The Lexington Donut Challenge

by Erin



About a week ago, Xani blogged about National Donut Day (or rather, it's mysterious reappearance after we already celebrated it back in June?), and a reader named Kalee commented with a simple question: "May I ask if you know of good places to get donuts here in Baltimore?"

I began to reply to Kalee but realized that there were only two donut places in all of Baltimore that I could even think of for donuts: the old favorite Dunkin' Donuts, and the MD chain called Fractured Prune, which I associate with the beach since that's where it got started, but apparently they are now located all over Maryland (and elsewhere).

Then, I remembered one of the fondest memories of law school: exam snacks. In the midst of stress, lack of sleep, too much coffee, and the elements of second degree murder swimming through our first-year heads, the Maryland Law Alumni Association always provided snacks for students on exam days. Afternoon and evening snacks were just lame packaged crackers and cookies, but morning exam-takers got the best of the best: coffee and some of the best donuts I've ever had! And these donuts were from the famous Lexington Market, just up the street from the law school.

With this memory recalled, my co-workers and I got to researching the bakeries at the Lex to see if we could find the one that had provided our exam donuts. Unfortunately, there were FIVE bakeries in the Lex that sold donuts - how would we ever determine who had those great donuts?! There was only one way: a donut tasting. (Recall that this was not my first donut tasting; we had a glorious donut tasting experience in NYC with Doughnut Plant donuts....mmm square donuts...).



A reminder of the Doughnut Plant tasting of '08

Early the next morning, co-workers Ray and Bianca joined me on the quick trip to the Lex where we planned on buying donuts from several bakeries to bring back to the office for a blind taste test. We ended up getting donuts from Harbor City Bakery, Donut Delite, and the Berger Bakery (maker of those irresistable, classicly Baltimore cookies: Berger Cookies).



We tried to get similar flavors from each bakery for better comparison. We also compared prices. Here was the breakdown:

Harbor City Bakery: $2.25/doz ($.19/donut)
Donut Delite: $1.90/half doz ($.32/donut)
Berger Bakery: $3.25/half doz ($.54/donut)

So clearly, there is a price discrepancy. But how did they taste?? We set up the conference room table in a grid formation, where each column was a different bakery (they were anonymously labeled A, B, and C), and then the rows were the different flavors of donuts. As you can see, we didn't have a perfect flavor match-up between the three bakeries. Ah well.





Flavors included a chocolate-glazed cake, a glazed raised, a pumpkin spice, double chocolate, boston creme, and sour cream (sometimes called sour dough - any thoughts on this discrepancy?). Everyone from the office came to try a taste of each kind.



Surprisingly, many people loved Donut Delite, but lots of folks also preferred the Berger donuts. I personally thought Berger blew everyone else out of the water - the sour cream was phenomenal, and the chocolate glazed cake was extra special because it had a regular glaze on it in addition to the chocolate glaze. A-mazing. As a donut connoisseur, I can tell you these were outstanding donuts, to rival even the fanciest donut shops.



Doubly-glazed Berger chocolate-glazed cake donut...drooling now...



Sour cream donut, ready for taste-testing



Glazed donut, ready for taste-testing



Chocolate-glazed cake donut

Another hot topic of conversation was the boston creme donut: the group was seriously split about which was the best, partially because there are so many components to analyze: dough, creme, and frosting. The group never quite came to a decision on which was better, but Donut Delite and Berger were the two everyone was talking about. Sorry Harbor City...



Berger Bakery Boston Creme donut



Donut carnage

By the end of it, we were all in a sugar coma and trying to kill time until the afternoon when several of us in the office were to receive our highly-anticipated bar exam results. I'm happy to report that later in the day, I found out that I PASSED!!! Thanks to all my friends and especially the BCD family for helping me and putting up with me during the bar - I truly couldn't have done it without you. And to say thanks, donuts for everyone!! :)

Thanks to Ray, Bianca, and Dave for helping me with the Lexington Donut Challenge, and thanks Kalee for your comment - it turned into a delicious experiment! And, to answer your question, I recommend the Berger Bakery donuts in the Lex. Soooo good...

Happy donut tasting,
EP

Culinary Tales of a Hungry Law Student

by Erin

First, apologies for being sort of absent from the blog recently. Three weeks ago I started my third and final year of law school (eee!) which has turned out to be super-busy and hectic. All that business about "third year's a breeze"? It's a myth. I'm booked solid these days with class, clinic, journal, and the all-important job hunt.

With all that's going on, I don't have much time for grocery shopping (though Xani and I try to hit the farmer's market every other weekend or so), so when I want to cook dinner, I have to get creative. Last night I came home from another 13-hour day and was starving, so I looked in the fridge and unfortunately didn't see much. I did see, however, some eggs, corn tortillas, and shredded mexican-style cheese. So I busted out my vintage Le Creuset frying pan (thanks Mom and Dad!) and whipped up a variation on huevos rancheros that turned out to basically be...a quesadilla. While I am usually an egg snob (preferring to only eat BCD Dad's omelettes or poached eggs over roast beef hash at the Spotted Pig in NYC), I needed some protein and I knew they would be a good filling for my quesadilla.

Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Make an omelette

Step 2: Remove omelette and set aside

Step 3: Add oil to the pan (make sure it's hot!); add corn tortilla and let it start to fry up in the oil

Corn tortillas beat flour tortillas HANDS DOWN

Step 4: Add cheese, then half of omelette, then more cheese, then the another tortilla

I've found putting cheese on both sides of the filling helps the quesadilla hold together

Step 5: Flip to crisp the other tortilla

Step 6: Remove from pan and drain on paper towels

Step 7: Sprinkle with salt and add hot sauce to taste

Step 8: Enjoy while watching Project Runway (or if you missed it, read the best PR blog ever)

I try to keep eating and studying separate if I can, even if I can only take 10 or 20 minutes away from my work. That way I get to enjoy and appreciate the food I've made (or purchased) and give my brain a quick breather. That's a lesson I learned from my old friend from college, Josh, when during our freshman year I tried to make him continue studying with me through dinner. "No working dinners!" he said.

And speaking of college, this quesadilla (and others I've made recently using different fillings like roast chicken and fresh corn) reminds me SO MUCH of the quesadillas we used to get at Wash U from our award-winning dining hall. The key is super-high heat to get a crispy outside and a melty inside.

And that's all I've got time for. Back to the books! Stay tuned for a Podolny family cooking showdown in Kitchen Stadium at Blackacre when Uncle Michael and Aunt Gloria come for a visit! It's gonna be ridiculous, to say the least.

Happy study breaks,

EP

Switchin' Kitchens

by Xani

So, as many of you already know, this week I am moving to a new house. I've mentioned the impending move once or twice on the blog, and if you know me in person, you've suffered months of my constant whining and bitching about house-hunting, financing, negotiating, packing, etc, etc, etc. (Sorry! It's almost over, I promise. I love you and I OWE YOU!)

I'm currently writing this post surrounded by half-packed boxes in tinyhouse, which my friend and I lovingly named my current house when I moved in just about two years ago. Two years might not seem like such a long time, but it didn't take me long to get attached to tinyhouse. It's the first place I've ever lived that was all mine-- no parents, no roommates. At first I wasn't sure I would like living alone, but I quickly realized I LOVE it. My own space, my own stuff, my own home. I guess that's what I'm getting at here: tinyhouse is my home, and leaving it is bittersweet.

EP cooking in tinykitchen

Me in my kitchen, Halloween 2006

This is a food blog, so let's bring it back to the food, or more exactly, the kitchen. One of the things that was most exciting about moving into my own place was the complete and total control over the kitchen. I was so stoked to finally have everything in its correct place, keep a stocked pantry without worrying about weird looks from roommates ("why do you have so many cans of anchovies??"), and break out my good knives and other kitchen equipment. Prior to living in tinyhouse, I kept my good pots, pans, and especially knives, tucked safely away in storage. Roommates, even close friends who I trust with my life, could not be trusted to properly care for my kitchen stuff. Especially the knives; BCD Dad taught EP and I from a very young age about proper care of cutlery. NEVER leave a dirty knife laying on the counter or, god forbid, in the sink. Knives should be rinsed, wiped dry and returned to the knife block (never a drawer) immediately after use. Sharpen regularly. And so on. So tinyhouse finally gave me the opportunity to have my kitchen, my way.

Not that tinyhouse kitchen hasn't provided its own set of challenges. Tinyhouse=tinykitchen. This was the kitchen where I learned to survive without a dishwasher! Or a garbage disposal. It has very limited counter and cabinet space, and no pantry (I realize this is what most city-dwellers deal with, but remember the only other kitchen I had ever really cooked in was BCD Headquarters, so it was quite an adjustment). But even with these limitations, I quickly settled in and over the past couple years, I've managed to cook up some pretty decent grub. And I've hand-washed a LOT of dishes. And drank a lot of beers with friends on the sunny patio. I'll miss living here, and cooking here. And this is true even though the new house (nickname pending) is really an AWESOME place, with a great kitchen (gas range! concrete countertops! A DISHWASHER!!).

New Kitchen!

Is that a dishwasher I see??

I'm sure in no time I'll be making great food and great memories at my new place. There's definitely a delicious house-warming party in the near future. And at this point, the tinyhouse kitchen is pretty much closed. I've been eating leftover Ledo's pizza over the sink all week. So, I'm ready to move on. But there will always be a special place in my heart for tinyhouse and the time I spent here. A toast to tinyhouse!

X

Coffee and Donuts in Paradise

by Erin

Hey folks! Tomorrow we are leaving for a week to go to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands! Xani is going for work (lucky gal) and I am tagging along for a post-exams vacation since I am now DONE with my second year of law school! Can you believe it?! I can't. Maybe a mojito or two on the beach will help it sink in ;).

Anyway, we just wanted to let all 5 of you loyal readers know that we may not be able to post this week, though we're hoping to have decent internet and therefore the ability to post about all of our island eats (and Top Chef, of course!). If not, we'll surely update you when we get back.

Our hotel, the Buccaneer (arrr)

Congrats to my fellow students on finishing yet another year! I'm off to hit the beach!

Happy travels,

EP

Blog It Test and Spring Spectacular!

by Xani

A few weeks ago I heard about this new Facebook application, Blog It. Blog It allows you to simultaneously post to your numerous blogs (?!), Twitter, and other various social networking things I don't even know about, directly from Facebook, while also updating your feed. Fancy, no?

Well, not yet, as I haven't been able to get it to work! So I'm testing it again, and using it as an excuse to put up a few pictures and very little content. Maybe i will get lucky with this post (that's what she said?)... Enjoy!

Spring is:

Trading pantry-raid meals like Spaghetti Carbonara...

for fresh asparagus. Comin' at'cha!

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

Beers with friends at Jack's Bistro in Canton

Mushroom money shot

A garden full of flowers going from this...

to this!

Happy spring everyone,

X

P.S. Yeah, couldn't get Blog It to work. Posting the old fashioned way. Any other bloggers out there using this application and getting it to work?! Please come to my rescue!

Charitable Basketcases: The Recap

by Erin and Xani

As you may recall from our friendly reminder last week, this past weekend we participated in the annual Maryland Public Interest Law Project (MPILP) Goods and Services Auction, a fundraiser whose proceeds go to grants given to law students who want to work in public interest law during the summer.

We decided to donate a basket full of gourmet goodies, and we had such a blast preparing it (despite Xani's sleep deprivation due to a red-eye flight the previous night)! We decided to include some homemade goodies, and some store-bought goodies. Here were the contents of the basket:

• Chocolate Truffles
• Raspberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies
• Bacon, Gruyere, and Scallion Mini-Buscuits
• Cafe Latte and Cappuccino-flavored Jelly Beans
• Jamaican Whole-Bean Coffee
• Sparkling Wine

The weekend before the auction, we went shopping for the coffee, the basket, and fun crafty stuff like ribbons and tissue paper. The jelly beans (Jelly Bellys, of course!) were an impulse buy. We have a tendency of buying jelly beans when out shopping together, particularly for non-food items (e.g., we always pick some up in the check out line at Staples - normal?).

The night before the auction, while Xani was flying back to Baltimore, EP went grocery shopping (see the ingredient spreadsheet here) and later made the chocolate truffles while taking a study break. We used the Ina Garten recipe (of course), which was quite easy, even in EP's completely ill-equipped kitchen. Simply chop up good bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolates and pour hot heavy cream over them (let the cream come to a boil and then take it off the heat for about 20 seconds). Gently whisk to combine and then add some fresh-brewed coffee and some vanilla extract. (We wanted to add some coffee-flavored liquor but we didn't have it on hand, so we nixed it.)

The recipe said to let the chocolate mixture stand for an hour at room temperature before rolling it into balls, but it did not set up in that amount of time, and it was getting into the wee hours of the morning, so EP put it into the fridge for about 20 minutes and it came together well. Then she rolled the chocolate into cherry-sized balls and rolled them in cocoa powder, and whadya know? They look like real truffles!!

The next day, after Xani had gotten some rest, we gathered at TinyHouse and got started on the mini-biscuits and the jam thumbprint cookies. The mini-biscuits, according to the recipe, are technically full-sized muffins, but we wanted to make them in our mini-muffin tins because (all together now) tiny = cute! We also found that they turned out more like biscuits than muffins, so we re-categorized them.

The biscuit recipe was also quite simple. Cook up and crumble some bacon, finely chop scallions, grate a bunch of gruyere, and add those to some flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Meanwhile, take some milk, an egg, and the reserved bacon fat (!!), mix together, and then add to the dry ingredients. We then scooped the batter into buttered mini-muffin tins and baked for about 11 minutes. We wish we had used more liquid because they were a bit on the dry side (which made them more like biscuits and less like muffins). Still, a delicious little savory treat that we'd probably make again, with a few adjustments.

(Sorry, no pics of the final product - we were rushing!)

Last we made an old standby of ours: Ina Garten's jam thumbprint cookies. These are so delicious, and we always get compliments on them. The recipe calls for butter (3 sticks, natch), sugar, vanilla extract, flour, and salt. Then the dough is rolled into 1 1/4 inch balls, then rolled in egg wash and then sweetened shredded coconut. Then an indentation is made and raspberry jam put in the little hole (we used a makeshift piping bag made from a zippy bag to pipe in the jam). They are baked until the coconut becomes golden. We are drooling as we type this - OMG these are so rich and intense and AWESOME!

While everything was baking and cooling, we began assembling the basket, which was so fun! (Special thanks to BCD Mom for scoping out the basket selection at a nearby Marshall's - she's got a good eye!) We bought cellophane baggies and pretty ribbon for the goodies, and a HUGE cellophane bag to put the entire completed basket in. We also printed off a "menu" that listed the items in the basket and included our logo.

Here's a few shots of the almost-finished and completely finished product:

You can see the jam thumbprints, the truffles, the mini-buscuits, and the champagne

Ready for the party!

We brought the basket to the auction (which the BCD parents also attended, being alumni and all) and there was a lot of hype about the basket! Unfortunately, there were lots of other great items at the auction, including other baskets, so ours did not stick out as much as we wanted. In the end, it was auctioned off (in the silent auction) for $90! And guess who the lucky winners were?? THE BCD PARENTS! They bid when we weren't looking! So sweet of them...

It was a great time and a lovely event, and MPILP raised over $35,000 to support law students working in public interest this summer. We were so happy to participate and do a little mitzvot. Looking forward to next year!

Happy eating,

E & X