Just when I thought all I wanted was a KitchenAid, I discovered custom design, painted KitchenAids. Some day…
February 22, 2011
February 14, 2011
Easy Pizza
Valentine’s Day can be rather polarizing. I find that people, whether single or part of a couple, either love it or they don’t. I used to think Valentine’s Day was silly, but it’s growing on me. Especially since in college I began making Valentine’s Day also appreciate everyone you love day including your friends! It’s all about all types of love. After an action packed weekend, we decided to stay in for Valentine’s Day. Not to let the moment pass, though, I decided to make a heart-shaped pizza! I didn’t have time today to wait for dough to rise so I made an easy Bisquick crust. It was simple, fast, and yummy. I saw numerous variations on a Bisquick crust. The one I decided on was a bit biscuit like.
Bisquick Pizza Dough
3 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup hot water
2 tbsp light olive oil (vegetable oil is fine, too).
Mix ingredients together. Combine dough into a ball and let rest for around 10 min. Knead and roll the dough out until it is the desired thickness. Top with whatever you like. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes (roughly, I confess I didn’t look at what exact time I put it in and out).
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Bisquick Pizza Dough
3 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup hot water
2 tbsp light olive oil (vegetable oil is fine, too).
Mix ingredients together. Combine dough into a ball and let rest for around 10 min. Knead and roll the dough out until it is the desired thickness. Top with whatever you like. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes (roughly, I confess I didn’t look at what exact time I put it in and out).
Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 12, 2011
I have awesome friends...
...who are also enablers! How can I not bake more stuff when people give me cool baking stuff for my birthday?
A convertible cupcake and cake carrier. The solution to my frequent frustration of how to actually transport what I’ve made to wherever its going to be consumed.
A three-tiered cooling rack! My counter space is thrilled! Not to mention this gives me a little bit more credibility as a baker since every recipe (almost) mentions letting things cool on a rack.
On the bottom left are a set of matroyshka doll measuring cups. Probably not necessary but definitely awesome. You know what’s great about these? There’s 2/3 cup measure! I like this because 1) it reduces measuring steps and 2) all proper science majors know that this will reduce errors in measurement (esp. since baking is like chemistry/science but yummier).
In the back right is a measuring cup with some interesting measurements on it.
In conclusion, my friends are awesome.
On a side note, as Valentine’s Day is around the corner I just wanted to say a couple things:
I love this boy. He’s been the man in my life for the past 13 years.
His birthday is next week. Happy early birthday, Brownie!
My heart also belongs to this girl. She’s smart, adorable and a brat. She hates when I try to show her how much I love her. She also doesn’t like that I disappear for weeks at a time.
See? she won’t even look at me.
Can’t you just hear her? “Can we go now? I stood still, you took my picture, time to get on with my walk!”
And this is why I love driving to San Diego at sunset, traffic and all.
A convertible cupcake and cake carrier. The solution to my frequent frustration of how to actually transport what I’ve made to wherever its going to be consumed.
A three-tiered cooling rack! My counter space is thrilled! Not to mention this gives me a little bit more credibility as a baker since every recipe (almost) mentions letting things cool on a rack.
On the bottom left are a set of matroyshka doll measuring cups. Probably not necessary but definitely awesome. You know what’s great about these? There’s 2/3 cup measure! I like this because 1) it reduces measuring steps and 2) all proper science majors know that this will reduce errors in measurement (esp. since baking is like chemistry/science but yummier).
In the back right is a measuring cup with some interesting measurements on it.
In conclusion, my friends are awesome.
On a side note, as Valentine’s Day is around the corner I just wanted to say a couple things:
I love this boy. He’s been the man in my life for the past 13 years.
His birthday is next week. Happy early birthday, Brownie!
My heart also belongs to this girl. She’s smart, adorable and a brat. She hates when I try to show her how much I love her. She also doesn’t like that I disappear for weeks at a time.
See? she won’t even look at me.
Can’t you just hear her? “Can we go now? I stood still, you took my picture, time to get on with my walk!”
And this is why I love driving to San Diego at sunset, traffic and all.
February 10, 2011
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and remembered’ never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.
-Audrey HepburnFebruary 8, 2011
Nutella Cake
It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s February and time for my birthday! I love February. It’s such an overlooked month. If it weren’t for Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day (the movie) and the leap year phenomenon I think February would barely make it onto people’s radars. I like February, though, and not least because my birthday happens to fall in it. I think February is a relatively relaxing month. After the buildup and stress (for some people) of the holiday season and the New Year’s Resolution fad of January, February comes and returns life to normalcy. Usually by the time February rolls around, I’ve finally become somewhat comfortable writing the correct year when recording the date; it’s still winter (yay!) but spring is coming (also yay!), and, if you’re life is still dictated by an academic calendar, February marks a rough half-way point. What’s not to love? This morning it was properly overcast but the sun ended up coming out rendering my sweater and comfy boots rather warm. It’s better than being under multiple feet of snow, but I miss the cool, crisp, gray winter days and mornings of the Central Valley.
As today is my birthday and yesterday there was an elephant-sized anatomy exam, I felt a cake was in order. A proper cake, not just cup cakes. Cup cakes are good for anytime, but cakes require an occasion. After much deliberation, I decided to forego the traditional chocolate or funfetti cake and try something new. Pumpkin was suggested, but I’m on a bit of a Nutella kick so I decide to make Nigella Lawson’s Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache. This is a delightfully dense (alliteration oo-er) flourless cake. I was excited to try it since I’ve never even made a flourless chocolate cake before! It turned out well (peer-reviewed and everything!) despite a couple slight snafus in the preparation process.
Once you’ve gathered everything you need for the cake then it’s time to get crackin’! Literally you need to get cracking as you need to separate six eggs. Note that it says separated eggs not just egg whites. I read the first few lines of the recipe and only saw egg whites and threw all my yolks away. I then had to crack six more eggs and save the yolks. In a small bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff. If you don’t have the patience or wrist technique to do that by hand, I fully encourage using an electric mixer to speed up the project immensely. I mixed the egg whites until they peaked, that is, when you lift out the whisk/mixer there are little peaks that stick up. I stopped when they just barely started to peak but you could probably mix/whip them longer.
In a large bowl cream together an entire 13 oz. jar of Nutella (intense!) and 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter. When this is done, grind up some pecans/hazlenuts/almonds whatever you have on hand. I used a little wanna-be food processor to do this and ended up with nuts that were not quite finely ground. Add in the nuts, egg yolks, and water. Next melt 4 oz. of chocolate and fold that into the mixture. I totally missed this part and ended up folding in chocolate after I had folded in part of the egg whites. Oops! Then gently fold in the egg whites a bit at a time.
When this is all done, pour it into a (well-)greased spring-form pan. Try to make the batter as level as possible in the pan. Major disturbances could show up in your finished product. Did I mention I was so excited I got to use my spring-form pan for a second time?! Note to self, must make more cakes as spring-form pan is feeling neglected. If you have parchment paper, you could line the pan. I don’t have any (I know, how could I be relatively into baking and not have parchment paper?) and I didn’t have any trouble. Pop it into the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Be sure to savor that wonderful, distinctive Nutella aroma that will fill your kitchen/apartment.
Let the cake cool completely. I repeat, let the cake cool completely before you do anything to it. I get very eager and impatient, but in this case it’s really best to wait for it to be cool. When it’s cool you should have no trouble removing the side of the pan. In fact, I left my cake cool all night before topping it with the ganache. The cake had completely separated from the edge of the pan so it was a cinch to remove the sides.
Now for the ganache. I used dark chocolate in the cake, but I accidentally buy enough for the ganache. I ended up using semi-sweet chocolate chips for the ganache and I think it was a nice complement. Measure out 4 oz and chop it if necessary. I don’t have a food scale so I estimated 4 oz of chocolate chips by laying them in a singe layer roughly the dimensions of a 4 oz block of baking chocolate. At 7 am this morning when i was doing this I thought I was a genius! Toss the chocolate in a saucepan over medium-low heat with some water and cream (I used half and half because that’s what I had around). Melt the chocolate and then stir/whisk for a good 20 minutes until it reaches the consistency you want. While you continue to heat and stir, the ganache will thicken. I’ve never made ganache before so I guessed when it was thick enough. I also had to go to class which may or may not have been the major factor in my deciding it was thick enough.
When sufficiently thickened, remove from heat and let it cool off. Then pour this on top of the cake and spread it out to get a nice shiny layer on your cake. Then, voila! Enjoy with friends!
Happy February!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache
recipe adapted from here
Ingredients
Cake:
6 large eggs, separated - keep both the yolks and egg whites
pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce container Nutellla
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup finely ground pecans
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used 70% Cacao)
Ganache:
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon water
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
optional: hazlenuts to decorate the top of the cake (see original recipe)
Directions:
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff.
3. In another large bowl, cream the butter and Nutella together. Then add the water, egg yolks, and ground pecans.
4. Fold in melted chocolate.
5. Add a blob of beaten egg whites to the chocolate batter and mix gently until well-combined. Fold in the remaining whites, one-third at a time, very gently but thoroughly.
6. Pour into springform and bake for 40 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting toothpick in the center, which should come out mostly clean; lightly pressing finger into top to check for a slight bouncing-back; and observing edges beginning to separate from pan. Let cool completely in pan.
Ganache:
1. Chop chocolate, and add to sauce pan with half and half and water over medium-low heat. Once chocolate is melted and components are combined, whisk until mixture reaches desired thickness, then cool.
2. Remove rim of cake pan and pour cooled ganache over, spreading lightly to create a smooth, shiny surface.
As today is my birthday and yesterday there was an elephant-sized anatomy exam, I felt a cake was in order. A proper cake, not just cup cakes. Cup cakes are good for anytime, but cakes require an occasion. After much deliberation, I decided to forego the traditional chocolate or funfetti cake and try something new. Pumpkin was suggested, but I’m on a bit of a Nutella kick so I decide to make Nigella Lawson’s Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache. This is a delightfully dense (alliteration oo-er) flourless cake. I was excited to try it since I’ve never even made a flourless chocolate cake before! It turned out well (peer-reviewed and everything!) despite a couple slight snafus in the preparation process.
Once you’ve gathered everything you need for the cake then it’s time to get crackin’! Literally you need to get cracking as you need to separate six eggs. Note that it says separated eggs not just egg whites. I read the first few lines of the recipe and only saw egg whites and threw all my yolks away. I then had to crack six more eggs and save the yolks. In a small bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff. If you don’t have the patience or wrist technique to do that by hand, I fully encourage using an electric mixer to speed up the project immensely. I mixed the egg whites until they peaked, that is, when you lift out the whisk/mixer there are little peaks that stick up. I stopped when they just barely started to peak but you could probably mix/whip them longer.
In a large bowl cream together an entire 13 oz. jar of Nutella (intense!) and 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter. When this is done, grind up some pecans/hazlenuts/almonds whatever you have on hand. I used a little wanna-be food processor to do this and ended up with nuts that were not quite finely ground. Add in the nuts, egg yolks, and water. Next melt 4 oz. of chocolate and fold that into the mixture. I totally missed this part and ended up folding in chocolate after I had folded in part of the egg whites. Oops! Then gently fold in the egg whites a bit at a time.
When this is all done, pour it into a (well-)greased spring-form pan. Try to make the batter as level as possible in the pan. Major disturbances could show up in your finished product. Did I mention I was so excited I got to use my spring-form pan for a second time?! Note to self, must make more cakes as spring-form pan is feeling neglected. If you have parchment paper, you could line the pan. I don’t have any (I know, how could I be relatively into baking and not have parchment paper?) and I didn’t have any trouble. Pop it into the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Be sure to savor that wonderful, distinctive Nutella aroma that will fill your kitchen/apartment.
Let the cake cool completely. I repeat, let the cake cool completely before you do anything to it. I get very eager and impatient, but in this case it’s really best to wait for it to be cool. When it’s cool you should have no trouble removing the side of the pan. In fact, I left my cake cool all night before topping it with the ganache. The cake had completely separated from the edge of the pan so it was a cinch to remove the sides.
Now for the ganache. I used dark chocolate in the cake, but I accidentally buy enough for the ganache. I ended up using semi-sweet chocolate chips for the ganache and I think it was a nice complement. Measure out 4 oz and chop it if necessary. I don’t have a food scale so I estimated 4 oz of chocolate chips by laying them in a singe layer roughly the dimensions of a 4 oz block of baking chocolate. At 7 am this morning when i was doing this I thought I was a genius! Toss the chocolate in a saucepan over medium-low heat with some water and cream (I used half and half because that’s what I had around). Melt the chocolate and then stir/whisk for a good 20 minutes until it reaches the consistency you want. While you continue to heat and stir, the ganache will thicken. I’ve never made ganache before so I guessed when it was thick enough. I also had to go to class which may or may not have been the major factor in my deciding it was thick enough.
When sufficiently thickened, remove from heat and let it cool off. Then pour this on top of the cake and spread it out to get a nice shiny layer on your cake. Then, voila! Enjoy with friends!
Happy February!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nutella Cake with Chocolate Ganache
recipe adapted from here
Ingredients
Cake:
6 large eggs, separated - keep both the yolks and egg whites
pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce container Nutellla
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup finely ground pecans
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used 70% Cacao)
Ganache:
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon water
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
optional: hazlenuts to decorate the top of the cake (see original recipe)
Directions:
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff.
3. In another large bowl, cream the butter and Nutella together. Then add the water, egg yolks, and ground pecans.
4. Fold in melted chocolate.
5. Add a blob of beaten egg whites to the chocolate batter and mix gently until well-combined. Fold in the remaining whites, one-third at a time, very gently but thoroughly.
6. Pour into springform and bake for 40 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting toothpick in the center, which should come out mostly clean; lightly pressing finger into top to check for a slight bouncing-back; and observing edges beginning to separate from pan. Let cool completely in pan.
Ganache:
1. Chop chocolate, and add to sauce pan with half and half and water over medium-low heat. Once chocolate is melted and components are combined, whisk until mixture reaches desired thickness, then cool.
2. Remove rim of cake pan and pour cooled ganache over, spreading lightly to create a smooth, shiny surface.
February 4, 2011
Undeniable Adult Truths
I didn’t write these, but they are good for a laugh:
1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure
I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.
9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the
rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t
want to have to restart my collection…again.
13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if
I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I
did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,
and you can wear them forever.
22. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
24. The first testicular guard, the “Cup,” was used in Hockey in 1874 and
the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for
men to realize that their brain is also important.
1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure
I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.
9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the
rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t
want to have to restart my collection…again.
13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if
I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I
did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,
and you can wear them forever.
22. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
24. The first testicular guard, the “Cup,” was used in Hockey in 1874 and
the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for
men to realize that their brain is also important.
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