Pip's - the best donuts in P-town

wee, warm, and wonderful

After dropping Darren off at Providence Park to stand in line for a GA early admission bracelet, Hen and I headed back east to Pip's Original Doughnuts. We got a taster plate so we could try them all while reading more of our book. We're almost done with the series.

Cookie Exchange 2011

In a word, this year's cookie exchange was brilliant. It is awesome to be friends with so many amazing women who bake and do it well. Our haul includes gluten-free chocolate chip, gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip, gluten-free pumpkin oatmeal bars with cream cheese frosting, apple pie cookies, peanut cookies with chocolate kisses, cream wafers, sugar cookies, orange cookies dipped in chocolate, and two types of cookies from Caroline I can't remember the names of. It's always fun to hang out with these ladies. One Henry Finn was a bit out of control - a melatonin update is in order - but he fell in line after I spoke with him briefly. I learned we might have entered the "fucking fours," which can be worse than the "terrible twos" and the "frustrated threes". All moms assured me that five - Yes, FIVE - is the magical age. One more year to go, I guess. I can't complain, I was thinking it would be horrific until Hen left for college. Anyway, Darr has informed me he isn't going to eat anymore ever again because his lunch was too big so I have to get cracking on this box o' goodies all by myself.

Someone is a year older!

Hint: It's not either of the cats, not the dog, not the recently turned 4-year old, not Frederic Von Hausen III, and not the person responsible for this post. It's the Canadian at the condo! Happy birthday, hoser!

To satisfy my need to buy gifts, I grabbed some liquor for the old man. It's always a safe bet. And Sesame Blues, one of his favorites. I also made Darr fried chicken (Hen's pick for papa's birthday dinner) with baked potatoes and corn. Dessert, per Darr's request, is a flourless chocolate cake. I used this recipe but since we have not yet tried it, I can't give you a rating on the recipe, although it did receive a 4-fork rating with some 283 reviews by strangers.)

Cookie Exchange 2010

This year's cookie exchange was a resounding success! Yesterday, Megan and I co-hosted the event and it all went off without a hitch. A bonus for me, because we held the exchange at Megan's I didn't have to do any clean up! I'm already looking forward to next year. And, no, our box isn't empty yet so we're feeling pretty good all around. We have more than enough in that box to take us to the holidays. Yay! There was an amazing selection of tasty treats - chocolate covered pretzels, gingerbread trees, cherry and pistachio shortbread, citrus and Grand Marnier cookies, coconut and chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cookies with browned butter frosting, pumpkin and raisin bars, chocolate covered peanut butter Ritz cracker sandwiches, oatmeal bars with chocolate chips, and chocolate cookies with dulce de leche. Serious yum factor.

I'm in the mood to bake

Last week I emailed Darr to ask around the office for baking suggestions since I am feeling an intense urge to bake at the same time I'm trying to be better about eating. Admittedly, it is not the mark of a genius to start counting calories near the holidays so my counting has seen some days where the numbers are above and beyond the target of just over 1400 calories per day, but baking is so cathartic for me that I am compelled to go forth with this venture. His office mates responded with a plethora of great baking suggestions, I have made a Google spreadsheet, and the baking has begun. I figure with my own baking desires and those suggestions, Darr should be able to take one to two items per week into work through the holidays and into the beginning of next year. Recently shared items include pumpkin cookies, roasted apple pie, buckeyes, Hungarian shortbread, and chocolate crinkle cookies. Upcoming items include Nanaimo bars, carrot cake, gingerbread cookies, chocolate cream pie, brownies, pie (my choice will probably be apple since it's the season), and mille feuille (which I'm having a hard time locating a recipe for). In addition to that, I'm making several things from the above list to take to our Thanksgiving feast at Darr's sister's place along with a pumpkin cheesecake. (I'm totally stoked about that one, I've never made cheesecake before.) What the list does not include is stuff I may want to make just because I feel like baking. Once the really great oranges hit the stores, you know an olive oil and orange cake is leaving this kitchen.

All this to say that I love, love, love to bake. So if you have any baking needs, email me. I'll totally make you something.

YUM!

The new recipe of the week was a dessert. A chocolate caramel wonder of happiness and joy. Thank you, Saveur. Thank you.

PieLab PDX

Pure pie awesomeness. We're heading back next Friday. And I imagine we'll continue to go every Friday until she closes up shop for the winter. A pie food cart, why didn't I think of that?

Dinners at the condo

In an attempt to motivate myself to cook outside my comfort zone, I've started taking pics of Hen's dinners (which are typically the dinners we eat, too) and posting the shots on Flickr. So far, the meals have been pretty sedate - tacos, roasted chicken, pasta - but next week I've got chicken biryani and gyros on the list so hopefully it's working. I'm currently watching Master Chef (on Hulu if anyone else wants to catch a few episodes) and am in awe of folks who can get a couple of ingredients and whip up restaurant quality meals in an hour. That's talent. It proves to me that I am a baker because I'm a recipe person. In the kitchen I'm learning to substitute mostly because I hate having to go to the store a second (or third or fourth) time when I've already started cooking and notice an ingredient missing. This new skill served me very well in the banana recipe I recently tweaked - using two bananas instead of three and plain yogurt instead of buttermilk. We're having some folks over for dinner on Sunday, we haven't hosted a meal in a long time, and I'm pretty happy because I will be doing a lot of cooking. In the past, my role was more of a sous chef and dessert maker. Since we have young palates to satisfy as well as, um, slightly older palates, I making two desserts - pots de creme and lime sherbert with shortbread. We'll list the full menu later on. Cooking is fun, people!

Yes, add MORE sugar

Hat tip: Darren

Recipe Corner: Strawberry sheet cake

There is something about foul days in spring that make me long for a nice warm meal of chicken and biscuits, and it just so happens that I know Saveur has such a recipe and that I can access it online. Woot! When I went to their site to look it up, I found another recipe online that intrigued me - strawberry sheet cake. Hmmm...weird, right? So I had to make it. And good thing, too, because this recipe is awesome. It's got strawberries and is cake and there is a strawberry cream cheese frosting. Yummy!

Ingredients:

Cake

12 oz fresh strawberries, stems removed and chopped

2 cups sugar, plus two teaspoons

2 cups flour

2 sticks butter

2 eggs lightly beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting

1/4 pound (1 stick) butter at room temperature

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup crushed strawberries (reserved from above)

2 teaspoons lime juice

1/4 lime zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Cake

Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of water over chopped strawberries and let sit at room temperature for an hour. Blend in food processor at low speed for a few seconds. Take 1/2 cup of strawberry mixture for the frosting and use the remaining crushed strawberries for the cake.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease 9"x13" pan.

Sift the flour and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter on low and then whisk it with the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and baking soda. Add to the flour mixture and then stir in cup of crushed strawberries. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes. Cake is done when knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let it cool and top with strawberry cream cheese frosting.

Note: The cake will be dark.

Frosting:

Whip together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar until blended. Add strawberries, lime juice, lime zest, and vanilla. Spread over cooled cake.

To answer Dr. A's question

Nope, not on top of pie. It's a meringue-based dessert called pavlova. Yum! The sugary sweetness is balanced with a tart plain yogurt whipped into unsweetened heavy cream and drizzled with lemon curd (the drizzling occurs after the addition of fruit - in this instance strawberries and kiwis). The outer crust is crisp, the inner part has a consistency lighter than marshmallow cream. I had hoped to make this for the ladies (Amber, Megan and Jen, Caroline) who came over today with their youngsters for some Valentine's Day cookie decorating and card making. Alas, I was short several of the ingredients and did not have time to make the base this morning before they arrived. (Recipe calls for baking the meringue for one hour and then letting it remain in the cooling oven for an additional three to four hours.) Here's a pic of the finished product. It's a new condo favorite.

That is one big pile of ...

MERINGUE!

Naked babies and bourbon cake

We hosted our first dinner of 2009 yesterday when the McMillers and Miss Erin Beatrix joined us for an evening of food, libations, more food, bourbon cake, and wine. It didn't take long for the babies to strip down to their skivvies and run around the condo. I'm happy to report that despite the copious amounts of alcohol consumed, the adults remained fully clothed. This isn't that type of household, folks. (And, really, it wasn't copious - us lightweights didn't even finish the entire bottle of wine.) We ventured outside the norm, pan-frying duck for the main course. Duck, I say! We also tried a new sweet potato recipe and an old favorite, roasted carrots. Mmm... The kids consumed way too many olives but behaved fabulously. Henry was able to teach Miss Erin about climbing on the coffee table, which we allow because we believe in utilizing bad parenting techniques so Henry will have solid examples to bitch about with his future psychiatrist.

I feel like baking

I want to spend the entire day in the kitchen. I won't, of course, but I'd like to. For now, we'll just have to settle for munching on the brownies I made earlier. And, if we get motivated, we'll go down to the river where there is an abundance of blackberries ripe for picking and get enough for me to make a blackberry pie. It'll be a first for me. I've never made blackberry pie before. Do I dare go it alone sans recipe? I'm guessing I would need a touch of sugar (perhaps a quarter cup?) and maybe some lemon zest, a tablespoon or two of flour, and lots of berries. Big heaping piles of berries. Oh, and we'll also need some heavy cream and milk so I can make homemade ice cream. Because you can't have pie without ice cream. I know there are some people who eat pie without ice cream but they are eating pie wrong. And now, I've got to go make us some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Maybe it's the weather. It's easier to stand in a hot kitchen when it's relatively cold outside.

Online winnings!

Knock on wood this continues... I'm on a winning streak. So far in the past few years I've won an energy-efficient washing machine (Whirlpool) from Seventh Generation, two pairs of BabyLegs, an iTunes gift certificate for writing a caption to a photo, and now, a cookbook from Erin Cooks. Sweet.

Let them eat pie

When Henry and I hit the store earlier this afternoon, the produce department had a stack of rhubarb just waiting for the likes of me. So I bought it, and despite the fact that Henry was a touch on the needy side this afternoon - I believe he's both teething and going to accomplish crawling soon, I was able to make a pie. Mmmm, rhubarb pie.

The first time I successfully made my own pie crust, I took a picture and sent it to my mom. That picture of that crust is still proudly displayed on her fridge. Perhaps I should print this one out and send it to her as well, to show her how far my pie-making abilities have come.

Cacao: Where drinking chocolate is possible

I have now been to Cacao twice and am nearly certain - perhaps another venture there is in order to be sure - that drinkable chocolate is a good, nay, fantastically great thing. Happy, melted, drinkable chocolate should be available everywhere. Go to DMV to renew your license - drinkable chocolate. Hit the doctor's office for your annual checkup - how'd you like some drinkable chocolate to go with that pap sm--...wait. OK. Maybe not everywhere.

Monsieur Henry and I met up with Mademoiselle E. B. and Ms. A to nibble on tasty delights and drink chocolate earlier this week. (Wednesday but because I was participating in Wordless Wednesday I couldn't post an entry about it.) Per usual, the babies did a wonderful job of being cute and relatively quiet. This is much appreciated by their parents and the other patrons.

The Product:
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. The chocolate lover is presented with myriads of chocolate opportunities at Cacao. Dark chocolate, very dark chocolate, extremely, very dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate nibs, chocolates in fancy packaging, chocolate wrapped in wax paper, chocolate in boxes, chocolate for eating, drinking, absorbing by slowly allowing it to melt on the tongue, and chocolates from all over the globe. Have I mentioned there is chocolate? We each got a large cup o' creamy drinking chocolate and then partook of some of the chocolatey goodness of the edible variety. For me, one bacon caramel chocolate, one salted caramel chocolate, and one peanut butter and jelly chocolate. For Ms. A, one salted caramel chocolate, one cheese chocolate, and one Earl Grey chocolate. The bacon and caramel was weird. (I think Darr referred to it as "gross".) The PB & J chocolate was surprisingly refreshing, meaning I liked it and would definitely order it again. And the salted caramel was my favorite. Yum.

The Atmosphere:
Cacao is a little chocolate-filled shop with a few scattered tables providing folks places to sit. Shelves along one side wall and along half the back wall are filled with an assortment of chocolates. Watch for the step just inside the door. We saw a little girl trip and go flying out the door before hitting the ground. Ouch. The drinking chocolate is behind the counter, which displays individual chocolates for sale. The owners appeared to enjoy our little ones - I caught one guy behind the counter smiling at the babies a few times - and also seemed comfortable when we fed them, so I'm tagging Cacao as a breast feeding-friendly establishment. For chocolate cravings, this is the place to go.

(Left to right: Mademoiselle E.B., chocolates, Monsieur Henry)