Blogs That Make Us Hungry: Cake Wrecks

Janet here: It's Cake Week here at LTIR so this blog devoted to, as the name so wonderfully states, Cake Wrecks seemed the perfect blog to give a shout out to. Not that Rachel or I has ever made a cake wreck of course. But the sensibility of someone who focuses on life's imperfections — the blog's tagline is "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong" — rather than its wonderfulness seemed, well, like something we would have done if we'd thought of it first. Sadly, we didn't.

The post yesterday on Mother's Day cakes gone bad was especially brilliant. As a former high school English teacher and an editor now, I get more than a little irritated by grammatical mistakes and their clear indication that society as we know it is on the downward slid. And then I read blogger Jen's one-liners about these professionally-made cakes and I just felt so much better. Someone else is as bothered by apostrophe misuse and poor spelling as I am!

Jen is an equal-opportunity cake basher; anyone can submit a professionally-made cake gone awry and she'll consider it. In this world where the PC police are making humor in general something that's not allowed, it's just so refreshing to see someone willing to lighten up. I have bookmarked this baby and will absolutely use it to make my day a better one, one bad cake at a time.

Rachel here: Ok, so I'm obsessed with this website. Nothing is better in the middle of trudging through two painfully long and tedious weeks of final exams than the discovery of a website on which you can spend hours procrastinating. Ok, maybe hours is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my drift. Stuck with a boring desk job? Bookmark this site for when you've run out of people you went to kindergarten with to look up on Facebook. It is seriously, seriously funny and, plus, promises to alleviate any pressure you might feel to attain culinary perfection in the kitchen.

Will Bake Vegan Chocolate Cake for Furniture

Rachel here: John and I have needed a bureau for umm...way too long. When we moved (back in the early days of this blog), we were quick to unpack our kitchen and other essentials (like the Xbox and books). Everything else has been unpacked as we've encountered a need for various items.

Way at the bottom of the endless to-do list has been "find a bureau." This is because we initially put our bedroom in a room filled with built-ins and figured that would work for a while. It did, until our bed frame broke last week. We were both interested in moving our bedroom to a sunnier room of the house (waking up to the sunshine just can't be beat) and so we figured this was as good a time as any to make the switch. We left our clothes in the old room (now the dining room) and figured we'd probably get on that whole bureau project sooner rather than later, but certainly not until I was done with school (I'm in the thick of finals right now, so if I stop making sense and start quoting Melville, forgive me). In one of those beautifully serendipitous moments in life, the morning after we moved our bedroom I was contacted by my friend H (that's what I'll call her here, anyway) who said that she had a fabulous bureau she needed to get rid of that day because she was moving. We offered money, she refused. Instead, H and I decided that I would bake her whatever her little heart desired.

Oh, H. You are really awesome.

So, H is one of those rare sorts who is both lactose intolerant and a vegetarian. For all intents and purposes (absent, of course, certain ideological convictions), this renders her a vegan. In some bizarre twist, I have two friends who suffer the same dietary plight (I guess vegetarianism isn't really a plight, but rather a choice...just, you know, not a choice I'm making). Anyway, what H requested was a vegan chocolate cake. My stomach knotted a bit because I had never undertaken vegan baking successfully before. My only prior experience was with cupcakes several years ago that were, umm....gross. Anyway, I got on the internet and started reading recipes, looking for one that sounded the most like cake as I know and love it. What I found was a phenomenally simple recipe on allrecipes.com. I baked a practice cake to make sure everything came together well (I didn't want to give H a tasteless brick in exchange for her sleek mid-century modern bureau...*swoon*) and, after John and I devoured it, I made another one for H, confident that it would be yummy.

So, here's the deal. This recipe should be added to your arsenal. You should bake it when you forget to bake a cake or some other dessert, be it for a dinner party or somebody's birthday. It takes mere minutes to throw together and you can have the entire thing ready to go in an hour (tops). Also, because it's vegan, you can bake it as thoroughly as you'd like. If you like a little bit of gooey chocolate in the top center of your cake, go for it. It is sort of like having a little frosting tucked in there. Vegans always tell you that vegan desserts are the best. I am here today to say that, while I can't speak for all of them, this one is seriously, seriously good.


Janet here: There's seems a certain irony to have the carnivore part of this blogging duo be the one to make the first official vegan entry. Sort of like the world order is little off kilter, in a Lost kind of way. (And there will be LOT more coming here on Lost because we are both officially addicts and already beginning to mourn the end of the series, which is in a mere couple of weeks and for which we are going to, in the geekiest of fashions, create a menu for the Lost finale evening ala what other, much cooler people do for, say, a home Oscar party or something.)

Anyway, I have never made a vegan cake and until Rachel began raving about this one, really never intended to. Now, this one is on my radar. I'll let you know how I do. On to the recipe, which looks mighty yummy.


Vegan Chocolate Cake (with Almonds)
serves 1 to 8, depending on portion size and your interest in sharing

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. white sugar (Not all brands are vegan, so if this matters, just google your brand and its sifting process. Non-vegan sugars are sifted through bone meal. Yuck.)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 tspn. baking soda
1/2 tspn. salt
1 c. almonds, sliced or chopped (totally optional)
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 tspn. vanilla extract
1 tspn. distilled white vinegar
1 c. water


Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan. In a large bowl, sift and whisk together all of your dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and stir until smooth. Pour into loaf pan and bake for approximately 45 minutes. Seriously, seriously enjoy.
*To serve, I cut the cake into slices, topped with slivers of strawberries and sprinkled powdered sugar over the whole thing. The cake doesn't need this extra love, though, to be scrumptious.

Crumble or Crisp — Who Cares?

Janet here: Sometimes the inspiration for a post is the food. This time I was inspired by these cute Polish pottery ramekins that I recently bought. I HAD to find something to make for them and I had to find it FAST.


Anyway, as the first photo shows, I went with a fruit crumble. I'm not sure what the difference is between a crumble and a crisp — if any of you know please fill us in — but I do know they are both deliciously wonderful because they feature cooked fruit combos and the wonderfulness of oats and crispy brown sugar. While people often think of these desserts in the fall in the Northeast when apples are plentiful, really any time of year is crumble/crisp season precisely because the fruit doesn't have to be perfect because you bake it. I chose pears and blueberries for this particular mix, but you can do peaches and blueberries, peaches and raspberries — the possibilities are really endless. Serve them warm and get ready to listen to the oohs and aahs.

Pear and Blueberry Crumble
fills 8 ramekins or 1 baking pan

Ingredients
fruit part
4 ripe pears
1 pint of blueberries
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

crumble part
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick butter, diced

Method
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up the pears into wedges. Mix with the rest of the fruit ingredients. Let sit for five minutes

In a separate bowl mix the other ingredients together. I just do this with my hands because I don't have a food processor, but if you have one, obviously your life will be easier.

Bake 45 minutes until top is brown and the juices are bubbly. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Rachel here: So, I didn't bake with my fruit. Nope, no oven was turned on in my kitchen (at least, not for this post). Instead, I just whipped some heavy cream, sliced some strawberries and indulged in one of my favorite combinations of all time. There are few things so simple as strawberries and whipped cream and, with strawberries galore in our neck of the woods these days, I just couldn't resist. It felt so fantastically summery and the perfect amount of indulgent. I have to say, though, that now I find myself wanting some fruit crisp...or is it crumble?

Food for Thought Thursdays: More Than Chocolate Ice Cream

Rachel here: When I was a little girl and my mom would tuck me into bed, after singing lullabies she'd pause at my bedroom door. She'd turn and blow me kisses saying, "I love you more than tongue can tell and more than chocolate ice cream" before leaving the door ajar and me to drift into sleep. I can still see her backlit by the hall light, fingers to her lips. I can hear her softly bid me goodnight and feel the dark blanketing me in safety and love.

As we all know, Mother's Day is fast approaching. This Sunday I'm sure many of us will be showing our mom's a little bit of love, be it in the form of a card, some quality time together, or just thinking good thoughts about our moms who are no longer with us. As someone on the brink of becoming a mom herself, Mother's Day this year feels a little extra poignant. I've been thinking of my mom a lot over the last 33 weeks (oh yeah, I am seriously pregnant these days) as I have begun my own adventure in motherhood. I have missed her more often than usual, wishing we could actually see each other more during this period of transition in both of our lives. There have been many, many days where I have felt like all I really wanted to do was go for a walk or grab a bite to eat with my mom. There has been this odd coupling of both feeling more like my mother's child than I have in years and also feeling more like a singular being as I grapple with my growing responsibilities.

This blog has been a great connecter for the two of us during this period. We are both busy ladies, prone to running around all day and falling into bed wiped out at night and, though we have always been close, this blog has served as a tie that binds amidst all of our day-to-day chaos. Even if it's only for a few minutes, there are few days in a week in which we don't speak. I love this. It has brought a spontaneity to our friendship that is hard to attain/maintain from so far away. We no longer need to catch up because we are both aware of what's going on in the other person's life at any given moment. Plus, I feel like I've gotten to see my mom differently, as though through blogging we found a forum to re-meet each other in some ways, to discover different aspects of the ways we both work and who we each are. It's really pretty awesome and not a gift I had anticipated receiving via our foray into the blogosphere together.

And so, Mom, though it's a few days early, I just wanted to say, now and forever more, I love you more than tongue can tell and more than chocolate ice cream. XXOO.

It's Grill Time

Rachel here: The sudden arrival of warm weather this past weekend in the Bay Area left me seriously jonesing for summertime food. The other night we ate hotdogs and corn and, though the corn really isn't all that great yet, it still felt good to eat classic summer cook-out fare. There's something about these first warm weather meals that conjures so many summers passed. Every sense is stimulated by the sweet and slightly sticky air and I am both sitting in my backyard in Oakland and on my parents' back porch in Connecticut. Everything smells so good and I effortlessly relax in the warm twilight. But anyway, there's a recipe in here somewhere, I swear.

One of the meals we ate often in summer when I was growing up was chicken kebabs with couscous. For this reason, when the thermometer struck 80 yesterday, this was what I knew we had to have for dinner. We neglected to move our grill from our old apartment (oops!), but we have a stovetop grill pan that works just fine (although doesn't get you the same smokey awesomeness that a real grill will) in a pinch. In the early afternoon I whipped up a marinade and let the chicken soak for several hours before skewering it along with bell pepper and onion. I threw these on the stovetop grill pan, made a little couscous and--voila!--an easy, delicious, and totally summery dinner. A little later in the season I'll be adding peaches to these skewers (SO good), but they're not ready yet. What does the warm weather make you want to eat?



Smokey and Citrusy Marinade
enough for two large chicken breasts, chopped

Ingredients
1-2 large chicken breasts, chopped (or another meat of your choice)
1/3 c. worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. sesame oil
juice from one clementine
salt and pepper
chili powder, to taste (the more you use, the smokier your marinade will be)
1/4 c. brown sugar

Method
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients several hours (or the day) before you want to cook your meat. Stir every hour or so to make sure meat is absorbing all of the different flavors. Skewer with veggies and enjoy.

Janet here: Rather than add another recipe to this post as I had planned to do, I'm just going to add this little tip: I put my marinade in a large zip-top baggie and throw the chicken/fish/veggies/whatever in there to marinate. It ensures that everything gets covered, makes it easy to periodically mush stuff around in the fridge to make sure everything is equally marinated and means you can slip it into whatever little cubicle you have available in your fridge (mine is often stuffed to the gills because it is A) too small, B) I overcook and C) I don't organize it particularly well.)

Eating outside with friends and family as dusk falls is one of my favorite ways to spend a summer evening. I hope you enjoy lots of cookouts with the ones you love this summer.

Guest Blogger: John Dezort

Rachel here: For a while now, we've been meaning to get some other people cooking on our blog. We love the guest posts we've been able to feature on Food for Thought Thursdays but we've also been wanting to do more. Today we are excited to kick off another outlet for voices and recipes other than our own by turning over the post to a guest blogger we're pretty sure you all already know and love: John Dezort. Though you've been looking at his illustrations for months now, and were recently made privy to a Food for Thought post by him, we're excited to show you what he can do when left entirely to his own devices. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, John Dezort.

John here: So it's spring, and even though in California it feels like spring for most of the year and locally grown produce can be bought throughout the year, spring in California brings forth an abundance of new veggies and fruits. I AM bragging, in case you weren't sure. So due to the recent availability of these vegetables, a wonderful woman I work with brought in a case of fresh asparagus she had found on the cheap and divided it among the employees. I ended up with a LOT of asparagus, which is a good problem to have. So I made soup!


Ingredients
6 to 7 cups chicken stock
1 large bunch of locally grown California spring asparagus (joking, any will do)
5 small yukon gold potatoes cut into small cubes
3 small ears of corn
1 large onion
3 stalks celery
1 large lemon--rind and juice
2 T parsley
2 tspn. thyme
2 T. dried mustard
pinch nutmeg
worcestershire sauce, just a little will do
Tapatio, Tabasco, cayenne, or anything spicy
1 pint or so of cream

Method
Dice onion, celery, and the bottom half of the asparagus spears (reserve the tops for later), season with salt and pepper and saute in butter until the onion is translucent and browned slightly. Do this in the pot you will use for the soup. Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Add minced parsley, thyme and the other spices omitting the nutmeg, but including the lemon rind. Add hot (spicy) ingredients now as well but only to taste with a splash or two of worcestershire. Let simmer for roughly twenty minutes and then add the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are done. While the soup is simmering, cut the asparagus tops into bite size pieces and blanch in boiling water that is very salty, like ocean-salty (really, it makes a difference). Shock in an ice bath when almost tender and set aside. Add the fresh corn from the cob to the soup (the corn will cook in a matter of minutes). Add a pinch of nutmeg and the juice from the lemon and finish with cream. Do not add the cream to a boiling soup as it will curdle, and don't reheat soup to a boil or it will separate. Adjust seasoning and add asparagus tops just before serving.

Easy Apps

Rachel here: Ok, so I know I fried pickles for our Friday post, but bear with me because fried olives are truly amazing. The first time I had them was at a restaurant in Berkeley that's now closed with a friend who I had a lot of fun with. Though much has changed in the years since then, I have never forgotten how truly awesome fried olives are. After making the pickles last week, I couldn't stop thinking about these fried olives from yore and decided I'd try my hand at them. The recipe I concocted was pretty simple and, though not as hearty a coating of fried stuff as I'd attained on my goat cheese medallions from a month or so ago or as I got to stick to my pickles last week, John and I concurred that they were not only edible, but delicious. I will definitely be whipping these up again in the not too distant future (I'd say "near future" but I'm pretty sure I should stop frying things for a little while...this penchant for frying can't be good for my arteries). When combined with the recipe my mom's sharing below, I feel like we could host a sort of retro dinner party. What appetizers do you whip up in a jiffy?



Ingredients
2 dozen olives of your choice (I used a medley of jalapeno stuffed, kalamata and sweet italian)
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 tspn. salt
1 tspn. paprika
1 tspn. chili powder
2 T. cornstarch
1 egg
3/4 c. milk

Method
In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, salt, paprika, chili powder and cornstrach. Mix well. In a second bowl, beat your egg and stir in the milk. Dipping the olives first in the bowl of wet ingredients and then in the bowl of dry ingredients, add to your hot vegetable oil (you know your oil is hot enough when you drip water over it and it sizzles). Fry until golden brown, drain and serve with lemon wedges. Sooo good!



Janet here: My mom used to make this recipe, which is, inexplicably, called Empire Pate. A New York State reference? Something from Olde England? Who knows. At any rate, it is ridiculously easy to make and always a hit. I hope you enjoy it.

Empire Pate

Ingredients
6 oz cream cheese--whipped if you're lazy or in a hurry; brick if you've remembered to put it out ahead of time to soften to room temperature
4 oz grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons or to taste, curry powder
1/4 cup chutney
2 scallions, diced

Method
Mix the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, sherry and curry powder. Form into a brick or whatever other clever shape you want and put it in the fridge. When you're ready to serve, spread 1/4 cup chutney on top and the scallions.