Our second wedding: or how to save a lot of money and still have the party of your life...Part 1

Thinking about weddings always start with the dress... and every girl(bridezilla) wants their dress to be perfect.... When we first got married I wanted to have my dream dress as well. However for our second celebration, the need for everything to be perfect evaporated. This led me to be more adventurous then I was with my original dress and eventually down the road to a second hand store called the Great Eastern Trading Company just off Central Square. This store has a stunning collection of vintage dresses particularly white party dresses which make a terrific stand in for a wedding dress.
I originally wanted a plain 1950's party number(think Pretty in Pink) with a blue velvet sash but it would not close no matter how much I sucked my stomach in so I settled on this whimsical number(No...the wolf is not my husband).
It's made out of layers of tulle and satin and was originally quite dirty from being left in someone's closet for half a decade and was more grey than the white I had hoped for. I originally thought dry-cleaning although I have surprised myself at the number of articles which are supposedly dry clean only and which I've managed to wash in cold water without creating an extra wrinkle. I decided to take my chances on this dress and not surprisingly it was unharmed and a lot whiter.
Second hand stores are making a real comeback in this economy and often carry beautiful alternatives to wedding dresses(not to mention designer clothes at bargin prices)...some of my favorites are:

Second Time Around
Several locations in MA and around the country
http://www.secondtimearound.net/


Poor Little Rich Girl
255 elm street
Somerville, MA
(617)684-4874
http://www.shoppoorlittlerichgirl.com/


Great Eastern Trading Company
49 River St
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 354-5279

Check them out before you empty your bank account on a wedding dress.... Even if you add substantial alterations to the cost of a second hand dress it will still be cheaper than buying a new one.


Total price for the dress: 85$
Cleaning: Soap and water: free

Moist ginger cake with Grand Marnier whipped cream

I baked this cake once as a teenager in Portugal and left it on our marble table to cool....I walked into the kitchen a few hours later to discover my mother walking around the table and...and half eaten cake. She found this cake irresistible and I still do today, especially served with a light Grand Marnier whipped cream.

This recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz.

Best Ginger cake

1/2 cup fresh grated ginger
1 cup mild molasses
1 tablespoon grated orange orange peel
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs, at room temperature

Grand Marnier whipped cream
1 cup of whipping cream
5 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons orange zest


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place a rack in the center of the oven. Butter a bread loaf tin and place on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil(this cake tends to overflow so this will save you having to clean up the oven).
Use a microplane grater to grate the orange peel and the ginger(you can also finely chop this if you like a chunkier texture like I do). Mix with molasses and vegetable oil in a bowl. Boil the water and add the baking soda to the water. Pour quickly over the molasses mixture and stir.
Add the sugar and flour and stir until incorporated and then add the eggs.

Pour into the bread loaf tin and bake for an hour until done. This cake easily gets too brown on top: if you notice this happening cover it with a piece of tin foil and continue to bake.

To prepare the whipped cream, first beat the cream with sugar to a high peak and gently fold in the Grand Marnier and orange zest.

Yucatan Trip- 2008

Leftover bread soup

I have a fond memory of sitting in the sun room at my great aunt's little house in the north of Denmark with my sister, mother and grandmother (and of course my great aunt)...I must have been young at the time and remember being fascinated by the little strawberries she grew in the garden and the frozen bananas she kept in a large refrigerator in the attic.
While we sat at the table and enjoyed the sun, my mor-mor and her argued about the recipe for a danish dumpling soup and could not agree about how their mother made the dumplings... I want to recreate their recipe someday....I have always loved starchy soups whether they contain dumplings, or some kind of bread... its comfort in a bowl, especially when its April and Boston still feels like winter. I had a left baguette left over from dinner two days ago as well as some kale from a lentil and coconut soup recipe my friend Zach shared with me a few months ago and decided my fridge needed a bit of clearing up so I decided to whip up the following recipe:




Italian Bread Soup

Half a dry Baguette or other country bread
1 quart of cherry tomatoes
1/2 large onion
6 cloves of garlic
a handful of fresh kale
2 cups of chicken stock
Basil
Olive oil
2 cups of boiling water
Pepper
Salt
Chili flakes

Chop up the onion and garlic finely and heat up a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a soup pot. Cook the onions until golden and fragrant then add the entire quart of tomatoes (you can chop these in half but dont have to). Cut up the bread roughly and heat up the chicken stock in the microwave. Put the bread in a bowl and cover with the chicken stock allowing it to soak up the juices. In the mean time wait until the tomatoes let their juices out and become soft then add water and season with pepper, salt and chili flakes. Add the kale and the bread and cook for about 20 minutes until the bread resembles baby food. Keep adding water until the soup has the right consistency. Chop up some fresh basil for garnish and serve with a green salad or.... a cheddar cheese and hazelnut souffle........

Green Tea Satine

This satine is a variation on a recipe from Pichet Ong's cookbook "The sweet spot" which a friend Colin Haydu (an elf in the house we live in...) introduced me during while cooking for one of our Chinese New Year teas. I love the delicate flavors in asian deserts and they are a welcome break from the overpowering sweetness of most state-side deserts. I'm a tea lover and anything with matcha is bound to make its way into my list of favorites. I adapted Ong's recipe to make his green tea pudding softer...more like Pierre Herme's famous satine. Unexpectedly the matcha particles settled at the bottom of the antique serving bowls my mom gave me forming a lovely sauce at the bottom...
Although it takes time to set, this is one of the easiest desserts I've ever made and takes little over five minutes to cook. To keep your matcha tea fresh, try keeping it in the refrigerator.

Green Tea Satine
2 1/2 tsp gelatin(powdered variety)
4 tbps boiled water
2 cup milk
4 tbsp high quality matcha
2 tsbp granulated sugar


Boil milk on stove top and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Temp the gelatin by pouring the 4 tbsp of water into a small cup and stirring in the gelatin until dissolved. Add the matcha to the boiling milk with a whisk and beat until no more clumps are visible. Add gelatin and stir until incorporated....pour until serving dishes and let it cool for a couple of hours in the fridge.

Crusty Hazelnut Cheddar Cheese and Parmesan Souffle

I was about to leave for China and discovered I still had lots of eggs, Parmesan cheese and Cheddar cheese left over in the fridge, but wanted to cook something that was not just another cheese omelet. This souffle is delicate and makes a wonderful starter or light main course served with a green salad tozzed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. This recipe extremely similar to that of a sweet souffle and has a creme patissiere for a base and egg whites beaten to a mergingue for volume.


This recipe is adapted a recipe in a May 1998 Bon Appetit

1/4 cup of ground hazelnuts
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 large egg yolks

6 egg whites
salt and pepper to taste

Butter a souffle dish and pour the hazelnuts into the dish...turn slowly until all sides are coated with ground nuts...this will be the crispy outside of the souffle.
Prepare the savory creme patissiere: Boil the milk. Heat the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Heat and stir until the flour turns pale gold. Slowly whisk in the boiling milk and whisk constantly until the mixture boils and thickens. Set mixture aside for a minute and slowly mix in the egg yolks and cheese. Let cool while you beat the eggwhites.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and then gently fold in the creme in several additions. Bake the souffle for 15 minutes. If a chessier flavor is wanted take the souffle out of the oven five minutes before it is done and sprinke some cheese on top and let it finish baking. Yummy...