I Lava These Cakes

I have a confession to make: I am not a huge fan of chocolate. I know the face you're making, I get it whenever I tell people this. It's just not my thing. I prefer a fruity snack. When I do have chocolate, it's usually got something else going on: a fruit, salt, or crunch component to shake it up.

But then my friend Carman sent me this recipe for molten chocolate cakes, and I knew I had to try them. You see, these little lovelies can be frozen and then baked off one by one, whenever you need one. How fantastic is that? And with the addition of a handful of berries, I've got my fruity/chocolate fix.


By the way, she got this recipe from a book called "Lunch In Paris: A Love Story with Recipes" by Elizabeth Bard. I haven't read it yet but she said it was amazing, so check it out if you can find it!

And with this, I'm headed out on vacation for a week! Up to the north woods, so no internet or blogging for me...but plenty of delicious cabin food. (Cabin food largely consists of various meats, cereal, ice cream, and carbs. What's not to love?) See you all in a week!

Hot Days, Cool...Salads?

We're in the middle of a pretty nasty heatwave. I can't complain, we've had worse. But a heat index in the 110-115 range is rough no matter how used to it you get. So Kirby gets lots of very short walks, my electric bill skyrockets, and I make a lot of salads that last a few days and taste delicious straight out of the fridge (no reheating required.)

This one features quinoa, fruit, nuts, a little cheese for creaminess, and a maple vinaigrette. It's exactly what I need on a day like this...well, that and an ice bath.

And on a personal note: yesterday was my last wedding of the summer! I have 5 whole weeks of freedom (from weddings) before the fall season begins. God bless August.

Quinoa & Cranberry Salad

Tasso Cheddar Biscuits

Yep. This happened.

My sister Katie and I spent a long weekend in New Orleans this spring--what I wouldn't do to relive those four days every weekend. We ate our way through an impressive city, and when we thought we couldn't eat another bite...nope, that never happened, we never thought we couldn't eat more. This is why we're sisters. Also because we live on opposite coasts but brought the same toothbrush and toothpaste.

This was nothing short of a miracle

We had some incredible food that weekend: an arugula salad topped with fried chicken, green olives, and lemon vinaigrette that blew my mind; the best strawberry shortcake in the world; and approximately 90% of the menu at what might be my favorite restaurant, Sylvain. But the one thing I wrote down to try to make myself was a tasso ham and cheddar biscuit at Commander's Palace.

So now it's 11:30pm, and I'm sitting up listening to my brother's awesome new mix (Brother is the king of all mixes), making tasso cheddar biscuits. These are pretty darn good. I'm sure I'll keep playing with the recipe until they're closer to those of Commander's Palace, but these will certainly do in the meantime (in other words, they're bangin' and I've already had three.)

Tasso Ham & Cheddar Biscuits

• 1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 1 c milk
• 1 c shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 c finely diced tasso ham or pancetta

The Best Corn You'll Ever Eat

I finally had a day off, and decided to head west and see what there was to see. It turned out to be a pretty great day, despite some nasty heat; a friend and I had an amazing lunch at the Wine Kitchen, went to one of the most fascinating stores I've seen in a while (DMVers, head to Old Lucketts Store as soon as you can!), and had a killer homemade peach jam pop tart to top it off. On the way home I swung by a farm stand and picked up some sweet corn.

It's as good as it looks.   

My sister (at heart) Katie texted me yesterday and reminded me about a dish I love, but haven't made yet this summer. I swear I  could eat a giant bowl of this without stopping. Corn is amazing, no?  The best part is you really don't need to do much to make it a  pretty, delicious, crowd-pleasing dish. Or take a play from my book  and make enough for a crowd but eat it all yourself, glycemic index  be damned.

Peaches For You, Peaches For Me

It finally cooled down around here, so Kirby and I went on an awesome hike this morning. In this case, "awesome" means that Kirby didn't roll in any mud puddles, randomly bark at any men in hats, and is now exhausted and therefore an angel. My standards are low.

I needed a quick summery snack before heading out to work, so I grabbed one of the 9 peaches I bought (see my last post) and found some feta--super easy, looks fancy, tastes great!

Big Eyes, Small Fridge

I have a fruit addiction. It's bad, guys. I know it sounds like the least problematic addiction around, and maybe even pretty healthy, but think about it this way: There's absolutely no way one girl can eat 9 peaches, 3 grapefruits, 2 apples, 2 pears, a watermelon, two pints of strawberries, and a bag of cherries in the 4-5 day shelf life that it has once purchased. So I buy it all, then eat at a normal pace, and about 3 days in, I realize I've made a huge mistake.

Life is just a bowl of cherries!

Thanks heavens for baking.

This time the cherries were the ones neglected, so I had to come up with something to do with them. I made clafoutis--a flan-like dessert. It's delicious, and frankly you can pass it off as breakfast because of its eggy, custard-like texture. (I'm pretty good at justifying eating weird things for breakfast.)

You Made What? Taro Root Ice Cream

I live in Washington, DC. My brother lives in Vietnam. On his awesome blog, he has a series called "What Is It?", where he finds a mystery food, eats it, and tries to deduce what it is. In an effort to make him seem a little closer, I'm going to attempt to cook all of these things. Hilarity will ensue.

Up first: Taro Root Ice Cream! There was an entry before this, but baby steps, ok? Finding the mung beans and pandan leaf for Bánh da lợn will have to wait for another day.

According to Brother, taro root ice cream tastes a little bit like "grainy butter." Not a strong selling point. But his description slowly got better, and it has other advantages as well: 
1) It is purple, which is cute
2) I get to use my kitchenaid ice cream attachment

taro root and coconut cream: done!

3) It has relatively few ingredients, which are all readily available at H Mart

To the Store!

Cake Therapy

I'm glad you all found your way over here. There's not a lot you need to know about me: I work in the food & beverage/events industry, I have the cutest dog in the world, and perhaps most importantly, I am a happy cook and a stress baker.

What does this mean? Simple: When I'm happy, I love to cook. It makes me even happier. I get to be creative and make things up and play loud music and dance around the kitchen, and then, I GET TO EAT! It's a win/win.

When I'm stressed, I love to bake. I love measuring everything out just so and following each recipe just so and letting them bake for just the right amount of time, and I know without fail that if I follow the instructions (or the basic chemical laws of baking), I will succeed. It's the ultimate stress relief.