Summer Bucket List

It's been awhile since I've posted.  Things have happened.  I've been busy trying to get started on the BEST SUMMER EVER.  It's silly, but my friends and I have all decided this is THE one.  That is, until next year.

Summer starts tomorrow, June 20, I know.  But in Los Angeles it feels like it has been here for weeks.  I remember being a kid and in May, everything changed.  More things were going on after school, more slurpee runs happened, and the air was charged with the excitement of the fun to come.  I'm pretty sure this still happened this year.  From January to April, all of my friends and I had crazy schedules and we weren't seeing each other as much.  But all of the sudden, come May, we're going to happy hours on Monday nights that spontaneously last until 1 AM.  We are having beach days and potluck brunches.

I'm not sure if it's us getting older, or us starting to get afraid that we all won't be in the same place for long, but we keep talking about making this the BEST SUMMER EVER.  I'm not following the calendar, so I'm going to make this summer go from April to October.  That's basically how it feels anyway right?

Let's talk about things that have happened or that are on my bucket list for this summer.

Bake Sale!  It was a success!  I made frosted sugar cookies, black bottom cupcakes, red velvet cakes in mason jars, and mini apple pies. It was stressful, but I had help from my sister, her friends, and our friends: gin and tonic.

 

GRILLED CHEESE FEST.  It was my third attendance.  Every time I love it.  Every time I leave thinking why I ate so many grilled cheese samples.  Glorious all in all. 

I want a lot of this to happen this summer.  Every time I have one of these bags of spicy juicy fruit in my lap, I feel like swinging my feet around and doing dances with my hands.  I LOVE spicy mango and pineapple.  They are a sign that summer is HERE.

I've been infusing alcohol.  It started with cucumber vodka and grapefruit vodka.  Of the vodkas I've done, they are probably my favorite.  I made jalapeno tequila.  Mind blow.  See below.  I also want to try pineapple rum and to start dabbling in bourbon and whiskey.  Found: one vanilla cardamom infused bourbon recipe here.

I want to drink as many spicy cocktails as I humanly can.  I've been obsessed with chile infused drinks and my friend and I have been ordering them wherever we go.  I took a stab at it on cinco de mayo with a blood orange jalapeno margarita.  I think the best one I've had so far is at the Corner Door.  Their Miner Incident: bourbon, honey, apricot, lemon, and Thai chiles is bonkers.  Don't eat the chile garnish though.  I am a beast with spicy stuff, and I was coughing and suffering because I thought I could do it.  The shame!

More popsicles. Whole fruit ones.  Coconut chunks.  I think yes.

I want more beer floats to happen.  Ice cream and beer.  Enough said.

Spontaneous lazy board game Sundays are always welcome.  Mostly I just like hanging out with friends in my pajamas.  Quirkle, Bananagrams, Spoons, and Uno are added bonuses.

More things that are on my bucket list this summer? Reading. Excessive amounts of sundresses. French-bulldog sitting? (i need to make friends with someone who has a frenchie that goes out of town all the time!) Picnics. Palm Springs. Night bowling. And keeping up with this dang blog!

Happy Summer!

Food Blogger Bake Sale!!!!

What are you doing this weekend? 
Personally, this weekend is set out to be pretty epic for me. Let's talk details.

1. I'm going to the Girlled Cheese Festival. You heard it!  It exists and I am going and eating as many cheese and carb conglomerations as I can.

2.  I'm going to a birthday party where at the same party last year someone I did not know who was wearing a metallic blazer bought everyone at the party 3 rounds of shots.  Needless to say, I'm a little nervous.

3.  At 8 AM the day after said Cheese Fest and said party I am running a 5K.  This could be dangerous and painful. 

4.  Most Importantly!  I am going to and participating in the Los Angeles Food Blogger Bake Sale!!!!
Come join me on Saturday, April 28th from 11:30AM to 2:00PM at BLD Restaurant (7450 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036) to support Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale for the No Kid Hungry Campaign.
Everything is donation based and there are a lot of talented bakers that will be attending, so you will be able to score some awesome goodies!  It is a fun event for a good cause so come join us!


and yes, that means I'm running a 5K after copious baked goods and grilled cheese, and with a possible hangover.  We'll see how this goes.  Overall, I'm excited! 

  

Three Veggie Servings

Life is about balance.  At least that is what my mom tells me.  I think it's open to interpretation.  When applied to food, balance I guess is having salad every once in a while.  Maybe after you have cake for breakfast.  This week I had oatmeal for breakfast.  But then last minute, I put nutella in it.  Balance!

Although my mom tells me to find balance in my life, she usually isn't referring to food.  Or if she is, she didn't do a good job instilling good values in me at a young age.  When my sister and I were little, my mom was unconventional in her breakfast ways.  Some days would be by the book, cereal and OJ.  But most days we would have whatever my mom felt like making us.  Ham and Cheese Omelette?  Okay.  Grilled Cheese?  Wavering.  Brownie Sundaes?  A teacher's worst nightmare.  In first grade when we were learning the food pyramid, Mrs. Hackett went around asking us what we had for breakfast.  When she asked me, I responded truthfully and innocently not knowing my mother's indecency, "Apple pie a la mode".  It happened.  I think about it now, and my mom was mischievous!  Filling us with sugar and then sending us off to school for our teachers to deal with!  Overall awesome for me, but probably not Mrs. Hackett.

Even though my mom may have trained us to crave brownies in the AM, sometimes after way too many baked goods, I only wanna eat kale salads with dried cranberries in them.  I make smoothies and put some leafy greens in them and try to feel better about the strawberry shortcake I ate the night before.  I eat only roasted brussels sprouts for dinner (this happens all the time because I love them so).  The trouble is, sometimes healthy things we should be eating, aren't as delicious as the bagels or strawberry cupcakes we would rather be having.

That's where balance comes in!  After I've had one too many salads, I've taken to finding largely vegetable based meals or recipes, that have some element of deliciousness. Some of my favorites lately: Zucchini Potato Pancakes, Green Bean Fries, and a Cheesy Asparagus Tart.  I feel like if my meal is mostly vegetables I don't feel as bad, even if there is puff pastry involved.  All are extremely delicious!  The green beans are for real healthy, and the other two aren't bad.  See the recipes below and start cooking!

Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

 

I've acquired a bundt.  It has been my dream for a few months, but haven't actually taken the time to go buy one.  Lucky for me, my friend's mom gave me her extra bundt pan!

I've googled some history of the bundt.  Not only do they make a beautiful cake, there is a method to their madness.  The bundt was formed so that it could cook a denser cake batter.  The hole in the middle allows heat to penetrate heavy cake batters from all sides.  Smart!  Supposedly, the word bundt comes from the German word "bund" which means a gathering of people, or a bond.  The t was added for good form, and to trademark the dish.

This history is fitting for my first bundt.  Hannah and I made it together in Baltimore.  Hannah's and my bond of friendship is pretty grade A in my book.  We roughed it up in Africa and spent almost every day together for 4 months in a village where no one speaks your language, you do your bathroom business in a hole in the ground, and you have no water or electricity.  You try to spend 24/7 with a stranger in the village and not get sick of them! For Hannah and I, and most of our program luckily, it worked.  The bond between us was clearly pretty strong.  You know when people say that stronger relationships form after extreme situations?  Try 4 months of extreme.

One way we've kept it up is with our love for food and baking, as stated before.  Hannah and I send each other drool worthy recipes daily.  We oo and aaahh over tastespotting.  We talk about our woes of our lackluster healthy lunches and not having daily sweet treats in the office. We link each other to joythebaker.com and wish that she was our friend! We both were anxiously waiting her cookbook's debut and bought it within the first week!

Since my Baltimore trip was coming up, we decided it would be fitting to bake one of Joy's recipes.  It happened.  It was glorious.  It was Joy's Peanut Butter Birthday Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. Peanut Butter + Cream Cheese.  How great of a bond is that?  Go make it.  Now.  I'm not even one of those crazy peanut butter people and this cake is obsess-worthy.

Bundts are inviting. Their ring form and pretty edges are for sharing.  With this peanut butter cake, everyone will want to be your friend. You'll create bonds with all the neighbors.  Remember that bond that arises from sharing extreme experiences?  Get ready for it. It's gonna happen. This cake is for real!

A Baltimore Food Tour

When you read Baltimore, did you immediately think of Channing Tatum in Step Up?  If your answer is even 50% yes, then we should be friends. I went to Baltimore this month, and when I told people I was going to Baltimore, no one really understood why.  Well what they don't understand, is that Baltimore is actually a little gem of a city.  This was my second time to Baltimore, and while I realize parts are dangerous, in what I saw, Baltimore is a big city with a small town feel.  It's where you stop on walks and talk to strangers about their rescue dog.  It's where they know your order at the coffee shop.  It's where all the houses are beautiful because they are big, old, and wooden with front porches to drink lemonade on. 

I went to Baltimore to visit my friend Hannah, who may very well affect my total view of Charm City because she and her family are those kind people who smile at strangers and will invite you over for lemonade.  But anyway, both times I've been in Baltimore, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Once upon a time, Hannah and I lived in Tanzania together.  We taught a rural village about HIV prevention.  Teaching and living there was bonkers great, but the lifestyle of Tanzania 1) has a lot of down time and 2) does not have dairy products.  While food was the least of our worries while we were there, Hannah and I found common ground in talking about all the food we would eat when we got back home.  We talked about meatloaf and macaroni and cheese and found that we shared a love of Martha Stewart's mac! We discussed Trader Joe's peanut butter cups, how much cheese we'd be eating when we got home, even if it made us sick, and chocolate ganache milkshakes.  While torturous, it was so fun.  Our eating talk, and our friendship have continued into present day. So this Baltimore trip was largely about food.  We went to various eateries and we baked of course!

Let's re-live!

The chocolate ganache milkshakes?  Those are at Good Stuff Eatery in DC.  We found our dreams of ganache ended up being more of a hot fudge milkshake.  But in pursuit of this milkshake, we tried the ultimate winner: a toasted marshmallow milkshake.  Literally, campfire in your mouth!   Our homegirl (we pretend) Joy the Baker has a recipe!  We also ate our fair share in burgers and french fries.  Hannah's had a fried egg on it, how can you go wrong with that? I got the Obama Burger: onion marmalade, bacon, and horseradish mayo.  What up Obama!  I'm glad we are both swayed by the word "horseradish" on a menu!  By the time we got to Good Stuff, we were so hungry that we ordered enough to feed at least two more people.  Hannah is afraid for what we will be feeling 30 minutes from this picture.  Rightfully so.

 

We made Momofuku's corn cookies from the box.  It's like cornbread in cookie form.  I have to say, we both thought they were a bit strange and that they needed something.  I want to try their compost cookies next!

Meet Huck.  He is 5 months old and Hannah's new best friend!  I have selflessly volunteered myself as the far away aunt that spoils him.  I painted him a dog dish.  He liked biting my hands and stealing my socks from deep in my luggage.

 Pretty tomatoes at Belvedere Market!

This one frequented talks in Tanzania.  It is the Hannah made infamous Neopol's Smoked Salmon BLT on Sunflower Flax bread.  While Hannah does talk things up, this one took the cake.  Delicious.  You know how after you eat a sandwich and the roof of your mouth is all torn up?  I secretly love that, as long as the sandwich was worth it.  In this case, this one definitely is.  Smoked Salmon, Apple-wood Smoked Bacon, the L and T, some added red onion, and some dilly dijon mustard.  Try to tell me you aren't drooling!

Mojitos and conversations at the top of the American Visionary Arts Museum.  I had no idea this museum existed and I really loved it.  Beautiful.

I've talked this meal up over the last couple years.  Hannah took me to Donna's the first time I came to Baltimore and I have been thinking about this meal since.  Grilled Romaine Steak Salad and Truffle Mac and Cheese.  The truffle mac I think is the best I've had.  I dream about truffles.  This mac and cheese is mature and luxurious.  It's rich and fancy.  If it were a person it would lounge on velvet couches and wear emeralds.  But let's not overlook the Grilled Romaine.  Grilling Romaine!  What an idea.  I love it.  It wilts the leaves to a point, but gives them a charred taste and still keeps the crunch from the veins and the heart of the leaf.  On top of that, throw on some sweet caramelized onions, ripe tomatoes, juicy steak, and goat cheese.  I literally have said before that it could be a contender for my Last Supper.  It is definitely in the running.

Baltimore is a place where at brunch they give you complimentary warm cinnamon rolls.  That sounds like dreamland doesn't it?  Sunday morning brunch we shared french toast and a Baltimore Crab Benedict! We had to get crab in the trip at some point, but didn't make it back to Faidley's for the famous crabcakes.

 We then had a baking adventure and made Joy the Baker's Peanut Butter Cake in bundt form (post to come soon).  Bundts are my new fave, and Hannah's mom gave me her spare as a handmedown! Thanks Jane!

Our last lunch we went back to Belvedere Market to Neopols and got smoked Cubanos, shared some bacon brussels sprouts, and enjoyed a refreshing cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom lemonade.  That one I need to figure out how to make for spring time because I finished mine and drank most of Hannah's sister's lemonade too!

Baltimore, Hannah, and family, thanks for the eats!  I'm already excited for my next visit and more food adventures!

Ombré funfetti

Hey remember my funfetti post? Well, there's always an opportunity for funfetti, right? I baked another cake for a friend's birthday this weekend and I attempted to frost it in pink ombré. Think color gradient.  Think paintchip. Think happiness.

Again, funfetti, you knocked my socks off and made me feel like I was a little kid again!

Tres Leches Cake

 

 For those of you who are lactose intolerant, I apologize.  I actually apologize from the bottom of my heart.  I love dairy.   My friend just unfortunately found out she has a light intolerance to dairy.  Maybe more than light, but light in the sense that she will still travel miles for frozen yogurt just to pay the price later.  Clearly, we are meant to be friends.  I would gladly suffer for frozen yogurt, cheese platters, and not to mention this Tres Leches Cake.  Oh, the suffering would be 3 fold?  Bring it on!

Tres leches is magic.  The three stars?  Evaporated Milk, Sweetened Condensed Milk, and Heavy Cream.  While it sounds intense and heavy, it's actually pretty light because the cake itself is somewhat light.  Maybe others would disagree, but I wouldn't judge someone if they ate 1/3 of the cake in one sitting.  Am I biased?  When I made it, I could easily be found eating for both dessert and breakfast the next morning.  So yes I'm likely biased. When I wanted to make this cake for a family dinner, my mom complained that it was going to be too rich and too much.  I did what I normally do.  Disagreed, didn't listen, and made what I wanted to!  (Just kidding Mom!) But it turned out great!  (and she agreed with me in the end).

 

What helps making this cake lighter than it normally is, is folding in the whipped egg whites.  After making the batter with just egg yolks, whip the whites to create some air, then fold them in gently so that the batter will be lighter and fluffier.  With this step, you have to be careful to keep the air in your egg whites and to not overmix the batter. Be gentle with them and only fold until they are incorporated!  If you have some spots of whites, that's ok!  Folding in the egg whites will make your cake taller and add some air so it won't be as dense.  And it'll create space so it can soak up all the dairy!!

Cook the cake, and cool it.  Get excited.  Then poke the cake with a fork all over. Go nuts. 
Then.... mix your milks, and soak that sucker!!! Let them soak in for about an hour, then top it with whipped cream.

Hello tres leches.  I love you.  I want to have you with tea during a night cap with friends.  Or during breakfast with some cinnamon on top. Maybe alongside some berries.  Maybe always and all of the time! So good!

The Pioneer Woman strikes again!  Her recipes have yet to fail me:

Ingredients

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 5 whole Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar, Divided
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/3 cup Milk
• 1 can Evaporated Milk
• 1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
• 1/4 cup Heavy Cream

• 1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.
Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.
Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable.
Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.