Last week I asked Marcus to list his top 5 cakes–maybe an obvious attempt to figure out what kind of birthday cake I should make for him.   Marcus became practically giddy while talking about strawberry cheesecake with a graham cracker crust.  But let’s face it, strawberry cheesecake is not MARCUS CAKE.  MARCUS CAKE has to be more, in every way.

Two of Marcus’ favorite things are oatmeal raisin cookies and cream cheese and so the marriage of the two made complete sense.  I used cinnamon graham crackers to go well with the oatmeal raisin streusel for the top of the cake.  I also used a tiny bit of bourbon to flavor the cheesecake.  The cake turned out a little underset in the center which made me a little sad but fortunately it still tasted good and marcus was happy, which is all that really mattered.  He said all it needed was  meatball right in the center to be ALL of his favorite things!

Happy Birthday Marcus!

my adorable birthday boy

PEI mussels with chorizo

braised chickpeas with israeli cous cous and harissa

kushi oysters

smoked trout salad

On the occasion of the birthday of dear dear Marcus—eat until you can eat no more, drink champagne, indulge in multiple desserts, give innumerable hugs, be unapologetically loving in public, sit outside near a fire, have extraordinary conversations about magic and alchemy and girls turning into bears, listen to Beach House near a beach, sing Buddy Holly songs, wear half a suit, put on your fancy shoes, lay on IKEA beds, drive, duct tape presents, spree.

Awareness groups for Celiac disease are driving a new gluten-free restaurant trend in Boston. Celiac disease is a severely under-diagnosed chronic condition, which manifests itself as a gluten allergy. Gluten can be found in wheat, flour, rice, and even barley. Sufferers of Celiac disease have to be their own advocate and even be careful of cross-contamination. I interviewed Chris Little from Burton’s Grill in Fenway for more information about how Burton’s grill deals with this growing restaurant niche.

Check out the video: http://www.vimeo.com/10188958

Corn meal based calamari sounds delicious!

Yay! Today is Marcus’ birthday!  To start off the celebrations I put my newly acquired sushi skills and packed him a bento lunch to take to work.  It made me think of when my mom used to pack me bento lunches and how amazingly special I’d feel.  I hope Marcus feels special today.

When I first met Marcus he confessed that he had been living off of tuna fish salad.  He said this with a certain amount of shame but also, maybe a certain amount of pride.  I think we deal with food differently.  I eat for pleasure.  Marcus eats for sustenance.  I need my regular set meals while Marcus eats when his body dictates hunger.  But this is a good thing.  Being with Marcus is paring down my near obsession with food.  Besides, I spend entirely too much money on food, having grown up in a family that believes that no matter how badly one is doing one should always eat well.  While a sweet idea, perhaps not the most practical.

For date night this week we nearly emptied out his refrigerator and picked out ingredients that seemed exciting to us and made sort of an experimental game of cooking from a half-eaten log of polenta, a can of chicken chili, non-alcoholic beer, and wasabi sauce.  If Marcus had his way we would have included sesame sauce and similarly disharmonious asian flavors–but that’s where I come in and edit down his enthusiasm for wildly free-handed cooking.

I have to say, I had my doubts but the meal was quite tasty and it was exciting to see Marcus’ eyes light up when pulling out wedges of parmesan and bottles of walnut oil from his refrigerator, asking me if this or this or this would go well with our meal.  I think some of our best dates have been cooking together.

thank you nancy!

nancy assembled the olive and avocado crostinis

caramelized banana upside down cake

nutella pound cake

raspberry brie en croute

cheese plate

dolmas

brie toasted ravioli with pesto

chocolate covered fruit

curry chicken salad sandwich rolls

cucumber and roasted red pepper sandwich rolls

vegan sausage and spicy hummus sandwich rolls

Thank you Nancy and Lan!

I have the most incredible friends.  Nancy Fumero offered to help me cater this week and rushed through heavy traffic to schlep boxes and assemble crostinis.  She was so cute and nervous about whether she’d assemble them correctly and of course she did everything beautifully.

I have a problem asking for help and it’s nice to know that I have generous friends that offer their help without my having to ask for it.

Loading my car afterwards, which is usually the worst part, took all of ten minutes because Nancy and Lan were there.

with extra batter:

I haven’t done a personality-tailored  birthday cake in a while.  This might be one of my favorite activities.  Saeyoung’s was pretty easy to figure out.  She loves dark chocolate.  She loves the color pink.  She loves the combination of raspberries and chocolate.  In a way this totally fits in with Saeyoung.  She has a certain edge to her sweetness–bittersweet chocolate has exactly that kind of complexity.  I’ve always felt like dark chocolate had a more satisfying bite that semi-sweet or milk chocolate.  And if Saeyoung was a berry she’d be a raspberry–simultaneously hued bright and deep, more tart than cloyingly sweet, surprisingly fragile, and rather expensive!

And of course the cake had to be visually impressive! No less than three layers with thin spreads of raspberry filling in-between.  I added corn syrup to the chocolate ganache to give it extra shine and the look of fudgey barely set chocolate.

Happy 21st Saeyoung

Ingredients:

* disclaimer: I sort of improvised with a few unmeasured ingredients as I went along and so I’m sorry if certain things aren’t exact.  the ingredients in italics next to them are are approximations.  I think my approximations are pretty close to accurate so it should work out fine

4 1/2 cups cake flour

8 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups raspberry puree (use fresh raspberries or unsweetened frozen raspberries that have been liquified in a food processor)

1/4 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup whole milk

3 sticks of butter (preferably of the european variety)

5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons salt

3 cups sugar

1. preheat oven to 350

2. line the bottom of three 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and grease the pans.  If using pans that are 1 1/2 inch deep you can actually manage four layers.  If using a 2-inch deep pan you should stick to 3 layers.

3. sift together the sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder

4. whisk together the raspberry puree, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and raspberry extract and set aside

5. in a medium bowl whisk together the egg whites and whole milk

6. In an electric mixer blend the raspberry puree/buttermilk mixture and flour mixture until the batter is pink and just combined.  The batter will be quite thick

7. in 3 additions add the egg white and milk mixture and fold gently

8.  divide between cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes

9. let cool completely before assembling cake

* if you want your batter to be even pinker you can add pink food coloring into the egg and milk mixture

For Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

1/4 cup corn syrup

3/4 pound chopped chocolate, at least 70% cacoa

3/4 cup heavy cream

1. heat the heavy cream in a sauce pan until it just reaches a simmer

2. pour cream over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes

3. whisk chocolate ganache until smooth and then add corn syrup

4. frost cake immediately

a celebratory drink at Habana

fettuccine pomodoro

Jumbo Scallops with yuca and tarragon chardonnay sauce

Shrimp in lemongrass curry sauce

Vegan jambalaya quinoa

old vine salad

Sometimes I forget that Saeyoung is five years younger than me.  I feel like we’ve been waiting for her 21st birthday forever.   It finally came and it felt bizarrely unceremonious.  I feel bad about this.  Saeyoung was only in California for a short while for her Spring break and I barely got to spend time with her because I’m currently neck deep in thesis work.

We went to St. Regis for brunch on Sunday but I wanted Saeyoung and I to have a special night to ourselves to celebrate her birthday.  We went to  Old Vine Cafe in Costa Mesa-a tiny restaurant in The Camp.  The food was quite good and not overly fussy.  They sort of aggressively push wine on you but that’s okay.  We liked the hand made pasta in particular, because let’s be honest, at the end of the day nothing beats starch.

It was a pleasant evening of sister time and I miss her already.