Banana Oatmeal Muffins

First of all, I'm using the word muffins liberally here.

In mid-April, I started a fitness program in an effort to get healthier and drop a few pounds...as my size 12 clothes were starting to feel a bit snug. I chose to follow the Fit Girls Guide 28 Day Jumpstart exercise and meal plan after seeing amazing progress pics online.

I've found that the daily exercises are easy, and the suggested meals are simple and tasty...refrigerator oatmeal, pita bread pizza, sweet potato & avocado tacos, pumpkin lasagna, cauliflower mac & cheese, Cobb salad, shrimp and grits. It's not about sacrifice; they focus on clean eating and moderation. The meals are 400 calories with a daily piece of dark chocolate and a 200 calorie snack. I'm eating lots of fruits and vegetables and, thankfully, carbs are allowed. Pasta! Pizza! Yeah!

Plus, the Fit Girls focus on community support...with daily inspiration, photo challenges, and check-ins on Instagram. Their motto is "progress not perfection." 

After the first 4 weeks, I was fitting into size 10 jeans. I've lost about 8 pounds, and there is a noticeable difference in my before & after pics. Go me!

I started another 4-week round on Tuesday. So, tonight I made one of the suggested recipes for a flourless banana oatmeal muffin-like breakfast that's supposed to resemble a cinnabun. I adapted a few of the ingredients & quantities and omitted the cottage cheese-based topping they include. My version makes a dozen "muffins" that taste very much like banana bread. Mmmm. Banana bread.

It just needs a little crunch, so next time I'll add a bit of chopped nuts or maybe--even better--some flax seed. Otherwise, the flavor is very good...sweet and satisfying. Doesn't taste at all like "diet" food!

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Ginger Beer Pound Cake

Happy New Year!

2016 started with lots of laughs. I had a few people over last night. We ate a side of smoked salmon, cheeses and crackers, tomato bruschetta, prosciutto & parmesan gougères, and stuffed shells (thanks Christy & Allen!). For dessert, I made this delicious cake.

Lovely Ladies

There are currently several hard ginger ales on the market. I've tried Not Your Father's Ginger Ale, Lewis Osterweis & Sons Hard Ginger Beer (made by local Schlafly), Coney Island Brewing Co. Hard Ginger Ale, and Crabbie's Spiced Orange Ginger Beer. Not Your Father's is my favorite of the four (I also really dig their hard root beer).

My least favorite to drink was the Spiced Orange Ginger Beer. It was way too sweet for me. So, I looked for some way to cook with it. This cake is sooooo good. The gingery orange flavor really comes through. Of course, you could use any ginger beer or ale you wanted to. I bet it would even be good with some of that root beer.

I have lots of bottles of ginger beer at the moment, and I plan to make some pulled pork with it soon.

Ginger Beer Pound Cake

slightly adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup ginger beer or ginger ale, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

• Preheat oven to 300F. Spray a 10” Bundt pan with baking spray.
• Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment cream together butter and sugar on medium high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 
• Add extract and salt and beat for another minute.
• Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.
• Alternating add flour, then beer, then flour, then beer, and end with flour.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a knife or wooden skewer when inserted comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
• Remove from pan, let cool completely, then glaze. For the glaze, mix 1 cup powdered sugar mixed with ginger beer, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency.

Blueberry-Lemon Pound Cake

Here is another dessert I made recently that was also a big hit. 

I made some food to take to the lake cabin for July 4th weekend....sesame soba noodles, curried chicken salad, and this blueberry-lemon pound cake.

This is a very moist cake, so it's best eaten within a day or two. Also, I highly recommend baking it in a bundt pan instead of a regular cake pan. The first time I made it, in a round cake pan, the middle just didn't quite set before the rest started to burn. You could also divide the batter between 2 loaf pans. 

Blueberry-Lemon Pound Cake

Honey-Oat Muffins

Each year, I try to bring breakfast for my juniors on the morning of the ACT test…something healthier (like fruit, homemade granola or power bars, peanut butter-oatmeal energy bites, whole-wheat bagels & cream cheese) than what I think they'd usually eat (sugary cereal, pop tarts, fast food, chips from the vending machine or nothing at all).

This year, I made a recipe I'd saved on Pinterest. These muffins were very easy to mix together (two bowls, 1 spoon) and baked for only 15 minutes. I like that they contain oatmeal & whole-wheat and honey instead of sugar. Be warned: These aren't sweet muffins. They taste "healthy."

Disclaimer: Muffins are always best warmed and smeared with butter.

Did I say "healthy"? ;-)

Lemon Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

I've been thinking about a book I read a few years ago: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. The main character, nine-year-old Rose, asks her mother to bake a lemon cake  with chocolate frosting for her birthday. According to the author, "as soon as she bites in, that cake wakes up a certain new capacity in her, where she can taste the unknown feelings of the chef in the food prepared, and what is normally one of the most lovely and innocent parts of childhood comes packed with complication."

That book--and Bender's description of that cake--has stayed with me. Lemon and chocolate seem like a contradiction, like that kind of sour and sweet shouldn't work together. But, since orange and chocolate is a classic combination, I've always thought this cake sounded good:

The room filled with the smell of warming butter and sugar and lemon and eggs, and at five, the timer buzzed and I pulled out the cake and placed it on the stovetop. The house was quiet. The bowl of icing was right there on the counter, ready to go, and cakes are best when just out of the oven, and I really couldn’t possibly wait, so I reached to the side of the cake pan, to the least obvious part, and pulled off a small warm spongy chunk of deep gold. Iced it all over with chocolate. Popped the whole thing into my mouth.

• • •

My birthday cake was her latest project because it was not from a mix but instead built from scratch—the flour, the baking soda, lemon-flavored because at eight that had been my request; I had developed a strong love for sour. We’d looked through several cookbooks together to find just the right one, and the smell in the kitchen was overpoweringly pleasant. To be clear: the bite I ate was delicious. Warm citrus-baked batter lightness enfolded by cool deep dark swirled sugar.

But the day was darkening outside, and as I finished that first bite, as that first impression faded, I felt a subtle shift inside, an unexpected reaction. As if a sensor, so far buried deep inside me, raised its scope to scan around, alerting my mouth to some- thing new. Because the goodness of the ingredients—the fine chocolate, the freshest lemons—seemed like a cover over something larger and darker, and the taste of what was underneath was beginning to push up from the bite. I could absolutely taste the chocolate, but in drifts and traces, in an unfurling, or an opening, it seemed that my mouth was also filling with the taste of smallness, the sensation of shrinking, of upset, tasting a distance I somehow knew was connected to my mother, tasting a crowded sense of her thinking, a spiral, like I could almost even taste the grit in her jaw that had created the headache that meant she had to take as many aspirins as were necessary, a white dotted line of them in a row on the nightstand like an ellipsis to her comment: I’m just going to lie down. . . . None of it was a bad taste, so much, but there was a kind of lack of wholeness to the flavors that made it taste hollow, like the lemon and chocolate were just surrounding a hollowness. My mother’s able hands had made the cake, and her mind had known how to balance the ingredients, but she was not there, in it. It so scared me that I took a knife from a drawer and cut out a big slice, ruining the circle, because I had to check again right that second, and I put it on a pink-flowered plate and grabbed a napkin from the napkin drawer. My heart was beating fast. I was hoping I’d imagined it—maybe it was a bad lemon? or old sugar?—although I knew, even as I thought it, that what I’d tasted had nothing to do with ingredients—and I flipped on the light and took the plate in the other room to my favorite chair, the one with the orange-striped pattern, and with each bite, I thought—mmm, so good, the best ever, yum—but in each bite: absence, hunger, spiraling, hollows. This cake that my mother had made just for me, her daughter, whom she loved so much I could see her clench her fists from overflow sometimes when I came home from school, and when she would hug me hello I could feel how inadequate the hug was for how much she wanted to give.

I ate the whole piece, desperate to prove myself wrong.

As I was stuck inside today for a third day due to freezing temperatures and 10+ inches of snow, I was reading an article about mood-enhancing foods. Both lemon and dark chocolate were on that list, and I thought again of Rose's birthday cake. I browsed the internet for recipes and decided that baking a bittersweet cake would be the perfect way to spend my snow day.

Eggnog Cake with Rum-Soaked Cranberries & Pecans

I'm happy to be participating in an Eggnog Party sponsored by Davidson's Safest Choice® Eggs. They've asked me to create and post an eggnog recipe using their pasteurized eggs. 

You can join the party, too! Safest Choice® Eggs is giving away two baking Grand Prize packs valued at $500 each:

• one (1) $200 Amex gift card
• one (1) Sur La Table® Platinum Professional Bakeware, 7-Piece Set
• one (1) Sur La Table® Silicone Snowman Spatulas, Set of 2
• one (1) Better Homes and Gardens Baking: More than 350 Recipes Plus Tips and Techniques cookbook
• 52 coupons for a free dozen of Davidson’s Safest Choice® Eggs

The giveaway will end at midnight Eastern time on Friday, December 13th. You can enter at the end of this post.

So, why use pasteurized eggs? "Davidson’s Safest Choice® Eggs are pasteurized in an all-natural, gentle water bath pasteurization process to eliminate the risk of Salmonella. The vast majority of eggs sold in grocery stores are NOT pasteurized. Safest Choice™ offers peace of mind when making recipes calling for raw or undercooked eggs [like homemade eggnog] and removes the worry of cross contamination."

Lane Cake

As you might have guessed from my previous post, I am single...again. Corey and I broke up a couple months ago. It's been really, really hard. Though we are keeping in touch and are friendly to each other (it wasn't necessarily a "bad" breakup), I miss him. A lot.

Sigh.

I'm getting better, though. I'm taking it day by day. Some days are, of course, better than others. I'm working through some of my own issues, keeping busy, and trying to figure out that thing called "happiness."

I haven't told many people about what's been going on...and while I don't usually tell my students much about my personal life, they can tell something is wrong. I've gotten many "hope you feel better" and "don't be sad" messages from my juniors and seniors. I even got a few "we love and need you" messages. One of my classes gave me a group hug; the other made me a huge Frankenstein card with sweet sentiments like "you're beautiful" and "boys are stupid." ;-)

Self-Medicating with Chocolate Cake

At nearly 40-years-old I’m still trying to figure out life. Above all, I’m trying to figure out how not to be so hurt by other people’s actions. It is my ultimate weakness.

Most of the advice I’ve gotten is “let it go”  & “get over it.” That is the worse advice ever. It’s so much easier said than done. Sometimes, hurt feelings are hard to just let go. A broken heart is hard to get over, no matter how much time as passed.

I’ve had my heart broken more times than I want to think about: my mom’s early death, two failed marriages, numerous severed friendships, family abandonment, betrayal, disappointment. I often wonder if my heart will ever completely mend.

After a couple of rough, emotional weeks, a weekend spent laid up with a sprained knee, three days of sitting on the couch with too much time inside my head (that damned bell jar always hovering just above my head), much crying, overwhelming anxiety, and racking my brain to understand why people act the way they do, I had to finally DO something.

And what do I do in times of emotional crisis when nothing else works? I cook. Particularly, I cook something comforting...like chocolate cake.

Because chocolate is supposed to heal a broken heart, right?

* * *

I found this recipe for “The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {Ever}” on Add a Pinch. It’s the first homemade cake recipe that I’ve thought was actually perfect...tender & moist cake, rich & chocolatey flavor without being overly sweet.

It was dark and bittersweet.

Apropos for my mood lately.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting 

Makes a double-layer cake

I made a full batter recipe but used a 10-inch cake pan to make a single layer cake. I halved the frosting recipe for it.

For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

For the frosting:
1½ cups butter (3 sticks)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 cups confectioner’s sugar
½ cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon espresso powder

• Preheat oven to 350º F. Butter & flour two 9-inch cake pans.
• For the cake: Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl. Stir until combined well.
• Add milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
• Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-20 minutes.
• For the frosting: Add cocoa to a large bowl & whisk to remove any lumps.
• Melt butter and pour into bowl with cocoa powder. Whisk together until well-combined.
• Add sugar and milk to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by about a tablespoon of milk. After each addition has been combined, turn mixer onto a high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar and milk have been added.
• Add vanilla extract and espresso powder, combine well.
• If frosting appears too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If it appears to wet and does not hold its form, add more confectioner’s sugar, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency.

More chocolate to soothe the soul:
Bittersweet chocolate tart with pretzel crust
Chocolate bourbon creme brulee
Chocolate sorbet
Chocolate amaretti torte
Chocolate zucchini muffins
French chocolate brownies

Project Food Blog: Luxury Dinner Party (Challenge #3)

ABOUT: 

Project Food Blog is the first-ever interactive competition where thousands of Foodbuzz Featured Publishers are competing in a series of culinary blogging challenges for the chance to advance & a shot at the ultimate prize: $10,000 & a special feature on Foodbuzz.com for one year.

Challenge Prompt: Celebrate! Whether you're an experienced host or an entertaining newbie, get creative & host a luxurious dinner party where your guests will discover new tastes & exotic flavors. Share your hosting secrets with readers, like how to cook for a crowd, plan a menu, or involve guests in the prep.

A REASON TO CELEBRATE:

This challenge couldn't have come at a better time, because yesterday was my 37th birthday. Age has never bothered me before, but for some reason 37 bothers me. I woke up yesterday with terrible back pain; I just felt old. However, as far as birthday celebrations go, it was a pretty good one...I had a multi-course dinner at Araka with my girlfriends on Wednesday, met a couple other friends at Monarch for dinner & drinks on Thursday, saw Anthony Bourdain speak on Friday, & threw a Spanish tapas tasting party last night.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes

Another school year is finished, my second year teaching at this high school. It was a pretty good year overall, much better than last year.  The English department piloted a new skills-based, high-interest literature curriculum.  My College English class really liked my food unit (we watched Food Inc. & learned about local, organic eating). The school's top seniors nominated me for Silver Medallion Teacher of the Year.  The valedictorian asked me to be in her "Teacher's Pet" picture for the yearbook, and she mentioned me in her graduation speech.  I bonded with my co-workers.  I stayed organized enough not to have to bring work home regularly.

When I woke up graduation morning, I discovered that my car had been covered in Post-It Notes.

Birthday Feasting

My birthday weekend (I turned 36 on Friday) revolved around--what else?--FOOD!

The celebration started on Friday with dinner at the chef's table at Monarch. To get to the table, you have to walk through the kitchen & up a narrow spiral staircase. The table is enclosed in a glass room that overlooks the kitchen.

We all ordered the 5-course tasting menu, but were treated to a few more. Here's the menu that Chef Galliano & his team constructed for us; we had two dishes per course (forgive me for the lack of dish details, but I'd had a few cocktails by then & didn't write anything down!).

We had so much wine with our dinner, that it was actually difficult for me to keep up!

Aperitif: We had joked around on Twitter about bringing jello shots. Josh (the chef) was nice enough to make them for us! GOURMET jello shots! Awesome. I wanted many more.

Jello Shots: Apple, Grape, & Cranberry

Appetizer:

Chicken Confit Nugget

(One of their signature dishes)

First Course: 

Foie Gras & Beef Terrine 

Poached Egg

Second Course:

Shrimp & Spoonbread

Squid Ink Fettucini with Crab

Third Course:

Salmon with Potato Cake, Beet Puree, & Horseradish Foam

Monkfish with Greens, Pasta, & Savory Broth

Fourth Course:

House-made Andouille Sausage with White Beans

Lamb Pot Roast with Ravioli

Fifth Course:

Turkey Shank with Cornbread & Cranberry (Thanksgiving on a plate!)

WITH A PIECE OF CRISPY SKIN ON TOP!!!

Butcher's Cut of Beef with Duck Fat Poached Potatoes, Mushrooms, & Greens

Dessert:

Chocolate Cake-Like Thing with Ice Cream

(By this time, I'd had A LOT of wine.)

Deconstructed Bananas Foster 

(I think.)

Everything was amazing, and all of my favorite foods were represented...poached eggs, pasta, Thanksgiving, & duck fat! We had a great time, getting too full & a little drunk.

On Saturday, the "Food Blogger Mafia" (stay tuned for more details!)--aka Stephanie, Kelli, Annie, & I--had a sleepover. 

So, of course, we ate junk food...which really meant we consumed our weight in cream cheese dips. I made my mom's infamous taco dip. Kelli made buffalo chicken dip (though, she got fancy by using shredded roast chicken). Annie made a radish dip (gimme the recipe, woman!). Steph made pretzel/rolo treats. I also brought a bag of giant Cheetos because...well...they are GIANT CHEETOS! Do I need another reason.

We also had two cakes. Yep, TWO cakes for FOUR girls. I made a mojito cake (recipe below) & Annie bought me a very pretty red velvet cake made by Mathew Rice (pastry chef at Niche whose recipe was recently featured in Martha Stewart Weddings). 

See that? That's what they call "name dropping."

But wait! There's more (name dropping, that is)! On Sunday, I walked around the Taste of St. Louis event and ran into Chef Hubert Keller! He was looking at some art at one of the booths. He was very kind...just as he is on television & just as he was the FIRST time I met him (I attended a Boulevard beer dinner at SLeeK & he was there to cook). That's right...I'm FANCY.

The look on my face is called "smitten fangirl."

* * * * *

MOJITO CAKE WITH RUM BUTTERCREAM

(cake recipe from Warren Brown's Cake Love cookbook)

FOR THE CAKE:

Dry Ingredients
2 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 whole cloves (ground into a fine powder)
1/3 cup oven dried mint *, crumbled

*Dry the mint in a 350 oven, watching carefully so that it doesn't burn. It should crumble easily. This took me about 20 minutes.

Liquid Ingredients
2/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons dark rum
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon limoncello (or 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
juice of two limes

Creaming Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups extra-fine granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lime zest
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Incorporated all of the dry ingredients into a bowl, whisk briefly,  and set aside.
• Incorporate all of the liquid ingredients into a bowl, whisk briefly,  and set aside. 
• Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, and yolks into separate bowls and set aside.
• In the bowl of a standing mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment) cream together the butter, sugar, and lime zest on the lowest setting for 4 to 5 minutes.
• With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time followed by the yolks, fully incorporating after each addition.
• Add the dry ingredient mixture, alternating with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry mixture.  Move swiftly through this step to avoid overworking the batter.  Don’t wait for the dry or liquid mixtures to be fully incorporated before adding the next.  This step should take a total of about 60 seconds.
• Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl (don’t miss the clumps of ingredients hiding on the bottom of the bowl).  Mix on medium speed for 15 to 20 seconds to develop the batter's structure.
• Prepare the cake pans.  For 9-inch-round cakes, line the bottom of each pan with parchment.  Deposit the batter evenly into the pans and smooth out with an offset spatula, making sure the pans are two-thirds full.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• Remove the pans from the oven and cool to room temperature on a wire rack, about 25 to 30 minutes before removing from the pan.  Loosen the cake gently from the pan with a small offset spatula and invert onto a flat surface.  Remove the parchment from the bottom of each cake and wrap the layers tightly in plastic.  You can refrigerate the layers overnight or up to 5 days before frosting.  

FOR THE FROSTING:

Buttercream is easy. I simply mixed together 2 sticks unsalted butter (at room temperature) with 1 package powdered sugar (adding in gradually). I added tablespoons of light rum until I had the consistency I wanted...creamy, smooth, spreadable. It's pretty boozy, but I wanted to taste the rum!

* * * * *

Here are a couple more pictures from the weekend:

The crispy skin garnish reminded me of a scene from Silence of the Lambs. 

Only much tastier.

Trying to play a tune on the many wine glass I had accumulated throughout the evening.

Our view of the kitchen from the chef's table.

It was fun watching our dishes come together & trying to guess what it was before we were told.

Me & my BFF Sarah

Preparing the dipstravaganza at Annie's downtown loft.

We're on a roof!

Thanks to Steph for taking pictures on Friday & Saturday. Most of these are hers!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Applesauce Spice Bars

I know it's not Tuesday, but I've been busy (and my internet is down at home).  School started again this week; teachers worked on Monday & Tuesday, then the students' first day was yesterday.  

I had such a fantastic summer and wasn't at all ready to start school, but now that I am a few days in I am getting excited for a great semester (fingers crossed). I'm also thankful that the weather in St. Louis has been milder than normal (as in NOT 100-degrees) because my school doesn't have air conditioning. Yep, that's right...NO AIR CONDITIONING. I'm not sure how that is even possible in this day and age, but it's true. Try teaching a roomful of 30 teenagers in a second floor classroom during the first week of school when it's 90-something degrees outside with only 3 floor fans. It's damn near impossible. IMPOSSIBLE, I say!

Yesterday was nearly unbearable hot. Everyone was cranky. I was standing in front of one class, reading to them from the novel Speak (to inspire their first writing assignment), when I felt a bead of sweat start to roll down my back. I was wearing a light, loose-fitting dress, so I could feel the sweat roll all the way down my back, past the band of my underpants, and down you know where.  Sound disgusting? I know! I even grossed me out! No one, students or teachers, are at their best these first few hot days.  

Today, though, was much better. There was less humidity and a nice breeze blowing through the windows. Everyone was in a much better mood. 

photo from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

Anyway, I made this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Applesauce Spice Bars (chosen by Karen of Something Sweet), for our faculty potluck lunch on Tuesday. They must have been good, but they were nearly all gone and I didn't get a chance to take a picture!

The bars begin as a dense cake batter laden with apples, nuts & raisins (though, I left the raisins out) and baked in a 9x13 dish. So, you end up with thin slices. The cake is then topped with a homemade brown sugar caramel glaze. 

It tastes like autumn. Cool, cool autumn. *sigh*

Tuesdays with Dorie: Classic Banana Cake

Hiya, my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers! I'm back! I took a little break from Dorie because I was getting overwhelmed with sweets. But, I was sitting at home today, avoiding having to help clean up outside post-tree cutting & putting off lesson planning for the upcoming school year when I realized I had a few overly ripe bananas in the freezer. So, I scrounged together the rest of the ingredients for this week's recipe...Classic Banana Cake, which was chosen by Mary of The Food Librarian.


Since I don't own a bundt pan, I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8x8 square pan for about 50 minutes. I was going to top the cake with goat cheese icing and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts, but it turned out so moist and fluffy; it didn't need anything on top!

BlogHer '09 & Espresso Muffins

So, I went to Chicago for the BlogHer conference this weekend. There's not much I can say about it, because I ditched most of it (except for Rick Bayless's cooking demo & the evening cocktail parties) to explore the city.

With Chef Rick Bayless

From the beginning, I smelled incompetence (after hotel room check-in & conference registration hassles), and that's always a turn-off for me. Plus, I didn't feel part of a community like I had hoped; I didn't feel welcomed & accepted. At first I thought it was mostly my fault, because I only attended the first session and didn't make a real effort to socialize. But after I read about things that went down like babies getting elbowed in the face, swag craziness, sponsors getting threatened by bloggers who wanted more swag, police breaking up hotel parties, & cat fights, I'm glad I didn't get involved in all that. It seems I'm not the only one to have thought that there was a "clannish & evil" vibe.

BlogHer '10 will be held in New York City, and I considered registering and suggesting a few panel ideas. I may end up going simply to score a cheap trip to NYC ($199 hotel rooms!), but right now I don't feel like going to another BlogHer event again.

The best part of the trip, though, was hanging out with the girls. Kelli, Steph, & Jaelithe met at my house Thursday morning, then we piled into the car and took off. I made espresso muffins (recipe below), "crack corn" (popcorn with truffle salt), & strawberry vodka for the trip.

Once we arrived in Chicago, Kelli, Steph & I decided to head over to The Tattoo Factory to get our much anticipated new ink. The people at the Tattoo Factory were awesome! They were nice, professional, quick...and generous. They gave us free tee-shirts & aprons!

My new tattoo

As usual, the trip was all about food for me. The four of us had an awesome dinner Thursday night at Blackbird, where we shared five appetizers, four entrees, & two desserts (instead of each ordering the tasting menu). I had a Greek dinner with the other food bloggers on Friday, where I got to meet Kalyn, Elise, Jaden and several other women whose blogs I read.

On Saturday, Steph and I had lunch at Hot Doug's Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium, where we happily waiting in line for over an hour (causing me to miss the only food bloggers' session at the conference) to eat a Corned Beef Sausage, a Burgandy & Citrus Pork Sausage, and a Foie Gras dog...with duck fat fries and our own soda pairings (ginger beer with the corned beef, orange creme soda with the citrus pork, cherries & mint soda with the foie gras).

Me & Steph with Hot Doug himself
(Steph is so slyly showing off her new tattoo.)

Since I survived the scariest cab ride of my life after that, I decided to splurge and buy myself something at Tiffany's.

Kelli & I went to the BlogHer cocktail party on Saturday evening, while Steph had dinner at Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill...but, she was nice enough to bring us back some of his beef tongue tacos (the dish he made on Top Chef Masters).

Check out more photos from the weekend, most of which I ganked from Kelli & Steph.

* * *

Espresso Muffins

from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

Moist and flavorful, these make a great on-the-go breakfast. I am not typically a huge muffin fan, as they are often dense & dry...but these are very light and not too sweet.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-muffin pan with paper cups.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, cinnamon & salt. Stir in brown sugar, making sure there are no lumps.
• In another large bowl, whisk the coffee, melted butter, egg & vanilla until well combined.
• Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a whisk or rubber spatula gently but quickly stir to blend.
• Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing each muffin.