Matt's Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake with Blueberry Preserves, Blueberry Milk Crumbs, and Cream Cheese Frosting)

Oh, how do I start this one.  For as long as I've known him, I've made my husband Matt a birthday cake that incorporates his favorites - carrot cake, which is his lifelong birthday cake, and blueberries.  Never together though - it's always been carrot cake or some sort of cake with blueberries.

But this year, he deserved the cake to outdo all other cakes.  Carrot cake and blueberries.

Early Summer Salad with Quinoa and Strawberry Dressing

I'll admit that there are weeks that I just don't feel like coming up with some creative way to use my CSA share.  Thankfully, produce that grows at the same time of year almost always tastes good together.

Our first share was a perfect combination of vegetables - leeks, lettuce, mizuna, radishes, asparagus, and strawberries - so I decided to keep things simple and incorporate most of it into a salad to highlight the textures, flavors, and freshness of the produce.

Butternut Blondies

I’ve never been a fan of blondies. They’re usually just overly sweet little blobs packed with white chocolate chunks (which I do not at all care for) and maybe some nuts. There’s no real flavor there, at least not in any of the blondies I’ve ever eaten to date, and, as a result, I’ve never been compelled to make my own.

That is, up until last week, when I somehow stumbled upon a recipe for butternut squash blondies. The recipe looked weird, though – strange proportions and the inclusion of those dreaded white chocolate chips – so I took the basic idea and set about crafting my own recipe.

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Here's the second of the three flavors of cupcakes I made for Matt's brother's wedding a few months ago.  They're a variation on my vanilla cupcakes and the frosting is my standard Swiss meringue buttercream with an ample dose of fresh raspberry puree to make the frosting not only a vibrant shade of pink but also tart and redolent of raspberries.  They're light and bright and perfect for a party.

Peach Blueberry Tarts with Brown Butter Almond Crust, Bourbon Mascarpone, and Basil

A few weeks ago, a wonderful French-inspired patisserie/boulangerie opened just a few blocks from me.  Their croissants are perfect - in fact better than those at Bouchon Bakery - their breads are excellent, and they have a wide array of little pastries.  Among them are seasonal fruit tarts with combinations such as blueberry, lemon, and lemongrass and cherries with rosewater.  I've been there a few times and have loved their breads and croissants, but have not yet been bowled over by the tarts, which, at $6.50 a pop, are not cheap.  So I decided to make my own.

Vegan Coconut-Oat Pancakes with Blackberry-Peach Compote

It’s January, which means many of us are attempting to eat healthier to negate the many calories packed on over the holidays.  I'm trying to eat better this year, but not because I overate this past month (or did I, hm), but because my detox diet last year made me more attuned to the types of grains I eat, so my sort-of resolution for this year is to eat less gluten and, if I do eat gluten, it should be of the whole grain variety.

Although there is no way I am giving up pizza at Roberta’s. So when I made pancakes for brunch last weekend, I started to scheme about how I could make them healthier. Add to that the fact that, for the past few months, I’ve been getting a number of requests for egg-free recipes, and I came up with this.

Currant Yogurt Muffins

As much as I love being a CSA member, some weeks I get things that have minimal utility. Case in point: loads of curly cress (it's so strong and peppery that you can't use much of it) and last week's quart of fresh currants. You can't really eat them like grapes or other berries - they're super tiny and very tart - so the only thing you can really do is bake them or add them to savory dishes that could benefit from a little tartness.

I used my currants two ways: first in an eggplant caponata (which is all about agrodolce - sweet and sour - so the currants were an excellent addition) and later in these muffins. The tart currants melded beautifully with the yogurt and their flavor was accented by a bit of almond flour and extract. A touch of orange zest lent these a wonderful fragrance (reminiscent of the classic cranberry-orange flavor combination) and freshly ground fennel seeds rounded out the mix, providing a bit of mild savoriness.

Floral Rhubarb-Strawberry Crostata

Ah, the classic combination of strawberry and rhubarb. As you may know, I got a whole lot of rhubarb and 2 quarts of strawberries and I didn’t want them to sit around until the next week, when I would likely be getting more of them, so I had to use them up.

I wasn’t feeling too original nor was I in the mood to think, so I whipped up my standard galette/crostata dough and mixed up the rhubarb and strawberries with sugar and cornstarch. But, of course, not one to be content with simplicity, I added some floral notes, courtesy of dried lavender buds in the crust and rosewater in the filling. I’ve seen rhubarb-lavender desserts, and strawberries and rosewater is fairly common, so I figured I’d incorporate both flavors to play off the sweet-tart strawberry-rhubarb action. Nothing earth-shattering, but a little unexpected twist to the classic combination.

Strawberry Salad with Balsamic, Blue Cheese, and Tarragon

Words alone cannot express how excited I am to finally be a member of a CSA! I had always wanted to join but it’s not the easiest thing in the world to do when you’re single and living with roommates. Sure, I could have found a friend to share with me, but I think that 5-6 years ago, most of us (myself included) weren’t quite as into or aware of our food as we are today.

Matt and I frequently shopped at the farmers markets in Baltimore, and when I moved back to NYC two years ago, I was living alone so a full share was, again, not really the best option. I’m sure I could have easily used up each week’s share, but I was so busy with work and wedding planning that I wasn’t particularly focused on food. So now that Matt is here and life has calmed down, we are now the proud new owners of a CSA membership.

Blueberry Ricotta Tart

At long last, here’s the recipe for my entry for the Brooklyn Beer Experiment.

When I decided to enter, I came up with a shortlist of things to make. My first thought was Beeramisu using a coffee porter (specifically, Sixpoint’s Gorilla Warfare, which is SO GOOD) instead of Marsala + espresso, but, unfortunately, I was too late, as the organizers of the event informed me that someone else had already entered it. (And Johnny Iuzzini, who is one of my favorite pastry chefs, deemed it the best dessert. Note to self: stop procrastinating.) I am, however, undeterred, and plan on making this at some point in the future using the original tiramisu recipe, which, as I mentioned last fall, was created in Baltimore.

I'm Back (Sort Of) and a Market Meal

Shame on me for having been gone for so long. Life has been pretty busy, what with planning the upcoming wedding (which is exactly 100 days away - I better get cracking on the rest of my DIY projects), searching for a house, giving up on that and deciding to modify the search for an apartment to rent, embarking upon said search, and finally moving a few weekends ago (I'm back in Carroll Gardens, my favorite neighborhood in Brooklyn). Of course these are all just excuses, as my friend Meghan had a baby a month ago and is already back to blogging.

Cranberry, Pear, and Almond Frangipane Tart

So it’s January and I’m still posting my Thanksgiving recipes…..

Anyhow, this one was actually a last minute addition to the Thanksgiving menu. There was a total of 15 of us and I realized that one apple pie and one pumpkin cheesecake would be just enough for everyone, and, of course, just you don’t want just barely enough of anything you’re serving – you want to make sure there’s plenty to go around. I wasn’t quite sure what to make that would be Thanksgiving-y, and it occurred to me that I should use cranberries seeing as how they weren’t on the main menu.

Lemon Raspberry Cake

I made this cake for a family gathering at my parents’ house a few Saturdays ago. I was initially planning on making a cake version of my Brown Sugar-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Blackberry Frosting, but apparently all the supermarkets my mom went to were conspiring against us, as she was unable to find blackberries at each of the stores she went to that day (and she went to a lot just to find those elusive blackberries). I was informed of this dearth of blackberries while I was at work, and she asked what she should get for my Plan B cake…except I didn’t have a Plan B, so I was forced to come up with one on the spot: Lemon Raspberry Cake.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

There’s really not much of a story on these cupcakes – they were made as per a friend’s request for his 30th birthday. I sent him an email listing all the possible flavors of cake and frosting I could make. He picked white chocolate, vanilla, lemon, and strawberry, and I decided on white chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

Most white chocolate cakes and cupcakes are very dense (which is why I generally dislike them), so I made sure to make these cupcakes light and soft (yogurt is my new best friend when making cupcakes). The frosting is a standard Swiss meringue buttercream with a thick strawberry reduction added at the end, and the cupcakes were finished off with half of a locally grown strawberry that is small and ruby red and actually tastes like a strawberry.

Brown Sugar-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

Update: these cupcakes were selected as one of the 20 best potluck recipes by the New York Times Magazine!  Make sure to check out all 20 recipes and read the related article by Amanda Hesser.


I don’t want to play favorites, but I’m going to have to: this here is my favorite cupcake to date. It’s actually my favorite cake (I’ve made it a few times before), but because I wasn’t in the mood to make a full-out layer cake (nor did I think it would be a good idea to have my favorite cake sitting in my apartment), I decided to just turn the cake into cupcakes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Ginger Scones

I can’t believe I got up early on both Saturday and Sunday to go to the Waverly and Baltimore Farmers Markets, respectively. Saturday’s trip was exclusively for dairy, and Sunday was the opening of the larger Baltimore Farmers Market (the one under the JFX). I really love going to the JFX market – waking up early, perusing the market, and walking home with bags full of produce makes me feel productive, and, for some reason, walking to the market and then walking home with heavy bags of produce reminds me of being in NYC – probably because one of the aspects of living in NYC is that you have to lug all of your purchases home because you don’t have a car.

It’s not quite summer yet, and the market is still overflowing with spring produce: asparagus as far as the eye can see, spring onions, greens, and herbs are the most abundant right now. Both markets were selling strawberries from North Carolina, and there was but one vendor at each market selling rhubarb . I had to get the rhubarb because it’s going to be out of season soon and I wanted to make a pie with it. So of course I got strawberries to go with the rhubarb – they’re a classic pair in pies (although I prefer peach with rhubarb, but it’s not peach season yet, so strawberries it was).

Middle Eastern Agrodolce Strawberries

I couldn’t resist buying the strawberries that were staring me in the face at the supermarket last week. I’m actually not a big fan of strawberries (I prefer raspberries, big surprise, and blackberries), but, hey, sometimes we all make impulse purchases. At least this one wasn’t a $600 pair of killer metallic lavender stilettos that were 40% off…not like I’ve ever done that…

Anyway, I had no idea what to do with these strawberries, especially because, as I mentioned above, I don’t so much care for them. For some reason the word “agrodolce” (which, in Italian, means “bittersweet”) was stuck in my head all week (as were many other Italian words; this was probably because I was singing some songs by Bellini in the shower earlier in the week and then I couldn’t get them out of my head), and then at one point “agrodolce” and “strawberries” ran into each other somewhere in the grey matter inside my little dome. 

Love and Death by Chocolate

Love and death: a weighty theme for this little food blog of mine, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I promise it will lead to a recipe.
Love and death are a popular and enduring pair: amongst their many appearances are their unbilled star turn in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in Sara Teasdale’s poetry of the early 1900’s, and in indie rock from the early 2000’s (in particular, on the debut album of one of my favorite bands, The Stills). It’s fairly easy to see how these two are linked; some people will do anything for love (just look at what Juliet did).

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

My supervisor at work - who is awesome for many reasons - gave me a sweet holiday present last month – a jar of wild Maine blueberry jam that she had made in August while she was vacationing in Maine with her family. I didn’t want to just put it on toast; I was saving it for something really good. Last weekend, I came up with it: super-fluffy pancakes.

 

I haven’t made pancakes in years, and I recall that my previous attempts were flat and kind of blah. I know that I’m much better in the kitchen these days, so I decided to revisit them. I love using buttermilk when I bake – the end result is always seriously moist and fluffy – so I decided to use it in my pancakes, too. And, as I had hoped, the pancakes turned out exactly the same way. 

Bostini Cream Pie - Daring Bakers Challenge

A few months ago, I ran across a blog that is a member of The Foodie Blogroll: The Daring Bakers. Their premise is simple and fun: each month, one member shares a recipe for a baked good and all the other members make it exactly as written (substitutions are only allowed for dietary reasons and for certain flavorings, and the recipe can be scaled down) and then everyone posts their results on their blog on the same day at the end of the month. It was interesting to see how one recipe produced such different results, and, since I bake so much, I thought I’d join.