Monthly Archives: July 2011

Zucchini Cakes

I think it’s safe to say that the zucchinis have won. Dan and I are officially sick of the stuff — we’ve eaten zucchini in some form or another every single day this week. Roasted, mainly, but also sauteed, mixed in with scrambled eggs, and cut into strips for fries. These zucchini cakes were a last ditch effort to keep the fruits of last weekend’s labor from going to waste, but there’s still one gigantic squash left. Thankfully, my parents were happy to take that off our hands before it started festering in a dark corner of my fridge. Tired as I am of zucchini, these cakes were still pretty tasty. Kind of like crab cakes, only filled with zucchini instead of crab meat....

This past weekend a bunch of us piled into Dan’s tiny Mazda and headed into the boonies of Virginia for some good old fashioned fruit picking. The original plan was to pick peaches and blackberries, but once we got to the farm, we realized they had a whole lot more to offer than just those two fruits. In the end, we came away with a huge bagful of peaches, six ears of corn, and four massive zucchinis. And it only cost us $11! The peaches will definitely get eaten, and I already have plans to use the corn for upcoming dinners, but I must confess…I have never actually cooked a zucchini. In fact, I’ve only recently worked up the nerve to try eating zucchini,...

OK, raise your hand if you’re excited about Harry Potter 7.2 coming out this week. I am super excited! Like millions of other people out there, I am a die hard HP fan. I basically grew up with the characters! I can still remember reading the first book in 6th grade and thinking “man…this is amazing…when’s the next one coming out???” And every book after that just got better and better, as I became more invested in the character’s lives — I cheered when Harry finally stood up to the Dursleys, groaned when Harry went through all that teenage angst, cried when Dumbledore and Fred died, and whooped when Ron and Hermione finally kissed. It was 10-year long emotional roller coaster! But to be...

So last week I made crab rangoons for the first time. We were in Boston for 4th of July weekend, and one of our friends invited us over to make sushi. This, of course, meant crab rangoons were on the menu too. And crab cakes. And peach margaritas. I dunno, it made sense at the time. Anyway, turns out rangoons are really easy to make. Just mix up some cream cheese, chopped green onions, and shredded synthetic crab meat… Scoop fat spoonfuls of filling into the center of some wonton skins… And fold those suckers into adorable little wonton shapes. Triangular rangoons are easier to make, but I love that these look like little ladies in bonnets. We originally made these to be an...

Is it just me, or do desserts in Japanese anime/manga always look amazing? Whether it’s cake, pie or ice cream, everything is always so sparkly and elaborate, surprisingly realistic-looking, and just positively oozing with goodness. My stomach pretty much growls constantly when I’m reading food/dessert-themed manga. I’m a nerd, I know. Anyway. I’d always assumed that the cakes in my mangas were completely made up and too elaborate to replicate in real life. Imagine my excitement when I saw a picture of Japanese-style strawberry shortcake on TasteSpotting last month that looked exactly like one of the cakes that always appears in food-themed mangas. Spoiler alert: I was super excited. And, since it’s just a shortcake, this cake was actually really easy to make. As...

A lot of people love chocolate and peanut butter, but my friend Emily really loves it. Like, “possibly bordering on an unhealthy addiction” kind of love. She actually refers to Reese’s peanut butter cups as “crack,” and goes out of her way to avoid the stuff because if there’s any of it around the house, she’ll keep eating and eating until she wants to puke. OK, I know what you’re thinking — lots of people love chocolate, and pretty much everyone has at some point or another eaten so much candy that they want to die. Trust me when I say that this is different. I’ve seen this woman demolish a one pound, jumbo-sized Reese’s peanut butter cup in 30 seconds and then reach for more. If...

Last week, David Leibovitz’s blog had a delicious-looking guest post on strawberry vodka. Soon after that, TasteSpotting and FoodGawker exploded with entries showcasing different fruit-infused vodkas. Since everyone else was doing it… Yeah, I hopped on the infused vodka train. Ripe strawberries smell so good! And after three days in a tightly sealed jar with said berries, the vodka smelled pretty good too. One whiff and I had visions of delicious strawberry-flavored cocktails dancing before my eyes. Some people say summer is all about the beach and weekend cook-outs…I say it’s about the drinks. Gotta stay hydrated in the heat, you know! And what’s better for the body and soul on a hot summer day than lemonade? Strawberry Lemonade. With vodka. Twisted Strawberry Lemonade...

Monthly Archives: July 2011

Zucchini Cakes

Zucchini Bread

Butterbeer Cupcakes

Crab Rangoons

Japanese-Style Strawberry Shortcake

Peanut Butter Cup Bars

Twisted Strawberry Lemonade

Blogs I Love

Cool Sites