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Posts tagged “edibles

Weekend Moments #4

Posted on February 12th, 2012

Hey everyone!

This weekend:

  • On Friday, Aimee and I had a meeting and photo shoot up north. I stopped at Asahi Imports for some ingredients for recipe testing, then came home and tested two recipes. We stayed in and ate chocolate drumsticks.
  • On Saturday, we took a city walk with our friends N. and E. We walked all over the place, and stopped for coffee at Caffe Medici in Clarksville, and Sweetish Hill, and the farmers’ market, and Design Within Reach, and Easy Tiger, and the Museum of the Weird, and another Caffe Medici, and the Lomo shop, and the library, and BookPeople and lots of other spots. When we got home, Justin crashed and finally gave in to his cold. We watched Water for Elephants and rested.
  • On Sunday, we stayed in and focused on helping Justin feel better with medicines and juices and soups and blankets. And I’m reading Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, because I love Kurt Vonnegut.

I hope you all had a great weekend, too!

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

Posted on February 8th, 2012

choc-cake1

That’s what it was called on the website where I found it, foto e fornelli. I love this blog, even if I have to use Google Translate to read it.

So first I translated this recipe from Italian, then I adapted measurements from grams to cups and teaspoons using my scale. Now that I have a scale, I’d probably just use grams to bake this, but I wanted to convert it in case any of you wanted to try it. Below is the actual recipe I used, which is a bit different from the original.

The cake is super moist and dense in the middle – maybe somewhere between a cake brownie and a gooey brownie – and crisp on the top. The layers of salt are insanely good – I used Cyprus flake salt, but you can use your favorite large-flake salt here (the original recipe calls for fleur de sel). Justin thought it would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream; I thought it was perfect as is.

(Have I mentioned that Roux loves sweets?)

Happy baking!

Chocolate Cake with Cyprus Flake Salt

  • 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon Cyprus flake salt (or your favorite large-flake salt)

Preheat oven to 325F. Spray a 9×9-inch baking pan with cooking spray, and line with parchment paper. Coat the paper layer with cooking spray as well.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler, in the microwave, or very carefully on the stove. Mix well – the mixture should be smooth. Let cool a bit.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale yellow. Add a small amount of the chocolate mixture and beat well. Slowly add the remaining chocolate mixture while beating.

Sift the flour and baking powder slowly into the mixture and beat until completely smooth.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan; sprinkle with half of the salt. Top with the remaining batter and sprinkle the remaining salt over the top.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Makes 9 – 12 servings (depending on how much you like chocolate).

Adapted and translated from foto e fornelli.

Weekend Moments #2

Posted on January 30th, 2012

Hi everyone! I made another video of the weekend. It’s fun to capture moving pictures, and it’s nice that all I need is my iPhone. :)

We had lots of time with friends, and we got to hang out with lots of puppies!

Details:

  • On Friday I had lunch with my friend N. at Kome. I had the chirashi bowl, and she had the sashimi lunch. Yum.
  • We had dinner on the patio at Takoba – a michelada, a margarita, chips, salsa, ceviche, guacamole, and a quesadilla.
  • That night we went to our friends E. and N.’s house for drinks and Mexican train dominoes. We met Pancake, a cute little dog that they’re sitting.
  • On Saturday, I snuggled with the kitties and worked on the book. I had eggs and a petit four.
  • We had dinner at Tan My – spring rolls, vermicelli with tofu and lemongrass, and wonton noodle soup.
  • Afterward,, we went to our friends C. and L.’s house for drinks and chat. We snuggled with their dog Myron, and then Baby P. woke up at midnight to give us a smile.
  • On Sunday, I made hot cocoa (Justin had coffee) and read my new cookbook and a letter from a friend. I worked on the book all day.
  • That night, we went to supper club at J. and K.’s place. They had raclette, and a raclette machine, and we melted cheese over anything we could find (charcuterie, cornichons, broccoli, apples, pears, potatoes, bread, plus salad, cassoulet, boozy fruit with ginger tuiles, and chocolate bark). We got lovin’ from their dogs Lucky Day and Rusty Bottoms.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Randoms

Posted on January 26th, 2012

cupcake

I left two cupcakes on the counter last night. This is what we found this morning. Our cat loves sweets. At least he didn’t finish it!


Last night we had dinner at Justine’s, and we got our usual – steak frites for Justin and pork chop with potato gratin for me. This time I tasted a lovely licorice-y flavor on Justin’s steak that really made me happy. Casey, the chef, said he put a bit of pastis in the butter sauce. Isn’t that brilliant?


Two nights ago, we had a terrible thunderstorm. I’ve always been scared of lightning and thunder, and this time was no different. After one loud thunderclap and a little shriek, I suddenly found myself in Justin’s arms on the other side of the bed. Thank goodness for husbands.


I’ve been testing recipes for the book, which requires a lot of weighing ingredients and converting to cups and teaspoons and such. After all of this, I’m convinced it would be easier if we all just used grams. So precise! So simple!


Yesterday I completed my collection of Oishinbo books. I wish I had more time to read them! I love sitting in the coffee shop and reading, but lately coffee is just too much jitter for me. Does anyone else feel kind of embarrassed ordering tea or decaf in a coffee shop? Especially in the really hard core shops – I feel like I’m disappointing them. I have a lot of misplaced worry, I think. :)


I hope you’re all having a great week!