She's got the moves...

Happy Belated 4th of July!  We had a great weekend with the Crandalls, who came to visit.  Between the girls and Nicole, we had plenty of babysitters to love on Lily.  Let's just say she was a little spoiled!  

Lily is really starting to take off now, and she is not shy about showing off her newfound moves!   Here she is dancing to a toy our friends gave her:

 (I'm not sure how to rotate the video, so if any of you know how to do this, please let me know!)

She is also starting to get more brave with taking steps.  As you can see from the videos, she understands the words "dancing" and "walking."  With a little encouragement, she takes more and more steps every day.  Today the record was 14 steps, which equates to about a distance of 2 feet (hey, she has small little feet!).  I was able to capture her taking a few steps in this video:

Pav-love-a

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

I completed my 2nd challenge as a "Daring Baker" and it was not only fun, but also super rich and delicious.  For all of you chocolate lovers out there, I highly recommend this chocolate mousse, as well as the crunchy/crisp pavlova.  The pavlova is a traditional Australian dessert and can be had in various forms of meringue, but is usually topped with some sort of cream and berries.  While generally not being a fan of overly sweet meringues, this chocolate pavlova recipe, with the addition of Callebaut cocoa powder, is truly decadent.  Making the pavlova is actually quite simple with only 4 ingredients: egg whites, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder.  Here is the "batter" before piping into rounds on parchment paper:

The entire batter could be formed into one cake shape round or piped into individual servings, which is what I did:

I then tried my hand at making homemade mascarpone to add to the mousse, and it was easier than I thought.  Here is how you can do it.  I had trouble with using the indirect heating method, and ended up putting my bowl right on top of the burner with a low flame.  Even with the slight technique alteration, it turned out thick and creamy the next morning!  The mascarpone also was added to a creme anglaise as a drizzling sauce over the chocolate dessert.  

Since I had plentiful strawberries from Shepherd Farms I again topped the dessert with a fanned out strawberry.  Mmm...delish!  

A bonus is having leftovers, including enough mascarpone cream to make an ice cream.  Jason and I enjoyed parfaits layered with the mouse, mascarpone ice cream, crumbled pavlovas, and strawberries!  I think we have enough for one more parfait tonight...hooray!

For the recipe, click here.

Happy Birthday Lily!

It's official!  Lily is 1 year old.  It is hard to believe that a whole year has flown by.  June 12, 2009, this sweet little girl made her entry into the world:

We have had the joy of watching our precious girl grow and her personality to continue to blossom.  With plenty of spunk and an independent spirit, Lily is on the move, and we are trying to keep up!  :) 

She had a blast at her birthday party with plenty of family, friends, and yummy food.  As you can see, she takes after her mom in her deep appreciation of food (translation: she loves to grub down).  Fortunately for her, she got to dive into Indonesian BBQ'd chicken, nasi kuning (a celebratory rice), salad, fruit, and chocolate beet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Here is a view of the food table:

In order to get a little nutrition into her first bites of chocolatey, sugary goodness, I added pureed beets (before you say "yuck!" - you must try the moistest cupcake ever, with barely any taste of beets).  And, rather than using that nasty red food dye #40, I colored the frosting with the beet water from the roasting pan, rendering beautifully pink frosting!  How did she like the cupcake, you might ask?  Well, see for yourself: 

She ate the ENTIRE cupcake (after eating a whole drumstick, rice and watermelon juice).  What was Lily's method of destruction?  It started with a fistful of frosting that was administered to the mouth and held there, as if she needed a ventilator for oxygen.  After mommy broke the cupcake in two, it was then followed by grabbing an entire half and placing it in the same position, so she could conveniently get more as needed.  Here you will see her going in for the cupcake (just after eating the frosting):

As you can see, she is not afraid to be in front of a crowd.  Her focus is astounding! :)  

Our friends, Bart and Linda Tarman, provided the space for Lily's birthday bash.  Here are some friends and family, eating out on the patio.

Jason was the grill master, delivering tender and perfectly bbq'd chicken!

Here some friends enjoy the Swedish game, Kubb, provided by our friend, Sean Whiting, who lived in Sweden for 3 years (or so?).

Lastly, Lily had a great time with her Oma, who came down from Oregon for 10 days to celebrate and play with her.  Lily ate Indonesian delights, knocked down towers that Oma built with foam blocks, danced, and giggled.  She can't wait 'til the next visit!

Our Little Busy Bee...

I realize I haven't posted anything lately on Lily, so I owe it to my dear family and friends to update you on Lily's activities.  And, of course, it is best to show you, rather than just tell you :)  With her one year birthday coming up (a week from today!), she is keeping busy as well as keeping us busy!  So here it goes:

Lily helped her Daddy put together the desk that we moved into the kitchen nook.  Here she is trying to climb up the leg of the desk!

Lily has definitely formed a love/appreciation for my cookbooks.  What can I say?  You gotta start 'em while they're young!  Here she is pulling them off the shelves, one by one.  

And, here is the aftermath...

We've also been going to My Gym, which is a children's gym for all ages.  The class she goes to is for crawlers to walkers.  She loves to ride on swings, climb up play structures, walk on the balance beam (with my help, of course!), and play in the ball pit.  Here she is showing off her bottom 2 teeth while lounging in the ball pit!

We have also continued to take her swimming, as she just loves the water.  She kicks like a little dolphin, holds onto the side of the pool (almost without my support), climbs out of the pool (with only a little assistance from me), floats on her back (with a finger to a hand of support at the nape of her neck), and dives down with the swim instructor to pick up objects off the bottom of the pool in 3 1/2 feet of water.  I think she'll be a better swimmer than me by the time she turns 2!  Here she is smiling for the camera :

Needless to say, we've been enjoying our 1st year with our little girl!  Look for a posting after her birthday to see how her first bites of a sweet cupcake will go!

I couldn't finish the blog without a picture of a delectable treat.  Since we've been continuing to get the deepest red, most juicy strawberries in our CSA box (Community Supported Agriculture, basically a farm share) from Shepherd Farms, I have been loving eating them and using them in cooking and baking.  Here you will find our breakfast this morning of Strawberry Buttermilk Scones that we served up with eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice (from our orange tree).  With it's crunchy, flaky exterior and layered, soft interior, these are the best scones I've made to date. Life is good!

Because it was soooo good, I will type out the recipe from The Foster's Market Cookbook, a borrowed cookbook from my friend, Kelley Johnson.  Thank you Kelley!

Foster's Strawberry Scones

makes 1 dozen

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

3/4 lb (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

*I was out of unsalted butter, so I used regular salted butter and cut down the salt by half

1 1/4 cups plus 2 Tbs buttermilk

2 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered

Egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with 2 Tbs milk

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Lightly grease 2 baking sheets (or use parchment) and set aside

3.  Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

4.  Add the butter and cut it into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles course meal.  (Or use a food processor to cut the butter into the flour mixture by pulsing 10-12 times.  Transfer the mixture to a large bowl to continue making the dough.)  Do NOT overwork the dough.

5.  Add 2 cups hulled and quartered fresh strawberries to the flour-butter mixture.  (You may need 2-3 Tbs less buttermilk depending on the ripeness of the berries.)

6.  Add 1 1/4 cups of the buttermilk and mix until just combined and the dough begins to stick together.  Add the remaining buttermilk one tablespoon at a time if the dough is too dry.

7.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll or pat into two 6-inch rounds, about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Cut each round in half, then cut each half into 3 triangles (pie-shaped wedges) and place on baking sheets.  Brush the tops with the egg wash.

8.  Bake 30 - 35 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch.  Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Mmmmm....

A "Piece" of goodness...

For those of you who don't know, I have joined an online group called the Daring Bakers.  Each month, on the 27th, I will be posting pictures on my blog of the monthly baking challenge I have completed.  The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

This was quite a fun challenge, as it basically required me to make a "tower" of cream puffs.  I can see why this is a popular dessert in lieu of a cake at weddings in France, as it is not only delicious, but quite fun to pluck off a little pillow of yumminess :)  So why not consider it for your next party??

It started with making the puff, which is a pate choux dough, used to make eclairs and cream puffs.  After being brushed with a little egg wash, they come out beautifully golden.

They are then filled with deliciously sweet pastry cream.  I chose to do a traditional half vanilla/half chocolate croquembouche.  However, it was just luck of the draw as to which one was plucked off the mounted piece!  After filling the puffs, the most daunting part to me was building a tower that seemed to take a nice shape without toppling over!  The cream puffs hung on for dear life with a little caramel, and I adorned the whole thing with chocolate covered strawberries.  The strawberries were so deep red and juicy, as they came from a local, organic farm!  Here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment:

Bon Appetit!

A Napa Birthday Weekend

Well, it is official.  I have finally entered my 30's, and what better way to celebrate than to eat delicious food, drink good wine, and laugh with friends in Napa Valley?  

Our friends, Dom and Kym, came up from Santa Barbara to join in on the festivities.  While at Grgich Hills Winery (yeah, try to say that 5 times fast after wine tasting at 2 other wineries!), Lily got in on the fun and found the wine bottle to be a great teething toy.  Never mind that it

 was a $135 bottle of wine.  It's basically grape juice, right?  Oh, yeah, plus a little fermentation...

After enjoying wine together, we met my childhood friend, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Jay, for a wonderful meal at Bottega, Michael Chiarello's restaurant in Yountville.  We were seated in the wine cellar at a large table with copper water goblets, a chandelier made of spoons, and plenty of room for Lily to roam.

We ended up sharing all of our dishes with one another and were therefore able to enjoy a wide variety of flavors.  During the pasta course, one of the dishes that we enjoyed was:  Crispy Potato Gnocchi with english pea & tallegio fonduta, early spring vegetables, and a prosciutto crisp.  Yum!

For the entree course, we enjoyed the most amazing flavors from the Garlic & Calabrian Chili Roasted Dungeness Crab with saffron aioli and bruschetta that Dom and Kym ordered to the Lamb with Strawberry sauce and creamy polenta that Jason and I ordered.  We all were in heaven!

With a little research, Jason found the most perfect Inn for us to stay that was located right across the street from Bottega and literally in the backyard of Bouchon Bakery (Chef Thomas Keller's bakery).  We were able to enjoy relaxing in the room with the fireplace keeping us all cozy during the rain spells.  Meanwhile, Lily kept us entertained, as she crawled around the room and pulled herself into standing while holding onto various surfaces.  Here she is striking a pose that looks quite graceful...perhaps a future dancer?

On our last night in Napa Valley, Jason took me to one of our favorite restaurants that was also opened by Chef Thomas Keller, ad hoc, a family-style home cooked meal to the next level.  That evening, Lily had the meal of her life: veal chop with creamy polenta, broccoli rabe, and Tokyo turnips.  For dessert, she had some apple compote, which went with our cheese course.  I couldn't get the spoon to her mouth fast enough.  While I was determined to take a picture of each course, I neglected to get a picture of our main course due to being occupied with Lily (excuses, excuses, right?).  So, I kindly asked the waitress if she would take my camera in the kitchen and take a picture of someone else's dish before it went out to the table.  After asking the chef, she invited me to come back into the kitchen to take it myself.  So, here it is:

After taking the picture of the simple, but elegant meal, I gushed to the chef about how much I loved the restaurant and how I even have the cookbook.  So, then what did I do?  I walked out of the kitchen without any evidence that I took the above picture in the actual ad hoc kitchen.  I was kicking myself that I had no proof!   So, I did what any food-lover would do, and asked the waitress if I could go back in for another picture with the chef.  The following picture is what came of that request:

We had such an incredible weekend.  This was a 30th birthday to remember!

Laughter, Easter and more!

We are really along for the ride now, as Lily is unstoppable.  We have blocked off the fireplace with 2 chairs and a magazine rack, due to repeated offenses of sticking her hand in the ashes and attempting to put them in her mouth.  The wine rack has been blocked off by 2 chairs, but she is starting to figure out how to crawl under the chairs.  Lily, this is too young to become a wine connoisseur!  None the less, she is tons of fun and we are enjoying her immensely!

This video was taken about a month ago, but I just had to share it with you as it makes me smile :)  She is definitely a movement girl, and loves the swing, as you will see!

We were blessed to have a whole group of friends in town 2 weeks ago.  Our friends, Brad and Carrie, brought their son, Tommy, from Minnesota.  Here he and Lily are enjoying a double stroller ride:

One evening we joined Jon, Megan, and Ivy for dinner, and were able to get a "babies on the couch" shot.  We thought it would be cute to put Tommy, the only boy, in between the two girls.  However, Lily has a strong affinity for Ivy (no offense Tommy, you are pretty darn cute!), as you will see...

There she goes...(while Ivy takes a swipe at Tommy)

Ahhh...next to Ivy again.  Tommy appears happy to be able to spread out, too!  The picture before this one in my camera is of Lily gnawing on Ivy's shoulder.

Last, but not least, Happy Easter!  We hope you all had a wonderful day feasting and celebrating!