Jessica's Dinner Party

Archive for the 'dessert' Category

Simple Apple Tart

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and if you’re like me, you already have a long list of dishes to choose from. My list always includes some interesting and daring recipes like tamale inspired stuffing, Caribbean scented sweet potatoes, and a vegan chocolate cheesecake. I think: maybe this year we should go with a Southeast Asian theme or try doing everything Southern style. But alas, we always stick to the basics, the recipes we know, and end up craving. How can Thanksgiving pass without grandma’s famous stuffing and a plain old pumpkin pie? Never.

November 16 2009 | dessert and fruit and recipe and thoughts | 9 Comments »

Brown Butter Pound Cupcakes

I picked up Gourmet at the airport last month when I was flying over here and felt a pang of sadness as I carefully flipped through the penultimate issue. Even for me, a foodie and blogger newbie, I felt that great sense of shock and disbelief to be witnessing the end of an era. The legacy and recipes will live on, but all in all the food world has lost one of its greatest pillars.

In honor of Gourmet, I thought I’d do a round of recipes from the magazines archives. So, for the next couple of weeks be on the lookout for those Gourmet recipes you always wanted to try, but never got around to!

To start, I picked the brown butter pound cake recipe in the October 2009 issue. It hit a chord with me because I love almond meal and thought that brown butter could be pseudo alternative for those who have nut allergies. I have a friend who’s highly allergic to peanuts and almonds and have always felt like I was wagging a bone in front of a dog whenever I raved about it. So this is for her and all those other nut allergic individuals.

November 09 2009 | cake and dessert and recipe and thoughts | 8 Comments »

Cream Puffs at the Beach

The simple question of “where are you from?” has always been difficult for me to answer. I left my country of birth when I was a small child and have since only been back once. I have no connection, emotionally or physically, to the land of my citizenship, yet it is an essential part of my identity. As I grow older, I am slowly beginning to realize how significant my passport is to my life. Over the past couple of months it has caused me much annoyance, fear, stress, and complications. Complications which have led me to the decision to leave New York for a few months. It was a tough decision to make, but I believe it is for the best. Under my current visa, I am only allowed to work in a certain field. As I am looking to change directions and explore new options, I am unable to stay here legally. I was nervous that I may have to return to my foreign homeland, but fortunately I will be with my family in Korea. I’m excited to go back to Seoul and spend some quality time in the city I grew up in. There will be some big changes in my life soon so I am actually very thankful that I am have to temporarily leave the U.S.

As a good bye gesture, my friends and I decided to take a little one day road trip outside of the city. We planned to go to East Hampton, but ended up much closer to Manhattan than expected. This past Sunday was apparently the worst day to choose for driving. A cycling race and parade blocked off a few major roads and we had a hard time leaving the city. When we finally did, we were exhausted and hungry, so we decided to go to Long Beach instead. It was beautiful, sunny, and absolutely perfect for a picnic lunch.

October 06 2009 | dessert and recipe and thoughts | 13 Comments »

Cantaloupe Granita

I’ve kind of been obsessed with cantaloupe lately. I eat it during breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday and still don’t get tired of it! I think it’s the most perfect out of all the melons. It’s sweet, but not as piercingly sweet as honeydew. It’s refreshing and juicy in a more substantial way than watermelon. And it’s just has a very calming quality to it. It’s pleasant and soothing like dawn during summertime.

August 26 2009 | dessert and dips and recipe and thoughts | 11 Comments »

Blueberry Crumb Bar Cake

There was dessert! How could a picnic end without something sweet? Before planning the picnic, I read an article in Martha Stewart’s Living magazine about how to prepare a picnic. By chance I have a subscription to the magazine. I think it came as a package deal with something else I ordered or it was a secret friend who thought I would enjoy it, but in any case, I was surprised when I kept on receiving an issue month after month. There were a lot of cute ideas there, including the tomato hand pies that inspired my roasted tomato sandwiches and sour cherry crumb cakes for dessert. I decided to follow the article and make a crumb cake because it’s easy to transport, and the picture looked so scrumptious.

From the time I read the article to the time I went to the grocery store something in my mind changed and I believed that the article talked about raspberry crumb bars instead of sour cherry crumb cakes. I set out to find raspberries and didn’t even look at the cherries. However, when I found the raspberries I was totally shocked at how expensive they were. Half a pint was $4 and since I would have to buy at least three of them to make the bars I would be spending a grand total of $12! It might not sound like a lot to some people, but for a recent college graduate, it’s quite a sum. So, after a good ten minutes in front of the berry stand, I decided to buy blueberries, two pints for $5, instead.

I was really happy about my choice of fruit and could not wait to start baking. When I opened the magazine to read the recipe, I realized that I the whole time I was thinking about crumb bars and that I couldn’t make the crumb cakes anyway because I didn’t have any buttermilk or an acceptable substitute on hand. I quickly scanned the indexes of all the cookbooks I had and searched online for a blueberry crumb bar recipe and found one at AllRecipes.com written about by Smitten Kitchen that was easy and simple. Yay!