I’ve always loved tiny things. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’m a small person, or maybe it’s because I like things that mess with my perception of reality.
Here’s a small sampling of tiny things from my dresser top (with a pencil for scale). Hope you enjoy them.
Happy Friday! xoxo
Monthly Archives: March 2018
Carrot cake 101 and other birthday things
It’s Shane’s birthday today! We celebrated over the weekend so the plan for tonight was just a nice dinner with the family, and cake.
Shane requested a carrot cake, which is not something I’ve made before. I got out Perfect Cakes and was surprised to find a carrot cake recipe that called for a can of crushed pineapple. Weird.
I looked in New Basics, yup pineapple. Joy of Cooking? Pineapple too. Does everyone know this already?
So I went with it, and the cake came out amazingly well. Super moist, not at all pineapply in flavor. Pretty much perfect, like the best carrot cake you ever had (scroll down for the recipe).
Per Shane, we also had steak (which he graciously grilled himself), our very favorite Macaroni & Cheese and an endive and orange pepper salad because those are two vegetables Shane seems to kind of tolerate.
Rose set the table on her own and even took the initiative to put out pitchers of water and juice. This delighted us because it means she knows the unspoken rule about no bottles on the table for special occasions!
Aside from the usual dinnertime shenanigans it was a lovely meal.
Happy Birthday Shane!
• Carrot Cake •
from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes
Makes one 8-inch three-layer cake
About 16 servings
Ingredients:
Cake Batter:
2 cups all purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil, such as corn or canola
2 cups peeled and finely grated carrots, (about 4 large carrots)
One 8-ounce can crushed pineapple in juice
3/4 cup (about 3 ounces) pecans, coarsely chopped
Cream Cheese Icing:
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (about 4 ounces) pecans, coarsely chopped and lightly toasted (optional)
6 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted after measuring
Method:
Three 2-inch deep 9-inch cake pans, buttered, with bottoms lined with buttered parchment or wax paper
1. Set the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.
2. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl, mixing well.
3. Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugar and continue whisking briefly until light, about 1 minute. Whisk in the oil in a slow stream.
4. Stir in the carrots, the pineapple with its juice, and the peacans, then fold in the dry ingredients. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the tops.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes, switching the position of the pans, top and bottom and back to front, once during baking, until the cake layers are firm and golden and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.
6. Cool the cake in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto racks to finish cooling. Remove the paper before icing.
7. To make the icing, in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on medium speed until soft and light, about 5 minutes. Decrease the mixer speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner’s sugar. Once the sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes longer.
8. To assemble to cake, place one layer on a platter or cardboard round and spread with one-third of the icing. Top with another layer and spread with another third of the icing. Place the last layer on top. bottom side up, and using a large offset spatula, frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing. If using, sprinkle the toasted pecans on top of the cake, and press into sides.
Storage: Keep under a dome at room temperature.
Just add bacon (or don’t)
One of my favorite kinds of meal for my part-vegetarian, part-decidely-not-vegetarian family, is anything you can serve with a side of bacon. That, and something you can throw together very quickly on a weeknight.
Tonight’s dinner delivered. Pasta with corn, tomatoes and brie is the kind of dish you don’t need a recipe for. It’s also the kind of dish you can serve with a side of bacon to satisfy the meat-inclined.
• Pasta with Corn, Tomatoes, Brie & Maybe Bacon
Heat the oven to 400. Put a few strips of bacon on a foil-lined baking sheet and bung them in the oven, you don’t have to wait for it to pre-heat. Then put a pot of water on to boil (two if you’re also going to have steamed broccoli with butter, like we did tonight).
Sautée approximately half a diced red-onion in a decent amount of olive oil till it’s soft. Then add 3 or so big handfuls of sweet frozen corn and cook a bit longer. Halve some grape tomatoes and throw those in once the corn is thawed. Cook until the tomatoes begin to soften but aren’t mushy, and off the heat.
Check on the bacon! If you want it crispy, you should maybe drain some of the fat (I don’t cook bacon often but this seemed like the right thing to do).
Cut some brie into cubes and put them in the freezer or fridge to firm up a bit. Then boil a half pound or so of pasta (and steam your broccoli). Grate some parmesan for sprinkling. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add it back to the pot with the corn and tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Add the brie cubes and stir to combine.
Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan and steamed, buttered broccoli or other green veg. And maybe bacon on the side.
Snow day pizza
My husband Shane (aka David) is a great cook. He also has a great sense of humor. So, you know, win-win.
It’s blizzarding here in Massachusetts. Really blizzarding, like it’s been snowing for maybe 20 hours straight.
Shane/David watched the kids all day while I worked from home so that I wouldn’t have to use precious vacation or sick time. While Sid napped, he made brownies. And then with sense of humor intact—tough because the kids were more or less totally bananas for a good part of day—he made pizza for dinner.
Although we don’t like it as much as Shane’s homemade dough, we’ve been buying pizza dough from Wegmans for weeknight use. It needs to be really stretched, but if you do that, it works fine. Since it was just the 4 of us, Shane made just two pies, a margherita for everyone followed by a white for the adults. I kicked in a simple salad.
Thanks to Shane/David, for killing it today.*
*I want to say he’s a masterpiece, but that is probably way too cheesy.
Favorites reinterpreted
I love cheese ravioli with a simple, creamy tomato sauce, and not just because I love pretty much anything involving tomatoes and cream. It just feels like the right combination, the cream mellows the tomato so it doesn’t overwhelm the cheese in the ravioli.
Thing is, I didn’t really have a go-to creamy tomato sauce… dum dum dum dum… until now! Enter Marcella’s favorite sauce re-interpreted (recipe below). Just as easy as the original but a bit smoother and, of course, creamy (because that’s the whole point).
• Tomato & Cream Sauce •
interpreted from Marcella Hazan’s Famous Sauce
A 28oz can crushed or pureed San Marzano tomatoes, I like this brand
2.5 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted, either is fine)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
1/4 cup (approx) heavy cream
Salt to taste (pepper too, if you like)
Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. You don’t need to cut the butter into pieces, just bung a piece from the stick righ in the pot. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Remove from heat, discard the onion, stir in the heavy cream and add salt to taste. Add more cream if you like it lighter. That’s it!
Serve with cheese ravioli (if you like) and with some grated pecorino or parmesan too.