What we've been eating

Thanks so much for everyone's comments about the last post (on fb, if not on here) - although now it's possible that I have blown the entire story way out of proportion and everybody will read it on Wednesday and be like That's the big deal? and be all disappointed and send me hate mail. I think I'm ok with that - I don't get much personal mail, so I'll be excited.

Anyway! I posted a chocolate cake recipe a few weeks ago, but we've been eating more than just that. In fact, I've been trying out new cooking recipes just as much as baking ones, which is good news for my waistline (other than the cinnamon roll cake that B and I almost finished off singlehandedly - I didn't get any pictures of that, unfortunately).

In anticipation of possibly hosting another couple, I spent one weekend messing around with various courses.

As an appetizer, roasted garlic and avocado on baguette slices. No recipe for this - after roasting the garlic in the oven for about 45 minutes, I smashed the cloves with avocado and added a generous dollop of goat cheese, salt, pepper, and lime, then spread it on some lightly toasted baguette slices):

They were two bites of addictiveness.

As a main dish, I attempted my first ever rack of lamb with some roasted potatoes:

But I think B and I enjoyed the oven fried chicken with scalloped potatoes the following night better:

I used just a bit of butter in the pan for the chicken rather than the full amount of oil. The onions in the potatoes made these the best scalloped/au gratin/whatever I've ever tasted. Also, I only used bacon, left out the ham - there was enough flavor without it, imo.

And then for dessert, I made my first-ever chocolate souffle! I think it turned out like it was supposed to, but I realized after devouring it that I'd never actually eaten one before. But I have seen every MasterChef episode, so I'm pretty sure that makes me an expert.

Whether or not it turned out like a souffle is supposed to, it did taste good. So I marked it as a win.

The next night, to celebrate the return of berries to Zurich-area grocery stores, I made berry shortcake using my favorite baking powder biscuit recipe. Which, upon extensive searching, I realized I have never posted somehow. This is a terrible oversight on my part, so the recipe is below.

One of my favorite desserts, hands down.

Baking Powder Biscuits (recipe from my mother):
(Light enough for dessert, healthy enough for breakfast!)
2 c. flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (cold)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Cut in butter with pastry cutter (not too fine! Should look like big coarse bread crumbs). Beat egg with milk and stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Turn dough onto well-floured surface and knead briefly until the dough comes together. Roll to 3/4 of an inch and cut. Bake at 450F (220C) for 8-10 minutes until the tops turn golden.

Note: when I'm making the biscuits for shortcake, I often add in a splash of vanilla to the liquid and double the sugar. Because I'm naughty like that.

Then, yesterday, I made a rustic caramel apple tart, but I used pre-made crust, which made me feel like a bit of a cheat (although I did make the caramel from scratch - does that even out the baking karma?).

Definitely goes on the 'make again' list. Preferably with from-scratch crust next time. Although it might be good with puff pastry as well.

Delicious! It's been fun branching out to new types/cuts of meat - mostly dictated by what is on sale at the grocery store, as I take the 50% off stickers as personal challenges - and experimenting with how to make the ever-present potatoes here in Switzerland more interesting. And I think B also appreciates the expanding repertoire of recipes as well, although he still requests Mexican (by which he means guacamole and chips) about twice a week.

Chocolate cake with raspberry/cream filling

A cake recipe! A beautiful, dark chocolate cake just in time for the Super Bowl (I declare formal opposition to the concept that you need a specific reason to make a cake). 

As part of my new year's goals (I dislike the word "resolution," as I can smell the failure from the far side of January), I set out to accomplish a few new things every month, rather than focus only on my daily to-do list and then heave disappointed sighs at myself when I occasionally think of all the other projects I'd like to get to.

After the end of my first month attempt, I am happy to report partial success! I gave myself various monthly options - crafting, baking, the ambiguously termed "self-improvement."
Perhaps not surprisingly, I did best on the baking goals. I still have yet to attempt macarons (sigh, my blog name is a constant reminder of this disappointment), but I did manage a from-scratch/no recipe fruit crisp, my first Swiss layer cake, and even got a chocolate soufflé (first ever!) in under the wire.

So, let's talk cake. I used a modified version of this recipe, which I had used previously back in December for cupcakes, so I felt I had a good handle on the batter thickness and the (still sometimes finicky) Swiss white flour. The full recipe is at the end of the post, if you want to skip down. Unfortunately, I made the cream filling and chocolate icing from scratch and didn't measure any of it, so while I shared the ingredients I put in , I have no quantities. I have mad respect for bloggers who come up with their own recipes - not the from-scratch part (well, maybe a little), but the ability to keep track of quantities.

Unfortunately, I got distracted by playing Civilization V being studious and productive, so the layers were in the oven for about 2 minutes longer than necessary. It wasn't enough to ruin the taste, but they lost some of the delicious moistness that a dark chocolate cake should have (imo).

Chocolate and raspberry puree. Yum. Also, shoutout to my parents and B's wonderful relatives, whose Christmas presents, brought all the way from the US, made this layer cake possible (how did I survive a year without 9" cake pans!?)

I'd already decided that I was going to fly in the face of B's preference and make a chocolate cake with fruit in it (seriously, who doesn't like BERRIES AND CHOCOLATE? Love you anyway, dear), so I bought some raspberry "fruit intensée" - basically jam on steroids. One of my big problems with cakes is that they don't have enough yummy stuff in the middle, so I put some icing under the raspberries and then spontaneously decided to put some cream filling on top.

Amazingly, the second layer is almost straight! The cream filling is peaking out in front, forget to get a picture pre-layer.

I came perilously close to running out of icing, which would have been terrible, since I used the tried-and-true approach of throwing in sugar/cocoa/cream, swiping a lick and adjusting appropriately, and I had no more room-temp butter. But I squeaked it out in the end and was fairly satisfied with the result.

It's not fancy decorating - that's a future goal. But I did (attempt to) wipe down the serving plate to improve appearances!

 I took it into my monthly writer's group, where the assessments were positive, overall: "Very nice, not too sweet" seemed to be the consensus (according to my Swiss culture book, this is actually high praise. No, really, it's the highest).

I was most pleased with the icing. Every time I've tried icing previously, it ended up gritty and a bit too runny (perhaps not enough patience with the vast quantities of powdered sugar?). This time I didn't measure anything - just kept adding, tasting, and testing consistency with a knife. Although, note to future self: cream butter at least slightly before adding sugar and cocoa. The plumes of powder reached into the living room and gave the floor a slightly gritty feel that lingered for days and will require a thorough mopping (ha, as if I own a mop - I meant wet Swiffer - that's the same thing, right?).

Should've used more raspberries. ALWAYS MOAR FRUIT.

The icing was made with a modest quantity of butter, cocoa powder, vanilla, and an immodest quantity of cream and powdered sugar.

The cream filling was mainly heavy cream whipped with a small amount of powdered sugar and a large spoonful of sour cream added (the fruit, since it was made as a jam-type puree, was sweeter than I anticipated, so I added this to give some dimension to the flavors). This also helped to make it a bit stiffer, to withstand the top layer's weight.

The cake recipe (modified from here):
Important note: this recipe is for THREE layers. I didn't trust myself to transport a 3 layer cake, despite the quality of trains in this country, so I left one layer at home (and ate it with a daub of icing/cream and slathered with extra berries).
One reason I like this recipe is because it doesn't call for coffee/espresso. This is often used in chocolate cake to enrich the chocolate flavor - which it totally does - but since neither B nor I drink coffee, it's not an ingredient we normally have. Despite this omission, I find the result very rich and satisfying.

1 cup cocoa

1 cup boiling water

1 cup milk
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

 

Combine cocoa with boiling water and mix with a whisk until dissolved, then add milk (careful not to curdle it). In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla with electric mixer at high speed for 5 minutes (I probably didn't do a full 5 mins, to be fair). At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 4ths alternately with cocoa mixture in 3rds (begin and end with flour mixture). Divide batter evenly in prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove and cool on rack.

Furniture day!

I may have mentioned previously on this blog that we have no furniture. And that I was very, very tired of having no furniture. Well, I am happy to report that I can no longer complain about this sad situation. Our Ikea order was supposed to be delivered by last Monday (which was 23 days after ordering), and we hadn't heard anything by then, so B sent several emails and placed several annoyed phone calls to see what the issue was. Apparently our order slipped through the cracks, but once B started making noise, Ikea pushed our order to the top of the priority list and it was handed over to the delivery company on Wednesday. We had been told that the delivery company usually calls about a week beforehand, so I was super excited when B called me on Thursday morning and said he had just received a call for delivery Saturday morning!

So I was definitely excited. Then I got more excited when my wonderful in-laws said they would come down and help assemble things that same day. I prepped the day before by baking snacks (all previously done: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - with chopped crystal ginger added, nutella brownies - with sea salt added, and stuffed bacon onion rolls - with some pancetta and parmesan added to the filling). 

Some of the tasties!

The delivery went smoothly - the man called 20 minutes before, so I had time to empty out the living room in preparation. The total delivery weight was 369 kg, which means delivery was a good way to go, rather than rent a car/do it ourselves. It also meant that both B and I were a bit in awe of the one man who hauled it all up and from the elevator (he may have had a partner down at the truck, but it was still quite impressive). We also had time to head to the mall and pick up a vacuum cleaner (lonnnng overdue) before B's family arrived. We splurged and got a Dyson, which is super fancy and, thus far, has proven to be a wee too complicated for me (this is why I shouldn't own nice things).

Pre-delivery living room!

20 minutes after delivery! That's a lot of boxes...

369 kg of boxes, to be exact.

The afternoon was spent assembling a total of 16 pieces, ranging from various chairs to an enormous TV/entertainment system. We then had well-deserved rest and birthday celebration (both B's brother and father have birthdays in June) at Lola's restaurant, the only - as far as I know - Peruvian restaurant in Zurich. 

The entertainment system all set up!

Some action shots - the Dyson is hidden behind the box. So many boxes.

Desks/chairs all set up, B and his father working on a big red cabinet.

My wonderful mother-in-law organizing the stacks and stacks of cardboard. New green patio table and chairs  to the right!

Ugly Betty on a Monday morning. Half-complete bookshelf to the right - it's top of my DIY paint list, so we didn't mount it on the wall yet.

Desks and chairs! Mine is in the forefront, B's is the behemoth in the corner. He picked it out himself, it has space for four screens/monitors...

So yayyy! Now B and I both have desks, which means our dining room table is finally clear of laptop computers. As a bonus, my computer chair arrived in Dietikon, and my in-laws picked it up on their way from Basel, so I now have a comfy chair to hang out in and a space that feels like my own. 

As an additional bonus, we met our neighbors! Well, neighbor, singular. The family that I've seen around, with a young son and daughter. It was the daughter's birthday (apparently a costume party), so the children were running around on the hill, and the mother came over in the mid-afternoon with some leftover cake. She was very sweet and nice, and spoke fluent Spanish with B's family and English to me, although apparently German is her mother tongue (ahhhhh, so jealous). I sent her back with some of my brownies as a thank you, and it was wonderful to finally make contact (especially with someone outside the context of laundry).

So, basically, B's family is wonderful and awesome, Saturday was great, and I've already made a mile-long list of additional items that we now need and DIY projects that I now plan to do. We are still awaiting word on when our couch will be delivered, but the apartment is now (almost) ready for visitors!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Tea and artisan bread (attempt #1)

This past Saturday, B and I went to an English afternoon tea at the Carlton hotel in central Zurich (available from 2:30 to 5 pm, Wednesday through Saturday, September through May, CHF 39 per person). I went to a proper British tea when I visited friends in Manchester, England, 9 years ago, and I've been trying to recapture the wonder ever since. In the US, my efforts were usually stymied by the lack of clotted/Devonshire cream with the scones (butter is not the same, fake American tea places!), so I wasn't sure what to expect.

We saw and heard no Brits, so I couldn't quiz anyone about the authenticity (not that I would have - how do you start that conversation?). But we quite enjoyed ourselves. They had a lovely and quite varied selection of sandwiches and sweets, with usually one piece per person, although there were extra mini cucumber sandwiches (I took care of those). The food was good, although I did expect slightly higher quality at the Carlton (assuming that Carlton is the same one as in 'Ritz-Carlton'). The tea menu was decent but not extensive, with around 25 types on the menu.

I'm ready, serve me.

There was some confusion, since B first tried to order some iced tea and was told that it was not part of the Afternoon Tea options. However, about ten minutes after serving us, the table one over from us, occupied by around 6 German-speaking ladies, were served - and they all received iced teas. It wasn't a big deal, but such occurences do not instill confidence about the quality or knowledge of service.

I chose a chai - not terribly traditional - and in what is most likely sacrilege for both the Brits and the Japanese, B chose matcha, the green tea used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. It was too bitter for me, while B didn't mind it - although it did not pair well with the food options.

Matcha. I just finished a book last month that involved a lot of traditional Japanese ceremonies, so I was excited when the waiter used a bamboo whisk to make it. I hid my weirdly inappropriate reaction well, I think.

Scones, the centerpiece of the tea, were served separately than the food tower, and B and I ate them all (2 each) before I realized I had failed to take a picture. The accompanying jam and cream were definitely the highlight for me, and I drowned my scones in them. The scones themselves were soft and warm, but felt like they had been reheated. They were mini scones, so not much more than a few bites each. However, we did walk out quite full and felt no need for dinner that night.

The tower of food. I had already removed several sandwiches from the bottom in my hunger. I am SO BAD at remembering to take pictures. B and I both agreed that the best sweet was the one almost entirely hidden by the cupcakes, in the back of the second tier. It was pastry with a chocolate glaze on top and custard in the middle.

The cream and jam containers. We ran low on the raspberry preserves, even with only four mini scones. It was that good. Also tasty - the super mini berry tartlet in front.

We enjoyed ourselves, but I'm not sure we would return, and I probably wouldn't bring any visiting family/friends unless they had a specific urge to go. Maybe my search for a proper English tea just means that B and I need to schedule a weekend trip to London. Sounds like a good excuse.

Also on Saturday, I set up my first attempt at artisan bread. I used this recipe because it had tasty add-ins and involved no kneading. I didn't let my dough rise for 3 hours - by 2.25 hours it had overflown my largest mixing bowl (note to self: get big-ass container for future preps), so I had to deflate it some and then stick it in the fridge for the overnight step. I was a bit worried that the next morning would reveal a dough blob oozing its way across our refrigerator, but it actually didn't rise much in the fridge.

The next morning, post removal of cling wrap, which took a good portion of the dough with it.

 I was particularly excited to read about her approach to humidifying the oven for baking. I've read multiple places that having a humid oven is key to getting a contrasting, truly crispy crust, but no practical way to approach this. Professional ovens have built-in spritzers, and home approaches I've read usually involve a spray bottle and carefully timed superfast oven openings. I love bread, but I am also lazy.

So this woman's approach was perfect. She suggests putting a metal (not glass) pan filled with water in the bottom of the oven before turning it on for preheating. Our oven comes with one wire rack and one metal tray, so I just put the metal tray in the bottom and filled it with water.

The dough was still REALLY sticky after overnight refrigeration, so I used a lot of flour and did some minimal kneading (I just...can't seem to give it up) before separating into loaves. Unfortunately we had no cornmeal, so I just sprinkled flour on the tray instead - which kept the loaves from sticking, but also meant that we had no crust on the bottom. I was a bit concerned because, after her suggested resting time (30 minutes) pre-baking, the dough was still cold. It turned out just fine, but I think I might let it rise more next time.

Overall, the humidity approach totally worked! Also, through the magic of visible steam, it allowed me to see that our oven doesn't close entirely on the left side and this may be why I have struggled with temperatures/cooking times in this place (I've said it before, but WE CANNOT MOVE SOON ENOUGH).

It tasted even better than it looked!

Three days later, we have only half a loaf remaining. Even B, who isn't overly fond of things made with flour (he claims the flour gets between him and whatever taste the food has), has eaten a half loaf or so. Next up - the roasted garlic/rosemary version!

A church and some donuts

Last week, I visited Sibler, a specialty store in Zurich that is a virtual kitchen mecca. It was so fun to wander around, and I purchased several items to help me play around with fondant (I believe I mentioned this as a future trip in this post). The shop is in an area of town that I don't usually get to, but I luckily had my camera with me and the weather was beautiful.

Sibler is in part of the old Zurich town, with cobblestone streets and right next to Fraumünster, arguably Zurich's most famous church. The church is perhaps not as fancy as many you may see in France or Italy, but it certainly towers above the local landscape (and now looking at Wikipedia, I find that is has five windows by Marc Chagall - must return and actually go inside). 

Fraumünster church. The former abbey at this location was dissolved as part of the reformation, and the buildings were torn down to make way for the Zurich Stadthaus (city hall) in the late 1800s, but the church remains.

Unrelated, but as I was walking to Sibler through a parking lot, I noticed a super fancy car that was parked at the end of a row, although technically there was no parking space marked (an all-too-common sight in many US parking garages - certainly the one at Boston Logan airport comes to mind). I shook my head in disgust - people are the same everywhere. So imagine my delight when I finished taking pictures of the square and turned around to see a policewoman ticketing the car. I was so strangely excited to see someone get their comeuppance that I snapped a picture...

Notice the lack of white lines on the ground. That means no parking space, fancy car driver!

Yep, she's definitely staring at me. So I quickly angled my camera up and took a picture of the building behind her, as if that was my original intention.

Swiss flags! I do like the blue building on the right.

Then I slunk into Sibler before she started to question me (I don't know how to say "I was just so happy to see you doing your job! You issue that ticket!" in German). I would be a bad international spy. Subtlety isn't my thing - plus I am terrified of authority, so that would be an issue, too.

The Sibler store itself was great fun to explore - they have baking supplies, pans, fancy kitchen knives, woks, fondue pots, and much, much more. Many of the items had descriptions in half a dozen languages - which was good, because there were definitely things that I had never seen and had no immediately apparent use.

Such cute chairs and tables! I wonder if B would let me do this to our future patio furniture?

I took a parting shot of the store as I left - mainly for the adorable hand-painted chairs and tables out front. I have no idea if they were part of the cafe next door, whose outdoor tables had a distinctly different style, or if Sibler itself has a way of serving coffee, but I wasn't brave enough to sit down and see if someone approached to take my order.

I have made a concerted effort for B and I to eat healthy, so unfortunately that means not as many baked goods. However, I needed to use up some fruit yesterday, so I made a pear berry crisp, and then these chocolate donuts with blood orange glaze (the latter used up all of 1.5 oranges, but I'm still counting it). I cannot recommend the latter highly enough. The donuts are baked, so are supposedly "healthier" than fried - although that word goes in quotations because well...the glaze abolishes any attempt to claim these as a smart diet choice. If you don't have a donut pan, please don't let the lack thereof discourage you from trying these - I think they would work just as well in cupcake or even a cake pan. The combination of the rich (not sweet) chocolate with the orange glaze is SO GOOD.

I did make a few changes - I threw some orange zest into the batter and for the glaze I just used the blood orange juice, heavy cream, and powdered sugar (skipping the butter and the corn syrup), but it still tasted great in my opinion.

Hello, delicious chocolate.

The first batch was a little questionable, since my Celsius oven apparently doesn't go down to 325F, and I overfilled the donut pan so they were a bit messy and took FOREVER to bake (but still tasted good). I turned up the oven to closer to 375 (F) and used less batter, and the next two batches were much prettier. I also couldn't get the feel of dipping the donuts, so I just drizzled the glaze over top. Whatever works! (That should be my baking motto).

Delicious.

Kitchen experiments

I've decided not to post any more step-by-step recipes here, since I am having to re-explore a lot of baking/cooking techniques and basics in my new (Swiss) environment. Also, I would imagine that reading about learning to use the uniquely Swiss ingredients isn't terribly interesting for friends and family back in the US. I'd prefer to use the time/space here to tell you more about what's happening in our lives (PS - I love and miss all you guys!).

That being said, I definitely have been cooking/baking a lot over the past few weeks, and I will continue to post occasional finished products and links to recipes that I felt were particularly successful (as well as any changes I made to said recipes). And I'll definitely keep you updated on my attempts for homemade macarons.

I bought a book in my Kindle a few weeks ago that made my baking heart flutter. It's called Ratios and it talks about the underlying ratios present in many dishes, from breads to sauces. I've only tried one ratio from it thus far - I made 3 loaves of bread using different mixes of flour, since I am still unsure about the flours here (they have neither the same naming system as the US, nor the number systems that France and Germany have). They were all very basic loaves, and I was impatient about the rising, so they weren't perhaps the best tasting. But it was interesting to see the difference:

Identical loaves except for the flour used. The one in the foreground used 100% Weissmehl (white), the loaf in back used 50/50 white/Bauernmehl (Fr: rustique) flour, and the far left loaf used a 50/50 mixture of white/Zopfmehl flour. Bauernmehl translates to "farmer's flour," and apparently contains 12% rye flour. Zopfmehl translates to "braid flour" (I think it is often used to make a challah-like braided bread) and contains 10% spelt flour. I am still figuring out how exactly these percentages influence the baking process. Definitely Zopfmehl leads to a lighter dough that requires less kneading and rises faster (makes sense, since spelt flour is gluten-free). And I've only begun to explore the flours available in the baking section.

Mostly I've been just sticking to Weissmehl (Fr: farine blé) in my baking, since it appears to be the all-purpose equivalent. Which is fine for cookies and brownies (eg, I made these Nutella brownies with an extra scoop of Nutella in them - still not much hazelnut taste, but wonderfully fudgy), but I am still trying to work out the equivalent of bread, cake, or whole wheat flour.

Aside from baking, I have been trying to branch out in my cooking. I have phobias about trying to cook meat cuts (out of simple ignorance, not because I think the animals will take their revenge upon me at some point in the future), so I usually avoid them like the plague and before Zurich, I'd stick with ground turkey or some easy boneless chicken. However, B is a big meat eater, so I made a marinated pork loin for Valentine's day dinner (using this marinade as a base - I used brown sugar and added generous amounts of pepper, ginger, and garlic), along with some braised red cabbage and smashed potatoes (add parmesan cheese on top for super tastiness).

Not a great picture, but it was very tasty - and I didn't overcook the pork, yay! (well...not too much. I have issues when meat is still 'too' pink. Yep, I order steak medium well.)

I also made this couscous recipe, replaced the lemon with lime, added more seasonings/herbs, and threw in some extra veggies (onion and bell pepper) and some kielbasa-like sausage for a super quick, easy one-pot meal (Disclaimer: Switzerland doesn't seem to have liquid broths; I've only found boullion cubes, and I'm not sure I'm using them correctly. But it still tasted very good).

I've already made this a second time - with bell peppers. One of the quickest meals that I've discovered - and minimal dishes after!

This pear/dark chocolate tart wasn't actually my cup of tea (B loved it, the chocolate filling was almost bitter, but to me it was too strong and the pear flavor was lost), but there was a ton of leftover chocolate crust, so I made an extra tart with one of my favorite lime tart filling recipes (I use about 3x the amount of lime juice called for) and stuck some fresh raspberries on top. Delicious. I used the leftover egg whites to make some mini cupcakes and topped them with chocolate icing.

Dark chocolate pear tart with some vanilla ice cream on the side.

One of my favorite tart fillings, although it is better with graham cracker crust than the chocolate one, imo. Sadly, Switzerland does not have graham crackers - learning how to make homemade ones is on my to-do list, but of course one should use graham flour to make graham crackers...see my above words re: flour types. It's a vicious circle.

Mini cupcakes! Super cute, and they disappeared quickly at B's work, but they felt a little spongy and not quite right to me. I may have overcooked them (I had no toothpicks, so couldn't test the center). I am also struggling to get my usually-reliable icing taste here - it's odd, but the powdered sugar is almost...sweeter than the powdered sugar in the US, so I haven't been able to make a strong chocolate frosting yet. And it can taste grainy. Works in progress.

I did love the pear component of the tart, though, and we had a leftover one, so I made this single-serving size of pear crisp, and it was so good that I went out and bought three more pears, threw some raspberries in, and made a much larger version. B and I consumed half of it in one evening.

Super tasty, easy, and not even that unhealthy (well, compared to many other links on this post).  I have an allergy to raw apple and pear skins, so I may be a wee biased; this is the first time I was able to eat pears in well over a year.

One of my favorite recipes I've made so far are these lime-cardamom sweet rolls. Yum! I added some cinnamon into the filling for a more robust, rounded flavor. Amazing.

So good. Cannot recommend this recipe enough.

I've made other dishes, but I slacked off in taking pictures. If you are super interested, I keep most recipes that I try (and that work) on my Pinterest board Tried and True, along with notes about what I changed. Pinterest is a pretty huge time suck and probably my favorite form of procrastination, but I've found that keeping all the online recipes that I might want to revisit (because they were just that good) in one place is actually very useful. Recipes that aren't there I probably have stored on my supercook.com account, a totally AWESOME website (it suggests recipes based on the ingredients you say you have), but I am trying to slowly switch saved/favorite recipes to Pinterest, as they are easier to find there.

Dinner and a chocolate berry tart

Last night I managed to produce both a main dish and a dessert before B got home - the first time ever I've accomplished such a feat (I even did a round of dishes as well!). Perhaps it wasn't a huge fait accompli in the larger picture, but it made for a lovely, relaxing evening - and both dishes turned out quite tasty. And yes, the week's theme of lime made an appearance in both!

For the main dish, I served up basically this shrimp dish over rice. I've made it several times before (it's on my tried and true board on Pinterest, where I stash my favorite recipes), and it always turns out well.

Since I am a bit gun shy around meat of any type (including seafood), I wimped out and bought tiny frozen shrimp that had been pre-cooked, making the preparation a total breeze (although to be fair, I do like the small shrimp - you get some in every bite and don't have to worry about the tails). I love this dish because it's so wonderfully flavorful - both the lime and the cumin are highlighted.

Yum, shrimp.

I won't take you step by step through the recipe, but safe to say that I encourage anyone to try it out - the marinade has a lot of flexibility in how to prep it. I use much less olive oil than it calls for (maybe 1-2 tablespoons) and usually a bit more garlic. Really, I can't recommend the recipe enough - it's quick, easy, tasty, and probably uses ingredients that you already have in your kitchen.

So tasty. This was originally meant to be a serving bowl, but I ate the whole thing. B joined his gym at work this week - I definitely need to start finding my own work out motivation.

For dessert, I made a chocolate berry tart. I started with this recipe for a rustic raspberry tart, but my finished product bore little resemblance to it by the end. Also, I still don't have my rolling pin (I have an extremely nice silicone one that I shipped from the US, but it's in one of the boxes being held hostage by the Post), so things got a little dicey with the crust part. Apologies, I didn't get pictures of the early steps, nor did I remember to weigh anything other than the butter.

This slice was way too small. I had thirds - and I'm not even sorry :)

Combine the flour and sugar, then cut in the butter until it looks like very coarse crumbs. I used a pastry cutter (brought from the US) for this step, since I don't have a food processor or blender, but I'm sure those would work just as well (or better). If you don't have any of the above, I've made do in the past by cutting the butter into small chunks before adding it to the flour, then using a fork to smash it into small pieces. Unlike cookies, you really want the butter to be cold, so that it can be cut in and not just mush together.

Add the milk and vinegar until you can form a dough. Now, the original recipe called for  only 3 TB of milk, but I swear that the "all purpose" flour here is more absorbent or something - I often find myself having to add more liquid to get doughs the consistency I need. But definitely get some vinegar in there - it causes a nice flaky texture to the crust. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten. Put in the refrigerator for an hour or so until it's nice and firm.

While the dough is refrigerating, mix together the zest, sugar, and flour in a bowl. Add the berries and toss to coat. I added a small squeeze of lime juice at this point as well - just because.

Frozen/fresh raspberries/blackberries, which are my two favorites.

After your dough is firm, take it out of the fridge but keep it either in the plastic wrap or on some parchment paper - if you add more flour at this point you'll end up with a drier, not so nice crust. Roll out the dough in a circle-ish shape until it's around 1/4" (<1cm) thick and 12" (30 cm) in diameter (preferably with a rolling pin, but you know - whatevs).

Not a rolling pin.

Place the crust into a pie or tart pan and even it out around the edges as best you can.

The nice thing about the plastic wrap or parchment paper is that you can keep  it attached to one side of the crust when you place it in the pan, then just peel it off and voila! Crust in the pan.

With some re-allocation of resources, the lack of rolling pin wasn't too noticeable.

Add the filling in - at this point, I decided to throw some what-passes-for-chocolate-chips-here (small chocolate chunks) on top, just to fill in the cracks. This turned out to be a wise move.

Bake for 35 minutes at 400F (205C). Take out, let cool. If you'd like, you can dust the top with some powdered sugar (I did this. Do this).

Fresh out of the oven.

The berries evened out well, and the filling was wonderful - not as runny as I feared. The lime taste does come through (B couldn't taste it, of course, but for normal people, it was there), but my favorite part was definitely the chocolate + berries, one of my favorite flavor combinations.

PS - This is a discussion I've had before with friends and coworkers (actually several times - is that weird?), but what exactly is the difference between a pie and a tart? Discuss.

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (114g) cold butter
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vinegar

Filling:
5 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
zest from one lime
400g (or thereabouts) berries
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:
Mix flour and sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add in milk and vinegar, form the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, flatten, and put in the refrigerator for around one hour until firm. For filling, mix together sugar, flour, and zest, then add berries and toss gently to coat. When the dough is chilled, roll out the crust to around 12" (30cm) in diameter (try not to use extra flour at this step). Place the crust into a greased pie or tart pan. Spread filling in the crust, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Bake at 400F (205C) for 35 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, then dust with powdered sugar if desired. Dig in.