Only on your birthday.

In a perfect world I could serve a cake with one slice missing. I could make a cake in the daylight hours, cut a slice out and spend 20 minutes taking pictures, changing settings, creating the scene around the plate. In this way I could photograph properly; in the right light, at my leisure, before people arrive instead of quickly rushing to snap pictures and then scurrying off with a slice for a rushed mini photo shoot while everyone else eats and mingles. If I could just take one slice out I wouldn't have to worry that my pictures won't come out in the dim evening light. If I could just take one slice out, I could even put it back untouched. I could be clever about it and spread the frosting just so.* Then no one would notice right away. They may, however, find it strange when they don't see me snapping away at the shutter and would quickly discover what had transpired. Of course since it's a perfect world, it would be okay.  

However, since we don't live in a perfect world, and I can't actually take a slice out of a cake made for someone else, I reserve this right for my own birthday cake. 

It's my birthday, it's my cake, I made it, I do what I want. 

I took a piece out this afternoon, photographed it and ate it, right there as I was lying on the floor with the camera. Then without even thinking twice I cut another one and ate that too. 

If I had predicted what part of this cake I would like best I easily would have guessed the frosting; but when I tasted it, it was not the frosting, but the actual cake that demanded another taste. Sure the frosting complemented it nicely but it was the cake that I wanted to keep eating bite by delectable bite.

I'm not sure why I made a carrot cake. It's certainly not my favorite cake but something pulled me to it. When I thought of what I would make for today, I didn't even blink twice. This was it, I was certain - I wanted this cake. My mouth must have already known the warm autumn flavor that awaits, my nose already taking in the rich cinnamon emanating from my oven and lingering on as it bakes. I think it was the frosting that caught my attention, after all what sounds better than fresh ricotta lightly sweetened with maple syrup?? In the end though, the frosting was a bit disappointing, forgettable, the maple flavor almost too faint to detect. On the other hand the cake, well the cake was perfect. Moist and richly flavored with cinnamon, the prefect texture thanks to finely ground carrots instead of coarsely grated. I did as Shannalee suggested and baked it the day before to let the flavors come together, don't skip this step and you too will posses a deep seated need to cut a slice (or two) before you serve it to anyone else. Just remember, only on your birthday.

*This is sort of like the cut-a-piece-of-cake-from-middle-and-fill-it-with-frosting trick 

Spelt Carrot Cake

Adapted from Ripe the Organic Grocer via Food Loves Writing

I used a 10-inch spring form pan because I didn't want to buy a 9-inch round - either works fine.

Replace the white whole wheat flour with white spelt flour to make this gluten free. Next time I might even just try 100% whole grain spelt flour.

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 cup whole grain spelt flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups raw turbinado sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 large eggs

3/4 cup olive oil

1 pound carrots processed finely in a food processor

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix eggs lightly. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add egg and oil, and mix through. Add grated carrot, then mix till combined. Bake in a greased nine-inch-round cake pan lined with greased parchment paper, for around 35 to 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from tin.

Ricotta Maple Frosting

To address my disappointment in the frosting - next time I'm going to try smoothing out the ricotta in a food processor and straining it in cheesecloth (the way I would for cannoli filling). Then beating it with vanilla and maple syrup and gradually adding just a bit of powered sugar to thicken it as needed. If its not too thin without the powered sugar then I'll leave that out and add 1 extra tablespoon of maple syrup instead. For now I have left the recipe as is.

2 cups fresh ricotta

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix ingredients together with a spoon

Frost cake.

Tastes like Okemo - The C-Building to be exact.

I swear the title of this post makes sense. Really, it does.
You see, it all started yesterday afternoon when I got a CRAZY craving for cream of wheat. I say crazy partly because it turned me into a crazy person and partly because I was sitting at work in the sun in 95 degrees - how could I possibly want hot cereal? But I did.


By the time I got home I had somewhat forgotten about it and went about making a normal adult dinner. You know, the kind with meat and vegetables that doesn't resemble baby food and have sugar in it. After all it's still summer and I should take advantage of the barbecue while I can (...that sounds like foreshadowing for an announcement...not yet though - not until it's definite).

(See? Proper adult dinner).

Anyway, I forgot all about that bowl of hot mush until I woke up this morning. All. I. Wanted. Was. Cream. of. Wheat. And not the lighter-made-with-mostly-water kind that I make in recent years. I wanted the the mostly-milk-and-a-chunk-of-butter kind. The kind I used to eat before skiing when I was a little. Back when I hated skiing. I remember it being so much work just to get dressed in the morning; It took forever and I hated the whole process. I loved Vermont though. We almost always went to Okemo and for many years we rented a condo in the "C" Building. I'll never forget that pullout couch with the ugly blue sheets, or the kitchen with the off-white and brown cabinets and dishes to match. Breakfast was always Cream of Wheat with white sugar (gasp!), sometimes with a hershey kiss or two slowly melting and swirled around the bowl and always with a piece of butter melted in last minute. The best part was when my Mom would forget to stir it for a few minutes and the little lumps would form. Sometimes when I make it now I intentionally don't stir it as often as I should. I know, that's gross, but clumpy carbohydrates are the best.

So back to this morning.  Milky, cream of wheat with white sugar and a touch of salt to balance it out. And the butter. I wasn't giving that up. Every bite tasted like morning in the "C"-Building and If I closed my eyes and didn't think about the wall of heat outside my cold air conditioned kitchen - it almost felt like Vermont.

Okemo Morning Cream-of-Wheat

Best eaten immediately, especially before wrestling with your ski boots.

Serves 2

1/3 cup Farina (not the instant or the two minute kind)

1 cup milk (any fat percentage you prefer)

1 cup water

1 tablespoon white sugar (you could use another kind of sugar but this is traditional for me)

pinch of salt

salted butter to serve (optional)

Hershey Kisses to serve (only if it's a chocolate-for-breakfast kind of day)

Bring water and milk to simmer over medium high heat (don't let it boil because it will boil up and out of the pot). Add farina and stir. If it's not boiling over you can leave the heat on medium high, if its threatening to explode all over your stove, turn the heat down a bit.

Cook until thickened, about 5-7minutes stirring frequently (less if you like clumps like me...just be careful to not let it burn on the bottom).

When farina is thick stir in 1 tablespoon of white sugar and divide into two bowls.

sprinkle each with a hefty pinch of kosher salt and top with a thing pat of salted (or unsalted) butter.

I like to let the butter pool a little and then stir it in. 
Swirl in a Hershey Kiss if you feel like a chocolatey start to your day.

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

I'd like to start by saying who get's sick in the summer?? Apparently me. It never fails, right around this time of year when the temperature starts flip flopping, I get sick. The achy, feverish kind of sick that makes you go stir-crazy because you know you should stay home but you're just so bored out of your mind from sitting around. Yea, it's the worst kind. The only upside is that I eat whatever I want. If that means no green vegetables for the entire duration then fine. Probably not the best way to get better quickly but hey, if I want 4 slices of sourdough toast with butter, that's what I'm having.

Even if it's not the queasy-stomach kind of sick I usually want super bland little-kid kind of foods. When I had pneumonia last November, I ate nothing but Frosted Flakes with milk and sliced bananas for at least 3 days. Other popular sick choices are plain pasta with butter and parmesan, pastina with the same, grilled cheese, saltine crackers, challah bread, and ginger ale (the kind with real ginger in it). Basically all carbs. What can I say? They're comforting and delicious. Of course there is also the trusty chicken soup - also known as "Jewish Penicillin". Usually not what I want but also the one thing I force myself to eat anyway because I know it will actually help. I wanted to kick myself when I remembered I never made it last weekend as I had originally planned. Lucky for me, there is a Ben's Kosher Deli (any of you downstate-New-Yorkers know what I'm talking about?) literally 30 seconds 2 minutes walking distance from my couch. I drank a mug full of Ben's "Penicillin" last night and now my obligation is done - at least until tonight.


Today, I wanted pancakes. With blueberries. They made being sick worth it.

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

Makes about 6 medium (not the gargantuan diner size) pancakes or enough for 2-3 people.

If you use frozen blueberries (as I did) do not thaw them first. I will say, fresh blueberries are better. 

I like to use salted butter to cook pancakes because the touch of salt rounds out the flavor and plays nicely off the sweetness of the maple syrup. If you prefer, you could use olive oil or unsalted butter instead. Of course, in my opinion, the only way to cook pancakes is on cast iron.

1 cup homemade buckwheat pancake mix (see below for recipe)

1 cup low-fat buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with 1 teaspoon white vinegar)

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 egg 

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

salted butter or oil for greasing the skillet or pan

Combine well. 

Ladle on to a hot cast iron skillet and sprinkle some of the blueberries into the top of the pancake.

Flip pancakes when bubbles start to appear.

Homemade Buckwheat Pancake Mix

Makes 12 cups.

Since I'm only one person and I make pancakes something like a whopping 4 times a year, I quartered this mix to make only 3 cups. I also store it in the freezer because whole grain flours, especially buckwheat, go rancid very quickly due to the higher fat content. If you are a normal American family, you probably have the ability to go through a few more pancakes than me and will have no problem finishing up this 12 cup mix. On the other hand, If pancakes 4 times a year sounds more like you don't worry; I took the liberty of quartering the measurements for you as well. 

4 cups buckwheat flour

4 cups whole-wheat flour

4 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup Turbinado sugar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

2 Tablespoons Aluminum-free Baking Powder

1 Tablespoon Baking Soda

To make only 3 cups of mix

1 cups buckwheat flour

1 cups whole-wheat flour

1 cups all-purpose flour

 2 Tablespoons Turbinado sugar

1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 Tablespoon Aluminum-free Baking Powder

1/2 Tablespoon Baking Soda

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Using a sturdy wire whisk, mix ingredients together thoroughly. Using a funnel, scoop mix into jars and top with a lid. Label and store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use. 

Not my best idea.

If you had been in my kitchen last week, when I was grating up a zucchini, you probably would have said "Hey, putting zucchini in your chocolate chip cookies is not one of the best ideas you've ever had", and you know what? You would have been right. However, I had a lot of zucchini to use up when I stumbled across this recipe from Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (not one of the best books I've read either). The idea seemed interesting and I did want to get rid of that zucchini. She swears it's completely undetectable and even kid tested. I don't know what kids she's been feeding these to because, I have a high tolerance for odd, healthy things in my baked goods and I certainly taste the zucchini. That being said, I don't really mind it. It tastes like chocolate chip zucchini bread in the form of cookies. In fact, even the texture is fairly similar; A little too soft and cake-y for my taste (although some people like soft cake-y cookies so that's not necessarily bad). 

Would I make them again? Probably not. I don't actually like zucchini bread all that much. If zucchini bread is your favorite summer cake - these cookies were made for you. If you prefer to keep your vegetables out of your dessert, try making my favorite chocolate chip cookies and click here for an easy way to use up that zucchini.

Lucky for me, I have the best friends in the world (aka. hungry boys who will eat anything that fits the criteria 'free' and 'homemade' and most things that don't). Either they really did like them, or they are just good at being supportive because they ate every last one.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Makes about two dozen

1 egg, beaten

1⁄2 cup butter, softened

1⁄2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 tbsp. vanilla extract 

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1⁄2 tsp baking soda 

1⁄4 tsp salt 

1⁄4 tsp cinnamon

1⁄4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup finely shredded zucchini 

12 oz chocolate chips Stir these into other ingredients, mix well. Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350°, 10 to 15 minutes.

An August Sun.

Have you ever noticed how the sun feels different in different seasons or even during the same one. Sometimes it's a gradual change and sometimes it's a quick flip flop. You go to bed one night exhausted from the humidity and wake up the next morning to the forgiving dry heat of late summer. The air is less heavy, the sun is in a different place and, oh my, there is a breeze! Green tomatoes turn red, stone fruits are suddenly sweeter, and basil continues to grow in abundance. The sun is a little lower in the sky than it was at the same hour just a month before, but that's not all; somehow, some way, it's just a little different. You can't quite explain why, it's just different than it was a few days before.

Last saturday, that is precisely what happened. It was still just July 31st but I woke up to an August sun.
For me, August is the summer that I love. It's the month of fresh tomato salads and more local corn that you thought you could ever possibly eat. It's zucchini from one of the only two remaining farms in Nassau County. It's homemade pickles (recipe soon!), long bike rides and ice cream after rock climbing (soft serve please!). Best of all, it's the month of assembling foods instead of cooking them; because the best way to eat foods this fresh, is with minimal alteration.

I stumbled across Shannalees's post about peaches and basil and the recipe looked so good that it was the very next thing I ate. Coincidentally, I seem to want a cool blob of  ricotta cheese on everything that I eat these days and that's exactly what was dropped on top of her open-face sandwich.


Because I have to be difficult, I made a few of my own changes like, adding arugula, leaving off the butter and honey and swapping the sourdough for whole seeded rye (it's what I had at home). I also swapped the peach for a nectarine because, again, it's what I had at home.

Nectarines and Basil on Toast

Adapted from Food Loves Writing. 

Serves one.

One large slice whole rye bread (or whatever sliced bread you like)

Small handful baby arugula or baby spinach

One nectarine, sliced

A couple leaves of fresh basil (I picked it from my garden!)

A few blobs of ricotta (If you're near NYC I like Colabro brand the best)

Sea salt and black pepper

Toast bread. Top with arugula then sliced nectarine and basil. Drop small blobs of ricotta on top and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. 

Enjoy immediately!

Beyond any muffin.

I never liked scones.

They are almost always too dry or too doughy, usually too dense and inevitably resemble crumbly lead balls. Appearance is no help either - generally the more appealing they look the worse they taste. If I bothered to eat them more frequently I may occasionally stumble across one worth eating but, since the odds are never in my favor, I usually don't chance it.

In spite of this, my dad brought home freshly baked blueberry scones from Fairway a few weeks ago. He piled them in a basket along side the croissants and a few oversized muffins and plopped them on the counter with a grin. We usually agree that Fairway's baked goods are not very good; but these came out of the oven just before he scooped them up and maybe it was my imagination, but they were almost still warm when I broke into one.

They had a crisp sugared exterior and instead of the typical smooth triangular cut, they had rustic craggy shape. They looked better than any scone I've ever seen which, if going by my past scone experiences, means they should have tasted awful. Yet against all better judgment I took a bite and unleashed a new found love for scones.

I'm almost sorry I did. 

Almost.

The perfectly crystalized crust yielded to a tender crumb and the blueberries whispered their praise for summer with each plump berry. The contrast of crust to to crumb elevated it way beyond any muffin and I happily ate one, completely plain, while thinking of all the scone recipes I've skimmed and never really given a fair chance. Now I remembered one in particular that caught my eye. 

I settled on this recipe over all the rest because it uses buttermilk instead of cream which adds a nice tanginess and rounds out the flavor. It also cuts down on the fat but that's really only a drop in the bucket since there is still a full cup of butter per twelve scones. I also like that it recipe doesn't require rolling out the dough. This means less mess to clean up plus the less you handle the dough the less likely the final result will be tough. 

If we're being honest, I also just really like pictures. I'm far more likely to make a recipe if the picture looks good and, as I've said before, The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook is one of the most beautiful around. 

Blueberry Scones
I replaced some of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour with no trouble, next time I will probably cut out all of the white flour and replace some of it with rye flour or regular whole wheat flour. If you don't have buttermilk you can replace it with the usual milk/vinegar combination. Just place 1 cup of milk in a cup with 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Let stand 5 minutes and use the required amount. The dough will seem a little dry at first and it ended up being much easier to forgo the wooden spoon and just mix gently with my hands. Try not to handle the dough too much to avoid tough scones. These are best eaten the same day.
Adapted from the Big Sur Bakery Cookbook/Makes 12 Large Scones

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup turbinado sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk

extra turbinado sugar to sprinkle on the tops

About 2 hours before making the scones, scatter the berries on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer.

Put cubed butter, flours, 1 cup turbinado sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl, put the bowl in the freezer and leave it there for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (I ran out so I just sprayed mine pan really well with olive oil to keep them from sticking).

Using a pastry cutter, or in my case a potato masher - which i don't recommend, work the chilled ingredients together in the bowl until the butter cubes are the size of peas. Make a well in the center. combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a separate bowl, and pour the mixture into the well. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon to form a shaggy mass. Add the frozen berries and gently mix them in trying not to crush them.

To shape the scones, place a 3-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter on one corner of the prepared baking sheet. Take a handful of the dough and press it into the cutter patting it down so that the top of the scone is flat. Pull the cutter off the sheet leaving the scone behind. Repeat the process across the sheet, keeping enough space between scones for them to double in size, until you've use all of the dough. I fit 6 per sheet and made 12 scones total.

Sprinkle the tops of the scones with turbinado sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes, until they're golden brown along the sides but still tender inside. Transfer the scones to a cooling rack and let them sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

All pictures (excluding the last two) courtesy of Katherine Hamilton.