I can survive a day without baking

What does one bring to a BBQ? This is the question that I don't tend to wonder about too much. I always bake. Always. So this time I decided not to bake. It feels uncomfortable and I am fighting the urge to go back on my decision. What I did whip up was a little batch of Alabama Caviar. I wish I had a Southern grandmother with a recipe box full of butter-filled, dressing-soaked, cheese-drenched delicacies served with a side of all the family secrets you can dream of. I don't, but I do have a family recipe for hummus. Many of my favorite recipes come from a friend of mine who does happen to have a Southern grandmother or two, and he was the one who introduced me to Alabama Caviar (and Chocolate Wet Cake and Grits a Yaya and a whole other mess of not-good-for-you food that takes me back in a second to the halcyon days of grad school). It's very satisfying when making Alabama Caviar to put all the ingredients together and then dump a bottle of cheapo salad dressing over top of everything and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it will be delicious. I like to serve with Tostitos Scoops chips because you can eat more of it at a time. It's like a little mini edible bowl for the caviar- super classy.

Alabama Caviar
3 16-oz cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed of all juice
1 small jar chopped pimentos, juice included
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced, green part only
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
3 canned or fresh jalapeño chiles, chopped*
1 firm, ripe, chopped tomato
2 cups vinaigrette (1 bottle Italian dressing- Kraft or Wishbone, nothing fancy)
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
3 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or minced

In a large bowl, stir all ingredients very well. Refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours, preferably overnight, in a sealed or covered container. The longer it sits, the better it gets!

*If you are going to chop by hand, wear gloves. I didn't and it makes it hard to take contact lenses out later.

Bucket List #2

I was sleepy yesterday when I got home from work so I took a little nap. For 15 hours. I woke up this morning and thought, ooh I should go to yoga! I just slept for a day and a half! I thought I had 10 pre-paid classes so I called the yoga studio and found out they expired in February (five months after I bought them last September). Fabulous. So then I thought, oh I'll go anyway. What I did instead (in my yoga clothes): Went and got iced coffee (a medium of course) filled with crunchy sugar and then meandered my way to the new Krispy Kreme. I'm not a big doughnut person, even though I love dessert for breakfast, but their doughnuts are pretty darn good. Problem is, I got tricked - I did not get a hot doughnut even though the hot doughnut sign was flashing. I was robbed! Bucket list #2 completed, with less excitement than I was hoping. Just a plain old doughnut.

Bucket List #1

The first item on my Au Revoir Philadelphia Tour has been completed, as I watched the Reds beat the Phillies in the 9th inning. I mean the Reds winning was not part of the bucket list per se, just attending the baseball game. I have a little bit of a hard time at baseball games, as much as I love them because, a. I can't really see the field due to poorly corrected vision and b. get distracted by hot dogs and expensive beer. So delicious. Bucket List #1 begs to be followed by numbers 2, 3, and 4... which leaves me with the rather large responsibility of cramming in many exciting things into a summer. I'm thinking at the very least, visiting the new Krispy Kreme, taking a walk along Kelly Drive, spending a day at the art museum, spending five minutes at the Mutter Museum (medical oddities), spending 15 more dollars on my Tria card, etc. etc. and so on. As long as none of the activities involve the level of sodium in Chickie's and Pete's crab fries, I'm game!

The lovely view of City Hall and Avenue of the Arts as I rose out of the heavily spritzed with eau de urine SEPTA tunnel:

Smith Island Cake

A Smith Island Cake is the official state cake of Maryland. It's also ridiculously complicated looking, which of course makes me want to make it. I like triumphing over detailed desserts and then breezily saying, "Oh, it was no big deal at all! I just threw it together." (See photo of kitchen below). Smith Island is an island on the Eastern Shore. I've never been there, although I did make my mom take me to Crisfield which is close by because I really liked the book Homecoming (and its follow up Dicey's Song) which are set there. The books are tragic. But there is still something alluring about life on the Eastern shore. I have always had a secret desire to work in a crab picking factory there. I think I'd be good at it.

So this cake: 8 to 10 yellow cake layers, with chocolate icing and peanut butter cups in between. It's supposed to be 10 layers but due to some messy math and inexact use of my kitchen scale, I ended up with 9 layers. I am not super upset about this given the directions for the cake included "you will know the cake is done when you put it up to your ear and you don't hear sizzling." Baking is so much less exact than people believe it to be (says the girl who measured out cake batter by ounce on a kitchen scale so the layers would be even). I am proud to say I only sustained one large and painful burn on my arm (which I will not post a picture of), which is not bad given I rotated 9 cake pans 3 times each. If only I would use pot holders, which make me feel like a lobster with fine motor control problems, instead of dishtowels. If only. I'll post a picture of the inside of the cake later. It would be seriously unclassy to show up to a social event with a slice of cake cut out already.

The dishes! Mom! Help!

Smith Island 10-Layer Cake
Icing
2 sticks butter
2-12 oz. cans evaporated milk
8 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened Cocoa
2 lbs. confectioners Sugar

Cake
2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks
5 eggs
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 cup evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup water

8 large Reese's peanut butter cups, frozen and processed in food processor into powder/small chunks

Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix into egg mixture one cup at a time. Don't overmix. With mixer running, slowly pour in the evaporated milk, then the vanilla and water. Mix just until uniform. Use nonstick spray to coat however many 9 inch cake pans you have. I put about 6 oz/3/4 cup of batter into each pan. Spread it around so it is evenly distributed. Make it slightly higher on the edges than the middle to create a more even layer. Bake cakes at 350 for 8 minutes. The recipe suggests 3 layers at a time. I did 4, and had to bake longer until they were finished. I baked 4 at a time for maybe 12 minutes. Let cool for five minutes and carefully remove cakes (using a knife or spatula to loosen) to finish cooling on a rack. Wash pans and repeat until all layers are baked.

Start making the icing when the first layer goes in the oven. Melt butter. Stir in evaporated milk (off heat). Whisk in cocoa until smooth, return to heat and cook on low heat for approximately 10 minutes. Don't let it boil. Remove from heat and whisk in confectioners sugar slowly. Cook slowly until thickened and will stick to back of a spoon/form a ribbon when you drizzle a spoonful.

To assemble:
Take one slightly cooled layer and spread with 1/3 to 1/2 cup frosting. Pour it in the middle and spread out to sides. I probably under iced mine in the layers in between because I had a ton of icing left over. So be generous. Don't worry if it drips off the sides. Sprinkle with 1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter cups. Add another layer, frosting, etc until you get to the last layer. Pour the frosting on top and let it drip down the sides, spread it around the sides, pour more on, even it out again, make it look pretty, etc. Sprinkle peanut butter cups on top for decoration and beautification.

A few of my favorite Philly foods

I like visiting new restaurants. And ordering different things off of the menu so I can try everything. Due to their deliciousness, I have re-ordered all of these dishes multiple times. In fact, in some cases, it is the only dish I have ever had at the restaurant. They are that good.

good dog burger at good dog
It's a burger stuffed with Roquefort cheese, served with sweet potato fries. Sublime.

La Tur cheese at Tria
A combo of goat cheese and stinky cheese.

Pappardelle Tartufate at Melograno
This dish. Oh my goodness. I will miss it more than anything in Philly. From the restaurant menu: Wild mushroom sauce infused with truffle oil, sprinkled with Tuscan pecorino cheese & walnuts.

Garrotxa with Garlic Dulce de Leche at Amada
The cheese is good, but the garlic dulce de leche it is served with is divine. Surprising combination but so perfect.

Pimientos de Padron at Amada
Fried peppers with lots of salt. Simple but compulsively eatable.

Pommes frites at Monk's Cafe
They're magical fries. With a really good dipping sauce.

Huevos Rancheros at Honey's Sit and Eat
I almost don't even know how to do justice to this dish. It's literally brunch perfection.

Sea Salt, Thai Coconut Milk, Chocolate, Burnt Sugar, and/or Dulce de Leche Gelato at Capogiro
Fancy gelato. They love giving tastes of the flavors. I always order the same thing but I always try lots of flavors first.

Chicken Tikka Masala and Saag Paneer at Ekta
Best.Indian.Food.Ever.

Cashew Deliciousness

Someone brought these to a Christmas cookie swap I had in grad school. I can't remember to who(m)? I owe credit, but I do remember it was about a million degrees in my apartment. Christmas in Miami is HOT. Every holiday in Miami is hot, really.

The last time I made these I added a couple of tablespoons of dulce de leche to the batter, which I think makes them extra delicious. I did not do that this time and they are sadly, only plain old delicious. If you like the salty sweet thing, definitely try them. And I imagine if you don't feel like food processing cashews and oil, you could probably just substitute maybe a cup-ish (maybe 1 1/2 cups) cashew butter. But who knows. Be adventurous in the kitchen!

Cashew Caramel Cookies
(3 dozen)

1 2/3 c flour
1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 1/2 c roasted salted cashews
2 tbls plus 1 tsp canola oil
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c packed light-brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
24 soft caramel candy cubes (7 oz)
1/4 c heavy cream (I used skim milk)

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour and salt; set aside. Coarsely chop 1 cup cashews, set aside. Process remaining 1 1/2 cups cashews in a food processer until finely chopped. Pour in oil. Process until creamy, about 2 minutes.

Put cashew mixture, butter, and sugars in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, gradually mix in flour mixture and reserved chopped cashews.

Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop or a teaspoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake 6 minutes; gently flatten cookies. Bake until bottoms are golden, 6-7 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Melt caramels with cream in saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Using spoon, drizzle caramel mixture over cookies, let set. store airtight in single layers up to 3 days.

Out of hundreds there were 6

My parents got a dog after my sister and I left for college despite our many requests. It's clear who the favorite child is. Sam, who is a beagle/basset mix, does a perfect downward-facing dog (a yoga move for the uninitiated). He also does not enjoy having his photo taken and is a tidge bit hyperactive. I took about 100 photos of him this weekend, most of which ended up being of his rear end. My only goal for the weekend other than passing the exam, was to get a picture of Sam doing downward dog. This is the closest I got.

Looking regal and bored (but not at least not displaying his hind end):

These are the Chagrin Falls:

If you look closely you can see Sam's tail sticking out of the bushes:

These are my minis. They call me AnnaNicole because when the smart looking fella on the left was little he talked really fast and squished together Aunt Nicole into AnnaNicole. It stuck.

It is no wonder to me that his mama is such a good photographer, with him as her subject!

A cautionary tale related to planning/organizing

I was in Ohio this weekend taking my state jurisprudence exam. I a. barely made it to Ohio due to poor directional sense and bad time management, and b. barely passed the test due to procrastination and last-minute cramming. On Friday morning, I come to find out I must have extra identification for the background check I have to complete. Surprise! So I leave work early Friday, drive back into Philly, get my social security card and passport, get back in the car, get stuck in heinous afternoon traffic on Walnut St., get to the airport, and drive around three times trying to find economy parking. I finally find the parking lot. It is at this point 4.30 and my flight leaves at 5.35. I see a shuttle drive by me and stop at Shelter L. I race after it. I have a friend that said that the saddest thing in the world is watching someone run for a bus. I think it's from a movie. Anyway, so I run, in heels, after the bus, waving my non-luggage holding hand. The bus drives away. I feel like the saddest person on Earth. I start to panic, and then begin to do the deep breathing I suggest for my anxious patients. Which really did not seem to work. Long story short, I make the flight (I was the last one on before they closed the doors), and settle down to study for my exam. I get some good studying in and make flashcards. I arrive in Cleveland, go to dinner with my parents, and do some more studying after dinner. Then I wake up at 6 am for some more studying (and taking pictures of the dog, but that is another post). I go to the test. The first thing that happens is the proctor does not have my info. This does not totally surprise me because my path toward this exam has been rocky at best. She explains the test, asks the first question (passed, thank you) and then the second (little shaky, but also passed), and then the third. It is at this point that I realize I did not study for an appropriate period of time. I plain old had no idea what the answer was. And we're not talking about a multiple choice question here. I start to panic (deep breathing also did not work again) and then provide some vague, blabbering answer that reminded me of this reporter that had a stroke/migraine during the Grammys and spoke in gibberish. But I passed. Fourth question was similarly perplexing to my overloaded, disorganized, and flushed with epinephrine brain. But I passed. It was a Christmas miracle. Don't be disorganized! Study hard! Don't procrastinate! But, if you do and if you're a lazy studier, and you have intermittent attention, and you're disorganized and discombobulated, it turns out, you can still be a licensed psychologist!

My future as a Northern Kentuckian?

I went to a Kentucky Derby party this past weekend. I have never been to one before. I'm not sure I've even watched the Kentucky Derby before. It lasted for like all of two minutes, and I lost four dollars because I took some bad advice. There were a few exciting things that occurred at this party. I watched a lady take one of every kind of cookie on a tray and put them in her purse "for later." I drank mint juleps, which were amazing, and I don't even like bourbon. I learned how to make mint juleps in a fancy silver bucket. But I have no fancy silver buckets, so there will be no mint juleps in my future sadly. And, I served myself roast pork (delicious) directly from the, well, pig. Apparently when you roast a whole pig, you can just leave it on the table and people go to work - no serving platters necessary. Easy clean up! I felt sort of sad for the pig. I surreptitiously got down at eye level and gave the pig a good look in the eye. Not a good idea. Better for me not to think about where my food comes from and just have another mint julep.

Lessons on lazy baking

I'm insanely too lazy to take and subsequently post a picture, but I just made these and they're really good. They're from one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Her pictures are better than mine anyway. I am not going to pretend that I adapted the recipe at all, and the only changes I made were how I mixed it together because I almost never put all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I just throw it all together. Either way, I give full credit to Smitten Kitchen.

Brownie Roll-Out Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (Hershey's, no need for the fancy stuff)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Or, frankly, just dump it all in when it's time. Just make sure the flour goes down first and the baking powder on top so it still gets mixed in. First, mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix just until flour is incorporated. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for at least one hour. Or overnight because you were attacked by the same lazy monster two days in a row.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat too many and then watch a Weight Watchers commercial and feel slightly ashamed but also bad for Jennifer Hudson because she doesn't have any of these cookies to eat.

Blog therapy

I have often said that when the lady genes were handed out in my family, I got the baking ones and my sister got the beautifying ones. My brother also got baking genes (and I think the baking genes might have originated on the paternal side) so perhaps I should not offend their manliness by calling them lady genes, but I digress. I do not fancy myself good at making things (other than cakes) pretty. I don't feel I interiorly decorate well, I can never figure out where to hang things (so I don't), color matching does not always make sense to me, and I am taken over by feelings of panic in places like Homegoods, where there is a veritable bounty of decorating accoutrements. I don't even have a unifying theme that pulls my apartment together. Much like Donny and Marie, my apartment is a little bit French Country and a little bit Iraq and roll. Or that general Middle Eastern area at least, but "carpets from Saudi Arabia" was not going to finish that play on words off well. So. This weekend, it is possible that I gained a small measure of self confidence in the decorating area. I went to visit my friend in D.C. (if you live there and I didn't call, please don't hate me). She's about to have a little mini and the baby furniture was getting delivered this weekend. So on Saturday afternoon, we spent some time moving things around in their apartment to make room. A bookcase got moved into a bathroom, and this is where all the magic happened. Things had to go on the bookcase; a rolled towel here, a cute basket there, a vase of branchy things on top. I think I actually made some good decorating suggestions for the bathroom. I think I am perhaps not as bad at this whole decorating thing as I thought! I think when I move to Cincinnati I'm going to finally have a cute and well-decorated living space that does not look like an eccentric mixture of clutter and mismatched furniture that can rather horrifyingly be characterized by a song by the Osmonds. And if I don't pull it off, I'm moving to D.C. to live in my friend's bathroom.

Georgetown:

The Capitol Building:

The Supreme Court:

Mini cookies with mini chips

Email I received today at 9:56 am: "I thought I'd pass along this recipe since I just had one of these and it was amazing!!!!" The recipe was for Nutella Chip Cookies. These are the questions I asked: Will I like them even if i don't like Nutella? Are they hazelnutty tasting? And now here we are at 9:47 pm and I have the answers to those questions. Yes I will like them even if I don't like Nutella (which I might like now). No they are not hazelnutty tasting. They are deliciously delightfully chocolately, with a Nutella undertone, and the added bonus of having a gooey middle. They looked lonely so I also made them some friends, and substituted dulce de leche for Nutella. The Nutella ones are way better, but I wouldn't kick the dulce de leche ones out of bed.

Nutella

Dulce de Leche

Nutella and/or Dulce de Leche Chip cookies
Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature*
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup Nutella or dulce de leche (but I'd go with the Nutella)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips**

*Late night bakers who get home from work and have not brought butter to room temperature - cut it into cubes before creaming and it will almost be like being at room temperature
**These are relatively delicate cookies and definitely need the mini chips, not regular sized ones.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in the egg and vanilla. Add Nutella and mix until well combined.

In a small bowl combine together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix until the dough is smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a mini ice cream scoop (1 tbls size) or a spoon (eek! not uniform cookies!), form the dough into balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. I don't usually get wrapped up in the parchment paper issue but for these I think it is important. Bake 6-7 minutes or until set. Let cookies cool about 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

What I was pondering today while NPR was asking me for money

I was driving home tonight trying to decide what to blog about. I thought about the latest mispronunciation of my poor last name which I vetoed because I don't want this little lady to be searchable under my name. I thought about funny things my patients did today which I also vetoed because that's not fair to them. I thought about funny things I said today, including, "I bet those Navy SEALs were HOT." But that doesn't really translate into a blog post unless I were to write about a certain event most recently associated with Navy SEALs which is superbly outside the realm of my blogging. Not outside the realm: movies that 13 year old boys and I love. I love crappy high budget Hollywood action movies. Love them. I am particularly excited for Fast Five. Ludacris, Vin Diesel, and The Rock! In my head this is as exciting as Dames Judi Dench and Helen Mirren starring opposite Peter O'Toole. And after loud movies about fast cars, the comic/cartoon remake movies... I don't have thoughts one way or the other on the comic books, but I do adore their movie versions. I don't care if the dialogue is bad, or if they were not exactly translated to the big screen, or if the superhero's outfit has a codpiece and nipples. Sometimes they even make me cry. Transformers. At the end. I do hope Optimus Prime is watching out for me and keeping me safe from less nice transforming cars. And poor Batman. So lonely and tortured. And blind old Daredevil, who has to wait for it to rain to be amazed at the beauty of the sound waves bouncing off his lady friend. And Thor, well yes please! My daily life ranges from boring to absurd, and I like to believe that if there were a giant asteroid heading for Earth, and if the smarties at NASA couldn't fix it, then Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck could land a rocket on it and drill a big hole in it, and save me from certain death. And Nicolas Cage is in charge of protecting me from chemical warfare attacks.

Twinsies

A few momentous things happened this weekend. The Amish flower man is back in Rittenhouse:

I also bought sunglasses that did not cost 5 dollars and do not say Panama Jack on the side. Those were my favorites from a Walgreens in Sarasota. I'm a huge fan of crappy sunglasses because I tend to lose things easily. I especially like buying them at rest stops. Well yesterday I bought Mr. Marc Jacobs' sunglasses. I don't have any pictures of them because right after I bought them I went to get my makeup done and the makeup artiste was a little heavy handed with the black eyeliner. I looked like a drag queen. The worst part was trying to get the makeup off later. So there is also not a picture of the sunglasses today because my poor eyes were mad at me after I tried to use body lotion to remove the eyeliner. Supposedly that works. I disagree. Do not try it. It burns. The other momentous thing that happened this weekend was that my sister and I went shopping at the outlets and bought the exact same, totally adorable, and very on sale Coach purse. It is clearly a sign from the universe that we are meant to match; two hours later we got the exact same amount of self-serve frozen yogurt from Sweet Endings. I love coincidences like that. They cause me to have esoteric ponderings about genetic determinism. Or perhaps we just have an ounce-for-ounce matching love of frozen yogurt.