Passion

Passion is….

Revealing.

Red.

Bloody.

Intense.

Heartbreaking.

Promising.

Surprising.

Rewarding.

Sweet.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Adapted from Nigella Lawson Kitchen

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup (100 gm) all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg, room temp

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk, room temp

1/2 teaspoon cider (or white) vinegar

For the Cream Cheese Icing:

8 oz confectioner’s sugar

2 oz cream cheese, soft

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, soft

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar (or vanilla extract)

Cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Method

Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the food coloring and vanilla.

Add a spoonful of the flour mixture, beat, then add the egg and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the rest of the flour mixture, being careful not to over mix.

Pour in the buttermilk and vinegar and beat again until you have a cohesive batter.

Divide into a cupcake tin, filling each cup about 1/3 of the way full.

Bake 15-20 minutes are until the tops spring back when you touch them (or when a tester comes out clean). Cool on a wire rack.

Icing:

In a small bowl, whisk the icing sugar, butter and cream cheese together until the mixture is creamy. Add the vinegar or vanilla and incorporate well.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, ice the cupcakes however you please. I used a piping bag though the results are far from professional! Dust with cocoa powder if desired.

Makes 12 really red cupcakes for 12 really passionate people.

Egg In A Basket

You know that saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket?

That sounds to me like playing it safe.

That sounds to me like someone who was a scaredy cat made up that saying.

And then decided to make the rest of us linger in scaredy-cat limbo for all eternity.

Here’s what I say:

Take a risk.

Put One Good Egg, in One Strong Basket.

And Load It Up Well.

You’re all you’ve got.

Yumminess ensues.

Loaded Baked Egg In A Basket

I was planning to use turkey bacon for this but ran out at the last minute because I accidentally forgot about the blog and made a sandwich out of my last few slices. Oh well. So then I used sliced deli roasted chicken instead, and I figure you just need some salty slices of meat for this, so sliced turkey or ham, turkey bacon or indeed regular bacon would totally work.

Since I’m more of a snacker than a sit-down-meal-eater, I eat these randomly, for breakfast, as a snack, whatever. They’re really filling and low in calories (though not in fat because of the yolks, in which case you could do away with them). They make a neat little portable package.

I like to bake them a little longer for a firmer yolk. 10 minutes in the oven (after the eggs are in) will give you somewhere in the middle between gooey and firm. If you want a softer yolk, I would go for 5-7 minutes (but in that case you would need a plate if you don’t want egg yolk dribbling down your face and the front of your shirt, which, I think we can all agree, is really not attractive).

Obviously the recipe can be doubled. I live alone so small batches is my aim right now, blog or no blog. 

Ingredients

4 wonton wrappers

Cooking Spray

4 large eggs

¼ cup grated cheddar cheese

2 slices deli meat (turkey, chicken, ham) or bacon, chopped

1 scallion, chopped

Crushed red chili flakes (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 400.

Spray 4 cups of a muffin pan with cooking spray.

Carefully tuck each wonton wrapper into the muffin cups. Spray the wrappers lightly with cooking spray.

Bake for 5 minutes, until the edges are just starting to turn light brown.

Remove from the oven. Crack an egg into each muffin cup. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Sprinkle the cheddar cheese evenly over the eggs, then top with half of the chopped scallion (the white part), saving the rest for garnishing later. Sprinkle the chopped meat on top.

Bake in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes depending on desired level of doneness.

These are good piping hot, room temp or even cold from the refrigerator. I like to sprinkle mine with scallions and red chili flakes before digging in.

Makes 4, serves 2, or just me.

Breaking Rules and Recipes

The Recipe: Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I totally broke the rules with this recipe.

Breaking the rules is what the cool kids do. So I’m told. Not that I’ve ever been a “cool kid”.

In my head, breaking the rules is all about independence.

And Independence is kind of huge right now in the US of A.

5 Mantras on Rule-breaking:

Embrace adversity. – Salma Hayek. Advice given during her interview on Inside the Actor’s Studio in a room filled with students trying to break into the toughest industry in the world.

Don’t let anyone make you doubt yourself. –Ana Brett. Commentary during a killer-crazy yoga move for the abs called stretch pose which really tests the limits of your ability to HOLD ON.

Woe to him who seeks to appease rather than to appall. –Herman Melville in Moby-Dick. Okay, look I skimmed through Moby-Dick, so don’t make me look up my Cliff Notes on this…but I remembered this line and always loved it. A true rebel stirs things up and is never afraid.

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. – Fred & George Weasley via Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs, via Joanne Kathleen Rowling, Lord of the Rule-breakers. Irreverence and a sense of humor – indispensable. This quote is the ultimate mantra of the rule-breakers.

This above all: to thine own self be true. – Shakespeare. Pretty self-explanatory huh? But think, if we all really did this, we would be breaking all the rules all the time.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Heavily Adapted from Cooking Light

The original recipe for this is very involved. Very. You have to sear chicken thighs, then roast them in the oven, then shred them and then there’s like a bazillion other steps and pots and pans and blenders and all sorts of high drama.

I thought, really, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. So this is the lazier version of that casserole but in my opinion, just as good. It does have a lot of ingredients, but most of it is stuff you’re likely to already have on hand.

Plus, the bonus is that this is a lighter recipe, coming to around 400 calories per serving, and you get a good hefty serving for that.

No reason not to make it!

Ingredients

1  lb ground chicken

1 onion, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon oregano

salt to taste

1 cup frozen corn kernels

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 plum tomato, chopped

3 oz reduced fat cream cheese

2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapenos

1 cup chicken broth, plus 1/4 cup water

2/3 cup salsa verde

9 corn tortillas

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Method

For Filling

Coat a non-stick pan with cooking spray or a small amount of oil. Saute the ground chicken, along with half of the onion and half the garlic. Break up the chicken with a wooden spoon. Add the chili flakes, cumin, oregano and salt and mix well. Toss in the frozen corn kernels and cook until chicken is no longer raw, onions are translucent and corn is warmed through.

Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes.

Once the chicken has cooled, add and stir in the chopped tomato, cream cheese, pickled jalapenos and cilantro.

For Sauce

In a medium saucepan, saute the remaining garlic and onion in  a small amount of oil or cooking spray. Once they’ve softened, pour in the broth, water and salsa verde. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

To Assemble

Pre-heat the oven to 425.

Cut the corn tortillas into quarters.

Place half a cup of the salsa verde sauce in the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Arrange 12 tortilla pieces on top of the sauce. Top the tortillas with half of the chicken mixture.

Repeat this procedure, ending with the tortillas on top. For the final layer, add the rest of the sauce and sprinkle over with the cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and the casserole is bubbly.

Makes 4 huge servings for rule-breakers of all kinds. Even those on a diet.

Density

Do you know what density is?

Density, not destiny. And not density as in stupid, though that’s not a far stretch.

I’m talking about vibrational density.

What is vibration? Emotion. Simple. E-motion, energy in motion. It’s basically what the soul is made of.

Density is stuck energy. It is almost always negative.

Nay, it is ALWAYS negative. Because positive energy is always on the move. It’s light and free and happy as a butterfly fluttering in a sunny meadow.

Dense, stuck energy is a heavy heart, a dark cloud. It’s mean.

Now here’s the secret about density, or negative energy.

It doesn’t really exist. It’s just a ghost. It has no power other than the power you give it.

I mean let’s face it, no one is born thinking “It is my express mission in life to be sad and miserable”.

We strive for happiness because happy is our natural state.

So then what is UP with the density? Why the negative energies of sadness, anger, anxiety and the rest of the evil lot?

Density is just happy energy, warped, warbled and blocked. It’s not a separate energy.

How does it get blocked? Um, because of other people. It’s lovely if you’re surrounded by happy people all the time but most of us aren’t. And we start to believe what other people say.

This could be family or it could be TV commercials. All of it falls under the category of “crap other people tell us that makes us feel bad or insecure or basically conspires to burst our happy bubble”.

They usually sound really intelligent and they’re usually convinced that you should be very very afraid of, you know…. Stuff. (Germs, terrorists, zits, fat, failure, your credit score. Choose your poison).

So then how do you un-warp and un-warble negative energy?

You don’t need affirmations. The positive doesn’t need to be affirmed, because well, it’s already positive and pretty perfect.

You just have to ignore the negative. Just ignore it! Seriously, if you’re not thinking about it and wasting precious mental energy on it, then where is it?

Nowhere. If you don’t think about it, it’s gone.

And you’ll see that what seemed so dense and heavy, is really made of nothing at all.

Just like dark rain clouds are essentially nothing but vapor, this cake which looks rather menacing is actually as light as a feather.

Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen

Don’t be fooled by appearances – because while this cake looks like a heavy, dense block of chocolate (never a bad thing, but still) it is surprisingly light and fresh. If you love the chocolate orange combination, this is made for you.

The crumb is not as fine as that of a pound cake, but it is also nowhere near the heavier crumb of a quickbread. It’s somewhere in the middle and pretty near perfect for tea time. (And if you don’t drink afternoon tea, what are you waiting for? It’s total permission to add one more meal to your day! Brit-style too).

Two interesting notes about the taste – one is that there is no salt in this recipe, which is something I’ve noticed in many of Nigella’s baking recipes. I suppose a bit of testing is in order – I would love to know if salt really does make a difference to baked goods. My other baking idol, Joanne Chang, insists that it does, so I wouldn’t commit either way. But I do love that Nigella is pretty great at stripping a recipe down to its basics.

The other thing is that this cake is not overly sweet. In fact, by American standards it’s probably not sweet enough. I like the subtlety of the sweetness here – it feels like you’re having a treat but not something that screams Dessert with a capital D.

So there you have it – a dense-looking block of cake that’s anything but dense both in terms of texture and flavor.

There is a method to my madness.

Ingredients

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp

2 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden syrup (or dark corn syrup)

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons cocoa powder (the good stuff)

2 eggs, room temperature

zest of 2 oranges

juice of 1 orange

Method

Preheat oven to 325.

Grease a non-stick 2 pound (9 x 5) loaf tin liberally with butter. If you don’t have non-stick, I would line the pan with parchment, and then butter. Liberally.

In a medium bowl, measure out your flour, sift in the cocoa powder and add the baking soda. Mix everything well.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter together with the golden syrup just until incorporated, then add the brown sugar. Beat until light brown and fluffy.

With the mixer on medium-low, add a tablespoon of the flour mixture, wait until it’s mixed in and then crack in the egg. Beat.

Repeating this process, add a couple more spoonfuls of flour, then crack in the second egg.

Continue adding the flour in spoonfuls with the mixer on medium until all the flour is mixed in.

Add the orange zest and juice. Beat again. The mixture may look slightly curdled once the juice is in, but do not worry. All is well.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.

Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out with a few sticky crumbs clinging to it.

Makes 12 non-dense slices.

Overloaded

The world is crazy right now. Seriously. It’s not just the information age, it’s the Too Much Information age.

I blame the internet for everything.

The side effect of TMI is TMC, or Too Many Choices.

So many that it’s liable to make one’s head explode.

Choices are a good thing. We like the freedom of being able to choose.

But sometimes don’t you wish, you could just know?

What kind of milk at the grocery store – whole, 2%, 1%, fat-free, soy milk, almond milk? Oh, but which brand? And shouldn’t it be organic?

The cereal aisle? C’mon. At least 15 minutes I’m spending there debating between Kashi Go Lean or Cocoa Pebbles (Epic battle. Adult vs. child. Both me).

Let’s not even talk about the snacks aisle. What’s the new Cheeseburger Gazpacho Loaded Nacho Buffalo Wings Baked Potato flavor they’ve invented in the Frito-Lay Mad Flavors Factory this month?

You know I can’t resist the lure of new packaging.

Another consequence of TMI is TMA (Too Much Access) which leads to STMM (Spending Too Much Money).

I blame Amazon for this.  That one-click button should be banned. They make it waaay to easy to buy books practically everything.

So how do you make the correct choices in the TMI age?

How do you find the answer when every website, store, blog, etc is giving you several different options for several correct answers?

Simple.

The rule is as ancient as the earth.

Listen to your heart.

Still as difficult as it ever was, but more so in this age of Information Overload.

The quiet still voice within is still pretty much quiet and still (and I imagine, somewhat bemused by all this noise going on out here).

That’s the voice with the simple answer.

The answer you knew all along. The answer you knew before you even asked the question.

And this applies to the big questions as well as the little ones.

Don’t overload your brain with TMI.

Do, however, overload these muffins with blueberries.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen

I mean, seriously, with all the different blueberry muffin recipes floating around, how are you going to know which one to choose?

Well, the differentiating factor with this recipe is the cornmeal. You have the grainy crunch of a lovely sweet corn muffin studded with blueberries that burst in the golden corny interior.

Whew, what a corny description.

But really, that is what sets this blueberry muffin apart and it’s a nice change up from the usual flour based batter. Nigella’s recipe is really simple, uses the most basic ingredients and takes practically no time to make. I think these would also be really nice with raspberries, as they are more tart and the tartness against the sweet corn backdrop would be perfection.

Anyway, give these a go. There are only 29,687 more blueberry muffin recipes on the web for you to try. Get crackin’!

Ingredients

1 cup flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

3/4 cup blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 400. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.

In a measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk, top off with the oil, crack in the egg and whisk everything together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk till the batter just comes together. Fold in half of the blueberries.

Dollop the batter into the muffin cups. They should each be about two-thirds full.

Adorn the top of each muffin with the remaining blueberries, about 3-4 each.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are a crunchy golden brown.

Makes 12 easy choices for breakfast.

Rocky Roads

Sometimes, life gets a little rocky.

Sometimes, the rockiness is made of pebbles. Lots of little annoying pebbles that dig into your feet.

Pebbles would be like – oh, bad hair day, 10 extra pounds during bikini season, bad date with total loser, a boss that gets on your nerves, maxed out credit cards and phone calls that don’t get returned.

Sometimes you get big rocks.

Big rocks that make you stumble. Hard. Like self-doubt. Or regret or guilt.

Big rocks like when you believe something with all your heart and then….it doesn’t happen.

Or no one else agrees with you and they think you’re mad.

Fear.

That’s a motherfreakin’ boulder. Sometimes it can appear as big as a mountain.

You know that one. We all do.

But see, here’s the thing – we like boulders. We, as human beings, adore challenges. We relish the rocky roads.

We just forget sometimes. We think we want everything to be easy, but that’s not what we signed up for.

What would be the fun in that?

We signed up for the adventure. To believe what we believe from the bottom of our souls and screw anyone who dares to stand in our way and prove everyone wrong.

We didn’t want it to be easy. We wanted to fight. We wanted to win. We wanted to show ourselves that we are more than we ever thought we could be.

And that means climbing, surmounting, surpassing, dodging and otherwise overcoming many pebbles, boulders and rocky roads in life.

There’s nothing to fear with rocky roads. Victory lies ahead.

Especially with these.

Rocky Road Bars

Adapted from Nigella Express (well, not adapted, this is pretty much the original recipe)

I have no excuse for this. It’s chocolate and marshmallows and rich tea biscuits (which come in shiny gold packets and cost 39 cents, hello!) all gunked together. It’s no-brainer delicious and also no-brainer “I SO shouldn’t be eating this”.

But it’s exactly the thing to eat when life gets rocky and you’re all “screw this I’m going to eat chocolate till I die”…

Wake up the next morning with a chocolate hangover.

Eat salad for the next 5 days.

Crisis. Averted.

Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into chunks

10 oz good quality dark chocolate

3 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden syrup (or light corn syrup)

6 oz (2 small packets) Rich Tea biscuits (I used Goya brand Maria biscuits)

2 cups mini marshmallows

Method

Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

Remove half a cup of the melted chocolate mixture and set aside.

Crush the tea biscuits until you have  biscuit rubble and pour this, along with the marshmallows into the bowl of melted chocolate. Mix everything together, getting everything coated with the chocolate as evenly as you can. The mixture is going to seem a bit dry but don’t panic. It’s meant to be rubbly.

Grease a 9 inch square aluminum foil pan, or line a 9 inch pan with foil, and grease the foil with butter.

Plop in the chocolatey rubble and smooth everything out with a spatula. Dribble the reserved half cup of melted chocolate over the top to create a thin chocolate layer. Use your spatula to smooth out the top and spread the chocolate even over the nooks and crannies.

Leave to set in the refrigerator for 2 hours, at the very least. (I know you won’t be able to hold out any longer than that).

Remove from the pan and cut into chunks.

Makes 24 small squares or one humongous square for anyone who’s particularly desperate.

Be Happy, Make Happy

Recipe for Happiness:

Almost Pizza

Find 5 random things that  you absolutely love for no reason at all.

Smile.

Spread the joy.

Done and done.

1. Dog-eared pages of well-loved books. You'll never get this with a Kindle.

“Be happy, make happy – this is the rhythm of love.” ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Isn’t that perfectly reasonable?

2. Big Tub of Cocoa. I keep it in my bedroom on the dresser where normal people would keep face cream.

To make someone else happy, be happy yourself.

And all you have to do to be happy is well, be happy!

Just decide. It really is a choice.

3. Sneakers. I refuse to throw them out. End of story.

You can choose to be grumpy. Or sad. Or annoyed.

And soon you’re so annoyed you’re convinced you didn’t have a choice about being annoyed.

But you did.

4. Bollywood. Love it or hate it, or just plain don’t get it. Can't live without it.

It’s not the other person’s fault. No, really – it’s not.

It’s a choice you make.

5. J.K. Rowling's Order of the Phoenix handwritten plot chart. Because it all starts with your imagination. And I want to have as much fun as she had writing this. (Image Courtesy Slashfilm)

Put a smile on your face. And look around your space.

(Poet, didn’t even know it.)

Happiness, it’s free. Get some!

Eat!

Mock Pizza

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen

Well, calling this a pizza is a bit of a stretch – think of it more as a pizza flavored Yorkshire Pudding. Nigella calls it Crustless Pizza, but this could possibly be misleading to pizza purists.

But the point is that it’s really yummy and it WILL make you happy.  It’s great as a snack, or with a salad for lunch. It’s a bit naughty and makes you feel like a kid, or I suppose if you’re not in the refuse-to-be-a-grown-up camp, this would be a great meal FOR the kids…

It’s easy and quick and cheaper than ordering real pizza, and you can change up the flavorings any way you please.

Make. Happy.

Ingredients

1 egg

2/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

pinch of dried oregano

1 cup whole milk

1 cup grated cheese

2 oz pepperoni or turkey pepperoni slices

Method

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a pie dish with butter, oil or cooking spray.

Whisk together the egg, flour, salt, spices, milk and half of the grated cheese. Pour into the pie dish and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the pie dish from the oven and arrange the pepperoni slices over the crust. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese.

Place the dish back in the oven and bake for 5 more minutes.

Allow the pizza to cool slightly before removing from dish and slicing.

Serves 1 or 2 very happy kids or kids-at-heart.

Campfire Buddha

In the central province of Saraburi in Thailand there is a temple that houses the Buddha’s footprint.

This is where I had my first experience with the all-American camping phenom, the Mighty S’more.

Strangeness & randomness to the infinite, people.

Image Courtesy Wikipedia

So – it was junior high. Not a very fortunate phase in anyone’s life. Although when you’re actually IN junior high, everyone else seems normal except you.

You, naturally, stick out like a sore thumb.

Wrong clothes. Wrong hair. Wrong braces. Wrong everything.

And no clue whatsoever why the hell anyone would ever want to go camping.

It was a field trip arranged by the international school in Bangkok where I spent the first half of my life.

My American teachers and American classmates were like – rockin’ out full on camp-town USA, fully equipped with tents and graham crackers, marshmallows, Hershey’s chocolate bars, hot dogs and burgers and buns to go with.

I was utterly confused.

I bought beach shorts just for the occasion. Because somehow I thought large-print multi-colored beach shorts were the thing to wear on a camping trip.

I was wrong.

Someone handed me a hot dog on a stick the first night by the camp fire and I stared at them blankly.

I am mortally afraid of bugs.

Thailand has a LOT of bugs.

I believe this trip was also my first experience with Off! Bug spray which the American quotient also managed to secure, presumably from the American embassy, along with the marshmallows.

Day 2, we had the option to go on an early, early morning trek up to the temple to see the Buddha’s footprint.

I didn’t go because I was too frazzled trying to make sense of my beach shorts, my hair, the bugs, the hot dogs and the whole American camping experience in general.

The Buddha would have to wait.

That night, they broke out the S’mores.

And all, as they say, was forgiven.

But I tell you, if you are an indoorsy soul like me, you needn’t go camping anywhere, whether in Thailand or Texas, to enjoy a S’more.

You can mash everything up into a cookie right at home, right in your trusty oven, bug-free, frizz-free, beach-shorts-free.

And happy.

S’mores Cookies

Adapted from Eleanor Klivans’ Big Fat Cookies

These cookies are out of control. They are not very pretty to look at. But they are out of control in the taste department.

We know marshmallows get soft and gooey in a regular fireside S’more.

And we know marshmallows get caramelly and sticky from making Rice Krispies.

These cookies are the best of both those Utopian worlds.

Gooey, melty, sticky, chewy, chocolately, graham-crackery goodness.

The original recipe calls for using graham cracker crumbs, but I went with buying the sheets then crumbling them up myself. I like the texture of having a few bigger pieces of graham crackers dotted throughout the cookie. Because there is so little flour used here, you really get full on graham cracker flavor.

If you under-bake them a little, you get maximum gooeyness, but they are going to tend to fall apart. I found them to be most delicious this way.

If you’re more into having them look cohesive (these are not pretty suckers), then make sure to bake them longer so that they hold together. They will be a little crispier, and the marshmallows will have melted into that clear, sticky caramelly thing around the edges.

Either way, they are phenomenally delicious.

Ingredients

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

18 sheets (2 packets) graham crackers

¼ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 ½ cups miniature marshmallows

Method

Preheat oven to 325.

Place the graham crackers in a food storage bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have mostly crumbs with a few larger pieces. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Crack in the egg and pour in the vanilla extract. Beat until well incorporated.

Gradually pour in the graham cracker crumbs, flour and salt. Mix until combined.

Add the chocolate chips and marshmallows and mix well.

Using an ice cream scoop or ¼ cup measure, drop rounded balls of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, 4 inches apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies slightly so that they are about ¾ of an inch thick.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. The edges of the cookies will look clear and caramelly, while the centers may still have bits of white marshmallow peeking out.

Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack using a big spatula.

Makes 15 bug-free, campfire-free cookies.

Airy Fairy

Potterheads, rejoice.

If Luna Lovegood were a dessert this is what she would be.

Because Raspberry Pavlova is as airy fairy as she is.

While it’s impossible to choose one favorite character out of J.K. Rowling’s master creation (that would be Harry Potter, if you happen to live on another planet), Luna always ranks pretty high up on fan lists.

Image Courtesy Potterincantatem

Why?

Because she just does her thing.

And she doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

And she believes in stuff that no one else can see.

And she wouldn’t care – in fact she wouldn’t even know – if you thought she was Luna Looneybins.

And why is she so popular?

Because I think we all wish we could be just a little bit like her.

Brave enough to appear absolutely crazy to other so-called sane (um, boring) people. Muggles, I’m lookin’ at you.

And then, when she has the final word – it’s like wait, was she crazy, or is my vision just insufferably limited?

Hmm?

So this is for the airy fairy being in all of us, who just believes what she believes. And believes above all in the goodness of things.

And really couldn’t be bothered with what anyone thinks.

Egg whites, people, have got to be the most magical ingredient on the planet.

And you thought it was that boring stuff you have to eat for your low-carb, low calorie breakfast. That’s SO Muggle-like of you.

Baking wizards know that when you whip egg whites long enough, they just transfigure themselves into all sorts of magical things like Royal Icing or Meringue.

And you don’t have to attend a single session of Ms. McGonagall’s transfiguration class to learn how to do it.

A Kitchenaid mixer makes a mighty fine substitute for that wand you don’t own.

Meringue is airy fairy, light as a feather – almost makes you think it wasn’t even there. Makes you wonder, did I really just eat something?

Of course you did, because the sweetness will linger on your tongue. Reminding you that you did indeed just have a magical experience.

Raspberry Pavlova With Chocolate Cream

(Adapted from Nigella Lawson Fresh, though this is pretty much the standard recipe for pav. And yes I do own ALL of Nigella’s books.)

I have to sheepishly but brazenly (a la Luna) confess to pulling out the Cool Whip for this. I know Cool Whip is made out of all sorts of things it shouldn’t be made out of and that we shouldn’t be eating but it IS my summer weakness. Berries and Cool Whip. A girl has to have her vices.

I completely understand the Cool Whip snobbery though. It’s just a little too Sandra Lee (“whipped topping” anyone?), who in a way, is as oblivious as Luna and appears to be having the last laugh no matter how crazy we think she is.

So you can of course, use real whipped cream with a little cocoa powder mixed in and perhaps a touch of sugar and vanilla to sweeten it up. I won’t make you buy the Cool Whip. And I don’t mean that thing I said about Luna and Sandra Lee. They’re not alike at all.

And Pavlova – I mean, why are we not eating more of this people? It’s like cake but without the calories! Perfect for a light summer dessert. Just as long as you don’t go insane with the cream (or you can if you want, it’s your Pavlova), it’s…well, it’s magical.

Make it and you’ll be a believer too.

Ingredients

For the Pavlova

4 egg whites

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon white vinegar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Assembly

1 cup Cool Whip (or whipped cream)

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 pint raspberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 350.

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Draw an 8 inch round in the center of the parchment using a cake tin. Set aside.

Whisk the egg whites until they are satiny white. Gradually add the sugar while the whites are still whisking until you have a smooth, glossy mixture. Sift in the cornstarch, pour in the vinegar and vanilla extract, then gently fold everything until well incorporated.

Carefully mound the egg whites into the 8 inch round on your parchment. It doesn’t have to be perfect but smooth everything out as best as you can. Place the baking sheet into the oven then immediately turn the oven down to 300.

Bake for about 30 minutes. The pavlova is done when the edges are crisp and lightly browned, the top is dry but it still feels spongy beneath.

Turn off the oven, open the door slightly and leave to cool completely.

To assemble, whisk together the cream and cocoa powder. Dollop onto the center of the meringue and smooth to the edges. Place the raspberries on top, however you please.

Makes 8 airy fairy slices.

Rosewater Romance

There is a scene in an old Bollywood film called Pakeezah (which means Pure), where the protagonist, a courtesan, is reading a letter from a man she has never met but has fallen in love with.

She’s lying by a fountain, in the middle of an opulent room, with her long hair soaking in the cool, rose petal laden and presumably fragrant waters of the fountain pool.

Not a bad way to unwind after a hard day’s work.

So much has changed  – or perhaps nothing has – the fountain is now a bathtub and the letter is now an e-mail, no a text – and hopefully the “hard day’s work” doesn’t involve entertaining gentleman callers.

Technology may have progressed but the turmoil of romance remains the same.

It’s not what we do that’s changed – or ever will for human emotions are eternal. It’s how we do them that has undergone such drastic and decidedly un-romantic transformations.

And the how is what makes all the difference, putting the magic and mystery in human existence.

Romance is eternal but romance today is all harrowed frenzy and brisk efficiency – compatibility checklist dating where convenience comes first, love second.

It’s the hard lines of our minds rather than the softer ones of our hearts that run the dating game now.

Really, IS this romance?

Call me a die-hard romantic but Love, my friends is not the place for efficiency, nor convenience. It is not a give and take proposition. It’s not a business deal.

The scent of rosewater makes me imagine a time when there was more time – to dream, to contemplate the fires of our existence, the mysteries of our hearts.

An era when we allowed Love to reveal her mysteries, rather than try to bulldoze her into our schedules or analyze her on Google.

An era of mystics long gone.

So am I the only die-hard romantic out here? Or do I need to get a copy of He’s Just Not That Into You and then proceed to shoot myself?

In the meantime, these Rosewater Almond Macaroons just might tap your inner mystic and make you believe in good old-fashioned romance again.

Rosewater Almond Macaroons

Basic Recipe Adapted from Gourmet, Rosewater Cardamom Borrowed from Nigella Lawson Feast

Other than the obvious intensely nutty-chewy benefits of eating macaroons (NOT the more fashionable and trendy macarons, but old-fashioned, outdated macarooooons), the great fun of making this is the little rosewater trick that will make you feel like a princess or at the very least, a memsahib. (We’ll just leave the courtesan out because I’m pretty sure none of us wants to feel like one).

I know it is standard to use blanched almonds, but I didn’t have any on hand – and anyway, I kind of like the color combination that comes from using the regular ones. The peanuts were an experiment, and I quite liked the result. But just use a whole cup of almonds if you want to go forthe more traditional.

Between the scent of the cardamom, the sugary nuttiness of the nuts and the rosewater, these cookies are guaranteed to transport you somewhere far beyond your computer, smartphone, cubicle or food truck and into the lost, haunted corridors of long-forgotten palaces.

Make them. Eat them. Dream.

Ingredients

3 cardamom pods

1/2 cup raw peanuts

1/2 cup raw almonds

2/3 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg white

2 tablespoons rosewater

8-10 whole almonds for decoration

Method

Preheat the oven to 350.

Crack open the cardamom pods and put the black seeds into a plastic bag. Bash with something heavy until you have a powder.

Process the peanuts, almonds, sugar, cardamom powder and salt in a food processor, pulsing until you have a fine sugary rubble, but not a paste.

Add the egg white and pulse until the mixture comes together.

Sprinkle some of the rosewater onto your clean hands. Using your fragrant princess palms, take tablespoon sized balls of dough and roll to form a ball. Flatten then slightly and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Press one whole almond onto each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely.

Makes 8-10 Scheherazade-worthy cookies.