A Girl's Open Thread

You know what to do. Comment on stuff. Whatever you like.

Me? Today I made a cherry clafouti and a Mexican chocolate cake with butter-cream icing. I guess I was in a baking mood. Clafouti is a French dessert and it turned out okay. Someone on Saveur -- where I got the recipe -- described it as a cross between custard and cake. I'd go more with custard, like a bread pudding type custard. It's a tea-time snack so I enjoyed a slice with a scalding hot cup of tea which I forgot was scalding hence my now scalded tongue. I am an idiot, ha!

The Mexican chocolate cake (from Real Simple) is quite delicious. It has cayenne pepper in it which, to be honest, is the driving reason behind why I made the cake in the first place. The recipe called for a chocolate glaze but knowing myself and family not to be chocolate people, I decided to avoid a chocolate-on-chocolate disaster and instead pilfered an icing from another Saveur recipe. I now know how to make a passable butter-cream icing. Huh. While I don't feel precisely accomplished, I don't feel precisely unaccomplished, so yeah, I'm good heading into this weekend.

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'allo! Today a few new recommendations:
Regina Spektor, a Russian-born singer of pretty talent. When sampling her work might I recommend skipping her album, 'Soviet Kitsch', and beginning with 'Begin To Hope' -- it has a better flavor of songs in my humble opinion. She recently released another CD, 'Far', and her musical maturity really shines through every song. I'm currently listening to it (via Rhapsody) and so far 'Far' is fantastic! My favorites off the album as of now: 'Blue Lips' and 'Human of the Year' and 'Laughing With' and 'Dance Anthem of the '80s' is a fun little diddy.

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Going through the site, Ffffound, and came across this JPEG; the Rilke quote reminded me of the feeling the pic evokes. "My eyes already touch the sunny hill. / going far ahead of the road I have begun." (Rilke); click on the quote to see the pic. Speaking of evoking feelings, I'd love to have this piece. Isn't it gorgeous?

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"The lover whose soul shaken is
In some decuman billow of bliss."
~ Francis Thompson; The Way of a Maid; c. 1890.

Courtesy of A Word A Day, a mailing group dedicated to expanding the vocabulary of the masses by sharing the wonder and eccentricities of words. The italicized word within the quote, decuman, is A Word A Day fare. Do not be fooled by its noun like appearance -- it is an adjective; its meaning? 'Very large'. What I find so interesting about it is A) it is an adjective and B) its etymology. Rooted in the Latin decumanus, itself rooted in decimanus... decimus... and finally decem... each a variation on the theme of 'ten'. Decumanus was used many times by the Romans in conjunction with waves because they held to a belief that every tenth wave was the strongest. It also referred to the main gate of a military camp; the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed at that gate. Since it shares a root, decimate is also a relation and the word, dean, literally means 'a chief of ten'. Isn't that last part just fascinating?

Did you know atone is nothing more than a contraction of 'at one'? Is that not weird?! At least according to A Word A Day. I have my doubts.

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currently running through my mind: Bertie Blackman's 'Heart'
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Apples and Onions

Last Saturday I made an Apple-Cheese tart, of which I am quite proud. It was delicious, better than I expected. The combination of apple and cheese (among other things) to my tastebud's delight yielded a 'squee'. I normally don't flex my culinary muscles; I love collecting recipes or admiring a chef's style and creation but rarely do I dabble. But I had two green apples (too soft for me to enjoyably eat) and a sudden desire for a sweet treat. I have never made a tart before and am glad I took the opportunity to make one.

One of the reasons for my delight was my use of bookmarked sites as handy-dandy references and guides. I made a modified version of an Apple Onion Cheese tart I found on Design*Sponge's In The Kitchen; then I used a glaze mentioned on Orangette. I eliminated the sweet onion from the recipe because I didn't have any and it was too late at night, and I too eager, to run out to buy some.

I did make some mistakes along the way, somehow managing to misjudge the necessary amounts of flour and butter even with the recipe written down, in front of me. Thankfully none of my errors were insurmountable or uncorrectable. It's strange but the tart tasted better warm than piping hot. It tasted even better the next day as opposed to the first day. *shrugs*

I can't wait to try the recipe with sweet onions! It would make for a more savory dish. The glaze itself was nice because it utilizes the discarded apple cores: throw aforementioned cores and sugar in a lot of water and reduce to a tasty apple syrup. It's really good and has some great uses outside of glazing crusts. I recently used it as an impromptu dipping sauce for a few pork slices I had cooked up and pork and apples are always 'yum'!

I'm already planning on making a chocolate tart from unused chocolate chips in the pantry. Hee. Should be fun and, hopefully, tasty!