TracyFood

Wednesday weirdness: ginger condensation? 19 May 2010 1:44 pm

Posted by Tracy in : cooking,ingredients,photos,random,silly,weird , View Comments

So yesterday, as planned in the end of my last post, I made a batch of Tracy granola, and noticed something weird when I measured out the ginger, from this jar here:

Just the standard Fairway-brand ground ginger, see?

But what’s that on the inside of the lid there? What is it? (more…)

Recipe: Lemon Bundt Cake 22 April 2010 2:54 pm

Posted by Tracy in : America's Test Kitchen,baking,cooking,dessert,friends,kitchen gear,recipes , View Comments

I think this cake might be the very first one I ever made from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe (it’s either that or the fabulous huevos rancheros also in this issue, January & February 2006). In any case, I am not much of a baker or even a huge cake fan, but for whatever reason this recipe captured my imagination and I had to try it. Maybe it was the buttermilk? I don’t know, but I’m pretty darn sure that does not hurt the deliciousness of this one bit. Anyway. I dedicate this post to Ansley, who has been awesome at reminding me that she really, really wants to know how to make this delicious dessert.

Notes

This recipe is super-wordy because I am not a baker and lots of instructions are helpful to me, but I have cut it down to size on Twitter, like so:

Lemon bundt cake! 9oz butter, 2c sugar, 3 eggs+1 yolk, 3 lemons’ juice+zest, 3/4c buttermilk, 3c APF, 1 tsp powder, 1/2tsp soda, 60min 350F.

7:23 PM Sep 7th, 2009 via web

That’s a little misleading on the lemon juice, but otherwise right on. Also, it leaves out 1 tsp vanilla (oops).

The only other really important thing to know is that in addition to these ingredients you’ll need an extra tablespoon of buttermilk and 2 cups (8 ounces) of confectioner’s sugar, to make a light glaze of super-deliciousness. Armed with that information, experienced bakers can probably feel fine to ignore all my directions.

Last thoughts: the last time I made this recipe I used demerara sugar (Sugar In the Raw, to be exact) and the cake turned out a little crumblier than usual, but still delicious. I think this cake is even more delicious when it’s a day or two old; like many other baked goods, it gets denser and crumblier with time, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. (more…)

Monkey Monday: in praise of awesomeness 5 April 2010 11:52 pm

Posted by Tracy in : baking,cooking,dessert,eating,meat,monkeys,not even vegetarian,photos,pictures , View Comments

What kind of awesomeness, you ask? Well, mostly Peter’s awesomeness, because that’s what I have pictures to prove. (You’ll have to take my word for having made these super-delicious hash browns for dinner tonight, albeit with a mix of mostly Russet Burbanks in addition to the recommended Yukon Golds, since them’s were the taters we had in the house. Also I topped the potatoliciousness with poached eggs, and we had homemade hot cross buns on the side, but again: no pictures. Sorry about that.) Back to why Peter is awesome.

Despite its being almost painfully beautiful out yesterday, I forced myself down to NYU’s Bobst Library to work on the research paper for my food industrialization and processing class (due Wednesday, not that I’m avoiding it by writing this or anything). Five to eight pages on the science, technology, and social history of microwave popcorn? Yeah, I can do that, but I’d rather be playing outside. ANYWAY. I’d thawed out frozen fruit for rhubarb custard pie filling (my plan was to do the more-fruit-less-sugar variation, but I didn’t have enough rhubarb, so I added some strawberries), and made (but not baked) crust, which Peter had gotten rolled out by the time I reluctantly left for research-ville. Maybe, I hoped to myself, I could come home to pie, and then we could make those homemade gyros I’d been thinking of as our Easter lamb….

But no! When I got home, not only was the pie baked, but Peter was almost done making the gyros! So awesome! Check them out: (more…)

Monkey (bread) Wednesday! 10 February 2010 8:35 pm

Posted by Tracy in : bread,cooking,dessert,eating,fun,meta,monkeys,photos,pictures,recipes , View Comments

Update, 8:45 PM: I just realized that this is my 500th TracyFood post. Congratulations to me, even if this is kind of a silly quick one.

* * * * *

So last month I put out a call to Facebook and Twitter asking what kind of monkey bread to make (with this article‘s recipes in mind): buttery plain, garlic-herb, and cinnamon walnut. In the end the voters wanted garlic-herb, but my sweet tooth won the day, and I have pictures to prove it. (Garlic-herb lovers, scroll all the way down for your favorite, which I made a few weeks later.)

Check that beauty out.

(more…)

I may have created monsters last night, readers. 9 February 2010 11:49 am

Posted by Tracy in : cooking,eating,fun,geekery,history,photos,pictures,potatoes,random,reading,school,silly,writing , View Comments

One is the paper due in my industrial food class tomorrow, which is currently in very drafty form, full of rambles like:

…Hotchkiss comes in, pretending that change is this magical uniform unstoppable force kind of thing, but fortunately we also have the MIT book reminding us that there was no shortage of immovable objects — and sometimes those immovable objects were people, even if sometimes those people were embodying social forces (*cough* PATRIARCHY *cough* I am looking at you, Professor Sedgwick, you jerkface you. *cough cough cough*)

Yeah, I’ve got some revising to do. But anything written is better than nothing, and editing things to make them suck less is way easier than writing, so hey, I’ll take what I got.

Last night’s other little monster, I am happy to report, was of the edible persuasion, and I got pictures.

I’m posting both because the real color is somewhere in between too dark without flash, and weirdly over-lit with. Also, because more fries!