National Library Week Day 2 with Chocolate Amaretti Torte and Banana Cinnamon Chip Cake

Tuesdays with Dorie Baking Group - Chocolate Amaretti Torte
&
Day 2 of The Food Librarian's Celebration of National Library Week

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Holly of Phe/MOM/enon picked 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte, page 276 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I used some great Italian cookies picked up at Surfas to make this nutty, big, pretty "brownie" with lots of almond flavor. It all comes together in the food processor while your oven preheats.

Thanks Holly for picking a great recipe! Check out Holly's fantastic blog, Phe/MOM/enon for the recipe. See other creations made by the hundreds of other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Did you know it's National Library Week? All this week, I'm highlighting a library thing. Today, it's Downloadable Media. First, do you like audiobooks? Want to read and bake at the same time?! (Yes, listening to audiobooks is reading in my book). Well, audiobooks are the answer! Your public library might have audiobooks on CD or cassette...and the newest form is downloadable media. That's right, download audiobooks straight to your computer, and transfer them to an iPod or MP3 player. It's easy, free, and have no overdue fines because they just stop playing after the check out period. Two popular services include OverDrive and NetLibrary. Search the OverDrive's website to see if your library offers this fantastic service!


To celebrate Day 2 of National Library Week, I'm giving away the following to one lucky winner:
a. Paper mini-loaf pans (package of 50)
b. Handmade beaded bookmark (designed by my friend Sumi!)
c. Disneyland book bag

Aren't these 4" x 2" paper loaf pans so adorable? You can make bite-size carrot, zucchini and a host of other breads - perfect for the holidays or a lovely hostess gift. Win a pack of 50 of these oven safe, paper mini-loaf containers (purchased at Surfas - if you come to Los Angeles, visit Surfas and Disneyland! :)

I made the Banana Cinnamon Chip Cake from Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria was recently on TV in Utah demonstrating the yumminess of this cake - watch it here! She's fantastic and the next Martha! And this cake has no oil or butter, and yet it is moist! Standing with the cake is the Librarian Action Figure. Read more about her on yesterday's post. (Southern Cal friends, I finally found Cinnamon Chips! I went to a big, nice Albertsons with a large baking aisle. They say you can make special requests at other Albertsons so you might want to give it a try!)

To enter the Day 2 Giveaway, simply leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only (sorry, I'm buying all this stuff myself and international postage is too expensive).

Also, check out yesterday's post to enter Day 1 Giveaway for mini-cake pans (yes, I DO have an unnatural obsession with mini stuff...but I'll go to therapy later), bookmark and bag. Deadline is also Monday, April 20, 2009! Thanks for visiting!

National Library Week Begins! Day 1 with Double-Ginger Sour Cream and Bundt Cake

Double-Ginger Sour Cream Bundt Cake...with the Librarian Action Figure!

Let's celebrate National Library Week with some food, library facts, and giveaways!

The "Food" in the Food Librarian today is the Double-Ginger Sour Cream and Bundt Cake with Ginger-Infused Strawberries that appeared in the April 2009 issue of Bon Appétit. Be sure to visit your library to read a bunch of magazines - free!

This recipe uses 1 cup of crystallized ginger - serious yummy! Sugar in the Raw coats the pan...but most of my sugar baked into the cake (bummer). Look at Bon Appetit's photo - it is quite pretty and shiny.

Here's the recipe. The cake is quite delightful and rich. It gingerific with three types of ginger: ground, crystallized and fresh!

The "Librarian" in the Food Librarian is the Librarian Action Figure! [I'll wait while you giggle]. It's made by the same company that presents us with the Lunch Lady, Jesus and Deluxe Jesus action figures. She's modeled after librarian Nancy Pearl who you may have heard on NPR dispensing reading recommendations. There is a button that lifts her arm in a "Shushing" motion...oh, the stereotype! (But I doubt there are many other occupations that have their own action figure...so I'm not complaining!)

Each day this week, I'll have a giveaway! I want to celebrate libraries and thank the readers of my little blog.

Day 1 Giveaway:
One lucky winner will receive:
a. Cool 3-tier mini-cake set with tray. This is a 4", 3", and 2" pan made by Southern California family-owned company, Parrish/Magic Line (purchased at Surfas)
b. Beaded Bookmark - Mark your favorite cookbook or novel with this bookmark handmade by the Food Librarian and friends!
c. Book bag - Stroll into your library with this super light bag from the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland! The library is very environmental because it's the ultimate reuse center!

Just leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline for all the giveaways this week: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only (sorry, I'm buying all this stuff myself and international postage is too expensive).

Librarian Action Figure is not included. I borrowed all these from my co-workers! ;)

To enter the drawing, leave a comment. You don't have to write anything special...but if you want to tell me about your library or a library story, that would be fantastic! Don't forget to visit and support your local library! See you tomorrow from some Tuesdays with Dorie yum and more giveaways! thanks for coming by - mary the food librarian

Easter Jello

Easter Jello!

Easy Peasy Easter Treat from 3 ingredients and a level refrigerator

My new oven is arriving today! Yippee!

Here is an easy no-bake Easter treat:

1. Jello.
2. Sweetened Condensed Milk.
3. Knox Gelatin.

For each layer:
3 ounces of Jello. (3 oz is a small 4-serving box. Blue and Purple flavors come in larger 6 oz. boxes - I use my scale and weigh out 3 oz or just measure half the package.

1 full or 1/2 package of Knox gelatin. For mine, I used 1 package. Next time, I would decrease this to 1/2 a package. My jello was kinda stiff. It ain't going anywhere. So, it's up to you - I was making up this recipe as I went along.

1 cup boiling water

Mix until totally dissolved.

In a separate glass measuring cup (or bowl), empty 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (don't use evaporated milk, 1 can is about 1 cup of milk). Add enough boiling water to make 2 cups of liquid.

Add 1/2 cup of the milky mixture to the dissolved colored jello.

Pour into pan and let set for about 30 minutes (depending on how much gelatin you use and if you let the mixture cool a bit before pouring). Make sure your refrigerator is level! :)

Continue for other colors. You can make up to 4 layers with the 2 cups of milky mixture.

I used this garnishing tool to make the crinkly cuts. Cute, huh? Picked it up cheap at my local restaurant supply place.

I used blue, purple and green Jello flavors (I think that translates into blueberry, grape and lime, but they all taste the same to me!) I was going to add pink or yellow, but it got too tall and I was tired. :)

Happy Easter to you and your family!

Next week, I hope to make a kosher/vegetarian gelatin with agar agar. Agar Agar is made from seaweed and used in a lot of Asian gelatin desserts (in Japanese cooking, it is called Kanten). Don't know if it'll be Kosher for Passover, but it won't have animal products...unless I make bacon jello (just kidding)! Also, next week is National Library Week so come on back for giveaways and all things library!

Real Housewives of Orange County Pie for You Want Pies with That?

Real Housewives of Orange County Orange Jello Pie

First, let's all have a moment of silence for my oven. It finally died. Unfortunately, it died with a half baked Hummingbird cake inside it that I needed to bring to work. [You know those meltdowns that happen on reality TV competition shows (a la Project Runway) when the contestants are completely sleep-deprived and just crazy? Well, that happened.] I ended up buying some cakes instead. Sigh.

So, I bought a new range/oven today...it should be delivered on Friday. Very plain Maytag. But it has a window in the door so I'll be sitting in front of it for hours I'm sure.

Okay...to the pie! For this month's You Want Pies with That? challenge, the theme is: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Pie. If I had an oven, I was going to go for the Halle raspBerry Pie, but since I had to go with no bake...I went fake bake (with heavy emphasis on the FAKE)!

Presenting the Real Housewives of Orange County Orange Jello Pie. It's fake pie for all those fake boobs! (although the new one with the sick boyfriend 3x her age says hers are real)

The fake bake ingredients:

Keebler graham cracker crust.
Store brand gelatin box of lemon stuff.
"Whipped topping" (store brand Cool Whip stuff) - yes, full of oil and other chemicals.
Artificially flavored Orange gelatin cut into little squares.

I think Michael Pollan would agree that this is totally fake food! And it is perfect for the all the girls with their multiple collagen, botox and silicone injections!

By the way, I may mock but I can't turn away! I promised my friend's daughter that when she goes off to college, we are going to skype about it all the time (if I can figure out how to skype...) So I give you a reality TV salute to the Lifestyles of the Rich and Semi-Famous Housewives of the OC!

*** Edited to Add: OH MY GOSH! I brought this into work and my co-worker asked me about the orange circle on top. I said, "Yeah, It's an Orange for Orange County!" (I'm so clever, I think). But then she said it looked like a nipple!!!! Oh my gosh! That was NOT the intention at all! I'm horrified and feel like Elaine on that Seinfeld episode. So, take your mind out of the gutter, it's an orange piece of jello meant to represent the Orange in Orange County! ***

Check out the other creative pies from the You Want Pies with That? crew! And join in the fun!

Banana Cream Pie (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Banana Cream "Pie"

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Oh. Sorry.
That was my head hitting the keyboard as I struggle to stay awake. It is 8:15 pm.

I'm so tired today. I yawned so much at work my co-workers are starting to think my life isn't as boring as it really is. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to go to bed in a few minutes.

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Amy of Sing for Your Supper chose Banana Creme Pie, page 342 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. I made 1/4 of the recipe and skipped the pie crust. Instead, I used these lovely ginger Japanese cookies and some thin ginger cookies from Trader Joe's (watch the blog next week for giveaways that include these cookies!)

My pastry cream was a little too cooked and ended up a little "tough." Ah, I need to practice more on the puddings, custards and creams.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

And check back next week! It'll be National Library Week and I'm celebrating with giveaways all week long! :)

Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt Cake

Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt Cake

Spring.

One of our two seasons here in Southern California (the other, of course, is summer).

And what comes with Spring? Besides in influx of pollen that can destroy your quality of life (oh, I digress and yet would like to take this opportunity to say the Neti-Pot isn't just an Oprah craze...it is a miracle worker!)…Okay, back to Spring. What's else in the in air? It's love. Yes, love is all a'swirling.

Or at least in my oven.

Recently, I was looking at Amy’s Sing for your Supper blog and saw her beautiful Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt cake . She has a fancy new Bundt pan. Go look at her cake. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.

Cute, huh?

It was love at first sight and bite!

And the love continues. I have made this cake four times in one week (to four different groups of people)! Yes, I'm so in love.

This recipe is so awesome simple! Don’t have to get anything to room temp and you don’t need a KitchenAid mixer. The secret is bringing 1 c water, ½ c oil, 1 stick butter and ¼ c + 1T (or 5 T) cocoa powder to a boil and then adding it to a 2 c flour, 2 c sugar and ½ t salt mixture. Add in ½ c buttermilk and 1 t baking soda. Mix 2 eggs, 1 ½ t cinnamon and 1 t vanilla in a small bowl and combine with batter. That's it!! Bake in a Bundt at 375 for 30-35 minutes (the original recipe says 25 minutes but mine has been raw at this point). Cool in the pan (I took depanned mine after about 20 minutes with no problems).

Oh geez, I just typed the recipe from memory. I’m seriously head-over-heels in love.

One time, I added 1 t instant espresso powder to the boiled mixture and it was good, but it muted the cinnamon flavor. Ina Garten just did a Barefoot Contessa show where the secret ingredient in her chocolate recipe was coffee…and I agree with her…but not in this one so I'm sticking with the original. Also, I've made it with both Dutch-processed and regular Hershey's cocoa powder - and it was fab both times. I'm telling you - this cake rocks.

Do your friends, family and co-workers a favor...make this cake!
You'll fall in love this Spring too!

Recipe:
Amy’s Sing for your Supper
Play-by-Play photos on Vintage Victuals (who adapted the recipe from the recipe from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Coconut Butter Thins (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Coconut Butter Thins

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch selected on Coconut Butter Thins on page 145 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

This recipe calls for lime zest but I forgot to buy one and used a Meyer lemon instead. The dough was easy to put together in the morning, roll out and let it chill out in the refrig. I came home from work, cut them out and baked them off. Dorie has you cut them into squares with a ruler and all...but my blob of dough was so misshaped I thought circles might be easier!

They were light and buttery. Coconut, lemon zest, & macadamia nuts!
Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!

Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Meyer Lemon Glaze (Bon Appetite)

Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Meyer Lemon Glaze
and some California Strawberries

When the April 2009 issue of Bon Appétit arrived at the library, I started to salivate (as usual). They have a section on cakes that is just beautiful!

Then, I was going through my way overflowing Google Reader and found that Tracey's Culinary Adventure made the cake! It looked fantastic and I just had to try it out. I've been making the Everyday Food Orange Cornmeal Cake practically every day. I love this one too! You should definitely try both of these recipes!

The recipe calls for a crushed blueberry sauce, but I didn't have any and threw on some strawberries instead. The cake was so lemony delicious that it didn't need the sauce at all!

Okay, totally off-topic, but I seem to always have one competitive reality show going (no, I'm not talking about Octo-mom's competitive crazy person show - dude, she wins that one). I'm hooked again on the Amazing Race. Did you know that Mike White (screenwriter/actor of School of Rock, Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl) is in it with his 68 year old father? Totally my favorite team. The LA Times had a great article about it - Mike calls himself an "Amazing Race scholar." Sundays at 8 pm on CBS! It's not too late to join in the fun. And the host Phil is just so cute.

Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Meyer Lemon Glaze: I give it 4 forks!
You can find the full recipe here on epicurious!

Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake (Donna Hay)

Apples.
Cinnamon.
Cake.

Yum.

Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake

My co-worker went to the American Library Association conference last year (oh yeah, thousands of librarians in one place...[insert your own joke here]). She was waltzing around the vendor area and one of them was packing up...decided to not shlep all of the display books back home...so she gave away this great Donna Hay Simple Essentials: Fruit book!

And then my co-worker gave the book to me! How sweet! Oh yeah, did I mention that pages were marked with "suggestions" to make and bring to work?! (just kidding...sorta)

This book is awesome and beautiful. Every recipe is short and sweet (she fits 4 recipes on one page!!) and each one has an awesome photo. Donna Hay has a lovely empire of magazines and books. Australia is so lucky to have such a gem.

Okay, so my intention was to make the cake as directed on page 82...but I didn't have all the ingredients and ended up substituting so many things I don't know if its her recipe anymore. Anyway, my creation was yummy. And I'm sure her recipe would only be much better, richer and more delicious. I'll gather all the right ingredients and make it again.

Here are the changes I made:
- Used an 8” springform (instead of an 8 1/2" springform) so mine is a bit taller. Next time, I'll use a 9" springform.
- Used what I had at the time – skim milk instead of whole milk.
- Used granulated sugar instead of caster or superfine sugar (because I didn’t have it on hand)
- Misread the ingredient list and used 6 oz. butter (1 ½ sticks) instead of 6 ½ oz.

apple and cinnamon tea cake

Cream together: 6 ½ oz. soft butter (if my conversions are right, this should be 1 stick + 5 T butter), ½ t cinnamon and 2/3 c caster (superfine) sugar.
Add one at a time: 3 eggs.
Sift onto batter: 1 ½ c all-purpose flour and ½ t baking powder.
Mix in: 1/3 c milk.

Place on top of batter: 4 small green apples, peeled, halved, cored, and cut thin - but don't cut all the way through. I didn't press them down at all because the apples were small snack size gala apples. Sprinkle on top: 1 t sugar and ¼ t cinnamon.

Bake for 50 minutes (160 C / 320 F) then brush on ¼ c apricot jam or jelly, warmed. Pop back into oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so. I ended up baking mine for 65 minutes at 325 F.

Yummy! And the co-worker who gave me the book? She loved this cake. Thought it really focused on the apple.

Get a copy of Donna Hay's Fruit book here, or see if your library has it on Worlcat!

Fresh California Strawberry Scones

Strawberry Scone

Beep. Beep. Beep.
Bang {hitting the snooze button}.
Beep. Beep. Beep.

It's about 4:45 am on Monday morning and while listening to NPR's Morning Edition, I flip on the laptop.

When I look at my Google Reader, Irene's Confessions of a Tart Strawberry Scone pop out at me. I mean, arms coming out of the computer shaking you awake in the morning and screaming, "Make these now!"

Luckily, I went to the farmer's market this weekend and picked up these lovely California grown strawberries.

Irene received her recipe from a friend and it's totally a winner!

I used 90% cream and a little buttermilk (because I ran out of cream!). I shaped mine in two small rounds and got 16 scones. I brought them to the library and they were gone in a flash.

When you hear the Beep. Beep. Beep. of your alarm, get up and make some scones!

Thanks Irene for a great recipe! For the recipe and way, way better photos (including step-by-step photos) go to Irene's awesome blog: Confessions of a Tart - Strawberry Scone