Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake

I have bad news, dear readers. I left my camera cord in San Diego. That means I have no way of uploading pictures and showing you a slew of delicious summertime recipes that I whipped up right before I left for Berkeley. They're trapped on my camera's memory card for the time being.

Instead, I thought I'd write about something wildly out of season (I don't know about you, but during hot summer months I stay as far away from rich, heavy desserts as I can) but extraordinarily delicious. I'm telling you, make this cheesecake.

When I first saw how complicated this cappuccino fudge cheesecake was, I was shocked. This dessert involves a chocolate wafer crust slathered with Kahlua flavored chocolate ganache, followed by a cappuccino cream cheese filling featuring two different kinds of coffee, topped with a sweet, vanilla-sour cream spread, decorated with a ganache lattice, and adorned with chocolate covered espresso beans. On top of that, you need to make it at lease a day in advance to allow the flavors to blend (it gets better day by day; making this cake two or even three days in advance would not be unwise). It seemed like the ultimate challenge, and after it having circulated the blog-o-sphere, it seemed very well received.

I made this cheesecake for my dad's birthday last January. I followed the original recipe from Bon Appetit almost exactly, but topped the cake with chocolate covered espresso beans instead of plain ones, as many of my fellow bloggers did. I know this cake seems daunting, but trust me, the end result is life changing.

Easy Pad Thai

I've been fairly obsessed with Thai food this summer. And by fairly obsessed I mean I can't get through the day without having visions of peanut sauce, have been wanting to bathe in curry and coconut milk, and all but screaming "Sali Thai!" when friends ask where I want to meet for lunch. Maybe it was missing all of those delicious umami flavors while I was in Spain, maybe it's my new found appreciation for spices and spicy tastes, maybe little Thai elves sneak into my room at night like they do in that story about the shoes and cook up a delicious feast, filling my subconscious with desire, but I'm hooked.

I think part of the reason I like asian foods so much is that there's a sense of mystery about them. Not mystery like "What kind of meat is this?" but mystery like "I don't think I could ever make this it's so damn good." The ingredients are usually far outside my culinary comfort zone and the flavors are so complex and engaging that I don't think I could ever replicate them myself. In short, I'm just kind of intimidated.

Pad thai is the opposite of intimidating. It's welcoming and assuring, just begging for you to make it and begin your asian culinary repertoire. Pad thai is nearly impossible to mess up and its a perfect summer meal because its light and refreshing yet surprisingly filling. I adapted my recipe liberally from Martha Stewart's. I use frozen, precooked shrimp -insert horrified gasps from readers here- because I have no money and they're dirt cheap, but if you can afford, it cook up some raw shrimp because it's probably a zillion times better. And most importantly, have no fear. Asian food is not out to get you or me or us. Trust me, if I can do this, so can you.

Easy Shrimp Pad Thai
Adapted, barely, from Martha Stewart

1 package (13 oz) of "rice sticks" from Trader Joe's or any kind of flat rice noodle
Frozen, precooked shrimp, de-thawed
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons lime juice
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
8 green onions, white and green parts separated, finely chopped
3-4 large eggs (optional, and quantity depending on how "eggy" you like your pad thai)
1 cup fresh chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup chopped, salted, roasted peanuts

Cook the rice noodles according to the package instructions (do not over cook). Drain and set aside.

Make sauce by whisking together soy sauce, lime juice, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the white parts of the green onions and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 2-4 minutes. Add eggs. Cook until almost set, about 3 minutes. Remove egg mixture; set aside on a plate.

Add noodles and sauce to the skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes, until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add egg mixture, green onions and cilantro, and cooked shrimp. Cook until shrimp is warmed through. Sprinkle with peanuts and reserved cilantro and serve.

Bruschetta

I don't know about where you live, dear reader, but in Southern California, tomato season is here. It announced its presence quite boisterously one afternoon when my mother's tomato garden was suddenly exploding with vine ripened goodness. We picked by the bucket, tomatoes quite literally falling into our hands, begging to be eaten. We've been throwing them in sauces and salads, barbecuing them on the grill with a slice of provolone cheese, and giving them away to neighbors and friends.

My favorite application for ripe summer tomatoes is bruschetta. I fell in love with bruschetta traveling through Italy this summer. I think we ate it with almost every meal. It's simple, tomatoey goodness at its finest, I can't think of a better way to celebrate fresh tomato flavors. Several of our summer dinners have been planned around bruschetta, its just that good. Try it was meats, chicken, fish, or my personal favorite, on top of olive oil toasts. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of raw tomatoes, but when they marinate in olive oil, garlic, and basil, nothing could be finer.

It seems so silly to put up a recipe for something so benign, so I won't. I will tell you that the grape tomatoes we have in our garden work beautifully because they're meaty and don't have a lot of liquid. To get as much of the liquid out of the tomatoes before you make your bruschetta (you want to get out as much liquid as you can so its not soupy after you add the olive oil), its a good idea to cut them up and toss them into a fine mesh sieve placed over a bowl and salt them generously with sea salt. The tomatoes will soak up all that yummy salt and release liquid that will drip away if you let them sit for a minute. Add fresh minced garlic, lots of fresh chopped basil, pepper, and some fine Spanish olive oil and you're good to go. The proportions are up to you. Just make sure to use the best ingredients you can find. When recipes are this simple, quality really makes an extraordinary difference.

Rosemary Fried Chicken and a New Outlook on Life

My summer began with a pretty ambitious list of things to cook. While in Spain, I bookmarked just about everything I could feast my eyes on, hungry not only for American food but for the long-lost art of cooking that I'd been apart from for so long. There were cakes and cookies, cerviche and soup, I even had my eyes on some shrimp and grits. But upon arriving home I was struck with a pretty terrible illness that took up just about every ounce of energy I had and made my appetite all but disappear (I know right? I didn't even know it was possible for my appetite to disappear). What's worse was I was missing Spain more than I could have imagined and longed to be back on my too-good-to-be-true European adventure. And my list of things to do and cook in San Diego were cast aside.

It took me a long time to get well again, but even longer for me to realize how wonderful things really are here. I was fortunate enough to have had an incredible four months in Spain where I saw and learned and changed so much. But I'm just as lucky to have family and friends here that love and care about me, to live in a beautiful part of the country with so much to offer, and to have so much to look forward to as fall peeks over the horizon. There's much to be experienced here, and missing out on all that life has to offer while wishing for something more is such a shame. If my experience in Spain taught me anything was to live each and every moment to its fullest and never take anything for granted. Until now, I don't think I've done very well at taking what I learned and really applying it to my life. There's so much to be enjoyed and cherished here, I just didn't take the time to open my eyes and see it.

Which is what brings me back to cooking. Food is such a unique way to connect with people, places, and cultures, and it was a big part of why I loved traveling so much. For me, cooking is enriching. I can't imagine my life without it and I can't imagine myself without it. It's a part of who I am and how I express myself. Whether a dish is on some list or not, cooking is a way that can celebrate all the amazing things my life has to offer.

Here's a delicious summer dinner we had a few weeks ago. Fried chicken, cucumber salad, a big summer fruit salad for dessert, and a table full of family on a warm, San Diego evening. I can't think of a better way to slow down and appreciate how beautiful things are here and now.

Rosemary Fried Chicken
This chicken is good. I mean really good. It was the star of our dinner and what I want to share with you now. It's soaked in buttermilk, covered in a lovely paprika-rosemary breading, and fried to golden, crispy perfection (each piece is fried for just about 4 minutes a side and then finished off in the oven, keeping the meat juicy and tender). I don't eat fried chicken often, but when I do I sure hope its like this and that I can always share it with people I love.