there is something so rustic and beautiful about a simple cake.
a little bit of butter, sugar, and flour. topped with fresh strawberries and a sprinkling of demerara sugar. bake.
remove from the oven. cool on a wire rack. whip up a batch of fresh whipped cream. chiffonade a few basil leaves.
make a cup of coffee.
enjoy the understated elegance.
recipe source: slightly adapted from martha stewart
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happy birthday cake for my littlest brother, franco noel! he is 15 years young, but has always been kind of an old soul. that’s what i love most about him.
cheers to 15, noel!
recipe source: slightly adapted from bon appetit/march 2013
notes:
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this recipe is a regular in our home. honestly, i use the same banana bread recipe, every single time. sometimes, i think i want to get fancy and add stuff (nuts, booze, dried fruit, chocolate chips) but the reality is, less is more. this banana bread doesn’t need anything fancy to make it amazing. it’s already amazing.
instead of a standard loaf, i made a few mini loaves. obviously, they’re even better in tiny loaf bread pans.
recipe source: simply recipes
ps. i follow the recipe suggestion and only use 3/4 cup of sugar.
pss. peony season, people! best. thing. ever.
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It was Cinco de Mayo yesterday and we really had no intentions of “celebrating” because we have no ties to it. Most people don’t even know the significance of it (I do, btw). It’s just a good excuse for people to drink cervezas and eat tacos. Anywho, we were going to eat sushi but Jenn convinced me to do otherwise because I’m rarely home anymore to make her a delicious home made meal. So I did!
Stuffed Poblano:
I roasted the poblano to give it a nice charred flavor and to take the skin off. I put the hominy, beans, and chorizo in a pan and cooked them together and then stuff the poblano. Quite simple really. Then I put it in the oven at 425 and baked it for about 15 minutes.
I also made home made tortillas!
So. Easy.
Tortillas:
4:3 ratio of masa to water. Mix until it’s all incorporated and pretty much the consistency of play-doh. Form into balls and them press it between two flat surfaces. Then heat on both sides in a pan and voila!
Cinco de Mayo Meal!
‘Til the next dish!
i didn’t really know what to expect when i made this cake… i was drawn to the flavors, but i wasn’t sure if it was going to be overwhelming or underwhemling or just not really my thing.
truth is? this cake is wonderful. it’s full of charm, a little savory and a little sweet. the perfect companion for an afternoon with cake and a vanilla americano.
i kind of want to be a rebel and spread a little bit of goat cheese on a slice and see what happens…. i’ll let you know how that works out next time.
recipe source: the vanilla bean blog via good to the grain
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Simplicity at its finest!
Cauliflower soup is super easy to make. Just boil or steam a couple of heads of cauliflower and a few cloves of garlic until extremely tender and then mash in the pot. Add about 2 quarts of chicken stock and purée with an emulsion blender or even in a regular blender until you get a nice, smooth, soupy consistency. Add a bit of heavy cream and give a good stir and voila! Season with salt and pepper. I topped mine off with fried garlic, purple cauliflower and romanesco broccoli.
‘Til the next dish!
So Met Market had a coupon for a buy one get one free dry aged steak so of course we got some!
This is what I made with a leftover one. I used it for the appetizer. It’s more of a carpaccio than anything. I quickly seared the steak on each side for about 45 seconds just to get a good flavor and still leaving the middle raw. Then I sliced it up suuuuuper thin and put in on a good sourdough baguette.
Oh and I made a quick relish from apples, shallots, and sage, tossed some olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and a touch of brown sugar. I mixed it all up and then let it sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge. Plate it as such and voila!
MMM!!
‘Til the next dish!
longest name, ever. no big, these cookies are totally worth it. i’ve been making these cookies consistently for the last few months. i think the first time i made them was for thanksgiving and i probably make a new batch once a week. they’re paolo’s favorite cookie, that’s saying something, because we eat a lot of cookies. they have been christmas presents, dessert for dinner parties, just-because-it’s-wednesday cookies, breakfast, and everything in between.
i’m not sure who decided browning butter was a good idea, but that person deserves a big mouth kiss. it’s my favorite smell… so nutty and fragrant. i’ve said it before, but make sure you really keep an eye on the butter. it goes from amazing to nooooo good in zero point five seconds. and noooo good is really noooo good. burned butter=not anything close to as amazing as browned butter. you want those pretty little flecks of brown butter, after the foam clears, and you start to see it clear up with flecks at the bottom of the pan. that’s when it’s prime.
this recipe is from joy the baker’s cookbook. i use a large cookie scoop, omit the walnuts, add an extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chip cookies, and add a little bit of sea salt to the top of each cookie before baking. mmmmmm.
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it’s no big secret around these parts that i don’t do a lot of cooking. baking? obviously. cooking? uhnotsomuch. it’s not really my thing. there too many options. too many things you can change. so much ambiguity. i like baking because there is a process. a system. it makes sense for my type A brain.
but, paolo works until almost 11 most nights… and well, if you know me. that’s waaaaay too late for dinner (and past my bedtime if we’re being honest). i was getting a little tired of cereal and pre-packaged trader joes meals so, i started making breakfast sandwiches for dinner. brinner, people! it’s thee shiiiet.
listen. my over easy egg game is HOT FIIIYYYAAAA. do you see that egg? it’s magnificent! the white is all the way cooked through. the egg yolk is still runny and buttery. topped with a little sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, and red pepper flakes. i told paolo to watch out. i’m steppin’ up my game.
the key to making an egg like this is low heat, it takes about 5 minutes after the pan has warmed up. toss in a little bit of butter, crack the egg, and then let it do the work.
dinner=english muffin with a slice of munster cheese, a slice of prosciutto, over easy egg, and half an avocado.
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