i like cake!

My second pattern is up!  Link to PDF download on the sidebar.

Recently, I have become an absolute junkie for Sundara Yarns.  This yarn was the first shipment of my Seasons yarn club, and the colorway is called Prickly Pear.  I really like socks in this sort of style, with thin columns of different patterns.  I think this type of design really flatters the subtle variegation of Sundara’s yarns.

You probably can’t tell from the picture above, but the pattern is meant to look like little pears going up the socks.  Here’s a better view:

Anyway, hope you like them, and I can’t wait to see others start knitting them up.  Please let me know if you find any errors in the pattern, and I will correct them as quickly as possible!

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks lately, and haven’t been updating the blog perhaps as much as I should have been.  I baked these cookies a few weeks ago.  One night I just had a craving–I want cookies, I thought to myself.  I had all the ingredients for these, so I made them!

The recipe is Midnight Crackles cookies from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Baking, from My Home to Yours.  They’re relatively simple little cookies–the key is chocolate.  Lots and lots of chocolate.  These little guys are definitely best paired with milk (as pictured above).  If I recall correctly, the recipe called for both cocoa powder and melted chocolate.

The dough had a very strange consistency–it was much dryer than I’m accustomed to in a drop cookie.  I really had to work each little ball to keep it from crumbling before putting it on the cookie sheet.  After the cookies were baked though, I didn’t think they tasted dry at all.

I was going to also write about the multitudes of red velvet cupcakes I cooked for work, but apparently I haven’t uploaded those pictures to flickr yet, so it’ll have to wait!

But so you can see that I’m not just lounging about, eating cookies and cupcakes and racking up the pounds, here’s a couple shots of me at the San Francisco AIDS Walk last weekend.  I walked a 10k and raised a nice little chunk of money for AIDS research.

It was hella cold up in the city that day, but all the exercise left us feeling a little warm, and definitely sore the next day (yeah, I could stand to exercise more).  We got to wait in the longest bathroom line ever, and Melyssa got to experience what it’s like to visit the Men’s room instead.

These pics were taken with my new iphone, and I’m pretty impressed with the quality.  Here’s me and Melyssa before the race (gotta love the “I hella <3 oakland sweatshirt):

And here’s what was left of our Heller Ehrman team after the race, sporting our lovely team Heller t-shirts, and with our certificates of completion (they like to make everyone feel like a winner, obviously):

After what happened the last time I attempted to modify a cobbler recipe, I decided to pretty much stick to what was written in this one. The results? Delicious!

I’ve never cooked with rhubarb before, and as I was peeling it, I thought to myself–who the hell first had the idea to throw this celery-looking stuff into a fruit pie? I mean, it’s a vegetable. It looks like celery. Raw, it doesn’t seem terribly appealing. I assume that being baked must sweeten it up a bit or something. I cut it into fairly small pieces, and they definitely got nice and soft and drenched in cherry juice during the cooking process, so you couldn’t really tell what was in there anyway.

Much as I like crisps and crumbles, I have to say that I am now a fan of the cobbler. The dough on top makes it almost like you’re eating fruit-soaked cake, which is always good in my book.

Here it is pre- and post-baking:

I saw that some other people sprinkled sugar on top before baking, and I think I’ll do that next time as well. The only modification I made was that I didn’t use whole wheat flour in the biscuits, because I didn’t have any.

So yeah, another baking success! This week’s recipe was chosen by Amanda of Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake. The recipe for the cobbler is on her site, and as always, you can find all of the TWD in the awesome cookbook, Baking, from My Home to Yours.

Edit: I forgot to mention how great it was that my Dad was here to help out in making this.  Not only was an extra pair of hands extremely useful (especially when pitting and cutting the cherries) but he was kind enough to wash the dishes, which was awesome! =)

If you only come here for cupcakes and/or knitted items, you can probably just keep on moving for once =)

A couple of quick little legal tidbits–

As regular readers will know, I attended a California Bar Association conference last month on Entertainment & the Media.  One of the panels there was on law and virtual worlds.  I wrote up a summary of this panel for my friend’s site, Virtually Blind, which can be found here.

In other vaguely related news, that same friend who runs Virtually Blind, Ben Duranske (who also has a book on Virtual Law coming out soon) has been published in the WSJ!  You can read his column on the importance of virtual worlds here.

Don’t worry–I was up late last night making heaps of red velvet cupcakes for an event at work today, so we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled baking pictures before long!

That’s how my Mom labeled my recent trip home to Illinois.  I guess since almost a week has passed I should probably get around to writing about it!

July 1st marked my Dad’s 60th birthday, so my brother and I headed back home to spend some time with the family.  We started out the trip in Chicago, where I had proposed a “cupcake crawl” hitting all the cupcake shops in Chicago that I could find.  I even made a map, here.

While my brother and sister-in-law were down with it, the rest of the family wasn’t so keen, so we had sporadic cupcakes instead.  The first night, Will and Jo stopped by Alliance Bakery and picked up some cupcakes for my Dad’s birthday celebration at our hotel that night.

Pictured here is the Strawberry cupcake my Mom had.  I thought the cupcakes from Alliance were quite good.  An excellent start to the trip.  The booze that night came courtesy of the hotel bar, which Will, Jo and I stopped by afterwards.

The next day was sort of the 4th of July celebration, which Chicago mainly holds on the 3rd.  We did some shopping and errands that day, and on the way back from shopping, Will, Jo and I stopped by Molly’s Cupcakes.  This cupcake shop was awesome–the cupcakes were really moist and flavorful, and it had super cute swing chairs and a sprinkle station.  We took some cupcakes home for late night snacks as well.

After cupcakes, we went to dinner at DeLaCosta, a trendy new (I think) restaurant near where my parents are looking at a condo.  The food there was amazing–kind of latin-inspired contemporary cuisine.  My parents felt a bit awkward because they guessed they were the oldest people in the room by nearly 20 years.  But a good time was had by all anyway.  Complete pictures of our appetizers and desserts are on my flickr site (click the travel tab for easy access).  I forgot to take pictures of the entrees.

That’s their signature dessert–a chocolate cigar and candy matchbook.  We had some really tasty drinks there as well.  I’ve noticed a new trend of using basil in mixed drinks.  I greatly approve.  I’ve had really tasty basil drinks now at both DeLaCosta and Spring.  Maybe it’s a Chicago thing.

After dinner we went to the fireworks at Grant Park.  Along with 1.2 million others.  My cousin miraculously managed to find her friends, and we enjoyed the show.  It was particularly surreal walking there and back down the deserted main Chicago streets.  Here’s a nice shot of the crowd:

The next day was about family, as we headed over to my Aunt’s house for a 4th of July barbeque.  Here’s me with my Mom and my Grandma:

Then it was back down to my hometown, Champaign-Urbana, where my brother was attending his 10 year high school reunion.  The cupcake action came courtesy of Cakes on Walnut, the new cupcake shop in downtown Champaign.  They had lots of creative flavors, which apparently change every 2 weeks, and they were quite yummy!  We also had lunch at Zorba’s, which has the best gyros ever.

I said farewell to my brother, who was leaving to go up and see Jo’s family.  It was too bad I didn’t get to spend more time with them, but they’ll be up in Chicago soon, so next year I’m sure I’ll see them more often!

The last day in town we drove around looking for somewhere suitably central Illinoisy for my “socks on vacation” picture for the Summer of Socks contest on Ravelry.  I was going with the theme of farm animals (it being central Illinois and all) but they all seemed to be hiding!  In desperation, we went to the Prairie Farm to see if any photo opportunities occured there.

By way of background, Prairie Farm is a little bit of park in the middle of Champaign, near the water slide, where they’ve got some farm animals, almost like a little zoo.  I remember going there as a little kid and looking at the lambs and stuff.  It was a bit trippy going back, since I’m sure I haven’t been in about 20 years.  There were some cute animals there, and while I didn’t get a good sock picture, I did take pictures of some of their more exotic creatures–a peacock and a llama:

The peacock was really pretty and even raised its tail for a minute while I was taking pictures (though I didn’t get a good picture of it).  It was also incredibly loud when it squacked.  The llamas were…kind of gross, actually.  Very dirty =P

And so ended my trip home.  It was great to see the family for a little while–now they just need to finally manage to all get out here!

I made an awesome dinner tonight, so I thought I’d share it with y’all.  It started when I saw a corn salad on a blog here, and decided to adapt it to my own purposes.  The scallops have a light dusting of coriander, and are lying on a cold corn salad.  I also got to use the first of the cherry tomatoes from my garden!

I ended up undercooking the scallops because I had no idea how long to cook them for, and they looked done from the outside.  Times in the recipe are based on information I looked up afterwards.  Fingers crossed that I don’t get some sort of terrible illness as a result! =P

Coriander-Dusted Scallops

Scallops
Olive oil
Coriander
Salt and Pepper

I didn’t list any quantities, because it really depends on how many you want to make.  Heat some olive oil in a pan–enough to saute the number of scallops you have–over high heat.  Pat the scallops dry, then sprinkle both sides with a light dusting of salt, pepper, and coriander.

Once the pan and oil are hot, place the scallops in a single layer and turn heat to medium.  Saute for about 3 minutes on each side, or until fully cooked.

Corn Salad

4 ears of corn
12-15 cherry tomatoes
1 smallish cucumber
2 Tbsp. fresh diced parsley
1/2 recipe of honey-cumin vinaigrette (below)

Cook the corn–I do this by removing the husk and silk, placing in a microwave dish with a couple tablespoons of water, wrapping the dish with plastic wrap and cutting a small hole for the steam to escape, then microwaving for 4-6 minutes.  Let the corn cool to the point where you can hold it, then slice off the cooked corn kernels.

Dice the cucumber, scooping out the seeds, and cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters.  Finely dice the parsley.  Mix all the ingredients together.

Honey-Cumin Vinaigrette

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. honey
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix together everything except the oil.  Slowly add the oil, constantly whisking the mixture as you do.  Continue whisking until it’s well combined.

It’s Tuesday, so that means:

Pie!  Yum!

This week’s TWD was chosen by Amy of South in your Mouth.  (Recipe on her site, from this book, as always).  I am really glad she chose this recipe, because I’ve been meaning to try baking a pie but haven’t gotten around to it yet.  As y’all know, I’m a bit of a cake girl, and so that’s my comfort zone.  But pie is good too!  It’s just a bit more fiddly.

I almost didn’t do this week, due to the fact that I was traveling back to Illinois (post about the trip forthcoming).  But my parents were very enthusiastic about my baking a pie for them, so I succumbed to peer pressure.  My folks went out bright and early to the farmer’s market and brought back a huge bag of blueberries, and pie preparations commenced!

For me, the hardest bit of making a pie is getting the crust rolled out and in the pie pan in one piece.  Things that need to be rolled out just don’t seem to be my forte.  This continued to be the case here, where I didn’t flour the pastry cloth enough, and left a chunk of the bottom crust sticking to it.  But it’s on the bottom, so I just made a nice patch out of the leftover dough, and no harm done.  My mom helped me with the upper crust, which was a bit more important.  Liberal amounts of flour later, we had a pie!  I then cut heart shaped bits out of the dough, because I’m a girly nerd. =)

I learned halfway through cooking that I should have covered the edges with tin foil–they got pretty badly burned before I did, but the pie was still absolutely delicious.  Perhaps I will make pies more often after this great success!

I’m a little late this week, due to my traveling schedule, but better late than never!  This week’s TWD recipe was Apple Cheddar Scones, selected by Karina of The Floured Apron.   I was a bit put off by the fact that these are kind of out of season (I wonder if Karina is in the Southern Hemisphere?)–I’d generally think of apple and cheese stuff as more of a fall/winter thing.  But I like scones, so I was undeterred!

The recipe (which you can find at the site linked above) calls for dried apple, but I decided to use diced fresh apple instead, and I don’t think it had any adverse effect.  I used some sort of fancy white cheddar from Whole Foods that was on the sample tray–something like San Joaquin Gold or something.  I followed the recipe pretty closely aside from that, and they came out great!

I tried the warm scones with butter, fig jam, and apple butter.  The regular butter lets you taste the scones the most, which is probably a good thing.  One thing I will note is that as Dorie states in the recipe, these do not keep for very long, and are best straight out of the oven.  Even a day or two later they had started to get a bit soggy, which foiled my plans of bringing the extras in to work.  They dried out a bit with re-heating in the toaster oven, but still, not as good as fresh.  I popped a couple in the freezer, so we’ll see how they reheat when I get them out again.

Once again, here’s the link to the book–Baking: From My Home to Yours

In other news, I made a pork roast the other day that was delicious and super easy.  You put a pork butt roast in a slow cooker (mine was about 1.5 lbs. i think), pour a 12 oz. bottle of root beer over it, then let it cook on low for 8-10 hours.  You can top it with BBQ sauce afterwards if you like, but it’s yummy on its own, too!  Mmm….pork butt…

I went back and forth on whether I was going to compete in this month’s Cupcake Hero. The theme ingredient is melon, and although I love melons of all kinds, I thought it would probably be a difficult challenge to pull off, because the flavour of melons does not pop when it’s cooked with. I bought a lovely fresh cantaloupe at the farmer’s market…and then decided it was too much trouble, and I wouldn’t do it.

Fast forward to about 9:30pm tonight. I decided I would give it a go! So I whipped up a recipe really quick, based on things I had been thinking of earlier in the month and here they are! Miracle of miracles, they actually worked, and the melon flavour actually comes through!  It’s the frosting that really makes this cupcake though–the combination is really delicious!

Cantaloupe Cupcakes
(makes about 8 )

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
3.75 oz. pureed cantaloupe

Preheat oven to 350, and line a cupcake pan with wrappers.

The first challenge to making these cupcakes is making the cantaloupe puree. I took chunks of cantaloupe, put them in a mini-cuisinart, and blended them until fairly smooth. I then put the cantaloupe mush, which was very watery, into a wire strainer above a bowl. I mashed the melon against the strainer until a good portion of the liquid had drained through, then measured it in a bowl on my kitchen scale, until it was slightly less than 4 ounces. Save the juice for the frosting.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a larger bowl, blend together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and mix well. Stir in the cantaloupe puree. Gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

Pour into cupcake wrappers and bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool before frosting.

Honey and Melon Buttercream

6 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. cantaloupe juice

Cream butter, then start adding sugar gradually.  Add honey, then enough cantaloupe juice so you can maintain the consistency of the frosting.

I’ll start with the most exciting part of the trip:

I met Stan Lee!  Yay!  So for a bit of background, I flew down to LA for a little over a day to go to the California Bar IP Section’s conference on Entertainment & Media law.  The conference itself was interesting, and I got to see a former colleague of mine and have a nice lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  Stan Lee was speaking at the conference, and although his talk had pretty much nothing to do with the law, it was still really interesting.  Afterwards, I ran out to meet him and basically giggled like a silly fangirl the whole time.  But that’s ok.  I got his autograph as well, and picture and autograph are getting framed and going up in my office soon.

So, on to the other details of the trip.  I flew Virgin America for the first time, which was pretty good.  The planes were brand-spanking-new, which was a nice change of pace from American, which I usually fly.  There’s a TV in the back of each seat, which allows you to watch cable TV, movies, play video games, and listen to music.  You also order snacks and/or meals through it.

I tried out everything on my flight down–there was some lag in the system which made listening to the classical music a little annoying.  But the TV seemed to be coming through pretty well, and the video games, although basic, included an anagram game which I find highly addictive.  Unfortunately, on the flight back, we got the plane with no electrics.  But after a multiple-hour delay due to fires in NorCal, I was just happy to be going home.

On to the hotel.  The hotel was amazing.  I stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the conference was taking place, and it was one of the nicest rooms I’ve ever stayed in.  It was enormous.  And had a massive balcony.  And the bathroom was the size of a normal hotel room.  And there was a foyer.  And a walk-in closet.  Seriously, it was ridiculous.  I didn’t want to leave!

But eventually, I must.  So after they kicked me out, I went down to Rodeo Drive for some shopping.  I stopped at a couple of stores, but as I’m trying to save money, I didn’t buy much.  My most important stops, however, were the two big cupcake shops there–Sprinkles and Crumbs.

We’re getting a Sprinkles here in Palo Alto soon, which is exciting.  I ate the red velvet cupcake from there last night, and it was very tasty!  Pictured here, clockwise from top left are, ginger lemon, strawberry, pumpkin, and red velvet.

One thing I don’t get is, the name of the place is Sprinkles, yet the majority of the cupcakes there are topped with smooth frosting and their trademark little dot design.  Where are the sprinkles?  I mean seriously, people.

I also stopped at Crumbs, which is apparently a NY based chain, which some people claim is much better than the more famous Sprinkles.  At Crumbs, I opted for the variety pack of mini-cupcakes, so I could try a lot of different flavours.  In retrospect, this was maybe not the greatest idea, because I feel like I’m not getting the complete cupcake experience.

So far, based on the three mini-cupcakes I’ve had from Crumbs and the red velvet one from Sprinkles, I’m preferring Sprinkles.  The Crumbs ones I’ve tried had a buttercream frosting that I found reminiscent of the sort of frosting you get on grocery-store cakes–the kind that tastes like it’s probably made with shortening rather than butter.  I don’t really like that kind of frosting.  I’ll wait until I’ve eaten them all to make final judgment though.  And buy new fat pants, lol.

Anyway, that about sums up my trip.  There are more pictures of both the hotel room and the cupcakes on my flickr page, link on the right.

Excelsior!