Weekend Food & Awards x 3!

My friend and sorority sister (Codename: GPL) was one of the first people I told when I decided to start blogging. She’s read my blog since the beginning and often comments how the desserts I make will “travel well” to her in Florida! Subtle, right? The other day, I received a card from her and inside was a recipe she cut out from the Palm Beach Post for “Pear Flip-Flop” by none other than Dorie Greenspan! This dessert is super quick and easy to make. I think that any fruit will do if pears aren’t already in your kitchen. Oh, and the recipe calls for a 9-inch deep dish Pyrex pie pan, but I don’t have one of those. So, I just used my 8×8 pan. Here’s the result:

A whole pan of Pear Flip-Flop

A single slice

Pear Flip-Flop by Dorie Greenspan

4 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
3/4 c milk
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c slice or diced pears
Powdered sugar, for dusting

1. Cut the butter into chunks and toss into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. (Pyrex or ceramic works well.) Place in a 350 degree oven for 5 to 8 minutes, or until butter is melted. Meanwhile, whisk together dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add milk and vanilla nd whisk until smooth.

2. Pour batter over the hot butter; top with pears. Bake 45 minutes, or until top is browned and a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. As they bake, the pears will sink to the bottom and for their own layer.

3. Cool 30 minutes, dust with powdered sugar. Serve slightly warm, straight from the dish.

You may have guessed from the title that I’ve received some awards in the past week! Laws of the Kitchen awarded me my THIRD “Stylish Blogger Award”, while A Plate Full of Happiness gave me a FOURTH! A big thanks to both of you for giving me this award! I must say that I’m truly flattered. Laws of the Kitchen was one of the first blogs I started following, and I even made my very first “blog recipe” (a white chocolate torte) from that blog! I discovered A Plate Full of Happiness more recently. I really enjoy reading her blog because her writing has a positive and upbeat tone. Plus, her photos are just awesome. If you don’t have both these blogs in your Google Reader, add them now!

Now, as much as I love receiving this award, I feel that another installment of “7 Things About Me” would just bore everyone to tears, so I’ll forgo that list and create a food-inspired one (just for this time!) Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve made recipes that I never would’ve tried before. As such, my daring has widened and now I want to try more! I’ve seen other bloggers do similar lists, and I think it would be appropriate here. As such, here is my “to do” list of things I want to make:

1. Macaroons: I’m tired of paying Macy’s Department Store $5 for 3 of these little bites!

2. Souffles: I have the ramekins, now I just need to find the patience!

3. Beef Wellington: Beef wrapped in puff pastry? Yes, please!

4. Vegetable curry with Naan: I absolutely love Indian food, but I haven’t had much of it since college. There are several really good Indian restaurants in Chicago, but many of them are buffet-style and that would get me in trouble! Therefore, I want to learn how to make a couple of staple dishes, like the vegetable curry, so that I can feed my need for Indian food. I’ll probably look to Dishes From My Kitchen for some recipes!

5. Whole Baked Camembert: A couple of years ago, Bravo aired one season of a show called “Chef Academy” with classes taught by Chef Jean Christophe Novelli. They made their own bread then made whole baked Camembert. The idea was to get creative with what else to put inside the bread dough with the cheese. The winner placed roasted red peppers or sun dried tomatoes inside. It looked REALLY good.

6. Seafood Paella: This dish looks so delicious, especially with seafood! However, my only real reservation for not making this sooner is lack of a large enough pan!

7. Martha Stewart’s Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake: This recipe isn’t hard by any means, but it just seems more time-consuming and involved than I think an ice cream cake should be. However, it is one of the first recipes I ever saw Martha Stewart make on her show years ago, and it’s been in the recesses of my mind ever since.

Anyway, I’m truly thankful that this corner of the blogosphere has accepted me so warmly. I owe a lot of that to the participants of French Fridays with Dorie, so instead of passing on the award to 15 individual bloggers, I choose to pass it on to all my fellow “Doristas”! A big thanks to Trevor at sis.boom.[blog!] for coining that term!

Kathy at Bakeaway With Me gave me a different award that I haven’t seen before! It’s the “Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award!” I want to thank her so much for all her encouragement and thoughtful comments to my blog. She’s a great blogger, baker and cook, and her blog is a must read! Thanks again, Kathy!

This award has fewer rules when it comes to passing it on. From what I understand, I can pay it forward to as few or as many SISTER bloggers who deserve it. I was thinking about the past couple of weeks, and one blogger in particular stopped blogging for a bit because of the strife and dangerous political climate that was occurring in her homeland of Egypt. Understandably, blogging was the furthest thing from her mind with her home country in a state of unrest, including the entire country’s internet service providers being shut down. It made me appreciate the freedoms I have that many do not.

As such, I’m happy to know that several of the wonderful blogs I’ve come to read and enjoy are ones from different countries, with different ideologies and different cultures. Therefore, I’m happy to pass on the “Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award” to all the bloggers who are overseas (or feel connected to a “home” country other than the US), including the following:

Miss Anthropist’s Kitchen
Laws of the Kitchen
Bright Morning Star
Brownieville Girl
The Good Life
Quay Po Cooks

Thank you again to Laws of the Kitchen, A Plate Full of Happiness, and Bakeaway With Me for giving me these awards! Now, everyone stay safe and get baking!