The Decatur Dish

I spent this past weekend blissfully out of Smalltown, Georgia!

Have you heard LCD Soundsystem's "New York, I love you but you're bringing me down"? Well if you haven't, or you'd like to see Kermit the frog sing it, then just dance your little mouse this way. Anyway... that was kinda the point I had reached with Smalltown.

Only I don't love Smalltown. I'm just not quite a Smalltown girl. But for some reason I just keep moving from one Smalltown to another for... ya know... the almighty dollar. There-fore... I take singular joy in roadtrips. Love them.

It should surprise exactly none of you that when I vacation, I eat damn well.

So should you happen to be in Decatur, Georgia anytime soon... I have some recommendations. Because, yes, it was all good.

Manuel's Tavern

It was Fish & Chips night when I showed up on Friday, but I chose the Turkey Reuben with their signature steak fries instead. I washed it all down with a Leinenkugel Creamy Stout (and a half). It was all crazy delicious.

Warning: You won't get three pickle spears with your sandwich unless you eat with two pickle-hating friends who also order sandwiches.

Kilwin's Ice Cream & Chocolates

Mmmm... They have ice cream, sure, but we were more intrigued by the wide selection of things dipped in chocolate. We had marshmallows covered in chocolate. Sadly, they looked... awkward... in pictures. : ) But they tasted exactly how they should. There's something so comforting about a fresh marshmallow coated in chocolate.

Excuse me, I just drooled a little bit. Let's move on.

The Flying Biscuit Cafe

We met some friends at the Flying Biscuit one day for brunch and this might have been my favorite meal of the trip. I ordered the Clifton Omelette which is, according to their menu, "three large farm fresh eggs with goat cheese, mushrooms & fresh basil, topped with spicy tomato coulis." To the right there, you will see what my travel companion and I could not leave untested, the cinnamon roll pancake.

Not pictured: the "dreamy creamy grits" that finally did what Smalltown could not do by convincing me that grits could in fact be desirable. And actually, in this case, hella good.

Now just so you know, it wasn't just all fun and games dining out. We also made up a wicked good vegetarian stuffed bell pepper recipe that we ate on for two days. The pictures I took were lacking so you'll just have to wait until I make that recipe again. I have a feeling it will happen sooner rather than later.

Annnnd... Sunday before I left, we made cupcakes.


Blue velvet cake, Julia Child's Italian Meringue icing, and Andes Crunchy Peppermint bits (no, not bacon). They were Olympic themed but I think the lighting of this pic doesn't quite communicate that. Go U.S.A.!

Speaking of those Olympics... I'm going to watch a bit more of them tonight before I turn in. And when I do turn in... I wouldn't mind dreaming of a Decatur breakfast.

Julie, Julia, and Amanda (Part 2)

So...

Umm...

Earlier this week I shared my Julia Child-inspired cookies. They weren't a Julia recipe, but they look like Julia. What I have to share with you today is pretty much the Willy Wonka ("strike that, reverse it") of those cookies. These cupcakes come from a Julia Child recipe, but you wouldn't necessarily know that by looking at them. Just something interesting I thought about...


Anyway...

Julia Child's Gateau A L'Orange et aux Amandes (Orange and Almond Sponge Cake for those who, like me, do not read French) was actually not terrible to put together. The experience of making the cake and icing was a lot like making my first Martha Stewart cupcake. A lot of steps, none of them impossible. Let the record show, however, Julia Child's steps are significantly more difficult and delicate than Martha Stewart's.

The first thing that Julia got me to do that Martha never did was assemble and measure all my ingredients ahead of time.


Mise en place, she calls it. Here's what I had:

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
zest from one orange
1/3 cup orange juice, strained
1/4 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup pulverized almonds
1/2 cup cake flour
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon sugar

I do not have Mastering the Art of French Cooking, so I followed Danielle's very carefully posted recipe at Cooking for My Peace of Mind. Since I was largely baking for my peace of mind this weekend, it just all felt right.


I began by gradually beating 2/3 cup of sugar into the egg yolks until the mixture formed a ribbon when I pulled the beater up.


Note the ribbon in the bowl there and the amount of left-handed, perfectly timed picture taking skill it took for me to capture it.


Next I added the orange juice, orange zest, and almond extract. The orange et amandes bits. (Is that at all right, French speakers?) After the mixture became light and foamy, I added the pulverized almonds, mixed, and then added the flour, mixed again.


In another bowl, with another mixer, I beat the egg whites and pinch of salt to soft peaks. Once the soft peaks showed up, I added a tablespoon of sugar and continued to beat to stiff peaks, the ones you see in the picture there.


Back to the batter, I added one stick of melted butter and stirred yet again.


Finally, I folded the beaten egg whites into the gorgeously fragrant orange almond batter.


Julia and Danielle said I could fill my cake all the way to the top, but my fancy cupcake liners were quite a bit taller than my tin. So I kept it conservative and I'm glad I did. You'll see in a minute that the cakes rose perfectly.

Now for the topping bit...

I followed the recipe for Julia's Italian Meringue in Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. This book I actually do have. :)

Here's what I gathered (and forgot to photograph):

2/3 cup egg whites (4-5)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (I didn't have this so I went without)
pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water

Julia's instructions: Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt to soft peaks and turn machine to slow. Meanwhile, boil water and sugar to the thread stage. (Amanda's note: You'll know you've reached this when you drizzle a bit of sugar water off a spoon into a glass of water. The sugar should form a thread in the water. Also... don't ever stir the sugar... Idk why... but it must be important b/c everyone stresses that.) Beating the eggs at moderate speed, slowly dribble in the hot syrup. Increase speed to moderately fast and continue beating until the meringue is cool and forms stiff, shining peaks.


Let me just say... this takes a hot minute. You can go ahead and walk away. And then walk away again after you check it. And then walk away again when you talk yourself out of checking it.

I'm just sayin... it takes a minute.


But... oh em gee... when it works? It's a thing of absolute beauty. This meringue is Julia's basic meringue. She provides variations for making this into a buttercream, flavoring it, and all sorts of other things... but honestly... this pure form is better than my attempt at her buttercream.


I frosted my mini cupcakes with an offset spatula and they look almost as if they were piped. Gorgeous. I'm... in love. I cooked sugar - I cooked an icing - and I'm in love with the result. I am as surprised as you are.


And what of the cupcake as a whole?

Well... I told you the batter was fragrant and lovely? The cake was just as nice. The sponge is light and fluffy and just slightly sticky. Both the orange and almond flavors are noticeable but delicate. Pairing the fresh, airy sponge with meringue was an excellent choice, since I'm certain anything heavier (an American buttercream, for instance) would have killed it. The Italian Meringue, on the other hand, provided sweetness that was as subtle as the cake itself.

Mmmm...

In the words of my idol, Ms. Paula Deen, "Y'all are gonna have to excuse me while I finish makin love to my tater."

Julie, Julia, and Amanda (Part 1)

Now I've done it. I've cut the dickens out of my finger!

(Not really. But who doesn't love that skit?)

Anyways... this weekend I was invited to a little shindig. Here's the deal (broken down like those invitations you wish you got to the popular kids' parties in middle school).

What: Julie & Julia Dinner Party

When: Saturday, Feb. 6, 6pm until...

Where: Blair's

What to Bring: A Julia Chid dish and copies of the recipes to share.

Sounds simple enough, right?

And it was...

Until I woke up the morning of the party (alright, alright, it was 11am... which is still technically morning) and decided that - in addition to my Julia Child recipe that was mostly ready - I needed to bake and decorate Julia Child cookies.

Once I had a plan for the day that involved baking, decorating, and (most importantly) no paper grading, I jumped out of bed and into action.

I rolled out the leftover Brownie Roll-Out Dough that I had frozen the other day.


And I asked Twitter to spot the theme. For the record... no one even came close.


While the cookies cooled, I made the royal icing and got to the delicate, precise work of outlining the cookies. White first...


And here, dear readers, is the danger of using Ziploc bags instead of decorator icing bags. How-ev-er, this explosion can be easily avoided by putting less icing in the bag and double bagging those suckers. This one explosion was my only one all day.


But don't you worry... I made the absolute most of that one explosion by dropping the squooshed out royal icing in the eye of the stove. Brilliant, I know.

Back to the cookies... six hours after I sprang out of bed and into action... I had a collection of Julia Child themed cookies.


Et voila!

Hopefully, hoooopefully you can identify fish, onions, pots or cleavers (your choice), French flags, and wine glasses.

I for one was pretty pleased with the cookies. I know my royal icing skills aren't perfect, but I think they are serviceable and I'm having a lot of fun getting creative with the stuff. Next time I make and decorate cookies, I'm going to make one or two shapes and cut down on the ridiculous variance. I don't want to jump the shark.

Now, for those of you keeping track, I still haven't told you about my actual Julia Child recipe. That is a project for another day. Stay tuned!