Old Fashioneds and Mojitos

Forgive me, Blogger, for I have sinned. It has been twenty-nine days since my last confession post. I accuse myself of the following sins:

Making two delicious cocktails.

Now technically, Jake made them while I cooked and watched, but he went through each one step by step with me. Quality programming folks. Quality.

We enjoyed the Old Fashioneds while the heavenly smell of Julia's boeuf bourguignon wafted from the oven.

Old Fashioned

1 tsp sugar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 orange slices
2 maraschino cherries
Soda water
2 ounces bourbon

In the bottom of an old-fashioned glass, muddle the sugar, bitters, one orange slice, one cherry, and a splash of soda. Remove the orange rind and add the bourbon, ice, and a splash of soda. Garnish with the remaining orange slice and cherry.

The Mojitos were sipped alongside a delicious Quinoa, Fennel, and Pomegranate Salad.

Mojito

2 fresh mint sprigs
1 ounce Simple Syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 1/2 ounces rum
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Soda Water

Muddle one mint sprig with Simple Syrup and the lime juice in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add the rest of the ingredients and shake with ice. Strain over cracked ice into a highball glass, top with soda, and garnish with the remaining sprig of mint.

An Expanded Lexicon

I ended my quest to learn a new word every day for a month today, rounding out the 30 word list with "fascicle." I have to admit to not using every one of the words (I missed about 20% of them), although I consciously made an effort to every day. I continue to attempt to memorize and understand their meanings to enable myself to use them in future conversation. My goal was to learn a host of new words, which I did, and I definitely plan on staying on the word of the day list-serve to learn more in the future. As such, I'll count this as a success and put $10 in my jar.

A complete list of the words (sans their time and usage) can be found here.

On to the Hunger Games

Last night I finished We the Animals by Justin Torres. It was definitely a quick, enjoyable read, but I have to agree with the innumerable reviews I've found on the book regarding the ending. In short, the last chapter felt rushed and thrown together. I don't know how I would have chosen to finish the novel, but after so many well-written insights into the lives of the characters, what was written doesn't do the rest of the book justice.

As the title to this entry suggests, I'm now onto reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I bought the three books as a collection on my Nook after my friend Alexandra told me I HAD to read them. The reason? She had a dream that had something to do with the books, and something to do with me, but without reading the novels, I wouldn't be able to understand it all. In other words, I MUST read the books, and SOON! I promise to read them fast!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

This year for Thanksgiving, Jake and I joined my parents at their place in West Chester. My sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids were traveling to see Michael's family in Baltimore, so it was just the four of us (plus Toby) at my parents place. Being the gentlemanly folk we are, Jake and I offered to bring something with us, but as is the normal case, my forward-thinking parents already had almost everything taken care of. We were asked to bring wine, an hors d'oeuvre (we opted for these scrumptious jalapeño sausage treats, which we will be making again), and to pick up some good dinner rolls.

I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to bake again, even though I technically already had this month (gold stars may be sent to my home address). My internet was being rather capricious that day, so it was on to the stack of magazines I've come to love so much.

Hours passed and I had made zero progress in picking a bread-y side, despite the piles of magazines surrounding me. I found a recipe for delicious fig and goat cheese cornbread cooked in a skillet, but was unsure if my parents liked figs. I also found a beautiful looking rye bread recipe, but it required a pre-ferment and a ferment and a whositwhatsitthing and a whole load of complication that takes almost a whole 24 hours to make. I WILL tackle this recipe at some point! Just not for Thanksgiving when so much else is happening. I finally narrowed it down to two - brioche buns OR sweet potato biscuits. Exhausted from the afternoon's task, I awoke Riley from her nap to pick between the two; however, she had no interest, and simply rolled back over, grumbling all the way. Luckily, Jake was quick to decide on the Sweet Potato Biscuits, so I noted the page of the brioche buns for another day, and put together my shopping list: one sweet potato. I already had everything else I needed!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my parents. My mom had TWO whole glasses of wine, which approximately quadruples the amount of wine I've seen her drink in my life. My dad made fantastic Manhattans. And we had a great time sitting around the table talking and laughing. The biscuits were very good, though I wish they had more of a sweet potato flavor to them. The recipe calls for 7 tablespoons of butter, but the Paula Deen in me decided to throw in the whole stick - after all, what would I do with that one little extra tablespoon....  I don't know how I would infuse more sweet potato flavor into the biscuits, as I worry that simply adding more sweet potato could alter the composition of the rolls in an unfriendly way. Definitely an easy recipe worth trying though!

Ingredients:

• One 1/2-pound sweet potato
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• One stick (8 Tbsp) cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1/3 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°. Poke the sweet potato all over with a fork and bake for 45-60 minutes depending on the size of the potato, until tender. Peel and mash the potato. Set aside 3/4 cup of the mashed potato and let cool completely; reserve the rest for another use/eat it immediately with some cinnamon-sugar. Raise the oven temperature to 425°.

In a food processor, pulse the flour with the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the buttermilk and the 3/4 cup of mashed sweet potato and pulse just until the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a heavily floured work surface and knead 2 or 3 times, until smooth; the dough will be soft. Roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick and cut out eight 4-inch rounds. Arrange the sweet potato biscuits on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve hot.

Pecan Pie

I managed to capture a picture of the last slice...

This month actually has TWO from scratch baking items. Holler for a dollar!

Firstly, came a dessert request from Jake - Pecan Pie. Now, as surprising it may be, I've never made any type of pie before, so I was a little nervous about making a crust from scratch. I tried to avoid this step by looking for a pecan pie-esque dessert, but my attempts to do so were quickly squashed by Jake, who demanded requested that I make a traditional one.

After searching around for a few recipes, I found one that used no corn syrup and decided to use that one. Not that this pie was "healthier" for the omission of such an item - the recipe still calls for two cups of brown sugar - but corn syrup doesn't add any real flavor, and I knew I could get the sweetness it adds from a more flavorful ingredient.

I found the recipes for both the pie crust and the pie filling on Bon Appétit's website. The crust was a lot easier to make than I was expecting, and makes enough dough for a double crust, or two pies. I only had to use the one, so the other is relaxing in my freezer for another day.

I altered the pie recipe a bit - opting for bourbon instead of scotch and electing to toast the pecans a bit first. The end result was a delicious (although not the most aesthetically pleasing) pecan pie. Next time I bake the crust, I'll keep the pie weights in a bit longer in an attempt to keep the crust from folding in as it did (I altered the directions below to how I would do it next time). The flavor was wonderful!

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes 
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp. sugar 
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt 

Directions:

Combine flour, butter, vegetable shortening, sugar, and salt in a food processor until butter resembles tiny pebbles, about 25 seconds.

Transfer to a large bowl. Gradually add 3/4 cup ice water, using a fork to stir until dough is a mixture of clumpy wet pieces and sandier pieces, adding more water by tablespoonfuls if dry. Press plastic wrap over surface of dough. Chill in the bowl at least 1 hour or over night.

Preheat oven to 375°. Divide dough into two equal portions. Wrap one portion and refrigerate or freeze for later use. Roll out other dough into a 13-14" disc. To transfer to the pie dish, lightly fold the dough in half, and then in half again, and place over dish. Unfold the dough and press against the sides, cutting off the excess, but leaving enough to make the crust finish you desire. Prick the crust all over with a fork. Line crust with foil or parchment paper. Fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake 30-35 minutes.

Remove from oven; lift out foil and weights. Reduce temperature to 350°. Return to oven and bake until crust is light golden brown, 10 minutes longer.

Pecan Pie Filling

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (packed) dark brown sugar 
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted 
• 1 tablespoon bourbon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 2 cups pecan halves

Directions:

Keep the oven at 350°. Toast the pecans in a dry pan to release some of the oils. In a large bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, butter, bourbon, vanilla, and cinnamon in until relatively smooth. Mix in nuts. Pour filling into dough-lined dish.

Bake pie until filling is slightly puffed and set in center, about 40 minutes. Check the pie halfway through and every so often after that to ensure that the edges are not browning too quickly. If they are, you can cover them with foil. Cool pie completely at room temperature. It's accompanied wonderfully by whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream.

Enjoy!

Road race 1 of 5

Last weekend my entire family participated in the Race for Hope, a 5k dedicated to raising funds for brain tumor research. We joined a team of 43 participants known as Katie's Krusaders, running and walking in honor and memory of the sister and aunt of some of my family's longtime friends. As a team, we raised over $5,000.00!

I've done a 10 miler and a half-marathon before, but this was my first 5k. It certainly was a beautiful morning for a run, but I have to admit that I wasn't prepared for such a fast race as I'm used to pacing a bit more for the longer miles. While I'm not exactly happy with my time (which I'll keep to myself), I'm glad to know that I can push myself a lot harder on my next 5k. I was, however, very proud of my family for participating. My parents and sister walked with my niece and nephew, Jake and I ran together, and my brother-in-law, Michael, placed third overall!

Afterwards, my family of eight went to a great brunch at one of Jake's and my favorite places, Cochon, where we all indulged ourselves with a delicious meal. The entire day was a great experience to share with my family and close friends!!

Beginning #65: new words

I decided to begin my month-long educational adventure of learning a new word every day beginning November 1, 2011. And as you all know, that's today. At least it's still today in Eastern Standard Time.

To help facilitate this desired increase in my lexicon, I signed up for dictionary.com's Word of the Day e-mails over the weekend and looked forward to my first official Word of the Day. I awoke this morning, picked up my phone with excitement, opened my mail, and saw the following message:

AIOLI?!?! That's my first word? Now, I realize that everyone may not know what "aioli" means, but I love an aioli. LOVE. I would eat with beef. I would eat it with french fries. Heck, I would eat it with a spoon.

Not wanting to admit defeat so early in this quest, I decided to harness the power of google and search for a different word of the day. Once again, I was disappointed...

Merriam-Webster's word: Cerulean
wordthink.com's word: Expeditious
wordsmith.org's word: Pinstriped
NY Times' word: Evocative
quotationspage.com's word: Aria

I even checked SuperKids.com's Vocabulary Builder to no avail (Dividend).

I was ready to give up when I stumbled upon a website - I can't even find the exact one now - with the following word: "Lilt." I've heard it before, but didn't really know the definition. In most usages, it means "a light, happy song," and considering how much I love coming up with my own lilts on a daily basis, I thought that having this word as my very FIRST word was very à propos.

I decided to join a few more list serves to increase the likelihood of finding a new word everyday, despite my disdain for having too much junk mail. Considering how long it took me to find a word today, I think it will be worth it.

I probably won't write any more full blog entries on this task, at least not until it's all over. But for those of you interested in increasing your vocabulary along with mine, I will be posting every day's word here, along with the approximate time and subject of the sentence in which I use it. My fourth grade reading teacher, Mrs. Figueroa, would be so proud!

Naked...Animals

I couldn't resist putting "Naked" in the title of this entry. Call me immature; you'd be at least half-accurate in your accusation...

After what seemed like years of reading, I finally finished David Sedaris' autobiographical collection of essays, Naked. As mentioned previously, I like to take my time while reading books; however, I have to admit that part of the reason it took me so long with this particular read was that I frankly lost interest. The book definitely was amusing, an attribute to Sedaris' ability to paint even the most boring scenes in a comical light, but it was repetitive. The characters and settings changed, but each essay (mostly) read the same way.

I understand that Sedaris is a humorist, but when I read an autobiography, I want to get to know a part of the writer. I want the writer to expose herself a little. I want to see the author... naked. It wasn't until the second to last essay that I really felt Sedaris take on the risk of touching something a bit deeper. Ashes, an essay about his sister's wedding and his mother's looming death from cancer, was by far my favorite. Sedaris' dark humor and wit were at its best, but the chapter touched on a piece of Sedaris that you don't get to see in other essays without being overtly emotional.

It's definitely a good book to have around as a casual read, but I will stick to recommending Holidays on Ice if you haven't ever read him before.

My next read is We are the Animals: A Novel by Justin Torres. I was scheduled to read Bossypants, but after two autobiographical works I really needed a piece of fiction, and Animals came highly recommended by a few of my friends on goodreads. I'll keep you posted.

Pumpkin Spice Granola

We've had so many weddings this month, that I am confident that I could become a wedding coordinator extraordinaire. I will forgo that career path, though, so as to avoid the countless crazy brides I would surely encounter in the industry. Now, to clarify, I must say that none of the weddings I have attended contained one of the hereinbefore mentioned crazies and I have absolutely adored each of the brides, as well as their grooms, wedding parties, mothers, fathers, grandparents, pets, etc.

And while I loved having so many regal weekends, I was at a loss for ideas as to what to bake from scratch this month that wouldn't consume an entire day, or portions of multiple days for that matter (see Key Lime Meringue Tart). Sidebar: a man in a cape just walked into the coffee shop. Have I mentioned how much I love Halloween? It really lets the loons shine. Anyway, I had already decided that I would toast the pumpkin seeds from this year's jack-o-lanterns knowing full well that I could not count this as my baking experiment for the month. Not wanting those seeds to go to waste, I scoured the intergalaticwebs for a recipe that could include them, and found a number of recipes for various granolas (granola? granoli?).

Now, I love granola. Jake loves granola. Riley would probably love granola if we ever gave her any (which we won't, calm down). Granola is SO bad for you though. I always laugh when it's marketed as "a health snack," because it is anything but. Sure, the basic ingredients - oats, nuts, raisins - are good for you, but douse them in sugar and oil, and even the most nutritional of ingredients start adding mass to your love handles.

I was lucky enough to stumble across a recipe that substituted the oil for applesauce and puréed pumpkin. So while this recipe still has a fair amount of sugar in it, the result is relatively healthy and pairs wonderfully with a bowl of my yogurt of choice: the low-fat maple from Seven Stars Farm, which, bee tee dubs, is owned by my best buddy Erica's uncle. It's also great as a snack, and for long car rides to beautiful New York weddings. Here it is, as adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod:

Pumpkin Spice Granola

Ingredients:

• 5 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup real maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Directions:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 325º.

In a large bowl, combine oats, spices, and salt. Thoroughly mix to distribute the spices throughout.

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, pumpkin puree, applesauce, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, and mix until the oats are evenly coated.

Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove baking sheet from the oven and mix the pumpkin seeds into the oats. Break up the non-bite-size friendly chunks, and evenly spread the ingredients on the baking sheet before placing into the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove sheet, mix ingredients again, and place in the oven for a final 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven. While the granola is still warm, mix in the dried cranberries. Allow the granola to cool and then store in an airtight container.

Halllloweeeeeennnnn

It's my favorite of holidays after only Thanksgiving and Christmas (in that order) and here are a few reasons why:

1. It's smack in the middle of Autumn (my favorite of the four seasons, including Frankie Valli). 
2. People dress up in amazingly awesome costumes, which I thoroughly enjoy. 
3. People dress up in amazingly awful costumes, which I also thoroughly enjoy, though for entirely different reasons. 
4. My niece (and my nephew this year!!) dress up in costumes such as these:         
5. There is candy EVERYWHERE and it is suddenly socially acceptable to both hoard and binge said sweet confections.
6. There is an abundance of pumpkin flavored beers. 
7. Halloween parties are some of the best parties you can attend all year long.
8. My somewhat private (though not anymore...now) obsession with zombies, vampires, witches, werewolves, and other legendary creatures can be unabashedly displayed with no concern for public mockery.
9. You get to take big orange pumpkins and turn them into wonderful jack-o-lanterns, such as these:

More postcrossing news

Since my last update, three more of my postcards were received! I'll just take a quick moment to say thanks to Carol in Australia, Renat in Belarus, and Dongyun in China for the great messages they sent me after receiving my cards. It seems that Riley has become quite the international celebrity as a result of her new side career as a print model.

I also have received my very first postcard through postcrossing from a very talented artist from Poland. Thank you, Agata!

postcard received!

I got the following happy e-mail today in the middle of a very stressful day at work...

For you non-Dutch speakers out there, "de leuke" translates to "the fun." So now we have hard proof (and not just my unbiased opinion) that I do indeed send fun postcards.

Anyway, I was very excited that Nellie received the card I sent her! The picture you see on the e-mail is of one of the cards she makes herself. She has a website with a lot of her cards on it, and they're all very impressive.

Now I'm just waiting to receive my very first card!

postcrossing

One night when I couldn't sleep and was mindlessly surfing the world wide web (why don't we ever call it that anymore, the alliteration is awesomely appealing (see what I did there...)), I stumbled across the site postcrossing.com. On this website, you're randomly assigned persons from all over the globe for the purpose of sending each a postcard. After one of your postcards' specific ID numbers has been logged on the website as received, you start receiving some as well.

I like the idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, we don't send enough handwritten mail anymore. In fact, I hand write so little, that after a few minutes, my hand aches, its underused muscles screaming with fatigue. Secondly, I never had a "pen-pal" when I was younger, but I've always wanted to send mail to some far-off place with the hope that I would receive something back in return. Thirdly, it gave me an excuse to make my own postcards on snapfish, something I've been wanting to do since I found out it was possible.

This morning I sat down to write my five postcards. I retrieved my customized Riley postcards from the drawer, opted for a blue pen (spunky, I know), and then stared at the empty box in front of me for ten minutes, not knowing what to write. Eventually, I decided to introduce the lovely Vizsla gracing the front of the card, tell the recipient that I was doing this as part of this project, and gave them the web address to my blog in the hopes that maybe they would see this entry and leave a comment. I addressed the cards to people of all ages from five different countries: China, Taiwan, Belarus, the Netherlands, and Australia. I placed a 98¢ stamp on each, dropped them in the corner mailbox, and hoped my scratchy penmanship was legible enough to get me by.

I'll keep everyone POST-ed (haHA!) as to whether or not they're marked as received or if I receive any of my own cards from yet-to-be-determined senders.

ja, ja, Brezeln für alle!

In honor of Oktoberfest, my wonderful German heritage, and the beautiful city where I currently reside, I decided this month that my baked from scratch recipe should be the glorious Pretzel. 

Pretzels are everywhere in Philly. In fact, I would venture to guess that more pretzels (by number, profit, weight, etc.) are sold and eaten each year here than cheesesteaks. Whether you prefer your pretzel on a trendy tote bag...

 

 or from a shopping cart outside the stadium...

 

or wrapped around a cheesesteak (yes, it exists, this is Philadelphia after all)...

 

...you are certain to find this Bavarian snack everywhere you turn in this town, including my kitchen.

A few years ago, I saw Alton Brown bake pretzels on his show "Good Eats." Ever since then, I've wanted to try to make them myself. It's an easy recipe to follow, though the "baking soda bath" required to get the golden brown crusty outside was definitely something I've never done before. I could have used lye for that step, but I typically don't have that, ya know, just laying around the house.

If I make pretzels again, and I'm sure I will, I might switch the fat used in this recipe (butter) for something a bit more fun (bacon fat, duck fat, good old fashioned lard). I can only imagine how great that would be.

Here's the recipe, with my minor tweaks:

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (as warm as you can get from the tap is fine)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (plus more for sprinkling)
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for your dough-rising bowl
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Directions:

Combine water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to form a foamy layer on top. Add flour and butter and mix on low speed with a dough hook until well combined. Up the speed to medium and knead until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl in one big ball. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and lightly oil the side. 

Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place (such as a slightly warm oven) for just under an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Pre-heat the oven to 450º (remove your rising dough first). Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in a large saucepan.

While you're waiting for the water to boil, divide the dough into eight equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 2 feet rope, and swirl into the pretzel shape (you can figure that out on your own, I'm sure).

Place the pretzels into the boiling water one or two at a time, for 30 seconds. Transfer the pretzel to a lined baking sheets, brush with the beaten egg, and sprinkle with salt. Repeat for the remaining seven pretzels.

Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

#23: complete.

touristy tour!

Earlier in the summer, Jake and I (along with some friends) decided that it would be a fun idea to go on one of the Philly ghost tours. It seemed like the perfect weekday evening activity, or perhaps even a great way to get the weekend started. The very next day, Groupon offered a frighteningly felicitous deal: 50% off tickets for the Spirits of '76 Ghost Tour. We knew that this bargain was sent to us from another realm to allow us an evening of spooky, yet thrifty, storytelling.

Fast-forward two months. Our tickets were set to expire in less than a week! A hurricane annoying rain storm was headed our way! We needed to act! Lucky for us, Irene kept the tourists away, and we were able to land two spots on the Friday evening tour. After finding ourselves unable to resist buying something from Cosi, we set off for a 75-minute walking tour of historic Philadelphia led by an enthusiastic and informative Shakespeareanesque tour guide.

Over the course of our 1.5 mile walk, we heard about a dozen and a half stories - some creepy, some funny, some... completely lame. It's been a long time since I really looked around as I walked through that part of Philadelphia (I normally avoid it in an effort to stay far away from tourists, horse droppings, duck tours, and, worst of all: tea party "activists"), but I'm really happy to have done the tour. Not only was it entertaining, but it reminded me just how much American history lives in this city. I don't think any other place in the country has as many important landmarks, or as many beautiful historic places.

All in all it was a great night: wonderful history, hair-raising stories, free samples of gelato, and the best company on a beautiful evening.

I hated Blade Runner.

And I will not waste anymore time on it.

The end.

Key Lime Meringue Tart

Seeing as it's summer (although sadly not much longer), I wanted to make something this month appropriate for the season. Hewhowishesnottobenamed suggested that I make a Key Lime Pie and I knew that would fit the bill perfectly. Now as far too many of my friends know, when I do something, I can never just have it be easy. When presented with options A and B, where B is exactly like option A save for an added 52,347 steps, I can't help but pick B.

Thus the reason why this post isn't entitled "Key Lime Pie," but rather "Key Lime Meringue Tart." After much searching, I found this wonderful recipe among the stacks of Bon Appétit and Food & Wine magazines that litter our kitchen. (I won't lie to you: half the appeal of this recipe is that it calls for the use of a kitchen torch. Best day ever!!!)

I don't think there's much I would change about this recipe, except maybe the amount of meringue. It calls for 4 egg whites, when really 3 would probably do. I think that would really balance the curd to meringue ratio. It was my first time ever making a curd, and I probably could have let it thicken up a bit more over the make-shift double broiler. Otherwise, this tart is pretty much delicious as is. If you make the curd and crust ahead of time, I would suggest not spreading the curd onto the crust until just before making the meringue. No one likes a soggy crust!

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Bon Appétit.

Ingredients

Key lime curd

• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Key lime juice
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Crust

• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter @ room temp.
• 3 oz. chilled cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt 

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites @ room temp. (very important!)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Directions

Key lime curd

Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar, lime juice, lemon juice, and coarse salt in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over medium saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until curd thickens slightly and instant-read thermometer inserted into curd registers 140°F for 3 minutes, 5 to 6 minutes total. Remove from water and whisk butter into curd a few cubes at a time until smooth. Strain curd through fine sieve into a small bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd and chill overnight.

Crust

Using electric mixer, beat butter, cream cheese, and sugar in medium bowl until smooth. Add flour and salt and beat just until blended. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured work surface to 11- to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Press dough onto bottom and up sides of pan, being sure to have double-thick sides extending a bit above the sides of the pan. Freeze crust 20 minutes. Line crust with foil; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until crust is set, 25 minutes or so. Remove foil and beans. Continue to bake until crust is golden and cooked through, about 20 minutes longer. Cool crust completely in pan on rack. Spread curd evenly in baked crust. Chill while making meringue.

Meringue

Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in large bowl on medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and powdered sugar and beat until meringue is very thick and glossy, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and coarse kosher salt. Spoon meringue in dollops atop curd, then spread and swirl decoratively with table knife. Using kitchen torch, brown meringue in spots, creating white and golden peaks and valleys. Chill uncovered at least 1 hour before serving.

The Classic Manhattan

2oz blended or straight whiskey
1oz Italian sweet vermouth
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Cherry, for garnish

Pour all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir as you would a Martini. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or into a rocks glass. Garnish with the cherry.


Now I know what you're thinking: A Manhattan is easy! It's basic with just a few ingredients, and I'm sure you've made one before, especially since you were raised by a father whose paramount drink is the Wild Turkey Manhattan. So, why are you including this on your list of 25 new cocktails, and why is it the first one?!?!

Well, because I can, and because I should. Because up until tonight, I actually had no idea what the proportions were supposed to be. I've never made a Manhattan with bitters, though I have made them with a few drops of that borderline sickeningly sweet maraschino cherry liquid. And although I can make my dad's delicious version blindfolded, it was high time I learned how to do it in the classic style. (As it turns out, my dad's version is a lot closer than most of what they're serving you out and about).

For the past 7 years (well, maybe a bit longer...), I've considered myself a vodka drinker, and although I'm not quite ready to answer the "What's your drink of choice?" question with anything but a quick "Vodka Gimlet," I will say that I am becoming a huge fan of all things whiskey. I'll warn you now that you can expect to see a disproportionately large number of whiskey drinks included on this 25 new cocktails list.

But don't worry mom, I promise to include at least one or two for you...

The recipe for this drink (and all future ones unless otherwise noted) was taken from The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff, a wonderfully informative book which finally taught me the difference between Irish Whiskey and Scotch, as well as a host of other bartending tidbits.

the silence of the lambs

Just a quick update about my recent movie viewing... I was in the mood for something scary, so I decided to go with The Silence of the Lambs. I'm a little ashamed to say that I had never seen this before. When it first came out, I was only 8 years old and my parents would not let me see it. Now I understand why! Such a great movie though, and both Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins give impeccable performances.

My rating: 4 out of 5 Rileys.

 

in re #12: 20 new books

Well, I finally finished my first book. I had originally planned on completing Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential while on vacation with my family, but when my so cute it should be illegal three year old niece wants to be in the ocean the whole time, I want to be too.

In general, I really enjoyed the read. I was never "shocked" by any of the revelations Bourdain makes about the restaurant industry, perhaps because I spent two summers working at the venerable Aragosta Rossa...... but nevertheless, it was a great insight into the high-paced environment of big city kitchens. If you're a person that loves food, restaurants, and foul language, I definitely recommend giving this one a glance.

Up next: Naked by David Sedaris.
       

And remember, you can always check out the books I've read and any books I plan to read here.

in re #90: AFI's top 100

Duck Soup

I decided to capitalize on my general slothful state of being today by beginning #90, a/k/a my quest to watch all of the films on AFI's 100 years...100 movies list. Surprisingly, and rather embarrassingly, I have only seen a handful of the movies that made the list, but I'm excited to watch all of them (well maybe not allllll of them, but most). This particular task makes me feel very grateful for Netflix (especially for streaming rentals), which will certainly help me

Today I chose to watch the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup. Not only was this the first movie for me off AFI's list, but it was also the first Marx Brothers film I have ever watched. I know I've seen clips of Groucho with his famous moustache and cigars, and at the very least, I've seen Bugs Bunny dress up as him, but this was my first full length film.

For the most part, I enjoyed the movie, although I have to agree with one netflix reviewer's comment that a lot of the scenes seem as though they just started rolling the camera and let the brothers do as they pleased. There were a lot of weird timing issues with actors stepping on each others' lines and clips not matching up, but you can forgive that because of the sheer genius of Groucho's wittiness, often so quick that you can't keep up with him.

I think my favorite character was Harpo Marx's "Pinky," who carried exaggeratedly large scissors in his pants and would cut off just about anything another character was wearing: a tie, coattails, helmet plumes. All in all, I liked the movie. While I probably wouldn't watch it a second time, I would recommend it to anyone who has an hour of free time and could use a chuckle or two.

My rating: 3 out of 5 Rileys.


PS: You can always check the list (and reference my personal ratings) at the top of the page or by clicking here.

#40 Fly a Kite

Vacation is over. Sad face.

BUT, we did have an amazing week in Duck, NC spent at "Landing II" right about here:


It was a wonderful trip filled with dolphin sightings, family dinners on the deck, dune runs with Erica, and jumping over waves with my niece and nephew. And although it's nice to be back home, I'm now much more painfully aware of the fact that our apartment is not three houses from the beach.

One especially fun activity on our trip was getting to fly a kite for the first time in well over a decade I'm sure. It's amazing how wonderful such a simple act can make you feel. You can't help being filled with a sense of awe as the kite rises slowly in the sky. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a three year old first time kiteflier literally jumping for joy around either.

Erica wrote a great post about our experience, so I'm going to cheat a bit and ask you to just hop over to her blog to read more. I will include the following video and pictures so I don't come off as completely lazy today, even though I totally am.

 

 

Riley's New Trick: Go Hide!

I took the day off from work today to pack for my OBX vacation, which I leave for in less than 4 hours. I even got up at 7am to make sure I could get everything done: the cleaning, the packing, the last minute errands. But the procrastinator in me is shining brightly today, so I decided instead to tackle the first third of #48: Teach Riley 3 new tricks.

It isn't perfected yet, but she was doing it a number of times without treats, so I consider it done. All that's needed now is some reinforcement and she'll be ready to show it off at the dog park, parties, events, galas, regattas, political rallies, etc., etc. This trick is purely for human amusement, although knowing Riley, I'm sure she's proud of herself too.

Below is a clip of the trick I'm calling "Go Hide!"

I guess it's off to packing now. With Riley exhausted from all the hard work, I'm quickly running out of ways to procrastinate.

in re #16: from scratch

Banana Rum Bread

This is technically the fourth thing that I baked from scratch this month.


The first round of baking included Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches, which I would highly recommend to anyone with the one suggestion of cutting the amount of salt in half (and that's saying something coming from me). I would have used this recipe, but I hadn't even finished my list at that point so I opted not to count the biscuits as one of the thirty-three.


The second round of baking was for a July 4th party wherein I made a delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate-peanut butter ganache with Ms. ELG. This recipe was only half new to me though, as I had already made the chocolate cake previously (pairing it with a chocolate coffee icing), so I decided that counting it as my first new-to-me from-scratch baking item would be a bit like cheating (and it's way too early in this thing to be cheating). You can read all about our baking experience on Erica's blog though, and I highly suggest you do as that cake was unbelievably delicious.


The third round of baking included making croutons from the then stale biscuits made the weekend before. It's funny how quickly biscuits just don't keep the right texture for very long. All that involved was cutting the biscuits into big chunks, drizzling on the melted butter, throwing in an assortment of dried herbs, and baking for an hour at 350° with a few shakes of the sheet halfway through. These were delicious, but the project didn't feel quite worthy of its own entry.


Thus, Banana Rum Bread...

The combination of three perfectly browned bananas in our kitchen and not being able to fall back asleep this morning after waking up way too early before work led to a delicious result.

I slightly tweaked a recipe for Banana Bread I found at Simply Recipes that required no mixer. I have one, but it was nice to not use it that early in the morning. The end product was a moist, not too sweet bread that will stretch the life of those otherwise doomed-for-the-trash bananas. This is definitely one recipe I'll be keeping, if I ever get around to doing #6 that is.

      

For those interested, here's the final recipe:

Ingredients 

• 3 medium to large ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1.5 tablespoons dark rum 
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350° and butter a 4x8 loaf pan. Combine the first six ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for one hour, or until a toothpick comes out (relatively) clean. Cool on a rack, slice, and serve.