Taper Town…aka the Kitchen

The day after Thanksgiving marked the first day of an abbreviated tape for the Rock’n’Roll Las Vegas Marathon. Since then I’ve gone a few short, easy runs, done a couple of boot camp style workouts and spent a lot of time stretching and walking. I’ve also spent more than my fair share of time in the kitchen cooking things that don’t necessarily fall under the category of health foods but do qualify as quite tasty.

Cesar’s birthday was Sunday, so many of the things I made were for his birthday dinner. First up, this amazing baked Brie. I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture before it was more than half gone, but trust me when I say it is fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that I made twice in one weekend. I made it once with apricot preserves as the recipe suggests, and I made it a second time with fig jam. The fig jam was preferred by my taste testers.

Next I whipped up this Quince and Mascarpone Tart, which is a gussied up version of Pasta Frola, one of Cesar’s favorite treats.


I thought the creaminess of the mascarpone was a nice complement to the sweetness of the quince, but Cesar prefers the original, unadorned version. I finally got a chance to use the mini pie cutters I bought on clearance at Crate and Barrel last year. How cute are those fall shapes??

Cesar requested a marble cake for his birthday cake, so after some web browsing, I settled on this recipe from Food & Wine.


Please ignore the awesome decorating job I did. I was in Miami visiting family and didn’t bring any of my cake decorating tools. Of course, let’s be honest -  it probably wouldn’t have been much better even if I had brought them. Anyway, some of the reviews of the recipe state that the cake turned out dry, so after baking it, I poked both layers with holes and soaked them with a bit (or lots) of amaretto. I also put the leftover candied walnuts from the baked brie between the layers. We all thought it turned out pretty well, but I don’t think this particular recipe warrants a repeat appearance in our house.

And now for the most awesome thing to come out of my kitchen this week – Movember cookies!! My husband, as you can see in the photo above, is participating in a Movember challenge with a bunch of his coworkers. Today was their last department meeting before the end of the month, so I decided to send some cookies to work with him in celebration of the completion of the challenge. I bought these ridiculous Munchstaches Cookie Cutters from Amazon, and I had a lot of fun playing with them last night. If you are looking for an easy to roll, soft sugar cookie recipe, I highly recommend this one from allrecipes.com. I replaced half the granulated sugar with powdered sugar and doubled the vanilla. The dough was some of the easiest sugar cookie dough I have ever worked with, and the cookies came out soft and buttery, just the way I like them.


I clearly did a little bit of indulging over the weekend, but from now until the race on Sunday, it’s going to be lots of clean eating! I don’t foresee a PR in Vegas, but I do want to enjoy every minute of my time in Vegas, and that means toeing the start line with a solid taper under my belt

Sweet Tooth Saturday – Pasta Frola

Cesar’s family is from Argentina.  His parents were both born and raised there, and while he and his siblings were all born in the U.S., they lived in Argentina for much of his childhood.  One of the biggest perks of marrying him, aside from gaining a second family whom I adore, has been the discovery of Argentinean food.  While there are definitely aspects of their cuisine that I question (is it really necessary to devote an entire aisle of the grocery store to various flavors of mayonnaise??)), there are so many things to love.  Milanesa, chimichurri, empanandas, flan, and dulce de leche are all things that have become favorites of mine, but I think my ultimate foodie find has to be dulce de membrillo.  Dulce de membrillo, or quince paste, is sweet and just a tiny bit tart, and it can be used in desserts or served with cheese and bread. 
Pasta frola is a traditional Argentinean dessert.  It consists of a shortbread-like crust, a layer of dulce de membrillo, and finally another layer of crust. Cesar’s mom makes a delicious version, but since I didn’t want mine to be in direct competition with the pasta frola she makes so well, I went in search of a new recipe.  When I came across a recipe on From Argentina with Love that uses another one of my favorite foods, almond flour, I suspected I had found a winner.  I wasn’t wrong; the crust is rich and tender and tastes almost exactly like the butter cookies that are so common at Christmas.

Pasta Frola
Very minimally adapted from this recipe
Shortbread Crust
1 cup almond flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk

Quince Filling
About 12 oz of quince paste**
About 1/4 of water
1/2 tbsp of lemon juice

Shortbread Crust Instructions
In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and beat for one minute more.
On low speed, add the flour mixture in all at once and beat until combined. Divide the dough in half. Press the first half of the dough into an even layer into a 9-inch tart ring or springform pan. Press the edges up about 3/4 of an inch. Roll out the other half on a lightly floured baking sheet lined with parchment paper, into a 13-inch round. Place both in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.

Filling Instructions
Heat the quince paste in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, and whisk. The goal is to make the paste a spreadable jelly-like consistency without making it watery. It may be necessary to heat for an additional 20 seconds to fully incorporate the water into the paste. Stir until incorporated. Refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the pasta frola.

Assembly Instructions
Spread the quince paste evenly on the chilled dough in the tart ring. Using a fluted pastry wheel or a knife, cut the chilled round of dough into strips about 1-inch wide. The dough will puff up a bit in the oven, so you don’t want to make the strips too wide or place them too close together (like I did on mine). Arrange the strips across the round tart in a lattice pattern. Freeze for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Bake for 40 minutes; the crust should be a nice golden brown. Let cool completely before removing the tart ring and cutting.

**Dulce de membrillo can be hard to find.  If you live in Tampa, La Loma Market at 3224 N Armenia Ave carries it as well as a number of other imported Argentinean goods.  And if you’re a fan of Argentinean cuisine, be sure to check out Renzo’s on Kennedy Boulevard.  It’s one of our favorites!