A weekend of firsts: Ricotta and Races

November 26, 20132 Comments

Sometimes life is so, so good. And when it is, it’s important to stop and take notice; to slow down and roll around in all that rich and delicious joy: joy, joy, joy. Love, love. I am a lucky person and the universe has been good to me in recent years — also a combination of me working hard to reach certain goals that have manifested internally and externally. But I recognize that I am incredibly fortunate, with a roof over my head and room for creativity in my life; the ability and means to make delicious meals some days and meet friends for donuts other days; the strength and health of my body. I’m marking that this is a beautiful and blessed time in my life, and I feel thankful. For my family’s support, for new love, for the continued endurance and care of friends. Funny, how this richness aligns with a very week designed to give thanks. My proverbial cup runneth over. I can’t say it enough.

And for those who are still with me and haven’t been deterred by the honey dripping off this page, last weekend brought some wonderful things including my first bout of making ricotta! I happen to know this fellow who is adept at the art of cheese, and he guided us to the completion of an incredibly simple pasta dish with homemade ricotta to boot.

The process couldn’t be more simple. It goes like: slowly heat milk in a pot to just below a simmer, add an acidic element (we used vinegar) to get the milk to curdle, and when soft clumps have formed, scoop out the ricotta with a slotted spoon and transfer to a cheesecloth. Drain. Wrap the ricotta up in the cheesecloth in a small bundle and twist the cloth to squeeze cheese gently. Serve.

The pasta recipe was a happy form of carb-loading before running my first 10K race in Berkeley. I’ve run off and on at different times in my life, with long hiatus years in-between, but back in June I was inspired by a friend’s lead and decided to start running three times a week to train for a 5K, and then I set my goal higher — to run a 10K in November. Low and behold, I’m a little shocked and staggered that I’ve actually met my goal. It has been a process, too, watching my body change: becoming a little leaner and a lot stronger, and the side effect of all this running? Feeling like I certainly wield the potential within myself to do anything I set my mind to. That is powerful news, all. It’s not timid. It’s a whole new chapter for me, and I like it.

I took part in the inaugural Berkeley Half, which included a half marathon, a 10-mile race, and the 10K. I absolutely had race-day jitters, and have a sweet memory of Nick pinning my race bib to my shirt while my teeth chattered, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and the route included streets and Marina paths that were part of my training runs; I felt like I was breaking ground on my own turf. A sampling of photos is below — for the full experience click here. (And huge thanks to Nick for navigating the route so seamlessly and taking all these shots!)

Wishing all a lovely time with family this week. I made a batch of dough tonight and have some baking on deck (slab apple pie!), and will be getting some deliciously sordid dessert photos on this screen soon.

You guys, I baked!

September 2, 20134 Comments

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

So, summer is over? So . . . summer is over. Quick as ever, like one deep breath and the blink of an eye, it’s fall again here in Oakland. With leaves changing color, a penetrating evening sunshine, and a breeze in the air, we’ve turned the corner to a new season. I suppose it makes sense then that I’ve got baking on the brain, finally. I spent most of my summer outdoors — as it should be, when all is right with the world — which was not conducive to tinkering near the stove. But I have been blessed all summer with beautiful vegetables from my mom’s garden, including squash and zucchini in sizes you’ve never seen before.

And a labor day bbq yesterday called for a round of chocolate chip zucchini bread. Without two loaf pans the same size, I baked this in my bundt pan. I realize it looks like all I ever do anymore is bake bundt cakes . . . That is, more or less, the case.

I sliced the cake up for easy grabbing at the barbecue, which also created a pretty plating effect — completely by accident. I also made a yummy green salad, which I don’t have a photo of. See this post here and my modified recipe, below. How Sweet It Is recommends serving the salad with chips, but I tweaked the recipe to be more of a traditional salad and eliminated the chicken and bacon for my friendly vegetarians. I fully plan to make the salad again, with bacon.

Blueberry and tomato salad with grilled corn and feta

2-3 cups lettuce of your choice, I used a mix of baby greens
1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1 ear grilled corn, cut off the cob
2/3-cup blueberries
1 avocado, chopped
1/3 cup crumbled feta
½-teaspoon salt
½-teaspoon pepper
½ lime and ½ lemon, juiced
½ cup green onions
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil

Do y’all really need instructions for what to do with these ingredients? Chop it all up, toss, serve. I would recommend waiting until your grilled corn has cooled a bit before mixing it in.

Triple-berry bundt cake! (And a homemade mojito)

May 28, 20136 Comments

Who had a successful barbecue in the rain? Me, I did. Who also baked an amazing bundt cake? Me again. Who was an incredible braggart this weekend? Yup, that’s me . . . I don’t know why and I hope it stops soon.

While it was sprinkling yesterday and the weather did not feel like the kickoff to barbecue season or the start of summer, I did make a summer-appropriate triple-berry buttermilk bundt cake absolutely stacked with gorgeous blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Chock full. It smelled amazing while baking, too—all berry aromatic and lemony. So even while my friend and I were tending the grill in hoodies and sheltering the picnic table with an umbrella, the sausages and sweets made me believe that summer is on the way.

This recipe is also taken from Smitten Kitchen’s archives, and the only change I’d recommend is to the glaze—she calls for using the juice of one lemon for the icing, but I used nearly two. The icing is intended to be quite thick, but after adding the juice from one lemon I still couldn’t even get my spoon around the bowl. So, take note, adjust as needed.

And this homemade mojito (made with more strawberry-mint from my own windowsill) was delicious. I used Chow’s recipe, which commands that you gently press the mint at the bottom of the glass or cocktail shaker and then strain it out. I used one leaf for garnish and only had spiced rum on hand, which was a darn happy substitute.

Greek salad with lemon and mint

May 24, 20133 Comments

When you love food as much as I do, life on a diet is fairly sad. Good for ya, bad for baking joy. Good for losing nine pounds, bad for kitchen craftiness. I have, however, discovered some cool things the last few months. I love grapefruit. Love it like heart-on-fire, could gorge on it morning, noon, and night. I love salad sans dressing. It only took me 31 years to discover that I hate salad dressing in all its forms, especially because it makes the lettuce wilt. I’m even on shaky terms with oil & balsamic vinegar now since discovering that all I really need to coat my greens is lemon and pepper, or the moisture from avocado and tomato — these things are enough.

One food I have been missing, surprisingly:

Feta. Good lord. I have not been missing much of the cheese/dairy family, but have been dying for the salty, tangy, thick-on-the-tongue flavor of feta. Which, is why when I saw Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for a greek salad with lemon and oregano, and knew I already had most ingredients on hand, I could not not make it. In other words, I made it, feta included.

The only modification I made to the Smitten Kitchen recipe was adding mint instead of oregano — strawberry-mint grown in my very own kitchen windowsill. And the way I ate this salad (and then ate some more) you would have thought it was my last meal on earth or something…

Other things I have been missing: pizza, not surprisingly. My pizza stone has been sitting cold and solo for months. But for a memorial day barbecue on Monday I do have some baking on deck. Check back soon for a triple-berry bundt cake in honor of berry season — cherry season, too.

Kissing fruit. Looks like a double-coconut.

One year ago: Plum upside-down cake

Chopped winter salad with butternut squash, apple, and feta

April 1, 20133 Comments

With winter on the way out and springtime rains most certainly here, I’d better post about this salad before the season has long expired. For several days back in February, I brought this chopped winter salad to work for lunch and people sorta flipped out about it. While I was assembling it in the kitchen two coworkers admitted to thoughts of stealing it while my back was turned. I also haven’t been this delighted by a salad in a while—it’s a pleasing range of ingredients, and the tart apple and salty feta are a great contrast to the dill, kalamata olives, and roasted squash.

In addition to the butternut squash, I also roasted zucchini, leek, and sweet potato, so my salad was even a bit heartier than the recipe found here. A mustard dressing might be another way to go, but the red wine vinaigrette suggested was also tasty; it allows the flavors of the salad to shine.

Salads like this have been my constant friend of late with the advent of a low- to no-carb sorta gluten-free diet I started last week. I’m also loving this website my friend turned me on to and I’m dying to make my own sriracha sauce next.

Happy New Year, and a hazelnut ganache tart

January 15, 2013June 24, 20151 Comment

Well, the holidays have come and gone and left me without a creative impulse in my body. I blame the cold weather for the absolute lack of motivation I feel. I’m not crafting, not drawing, hardly cooking. Not printing, not writing. What the beejesus is that gal doing then? Ok, I’m watching plenty of I Love Lucy episodes, staying cozy, seeing movies, trying new pubs, dancing on Friday nights. The only thing I can really share is the Hazelnut Ganache Tart I made just before Christmas for a coworker’s birthday.

Snatched from the pages of Real Simple years ago, it’s incredibly easy with something like five ingredients. Every place I take this tart, people melt, they ask for the recipe, they’re beside themselves. It looks deeply rich, yet the surprising thing is how light it is for being nothing but chocolate and heavy cream. Find the recipe here.

I’m hoping that this January haze leaves me soon. I welcome 2013 with great heart and vigor…but, for now, I’ll be here, quietly keeping warm. Cheers to you and yours, and some photos from the start of this new year.

: Gold leaves, lavender shoes

: Royal Teeth, Rickshaw Stop

One year ago: Photos from the week: 01.15.12 and A finished book, a reading booked, and a craft date with dears.

Cowboy Cookies

December 18, 20121 Comment

Boy, howdy, these cookies are everything you’ve ever wanted a cookie to be (and by you, I mean me). It’s that time of year again: baking treats for my company’s annual bakesale, which raises donations for the Alameda County Food Bank. And I take no credit whatsoever for this epic chocolate-oat-coconut-pecan creation. One of my favorite food bloggers, Brown Eyed Baker, whose website I drool and marvel over regularly, posted this recipe and I knew it was a match made in cookie heaven. I love cowboy cookies and this recipe promised to make giant cookies—even better.

Once I read the recipe over I realized I didn’t have a mixing bowl large enough for the amounts called for, so I cut the recipe by half and still ended up with 25 hefty cookies—they really do spread quite a bit. Mine are at least 4 inches diameter. For the whole scoop on these delicious cookies, please see the original post at Brown Eyed Baker.

The only tweak I made was adding about 3/4 cup raisins, because to me, a cowboy cookie ain’t a cowboy cookie without a currant of some kind. But maybe that’s a cowgirl cookie? What’s the difference?

One year ago: A little army of holiday prints

Glazed triple-chocolate pound cake with toasted hazelnut

November 24, 20125 Comments

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around this year, I was completely off pie. It’s my own fault—I overdid it with the Thanksgiving preview pie, and instead of flaky pie crust and fruit fillings all I could think of was chocolate and more chocolate…which led me to this recipe for a chocolate pound cake.

This was the goal:

This was the result:

The only tweak I made to the recipe was toasting hazelnuts, chopping them, and sprinkling them on top just after I poured the glaze over the cake.

Lesson learned: burning chocolate only takes a second…I was melting chocolate on the stovetop to mix into the batter, turned away to grab my camera, and when I came back the chocolate had solidified into an ugly burnt mess. (Note to self: duh, this is why folks usually melt chocolate in a double-boiler) Also learned: use a bundt pan that is the specified size. I borrowed my mom’s bundt cake pan that was smaller than the 14-cup size called for, which meant my cake took about an hour and a half to bake and came out of the oven overflowing the pan, looking like a giant muffin.

Being inexperienced with chocolate cakes, I was expecting this recipe to make a more dense cake. But instead, it was very spongy and light. My mom, having read and baked a few more chocolate cake recipes than me, was not at all surprised.

Here are my favorite shots from Thanksgiving day, spent in San Jose with my family. Happy holidays to all—amazing that Christmas is right around the corner.

Pumpkin cinnamon rolls & prints in progress

November 9, 20122 Comments

I’m afraid it’s true. Looks like things are never going to return to “normal” around here. I’ve crossed a very subtle line and I doubt there’s any turning back. That line was the divider between food obsessed/not food obsessed; food lover/food appreciator; baker/person who eats baked goods. These days, I become inordinately excited about a good-looking recipe, I could talk your ear off about pie, and most thoughts that occupy my brain now revolve around what I’m going to cook next. Today, for example, on a spiffy day off, while I browsed books at the bookstore, picked up a winter coat, and started working on a new card design in my head, I was also thinking cinnamon rolls cinnamon rolls cinnamon rolls.

This is my life now. I tried to tell myself I didn’t have to make them today, that I could bake them Saturday or Sunday or not at all, but in the end, the cinnamon rolls won. ‘Tis the season for packing on a few pounds, and I’m not sorry about any of it.

My intention was to add the pumpkin to the dough itself, but I was so focused on getting all of the flour mixed into the dough, which becomes quite stiff, that I completely forgot the pumpkin. So, I mixed it with the butter for the filling of the cinnamon roll.

I used the raisins called for in the recipe, but omitted the pecans. Notes for next time: use the 9×13 baking dish called for. I used two smaller baking dishes and the rolls are absolutely exploding out of each dish.

The results: Perfect. Eating one warm, just out of the oven, I was convinced it’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I would serve these for dessert any day of the week, any season of the year.

One year ago: Progress! Night Song Print, Round Two

Pumpkin Risotto with Prosciutto

November 5, 20122 Comments

Just when I was going around town saying I hadn’t carved a pumpkin for Halloween this year…

A sugar pie pumpkin was included in my last farm box, a real small sweetheart of a gourd that nearly fits in the palm of my hand. Farm Fresh to You was also kind enough to also include two recipe ideas for cooking the pumpkin—Pumpkin Pasta and Pumpkin Risotto with Prosciutto.

I opted for the pumpkin risotto, recipe courtesy of Cooking Light, which calls for only 2 cups of steamed pumpkin, leaving me with half of the sugar pie pumpkin remaining. The rest of it I’ll have to bake into bread, add to soup, or roast for a veggie sauté later this week. The delightful snack that will also come from the pumpkin: toasted pumpkin seeds.