3.31.2010

Food Trivia Wednesdays: Coconut

I can't deny it. Coconut has been on my mind a lot. Only because I have made dozens of macaroons over the last two days, all of which use way too much coconut to be comfortable. Anyway, it's a pretty appropriate ingredient for food trivia this week, no?

Every year, 150 people are killed by coconuts. Apparently, that's ten times the number of people killed by sharks. Wouldn't that be a sad way to die? So, I think the moral of this story is, do not worry so much about prowling sharks in the water on your vacation. Instead, avoid coconut trees.

Coconut water is the liquid inside the coconut, coconut milk is coconut steeped in hot water and then strained, and coconut cream is coconut milk cooked down until it thickens. Oh my, so much to remember!

About 20 billion are produced each year. Can you believe that's all the facts online. Well that's sad. I'm sorry. Next week will be more promising I swear.

3.30.2010

Macaroons

I LOVE sleep. I never realized how incredibly awesome it is. Like legit. I'm on spring break right now so sleep is actually attainable. No getting up at 5 am for an entire WEEK. and it was 78 degrees today. I think mother nature is trying to tell us all that summer should come 2 months early. I definitely be ok with that.

And in other news, both absolutely horrible and incredibly awesome. On Monday I discovered to my absolute horror that I did not make it into the highest choir at my school, while both my best friends did. It just confirms my own mediocrity and unworthiness. But then today, I found out that I made it into that Barnard program over the summer in New York. I'm pretty much psyched. Maybe I didn't make it into the choir because of the summer program. I'll just stick with that because it makes me feel better.

Next week is Passover and I am in charge of all the desserts. Since I have school the day of the seder, I got a bunch of my baking done today. I made regular and chocolate macaroons. I've never had chocolate ons before but I can't imagine that anything involving chocolate and coconut could be all that horrible. The camera is being stupid right now so you all will have to live with no pictures. I'm sure that will difficult since SO many people read my ramblings. That's no problem, however, it's still kind of fun writing to nobody.

These stick like none other and they spread quite a bit more than you would expect so you might want to spray the paper.
Macaroons
Martha Stewart

3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven o 325. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, coconut, egg whites, vanilla, and salt. Using your hands, mix well, completely combining ingredients.
3. Dampen hands with cold water. Use 1 1/2 tablespoons to form mounds; place on prepared baking sheet, spacing each 1 inch apart.
4. Bake until golden brown, 16 to 17 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate version: PLace 4 oz. of semisweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt. Increase coconut to 2 2/3 cup and combine all ingredients with 1/4 cup of cocoa and chocolate.

3.24.2010

Food Trivia Wednesday: Chocolate

Yes, I know it's slightly silly that my last post was a food trivia Wednesday and this post is also one, but that's the spice of life!
Chocolate
Chocolate. is. DELICIOUS. My mother is like the biggest chocoholic in the entire world. I'm pretty partial to it as well. Those clever Mayans! They will never know how much happiness they created in my life.

In the seventeenth century, a "death by chocolate" occurred. If I had to die, that would be preferable. But I'd rather not die. Cacao was used as currency in ancient Mexico because it was so very valuable.


People spend over $7 billion on chocolate every year. That is great investing if you ask me. Each person eats 12 pounds per year on average. I probably eat more than that but who's paying attention?

3.17.2010

Food Trivia Wednesday: Onions

So I've decided to implement a new weekly post to keep up the activity on the site and to learn some useless random information that hardly anyone needs. But that's why it's fun.

What popular ingredient did ancient Egyptians place their right hand on when taking an oath?

 Yes that's right. An onion. It's supposedly symbolized eternity. I can sort of see why. Don't you feel like crying for eternity for after cutting an onion? My grandpa likes to eat onions like apples. Then his breath makes me want to run for eternity in the other direction. He should eat some parsley because apparently it gets rid of foul onion odor.

Anyway, the Egyptians worshipped the onion and it was the only vegetable that had the privilege to be made out of gold by the artists. No other veggie can claim that honor. I think I'd like to have a gold onion in my room.

An old English rhyme states that the thickness of an onion skin can predict the severity of the coming winter. Thick skins mean bad weather. I think that those onions just might be more helpful than Punxsutawney Phil.

So there you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about onions and what goes on in my brain on a daily basis. Happy Wednesday!

3.14.2010

Chocolate-Cranberry Scones


Hey there.

Long time no see.

It's been an entire month. Hard to believe right? It doesn't seem like it could have passed so darned quickly. Now, I suppose I should give y'all some sort of excuse for being gone for such a long time. (not that much of anyone except me reads this but I'll have fun telling myself anyway)

The answer is quite simple. It begins with an m. and end with an l. That's right. MUSICAL! The best and worst thing about it is that it takes up about y entire life. Especially the last two weeks. On those days, we go to school at 7:15 and stay until 9 pm. or sometimes later. Which is fun but I almost died of exhaustion. They don't call it Hell Week for no reason. If only those pesky teachers would stop giving homework. Then I'd be fine.

So there was Hell Week. and then there was show week. I love performing. I always forget how much fun it is until I get up there in front of the entire theater and see the hundreds of faces staring back at me. Its so wonderful. I can't even describe it.

Anyway, the show went WONDERFULLY. We did Hello, Dolly! My school is known for having the best shows around and we did not disappoint. If I do say so myself. We always get our show filmed and the guy who filmed it told my choir teacher that it was the best high school show he had ever seen. Stuff like that makes me feel happy inside. Like i actually did something worthwhile.

And then there's the sad part. Because now it's over. And all my senior buddies are leaving. The minute the curtain closed after the finale of the last show, I burst into tears. That is not usually like me. It didn't happen last year, but I couldn't contain myself . I'm sure I looked really great after crying with pounds of stage makeup slathered on my face. All I can say is, I cannot wait for next year.

My mom has recently incurred a baking ban against me. No sweet things until we eat all the other sweet things I made that are now being stored in the freezer. Which limits the possibilities to bread for dinner. Apparently, however, breakfast pastries do not fall under the ban because she did allow me to make scones.

These ones are fairly delicious. Buttery and nutty and oaty. I think you can pretty much use whatever add-ins you want. I was going to only use craisins but then I discovered that we only had about a 1/4 cup. After I put them in. So I inserted a good handful of chocolate chips. they turned out wonderfully.

Scones
adapted from Joy the Baker who adapted from Dorie Greenspan


1 large egg
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 to 3/4 cup add-ins (nuts, chocolate, dried fruit, fresh fruit, etc)
1 stick plus 2 Tablespoons (10 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, grated on a box grater or cut into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and place a rack in the center of the oven.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and set aside.  
Stir the eggs and buttermilk together and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Using a box grater, quickly grate the butter until all is shredded and add to the dry ingredients, using your fingers to quickly incorporate the butter and flour mixture.  If you don’t have a box grater, you can also simply cut the butter into small pieces and quickly rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it is pebbly.  
Pour the egg and buttermilk miture over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, comes together.  Add the berries.
Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand or turn it with a rubber spatula about 8 to 10 times.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press the dough until you have a circle that is about 1 1/2-inches thick.  Use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to portion out 12  scone dough balls.  At this point the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight.  Don’t defrost before baking, just add about 2 more minutes to the baking time.  
Bake for 20 minutes or until their tops are golden and firmish.  Transfer them to a rack and col for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.