Daring Bakers-November 2008 Challenge~Caramel Cake

November's challenge was Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake. I was planning to skip the challenge because 1)I am not a fan of caramel and 2) I did not think that I would have enough time to bake a cake. But one night I really wanted to bake something, so I checked out the recipe and it seemed simpler than I thought, so I gave it a shot.

Oh my goodness, this cake is AMAZING! I'm glad that I did this challenge. I've never made a cake that tasted this good! The texture was light and soft, and it was not a sickly caramel which I expected. I am not sure if I made it correctly, but it had a hint of salt to it.

Here's the picture of the caramel syrup. The instructions were correct...when adding the water to stop the process, where long sleeves or quickly move away from the hot bubbling syrup! Making the dough. The recipe called for "milk" and since we only drink skim milk, I ended up using it instead. Even without the extra fat of 2% or whole milk, the texture of the cake was wonderful!
I decided to make cupcakes instead of a large round cake. Cupcakes are so much cuter (and easier to share). Here's a picture of the frosted cupcakes. I brought them into lab to share with my labmates, but I think Mike ended up eating about 4 of them.

NAME OF COOKBOOK (OR WHERE RECIPE CAME FROM): http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006/12/24/caramel-cake-the-recipe/
AUTHOR OF ORIGINAL RECIPE: Shuna Fish Lydon
HOSTESS'/HOSTS FOR THE MONTH: Dolores from "Chronicles of Culinary Curiosity", Alex from "Blondie and Brownie", and Jenny of "Foray into Food." For all those gluten-free bakers out there, thanks to Natalie of "Gluten-a-Go-Go" for the gluten-free adaptation.

Texas~Loft 610 and Sambuca

As I mentioned in a previous post, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly to Texas for a second-round interview at a company. I'm new to the whole "Job Search" process and was impressed by the well planned and organized visit. Here's some highlights of the trip: meeting students from other Universities, interacting with current (happy) employees, stretch hummer limo, crab cakes with lump crab meat, a car and driver waiting for me at the airport, tours of the labs and a processing plant... Anyhoo, we were wined and dined during our 3-day stay in Texas and got to check out some trendy restaurants in Dallas.

On the second night in Texas, we all dined at Loft 610 which opened earlier this year. It's quite a posh restaurant with a slight nightclub feel. I was not planning on taking pictures at the restaurant (to avoid being labeled the "weird girl" who is interviewing), but since I was in the company of other foodies, I was encouraged to take pictures. *Click on the images to see larger versions of the food.

The dinner started off with some appetizers.
*Cucumber tuna roll with wasabi mayo, sweet soy reduction and ginger paste
*Beef Tenderloin Flatbread-Roasted tomato sauce, grilled beef tenderloin, roasted garlic, truffle oil, Italian parsley and three cheese blend
*Greek Potstickers Lamb and beef potstickers served with lime yogurt and fig compote
*Margherita Fresh roma tomatoes, basil and mozzarella

Cucumber Tuna Roll, Greek Potstickers, Wedge Salad

We were given a choice between the following salads:
*The House-Texas field greens topped with smoked seeds, seasoned croutons with house
vinaigrette
*The Wedge-Quarter of an iceberg lettuce, topped with tomatoes, bacon, and an avocado dressing
I chose the wedge salad. To me, this was a lettuce salad. The avocado dressing was interesting, but nothing to write home about.

Our choice of entree included the following:
*Arancini-Lemon risotto cakes with oven-roasted chanterelles and thyme-cured tomatoes
served with vegetable de jour
*Asian Rain Salmon-Grilled ginger and lemongrass marinated salmon served with orange scented jasmine rice
*White Wine Dijon Marinated Chicken-Boneless airline chicken breast marinated in dijon and white wine served with parsley risotto and vegetable de jour
*Shiner-Malbec Hangar Steak-Grilled hangar steak accompanied by shiner bock and malbec reductions with potato and parsnip roisti

The salmon was my pick. When given a choice between a vegetarian option, meat, chicken with bones, or fish, I'll almost always choose the fish dish. I was disappointed with the fish because it had that slight pasty overcooked texture. I started contemplating that maybe I am not a fan of "New American" cuisine. Everyone around me seemed to be indifferent about the food too, so it wasn't only me.

The dessert choices:
*Grand Marnier cream brulee
*White chocolate bread pudding with caramel and strawberry
*Molten chocolate cake

I'm a sucker for molten chocolate cake, so if it is on the menu, I usually have tunnel vision and see only one option on the dessert menu. Again, I was disappointed in the cake and took one bite and stopped. It was pretty much an chewy brownie with no molten middle.
Mmm....Bread Pudding. This was by far, the best dish served at the restaurant (that's why it deserves its own picture). I ordered the molten chocolate cake, but was fortunate enough to sit by a really nice guy who let me try his dessert.
Loft 610
Granite Park 5760 State Hwy 121 Suite 175
Plano, TX 75024
972.377.2500

The next night, we were treated to another night out and had dinner at Sambuca. Did I mention that during my trip, we were constantly fed? We never had to question if we were receiving a meal and felt like we ate more than 3 meals a day!

The food tasted much better at Sambuca. After spending a few hours that day being interviewed, all of us were able to unwind at a nice dinner. Quite a few bottles of wine were opened, and I treated myself to a mojito.
Again, we all grazed on shared appetizers and chose from a prix fixe menu set-up for us. The company's name was even printed on our menus. I chose the tortilla soup, Mediterranean lasagna, and creme brulee.

Chicken Samosas

Spanakopita-So Delicious!

Bruschetta with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and balsamic vinegar.

Tortilla Soup

Parmesan Encrusted Chicken -linguini with asparagus & cherry tomatoes in basil-pesto cream sauce; laced with chili oilShrimp Capellini-sautéed shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes served with marinara & Alfredo sauces

Mediterranean Lasagna-roma tomatoes, artichoke hearts, spinach, black olives, feta cheese & mozzarella;with marinara & drizzled with balsamic glaze
This picture does not do the lasagna justice. The balsamic glaze gave this dish an added sweetness that brought all the flavors together.

Chocolate Mousse

Creme Brulee

Sambuca
2120 McKinney
Dallas, TX 75201
214-744-0820

My new plant and ramblings about Food Safety

While in Texas, Kendell and I visited an Ikea ( I love Ikea and I wish one would open up in Hawaii). One item which I purchased was a basil plant kit. I've been taking care of it and "feeding" with water and using my OTT-lite for light. The instructions on the package specifically say NOT to put the plant outside. That's a good think because it is currently 26F in Illinois. I'm hoping that in a few weeks we'll be partaking in some fresh basil.
On to the disturbing news of the week....food poisoning. Yes, I think Mike and I got a case of food poisoning on Wednesday night which hit us on Thursday. It hit Mike around 5pm on Thursday and me at about 8:30pm. Since we were not eating the same foods between Tuesday through Thursday, except for dinner on Wednesday night (we ate out), we concluded it was Wednesday dinner. I'll spare you the details, but Thursday night was awful! I ended up drinking lots of water and curling up in the fetal position to go to sleep.

It's funny, just the other day, a few of us in lab were talking about food aversions based on bad experiences. One of my labmates cannot eat orange chicken because it's the last food item she ate before she had meningitis and could not eat for two weeks. I have an aversion against "Berry Berry Kix" because back in Elementary school I used to really like it, so my mom bought boxes of it and that's all I ate for breakfast. I also stopped eating ground beef from 6th-10th grade because I had a stomach flu and my mom was cooking ground beef when I was sick.

This was my lunch today. Lightly flavored water with electrolytes. Oh and some saltines. For the educational part of my blog, here's some basic food safety and sanitation tips:
1. Wash your hands for at least 15-20 seconds prior to cooking (15-20 sec=singing the "Happy Birthday"song twice)
2. Do not cross contaminate your food. If you are working with meat, poultry, or seafood, do not use the same surface to cut your produce.
3. Beware of the "Food Temperature Danger Zone" Avoid keeping foods between the temperature range of 40-140F. This is the prime temperature range that bacteria like to grow. Keep hot foods hot, and cold foods cold.
4. Heat your food up to proper temperatures.
5. "When in doubt, throw it out." If foods do not seem good, the "sniffing test" doesn't always work. If you want to avoid a sore tummy, just chuck it.
6. FIFO (first in, first out). Use the items in your fridge/pantry in a systematic order. Rotate items and consume the older products first.

There are many more rules to follow to ensure safe food consumption, but those are the basics that I can quickly ramble off. We are nearing the Thanksgiving season, so please extra cautious in the kitchen to avoid any foodborne illnessed

Cool presents (which we purchased or are in the process of purchasing)

Every year, Mike asks me what I want for Christmas. I admit, the boy does try, but I am quite difficult to shop for. Whenever I see something I want, I just buy it. This year we both agreed that we're just buying things that we want when we see them.

Here's the items that have caught my eye:


I'm debating whether I want this book or not. It's called "The Science of Good Food" and is supposed to be similar to Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" and include food science information about cooking processes. I requested this book from our school's library to check it out. If it's good, I'm going to ask for it for Christmas. I have too many Food Science textbooks, so if it's a crappy book, I do not want to add it to my collection since I'll be moving after I graduate.





Another item that I've been eying out is the IOGEAR Mobile Digital Scribe - GPEN200N. I have to look up the reviews for this item, but it's a digital pen that saves what you write in a USB receiver thing and uploads and transcribes your handwriting into a Word document. How cool is that? Pens like these have been out for a while, but the reasons why I am considering this pen are: 1)You do not need to purchase a specific pad of paper to write on; 2)You do not need to be near a computer to use it; 3)You can use generic ink refills; 4)The price dropped from ~$100-->$60.

This is what I was going to buy for Mike for Christmas, but he saw it online and bought it himself. Threadless is one of his new favorite stores. They have cute/witty shirts for reasonable prices. I think this will be his 7th shirt from Threadless. This is a great online store to purchase one-of-a-kind t-shirts. Well, these shirts are popular on college campuses, so you might see a lot of people wearing these kinds of shirts in college towns.






Frixion pens. I've seen the ballpoint pens out there, but I want the highlighters. These pens are uber-cool! Erika went to Japan this past summer and brought back this highlighter. You can highlight items, and then use this plastic(?) ball on the end of the pen to erase what you highlighted. Yes, it's a novelty pen, but if you know me, I love pens and post-its.


I just got a phone call from Mike and he thinks he broke my laptop. Apparently a cup of water was near the laptop and it fell on the keyboard. Luckily, I bought the Performance Plan, so I can get a replacement or else a new laptop would be on my Christmas list!

Texas~Central Market

As Mike mentioned in a previous post, "Yes, I admit, I love visiting grocery stores." Kendell took me to a "Central Market" which she said falls between "Trader Joe's" and a "Whole Foods"/ "Fox and Obel" on the spectrum of upscale food stores. I love "Trader Joe's," I think the food from "Fox and Obel" is delicious, and have never shopped at a "Whole Foods" (ironically enough, I own some stock in Whole Foods). I saw these cute veggies and fruits on the sidewalk and coerced Kendell to take a picture of me next to the artichoke. See Kendell's beautiful photography? She angled it just right to capture the orange, artichoke, and apple.
"Central Market" is filled with beautiful produce. Yes, I sound like a food dork, but everything looks fresh and as cliche as it sounds "picked at its peak." I wanted to take pictures of all the produce, but I refrained myself. But ooohhh, loookee here,there are many varieties of tomatoes, an olive bar, and Hawaiian fish here (if you click on the picture, you can see that the price of fish is pretty steep) .

33 varieties of apples!

Freshly made tortillas

Kendell and our shopping bags

Ahhh! I'm in "grocery shopping bliss." I ended up purchasing some sourdough bread to take back to Mike, a french macaron, meyer lemons, bucatini (think spaghetti with holes), and hit cocoa sandwich cookies.

Texas!

I just got back from Texas (which was much warmer than Illinois). The company that I interviewed at is AWESOME! The interviews (all four of them) are over and now all I have to do is wait. I extended my trip and spent Saturday and Sunday with one of my most favorite friends....Kendell!
Here's a few pictures from Texas. I'll be posting more later, I just realized that I haven't posted in a while and Mike said he didn't have any adventures to blog about while I was gone.
All my "business casual" clothes for the interview. Call me weird, but I spent the first hour of my stay in Texas ironing my clothes.

On the first day that I arrived I met Kendell for lunch at the Main Street Bread Baking Company. I had the sandwich and salad combo of a tuna sandwich and spinach salad. Yummy! This was the start of five days of constant eating. I guess when you interview for a food company, they want to keep the recruits happy.
On the Friday morning prior to our interviews, we were instructed to eat at the hotel and order room service or go to the hotel restaurant. I opted for room service. No, I'm not a "country bumpkin" but I have only ordered room service once in my life, and that was on a cruise. To me, ordering room service is an exciting treat!
I ordered the healthy breakfast of skim milk and french toast (whole wheat bread dipped in egg whites, crusted with corn flakes) topped with light syrup and fruit. My Thursday breakfast was the antithesis french toast which was white bread soaked in an egg yolk and heavy cream mixture, coated with corn flakes, fried and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. MMmmmm...I'd take the full-Calorie french toast anyday!

And lastly, here's a picture of Kendell and me at the Arboretum. I'll post more pictures of our food adventures later on this week.

I passed!

Recap-
*I passed my Preliminary Exam last week! I just a have a little bit more research, my thesis writing to tackle, and then my defense!

*Mike's home alone for a few days while I'm off to Texas. Maybe he'll blog about his exciting adventures.

*I discovered new dishes that I enjoy: 1) yamaimo okura natto nebaneba bo-ru minus the ikura. It's basically a slimy mess of natto, a grated sticky potato, and okra. Oh, it's great! 2)and chicken biryani, an Indian rice dish.

*I treated myself to a present. "Field Guide to Cookies," by Anita Chu from Dessert First. I'm quite excited about this purchase. I've been meaning to buy this book for a while, but needed to find something else on Amazon so that I could receive the free shipping.