I just ran out of coffee concentrate in my office. And there are 5+ hours left. Bah! Back to office coffee for the rest of the day…

The incident reminded me, however, that I’ve been meaning to post instructions for its creation:
NYT recipe for (and explanation of) cold-brew coffee

Super special thanks to Neil for sending me this article and making me my first batch. They sell the stuff in NOLA, and I missed it for years, but didn’t realize you could make it (duh!). It’s really improved the quality of my life lately. I mix it with Light Chocolate Silk soy milk. It’s amazing. Chocolate + coffee = happy me.

I just bought a $3 box of fresh figs from Trader Joe’s.

They’re 3 for $2 in Rochester.

They’re delicious.

I love California.

And Trader Joe’s.

And life.

Chocolate Cake

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (shaken)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee

Chocolate Buttercream

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 extra-large egg yolk (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tablespoon hot coffee

Chocolate Ganache

• 9 ounces bittersweet (or semisweet) chocolate
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon rum or almond extract or vanilla extract or pretty much any other flavor you like (I add raspberry and orange juice instead of extracts) *optional

Instructions: To make the cake batter, combine all dry ingredients in one bowl and stir until combined. Combine all wet ingredients in another, and beat until mixed. Add the wet mixture to the dry bowl gradually while mixing. Voilà, cake batter!

For the buttercream icing, you can either start with a block of chocolate and chop it, or you can use a bag of Ghirardelli (or some other brand) semisweet chocolate chips. (I recommend the Ghiradelli chocolate chips: they’re delicious, they melt well, and their chip format doesn’t require chopping.) So whatever chocolate you use, melt it by putting it in one pot and holding it over another pot of boiling water. The idea is you’re faking a double-boiler. You don’t want to heat the chocolate over an open flame, because it will burn, so you heat it over boiling water instead. When it’s consistently smooth, set it aside to let it cool a bit.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter with a mixer until fluffy. The butter should be room temperature, or this is going to be hard. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar. Make sure you scrape the edges of the bowl, continue beating, and your mixture should start looking smooth and creamy. Now add the coffee and the chocolate gradually. Mix until blended. Voilà, buttercream!

Finally, the chocolate ganache! Put your Ghirardelli chips or your chopped chocolate into a pot and melt it just like you did for the icing, fake double-boiler style. Now slowly add the heavy cream. Now add flavoring or smushed fruit or whatever else you want. I usually make a sort of boiled down raspberries, orange juice, and sugar syrup and add that. Stir until smooth, remove from heat and let cool, and… voilà, ganache!

To make the cupcakes, fill the little paper cupcake cups (cupcake cups? Is there a better term?) halfway full of batter. Then drop a little ganache into the middle. Cover the ganache with more batter, so the cupcake cups are about three-fourths full. Bake them at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes. Remove, let cool, and frost with buttercream icing. If you feel fancy, add a raspberry, cherry, or half a strawberry on top .

Alternatively, you can make a cake. Pour the batter into two eight-inch round cake pans (greased and floured along the edges, parchment paper circle at the bottom) and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes. Layer the ganache in between the layers and frost with buttercream icing.

The plastic cap of the cayenne pepper fell off while I was seasoning my pasta tonight. Two or so tablespoons of red powder fell into the pot, along with the onion, garlic and chipotle pepper I had already added. A fan of mouth burn, I ate it anyway.

I don’t think it was God I felt, but it was something euphoric. I’m thinking of starting a cult. Cult of pungency. Can’t feel my mouth, but I’m pretty sure I’m still smiling.

I know because they weighed them at the grocery store. That’s a solid 1,200 calories of grape. Mikeh Love: “At 100 pounds, you’re literally two percent grape.” That’s right. I’m two percent grape. Try not to be jealous.

I just spent a lovely evening with Austin’s family, during which I made plans with Austin’s mother to exchange family recipes. Mine came to me from my grandmother by way of my mother.

Spinach Madeline is a traditional Louisiana dish involving (yeah obvious) spinach and Velveeta. My mother’s version actually uses rolls of garlic Kraft cheese that I have yet to see outside Louisiana. I’m providing my modified out-of-state version, which tastes the same as far as I can tell.

The dish complements turkey nicely. And it can be prepared a day in advance, refrigerated, and then reheated in the oven before serving. Oh-so-convenient.

30 oz. pkg. chopped spinach
1 1/4 c. milk
6 tbsp. butter
one small onion, chopped
3 tbsp. flour
garlic, pressed (to taste, about 1/2 bulb)
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
9 oz. Velveeta cheese
Lemon juice
Bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. pepper
cayenne pepper, optional (to taste)

Defrost spinach, squeeze dry and save liquid. Melt butter and add flour in a separate pan. Add chopped onions and cook until tender but not brown. Add milk and spinach liquid. Add spinach and the juice of one squeezed lemon. Add remaining ingredients. Pour spinach mixture into a pan. Fry bread crumbs in butter and scatter atop spinach mixture. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

For my lovely food snot friends, I wish to point out that I realize that this recipe uses Velveeta, and, I know I know, not intuitive when you think traditional Louisiana cuisine. But trust me. Authentic versions use Velveeta. You can substitute whatever kind of cheese you like, but it doesn’t melt as well and the consistency is compromised. I’ve tried various versions, and Velveeta is the way to go.

Because I have nice ripe peaches and pears and some Brie and all of them sounded like they’d be really good together on a wheat pita. And they were.

I warmed slices of the peach and pear in a pan and added a little bit of cinnamon and a dash of orange juice to keep the pear looking fresh. Then I toasted the pita with a very small amount of Brie in it in the oven. Then I stuffed the pita with the fruit and admired it. I was going to take a picture but I was too hungry and eager to resist eating it.

So far, I love Rochacha.

Rochester feels smaller, but not sleepier, than Orange County. The fact that I am behind on blogging is a good indication of that. I saw the concert halls at the Eastman School of Music with a student studying jazz there. I went to Bug Jar with department ladies and friends. I went to a BBQ with a pool and trampoline and orchard full of pickable peaches. And I saw a late night movie with Laurel (also from BCS). That’s not even everything, but you get the gist. I feel totally undeserving and spoiled to be here. The charmed life thing again. No wild peacocks here. But peach orchards, big empty unlocked concert halls and impromptu jazz jam sessions are pretty wonderful.

Tonight, this month’s Brighton Democratic Committee meeting.

Still need to change my driver’s license, arrange health insurance, set up direct deposit, get keys to the storage unit, blah blah, but, bit by bit, these things are getting done. Car’s not here yet, which is making things tricky, but I love to run and that’s a good thing when you have no car.

I’m looking for a bike, but I’m exactly the wrong size, it seems, to buy one secondhand. I’m somewhere between kid and lady. Maybe all the bikes that size are sitting, rusting, forgotten in the backs of garages. Maybe they’re all going to have to wait until the kids grow up and go off to college before they’ll be remembered. Maybe the parents, to deal with empty nest heartaches, will clean out their garages only then. Maybe they’ll toss out all the rusted adolescent-sized bikes, because knowing that their kids’ bikes are there would hurt too much and they’re rusted beyond repair anyway. And, honey, wouldn’t the cleared out space make a nice guest house? Your mother wouldn’t have to stay on the sofa bed and maybe she’d come visit more often.

Mmm, pear-peach-Brie pita…

The September 2007 issue is out at newsstands now. Way to go, Anita! Everyone else, go get yourself a copy. You can also try the recipes out yourself.

My last e-mail chain apparently led Gmail to believe that I would enjoy this delightful recipe:

Title: FRENCH FRY SPAM CASSEROLE
Categories: Main dish
Yield: 8 servings

1 pk Frozen french fry potatoes,
-thawed (20 oz)
2 c Shredded Cheddar cheese
2 c Sour cream
1 cn Condensed cream of chicken
-soup (10 3/4 oz)
1 cn SPAM Luncheon Meat, cubed
-(12 oz)
1/2 c Chopped red bell pepper
1/2 c Chopped green onion
1/2 c Finely crushed corn flakes

Heat oven to 350′F. In large bowl, combine potatoes, cheese, sour
cream, and soup. Stir in SPAM, bell pepper, and green onion. Spoon
into 13×9″ baking dish. Sprinkle with crushed flakes. Bake 30-40
minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Oh, Gmail. You tease me.

Cookies melded with Reese’s peanut butter cups… People Pops? Brutal… A Mallow Burger and Mallow Fries to go with it. The Mallow Burger is a full 343 calories—more than an actual burger, but with none of the protein. The fries are just as bad on their own, but come with a packet of red berry “ketchup” for you to smear on them. Oh my.

I went to a party last Saturday thrown by Sara, a friend of mine from high school. She’d planned a New Orleans-themed menu and wanted to have beignets for desert but was running low on time and asked me to cover it at the last minute. (I was happy to. I’d offered earlier.)

Sara provided the Café du Monde boxed mixes for me to use, but a few people have asked me how to make beignets since, and the mix isn’t at all necessary. It’s just yeast, dried milk, sugar, flour, and salt. So here’s a beignet recipe that doesn’t required the boxed stuff:

1 envelope active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm milk
1/2 cup sugar, granulated
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 egg, beaten
4 1/2 cups flour
pinch of salt
vegetable oil, for frying
powdered sugar, for dusting

Combine yeast, sugar, shortening and milk in a bowl. Add the egg. Mix well. Add 4 cups of the flour and salt. Mix until the dough becomes one big lump. (You may need to knead it with your hands to do this.) Form the dough into a ball, then lightly rub oil around it and replace it in a bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm, dry place until it doubles in size about two hours later.

Roll out the dough until it’s between 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch thick. Cut the dough into 2 1/2-inch squares with a sharp knife. (If you want to make mini hors d’oeuvre beignets, you can make littler squares!)

Fry the beignets, a few at a time, in an inch or two of vegetable oil. The oil should be hot enough so that the doughy beignets pop up to the surface after 5 to 10 seconds. Flip the beignets over after they rise and puff, cooking on both sides until they’re golden brown. Remove and drain on a few layers of paper towels.

Sprinkle the beignets with powdered sugar and serve while warm with coffee or café au lait (half warmed whole milk, half strong coffee).

Alternatively, you can buy the boxed mix for $2.45 and follow the directions on the back. You’re still going to have to do all of the kneading, rolling, cutting and frying, but the mix does have all of the dry ingredients in one package. If that sort of arrangement appeals to you, by all means, buy the box.

I made mini ones for Sara’s party. I was thinking small ones were more party appropriate. Plus, I had a nightmarish vision of non-New Orleanians attempting to eat regular-sized beignets for the first time and all breathing out powdered sugar all over the place all at once. I rationalized that bite-sized ones would be cleaner.

Sara’s party was fun, and the menu was great. She served shrimp remoulade, jambalaya, red beans and rice, seafood gumbo, muffalattas, hurricanes and, of course, the beignets.

Her place was packed. Apparently even Los Angelinos show up to a house party when Louisiana food is served. Ehren, a friend I hadn’t seen since high school (and who I didn’t realize had moved to Los Angeles), was also in attendance.

The party was a great idea. (Way to go, Sara!) In fact, it was such a great idea, I’m totally copying when I get settled into Roch.

Ben & Jerry’s announced today the delivery of Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream ice cream cartons to freezers all across the nation. It’s vanilla with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel swirls. I would have thought they’d do something cute with the ingredients—red, white, and blue swirls? mini chocolate eagles? something—but, alas, no.

I don’t eat ice cream anymore, but the existance of this ice cream makes me smile.

Mainichi Daily News has a new spread entitled “The Wackiest World of Japanese Ice Cream” that inventories some rather unusual flavors.

Pictured is a miso ramen ice cream—true to its name, it’s a frozen blend of miso ramen and creamy, sugary ice cream.

Other delightfully disgusting flavors cataloged include squid ink, tomato, pickled plum, garlic, soy sauce, salad, cheese risotto, char grilled seaweed and charcoal.

Mmmmmmm . . . charcoal-flavored ice cream.

Link

The Bokstavskex-projektet was complete in 1997 by Magnus Bodin and Petter Duvander and allows users to create images of words spelled out in crackers. Bokstavskex are alphabet-shaped crackers manufactured by Göteborgskex and sold throughout the nordic countries, hence the inclusion of the nordic letters å, ä, ö, ø, and œ.

The company doesn’t manufacture Q, W or Z crackers, so if you want one of those, you’re going to have to photoshop it in. I doubled up a V.

Link

LiveJournal user Dave of Aukland, New Zealand posted some very funny pictures of a pizza box he had delivered to him recently.

The pizza box folds into a little coffin for the “remains” of your meal. It’s from a New Zealand chain called Hell Pizza that sells all kinds of sinfully named pizzas like Lust, Greed and, of course, Gluttony.

Mmm… Gluttony.

Link

I know, bad pun, but really. Jim Victor carves really big sculptures out of dairy products. There’s a very large “Cheesasaurus” Rex carved out of, well, cheese. Cheese food, anyway. A massive 250 lb. mound of Kraft cheese food.

The butter sculpture of a bikini-clad model is also particularly nice. I know painters have used their craft to lure models into their beds before, but I wonder if this technique worked for Jim.

There are numerous other works of art sculpted from butter, chocolate, and yet more cheese. I particularly like the lone head of local Philadelphia broadcaster Don Henley of Channel 10 carved out of parmesan.

Link

Size matters, especially when you’re talking chocolate—and Pimp My Snack knows it. The website serves an online community of snackers who refuse to settle for pocket-sized foods.

There are giant homemade Kit-Kats, M&M’s, Baby Ruths, Nutri-Grain Bars, Snickers, Reeses Cups, Bounty Bars, Crème Eggs and much more. It’s so wonderful my teeth are hurting just thinking about it!

Link