I’m the co-author of a (barely working) award winning iPad recipe app! (Hah. Literally true, but not really.)
Shamiq and I spent the day at GitHub for a Swift Hack Day, where we built a chocolate chip recipe app with the idea that referring to recipes while cooking/baking is often messy (mmmm buttered phone!). We called ourselves team “ElbowBook” since clearly if your hands are covered in butter, the best way of advancing to the next step is with your elbows!
I’ve wanted cake stands for a while, but I thought they seemed a little crazy to spend lotssss of money on one. SO, diy time!
I got the tops and bottoms at Michaels, depending on the size, the wooden circles are ~$1.99 to $11. I liked these versus more plain ones because the edges are beveled. The middles are from home depot, I think they’re meant to be table legs or cabinet legs. They were $6-8 each. I suspect that if I was more patient, one could probably find wooden candlesticks somewhere for less.
I’m not done painting yet — but with much guidance from Shamiq, I’m sanding, painting, sanding, painting then varnishing.
I noticed these prickly looking fruit in my parents’ yard a couple days ago — and after some Googling, it turns out they’re edible!
Also, they’re called Kousa or Korean Dogwood. They have beautiful white, cross-shaped flowers during the spring, then these crazy looking fruit in late summer. The fruit reminds me of a mild mango or jackfruit — definitely the flavor of a summer fruit.
I guess the big caveat is that the tree grows near a road, and has possibly been fertilized… I suppose I shouldn’t eat too many.
To start with, I’m not at all a bagel connoisseur, I just like eating them, especially when lightly toasted. I also reallllly like chopped liver. So here’s a sandwich of both! I liked their chopped liver much more than the Wise & Sons — and the line is much less massive. And it’s in Oakland, another plus.
Their smoked trout salad was also quite tasty. But the bagels definitely need toasting. (But then again, isn’t that true of all bagels?)
I followed Serious Eats recipe for Blitz Puff Pastry and tried to make croissants. The results weren’t bad — but not quite the fabulous croissants I’d hoped for.
Some thoughts:
– The croissants need to have a chance to rise and come to room temp, I tried up to two hours (they weren’t quite jiggly yet) and there was still a small log of dense (but cooked) buttery dough in the middle.
– I wonder if this has to do with the dough itself, I plan on trying this technique with the Momofuku Mother Dough base.
Edit:
Shamiq points out that my croissant looks like an Omanyte. LOL
1 momofuku Ritz cracker crust
1/2 recipe of Tartine’s lemon curd
1c unsweetened whipped cream
nom.
These muffins are delicious. Original recipe here.
Muffins:
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 egg
~1/3 c milk
1 c blueberries
1. Preheat the oven to 400F
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients
3. Put the oil and egg together in a 1c measure, top off with milk.
4. Mix milk, oil and egg into the dry ingredients
5. Fold in blueberries
6. Portion into 8 greased or lined cupcake tins
Topping:
1/4 c white sugar
1/6 c all-purpose flour
1/8 c butter, cubed
heaping 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Mix topping ingredients with a fork
2. Sprinkle or spread over the batter
andddd BAKE. ~20-25 minutes.
Then enjoy a delicious warm blueberry muffin breakfast.
Catching up on my post backlog — from Saturday two weeks ago (August 9th):
Sandwiches from Rhea’s Deli. Korean beef on the left, fried chicken on the right. Probably the best fried chicken sandwich I’ve ever had, also the hugest.
Followed by an Intro to Arduino class at Noisebridge. I learned to solder!
I’m so behind on posting…
For today, here’s the brown sugar pavlova I made for Moogle’s sixth birthday party. Because, yes, I had a dog birthday party. Stop judging.
Link to the original recipe later, but this is what I did: (From memory… what’s wrong with me. Why do I know this.)
8 egg whites
1c brown sugar
1c white sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 white vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Whip egg whites to stiff peaks, then slowly pour in the sugars. Then mix in the other stuff.
Shape into 8in circles (two), and bake at 250F for 90 minutes, then turn the oven off and let sit in the closed oven for at least an hour (up to overnight).
Assemble with a tart filling.
This one was lemon curd on the bottom, strawberry rhubarb compote on top, then sliced peaches. The original recipe was rhubarb curd and strawberries. I think any tart curd will work, as it offsets the meringue’s sweetness.
Cayenne maple syrup, waffle and purslane. Sounds weird, but its surprisingly tasty.