Well, let's be real. Most of it isn't.
As much as I luv to cook, bake, frost cakes and cupcakes and sprinkle sanding sugar on just about anything I can get my hands on...all that sort of falls by the wayside during the height of sports season.
Exhibit A
My dinner last some time last week during the NFL Preseason.
Umm yeah. So that would be an English muffin (fat free thankyouverymuch)...some left over marinara sauce with some spinach mixed in for vitamins...a sunny-side up egg (nice and runny), some leftover corn...oh yes, and a side of canned baked beans (organic, no less).
Mouthwatering, I know. Those beans were pretty good though. Not gonna lie. Reminds me of the pork and beans (read: vienna sausages and Van De Kamp Baked Beans with a few squirts of mustard, ketchup and a couple shakes or Worcheshire sauce...all microwaved to perfection).
But that's for another entry at another time.
Exhibit B
Lunch on Saturday.
I guess I could call it a deconstructed hummus of sorts? Maybe? More canned beans. Garbanzo this time. I've been reading food blogs preaching the gospel about cooking your own garbanzo beans. And let me tell you, this is a highly over-rated process. Low ROI. I don't know about you, but simmering dried beans for hours on end (depending on how old your beans are...but then again, how are you supposed to know that you bought old beans? Not til it's too late. And therein lies the problem), is not my idea of a fun summer Saturday.
I found that if you buy a can of trustworthy garbanzo beans, preferably no salt added, and plunge them into a pot of boiling salted water (much as you would pasta) for 1-2 mins, you have pure bean bliss. Bean. Bliss. Imagine that. They taste just like home-simmered, I swear. And better yet, if you've never subjected yourself to bean simmering, you will never know the difference.
But enough about beans. I mixed my garbanzos with some tahini, lemon juice, pasted garlic, mint, parsley, a seeded tomato, cumin and paprika. Garbanzo bean sandwich, anyone?
After all this canned business, I had this craving to make something somewhat involved. Something that involved butter.
Enter Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake. Emphasis on the browned butter. The magic maker. This cake is insanely rich, nutty but most of all yummy. If you luv hazelnuts. And if you luv browned butter. Which I do on both counts. And topped with a milk chocolate glaze? Really. To quote the Barefoot Contessa, "how bad can that be?" Not bad at all.
A word about hazelnuts. I just wanna come out and say that I cannot stand blanching hazelnuts. It's futile. Either that, or I'm a failure. I can never get those silly brown skins to come off. Rub them in a clean kitchen towel. Place them in a colander and scrub them with a vegetable brush. Honestly? Here's the deal. These skins are stubborn and very attached to the hazelnut. I say, leave them alone. Definitely try to take them off, but the ones that don't do what's natural...just cruise. More vitamins, as my mom would say.
Which brings us to tonight's dinner. And yes there was football. Soooo...
The garbanzo bean salad of Saturday might have made a comeback as...
Pizza? I know. I fail at creativity when sports are around. But if you had a pizza stone, you would also have the urge to make pizza just about every chance you got. This one's got a wheat crust, tahini spread, the garbanzo salad, feta and arugula.
But thanks to this super fast dinner, I didn't miss the game winning action.
The ball slipped out of the Panther's hands and right into the hands of the Giants who as you can ran for the winner. The game was tied...and I was secretly, well not so secretly hoping for some OT.
But, where I have let myself go in terms of cooking, others have kept it up.
My co-worker and dear friend Lindsay made the most lovely and delicious poundcake (dusted with powdered sugar and a side of raspberries...my fav) for work today. It was amazing and exactly what I needed on this Monday afternoon.
She puts me to shame. I need to step up. Stay tuned.
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