Big Gay Ice Cream

So, while I was home I got to go to a new ice cream place.  It is called Big Gay Ice Cream.  No really, that is its name.  There are rainbows on the door and unicorns on the windows.  Their thing is normal soft serve with cool toppings.  I got a cococone.  It is chocolate soft serve with curries coconut flakes.  It was delish!  The curried flakes are amazing.  The next time you are in the village check it out!

Blueberry Hand Pies

My mother picked up some blueberries from the green market.  Apparently it was imperative that I make something that night.  She wanted muffins, but I wanted to crack open my hand pie molds.  Than after using them, I wanted to no ever see them again.  There is a knack to the hand pie mold, and I do not have it.  So, I experimented with other shapes.  Joann kinda turned her nose up at these, but after tasting, she was a believer.  Better the next day, these are blueberry heaven.  

Oh, and bake these on a rimmed baking sheet and NOT a cookie sheet.  They run and make a blue gelatinous mess!

• 
  
• Buttery Pie Crust (click for recipe)
• All-purpose flour (for dusting)
• 2 cups blueberries (about 10 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg, whisked with 1 teaspoon water
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375°.Roll out dough on a floured surface to a 15x12-inch rectangle. Cut into 6 rectangles.
• Toss blueberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Brush edges of rectangles with water; mound some blueberries in center of each. Fold dough over, and press edges to seal. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with raw sugar. Cut slits in tops.
• Bake hand pies, rotating sheet halfway through, until juices are bubbling and pastry is golden brown, 35–40 minutes (juices will run onto parchment). Transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

What.the.hell.is.this?

Here I am on public transportation  in a dark picture looking perturbed.  WHY?  Look at the sticker.  The sticker that I got form the met.  The met where I used to get cute metal tags whenever I visited.  Metal tags that I have been collecting for years.  They are "cheaper."  Really people?  We need to fix the economy before more tragedies occur.

Ricotta Pound Cake

I got some wonderful fresh ricotta at the farmer's market.  I had no idea what to do with it....so I dipped into my new stash of cookbooks.  This one comes from Dolce Italiano written by Gina DePalma, pastry chef of Babbo.  This was one delish cake.  It gets better with age.  The first time I whipped this up, it baked over the sides of the pan and burned onto the oven.  The house filled with smoke, the alarm went off and needless to say, my parents were pissed.  So, the next day, after I peeled all of the baked on burned cake from the oven, I tried again.  I filled one large loaf pan, and then one small.  Consider this fair warning.  Your family DOES NOT like the piercing sound of the smoke alarm.

1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup softened Unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 vanilla bean, but I used vanilla past.  Way easier and better to store.
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9" loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, sift cake four, baking powder, salt and set aside.  With the paddle attachment of the mixer cream butter, ricotta and sugar for two minutes.  Butter should be light.  Beat in eggs one at a time, and scrape down bowl after each addition.  Split the vanilla bean with a knife and scape the seeds out.  Or just add the vanilla paste.  Add the vanilla.  On low speed add the dry ingredients and beat batter for 30 seconds.  Pour batter into pan and smooth top.  Be sure to not overfill the pan, learn from me.  Whack it on the counter to get out any air pockets.  Bake the cake for 15 minutes at 350.  Then turn the pan 180 degrees, lower the temperature to 325 and continue to bake until the cake springs back and the sides pull from the sides of the pan.  Gina says 25 minutes, it was more like 40 for me.  Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto a rack.  You can dust it with confectioners sugar, but I did whipped cream and strawberries.

HOME

I have not posted in a while.  I seem to have developed an acute addiction to candy crush.  Seriously, is it normal to be on level 153? Mi kind of knew the answer before I asked the question.....AND I finally got back home to NYC for a week.  It has been a year, and I definitely needed th recharging.  My friends are all doing well and New York continues to be amazing.  I have some food posts I need to do, and I discovered a typo in my my magic frosting recipe.  I promise to take care of these things soon, but I thought I would do a few on my trip first.  Oh, and Stanley has been nagging me to do an orange item of the week so I need to get on that.

But first, here are some crazy unflattering pictures of me, my chin and my auntie DeeDee in front of the Jefferson Market Library and community garden.  My mother has assured me that the angle is bad and it is not the true size of my chin.  If she is wrong, lie to me people.