Haute Oven

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Mon, 10 Sep 2012 13:01:15 -0700

Dear Cupcakes, the fact that you cover yourselves up with icing says a lot about your self-esteem. Sincerely, Muffins.

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:02:32 -0800

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Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:13:21 -0800

"With the sunlight in your hair, you remind me of a rainbow."

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:24:46 -0800

“With the sunlight in your hair, you remind me of a rainbow.”

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Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:16:42 -0800

damn, why can’t real life sex hair end up looking this...

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:30:00 -0800

damn, why can’t real life sex hair end up looking this fabulous? I would throw out my curling iron and just make sex part of the morning beauty routine

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Mon, 27 Dec 2010 04:54:09 -0800

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Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:07:59 -0800

Sometimes things don't go to shit.

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:51:00 -0800

Surprisingly, sometimes things just work out.

At least in terms of baking. I still need to be convinced that this theory can carry over to larger life plans.

It being Christmas, I had lots of baking to do, and it being winter break, I had lots of time to do it, so I decided to take on some labor intensive recipes that I’ve always assumed I wouldn’t be able to pull-off. On Christmas Eve, I made French bread (True Life: I Have a Fear of Yeast), a buche de noel, and French macarons. On Christmas morning, I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls. And all of them turned out! Maybe not perfect, but pretty damn good, and far from the disaster I expected, in spite of the involvement of yeast and/or egg whites, things that in the past I have considered to be finicky bitches.

Succeeding at my self-induced challenge was a nice little Christmas present to myself, and I’m excited to keep expanding my baking repertoire. I will be posting recipes for the buche de noel and potentially macarons very soon, but in the meantime I thought I’d share my little kitchen life lesson.

PS: I am currently well on my way to getting over my fear of yeast. It’s partly encouraged by the fact that kneading dough burns all the calories of consuming bread. (No questioning. It definitely does.)

I LOOOOVE your new name. it's terrific. and so are you.

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:18:31 -0800

I’m glad you like it! :) I had to come up with something other than “Four Favorites” after dropping two of the four, but I think it’s a better name anyways.

more importantly though, you are terrific. and I miss you.

Haute Oven???? LOVE IT
Also, i miss you.
Also also, i made some bitchin fudge today, you would be proud :)

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:01:04 -0800

yay, I’m glad you like it :)

I MISS YOU TOO! and so proud about the fudge, I wish I could taste some. but you should be proud of me too: I got Epic Mickey for Christmas, and a new pair of boots. I know how you feel about both.

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Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:51:00 -0800

M.A.C. Cham Pale: Coming Soon. Can't Wait.

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:03:04 -0800

At the end of this month (which, holy shit, is just a matter of days away), M.A.C. Cosmetics will introduce a limited edition holiday line for New Year’s called Cham Pale. As you might have guessed by the name and the fact that it’s for New Year’s, the line is inspired by champagne, consisting of eye shadows, eye pencils, lipsticks, lipglosses, highlighting powders, and nail enamels in a range of sheer, soft, shimmery shades.

Without having tried any of the products, of course, I already want to say that I love them. One of my favorite makeup items is M.A.C.’s nude lipstick Myth, so I already like the way M.A.C. does pale color, and adding some shimmer and shine for the holidays puts it over the top. Further, I love the idea of wearing light metallic shades as a way to keep a festive mood alive, while marking a departure from the rich, saturated colors of Christmas.

It seems clear where I’ll be spending my Christmas money this year.

vogue: NOSTALGIA: 1929 Vogue Cover Illustrated by Georges...

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:46:35 -0800

vogue:

NOSTALGIA: 1929 Vogue Cover Illustrated by Georges LePape

I decided this year I want to expand my Christmas baking, making...

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:50:00 -0800

I decided this year I want to expand my Christmas baking, making fewer cookie varieties and venturing into more involved desserts. I wanted one of those desserts to be a pie, other than the pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner, but couldn’t choose between a few options. So I made one that combined them all.

Pear-Cranberry Pie with Honey Walnut Frangipane and Gruyere

Crust:

2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
18 tbsp cold butter, cubed
about 12 tbsp cold water

In a food processor, mix flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter and process until mixture is crumb-like. Then add the water in a steady stream, enough to hold dough together but not be sticky. Divide the dough, wrap each half in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour. Then, roll out one half and fit to 10” pie pan. Roll out other half to an 11” round, and cut some kind of vents (I used a small tree-shaped cookie cutter to make the vents). Alternatively, you could do a lattice top. Put the top crust on a cookie sheet and refrigerate both crusts while you prepare the filling.

Filling

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted

4 small pears, peeled and cubed
1 bag fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp cardamon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

1/2 cup gruyere cheese, grated

Mix first set of ingredients (walnut, egg, honey…) in a medium bowl. In a larger bowl, toss together the fruit, sugar, corn starch, and spices.

Remove the crusts from the fridge. On the bottom crust, spread the gruyere cheese out in a thin layer, then spread the walnut mixture on top of that, and top with the fruit. Press down to eliminate gaps, and dot the filling with about 2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces. Carefully place the top crust over the filling, folding the edge under and pressing down with your fingers to seal it. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the pie at 375 degrees for 80-90 minutes. Check the pie after the first 20-25 minutes. If the crust is already golden, loosely cover the top with aluminum foil to prevent it from burning. Let cool before cutting.

Overall I think the pie was a pretty successful venture. For some tastes, it might be a bit too tart from the cranberries (though more sugar could easily be added to the fruit mixture), but I kinda liked how the low-key sweetness prevents the different flavors in the pie from being overpowered. Also, the gruyere could easily be omitted if it seems too weird, but it’s inspired by how some people eat cheddar with apple pie, and I think it added a depth of flavor without any real cheese taste.

Missing out

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:19:00 -0800

Umm, so fruitcake has 2 whole cups of hard liquor in it. And despite popular myth, it is actually super yummy. How is this my first year making it??

Here’s the recipe I used. I highly recommend it.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/miniature-golden-fruitcakes

And yes the recipe says 1 3/4 cups brandy, but just be a man and use a full 2. It’s Christmas after all.

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Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:35:09 -0800

elle: Natalie Portman, the newly named face of Miss Dior...

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:25:30 -0800

elle:

Natalie Portman, the newly named face of Miss Dior Cherie, on how Dior’s accommodated her vegan diet all the way down to her toes. Of course, they continue to sell heaps of leather goods to everyone else…

-Quoted: Natalie Portman

umm, could I get me some Natalie Portman treatment? That’d be great, thanks.

So it’s half-way through October… When the hell did...

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 14:57:00 -0700

So it’s half-way through October… When the hell did that happen? Normally the feeling of time passing me by freaks me out and puts me in a panic. In this case I’m not completely mortified, though, because I’m entering into my favorite time of year. Mid-October to early January is my happy place: pretty leaves, cozy sweaters, baking, Halloween costumes, baking, Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, baking, gift shopping, baking, Christmas trees, baking, champagne, baking… I like baking, ok?

An added bonus of this time of year is that not only do I get to bake, but I get to bake with pumpkin. I will eat anything and everything pumpkin, and in fact would be quite content to eat exclusively pumpkin in one form or another during the last few months of the year.

Even if you don’t have an obsessive love of pumpkin, though, even if you just like it (which if that’s the case, what is wrong with you?), you should definitely enjoy it in the form of these bars. They are about as close as you can get to pumpkin pie without actually going to all the work of baking a holiday pie more than a month too early. This method of getting my pumpkin pie fix is much easier and much more socially acceptable.

Pumpkin Pie Squares

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp molasses
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree

3/4 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine dry ingredients and combine wet ingredients. Then, combine both, and add in the add-ins. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan, and bake until center is done, about 35 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes (because 15 min was as long as I was willing to wait), then turn out on to a cookie sheet before cutting the bars. At this point eating may commence, but let the bars cool completely before storing them in air-tight containers.

After dinner this evening, I was going to start my homework. But...

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:34:00 -0700

After dinner this evening, I was going to start my homework. But then I noticed that the bananas on the counter were starting to get a bit overripe. If there’d been one, I would have just eaten it, but there being three I decided the only way to save them from the trash was to bake with them (reality: they would have been fine for a couple more days I just wanted to bake). I also remembered that I had some sour cream in the fridge that had no immediate prospects of being eaten, so I decided the only way to keep from being shamefully wasteful was to put my homework on hold and bake sour cream banana poppy seed muffins. In case you also have bananas and sour cream to use (i.e. you have homework or other something else you’re trying to avoid), here’s the recipe:

Sour Cream Banana Poppy Seed Muffins

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbsp poppy seeds (I didn’t measure this when I made them, so just use what seems right)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1 egg

2 large bananas, mashed up

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix dry ingredients, including cinnamon and poppy seeds. Dissolve sugar in oil, then add remaining wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry, then pour into a lined muffin tin, filling each cup about three quarters. Bake for 25-30 minutes, and ta-da!

Muffins.

In the interest of full disclosure, I realized as these were baking that in adapting/combining/reducing several recipes to make these, I halved everything but the banana. Oops. Luckily I’d been on the scarce side to begin with, and the extra just seemed to make the muffins all the more moist and flavorful, so yay. I would recommend refrigerating the muffins, though, since in my experience baked goods made with fresh fruit go bad quickly.

Haute Oven

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Dear Cupcakes, the fact that you cover yourselves up with icing says a lot about your self-esteem. Sincerely, Muffins.

Photo

"With the sunlight in your hair, you remind me of a rainbow."

Photo

damn, why can’t real life sex hair end up looking this...

Photo

Photo

Sometimes things don't go to shit.

I LOOOOVE your new name. it's terrific. and so are you.

Haute Oven???? LOVE IT Also, i miss you. Also also, i made some bitchin fudge today, you would be proud :)

Photo

M.A.C. Cham Pale: Coming Soon. Can't Wait.

vogue: NOSTALGIA: 1929 Vogue Cover Illustrated by Georges...

I decided this year I want to expand my Christmas baking, making...

Missing out

Photo

elle: Natalie Portman, the newly named face of Miss Dior...

So it’s half-way through October… When the hell did...

After dinner this evening, I was going to start my homework. But...

Haute Oven???? LOVE IT
Also, i miss you.
Also also, i made some bitchin fudge today, you would be proud :)