Clementine's First Dance

I got a Kitchenaid for my birthday.
So I decided to make a plain and simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
And because simple has never been my strong suit, I toasted some pecan chips and coconut flakes, mixed it with crunched up samoa girl scout cookies, and put that mixture between the layers and on top.

Voila! A glorious popping of my Kitchenaid cherry.

-Linni
Oak Park, IL

SB2K7: What I Made This Week

So, I cooked a lot over Spring Break. Here are some highlights--click on the pictures to see bigger versions, some of these are sort of small.

We grilled in Blake's backyard--blue cheese burgers from his northern butcher shop genius. They were out of this world, especially when served with Jack Daniel's mustard, which Daria and I ate by itself long after the burgers were gone. At this same barbecue, I decided to put bananas on top of cinnamon graham crackers with a burnt marshmallow in the middle. Daria said it tasted like banana bread. I made about 10 of those.

These are the grapefruit sandwich cookies I made. They are grapefruit sugar cookies with a grapefruit buttercream filling. I hope to one day make a cake using this model--a basic citrus cake, like a lemon cake recipe, but with grapefruit. and i can use the same buttercream from the cookies, cept maybe with a little cream cheese thrown in.

I had a lot of buttercream leftover, so I made a batch of digestive biscuits and put it on those.

I made truffled red wine risotto and stirred in some golden raisins and sunflower seeds!!!

contrary to popular belief, risotto is super fun to make and not actually a huge pain in the ass.

Nessa and I had leftovers at the Feldman house one night, and the dessert was skim ricotta with vanilla bean and splenda and berries. a texture like you wouldn't believe.

-Linni
Oak Park, IL

A Brief Return to Oak Park

So for my first breakfast at home, I made this cute little thing you see below. It involved a vegan sausage patty, which left behind some delicious juices for me to cook my two egg whites in. The gala apple slices had some sunflower butter [peanut butter made with sunflower seeds instead of peanuts] for dipping, there was skim milk, and i watched Weeds while I ate it to complete the experience.

However, that was far from the most exciting thing I ate today. Check my other blog for details [picospalate.blogspot.com]

-Linni
Oak Park, IL

p.s. i also made chocolate chip banana bundt cake that is literally the most irresistible form of banana bread ive ever made. i am having trouble keeping myself from eating it.

In delicious of the cherimoya, ripening is definite factor

At the Hollywood Farmer's Market last weekend, my friend Richie from the newspaper turned to me and said "Well Miss Food Critic, have you ever tried a cherimoya?
A cheri-whata?
I recognize a challenge when i hear one. So i bought it for 50 cents and brought it home to ripen.

You aren't supposed to eat it til it's soft.

On the third day, I sized it up...

Cut it open...

and it was kind of a delicious mess. A mixture of a pineapple, pear, and banana in flavor. Sposed to be eaten with a spoon, but i just kind of went at it with my mouth. I think it'd be good in a juice or smoothie. The end!
-Linni