Chocolate cupcakes

I went to a fundraiser for the Trevor Project that was held at Rocca. They had the most delicious fried spicy peppers that were lightly battered and salted. Mental note to try them at home some day... They reminded me slightly of the fried red chili peppers we had in Schezuan back in 2001...except, they were not intended to be an entree on their own.

They also had delightful chocolate cupcakes that reminded me of the ones that Kelly and I once made to celebrate James and Oliver's tenth anniversary. Since it was a save-worthy recipe but I still seem to spend hours re-searching epicurious every time I need it, I am recopying it here with a few modifications.  Credit goes to Ginny for finding the cupcake recipe and to Kelly for the frosting recipe...

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Devils-Food-Cake-with-Brown-Sugar-Buttercream-104574

1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tin with cupcake holders.

Whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder in a bowl until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla. 3Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl.
Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour and cocoa mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture (batter may look curdled).

Bake ~ 20 minutes

Frosting:

2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
9 cups confectioners' sugar
2 1/2 cups baking cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Sunday afternoon food prep

Sunday afternoon food prep

Objective: create segments of meals that let me eat a variety of foods this week with minimal prep time and will help me fight the temptation to buy something on the way home.  Living in walking distance to Trader Joe's is getting dangerous.

I'm at the tail end of the produce box.  The roasted tomatoes went into sandwiches, pasta, and catalan tomato bread (see Europe pics), curried brown basmati rice, black beans and brown rice.  Plums went into drinks and snack...  Roasted cauliflower was devoured as part of salad and part tapas.  Kale went into the hash, rice, and scrambled eggs.  Potatoes went into mashed, hash, and fries (with fresh cheese).  Beets were roasted and eaten with salad and reduced basalmic one night...and Trader Joe's spicy peanut dressing on another.  Lettuce...obvi...

After ten hours of peeling, cutting, and dissecting 

I procrastinated on handling the acorn squash because I have yet to find an efficient way to peel and cut it...or deal with innards... But now that I'm out of the easy veggies, I decided to stop procrastinating.  Plus, I love squash...  just not preparing it.

This week's mix and match set:

1. Grilled pears on the George Forman: Good for salad (almost tastes like jicama).  Good for paninis.  Good as a healthy snack.  I'm sure they'd taste better with butter and sugar but I'm trying to save my sugary intake for ice cream and cake...still have leftover molten cakes in the freezer!

2. Brie (<$5)

3. Trader Joe's multigrain loaf

4. Roasted acorn squash, garlic cloves, and onion.

After dressing: olive oil, basalmic, red wine, oregano, brown sugar (LOVE using pyrex, putting on the cover, and shaking it all up to save on minimizing the use of another prep bowl!)

5. Goya white beans (on sale at Stop and Shop)

6. Eggs

7. The rest of the bag of cooked frozen shrimp I splurged on at Trader Joe's

8. Half of a sad basil plant--learned the hard way that the radiator is under the sunny window...  oops!

So far, we've made
1. Grilled panini with brie, grilled pears, and basil...definitely way less pricey than the grilled sandwich that I was tempted by at Panera's.

2. Roasted garlic white bean dip with italian herbs (half of one can of white beans, olive oil, roasted garlic from the roasting batch, sea salt, oregano, basil)



3. Squash and white bean dip (other half of the can of white beans with the roasted onions and squash)
4. Scrambled eggs with shrimp, cheese, and basil

...I still have leftover barbecue shrimp pizza with whole wheat crust (trader joe's!) that's in the freezer... looking forward to other combos... squash risotto?  squash pasta?  squash stuffing?  squash and white bean salad?

Ode to Henrietta's bread pudding

Saturday mornings

Background Saturday mornings are my favorite... there's nothing quite like lying in bed with the sun streaming through the windows, and not feeling rushed to leave the house after having selected "snooze" on my phone ten times. I once thought that having "calypso" sounds in the morning would help wake me up. Instead, I'm fairly certain that I'm now traumatized by the mental images of the Caribbean every morning that signal to me that I'm running late...

The second best part of Saturday mornings is eating breakfast at home. Last weekend, it was the chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes and the kale potato hash with eggs... This morning's adventure: a breakfast edition (a.k.a. no rum) of chocolate bread pudding with caramelized bananas. The idea came to me after having dinner with Rod and Marc. We'd gone to dinner the other night at Henrietta's Table www.henriettastable.com/ after Marc gave a lecture at Harvard on glbt youths in religious schools. As part of their weeknight "yard sale" of picking two items, we'd had dessert: Henrietta's chocolate bread pudding with caramelized bananas. We all know that I've been obsessed with bread pudding for years. I thought it was high time for making a simpler but tasty breakfast edition.

Banana bread pudding with chocolate and cherry sauce


Methods

1. Whisked (soy) milk, one egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and cherry preserves in a large glass bowl
2. Cut up / ripped up chunks of challah and tossed in bowl to coat / soak
3. Melted 1 t of butter in a skillet
4. Poured butter into large bowl of other ingredients
5. Cooked sliced bananas (from the produce box!) over medium heat.


6. Buttered a mini loaf pan
7. Tossed all ingredients in with a few chunks of bittersweet chocolate (from Trader Joe's pound plus bars)
8. Cooked at 350 degrees

Results a happy camper for a smidgeon of the costs!

Breakup drinks

Background My roommies and I had a post break-up girls' night in... also known as a good excuse to eat pie, kettle corn, drink, and watch dvr'd How I Met Your Mother episodes incessantly. Good times. It's been ages since I've had a real drink. I love Drink, a bar where you tell the bartenders what kinds of things you like and they'll mix up untraditional drinks, and Oishii, where one of the bartenders has also created incredible and amazing unique drinks. The unfortunate part about their bars is that they charge an arm and a leg for the drinks (a.k.a. Miami South Beach prices). So here's my homage to Drink and Oishii's fantastic drinks.

Here's version 1 and 2 of what I created.

Methods
Version 1: The Fall Breakup Martini

Equal parts gin and natural pomegranate soda
half a sliced plum
real vanilla extract
cinnamon stick

Review: Delicious!

Version 2: The Sweetener
Same as above with a quarter teaspoon of whole dark cherry preserves

Review: Also delicious!

In love with organic veggies

Background:
I receive a box of organic veggies and fruits from Boston Organics every other Thursday. It's wonderful because
a) I don't have to lug vegetables home from the store by foot
b) It makes me feel as if I'm loved enough to get packages in the mail (hey, so what if I paid for it myself?)
c) It forces me to eat a variety of items...but if I'm going on vacation, or if there's something I truly don't like, I can opt out of the delivery without fretting about finding a replacement
d) I get too stressed out at grocery stores by how much the produce will cost...whereas if I know I'm spending $29 every two weeks on produce, it's far easier to plan the rest of my food budget.

In any case, it's been a fun week of cooking. I tried detouring from my usual Chinese style cauliflower this week, and made roasted Cauliflower instead. It was amazing--I tossed the pieces in a little garam masala, cumin, chili powder, tumeric, and olive oil. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

The other highlight of this week was kale potato hash. I am in love with brunch foods. My favorite place in Miami (Ice Box Cafe) used to change their menus daily based on what was seasonal. As always, I spend forever choosing between options and am always in fear of ordering the wrong item and spending my mealtime in envy of a friend's meal choice. Ever since on one such occasion, a friend ordered a meal that included kale hash, I've been intending to try it at home as well.

Methods:
Friday night:
Kale
1. Wash kale
2. Dip into salted boiling water until the leaves just turn dark green.
3. Remove from heat. Depending on supply of kale from the produce box, drain and freeze anything not planning to be eaten.

Potatoes
1. Peel potatoes, boil them until fork can go through but not mushy. (I'm lazy and just use the water still left from the kale)
2. Remove and store for the morning... if looking for a midnight snack, turn one of the potatoes into mashed potato... (not that I'd ever make comfort food in the middle of the night)

Saturday morning:
1. Grate potatoes.
2. Mix with kale
3. Pan fry in a skillet that's been coated with olive oil.


Results
It turned out far easier than I expected. I couldn't have been a happier little girl when I had them along with chocolate pumpkin pancakes... (yes the joy of home brunch is that I don't have to choose between the savory and sweet...I can have both!)

Homage to Ice Box

Cherry Almond Molten Truffle Cake

I think this might just very well be my favorite recipe I've ever created!

Methods

Participants

Cake
23 squares from Trader Joe's Pound Plus bittersweet chocolate bar with almonds
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder

Filling
Whole cherry preserves
Ghiradelli chocolate chips
basalmic vinegar

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line muffin pan with cupcake holders

1. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave--stir after first minute and then after ever 30 s--do not let chocolate burn.
2. In separate small bowl, microwave approx 1/2 cup to 1 cup of preserves and a little basalmic vinegar; when mixture is bubbling, add in chocolate chips until a chocolate fudge is formed
3. In large bowl of the chocolate butter mixture, whisk in sugar, eggs and vanilla.
4. Stir flour, baking powder and salt into the chocolate butter mixture.
5. Fill cupcake holders about 1/4 way full with chocolate cake mixture. Spoon on a teaspoon-tablespoon of cherry fudge filling. Cover with chocolate cake mixture.
6. Bake 15-20 minutes depending on oven

Results: Excellent!
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

<24hour trip to Vancouver...the border police thought I was highly suspicious for staying less than a day in Canada (I know...I love Canada...why wouldn't I just stay there for weeks or months?)

My grandparents took me for sushi for an early lunch at Kamei Royale... It was delicious.

Then it was onto Kelly' wedding...  a few select pictures from the 9 course vegetarian amazement at the reception at Shangri La in Vancouver...