The Final Lap

I arrived in Psychgrad's city on Saturday evening. What started out as a 4 hour drive turned into an 8 hour drive. I went to pick up Actor Boy (Psychgrad's brother) and couldn't figure out why all the streets in downtown Toronto were blocked off. I learned that it was Portugal Day and everything was shut down for what I'm sure was the longest parade in the history of man. Actor Boy, suitcase in tow made his way by foot to find me and off we went...or so we thought. Getting to the main highway artery turned out to be a challenge. It took us from noon until 3 p.m. to actually see the highway. Whew...off we went until... leadfoot Giz was stopped for speeding and was lucky with zero tolerance laws to escape with only a ticket. The alternative would have been losing both my car and license. OK, lesson learned...move on.

Sunday began the marathon. We knew we planned to make the bride and groom cookies. We also knew we were planning to put them inside gift baskets for out of town guests. What we didn't plan on was "R"'s office throwing a surprise potluck and inviting Psychrad to be there as part of the surprise. Ok, so we'll make more cookies. And more cookies for Psychgrad's workplace, and more cookies for her language education class and maybe just have them at the wedding for people to take home.



R's potluck and cake




And the baskets are being prepared


Sorry for such a short post - starting the mini banana breads for breakfast treats in the baskets.

R's been taking alot of pictures of dirty dishes and threatening to post them. We should let him :)

New York, New York!

R and I got back late Monday night from New York. I'm not sure if the miles of walking balanced the not so healthy eating. But, we had a great time.

We had a decent range of the quick meal options New York has to offer... I have to say New Yorkers knows how to make a good sandwich.

The amount of protein is a bit much...but it's a vacation, right?

The next day we went to Katz's Deli, made famous by this scene in When Harry Met Sally:



The place looks exactly the same as it looks in the movie.


R had a reuben:

I had a corned beef sandwich.


They come with pickles. As you may recall, I'm very particular about my pickles. The full sours were excellent. The other (brighter green) ones were, what I would call "a cucumber pretending (but failing) to be a pickle".


The day after, we spent time in Central Park and picnicked with some New York Bagels.



We also got a black and white cookie. R couldn't resist after learning about the cookie from Seinfeld:




I also stopped into Magnolia Bakery, which isn't nearly as serene as you might think it would be. I resisted on buying a cupcake, but wanted to take a few pictures.





Aside from a few meals, those are the food highlights. Here are some shots of the city...
















We also managed to get tickets for Letterman. It was Monday's show with Bill Cosby. Before the show, we got some sandwiches at Hello Deli, which is featured on the Letterman show from time to time. The place is a dump and the guy working behind the counter kept wiping down his meat slicer with the same rag he used to clean around the sink. But, the sandwich was decent. Rupert seems like a nice enough guy -- always letting people taking a picture of him.


Overall, a great trip. But now it's back to wedding planning.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Curd

We've been on a testing hunt for the ideal cupcake. I've tried a few and they were fine but I must admit, this one from Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa Parties" is remarkable. If you're looking for her recipe in the book, it's really her Lemon Cake recipe with Lemon Glaze. I just altered things a little to make them work. I also noticed, or rather Psychgrad pointed it out to me, that Anne from Cooking with Anne had a gorgeous looking curd filled cupcake on her blog. Hmmm...the wheels started moving. Anne really became the inspiration for the flavour and the filling.

Ingredients

1/2 pound unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 extra-large eggs (room temperature)
1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6-8 lemons)(Note: I used 5 large lemons)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups (I used jumbo size)
2. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes (scraping sides frequently).
3. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and the lemon zest
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the butter, beginning and ending with the flour.
5. Divide the batter evenly to muffin cups (my yeild was 27)
I used Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From My Home To Yours" recipe for the lemon curd.


Lemon Curd

1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 large egg
6 large egg yolks
Freshly squeezed juice of 4 lemons

Method

1. Put all the ingredients in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir with a heatproof spatula to moisten the sugar.
2. Put the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring without stopping until the butter melts and the mixture thickens like custard, 4-6 minutes. (Keep your eyes on the pan because the curd can curdle quickly. It is cooked enough when you can run your finger along the spatula and the curd doesn't run into the track you've created)
Don't worry if the curd looks thin at this point - it will thicken more as it cools.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and scrape the curd into a heatproof jar or a bowl. (I sieved it through a strainer first and was glad I did).
4. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the curd to create an airtight seal and cool to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator.