Book Review: Apron Anxiety by Alyssa Shelansky

Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In and Out of the Kitchen by Alyssa Shelasky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Because I received a copy of this from the publisher, I am reviewing it the same week it comes out! While I was given a copy for free, I wasn't asked for anything (nor did I ask for a copy!), so these are my honest thoughts.

Anyone who knows my feelings on memoirs should understand that four stars is no slight praise for Alyssa Shelasky. After all, I almost gave up in chapter 2, which I will refer to as the "name dropping chapter," where she talks about her days (more often: nights) as a writer for various well-known TV networks and fashion/entertainment magazines in New York. It is shallow, it is silly, and I found her incredibly annoying.

Without that contrast, I think you wouldn't get a chance to understand how she grows. Alyssa had a relationship with a fairly known 'celebrity' chef (I'll let you Google it since in the book she refers to him as Chef), one taking her from her comfort zone and dumping her into a solitary existence in DC as he rode the swell of fame to opening several restaurants. It is an isolation that anyone living with a restaurant person would know well.

She has to go through a journey to find herself, to find happiness but also just a hobby, and food becomes her salvation. The fact that she'd never cooked in her life makes the story more charming, and it helps that she has no problem making public mistakes. It started with her blog, Apron Anxiety, and turned into this book. I don't often laugh when I'm reading, but her description of her first meal for Chef had me giggling.

It isn't just that she learns about food. Any tedious journalism major could go through that journey, and the potential for an inauthentic experience is what I was fearing when I started the book. I felt her personal journey to be far less shallow than she appeared toward the beginning, and she learned to get to know people who she had originally dismissed, and to stand up for what she needed from her life.

There are recipes throughout this that make for a feel-good read, as if the reader could recreate moments that were meaningful for the author. And... yeah, I might need to make that tomato soup.

A few bits from the end:

"You learn that there's nothing bad about feeling safe and there's everything good about inner stillness; and above all, just because you're an extraordinary person who deserves extraordinary love, it can't come at the expense of everything else that makes you whole."

"Everyone cooks for matters of the heart. We're all in the kitchen because it fulfills a longing inside, whether it's for grace, survival, a renewed sense of self, or just the thrill of it all - these are the stories that get us there, keep us there, or sometimes take us away. But without the people who have moved us, pushed us, left us, maybe even hurt us, then really, it's only food."

Basbousa

 
I'm finally getting back to baking items for my Around the World challenge!  Back in February, I read The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (you can see my review here).   The main character in this book set in Egypt is the building, but one of the people moving throughout the story is Zaki Bey, who has interesting ideas about women.  One of them includes how they pronounce the S in basbousa!

"All these varied and teeming experiences have made of Zaki el Dessouki a true expert on women, and in 'the science of women,' as he calls it, he has strange and eccentric theories that, whether one accepts or rejects them, definitely deserve consideration... Zaki Bey also believes that how a woman pronounces the letter 's' - specifically - is a clue as to how ardent she will be when making love.  Thus, if a woman says a word such as 'susu' or 'basbusa,' for example, in a tremulous, arousing way, he concludes immediately that she is gifted in bed." - The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

Basbousa is a relatively simple cake, made with semolina or sometimes farina.  I hunted down farina for this recipe, which is why mine is fairly pale (semolina would be more like a corn bread).  While the cake is still hot, it is covered with a lemon-honey syrup that soaks in.  The cake is dense and not too sweet, but still tasty.  I enjoyed Jessie Oleson's personal basbousa story over on Cakespy, and used her recipe for Brooklyn Basbousa.  Please check it out and whip up a pan!

Rum Cake

If you've ever traveled anywhere in the Caribbean, Florida, or the Bahamas, you will confirm that Tortuga Rum Cakes are everywhere.  Our favorite flavor is Blue Mountain Coffee, and we even tracked another one of those down on our recent trip. 


It is a tradition where I work to bring in a treat from where you have traveled - one of those nice things to do that is in no way an obligation, but we have a bunch of foodies and we seem to enjoy this tradition.  Tortuga Rum Cakes, while delicious, are a little spendy if you want to feed thirty people, besides being bulky to travel with.  I decided to hunt for a recipe to try on my own.  Most recipes I could find were all copied from one source, and while I couldn't identify where it started, it included cake mix and pudding mix.  I'm not against those things, but I wanted to bake from scratch, so I kept hunting.

I stumbled across a recipe from Southern Living, November 2005, and bookmarked it to try.  It seemed like it would have a lot of flavor between the lemon zest, rum, banana liqueur, and soaking syrup, and I was not disappointed.  This is going in my recipe file to bring back again!

Rum Cake

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1/4 cup banana liqueur
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whipping cream
• Rum Syrup
• Powdered sugar 

Beat butter and granulated sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla, beating until blended. Add lemon rind, beating until blended. Gradually add rum and banana liqueur, beating until blended. (Batter will look curdled.)

Stir together flour and next 3 ingredients; add to batter alternately with whipping cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat batter at low speed just until blended after each addition. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan.

Bake at 350° for 55 to 60 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Pierce cake multiple times using a metal or wooden skewer. Pour Rum Syrup evenly over cake. Let stand 45 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle evenly with powdered sugar before serving.

Bakery Review - Sarafina's - Marigot, St. Martin

Would you believe me if I told you that there is an amazing French bakery in the Caribbean? Technically it is in France, in Marigot, on the French side of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, and is called Sarafina's.


We were on a three hour island tour with a taxi-van, and the driver said he'd be happy to take us, but that we should know that we may not want to leave after tasting it. There are breads everywhere. An entire case of cakes, another of gelato, and a very long case of pastries and sandwiches. We got croissants and some assorted cookies, and the croissants were a true highlight.


The clientele is clearly a mix of all different nationalities, residents and visitors, and it was very busy. Some of the workers spoke French, others English, and I must have heard four languages just sitting around in the dining area. I would say this is a place not to be missed if you ever find yourself on the island (and seriously, get away from the port, take an island tour, it is such a better way to learn about the place where you are!).

Lower Carb Crepes

When you start cutting out flour and sugar, you would not believe how depressing breakfast can get. Slowly, I've found little tricks that make it bearable again, like this recipe for lower-carb pancakes/crepes. I found a different version online with all egg whites, but my version is so much simpler, and has no waste. Three ingredients.

Lower Carb Crepes

2 eggs
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 Splenda packet (optional)

Directions: Blend everything in a blender or using an immersion blender. Heat pan to medium high, and cook about half the batter at a time for one crepe/pancake (thickness determines whether you want to call it a crepe or pancake!). Delicious served with fresh fruit, like these balsamic-roasted strawberries.

I originally posted this combination in May of 2009, when we were in the middle of strawberry season and I had just discovered balsamic-roasted strawberries.  That was with traditional crepes, but they are just as good with this recipe! (I sprinkled a little Splenda on the berries instead of sugar). 

Daring Bakers April 2012 - Armenian Nutmeg Cake

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

This time around, I barely had time to make the nutmeg cake, but I'm bookmarking the nazook for when I finally get to my pick for Armenia in my Around the World reading challenge - Rise the Euphrates. But that is a post for another day. For this day, let me focus on my delicious disaster.

I learned something new in doing this challenge, actually. One can not simply replace a 9-inch cake pan when a 9-inch springform pan is called for. I imagine I actually know this. But I didn't have one of those other things (secret reference to So I Married an Axe Murderer), so I just tried sticking it into a regular one. So I had to bake it 20 extra minutes. And the crusty part didn't really set up. And I'm not really eating sugar anyway, so I was going to bring this in to my student workers. And now it is ugly and falling apart so I'm not sure I can. Ah well. The nibble I had was absolutely delicious, so I'm adding this to my recipe file of cakey breakfasty goodnesses, and a 9" springform pan to my shopping list.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (gluten-free, lower carb)

Strawberries are going full throttle, and I still had some of last year's rhubarb in my fridge. I looked up a few low-carb crumble/crisp recipes online but they sounded bad, so I decided to wing it and just mix some things together that I had on hand.

For once, it worked!  The brown sugar Splenda doesn't seem as chemically flavored, or maybe it helped that I didn't use much, and just let the sweetness of the fruit speak for itself.  Since my rhubarb was starting out frozen, I did sprinkle the fruit with 1 tbsp of cornstarch, but I'll list that as optional.  Look, unless you have some arrowroot on hand and know how to use it so it doesn't go gummy on you, that might be a better alternative, but I figured 1 tbsp wouldn't take it over the top. 

JennyBakes.com Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (lower carb, gluten-free)

(Please credit if you use the recipe, since this is an original for once!)

Fruit:
2 cups rhubarb, fresh or frozen, diced
3 cups strawberries, sliced or quartered
squeeze of citrus juice (I used lime but that's all I had - lemon is probably best!)
1 tbsp cornstarch (optional)
1 tbsp brown sugar Splenda substitute (taste fruit, you may desire more or less depending on sweetness)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

Crumble:
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour (or other non-gluten flour)
1/4 cup brown sugar Splenda substitute
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)
4 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Prepare fruit and mix in citrus juice, optional cornstarch, brown sugar substitute, and spices.
3. For crumble, mix dry ingredients together.  Cut butter into squares and mix with fingertips until incorporated (doesn't need to be at room temperature).  Mix in almonds.
4. Pour fruit into pie plate or other baking pan similar in volume.  Top generously with crumble mixture.
5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until mixture is bubbling.

Let me know if you try it, and what you think!  I'll probably use a similar recipe with fruit throughout the summer and fall.  I can't wait to try it with apples!