Friday Night Date with Caramel Cake

I couldn't decide what to make for dinner on Friday, and no restaurants called our name. So I forgot my usual preoccupations with nutrition and "real food," and went for this Best-Ever Caramel Cake from Food & Wine magazine.

The multi-step process (plus time for photos) was a lengthy ordeal that left me thoroughly sick of caramel, so the cake sat untouched in the fridge until Saturday night. Probably for the best: according to the magazine, this caramel cake is better the second day.

Since neither Brian or I have ever had a caramel cake, we can't confirm whether this is actually the best-ever. But the super-sweet caramel icing spread thin enough to not overwhelm the vanilla cake, which was rich and dense (not at all "fluffy" as described in the recipe). If I was throwing a birthday party for a caramel-lover, this would be my cake of choice.

Fresh new look for 2teaspoons!

If you're reading somewhere other than 2tsps.blogspot.com, come check out our summery new design! It's picked fresh from the garden, just for 2teaspoons guests.

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Lemon Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

A couple people mentioned the lack of 2 Teaspooning in recent weeks. I promise, no one's missed any kitchen excitement, as I haven't really cooked anything since the sun came out in late June. I do not enjoy a warm oven or stove when the weather is warm.

But I do love quinoa and chickpeas, and both are great additions to salads. They're cheap. They're lovely at any temperature. They're light and don't overwhelm salads, like some other additions (cheese, meat). And along with the healthy fiber and protein in chickpeas, quinoa is a complete protein. I remember from a college Nutrition class that complete proteins are necessary for humans, but since they're primarily found in animal products, it's sort of lucky to find them in vegetarian/vegan foods. So there you have it. Eat more quinoa.

Both chickpeas and quinoa also have an impressive history: chickpeas have been eaten for at least 7,500 years, originally in the Middle East and Mediterranean. Quinoa is a South American food, eaten for 6,000+ years, and considered the sacred "Mother of All Grains" by the Incas.

If you don't know quinoa, it's similar to couscous: fluffy, light in flavor, quick-cooking. It's officially a "pseudocereal," not a real grain (couscous is officially a pasta). It can be red or yellowish -- red is prettier, but less common in stores. Quinoa is low-maintenance: add boiling water and cover for 15 minutes.

For this salad, I made my quinoa rissotto-style, adding a little water at a time and stirring, then adding a splash of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and sliced scallion at the end. I added canned chickpeas (rinsed and drained) in the last minute of cooking, to heat them. Then I tossed over mixed lettuce and herbs from the garden. Very little hot-stove time, and definitely better than a diet of popsicles.

2 Teaspoons, Meet Joe Black (and my peanut butter cookies)

So I watched Meet Joe Black for the first time ever tonight (how did I miss this film??), and among other exciting moments, we see Brad Pitt discovering peanut butter. Which of course makes one want a spoonful of peanut butter right this instant.

Fortunately, I had the last three of these no-bake chocolate and peanut butter oatmeal bars in the freezer. I recommend "blending" the peanut butter layer ingredients in the food processor -- it may take away some of the oatmeal texture, but it made the process super speedy. Storing in the freezer has two benefits: 1, it ensures non-melty chocolate and 2) it keeps the bars semi-hidden, and therefore they last longer.

Super easy to make. Ideal for peanut butter lovers. You hear that, Brad?

Garden Party

I thought nothing would grow -- as new homeowners, I feared we'd turn the front yard into a wasteland of wimpy carrot tops and inch-high broccoli.

Apparently I was wrong. The garden's far from perfect (I wish I had more variety, and more of everything), but it's definitely growing. The last two weekends I've filled the Yard Waste bin with heaps of who-knows-what, enormous weeds that sprouted up uninvited and threatened to take over the "real" vegetation.

The actual foodstuffs: We have enough chard, lettuce, and arugula to actually eat regularly.

The fennel (top right, in collage below) is growing successfully -- which is great, considering I stuffed it carelessly into a broken pot in the corner of the garden and then forgot about it. The broccoli is mostly huge leaves, but seems promising.

We ate all the radishes before I thought to plant more, and I accidentally "weeded" the beets (oops). But the carrots might be fabulous -- they're teeny, but I needed to thin them and the few I pulled out were barely bite-sized.

Last year's enthusiastic gardener left us blueberry and strawberry plants, each with more teeny fruits than I expected. The one red, ripe strawberry mysteriously disappeared -- I suspect squirrels or the newspaper delivery person.

Tomatoes are what I really want. My six plants should be more than enough, but they're slow to grow. I realize it's only June, but I'm impatient. I want last year's surplus.