Here in Arizona, we don’t really have four seasons. There’s the hot season which lasts approximately from April to October (sometimes November), and the not-so-hot season which runs from November through March. It’s been really nice lately, cause we had a few weeks of spring-like temperatures, but now temperatures are approaching the mid 90s and not looking back!
It was a sad, sad day for junk food lovers everywhere when Hostess filed for bankruptcy in January. I remember the day after the news spread about the brand going under, I was at my local Target and the shelves that had previously held boxes upon boxes of Twinkies and cupcakes were totally bare. Even the end caps filled with packages of mini donuts were picked clean.
Bart’s a smart one! Much to Homer’s chagrin, he picked the sno-ball!
I live in a vegetable-challenged household. I do all the cooking, and my boyfriend and our roommate tend to be picky eaters, especially where certain vegetables are concerned. Sadly, this salad was not the thing that won them over to the world of green and crunchy veggies. I, on the other hand, loved it!
Yesterday, I was given the opportunity to attend Dishcrawl Phoenix‘s Neighborfood event in Old Town Scottsdale. The whole concept of the event was very unique in my opinion: Gather at a specific restaurant, get a map of other restaurants within walking distance, and walk to each restaurant to try a featured dish at each one. What a cool concept! I don’t venture over to Old Town Scottsdale very often (if ever), so this was a really neat chance for me to try a whole slew of new restaurants that I may have otherwise passed up. Ready for the deliciousness? Here we go!
(Psst! The recipe for the real version from The Cup Cafe was posted online! Get it here!)
Recently, I was in Tucson visiting family. It was St. Patrick’s Day weekend and we were trying to decide on a place to grab brunch. My sister is vegan so she recommended The Cup Cafe inside Hotel Congress, in downtown Tucson because they happen to have lots of vegan menu options. I had never been to The Cup, but always wanted to try their food. While looking over the menu, one dish stood out at me: Cast Iron Baked Eggs. I’d never before had baked eggs, and their version was decadent beyond belief: Two eggs baked in a little cast iron skillet, with leeks, Gruyere cheese, ham, and lots of cream. Vegan, this certainly was not! I practically inhaled the little skillet of eggs, even though they were piping hot from the oven. Any burns to the mouth were worth it for this super tasty dish.
There are two things that will forever remind me of Easter. One is the movie Grease. I received it for an Easter gift back when I was like 13 or so, and I’ve loved that movie ever since. What girl didn’t love a young John Travolta dancing and singing, with those big blue eyes? And remember, if you can’t be an athlete, be an athletic supporter!
The other thing that always reminds me of Easter is coconut cake. I remember my mom or my grandma had this cartoon plastic rabbit face that you could shove against a store-bought jelly roll-style coconut cake, effectively making the cake look like the Easter Bunny. I’ve never really known why coconut cake seems so ubiquitous around Easter and springtime in general. Regardless, I’ll eat it happily whenever it’s served!
My roommate’s birthday was last weekend. Ben’s always been a fan of Alice in Wonderland and especially took to American McGee’s video game adaptation from 2000. He even has a tattoo of that version of the Cheshire Cat, which is pretty sweet cause it’s mostly in blacklight-reactive ink except for the Cat’s grin. So, unless there’s a blacklight nearby to illuminate the body of the cat, all you see is the black outline of his creepy smile!
I wanted to make Ben a cake for his birthday, and thought that McGee’s version of the Cheshire Cat would be a perfect subject. However, I had never previously made a fondant-covered cake. Talking to a friend of mine regarding how I should go about creating the cake, she suggested that I make my own fondant because it tastes much better than the fondants available commercially. So, make my own fondant, I did!
Continue reading “happy birthday, ben! or, how i made my first fondant-covered cake”
Growing up, my mom had a Land O Lakes cookbook that was given to her as a Christmas gift by one of our neighbors. Of any cookbook my mom had (aside from her ragged and worn 1970s edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook), we seemed to make things from this book more than most. One such item was a raspberry crumble bar. It was the simplest thing in the world, instructing you to mix up a quick crumbly dough, press half in the pan, spread that half with raspberry jam and crumble the reserved dough on top. Once baked, the bars had a soft and buttery base, topped with tart-sweet jam and tasty little crumbly crunchy bits. My sister and I loved them, and they were basically irresistible cause I never remember any pan of them lasting very long.
Growing up in the southwest, I feel obligated to like empanadas. There’s just so many damn good variations of fillings one can cram into their flaky dough, that it’s almost impossible to not find something you’ll like.
I know a lot of people who have really only eaten sweet dessert-type empanadas, pumpkin or pineapple being very common, but I’m partial to the savory fillings. I don’t know if I’d enjoy the common Spanish filling that includes green olives and hard-boiled eggs, but luckily making them in my own kitchen means I can fill them with whatever I’d like!
Today in Phoenix was day one of the 2013 Devoured Culinary Classic sponsored by Devour Phoenix. Awesomely enough, the bakery I work for was honored to be in attendance. That meant two things: one, I was able to get in essentially for free and try tons of fantastic food; and two, that I had to help man the booth for Urban Cookies Bakeshop all day long. It was an easy trade, as the food more than made up for spending my Saturday handing out sweet treats for 5 hours! The tickets to the event sold out a while ago, not to mention the fact that they cost anywhere from $60 to $100 depending on how many days you wanted to attend. So, a little bit of work in exchange for basically free admission made me very happy indeed. Continue reading “devoured phoenix 2013”
oven + apron 