New Theme, New Era

Posted: 07/12/2012 | Author: Whitney | Filed under: Cook it, food matters, home, Places to Drink, Places to Eat, Radio, Travel | 2 Comments »

Hi, there. You may have noticed things look different around here. This blog is ushering in a new era. I’m not really ready to define this new era yet, but it will hopefully be better than it was. I won’t necessarily be writing more regularly here, but I’ll be thinking about things a lot more. I admit to being a tiny bit tired of eating out and of endlessly traveling around, although, I’m still a fiend for a great roadside diner. I do love good home cooking, but my skills are limited and not worthy of an entire blog. I’m still very interested in seeking out interesting food finds, and hearing about what other regular folks are making and eating and doing. I love people, places, and food. So welcome to a period of delicious questioning and transition. I’m embracing the questions. It’s an evolution. This period begins with a trip from my current home base in Chicago to my heart home of New England. More on that later.

So for now, I’m not saying I will not be blogging about road food and breakfast gems, but hopefully I push myself farther. Thanks.

-Whitney

Australian Hedgehog

Posted: 05/15/2012 | Author: Whitney | Filed under: Cook it, home | Tags: Australia, dessert, home | Leave a comment »

Hiya. Sometimes you make and eat new things. Sometimes you indulge in a little saccharine nostalgia. This delectable treat is called a hedgehog slice. Say it. Now in an Australian accent (really go crazy with the “sloyyyeece”). You got it.

These chocolate goodies are the reason I put on fifteen pounds the year I spent in Australia in high school. (Ok, they also didn’t really do after school sports, which made me happy and my cross country coach back home very unhappy). I ate one nearly everyday for recess, which occurred a couple hours before lunch. Recess in Australia was a very civilized fifteen minute tea break at 11am. In which I consumed a hedgehog slice. (Or a vanilla slice for non-chocolatey days.) These bloggers indulged my request for Aussie sweets on their fantastic foreign food blog. I’m returning the favor with the best aussie treat I know. Now, I have found many different variations on this roaming around the internet. This recipe (via) turned out the most authentic to a small high school in Victoria, Australia-style hedgehog slice.

The Hedgehog Slice

WHAT:
180g butter
2/3 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp vanilla extract
500g of morning coffee biscuits (This is very important. Biscuits here means cookies. But dry, flavorless, packaged cookies that are only good dipped in tea. I bought “tea cookies” in the Polish section of my small grocery. Maybe try maria cookies? I also kind of eyeballed the amount. I ended up with about 450g. It will look like there is far too little chocolate with far too many cookies. This is good. The chocolate is really there to coat the cookies and hold them together.)
shredded coconut for topping

HOW
1) Grease or line with parchment paper a 9×9 baking pan.
2) Combine the butter, milk, sugar, cocoa and vanilla in a saucepan. Stir over a low heat until sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil and remove from heat.
3) Place biscuits in a large plastic bag and very roughly crush with a rolling pin (you want some big pieces and some little pieces).
4) Tip the crushed biscuits into a large bowl, add the melted butter mixture and mix well.
5) Press mixture firmly into prepared pan and sprinkle with coconut.
6) Refrigerate until firm. Cut into small pieces to serve.

Makes about 30 pieces. The slices will keep for several days in an airtight container in the fridge.

note: I added in a few peanuts for fun. Cherries would be awesome. Go wild.

Posted: 03/30/2012 | Author: Whitney | Filed under: Travel | Tags: Ecuador | Leave a comment »

I tasted my first yucca in a forest in Ecuador, prepared for me by my neighbor. She and I were similar ages, but had completely different sets of knowledge. She didn’t know how to use a computer, and I didn’t know how to wash my clothes by hand. She thought I was silly, but she looked out for me. I watched her effortlessly build a raging fire in five minutes with her bare hands and a baby on her hip. She roasted the yucca until the skin was black and the flesh was steaming, and we ate it with butter and salt.

The New Year and Perfect Cake

Posted: 01/03/2012 | Author: Whitney | Filed under: Cook it, home | Tags: baking, dessert | 2 Comments »

real Amy’s Bread cake from wonggawei on flickr

My birthday project this year was to make the perfect cake. When I lived in New York I often celebrated special occasions (and some random grey days) with a slice of yellow cake with pink buttercream frosting from Amy’s Bread in the Village. It’s important to mention that I used to hate cake. Too often it was dry with overly sweet frosting. Why eat cake when I could be eating pie? This simple yellow cake with pink buttercream frosting is the cake that made me like cake. It is a perfect cake. Luckily, James Beard has the recipe online, and I attempted to make it for my birthday.

The frosting calls for fondant, and I had intentions of buying some from a friendly neighborhood bakery. However, I found that bakeries like to take their Christmas holidays with everyone else, so instead I forgot the fondant and altered the ingredient amounts as suggested. I woke up and made the frosting before heading to a morning birthday yoga class, and with just one drop of red food coloring it turned out rosy, sweet, and perfect.

Since I spent the day being outside in the beautiful winter sun and doing indulgent birthday things, the cake preparation was put off until late afternoon. And since I had only one 9” cake pan, I had to bake one layer, remove it, bake another layer, remove it. (Carey recommended this trick for creating perfectly sized parchment paper rounds.) This means I was rushing around getting dressed and frosting the cake five minutes before I was expected at an Indian restaurant ready to ring in the new year. The cake looked divine, and my fabulous roommate helped me rig a genius transportation container involving a metal mixing bowl and plastic wrap. When I opened the cake just before the midnight countdown, well, let’s just say, the cake could’ve cooled longer. I had expected rosy, beautiful cake perfection, but the second layer had slid off the first revealing a lopsided mess.

my lopsided cake

NONETHELESS, the cake was delicious, and people ate it. Plus, by that time I was full of enough wine to not care. It wasn’t until the next day that I lamented even bothering with so much butter and sugar and time. And then I heard this obit of Eva Zeisel on All things Considered:

Happy 2012, people!

weekend in Michigan

Posted: 10/19/2011 | Author: Whitney | Filed under: Travel | Tags: autumn, Michigan | Leave a comment »

I don’t care where you live, you have to get out and seek autumn. And while it isn’t my homey New England, Mighigan does fall pretty well in its own way.