Jessica's Dinner Party

by jessica yoon

dessert

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.

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Pumpkin Pie Cake

A few years ago I decided to bake a cake for each of my friends’ and family’s birthdays.  I made everything from the basic white cake to red velvet to strawberry shortcake.  For those who lived outside of New York, I mailed tins filled with brownies, snickerdoodles, and linzer cookies.  I like giving baked goods as presents because it’s personal and different from a store bought gift. I have always greatly appreciated receiving homemade gifts because of the extra effort and thought that goes into it.  It also showcases each person’s talent and unique relationship with you that makes it even more special and meaningful.

I used to think that it was cheap to bring cake as a present, but now I totally disagree!  I think it’s such a sweet (no pun intended) gift, and one that can be enjoyed with so many other people too.  Some of my most memorable birthdays came with homemade cakes.  For my 7th birthday, my mom and my sister cut a yellow sheet cake in the silhouette of a little girl in a dress.  They used candy to make a face and create the dress.  My friends and I got to choose pieces with our favorite type of candy on it.  On my 16th birthday a friend baked a rainbow cake for me which was so striking and festive.  It was so reflective of that time and stage in my life.  But don’t be intimidated! Not all birthday cakes have to be spectacular or memorable.  Even though I’ve had a lot of mediocre slices of frosting slathered cardboard, I still only ask for cake on my birthday.

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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.

 

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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!

 

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Tiramisu Cake

I really love baking for birthdays.  Cakes, cupcakes, frosting, sprinkles, piping…is there anything more delightful than that?  My cakes never turn out as pretty and whimsical as I imagine them, but I try not to let that get to me, it’s all part of the fun.  I do though get stressed out a little bit before I start baking, when I’m trying to decide what cake to bake. There are so many different recipes out there and so many resources to get them from, that I find it overwhelming to say the least.

There is a sort of thought process that I go through when a birthday starts to approache.  I first think of what kind of sweets or desserts this person likes and try to create a list of flavor profiles like: chocolate and strawberries, or lemon and almonds.  Then I start the “research.”  I look everywhere.  I go to food blogs, the Food Network, my cookbooks, magazines, and I also go to the bookstore where I grab any cake/baking book I can see and look through each one of them.  This thought process lasts for hours, days, sometimes even weeks and in the end I usually end up with two or three recipes that I like.  There’s always one cake candidate that models the flavor profile list pretty well, while the others are more geared towards something I would like or something I think would taste amazing.  I mean, don’t some people say you should give a gift you would like for yourself? Well, in the end I usually do the right thing, and pick the right cake.

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