survey schmurvey

by caitlin

its survey time. its really in the thick of it now: we've got two days to finish and hang all of our stuff. am i ready? not in the least? have i been doing everything humanly possible to prepare for it? no. i've pretty much been not thinking about all that i have to do and sort of pretending that i don't have a lot to do. so, procrastinating=cooking.

yesterday morning i made semi-successful cranberry muffins. i didn't have regular flour so i used pastry flour, and i didn't have milk so i used buttermilk. they were.. okay. i can't wait until i have the time to just bake muffins every morning and perfect everything about them.

and last night i made a creamy asparagus soup and grilled cheeses with provolone, tomato and pesto for me, devon and aleks. the soup was not as good as the sandwiches, being just a little bland. the sandwiches were really delicious though. i tried to take photos of the food but devon's camera battery was dead. oh well.

in the summer, pretty much everyday is a food party. so close......

hey, we're okay. probably.

by caitlin

tonight when i was walking home, even though it was cold and kind of rainy, it really felt like spring for some reason. it was a nice feeling after the horrendous week i've just had. i'll skip all the tear-drenched details. sometimes anxiety and depression over graduating from college can really get you down. weird.

i decided to kind of take the night off from school work since i've been going so out of my mind. i bought a bottle of wine and some gingery thai noodles on the way home, even though i'm kind of broke these days. whenever i cook with ginger, i never get the desired effect... the spiciness either cooks out entirely or is way too overpowering. a difficult balance to strive for.

i've actually been pretty absent from the kitchen (and the internet) as a result of all this school stress. the (sort of) good news is that my food project is finally, actually, on its way to being something, with 2 weeks left in the semester. i did want to mention, since i told him i would, and i don't think he will, tyler's breakfast experiment from sunday. it wasn't the most exciting thing, but it was really a nice little moment in the middle of my ridiculous week. we were out of milk and it was totally pouring (this was in the midst of the dreaded nor'easter) but i did have some buttermilk from when i tried to make biscuits. luckily it keeps for a long time. we thought buttermilk pancakes would be a good start to a dreary day, and tyler embellished them with oats and pumpkin. we don't have any pictures, but they tasted pretty delicious.

that's pretty much it, i'm going to go back to listening to the rushmore soundtrack and eating ginger.

cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!

by tylerEver have one of those days where you can’t get anything done? Yeah, I’m having one of those days. I think its because I didn’t shower this morning and my hair is really greasy and icky feeling. So after 2 hours of doing nothing at work I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the cupcakes Devon and I made almost 2 weeks ago for Arone’s surprise birthday party. Hopefully by the end of this post I can feel somewhat accomplished.

So the Friday before last (the day we ate the cherry, almond, coconut pancakes for breakfast), Devon and I set out to make the best, non-dairy cupcakes anyone has every tasted. Well, to be honest, I had no intention of making them completely dairy free—butter and milk would be used when necessary, but there would be no buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Instead, I had planned on using tofu cream cheese for the frosting base.

I pulled 2 cupcake recipes from the cupcake bakeshop blog. The first was cherry chocolate cupcakes with a fennel tofu cream cheese frosting. I had wanted to do another herb/spice cupcake but I was told it might be too much. Instead I went for simple—vanilla cupcakes with vanilla tofu cream cheese frosting.

Making the actual cupcakes was rather anticlimactic. I strayed from the cherry chocolate cupcake recipe when it called for dried cherries to soak in brandy over night. Not having any brandy around, I soaked them in warm water with a splash of orange and vanilla extract. Everything else went as planed. The cupcakes formed nice domes and the cake was moist and… cakey?

After Devon and I finished baking all the cupcakes and cleaned up, we went out to get some things done. If I recall, we split a pancetta sandwich and green salad and took advantage of the lovely spring day by eating outside. From there I purchased a pastry bag and tips and (get ready) a butter bell at the Cooks Companion on Atlantic Avenue.

I came home to start on the frosting. Devon was out enjoying the day so I was on my own for this one. I made the vanilla tofu cream cheese frosting first. I decided I would scale down the amount of frosting as I had a hunch I wouldn’t need the whole amount. Since the ingredients were somewhat predictable, I figured the amount of sugar was based on sweetness and texture. I stared whipping the tofu cream cheese and adding the powdered sugar when everything when crazy. Before I knew it, my house and self was covered in sugar. It was everywhere. Meanwhile, I couldn’t get the frosting to thicken. I was getting nervous that the frosting would become too sweet so I said it was done. I scooped it all out into its own bowl and started on the fennel frosting.

The same issue arose with the fennel cream cheese and I began to panic. I started icing the cupcakes and saw the frosting as more of a glaze. To humor myself, I packed some vanilla frosting into my new pastry bag to see what would happen. As the frosting left the bag, it quickly lost its shape and melted into the existing frosting. I had to accept the fact that these cupcakes were not going to be the beautiful centerpiece I had hoped

Well, we brought 36 cupcakes to the party and they were gone within the first fifteen minuets. Everyone said they were really great. I never had one myself as I was too sugared out from testing the cupcakes and frostings throughout the day. As for the pastry bag, I think I’ll stick to a buttercream frosting next time.

sometimes you just want to listen to the rolling stones and make beautiful things

by caitlin

i don't have much to say, but i just want to keep in good habits with my posting. plus maybe i am procrastinating on doing homework just a little. i made muffins the other day (sunday) and they came out really well! they were lighter than my last batch (i guess i am getting the hang of mixing it until just moist) and i used cranberries instead of apples. i was worried that they'd be too tart, but i didn't want to add sugar because i really haven't been into sweeties lately, but they were pretty great! i brought them to my meeting, but my client had just recently switched to a low-carbon diet, so she didn't have any. also, my professor kept saying he was going to have one, but he didn't either. oh well, aleks and i enjoyed them.

in other news, my food/cooking senior project is finally getting somewhere. check out this box design!


even though this looks nothing like the real thing, you get the idea. i can't wait until i finish all the little pieces. i have to build a model of the kiosk. just so you know, i have no idea how to do that. we'll seeeeeee...

also, i just would like to take a moment to promote this woman's art, which i am so into right now. i think i've been dreaming of a life where i can just make beautiful things all day long and sell them to people who love them. i guess it doesn't matter if you refuse to get a del.icio.us because you can just post links on your blog. hah! okay, i'm going to delve into the food proj.

The Perfect Combination: Almonds, Cherries and Coconut

by tyler (all pictures taken by devon)


For the past two years, I’ve been making my own energy food for when I’m cycling. They’re pretty much just high calorie granola bars, but boy are they good. Whenever I bring a batch to the track in the summer, they’re usually gone before the first race is over. Everyone eats them up and asks for the recipe (something I’m not good at giving—not because I want to keep it secrete, but because I hate writing out the recipe on the spot).

Anyways, being a master of the granola bar (if I do say so myself), I have never made plain ol’ granola…that is until this week. My mom had given me an article from her local paper about making granola quite some time ago but when it came home with me, it lost itself in a stack of papers. However, recently I pulled it out and gave the recipe a gander. I had most of the ingredients: oats, wheat germ, brown sugar, oil, salt and I talked about my shopping trip for the remaining few items in my last post (mainly the maple syrup).

In the article they list a few extra ingredients to add for different flavors (nothing any semi-creative type wouldn’t think of on his or her own with some time). Devon thought it would be great to add cherries and almonds, so we did (I also added some coconut—hence the title). The first batch was made sticking strictly to the recipe. After I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool, I noticed it lacked nice, crisp clumps. Crisp yes, but clumps no. I was slightly bothered by this since the lack of clumps meant it would have to be eaten in a bowl instead of hand-to-mouth. Nonetheless, the taste was really great. I made it Sunday afternoon and the entire quart was gone by Tuesday. This meant I would have to make another quart to get me though the week.

For the second quart, I used the same recipe, only I used half the amount of maple syrup and used the same amount of molasses. I thought this might make it stick better and perhaps make it even crunchier. When I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool, I noticed my hypothesis was correct. The great thing was the molasses didn’t affect the taste at all. This morning, after my bike ride, I stopped by the Green Market at Prospect Park and bough some Ronnybrook Farms yogurt and an apple pocket. When I got home, Devon and I topped the yogurt with some of the granola and it was fantastic. I can’t wait for summer when we can eat the same thing, only with summer berries.

Perhaps some of the reason why there is still granola left over is because yesterday morning Devon and I made pancakes. Now let me say something (I may have said this before, but let me say it again) I love rustic, heavy pancakes. If I’m in the mood for a light, golden griddlecake, I’ll go to Mike’s Diner. Sticking with the theme of cherries, almonds and coconut, I added all three to the pancakes. I usually use a ratio of 1:2 cream and milk but I’ve been trying to lay off the cream these days. However, everything else stayed the same—oats, oat bran, bread flour, eggs, milk and a little oil. (Jared once made me waffles with coconut oil and they were amazing, I really wish I had some to use with these pancakes). Oh, in memory of the granola, I threw some wheat germ in the batter for good measure.


The batter was a bit lighter than I would have liked. I think it was the lack of cream. With the pancakes cooked up and Dev armed with her coffee, we were set for a day of cupcake making. To Be Continues…