tartine

Every year for Christmas my grandpa gives all of us grandkids some money to buy whatever we'd like. I usually save most of it, and buy myself something that I've been wanting, or a few things if they are small.

Last year I bought myself a new camera, but there wasn't anything big that I wanted this year, so I bought myself a couple of things I'd had my eye on for awhile,  including this gorgeous cookbook from Tartine, a bakery in San Francisco.

It came in the mail two days ago, and I've basically been carrying it with me and drooling over it ever since. The pastries and cakes are so beautiful they are basically edible works of art, and the pictures are so lovely that I want to frame them and hang them in my kitchen. Or not, because I don't think mine will look the same and I wouldn't want anybody to be able to compare.

I will absolutely be making their flourless chocolate souffle cake for my birthday this year, but I'll probably have to make two in case anyone else decides they would like dessert as well.

They also have a bread cookbook that a friend of mine has, and when I read through it I basically wanted to renounce my entire life so far and move to an Italian monastery on top of a mountain (which I'm assuming is where they learned to make bread?) and do nothing but bake glorious crusty loaves.

I guess the moral of that story is, I like carbs. You can buy both Tartine and Tartine Bread on Amazon.

macarons

Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone in the world is obsessed with macarons? I've been hearing about these dainty little cookies and seeing pictures of them for years, but I'd never tried one until I received a box for my birthday last year.

I had heard a lot about them though, that they are very difficult to make, and as a baker, I'd always wanted to try so I could showcase my skillz (with a z). I decided to give it a try. I found this recipe from CHOW, gathered all the ingredients (almond flour better be secretly made of gold because it is super expensive) and set to work.

It was kind of a long process, just in that it's a lot of waiting to do things, but other than that it wasn't bad. I can see how it would be hard to get all of the cookies to the exact uniform roundness, but I have to say mine were pretty good for a first timer (NBD).

They may have been a teensy bit crooked but they were delicious, although truthfully I bet you could put chocolate ganache in between two pieces of cardboard and it would still be pretty good.

The next thing on my baking to do list is chocolate souffle, I've wanted to make that for as long as I can remember, which I realized this morning was probably a strange thing for a kid to think about? But then I thought about it a little more and had a flashback to watching Beauty and the Beast with all of the dancing pies and souffles, and my life made a little more sense.

I wonder how many other things in my life I've wanted to do solely because of childhood influence by a beloved cartoon character? I realized a few years ago that the likely reason for my choosing Journalism as a university major was because of my undying obsession with April (and her saucy yellow jumpsuit) from the Ninja Turtles. 

brittle

My love for pomegranate is both legendary all encompassing, during pomegranate season you can find me eating one almost every day. I was recently the recipient of a gift of the best kind, a box full of huge, juicy pomegranates.

After gorging myself every day for a week, I still had a few left and decided to do an experiment combining my two favourite things. I melted two bars of good dark chocolate, and stirred in half the seeds from a pomegranate.

I spread the mixture onto wax paper, then sprinkled the remaining seeds on top, and threw it in the fridge for about an hour, and at the end I had pomegranate chocolate brittle.

It was delicious, ridiculously easy, and it looks beautiful with the bright red seeds against the dark chocolate. I'd like to try it again with milk chocolate, since pomegranates can be a bit tart and the extra sweetness might be a good contrast.

 

perogies

For Thanksgiving last week I made homemade perogies. I like to pretend it's to share my culture with other people but mostly I just love perogies. They are kind of a pain to make from scratch and I can't find anywhere to buy them here so I don't make them very often, but when I do, they are glorious.

I used this recipe.

this

plus this

plus four pounds of cheese= this

this

plus a rolling pin and a drinking glass

equals these delicious morsels, plus carpal tunnel syndrome from working the dough and rolling it out

finished product and also proof that there is beauty in the world. Let's be honest, I was too busy eating these to take a decent picture.

Luckily I made way too much bacon and had about a pound left over to nibble on to give me sustenance through this arduous task. Once the perogies are done, I boil them in hot water until they float, then saute them with butter and onions until they are brown.

Serve with sour cream and mushroom soup sauce (canned mushroom soup + water +microwave) and you can even add ranch if you are throwing all sense of caloric decency to the wind. My dad says if you eat too many perogies you will start to look like one. Which is probably true. But there are worse things you could look like, am I wrong?

chocolate chip zucchini

My mom has been making me chocolate chip zucchini cake since I was little. Some people call it bread, but let's be honest, it's cake. It's chocolatey and most, and super delicious, but it's like 50% zucchini, so you can pretend it's good for you, and eat the whole thing.

These pictures aren't great, I was making it late at night for my husband's grandpa's birthday the next day, plus it was during that ridiculous heat wave where even the thought of turning on the oven made you want to burst into tears, but I still made it. That's how good this cake is.

I used this recipe, and some fresh zucchini from the farmer's market. This is actually really quick and easy to make, especially if you have a food processor to grate the zucchini for you.

favourites

Things that are making me happy right now:

The Feminist Taylor Swift Twitter account. Check it out, seriously.

After my visit to the La Brea Tar Pits a few weeks ago, I rewatched My Girl 2. This song gets me, every. single. time. Sob.

This recipe for Lasagna Timpano from The Food in my Beard Blog. I didn't know foods like this actually existed, but it makes me so happy to know that this bold innovator is out there coming up with cheesy, fantastic ways for me to not fit into my jeans anymore.

And this, because let's be honest, I have an awkwardly persistent crush on Lana Del Ray, and it's not going anywhere.