double apricot & yogurt cake

well, it's been a difficult week and it's hard sometimes not to feel powerless and afraid of where things are going. i try to remember that worrying doesn't help unless it's accompanied by some kind of action. since i can't personally do anything right now about my great state's legislative war on women's bodies, and i certainly can't solve america's race problems, for now i'm baking a cake.

that's not to say, of course, that baking will solve anything of importance. as a lawyer, i do feel like i have some responsibility to use my training to work on some of those bigger issues. i'm currently working in the area of mental health, which could obviously use some improvements. i'm also trying to figure out where i should start volunteering my time. i'm thinking about The Innocence Project.

but in the meantime, closer to home, our dear neighbor had to put her house on the market and put her sweet elderly dog to sleep on the same day. i'm sure it's been a roller coaster for her and it's hard to deal with the open houses and having to be out somewhere while strangers tromp through your home, especially if you're missing your little furry companion. 

so, i decided to make her some cake. it's apricot season and i got a bunch recently. unfortunately, though they tasted good, their texture left a bit to be desired. luckily, any slight mealiness disappears when you bake them, leaving only soft jammy fruit. i also added chopped dried apricots to boost the flavor even more. 

to chop the dry ones, i piled 3-4 on top of each other and cut them into 5 or 6 sections, then turned them and cut again, leaving them in a small dice. the fresh apricots i just cut in half and then into wedges - maybe 5-6 per half. 

the rest of the cake was based on this one from Dorie Greenspan (although i actually have that cookbook, so i could have just used that). i brought the sugar down a bit, added a little ginger and left out the lemon zest, but otherwise mostly left it alone. i didn't have almonds for almond meal, which is offered as optional, but i think it would be good here, as almonds and apricots go well together. 

this is almost a one-bowl cake, which is my favorite kind. as it is, it only used two and required no mixer, so that's pretty good. just whisk the dry ingredients, mix the wet, add the dried apricot bits to the dry ingredients, using your fingers to separate the little stickies a bit so they don't clump together, then add the wet. mix until just combined and add the fresh apricots. fold them in gently so they don't go to pieces.

then just bake in a loaf pan buttered and lined with buttered parchment paper. mine took about 45 minutes or a bit more, but i also was using a 9" x 5" pan instead of the 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" that the original calls for. so just keep an eye on it. let it cool for maybe 10 minutes in the pan, then take it out to cool fully on a rack. it will be tempting, but i wouldn't cut it before it's cooled if you can help it. 

obviously cake's not going to solve any of the major problems facing the world today, but it can make your friends' lives a little brighter and sometimes that's all you can do on a weekend afternoon.

*double apricot & yogurt cake*
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's French Yogurt Cake

preheat the oven to 350.

5 small apricots (280 g/ almost 10 ounces)
9 dried apricots (100 g/ 3 1/2 ounces)

1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (i would actually use more next time - it doesn't show up too much - maybe 1 teaspoon instead?)

whisk dry ingredients together and add the dried apricot pieces, using your fingers to get them incorporated so they don't form a big lump

1/2 cup plain yogurt (i used 2%, but you can probably use whatever, honestly)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar (you could probably use 2/3 cup - it was still pretty sweet)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mild oil (i used canola)

whisk wet ingredients together and add to dry or vice versa. mix gently until just combined, then add the fresh apricot pieces and fold in, trying not to break them up too much. in the original recipe, you're supposed to add the oil at the end, but i forgot and put it in too early and it was fine.

put in 9"x 5" loaf pan that's been buttered and lined with buttered parchment paper. bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes, or until it's a nice dark toasty brown and a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean. let it sit on a rack for 10 minutes or so, then remove from pan and let cool on rack.

this would be really good with some ice cream or some barely sweetened whipped cream, but is perfectly nice with some coffee or tea as well. it's the little things...

*i should probably also note that i didn't give her quite all of the cake because i had to cut it and then we had to eat a little to make sure it wasn't gross. luckily, it wasn't.

listening to: ravishers - portland, poppy, boy-girl harmonies - what more can you ask for?

rye thyme for a collins

the name of this drink is further along the spectrum of ridiculousness than i'm normally comfortable with, but after a weekend which included the unwelcome discovery of a discomfiting little visitor from the past in our car's a/c vent, it seemed fine for now.

after all, it's after 5 on a hot summer sunday - it IS high time for a drink of some sort, and it might as well be this.

i usually think of whiskey as more of a fall/winter drink, but when you add citrus and herbs and sparkling water, all of a sudden it makes sense as a summer pick-me-up+cool-me-down. a tom collins typically uses gin, but all we had was rye and silly old texas doesn't allow one to purchase liquor on sundays. 

other things that were handy included thyme and grapefruit, whose bitterness made it seem like they would go together. i've since looked up the combination and both marcus samuelsson and martha stewart have cocktails that use it, so i'm in illustrious company, i guess? the peppercorns were an attempt to complexify it and respond to the pepperiness of the rye.

just peel a grapefruit, taking care not to dig deeply enough to get the extra-bitter white pith with it. i ended up using maybe 15 sections that were about 3/4" x 2" or so, but it's not an exact thing. then add it and some thyme and peppercorns to 1 cup each of water and white sugar and bring to a boil. let it boil for 3 minutes or so, then turn it off and let it cool. 

i like making simple syrups with lots of things in them. i think it gets to the same childhood idea of cooking that making chicken stock brings out - just toss things in a pot with water and voila! it's magically something much better. 

once the syrup is cool, strain it and mix a couple of tablespoons with an ounce of rye and 1-2 tablespoons of grapefruit and/or lemon juice in a short highball or old fashioned glass. as per usual, this is all to taste. then add a couple of ice cubes and fill the rest of the way with sparkling water or club soda. we often get that water that has pink grapefruit flavoring (it's not sweet - just grapefruity), so if you have that you might as well use it. 

then just kick back with a magazine and let your cares lift away. try not to think about how hot it is or how gross that mouse in your a/c vent probably definitely was. 

 *ingredients*

grapefruit/thyme/pepper syrup

peel from 1 medium grapefruit

7-10 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons dried (my thyme plant is a bit sad right now, so i augmented the 5 or so fresh sprigs i had with a couple of large pinches of dried lemon thyme)

12-15 whole black peppercorns (just grab a large pinch. sichuan pepper might be really interesting here, too, though i'd probably use less)

1 cup water

1 cup white sugar

rye thyme, etc., collins

2 tablespoons syrup

3 tablespoons rye whiskey (we usually get old overholt or bulleit rye)

2 tablespoons grapefruit and/or lemon juice

sparkling water or club soda

listening to: beirut

vegan coconut ice cream with mango swirl

our friends recently purchased a house, which seems like such a big commitment it gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. i know it makes sense in a lot of ways, but i'm just not there yet. also i'm not really a DIY person, so i like being able to call our landlord when something goes wrong. 

but their house is super-cute and they have a backyard and a grill, so clearly a combination cookout/housewarming party is in order. i waffled back and forth for a little bit about what to make - i thought about lime-vanilla icebox cake, or some blackberry-lime cobbler, or a rhubarb and pineapple crumble...

ultimately, though, i figured out that i didn't want to turn on the oven and i DID want to make some ice cream (although someone needs to have another party soon so i have an excuse to make icebox cake). the thing with ice cream is that it's best to start a day before you need it, so you can make sure all of your ingredients are cold enough to freeze well.

mangoes have been really great lately, and we already had one in the fridge. i thought about just making a vanilla ice cream base and adding mango to it, but then i started picturing a swirl of mango going through it and then i thought a coconut base would be good for some tropical charm.

also coconut milk ice cream sounded more refreshing in this texas humidity. 

i mentioned the easiest way to cut up mangoes previously, but here it is again - cut along the flat sides of the pit, then score it into rough cubes (it can be particularly rough in this case, because you're going to cook it down anyway). then push the skin up so that it inverts and you can cut the mango away easily. ta da!

then just cook it over medium heat with sugar and lime juice. while it's cooking, mash the pieces a bit with a fork or similar. after 5 minutes or so, you should be left with a thick, slightly chunky jammy kind of mixture. let it cool for a bit and maybe add a bit more sugar and/or lime juice, to taste. 

then just pop it in the fridge to cool.

i was a little concerned that regular coconut milk would be too watery and that the result would end up missing something, texture-wise.

i was thinking of getting coconut cream, which is more concentrated, but the place i want to didn't have any. being lazy and unwilling to go somewhere else, i did some reconnaissance and found some "coconut butter." the packaging is a bit silly and has a lot of stuff about it being raw and whatever. also it seems to be a big part of all of that dumb paleo stuff. don't get me wrong, i think the food eaten on the paleo diet mostly seems like good things for people to eat, but the "science" behind it regarding human evolution is just baseless. but whatever. i guess everyone has weird diet superstitions and whatnot? i will get off my evolutionary high horse.

i decided to try blending some coconut butter into the coconut milk to thicken it and increase the coconut flavor. it seemed like a good point to add the sugar, too, so it would mix in better. then i whisked it with the rest of the can of coconut milk plus another can and put it in the fridge overnight.

this morning i got out the trusty ice cream maker and churned up the coconut mixture. it took a little over 20 minutes in my kitchenaid attachment thingy. you can tell it's done when it pulls away from the walls of the bowl and you can lift the beater out with the ice cream clinging to it. 

then layer it and the mango in whatever you're going to keep it in (i put them in a metal bowl that i'd put in the freezer while the ice cream was churning). put down a big dollop of ice cream, then spoon the cold mango over it and stir slightly to swirl the mango through. keep alternating and swirling, but you want to work pretty fast so it doesn't start melting. 

then just freeze for a couple of hours and enjoy! i think we're having ours on mini sugar cones, which are somewhat cute and, because they don't hold much, save everyone the embarrassment of licking melted streams of ice cream from their arms.* 

though that might still happen. just because i know people who buy houses doesn't mean we're all suddenly turning into brooke astors (or insert whatever current reference you like - kris jenners? countess luanns? the latter has, after all. taught us that Money Can't Buy You Class). 

*update - we did not have ours in cones, as it was pretty solidly frozen. it was still good, but next time i would add a tablespoon or two of rum to keep it from freezing so hard. 

*ingredients*

mango swirl

1 large mango, cubed

1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice (~1/2 a lime's worth)

cook over medium heat for ~5 minutes, mashing with a fork. adjust sugar and lime to taste and refrigerate for at least several hours, preferably overnight.

coconut ice cream

2 14oz cans coconut milk (i wouldn't use the light kind here)

3-4 tablespoons coconut butter (available on amazon and in hippie stores. or you could use coconut cream for some of the coconut milk)

6 tablespoons sugar (3/8 cup - you could also probably just use 1/3 - 1/2 cup)

*optional - 1-2 tablespoons rum (this will keep it from freezing as hard)

blend ~ 3/4 can of coconut milk with the sugar and coconut butter until smooth, then whisk together with the rest of the coconut milk. chill for at least 3 hours, but preferably overnight. freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions, then layer with the mango mixture, swirling together. freeze for another couple of hours (or eat immediately!) and enjoy with good friends and tiny cones. it does freeze pretty hard, so make sure to let it sit out for a bit or maybe add a tablespoon or two of rum when churning.

*this isn't the coconuttiest ice cream ever - it's fairly low-key. you could amp up the flavor by adding some toasted coconut or by steeping toasted coconut in the coconut milk before doing the rest. but that seemed like too much of a hassle, so just FYI.

listening to: Beck - Tropicalia (he looks so young in this video!). also, on repeat, Daft Punk's Get Lucky, aka the official song of summer 2013. 

3-2-1 pomegranate!

the pet gods have not been smiling upon us here at chez livingawesomely these past few months. first maeby decided to eat something she shouldn't have and ended up in a cone of shame, then the dogs en masse decided to attack their cat housemate, which resulted in a cone for her PLUS a feeding tube and wired jaw (Not Fun + Very Expensive). finally darwin, above, has developed his first hot spot of the year and requires his own much larger cone.

so i guess basically if you need to borrow an elizabethan collar in any of several sizes, we've got you covered. also, we will be paying off vet bills for the foreseeable future. but i guess it'll still be cheaper than college, etc., for a kid, so i shouldn't complain.

to help me refrain from boring complaints about the pets and the weather (which, OH MY GOD it's so hot and humid already), i have taken the liberty this Memorial Day to fix a drink before the socially-accepted hour of 5 pm. but what's the point of having a monday off if you're not going to have a drink during the day? (aside, of course, from thinking about the sacrifices people have made for our freedom and other solemn and important things)

pomegranate molasses is what happens when you boil pomegranate juice down with some sugar until it's quite thick. it's not really molasses - it's more like cooked-down grenadine (real grenadine, not that fakey pink stuff). it isn't that sweet and definitely has a molasses-y rich flavor that i find very appealing. you can use it in any number of things - last night we had some in a dressing for grilled eggplant and zucchini and it was quite good.

i've never really seen it in drinks, but i try not to let that stop me. this is a very simple cocktail that i like to serve in a tall glass with lots of sparkling water - this makes it refreshing and not-too-strong, which is perfect for when it's hot.

which it is. TEXASSSSSSSS

i used tangelo juice, as this tangelo has been lumping and bumping around in the fridge for a while now. oranges or grapefruit would also be good. or maybe meyer lemon, although i don't think it's currently the season for those. something fairly sweet and citrus-y is what you want.

then it's really a 3-2-1 kind of deal - mix 3 tablespoons (aka 1 shot) gin, 2 tablespoons juice, and 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses, then fill the rest of the glass with sparkling water. get out a straw, if you have one, and sip up while trying not to think of going back to work tomorrow.

at least it's a short week! (if, of course, you're in america. if not, you're probably going about your monday as per usual. sorry.)

you can also do a little folderol of citrus zest if you feel fancy.

*ingredients*

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons citrus juice (if you want to use lemon or lime, they'd prolly be fine, but you might want to add a little sugar or honey or simple syrup to taste)
3 tablespoons gin (1 shot/1.5 ounces)
sparkling water to fill

listening to: oh god, i love aesop rock so much and was moderately excited about his new album with kimya dawson (of moldy peaches fame-ish), but i tried to listen to it and it was not my thing. for instance, there's a song that just lists a bunch of sandwiches - Turkey! / Montecristo! /  Grilled Cheese! / Meatball! / Liverwurst! / Shrimp Po'boy! / Fluffernutter! / Shawarma! / Reuben! / Cuban! / BLT! / Eggplant parm! / Chicken! and etc. ad infinitum.

coconut-curry and other popcorns i have known

i don't know if people with kids can get away with this, but sometimes we just have popcorn for dinner. i'm no nutritionist, but i figure that when combined with bourbon, popcorn would pass muster with even the most strident of food pyramid (or i guess now it's a plate?) hustlers. 

what if i eat a salad for lunch? that evens out, right?
yes it does.

when i was growing up my dad had a gross pan that he only used for popcorn. it would build up layers of grease seasoning, never introduced to soap and water, and then sometimes when it all got to be too much he'd sandblast it (he worked in a bronze foundry) and start all over.

my parents weren't overly prescriptive with meals and i'm sure we sometimes had popcorn for dinner, but the main thing i associate with childhood popcorn experiences is my deep and abiding embarrassment when they would sneak homemade popcorn (doused in nutritional yeast, no less) into the movie theater.
it was mortifying.
they still do it.
and fair enough, to a certain extent. that movie stuff is the pits.

but! i have no nasty old grease-pan, which is good because i don't work in a bronze foundry and have no access to or knowledge of sandblasting materials and principles. instead i have the somewhat-gadgety Whirley-Pop, which you use on the stove and which has interior things that turn as you turn the handle and keep the popcorn moving around. it's pretty fun and it works well with not much oil. it is kind of big, though, so if space is an issue you might want to try the paper-bag-in-the-microwave trick instead (though i haven't tried that, so can't vouch for it! also i learned from this that brown bags might not be microwaveable and national popcorn popping month isn't until october, so luckily you have time to plan your celebrations).

so i think at this point we can all agree that 1) kids are easy to embarrass, 2) popcorn is a good dinner, and 3) it can be made using any of several methods, some of which might kill you. 

but then what to put on it? some people go with regular old boring old delicious old salt and butter. that's totally fine! it's a time-honored combination!

sometimes i like to mix it up a little, though, and that's where japanese curry powder comes in. japanese curry powder is the best. i use it in everything - eggs, curry (duh, though i didn't always), and popcorn. everything.

it's hard to describe the flavor of a spice mix, but japanese curry is kind of sweeter and milder than some indian curries. it has a distinctive flavor and comes in a cute tin, though, so it's worth seeking out (you can buy it on amazon or at some grocery stores). you could also use whatever other curry you wanted. 

for this batch of curry-corn, i used coconut oil to pop the kernels (about a teaspoon or a little more) and 2 small handfuls of popcorn (maybe 1/3 cup?). once it was done popping, i sprinkled it with maybe a teaspoon of salt and the same of curry. this is totally to taste, though, so i can't be too prescriptive. start small and see what happens. finally there's the slightly weird but delicious addition of a handful or two of sweetened shredded coconut. you can use unsweetened, of course, but the sweet, salty, spicy combination really hit the spot for me. try it! you'll like it*!

other popcorn flavors that are good: 

• smoked paprika
• butter, sriracha, parmesan 
• garlic, butter, thyme
• chili powder, butter, lime zest
• various seasoning mixes - experiment with your favorites

anyway, long story short, we might be having popcorn for dinner tonight.
because we are grown-ups.

songs about popcorn:
Popcorn Song (from Gershon Kinglsey's 1969 album, Music to Moog By**)
that may be all the songs about popcorn.

*maybe you won't like it
**good album title, or best album title?!

gin z'herbes

it's almost 5 on a friday here and after the week we've had in casa livingawesomely, it's not strange that one's thoughts turn to cocktails. 

this one could be celebratory or sorrow-drowning, which not-coincidentally makes it perfect for a week of ups and downs in which i finally got a job (!) and our darling pug maeby had to have emergency surgery to remove the felt furniture floor-protector thing she appears to have eaten (dogs will eat the stupidest things, honestly).

luckily she's fine (staples and sad-face aside), the job will help pay for her $$$ surgery, and i don't start til monday so i can be home with her for a few days as she recuperates. i'm also extremely lucky in that the job is basically my dream position and i will be able to do a lot of good for the community while putting my legal training to good use. so, overall we're ending the week on a high note.

i'm also a bit surprised to note that the ol' herb garden is still going strong. i haven't been doing a lot of cooking over the past couple of days while the pup was in the hospital, so i've been craving green things and freshness. we already had some gin in the freezer and simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water, boil, let cool) in the fridge, so making this was a snap.

i wanted this to be extra-herby and i like a little salad in my drinks, so i just muddled mint (a couple of sprigs each of chocolate mint and orange mint), mexican tarragon, pineapple sage  basil and italian parsley in the glass with about 1 tablespoon of simple syrup. it was maybe 1/4 cup total herbs, not packed down. you can of course use whatever you have handy, but i like a mix of at least a couple of things so you get the variety of flavors - some savory, some less so.

then just add some gin (more or less a shot, depending on your week!) and fill the rest of the glass with sparkling water. you could also use tonic instead, and leave out the simple syrup. but i really like not having other flavors (like bitter quinine) getting in the way of all those herbs. you could also muddle and then strain out the leaves, but as i said, i like the swampy gardeny aspect of it and i enjoy eating the different leaves as i come across them. as ever, go with your lights.

so cheers to everyone surviving this week and let's all cross our fingers that next week and the weeks after that give us some more normal old boring wonderful times to be grateful for.

*ingredients* (roughly)
1/4 cup mixed fresh herbs - mints, thyme, parsley, cilantro, basil, sage - whatever you've got
1-howevermanyyouneed shot(s) gin
1 tablespoon (or to taste) simple syrup
sparkling water to fill the glass

ginger chocolate pear bread cake

i was initially going to introduce some punctuation into the title of this post, but in fact i actually think of this as if it was all one word, like GingerChocolatePearBreadCake, so i decided to leave it punctuation-free. 

it's dangerous, though, if you already don't really use capital letters as you ought and then you start flouting the rules of punctuation. you could go off the rails really quickly, is what i'm saying. but. BUT. i was almost an english minor, so it's like one of those "learn the rules so you can break 'em" things. 

or not.

pears and i have a moderately complex relationship. i kind of dig fake pear flavoring (though it's uncommon to find in candies, etc., i like it when i do) and my favorite kind of skyr when i went to iceland was pear-flavored. too often when i buy pears, though, they start out hard, enjoy a brief 30 second interlude of flavor/texture perfection, and promptly melt into the crisper drawer.

that's essentially what happened with these pears mike bought, but i found them before they were quite destroyed and decided to put them to use in a sweet quick bread. there aren't a lot of pear bread recipes out there, but i found this one and modified it to my mental image of the pear bread-cake i sought.

to that end - chocolate. also much more pear and ginger, including a hefty dose of finely grated fresh ginger. nuts would be a good addition, too, but we didn't have any because we used the last of the pecans for the beet and blue cheese salad (aka Beets of the Southern Wild) we made for this year's oscar pun dinner (see previous offerings, Midnight in Pears and Precious: Based on the Liquor Gin by Bombay Sapphire, whose recipe has sadly been lost to the mists of glorious memory).

the great thing about quick breads is how quick they are (!). the main work involved in this is the messy (for me) peeling and cutting-up of the very-soft-at-this-point pears. as shown above, just cut them in half after peeling, get the core out, and chop them thinly one way and then the other. you don't have to be overly fastidious about this - they kind of meld with the rest of the bread anyway.

other than that, it's a typical one-to-one-and-1/2-bowl affair - the wet ingredients (including sugar. sugar usually counts as wet in baking) get mixed together and then you add the dry ingredients. probably the best thing would be to mix the dry ingredients separately and then add them, but i'm congenitally unable to dirty more dishes than necessary, so i always mix the leaveners in the measuring cup with part of the flour, add that, add the rest of the flour, and mix everything gently together. then fold in the pear and the chocolate. i used some dark chocolate discs, but you could also cut up a bar or use some chocolate chips.

i buttered the loaf pan (9"x5") and made a little liner out of parchment paper. you don't necessarily have to do this, but the paper or a liner of aluminum foil will make the bread easier to remove from the pan later. a stitch in time, etc.

then just bake it for 45-50 minutes or so, turning it around mid-way through. i let it cool in the pan for awhile before taking it out, which was a good move because this stuff is super moist (though not dense!) and it really wanted to fall apart at first. once it cooled down, though, it made for a rich, gingery afternoon treat that stayed lushly soft for several days. it's particularly good with a strong cup of tea, but would also work as a more dessert-y course with a scoop of ice cream.

ginger chocolate pear bread cake
(heavily adapted from this ginger pear bread recipe)

mix

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 packed teaspoon grated fresh ginger (i used a microplane over a cup to make sure to catch all of the ginger juice, which contributes a lot of flavor)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

zest of 1 lemon

add
1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

mix separately, then add

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

fold in
2 cups peeled, cored, and chopped pears

1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate

bake at 325 (although i actually started at 350 and turned it down to 325 after 10 minutes or so) for 45 minutes or until a toasty golden brown

listening to: yo la tengo