Coconut Cupcakes & Rustic Veggie Tarts

Well, all I can say is I hope no one else accidentally downloads a Russian rogue virus. Let's just say the best of baking-blog intentions fall away when your laptop is in the shop for 4 days. So, in an attempt to make up for lost time, I offer you two of my creations, coconut cupcakes and a rustic veggie tart. The cupcake recipe was created by the lovely and talented Ina Garten; the rustic veggie tart was inspired by my buddy Sarah, who found the original recipe in the Taste of Home (Aug./Sept. 2008).

So why did I make coconut cupcakes of all things? My friend Shane just graduated from law school, so when I received his text message asking me to bake for him, how could I refuse? The recipe is really easy and the cake, when cooked just right, is moist and lovely with the vanilla-bean cream-cheese frosting. Seriously addictive sweets that really are not just the domain of often over-priced cupcakeries. (though I wholeheartedly endorse Sweet Art... tasty cakes and art... what more could a girl want?)


On the savory front, to keep ourselves sane and healthy, Dave and I have split up our cooking responsibilities so that he cooks Mondays and Wednesdays and I cook Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, tonight I made Sarah's rustic veggie tarts for dinner, and they tasted as good as the day she made them. Before going to beginning yoga, I roasted eggplant, tomato, zucchini, garlic, red onion, white mushrooms and a red pepper in olive oil, salt and pepper. When I got home from an incredibly awesome class, I picked some fresh basil for the tarts' garnish from the plants I grew from seed on my front porch and rolled out the pre-made pastry dough (I'm a cheat on week nights, what can I say?) and then stuffed each circle with roasted veggies. The savory beauties cooked for 20 more minutes and voila! Dinner was served.




The really cool part about dinner was that Dave and I bought almost all of the ingredients at the Soulard Farmers Market on Saturday for super reasonable (read cheap) prices. I also discovered locally made, nationally award-winning Baetje goat cheese, which is handmade in Bloomsdale, Missouri, mild, and oh-so good. I secretly fantasize about moving to a farm, raising goats, and becoming a cheesemonger, but the Baetjes beat me to it (and they do a damn good job, so I can't complain). Next week I plan on making the recipe Veronica handed me on Saturday: three-pepper goat cheese and carmelized onion pizza!




Oh, but I digress. Here are the recipes for today's posting. I'll be back later this week for some Father's Day baking. I'm taking the train to Kansas City, and I want to surprise my dad with something tasty.

Coconut Cupcakes
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten, 1999

For the full recipe, please click the link here.

Rustic Veggie Tarts
Los Angeles Times recipe

For the full recipe, please click the link here.

The only difference between Sarah's tart and the LA Times' recipe, is that we didn't use goat cheese, eggs or shallots (I used red onions). Dave doesn't like goat cheese, which honestly breaks my heart many nights, especially since I found a fine local purveyor, but hey! Parmesan works just fine! (and Dave's worth it, no matter how bad I'd like to make out with chevre by the log)

Enjoy!

Hugs and high fives,
Kella

A Girl & Her Stove: Caesar Potato Salad with Snap Peas

I'll admit, some days it's just too hot and too tiring to bake. Today's temperature was in the 80s, a severe thunderstorm whipped through St. Louis and felled a gigantic sweet gum tree limb, which promptly landed on top of my little red truck. All is well, but baking coconut cupcakes is going to wait until tomorrow. I'll post a bonus blog entry tomorrow (Wed., 6/3) after I bake those little, yummy post-modern white-on-white creations, so don't worry. The girl and her oven will make an appearance this week, especially since I promised my good buddy Shane that he would be the lucky recipient of these bad boys.


Yet, Dave and I knew that dinner must go on, regardless of my baking rut and fallen tree limb issues. So, I consulted Epicurious.com (oh, how I love thee) to find a recipe that would use our russet potatoes and sugar snap peas. While Dave grilled chicken thighs in a sesame oil, maple, cilantro, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey glaze, I whipped up a recipe from Bon Appetit's June 2009 issue: Caesar Potato Salad with Snap Peas. I contend that this recipe would be made even better with bits of bacon and perhaps a dollop of honey and cilantro, which I picked fresh from my garden tonight. The storm spared my herbs, thank goodness.

So, after a long, rainy afternoon, Dave and I enjoyed a blissful dinner replete with a crisp, apple-flavored Eve Chardonnay. And as I sipped my wine, forked my potato salad and conversed with my honey, I thought of a quote I read (The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner--thanks, Jenna!) today at lunch on my front stoop: "Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else."

I agree. Happiness, for me, is often found in the everyday going ons of my life and often catches me completely unaware.


Listening to: "It's Coming Down," Cake