Working Girl, Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes and Camping Fun

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Been a little busy lately and had to shelf the blog so I could actually get some sleep at night.  

About 6 months ago, right around the time of my last post, I decided to do a big job change.  Usually a job change along with the already hectic lifestyle of a single Mom is enough to cause some anxiety.  I decided to take that anxiety and add a little jet fuel.  You see, this job change also entailed quite a bit of travel and in the midst of the job ramp up work and the travel, I also decided to move back to Oak Park.  Hooray for that but holy stress attack.  Not only did I have to shelf my blog and cooking but my running and spinning also went on hiatus.  

Despite the craziness, I am absolutely thrilled with the new job and I love being back in Oak Park.  This is a wonderful neighborhood where I can walk my son to and from school every morning and afternoon down gorgeous tree lined streets.  Along those lines, my son did start Kindergarten a few weeks ago and I have been enjoying the experience of yet another chapter in this great adventure of raising a child.  

          

Tyler - First Day of Kindergarten

Ok, so now that we are all caught up, about those cupcakes.  I really didn't have a choice in baking these since the little girl who requested them alleviated a lot of pain in my back and neck.  

You see, in my effort to be a good Mom, I decided to take Tyler camping with a another single parent and his daughter.  This is not the first time I have been camping but it has definitely been decades a while.  I went camping plenty of a few  times when I was a kid and never had a problem sleeping on cold hard surfaces.  Those days are long gone and when I tried to sleep on the ground with nothing but a sleeping bag separating my body from the hard surface of the campground, my neck and back paid a serious price.  Like, trip to the chiropractor serious.

My friend was a little smarter than me and brought along a blow up mattress for his daughter who is 6 years old.  His reasoning was that he didn't want her to get turned off to camping by being uncomfortable.  I can certainly understand that since I undoubtedly did get turned off to camping after not being able to turn my neck and not being able to sleep.  So I begged aforementioned little girl to let me sleep on the blow up mattress and promised her anything she wanted.  She said I could sleep on the mattress but I had to make chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting.  Thank God for the simple requests of children.

I slept relatively well the second night with the mattress and I vowed to make sure that I would show up with those requested cupcakes.  As a side note to this story, Maria, after sleeping on much tougher ground the second night, of course woke up the next morning bright-eyed, fully rested and without neck pains.  Oh, the beauty of youth and the jelly bodies of 6 year olds.  

Below is a picture of Tyler with Maria, the girl with the magic mattress:

    

Maria and Tyler

The cupcake recipe is from a previous post of mine for chocolate cupcakes.  I got the strawberry icing recipe from here, better know as Annie's Eats.  I cheated and added a little red food coloring because as you might have noticed from the picture above, Maria is seriously into pink.  She saved me a trip to the ER so I figure the least I could do is boost the color in her requested cupcakes.  

Baked Figs

Baked Figs

I was in middle school when I first learned about Georgia O'Keefe.

My Mom took me to a lecture at the Art Institute of Chicago and I remember looking at the paintings and thinking, am I seeing what I think I am seeing?  According to the lecturer, the answer was yes and I was hooked.  Painting in that fashion in the 1920's was brazen and progressive for that time.  Challenging societal norms is something that I don't think people plan to do but that happens because they were never very good at fitting their square peg mind sets into societal round peg holes.

Although Georgia's work is fascinating, it is how she lived her life that has been an inspiration to me.  She married a peer, Alfred Sieglitz, who was older and somewhat of a mentor to her.  He helped her grow and gain traction in the art world and then they ended up living much of their lives apart, him in New York, her in New Mexico.  She practiced yoga, traveled and had a reportedly "prickly" personality.   She was from the Midwest, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, became discouraged with her craft and then found her way back to what she loved and where her passion and talent resided.  I look at Georgia and think, it's ok to take a path that not everyone understands but that works for you.

So, this dish and picture are a nod to Georgia O'Keefe.  An independent spirit who truly followed her bliss.

Recipe from A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes

24 Ripe Figs
Thyme Branches
Olive Oil

Cut the figs in half, top to bottom, through the stem, with a sharp paring knife.

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Scatter a few thyme branches in the bottom of a shallow oven proof dish, just large enough to hold the figs.  Place the figs cut side up in the dish .  Spoon a few drops of olive oil over them.

Bake the figs for about 20 minutes, until they puff a little and look juicy.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

        

Chocolate Almond Biscotti from David Lebovitz

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

I am in a very blissful place.  I am experiencing a magic time between leaving a job and having another one lined up.    Even when I take vacations when I am working, the work is always in the back of my mind.  This is different.  It is euphoric.  It is void of stress.  Highly recommended.  

So, I bring you homemade biscotti.  This is in lieu of the coffee shop variety that I occasionally pick up with my coffee on my way to work.  Since I have a week off, I thought the sensible thing to do was to make biscotti rather than partake in the coffee shop, plastic wrapped, disappointingly dry version.  The key taste that you get with homemade that they cannot replicate in mass quantities is the soft middle.  That and it tastes better.  A bit of crunch on the outside, soft inside and a deep chocolate punch.

I found this recipe here.  Enjoy! 

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Orange Liqueur Cream

How can it be so bad for you when it tastes so good?  That just might be my life motto.

I remember seeing and tasting whoopie pies for the first time in a convenience store in Ohio when I was in college.  Yes, college was when I first saw and tasted a whoopie pie.  Sheltered life?  Perhaps.  The whoopie pie I tasted though, was anything but good.  A whoopie pie out of a cellophane package from a convenience store does not a gourmet snack make.  Fast-forward some, ahem, years and homemade and gourmet whoopie pies are somewhat of a rage or were the rage last year.

I found this recipe in The Boozy Baker by Lucy Baker and this, along with every other alcohol laced concoction in the book, was fantastic.  This was also much better than the cellophane wrapped piece of cardboard I tasted in college.

Enjoy!  xo, AJ

Stuck in Mexico

Well, ordinarily, being stuck in Mexico would be something to celebrate.  However, with a pile of work back home, this forced holiday is more stress than fun.  I am sure everyone has heard of the massive blizzard that hit the Midwest to welcome in the first few days of February.  Getting back to Chicago has become mission impossible.  So, to calm my nerves and my control issues that I clearly need help with, I am going to have a few more Margaritas and sizzle a bit under the Mexican sun.  Here are some pictures of this beautiful country with perfect weather, at least at this time of the year.

 Horses on the beach. A typical sight on the Mexican Riviera.

A typical street in San Pancho.  Cobbled, steep and quaint. 

 Beautiful flowers that dot the Mexican landscape.

 Not afraid of color in Sayulita.

 Steps to an art gallery in Sayulita.  The galleries line the streets of this cool little town.  Feeling right at home with the tattooed 20/30/40 somethings walking around with their bare footed kids, covered in sand and dreads in their hair.    

 Margaritas before dinner with friends.

A gorgeous pink table setting for our dinner! So cool!

Praise Mark Bittman

Some women have a crush on Brad Pitt or George Clooney.  Call me odd or completely out of touch with the psyche of a normal woman but for me, Bittman is just dreamy.


Ahh, sigh.

I dream of a day when Mark will swoop in and cook in my tiny little kitchen while I gaze admiringly at the fabulous dish he prepares.  I love his simplicity and ease, moving from one task to the next looking like he is relaxing on the beach.  He makes cooking great fun and muses when he makes a mistake like a shell of an egg going into a cake with, "Oh well, just a little crunch, not the end of the world."  I love that attitude rather than, "Nothing is worse than a shell in your food." I won't name who said that but anyone who watches a lot of Food Network might recognize the "Nothing is worse than (insert earth-shattering mistake)."  

So, what inspires the accolades on this Sunday morning?  Pancakes, that's what.  I found this commentary and several recipes for pancakes, sweet and savory, in his Minimalist column in the New York Times and I was reminded of why he holds a special place in my heart.  For taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary in a simple no frills way.  Cardamom scented oatmeal pancakes, embedded pine nuts in cornmeal with vanilla, bulgur ricotta; pinch me.

No, I have not had a chance to try these recipes because I am reading his column at 3:15 am on Sunday morning and I do not want to get out of bed to start cooking.  I thought it would be more productive to gush on my blog.  I will be trying at least two of these recipes though.  Stay tuned.

xo - AJ

Bûche de Noël

I came, I made my best attempt and I somewhat conquered.  Take it easy on me, this was my first go-around and it was a little scary.  This cake was my Everest and it did not disappoint in time consumption.  After being afraid of this cake ever since my Mom brought it home from the bakery when I was in middle school, I have put off attempting this for far too long.  Then, a few weeks ago I took a cooking seminar/class solely on making the Bûche de Noël.  I wasn't thrilled with the buttercream look that the cake in our class turned out to look like so I went back to the Martha Stewart magazine that I had been carrying around for the past year with the recipe and a picture to match that looked just like the cake my Mom brought in for Christmas every year.  I am not going to even attempt to write down all of the directions that went with this so click here for the recipe.  If you attempt this, good luck and may your attempt take less time than mine!