BBA: Artos (or) Greek Celebration Bread

As you can see, my Artos bread had an identity crisis. Much like an out-of-control stage mom, I couldn't let my bread shine in its original state. And the result was NOT pretty. Nope, I messed with a good thing and, it was still good, but I think that it would have been better in its original state. You see, it's a sweet, spicy bread. I promised my sister I'd make cinnamon rolls. I ran out of time and this was my lame attempt to kill two birds with one stone. I tried to make a monkey type bread with a cinnamon sugar glaze . . . and that's actually what I made. But, it was only ok. At some point I'll remake this in each form: traditional Artos bread and rolled out as the base for cinnamon rolls. I bet it'll be great each way.

TWD Rewind: Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte

What is it about that pesky Y chromosome that makes men unable to plan ahead (at least almost all of the men that I know)? As an inveterate, neurotic planner/organizer type this makes me crazy. Well, it only makes me crazy when it directly interferes with my program. I can actually be laid back if I plan on it!

I've mentioned before that my current gig as a singleton in DC has made me a little particular about my kitchen dynamics. I've gotten used to the quiet (except for when Hollywood, the basement bulldog, is serenading me) and the (relative) space around me. Except for those times when Dudley is reaching his hand in to sneak something that I'm cooking, it's usually just me in the kitchen. Well, Lucy the yellow wonder dog is in there too but she offers excellent moral and clean-up support. Sometimes there are people, like my sister, who are excellent kitchen companions. They chat, they stir, they have a glass of wine, but they don't mess with my kitchen mojo. Then there are the boys. I am lucky enough to have some y-chromosomes in my life that I love to cook with, specifically my dad and my brother, and on occasion, my good friend Matthew. They're awesome people, and all of them can turn out some fabulous food. But they just fly by the seat of their pants and it makes.me.nervous.

Example: I stopped in New Orleans to visit my brother on my way to Houston. The first night we went out to dinner, and while we were at dinner we chatted about having a little dinner party the next night. The morning comes and we go to the farmers' market and nothing is said about dinner that night. The day passes and that afternoon I took a nap. I woke up at 4:30 and here's the conversation that we had:

Hank: "Hey J, D & his wife A are coming to dinner."
Jessica: (rubbing eyes and trying to wake up) "Great. What's for dinner."
H: "I'm not sure. I thought we'd go to the store and decide."
J: "Well, since it's almost 5, I hope that you told them to come for dinner at about 8 or so"
H: "Nope, D has to work early tomorrow so we're eating at 7. What should we make?"

We made our way first to Whole Foods, then to the cheese shop (by the way, if you happen to be in New Orleans and you like cheese, definitely check out the St. James Cheese Company), and then to the wine store. 3 frantic hours later we had an excellent dinner. However, given the fact that I was standing in the kitchen, hastily removing the shortcakes from the oven, in my towel fresh from the shower, when his friends arrived (they were visibly disturbed and, really, who can blame them?) I would've preferred a little more time.

However, I like to think that I learn from such experiences so when my friend Matthew called the other day and asked if I wanted to get together for dinner on Tuesday night I knew that I couldn't just show up with a bottle of wine and call it a day. Matthew and I have been friends for too long for me to just be a guest, not that I'd have it any other way. So, I had a frantic round of texting with our other friend and we decided that I'd be responsible for risotto, dessert, and wine, she'd pick up salad and bread after work, and Matthew could do appetizers and the meat. This means that at noon that day I was sitting at a stop light flipping through Baking From My Home to Yours looking for a kick a$$ dessert to make and pondering the point at which brownies from a box become the most viable option. At 4:30 I found myself discussing the menu with Matthew before we went to the grocery store. At 6:30 I found myself in Sur la Table as he was buying pots and knives and all sorts of other cool cooking acouterments, calling the other people invited and letting them know that maybe they should arrive at 8:30 rather than the 7:30 time Matthew had put out. My sister was nice enough to show up early and make the appetizers for Matthew -- slacker -- and at 9:30 we sat down to dinner. At 10:45 we ate this delicious tart, and by midnight I was home in bed.


As I was driving around flipping through Dorie's book, there were a couple of recipes that I had in mind to make. I really, really wanted to make the Tiramisu cake that we made earlier this month but it had too many ingredients and steps for my very limited block of time, so that was out. I also pondered the Gooey Chocolate Cakes and the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies but, in the end, I went with this recipe because I thought that it'd be a nice dessert on a warm night and the picture has always looked so good to me. It also had the added bonus of being a food processor dessert from beginning to end and a short (relatively) ingredient list. I got this together in 2 hours and it cooled in my car on my way to meet the host to discuss the rest of the menu. I used Sarabeth's Strawberry Raspberry jam (her jams are outstanding) and there were some fresh raspberries in the refrigerator so I added those to the torte as well. It baked up beautifully and it got very good reviews from everyone at dinner. I would definitely, definitely make this again! The recipe is found in Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking From My Home to Yours, pages 240-242.

Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes

I arrived in Houston with pints of Ponchatoula strawberries from the New Orleans farmers market. Of course, when I looked in the refrigerator, I saw that there were already several pints of strawberries inside. Now, strawberries certainly don't have an infinite shelf life, especially not the fragile berries from the market, so I knew that strawberries were in my future. So, I drank strawberry margaritas and we ate strawberry spinach salad with dinner, and then one day I was flipping through my cookbook of the moment, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, and there was a recipe, not just for strawberry cupcakes, but for Ponchatoula strawberries, I knew that the fate of those berries was sealed.

Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes: Really Pink
Screen Doors & Sweet Tea
24 cupcakes

Cupcakes:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed fresh or frozen strawberries
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Frosting:
1/2 cup chopped fresh or frozen strawberries
2 tablespoons of strawberry jam
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups of confectioners' sugar, sifted

MAKE THE CUPCAKES. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or line with baking cups.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In another medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, and extracts; set aside.
In an electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add the buttermilk mixture. Beat for 1 minute at medium speed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Stir in the strawberries and orange zest. Spoon into the prepared muffin tins, filling them two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when touched lightly in the center. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then unmold the cupcakes and cool on racks.
MAKE THE FROSTING. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the strawberries, jam, and lemon juice. Cook and stir for 5 minutes, or until the jam is melted and the strawberries are soft. Press any big pieces with the back of the spoon to mash.
In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and butter at medium speed until creamy. At low speed, slowly add the confectioner's sugar and mix until combined. Add the strawberries and mix at low speed until blended.
When the cupcakes are completely cool, spread (or pipe) the frosting.

The recipe is easy to follow and straightforward, but here are my observations. I didn't have any liners for the cupcakes because my parents are in the process of moving and my mother is chucking things left and right, but I highly recommend that you use liners and I will next time. The cupcakes were pretty flat and I think that liners would help give them structure. This brings me to my next observation, err on the lower side of 2/3 full. I knew I was in trouble when I only filled up about 18 cupcake tins but I just chalked it up to an overzealous recipe. I thought that it was about 3/4 full at most. Well, because these cupcakes don't dome up, if they rise over the top of the tin then they spread into each other, like mine did. It wasn't a problem but I was really nervous every time I peeked in the oven.

The cupcakes are really, really light and fluffy and they taste absolutely wonderful. Not to mention, the pink factor is just adorable and I think that these are a lovely spring and summer dessert. I'm not positive, but I think that they'd translate well with raspberries and I might give that a shot at some point. The frosting is delicious, I could eat it plain!

TWD: Chipster Topped Brownies

I love hypothetical questions. Anything is possible, and I like being able to make up decisions for these made up sets of situations and perameters. One hypothetical that I always seem to have problems with is the old standby: what would you eat at your last meal? This one is always really difficult for me because there are all sorts of things that I love to eat and I have trouble working them into a cohesive meal plan for one last indulgence. However, one thing has always made my list and that's a chocolate chip cookie.

I really, really like chocolate chip cookies . . . to the point that they're really not safe in my presence. I hardly ever make them because I have absolutely no control around the cookies and I can demolish a batch in the space of about 24 hours. I'm not exaggerating. I do have my favorites but no chocolate chip cookies are safe in my presence. I will eat a Chips Ahoy if it's looking at me and I've been known to indulge in those chocolate chip cookies from the stands in the mall -- you know, the cookie sandwiches with the big gob of icing between 2 cookies? In case you ever wondered what sort of a nut buys those, now you have your answer: me! I do love the uber Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie from the New York Times and that probably wins my all time favorite cookie prize. At any rate, I love a chocolate chip cookie, I would definitely eat them (a whole lot of them) at my last meal, and in that aspect alone, I was thrilled about this week's pick by Beth of Supplicious. Added bonus: brownies are also pretty high on my list of likes so this combination of two very good things has always caught my eye as I've flipped through BFMHTY.

These were the first recipe that I made out of the May rotation of recipes. I made them just as soon as I turned in my papers for the semester and returned my library books! I don't have a 9x13" pan and I just had a feeling that I'd love these and I didn't want to cut the recipe in half. So, I decided to make them in muffin tins. Now, Dorie's instructions say first to grease and then to line the bottom of the pan with wax paper and I wasn't sure how to sidestep this step for making the muffin brownies. On the one hand, I loathe cutting out circles of wax or parchment paper -- it's so boring! On the other hand, I know firsthand what can happen when I blithely ignore such instructions, the Berry Surpise Cake comes to mind. So, I used the top of my Pam to make little circles of waxed paper to put on the bottom of the muffin cups for half of them and the other half got cooking spray only. Now, my muffin tins are nonstick, too so there were many precations against the dreaded stick-factor. Other than that and the need for an extra mixing bowl for my Kitchen Aid, these were so easy to get together. I just filled up the cups about halfway with brownie batter and then I used my cookie scoop to put a dollop of cookie dough on top. I wasn't in the mood to try to spread it out, and you might notice in the pictures that my cookie dough looks sort of like an odd growth on top of the brownie. I think that if I had spread it out then it would have been prettier but I kind of like it the way it is. To be honest, I was still really out of it from the end of semester push when I made these brownies and I forgot to set the timer when I put them in the oven. I know that people had trouble with underbaking so I wish that I knew how long I left them in the oven. I just know that I put them in and when I could smell them I stuck a tester in and they were just done. Sorry for that oversight and next time I'll pay attention.

Oh yes, there will definitely be a next time! I loved these brownies so much and they wouldn't have been safe in my presence. Luckily, I left for Texas the next day and I gave all of them to Dudley to eat while I was gone. He gave them the thumbs up, too. Thanks to Beth of Supplicious for picking this fabulous recipe!

Baked Lemon Lime Bars

A couple of weeks ago, when we made the Tartest Lemon Tart for Tuesdays with Dorie, I posted about my grandparents' lemon tree and its offspring in my parents' backyard. My dad is a big fan of trees that bear fruit (who isn't?) so I grew up picking peaches from our peach tree and pears from our pear trees. I love picking fruit but I have to say, of the fruit that I've picked (the aforementioned plus apples and dewberries), lemons are my favorite to pick. We usually go out one day in December or January with a couple of big baskets and fill them up with lemons. Then we give as many as possible away and use the rest. Last year, though, Houston was hit by hurricane Ike and it threw off the lemon schedule a little bit because we picked lemons in December but then we picked the rest of them when I was home for spring break in march. Well, lemons keep really well and we've been making lemonade galore around here but I knew that we needed to step up the lemon consumption at least one notch if we were going to finish up all of the lemons before my parents moved. I like lemons but I prefer limes so this recipe from the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking cookbook was right up my alley! Add a graham cracker coconut crust to make it even more interesting and these bars are nothing short of spectacular.


Lemon Lime Bars
from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
Yield: 24 bars

Graham-Coconut Crust
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 15-17 crackers)
2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Lemon Lime Filling
11 large egg yolks
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons grated lime zest
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1" pieces
1/3 cup heavy cream

Make the Graham-Coconut Crust:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13" baking pan or spray it with nonstick spray.

On a parchment-lined baking sheet, spread out the coconut. Put the baking sheet in the oven and toast the coconut until it starts to turn golden brown, 7-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, toss the coconut, and return it to the oven for 3 more minutes.

Put the graham cracker crumbs in a large bowl, add the toasted coconut and the brown sugar, and toss with your hands until combined. Add the melted butter. Use your hands to combine the mixture, then turn it out into the prepared pan. Using your hands, press the crust into an even layer on the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Use the bottom of a measuring cup to create a perfectly even crust.

Put the crust in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Let the crust cool before adding the filling.

Make the Lemon Lime Filling:
Increase the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

Put the egg yolks, eggs, sugar, lemon, and lime juices, and lemon and lime zests in a large, clean metal pot. Whisk until combined. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture registers 180 degrees F. on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and cream. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve directly into the cooled rust. Use a rubber spatula to press the curd through the sieve.

Make sure the curd is evenly distributed. Tap the pan gently against the counter to make a level layer.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the filling is just set. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature. Wrap the pan in plastic (do not let the plastic touch the filling) and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Cut into squares and serve.

Bars will keep in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for 2 days.

The only thing that I did differently was to omit the step of straining the curd. This was partly from laziness on my part but mostly because I really liked the way that the green flecks of lime zest looked in the yellow curd. The next time that I make these bars I'll try to think ahead and have some candied lime and lemon zest to put on top of them and then I might go through the step of putting the curd through the sieve. I was a little nervous because I didn't see how 8-10 minutes in a low temperature oven was going to do anything to set the bars but it worked because they set up quite nicely.

These bars were a huge hit! My family loved them, especially my lemon-loving grandfather. My mom ate them for breakfast (her favorite way to indulge in sweets) and she also gave them the seal of approval. I don't usually like lemon bars so I don't have a lot to compare them with. I will say, the graham cracker coconut crust is what makes these bars spectacular, in my book anyway. The flavors of the crust are the perfect contrast to the flavors of the curd. If you looked at the recipe then you probably noticed that it calls for a daunting number of eggs -- 14 total, 11 egg yolks -- and it's worth it. I see an angel food cake in my future!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Sour Cherry Pie with Pistachio Crumble

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick is courtesy of Michelle, of Flour Child. Now, I just came across Michelle's blog this past spring and I love it! She blogs about her running adventures and food, a great combo because her blog inspires me to be in the kitchen and motivates me to run (a habit I've let slip since I moved from Texas to DC -- bad Jessica).


When I saw this recipe I was excited because I love sour cherry pie but I've never made it before. (Sidenote: I also hummed "She's my cherry pie" the whole time I was making this pie. Did everyone else?) The only downside to the sour cherry pie was that I couldn't find sour cherries! I scoured the frozen fruits and the only thing I could come up with were sweet cherries. I checked the canned section but I could only find cherry pie filling and that just didn't appeal to me at all. So, I went with sweet cherries with a bit of trepidation because I'm fully aware that sour cherries are also known (at least in my family) as pie cherries. I didn't think that using sweet cherries boded well for my pie.

I also found myself pondering the crust. To make the flaky pie crust in the book or to go with a tried and true pie crust recipe (such as Dorie's Good for Anything pie dough or Ruth Levy Berenbaum's recipe -- my personal favorite)? In the end, I decided to go with the Sweet Melissa recipe for a couple of reasons: 1) I always like to try a recipe once because it might be great and 2) because she mentions it's a tweak of Julia Child's recipe. Now, I don't know which Julia Child pie dough is referred to but I love the pie dough recipe in The Way to Cook. But here's the thing, Julia allows that a food processor is an excellent method of making pie dough. No matter, the pastry cutter and I are friends so I made the pie dough exactly as stated.

For the filling, I used 2 bags of frozen sweet cherries, 1/4 cup of sugar (because I figured that the requisite 3/4 would be way too sweet!), and then I added the zest and juice of a lemon to balance out the sweetness. The pistachio crumble is a no brainer and we already had some unsalted, shelled pistachios in the pantry.

The verdict? Well, I should've said from the beginning that I'm only so-so on pies. In my family, pies really are sort of a gendered dessert: men love them and women tolerate them. I love to make pies but I don't really like eating them. Also, I am not a fan of a crumb topping so this pie was probably starting at a disadvantage. Now that I've posted the disclaimer, I'll tell you that I didn't like it. I took one bite and said "I don't like it." 30 seconds later my dad took his first bite and said "I don't understand why not." He liked it a lot and that's what really counts here because my dad loves pies and I really wanted him to like this pie. I think that I would've liked it so much more with sour cherries, though. I love sweet cherries and I'll eat them until I literally can't put another one in my mouth but I guess I don't like them at all in a pie. As for the crust: I tried and I'll go back to my all-butter crust or Dorie's recipe next time. I just didn't think that it delivered. Pie crust is such an odd, personal thing, though so it's no big deal. Thanks to Michelle for picking this week's recipe (my dad, especially, thanks you!). I had fun making the cherry pie and if I ever see sour cherries again I'm going to give it another shot!

The Singleton Makes Cake Pops

. . . and learns why cake pops are best left to Bakerella.

My cousin Hannah is graduating from high school this weekend. Her class is going on a cruise to Jamaica literally right after they collect their diplomas so we celebrated a little early rather than after the big deal. I wanted to make a cake. Actually, I really wanted to make this cake. Cute, huh? But my aunt told me not to bother making the cake because she'd already ordered a cake and I still really wanted to make something . . . what to do? And then I remembered Bakerella and all of her fabulous cake pops. I look at her creations and they're just adorable. But, I can tell from looking at the pictures that those cake pops are like crack for me. I tend to get fixated on things, and then before you know it there will be candy melts and chocolate bark and heaven only knows what sort of store of appropriate decorations oozing out of every nook and cranny in my kitchen. There is no way that cake pops are ever going to come out of the Singleton's kitchen in Washington. That's an even-keeled, non-psychotic kitchen and it needs to stay that way. My mom's kitchen, however, is home to many crazy kitchen adventures. And the kitchen in my old house (my sister's house) has had fits of kitchen madness, too (if you're familiar with the show Friends, think Monica). So, if I can't make an adorable cake I can at least make these cute cake pops, right?


I'm not going to post about the cake pop process because it's Bakerella's process and she does it so much better than I ever could. I'm also pretty sure that I'm the last person in the blogosphere to make these so it's probably old hat. However, if you want to see the instructions that I followed, HERE is a link. I will elaborate on my experience making the pops a little bit though, just for the sake of being completely honest.

1. They're not ridiculously hard to make but they require a fair amount of time.
2. I didn't use cream cheese frosting. I used chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and it worked out just fine. I also managed to keep myself from consuming this mixture before the pops were made -- nothing short of a minor miracle, seriously.
   
3. For me, the hardest part was shaping the pops. I could not get them to look as "perfect" as I wanted to when I was using the cookie cutter to shape the crinkles in the bottom of the pop. I also think that shaping the cupcake is by far the most tedious part of the process. I wasn't at all happy during this part of the cake pop experience and I had to take a break until the next morning to prevent myself from going postal.
4. I want to know how Bakerella gets her dipping chocolate and candy melts so "dippable." My chocolates and candy melts were not a friendly environment for the cake pops. It was so thick that it was really difficult to see all of the careful shaping that I worked so hard to create with my cookie cutter. Grrrrr.
   
5. Other than that, the dipping process isn't too bad at all. It went by quickly and I loved decorating the pops. One caveat: make sure you get the stick in the bottom of the pop before the candy/chocolate dries! If you don't, you may very well have some cake pop casualties (like I did). If I ever make these again the dipping process will be: a) dip the bottom of the cupcake in the chocolate b) return to cookie sheet, upside down c) dip stick in chocolate d) put stick in cupcake. I tried to work assembly line style and it didn't work as well for me. I had a lot of cupcake pops smooshed by trying to get the stick through the hard chocolate. Yes, I pondered cupcake bites at that point but I'd purchased the sticks and, darn it, I want pops!
   

These cupcake pops are definitely worth the effort, though! They tasted yummy enough, and received enough rave reviews, that I quickly got over the stress involved in making them. Mind you, I'm not making them again any time soon but I'll probably try to make them again at some point in my life. In the meantime, I'll continue to ogle Bakerella's blog and wonder why my cupcake pops don't look like hers.

The Graduate & the Singleton, with the pops!

Soy-Ginger Beef and Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

My parents are in the process of moving right now. We've lived in this house since I was about 2 years old so, as you might imagine, there are quite a few memories and a whole lotta stuff in this house! To be honest, I didn't really know that I'd be here for the madness or I may have reconsidered the lengthy drive to, and stay in, Houston. I probably would've flown in for about a week and been pretty happy. As it is, I've had some ups and downs cleaning out all of the stuff that I've accumulated over the course of my life. I'm a pack rat, so I've saved everything. Sure there are soccer trophies and swim team ribbons and medals but there are also notes that I passed in high school and letters that people sent me while I was at college. I spent a few hours over the weekend laughing until I had tears running down my face at some of the ridiculous things that I wrote. I've gotten rid of a lot more than I thought that I would. I was having a hard time letting go of the stuff and then I came across Ellen Rooney Doland's article "10 Ways to Let Go of Your Stuff," in the March 2009 Real Simple. It's a great article and if you're faced with imminent and unavoidable decluttering, I highly recommend it.

Another way that we've had to declutter around here is the freezer and the pantry. My mom wants to use up as much as possible before the big move date so that's put a little bit of salt in my usual kitchen game. So, as much as possible, I've been trying to deplete the food store around here. Now, my mom is the antithesis of a food hoarder so it's not that hard to do. Let's just put it this way, I did not inherit the pack rat gene from my mother. There was some flank steak in the freezer and I knew that I wanted to go an Asian route with it. This recipe from Bon Appetit is one that I've been ogling on Epicurious for awhile now and it was a huge hit.


Soy-Ginger Beef and Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

Dressing

• 1 1/4 cups boiling water
• 3 tea bags of Chinese black tea
• 2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup chopped watercress
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

Beef

• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-pound top sirloin steak, cut crosswise into 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices; slices then cut into 3-inch strips

Salad

• 3/4 pound linguine
• 1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil
• 2 12-ounce cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded
• 8 large green onions, halved lengthwise, cut on diagonal into 1-inch lengths
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 1 bunch watercress
• 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• Lime wedges

For dressing:
Combine 1 1/4 cups boiling water and tea bags and steep 5 minutes. Place peanut butter in medium bowl. Add 3/4 cup tea, soy sauce, lime juice, and cayenne. Whisk dressing to blend well. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before continuing.) Mix in watercress and mint.

For beef:
Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, honey, crushed red pepper, and cumin in large bowl; whisk to blend. Add beef and toss to coat. Marinate at room temperature at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

For salad:
Cook linguine in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Rinse with cold water; drain again. Transfer linguine to large bowl. Mix in sesame oil. Using vegetable peeler, cut cucumber halves lengthwise into long thin ribbons; arrange on paper towels to drain.

Drain marinade from beef into medium saucepan; boil 2 minutes over high heat. Cool. Heat grill pan or large ridged cast-iron skillet over high heat 4 minutes. Working in batches, grill beef until just brown outside but rare inside, about 1 minute per side. Transfer beef to bowl.

Add cucumbers, green onions, and cooled marinade to linguine. Add dressing and toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper. Arrange mint and watercress around edge of large platter. Mound noodle salad in center; top with beef. Garnish with peanuts and lime wedges.

My Notes:

The reviews on Epicurious were fairly positive for taste but many comments complained that the salad dirties way too many dishes and the end result doesn't justify all of the work. I don't think that it's too bad as long as you make the salad in steps. I mixed the marinade in the same pan that I used to marinate the beef and that cut down on one dirty dish. Even though around here I get plenty of help with dishes I knew that I wanted to be able to make this in Washington and not spend most of my time cleaning up. So, I just tried to think ahead and make sure that I multitasked with my prep steps and it seemed to work. It's common sense so I'm not going to detail the other ways that I cut down on dirty dishes.

I didn't get much bang for my buck with the watercress that I purchased so I rounded out my salad with some romaine lettuce and I thought that worked really well. I love the flavor of mint so I had no issue using it but I think that if you wanted to leave it out entirely it would be fine, or you could sub cilantro or maybe parsley.

Overall, I loved this salad, as did the rest of my family, and I know that I'll definitely make it again. I totally forgot to add the chopped peanuts and I think that they would have made it even better so I'll have to remember them next time. I didn't think that I'd like the beef but I really did and the dressing for the salad is so good. All in all, it's a really refreshing, and delicious, summer salad.

TWD: Mango Bread

I always think of mangoes as a "messy" fruit. By "messy" I mean that they're hard to eat without having juice all over your hands and face, and if you're me, all over your clothes, too. Granted, these "messy" fruits are often more than worth the mess -- juicy peaches or plums, ripe mangoes -- they are usually at the very peak of flavor. I didn't eat mangoes as a child because they were a little too exotic for my very narrow palate. My brother ate them though and I can remember that my mom had very strict rules for where he was allowed to eat mangoes: outside or over the kitchen sink. She did not want that sticky mango juice all over the house. Even though I now enjoy eating mangoes, I still haven't gotten past the prissy part of me that doesn't like to wear her food. And, I still haven't figured out how to eat a mango without getting the juice all over me so I just don't eat mangoes that often.

I *heart* spice breads. Zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, gingerbread, I love them all, and I was very excited to see that we were making mango bread this week. I like spice breads so much that I upped the ginger to 2 teaspoons and the cinnamon to 1 1/2 teaspoons because I like my spice breads spicy. The dough was really stiff -- Dorie wasn't kidding when she wrote persevere. I was thinking that I'm definitely out of shape and I need to start pumping more iron because I had a doozie of a time getting that stiff dough together before I added the mangoes. I finally ended up kneeding it with my hands to get it to combine. The mangoes thinned it out quite a bit though and other than that it was a very easy bread to put together. Oh, I did need two large mangoes to get 2 cups of mango; however, I think that might be due to my very poor mango cutting skills. I can never seem to get all of the mango off of the pit. The only other issue that I had was that my bread exploded past the top of the loaf pan. I used the 8.5" x 4.5" size that Dorie recommends and maybe it's supposed to rise like this? But I think that next time I'll try it with a larger loaf pan anyway, just to see if it might make a better loaf.

Rapidly rising mango bread after 30 minutes in the oven.

I ended up tenting the bread after 30 minutes, but, as you can see, I still got some very dark (read: burned) corners on the bread. No matter, it's still delicious. I was quite apprehensive as I was slicing the bread because all of the mango hairs were sticking to my serrated knife and I was really ready to not like the bread. You know what, though? I loved it. It's nice and spicy but the pieces of mango offer a really great contrast to the spice. I'm the only person who's tasted it so far but I predict a home run. Thank you so much to Kelly, of Baking with the Boys, for choosing this delightful recipe. I loved it and I can't wait to try it with other stone fruit this summer. Are mangoes a stone fruit? They have a pit. Oh well, at any rate, I'm eager to try this with peaches, plums, and maybe even cherries.

Peter Reinhart's Anadama Bread

I had this post all ready to go last night -- I just came to edit it (shocking I know, if you've ever noticed the thousands of typos that regularly occur in the Singleton's kitchen. I embarrass myself.) and, what do you know? No words. I hate losing words. And I hate it when my coffee tastes off, like it does this morning.

Anadama Bread: week one of The Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge. I love Peter Reinhart and I really think that the man is the bread god. I made bread before I had this book, and it was good, but Peter Reinhart elevates bread to an entirely different level, in my opinion. For this challenge I get to bake along with a fantastic group of bakers -- Nancy, Kayte, Cathy, and Audrey -- and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Anadama bread is a rather typical laof bread, with a couple of exceptions: the molasses and the cornmeal. Now, I'm not world's biggest fan of molasses but I'll try anything once (foodwise, that is -- I'm a big scaredy cat otherwise) and I'm so glad that I did! The cornmeal I used is Lamb's Texas Cornmeal and I loved it. In fact, I need to remember to take some back to DC with me.


This bread is excellent! I made 8 rolls and one loaf. We used the rolls for the lamb burgers and then for sandwiches. My dad put the loaf to the "true test" and used it for PB&J for lunch last week and it makes an excellent sandwich. I wish I'd taken a picture but I think that we all know what a good PB&J sandwich looks like! This was a great loaf of bread and I feel confident that it'll be a repeat around here. I was shocked at how pillowy the bread is given the cornmeal and molasses in the dough. Next is the Artos (Greek Celebration) Bread. If anyone has any serving suggestions, I'll gladly take them!

Roasted Red Pepper Lamb Burgers and Tzatziki

I came home to Houston and one of the first things that my sister asked me is, would I please make lamb burgers. It's so bizarre, I made them last summer and I completely forgot about them, but apparently they made quite an impression on her and she's been thinking about them ever since. I think this might be born out of her love for tzatziki, the Greek cucumber, garlic, and yogurt sauce. I started making Greek food at home for the Summer Olympics in 2004 because I love a good theme and the Olympics are a good excuse for a theme dinner party. I think that, in that respect, I never lost my inner sorority girl; I love theme parties, theme dinners, you name it I am not too old or too cool to take part. And, I don't hesitate to appropriate the themes of other people if I feel the need for a festive occasion and I lack one to call my own.

At any rate, my sister's request for lamb burgers couldn't have come at a better time because I was actually given a bunch of coupons for free Oikos yogurt from Stoneyfield Farms -- huzza! I love Greek yogurt and I always, always have it in my fridge. I eat it every morning for breakfast and I constantly sub it for butter in recipes. Free things . . . yummy things . . . sign me up! And tzatziki sauce is one of my favorite ways to eat Greek yogurt but I'm soooo lazy and I hate grating and squeezing the cucumbers so I don't usually make it unless it's requested. But then it's so darn light and refreshing and delicious.

Now, the lamb burgers are fun, too. Last summer I made them with ground lamb that I got at Central Market. This time I couldn't find ground lamb so I decided that I'd have to make my own. In my mother's oh-so-wonderful kitchen there are all sorts of goodies, among which happens to be the grinding attachment for the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. So, one shoulder of lamb plus some herbs and spices and roasted red peppers, et voila, ground lamb burgers.

Ingredients:
(you'll really have to adjust the measurements for personal taste and the amount of lamb that you're using)
One lamb shoulder (mine was about 4 pounds) cubed
2 - 3 roasted red peppers, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
2 tablespoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon round black pepper

Some things to note about grinding meat (as I understand it):
1. It's important to have some fat on the meat so don't use an expensive cut and don't go crazy trimming up the fat. Just cut uniform pieces in about 1 - 2" strips/cubes.
2. You don't want any of the pieces to be too big.
3. It's very, very important that the meat be cold when it gets ground so I put mine in the freezer for about 30 minutes before grinding.

It's really actually a fairly painless process. You put the meat in the hopper and you force the meat down and it comes out ground on the other side. I actually took pictures of the meat coming out of the grinder but I really wanted to avoid any and all Sweeny Todd references (hate that movie) so I didn't use them. I think that this is a great way to make ground meat (when you're not short on time obviously) if you're anything like me and you get a little skeeved out by ground beef if you think about it for too long (and because people told you that Sweeny Todd was a great movie). It's a ton of fun to use. I never really pondered all of the fun involved in making sausage or ground meat but there's potential. I might just have to sneak this toy back to Washington with me.

See the lovely and seasoned ground lamb that was the result of all this fun with meat grinding? I grilled the burgers and I was a little worried that they might fall apart but they stayed intact -- success. I usually serve these in homemade pita bread but this time they ended up on the Anadama rolls that the BBA group made this week. More about those on Monday but I thought that they were a great choice for the lamb burgers. So, the verdict? These were a big hit around here and I'll definitely make this meal again when I have some time to kill. The tzatziki is 100% essential to the success of these burgers, that's the general consensus in my family, and we eat them as pictured, with tzatziki in place of your usual condiments.

Tzatziki
From The Food and Wine of Greece by Diane Kochilas
1 16 oz container Greek yogurt (such as Oikos) or 32 oz container of plain yogurt, drained through cheesecloth overnight
1 large cucumber
3 garlic cloves, minced (yup, this is not for the faint of heart -- or of breath but it's so delcious!)
1 1/2 tablespoons of finely chopped dill or mint (I always use mint)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt to taste

Place yogurt in a bowl. Peel and grate cucumber. Taking a little at a time between the palms of your hands, squeeze as hard as possible until the water is removed. (So, I hate to grate things by hand, and I hate squeezing things out but these steps are very necessary. I usually salt the cucumber after I grate it and let it sit for a little bit in an effort to get as much water out as possible. Watery cucmber = watery tzatziki and that's just yucky). Add to yogurt.

Mix in garlic, mint (or dill), olive oil, vinegar, and salt. Combine all ingredients well. Refrigerate until ready to use.

TWD: Tartest Lemon Strawberry Tart

When I was little, and until they passed away while I was in college, my dad's parents lived in the hills (not those Hills, just hills) outside of Los Angeles. They had a gorgeous house with a deck that wrapped around the back of their house and you could see Catalina Island from their windows. The air there smelled better than anything, from all of the eucalyptus trees, and in their backyard was a gorgoeous lemon tree that bore great, big lemons. I think that one of the saddest moments of my life is when I was leaving the house after my grandfather passed away and I realized that it was the last time I'd be there; it was a chapter in my life that had ended. The bright side of that story is that in the throws of my overwhelming sadness, I packed a bunch of lemons from the tree in my bag. I was too sad to remember that you're not allowed to bring citrus outside of California and there must have been a divine force that wanted me to have those lemons because they made it back to Texas and my college apartment. I had no idea what I'd do with them, I just couldn't bear to part with them, and my best friend's dad had the best idea: I should plant the seeds. And, right then and there, he took me to Smith & Hawken and got me a pot and some dirt and we talked to a nice lady who knew nothing about starting seedlings from lemon seeds. But the seedlings took off and, today, in my parent's back yard, there is a lemon tree that came from one of those lemons. It's a lovely reminder of my grandparents, and the result is that we constantly need to use up lemons. Now my parents are in the process of moving from this house and they're moving a smaller, potted lemon tree with them, but the big tree will stay in this backyard. Leaving the lemon tree behind has been a source of discussion so who knows what will end up happening.

I made the drive from DC to Houston in fine fashion and I was back at home in time for Mother's Day. On the way, I stopped in New Orleans and I ended up arriving here in Texas with some fabulous Ponchatoula strawberries in tow. I had a kitchen bursting with lemons and strawberries and I didn't see why I shouldn't use both of them. Dorie has a recipe that was referenced on P&Q and it calls for rapberries in the tart; strawberries are much too watery to bake whole, so what to do? I knew that I wanted it to sort of end up tasting like strawberry lemonade -- I love strawberry lemonade.

To make a strawberry sauce for the bottom of the tart I pureed half a pint of strawberries in the blender. Then, I heated the strawberry sauce in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken it. This made a very nice, smooth, and thick strawberry sauce that I spread on the tart crust. I followed the rest of the recipe as written but I didn't use the pith of the lemons. I peeled the zest off and then I discarded the pith before I chopped up the lemons. Dorie warns in the recipe that the crust might bubble over and she's not kidding. My tart was a hot mess when it came out of the oven and one side had gone crazy and bubbled all over. This side was pink -- not the lovely layers of red and yellow that I was going for -- as the strawberry and lemon mixture had combined. The other side, was actually a very pretty layer of red strawberry puree and yellow lemon custard; however, in order to use up more strawberries and hide the mess of the top, I covered everything with strawberries and I thought it was a very pretty presentation.

I often find myself in alone in Washington wondering why I didn't blog when I lived in Texas. Last night I realized the answer: because it's impossible to take pictures with all of these people buzzing around. My family knows that I have a food blog but it's still hard to pause from socializing to snag a picture of something as mundane as, say, a slice of my tart. So, you'll just have to use your imagination to imagine both the messy and pretty slices of this tart.

This was the second dessert at my dad's birthday dinner last night and it was a big hit. I don't love lemon desserts and I loved this tart. It really tasted (to me at least) like strawberry lemonade -- very, very tart strawberry lemonade. Thanks to Babette, of the lovely blog Babette Feasts, for choosing this tart. I know that it's definitely going to be a repeat for me!

Garden Risotto

Today I'm driving from Washington D.C. to Knoxville so that I can bring Lucy home with me for a few weeks. She flew home over the winter break but it's expensive and neither of us really cared for the experience. I hate driving, and I'm not a fan of a road trip, but this seemed like the best option. It was either road trip or short change my time in Houston. So, road trip it is! Knoxville tonight, New Orleans to see my brother for a couple of days, and then I should be in Houston for Mother's Day. So, I made this risotto last week because I knew that this week would be crazy busy and I wouldn't have time to cook.

I was so excited to pick this week's CEiMB recipe! I love picking recipes . . . but I also love it when other people pick the recipes, too. It's less work and indecision for me. I picked this recipe because I was really, really hoping that some asparagus would show up at the farmer's market and lucky for me, it did! The Dupont Circle Market had asparagus two weekends ago and I nabbed it along with some spinach so that I could make this yummy dinner.

I don't have a lot to say about the actual recipe. I went through a phase a few years ago when I made risotto all of the time -- at least once a week but usually more than that. And then my dad decided that he liked it and so I made it for him all of the time. And then I stopped making risotto. I just couldn't handle it anymore. But I did learn a lot about how to make risotto and I got uppity about my rice so I usually have some carnaroli rice on hand, because I personally prefer it to arborio rice, and that's what I used for this risotto. Other than that, I just love risotto because it's a blank canvas and you can add anything to it or leave it plain. Just like pasta -- aren't Italians great? Other than switching the rice and using homemade stock, I followed the recipe to a T because I figured that it was my pick so I wanted to make sure that I made it as written. And the verdict? I liked it a lot. Very yummy and I almost didn't miss the extra butter, cream, and cheese. Almost. But at least I felt better about what I was eating, right? I served this with some chicken sausage and it was a delicious meal.

Thanks to everyone who made the risotto with me this week! I have my laptop with me and, if I can get the wireless up and running tonight I'll stop by and comment. If not, I will check in next week!

Garden Risotto

• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3 lightly packed cups baby spinach leaves
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 pound asparagus, steamed and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth, the salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper and simmer, stirring constantly, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing the broth to be absorbed before adding more, until rice is almost tender and creamy-looking, about 18 minutes.

Add the spinach and peas and cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the asparagus and cook just until the vegetables are hot. Stir in the Parmesan and more broth if the risotto seems too thick. Serve in soup plates.

Sorry, no tiramisu cake here today! I am in the throws of the end of the semester and all of the papers that accompany it. I will be finished with my first year at Georgetown on Wednesday and then on Thursday Lucy & I are heading down to Texas for some good 'ole R&R for a few weeks. My sis adores tiramisu so you'll probably see the cake pop up here sometime in the next three weeks. In the meantime (the next week or so) I apologize for not getting around to comment but I'm looking forward to reading all of the posts when I come up for air. So, go visit Megan's blog to check out the recipe for tiramisu cake. Even if you don't like tiramisu, visit her blog because it's great -- one of my favorites.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is one of my all time favorite desserts. Really, anything that combines strawberries and cream is guaranteed to make me happy -- unless you go crazy and add bananas or raisins, don't do that. In my mind, there's one key to strawberry shortcake, the shortcake! In my rather limited baking experience, I've made some horrible shortcakes. Shortcakes must not be dry, hard, or bland; rather, shortcakes should be perfectly buttery, sweet, and tender. I'm very happy to say that this shortcake delivers!

I made half of a recipe and it made three very large shortcakes. They're seriously easy to make and, as all wonderful biscuit type things usually are, they're heavy on the butter and cream. The shortcakes themselves aren't overly sweet but the sugar sprinkled on top and the sweet strawberries and whipped cream balance out the sweetness factor in this dessert. The only tricky part for me was that my shortcakes were pretty delicate and they wanted to fall apart while I was trying to stack the strawberries and plop the cream.


These were seriously so delicious and so easy to make. I definitely have a go-to shortcake recipe now and I can't wait to make this again. I'm also going to make it with peaches this summer and I think that it'll be outstanding. Thanks to Wendy of Pink Stripes for picking such a seriously delicious recipe this week. You can visit her fantastic blog for the recipe or just to check out all of her other amazing creations. Don't forget to check out the Sweet Melissa Blogroll to see all of the other fabulous shortcakes!

Commitment Caramel Cake

I've been a little stressed out about papers and the end of the semester lately. The other day when the AC man was here I couldn't concentrate to write and I couldn't leave the house so I decided that I'd bake. I am so smitten with Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Foose. This cookbook is fantastic and I love reading it. I was flipping through looking for something sweet to make and I turned to this cake. The proper title reads Caramel Commitment Cake: For Committing someone to the Church, Marriage, or the Ground. You also have to be committed to the cake -- it's not for the faint of heart. 8 eggs, 5 1/2 cups of sugar, and 6 sticks of butter are some serious business. However, the end result is completely, 100% worth it. The taste of this cake is so amazing -- it's buttery and sugary and moist and delicious. And the frosting, oh my goodness, the frosting, it's so good! What this cake is not good for at all is your waistline. I cut one piece to share with Dudley, I cut a couple more pieces and wrapped them in waxed paper before I wrapped them up to freeze them, and then I brought the rest of the cake over to school because they love to nibble over there.
I will say, my cake was a sway-backed ugly stepchild to the cake that's in the picture next to the recipe. There's a reason that I only took a picture of a slice and not the whole cake. Because if you'd seen the whole cake you'd never want to make it. And the frosting isn't lumpy at all but I had some issues with mine. I beat it for longer than the recommended amount of time and it had turned opaque but it just seemed to slide right off of the cake. So, if anyone has any experience with this cake please let me know how it worked out for you. I'm seriously going to make this again because it's so good and because I hate it when I make ugly cakes. And my cake was uuuuuugly!
Happy May Day! To celebrate May and the coming of summer one lucky person will get a copy of Screen Doors and Sweet Tea! All you have to do is leave me a comment on your favorite thing about summer.

Commitment Caramel Cake
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea
Martha Hall Foose

Cake:
8 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups of cake flour
3 cups of sugar
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

Caramel Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
15 marshmallows
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Make the Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 9" round cake pans with nonstick spray and line bottoms with parchment paper. Lightly spray the parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and extracts; set aside.
3. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter a tablespoon at a time and blend until a shaggy mass is formed. Slowly add half of the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until smooth. Increase the speed to medium and slowly add the egg mixture, scraping the bowl as needed. Mix until well blended.
4. Divide batter between the prepared pans. Tap lightly on the counter to level. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cakes spring back lightly when touched in the center. (I am not sure if this is a typo because when I checked my cakes after 25 minutes they were still liquid in the center. I didn't need to push on them or use a tester because they swayed back and forth when I pulled on the oven rack. I ended up baking mine for 35 minutes. However, I have an older oven so bake as directed and be gentle when you're checking at 25 minutes). Remove to wire rack for 10 minutes to cool. Tip the cakes out of the pans and let cool completely right side up.
5. Slice each layer in half horizontally to form two layers of cake.

Make the Caramel Frosting:
1. In a heavy bottomed pot (Make sure that your pot is large enough! I used a 3 qt saucepan and it was a little tricky. There's nothing like having caramel come dangerously close to boiling over your pot and all over the cook top to make you very nervous) over low heat (I ended up going a little bit higher -- to about medium heat -- after the sugar dissolved) combine the butter, buttermilk, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and baking soda. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Add the marshmallows. Cook and stir until the mixture reaches 238 degrees F. on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
2. With an electric mixer, beat the caramel until it begins to get cloudy and opaque, about 4 minutes (I did this with the whisk attachment in the KitchenAid because I don't have a normal electric mixer and it took about 10 minutes. Even still, I think that I should have beat it much longer because, in hindsight, I don't think that it was opaque enough and I think that was part of the reason that my caramel frosting slid all over the place). Working quickly, spread the frosting between the cake layers and then ice the surface of the cake. Let stand for at least 1 hour before serving.

In the margin notes of the recipe, Martha states that caramel icing can sense fear and if you don't psyche yourself out that it will be perfect. I wasn't scared of the icing but I don't think that I gave it enough deference. This icing definitely demands a little bit of respect, if you know what I mean!