Top 3 Someday Recipes, Vol. 1

New blog feature! I spend a lot of time looking at food blogs (often via Tastespotting) and find lots of recipes that I want to try "someday." I usually save a lot of these through Pinterest, but it might be nice to link them here as well, for your benefit.

Top 3 Someday Recipes

1. DIY Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix from BrownEyedBaker

2. Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes from Handle the Heat

3. Slow-Cooker Saucy Chicken Thighs from Cully's Kitchen

Coconut Oil, Inside and Outside

I've been reading some lately about the benefits of coconut oil, both as a topical skin moisturizer and as a diet supplement. I won't go into all that now (but click here for the gist). Today, I made a trek to the natural foods store and picked up the ingredients for homemade whipped coconut oil body moisturizer. It turned out really well, and I'm definitely going to start using it on a daily basis to moisturize face and body and remove makeup.

Soft-Boiled Eggs

Soft-boiled eggs: easy and elegant. Soft-boiled eggs are "slow food"--they take time to savor and enjoy.

Fill a medium saucepan with an amount of water that will cover egg(s) by about an inch or two. Bring to a low boil (180 degrees is ideal). Slowly lower refrigerated egg(s) into the water with a spoon. Set a timer for 6 minutes if you want a white that's just barely set and a completely liquid yolk; 7 minutes if you like a little more solidity. Try to keep water at 180 degrees, or just simmering. When the timer goes off, remove eggs and place in serving cups, pointy side down. Serve with toasted pieces of bread. (To eat, crack in a circle around the top with a knife and remove carefully, picking off any stray pieces of shell. Salt and pepper and dig in.)

Food Trends I'm So Over

I work part-time at a bookstore, and we have a huge newsstand, and we're allowed to read magazines on our breaks. Hence, I browse through most of the major food magazines on a regular basis: Food & Wine, Saveur, The Food Network Magazine, Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated, etc. (Saveur is my favorite, by the way--truly engaging, educational food writing.) So, with this incessant food magazine browsing combined with an unhealthy interest in restaurant menus, I consider myself fairly well-versed in food trends. And there are trends, if you didn't know. Flavors go in and out of style like clothing fashions. Example: Cupcakes are five minutes ago. All the cool kids are now eating macarons.

And there are a few trends that I'm really just done with. I'm sick of seeing them, I'm sick of eating them, I'm sick of their being my only options on dessert menus. Time to branch out, folks! Here are a few food trends I'm so over.

1. Red Velvet everything.
We GET it--it's a pretty color. But that is IT. It's practically flavorless, or at least has much less flavor than something that's a brilliant crimson should have. Just in case you are unfamiliar with the ingredients of red velvet cake (cupcakes, cake balls, cheesecake swirled with cake, oh god make it stop) and think it must be something exotic to be so popular--it's not. It's a lightly cocoa-flavored, heavily colored cake. That's it. And red velvet, it's time for you to go.

2. Molten chocolate cake.
I get why these are popular, particularly in middle-class restaurants: they're so ridiculously easy, and yet look fancy enough to warrant a hefty price tag. They're simple to make ahead of time and pop in the oven or microwave. And don't get me wrong--they're delicious. But they're old news. I'm sure they're still extremely popular with restaurant customers, so we may not see them go for a while, but please. I'm begging you. Have some creativity. Have the courage to axe the molten chocolate cake.


3. DIY name-brand products.
This is a picture of homemade Oreos. And I've made them. And they were good. But they weren't Oreos. Because Oreo is a brand name, and the reason they taste so distinctive is because Nabisco spent years and loads of money refining their manufacturing process so that every red-blooded American knows what an Oreo cookie should taste like. Sure, we can make a healthier, fresher product in our home kitchens, but we can't replicate that process, and therefore, we can't make them taste exactly right. And I'm not sure that I care. Because when I crave an Oreo, I don't just want a cream-filled chocolate cookie. I could make that myself. What I want is nostalgia. I want that Oreo to taste exactly like it did when I was six years old. The same goes for Pop-Tarts. I know full well that Pop-Tarts are perhaps one of the worst processed foods you can put into your body, so I tried the homemade version. They were rich, sweet, and buttery--but they didn't taste like a Pop-Tart. And sometimes--not often--but sometimes, I want a Pop-Tart, and making one does not count. It has to come out of that blue box and foil wrapper! It has to taste the same.

I'm conflicted about this one, because I'm all for people cooking for themselves and finding healthier, less-processed alternatives to store products. But when it's things like Oreos and Pop-Tarts, which you shouldn't eat on a regular basis, not even the homemade ones, I think we've gone a little overboard on the DIY mania. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Sometimes, the time you save by ripping open a package of Oreos and pouring a glass of milk is worth even more than the accomplishment you feel by making it yourself. Give yourself a break. You are not Martha Stewart; you are not paid to cook. Cook what makes sense and buy what you can't replicate.

Lime Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

A combination of factors led to these cupcakes.

1. After making that raspberry buttercream, but knowing I could make it better, I was obsessed with creating a new berry buttercream, and the bag of organic blackberries in my freezer that I had purchased on sale for smoothies were just sitting there waiting for me.

2. I love lime. Always and forever.

3. Perhaps most importantly, I just watched 5 episodes of DC Cupcakes, a TLC program that showcases a cupcake shop in the capital. I find the scripted banter, escapades, and arguments particularly annoying on this show, but I sat through it for the cupcakes. As cupcakes go, these seem decent to me. I like that the frosting is standardized and the decoration minimal; these are signs that flavor is what matters to this bakery. And, inevitably, after watching hundreds of dozens of beautiful cupcakes being baked, decorated, sold, and shipped, I couldn't get cupcakes out of my mind. I had to prove that I could make a cupcake at least as delicious and whimsical as those two Greek sisters are doing in DC.

So I did.

Lime cupcakes with blackberry buttercream.

I followed the Tender White Cake recipe on the back of the King Arthur cake flour box, substituting fresh lime juice and zest for the almond extract. I can't imagine a more perfect white cupcake recipe. It's a gorgeous sponge whipped up with plenty of butter and egg whites, which makes the mixing process easier because you don't have to be so worried about overbeating.

I cooked the blackberries over medium heat until they broke down into a sauce. I strained them, and then beat the syrupy purple juice with a lot of butter this time, since the lack of butter was the problem in the raspberry recipe. I've made "dump icing" pretty much my whole life, so I just whipped the butter, whipped in the blackberry concentrate, and then added powdered sugar until I liked the consistency.

I did it. They are amazing. And my photos aren't bad this time, either! Take that, DC Cupcakes.

Raspberry Buttercream

As soon as I saw this recipe online, I knew my day would not pass before I had made it. My sister and I have been obsessed with making raspberry coulis for some time now--watching that magic tool, the fine-mesh strainer, turn seedy sauce into smooth ruby liquid. We've used it on pavlova, cheesecake, and coeur a la creme, but before this recipe, I hadn't considered the possibilities of whipping it with fat and sugar into a luxurious, tangy buttercream.

Courtesy of Brenda of A Farmgirl's Dabbles, I give you...  

Raspberry Buttercream.

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 12 oz. raspberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3-1/2 c. powdered sugar
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1 to 2 T. milk, if needed to thin out the frosting   

Cook the raspberries in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until the raspberries are broken down into a sauce. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds, and then pour the raspberry sauce back in the pot. Simmer until the sauce reduces to a 1/4 cup. It will be a very rich red and concentrated sauce. Set aside to cool. With a mixer, cream the butter with a paddle attachment on medium high speed about 2 minutes, until lightened in color and a bit fluffy. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar, the 1/4 cup of cooled raspberry sauce, lemon juice, and salt. Mix until smooth. Add another 1-1/2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth. If you want the frosting less stiff, add some milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. 

Frost whatever you wish! (Shown in this post on a prepared Dr. Oetker organic brownie mix.)

Edit: After tasting and re-tasting this recipe, and observing how it held up overnight, I actually wish I would have listened to my instincts and made this a truer buttercream by adding another stick of butter. Yes, another complete stick. If you look at a variety of buttercream recipes (like this and this), you'll find that if you're using over 3 cups of powdered sugar, the recipe should also contain at least 1 cup of butter, and this raspberry recipe only contains a 1/2 cup. Adding more butter would make the icing fluffier and more melt-in-your-mouth, though you might have to store it in the fridge. As it is, it's delicious, but extremely pasty-sweet because of the excess of powdered sugar.

A Break From Food: DIY Home Decor

I have to be honest and say that I'm mostly posting this on my food blog because I want to be able to pin it on Pinterest. It'll probably get me some traffic, too. But primarily, I want to share this idea, because it's awesome!

I recently visited someone's home for the first time, and saw this clever wall hanging in their living room that consisted of a bamboo rod hung with pieces of twine. Clipped to the twine with mini clothespins were Valentine's Day cards per the recent holiday. I loved the rod + twine + clips idea, and envisioned it with branches of silk flowers instead of cards and photos. This afternoon, with the help of my nice husband, I accomplished the vision.

Silk flowers are so expensive, so I only bought two branches of faux apple blossoms. I think I need a few more to make this look more filled in; better yet, real branches. Still, it's a big improvement on a bare wall.

I pulled off several sprigs and hung them separately.

 

I love that this was so easy, relatively cheap (under $20 for all materials, excluding hammer and nails, which we already had), and completely versatile: you can change out the flowers/branches based on the holiday or season, add photos, cards, garlands...anything lightweight and clippable, really.