ChezSylvia

And I am back folks! This year for my summer vacation, I went on an Alaskan cruise with my parents and my youngest brother, Jeffrey. I’m not big on the whole cruising thing. To me, it just doesn’t feel authentic, which is more what I look for when I travel to other locals. I figure if I am going to ever give cruising a try, Alaska is the best way to go. Especially since there is so much to see in Alaska that you cannot see without a boat.

We started our trip by flying into Seattle early in the morning. I love Seattle, but I never stay too long. This time was no exception. We were only here for a day. So, what does one do in a day with no car? Well, we took the Light rail from the airport which was super easy and cheap, to the Pioneer Square stop. A quick two block walk dropped us off in front of our hotel. Bags dropped off, we went searching for food then walked along the shore line up to the Space Needle. A little time spent checking out the Battlestar Galactica exhibit in the EMP (which merged with the Sci Fi Museum earlier this year…much to my dismay), where I checked to make sure I wasn’t a cylon (I wasn’t).

We then headed over to Pike’s Place Market. Oh the food! Where does one start?

The next day we headed to Vancouver via Amtrak. I figured with such a short time spent in Vancouver, we just go out and check out Steveston, a small fishing village near Richmond. There, on the dock, you can buy Salmon right off the fishing boats.

How awesome is that? Dinner was in Richmond, HK style of course. Everything closes at 7pm, so it was a quick dinner. Who closes at 7pm on a weekday?

The next day we boarded our home for the next 7 days. The Island Princess. This ship was specially designed and built for cruising through the Panama Canal, so it’s a little more narrow and with more balcony rooms. I had an interior room. No biggie since there was a nice back deck available for our use which afforded great views.

The ship made three stops (Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway) and toured through the Glacier Bay National Park and by the College Fjords. We kayaked in Juneau, took the train in Skagway and stood out in the cold for hours as we marveled at the glaciers.

I also took the Ultimate Ship Tour which allowed us to learn and tour through the underbelly of the ship and learned how they kept the operation going. This included a visit through the galley, Motor control center, laundry, and the bridge. It was very very informative and I got a nifty chef’s jacket out of it.

Now that I’ve done the cruising thing, have my feelings changed? Not really. I don’t think I would be cruising again, until I am retired or traveling with a large group comprised of a lot of young children. When you have over a thousand people descending into a town at once, there is a lot that is lost. You also end up spending a lot of time jockeying for space at the more well known areas since that is where the entire ship is. But nonetheless, sailing by glaciers was awesome.

After 12 days of living like a nomad, I’m glad to be home, and ready to cook again. I have 10 pounds to loose and no money left to eat out.

Now, I took over a 1000 pictures between three cameras. That’s a lot, so I took an entire day to weed out the best ones, and name them all and I posted them HERE. My poor camera skills did many things no justice, it was something you had to see in person 🙂

Until next time Alaska…

Remember…PHOTOS HERE!

I did something today that I’ve never done before, and am pretty upset at myself for. I pulled out of a race.

Sigh…I was signed up for the inaugural Orange County Triathlon that was supposed to take place this Sunday up in Newburgh, NY. But alas, I was just not ready for an Olympic Distance race right now. My training has been haphazard at best, and the last time I completed an Olympic distance tri on haphazard training, I hated every single minute of it, and did pretty poorly. I didn’t want a repeat of that. I don’t know what is wrong with me, and why I let myself go so long without proper training. I’m calling it the Toughman effect.  The Toughman is A half ironman distance race I did last year, which I was thrilled to have completed, but lead to a burnout like no other. Maybe after this summer, my head will be back in the game.

Slightly bitter disappointment…meet sweet reward.

This weekend, I baked on the fly. Not something I would ever recommend, because inevitably, something goes wrong. Alas, I had committed myself to bringing two desserts to a BBQ that was happening in two hours. Why do I do this to myself?

First up, Orange Ricotta Pound Cake, Giada style.  I have made this pound cake three times, and every single time, something different goes wrong!  I don’t know what it is, but I seem to be getting worse with every try!  I don’t even make substitutions in this one!  The only thing I could think of that was questionable was the flour I used.  I was lazy, and did not mark this one container I have in my pantry.  Unfortunatly I can’t seem to remember if it was powdered sugar or cake flour or maybe something entirely different.  I tasted it, and it was not powdered sugar.  Let’s hope it was cake flour!  Second thing, I might have done wrong.  The measuring cups.  It is time for me get a scale.  These measuring cups are cute, and great if precision isn’t required.  However with baking, precision is required. I also used a whole milk ricotta from Target’s Market Pantry line. A little tasteless, but nice and thick in texture. The recipe also calls for the zest of one orange. The only orange I had was a monster sized orange. Nothing wrong with that!

So, what happened?  Well, I got the batter mixed up nicely, and I poured it into my loaf pan.

However, after about 20 minutes of baking, the batter started overflowing the pan! Thank goodness I threw a cookie sheet in the rack below, otherwise I would have had an even bigger mess on my hands. Not knowing what to do, I decided to pull it out of the oven (carefully of course) and I threw it on a cooling rack. Then I quickly buttered up an 8×8″ cake pan and carefully (not neatly) poured the half baked batter into the pan. This was messy.

I then threw it back into the oven to let it finish baking.

While that was baking I started on my brownies. I used a recipe from The Joy of Baking website. which I’ve always had good luck with. With a lot of kids present at this BBQ, I decided to double up on the recipe last minute, which left me in a bit of a bind with the chocolate. I only bought 7oz of the good stuff (50% cause not everybody likes dark), and I needed another 3oz. So I pulled out some old Bakers semi sweet and used that. Kids don’t care, as long as it’s chocolate right?

This recipe was incredibly easy to whip up. Chocolate and butter melted double boiler style, mix in the sugar and cocoa powder, then whip in the eggs, the mix in the flour and walnuts and voila! All ready to bake in a 13×9″ pan! (which worked out really well for a double recipe)

When all was said and done I ended up with what had to be the ugliest pound cake ever (pulled out of the oven once a chopstick (I have no toothpicks) poked in the center came out clean)

and some awesome looking brownies!

A little camera fun on the way over:

And then it was dessert time:

The poundcake actually tasted delicious despite appearances. The ricotta, while contributing nothing to flavor, gave it a nice moistness and helped showcase the oodles of orange flavor that ran through it. A nice way to offset the amount of butter normally in these things.

The brownies were awesome. The use of the 7oz of a 50% dark and 3oz of a semi sweet really worked out well. The brownies were neither super sweet nor chocolate bitter. It was the best of both worlds really. It also came out perfectly fudgy while slightly cake like. It’s the all around brownie!

So there you go. Slight disappointments in life can be remedied with some sweet rewards.  Now where’s my brownie?

And as always, all pictures can be found HERE!

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Update (8/16/11):  I tried the orange ricotta pound cake again, but this time I bought a new box of King Arthur’s unbleached Cake Flour and used that.  This time I went straight for the 8×8″ Cake pan, greased it up with the leftover butter wrappers (works really well!) and poured it right in.  The 8×8 is the perfect size for this.  How this fits in a loaf pan, and how I got it to fit in a loaf pan the first two times, I have no idea.  Use the 8×8.

Yup, another notch in that race belt!  This past weekend, my friend Liz and I participated in the Jersey Girl Triathlon held in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Every single triathlon I participate in, not only do I learn something about racing, but I always learn something new about myself as well.

1) Sometimes your biggest fears and the source of all of your self doubt come at you in the form of cold scary waves and high ocean swells of a storm churned ocean.  As I waited for my wave to start, there was nothing I could do, but to stand on that beach and watch that ocean churn, along with my stomach and desire to run away.  But, once the signal was given to start, there is nothing you can do but to run head on into the waves, tackling that all that self doubt along the way.

2) Breakfast can be drunk out of a repurposed Peanut Butter Jar. I carried the my Perpetuem Cafe Latte powder in the jar from home. When I woke up that morning, I poured some water in, shook it up, and voila! Cafe Latte, Hammer style!

3) Make sure my front wheel is properly seated before biking.  I kept hearing my front wheel brushing up against my brake.  But i didnt want to stop to fix it, so I kept on going, but the noise was getting louder, so I finally stopped, and as I went to adjust my bracket, the fork of my bike popped in properly into the bracket.  Whoops!  That would have otherwise been pretty embarrassing to lose a wheel!

4) Do my BRICKS!  A quick 1 miler on the treadmill after a spin class is not a proper brick.  Today, my legs punished me for it.  One of my goals for these races is to place in the top 20 of my age group.  I have a tough group, and next year I will enter the super competitive years of 30-50 year olds (they are tough!).  I checked initial results at the race, and I placed 21st in my age group (25-29).  So close!  (final results place me 22nd…still close!)  Maybe if I had properly done my Bricks, I would have kept that momentum I had from the bike and not burned out on that run.

Lessons learned.

Post tri and post cleanup shower, we were famished.  Just our luck, Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace was right down the road!  Mmmm  burger, this is going to taste so good!

I had the Napa Burger (left), which came with goat cheese and watercress, while Liz got the Carolina Burger with cheese and a cabbage slaw in a mustard vinaigrette (right)?  I wasn’t sure if that was the exact description, but she said it was good!  Mine was awesome.  I ordered it medium, and it came medium.  It was juicy, and the goat cheese was goat-y and there was so much of it, it dripped out of my burger.  The bun was toasted perfectly and the ratio of bun to burger was perfect (bottom bun held up beautifully against the juice of the burger without being too much bun).  We also got Sweet Potato fries to share, and yes, they too were delicious (or I was just that hungry!).

Now let’s fast forward a day….

Today, I came home to find my plantain ripe and ready to rock.  So, I whipped up one of my favorite quickie desserts.  Nothing fancy, and not really like the real thing, but close enough.  I love going to Latin American restaurants for one thing (on top of the other delicious foods they also have), maduros, or sweet fried plantains.  I love them as a side dish, and I will gladly eat it as dessert.  I can eat them everywhere!

To start, I took my super ripe plantain (black skin) and sliced it up.  Technically they should be sliced in about one inch chunks on a bias, but for whatever reason, tonight I sliced them into thin slices.

Then I took those slices and tossed them in a little sugar.  Seriously, I don’t know what’s going on with me tonight, as I doused mine in sugar, but be stingy with the sugar.  The plantains themselves are already really sweet.

Then pour some oil into a pan.  Vegetable oil or any other frying oil would be perfect.  Get it nice and hot, then carefully put your plantains in.

Fry up until both sides are caramelized and golden brown.  Then take them out and enjoy!

As always, more pics can be found HERE!

It’s been pretty warm out lately, and I’ve been having a craving for ice cream. But, I don’t want to keep any in the house. I have a weird rule about not keeping bad foods in the house. If I want it, I must make it myself, or go out and eat it outside. I wanted ice cream (or gelato), but didn’t want to go get in my car to go buy some at the Ossining Pizzeria all by myself. So, I guess I have to make myself some ice cream.

Here is the problem with making ice cream. I would need an ice cream maker. I do not own one, nor have the money for one. Plus if there ever was a uni-tasker, this was one. Hmmm…what was a girl to do?

A little while ago, while I was watching watching TV (a rare occurance), I happened upon Nigella Lawson’s show on the Food Network. I do enjoy her show. The soft lighting, her lovely use of adjectives not normally used to describe the food, and the close ups! It’s almost like soft porn for food.

In this particular episode, she was in her robe since she was making this first thing in the morning (but with perfect hair and makeup of course), and she literally whipped it up in no time and just stuck it in the freezer. Easy peazy! I can do that!

So, I gathered my ingredients for Nigella Lawson’s Margarita Ice Cream:

I used two and a half limes to get a 1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice.

I’m not a big drinker, so I don’t have much alcohol on hand, nor did I want to buy a bottle for a few tablespoons worth. At the liquor store, they had tequila and orange liqueur in the tiny bottle sizes, but only these two brands. Good enough for me!

So, I mixed it all up and whipped it by hand until it was almost like a softly whipped cream, but not quite yet. Then I poured it into an air tight container, and threw it in the freezer for it to set overnight.

The next morning, I was up super early (for a Sunday) to go biking. As I was noshing on some breakfast (fueling up with a slice a bread with peanut butter and nutella, and washed down with some Perpetuem…breakfast of champions!), I couldn’t wait to see what happened to the ice cream. So I took a peek and a taste test.

Mmmm…boozy!
To serve, I took some doubles glasses I had, salted up the rims and dropped in some ice cream. Just to clarify, this isn’t really ice cream in the technical sense, and scooping it out, you can tell. It was crumbly, which made presentation not as sexy.

I also added in some candied lime slices I had also made the night before and topped it off with some fresh lime zest. The candied lime slices needed some more time in their sugar bath, and I didn’t care too much for them.

The ice cream was very yummy, and a perfect treat on a hot summers day. It isn’t as creamy as ice cream normally is, but it’s still cold, and it still had a nice lighter creaminess to it. The lime juice and the alcohol made it absolutely refreshing, very much a margarita in ice cream form!

Another reason why it’s awesome to be a grown-up!

I am very much a recreational photographer.  Everywhere you go now you see people toting SLR cameras around their necks.  It’s the new must have accessory.  I got mine a couple of years ago with hopes that with it, I would make more of an effort to go out and see and experience more things.  It did this brilliantly.  Now, wherever I go, I, like these people, have my SLR around my neck (although my “steal me” strap was quickly replaced with a nondescript longer strap so I can carry it across my body.  Comes in handy when climbing down rocky terrain or squeezing through tight spaces) where ever I go.

I’ve always tried to play around with the manual functions of my camera.  The ISO, the aperture, the shutter speed, all come together to create the picture (I won’t touch the other stuff).  What inevitably happens is, I will play around for the first half of my trip, then when I get frustrated, switch it to automatic.

Jeffrey sent me a Living Social coupon deal a few months ago for a Night Photography workshop through Photo Walk-Abouts in New York City.  Night photography is difficult for me.  I can never get the setting right, and almost all ways default to the camera to tell me what my settings should be.  I bought the coupon, and a few months later, I signed myself up for a workshop.

My workshop was on Saturday night, the day after what will hopefully have been the hottest day of the summer.  It was still hot that night, and even at 8pm that night, I was melting.  I met the group and the guide at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and got a brief overview of what we were going to do that night, and generally what settings we should be using and how it all works together.  It was very brief, and not the most instructional if these terms were new to you (ie bracketing).  Then off we went to take some practice shots around the area as the sun was setting down on Manhattan.

I never used a tripod before.  In fact, the tripod I had with me was a loaner from someone kind enough to entrust me with it and not break it.  I was a little overwhelmed.  First I had to set up the tripod and get my camera secured onto it, without dropping the camera.  Done.  Then I had to pick something to take a picture of.  That was harder.  Then I had to figure out settings.  That was the hardest.  After futzing around for a while taking generic shots of the obvious (Lions, library, trees etc), I finally started getting comfortable with the setup and started moving around more.

After 20 minutes, we were regrouped and split into pairs for our next exercise: Light writing and ghosting.  In other words, fun with long exposure times.  This was the best part.  I brought my camera to do things it never did before, and it was good!

Can you see me?

After fun with long exposure times and flashlights, we gathered and headed off to Times Square.  A place where night does not exist.  Here I had a lot of trouble.  There were so many people and so many kids (it was 10pm at this point and Toys ‘R Us was still packed!) out it was hard to pick a spot and try to figure out what setting to be in, and what I wanted to capture.  I never liked Times Square before, I still do not like it.  All that artificial light feels so strange.

On my way back to Grand Central, I tried to put my new found knowledge to some use on the quieter and darker streets.  I was lazy (and afraid of drawing attention) and didn’t bother pulling out the tripod, so a lot of my shots were a bit blurry.  But I think I’m getting it, very slowly.  At this point my left eye was tired from closing whenever I was looking through my view finder.

No hobby of mine is cheap.  What’s next on the wish list for this particular hobby? A tripod and maybe a lens hood, and if I get more serious about this photography thing, it might be a good idea to finally look into getting Photoshop.  Like my guide said.  Photography isn’t just pointing and shooting, it’s also post-processing.  The darkroom will be my computer.  Maybe one day, when the money stops bleeding out so quickly!

The pictures I took from the workshop can be found HERE!

There are pro’s and con’s to every season.  This week is a great example of a con to summer.  It is hot, it is humid, Con Ed put me on an electricity diet so we can all run our AC’s and not overtax the already overtaxed grid.

It’s days like these where we have to remember what makes summer so spectacular before we head back into the dead of winter.  The sun is up longer, I don’t need to layer up to go outside, no ice to slip and slide on, grilling and eating outside and so much more.  But, one of my most favorite pro’s of summer?  The bounty of fresh fruit available.

I learned the lesson the hard way yesterday about exercising in the heat.  I took Leeroy out for a run in the 90+ degree heat and humidity.  It was a poor decision on my part, and the dog paid for it.  Poor guy.  So today, with the forecast of another hot one, I put my bike back on the rack and decided to make myself a fruit salad.

How do you define a fruit salad?  To me, in its simplest form, a fruit salad is a collection of at least three fruits mixed together. Nothing fancy, especially if you’re a busy girl who hates fuss in the kitchen.

I had three fruits on hand today:

I had fresh figs bought yesterday at Stew Leonards:

I also bought a peach at the Apple Farm while I was waiting for Walee to be done at the groomers:

Last night, my mom also sent me home with two containers filled with watermelon she cut up for me.  Just the way I like it.  She is so good to me!  My mom’s the best 🙂

Since the peaches were more prone to browning I added a little citrus to the mix. All I had on hand was a lime and an orange. I didn’t feel like opening up a whole orange for a little of its juice, so I used the lime. I squeezed out the juice of half a lime and whisked in some homemade ginger syrup to temper the tartness:

I also zested some of that lime into the mix.  Then it got poured on top of the fruit and tossed about.  The result?

Fig Peach Watermelon Salad with a mixture of lime and ginger syrup!

It was pretty good. The lime really comes through, but isn’t mouth puker-ingly strong. I couldn’t taste the ginger, but I think the sweetness from the syrup really helped keep that lime in check. It was a refreshing and quick treat for a hot summer day!

What other fruit combinations do you like?

I was supposed to go try out the new pool I recently became a member of today.  The weather disagreed with me.  On my way home from work, the rain was coming down hard, although I did not hear any thunder.  However, once I got home, the sun was out and the rain stopped.  I was on the fence at this point.  The pool was less than a 10 minute walk away, and therefore, I could not in good conscious drive over.  With my luck, I would walk over, swim a couple of laps before getting kicked out due to another storm passing through.  Then what?  Then I’d be stuck there waiting it out because I was too afraid to walk home in it.  As of right now, it doesn’t seem like the case, but it’s too late, I made dinner and I ate it.  I will try again Thursday.

At least this leaves me some time to tell you about the awesome day I had in Manhattan on Saturday.  It was pretty exciting, and filled with yummy treats (it is me, after all).

I Metro-North’d it into Grand Central Station and the first thing I did was pick up a small iced coffee from Joe the Art of Coffee. That hit the spot on this rather warm morning as I walked from Grand Central to Penn Station where I was meeting my fellow traveler for the day, Liz.  It was a long sweaty walk.

Once we met up, we wandered over to the Highline.  They had recently opened up a new section of the Highline that extended up to this area.  We found it and soon found The Lot located at the very end.  The Lot is literally a lot, with a bar on one end, and various food trucks along the other.

There was some picnic tables set up for one to enjoy this bounty.  The Lot on Tap is operated by Colicchio and Son’s and offers a variety of wines and seasonal beers from the Brooklyn Brewery.  It was only a little after 11am at this point, and the food trucks were still setting up.  As we had walked past the bar, I noticed they had Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold on tap.  It was a hot day, I needed something cold and Liquid Gold isn’t so easy to find.  I got me some of that!

It was as delicious as I remembered, when I first sampled it at the Captain Lawrence anniversary bash a couple of months ago.  Crisp, smooth and with just enough of that hoppiness before it got too hoppy for me.

At around noon, the Food Trucks were up and running.  We decided to start off with some Chicken Thai Dumplings from the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck.  I swear, I think they used to come by Cooper during my last year there.  This was when food trucks were just starting out, and I somehow missed that boat!  The dumplings were very good.  I prefer my momma’s dumplings which are pan fried with crispy bottoms.  These were not pan fried, but the insides made up for it.  It was not dry, and very well spiced.  The peanut dipping sauce was also a nice accompaniment.

For our main course, we tried the four taco sampler.  I cannot remember exactly each one.  I remember, one is Korean BBQ, another had falafel and yogurt sauce, another was a chicken and the last may have been pulled pork.  All topped generously with kimchi and asian pico de gallo.  I was never a fan of kimchi, but put it in a taco, and I’ll try it.  They were all very good (and messy!).  Spicy they most certainly were, but I was able to get through a majority of it.

To end, we each (ice cream cannot be shared) got an ice cream sandwich from the Cool Haus truck.  So many different combinations of cookie and ice cream, what does one do?  Liz went with a double chocolate chip cookie and a mint ice cream (with real crushed mint leaves in it and it wasn’t frighteningly green!), and I went with red  velvet cookie with balsamic figs and marscapone ice cream.  I eat slow, and this may have been a poor choice.  Totally worth the mess that ensued!  The cookies were soft and very cookie like, and the ice cream was portioned generously and oh so delicious.

We walked off this meal along the Highline and took a quick break at Chelsea Market before heading further downtown to the West Village for some gelato from Grom.  Grom was delicious.  I got a small cup with a scoop of the nocciola and stracciatella.  It was wonderfully dense and creamy as gelato should be.  The nocciola was not overwhelmingly sweet but had a nice strong hazlenut flavor to it.  The stracciatella was light and filled with chocolate bits.  More walking was needed to burn this off!

We took a walk to bid our farewells to the old engineering building of The Cooper Union.  They were tearing it down soon, and after four years of blood, sweat and tears poured into the classrooms of that building, there will always be a little spot in our hearts for it.

At this point, Liz had enough, and went home 🙂

I then met Alli and Greg for dinner at the Lotus of Siam for some upscale Thai food.  Upscale and Thai food don’t normally go together, but let’s see what they can do!  I had a tofu pad thai (I’ve been craving pad thai), which was presented partially deconstructed.  It was really good.  The flavoring was great and the portion was filling without feeling overwhelming.  I think for the more inventive dishes, this is a great place.  But, for the more basic Thai dishes, street food will always be better on the street.

Then we made a dash for Battery Park.  We were about to participate in the latest MP3 experiment from Improv Everywhere that night.  A sort of Flash Mob, if you will.  We made it there just as it started.  I hit play on my trusty little ipod, and an hour of silliness ensued.  We waved, danced with and took pictures of strangers, and just made a scene all around.  There must have been at least a thousand people, but we were there to make contact, and we did.

The night was ended at a cute little ice cream/cafe before I hopped on the next train out of Grand Central home.  I felt like a little kid on her way home from a big adventure in the big city, excited, but ready for sleepy time.

For all pictures taken on this adventure, click HERE!

The 30 before 30 list.

I got this idea off another blog that I follow, Joy the Baker.  She recently posted an update to her 30 before 30 list, actually, 30 things for 30 list, and I was inspired.  I will be turning the big 3-0 in a mere 9 months.  Emotionally, I’ve been up and down about it, more down as of late because I feel like there was so much more I wanted to accomplish before I left the more carefree 20’s and ventured into the more serious 30’s.

Therefore, I’m going to start working on one.  Not necessarily a 30 before 30 list, but maybe an evolving life list broken up by decades, and to be filled in as I reach certain milestones.  So, when I do turn 30, I will feel like I’ve accomplished something as opposed to feeling like I fell behind.

As I think about this list, I did do something this past week that would have made it on the list, and now can be satisfyingly crossed off.

Treat myself to an exorbitantly expensive dinner, out of my own pocket.

This exorbitant dinner took place at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, located in Pocantico Hills, NY.  This restaurant is located at the Stone Barns Agricultural Center nestled within the Rockefeller Preserve State Park.  Spending many hours running around that park, Stone Barns was always a joy to run by and watch the farmers tending to the vegetable crops and by the cows and pigs the roam around the surrounding land.  It was as close to a working farm as I could get, peaceful, green and beautiful.  So, when my friend Claudine invited me to dine with friends as her last big dinner before the baby, I said yes with no hesitation.  The bookshelves can wait as I put the money for them towards this dinner.

The main dining area is in a converted dairy barn.  The room was airy with exposed steel beams and high ceilings.  As we settled into our table, we were presented with a menu.  It wasn’t really a menu, but literally a price list.  The only choices you had to make here was what you wanted to drink (water), how many courses you wanted that night (5 or 8, difference being variety, but amount of food being the same) and if you wanted to add a cheese platter (no).  We chose 8.  I figured, I’m here, might as well go whole hog.

I can go on and on about the food, but with 8 courses, it’s a lot of reading, so let me share some highlights (I didn’t take many pictures while I was there.  I felt a little shy about whipping the camera out to document my meal, but take my word for it, it was awesome visually as well):

• Freshly picked radish pods, are pleasantly spicy.  
• Liver and heart terrines sandwiched between whisper thin chocolate slivers tastes better than it sounds
• I don’t care for beets, but that salad with the yogurt and fresh strawberries have turned me.
• House made ricotta cheese from free roaming pasture cows is now something I will always dream about and miss every time I’m eating ricotta straight out of my Polly-O’s container.
• Fresh farm eggs have delicious yolks.  Best when minimally cooked.  Something I already knew, but this really hit it home.  I will no longer been cooking those eggs through anymore!
• That pasta was amazing.  That will also join the ricotta in the dream. 
• I can now add brain into my growing list of odd things that I have eaten.
• Corn and blueberries make a wonderful combination.  Corn ice cream does work.
• Rhubarb and red wine make a wonderful dessert combination as well.  Something to keep in mind when I start experimenting with rhubarb in the future!

We moved outside to the terrace for dessert.  The sun was setting and we were looking out into the vegetable fields where the fireflies were starting to come out and provide nature’s sparkling lights, or as it was also termed, “Farm Fireworks”.

 In the end, I am grateful to have been able to add this into my portfolio of dining experiences.  I guess I can check off high-end dining on my own dime off my  yet to be started bucket list.  And to think, if I start saving a dollar a day today, in a mere 200 days, I can try another 8 different courses!  Those bookshelves can wait…

FIrst, let me start off with a quick lead in story.

I went to the library near my work during a recent lunch break to grab a copy of the Cake Bible (by Rose Levy Beranbaum).  This is one book I really should buy given the frequency I check it out from this library.  After I found it, I decided to take a look at the other cookbooks this library carried.  So I started scanning the shelves, noting possible future selections.  Then I took a turn, and this book was the first thing I see:

Whoa…where did I just wander into?  Turns out it was the woman’s self help section.  Go figure it would be right next to the cookbooks.  Anyway, after skimming a good chunk of the first chapter and filling my eye rolling quota for the year, I put it down and went back to reality with the Cake Bible.

So, why the lead in story?  Well, as I was flipping through the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book (I do own others, and I will use them soon, I promise!), I happened across something called Blueberry Boy Bait.  According to the little inset, this was a family recipe that a young girl had entered into a Pillsbury Baking Contest and won second prize in the junior division.  It seems she named this recipe as such due to the effect it had on teenage boys once they got a bite of it.  Since it seems nothing else was helping me away from my cat lady status, why not see if this works?

The ingredients were plain and simple.  Butter, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, milk and blueberries.  The process was simple, dry into wet and fold in blueberries and then top with blueberries and a cinnamon sugar.  Bake, and then let the games begin!

It wouldn’t be me baking if something didn’t change.  So I cut the sugars down a touch (by a quarter of a cup) and added an extra handful of blueberries.  Nothing too bad.

So I mixed, and folded and then poured into my already greased and floured pan.  Added more blueberries on top, and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top.

When it was finally done, it smelled awesome.  But then when I went to go turn it out of the pan, I immediatly began to feel like something wasn’t right.  The top was nice and crunchy, but the bottoms looked a lot more greasy than I would like.  It was also much denser than anticipated.  Oh no, what happened?

I think I overmixed the batter.  I’m actually pretty sure I did.  The cake itself wasn’t bad to eat at all (I’ve already eaten four squares), but eating it with your hands rendered some greasy fingers.  The cake texture was dense and eggy, but the top was very good and crunchy.  I can’t tell what else went wrong.

Next time, I will mix the batter by hand when it comes time to introduce the flour mixture, and do it the way I learned in cookie class.  I will add it all at once and not in parts.  Oh baking experts, is there anything else that I might have done to lead to this?

Oh well, I guess this goes to prove how I am just not capable of baiting men.  Maybe I do need to spend more time in that part of the library!

I love Dragon Fruit.  I first had this cactus fruit on one of my trips to Hong Kong and China.  By itself, it’s so pretty.  This wonderful shade of a magenta like pink with green leaves.  The insides are white speckled with little black seeds.  The taste itself is very very subtle.  The texture is refreshing and the seeds give it a nice crunch.  It can be eaten alone, but is really best when paired with something else more flavorful.

My mother has been getting them for me on her trips to Queens.  This time they were only $3 a pound.  A steal!  So, I took mine and made a quickie salad for dessert, and tomorrows snack. 

In this salad, I put:

1 Dragon Fruit, skin removed and cut into chunks

A couple of good handful of fresh Blueberries, washed and picked through

1 rather large navel orange, peeled and cut into pieces.

Put it all together in a bowl, toss, and refrigerate if you want to eat it cold.  I left the pith on my orange segments.  I know it’s not sexy, but that pith is fiber (and Vitamin C), and I like to get my fiber wherever I can get it.  Plus a little extra Vitamin C won’t hurt either.