1. Improve my decorating skills for baked goods (see my gingerbread meltdown and you’ll know why)
2. Create more recipes that are all my own
3. Redo my Puerto Rican arepas recipe.

Today we’re going to focus on number 2 and 3. If you’re not familiar with arepas you might wonder why that makes my resolution list. Well, I’ll tell you. Arepas are fried dough and you can eat them with rice, beans, chicken, and all kinds of good foods. They are absolutely delicious! For both 2013 and 2014, my Puerto Rican arepas post has been my most popular post. I don’t promote this post, I don’t even have great pictures, but when people Google for Puerto Rican areaps recipes they end up with me. I think it’s because Venezuelan arepas are most well known and there are so few clear recipes for Puerto Rican arepas. For example, I watched a YouTube video that was an older women just throwing ingredients into a large bucket and mixing it all together. It’s all in Spanish, but midway through she says she thinks it got botched. Not helpful. It looked authentic, but it wouldn’t have been easy to copy.

Anyway, my first attempt was in May 2013, and I was trying to emulate my grandmother’s recipe. That attempt tasted right, but didn’t look right. So, I tried again with a second arepa recipe in September 2013. This recipe looked right, but tasted too much like regular bread. So it’s been on my mind to try it again, but wasn’t much of a priority. But, the perfect moment to try again was this week while I was in Connecticut visiting my parents. I asked my dad to help me so we could try to recreate his mom’s recipe.

And we freaking did it ya’ll! Specifically, we ticked all our sense memory boxes – which is really the most important element. The arepas were golden in color, they smelled perfect, they were flaky when pulled apart, and they had big air bubbles perfect for filling with beans and rice. This is the ultimate arepas recipe. Is it really my grandmother’s recipe? I have no idea because I never saw her make them. And our memories were hazy. Did she knead the dough until smooth? Maybe, but I couldn’t get my dough there. Did she roll the dough into disks? No clue .When she let the dough sit, did it rise? We had no idea. So, it’s not my grandmother’s recipe, it’s mine, but with the flavors she taught us. And anyway, it made us feel the way hers did, and that’s probably most important.

A successful arepas recipe was cause for celebration. When I fried the first one and opened it, my parents went “WOW!” I’m serious, it was loud and genuine and awesome. So, to do it up right, my mom made rice, beans, and a roast chicken. We had a huge Puerto Rican feast. We stuffed the arepas, I stuffed my belly, and then I immediately fell asleep in front of the TV. I’ll say I’m starting the New Year off right.

Messy level: If you use a large bowl, this is not very messy at all. You need a very big bowl to make sure you can properly mix everything without having flour go flying. The real warning you’ll need is not about mess, but about muscle power. Your arms will be tired after all the kneading!

The Ultimate Puerto Rican Arepas

 

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Prep time

3 hours

Cook time

2 mins

Total time

3 hours 2 mins

 

Recipe for Puerto Rican arepas. This make a large quantity, but half or a quarter of a recipe can be made effectively. Any uncooked arepas can be stored in the fridge or freezer. Simply bring them back to room temperature before frying.

Serves: 4 dozen

Ingredients

• 8 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 heaping tablespoon salt
• 10 oz lard, cut into cubes
• 2½ cups room temperature water
• vegetable oil

Instructions

1. In a very large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Do this with your hands or a spoon.
2. Add the lard to the flour mixture. Use your fingers to break the lard up into little pieces. Massage the lard into the flour mixture until the lard is pea sized and the whole thing looks like sand.
3. A few tablespoons at a time, add the water too the flour mixture. In between each addition knead the water into the flour. You might not need all of the water! [This stage takes a long time and can be tiresome on your hands and arms. You can do it! I'm sure you can use a mixer with a dough hook, but I haven't tried it. And I think hammering it out by hand helps better channel abuela anyway. ]
4. As you use up the water, the flour will turn from sticky pieces to a dough. Knead the dough until it comes together in one large piece. If you don't know how to knead watch this tutorial. The dough is ready when it feels a little springy and you can roll it together into a ball. It won't be perfectly smooth or very stretchy and elastic.
5. Cover the dough with a warm damp towel and let sit for 1-2 hours.
6. When you're ready to cook, tear off balls the size of two golf balls.
7. Flour your work surface, then roll out the balls until you have discs about ¼ inch thick. Any balls you don't want to use can be stored in an air tight container in the fridge for a few days. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and put in the freezer if you need to store them for longer.
8. Heat about ½ inch of vegetable oil in a skillet on high heat. Test if the oil is ready by taking a tiny ball of dough (size of a tic tac) and put it in the oil. If it sinks, then rises, and is surrounded by bubbles then your oil is ready.
9. Gently slide 1-3 arepas into your skillet. You don't want to over crowd! If you over crowd the oil will cool down and won't cook your arepas properly.
10. Cook on one side for about 30-45 seconds. It should sink, then rise to the top of the oil, then air bubbles should start to form. When you can see browning on the edges, flip the arepa over. Cook on the second side for about 30-45 seconds. Keep flipping until you have the desired golden color.
11. Keep working in batches of 1-3 arepas until you have cooked your desired amount.
12. Serve plain or with rice, beans, chicken, eggs or whatever you'd like to stuff inside.

3.2.2925

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But England does not celebrate pumpkin everything like the U.S. I can’t find pumpkin spice in the grocery store so I make my own instead. A few weeks ago I had a craving for a pumpkin spice latte. Ryan and I decided to trek over to Starbucks to find out if it had arrived. Mind you, in the U.S. you’d never have to guess because every Starbucks window would be plastered with orange writing and pumpkin pictures. On the way to Starbucks we passed at least four proper coffee shops and a few other places that also sold coffee, but my heart was set on a PSL. We got there, and we were nervous, but they had it! It was advertised with only one small picture and a line item on the menu. How are the people of England supposed to know about pumpkin mania with such little advertising?

To get my true pumpkin fix, I hit the kitchen. I found this recipe for a pumpkin swiss roll on Pinterest and I was excited, but nervous to try it out. To make the beautiful swirl you have to bake then roll up a cake. Roll up a cake?! What if I break it? The key is, as soon as it comes out of the oven, you roll up the cake (without the filling) while it is hot. The cake won’t be so hot as to burn you, but I recommend using gloves or an oven mitt to make it easier. Then, wait for the cake to  be completely cool. It’s hard to be patient (and Ryan and I weren’t entirely patient), but if the cake is hot it will melt your filling and you don’t want that.

This cake is a great treat for any old day, but I also think it can be pretty enough to bring to a party or to your Thanksgiving feasts. The swirl of cream cheese looks just beautiful when cut. And you might not believe me, but this is actually easy to make. Any level of baker can make this recipe, I know it. Most importantly, this roll is incredible delicious. Ryan and I ate this whole roll in about two and a half days and have been talking about making another one ever since. As you can see, we still haven’t gotten our pumpkin fix yet.

I hope you enjoy the new recipe format below. I like this a lot because it looks more streamlined and easy to read. If you like to print recipes, you can finally do that. If you bring your computer into the kitchen, like I do, then you don’t have to scroll as much and won’t get dirty fingers on the keyboard. The only drawback is that I can’t post pictures alongside the steps, but for difficult or strange techniques I’ll still post those pictures above the recipe.

Now enough talk. Get your pumpkin on! Recipe by Sweet Anna’s.

Messy level: This is a three spoon recipe, but just barely. I’m giving it three spoons because you need two bowls for the cake, one for the frosting, and then you still have to sprinkle powdered sugar everywhere. Also, if you over fill the inside you’ll have a cream cheese burst (like I did) at the end of the cake.

Pumpkin Rolls with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

 

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Ingredients

• for the cake:
• ¼ cup powdered sugar (for dusting the towel)
• ¾ cup flour
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup pumpkin purée
• for the filling:
• 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 6 tbsp butter, softened (if you don't let it soften you will have butter chunks in your filling)
• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 375º/190º.
2. Line a 10x15" jelly roll pan with parchment paper. (a pan with edges all around, you have to have this pan) Then grease the parchment paper.
3. Somewhere on your counter, spread out a clean kitchen towel or piece of parchment paper, and sprinkle that with powdered sugar.
4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice & salt.
5. In a large bowl, beat eggs, vanilla & sugar until thick & creamy.
6. Add in the pumpkin and mix to combine.
7. Stir in the flour mixture.
8. Pour the batter onto the prepared pan. Spread the batter evenly.
9. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched. Stay on the side of slightly under cooked, if you over cook it then cake will be too dry and won't roll.
10. Immediately loosen the edges of the cake and turn it out onto the sugared towel/parchment. Peel off the parchment paper.
11. Roll up the cake & towel together fairly tightly, starting with a narrow end.
12. Cool completely on a wire rack.
13. Now start on the filling. In another medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter & vanilla until smooth.
14. Carefully unroll the cooled cake (removing the towel) and spread the cream cheese filling evenly over the cake, coming to about 1″ away from the edges. If you go all the way to the edge, you will have filling oozing out the end.
15. Carefully reroll the cake, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.
16. Before serving cut a little slice off of each end so the roll has a smooth look. Then dust the top with powdered sugar.

3.2.2802

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On Saturday night Aaron and Katy (Ryan’s twin brother and his wife) emailed they were going to the hospital. I was jumping up and down in the street with excitement. Then Sunday Ryan and I woke up with an email and a photo of their son Boden! It’s their first kid, and our first nephew. We are an uncle and aunt for the first time!

We were so excited we went straight to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make Boden a celebration birthday cake. I’ve been sort of obsessed with Boden (and spoiling him) since last November. Around Thanksgiving last year we were all getting together and I had a dream that Aaron and Katy were going to announce they were pregnant and that they were going to have a boy named Jeremy. In January, we got a phone call that Katy was pregnant (and I did some jumping up and down in the street). A few months later, we found out the baby was a boy (more jumping). He isn’t named Jeremy, but I can’t win them all.

Ryan came up with the idea of getting the “0” candle. I thought it was so clever!

Anyway, I knew I wanted to make Boden a special cake. A cake that will be Boden’s cake. A cake that in the future, when Boden comes to visit, he will look forward to it and ask for it.  As I told some of my friends, I want to be fun aunt Mariel who always has cake. I’ve been wanting to make ancake with a design on the inside and this seemed like the perfect occasion. After spending a lot of time on the internet searching for a perfect yellow cake recipe (with ingredients I could find in a UK grocery store) I decided to stick with a Victoria Sandwich cake because it is a tasty and versatile.

A Victoria Sandwich is named for Queen Victoria. It’s two layers of yellow sponge cake with raspberry or strawberry jam in the middle. Sometimes there’s cream too, but I’m told that is a 20th century addition. The Victoria Sandwich is often served with tea, but when I went to tea a few weeks ago it wasn’t on the menu. I still haven’t had it outside my own kitchen. I’ll need to get on that. But I made it for myself because I learned about it on my favorite show, the Great British Bake Off, and I’m always eager to try new cakes.

I’m using Mary Berry‘s recipe for Victoria Sandwich. It calls for caster sugar, which in the US is called superfine sugar. In my experience, it isn’t always easy to find super fine sugar in the US. I have read that granulated sugar is finer in the US than in the UK, so if you’re in the US and can’t find superfine sugar then granulated should work just fine. I’m going to post the traditional recipe first and then the checkerboard recipe second. I’ll make it clear when to switch between the two. The frosting recipe in Version #2 comes from BBC Good Food. Enjoy and happy birthday Boden!

Traditional Victoria Sandwich: Version #1

Ingredients:

225g/2 sticks/1 cup butter, softened

225g/1 cup/8 oz caster sugar (superfine sugar), plus extra for sprinkling

225g/2 cups/8 oz self-rising flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs, room temperature

About 4+ tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam

Directions:

1. One hour before you want to start baking take your butter and eggs out of the fridge. This is important because it helps everything mix together better.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

3. Grease two 8″/20cm cake pans. Line the bottom of the pan with circles of parchment paper. Grease the circles.

4. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Then add the caster sugar, flour, baking powder, and eggs.

5. Using the electric mixer on low, beat for 2 minutes until smooth. The mixture will be soft and fall off the beaters easily. Don’t over beat it! You want the cake to be light and fluffy.

6. Divide the mixtures equally between the prepared tins. Use a knife to smooth out the surface. You can eyeball evenness, but for the checkerboard cake it is best if you can weigh the batter so the cake heights will be even. You can see in Step 8 that I didn’t measure. (If you’re doing the checkerboard cake move below to Version #2)

7. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes. It took me 25 minutes. The cakes are ready when they are risen and golden.

8. Cool on a wire rack. Make sure you rest the cakes on their flat sides, because you don’t want the ridges to show in your finished product.

9. Put one cake on a plate, rounded side down. Spread the jam over the flat side of that cake.

10. Then place the other layer on top (flat side down, rounded side up). Sprinkle the top with caster sugar.

11. Cut and serve.

Messy level: This is really quite a clean cake recipe! I think it is because it is so straightforward to make. You put all the ingredients in at once, you bake, then spread the jam. The only messy part is sprinkling the caster sugar at the end. Easy peasy.

Boden’s Birthday Cake – Version #2

Ingredients:

Cake:

Same as above

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

2 different colors of gel or liquid food coloring

Frosting:

10 oz dark chocolate (I used 2 chocolate bars, and this would work with milk chocolate too)

10 oz heavy cream

(If you need more frosting, just use equal parts chocolate and heavy cream)

Directions:

1. Follow Steps 1-6 above. If using, add in the vanilla extract with the rest of the ingredients.

2. Your batter is now divided into two cake pans. Add one food coloring to each pan. I did one blue and one green. Mix gently! If you over mix your cake will be dense. Add food coloring until you have your desired color (I used a lot).

3. Bake for 20-30 minutes. It took me 25 minutes. The cakes are ready when they are risen and golden.

4. Cool on a wire rack until they are easy to handle. Then put them in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes. Having them chill makes them easier to cut for the checkerboard pattern.

5. Meanwhile, start on the frosting. Cut the chocolate into small pieces.

6. In a medium saucepan heat the heavy cream on low-medium heat. You are heating this until small bubbles start to form along the edge of the cream. Alternatively you can check it by sticking your finger in. If you can hold it there for 3-4 seconds, but longer feels like too much, then it is ready. You just want the cream hot enough to melt your chocolate.

7. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir until it is shiny, gorgeous, and well combined.

8. Cool the frosting. You can do this on the counter, but is much faster in the fridge. If you cool for 20 minutes, it will still be a little drippy but you can use this for the inside of the cake. For frosting the outside of the cake let it cool for at least an hour! By then it will be thick and like frosting you buy from the store. Also thick frosting is better for patching up any mistakes you make (and I’ll tell you about mine in a second).

9. Once the cakes are cool put them on the counter. Find two circles that are smaller than the cake. If you have cake cutters that’s great, but I didn’t. I used a small bowl and a cup. What you are going to do is cut out two smaller circles out of your larger cake.

10. Place your larger cake cutter (or bowl) over the center of the cake. I measured, but you can eyeball it. If you’re using a bowl take a knife and cut straight down into the cake (try not to cut diagonal). Then repeat with the smaller cutter (or cup). Now you have six rings of cake. I cracked the large green layer. If this happens to you, don’t worry. Frosting will cure it.

11. Now take one large ring (let’s say blue). Frost the inside edge. Put a medium ring inside (green). Frost the inside edge. Put the small circle inside (blue). The frosting holds the layers together. Don’t worry if it isn’t neat. So you’ve made one layer that looks like a bulls eye.

12. Frost the top of the bulls eye layer.

13. Put the other large ring on top of the first layer. Then repeat step eleven. So you’ll have bulls eye layer (blue, green, blue), then a frosting layer, then the second bulls eye later (green, blue, green).

14. Frost the exterior of the cake. Use the frosting to mend cracks and hide any unevenness in the layers.Frosting will make it all look smooth and beautiful. I recommend frosting the cake on a cutting board or parchment paper, because if you’re like you’ll get frosting all over. Then when the cake is ready you can remove it to a clean plate and it will look best.

15. Decorate as desired (excuse my frosting penmanship).

16. Sing happy birthday! Cut and eat! Look at that sweet checkerboard.

Messy level: This turned out to be an epic mess. I got cake crumbs all over when I was cutting the circles. But the messiest part was the frosting! My hands melted the chocolate as I was cutting it. Then before it cools, the chocolate is so drippy! I got chocolate everywhere when I was making the bulls eye. The counter was 70% covered in chocolate. Ryan came over and looked at the counter and chuckled. I told him that the blog is called cooking is messy for a reason.

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First,  if there is a way I can put more vegetables in my food, I will do it. I know people who are anti-hiding vegetable – but not me. I’m always trying to find a way to get more veggies in my diet. I like green smoothies and the zucchini chocolate chip cookies from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and I like today’s muffins. When I saw a picture called “spinach Popeye muffins” on Pinterest, I knew it was something I had to try. I mean, make me strong like Popeye and they taste good? Yes please. Try not to be put off by the green muffins. They are fun looking and taste like banana bread. 

Second, this is the first baking recipe I have ever significantly altered! When I read the original recipe, I wanted to decrease the sugar and make it a bit healthier. But, I wasn’t really sure how to do it because I know baking is a science and messing it can lead to bad results. Then I read this article from the Harvard School of Public Health and decided, “what the heck, let’s try it.” So I decreased the sugar by a 1/3, I substituted some brown sugar for the white, and I used low-fat yogurt instead of whole milk. I had no idea how it was going to come out. Luckily it came out SO TASTY!!! The muffins don’t really rise though and the muffin is a bit sticky in texture – both of which I think are a result of my meddling.  Still they tasted amazing and I’m sure with a little more meddling, I could fix those issues. But in summation, Ryan and I ate 7 about as soon as they came out of the oven.

Which leads me to my third and final point. While I was baking I was video chatting with my family and I showed them these muffins. There were skeptical and asked Ryan and I to eat one on camera. Anyway, we told them the muffins were sweet and tasted like banana bread. And the best part is they promised if I posted the recipe they would try it. So, here it is guys.

If you’re off put by green spinach-banana muffins, I’ll post a regular banana bread recipe next week.

Adapted from The Green Forks.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 non-fat Greek yogurt

1 6oz bag of baby spinach

2-3 mashed ripe bananas

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Ingredients:

1. Preheat oven to 350° and line the muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.

3. Place the oil, yogurt, and spinach in a blender. Blend on high until pureed. You might have to do this in batched (I did because my blender is weak).

4. Add the banana and vanilla to the blender and blend until just mixed.

5. Pour pureed mixture into the dry ingredients. Fold together with a rubber spatula until combined.

6. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until  toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.

7. Let cool (if you can wait!)

8. Try it!!

Messy level: This recipe is a three spoon recipe, although if you have a nice blender maybe fewer spoons. I tried to put all the spinach, yogurt, and oil in the blender at once and all I was doing was overheating the blender. I then took it out and did things in batches, which meant using another bowl. And of course it’s me, so I got green drops of batter all over the counter. Overall, not too messy, just gotta be careful.

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Meanwhile, back here in Virginia, the one thing I have made were these cookies. The recipe comes from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook and was recommended to me by my aunt. These cookies are colorful and festive and I made them for my friend to celebrate that she got a new job. I had been wanting to make these, but it’s taken awhile because the recipe is a bit labor intensive and requires some obscure ingredients. For real, I had to order some ingredients online. This cookie is a labor of love. But, sugary sweet, happy, and worth it.

They are a bit like snicker doodles,which the author, Christina Tosi, says is because of the cream of tartar. In the book, Tosi also wrote that she wanted to create boxed Funfetti cake in a cookie. And I think she nailed it. The cookie is so sweet, indulgent, and so cheerful. Yes, I did just say a cookie could be cheerful. I love the colorful sprinkles – it makes them the perfect celebration cookie.

As I said this recipe is from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook. This recipe requires a two step process – first you make “crumb” and then you make the cookie dough. Neither step is super challenging, but I thought you should be forewarned. If you get intimidated, just remember how wonderful and pretty sprinkles are and then you’ll be able to keep going.

Ingredients

Crumb:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 tbsp brown sugar

3/8 cup cake flour (45 grams)

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

1/8 cup grapeseed oil

1/2 tbsp Clear Vanilla Extract (clear or imitation extract is apparently important, makes it taste more like box Funfetti cake)

Cookie Dough:

16 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tbsp glucose

2 eggs

2 tsp clear vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups of flour

2/3 cup milk powder

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 rainbow sprinkles

cake crumb recipe

Directions:

1. First we’re making the crumb. Preheat the oven to 300°.

2. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on low speed, mix together the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt, and sprinkles.

3. Add the oil and vanilla. Mix again until evenly mixed and small clusters start to form.

4. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Pour the clusters onto the parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Break them up occasionally as they cook. The crumbs should still be a bit moist when you take them out of the oven – they will dry out as they cool.

5. Let them cool completely before using them in the cookie dough. (I waited 1 hour)

6. Take the butter out of the fridge. You can let it come to room temperature while you wait for the crumb to cool.

7. Ok, now start on the cookies. In the stand mixer (which you’ve cleaned out from before), combine the butter, sugar, and glucose. Beat on medium-high for 2 minutes.

8. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for 7-8 minutes. (Tosi says this is the key to her cookies being great – the butter is so fluffy and creamy this way).

9. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour, milk powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and rainbow sprinkles. Mix until the dough just comes together, no more than 1 minute. You do not want to over mix.

10. Add the crumbs and mix in for 30 seconds.

11. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Portion out the dough into large-ish balls (about 2-3 tbsp). Flatten the tops a bit with your fingers. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

12. Put the cookies in the fridge for 1 hour, or up to 1 week.

13. When you’re ready to bake, heat the oven to 350°.

14. Arrange the cookies about 3 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

15. Bake for 13-18 minutes. They are ready when the edges start to be gold and the center of the cookie is starting to get color. They will seem soft, but they harden as you let them cool.

16. Let cool before serving. Then share them with friends and feel happy!

Messy level: 3 spoons. To make this cookie, you are basically making two recipes and that means a lot of dishes and a lot of chances for flour to fly. Glucose is really sticky and messy, eggs are drippy, and butter is greasy. It’s not the worst mess you’ll ever make but there’s potential. Give yourself time and try to be organized and it won’t be so messy!

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My kitchen mixer with the juicer attachment on top!

I remembered it again this week for two reasons. I was feeling a bit mopey, and baking cheers me up. Especially if I can make something delicious and lemony. I love baking because I can clear my mind, focus on the task at hand, and end up with a delicious finished product. I call it productive leisure time. And, I was doubly excited to make this cake because I got a new kitchen gadget! I like to call it “my robot,” because the packaging it came in was in many languages and in Italian it was called “robot da cucina.”

Anyway, in our great move across the pond, the American kitchen appliances did not make it. They have different plugs and voltages, and so my American appliances are on a vacation. I’ve been sad about leaving my stand mixer, and was totally intending to buy a hand mixer, when I came across this crazy beauty. It is a stand mixer, with whisk, paddle, and dough hook attachment. It is also a blender, a food processor, and a citrus juicer! It’s all the things I want in one (except a toaster, we bought that separately). Blows your mind right?

So, I took this baby out, and juiced a lemon. Then I mixed the heck out of all my ingredients. And I made a pretty awesome cake. I didn’t feel mopey anymore, because how can you when there’s cake?

This cake has a distinct, but not overpowering lemon flavor. To my taste, the rosemary wasn’t strong. But Ryan says it adds the right amount of flavor. When you get a bite with a fleck of rosemary, it has a pleasant herbal taste that nicely complements the lemon. Also, the cake is super moist. Try it out, it’s not your usual cake, but it’s a yummy snack.

Recipe from Patent and the Pantry

Ingredients:

1 lemon

4 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 rosemary sprigs, finely chopped (plus more leaves for optional decorating)

Butter/cooking spray

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 350.°

2. Zest your lemon. Then juice the lemon.

3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs for a minute. They will be frothy!

4. Add the sugar and beat for 3 minutes, until mix is pale .

5. Add lemon zest, juice, and olive oil. Beat until well mixed (1-2 minutes).

6. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, rosemary, and salt.

7. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Mix until just combined! Don’t beat the heck out of your batter. The more you beat it, the denser your cake will be.

8. Spray or butter a loaf pan. Or you can line with parchment paper. Pour in the batter. You can sprinkle a few decorative rosemary leaves if you like.

9. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the cake comes out clean. The top should be golden. (You can see I over stabbed the middle of my cake to check for done-ness).

10. Let cool for a few minutes, then slice and serve.

Messy level: With my new juicer this was so easy! Before, I would have hand juiced and this would have been a 3 spoon at least. But, overall this is pretty easy and straightforward mixing. The lemon is the only crazy bit, so I’m giving it 2 spoons.

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We started out the week by cooking for our family. Ryan and I made pasta with shrimp and scallops in a white wine sauce. Sounds delicious right? And luckily our family is super nice, and told us that it was delicious. But, in our opinion it was mediocre. Cooking in a rental kitchen is hard folks! It took half an hour to boil water for pasta, we had to chop with a steak knife, and we set off the fire alarm. Everything tasted fine, it just didn’t come out exactly right and so we were disappointed. But after that comic disaster our meals greatly improved. If you’re ever in Stone Harbor here are my recommendations for some places to eat.

Moqueca
Photo credit: Ryan Cazalet

Quahogs From the outside this place looks tiny and can easily be overlooked, but inside is a surprisingly spacious and cozy restaurant. They have indoor and outdoor seating so you can choose your pleasure. I’ve always sat outside, and I feel like it’s not breezy enough and so can be stuffy – but I deal with it because I really like eating outside. Eating here is all about the seafood. Everything is fresh and the textures and flavors are so vibrant and bright that everything is a joy to eat. Start with oyster shooters. It’s so good, I want to make a cold soup out of it. Be careful though, because at $4.50 you can get your bill high pretty quickly. The lobster taquitos are also amazing. When I think of taquitos, I always think of those disgusting logs of mysteriousness that my college friends used to get from 7-11 on the way home from the bar. But these are three small little tacos overflowing with lobster meat. But the best thing you can eat at Quahogs is the moqueca. It’s a Brazilian seafood stew and it’s amazing. The last time I went, six out of eight of us ordered it – and many of us wiped the plate clean. There’s five kinds of seafood, the sauce is out of this world, and it’s slurp it up good. Also this place was on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Shore Feast for Two

Mike’s Seafood Yes, there’s more seafood to be eaten. Mike’s Seafood is great because you can get epic meals with multiple kinds of seafood, and some of the options are under $30. This past week I got the Steamed Combo which has shrimp, flounder, scallops, and lobster. How awesome is that? But the best thing I ever got is only on their take out menu. It’s the Shore Feast for Two. Ryan and I shared and for $53 we got what is basically a trough of seafood. It has two lobsters, corn on the cob, potatoes, shrimp, clams, and mussels.  Awesome.

The Painted Pie This adorable purple bakery sells a small variety of pastries made with seasonal fruits and fresh ingredients. They probably have about six or more options each day, and it’s really quite enough. There are scones fat with fruit chunks, gorgeous pies with star shaped crusts, and light and fluffy quiches. It’s a great way to start the day.

Now when I was a kid, my family used to vacation in Cape May, which is only a short drive from Stone Harbor. My favorite bakery then was La Patisserie. From what I can tell, this place no longer exists in the same format but it seems from my internet research, that bakery is still in Cape May but makes wedding cakes. When I was a kid I thought this place was so cool because they made bread in the shapes of animals. One time my parents let us get a loaf, but unfortunately I don’t remember the shape. But my favorite thing to get was the pig cookie. It wasn’t anything crazy, just a sugar cookie with royal icing and a chocolate chip eye.  But I loved it. So when I started vacationing with Ryan, we’d take a drive to Cape May and pick up a bunch of pig cookies. And then three years ago we went and they weren’t there. The lady at the shop told me they no longer made them. A few weeks later when my mom was in Cape May, she too went in search of pig cookies and found out that the chef left and took the recipe. Anyway, when I found out there were no more cookies I stormed out of the bakery, with Ryan bewildered and hungry behind me. He had wanted to order and I was too upset to stay there a moment longer. A little dramatic yes, but I was sad. And so although there are no more official pig cookies, I still think of them every year.  So now I’m home, and as my tan faded and I was back at work and in the thick of my regular routine, I decided to make my own pig cookies. I wanted to bring back a piece of the vacation to Arlington. They’re not the same cookie, but they make me feel nice anyway. And who couldn’t use a good sugar cookie now and then?

Before we get to the recipes and pictures, let me warn you, I’m having a mild feud with my oven. It’s been running a bit hot so I got an oven thermometer to better understand what’s happening in there. When I went to make the cookies I set the oven, waited for the oven light to go off, and then I checked the thermometer, it said 350° so I was good to go. And then 13 minutes later I took out my cookies and they were brown. BROWN! And the thermometer said 400°. Sigh.  Luckily these cookies still taste good even though some were overcooked. Let’s call the brown ones “pigs in the mud.” I did better on the second batch. Moral of the story – check on your cookies before the timer goes off!

This recipe is adapted from The Art of the Cookie, which is a really gorgeous book that has many yummy recipes and impressive decorating ideas.

Ingredients: 

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk (the book says heavy cream, but I’m not buying a whole thing of heavy cream for 1 tbsp. I’ve just used milk and it works fine)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In another large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. If you use an electric mixer, this takes about 2 minutes.

3. Add the egg and the vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture.  Beat on low speed until the egg is completely mixed in.

4. Still on low, slowly mix in the flour a little bit at a time. Mix until it’s almost incorporated. This means that it’s ok if you can still see bits of flour.

5. Add the milk. Mix until everything is incorporated.

6. Scoop up the dough, press it into a rectangle/square/blob shape and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Stick in the fridge for anywhere between 1 hour to overnight. You can also wrap it super tightly and freeze it for up to a month (that’s what the book says). What I did was I made two blobs of dough, put one in the fridge to make and one in the freezer for later. With the blob I baked, it made 15 cookies.

7. Preheat oven to 350°

8. If you don’t want to make cut out shapes, just tear a little pieces of dough and make small circle cookies. If you want to make shapes, generously flour your work surface and rolling pin. Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/4″ thick. You can roll out the dough in stages, you don’t have to do the whole thing at once.

9. Use cookie cutters to make the shapes you want. I made pig and Star Wars shapes. Why not, right?

10. Use a spatula or your hands to place the cookies on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Leave some breathing room between the cookies.

11. Bake until the edges of the cookie are slightly golden. The book says this could take 16-19. In the past it’s taken me 12-13 minutes, and this time with the crazy oven fiasco the perfect time was 10 minutes. So check you oven occasionally to see how long it will take.

12. Let cool for a few minutes… if you can!

13. Decorate!!! I did three types of decorating: sprinkles, royal icing, and gel icing from a tube. The sprinkles I put on after step 10 and before I put them in the oven. The royal icing and gel icing I put on after. I used this royal icing recipe, and then added 2 drops of red food coloring to make pink. Royal icing dries hard, but not crunchy. It’s sweet and reminds me of my old Cape May cookies. I put chocolate chip eyes on the pigs when the cookies were still warm and fresh from the oven.

Messy Level: I’m giving this two spoons. It’s not that messy or difficult to make this recipe. The biggest mess came from all the flour and rolling out the dough. Also sprinkles get every where so that’s a bit annoying, but at least it’s a colorful mess.

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