New Easter tradition?

Posted on April 24, 2011 by chatty

Trophy Cupcakes took a page from the Easter Candy syndicate. They create these scrumptious cupcakes that are only available once a year: Easter weekend. What’s so special about a Hi-Hat? Well, have you ever tried a chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate-covered fresh marshmallow?

Well unfortunately you’ll have to wait till next year.

Last year the Trophy gals at the Bravern tried to convince me I needed to put in an order but I just wasn’t into it. And I did have a twinge of regret. So this year, upon noticing their mention on their FB page that orders were filling up, I decided something had to be done. I put in an order for 2 Hi-Hats, that I picked up on Saturday afternoon during the toddler’s nap. What a great surprise she had upon waking up. A treat she shared with her Mom!

I’ll admit it. I got a little giddy when I explained what I was planning with the husband. He just wishes he enjoyed cupcakes as much as I do. The cake itself was moist and not too rich, a perfect complement to the sweet, creamy marshmallow and the decadent chocolate casing. If you notice that one piece is bigger than the other, it’s because I didn’t think it was appropriate for a toddler to have so much sugar. Am I right, or am I right?

I might have mentioned earlier that I had ordered 2 cupcakes. Tonight, after a long day of Easter celebrating, the only thing that could ease my stressed mind was another half of our second Hi-Hat. The other half awaits in the fridge for my little cupcake.

I believe I have found a new Easter tradition for the toddler and me.

Scenes from the kitchen …

Posted on April 24, 2011 by chatty

No interesting dinners to speak of, but here are some other goodies my assistant and I concocted in the kitchen:

Zucchini mini-muffins, made from a combination of all-purpose (white); whole-wheat and oat flours. They tasted all right the first day and the morning after, but after that the whole wheat kind of dries out the entire experience. I might experiment with the levels (which were pretty good for the banana muffins, but not zucchini), and am looking for an “moistener” that might help the cause (maybe sour cream? mainly because I happen to have some in the fridge). I’ll give them 3 out of 5 stars.

Lemon tea cookies. So, here’s the story with these. From the aforementioned zucchini muffins, I had purchased a lemon and used only part of the lemon peel. So, I had a leftover lemon that needed to be used pronto. I wanted to bring something to Easter dinner, but didn’t want to arrive with Lemon Bars since I think I brought them once already. I like to try something different every now and again. Keep people on their toes. Not be known as the “lemon bars” girl or whatever. Found this recipe after a night of searching for different lemon ideas, and what probably cinched this one in particular was that we had all of the ingredients in the pantry (always a good sign). Again, I used a combo of whole wheat & all-purpose flour (the ratio was 3:2). I’m sure the shortbread would have been a different texture had I not used the whole-wheat, but all around a decent cookie. The lemon curd was, um, lemony. Pretty tart. I might have overdone it, but I wanted to make sure it had a lemony flavor and for some reason I wasn’t convinced that 3 tbsp of lemon juice along with 2 tsp of lemon zest was going to do the trick. I like them, but I likely won’t make them again (a little more time-consuming than I like, especially when I am short on time). Because of that I give this 3 out of 5 stars.

Easter Eggs. Ho-hum. These didn’t turn out fantastic or anything, but perhaps that’s what you get for spending all of $1.99 on supplies. The turquoise blue one in front has “L I L Y” spelled out thanks to the handy wax crayon that PAAS provides. The pink one behind spelled out “Easter” (ooooh. creative writer, I am). The purple one in the back is purple because the toddler dunked a blue egg into the pink dye. Most of them came out spotty, and the “egg-around” experiment resulted in a cracked egg when I dropped it in boiling water as the instructions, um, instructed. And, why are there five and not, oh, say a half-dozen? Because I cracked one in the initial hard-boiling. Butterfingers. Then again, they are EGGS, after all. I remember having so much fun hunting eggs down, but now, as the grown up all I can think is “what kind of crazy invention is this??”

More important than the actual dye job was the fun that the toddler had while we dyed the eggs. Mainly because she deftly ignored her mother’s pleas of “no, don’t touch that!” and “be patient” and “use the egg carrier” and “no touch no touch no touch no touch”. I’m sad I forgot to take any pictures of these, until we had already brought them to the in-laws’, where they were man/child/bunny-handled several times over.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without my little iron chef:

Allez cuisine!

Birthday Fun

Posted on April 17, 2011 by chatty

Some of the fun food/activities during birthday celebration time, then see below for some photo highlights:

Blue C Sushi. Now, I know it’s not exactly gourmet stuff, but it is a lot of fun and easy to bring the kid. Of all the things she could have pointed out that went by on the conveyor belt, what caught her eye? The Mighty-O Donuts. Wow. Good thing we were heading to the next item on my list right after lunch…
Trophy Cupcakes! I’ve been looking forward to this since my office moved from The Bravern to Lincoln Square. No easy access to Trophy, you see. It was also fortunate that my birthday fell on a Thursday … Chocolate Peanut Butter day. Yay!
Shopping. I told the husband that for my birthday I wanted to go shopping. By myself. So yesterday I hopped the bus to downtown and spent a quality few hours with my debit and credit cards. Nordstrom Rack was my main destination, but also toured the Gap, Old Navy, Pacific Place, among others. My main goal was to try on a bunch of pants to figure out what size I am. And what I learned it it all depends on where you go. Great. It was really enjoyable to walk in and out of stores, to try on clothes without having an entourage (i.e. family) waiting for you. Bliss!
Zoo! After shopping I took the little one to the Zoo. We mainly just hung out at the Family Farm and we finially got around to checking out the “habitat discovery loop”. Carousel, too. The only drawback to the Carousel was that I took her twice. That’s $4. Which meant four fewer dollars for …
Red Mill Burgers. We haven’t been to RM for a while (used to go more frequently when we lived in Ballard, and/or before we had the kid). Sorta forgot that they are a checks/cash only establishment. So I had them ring up 2 burgers, and was there anything leftover I’d buy some fries. Nope. Had we just sprung for one carousel trip instead of two … but how can I not splurge for the little girl? Definitely made the right decision.
Cake from Metropolitan Market. No picture. Because I ate it too quickly. Since I came home fries-less, the husband went hunting for something more at the store and came home with (among other things) a slice of chocolate mousse cake. Since I opted out of baking a cake this weekend, this slice definitely hit the spot. Even if it did give me a sugar headache immediately afterwards.

If it’s not obvious from the above list, I’m taking a break from the usual SBD (sort of) while birthday week celebrations go on. It’s the year of the rabbit! I’m a rabbit! So take a guess as to how old I turned on Thursday. Does the littlest one understand birthdays? Not sure, though I don’t think so. We aren’t exactly the “happy birthday to you” song kind of family. I do wonder if she understands that she gets a tasty cupcake when someone’s birthday comes along. (though she often calls the banana muffins I’ve been making “cupcakes”, so maybe not).

Chocolate Peanut Butter to the left, Red Velvet on your right. The toddler picked out the “Samoa” for herself, but I’ve had the Samoa and I didn’t want her bouncing off the walls. So I chose the domesticated Red Velvet for her. She didn’t put up much of a fight:

Here are a few other pics from the birthday festivities:

A Red Mill Burger (just a cheeseburger), which I split with the toddler. That I only had $10 cash on hand (RMB takes cash or checks only) made the decision to forego fries, onion rings and a shake pretty simple:

My birthday beer. Courtesy of the husband:

I originally planned to make Chocolate Guiness Cake. Bought the ingredients and everything. Then yesterday had a change of heart and decided I really didn’t want an entire cake hanging around the kitchen while I return to those SBD times. I told my husband my decision and then said something like, “So you can have that Guiness that’s in the fridge.” He just looked at me as if to say, “Duh”. Ha ha. But, he did find this fun beer for me. Better enjoy it before the weekend festivities are over.

BTW, check out in the background of the beer pic, to the far right, a glimpse of the cute Chuck Taylors I got for L at the Rack. They’re velcro and they are awesome! She’ll have to grow into them but I’m super excited. Why is it I’m buying the toddler stuff on my birthday? Because it makes me feel gooood!

Do the mashed cauliflower (Do the twist)

Posted on April 12, 2011 by chatty

No photos from dinner this weekend. On Saturday night the husband had some buffalo meat defrosting. Combined with some lamb he made a wonderful meat loaf. We’re learning that the toddler is really into ground meat. She eats meat loaf. Turkey chili. Pork dumplings. I think we’re on to something here.

No pics of the loaf. I’m actually shocked that there isn’t a previous post about meatloaf. I promise to take a pic next time. I did, however, provide the sides. A big salad, no surprise there. What was a surprise, was a popular South Beach Diet recipe known as “Surprise” Mashed Potatoes. Why the surprise? Because it’s actually mashed cauliflower. I’ve seen this recipe a few dozen times but really couldn’t believe it would fool anyone. However, last week I downloaded a sample of Rocco DiSpirito’s cookbook “Now Eat This” and saw that he had a mashed cauliflower recipe as well. Because Rocco thinks it’s okay, I decided to try it out. I bailed on the “butter spray” that the SBD book recommends, and used, you know, butter. And instead of fat-free half-and-half I used fat-free milk. The results were interesting. They tasted like …

… Well, it tasted like cauliflower. But, with butter. And that is some tasty butter.

It was a good recipe. Extremely simple, though you do need to drag out the Cuisinart. I’ll be sure to add it to my repertoire.

Sunday was taco night. Again, no pics. My apologies, but on the other hand, there isn’t anything photogenic about ground turkey mixed with taco seasoning. So maybe it’s really for the best. The meal was pretty tasty, though.

(Mostly) Whole Grain Banana Muffins

Posted on April 12, 2011 by chatty

Here is a cut and paste of a email string from late last week (you’ll have to read it bottom up):

From: RunSenoRun
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 2:26 PM
To: ChattyCha
Subject: RE: Seno Out

ha ha

From: ChattyCha
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 2:02 PM
To: RunSenoRun
Subject: RE: Seno Out

Hi,

If you aren’t back on Monday, I am taking the bananas from your desk and making banana bread.

Just FYI.

From: RunSenoRun
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 9:00 AM
To: Our team at work

Subject: Seno Out

Rough night. As it stands, this spot by the computer is one of the few comfortable locations in my apartment, so I’ll probably be online most of the day. At this point, I could not curl myself into a car to get to the doctor so the best thing for me to do is just relax all weekend and see what Monday brings.

Indeed, my next-door-office neighbor did not make it back into the office on Monday, so last night I took his very ripe bananas home with me. The toddler and I had a grand time baking. She fiddles around with kitchen gadgets that I hand her and I do the actual baking. Then she has a fit when she can’t lick the spoon (raw egg, no eat), and I try to distract her wth other stuff. I did promise her a muffin when they came out of the oven, but by then (12 minutes later), she had promptly forgotten about the muffins because she was watching Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan. Is it a bad thing that I reneged on my promise (it was, after all, bedtime, and I didn’t want her hopped up on all sorts of sugar and such).

These muffins have a combination of all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour, plus both white and brown sugars. I am experimenting with different levels of whole-grain flour to come up with an ideal taste/texture combination. I think we are pretty close with these. There is a slight nuttiness of the whole wheat, but it’s pretty subtle, and barely there when you eat them warm. Not a peep from the husband, the toddler, or any of the co-workers who have tried these, so I think I’m on to something.

Sadly, banana office neighbor is still out with back issues, so he will not enjoy the “fruits” of his labor.

Sidenote on gadgets:

I totally love the mini-muffin tins I got from Sur La Table last year. Bought them on sale, felt a little guilty, but now I’m glad I did. Perfect size for the toddler. One mini-muffin comes out to about 80 calories. Now that’s a muffin I can believe in.
While we tend to shy away from unnecessary kitchen gadgets (mainly due to space issues in our kitchen), the mother-in-law gave us this nifty pancake/muffin batter dispenser. Yes, this means an extra gadget that requires washing. But, in my opinion, TOTALLY worth it! It really works like a charm and I’m impressed.

Pineapple Cake Cookie Thingy

Posted on April 11, 2011 by chatty

It’s Birthday Week. Woot! I asked the husband to tell my in-laws to refrain from making me my traditional pie this year. While a slice would be great, we both agree that an entire pie is a bit overkill, especially considering our efforts to reduce sugar intake (which is hard to believe, considering this current post and the one I just wrote as well).

It didn’t occur to me to mention this to anyone else. So imagine my surprise when a birthday package came in the mail from my parents, carrying one of my favorites:

These Pineapple Cake Cookies (I don’t really know what they are called), a Taiwanese treat, are lovely. A buttery shortbread surrounds a sweet, chewy, dense pineapple center. When I was younger my parents would buy these in small plastic containers with 10 or 12 of them per package. I could eat half that package in one sitting. I still can, I’m sure. The ones that arrived in my birthday care package were quite a bit more fancy. They are from a bakery in my parents’ San Gabriel neighborhood, and 2 cake-like cookies are freshly sealed in a smaller package. Perfect to share with the toddler, who shares my sweet tooth, and my love for pineapple cake-cookies. Especially perfect that the husband isn’t a fan of them (more for us). A little research on the Web brought up a homemade recipe. I’m not about to try to make them from scratch. The ones from the store are pretty good.

The ones from my Mom’s neighborhood bakery are pretty much divine.

I’ve had to stash the cookies in hiding place to avoid eating several in one sitting. These will hopefully last through the end of the month. At least (let’s hope) through the end of Birthday Week.

Sweet! I mean, Suh-weet!!

Posted on April 11, 2011 by chatty

Last week I finished the book Candyfreak, by Steve Almond (small sidenote: the writer and I have “1 mutual facebook friend in common”, according to Bing. Maybe you have friends in common, too). A delightful sweet treat! It made me feel less-freakish for loving sweets as much as I do. In addition, it made me feel much more normal because I am definitely not as freak-ish as this guy Almond is about candy. The book basically details his youth as a, well, candy freak, specifically when it came to chocolate candy bars. His obssessive-compulsive candy behavior sends him on a pilgrimmage to several independent candy bar factories in the guise of “research for a book”. He tours a number of factories that make the confectionaries that their locals love … I remember in the Alton Brown series Feasting on Asphalt, Alton made a point to try all of the local candy bars he could find).

Memo to self: Investigate if there is a chocolate factory that offers tours somewhere in the Seattle area.

I recommend this if you loved chocolate or candy as a kid. It’s a delightful (and quick) read. Made me want to write to the writer after finishing it. But I’m a few years late and he’s moved on to other projects.

I wasn’t a local-candy freak growing up (to be honest, I don’t remember if Connecticut even had “local” favorites). But I did love Snickers. I remember working at the Bishop Corner Shell gas station and for lunch, if I didn’t go to McDonald’s, I’d have a bag of M&M’s or a Snickers bar and a Coke for lunch. And a few blow-pops. Ah yes, a healthy adolescence.

Anyway, I finished the book late Tuesday evening (or, rather early Wednesday morning), and Wednesday at lunch decided to take a quick trip to Cost Plus World Market across the street from my office. Yes, how lucky am I, to work kitty corner from CPWM. There they carry tons of European candies with funny German names or kooky Japanese characters. But they also carry some of the retro bars that Almond mentions in his book. In the pic below you’ll see the Clark Bar (which I remember from the movie “Terms of Endearment”); the Abba-Zaba; and next to that the Big Hunk (the Big Hunk plays a somewhat memorable scene in Almond’s youth). On the left, behind the display of the pig that poops chocolate you’ll see Pop Rocks peeking out.

You’ll also find here two candies that were very significant in my college years: Mike & Ikes and Swedish Fish. Without those, Chewy Spree and Skittles, not sure I could have made it through my third and fourth years.

Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews is another old-fashioned candy, famous in Philadelphia. They were later sold to Just Born (makers of Mike & Ikes, Hot Tamales, etc).

For the record, while I was seen walking around Cost Plus carrying both a Clark Bark and a Peanut Chew for a few minutes, eventually I put them down and picked up a bag of Utz’s Butter-flavored pretzels. Why? Because since leaving Chicago I’ve been haunted by the loss of what I considered the best-tasting pretzel ever, that being Jay’s Butter Minis (available all over Chicago, but nowhere near me!). Utz’s was a pale comparison (a little too salty, not buttery enough).

I also bought some Swedish Fish. Which I had to give to my office neighbor the next day for fear of OD’ing on them (not exactly SBD-friendly).

One final note. I wrote ages ago about my favorite Easter candy, the cadbury mini-egg. This chocolate treat has quickly made it up the ranks to be probably my favorite chocolate candy (or at least is in hot contention with the See’s Scotchmallow. While the See’s favorite is available throughout the year, the CME has budget considerations on its side. And, let’s be honest, I’m not actually buying candy all year long. Just when the mood strikes). In my previous post I wrote about how one bag got me through the Easter season. Not to be outdone, this year I’ve already purchased 4 bags, well-hidden from chocolate-fiends, to last me well after Easter comes and goes. I’ve got my eye on at least one more bag (specifically the “royal dark” flavor) before Easter comes along. Just need to make it to a store that has them in stock …

Now, I think that’s enough about candy for one post. Nearly 750 words, according to WordPress’ word count.

We are UCONN (with a south philly for dinner)

Posted on April 5, 2011 by chatty

Saturday night (Kentucky vs. UCONN), I told the husband, that if UCONN won and played Monday in the final, that we should order pizza for the game. There was no hesitation in his reply “Okay!”

We are frequent pier at Pagliacci, but haven’t ordered in quite a while due to my avoidance of breads and grains. I told the husband to order whatever he wanted since I’d only lightly indulge, and probably would fill up on salad. He obeyed and got one of our standard orders: Pagliaccio Salad; a small CB-Pine; a small South Philly.

I read in a book recently that the average American eats 48 slices of pizza a year. Huh, I thought, when I read that sentence. That seems really low to me. Because for years at the firm I would grab a slice if I needed a quick lunch. Nasty, unsatisfying, greasy, dough-crusted pizza. Since I’ve cut that and most grains out of my diet, it’s so funny how much more you can appreciate the good things in life. I truly enjoy the one slice of toast I allow myself in the mornings (and if you haven’t already tried some, I strongly recomend splurging for a loaf, any loaf, of Dave’s Killer Bread).

So, where was I going with this? Oh yeah. For weeks now there has been not an iota of bad crappy pizza to distort my palate. That one slice of South Philly was the best-freaking-pizza I’ve tasted that I can remember. I ate it way too fast then had a stomach ache.

An ache which could only be healed by my favorite college basketball team winning the NCAA championship title. Seriously. I was miraculously healed somewhere near the end of the fourth quarter.

Hooray!

Stir fry with a twist

Posted on April 5, 2011 by chatty

No doubt all that Chinese cookbook reading and eating inspired Sunday’s dinner: chicken and green bean stir fry. I did try to be a little daring, and added a whole bunch of orange zest and peel for taste. The result was a sort of tangy orange-ginger chicken & green bean thingy.

It wasn’t bad. Maybe a little too much oil on the beans. I’m so used to steaming and am out of touch with stir frying. But I love the crunchiness of the beans that you can’t match with the steam.

Ideally would have been great with some white or even brown rice. But we skipped the grain and I did a big salad instead.

Saturday night’s all right for cooking

Posted on April 5, 2011 by chatty

I’ve added Saturday to my cooking schedule. This past Saturday was a rerun, turkey chili.

sweet onion
ground turkey
celery
yellow squash
diced tomato
tomato paste
great northern beans

The secret ingredients (that I used last time as well): cinnamon and cocoa powder. They really do make a difference

I guess not so secret anymore!

The toddler digs this dish on night one. Not such a fan of leftovers, though.

Chatty Cha

dessert first

New Easter tradition?

Scenes from the kitchen …

Birthday Fun

Do the mashed cauliflower (Do the twist)

(Mostly) Whole Grain Banana Muffins

Pineapple Cake Cookie Thingy

Sweet! I mean, Suh-weet!!

We are UCONN (with a south philly for dinner)

Stir fry with a twist

Saturday night’s all right for cooking