Maple Macaroni

February 26, 2013

Light Scalloped Red Potatoes

The writing of this post didn't make it past potential headline choices.

The Art of Slicing
It's Kinda Therapeutic, You Know

How to Make Fancy, Rich Potatoes Semi-Light
A Little Swiss Cheese, Boiled Skim Milk, Oh and Garlic!

The Ugly Duckling
How Do You Photograph Cooked Potatoes and Make Them Pretty? Fail for Me

That Time I Became My Parents
Saturday Night Steak and Potatoes: Apparently I Inherited This Routine

You Don't Have to Have a Man to Make a Steak Dinner
How Two Single Gals Finished Every Bite of their Beef

The Night I Grilled a New York Strip Medium Rare
Alllll By Myself, I Might Add

Banana Muffin Tops with Oatmeal Streusel

At some point I vowed not to buy more random baking pans that might or might not get used, ever. My collection already includes the popsicle-shaped cake pan I asked for for my birthday in high school (what a cool teenager I was!) and snowflake molds my thoughtful friends gave me for Christmas a couple years ago.

But then one day on the baking aisle a.k.a. my fantasy land at Hobby Lobby, a Whoopie Pie pan screamed: "Buy me! Make pretty treats with me, and fill them with Buttercream Icing!"

Fast forward several months: I still have not made Whoopie Pies with aforementioned impulse buy. But I did have a revelation mid-what-to-do-with-speckled-bananas-this-time brainstorming: muffin tops!

So semi-healthy breakfast treats with lots of surface area for slightly sugary but mostly oat-y treat topping were born. And that would not have been possible without that whoopie pie-turned versatile tool in my ever-growing kit(chen).

Random thought: Why do I so tend start like every sentence with a conjunction? Must be the elementary grammar rebellion I have repressed for nearly 20 years kicking in.

Learning not to fear the art of Cake Ball

Out on the interwebs are millions gorgeously perfect balls of cake and icing, coated ever-so smoothly in chocolate and topped with some smashingly beautiful decor. Like much in the online world, they are eye candy but not real life, at least for my skill set.

But who cares what they look like if you know they'll taste heavenly? Not me.

If you decide to take on the project, I do highly recommend inviting a friend over and timing it so you are mid-cake ball process when said friend arrives, especially if you decide to go the 100 percent purist from-scratch cake and icing route like yours truly the baking snob. That way you have extra hands to roll balls and then dip and decorate them. Plus, that means two heads to try to figure out how in the world you make chocolate dipping look semi-decent.

Also, apparently it takes a lot of red dye to make red velvet cake really red. If you look really hard, you'll see a tinge of red in the cake, but it was essentially chocolate cake (which is better anyway). Red sprinkles are a lot harder to not mess up, so they kept a little Valentine-y theme.

My sources this go-round:
Awesome from-scratch Red Velvet Cake, Smitten Kitchen
Step-by-step Red Velvet Cake Ball instruction, Iowa Girl Eats

January 30, 2013

Pot Sticker Night on the Court

Roommate H. grew up in China, eating Chinese food. Her parents did not know how to cook Chinese food. She did not know how to cook Chinese food. But when she moved to the States for college, she somehow figured out how to create familiar dishes, experimenting until she reached the tastes her mouth knew so well.

Now I find her funny bottles with Chinese writing in my fridge and watch her simple yet fresh Asian concoctions come to life. Our house Chinese food night we had talked about for months came to life at last when H. picked up dumpling pastry from an international market and mixed up two kinds of filling: egg+spinach and pork+fennel.

Then we all sat around as she taught us to fill the insides of the dough circles and then rub water on the rim before we folded it together like a hand pie and crimped the edges, over and over again.

And then guess what we cooked the pot stickers (a.k.a. Jiaozi) in?

To finish it off, she mixed soy sauce+rice wine vinegar for dipping, plus we had a side of Smashed Cucumber.

It's such a treat to live with different people who introduce you to new food things in the kitchen.

January 10, 2013

Mexican Chicken Lime Soup

Let me tell you about the past few days: rain, rain, rain, rain, mist, rain, heavy rain, rain, mist, drizzle. Is this Portland? But hey, I have had soul-warming soup that feels more like a Mexican beach. The first thing I noticed about its taste is the lime. It makes it fresh and tames some of the spice from the peppers in the Rotel.

Plus, avocado makes any day brighter. It always makes my life feel more like summer.

This little experiment is a definite keeper recipe, especially for blah January weather days.

Peanut Butter Pie: Take Two

Creamy peanut butter goodness in a peanutty Vanilla Wafer crust re-entered my life this week. And many mini chocolate chips were involved.

It photographed way better than a couple of years ago, ergo a new post.

The pie traveled to a Downton Abbey season kickoff gathering. It's not English-themed, but it is worthy of a the most special occasion: 1920 modernism meets a Mary/Matthew wedding and a Maggie Smith/Shirley McClain witty one-liner showdown.