After making my little lemon cakes last weekend, I had essentially the equivalent of an 8-inch square cake all in pieces in a bowl. After googling the term "cake scraps recipe" I came across Bakerella's Red Velvet Cake Balls and thought, hmmmm... intriguing. The concept: smoosh together cake and frosting, form it into a ball, and coat it in chocolate. I decided to dig in and take the risk, and came up with this concoction by using equal parts of inspiration, ingenuity and overconfidence. Often that combination equals a failed dessert, some tears, and a huge mess, but luckily this time it all came together.



The only even remotely tricky part of this recipe is coating the balls with the white chocolate. Ideally the chocolate will be tempered so it will create a hard shell. There is a trick to doing that which I will explain in the recipe and which doesn't require a thermometer or any gadget or device other than a spatula and some patience. Oh, and if you're making something experimental, it never hurts to bust out the fancy garnishes- in this case, a dusty bottle of crystallized violets I brought back from Paris maybe 6 years ago, and had never used, and my trusty box o' gold leaf. (I swear it's a mystery, because as much as I use that stuff, it's always a full box.)



I'll admit that I was skeptical about whether these cake nuts cojones nads testicles balls would be worth the effort, but they were pretty fabulous! I'm not a huge white chocolate lover, but I knew it would work really well with the lemon as long as I balanced the sweetness of the white chocolate with a super lemony center marbled with some slightly tart raspberries. One guest predicted that "cake balls will be the new cupcakes." You heard it here first.

Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate Cake Balls
This will make 20-30 balls depending on how big you make them. I got about 24 golf ball-sized balls out of my cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 8-inch lemon cake or equivalent (you can use this yummy recipe, but just make half of it and bake it in an 8- or 9-inch square or round pan)
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• zest of 2 lemons
• a couple handfuls of raspberries
• 12 oz. to 1 lb. good quality white chocolate (I used El Rey 34% pistoles from Whole Foods)

Method:

• In a mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, and lemon zest until blended and frosting-like.
• Crumble cake into a bowl and mix with frosting. You will need to use your fingers to get them well-combined because it's really almost impossible to get this mixed with a spoon.
• Add a couple handfuls of raspberries and smoosh them in with your hand, but don't mix them all the way in because it looks cooler if it's marbled.
• Roll into balls and put on a tray or cookie sheet. Put the tray into the freezer for about an hour.
• Now you have to temper the white chocolate. Put white chocolate pieces into top of a double boiler*. (if you are using chunk chocolate, chop it into smaller pieces first.)
• Heat water in bottom part of double boiler by itself, without the top part on it. When the water boils, turn it off. Then with the heat off, place the chocolate on top of the hot water.
• Stir chocolate with a spatula, scraping the sides, to melt it. Keep it over the water until the chocolate is about halfway melted. Then take the chocolate out of the water and put it on the counter (on top of a towel to stabilize it.)
• Keep stirring and the pieces will keep melting. Keep stirring and the pieces will keep melting. Keep stirring... you get the idea. It will take awhile and you will think it won't all melt but it will.
• The chocolate is ready for dipping when it's melted but around 90 degrees. How do you check this? One part of your body that's sensitive to temperature is the piece of skin just below the middle of your lower lip. So if you dip your finger into the chocolate and press it to the part under your lower lip, it should feel cold. If the chocolate is melty but feels cold when you do that, you are ready to dip. If it feels warm, keep stirring and testing.
• Once it's to this point you have maybe 5 minutes to dip. For me this meant the chocolate in the bowl started getting hard after I had dipped about half of the balls, so I had to melt it in the water again and then remix and recool it for the second half of the balls. As I said, this is the only tricky part of the recipe.
• Put a ball into the chocolate and use a fork to prod it around then to lift it out. Shake off excess chocolate and put on a drying rack over a piece of parchment or another pan to harden. If you are garnishing do it before the chocolate sets.
• If you've tempered correctly, you can keep these out at room temperature for a good long while and they won't fade, sweat, or melt. Don't put them in the fridge or they'll get watery condensation on them.

* If you don't have a double boiler (I don't!) you can use a pot and put the chocolate in a metal bowl to melt.

I'm loving this site I just found called Cake Wrecks. It catalogues photos of hideous cake travesties, whether they be misspelled captions ("Congradulations on your weeding!"), hideous color schemes, icing art that unintentionally looks like private parts or poo, bizarre customized messages, and so very much more. Sometimes, it's just that they're fugly. These are 2 of my favorites.





(That poor "Dad." I mean I guess if the woman's been married 19 times before you... the kids might be reticent to really call you "Dad" and mean it.)

So add Cake Wrecks to your reading list, and each day you can get yourself an ice cold glass of milk to go with your daily dose of "WTF is up with that cake?!?!!"

Since I'm loving heirloom tomatoes right now and trying to get my fill in before they're out of season, I made this fettucine recipe to highlight their freshness. They're not cooked with the sauce, but added in at the end, to retain their structure and bursting flavor. The zucchini is incorporated into the sauce imparting mild flavor and a hearty texture.



With such a simple recipe, I think it's important to use a good quality pasta- in this case, I used fresh fettucine noodles from a local Italian deli.


Fettucine with Heirloom Tomatoes and Zucchini Cream
Serves two.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 small zucchini, grated finely (on a microplane grater is best)
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 Tblsp heavy cream
• 2 small heirloom tomatoes, diced
• salt and pepper
• 8 oz fresh fettucine, cooked according to directions

Method:

• Heat the oil over medium heat in a saute pan. Add garlic and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add zucchini and combine. (If very finely grated, it will be in clumps- that's OK.)
• Add wine to pan and cook, stirring, until reduced by half. Add cream and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until liquid is mostly reduced.
• Turn off heat. Add cooked fettucine and tomatoes to pan and toss to mix. Remove to plate and serve immediately.

I rarely make lemon desserts, because lemon isn't my favorite dessert flavor, even though I love it in savory applications. But when one of my best friends asks for lemon birthday cake, I make lemon birthday cake.



In this case, for ease of transportation and serving in a restaurant setting, and because he invited 20+ people to his birthday, I decided to make a bunch of little individual lemon cakes in square paper cups. (The paper squares were an impulse buy from awhile back, and I was glad I finally found a good use for them.) I wanted these cakes to be special, so instead of using a garden-variety icing, I opted to make a tart, lemony creme fraiche custard topping with vanilla beans that's akin to a loose panna cotta. I have a well-protected box of decorative gold leaf that I only rarely utilize (yes, it's real gold!), but these were calling for it, and I knew the touch o' birthday bling would be much appreciated. Barring the availability of gold leaf a berry alone is still a beautiful garnish, or you can give it a light dusting of powdered sugar to finish them, or just cover the tops of the cake with berries. I went with raspberries but blueberries or blackberries would be great too.



These are a little more involved than most things I make, but that's just because of the cutting and what have you. It seems wasteful to cut so much cake off, but never fear- I'll be working those into tonight's dessert somehow. I'm still deciding between cake balls and bread pudding and will share the recipe when I have chosen and executed it!


Lovely Little Lemon Custard Cakes
This will make 35 1 1/2-inch square cakes. Serving size per person averages at about 2 (although one person who shall remain nameless ate 5, possibly 6...)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 cups plain yogurt
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• zest of 5 lemons
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• juice of 4 lemons
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 7.5 oz package creme fraiche (about a cup)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• extra sugar and powdered sugar as needed, about 1/2 cup total
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• berries for garnish
  

Method:

• Make the cake:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom (actually important in this case to sift or you will get lumps.)
• In a separate bowl, combine yogurt, 2 cups sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil.
• Add wet ingredients to dry and mix with a wooden spoon or whisk just until blended.
• Pour into 9x13 pan that's been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake about 40 minutes, until golden on top and a toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool 10 minutes and flip over onto a baking rack to cool.
• When completely cool, use a ruler to cut cake into squares of whatever size you choose (I did 1 1/2 inch squares.) If tops aren't flat, trim them off so they are flat.
  

• Make the lemon syrup:
• Put lemon juice in a small pot. 
• Add 2-3 Tblsp sugar. Turn heat to medium and cook until sugar has melted and syrup looks clear. Taste and add more sugar as needed, to get a sweet-tart syrup. You don't need it too sweet. All told I used 8 Tblsp sugar and it was still quite tart. It will just depend on your lemons. When sugar is all melted turn off heat.
  
• Once you have achieved your desired sugar balance, cut 1/2 vanilla bean and scrape seeds. Add seeds and pod to warm lemon syrup and leave to sit at least an hour.

• Make the lemon custard:
• Put cream and creme fraiche in a mixer with a whisk attachment and beat to stiff peak.
• Meanwhile, pour gelatin over 2 Tblsp boiling water and stir to melt.
• Remove pods from lemon syrup and add syrup to creme fraiche, while whisk is still going. It may get a little soupy, which is OK.
• Taste and add powdered sugar as needed. (I added about 1/4 cup total.)
  
• Add gelatin and continue to whisk. 
• The custard may look thin and gloppy but that's OK, the gelatin will help to set it a bit. Take bowl off and leave on the counter. Whisk it every couple of minutes by hand. The mixture will set up along the sides of the bowl before the middle so be sure and mix it all together. After about 10 -20 minutes, it will start getting thicker and spreadable. It might seem a little lumpy but the lumps will whisk/spread out.
• Spread custard on squares and garnish with berries.
  
• You can leave them at room temp for a couple of hours. If it's any longer than that, don't put the berries on top as they will bleed, just put the iced squares in the fridge and garnish before serving. They will taste good cold or room temperature.
  

I was in Mexico last month and visited some interesting food and drink towns, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite food photos and experiences in brief. It's a fair amount to consume, so to speak, so I'll be breaking them down by city and sharing them one by one!

First up: the gorgeous colonial town of Guanajuato.



Guanajuato is a lovely town in Central Mexico that was founded in the 1500s, and funded lavishly for hundreds of years by a massively prolific silver mine just outside of town. The town is built up two sides of a ravine, and the residents favor bright colors for their boxy houses, which are packed together on teeny-tiny streets.

Of course I bought this- handmade chocolate sold by an ancient man outside the Mercado Juarez. He said it was made by his 3 sons. Inside the paper, I found fragrant cakes of Mexican chocolate, rich with dark cocoa, cinnamon, and big crunchy granules of sugar.



One morning, I spotted some guys hanging out by this old truck packed with hanging cow carcasses and a trash can near Mercado Embajadoras. Nice meat hook



I love my Best Foods, but something about that giant jar of mayo made me think twice about that tasty-looking corn.



The signs on these delivery scooters for a Domino's franchise have successfully managed to make me think of both explosions and lotion, neither of which is particularly tantalizing in relation to pizza.



Looking down into the food stalls and lunch counters in Mercado Juarez from the 2nd floor.



A fabulous torta de carnitas (pork sandwich) with spicy red and green sauces, for less than a buck each from one of those very stalls.



Obligatory Mexican market photo of a ginormous pile of dried chilies.



My brother-in-law loved this squash blossom/huitlacoche/homemade cheese concoction he got from a street vendor at the Pípila, but it was a bit too overpowering for me.



This is an official street sign, the likes of which normally point you to geographical or tourist locations- but this one is pointing out the different types of local food you can get at Mercado de Gavira.



Drinking is serious business: for my money, you've gotta go with a shot of Herradura Reposado (for sipping, no shooting!) with sangrita (to chase each sip) and a Modelo Especial (in between.)



This guy was selling tamales from a bucket at 1 AM (35 cents for 2.) We got one because we were intrigued by "dulce" - sweet tamales. It was a tamale with pineapple goo inside. Not bad, but I'll stick with savory. I should have tried acelgas (chard.)



We happened upon a minor league baseball game in an amazing stadium embedded right into the middle of town, and ate lots of salty roasted pistachios and pumpkin seeds, with cheap beers of course, while enjoying the action.

This is a great and easy appetizer- but since I don't really like breakfast food and I had some very ripe heirloom tomatoes staring at me as I prepared my cup of tea, I ate this for breakfast today. At 9 AM. DELICIOUS. I'm weird like that. I justified it by telling myself that since it was on toast and toast is a breakfast food it was OK. But you will probably want to make this later on in the day, at which time it would be more socially acceptable. Like, before dinner would be good.



Heirloom tomatoes are in season, and they are worth highlighting whatever chance you get! I never liked tomatoes until my mid-20s, when I tasted an heirloom tomato, at which point I realized I was just a huge tomato snob who didn't like mealy, flavorless supermarket varieties- only the very best. Luckily the trend has caught on, and you can now get heirloom tomatoes in many major supermarkets, as well as fancy stores like Whole Foods, or, of course, a farmers' market. Since the tomatoes are so good, they need hardly any embellishment- just a few accoutrements to bring out their bursting flavor and candy sweetness.


Crispy Toasts With Fresh Ricotta and Heirloom Tomatoes
I'm not giving amounts because I figure you might want to make a lot or a little, and this isn't rocket science, it's like, a piece of toast with some stuff on it. So I have complete confidence that if I give you the general concept, you will be able to figure out how to do it in a way that works for you.

Ingredients:

• crusty bread or baguette, sliced (I used country sourdough)
  
• fresh ricotta cheese (I used Bellwether Farms Jersey Ricotta)
• heirloom tomatoes, chopped (I used 2 colors so it would be prettier and tastier)
• good quality extra-virgin olive oil (I used Stonehouse)
  
• coarse salt (I used cyprus black salt from Whole Foods because it looks cool)

Method:

• Toast the bread. If you're just making a few, you can just use the toaster, but if you're making a lot, lay the bread out on a pan in a single layer and toast both sides in the oven.
  
• If necessary, cut toasts into smaller finger-food-sized pieces.
• Spread each toast with a layer of the ricotta. Top with chopped tomatoes.
• Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle salt on top. Serve immediately.
• You could add chopped herbs if desired, but if the tomatoes are at their peak there is no need.
  

I've been collecting a bunch of odd things that people have made that are in some way food-related even though they probably shouldn't be. I've also added my predictions for how these projects might affect their creators' future plans.

Skittles Wrapper Prom Dress

15 hours and 101 skittles wrappers later, this crafty teen went to the prom confident that nobody would have the same dress as her.
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we see her... as the "sassy, indie chick" contestant on Project Runway.
UPDATE: I just remembered that least season of Project Runway there was a candy wrapper challenge. This Skittles action totally would've won.

Pabst Blue Ribbon Casket

This guy loves Pabst Blue Ribbon so very very much that he made a PBR casket before he died, and to make additional use of it while he was still alive, he threw a party and used the casket as an ice chest, and filled it with Stella Artois. Just kidding! He filled it with PBR, natch.
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we see him... dying of cirrhosis and filling the casket with what it was made for- him. Also, a few cans of PBR for the afterlife.


Lamps Made Of Bread

These were designed and made by Kimberly Hu for a Dine On Design event. You can eat 'em, but then the bulb will be exposed and the ambiance will be ruined. What to do, what to do?
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we see her... with a cross-promotional Food Network/HGTV mashup show about how to bake yourself a full interior design makeover, on a budget of just flour and water.


Japanese Food-Themed Spa Treatments

According to SeriousEats, at Japanese spa Yunessen, you can take spa treatments in baths that range from red wine, sake, coffee, and green tea, to... RAMEN. "Chopsticks and noodle decorations hang over the hot tub; the pepper-flavored water is flecked with skin-healthy collagen and garlic extracts; and, best of all, 'a man dressed as a chef dispenses noodle-shaped bath additives' and soy sauce into the water.
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before you see me... throwing up in my mouth a little at the idea of "relaxing" by sitting in a giant bowl of garlic ramen. Yeech.

A few weeks ago I posted about my favorite way to make fluffy, creamy, custardy scrambled eggs. Last weekend we were hanging out with the whole family and I made eggs for everyone both Saturday and Sunday. To mix it up, I made some tasty variations!

Variation 1: Caramelized onions, goat cheese, and fresh oregano
Cook eggs until nearly done. Turn off heat and add in chunks of goat cheese, caramelized onions, and chopped fresh oregano taste. Stir in so that goat cheese melts and becomes incorporated.




Variation 2: Sauteed white corn, cream cheese, scallions, and thyme
This is great if you have leftover corn, but you can use frozen corn as well. Cut corn off cob. Heat 1 tsp butter in a pan. Saute corn with salt and pepper until browned. Add egg mixture and cook all together. When eggs are nearly done, turn off heat and add chunks of cream cheese. Mix to incorporate cream cheese. Stir in a handful chopped scallions and fresh chopped thyme. If you prefer it spicy, add a bit of minced jalapeño with the corn, and omit the thyme.

I was working from home the other day and felt like I was kind of having a bad day- for no good reason, I was just feeling listless and moody. Nothing lifts the spirits like a steak for lunch, though. It was just what the doctor ordered. And by "doctor" of course I mean "myself." Mood lifted upon first bite. I love meat.



Not wanting to be a totally irresponsible lunch-eater, I threw in some greens for good measure, and shaved some hard dry Vella jack cheese on the top. If you haven't tried dry jack yet, get your hands on some- it's sort of like a cross between jack cheese and parmigiano, and it's my new favorite for salads. It's hard enough to shave but not crumbly and dry. If they don't sell it in your area and you're willing to buy a couple pounds of the stuff, you can order it on the Vella site.

This is a pretty easy and quick meal to make. You could easily make this for a summer dinner party and be ready in no time flat. I like it with flat iron steak or hanger steak- I think a more flavorful, gamey cut works well with the greens.


Flat Iron Steak Over Greens
This will serve one person. You can omit the butter to cut the fat, but let's face it, that's no fun.

Ingredients:

• One flat iron steak, about 1/3 to 1/2 pound should be a good portion
• 1 tsp butter
• handful of greens (anything will work. I prefer baby arugula but spinach, romaine, cress, etc. would be great too)
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• hard cheese shavings, like pecorino, parmigiano, or dry jack

Method:

• Season steak. Heat a pan til very hot and cook steak, a couple minutes per side, depending on how done you want it. When almost to the right doneness, turn off pan and add butter. Leave in pan to rest.
• While steak is resting, toss greens with a splash of oil and vinegar and salt and pepper.
• Slice steak and lay on top of greens. Shave some cheese over top and eat immediately.

Wow, I didn't know this is what I wanted for my birthday until I saw it. Friends, take note. And start practicing your frosting-likeness skills, stat.



How great is it that all that macho is sitting in a field of pretty pink flowers? And that's a damn good portrait for being made out of chocolate. Oh, even the chest hair is rendered so realistically. I'm doing a happy dance right now. I might pee my pants. I inexplicably LOVE IT! It's truly a beaut.

To the creator of this masterpiece: can we be friends? Please? Because you seem AWESOME.

[via Craft:]

7-11 is giving out FREE SLURPEES on 7-11. And, they've created some rather cool-looking promotional materials just for the occasion.



You can find out all of the Slurpee facts and locate a 7-11 near you at Slurpee.com. And just so you know, the best Slurpee flavor occurs when you mix layers of Coke and layers of Cherry, making Cherry-Coke flavor. And whatever you do, don't get the blue raspberry. It is extremeley unbecoming for a person over the age of 14 to walk around with a dark blue tongue and blue-tinged mouth, and nothing gets the stuff off. Trust me. I have slurped a lot of Slurpees in my day and I know what I'm talking about.

If slushy liquid infused with diabetes-inducing volumes of sugar ain't your thing, then you're in luck. For on July 11, Chick-Fil-A will be giving out free meals. I just used their store locator to learn that I'd have to drive over an hour so I don't think I'll be taking advantage of this offer, but Chick-Fil-A is actually pretty good and furthermore they have a cool logo where the "C" looks like a chicken's head, which is a super sweet design with a rad font to boot.



There is, of course, a caveat- you have to dress like a cow. But hey, Chick-Fil-A doesn't want to only give out like 1 free meal nationwide on free meal day so you can get by with just a "piece of cow-themed attire." And I don't think they mean leather boots. Here are the deets!

I have this idea that I should be eating quinoa because it's like, all super duper good for you. So I wanted to make some tonight. At the same time, I wanted to make something blog-worthy and would look pretty in a picture, because I haven't been doing too many recipes lately. Furthermore, I'm feeling fat so I tried to placate my inner voice by getting a boneless, skinless chicken breast.

So here it is, folks. Something tasty I made with quinoa and chicken breasts that's blog-worthy and attractive. Enjoy!




Chicken With Parsley, Orange, and Fresh Ricotta
makes enough for 2 people.

Ingredients:

• 1 shallot, peeled
• juice and zest of 1 large orange
• 1 handful spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup loosely packed parsley leaves
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 double chicken breast, boneless and skinless, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup white wine
• about 1/4 cup fresh ricotta
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup dried quinoa, cooked according to the package

Method:

• In a food processor, combine shallot, juice and zest, spinach, and parsley. Pulse until chopped up but not mushy.
• Heat saute pan with olive oil. Add chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Cook until done.
• Add white wine to pan and deglaze. Cook until wine is almost dry.
• Add parsley mixture and cook about 1 minute to heat through. Season with salt and pepper.
• Serve over quinoa and add crumbles of ricotta. Or, serve it over rice or mashed potatoes, if you don't feel the need to quinoa it up and want to amp up the deliciousness.
  

A German website, Pundo3000, has painstakingly compared packaged food products to illustrate how widely the advertised images differ from what you actually get. They are sad and depressing and make me question what the heck Germans are eating in the first place, because some of the stuff is weird anyway.

You can see the whole extensive gallery here, but here are the ones that spoke to me:

Fish in a tub doesn't appeal to me in the first place, but come on. I don't read German but I don't think it implies fish soaked in Pepto-Bismol. Yeech.



On some level this is kind of your fault for buying a cheeseburger in a plastic bag.



Yeah, not quite on this pizza- it's like 2 dozen peppers vs. 2 peppers.



This one has the additional problem of appearing to be a hot dog wrapped in a granola bar.



This one might be the saddest of all. The clump of noodles brings a tear to my eye.



Sigh. This one is like a metaphor for expectations vs. real life.

I'm not the most anal person in the world, but even if I was super anal I'd be no match for the guy who owns this Japanese KFC franchise.



Lo and behold it's been reported that upon ordering a piece of the Colonel's original recipe from this branch, you get a diagram mapping out where the chicken bones are, lest you bite down on one and break a tooth.



Um... is this really necessary? Have you ever had an accident of this nature that scarred you to the point where you wished something could have been done to prevent it? I haven't. It seems to me that the location of bones are in a piece of chicken is pretty obvious. Then again, maybe it's just a precaution to prevent overly litigious customers from suing for millions if they crack a crown on a drumstick, in which case, I say, genius!

[via xorsyst]

Scientists say that watermelon contains a compound called citruline which can have "Viagra-like" effects. Hmm.



Of course, like all cool science-y stuff, there are like a million caveats. Most of the good stuff is in the rind. You'd have to eat 6 cups of watermelon to get the effect. It doesn't last that long. And so on and so forth. But still, they sure do know how to come up with a catchy headline, eh?

My mom taught me this trick to transform a boring ol' block of feta into a somewhat shmancy-seeming appetizer in like 10 seconds.



All you do is take a block of brined feta out of the brine. Put it on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Drizzle it with olive oil and sprinkle it with chopped herbs (oregano or mint are my two favorites.) If you are like me and have weird colors of special salt around, like the black flakes you see in the picture, then go ahead and sprinkle some of that on. If you don't then just fuggedaboutit. The herbs and oil are the important part.

Serve it with a baguette or crackers, or make some pita chips for a real treat. And don't say I never did anything for you!

Here they are: Cakes that look like steaks!


Why? I have no idea. But this is just one of many. Check out all of the photos at YesButNoButYes.

My friend Heather just moved to Argentina (lucky!) so I threw an Argentina-themed dinner for her. Why didn't I throw a California-themed dinner for her? I don't know. I guess I wasn't thinking too straight when I made the evite. At any rate no Argentina-themed dinner would be complete without delicious chimichurri sauce since in Argentina a typical plate is a big huge steak with chimichurri sauce on it. Since Heather is a vegetarian, she dipped bread in it, which is how the bowl got completely cleaned out at the end of the night.



It's a simple sauce to make and it's tangy, garlicky, and super tasty. The one problem with this recipe is that it has some unfortunate consequences in terms of your breath. Suffice it to say you will still have garlic breath the next morning and brushing your teeth will be completely futile. Meh, totally worth it. Though if you share a bed with someone you should probably either get them to eat a whole bunch of it with you or if not, just do them a favor and sleep in the guest room.

Parsley-Garlic Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled
• about 1/4 of a white onion
• 2 Tblsp white vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 3 Tblsp apple cider vinegar
• juice of 1 lemon or lime
• 3 Tblsp water
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method:

• Put garlic and onion in food processor and pulse until chopped.
• Add parsley and pulse a bit til chopped but not too finely.
• Add everything else except the oil and pulse to chop and combine.
• Add oil a bit at a time and pulse to combine and emulsify. It should be thinner than a pesto sauce.
• Serve with grilled steaks or use to dip bread in.

This can be made a couple hours ahead and left at room temp, but is not as good if made further ahead than that.

This guy cooked a whole camel on a spit, breaking the world record for grilling the most flesh, or having the biggest grill, or something.



The camel weighed 550 kg (that's 1210 lbs to you and me) and had to be cooked for 15 hours (that's still 15 hours to you and me.)

Said chef Christian Falco, "It's a tradition that's fallen out of favour."

You don't say. I can't imagine why.

Full story at the Brisbane Times

The "Well Done" Recipe Book is completely blank- until you wrap it in foil and bake it precisely for 25 minutes at 100 Celsius. If you leave it in too long, it will burn and be ruined!



Read more on this unusual project at Notcot.