Weekly Dish

Weekly Dish was born! I can honestly say that when I sat down at my computer this time last year and hit “publish” for the first time, I had no idea what I was in for. Over 200 posts later, as I click back through my archives, I realize that I’m looking at a year in my culinary life, a record of what I made and what I consumed. Which was partly the point of this whole endeavor, of course: documentation.

But it was also about honing my craft, both as a cook and a writer. The site has pushed me to be more conscious about what and how I cook, and having an audience has stretched my willingness to try new things, my technical abilities in the kitchen, and my knowledge of how this whole business of combining ingredients to create something new works in the first place. Weekly Dish has made me a better cook, plain and simple.

And a better writer: composing spontaneously (and quickly) several times a week has provided a welcome space for growth of my writing self. Thankfully for all of us, practice has also sharpened my photography skills. Slowly, over the course of the last year, horrendous, poorly lit exposures of uninteresting plates have given way to more thoughtfully composed presentations, which if still not where I’d like them to be, at least don’t make viewers shudder and turn away in horror (as some of my earliest pictures do for me now when I look at them!)

What I didn’t know to expect from Weekly Dish were all of the pleasant surprises that have come in the form of emails, comments, and other people’s blogs. Quite simply, you readers out there, have been the nicest surprise of all. Oh, sure, I expected that my grandmother would be delighted to read my posts and say that they were wonderful. But to have people who previously did not know me, come into my kitchen via this little corner of the web, pull up a virtual kitchen stool, and watch, listen, comment on, and participate in my culinary experiments alongside me has brought more joy than I fathomed possible. What began as a way to share recipes and ideas with a friend has turned into a (literal) web of friendships, cris-crossing the globe.

As I have shared with you before, making food is for me primarily an expression of love. So, to know that others out there are partaking in our meals — even just with their eyes — makes a world of difference. As I cook for my little family, and sometimes friends and neighbors, I also cook for you readers, hoping that along the way, you receive these meals and turn them into expressions of your own, sharing them with those you love.

So today, I want to say a great big THANK YOU to all of you who have joined me over the past 12 months to partake in what has turned out to be a terrifically fulfilling adventure. I hope you will continue to stop in and occasionally let me hear from you — your comments, stories, recipes, ideas are always welcome here.

To celebrate: cupcakes!

Birthday Cupcakes (Chocolate with Mocha Buttercream Frosting)

3 1/2 ounces (200 grams) 60% or 70% cocoa high-quality chocolate, chopped
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 T. strong coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill the cups of a muffin tin with paper or tin baking cups; spray with cooking spray.

In the top of a double-boiler over boiling water (or your mixing bowl placed over a pot of boiling water if you don’t have a double-boiler), melt the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugars in an electric mixer, until thoroughly combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well as you go.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together (sift them if you’re so inclined).

Also stir together the buttermilk and coffee (I do this in a glass measuring cup with a pouring spout).

With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk mixture alternately to the butter and sugar, until all ingredients are well-incorporated. Last, stir in the chocolate.

Pour the batter into the paper or tin cups in the muffin tin, filling the cups about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When cool, top with frosting. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Mocha Buttercream Frosting

5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 egg white
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 T. strong coffee
2 T. instant coffee granules (espresso powder also works)
2 sticks butter, softened
4 cups confectioner’s sugar

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double-boiler and set aside to cool. In a glass bowl or measuring cup, stir together the cream, coffee, and instant coffee until the coffee granules dissolve. In an electric mixer, whip the butter until creamy. Add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until completely combined with the butter. With the mixer on medium, add the chocolate. Next, beat in the coffee mixture, whipping on high speed until the icing forms soft peaks. This frosting works best if you use it immediately, but if you have to refrigerate it, you’ll need to leave it out for a while to soften so it will be spreadable. This recipe makes plenty to frost 24 cupcakes and still have some leftover.

–Adapted from Sara Foster’s Fresh Everyday and the Foster’s Market Cookbook 

Posted: Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 12:53 pm Filed under: Something Sweet, Miscellaneous Musings, Cake. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.