the.yellow.page

I always find that visiting Andreas’ family in Virginia is very much like being on vacation. They have a beautiful house on the water, we enjoy home-cooked meals, and there really is nothing more to do than relax, catch up on recreational reading, get to the next level of Angry Birds (hello my name is Crystal and I am an addict), and play with this guy, who never (EVER) tires of his aerobie:

However, this Christmas, we got more fun than we bargained for. A huge blizzard hit the East Coast (supposedly, the very same storm that almost drowned California earlier last week), and dumped an impressive amount of snow in Virginia. We hung out inside all day (not entirely by choice, the roads remained unplowed for a day and a half) and watched the snow blow horizontally. Eventually we ventured outside to regain our sanity help shovel the driveway, and Andreas’ enterprising brother committed himself to constructing THE BEST IGLOO EVER. 

This igloo was totally state of the art: it completely insulated one from the chilly wind yet let in enough sunlight to bounce around the snow-white walls to brightly illuminate the entire space, had 2 custom-made seats with headrests molded into the snow walls, it comfortably housed 3 people (or 2 humans and 1 canine), AND had a fire-pit, Wi-Fi, and home theater system!!! OK, it didn’t have the last 3 amenities, but maybe in next year’s model!

Well, how quickly time flies (I guess I was having too much fun this month), I can’t believe it’s already Christmas Eve.

I’m in Virginia (which is as cold as Boston, boo) for Christmas, and since no holiday is complete without an EXCESSIVE amount of BUTTER, I brought an army of cookies with me: Chez Panisse Gingersnaps and Thomas Keller’s Oreos. It’s like bringing a bit of California to Virginia, wouldn’t you say?

This was my first time ever baking gingersnaps. I’ve never really been a fan of ginger-flavored cookies, even with all the gingerbread men and gingerbread house hype during the holidays; unlike others who perhaps have difficulties refraining from sampling the gingerbread men or houses they were supposed to be decorating, I’ve never had a problem. 

These cookies are fantasticly tasty- warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and molasses, and topped with crunchy raw sugar. The cooking time is customizable to your cookie texture preference- if you’re into less snappy gingersnaps, bake with a little less time, and if you’re into high snap factor, bake with more time. If you’re into the crispy sides and chewy middle.. well, I don’t think I managed to get that perfect balance THIS time (sorry Andreas), but I don’t doubt that you guys can figure it out. 

Added bonus to a yummy spicy cookie? They make your kitchen smell like the HOLIDAYS.

Now these guys are less holiday-themed and more because I had been dying for an opportunity to bake them. Cookies that require rolling out, cutting, chilling, baking, cooling, AND filling are not baked on any random day in my kitchen- I’m gonna be honest, that’s quite a bit of work for a cookie just for myself. But given how well-received the chocolate-y chocolate World Peace Cookies have been with Andreas’ family the last two Christmases, I felt that they might enjoy Thomas Keller’s Homemade Oreos.

The secret to their awesomeness is in the white chocolate cream filling. You heard me. WHITE. CHOCOLATE. CREAM. FILLING. You will NEVER look at store-bought oreo filling the same. Believe me.

Sometimes “homemade” versions of store-bought goods sometimes lack the essence of the commercial counterpart (perhaps because we taste that first and forever define that food with the commercial flavor), I have to say, Thomas Keller’s Oreos pretty much TKO (technical knock out.. HAHA, get it??) store oreos’ butts! Although this isn’t the best chocolate cookie recipe I’ve had (for that, see here), but the combination of the crispy and slightly bitter chocolate cookie with the creamy and buttery white chocolate filling is the epitome of the old adage “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Read More →

Looks like there may be quite a White Christmas in Boston this year! I have seen snowflakes in the forecast for over a week now, but as the days passed, the real snowflakes never really manifested (minus the few that fluttered about on my birthday). 

Inbound, Red Line, Longfellow Bridge.

Charles River. freezing.

ummm… SNOW!!!!

Until today. The snow has been lightly, but steadily falling since late this morning, and there was already an inch or so accumulated by the time I slip-and-slided walked home! It’s kind of exciting- the first snow of the winter- I almost can’t wait to see what kind of white wonderland we will wake up to tomorrow!

Speaking of Christmas, this will be the first year (out of 29!!) where I will not be home with my parents for Christmas. There was that one year, when I was visiting with my uber-adventurous cousin Emily in Peru, but I still flew back on Christmas Day, just in time to be picked up from the airport on the way to annual Christmas Lunch with Emily’s family and friends (minus Emily, as she was still traipsing around the islands of Lake Titicaca- and no, I’m totally not making that name up, even I am not THAT good). It’s a strange feeling… and though I was just home less than a month ago, it feels… just weird.. to not be preparing to see family and friends and having to send cards and presents via the good old-fashioned way instead of just packing them in my luggage.

*p.s. To those dear friends and family members… the gifts will be late, as I have never had to send them before, I procrastinated as usual and still don’t have all my Xmas shopping done totally did not factor in the time it would take for the post office to get things from this side of the country to that side.

Instead of Christmas in California, it will be my first Christmas in Virginia (which has ALREADY experienced snow last week!) with Andreas and his family. I am looking forward to being around a close-knit family for Christmas and experiencing their Christmas traditions-especially for the tradition started last year, where Andreas, his brother, and his father (and some extremely helpful hunting dogs) hunt game birds. Andreas assured me that with his expert marksmanship, we could expect an impressive bounty this year to prepare for dinner.. so of course, we test-drove a new recipe to find a suitably Christmas-worthy (read: TASTY) preparation for quail.

Last year for Thanksgiving we fried quails to crispy perfection. This year I found this recipe, which includes a cognac-based sauce that is very similar (almost identical) to the one we frequently make to glamorize our steaks (and believe me, it DOES). But it also interestingly included green grapes and roasted chestnuts, and since this IS the “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” time of the year, it seemed quite serendipitous.

The little birds are pan-roasted and then finished in the oven, though we found that if the birds are small (and de-boned), they could probably be cooked entirely in the pan and this would also increase the crispyness of the final product. And we all know crispy skin = good to eat. The sauce is flavored with thyme and cognac, made smooth and lustrous with cream, and reduced until it is rich and syrupy. Roasted chestnuts and sweet green grapes are cooked briefly with the sauce and though their flavors don’t seem to infuse the sauce too much, the grapes are sweet and provide interesting contrast with the very savory sauce and bird. Looking forward to Christmas (and quails!) in Virginia!

Read More →

Wow, November totally flew by, didn’t it?

It began deceivingly leisurely: I was enjoying the warmer-than-usual Boston November weather and lab had slowed to a more bearable pace as we prepared for and moved our entire lab to a brand spanking new building. Then suddenly I was on a California-bound plane to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving where I stuffed my face for a week straight (which is quite amazing considering I didn’t cook/bake ONE THING that I ate that week). We also managed to squeeze in a beautiful day in Napa, enjoying the crisp fall air and the colors, sampling wines, and AMAZING food.

last grapes in Napa…

Dear oversized pistachio macaron from Bouchon Bakery… will you marry me?

And now I feel as if I’ve been hurtled into the heart of December: bitingly cold weather that makes your eyes tear (it may be in part because I’m mourning the loss of the ability to wear tank tops and flats without socks for the next 6 months) and forecasts of snow (though have yet to see a snowflake), the unrelenting barrage of Christmas-mania (Christmas songs on the radio, the onslaught of online and in-store sales which only tempt me to buy more for myself instead of gifts for others, and Christmas decorations ad nauseum- which, I actually kind of love), and the inter-holiday slump where you are still slightly food comatose from Thanksgiving and can’t get yourself motivated to be productive at work because your brain is already on vacation, celebrating a birthday and Christmas. WHEW.

It’s no Rockefeller Center, but I am sort of proud of this slightly ghetto yet extremely fitting demonstration of Central Square Christmas spirit.

Christmas spirit is alive and well in lab as well. And that’s not a reflection of the tree, WE HAVE TWO. Heck yeah.

I am still a bit sad about how quickly November passed; it is one of my favorite months, mostly because it seems (to me anyway) that the whole point of the month is the anticipation of and preparation for the greatest holiday ever- a holiday who’s singular objective is to EAT. Where the quantity ingested is directly proportional to the amount of THANKS given. And I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the hardships endured by the Pilgrims and Native Americans, so yes, I will have some more turkey and pie! I LOVE spending the first weeks of November poring over delectable recipes for appetizers, turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin-based desserts in magazines and online, while watching Thanksgiving-themed episodes on the Food Network, and finally picking a handful of recipes to test in the kitchen to share with friends in Boston who are also avoiding the hectic holiday travel, or, like last year, an intimate dinner for two. But because this year we spent Thanksgiving in California, eating TWO amazing Thanksgiving meals (late lunch and dinner), and because I didn’t have the wherewithal to prepare a pre-Thanksgiving meal for ourselves here in Boston before we left, I feel like I missed out a special part of November!

Another momentous occasion that passed without much fanfare here was my tumblr’s first-versary! I started this little space to document my triumphs (and failures) in the kitchen so I could easily go back to recipes that worked and that we loved. It enabled me to learn how to (kind of) use a SLR camera, gave me an outlet to express myself and my randomness, and, most importantly, has provided a constant reminder that I DO have a life outside of graduate school that I love and enjoy, and no matter what goes on in lab, I will always have this.

I had always envisioned baking up something complicated and decadent to celebrate my first year in keeping up a blog, something that required a few pounds of expensive chocolate or a multi-step endeavor like home-made croissants or macarons. However, seeing as November was on fast forward and the tumblrversary date was almost 2 weeks and counting ago, I decided to just make something simple, something that I love to eat, and in a flavor that epitomizes the November and Thanksgiving that had passed me by all too quickly.

Pumpkin Scones. With Maple glaze.

Read More →