Author excitement

This weekend was the annual National Book Festival in D.C. I had a lot of errands to take care of, but I managed to make it for part of one day.

I heard Toni Morrison ("Beloved"), Jennifer Egan ("A Visit From the Goon Squad"), Gregory Maguire ("Wicked"), Sylvia Nasar ("A Beautiful Mind"), Candice Millard ("The Destiny of the Republic" - about James Garfield) and Justin Martin ("Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted") speak. I looked at all the states' tables in the Pavilion of the States. I browsed the huge book sales tent (but didn't buy anything).

Then I came home and ordered a few books from Amazon.com. Hey, it's hard to listen to all these authors and not want to get a few books.

Peanut butter and chocolate

You can't go wrong with this combo. And the recipe I made tonight had plenty of each: peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting in a chocolate shell (think of a Dairy Queen dipped cone).

The recipe was from the Cupcake Project blog. It took a bit of time, but none of it was very complicated. I ended up with leftover peanut butter frosting, though, so I made a quick batch of brownies (from a box) and topped them with the frosting and then the leftover chocolate shell. Twice the treats for my co-workers tomorrow!

(When I noted the leftover frosting on Facebook, everyone suggested eating it. There was enough to thoroughly frost an 8X8 pan of brownies ... more than I could eat. Also, I tend to taste little bits as I bake but am usually in no mood to down any of it once it's done. Work with the sweets kills the craving — at least for a bit.)

Fancy mac and cheese

I helped plan a baby shower for my friend Emily recently. We did a co-ed shower with a kid theme (played pin the baby on the father, gave out Nerf guns as prizes, played Candyland, etc.). To stick with the theme, we made finger versions of kids' foods. In addition to cupcakes, we had mini sloppy joes, bagel bites, homemade animal cookies, and mac and cheese cups.

To make the mac and cheese cups, I combined two ideas: parmesan tuiles and homemade mac and cheese. The parmesan tuiles were really easy to make. I looked up a few recipes but basically you just put parchment paper on a cookie sheet, sprinkle 3 Tbsp. freshly grated parmesan cheese in a circle about 3 inches wide, and bake it at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. When you take them out, let them sit a minute. Then, remove them with a spatula. and form it into a cup using an upside-down shot glass. (For the size I wanted, a shot glass was the right size, but you could use a larger item for a bigger and more shallow cup.) Let it cool into the shape. This crisp, parmesan cup is beautiful AND delicious.

I used a mac and cheese recipe from my friend Fisch, but you could use any recipe. Then, I spooned the hot mac and cheese into the tuiles. The heat will soften the tuiles a bit, but mine still stayed up pretty well. (I don't have photos of the finished product because I added the mac and cheese when I was at the party site, but you can imagine how it looks.)

These are very cheesy (mac and cheese in a cup made of cheese!), but also very delicious. The crowd loved them.

Put the lime in the coconut

 We had our annual Congressional Cook-Off at work this week. Each participant draws a state from a bowl and then has to make something related to that state. My first draw was Indiana. We're allowed to reject the first choice and draw a second time, so I did. And I got ... the Northern Mariana Islands! (Territories and commonwealths with delegates in Congress were included.)

I quickly discovered most authentic recipes use ingredients I'm not used to. I had to ditch my first choice to make, apigigi, when I couldn't find banana leaves or tapioca root at the store. (If there hadn't been a hurricane the weekend before the contest, I might have driven to a larger Asian market in hopes of finding some.) So, I settled for my second choice: kelaguen mannok.

The only tricky ingredient was that I need to grate fresh coconut, and I had no experience with coconuts. So I bought one and researched what to do. I pulled out the tools and hammered some holes in the top to drain out the water.

Then I wrapped it in a towel and beat it with a hammer until it broke open. (I did some subsequent hammer work on it to break it into even smaller pieces.)

What I didn't realize was that the difficult part was just beginning. The worst part was getting the meat out of the shell. First, I had to pry it off the outershell. Then, I had to cut or peel off the remaining thin skin.  I "grated" it in the food processor and had quite a mound of meat.

What I learned:
1. I hate fresh coconut as much as I hate dried coconut.
2. I also dislike coconut water.
3. Coconuts are not fun.

But it was a good experience anyway!

(About 30 co-workers participated in the cook-off so we had TONS of food. My food didn't win any of the main categories, but the judges created an honorable mention for it for its authenticity.)