Daily Loaf

Few things in life are certain.  We’re born. We die. And somewhere in between the two, we all get our hearts broken at least once. There’s no escaping it. It’s as inevitable as the rising and the setting of the sun.  That is the risk we take for the giddy, glorious feeling of being in love.

I’ve certainly experienced my share of heartbreak, beginning in the 5th grade when Benny Buffamante threw me over for Mary Rose Kelly. Who could blame him, really? With her big blue eyes and long, golden curls, she was adorable. Plus, she had three first names! How could I compete with that!?!?

I survived being spurned by Benny and lived to love again. And, of course, my heart was stomped on many more times in the process. I’d like to think that it made me stronger and more resilient. I’d like to think that, but the truth is that each time I lost in love, it hurt just as much as the time before. Thank heavens I met my Mr. Right before my tender heart was completely pummeled into a quivering, bleeding mass of mush!

Although I don’t normally advocate self-medicating with food, there are some situations where a decadent, sticky, gooey, creamy and chewy dessert is just what the doctor ordered — and a broken heart is one of them.  Allow me to introduce you to just such a treat: Break-Up Bars! Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s recommended releases as well as a breakdown of other worthy albums available now.

Vinyl:

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
The band’s third album is a set of songs both heavier and lush than in previous efforts but still full of the Monkeys’ punch and vitality.

Jeff Beck – Beck-Ola
Jeff Beck – Truth
Exact replicas now available on pristine HQ-180 vinyl. Taken from the original analog master tapes.

Chocolate Watch Band – No Way Out
Chocolate Watch Band – Inner Mystique
Hailing from San Jose, Calif., the Watch Band — featuring the pouting, Mick Jagger-influenced lead vocals of Dave Aguilar, the thrilling guitars of Sean Tolby and Mark Loomis, the solid bass of Bill Flores and the thumping drums of Gary Andrijasevich — made all the right scenes in San Jose, including appearances with the Syndicate of Sound and Count Five.

John Fogerty – Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again
Among the special guests are Bruce Springsteen.

Fugazi – 3 Songs 7″
Remastered.

Woody Guthrie – Woody, Cisco And Sonny
Woody Guthrie – Woody The Agitator
Woody Guthrie – Woody’s Roots
Woody Guthrie – Woody’s Greatest Hits
Classic Guthrie vinyl reissues — now available.

Jet – Shaka Rock
bass, drums, guitars and vocals.

Willie Nelson – American Classic

Pearl Jam – The Fixer 7″
Two new tracks from their upcoming album on white vinyl with glow-in-the-dark ink on the label!

Chuck Ragan/Brian Fallon split 7″
They of Hot Water Music and Gaslight Anthem fame, respectively.

Reigning Sound – Love and Curses
New release — now available on vinyl.

The Smiths – The Smiths
The Smiths – Meat Is Murder
The Smiths – Queen is Dead
The Smiths – Strangeways Here We Come
180 gram vinyl reissues. Remastering supervised by Johnny Marr. Read the rest of this entry »

What is it about bacon that we love? It seems the food world has had an obsession with it lately, from bacon vodka, to Bacon Salt, to the infamous Bacon Explosion. But have you ever thought of pairing bacon with something on the sweeter side? What about bacon in candy?

I dared to go there when I purchased the Mo’s Bacon Bar. I had read about it before on the trusty food porn sites that I peruse and salivate over daily, but had never seen it in stores. “Bacon and chocolate?”, I thought, “What a great combination!” I love the pairing of sweet and salty in food – like SnoCaps and popcorn at the movie theater – and I am a bacon fanatic. This was also the item that spawned the idea for my Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes. I was bound and determined to find this candy bar.
Read the rest of this entry »

My Peppermint Bark was so yummy when I made it during the holidays. And it was a huge hit. But how to top it?

I was watching the Food Network and Big Daddy’s house was on. He made a bark with cherries, almonds and something else, I just don’t remember what it was. A light bulb went off in my head, so I ran to a piece of paper and wrote down my idea. You see, if I don’t write things down, I totally forget everything! Sometime I even forget why things are on my list.

This Almond Joy Bark has probably been done before, but I didn’t even check Google because I wanted to think I came up with something original, damn it! So don’t go bursting my bubble, ok?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have one sure thing in your baked goods recipe arsenal, it should be this cookie. It really will never let you down, take too much of your time, or leave you less than pleased if you follow a few sound baking basics. The best part, other than eating them fresh from the oven with a tall glass of cold milk, is the quick simplicity of the preparation.

Start with butter that is nearly room temperature and be sure to whip the first four ingredients well into fluffy. This will give the cookie a light and flaky texture when folded into the sifted flour. Plus, the ratio of brown to white sugar keeps it chewy far beyond the cooling process as long as they are not over-baked. Bear in mind that they are meant to be big, so don’t be shy about using a large scoop and limiting them to eight or less per baking sheet. 

Here’s the recipe:

Read the rest of this entry »

Rossellini in a penis forest

Isabella Rossellini, famous model, actress, filmmaker, daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini, has embarked on a new project: Green Porno. Rossellini is responsible for a series of two minute films for the Sundance Channel that look at sex through a surrealist’s lens. These videos are the creative love child of a massive acid-fueled orgy between Sesame Street, Sex-ed films, the Discovery Channel, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Salvador Dali’s films. While all the information is accurate, Rossellini delivers her lines as if revisiting her role in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, in which she ran around naked spouting such classic lines as, “He put his disease in me.”  In this video she discusses the mating habits of bees, saying that if she was a male bee, her “penis would break off. It would get stuck in her vagina, like a cork in a bottle.”

(VIDEO after break) Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible to be in love with a chocolate cake? Is it possible to marry it? How about toasted coconut ice cream? Can I marry it too? Please tell me I can. Oh, but wait, that means I would be married to 3 things, my husband, chocolate cake and toasted coconut ice cream. Welp, I guess it’s time to move to Utah! (I know, polygamy and polyandry is illegal, even in Utah)

What you gaze upon is quite possibly the most decedent, moist, over the top, heavenly flourless chocolate cake. If I ever get put in the slammer and am on death row and need a last meal, this will be it. With a big ass glass of cold milk. Since this cake only consists of 3 ingredients, Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve really been in the mood for popcorn lately but I want to try something different than your run-of-the-mill butter flavor. I could take the cheat approach and just buy one of the fancy new toppings that are available now at the grocery store, but I believe that when you make something yourself from scratch (well, almost, in this case) it is so much more satisfying.

I set out on a quest to find some fun ways to spice up my popcorn and found some tasty-looking recipes, from savory to sweet, with all sorts of interesting flavor combinations. Now my only problem is that I can’t decide which one to try first…

Read the rest of this entry »

Forget buying overpriced chocolates and goodies for your sweetie or friends this Valentine’s Day. Why not give them a more personal way of saying “You’re Special” by making them a sweet gift yourself? These rich and decadent chocolate truffles are sure to please any chocolate lover.

Believe it or not, chocolate truffles are not difficult to make. I decided to take on the challenge for the sake of this post and prove that it can be easily accomplished (you’re talking to Miss Anti-Pastry, remember?). So what if they don’t look as perfect as those expensive Godiva ones? These taste amazing and they’ve got a whole lot more love in them than anything you could buy in the store.

For this recipe, I decided to flavor mine with dark rum. I suggest using good quality chocolate (for taste), but chocolate chips in a bag will suffice just as well (go for the Ghirardelli ones if you do). Indulge, enjoy, and have a happy Valentines Day! Read the rest of this entry »

Obama was inagurated on Tuesday, and in the frenzy of media coverage you may have missed what’s really important — sustenance. No worries, we have the entire week distilled down to a mere few links. Just for you:

• Listen to the inaugural episode of Nosh Pit, CL’s new food and wine podcast.
• Brush up on Girl Scout Cookie gossip.
• Bourdain calls Alice Waters “very Khmer Rouge”.
• I call Alice Waters out for $500 dinners.
• Three new Tampa restaurants (and Cupcake Spot) are scheduled to open this weekend. Taylor already ate at one of them.
• Three words: waffle fry butts.
• Obama orders a medium-well cheeseburger. For. Shame.
• Chocolate and bacon cupcakes with peanut butter icing.
• Argentina kills our last bets hope for quality beef.
• USDA releases ineffectual, voluntary rules for the term “naturally raised”.
• Ingredient Basics: Garlic

Cooking or baking for someone is my favorite form of gift giving — it’s personal and heartwarming. I was throwing a surprise party for a very good friend of mine recently and decided to bake cupcakes as my gift.  Being the avid foodie and culinarian that my friends know me to be, I also thought it would have made me look bad if I had shown up with store-bought treats. Little did they know that the party wasn’t the only surprise that night.

As I was brainstorming and perusing my usual foodie sites for flavor ideas, I remembered an interesting flavor combination I’d come across a few months ago: chocolate and bacon. Yep, bacon. My friend loves bacon! I also recalled our shared love of pork products and popcorn mixed with chocolate at the movies. It’s the same concept, right? Read the rest of this entry »

While a LARGE amount of my money is funneled into Williams-Sonoma’s glorious pockets, it will not be going to the purchase of their ridiculously expensive Peppermint Bark. Yes it is heavenly, but come on — us food savvy people can make our own for a fraction of the price. Sure, we won’t be getting the cute Holiday Tin to go along with it, but who the hell cares? Yours will be made with love, people! All you need is love, all you need is love, love is all you need (can’t you hear me singing in my best John Lennon?)

Lets make some BARK! Read the rest of this entry »

Just last night, a friend of mine asked what she should get someone as a birthday present, as she doesn’t have a lot of time to spend contemplating potential gifts, and the date is fast approaching.

Her predicament reminded of the quandary most or us are in during the holiday season. I usually think of the perfect gift long after the occasion has come and gone.

So to help you avoid spending your hard-earned cash on an item that will likely gather dust in a darkened corner of the closet or find its way into a garage sale — and assuming you don’t already have that “just right” gift in mind — here are a few ideas that I’ve based on what I would want and what I assume many others would as well:

Read the rest of this entry »