Matcha Mochi Cupcakes - Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from The Food O'Librarian

Today, I'm celebrating my Japanese and Irish roots.
What?
Yes, I may be 100% Okinawan, but somehow, my grandparents named my father Patrick!

My grandfather traveled from Okinawa, Japan to Hawaii in the early 1900's to work on the sugar plantations...as did many Issei (first generation Japanese Americans). Later, he went back to the little island of Okinawa and met my grandmother. They settled in California as farmers and began to raise their family of six kids. When son #3 came along, they named him Patrick. They were Christian (named the first two sons John and David), but not Catholic so I'm not quite sure where the name came from. However, I attribute this bit of Irish to my craving for some corned beef and cabbage every March 17th. And the McDonald's Shamrock Shake. :)

So, to combine the Irish and Japanese (hee hee), I whipped up some Matcha Mochi Cupcakes. Using matcha (green tea powder) and mochiko flour (sweet rice flour), these cupcakes are chewy and a bit dense. And they are such a pretty color of green! It is similar to my Blueberry Mochi Cake, Cherry Mochi Cake, and Matcha Mochi Bundt but it uses whole milk and oil instead of butter and evaporated milk. It is less buttery than the other cakes, and I enjoyed it a lot!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Recipe:
Find the recipe here on my friend Azusa's blog, Humblebean. Check out all her beautiful photos and food! This recipe is gluten-free too!

Soft Chocolate and Blueberry Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Rachelle of Mommy? I’m Hungry! chose Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart on page 354 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

This tart is supposed to have raspberries but the ones from Chile didn't look so great, so I subbed these New Zealand blueberries. And since I didn't feel like eating lots of butter, I skipped the tart shell. So, here is the Soft Chocolate and Blueberry Tartless Tart.

The combo of blueberries and chocolate is yummy. I ate this warm and enjoyed it very much! Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

P.S. I love you daylight savings time! It was after work and guess where I was today? The beach! By the way, my little plan of moving up the clock 10 minutes a day the week before the change has really helped!

Recipe:
Rachelle of Mommy? I’m Hungry! 's or...
Page 354 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Los Angeles Marathon 2010 - Cheer for my friend Dave

Los Angeles, FIND THIS MAN!

Find my friend DAVE on Sunday....running the sold out Los Angeles Marathon!

I met Dave at UCLA in 1989. I was the one sleeping in the hall outside Calculus class in Dodd Hall. Darn, over 20 years later and we are still good friends!

Come out and cheer on my friend Dave and thousands of other runners. The LA Marathon has a great new route from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica Pier...it is actually going to pass places where you live and visit! Going to the Sunday Hollywood Farmer's Market? Hang out there between 8:52 and 9:25 am and look for Dave! (edited to add: Okay, the Hollywood Farmer's Market is postponed til after the runners go by (opens 11 am), but you can still go early and cheer on Dave! ;) Are you near the Mormon Temple in West LA? Find Dave between 10:14 and 10:55! See the graph below for times.

Do you like to play Where's Waldo? You can play a live version! Look for my friend Dave (Bib #18870). He trying to break a 4:00 hour marathon time.

Team Dave (crazy-ass friends and family) will be along with course cheering on Dave. We'll be holding Davey-Pops. Don't you want to join the fun?! You can make your own by downloading the PDF here. Yah, we crazy, but when your legs are dying and you are hitting the wall at Mile 21, you need some cheers!

Dave will be wearing a hat, running with a backpack with his special foods and liquids, and a camera to take photos! Bib #18870. Dave is raising money for charity too! Noah's Wish (providing disaster relief assistance and care to animals). Check out Dave's blog: Dave's Travels.

Dave (@davery90230) will tweet while he runs (crazy multi-tasker) and I (@foodlibrarian)will be tweeting while my friends and I eat donuts. Go figure.

Dave's Timing (He is going for a 4 hour marathon). Here is a map of the course!

Mile	Street	Intersection	Landmark	Earliest	Latest
0	Dodger Stadium	Parking Lot	Dodger Stadium	7:20	7:35
3	Cesar Chavez	Broadway	Chinatown Gate	7:45	8:07
4	1st Street	Grand	Disney Concert Hall	7:55	8:17
8.5	Hollywood	Vermont	Rite Aid	8:35	9:05
9.5	Hollywood	Western	Metro	8:44	9:15
10.5	Hollywood	Vine/Ivar	Farmer's Market	8:52	9:25
11	Hollywood	Highland	Grauman's Chinese	8:55	9:30
12.5	Sunset	Fairfax	Griddle Café	9:10	9:47
13.5	Sunset	La Cienega		9:20	9:57
15	Santa Monica	Doheny	Troubador	9:35	10:13
15.25	Doheny	Beverly	Bristol Farms	9:37	10:15
16.5	Santa Monica	Rodeo	Rodeo Dr	9:50	10:28
17.25	Santa Monica	Wilshire	Beverly Wilshire	9:57	10:37
18	Santa Monica	Century Park W	Century City	10:05	10:44
19	Santa Monica	Westwood	Mormon Temple	10:14	10:55
20	Ohio	Sawtelle	Veterans Admin	10:23	11:06
21	San Vicente	Federal	VA Exit	10:31	11:16
22	San Vicente	Bundy		10:40	11:26
23	San Vicente	26th		10:50	11:37
25	San Vicente	Ocean	Palisades Park N	11:05	11:58
26.2	Ocean Ave	Santa Monica	Finish Line	11:15	12:10

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes - Martha Stewart Cupcake Club

For this month's Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club, Megan from My Baking Adventures chose Lemon Meringue Cupcakes on page 142 of Martha's book: Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book

I made half the recipe in minis (about 48 cupcakes). My torch was unavailable (don't ask) and my whisk was missing (again, don't ask). So I opted for a quick cream cheese frosting. I want to try them again with the proper meringue.

The combo of Meyer lemon zest and a dollop of lemon curd...delicious!

Be sure to check out the other Martha Stewart Cupcake Club members and their version of the recipe! I'm sure you'll see lots of yummy torched meringue!

P.S. On the Ides of March, I wish my friend Jun a happpppy birthday!

Recipe:
Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, page 142

The Martha Stewart Cupcake Club doesn't post the recipe, but you can find this one on Martha's website here. You can use WorldCat to see if your library has this book in their collection.

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

As we head into Spring next week, I'm trying to do Spring stuff. No, not buy a new wardrobe (dude, I live in Los Angeles, we only have one season...you just put on or take off the jacket as needed ;). I'm trying to do some Spring cleaning. And that includes my cache of orphan blog posts.

This is where it is like spring cleaning. Pulling out stuff you don't remember buying. Things you meant to do. And picking up stuff and having no idea how it got there.

This is one of those recipes.

I vaguely remember my mom throwing Costco bananas in my car after a visit. Then I remember them sitting on the table for a little too long. One fine morning long ago, I found this recipe and made it before work.

I took Bon Appétit's (January 2003) recipe by Jennifer Martin for Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel and made it into muffins. Fast and easy. But I have no memory of how many were made or how long they took to bake.

Because I didn't put a middle layer of streusel (like they do in the cake), I remember having a boatload of streusel leftover. So cut the streusel in half. And put more on...mine look skimpy in that department.

Expect a few more of these posts as I continue my computer Spring cleaning...if only I can find the recipe for this mysterious carrot cake bundt that is in my photo file. Sigh.

Recipe:
Adapted from Bon Appetit, Jan 2003, found on Epicurious, by Jennifer Martin, Portland, OR. Click here for the original 8x8 cake recipe.

Click here for printable recipe

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

(This is about half the original streusel recipe...you don't need that much for muffins because they don't have two layers of streusel)
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I skipped this)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with liners or spray. Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer (I used my Kitchenaid with paddle attachment), beat sugar and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and blend well. Beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk. Slowly add dry ingredients until just incorporated. Don't overmix.

Scoop batter into muffin tins (2/3 full) Top with streusel. Bake until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and serve.

Note: I don't remember how long these baked...I would check after 13-15 minutes as it depends on your oven. I also don't remember how many muffins these made, but I see at least 14 in my photo above. Hey, it was early in the morning! If you make these, let me know! :) Cheer, - mary the food librarian

JustJenn's O.G. Book: Road Trippin'

My friend JustJenn had a bad year.
You think your day sucked? Her grandpa died on his 92nd birthday. And Jenn lost her job.

She spent this past year hanging with her 80-something year old O.G. (Original Grandma).

Planning the funeral.
Designing a headstone.
And, as usual, eating tacos.

You can read about Jenn and O.G. in Jenn's new book, Road Trippin'.

24 full-color pages for only $4.00. For less than a frozen yogurt, you can laugh and laugh at this duo of Los Angeles natives. Read more about it on JustJenn's site.


Click here to buy O.G. - Road Trippin' by JustJenn **
**This is an online only pre-sale with books to be shipped in April! (The book will officially be out for Comic Con 2010). I have Jenn's other two comics and they are hilarious! Her O.G. is the best and you won't be disappointed!

FTC disclosure: I'm getting nothin' in compensation for this plug...except for the occasional cupcake dropped off on the porch by my friend, JustJenn. But that isn't for the plug, it is in retaliation for the buttery foods I keep leaving on her porch.

Saucepan Fudge Drop Cookies

Brownies in Cookie form

So, I've been trying to get up 10 minutes earlier every day this week in anticipation of the daylight saving time change. As I'm getting older, Springing Forward has been kicking my butt. The week following the change, I feel like I'm in a jet lag haze. So, I keep moving my clock up each night and have made a big effort to go to bed early (thank you DVR for helping me time shift!). Next week, I'll let you know if it works.

This morning, since I was up early, I decided to make a quick batch of cookies, and remember seeing these on Tracey's Culinary Adventures blog. Tracey is a blogger friend who has great recipes and photos, and is always making something mouth watering!

This recipe was adapted from the book Bittersweet by Alice Medrich. Oh, it looks so good. Yet another book on my wish list!! The original recipe calls for a sprinkling of powdered sugar before baking, but we all skipped that.

Ok. I gotta run. I have to GO TO BED soon! I am totally looking forward to the time change though..."playing in the street" after work or heading to the beach for a sunset walk. Awesome.

I hope you make these lovely cookies...seriously, you can get them done in 30 minutes, including washing the dishes while they are baking. Thanks Blue Ridge Baker and Tracey for introducing these gems to me! Good night and enjoy!

Saucepan Fudge Drops
Adapted from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich (as seen on Blue Ridge Baker and Tracey's Culinary Adventures)

See if your library has the book Bittersweet: recipes and tales from a life in chocolate by clicking here.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used natural cocoa powder, not Dutch)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
1/3 cup yogurt (I used whole milk Greek yogurt, but I think all plain yogurts will work)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

As Tracey says, you need to work fast with the batter. I suggest having all your ingredients ready to go so you can assemble and dish it out in just a few minutes. These cookies take no time at all!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl, and set aside. Place the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and melt. Once the butter is melted, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa until smooth. Switch to a wooden spoon, and add both sugars and stir until blended - the mixture will be stiff and sandy at this point. Stir in yogurt and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Don't go crazy and overmix.

Immediately scoop dough onto baking sheets. I used a cookie scoop/disher and got a total of 22 cookies. I must have made 'em big...Bittersweet's recipe says you should get about 32 cookies!

Bake the cookies until they look dry on top and are cracked all over, but are still slightly soft when pressed, about 10-12 minutes. Mine were done in 11 minutes. Rotate baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back about half way through to ensure even baking. Slide the parchment, cookies and all onto racks to cool.

French Macaron Class with Tartelette

Tartelette in the house! (Well, at least in Southern California).

Thanks to the efforts of Rachael, Gaby and Jenny, Helene Dujardin (Tartelette) came out to Los Angeles to conduct macaron and food photography classes. Whoo hoo!

Having never made French macarons before (but eaten plenty), this class was great. Who knew aged egg whites, almonds, powdered sugar and granulated sugar could make such pretty treats!

The class was fun because I also got to meet a bunch of food bloggers and catch up with ones I met at BlogHerFood.

This is the best "to go" box ever.

Thank you sooo much Rachael, Gaby and Jenny for setting up these classes!
Both classes totally rocked!

Thumbprints For Us Big Guys - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Mike of Ugly Food Dude selected Thumbprints For Us Big Guys on page 164 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Mike of Ugly Food Dude is hella funny and one of the few (are there others?) dudes cooking in Tuesdays with Dorie. You should definitely read his blog.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts because I'm lazy and didn't want to buy any hazelnuts. Besides, I always think hazelnuts should be a blue-green color.

My cookies spread out a bit and don't look like the photo, but they were tasty.

I used Pam Jam in the center. Pam Jam? My friend Pam and her family make jam every year from their Berkeley plum tree. It's the best!

Recipe:
On Mike's Blog or...
Page 164 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Girl Scout Thin Mint Brownies

Girl Scout Thin Mint Brownies

NPR has a collection of "Driveway Moments" - those stories so compelling you find yourself sitting in the car to catch the end of the piece. I have often found myself in that situation, along with "Cry on the Freeway Moment" (damn you, Storycorp).

Today, I had a NPR Baking Moment.

All Things Considered had a story about Girl Scout cookies and how you can bake & cook with them. Samoas Fried Shrimp, anyone? See here for the story and taste test. By the way, I have new respect for host Michele Norris because she too hates coconut :)

The Girl Scout website has Thin Mint Brownies, but they use a boxed brownie mix. I made the brownies from scratch and added Girl Scout Thin Mints.

I think it is appropriate to make Brownies with Thin Mints because that was my maximum level of participation. I never made it Girl Scouts...so I'll be a Brownie forever. ;)

I took Everyday Food's (Martha Stewart empire) Chocolate Chip Brownies recipe, deleted the chocolate chips, and added a sleeve of Thin Mints. It is triple chocolate: melted bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder and the Thin Mints!

I purchased these cookies from my college roommate's awesome girls, Lucia and Julia.

Last year, I made Girl Scout Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Post here.

Recipe:
Girl Scout Thin Mint Brownies
Adapted from Everyday Food's Chocolate Chip Brownies recipe

Printable recipe here

1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Scharffenberger Natural cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet chocolate)
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 sleeve Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, chopped. (Okay, Thin Mints keep shrinking to keep the price at $4 a box. So, it is 3 1/2 ounces of Thin Mints or 16 cookies)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 9 x 9 square pan with parchment paper and butter or spray with Pam with flour (that's my method). In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. Place butter and semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove bowl from heat. Add sugar; mix to combine. Add eggs one at a time, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in chopped Girl Scout Thin Mints. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 40-50 minutes. (Be sure to check them early. The recipe says "50-60 minutes" but I checked mine at 50 minutes and they were way done). Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into squares.