Fatty Friday Issue #1

This very special, very first issue of Fatty Friday is devoted to fried food. Specifically, Korean-style fried chicken. I hope to check out this place sometime in the next week or so.  Until then, all I can do is think about what to fry at home...

Perhaps some eggplant parmigiana?  Or maybe some fried okra with a garlicky aioli?  Decisions, decisions...

Pasteles de Puerto Rico

After going through a few days unable to really chew anything (Carnation Instant Breakfast, you are somehow tastier than I remember from my childhood), I took some time today to bake with a friend. I felt ready - or at least very willing - to try to eat more solid foods.

My friend, N, and I have this baking club. Whenever we meet to bake, we each bring a few ideas. Today I wanted to try two Puerto Rican pastries: quesitos and pastelillos.

Quesitos, inspired by this recipe, are like Puerto Rico's response to the cannoli. They are easy to make and are deliciously sweet and crunchy. Four step instructions, anyone?

Step 1: Unwrap and defrost a package of Goya discos (sin or con color, your choice)


Step 2: Fill with a mixture of 8 oz cream cheese, 3 tbsp sugar and 1 overflowing tbsp vanilla (yum)


Step 3: Roll into cigar-like/flauta shapes, brush edges with egg to "glue" sides together and brush top with egg


Step 4: Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown...


...like this!


This recipe suggested brushing the top with corn syrup after removing the quesitos from the oven. My friends and I found that, aesthetically, the syrup made the quesitos shiny and pretty, but the stickiness was kind of distracting.

The second pastry, the Pastelillo, reminds me a lot of my childhood. Every year my Titi Amelia would send my family a guava roll from Puerto Rico. The cake was heavy, filled with gooey guava paste and coated with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. I loved to cut a thick slice and eat it along with a cold glass of milk.

Unfortunately, my aunt passed away a few years ago, and the cake is now a memory, but when I saw this recipe for these guava pastelillos, I had to try it.

Step 1: Defrost Goya discos


Step 2: Fill with guava paste, cinnamon and nutmeg


Step 3: "Glue" inside edges with egg wash by folding into a crescent shape and pressing sides together; crimp edges with a fork


Step 4: Bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and dust with powdered sugar. It should look like this!


The pastelillos were my favorite. I loved how the warm, buttery dough, the spice of the nutmeg and cinnamon and the delicate powdered sugar topping all complimented the not-too-sweet flavor of the guava. It wasn't the same as Titi Amelia's cake, but it was pretty damn good.

Super Easy Avgolemono

 This soup is pretty easy to make normally, but, here is an even easier version.  So easy, in fact, that I was able to make it while high on vicodin (my face is still swollen and sore from when my wisdom teeth were brutally ripped out).

Here you go:

1 package Lipton Ring-o-Noodle Soup

4 cups of water

1 egg

1/4 brick of tofu, chopped

juice of half a lemon

lemon slices to garnish (optional)

Once you've got the soup boiling and the noodles are pretty soft, toss in the tofu, then whip up an egg and throw that in.  Make sure to stir quickly or else the egg will clump up.  Then add the juice of half a lemon.  If you add the lemon slices a few minutes before serving the soup will get extra lemony and delicious.  I like the extra lemon, but that's up to you, obvi.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Pecans and Apricots

I made these beauties for a cocktail party on Saturday night.  

I hate to arrive empty-handed.  Wine seems out of the question since I'm on antibiotics and probably shouldn't drink.  Also, I had a run in with a little too much champers and prosecco last weekend and, let's just say, I don't really remember how I got home.  I'd like to be better this week.  Plus, I'm on anti-biotics and apparently alcohol kills their effect.   Great!   So, chocolate covered treats it is.

These are insanely easy to make.  Except for one thing:  chocolate can burn pretty quickly, so use low heat.  In fact, your best bet?  A double boiler.  I make my own by filling a pot halfway with water, letting it come to a boil and covering it with an aluminum bowl.  (Come to think of it, this is probably a common method, but I'm high on vicodin and feeling obvious.)  Next, I fill the bowl with whatever I want to melt (chocolate, sugar, your heart).  In this case, a mix of milk and dark chocolate (I used Nestles;  it's not my fave or anything, but it melts really nicely), a pinch of very finely ground espresso and about 1/4 c. of milk.  Stir until smooth.  While you let it cool for a bit, line a cookie sheet with wax paper, then dip your treats (pretzels, cherries, any dried fruit, banana slices) one by one (or go ahead and throw 'em all in, who cares?!), lay them on the paper and refrigerate overnight.

Hi-Jacked! The Story of a Face

This is me, pre-wisdom tooth pulling:  

Some might say I look pretty normal, even chipper, in a manic sort of way.  To me, I look like a woman who has a full mouth of teeth.  But, not after tomorrow morning!  No, tomorrow morning my wisdom teeth are going to be violently ripped from my face, whilst I slumber in an orthodontic surgeon's chair.  I'm really so not OK with this.  I know there are more important things going on in the world than my face, but, it's my face and I care about it!

After tomorrow morning, and for almost FOUR DAYS, apparently, I will look like this:

And, this "situation" will be coupled with pain and the inability to eat anything enjoyable.  Not cool!  NOT cool!  Yes, there will be vicodin, and plenty of it.  But, damn it, that won't help me! Screw you, wisdom teeth, and the train you rode in on!

Maple Bacon Tartlets (Update!)

Ummm....they're all gone.  People liked them.  In fact, people liked the tarts so much that I think I might try to sell them at the Artists and Fleas market... will keep you posted.

What I Did for Valentine's Day

Admittedly, I've never been a big fan of the holiday, even when I had a steady boyfriend.  I'm very anti the corporate marketing of a day that celebrates the death of a person who died fighting for orphans (or something like that).  Especially when the celebration comes in the form of lingerie and sweets.  So, instead of sitting at home moping, I baked!  It was great and I got to share some goodies with my friends later on that night.

First, I made some maple bacon pecan tartlets.  These are a gift for a friend's birthday party.  I hope they go over well!  I was inspired by these recipes here and here.

But, the bacon was my idea.  

The dough is super flaky, and the salty bacon gives such a yummy contrast with the sweet corn syrup, maple syrup and the brown sugar.   To make these, I adjusted the recipe and simply added ~ 1/4 cup maple syrup and five crumbled strips of bacon to the filling.

Then, with the leftover dough, I made home made pop tarts filled with quince and rose hip jellies, which made for a not-too-sweet filling.  The rose hip jelly bled out of the tart in such a way that I felt it gave appropriate props to St. Valentine.

These are super easy to make.  Just follow the same dough recipe above, roll out into small squares or rounds, smear the inside with jelly or jam, fold, press the edges with a fork and wash with milk using a pastry brush.  These take about 20 minutes to bake in a 350 degree oven.

Finally, I was in the store the other day and I came across these little guys:

At first I was just attracted to the name brand, Bimbo.  I kept thinking that a great tagline would be: "For discriminating men."  But, then I opened up the package and discovered these sugar-encrusted, crunchy pastries:

They are delicious!  I'd love to learn how to make them.

All in all, a sweet Valentine's Day.  And no orphans were harmed by my actions...as far as I know.