21st Birthday Brunch

So for my birthday, I decided what could be better than good food, friends, and festivities?  That said, I knew I didn't want to get drunk, but what kind of 21st would it be without any alcohol?  I then decided that some alcoholic cupcakes were the classy and delicious solution.

Thanks again go to love & olive oil, for providing both of my alcoholic cupcake recipes.  The tequila sunrise cupcakes had better frosting than cake, and the chocolate amaretto cupcakes had a slight baking fiasco that made them structurally unsound.  All in all though, mmmmmmmm.

After cupcakes were prepared, more of the menu was prepped.  I made a quick ratatouille.  NOTE ON VEGETABLE DISHES: be aware that once you cut up a vegetable, it makes a lot more food than you thought it would.  My ratatouille excluded eggplant because there's no way to make a reasonable amount of true ratatouille without throwing away vegetables, and I do not approve of wasting food.

Morning of, I got up early, got clean, and set to work.  Step one was the unprepared sausage frittata.  While it baked, I made crepes to be filled with the ratatouille.

My first guests arrived 10 minutes late -- my neighbors -- and after that rolled in for a while longer.  I hurriedly prepared plates for them, sauntering around in my lovely new cocktail dress and Google apron.

With everyone fed brunch, we had some nice conversation, then moved over to the neighbors for some gaming and cupcakes.  An afternoon of Mario World later, we settled in for a super bowl study party.  A few more hours of catching up, and I had a full day of company.

I highly recommend food and friends for a good lazy day.  Can't think of a better way I could have spent it.


Recipes:
Quick Ratatouille
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small zucchini (sliced)
1 small yellow squash (sliced)
1/2 onion (diced)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 can (~15oz) crushed or diced tomatoes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano

In medium frying pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and stir until translucent and soft.  Add zucchini and squash to pan.  Cover and let cook, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Add tomatoes, thyme, and oregano.  Stir until heated through.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sausage Frittata
1lb bulk breakfast sausage (sage sausage)
4-5 green onions (chopped)
4 cloves garlic
10 eggs
1 cup mild shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a large ovenproof frying pan with cooking spray, add sausage, and cook sausage over medium heat.  Stir occasionally to keep sausage from sticking to pan.  When almost fully cooked, add green onions and garlic, and cook until softened.

In large bowl whisk 10 eggs.  Add cheese, and stir until incorporated.

Pour egg mixture into frying pan over sausage.  Lower heat to low.  Stir gently to redistribute sausage, onions, and cheese evenly.  Let eggs begin to cook, sliding spatula around edges to allow uncooked egg underneath.  When bottom and edges of frittata are set, carefully transfer the pan to the oven.  Let bake for 45 minutes.  Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick or knife in the frittata to have it come out clean.  Remove frittata from oven and let cool shortly before serving.

Tart Begets Instant Cheesecake

 
For Christmas I received a Hershey’s cookbook.  Being something of a food snob, I was convinced I would make little use of this gift, until I took a look at the recipes.  They looked delicious, and really, who can turn down shiny shiny chocolate?  My first recipe attempt was shockingly devoid of chocolate-y chocolate; instead, I chose a white chocolate tart. 

You can find the recipe on the Hershey’s website.  In my defense, the online recipe’s picture (shown above) is way more involved than the one shown in my cookbook which had a small smattering of fruits the chef seemed to have on hand.

Lesson #1:
Having your recipes come out right is much more probable if you own the necessary equipment.  But how hard could it be to emulate pressing tart dough into a 12” pizza pan?

Well, helped by my complete inability to judge measurements, my tart crust came out too small, too thick, and with a sketchy little only-raised-in-some-parts crust.  I made the topping, spread it on, dropped some peach on there, and covered the whole thing with a variation of a sort of glaze the recipe called for.

My first slice was quite disappointing.  The inordinate amount of crust made it more like a stale pecan sandy with a tiny bit of yumminess on top.

I found that after refrigeration, the tart had improved in quality, but was still none-too-exciting.  I don’t let leftover food sit in my fridge for long, so the tart went pretty quick, and a few days later I sat down with a bowl of the remaining peaches and topping.  I found that, honestly, the topping was quite good by itself; it could easily be used as a filling for fancy cupcakes, perhaps dipped in chocolate to make truffles, or used as a sort of ganache.  Being easy and quick to whip up, it’s also fully satisfying for those times you have a hankerin’ for cheesecake.  This is especially true if you’re like me and are not a big fan of graham cracker crusts.

So maybe not a success, but at least I’ve got new material for creating my own dessert recipes.

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

In my recent exploration of food blogs, one of the first I got hooked on was love & olive oil.  I have to admit, it was mostly because of the wide variety of interesting gourmet cupcake recipes.  I decided Strawberry Lemonade would be a reasonable first effort.  I was unsure how the cupcakes would come out, but I went and got the necessary ingredients nonetheless.

Before I even went shopping, I decided raspberry jam would be a perfectly reasonable substitution for pureed strawberries, so strawberry lemonade cupcakes became raspberry lemonade cupcakes.

The cupcake batter was really easy to make -- I’ve always been somewhat wary of homemade cake, but no problems here.  I was a little worried when I added the coconut milk, which has a very distinct and not very pleasant scent.  I also managed to make quite a mess, so I cleaned up while the cupcakes baked.

Then came the frosting.  In the recipe post, there was some noted difficulty with the frosting, but I figured if hers came out ok, mine would come out ok too.

WRONG.  First problem was again my lack of proper equipment.  The frosting was meringue-based which meant I needed a double broiler.  However, I could not find a surely heat proof bowl to put over a pan, so I ended up wrapping my arm in a towel and holding a tiny bowl which I was half expecting to melt while I whisked feverishly.

I’m not sure if my “ingenuity” had any part in the failing of the frosting though, as I then misread an instruction in the recipe.  I then experienced the rather expected problem of the frosting separating.  The recipe said just to keep beating if this happened.  I did.  Either our mixer just doesn’t have enough oomph, or the frosting was just doomed from the start.

I still needed frosting though, so I grabbed another stick of butter threw in powdered sugar, lemon, extract, and raspberry jam until it tasted about how I wanted it.  Surprisingly, winging it worked out pretty well.  I frosted all the cupcakes, handed one to a friend, and grabbed one myself, not knowing what to expect.

Huh.  Tasty.  The cupcakes themselves, despite being pretty crumbly, were nice and moist and delicious.  The makeshift frosting had a good balance of lemon and raspberry.  My friend ate three while he was over, so I’ll take that as success.

Update: I find the cupcakes taste better if you refrigerate them.  I think it’s because it sets up my frosting a little better.