Bitter Cold Winters Day Breakfast

You know it's hella cold when you're forced to wear leggings UNDERNEATH your jeans to prevent chapping from the freezing winter air. I made the resolution upon getting safely back to my apartment Friday night that there was no way I was leaving it the rest of the weekend. Ok, maybe not the whole weekend. But let's just say I wasn't going to be brunching out.

Of course the moment I awoke on Saturday morning I was already figuring out in my head what we were gonna be having. I had the staples on hand - eggs, cheese, butter, and thank god about a half cup of grits left. What else, what else..oh! Some chipotles in adobo. Some romano cheese and roasted red peppers that never went into that soup I was going to make last week because I got too busy making cake. Some basil, green onions. It's about this time in the week when I try to use up whatever I have that's going to spoil.

There end result (this is not a great picture - we have decided that it's time to invest in a camera so that I can take better pictures of my cakes and other edibles. What I have just isn't going to cut it!).

What you are looking at my lovies, is the most yummy breakfast I have made in a good long while. The round thing there is a cheddar biscuit with chipotles and green onions. The cheddar cheese is actually cut into the dough, and it makes for the flakiest, most flavorful biscuit you have ever had. Doing it this way evenly distributes the oil (I made the mistake last time I made these and just stirred in the grated cheese. Never again!). Also, the chipotles added a spicy note that almost tasted a little like bacon, which was quite fortunate because I didn't have any meat on hand to make! To complement this, I beat the eggs with cream and ground romano cheese, then added diced roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and chopped basil. The sweetness of the eggs was a perfect combo for the spicy, salty biscuits. And just because I had them on hand, some grits, made with milk and some homemade chicken stock that wasn't going to last another week. I am a huge fan of avocados - I always have a few on hand and they are lovely with just about anything. Boy and I agreed they were a nice addition.

Yum yum breakfast that warms you to your bones!

Smorgasbord

Oh my I haven't been very good at posting so far this year! Well, I blame this on two, well actually three things. One is work. It's just been a bit busy lately and it's hard for me to carve out little morsels of time to concentrate on the blog (even though really there's nothing I'd rather do). Two is mac is sick. Yes boys and girls, sick! So you see I've had to rely on old faithful at work, which is rather against company policy I'm sure. Hopefully the authorities will forgive me. Mostly because I feel this is a fair trade for making me take 8pm and 7am global phone calls every week.The third is I've got some other things cooking (please pardon the pun but I just could not resist!). Let's just call them other pokers in the fire. And I'm excited to say that I've got some motivation in me (at long last) to make some big changes in my life that I think are going to be tremendously soul satisfying. It's partly related to this blog and almost all in service of this craft I so love: food! So stay tuned and I apologize for being so mysterious at this point, but I hope you realize that it is necessary.

So what have I accomplished in the make-it-a-bake it kitchen this week. Well, after I wrote last Monday I served my banana cake with chocolate dream frosting it was received with top marks from all my people. My people (I will call them), are a panel of folks I see on a pretty regular basis who try all my cakes and treats. Now, they are almost always complimentary, but I've now come to detect the slightest variations in their tone, body language and exclamations of delight that tell me what they're really thinking. And this cake, ladies and gentleman was a winner. It's one of the best damn cakes I think I've ever made. I think there were two secrets to this cake. #1. Over, and I mean, over-ripe bananas. Here's what you do to preserve them in this state. If you find yourself not being able to finish that bunch of bananas you bought at the farmers market for 39 cents a lb (as I do often), just go ahead and let them ripen. But don't let them get all the way black. Let them get nice and spotty. Like a.. um..cheetah. Yep. Ok, then put them in your freezer. When you're ready to use them for your cake or your bread or whatever you're doing, pull them out in the morning and put them in the fridge to thaw (if you're making your cake that night). Don't fret when you open your fridge and they are blacker than black and feel soft and soggy to the touch. This is how you want them. Get yourself a liquid measuring cup (2-cup is my favorite), and position it under the bananan that is now hanging from your forefinger and thumb by its stem. Now take a knife and slit the banana. Now squeeze out the banana into the cup. Don't be alarmed that this feels a bit like a science experiment from the 2nd grade (you will think "eewwww" as you watch the banana slide out and glop into the measuring cup). The most beautiful thing is it's exactly the texture you want for your cake. No need to mash the bananas because in effect, they are already mushy enough.Perfect! #2. Chocolate dream frosting is made from a lot of stuff you have on hand. I will just be honest here and tell you I know diddly about cooking and working with chocolate. Almost everytime I try to do something with it on the stove it burns or breaks. [In fact as I write this I realize it needs to be a goal of mine to conquer this year]. Anyways, I somehow mananged to save the start of this frosting from itself, even though the heated conglomeration of butter, water and cocoa I had on the stove was all sorts of broken. I mixed this mess with some powdered sugar and just kept adding more until, well, it kind of just came together. Brilliant! Except I realized I wasn't going to have enough to frost the three layers. See, you can't keep adding more sugar because then it's so damn sweet your teeth hurt. Oh dear. Ok, well let's look and see what we have in the fridge. Ok, yep, let's add some milk. And then some more sugar. Still not enough. Ok, how about a little vanilla. And more sugar. Oh, and there's some mascarpone I have left over from boy's brother's cake I can use. Ahhhhh. Just right. Mascarpone is the secret to Chocolate dream icing. Not too chocolately, not too sweet, and the perfect texture.

So that was Missy's bithday cake.

What else, what else. Well the week was a bit jammed and I don't have anything to say about where I went for Client dinner on Wednesday except that it was another bland BR Guest restaurant meal. They share recipes across that franchise. Because I had the same fish at Primehouse that I had at Ruby Foos as I did at Fiammas. Hmmm. Not worth me writing about though.

I spent almost all of Monday in the kitchen (the other 4 hours I worked on sick mac). Brunch was delicious. Lemon ricotta pancakes, cajun-style sweet potato hash and bacon. Mmmmm. Dinner was fish tacos with mango salsa and mexican lime crema. Dig it and the boy did too!

And lastly a quick cranberry walnut cake for another Missy's birthday. This cake has almond extract and is just divine.

Have decided it's about time to tackle cake tasting for the bride-to-be. Am making notes and ideating. Fun!

Ok, must get back to work now. Was meant to be accomplishing a lot in this last hour. Oops!

Weekend Update

So... the tiramisu cake. Ahh, wasn't it beautiful? Dinner was lovely, and they made such a big deal over the cake and the candles and boy's brother was touched. Yay. I would make this cake again. With one or two modifications. (See, this is why you always practice a cake before you take it out and share it with people and they critique you!). The cake was too dry. No one said it except Boy, who was just providing me honest feedback which I truly appreciate. It really was, and I was sad about this. I have a 1234 cake recipe that I swear by and honest to god, I should just use that from now on whenever I have a white cake to be made. It has never done me wrong. Always perfect, fluffy, flavorful cake, and it woulda been just perfect with this. Oh well, lesson learned. The other was that the cake coulda been soaked with the espresso syrup a whole helluva lot more. I mean, tiramisu by definition is a coffee-soaked dessert and, well let's just say I feel that I scrimped a bit too much on this. Now, the icing I must say was divine, and I did a Baily's buttercream frosting for the decoration, which was just perfect. And the chocolate covered espresso beans were quite perfect. But, on the whole, I would give it a 6, simply because of the cake. Bad on me. Well, at least now I know. And I shall make this again for a different crowd (perhaps for an office birthday) and it will be fabulous!

Have made a banana cake with chocolate chocolate chip frosting for Miss L's birthday today. It is not decorated, but it's one of those southern cakes that doesn't need anything too fancy - the cake will speak for itself and really, it doesn't need all that extra frosting on the top because I think it's going to be so sweet anyways. I didn't bring my camera today so there will be no pictures. But it is going to taste amazing because I couldn't get myself out of the batter bowl yesterday - might be the best batter I've had in about a year. Also I did 3 layers instead of 2 so there could be more frosting and I didn't let em cook too long so they'll be nice and moist.

Highlight of the weekend: (musta been double-) smoked applewood bacon from the pork shop on Smith Street in Brooklyn. Just one piece sent me straight to heaven yesterday. Wow.

Dinner last night was White Chili. Except, well it turned out not being so white. Substituted Rotel tomatoes (yes, the same stuff you make the cheese dip from!) and another beefsteak tomato because there were no tomatillos at the store. I also decided at the last minute to make the full recipe except I didn't have enough white beans on hand, so I added black beans instead because that's all I had in the cupboard. It was just fine. Add to that homemade tortilla chips (really, they are worth the effort!), a little jack cheese and some sour cream. Suppose this white chili is more like a mexican stew or soup of some sort, but it is yum yum yum! Perfect for the (stupid) cold winter weather we're having right now. It is January 11th and I have no idea how I'm going to make it through the winter cold. Brrrrrr.

That's it for now y'all! This week will be quiet because I have clients in town and we'll be eating out. Maybe will have to review some restaurants then.

The boy's bro's birthday: Tiramisu Cake...YUMMMM

My year in making and baking: 2010

When I was little, my parents gave me a shrinky-dink type oven thingy, that I will forever fondly remember as "Make-it-a-bake-it". Now, whether or not that was the official name, I have no earthly idea. But my obsession with baking things began with this tiny oven where I would create these little ornaments from open metal molds of some sort and tiny colored crystals that would melt down into the mold. I was utterly delighted by the transformation that took place in that oven. From there, my brother and I went on to open the "make-it-a-bake-it" shop, where we would open for business every so often from my room. Various objects for sale would be on display from my bookshelf, cleared off to feature that evening's merchandise. All of these items were things we hand made (some from the oven) and others from the kitchen. As it turns out, I was an entrepreneur at an early age.

So, we'll see where this goes, but I am going to journal/log everything that I make and bake this year. Because I have already been commissioned to make a wedding cake! Am I qualified to make a wedding cake? No sir, I am not. But in addition to the scores of cakes I already make for folks birthdays (three in the next week, seriously!), I have invested in classes at the ICE - that's the Institute of Culinary Education for all you folks who don't know the acronym - that is going to teach me the likes of fondant, edible flowers and dowels. Doesn't that sound just so interesting?! Well, I get excited anyways. In preparation I also purchased myself a website domain and the accoutrements to house all this learning and preparation and one day maybe business: cakedup.net. My friend Phil came up with that, isn't it great?

So, I think I shall also write about cooking too, because although I do love the sweets, I have to say I am loving the savory just as much these days. Last night me and the boy (well, mostly me, the boy did make an excellent sous chef though!) made the pork meatball bahn mi sandwiches recipe from Bon Appetit (btw, since they closed Gourmet, I am really hoping they are going to ratchet up the quality of Bon Appetit). It was delicious. I impressed boy by making my own mayonnaise for the sweet chili spread. Mmmmmmm. Picture below, but let me describe it to you. Take a nice long french baguette (I regret to say I did not bake this, but bought it. Breads are not yet a conquered area of baking), cut it in half. Douse both sides with that chili/mayo sauce I was telling you about. Then layer a bunch of cilantro sprigs - it cuts the fat and provides a nice clean contrast. Then, if you're game, slices of jalepeno. Personally, I think they were essential. Then, the pork meatballs, which are a heavenly conglomeration of chopped garlic, scallions, pork, chili, fish sauce and sesame oil. Then top with a pickled radish/carrot strips. Oh man it was so good. Like soo good.

My mouth is watering, damn. Wouldn't you know I had a thoroughly unsatisfying Lean Cuisine for lunch. HHhrrmmph.

Ok, that's all for now. Tiramisu cake for boy's brother's 30th birthday this weekend!