August | 2009 | strawberries in paris

An Afternoon Trip to Patisserie Poupon

August 31, 2009 at 1:54 pm | Posted in Dessert | 10 Comments

Since last week’s work week had some hellish long nights and because I got a huge rush project done at 2 pm on Friday I said SEEYA and went off into my weekend wayyy earlier than normal! My whiney requests to Ned to ditch work early too were declined so I decided to have a pastry date with myself! I have always wanted to stop into this fantastic Baltimore shop, but never had been in the neighborhood on a “free” afternoon.

And these pictures were taken with my new Nikon D70 (a birthday present to myself!) – thank you Ms. Kelly & Craigslist! Check out some sugar below…

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Fancy Summer Ice Cream Cake

August 29, 2009 at 12:04 pm | Posted in Dessert | 4 Comments

I made this impromptu (well maybe not so impromptu since it had to freeze for 4 hours!) dessert for a Pork barbeque party our friends Megan and Victor hosted last weekend! Victor is a southern Virginia boy and made a fabulous vinegar based sauce to accompany his pulled pork. This was the perfect light dessert to offset our insane gouging of pig! Very very interesting flavor and texture contrasts with the creamy whipped cream and then crunchy chocolate and meringue!

I let it sit out for 15 minutes before I served it and that caused a funny sight. Some of the fellow grad students that came for dinner took one look at the cake and started oogling! They apparently wanted to leave after the pork extravaganza, but decided they wanted some dessert. Lo and behold I put the 15 minute time thawing stipulation (on the microwave timer no less) and they just sat there staring at the microwave and then I served it right after 15 minutes! A couple of minutes later after I finished my slice, I looked around for them and they were gone! 😀 Anyways, it was thoroughly enjoyed by all and I loved how it was a totally different take on a ice cream cake!

Check out the recipe from Design Sponge!

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August Daring Baker’s Challenge: Dobos Torte

August 27, 2009 at 8:43 am | Posted in Daring Bakers, Dessert | 10 Comments

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. Here is my “tilty” rendition! And it actually tasted deeelicious, except for the caramel part which might have had a bit too much lemon juice!

And I made this cake early in the month and why you ask? 😀 Well go for the jump and find out!

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Sweet Nothings for Kelly’s Bridal Shower

August 23, 2009 at 9:54 am | Posted in Cookbooks, Dessert | 2 Comments

In addition to a Oscar de la Renta nightgown, I made these delicious treats for our lovely Sunday afternoon soiree two weeks ago! I was actually amazed by how quickly these babies were devoured! Ah I love cooking for wonderful get togethers of delightful ladies. So this was my first time trying out Palmiers (or elephant ears for you non francophiles out there!) and I followed Ina’s instructions step by step and look what I got! They took longer to cook than what the recipe stated, but I’m starting to think it might be my oven temperature…me thinks I need a oven thermometer for my birthday!

Who knew very crispy cookies could be sooo good?? Well of course, because of the laminated butter!! I laid them out in two rows and added from fresh blackberries from the farmer’s market. They looked delightful! Check out the recipe and my other dish below!

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Superbly Satisfying Salt

August 20, 2009 at 9:29 am | Posted in Dinner, Entertainment, Travels | 6 Comments

Two Friday’s ago we had an exciting thing to celebrate: Laurita passing her PRAXIS test! 😀 So she joined Ned and me and we had a fantastic night on the town! We first stopped at Brewer’s Art for some predinner cocktails and to show off our chi-chi outfits! We had a late reservation at Salt, I prefer that actually, because its so not Baltimore typical and because its very European, or any big(ger) city, like.

This dinner was an ANTI-restaurant week dinner. Ned and I don’t really enjoy doing restaurant week, since its usually so crowded and the food is never that good, (one because of the overwhelmed kitchen and two because of the limited menu choices). So we were happy to see that Salt was not involving itself in Restaurant week for the weekend! Check out the superbly satisfying delights below…

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Mexican Styled Mahi-Mahi

August 18, 2009 at 2:39 pm | Posted in Dinner | 2 Comments

Shortly after Cookbook Club, Ned and I were discussing what to make for our Sunday dinner. Usually we tend to gravitate to fish for Sunday to “cleanse out” all the crap we ate and beer we drank all weekend. So off to Wegman’s and the mahi mahi looked fresh! I had lots of leftover mole sauce and had picked up some fresh corn from the JFX market. So wam bam thank you mam, we had a dinner idea!

So here is our Mexican Styled Mahi Mahi! Quite a breathtaking presentation if I do say so myself, but of course it is thanks to my mad scientist Edward! I have never made a corn puree before and it was deeeelicious, and with the intensely fantastically flavored mole- wowsa. We be eating well. 😛

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July Charm City Cookbooking: Rick Bayless!

August 14, 2009 at 10:41 am | Posted in Cookbooks, Dessert, Dinner | 8 Comments

Last month I hosted cookbook club! I wanted to do a cuisine that I seriously need to know more information about, and Spanish/Mexican came immediately to mind! (duh b/c of abuelita!) I went to the library and found Everyday Mexican, and because Rick Bayless had impressed me so much on Top Chef I went for it! With “everyday” in the title, I felt like this was a “cheat” kind of a cookbook, but boy was I wrong. This man knows how to take amazing interesting ingredients and whip up fantastic and authentic dishes! He rocks!

So this night occurred exactly two weeks ago, and boy have I been a blogging slackass! Hopefully that will continue to change, so now onto the food! This was Joanne’s mushroom soup! It was so creamy and the fresh corn was the perfect texture contrast to the luxurious soup.

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