Lazy Sunday Morning with a Dutch Baby

I had planned on a lazy Sunday and decided on making a carmelized apple dutch baby for a yummy treat. Pretty much nothing can be easier than a dutch baby (or dutch pancake) for a carb and sugar fix. I also got to use my Le Creuset cast iron pan, which I love.

Here's what it involved: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt some butter in the pan on top of the stove (don't be stingy). Toss about 2-3 cups of chopped tart apples (I used granny smith) with a healthy amount of sugar and cinnamon, and then throw them in the melted butter to start cooking. While the apples are cooking, mix a thin pancake batter using 5 eggs, 1 c milk, 3/4 c flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tblsp sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla.

Once the batter is mixed, sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar on top of the cooking apple mixture. Put a lot, since this is where the caramel is going to come from when it mixes with the butter. Then pour the batter over the apples (mixture will come up about 3/4 the side of the pan), and stick the entire thing in the oven for about 20 minutes or so. It will puff up dramatically, and then deflate sadly, resulting in a delicious crispy, buttery, custardy, pancake-y delight. Served with warm real maple syrup and turkey sausage, nothing could be better.

Un Beau Cadeau Pour Mon Chef

January 31 was my boss's ("mon chef") birthday. He's been a great manager, so I wanted to give him a personalized gift. Jasmine and I batted around a couple of ideas and settled on three finalists: honey lavendar marshmallows (since my boss had once mentioned that he loved lavendar marshmallows), brownie pudding cake (because he also loves chocolate), and my personal favorite, petite lemon curd sandwich cookies. Jasmine and I debated and weighed the merits of each: shareable/not shareable, chocolate/non-chocolate, mess, birthday-worthiness, etc.

I finally settled on the petite lemon curd cookies because they would be shareable and feel special. They're small, bite-sized sandwich cookies made with a rich buttery cookie and filled with a tart lemon curd, which is tempered by the powdered sugar that coats each cookie.

I made this recipe for the first time years ago after I found it in Gourmet magazine. I remember it took me a while because I was unfamiliar with butter cookie doughs, and I also tried to do everything the same day. This time the process was much easier by making the dough in advance to give it a chance to set, and I also made the lemon curd in advance, which was dangerous because it gave me multiple opportunities to eat a lot of it!

You can see the small cookies above. I made them in heart and star shapes. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the finished cookies because my hands were too messy from all of the rolling and filling. But they are lovely to look at, and even more lovely to eat.

My boss was very surprised and loved them. He shared them with his friends who were visiting for the weekend, and he said they nicknamed my gift the "Devil in a Box" because even when they wanted to stop eating the cookies they couldn't, and they polished off the entire 3 or 4 dozen that weekend.

Chowing with Chopsticks

Here's Ella using chopsticks for the first time. Heather found a pair of starter chopsticks which keeps the tops together, so all Ella has to do is squeeze them together, like using tweezers. Ella seemed to like it a lot and had a good time eating her chicken lo mein with them. I remember learning to use chopsticks the old fashioned way by practicing with siamin, and having Mom tell us to stop fooling around!

The Winner Takes It All (The Loser Standing Small)

Belated congratulations to my brother-in-law John, who was this year's grand champion of the Annual Koyama Family Poker tournament. This year's competition was fierce with a strong showing from the Anzais and Teradas, but John outmaneuvered them all. This year's tournament including trash talking, high stakes, and even a bloodied toe (which we won't go into too many details here). Here's John in the final showdown with Marti:

We hear that the Kentucky Posthauers have issued a Throwdown, and claim that this year's tournament didn't have quite the same luster as it has had in past years due to their absence. Hmmm... we'll see next year when we will introduce the winner's trophy!

p.s.-- note the traditional Koyama poker playing libations (well for those over 21 years old, anyways)-- nothing says "serious poker player" like tiny glasses of Bailey's!