Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

March 17th, 2010

Over the weekend my friends and I decided to celebrate St. Patrick’s day by making a “traditional” Irish dinner. My friends Daniel and Katie  made the bulk of the meal including corned beef and cabbage. Pete brought the all important Guinness and for my contribution I tried my hand at making Irish Soda bread for the first time.

I found the recipe in my favorite Martha Stewart ‘s Baking Handbook. Making Irish soda bread is a lot like making scones, only  wetter and a lot bigger. You start off by whisking dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and  then add very cold butter and incorporate with a pastry blender, stir in raisins, and then finish off by adding in wet ingredients. It’s very easy and doesn’t even involve an electric mixer. The only part that I considered a little difficult was transferring the dough from the bowl to a parchment lined sheet tray. Since the dough was so wet, I found it easiest to make the transfer by holding the bowl above the pan and sliding it out with a spatula. Once the dough was on the pan I brushed it with an egg wash, sliced the shape of an “X” and baked it for about an hour.

I’ve always wanted to be 100% Irish (I’m only 1/4) and to celebrate and be proud of my heritage, but hey I am what I am and I can still celebrate! Dinner was a success and the soda bread was good with the dinner and then toasted with butter for the following breakfasts.

Irish Soda Bread
(Martha Stewart)

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons caraway seeds (I didn’t have these so I omitted them)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
2 cups golden or dark raisins
1 1/2 scant cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and caraway seeds until well combined.
Using a pastry cutter or two knives in scissor fashion, cut in butter until the mixture feels like coarse meal. Stir in raisins until evenly distributed.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and baking soda until well combined. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour-and-butter mixture all at once, and stir with a fork until all the liquid is absorbed and the mixture begins to hold together. It should resemble a rough biscuit dough. Using your hands, press the dough into a round, dome-shaped loaf about 8 inches in diameter. Lift the loaf from the bowl, and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream together. With a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the loaf. With a sharp knife or razor, incise a cross, about 1/2 inch deep, into the top of the loaf. Transfer to the oven. Bake, rotating halfway through, until it is deep golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center, about 70 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer bread from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool.

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San Diego

March 4th, 2010

As an amazing birthday present my sister decided it might be fun to take a vacation, so along with her boyfriend Will we decided on the southern coast of California in San Diego! Our trip was only for four days, but we ended up doing a lot. The first day we got there we visited the famous San Diego Zoo where we saw so many animals from all over the world. On the second day we rented a car and went exploring on the coast- up to the La Jolla Coves and Torrey Pines State Park. This alone was reason enough for me to never want to leave California. I have never before seen such diverse and lush plant life and landscape in my life, it was beautiful to say the least. While hiking through the state park we were introduced to different scenery, each vastly different from the next, ranging from desert shrubs and sand to breathtaking cliffs and ocean views. Oh man, I want to go back now! Interspersed with our adventures outside we also had the opportunity to take advantage of San Diego’s local cuisine.

Before leaving for San Diego I asked a lot of people for suggestions on what to do and mainly what to eat. The resounding answer to this question was fish tacos. I couldn’t go to San Diego and not try them so while we were driving through La Jolla we stopped and asked a stranger on the street where we should go to get good fish tacos and he pointed us in the direction of Rimel’s Rotisserie. Wedged in the middle of a strip mall (albeit nice strip mall) we would have never spotted this restaurant or had thought to go in. The tacos were really good, made with fresh pressed corn tortillas from the place next door  filled with fresh mahi mahi and topped with cabbage and cilantro. What’s more- we got to eat outside! What more could we ask for?

Another suggestion brought us to our next destination which was brunch at Cafe on Park. We found this place located in the Hillcrest neighborhood near Balboa Park from a city guide to San Diego on the blog Design*Sponge. We were all very happy with our food ranging from house made granola with tons of fresh fruit and yogurt to sundried tomato and basil scramble. It was great to have a breakfast akin to something we would like to have at home (made better) and to explore a new neighborhood.

Before seeing a show at The National Comedy Theatre we had dinner at The Linkery in the neighborhood of North Park. This was another Design*Sponge suggestion that did not disappoint.  As you can see by the sight of this cheese board, we were in the right place. Known as a great farm-to-table restaurant along with local cask beers and wine this is a place in San Diego you should visit. Our entrees included provolone and grana padano cheese flatbread, pesto mushroom flatbread, and the portobello burger.

If the scenery of San Diego weren’t enough, the food we enjoyed during our trip put it over top. I think all three of us wonder why we aren’t living there right now- maybe one day…

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Birthday Brunch

February 26th, 2010

Not only did my boyfriend and my friends help me to celebrate a great birthday, but so did my family. The weekend of good food and good company continued on Sunday (my actual) birthday at my aunt’s house where both she and my mom helped to create a feast for brunch.

The feast included two quiches my mom made- one with just gueryere cheese and the other with cheese, roasted mushrooms, spinach, caramelized shallots, and bacon (!).  There was smoked salmon, tomatoes, red onions, and capers to accompany bagels that Pete and I picked up from Bagel on Damen.

My mom had stayed up late the night before baking a ton of breakfast pastries including three kinds of muffins (blueberry, lemon poppy seed, and banana chocolate chip) and I contributed croissants and tarts that I had made in the bakery.

To top everything off, my mom baked me my favorite- carrot cake! I am so thankful for everything my family, friends, and boyfriend did for me for my birthday weekend, they made me so happy!

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Thanks Friends!

February 24th, 2010

Wow, I had a very happy birthday weekend! It started off on Friday when Peter took me out to the Bristol for dinner. I’ll let you in on a secret… if you want to make me very happy feed me really good food! I spent the entire dinner smiling since every dish was delicious! Afterwards we headed into Wrigleyville to see a show at Improv Olympics, which was so entertaining and fun!

On Saturday morning my mom and my sister Liz came over to help me prepare for the dinner party I was hosting with my friends later that night. We started off the day by grocery shopping for the long list of ingredients needed for the night’s menu. Once we returned to my kitchen each of us chopped, sauteed, and baked the vegetarian lasagna, caesar salad and appetizers.

Once the food was prepared we packed up the car and headed over to Peter’s apartment where the party was to be held. My mom is responsible for setting the table, which turned out beautifully with an eclectic mix of my Oma’s china and different colored vases filled with flowers.

I made the streamers ahead of time by cutting out lots of yellow and white paper circles then threading them through fishing line- we hung these streamers above the dinner table.

I was so lucky to have the aid of my mom and sister, I wouldn’t have been able to do all that work by myself.

The party was so much fun and the food was so good. To top of the night, my friend Annie presented a cake that she made composed of vanilla cake and three types of caramel, she even decorated with a birthday banner that she also handmade. I am so lucky to have such great friends and family, they made my birthday so special.

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Reason to Celebrate

February 19th, 2010

I’m excited because today marks the one year anniversary of Eat My Blog and the 100th post! I am proud that I’ve stuck with it this long, I’m always excited to share what I’ve made with you even if it might be hard sometimes for me to actually sit down at the computer and put into words what I’ve accomplished.

I probably wouldn’t have kept up with it if it weren’t for my family and friends whose support and encouragement make me want to continue creating new products and making the blog better.

Check back later next week because I’m sure to have lots of pictures to share with you. This weekend is my birthday and I have a dinner party planned with my friends on Saturday and on my actual birthday  (Sunday) I’ll be spending time with my family.

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Granola Bars

February 18th, 2010

You know how I told you about that weekend a few weeks back that my mom, my sister and I baked a TON of stuff? Well this is another one of the products that came out of that weekend. Heavily adapted from an Ina Garten recipe, these granola bars only have about half of the orignial ingredients that she included in the original recipe. We wanted pure and simple, great tasting granola bars with only sliced almonds and dried cherries for added flavor.

These bars were a breeze to make. Just toast oatmeal and nuts together until lightly browned, then transfer to a large bowl. On the stove in a small saucepan make a syrup by melting together your wet ingredients (butter, honey, brown sugar, & vanilla). Pour that mixture over your oats and nuts, stir and then incorporate your dried cherries into the mix.

With a prepped sheet pan-lined with parchment, pour the mixture onto the pan. Spread evenly with wet hands or spatula. Top the granola with parchment and press down with a sheet pan so that the granola is tightly packed. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for at least 2-3 hours then cut into bars with a serrated knife.

Easy right? Well, once the bars are cooled and cut, then comes the fun part…packaging! We bought a roll of cellophane and green tulle from the Container Store and used those to wrap each granola bar individually. For each bar we then handwrote labels and adhered them to the package. And voila! Homemade granola bars that you can be happy having for a snack, since you know everything that went into them (no scary additives), plus they’re as cute as can be!

Homemade Granola Bars (Heavily adapted from Ina Garten)

4 c. old-fashioned oatmeal

1 1/2 c. sliced almonds

3 T. unsalted butter

2/3 c. honey

1/4 c. light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 1/2 t. pure vanilla extract

1/2 t. kosher salt

1/2 c. – 1 c. dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter an 8 x 12″ baking pan and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal and almonds onto a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300ºF.

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add dried cranberries and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan. Top granola with parchment and press down with same sized pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into rectangle. Wrap.

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Cookie A La Mode

February 17th, 2010

This weekend that we spent painting was pretty successful. Even though we completely underestimated the time that it would take us to do this job, we were able to get three of the eight(!) rooms painted. It was really hard work, but Pete and I were lucky enough to have my amazing mom to come in and paint, which was a huge help.

While Pete and I were painting at the new place, my sister and her boyfriend spent the weekend at my apartment. To break a bit from painting they picked me up and we went to the Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market on Saturday. There were bakeries and pastry chefs from all over Chicago and some friendly faces like Floriole Bakery, Rare Bird Preserves, and Nice Cream. When we stopped to say hi to Kris at Nice Cream she allowed us to sample all four of her winter ice cream flavors, all of which were delicious! My sister bought a couple half pints and I brought home with me a pint of the Gingersnap Ice Cream with Cookie Pieces. It was fun, but we left soon after since it was so packed and I had to get back to work.

When I got back to my apartment on Monday, I was so happy to see two giant homemade chocolate chip cookies left for me by my sister! So you know what I did?? I warmed up the cookie and topped it with a scoop of my new Nice Cream flavor. The weekend was good, but this was a great way to end it!

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Valentine’s Day Linzer Hearts

February 12th, 2010

Happy Valentine’s day everyone! What are you doing this weekend to celebrate? Pete and I will be spending the weekend painting our new apartment in preparation for our move-in in May.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day my mom, Liz, and I baked these cute Linzer Heart cookies to give as gifts. We found the recipe for the cookie from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. This recipe makes a cookie that is delicate and quite flavorful (from the nut flour and lemon zest). I do want to warn you though, this dough is fairly hard to work with (it may crack), but you just need to be patient and keep working with it to get it rolled out to the desired thickness. To make this recipe you also need to make sure you have two different sized heart-shaped cookie cutters on hand for cutting the “window” on the top layering cookie. The extra small heart you cut out can also be baked and made into nice bite-sized sandwich cookies.

The raspberry jam was made by a recipe that I’ve adapted from various recipes that works pretty well for me and it very easy to make. All you need to do is weigh out 800 g. frozen raspberries, 600 g. sugar, and juice one lemon. Place the frozen raspberries and the sugar in a large pot and cook over a medium-high heat. Stir to ensure sugars dissolve and continue cooking until it reaches 105ºC and be patient because this takes a while! Once it reaches this temperature, remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. This recipe makes a lot of jam, so what I did was pour some of the jam into a glass pyrex dish (with lid) to use for the cookies and jarred the rest. Making the jam ahead of time, makes the cookies all the easier when you go to make them, plus homemade jam tastes so delicious!

Linzer Hearts (Martha Stewart)

2 c. all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

1 c. blanched hazelnuts (I used almonds)

2 sticks (1c.) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 c. sugar

2 lg. egg yolks

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1/2 t. freshly grated lemon zest

1/2 c. raspberry jam for filling

1/4 c. confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a food processor, pulse hazelnuts (or almonds) until finely ground. Whisk the ground hazelnuts into the flour mixture; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg yolks, vanilla and lemon zest; beat to combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With mixer on low speed, add nut-flour mixture, and beat until just combined.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface, divide in half, and shape into flattened discs. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator, and let stand until softened slightly. (This will help the dough from cracking when rolled) On a large piece of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour, roll dough to 1/8″ thickness (I found more success with a slightly thicker dough). To prevent sticking while rolling, occasionally run a large offset spatula under dough, and add more flour to the top or bottom of the dough. Transfer parchment paper and dough to a baking sheet; freeze until firm, about 2o minutes. Repeat with remaining dough (you can stack the parchment and the dough).

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove one sheet of dough and parchment from the freezer; working quickly, cut into heart shapes with a 3-inch cookie cutter. Cut out center from half the shapes with a 2-inch cutter. Using a wide metal spatula, transfer open hearts to prepared baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart; freeze until firm, about 15 minutes (you can bake the cutouts centers for bite sized cookies, or reroll them to make larger hearts).

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are crisp and lightly golden all over, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely (cooled cookies can be stored overnight in an airtight container at room temperature before filling). Spread the flat sides of the whole hearts with about 1 1/2 t. jam. Sift confectioner’s sugar over the open hearts. Just before serving, top open hearts with jam. Cookies should be eaten the day they’re filled.

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What I’ve Been Up To: Chocolate Desserts

February 10th, 2010

A week ago, my mom and sister spent the weekend at my apartment. While they were here we baked about ten different recipes, some to send as care packages for friends and family and some we made just for us. Among the products we made were two great desserts made with chocolate, that I thought I’d share with you.

The first one we made was an old favorite, chocolate brownies. A specialty of my mom’s. This is an easy recipe that comes on the back of Baker’s chocolate boxes, all you need to do is to microwave butter and chocolate together until melted and stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour. We normally then bake our brownies in a 13×9 in. pan, but since we had cute Valentine’s Day mini baking cups (from Sur La Table) we decided to make brownie bites-which are a perfect poppable size. Since we changed the brownie size, it is important to keep an eye on these guys since they are much smaller, it took 10-15 min. in my oven to bake. Once cooled, we then packed them in small clear bags for care packages.

My sister is responsible for finding the recipe for Tyler Florence’s chocolate banana bread. The combination of cocoa powder, melted bittersweet chocolate, and bananas makes this my favorite banana bread recipe. Since we were giving these loaves away we baked them in four mini loaf paper molds that we also found at Sur La Table. This bread baked up beautifully, with a crackly rustic top. When the loaves cooled we wrapped them in plastic wrap and packed them in clear plastic bags to keep them as fresh as possible.

The weekend spent with my mom and sister was one of the best weekends I’ve had at my apartment. It was amazing how much we accomplished, it was so much fun! I hope you try these recipes, especially if you like chocolate!

Baker’s One Bowl Brownies

4 squares BAKER’S Unsweetened Chocolate

3/4 cup  (1-1/2 sticks) butter

2 cups sugar

3   eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup  flour

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil. (Or line muffin tin with baking cups)

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles. Cut into squares. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature. (Bake 10-15 if using mini muffin pan)

Chocolate Banana Bread (Tyler Florence)
Makes 1 loaf (or 4 mini loaves)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
2 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, cream the butter until lightened, then beat in the chocolate, eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined; do not overbeat.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake until a toothpick stuck into the center of the bread comes out almost clean, 50 to 60 minutes.  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for at least 15 minutes before unmolding.

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What I’ve Been Up To: Annie’s Birthday Cake

February 8th, 2010

Back in Decemeber, my friend Annie posted a cake on her blog that she wanted to have on her birthday. This cake had six layers of alternating chocolate, vanilla, and pink vanilla layers, iced with pink buttercream frosting, I thought it would be a fun challenge to make it and a nice surprise for her. When I saw the cake I had never attempted anything like it before, except for a 3 tiered cake at school. This was new territory for me.

The first thing that I did to make this cake  was draw out a diagram of how I wanted it to look inside and out. It’s dorky, but it helps! I also wrote out a list of the components of the cake and a timeline for when they needed to be completed as a guideline for production. I also decided to make my own addition to the cake: raspberry jam (to cut the richness of the cake and buttercream).

Once I had done that, I set out to find the recipes I would use for the cakes and the buttercream icing. After researching I decided to use Martha Stewart’s recipes for chocolate and vanilla cake and a tradtional buttercream recipe from the Magnolia Bakery cook book. Since this cake was going to be six tiers high, i thought it was best to make the cakes a smaller size and used 6 in. cake pans instead of the more common 9 in. cake size. This created a cake that had a really cute appearance, especially when placed on my small pink cake stand. (The recipes made more cake than I needed so instead of wasting the batter, I baked some cupcakes)

So the Friday before Annie’s birthday party I baked each of the three cakes, let them cool, cut off the tops to even them out, sliced them in half and wrapped each one individually to freeze until the next day (so they wouldn’t dry out). I also made a fresh batch of raspberry jam and refrigerated it until I was ready for assembly of the cake.

On Saturday, with most of the components already completed, I mixed a double batch of buttercream and set out to assemble the cake. With the aid of my diagram and my great sous chef, I started icing and layering the cake on top of a cardboard cake round. First layer down was vanilla, then I piped on some pink buttercream. Then it was topped with pink vanilla and an outer ring of buttercream (or moat- to prevent jam from leaking) and jam inside, then topped with chocolate cake. After that, I just repeated the process until all six of my tiers had been layered. I then covered the outside of the cake with two layers of buttercream and let it rest in the refrigerator before decorating.

To decorate the cake I piped vertical lines of frosting a half inch apart down the sides of the cake. At the end of each line I placed a pink draget (decorative sugar ball) and also used them to decorate the top. I was happy with the result of the cake. It was really fun to make and I was really happy to make it for Annie!

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