Saturday, January 31, 2009

My Superbowl Un-Victory



A few months ago I got Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, and although I've drooled over the photographs several times I hadn't yet made anything out of it. Today I was flipping aimlessly through some cookbooks looking for something inspirational to make for a Superbowl party tomorrow. I came across a recipe for One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes, which sounded (a) easy, and (b) decadent...pretty much my favorite combination when it comes to desserts. So I pulled out my canisters of flour and sugar--and the sugar canister promptly proceeded to crack across the bottom and spill about 3 cups of sugar all across the floor of the pantry.

Slightly demoralized, I decided to press on, and mixed up the cupcakes anyway (while my super awesome husband cleaned up the sugar fiasco). I'm pretty sure that I should've taken the sugar explosion as a warning shot across my bows, because the cupcake batter was suspiciously runny. I gave it some shifty looks out of the corner of my eye as it was mixing, but decided that now I'd already invested 2 1/2 cups of sugar (plus the 3 on the floor) more than a cup of cocoa powder, 3 eggs, and a silly amount of milk and oil in them, that I'd better just try baking them.


Sadly they came out looking like this.




And they left my pans looking like this.


So, Martha Stewart, you definitely let me down this time. I went ahead and baked some basic toll house chocolate chip cookies for tomorrow. After I made them I remembered that I usually substitute shortening for part of the butter so they come out softer, but oh well, at least they taste good. And they didn't destroy my muffin tins/oven racks. Hrmph. Oh well, if I'm lucky I can talk my husband into cleaning the oven too!


Saturday, January 24, 2009

Miscellaneous Reporting


Warm and sunny here in Tucson stop.

Made brownies the other day stop. Put walnuts in them stop. Made me feel like a murderer for killing perfectly good brownies stop. Did not eat brownies stop. Made me feel virtuous so maybe the walnuts were a good idea stop.

Caught another mouse in trap in garage this morning stop. Made me feel more like a murderer stop. However pantry supplies are still intact thanks to mousetraps stop.

Made the blueberry cake again stop. Used buttercream frosting this time since it was for a birthday party stop. Recommend sticking with powdered sugar stop. May go into sugar coma soon as result of frosting stop. Nothing virtuous about this cake stop.

Finished Joseph Ellis's biograpy of George Washington's stop. It was pretty good stop. Did you know the King of Spain sent George Washington a prize jackass to start a new line of superior jackasses in the United States after the Revolutionary War ended query. I mostly wrote that last sentence just so I could put 'query' at the end stop. Started reading World War Z and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle stop. Weird juxtaposition stop.

Time for nap stop. Warm, sunny day and delicious tacos and enchiladas and cake combine for sleepiness stop. Tired of writing the word 'stop' stop.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Berries Were on Sale! Therefore: Blueberry Cake


Last weekend Sunflower had 6 oz containers of blueberries and blackberries on sale for 88 cents each, so I bought 8 containers and have been happily gorging myself all week. I love love love berries, and these are particularly good ones: the blackberries are sweet and incredibly juicy, and the blueberries are plump perfection. On Friday night we were having another game night with the McWheatyPantses, and I was supposed to take a dessert. I almost took chocolate chip cookies, because you can't ever go wrong with those, but I decided to try and put some of the berries to use. I debated making a tart, but those are best warm, and I wanted something that wouldn't be difficult to transport. So I checked out some recipes online, and decided to adapt a recipe from Orangette's blog, which I have adapted before in the form of lime cupcakes. The original recipe calls for a lemon glaze, which I left off, and I substituted lemon extract for the lemon zest it calls for, because I didn't want an overpowering lemon taste.

This time I added blueberries and made a blueberry/blackberry sauce to drizzle over each slice. The end result was pretty much a tea cake: not too sweet, with a fairly fine crumb and a nice lemony, yogurty tang. The warm blueberries on top drizzled down through the cake, and I dusted each slice with powdered sugar to add a bit of extra sweetness. Considering I think I ate half the cake by myself, I can vouch for its deliciousness. I think it would be equally good with strawberries, or raspberries or blackberries that have small seeds.


Blueberry-Lemon Cake with Blueberry and Blackberry Sauce
adapted from Orangette's blog

1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 cup canola oil
4 oz fresh blueberries

2 oz fresh blueberries
2 tbsp blackberry or blueberry syrup
1 tbsp water

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9 inch cake pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper and lightly greasing the whole pan.

In a large bowl cream together the sugar and yogurt, then beat in the eggs. Once these three ingredients are thoroughly combined, mix in the flour, baking powder, and lemon extract. Add the oil and stir to incorporate it. I did all the stirring with a wooden spoon, it just takes a minute or two of elbow grease to completely incorporate the oil. In a separate bowl toss the blueberries in about a half tablespoon of flour, until they're all lightly coated.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Dot the surface of the cake with the blueberries, then top the blueberries with the rest of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes, or until golden-brown on top. Let the cake cool at least 15 minutes in the pan, then remove it carefully to a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the rest of the blueberries, the syrup, and the water. Bring to a boil, then let simmer at fairly high heat for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer and thicken for another 5 minutes or so. I poured the sauce into a small tupperware container, and took the sauce and cake separately. Then just before serving I microwaved the sauce for about 30 seconds, and then drizzled the top of each slice. Bon appetit!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Steak Tacos


These definitely aren't as veggie friendly as my last taco recipe. In fact, they're pretty much loaded with meat, so if you're vegetarian, avert your eyes!

This is one of those meals that sort of randomly came together based on what I had lurking in my fridge and pantry. Since I basically made it up as I went along my recipe is not very specific, but the end result was completely delicious! So think of this as more of a set of guidelines than a recipe...and have fun with the leftovers in your fridge! Besides, how can you go wrong with tacos in any shape or form?

I made chicken ones for the boys too, since they're not as picky as me, but the steak still won hands down. I got the shells at La Mesa Tortilla Factory, so they were golden and tasty, and crunched ever so satisfyingly ever time I took a bite. The steak was maybe a little too well done...I got a little distracted, but it was garlicky and limey, and when topped with a little cheese, a little lettuce, and a little salsa, was pretty much sublime.

Now that you're hopefully droolingly ready to make these for yourselves, here are the aforementioned guidelines:


Steak (or chicken) Tacos
about 1 lb meat, sliced into about 1 inch strips
1 lime
1-2 tablespoons salad dressing or oil
1 small onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

10-12 corn taco shells (or small flour tortillas-I used those for the leftovers and it was equally fantastic!)
about 2 cups of shredded jack or cheddar
about 1 cup of salsa
about 1-2 cups of lettuce, roughly chopped


The night before you plan to make these, get a large ziploc bag, and throw in the meat, the lime (juice it into the bag, then just chuck the rest in), the onion, the garlic, and the oil or dressing. I used vegetable oil for the steak, and balsamic vinaigrette for the chicken. Make sure the bag is securely closed and then pound the meat for a minute or two, making sure that all of it gets coated and the garlic and onion are pretty evenly dispersed.

The next day bust out your handy dandy George Foreman grill (or a grill pan or even a large skillet) and cook the meat for about four minutes on each side, or until cooked to your satisfaction. I discarded the lime pieces and the biggest chunks of garlic so that the garlic breath issue wouldn't be too scary.

While the meat is cooking toast the taco shells in a 300 degree oven until warm. Shred the cheese, chop the lettuce, prep the salsa, open your container of sour cream...etc. Once the meat is done let it rest for a minute or two so that you don't boil your fingertips off, then quickly shred/cut it into bite-size pieces. Place a layer of meat in the bottom of each taco shell, then top it with the toppings that your heart desires. Mmm....tacos.....

Oh and p.s. you will probably have some leftovers, which I can testify will probably taste even better the next day!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Plain Old Fashioned Indecisiveness



I had such good intentions when I blogged about Word Play last week. This week I didn't have any major plans, so I thought, hey, good plan, I'll read a couple of books this week...and have plenty to blog about. But Sunday night Steve Carell's hilarious facial expressions seduced me into watching Get Smart (I seriously almost fell off the couch during the tiny-harpoons-in-the-airplane-bathroom scene). Then Monday night the #@!*#@! MICE were back, so I spent my evening frantically cloroxing everything in my kitchen while swearing under my breath (sorry mom). Tuesday we continued the Alias marathon (although I don't know how much longer Noel is going to last) and then we watched the season premiere of The Biggest Loser. That's kind of the one that worries me actually. Since when am I the person that watches ridiculous voyeuristic reality tv shows instead of reading??

Then last night I got sidetracked with Wii games and blog-reading, and so, almost a week later, I still haven't managed to finish a book.

I am listening to His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis at work, and it's pretty good. It's not life-altering or anything, but it's a pretty solid biography. I started Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery in a fit of nostalgia on Sunday night, but then haven't picked it up again. Last night I started A Beautiful Blue Death (pictured above) which I bought because the cover was so appealing. And now I suddenly think I might want to start Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks because I liked People of the Book so much.

So here's my plan. I'm going to stop blogging....and start reading. Je lirai! Maintenant!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Word Play


I apologize for the alarming paucity of book reviews around here lately. I hate to admit that I only read four books between Thanksgiving and New Years. And actually two of those were audiobooks, which means I only read two real books in a whole month! It's so embarassing! Ah well, what can I say...the sugar high induced by my unending consumption of Christmas cookies apparently precluded any sort of attention span for books.

But it's a new year, and my resolution was to eat less sugary stuff, so hopefully there will be a few more book reviews and a few less cookie recipes in the near future! Although I do have about eight pounds of chocolate chips in my freezer...so we'll see.

One of the two books I read in December was Word Play, by Peter Farb. Word Play is an intelligent (but still fun) look at how people talk. Basically adhering to Chomsky's universal grammar theory, this book discusses the way that children learn languages, the similarity between all languages, and why humans are the only creatures that have a real 'language'. I particularly liked the chapter on paralanguage and the section that discusses how 'baby talk' in the majority of the world's languages is very similar. The chapter on "black" english and how it is essentially a separate dialect from "standard" english was also very interesting.

I also was struck by Farb's explanation that about half of all conversation is actually made up by pauses, so silence has a much more important role than we think it does in our speech. He mentions that actually 'chatterboxes' don't talk more, they just pause less than the average person. So to all of you who may have referred to me as "Motor Mouth" or "Talkica" in my youth--I am vindicated! You all just pause too much!

This excerpt on baby-naming from Word Play was one of my favorite sections, and gives you a good sense of Farb's intellectual yet approachable (and sometimes inadvertently funny) style of writing:

"...the style of giving names to children, which in most American speech communities is quite standardized. A child is usually given the first name of a parent or grandparent, the family name of the mother or some ancestor, or one of a limited number of quite common names like Thomas, Richard, Harold, Jane, Carol, or Elizabeth. But in certain speech communites in the South and Midwest, where most of the members belong to fundamentalist Protestant sects, the style is to bestow curious, folksy, or amusing first names--not as nicknames but as official birth-certificate names."

Farb then goes on to give examples of "this curious style of child-naming" such as Honey Combs, Coeta, Phalla, Buzz Buzz, Nicy, Sugie, Dilly, Skeety, Quince, Prince, Earl, Orlando, Tennessee, Savannah, Paris, Oleander, Fawn, Charme, and Rose Bud. And (this is the part I love) he finishes by saying, "When name-giving is not a part of the sacrament of {infant} baptism--and consequently a clergyman with a sense of decorum has no say--individual style may run wild, as it often does in areas of the United States where members belonging to these Protestant sects are concentrated."

I feel that Peter Farb would find most names given nowadays decidedly indecorous! But this books makes for a good read, as long as you can get past the dated examples of slang, and the references to the unportability of computers. For a book written 35 years ago though it's still remarkably applicable and a fun introduction to language development if you haven't read much in this genre.