Food for Thought: Chruscikis

The March/April issue of Style is out!

Go here for my experiences making chrusciki for the first time (there's a recipe, too).

This month's "Past Perfect" profiles the history of Old Saint Paul's.

Enjoy!

Free Range: Salt and Alchemy on 36th

Friends, I gushed. Go here for the review of Salt.

An evening at Alchemy on 36th was less overwhelming.

When life gives you lemons...

make lemon meringue pie!

Happy Valentine's Day, Mom. Only six more weeks until you'll be walking down steps, shopping for your own lemons, and making your own pies.

Pinkish

Ballet slipper or rose petal?

Honestly, friends, I'm more partial to a box of chocolates than any other sweet on Valentine's Day. How about you?

Whatever your preference, may your weekend be filled with sweet pleasures.

Free Range: Havana Road Cuban Cafe

Best. Cubano. In. Town.

'Nuff said.

Go here for the full review.

Icing? Frosting?

Icing or frosting? Is there a difference? I usually use the former as the noun and the latter as the verb, but I could be wrong.

Friends, I’m back from an unscheduled hiatus with a quote of a day from Baker’s [the chocolate company] Favorite Chocolate Recipes: A Handbook of Chocolate Cookery, 1952:

Frosting your cake is an art. Some people are more gifted than others, but everyone can turn out a cake that is good to look at.

Words to live by? Possibly not.

I’ve been making lots of cupcakes lately, not out of any nod to foodie fashion, but for the simple reason that they’re easier to share with many people than is a single cake.

These coconut cupcakes were made using Ina Garten’s recipe. Out of cream cheese (I used the last bit in the icing last week’s batch of chocolate cupcakes [Kathleen's Devil's Food Cake from The New Basics]), I turned to the Baker’s cookbook for a chocolate version of seven minute frosting, but really, the white version was so pretty, I decided to keep most of them snowy rather than muddy.

Here’s me trying to photograph a la Jane Brocket with a digital camera and a not-vintage-but-embroidered tablecloth (I’m relieved that Brocket, too, neglects to press her linens before shooting...).

More cupcakes are on the horizon this weekend. My friend Pat, subject of January’s Food for Thought, called yesterday to ask if I would contribute a dozen (which quickly became two dozen) to a cupcake drive she’s organizing for My Sister’s Place, and how can you say no to that? Pat suggested cupcakes that would be Valentine’s Day appropriate, like red velvet, but I’ve never found a red velvet cake I liked. I’m counting on careful hand and red food coloring to make a white icing ballet slipper pink. Barring that, there’s always chocolate.

Dinner, Maryland-style

As I recounted here, at the end of August, I hosted a Maryland-themed dinner for my Style colleagues, a few friends, and family. Lead times being as they are, the piece ran this month in the November issue.

My mother and I made crabcakes and fried chicken, peach cake and Smith Island Cake, and from the above cookbook, recipes from former Maryland First Lady, Mrs. Helen Avalynne Tawes, sweet potato rolls (and not biscuits, as one of the photo captions reads; that's the risen dough, below).

A labor of love, for sure, but next time, I'm trying the Maryland stuffed ham.

Go here for the story.