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So I just attempted to make yakimochi like the one I had with Robyn in the City a couple of weeks ago, and I failed miserably. X/ It was highly disappointing because ever since I got a bag of adzuki beans at the local Oriental Grocery (Stony Brook has an abnormally massive Asian population, so it makes sense that we’d have a nearby supermarket brimming with awesome Asian foods, yum!), I’d had my heart set on having homemade yakimochi.

I cooked up the sweet red bean paste with the adzuki beans last night, and THAT came out fantastic. Of course, if it hadn’t, I’d have to seriously reconsider my goal of becoming a chef/baker of some sort, since it’s ridiculously simple. Soak beans, cook beans, drain, add sugar and oil, cook and mash until it becomes a paste. About the only thing you could do to mess it up would be to undercook the beans or something. :P

With that done, I’d planned on making the mochi to wrap the bean paste in and cooking it in a pan tonight. Well, apparently it must not be the sticky kind of mochi on the yakimochi I had because no matter what I did after I made the mochi, I couldn’t get it to cook into a wonderful doughy, slightly crusty shell. :( It just stayed gummy until it got burnt/caramelized on the outside. It didn’t taste HORRIBLE, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d consider edible either.

At least I only made a little bit of bean paste and mochi…

Anyway, I was hoping that maybe someone who reads this might be able to point me in the direction of a recipe that’s appropriate for making a yakimochi dough. I can’t seem to find one myself, and regular mochi clearly is not the way to go. XP

5 Comments Categories: Desserts · Food Musings · Japanese · No Photos

I had requested to do Thanksgiving dinner this year about a month ago. Starting after we returned from the diner on Wednesday night, I undertook making a complete meal from start to finish. On the menu was pumpkin bread for daytime nibbling, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed cauliflower, green beans, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. With an incredibly brief break for sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I was in the kitchen from about 10pm Wednesday until 4:20pm on Thanksgiving Day. I tend to do things a little on the slow side when it a) involves an unfamiliar recipe and b) involves any sort of cutting–my knife skills, while safe, are certainly not yet very efficient.

My preparation got underway with setting up the turkey to brine for several hours. I cooked up a nice brine in a huge stockpot, let it cool, put in the fresh turkey, and let it soak up all the flavors and get succulently moist. Once that was resting out in the garage, I put together the cranberry sauce because it had to chill overnight. After that was done cooking and set aside in the fridge to cool, it was time to prepare the crust for the pumpkin pie. That came together pretty quickly (as is necessary with pastry crusts), and next up was to bake some pumpkin bread for everyone to munch on for breakfast and throughout the day on Thursday while waiting for dinner.

A happy loaf of pumpkin bread

There was a recipe in my brand-new The Baking Handbook by Martha Stewart that looked fantastic, so I passed on baking my mom’s traditional recipe, which she does every year at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Clearly, Martha knows what she’s doing and sometimes it’s definitely worth it to fix something that isn’t broken. While my mom’s bread hasn’t been labelled as “bad” in my book, it’s totally been knocked way down on the list in the face of this new recipe.

I simply had to try a piece as soon as it was cool enough!

Thanks to Martha, I’ve discovered the wondrousness and glory of a super-moist, super-tender, not-overly-sweet, very-pumpkiny-and-flavorful pumpkin bread. And I never considered my mom’s recipe terribly unhealthy until now–the Baking Handbook recipe uses one-sixth of the oil my mom’s does, and yet it’s still a bazillion times more moist. I’m going to attribute it to the buttermilk, because the red velvet caked I baked back in September had the same kind of moistness and also called for buttermilk. I have now decided that buttermilk is a Kitchen Essential and Makes Everything Better. Seriously, I think I’m going to be very critical of any cake-like recipe that doesn’t call for it from now on, and I’m going to continue experimenting with using it elsewhere (I’d tried it with oatmeal, and dude, does it make the best oatmeal EVER).

Consumption of that slice took place, the turkey was turned in the brine, and then I settled in to get some much-needed sleep for a couple of hours. After waking up a bit earlier than I had planned due to other people starting to make noise through the house, I got the turkey out of the brine and set up in the roasting pan to go in the oven later and put together the pie so it would be done and cooling all day and the oven could be devoted to the turkey.

While the pie was baking, I cut up the bread for the stuffing. I have to say, it’’s really ridiculous how difficult sourdough bread is to cut. Jesus. It took me an hour to cut it into pieces, and most of that time was spent just cutting the slices because it required so much effort! I actually had to take breaks to rest a couple of times!! While I loved the taste of the sourdough for stuffing, I don’t think I’ll be putting myself through all of that again. ;P The pie was done baking by the time the bread had succumbed to my will and sharp tool of doom, so I set that out to cool and toasted the bread cubes. Those were set aside until it was time to put the stuffing together, and I got to work chopping the aromatic veggies to stuff the turkey.

The turkey was stuffed and prepped for the oven and began cooking just about noon, right on time, woo! I set to work chopping up the seemingly massive amount of onions and celery and carrot for the stuffing, and then I started putting that together. I couldn’t help tasting after I browned the sausage, hee. Italian turkey sausage has been added near the top of the “Animal Proteins I Like” list. ;x Yum! :yum: The mountain of veggies were cooked down and stirred into the bread cubes, and that was set aside until the turkey came out of the oven and it could get finished.

Once I’d readied the stuffing, I took a brief sit-down break and then got working on the other side dishes. First was the green beans with pan-roasted red onions and balsamic glaze, then I cooked and mashed the sweet potatoes for the brûléed mashed sweet potatoes, and last was the beginnings of the prep work for my mashed cauliflower. All of the sides came together just in time for the turkey to come out at 3:30pm. It was set aside to rest while I gave the stuffing it’s final prep of pouring broth over it, putting it in some pans, and baking for 20 minutes. Around four, I started making the gravy, and by 4:30 we were sitting down to eat. Of course, not until I’d taken photos of everything…

All of the food set out to be served

Mmm…crisp grean beans and sweet red onion

Fruity, meaty, flavorful stuffing

Oh, the caramelized brown sugary goodness…

Smooth, creamy mashed cauliflower

That turkey tasted just as good as it looked!

Perfectly sweet-tart cranberry sauce

Everyone was getting impatient while I photographed everything. ;) As soon as I was done, my dad set to work carving the turkey, and soon we were all sitting around the table with our respective plates of food, ready to give thanks and dig in!

Waiting for everyone to be ready was torture!

I got compliments throughout the meal on how good everything was. My dad said that it was absolutely the best turkey he’d had in his life, and considering how many turkeys he’s had to compare it to–and the fact that it was the first turkey I ever cooked–I’m quite proud of myself for it. :) :) It was a very delicious turkey: incredibly moist but not undercooked, very flavorful, and gorgeously browned on the outside. As for the side dishes, the green beans were perfectly crisp-tender and very well complimented by the sweet red onions and light balsamic-brown sugar glaze; we polished off an entire dish of the stuffing during dinner and very little was left by the time I came back to school last night–we usually have apples in it, but I definitely like the pear so much better, and I already raved about that Italian sausage; my dad said that the mashed cauliflower really could almost pass for mashed potatoes, and it came out really good with chicken bouillon and a little milk and butter; the mashed sweet potatoes were definitely a welcome variation from the dessert-like sweet potato casserole we’ve always had; and the cranberry sauce was fantastic, garnering much approval from my grandma–and everyone else. ;D

Overall, dinner was an absolute success, and I’ve already been named Christmas Dinner Chef this year. :) Considering it’s only a month away, I can’t believe I already have to keep it in mind to plan the meal! I’ve become quite settled on doing a standing rib roast for the main dish. A bit more complicated to get right than a turkey, I think, but I have confidence my dad will be raving about it just as much as yesterday’s turkey. ;)

The crust was the best part

My mom, grandma, and myself cleaned up once everyone was done eating, and then we had dessert. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll use the same recipe for pumpkin pie again. While it had great texture, it wasn’t sweet enough. The crust was fantastic, though. The pecans were great, nuts make everything better. ;D My mom had also picked up a peach-praline pie from Stop and Shop, and that was quite good. It made up for the lack of sweetness in the pumpkin pie tenfold, heh. There was also some ice cream to have with the pie–Häagen-Dazs Light Dulce de Leche and Rum Raisin. Ohhh, boy. :D

We all rolled away from the table after that meal. And no one was averse to having leftovers the next day, either, it was all so good. :)

3 Comments Categories: Breads · Desserts · Main Meals · Photos · Side Dishes · Thanksgiving 2005 · Vegetables

After getting back to my parent’s house tonight, we all went out to dinner at the family favorite restaurant–the Terrace Diner in West Babylon. As diner’s go, this is definitely the best, in my opinion; the service is consistently good, the food is consistently good (I’ve never been at all disappointed by something I ordered), and the prices are average-or-better for this area.

Being a very small fan of fried/heavily sauced/otherwise loaded with fat meals, I generally only choose from a few items I know won’t send my GI tract into a violent storm of “you’ve loaded me with too much lipid, idiot!” convulsions–their vegetable wrap is one of my favorites. However, tonight I actually spotted something on the dinner specials list that seemed like something I’d enjoy: Pasta Angelica, a mélange of sautéed chicken breast, mushrooms, garlic, onion, and red pepper in olive oil and balsamic vinegar over penne. I asked for them to go light on the oil (which they did!), and lo! I was finally able to order a meal that included dessert for once!!

A lone little ball floating in my broth

My meal began with an appropriately diminutive bowl of matzoh ball soup. The matzoh was perfect souping consistency–firm enough to hold together in broth, tender enough to easily slice off bite-sized pieces with a my spoon. It was also lightly herbed, which was a pleasant addition to the normally plain dough. I was quite thoroughly pleased by the fact that the broth wasn’t too salty, and it was definitely well-developed, the chicken flavor was satisfyingly intense. :)

After the soup came a small, side-salad-size plate of the house Greek salad. I didn’t bother to photograph it because it was just your standard greens + cucumber + tomato + feta + olives salad with a little cup of the House dressing. My family goes to this diner primarily for this dressing, which really is unimpressive visually–it’s a cloyingly yellow, thick dressing almost reminiscent of custard. The taste, on the other hand, is remarkable: garlicky, smooth, and oh-so-tasty but not too rich. I never use all that they give you because of how flavorful it is; just a little bit goes a very long way.

Next up was my main event for the meal. Well, at least, what most, non-dessert-oriented people would consider the main event. ;)

The aroma of this dish was nirvana

What never ceases to amaze me about the Terrace Diner is how they always cook their chicken exactly right–it’s never underdone, and at the same time it’s never overcooked to the point of dry, stringy unappetizingness. I’ve tried a number of their chicken dishes, and each time it’s arrived in front of me at the perfect temperature and moist, tender, delicious. The Pasta Angelica’s chicken cubes had the benefit of being covered in balsamic vinegar and a teeny bit of olive oil. Everything in this dish was fantastically flavorful, and I’ve since become convinced that nothing goes with mushrooms like balsamic vinegar. Mmm! :yum:

Because I knew that I still had dessert coming to me, and while that pasta would be very hard to top, I had faith it would be the highlight of my dinner, so I deliberately only ate about a third of the main course. I asked our server to wrap up the rest, and after everyone else in my family had finished up their dinners, I took a short stroll over to the dessert cases and pondered my options. I was faced with the choices of rice pudding, chocolate pudding, Jello, chocolate cheesecake, plain cheesecake, strawberry-topped sugar-free cheesecake, apple pie, cherry pie, bluberry pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate layer cake, chocolate mousse cake, a streusel-topped apple tart, various small pastries and brownies and cookies, and the cake I wound up deciding on: carrot cake.

A moist, tender crumb sandwiched by cheesy frosting

On any given day, you’re bound to find me unable to pass up chocolate. I’m definitely a chocoholic. However, after such a filling meal as what preceded this dessert selection process, I wasn’t really up for the clearly decadent and heavy chocolate desserts (well, except for the pudding, but come on–who on earth in their right mind would select pudding of all things when faced with choices like the ones I had before me???). Besides, the cute little carrots on top were absolutely calling to me. I could here their squeaky little voices chirping my name as I thoughtfully considered all of my potential desserts.

And after all that consideration, the selection I settled on did not disappoint at all. The cake was splendidly most, with more than enough shredded carrot, walnut pieces, plumped raisins, and wintery spices to go around. Usually for me, cake is just an excuse to eat frosting, but I’d actually order this dessert with the intention of enjoying the cake in its own right the next time I go to Terrace. At the same time, this is not to downplay the glory of that frosting in any way, shape, or form.

The photo doesn’t do justice to that sweet topping

Seriously, this cream cheese frosting gets an A+++ in my book for Doing What Cheesecake Frosting is Supposed to Do. It perfectly balanced the spicy, carroty, tender cake with creamy, flavorful sweetness. It wasn’t so cream cheesey as to mislead me into thinking I’m eating a cheesecake when clearly I’m not, and at the same time it wasn’t so overly-sugared as to make my teeth hurt and my tongue go dry. It was Perfection. Except there should’ve been more; for the Queen of Frosting (i.e. me), there just simply wasn’t enough of this amazing concotion between and atop and around those cake layers. :P Alas, I really can’t complain too much in the face of the overal fantabulousness of my dessert.

Really, the cake in general was honestly the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. It’s inspired me to attempt my own carrot cake-baking endeavor, so not only can I have a wonderfully well-endowed cake with the epitome of greatness in the form of cream cheese frosting, but I can make sure there’s enough of said frosting. ;)

0 Comments Categories: Desserts · Italian · Main Meals · Pasta · Photos · Restaurant Ramblings

This morning I’d settled on making rice pudding using arborio rice for lunch, but come the end of my morning class, I decided something more savory and lunch-like was a better idea. Rather than attempting to transform my remaining arborio into a sugar-laden confection, I went for my take on fusion cuisine: teriyaki risotto. To be perfectly honest, I can think of no better food combination than Japanese and Italian, and this risotto totally proved me right.

A lovely little Asian soup bowl brimming with risotto

Normally risotto is made with some kind of broth or wine or combination of the two as the liquid, but I decided to use teriyaki sauce diluted in water instead. Sautée the rice in some unsalted butter until it’s clear except for the little center pearl of white, and then begin the tedious process of gradually adding the simmering liquid until you get that delectable creamy-saucy texture that defines a perfect risotto. Once all the liquid was added and absorbed, I stirred in some heated mixed baby string beans and carrots, a little extra teriyaki sauce, and a light drizzle of sesame oil. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, and voilà! a fantastic lunch for two (my sister shared it with me, and confirmed the risotto was “OMG SO GOOD” ;)).

Mmm…morsels of creamy ricy veggie goodness…

Unfortunately my camera is being highly uncooperative lately and refuses to take anything but blurry photos of my food. :P Hopefully it’ll shape up over the course of tonight and tomorrow so I can legibly photo-document what should be a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner prepared by yours truly! I’m the chef for this year’s family feast for the first time, and I hope to create the best ever meal we’ve had for the holiday. :D

On another food-related note for the day, one of my Chinese suitemates has a bowl full of tapioca in the fridge, and every time I’ve gone in it to get something the past few days, it’s made me crave bubble tea. Naturally, this necessitated a stop at the Kelly Tea and Coffee House on the way back to my room from my last class today. ;) Looking over their menu of bubble tea flavors for the day–strawberry, sweet tea, and taro–I was immediately drawn to that last flavor scrawled in lavender marker on the menu board. Through my recent research of Asian desserts I’d come across the mention of taro several times, and it definitely piqued my curiosity, what with the enthusiasm people so frequently possessed when talking about it.

Happy beads of tapioca swimming in sweet, delicious taro-ness!

After a very short mental debate between strawberry and taro, I chose to go with the unusually-purple drink over the cotton-candy-pink option. I most definitely was not regretting that choice after the first sip, and I subsequently added “something made with real taro” to my mental list of Unusual Foods to Try. ;D I’m definitely a fan of bubble tea–the novelty of slippery beads of tapioca mixed in with sips of a sweet, fruity- or tea-flavored beverage is just too much! Yum! :yum

And now I need to get more of this darned art history paper written and plan out the timing for all the things I’m cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m determined for it to be a blazing success! Well, hopefully not blazing in the LITERAL sense… :?

3 Comments Categories: Beverages · Fusion Cuisine · Italian · Japanese · Main Meals · Photos · Rice · Side Dishes · Vegetables

Last night I tried some of my sister’s scones leftover from her breakfast, and they necessitated recipe-sharing. Looking over other recipes from the same site, I found one for sweet potato scones that was simply begging to be made! She had sweet potatoes, and I had all of the other ingredients, so the begging ceased and baking commenced.

I halved the recipe that follows but used five teaspoons of sugar, since we really didn’t need that many scones and I prefer mine on the sweet side. I also put all of the butter in at once because I don’t like a too-crispy and browned crust on my scones, and it seemed like it would be good with all of the butter in the dough. On the other hand, I do like the crust to have a teeny bit of sparkle and crunch, so I sprinkled a little sugar on top before baking the scones. It wound up making four good-sized pieces of moist, tender, biscuity goodness that was enough for my sister to taste, me to eat, and then have some leftover for breakfast this morning. The sweet potato probably has the same properties as pumpkin in baked goods–keeping it really moist and soft. Even after quintupling the amount of sugar called for, they still weren’t especially sweet. I thought it was perfect for the recipe–somewhere between “biscuit” and “dessert.” My sister thinks they need to be sweeter. ;) Overall, I was thoroughly pleased by these scones. The texture had that perfect combination of slight crusty outside complimented by soft, moist-crumbly insides; the taste was mildly sweet, slightly sweet potato-y, and buttery-but-not-rich. They were wonderful both fresh out of the oven and cooled.

While I would so make this recipe the same way again, I think I’m also going to try varying it a little–maybe adding more sugar or substituting another sweetener like maple syrup or honey, adding some cinnamon and nutmeg, and maybe trying a little vanilla extract. This recipe can easily be made into a sweet scone. On the other end of the spectrum, I might try making it with the original amount of sugar called for and mixing in more savory ingredients like some grated cheese and herbs. The sweet potato flavor would lend itself well to either a sweet or savory scone, I think.

I’ve also decided to start using Flickr for my photos in this blog. They have some nice features that I can take advantage of, and it’ll give anyone who’s interested the chance to see larger versions of the photos I take. It’s too much of a hassle for me to make multiple sizes to upload here, but Flickr automatically does that for me. ;) We’ll see how much I like it over time.

(Linked thumbnail photos of the prep and a recipe can be found on the second page.)

5 Comments Categories: Breads · Photos · Recipes · Vegetables

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of going on a gastronomical quest with Robyn! I don’t think I could have possibly created myself someone more enjoyable to roam the area near NYU/Bleeker Street/Astor Place with in search of baked goods and exotic treats sugar-loaded enough to get me fidgity. :D

Mmm…unfamiliar Japanese dessert goodies…

We started off by going to the newly-opened location of Cafe Zaiya somewhere near Astor Place (forgive me for my utter lack of awareness as to the location of ANY of these places because I was completely not paying attention how to get there–I was just letting Robyn be my tummy-delighting guide ;]), where I was introduced to the fabulousness that are Japanese baked goods! I tried to let price be my guide during the whole trip, since I wanted to eat things from a variety of places, so I picked something that was only $1.50. This also meant I wouldn’t feel as bad if I wound up not liking it, heh.

I would never think to put black sesame in a dessert

Not liking it wound up being completely a non-issue. ;) “Red bean” and “black sesame” are definitely not ingredients I ever would have thought to put in a sweet food, since to me beans go in things like rice and beans or baked beans or burritos, and sesame is used on breads and chicken, but oh. my. GOD do the Japanese know how to turn them into a delectable dessert.

Oooh…delicious red bean innards…

The flavor of the toasted sesame really rounded out the sweetness of the bun, which being grilled rice flour dough had a mild flavor and really nice chewy-toasty texture without being too crusty/bread-like. It encapsulated the bean paste, which had a really rich flavor without being at all heavy and was perfectly sweet. Yakimochi has so been added to my list of top desserts, yum! :d

The bees! The cuteness tantalizes me!

After Cafe Zaiya, we roamed some more until we came upon Black Hound Bakery, which we’d previously decided needed at least a stop-in if not tasting. After looking over the prices (too prohibitive for my budget), we settled on just oohing and aahhing at the cute-yummy-fabulous-looking cakes, desserts, bars, truffles, and cookies.

Eensy-weensy, itty-bitty cookiettes!

Speaking of their cookies, they had a display of all these tiny cookies that were absolutely the most adorable cookies EVAR. I was compelled to photograph what I am dubbing palmiettes–palmiers that FIT in the palm of your hand instead of being made with it, hee!! XD Too much cute in baked goodies!

After not eating anything from Black Hound, we walked back in the direction we came from to go to JAS Mart and check out their selection of Japanese snacks. Upon deciding I didn’t need a whole big bag of Kasugai gummies despite them being the best gummies on the face of the planet, I bought a small box of Meiji Yogurt Scotch–a yogurt butterscotch candy. Being accustomed to the American type of butterscotch, I was completely not expecting them to be hard candies, so it was quite a shock when I bit down on a piece only to CRUNCH on it. Heh. I did enjoy the balance of yogurty tanginess and butterscotch sweetness very much, though.

Next was a stop in at the downtown Whole Foods so Robyn could show me their assortment of chocolate and honey. I wasn’t interested in spending a ton of money on a chocolate bar or honey, but I definitely do need to expand my honey-tasting-experience well beyond “teddy bear clover from the supermarket.” :P BUT! I did find that Egyptian Licorice Tea–which I can’t find near me out on Long Island–so I was like MINE! MINE! MINE! And I bought it. Hee. :D

Some more ambling through the streets of New York City led us to Amy’s Bread because I was determined to include a cupcake in my eating endeavors of the night, and Robyn assured me they had some there. :) After ogling all of the very tempting baked goodies, I decided that a solitary cupcake was simply not going to do it, so I added on one of the biscotti I spotted on a shelf behind the cashwrap. ;)

A real cupcake! And biscotto!

I am definitely of the “crispy cookies are what it’s all about” school, so I have long been a fan of biscotti. While I like crispy cookies, I don’t like crumbly cookies, and too often are crispy cookies made thicker and thus crumbly and oh-so-unappealing. However, biscotti are always perfectly crispy-but-also-held-together-y. Yay! And this Anise Almond Biscotto was FANTABULOUS. Ever since trying Yogi Tea’s Egyptian Licorice Tea and being ecstatic over it, I’ve decided that maybe I’m not so repulsed by licorice as I thought and have resolved to try anise-flavored things when given the opportunity. This biscotto was so good, I’ve decided I need to get some anise to add to my spice collection–if only to make anise biscotti! The almonds were perfect as well: flavorful, fresh, and not overly-toasted.

This cupcake (their “Black and White” variety) successfully introduced me to the world of non-mixed-based, canned-frosting-decorated cupcakes, however disappointingly. I have to say the cake was not especially impressive; while the flavor was by far much more intense and well-rounded than cakes baked from a mix, it was very dry and crumbly. I am so not down with the crumbly cakes, nope nope. The frosting, though. Oh, the frosting… At the time I tasted this cupcake, I was in absolute frosting heaven. First of all, there was plenty of it. Thanks in part to the fact that I picked out the one that looked like it had the most, heh. ;) It was also so perfectly balanced between the butter and sugar–it didn’t at all taste like too much of one or the other, but it was still very sweet. Mmmm!

I also had a small taste of Robyn’s Monkey Cake. It’s a banana-walnut-pineapple layer cake with traditional cream cheese frosting. Like a kicked-up banana bread that’s been frosted. It was good. :]

Once we left Amy’s, we passed a couple of Italian bakeries–one had cupcakes that were oh-so-sadly ICED and not FROSTED. It was declared the So Not Cool Bakery, and we indignantly continued on our Cool Food search. It led us to Pasticceria Bruno with–*gasp*!–Pumpkin-Raisin-Walnut Biscotti summoning me from behind the storefront window. I could not pass that up, and we happily went inside. It was a little anxiety-inducing when I discovered from looking over all of their other dessert goodness that they seemed to price things by the pound. Oh, no! Could I be impeded from my squashy-spicey-fruity-nutty-indulgence by the fact that I would have to buy a GAZILLION all at once?? The horror! BUT. Thankfully, I was able to purchase a single biscotto, and Christ. It was sublime. Officially my Favorite Cookie in the History of the World. I need to find a recipe for such a cookie so I can enjoy this ambrosial treat more often.

Still not full (we are sugar-and-flour-consuming MACHINES, apparently), it was decided that more bakeries were in order! We ventured off and came to the Polka Dot Cake Studio. I wanted to at least check it out, and when I saw amazing-looking cupcakes at the counter, we agreed to split one. ;) Boy, am I glad we did because their Red Velvet Cupcake more than made up for the disappointment that was Amy’s crumbly cake. It was a very moist and delicious cake that was at least enjoyable in the face of my own red velvet cake, which is oh-so-much better, yes. But Polka Dot’s is good. The frosting really blew me over, though. My God. It was a classic frosting for red velvet cake, cream cheese buttercream, and it was done phenomenally. It didn’t taste quite like a full-blown cream cheese frosting or buttercream–it was somewhere between the two. I enjoyed it because straight buttercream tends to be quite plain, but the slight cream cheese flavor made it just plain perfect. Definitely worth another visit, especially considering the price–while Amy’s was $2.50 for a cupcake, this was just $1.50, and way better. Try it. Now.

Continuing on our way through the streets of the Big Apple, we finally stopped at Magnolia. A person in search of baked goods in New York has utterly failed if only for the sake of visiting Places to See if they haven’t checked out Magnolia, so we absolutely had to go there. At this point, I was definitely on a sugar rush and fidgity, so I really didn’t need any more sweet things, but after sampling a piece of a cupcake with maple buttercream on top, I couldn’t leave without buying something. Conveniently, they had boxes! I could safely take it with me to go home! Woo-hoo! A box was fetched and padded with tissue paper, a yellow cupcake with yellow buttercream and sprinkles was selected, a mini chocolate pecan toffee white chip cookie was also added to the box, and I was set to go. :)

At this point, it was after nine and we’d been adventuring for nearly four whole hours, so it was time for us to go in the direction of our respective homes. Good-byes were said, and I was off to the train. During the train ride, I came down from my sugar high and was too tempted by the memories of the goodness of the sample, and so needless to say, the Magnolia treats did not survive the trip home. ;) That cake is so perfect–the texture is moist and fluffy-but-dense, with a crispy-buttery top that is absolutely delightful, and the flavor is vanilla-y and buttery without being too rich. The frosting is more impressive with maple, though. Their plain buttercream is basically just SWEET. It’s certainly not bad, but I definitely prefer some sort of taste in my frosting beyond sweetness.

The cookie wasn’t crispy, so that was one small point against it. It wasn’t chewy either, though, so that was better. “Fudgy” is the best way to describe the texture, almost brownie-like, and I do like fudge and brownies, so I was okay with it. :) The flavor, on the other hand, was definitely delectable. The combination of chocolate cookie with pieces of toffee, chopped pecans, and white chocolate chips was so amazingly good. Definitely something I am going to make in crispy-cookie form, oh yes.

To wrap up this excessively long entry, my fooding adventures were a blazing success! Robyn and I enthusiastically agreed we will have to do it again sometime during the winter, and next time we’ll include “real” food and not just desserts. ;) Today, I am so not in the mood for sugary stuff, heh…

I absentmindedly wound up leaving my camera at my dorm room when I came home this weekend–d’oh!–so I used my camera phone. That explains the not-so-good quality of my photos and the lack of documentary after Amy’s (darn lack of memory…). For more photos, check out Robyn’s web site (linked in the first paragraph) and her Flickr gallery.

3 Comments Categories: Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Food Musings · Photos · Restaurant Ramblings

My sister baked a banana cakeling tonight, and amidst the sounds of mixing cream cheese and powdered sugar together into a frosting for it, we were discussing the amount to put on the cake when she was done. The conversation brought to my attention the fact that–apparently–we have completely diverging tastes when it comes to frosting-to-cake ratios: while I greatly prefer very heavy-handed frosting application, she’s perfectly happy with a minimalist approach to the sugary fluff.

When I eat any kind of cake, from cupcakes to multiple-layer cakes, I’m wont to break off as much of the plain cake as I can and eat that first. I’m then left with frosting carefully held together with a thin layer of cake, which, in my opinion, is the best part of eating cake. In fact, I’ve been known to eat frosting by the spoonful–pure and simple. For me, cake is just a reasonable excuse to indulge in some smooth, tasty, sugary stuff.

My sister, on the other hand, is prone to licking off whatever frosting happens to be on a cake or cupcake and then eating the cake sans the fluff. Why she even bothers with the frosting at all is beyond me–she also likes a not-so-sweet frosting more than the sugary kind. Personally, I think she should stick to cakes that traditionally don’t get frosted and save all that sweet goodness for me to enjoy! ;)

So if you want to pass me a slice of cake that’ll have me swooning with ecstasy, make sure its generously filled and frosted with whatever creamy concoction suits it. Mmm… :yum:

6 Comments Categories: Food Musings · No Photos

I have just had the ultimate pleasure of tasting a Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan bar for the first time in my life, and I’m basking in afterglow. To be honest, I purchased this bar earlier today plainly out of curiosity, having never had the opportunity before. After working for Lindt, I’ve become spoiled by quality chocolate, and my expectations were thus low. Especially since they make a dark chocolate-marzipan candy called Mozartkugeln that I absolutely love–or should I say loved?

Begging me to unwrap and devour it…

The Ritter Sport bar had been seductively calling my name ever since it came into my possession and took up residence in the bag I had with me at work today. I somehow managed to deny its siren song until the logical time of “after dinner,” and I’m thankful I did because it was a positively glorious way to close my day.

The chocolate and marzipan, it taunts.

After finally succumbing to temptation and unwrapping the bar, I broke off one of the rows of logo-imprinted perfect squares to reveal the contrast of decadently dark chocolate and milky white marzipan concealed within. It smelled deep and sweet, and every small, careful bite I took was absolutely divine.

Yes, I consumed the entire bar.

The fine snap of the bittersweet chocolate foiled against the pleasantly soft texture of the sugary almond marzipan was too persuasive, too irresistable. Allowing some bites to melt in my mouth and chewing some out of pure impatience to experience all of the flavor was a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing with this delectable treat.

Mozartkugeln truly pales in comparison to the Ritter Sport bar–literally and figuratively. While I absolutely adore nuts, especially almonds, and especially in the form of marzipan, the ratio of marzipan-to-chocolate in the Mozartkugeln is just far too great. In the Ritter Sport bar, neither one predominates, creating a confection of rich, subtly sweet chocolate sin complimented by just the right amount of nutty sweet paste.

Satiated, I am.

4 Comments Categories: Chocolate · Desserts · Food Musings · Photos

To see me eat this dish, you’d think I had ants in my pants. I was excited for HOURS after I first made it–seriously, I told everyone I ran into about it!–and now that I’ve perfected it with a second attempt, I’m making the recipe public. :) It took me forever to figure out what I could possibly do with rooibos tea for this month’s TeaChef, and using it in place of broth when making mashed cauliflower just randomly came to mind during some of my brainstorming.

Personally, I find it so flavorful and the texture so delightful that I can eat it by itself, but it would make a great substitute for mashed potatoes or go beautifully with roast poultry. Yum! :yum:

(A photo of the prep and a recipe can be found on the second page.)

0 Comments Categories: Photos · Recipes · Side Dishes · TeaChef · Vegetables

I was reading some articles at A List Apart, and it inspired me to “realign” my site so that it not only validated but was also standards-compliant. The articles made me realize just how design-oriented my code was rather than structure- or readability-oriented. My pages would have made absolutely no sense to someone unversed in Web design, and they were basically useless to anyone not using my stylesheets.

So now the site has a logical structure and properly utilizes the HTML tags. I’ve gotten rid of my style-class-happy-ness in favor of structural IDs and tag nesting. And I also took the opportunity to make some visual changes, obviously. ;)

The re-coding hopefully has made it easier to navigate for more people, and it reflects the content better. For one thing, I realized the Asian stir-fry dish I was using as the header image before is completely unreflective of what I usually cook–I don’t think I’ve ever made a stir-fry before, but I make omelets and veggies all the time.

Let me know what you think of the improvements. :)

3 Comments Categories: No Photos · Site-Related