Sammy's Dot

If you can sit outside on a sunny day.

Tiramisu: I love the name. According to one source, it means “pick me up”; I don’t speak Italian, but it sounds plausible to my French-conditioned ears. It’s also exactly what one needs after a good meal: a sweet pick-me-up to carry on with the evening’s conversation. I love the idea of it, too: soft, spongy cookies and coffee, cocoa, and delicious mascarpone beaten with pastry cream. Oddly, though, I’ve rarely eaten tiramisu; I remember having it for dessert when I was in Nice, but it wasn’t terribly memorable, and as much as I love to bake, I generally prefer pies and cakes and cookies to a complex composed dessert. However, joining the Daring Bakers is all about trying new things, and so:

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

The challenge required me to make my own savoiardi (ladyfingers) and my own mascarpone, which was fun. I’m no stranger to baking cookies but the technique for savoiardi was definitely outside of my experience (and clearly I need more practice with the method). I’ve also made paneer, and the method for making mascarpone is similar but not quite the same; it was interesting to compare the two. Making the tiramisu was a good way to get out of a baking rut that I didn’t really realize I was in: although I’ve got some experience with each individual part, except the zabaglione, I’ve never made anything that incorporated many different elements the way tiramisu does.

I definitely need to play around some more, though. My savoiardi were tasty, but I think I must have deflated the batter somehow, because instead of the predicted 36 cookies, I had 15, which wasn’t really enough. I also experimented a bit with the flavours, using amaretto as the liqueur instead of marsala, which I didn’t have. I really love the idea of the fruit flavours some of the other Daring Bakers tried, and if I make  it again I think I’ll head in this direction, because sadly, I didn’t love my execution of tiramisu. It wasn’t that it was bad, but it didn’t really come together as more than the sum of its parts. read more »

Did it really, really have to take me more than a year to figure out that even with my not-so-hot camera, I could take vastly better food pictures by hitting the cute little flower button?

Macro focus, I’m so sorry for all the time it took to discover you. We’re bff now though, right?

This isn’t really my 49th picture, I’m afraid. I am trying, but haven’t nearly accomplished a photo a day. Perhaps publication will help me keep it up.

I'm not very good at sewing, but I kind of like how the imperfections are visible along the seam.

Perhaps this post might be more accurately titled “Tariqata shows off her mad cupcake skillz to all her friends!”

Um, yes. I wish.

While I think I still qualify as a cake wreckerator and not a decorator – and, yes, Cake Wrecks has joined Cute Overload and xkcd as a site that makes me laugh so hard I cry; why do you ask? – I’m not exactly disappointed with these almond cupcakes topped with green tea frosting and white chocolate-dipped fortune cookies. Even if I did totally steal the decorating strategy from the Baked cookbook right along with the cupcakes themselves. I was, after all, bringing these to a housewarming party right before the Chinese new year for a friend who will be getting married in a few short months; it was so appropriate.

I actually went a little crazy and tried to make my own fortune cookies (using a mix of hazelnuts and pecans in place of the walnuts), but failed miserably to produce anything beyond delicious crumbs. The two that actually resembled fortune cookies broke when I dipped them in the chocolate. However, I do strongly recommend trying the recipe anyhow, because you might be better at folding cookies than I am and even if you aren’t, it’s still a damn good cookie.

Happily, the Bulk Barn sold me a couple dozen fortune cookies for just under a dollar, though I’m sad I didn’t get to use my custom fortunes. Because they were way more awesome.

Though I do like to write out the recipes for these posts, for this one you can see it exactly right here.

The cupcakes were, incidentally, very good, though I might try them again using all butter, instead of a mix of butter and shortening, and I really need to learn not to overbeat my cake batter. I also should learn not to wander off while I’ve got a pot of milk and matcha powder and sugar boiling happily away, but I seem to be the only one who noticed the faint burnt flavour in the frosting, which is otherwise a lot like green tea ice cream.

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

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Back in December, I had a fantastic meal with the Fellow at a Lebanese restaurant in Dublin. (We also ate Hungarian takes on Italian, Thai, and Mexican food in Budapest. We approve of checking out regional twists on the cuisines of others. The Lebanese food was, however, reasonably authentic. As far as I know.) The only problem was the number of possibilities; we had grilled halloumi, tabouleh, hummus, something that involved merguez sausage, and three or four other dishes, but I could easily have ordered a dozen.

Just from the vegetarian section.

It was good stuff. I want to go back. Unfortunately, it may be a while before that happens, but the Daring Cooks gave me an excuse to do it for myself this month.

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Rosemary Kirstein has a blog.

I discovered The Steerswoman last year after a review was posted on Watch the Skies. Finished the first two books (in their omnibus form) in a day, then went back for The Language of Power. And then I waited obsessively for a used copy of The Lost Steersman to make it’s way to me (I would have very happily bought it new, but sadly it wasn’t available). I loved the story. (Despite the Fellow teasing me about the cover and the title, which led him to conclude that the only logical occupation of the main character was unicorn herding.) Science creeping into what appears to be a fantasy setting makes me happy, and so does the sense of discovery and wonder that is so central to Rowan, the main character.

And then I discovered that there weren’t any more yet.

I googled, and kept googling every few weeks, and got myself on the Random House/Del Rey mailing list for updates about her books. It was clear that there would be more stories about the Steerswomen, but just when that would be was a very open question, and I wanted to know when (because I can get a bit obsessive when I want to read something really badly, yes). I know that Kirstein’s blog doesn’t necessarily mean she’s any closer to finishing the book, but if she’s going to be writing about the process, I’m excited that I’ll have the chance to follow along.

Or, two photo essays depicting a wonderful day for two Richmond Hill squirrels.

Here, a black squirrel makes a delicious discovery.

Something prompts the black squirrel to look up from his delicious almond.

"Oh my!" says he, as his ears perk up.

"Is the coast clear?"

Indeed, the coast is clear! "I can't wait! What luck!"

"You realize that this is mine? All mine."

He sidles carefully over to the unexpected feast, afraid it will vanish as quickly as it appeared.

Sounds of nomming.

Defeated by its size, the black squirrel attempts to drag it away...

But woe for the black squirrel, no longer alone!

Munchy munch. "These seeds are boring," thinks the gray squirrel.

"What are those sounds of nomming I hear?"

"I must join in this nomming!"

The gray squirrel finds the unexpected feast.

"Amazing!"

"Mine! All mine!" The gray squirrel thinks, as he attempts to drag it away.

There are two things that I like to do when I don’t want to do schoolwork (well, three, if you count knitting, but two are more likely activities): read and cook.

I’ve been in the mood to cook recently.

Tonight’s dinner was, therefore, a chance to experiment. I joined the Daring Cooks too late to participate officially in the January challenge (though I’m really looking forward to the next one!), but it turned out to be something that I really wanted to try for myself, satay chicken.

To go with it, I made the “coco-vegetable rice” from Jay Weinstein’s The Ethical Gourmet. (I’ve made this before, but I really, really love it.) I’ve been making this recipe for a couple of years, and I think it was this that first suggested to me that “slaw” need not be synonymous with a soggy, stodgy mess of sad vegetables in too  much mayo, and that cabbage is in fact delicious. And since cabbage is one of the very few Ontario vegetables available in January, this was a happy discovery. (Even if it is served with rice and coconut, neither of which grew here last time I checked. But still. Cabbage! Local!) read more »

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

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I have to begin with a confession. I think this may cost me some of my Canadian cred – even more than the time I blithely said that the animal on our quarter is a moose.

I don’t particularly like Nanaimo bars.

I do love the idea of them: graham cracker crusts (with nuts and coconut, no less!) are yummy, custard is always good, and chocolate is chocolate and nothing else need be said. But put them all together, and for some reason we Canadians tend to produce something so sweet it makes my teeth ache.

I’ve made them twice before, the second time just this last December, while visiting R in Belfast; we brought them to a potluck dinner his co-workers put on, as they asked us to bring something Canadian. It took a good chunk of our last day before coming back to Toronto to track down the ingredients. We never did find graham crackers (though plain digestive biscuits turned out to be more or less indistinguishable), and had to go to five – FIVE! – grocery stores before we found unsalted butter. I was pretty pleased that we managed to make anything at all, given the under-equipped kitchen we had access to, but they turned out like ordinary Nanaimo bars – painfully sweet. I’m not sure R’s colleagues were impressed. (Probably a good thing we didn’t make poutine!) It convinced me that if I made Nanaimo bars again, I was going to do something different.

Fortunately, a few days later I signed up for the Daring Bakers, and the opportunity presented itself. read more »