Christmas in Summer Salad

This is my new favorite lunch sidedish. I got the idea from a buffet item at Whole Foods. I call it Christmas in Summer Salad!

It's really fast to make. All it is:

• orzo
• kale
• red pepper
• italian seasoning (like this)
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• salt 
• black pepper
• garlic cloves

I start by cutting the kale up in really small pieces. Then I steam the kale for a few minutes. After the kale is done, I use the same boiling water to cook the orzo. While the orzo is cooking, I dice the red pepper. I also pour some olive oil in a bowl and add a splash of balsamic vinegar. I love my Italian seasoning grinder! I use it on almost everything. I grind a generous amount in the oil. Then add some salt and grind some black pepper. Then I press one or two garlic cloves and add it to the oil. After the orzo is done, I rise it and let it sit a bit. Then I stir all the ingredients together.

I feel so British - Lemon Curd Tarts

I made lemon curd tarts! I always think of the UK when I hear "lemon curd." Maybe because the first time I remember hearing about it was from some British backpacker in Australia. She was going on and on how lemon curd is just the best with pancakes. And I think they way she was describing pancakes they were more like crepes than pancakes. Silly Brits. Anyways, I made some lovely tarts from my new book that simply called, tarts by Sarah Banbery.

I baked the tart shells blind. Then made the lemon curd. It was very easy, just butter, eggs, sugar and lemon juice. The pie crust was terrible to make. I don't recommend that recipe or I didn't add the correct amount of water. It was so hard to roll out and keep together. The little tart tins were helpful because I could just mold the crust into them. Then fill with the curd, top with fresh blueberries - delicious!

baked blind

with the curd!

Monsters and Boston Cream

Well it happened again. I was enticed into baking by another beautiful blog. This time it was pastry studio. I want a pastry studio, been thinking about taking real pastry classes so I can work in a proper kitchen again.

A new experiment for me, I followed the directions to a T, well almost. I didn't have cake flour (I know terrible, I've been baking enough to justify it). I also made my own buttermilk. I didn't zest the entire orange, probably about 2 teaspoons or so. I used regular cupcake pan and a loaf pan (will explain later why). And finally, I didn't use all the corn syrup, I used half a tablespoon maybe next time I'll use less.

always good to start with a little wine

For the recipe check out this website :pastry studio:
My vanilla filling was tasty but a bit lumpy, I don't know why. Maybe I heated the milk too much? Maybe the eggs were supposed to be at room temperature for that part too?

it was a bit messy

 When I cut out the middle of the cupcakes for the filling, I had lots of cake bits as left overs. I took my kerr jars and made a couple special boston cream parfaits for my roommies.

leftover cake, cream and chocolate in a kerr jar!

Alright I'm finally getting to the monster part. My friend, Marcos, designs fun creatures. It was his birthday so I decided to replicate one of his creatures in a mini-cake.

cake creature

I used the cake that I baked in the loaf pan, and cut it into smaller pieces. Then I used cookie decorating white and red frosting and made the mouths. I rolled out orange starbursts and cut them for the tummy piece. The gren hair is made from laughy-taffy, also nuked for 10 seconds and rolled out with a rolling pin. Then cut into the design. The eyes are just dots of icing. Do you see my inspiriation?

more creatures: http://www.marcosrc.com/