Weekly Dish

Grandmothers are delicious treats. My dad’s mother has always been a huge part of my life–in grade school, whenever I had to write an essay about who I most admired, she took top honors. A few weeks ago, I was at her house to celebrate birthdays for two of my aunts, and the dessert you see above is what Aunt Prissy served in Grandmother’s beautiful crystal, which she has collected over a lifetime.

Although I am a little late in joining, I recently read about a food blogging event called “In the Pink.” Emily at La Dolce Vita invited food bloggers to create pink food and write about it, in honor of breast cancer awareness. When I read Emily’s story and the inspiration for the event, I knew I wanted to join. Knowing my paternal grandmother so well all these years has always had a tiny edge of bitterness to it: I didn’t get to know my mom’s mother, because she lost her life to breast cancer when I was only two years old.

I am grateful for the chance to have such a sweet grandmother in my life, and saddened at the same time to have lost another so early. My hope is that the spread of breast cancer awareness can prevent other women from losing their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters to such an ugly disease.

Here’s a pink dessert with delicate lace cookies, dedicated to both of my grandmothers, whose lives I cherish. Thanks to Aunt Prissy for making such a lovely dessert, which I think accurately represents the delicate sweetness of grandmothers everywhere.

Amaretto Pink Sherbet with Lace Cookies

Raspberry Sherbet, 1 generous scoop per serving

Amaretto, about 1 tablespoon per scoop (more or less to taste)

Lace cookies, 1 per scoop

Aunt Em’s Lace Cookies

Aunt Prissy used Paula Deen’s recipe for the cookies in the picture but says she likes Aunt Em’s recipe better, so I’m giving it to you instead. Aunt Prissy also recommends parchment paper instead of foil.

1 cup quick oats

1 cup sugar

3 T. flour

1/4 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 stick butter, melted

1 t. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

Mix the oats, sugar, flour, and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the melted butter, and mix well. Then add egg and vanilla; stir to combine. Refrigerate the dough for a few hours. Drop spoonfuls 3 inches apart onto a foil- or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Watch carefully until they are light brown on edges. Cool slightly and peel off of foil. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

To assemble the dessert: scoop sherbet into long-stemmed glasses. Drizzle the amaretto on top. Break cookies in half, and stick one half into each side of the glass. Pretty and easy to do for a lot of people.

MY FIRST BLOGGING EVENT: IMBB #19

Thursday, September 29, 2005

What is a blogging event and what does IMBB stand for? Well, dear readers, I’ll tell you. See, out there in the big world of the wide web, there’s this whole community of people who write blogs about food and cooking. They hold events every so often where everyone writes about the same thing during the same time period. IMBB stands for Is My Blog Burning? You can read about the event’s origins here. I have only read about these events until now, and for some reason, I decided it was a good time to join in (you know, because school really isn’t keeping me busy enough).

For this IMBB, the 19th in the series, Sam of Becks & Posh instructed all of the participants to make a vegan meal and serve it to some unsuspecting guest. (See my unsuspecting guests above–my fellow PhD student Casey and her sister Christy). I was all excited about sharing my very first blogging event with my new friends. Casey’s birthday was a few weeks ago, so I did some research and figured out how to make her a vegan birthday cake. Before I tell you about the meal I prepared, though, I might as well go ahead and confess. I tried really hard to stick to this whole vegan thing, but on inspecting my recipes later, I discovered that I was foiled. Vegans avoid animal products of any kind, and, well, apparently that’s more difficult than I thought.

I had planned to make Eggplant Parmesan for Casey and Christy before I found out about IMBB. So, I thought, I’ll just omit the cheese; what’s so hard about that? And, I had made marinara sauce earlier in the week that was vegan–perfect for the eggplant–and some fresh pesto without the parmesan cheese to flavor the coating. I even found a way to get the coating to stick to the eggplant without using eggs. What I did not think about was whether my bread crumbs had dairy products in them, and, as it turns out, they did. And the pasta I served the eggplant and marinara on was made with egg whites.

BUT, just in case you are wondering why I posted this in the first place since I seem to have failed the challenge so miserably, I am happy to report that the cake I made was vegan, and Casey, Christy, and my husband, David, all gave it good reviews. So here’s the recipe for it, along with my recipe for the eggplant, even though it’s not quite vegan. Thanks for reading my very first event post!! Come again soon.

Chocolate Mocha Cake with a Kick

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

1/4 t. salt

3/4 cup strong coffee

1/2 cup margarine (100% vegetable oil)

1 T. balsamic vinegar

1 T. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together in the bowl of a mixer. Add the coffee with the mixer running on low, then add the vinegar and vanilla. Add the margarine last, turning the mixer up to high speed and beating until smooth. Pour into a greased 9×9 cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/4 cup strong coffee

Whisk together until smooth and shiny. Pour over warm cake, spreading to coat the top and sides. Sprinkle with cinnamon to serve.

Eggplant Not Parmesan

1 small to medium eggplant

Kosher salt

1/2 cup flour

1 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon pesto (for vegan, I made it without the cheese, and substituted 1 t. Kosher salt)

1 cup bread crumbs

Canola oil

Slice the eggplant into thin slices, and lay in one layer inside a colander. Sprinkle with Kosher salt. If your slices won’t all fit in the colander (as mine didn’t), cover the first layer with paper towels and lay another layer on top. Allow to drain for about an hour.

Dry the slices and wipe off any excess salt; then dip in flour to coat on both sides. Lay on a baking sheet. Mix olive oil and pesto together in a shallow baking dish; pour the bread crumbs into another. Dip each slice in oil, then in breadcrumbs. If you have time to let the slices refrigerate for a half-hour or so, the coating will do a better job of sticking when you fry them.

Heat a half-inch of canola oil in a large skillet. Fry the slices until brown and crispy on both sides, about 6 minutes per side. Decrease the heat if they bread crumbs brown too quickly. Drain on paper towels.

Serve with angel hair pasta and marinara sauce. Make sure your pasta is egg-free if you want it to be vegan. If you don’t care about making this meal vegan, you can add some fresh mozzarella slices to the top of the eggplant, and melt under the broiler before serving (this is usually how I make it).

Tagged with: IMBB19 + Vegan