Dubu Muchim

mmmmmmm…Korean tofu with red chili sauce.

This is a huge favorite at our house. It’s quick and spicy and yummy and requires no cooking and pretty healthy. As a main course, this serves 2 at about 320 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tbsp gochujang
• 1/2 tsp hon dashi
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp minced ginger
• 4 medium scallions, sliced
• 16 oz tofu

Directions:

1. Press tofu under weighted plate to drain for 30 minutes.
2. Mix together gochujang, hon dashi, soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic and minced ginger.
3. Slice tofu into bite sized pieces and pour sauce over the top.
4. Finish by sprinkling sesame seeds and scallions.

superfood

According to Google, basil is the new superfood. It’s an antioxidant and fights cancer and is an anti-inflamitory and reduces blood pressure and reduces blood sugar and battles belly fat! Maybe.

One thing I can personally verify is that it is delicious. It tastes like summer. A few leaves on a sandwhich instead of or in addition to lettuce, chopped and sprinkled on pizza or tomatoes, or made into pesto, the yummiest of all spreads/toppings, mmmmm.

If you’ve never made pesto, now’s your chance. Here’s how I do it. Note, I’ve included the Cook’s Illustrated measurements for reference, but I don’t measure anything. I do follow the Cook’s Illustrated tips of toasting the garlic cloves (in skin) and bruising the basil leaves before chucking them in the food processor, but otherwise just fly by the seat of my pants.

thanks p+g!

Step 1: Raid the neighbors’ garden for basil. Get lots and lots and lots. If you’re going to dirty the food processor, you may as well make a big batch. Cooks Illustrated’s basic recipe wants 4 cups of loose baisl to make 3/4 cup of pesto, that’s enough to dress 1 pound of pasta. One meal’s worth is just not enough for the effort, IMO.

washed and dried

Step 2: Pluck the leaves from the stems and wash and dry them well.

beat it

Step 3: Put the dry leaves in a ziplock and squeeze out all the air. Then take out all your aggression and beat the bejesus out of the bagged basil with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.

throw away the burnt nuts, really.

Step 4 (optional): Burn some pine nuts over medium heat while while taking pictures of basil. Throw away the burnt nuts or your pesto will taste burnt. Ask me how I know this.

Step 4a: Lightly toast some pine nuts over medium heat while stirring regularly. CI suggests 2 TBSP chopped. I toss way more in whole.

smells so good

Step 5: Toast some garlic cloves still in their skin in the same dry pan you used to toast the pine nuts for 5 minutes or so, until they are fragrant. Remove from heat, peel and chop. CI says 2 cloves. As you may notice in the pic, I use a few more than 2.

blend, taste, adjust, blend...

Step 6: Chuck the beaten basil, pine nuts, chopped garlic, some grated parmesan cheese (1/2 cup per CI) and a little salt (CI: 1/4 tsp) in a food processor, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (CI: 3 TBSP) and pulse away. Taste test. Add more garlic, salt and/or cheese as needed and blend again. Add more oil to get to the consistency you want.

oil on top

I make my pesto quite dry and coat the surface with olive oil after jarring it. The layer of oil protects the pesto from air, which would turn it all brown and less pretty. So, the pesto loosens up as you scoop it out with the extra oil. I also like to put the extra pine nuts on top, because I can.

tada

spreadin’ the love

spreadin' the love

We borrowed Maize in Montana’s idea and made homemade butter for Valentine’s Day this year. Um, there’s a really lot of shaking to turn cream into butter, so only a small portion was shaken. The rest was stirred in the stand mixer.

Aside: All this talk of shaking and stirring makes me want a martini. Mmmm, martini. It’s been years. Sigh.

Super fun and a great way to use up any extra heavy cream that’s nearing its expiration date. As an added bonus, you not only get yummy fresh butter, but also fresh buttermilk! Perfect for your St. Patrick’s day soda bread…

shake, shake, shake

We also made some mini brownies with candy hearts. I gotta tell ya. This whole candy business is terrific. The candy melts are totally inexpensive and they look adorable. I think they taste gross, but the big boys who eat solids both like them. They are for Liam’s school party, so I’m guessing the kids won’t be offended by the flavor.

love bites

Alas, no cute valentine photos of the boys. The boys are still cute, but mommy sucks at grabbing shots these days. So, these are the best of the worst. Sorry, but at least they’re topless.

you can leave your hat on

love monkey

Happy Valentine’s Day!

paté of the south

A quick and yummy dip for the holidays.

mmmm...

Paté of the South (aka, Pimento Cheese)

• 6 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 TBSP minced onion
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• minced jalepeno (optional)
• 7 oz jar of pimentos, coarsely chopped

Mix cheddar, cream cheese, mayo, onion, cayenne, and jalepeno (if using) on medium speed using a paddle beater until well blended. Add pimento and mix to incorporated, being careful not to overdo it and mash up the pimentos. Cover and refrigerate, preferably overnight.

Allow it to warm up a bit before serving. It’s a thick dip, so serve it with something sturdy. We like it on pita chips. It also makes a terrific sandwhich spread and is yummy on toasted bagels. Can you tell that I love this stuff?

Enjoy.

milky way krispies

We’ve streamlined our cooking these days. In need of a quick dessert, we stumbled upon this quick and easy treat. A twist on the classic Rice Krispies Treats…

snap, crackle, chomp

Ingredients

gooey goodness

• 4 Milky Way bars (coarsely chopped)
• 4 TBS butter
• 3.5 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 8 oz milk chocolate (melted)

Melt butter and candy bars over low heat until combined and smooth. Once melted, remove from heat and add Rice Krispies. Blend then spread into well greased 13″x9″ pan. Spread melted chocolate over top of treats and refrigerate until chocolate is firm.

Enjoy.

the anticipation…

We’re getting so excited about our upcoming trip home to the family! Thinking about it reminded me of more pictures from our August visit that I never posted. We made Rice Krispies Treats to take to Ninny’s party. B cut out shapes using cookie cutters and everyone decorated them with Wilton’s Ready-to-Use Icing Tubes and candies. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. 

"I love getting my picture taken!"

"I'm cuter than the rice krispies treats."

"This is my best natural smile."

we made these!

On an unrelated note, I’m still in pain thanks to HFMD. Liam has been fine since last Thursday, so a 4 day illness. My fever hit on Friday and I still feel like I’ve been gargling straight razors. This is very not fun. 

birthday crown, etc.

So, I made Liam a crown for his big day. Finished it about 15 minutes before the party was supposed to start. It looks cute in the photos and he wore it for a little while, so overall I was pleased. Basically, it’s a simple pieced front and solid back with low loft cotton batting between and a 1″ bit of elastic in the back encased in the lower binding. The fabric is 100% cotton fat quarters from WalMart, $1 each and just too cute. I may need to make a quilt or something with the leftovers. 

Anyway, back to the crown. First, I pieced the front by sewing the pieces together through the batting like this. Next I attached the “1″, sewing a narrow zig-zag with a short stitch length through the fabric and batting, then attached the backing fabric, leaving the bottom open. I trimmed the seam allowance very close and turned the crown right side out, then quilted around each section of the front of the crown. I totally screwed up the elastic casing. Not really sure what I was thinking, but I first attached the elastic to the crown, then sewed the binding to the back of the crown, folded it to front and zig-zagged it with the same narrow zig-zag and a longer stitch length, and finally tried (failed, but tried) to seam the binding around the elastic. Ugly, but it stayed together for the party. 

  

You can only imagine how long and hard I thought about my baby’s first birthday cake. I lamented having already done the very hungry caterpillar, considered something Sesame Street (in honor of their 40th birthday), and finally settled on a rainbow. It was months of agonizing and eye twitching – Seriously, I have a recurring eye twitch now. That’s hot! – mental gymnastics. Here’s the result. 

crappy photo, but we were in the moment

 The six layer cake is made with a double recipe of Cook’s Illustrated’s Basic White Cake. The batter was very, very scarily thin, but the cakes turned out pretty good. I used the same old baking powder that I thought was crappy last May. So, surprise! The cake seemed dense to me. The frosting is a basic buttercream, and lots of it. Like 10 lbs of powdered sugar’s worth. 

Back to the method, each batch of batter was divided into thirds and dyed a different color with gel food coloring.  A bit was poured into a cupcake pan and the rest was then baked in a disposable 8″ diameter pan. So, there were six individually colored cupcakes and cake layers. The cupcakes were trimmed flat and cut in half to make smash cakes for Liam and Grandpa, who turned 70 in November. 

You can see some of the smash cake layers in the photos below. And, yes, Liam did wind up with both cakes. And Grandpa’s slice of cake too, if you’re keeping track. 

  

And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The jello rainbow. 

and it only took 8 hours to make!

 In the bowl, it wasn’t bad, but turned out, this nasty thing looked like a flaccid, multicolored breast implant. I’ll spare you the gory details and leave you with this tip. Do it this way or this way. 

what a feast of sweets...

thanks, martha

Well check us out. Our Superbowl Cupcakes from 2008 were selected as one of Martha Stewart’s Cutest Cupcakes 2009 contest winners.

Martha Stewart's 2009 Cutest Cupcake

We won a copy of Martha’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s Favorite Treat. And bragging rights, of course.

welcome back

Our friends John and Chris were in town for a visit last weekend, so we had a bit of a shindig in their honor. Allow me to clarify further. It was more than just a “thanks for coming back to see the gang” get together. It was also a “we’re so ridiculously happy for you and can’t wait to meet the new baby once he/she finally arrives!” celebration. Don’t know about anyone else, but I had a good time. Thanks in part to the company and in other part to the Original Sin (Thanks John!).

In honor of the player to be named later I made cupcakes.

Recognize this guy?

name that bug?

red and blue sprinkles for the hair

And for those of you who don’t have kids, it’s the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Eric Carle’s books are a big hit at our house. Inspired by Coco Cake Cupcakes’ brilliant idea, I made a double batch of lime coconut cupcakes with a triple batch of coconut cream cheese frosting. The double cake recipe made 3 dozen cupcakes, one 6″ round cake and 24 mini cupcakes and there’s still a good bit of frosting left over.

fondant head, antennae, and feet

 The frosting was dyed yellow and green then swirled together in a pastry bag to make the body. The antennae and feet are fondant and the head is covered in fondant too. There’s some dyed coconut grass and on the center of the sun.

The whole shebang is arranged on three 13″ x 17″ cake boards taped together with duct tape and covered in wrapping paper.

Could have done a better job with the photos, but was enjoying the festivities too much to play photographer.

Here are the recipes to make and frost 24 standard cupcakes from cupcakes by Pamela Clark.

Lime Coconut Cake

• 2 sticks butter (softened)
• 2 tsp coconut extract
• 1-1/2 TBSP finely grated lime peel
• 1-1/3 c sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 c milk
• 1-1/2 c unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2-1/2 c self-rising flour (sifted)

Beat first 5 ingredients until combined then stir in the milk, coconut, and flour. Divide among 24 baking cups and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

• 5 TBSP butter (softened)
• 5 oz cream cheese (softened)
• 2 tsp coconut extract
• 3 c powdered sugar (sifted)

Beat first 3 ingredients until light and fluffy then add powdered sugar and mix well. It’s very spreadable when warm and firms up quite a bit when refrigerated. Don’t count on it to hold piped shapes well…

birthday cake

only 3 layers, but who’s counting?

Made a lemon layer cake for B’s mom’s birthday. Had to post because it was yummy and pretty despite the disaster of a leaking springform pan. Talk about a mess. Half of one of the cakes leaked onto the pizza stone in the oven, hence three layers instead of four. Also, I think our baking powder is past its prime. The cake was a bit chewy. Opening and closing the oven door to deal with the leaking pan and pouring the warmed batter into a new pan certainly didn’t help matters.

Forgot to take a photo of the cake before we cut in, but here’s what’s left. Well, what was left anyway…

7 minutes of heaven

As usual the recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated. And, as usual, it was a bit fussy. The lemon curd filling is made first and chilled for several hours. Then the white butter cake is baked and cooled. Next the cakes are cut and layered with the curd and chilled while the 7 minute frosting is made. BTW, 7 minute frosting is awesome! It’s like lemon meringue pie, except with cake instead of crust. Tart and sweet and ridiculously decadent with a dozen eggs, two and a half sticks of butter, and four and a quarter cups of sugar. 

Here’s the recipe and you can watch a video here.

That reminds me…I never posted a pic of the bachelor party cake made for B’s coworker (red velvet, natch). So, tada.

kicking and screaming