Cupboard Shove

The conditions in my cupboard and fridge are a sad state of affairs. I have things in there that I may have used once or twice, and then never again found a need for. My cupboard is the Bermuda Triangle; ingredients come in and never leave again. This morning, in a rush of a feeling of domestic goddesstisity, I decided to do some early morning baking!

(Warning: No CL recipes follow!)

I love Tom’s book for its lovely savory meal ideas, but unfortunately Tom doesn’t offer many baking recipes. And sometimes a girl, or boy, just needs to bake! I had a box of walnuts in the cupboard, god knows what I used them for, and some dying bananas in the fridge from when I made Tom’s Tropical Shake. This called out to me, ‘Banana Bread’!!! So, I went to my trusty Nigella Lawson How to be a Domestic Goddess, and proceeded to make her lovely banana bread. I honestly didn’t have any intention of eating it myself, and this is for two reasons:

1. Even something as ‘wholesome’ as bananas and walnuts in a cake did not mean that it wouldn’t be about a million calories per slice, and U.S.S. Ilana really didn’t need any more calories making themselves permanent residents of her bum.

2. I loathe nuts in cakes. Loathe them! Nuts are lovely; cakes are lovely. Never shall the two meet. But, my brother-in-law, Roman, absolutely adores nuts in cake, and absolutely loves banana-nut bread. Though, in his case, it’s nut-banana bread as the nut to banana bread ratio should usually be about 5:1. This cake was for him, and it was an excellent opportunity to clean out my fridge and cupboard.

But my goddesstisity did not end there! I was feeling quite peckish late-morningish, and couldn’t be arsed to make eggs. So I gathered up some lovely rolled oats (not even cooked – how lazy am I?!), non-fat yogurt (from Curry Night) and honey, and made a sort of Lazy Woman’s Breakfast. Thinking about it now, I’m not exactly sure if I should be eating raw rolled oats. My left eye has been itching all day; should I be concerned?? :)

After my baking and creating marathon, I went into the city with hubby to spend a glorious day out… We ate at the most fantastic, retro Mexican café. It was wonderful – haven’t eaten that well in a long time. I should have taken my camera, the dessert was a masterpiece in itself. It was a spicy molten chocolate cake made from Valrhona, the Rolls Royce of chocolate, with a topping of cinnamon ice cream. If this blog was in Hebrew, I would say that that dessert was Haval Al Ha Zman, which literally means it was a waste of time… but in Hebrew, that’s a good thing!! LOL.

We came home and I just had this feeling like I needed to bake again! I had some dried cranberries leftover from a Nigella recipe from Christmas, that is Christmas 2004!! I had leftover white chocolate chips from the same recipe, also circa 2004! I didn’t manage to use them all up for the summer berries and white chocolate sauce recipe. So, I decided to reprise Nigella’s Feast recipe from 2004, and make the Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies. I didn’t have any dark brown sugar, so used light, and didn’t have enough white chocolate chips so also used the semi-sweet ones I had from Toll House. The result was fantastic; so much better than my first attempt at it. I followed the recipe to the letter, apart from the above variations, and I’m so impressed with them. These also utilized some rolled oats, which means they’re good for you… not! They’re going to Rafa’s swimmers tomorrow at practice. They are probably the fittest people I've ever come across, and that really needs to be remedied -- simply not fair! I have a feeling they'll like them!

** Restaurant Recommendation (and no, I don't work there!):

The restaurant mentioned above is the Rocking Horse Café. It is definitely more upscale than the Mexican many people think of, as retro ingredients are used in a quite different way.

I had: Enchiladas de Pollo with pomegranate charred free range chicken, pomegranate-guajillo salsa, refried beans & pickled cabbage

Hubby had: Ensalada de Calamares, which was crispy calamare-citrus salad with chorizo croutons & frisee

Price-wise, to give you an idea, I had a sort of huge main dish, hubby had the salad which was a good size. For drinks, I had a lime-ade and he a Corona. We shared that chocolate cake. Nachos and salsa were unlimited and on the house. The bill came, with tip, to around $50. Not bad for upscale food in a trendy area of Chelsea.

The website: Rocking Horse Café @ 182 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC 10011

The chocolate cake.....

The café....