Unlikely Words » dessert

Chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Oreos

aaron cohen — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:45:44 +0000

I made these Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight. I'm pretty happy with how they came out. The Oreos get soft, which is nice. I think I made the cookie part a little bigger than they were supposed to be, because they took longer to cook, but... You know, still worth it. Food bloggers take much nicer pictures.

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Free Barcelona, Spain Travel Guide

aaron cohen — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:51:24 +0000

It took seven and a half months, but I've finally finished the review of our trip to Barcelona and Sitges, Spain in June, 2008. I started it as a review to make remembering our trip easier. As I was writing it up, I decided to make it more of a travel guide to hopefully convince you to go to Barcelona. It was an amazing trip.

There's a lot of information in here. The guide is broken up into 10 chapters linked below with the highlights of the day for easy reference:
Day 1: Boston to Barcelona: Plaça de Catalunya
Day 2: More Walking: Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, Ciutadella, Euskal Etxea
Day 3: Gaudi and Eating: Casa Milà
Day 4: More Gaudi: Parc Guell, Sagrada Família
Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays: Barcelona Cathedral, Parrots Hotel, The Beach House
Day 6: Sitges and Beach
Day 7: Sitges and Montserrat: Montserrat
Day 8: Sitges
Day 9: Too Hot to Shop: Aparthotel Calabria, La Boqueria, Tapaç 24
Day 10: Montjuic: Montjuic

Barcelona is very beautiful. Parts are dirty and smelly, but those parts are serviced 24/7 by sanitation workers. I was struck by how most of the buildings look like they were from the 50s or 60s and wondered what makes the replacement cycle so much faster in cities like Boston. The city is eminently walkable, and the transportation system adds to the ease in getting around. If you like looking out over cities from heights, you're in luck. There are at least 6 different tourist destinations that offer great views of the city.

Bottom line?
Where to stay: Hotel Regencia Colon - Perfectly situated and affordably priced.
Must visit landmaks: Santa Maria del Mar, La Boqueria, Sagrada Familia, Casa Milà, Montserrat, Sitges
Must eat: Tapaç 24, Euskal Etxea, Chocolateria Valor
Must shop: Kukuxumusu, Xocoa

For my mom, here's a slideshow of our trip and a collection of videos from different points.

Also, please play around with this map I made of all the places we went to or should have gone to. I spent days before we went researching restaurants, hotels, landmarks and popping them onto this map to make it easy to figure out what to do in each neighborhood once we got there. The price of this travel guide is worth it just for this free map.

Click here to blow out the map and get the full effect

In closing, I hope you'll go Barcelona because it's awesome and you going will validate our decision to go. If you do go, I hope you find this Travel Guide helpful because would validate the time I put into it. Because after all, what's a blog based Travel Guide if not an adventure in navel gazing?

(Thanks for visiting Unlikely Words. If you liked what you read Subscribe to RSS, check out our About Page, read some of our favorite posts or Follow us on Twitter)

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Fluffernutter Massachusetts’ Official State Sandwich?

aaron cohen — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:11:49 +0000

The Massachusetts legislature is debating a bill to declare an official sandwich. The bill, (H-2932), submitted by Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein (for the second time, actually) is "An Act designating the fluffernutter as the official sandwich of the commonwealth." (Full disclosure: As a resident of Union Square, Somerville, where Fluff was invented, and a lifelong Fluff fan, I wholeheartedly support this bill.)

This got me curious about whether there are other Official State Sandwiches out there. Via FoodTimeline.org, I found that 2 states have sandwiches known as "traditional foods" (Iowa's Loose Meat Sandwich and Nebraska's Runza Sandwich), but this is obviously not the same thing. Even a state in Mexico has an official sandwich (Vera Cruz's Pambazo). Someone suggested, as a joke, that the Oreo become the Official State Sandwich COOKIE of Utah (which doesn't count because it's a cookie and a joke), and in response to the bill being submitted in MA, a Florida radio duo began lobbying Florida to declare a official state sandwich.

Meanwhile, bloggers in Indiana and New Hampshire have previously begun movements agitating for a state sandwich of their own. Delaware's might be the Bobby, but there wasn't anything definitive on the nets, so send me a message if you're in the know and I'll add a link. As far as I can tell, though, the only "Official State Sandwich" out there is Carle’s Bratwurst, the Official State Sandwich of Ohio (recognized as such in a 2006 omnibus bill recognizing 64 other people, places and things as official symbols of Ohio).

Finally, I would be remiss if I neglected to link to the official Marshmallow Fluff Homepage, complete with history, recipes, and fun. Obviously the Fluff Festival as well.

(This post was inspired by my friends at Grand, an awesome shop in Union Square that is celebrating their one year anniversary this weekend. (No Fluff was promised to me for this plug.))

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Chocolate Stout Bacon Cake

aaron cohen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:28:28 +0000

Not only does this cake have chocolate and bacon, but it has beer and, well, cake. (Thanks, Jonathan!) ###Possibly related posts:Chocolate Covered Bacon: Bacolate Forever! One Step Closer to Chocolate Covered Bacon Perfection: Bacolate Truffles Bacon Cheeseburger With Grilled Cheese and Bacon Sandwiches as Buns ### Possibly related posts:

Shark Cupcakes

aaron cohen — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:22:30 +0000

Someone is playing a sick joke. I love cupcakes. I hate sharks. ###Possibly related posts:Shark Week: Jessica Alba – Shark Vandal Shark Week: Interview With Shark Expert George Burgess Part 2 Shark Week: Interview With Shark Expert George Burgess ### Possibly related posts:

Fluff Festival: Union Square, Somerville

aaron cohen — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:00:04 +0000

Fluff was invented in Union Square, Somerville in 1917. For the last 3 years, Union Square has celebrated by holding a What the Fluff Festival. It's a lot of fun with lots of activities for young and old alike. This year, there's even a comic book. FYI, the What the Fluff Festival has changed it's date from 9/27 to 9/28 from 4 PM to 7 PM. See you there!

Edited 9/27:
This post from Bostonist has more about the whats of this year and the whys of all years.

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Homemade Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food Ice Cream Recipe

aaron cohen — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:15:20 +0000

I've been making ice cream the last couple weeks trying out different flavors. I made Blueberry Chocolate Chip (Total Failure), Cayenne Cinnamon Chocolate Chocolate Chip (kinda success), Raspberry Chocolate Chip (kinda success), and Mint Chocolate Chip (success). Today I tried Ben & Jerry's Phish Food and it's great. If you like lots of junk in your ice cream (leading to more junk in your trunk), give it a shot.

I didn't use a recipe, but I'll try to recreate below what I did:
Start by putting 2 cups of cream and 1 cup of whole milk in a saucepan on low. Stir regularly to heat evenly without growing a skin on the cream and to avoid that heated milk taste. At the same time, whisk 2 eggs and 2/3 cups sugar for a while. Then do it for a couple minutes longer.
When the cream/milk is hot enough (you'll know) pour it on, eh, let's say 6 ounces of semi-sweet dark chocolate. If you want to make a different kind of chocolate ice cream, use different types of chips. Mix the cream/milk with the chocolate and stir it well so all the chocolate is melted and folded in. Pour chocolate mix into egg and sugar mix and stir well. Chill this mixture in the fridge for about 25-30 minutes, or until cool. I run the ice cream maker in the fridge to keep it extra cool, if you live in Alaska, you might consider running it outside. Put the mixture in the ice cream maker and turn it on for about 25 minutes or so. When there's about 3 to 5 minutes left throw in chocolate chips to taste. You might want to use chopped up chocolate chunks instead. Prepare caramel and marshmallow sauce. (I used Fluff this time, and it's great, but it gets hard in the freezer, so I'm going to check out marshmallow sauce the next time.) I folded this into the ice cream as I put it into the Tupperware, basically 2 big scoops of ice cream, one small scoop marshmallow, one drizzle caramel. Repeat until out of ice cream. Put some wax paper on top of the ice cream and sit on your hands for 2-3 hours after putting it in the freezer.
Eat a lot.

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Free Barcelona Travel Guide – Day 8: Sitges

aaron cohen — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:16:36 +0000

Thanks for clicking on the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. There are 10 chapters total, listed at the end of this post. Check out the introduction for more information.

It was on this day that the realities of staying at a gay hotel began to set in, but only in that the realities of staying at a gay hotel are that there aren't any women down at breakfast besides J. Earlier in the week, it was impossible to notice because we were the only ones at breakfast. Today was very hot, so why not spend the morning lounging on the beach reading trashy novels? In any case, that's what we did until lunch. We had a smoothie at Parrots Terrace and then light sandwiches at Mostaza right next door before, uh, going back to the beach to read trashy novels for the afternoon.

Douglas at Parrots who had steered us so rightly to The Beach House on our first night in Sitges suggested Mezzanine. We weren't AS thrilled with Mezzanine, but only because of the incredibly high bar set by The Beach House. The atmosphere was lovely, the service charming, and the tempura de gambas had eyes. The food was presented amazingly, but unfortunately, there was something missing from the taste. The chocolate cake for dessert, however, was out of this world.

There are 10 chapters in the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. I hope you find them useful.
Introduction
Day 1: Barcelona to Boston: Plaça de Catalunya
Day 2: More Walking: Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, Ciutadella, Euskal Etxea
Day 3: Gaudi and Eating: Casa Milà
Day 4: More Gaudi: Parc Guell, Sagrada Família
Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays: Barcelona Cathedral, Parrots Hotel, The Beach House
Day 6: Sitges and Beach
Day 7: Sitges and Montserrat: Montserrat
Day 8: Sitges
Day 9: Too Hot to Shop: Aparthotel Calabria, La Boqueria, Tapaç 24
Day 10: Montjuic: Montjuic

Map of where we went or wished we had.

Click here to blow out the map and get the full effect

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Free Barcelona Travel Guide – Day 9: Too Hot to Shop

aaron cohen — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:41:41 +0000

Thanks for clicking on the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. There are 10 chapters total, listed at the end of this post. Check out the introduction for more information.

We had caught a headline saying something like "African Heat Headed to Spain", earlier in the week, and if it hadn't arrived by yesterday, it was certainly here today. After breakfast, we decided to take one more trip around town and down by the beach. On the boardwalk, we were surprised to find techno music playing and a set up for a spin class. Only in Sitges.

We caught our train back to Barcelona after sadly bidding Sitges adieu. Our hotel, Aparthotel Calabria, was in a different area of Barcelona than we had stayed earlier in the week. While it was fine, I'd suggest staying closer in to the Barri Gothic. This hotel is next door to two grocery stores, incidentally, and features giant rooms with kitchens. The room would definitely be great for a family, especially one that wanted to cook a few meals in. Our hotel looked out onto a courtyard of old buildings that had a very Eastern European feel. We dropped our bags off, cooled down for a bit, and headed out for some more walking around.

Needing lunch, we decided it was a good time to finally go to La Boqueria. La Boqueria, one of the must see attractions in Barcelona, is a large covered market with about 125 different food stands. Fish of all kinds, meats of all kinds, produce of all kinds, snacks, candies, herbs, spices, etc, etc, etc. Really a sight to see. We wanted to try either Pinotxo or El Quim but couldn't get a seat, let alone a menu at either place and didn't feel like dealing. J got a plate of different vegetarian foods at a health stand along the back wall. I had been hoping against hope to find the food I had enjoyed so much in Berlin, the Döner kebab, and I had heard rumors that Barcelona had them, too. Well, I found one, and it wasn't any good. I guess we'll have to go back to Berlin sometime to get them.

It was too hot to do anything. We had hoped to do some shopping, but couldn't get it going. We had checked out the Chocolate Museum earlier in the week but hadn't gone in, deciding to save it for today. It wasn't too expensive, but it was geared exclusively to children and we should have skipped it. There were some cool chocolate sculptures, but nothing mind altering. Depressed and now needing a chocolate fix, we had to go over to Valor for some more cold chocolate drinks, which were delicious, again.

Unable to do anything else because of the heat, we kind of collapsed in the shade on the stairs of a museum in a forgotten plaza and listened to a woman play Flamenco guitar while we zoned out. Soon, we moved our siesta into the courtyard of the Ministry of Culture. There was fountain there in which we watched a woman put her feet. I don't know what the fountain was for, but I'm certain it's not for touristic feet dipping.

We had wanted to check out Comerç 24 but couldn't get a reservation later than 1:15 in the afternoon so we decided to check out Tapaç 24, the no-reservation, Tapas joint by the same chef, Carlos Abellán. If you had only one day in Barcelona, I'd suggest coming here for lunch and dinner, it was that good. We ate a menu of tapas suggested by the waiter, I'm not sure we would have ordered differently. We ate foie burgers (a specialty), grilled cheese with truffle oil, pan y tomate, patatas bravas, and probably a few other dishes that I'm forgetting in all their glory. Best of all was dessert, something I'm going to bring to America if I have to open a restaurant myself. 4 scoops of chocolate ganache drizzled in olive oil and flavored with a generous portion of sea salt. It doesn't make sense until you try it, trust me. Go here often in Barcelona.

There are 10 chapters in the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. I hope you find them useful.
Introduction
Day 1: Barcelona to Boston: Plaça de Catalunya
Day 2: More Walking: Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, Ciutadella, Euskal Etxea
Day 3: Gaudi and Eating: Casa Milà
Day 4: More Gaudi: Parc Guell, Sagrada Família
Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays: Barcelona Cathedral, Parrots Hotel, The Beach House
Day 6: Sitges and Beach
Day 7: Sitges and Montserrat: Montserrat
Day 8: Sitges
Day 9: Too Hot to Shop: Aparthotel Calabria, La Boqueria, Tapaç 24
Day 10: Montjuic: Montjuic

Map of where we went or wished we had.

Click here to blow out the map and get the full effect

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Free Barcelona Travel Guide – Day 6: Sitges and Beach

aaron cohen — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:24:55 +0000

Thanks for clicking on the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. There are 10 chapters total, listed at the end of this post. Check out the introduction for more information.

Sitges is an excellent little city/town. It's small enough that you can walk all over everywhere and walk by the same streets until they become familiar, but big enough that it's still interesting to see everything a couple times. Right by our hotel was a block without an official name, Calle del Pecado, or Sin Street, with cafes on either side of the road. The outdoor tables for the cafes are lined up 4 deep to give the maximum amount seats for people watching. This was my favorite part of Sitges, I thought of it as walking the gauntlet. Watching people people watching is more fun than I would have thought.

As I said yesterday, the weather became perfect about as soon as we got to Sitges, so we were excited to head to the beach after slathering on the 800 SPF sun block J had gotten for us. The hotel was a block and half from the beach, so we were basking in the sun reading trashy novels in no time. This being a European beach on the Mediterranean, you should be warned that there are a fair amount of Speedo bathing suits for the fellas, and not all of the ladies wear both parts of their bathing suit.

After about 2 hours of basking and trashy novels among the half-decent Europeans, we walked over to a Creperie on the corner of Sin Street for lunch. Has anyone ever had a bad crepe? I doubt it. By that point, we were exhausted and needed a nap, after which we promptly went back to the beach for several more hours of basking and trashy novels.

After another nap, which admittedly I spent reading trashy novels, we headed out to find some food. Douglas at the hotel had suggested Al Fresco as the 2nd best restaurant in Sitges, but we ended up at their sister restaurant next door, the Al Fresco Cafe. J got the menu del dia which came with vegetable soup, lasagna, and this delicious mango bread for dessert. I can't remember what I got, but I remember liking this restaurant, so it must have been good.

There are 10 chapters in the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. I hope you find them useful.
Introduction
Day 1: Barcelona to Boston: Plaça de Catalunya
Day 2: More Walking: Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, Ciutadella, Euskal Etxea
Day 3: Gaudi and Eating: Casa Milà
Day 4: More Gaudi: Parc Guell, Sagrada Família
Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays: Barcelona Cathedral, Parrots Hotel, The Beach House
Day 6: Sitges and Beach
Day 7: Sitges and Montserrat: Montserrat
Day 8: Sitges
Day 9: Too Hot to Shop: Aparthotel Calabria, La Boqueria, Tapaç 24
Day 10: Montjuic: Montjuic

Map of where we went or wished we had.

Click here to blow out the map and get the full effect

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Free Barcelona Travel Guide – Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays

aaron cohen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:51:20 +0000

Thanks for clicking on the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. There are 10 chapters total, listed at the end of this post. Check out the introduction for more information.

It was J's birthday today, which I clearly forgot until the middle of the morning. All week, I had been trying to think of a way to celebrate a birthday while on vacation and then I just forgot. Then again, we're on vacation, the whole time is a celebration!

We thought we'd do a little shopping in the morning before catching a commuter rail-like train to Sitges. Taking advantage of our close proximity to Barcelona Cathedral, we popped in quickly in the morning and confirmed that it's not nearly as cool as Santa Maria del Mar. There is this crazy garden in the back of the Cathedral, though, with palm trees and geese. We then headed over to Calle Petritxol to check out Xocoa. On our way, we heard a giant commotion roiling though the alleys. We got to the mouth of Plaça de Sant Jaume, only to be blocked by a giant garbage truck trying to get by 2 riot police vans. (Almost no one drives in the close alleys of The Born and Barri Gothic except for the street sweepers and garbage men and women, who seem to be cleaning nonstop). It took the garbage truck about 5 minutes to get by, which seemed like forever because I REALLY wanted to see what was going on in the square. It was impossible to tell what the people were protesting, but eventually, a group of men were let into the building and everyone cheered.

Xocoa is a chocolate boutique that sells lots of great snacks and gifts and snacks to gift. We picked up a chili chocolate bar and a few truffles that were yummy. There are a few other chocolate stores on this street, making it worth a visit.

We checked out a few more stores and then mistakenly went to 4Gats. I say mistakenly because I had talked about this as a restaurant to avoid and J had only heard me talking about it, not what I said. She thought I wanted to go there and I thought she wanted to go there. There's a reason people need to communicate and that reason is to avoid restaurants like 4Gats. The restaurant is historic and the building interesting, but if you're going to go, I've heard the coffee and dessert route is the way to go. We got the fixed price lunch menu and a chance to sit up on the balcony looking down on the main dining room. The service was friendly, but the food was awful. I got a creamy pasta starter that was the best of everything we got. J's fish came with veggies that looked and tasted like they had been boiled for 2 days. We felt snookered, afterward, to realize that the desserts we had ordered were not part of the fixed menu as we had believed. Go here, take a picture, and then go someplace else for lunch.

We went back to our hotel and picked up our bags to go to Sitges. The train ride was about 35 minutes, and while it had been drizzly and cloudy in Barcelona, it was sunny in Sitges. We got off the train not knowing how to get to our hotel. Finding the information booth closed, we walked around Sitges, stumbled upon the Mediterranean Sea, and then lucked into finding our hotel, Parrots. After booking the hotel, I read up on Sitges and found it described as, "The internationally renowned sun-drenched gay mecca of Europe" and, "Gayer than the capital of Gayland". I saw "Is Sitges too gay?" and, "Too gay for families?" on a couple of message boards, and whatever that means, the answer is no. Yes, there are a plethora of gay men in Sitges. Unless you're a secretly gay Republican that pretends not to be gay by being virulently homophobic, you will have a lovely time in Sitges. That said, Parrots is a gay hotel with a sauna that just opened and J was the only woman down at breakfast, garnering a few inquisitive, but friendly looks.

We asked Douglas at the front desk where to go for dinner, and he sent us to, what he called, "The third best restaurant in Sitges", The Beach House. It was amazing and the portions were very generous. J got the watermelon salad and baked tortelini and I got the Cesar and Tuscan chicken. Everything was fabulous and, well, fabulous.

There are 10 chapters in the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. I hope you find them useful.
Introduction
Day 1: Barcelona to Boston: Plaça de Catalunya
Day 2: More Walking: Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, Ciutadella, Euskal Etxea
Day 3: Gaudi and Eating: Casa Milà
Day 4: More Gaudi: Parc Guell, Sagrada Família
Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays: Barcelona Cathedral, Parrots Hotel, The Beach House
Day 6: Sitges and Beach
Day 7: Sitges and Montserrat: Montserrat
Day 8: Sitges
Day 9: Too Hot to Shop: Aparthotel Calabria, La Boqueria, Tapaç 24
Day 10: Montjuic: Montjuic

Map of where we went or wished we had.

Click here to blow out the map and get the full effect

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Free Barcelona Travel Guide – Day 4: More Gaudi

aaron cohen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:21:11 +0000

Thanks for clicking on the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. There are 10 chapters total, listed at the end of this post. Check out the introduction for more information.

Not much is open in Barcelona on Sundays, so we decided to complete the Gaudi tour by going up to Park Guell. There's a bus you can get in Plaza Catalunya that goes all the way to the entrance of the Parc. I'd suggest you take this because the Metro stop is almost a mile away and up a steep hill to boot. On the street leading into the Parc, there is a grocery with a crazy old man in it. I tried to buy a bottle of water from him, but as I was counting out the change, he snatched the bottle and put it back in the cooler. There wasn't anyone in line and he wasn't doing anything besides sitting behind the cash register. I'd like to blame this on my USA elitist sense of entitlement, but I literally hadn't done anything. JR asked him "En serio?" "En SERIO" was his curt reply. I'm not sure what I did to piss him off, but hopefully he goes out of business soon.

Parc Guell is lovely and filled with Gaudi's signature mosaics. There is a wide open terrace with a tiled bench all the way around, and a great view of the city. About a 10 minute hike further up brings you to the top of the parc and an even better view. We decided to take the metro back, but I wish we had taken the bus. Parc Guell is nice, but maybe skipable if you're short on time?

We took the Metro to Sagrada Familia and decided to walk around for a bit before going in. We walked around the corner to Alkimia to see about lunch, but along with being woefully underdressed, there is only one seating for lunch and we had missed it by about 2 hours. Walking down the block, you'd never guess that one of the 3 best restaurants in Barcelona was behind one of the doors. We'll have to check it out the next time we're in town. We instead lunched at a chain bageteria, which was fine if not twice as expensive as every other bageteria in the city.

Sagrada Família is an amazing site, steeples rising high above the neighboring buildings, it's visible from every somewhat elevated area of the city. We paid the 8 Euros entrance, admired the large carvings that adorn the outer walls, and went into what is essentially an empty shell of a cathedral with a hole in one entire side. The wait that everyone talks about is to ride an elevator to the top, which costs another 2 Euros. If you're not going to wait the 30-60 minutes to get to the top, it's probably not worth going in at all. Wait we did, though, and the view is amazing, both of the city, and the close ups of the different statues, designs, etc on the steeples and outer walls. It's difficult to explain, so maybe you ought to see it. There's a museum underneath the Cathedral which we skimmed, but it likely had something interesting. At least I hope so.

We took the Metro back to our hotel but stopped in La Colmena in Placa Angel for a delicious strawberry tort. I would have liked to have tried 7 other items, but that would have been imprudent.

We got back to the hotel and rested for a while before arguing about where to go for dinner. The dilemma was that very few restaurants in Barcelona are open on Sundays, and none that we were super excited to check out. We finally settled on Cuines de Santa Caterina which had the added benefit of being close to our hotel. The restaurant is in one of the much bigger buildings we were in in Spain and the menu was an eclectic mix of 4 different styles - Asian, Mediterranean, Italian and vegetarian. I had a fried rice that was tasty, though I couldn't tell if the crispy rice texture was on purpose or not and J's tofu curry was delicious. We had about 7 waiters who were constantly asking if everything was OK, but never returning with requested items (water, dessert, the bill...). A big open kitchen adds to the atmosphere.

There are 10 chapters in the Free Barcelona Travel Guide. I hope you find them useful.
Introduction
Day 1: Barcelona to Boston: Plaça de Catalunya
Day 2: More Walking: Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, Ciutadella, Euskal Etxea
Day 3: Gaudi and Eating: Casa Milà
Day 4: More Gaudi: Parc Guell, Sagrada Família
Day 5: Sitges and Birthdays: Barcelona Cathedral, Parrots Hotel, The Beach House
Day 6: Sitges and Beach
Day 7: Sitges and Montserrat: Montserrat
Day 8: Sitges
Day 9: Too Hot to Shop: Aparthotel Calabria, La Boqueria, Tapaç 24
Day 10: Montjuic: Montjuic

Map of where we went or wished we had.

Click here to blow out the map and get the full effect

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One Step Closer to Chocolate Covered Bacon Perfection: Bacolate Truffles

aaron cohen — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:04:49 +0000

We had our 10 year high school reunion on Friday and had some people over to catch up before going to catch up with the rest of the class.
I figured this was a good opportunity to make some more chocolate covered bacon. My first attempt at combining bacon and chocolate to make bacolate was a success of sorts, if only because the results were edible and appreciated. The result wasn't going to be worth making again, though, so I had to try a different tact. Bacolate Truffles!
I read about 6,000 truffle recipes on Thursday night and then about 2,500 more articles about chocolate tempering before 2 trusted culinary advisers (thanks, Matt and Ben) let me know that I didn't REALLY need to temper the chocolate. This will be a debate for another day, however, after all other aspects of this process are perfected.

Bacolate Truffles:
For the ganache, I used a composite recipe.
3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups of chocolate
5 strips of bacon

Microwave the bacon until crisp (about 5-8 minutes depending on how much bacon) and break up into little pieces. Microwaving the bacon results in a uniform crispness, which is what I was going for. You might like your bacon less crispy, but I'm not sure how that would taste mixed with chocolate.

Heat cream and butter on medium, stirring continuously until melted. Put chocolate (chips or cut up into small pieces) in a bowl. When cream begins to boil, pour over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth and pour into a brownie pan that has been prepared with plastic wrap on the bottom and sides. Put plastic wrap over the top of the mixture as well to prevent a film from forming. Let cool for 10 minutes and put into the refrigerator to chill out until it's firm (probably about 60-90 minutes).

I dipped these truffles in chocolate after forming them into little balls, which is where the tempering was going to come in, but by melting the chocolate slowly and carefully in a double boiler, it wasn't necessary. After the ganache was firm, I rolled them into balls, adding some small pieces of bacon to the middle, and dipped them in chocolate and put them onto a cookie sheet to chill out some more before serving. The forming and dipping process was a nightmare, and will need to be improved upon for next time. I'll keep you updated as the process evolves. Like all truffles, these could be coated with cocoa powder, confectionery sugar, roasted nuts, more bacon, etc.

Mint Truffles:
Same recipe as above (minus the bacon). When boiling the cream and butter, add a few mint leaves and strain before pouring over the chocolate. This ganache will need a lot longer to chill in the fridge though, as it was impossible to form into a ball before melting in my hands.

Oreo Truffles:
1 pound package of Oreo Cookies (I cheekily used Double Stuffs, look out)
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
Chocolate for dipping

Mash Oreo Cookies in a bowl. Use a mixer to combine Oreos and cream cheese until well mixed. Form into little balls and put onto a cookie sheet to chill out in the refrigerator. After balls are firm, dip in chocolate. Personally, I always hate the idea of cream cheese as a dessert ingredient, but these really came out great. Delicious.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls:
Carrots
Cucumbers
Red Pepper
Lettuce
Cilantro
Mint
Rice Vermicelli
Spring Roll Skin

Not a dessert, but Matt's always putting up fancy food posts, and I made these, too, so I wanted to tell you about'em. The ingredients are a little ambiguous because you can really put whatever you want in these things. I learned how to make them from my vegan sister-in-law, though, so there isn't any shrimp, or say, bacon, in these rolls.

Cut veggies into this pieces about the width of a McDonald french fry and about as long as your index finger. Cook vermicelli, strain, and rinse with cold water. Fill a large bowl with hot water. Dip spring roll skin into hot water for about 3 seconds and put on a plate or cutting board. Fill with ingredients and wrap. Some people dry the skin off before wrapping, but that creates an extra step and makes it much easier to mess up the skin. I've made these 4 times now and just got the ingredient proportions down correctly so that my rolls don't like giant vegan mistakes. It's going to take some practice, but the best piece of advice I can offer would be to fill the roll and then take a quarter of the filling out.
Roll and serve with Hoisin sauce.

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Happy Anniversary

matt — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:14:58 +0000

Yesterday was a big day. For one thing, it was my first day of school. Hooray for school! I'm feeling more educated already.

However, yesterday was also my third wedding anniversary. Yes, three years ago this morning Rachel and I were jumping in a lake. Three years might not seem that long, but since we'd been dating for seven years before we got married, 2007 is in some senses our tenth anniversary, which seems like a biggish deal. Just like last year, we decided to have a nice dinner in rather than a nice dinner out, and so I turned to my fanciest cookbook, The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky.

(This is a really cool book, by the way. I picked it up for a song at a used bookstore in Northampton, and every recipe in it is guaranteed to impress the hell out of your guests. Last night was my second time making a recipe from the book: about a year ago I made the Braised Short Ribs of Beef with an Aromatic Barbecue Sauce. I'm kicking myself that there are no pictures of that meal, since the recipe is four damn pages long and people seemed to like it.)

We got another ridiculous haul of incredible tomatoes from Ledge Ends, so it was clear they'd be involved. I happened to flip the book open to:

Two-Tomato Coulis with Three Basils

Except here's the thing: I couldn't find purple basil, or basil flowers, but I did have a bag of fresh Ledge Ends green basil, so I just made:

Two-Tomato Coulis with One Rather Delicious Basil

The recipe for this is pretty ludicrously simple. Just chuck a whole bunch of red cherry tomatoes in a blender, and puree the crap out of them. Then do the same with some yellow tomatoes, and put both purees in a bowl with some basil, white pepper, and kosher salt.

The recipe called for 2 pounds each of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, which is ridiculous, so as I was only trying to make two servings I used a pound each, and supplemented the cherry tomatoes with some fabulous heirloom globe tomatoes. I also left out the sugar because, uh, I forgot it, but it didn't need any. Delicious, sweet, and garden-y.

This was by far the most visually striking thing I've ever prepared. So cool. When we started eating, we discovered that the colors stay separate even as you move them around a bit, so if I ever make this again I might go for swirlier patterns instead of just the yin-yang.

When we were in Maine a few weeks ago, Rachel reminded me how much she loves lobster so it seemed clear that would be in the main course. Kunz and Kaminsky provided:

Lobster in Syrah Reduction with Aromatic Grits

I mean, delicious, right? Not even too difficult to make.

The sauce is a piece of cake: sauté onions, garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery until soft, and then pour in a bottle of red wine. Reduce, strain out the vegetables, and reduce again until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Whisk in some butter at the end, and you're good to go.

The grits were also easy and delicious. I couldn't find the quick-cooking grits the recipe calls for, but a pretty standard 4:1 milk and water to cornmeal ratio produced what I wanted. A little nutmeg and white pepper and butter go in at the end.

Finally the lobster: the hardest part was buying them, since Whole Foods apparently doesn't sell live lobsters any more. However, I was pleased to discover Captain's Catch in North Providence, which does, and has a pretty good looking seafood selection. Once I got the doomed fellows home, they were blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes, shocked in ice water, and relieved of their shells. (I now have a Ziploc back full of lobster parts ready for the stockpot.) Five to ten minutes in a 350 degree oven (with butter, of course) finished the cooking.

'Twas damn good, and we even had room left over for dessert:

Lemon-Basil Sorbet

I'd bookmarked this recipe for Lemon-basil vodka gimlets as they looked delicious and refreshing, and indeed they were, but the fact is I don't drink anywhere near enough vodka to use up all that syrup. As soon as I tasted it, though, I said: sorbet. Now, the syrup is way too sweet to make a sorbet on its own (and yes, I went through the trouble of making a batch to find that out) but with the juice of about four lemons added to it, it because perfect. Light, tart, with a subtle herbitude.

So, that's three years. Believe it or not, Rachel just gets better and better. Don't think for a second I fail to realize how lucky I am to have a wife willing to support us while I quit my job and ~~sleep in every morning~~ go back to grad school. A plate of lobster and a song are the least I can do.

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My First Pie

matt — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:39:02 +0000

So, I baked a pie. Never baked a pie before, but Nichole said it was easy, and I figured I was up for it.

It... didn't go that well.

The crust was the first problem. I made a pretty standard butter crust and rolled out the bottom crust without too much difficulty. The top crust, however, was more of a problem. It stuck the counter. Kind of a lot. And tore. And... I might have thrown what could charitably be called a hissy fit, not to mention the dough across the kitchen.

The next morning, considerably calmer, I made another batch and let it sit in the fridge all day. This one rolled out much better, which led to the next problem: filling. I'd decided on a berry pie as being nicely summery, so the previous evening I'd tossed the contents of a bag of frozen mixed berries in a bowl with some sugar and lime zest. The twenty-four hours of maceration produced quite a bit of juice and shrunk the fruit, so when I filled the bottom crust, there was plenty of room to spare. Casting desperately around the kitchen for something else to put in the pie, I settled on a handful of fresh blueberries and half a bag of frozen mango chunks. Yeah.

It still wasn't enough filling, so the top crust fell down a bit. It ended up rather lumpy. Still, tasted OK. The bottom crust more or less dissolved with all the juicy filling, but the top crust was buttery, flaky, and pretty tasty. The filling was an unusual combination of fruits, but I've tasted worse. I might make another pie some day.

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Happy Anniversary!

matt — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:38:51 +0000

It's hard to believe we've been married for two years, not because it means we've been together a long time, but because I can't believe 2004 was two whole years ago. Damn.

Still, every anniversary is a milestone. Marrying Rachel two years ago was (if I may wax earnest for a maximum of one paragraph) the best thing I've ever done, and marking it is fit and proper. Two years is, of course, just a drop in the bucket compared both to how long we've actually been a couple (nine years!) and how long we plan to be married.

Last year we decided that we'd establish a tradition of not giving each other gifts for each anniversary. We get each other enough presents throughout the year. Instead we thought we'd go in together on a treat: a trip, something new for the house, something like that. For our first anniversary (paper!) we got a hotel in Boston and tickets to two Red Sox games. This year was cotton.

Cotton sucks as a gift theme. I was not buying my wife a Happy Anniversary t-shirt in preshrunk cotton. We decided to ditch our tradition (of one year) and just go out for a very nice dinner. And then, we thought, wouldn't it be more frugal and (perhaps) more fun to make a very nice dinner? Yes, yes it would.

The plan was a meal in three courses: a salad as an antipasti, a primi, and a main course. I conceived of all three independently, so I'm not sure how well they held together as a cohesive unit, but I think it was pretty successful.

First, the salad!

"Deconstructed" salad of tomato gelée, red onion, and cucumber with lemon vinaigrette

The salad was "deconstructed" in the sense that I didn't mix all the bits together. I guess you could also call it "untossed" or, possibly, "lazy." We eat cucumber and tomato salads all summer long; I got the idea for the tomato gelée from our favorite restaurant, Gracie's. At the end of last summer, I took all of the tomatoes we had lying around, chopped them and suspended them in a coffee filter in a strainer over a bowl and let it sit overnight. The resulting tomato water ended up in a container in the back of the freezer until now. I heated it to a simmer, stirred in a packet of gelatine, et voila! Tomato jello. Deliciously tomato-y, and texturally surprising.

Once I'd thought of the gelée, the idea of doing everything in cubes just seemed to make sense.

The vinaigrette was equal parts lemon juice and rice wine vinegar, and then olive oil and dried tarragon. A chiffonade of basil and a pinch of lemon zest finished it off. Light, unconventional, and yummy. Next!

Homemade basil pesto and goat cheese ravioli in roasted pepper and tomato sauce

Making pasta just looks fun, doesn't it? And since Rachel has pretty much an unlimited capacity to eat pasta, it seemed like it would be foolish not to serve some.

Making the pasta dough took, I confess, two tries, and even on the second batch it was a bit too sticky to the extent that I couldn't roll it as thin as I'd have liked. The resulting ravioli was a bit chewy, but still delicious.

The filling was just pesto (basil, pine nuts, parmigiano, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil) mixed with goat cheese. The whole ravioli assembly process was fraught with peril, but I was glad to have done it, and I plan to try again at the next opportunity. They apparently freeze really well.

The sauce was a straight food processor job: roasted red peppers, roasted tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper. I just simmered it to warm it before spooning it onto plates and piling on the ravioli. Shaved parmigiano seemed the thing to do, and I, uh, had some basil and lemon zest left over.

Pan-seared duck breast with red wine and fig reduction, gingered carrots, and kale

Well, obviously the duck is the main event here. The carrots are basically Alton Brown's recipe for carrots poached in ginger beer, but I was making that before I ever saw the carrots episode of Good Eats, so nyeah.

Duck has long been my nemesis. I love it in restaurants but it always ends up over- or under-done when I make it. I once, to my enduring shame, served dramatically overcooked (as in gray) duck breasts to Rachel's ex-boss, a man of exceeding taste. This time, I'm pleased to say, it worked.

Flavor-wise, nothing too fancy, just a couple hours marinating in red wine, salt, and pepper. The cooking was a revelation for me. I patted the skin very dry, slashed it, laid it skin side down in a non-stick skillet, and cooked it over very low heat until most of the fat rendered out. (The fat was poured out to cook the kale in.) Then it was just a matter of peeking every minute or so to see if the skin looked brown enough, one flip to give it a minute or two on the other side, and done. I gave it a minute under the broiler just before serving to crisp the skin. Perfection.

The sauce was really simple, too. Chopped dried black mission figs in a cup of red wine, simmered for a good long while. Not long enough, since the sauce was a bit runnier than I planned, but it was damned tasty.

Oh, dessert! Rachel made the flourless chocolate cake from the Williams-Sonoma dessert cookbook. It was chocolate-covered chocolate, and it was delicious.

Anyway. The meal was delicious, the wine was spectacular, and Rachel is the best person in the whole world, and I'm the one married to her, so—again—nyeah.

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Marshmallows

matt — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 19:43:59 +0000

Why? Simply for the challenge.

You can buy marshmallows at the store. You can even buy pretty good marshmallows at the store. But there are some things a man has to do, and sometimes a man has to make homemade marshmallows. Michael Chu provided the recipe, and I have nothing much to add to it except the following notes.

First, this will give your standing mixer a workout. It took me way less than 8 minutes to fluff the marshmallows, and I stopped once could hear the mixer straining. It's possible that our marshmallows didn't fluff as much as possible, or that I somehow screwed something else up.

The marshmallow fluff, before it sets in the pan, is crazy delicious.

The thing you should know about the marshmallow fluff is that it is the stickiest substance in the known universe. Getting it out of the bowl and into the pan was a Herculean labor. By the end, our faces and hands were generously coated in a the sticky yet delicious goo. Rachel, actually, was wearing a pretty nice sweater and I could see the marshmallow's insidious tentacles starting to creep towards it, so I sounded the alarm: "Quick, take off your sweater!" I expected nothing more than that she'd go change into a different shirt, but she was focused, laser-like, on subduing the marshmallow beast, so she simply whipped that thing off and dove right back into the bowl. That, my dear friends, is dedication. Now, if I were to share with you the uncensored picture that resulted, I have a feeling she'd drown me in a vat of marshmallow fluff, so I'll simply link over to the tastefully obscured picture at her place.

We let the marshmallows chill out overnight in their pan, and then dropped the onto a cutting board that was liberally dusted with powdered sugar. I cut them into, more or less, squares with a pizza cutter, and then we dredged each piece in more powdered sugar. The kitchen looked like [insert name of celebrity rumored to be a coke head] had been through there.

How did they taste? Like marshmallows. They really tasted no different than marshmallows you might buy at the store, so I don't know if that means that I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, or that I wasted a weekend and a lot of sugar. Upon repeated tastings, however, I determined that the taste was a little sweeter and less artificial than, say, your generic Fluffy Puff marshmallows, and the texture was vastly superior. Can I refer to the texture of a marshmallow as silky? Who's going to stop me?

Never ones to leave well enough alone, and scoffing at the idea that less is more, we dipped half of them in chocolate. Some got a full dousing, others got an artistic striping, and some got an additional squirt of white chocolate. Admit it, you wish you had this plate of marshmallows right now.

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Smoothie Season is Upon Us!

aaron cohen — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 02:59:00 +0000

For those of you who know me, it won't come as much of a surprise, but smoothie season is here again. Tonight I bought all the ingredients for a week's worth of smoothies, and almost instantaneously my diet will be more than 26 times better per day. Literally. I went from eating about 4 pieces of fruit a month to about 3.5 servings a day.

The best morning smoothie recipe (Serves 2):
2 bananas
Half a pound of frozen strawberries
4 ounces frozen raspberries
3-6 ounces frozen blueberries
Some orange juice
In this order, put bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. Pour OJ into blender until it comes 2/3 of the way up to the strawberries. (More OJ will make the smoothie thinner, less will make it thicker). Blend. When a cyclone starts in the middle of the smoothie, it is perfectly blended. Pour smoothies, rinse pitcher, repeat.

Dessert smoothie recipe (Serves 2):
1 banana
Half a pound of frozen raspberries
4 ounces frozen strawberries
2 ounces frozen blueberries
Even less orange juice
Chocolate chips
This smoothie is created about the same as the breakfast smoothie, but it's got a higher raspberry percentage. Mix the smoothie and pour half into each cup. Put a layer of chocolate chips into each cup and pour the rest of the smoothie. Top of with a few chocolate chips. This smoothie is not only tasty, but fun to eat also. The chocolate chips add a little texture and activity to the normally docile smoothie.

Other things I've learned about smoothies:
The trade off between fresh fruit and frozen fruit is with the frozen stuff, you don't need to water your smoothie down with ice. More tang for the buck.

Chocolate syrup is a good add-in for giving a regular smoothie a little kick.

Milk works instead of OJ if you want it to be even creamier.

The creamiest smoothie can be had by adding a big dollop of plain or vanilla yogurt to either of the recipes above. This is how JR likes it, but since I do all of the smoothie cheffing, I make the rules, and she gets yogurt only on special mornings.

Blackberries are the lowest of all suitable smoothie berries. They're cheap, sweet, and give the smoothie a dark purple color, but the seeds are giant and always get stuck in your teeth.

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