Mini Lemon Crepe Cakes For Two

Roses are red... sugar is sweet... Yes, I like Valentine's Day, and I prefer the simple, sweet celebrations over grandiose (expensive and stressful) romantic ordeals.

A short story: One Valentine's Day when Len and I were engaged (20 years ago yesterday, in fact), I had a romantic vision of an elegant home-cooked dinner and dessert for two. A recipe for roast chicken that was anecdotally so good it would make your sweetheart propose to you on the spot—was just roast chicken with lemons. It was good (because roast chicken is good!), but we weren't blown away. Maybe the recipe writer (and her now spouse) ever made roast chicken, and that's why they both thought it was so impressive. For dessert, a rhubarb soufflé, for which we spent far too long in the grocery store trying to find fresh rhubarb, and then we had become too invested to abandon the recipe, so we settled on purchasing rhubarb jam and hoped to improvise. The soufflé did not turn out great. In hindsight, I shouldn't have trusted a recipe that calls for rhubarb in February. Just because it's pink doesn't mean it's in season for Valentine's Day.

Since then, we typically have pizza or some other easy dinner on Valentine's Day so we can just crash on the couch and relax. I'm more inclined to put effort into the dessert.

I've posted here about a few of those desserts:

• Heart-shaped "lollipies" - a sorta fail (2010)
• Valentine chocolate bark - easy and customizable (2012) 
• Chocolate-covered peanut butter nougat - Sticky work, but delicious (2013)

This year, my sweet endeavor was Lemon Mascarpone Crepe Cake. Time consuming, but not difficult.

I adapted this recipe from Completely Delicious: https://www.completelydelicious.com/lemon-mascarpone-crepe-cake/

First, I halved everything, because it's just the two of us. I used my lunch break (benefit of working from home) to make the crepe batter, the lemon curd, and some candied lemon peel, so the batter and curd could chill in the fridge the rest of the day. (Note: My candied lemon peel took a lot less than 20 minutes in the third stage of this recipe. Thinking I had more time, I wasn't watching it closely, and I got hard candy.)

Second, I did not have heavy cream, so I whipped my mascarpone with a splash (two tablespoons-ish) of whole milk and some powdered sugar. (I did this in the evening, right before assembling the cake)

Third, in the evening when I made the crepes, I used this tiny single-egg pan to make little crepes, instead of an ordinary 10-inch crepe pan. 

The size of the crepes doesn't change the flavor or—this is important to note—the time it takes to make them, so do what you want. I cut the recipe in half but still wanted to prioritize the height of the cake, so I decided to make two small individual cakes, stacking many small crepes instead of one larger, shorter cake out of half as many regular-sized crepes. Half the crepe batter recipe in my small pan created 33 4-inch crepes. Cooking the crepes one at a time, 1-2 minutes per crepe... Yeah, it took an hour. Plan for that.

Lastly, the additional decorations are hearts cut out of fruit leather.

The recipe linked above is a good one, but you could use your own favorite recipes for crepes, lemon curd, and mascarpone cream, and start stacking, alternately filling each layer with curd and cream. Or, don't stack the crepes into a cake and just eat them folded and filled. It's all good.

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Gingerbread Experiments

Happy New Year! It's time to catch up on some holiday baking.

We did not make a gingerbread model of our own house this year, but I did experiment with gingerbread in other ways. 

First were these gingerbread cupcakes.

Gingerbread cupcakes with browned butter buttercream and cookie toppers

Another hit recipe from Half-Baked Harvest. The browned butter frosting stole the show. I'm keeping that in my back pocket for other cakes.

I happened to have a boxed gingerbread mix (It was for Ninja Bread Cookies we didn't make with the niblings), so I whipped that up to make tiny gingerbread men for topping the cupcakes. It was a satisfying and manageable balance of from-scratch and from-box.

As you might imagine, just a baker's dozen of little gingerbread men doesn't deplete an entire batch of gingerbread cookie dough. I saved the leftover dough in the fridge until I decided to make...

Mini gingerbread houses for decorating mugs of cocoa!

Under construction - pieces of mini houses waiting as icing dries (and yes, some broken pieces, too)

I've seen these cute garnishes in catalogs, but I thought it would be fun (and far more economical) to make them myself. There are plenty of templates online you can copy, and it's not difficult to draw one yourself. All you need are two walls with triangular tops, two rectangular walls, and two rectangular roof pieces. Remember that both the front and back walls of the house (the ones with peaks) should have a door -- the two doors create the slot for the rim of the mug.

DIY IRL - Clumsy little gingerbread houses for garnishing mugs

I'd recommend a thick royal icing for constructing your little houses. I used the runny, takes-forever-to-harden, easy-mix icing that came with the boxed cookie dough, so my house construction took patience. Hours and hours of patience. I clumsily fit together the four walls and had to hold them in place for half a minute before they would precariously stand on their own. Then I had to allow each house frame to sit and cure before I could come back and add the roof pieces, which then needed their own time to cure before I could safely pick them up and decorate them. In the end, the tiny houses were kind of messy, and I ultimately ran out of care for any more dainty decorating. I reached the "good enough" stage, and decided I'd had all the fun I wanted. 

And it was fun; I'm glad I tried it. And maybe I will make them again, but I will make my own icing for better control of the assembly and decorating.

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New Orleans by foot and streetcar

Let's do another adventure flashback.

It's pretty great to arrive in a new city and not have to rent a car. We've taken a few nearly carless vacations. None were completely car-free, because there is almost always transportation to/from your main base of operations -- although if you live near convenient public transit, you could even eliminate the airport taxi. Sometimes we've combined sightseeing with visiting family, so local relatives picked us up and drove us around the entire time. I don't think that counts as going carless, because the family was essentially our rental car service.

One nearly carless vacation was our honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. We did take a couple of excursions by bus, but otherwise the resort had everything we needed, including bicycles for venturing into town. 

Another was our Katy Trail biking and camping trip: Flashback to One of Our Favorite Vacations. My parents dropped us off and picked us up at the endpoints, but otherwise we traveled only by Amtrak train and bicycle.

Another was akin to the all-inclusive resort -- a river cruise in Germany and Austria. This was with a tour group, so we had a charter bus for longer excursions, but many day trips were walking tours right off the ship.

Our most recent example was a purer form of going car-free: New Orleans. We went last year (August 2021), and besides a total of four taxis (between home and airport and airport and hotel), we traveled entirely by foot or by public transportation. It was a blast!

Day passes for the streetcars were cheap. We rode them to get places (and at least once we rode to the wrong place, but another streetcar came along soon to take us back in the right direction). And we rode one to the end of the line and back just to see some sights.

We rode a streetcar to the City Park, which has some of those great big old live oaks, and did a lot of walking around there.

The City Park also has a very interesting sculpture garden.

There, we got caught in a downpour and took shelter by tucking ourselves up under the eaves of an old Girl Scout cabin.

We also took a streetcar to St. Louis Cemetery Number 3.

Our hotel was in the French Quarter, so it was a convenient base from which we could easily walk to just about anywhere else we wanted to visit. Some highlights and recommendations:

The "Living with Hurricanes: Katrina & Beyond" exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum. The exhibit is powerful, and the museum faces Jackson Park, another nice little walk-around and a spot to catch some local music.

The World War II Museum - worth the full price of admission - give yourself plenty of time. We fueled up with a big breakfast at The Ruby Slipper, so we toured the museum for several hours and skipped lunch. 

The mostly self-guided tour with cocktail tastings at the Sazerac House. A fun, low-key activity with plenty of drinkable souvenirs in the gift shop.

Bourbon Street, of course. It truly comes to life at night, but if you're not into the partying, you can still enjoy some excellent food and drink at a reasonable hour. 

We liked the Bourbon House's char-grilled oysters and frozen bourbon milk punch so much, we had dinner there twice in one week. Down the street, we tried a local cocktail, the herbsaint frappe, at the Old Absinthe House.

Beckham's Bookshop was one of the cool little bookstores we visited, each one crammed into what seemed like a very old house. Beckham's had a triple-hung window:

We also strolled the Mississippi River riverfront path one morning.

And, yes, we walked to Cafe DuMonde for beignets and cafe au lait, too.

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Nostalgia rattling in the kitchen

 

Does everyone have shelves of pantry overflow in their basement (or some other room beyond the kitchen)? Or is it just my family?

This week, we added six pints of canned tomatoes to the wooden shelves downstairs. Len and I have canned apple sauce, apple butter, pickled green beans, pickled peppers, lemon-orange marmalade... But I can't remember having canned tomatoes ourselves. 

I do remember my parents canning tomatoes. 

Now, all these years later, everything happening in our kitchen transported me right back to an early-90s summer at home: The steamy air above the stove and sink, the smell of hot tomatoes, the rattle of jars in the pot of boiling water. The satisfaction of a perfectly blanched tomato skin—one that slips right off the fruit in one piece without taking any flesh with it. On the other hand (literally), the sting of fresh tomato juice on some small wound I forgot I had—it could be a paper cut or a raw cuticle. This time, for me, it was the blister on my thumb from working in the yard earlier that day.

My parents typically canned multiple quarts of tomatoes, fresh out of their garden, maybe combined with tomatoes shared by friends and neighbors with abundant crops. These quarts lined the basement shelves until they became chili or pasta sauce or soup over the winter. Len and I had about 8 3/4 pounds of Roma tomatoes, with a few "regular" round ones mixed in. According to my quick research, this amount would yield 2-3 quarts for canning. I chose to use pint jars instead, mostly because I can boil 5 or 6 of them in a regular kitchen pot rather than hauling out the giant pot that's tall enough to handle quarts for only 3 jars.

Here's a quick rundown of our method:

1. Wash and sterilize the jars and lids.
2. Set up one pot of water boiling and another pot or large bowl with ice water.
3. In batches, gather the tomatoes in a mesh bag and dip into the boiling water for about a minute.
4. Lift the tomatoes out of the boiling water and set in ice water to cool quickly. Remove cooled tomatoes to a clean bowl.
5. In the bottom of each clean pint jar, add one tablespoon of store-bought lemon juice (this acid is required for safer preservation of the tomatoes).
6. Core and quarter the tomatoes.
7. Pack the tomato pieces into each jar, using a butter knife or bubble remover tool to push the tomatoes down to fill the space and release their juices and to force any air bubbles to the surface by running the tool down the sides of the jar. Leave about 1/2 inch of head space. 
8. Add some salt and sugar to the jar.
9. Top each jar with a lid and band and put it in a boiling water bath. Boil the pints for 35 minutes.
10. Allow to cool several hours or overnight, and then check that all the lids have sealed.
11. Store with your other canned goods, and plan to eat them before next tomato season.

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Brandied cherries - shelf life

 An update on the brandied cherries I made and stored earlier this year.

Last week, I tried a new combination. I won't say I discovered it, because others have surely tried this or similar combinations before. It was this: brandied cherries and their syrup in a glass of Cherry Dr Pepper.

And thus I learned two new things.

First, the cinnamon-clove-cherry syrup is a wonderful flavor addition to the Dr Pepper. Could it be because those are among the soda's 23 secret flavors? Who knows?

Second, you should believe the brandied cherry recipes that say you can store them in the fridge for 4-6 months. As for mine, almost exactly 6 months later, the syrup itself still tastes great, but the cherries are going mushy and now taste "other than fresh." I guess I should have been making more cocktails or topping more vanilla ice cream to use them up more quickly in these few months.

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Tortilla soup with roasted tomatoes and peppers

Summer fades, and we stand at the confluence of cooler evenings and the long-awaited bounty of edible nightshades (if your garden has been lucky in tomatoes and peppers). Now is the perfect time for tortilla soup.

I've taken my dad's recipe, which is already his own mish mash of two or three recipes, and changed it up by adding bell peppers to the tomato base. 

And roasting them.

Dad's Tortilla Soup, modified

Corn oil
4 corn tortillas, cut into strips (can skip this to save time)*
4 large tomatoes, cut into quarters
4 bell peppers, cut into quarters, seeds and ribs removed
salt and pepper
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small jalapeno, diced (also remove seeds if you prefer less heat)
2 tsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Other optional garnishes: diced avocado, roasted corn kernels, more diced tomato, grated cheese, chopped fresh herbs (cilantro and parsley are great), lime slices for squeezing juice, and sour cream or Mexican crema

*Optional: You can skip the frying in Step 2 below to save time, and instead use broken tortilla chips as garnish; however, the home-fried tortilla strips are a superior soup garnish, being thinner, crisper, and more fun. If you have time, I recommend doing it. 

1. Roast the tomatoes and bell peppers: Toss the tomatoes and bell peppers with oil, salt and pepper and spread into a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until wrinkled and slightly charred/browned.
2. Fry the tortilla strips and save for garnish: In a deep soup pot, heat 1 Tbsp. corn oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches sauté tortilla strips briefly until crisp and remove to a paper towel or newspaper. Add more oil as needed until all strips are fried.
3. Sauté the other veggies: Add another Tbsp oil to the pot if needed, and add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Reduce heat and add everything else: Reduce the heat to low; add the roasted tomatoes and peppers, tomato paste, cumin, coriander, cayenne, and a 1 tsp. each salt and pepper. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the stock and cook uncovered another 20 minutes.
5. Puree: Using an immersion blender or transferring  the soup in batches to a blender or food processor, puree until smooth. (Caution: blending hot foods builds pressure. Open your blender's lid's center hole and hold a rag over it instead. You can gently plug the hole but also lift it occasionally, keeping the whirling food inside but allowing steam to escape.)
6. Serve and garnish with the tortilla crisps (or broken chips) and anything else you like.

No, I do not have a photo of the finished product. Do you want to eat it or look at it?

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Ad hoc agua fresca - Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint

Watermelon and cucumber are possibly the most refreshing fresh produce you can eat in the summer, what with their crisp textures and high water contents. They're the perfect duo for a refreshing beverage like agua fresca. 

Agua fresca just sounds refreshing, doesn't it? Commonly associated with Mexican street vendors, this fruity water lives up to its name and, this summer, made a refreshing debut in my kitchen.

Some may argue with me, because I'm no experta en agua fresca, but I'm going out on a limb to say it's the kind of thing you can make without a recipe. For my first foray into making agua fresca, I Googled around for some recipes to inform myself on the ingredients I wanted to use, and then I walked away from the screen, went to the kitchen, and winged it.

I saw a recipe that used a whole watermelon, one cucumber, and lemon juice. A saw another for cucumber-mint agua fresca. And so on. Ultimately, I used half a seedless watermelon, one long English cucumber, a handful of mint leaves, equal parts fresh orange and lime juices (maybe 1/2 cup?), and about 2 cups water. These are the things I had and wanted to use up. Most recipes also add some sugar. I added none.

That's the basis of my argument that you can just wing this recipe however you want. You can make it to taste -- your taste.

So, you chop the watermelon and cucumber into pieces that will fit in your blender. You remove any thick stems from the mint. 

In batches, blend the solids with the juice and some water. 

Strain it to remove the pulp. 

Refrigerate and/or serve over ice.

The end result? Lovely pink water to quench your thirst on a hot day.

My non-recipe made 3 quarts of aqua fresca.

And then. Then, I discovered a quart of sun tea I'd forgotten about in the fridge. Half and half, anyone? Just point me to the nearest hammock.