chocolate olive oil cake with candied bacon

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three and a half operas down, two to go! the half opera was supposed to be a whole opera but then a tornado came down and all of our power blew away so we drank bourbon instead. have i mentioned that practically every other day there is a tornado warning?? sometimes it's scary, usually it's just rumbly and deliciously cloudy, once there was a meager little watch during dinner time and we went out in the name of rattlesnake sausage. we were fine until we learned that it was the wrong day for rattlesnake at the sausage place. obviously i was actually very relieved because obviously i didn't really want to eat rattlesnake, i just wanted to be able to tell you that i did. whatever, i'm over it. 

in three days, i'll go home and once again be able to snuggle with my oven and kitchen-aid and eggboy, and i am so excited. but i will also miss my opera family dearly until we reconvene in california in june. i'll miss this music and our hotel lobby dinner parties and our post-show taco outings that end with one delicious square of condensed milk red velvet cake, passed around a table of 12. i'll miss all of that and the vibraphone. 

but my heavens, it's been three entire weeks since i baked something and i can't hardly believe it. presumably the oven has been untouched since i left, and i can't wait to fill it with all of the cake and pizza and bread to make up for lost time.

i suppose before i start thinking about the first thing that i'm going to bake when i get home, i'll tell you about the last thing that i baked before i left. it is a loaf cake, because loaf cakes are so lovably cute and one day i want to have a loaf cake spread like the rose bakery loaf cake spread. this cake is also to celebrate the birthday of the wonderful melinda strauss over at kitchen tested!! it's super earthy and dark and moist and paired with candied bacon because bacon was the first word out of melinda's mouth when i asked her what type of cake she would like. never mind that she's kosher, the cake never made it within a thousand miles of her, but it's the thought (and the instagrams??) that count! happiest of birthdays to you, sweet melinda!!!  

chocolate olive oil cake with candied bacon

makes one 2-layer loaf cake

ingredients

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 3/4 c sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 c olive oil

1 1/4 c whole milk

3 large eggs

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 c orange juice

 

the candied bacon and frosting recipes are over on melinda's blog!

 

clues

preheat oven to 350.

grease two loaf pans (i use 8-inch by 4-inch pans) and line the bottoms with parchment. 

in a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. pour the batter into the loaf pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at about 40 minutes. 

let cool for 10 minutes in the pans and then turn onto a cooling rack. turn the oven up to 400 for the bacon. go on over to melinda's blog for the candied bacon and frosting recipes and then assemble as follows:

level one of the cake layers and pipe or spread on a thick layer of frosting. if desired, add a handful of bacon. top it with the other cake layer and top with additional frosting and bacon. 

slice and enjoy! 

-yeh!

creamed spinach!

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i don't actually really know that much about creamed spinach. i saw it once in the middle school cafeteria and then again in 2010 and it's not that it repulsed me or anything, i just had zero interest in it. i didn't understand a big pile of wet spinach and it didn't understand me. ok, popeye, yes, i know that, but is he exclusively creamed spinach? or just any spinach? idk. the point is, i turned a corner this winter when i finally listened to what the universe was telling me every time i entered our sad winterfell produce section: buy frozen vegetables. i just couldn't deal with all of the about-to-spoil sad looking vegetables that have to be shipped from faraway lands during the cold months.

so i became a frozen spinach hoarder. our freezer became one part spinach, one part cake, and i learned how easy it is to throw an entire frozen spinach block into a pot of risotto or something and magically have vegetables. and then one day for lunch when i was in need of a salad but lacking a pile of fresh greens, i cooked up one of my little spinach blocks, and added cream, cheese, a bunch of allium things, and a bit of flour when it was looking rather thin. i wondered if it was creamed spinach. it looked like the two creamed spinaches that i had seen, it had cream in it, and it made me feel like womanpopeye at volleyball that night. without any research to confirm that what i was making was in fact creamed spinach, i decided that creamed spinach is delightful and i made it every single day for the following weeks. 

then last month i was out to lunch with my book agent, jonah, and i told him that we must order the creamed spinach, for i am going through a creamed spinach phase and it is my new favorite food. he might have snuck a disapproving nose wiggle into his response but i didn't notice because i was too excited for spinach and oysters. 

when the spinach came, ohmygod, it was so bad. sticky, tacky, pre-barfed, not creamy. it tasted like the only two ingredients in it were spinach and stickiness. ew. it was not anywhere near my vacuum-life definition of creamed spinach. we became the most grossed out versions of ourselves, pushed the plate aside, and that's when jonah came out with the truth about creamed spinach: it's bad. all creamed spinach is bad. that's kind of its identity, and everybody knows it. you didn't know that?

i was vaguely mortified but also intrigued in the way that real housewives is bad but people still watch it.

what have i been making all this time???? i thought.  

is it real?

is it allowed?

is this actually just spinach artichoke dip without the artichokes?

what do other creamed spinach recipes look like??

i was finally convinced to read up on it a little, and i don't think my made-up spinach was too far off the mark. spinach, cream, more cream, onions, ideally some cheese. i conducted an informal poll which revealed that there are indeed a fair amount of people that really don't like it. jonah was right. there is hope though, as there is hope in probably everything that includes cream and cheese and a correct amount of salt... right? right.

so for that, i present to you the creamed spinach that got me through the winter, the dish that made my vitamin a levels through the roof, and most importantly the creamed spinach that made me love creamed spinach. (and hopefully the one that will make you love it too!)

it's super simple and the ingredients are easy to keep on hand. i usually use frozen spinach but if you have a ton of fresh spinach that you need to use up, you can use that too. i like eating this with a thick slice of bread or with a sausage plopped on top, eggboy likes eating it straight with a spoon. it is really important to salt this from beginning to end, and please, add as much cheese as you'd like. any negatives from eating too much cheese will be far outweighed by the positives of eating all of this spinach. 

creamed spinach

makes 4 servings

ingredients

1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach*

2 tb butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

kosher salt

black pepper

2** cloves of garlic, minced

2 tb flour

3 tb heavy cream

at least 1/4 c grated cheese (i usually use cheddar since that's what i have on hand, but feel free to whatever cheese you'd like.)

a squeeze of lemon juice

a few shakes of hot sauce

 

*or a shit ton of fresh chopped spinach

**or more, like way more

update: mum says it must have a pinch of nutmeg. ok, add a pinch of nutmeg!

 

clues

place the frozen spinach on a plate at room temperature so that it thaws a bit while you do the next few steps.

in a medium pot over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onion. season with salt and pepper. cook until the onion softens, 5-7 minutes, longer if you've got the patience. add the garlic and cook for about a minute longer. stir in the flour until combined, and then stir in the heavy cream to get a thick-ish saucy thing. 

ok this is where things get kind of janky. (usually it's at this point when i realize that i forgot to take the frozen spinach out to thaw, and instead of dirtying up a whole separate dish to microwave it, i just put the whole block in the pot and poke at it as it slowly (very slowly) starts to soften. eventually i remove the slightly softened block and chop it into cubes and then put it back in the pot.) if the spinach is soft enough from being out at room temp, you can chop it into cubes and add it. if it isn't, you can soften it in the pot or the microwave and then chop it and add it. 

salt ferociously.

stir it around until it softens.

add cheese, lemon juice, hot sauce, and more pepper. taste and add more cheese/salt/anything if desired. 

enjoy!!

last but certainly not least, this post is part of erin's surprise baby shower!!!! lovely lady erin (or, naturally ella) is about to pop so we're showering her with easy vegetarian tasties, which is extra appropriate since not only is she giving birth to a baby this spring, but she's also giving birth to an easy vegetarian book! because she is superwoman. a totally wonderful bassoon playing superwoman who is gonna have one well-fed baby. happy baby shower, erin!!!! 

go check out the other vegetarian recipes that are part of her shower:

The Fauxmartha | A Pasta Dish for Busy Hands
A Couple Cooks | Breakfast Parfait with Roasted Strawberries
Edible Perspective | Avocado Pesto Chickpea Salad Sandwiches
Eat This Poem | Penne with Cherry Tomatoes and Arugula
Cookie and Kate | Brussels Sprouts Pizza
FoodieCrush | Beet, Avocado and Fried Goat Cheese Salad
The Bojon Gourmet | Tempeh BLTs with Avocado + Chipotle Mayonnaise
Girl Versus Dough | Spiced Lentils with Poached Eggs
Dolly and Oatmeal | Chickpea Bean Bowl with Toasted Bread Crumbs and Dill Tahini
Food Loves Writing | Erin’s Veggie Burgers
With Food + Love | Creamy Polenta with Crispy Beets
London Bakes | Ricotta Gnocchi with Wild Garlic and Pistachio Pesto
Flourishing Foodie | Glazed Tofu with Ramen
This Homemade Life | Chickpea Greek Salad
Brooklyn Supper | One-Pot Pasta Primavera

-yeh!!! 

drunken zucchini noodles

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greetings from fort worth! i have already lost count of my taco intake and i'm slowly adjusting to/falling in love with the extremely friendly stranger people here. they are so delightful, i even got an unsolicited rhubarb jam recipe from a lady at the market. (it has cherry jell-o in it!) 

a majority of my texas existence has been spent in a dark corner of the stage, wiggling my toe off in the name of vibraphone sustenance, and flipping through genius recipes during my breaks (you are a silly goose if you don't have that book yet). i can't see any of the singers unfortunately, but boy do they sound great.

there's one line in the opera that i could listen to over and over and over, it's towards the end when michael's character, who is starving and cold and searching for food, sings the most beautiful melody with the words:

...maybe there are worms in the backyard... 

the end of the world is near and, oh goodness, the way that michael sings this line gets at my deepest shivers. it's one of the most haunting moments in the piece and i love it with the same intensity that worms gross me out. am i doing a good job of convincing you to come? worms, blood, apocalypse? truly, this opera is a crazy delicious gem and day-long rehearsals do not feel so day-long. 

when i'm not in rehearsal, i'm working with a lot of lovely restrictions that aren't as bad as the apocalypse but still, errm, adjustments. a kitchenette with two hot burners, no oven, and a camera lens that has lost his ability to focus. so! eggboy said it will be like learning to write with my left hand, and so far it's been really quite exciting, in a cutthroat kitchen type of way. i had a morning of steamed stove-top cake research, i bought ingredients for a rhubarb curd crepe cake which i am going to attempt without a whisk, and, ok, i'm going to learn how to take a disposable camera photo. 

halp.

my kitchenette does not have a spiralizer, but my home does, and i miss it very much! it arrived in the mail right before i left, so i quick made all of the noodles that i could and pretended to be ali maffucci. you all have her book, right??? i am so into it, it makes me want to eat so many vegetables, i don't even know myself anymore. these drunken zucchini noodles were one of the first recipes i made out of it, because i miss the drunken noodles at sripraphai and also because "zucchini" was the first large word that i ever learned how to spell and for all of first grade spelling it out loud was my go-to party trick. 

it kind of goes without saying, but these noodles present an excellent solution to the conundrum of wanting to sit on the couch, watch veep, and mindlessly shovel thai takeout into your mouth, but not wanting to feel like poop afterwards. they're delicious!!! 

drunken zucchini noodles 

from ali maffucci's inspiralized

ingredients

1 tb hoisin sauce

1 tb low-sodium soy sauce

1/2 tb oyster sauce

1 tb thai chili oil

1 tb thai or vietnamese fish sauce

1 tb virgin coconut oil

8 oz ground pork

2 small shallots, minced

1 medium garlic clove, minced

1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

2 thinly sliced scallions

2 medium zucchini, spiralized with blade a

3 tb chopped fresh thai basil leaves

clues

heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. add the hoisin, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili oil, and fish sauce and heat for about 2 minutes. transfer to a bowl.

add the coconut oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. add the pork and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or so, until cooked through and browned. add the shallots and garlic and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

return the sauce mixture to the skillet and add the bell pepper and scallions. cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. add the zucchini noodles and cook 2-3 more minutes or until the zucchini noodles soften. fold in the basil leaves, taste and adjust sauces if desired.

enjoy!

-yeh!

pictured: bowls // pan // cutting board // spurtle

 

new york

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how fired am i if i never want to see another tater tot for as long i live?

will my casserole dishes disappear? will i have to return my duluth pack? will the midwest barf me up in the same way that i want to barf up all the tater tots that i ate yesterday???

(i'm sorry, eggboy!! i'm sorry, eggfamily!!)

like if there is one downside to overhauling your wardrobe and replacing all of the college-era fitted clothes with grownup loose-fitting flowy garments that say i'm a married lady with a 9pm bedtime, it's that you *cannot* properly gauge your tater tot intake during an official sunday morning tater tot hot dog crawl around williamsburg. a crawl that was bookended by fried pickles and cheese curds. 

and now i find myself researching barbecue places for my next stop: texas. oy vezmir! where is my green juice.

this is all to say that aside from yesterday's tater tot-induced belly ache, this past week in new york was many types of marvelous. much of it was spent in rehearsal for dog days, and the rest of it was spent eating, drinking, hugging, making a wedding cake, telling my friend jeremy how good he is at the maracas (omg he is so good, go see him play), and basking in the sweet sweet sounds of mahler and george crumb. i saw friends i hadn't seen in ten years, ate hummus nearly every day, and at one point i dumped out an entire jar of sprinkles in the new food52 office. dreams do come true.

now i am leaving new york now with a full heart, a bingo win, and a baggie of salty swedish licorice, which i need you to get next time you're in a sweden. (thanks, hannah!)

here's where i went (and loved) during this trip:

hummus place // i have to go here every time i'm in new york. in my dream kitchen, there is a tap with an endless flow of hummus place hummus.

brooklyn larder // this is the other place i have to go to every time i'm in new york. their vegetables, romesco, muhammura, pistachio cake, and panade are just about everything. i'd eat so many more vegetables if i lived closer to here.  

breads bakery // this is quickly becoming another place i have to go to every time i'm in new york. one day i'll get there early enough to snag a shakshuka focaccia before they sell out, but until then their marzipan rugelach and cheese twists will have my heart. 

miriam // another great hummus place, and their zucchini cakes are little cheesy nuggets of perfection. 

cafe mogador // more hummus! and tasty labne and bread and cauliflower and everything else. and one day i must go for brunch.  

maison kayser // rob introduced me to their financiers and they are so good, even with the embarrassment of not really knowing how to pronounce "financier."

don antonio // marian and i split a pizza with walnut cream, zucchini, and smoked mozzarella and i ate it like the end of the world was near. 

greene grape // i'm mad at myself for not going here more when i lived so close to it. i'm also sort of mad at myself for not getting a jeni's ice cream sandwich and a bottle of this really good looking kentucky soy sauce when i went there.

kent ale house // stop #1 on tater tot crawl. great chili cheese tots, really great fried pickles.

crif dogs // stop #2 on tater tot crawl. i am forever a spicy redneck type of gal, and their tots were extra crispy and salty.

grand national // stop #3 on tater tot crawl. good tots. a good pineapple-y hot dog. jell-o shots. sunday afternoon bingo.

burnside // stop #4 on tater tot crawl. we all ditched the tots for their unbelievably amazing fried cheese curds. like, they were so good, they would even rival the ones at the fargo street fair.

dough // mmmm salty chocolate fluffy donuts. *blushing face smiley emoji*

ok, see you in texas!!!!

-yeh!