Posts filed under 'Dessert'
and always
Every January, I end up on a citrus tear. I’m not much for resolutions, and January is far from my favorite month (I grew up in Minnesota, and I live in Chicago, after all), but I do love the sunny spectrum of citrus that shows up at the grocery store this month. Weekly, I haul home a heaving bag of ruby red grapefruits. Each morning, I top segments of their tart flesh with yogurt and granola. A pair of clementines accompany me to work every day; a crate of the little orange guys rarely outlasts the stretch between our weekly grocery trips. Less frequently, but still dependably, I get hankerings for key lime pies, the urge to make a citrus-hued curd, and an inexplicable desire to squeeze blood oranges until my hands are stained with their brilliantly-colored juice.
And always, there is a lemon cake.
almond poppy seed biscotti
After a busy couple of months, I was just starting to think that I wouldn’t have much time for holiday baking. But that’s when the urge to make these biscotti hit. I was in the mood for a not-too-sweet cookie with crunch, and one of my favorite combinations (almond extract and poppy seeds) leapt to mind. The dough came together in a flash, and I multi-tasked while the biscotti underwent their double-bake. In no time, I had a tin full of festive, poppy seed-flecked cookies, redolent of almond.
With the biscotti behind me, I’m feeling less sorry for myself and my lack of time for holiday baking.
profoundly right
After a week’s worth of 70- to 80-degree October days, I’ve finally settled on the perfect solution for this unseasonal weather.
It’s this: Pumpkin Ice Cream.
With bourbon, naturally.
There is something deeply odd about wearing flip flips for a stroll through the crunchy leaves that are quickly lining Bucktown’s sidewalks. Likewise, I’m having a hard time reaching for my sundresses over my sweaters. And all I want to eat is the produce that peaked a while ago, leaving brussels and gourds in its wake.
has my heart
The last few days of cooler weather and earlier sunsets have me nostalgic for the summer that’s all but slipped away. For long nights on the deck. For meandering walks through the neighborhood. For fireflies and hoses and ice cream on a Wednesday evening. There was all of that this summer, and there was a perfect weekend in the northwoods, too. One I won’t forget soon.
Kevin and I drove from Chicago to the south shore of Lake Superior, to meet my family for a night of camping. (Note to self: camp with my parents more often. Their version of rustic is one that I can definitely get behind.)
Then we went into Minnesota, up along the north shore of Lake Superior—the shore I know like the back of my hand.
the icebox part
If I had to pick one thing—a single, solitary thing—that I loved most about June, it just might be the strawberries. There are peonies, and fireflies, and graduations, and kids out of school, and the true start of the BBQ season, and car washes in the sun, and baseball every night, and sunshine past 8 pm, and farmers back at the market in Wicker Park on Sunday mornings, and new swimsuits, and marshmallows burnished by the bonfire. To be sure, these are all fantastic features of June—a month that, if you ask me, has got exactly the right idea. It begins (Memorial Day) and ends (Independence Day) with 3-day holiday weekends, for Pete’s sake!
But, between those bookends, there are strawberries.
call for cake
Hello! Happy June! Happy belated Memorial Day! Happy summer! Happy farmers’ market season! Man, I’ve been gone longer than I thought I would be. I’ve missed all these beginnings, but—the good news is—I have cake.
Well, okay, the cake was for my mother-in-law’s birthday, but you don’t mind if I recycle it for all of the aforementioned occasions, do you? No? Good! You’re so kind. But, really, a cake like this—two thick layers, covered in frosting—is best suited for birthdays.
i flew north
Last weekend, Kevin flew west (for a weekend with his friends in Yosemite) and I flew north (to Minnesota, to see my family). The camera went with Kevin (filed under “The Things I Do For Love”). But my iPhone came with me and I kept it busy documenting a rainy, chilly, but still-perfect weekend with my parents and sister. There was beer (Fulton and Summit and Surly, but not Grain Belt, alas):
And fat spears of asparagus shaved thin and tossed in lots of lemon, olive oil, parmesan and coarse salt:
still manages
Well, I’m here to report that it worked! The kale-centric goodbye gala for winter that I staged last time I was here really, really worked. Not more than two days after that post, spring arrived—and decidedly so. The winds were suddenly warm and the trees were all-at-once producing buds. As we walked the sidewalks near our apartment last weekend, we stopped to gawk at the fringey-yellow bushes that had burst into bloom and the pert daffodils, tucked up against the houses, that had opened up their bonnets.
Spring’s like that, I think. It arrives every year, yet it still manages to stun you.
that’s enough
It’s been one of those weeks. The weeks where you feel like you’re hanging on for dear life, one day hurtling toward the next, and then the next. Suddenly, it’s nearly Friday and you’ve barely caught your breath since Monday. Barely stopped to think. Barely said boo to your husband.
But so much of it has been good—the kind of good that’s completely out of the ordinary, in the best ways—so you can’t complain. Your sister-in-law got engaged. (!!!) Your sister came to town. (!!!) The sun has been out all week. (!!!) It’s been light out well before 7 a.m. and enough past 5 p.m. to make a difference. (!!!)
not silly in the least
I’m not much of a Valentine’s girl, as I’ve said here before. To recap: the whole thing is just a little silly, in my view. The chocolate and the booze that it encourages, however, are not silly in the least. Oh, no. Champagne on a Monday night? Don’t mind if I do! A palm-sized turtle offered up last Friday night, just before I was about to head to the gym and then dinner (the confection threatening to negate the first and spoil the second)? Of course, I’d love one!
So, for this February 14, I’ve baked a cake that combines the two, all in a lovely bundt ring—a seductive cake shape if ever there was one. For the booze, this cake wisely selects bourbon. And, chocolate-wise, the cake goes for super dark and brooding. The result is astonishingly good.