the arugula files

No Mix Banana Bread at 5:15 am, Plus Pillow Talk

A few days ago my little Josie woke up at 5:00 am ready to embrace the day, which basically meant that I had to face the day.  So we had a little milk, chatted for awhile, and then, exausted by her robust schedule, she fell asleep in her swing at 6:30 am.  That left me without much to do until I noticed three bananas aging rapidly in my fruit bowl.  I did a quick search on my iPad for a recipe, and wasn't suprised to find that Elise, from Simply Recipes, has banana bread covered.  The most important thing about this recipe?  No mixer required.  One bowl.  Very little mess. Voila! I'm a domestic goddess who feeds her little one, makes banana bread in the morning for husband's co-worker, and then goes to work.  ZZZZZamaZZZZing.  I'm falling asleep thinking about how awesome I am.

Pillow talk after the jump.

Thirteen Layer Chocolate and Vanilla Cake (Plus, Cheers to 2012!)

I didn't feel particularly productive in 2011.  Well, I did produce something major.  But otherwise, I don't even want to talk about my culinary resolutions right now.  I'll visit those some time next week.  That may give me a few days to cross one or two more off the list.  It's definitely in my nature to cram things in at the last minute.  Meanwhile, I offer you this cake. Since I didn't make the cake, it's an endorsement rather than a recipe. 

It's a delicious dessert, more of a torte than a cake, rich, with dark chocolate and caramel.  My friend Denise brought it over for dinner. Imagine that.  You ask someone to bring dessert and they bring you a thirteen layer cake (twelve for 2012, plus one layer for good luck).  It's like going horseback riding, but the ranch hand brings you a unicorn to ride instead of a horse.  Pure magic.

Denise followed the recipe from smitten kitchen.  You know it worked perfectly, as Deb's recipes always do. But, as Denise pointed out, she made her cake the hard way: round instead of square.  What an inspiration.  And with that, I'll say cheers to 2012!

Paris: Ladurée

Of course the minute I promise more blogging, I'm off to Paris.  Pregnant in Paris.  I could spend an entire post writing about the things I couldn't eat in Paris --runny eggs, hollandaise, bearnaise (any aise, really), stinky cheeese, steak medium rare, cured meats, SALAD--basically there is large overlap between what pregnant women can't eat and what Parisians eat.  But instead of  complaining about my Paris trip, which doesn't really seem fair, I'll focus on what I could eat.  MACAROONS! 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Simply Recipes

My husband, Marcus, insisted I add maraschino cherries to this recipe.  I didn't want to.  Too trashy, too sweet, too processed, I thought.  But he absolutely insisted and I could see that it had something to do with nostalgia and the pineapple upside down cakes of his boyhood, so I indulged him.  I like french onion dip made with Lipton soup mix.  No one is going to change my mind with fancy caramelized onion from scratch dip.  So I gave him his bright red cherries.

This recipe is from one of the most reliable and comprehensive food bloggers on the internets, Elise at Simply Recipes.  I didn't change a thing.  Well, except for adding the cherries. 

Making Whoopie Pies

Last Saturday I made whoopie pies with my friends Olga and Jenna.  Jenna is a professional baker.  She made the cupcakes for our wedding and she understands lots of things I'm clueless about, like the difference between Italian buttercream and Swiss buttercream.  So when I added whoopie pies to my culinary resolutions list, it made sense to hook up with Jenna over egg whites and butter.  We made chocolate whoopie pies from Baked Explorations.  The recipe is here.

Meyer Lemon Cake (Plus Friends with Lemon Trees)

I once had a lemon tree.  I was living in a sunny studio apartment on 16th Street.  It didn't produce one lemon, but I gave it a try. 

Do you have a lemon tree in your apartment or yard?  If so, I'm completely envious.  Also, let's be friends.  Instead of "friends with benefits," we'll be "friends with lemon trees."  Of course, I don't have a lemon tree.  So maybe instead you could become known as my friend with the lemon tree.  "So, I was saying to so and so, you know her, my friend with the lemon tree..."  I like the sound of that.

Chocolate Pretzel Dipsticks (Chapter 13: The Art of Lazy Food)

I like the idea of homemade candy, especially during the holidays.  The problem is that homemade candy is too much work; it doesn't square with my cooking ADD.  I'm not into high maintenance dishes with 17 steps.  The cookbook I'm working on?  "The Art of Lazy, Tasty Food."  The dessert chapter will definitely feature these chocolate dipped pretzels.  They took less than an hour, including clean up and packaging. 

They sure do taste like more work.  Salty.  Sweet.  Crunchy.  Amazing.  Chocolate + pretzels might surpass chocolate + peanut butter as the salty dessert power couple. 

Look out, family, I'll be home for Christmas, and I'm bringing these beauties.  You supply the snow.

Carrot Cake (Plus, what are cake strips?)

I never thought of myself as a person who owns a cake stand.  As you can see: things have changed.  Since I am the new owner of a cake stand (one which I requested on our wedding registry; one that a nice, generous friend purchased for me), I have to become something else I'm not: a person who knows how to make cakes.  I thought I would start off with a carrot cake.  I selected carrot cake as the inaugural cake in my baking cakes curriculum, one, because it's Marcus' favorite cake, and, two, because cream cheese frosting speaks to me in hypnotizing ways.