Saturday Breakfast

Sometimes you just have to take out a little time to relax and take care of yourself, and that's exactly what this breakfast is. I woke up surprisingly early today so I took a walk over to my favorite neighborhood bakery and got some milk bread (I have mentioned before that I'm totally obsessed with this bread, right?). Some sliced strawberries, some iced coffee, and the new Raveonettes album (which is TOTALLY AMAZING, by the way)....an excellent start to the morning.

Kanelbullar (Swedish Cinnamon Rolls)

So it's been a while since I last posted...(holy crap, almost 3 weeks in fact). I have to admit, I really lost my interest in cooking/baking (and therefore, taking/posting photos or blogging) for a while there. I always thought that I was the kind of person who baked to de-stress--well apparently there is a point beyond which even baking is too much to handle. So I've been holing up lately and just letting myself be lazy--I've been reading a lot (and watching lots of movies--well, on the weekends, at least). I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself, don't worry--and there are positive things to look forward to (like Py coming to visit in a couple of weeks). And warmer weather, and flowers blooming. Yes, it's not all bad, and what does not kill me (work) can only make me stronger (unless it does kill me).


Easter isn't a big thing for me, and with my current state of mind, I wasn't in the mood for making my army of bunny and chick cookies, like I had originally planned. But I wanted to make something a little more special, and cinnamon rolls sounded like just the thing, so I browsed around a bit and found this recipe for kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon rolls) at My Kitchen From Scratch. It was the photo that convinced me, and I happened to have pearl sugar in my pantry. There really is something to be said about the therapeutic value of kneading dough..not to mention the smell of butter and cinnamon. (Most of the other recipes I saw included a bit of cardamom, so I did the same, but you can certainly leave it out if you don't like the flavor.)


These are nice and tender (they should be! There is a lot of butter in these.) and only lightly sweet. The glaze and pearl sugar add a little bit of crunch and all around, these are great with a cup of tea (or coffee). I won't tell you how many I ate but I'll add it to my list of "things that make me feel better."

For those that celebrate it, Happy Easter!

Village Voice Choice Eats

Yeah, I'm a little late--the 4th annual Village Voice Choice Eats Tasting took place on March 29, so here I am, a whole week late posting about it--I actually blame the festival itself. I was too full to do anything afterwards (even type!). That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, better late than never, right? So as you might have guessed from the name, it's a giant tasting event featuring over 50 restaurants (and bakeries and food trucks); let me just remind myself that next year I must do some serious strategizing first because that is a whole lot of food, and I didn't get to taste nearly as much as I wanted to because I filled up so quickly. It's not just food either, the liquid side is well represented, with an entire row of breweries (although must say, my surprise favorite drink was a shot of whiskey with a pickle juice chaser.)


I actually sprang for the VIP tickets because it was a birthday present (very belated) for my brother, and I thought it turned out to be well worth it! For starters, we got to start tasting an hour earlier--above is a lobster roll from the Red Hook Lobster Pound. This was hands down my favorite from the entire night (and I think they were serving shrimp rolls during the general tasting hours, so woohoo lobster!) and I ate two.


Another favorite, a chipotle chicken taco from Cascabel Taqueria. I didn't take a picture of it, but my other favorite taco was from Mercadito involving shrimp and chorizo. Mm, chorizo.


Some delicious tofu and fungus from Umi-Nom. We loved the guy working at Umi-Nom; he had an Iron Maiden t-shirt on! I debated asking him if he would take a picture with my brother (my brother being a big metal head) but chickened out and then later it got too busy. They served a very spicy and super delicious Thai sausage and sticky rice as well during the VIP hour.


Smoked cauliflower on top of a waffle from Dirt Candy. It's a beautiful plate, but I am not a cauliflower fan to begin with, and I thought the smoke flavor was overpowering. Actually it reminded me of the flavor of the bacon mints my former co-worker made me try once.


Okay, please excuse this terrible picture, but this was so good! It's the Chocolate and Eggplant from Del Posto--yup, eggplant! There's a slice of battered and fried eggplant under the ice cream, and it worked really well. Actually we thought it kind of tasted like banana. So tasty. (So tasty that I'm debating going to Del Posto for my birthday dinner this year, hehe.) During the dessert sessions they also had little mini lollipops of olive oil gelato dipped in chocolate.


An octopus salad, which I also enjoyed. Unfortunately I don't remember which restaurant this was from; at this point in the evening I was starting to not want to eat anymore. And there was a lot more we tried, including a hot dog with mac and cheese on it, some straight up mac and cheese, meatballs, a delicious arepa, pig's head sandwich, roast pork pastry....but wait, there was still dessert to come:


The cupcake was delicious, with the frosting tasting like pretty much pure butter. But after this I had to throw in the towel. I took a couple of samples home (cookies, a honey cake)--oh, wait that's not true--on the way out, we snagged a port and ricotta mini cupcake from Kumquat Cupcakery. So delicious.


I'll leave you with a shot of my brother and his new best friend, the Kyochon chicken mascot. Haha. He looks pretty happy considering I forced him to take this picture :)

Irish Soda Bread

Just a quickie posting today--argh, my brother and I went to the Village Choice Eats festival last night and I don't think I want to eat ever again. I'm soooo full! Pictures/post to come, as soon as I can think about looking at food again. I'm going to have to rethink my food festival strategy...in the meantime, Totoro wants to know what the fuss is about soda bread, to which I say:


How could you NOT want to eat this? Mmm, currants and buttermilk. Want to make your own? Try this recipe here!

Ok, back to my current regimen of ginger tea and lots of vegetables...

world peace cookies

I've been on a baking spree lately (well, it FEELS like a spree!)--it's still pretty cold here in NYC (that one 70 degree day was such a tease) so it's nice to have the extra warmth generated by the oven. Fortunately most of the baking I'm doing is for other people, or else I would soon not be able to fit out of my door....


I'm always looking out for new packaging ideas (you should see my enormous collection of ribbons, thanks to my designer-friend) and I spotted these paper baking pans when I was at Daiso in February. They're meant to be single-use bakers, and they work very well for that purpose, but they're also great to use for packaging, and these cookies happened to fit perfectly. I just wrapped them with parchment and tied it off with some hot pink ribbon--prettier than plastic wrap, but still very simple.


But enough about the packaging, let's talk about the cookies! This is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking , and according to the note that accompanies the recipe, they were renamed World Peace Cookies because Dorie's neighbor was convinced that these cookies are all you need to ensure peace. Well, I actually disagree--if there was one cookie left and you and I were both staring at it...well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure things would end badly.


Fortunately, this time there are plenty to go around. Maybe that's the real secret--always keep a supply of cookies on hand.

If you don't have a copy of Baking (gasp! go get one! you need it!), the recipe can also be found here.

Leftover Magic: Fried Rice

I had dinner with some friends last night at RUB BBQ, and even though we didn't order a Baron (which is an obscene amount of food), I still ended up with a whole bunch of leftovers to bring home (brisket, some potato salad, and some awesome baked beans that I ate for breakfast. Weird? Maybe, but damn were they tasty!) I could have just eaten the brisket cold and would probably have done that, but I'm feeling slightly less lazy today than I normally do on a Saturday. Plus, I cleaned my fridge out this morning and found some things that needed to be used up in short order...and there's no better way of dealing with leftovers and fridge odds-and-ends than fried rice.


Pretty good looking brisket though, right?


And the other ingredients--minced shallots, ginger, diced kabocha squash, and some shredded bok choy. I had half of a squash lurking in the bottom of my produce drawer for ummmmm, probably a month now, and I feel better now that I've used (some of) it. (The rest is going to be steamed, I think.) Oh, it's not in the photo, but obviously I also had some leftover steamed rice--leftover, slightly dried out rice is perfect for fried rice, as freshly cooked rice would be too soft and sticky. I also scrambled up an egg and added that towards the end.


See, the smell of frying rice brings everyone out of hiding. Oh well, I guess there's enough to go around! I don't really have a recipe, exactly, just a method because quite frankly you can change this up however you want. Use whatever vegetables you have, although leafy greens and firmer vegetables (carrots and things like that) are better to use than veggies that give off a lot of liquid. Use high heat, toss often, and most importantly, add a bit of sesame oil at the end and serve immediately. Sambal is essential, in my book, but you of course can feel free to use some other chili sauce or no chili sauce at all. I won't judge! :)

Review: King Arthur Flour Jacques Torres Mudslide Cookie Mix

Phew, the name of this mix is quite a mouthful huh? Well, I suppose I'm lucky enough to have a Jacques Torres location nearby (I try not to pass by too often, the temptation is too great!) so if I really want one of his awesome cookies, I could just walk in to the shop. But if you don't live nearby, then I would say this mix is a pretty handy thing to have on hand. This was one of the items from the gift basket I won at the Girls Club bakeoff back in December. I felt like baking something up over the weekend but discovered to my horror that I was out of sugar! Me! I don't know how on earth this could happen! Anyhow, so, this mix allowed me to indulge in some baking without actually having to go out to buy sugar (yes, yes, I know, extremely lazy of me...)


So this is what actually comes in the box--two 7 oz packs of chocolate discs, and a baggie of the actual cookie mix itself (which has bits of walnuts in it). It's pretty simple to put together, and the only additional ingredients you need are two tablespoons of butter and two large eggs. So here we go!


Step 1, melt the butter and one packet of the chocolate discs together. Appreciate the fantastic smell of butter and chocolate. And the shiny!


Step 2, stir in the cookie mix. This batter stirs up very easily, so I just used a spatula...I don't think you need to break out an electric mixer at all.


Step 3, stir in 2 eggs, one at a time.


Step 4, stir in the other packet of chocolate discs.


Step 5, scoop out 1/4 cup portions of dough (these are big cookies, so give them plenty of space!), let sit for 10 minutes, and then bake in a 350 oven for about 13 minutes. When done, the cookies will be set around the edges, and soft in the center (actually, they'll seem totally under-baked), so you have to let them cool on the pan. This way, they'll be soft and chewy.


Step 6, eat! Oh, you want to see another picture?


If that pool of melted chocolate doesn't convince you, I don't know what will!


Try to make sure you have a glass of milk on hand, because holy cow, these cookies are soooooo rich. Too rich for me, actually, and I only managed half of a cookie. (Don't worry, the other half has been earmarked for breakfast tomorrow...).

The mix retails for $12.95 on the King Arthur website, which is a bit steep for a mix, but the cookies retail for around $2.50 apiece, so actually the mix isn't a bad deal (the pack makes 10 cookies). If I didn't bake regularly, I think I'd keep a box of this on hand for emergencies--and certainly if you don't live in the NYC area and want to taste a Jacques Torres style cookie, this is a pretty good option!