My friend Jared and I hung out over winter break and made dinner. (That’s pretty much what I do when I hang out with friends.) Jared is cool for many reasons, including that he studied in Brazil last semester, and he’ll be finishing the school year in Argentina (I think!). We talked about Brazilian food and culture, cooking, life goals, the usual.

He also taught me the easiest way to peel a garlic clove. 


A garlic clove. 

Smash the garlic clove with the flat of a knife, applying pressure with the palm of your hand.

The garlic’s papery skin will be loose and ready to slip off. 

With the skin still on, chop off both ends of the clove.

Peel the garlic clove. The skin will come off very easily.

And you’re done! Thanks, Jared.

White cake with lychee liquor-flavored vanilla frosting, topped with fresh blackberries and mint leaves.

My mama just had her birthday, and the responsibility of making a cake fell to me and my sister. This was very important: we had to prove how much we loved her, compensating for our bad behavior the rest of the year. Birthday cakes made from scratch are interesting, because they’re kind of a measure of your love for someone- the more effort you put in, the more you care for them. After the holidays, we were all pretty tired of sweets, but this cake was important. It had to say, “We love you, Mother. You really ARE the best mother anyone has ever had… just like you tell us every day.”

I had the idea of a very light white cake with a liquor-flavored vanilla frosting. My mom’s obsessed with this lychee liquor that she has -although she gets Asian glow and doesn’t really drink- so I wanted to use that in the frosting. Blackberries were on sale, and there was some fresh mint in the fridge, so that’s how we decorated the cake.

My sister Sienna thought this should be called the Lysander cake, since it looked like something out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

This is actually the first white cake I’ve ever made from scratch (chocolate is usually the go-to). Sienna found this recipe online. We chose this particular one, because we, too, are really light and fancy. 

Like most cake recipes, this one has you sift the dry ingredients together, cream together the butter and sugar, and then add the dry ingredients to the butter alternately with milk. This one also calls for an extra step- creating a meringue by beating egg whites and sugar into stiff peaks, and adding this to the batter at the last minute. Meringues can be tricky, and I’ve definitely had them fail on me before, refusing to form peaks. It isn’t fun.

To make successful meringue, be extremely careful when separating your egg whites from the yolks- don’t let any yolk escape into the whites, at all. After separating out your whites, let them sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before beating. The mixing bowl (metal or glass is best) and beaters should be completely clean and totally dry- wash and dry in preparation, if necessary. If you want to be extra cautious, chill your bowl and beaters in the fridge before using. 

We didn’t have cake flour (who does?), so we substituted 2-1/2 cups regular flour and 1/3 cup cornstarch for the 2-3/4 cups cake flour in the recipe. [The substitution for 2 cups of cake flour is about 1-3/4 cups regular flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch.]

Use an electric mixer for this recipe. Making meringue by hand isn’t impossible, but why bother?

Finally, the most important thing about making a cake is not to overbake. After years of cake baking, I’ve realized this is crucial. Dry cake is not only hard to swallow, it’s disappointing! Even the best of frostings can’t disguise an overbaked cake.
-So, as your cake begins to rise up and look done, watch it like a hawk. Whisk it out of the oven the minute it looks done and prick it with a fork. If the fork comes out clean, without wet cake batter, let the cake cool immediately, leaving it in its pan. The heat from the pan will continue to bake the cake slightly longer. Basically, you want to remove the cake the minute it’s baked through, and let it finish cooking while cooling on the counter for a few minutes. For this recipe, which says the cake will take about 30-35 minutes, start hovering in front of the oven door around 28 minutes. Hint- a cake layer that’s baked through will have a rounded top- any indenting in the middle indicates wet batter is still present. 
-If tragedy strikes and you think your cake is slightly overdone, tip the layers out of their pans onto plates and stick them in the fridge right away. The cold air should hopefully help the cake stop baking.

 For the vanilla frosting, we used the best recipe ever, from Rachel Thebault’s Sweet Chic. You can add up to 1/2 cup liquor to a batch of frosting this large, and we added exactly that. Other liquors to try would be Grand Marnier, Chambord, creme de menthe, basically anything alcoholic. Leave your butter out for an hour or so to get it to room temperature. If you’re in a hurry, microwave butter in short bursts of about 8 seconds until soft- being careful not to let it melt, at all.

Frosting Ingredients
3 sticks [3/4 lb] unsalted sweet cream butter, at room temperature
4-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup lychee liquor [We used Soho]

*We scaled down the recipe from the original proportions: 4 sticks [1 lb] butter, 6 cups sugar, 2 tbsp milk, and 2 tbsp vanilla extract. The original just makes a ridiculous amount of frosting.

Frosting Directions
Using an electric mixer or wire whisk, cream butter. Mix in sugar a cupful at a time until incorporated; it will be pasty. Beat in milk, vanilla, and liquor. 

Now, frost your cake using a cake spatula. If the tops of your cake layers are rounded, use a sharp knife or piece of dental floss to trim them flat. Place your bottom layer on your cake stand or serving plate and frost the top; place your top layer on it and frost its top. Next frost the sides. We decorated by pressing the mint leaves and blackberries in concentric circles. 

The finished product! Sienna found the candelabra. 

Mama’s only objection was that the frosting was too alcoholic and she was afraid of getting drunk. Sorry, Mama! 

I just saw my friend Kristina, who I’ve known since we were four. She loves to cook just as much as I do, and wants to open a restaurant! She blogs at theyumproject.tumblr.com. 

We decided to tackle French cuisine, and made chicken in Riesling, following an old recipe from Gourmet. It was really yummy. 

We had this with the rest of the bottle of Riesling. So good!

Original Recipe here.
YIELD: Makes 4 servings
TOTAL: 1 hour

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pound), backbone discarded and chicken cut French style into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
4 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), finely chopped (2 cups)
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
4 medium carrots, halved diagonally
1 cup dry white wine (preferably Alsatian Riesling)
1 1/2 pound small (2-inch) red potatoes
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Fresh lemon juice to taste

Gourmet, March 2008.

*Instead of a whole chicken, we used about seven chicken breasts. We also replaced the tbsp of oil with butter. Julia Child would approve.

*We made this in Kristina’s mama’s Le Creuset Dutch oven! I’m so jealous- I want one so badly, but they cost $240. But look at all the colors!

I should get it out of the way that I’m NOT a Twihard, okay. But like every girl of a certain age, I’ve read all of the books and seen all the movies. I wasn’t particularly planning on seeing the latest one, when my friend Elizabeth called me and said that she really wanted to see it. Naturally Elizabeth, our friend Mari, and I had to make a Twilight-inspired meal before going. 

We decided on a salad with blood-red pomegranate seeds, and mushroom ravioli, because that’s what Bella orders on her first date with Edward (I read the book, what do you want from me?!). Mari fixed the salad, Elizabeth made pasta sauce, and I made the ravioli filling.

the Jasper Salad- Mari may or may not have named this salad after a member of the Cullen family. It was delicious.

Salad Ingredients
 16 oz mixed greens
 1 grapefruit, peeled into sections and cut into triangular wedges
 1 orange, cut the same way as the grapefruit
 Seeds of 1 pomegranate 
 Juice of half of 1 lime 

Directions- Distribute the fruit over the bed of greens (presentation is key to this colorful salad). Squeeze the juice over. With all the citrus in the salad, this is all the dressing that you need. (Mari is a salad genius!)

Elizabeth’s Tomato-Butter Pasta Sauce
So good.

Sauce Ingredients
1 16-oz can tomato puree
2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 stick butter 
2 tbsp olive oil
Oregano, thyme, basil, salt and pepper to taste  

Directions- Sautee garlic in 1 tbsp butter and olive oil until slightly browned, add onions and continue sauteing until onions are slightly translucent.  Add tomato puree, oregano, thyme, basil and the rest of the butter and simmer twenty minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mushroom Ravioli
We just decided to use wonton wrappers for our pasta, and accidentally got potsticker wrappers instead. Our ravioli turned out translucent. It was still good! 

 
Top left. Mushrooms, sauteed with butter and dried thyme, and then diced. 
Top right. Mushroom and cheese filling in a wonton, with the upper perimeter dampened with water before being sealed shut. 
Bottom left. Folded, sealed ravioli. 
Bottom right. Cooking the ravioli.

Ravioli Ingredients (serves 4)
1 package wonton wrappers
8 oz mushrooms (we used baby Bella, obviously)
6 tbsp butter
~1 tbsp dried thyme
~6 oz full-fat ricotta cheese
~1/4 cup grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Directions.
-Wash, dry, and slice mushrooms. In a saute pan, melt 1-1/2 tbsp butter over medium heat. When butter is completely melted, add about half the mushrooms, leaving enough room so that only a single layer is formed. This is important, so that they’ll all cook evenly. Season with a few pinches of salt and pepper and half of the thyme. The mushrooms will absorb the butter, so add 1-1/2 tbsp more to the pan and flip all mushrooms over, stirring to coat. Let cook a minute longer, until mushrooms are brown. Remove and repeat with the rest of the mushrooms. 
-Dice all of the mushrooms. Reserving juices, mix with the ricotta and Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste- the ricotta is very creamy, so you’ll probably want to add a lot (we did!). 
-Peel apart your wonton wrappers and set them on plates. To form ravioli, place a tablespoonful of filling in the center of a wrapper, moisten the outer edge of one half of the wrapper with your finger dipped in water, and then fold the opposite side of the wrapper over onto the wet edge, pressing down firmly along the entire edge to seal. 
-Meanwhile, boil water in a pot. Add a little olive oil and salt to the water for flavor. When all of you’ve finished making all of the pasta, gently tip all the ravioli into the boiling water. They will sink to the bottom, and float up to the top as they cook and the water regains its boil. Remove the ravioli with a slotted spoon once they’ve all floated to the top. Serve topped with pasta sauce and more Parmesan.

The finished product, garnished with grated Parmesan.

Jasper Cullen approves.

The movie was actually really good, hilariously campy and over-the-top. We never got around to making a dessert. Before the movie we were thinking something featuring the colors black, white, and red- like a chocolate ganache tart with chocolate-covered mint leaves, rum whipped cream, and raspberries. After the movie, though, I got inspired by the horrific birth scene and suggested a chocolate cake punched down in the center, with the cavity filled with coagulated strawberry sauce and a baby doll to represent Bella’s flayed womb. My friends looked at me like I was deranged. 

Oh well. I’ll just wait for Breaking Dawn, Part Two to come out.

All of the best mornings start with coffee. What’s better than coffee? Coffee with Baileys, duh. 

I’m pretty sure that everyone who’s ever mixed Baileys has come up with this drink on their own, but I thought I’d share.

Mix:
1 cup of strong coffee
1 tbsp chocolate syrup
2 tbsp cream
As much Baileys as you could possibly want (2 tbsp bare minimum)

Happy New Year!