Chocolate chocolate better than Vanilla . . .

Today was Daddy's 48th Birthday (boo hoo hoo hoo - I don't want my family to get older)! Here's a picture of my happy parents - I love them. Here's what 48 looks like on Daddy, I think he's cute. Check out their hats, Momma made them; she gave Daddy his blue and red hat today for a birthday present . . . the colors of his favorite football team, the New York Giants. By the way I'm reading a book called the BFG (Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl), and the BFG says that human beans, that's what he calls us human beings, sleep half our life. So Daddy is really only 24.
Remember a few weeks ago when I said that Vanilla Pastry's cupcakes were better than Mom's . . . ? I take it all back today. Daddy and I gave Mommy an awesome cookbook for Christmas, called Baked Explorations and we, she and I on Friday night, made the Devil's Food Cake recipe (page 133-134) as cupcakes. I was a bit suspicious since it had both coffee and dark chocolate in the recipe. Daddy actually stuck his finger in the chocolate bowl while we were working and he didn't know it was all bittersweet chocolate - he went running around looking for something to kill the bad taste - blech! On Saturday, Mommy made the frosting (different recipe, same book, page 147-148) and it had even more dark chocolate - I was extra suspicious. BUT . . . today . . . oh my gosh . . . ! These cupcakes are BETTER than Vanilla Pastry's. It's a texture thing, totally! The cake is not even like cake, it is airy, soft, moist, crumbly but still moist. And the frosting is thumb's-up perfect, just enough without being gobs of too much. Check me out, here's my seal of approval.
One more thing, I'll have to tell you about Dinette a different day (my FAVORITE PIZZA IN PITTSBURGH) but right now I would like to ask you to vote for the chef Sonja Finn in Food and Wine Magazine's "The People's Best New Chef" Award. You can vote for her at: eatocracy.com/foodandwine she's represented in the Mid-Atlantic region, one of two chefs nominated from Pittsburgh. Her bread sticks really are awesome: long and thin and crunchy and yummy. I just voted for her; I hope you will too!

See you next weekend when I tell you more about Dinette and my favorite farmer's market baker Rebecca - her zucchini bread is AWESOME, especially when toasted.

Happy Valentine's Food

On Friday, we went to an opening to see the work of my mom's new colleague Aaron Henderson (I was glad to see his work AND his cute round-cheeked son Takumi and wife Reiko). I was starving and when we were deciding where to go for dinner, I said, "Taste of India," like I always do. But the last few times I suggested Taste of India we haven't gone, and this time, when my parents didn't seem interested, I got REALLY frustrated. Since they couldn't really think of anywhere better to go, we ended up at one of my favorite restaurants . . . Taste of India. My favorite things there are the chicken tikka masala, raita, plain nan, and the mango lassi - they are all YUM! I don't know the name of our waiter, who always recognizes me and is so nice, but even when we said we were full, he brought me two honey ball donuts that were AMAZINGLY YUMMY!

(Photo is by my mom of juiced orange pulp in a strainer - she didn't shape it into a heart, it did that on its own as she tapped it on the container to drain the juice.)

Mom and dad have been working on making our own version of chicken tikka masala and we tried it for the first time for our Christmas Eve dinner this past year. Though it was good and showed promise, it was WAY too salty. They tried again after new year's and it was MUCH better but still not as good as Taste of India. Keep trying mom and dad!

Yesterday, my mom and dad had a date night to try out a restaurant they'd never been to before and to go see a show. Elise, my babysitter (former Virginia Tech pole vaulter, who works at AIR), helped me make a Valentine's surprise for my parents when they came home. And THIS is the recipe:

• melt as much chocolate as you need in the microwave (not for too long or it will burn, like mine did the first try, YECH!), a double boiler seems to work better, that's what my mom uses
• spread melted chocolate on honey graham crackers
• if you have red chocolate, you can sprinkle small broken pieces on top for decoration.

Mom and dad were surprised - and the cookies were very yummy.

Today after swimming, which was a phenomenal lesson with a different teacher, we went to the Frick Cafe a block away at the Frick Museum for a special Valentine's lunch. I had a potato and leek soup, daddy had a chicken basil sandwich, and mommy had a salad with crab dumplings (that weren't dumplings, they were really fried crab rangoons). My soup was good, actually ok. Good until I got to a part that was a little slimy. Daddy thinks it was a leek but the texture was enough to put my spoon down. I had a clementine Izzy that was really good and then for dessert, we all shared a slice of chocolate raspberry cake - THE BOMB! I've got half a slice left over for my lunch tomorrow . . . .

Super Bowl Means FOOD in our house (whoever's playing)!

Super Bowl Sunday is going to be busy. First, I've got swimming. Then a piano recital where I'll play Tarentella. My piano book says that "a tarentella is a fast Italian dance. There used to be a superstition that the madness caused from the bite of a tarantula spider could only be cured by wild dancing." Wild dancing . . . sounds like the perfect thing for Pittsburgh this weekend, since our city has gone crazy and the Steelers Nation started their parties on Friday night.

(Note from mom: Can you believe the city schools have already called a 2-hour delay for Monday morning for fear of student safety? Because win or lose, the party-ers might not have made it home yet (!?) when kids are heading to their bus stops at the regular time. We're staying at home after the recital by the way . . . to be safe . . . from the party-ers.) Back to Lila . . . .

And then . . . the Super Bowl where the Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Green Bay Packers. I'm rooting for Pittsburgh - I always do, unless they're playing the Seattle Seahawks. Big sporting events are always a reason for fancy food in our house. Two weeks ago when the Chicago Bears were playing the Green Bay Packers, my mom and dad made Chicago Style Italian Beef Sandwiches in honor of the Bears. I liked them okay, they were kind of soggy, but my mom said that they tasted just like she remembered, when she was kid, and that they were supposed to be soggy. WHATEVER. Daddy made french fries and was going to put them in my sandwich, like Pittsburgh's famous Primanti Brothers, but the fries were too hard and I wasn't interested.

I think Super Bowl Sunday food will be better, but we're not really having anything that is traditional Pittsburgh - no Primanti Brothers, no pierogies, no kielbasi, and no iceberg lettuce. Mom's already started the baked beans, Daddy's going to make us the Brooklyn Bowl Fried Chicken recipe from the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago. (By the way, the title of the article, "Tastes Like Chicken" is the same as a fortune I got at New Dumpling House a few years ago - HA HA HA, some fortune!) And mom is also going to make Grandma Carol's version of Velveeta cheese dip with sausage and broccoli - that's our GOLD in honor of the Steelers. Mom will surely be wearing BLACK . . . .

When I was with mom at her studio today, all of the dumpsters that are usually behind the building were inside the loading dock of her building. Mom says they're doing this all over Oakland, where the universities are, because the students might get crazy after the game and light them on fire. Can you believe that? Isn't that silly? Is that the way to celebrate either team winning? Mom said that the last time the Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2009, we could hear the students celebrating in Oakland all the way from our house almost four miles away - I think they must have been really excited!