When life gives you lemons.....

When I make my New Year's resolutions, I always include at least one whimsical, relatively easy thing to do. A few years ago, making lemon curd was on the list. And it stayed there for about four years because I seemed to never find the time to do it. Today's my birthday, and I wanted to make myself some lemon curd. So I did, Epicurious.com as my guide.

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into bits

Beat the eggs before whisking together with the juice, zest, and sugar in a saucepan. Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 6 minutes. Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 1 hour. Or, put it in a shot glass and eat some immediately.

Festivus Feast

For the past few years, I've been feeling like we need to go on a total cleanse diet after the holidays because we eat so much rich food between Halloween and the New Year. This year, we've been trying to celebrate in moderation to varying degrees of success. Kale is one of those restorative super foods (I've written about it here before), and has been looking pretty good at the farmer's markets this year. I've been trying to incorporate kale into a lot of the meals we eat for both of those reasons. Because I like to celebrate the hell out of every holiday, this is the meal we made for Festivus this year.

Tofu Stir Fry with Kale & Sweet Potato

1 8 oz package of firm tofu
1 sweet potato
A bunch of kale
4 large cloves
1 onion
1/4 of a head of green cabbage
1 small zucchini
olive oil
salt & pepper

Dry and gently squeeze the water out of the tofu and cut into bite-sized cubes. In a cast-iron skillet, heat some olive oil until smoking. Saute the onion and garlic until soft; add the cabbage and sweet potato and saute until tender. Then add the zucchini and kale until just wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan to a bowl and set aside. Heat a bit more oil in the pan and slowly brown the tofu cubes. When they are a nice golden color, add the vegetables back to the pan and heat through. We served this over Israeli couscous tossed with scallion, and a healthy side of kimchi.

Cranberry Pomegranate Relish

This year's cranberry sauce is a little more complex than I've made in years past. I decided to incorporate the flavor du jour: pomegranate, into my recipes. I made two cranberry sides for Thanksgiving dinner this year: a cranberry pomegranate relish and a cranberry pomegranate citrus sauce. The savory relish is my favorite, but I always like to make a sweeter, more traditional version for people who expect that.

Cranberry Pomegranate Relish

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1/4 onion, finely chopped in slivers
1 bag (12 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup pomegranate juice
2 tbsp finely diced ginger
1 diced apple
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
salt, pepper, and cinnamon to taste

Saute shallot and onion in the olive oil until just turning brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on medium-low heat for about 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently, until the cranberries have all popped and the relish becomes the consistency that you want. You can serve immediately, or spoon the relish into jars and set aside until the tops pop, then store.

A few weeks ago, I picked up these beautiful canning jars from Housing Works in Brooklyn. I think they must be European; I'd love to get my hands on some more of them. They would be perfect for gifts.

Cranberry Pomegranate Citrus Sauce

1 bag (12 oz) fresh or frozen cranberries
1 3/4 cups pomegranate juice
3/4 cups sugar, more or less to taste
t tbsp finely diced ginger
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Mixture will thicken as it cooks, and will thicken more as it cools. Cool in a jar or bowl in the fridge. Serve with Thanksgiving turkey.

Mimicking Muhammara

The last time D and I went to Tanoreen in Bay Ridge, just before Christmas, we asked for a double order of Muhammara. I'd been looking forward to the trip to Tanoreen for weeks, thinking of the slightly crunchy, garlicky sweet mystery. It didn't occur to me until the end of the night, after sopping up the last juicy specks on the dish with a piece of pita, that I could probably learn how to make it at home. If not as good as Tanoreen, I could at least enjoy and entertain others with something like it at home. I vowed I would make it sometime shortly after the New Year.

Epicurious has a great recipe that's simple and ended up being very tasty. I might add more olive oil next time, and try to blend the ingredients in a way that allows it to retain a bit more of the individual ingredients' distinctness, but for a first try, it was very good.

There will never be a substitute to enjoying a warm dish of muhammara with a glass of Lebanese wine surrounded by friends and the warmth of Tanoreen itself, but I'm glad I can whip this up for any occasion.

Muhammara

a 12-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained
1/2 cup toasted bread crumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted lightly and chopped fine
2 to 4 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice, or to taste
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1/2-3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
toasted pita triangles as an accompaniment

In a food processor blend together the peppers, the bread crumbs, the walnuts, the garlic, the lemon juice, the pomegranate molasses, the cumin, the red pepper flakes, and salt to taste until the mixture is the consistency you'd like. Add the oil gradually. Transfer the muhammara to a bowl and serve it at room temperature with the pita triangles.


The original recipe, which I adapted only slightly, from Epicurious can be found here.

Mystic Gypsy Libations

In addition to the jars of hot sauce that we gave folks this Christmas, I also made Chai Infused Vodka and a bottle of Frangelico to a few people as a special treat. People are always so impressed with infused vodka, and it's the easiest thing in the world to make. I brought this concoction to a tea party for a dear friend's birthday party a few months ago and it was a hit.

I remember visiting a Russian bar-bistro in the East Village called Anyway Cafe years ago and being transfixed by the number of infused vodkas on the menu (the food an ambiance there are fantastic, too). I chose this spot to celebrate a publication I worked on once with the Open Society Institute and a Ukranian colleague, and we had a really nice time.

Christmas celebration at Tanoreen

It was the night before Christmas Eve, and we'd planned to spend it with friends at Fone of our favorite restaurants, Tanoreen in Bay Ridge. We were seven: two close friends who were headed to Ghana for the holidays, a friend from Florida who'd come to town to house- and dog-sit for them while they were away, and another couple from Jersey. We'd gotten to the neighborhood a little early, so D and I drove to Dyker Heights, a neighborhood where folks try to outdo each other every year in over-the-top lawn decorations. It's really an unbelievable sight: life-sized toy soldiers, Santas, reindeer.....D jokes that Con Ed makes a profit just from this neighborhood every year.

Tanoreen recently moved to a larger location with a liquor license. I was afraid a move like that might kill the spirit of the lovely little restaurant where the chef and owner, Palestinian and Nazareth-born Rawia Bishawa, would come out from the kitchen and check in with guests to make sure they were enjoying their meal. Bishawa still comes out, and the place is even warmer and more festive than its smaller digs down the street. Bishawa and her team cook up an amazing array of food from all over the Middle East. I am so glad that I've outgrown my childish distaste of lamb, because lamb is a huge part of Tanoreen's menu.

One of my favorite dishes is muhamarra, which is a blend of roasted red pepper, walnut, and garlic. I absolutely love it, and have vowed to make it in the New Year. D and I shared the lamb kafta roll, which the menu noted was featured on ABC news, along with the recipe. It was one of the best entrees I have ever had. We ordered several bottles of this Lebanese wine, which D really enjoyed. Our friend told us he can sometimes find it at Red, White, and Bubbly in Park Slope.

Saucy-Son En Croute

The past few months have been so busy that we haven't done a lot of adventurous cooking. But I knew that I wanted to make something fun for our holiday potluck office party. One day I was shopping at Trader Joe's, and they were giving out samples of their crescent rolls with Quattro Formaggio cheese. It was delicious. I remembered D mentioning that we should make pigs in blankets, so I picked up three packages of sausage (smoked apple Chardonnay chicken sausage), three containers of crescent dough, a bag of Quattro Formaggio, and some dijon mustard. D suggested we make a spicy coffee mustard sauce for dipping.

I couldn't quite visualize how to roll these up, but it was pretty simple. Just stretch the dough out to be large enough to cover one whole sausage, and then roll it up with cheese and fresh ground black pepper, stretching the pastry dough over the sausage. At the last minute, we had the idea of rolling the sausages in parsley.

We popped them back in the fridge and let them sit overnight. About an hour and a half before the party, we cut them into 8 pieces each and placed them on a greased cookie pan. We baked them at 350 degrees until the pastry started to brown. Then we placed them on a tray decorated with red tissue paper.

For the spicy mustard sauce, we brewed a strong cup of coffee and then boiled it down to a syrup. We added that to a 12 oz jar of mustard, added some maple syrup, and seasoned it with a tiny bit of salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. It was very spicy; I think the dijon base we used was a bit too strong (Roland's). In the future, I might increase the amount of coffee syrup, and switch the maple syrup to honey. It was very tasty, though.

I love making little signs for potlucks. I started making little signs with used envelope backs, and then taping them to little toothpicks and sticking them in the food. I think people really appreciate knowing what they're about to eat. There were lots of people who don't eat pork at the party, and I think the sign helped to let them know it was chicken sausage.

I would definitely make this dish again.

50 Year Old Cupcakes

My dear friend turned 50 this week and invited a few of us to a dinner party on Friday night. I polled his closest friends about his favorite things, and everyone agreed that buttercream frosting, maple, and bourbon were his three favorite sweet tastes. I created the frosting from a basic Martha Stewart frosting recipe, in consultation with my mother. It was a little tricky because the syrup and bourbon started to candy and harden while I was making it, but it really was worth it. Delicious.

I debated over what cupcake to use, and finally settled on an Apple Spice Cupcake from the book "cupcakes" that D and I received for our wedding. (cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen by Shelly Kaldunski). The finalists were carrot, zucchini, and french vanilla. If it were Fall, I might consider a pumpkin cupcake. The cupcakes came out a little too tender; D suggested baking them a little longer than the recipe called for. I already baked them for about 15 minutes more than the recipe below called for because our oven's temperature is a little bit off.

I also used silicone baking cups that my sister in law gave me a few months ago, but I don't think I will use them again. The cupcakes stuck to them too much, and they weren't as convenient as the paper ones. I'm not convinced that the paper ones are so bad for the environment anyway that you have to use re-usable ones.

Bourbon-Maple Buttercream Frosting

3 large eggs
1 cups pure maple syrup, preferably grade A dark amber
3 tbsp bourbon
2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg yolks on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour maple syrup into a medium saucepan. Place pan over medium-high heat; bring syrup to a boil. Cook syrup for about 15 minutes as it begins to thicken. When done, it will start to harden on the spoon when you stir and remove the spoon with some syrup residue and let sit for a moment.

Remove the saucepan from the heat. While the electric mixer is running, pour the syrup in a slow, steady stream down the side of the mixing bowl into the egg-yolk mixture (it is essential that the syrup touches the side of the bowl as you pour it in so the sugar will be very evenly incorporated and not splatter onto the sides of the bowl and harden into candy) until the syrup has been completely incorporated, about 1 1/2 minutes. Beat until the bowl is just slightly warm to the touch, 5 to 6 minutes.

Add butter, one piece at a time, until all of it has been completely incorporated and the frosting is fluffy, about 4 minutes more. Use immediately, or keep refrigerated for up to a week. Makes 2 cups.

Apple Spice Cupcakes

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
5 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into small chunks
4 tbsp plus 1 1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose or cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch of cloves
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 4 tbsp of butter. Add the apple chunks and the 2 tbsp of sugar and cook, stirring often, until the apples start to turn brown and carmelize, about 5-7 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves. In another bowl, mix with an electric mixer the remaining 12 tbsp of butter and the 1 1/2 cup of sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

Slowly add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add the sour cream and the cooled apple mixture, beating until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely for about an hour.

Frost the cupcakes and serve.

I decorated mine with candied ginger.

St. Pat's by Lamplight

After Christmas last year, we spent a week at our friends' country house in Pennsylvania. We usually go and stock up on buffalo meat from the buffalo farm about forty-five minutes away. A few times, we decided to stop at an antique store called The Glass Hat, where we found this amazing lamp. It took us a few months to decide whether we wanted to plunk down so much money for it, but even when money is tight, we never regret buying this oil lamp from the 1880s. We don't light it very often, but when we do, it makes any meal feel really special. We lit it for St. Patrick's Day this year.


Our meal only looks like it took a lot of work, but it didn't. The weekend before, we picked up a brined brisket from Trader Joe's (I meant to make my own this year, but . . . well, next year). I stuck that in a crock pot with some Guinness Beer, carrots, and onions this morning and let it cook for 8 hours. Then I boiled cabbage with caraway sees, heated up some aging carrot puree, and baked some sliced baby potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary.

The most unique thing about this year's meal was the whole wheat soda bread. I found a recipe that claimed to produce little confetti shamrocks when you sliced the bread. And it did! The sunflower seeds react somehow to the dough when it sits and then bakes in such a way that the seeds turn green! Totally fun. And it was very tasty. I will definitely make this bread again next year.

Shamrock Soda Bread

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour or graham flour, plus more for shaping
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup untoasted wheat germ
2 tablespoons flaxseed
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 large egg
About 1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 425°F. Coat a heavy baking sheet with vegetable cooking spray or line it with a silicone baking pan liner or aluminum foil.In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the fat particles are very fine. Stir in the baking soda, salt, sugar, wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ, flaxseed, and sunflower seeds. Beat the egg lightly with a fork in a 2-cup glass measure. Add enough buttermilk to come to the 2-cup line and stir with the fork to combine well. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the dough gathers into a thick, wet-looking mass.

Sprinkle your work surface with whole wheat flour and scrape the dough onto it. Dust the dough with a bit more whole wheat flour. Pat the dough into a circular shape about 7 inches across and 2 inches high and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet. Don't be concerned about evenness—the loaf should look rustic. Make a cross-shaped indentation on top of the loaf going right to the edges. I use a plastic bench scraper and press it into the dough very gently; don't actually cut the dough. During baking the indentation expands, giving the top of the loaf an attractive pattern.

Bake the bread for about 40 minutes, until it is well browned and sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf should register 195° to 200°F. Cool the loaf on a wire cooling rack, and serve warm or at room temperature. Cut into quarters and slice each quarter with a sharp serrated knife. Delicious with butter.
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Practicing with Sourdough

This past summer, I brought back some sourdough starter from a trip to San Francisco. It sat around for a few months until I had some time over the holidays to see what I could do with it. I've been experimenting with different recipes since Christmas. There is a rich body of literature out there about how to do sourdough, but what I like best about what I've learned so far is that, as I'd suspected, making bread can be less about science and formulas, and more about art.

This is the most simple recipe I've found for sourdough, and the cinnamon-raisin bread that I made pictured here is the best loaf I've made so far. I'll keep practicing, though, and someday I'll make "the perfect loaf."

Basic White Sourdough Bread

1 cup sourdough starter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup oil (I use olive oil)
6 cups bread flour
1 tsp yeast
1/4 cup of warm water
2 tbsp whole wheat flour or oat bran
1 tsp honey

Mix sugar, oil, salt, water, and 1 cup of sourdough starter together in a large bowl. Sift the flour and add to the mixture. Grease or oil the dough. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise overnight.

The next day, stir the 2 tbsp of flour or bran and 1 tsp of honey into warm water and sprinkle with 1 tsp of yeast. Let this mixture sit for about 10 minutes. While you are waiting, grease & dust two bread pans with either oat bran, semolina, or corn meal. When the yeast mixture starts to look a little frothy or bubbly, pour the mixture into the bread dough and knead for 10 minutes. Allow the dough to double in size. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until bread is golden brown and taps hollow. Turn out to cool on wire racks.

To adapt to a cinnamon-raisin bread, make a mixture of cinnamon-sugar by mixing 2 tbsp sugar with healthy dashes of cinnamon. Add 1 cup of raisins right before you knead the bread. Divide the bread in half, and roll out each half into a long, narrow rectangle. Sprinkle a mixture of sugar and cinnamon over the rectangle and then roll up into a compact shape to place into your bread pans. Bake as directed above.

Easter Bunny

Nothing says Easter better than a bunny. When our friends asked us to prepare dessert for the dinner party we had this weekend, I knew this is what I wanted to make. I used the cupcake recipe from my birthday (see earlier post), used toasted coconut for the fur and jelly belly jelly beans for the eyes, and placed dyed green coconut underneath so it looked like the bunny was sitting on grass. I found instructions for how to make a bunny-shaped cake from good old Betty Crocker:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeid=36248

This treat surprised and delighted everyone. We had a more sophisticated dessert that D. made (a lovely, simple apple tart), but after a few glasses of wine post-dinner, people started to dig into the bunny.

Persephone's Ruin

Persephone is a mythological figure from ancient Greece who was seduced by her uncle, Hades, god of the underworld. Hades lured Persephone to him with a pomegranate. Zeus punished Persephone by banishing her to the underworld for six months a year--one month for each of the six seeds she ate. The remainder of the year she could spend with her mother, Demeter, the greek Mother Earth. For six months of every year, Demeter mourns the loss of her daughter; she celebrates during the other six. This is how the ancient Greeks explain the changing of the seasons, and this is how The Love Bite, my favorite recipe treasure trove, describes the origin of the dish Persephone's Ruin. (See http://thelovebite.com/recipes/the_main_event/persephones_ruin)

I've been dying to try this recipe, so when friends invited us up to their country place in Pennsylvania for Easter, I knew that this is what I wanted to make. I had to adapt the recipe a bit because I couldn't get the right kind of lamb, nor could I get pomegranates. While this recipe reads and tastes like a Spring recipe, it clearly isn't because pomegranates are not in season in April in this area.

For all of the many dishes I've served to all of my friends, I received the most--and the best--compliments for this one. One of our friends who is a chef himself said that this was the best dish he'd ever tasted, and that it reminded him of something his mother once said about another dish: "Every bite says I love you." Well worth the effort for that kind of praise.

Persephone's Ruin
Spring in New York version

1 package of phyllo dough
1 stick of butter
1 lb ground lamb
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
smidgen of cumin powder
8 oz goat cheese
1 egg yolk
salt and pepper
6 golden beets
pomegranite molasses
olive oil

The day before, place the beets in aluminum foil, drizzle them with olive oil, and season with a little bit of salt and pepper. Bake them at 350 until tender (about 1 hour). Dice the onion and garlic, and saute in olive oil until translucent. Add the ground lamb, season with a bit of salt and pepper and some ground cumin. Cook until just beginning to brown. Place in a bowl with 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses, cover, and put in the fridge.

When the beets are done roasting (you can tell when they are tender enough to poke through with a fork), take them out, let them cool down a bit until you can handle them, and then, running them under cold water, peel the skins off with your hands. Cut the beets into rounds and refrigerate.

The next day, brush a sheet of phyllo pastry with melted butter, place another sheet on top, and repeat until you have 8 sheets stacked. Place the phyllo stack in a buttered loaf pan and press the pastry to sides of pan. Brush the inside with butter. Pre-heat the oven to 400. Mix 8 ounces of goat cheese with 1 egg yolk and beat lightly. Reserve 1/4 of the goat cheese, and spread the rest onto the phyllo pastry. Line the goat cheese with the golden beet rounds, then place the ground lamb on top. Spoon the reserved goat cheese in small clumps on top of the lamb and fold the phyllo dough over the entire mixture. Brush with butter and pop it in the oven. It should cook for about an hour, maybe more, until the phyllo dough has turned a golden brown color.

I served this as a good-sized appetizer to 10 people; it could probably be a nice dinner for 4-6 people, depending on your sides and how much you eat. I also served it with a Cucumber Mint Yogurt Sauce on the side, as the original recipe called for chopped mint on top of an open phyllo dish.

Cucumber Mint Yogurt Sauce

1 cup lowfat plain yogurt (labne or Greek yogurt would be the best)
2 chopped scallions
2 finely minced garlic cloves
1 peeled and finely grated cucumber
salt & pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Healthy Easter Basket Treat

Any moment now, I expect a package from my mother--her famous peanut butter easter eggs. If they don't come today, I'm going to be really disappointed. Easter baskets have always been a critical part of my life--I remember one year I didn't get one from my mother I was devastated. My argument was that each year until she died, my grandmother (Nana) used to put together an Easter basket for my Aunt Dorry . . . long after Aunt Dorry had her own child and started making Easter baskets for him. I'm embarassed to say that I cried because I didn't get a stuffed bunny. How could my mother think that just because I was a busy lawyer in New York that I wouldn't want a stuffed bunny for Easter? The next Easter, she took me to a small shop in Pennsylvania and had me pick out my own bunny. Last year, I got two bunnies: one that I keep in my office (see below), and another that Sneak appropriated as her companion.


In anticipation of all sorts of Easter sweets this year, I googled "healthy easter basket" and got the idea of making popcorn balls to fill out the rest of the communal basket that I'll put out for friends on Sunday. This recipe turned out really well. I'm already imagining peanut butter ones . . .

Honey-Raisin Popcorn Balls

12 cups air-popped popcorn
3/4 cup butter, cut into chunks
1 cup honey
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325°. Put popcorn in a large bowl. Line a large baking sheet with waxed paper. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, use a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to stir together the butter, honey, raisins, and salt until the butter is melted. Increase heat and boil honey mixture gently 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in the vanilla. Carefully pour the honey mixture over the popcorn and stir gently to coat. Bake popcorn, stirring every 5 minutes, until deep golden all over, about 25 minutes. Let the popcorn stand for 5 minutes, or just until cool enough to handle. Working quickly with lightly oiled or buttered hands, press small handfuls of the mixture into small balls, occasionally loosening popcorn from bottom of pan with a spatula. If mixture cools too much to be malleable or if the popcorn starts to crack instead of press into ball shapes, return it to the oven for about 45 seconds to soften. Put the popcorn balls on prepared baking sheet and let cool completely. Place in an airtight container at room temperature, or wrap individually, and store for up to 2 weeks.

Cupcake Birthday

For my birthday this year, my mother sent me a cupcake decorating set: 50 metal icing tips in a case, a guidebook on how to make flowers and other decorations, frosting bags, and all sorts of other accoutrements in a handy plastic case. I took the day off on my birthday and practiced, producing about 5 dozen cupcakes. I brought them around with me all week, including to the bowling alley on Saturday night where my friends joined me for a few hours of bowling. I used the cupcake display rack that my mother got me for Christmas.

Lemon cupcakes are always surprising, so I made two dozen and decorated them with lemon frosting. I ran out of lemon extract, so they would have been more tart had I used it. As they were, they were just subtly lemon-ish. I wanted to make gerber daisies and pansies, but mostly, these turned out like huge, cartoonish flowers. My mother had warned me against using too much of the icing tint as the colors get darker the longer the icing sits. No one complained, though, and in fact, someone asked if I'd make cupcakes for her daughter's birthday in a few months.

When I was young, my mother used to decorate cakes for friends and friends of friends. She was in high demand, and I remember one year I learned how to do type-setting in a class in school and I made her a stack of business cards. I wish I had the entrepreneurial spirit that it takes to start up a home business with things like this. Maybe I just need a business partner.

Lovely Lemon Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp ground lemon zest
3 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In medium bowl, beat the butter till light and fluffy. With the mixer on high speed, gradually beat in sugar, and continue beating till mixture is very light and fluffy. Lower speed to medium, beat in eggs, one at a time, beating just until blended, then beat in lemon juice and zest. Lower speed to low, and alternately beat in flour mixture and yogurt, beating just till blended. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp lemon juice

Beat the butter until it's creamy, and gradually add one cup of confectioner's sugar, along with the vanilla and lemon juice. Set aside about 1/3 of the icing for decorative flowers. With the remaining 2/3, add a tint if you like and frost the tops of the cupcakes, once they've cooled. Go back to your 1/3 reserved icing and add more confectioner's sugar until you have a nice, thick icing. Decide how many colors you want (leaves, flowers, etc.) and divide that frosting into small bowls for tinting. Remember not to use too much or the colors come out ridiculous (see below).





I brought these cupcakes to work to share with colleagues, for drinks with a group of old friends, and then to the bowling alley. Surprising that there were still some left.

Carrot Cupcakes

Cupcakes are so much fun to make. They're easy, and it almost doesn't matter how sophisticated the decorations are, they always seem to make people smile. The only drawback is that they are difficult to transport, but it's totally worth it when you set them out in front of people and see their eyes light up. A tiny, individual cake for everybody! I wanted to make "healthy" cupcakes for my birthday this year; carrot cupcakes at least give people a portion of their daily vegetable intake. I adapted this recipe and used a simple cream cheese frosting. I also tried out my new cake decorating implements to make the little carrots. I got carried away a bit at the end, some of the cupcakes have three carrots on them! I also made about two dozen mini cupcakes, which were perfect to bring to a bar for happy hour on Friday.


Moist Carrot Cupcakes

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 cups finely grated raw carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Place paper liners into muffin cups.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.

In another large bowl whisk the eggs, sugar, and oil until slightly thickened. Fold in the flour mixture until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots. Evenly divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let the cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 ounces cream cheese (2 bars), room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Whip together all three ingredients until the texture is smooth. Set aside about 1/3of the frosting to color for the decorations, separate that third into two small bowls. Using food coloring or an icing gel, tint the frosting in one bowl orange, the other green.

When your cupcakes are cooled, spread the frosting onto the tops and then decorate. I used the Wilton website to learn how to make my carrots:

http://www.wilton.com/technique/Carrots

I think they came out kinda nice.

Happy Nowruz!

Nowruz is a new year holiday celebrated each Spring in many Asian countries including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and India. I think all New Years' celebrations should be in the Spring because that's when everything seems most new, right? Today was the perfect day to celebrate a new beginning, after a ride in the park, and some time just laying in the grass and looking up at the trees.

Fesenjan is a traditional persian dish made for celebrations, so in order to celebrate Nowruz this year, I made the dish last night. Some people might not like the sweet-tartness of the dish, I loved it. Next time, I would definitely prepare some vegetable on the side.

Persian Fesenjan

1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup butter or oil
2 lbs chicken breast, cut into pieces
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 cups walnuts, finely ground in a food processor
2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup pomegranate molasses
1/3 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup honey
sea salt, to taste
fresh ground pepper, to taste

Sprinkle cut chicken with lime juice, salt and pepper and allow to marinate for a few hours. Over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot heat an 1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) of olive oil until the pan is smoking. Add the chicken pieces a few at a time and brown on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add onions and sauté in remaining oil until the onions are translucent. Stir in ground walnuts and saute for 1/2 a minute. Add stock and browned chicken pieces. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer 20-30 minutes. Stir in the pomegranate molasses and juice, honey, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. The sauce should have a balanced sweet-sour flavor. Simmer another 15-20 minutes until the chicken is tender and the sauce is somewhat thickened. Serve with plain white rice.

Happy St. Pat's!

Next year, I vow to you, loyal reader, that I will make my own corned beef. I don't know what I was thinking. Fairway had piles of corned beef all sealed up in shrinkwrap, $6.29/lb. We opted for Fairway-made, old-fashioned, barrel brined corned beef, $6.99/lb. But it only takes 7 days to make your own. I just have to mark it on the calendar so I don't forget.

No matter, St. Patrick's day dinner was great. D brought home some soda bread (I wanted to forego the bread this year, but hey, it's yummy), and last night, I slow cooked the corned beef in my slow cooker (Guiness, water, beef, pickling spices, onion, carrot, and celery --> crock pot for 7 hours --> drain --> stick in fridge). When I got home from work this evening, I pre-heated the oven to 350, took the corned beef out of the fridge, and coated it with Dijon mustard. Then I mixed 1/2 cup of panko and 5 tbsp horseradish together and pressed the mixture over the mustard-covered beef. I placed the beef in a roasting pan and surrounded it with fingerling potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, and caraway seeds. After popping that in the oven, I sliced up the cabbage and stuck it in a soup pot with water (enough to cover it), caraway seeds, half a veggie bouillon cube, and salt and pepper and brought it to a boil. D snuck in a quartered onion. When the cabbage was tender, I turned off the heat and turned up the oven to 450 for about 15 minutes. When the panko topping was browned, I took it out of the oven. I let the beef rest for a bit and drained the cabbage. Sliced beef, boiled cabbage and onion, and roasted potatoes--a wholesome Irish meal.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh

The blessings of St. Patrick be upon ye! Sprinkles make everyone smile. I brought these cookies in to my office for St. Patrick's Day and someone told me that they made her day. They definitely cheered me up when I made them last night. It's good to just do something childlike and generous. I think it makes a tiny slit in the dark cloud that seems to be hanging over everything these days.

These cookies are super simple to make; I figured they would be given that they come from the Real Simple website. I made a few modifications, but essentially, the recipe is theirs. It makes about 4 dozen thin sugar cookies, about 2 dozen thick ones.

Real Simple Sugar Shamrocks

2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus about a cup more for the work surface
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat oven to 350° F. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and add it slowly to the butter mixture, mixing until just incorporated (the dough will be stiff). Refrigerate, wrapped, for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle with green sugar crystals or tiny shamrocks. I also experimented and combined some green food coloring with about 1/4 of the dough for green marbled cookies. The scraps can be combined and rolled out again. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are a light golden brown. Cool slightly on the baking sheets before transferring to cooling racks. Bring them into your office to share!

Inauguration Tuesday

I really wanted to be in D.C. for the Inauguration, but the numbers stopped me: 1 portapotty for every 6,000 people; over 4,000 NYPD; below 32 degrees F; 4 friends who bailed on me....so I invited girlfriends and their kids over to celebrate. Spending the day with kids is the best way to watch Obama take the oath; these kids will never know a world where electing a black man to the highest office in the country is not possible. Doesn't mean racism is gone, but Obama's election means that the landscape has changed forever.

I'm making Obama family recipes for the celebration. These come from the web (Southern Cooking and The Huffington Post), I'll update with pictures and modifications when the time comes.

Obama Family Chili Recipe

1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey or beef
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground basil
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
1 can red kidney beans

Saute onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add ground meat and brown. Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat. Add red wine vinegar. Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down. Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes. Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.

Michelle Obama's Apple Cobbler

"I've been making this cobbler for a long time, so I usually just eyeball how much needs to go in. People might want more or less sugar, but this is how our family and friends like it. This recipe makes one cobbler, which is like a double pie." --M.O.

Filling:
8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced [or a bag of frozen peeled apples]
1-1/2 to 2 cups of brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup white flour

Mix these ingredients together in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight so the spice goes all the way through the apples.

Crust:
3 sheets refrigerated pie crust
1 stick of butter

Preheat oven at 325 degrees. Butter and flour the bottom of a large baking dish. Roll out three pie crusts real thin -- as thin as possible. Layer the bottom of the pan with 1-1/2 of the pie crusts and prick a few holes in it. Pour the apples with the liquid into the pie pan. Dot 3/4 of a stick of butter around the apples. Use the final 1-1/2 pie crusts to cover the apple mixture entirely (let the pie crust overlap the pan). Pinch the edges of the dough around the sides of the pan so the mixture is completely covered. Melt final 1/4 stick of butter and brush all over top of crust. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Bake at 300 for up to 3 hours -- that's what makes the crust flaky, like Barack likes it. Put the cobbler in the oven and go for a walk, go to the store, or do whatever you have to do around the house. Start looking at the cobbler after two and a half hours so it doesn't burn.

Cupcake Tree

There's a woman in my office who is the cupcake maven. She brings in delicious cupcakes for a bunch of occasions, and she makes me jealous. In a good way, if that's possible. Anyway, she--and my friend Lara who also makes fabulously beautiful cupcakes--inspired me to start making cupcakes. When my mother read about my forays into cupcake-making on this blog, she decided to get me a cupcake-related gift for Christmas. In order to live up to the expectations of the gift, which was a cupcake tree, I had to make some uber-fabulous cupcakes. These tasted great, but I have some work to do learning how to work with decorative frosting. I made these for our annual Winter ReGifting Party, and appropriate to the occasion, used a recipe from Amy Sedaris, the comedienne. http://www.amysedarisrocks.com/recipes.htm

I made some alterations, though, most notably, using two vanilla beans that I brought back from Mexico months ago. They were a lot of fun to make, and I think people enjoyed eating them. My work colleague and I agreed to collaborate for our next office occasion that calls for cupcakes.