Miami in May

Dalmau and I went to Miami in May for his nephew's (Felix Jr.) birthday. It was a great time to go to Miami-- nice and warm but not too hot and no rain.

We started the party weekend with a fantastic boat ride, thanks to Dalmau's brother Felix and sister-in-law Johanna. Felix arranged for us to go out on his friend's boat. I used to think I didn't like being in boats. Until now. Now I know that I just don't like small boats. Big boats are great! We picked up snacks and spent the afternoon on the water. Lunchtime was the best when we pulled right up to a dockside seafood restaurant. Here's a picture of Felix and Johanna (married for almost 15 years already!) and Dalmau and me (the debut of my new MMJ suit).













The next morning Dalmau and I assumed our duties and took Dalmau's niece, Samantha, to her soccer game while Felix and Johanna got ready for Junior's beach birthday party. Since I burn easily in the sun (probably because I don't get much sun in NYC) I tried to cover up as much as possible. Many people were probably wondering who the little old lady was:










Junior's birthday party was a lot of fun, even though we were surrounded by over a dozen 13 year old boys. Felix and Johanna rented a couple of cabanas and we were at the beach all day long reading, relaxing, surfing the waves and playing volleyball. Dalmau is refereeing below:

We capped off the weekend with an intense round of Rock Band. Little did I know that this a family that takes their Rock Star very seriously. The family band is named "305" ("three-oh-fi") in honor of the Miami area code. Below is Dalmau rocking out on the drums, although you should have seen the vocals. I played bass for the very first time and was informed by Junior that I was terrible and bringing down the score.

The best was when we were in the middle of Metallica's "One" and Junior stopped the action in the middle of the song so that he could text a girl.

Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies and Homemade Indian Food

Heather, Jasmine and I like to read all of the same cooking/food blogs-- Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), The Pioneer Woman Cooks (www.thepioneerwomancooks.com) and The Girl Who Ate Everything (www.thegirlwhoateeverything). We like to alert each other whenever we see good recipes and fun projects on these blogs, so when Jasmine and I saw a recipe for salted caramel whoopie pies on Serious Eats (http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/02/blogwatch-whoopie-pies-with-salted-caramel-bu.html) we knew it was going to be our next project when I was in San Francisco. Soft chocolate cookies + salted caramel buttercream = heavenly bliss!

The recipe wasn't hard-- make the soft cake-like cookies, then fill with buttercream. Ella was very excited to help us out. When she saw us getting everything ready, the first words out of her mouth here "I want to help"! Ella is already a very adventurous eater, so maybe these projects will spark a lifetime interest in cooking as well.

As you can see, Ella was a very good helper. She carefully helped Jasmine stir the cookie batter and helped me beat the caramel into the buttercream. Ella was always very careful to do exactly what Jasmine and I asked her to do, and followed directions very well. Hmmm... maybe I see an EZ-Bake oven in someone's future?! She loved tasting the buttercream after we were done making it.



Below is a picture of our finished product. We learned a very important lesson-- make sure the cookies are FULLY cooled before filling with buttercream! Otherwise, the butter will melt all over and make a mess, and you will be sad.


And here's Ella enjoying the fruits of her labor-- she looks like a satisfied cook:


Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines. However, my attempts to make it haven't been very successful. It always tastes not quite right, like something is missing. Jasmine also loves Indian food and has been raving about these spice mixes from Sukhi's (www.sukhis.com) that she buys at their farmers market. I was extremely skeptical because I am skeptical about all mixes in general. How can they be any good? They're prepackaged and often cheaply made.

Sukhi's blew away all of my skepticism. We went to the farmer's market and picked up a couple of different packets and made them for dinner my last night in San Francisco. We made a vegetable curry and two types of chicken curry. Wow! It tasted exactly like it came from one of my local Indian restaurants and were extremely easy to make. I liked how I was able to use fresh vegetables and meat to make a fast and healthy dinner.

Jasmine and John brought a bunch of these mixes when they were visiting me in New York. Thanks Jaz and John! Dalmau and I will now be enjoying delicious Indian dinners all Fall and Winter long.

A San Francisco Wing Ding

I loooove buffalo wings! Ever since Amy, my freshman year roomate at the University of Rochester (which is very close to Buffalo), first introduced me to the wonders of these savory, tangy and spicy morsels, they've been one of my favorite foods. In Rochester, a side of wings is always ordered with pizza, and a frequent weekend indulgence. Buffalo wings (and another favorite food, salt & vinegar potato chips, which Amy also introduced me to) were directly responsible for me gaining the freshman 15 lbs! However, that still hasn't stopped me from indulging from time to time.

After reading about a Super Bowl wing wrap up on Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), John, Jasmine and I held our own taste test during my visit. We put 3 brands to the test: KFC (buffalo and plain crispy); Extreme Pizza; and Original Buffalo Wings. Extreme Pizza and Original Buffalo Wings are local neighborhood spots. The local KFC was very sketchy. Each place we ordered 3 types of wings: plain, buffalo and barbeque.

The KFC barbeque didn't disappoint. It was crispy, sweet and smoky, just like we had remembered it. I also liked the slightly thicker breading (which is a no-no for buffalo wings, but perfectly acceptable for barbeque wings!). At the end of the night it placed second overall.

The plain category had a very weak showing. We didn't particularly care for any of the plain wings-- they were either too plain, or flabby and wimpy, or just too "blah".

The overall winner was the Original Buffalo Wings. Their buffalo wings were just right-- the correct balance of vinegar, spice and butter, on a crispy wing with very light breading. A special bonus are the homemade potato chips which are categorically delicious! The second place buffalo wing winner was KFC, and the loser was Extreme Pizza-- just not good at all.

SF Weekend Day 1: At the museum with YSL, Mootisse and Pigasso

I went to San Francisco for my annual spring visit with Ella and Tyler. I love San Francisco, and I was especially looking forward to showing Ella more of the city now that she's getting older and can easily walk around. I arrived late on Thursday night and woke up early Friday morning (no need for an alarm clock with Ella around). We had decided that Tyler would go to daycare and Ella and I would have a special day to ourselves.

Ella and I started our adventure with breakfast at Cafe Murano across the street. Ella learned a new word to go along with a delicious start-- a "croi-ssanT" as Ella said very clearly enunciated. We then hopped into a taxi for Ella's first cab ride, which she enjoyed immensely. She loved looking through the window and seeing all the cars go by, and engaged our cabbie in conversation, asking him if this was his car.

After waving goodbye to the cab driver, we picked up our tickets at the De Young museum to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, which ends in early April. I was looking forward to seeing the exhibition, as San Francisco was the only American stop of the tour. Ella and I looked at all of the beautiful clothes, and Ella was especially enthralled with the videos of the fashion shows. The funniest part was when Ella asked if we could go downstairs to see "Mootisse and Pigasso." Last year I gave Ella a book I found at MoMA titled "When Mootisse met Pigasso." It is a cute introduction to the world of modern art, and tells a somewhat fictional tale of the rivalry and eventual close friendship between Matisse and Picasso. I was especially happy to hear that the book and its topic had stuck with Ella.

So, at Ella's request, we went downstairs to look at the art, and then went outside to enjoy the sunshine and look at the sculptures surrounding the museum. Ella loved a sculpture of a boy playing the flute. She likes to imitate him by wiggling her fingers in front of her and pretending to blow into a flute.

We then took a cab back to Filmore street and the MMJ store. Ella showed off her very fashion-forward look by mixing and matching the stripes on her pants to her striped coat. Ella likes to touch all of the clothes and then twirl in front of the ceiling to floor mirrors. She then made me laugh again with her very direct and clear request: "I want to eat and then go home." So Ella and I had a great lunch together at Osaka, where Ella impressed me by eating tons of vegetables. We started off with sharing a salad, and then Ella ate some of my rice and teriyaki salmon, and about half of my vegetable tempura with eggplant, sweet potato, carrot and zucchini.

We both needed a nap after our busy morning!

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!

Peppermint Jumble Takes a Tumble-- First Culinary Disaster!

Christmas dinner at my parents' house is a group effort. Jasmine and I decided that our contribution would be two desserts-- a bread pudding and, as the main showpiece, a 4-layer peppermint chocolate layer cake. Jasmine found the recipe in Gourmet magazine, which was a delicious confection made up of 4 layers of dense chocolate cake, with each layer separated by a delicious 2-layer filling of dark chocolate ganache and peppermint butter cream, with the whole thing covered in a fluffy and slightly sweet peppermint marshmallow meringue.

"No problem," I said confidently to Jasmine. "We can do this-- I've made lots of layer cakes before!" In my mind I heard the crowd cheering as Jasmine and I were parading around the room our towering masterpiece of chocolate and peppermint. Little did I know what was in store for us.

Jasmine started with the chocolate ganache and peppermint buttercream-- piece of cake (ha ha! couldn't resist). Next, we tackled the two round cakes which would form the 4 layers. The batter was very chocolately and yummy. My job was to butter and flour the cake pans. Our first indication that something was awry was then the cakes took about 1 1/2 times longer to firm up in the center than the recipe called for. "Oh well," we thought, "that's just the way it is." While the gift unwrapping was going on, I went to flip the cakes out of their pans. I confidently turned over the first pan, fully expecting the cake to slide out with ease in all of its glistening, round, chocolately glory.

Instead, as I flipped over the pan, only about a 1/3 of the cake came out, and it didn't smoothly glide out, but instead plopped out while ripping away and leaving the bottom of the cake firmly attached to the bottom of the pan. "Hmmm... well, that's ok, the next one will be fine." Nope. The second cake also clung to the pan like a baby to its mother. Jasmine and I stared at the cakes in dismay. "No problem," I over-confidently told Jasmine, "this has happened to me before, we can just stick it together with frosting and no one will know the difference!" "Oh-kay," said Jasmine doubtfully.

I cheerfully started slicing the cakes in half to make the requisite 4 layers. Unfortunately, the cakes started to further crumble and fall apart in chunks. "No problem," I reassured Jasmine again. By this time Jasmine was highly suspect of my layer cake abilities, irrespective of how may times I reassured her that a load of frosting cures many sins.

We tried layering the cakes and holding them together with a dual cement of ganache and a second layer of buttercream. What we ended up with was this:
Which doesn't look bad, except that after about 30 seconds a slow avalanche started as the ganache buttercream cement gave way, and it turned into this:

Still supremely confident in my mortaring skills, like a fool I continued to tell Jasmine that it wasn't anything the frosting couldn't fix. Now Jasmine was starting to seriously question if we should just give up and have Mom defrost another dessert she had hidden away in the freezer.
"No, no, no," I said, "we'll be fine! Bring out the frosting!" So we did. We frosted and frosted. And frosted some more. And this is what we got for our efforts: The slow avalanche turned into a fast one, and the smooth and fluffy peppermint meringue frosting was no match for the tumbling layers of cake as they tore away from the mountain of cake and ganache/buttercream mortar. "What are we going to do," we thought as we stared at the slowly disintegrating heap as large chunks of cake continued their slow descent. We better get the other cake out of the freezer! We thought about it for a while, and then Jasmine came up with a brilliant idea. We would get a large glass bowl, put the cake in it, and pretend that all along it was a new type of pavlova or trifle! Hooray for creativity! No one would be know of our culinary disaster, and we would still be heroes!

I went to the garage and fetched our favorite large smoked glass bowl, which held many picnics worth of potato salad and ambrosia. We hefted the cake up, which was VERY heavy, and plopped it in. Suddenly, our plan didn't seem so genius at all, because this is what it looked like:

Instead of a lovely, multilayered trifle, it looked like what it was-- a failed cake dumped into a bowl. But we had nothing to lose at this point, so we removed the wax paper, kept smoothing the top, and removing the excess cake that was flopping over the side like dead fish.

And, voila, wouldn't you know, after a quick sprinking of crushed peppermint and chocolate shavings, it came out looking like this:

We decided to call it "Peppermint Dump Cake" because of its unfortunate provenance. Our dad came up with a much more PR-friendly name of "Peppermint Jumble." Regardless of what it was called, it sure was tasty with a mix of different textures. Rich chocolate cake with the slightly bitter dark chocolate ganache, sweet and rich peppermint buttercream, cut by the slightly sweet and fluffy peppermint marshmallow. It was hit at the party, although it didn't induce the envious stares that I had originally pictured in my mind.

The only problem was that it was a HUGE cake. We ate and ate, and then had some for breakfast and snack a couple of days after Christmas, until we both threw in the towel, admitted defeat, and threw away the rest.

It was a good lesson in improvisation, and how to make dessert from a dump.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 was a great dinner with both old and new friends. My college friend, Lukas, and his wife, Linda (along with their soon-to-be-born 2nd child!), made the trip all the way from Prague for a couple days in NYC. Joining us was Dalmau (my law school and CGSH friend), Dalmau's Marina (all the way from Miami-- brrr!), and Ana (from Marc Jacobs).

Above you can see the guys putting their kitchen and knife skills to work. On the menu: (i) appetizers: cheese and crackers, devils on horseback, East-West chex mix; (ii) 1st course: pumpkin soup; (iii) salad course: spinach salad with walnuts and goat cheese; (iv) turkey; (v) side dishes: mashed potatoes with horseradish and carmelized walnuts, polenta and sausage stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce; (vi) dessert: pumpkin pie, bittersweet chocolate pie. Yum!

We also had the Newton unfiltered Chardonnay and unfiltered Melot from my Napa trip earlier in the year. They were perfect with the meal and enjoyed by all.

I can't think of a more perfect Thanksgiving-- good food, great friends, and great conversation. After their very avid and interesting political and philosophical conversation, Marina became Lukas' biggest fan!

The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind. Long Island outlet shopping on Black Friday, visiting friends outside of Philadelphia, and great dinners with Lukas and Linda.

Seattle Visit and Chambers 520 Reunion

After visiting Jasmine and John in San Francisco, I had the chance to make a quick trip to Seattle to visit my Uncle Tony, Aunt Joni, and cousins Alyssa and Jared, as well as to catch up with my girlfriends (and roommates) from college.

It was a very quick visit. Aunt Joni and my cousins Alyssa and Jared met me at the airport, and then we went to visit Uncle Tony's offices at Microsoft, where he works in the XBox division. It was a special treat-- not only did we get a hands-on demo of the latest Microsoft product, which is a large table with interactive software for editing and collaboration, but we saw the offices decorated for Halloween. These weren't your average decorations. Instead, it was another world! Uncle Tony said that each group/division competes to have the best decorations, and that in the past some groups have even hired professional movie set decorators for assistance! Uncle Tony's hallway with a moving ghost was definitely making a strong showing.

I had a great time with Alyssa and Jared. They showed me their Wii program, and we did some ski jumping. The part of the program where you can make your own character was really fun. We saw the Uncle David guy, which looked just like Uncle David! We worked on making a character for me, which wears all black (naturally) and has short spiky hair and glasses. Now I will be another face in the crowd when Alyssa and Jared play their games. I loved seeing how much both of them have changed, and I hope I get to host Alyssa next summer in New York City when "Cousin Kelly Camp" opens its doors for its first visitor.

At the top is a picture of my roommates and me. We all lived together our senior year in college. We were quite a large entourage-- 5 adults (actually, six-- Megan's mom was visiting from Kentucky and took the picture) and 3 kids-- ages 3, 2 and 1. Coincidentally, the weekend we all decided to meet in Seattle, which is where Megan and Claire live, was the weekend of our 10th college reunion. Time really flies by. I love that although we have very different lives, different interests and are scattered across the country, we still have a connection that keeps us close.

Goodbye, Mother's Animal Cookies

Sadly, Mother's Cookies filed for Chapter 11 last week. I'm hopeful that another company will buy the recipe and continue to make the beloved pink and white frosted animal cookies that I love. They remind me of our elementary school days when Penguin's frozen yogurt was a new and exciting novelty. The ultimate treat was a vanilla frozen yogurt with Mother's Cookies broken up and sprinkled on top.

The news inspired to me make my own version. I used a sugar cookie dough recipe. I thought that I had either made a mistake or used a bad recipe because after creaming the butter, sugar and egg as directed and incorporating the flour and baking powder, the dough was very crumbly like sand and did not come together into a "smooth dough" as the recipe directly. I was contemplating adding more butter or egg, but then I remembered from my days of watching Auntie Mable make Christmas cookies that the dough comes together by pressing it into a lump and refrigerating. All those years 0f Christmas baking paid off. I squished the sandy grains together, and the heat of my hands melted the buttery crumbs into a smooth ball. After being refrigerated for about 2 hours, the dough rolled out smoothly.

I didn't have any animal-shaped cookie cutters, so I used my butterfly and star shapes instead. The small cookied baked quickly, and once they were cooled I gave them a quick dunk in some bright pink royal icing and liberally sprinked them with those little rainbow-colored rolly balls. Although they weren't a complete replica of the Mother's cookies, they were crunchy and buttery. Yum!

Welcome Tyler Jackson!

Welcome to the world, Tyler Jackson! Tyler was the rare baby to have made his appearance on his expected due date, which was October 6, 2008. I couldn't wait to meet the newest member of our family. I went to visit Jasmine and John in San Francisco a week after he was born. He was so cute and tiny, and I forgot how strong newborn babies are. After only one week in this world he was able to lift his head and let everyone know that he was HUNGRY.

His big sister Ella gets so excited when she is around him-- she stamps her feet and says "ooh ooh ohh!" She continues to grow and amaze me. Ella has a great memory; she remembers that I always wear boots, and when she came in the door she pointed to my boots and said, "Kelly shoes!" That's her walking around in my boots.

What a great looking family.

Cod est geniale!

The Marc Jacobs legal department is on a diet. After the stress of Fashion Week (during which time multiple croissants and pastries from next door Balthazaar bakery were consumed on a daily basis) and all of the wonderful wine and dinners we had in Napa, enough is enough. On the diet: lots of salad, fruit, and lean meats (chicken and fish). As Emmanuel declared yesterday, "Cod est geniale (Cod is brilliant!)." It helps that we are both on the same program-- we keep each other in line and discourage each other from raiding the receptionist's candy jar, which is always fully stocked with tempting chocolate treats. Without our diet, how else are we going to fit into our clothes?

A Napa Treat

I was lucky to be invited to a legal conference in Napa Valley in September. The conference was for all of the lawyers for the North America companies of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey. It was very well attended-- lawyers representing Duty Free Shipping, Wine and Spirits (Moet and Chandon, Newton, Hennessey, Belvedere, etc.), Sephora, Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs were there.

The conference was a very special event. Not only was it a great learning experience, but I also had the chance to meet all of the other lawyers from the various companies and it was a good opportunity to share information that was relevant to the entire group. Each label had to make a presentation, and I presented on behalf of Marc Jacobs. My presentation was on the effect of bankruptcy law on contracts and specifically licenses and intellectual property, my favorite legal topic of all time!

The first night we had a tour Domaine Chandon and dinner at Etoile, the restaurant at the restaurant. It was an amazing night, starting with a tasting of 6 different wines (half sparkling, half still) from Chandon in the garden, followed by a wonderful dinner with wine pairings.

As a special treat, the next day we took a tour of the Newton winery. It is a private winery that was opened this year to the public, although it only offers two tours a day limited to 12 people each. Not only was the winery the most beautiful winery I have ever been to, with rolling hills and manicured gardens, the wine was unbelievable. It was the first time I was convinced to buy multiple bottles after a tasting.

Caja China Time

I went to Miami for Labor Day weekend with Dalmau, my friend from law school. Since I am not much of a beach person, I was most excited to try out the Caja China, which I had read about in Jeffrey Steingarten's Vogue article. The official story is that it was an invention for roasting meat brought by Chinese people who moved to Miami, hence the name (which means "Chinese Box"). It is a wooden box on legs that is lined with heavy stainless steel. The stainless steel lid/top is a shallow pan which is meant to hold the charcoal that provides the indirect heat to roast the meat inside the box. You can roast anything in it-- turkey, steak, etc., but the best of all is pork shoulder!

Dalmau's brother, Felix, had a large Caja China which was big enough to hold an entire half pig. Unfortunately, that one was ruined from leaving it outside in the rain. In anticipation of our visit Felix ordered a new smaller one that was better for when you aren't cooking for a crowd of 20 people. After about an hour of fitting and hammering the pieces together we had our brand new Caja China!

We put two marinated pork shoulders (with plenty of garlic, salt and onion) into the box skin down and about a quarter of a large bag of charcoal in the coal pan. We left it to roast for an hour to half and when shopping. When we came back, we turned the pork over to finish roasting and crisp up the skin, added more charcoal, and left it for another hour and a half.

The results? Absolute perfection! The best pork I've ever had. It's too bad I can't have one here in Brooklyn. I need a garden floor apartment with a backyard to hold my own Caja China.

Olympics and Chinese Cake

In honor of the Olympics, I decided to try my hand at Chinese cake as my weekend project. I tracked down the recipe in the "Secret Koyama/Gee Family Recipe Book." This was a high protein snack; one recipe called for 8-9 eggs! I enlisted my trusty KitchenAid hand-held mixer for the project, which required a grand total of about 1/2 an hour of active whipping of eggs and the batter.

Although the recipe called for baking the cake, I recalled that this cake could also be steamed, so I divided the batter among two round cake pans and baked one and steamed the other. The baked cake (on the left) came out toasty golden brown with a nice crust. The steamed one (on the right), made up for its lack in color with fluffiness.

I brought the cakes as a special treat for my ballet class. After a hard hour and forty-five minute class, I brought out the cake, and no one hesitated to pounce on it. I encouraged everyone try try both kinds. The results? About half and half. Some preferred the baked cake for its golden, slightly carmelized flavor. Others loved the tenderness of the steamed cake. Amazing that one ballet class can eat two cakes in about 10 minutes flat!

Kentucky Hot Browns and Massages

Jasmine and I planned a "Sisters Day" with Heather in Louisville the day before Heather's engagement party in Evansville, Indiana. We had such a great time! Jasmine and I flew into Louisville on Thursday night, and we both arrived very late after flight delays. Heather ended up going to sleep soon after she picked up Jasmine from the airport because she was working a half day the next day, but Jasmine and I ended up staying awake until almost 3:00 am watching the finale of So You Think You Can Dance! It was fun analyzing and discussing the dancing. I still think Katee was cheated.

The next day Jasmine and I lazed around the apartment until lunchtime, when Heather picked us up and we went to the Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville for its famous Hot Brown sandwich. The Hot Brown was developed at the Brown Hotel in 1926, and is a Hot Brown is an open-faced sandwich using thick cut bread, hand carved turkey and bacon covered in Mornay sauce and baked until the bread is crisp and a delicious, cheesy crust is formed on top. Served with grilled tomatoes on the side, it is absolutely decadent and delicious. Jasmine and I first saw this sandwich on the Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Bobby Flay had a throwdown with the Castro Brothers, the official Hot Brown Chefs at the Brown Hotel, to see who could make the best Hot Brown. Of course, the Castro Brothers won, and they are now official spokespersons for General Electric, Heather's employer.

After stuffing ourselves full of turkey, cheese and bacon, we headed to the Z Salon for massages. What a treat! Each massage starts off with a foot wash/massage, followed by a 45 minute massage with the scented oils of your choice. Heather said she fell asleep and started snoring-- I think I did too. After our massages, we relaxed in the sauna and the waterfall shower. Jasmine loved the waterfall, but I thought it was too forceful. It can't be relaxing if you're being pounded in the back and ears with a huge rush of water!

We headed to the Zappos outlet to see if we could find any shoe bargains. The Zappos outlet is the best part of Louisville! Sadly, no fantastic treasures, although I was able to find a pair of sandals to wear the next night at the engagement party. We picked up some pies from a local pie store for dessert later in the evening, and settled in for the night to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics with Heather's fiancee, Robert, and the two "boys" Herbie and Freddie.

What a perfect day.

Devils on Horseback

Devils on Horseback are the easiest, most delicious hors d'oeuvres I've ever made. And quite a miracle in and of themselves, since normally I hate dates. Nothing makes me shudder more than dry, slightly grainy/mushy/ tough dried dates. But stuff them with goat cheese, wrap with bacon, and voila! Instant deliciousness. Just be careful to let them cool down after they come out of the oven -- otherwise these little molten lava balls of goodness will burn your tongue. *ahem*

This is a picture of the little guys before they went into the oven. I was so preoccupied with drooling that I forgot to take a picture when they came out of the oven all crispy and brown.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Homemade poptarts-- easy to make, and completely delicious. Will never go back to the store kind. From upper left, clockwise: blueberry, Nutella, raspberry, cherry. The tangy raspberry was the best. However, these were monster-sized (bigger than my hand). Next time I will try to get them a little bigger than a deck of cards so that I won't have a stomach ache after eating an entire one.

Black and Whites

"Black and whites" are a New York City speciality. It is an unusual cookie because the cookie part is more cake-like than cookie-like-- almost a very dense yellow cake with a light lemon flavor. The distinctive frosting is half vanilla/lemon, half chocolate.

A couple of weeks ago I had a craving for these treats and dug up a Martha Stewart recipe. I stopped by Sur La Table to pick up a small ice cream scoop, which is necessary to get the perfectly round shape. The saleswoman warned me that the frosting on black and whites was tricky. The batter was easy enough to put together, but needed an hour to sit undisturbed in the fridge while the flour absorbed the liquid. Bad news because I started making the cookies at 9:00pm!

I was very happy when the cookies finally came out of the oven. Perfectly round, smooth, and a golden yellow color. The frosting itself was not too difficult, but just took a little care and patience to let one half dry before starting the next half. I could hardly wait until they were dry enough to eat one!

Once the cookies were dry, I took one and eagerly took a bite. Blech! The lemon extract in the cookie batter and vanilla frosting gave the cookies a somewhat alcoholic, astringent flavor. I was somewhat discouraged, but decided to let the cookies rest overnight in the time-honored Koyama baked goods storage center-- the microwave (door closed, of course).

The next morning I decided to try the cookies again. After eating a healthy (ha!) breakfast of cherries and Triscuits, I did another taste test. I was happy to note that the lemon flavor had mellowed, and the cookies no longer had the unpleasant taste of pure alcohol. The chocolate side was yummy-- very chocolately. However, I was disappointed in the cookie part. I didn't think it had enough flavor, and was not enough to stand up to the strongly flavored icing, which was right on. I will have to research other recipes to see if I can improve the cookie. Martha let me down

Summer Breeze

Thanks to my good friend Dalmau, I no longer have a big empty space on the wall above my dining room table. We (well, he-- I just watched) applied my new Blik decal today. Getting all the little details to unstick from the transfer paper was a little bit tricky and involved no small effort on Dalmau's part. I think the effort was worth it-- it looks great, doesn't it?

Marshmallows!

I had never thought about making marshmallows before. Actually, I had never put much thought into them at all. But after reading a recipe online, I really wanted to try my hand at making them.

The directions were easy enough: make a sugar syrup, whip air into it using a mixer, and then gently stir in whipped egg whites.

I made the sugar syrup and then starting beating it with a hand mixer. I was suspicious because the sugar syrup looked kinda gray and thin. Hmmm.. this doesn't look like anything that would turn into marshmallows. But after about 10 minutes of hard work with the hand mixer, POOF! It was like magic-- suddenly the mixture turned bright white and fluffy. Hurrah!

I let the marshmallows set, and then used small cookie cutters to cut them out. I made 3 shapes: squares, circles and stars. I think next time I'll stick with just squares and circles, since the soft texture doesn't hold the star points very well. To be extra fancy I drizzled half with some chocolate. I think they turned out pretty good! These might be good Christmas presents this year. The marshmallows made a sweet treat each day (in the morning AND when I came home from work) for about a week until I had my fill of them.