brownies in oranges

this year i decided not to have a birthday cake and instead made birthday brownies in oranges! i first got the idea from the cooking for geeks book that i won for the pluto video at dotAstronomy last month! i combined this with a slightly modified version of a brownie recipe from a moosewood cookbook... and voila!

to do this, chop the tops off of several oranges, cut around the edges and scoop out the insides. i used some full sized oranges and cut along the edge where the pulp meets the pith (the white parts), then cut two diagonals along the center and scooped out the edible stuff with a spoon. the juices resulted in a fabulous glass of oranges juice, but the few easy-peel oranges i used were much easier to gut.

make your favorite brownie recipe, or brownie mix from a box, and fill up each orange skin to within 1 centimeter from the top.

place in baking sheets and bake at ~350 degrees fahrenheit (~165 degrees celcius) for ~30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. i ended up cooking mine for almost an hour which worried me, but they ended up tasting fine and quite fudge-like throughout!

definitely keep some of the pulp inside the orange peel if possible because it keeps the brownies moist and tasting of orange! when we arrived home from dinner, the whole place smelled of chocolate oranges. yum!

green eggs and cous cous

for my birthday last year, a very good friend gave me the flavour thesaurus by niki segnit as a gift. i have grown to really enjoy this random not-quite-a-cookbook! not only is it a lovely libro...

but it's fun to explore. there are 16 categories (mustardy, green & grassy, meaty, etc...) and 99 flavours that the book pairs together giving recipe ideas, anecdotes, historical information, and other unique bits about the chosen ingredients. if i have a craving for a particular food item, i look in the book to see possible pairings and generally find some obvious suggestions and some out of the ordinary and fun ideas too!

for instance, i had an abundance of basil that i needed to use, so i looked up basil in the book and found myself completely charmed after reading the entire entry under the heading Basil & Egg:


When in the mood to make eggs green
(To clarify just what I mean,
Not 'eco' green, like Prius cars
But coloured green, like men from Mars),
In your mental pan you should
Consider only what tastes good.
Rule out at once the croquet lawn,
The waistcoat of a leprechaun.
Green ink will only make you ill,
As would a mashed-up dollar bill.
Avocado'd be a waste:
In scrambled eggs it's hard to taste.
Green tea - a very current fad -
Would be presposterously bad.
Leeks and lettuces lack the might:
When cooked they'll be less green, more white.
Peas and peppers taste persuasive,
But their colour's not pervasive.
Broccoli all but makes the mark,
Except its green's a trifle dark;
Celery, okra, courgettes, kale
In hue and flavour mostly fail.
Of the green things that we tested
Basil simply can't be bested.
To scramble eggs you add pesto,
Stir it well, and then, hey presto -
Green eggs. Season. Serve with ham.
(Do not prepare for folk named Sam.)



i immediately made pesto! the green eggs on toast were not quite as green as i imagined while reading the poem, but i mixed the remaining pesto in with some cous cous and vegetables and the flavours all came together beautifully.

cherpumple

meanwhile back in the USA, my cousin and her new husband introduced the family to the monster of all desserts, the condominium of cakes, the after dinner answer to the turducken, a confectionary delight that could have come from no where in the world other than my home country: the cherpumple.

yes, ladies and gentlemen, a cherpumple is a pumpkin pie surrounded by spice cake, topped with an apple pie inside white cake, topped with a cherry pie baked inside chocolate cake, all covered in flattering frosting.

truly astonishing! i seriously wish i could have witnessed this event and tasted the tower!

want to make your own cherpumple? watch this video.

thanks to my sister for sending photos!

the art and science of cooking

this is a photo from the upcoming book modernist cuisine: the art and science of cooking. WANT!

via fresh photons

things i'll miss about england

tomorrow i move away from england, my home of the last 2 years and 3 months. i have to admit i'm emotionally exhausted from saying so many big goodbyes, but i'm completely over dealing with all the preparations for moving across the world.


things i will miss about england

the sound of the accent, in general, but also how geographically quickly the accents vary!

being called "love" or "duck"

the subtle and hilarious humo(u)r

riding on the upper floor of a double decker bus, in the front seat!

the variety of locally brewed, tasty, real ales. and ciders. and whisky...

satisfying late night cravings for chips!

premier league football

afternoon tea, and the arguments about the "proper" way to add milk to tea

pub quizzes (i only ever won one during my time in england, but not for lack of trying!)

running along the canals

my city center flat and walking to shops

come dine with me

rambling thru the unbelievably bright green countryside

sandwiches from homemade.

participating in sixty symbols

postdoc lunches (PDL), specifically at the vic!

unforgettable friendships.



things i will not miss about blighty

the weather

general moaning and the expectation things will inevitably go wrong: "typical!"

friday and saturday night debauchery by the locals (lack of clothes year round, incredible drunkenness, etc...)

invisible queues ("An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one." - George Mikes)

the irrational excesses of english politeness

lack of eye contact

not speaking to strangers, or in most cases, not even acknowledging the existence of other people, unless, of course, one is trying to sell the big issue, or sharing the silent acknowledgment of the impudence of a queue jumper.

confusing one-way streets that are practically impossible to navigate, mostly because the street signs are purposely hidden!

riding my bike in the rain

the full english breakfast

brits asking me to imitate the british accent and then laughing at me when i cant

"i cant be bothered" to come up with anymore right now, but if youre curious about any of these aspects of the english culture, i can highly recommend the book watching the english: the hidden rules of english behaviour by kate fox. in her socialogical study, she hilariously captures the peculiarities of living with the english. reading this book completely changed my perspective and experience here.

cheers, england!

white chocolate pumpkin cookies

today is the 3rd birthday of this little miss. her big brother and i made some white chocolate pumpkin cookies to celebrate. she approved :)


in fact, the cookies have been such a success that i thought i'd share a recipe.

apologies to the brits who weigh flour and such with kitchen scales, but most people (that i know) in the US do not own them, so i couldnt measure the gravitational pull of the earth's mass on the individual ingredients.


white chocolate pumpkin cookies

8 oz fresh pumpkin (~2 cups)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup self-rising flour
3 1/2 ounces white chocolate chunks

yields ~25 cookies

preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

scoop out the seeds** of the pumpkin. cut away the skin and grate the flesh.

beat together the butter and sugar until creamy (i used the back of a spoon). add the grated pumpkin, then the egg, oatmeal, flour, and chocolate chunks.

grease cookie sheets. place spoonfuls of batter on the baking sheets and flatten them with a spoon. bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and no longer shiny. leave cookies on baking sheets for 2 minutes then move to wire rack to cool.

eat while they're warm and enjoy... then eat more after they cool!


** separate goop from seeds, dry seeds, and roast the seeds!

a plethora of condiments

the rose and crown pub in nottingham offers a plethora of condiments to choose from when eating in their establishment:


ironically, HP sauce, which is commonly called "brown sauce," has a blue packet.

i wondered whether the contents of the packets offered as wide a variety of colors as their containers. the answer is simply, no.



we considered doing a blind taste test in our office to see whether people could identify each condiment by taste alone. in the end, we didnt go thru with this experiment. the results didnt seem to be worth the flavours.

a world cup of crisps

in honor of the world cup next month, a pub near my house is offering sausages from a dozen different countries playing in the tournament. it really made me laugh when i saw the sign, but now i'm curious about what sausages will be featured from various countries like the US, france, and even england. so of course i will be watching at least a few matches there!

i think the sausage variety is a much better idea than the one developed by Walkers crisps (potato chips). they have created 15 new flavours of crisps from different countries in the world cup, including: South African sweet chutney, Spanish chicken paella, Irish stew, American cheeseburger, Japanese chicken teriyaki, etc...



you should read the hilarious results of charlie brooker's taste test.

i mean, the british love their crisps and they certainly have an arsenal of unique and interesting flavours already on the shelves (eg. "prawn cocktail" or "smoky bacon"), but i think maybe this has gone too far....?

cheeseburger in acid

good to know that concentrated hydrochloric acid does things to a mcdonalds cheeseburger. but still, yuck!



this video comes from the new branch of the periodic table of videos: molecular videos!

food that doesn't rot

i applaud nonna joann for her experimental efforts! she bought a happy meal from mcdonalds and let it sit on her shelf for an entire year to see what would happen to the food inside the box, and to contemplate the reality of our fast food society.

she writes, "It smelled delicious for a few days. I’d get a whiff of those yummy French fries every time I walked into my office. After a week or so, you could hardly smell it. My husband worried that when the food began to decompose, there would be a terrible odor in our home. He also worried the food would attract ants and mice. He questioned my sanity."

the photo below is the happy meal ONE YEAR AFTER it was purchased. the results of her experiment have disturbed me.


the contents DID NOT DECOMPOSE or mold or change appearance in any appreciable way. seriously, this is scary!

except for honey, ALL things classified as "food" should decompose. the truth of our species is that everything we eat was once living, from plants to animals. i know its easy to remove ourselves from this fact when so much food at stores is offered in processed forms and comes to us in boxes and cans, but that doesnt change where our natural food sources come from or how our bodies use it.

nonna goes on: "Food is broken down into it’s essential nutrients in our bodies and turned into fuel. Our children grow strong bodies, when they eat real food. Flies ignore a Happy Meal and microbes don’t decompose it, then your child’s body can’t properly metabolize it either. Now you know why it’s called “junk food.”

I think ants, mice and flies are smarter than people, because they weren’t fooled. They never touched the Happy Meal. Children shouldn’t either."

amen.

yogurt vs. gasoline

or... bike route versus street route in NYC. who do you think wins the race between the neistat brothers?

the food of chiang mai, thailand

i've decided to dedicate a whole post to photos and stories of the food that i encountered in chiang mai, thailand. as anyone who knows me or has traveled with me knows very well: i enjoy a good meal. my uncle once commented that i have "a healthy appetite" after i stayed with their family for a week, so you get the idea: i'm a fan of food. and chiang mai has been a culinary highlight of my travels!

i was mesmerized by the choice of ingredients...


... that she pounded together inside the big tree trunk for a spicy salad. everything is spicy hot.


corn and red beans in your yogurt?


most apartments around the city lack kitchens, so people either create makeshift stoves on their balconies, or eat from the plentiful street carts. the food is cheap, tasty, unidentifiable (mostly), and always available!




frog's legs ready for frying....


mango sticky rice - YUM!


smoothie me!


night markets occur most nights all over the city and of course offer lots of variety of food too! how many ways can one attempt to spell "sausage"?


she yelled at me for taking her picture... continuously... until i bought some of her tiny fried eggs.


i'll try anything wrapped up in such a leaf!


i spent one long, food-full day at a lovely cooking class!




the specialty of the day was learning to make curry paste. no matter how much you think you can take, always add WAY LESS chili than they suggest! also, remember to wash your hands several times after chopping chilis. i forgot once and i couldnt feel my nose for 30 minutes after i accidentally touched it. painful!!




we sat in little classrooms for lessons before attempting to create the tasty dishes.


best dish of the day!


the dessert was good too, though!



KFC appeals to the thai clientele by adding a nice layer of green worms to their sundaes...?


liquor counts as food, right? cheers!

star wars cakes

why didnt i think to get a star wars theme cake for my 30th birthday? there's always the 31st to plan for...




see the whole set at funcrawler.com

6 day banana

of the seven days of the banana shelf life, day 6 looks perfect to me!


link

bento box

i need someone to make me bento box lunches everyday! yum!

rubik's cubewich

introducing the deliciously creative rubik's cubewich, spotted under the headline... "Finally, a Rubik's Cube I Can 'Solve' in Under a Minute!"


trying to think of the best non-meat version... suggestions?

link via erin o'brien.

the tomatoes are coming!

i'm pretty amazed that these windowsill tomatoes are poking through already. the windows are huge, but theyre north-facing! i hope they survive...

squeez bacon

i used to say that i was a vegetarian who experienced the occasional pleasure of a good piece of bacon. but this is just wrong.


i hope squeez bacon is a joke, but i cant really tell.

wow.

thanks sara... i think!

38 hours across thailand

miraculously, all forms of public transport i needed to use yesterday conspired to work with me! the day started with a 45 minutes taxi ride from our hostel to the pier of koh chang island. the taxi consisted of two benches in the back of a pick up truck, with our luggage tossed on top of a loose covering. then we took a ferry to mainland thailand where we waited (ahem, sweated) for one hour until the bus arrived. the bus was supposed to take 6 hours, but it arrived in bangkok uncharacteristically ahead of schedule, giving me more time to say au revoir to my fabulous traveling companions!

i took a tuk-tuk to the train station and really enjoyed bargaining with the tuk-tuk driver over the price! i had previously asked a travel agent about how much the tuk-tuk would cost; she said 60 baht. the driving initially offered me 150!? when i countered with 50, he looked shocked, and then smiled, and we settled on 80 (about $2 for a 20 minute ride). haggling can be great or horrible.... not much in between.

i arrived at the train station, bought my 2nd class overnight sleeper compartment ticket to chiang mai, which i had been worried might be sold out! the train confused me at first because i had no idea how the "sleeper" system worked, but i eventually figured it out and the ride was mostly comfortable. it ended up taking nearly 16 hours to get to the chiang mai station!!! then i took another tuk-tuk and waited about 30 minutes for the girl i'm staying with here to come meet me.

whew! i'm exhausted from all the sitting, broken up by moments of backpack-laden excitement!

chiang mai is a cute little city with great alley ways, coffee shops and message parlors everywhere. my first point of business was to sign up for a cooking class ;)

pizza topping sudoku

some people love sudoku, some are bored by it, some can't be bothered enough to learn how solve it. i like to play an occasional round when i'm on an airplane or visiting my dad.

but one thing is definitely true - i am enamored by this sudoku method of spreading pizza toppings so that they are evenly dispersed on each piece! brilliant!


haha! i hate when all the toppings get concentrated into one section. i've only ever made round pizzas at home though (and never have the topping dispersion problem), but i might have to try a square crust just to play this game!

my nine toppings? spinach, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatos, red bell peppers, onions, basil, mushrooms, garlic, and something else....