MOVE IT! sono to bklyn

one fourteen-foot moving truck, 3 movers, 32 moving boxes, 8 plastic storage boxes, 5 suitcases, 6 duffle bags, 19 kitchen bags for hanging clothes, and a bunch more assorted pieces (not to mention furniture), and i am now a brooklynite.

man, who knew packing up 7 1/2 years' worth of stuff and then UNpacking it would be so much work. actually, i think everyone knows how much work it is...especially when the stuff belongs to a superior hoarder and hider. hah~ so, after six days of non-stop unpacking and organizing, here are the new digs!

pick 'em, eat 'em, bake 'em

a little late in the season but we finally made it apple picking. we drove up to bishop's orchards in guilford, where we had first gone years ago. it was pleasantly warm that day and felt more like late summer than fall. the downside was that most of the apples had already been picked or had fallen off the branches; there were piles and piles of overly ripe apples around the tree trunks. sad.
we still managed to fill up a couple small bags with a decent variety of apples--golden delicious, braeburn, rome, empire, fuji, jonagold... even abby helped pick some.

after assessing our haul, i'd say my favorite was probably the golden delicious. with the other apples i decided to bake some fall treats. the first thing i made were apple muffins (which used only TWO large apples..leaving me with nine o.O). i used a recipe from smitten kitchen and was able to make a dozen muffins and two mini loaves. (had some minor issues with the loaves--gooey and underbaked? whoops~) the original recipe used two types of flour, but i only had all-purpose which worked out just fine. there were lots of apple chunks in each muffin, and the combination of the yogurt kept everything nice and moist. i think this recipe would work well as a cake-loaf too...hm, maybe i'll try that next.

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:: apple muffins ::
(adapted from smitten kitchen)
yield: 12 muffins and 2 mini loaves

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (4oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8oz) greek yogurt
2 large apples*, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

preheat the oven to 450°F. grease and flour muffin tin and set aside.

mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. in a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. beat until fluffy. add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. mix in the yogurt gently. stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

* since apple sizes vary, you might not need all the apple chunks. use your discretion on how apple-y you want the muffins.

fall feet

it seems like fall just kind of popped up out of nowhere. one day i was sweating like crazy from the summer humidity, and the next i'm bundled up in my favorite ucsd sweatshirt. as much as i like summer i'm pretty happy about saying goodbye to the sweltering heat.

i'm looking forward to the leaves changing, turning all the trees into warm, glowing canopies, and (hopefully) a weekend apple picking/pumpkin patch adventure with little abby (& co). i'm also ready to bust out my minnetonka mocs and brand new toms (fleece-lined and sparkly!).

(and if you're wondering, yes, these are children's shoes; i'm all about being cost effective...)

the transition weeks between seasons are my favorite times of the year--summer to fall, winter to spring--probably because they remind me of california. fall just feels nice, with its cooling temperatures and slight crispness in the air. even the lighting seems nicer, like things are a little sharper and clearer. while i'll always enjoy pleasant and predictable california weather, i gotta say, seasons are kind of special~

fig and cardamom almond tea cakes

the leaves are starting to turn, and pumpkins are showing up everywhere. while i'm not quite ready to dive into all those pumpkin recipes, i am easing my way into fall baking/cooking/eating with FIGS.

figs have such a short season that i try to hoard as many as i can. this year i hit the jackpot when jade's parents brought over a huge box of them from their tree. amazing. i'm trying to ration them, but since they're pretty ripe and delicate i need to use them up quickly. mostly i'm eating them fresh or cut up in a salad (my go-to lunch: arugula, avocado, and figs—scallions and quinoa if i have them on hand), but i've also been looking at making them into some figgy sweets. i've already made fig ice cream, so i looked for something baked: fig and cardamom almond tea cakes.

a freshly cut fig is so pretty and glittery (and strange-looking); it's nice to show it off. this recipe makes light and spicy (i may have been a bit heavy-handed with the cardamom…oops…) tea cakes, each adorned with a fresh fig half. the results are visually appealing and pack a good amount of flavor in a small bite with just the right level of sweetness. i'll probably use a lot less cardamom next time, or omit it completely, to better highlight the almond and fig pairing.

so that used up six figs—only twenty or thirty more to go!
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:: fig and cardamom almond tea cakes ::
(recipe from indiaphile)
makes 12.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup rice flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated (i left this out and upped the cardamom)
1/2 tsp lemon zest
4 egg whites
6 fresh figs, halved

preheat oven to 375F. butter the insides of a muffin tray lightly and set inside.

heat the butter in a small saute pan until it turns medium brown. keep an eye on it, it can burn fast! turn off the heat and set aside.

combine the ground almonds, powdered sugar, rice flour, salt, cardamom, nutmeg and lemon zest. add in the egg whites and mix. add the browned butter and stir until the mixture is well blended and smooth.

divide the batter into the muffin cups. top each cup with half of a fig and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan. remove cakes and cool on a cooling rack.

union square cafe

one last fancy meal before sean headed off to the great white north (aka canada, or more specifically montreal). what better send off than an old-school danny meyer place.

our reservations were at 615pm, which is pretty early for us, but it gave us enough time to grab a beer at heartland brewery, enjoy a leisurely dinner, and still get home before 11pm! heehee.

we decided to go a little light and skip entrees, ordering appetizers and small plates to share. started with oysters: kumamotos (ca) for me and little bays (nh) for sean, and two snacks: crispy pig ears with tarragon mustard and a stuffed squash blossom. next up, the scallop crudo with summer peppers and sungold tomatoes and the crispy pork and watercress salad with pickled green tomato relish, avocado, and black beans.

then as our mains, small portions of the ricotta gnocchi with tomato-basil passatina and pecorino romano and the summer squash raviolini with slow roasted tomatoes and basil. in place of dessert we opted for some "corrected" coffees (coffee with bailey's).

as always service was spot on, and we couldn't have been more pleased with the meal. i think this was a nice way to celebrate the beginning of sean's new adventure~ montreal, get ready!

i love this girl. that is all.

pink ice cream duo

with the end of summer fast-approaching, it's time for more ice cream! this time around i made two summer fruit inspired flavors: raspberry and fig.
the raspberry ice cream came about as a way to save some seriously sad, almost-flavorless berries. the little red gems were so pretty, but one taste and i was bummed--so bland! where was the bright tang and juicy tartness? i couldn't just toss them out (waste!), so i looked through a bunch of recipes until i decided on raspberry ice cream from bi-rite's "sweet cream and sugar cones." it's a variation on their blackberry ice cream, which i also want to try (if only i didn't always end up eating all the blackberries in one sitting...). straightforward recipe using a custard base (watch those eggs!) and resulted in a nice pink and fruity ice cream.

the fig gelato was serendipitous. i had the exact amount of ingredients to make half a batch of gelato. i love when things work out so i'm not left with random ingredients sitting in the fridge. this recipe was super easy and simple--no eggs or cream. the rich jammy flavor of the figs really comes out in this gelato. i had a scoop of it with some honey ice cream that paired nicely--i think lily approved, if the kitten nose is any indication. hehe.

side note: i generally don't like the idea of warm fruit, but cooking down the raspberries and figs into a sort of jam was oddly satisfying. maybe i should give jam-making a shot ;P

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:: raspberry ice cream ::
(recipe from sweet cream and sugar cones) makes about 1 quart

for the raspberry puree
2 half-pint baskets raspberries (2 cups)
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, as needed

for the base
5 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup 1% or 2% milk (i used whole)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

cook the berries
1. combine the berries with the sugar, using 1/4 cup if they are very sweet and 1/2 cup if less so (guess how much i used..), in a small nonreactive saucepan and stir well. put the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the berries are soft and the liquid they release has reduced somewhat, about 10 minutes.
2. let cool slightly, then transfer the berries and their juice to a blender or food processor. puree until smooth. strain half of the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much puree as possible. discard the solids. add the unstrained puree to the same bowl and stir once to combine. cover the bowl and refrigerate.

make the base
3. in a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks just to break them up, then whisk in half of the sugar (1/4 cup). set aside.
4. in a heavy nonreactive saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, salt, and the remaining sugar (1/4 cup) and put the pan over medium-high heat. when the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium.
5. carefully scoop out about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture and, whisking the eggs constantly, add the cream to the bowl with the egg yolks. repeat, adding another 1/2 cup of the hot cream to the bowl with the yolks. using a heatproof rubber spatula, stir the cream in the saucepan as you slowly pour the egg-and-cream mixture from the bowl into the pan.
6. cook the mixture carefully over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and holds a clear path when you run your finger across the spatula, 1 to 2 minutes longer.
7. strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean container. set the container into an ice-water bath, wash your spatula, and use it to stir the base occasionally until it is cool. (i didn't do this and just let it sit to cool.) remove the container from the ice-water bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the base for at least 2 hours or overnight.

freeze the ice cream
8. whisk the raspberry puree into the chilled base.
9. freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. while the ice cream is churning, put the container you'll use to store the ice cream into the freezer. enjoy right away or, for a firmer ice cream, transfer to the chilled container and freeze for at least 4 hours.

:: fig gelato ::
(recipe from foodwanderings)

1lb organic black mission figs
1/2 plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups 5% milk (again, i used whole)
juice of 1 small lemon

snip tips of fig stems and quarter figs. add the sugar to the figs in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. mix occasionally for 20 minutes. take fig jam off the heat and let cool. once cooled refrigerate until chilled or overnight. 
pulse fig jam in a blender, add milk, teaspoon of vanilla, and lemon juice and pulse for couple seconds longer. pour mixture into chilled ice cream bowl and churn for 20 to 30 minutes or so or until fig mixture solidifies into soft serve consistency. scoop fig gelato into a container with a tight lid and keep in freezer until serving. gelato can be served soft serve as well directly out of ice cream machine.