Category Archives: food

True Food Kitchen and The Vig: Yum!

After a long, cold winter in the Midwest, we welcome any and all reasons to flee to the warmer states where the lucky people live.  In February, my husband and I did just that, heading west for some R&R (okay, fine, we went for the sunshine).

While we were there, we did a little lounging,

a little hiking,

and we ate some fantastic food.

Seriously.  It was so fantastic that a month and a half later I’m still thinking about it.  And wishing I were eating it rather than whatever miscellany I can find in my pantry.

Our first meal after touchdown was at a place we stumbled on, called True Food Kitchen.  Fanfreakintastic, I’m telling you.  There wasn’t anything there that didn’t look like they just picked it at a farm around the corner, like an hour ago.  It tasted the same way.  The flour tacos were fresh (did they grind them in the back?), the cilantro, oh my goodness,  the slivers of steak, the fresh tomatillo salsa, the Cotija cheese and Anasazi beans, I can’t even begin to tell you how good it was.  Picture this:  like children, we had to put our forks down so we wouldn’t inhale it.  And I do mean inhale.

You know how that goes, though.  After that, every morsel was up for comparison.  Our second day in the lovely, warm town, we hiked Camelback Mountain (a trek I highly recommend for the adventuresome types out there).  Our perky guide, Kaitlyn, was full of information not just about Camelback but anything we’d dare to ask.  I asked about food.

The Vig,” she said, “go there.”  And so, with True Food Kitchen as the high bar, we made our way to a place that looked seriously sketchy from the road.  More like a warehouse, or strip club, maybe, than a hip, happening restaurant.  But I guess that’s the thing, right?  If it tried too hard, it wouldn’t have the same mojo.

Upon Kaitlyn’s recommendation, we ordered the Deconstructed Fish Taco Salad.  And, yes, it was amazing. You don’t hear me say that very often.  I mean,  a view can be amazing, or a pair of shoes can be amazing, but a fish taco?  A-maz-ing!

Slow food doesn’t come cheap, but I swear to you this very second, people, that we wouldn’t touch processed crap with a ten foot pole if food this good was our choice.

And isn’t it?  Food for thought (and a Michael-Pollanesque post for another day).

My Favorite Chocolate Cake Roll

I’m not much of a dessert person; I’d rather have a big ol’ handful (or three) of jalepeño chips any day of the week.  That said, I have a few favorite sweets, and this is one of them.  It’s fairly easy but does take some time.  You’ll also use several bowls: two medium-sized and one large.  And don’t try to cheat, either.  You need the bowls, trust me.  It’s worth the effort, friends.  This chocolate cake roll filled with vanilla ice cream is a fabulous warm weather treat.

Chocolate Cake Roll

ingredients:
1/3 c cake flour
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T cornstarch
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/3 t salt
4 large eggs, separated
1 c granulated sugar, divided

For filling:
1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream (won’t use all of it)

For garnish:
confectioner’s sugar
hershey double chocolate sauce (or your fav)
fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 350˚.  Line a 15- x 1-inch jelly roll pan with waxed paper, then grease and flour lined pan.


In the first medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Mix well.


In the large bowl, beat egg yolks and 1/4 c sugar with an electric mixer, on medium, until fluffy (light lemon yellow color).


In the other medium bowl, beat egg whites on high until foamy.  Gradually add 1/2 c sugar, beating until peaks are stiff but not dry.


Fold 1/3 beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.  Alternate folding in the remaining whites and the flour mixture.  Pour batter into lined pan and smooth.  Bake about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.


To Roll Cake:


Dust a clean cloth with remaining sugar.  (I have a particular dishcloth I bought for rolling cakes and use only for this purpose.)  Turn cake out onto the sugared cloth and carefully remove waxed paper.  Trim the edges.  (Yum.)


Tightly roll the cake lengthwise, into the cloth (you want it long, not thick).  Let cool on a wire rack, with the seam facing down.  Allow cake to cool completely. 


A few minutes before you’re ready to spread the ice cream, remove it from the freezer to soften a bit.


Unroll cake and remove cloth.  Spread softened ice cream in a smooth layer over cake, to within 1/2-inch or so of the edge.  Re-roll cake and dust with confectioners sugar.


Make zig-zag of chocolate sauce on each serving plate.   Place 2 slices of cake on chocolate sauce, and 3-4 raspberries beside the slices. 


If you want leftovers, you’ll  need to make 2.  And yes, you can make this the day before and freeze it.


It’s a little bit of work, but it’s fantastic! 



How Not to Bake Cupcakes in Waffle Cone Bowls

Ah, the baking craft, and oh, the guilt-ridden job of mother.  How I love thee both.

As can happen among mothers, I am the least crafty of the species.  I see projects like SusieJ’s ghost feet and I think they are fabulous, and I feel I should be good at these things, and I know I’m staring at failure.  Although my heart tells me I should make them, that these are the precious memories I should be making with my children, I know that their memory would be different.  They would be laughing their heads off when the dough wouldn’t harden or when it spontaneously combusted, both of which would be real possibilities. This is simply the way it is with me and crafts.  It’s a complicated relationship.

Speaking of relationships, during the first year we were married, I decided to bake my new husband a birthday cake.  I was going to make it from a box, like all good wives do, but I didn’t know which type was his favorite.  When I asked, he said, “Italian Cream Cake,” and I had the sinking feeling that kind didn’t come in a box.  I secured the recipe from his mom, purchased the ingredients, and got busy.  I measured and poured and folded.  When I was done, the batter still seemed awfully runny, but I slid it into the oven and crossed my fingers.  A few seconds later my husband came into the kitchen and I mentioned this peculiarity to him.  He peeked into the oven.  Kindly, ever so gently, he asked, “Um, did you add the flour?”  Ah ha!  And this was the first of many.

And so, it is with some wonder that I have become a birthday cakes for my children.  After that first attempt, most sensible women would have thrown in the towel, sold their beaters on Craig’s List, and called 1-800-Costco.  But no.  If nothing else, I am stubborn.  Determined.  I will not be beaten by flour and eggs.

But the cupcakes in the waffle cone bowls?  They almost beat me.  They could smell victory, as close as it ever was.

So here’s how it went down:  Several years ago I met a crafty mom who trades sleep for making party favors and the like.  One year, she made cupcakes for her child’s birthday. Now cupcakes, I can do.  But no.  She didn’t make cupcakes in paper like the rest of us.  She made them in edible waffle cone bowls, which I thought was brilliant.  Instantly, I knew I was inferior.  But it was easy, she said, and she told me how she did it.  I tried it.  Lo and behold, it was easy and just like that I was back in the motherhood game.

Flash forward.  I remember the waffle cone bowls.  So do my kids.  My son asks me to bake them for his class.  And the other class that’s a part of his team.  That’s 50 cupcakes in waffle cone bowls.  “Okay,” I thought, “this was easy.”

I use a box mix and open the waffle cone bowls.  Several are cracked.  Hmmm…won’t the batter just run out?  Those bowls are out.  What about the chipped ones?  Probably okay.  I bought 5 boxes of bowls and at 10 per box I don’t really have any to spare.  The chipped ones are in.  I pour the batter into the bowls and put them in the oven.  Only a few batches to go, right?

Except.  Except when I open the oven to check on them, batter is oozing out of several of them.  The others are strangely misshapen, flattened out in a quite unattractive matter.  Panic starts to settle in.  I salvage the ones I can and  get the next batch ready.  I’m very careful not to put too much batter in each bowl.  I wait, I peek, and…same deal.  Oozing and strangely flat.  I plead with my husband to run out and buy more waffle bowls, at once calculating my insanity and the rising cost of these stupid cupcakes.  He arrives with the extra waffle cone bowls.  Now I’m almost done.  I just need one more cupcake but the only waffle cone bowl left has a small hole in the bottom.  “Hmmm,” I think.  “I’ll just bake this one in the muffin tin and pop it into the waffle cone bowl afterwards.  No one will be any wiser.  And that’s when it hit me.  I’m the one who should be wiser.

You’re not supposed to bake them in the darn bowls.  You’re supposed to bake them in the muffin tins, let them cool, and THEN pop them into the waffle bowls.  If you do, they look like this, all pretty and perky.

Otherwise, you get the misshapen, random effect.

But I am here to testify that icing and quantity trump perfection.  Because not one kid cared that they didn’t have a pretty cone.  They just wanted to get their hands on one of these.

And all is right in the world.