cherry shortcake

All's well in the Smith house as of late, with the only real problem on our plate being The Terrorist. Sister earned this nickname proudly after repeated episodes of welcoming us home with some sort of disaster she created in our absence...maybe just to prove to us that we should never leave her. Diagnosis: separation anxiety?

We are open to suggestions, as clearly this dog has the intention to ruin our lives (dramatic? we don't think so). Anyone know Cesar Millan? 

dont let her cuteness fool you

Now for some more appetizing news:

Cherry (or Strawberry) Shortcake

 

Ingredients

For biscuits

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

5 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup chilled butter, cut into small cubes

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons chilled heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

For berries

If using strawberries:

3 1-pint baskets strawberries, hulled, sliced

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh mint

1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

If using cherries:

4 cups cherries, pitted and halved

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon amaretto liquor

3 tablespoons cornstarch

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh mint

…and cream

1 cup chilled whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Make biscuits

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Blend flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, and salt in processor 5 seconds. Add butter. Using on/off turns, process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 1 cup cream and orange peel. Process just until moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; gently knead 5 turns. Roll out dough on floured surface to 3/4-inch-thick round. Using 3-inch-diameter cutter, cut out 3 rounds. Gather dough and reroll as needed to make 3 more 3-inch rounds. Arrange rounds on prepared sheet. Brush with 2 tablespoons cream; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake biscuits until pale golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. (Can be made 2 hours ahead.)

Make berries and cream

If using strawberries: combine berries, ½ cup sugar, mint, and orange peel in medium bowl; stir to blend. Let stand at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

If using cherries: combine cherries, ½ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon amaretto, and lemon zest to pot. Heat to medium high heat and stir occasionally for about 8 minutes, until cherries have released their juices and somewhat reduced. Whisk in cornstarch and continue to simmer until thickened, about 4 minutes. Add in lemon juice to taste (may need more or less, depending on how tart you want it). Allow cherries to cool before adding in mint and gently stirring to combine.

Combine cream, vanilla, and remaining 3 tablespoons sugar in large bowl. Whisk until soft peaks form.

Cut biscuits horizontally in half. Place 1 biscuit bottom in each of 6 bowls. Top each with berries, then sweetened whipped cream and biscuit top.

Adapted from Bon Appétit, July 2001

a good story

I often see God as a brilliant author, manifesting His creative love through the story of our lives—a story with the hard chapters so inventively woven together with the joyful ones, the downfalls followed by victories, heartbreak followed by mending, and all on a trajectory towards intentionality. Seeing life this way allows me to process the occasionally bizarre yet beautiful parts of our story in a larger context. It also affords me the foresight to expect provision: God has written my story well thus far, why would I expect anything less of my future? I do not expect to circumnavigate all pain and difficulty, but I do expect the pages to continue turning and character to continue developing, and for something great to be born of these harder moments.

Becki and Ryan (my sister-in-law and new brother-in-law) most recently point out the brilliance of this author God to me (and truly as I look backwards, I appreciate the story line that much more!). Ryan and I hail from the same hometown and growing up, I would say he was my most kindred spirit (you know those types of friends). He went off to Notre Dame for school and I off to Baylor, where I met my fabulous husBen (and married him a week after we graduated). Ryan spent a few years in China post-graduation, then went back to undergrad to complete pre-med requirements, so we jump on any chance we get to spend a little catch-up time together.

Two Januarys ago, husBen and I headed to Rockport for a birthday weekend with my family and his, this time including his sister Becki and her two kids. I naturally invited Ryan (who lived in Rockport at the time) over for the birthday dinner as well. I must also include in this story line that Becki was fairly newly divorced at this point, with a rough chapter behind her and no idea of the creative turn ahead. She spent the majority of that evening tending to her kids, feeding them separately and putting them down, only to finally pull up to the dinner table as the rest of us started dessert. I do not recall sparks flying during the short time that Becki and Ryan spent in the same vicinity that evening…but within a few months (and lengthy emails later), the sparks ignited and these two redheads were fast in love.

Just two days ago, Ryan and Becki wed in Fredericksburg, TX. I sat there in glassy eyed awe as the ceremony unfolded. It all seemed so natural—Ryan standing up there with his {new} son, both with flaming red hair, waiting for his bride, my beautiful sister-in-law, to walk towards him down the aisle—the whole thing somehow wonderfully bizarre to me still.  Just think, how intentional were the paths in each our lives to bring us to this very moment!

Congratulations Ryan and Becki, and thank you for showing me Love’s goodness.

tiramisu ice cream cake and the rewards of hazing

We found ourselves at the table with friends last night and I could not help but feel grateful for these relationships, seemingly so deep and dear to me, yet at the same time acknowledging that I only just met these people 3 years ago. We sat around over fajitas/margaritas and shared the horror stories of our various 3^rd year rotations (OB-GYN seeming to garner the most attention) and our spouses/significant others indulged us for the 2^nd and 3^rd times of having to hear these same anecdotes. This hazing has brought us together over the past 3 years, bonded us as we have sat around a table or two, debriefing in the form of brags or complaints (talk therapy of sorts). People grow close when forced to endure similar hardships and most importantly endure them together. I still remember the first week of medical school so vividly, when these very same people (minus their significant others back then) came to my table for the first time after gross anatomy lab—we all smelled of formaldehyde and I fed them pancakes for dinner. Oh, how we have grown.

I had offered to bring dessert and Mitchell and Caitlin (our hosts) willingly accepted. I think we were all so stuffed after the fajitas (and our spouses/significant others probably feeble in appetite after our graphic descriptions of various bodily spectacles at the dinner table) that the 8 of us were only able to finish off half of this cake. Full night. Of satisfaction and appreciation. Of good stories and good food.

Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake

1 sponge cake (recipe below)

1 cup espresso

1 quart chocolate ice cream, softened

1 quart coffee ice cream, softened

Mascarpone cream (recipe below)

Cocoa powder

Dark chocolate, chopped or curled

Cut the sponge cake in half with a serrated knife so that you have 2 equally thick rounds of cake. Place one half back into the spring form pan and soak with half of the brewed espresso. Add layer of chocolate ice cream on top and smooth it down uniformly (more easily done if ice cream is left out awhile prior to attempting assembly…or stick quart in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften). Next add second layer of sponge cake and again soak with remaining espresso. Add coffee ice cream in similar manner as you added the chocolate ice cream. Next, sift cocoa powder over the top until covered completely (a thin dusting will do). Next add the mascarpone cream and smooth out (again, more easily accomplished if it is soft/a bit runny). Next, sift another layer of cocoa powder. Finally, top with dark chocolate. Freeze entire cake for at least 45 minutes before serving. When ready to serve, release the sides of your spring form pan and gently lift the sides away (I left the bottom part of the spring form pan and served/cut the cake on top of it because I simply could not imaging trying to transfer it at the time…but go for it if you want).

Sponge Cake

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

½ cup all purpose flour

½ cup cornstarch

4 large eggs, separated

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup sugar

pinch of salt (about ¼ tsp)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a round spring form pan with cooking spray (or butter and flour it).

In a small bowl, sift together flour and cornstarch.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat egg yolks, vanilla, and ½ cup sugar on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Transfer the eggs/sugar mixture to a large bowl. Wash and dry the mixer bowl well.

In the bowl of the mixer now with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until whites hold soft peaks (about 2 minutes, don’t overbeat). With mixer running, slowly add the remaining ¼ cup sugar and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Fold the egg whites into the egg-yolk mixture in gentle strokes just until incorporated. In three additions, fold the flour/cornstarch mixture into eggs. Pour cake batter into prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake about 30 minutes, until a cake tester (or toothpick) inserted into middle comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan for about 15 minutes, then release sides of spring form pan to release your sponge cake.

Mascarpone cream

½ cup mascarpone cheese

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2-3 tablespoons sugar

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat cream until soft peaks form, adding in the sugar once the cream begins to look like classic whipped cream. In a separate bowl, manually beat mascarpone (with a whisk) until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Keep chilled until ready to assemble the cake. 

husBen, JD

Let me please apologize for my stint of absence from this blog space, but so much has happened in the last week in this household. Most significantly, husBEN FINISHED LAW SCHOOL!!!! He graduated from the University of Houston Law School today and I could not be more proud of him. While sitting through the commencement ceremony [2 hours long…not complaining…except that I am], I went through a range of emotions, from awe at his accomplishments, to trapped boredom, to near tears at the flight of time in the past three years. I cannot believe this kid so recently set out to accomplish law school as a fresh-out Baylor grad, then today walked across a stage having spent 3 years at University of Houston, now a full-blown lawyer. Does this mean he is a grown-up? 

Ben opening his graduation present

When husBen and I started undergrad as wanna-be pre-med students, we bonded over hours of sitting in the library pretending to study for a biology lab class we were both coincidentally enrolled in. By sophomore year, I somehow convinced the boy to take an 8 am chemistry lab class with me, for which he would pick me up curbside twice a week at 7:45 am then take me on a date to Jason’s Deli afterwards (hey, we were in Waco). I remember probably the only time we skipped a chemistry quiz to finish watching the movie Real Genius in his golden colored Tahoe in the Baylor Science Building parking garage. By the time our pre-med schedules required us to take organic chemistry 2, we discovered a new study spot: the Baylor Law library. It was quiet and there were no sorority girls pretending to study while   oogling fraternity guys across the table (with their sonic cups filled with who knows what). I don’t know if it was the respectful beauty of the place, with huge windows and long dark wood tables, situated on the banks of the Brazos or the negative pressure of O-chem 2 (that surely was invented by someone on acid) that convinced Ben to switch his career entirely, but by the end of our junior year, he had law school on his mind.

The rest is history…as of about 5 hours ago. I do not yet know what the pressures of real adulthood might feel like (as an eternal student myself), but I look forward to the shaping of our lives with at least one functioning member of society/one breadwinner/one adult in the household. My naiveté hopes this accomplishment shapes us well.

Both our parents drove in for the event so naturally we have eaten fancier in the past 24 hours than we should in 1 week: Pass & Provisions, RDG Bar Annie, and Underbelly to name a few. I still have Angela’s Bakery and Pondicheri on my list for tomorrow…

salt

That time again. husBen and I are hunkered down studying for our Advertising and Marketing Law final and Family Medicine shelf exam (respectively), but we would rather be doing just about anything else...even cleaning the house...or at least I think that's what prompted husBen to start the laundry...

During finals in college, my mom used to send cookies to encourage us to study (or maybe just to fatten us up, which also seems to be a persistent goal of hers). I really wish she would send me these right now:

huge salted chocolate chip cookies

really integral to the novelty of these cookies is how BIG you make them. so don't be timid here. 

equally as important is this AMAZING salt. I am obsessed. I had been looking for it at several grocery stores and online, then found it in my very own neighborhood HEB. obviously I rushed home right away to make these cookies as a vehicle for the salt. that good. 

2 sticks salted butter, cold

3/4 cup granulated sugar 


3/4 cup packed brown sugar 


2 large eggs 


1 teaspoon good vanilla 


3 cups all purpose flour


3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 


1 teaspoon baking powder 


1/2 teaspoon baking soda 


2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips 


1 cup nuts, toasted (pecans or walnuts)

Falksalt, crystal flakes  



In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until creamy (a couple mintues). Add in the egg and vanilla and beat just until combined (don’t overdo it here). Stir together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then incorporate into the wet ingredients (again, beat just until blended and don’t overdo it!!). Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. 



Chill dough in fridge for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Use a ¼ cup scoop to form your cookies (and feel free to add some dough to that even!). Flatten the cookies slightly with a spoon, as they tend to hold their shape pretty well and this way they will cook evenly. Now the magic: sprinkle each cookie with a few gorgeous flakes of salt. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes, then reduce temperature to 325 degrees (don’t open the oven door) and continue to bake for another 5 minutes (just watch it and remove at your desired gooeyness). Makes about 14 huge cookies.