Best Cake—Ever!

Iced Lemon Layer Cake: Lemony-icious!

With our big move and warm weather, it was a somewhat cooking-less summer. We mostly ate grilled meats, cold sandwiches and  salads and take-out. Now that fall has arrived, I’m enjoying my new kitchen with its abundant counter and cabinet space, strolling my awesome local farmer’s market (twice a week!) and once again making weekly visits to Whole Foods. I’m also getting back to feeding my fam.

I am happy to report my first big effort was an equally big success. I found a recipe for Lemon Layer Cake, with lemon curd and homemade frosting, on the Smitten Kitchen blog and decided to make it for my lemon-loving husband’s birthday.

Click here for the recipe.

U-pick, you learn

Strawberry fields for her.

Sometimes I get this feeding my family thing right. Ok, mostly right.

Over the weekend my husband and I loaded the girls in the car, packed some water and a pail and headed out to Styer Orchard, a nearby farm, to pick fresh strawberries. That’s the part I got right. It was my idea to go. Given the copious amount of strawberries the girls eat this time of year, it seemed silly to keep paying upwards of $2 a quart when we could get many more for far less, and give the girls an early introduction to where their food really comes from—the ground, not the grocery.

We had a great time picking—and, in the case of my youngest, eating—juicy, ripe red berries. Such a good time that we filled our pail, plus four more pint baskets. In all, we took home about 7 pounds of strawberries. Now, here’s where I got it wrong. We couldn’t possibly eat this many berries before they go bad and I had no alternate plans—besides giving them away—of what to do with our bounty. Had I planned ahead I might have made jam, strawberry shortcake, or frozen some berries to enjoy out of season. But I didn’t. So instead I’ve been serving berries with nearly every meal. There were sliced strawberries at breakfast, cut-up strawberries for snacks and post-meal treats, strawberries and fresh whipped cream for desert at our Memorial Day BBQ. I would have whipped up  some strawberry smoothies for the next week, too—lucky for my family, my MIL doesn’t own a blender.

Why I buy organic

Since I write about food for a living, people are always asking me food questions. Like why buy organic?  It’s more expensive and there aren’t any more nutrients in it than conventionally grown food, they say. Staying with family brings that issue up, too. I’ve not been doing much—ok, any—of the shopping or the cooking these last few weeks (which has been a welcome break, thank you), which means that most of the food my family and I have been eating is anything but organic. So, I thought I’d share one reason I eat and feed my family as I (usually) do.

Mainly, I try to buy organic or local food because of what’s NOT in it—chemicals. I simply don’t want harmful herbicides, pesticides, hormones or antibiotics in my family’s food. But many eaters don’t believe that these chemicals are harmful. They rationalize that they have been eating them all along and are healthy people, so why change? But the evidence is mounting. Most recently Reuters reported that a new study links some of these chemicals to ADHA in children.

As for me, I’m not going to try to convert the unconvertible. Instead, I’m going to make more effort to buy organic and local—just as soon as I start doing the shopping again.

Muffin madness

“No, Crazy.”

That was my answer twice this week to a 7 am “Mommy, can I have a muffin for breakfast?” A question inspired, no doubt, by her grandparents love of muffins in the morn. (Ok, I didn’t call my 4 year old crazy. But I wanted to!)

Now, I love a good muffin as much as the next gal. But a breakfast food? Come on people. Wake up! Let’s call this high-sugar, nutritionless white flour, fat-laden, calorie-dense food what it is: dessert disguised as breakfast.  A homemade ham, egg and cheese sandwich, for example, has lower calories and fat and more nutrients than most muffins.

So as not to be thought of as a total muffin hater, I thought I’d look into better-for-you muffin recipes. I found the one below in The NY Times. I plan to try it this weekend—as a breakfast treat.

Got a favorite healthy muffin recipe? Send it my way and I’ll post it here.

Whole Wheat Muffins

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, more for greasing tins

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, preferably pastry flour

3/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed or puréed banana, sweet potato, apple, zucchini, cooked or canned pumpkin or other fruits or vegetables

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease two 6-cup muffin tins or fill with liners. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter, banana, egg and buttermilk. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined.

2. Fill muffin tins or liners; bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins are puffed and turning golden brown on top. Serve warm if possible.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Got food issues?

Staying with family, as we are right now, always brings up food issues. Some good (favorite homemade dishes), some not-so-good (lots of processed foods). It’s a delicate balance trying to eat the way you want from someone else’s kitchen.

At my inlaws, dessert is a given at every meal—even breakfast. (Chocolate muffin anyone?) While I’ve given up trying to fix that habit, I have drawn the line at eating unnatural ingredients as much as I can.

For example, as ice cream was served with some homemade chocolate chip pound cake the other night, I immediately went to check the ingredient list on said ice cream. I knew the Breyers was ok, but the others looked suspicious …. With labels such as “lite” and “fat-free” and  ingredients that included all manner of multi-syllabic words, I put down the container and tried to, well, contain myself. When family is taking care of you, it’s a good idea to take care not to insult their lifestyle—at least to their face.

So, instead of pooh-poohing their “ice cream” I made a joke—I said I had an idea for a new, more accurate label for such “products”: “Less fat, more chemicals.” We all laughed. And though I don’t anticipate my inlaws will forgo their favorite ice cream anytime soon, I do think my message got across. Needless to say, while we’re here my husband and I will be buying our own, all-natural ice cream or skipping it altogether.

Nobody’s perfect

Asian marinated steak. Eggplant Rollatini. Sauteed chicken and apple sausage. Red curry stirfry with seitan.

These are just the few of the tasty dishes I did NOT cook these past two weeks. I haven’t been cooking or blogging because I’ve been a bit preoccupied: We’re set to move from one city to another in 9 days (!!). But enough excuses. I’ve been loving having my husband do all the cooking. Though I was beginning to resent Mr. Perfect Chef’s ability to make delicious meals amid the chaos that is moving with small children. Then tonight, distracted by said chaos, he burned some rice. Welcome to my world, baby!

Holiday delight

My cookie it has three corners, three corners has my cookie.

I love the idea of holiday cookies. They are fun to make and look delicious. Unfortunately, I don’t think they are ever all that great tasting. Not that they taste bad. It’s just that when it comes to cookies I can think of many other varieties that are worth all the effort and the calories. (Think chocolate chunk cookies, oatmeal cherry white chocolate chunk cookies or Hersey chocolate kiss cookies … I could go on.) But they really are fun to make and around holiday times, well, I can’t seem to help myself.

So, despite my feelings, in honor of Purim, I decided to bake hamantaschen, the official cookie of this Jewish holiday.  These cake-like cookies are named for and meant to resemble the three-corned hat of Haman, the villain of Purim. I made the ones in this photo with my daughter the other night. They looked so much better before we baked them. More like the triangle-shaped hats they were intended to be than the throbbing vaginas pictured here. (I know, now you’ll never look at another hamantaschen in the same way. Sorry.) But it was a lot of fun. And the kids at my daughter’s school seemed to enjoy receiving them and eating them. They must have been pretty tasty, right? These are filled with cherry and apricot, but you can put almost anything in them—chocolate chips, lemon curd, prunes, fruit preserves, poppy seeds, cinnamon and sugar. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be Jewish to make them (though it helps).

Hamantaschen

Dough:

2 eggs

1/2 c sugar

1/4 lb butter (1 stick)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp orange juice

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 c flour

Mix ingredients in together. Roll out dough on floured board. Cut out with coffee top (if, like me, you no longer get your coffee from a can, use a soup can or a plastic cup). Fill and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake in oven 375 degrees about 20 minutes.

Filling:

Use pre-made ingredients of choice—fruit preserves, pie filling, chocolate chips, etc.

I like big butts

Some pig: 10.5 pounds of pork butt.

Boston pork butt, that is.

The other day my husband Brian got the hankering to make bo ssam, a Korean dish in which you slow roast pork, shred it and then wrap it in lettuce leaves along with rice and a condiment such as spicy bean paste.  Since I have little interest in making a meal that requires nearly an entire day to prepare, my job was to head to the market to choose and purchase the big Boston butt, a cut of pork that comes from the shoulder. And I mean big–10.5 pounds to be exact.

Once Brian saw the hunk of ham up close, he kind of panicked. Two people, even three, if you count our four-year-old and her baby sister together, couldn’t possibly make even a dent in this amount of meat. So, while the brine was working I started calling for reinforcements. Sadly, we had no takers. (Clearly, we need to find some better, more food-obsessed friends.) So, we ate it ourselves.

The pork was crispy and sweet on the outside, tender on the inside. We wrapped the pork in leaves of Boston lettuce with fluffy Basmati rice and a spicy bean paste sweetened with a bit of sugar. Super delish. The kids even liked it (sans the spicy sauce).

Ok. We didn’t eat all of it. I’ve still got a gianormous Tupperware packed with pork in my fridge. Looks like we’ll be eating a lot of butt this week. I’m imagining pulled pork sandwiches, pork fried rice, maybe even pork burritos. More likely we’ll just be eating the same meal several times this week, but, hey, I like to think, well, big.

Should you–or someone close to you–have the time and the inclination for this dish, below is the recipe. It’s guaranteed to make you like big butts, too.

Momofuku-style Bo Ssam

Ingredients

10 pounds bone-in Boston pork butt

2  1/3 c white sugar

2  1/3 c plus 2 tbspns salt

1 tbspn brown sugar

4 c uncooked Korean rice

2 heads boston lettuce

sagyegeol ssam jang (Korean soybean paste)

kimchee

Instructions

The night before place two cups each sugar and salt in a bowl or saucepan large enough to hold the butt, add 6 cups water and stir until dissolved. Place the pork butt in the brine solution. Make sure it’s submerged (weight if necessary) and refrigerate overnight.

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. Place pork butt in a large 6-inch-deep pot or casserole and cook uncovered for about 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours, basting pork with the pan drippings every hour. When the meat is fork tender and pulls away from the bone, sprinkle exterior with a mixture of 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 tablespoon salt. Increase temperature to 500 degrees and continue roasting until the outside is well caramelized. Remove from oven.

Rinse rice well. Add 7 cups cold water, 1 tablespoon salt and 4 cups rice. Cook 20 minutes or until water evaporates.

Clean and wash lettuce; select best leaves, and set aside.

Assembly and serving: Place the pork on a large platter. Arrange the rice, ssam jang, kimchee and lettuce in separate bowls. Assemble ssam by wrapping each component in a lettuce leaf.

Chip, chip, hooray!

Sometimes, just sometimes, I am brilliant in the kitchen. For example, I love the convenience of commercially made slice-and-bake cookies, but loathe all the artificial ingredients. So I made my own homemade version.

I mixed up my favorite family chocolate chip cookie recipe (which, I might add, I do extremely well), let it set in the fridge for a bit, then rolled it into a log, wrapped it in wax paper and then covered it with tinfoil. Now, whenever I feel like eating a cookie or two (or a half dozen) I just grab my log from the freezer, slice and bake.

Ok, I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, but still … it is a brilliant idea.

Take that Pillsbury!

Cooking canceled

Forget the Indian Dahl with Spinach I slaved over earlier this week. Don’t even think about the marinated swordfish, fregola and mushrooms I had planned for last night. And that shrimp I was gonna cook up in an Emeril-worthy jambalaya? It’s headed for the freezer.

Ok, maybe I was never going to make that fancy fregola dish and I definitely had no plans for any complicated jambalaya on a week night, but I did make that Dahl, bland as it came out, and it will go to waste this week. Why? My kids have a terrible stomach bug. So the most cooking I’ll be doing for the next few days is toasting bread, soft boiling eggs and cracking open a jar of organic applesauce. Hard to screw those up. Even for me.