Saturday, April 30, 2011

chocolate peanut buttercup cake!


My cousin Maggie, the master baker of the family, made this cake over the Easter holidays. It was AMAZING. The cake texture is heavenly soft & the frosting is delicious! If you love peanut butter & chocolate, this is your cake.

For the Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. (Deb note: These cakes are very, very soft. I found them a lot easier to work with after firming them up in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll defrost quickly once assembled. You’ll be glad you did this, trust me.)

4. Frost the cake!

5. NOM NOM.

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter, preferably a commercial brand (because oil doesn’t separate out)

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

To quote my cousin, "It will change your life."

Friday, April 29, 2011

white chocolate pistachio cookies!

This is my new favorite recipe for cookies. HANDS DOWN. I found it on this delightful blog: Honest Fare. Check it out! They have some great recipes! The saltiness of the pistachios and the sweetness of the white chocolate go so well together. And the rolled oats make the cookies a bit chewy but still a tad crunchy on the outside. Mmmmm!
Cook/prep time: 1 hour, makes about 36 cookies

1/2 cup unsalted room temp. butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of rolled oats
1 1/4 cups chopped pistachios (raw, unsalted) **
1 1/4 cups of white chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream the butter and sugars together.
2. Mix in the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and rolled oats. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture slowly, being sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice to ensure even mixing.
4. Fold in the pistachios and white chocolate chips. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined (or greased) cookie sheets, add an extra pistachio or two on top of each bit of dough for decoration if desired.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to set up on the cookie sheets before moving to a baking rack to cool completely.

** But if you can totally use salted pistachios. Just eliminate the 1/2 tsp of salt from the mixture. The cookies still come out tasty!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

los angeles.


Spent Easter weekend in Los Angeles with my mum's side of the fam bam. The trip was lovely and lively and awesome. Summary in pictures:

LOOK AT THAT FACE.


Gen, Maggie and I spent an entire day together, geeking out over art supplies. (I love that everyone in my family is creative & artsy.) We started by venturing to downtown LA, which, while a bit run down, is developing into a pretty cool area of shops & eateries. First stop: Michael Levine's for fabric, yarn, etc. I bought material for a skirt, which I made, and which I will post about later.

Took a break from art supply shopping for lunch & then dessert at the Nickel Diner, famous for it's maple bacon donuts and their red velvet cake. Their secret: Whoppers in the icing. Surprisingly good! Then, stopped at a bead shop.

Mr. W & Captain. NOM NOM.

Spice Rack: the BEST PLACE EVER. The walls are lined with jars of various spices and sugars and teas... oh it's amazing.

Taco Zone: BEST TACO TRUCK. Get in the zone: TACO ZONE. The line was snaking into the adjacent parking lot within 30 minutes of it opening.


Gen and I went to Ikea to buy materials for her craft fairs. In addition to materials, we discovered that on Easter, Ikea has egg hunts throughout the store! AWESOME.


MY MUM IS CUTER THAN YOUR MUM.


Easter spread:
Crab claws
Sauteed Chinese broccoli
Spicy BBQ ribs
Traditional pancit noodles
Coconut baked salmon
Wild rice pilaf
Honey baked ham
Mango salad
Pasta salad
Normal salad (lame!).
& Lemongrass lemonade.
Mmmm!

Celebrating birthdays! My mum's, my aunt's and my dad's! Maggie baked an awesome red velvet cake.

I was frying spring rolls and used the pot lid as a shield from the hot oil. I'm a thinker. And the cat was watching cards go by. :)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

cooking with my mum

I've mentioned this a lot, but just in case the message got lost amid my ramblings: MY MOTHER IS THE GREATEST CULINARY GENIUS IN THE WORLD. She has such a delightful curiosity & imagination in regards to cooking, as well as a natural, amazing knack for discovering unconventional combos of flavors. These two characteristics together make a cooking Megazord (that's right, I referenced Might Morphing Power Rangers)!

The project last week was shrimp tacos. First we made tortillas, using a home recipe that my mum had worked to perfect for a month.

2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup taco seasoning (or as much as desired)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water

1. Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. To mix well, use a whisk and alternate mixing clockwise and counterclockwise. It's super important for all the ingredients to be blended well together.
2. Hollow out a hole in the middle of the mixture with you hand.
3. Add olive oil.
4. Add water a little at a time, always mixing (we mix with our hands because it's easier). Check the texture- it should start to feel doughy & sticky. Mix well.
5. Heat grilling pan.
6. Form into a long roll and lay out on cutting board. Separate into balls about 1.5 inches in diameter, or more, depending on how large you want your tortillas to be.
7. Individually knead each section, folding the edges over each other in a circle. do this until the dough feels a bit tougher.
8. Sprinkle cutting board with flour and with a rolling pin flatten the balls into flat circles.
9. Set on the grill and lightly brown both sides. Finished tortillas should be stored in a bowl and wrapped in a small towel to maintain texture.
10. EAT.
11. To make the chips, simply cut the tortillas into triangles or strips and deep fry them in some olive oil. BAM. CHIPS. Set the finished chips on a plate that is covered with a paper towel to absorb the extra oil.

The salsa was easy-peasy. A simple matter of mixing diced tomatoes, red onions, pineapple, and green onion shoots together. Seriously. That's it. (Add cilantro for a kick.) The sweetness of it nicely complimented the spiciness of the next dish.

Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe for the shrimp, and neither does my mum (she cooks by instinct and rarely keeps note of her own recipes & techniques. Le sigh). The ingredients: diced shrimp, salsa, black beans, sweet corn, onion, paprika, cayenne pepper, a little cinnamon & sugar, salt, pepper... and I think that's it? It was DELICIOUS.

And voila! The finished product! I will miss cooking with my mom very much when I move back to New York. Le sigh. I just hope that I inherited her culinary genius and that it will show itself in due time with practice.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

rediscovering jim steranko

Jim Steranko, 72, is an amazing American graphic and comic book artist, among other things (which include being a MAGICIAN! Seriously!). He is well-known for his work in the 1960s with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he "earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of comic books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, op art, and graphic design into the medium" (Wikipedia). (Yea, I'm citing Wikipedia. WUT?)

Seriously though, his art is awesome. Check it:








SO AWESOME.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

paul madonna!!

I just found out that PAUL MADONNA is having a book release gallery event in San Francisco's awesome Electric Works Gallery on April 29th at 7pm!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEE!!

Some background information, for those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Paul Madonna is an amazing artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, currently living in SF. He's well known for his ink drawings in the San Francisco Chronicle of city scenes and landscapes. I love the particular attention to details, and the realistic yet quirky and somewhat whimsical style. Le sigh. People are so talented.

So yea, if you're free on April 27th and in SF, you should go to this! I'll be there for sure!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

TRAVEL PLANS

So I'm not going off on foreign adventures anytime soon, and the only plane that I'll be boarding in the near future (less than 3 weeks! EEEE!!) will be headed to New York, but... I just can't get traveling out my mind lately! I have wanderlust! Well, I've always had it, but it is particularly intense nowadays.

So, the rough plan is thus:

Travel in Asia in December 2012. I'll be in the Philippines for my G'ma's birthday (90! HOLY COW! She will have 90 years worth of memories! What does that even feel like????) so I figured, I'll be in the neighborhood! I should hit up the countries I missed, right? So, I'm thinking of revisiting Chiang Mai, Thailand to say hello to the elephants, and then skip on over to Laos and Cambodia.

Then, in 2013, I want to travel in South America for at least 5 months. At least 5 if not more, because I'd ideally like to hit every country, or at least most of them. I set my travel time for 2013 to allow myself enough time to plan and save until then, which is totally possible if I set my mind to it. Just thinking about all this is making me so happy!!!!!! So, from this moment onward, my big goals are to save money to travel. LET'S DO THIS.

Oh, and in 2015 or so, I'm thinking western Europe. I am DYING to visit Cinque Terre! JUST LOOK AT IT! LOOK AT IT! I need to see it in person to know that it isn't fake, because it really looks too good to be true.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

yet another theme song.

"Darling, I am tired of living my routine life. There is so much in the world that I'd like to soak up with my eyes."

Yea. Seriously. WANDERLUST.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

what 18 days in ny look like.

Belated, I know, but here are some photos and captions to briefly, very briefly, recap my visit in NY in February:



First: a welcome back dance party in my old apartment! A hopping, flailing, spazzing, pop-and-locking dance party. :)

Spending the afternoon eating and catching up with my best lovelies, friends since freshman year. Regrettably, Katie is missing from the photo. Along with Margaux. WOMP.


Spent the day with this redhead wandering & being silly in Central Park & the Museum of Natural History. We stomped through snow slush & made voices/sounds/noises for skeletons, ending the day at Shake Shack. Woo!

My lovely hosts! We all made Valentine's dinner: bruschetta chicken by Alex, sauteed vegetables by Bobby, and funfetti cookies by me! My dish was easily the best...



The blue skies & snow of the Bronx.

Homemade dinner with high school besties! Menu: Tilapia fillets cooked in a lemon, butter, caper sauce; cauliflower sauteed in sugar & butter; home baked bread; french l'onion soup; baked potatoes; chocolate tarts with freshly whipped cream & raspberries. AWESOME.



When the weather was gorgeous, Alex and I went on city adventures!


A visit to Webster Hall for dancing!


Lovely people, lovely times. & an ADORABLE dog.

Bananagrams: the ultimate game of letters, addiction and procrastination. I lost count of how many games I played during my stay... It is likely an ungodly number. BUT SO MUCH FUN.



Hidden messages in the Strand & a mural of clowns in SoHo.


Last night in the Bronx: a concert at my old college haunt Rodrigue's Coffee House, featuring Penrose and TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb! Followed by an after party of dancing & Das Ding!



Ended my trip in beautiful Astoria, Queens, staying with Andrew & my best pal Steve. A robot wandering the sidewalk wished me safe travels.

And after all that, I decided to move back to New York. It's funny, because during my last months as a senior, and even a few months post-grad, I was so strongly opposed to the idea of living there after college, wishing to discover a new niche for myself in the world. But I've missed NY more that I thought I would during our year of separation. So I'm moving back. Not permanently, because I still want to live in so many different cities (Chiang Mai, Thailand, Austin, TX, etc.) but for now, NY, I have my eyes set on you. And I'll see you in May.