First day of (online cooking) school

We've been trying to eat at home more since we got here, so I was excited to see that The Kitchn (one of my favorite online recipe resources) was launching a free online cooking course this month! It started today with a refresher on knife skills. CameraMan gave me a knife skills class at Sur La Table as a Christmas gift a couple years ago, and it was incredible how much I learned in just a few short hours. The biggest surprise for me was actually how to hold the knife, with your index finger touching the blade. I'm feeling smug today that I actually already knew what was being taught, and I'm looking forward to what's coming next.

Care to join me? The Kitchn will send you an email every weekday for the rest of the month with a new lesson and your choice of homework assignments. I can't wait to learn some new tricks!

The cake you should make this weekend

I just spent a lovely couple days in Salzburg with the fabulous Snellybean, who showed me all around town, hiked up mountains with me, and steered me away from all but the best Mozartkugel. She was the perfect hostess in every way, but maybe the best thing she did was to introduce me to the two-ingredient Nutella cake. Possibly I'm the last to hear about it (clearly I need to spend more time on Pinterest), but let me tell you, this might just be the recipe for a perfect weekend.

All you need are 4 eggs and 1 cup of Nutella. Whisk those eggs up in a bowl until they're fluffy and lemon-colored. We did 10 minutes with a hand mixer, but lucky you if you have a stand mixer and can let it do the work for you. Meanwhile, heat the Nutella for 60 seconds in the microwave. Then, slowly pour the warm Nutella into the egg mixture, continuing to whisk, until it's completely mixed. Pour the batter into a greased and parchment paper-lined square brownie pan, put it in a 350 degree oven for 25–30 minutes, and let the magic happen. It's done when it pulls away from the edges of the pan and a knife comes out clean. It's a gorgeous brownie/cake hybrid, moist with a flaky layer on top.

Highly recommended still warm with vanilla ice cream. Also delicious for breakfast the next day.

I'M GUESSING.


Photo taken by CameraMan at Eataly in NYC (aka Heaven)

Whole 30 Day 10

About a year ago I got interested in the Paleo diet, which led me to Mark's Daily Apple and a pile of books about food and nutrition. Which inevitably led me to the Whole 30, a 30-day strict Paleo regimen that cuts out all grains, sugar, dairy, alcohol, and legumes. I completed my first Whole 30 on March 19 of last year, and I can honestly say I had never felt better. I didn't even find it particularly difficult—I'm definitely an abstainer, not a moderator. CM and I ate mostly Paleo for a while afterwards, falling off the wagon spectacularly during our 2 months in Europe and never figuring out quite how to get back on.

Fast forward to 2013, with both of us feeling sluggish and plump. We decided to try a Whole 30 together, and now we're 10 days in! Mostly it's been pretty easy, although we do miss stopping in somewhere for cocktail hour on the way home from work.

Here's what we've been eating:

In the mornings, we start with coffee (duh). I drink mine with some coconut milk frothed in the Aeroccino, and CM drinks his black. With our second cup we eat eggs of some kind—scrambled, omelettes, etc., with vegetables or avocado or a side of berries.

For lunch we generally have leftovers of meat and veggies from dinner the night before. If we feel like getting out of the office, we go to Chipotle for salad with veggies, meat, salsa, and guacamole on top (no dressing, beans, or rice) or we get a no-bun burger with veggies instead of fries. Yum.

We've been cooking dinners at home a lot, experimenting with recipes from the Well Fed cookbook or throwing things together. Mostly meat with vegetables, trying to mix it up with different kinds of each. Occasionally I make green juice for both of us, and CM is a good sport about drinking it.

We haven't quite fallen out of the habit of snacking, so we're well-stocked with nuts, almond butter, fruit, coconut for coconut chips, and Lärabars.

It feels great to know everything we're putting in our bodies is real food, and mostly I don't miss the other stuff (although I had to forbid CM from making cookies on Day 4 because I knew the temptation would be too much for me). The Whole 30 isn't designed to be a long-term way of eating, but it's the perfect reset to remind us of healthy habits.

Would you try it?

Party strawberries

Yesterday I went to a great housewarming party thrown by My Gay Husband and My Gay Husband's Boyfriend. They recently moved into a place in Midtown, right in the middle of everything. They're on the 12th floor with lots of windows, so their views are gorgeous (including directly into the windows of the Intercontinental Hotel—apparently lots of hotel guests don't close their curtains, whoops!). It was one of those fun parties that really bring people together (MGH is like that, too).

There was tons of good food on hand, but everyone was buzzing about one particular snack: cheesecake-stuffed strawberries. Once one person tried them, everyone was trying them, and the hosts had to bring out more platters of them. Obviously when I got home I googled how to make them, and it sounds really easy. I will definitely be making them for the next party we throw.

Photo via Pinterest

You take strawberries, cut off the top, and dig out a little hole in the center. To make the filling, you mix cream cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla to taste (I think I might try using maple syrup instead) and fill the strawberries with a piping bag (or Ziploc bag with a corner cut off in a pinch). As a final (crucial!) step, you dip the tops in graham cracker crumbs. Et voilà! Impress your friends with your fanciness. I've seen it work.

What are your go-to party snacks? Another favorite of mine is caprese on sticks: thread cocktail tomatoes (in fun heirloom colors if you've got 'em), little balls of fresh mozzarella, and a leaf of basil onto sticks. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, salt, and pepper and put them in the fridge to marinate a bit until you're ready to serve them. Delicious in the summer! I also always have a platter of sliced English cucumbers and sliced salami (thanks to a tip from the Barefoot Contessa)—the perfect combo.

Mama Bossy's Easter Braided Loaf

Is there anything in the world more satisfying and comforting than baking bread? It's so basic. Of course I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel after cooking something with 50 steps or baking something incredibly fussy, but I love everything about making bread. For me, it's especially the moment when you're kneading the dough with your hands, and it's a little crumbly or shaggy, and then all of a sudden it isn't: it's stretchy and shiny and smooth. You've transformed it with your hands. And then the anticipation, the slight panic that maybe this time it won't rise, the relief when it inevitably doubles in size like it's supposed to. And the smell! The aroma of baking bread wafting through the apartment feels like home to me.

At the Bossy homestead it's mostly Papa Bossy who does the cooking these days, but in my childhood Mama Bossy was a baker extraordinaire. It was she who taught me how to make a braided loaf for Easter. I have such strong memories of baking this bread together. She taught me how to knead the dough, how to grease the bowl for the dough and cover it with a wet towel to help it rise, how to tap on the loaf to listen for the hollow sound that means it's done. I still make it just how she taught me.


Mama Bossy's Braided Loaf
Makes 1 big loaf or 2 small loaves

Ingredients:
1 packet dry yeast (MB used cake yeast, but I can never find it)
1/4 cup warm water
2/3 cup milk (we used whole milk when I was little—I use skim now and it works just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted, plus extra for greasing the bowl and pan
4 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour, plus extra for flouring the board
sliced almonds

Directions:
Scald (bring almost to a boil) the milk on the stove. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Put the sugar, salt, and melted butter in a big bowl and pour the cooled milk over it. Add the yeast mixture, 2 eggs, and 2 egg yolks. Save at least 1 egg white for later—I always forget and end up on a grocery run to get more eggs. Add 2 1/2 cups of flour and beat thoroughly. I have successfully made this with a KitchenAid mixer, a hand mixer, and a wooden spoon, so you don't need any special tools. And 2 more cups of flour.

Turn out the dough onto a floured board and knead it until it comes together nicely. Form it into a large ball.

Grease a large bowl and put the dough in it, turning it over so it has butter on all sides. Cover the bowl with a wet dishtowel. Place in a warm place until it has doubled in size. You might as well walk away for a couple hours—it takes a while.

Grease a cookie sheet. Divide the dough into 6 parts (4 big, 2 small) for 1 loaf or 12 parts (8 big, 4 small) for 2 loaves. Roll out each part into a rope. Braid the 4 big pieces, and twist the 2 small pieces and lay them on top of the braid.

Mix an egg white with a little water to thin it and brush the top of the bread. This is what will give it a beautiful golden crust. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top. I like to press them in a little so they don't all fall off when they're baked. Let it rise again while you preheat the oven.

Bake the bread in a 350° oven for 45-50 minutes (a little less if you make 2 smaller loaves). Tap it—it will make a hollow sound when it's done. It's better to underbake it than to overbake it, so don't obsess too much about what sound it's making.