barefoot thursday and some photos

i'm not going to apologize for not updating since the last barefoot post. i am going to link you to my photo album of adventures to serve as my excuse:

summer adventures in and out of the district

as you can see, i've been busy going to artomatic, eastern market, calvert cliffs, new york city, and atlantic city. i don't like to sit still.

and now i will detail the culinary happenings since the last post:

i joined the baking club at work and had an "initiation bake" last week. while in nyc, i snagged some candied ginger for super cheap, so naturally ina's ultimate ginger cookies were a must. i shook things up by adding in some dried apricots (leftover from the couscous) and dried papaya (homemade from the same source as the ginger). while the initiation round wasn't voted on, i still maintain i won. they were fantastically chewy, sweet, and spicy. a perfect combination. bonus: the whole house smelled like christmas, and every time someone came by and opened the box on my desk, so did my cube =).

we had a bit of an overflow problem with the guinness cupcakes for the 4th (cake recipe from here), but the oozing just forced me to eat all of the extra bits before frosting them. i consider this a serious perk and not at all a problem.

martha's seven-minute frosting covered up any snags from the overflow and added a marshmallow-y goodness to the boozey cake (though it turned into foam the next day -- not good for leftovers). next time, i'm going to try reducing the guinness to give it a stronger flavor and possibly replacing some of the water in the icing recipe with the stout. perfect chocolate cake texture, though.

and finally: it's BAREFOOT THURSDAY! i was excited to see an easy dish that didn't include three pounds of butter and chocolate (i'm still recovering from the outrageous brownies). i've also maxed out my baking and summer bbq palate for awhile, so pasta was right up my alley. i omitted the mozzarella (obvious reasons) and olives (v doesn't like them), and i added chopped tomatoes into the pureed sauce instead of whole in the pasta. the sundried tomatoes gave it an almost meaty texture, and serving it warm right out of the pot made it a very substantial dinner (note the bruschetta in the photo: sundried tomato and basil bread from panera mimicked the pasta ingredients; what a great compliment -- thanks a!). the sauce would be great on chicken or fish, and i'm sure the recipe would make a really good cold pasta salad for a picnic or tailgate. head on over to Cat's blog, Delta Whiskey, for the recipe =)

thank goodness it's almost friday. i'm going sailing on saturday with the other summer consultants (yes, i'll be on a boat with my flippy-floppies), and my parents are coming down for a visit on sunday. looking forward to a fun weekend =).

ciao,

j