Michael Pollan Article

Michael Pollan is not exactly the shot-caller in our house, but I do find him to be at the very least interesting and thought-provoking. I especially liked this article he wrote for NY Times Magazine Wednesday. He discusses the influence of Julia Child on the boom of food television programming (and the upcoming movie Julie & Julia). And the surprising contradiction that as we become more informed on cooking, and watch more chefs (and other "personalities") cook, we actually cook less. Very confounding.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

I wanted to make some easy munchies to picnic with when we go to the Newport Folk Festival Saturday. The Boy is making his infamous Curry Chicken Salad, and we got some chips and trail mix to go with. Since I hadn't really dwelled on what to make until kinda late last night, and the summer temperatures made the prospect of baking cookies for 20 minutes in the oven a little less enticing than being mauled by tigers, I fell back on an old classic: the no bake cookie.

These were a staple at tailgates growing up. In fact, I've always just called them Flo's cookies, after our tailgate friend, and surrogate grandmother, who made them. Their ease is part of their brilliance, and a major contributing factor to my satisfaction. Anything that didn't need a massive shopping expedition to Wegmans, turning on the oven, or dirtying more than 4 dishes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies (I can't seem to find the same recipe I used just last night so this is an approximation from Exra Pound Cake, hands down my favorite blog name)
In a medium-to-large saucepan:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter

Melt into boil on high heat. Watch, stirring continually, until the boil has lasted only 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Then remove from heat (boiling longer will make them dry and crumbly).

Add in 3 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (which is pretty much the whole thing)
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Mix together, then plop tablespoon sized drop cookies on wax paper and let set until hardened. This may be difficult on a hot humid day, so place in the refrigerator if necessary.

Belgium Comes to Cooperstown

Has the Beer Summit got you thirsty?

If you're free this weekend, and want to expand your beer connoisseurship beyond Beirut at Park Ave Fest, you should check into "Belgium Comes to Cooperstown" hosted by Ommegang. All day Friday and Saturday, Ommegang is offering tours of their brewery, followed by fun, festivities, "unlimited" beer tastings, live music, a screening of Across the Universe, a bonfire, and of course, Belgian-style beer from Ommegang and Duvel USA. You can even camp there overnight in order to fully enjoy the unlimited beer.

Also, Tap and Mallet is setting up a raffle with prizes including tickets for the event, and a Belgian home bar package. For the unlucky, it's $70 for tickets, $30 for a campsite.

Gatesgate

I'm still pretty glued to Gatesgate. In order to make that relate to a food blog, I am intrigued by the number of discussions that spin off of Obama's offer to have Sgt. Crowley and Professor Gates over to White House to have a beer, which is to happen today.

I do remember reading during the election that Obama was not much a beer drinker. This seemed to fit into all the liberal elitist drama that culminated in Dijongate. However, he also got a lot of flak for having a cold one at a Washington Wizards game. They of course serve wine at White House functions, and he ordered wine to be paired with the meal he and MObama had at Blue Hill on their date night in Manhattan.



It is now revealed that Obama is preferential toward Budweiser (go figure). Just when people were sure he was on Team Arugula. Of course the question begs to be asked, why would Obama invite them for a beer? Skip Gates doesn't strike me as a big beer lover (though he's requesting a Red Stripe, which earns him some points with me). And Sgt. Crowley is not bending to the stereotype of a Boston possibly-racist cop, and is at least asking for Blue Moon (which is made by Coors, yes, but is not actually of Coors caliber). And it does seem problematic to intimate that all racially-tinged, gownist fracases can be solved by the consumption of alcohol. Particularly when they may be starting another sexist one by not inviting Lucia Whalen.

NPR attempts to discover the presidential reasoning. And Brooklyn Brewery also weighs in, providing Robert Gibbs' responses to reporters at the White House and his attempts to save Obama's reputation despite being a Bud Lite drinker.

Of course somebody (PETA's equivalent) has to ruin it all by insisting that as the role model for America's young people, Obama should be hosting a lemonade tete-a-tete. You know, Bush was a teetotaler, people. Maybe alcohol is the solution to all of life's problems.

James Oseland Interview

If you are a fan of Top Chef: Masters (and admittedly I am only a quasi-fan), you have to check out this interview with Judge James Oseland. He's pretty hilarious for a foodie, which I guess explains how he's also an editor at Sassy.

Love that they referenced how Jay Rayner's devilishly inappropriate comment that panna cotta should have the texture of a woman's breasts. I actually caught that episode.

And Gael Greene's hat fetish.

The TCM finale continues next Wednesday night on Bravo.

Crazy or Crazy-Awesome?

Rubik's Cube Sandwich?

Cream Ales

Gain a little beer knowledge along with some regional pride. The Accidental Hedonist tackles a surprisingly complicated question: "What is a Cream Ale?"

If you'd like extra credit, visit the UofR's timeline of the Genesee brewing company, makers of Genny Cream, the most popular cream ale available. And if all that science and history becomes a little too much, turn to the Buffalo Beast's article on The Great Genesee Cream Ale Challenge.

Kevin's Vanilla Cupcakes

My favorite trainer ever, Kevin, who runs San Diego FitCamp, passed along this recipe for healthy, organic cupcakes that he swears are popular with his kids. I thought I would share it with you guys, though I haven't tried it yet (hence no pretty picture of this healthiness smothered in cream cheese frosting). But, I trust the man who made me do 150 lunges in a day.

Organic Pumpkin / Flaxseed Cupcakes

1 box of Dr. Oetker Organic Yellow Cake Mix (I just checked online & Wegmans has it)
1 cup of organic pumpkin puree
1/2 cup of water
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 large organic eggs
1 large organic egg white
6 ounces of organic Greek or Whole-milk yogurt (I'm addicted to Stonyfield's Oikos unflavored greek yogurt)
3 scoops of Organic Cold-Milled Flaxseed
2 scoops of vanilla protein powder (Whey powder is better than soy protein powder)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place paper baking cups in cupcake pan. Using an electric mixer, combine all ingredients and blend for 1-2 minutes. Pour the batter into the baking cups and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean, about 17-20 minutes.

170 calories, 8g protein, 30g carbs, 3g fiber & 5g fat

Converted Restaurant Fronts

This website's photo gallery of converted restaurant fronts is dedicated to the KFC Chinese restaurant on Mt. Hope.

Birthday Party Recap

The Tie Dye Birthday Party was a resounding success! Proof: I fell asleep with my shoes on. Thanks for coming out and for braving that hellacious downpour later.

My picture here is supposed to demonstrate the complete color wheel that we achieved for that party -- and it would if the lighting wasn't so bad and if the iPhone was an actual quality camera. C'est la vie. Going counterclockwise from the top: roasted tomato salsa, yellow iced rainbow birthday cake, corn and roasted red pepper salsa, mango salsa, salsa verde, crema fresca (out of order, but where does white go?), K-ster's fab guacamole, blue corn chips in the middle, shredded red cabbage.

The grilled tilapia and the corn tortillas aren't pictured because they were probably on the grill when I took this picture. The fish tacos turned out tasting exactly like ones in Baja and I am so so so happy! We made leftovers yesterday and all the salsas were really delicious, even

without the positive influence of watermelon margaritas and mojitos!

Here's a pic of the rainbow cake once it was sliced (after an unplanned performance of "Happy Birthday" wherein I had to "blow out" a lighter). The colors ended up staying in line more than I anticipated or I would have swirled it up a bit more. But you get the idea. Honestly, not too shabby for my usual baking forays. Although we did come to the bizarre realization that blue corn chips combined with the birthday cake tasted just like Cap'n Crunch. Still not sure if that was a good thing.

Tim Hortons Doughnut Giveaway

Ok, the doughnut wars are escalating! But we are all the benefactors. Well, those of you that like doughnuts anyway. I can understand why Starbucks loves me enough to give everybody free breakfast pastries for my birthday tomorrow. But Tim Horton? Free blueberry doughnuts tomorrow too? I've never even been there (though a work buddy does bring me their hot chocolate from time to time and it is phenomenal). And I don't like doughnuts. But, they're at least trying -- because I love blueberries! Do you ever feel as though you're being personally marketed towards? Maybe that's all the Mad Men we watched last night talking.

But it's like these Canadians are trying to get me to start liking doughnuts and their Canadian coffee. Figures since I have long railed against Dunkin Donuts, their coffee, and their Yankee doughnuts (I champion the Krispy Kreme even though everytime I get a doughnut there it is out of support for the institution and I immediately regret having to actually eat said doughnut). So if this war is making people choose sides, they're hoping I'll cross over the border and fight for Ontario. And maybe I will, though calorically I am only prepared for my Starbucks visit. For now I'm remaining a conscientious objector.

A Pictorial Representation of My Weekend

Birthday Cake Contestants

Contestant #5 is a Coconut Cake.

I mostly picked this one because Coconut Cakes are so classic and beautiful -- I'm not sure this would be in my top ten favorite flavors, but it's about what it represents. This cake is some kind of feminine ideal and it is a complete mystery to me. I have absolutely no idea how those flakes stick to the sides. I can imagine the disaster I would have on my hands if I tried to replicate this. I can't even get cakes out of pans, much less layer them in such a delicate and ladylike way.

It makes me wish for the day (however nonexistant it may be) when I have mastered some baking skills a la Ina Garten, live in a well-kept and well-stocked house, and actually own a cake plate. It makes mewant to toss away 50 years of feminism and throw on an apron and pearls! Or more accurately, order one online from a local baker and pick it up on the way home from a high-powered equal-pay job.

Happy Birthday Julie! Love, Starbucks

After years and years and thousands of dollars worth of my love to them, Starbucks is returning the favor! On July 21, next Tuesday, Starbucks is giving same free pastries (read: birthday cake) to everyone who buys an beverage between opening and 10:30 am! If there is a reason besides the 26th anniversary of my birth for this, it remains unknown to me.

There is a little trick to this, though. Since it is a birthday party, you do need an invitation. But since you know the Birthday Girl, you can print this one out and celebrate with us!

Even though I am a much bigger fan of the breakfast sandwiches at Starbs, I will definitely not turn down a free apple fritter -- or possibly even a chocolate doughnut. Hey, it is my birthday.

Tie-Die Birthday Cake

Maybe it was the concurrent Top Chef marathon, but the birthday cake turned out pretty well last night. Only problem was trying to get them out of the pans. Why is there not a technologically advanced way to do this yet? I won't lie, the top layer has some fault lines.

I will hopefully have a beautiful slice to take a photo of and post after the party tomorrow. Until then, here's all the prep pics. No recipe really required-- I used a box mix (Pillsbury Moist Deluxe butter yellow because it was on sale for 99 cents). Separated them into bowls and added food coloring. That was the best part because it was just like mixing colors on a palette, but not so difficult since I was only going straight primary/secondary. So more like finger paint, really. Oiled and floured two 8 inch round pans. Put one scoop after the other in the ROY G BIV order (only used red, orange, green, blue and purple because again, no one cares about indigo and yellow is kinda stupid when the cake itself is yellow). Reverse order in the other pan. Baked 34 minutes at 350 (after preheating which the Boy was very adamant on that taking at least twenty minutes).

For the cream cheese icing I used the ratios in our old school Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. 1 pkg cream cheese to 1/2 stick butter, 2 tsp. vanilla, then slowly add in 2 cups powdered sugar. Made the icing yellow (though the iPhone doesn't do the color justice) to make up for neglecting it in the rainbow cake. Now we just pray it doesn't meet some horrible fate between now and the party tomorrow. My added stress for wanting to get it out the way in case another unholy baking disaster befell me, and I had to resort to buying a replacement cake. So it's not gorgeous or very tall, but when the only thing you tweak is just putting flavorless food coloring in it, you really can't go wrong. Well, whenever I have to bake anything, actually, it's astounding what all can go wrong. But this time it didn't. I just hope it got all whirly inside and looks cool despite it's somewhat Lilliputian proportions.

Oh and we saw Bobby Flay lose a fish taco "takedown" because he grilled his mahi mahi. Thinking about making some of the fish beer-battered to be more legitimately Baja...

Birthday Contestant #4

So, my philosophy in the dessert world, in case you haven't guessed by now, is "go big or go home."

This Chocolate Praline Cake fits wonderfully with my Epicurean credo. Take something truly sinful, like pralines (sugar, butter, nuts) and do something spectacular like add a dense chocolate cake under it.

It should come as no surprise to many of you that this recipe originated in Southern Living -- the Southern ladies bible. Thinking back, SL was the first food porn and general guide on living the good life I used to salivate over each month. And my mom must have 30 of their cookbooks. Before Foodgawker and Tastespotting, even Martha Stewart, there was SL.

Birthday Cake Contestant

Contestant #3 is bringing the nostalgia factor. These ice cream cone cupcakes from Papery and Cakery are like the ones my mom made for us and our preschool friends for day care birthdays. I have been trying to remember favorite birthday cakes in the past, but kept coming up blank (except for home churned ice cream) until I saw these guys. And I'm now realizing this entry and contestant #1 may prove that I actually prefer the ice cream to the cake...

Birthday Cake Contestant

Contestant #2: Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake

Clumbsy Cookie posted this a few months ago and it certainly seems to be the new acme of deliciousness. Cheesecakes are my hands -down favorite kind of cakes, though making them tends to cause me the greatest amounts of stress. I'm not partial to this one's graham cracker crust (the boring yet popular standard), but at least there's cocoa powder mixed in. Ferrero Rochers and Baci are my two favorite Italian chocolates, and Nutella was a major staple of my diet whenever I visited Europe (and makes occasional, albeit dangerous, cameos in my cabinets here).

I fell off the hazelnut wagon a few years ago when I bought a huge bag of 'em at Trader Joe's and kind of OD'ed. The memory of hazelnut buter still makes me a little green. But I think this cake could revive my love for the hazelnut and send me spiraling into a birthday chocolate-Nutella-cheesecake dream state. My hippie party has suddenly gotten a little more psychedelic.

Dal (Lentil) Curry

Sometimes tasty is not synonymous with aesthetically pleasing. Take dal for example. Dal is a lentil curry with the kind of murky brown coloration that is keeping it out of the food porn sites. But even though dal is no looker, she sure is easy.


I've had dried lentils for months and months now, but never get around to using them, because like all dried beans, the process takes too long. But Sundays are the perfect days to use dried beans because you have the time to do a little slow cooking. This dal curry is the kind of exercise in patience that would normally kill me. Several college roommates can attest that I wouldn't make 1 minute rice because it took too long. Well, dal requires boiling the lentils for 25 minutes, then cooking it even longer with the curry spices and veggies. All while cooking regular jasmine rice (sooo much longer than a minute). If you don't like waiting for water to boil, this is not your meal.

However, that's really the only hard part. Boil water with the jasmine rice inside, then turn down to low heat after a soft boil begins. Watch it because jasmine rice is delicate and can get overcooked (mine was just barely overdone, but it went there in a hurry). In another pot, boil the dried lentils. While waiting, avoid watched-pot syndrome by chopping up assorted veggies to add in to the curry. I sauteed 1/2 a large onion and 3 cloves of garlic, but didn't add anything else (tomatoes, spinach, carrots, and mushrooms would all party well). Once the lentils have visibly reconstituted and are larger and softer, drain off any water if necessary, add your veggies and curry spices (I used coriader, ginger paste, turmeric, chili powder, cumin, red curry paste, and garam masala). I also added some beef stock to add some more flavor while it simmered. Let it simmer to absorb the various spices, the longer the better. Serve the dal over the rice.

Crazy or Crazy-Awesome?

The Dogzilla -- with kimchee and chicarrones?

Birthday Cake Contestants

So I've already got two birthday cakes in store for me come the 21st. But there are so many other delicious contenders in the world that I thought I'd just put one up a day for the next week or so.

This ice cream cake just caught my eye on One Perfect Bite because it's so super-easy, yet I've never seen anything exactly like it before. You just mix some peanut butter, melted chocolate and Rice Krispies together, then mix the hardened candy into softened ice cream and refreeze in a springform pan. It comes out looking so much more sophisticated than it really is, and you can use almost any chopped candy and any flavor ice cream. Plus, as a July birthday, I've had my share of ice cream cakes and I never like the block hard ice cream next to the stiff, dry, flavorless cake. This one is like the perfect solution!

My Birthday

People get ready. The birthday festivities are set to begin next Friday (July 17) a la casa, around 7 pm. (7/17 at 7...heh). Since The Boy and I are going to see Bob Dylan on Saturday AT WOODSTOCK, I've unintentionally cut into key birfdizzle time. But we'll just party hard on Friday instead.

Being as we're going to Woodstock, and it's the 40th anniversary of that particular iconographic moment, I'm making the party theme be sort of hippie-lite. More like Wavy Gravy really. So tie-dye. But no costumes, please. The food is going to dictate the theme. Everyone just dress according to the weather and your own personal predilections.

So, with my extensive art background, I know that ROY G BIV will determine the palette for the array of food I'll be "curating.'

R - traditional red tomato salsa

O - mango salsa

Y - corn on the cob

G - mache or some other greens for the tacos

B - blue corn chips, my personal favorite

I - I don't think indigo is justified in getting it's own color in the spectrum, so let's pretend it says pink, which will be the color of the watermelon margaritas!
V - confusingly, red cabbage fits the bill

If Roy would give a shout-out to white then you would know there will be grilled fish and tortillas to make fish tacos, plus that white sauce they put on it in Baja and SoCal that I dearly miss. The piece de resistance will be a rainbow cake that fellow-upstate food blogger Albany Jane posted about this week.

Whoopie Pies Part Tres

Can't believe I'm just now getting to my first post of the month. And it's a long overdue update on the ongoing trials and tribulations of me versus whoopie pies. It reminds me of that trial in Bleak House that outlasts the entire law firm... except the jury came back from sequestration this weekend and I won this lengthy trial!

Okay, enough Dickens references and legal jargon. On to the play by play. As all three of you regular readers know, I've been trying to make whoopie pies since before Easter. The Boy's dad is from Maine, where whoopie pies reign supreme, and recipes happened to popping up everywhere in the blogosphere this spring. I had no idea how long of a battle I was in for when I tried to dazzle the Boy's parents with my domestic abilities. I should have known baking would be my Achilles heel.... So Easter and Memorial Day were glorious fails (as you can see in previous posts), and I guess the silver lining is that I didn't actually kill myself with the last poisionous batch, and we've been seeing the parents regularly enough that I was able to square off once again.


This time I recruited The Boy (who mostly got in the way or lost the directions) and Brady-man to assist me in tangling with the chocolate devil. I even brought everything outside for our little cooking class, which followed Brady's famous Burlington Burgers and probably a few too many Labatts.

The boys took over the chocolate recipe, while I attempted the red velvet one. Both batters came out tasting just fine, despite a lack of vanilla for mine (you've got to be fast when you're in a cooking class showdown). Since batter was in abundance, we were able to finally figure out the infinitessimally small spoonfuls of batter required to make sandwich cookies. But not after several pans full of ginormous chocolate globs. After about four pans we finally realized the parchment paper wasn't doing us any favors, and left it off entirely. As usual, the last batch was really the only one that turned out perfectly. But I did notice the next day that the ones that had been stuck to the wax paper actually came off much more easily (except for the smaller scoops, which turned into thinner cookies that simply cracked when any attempt at peeling was made).

So since we survived the first step, which had been my failing in the last two rounds, I moved on to making the filling the next day. I decided to cut the giant chocolate whoopie pie cakes into smaller, more edible cookie shapes and then put the traditional powdered sugar icing in between. (Note: apparently Crisco is a very necessary ingredient in both the cookies and the filling. Despite my initial disinterest in buying it, when I did they finally turned out). I then added a few drops of blue food coloring to the remaining icing to put between my red velvet whoopie pies -- to make a patriotic version for the 4th.

Frankly I'm glad to be done with these things. To my credit, I just ate the scraps from making smaller chocolate ones, and they're still fresh and moist after a week. To my discredit, I will say they all got eaten, but mostly because the Boy has a lot of sugar-fiending young nieces.

Traditional Whoopie Pies
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. Crisco
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, cream together Crisco and sugars, then add egg and continue beating. Add in milk and vanilla, then slowly add in dry ingredients. Scoop very very small (teaspoon sized scoops) of batter onto a greased cookie sheet. Cook 10-12 minutes, remove to a wire rack to let cool. Pipe frosting (recipe below) between two similarly shaped cookies when cooled.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies:
1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
2 tbs. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbs. buttermilk (since it calls for vinegar anyway, I just used regular milk)
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla extract (or maple syrup if you run out of vanilla like me)
1 tbs. red food coloring

Preheat at 375. Notice this makes much less than the previous batch. Mix together your dry ingredients. Then in a separate bowl, cream the butter into the sugar, add in eggs, and beat in the remaining wet ingedients. Then add dry to wet slowly. Drop batter in small batches onto greased cookie sheet. Cook 10 minutes, allow to cool on pan, then transfer to rack to finish cooling. Spread spoonfuls of frosting between two similarly-sized cookies

Basic Frosting:
Whip 1 1/2 c. of powdered sugar into 1 c. (or stick) of Crisco. Add 1/3 c. skim milk and 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla (or maple syrup). Alter amounts to get the consistency desired (you want something substantial for frosting these cookies, but it can be thinner for icing cakes).