undead inspiration

My friend Kasia and I somehow started talking about Interview with a Vampire last weekend, specifically, how badly Kasia wanted to watch the movie. I told her that I owned it and she declared that the following Saturday would be dinner and a movie at my house, research paper be damned!

I decided this movie night needed a theme, and tonight's dinner would revolve around the dessert. Here is Kasia making the ganache...

After that was finished, we put it in the refrigerator to set, and Elizabeth served us some wine with raspberries.

of course

The second course was a spinach and arugula salad with bleu cheese, pecans, and a blood orange vinaigrette. I whisked together some of the orange juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and a little honey. I always forget about salads when I'm planning a meal. Making my own dressing is something that I want to do more of, though. This one turned out really good.

The next dish was supposed to be bone marrow, but I couldn't find any. :( So we went with scallops. We sauteed those in some butter and white wine. 

I wish this picture was scratch and sniff

I couldn't help but notice you admiring my new all-clad frying pans... nice, right?

When they finished cooking, I added a little more wine to the pan, scraped up the crusty bits and made a nice little sauce for the scallops.

So, that was dinner. Not exactly Vampire-y, more of a subtle nod. But delicious, nonetheless.

On to dessert...

With the ganache set, we started on the cake. Kasia heated a cup of butter and 8oz semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler. Meanwhile, Elizabeth mixed 4 eggs, 4 egg whites, 1/2c flour, 1/2c sugar and a teaspoon of almond extract.

Once the chocolate mixture is room temperature, Kasia folded it into the egg mixture.

And poured it into 4 buttered and sugared ramekins.

THEN, we scooped out little ganache balls and carefully put them in the middle of the cake mixture. Do you see where this is going?

There was a little batter leftover, so we filled an extra ramekin, and baked them for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Next came the raspberry sauce, aka vampirizing the cakes. I smushed a little less then a pint of raspberries through a sieve.

To that, we added ~2T of sugar and 1 1/2T liquor.

Finally, the cakes came out of the oven. I topped them  with a little powdered sugar, a couple of raspberries and some blood vampire sauce raspberry liquor.

a proud moment

These molten chocolate cakes are probably the most delicious things I've ever tasted, let alone baked in my own kitchen. Kasia, Elizabeth and I decided that this should probably become a regular occurrence. 

What movie/food theme should we do next? Do you want to come? What has been your proudest cooking moment thus far?

m

on the go

Remember when I made this?

 I made it again last night. Remember when I made these?

I made them, too. Remember how I have cheese and crackers with about 48% of my meals?

Yep.

I'm having one of those weeks where I don't eat dinner before 9pm, if I get to eat it at all. So Wednesday night, I stopped at Star on my way home and picked up a bag of spinach so that I could make a Dinner for One that would make Judith Jones proud.

I think she would be very proud of me.

Saturday night, my friend Kasia and I are having a movie night. What should we cook that would go along nicely with a film of the vampire genre? (And no, it isn't a Twilight) Let me know. Until then, I'll be writing a paper. Have a great weekend!

m

craving...

I want this or this, please. Thank you.


what do you want?
m

arts and eats

Since my youngest sister Katie couldn't come for Thanksgiving this past year, she decided to book a trip during the three-day weekend this month. Her friend (and mine) Ansley had never been to Boston before, she she decided to come too. So we had ourselves an ol' fashioned girls' weekend! As you can imagine, there was some shopping, cooking, giggling and pillow fights.

Okay, no pillow fights. I took a half day on Friday and met them for lunch in Harvard Square. Then we did some shopping on Newbury Street, got some cupcakes at SWEET, and got ready for dinner...

lunch at Tory Row

karat cake, red velvet, mocha mint chip

We had dinner at Russell House. I think its safe to say that RH is my favorite restaurant. Their cocktails are great, and just try beat $1 oysters. Just try.

The next day, we decided to check out the MFA. I hadn't been in a really long time, and Ansley is a former art kid like myself. First of all, I didn't realize that BU students got free admission all the time. Secondly, I was super impressed with the MFA. I've always enjoyed going, but this visit was especially phenomenal. The drawing exhibits are always a favorite of mine, and this weekend was no exception. Also, their collection of contemporary pieces is nice too. I'd say maybe even better than the ICA? Can I say that? We were there for 2 1/2 hours, and I'm planning on going again very soon. Aaaand, Alex Katz, who is one of my favorite contemporary painters has an exhibit coming at the end of April. Mark your calendars!

Chihuly

I'm a little obsessed with German Expressionism at the moment...

Kirchner

Calder

We worked up quite an appetite looking at all that art, and KT specifically requested fish and chips. So we headed to the Barking Crab on the harbor for a big ol' plate o fried seafoods.

We started out with a crab bisque, which I will be replicating sometime in the future. It even came with baby grilled cheeses...

awwww

fried: oysters, shrimps, cod

After lunch, we thought, how about one more museum? and walked over to the ICA. By that time it was already closed, so we headed home and crashed. 

The next day we had a big breakfast at The Uncommon Ground in Watertown. It's one of my favorite places to take out of town guests. May I recommend the lemon ricotta pancakes or the eggs benedict...

We went back to the ICA for a little while and then to the North End for some canolis, which I suppose is a requirement of Boston tourists. We decided on the way home to go see a movie and ended up at the Artist, which was pretty good. Then we went home and made some calzones to go with our canolis. The first one had tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, pepperoni...

The second had spinach, onion, and leftover Jimmy Dean from breakfast.

All in all, the weekend was a tasty and cultural delight.

m

weekending

{egg in a hole}

{parsley salad}

{caramelized onion, cherry tomato, parmesan pizza}

{escarole art}

{frothy drink perfected}

{breakfast classics}

{soup redux}

m