I've Got a Birthday To Celebrate

On my 16th birthday my sister left for her freshman year of college.  I stood in our kitchen at six o'clock in the morning, surrounded by her packed bags, with the members of my family rushing around the house to make sure nothing was left behind, and it didn't feel like a birthday to me.  Of course, it wasn't the norm for how my birthdays were spent, but it can be hard to have a birthday so close to the back-to-school rush.  Even now that I'm out of school, I still sometimes want to tell everyone to wait-just-a-minute and stop rushing through August! because I've got a birthday to celebrate. 

Tim understands this because his birthday falls near Labor Day so there is the same guilt associated with wanting to make a to-do about getting a year older.  There are always friends on weekend trips away or spending time with family.  It's hard for either of us to assert ourselves and ask for attention.  So we do that for each other.  We get how the other feels. 

For my birthday, Tim went overboard.  He bought me a beautiful fragrance to replace the one I broke (dropped it on the bathroom tile) and he made dinner reservations somewhere he knew I'd want to go.  He didn't tell me at first where we were going, but he's terrible at keeping a secret and eventually confessed.  We were going to Jean-Robert's Table, and I was so excited.  Back when I worked in wine sales, I met Jean-Robert de Cavel at a few parties a mutual friend hosted.  He is jovial and interesting to talk to and everyone flocked to him.  That kind of personality can draw a crowd at a party or to his restaurants, and it makes you wonder why this French ex-pat has chosen Cincinnati as his home. But he came here along while ago and never left.  I'm especially grateful now that I've eaten at Table.  I will go back there again and again.

We had an excellent dinner, and perhaps Tim encouraging me to finish the bottle of wine is partly to blame for no documentation of our food.  Everything we ate was fantastic (Tim had steak and I had duck), but trust me when I say, I didn't need pictures to remember our Heirloom Tomato Salad appetizer.  It was a special, not on the regular menu, and as soon as our waitress began to describe it I had already decided to order it. 

I recreated it at home simply because I needed to eat it again.  The soft cheese served with the salad was the perfect foil to the acid.  This salad is for all of the summer-tomato-lovers out there, and tomato discrimination is not allowed; you'll need a good mix of types and sizes to capture the essence of it.  Also, everything added to the tomatoes is merely there to make it all more tomato-ey.  It's simple.  It's fresh.  It's summer.  Tomatoes will now always make me think of my birthday.

I owe Tim for helping me create new, positive birthday memories--it's harder to do than it seems and he excels tremendously at it.  

Heirloom Tomato Salad
inspired by Jean-Robert's Table
serves 4-6, depending if it is served as a light lunch or an appetizer/side dish

I purchased all of the tomatoes for this salad from the Landen Deerfield Township farmer's market, which is held every Saturday during the summer and continues on occasionally throughout the winter.  For heirloom tomatoes, I am particularly drawn to booth hosted by That Guy's Family Farm.  Guy seems to have the biggest variety of heirlooms, including little yellow plum tomatoes, beautiful multi-colored cherry tomatoes, and an incredible green-striped salad tomato that I wish I could remember the name of.  We also sliced up a big Mr. Stripey from our garden for even more size variance and sweeter flavor. 

If you can't find herb goat cheese at your local market, you can always chop up fresh herbs and mix them in with plain goat cheese.  I'd recommend soft-leaf herbs like parsley, dill, basil, and oregano; add no more than a tablespoon total of herbs. 

At Table we had this salad with French bread but at home I decided to make Flatbread with Honey, Thyme, and Sea Salt from a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen.  It was really simple to make and I highly recommend it. 

Ingredients
~3 lbs of heirloom tomatoes, a variety of sizes and colors
1/2 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
4-5 leaves of fresh basil
3 oz soft herb goat cheese
crusty bread like baguette or flatbread

Slice the largest tomatoes across like thick sandwich slices.  Cut the medium size tomatoes into quarters or sixths so that you have wedges.  Depending on the size, halve cherry tomatoes or leave the littlest ones whole.  Put all tomatoes in a medium size bowl and toss with the salt and pepper.  Allow to sit for 10minutes to draw out some of the juice of the tomatoes.

Add the olive oil and vinegar and lightly toss.  Transfer mixture, including accumulated juices onto a serving tray.   Chiffonade the basil and sprinkle over salad.  Serve the herb goat cheese on the side with bread.

Build the best bite by putting a smudge of the goat cheese the bread with a juicy tomato on top. 

Victory Lap: An Ode to the Final Year of My 20s

I won't lie to you and say the past nine years were always amazing.  Sure, there were lots of memorable moments, but I'm not perfect.  There were days when I would stop to wonder how I got to that place--you know, the place where you feel like if you plan a vacation it will rain the whole time or if you saved up a little money the car would inevitably break down.  It was tough.  Calling them my "roaring twenties" would be an accurate description.

Truth be told, I think most of my friends would say the same thing.  Our twenties were a time when we rose to adulthood, without the comfort of our parents home and bank account to protect us.  We made mistakes.  Sometimes it was lonely.  We indulged in too much wine.  Most of us hated our first "real" jobs.  We missed having a safety net.  We mourned the end of childhood.

But we did laugh.  A lot.  My friend K.C. always said that if someone wasn't funny, she couldn't be bothered to get to know them.  Laughter pulled us through while we invested ourselves in building a life.  Many of my friends went on to graduate, law or medical school.  Some married and started families.  Others defiantly sought adventures around the world.  It's not easy to find the right path to follow.  Our twenties gave us a chance to weave in and out and see how the direction felt.  If it didn't end where we expected, we still had time to go a different route.  And we still have time, but it's starting to feel different.  We are older, maybe not as daring.  We have a lot to lose.  So we push on and try to find our way, laughing as often as we need.  I'm lucky that I have found a man who laughs with me.  And he makes me laugh when I most need to.

I had a birthday yesterday.  I'm 29 years old.  Not thirty--I will not let you age me a year. But not because I'm afraid of 30 or apprehensive about aging; I'm going to spend the next year to savoring my twenties.  The latter half of them have been very good to me:  I fell in love, I gained a daughter, I created a home for our family, I'm the happiest I've ever been.  I want to honor my twenties with a victory lap.   I'm going to spend the last year of my twenties celebrating the fact that I'm thriving--I'm still here, still loving, still laughing, still bettering myself.

Tim and Melissa baked me a cake.  I picked it out--dark chocolate cake with chocolate frosting--and they did all of the work.   I don't think the simple name it was given appropriately describes this cake--it was rich and moist and intensely flavorful.  It only seems appropriate to call it Victory Lap Cake, because it represents to me the things I love most about where my 20s have led me:  to family, to love, to happiness.  And they aren't over yet. 

Double Chocolate Layer Cake aka Victory Lap Cake
recipe slightly adapted from Gourmet via epicurious
serves 12 to 14 (or more)

Tim decided put his own twist to the cake by adding orange zest.  While not overpowering, I do think it gave the cake a little zing that chocolate cakes can lack.  I would recommend it, but you could omit it if you don't have an orange handy.

Ingredients for the cake
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups fresh brewed coffee, hot
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken
3/4 tsp vanilla
zest of one medium orange (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Grease two 10 in x 2 in round cake pans.  Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and then grease the paper.

Finely chop 3 oz of chocolate and combine in a bowl with hot coffee.  Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.  Allow to cool slightly. 

Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.  In another large bowl with an electric mixer, beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer and slightly longer with a hand mixer).  Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well.  Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.  If using, stir in orange zest with a spoon or spatula.  Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks.  Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto rack, carefully removing the wax paper.  If not completely cool on the bottom, allow to sit until completely cool.  Can be made 1 day ahead and kept at room temperature wrapped well in plastic wrap.

Ingredients for the frosting
1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

Finely chop chocolate.  In a medium saucepan, bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved.  Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted.  Cut butter into pieces and add to saucepan, whisking until smooth. 

Transfer to a medium bowl and cool, stirring occassionally, until spreadable.  You may need to chill frosting to achieve a spreadable consistency.

Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides.  Serve cake at room temperature.  Cake can be kept for up to 3 days covered and chilled. 

My Birthday

Don't lie to me and tell me that summer is not coming to an end.  And I don't want to hear any of that summer in Ohio can stretch out until mid-October nonsense.  It's enough disappointment to admit that I've only gotten to a handful of things on my summer list.  But if anyone would know the signals of the end of summer, it's me.

That is because today is my birthday.  And my birthday always marks the end of summer.

School begins at the end of August.  A slight chill returns to the air at night in August.  The trees start to turn their first leaves towards brown of utter exhaustion from trying to hold out for some rain.  It all reminds me of my birthday.

Don't get me wrong--there are good things about having an August birthday.  I get to spend all summer gearing up to celebrate it.  There are no major holiday distractions like Christmas or Halloween.  It's always warm and sunny outside so flip flops and tank tops are my birthday wardrobe. Margaritas and icy beers are weather-appropriate celebratory beverages. 

I've been doing my very best to celebrate in whatever way this end-of-summer birthday takes me, and I hope you will join in.  With some sautéed peaches, perhaps?

Sautéed Peaches
serves 3-4

Ingredients
2-3 medium peaches, ripe
1 tbsp sugar
Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tbsp)
2 tbsp butter

Peel peaches and cut in half.  Discard the pit.  If there are any reddish brown patches from where the pit met the flesh of the peach, scoop that out and discard.  Cut into slices and place in a medium bowl.  Add sugar and lemon juice to peaches and set aside.

Melt butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add peach mixture and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occassionally to prevent burning and coat peaches in butter.  When the liquid thickens, remove from heat.  Allow peaches to cool for 1-2 minutes before serving.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and a pinch of cinnamon.