Scrambled Eggs

Back when the Section was called Dining In/Dining Out, when R.W. Apple was alive and eating, and while William Grimes was still writing about food,  when Sam Sifton was the Section's editor, and when Molly O'Neal and Ruth Reichl still worked for the paper, the New York Times food section was a thrill to read.  Recently, I feel the quality of reporting and the writing has declined. How is that make Melissa Clark can "invent" so many uninspired recipes and why isn't it clear how the Sunday magazine recipes relate to the body of the article?

In the Section's heyday, 2001, Amanda Hesser challenged Daniel Boulud to tackle the american classics: scrambled eggs, a tuna sandwich, and macaroni and cheese. I remember reading this article, and setting about to make these very slow but delicious scrambled eggs.  Through this recipe I discovered the amazingness that is high quality butter, like plugra.  But also, through this recipe, I uncovered the deliciousness of not-dry eggs.

I have a pretty limited repertoire of quick late night dinners: scrambled eggs and toast, cheese quesadillas,  grilled cheese, and slices of pizza.  I've been eating scrambled eggs frequently lately.  I don't use a strainer or a double boiler, but, somewhere along the way, through very low heat, butter, and a touch of cream, my scrambled eggs have evolved much closer to a custard and far away from most other dry diner eggs.  Making them this way and it takes more like 7-10 minutes rather than 3.  But that is 7 minutes worthwhile hungry suffering.

Spiced Applesauce Cake

Understatement of the day: the internet is incredible.  A few clicks and suddenly *magically* you can be connected with thousands of others who are muddling over the same issues or interested in the same esoterica.  But there is a flip side.  Thousands of people are out there, just like you, waxing on about farmers market bounty or the closing of the Blue Marble on Atlantic Avenue.

My RSS feed manager is filled to the brim with brooklyn food writers.  And I love  many of them, enjoy their real and virtual company, and look to them for advise and inspiration.  Just this weekend, while trying to get over a long dry spell of no cooking or baking, I saw this spiced applesauce cake recipe on Smitten Kitchen.  I really enjoy Smitten Kitchen: great photography and a honest discussion of hits and misses.  And it happens to be penned by a woman named Deb.  Who lives in Brooklyn.  The similarities pretty much stop there; however, to all of my dedicated readers (all 4 of you), I do have some upgrades in mind to make this a better/more interesting/more consistent side project.

Before the upgrades happen, I've been mulling over one of the more substantial questions in life: what is the difference between cake and a quick sweet bread?  David Lebovitz mulls over this issue apropos of banana bread.  I don't have a copy of Larousse Gastronomique but I imagine there is a complete technical discussion of rising agents and gluten somewhere in there.  I think of sweet breads (like banana and pumpkin) as a more casual comestible.  Cake implies some sort of formality or sense of occasion. 

This cake really treads the line.  It is frosted (which screams cake to me).  But the fruity base, spongy consistency, the spices, and the nuts make it seem more like a sweet bread than like a cake.  My office mates ate it all up, so, it seems to pass muster regardless of the label.

Fun Food Fact: Macadamias

According to the internet gospel of wikipedia, macadamia nuts are sometimes used by law enforcement to simulate crack cocaine in drug stings. This is because when ground down, macadamia powder is a dead ringer for cocaine. 

This parallel fascinates me.   I cannot think of a food more addictive than macadamias.  My mother hides jars of them when I come home to visit, because I've been known to polish off a jar in a single sitting. Without sharing. This is especially infuriating on holidays like Thanksgiving, since I'll spoil my appetite and then not eat nearly enough of the fruits of her hours of labor.  And I feel a victim, since I cannot resist the "taste of the tropics."

I wanted to make these macadamia-crusted scallops this week.  But I made the mistake of buying the macadamias before buying the scallops.  The macadamias were gone before I even made it to the fish monger.

Melissa Clark's Crunchy-Topped Whole-Wheat Plum Cake

Melissa Clark, confident that her whims can improve on perfection, attempted to surpass Marian Burros' plum torte for Rosh Hashana with a whole wheat variation. There is a reason that Burros' plum torte is the most requested New York Times recipe.  It is the most perfect of fall desserts. It is soft, filled with unctuous tart plums and feels decadent without being too heavy.  And it is really simple.

In the same week, Sam sent me this and LT made it.  Since the granola granted Melissa Clark a few weeks of amnesty, plums are still in season, and I had a bag of whole wheat flour lying around (does anyone know the average expiration date of that stuff?), I decided to give Melissa another chance.
 

So much of cooking is creative: constant editing and tweaking to taste and to whatever is in your refrigerator that day.  Baking is less forgiving.  The chemistry is fragile.  Proportions and even the order of operations can really impact the outcome. This cake is very similar to the original, which is an impressive feat of chemistry.  I wouldn't call the top "crunchy" and there isn't much more fruit than the original.  The big difference is the whole wheat-milk batter.

For a "healthier" dessert, this isn't bad.  The whole wheat cake is pretty similar to whole wheat bread.  Served with cream, it was an acceptable dessert. I like white flour. I think it has its time and place.  And that place is homemade baked goods.  As a leftover for breakfast, I was much more open-minded. This cake was sort of like eating toast with plum jam baked within.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

I am not embarrassed that I made this fudge.  I am proud.  I have reasons and justifications:

1. Mike Pollan, in In Defense of Food, argues that any food is okay to eat so long as you bother to make it yourself.  If its true for french fries and twinkies (his examples) then why not this?
2. It is not dissimilar from my planned late night dessert: chocolate ice cream with melted peanut butter.
3. Sweetened condensed milk is an excellent source of calcium

mise en place for this ambitious project

When I saw the recipe for this fudge on Chow, I was outraged.  It seemed like a direct plug for all Nestle products.  I doubted Aida Mollenkamp's integrity.  And since this recipe doesn’t involve actually baking anything (just throwing everything in a bowl, heating it, and then chilling), I felt the recipe was miscategorized under “bake sale treats.”  Nonetheless, when I wandered into my bodega, in search of JIF and hagan daaz 5 chocolate or vanilla, I remembered the recipe. It was 11:30 pm on a weeknight, not really the hour to start a cooking project.  But the ingredients were memorable and the idea of licking the pot while watching Mad Men seemed very appealing.

This type of recipe reminds me a lot of the foods my friends swore by in Michigan: puppy chow or casseroles involving mushroom soup, broccoli, and a potato chip topping. I was always pretty snobby about these foods; yet, they do have a place in world.  There shouldn’t be anything wrong with a quick assembly although I do have a problem with the high concentration of sugar from multiple processed sources.

Anyways, about the fudge.  This isn’t anything special.  It tastes exactly like the ingredients of which it is composed.  But sometimes it is fun just to melt a bunch of things together and pretend that you baked.  It really wasn’t much more work than my usual dessert, and, again,  is an excellent source of calcium.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes cookies are required.  Those days when you can predict really nothing will go right, so, why not have on hand, a fresh baked cookie so that you don't have to run to the coffee shop only to be disappointed that their cookies are stale, made with shortening (I believe in butter), or worst of all, sold out.  For this reason, cookies have become a regular Sunday night baking tradition.

This time, however, I couldn't locate my favorite recipe (from Gourmet's Best Desserts) which has equal parts dark brown sugar and white sugar.  I misplaced my recipe folder when I did a massive housecleaning.  It will show up.  I'm not worried. So I thought I would take this opportunity to try another similar yet different classic.

These cookies were way too salty.  Its hard to say more.  I even cut the amount of salt, because Luisa noted that they were too salty.  I will find my recipe and post it, because these cookies aren't worth one bowl of trouble.

Melissa Clark’s Olive Oil Granola With Dried Apricots and Pistachios

I have friends who love granola.   They eat it often, sometimes using this snack as a substitute for a real meal.  I’ve never found granola that compelling.  It has always reminded me of trail mix, minus the chocolate, only less portable and more expensive. About a year ago, Melissa Clark, in her generally tedious column, “A Good Appetite,” wrote about the granola at Bklyn Larder.   I read it, ignored it, and moved on to other more exciting food endeavors. 

But then my friend Hannah made it. And I could finally see the appeal.  Salty, sweet, and with the wise addition of cardamom, slightly exotic. With pistachios and apricots, it avoided the traditional cliché of cranberries and almond.  Plus, it is made with olive oil, delicious and healthy, which contributes significantly to the granola’s Mediterranean nod.

So this morning, the first time in a while where having the oven on didn’t seem like torture, I made it.  And it is delectable and addictive, just as Melissa describes.  But, I must warn you all, making it at home is no bargain.  I actually think Bklyn Larder might lose money selling the stuff for $9 a bag.  My batch, which is probably 32 oz, cost $23.  And that excludes the cost of the olive oil, since I cannot remember how much I paid at Fairway for the nicer stuff.  So, savor every bite, this is the white truffle equivalent of a breakfast treat.

Welcome

Welcome to my 3^rd attempt at blogging!  

If this attempt is unlike the two prior and is tribute to regular communication and discipline, I will upgrade the format and do something more web savvy and in keeping with my very refined sense of aesthetics.  Stay tuned and thank you for participating in this Internet experience.