Valentine Truffles

Like the good little Japanese wife that I am (ahem), I made some truffles for Valentine's Day this year. No, I'm not trying to put myself down. It's just that many, if not most, Japanese girls will have experienced making chocolate at some point in their lives. Why is that, you ask. What about the men? Will I include an actual recipe this time? Find out after the jump.

Gotta Eat 'Em All!

This weekend I spent a FANTASTIC few days in D.C. with several other Lord Jeff Chefs during which time we celebrated the birthday of Jeff Chef Zachary with a blast-from-the-not-so-distant-past Pokemon Party.  Of course, I made the dessert.  And of course, this dessert had to be theme-appropriate.  So I offer for your approval my Pokeball Cupcakes.  I made red velvets as well as root beer float cupcakes and used a buttercream fondant for the buttons.

Cowboy Cookies

This is Martha Stewart's recipe, not mine, so I won't post it. But here is some cookie porn for you.  Cowboy cookies are my favorite--coconut, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, chocolate. Mmmm.

Classic Apple Crumble

At my better half's request ... another dessert recipe!  I have no photos, but I have made this dish many a time to many a hearty compliment.  It's a classic crowd-pleaser.

I've been going back and forth on what to share on this blog in terms of my recipes ... like many bakers, I closely guard my "secret ingredients" and the other difference-making tricks I've learned with some of my signature desserts (this apple crumble being one of them) -- it's a bit like a magician sharing his magic trick.  This is the reason you will (I am sorry) never see my gingerbread molasses cookie recipe go up here.  However, I've decided to share my apple crumble since it's fall and it's a yummy hot dessert to make on a chilly day.  It's really a simple dish, and the payoff is major.  Enjoy!!

Roasted Vegetable Soup and Dessert with Strawberries

Canada is getting chillier by the day, reminding me that summer is no longer with us. Pat, in serious denial, is off camping and canoeing this weekend leaving me to post this week.

A few weeks ago I made roasted vegetable soup with bacon. I always thought that making soups that weren't made by throwing stuff into boiling water would be complicated and not worth the effort. Not so. Happily I was enlightened by Helen Dujardin of Tartelette. Her blog always has such sumptuous photos, that before I know it I find myself delving into the recipe. (and I'm a sucker for beautiful photos!) Over the past year since I discovered her blog I've used vegetables I've never heard of and tried out recipes that I never would have thought to. Plus--this is the important part--everything I've made from her blog has been delicious. Not just your average "yeah that was a good meal" delicious, but the "I can't afford to leave leftovers at all" kind of delicious.

Hot chocolate with a kick

Mark Twain is thought to have said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco."  Whether or not he did say it, the fact remains: the City by the Bay is damn cold in June and July.  Five days a week, I commute from Silicon Valley, which I love for its hot blue summers, to San Francisco's financial district, which is almost always foggy in the morning and breezy come midday.  It's now starting to settle into September, when the weather traditionally heats up--the past week in the city has been sun-kissed and stunning--but for most of the past few months I've been wind-blown and cranky, mourning the loss of my inland summer.

So, when I come home for the weekend, I make hot chocolate.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

In search of something to eat for lunch this past Monday afternoon, I stumbled over an unopened container of Duncan Hines Cream Cheese frosting.  “Well,” I thought to myself, “someone really ought to use this …”

I love cupcakes.  Who doesn’t love cupcakes?  And my absolute favorite kind of cupcake is Red Velvet – but I’ve never made them before!  It just so happened that we also had Ghirardelli unsweetened cacao powder in the house (no idea why), so I obviously had to give them a whirl. 

I searched for a while to find a recipe I though sounded good and settled on one I found on the website pinchmysalt.com (a really great site with beautiful food photos and recipes).  I followed the recommendation to use unsalted butter instead of shortening (staying true to that butter-loving French chef in me), and I made my own decision to use white wine vinegar in place of normal white vinegar – because everything tastes better with wine!  Actually I also like the more complex flavor of white wine vinegar, and I think it made a scrumptious substitution, so I say try it!

These cupcakes definitely weren't the easiest to make, but they were oh so worth it.

Memere's Graham Cracker Cake: Easiest Crowd-Pleaser Ever

This recipe comes from my maternal grandmother. I don't remember seeing her cook much when I was younger, but I'm told she was quite impressive in the kitchen. I am one of a few family members who have become the "Keepers of the Recipes," and this one is one of my favorites. It's the easiest thing in the world, and everyone always flips over how delicious it is. We call it Memere's Graham Cracker Cake.

Ingredients

1-2 Boxes Traditional Graham Crackers (Depending on how big you want to make the cake)

1-2 Quarts Heavy Whipping Cream (Again, depending on how big you're making the cake)

White Sugar

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Vanilla Extract

Directions

1 - Whip heavy whipping cream into ... well ... cream. Think Cool Whip consistency. But don't over whip it! I made the near-fatal mistake of whipping my cream into butter once. Not good.

2 - Add sugar, chocolate syrup, and a little vanilla extract to cream. Now, you've probably noticed that there are no measurements. That's because Memere didn't have any measurements. You have to do it to taste. I usually start with sugar until it tastes sweet enough to me, drop in a bit of vanilla, then keep adding chocolate sauce until it tastes ridiculously good.

3 - In a glass casserole dish (I use my trusty Pyrex), smooth down a layer of the chocolate cream. Then put down one layer of graham crackers. Cover the graham crackers with another layer of the chocolate cream (probably a little less than a quarter-inch thick; make sure all of the crackers are covered!) Then another single layer of crackers. Keep layering the crackers and the cream like this until the dish is full/the cream is gone.

4 - Put the cake in the fridge for at least an hour; the graham crackers will soak up all the yummy cream and it will be DELICIOUS. This is also good frozen, although it is a little trickier to bite into.

ENJOY!

East, West and Rest

Hi all,

We're going to try this as a husband-wife team effort. We both take turns cooking, Sawa takes the photos and I (Pat) write the posts.

The basic flow of our cooking lives is that we take turns cooking two meals a week and make big ones when we do, so the left-overs usually get us through the rest of the week. We generally alternate between and Japanese and non-Japanese cooking. We try to keep Sundays as a kind of Sabbath day free of major obligations, and if we're feeling motivated after catching up on sleep, we often end up making a big brunch or treats like cookies or ice cream.

This week we'll post one Sunday treat (home-made ice cream), one Japanese meal (soba noodle salad), and one non-Japanese (Greek spanakopita). Maybe in future weeks we'll just focus on one dish... let us know what you'd prefer with your comments!