs... once again we are welcoming Orangette in the kitchen. She and Brandon will be teaching us all about the glorious EGG!! One of the most nutritious foods on the planet. We're going to make mayonnaise, souffle, and perfectly poached and hard boiled eggs.

In case you missed the last class.. here are the photos from it. 

"Where's your scales?" I asked the Boy.

"Scales?" He looked at me quizzically.

Attributing this unusual response to the fact that the Boy is not well acquainted with baking, I asked two of his more frequently-baking housemates who had just walked into the kitchen. To my horror, I got the same response.

"What's a scales?" they wanted to know.

At this point, I was starting to panic. Saucepans were bubbling over, stomachs were getting growlier, and how was I going to cook anything without being able to measure out my ingredients??

"Ooooh," they chorused, "just use cups!"

And so measuring cups of all shapes and sizes were duly produced, and a whole new world appeared before my very eyes. Ingredients could be measured by VOLUME instead of weight!! This was truly a revelation. I returned to Ireland a week later determined to introduce this new way of cooking into my regular life. To my delight, my sister bought me a set of my very own which are not only a perfect shade of blue, but they also combine cup-style measurements with my more familiar metrics, having both marked on them.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon baking a cake to bring to a housewarming dinner party in my friend's house, and as the chosen recipe was an American one, I jumped at the chance to use my precious cups. I'm not sure why I find using these infinitely more fun to weighing things out on a scales, but I now view it as far superior. You can just put things in there, and however much fits is the right amount!! Amazing! However, I still think it's peculiar for certain ingredients. Butter, for example. Are you really supposed to mush it into the cup to see how much butter fits in one cup, and then that's what you use? Is this the crack in the system - the chink in the armour, the achilles heel of it all - or am I just insufficiently educated in the ways of baking with cups? (If you know something I don't, speak up!)

Tragically, my delight at the wonderful simplicity of the cup-method didn't save my cake from, er, exploding on me. The bottom of the oven is now a sticky mess, and my cake-halves? They look like this:

I'm fairly sure that greaseproof paper isn't meant to be impaling my cake...

There was obviously going to be no getting them out of the tins in whole pieces, so I gave up on the attempt and transformed my once-held dreams of an elegant, grown-up cake into what I sadly and yet slightly triumphantly termed "dessert mash". See for yourself:

Accidental as the end result was, it was heartily received. I'm still not happy, but I have only myself to blame. The recipe is from Orangette if you think you can beat my attempt. And you can, I assure you, you can.

.

Some extremely evil, over-ripe bananas had to be used up, pronto (victims of the January health kick), so I went back to my list of blogger recipes for inspiration. I've tagged about a dozen banana bread variations over the last year* but this one from the kitchen goddess that is Molly at Orangette caught my eye. Which, in turn, she's adapted from the equally fab Kickpleat of Everybody Loves Sandwiches. Small world, eh?

I've tweaked it ever so slightly by reducing the cinnamon a little bit** but otherwise left it the same. It's more dense than other banana breads I've tried and I mean that in a good way. There's no butter in it, which is - I think - what leads to a springier texture that's strangely satisfying and moreish. As you can see from the picture above, we've been nibbling away at it quite happily :-) 

Because it's quite robust, I'm thinking this would be good to take along on a picnic/walking trip whenever we're finally lucky enough to enjoy a sustained burst of sunshine. (When? When? WHEN?) Seeing as that could be a while yet, this cake is going to be my 11 o'clock slice of naughtiness in the midst of all the healthy eating ;-) 

Banana bread with chocolate and cinnamon sugar adapted from Orangette and Everybody Loves Sandwiches

You'll need:

3 large ripe bananas 
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips

For the topping:

2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Grease and line an 8-inch square baking tin.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients and then set aside for the time being.  

3. In a medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas well with a fork or potato masher. Add the eggs and stir well to combine. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and vanilla extract, and stir to mix. Add 3/4 cup of chocolate chips and stir briefly.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and then evenly sprinkle on the topping mixture. Then sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing and scoffing the lot.

*You can never have too many banana bread recipes ;-)  

**I know, it sounds so unlike me - must be having an off day...

Esta receta la he copiado de La cuina de casa (Gràcies, Gemma!), que a su vez cogió la idea de Tastaolletes. A mí también me ha dado pereza hacer la naranja confitada y la he comprado hecha :-P. La única diferencia entre nuestras recetas es que yo no utilizo chocolate de cobertura, lleva demasiado azúcar, aunque seguro que quedan de muerte! El resultado es muy delicado y combina a la perfección... Gracias por las recetas!

Ingredientes:

• 1 tableta de chocolate negro 71% sin azúcar (Valor, p.e.)
• 150 gr de naranja caramelizada (en palitos y en rodajas)
• 1 cuch. de manteca de cacao
• Agua

Elaboración:

Se pone el chocolate troceado al baño María con un poco de agua para que no se queme, y se va removiendo lentamente con una cuchara. Se añade la manteca de cacao. Se remueve hasta que esté deshecho, añadiendo el agua necesaria para que tenga una textura espesa, pero que permita bañar la naranja. Se colocan los palitos de naranja en la mezcla, se remueve con cuidado y se sacan con un tenedor, colocándolos sobre papel sulfurizado. Se ponen en la nevera hasta que se puedan despegar. El chocolate que he utilizado lleva edulcorante, si no sería demasiado amargo...