Farfalle with Braised Kale

I seem to have an addictive personality.  This is something I realized about 2 1/2 years ago when I became quite obsessed with fond of Flight of the Conchords.  Many of my FOTC friends with equally addictive personalities encouraged me to give the new Doctor Who a go because they were quite into that as well.

One highly productive week in July, I watched all of Series 1 through 5.  In case you’re wondering, that’s 73 episodes and specials that are each 45-60 minutes long (I’d feel even more ashamed if I did the math).  This is why I do not watch TV. But really, Doctor Who is SO GOOD.  It definitely has plenty of cheesy moments, but you get over that.

Oh, right.  This is a food blog. 

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Crostata!

This is my first month as a Daring Baker!  If you are unfamiliar with this group, a recipe is chosen on the first of each month and everyone posts their results on the 27th.  They usually choose recipes that are out of most people’s comfort zones, which was very appealing to me!  Daring Cooks are also part of the Daring Kitchen, and neither group seems to have a limit if any of you are interested in joining.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I used version 1 of the pasta frolla recipe, which can be found here.

Pumpkin Cream Pie

Happy Black Friday!  Err, except I didn’t participate in that, as usual.  I’m more of a last-minute kind of gal, and shopping for Christmas almost a month in advance is way too well-planned for me.

I did plan out this Thanksgiving’s bakefest as evidenced in my last post, and thank goodness!  Everything always takes longer than I anticipate, especially since I’m super slow in the kitchen.  I think it’s a perfectionist thing, and I tend to take out/put ingredients back as I need them.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Two posts in a row of no recipes?  Don’t be fooled, I’m doing lots in the kitchen, as I’m sure most of you are!

This is my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian!  My also-veg sister and I are making everything but the meaty essentials, and as you can imagine, I’m in charge of all of the baking.  As usual, I’m making things I’ve never made before: dinner rolls, pumpkin cream pie, and a caramel apple cranberry tart. None of them will be finished until tomorrow though, so I’ll be sharing them later!

As if anyone needs any more ideas the day before T-Day when the last place you want to be is the grocery store, here’s a round-up of my pumpkin binge:

Zebra Bundt Follow-Up

So my friends and I ate a little over half of the zebra bundt cake, but then Rachel and Josh went out of town and it got to the point where I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to eat it anymore.  Since the cake hit its one week bakeday today, I deemed it finally inedible which was confirmed by a couple fuzzy spots that had started to develop on the ganache.  Ick!

But of course I couldn’t just throw it away…I dissected it!

Still looks pretty! 

And guess what I got in the mail today??

Thanks for the button, Mary the Food Librarian (and JustJenn)!  Mary posted her National Bundt Day 2010 Round Up today, and it’s super impressive.  My bundt is in there!    I can honestly say I’ve never seen so many bundts in my life.  Check it out!

Pumpkin French Toast

Yesterday I went to a David Sedaris reading/signing and he was hilarious.  If you ever get the chance to see him, GO.  He read some stories from his new book (Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk), shared snippets from his diary, and answered several questions.  Though I’ve read a few of his books, I haven’t read the new one yet, but really liked what we heard from it.  It basically seems to be a collection of short stories from the perspectives of personified animals and insects, but coming from the mind of David Sedaris, they’re super clever and funny.

My friend and I waited in line for the signing, but there were SO many people there that we hardly moved.  He had asked people to tell him jokes (he’s been collecting them this book tour!), so I’m guessing that’s part of why it took so long.  Oh, and we didn’t manage to stick around the whole time.  I have no idea how long he stayed there to sign books, but it had to have been at least until the store closed!

Thai Red Curry Squash Soup

You know when you’re looking through a bunch of recipes, and you find one that sounds really good, but the main ingredient won’t be in season for at least another 6+ months?

That’s what happened when I ran into this soup.  I was perusing the the archives of the great 101 Cookbooks when Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup caught my eye.  It was March.  However, with Thai curries being among my absolute favorite dishes, this one did not slip my mind, even three seasons later.

Recently while looking for Thanksgiving recipe ideas on The Bitten Word, I ran across a similar recipe from Food & Wine.  It was a bit more fussy, but I liked the sound of some of the additional ingredients.  What I ended up doing was sort of combining the two, and I was happy with the results!

Bundts Gone Wild: Zebra Bundt Cake!

Several months ago, I found out about zebra cakes and they’ve been on my to-bake list ever since.  I mean, how awesome do they look?  If you haven’t seen them before, do a google image search and you’ll see what I mean.

Rachel, one of my best friends, just had a birthday a couple weeks ago.  I thought she’d really like a zebra cake since she also likes to bake fun things, and besides, who wouldn’t?  Since she teaches 1st grade, she was inundated with all sorts of sweets on her big day, so it’s actually a good thing that she got her cake belatedly from me.

Pumpkin, Sage, and Brown Butter Muffins

I had a brilliant idea.  Savory pumpkin bread!   With sage!   And brown butter!  Boy, was I onto something!

Then google burst my bubble.  Sorry, hon, but Martha’s been there, done that.

Figures.  Fine…I’ll make muffins!

I’m not complaining, though.  I’ve found her recipes to be pretty foolproof, and thank goodness for that because I was kind of a fool when I made these yesterday.

Usually, I reread amounts and steps in recipes in an OCD way just to be sure I’m doing the right thing.  Yesterday, my mind was so distracted mainly because I was hungry and hadn’t been properly caffeinated yet.  Why I decided to bake first instead of address these issues is a mystery.

Kale and Leek White Bean Soup

I’ve become kind of obsessed with kale.  Have you read about just how awesome it is??  Whenever I eat it, I feel like I’m getting a slew of bonus points and gold stars that the other kids are missing out on.  Or maybe I’ve been the clueless one all this time?

Either way, it makes me happy because as awesome-packed as it is, it even tastes good!  Talk about an over-achiever.  If I were another veggie, I would roll my eyes even though I’d secretly be jealous…or green with envy?  (boo…)