Category: Uncategorized

I heart craft fairs. I especially love craft fairs in NYC. They are filled with unique materials, inspirational ideas, and people who are doing what they love and making a living doing it. So this morning I dragged my but out of bed hours before it was necessary to attend the Bust Craftacular. Now every other time I have attended there has been a short wait to get in but I figured I as getting up early enough to avoid the crowds. HA! Silly me. I am not sure which is more insane, the fact that the line is about two blocks long or the fact that I am waiting in it. Probably the latter. I ended up with a free tote made with a combination of the Yudu printer (which I am not so secretly coveting) and the cricut (which I am not especially coveting only because you can’t make your own patterns), as well as a letterpress calendar from Rachael at Pistachio Press. I was really close to buying some adorable ninja stamps but didn’t have cash on hand.

As David Lebovitz says  “…any idiot could make it…and only an idiot could screw it up.” Fingers crossed, let’s hope I am not an idiot.

Chocolate Idiot Cake
One 9-inch (23 cm) cake

10 ounces (290 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
7 ounces (200 g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into pieces
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C).

1. Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan and dust it with cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. If you suspect your springform pan isn’t 100% water-tight, wrap the outside with aluminum foil, making sure it goes all the way up to the outer rim.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or microwave), stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and cover the top of the pan snugly with a sheet of foil. Put the springform pan into a larger baking pan, such as a roasting pan, and add enough hot water to the baking pan to come about halfway up to the outside of the cake pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

You’ll know the cake is done when it feels just set, like quivering chocolate pudding. If you gently touch the center, your finger should come away clean.

5. Lift the cake pan from the water bath and remove the foil. Let cake cool completely on a cooling rack.

Serve thin wedges of this very rich cake at room temperature, with creme anglaise, ice cream, or whipped cream.

Storage: This Chocolate Idiot Cake can be wrapped and chilled in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

I think I am a pretty good cook. I am able to follow a recipe, I am getting a feel for when I can make substitutes and when I shouldn’t. That said, I am a downright terrible baker. Horrible. Especially when it comes to chocolate cake. For some reason I can never get a chocolate cake to turn out right. Today I attempted this cake and I really out did myself. Horrible, terrible mess. I managed to salvage it, but it is still not something I want to show off. I hope it at least tastes good. I guess I should stick to pies and cookies. They are much harder to screw up.

This year M&I decided to it would be nice to spend thanksgiving at home. We made an over the top meal that could have easily fed six people but every bite of it was wonderful, if we do say so ourselves.On the menu:

• a turkey breast from the farmers market with butter and herbs
• roasted maple yam salad with cranberries and pecans
• mashed fingerling potatoes
• sourdough stuffing using a modified version of this recipe
• cranberries made with apple cider instead of water, sweet for M and not sweet for me
• green bean casserole using the recipe from the Trader Joe’s fried onion pieces can with fresh green beans
• who can forget the sweet gherkins and olives
• for dessert we have sweet potato pie with fresh whipped cream.

M was responsible for everything potato and I took care of the rest. He is also on clean up duty, just in case you thought he got away easy. I had the brilliant idea of freezing two whole meals so that we aren’t eating leftovers until next week.  I am thankful that I didn’t have to camp on the property at all this year thanks to our 10×10 and M is thankful we aren’t pounding the pavement looking for jobs. I hope that your Thanksgiving was at least as good as ours.

One of the reasons I  moved to NYC was because I didn’t want to be stuck in traffic every day to and from work and I wanted to live in a city. I have to say that lately I would welcome LA traffic if it meant I didn’t have to deal with the F train anymore. I get it, yesterday there was a tragic reason for service to be so screwed up. But what about all the other days? And don’t get me started on the weekends. Shuttle bus? Seriously? Thank you Meredith for saying what we are all thinking.

Way, way, way back in 2002 I had the brilliant idea that I would escape from NY to Santa Fe. This was pre-marriage but M decided that it would be a good idea to join me and since we were making such a big physical move we should just go ahead and get engaged as well. That is a story for another time. So we packed up our stuff and drove our black Accord along I-40 to get to the land of Enchanment. This was back in the day when you still went to AAA to get guidebooks and paper triptiks with your route highlighted. There were very few side trips and almost no stopping. We were on a mission to get where we were going. We tried our best to make our home in Santa Fe, but it didn’t quite take and we packe up all our stuff and made our way back to Brooklyn. This time we decided to take a different route through Dodge, along I-10 (getting to New Orleans and seeing the coastal road mere months before Katrina wiped much of it away) and without eating at a chain restaurants. We did a pretty good job. We avoided national chains of every kind and didn’t have any bad meals. I wish I had a blog then because I can’t remember many of the places we ate. I also wish there a blog like Eating the Road around then. Each review has detailed information about the restaurant, what they are known for, a weblink if available, a rating, and lots and lots of pictures. I may have to plan another cross country trip just to check a few of these places out!

I love reading. I can remember many a weekend spent curled up with a good book. As life gets more hectic, I find myself with less time to read. In recent years I have decided that buying a book from the store and then reading it once is a waste. I would much rather get it from the library where not only is it free (did I mention I am extremely thrifty?) but I can give it back once I am finished enjoying it. Unfortunately most books you get from the library are hardcover. Lately the only time I have to read is on the subway but it is just too much to balance a book with everything else I have to carry. I know, poor me. Actually, lucky me. M came home the other day and told me that someone had very generously offered him their kindle since they were upgrading. So far I love it! I don’t have to balance the book open while trying to hang on to the rest of my stuff, turning the page is as easy as clicking a button, and it is incredibly light. I have already finished one book and am looking for the next one. Now I just need to figure out how to get library books onto my new device!

Yesterday I spent all day in the kitchen. I pureed the pumpkin that I roasted earlier in the week so the featured ingredient of the weekend was, you guess it, pumpkin. I decided to start with a simple pie recipe. I am not a big fan of making crusts so I used frozen. Not quite as good, but good enough. I was worried that I didn’t have the right type of pumpkin (apparently there are the baking type and the carving type and I got the carving type) but the pie tasted great. For some reason the top didn’t set up quite right, but you can’t have everything. I also made the dough for oatmeal cookies. Some of that went right into the freezer for baking at another time. I was pretty pooped after making dinner so decided to hold off on baking the rest of the cookie dough. Today I made pumpkin bread and am about to start on the cookies. I decided to freeze the rest of the pumpkin (there are still 4 cups waiting to make their way into something delicious). The kitchen smells great, the sink is just about empty of dishes and I am wondering who is going to eat all these treats!

I admit it I am a sucker for Halloween. I am not much for dressing up, but I love the gourds, decorations, and especially the pumpkin carving. Just when I thought I was not going to carve any pumpkins this year Diane suggested we get some. Yeah! While Diane made dinner, Dad and I got to planning, cleaning, and carving. I decided to go old school with a scary face while Dad went with something a little more intricate. And what fun would pumpkin carving be without roasting the seeds! Yum! Hope you had a happy Halloween, whatever you decided to carve!

I am not sure how I missed this guy, but he was clearly in Union Square. 🙂 via