You’re here…and you’re getting Happelsaucey! You didn’t give up on me. Thank you, thank you. Truly. Thank you.

I could have stopped in to say hello. And I didn’t. I need to get better about just popping in, dashing off something quick and delish, and then going on my way. It’s easier said than done, but I can do it. Of course I can do it. I have to do it.

Time, that elusive thing I once had almost enough of, is now in very short supply. Without delving into details (quick and delish is my new mantra), I started working full-time again last month. My life recipe has been as follows:

Combine 4 very full work weeks, a couple dashes of summer travel, and an excessive amount of fun.

Mix thoroughly.

Produces an effervescent elixir. Enjoy!

Okay, so without much further ado, I give you a recipe that pays homage to Spanish cooking – Chickpea Chorizo Gonzalez. Initially, I wanted to write this post in early June. (Yes, I know. It’s now late July.) But, you see, I’d Happelsauced it in my mind – I would dedicate the recipe to my friends in Spain and marvel at the fact that it was one year ago, in June 2009, when I left Barcelona and headed back to New York, entirely unsure of what I would do next.

Now it’s a bit late to marvel and gush about how quitting my job in New York to farm in Spain and France was arguably the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m not, however, too late to send the Gonzalez sisters a little love (and insert their last name into this recipe). Lee and Lauren made me feel at home in Barcelona. Really, truly at home. Such a feeling can’t be underestimated. Also, they happen to love food just as much as I do. So, this recipe is for them. May our paths cross again…with as much food, laughter and Cava as before.

I first saw this recipe featured in Mark Bittman’s Minimalist column back in February. I’m happy to report it marries well with my new mantra – quick and delish. I’ve since made it twice and tinkered with it both times. Recently, I topped the chickpeas and chorizo with a poached egg, and it morphed from a Spanish side into a savory breakfast dish. My notes below reflect as much. Feel free to improvise.

Chickpea Chorizo Gonzalez

Serves 4 as a side or 2 as a main course

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas, as dry as possible (I dried them between paper towels.)

Salt and black pepper, to taste (Be generous.)

4 ounces chorizo, diced (Be sure to use the spicy, Spanish kind.)

1/2 pound spinach or kale, roughly chopped

1/4 cup sherry (White wine works too.)

1 to 2 cups bread crumbs (I omitted, not because I’m opposed. I just didn’t have bread crumbs.)

2-4 eggs, gently poached

Directions:

  • Heat the broiler. (Only if you’re including the bread crumbs in the recipe.)
  • Put three tablespoons of the oil in a skillet large enough to hold chickpeas in one layer over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add chickpeas and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until chickpeas begin to brown, about 10 minutes, then add chorizo. Continue cooking for another 5 to 8 minutes or until chickpeas are crisp; use a slotted spoon to remove chickpeas and chorizo from pan and set aside.
  • Add the remainder of the 1/4 cup of oil to the pan; when it’s hot, add spinach and sherry, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook spinach over medium-low heat until very soft and the liquid has evaporated.
  • Add chickpeas and chorizo back to the pan and toss quickly to combine; top with bread crumbs (if you’re using them) and put pan under the broiler to lightly brown the top. (No need to use the broiler unless you’re adding the bread crumbs.)
  • Divide onto plates and top each serving with a poached egg. (Still runny in the middle is best, so the yolk spreads.) For a bit more kick, sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Buen provecho!

This is it. The cake. If this cake could talk it would shout, “CELEBRATE!”

It’s festive and fun and completely customizable. But, my favorite part about this cake is that it’s made almost entirely of ice cream. And ice cream melts. So it’s the perfect excuse to eat a huge slice fast and then have seconds before it turns into a giant puddle of sweetness.

My love of ice cream cake runs deep. On my 11th birthday, I asked for a coffee ice cream cake with chocolate frosting. Instead of buying one from Ben & Jerry’s or Baskin-Robbins, Pom made me a coffee ice cream pie with an Oreo cookie crust. It was really good, but it wasn’t ice cream cake. I remember that I felt a little, teeny bit disappointed. (I should say now, almost two decades later, that the very fact my mom chose to make me special ice cream birthday dessert instead of taking the far easier path and simply purchasing one, made me one very lucky kid.) This is all to say that growing up I had always assumed ice cream cakes – you know, the big ones with layers of cake and ice cream with frosting on top – had to be purchased from a store.

I was so wrong.

I first learned about homemade ice cream cake in Santa Barbara. I was visiting my friends Em and Nattie in early July to celebrate (* the operative word!) Em’s 20th birthday. I remember watching the construction of her cake in sheer amazement. It wasn’t tough to do. It was fun. It was homemade.

Flash forward a decade later and I’m a few hundred miles north on the California coast in Mendocino. A bunch of us friends rented a house over Memorial Day weekend to *celebrate* a slew of impending June birthdays – all turning the big 3-0. Zoe, Drass, Whit and Ellie. Happy Birthday to you!!

The ice cream cake I made in Mendocino was enormous. I found an extra large mixing bowl in the cupboard and ended up needing a gallon and a half of ice cream to fill it. I added 48 ounces each of four different flavors – Cookies and Cream, Double Espresso, Caramel Chocolate Crunch, and French Vanilla – layered inside the bowl lined with 1) plastic wrap and 2) smushed Betty Crocker chocolate cake.

After a couple of hours in the freezer, I flipped the bowl ‘o soul onto a serving plate, smothered its cake crust exterior in dark chocolate ganache, jabbed it with candles in the shape of 30, and lit the delicious dome on fire. CELEBRATION!

You should make one too! It’s easy and freezy and a giant crowd pleaser. I promise. You don’t even need a good reason, like a birthday, to make it. This cake is a celebration in and of itself. It exudes celebration. It tastes like celebration. It creates a celebration. Really, it does.

Celebration Cake!

Serves anywhere from 6-20 people, depending on the size of the bowl and your love of ice cream.

INGREDIENTS

Chocolate cake (Yes, from a box! Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix works wonderfully. Just bake it in a pan and let cool.)

Ice cream (Enough to fill the bowl you’ve selected. You choose the flavors. Yum! I love coffee ice cream with cookies and cream. So happy together!)

8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Pinch of sea salt

DIRECTIONS

  • Line a medium-sized bowl with plastic wrap (this is VERY important), making sure the entire inside surface is covered.
  • Cut the cooled cake in half lengthwise so it’s half the thickness. (Don’t worry if it doesn’t look pretty. It won’t matter in the long run.) Then cut into 2 inch squares.
  • Firmly press cake squares into the bowl, forming a thin layer that completely covers the inside surface area. Place bowl in freezer to set for at least 30 minutes.
  • Remove bowl with cake crust from freezer and add ice cream. You can layer more of the cake in between flavors if you have extra squares. Or layer in sprinkle nuts or cookies. Or not. Make sure you fill the entire bowl with ice cream because the last layer of ice cream will be the bottom layer of the finished cake.
  • Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least a couple of hours.
  • Remove bowl from freezer and flip onto a large plate, removing any sticky plastic wrap.
  • Pour ganache* over the top, smoothing with a spatula.
  • Decorate with candles or sprinkles or candy or just let it be. And CELEBRATE!

*FOR THE GANACHE:

  • Place chocolate chips in a medium bowl.
  • Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan until just boiling.
  • Remove from heat and immediately pour over chocolate chips. Let stand for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth. Add pinch of sea salt.

Some just hear the music their entire life long.

It’s playing right now.

Dute da dute…
The Universe

I got my new Cuisinart SmartPower Duet Blender/Food Processor in the mail last week. I’d ordered it from one of those daily discount shopping newsletters. I signed up because I didn’t know any better. No, that’s not true. I did know better, but I signed up anyway. I received an email every morning that highlighted a few discounted luxury(ish) brands. So, a few months ago I ordered jeans. They arrived. They didn’t fit. I sent them back and got a $77 credit. It was around that time when I determined that just about the last thing I needed every morning was a reminder of something else I should want and covet and desire, but that I didn’t have. I wanted off the daily email. Stat.

In order to unsubscribe, I needed to spend my credit first. Cuisinart, a luxury shopping brand? Works for me! I used my credit to buy my SmartPower Duet – a blender and a food processor, together. Such potential for deliciousness! Smoothies, dips, salads, sauces, soups, batters and pie dough. Oh the joy! It arrived on my doorstep last week, and that very same day I unsubscribed from my luxury shopping newsletter once and for all.

I know it sounds like I’m living large over here. Buying luxury kitchen contraptions in exchange for luxury jeans. I promise, I’m not. I’m budget. I’m super budget. So much so, that I’ve been tossing random edible items from the fridge and freezer into my fancy new SmartPower Duet and seeing what happens. Lately, I’m happy to report, it’s been good things.

Oh, and in case you were wondering whether or not I found a replacement for my daily luxury shopping newsletter, I did! With what, you ask? With this! A daily email from The Universe. Thanks to a tip from my old new friend Emily (who has a truly wonderful blog all about gratitude), I signed up a few weeks ago and have been receiving early morning encouragement and understanding ever since. Just yesterday I got this email:

To empower another, is to empower yourself.

To celebrate another, is to celebrate yourself.

And to free another, Annie, is to free yourself.

I say empower, celebrate, and free them all.

- The Universe

Am I rambling? Yes. Sorry. Okay, here are the two recipes for you. Well, they’re not really recipes so much as inspiring ingredient combinations. Peas and fresh mint. Carrots, fresh mint, and feta. Together, quite a complementary springtime duet, but they don’t need each other to taste good. These are independent creations that just so happen to like each other and have a few things in common. Maybe they’re dating? A dating duet! They are both minty fresh, healthy and taste like springtime. Try them together – I spooned a bit of both over a bowl of quinoa. Or try them apart – mint and pea dip with crackers and veggies, carrot and feta salad as a starter. Experiment! Tinker with the proportions and mix the spices for optimal tastiness.

Green Pea and Fresh Mint Dip

INGREDIENTS

1/2 bag frozen peas, cooked until tender

3/4 cup fresh mint, roughly chopped

1/3 cup plain yogurt (I love Strauss Organic Whole Milk Plain)

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper – to taste

DIRECTIONS

  • Toss all ingredients in your food processor and blend until smooth (or desired consistency). If you don’t have a food processor, you should chop the mint extra fine, then mash everything together with a fork. It will be a bit chunkier, but hey!
  • Mix in most of the feta cheese.
  • Adjust spice and salt as necessary. Tinker!
  • Garnish with more feta.
  • Serve with crackers and veggies as a dip, or eat with brown rice or quinoa.

Carrot, Feta, and Mint Salad

Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound carrots, coarsely grated (Either in food processor or by hand.)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 crushed clove of garlic

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon Sambal Oelek (It’s got kick! Adjust to taste. You can also use Harissa.)

Dash of sugar

Juice from half a lemon

1/4 cup fresh mint, finely chopped

1/2 cup crumbled feta

DIRECTIONS

  • In a small sauté pan, cook the garlic, cumin, paprika, Sambal Oelek and sugar in the oil until fragrant, about one to two minutes.
  • Remove from heat and add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt.
  • Pour over the carrots and mix.
  • Add the herbs and mix.
  • Leave to infuse for an hour and add the feta before eating.


I like it hot.

Do you like it hot?

Can you drop it like it’s hot?

Okay, that last question is irrelevant. Scratch that. Sooo, I’ve been meaning to write a hotness entry for a while now. It was the day before Cinco de Mayo when I first spotted the chocolate dipped jalapenos in the glass bakery case at my neighborhood Whole Foods. They seemed to be a unique union of heat and sweet. They were going for $2.99 a piece. No es barato. But they were different and I loved the idea of them.

I returned the next day and bought a sack full of fresh jalapenos and a bag of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. I would make my own chocolate dipped jalapenos. Por que no? I decided I’d wait until Friday to do the chocolate dipping and then take them over to a Siete de Mayo party, where I knew friends, tequila, and a pinata would all be in attendance. Seemed to me that every party needs a pepper.

Here’s one fun fact I didn’t know about fresh jalapenos. Some are hot and some are not. I’m not sure how that works, maybe it’s maturity thing, but it’s true. Trust me. I ate an entire pepper without tasting a bit of heat, then took a tiny bite of another pepper and my lips went almost completely numb and my tongue pulsed. (I then proceeded to take a swig of milk from the carton in the fridge and guzzle a Tecate. Ahhh, much better.) Also, you probably already know this, but the seeds pack the most heat. So, eating the part of the jalapeno that’s closest to the stem, where the seeds huddle, is usually really intense. On the Scoville Scale,  jalapenos look tame. Maybe I’m a wimp, but I wasn’t the only one at the party who’s eyes started watering from the pepper punch. All of this is to say that chocolate dipped jalapenos make very fun, (sometimes) edible party favors. Give them a try. I dare you.

Now, I fully recognize the hitch in this chocolate dipped jalapeno suggestion. It’s that some people would never ever want to try one, let alone make them. I get that, I really do! So, as a peace-offering, I offer you another dessert option that is sure to please almost anyone. If it doesn’t please them, they’re crazy. You heard me.

I stumbled upon a flourless chocolate cake recipe a few months ago. Actually, full disclosure. I was in the grocery store and wanted to bake a cake. I couldn’t Google a recipe on my phone because I am one of the last people in all of San Francisco who doesn’t have a data plan. (I kind of like it that way. Old school.) So, I called Pom to ask for an easy recipe. Something with minimal ingredients, so I would remember everything I needed upon checkout. She found this one online from David Lebovitz, pastry chef extraordinaire. David calls it the Chocolate Idiot Cake. It has a total of four ingredients: chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs. Cinchy. But, his cake must be baked in a “hot water bath,” which, without going into further details, is a little bit of a pain. Needless to say, I made it a few months ago and it was good. Quite good.

Fast forward to last week, when I needed a cake to accompany more chocolate dipped jalapenos. I was attending a friend’s La Cena Espanol – a dinner party where the guests only speak in Spanish. I’d promised to bring the peppers, but I feared that alone they wouldn’t quite suffice. That’s when I remembered the flourless chocolate cake from before. Only this time, when I Googled the recipe, I added “spicy” to the search terms and found this little gem. Same cake, minus the water bath, plus spices. Better than quite good. Dang good! Warm warmer HOT.

Not this hot.

(Thank you, Jake Gyllenhaal, for greeting me everyday at the bus stop. You are hot.)

I know. It’s not fair to compare Jake to a chocolate cake. It’s just not. So, go ahead and whip this up! It’s a snap, and it’s elegant and rich and divine. Be sure to use good quality chocolate, I like Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips.  You can pump up the spice factor to your liking. It’s fun to taste the batter, mix in a pinch more cayenne, taste again. I served it at the La Cena Espanol with a light dusting of powdered sugar and the peppers on top. Bonus presentation points! You could serve it alone or with whipped cream and fresh berries. Delicioso.

Some Like It Hot Flourless Chocolate Cake

Adapted from David Lebovitz and Simply Recipes

Makes one 9-inch, decadent cake

Ingredients

10 oz. of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

7 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into pieces

5 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (Or more if you like cinnamon)

Dash of cayenne pepper (Let your taste buds be your guide!)

Pinch of salt (I added an extra pinch because it’s good a little on the salty side)

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9 ½ inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper. Grease the sides and the parchment with butter.
  • Melt the chocolate and butter together over a double boiler, or carefully together in a pan, stirring occasionally until smooth.
  • Whisk together the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl, and then slowly, a bit at a time, whisk in the melted chocolate. Add the salt and spices and taste, adjusting the spices if needed.
  • Pour into the springform pan and bake for 22-25 minutes. It might not look completely done, but better to take it out early than bake it too long. Gooey is good. Let it cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Chocolate Dipped Hot Jalapenos

Serves the brave, the bold, and the tough taste budded among us.

Ingredients

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

10 fresh jalapenos (Although, I am of the opinion that almost anything tastes better dipped in chocolate. Be creative!)

Directions

  • Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  • Rinse and dry the jalapenos.
  • Melt the chocolate chips. (This is sometimes easier said than done. Mark Bittman wrote about “tempering chocolate” in his weekly column – The Minimalist – in The NY Times. If you have a candy thermometer (I don’t), you should follow his instructions. If you don’t have one, I still think the article is helpful because the idea behind tempering is that the chocolate shouldn’t be too hot while you’re dipping.)
  • Dip the jalapenos in the melted chocolate. (I found that holding the pepper by the stem and then rolling it in the chocolate works best.)
  • Cool on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

I’m going to make this snappy. I need to get out of my apartment before the post office closes to mail the remains of the batch of chocolate chip cookies I baked this morning. They are a very belated parcel of sweetness for my friend Allie who turned 30 a couple of weeks ago. I admit it. If I hadn’t dipped a spoon into the bowl of dough in the first place, I’d have at least a half-dozen more cookies to send. I forgot how good they can be. I couldn’t stop. And after all my sampling I still don’t know what I like more, the dough or the cookies.

I’m posting this recipe because I think I’ve discovered a formula that’s worth sharing. It’s not necessarily for the mathematically inclined, although I could put it in algebraic terms. (If C Cubed = butter + sugar * n + eggs + vanilla + flour + baking soda + baking power + sea salt + chocolate chips, then what is n?)

I won’t make you guess. This has already gotten a little weird, considering I can sometimes barely manage to figure out how to calculate a restaurant tip. The answer: n = lots and lots of mixing. That’s it. And mark my words, the extra few minutes spent whipping the butter and sugar makes an astonishing difference in the overall texture of the cookie. It’s a bit of a miracle, really.

Allow me to elaborate. I found this particular chocolate chip cookie recipe on an excellent food blog called Savory Sweet Life. Alice, the author, insists that it’s the best ever. So, I had to try it. But, here’s the thing. If you have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that you LOVE, then by all means, please keep making it. Just take Alice’s advice (and subsequently mine) and whip the hell out of your butter and sugar before incorporating the dry ingredients. I had never been very diligent with the electric mixer, blending only until the butter and sugar appeared to be mixed. Today, for the very first time, I spent a good five minutes creaming the butter and sugar together until they formed a light beige fluff. Then I added the eggs and vanilla and whipped for another two minutes, watching as the fluff formed softcreamytan peaks. I upped my usual two-minute buttersugareggvanilla mix session to a grand total of seven minutes. Seven! The extra five minutes proved time very well spent. The cookies turned out exactly the way I like them. Soft, sweet, and eversoslightly saltly (thanks to using smallish-medium coarse sea salt, another key to deliciousness).

C Cubed = The Chocolate Chip Cookie (Perfected)

Adapted from Savory Sweet Life

Makes about 30 medium-sized cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks)  salted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour

1 teaspoon smallish-medium coarse sea salt *If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie.  If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips *I used Whole Foods Dark Chocolate Mini Chunks

DIRECTIONS:

  • Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
  • Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 5 minutes at medium speed).
  • Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
  • Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated, mixing by hand.
  • Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed.  The cookie batter should be somewhat thick.
  • Form dough into smallish balls (about 3 tablespoons worth) and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  • Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown.
  • Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes.  Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface.  Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

If you’re cookies are coming out flat, there are a few reasons for this:

* Baking powder and/or baking soda is old.  If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising qualities.

* Creaming.  It is not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together.  This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for at least 5 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy and dreamy and creamy.

* Flour.  Flour should be weighed!  (That said, I don’t have a scale, therefore I don’t weigh my flour but it can make or break the recipe so be careful.)

Last Tuesday night, five stories above the blustery city streets of San Francisco, apartment #506 was filled with friends and music and an obscene amount of melted cheese. We had gathered there celebrate Caleb’s birthday with the Inaugural Mac ‘n Cheese Challenge. Per Ellie’s instructions, we brought our mac and cheese masterpieces for Caleb to judge and later, for all to devour.

The rules were as follows:

Judge: Caleb, the Birthday Boy.

You must name your creation.

One mac entry per household.

Bring a handwritten version of the recipe for the birthday boy.

Scoring will be based on 5 categories – Appearance, Creativity, Taste, Cheesiness, Original Name.  Each category will be graded on a scale of 1-10.  Best overall score takes home the title of “The Big Cheese.”

To eliminate any bias, we will not tell Caleb who is behind each creation until after the judging period has ended.

Heating and Re-Heating – the hotter the dish when you arrive the better.
Full disclosure: I’d never made homemade mac ‘n cheese before. Not once. I guess if I’m going to cook pasta, I’m not inclined to add a stick of butter, a quart of milk and 3 pounds of cheese to the pot. I like to keep things simple and fresh and on the lighter side. But, mac and cheese was Caleb’s birthday gift. I didn’t want to mess it up. Plus, I knew that Ellie had ordered a trophy for the overall winner. And, who doesn’t love a trophy? Particularly one that reads, “The Big Cheese.” So, I was in it to win it.
I knew the competition was steep. Whit and Dave would be there. Individually they have impeccable taste. Collectively they have the most refined palate on the planet. Adam and his architecturally inclined mind would be there too. He could win big points in the “appearance” and “creativity” categories. Drass and Jeff could pull through with rumors of a secret family recipe that involved copious amounts of Velveeta and butter.
I conducted a late night Google search for “mac and cheese winners” on Monday night. Yes, the challenge was less than 24 hours away. I was getting a much later start than I’d planned. (Whenohwhen will I come to accept that I’m a procrastinator down to my very core? Time will always one step ahead of me.) I found two promising recipes from two homemadekitchengoddesses – Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. I ended up combining elements from both recipes – freshly sliced tomatoes on top from Ina and the Gruyere plus Pecorino combo tip from Martha. My mac turned out nicely, all things considered. It however, tasted runofthemill rinkydink, compared to some of the competition. Nope, I did not win. I didn’t even come close.
So, I did what any good sport would do. I accepted defeat, swallowed a Lactaid, stuffed myself silly with gobs of mac ‘n cheese, and snapped photos of the many mactastic masterpieces. I also happened to snatch the rights to an exclusive interview with the well-deserved winners of “The Big Cheese.”
Kate and Alden Woodrow made our taste buds soar with their creation – Lady Gaga Barack Obama Bacon Duck Fat Mac and Cheese. True to the title, their mac was smooth like Obama and spicy like Lady Gaga. They deserved to win. No questions asked. And you, dear reader, deserve the recipe. But first, here’s the exclusive interview with Kate and Alden:

Happelsauce: What was your inspiration?

Kate and Alden: Trying to please the crowd. We just went with the most popular things we could think of.

H: Do you consider yourselves mac and cheese connoisseurs?

K&A: Oh, definitely. More cheese connoisseurs than macaroni though.

H: Before judging began, what did you think your chances were of taking home the trophy?

K&A: Between Kate’s cooking skills and Alden’s heckling skills, we figured we had a decent chance of impressing people on the one hand and making our competition look bad on the other.

H: Where is the trophy now?

K&A: It’s on our trophy shelf with the other trophies, obviously.

H: Do you have any insider tips to making delish mac and cheese? What’s your secret?

K&A: Butter. Fat. Spiciness. Crunchiness. Using lots of words in the name that people like. And medium sized shells were the perfect pasta vehicle. They hold pockets of rich, creamy cheesiness better than traditional elbow macaroni.

H: How can you possibly top this dish in next year’s competition? Are you feeling the pressure?

K&A: We’ve already begun testing recipes.

So, without further ado…
Lady Gaga Barack Obama Bacon Duck Fat Mac and Cheese
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe for “Perfect Macaroni and Cheese,” spiced up by Kate and Alden Woodrow.

Serves 12

12 oz thick cut bacon

4 slices good-quality white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for dish

5 1/2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

4 1/2 cups (about 18 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar

2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated Gruyere

1 tablespoon or so duck fat, melted (or you could reserve and use the grease from the bacon)

7 oz sliced jalapenos (Get the spicy Mexican kind that have been marinating in water/vinegar. Kate bought Embasa brand.)

1 pound medium pasta shells

  • Tear bread into pieces and pulse in Cuisinart to make rough crumbs; set aside. Cook bacon til crisp. Cool, crumble; set aside. (Reserve bacon grease if using.)
  • Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat milk. Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.
  • In stages, pour hot milk into flour-butter mixture while whisking. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick. When you think you’ve cooked and stirred enough, cook and stir a little more until the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon.
  • Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt and all spices, 3 cups cheddar, 1 1/2 cups Gruyere, and duck fat (or bacon grease). Set cheese sauce aside.
  • Cook pasta 2 to 3 fewer minutes than manufacturer’s directions until outside of pasta is cooked and inside is underdone. Strain, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir pasta into the reserved cheese sauce. Dice jalapenos and add to pasta, along with a healthy dose of the juice from the can. Add a lot if you like it spicy like we do!
  • Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup Gruyere; scatter breadcrumbs and bacon over the top. Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes; serve.

A couple of days ago I finished reading Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. It was a book club selection, picked after we’d read a series of rather heavy and extraordinary books – When A Crocodile Eats the Sun, Infidel, and What Is the What. Nothing like putting an end to our wrenching and wild Africa streak with a journey down into the Valley, where the three heroines get tossedtormentedtackledtwisted on the seas of life. I was expecting a quick, beachy read. I wasn’t expecting a depressing read. Valley of the Dolls was both.

Life wasn’t easy for women in 1950s America. At least, it wasn’t easy in the Valley. There they were expected to be perfect – talented, glamorous and sexy, all the time. And they never ate. Seriously, the heroines in the Valley seemed to be starving all the time. They sipped champagne, chain-smoked cigarettes, popped dozens of “dolls”, sometimes guzzled whiskey, but they barely ate a thing.

She took another long swallow of her drink. She wasn’t sleepy. She was just getting drunk. And hungry. God, she was starving! She wished she hadn’t sent that tray down. There was caviar in the refrigerator. No…she mustn’t. Damn Ted for teaching her to like it! But the costumes were tight as it was. The booze was doing it. Geez, she never ate a thing, and now, if she ate on top of all the booze…

Last weekend, Whit and I made coffee cake for breakfast. It was just the kind of thing I envisioned a 1950s housewife would whip up on Sunday morning. (She slips her manicured hand into an oven mit, opens the oven door, and a warmcinnamonsugar scent envelops the room. “Darling, breakfast is ready!”)  And just the thing that a heroine from the Valley, on her desperate quest for fame and fortune, was missing out on. If only she could have tasted a warm slice of this coffee cake! I’m convinced she would have abandoned the glitter and gutter of show business all together.

It’s such a lovely concept – a cake for breakfast and coffee’s perfect mate. We adapted the recipe from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Parties! cookbook. Ina calls it Sour Cream Coffee Cake, but we swapped the sour cream for lowfat plain yogurt, which lends to a lighter crumb. It’s topped with a cinnamonsugar streusel and drizzled with a maple sugar glaze. Good enough to make any Doll put down her glass of champagne and put out her cigarette, devour a warm slice and shout, “It’s simply divine, darling! May I have another?”

Valley of the Dolls Coffee Cake

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa Parties! by Ina Garten

Ingredients:

  • 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt (not nonfat)
  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the streusel:

  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional

For the glaze:

  • 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. (We didn’t have tube pan, so we used a 10-inch springform pan.)

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and yogurt. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Mix in the walnuts, if desired.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. (Caution: Waiting is the hardest part.) Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate. Whisk the confectioners’ sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.

Nostalgic nibbles, from A to Z…

A is for ARROZ CON LECHE. This man spent his evenings wheeling his cart up and down the waterfront walkway in Santa Marta. He would yell, “Arroz con Leche” in a low, twangy voice, slurring the words together so they sounded more like, “ArrozcolecheeeeArrozcolecheeee!” I bought a cup for dessert. He ladled it from the depths of the cart and into a small plastic cup. It was warm and wonderful, laced with cinnamon and sugary sweetness.

B is for BANDEJA PAISA. It has been declared Colombia’s national  dish. It consists of finely ground beef, beans, fried plantain, rice, egg, avocado and arepa, and comes with a few different salsas on the side. It is a culinary rite of passage. And gut-buster.

C is for CASAS EN CARTAGENA. Houses wearing vibrant joyful colors.

D is for DUSK. Dusk was my favorite time of day in Colombia. After sunset, darkness always seeped in slowly, morphing the blue sky to orange, red, purple, then black.

E is for ESSENTIALS. Lonely Planet Colombia, sunscreen, aloe, Pepto, bug spray, rash cream, and pesos. For better or for worse, all so very necessary.

F is for FRUIT. There is an astonishing array of tropical fruit in Colombia. The usual suspects – pineapple, mango, papaya, guava, mandarin and banana. There’s also fruit I’d never heard of – maracuya and granadilla (both passion fruits), tomate de arbol, guanabana and lulo. All so good. I bought my fruit from this woman each morning in Cartagena. She called me “Mami.”

G is for GUARDIA. There was a massive military presence in Colombia. Our first full day in Bogota, Lizzy, Ellie and I walked the city in search of a good viewpoint. We ran into a small army of these guys just hanging out. They wanted their photo taken with the “Rubias.” Por que no?

H is for HOME. Fortunately, a very temporary home. Not that I mind sleeping in a tent. I usually really enjoy it. But this tent was an exception. It was by far the most uncomfortable tent I’ve ever slept in. It was built for two – there were three of us. There was almost no ventilation – it was at least 90 degrees at night and about 80 percent humidity. There were holes in the sides – the mosquitoes were fierce. There were pads on the ground – lumpy and damp. How did we possibly sleep in this little place we called home, you ask? We covered ourselves in deet and swigged rum until we fell asleep.

I is for INSTANT. Coffee is Colombia’s drink of choice, but it’s also Colombia’s biggest (legal) export. Because the very best beans are shipped out, most Colombians drink instant.

J is for JUAN and NATALIA. They were the most incredible hosts. I had a few days alone in Bogota before I flew back to San Francisco. They showed me a side of the city I never would have discovered on my own. This shot is overlooking Bogota. The photo doesn’t do justice to its massive, sprawling scale. 8.5 million people live there.

K is for KITCHEN. This one in particular was located on a small beach just outside of Taganga. The specialty was pan-fried fish over an open flame, served with a wedge of lime, patacon (fried plantains) and arroz con coco. I had the fish soup in a giant bowl. So good.

L is for LA PALMA. Palm trees. Sunshine. Happiness.

M is for MANGO. Mango might be my favorite fruit. Perfumed perfection. I ate mine with a squeeze of fresh lime. In Colombia, it’s common to eat green mango with salt. I did once, on accident. It won’t happen again.

N is for NUN. Fernando Botero, the famous painter who draws figures that tend to look rather largeandincharge, is Colombian. He has a style completely his own and I like it. Freddy does too. He bought a Botero print of a nun in a blue and white dress.

O is for OLD CARTAGENA. Old Cartagena is contained within 13 kilometers of colonial stone walls, originally built to keep pirates at bay. It’s a Unesco World Heritage site where horse-drawn carriages clickclack down the cobbled streets, grand balconies overflow with Bougainvillea, and both pigeons and people seek shade and snacks in the plazas.

P is for PIZZA EN PLAZA FERNANDEZ MADRID. On Freddy’s last full day in Colombia, we decided on pizza in the park for dinner. We weren’t expecting it to taste good, but it was quick, cheap and across the street from our hotel. Surpresa of all supresas, it was damn good. I got green apple, onion and blue cheese on top of my pie. Gourmet!

Q is for QUESO. Colombians love cheese. It’s in everything. I am stating this as simple fact, although I also happen to think it’s brilliant. Colombians go so far as to drink hot chocolate with cheese, dunking small squares into the cup or just dropping fresh curds in and letting them melt. They also eat arepas con queso – gooeymelty cheese encased in warmsoftcrisp cornmeal. The particular arepa above was the best I had in all of Colombia. Hot off the griddle and oozing cheese.

R is for ROAD LESS TRAVELED. There seemed to be an astounding shortage of tourists in Colombia. I was expecting more. Way more. I liked it just the way it was. Authentic. I was grateful for the little bits of Spanish that tumbled around on my tongue and managed to be understood. I would have felt lost without it.

S is for SANDIA. Watermelon! Crispcoolcuts all in a row.

T is for TAYRONA. Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona sits at the northern tip of Colombia. We bused it to the park entrance from Santa Marta, walked on the only road through thick jungle for almost three hours, and arrived here at sunset. Beachfront paradise.

U is for UNDER THE SEA. Fish, shrimp, prawns and squid are the building blocks of Colombian’s coastal cuisine. Fish is usually selected pre-fry from a plate (resembling a silver platter, close but not quite). Cost depends on size and type. It comes with platacon, arroz con coco and ensalada. The fish on the left would run about 20,000 pesos ($10), with all the fixings.

W is for WOULD YOU RATHER. Freddy and I played this game. All the time. Would you rather get captured by guerrillas and be forced to live in this dark underground tunnel (with bats) or in the jungle (with bugs) for two weeks? Seriously, this is not an easy question to answer. Pick jungle and it’s probably easier to escape but I’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes and could die from Dengue. Pick tunnel and it’s cooler, but there’s almost zero chance of escape and I’d run the risk of getting bats tangled in my hair.

V is for VACATION. The beach was the best place to be while on the Caribbean coast. The weather was so hot, it melted time together and forced life to slow down. Ideal beaching conditions.

X is for X MARKS THE SPOT. Where slaves arrived from Africa to be bought and sold in Plaza de los Coches. Cartagena was South America’s principal slave-trading port. Now this plaza is lined with stands selling homemade candies. From slaves to sweets.

Y is for YUCCA. Yucca fries, arroz con coco, fish and calamari. A typical coastal lunch.

Z is for ZIPPY. Okay, Z is a difficult letter in this alphabetic tale so this is a bit of a stretch. Zippy is not her name but it should be. She was a firecracker of a lady. All 4’8″ of her. I asked her, “Puedo sacar un foto de Usted?” She frowned and shrugged, so I snapped a picture. Then she demanded that I buy her a coffee and bread. I liked her zip, so off we went in search of a snack. Zippy settled on a small paper bag filled with an exotic fruit I’d never heard of, peeled and sprinkled with salt and honey. Ellie held her cotton candy stick for a moment while Zippy grabbed her snack. Then off we went on our separate ways…

It’s 2am. I leave for Colombia tomorrow morning and I haven’t packed. Or slept. My tummy hurts because I felt compelled to eat all the food in the fridge that would otherwise go to waste while I’m away. So, I roasted and consumed an entire head of cauliflower and a container of green olives in herbs. Woe is me.

Okay, hold on. Seriously, who am I kidding? I’m going to Colombia tomorrow! I can sleep on the plane. Right now, I’d like to get a few thoughts down before I leave because I’m not taking my computer with me. Of course I hope to get Happelsaucey while I’m down there, but there are no guarantees. I am looking forward to leaving my laptop behind, to be honest. I don’t even think I’m going to bring my iPod. I’m rolling on the old school travel tip, with a backpack and books to keep me company. I won’t be alone. Ellie and Lizzy are coming too, and then Freddy. We have absolutely nothing planned and I like it that way.

This morning I met Maria del Carmen Flores at La Cocina – San Francisco’s first non-profit, incubator kitchen. I’ve been volunteering there for a few months, mostly writing and editing web content, but today was something new. I interviewed Maria, the owner of Estrellita’s Snacks, for an inaugural recipeplusbioblurb on La Cocina’s website. (Read it here, if you like.) When I scheduled the interview, I envisioned it taking about 20 minutes or so. I would ask Maria a few questions, Leticia would translate, and that would be that. Ummm, or not.

The interview somehow morphed into a two hour conversation. Maria told me her life story and it was truly incredible. It’s why I’m still awake at 2:30am. Because somehow, hearing Maria’s story made me fall even more in love with the world. Because her life has been riddled with trials and hardships that I can’t fathom, and yet she assured me that she “is a star” and I agree. Because she never gave up hope, and with her smartsharpstellar entrepreneurial spirit she has made her dreams come true.

Maria del Carmen Flores. I mean, that’s a beautiful name! Her story began when she was 6 years old and selling tostadas, pupusas and fresh fruit con limon y sal with her mom on the streets of Berlin, El Salvador. Her parents married her off when she was only 13 years old. She had her first child at 14. All in all, she bore 7 children – 6 boys and one girl. 3 of the boys died when they were young. Her husband was abusive and living with him was “muy mal”, and so after 12 years on a farm in rural El Salvador, Maria escaped to Guatemala. She lived there for a year and learned to cook Guatemalan food, then returned to El Salvador for her children. They moved (slowlypurposefully through the forest to avoid border patrols) and ended up in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they stayed for more than 20 years.

It was in Oaxaca where Maria had a dream about starting her own business. She borrowed 100 pesos from her neighbor and bought beer, a chicken and beans. She cooked and sold it all. The next week, she had enough money to buy a table and set up a small stand on the street. Her nickname around town was “La Picara Sonadora,” which loosely means “The Quirky Dreamer” because Maria was always dreaming big.

From what I understand (and Leticia patiently explained), relations between the Salvadorans and the Mexicans was and is very strained. While in Oaxaca, Maria always helped people from outside of Mexico to sneak in. She would hide them and feed them – reinforcing a real-life Mexican Underground Railroad. It was through this network that Maria met a woman who asked for her help getting to the United States. Maria had Mexican papers, so she acted as this older woman’s daughter. They rode a web buses all the way to Tijuana. It was there, in Tijuana, where they got off the last bus and walked across the border and into California. No questions asked.

Maria ended up in San Francisco on the #14 bus without her friends or family. As luck would have it, the bus driver spoke Spanish and gave her a rudimentary tour of the city. He pointed out the places she should go where she would be able to speak Spanish. He directed her to 24th Street. She explored the city, always returning to walk the “escaleras electricas” at the 24th Street BART station. She stood in front of Carlo’s Bar because the patrons spoke Spanish. Pretty soon, she was working the night shift at Carlo’s and cleaning at Safeway on 30th Street during the day. She also found time to she con­tin­ued to do what she’d always done best — mak­ing pupusas, tostadas, tamales and aguas fres­cas — and sell­ing them to passersby. Only this time, the $20 she used to pur­chase the plan­tains, oil and salt for her tostadas turned into $300 in her pocket. Soon there­after, Estrellita’s Snacks was born.

A year after she arrived in San Francisco, Maria had saved enough money to get her first son and his family into the U.S. Her other children followed soon thereafter and now they all live in the Mission. Maria has been pro­duc­ing her food in the La Cocina kitchen since 2005, with the help of her chil­dren and her children’s chil­dren. Estrellita’s Snacks was coined in honor of Maria’s daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter, who are both named Estrella. It means star in Span­ish. Of course, Maria is a star in her own right and she has stars on her front teeth to prove it. (She really does. Look closely.) Maria sells her food at the Alemany Farmers Market on the weekends and Civic Center during the week. The End.

(Except, this is absolutely not the end. This is Maria’s LIFE and it will continue on, hopefully for decades to come. I guess The End is never really the end anyway. There’s no such thing. Okay, it’s almost 4am now. I’m delirious. I’m at My End.)

After Maria had finished telling me her story, she walked to her house and brought me back a sack full of Estrellita’s Snacks and a few of her dolls to admire. Then, we went outside on Folsom Street so I could take her photo. She said, “Se podria escribir un libro sobre la historia de mi vida.” You could write a book about my life.

My new friend, Maria of Little Star Snacks, might be on to something…

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