Can we talk about Rick Bayless?

So. Rick Bayless is a fancy-pants, big-time chef. He's very important. You know, I thought I knew more about him, but it turns out that my knowledge is limited to "fancy-pants, big-time." So here's his official site and bio. If you want to know more about him, read that.

I found out about Rick Bayless from a Food & Wine cookbook. I think F&W puts a new cookbook out every year, the best of the year. We have a couple.

The first Rick Bayless recipe we made was this shrimp recipe. Friends, it is WAY good. It's not too hot if you seed the peppers like it tells you to. So do that. I've made this before without the peppers and it's still really good and garlicy. The mojo can keep in the fridge for a couple weeks, so you can make it and save it. It's good on all types of meats.

Then we made two other Bayless recipes. One was a quesadilla. It was good, but it took like an hour to make. A quesadilla should be like a grilled cheese sandwich - something simple and quick and good. If it takes an hour, you're not doing it right.

The other dish was a tortilla casserole. Oh sure, Bayless said it wasn't a tortilla casserole, but it totally was. That's not why I was mad at him though. I was mad because you put two whole cans of chipotles en adobo in there, without seeding them. This dish was HOT. Like, Hades hot. So hot I couldn't eat it at all. So hot I cried after eating one bite. So eff you, Rick Bayless, for making me waste two hours and loads of food on a dish so hot I couldn't eat it.

So I was kind of mad at Rick Bayless for awhile, because he makes things that take too long and are really, really hot. I like his shrimp recipe, but I didn't like his other recipes.

And then Rick Bayless was on Top Chef Masters last week. He was really corny and kind of like a cheesy uncle. He made tongue tacos, and one of the people he was serving asked him to slip him some tongue. Rick thought this was hilarious and told that story twice, just like a corny uncle would.

And then he won that round! So Rick Bayless has endeared himself to me by making good food and being a huge dork. I totally changed my mind about him.

And he's on Twitter! How cool is that?

Blog posts I will write someday

-My Granny
-Dinner Club - what is it, and why is it so awesome?
-Can we talk about Rick Bayless for a minute?

And by posting about what I will post in the future, I am, of course, stalling. Yeah.
So in lieu of those posts, here's a picture of some lights. Enjoy.

John wanted to make this cake for dinner club and I told him that if he wanted it, he had to make it. But guess who made it? Me! I am overcoming my fear of cakes. This was a pretty easy cake to make.

Ingredients. Lots of sugar, butter, and heavy cream.


Batter, pre-cooked. Please resist the urge to lick spoons.


Cake. Cool it completely on the rack. It was really moist and delicious on its own, but even better with the ganache and praline topping. Oh, the praline topping, so delicious.


Um, there were some other steps in there, but I didn't take pictures of them, evidently. So here's the finished product. So: chocolate cake, ganache, praline topping, raspberries and blueberries. The berries were John's idea.


Oh yeah. That's the stuff. Do you see the pecans? Kate and Sam taught us how to make out with raspberries. That was different.

What's that? You want to know if it was as delicious as it looks? It was. In fact, it was 137,000 times more delicious than it looks.

Chocolate Cake with Ganache and Praline Topping

From Bon Appetit

Cake

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, room temperature
• 1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ganache

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Praline

• 3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 9-inch cake pan with nonstick spray. Line with parchment. Spray parchment. Dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
2. Place butter and cocoa powder in medium bowl. Pour 1/2 cup boiling water over; stir. Let stand 2 minutes; whisk until blended. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and coarse salt in another medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, egg, and vanilla in large bowl. Gradually whisk cocoa mixture into buttermilk mixture; whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, whisking to blend between additions (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Run knife around pan edges to release cake. Invert onto rack; remove pan and parchment. Cool completely.
   

Ganache

1. Place chocolate and cream in microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Stir in butter. Let stand until spreadable, about 30 minutes. Spread over top and sides of cake. Transfer cake to plate. Chill 2 hours and up to 1 day.
   

Praline

1. Stir first 3 ingredients in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat until butter melts. Boil 1 minute without stirring. Remove from heat; whisk in sugar and vanilla. Add pecans; stir just to incorporate. Quickly pour praline over cake. Spread just to edges (topping sets quickly). DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome. Store at room temperature.
   

Running and stuff

In response to my post about my morning, some people have asked what time I go to bed if I wake up at 5:30 am to go running. That usually depends, but it's always before 11. This morning I woke up at 5:20 am, and last night I went to bed at 10:30.

It's not an easy thing to do. I ran in the morning Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week. It all caught up to me on Friday. I took a one-hour nap and then also slept for nine and a half hours on Friday night. Getting up early + exercise makes me very sleepy indeed.

But I like to do it. I take a cardio class two times a week, so on the days I don't, I like to run. Now that it's over 100 degrees here, the only time I can run when it's not hot is before I go to work. I like knowing that I'm done working out for the day after that.

I've been running 5 miles when I go for a run, and when I tell people that, they ask me, "How do you run 5 miles?" Well, here's how I do it: I run 2.5 miles away from my house. And then I run back.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Hmm, I don't really have other news. It's dinner club tonight! Have I talked about dinner club before? I will in another post.

Blog Love

I got a delightful surprise this morning - the "love ya" blog award from Melita at Gussying Up the Tuttle. I've never met Melita, but I'm friends with her through blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Thanks Melita!

About the award:
"Apparently this award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm gonna pass this award on to 8 other bloggers:

Carolyn at Hang on Little Tomato
Melita of Gussying Up the Tuttle and My Morgantown Musings
Chelsey at Our Prague Blog (her adventures in Prague. she's going to go teach in Japan with her husband!)
Kate at Sincerely Yours, Kate
Jason at PrestidigiJason
Elizabeth of Viajes en Brazil
Maryam of Pamplemousse
Jen at Cake Wrecks, because that site is hilarious

Gingerbread Molasses Cake with Mascarpone Cream

As much as I love pie, I don't seem to make a lot of it. I mostly stick to things like tarts and cobblers and crumbles, things with lots of fruit in them. Things that you can screw up and still rescue.

Cakes though - cakes scare me. You have to be precise and whip things and cut things and gah! Scary! I'm not a precise measurer, and you have to measure precisely with cakes.

On Saturday, we went to a wine party and everyone was asked to bring a dessert. So I looked through our recent food magazines (Bon Appetit and Food & Wine) for an easy dessert. I found this one, which wasn't too complicated.

First, you make the cake. Pretty simple.

Then, you make the orange confit, which is decorative. Honestly, I think the cake is fine without the confit. I didn't cook this as long as it said to (only 20 minutes) because the syrup began to thicken. The confit was crusted with syrup and I had to rinse it off. So, you can do without it, I say. This is the water and sugar getting angry before it simmered down and became thick syrup.

Here's the cake baking. It rose dramatically and then fell in the center.


Here's the finished product. My handheld mixer burned out, so I whipped the cream by hand. Didn't take long. I smoothed out the dip in the center with the magic of cream. I also added about three times as much orange zest to the cream because it tasted like plain cream to me. I wanted it to be zestier.

All in all, pretty good. The cake was a little dry, even though I took it out about 10 minutes before. The icing melted a little on the drive over to the party, but this is San Antonio, where everything is crazy hot. Can't be helped.

Enjoy!

Cake

(from Food and Wine)

1. 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
4. 1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
7. 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
8. 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons molasses
9. 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
10. 2 eggs
11. 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
12. 3/4 cup boiling water

Orange Confit

1. 1 orange, zest peeled with a vegetable peeler and sliced lengthwise into 1/8-inch strips
2. 4 cups water
3. 1/2 cup sugar

Mascarpone Cream

1. 1 cup mascarpone, at room temperature
2. 3/4 cup heavy cream
3. 3/4 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
4. 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
5. Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Make the Cake: Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with vegetable cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the flour with the ground ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the canola oil with the brown sugar, molasses, honey, eggs and lemon zest until smooth. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined. Whisk in the boiling water. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Set the pan on a rack and let the cake cool completely, about 2 hours.
2. Meanwhile, Make the Orange Confit: In a medium saucepan, combine the strips of orange zest with the water and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook over high heat until syrupy and the orange zest is soft, about 30 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the orange confit to a plate; discard the syrup.
3. Make the Mascarpone Cream: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the mascarpone with the cream, orange zest, confectioners’ sugar and salt until soft peaks form.
4. Cut the molasses-gingerbread cake into squares and transfer to plates. Dollop the mascarpone cream on top, garnish with the orange confit and serve.

Case of the Mondays

Friends, I have a case of the Mondays. Probably because I had such a fun weekend, I didn't want it to end.

Saturday
-Went to the Pearl Farmers Market for produce and heard my friend Nico sing in her band!
-Went to a wine party where there was lots of cheese
-Baked a delicious cake (recipe and photos to come)

Sunday
-Ran 5 miles
-Had brunch with John and Carolyn, who I haven't seen in six years or so. We went to the same middle school and high school and have recently gotten back in touch through the magic of the Internet. We had fun gossiping about people from high school and eating some French food. I think Brasserie Pavil convinced Carolyn to come back to SA :)
-Painted some cabinets
-Made the first course for dinner club this week (some of you read this blog, so I'm not going to say what it is)

And then the weekend was over already! And now Monday is almost over too. Thank goodness, I hate Mondays.

This morning

So much happens before I even leave the house.

5:33 am - My alarm goes off. I look at it, confused. Why is it going off? What is that noise? Where/who am I?

5:37 am - Get out of bed. Let Buster outside.

5:38 am - Find workout clothes.

5:39 am - Get dressed.

5:40 am - Find iPod and headphones. Decide to download Black Eyed Peas "Imma Be" since it was on So You Think You Can Dance.

5:53 am - Finally leave house. Jog.

6:21 am - Halfway point!

6:45 am - Get back to my house. Drink 2 glasses of water.

6:50 am - Take a shower. Brush teeth. Put on moisturizer. Put on makeup.

7:05 am - Decide not to dry hair. Let hair dry naturally, with mixed results.

7:06 am - Put shirt in dryer to get all the wrinkles out. Turn on iron to iron pants.

7:08 am - Iron pants.

7:13 am - Get dressed in various rooms of the house - laundry room for shirt, living room for pants, bedroom for shoes and earrings, office for necklace.

7:20 am - Put together lunch of yogurt and granola and get the rest of the days snacks.

7:25 am - Pour coffee, mix in soy milk and sugar. Toast waffle for breakfast.

7:27 am - Spread peanut butter on waffle. Get work bag, purse, coffee and waffle all ready to go.

7:30 am - Kiss John goodbye.

7:33 am - Tilt coffee too far, spilling it on coffee table, floor and waffle. Curse loudly and frequently.

7:34 am - Discourage dog from licking coffee off floor.

7:35 am - Clean up coffee. Clean up floor. Make new waffle.

7:36 am - While new waffle is toasting, put bag, purse and coffee in car to avoid more mishaps.

7:38 am - Spread peanut butter on new waffle.

7:40 am - Leave house.

7:41 am - Drop purse on waffle, getting peanut butter on purse.

7:42 am - Wipe peanut butter off purse.

7:43 am - Eat waffle anyway. Can't waste two waffles in one morning.

7:45 am - Think about how The New Waffle would be a good band name.

8:05 am - Arrive at work.

FIN

Dresses I should own

ANOTHER UPDATE: The strapless dress was too big, so I returned it. And then John made me feel so guilty about it that I didn't buy the fuchsia dress.
UPDATE: I bought the first dress. They sold out of the last dress in both yellow and black. Contemplating buying the fuchsia dress.

I went shopping with my friend Amanda (Amanda, are you reading this? You have summers off, you need to spend it reading my blog!), I told her I like to play a game when I shop, called "Dresses I Should Own." Basically, I window shop.

What do you call it when you window shop online? Browser shopping?
This looks like the perfect summer dress. Casual and light enough for shopping at the farmer's market in 100 degree heat. But can be dressed up for nicer events. Love the belt.

I love this color! Same color as my bridesmaids' dresses. I picked that color because I love it, but I don't own anything that color. This looks great for all the weddings I'm going to this summer.
I've gone on record saying I don't like yellow, but I like this dress. Maybe it's just the details I like, the studs and the boatneck. I always like an empire waist.

So...

Readers, should I break my spending hiatus and get one of these? If so, which one? Or all three? I must say, I'm inclined to get the first and second ones, for the hot summer days. The third I would like better in another color, I think. That yellow would be something that would hang in my closet, unworn.

(all dresses from lulus.com)

How I Don't Spend Money

I've been buying things a lot less these days. And by things, I mean clothes. I really like buying clothes, especially since I've lost weight. And since I lost weight, most of my clothes are big on me, which makes me want to buy new clothes EVEN MORE.

It's been struggle to NOT buy clothes. Here's how I do it.

-Try things on. It sounds crazy and counter-intuitive but it sometimes works. Like this dress up here, I loved it on the hanger. It looks so cute and it's all of my favorite colors! But then I tried it on. It's too long on me (mid-calf), which, as a short girl, makes me look even shorter. I didn't like that it was so full-skirted. I think this makes me look pregnant. My friend Amanda said I was crazy, but I knew that if I bought it I would never wear it.

-Don't go shopping altogether. This is probably the best way to not buy stuff I don't need. If you don't see it, you can't buy it.

-But if you do go shopping, don't go with friends. The dress I bought? Bought it when I was shopping with a friend. Friends can help you stay on task, but they can also tell you how awesome things look on you.

-Don't go to Target. I love Target. LOVE. I could wander around there for hours. Instead, when I need something, I'll go to Wal-Mart, which is closer to my house. I hate Wal-Mart, so I don't linger there. I get what I need and then leave.

How's the spending hiatus going?

That depends on what your definition of hiatus is. This week I've bought coffee mugs, magazines, food I didn't need, a coffee grinder, an orchid, and other sundries. But I bought them all for sick people.

My grandma broke her ankle last week so I bought her some magazines to read and an orchid. Then John got sick so I had to buy him some bland food to eat. And my friend Jules had her bridal shower, so I got her the coffee grinder and coffee cups.

I don't really consider any of this unnecessary spending. People were sick and I helped them. It's what you do for loved ones. So that's how it's going these days.