Bunday Monday

If you haven’t heard of the ThreadCakes contest, let me give you the lowdown. Of course you aren’t surprised that my entry had to do with bunnies right? hehe

Today the judges are picking the winners. Eek! Wish me luck!

Check out the winners page later to see which ThreadCakes design reigns supreme.

I’ll be out of the office…

Hello dearest readers,

I’ll be out of the “office” for the next 10 days at a remote location FAR FAR FAR away from work, laundry and my kitchen with limited access to email and internet. (I’m a little stressed out about the limited access to internet part. HA!)

My husband and I will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary on Monday (Man, time flies when you’re having fun. So cliche but so true!) and decided to take a 2nd honeymoon. I promised him that I would tear myself away from the computer and spend time with him (What was I thinking??) but I will respond to any emails and comments when I return.

Sincerely,
CB

This is a test

This is a test of the WordPress iPhone app. This is only a test.

{annoying buzzing static sound}

Bunday Monday

Click image to see original picture

I look a little creepy (according to Nikki) but I think Opie looks cute esp her little nose, right?

I was gonna wait to post this tomorrow for the inauguration but I had too much fun playing with pictures that I decided it would be fun to post for Bunday Monday as a pre-inaug celebration instead.

Anyone gonna be watching the inauguration broadcast tomorrow? I’ll be working but checking my iphone constantly for podcasts and twitter updates.

If you wanna make your own Obama icon picture here’s the linkage.

http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/

Fair warning. Its addicting. LOL

Happy MLK day everyone.

Thursday With Dorie (Rewind)

Thursday with Dorie?

Yeah. I know. I know. Its suppose to be Tuesdays with Dorie but I was swamped with other baking obligations last Tuesday. I couldn’t stop drooling after seeing all the other Dorie-nators’ tortes on my GoogleReader though so I knew I’d have to make time for it as soon as I could. That day was Wednesday.

I’ve been dying to use my cute little 4inch springform pan for a while now. Isn’t everything cuter in mini sizes? So I decided to half the recipe and thats how I wrote the recipe up. You can find the original recipe on Amy from Family, Food and Fun’s blog.

I would have posted yesterday but of course I didn’t read the full instructions until I was actually making it and smacked myself on the head when I read “freeze for at least 6 hours”. Well crap. So I satiated my dessert bug by eating some of the vanilla bean ice cream while I waited. I guess there are worst situations, no? LOL.

What I learned this week:
Read the whole recipe before making dessert plans.

Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

(Recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s BFMHTY | photos from me!)

INGREDIENTS

7 tbsp unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
4-1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used ghiradelli semi-sweet)
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
5 oz frozen raspberries in syrup, thawed
1/2 tbsp chambord
1/2 quart vanilla ice cream (I used dreyers vanilla bean)

[NOTES: I had alot of chocolate mixture and ice cream leftover. I probably could have quartered the original recipe but I figured I'd half to be safe.]

INSTRUCTIONS

Lightly spray a 4 inch springform pan.

Put butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl [I think metal works the best], set over simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat and add sugar. Whisk to combine and let cool for 5 minutes. Whisk the eggs, one at a time, into chocolate mixture. Rap the bowl against the counter to release air bubbles.

Pour 1/3 of the chocolate mixture into the springform pan. Freeze for at least 30 minutes to set. Cover remaining chocolate mixture with plastic wrap against the surface and keep on counter.

When first layer of chocolate mixture is set, start making the raspberry ice cream.

Puree raspberry+syrup in a food processor. Add chambord and pulse to incorporate. Spoon the ice cream in the processor and pulse until blended. Do not process too long or ice cream will melt.

Spread 1/2 the ice cream layer on top of the chocolate mixture and freeze for 15 minutes [I froze each layer for 30 minutes]. Reserve remaining ice cream in a bowl and freeze until ready for next ice cream layer. You can use your food processor to soften ice cream if you need to.

After raspberry ice cream layer is set, repeat with chocolate mixture. Freeze for 30 minutes. After chocolate mixture set, scoop raspberry ice cream layer. Freeze for 15 minutes. After raspberry ice cream layer set, pour in chocolate mixture and freeze for 6 hours before serving. [I froze overnight]

ENJOY! :)

Husband rating: N/A

Wifey rating: A+
Wow. This dessert is worth the wait! The ganache and raspberry ice cream are SO good together. I couldn’t stop eating!

TWD #27 No time for torte :(

Today is Tuesday Hello Captain Obvious! but unfortunately its Tuesday without Dorie for me. ::sniff::

I reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly wanted to make this week’s recipe, Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte pages 288-289, hosted by Amy from Family, Food and Fun especially because I’ve had it earmarked ever since I got TWD’s baking bible. But my kitchen was double booked this week with cupcakes and cookies.

I am hoping to make it Wednesday or Thursday when things calm down so you all come back now ya hear! haha.

In the mean time, go read how the other TWD bakers did with their tasty tortes! And make sure you bring along a napkin to wipe up your drool. Trust me. You’ll need it.

Monkey Bread Muffins

Monkey bread is a staple at my husband’s family holiday get togethers every year.

Every Christmas, we always know we’ll get our fill of monkey bread b/c T’s brother is the monkey bread master. He makes them in mini disposable foil loafs and gives them out as part of his Christmas gifts. Who doesn’t love edible gifts right? Monkey bread is like a pull apart cinnamon roll. Its just fun to eat!

My BIL’s recipe is very simple. He uses Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. You know what I am talking about right? Its the prepackaged dough that comes in the cylinder tube that you twist and pops open. No matter how many times I’ve opened a tube, I still jump when it *pops*! No laughing. I don’t diss Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. That’s some good stuff.

That’s why I was intrigued when I was flipping through my latest Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine and saw Monkey Bread Minis on page 57. I personally think “muffins” vs “minis” sounds cuter so I renamed it b/c I can. Its my blog! LOL. I immediately earmarked that page b/c I knew I wanted to try this scratch recipe vs my BIL’s tried and true prepackaged recipe.

(Recipe from Everyday w/ Rachael Ray | photos from me!)

Makes 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS

For muffins
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 buttermilk, chilled

For icing
1 cup powder sugar
2 tbsp whole milk

INSTRUCTIONS

To make muffins—
Preheat oven to 425F.

In a small bowl microwave 4 tbsp butter and maple syrup at high power until melted, about 30 secs; stir. Set aside.

In another small bowl combine 1/3 granulated sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a food processor, combine flour, baking powder, the remaining 2 tbsp granulated sugar and salt; pulse to combine. Cut the remaining 1 stick of butter into smaller pieces and pulse with flour mixture until course crumbs form. Pulse in the buttermilk until the dough just comes together.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface; pat into a 10 inch square. Quarter the dough, then cut each quarter into 16 equal pieces; roll into balls.

Ok not exactly a square, so sue me!

Dip each ball into the maple butter then dip in the sugar mixture. Place about 5 to 6 maple-sugar balls into the muffin cup and press to compact.

Bake until cooked through and golden, about 15-17 minutes. (Tent with foil if the tops darken too quickly.) Transfer muffin pan to rack and cool for 10 minutes. Using a knife; loosen the sides of the monkey bread; invert and serve warm.

To make icing—
Mix powder sugar and milk. Drizzle over the bread as it cools.

ENJOY! :)

Husband rating: A
He was a fan but forced himself not to go back for 2nds b/c he’s on a diet. *rolls eyes*

Wifey rating: A
I am not on a diet so I ate more than 1 (or 2 or 3). Mmmm… cinnamon-sugar goodness. Do I think its better than my BIL’s recipe? I’d say that its slightly better b/c of the scratch factor but to be honest scratch was alot more work than I originally thought for 12 muffins. If I were pressed for time, prepackaged is quicker, easier and tastes about the same.

TWD #25: Life is like an ice-cream cone…

Life is like an ice-cream cone…you have to lick it one day at a time. ~ Charles M. Shultz

I have fond memories of Charles Shultz for a couple reasons. The most obvious one is the Peanuts cartoon. Of course my favorite was Charlie Brown. All he wanted to do was kick the football but Lucy always screwed him over! Yeah I didn’t like her very much. LOL. The other less obvious reason is how Snoopy changed my life.

I remember when were still just friends, T had this wood bookend on his dresser that he made in Boy Scouts when he was really young. It was a carving of Snoopy laying across his dog house as was characteristic of him in many cartoons. One day T saw me looking at it and he told him the story of how his father helped him make it so he could earn his woodworking badge for Boy Scouts. Now you have to understand that I am a huge sap. I think I kinda melted into a puddle of sappiness when I saw the admiration and love from T’s eyes when he talked about his father. So I guess you could say, that day, Snoopy made me realize T was more than just a friend. ::cue violins and harps::

Alright alright. You didn’t come here for sappy love stories… You’re here for ice cream right?

Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Ice cream soda!
Ice cream soda who?
ICE CREAM SODA PEOPLE CAN HEAR ME!!!

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie bakers actually didn’t bake anything at all! Instead it was time to cool off in the summer heat with some Blueberry Ice Cream hosted by Dolores from Chronices of Culinary Curiosity. (You can find the original recipe on Dolores’ blog.) I like blueberries but I LOVE strawberries+lemon so I made a little switcharoo. YUM!

What I learned this week:
I never thought about making my own ice cream. I always thought it was something that only ice cream parlors and grocery stores could manufacture but now that I know how easy it is, I’ll be making more ice cream! Not sure if thats good or bad (for my hips)! LOL. PS. I love my KA ice cream maker attachment! I recommend it to all KA mixer owners!

Blueberry [Strawberry] Sour Cream Ice Cream

(Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s BFMHTY | photos from me!)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used about 8oz of fresh strawberries)
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
zest and juice of 1/4 lemon (or lime) (I used juice and zest of 1/2 lemon)
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine strawberries, sugar, salt and lemon zest/juice into a small saucepan.

Pour strawberry mixture into a blender and puree. Add heavy cream and sour cream and blend.

Pour custard into bowl and chill in the refrigerator.

[NOTES: I chilled for about 30 minutes, until cold to the touch.]

Pour chilled custard into ice cream maker and churn.

Scoop ice cream into a container and chill for about 2 hours.

Scoop into waffle bowl and …

ENJOY! :)

Husband rating: A-
T liked it but noticed the sour cream aftertaste since he’s not a sour cream fan and also said the lemon was a bit strong. But the lemon is my fault. I like lemon so I went a little nuts with the lemon juice.

Wifey rating: A
I didn’t think I was a big ice cream fan *gasp* but ice cream tastes SO goood when you make it yourself. I love the strawberries and lemon flavor combination.

Next week: Granola Grabbers page 82

Bunday Monday

“Catch me if you can!”

Snickerdoodle loves to run down the hallway. She’s hard to catch when she hits her stride…er… hop. But mommy knows the trick to get her to slow down. She’ll come home for craisins.

Belated Bunday Monday

Oops! I totally forgot about this week’s segment of Bunday Monday! My bad.

I have a tattoo of my first bunny, Cinnabun, on my lower right back. Please ignore the stretch marks. After he passed away I knew I wanted something to remember him by. He is the reason why I adore bunnies so much. He was perfect. I miss him so much.

Just in case you missed my TWD postscript:

I am going on vacay June 22-July 1 and my BIL is getting married July 5th. I will post-date some Bunday Mondays but other than that my blogging may be sporadic for the next 2 weeks…

Any restaurant/cupcakery recs for DC, Philly and/or Boston?

I’ll catch up with you all when I get back!

Bandwidth Exceeded!

Well apparently free99 photobucket can no longer provide me with the necessary bandwidth for my little ol blog. Bare with me while I find a new image host.

::thinking to self::

1. Should I upgrade my photobucket account? Its $3.99/month or $25/year
2. Find a new “free” host that has more bandwidth? (Any recs?)
3. Other?

UPDATE: We’re back baby!! Thanks to an anonymous donor (You rock J-DOG!) my pictures are back, at least for the next 3 months, while I continue my search for The Next Image Hosting Star. Hmm… should I contact food network and pitch that idea? HAHA!

TWD #16 I heart this tart

I am a lucky girl.

I live in California where you can get strawberries all season long. It’s a great perk well… besides the beach, amazing weather, Vegas only a car ride away… need I go on? HAHA! Since strawberries are available winter, spring, summer and fall, its one of my favorite fruits to snack on alone or with any dessert. So I am sure you can imagine my delight when Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage chose La Palette’s Strawberry Tart on page 374-375 as her pick this week for us. Crumbly tart crust, strawberry jam and fresh strawberries? I am in!

What I learned this week:
Sometimes simple things can give you amazing results. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious.

Please bare with me. Since we are not able to post the recipe anymore (see below for more details) I am a little flustered! Posting pictures with the recipe is part of my writing style so in its absence I need to reinvent myself. ::taking deep breath::

Here we go…

This recipe is brilliant b/c its simple but refreshing and elegant. I do not own a tart pan so opted for my 9 inch springform pan instead. Even though it doesn’t give it the characteristic tart ruffles around the edge I think it makes the tart more “rustic” so I dig it. At least until my husband lets me buy a tart pan. ::wink::

The tart dough comes together very easily in a food processor. All you need is flour, powder sugar, a little salt, cold butter and an egg yolk. Pulse a few times and VOILA you got dough baby!

Dorie mentions in her cookbook, Baking: From my home to yours, after adding in the egg yolk and pulsating for a couple good 10 sec long, you’ll hear the sound change slightly. I need to comment that I think this simple fact is a big reason why I LOVE Dorie’s cookbook. She’s very real and I love her matter a fact approach. She tells you what to expect even if its as small a characteristic as the sound change in your food processor. Trust me. To a novice baker all these simple tricks make baking from her cookbook user friendly. I noticed the sound change right away and knew it was time to knead the dough and prepare the pan.

After freezing the dough for an hour I popped it in the oven for 33 minutes, let it cool and then slathered some yummy strawberry preserves all over. The recipe calls for strawberry jam but since I had strawberry preserves available I decided to go with that instead. Call me weird but I love the little seeds even though they do tend to get stuck between my teeth sometimes. LOL. I wish I had some kirsch to douse the strawberries with per Dorie’s suggestion but I settled for a sprinkle of sugar and added to my mental rolodex to buy some kirsch on my next grocery store excursion instead.

Ugh. Forgive my lighting issues.

ENJOY! :)

Husband rating: A+
He said it reminded him of the apple-pie cake but not as cakey. He loved it but still thinks the apple-pie cake is his favorite though it didn’t stop him from having 2 FAT slices of strawberry tart.

Wifey rating: A+
I love this recipe for 2 reasons: Its delicious and simple. What could be better? The crust is so buttery and yummy (I think its my favorite part) and the strawberries are a great fresh complimentary ingredient.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our fearless leader, Laurie, along with our group’s namesake Dorie Greenspan, have respectfully requested we not post complete recipes anymore but I hope they won’t mind if I post the link to the recipe from Serious Eats instead where Dorie is a contributing writer. Check out the Tuesdays w/ Dorie blogroll on the side menu bar for more tarts!

Next week: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring on pages 290-292

Non-Foodie Question of the Day

How much is gas where you live?

California. Land of Sprinkles cupcakes, Disneyland, warm weather, beaches and HIGH gas prices! Just the thought of gas prices makes my blood boil. I use to think Costco had comparatively cheap gas prices but I know its high when I think Costco is too expensive now. The local Chevron near my house is at $4.39 per gal while Costco is about $4.27. Its freaking ridonk. When are we gonna start thinking of government funded alternatives so we can ditch the gas dependency?? Guess I can’t afford the new iphone 3G now. Gotta save for gas.

Sincerely,
Fed up gas pumper

PS. Check out GasBuddy.com for gas price comparison near you.

Bunday Monday

Cinnabun (L) and Vanilla Bean (R)

These 2 bundles of joy started my love of rabbits journey. I fondly remember nicknaming them my “Love Buns”.

I miss them very much. sniff