I return!

Aha! I'm back. Partially because I am bored at work, partially because I need an outlet to write creatively and not for work-related projects. As a grant writer for a non-profit, I get bored writing such stuffy, formulaic, and standard pieces. So here we go. A review today, of sorts.

The Protein Bakery
20 West 20th Street, Suite 309
New York, NY 10011
(212) 206-7796
Hours of Operation: Call to check
Price range: 2 pack of cookies is $2.50, brownies and blondies are $3.50

My co-workers and I found a deal on LivingSocial for this bakery, which is located just a few blocks from our office. The bakery specializes in high-protein baked goods which don't utilize wheat flour and seem to have a lower calorie count than the standard baked good. The deal was $15 for $30 worth of baked goods. Considering 1) I love baked things, 2) it's close to the office, and 3) I'm always down to try new stuff that is also better for you, we figured we'd split the deal 3 ways and try it out.

The bakery is located in a small office building on the 3rd floor, so in terms of foot traffic, it doesn't seem to get much. They get most of their sales from the website. All of the products are baked off-site in New Jersey and are pre-packaged. The owner, Steve, had several different varieties of cookies, brownies, and blondies, and gave us a quick intro to the store. And then off we went, checking out the products and vetting which ones sounded more delicious than the already delicious-sounding options.

I got the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and a walnut brownie. I've thus far tried the oatmeal chocolate chip, which was pretty impressive. It tastes, healthier, yes, but it's a pretty good option for a chocolate chip cookie when you're in the mood for one.

Luckily, I work close by, but I'm not sure if I'd be a repeat customer otherwise. We'll just have to see after I try my other purchases.

Chocolate Cake

Tomorrow is Ate Mara's birthday so I'm making a cake to bring to work to celebrate! She told me she liked chocolate cake and I like choco cake with vanilla frosting, so I got both recipes from CooksIllustrated.com. I went to B&N a few weeks ago to peruse while waiting for a friend and picked up the March/April 09 issue of Cooks Illustrated. Inside, they had a cool recipe for chocolate cake that they tweaked in America's Test Kitchen, because the original one they had (from WWI) wasn't chocolatey enough. Interestingly, they added fresh coffee to make it better. So of course, with my fresh batch of Illy and mayo (I KNOW!), I made the cake! Apparently, the mayo was used instead of butter because of wartime shortages.

Pictures tomorrow when the cake is devoured :)

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Deelish! I made the cake and frosting last night and frosted the cake this morning. It made me realize how badly I need a springform and an offset spatula, but I did well with what I have! The cake was chocolatey, but not too cocoa-y. It was sweet and dense, with a lovely texture for a cake! The frosting was a bit sweet, but what can you expect from buttercream? Ate Mara seemed to really like it, she took half to bring home and dole out to her friends. First chocolate cake, successful! I think I may have to make this for my own birthday..and I don't even care for chocolate cake that much. :)

Pardon the terrible picture. I was at my desk using my cell phone camera...

Choco Chips Cookies

Sister! Goochapahasa! Looks tasty delish!! :) I bet the char makes it taste better...you know what I say...burns the fat!

Anyways, made chocolate chip cookies this weekend for mom's church event (line dancing with the Filipino community as OLM). I was gonna make Maja Blanca, but she made another Filipino dish so I offered to make these cookies. They are the best go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies, especially because I like mine chewy. And if you don't eat them right out of the oven, they crisp up a bit which is also quite delicious because the centers are still chewy, so it's a great balance. No need to post the recipe, it's Alton Brown's The Chewy. These will def go on the menu, along with...MILK! Yaay!

I gave them all away, only had one cookie, which I am proud of!! So delish and I only had one!

chicken with saffron rice and chipotle beans

i feel so whole now that i have a spice rack.  i feel like i can actually cook stuff.  before i only had salt and pepper in the kitchen (there was even a time when i didn't have either of those!  gasp!) so having spices opens up a whole new world to me.

we got these really cool heirloom beans from cayuga pure organics that gary kept encouraging me to cook.  i was kind of intimidated because i've never made beans before but they came with a useful little "how to cook beans" card that made me feel at ease.  i had no idea what to do with them but ultimately decided to make saffron rice and beans (quite a feat - since i'd never made rice before either!) with some spice-rubbed chicken.

i made a single base for my chicken and beans - with slight modifications to each.  the base consisted of paprika, cumin, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper.  i added chipotle to the beans and cayenne to the chicken, just for some variety.

to make the beans, i brought some water up to a boil and added the beans, let it boil for 2-3 mins.  i turned off the heat and let the beans sit in the hot liquid for an hour before draining and rinsing them.  when it was time to cook them, i sweat a whole diced onion and a garlic clove in some butter, added the beans and water, and let it simmer for an hour or more, til the liquid was thick and gloppy and the beans were tender.

to make the rice, i sweat another onion, diced, with more garlic in some butter.  i added the rice and cooked it until it was translucent.  then i added water, covered the pot for 20 minutes, and then turned off the heat and let it sit for another 10 minutes.  this was one time that i really regret the fact i never measure because my rice came out a little too wet and i ended up having to cook it on a low flame to try to evaporate some of that excess moisture.  GOD DAMN sometimes i wish i would read directions.  oh well!

as for the chicken, i just rubbed it in the aforementioned spice mixture and cooked it in my cast iron skillet til it was nice and brown and crispy.

not the best picture in the world (hey - i took it on my iphone!) but YUM.  with the beans mixed in it was hard to tell the rice was a little too moist.

SNOW DAY!

i am not a fan of snow but i am today because it means no school!  i was supposed to have a test today, but rather than study extra hard to ensure i get a 100 tomorrow, i decided to make apple cinnamon granola.

i had heard so much about Christie's boyfriend Charlie's granola (and homemade yogurt!) that he served at Christie's birthday brunch this weekend that i decided to make my own!  i didn't have a recipe but i had a basic idea of what it would need:  oats, fruit and nuts, liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup (or agave nectar!!), oil, spice, and some salt and sugar.  i'm sure there are more variations on the theme but i really just wanted to play with stuff in my pantry.  it's clearly far too cold to go outside.

the inspiration behind my granola was these local dried apples gary bought me from red jacket orchards' stand in the union square greenmarket.  i love eating them by themselves -- they are the perfect snack!! -- and i thought they might be EVEN better in some granola...  

i just recently tricked out our ikea spice rack with some awesome spices from kalustyan's, including some whole cinnamon which i thought would pair nicely with the apples.  unfortunately we don't have any nuts in the house right now so i had to omit those.  i also had a great jar of local honey from the hamptons honey company that i knew would be perfect for this application...

as you can probably see by my improvisational granola, i'm not a recipe person so i don't remember how much of anything i put in

recipe:

2-3 c rolled oats (or enough make up the bulk of the granola)

1.5c dried apples (i chopped mine into bite-sized pieces)

1 tbsp brown sugar

one stick of cinnamon, ground fine

pinch of salt

oil and honey (roughly equal portions of each)

preheat oven to 350.  mix together everything but the oil and honey in a bowl.  then mix oil and honey separately in another bowl and pour over rolled oats mixture.  mix together and spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet.  bake in oven til brown and crispy (30 minutes?), using a spatula every 10 minutes or so to move the mixture.

unfortunately, because i was too busy multitasking (apparently, blogging and baking simultaneously is a bad idea!!  who knew???) and the granola came out a little too charmander... but still is really delicious

can't wait to have some over some fage!!! mmmmmm

Banana Marble Cake

In the process of baking a Banana Marble Cake. I couldn't find a recipe ANYWHERE so I used this one I found on a blog. The girl seems kinda stupid though...the recipe calls for 3-4 tbs of milk but it was never used...? I just omitted it, hopefully it doesn't change it too much. Putting it all together was simple enough. Creaming sugar and butter, sifted, basic mixing, blah blah. She also didn't explain how to make the cake marble...which is pretty much what makes this cake different from a regular pound cake...idiot.

I digress, I should stop calling her names.

Cake is still baking. Hoooopefully, it'll come out nicely. I REEALLYYY loved the cake I had on Saturday at Local. If it doesn't come out well, I'll just go back and beg them for the recipe.

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Time to beg!! Pretty disappointed with the finish product, even though it is pretty tasty. Let's go through the checklist..texture wise, pretty good. Dense but still fluffy and airy. It didn't have a bread-pudding density, but it wasn't light and airy like a cake. Very good balance. Flavor wise, I didn't get alot of the chocolate but everyone's favorite culinary critic (Andrew) said the choco "overpowered the banana." Basically, it was part banana bread/cake and part choco banana bread/cake. I could definitely taste the banana, which I think might be enhanced if I added more sugar. I'm not 100% on this recipe because the one I got from Local was just amazing. Completely decadent and rich and made you feel so smooth and buttery after. And fat. But content fat. Not sad fat.

Anyway, here's the girl's recipe. I realized she doesn't have very good English, which is why I thought she was kinda stupid, so I felt bad. But then why would you blog in English? Do you seem me blogging in Tagalog?

Note to self...don't over incorporate the choco part and use less chocolate (in the event I make this again.)

Banana Marble Cake
- 250 gr soft butter200 gr sugar
- 4 eggs
- 250 gr self-raising flour; sifted
- 3-4 tablespoons milk (which don't get used, so I dunno, drink it with the damn cake)
- 3 overripe banana, mashed
- 1 tablespoon cacao powder

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375F)
2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy.
3. Mix the eggs together, then add to the butter mixture. Then add the mashed bananas.
4. Add the flour, mix well. Pour into a 20x20 cm pan. Leave some to be added with cacao powder to make the marble textures. (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???)
5. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven.

Lemon Rice Pudding

Another weekend cooped up at home...today, it's my cough. If this continues, I'm gonna go insane because all I do is bake when I'm stuck here. Boooo...

So todays experiment was lemon rice pudding! Got the recipe online and it seemed simple enough. Time consuming as it may be (2.5 hours in the oven), it came out well.

So since the recipe's not from a book, I'll write it out at the end. First, my thoughts. Subtle lemon flavor, not overly citrusy. Texture wise, quite nice if not too dry. Flavor wise...very homey and warm, comforting food really. I added a little bit of agave nectar to mine to sweeten it up a little bit more, but all in all, I liked it. Recipe calls for lemon peel but it gets annoying to take out once you've put it in your mouth (...that's what she said), soo I think next time, I'm not gonna put in lemon peel and instead make a simple syrup with lemon juice to bring the acid. Aaaand lessen the cooking time 1/2 an hour so its less dry (it clumps up too easily). But all in all, for my first attempt at rice pudding, well done! Thumbs up!

Lemon Rice Pudding
- 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup basmati or jasmine rice (I used jasmine)
- 2 pints (4 c) 1/2 and 1/2
- 3 tbs sugar
- 2 tbs rum (optional)

Peel the lemon with vegetable peeler into fine strips. Mix the peel, rice, sugar, 1/2 and 1/2, and rum in a small ovenproof dish. Put it in the oven and cook uncovered for 2.5 hours, stirring every 45 minutes or so.

And Helloooo Diana, care to post...?