nectarines, glazed and grilled - it's a picnic!

We grilled this one on the George, which is why it's lacking those purty grill marks. Still tasted delish!

I'm taking a break today from my camping posts to participate in a virtual picnic! Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations has organized this fun little get together to scarf down great recipes from some mega talented and interesting ladies and gents in the blogging community. What a treat!

I'm going to a picnic and bringing nectarines!

My favorite kinds of picnic foods are fresh tasting and quick to prepare. There is basically no prep work involved in this dish besides cutting and pitting the nectarines. Just pop them on the grill (there may even be a BBQ at the picnic location, so you can do it there!), baste them with a little spiced honey, and top with whipped cream, ice cream, or creme fraiche. There isn't even a recipe! Simple, simple, simple!

*Nectarines - Glazed and Grilled*
Nectarines
A Bit of Butter
Honey
Cinnamon
Whipped Cream, Ice Cream, or Creme Fraiche

Halve you nectarines. Brush them with butter and put them flesh side down on the grill. Once they get a bit of a char, turn them over and brush them with some honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon. When they are warmed through, they're done!

Top with the cream of your choice. I like mine plain.

Dig in! It won't fill you up too much to enjoy ultimate frisbee and a three legged race afterward. :)

Now that I think about it, this would be a perfect camping dessert! I'll remember this for my next trip in September. I can't wait to see what everyone else brings!

More camping dinners tomorrow morning :)

peanut butter bars

It's a great feeling to be inspired. Sometimes that inspiration comes from the darndest of places.

I was lazing around early Friday morning because I had the day off, flipping through movies on a gloomy May day. I stumbled across that Catherine Zeta-Jones movie No Reservations. It had just started and I hadn't seen it, it was about food, Aaron Eckhart is easy on the eyes- 3 reasons that made it good enough for me.

If you've seen the movie (and probably even if you haven't), you know that while it's not exactly Oscar-worthy, it's a cute chick flick that satiates the sweet/sappy craving that some people feel at one time or another. But if you're a cook at heart, it also kind of gets your burners fired up. Since I had the whole day to myself, cooking is what I did.

I got out all of my mom's old cookbooks from throughout the years and spread them around my living room floor. They were stacked high but not at all intimidatingly so. I carefully looks through each one, separating them into piles of good, no good, and downright hilarious. It was so fun reading through them, coming across some of my big grandma's (which we lovingly called her because she had a big house) newspaper clippings that were neatly folded and tucked away inside the books. My big grandma was a great cook. I wish that she had been around longer so I could have learned some of her recipes and cooked with her. I loved, so much, finding these hidden little gems so many years later (and I can't wait to make her newfound beloved recipes).

I can't explain it well, but it felt like I was going back in time when I read these recipes. The recipes were so different from what you'd find in current mainstream cookbooks, food TV and the foodie blogosphere that I frequent. One of the New Orleans Donut recipes called for the little pillows of dough to be deep fried in fat. What does that even mean? Most recipes today hold your hand through the entire process. Is it lard? Canola Oil? Crisco? Halp?!

I have many-a-recipe now dogeared, awaiting my attention, but the first one I went for came out of this book:And the recipe that I based mine off of (I only altered the frosting):

*Old Fashioned PB Bars*
bars:
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
2/3 cup butter or margrine
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
frosting:
8 oz good quality semi sweet chocolate
2/3 cup cream

Combine peanut butter, butter or margarine and vanilla in a large bowl: beat with electric beater until well-blended; beat in sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, one at a time.

Stir in flour and salt just until well-blended;spread batter in a greased 13x9x2 inch baking pan.

Bake in moderate oven (350) for 35 minutes or until center springs back when lightly touched with fingertip. Remove pan from oven to wire rack; cool.

Heat your cream in a heavy saucepan just until you almost see a boil, but don't let it boil. Take the cream off the heat and stir in your chocolate until smooth.

Slather the top of the cool cake with the frosting.

The recipe was very good! The was a dense cookie/cake texture, but the edges were my least favorite part, so I just cut them off. Here is the books version:
It is a good find!

toffee chocolate chip scones

Have I told you that I started bootcamp? Not military style, buzz cut requiring, kick your ass into the ground bootcamp, but a kick your ass gently while encouraging you to do be better and svelter bootcamp. I can attribute, at least partially, my lack of posting in the last weeks to a few things: West Coast Bootcamp, waking up a 5am to make it too said bootcamp, and my food journal. Yup, you read that right. Food journal. :(

So, I've been cutting back a bit lately. I'm drinking less booze, eating fewer sweets, making sure that I eat more meals throughout the course of the day. I'll never eliminate anything that I love from my diet. I think moderation is the key to eating healthfully, but I'm giving their way of life a shot. I told myself that at least for these 6 weeks, I'd follow their food plan during the week (kinda sorta) and I'll eat how I normally eat on the weekend. Well, guess what! It's SUNDAY! And I want scones.

*Toffee Chocolate Chip Scones*
(adapted from this epicurious recipe)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup chocolate-covered English toffee bits
2 cups chilled whipping cream
zest of a lemon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Additional raw sugar for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 375.

Mix together your dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, chocolate chips, toffee bits.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Add in the zest of a lemon.


Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Once they are combined, turn the dough out on to a cutting board and knead until it comes together - it will be sticky! Once it has come together, cut it in 1/2 and form it into 2 logs. Cut each log into 1/3's (forming basically 3 squares) and each 1/3 in 1/2 (diagonally). You will be left with 12 triangular scones.

Place the scones on 2 Silpat-lined baking sheet. Brush them with the melted butter and sprinkle them with sugar (I use Maui raw can sugar). Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

If you look close enough, it kind of looks like an alligator. A delicious, sweet alligator.

s'mores cookie bars

I'm going to blow your mind right now. You are either going to think this the most vile and revolting concoction known to man or you will bow down and kiss my toes when I make these for you. I don't think there is too much in between here.

I have had a hankering for s'mores for weeks at this point. I don't know where it came from, but I do know when my sweet tooth speaks, I must listen. Since then, I have been on a desperate mission to curb this craving. I came across this recipe from the super cute fun blog, Lovin' From the Oven, and I knew this was it. This was the recipe that would quite my inner s'mores-demanding demons.

*S'mores Cookie Bars*
(adapted from Lovin' From the Oven)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar (if you like a sweeter cookie, you can add another 1/3 cup white sugar). Mix in the egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt.

Add your dry ingredients to the wet ones. Divide dough in half.

Press 1/2 the dough into your baking pan. Layer in your chocolate, then your marshmellow creme. Top with flattened remaining dough.

Pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Ding! It's dunzo. Wait to cut into this until it's cool or you will be sorry.

If loving these is wrong, I don't wanna be right!

lemony lemon cake with whipped lemon curd filling and buttercream icing

Confession: I steal lemons from my neighbors lemon tree. I know, I'm a terrible person, but they are hanging over the fence in my backyard, so technically they're mine, right? Not to mention the fact that this is the most fruitful lemon tree with the most beautiful lemons I've ever seen. The skins are rarely flawed, the pith is not too thick or too thin and they yield massive amounts of juice.

If you are unfortunate enough to not have a lemon tree in your own backyard (and your arms aren't long enough to reach over the fence to pick your neighbors), there are a few techniques to use to pick superb lemons at the grocery. You want to make sure they smell lemony, feel heavy for their size and are a bright yellow color (not green or dingy yellow). I hate coming home from the store and cutting into a lemon, only to be disappointed when, even after using all my might, I can only get about a tsp of juice out of it. It's an obsession, a game if you will. Sometimes I even line up different measuring receptacles and put a lemon next to each one. The lemon with the most juice wins.

Obviously, I am obsessed with lemons. Easter begs for lemons, Easter begs for cake, Easter Begs for lemon cake! So, here we go!

*Lemon Cake*
(courtesy of Country Living)
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 parchment-paper-lined 8-inch cake pans. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a mixer set on medium speed. Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the lemon juice and buttermilk.

Divide the batter between the pans. Bake until golden and a toothpick tests clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Unmold the cakes and cool completely

Split cakes into 4 layers using a long serrated knife. Fill with whipped lemon curd and frost with buttercream frosting, but don't be as sloppy as I was!

*Whipped Lemon Curd*
(Adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters)

Wash and dry:
4 lemons

Grate the zest of one of the lemons on the small holes of a grater. Juice the lemons; there should be about ½ cup juice.

Beat until just mixed:
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)

Stir in the lemon juice and zest and add:
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces.

Cook the mixture in a small nonreactive heavy pan, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Do not boil or the eggs will curdle. When thick, pour through a sieve into a bowl or glass jars to cool. Cover and refrigerate.

Once the lemon curd is cold, whip up:
1 cup of heavy whipping cream

Fold the cold lemon curd into your whipped cream. Refrigerated until ready to use.

*Buttercream Frosting*
(courtesy of C&H sugar box:) )
3-3 3/4 cups of powdered sugar (1 box)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup butter

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer or with heavy spoon until smooth and creamy; scrape bowl often. If too stiff to spread easily, beat in a few drops of milk.

Happy belated Easter!

crumbs bake shop

I really do not like the Americana in Glendale. I avoid it at all costs, unless, of course, I'm shopping at Anthropologie, because, well, I love Anthropologie (can't help it!). I had a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble, and since that's the closest one I could think of on my way home from work, I braved Brand Blvd during rush hour.

While walking from my car (parked where the old Mervyns used to be to avoid paying for parking... shhhh!), I walked by a little bakery that I had passed by serveral times in the past, Crumbs Bake Shop. I decided to press my luck because we're talking cupcakes, people!

I walked in and I have to say, it was cute and inviting, albeit somewhat sterile. I was the sole person in the shop, although it could be due to the unfortunate, off the beaten path, location it holds on Brand Blvd, where only cheapies like me pass by when they steal parking lot time. When I got in, the case was full of muffin-sized creations priced anywhere from $3-$5. With Brandon in mind, I took home a Boston Cream and a Chocolate Chocolate Buttercream cupcake.

We split up the cupcakes that night. I really could only eat half a cupcake, so I cut them into quarters and tried a bit of each one. The boston cream was first. The cake itself was very moist because vanilla custard that was infused in it. It was good, not great. The chocolate chocolate had some problems in the cake department. It was somewhat of a dry crumb, but not distractingly dry. The frosting made up for it. It wasn't that cloying fake buttercream that you get at grocery stores (although, who am I kidding, there is definitely a time and a place where I could bathe myself in that stuff). It was just the right sweet, chocolate, buttery. Yum.

Overall, a bit experience, but I would eat one again. And, after checking out the site, I see that they are pretty much all over the show, so there might be one in your area. CUPCAKES! It's hard to screw up too badly, but it's also hard to perfect them. These are good!

chocolate sauce

I have been trying for years to get my mom to stay with me in the kitchen and actually measure out the ingredients for her infamous chocolate sauce. My mom has been busy her whole life, so when she does something, she does it as quick as she can, and unfortunately that has always meant not measuring out her ingredients. My sisters and I get super annoyed because this chocolate sauce is delectable, and ours never turns out as well as hers!

Well, finally, after much ado about something, I got her to write it down! This makes me so happy! This chocolate sauce is not like chocolate fudge... It's thinner and when warmed and poured over ice cream, it won't slip right off. Instead, it coats the ice cream with a beautiful chocolate netting. I like a scoop of double rainbow with buckets of sauce on top.

*Chocolate Sauce*
2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1/2 c corn syrup
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Put the first four ingredients in a larger saucepan than you think you'll need - this has the propensity to boil over. Whisk constantly over medium high heat until it starts to simmer. Turn the heat to low. Leave simmering, uncovered. Do not touch again. Turn on an episode of Golden Girls. Watch to completion without fast forwarding through commercials.

30 minutes later your sauce is done cooking. Turn it off and take it off the heat. Stir in your butter and vanilla. Let cool for a bit. Bottoms up!

fenton's creamery

Cookie Creation - 1 Brandon - 0

Brandon ordered this for himself at Fenton's. FAIL. While obviously completely gluttonous and yummy, he didn't even come close to finishing. I ordered a single scoop sundae and only could finish half of it. I just wanted to play the sad Charlie Brown music while he skulked away from the ice cream monstrosity that beat him.

tartine bakery

Brandon went to school in San Francisco... Berkeley to be exact. I was at school at UCLA at the time, so to make our long distance relationship work, he would come down once a month and I would make the trek up to SF once a month.

Food lovers that we are, we ate our way through San Francisco, one weekend at a time. We started in Berkeley, but almost always took at least one day to go on through San Francisco. We would BART into the city, eat somewhere, walk around a bit (just until we were hungry again), eat somewhere, walk around a bit, cycle, rinse, repeat. We wanted so badly to be hungry just a bit more often. In fact, this Onion article comes to mind, describing my feelings perfectly.

I digress. I wish I had taken pictures of my amazing pastries and tarts from Tartine, but it was rainy and I was hungry. Things just didn't work out. But we ordered a TON of food to make up for it.

I started with quiche of the day with nettles. Yes, I had no idea what nettles were, either. Apparently, they are a really mild leafy green, and barely noticeable in this quiche. It was absolutely divine. Soft, creamy, light eggs with a browned top and buttery crust. It was perfect with my English Breakfast tea. Brandon had the ham and cheese croissant, which he said is the best specimen he has ever had.

We had a banana tart for our breakfast dessert. It was very, very yummy. The tarlette crust was lined with chocolate and the bananas were bathed in a not too sweet caramel sauce. It was all topped with freshly made whipped cream and shavings of Valrhona Chocolate. Mmmmm.

In the car on the way home, we had the chocolate croissant and lemon tart. The croissant was very rustic, buttery and intensely chocolate. I have noticed that they like their pastries cooked a bit passed the golden brown color, and instead take it to a deep chestnut. It makes the crusts taste toasty and nutty all at the same time. The tart was sweet, but mostly sour, perfectly balanced. Definitely worth the food coma that ensued.

Oh my gosh, I know, I'm gushing. I love San Francisco, I love bakeries, and I love Tartine. Even in a city with so many enticing food options and a finite amount of meals, I do not miss a chance to go to Tartine.

you said you wanted it, sweetie

This weekend, I had a conversation with my husband, Brandon, about desserts. I told him that I was planning to make my awesome chocolate caramel tart later this week to blog about it, but that I needed input as to what he thought would be something else post about. He said chocolate chip cookies. He always says chocolate chip cookies. What can I say, the man has simple tastes and know what he likes.

The problem is, chocolate chip cookies are just 'meh.' I mean, I make an OK chocolate chip cookie, but I don't make a great one. I'm still in the market for the *best* chocolate chip cookie. I fully believe that sometimes the simplest recipes are the most difficult to perfect.

Then I has an epiphany. Brandon's birthday is this week. If I can't make the best chocolate chip cookie, I might as well make the biggest.

BEHOLD!!

The behemoth chocolate chip cookie cake.

I got this recipe from Martha, and boy, she wasn't kidding; this sure is GIANT. It was really easy to make, the cookies were very cakey and definitely soft enough to cut all the way through, and just the idea of a cake made out of cookies made me giggle. Brandon absolutely adored the cake. I couldn't argue that the novelty of it couldn't be beat.

I decided to go with buttercream frosting because what else could chocolate chip cookies need besides more sugar? That and I don't particularly care for cream cheese frosting. The cake slid around once the frosting was on, but I popped it in the fridge for a while until the frosting set up a bit.

C'mon, is it not the coolest cake you've ever seen?

the cake is a lie

I did it. That thing that brides aren't supposed to do for their wedding. I made my own cake. But I have a perfectly valid and sane reason.

My dear husband and I decided that for our low key wedding, ice cream cake would be the perfect thing to cap off the evening. However, I had already ordered these uber cute and extremely well done Wii replicas to surprise my groom with on the day of the wedding. We all know that ice cream cake + warm LA July evening = disaster. So, I had to go to plan B. Fake Cake.

Now, this isn't exactly the most delicious cake you've ever tasted. That is, unless you like the taste of Styrofoam. I bought dummy layers and fondant from Lady Jane's Cakes and embarked on my somewhat watered down version of wedding cake mission.

It was trial and error. I watched videos on Youtube to educate myself quickly. I warmed the fondant through with my fingers, roughly measured out enough coloring to fold into the fondant, used powdered sugar to roll out the fondant. I gingerly placed the fondant over the filed down edges of the Styrofoam to create this cake that almost looks good enough to eat.



In the spirit of all things inedible, I glue-gunned the ribbon and the dragees on that puppy. Might as well, right? What can I say... I'm klassy like that.

No stress, yet still expressive and creative wedding cake - just our style.

**the following is evidence that we did indeed have a real, edible backup cake and didn't serve fondant-covered, glue-gun embellished, trace-metal-containing dragee-enhanced Styrofoam cake at our wedding**