Kids, Marathons and Martinis

THIS is where we are:

Santa Monica, California

THIS is why:

WHAT does this have to do with me?

WELL, my precious, 20-something, living in LA, baby girl ran her first marathon on Sunday!!! H and I had to be here to see it. It was amazing.

The course was planned beautifully, going mostly downhill (except for miles 20 to 23, which went UPHILL - OUCH!) and from hot weather to cooler down by the ocean.

The weather was perfect, slightly cloudy and the marathon finished in gorgeous Santa Monica, .2 miles from our hotel. That's where we watched for her, right outside our hotel.

That's her...in the purple. I'm amazed she could still move her feet, much less WAVE at mile 26.

The only bad part was that it took over an hour to get through the crowds to the finish line to find her after it was all over. Oh and, boy, did MY knees hurt after standing for over 2 hours waiting for her.

So what does someone do after running a marathon? Eat about 5 of these:

When you've worked that hard to train to win one of these...

I guess you can pretty much eat whatever and however much you like.

We were so lucky to be able to see her accomplish something so incredible. Proud doesn't begin to cover it.

It definitely calls for a toast...or one of many. Let's start with this Lychee Martini from Buddha's Belly. To kids who accomplish things their parents can only dream of! Here's looking at you, kid!

Marcela Tweets Food Network Return

Mexican Made Easy disappeared off the Food Network schedule to the dismay of many Chocoflan fans. Not to worry, it’s coming back on June 5th. Marcela reported her good news on Twitter the other day.

There are plenty of other Food Network and other chefs that are fun to follow on Twitter. Here’s just a short list. Tell me what other chefs you’re following.

http://twitter.com/Rick_Bayless

http://twitter.com/ChefChiarello

http://twitter.com/TylerFlorence

http://twitter.com/bflay

http://twitter.com/jamie_oliver

http://twitter.com/jacquestorres

http://twitter.com/chefjohnbesh

http://twitter.com/curtis_stone

http://twitter.com/GDeLaurentiis

http://twitter.com/CakeBossBuddy

http://twitter.com/tom_colicchio

http://twitter.com/FoodNetwork

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Only Way To Pour (And Drink) A Guinness

Emily Competes On Ultimate Recipe Showdown

Any reader of the wonderful blog, Sugar Plum, who saw Ultimate Recipe Showdown last night, had to have been very disappointed for Emily.

Rachel, who wrote a great description of the taping, and I were there along with Emily’s mom and aunt and uncle. We were gobsmacked that she lost. More about that in a minute.

Rach and I saw the second round, so we didn’t see Gail’s amazing winning pizza being made. We just kept hearing about it.

My question, which was not answered after seeing the show last night, is how could that pizza have been made from start to finish in an hour and a half, which was the time allowed for the signature dish??! The recipe says to raise the dough for 4 hours! So where did the pizza dough come from? Isn’t that kind of the most crucial part of the pizza? I also found it interesting that Gail used only one packet of yeast for 5 cups of flour. Is that why it has to rise for so long?

I thought that all of Emily’s adversaries were really nice people. Until I saw the show, I had no idea that Gail was a race car driver AND a cooking teacher. How could I not like that last thing?

Ricardo looked pretty great in person (and on television), and it only became clear when I saw the show how much the lady judges really liked him and how much Chef Psilakis didn’t. Well, he didn’t actually NOT like Ricardo, but he didn’t let him get away with anything because of his dreamy accent and tight shirt.

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Torte looked fantastic on television and I thought Kimberly did a nice job.

Did you have this same impression as I did, that none of the other contestants seemed to WANT to win as much as Emily? If she had won, it definitely would have changed the course of her life. She actually said that. I didn’t get that same feeling from the others. I do like to believe that things happen for a reason, and that one door closing means another (potentially better) door opens.

But the reason we were astounded at the final result was because we were sitting right there when Emily kept getting all of this amazingly positive feedback from the judges…and Guy. Plus I could have done without Guy asking her every two seconds, “Are you doing okay?” If he was so concerned, just give the dough and let her get out of there.

This is what the judges thought about Em’s first dish, (which Rachel and I didn’t see):

Katherine Alford: “I love the combination of putting 2 really classic dishes together.” But she didn’t like that the crisp coating on the chicken fell off.

Rosemary Ellis had a hard time with the hot sauce.

Chef Psilakis, who just sold his share of his restaurant, Anthos, to his business partner Donatella Arpaia said to Emily: “I love the fact that you’re so playful with the food that you make.” But he agrees that there’s too much Buffalo Sauce. Gail came in first, Kimberly second, then Em and then Hot Guy.

Here are the Gail’s and Em’s scores:

Gail:

Taste 49 Originality 24 Appearance 14 Ease 9 Total 96

Em:

Taste 47 Originality 24 Appearance 14 Ease 8 Total 93

Peanut Butter Torte Gal, Kimberly, was only one point ahead of Em with 94 points.

Before the speed round, Guy says he thought Em’s nerves were “shaking”, just a bit.

Okay, fine, but look at what they said about her second dish, Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Hazelnut Frico. (I spell Fricco with two c’s, Emily spells it with one. Tomahto, tomato.)

Katherine about Emily’s soup: This was “an ambitious dish for time AND (for its) combinations of flavors”. ”She’s so ambitious. She really set the bar high.”

Oh, here’s Guy again, ”How are you FEELING, Emily?” Annoyed that you keep asking, that’s how!

Emily starts to make the fricco. We didn’t see it closely at the time, but looking at the cheese on television, it looks like they gave her FINELY GRATED cheese. I think she must normally use a more shredded cheese, because she says it looks powdery. Why should that be problem? Because the fricco is going to cook quicker than she’s used to.

Rachel and I were sitting there, smelling the fricco that was in the oven and we just knew she should be taking the baking sheet out. I swear I wanted to yell, EM, YOUR FREAKIN’ FRICCO are (is?) done!!! But I didn’t. (Should I have?)

The judges are worried that she won’t get the fricco on top of the soup in time. She does.

Gail was sweet and said nice things.

First up is Emily. Rosemary is happily surprised. She thought it might be a dessert soup, but it wasn’t and she really liked it.

Katherine says Emily’s “strength is layering flavors”. (She remembers her well from last year.) “Just beautifully,” she adds. Listen to this: “It’s one of the best examples of comfort food we’ve seen today.”

Emily is tearing up, because the remarks are so nice. Now HERE, listen to CHEF Psilakis: “I think you have to understand that you are INCREDIBLE at what you do.”

When I heard him say that, I started crying. I was soooooo sure Em was going to win.

He continues that the soup is “both savory and sweet and the fricco bridges that gap perfectly,” but he would have liked it thinner.

Remember I said that about Ina’s Butternut Soup, that it looked way too thick? Emily’s didn’t look anywhere near THAT thick. But my thinking is that when money (or dinner) is on the line, you should always purée your soup in a blender, not in a food processor or with an immersion blender.

Having said that, I know that there was NO time and Emily was lucky she even got it cooked in time. (But I’m just looking at the recipe again and I see that there’s celery in it. More reason for a blender. It’s really the only thing I can come with as to why she didn’t triumph.) And I don’t think the slightly overcooked fricco was the problem. The judges didn’t criticize that at all.

After all the lovely things the judges DID say about her, Guy asks her for the 40th time, “Are you doing okay?” SHE was doing just fine, but we, in the audience, who were THERE, weren’t doing okay. We were sitting on the edge of our seats. We just wanted her to win NOW. The judges even looked at her with such affection, I thought it was hers. But again, we hadn’t seen the pizza she was competing against.

Even Guy says, “I think you’re in the running for this.” Ricky and Kim get eliminated. Gail and Emily go on the award (awkward) platform.

Gail is sweet and she says she would be happy if Emily wins and her dream comes true. She’s nice. They’re all nice, actually. This was a good group of folks, with quite a diverse bunch of recipes.

Okay, back to the action.

I see Guy kind of wink at Emily and I am completely positive she’s about to win.

I’m grabbing at Rachel like I’m drowning and she’s the life preserver. (Her poor arm.) We really and truly thought that Emily was about to be pronounced the winner.

We were barely breathing. Guy reiterates that Gail had a score of 96 in the previous round and the highest score of the day wins.

And then…and then…

Oh wait, first, Guy says, “The judges say, Emily, that you have a gift and I AGREE.” Okay, give her the check already!!!!!!!!!!!

Then…”Emily’s score is NINETY ONE.” Ugh. Arghhh. Ouch. Egads!

Gail is truly thrilled. Michael says her pizza crust rivaled some the best pizzas he’s ever eaten in New York.

Darling Emily comes in a close second and wins, not the money, but the respect and admiration of some very notable food professionals. That’s a pretty great outcome, even if it wasn’t the one we were hoping for.

Ultimate Showdown On The Food Network Tonight With Sugarplum's Emily

What will happen tonight when Emily (famed for her Sugar Plum blog) competes for the big $25,000 prize on the season opener of Ultimate Recipe Showdown? Tonight's category is Comfort Food - the same one she competed in last year (and came oh, so close to winning).

This is what we know right now:

The 4 contestants have to make their “Signature Dish” plus another Speed-Round recipe. Emily will be making Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese, and her Speed-Round dish will be Creamy Pumpkin Soup, which she told us on her blog will feature Toasted Hazelnut Fricco. Fantastico! (One OR two c’s in Fricco is okay).

Good luck to Sugar Plum. Gosh, I hope all her dreams come true.

URS is on at 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time. I hope you’ve all changed your clocks by now.

HVP Recall - Even More Reason Not To Eat (Or Buy) Processed Foods

This is not good. Dozens of products containing Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, made by Basic Food Flavors, are being recalled because of salmonella. Check out this story about the HVP recall.

Happy 3rd Blogiversary To Me! Happy 3rd Blogiversary To Me!

Happy 3rd Blogiversary To Me…Okay, you get the idea.

For this momentous occasion, I wanted to make something special, really special. I decided to try a recipe from the Food Network. Despite my (occasional) railings (okay, frequent…whatever) against them, I did want to commemorate in some way what this very blog is called.

Ever since I heard the name Chocoflan, I was fascinated. It looked like a party in a bundt pan to me.

It also seemed like it would take a marvelous mix of alchemy and earnest prayer to make the Chocoflan unmold with a perfectly-formed flan on top and a deep chocolate cake on the bottom.

The wild thing is that it goes into the oven THE OTHER WAY AROUND - the cake on the bottom, the flan on the top. And they actually change places in the oven. It has to be magic…or physics, which is really the same thing.

I was a bit apprehensive, I admit, about this recipe. I guess if you’ve been eating Chocoflan since childhood, it’s not a biggie. But I saw it for the first time in a quick bit on Mexican Made Easy and I couldn't figure out how it would unmold so perfectly. It looked a little TOO easy, actually.

Anyway, I figured a third blogiversary was the perfect time to challenge myself. I’ll tell you about the cajeta (caramel made from milk - often goat's milk) another time. But here’s how I proceeded with the Chocoflan, using this recipe.

First, I made a standard cake. Cream butter and sugar, beat in an egg.

Sift dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients and buttermilk alternately to butter, sugar and egg base.

Make cajeta. That deserves its own post.

Spoon cajeta in bottom of greased bundt pan.

Spoon chocolate cake batter into prepared pan.

Make flan mixture and pour it over the cake. That's right I said POUR IT OVER THE CAKE. IT'S SO MUCH FUN!!!

Put bundt pan in roasting pan. Pour in hot water to make a bain marie. Cover with foil. (This worried me, because many comments on the recipe said the cake took much longer to cook than specified. And covering it with foil, I would think, would not help the situation.) BUT, I did it anyway.

AND I shouldn't have. THIS is what it looked like after baking one hour at 350°F. I may not have a lot of Chocoflan experience, but there is no way that THAT would unmold, without turning into a soppy mess - which happened to several commenters.

So I put it back for ANOTHER THIRTY SEVEN minutes and then took it out. There was STILL a bit of moisture on the crumbs that I tested, but, really, it HAD to be done by then.

I cooled it for an hour and then loosened it (gently, very gently). I was scared about unmolding it. I turned it over, gave it a little jiggle. THIS is what the recipe says: Invert a large, rimmed serving platter over the Bundt pan, grasp tightly together, GIGGLE a little and FLIP OVER. I can always laugh, but since I was holding the platter AND bundt pan, I really couldn't do a flip. But I did manage to unmold the thing.

Pretty good, but not perfect. I think those long gullies in the flan must come from overcooking. But the cake needed to be done.

I refrigerated it for 2 or so hours and it did cut beautifully. The flan was a little sweet, but sooo creamy. The cake was okay. I wonder if a regular Devil's Food Cake would work or if the batter has to be a bit thicker than that.

Would I attempt it again? Heck yes! It's a celebration waiting to happen. It would be fantastic at anything from a barbecue to a holiday party. And it feeds A LOT of people.

To all my readers and commenters and blogging buddies over these 3 years, believe me, that if I could have served each and every one of you a piece of Chocoflan, I would have. Here’s to you!

I’ll try to choke down a few extra pieces in honor of all of you. Thanks so much for your friendship, support and always interesting observations. Blogs (and chocoflan) rule!

Rhymin' Brian Boitano - Actually I'm The One With The Lousy Rhymes, He's Too Busy Cooking

What Would Brian Boitano Make? with Brian Boitano

Parents' Night Out

Crispy Crab Cakes

Pan Roasted Filet Mignon with Asparagus Sea Bass with Roasted Cauliflower Puree

Molten Chocolate Cakes with Raspberry Sauce

Clementine Cosmo

The Man's Manhattan

“Bri-Guy” (it rhymes, as in BrEYE-Guy, not Brie-guy) is babysitting for a bunch of babies AND preparing a fabulous meal for their parents. I think that's a neat nickname.

As we hear all the things that Bri is doing this week. I realize what the other Food Network shows lack. An announcer! Usually we have the voice of the host telling us what’s coming up. But Brian’s show is narrated by a funny, yet professional, announcer. He’s bright-tongued and bushy-voiced as he lets us in on the action. It gives a kind of sitcom feel to Bri-Guy’s show. (Voiceover-Guy was the one that called Brian, Bri-Guy.)

Besides having VO-Guy, the other innovation is having Spry-Bri start his show with turns and spins and jumps. The only other show that happens on is the Barefoot Contessa’s, when she’s icing a cake on a turntable (or maybe after a pitcher or two of martinis).

Wry-Bri enjoyed babysitting for a friend’s daughter sooo much that he offered to treat all his friends to a grownup “date night” dinner AND watch their kids at the same time. He’s insane.

Sly-Bri should just treat them to restaurant meal, but I guess that would blow the premise of this episode. But, really, do they want to hear their kids screaming a room away and watch a frantic skater while he cooks? Anyhoo, he gets the menu together, including special cocktails.

Brian starts with crab cakes. He takes a pound of lump crab meat out of the fridge. He puts it in a bowl with 1 cup of homemade bread crumbs.

(Do YOU use the crusts? Remember this link I gave you a bit ago? That chef doesn’t use the crusts, because they may get overly brown after cooking them.)

To the crab and crumbs, Bri-Bri adds 2 tablespoons mayo, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, some hot sauce, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice. He makes 6 crab cakes and places them on a piece of parchment. Bri flours, eggs and crumbs them.

(The crust question is particularly germane HERE. So? Are you leaving your crusts off or on? I’m going with off. That small amount of waste is not worth compromising the integrity of the final product.)

I love this. “Every crab cake needs a place to lie down.” Too cute. Nearby-Bri (I’m just trying to mix it up) suggests a bed of arugula with a blood orange dressing, which is a simple mixture of ¼ cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons of FRESH SQUEEZED blood orange juice. THIS is funny. He poured it from a store-bought container.

Wiseguy-Bri whisks the dressing up and then goes on to make a rémoulade. Oh goodie.

Wait, this ain’t like no rémoulade I’ve ever seen. 1/2 cup of mayo gets mixed with 2 teaspoons of sweet chili sauce? (Maybe this is the figure skating version of rémoulade.) He adds a splash of blood orange juice too.

Narrator-Guy comes back to tell us how much other stuff Bri-Guy still has to do. Magi-Bri tells us about his ambitious main course, which includes sea bass AND filet mignon.

Brian makes a cauliflower purée by ROASTING a cauliflower and a Fuji apple with olive oil, salt and pepper. I admit, I did not see THAT coming – the roasting or the apple. It’s just like when Ina ROASTED butternut for her soup.

I’ve been making this awesome cauliflower purée for ages that’s supposed to fool you into thinking it’s mashed potatoes. So what if it has butter, cream cheese and parmesan cheese in it?!! AT LEAST there are no potatoes!!!

Brian adds some vegetable stock and bakes the cauliflower another 20 minutes before puréeing it. This is one great thing about cauliflower. You can purée it in the food processor, unlike potatoes, which get gummy.

He moves on to a leek beurre blanc sauce. I’m liking this menu.

I sure hope Guy-Bri finishes up most of the cooking before those pesky babies arrive.

He soaks his sliced leeks in water to get rid of the sand. I do it a bit differently. I cut the tops off at an angle as if sharpening a pencil. I rinse them well and THEN chop.

Brian sautés the sliced leeks in olive oil, then adds 1½ cups of white wine and 1 cup of vegetable stock. He reduces that and sets it aside. Right before serving, he’ll add butter.

Okay, next are cocktails. The clementine one sounds fabulous and since I’ve had a clementine juice revelation, I’m excited to try it. And happily, Bri is squeezing the juice fresh, not getting it from the same place as the blood orange juice.

The Clementine Cosmo is equal parts clementine juice and vodka, some triple sec and lime juice. A mandarin or citron vodka would give it some extra verve, Bri-Guy.

At this point, I predict mayhem will ensue, since he “just” has to finish the dessert AND the entrée AND babysit for the kids. Aye-yi-yi.

Brian still has to babyproof the house. He wraps everything in bubble wrap. Excellent idea actually, and if they drool all over everything (or worse), it's not a big deal. His friends arrive to drop off the kids AND a baby toilet. They leave to get gussied up for dinner. Oh relief! Brian’s housekeeper helps with one of the kids.

Uncle Bri wears one (a kid) on his back and another is in a highchair, while he’s chopping chocolate. He mixes it with cream and heats it on top of a double boiler to make a ganache filling. He melts another batch of chocolate with butter in a separate bowl. The ganache gets cooled over ice.

For the cake batter, he beats together 4 eggs and 4 yolks with ½ cup sugar. One of the babies is fascinated by the mixture. Future chef? Brian sifts ½ cup flour over the egg mixture and folds that in with almond extract.

Now he’s down to the wire, so Shoo Fly-Bri asks his housekeeper to take the kids, while he finishes the cooking. He adds the second chocolate mixture (with butter) to the cake batter and fills the buttered and sugared ramekins half full. Stink Eye-Bri (this rhyming IS getting out of hand) tells us that the sugar coating will give the unmolded cakes a nice crust on the outside.

He wipes each ramekin down, because he says, otherwise, Ina GARDEN wouldn’t be happy. Brian scoops out some ganache and drops a bit in each ramekin. He makes sure that it’s completely covered with batter. Those get baked at 400°F for 12 minutes just before serving.

Oy, the guests arrive and dinner isn’t done. Gadfly-Bri is making pretty big promises to his friends. He keeps them happy with the cocktails.

He runs to the kitchen and fries up the crab cakes in TONS of oil. They go on their bed of blood orange dressed arugula and then get topped with a bit of his “rémoulade”. Brian serves them and then vanishes back into the kitchen.

Brian salts and peppers the filets and sears them for 2 minutes on each side and then adds butter, fresh thyme and garlic. (He’s using canola oil, btw. Oy.) He pops the filets into the oven for 5 minutes at 300°F, while he finishes the other stuff.

He sautés the fish, too - 3 minutes on each side. And then the fish goes into the oven with some butter. Won’t that be overcooked?

THEN he takes the time (NOW?) to blanch asparagus. Why, Bri, why, didn’t you do that earlier?!! He sautés the asparagus and makes a little reduction from balsamic vinegar, sugar and butter for the steak.

The filet is plated on top of the asparagus and topped with the balsamic reduction. The cauliflower purée goes next to that on the (rectangular) plate. Then the fish goes on with the leek beurre blanc on top, which we didn’t see him finishing.

Bri-Guy serves the entrées to raves. He unmolds and garnishes the cakes with fresh fruit and more raves.

Alright, pretty good performance. I give him a 154.89. (Those new skating scores are ridiculously complicated.)

There were several ways that Barfly-Bri (it was the last rhyme I had left) could have made his life easier. Number One – He could have told his friends to LEAVE THE KIDS AT HOME. Number Two - Get more done in advance. The asparagus and the balsamic reduction should have been done earlier. Number Three - MAKE ONE ENTRÉE, not two. Who needs to eat steak AND fish, although, truthfully, his portion size wasn’t extravagant. Actually, I take that back, the double protein entrée was nice for a special occasion, even if it was A LOT of cooking for one meal.

Well, that’s my Bri. (AND my last rhyme, I promise.)