Trainwreck

From this......

To this.

OMG, it was a big f-ing trainwreck.  I managed to get it all done, but that stupid chocolate cake with the peanut butter frosting almost did me in.  Seriously.

You saw those perfectly baked cake layers in the last post.  All good.  So I assembled the thing.  Carefully spread my peanut butter frosting on each layer, aligned them perfectly and did a "crumb coat" over it all.  I then placed it in the refrigerator (needing to move just about everything out of it to make room - can you say "spoiled milk"?) and left it there for 30 minutes.  Took it out, frosted it and did the chocolate glaze thing on top.  It looked gorgeous and perfect.

Twenty minutes later?  Not so much.  It apparently went south (or east or west, whatever).  The layers slid all over the place and the frosting in the middle of the cake layers oozed out in a bulge that reminded me of what it looks like when you put on waist-high pantyhose.  This was not pretty.

And it was 11pm.  I SO did not want to deal with this.  So I did what any rational person would do and I scraped all of the frosting and the glaze off of the g-d cake.  (My garbage disposal must have thought that it had died and gone to heaven).  And then I reassembled the whole thing, gave it another crumb coat and stuck it in the refrigerator.  Overnight.

Flash forward to this morning.  I gave up going to the gym and my favorite step class to deal with this damn cake.  And you can guess what happened - I pulled it out of the refrigerator, it was well-chilled, the crumb coat was well-set and....THE DAMN THING WAS STILL CROOKED.  It looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Crap, crap, crap.

I tried pushing the layers into place.  Nope, they were cold enough that it wasn't an option.  So I decided to fix it with frosting.

But speaking of frosting, the recipe in the previous post DID NOT WORK.  It tasted good, but it didn't spread well and it had these weird pockets of bubbles in it.  Don't use it.  I went back to my favorite food guru (that would be Ina Garten) and made a batch of her peanut butter frosting.  Much, much better.  And, it managed to hide all of my cake-making mistakes.

INA'S PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

Place first 5 ingredients in an electric mixer and beat until well-combined and smooth and fluffy.  Add cream and beat on high speed until smooth.

So I am beat and I am tired and I never, ever want to smell peanut butter again.  Or encounter cream cheese frosting. Yuck.  Please, oh please can I have some guacamole?

But I managed to get it all done.  Here are my crappy iPhone photos to prove it....

         Finished and waiting for Henry to figure out

          how in the hell we are going to transport

                          these creations

                  Got it there!  (Thanks, Henry)

             Oh, and I ROCKED the cupcakes! 

Pieces Parts

So here is a picture of my "tupperware" drawer.  I probably don't even need to say it, but of course you can tell from this that I am a Virgo.  I mean, who in the world has an organized drawer, or cabinet or whatever of perfectly aligned plastic stuff?  Gulp, that would be me.

And yeah, my spices are organized alphabetically.  Don't pity me, though.  I am perfectly happy in my madness.

Which brings me to the cake marathon.  I had it all organized.  Day by day.  I finally figured out what I wanted to make (hummingbird cake, chocolate peanut butter cake, coconut cake and four dozen assorted cupcakes).  I crafted out what I needed to accomplish each day (including shopping).  I kicked into catering mode.

And then it all went to hell.  Wednesday night.  Henry called me at 4:30 to say he was headed to the ER at a local hospital.  WHAT?????  He had been experiencing severe abdominal pain for a couple of days (unbeknownst to me) and it got the best of him.  He was headed for the hospital.

Of course I met him there immediately, leaving all of my cake-making in the dust.  You don't even want to know what the kitchen looked like.  At the end of the day (that would be the next day, as we didn't get home until 1:30 a.m.), he was basically okay.  Diverticulitis, but he can live with that.  It wasn't anything worse, thank God.  My kitchen was still a mess, though.

So that left me pretty much in the weeds.  Didn't get much done yesterday as I had to deal with what was going on with my sweet husband (he will be happy to read that as he gets tired of my referring to him as "that old, bald man").  I am happy he is okay.  I'm even happier that Eric is showing up tonight and Andy will be here on Monday.  When you can be in the same room with your kids and your husband and breathe the same air - well, it doesn't get better than that.

But back to the cake project.....in a perfect world, I would easily make all of these cakes in no time at all, post the recipes and the final (gorgeous) pictures.  My kitchen would be perfectly clean and all my plasticware would be neatly stored away.

That is so not happening .  You're going to get the photos as I take them from my iPhone in any given sequence.  Random pieces, parts.  It's pretty much a hodgepodge.  Wish me luck today as I will be finishing it all off - at least, I hope.  I'm sure there will be some road bumps along the way!

                                                        

I began by baking off all of my cake layers, starting with the chocolate ones for the Peanut Butter Cake.  This is a moist and dark cake, very tender and soooooo good when loaded up with that peanut butter frosting!  Here's the recipe:

CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING 

(From "Sky High" by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne)

For the cake:

2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder (I used Droste)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher)

1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large eggs

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.  Spray 3 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray.  Line bottom and sides with parchment and spray again.

Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.  Add oil and sour cream and whisk to blend.  Gradually whisk in the water, then the vinegar and vanilla.  Whisk in the eggs and combine until well-blended, scraping down sides of bowl.  Divide batter among the three prepared cake pans (I use a

4 2/3-oz. ice cream scoop for this).

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until center is done and a cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 20 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Frost with peanut butter frosting, then drizzle glaze over top, letting it run down the sides of the cake.  If needed, refrigerate uncovered for 30 minutes until glaze and frosting are set.

For the frosting:

10 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

4 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature

5 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Jiff - you don't want freshly ground for this)

Beat cream cheese and butter in electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, with no lumps remaining.  Gradually add sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bolw often.  Continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

For the glaze:

8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup half-and-half

Yield:  1 8-inch triple layer cake

Okay, so here comes the disclaimer.  I figured that if an 8-inch cake was good, a 9-inch one would be even better.  Thus, I made the cake recipe x 1.5.  Since the frosting is my favorite part, I doubled that recipe (you don't have to do that but I would much rather have too much than too little - besides, this way you can lick the bowl or rip off several large spoonfuls and still have enough left to frost the cake).  I only made 1 recipe of the glaze.

I'm about to go and frost the thing right now.  Will let you know how it turns out.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos!

Out of the oven - not bad!

Liz's Baking Factory

9-inch chocolate, 5-inch chocolate and hummingbird,

9-inch hummingbird

Lotta prep!

Updates

Parmesan Crackers.  Well done this time! (no pun intended)

The diet (now known as the "eating plan") is still up and running.  12 pounds lost so far; not enough and not fast enough, but hey, I can live with this. 

Dinner tonight?  That would be at Cakes and Ale in Decatur cakesandalerestaurant.com.  I had a lovely escarole salad with olive oil, parmesan and anchovies and then the "vegetable bowl" with farro, turnips, cabbage, African squash, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and baby kale.  Simple, amazing and relatively healthy.  My friend Billy Allin (who owns the place) is there every single night. 

It's a chef-driven restaurant and he drives it well.  If I were ever to open a restaurant (which will not happen), I would model it after this one.  It's the perfect blend of casual neighborhood (you can wear your jeans) and beautiful, simple, locally fresh food. 

Okay, I'm done now.  See you around the cake baking marathon next week!

Birthday Cake Times Three

You may not like Paula Deen of Food Network fame, but you have to admit her boys are downright adorable.  On one of their "Road Tested" episodes, Bobby asks "What's better than cake?"  And then he answers his own question with "FRIED CAKE!"  Sure enough, they visited some place or another (no doubt in the South) where that was the specialty.  I personally think it sounds disgusting, but whatever. 

With that in mind, however, here's MY question - what's better than birthday cake? 

I was recently asked to make a birthday cake for a friend's 40th birthday party next week.  Flushed from my recent hummingbird cake success, I quickly said yes.  Of course, that was before I found out there would be approximately 60 attendees.  Keep in mind, I'm a one-woman show here (and my kitchen isn't so great either - I love this new house of ours but the prior owners didn't care about cooking so the kitchen isn't much).  There is no way I can pull off a cake big enough (or pretty enough) to feed sixty people!

So I broke it down.  "Alright," I thought, "I'll just make a regular-sized layer cake for the birthday boy and a couple of sheet cakes to serve everyone else."  I pondered that one for awhile but came to the conclusion that it just didn't sizzle enough.  After all, this is a BIG birthday.  There should be some BIG cake to go along with it.

You know where I'm headed with this.  If one birthday cake is good, then 2 are better.  And if 2 are better then why not THREE show-stopping cakes??????  I can do that!

This is the Mile-High Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

I made recently

I'm still working on it, but I'm thinking of a hummingbird cake (of course!), a mile-high chocolate peanut butter cake and then ... well, that's where I'm stuck.  Coconut, maybe?  Caramel?  Caramel with Chocolate?  Red Velvet?  And possibly cupcakes to scatter around for the kids?

If anyone out there wants to weigh in on this, suggestions would be welcome.

Next week will be a baking marathon around here.  If I manage to burn anything (like those Parmesan Crackers) or screw up (which I will), I promise to take pictures and post them!

Wish me luck and stay tuned.......

Parmesan Crackers

Oh, the pressure of maintaining a blog.  At the end of the day you drag yourself home, dog-tired, and somehow manage to scrape dinner together for those who care about that sort of thing.  That would be Henry, the old, bald-headed man.  Me? Not so much on most nights. (I'm still on this diet, yes?)

And then you remember that you need to post something.  Because, if you don't, your 2 or 3 loyal bleaders will hate you.  They might even stop checking your site.  God forbid!

So I got all prepared a few nights ago to post something as I was baking (and yes, I actually remembered to take pictures for a change).  It was a good recipe, too - Parmesan Crackers.  I was making them to take as a hostess gift to a party we were attending the next day.

You will recall that I promised to share the good, the bad and the ugly here (let's not forget the fruit flies).  So I made the recipe, took photos on my iPhone and then ... burned the entire batch of them.  Like really, really burned and inedible.  I didn't take them to the party the next day.  Oh no.  I threw them out.  Ended up taking a bottle of wine instead.  How ordinary, Liz. 

But here's the recipe.  It's so simple and so good.  I am making them tomorrow for a dinner party we are throwing on Saturday.  Here's hoping I won't burn them again!

PARMESAN CRACKERS (adapted from a recipe I got a million years ago from the New York Times)

1/2 cu unsalted butter

1 cup all-purpose flour ( I use unbleached)

1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano (don't skimp on this and use crappy parmesan - use the real thing)

1/2 t. kosher salt

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. minced, chopped fresh herbs of choice ( I used thyme and rosemary)

In a food processor, combine ingredients and pulse until dough comes together.  Turn dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and pat into a round.  Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll dough into a 1/4-inch thick square.  Use a cookie cutter of choice to cut into desired shapes.  Re-roll dough as needed to cut again.

Preheat oven to 325-degrees.  Place crackers on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake until firm, about 12-13 minutes.  Remove baking sheet from oven and increase oven temperature to 500-degrees.  When temperature comes up to correct heat, return sheet to oven and bake for 2 - 3 minutes more or until crackers are deeply golden and browned.  Cool on a wire rack.

Yield:  40 crackers

My mistake was forgetting to watch them when I put them into a 500-degree oven.  I think I was on the phone with my mom at the time.  Oh good, that means I can blame her!

Not So Ho-Hum Hummus

Do any of you remember the movie "Annie Hall" with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton?  It's probably my all-time favorite as it is a mirror of my life.  I LOVED the part where SHE said that, in her family, the greatest sin was to raise your voice and HE said that in his, the greatest sin was to pay retail.

And then there was the night she found a "roach as big as a Buick" and made him come over in the middle of the night to kill it.

I can SO relate to all of that (even the roach part, as that is exactly what happened this morning in my kitchen -  I'll spare you the details).  Growing up in a WASPY atmosphere, I could have been a double for Diane Keaton in that movie.

When I departed my white bread life in Jacksonville to head for college, I was severely deficient in many of life's culinary pleasures.  As in, I had never had a bagel.  Or whitefish salad (well, I could have missed that one).  Or rugelach, Indian food or hummus.  Years later, this did not serve me well when I became a caterer and cooking instructor.

You know what happened.   I was asked to create all kinds of menus - Thai, Indian, Middle Eastern and even a ristaafel (Indonesian Rice Table).  Somehow, I always managed to pull it off and fool everyone.  I just winged it.  There was no internet in those days, but I was saved by my (pretty good) cooking instincts and a plethora of cookbooks and cooking magazines (oh Gourmet, I lament your loss).

Which brings me to hummus.  I had to make that, too.  It has now become a staple for me.  If you go into my pantry you will ALWAYS find a jar of tahini (sesame paste) and a couple cans (cans? I hate canned stuff) of garbanzo beans. 

Here's the thing about hummus.  People like it because a) it tastes good and b) they think it's healthy (well, maybe it is when compared to homemade potato chips drenched with warm Maytag blue cheese sauce).  That said, it's really not. 

Do you know the nutritional counts for garbanzo beans?  For 1 cup, it's 728 calories and 12 grams of fat.  http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-chickpeas-garbanzo-beans-bengal-gram-i16056 .  And then tahini - 2 tablespoons have 180 calories and 16 fat grams.  Yikes!  I would be better off dipping a spoon into the jar of peanut butter in my pantry.

And we won't talk about the olive oil that's in it.  But, hey, serve it up with some veggies and whole wheat pita crisps and folks will scarf it up every time, all the while thinking because it has protein and no dairy that it's healthy.

But, it's good. At least it can be. As I said, it's become a staple for me and I have served it hundreds of times (including that dinner party in Durham two weeks ago).  But I have had way too many bland versions which taste very similar to chalk paste. No, no, no.  And don't even think about buying the crap that's in the case in the grocery store.  If you're going to indulge in it and not delude yourself that you are being healthy, then go for it and make your own.  Here's my recipe.

Hummus (adapted from "Open-House Cookbook" by Sarah Leah Chase)

3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup water (more if needed)
3 cups garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt to taste (use a lot!)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Rough chop garlic.  Place it into a food processor along with lemon juice.  Process to blend.  Add tahini and blend again.  Add water and chick peas and blend until fluffy, adding more water if needed, so mixture will not be dry.  Season generously to taste with cumin and salt.  Add olive oil and process briefly to combine.

Serve with pita chips, cucumber slices,. carrot slices, cherry tomatoes and good olives.

Yield:  3 cups

And if you want to pretend that you are being virtuous - well, who am I to argue?

Please Bear with me

I haven't forgotten about you.  More recipes to come, I promise.

Life has just gotten in the way for the last week.  Will post something tomorrow.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I appreciate all of you!

Chocolate v. Vanilla

It isn't always plugged into my brain that I have a blog and need to post new entries from time to time.  Truthfully, I don't even plan ahead about what to write - mostly I just go with the "divine inspiration" theory (this can be greatly enhanced by a glass of wine).  The problem with that, however, is that it's hard to come up with photos "after the fact."

We drove to Durham last Friday to visit our youngest son Eric and were looking forward to one of those good family weekends since Andy (our eldest) was flying in from NYC.  And it was exactly that, except for the fact that my assignment was to cater a dinner party for 15 in Eric's apartment that evening.  After driving 6 hours to get there, we the catering vehicle arrived at 4:30pm.  Yikes!  Suffice it to say I pulled it off, but that's another blog (again without decent photos).  Suffice it also to say that I was exhausted by the time we drove back on Sunday.

So yesterday my alarm went off bright and early and I could barely make it out of bed.  I felt like I had been run over by a truck.  An eighteen wheeler.  I stumbled into the kitchen to get the day started and realized that it just wasn't going to happen.  So I took 2 Advil and went back to bed. 

And then I remembered I had promised to make lunchbox desserts for a trip we were taking on Tuesday to the Georgia Aquarium with a group of veterans from the VA Nursing Home.  Oh, crap!

I dragged myself out of bed, hit the grocery store and came home to bake.  (Never thinking to photograph any of it, I might add).  Coincidentally, a cookbook I ordered online had just shown up.  That would be "Ad Hoc at Home" by the chef extraordinaire Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se fame.  I quickly flipped through it and came across his brownie recipe.

Brownies.  Okay, nothing special.  I have a recipe I've relied upon for years and it has never failed me (and it produces amazingly dense and fudgy brownies every time).  But this recipe had a different technique so I decided to be disloyal and try it.

Good call, Liz!  This rivaled my tried-and-true recipe.  (Of course, why wouldn't it?  Why on earth would my brownies be better than Thomas Keller's????)

But then, as usual, I decided to overthink the situation.  "Hmm," I thought, "not everyone likes chocolate.  Maybe I should bake something else as an alternative."  Can someone please tell me why I wasn't an overachiever like this when I was in school?

So I baked my favorite Cream Cheese Poundcake.  It's the one we used to make when I worked at Watershed and the baking method comes from Scott Peacock.  It's wonderful the first day (or the second or the third) but my favorite thing is to toast a slice or two for breakfast then slather with good butter.  Heaven!

I took all of it with me today on our sodden trip to the Aquarium.  It rained like crazy and you should have seen us trying to get all of these wheelchairs into the building without drowning.  We were soaked but it was a good time.  Made even better by those brownies and slices of pound cake.  Make them both and decide which one rules.  Chocolate v. Vanilla.

Sorry about the "afterthought" photos!

Brownies (adapted from "Ad Hoc at Home" by Thomas Keller)

3/4 cup all purpose, unbleached flour

1 cup good unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Valhrona, purchased at Whole Foods)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 lb. (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces

3 eggs (I used extra-large)

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla paste (available at Whole Foods) or substitute 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 bag Ghirardelli chocolate chips, 60% chocolate

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.  Butter a 9-inch square baking pan and line bottom and sides with parchment paper cut to overhang sides.  Butter parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside. 

Melt half of the butter in a small saucepan.  Put remaining butter in a medium bowl.  Pour the melted butter over the bowl of butter and stir to melt.  It should look creamy, with small bits of unsalted butter and be at room temperature.

Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes or until thick and pale.  Mix in vanilla.  On low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then 1/3 of the butter.  Continue until all are used.  Do not overmix.

Use a spatula to fold in chocolate chips.  Spread batter evenly in pan.  Rap on counter once to remove air bubbles.  Bake 4-45 minutes until center is just done.  Do not overbake.

When completely cool, invert onto a cutting board.  Cut into squares, as desired.

Yield:  12 to 16 brownies, depending upon how generous you are when you cut them.

Cream Cheese Poundcake (from Scott Peacock at Watershed)

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 lb. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

3 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

6 eggs (at room temperature - you can achieve this by placing them in a bowl of warm water)

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups sifted White Lily flour

Butter and flour a tube pan.  Set aside.

Place butter and cream cheese in electric mixer and combine well on low speed.  Add sugar and salt.  Increase mixer speed and beat for 10 minutes, scraping well two to three times.

Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition.  When all eggs are added, increase mixer speed to high and beat for 1 minute until mixture is no longer grainy.  Reduce speed and add flour in 2 parts.  When just incorporated, add vanilla and blend briefly.  Scrape down sides and use a spatula to combine well.

Pour batter into prepared pan.  Run a knife around center then bang once on countertop to remove air

bubbles.

Place pan in cold oven.  Turn temperature to 200-degrees and bake for 20 minutes.  Increase heat to 250-degrees and bake 20 minutes more.  Increase heat to 275-degrees and bkae for another 10 minutes.  Increase heat to 300-degrees and bake for another 50-60 minutes or until done and a cake tester comes out clean.  Let cool, then remove from pan.

Yield:  12 - 16 servings

(Oh, and in case of any of you faithful readers are wondering, yes I am still sticking to "the diet."  Didn't eat any of this, other than a small taste just to make sure it was edible!  I did that for you guys, of course!)

Hummingbird Cake

I know, I know.  I post WAY too much about cakes here.  Sorry for that.  But this is just too good not to share.

We attended a fundraising event for Georgia Organics this past weekend.  My friend Annie was the coordinator for the whole thing and oh my, what an incredible job she did.  It was held at Woodland Garden, which is a farm near Athens.  What amazing work they do there.  Celia, the owner, took us on a tour and explained how she is so very focused on organic and sustainable growing.  It was a revelation.  We are completely in awe of what she does and how she does it.

As we took the tour (all 100+ of us, split into small groups), there were "pit stops" along the way.  That would mean snacks and beverages from some of the best chefs in Atlanta.  Stuff like Caramel Corn, Sea Salt, Pecans, Peanuts served with Spiced Ellijay Cider with High West Rye and Agave from Rosebud.  Or Black Pepper & Rosemary Gougere with Gus Russet - Bulleit Bourbon, Basil, Lime Spiced Tea from Joe Truex at Repast.  Need I say more?

I won't even begin to describe dinner.  We were seated at two veerrrrry long tables (each seating 52) in a big greenhouse.  Gorgeous.  Wish I had a picture to share.  Let's just say Lobster Pie, Pulled Pork, Wild Shrimp, Veal Meatballs and Mom's Mac and Cheese.  Much, much more but you had to be there.  Sorry you weren't.

And then there was the Cake Walk.  An old southern tradition, made modern by Annie Quatrano.  About 20 chefs/pastry chefs made cakes for this.  Oh yeah, and I made one, too.  At the end of the supper, the cakes were paraded down the aisle (between the long tables) and placed on a buffet table at the end of the greenhouse.  Guests were invited to come up and help themselves.

I avoided the whole thing (haha, I'm still on this diet.  Well, sort of that day).  We were seated at the far end of the long table row, at the opposite end of the "cake buffet."  I had no intention of going there.   But after 30 minutes or so, my curiosity got the best of me.  I HAD to check it out.

This is Carla's Appalachian Apple Cake

as she drenched it with caramel glaze

Here's a partial list of what was there:  Wine Sponge Cake with Pecans and Cherries, Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake, Chocolate Layer Cake, Caramel Cake, Tres Leches Cake, Coca Cola Cake (complete with the Coca Cola emblem artfully etched in cocoa on top of the cake), Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Sage Icing and a Warm Currant Reduction, Appalachian Apple Stack Cake (this was unbelievable; see photo above), Autumn Harvest Cake, Pumpkin Cake (crafted by an artist slash pastry chef to look like actual pumpkins), Jonah Gold Apple Spice Cake with Sour Cream and Maple Glaze and Apple Spice Cake.

And then there was my humble Hummingbird Cake.

You already know about my decorating skills (or lack thereof).  So I kept it simple.  Just covered with cream cheese frosting (not too sweet) with chopped pecans adorning the sides.  It was beautiful in its simplicity but it was no match for so many of those artfully decorated cakes (sigh).  I thought about not even bringing it, but I didn't want to disappoint Annie.

So I brought it.  And then cringed in the wake of all those "professional" cakes.

When we finally made it to the cake tables, we saw that each cake had a tent card with the name of the cake, the name of the chef and the name of their restaurant (mine was labeled "Hummingbird Cake - Liz Lorber").  I immediately saw that several cakes only had a slice or so missing.  I did not even want to look at mine.

Okay, I'll dispense with the drama.  I looked at it and GUESS WHAT??? It was eff-ing WIPED OUT!!!!!!!  Nothing left but a few crumbs.  Annie had the bad luck to walk up at that moment as I grabbed her (as much as I could while jumping up and down) and giving her the news.  Mine got wiped out FIRST!

Oh, what a moment!

So I'm not an artist and I'm not a professional chef, but I can clearly hold my own against both.  Here is my recipe.  It's pretty easy and it will never fail you.

Hummingbird Cake (adapted from Cakewalk by Robbin Gourley)

3 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour

2 cups granulated sugar
1 T. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
3 extra-large eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 t. pure vanilla extract

8-oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup chopped pecans

 2 cups chopped ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.  Grease 3 9-inch cake pans and line bottom and sides with parchment.  Grease again (I use PAM for this).

Place flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl.  Use a wire whisk to blend well and break up any lumps.  Add eggs and canola oil and mix with a wooden spoon to blend.  Do not beat.  Stir in vanilla extract, drained pineapple, pecans and bananas.

Divide batter evenly among pans.  Rap each pan sharply on counter, then place in oven.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.  Place pans on a rack and cool for 20 minutes, then turn out onto another rack and cool completely.  Frost with cream cheese frosting.  If desired, decorate sides of cake with chopped pecans.

This cake is great the first day, but I think it is even better on the second and third days.  Here is the frosting recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting
3 lbs. cream cheese, softened
1 lb. unsalted butter, softened
1 lb. confectioners sugar
Pinch of salt
                                                         1 t. pure vanilla extract

Place cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer.  Beat well on high speed for at least five minutes, scraping bowl down often until no lumps remain.  Add sugar in three parts, beating well each time and scrapimng bowl as needed.  Add salt and vanilla and blend well.  Try to resist eating too much as you make it.

One more thing:  this recipe makes way too much frosting.  Of course, I'm the kinda girl who thinks there is never such a thing.  If you are a normal person, you might halve the recipe.

In the box, ready to make the 1 hour drive to Athens.

(I held it in my lap and bitched to Henry

the whole way about his driving).

Frat House Chicken

I know you guys are probably sick and tired of hearing me go on and on about this "diet" I seem to be sticking to. But, thank you. Posting it here is helping me A LOT to keep going. I appreciate your support and encouragement.

So here is one more post about what I can actually eat. And, it's actually good!

Weekday meals have never been my passion. Okay, I made dinners for years because we knew that, as our kids were growing up, sitting around the dinner table every night was one of the best things we could do as parents. I stand by that concept today. I think if more parents would take the time to have dinner with their kids every night and actually have some REAL conversation, the world would be a much better place.

That said, I always referred to it as "slopping the hogs." (Forgive me, Andy and Eric). Now that it's just the two of us, Henry (bless his heart) refers to it as "slopping the hog." I would correct him, but.......

We eat a lot of fish and chicken in this house. I don't know about you, but I hate recipes that call for browning the chicken in a skillet first, then putting it the oven with whatever you decide to add to it. It makes a mess out of your kitchen and your stove, and in my case, probably the floor which will be speckled with little dots of grease and oil by the time I am finished. And then I slip and fall on it or the dogs will lick it up and I will trip over them. You get the picture, yes?

As usual, I have to rant for awhile before I get to my point. Haha, I'm gonna ramble a bit more....

Both of my kids decided to leave the ATL and head for college in NYC. They are 2 years apart, but they both ended up at the same school there. They both joined the same fraternity. They both ended up living in the crappy brownstone which was the frat house. Do I even need to describe the condition of the place? Suffice it to say that the scouts from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" took a serious run at filming an episode there.

I happened to be visiting one week when my eldest son asked if I would cook dinner for the "house." He's a pretty good cook himself and offered to help. So of course I said "yes." How bad could it be?

Of course, he was nowhere to be found when it was time to cook. And the condition of the kitchen? Oy veh. Totally disgusting. The oven was so black and crusty on the inside, I was afraid of it. Dirty dishes and garbage everywhere. And then there was the fact that many of them (including my son) kept kosher. Oy vey again. Guess we wouldn't be serving cheeseburgers...

In the end, I devised a baked chicken dish which turned out really well. In fact, it was really good. Easy, too. I made it for 40 kids that night and they ate every scrap. I made it for Henry tonight and he did the same.

And oh yeah, it's on the list of things I can eat these days!

Frat House Chicken

8 chicken pieces, breasts and/or thighs, skinned (I prefer bone-in)
Olive oil
1 lemon, halved
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
2 tablespoons chopped Kalamata olives
1 tablespoon capers
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Place chicken in a baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil and squeeze lemon juice over. Toss to coat, then season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.

In a skillet, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add chopped onion and cook over medium heat until onion is just soft. Add tomatoes, olives, capers and red wine vinegar. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Season as desired with salt and pepper.

Pour tomato mixture over marinated chicken pieces. Place in oven preheated to 350-degrees and bake for 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Serve and revel in the fact that you have had a healthy and DELICIOUS meal. No guilt. No slippery floor, either.

Gingerbread for Dummies

Please don't take offense at the title. The dummy in question would be me, of course. And the aforementioned gingerbread would refer to the recipe I have used for years. It's absolutely delicious, but I am almost embarrassed to reveal it to you because even Henry could make it. Or one of my dogs. No, it's not from a box (no matter how lazy I can be, I would never resort to that) but it's the next step up.

However, back to that lazy thing. You see, I love gingerbread but I have no patience for peeling and chopping up fresh ginger or fighting with trying to chop up candied ginger while the knife gets all gunked up and you end up cutting off your index finger instead. That's why I love this recipe. It calls for none of that stuff. All you have to do is measure, mix and bake!

So here it is. I have no idea where I got the recipe. I think I clipped it from a newspaper or something when I was in college a million years ago. No wonder I can't remember. All I know is that it is really, really good and really, really easy. Serve it warm with my mom's Ice Cream Sauce and you will thank me!

Gingerbread

3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup molasses
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 tablespoons hot (tap) water

1 cup boiling water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, molasses and oil. Sift together the salt, spices and flour (or if you are lazy like me, you will just dump all of these in a bowl and stir it with a whisk to blend).

Dissolve the baking soda in the 2 tablespoons of hot water and add to the wet ingredients. Pour this into the flour mixture and blend well, using a spatula. Stir in the boiling water, blend quickly and pour into a greased 9-inch square pan (I line the pan with parchment but that's because I worked in a bakery; it's just fine if you don't).

Bake at 350-degrees for 55 minutes or until center is set (time may vary due to the accuracy of your oven). Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting or removing from pan.

This will serve from 6 to 8, depending once again upon how generous you want to be.

I just took a pan of this out of the oven. Wish you were in my kitchen right now. It's nasty and rainy here and it's the perfect night for warm gingerbread. Too bad I can't eat any of it (damn diet anyway) but is it okay if I inhale?

Three Words

Eight pounds. Gone.

Seventeen more to go, but this is okay.

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support.

I will post more over the weekend, but for now it's all good. Headed for the gym tomorrow!

End of an Era

Gourmet Magazine is no longer. Sigh.

Print media is quickly becoming obsolete. So is letter-writing (although I still believe in writing "thank you" notes). Makes you wonder how long books will be around. Sigh.

I took my mom to Sam's today so I could buy her a new TV. The one she had died the other day and, bless her heart, she called a TV repairman to come to the house. As you can imagine, he (covertly, I hope) laughed at her and told her it wasn't worth repair and it would be cheaper to buy a new one.

So we hit Sam's and found a perfectly decent 19" flat screen. I loaded it into the cart and kept going. Then I realized she wasn't following me. She was standing in front of the display, looking very perplexed (wait a minute, this is my mom, who is pretty much with it. Remember, she is the one who entertains all the time and drinks her fair share of wine, along with her friends). I asked her what was wrong and before she could answer, I knew.

She was looking for a replacement TV. The only ones on the display shelves were flat screens. She had no idea that what she used to have (a cumbersome old dinosaur) isn't manufactured anymore. It was an amazing disconnect. And yet --- why would she know otherwise?

She's an avid reader. She participates in a book club and goes to the neighborhood library on a weekly basis. She can even manage to drive there (scary thought and of course she drives one of those old Buicks - you know, the ones we curse at when we find ourselves behind one of them). But please, oh please, let "real" books stay around for awhile. She doesn't know how to use a computer. What would happen if her only option was a Kindle?

Well, I guess she could always take solace in her kitchen. As I mentioned before, she's a really good cook and she entertains her q-tip friends a lot. Here is her recipe for what we have always called "Ice Cream Sauce" although I have no idea why. It's not very PC as it has a raw egg in it. To hell with that, I say, just make sure you get your eggs from a reputable source (I get mine from a local farmer) and go for it.

I could eat this stuff from a spoon, with nothing else. Alright, who am I kidding here? I could happily slurp it up by the ladleful (is that a word?) But what you really want to do is spoon it over (in large quantities) some warm gingerbread that you have made yourself. (Do I need to post a recipe for that? If so, let me know in your comments and I will happily oblige). It's one of the best autumn desserts I know.

Baba's Ice Cream Sauce

1/2 pint heavy cream
1 egg
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup melted, unsalted butter
1 teaspoon rum extract

Whip the cream with a hand-held mixer. With the same beater, beat the egg in another small bowl until foamy. Beat in the sugar, salt and melted butter. Using a spatula, fold this into the whipped cream. Stir in rum extract.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Thanks, Mom. Enjoy your new flat screen!

Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies

For someone who claims to be on a diet, I seem to spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking stuff I'm not allowed to eat. Brown sugar shortbread. Biscuits. Those chocolate chip cookies I baked for my son when I sent him the biscuits. Chocolate truffle squares. And now it's cream cheese brownies. WTF????

For the record, I will tell you that I am still sticking to my eating - or should I say "not eating"- plan. I have to go for the first official weigh-in on Friday so that's enough to keep me in line. At least for now. And it certainly kept me from eating those shortbread shards or consuming vast quantities of raw cookie dough. (In the old days, I probably scarfed down more dough than I actually baked). But of course, none of you have ever done that, right?

I didn't eat any of the cream cheese brownies I made last Friday, either. Not the first crumb! And yes, I made them for a very specific reason.

You already know that I bake mason jar cakes to send to our deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan every month. What you don't know is I also volunteer at the VA hospital in Atlanta. I think it is equally important to support our veterans (many of whom are forgotten) so I make it a point to go in and hang out with them. Mostly, they just want to talk. Sometimes we just get silly as you can see from the picture on the left. That's me with Mr. W, goofing around on Valentine's Day. It's little enough that I can do.

So did I make these brownies for our veterans in the VA nursing home? Well, no. Many of them are diabetic, so sugar is not an option. Since I have never eaten or made a dessert with artificial sweetener that I thought was edible, I guess I won't be baking for them anytime soon.

No, I made these brownies for the VAVS staff and volunteers who worked like crazy last weekend to organize, staff and run the annual Stand Down for Homeless Veterans. Approximately 500 of our homeless vets showed up on Saturday for medical care, hot showers, food, clothing and support. It was an all-day event and it was HUGE - in every sense of the word.

Believe me, these VAVS staff members deserve far more than just brownies. (People, you know who you are). They are the epitome of what every employee (government or otherwise) should be. No matter how many diets I am on, I would happily bake for them every day of the week.

Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies (adapted from Magnolia's, Charleston S.C.)

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

4 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate

1/3 cup butter

Place chocolates and butter in a small, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until mixture is melted. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

16 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 extra large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth then gradually beat in sugar. Add eggs, one at a time and beat on medium speed until just blended. Add vanilla. Use a spatula to fold in flour and chocolate chips. Set aside.

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Using electric mixer, beat eggs until foamy. Gradually add sugar and beat on high speed until thick and fluffy. Add cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla and blend well. Using a spatula, fold in flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in chocolate chips.

Reserve 3 cups of the chocolate batter. Spread remaining batter into a 13 x 9-inch pan that has been lined with overhanging foil and greased well. Pour cream cheese batter over and smooth well. Drop remaining chocolate batter over cream cheese layer and swirl with a knife to marble.

Bake in oven preheated to 350-degrees for 40 - 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Do not overbake.

When cool, remove from pan and cut into squares. These are good alone, but you can gild the lily and top them with vanilla ice cream and drizzle with warm caramel (or chocolate) sauce.

Yield: 12 - 18 brownies, depending upon how generous you are when you cut them!

Brown Sugar Shortbread

Oops. I totally forgot that I promised to post this recipe. What kind of irresponsible blogger am I, anyway?

But if I do say so myself, these are worth the wait. Of course, I can't claim the recipe as my own; it comes from that brilliant local restaurateur Annie Quatrano (Bacchanalia, Star Provisions, Float-a-Way Cafe, Quinones and Abbatoir).

When I worked at Star, I made these several times a week. The best part about the recipe is that you have to trim the edges (more about that later). Translated, that meant lots of great brown sugar shortbread shards for us to shove down our throats. At 7 a.m, when baking was in full force, it made a great breakfast with a cup of coffee!

The first time I tried these, that old man I live with and I were on one of our marathon walks (see previous blog entry). Three-quarters of the way into the walk, we found ourselves at Star Provisions. (It's a wonder they let us in, sweaty and smelly as we were). A quick perusal of the bakery case and we both fixated on the very same thing: brown sugar shortbread fingers!

So we split one. Duh! How dumb was that? So we split another one. And then another. Nirvana! And of course the calories didn't count because we split them (and we were walking 18 miles, right?)

Whatever. All I can say is that you should make these tomorrow. You probably have all the ingredients on hand. Actually, screw that. You should make these tonight! Here's the recipe:

Brown Sugar Shortbread

2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325-degrees. In an electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Add brown sugar and vanilla and mix well, scraping down sides of the bowl and beaters as needed. Gently mix in flour and salt. Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl and beaters to incorporate ingredients. Do not overmix. The dough will be a little dry and flaky.

Roll dough between parchment paper or plastic wrap to 1/2-inch thickness. Bake on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet for 20 minutes. Cool completely.

While still on cookie sheet, trim the edges (you then get to eat them - oh yeah!) and cut into bars about 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches and separate from one another on the baking sheet. You may need to use 2 baking sheets. Bake bars for another 20 minutes, or until golden.

When cool, roll cookies in a bowl of granulated white sugar to coat.

Yield: 4 dozen bars



A couple of things:
Shortbread spreads when it bakes, so if you cut the raw dough into fingers (or bars), it will spread and lose its shape. Prebaking first, then cutting as desired will maintain the shape.

Do you like my Italian pottery? (That would be the ornate, overly painted plate in the picture. Yeah, and it has roosters on it, too). Henry hates the stuff. He refuses to eat anything on it (even brown sugar shortbread). I, however, love it!!! I decided a long time ago that I was a gay man in my previous life. Guess this proves it!

Some Things Never Change...

Like being a mom. I don't care how old my kids get, that "mom" instinct will never go away. When one of my kids is unhappy, so am I. And, like all the rest of you moms out there, I want to make it all better - which of course, I cannot. Especially since the kid in question is twenty-five years old.

That would be my youngest son. I'm sure he would be horrified if he knew I was writing about him but odds are in my favor that he never reads this blog. It's kind of like the Facebook thing. I'm amazed at the number of moms I know who have "friended" their kids, mostly so they can keep tabs on them. Problem is, your kids have to "friend" you back, which mine would never do. I actually don't blame them. I mean, how would I feel if my mother attempted to friend me? Three words: NO WAY, Mom!

So in that spirit, it's a pretty good guess that he'll never read this. He is in his third year of a PhD program at a well-known university. He's extremely bright (clearly he got Henry's brains, not mine) and extremely driven. As in he never stops. He may have gotten his father's brains, but he obviously inherited my inability to say "no." (and he did NOT inherit Henry's lack of hair!)

He's involved in everything from organizing programs to teaching to studying for comps. He is a serious runner, too. He seldom gives himself any time off and sometimes it gets to him. I could hear it in his voice on the phone the other day (a rarity, since communication with him is sometimes an email, but more often a text, which is why I had to learn how or I would never have any contact with him!) He sounded really, really stressed.

What's a mom to do? I would happily jump in my car and drive the 6+ hours to his apartment but a) he would probably kill me and b) he has to solve his own problems. Logically, I know that - but it still kills me.

My solution? A big box of whole wheat biscuits (his favorite), baked last night and FedExed to him today. He likes them because he thinks they're healthy, so we're not going to tell him about the shortening, white flour and sugar they contain. Or the butter at the end. They're actually pretty good though (okay, maybe not as good as biscuits made with lard and White Lily flour) and they hold up well for shipping.

Here's the recipe:

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits (adapted from Cooks.com)

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups unbleached flour

4 T. granulated sugar

4 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 t. baking soda

6 T. shortening (chilled or frozen), diced

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3 T. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450-degrees. Whisk whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Add shortening and use your fingers to incorporate into flour mixture until it becomes crumbly, like a streusel topping. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the butermilk and blend until a soft dough forms.

Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead briefly so mixture is well-blended. Use a rolling pin to roll out dough about 1-inch thick. Cut into rounds, using a 3-inch round cutter. Do not twist or turn cutter as you cut biscuits out.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment, spacing about 1-inch apart. Brush tops with melted butter and bake 15-20 minutes until golden.

Yield: about 14 3-inch biscuits

These are not as tender as traditional biscuits made with white flour, so they are best served warm (to reheat, wrap in aluminum foil and place in a 350-degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until just warmed through).

And when you box them up to send to your stressed-out kid, remember to bake up some chocolate chip cookies and pack them into the box also. I have never known my son to pass up homemade chocolate chip cookies (without nuts, of course), even if he won't admit it!

Mission Accomplished

I'll spare you the bathroom pictures. But you get the idea.

Yes, I am dog-tired. Yes, I busted my you-know-what to get all of this done in three days. If you know me, then you know that I am usually pretty modest about stuff. But you know what?

I did a KICK-ASS job here!

Of course, my father-in-law (who is the REAL owner of this building) will be in the city on Tuesday and he's going to inspect my work. Let's hope he approves (oy, is my insecurity showing or what?)

Anyway, it's done. And I managed to survive New York without too much damage to the diet (a few too many glasses of wine, but oh well). April (my son Andy's girlfriend) and her mom who was visiting, put together an amazing (and healthy) Israeli dinner last night It was like manna from the gods. A home-cooked meal and I didn't have to cook it! It was soul-satisfying and delicious. Thank you Andy, April and Anat.

But then there was that flight home today. Not so wonderful. Can you say "turbulence?" Like for the entire flight. I will tell you that I am a terrible flyer. How in the hell does something that heavy remain suspended in the air for such extended periods anyway? Ugh, and I hate sitting by the window, which is what I had to do today. And there was a smelly guy sitting next to me. So I plugged into my iPod and just tried to ignore the whole thing, which pretty much worked.

I'm glad to be home now, even though it is raining again. Jeez, can someone explain this to me? First we were in an extended drought and now we are drowning. Huh?

And so, it's raining and my dogs decided that they needed to pee all over the floor in the hallway. And of course, I stepped in it with my bare feet. And then they did it again 30 minutes later.

Hello? Can I please go back to the rat race that is NYC?

Wonder Woman Lives

Yeah, that would be me. I hit the ground running yesterday and managed to buy everything (let me repeat that: EVERYTHING) for this model apartment I'm setting up. Here's what I started with - a studio apartment with gorgeous parkay floors, a crappy couch and an overstuffed ugly chair. There was some other ugly furniture in there as well, but it's history now.

You try running around the city (yeah, I wore track shoes) to find enough stuff that's acceptable and can be delivered on a day's notice. That's what I did. Bed Bath and Beyond? Thank you for being within walking distance. I spent three hours there, picking and choosing (with absolutely no help at all, kinda like the service you get at Home Depot). Still, it worked. Then on to Straight from the Crate (garbage), Pottery Barn (not much better) and a few random stores in between. And then I stumbled into Crate and Barrel. Oh yes! That sweet associate Andy gave me a scanner and I just walked around the place and zapped everything that needed to be delivered today. Hell yes! (of course, there was the phrase "some assembly required" but hey - I can deal with that).

It all arrived today and we have a big head start on making this happen. But did I mention that the a/c in the building died 2 days ago? They're working on getting it repaired ($22,000 and three days later) but for now, it's beyond hot in there. I sweated more today than I ever thought possible. And April (Andy's girlfriend, whom I adore) was right there with me. Thank you, April! Men? Assembly? Who needs them? We didn't.

So tomorrow is the day to finish it off. The bed gets delivered, everything gets hung (drills required, thanks to the non-sheet rock walls) and I hope, I hope it all comes together. I think it will. I'll post pictures tomorrow night.

Wonder Woman? Yup, that's me!

Oh, and the diet? Not to worry. Who has time to eat, anyway? Certainly not me. All I cared about tonight when I got back to my crappy room (oh, I forgot I'm not supposed to say that) was a v-e-r-y long shower!

Oh, and Two Other Things

#1: This may be a crappy room, but guess what? NO FRUIT FLIES HERE! So I will no longer describe it as a crappy room.


#2: I know I promised the brown sugar shortbread recipe (stay tuned, it's worth it). I took the photos and I actually have the recipe with me, so I will publish it in the next day or two.


Sorry for the lapse!

What to Eat When You Can't Eat Anything and You Find Yourself in NYC

Yeah, that's true. Here I am in NYC, food capital of the f-ing world and I am still working this diet. (I hate to use the word "diet", everyone says it's just a new way of eating but truth is, it's still a DIET - yuck). Yet here I am, and I'm doing my best to stick to it.

I'm here in New York to work. We have a family-owned apartment building on the Upper East Side that has too many vacancies. Not a surprise, given the real estate market in the entire country right now. So we need to set up a model apartment. Guess who's gonna do that job?

The good news is that I get to go shopping on someone else's dime (well, not really since it's family money, but still...) The bad news is that I would love to eat my way through New York, but I can't. I'm staying in a crappy Marriott Courtyard on 3rd and 53rd and I'm in the middle of UN opening. Barak Obama is here and so is Bill Clinton, along with a million other folks. Traffic is horrible and don't even think about trying to land a cab. I checked into my crappy room (with an exorbitant price tag - not fair) at about 8pm and wondered what to do for dinner.

Room service? Not so much. In this place, room service means ordering from Outback (I'm not kidding). So I ventured out onto 53rd Street and came upon the Brasserie.

Mind you, I've eaten here before. Mostly just for breakfast, though. They remodeled the place a few years ago and now it looks like the Jetson's lair. Pretty silly, if you ask me. But I sat at the bar, nobody bothered me and I had a very good (and legal) meal of Pacific oysters on the half-shell and chicken paillard with arugula. Not half-bad and of course, helped enormously by the two glasses of Zin I consumed. Hey - I'm on the road. At least it wasn't chocolate.

I'm back in my (crappy) room now. Oh well, at least it's clean and the a/c works. Up early tomorrow to start my shopping. Figuring out what to eat while still sticking to the diet will be a challenge.

I'll keep you posted.