Fresh Corn Spoonbread

spoonbread, cornbread

I have a soft spot for cornmeal. My Italian side loves it for polenta & pizza dough, while my Southern side demands sweet cornbread with lots of honey butter. This time, the latter won out & it was off to the Internet of Things to find inspiration.

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Honey Glazed Tofu

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I recently stumbled upon the Herbivoracious blog and have been having an absolute ball flipping through his recipes. That man knows how to get his vegetarian on like it’s his JOB (which, actually, I believe it is. He’s a chef.)

This recipe is all about the sauce, so if you’re not a tofu kind of gal/guy/whatever, then you can sub it out for beef, chicken, water buffalo, etc. Let me warn you: it’s insanely delicious. Lock away the portions you don’t plan on barreling through well before you begin, or you may end up like me: black-out snarfing over the sink while my cat shot me judgmental looks. She thinks she’s so superior.

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Honey Glazed Tofu

adapted a tad from Herbivoracious

20 oz tofu
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 thinly sliced yellow onion
Sauce:
1/2 c honey
1/4 c rice wine
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 t sesame oil
1/3 c soy sauce
dash fish sauce
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 t freshly grated ginger
1/2 t red pepper flakes
sliced green onions
2 T crushed minute tapioca (food processor or mortar & pestle)

Prep the tofu by slicing it into 3/4″ slabs and laying it out on paper towel. Press out some of the moisture with more paper towels and set the tofu aside. In a medium bowl combine all of the sauce ingredients and whisk together. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high. When hot, lay the tofu out in a single layer and brown for about 5 minutes. When the tofu is loosened from the bottom of the pan (if it doesn’t “give” fairly easily then it’s not ready to be flipped), flip and cook another 4-5 minutes. Pour off about half of the oil into a heat-proof ceramic bowl. Add the sliced onion to the pan along with the sauce and reduce the heat to medium low. After a couple of minutes, remove the tofu pieces and allow the sauce to come to a simmer. It will thicken nicely, but add some stock if you want a thinner situation.

I served this over coconut rice (a must, in my opinion) with some grilled bok choy and it was delightful. Crispy, saucey goodness–what more could I want?

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Wedding cakes

This wedding was a couple of months ago, but I am only just now posting the photos. Shameful.

The beautiful couple graciously extended me the honor of making 70 cupcakes and 3 small cakes for their dessert selection. I had a fantastic time creating these goodies and they were very well received!

Below you will see the unbelievable photos from Ashley O’Dell Photography, who was awarded “Boston’s Best” by  “The Improper Bostonian 2011”. She’s given an well-deserved mention (as was yours truly!) in the “Style Me Pretty”, a bridal blog that is gobbled up daily by eager brides the world over.

I made 4 different flavors for their special day:

2 Turtle Cakes (caramel cakes, caramel buttercream, chocolate ganache, pecans, and caramel drizzle)

1 Honey-Almond Cake (honey cake with honey glaze, almond buttercream)

35 Carrot Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

35 Roasted Peach and Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

Obviously, you’re going to like what you see below, so give me a holler when you realize how much you need my mad skills!