Grand Adventures: Creating new milestones

Posted on May 15, 2013 by jltupper

Now that I’m well over 25, married, and graduated from high school and college, I’ve technically left all the big celebratory events in life behind. That seems so ridiculously sad.

Why don’t we celebrate more in our lives? Is it that around thirty most people are devoting their time to raising children, while I don’t plan to have one of my own? Or because a lot of these traditions were started living to 40 was a big deal?

Screw. That. I want to continue celebrating things in my life well beyond my twenties, and to highlight anything that catches my eye. Here are some birthdays and other things I’m totally going to celebrate:

Graduating from grad school. I value this far, far more than my college degree. It’s a show of my skills, I’ll be presenting a thesis, and I feel like I’ve grown considerably in the last 2+ years. My roommate should get one of his degrees when I do, so I’m building a party that’s a pretty close mimicry of a wedding for my own amusement. Plus when I’m really frustrated, spending a few minutes plotting this out cheers me up and gets me back on track. Somewhat.

I also may use this as a time to celebrate how far I’ve come as a photographer. This is one of the first photos I ever took on an assignment, and I’d love to reshoot some old frames to see how much my composition skills have improved.

I can so see how I had no clue what I was doing.

Daily awesomeness. I don’t like that hosting a party for the sake of having a party tends to be limited to birthdays. Once I’m out of school, I want to host quarterly events just to hang out with awesome people in ridiculous settings. I’d love to host a party to celebrate the first farmer’s market of the season, or the first sight of cherry blossoms in Seattle.

Candidacy Speech Birthdays. You can legally run for President once you’re 35, and become a Senator when you’re 30. Why not use those birthdays to give a speech? So what if you’re not going to be President – it’s a silly chance to talk about what matters to you and what you want to do with it. Even if your main goal is to just get more sleep.

Food holidays. I’m not going to lie – there are a ton of food holidays, often multiple on one day. I’m not out to celebrate every freaking one, but it’d be fun to pick a few that are awesome (Toasted Marshmallow Day is August 30th) and turn them into an annual group event.

Forty by Forty. Bucket lists are fun, but I’d want to start one at age 39, and then complete all of them in a year. Maybe nothing too crazy, but all sorts of stuff I wanted to do in a year, from acts of kindness to ziplining to camping. Then I could celebrate them all in one party where that party includes the fortieth item on the list. Or with forty cupcakes. I’m not too picky.

Make up new milestones. The last prime before 100 is 97; I’d totally celebrate living that long. I’d love to make a company and give it a birthday – even if only I celebrate it, it can have cake, too. Or there’s five and ten year anniversaries of staying in a town, or celebrating starting a new profession or going back to school or whatever sounds amazing in your life.

Can we have a cake CSA?

Posted on May 3, 2013 by jltupper

I got told, rather nicely, by a professor that I need to stop starting ideas, hunker down, and get my thesis in order. Which is totally reasonable, and I actually agree with him, but like a friend said, it’s like asking me to stop breathing.

I am an idea generator. It is both awesome and incredibly distracting – it’s way more fun to imagine cakes than review for exams.

So, while I can’t actively start pursuing things too far, I can still think up ideas and share them. Ideas are best when everyone can learn from them.

So, today, some things I wish existed in Seattle:

A cake CSA. Yes, there are delivery services like Troubadour Baker, but I’m talking about tiered, buttercream or fondant miniature masterpieces, in boxes tied up with ribbons, just because.

We don’t have enough cakes, especially not for a random pick-me-up. So, once a month, on a day you pick, cake. And seasonal cakes, vegan cakes, gluten free cakes, a mix of retro and fanciful. Cake pops would also work for an added cute factor, but my mind’s on something layered with frosting or jam.

In my ideal world, there would also be delivery and pickup options. Delivery would be lovely, but I think it would be fantastic to have a room all decorated with cakes and people could come and pick up one from a giant table of desserts.

Bonus: local artisan cake/dessert mashups.

Amazing live/work collectives. As I continue my quest to have a blogger commune, the more I think it would be fun to either have a bunch of cottages close together with a common ‘lodge’ or take over a warehouse and have one floor be the office and the rest studios.

However, unless I could convince a bunch of you to move to Bremerton, land of the fallen housing market, we freelancers so can’t afford it. (There are brand spanking new houses selling for $200,000. We could move a whole army of bloggers out there.)

I actually don’t think this is impossible – it’s just something you’d need a lot of backers on in some form, either as a co-op or investors. And people who are willing to wait 6-12+ months while renovations happen. It’s just not an easy sell on Kickstarter, though I would totally give it a shot.

More things involving waffles. I’m testing out a waffle maker for Crave Local right now (commentary to follow), so I spent some of my fevered state making waffles. (There’s only so much you can do with a 99.8 temperature and half your normal alertness.) The first “actual waffle” recipe was a bust, so I made some really awesome cheddar/bacon/scallion waffles – using a pancake recipe. I have yet to screw it up, and it’s a super thick batter, so I was hopeful it would at least not suck, and they’re fairly awesome.

Savory waffles are a beautiful thing, people. Yes, Seattle’s finally getting all these waffle trucks, but it’s not that hard to use my favorite recipe and make something delicious. I’d tell you the proportions, but honestly I just make some bacon, let it cool, set up the pancake batter, then mix in a ton of grated cheddar, minced bacon, and chopped scallions, then some pepper if I feel like it. If it looks like there’s not enough of something, I add more of it. One of these days I might measure it, but it’s kind of fun to see how bacon-y waffles can get.

Really good buffet restaurants. Outside of Las Vegas and the rare vegan or Indian buffet, these are a rare breed. I love the idea of buffets, of getting tons of tiny bites and trying a billion things I wouldn’t necessarily order as an entree. Please, please can someone make a brunch buffet more expansive than what you get at Portage Bay Cafe? I would live in it.

Also, tiny french toast bites. Please.

Back in the kitchen!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by jltupper

I’ve been in a baking rut – that is, I haven’t been baking at all. And it sucked.

Oh, I’ve been eating desserts, taking pretty pictures of food, and writing, but the actual baking wasn’t happening. And not for lack of interest. I’ve been distracted by work, school, and illness, and I like to plan my baking somewhat carefully.

That is, the night before I’ll think I’d like to bake, and five minutes later I have a baking plan. On a good day, 2-3 recipes get tested out; on a crazy day, 14+ dozen cookies invade my house. It’s pretty awesome, but hard to plan for when you get distracted by economics on a regular basis.

It got to the point where my boss and I were talking about bakers and she didn’t include me as a potential obsessed kitchen-fiend. I pouted briefly about my being a baker as well, but it really had been ages since I had touched a whisk.

Continue reading →

Pudding problems.

Posted on October 12, 2012 by jltupper

Chris is still in recovery from dental surgery, so I’ve been making tons of puddings. But I’m also dealing with a flu/virus mess, so errors have been occurring. Tasty errors.
It started with my wanting to clear the fridge. I defrosted and baked some puff pastry I made ages ago and decided that I needed fillings. Vanilla custard and chocolate pudding made the most sense – some could go in the pastry and then I’d layer the rest in huge terrines for Chris. Well, more like mugs, but you get the point. The custard, from Smitten Kitchen, came out wonderfully. It’s fragrant with vanilla thanks to two sources, a full bean and vanilla sugar made from the last batch of custard. Chris wants me to add four whole beans next time and see if it’s too powerful. (I’m just hoping there’s a law of absolute vanilla flavor so it tastes only slightly more vanilla as opposed to artificially so.)

The chocolate pudding, from The Dessert Bible, is also one I’ve made before. It’s a fairly simple recipe – heat half and half with sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt, add vanilla and chocolate. Somehow I forgot to include the cornstarch, even though I had pulled the jar out for mise en place, and it never solidified. With heavy cream, vanilla sugar, and 66% dark chocolate, it became one lovely dessert sauce.
I decided I would turn the pair into a soup. I wish I had made meringue disks for crunch, but I was pretty tired when I finished. (That and Chris burned my last set of meringue by not checking the oven before preheating it to 400 degrees.)

Still, this is a fairly versatile soup. I used two quenelles of the custard and dusted it with cocoa powder, but I’d love to try it with fresh berries and whipped cream, or cacao nibs. Maybe some fresh ginger and cinnamon next time as well, or even peaches. It would also be killer for dunking chocolate chip cookies into.

Since the soup is basically hot chocolate mix, I heated it up after taking these photos, and it is mighty tasty on its own. I’d add a chunk of chocolate or more cocoa powder before warming it next time; it’s thick, but not as intense as what you can get at Fran’s. It’s for trying to teach your friends who think there’s nothing wrong with Swiss Miss that better things are out there for minimal effort. (This could work great for hot chocolate mix, especially with a few chunks of chocolate at the bottom of a cup.)
If you want to make the custard, go to Smitten Kitchen. To make the sauce, read on.

Hot Chocolate/Dessert Sauce
Heavily adapted from The Dessert Bible

2 tablespoons cocoa powder, natural (The original recipe specifies Dutch-process; I’d avoid it)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vanilla sugar (see note)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 ounce 66% chocolate, finely chopped (I think it could handle 70% or darker, but be cautious)
2 cups half and half

Sift the first three ingredients into a medium saucepan. Whisk to blend. Chop the chocolate and have ready before you begin the next steps.

Whisk half and half into pan, place onto range, and turn the heat to medium. Whisk for two minutes, then switch to a silicone or wooden spoon and continue stirring constantly for 3-5 minutes or until the sauce starts to bubble.

Add vanilla and chocolate, then stir gently for another minute or until the chocolate has melted. Take the sauce off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. At this point you can serve immediately as hot chocolate, or allow to cool, covered, in the fridge. In theory it’ll last a few days, but it only survived a few hours here. There will be a thin skin, but it can be blended back into the sauce.

Note: I make my own vanilla sugar by taking leftover vanilla beans and massaging them into some sugar, then shaking the jar every so often to break up clumps. I like it heavy on the vanilla (1 bean per 1-2 cups), but it’s definitely to taste and way cheaper than buying it at a store.

Blondies and beginnings

Posted on October 10, 2012 by jltupper

I tried to think of one recipe that really encapsulates what I think of as a Foodportunity, and nothing really stood out. When I was a kid, I didn’t bake much at all – that whole being half-jokingly banned from the kitchen really screwed with my motivation. But I loved to make rice crispy treats. I never made them prettily in a pan; that would have involved extra work. Instead I would pour out the whole mass onto a parchment-lined plate, creating this goopy marshmallow mountain. I loved doing this, and basically made them as often as I could get away with. (It’s a miracle I have all my teeth.)

Much later, I found Smitten Kitchen and the glory that was the brown butter sea salt rice crispy treat. And the blue boxes of cereal took over my kitchen yet again until I could find an organic version at Whole Foods.
They’re both fun to make, but I don’t see either as a recipe that changed my life much. They mainly gave me more excuses to go to SugarPill. (That place is dangerous for my budget.)

I can, however, point to one cookbook as a turning point – Baking From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. I won an autographed copy of the book in college, right before I moved into the apartment dorms and finally had my own kitchen. It wasn’t much, but with our wobbly table and Christy’s hand mixer, I could bake. So I made a ton of cookies, and experimented cautiously in sugar.

And from this cookbook, there is one recipe that is my favorite: the chewy, chunky blondies. I’ve made them time and time again, and it’s probably my most requested recipe. I made a batch for a friend’s birthday and watched him eat two-thirds of it in one sitting. (He had forgotten to eat all day. Typical PhD candidate.) It’s the recipe that comes out whenever I want a baked good but don’t want to think. It has endured potlucks, weddings, birthdays, and my general laziness. It has even produced passable goodies when I’m trying to teach my roommate how to bake, something that deserves its own accolades.

Yes, this book also includes the infamous World Peace Cookies. These get requested far, far more often.
From blondies, I got intrigued by dessert cookbooks in general, slowly building a library. I now have a bookshelf that is 75% dessert-themed and stuffed beyond capacity. Ask me to give them up and I’ll look at you like you grew a third head.

But these bar cookies really are what started me down this road, so making a batch felt appropriate. They’re only slightly different from how I made them in college. I made my own brown sugar, as I’m less likely to let it dry out that way. We also rarely have chocolate chips in the house, so a few handfuls of feves were tossed in instead. There’s a bit more chocolate per bite, but that’s what these blondies are meant for.

Chewy Chunky Blondies
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Note: You can make brown sugar in a food processor, stand mixer, or with a whisk. (I prefer the food processor.) Take 1-2 cups white sugar, then add 1-2 tablespoons unsulphured blackstrap molasses. Stir/blend until combined. If it’s too light or too dark, add more molasses or sugar to taste. This keeps in the fridge, covered, for weeks.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks/8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (see note)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5-9 ounces Valrhona Caramelia feves, to taste

PREPARATION
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan, set aside.

Whisk the first four ingredients together in a medium bowl. (This is almost optional, but it does make for a slightly fluffier blondie. If you choose to skip, I’d recommend stirring them together a bit in the bowl when you add the dry ingredients in.)

Cream the butter in a stand mixer or large bowl until light and fluffy, about two minutes in the stand mixer. Add both sugars and blend – it should look like amazing tan frosting. Add eggs one at a time, mixing each for 1 minute, then mix in vanilla until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients on low speed, or mix just until they disappear into the batter. Pull the bowl off the machine and stir in the chocolate by hand, being careful to not overblend. I usually fold it like I’m working with a meringue. Scrape the batter into the pan; try to get it even, but don’t feel bad if it’s slightly craggy.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for about 15 minutes. I usually bring the whole blondies tray with me to events, but most don’t go far from the pan to my mouth.

Jessica Dreams of Galettes

Posted on September 3, 2012 by jltupper

So I finally got around to watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi. (Cue all the other food bloggers giving me a look of shock mixed with horror.) It is beautiful. Yes, it moves with a speed familiar to documentaries, and I really wish there was more information on the families of Jiro and his two sons. I mean, is Jiro’s wife still alive? Does he have grandkids? What do those families (if they exist) think of the fact that all three men are never home still? It’s a lifestyle I’m both fascinated and perplexed by.Then again, few women are encouraged to be so dedicated to a craft while being parents, thanks to an expectation that they be the primary caregiver. It’s a completely different realm of being.
Moving on.
Continue reading →

Meringues and Sunday baking

Posted on August 27, 2012 by jltupper

Today I woke up with the desire to bake. With the end of the summer heat, it just seemed like the perfect time to make something, anything. I was supposed to join a friend for crepes, and it felt much better to scour a dozen cookbooks for ideas than go out. Thankfully she was curious about my baking, so we rescheduled the crepes for another day and decided to stay indoors. I also had an afternoon appointment as a limiter, otherwise it would have been far more dangerous. One weekend a few years back I made fourteen dozen cookies, so I don’t mind a little restraint.
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On dessert laziness

Posted on July 5, 2012 by jltupper

I am a really, really lazy pastry chef. I rarely finish a dessert in its intended form; you ask me to make a layer cake and you’re going to get filled cupcakes. Sure, I know how to layer cakes and set things up, but the actual execution usually ends up off course entirely. It will still taste good, but I’m not one to serve or eat bad desserts. So fast forward to the last few days, when I decided I would field test two cookbooks sitting on my shelves, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home. Continue reading →

In which biscotti photography eludes me

Posted on February 1, 2012 by jltupper

Over the weekend I tackled a new type of recipe for me: biscotti. I usually make drop cookies or cakes, and thought biscotti were interesting but too dainty for my kitchen. For I admit it – I am a messy baker, one that trashes kitchen space with abandon until I’m finished working. I will avoid cleaning until the last minute with the excitement of a three year old being told they must eat their spinach. So, they weren’t on my to-do list.

I decided to try biscotti at last, in all honesty, out of being stuck on what to write about for the blog. I wanted to make cookies, but we were out of lemons and cream cheese, and I wasn’t in the mood to make any of the old standards or things that required only egg whites or yolks. So, I found a recipe for chocolate biscotti from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by the awesome Alice Medrich and went to work.

And they were glorious. Continue reading →

Ricochet Biscuit

Stuff I did instead of my thesis.

Category Archives: Baking