vegetable frittata with cilantro chile sauce

I love breakfast. Though I seldom eat it (I know, shame on me), it's my favorite meal of the day. Growing up, Saturday morning was the only day my family ate breakfast together. It was always the same thing: scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, and biscuits or toast. (Someday, if I'm feeling very, very generous, maybe I'll post the recipe for our homemade grape jelly. Best I've ever had. Period.) Perhaps, though the menu was always the same, that's where my fascination began. There was nothing quite like waking up on a crisp fall Saturday to the smell of bacon frying in the kitchen. I seldom make scrambled eggs anymore, but I do have a tendency to occasionally view my net worth as a cook by the depth of my breakfast repertoire. Who cares if I've never made beef wellington from scratch? If I can turn out an unbeatable scone, I must be worth my salt.

Ahem...my potato picture is pretty, don't you think? (Hey, I could have said "totally tubular," but I held back.) I might be the only person in the whole world right now -- save some over-zealous employee at McCain -- with potatoes as my desktop background. Tubers courtesy of Trader Joe's.

Anyway, I was glad to add this frittata to my breakfast repertoire. I prepared the cilantro chile sauce the night before, so all I had to do the next morning was chop a few vegetables. Heidi says in her original post that the best thing about this frittata is the cilantro sauce. I would go one step further and say it's the way the sauce -- tangy but not spicy -- blends with the goat cheese. (So don't skimp on the goat cheese like I did.) Also, it's probably worth noting that the picture you see above was taken before I doused the frittata with the cilantro sauce. This was purely for photographic purposes -- so you could see how the dish was assembled -- and under no circumstances should you serve the frittata without the sauce!

[Note: If you don't have a small nonstick skillet that is also oven safe, you can prepare the stove-top portion of the recipe in a regular nonstick skillet and then slide the frittata into any oven-safe dish when the time comes.]

Vegetable Frittata with Cilantro Chile Sauce
Adapted from a recipe by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks
Serves 2 as a main dish; 4 as a side

Cilantro Chile Sauce
3 large cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 small bunch cilantro
2 green serrano chilies, seeds removed
4 pinches ground cumin
A few big pinches of salt

Frittata
6 large organic eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 small potatoes, very very thinly sliced
1/2 cup yellow zucchini or squash,1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
A few pinches of salt

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Make the cilantro chile sauce by pureeing the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, cilantro, chilies, cumin, and salt until very smooth. Taste and add more salt if needed. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with a small pinch of salt. Set aside. In a (small) 8 1/2-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat add the olive oil, onion, and another pinch of salt. Saute, stirring constantly, until the onion starts to brown, 5 - 7 minutes. Add the potatoes and zucchini, cover, and cook for another 3 minutes or so. Slide everything out of the skillet onto a plate and set aside.

Turn down the heat a bit. Using the same skillet, add the eggs and cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes or until the eggs are just set and there isn't a lot of liquid running around the pan. To facilitate this, run a spatula underneath the sides of the frittata and tilt the pan so the uncooked eggs run to the underside and cook. Drizzle the eggs with a few tablespoons of the cilantro chile sauce and then sprinkle the potato-onion mixture over the top.

Place the skillet in the oven and bake for about 9 minutes, or until well set and puffy. Add a crumble of goat cheese and the pumpkin seeds across the top of the frittata in the final 2 minutes of baking. Remove from oven, cut into wedges, and serve.

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poached halibut with chickpeas & smoked paprika

Good morning, sunshine! It seems that spring is already springing out here in Washington. For the first time in months, I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. Though the frequent Seattle sprinkles don't particularly bother me, I'm quite glad to know the worst of the rainy season is behind us. As I got dressed this morning and planned my day, I was reminded of one of my favorite poems. Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" is a poem that I tend to think of on stormy days, but I find it just as inspiring on bright, sunny ones:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

[I would be remiss if I didn't stop here and thank my high school Honors English teacher, Hope, for assigning this poem to our class one day. I'm tremendously grateful for all that she taught me.]

With warm weather on the way, I'm ready to ditch the heavy comfort food of winter in favor of lighter dishes and more vibrant flavors. This poached halibut was the perfect way to make the transition. The flaked fish and chickpeas provide texture, and the vinegar and smoked paprika give the dish a tangy kick. If need be, you can substitute a few teaspoons of dried parsley for the fresh, like I did. (I don't care for fresh parsley as a garnish.) I halved the recipe and have some leftovers for tomorrow, but I think I'll be sad when this one is gone. However, since it only took 30 minutes to put together, it will be an easy one to make again. Definitely something to look forward to....

Poached Halibut with Chickpeas & Smoked Paprika
Loosely based on a recipe from Williams-Sonoma's Savoring Fish & Shellfish
Serves 6

1 1/2 pounds halibut fillets (or other firm, white fish)
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped (directions below)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup white wine vinegar, plus more to taste
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons toasted sunflower oil
Salt to taste
18 oil-cured black olives (optional)

Place the halibut in a saute pan with water to cover. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook until tender, 10-15 minutes. Transfer halibut to a plate and flake, using two forks). Set aside.

Rinse out and dry the saute pan. Add the olive oil to the pan and warm over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until tender, 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and paprika and saute until the garlic is translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the halibut, chickpeas, chopped egg, vinegar, half of the parsley, and sunflower oil. Cook, stirring, until heated through. Season with salt and extra white wine vinegar to taste. Garnish with the olives and remaining parsley and serve.

How to Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
For best results, start with eggs that are at least a few days old. Place them in a single layer in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add cold water to the pot until it covers the eggs by an inch.

Heat the eggs over medium-high heat until the water just begins to boil. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes.

Remove the eggs with slotted spoon and plunge them into a bowl of ice water. [Alternatively, you can drain the hot water from the pot, refill it with cold water, drain again, and repeat until the eggs have cooled.] Store eggs, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

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golden cream cupcakes

I'm not sure anyone was more thankful for the Presidents Day weekend than me. I can certainly appreciate setting aside a day to honor our country's great leaders (didn't those Lincoln-themed cupcakes tip you off?), but that wasn't exactly why last weekend was special. The Presidents Day holiday created a three-day weekend, which meant that I could go home -- to Illinois.

Ever since I joined the real world (i.e., graduated from college and got a job), going home has become something I crave. I long for the sight of the now-vacant bakery, the safe streets of my town, and the massive church steeple that seems to preside over it. In fact, I feel restless out here unless I know exactly how long it will be until I will once again find myself within the familiar confines of the home that has been in our family for three generations.

Though my trips home are something I treasure, especially now that they are few and far between, they can, at times, make me feel as melancholy as they do joyful. It's now common, at least one night during each visit, for me to wander around my room until the wee hours of the morning, looking at the framed memories on the wall and peeking at mementos tucked carefully away in drawers. What happened to those sunny spring afternoons on the softball field? Has it really been nearly a decade since that acceptance letter bearing the Notre Dame seal arrived in the mail? Those days have fallen away with the passage of time, but I can relive them, even if only briefly, with a few quiet minutes alone in the room that is now a shrine to what once was.

Those memories, indeed, are bittersweet. But I expect that they will eventually lose the sting of a time just out of reach and settle into the pleasant past like so many other memories before them. I hope, in fact, just like the memory of Grandpa saying "Twinkies aren't for little girls" as we sat around the kitchen table snacking on golden creams (generic, but far more delicious, versions of the Twinkie). I enjoyed a couple of golden creams while I was home last weekend and thought I might try to recreate them as a cupcake. I turned, as I so often do, to a recipe from Williams-Sonoma, but I must regretfully report that it wasn't a complete success. The cake, with its "plus 2 tablespoons" and other odd measurements, was a bit fussy to put together. It was tasty, but it didn't remind me of its commercially produced counterpart. The cream filling didn't meet expectations either. It had a slightly medicinal taste (perhaps I slightly undercooked the egg whites?) and couldn't stand up to the more pronounced flavor of the cupcake.

I can't say that I'm overly disappointed with how these turned out. After all, if I can't reproduce the golden creams out here in Seattle, I always have a reason to go home to Illinois....

(Like I needed another one.)

Golden Cream Cupcakes
A Williams-Sonoma recipe
Yields about 1 dozen regular cupcakes

Cupcakes
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

Filling
2 egg whites
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To make the cupcakes:
Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat an oven to 325°F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, stir together the milk and vanilla; set aside.

In another small bowl, lightly whisk together the egg and egg white; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes more. Add the egg mixture in two additions, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition just until incorporated, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fill your cupcake containers of choice 2/3 full. Bake until the cupcakes spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 17-20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes to a wire rack and let them cool completely before filling.

To make the filling:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using a handheld whisk, beat together the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, and salt just until combined. Place the bowl over but not touching simmering water in a saucepan and whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot, 2-3 minutes.

Set the bowl on the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat until the outside of the bowl is cool and medium-firm peaks form, 2-3 minutes more.

Assembly:
Spoon the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip. Insert the tip 1 inch into the bottom of a cupcake. Gently squeeze the filling into the cupcake while slowly withdrawing the tip. Pipe filling onto the top of each cupcake if desired. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes and filling.

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blackberry buttermilk cupcakes

Yesterday was Abraham Lincoln's birthday, so I'm sure you, like me, celebrated by making four dozen Lincoln-themed cupcakes. Fortunately, I knew I would have four dozen people to gobble them up. (There are so few of us who consider feeding four dozen people an enjoyable task.) I suppose at this point -- if you've gotten over the fact that I think these things are fun -- you're now looking at the cupcakes and wondering how they could possibly pay homage to the Great Emancipator. Well, dear friend, read on.

I am nothing if not detail oriented. In fact, I thrive on those little touches that make something nice seem extra special. So when I decided to celebrate our 16th president with cupcakes, the search was on for the perfect flavor. Blackberries are the state fruit of Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln was born, so it didn't take me long to pick them as one of the ingredients. I tentatively decided to make a coconut milk cupcake with blackberry filling and bought all the supplies to make a test batch. However, as I stared at the ingredients on the kitchen counter, something just didn't seem...right. I wanted a cake that would have been within the realm of dessert possibilities for old Honest Abe, so while coconut milk and blackberries sounds like a delicious combination, I don't imagine it was one he had access to. I suspect, however, that buttermilk was widely available, so with a quick swap of milks the cake flavor was decided.

Now what to do about the frosting? Though I love to top my cupcakes with big swirls of buttercream, I realized during the test batches that the cake and filling are amazing enough to stand alone; they definitely would not be enhanced by fluffy mounds of super-sweet topping. A less-is-more philosophy would be best here, so instead of a swirly poof, my frosting was low profile and piped on in the most old-fashioned design I could think of -- floral.

And how would the frosting tie in to my theme? Well, this is where my attention to detail becomes maniacal charming. I embellished the cupcakes with the colors of the Lincoln presidential china service, a royal purple and metallic gold. The Lincoln service, chosen by Mary Todd Lincoln, has been the most popular presidential china pattern for souvenir wares since the late 19th century. (You can see it here.) To incorporate the colors, I piped a purple blackberry onto the top of each cupcake and painted each flower petal with a wide stripe of gold luster dust. (The pictures here make the purple frosting look dark, but the true color actually matches the china.)

The life span of the Lincoln cupcake was a short one -- a quality much more desirable in cupcakes than people. I watched with great delight as our Board members ate them happily, some even taking home an extra for their spouse. At the end of the evening, only three cakes were left to pack into the cupcake courier. I think Abe would have liked them too, don't you?

Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral worlds within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1859

Blackberry Buttermilk Cupcakes
with Buttercream Frosting
Makes 24 cupcakes

Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
Scant 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Seedless blackberry jam or spreadable fruit for filling (about 7 ounces)

Frosting
Adapted from a recipe by Cheryl at The Cupcake Bakeshop
1 cup butter, room temperature
6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup light vanilla soy milk

To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

To the bowl of an electric mixer, add the buttermilk, canola oil, sugar, and extracts and beat at medium speed until combined. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture, beating until just incorporated.

Fill your cupcake containers of choice 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before filling, frosting, or garnishing as desired.

[To fill the cupcakes like I did, cut a cone shape out of the top of the cupcake, add about a teaspoon of the filling, and replace the cone "hat."]

To make the frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sifted sugar, the vanilla, and the milk. Beat until combined. Gradually add the remaining sugar until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.

Optional garnishing:
After piping on the frosting, I painted edible gold luster dust onto each cupcake. (Luster dust comes in a small vial and can be found in the cake decorating section of places like Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or Sur la Table.) To do this, begin with frosted cupcakes that have been refrigerated until the frosting is firm. Add a few drops of clear vanilla extract to a small dish. Gradually stir in the luster dust until you reach a paintable consistency. In order to achieve the same color saturation as I did in the pictures above, add luster dust until the mixture is almost too thick to paint with. (You will need about 1/2 a vial for 2 dozen cupcakes.) Paint the dust onto the frosted cupcakes. Repeat this process as needed (the extract dries up quickly in the dish, so you will likely have to prepare the mixture more than once).

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tapioca pudding

I like to think that I sort of "inherited" my love of cooking from my grandmother on my mom's side, but that's more of a sentimental thought than anything else. In truth, my love of cooking is something I developed almost entirely on my own. I have a few fond cooking memories sprinkled here and there in my brain -- making sugar cookies one Christmas with Grandma and learning the difference between a liquid and a dry measure from Mom -- but after those, my pursuit of new culinary knowledge and experiences became a completely independent endeavor. And although cooking is very much an independent hobby for me, I've never been interested in reinventing the wheel. I would much rather spend time reading about other people's culinary experiences -- successes and disasters alike -- and then incorporating what I learn into what I'm making in my own kitchen.

If I'm going to be completely honest, I'd have to say that prior to reading Heidi's post, I don't think I had any idea what tapioca was or how it was transformed into pudding. In fact, if you had asked me (and thank goodness no one did) I probably would have said that tapioca was a variety of rice. I would highly recommend reading Heidi's comments about making tapioca pudding before starting the recipe below. After making it myself, I can concur with her statement about using products containing soy lecithin: while it doesn't take away from the flavor, it does, indeed, make the pudding gelatinous. I used soy milk because that's what I had on hand, and though the flavor was great, the pudding was jiggly. I'll definitely make the pudding again and maybe try it out with coconut milk or caramel extract. I think it might also make an interesting cupcake filling....

[For those of you who, like me, sometimes find yourself floating in a dingy on the roaring sea of the culinary unknown, here is what the Bob's Red Mill package says about tapioca: Grown in the tropics, the cassava or tapioca plant produces a fleshy, edible root stock. A nutritious starch is then extracted from cassava and formed into "pearls."]

Tapioca Pudding
A recipe from Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks
Serves 4 to 6

3 cups organic milk
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
2 extra-large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split along the length (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste)

Pour 3/4 cup of the milk into a medium-sized, thick-bottomed pot. Add the tapioca and soak for 60 minutes. Whisk in the egg yolks, salt, sugar, and the remaining milk. Scrape the vanilla bean along its length with a knife and add that bean "paste" along with the bean itself to the pot. (You can add prepared vanilla bean paste now as well, but if you are using vanilla extract, stir it in at the very end after the pudding has completely cooked.)

Over medium heat, slowly bring the mixture just barely to a boil, stirring all along -- this should take about 15 minutes. Reduce the heat and let the mixture fall to a simmer. Keep it here until the tapioca is fully cooked, another 20 minutes or so. Keep in mind this time can be significantly longer (or shorter). The tapioca will tell you when it is ready if you watch carefully. The tapioca beads will swell up and become almost entirely translucent. The custardy part of pudding will thicken dramatically as well. It is even more critical to keep stirring at this point avoid dreaded scorching. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. This tapioca tastes its best when served warm, but is delicious cold as well.

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chicken and dumplings

It seems like almost everyone was trying to upset my apple cart this week. Remember that new gym I told you about? The one I liked so much? Yes, "liked." Past tense is appropriate here because I showed up for my workout on Monday only to find that the place up and shut down over the weekend. Nothing says quality customer service like closing shop without giving your members any warning.

Apple cart antagonist #2 was my temporary assistant at work. My fantastic regular assistant had to take a 3-6 month leave of absence to care for a sick family member. Since he left on short notice, we brought in someone from a temp agency to help us get by until we could find a more permanent solution. Well this guy -- we'll call him "Pebble" -- was a disaster. Even though he (supposedly) had a master's degree, Pebble had a difficult time mastering simple tasks. For example, one day our computer network was down, so the office was basically at a stand-still and everyone was waiting for for the technician to call and say they could start working again. Pebble's job was simply to let me know as soon as the technician called. When I didn't hear from Pebble for about an hour, I went out to ask him about it. Do you know what he said? "Oh, I was going to tell you the IT guy called a while ago." Great, Pebble -- thanks to you, we've just paid everyone here to stand around for an hour. He did lots of ridiculous things like that over the course of his brief tenure, but yesterday was the last straw. When I realized that Pebble hadn't checked the company voicemail for two weeks (though he did have time to check his appearance in his compact mirror and trim his nails at the front desk), I decided it was time to send him on his merry way. So I did.

And, finally, in an act of pure brilliance, I sucked up (and broke) my favorite gold necklace with the vacuum. Anyway, it doesn't really matter that all these people...and vacuums...were after my apples this week, because the great thing about it being my apple cart, is that I'm the one who controls the apples. So despite their best efforts, my apples and I are no worse for wear.

I think I'm all done talking about apples. Let's move on to chicken and dumplings, or, more specifically, the world's best chicken and dumplings. If you've never watched America's Test Kitchen on PBS or picked up one of their cookbooks, you're missing out. The chefs on the show (also the editors of Cooks Illustrated) make classic dishes with every brand and variety of ingredient imaginable to figure out which combination will yield the absolute best meatloaf, chocolate bunt cake, or in this case, chicken and dumplings. They do all the work, and you get a no-fail recipe to add to your collection. What could be better? I first made this recipe about three years ago and have been looking for an opportunity to make it again. With tender chicken that falls right off the bone and dumplings that are warm and fluffy -- nothing like the gooey globs of dough produced by most recipes -- this makes a perfect meal for a relaxed Saturday evening.

Chicken and Dumplings
An America's Test Kitchen recipe
Serves 6 to 8

[Note: Do not use low-fat or fat-free milk in this recipe, and start the dumpling dough only when you are ready to top the stew with the dumplings.]

Stew
5 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick
2 ribs celery, sliced 1/4" thick
1 large onion, minced
6 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup sherry
4 1/2 cups organic, free-range chicken broth
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 cup frozen green peas
3 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
Table salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dumplings
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat or unsalted butter

To make the stew:
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of the chicken and cook until golden on both sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and remove the browned skin. Pour off the chicken fat and reserve. Return the pot to medium-high heat and repeat with the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil and the remaining chicken. Pour off and reserve any chicken fat.

Melt the butter in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the sherry, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, milk, thyme, and bay leaves. Nestle the chicken into the pot. Cover and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked and tender, about 1 hour.

Skim the fat from the surface and remove the bay leaves. If desired, removed chicken from pot, shred (discarding bones), and then return to pot. Stir in the peas and parsley and season to taste.

To make the dumplings:
Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Microwave the milk and fat on high until just warm, about 1 minute (do not over-heat). Stir the warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth.

With the stew still at a simmer, drop golf-ball-sized dumplings over the top of the stew, about 1/4" apart. (You should have about 18 dumplings.) Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the dumplings have doubled in size, 15-18 minutes. Serve.

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low-fat vanilla cupcakes with strawberry filling and buttercream frosting

The pictures in this post are evidence that occasionally my love of feeding people causes me to step completely outside the realm of sensible thinking. Last year The Athlete graduated from high school, so naturally we decided to throw her a little big party. Knowing this event was coming up, I had a quick conversation with her a few months ahead of time:

Me: So have you started thinking about your graduation party yet?
The Athlete: No, not really. I don't even want a party.
Me: Oh...well you have to have a party. Mom and Dad will make you.
The Athlete: I know.
Me: So since you have to have a party, what do you want for dessert?
The Athlete: I don't care. I don't really like dessert.
Me: So...can I make cupcakes for your party?
The Athlete: Sure, if you want.

And with her official seal of approval, I started to plan. I knew I was making a vanilla cupcake (because who doesn't like vanilla?) with strawberry filling (at The Athlete's request), but I had no idea what it should look like. Exactly what shade of purple and gold (her school colors)? What style of frosting swirl? What kind of garnish? So I did test batches. Sprinkles, color sprays -- you name it, I tried it. I even roped in a creative director (one of my closest friends) to help me decide exactly what would look best, right down to the positioning of the strawberry slice on top. These were going to be perfect.

But do you know what it takes to make something perfect? A lot of work! Even after I settled on the flavor and design, I still had to find an economical way to display 300 cupcakes. Enter the Cupcaketree. Not the prettiest thing all by itself, but with some effort I was able to turn it into a cupcake stand to be reckoned with. Can you tell from the pictures below that it's made of cardboard? (No you can't -- don't lie.)

To be honest, I really thought that after I figured all these things out, the hard part was over. And I was wrong. I made the filling and all of the cupcakes in Indiana and then packed everything into the car for the 300-mile trip home. Not too bad. However, I grossly underestimated how long it would take me to assemble the stand and actually stuff, frost, and arrange each of the cakes on the day of the party. With only two hours before the guests arrived and not a single cupcake yet frosted, family members were pitching in left and right to slice strawberries, fetch ingredients, and push the cakes through my decorating assembly line. Technically I finished a half hour after the party started, but it was worth it because, thanks to everyone's help, the finished product was a thing of true culinary, Martha-Stewart-esque beauty. Totally glorious. The sight of the cupcake ziggurat filled my heart with joy.

And did I mention that they were delicious? Mom, out of concern that something would go awry during my cupcake project of epic proportions, insisted on purchasing a sheet cake for the party as well. But at the end of the night, there was 3/4 of a sheet cake left on the table and only a few cupcakes still hanging around. I don't think there is really anything else to say about them. The cupcakes have spoken!

Low-Fat Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling and Buttercream Frosting
Yields 300 cupcakes (just kidding...only 24)

Cupcakes
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskawitz and Terry Hope Romero
1 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 1/3 cups light vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup applesauce
6 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling
Adapted from a recipe by Cheryl at The Cupcake Bakeshop
2 cups strawberries (can be frozen), stems removed
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Frosting
Adapted from a recipe by Cheryl at The Cupcake Bakeshop
1 cup butter, room temperature
6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup light vanilla soy milk

To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

To the bowl of an electric mixer, add the yogurt, milk, applesauce, canola oil, sugar, and vanilla and beat at medium speed until combined. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture, beating until just incorporated.

Fill your cupcake containers of choice 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before filling, frosting, or garnishing as desired.

To make the filling:
Add the strawberries, water, and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat.
Sift together the sugar and cornstarch and then stir into the strawberry mixture. Cook until the mixture is thick and the strawberries have broken down, about 20 minutes.

[To fill the cupcakes like I did, cut a cone shape out of the top of the cupcake, add about a teaspoon of the filling, and replace the cone "hat."]

To make the frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sifted sugar, the vanilla, and the milk. Beat until combined. Gradually add the remaining sugar until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.

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guacamole

So I joined a new gym recently. The first gym I joined out here was a dirty, run-down dump, and after seven months of dreading my workouts, I decided it was time for a change. The new place is much more my style -- bright, clean, and full of functional equipment. My first trip there, however, was an eye-opening experience. As I was standing in the locker room, I realized that I had no idea how to work the digital locks on the lockers. Not wanting to accidentally lock up my things with no way to retrieve them, I thought the most prudent course of action would be to simply ask one of the other women in the room for instructions. Good idea, right? Mmm...maybe, but my thought process was apparently flawed. I turned to my left to ask the woman nearest me, only to realize that she was completely naked -- not even holding a towel or in the process of dressing. I could only imagine the awkwardness that would ensue if I asked a naked person a question, so I rounded the corner to look for someone else. Apparently naked woman #1 had friends because no one on that side of the room was clothed either. Perhaps it's a Midwest thing, or maybe it's just peculiar to my own experience, but locker room nudity was a rare occurrence at all of the gyms I went to back home. I don't have a problem with it, but it will sure take some getting used to.... [If you're looking for an end to this story, eventually someone -- fully dressed, thankfully -- walked into the room and was kind enough to help me.]

This guacamole has nothing to do with naked women at the gym, so I hope you weren't waiting for some clever segue. It is, however, ridiculously good. Simple, fresh food is by far my favorite thing to make, and this guacamole falls squarely into that category. If you pull up the original Williams-Sonoma recipe, you'll notice that it calls for serrano chilies. I intended to use a tomatillo in addition to the chilies, but because I was chatting on the phone with The Athlete at the time, I forgot to add them altogether. Not to worry, though, because the guacamole is spectacular without them. And it couldn't be any easier to make -- if you have a fork, a knife, and a bowl, you're all set. (Though I did just pick up this terrific gadget from Williams-Sonoma and would highly recommend it if you, at any point during the remainder of your life, feel you might have reason to juice a lemon or a lime.) Excellent, and worth a try especially if you, like me, don't care for the gunky, over-processed guacamole available at most restaurants and grocery stores.

Guacamole
Adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe
Yields about 2 cups

1 ripe tomato, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely minced white onion
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 tomatillo, pureed or very finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more as needed
2 large avocados, preferably Haas

Put the tomato, onion, garlic, tomatillo, lime juice, and the 3/4 teaspoon salt in a molcajete or small bowl and smash with a pestle or fork to a coarse paste. Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits and scoop the flesh into the tomato mixture. Mash together, leaving some lumps. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt.

To keep at room temperature for up to 1 hour, cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface. To keep for up to 3 hours, press plastic wrap to the surface, cover, and store in the refrigerator.

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