Cupcakes

Yes, I said it..CUPCAKES!!!
I don’t know about you, but I ADORE cupcakes. I have contemplated writing about cupcakes since shortly after my first posting to this blog. Then, about a week ago somebody posted an article on Facebook about the cupcake “bubble”. “Cupcake bubble?” you might be asking. Yes indeed, it seems that there is a “bubble” even for my beloved cupcakes.

It is interesting to me just how popular these yummy little treats have become. I mean, I am sure that you all at some point in your life were the proud bearer of cupcakes to be passed out to your friends at school to celebrate your birthday. I remember how exciting it was to be the kids passing out those tiny delicacies, proudly wearing the class birthday crown. But when on earth did this cupcake “explosion” occur?

There is a cupcake store in Beverly Hills (of course) named “Sprinkles” that claims to be the first cupcake store ever. Somehow I find it hard to believe that (don’t know why) but I’ll let them live in their dream world. It seems that they spun off many existing stores. What I do know is that Magnolia begat Buttercup and Buttercup begat The Little Cupcake and a lot more. BTW – can you tell I went to Catholic school for 12 years?

So now it seems that people are buying cupcakes for everything, from an afternoon snack to a wedding “cake”. I have to say I have no complaints. There even seems to be a mobile unit that drives around NYC selling cupcakes. Who knew? And the stores are popping up EVERYWHERE. Crumbs seems to me to be the “Starbucks” of cupcakes. They are delicious, pricey, and popping up everywhere. For those of you who have never tasted a Crumbs cupcake, you must do so, as soon as possible. They come in many flavors, and they even sell packs of mini cupcake assortments. So moist and delicious…….it’s a good thing that I don’t live close to one!

Something that surprised me about this cupcake craze is that recently a gourmet market in my neighborhood, Robicelli’s, decided to close its doors last week and focus on…….cupcakes.  A few months ago the owners, a husband and wife team, had a cupcake “war” to see whose were better. There was so much response to this contest that they had another one, and slowly started adding the winning cupcakes to their menu. They soon found that the thing that was generating the most business in the store was the cupcakes. So they are now launching a wholesale cupcake business. Will it work?  Maybe.  They say that they have people as far away as California requesting cupcakes. I hope they are successful – they are nice people with 2 children under the age of 3.

 So is it really a “bubble”? I think that the jury may still be out on that one. But I do know that even the most expensive of the cupcakes I’ve seen out there (a cool $4.00) is still what can be considered affordable in this economy. I have been out of work for a year, but I still take the kids every Friday to buy cupcakes at The Little Cupcake Bakeshop. So I think we will have to wait and see what happens after the frosting settles. Until then, I will  be eating cupcakes.

Anyone can cook….

OK, I know that I have just stolen a line from a movie character (and an animated rat no less), but I truly feel that anyone can cook.

It amazes me when people tell me that they can’t cook. “Of course you can!” is always my reply. Most of these people still insist that they can’t, and I always wonder what makes them lack the confidence it takes to open up a cookbook and just go to town. There is nothing I love more than parking in the cookbook section of a book store. When I receive my Everyday Food Magazine in the mail every month, I sit down and read it cover to cover, trying to decide on the recipe I will attempt first. What’s great is that now my daughter is in on the action. She likes nothing better than to be my assistant.

What happened to the women who would turn out pot roasts and jello molds, organize pot luck dinners and bake sales?  My mom worked, and there was still dinner on the table every night, and she did the recipe swaps with co-workers, pot luck dinners and bake sales.

I guess that the reason that I love to be in the kitchen so much is because of my mom. My fondest and earliest childhood memories are of being in the kitchen with my mom, stirring something, working the mixer, lining up the ingredients on the counter. Reading off directions to my mom was one of the ways I learned how to read. One of my most vivid memories is the day when I was helping my mom make chocolate chip cookies and I lifted the mixer without turning it off.  My 1970’s Marcia Brady pigtails immediately got sucked into the beaters, and I was a cookie dough mess. But that didn’t stop me in the kitchen – a long soak in the bath to release me from the beaters and I was back in the kitchen.

A classmate from highschool recently renovated her apartment for the possibility of being forced to sell. She posted pictures of the kitchen remodel on facebook and I said “WOW the things you can do with that 6-burner stove!”. She told me that she didn’t know how to cook, that she always ordered or went out. I challenged her to try. I told her I would teach her, gave her some good sources for recipes, offered to come over and give lessons. I don’t know if I was the inspiration, or her beautiful new kitchen, but slowly she started. She opened cookbooks, hunted for recipes, gave it a go. And you know what she discovered? That she can cook, and she’s not so bad. She has started having dinner parties, and is even taking a class in Italian Cuisine at the CIA. And I am so proud of her efforts!

So if you are one of those people who thinks you can’t, just try. You may be slow to start, but I know you can do it. Cooking/baking is simply following a set of instructions. There may be some trial and error – hey, even I have some flops in the kitchen. But the kitchen is very forgiving. You can learn from your mistakes, and start the recipe fresh the next time, using what you have learned. You may not be a food geek like me – I cried when my husband brought home a 5Qt. KitchenAid stand mixer a few weeks ago – but you don’t have to be. Go to the library, take out some cookbooks, talk to friends to see what they recommend, buy a food magazine. Then start at the beginning – buy the ingredients, line them up on the counter, and start from the first step. Trust me, once you make one or two recipes, I think you will gain confidence and realize – Anyone CAN cook!

Food to Take Camping

So I’ve been camping 3 times this year so far.  All I ever usually take are hamburgers and hot dogs.  I do have a cast iron skillet but have yet to use it.  I need some good recipes.  Something original but not too hard.  I don’t want to spend hours over a campfire cooking a meal.  Any tips on cooking over a campfire would be useful as well.  I’m afraid I’ll burn whatever I’m trying to cook because of the difficulty in controling the heat.

Is there anything better than bacon?

Is there anything better than bacon?  I really don’t think so.  Bacon tastes good on just about anything.  What’s a potato without bacon?  Or a cheeseburger?  Whats more american than eggs and a couple gigantic strips of bacon?  From the first time I experienced the crunch of the crispy strips in my mouth I have been in love.

Alot of people say bacon isn’t good for you but so is everything else.  Whoever says bacon clogs your arteries and I’ll die I have one a simple reply.  I hope I die with a piece in my mouth.

Making Bread the Old-fashioned Way

I’ve been using a bread machine for years. My main issue with a bread machine is the size and shape of the loaf. It makes it entirely too large when you slice it. The other issue I have is the bread comes out too heavy. They are good for toasting, but as far as making sandwiches with it, the bread is much too heavy and fills you up fast.

Over the past year I’ve been trying to make bread the old-fashioned way, in an oven. I’ve tried numerous recipes that I’ve found online as well as in family style cookbooks. I could never get the bread to rise to my satisfaction. The recipes I’ve used in the past were also very plain and seemed over-simplified. They make it sound so easy “a caveman could do it” then when you get to the finish product you end up with something that is closer to a deflated football than a loaf of bread.

Following a recommendation by Jo Anne I went out and purchased The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. I was impressed on how much information the book had and the detail. A third of the book is on teaching the difference between flours, bowls, fermenting, along with lots of other important information. All the information that the other books and websites I’ve looked at lacked.

One of the main things I was doing wrong was my measurements. You would think a cup is a cup, right? Well no, the flour can easily become packed down so your cup you are measuring is actually a cup and a half. It throws your balance off and changes the recipe. If there’s not enough yeast and water to accompany the flour the dough is too dry and wont rise. The book recommends weighing the four to get an accurate amount. This way you are getting the same ratio of ingredients each and every time.

Another recommendation from the book was to use SAF brand instant yeast instead of active-dry. It’s a osmotolerant yeast meaning that sugar and acid is less likely to impede it’s function. I’ve found it to be much more sufficient than the active-dry.

The book also isn’t lacking in the recipe department. There’s almost 200 pages just on recipes alone. Everything from the everyday breads to specialty breads such as Portuguese Sweet Bread and Challah. The variety is so overwhelming it makes it difficult deciding what to make next.

Overall I am very pleased with this book. I’ve baked the Italian bread twice and both times they came out amazing. The slices were light and malleable making it easy to cut into thin slices for sandwiches. Next I’m planning on making the New York Deli-Rye bread. I’ll let you know how it comes out. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in making bread at home.

Fried Polenta

Now seriously, does it have to be fried?  I got this recipe from the book Everyday Italian written by Giada De Laurentiis.  She has got to be THE SKINNIEST chef in the world.  Don’t get me wrong.  I do like her recipes.  And I do like her show.  And obviously, I like her book or I would not have purchased it.  But how can someone who is so flippin’ skinny make something FRIED and remain skinny?

The basics of this recipe is to make a basic polenta recipe, spread it out in a pan, cool it in the fridge, cut it up, fry it in olive oil, sprinkle fresh grated parmesan on top, and dip in marinara sauce.  I didn’t have parmesan.  So I had sauce and fried polenta.  Not bad.  Would have been much better with the parmesan, as recommended in the recipe.  After all, it’s a FRIED recipe.  And anyone who knows me, KNOWS I love fried food.