chicken marsala

Last night I made Giada's Chicken Marsala with Mustard Mascarpone Sauce for dinner and it was mmm mmm good. Did I mention that the recipe can be found in my special autographed cookbook?

So far I have had good results with the recipes from Giada's cookbook. She really has the "Everyday Italian" concept down pat. The recipes are simple and easy - it took me about 35-40 minutes (maybe even less) to make the marsala. Pretty convenient for a weeknight dinner.

goodies from teacake

I am on vacation this week and I ventured out to Emeryville's Bay Street to have lunch with my three kiddies at California Pizza Kitchen after I ran an errand in Berkeley. (Yes, I went out to a restaurant with three kids by myself. No spills or thrown food either.)

While at Bay Street, we stopped by Teacake Bake Shop and I was overwhelmed with all the sweets they had to offer. While their prices might be a little high ($3 for a regular sized cupcake), I think they're worth it. You can tell that they use quality ingredients - because you can taste the vanilla in the cupcakes. My favorite was the vanilla buttermilk "cupcakie" which is a wide flat cupcake. I also got a white chocolate pistachio and pecan praline cookie. All very good. I would post pictures of the cupcakes, but they got annihilated in the box so they aren't very pretty.

cookie monster

I love Milano cookies - and love them even more now that they have Amaretto Milanos and Black & White Milanos! I love the taste of almond - Amaretto Sours are my favorite drink... which by the way Joyce - we need to make these for your sugar party!

Farmer's Markets

I'm so food oriented - I love everything and anything that has to do with food. Grocery shopping, cooking, eating, dining out, cookbooks, the Wednesday food section in the newspaper... everything. I love going to the Farmer's Market every Saturday - the one they hold near us is pretty small but still a good way to get fresh and ripe fruits and vegetables.

The Pacific Coast Farmer's Market Association has great information on markets in northern California and a handy guide on what is in season now. I have a ton of strawberries that I need to figure out what to do with... I feel strawberry jam in my future.

baking when bored

I was bored this weekend. I still have to tackle April's Cake which I'll try to get to this weekend.

mmmm-mushrooms

I love mushrooms.

I sauteed mushrooms and shallots along with my handy garlic paste in some olive oil and just ate it with fettucine and parmesan cheese. Yum!

making pizza

The kids are on spring break this week so to amuse them we had a pizza party. I used Wolfgang Puck's pizza dough recipe because I've always wanted to try making my own pizza dough.

My little sous chef helped knead the dough as you can see:

Here's the dough after kneading, before rising:


Here's the dough after 30 minutes of rising:

Me and the kids like our pizza plain - either cheese or mushrooms, no pepperoni, no meat.


The end result was pretty good - the dough was thick and soft, just the way I like it. I don't like thin or crunchy pizza dough. I saved the extra dough for the next time we are craving pizza because I think we've said goodbye to Round Table for good!

food food food

I went grocery shopping and one of the items I wanted to get was tomato paste in a tube (like the kind Giada De Laurentiis uses). The grocery store didn't have the tomato paste but they did have garlic paste in a tube! I bought it and instantly loved it. I like the taste of garlic but I hate handling it because my fingers will smell like garlic for two days straight. With the paste, I don't have that problem anymore.



I also bought a Limited Edition York Chocolate Truffle Mint Pattie. I'm a sucker for "limited editions" or new products. I just recently discovered the overseas versions of KitKats - banana, green tea, red wine, orange, strawberry, grape, maple syrup, and cherry blossom just to name a few. I wish we had more flavors than our boring American milk chocolate. People even sell them (and buy them) on eBay. I don't know if I trust buying candy from a stranger on the internet though. I haven't tried any of these yet but it's tempting. My husband might not understand if I spent $10.00 on a single candy bar though. (Unless it was that time of the month!)

cookie monster never had these!

I'm not a health food nut but I don't buy a lot of junk food like chips and cookies - (my kids are probably deprived). I don't consciously tell myself, "NO CHIPS!" - it's just something I never think about. Once in awhile I'll splurge and buy a box of cookies, but usually I'll just make cookies or cupcakes. Not only that, my daughter's Kindergarten teacher doesn't allow junk food (sweets) in her class. We were a bit turned off by this approach at first but I don't mind it anymore because it forces us to provide a healthy lunch for our kids.

At a birthday party this weekend, I discovered Barbara's Snackimals. They're sugar free and contain no transfat. Not only that, they TASTE GOOD. We had the oatmeal cookies which are also wheat free - I didn't even know these were "healthy cookies" until I ate the entire bag and read the nutirtion facts on the back.

Joyce, until your sugar binge party, you can pick these up at Whole Foods, maybe Trader Joes. :)

March's Belated Cake

I finally got around to making the March installment of Martha's Year of Cakes which was a Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake.

Compared to January's cake, this cake was super easy and quick to make although I was wondering about the streusel. The recipe has you make a TON of streusel. Some of the streusel goes in the middle of the cake, and the rest on top, but the streusel used more flour than the cake itself.

It was ok - my husband is eating it with his coffee as I type this. I'm not a big cardamom fan, and if I were to make this again, I would probably make it with cinnamon instead. And maybe throw some blueberries in there because I like blueberries in my coffee cake.

*Shame on the folks at marthastewart.com -- they misspelled cardamom. I first spelled it "cardamom" which is actually the correct spelling but on the cake page, it's spelled cardomom so they had me second guessing myself. I emailed mstewart@marthastewart.com to notify them of the error because a spelling error on marthastewart.com just doesn't sit well with me.

I wonder if Martha would fire the person who committed such a heinous spellcheck error.

farmer's market goodies

I love going to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. Today I bought a flat of ripe red strawberries so now I have to figure out what to do with all of them.

One thing I did was make a strawberry and nutella sandwich. I usually like to make it with bananas, but this was even better!

Quick Cake Decorating

I ordered the above pictured cake for my son's baptism from a local bakery. It was a white cake with rum custard filling and whipped cream frosting.

I asked for a plain cake because I didn't want flowers or balloons plus I wasn't too impressed with the cake decorating skills at this bakery.

To make up for the lack of decor, I bought some roses and decorated the cake myself. Roses are edible so I don't think I poisoned anyone. Everyone was put off by the rum custard anyway - it was too strong for some people, but I liked it. Reminded me of eggnog.

Year of Cakes - The Group

I haven't forgotten about my pledge to take on Martha's Year of Cakes. February was a crazy month so February's cake will have to share the spotlight with March's cake. I have a good excuse for slacking... we're leaving for Hawaii next Thursday for my sister's wedding and couple that with helping with the wedding plans, busy days at work, battling the stomach flu, plus two out of three sick kids (who also have the stomach flu)... I haven't had the time. Plus who wants to eat a cake prepared by someone suffering from the stomach flu?

I joined Sweet Little Treat's Year of Cake's group and if any of you out there like to bake and want to participate, everyone is welcome to join. I knew there had to be others out there that wanted to take on Martha's Year of Cakes - now I have fellow cake loving Aussies to bake with! Their cakes turned out really good I might add. I may have to follow Martha's directions and pictures more carefully.

By the way... having two kids sick at the same time... that's going to have to be a separate post. Hell, even a separate blog. In a nutshell, running back and forth cleaning up the bodily fluids that have spewed out of every orifice of two children... NOT FUN. Clorox bleach is my friend this week.

I was bored

So I made these "Utterly Peanut Buttery Bars" from a recipe I found on the back of a box of C & H light brown sugar. They have a peanut butter shortbread type crust, gooey peanut butter middle and crumbled topping (crust). They're good, a bit too sweet for my taste, I would've preferred them saltier. My kids and husband loved them.

Here is the recipe:
Crust:
1/2 cup soft butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour

Filling:
2 eggs
2 tbsp peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1/2 cup sugar
12 cup golden brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375.

Crust: In a medium bowl mix butter, peanut butter, and sugar until well blended. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and mix well (mixture will be crumbly). Reserve about 1 cup of this mixture for top. Firmly press remaining mixture into bottom of lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan.

Filling: Beat eggs, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar together. Spread over unbaked crust. Sprinkle with reserved crust mixture. Bake approximately 20 minutes or until set and top is golden. Cool in pan and cut into bars.

Falling off the wagon

I really don't use boxed cake mixes, but my sister introduced me to Trader Joe's Vanilla Cake Mix... and it's GOOD. If you look up close, you can actually see the black specks of vanilla bean. They also make a Meyer Lemon cake mix which I bought but haven't tried yet, but if you're ever feeling lazy and just want a quick cake fix, this is the perfect cake mix. I used the leftover buttercream from my January Martha cake to frost the cupcakes so I was done with these in a snap.

On another note, I just want to say that I LOVED last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy. I think McSteamy is my new McDreamy (I have a weakness for jawline beards / chin curtains). I hated the ending. Meredith and George. YUCK. It's like watching an incestuous relationship unfold. I wanted Meredith to hook up with McSteamy so there would be tension between all four of them. And since I can't get enough, I've also been reading the blogs ABC has for Grey's Anatomy.

Apricot Bars

My husband's coworker's wife gave me her recipe for Apricot Bars and I finally got a chance to make them yesterday. It's made with a shortbread crust and a chewy dried apricot and nut filling. Here's the recipe - enjoy!

Crust:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
Combine and pack into a 6 x 9 pan, bake for 25 minutes at 350.

Filling:
2/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
Beat eggs, mix with brown sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in vanilla, nuts and apricots.
Spread mixture on slightly cooled rust and bake for another 30 minutes. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut.

On another note, I finally got the jars I wanted from Crate and Barrel to store my flour, sugar and brown sugar. I was inspired by Barefoot Contessa's kitchen - I like how she keeps her flour and sugar in those big jars. I got the 1 gallon jars from Crate and Barrel for $10.95, and the half gallon for $9.95. (Wow, I just checked Barefoot Contessa's website and she uses the same jars! I thought the jars looked similar but didn't know they were actually from C & B!)

I also came across this blog entry where the writer and visitors comment about their love/hate relationship with Ina Garten. I love her. There used to be a message board on her FoodNetwork site and people left terrible comments about how she's overweight and shouldn't be cooking with so much butter... geez! WHO CARES if she's fat? The food tastes good! I have two of her cookbooks and I haven't had a problem with any of her recipes yet.

My favorite shows / chefs to catch on FoodNetwork are:

• Barefoot Contessa (Good food and I want her kitchen and backyard garden.)
• Michael Chiarello (I have a coworker who looks EXACTLY like him! I want to go to one of his parties.)
• Ham on the Street (Very entertaining, plus he is a classically trained chef unlike some hacks on Food Network.
• Good Eats / Alton Brown (Alton Brown rules.)
• Paula's Home Cooking (My favorite episodes are when she cooks with her sons and they say "Momma" in that Southern drawl of theirs!)
• Sugar Rush / Warren Brown (Maybe because his name reminds me of Warrick Brown on CSI.)

Can't stand:

• Racheal Ray (Self explanatory.)
• Emeril Lagasse (Self explanatory.)
• Sara Moulton (I can't explain why.)
• Bobby Flay (Self explanatory.)
• Tyler Florence (I used to like him then he replaced Chef Frederic on How to Boil Water, plus I got tired of watching the women look at him with dreamy eyes.)

a spot of tea

I organized a Bridal Shower spa day and tea party for my sister today. We headed over to Burke Williams Spa at Santana Row in the morning and had tea at Lisa's Tea Treasures afterwards.

Lisa's was good, but my favorite teahouse is still Lovejoy's in San Francisco - their tea is better.

My friend brought the cake from Katrina Rozelle - it was a white cake with fresh raspberries in the filling. It was soooooooo good. Katrina Rozelle makes the best cakes in the bay area in my opinion. One of my favorite cakes is their Erica Torte which is a chocolate truffle cake, and I don't even like chocolate cake! Last year I even bought my own Erica Torte as a birthday gift for myself.

I also made little gift bags for the ladies to take home. In keeping with the tea party theme, the bags were filled with homemade Meyer Lemon Poppyseed shortbread, Toffee shortbread, assorted teas and a small jar of honey. Joyce introduced me to Everyday Food's Icebox Shortbread recipe, and it is so quick and easy to make -- plus the recipe only uses five ingredients!

I made little tags to go on everything by using those metal rim tags and printable round labels. I thought it was overkill labeling the teas "assorted teas" (duh) but I was on a roll. I was up until 2 AM making the cookies and gift bags so I slept through my massage at the spa.

January's Cake

I'M BACK!

Here it is... Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Anniversary Cake. I made it for my niece's first birthday and it took me about 5 hours not including the time I spent looking for Meyer lemons. I used almost 3 dozen eggs for this cake - mostly separated eggs. The cake itself was VERY tasty, but the lemon curd was way too eggy. The buttercream was yummy (butter + sugar = GOOD). I didn't bother with the candied lemon slices because I was f'ing pooped after laboring over this cake. I know it looks pretty simple but the recipe had lots of steps (cake, lemon simple syrup to brush on the cake, lemon curd, buttercream) and I know a one year old wouldn't care about candied Meyer lemon slices either! The butterflies on the cake are actually rings little ones can put on their fingers (leftover from my daughter's third birthday).

After all that work, I later realized that my cake was the "mess up cake" for the celebrant to stick her face and fingers in while a store bought cake was served to the guests.

my favorite ingredient

Whenever I go grocery shopping I always buy buttermilk. At first I only bought it because it's an ingredient in my favorite cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart (though I think this recipe was originally made by the Barefoot Contessa herself because her coconut cupcake recipe is exactly the same minus the coconut). With all the leftover buttermilk, I started looking for and testing recipes that used buttermilk and here are some of my favorites:

• Buttermilk Pancakes from allrecipes.com
• Tyler Florence's Smothered Pork Chops
• Alton Brown's Steel Cut Oatmeal

Also - I'm going to be making January's cake this Saturday which is a meyer lemon cake with swiss meringue lemon buttercream. It's my niece's first birthday so I have an incentive to "try" and make it look and taste good. I even bought my cake board and cake box from Michael's yesterday, just have to find meyer lemons... I feel a trip to Whole Foods coming on.

tea party

I'm sending thank you gifts to my coworkers who covered for me while I was out on maternity leave. One of my coworkers is a tea drinker so I ordered her this ingenuiTEA set from Adagio Teas. It's a teapot that you place on top of your cup or mug then it pours the tea into your cup while filtering the loose tea leaves.

Adagio's website also has a directory of tea rooms in the US at www.teamap.com - I LOVE going to tea, something about the dainty sandwiches and teacups. I'm even looking forward to hosting my sister's bridal shower at a tearoom next month.